2nd Saga (2ndサーガ 2nd Sāga?) is a Transcendent of the Bridge Builders Cabal, introduced in Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index.[1][2]
Etymology[]
Sága (Old Norse, possibly derived from Old sjá ("to see") and possibly meaning "seeress"[Notes 1]) is a goddess briefly mentioned in the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda. In the Poetic Edda's Grímnismál, her home Sökkvabekkr is listed fourth among stanzas detailing residences of the gods, with Sága being described as drinking with Odin there,[Notes 1] while she and her dwelling are listed second in a description of goddesses in the Prose Edda's Gylfaginning.
Appearance[]
2nd Saga has the appearance of an 18 year old girl, with short flaxen hair, blonde on the outside and dyed bright blue on the inside.[3] She has blue eyes, at one point described as having impossibly bright red pupils (possibly the result of bending light).[3]
Her revealing attire mainly consists of ribbon partially wrapped around her torso and limbs, which renders the wrapped portions of her body invisible, giving her a floating and dismembered appearance with the scenery behind her visible where the wrappings are.[3] She also wears bluish-white armor on her arms and feet.[3] A bird-like brooch is positioned on her chest wrappings.
Personality[]
Most of 2nd Saga's personality isn't known, but her salvation conditions are for bit parts and understudies that never get any attention and she claims that she can't look down on them to do that, needing to become one first and understand their feelings.[3] She apparently has trouble choosing merely one thing and not wanting to throw anything out, resulting in a messy room.[3]
Background[]
Saga is a goddess from Norse mythology who is scarsely mentioned in texts and monuments, with little being known about her other than that she lived in a place known as Sökkvabekkr and shared drinks with Odin.[3]
The background of the individual who took on the identity of 2nd Saga as a Transcendent of the Bridge Builders Cabal is currently unknown.
Chronology[]
Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index[]
New Year's Arc[]
- Main article: New Year's Arc
It isn't known for certain whether 2nd Saga participated in the ceremony to summon Christian Rosencreutz between January 3rd and 4th,[1] but after the summoned individual struck down the Transcendents at the ritual site and seemingly killed Alice Anotherbible, 2nd Saga was known to have scattered along with other survivors.[1][4][5][6][7]
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The two opposing groups of Transcendents facing one another on the bridge.
On January 6th,[7] after being absent for the battle against "CRC", 2nd Saga and other scattered survivors opportunistically returned after learning that Alice was alive again.[7] That night, along with Blodeuwedd and Vidhatri, she stood against Aradia, Good Old Mary, Mut Thebes and Bologna Succubus on as they were heading to help Kamijou Touma meet with Alice, the three not willing to risk losing their power.[7][8][9] In the ensuing battle, despite her team holding an advantage for most of it, being in "resonance" with Alice, she was defeated by the two Aradias.[7][8][9][10][3]
Abilities[]
As a Transcendent of the Bridge Builders Cabal, 2nd Saga is said to be powerful enough to rival the regular magic side on her own under the right circumstances.[11] Given the cases of the other Transcendents in the cabal,[12][13][14][15] 2nd Saga likely possesses a seal that she can release in order to manifest her fullest power.[15]
2nd Saga is unusual among the Transcendents in that she has fewer restrictions on herself concerning her assumed persona, having gone out of her way to choose an identity with minimal presence and little known information, corresponding to her salvation targets.[3] Transcendents normally have strict rules about what they can and cannot do if they wish to maintain their persona, given that if a single performer tries to forcibly dress up at multiple gods, the traits of the individual gods would cancel each other out and dilute their overall presence.[3] 2nd Saga instead takes advantage of this and by intentionally keeping a low profile, she can do things that other 'gods' cannot, allowing her to be a performer on the stage while freeing her from the bonds of the 'script',[3][Notes 2] the only one allowed to be herself.[3] Interpreting and declaring herself as a fictional god made on a compiler's mischievous whim, 2nd Saga has claimed that it allows her to add on any magic she wishes that isn't actually found in Norse mythology.[3] Aradia has noted her cosplay to be sloppy.[3]
Similar to her namesake's obscurity and her background role, 2nd Saga is capable of becoming one with the air, making her wrapped body disappear and possibly bending light to achieve certain visual effects.[3] While facing her in this state, Aradia wondered if she derived special meaning from covering or hiding things.[3]
She is also capable of using a lethal 'divine' curse, derived from a falsified interpretation of the goddess Freyja's necklace Brísingamen (ブリージンガメン Burījingamen?).[3][Notes 1][Notes 3] When using it against Aradia, 2nd Saga verbally invoked the divine curse, the light of Brísingamen (which she called the necklace of infidelity), capable of triggering a war between world-destroying kings,[3][Notes 3] and told Aradia not to assume one can escape that deadly fate.[3] Starting from the center of where her chest was, the ribbon wrapped around her body created a transparent distortion that spilled beyond her outlines and forcibly gathered Aradia's focus on a single point, at which point the distortion was fired through the air like an artillery shell.[3] This spell was not designed to deal with a situation where two identical people exist, so when it was used against Aradia and the identical replacement Aradia appeared, the curse attempted to pursue two targets simultaneously, tearing itself apart from within and dissipating.[3]
Character Art Designs[]
Gallery[]
.jpg "2nd Saga (Design).jpg (209 KB)")
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Similarities in terminology and description have led some scholars to theorize a connection between Sága and Frigg (who also has other similarly theorized connections to Freyja), though this is questioned.
- ↑ An analogy that 2nd Saga used for this freedom in performance is that she is not the star of the show, but if a tree or a bush did something it shouldn't, the audience has no way of knowing if it was actually correct or not.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 In Sörla þáttr, a short narrative in the Icelandic manuscript Flateyjarbók (compiled by two Christian priests in the late 14th century), Freyja (a concubine of Odin in this story) sought the necklace Brísingamen from its four dwarven smiths, who would only sell it if she spent a night with each of them. After Freyja acquired the necklace, Loki informed Odin of how she obtained it and was commanded to steal it. In exchange for its return, Odin ordered Freyja to make two kings, with twenty kings serving each, fight each other until Ragnarök, dying and rising forever unless slain by a Christian. Under this curse, Kings Högni and Heðinn fought for 143 years, until the intervention of Olaf Tryggvason.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 08 Epilogue
- ↑ Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 10
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 10 Chapter 3 Part 6
- ↑ Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 09 Chapter 1 Part 8
- ↑ Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 09 Chapter 2 Part 4
- ↑ Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 09 Epilogue
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 10 Chapter 2 Part 4
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 10 Chapter 2 Part 5
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 10 Chapter 2 Part 6
- ↑ Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 10 Chapter 3 Part 4
- ↑ Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 06 Chapter 2 Part 1
- ↑ Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 07 Chapter 4 Part 2
- ↑ Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 07 Chapter 4 Part 4
- ↑ Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 07 Chapter 4 Part 6
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 07 Epilogue
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| Alice Anotherbible | Trismegistus | ||
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| Aradia | Bologna Succubus | "Good Old Mary" | Mut Thebes |
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| Vidhatri | Blodeuwedd | 2nd Saga | Anna Sprengel |