St. Germain (サンジェルマン Sanjeruman?) is a legendary figure, said to have appeared at various points in history throughout medieval Europe's high society and claimed to be among other things, an immortal, a time traveler, and a technician capable of repairing broken jewels. Most of the legends associated with St. Germain are rather dubious ones, and as such much of it is considered by many to be false.
In the world of Toaru Majutsu no Index, the legends of St. Germain are fake, but at some point they may have been given "life" by Magicians who used existing legends and Magic to make them real.[1] First introduced in Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index, the concept of St. Germain is later shown to be a collective identity, similar to the Misaka Network, apparently spread through the ingestion of pills that carry microbes allowing an individual to be part of the collective of people who believe themselves to be the magician known as St. Germain.[2]
Appearance
Being a collective identity, the appearance of the individuals who call themselves St. Germain differs, however they all share similar attires. Common elements in their attires include tailcoats, monocles and top hats, appearing overall as something similar to the outfit of a stage magician or something out of a costume shop.[3]
The St. Germain who was used to manipulate Kanou Shinka is a college-age woman with waist-length, wavy blonde hair, blue eyes and white skin. She resembles an older Frenda Seivelun, a resemblance that was likely intentionally made to use Kanou. She wears a golden, wing-shaped monocle on her left eye and wears a tailcoat resembling a stage magician's bunny suit and jacket combination.[4][5]
Personality
First and foremost, St. Germain is a liar, though he wouldn't admit it. He is quite willing to spread an infinite number of falsehoods and deceive anyone he can manipulate in pursuit of his goal.[4] St. Germain has little regard for the people he manipulates and is quite happy to lead them to their deaths or subject them to cruelty if that will achieve what he wants.[6] He also holds no reservations about twisting and trampling on the truth in order to support his lies.[6] St. Germain holds himself in high regard and apart from others, denouncing those who denounce him as delusional and foolish,[7] even arrogantly claiming that he himself is an entire third category apart from Magician and Magic God.[8]
Though St. Germain may claim otherwise, many of his actions are not logical and contradict themselves. St. Germain may present them in a way that makes them seem like part of a grand plan, but there is actually no plan at all - St. Germain simply can't keep up one thing for too long and will make up new goals on the spot, overwriting his memories and thought processes, and fabricating his morality afterwards to cover the lie and continue his act. As a result of this continual overwriting and pilling up lies to both others and himself, St. Germain's mind is an inconsistent mess with little that can truly be called its own.[8]
Background
Given the dubious nature of St. Germain and the lies that accompany him, much of his background is uncertain and the subject of speculation.
St. Germain is said to have been a mysterious noble who appeared throughout medieval Europe's history over multiple regions and across multiple time periods. Among other things, he is said to have acquired a secret technique of immortality, not aging and eating nothing but water, wheat and pills. It is also said, from the strange and irregular frequency of his appearances and records of him possessing knowledge he should have had no way of knowing, that he had a method of travelling through time. He is also said to be capable of perfectly repairing scratched diamonds, a skill prized by nobles, and said to have wrote a grimoire owned by Cagliostro. In the legends and records associated with him, nothing is truly known of St. Germain, with no accurate records of birth or death, no claims of descent, no reliable graves and no record of defeat.[9]
However in reality, St. Germain was originally nothing more than a name, and associated with a rare sort of con man. In those times, it wasn't uncommon for someone to just assume a famous name in order to infiltrate nobles' parties. The identity of St. Germain however was built from the ground up, using deceptions such as lies of places never visited, forged and delayed letters, and false appraisals, to support the various claims that were made, and was used as a sort of free pass to attend formal events or acquire investments.[1]
Though the identity of St. Germain was originally nothing by a name and a free pass with no credibility, at some point someone gave it "life", using existing legends and Magic to see if they could make it real and then stimulating the small core they had created within the sea of knowledge to create a real crystal. Whether this was done out of fascination or to disguise something else isn't known, but the identity of St. Germain that was given life survived, using the alluring spread of legend to pass between those involved and those seeking to be witnesses, synchronizing and infecting their minds with St. Germain's ideology and organizing them into a single crystal.[1]
The identity and the legend of St. Germain have continued to spread since then, becoming famous enough to leak from the Magic Side to normal society, and according to Othinus, if one were to ask a random magician to name ten famous people, St. Germain's name would come up along side Rosenkreuz and Mathers.[1] St. Germain has even persisted when the world has been altered from changing the phases.[10]
Chronology
Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index
St. Germain Arc
On December 1st, St. Germain occupied Academy City's Dianoid, sealing it off from the rest of the city, in order to target Kamijou Touma and Kanou Shinka with the claimed intention of pitting the latter against the former and having him die in the process, bringing about a change that would mess with the complicated plans made by the true Gremlin in which Kamijou Touma was a key piece.[11]
Abilities
St. Germain's form is that of a collective identity, held between multiple members of a synchronized and parallel network, with a structure similar to that of a pure diamond. Similar to how the nucleus of the crystal and the materials around it are identical, there are no central units in this network, with all members acting as control towers and terminals. As such, it can continue functioning even with the loss of a member.[1]
The crystal that is St. Germain expands by infecting others with St. Germain's thoughts and ideology, much like a virus, synchronizing them and making them part of the crystalline network.[1] The crystallization alters the victim's personalities through means of an acting trance. It operates in a similar manner to the way in which ritual magicians purify their thoughts and synchronize themselves (e.g. wearing the same uniform, eating the same foods, going to the same place at the same time, etc) in order to dye themselves in the same colors and achieve the optimum result when they carry out their ritual. The legend of St. Germain has the same tendency, with St. Germain appearing in gatherings of nobles cut-off from normal society and using his understanding of their hopes and desires to dye himself in their colors before making use of them, enticing and manipulating them with his appealing claims, eventually leading to their positions reversing and them becoming dyed in his colors instead.[12] Those who are involved and those who seek to be involved with St. Germain are gathered, drawn in by curiosity or desire, and gradually dyed in St. Germain's colors to the extent that they become part of the crystal.[1][12] The network doesn't utilize brainwaves and can expand into anyone regardless of their genetic code, providing that the conditions are met.[13]
Much like how even the purest diamond is only 99.9% pure, with the remaining 0.1% impurities determining the diamond's overall properties, the giant crystal and parallel network that is St. Germain has an equivalent controller or settings file.[14] In this case, it comes in the form of the black pills that St. Germain carries around with him, as mentioned in his legend. These pills are comprised of microbes, dried by the thousands and while dry, mostly inert but capable of remaining alive for years. When the microbes are absorbed by liquid, such as saliva, they resume functioning and invade the body of the person who has ingested them. As well as providing the final trigger, they are used in order to stabilize errors, such as with new or weary members, or members who have been worked loose from the crystal and lost control, preventing unwanted impurities from building up, causing defects in the crystalline structure and leading it to collapse.[2]
Chambord
The Chambord (シャンボール Shanbōru?) is a spiritual item which is used by St. Germain to manipulate carbon. It takes the form of spear in the shape of a treble clef, with the words 'St. Germain' engraved on it.[15] Named after the site of his former laboratory, it provides the tools St. Germain needs to pursue his research themes.[5] Derived and developed from the legend of St. Germain being able to repair scratched diamonds, the Chambord can manipulate carbon-based materials, such as diamonds, melting them down and forming them into new shapes, such as spears,[3] walls,[16] and even more Chambords.[15] In carbon-rich environments such as the Dianoid, which is almost entirely constructed from carbon-based materials, St. Germain is capable of skewering his opponent with spears from all directions.[3] The Chambord is also fairly durable, capable of withstanding and catching a shot from Mugino Shizuri's Meltdowner.[5]
As organic matter is also comprised of carbon, the Chambord is also capable of manipulating it. Aside from the microbes that allow St. Germain to spread and opening up holes in people to allow the spears to pass through them to the target,[3] St. Germain uses this aspect of the Chambord to create beasts made up of plant cells. Unlike normal plant cells which provide all necessary life functions but lack mobility, these plant cells are divided between different functions and reunified to stimulate optimization. The beasts created from this plant matter are stronger than ones of animal matter, given the cell wall that the plant cells have as opposed to an animal cell's membrane. These incomplete beasts can incorporate St.Germains into their structure and can also split into different smaller creatures. Some of them are also capable of producing and emitting carbon monoxide.[5]
Character Art Designs
According to Haimura Kiyotaka, he thought his initial designs for the gentleman type and lady type St. Germains were too plain, and so for the second version, designed them to look like they had put together a magician costume from the party section of Don Quijote, making them really look like scam artists. He also gave the Chambord a treble clef motif. The common theme for the outfits is kept for the several variations of St. Germain, with the Chambord being kept small enough to be held in one hand.[17]
Gallery
External Links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 12 Chapter 2 Part 17
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 12 Chapter 4 Part 6
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 12 Chapter 1 Part 12
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 12 Chapter 3 Part 4
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 12 Chapter 4 Part 1
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 12 Chapter 3
- ↑ Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 12 Between the lines 2
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 12 Chapter 4 Part 2
- ↑ Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 12 Chapter 2 Part 14
- ↑ Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 12 Epilogue
- ↑ Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 12
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 12 Chapter 4 Part 4
- ↑ Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 12 Chapter 3 Part 15
- ↑ Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 12 Chapter 3 Part 2
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 12 Chapter 2 Part 9
- ↑ Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 12 Chapter 2 Part 6
- ↑ Rainbow Spectrum