The 11eyes universe refers to the fictional universe created by Lass. The exact time of beginning is unclear as the concept of 11eyes was also used in 3days, its spiritual predecessor.
Setting[]
World Philosophy[]
In 11eyes, the world is composed of many lesser components, all of which are called the Monad (諸要素 (モナド) Monado; lit. Multiple Factors in Japanese) from the perspective of God. Its supposedly creator, God, is a superior being, having the ability to interfere with reality.
Under quantum physics theories, reality of the world is conceptualized by putting the world and its God in an object-observer relationship. The world naturally exists (although whether on its own or artificially is unclear) and the events that take place in reality are what the observer, or God, sees, imagines and recognizes, which may or may not be the full truth. What philosophers believe to be the occurrence of parallel dimensions is actually the observation of God happening at different viewpoints, in each of which the Monads are, slightly or drastically, organized in different orders.
Ironically, the above philosophy proves that God is not omnipotent. Thus, it can be inferred that the power of God is not controlling/dictating, but rather, interfering with the world to maintain it.
Phenomenon[]
Order[]
- Main article: Johanna
Representing order in the world from God's perspective is Maria Magdalene, the most faithful servant of Jesus and one of the few blessed by his miracle. After the death of her master, she met Apollonius of Tyana, who taught her the way to achieve power, which was to become a phenomenon, the force of nature that always received acknowledgement of God, thus immortal from human beings' point of view.
Maria Magdalene became a phenomenon, just like how Apollonius of Tyana taught her to be, and as time passed, became part of the Catholic Church of Vatican, under the name Johanna and raised to the title of pope, although only within Index, the Church's shadow side. Despite this, her influence on the Church in general is remarkable. It is stated that the Church's belief was also her belief.
Within Index, Johanna observes the world, at the same time uses her background knowledge learn from her thousands years of existence to uncover more mysteries and applies changes if necessary. Her powers are not absolute, and her interference is only indirectly, but changing the world is within her capabilities.
Chaos[]
- Main article: Michel Maximilien
While not explicitly stated, the one represents chaos in the world of God is implied to be Michel Maximilien, a mysterious man who only appears once in the series. He claims to serve a certain formless god, which shifts his beliefs towards H. P. Lovecraft's universe rather than Christianity.
Almost everything about Maximilien is unknown, but his goal seems to be creating suffering, deaths, chaos and destruction to the living world, then moving everything to the world of non-matter. He seems to also be very good at it, as he only interfered once in the story, which was convincing Lisette Vertorre to keep on surviving, but then led her to become the terrifying Witch of Destruction Lieselotte Werckmeister with devastating influence in the future.
At present, the whereabouts of Maximilien is still unclear, but he may or may not be observing how Johanna replies to his interference.
Major Factions[]
Holy Office of Index[]
- Main article: Holy Office of Index
Index is the back side of the Vatican Catholic Church, in charge of keeping order of the world by collecting holy relics and magic artifacts to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.
At the top of Index is Johanna, the only person who has the honor of holding the title Pope besides the one who reigns in the Saint Peter's Basilica. Her work is kept in secret, allowing no one but her own apostle and the High Council of the Vatican Church to know about Index.
During World War II, Index actively sped up their progress of collecting holy artifacts considerably, as them falling into the hands of Thule was too dangerous. They even relied on a mafia chain to do such job.
After the war, Index stayed silent. Magi and sorcery users around the world though that they were disbanded, but in fact, Index was only working secretly within the shadows.
Magic Association of Thule[]
- Main article: Magic Association of Thule
Created by Lieselotte Werckmeister in 1936, Thule initially worked under the Nazi Party to strengthen the progress of world domination, mostly by opposing Index. Under Lieselotte's orders, their main job was to search for magical artifacts in the world, at the same time, put an end to any resistance from Index.
During World War II, only three members: Fu Manchu, Aenus Lavenheit and Lieselotte herself were still in Germany; the rest was dispatched into different areas for their search. Lieselotte was able to collect information about shards of the Emerald Tablet and managed to seize one more for her arsenal, Balor, although Golvas Mercurius was keeping it. Lieselotte however, decided that there was no need to wait until all the shards were found, as the Nazi was on the verge of losing. She left Thule for Japan to prepare for her own plans and disappeared.
After the war, the Nazi lost, Thule was also disbanded. Only three members: Kanae Kuroshida, Aenus Lavenheit and Golvas Mercurius were still working for Thule in secret.
Around 2009, as soon as she knew that Lieselotte was still alive, Kanae resumed her plan for world domination in Ayamegaoka, Japan. She built a Doppelganger to help her find suitable sacrifices for her Artificial Emerald Tablet, which would disable the use of magic around the world. However, her servant was defeated by Shuu Amami. Interested in his abilities, Kanae proposed him a seat in Thule, but Shuu declined and decided to fight her. After a hard fought battle, Kanae was defeated and the Artificial Emerald Tablet was destroyed. Kanae was summoned back to Thule due to her severe injuries.
History[]
The Sack of Béziers[]
- Main article: The Sack of Béziers
July 1209, under the orders of Pope Innocent III, the Albigensian Crusade was initiated, targeting Béziers, a city of Cathars as the first point of purification. Béziers resisted, but fell prey to the sheer number of 90,000 crusaders and everything considered heretic was burnt to the ground. Amongst the dwellers of the city, Lisette Vertorre managed to escape death by pure luck, but was captured. As a captive, Lisette was raped and tortured to the point of mentally breaking down, causing all traces of her belief to disappear.
Some time passed and Lisette was released, but only at the brink of death. In her last hours, she met Michel Maximilien, a man who gave her the Demonic Stone of Qliphoth, part of the legendary Emerald Tablet. Thanks to the stone, Lisette survived, but her new life was never the same. Despite having become a powerful witch, she was disgusted with the living world and discontent with her inability to die. The murder of her lover in 1459 pushed her past the limit. As the the only one whom she ever cared about was no more, she inherited his will and actively worked to destroy the world.
In 1945, Lisette, now under the name Lieselotte traveled to Japan to proceed with the final phase of her plan. However, her enemy, the Holy Office of Index, sent the Punishment Squad, their best fighters to stop her. Both sides suffered heavy losses; the Punishment Squad was almost completely annihilated while Lieselotte was stripped of her powers and memories.
Battles of Ayamegaoka[]
Sixty-four years after the battle between Lieselotte and Index, in Ayamegaoka, the place where the battle used to take place, a catastrophe occurred. Seven teenagers: Kakeru Satsuki, Yuka Minase, Misuzu Kusakabe, Kukuri Tachibana, Yukiko Hirohara, Takahisa Tajima and Shiori Momono was dragged into a strange crimson world, which they later dubbed as the Red Night. Inside the bizarre world, they were forced to defend themselves against mindless black monsters for survival. However, the appearance of the six Black Knights at the center of Red Night complicated the fight. Without any reasons, they insisted on protecting the crystal holding the amnesiac Lisette Vertorre captive and killing the boys and girls who came there.
With the sudden appearance of Red Night and dangerous enemies after their lives, the boys and girls, with the exception of Shiori Momono, banded together and defeated the Black Knights one by one. By the end of October, there were only two Black Knights, the leader Avaritia and his most trusted subordinate, Superbia, left.
As the fight dragged on, an unfortunate event took place in the real world. Misao Kusakabe, an Onmyouji from Misuzu's Kusakabe Clan killed Saiko Akamine, the nurse of the Kouryoukan Academy, the school where the boys and girls studied at, causing Takahisa to go berserk. As there was no method to make Takahisa go back to normal, Yukiko was forced to kill him.
In pain and regret, Yukiko rushed to the crystal altar where Lisette was being hold imprisoned to avenge Takahisa. Mid-battle, Shiori appeared and assaulted the altar all by herself, causing the Black Knights to lose their focus on the fight. Yukiko used that chance to approach the crystal and tried to destroy it, as Lisette believed wrecking the crystal would somehow put an end to their suffering. However, arms grew from the crystal and absorbed Yukiko into it. Subsequently, Lisette writhed in pain, but soon changed drastically. She transformed into Lieselotte.
As the boys and girls at the scene was still oblivious to what was happenning, Red Night suddenly ended, bringing them back to reality, this time with an extra member: Shiori. Kakeru demanded an answer from her. Shiori complied, but warned that there would be no turning back once the truth was revealed. The group agreed, and Shiori told them everything she knew. It was revealed that Shiori was actually a member of Index and the Black Knights were the Punishment Squad from old times. She was also unable to deduce the reason for being targeted by her supposedly allies, but concluded that her fellow apostles was corrupted by the dark energy within the Red Night.
A few days later, Misao paid the group a visit and revealed the missing points of their fight. She stated that at the end of the battle in 1945, Georgius of the Rainbow, the true identity of Avaritia, used his forbidden spell: Contract of the Rainbow to split Lieselotte's souls into seven pieces. The scattered pieces was unfortunately deposit within six teenagers, which was none other than whom the Black Knights had targeted and failed. Misao also added that Kakeru was originally not supposed to be involved, but his Eye of Aeon allowed him to travel to Red Night and further complicated the situation. The group was shocked at the truth. Misuzu, in particular, broke down and asked what should they do. Misao coldly replied: "Die."
The revelation shocked everyone, shaking their will. Kakeru, in particular, was asked to not involve himself further, but made his mind and decided to fight. He relayed his determination to everyone, but when he met Yuka, the latter used her power on him to keep him for herself in their remaining time. As a result, Kakeru forgot everything about Red Night and lived a normal life with Yuka. However, in the next day, Verard inside the Eye of Aeon told him to snap out of the illusions, which Kakeru did. His awakening disrupted Yuka's power, allowing him to return to reality, which had merged with Red Night. He convinced Yuka to fight with him, but she no longer had any power to go on. Yuka faded away, wishing Kakeru good luck.
Swallowing his own tears, Kakeru rendezvoused with others, including Shiori, for the final battle. Misao tried to stop him, but Misuzu fended her off. Kakeru, Shiori and Kukuri then rushed to the crystal, but a dragon stood in their way. Shiori and Kukuri was forced to hold the dragon at bay while Kakeru proceeded. Howeve, he did not meet Lieselotte; instead, Lisette was there. She begged him to kill both her and Lieselotte so that they would be free from their pain. Before Kakeru could refuse, Lisette yielded to her other self and awakened Lieselotte.
Lieselotte broke the crystal imprisoning her and faced Kakeru. She was disappointed that a kid like him was all the world had left to oppose her. Kakeru said that he was not just any kid, but the current bearer of the Eye of Aeon, which was housing Verard's soul. Having recognized the Eye, Lieselotte asked him to join her and fulfill his [Verard's] wish of destroying the world. Kakeru refused and said that he had come to stop her, not joining her. Lieselotte was devastated. Kakeru continued, saying that the old her, Lisette, would not have wished for the destruction of everything and that she had gone too far. However, Lieselotte was persistent. Saying that she refused to believe that her 750 years of hatred was a mistake, she declared that Kakeru was not the representation of Verard, but merely another obstacle. Ignoring Kakeru's plea, Lieselotte engaged him in battle.
At first, she went easy on him, telling him not to die too early so as not to disappoint her. However, as the battle prolonged, Kakeru gradually got used to drawing the power of the Eye of Aeon and gained the upper hand. Finally recognizing him as a true threat, Lieselotte used Phantasmagoria on him, giving him illusions of being killed by his friends to break his spirit and finish the battle. Unfortunately, Kakeru had already been aware that the Eye of Aeon's power could pierce through illusions to let him see the truth; therefore, her Phantasmagoria was dispelled.
After breaking through Lieselotte's illusion, Kakeru proceeded using the Eye of Aeon to the max of its capabilities and destroyed the fragments of the VoidStone one by one. Lieselotte resisted but she could not do anything since Kakeru's blade was aiming at her VoidStone, not her actual body. When Kakeru struck a final time, she willingly let him stab her so everything would come to an end. Seeing the shadow of Verard in the Eye of Aeon, she died in Kakeru's arms with a smile.
After Story[]
Some time after the battle with the witch Lieselotte had passed, Shiori returned to Index to report her mission.
- Main article: Shiori Momono
Human Capabilities[]
Magic[]
- Main article: Magic
Magic is a prominent theme within the world of 11eyes. It is described as a system that demystifies the world, allowing humans with potential to achieve higher feats than they think they would. However, magic is still works under the law of causes and effects, hence the numerous rules that magic users have to comply with.
Having a long history of existence, magic is used differently for different forces on the planet.
Shiori Momono, a typical Western magus
Western magic users, called magi, deploy magic through the use of old runes and mana-filled grimoires. They also can store their own magical power in various objects and use such objects for their own purposes. Such uses of magic is generally known as Western gramary. This method was passed by the Holy Office of Index and its use is severely limited to their own apostles.
There are also types of magic considered forbidden, as they involve dangerous, inhumane researches and mainly cause destruction. This type of magic seems to relies on the use of dark Larva element
Orient regions have different approaches for magic. Japanese's magic takes form of the manipulation of shikigami, invisible spirits in the environment. Magic users who use shikigami are called the Onmyouji. An Onmyouji summons shikigami spirits through self-made talismans.
Additionally, the Chinese have their own version of magic called Taoism, but this method is never mentioned.
In 2009, a new method of using magic was introduced: modern magic. Invented by Kanji Amami, this method utilizes the knowledge of both magic and science to give the user more freedom in practicing.
Magical Objects Forging[]
The forging of objects with magical energy seems to be a practice of those who have knowledge of the magical world.
A clear example is the creation of the Emerald Tablet by Hermes Trismegistus. How it came to be was kept in the dark, but the Tablet is said to contain an unlimited amount of magical power. In the sixth dynasty of ancient Egypt, the Tablet was broken into twelve pieces and scattered across the world. In present days, the Emerald Tablet is only known as a myth to magic users of modern days.
In Japan, roughly three hundred years prior to the events of the original 11eyes, the Kusakabe Clan forged seven katana, which are still legendary in terms of quality. The full set was called the Kusakabe Seven Swords, but after Misao Kusakabe left the village, bringing two of them with her, the household renamed the set into the Kusakabe Five Treasures.