St. Germain

A group of St. Germains

“	I am used to being called a liar. If you want to call me less than a Magic God to soothe your own pitiful self-respect, go right ahead. There is no point in holding me within the infield of “magicians” or driving me into the outfield of “Magic Gods”. My existence can only be described as “me”. I am a third category. I am neither a magician nor a Magic God. I am St. Germain. No other term can describe me, but it seems some stubborn people have difficulty understanding that on a conceptual level. It is similar to how those obsessed with logic and numbers cannot understand the sparkle of the artificially-stabilized non-equilibrium structure that is a diamond.	„
	~ St. Germain

Summary

St. Germain is a legendary figure 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 traveling through time. He is also said to be capable of perfectly repairing scratched diamonds, a skill prized by nobles, and said to have written 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. 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.

Though the identity of St. Germain was originally nothing but 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 collective 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.

Powers and Stats

Tier: Physical strength depends on the individual human body, at most 8-B with magic | 9-B physically, higher with magic

Key: Base | Possessing Touma

Name: St. Germain

Origin: To Aru Majutsu No Index

Gender: Genderless

Age: Unknown, possibly hundreds of years

Classification: Collective Identity

Powers and Abilities: Magic, Mind Control (Can brainwash people and synchronize them into joining the St. Germain network by forcing them into something like an acting trance and can overwrite its own memories and thought processes on the spot), Carbon Manipulation, Creation of Plant Beasts. St. Germain itself has Immortality (Type 1, also similar to type 6) and resistance to abilities that target the living or the dead (Since it can't be classified as either alive or dead, Othinus couldn't control or notice it while she was recreating the world, like what happened with the Will of the Misaka Network; the Gremlin Magic Gods stated that like a virus, it always kept reappearing somewhere in the world no matter what kind of Phase was added to it), Resistance to Mind Manipulation (All magicians have a defense against mind attacks, but the technique knocks them out) | All prior, the abilities of Base Kamijou Touma

Attack Potency: Its magic bypasses conventional durability of any carbon-based structure, including carbon-based lifeforms, so its actual strength is unclear. Should be at most City Block level, likely Multi-City Block level with magic (Its carbon spears were easily stopped by Kinuhata Saiai's nitrogen-based Offense Armor) | Wall level physically (Same as Kamijou Touma), higher with magic, can bypass conventional durability against some supernatural beings with Imagine Breaker

Speed: Depends on the human bodies, so from Average Human to Peak Human with Hypersonic reactions (One of the St. Germains caught one of Mugino Shizuri's Meltdowner beams with her Chambord). Likely higher speed with springs | Peak Human (Same as Kamijou Touma), with Hypersonic reactions. Likely higher speed with springs

Lifting Strength: Depends on the human bodies, so from Average Human to Athletic Human | Athletic Human (Same as Kamijou Touma)

Striking Strength: Depends on the human bodies, so from Human level to At least City Block level, possibly higher with plant beasts | At least Wall level, (Same as Kamijou Touma)

Durability: As a being without a physical form, St. Germain itself is immune to physical damage and is capable of withstanding the phase shifts caused by a Magic Gods and retain its memories. The human bodies range from Human level to At least City Block level, likely Multi-City Block level, and they can create up to at least Multi-City Block level+, possibly Town level carbon structures, including their Chambords and plant monsters (The walls it created to seal the Dianoid couldn't be broken by a Power Lifter, but they were initially easily pierced by Mugino; after one of them experienced Mugino's Meltdowner destroying his arm and Chambord, a female St. Germain was capable of catching and blocking the beam with her Chambord and an insect-like plant monster created by them tanked several beams, with the only results being the Chambord and the insect glowing orange because of the heat) | Wall level physically, can create up to at least Multi-City Block level+, possibly Town level carbon structures

Stamina: Depends on the human bodies, St. Germain seems to be capable of shutting down their senses of pain to allow them to continue fighting and ignore heavy injuries like losing an arm | Low, as an esper Touma takes damage from St. Germain using magic via his body and in general St. Germain is like a disease for him that slowly but surely whittles him down, possibly Average (due to Touma's great stamina he could fight against Anna for an extended period of time, despite the negative effects of St. Germain)

Range: Several tens of meters with carbon spears

Standard Equipment: Chambord

Intelligence: Likely high intelligence as a very manipulative entity with a lot of knowledge and experience, but it's offset by its incredible arrogance and inability to stick to a goal or a logical plan/course of action | Same as before, with Kamijou Touma's intelligence added on top

Weaknesses: St. Germain itself is very arrogant and incapable of keeping to a single logical plan, changing goals and motivations on the fly multiple times by overwriting its mind; even if the network survives, it can technically be destroyed if all hosts are destroyed. The hosts have normal human weaknesses | As an esper Touma takes damage each time St. Germain uses magic in his body and St. Germain in general is like an illness to him which would eventually kill him

Notable Attacks/Techniques

• Collective Identity: 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. 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. 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 network doesn't utilize brainwaves and can expand into anyone regardless of their genetic code, providing that the conditions are met. All infected individuals will have the same magic abilities as the others, even if they didn't know anything about magic previous to joining the network.
  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. In this case, it comes in the form of the black pills that St. Germains carry around with them, 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 to add an individual to the network, 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.

• Chambord (シャンボール Shanbōru): The Chambord is a spiritual item which is used by St. Germain to manipulate carbon. It takes the form of a spear in the shape of a treble clef, with the words 'St. Germain' engraved on it. Named after the site of his former laboratory, it provides the tools St. Germain needs to pursue his research themes. The Chambord is also fairly durable and can be modified, and after experiencing the attack once in one of his bodies St. Germain made it capable of withstanding and catching a shot from Mugino's Meltdowner.
  • Carbon manipulation: 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, walls, and even more Chambords for the new members of the group. In carbon-rich environments such as the Dianoid, which is almost entirely constructed from carbon-based materials, St. Germain is capable of skewering its opponent with spears from all directions, with each individual St. Germain being able to create around a hundred carbon spears.
  • Organic matter manipulation: 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, St. Germain can freely manipulate the bodies of carbon-based lifeforms like humans through contact with its magic. For example, St. Germain's carbon spears have thin hair-like points extend fifty to one hundred centimeters from the tip, and when they touch a carbon-based structure they can open a hole, using this as an attack or to bypass a physical obstacle and continue to target the enemy behind it.
  • Plant Creation: As an extension of its ability to control organic matter, St. Germain can use Chambord to create plants, like 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 like a matryoshka doll. Some of them are also capable of producing and emitting carbon monoxide as an attack. St. Germains can also wrap roots and vines around their legs to create enormous springs that allow them to jump around the walls and ceiling at high speeds.

Note: St. Germain is a virus-like collective identity that has no physical body and uses several brainwashed "hosts" to fight, so for matches it should be specified how many humans St. Germain has at the start of the battle. Additionally, part of the challenge it presented in the novels was due to the battle taking place on the Dianoid, a large building almost entirely made with carbon materials, giving all its bodies plenty of material to use for its magic.

Gallery

Designs of two St. Germains

Others

Notable Victories:

Notable Losses:

Inconclusive Matches:

Discussions

Discussion threads involving St. Germain