Mystic Eyes of Death Perception
A special power that awoke in Tohno Shiki as the aftereffect of an accident seven years ago. Mystic Eyes that can apprehend "the lines vulnerable to death" ー the concept of a "time of death" inherently contained within all things.
As opposed to the "physical phenomena that can be attained through modern technology", it is a "phenomenon that cannot be attained no matter what". Tracing these "lines of death" allows for the target to be severed and killed (in this case it is not the cut that kills, but death resulting in the target being cut).
Although Shiki can suppress his power to a level that doesn't impede his daily life thanks to the Mystic Eye Killer glasses he once received from his teacher (Aozaki Aoko), the same cannot be said for when he runs into extreme situations. Ultimately, it becomes possible to not only see the "lines" and "points" of living and inanimate things, but also the death even of space and existence.
Burial Agency
A secret division of the Holy Church, an organisation of Europe's prominent religion whose name means "universal".
It comprises seven militants called 'executors' after their intended role to "execute the Lord's teachings as His proxy". Its extraterritoriality within the Church precludes the attainment of power and in return affords it freedom from authority. A walking armoury; a security force consisting of a handful of people. They are in charge of exterminating the "inhuman things" that never show themselves, which the Church condemned as heresies — vampires.
Ciel holds the seventh seat in the Burial Agency, along with the codename "Bow".
Black Keys
The rumour goes that this is a niche weapon favoured only by pious believers.
At the mention of Black Keys, Ciel.... (etc. etc.)
Black Keys (for real)
The essential equipment carried by Ciel. A sacrament of the Church crafted on the basis of the provisions for mourning and burying the dead. Since regular attacks have little effect on the heretics bearing the curse of immortality, these were devised with the goal of properly reverting them to corpses and returning them to dust.
Pages torn from a book of holy scripture are fixed into the shape of hilts with magical energy, which is then passed through those hilts during battle to form the blade portion, shifting into automatic baptism mode.
They are mainly used for throwing, and generations of users have devised many throwing techniques such as shadow suturing, time jumping, the iron plate effect, cremation rite, internment rite, and conclave.
Cathedral (Bounded Field)
A phase-transforming, isolation-type bounded field developed to contain Rank Ⅸ Dead Apostles.
It originally belonged to the Ancestor signifying kingdom, and was a wall with a 30km diameter that isolated everything it enclosed from the outside world. Compared to the original, Ciel's version is a conceptual barrier that can only contain a single instance or kind of object.
On the other hand, it possesses a space distortion function that the original lacked, allowing the user to alter the size of the space within at will. As this High Thaumaturgy demands a special sort of magical energy to be used, it cannot easily be used repeatedly.
Seventh Holy Scripture
A treasured holy relic created by the Holy Church to demonstrate the Lord's power, though for a long time there was no one to use it. The embodiment of a miracle crafted by human hands. A conceptual weapon structured into a scripture a thousand years ago by luring a rare phantasmal species still lingering on the surface and forging divine iron by casting the girl who served as a lure into the fires of the furnace.
Soul-smashing ー that is, starting with execution, all the possible causes of death that may befall a human are inscribed, while the divine iron's natural frequency chants a baptismal admonition against them.
As an anti-vampire weapons platform it can assume six basic weapon forms, using the horn of a unicorn as the backbone. It can operate as a gunblade, bayonet, greatsword, and armour, while it can also be deployed as a ballista.
Calvaria's Star
A halo deployed in the stratosphere, blazing with focused sunlight.
A reflector created with magecraft. The 50km long, 10km wide blade of light beaming towards the surface can be compared to an aurora possessing mass, or a guillotine of light. It is High Thaumaturgy that Ciel came up with after defeating the Ancestor who was her sword mentor; apparently she uses his Idea Blood to initiate it.
After firing at full power against Arcueid the remaining magical energy was used to launch one last shot, and it was this move that turned the tables in the endgame.
Rank Ⅰ Vampire: Corpse
A marionette dancing to the tune of its master. A corpse that will return to being dead if left without orders. A mere grunt which simply sucks blood and delivers it to its master. One of what are called "The Dead".
Rank Ⅱ Vampire: Ghoul
A corpse mimicking the form it had in life, possessing a will yet incapable of coherent thought. While its master's magical energy keeps it from decaying, its insides have completely disintegrated. As the brain's decomposition causes it to seek flesh and blood instinctively, it is more savage that a Rank Ⅰ Corpse. Could be described as a soldier. Counted among "The Dead".
Rank Ⅲ Vampire: Undead
From this point on a creature can finally be called a vampire. A living corpse. Undead. Although it hasn't fully regained its mental faculties, it can simulate a human lifestyle on its own. A high-ranking soldier whose brain has been reconstructed after death. It is not fazed by sunlight, but requires periodic embalming treatment so as to conceal its true nature. Counted among "The Dead".
Rank Ⅳ Vampire: Nightkin
An undead who acts as a fledgling vampire while maintaining its original personality.
A half-human vampire whose inhuman physical abilities come at the cost of experiencing extreme coldness and thirst. A low-ranking knight, so to speak. When those of Rank Ⅵ and above drink the blood of their prey assiduously, their victim starts out as a vampire of this rank. They become anemic under the sunlight, though it doesn't burn them yet.
In the world of magic, one is considered "a person" up to this rank. A vampire who has reached Rank Ⅳ can now survive away from its parent. From their point of view it has changed from an "object" to a "living thing", in a sense. Only one in a thousand people are able to reach this rank.
Rank Ⅴ Vampire: Nightmare
Adding to the scope of Rank Ⅳ, at this point the curse within their blood allows them to manifest special powers deriving from their parent vampire, or perhaps arising from their own self. High-ranking knight — a fully fledged vampire.
Rank Ⅵ Vampire: Lesser Dead Apostle
A completely self-sufficient bloodsucker. Though they can create children through their bloodsucking incursions, they cannot sire a child that can exceed Rank Ⅵ - what you'd call a limit to these upstarts.
The vampire lurking in Souya is of this rank. Villages fall prey to the disaster that is a "parent" raising minions. Vlov too was classified in this rank, but somehow managed to skip ahead.
Rank Ⅶ Vampire: Greater Dead Apostle
Greater Dead Apostle. Those of Rank Ⅵ who were acknowledged by an Ancestor and bestowed with additional abilities. Though they share a name, this rank is of a wholly different scale from the previous one. To reach this rank is to become a poison that taints the land simply by existing.
They are a heresy that ordinary executors cannot cross blades with, noble vampires permitted their own free will. Greater Dead Apostles do not show absolute obedience to their parent Ancestors; given the chance they can defeat them and inherit their curse. However, even if they gained the same "freedom", there is a vast difference in the years the Ancestors have lived, making it difficult for a Greater Dead Apostle to surmount the scale of an Ancestor's existence.
Rank Ⅷ Vampire: Successor
A talented vampire chosen by an Ancestor as their own successor. A prince or princess, as it were. Among the Ancestors are also some who were captivated by beings that were not vampires and unexpectedly raised them to this rank.
Assuming a minimum of two for each Ancestor, there are more than fifty Rank Ⅷ individuals. Some of them are even said to have been created in imitation of the True Ancestors. Vampires of this rank are mighty, surpassing Vlov - who achieved entry into the Twenty-seven Dead Apostle Ancestors - in terms of their fundamental reserves.
Rank Ⅸ Vampire: Ancestor
The old Dead Apostles who broke free from their role as emergency rations and achieved victory in their struggle for independence as wholly distinct beings. Long-lived beings who take in the life of humans and give rise to Rank Ⅵ Dead Apostles. Said to have established the structure of vampire society that exists to this day.
The scale of their existence differs on an individual basis, but they can be categorised into the "elders", active from before the Common Era, and the "upstarts", whose activities began in the Common Era. Vlov, having killed the Ancestor that had been his parent of the last hundred years, became one such new "upstart" Ancestor.
The Twenty-seven Dead Apostle Ancestors
The 27 individuals who are the apex of dead apostles. It is a title that represents their way of being. Though exceptions like the "League of the Age of Gods" of the five old-timers do exist, each is said to be fundamentally individualistic, while not all of them are enemies of man.
In their three thousand year long history some seats have emptied, and apart from those six that are Offenbaum's - Vlov's parent's - "principle" as well as the principles of 「ripening」,「castle, therefore kingdom」,「sword」, and then the「burning」and「four limbs」 that are sealed by the Church, the remaining ones whose existence has been verified number twenty-one.
Though it takes the Holy Church a hundred years from preparation to execution in order to seal a single ancestor, they are thought to have succeeded only twice. Considering this, it's easy to see how irregular Tohno Shiki's defeat of Vlov was.
Hemonomic Principle
Idea Blood. The quality of the blood that makes the Ancestors what they are, and a foundational commandment etched on their soul.
The Dead Apostles who inherited this blood would always rise up to become Ancestors no matter their rank; Arcueid compared it to a "crown".
On the other hand, a millennium-class foundation is needed for the Hemonomic Principle to function, and even if a Dead Apostle with hundreds of years of activity were to inherit it they would be crushed by that curse. Properly speaking it was not something that Vlov could withstand, but thanks to a technique given to him by a certain Dead Apostle as well as his desire for revenge against that person he managed to retain his sanity until the end.
True Ancestor
The original bloodsucking species.
One of the races of so-called nature spirits, fairies independently established by the planet as its sense of touch. A completely different species from the originally human Dead Apostles, no religion's purification ritual works on them, nor does sunlight faze them — they are beings infinitely close to immortality.
As they receive backup from the planet, it can be said that the limits of their actions are the limits of nature itself. If the planet is thought of as a single organism they are like its white blood cells, regarding the humans who consume nature as an element that must be exterminated.
In the same way that humans perceive the vampires who prey on them as "evil", from the standpoint of the True Ancestors it is the humans who enjoy the blessing of nature all the while plundering its resources that are "evil".
Bloodsucking Impulse
Even the god-like race of the True Ancestors harbour a flaw from the moment they are born: to seek out the blood of humans, not because they need it to live, but out of a primitive desire to ingest the information of intelligent lifeforms — this inclination of their kind is called the bloodsucking impulse.
Basking in the pleasure, the True Ancestors who keep on drinking blood eventually become powerful vampires and begin to defile the world - a fall into beasthood. To avoid this wretched fate, they use this awesome power of theirs to control the bloodsucking impulse.
When they realise that they will become unable to control this impulse sooner or later, the True Ancestors choose eternal sleep for themselves. In a way, this is the lifespan of those who have none to begin with - an end to their long journey.
Imagination Realisation
Marble Phantasm.
An ability possessed by the nature spirits that are the planet's sense of touch, allowing them to reconstruct the world through probability alteration. By connecting their will to the world, they can transfigure it into whatever environment they imagine. However, the same cannot be done with things like humans or animals, which exist independently of the world. Imagination realisation is purely the ability to freely transform one's surroundings.
Moreover, the reason why the Millennium Castle suddenly appeared in the city of Souya in the Ciel route is simply because its True Ancestor lord (Arcueid) willed it into existence.
Event Storage
An ability of the True Ancestors, the planet's sense of touch. The conceptual and physical storage of things reared on the planet's surface. Every creature that has appeared on the face of the planet——it is something that requisitions textures.
In terms of Divine Spirits it's an ability on the level of an Authority, but since this an Authority of the planet it is a 'system' rather than a 'skill'. The gravitational sphere that appeared at Arcueid's feet when had become an Astral Body was of a scale great enough to store the entire planet's texture.
Astral Body
Rapid expansion (Inflation). A phenomenon more simply called "Astral Body".
An excited state only possessed by True Ancestor royalty. When a True Ancestor's body is completely destroyed by some means, this reaction is said to occur. It was the result of Arcueid, a "small yet massive being", losing the container called 'body' and consequently having the compressed magical energy released, causing the scale of her existence to expand. Arcueid's consciousness exists at the core of the light, but since the barrier called 'body' doesn't exist, it is a state where in this excess of magical energy "an image of herself as she imagines it" is projected and diffused.
If a True Ancestor still brimming with magical energy is imperfectly destroyed, it will reemerge through just this energy that had been stored within its body and destroy human settlements in the form of a calamity, as a revenge mechanism. Inflation does not occur with Arcueid having her power stolen by Roa and fatally wasting away, but the Arcueid in Ciel route who killed Roa, was troubled by the bug that was her love for Shiki, and could no longer control her bloodsucking impulse could cause this phenomenon. Or rather, ended up causing it.
20 anni fa si ragionava così (?) però è un comportamento comune in quasi tutti i giapponesi a parte i grandi, quindi li non so veramente...
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