Amon (Shadow Hearts)

"Arrayed in black, the Lord of all the soul spirits is said to have a powerful influence on Life, Death and even Kharma."

- Shadow Hearts library description of Amon. "The God of Wrath. Comprising all classes, it has immense power, but only lends it to those with strong wills that aren't seduced by the power of destruction."

- Shadow Hearts: Covenant library description of Amon.

Amon is a demonic deity in the video game Shadow Hearts and Yuri Hyuga's signature fusion form in Shadow Hearts: Covenant following the events of the first game. As a king of Hell, he is rival to both Asmodeus and Astaroth and if not the most powerful of the 3 "Gods of Destruction", is certainly the most vicious while still being the least evil.

Shadow Hearts
In the first game, it is revealed that Amon is the basic source of power for the warlock Albert Simon. During Albert Simon's Demon's Gate Invocation the witch Koudelka uses her own link to the demonic Author to attempt to destroy Albert his ritual and herself along with it in order to stop his mad plans. However it is revealed that Albert had a power to rival even the Author's and uses it to overshadow and exorcise Koudelka's power. Yuri, being a harmonixer, a being with the power to fuse with demon's he's defeated, recognizes that Albert had the power of a monster within him. Albert pokes fun at the notion that Yuri was the only one with the power to fuse with demons and announces that the power is that of Amon, who he had long since made a pact with for his base powers. After revealing Amon's name to his foes Albert fights the party, if defeated Albert transforms mid-battle into Amon and unleashes pure destruction on the heroes. Even when defeated, Albert's plans were not stopped and as it turned out the warlock had planned ahead of time for the possibility of defeat, as the ritual was set to siphon off the energy expended in the fight to act as it's power source activating the beacon to "God" Albert was hoping to trigger.

Acquiring Amon as a Fusion
The Shadow Hearts games have a sanity system, in which one sanity point is depleted a round or more for Yuri in particular when he transforms into his demonic fusion forms, if all sanity points are depleted the player loses control of the character and they go berserk. When berserk a character will not only be out of the player's control but will attack allies and foes indiscriminately, waste possible rare items and switch between magical and physical attacks regardless of whether they are better with one and deficient with the other.

Because of the dangers involved in going berserk the player is encouraged to keep sanity points high, as such it is quite possible to completely miss out on acquiring Amon as one of Yuri's fusions...Amon, as god of Wrath, can only be taken in by Yuri if he goes berserk in the battle against Amon. If Yuri goes berserk in the fight against Amon he will be able to steal the power from Albert upon his victory and transform into Amon just as Albert did. Though this is an optional power to unlock Amon plays several pivotal parts in the sequel game Shadow Hearts: Covenant and so Yuri acquiring the Amon is cannon.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Shadow Hearts: Covenant starts off with a scene of a German military regiment, lead by one Lieutenant Karin Koenig, attempting to seize the small French territory of Domremy for Germany during World War I. In the village's church, the regiment encounters a huge winged demon which displays it's powers for them by taking their bullets in stride while casually unleashing basic, though non-lethal destruction. When one of the soldiers throws a grenade Amon dives down on Karin protecting her from the bulk of the blast, while Karin is knocked near unconscious the rest of her men are killed from the blast, Amon however seems less than bothered by the blast and casually drops Karin to the ground. As he walks away Karin sees the demon transform into a young man before she loses consciousness.

Karin would wake up on the road, be found and brought back to Germany for medical care and to report on Domremy, upon hearing the outlandish story Karin's superiors consider how to deal with a real flesh and blood demon, they are contacted by the Vatican, who send one of their Cardinals with exorcism experience, Nicolai Conrad. Nicolai is given Karin as a guide to Domremy and was given orders to aid him anyway she could. Before going to Domremy Nicolai insisted they return to the Vatican because he needed help acquiring a tool to exorcise a demon of Amon's strength. Karin helped Nicolai make it through the dangerous Aponia Tower to get the item called the Holy Mistletoe, which Nicolai told her would exorcise Amon. Once the Mistletoe was in their possession Nicolai and Karin return to Domremty to deal with Amon.

In the village's church they call out Amon who appears to combat the invading humans again. Amon quickly transforms into Yuri who asked where he kidnapped friend Jeanne had been taken. Karin soon sees Nicolai was a villain who had considered Amon, and by extension Yuri, his ultimate opponent. Nicolai said he had been looking for the power to combat Amon for years but by the time he found the Holy Mistletoe Amon's original host Albert Simon had already been killed and his power transferred to Yuri thus Yuri was to be Nicolai's new prey. Nicolai said that with the death of Amon's new host his organization, Sapientes Gladio would be granted the prestige and fame to back their already considerable power and influence to shape the world in the new millennium. Karin turned on Nicolai when he revlead the girl Jeanne captured by his associate Lenny. Yuri easily dealt with Nicolai himself but with the confusion caused by Karin Nicolai was left an opening to plunge the Holy Mistletoe straight into Yuri's body where-upon his powers were quickly purged and Amon was sealed away in Yuri's heart. Yuri soon finds his demonic fusions were not only exorcised and he would need to start all over again to create new fusions but that the Mistletoe's curse would slowly deplete his life-force. Yuri' fusion ability allowed the ghost of Jeanne to anchor herself to Yuri's souls where she tries to help him overcome the curse.

Amon's Origins
While chasing down Sapientes Gladio Yuri meets the leader of the organization the infamous Grigori Rasputin, grand-vizir of Russia. Roger Bacon, Yuri's friend and mentor of Albert Simon, introduces Yuri and his friends to another old friend of his in Turkey called Abraham Jovis, the original leader of Sapientes Gladio. Jovis could sense Amon still inside Yuri because he too sensed the presence of an old an dear friend. Jovis lays most of the origin of Amon out for Yuri and his fiends; that Albert and he were kicked out of their own religious sect by their own student, Girgori Rasputin after Rasputin had sold his soul to the king of demons Asmodeus. Once in charge Rasputin then turned the sect into the terrorist group of Sapientes Gladio as Yuri and his friends had come to know it. Jovis says that to combat Rasputin and Asmodeus Albert made his pact with the most powerful demon he could find, the God of Wrath Amon. It is during this origin story that Yuri comes to the revelation that Albert Simon, for all his seemingly mad talk about cleansing the planet of evil aristocrats, was in-fact referencing Rasputin and Asmodeus, which meant that he had killed one of the last threats to the true villain, Rasputin.

Jovis preforms a ritual that allows Yuri to travel into his own heart, Karin offers to go as well to help and the two are sent deep into Yuri's own soul to attempt to find and reestablish a connection with Amon. Yuri and Karin encounter Amon in the deepest parts of Yuri's heart in an area Yuri does not recognize that looked like a the inside of a castle with magical mirrors. Amon himself is in the last of the rooms and appears out of a giant mirrors in place of Yuri's reflection. Amon marches out of the mirror and unleashes his wrath on Yuri and Karin, when beaten the mirror opens as a gateway to a new part of Yuri's soul, a part he just barely recognized, his birth place in Japan, Mt. Katsuragi. Sitting on a bench on the peaceful mountain was Albert's soul, who had been absorbed into Yuri's heart along with Amon. Albert gives Yuri his blessing to fight his old enemy and encourages him to defeat Asmodeus.

Unlocking Neo-Amon
With Amon's defeat and Albert backing him, Amon is restored as a fusion for Yuri and Yuri uses him to defeat Rasputin and then Asmodeus. But As it turned out the third lord of hell, the fallen angel Astaroth was at large, Nicolai had sold his soul to Astaroth for the power to usurp his so-called leader, Rasputin. Nicolai unleashes various acts of chaos under Astaroth's influence and later becomes completely possessed by him as Rasputin was by Asmodeus. There is an optional side-quest to unlock the full power of Amon once Astaroth has revealed himself.

After the story shifts to Japan the player will eventually gain the ability to revisit Europe, after this happens the player only needs to revisit Florence and talk to a heavyset fellow in white called Backstreet Nero. Agreeing to test your nerve against a legend about a haunted castle will unlock the new area, Tiffauges Castle. The area looks like the unfamiliar castle area in Yuri's heart where he found Amon. In the last room of the castle Yuri once again comes across a giant mirror this time his reflection comes to life as Albert Simon. Albert tells Yuri Tiffauges Castle was home to the legendary heretic Gille De Rais and where Albert was able to summon Amon and made his pact with him. Albert noted that an even more powerful foe had appeared once Asmodeus was defeated and so offers to unleash Amon's full power. Apparently Albert had been holding back Amon to keep him tame and under Yuri's control but to release Amon as he was when Yuri first fought him Albert would need to transform into Amon one last time and use his full force. Albert warned Yuri that once he became a conduit for Amon's wrath he could no longer hold himself back and would be using lethal force, Yuri was more than happy to fight Albert for real one last time and the two happily engaged in a final gentlemen's fight to the death. After the fight Amon is completely satisfied with Yuri's display of power and will and become completely subservient to Yuri, bestowing his full power as Neo-Amon to Yuri as a fusion.

Amon's Demonology and Ideology
Asmodeus and Astaroth both view Amon as the strongest of the three if only slightly and certainly the most wild and chaotic. While Asmodeus views the suffering of man-kind as little more than an amusement Astaroth is described as a fallen Angel and sees it as his purpose in life to wipe out mortal life. Asmodeus likes to see his demons kill the weak and watch man-kind die slowly over the generations of his domination, Astaroth is far less hands-on than Asmodeus and more manipulative and sadistic in his need for death and destruction but committed to the instant gratification of a planetary purge of life. Amon is nowhere near as malevolent as his two rivals and perhaps the closest to neutral. Amon is meant to be harbinger of the Apocalypse and exists to destroy things but Amon does not seem to care whether he is destroying good or evil things. In order to be invoked however Amon needs a person to prove their strength to him and detests the notion of being subject to a being weaker than himself. While Asmodeus is able to easily possess Rasputin who gave in completely to his lust for power and Astaroth eventually possesses Nicolai when his massive ego is shattered, Amon has never possessed either of his hosts. Both Yuri and Albert had phenomenal wills and never gave into Amon even at the worst of times, still his may be why Amon accepted them in the first place, because of their strength of character. Albert's notion of a full-out Apocalypse as a method of defeating Asmodeus/Rasputin may have been due to Amon's influence but Amon was never able to outright posssess Albert. Amon never influences Yuri but this is likely because there was no need since Yuri frequently indulges in violent behavior anyway, he just directed that violence at the forces of evil.

Trivia

 * Like Asmodues and Astaroth, Amon is based on the mythological figure of the same name who is one of the 72 Goetic demons. In demonology he is described as a Marquis of Hell, he appears as a wolf with a snake's tail, it is said when in the command of a mage he can take shape of a man with a raven's head. He is said to tell all things of the future and the past. Some demonologists think his name is associated with the Egyptian deity Amun whose name is the origin of the word "amen" used in prayers.


 * Amon is called the "God of Wrath" by Jovis Abraham this maybe be cause of Bishop Peter Binsfeld's classification of devils. Amon is classified as a prince of hell and the demon of Wrath.