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The history of the Mage of the Beginning from Negima! Magister Negi Magi and UQ Holder.
Background[]
Early Years[]
The Life-Maker was born human, described by all as a "genius", but where she was born and lived or what she did in her early life remains untold. She used to be sane, and devoted her life to help people, as do all mages, calling herself the voice of the defeated. She states to have experimented on immortality for centuries, so this might explain how she became a deity, not unlike how the Vampire Nobles transcended humanity eons prior, albeit farther, but she remains shrouded in mystery.
At one point, despairing from the never-ending tragedies, the Mage of the Beginning took as many destitute and downtrodden people as she could and brought them to Mars, creating there the Mundus Magicus as a safe haven for them to live in peace. She decreed a Covenant of non-aggression towards the Mundus Vetus (Ancient World, the normal Earth) with the population of the Mundus Magicus.
Later on, she founded the kingdom of Vespertatia, the historical centre of the Mundus Magicus, and birthed its first queen Amateru, a mage of legend herself, before disappearing. Alas, this did not ease suffering at all, given that conflict and power-struggle soon plagued her new world as well. This might be when she persuaded herself that misery cannot be escaped.
After creating the Mundus Magicus, the Mage of the Beginning retreated into the newly created dimension's space, in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, and settled in the gigantic asteroid Agartha. There, she built herself a palace and a city, probably to live on her own away from both worlds’ suffering, and in the following centuries, she assimilated the entire asteroid into her own being.
Prior to the story[]
Over six-hundred years before the start of the story, the Mage of the Beginning turned a European little girl named Evangeline Athanasia Katharine McDowell to a vampire, to experiment on Ceaselessness. Centuries later, having become an extremely powerful, day-walking, vampire witch feared everywhere, Evangeline caught up with the archmage and seemingly killed her; but she secretly survived.
At some point, the Mage of the Beginning founded the secret society Cosmo Entelecheia, knowing that the Mundus Magicus would soon collapse. They ignited the Great Mage War and attempted to erase the entire Mundus Magicus using Asuna's magic-cancelling power, only to be nearly wiped out by the Ala Rubra, a team led by the legendary Nagi Springfield, allied to the Vespertatian queen Arika.
As everything seemed won, the Life-Maker entered the fray, piercing Nagi and her own right-hand Primum Averruncus with a beam and taking down the Ala Rubra with a tremendous dark energy wave. Against all odds, she was killed by Nagi Springfield and his master, the child-like immortal Filius Zect. (Though Zect mysteriously vanished into dust after the battle, having likely shielded his student from her possession).
The Life-Maker as Filius Zect.
Everyone believed the Life-Maker to be dead, but she reappeared few years later using none other than Filius Zect as her new vessel. After some time, she gave life to Secundum Averruncus, Septendecim Adad and Nii Atur, and later to Tertium Averruncus (the soon to be called Fate) to rebuild her forces.
She then gave life to Secundum Averruncus, Septendecim Adad and Nii Atur, and later to Tertium Averruncus (the soon to be called Fate) to rebuild her forces. She ordered her team to walk the Mundus Magicus and to send as many souls as possible to the Cosmo Entelecheia, this time town after town, using the conflicts that still plagued the Mundus Magicus after the war to go undetected.
Ten years before the start of the story, the Ala Rubra confronted Cosmo Entelecheia once more in the city of Istanbul. This time, the Life-Maker was sealed under the roots of the magical World Tree in the campus of Mahora, thanks to Nagi's sacrifice.
Role in Negima![]
Mundus Magicus Arc[]
History repeats itself.
The Life-Maker first appears during flashbacks of the Great Mage War, displaying the final battle in which she was thought to be killed. Later as Fate Averruncus and Cosmo Entelecheia's remnants try to repeat what they did twenty years ago, they are thwarted by Negi Springfield and his team, the Ala Alba.
As Fate and Negi are fighting, Fate starts to experience flashbacks of his birth and his first years of duties, back when the Mage of the Beginning was using Filius Zect as a vessel.
After Fate admits defeat and agrees to help Negi's own plan to save the Mundus Magicus, they are both pierced by a dark beam, just like Primum and Nagi before them, and the Life-Maker's ominous figure appears. With both worlds merging and Cosmo Entelecheia's hideout (with Asuna as a captive) appearing over her prison awoke the Life-Maker, who sends a projection of herself onto the battlefield.
She restores every fallen member of Fate's (former) team and resurrects all of her deceased followers, who then prepare to finish off the Ala Alba, starting with Negi and Fate.
Resurrection of a nightmare.
As everything seems doomed, Evangeline McDowell (who has become Negi's teacher) uses the connection between Mahora Academy and the Mundus Magicus to barge in, soon followed by the Dean of Mahora and every surviving member of the Ala Rubra.
Evangeline encases them all in everlasting ice with a powerful spell she especially devised for such enemies, but it has no effect on the Life-Maker who enters the fray. She paralyzes Evangeline and Rakan, swats away the Ala Rubra like nothing and grabs Negi by the neck.
Asuna, who has just been freed by all of Negi's comrades, jumps to the rescue and slices the archmage's projection nearly in half with her Pactio Artifact, a huge, demon-banishing Claymore sword. Negi and Asuna then combine their White of Mars power into the Claymore, dispelling her onslaught of dark beams and destroying her projection.
The Life-Maker as Nagi.
As the Life-Maker's projection is fading away, it appears that Nagi is now her vessel. Nagi briefly regains consciousness and asks his son to come and kill him. Surprisingly, Negi, who spent his life yearning to find his father takes the news rather well, and Asuna restores the Mundus Magicus with the primal Code of the Life-Maker. Still, the now awake Life-Maker could escape her prison, and later freed her followers.
Later, Asuna has to be sealed in the ruins of Vespertatia for more than a century, being the cornerstone of Negi's Blue Mars Project, with the goal to terraform Mars into a fertile and habitable world, which could sustain the Mundus Magicus without end and prevent its collapse.
As she awakes in a futuristic world she no longer belongs to, she is found by Evangeline and Chao Lingshen: Negi's genius, time-travelling, teenage descendant, who uses her Cassiopeia time-machine to bring her back to her era. Thus creating a new time-line, in which Asuna and every one of Negi's comrades can live their well-deserved happy ending.
Distant Finale[]
The final chapters mention a tremendous battle which involved all of Negi's students. Negi was able to defeat the archmage once and for all, and to free Nagi from her control. However, none of this is seen due to the abrupt ending of the manga (caused by a dispute between the author and the editor).
The Life-Maker's Agartha-wide attack.
The battle is displayed in a magic projection in UQ Holder, bringing closure to Negima!. It is explained that after the events of the Mundus Magicus Negi, Fate, the Ala Alba, Ala Rubra and the Dean of Mahora (the gigantic campus city where Negi is teaching English), started Negi's plan to save the Mundus Magicus and united all its nations.
Five years later, a sixteen-year-old Negi leads the entire Mundus Magicus' battle fleet into their world's space, towards the Asteroid Agartha where the Mage of the Beginning and Cosmo Entelecheia are based. It immediately appears that the entire asteroid is part of the Life-Maker's being and under her complete control.
She unleashes a tremendous onslaught of humongous energy blasts from the asteroid whole circumference, and releases hundreds of thousands shadow demons, forcing Negi's friend Kotaro to protect the fleet while Fate engages the demons and Negi attacks the Life-Maker herself.
The archmage assumes Nagi's aspect, personality and fighting style, to counter Negi's White of Mars power and likely as psychological warfare, but Negi, who strives to emulate his father, sees it as a challenge.
Negi takes on Nagi Ialda.
Negi turns into a lightning elemental with his Magia Erebea power, but Nagi-Ialda counters it with her omnipresence on Agartha, turning the duel into a brawl. However, Negi's Magia Erebea enables him to absorb magic from Agartha's surface to remain at his peak and hold his own.
Cosmo Entelecheia then enters the fray and overwhelms him, but he is saved by Asuna and his comrades from the Ala Alba and Ala Rubra, including Fate, Fate's partners and Kotaro but excluding Evangeline. The construct-mages gloat that their liege has completely assimilated Nagi's soul and that nothing could save him, but an unimpressed Asuna boldly states that they would try anyway, much to her foes' disbelief.
Following Fate's instruction, Asuna uses her White of Mars power to sever the Life-Maker's connection to Agartha and leave her vulnerable. Protected by all his comrades, Negi emerges victorious from his final clash against the Mage of the Beginning, tearing her heart from his father's chest. Nagi embraces and praises his son, collapsing after the heart is destroyed, urging him to flee to avoid possession. As Ialda Baoth's eldritch true form arises, Fate's partner Koyomi stops time with her Pactio Artefact.
Again, Negi and Asuna combine their White of Mars Power into Asuna's demon-killing claymore to kill her once and for all, and Agartha explodes taking Cosmo Entelecheia with her. Later, Negi's partner Konoka Konoe heals and saves Nagi against all odds, to everyone's joy. Only Fate mourns that the Mage of the Beginning could not be saved from herself. (Though some suspect she let Nagi live.)
Role in UQ Holder[]
In Flashbacks[]
The story unfolds in 2086, eighty-five years after Ala Alba saved the Mundus Magicus. It is set in the second timeline of Negima!, during the century Asuna Kagurazaka spent sealed, to power the terraforming of Mars. Unfortunately, without Asuna, the Ala Alba could not detect the Mage of the Beginning, vastly postponing her defeat and preventing them from tackling all the problems that arose after magic was revealed. Thus, far from solving crises, it led to their worsening…
Instead of two pacified worlds working together, in which magic was revealed fast and spread everywhere for the benefit of everyone, as in the ending of Negima!, magic was hoarded by military superpowers and wealthy elite, leading to a dramatic increase of all the terrorism, strife, wars, diseases, and global warming, that keeps plaguing the world, with many cities being reduced to conflict-ridden slums.
Negi's team finally located Agartha in 2025, but without Asuna, they could not sever Nagi-Ialda’s connection to it, and it made her far too powerful even for Negi to handle. Negi's partners Nodoka Miyazaki and Yue Ayase, and latter Jack Rakan and Nagi's comrade Albireo Imma shielded him from assimilation, getting absorbed in the process; but Albireo could destroy Nagi, forcing Ialda Baoth to appear under a mix of her true and normal forms.
Ialda Baoth attacks Negi and Fate under a mix of her normal and true forms.
Koyomi stopped time, but Ialda was unaffected and sliced her in half with a swipe of her hand. Negi only owed his life to his partner Chisame Hasegawa's sacrifice. The archmage teleported Agartha away, making the entire debacle pointless.
Devastated by grief, Negi broke down in tears at Evangeline's house, where she nursed him back to health, curing him from the Life-Maker's poison and patiently rekindling his will to live.
Negi spent seven decades solving crises everywhere, to ease suffering and weaken Ialda Baoth. He pushed Evangeline to found UQ Holder (Eternity Holder), a gathering of immortals tasked to protect people from supernatural threats. He also gave Fate samples of DNA to clone him and Asuna, in hopes of raising someone who could combine the White of Mars and the Black of Venus to stand a chance against the Mage of the Beginning, should the worst happen.
Twenty years before the story, Agartha was located near the rings of Saturn, and Negi's team rushed there to settle their score. Negi ventured on Agartha's surface, now fully covered with Ialda Baoth’s aura of darkness, once again losing many allies who sacrificed themselves to enable him to reach her.
With no choice left, Negi asked Evangeline to kill him should he become the archmage's host in turn, and cast the Manus Jaldae spell as a last resort, killing her and sealing himself before she could destroy the Solar System. She was gone, but caused such turmoil that her name had become a taboo, enough to cause a global mass panic.
Ten years later, at the cloning facility, Evangeline learns that few clones survive to adulthood, Fate grimly stating that only cloning Negi's spirit can be successful. Four years later, the clone who would become the main hero Tōta Konoe was kidnapped by descendants of Negi's partner Konoka, and his death was faked. After a violent fallout with Fate, who was renting clones as child soldiers so as to fund his project, Evangeline would later take him in.
Setting of the Story[]
Negi's Blue Mars Project was successfully completed, having giant space towers serving as bridges between three worlds. Magic was finally revealed to the world ten years before the start of the story and has begun to spread, but only wealthy people could afford the applications enabling non-magic people to spell-cast. Evangeline is now leader of UQ Holder, and the care-giver of Tōta Konoe, whom she turned into a vampire to save his life. The story really begins as she moves Tōta to UQ Holder's headquarters and make him and his friends enter the organization.
Tōta's training[]
After all sorts of adventures, Tōta has the surprise to learn that Negi has registered in the upcoming Mahora Martial Art Tournament. Just as Evangeline identifies his signature on his registration form, it triggers a spell meant to react to her, that creates a projection of Negi and Nagi trapped in the Mage of the Beginning's grasp. The archmage notices with a smile of satisfaction, seemingly knowing who he is. The vampire boy remarks that Evangeline knows more than she says, but she refuses to answer his questions.
After Tōta is nearly killed by Cutlass, a strange girl who calls him "brother", Evangeline's master, the Vampire Noble Dana Ananga Jagannatha takes the heroes to her palace outside time and space to train them. There, she teaches Tōta to use the Black of Venus and White of Mars, telling him of Evangeline and the Mage of the Beginning.
Eight months later, Evangeline takes Tōta to the Amano-Mihashira Academy City, the former Mahora Academy, to meet Negi’s surviving students: The now elderly Ayaka Yukihiro, the robot-girl Chachamaru Karakuri, the ghost girl Sayo Aisaka, the half-demon sniper Mana Tastsumiya (still a teenager and now Dean of Mahora), and the Demon Princess Zazie Rainyday. They tell him that Negi was spotted appearing in space for a few second, and reveal that he disappeared after defeating the Mage of the Beginning and is about to become her new vessel anytime soon.
It appears that Negi would rather die than suffer such a destiny, but that not even killing the Mage for good could save him. It also appears that UQ Holder is at odds with Ala Alba, now led by Fate Averruncus, who claims that Negi can still be saved by Tōta’s power. Tōta later asks his friends for help, in order to find a way to save Negi without having to choose between UQ Holder and Ala Alba.
Negi Reappears[]
| “ | Child. Did you think that this girl has been saved? Did you honestly think that faint hint of a smile meant she had been taken from her hell? If so, then you really have the brain of a fool. Have all your deaths addled your wits, immortal? This girl will never find happiness. Never in all eternity. This is a fact the girl is well aware of. | „ |
| ~ The Mage of the Beginning to Tōta, about Evangeline's centuries of pain. |
Later, Tōta is attacked by Cutlass once again during a race. Though he fares much better against her now, she is soon joined by Negi Springfield himself, now the Life-Maker's host, with all her possessed Apostles. The Apostles state their intention to seize Tōta. His team, Evangeline, and Fate answer by fighting them, but so many unbelievably powerful foes drive them into a corner.
Albireo Imma drags Tōta with him into a vision of the past, in which they appear as invisible spectators. They witness the time during which Negi was training under Evangeline.
Evangeline! Look behind you!
The Evangeline of the past suddenly recognizes Tōta (who had previously travelled to the past and befriended Evangeline at the start of her immortal life).
Suddenly, Albireo pierces Tōta with many darkness spears, while the Mage of the Beginning appears behind her in person. It appears that the vision of the past is in fact one of her Phantasmagorias, in which she can manifest herself in person and deal with Tōta herself.
The Life-Maker reveals her name, gleefully introducing herself as Tōta's enemy before binding Evangeline with shadow threads and tearing her apart. As they painfully heal, the archmage berates Tōta, calling him a fool for believing that he made her happy, pointing out that she never was and will never be.
Enraged, Tōta calls off her nihilistic rant, and prepares to fight along Evangeline. Amused, she accepts the challenge. Alas, they are absolutely no match for her, as evidenced when she reduces Evangeline's gigantic tower to rubbles like an afterthought.
The Life-Maker takes Nagi's aspect and conjures a replica of Negi to toy with Evangeline's feelings and break her resolve, before hitting her with Disintegrating Darts, leaving only her finger.
She conjures replicas of her Apostles to overwhelm Tōta, and turns the landscape into an endless sea of blood and undead skeletons, dragging Tōta's friends in the Phantasmagoria under her control, under the shape of spectres begging for his help. Dragged under the sea of blood, Tōta tries his best to resist the Life-Maker’s mind break, but this proves a losing battle.
Fortunately, being in the Phantasmagoria enables Asuna of all people to manifest herself through him. She creates a replica of herself who saves Tōta, frees his friends and restores Evangeline. Asuna uses her own White of Mars power to influence the Phantasmagoria, shaping it like her real self's sealing grounds and keeping the Mage of the Beginning away. She tells Tōta everything about her and devises a plan to fend of Negi and the Apostles, but the Life-Maker barges in. Just as the archmage is about to obliterate them, Asuna destroys the Phantasmagoria.
Following her advice, Tōta's team can counter the Apostles until Negi-Ialda enters the fray. Fate casts a spell of his own to communicate with the real Negi, who tells them how to find and use his research. The Apostles trounce the heroes, but they lasted long enough for Asuna’s manifestation to appear in the real world and disappear with them.
Witnessing the Different Timelines[]
Later, Dana shows Tōta and his friends a recording that Negi managed to send from the Happy Ending Timeline, displaying their final victory against Ialda Baoth. Emboldened, Tōta resolves to build a happy ending of their own with his friends.
Shortly after, UQ Holder thwarts Cutlass' attack on their headquarters, and later a triple terrorist attack that would have killed thousands, and Evangeline is forced to kill Cutlass who was taking one of them hostages. Later, Evangeline tells him that the tournament was postponed, and decides to show him Negi's tragic pyrrhic victory against Ialda Baoth in their timeline.
Dark Future[]
After UQ Holder defeats Ba'al, the new second-in-command to the Life-Maker, and make peace with the Immortal Hunting Clan from the Mundus Magicus, they learn that the Life-Maker is hiding on Pluto. In one year, the magic concentration around the Dwarf Planet will fuel her spell to destroy the Solar System.
As all worlds prepare an expedition, Tōta learns to fully master the White of Mars he needs to stand a chance, and Dana herself reappears to train the UQ Numbers. With it, and with his partner Kuromaru Tokisaka having become one with a Divine Sword that can cut through Immortality itself, they are now ready.
Alas, Ba'al returns seconded by the formidable Twelve Demon Barons and destroys the Space Station in a terrorist bombing, spreading a deadly virus through the internet to use the victims' body and soul as fuel to the Life-Maker, no longer willing to wait for her return.
UQ Holder wins the fight, but Tōta is forced to fuse with a World Tree to prevent the Orbital Station from falling apart and spread the virus all over. Thus his comrades travel to Pluto without him to face their foe. The Mage of the Beginning unleashed a planet-wide attack, forcing the invulnerable Karin Yuki (a female Judas Iscariot herself) to redirect it at her, losing her in space.
After that, Evangeline could destroy Negi's body with the Manus Jaldae spell, and replaced him as the archmage's vessel. Unable to help her, UQ Holder returned to Earth to wait for Tōta, tracked down by the Demon Barons. Trapped in Ialda Baoth's mental landscape, Evangeline resisted her influence for over four decades, helped by the souls of Negi, Asuna and everyone of the Ala Alba who got killed or assimilated, but eventually fell prey in turn.
Returning amnesiac after forty-two years, cared for by kind workers, Tōta regains his memories in a world wrecked by Ba'al's terrorists, that he helps to repair. He finally reunites with UQ Holder and they battle the Demon Barons, saving their comrades who were lost.
The Life-Maker, in Evangeline's vessel
Meanwhile, the Life-Maker is now fully revived through Evangeline, gathering her vassals in the palace she built herself. She knows of UQ Holder’s progresses, musing about keys they are hold in their souls. It is revealed that she is surrounded not only by her Apostles but by Cosmo Entelecheia as well, either survivors or revived again.
The Final Showdown[]
| “ | I know you're not going to listen to a word I say. Words don't mean anything to someone who's voluntarily cut ties with the world. Sorry Ialda. I respect you, but I'm going to rise above you! | „ |
| ~ Tōta Konoe's thought about ending his conflict with the Life-Maker |
Shortly after UQ Holder's reunion, Fate warns them of disturbances he spotted when monitoring the Mage of the Beginning. The magic energy she gathers in order to rewrite the Solar System is gathering abnormally fast, so he sends the UQ Numbers to Pluto using the method with which they reached the Alpha Centauri star, while a few Numbers remain to investigate on an Artefact left by Negi.
Pluto's moon Charon appears over Earth's atmosphere, destroying the Orbital Elevator with Ba'al sending giant meteors filled with of Demon Titans towards every major capital, to accelerate the process of Cosmo Entelecheia. Meanwhile, instead of first observing Pluto from its orbit as was intended, the UQ Numbers appear on its surface, covered with the Mage of the Beginning’s dark tentacles, ambushed by all of her vassals.
Despite the trap, they can defeat their foes, but they cannot be sent back to Earth to deal with Ba’al. The archmage then appears, crushing them with magic pressure. Tōta breaks free and attacks her, but she seizes him with dark tendrils, and sends the Numbers in her mental landscape, exposing them to every negative emotion she felt. Fortunately, Fate is able to bring them back on Earth to thwart Ba'al for good, before settling the final score.
As the Numbers drive Ba'al into a corner, he opens a portal to Pluto to draw power from the Mage of the Beginning. But she counted on this and uses it to appear on Charon, with her vassals sealing Ba'al within a World Tree and subduing the heroes. Having developed Tōta's immortality, she cancels it and takes the keys to Evangeline's soul left to Tōta, Kuromaru, Karin and the ghost boy Santa Sasaki, without which the archmage cannot enact her plan, throwing Tōta to his death before finally casting Cosmo Entelecheia, whose magical runes surround Pluto.
Do not mess with the Mage of the Beginning!
Tōta survives and frees Negi from the Life-Maker with his own artefact. Better yet, Kuromaru's key is a fake made as a failsafe, the real one transferred to Konoka's descendants Honoka and Isana. Incensed, the archmage chases them with a guardian entity.
Tōta saves the two and asks his friends to carry them to Earth, as Cosmo Entelecheia cannot last with them away. Negi engages a cataclysmic battle against Evangeline-Ialda, using her power to turn into an Ice Elemental and manifesting Nagi outside of herself.
Tōta expresses his respect for the archenemy he is about to defeat.
They level Ba'al's capital city in a tremendous storm, until Negi engages a rematch against his possessed father, while Tōta battles the archmage, professing his admiration for everyone he ever met, including her who never stopped fighting for the downtrodden.
The UQ Numbers use Negi's artefact to free every Apostle from the Mage of the Beginning, engaging her army and vassals who entered the fray. Finally, Tōta kills Evangeline-Ialda, and Negi summons his descendant Chao Lingshen, who swore to answer his call. She uses her best time-freezing magic as Ialda Baoth’s true form rises, and Negi, Asuna, Tōta and Kuromaru combine their power to destroy her.
Tōta fragments Ialda Baoth's soul in twelve billions pieces, one for every denizen of the Solar System, who had been linked to her by Cosmo Entelecheia. It divides her Resonance power to make it bearable and make people more altruistic.
Evangeline disappears, returning after over twelve thousand years, in an Earth left by civilizations of every world as a natural sanctuary, as they spread over the galaxy, keeping all soul pieces apart. UQ Holder welcome her back, having pacified the whole universe enough for the Mage of the Beginning to never return. Negi and his friends led happy lives, and now they can enjoy eternity at last.