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Norland von Lunebelg is the main antagonist of the sequel science-fiction anime series Code Geass: Roze of the Recapture. He is the head of Einberg, a leader of the Neo Britannian Empire, as well as the Emperor's advisor and arch-nemesis of Sakuya Sumeragi who adopted the identity of Rozé who allied with his former adoptive son Ash Phoenix as "brothers". He is also a clone of the late Emperor Charles Zi Britannia and was a member of the Knights of the Round.
He is voiced by Hiroki Yasumoto in Japanese and Dan Green in English.
Appearance[]
Norland is a towering stern man with messy tan-colored hair. He most often shrouds his upper face with his stylish grey mask with golden linings and featuring red eyes and red point in the center above. As one of the highest-ranking members of the empire, Norland sports a formal outfit of the same colors as his mask accented with gold trimming and epaulettes. A long, red cape billows behind him, a pair of long white gloves around his hands, and a pair of long black boots attaining his knees.
Personality[]
As a prominent figure of the Brittannian Empire, Norland is a stoic, cold, and ruthless man who meticulously plans his schemes with his true nature shrouded in mystery, with even his longtime ally Christoph Scissorman sometimes struggling to discern his true motives. He remains indifferent when Callis al Britannia passed away in front of him, due to being seemingly responsisble for his death. Despite rarily seen speaking, his stoic nature alone can intimidate many around him, including Callis and Health, a soldier who was deeply under the strong pressure of Norland's presence, eventually leading him to commit suicide not so long after. He shows not concerns over the death of more of his men, including Health after being told of his death.
As shown after Sakuya’s capture, Norland expressed interest in acquiring a Geass power.
Later, upon being confronted by Sakuya and him showing his face and revealing the fact that he was a clone of Charles zi Britannia meant to be used to revive him by transferring his psyche to. Norland revealed more of his personality. As shown, Norland considered himself different from the rest of humanity and considers humanity itself to be repulsive, so much so that he had unleashed a legion of Loki killing machines on nearly all nations around the world to kill as many humans as possible. As shown, Norland is completely apathetic to the lives and suffering he had inflicted on a global scale and has even expressed a desire to completely exterminate humanity.
Sakuya herself attempted to analyze Norland's motivations for doing all this asking if he was doing so in a desire to be acknowledge, a desire to inflict revenge on humanity, to commit a grand murder-suicide of a epic scale, if he was inflicting judgement on civilization gone too far, if his actions were driven from worshipping nature and believes humans was destroying it or if he was driven by Admiration, Hedonism or Nihilism. All of which Norland rejected as being his true motivation of his actions. Sakuya herself eventually realized that Norland's true driving force for his actions was his pure and complete disgust for humanity, with Norland only smiling to her as a answer, implying that this was true. He himself believing that once he has wiped humanity off the face of the earth, he was now free to "sleep".
Character History[]
Norland von Lunebelg was created as an exact genetic copy of Charles zi Britannia, in other words, a clone. He was created to act as a vessel in which Charles's mind would eventually be transferred into. However, Charles would be killed prior to this plan coming to fruition.
Norland von Lunebelg was a Britannian military officer during the height of the Holy Britannian Empire's superpower. At some point, he became acquainted Christoph Scissorman. His prowess in the military tactics, combat skills, and Knightmare Frame piloting has made him well-feared in both friend and enemies alike. He rose in rank and joined the Knights of the Round, the elite soldiers who serve the Britannian emperor: Charles zi Britannia as the Knight of Five. At some point, he killed a man that had attempted to kidnap Catherine Sabathra, gaining her loyalty in the process.
He was apart of the Vogue Scheme to take in war orphans and have them be adopted into wealthy families in Britannia. He choose two orphans, but he only took in the eldest: Ash Phoenix, and left his younger brother: Nichol Phoenix. Desperate to remain with his brother, Ash offered to do anything. Norland took advantage of this and began training Ash as a child soldier and assassin. Eventually, Ash rose in rank in the Britannian and become a member of the Knights of the Round as the Knight of Thirteen. Norland would use Ash to assassinate high-ranking officials or noble for being inconvenient to him. Unknown to Ash, Nichol was also made ot take similar missions.
Due to Charles's death, the intent to implant his mind into Norland was canceled. Following the collapse of the Britannian Empire with the death of Lelouch vi Britannia, and it fracturing into several countries, Norland himself would become a leader of the newly formed country called the Lunebelg Dominion, which chose not join together with the Britannia Republic as many former territories did. The same year that the Republic was founded, Lunebelg declared war against it. The Britannia Republic, upon receiving this declaration, requested the deployment of the Black Knights as a member of the UFN. After several skirmishes along its borders, Lunebelg quickly capitulated and surrendered all of its territory. As would soon be discovered, this declaration had all been a ploy by Norland. Gathering together and rallying the old Britannian military with individuals carrying anti-UFN sentiments, they launched a surprise attack on the Hokkaido region of the United States of Japan, seizing control of it. With the aid of collaborators, they were able to enter in through the Situmpe Wall barrier that had acted as a defensive measure for the region, turning it against the efforts to reclaim this stolen territory.
With their occupation successful, these forces declared the formation of the Neo Britannian Empire, and enthroned the former 108th Prince Callis al Britannia as the 100th Britannian emperor. Shortly after this, Nichol encountered Ash while on a mission, leading to its failure. While Norland initially blamed Ash for the failure, Nichol took the blame upon himself, leading to Norland killing him. Ash tried to kill Norland in revenge, but was stopped and imprisoned.
Trivia[]
The scientist responsible for the creation of Norland was revealed to have been a Britannian named William Bisch.
This character was first introduced in the videogame Code Geass: Genesic Re;Code, mentioned as the mentor of Percy Frankenstein, the creator of the L-Children. He also seems to be a major character in Code Geass: Pure Almaria.
Despite Norland's overwhelming power, it is possible that the position of Knight of the Round was only given to grant him unrestricted authority under Charles' direct command, not really being someone who was intended to draw too much attention.
In some regards Norland can be considered as the opposite of Lelouch in every ways while both wear masks and take after a king chess piece but with some difference as Norland is the White King while Lelouch is the Black King and Norland's plans are more about dividing people to make them easy to kill and manipulates others for a selfish goal and one final contrast is that while Lelouch made himself the symbol of hate with the intention to unite people, Norland succeeded Lelouch in that role but without intending for people to unite against him and dies as the hated symbol while Lelouch is revived and lived as a past symbol of hate without people being aware that he is still alive.
Gallery[]
