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| “ | Now, Now, I’m the son of a bitch who spread Kabbalah across Europe, divided magic between East and West, and used Belzébuth to purge my own people. Science? Academy City? I have no interest in anything so indirect. Novice, have you forgotten the taste of Coronzon? Shall I summon her here again? Fear can never be destroyed. So tremble, quake, and above all, offer me your thanks. The world will literally change when you lay eyes on this fear. | „ |
| ~ Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers intimidating Aleister Crowley - his most famous quote. |
Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, mostly known as Mathers, is one of the overarching antagonists of the A Certain Magical Index franchise.
He was a famous British magician and is one of the three founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which was once the largest magic cabal in the United Kingdom and a world-renowned cabal. He's also the one who recruited Aleister Crowley into the Golden Dawn, acting as one of his mentors, although their relationship ultimately turned sour.
He was voiced by Kazuhiko Inoue, who also voiced Kars in Jojo's Bizzare Adventure, Gotou in Parasyte, Toichiro Suzuki in Mob Psycho 100, the Demon King in The Seven Deadly Sins, Faraday in Cyberpunk Edgerunners, Giff in Kamen Rider Revice, and Goblin Lord in Goblin Slayer.
Appearance[]
Mathers is a stern-looking man with a stoney-faced expression. He has brown hair and a matching beard. He wears a brightly-colored old Scottish military uniform, which includes a red tartan kilt, a blue/grey coat with yellow lining, a green tartan sash, a white and blue undercoat, a white and grey waist belt, a white shoulder belt and buckle, a dark yellow-brown scarf and a thick cloak on top of it. He also has a pointed witch's hat that has a decorative silver star dangling from the right side of its brim.
Personality[]
Mathers can be best described as a charismatic eccentric. He is very ambitious and fanatical, being utterly devoted to magical research and his goals. He was so preoccupied with esoteric matters that he never held down a normal job. Unlike Westcott, who was more concerned with traditions and compromise, Mathers was obsessed with progression to the point where he's quite willing to explore more taboo and heretical subjects. He primarily desired to create a magical work kit that would break the master-apprentice dynamic by being accessible to all.
Despite this, Mathers is an extremely egotistical and self-centered authoritarian who desired to have his name be the one associated with all the products of the Golden Dawn's research so he could make his mark on history. In order to do so, he would often overwrite the pieces created by the other members with his own. He has an elitist worldview and looks down on others from a special position that's reserved only for himself. Furthermore, he's also quite manipulative and ruthless, usually discarding his own apprentices to further his own goals and ambitions.
Mathers is very patriotic towards Scotland and also somewhat delusional, being utterly convinced that he was descended from Scottish noble blood and styled himself as a highlander. He also sought to restore the House of Stuart, something which troubled some of his fellow cabal members.
However, in spite of these traits, Mathers is shown to have a solid relationship with his wife Mina, despite their dire financial situation and Mathers' obsession with the occult. Aleister himself even admits that their marriage is one of the few things he actually envied about Mathers.
Biography[]
Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers was born in January of 1854. At some point in time, he and William Wynn Westcott met and became students of the legendary magician Anna Kingsford. In the latter half of the 19th century, Mathers and Westcott established the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, alongside William Robert Woodman.
After Woodman retired, Mathers and Westcott took control of the cabal, however, the two had conflicting views on what direction the Golden Dawn should go. The Golden Dawn's ultimate goal was to discover a unified theory that would explain all the truths of the world and create a magical work kit that could revolutionize the magic side. Being of an older age, Westcott advocated tradition and saw a need to compromise, while Mathers wished to see progress, even if it meant going into areas considered taboo and heretical at the time.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Golden-style Magic: As one of the three founders of the Golden Dawn, Mathers is one of the most powerful magician of his time and is practically unrivalled in the usage of Golden-style Magic, being considered to be a master of magic ceremonies and rituals. The only other magician capable of rivaling Mathers' prowess is Aleister Crowley, who would later be regarded as the greatest magician in history.
- Elemental Magic: Mathers can use four symbolic weapons based on the four suits of the Minor Arcana that are used to manipulate the four elements: the red fire wand, the blue water cup, the yellow wind dagger, and the green earth disc. These weapons float around Samuel as he uses various elemental attacks. Using these elements, Mathers is capable of controlling all things on the material level and denote any aspect of the world through the manipulation of the four basic elements. The Symbolic Weapons confer a degree of automatic protection to Mathers even without being commanded. Mathers commands these weapons by calling upon the Aristotelian qualities of the element he's going to use.
- Fire: Magic using the fire element through the red fire wand. This magic include explosive flames, a great serpent of flame that sweeps across the target area burning and blowing away obstacles in its path and a deluge of flames. Qualities: Hot and Dry.
- Water: Magic using the water element through the blue water cup. This magic includes a wall of water intended to slightly divert the path of incoming attacks even if destroyed and a blade of high-pressure water. Qualities: Cold and Wet.
- Wind: Magic using the wind element through the yellow wind dagger. This magic includes slicing wind and an invisible blade of compressed air. Qualities: Hot and Wet.
- Earth: Magic using the earth element through the green earth disk. This magic includes a sandstorm, a porcelain material gathering around the disk to form a shield/umbrella, and a stone spike. Qualities: Cold and Dry.
- Combinations: By combining several elements together, Mathers can create multiple powerful effects.
- Fire + Wind: Flames rapidly spread out across an area, incinerating the targets in the surroundings, followed by a gust of wind from the dagger to sweep away the ashes.
- Water + Wind: Blue and yellow lights spiral around Mathers and attach to his leather shoes, allowing him to move fast by sliding and leaping instead of running. Also used to create a wall of water followed by a powerful wind.
- Earth + Wind: A scattershot of small stones, accelerated by a gust of wind behind it.
- All Elements: A special combination used by Mathers to fight Touma by taking advantage of his Imagine Breaker negating his elemental attacks. This magic is based on how there are no pure elements, everything is made out of a combination of all elements. Removing one of the four elements then leads to an imbalance, with the result being great destructive power much like forcibly removing electrons or protons from stable atoms or molecules. This power can be directed at the target as an attack. Mathers used this by having Touma negate a fire wall, causing a horrifying white beam of light to shoot out of Mathers' hand. Chant: "You may have broken the hot and dry, but the hot and wet and cold and wet are joined with it. There are no pure elements at the surface of the four worlds, but the isolated cold and dry will use its great influence to disturb the world’s harmony. Earth born of fire, use your great fusion to reinforce your meaning and strike the destroyer of the elements!!"
- Summoning Magic: Mathers is extremely proficient in summoning magic. He is incredibly knowledgeable about the ceremonies and rites used to summon various beings or energies such as Telesma. In particular, Mathers was capable of summoning the demon Coronzon and binding it to a contract to fulfill one order, with the contract remaining active even after Mathers' own death.
- Belzébuth: An invocation of the Lord of the Flies and high-ranking demon of decay to curse and eliminate an enemy, and a favorite tool of Mathers to purge traitors to the cabal. The spell is cast by using the elements of earth and water, scattering hard peas at Mathers' feet. The scattered peas quickly grow dark and discolored. They wriggle, spit out sticky strings, and connect together to form a sticky, black, rotting object. Simultaneously, a bunch of black strings burst from the targets chest. The invocation links together the name of a great wicked power and the name of a sacrifice. The unclean strings then cover the target's heart, arteries, veins, and everything inside the ribs. This spell is intentionally designed to not kill the target instantly, instead spreading pathogens and contamination from the heart outwards to fill them with fear and despair, breaking their spirit before their body. The curse can be stopped if the sticky black threads are destroyed along with their illusionary foothold before the two names can be connected. Chant: “The blessing of the earth becomes decay. Come forth and spread, lord of demons born from the decay of all that is. Thy name is Belzébuth. Purge the insolent ones who stand before me.”
- Explosion Manipulation: Mathers is able to create invisible explosions that burst from within his flesh.
- Astral Projection: Mathers is capable of performing astral projection, which allows his astral form to journey unimpeded by the limits of his body, though his empty body is left defenseless. Mathers can also use something similar, described by Aleister as a more primitive echo, that allows him to project his voice so that the target hears it as if he was whispering in their ear. If the target carelessly reacts to the voice, Mathers can use it to locate them.
- Elemental Magic: Mathers can use four symbolic weapons based on the four suits of the Minor Arcana that are used to manipulate the four elements: the red fire wand, the blue water cup, the yellow wind dagger, and the green earth disc. These weapons float around Samuel as he uses various elemental attacks. Using these elements, Mathers is capable of controlling all things on the material level and denote any aspect of the world through the manipulation of the four basic elements. The Symbolic Weapons confer a degree of automatic protection to Mathers even without being commanded. Mathers commands these weapons by calling upon the Aristotelian qualities of the element he's going to use.
- Grimoire Physiology: As part of Coronzon's anti-Crowley countermeasures, Mathers appears as a living grimoire composed out of tarot cards. As an original grimoire, Mathers is nigh-indestructible. As long as he is connected to the earth's leylines he is protected by powerful magical defenses and capable of regenerating from practically all damage near instantly. Even Aleister Crowley was incapable of killing him through brute force. However, there is a relatively simple way to cut off the connection to the leylines. If his surroundings are filled with a large enough amount of energy it will disturb the energy transfer between the leylines and Mathers and as a result, kill him. Hence attacks the focus their energy on a small area around Mathers are very effective.
- Christian Magic: The reproduced Mathers is shown to be capable of performing magic based in Christianity during his battle with Aleister Crowley.
- Son of God Synchronization: A spell that synchronizes the user with the Son of God. The closer the magician becomes to the Son of God, the more they are purified and the more power they can demonstrate, becoming beings similar to Saints. However, due to his lack of passion and emotion in using this magic, Mathers cannot achieve the same level of synchronization as Aleister. Mathers' version of the spell is based on INRI (short in Latin for Iēsus Nazarēnus, Rēx Iūdaeōrum), a title of the Son of God used during his crucifixion. Chant: “INRI are the four letters carved into the original cross. Their vibration fills even the dead with life. Complete my incomplete body. Purify my flesh with those holy letters!!”
- Archangel Summoning: Mathers is capable of summoning the four Archangels, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel to protect and fight for him using a short chant. Each archangel corresponds to an element: Gabriel is water, Michael is fire, Raphael is wind and Uriel is earth. This spell is based on how the Son of God was blessed and was guarded by angels. Chant: “The son was blessed with oil. It is not unusual to see angels before him. Thus, the archangels of fire, water, wind, and earth will naturally descend to guard him!!”
- Flame Transmutation: Mathers gathered the flames of hell summoned by Aleister and turned them into a lightbulb-like incandescent bronze pig, which attacks the opponent and can be made to explode by being stabbed with Mathers' red fire wand. This spell is based on an tale where the Son of God exorcised a legion of demons out of a man's body and cast them into a herd of swine. Chant: "The son pointed his finger. The evil ones belonged in the pigs. And so the legion of evil spirits left the man’s body and entered the pigs, preserving the peace of this world."
- Christian Magic: The reproduced Mathers is shown to be capable of performing magic based in Christianity during his battle with Aleister Crowley.
