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| “ | For that child, I can burn the living to death and the dead to ashes, no matter whether it is done in front of her or behind her back. If you no longer have meaning for her I can burn you to nothingness. | „ |
| ~ Stiyl Magnus to Touma Kamijou. |
Stiyl Magnus is a major character in the A Certain Magical Index franchise.
He is a member of the Anglican Church and its 0th parish, Necessarius. He is the partner of Kaori Kanzaki and an old friend of Index though she barely remembers him due to her annual memory purges. He is the first antagonist that Touma Kamijou faced in the series though he would later become a recurring ally onward.
Although heroic for the most part, Stiyl commits various morally grey actions throughout the series and sometimes finds himself at odds with Touma due to the latter's relationship with Index.
He is voiced by Kishō Taniyama in the Japanese version of the anime (who also voices Chūya Nakahara in Bungou Stray Dogs, Yuya Fungami in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, and Koichi Shidou in Highschool of the Dead) and Robert McCollum in the English version (who also voices Stain in My Hero Academia, Shinobu Sensui in Yu Yu Hakusho, Reiner Braun in Attack on Titan, Jellal Fernandes in Fairy Tail, Donquixote Doflamingo in One Piece, and Fumito Nanahara in Blood-C).
Appearance[]
Despite being only 14 years old, Stiyl appears as a tall man with shoulder-length blonde hair that is dyed red and also has red eyes. He wears a large black priest robe with silver rings on all ten of his fingers. He's covered in jewelry on his ears and has a barcode tattoo underneath his right eye. Stiyl is always seen with a cigarette in his mouth and is a heavy smoker in general.
Personality[]
In accordance with his mature appearance, Stiyl Magnus has a rather cynical and stern personality than most around him, including those older than him. He conducts himself in a serious and professional manner and is intolerant of idiotic behavior from anyone, especially his own superior. He is also very short tempered and will often retaliate violently if somebody turly irritates him. Stiyl is somewhat arrogant and confident in his abilities as a powerful magician, though he doesn't pick fights with those stronger than him.
Underneath this gruff exterior, Stiyl is a devoted and protective individual who deeply cares about Index and desires to protect her from harm at all costs. He only wishes for Index's happiness and is afraid of being the cause of any suffering she experiences. His greatest regret is being unable to save Index without erasing her memories and is even willing to go against the orders of the Church in order to ensure Index's wellbeing.
As a member of Necessarius, Stiyl displays a cold-blooded and ruthless attitude when hunting down rogue magicians or criminals and doesn't hesitate to kill anyone who gets in the way. However, he is also pragmatic and will try to limit any unnecessary casualties or damage, although he can go quite overboard at times. Stiyl is well-intentioned but generally comes across as sarcastic, even when giving decent advice. Regardless, he is capable of being kind and looks after his comrades. He can even show a slightly benevolent side of himself, as he was willing to protect Patricia Birdway from Richard Brave's plans after learning she was a ordinary citizen who dragged into a situation against her will.
Despite his normally serious demeanor, Stiyl can still show behavior typical of an adolescent around his age and can even be a little immature or petty at times. While he is extremely grateful towards Touma for saving Index, Stiyl holds feelings of resentment and envy towards him at the same time due to his closeness with Index. He states that the only reason he tolerates Touma is because he makes Index happy and threatens to incinerate him if he no longer serves any purpose to her. Whenever they work together, Stiyl will take any opportunity to cause Touma discomfort or pain and usually dispenses razor-sharp insults or jabs to belittle him. He willingly puts him in harms way by using him as a shield or decoy and has even tried to outright kill him many times.
However, despite his general dislike of Touma, Stiyl respects him because of his abilities and how he was able to save Index when he could not. He can also be cooperative with Touma whenever they're faced with threatens Index's safety and even helped heal Aisa Himegami when Oriana Thomson accidentally harmed her. Stiyl is a heavy smoker and he's always seen with a cigarette in his mouth despite being a minor. He hates Academy City because of how it's extremely difficult to find a cigarette being a minor and believes that a world without nicotine would be hell for him due to his addiction.
Biography[]
Stiyl's past isn't fully known, but it is implied that he was an orphan raised by the Anglican Church. He later trained in the ways of magic and became a member of the Anglican Church's 0th parish, Necessarius. He eventually became close friends with Index and Kanzaki and later became Index's partner, traveling around the world next to Index's side, to copy the original grimoires in her mind, he also accompanied Index to the Vatican as so another book can be implanted into her mind. During their time together, Stiyl developed feelings for Index and promised to protect her no matter what.
However, both Stiyl and Kanzaki were informed by the church that Index would die if her memories are not erased once a year due to the toxic influence of the grimoires and the fact that her photographic memory wouldn't allow her to forget any unnecessary information. Despite searching for any alternatives to save her life, Stiyl and Kanzaki were forced to erase Index's memories, causing her to forget their friendship in the process. After her memories were erased, both of them tried to make new memories with Index and become her friends, though, the burden of doing the process annually, and then forcibly erasing her memories again was too much for them to handle, and they had given up.
Because of this, it created a misunderstanding with Index, where she concluded that Stiyl and Kanzaki were after her and the grimoires inside her head and were enemies. Although they hated the idea of Index thinking of them as enemies, they allowed it to occur as it would detach Index from them, and giving her no reason to worry about losing the memories of her friends.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Rune Magic: Stiyl is extremely proficient in the use of rune magic and carries with him several tens of thousands of rune cards, which he can stick to things or people by magic. He doesn't need to manually deploy them one at a time by hand, he can use magic to deploy thousands of them over his surroundings. Initially using printed paper runes, after Touma destroyed his runes by using water to wash the ink away Stiyl began to use laminated rune cards. While normally he only uses his rune cards, which he has prepared to support his fire magic, he has been shown to be able to write new runes on the fly using his magic and/or blood. The more cards he deploys, the stronger his magic gets.
- Kenaz: "Torch", used to ignite things, and for flame spells.
- Ansuz: "One of the Æsir", used for communication spells.
- Opila: "Land, Inheritance", the meaning of land is normally used for people-clearing fields and for Empty Space, a spell that diverts the attention of people from the vicinity of the cards. The meaning of inheritance can be used so it can be used to set up assets so that they transfer to someone else. Using a rune card melted onto Richard Brave's Lævateinn, Stiyl was able to distribute the asset of flames and as the carver he couldn't receive them, much like how the deceased can't receive inheritance, so the flames instead engulfed Richard. In this case, the odds were 50/50 as the Lævateinn belonged to Richard and the Opila on it could also been seen as belonging to him. This use of the rune can only be used in other types of rune magic.
- Eihwaz: "Yew-tree", use undetermined, but it seems to be used as a seal.
- Peorð: Creates an illusionary body for the user, allowing the user to escape.
- Isaz: "Ice", used as a restraint, making anyone who tries to move while the runes are applied unable to move.
- Sowilo: "Sun", used for dispersing bystanders.
- Uruz: "Aurochs, Slag", using the meaning of remains left over after smelting iron, specifically the concept of melting iron, a powerful acid can be produced.
- Teiwaz: "The god Tiwaz (Tyr)", this rune is mentioned as a representative example of runes carved on weapons, with it's effect increased by slain foe's blood running through the grooves of the rune and dying it red.
- Ehwaz: "Horse", by using the idea that people in ancient times would overcome a wall of flames by jumping over them on a horse, a rune written on a person's sole can be used to allow them to stomp on and extinguish defensive flames.
- Other Rune Magic: Stiyl has also used his rune cards to stop magicians from using mana by preventing them from refining their lifeforce by sticking his rune cards to them and to restrain both the body and mind of an opponent by sticking a rune card on their backs.
- Fire Magic: Stiyl's main magic is based around the manipulation of fire and flames, though he can also manipulate heat to a certain extent. He is very skilled in manipulating fire and utilizes this in various ways, though he mostly uses this magic offensively. His fire magic becomes stronger as more rune cards are deployed, but consequently also drops in strength if the rune cards are destroyed or if the fight is taken outside their area of effect. His flames can manifest in varying degrees of intensity, gently to explosively. He wields fire in various forms, from basic streams of flame to swords, whips and explosions.
- Flame Sword: Stiyl's basic attack spell which creates a sword of red flames that burns at 3000 degrees Celcius, capable of melting a human or turn them to ashes even if they are wearing a heat resistant suit. Stiyl can detonate his flame swords to create phreatic explosions, which he has used to attack an enemy with the shockwave of the explosion, to create a smokescreen or to propel himself out of danger. The latter use can harm him if he doesn't take the necessary precautions.
- Squeamish Bloody Rood: A variation of Stiyl's flame sword which allows him to create a red flame sword from his right hand and a bluish-white one from his left hand. He then swings the two flame swords horizontally so that they slice the enemy from left and right like a pair of scissors.
- Innocentius: A 3000-degree-Celsius regenerating fire monster with high destructive capabilities that Stiyl can summon with a lengthy incantation and the deployment of several rune cards. It is a Pope-class spell and likely far stronger than his normal flame spells, and is also a nearly indestructible spell that can only be stopped if the runes are removed or Stiyl becomes unconscious, though there is also extreme cases when Innocentius self-regeneration ability is overwhelmed and thus is destroyed by the damage before it's able to reform. Due to this spell taking up a lot of energy, Stiyl's body weakens tremendously from its use. It should be noted that Innocentius' active range matches the area where the runes are located, so it can't move outside that area. The more runes used and the more spread they are the bigger the area, with Stiyl stating that with 60 hours of preparation and using 164,000 rune cards he would be able to set up a 2km radius area. Innocentius has the ability to create a large red cross of fire that is used to smash objects. Stiyl has also shown to be able to summon Innocentius without rune cards for a short amount of time by calling his name, directly throwing it at his target. With preparation time and support of allies Stiyl has been shown to be able to create a much more powerful Innocentius than usual, described in the novel as possessing flames more dense and with more momentum, seemingly having countless invisible wings behind its giant back and distorting the air around it due to its heat. With preparation time and several spiritual items Stiyl can summon up to three Innocentius, using Trinity symbolism so as to stabilize the life force drain, but this setup will grow unstable if any of the Innocentius is destroyed.
- Mirage Creation: Stiyl has shown the ability to use fire magic to create mirages and visual illusions by manipulating light's refraction in the air through heat. He can create mirages quickly, allowing him to confuse an enemy and take the chance to sneak attack them, or to escape if he's in a disadvantageous situation. Stiyl can create up to three dummy layers to trick opponents that might be able to track his magic to bypass his normal mirages: the first layer is the actual mirage illusion, the second is creating an artificial presence to trick an enemy that realizes the visual illusion and tries to track his magic by activating one of his rune cards with his magic (the card can be stuck to moving objects to improve an illusion of him fleeing); and the third is activating it all such that the original magic power that activated the spell is disguised.
- Heat Sensing: Stiyl can detect opponents in his vicinity by the natural body heat they give off.
- Healing Burns: Stiyl has demonstrated the ability to heal fire-based burns with a touch. He is also able to use this ability to change a person's physical appearance to some extent, as seen when he burned off Aureolus Izzard's face and recreated a new one by healing his burns.
- Flame Sword: Stiyl's basic attack spell which creates a sword of red flames that burns at 3000 degrees Celcius, capable of melting a human or turn them to ashes even if they are wearing a heat resistant suit. Stiyl can detonate his flame swords to create phreatic explosions, which he has used to attack an enemy with the shockwave of the explosion, to create a smokescreen or to propel himself out of danger. The latter use can harm him if he doesn't take the necessary precautions.
- Object Levitation: Stiyl is capable of levitating objects in the air, as seen when he suspended several documents midair while speaking to Touma.
- Cigarette Smoke Signal: Stiyl can use the smoke from his cigarette (and possibly from any smoke source) to create symbolic patterns that allow for him to transmit messages through the air.
- Mental Diagnosis: When Patricia Birdway was struck by a mental attack, Stiyl diagnosed her with help from Theodosia Electra. In both eastern and western magic, a cigarette is used as a spiritual item that carries out changes of mental states, so it can be employed to investigate minds. Stiyl remarked that the spell would be perfect by also using alcohol. The spell allowed Stiyl to use the smoke touching Patricia's skin to analyze the inside of her mind and reproduce its condition within his own brain to figure out what was wrong with her mind. After finding the source of the mental interference, Stiyl used his cigarette to destroy it and restore Patricia's mind to normal.
Abilities[]
- Keen Intellect: Aside from his knowledge of magic, Stiyl has proven to be quite insightful and intelligent in his own right. After his first fight with Touma Kamijou, Stiyl immediately took extra steps to correct the weakness of his original runes after Touma took advantage of it to beat him by using laminated materials instead of regular paper. He also deduced the mechanics of Aureolus Izzard's Ars Magna worked and what its weakness was faster than Touma. He is quite crafty and has tricked multiple opponents using mirages and skillfully makes use of his surroundings, preparation, and side effects of his magic during fights.
- Occult Knowledge: Stiyl possesses great arcane expertise and is an incredibly talented magician. He is one of Necessarius' most skilled and knowledgeable magicians in the subject of runes, having mastered the 24 basic runes and claims to have created 6 new runes from his analysis of the usual 24. He also has mastered the element of fire and is highly adept in using fire based magic in various ways.
Weaknesses[]
- Poor Physicality: While Stiyl is very powerful in terms of magic, he is physically very weak, as shown when he was easily beaten by Touma with a single punch (though this is explained as Innocentius needing vast amounts of energy, rendering Stiyl's body weaker than most others').
- Short Temper: Stiyl is an easy person to infuriate and tends to retaliate in violent ways.
External Links[]
- Stiyl Magnus on the Heroes Wiki
- Stiyl Magnus on the Toaru Majutsu no Index Wiki
