The unnamed ancestor of Latio Crudelis Hiram is a magus of Atlas who took part in the creation of Ergo.
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Background
The Crudelis ancestor was an Atlas alchemist who lived during the Age of Gods some 2,300 years ago. He worked alongside Wandering Sea mage Ziz and Summit Court Xian Wuzhiqi on the Ergo project, a ritual with the aim of having a mortal vessel absorb three gods by eating their flesh. The Crudelis mage provided the location, which was the secret underwater Library of Alexandria, Ziz devised the spell, and Wuzhiqi found the vessel, the dead body of Alexander IV provided by Ptolemy.[1] They also each provided a god, the alchemist offering the Egyptian god Set.[2]
Each participant had their own reason for cooperating, and Crudelis was no different. As Atlas seeks to prevent the end of the world, his participation in Project Ergo to prevent the doomsday scenario his family foresaw.[3] To him, Atlas' recurring issue of its world-saving methods being easily capable of destroying it stems from the technology being converted by anyone of the same intellectual level as the alchemist who created it. So he resorted to assigning tasks to gods, as a god's superior intellect could create solutions people couldn't even begin to comprehend, much less turn into a threat to the world. His goal was thus to use Ergo to produce solutions to all problems Atlas has been facing for 2300 years that the Library registered, clearing the Library's backlog in one fell swoop. Ergo's body wouldn't survive it, but this was good for Crudelis, as the god computer being a one-off solution and self-disposable would avoid the risk of another Atlas product becoming a global threat.[4]
The plan required the vessel to be fed the gods and left to digest them for two millenia, as the trio predicted that this was the length of time for an era to live and die, expecting Ergo to wake up around the end of modern magecraft.[5] However, this plan did not benefit Crudelis: as an Atlas alchemist, he was forbidden from sharing his research with his descendants, while Wuzhiqi and Ziz would both be able to stay alive through the 2300 years needed to see the project's completion. So, as a countermeasure and to ensure he would be present at Ergo's awakening, he uploaded his memory and personality data to the walls of Ergo's room in the Library, and that data programmed invade his proper heir's Memory Partition when they entered the room.[4]
Three years prior to the start of The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II, Cipher Crudelis Hiram and his sister Latio managed to enter the Library, trying to find their ancestor's personal research there as his contract with Ptolemy demanded all research about Ergo to be copied to the Library of Alexandria. Entering the room allowed Latio's Partition #1 got mixed with her ancestor. The partition killed Cipher to get rid of the traps laid in the Library, and then had Latio's other partitions continue to run unaware that anything had happened, forcing Partition #2 to run Latio's pre-takeover personality to throw off suspicions.[4]
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Appearance
Role
The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II
Legacy of the Alchemist
Abilities
References
- ↑ The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 5: Legacy of the Alchemist (Lower) - Chapter 2
- ↑ The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 3: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Lower) - Chapter 6
- ↑ The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 1: The Man Who Devoured God - Chapter 3
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 5: Legacy of the Alchemist (Lower) - Chapter 4
- ↑ The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 5: Legacy of the Alchemist (Lower) - Chapter 3