harmless kitten

According to the CT Setting Material Collection, they're Ragna's "real little siblings." They're all blond, green-eyed, and Jin looks extremely similar to Saya. Ragna may not look much like either Saya or Jin, but that sometimes happens with siblings. Lol @ adopted considering they're all essentially adopted by Sister. If they ever had parents, they're certainly not around. Not like it really matters. Even if they're not related, they plainly consider each other siblings.

There's no indication to whether they will. Conversely, there's no indication that they won't (aside from, y'know, the incest factor). Of course Mori and co. have hinted at it; they've hinted at a lot of things involving Ragna. That doesn't mean that those hints will ever be anything more. Just don't act as if it'll ever be official and ship what you want. Personally I'd rather have Ragna remain unattached throughout the series, but that's just me. Their relationship struck me as very sibling-like in nature (even setting aside the fact that Noel is a clone of Saya)...but considering THIS fucked up family that doesn't count for anything.

Rachel does play parts in the cycles, but they must be minor or static ones (such as being the one to unseal the Azure Grimoire for Ragna). I dunno what relevance her mansion has with anything. It happens sometime in her Continuum Shift story, after Hakumen meets her in the Hanging Gardens. It's actually sort of contradicted by Makoto's story, but I don't think anybody was paying attention to that.

You can plainly see her hair... I mean yeah he could. I don't really care either way. Multiple timelines? What? Of course he exists in multiple timelines. You're confusing continuum shift (which only happens after the cycle is broken) with the events of CT. Every loop is a parallel universe that is also simultaneously an alternate timeline. Every loop Jin falls into the Cauldron, accepts Rachel's offer of becoming a real hero (or possibly Clavis's if Phase Shift 2 is to go by), and is reborn as Hakumen. He is referred to as a false hero even in CS. Also, the Hakumen we see is pretty blatantly the Hakumen from Wheel of Fortune or a similar time... Hakumen isn't like Rachel, who is the same unchanging person in every timeline. What exactly is the point of Rachel erasing his memories? She seems as surprised as he is to learn that he doesn't know Noel. The guy is actually nicer to her than Jin will ever be even.

You're like 2 years late though. Yes, because she was part of his squadron and his secretary. Not part of the Wings of Justice. You're playing A Jin that becomes Hakumen, but not the Hakumen we see and play as in CS. CS Hakumen (and Hakumen in Noel's CT arcade mode) is basically like "who's this chick?" to Noel. This is because she never made it to the Academy in his timeline. Tsubaki played her role. CT True End got retconned by CSE Calamity Trigger Reconstruction. The Jin we see in CS is the same Jin in CTR, and no more. I thought that he was simply recalling Saya/Nu/Noel/conglomerate but I dunno. It shows Noel's sprite though, not Tsubaki's. I don't think he fought her anyway. Noel has existed in many timelines, but CS Hakumen's was not one of them.

Haha it's an oldschool reference to Dracula (and what's Dracula backwards? Alucard). Transylvania was a region of Romania anyway.

I was under the impression they only nuked Japan near the beginning of its rampage. Well, most of the birthplace info seems to have been made up on the spot, or before the worldbuilding was properly cemented (esp since postct characters generally have Hierarchical Cities as birthplaces rather than countries).

Likely, seithr killed mostly everyone, with only small communities living in high elevations survived. If the Dark War (and then seithr) cut contact between Eurasia and the Americas, then it's possible they don't even know of ars magus. Of course, the Americas could be thriving as well, but the game is largely focused on Eurasia. The real reason is that Mori and the writers give no fucks. Only Eurasia (read: Japan) is important, yo.

Bang was born in Hi-no-Kuni, "country of fire". Makoto was born in the 11nd Hierarchical City of Shinatsu. Many characters are listed as unknown. Ragna, Hakumen, Hazama, Valkenhayn, Amane, Azrael, Bullet.

The bios on the official site (for playable characters and JP only), and the bios from the Setting Material Collections. Jubei is in the first, I think.

He could be, but I think it would've made more sense if they had just put it as Japan or something. Other characters have birthdates that are just countries (Jin, Noel, Carl, Rachel, Bang), so I don't see why he couldn't. Kukunochi just seems like a headscratcher.

Jubei was born long before the first Hierarchical City was built (unless some things have changed), so he couldn't be born at the 12th Hierarchical City.

I wouldn't be surprised if that part of his bio was a sham or is gonna get retconned. Some of the bio information can't possibly be right (such as Jubei being born in the 12th Hierarchical City of Kukunochi). @Halcyone3: Could be, although he doesn't spend a whole lot of time as a cat anymore, haha.

Ragna and Terumi skirt very close to saying that he is. It's a little more subtle in the Eng version (where they use the word "puppet," which has different connotations imo), but it's still stated that he's a "doll," i.e. an artificially created human. It happens in the True End, first when Terumi is taunting the downed Ragna (and then gets pissy when he realizes Jubei had already told Ragna), and then again when Ragna is trying to snap Mu out of it. Although, shit this is BB, anything can happen at this point. I certainly wasn't expecting Murakumo Izayoi despite Kokonoe namedropping it as a Murakumo prototype.

Unknown. Terumi calls the rest of them Noel's brothers and sisters, but he's not saying they're necessarily blood-related. They are probably not all clones of Saya. The ones that are (Lambda, Noel, and Nu) are genetically related to Ragna and Jin even though they are artificially made. As for whether they're all related, who knows? The precise origin of the siblings is murky. All we have to go is the remark that Ragna was artificially created, and that Jin and Saya are his real little siblings.

Rachel is still an observer, but she turned down the Observer of the Boundary position. She acts as Hakumen's observer throughout CS and still does phenomena intervention. Valkenhayn honestly feels affection and admiration towards Rachel. He views himself as her servant. I think Gii and Nago are just animated, shape shifting plushies. Or in Nago's case an umbrella.

>:[ Kokonoeeeee you're so cagey about sharing information. I guess not working against Terumi (until Ragna absorbs the Idea Engine) could be counted as some huge weakness, but...that doesn't feel right, somehow.

I think Kokonoe just calls it that because it doesn't suit her needs. It's made to drain souls in order to forge a Murakumo Unit. She's had enough of making shit using souls as a resource. The rest of Sector 7, however, is very interested in the thing.

I took it more as an extension of the Dark One thing. Ragna is destined to become something threatening the stability of the world--the Destroyer--just as someone with the Power of Order is destined to annihilate the Destroyer. That dark destiny manifests itself as Ragna becoming the Black Beast. If this fate was somehow averted, another morbid turn of events would pop up, unless there's a way to subvert it entirely. This is mostly just theorizing on my part though. The whole thing is kind of vague and is mostly treated as a pathogen/antibody metaphor. Saying that Ragna is the reincarnated Black Beast is a weird issue because he literally becomes the Black Beast in most timelines, and becomes a weaker one in his bad ending. From Rachel's short story, it sounds like the headless statue below the church (the Black Beast's remains) collapses into seithr and affixes to the stump of his arm. Tbh I think Ragna's Azure Grimoire is kind of particular and wouldn't work well with many other people. If he has beast genes after all then that gives a convenient reason why he can use it at all.

The Azure Grimoire manipulates seithr, and his dark attacks are likely just temporarily solid seithr. The Black Beast's body was composed of seithr as well. Yes. Ragna also reiterates that he's never been able to use ars magus while Jubei is trying to teach him how to use the Azure Grimoire. He just has a high synchronicity with the Azure Grimoire, I suppose.

From the depths of the Continuum Shift Speculation thread, behold: It's on page 61 if anyone is curious. Kokonoe is like...what, 80 something years old? To be born before Nine died, she must have been born during or very shortly after the Dark War. She actually goes to the ruins of the church in the S7 sidestory (which takes place at about oh 2193-2195), and talks to Celica's grave. Kokonoe speaks to people through a communication device (for Tager and Lambda) and some sort of ars/magic/SCIENCE thing for other people. Tsubaki realizes it's a sensory ars or whatever. She's just relaying the words directly into the person's brain. I think she just hates Jubei because he probably ran out on her or because she partially blames him for Nine's death. Or even something completely different that only they know about. Ragna has "No. 5" written on him, or "No. 05" (sorry I can't remember which one right now...). Not E5. It's also just above a symbol that reoccurs A LOT in the series. The CTSMC does talk about artificial children with "Beast Genes," genes extracted from the corpse of the Black Beast. There is a very good chance Ragna is one of these. But using the corpse of the creature that sparked the development of ars magus seems...kind of much, even for Sector Seven. Ragna is very much aware that he is an artificial human. Terumi is a little irritated after his insinuations, because he can tell that Ragna already knows and Jubei must have told him.

Heavily implied? More like outright stated. We see Lambda being experimented upon and actually electrocuted at one point because the scientists are like lol she's tough, she was made by Relius Clover and her body can totally take it. Guess she couldn't. The older scientist in CTR opening talks about it, but I can't remember what he says and I can't check right now. @Chao: I guess it depends on whether Lambda was experimented upon before or prior to tempering. If before, Noel is lucky not to remember. If after, she was never tortured like Lambda.

The "1st prime field" is more like first successful prime field, the one to contact the Azure. They also seem to be divided by series--Shuichiro talks about how Terumi wanted Relius to make a special prime field device. Kusanagi no. 1 was just the first of that particular series. Blah blah pedantry. Also, Relius calls Kusanagi no. 1 in P0 a Murakumo Unit. Kusanagi no. 1 seems to be noted at a "zeroth prime field," altho CTSMC calls it the first so IDEK. Murakumos were definitely not made to explore the Boundary. That's just a run of the mill prime field device. Murakumos are weaponized prime fields. I really think those caskets are just failed, discarded, or never used base bodies for 11 and 12. I wonder what happened to Lambda anyway. Kokonoe insists on using her instead of the other base bodies hanging around. So it seems like she was tempered, but then something happened to make her useless. Tager says her body is mostly decomposed by the time he gets to it. Did they push her too hard and killed her, as its implied? How awful.

It is that universe, or one just like it. Sadly, it's not like it would've made a difference. If Nu didn't kill Tsubaki, Take-Mikazuchi would've wiped her from the face of the map regardless, and that timeline would end. Tsubaki's death at the hands of Nu was more important for strongly impacting the Jin that would later become Hakumen.

Makoto actually went into an alternate timeline/previous timeline/parallel universe (however you want to slice it) that took place on 12/31/2199. Rachel posits that her ties to Noel combined with the residual energy within the leftover Mu-12 bodies at Ibukido and the nearby Cauldron warped her through time and space. It's actually a wonder she kept her sanity at all. The explosion that destroyed Ibukido was probably the same thing that destroyed it in other timelines--Nox Nyctores Gigant: Take-Mikazuchi. Unless Mu's tempering went horribly wrong and the Cauldron exploded or something. I'm not well-versed on all the different ways that particular timeline diverges from the "main" one. It's easier to understand if you listen to Wheel of Fortune, a drama CD that showcases a timeline very similar to the one in Makoto's story: a world where Noel no longer existed. Wheel of Fortune actually ties into a lot of stuff.