Arba (Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic)
Arba is a female anime and manga character who features in Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic.
Contents |
Biography
Arba (Japanese: アルバ, Hepburn: Aruba) was a female human who lived in the old world of Alma Torran. She was actually create by David Jehoahaz Abraham (ダビデ・ヨアズ・アブラヒム Dabide Yoazu Aburahimu) to be a servant to his son Solomon Jehoahaz Abraham (ソロモン・ヨアズ・アブラヒム, Soromon Yoazu Aburahimu) where she knew him since his birth. The two shared a close bond, but due to her being his servant, she felt obliged to address him more formally. However, Solomon did not approve of this, and he would constantly tell her, after their escape from the Orthodox Church. She was the person who came to teach him his swordsmanship. Despite their previous difference in status, her devotion and admiration for him never waned. She soon turned into one of his most trusted and powerful supporters, and together with Uraltugo Noi Nueph, Ithnan, Setta, Wahid, and Falan helped him lead the Resistance. She was older than Ugo and the oldest member of the resistance, as well as the strongest swordsman and second in magic only to Solomon.
In the new world, her soul was freed where she came to possess one of her descendants in the lands of the Kou Empire. This saw her taking possession of Gyokuen Ren after she married the first emperor of Kou namely Hakutoku Ren. By this point, her host body had two sons named Hakuyuu Ren and Hakuren Ren where at this point Arba possessed Gyokuen where she came to have two more children named Hakuei Ren and Hakuryuu Ren. Her first two sons and husband died in a fire fighting against Al-Thamen, Gykouen's subordinates. After her husband's death, she married his brother, the Second Emperor, Koutoku Ren. Gyokuen informs Hakuei and Hakuryuu that she will marry Koutoku and they will be retain their status as Imperial Prince and Princess. Hakuryuu came to ask Gyokuen if she really killed his father and brothers, she smiles and retorts that even if it was true he was powerless to do anything. When Sinbad was born, Arba, Scheherazade, Matal Mogamett, and Yunan sensed the strong resonation of Rukh.
Later on, Gyokuen was seen besides her deceased second husband, holding his hand when the Imperial Princes and Princesses enter the chamber. She greeted them and told them to come closer. Kouen asked if the Emperor had died of an illness to which Gyokuen confirmed and told them to come say farewell to their King. She hugged Kouen and said that she only had him left, asking if he will support her, to the disgust of Kouha, who called her a hag. She then made the announcement that due to Kouen's obligation to the army, she would take over as Empress of the Kou Empire. As Kouen's suporters were about to start an insurrection, Hakuryuu stepped in and chimed support for his mother in the form of a chant that facilitated her ascent to the throne. After the funeral, Judar confronts Hakuryuu about whether he is still being controlled by Gyokuen. Judar says that Hakuryuu has become strong, and that he wishes to show this power to her, as she nears them with a crowd of Al-Thamen's priests behind her. When she arrives, Gyokuen says to Hakuryuu that Judar has been praising him so much and, for that reason, she has been wanting to speak with him for a while now. She moves closer to Hakuryuu, wanting to touch his face, but Hakuryuu slaps her hand away and her personality changes to her true self. She retorts that Hakuryuu has learned to scowl and he has the same eyes as Hakuyuu and Hakuren, maybe like them, she should kill Hakuei too. Enraged, Hakuryuu activates his Djinn Equip without an incantation and fiercly attacks the defenseless Gyokuen, only to get stopped in his tracks by her extremely powerful borg and then blasted away and out of his Djinn equip just as quickly as he had entered and attacked her. Mocking him after defeating him without a weapon, Gyokuen pats his head and says that all he has to do is remain her cute, little Hakuryuu, forever.
In Magnostadt, the furnace of Black Rukh doesn't need Matal Mogamett as an intermediary anymore. It seemingly becomes independent, and destructively absorbs the magoi of the people around it. Mogamett questioning why it's still absorbing magoi, notices someone at the other end of the tunnel and asks who's there. The tunnel leads back to the Kou Empire, with Gyokuen sitting on the throne. While black miasma comes out of the tunnel, she smiles, and, in tears said that she had finally met her father. The furnace, now a ball of concentrated Black Ruhk, starts floating up, from the 5th Level Authorization District. The two members of Al-Thamen watching in the sky near Magnostadt , asks why the 200,000 humans underground are still alive, and who supplied Magoi in order for the furnace to become the Medium for their IlI llah's descent. Gyokuen, answers that the great quantity of Magoi that Magnostadt has been hiding and accumulating, became the substitute for the Magoi of the people underground. She explains that the furnace was active for almost 10 years, and being active in Magnostadt it gathered Black Rukh, sucked Magoi and continued to grow. The two priests ask if that was the result of Empress Gyokuen's guidance, but Gyokuen denies, saying that this is something that the people of this world did on their own.
Arba is first mentioned in Aladdin's projection of the history of Alma Torran by Solomon, who was ordering her and Falan to follow Wahid and break through the central gate to the Mind-control tower that the resistance was trying to siege. She is then seen in the midst of the battle telling Solomon, Ithnan and Ugo to go on ahead. Once the Manticores regained their composure, Arba is seen holding her Divine Staff and shouting, "We are the resistance," from a magic carpet, smiling and waving with the rest of the resistance. At their hideout she is seen beside Sheba smiling, introducing her to Solomon and the rest of the resistance. She is visibly concerned that Sheba wanted to go back to her tower and informs the girl that she would die if she continued to use her magic there. Arba is later seen at a table, lifting weights and asking Wahid to spar later while he ate and Ithnan, Ugo and Falan played cards. She rescues Sheba from Ugo's complicated magic explanation just as their hideout stops moving. She explains to Solomon that it was the continental rift that caused the base to stop and accompanied the resistance to the Manticore's underground village, explaining to Sheba that Solomon was behaving weirdly because he was still a child.
Later, after the war has ended and Hakuryuu is coronated as the Fourth Emperor, Sinbad and Hakuei meet in a ship and Sinbad reveals that he knows that Arba is alive and has moved on from possessing Gyokuen Ren to possessing Hakuei Ren. As Arba assumes her true form, she states that Sinbad is David, and that, in Alma Torran, she hated him because he wanted to be superior to Ill Ilah by stealing its powers, but now she understands that she is one with him, and wants to be his strength. As Sinbad states that he does not want her love, he also says that she is a woman with incomparable power and knowledge and that he does not need her in Al-Thamen. Stating that she will only do what he commands her to, Arba gladly agrees, crying of happiness as she is able to serve her Father directly.
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Arba was originally a rather tall attractive young woman who had long, messy brown hair that she kept tied in two long pigtails. Back then, her bright eyes were said to had been kind and that she had a smile on her face whenever she interacted with her friends. She was shown to wear elegant robes befitting her role as a Magi close to Solomon. After her corruption, her features became harsher, and she bore the distinctive markings of those consumed by black Rukh. Her later incarnations and manipulations often showed her in regal attire, designed to mask her sinister nature while blending into positions of authority.
In personality, Arba was depicted as cunning, zealous, and fanatical. While she once showed signs of warmth as part of Solomon’s inner circle, her true self was revealed as deeply devoted to Ill Ilah. She displayed ruthless pragmatism, betraying her comrades and embracing cruelty as a path to what she saw as a greater truth. Her manipulative streak endured for centuries, allowing her to shape nations and organizations in service of her cause.
Arba apparently had a rather impish side too, as seen when she intentionally held back during her training session with Solomon, and cracked jokes with him right after their sparring match, telling him that his swordsmanship "sucked" and that he should grow taller, which caused both of them to laugh.
All her life, she claimed to had heard a 'voice' that had always been there to guide her in all her actions. This ranged from telling her to serve and help Solomon with his 'resistance' to betraying him and trying to summon Illa Ilhad into the world and destroy it. Arba herself was noted to had always heard 'it' with this eventually causing her to believe that this 'voice' was Ill Ilah himself guiding her. As a result, she came to be more severe and fanatical in her devotion to him and his religion. Arba's obsession with this 'voice' was so strong to the point that she declared that she did not need anything or anyone else as long as she has that 'voice' to guide her and frequently uses this belief to cement her psyche when she begins doubting herself during her millennia old existence.
Later upon assisting Sinbad during his trials for Hakuryuu, Alibaba, Judar and Aladdin, Arba is shown to have reverted to her old kind-light hearted persona being shown to be exceptionally friendly to the four upon them entering the Sacred Palace. But it is later revealed that this facade only hid her true inner emptiness, due now having lost her "guide" and no longer hearing "that person's" "voice" and everything now becoming "quite", resulting in her now becoming nihilistic and non caring to what happens to the world due to now not knowing what to do without her "guide".
Powers and abilities
It was said that she was second in magic only to Solomon himself. Even for a Magi, Arba is an immensely powerful magician, who not only has access near limitless Rukh/Magoi, an ability that was previously granted to her by Solomon, she can also harness Black Rukh and also able to steal Black Rukh from Judar a fellow Magi. Due to her near-infinite Magoi drawn from both White and Black Rukh supplemented with her immense magic knowledge that she acquired in Alma Torran she can attack on the level of an Extreme Magic multiple times in a row. According to Kouen, her absolute magic prowess made it virtually impossible for even Metal Vessels users to outright oppose her, proven when she completely overpowered both Hakuryuu who wields two metal vessels and Judar a fellow Magi without any effort at all. Yunan another Magi and also a powerful master magician is also powerless against her.
In powers, Arba wielded vast magical might as a Magi. She controlled large-scale elemental spells, destructive magical storms, and specialized in dark magic drawn from black Rukh. Her corruption made her effectively immortal, enabling her to persist across generations without losing influence. As the founder of Al-Thamen, she passed on knowledge of forbidden magic, curses, and techniques to manipulate Rukh itself, making her not only a direct threat but also a progenitor of darkness across centuries.
She came to be a wielder of one of the Divine Staves (神杖, Shinjō) that was a magic tool able to receive a great quantity of Magoi sent by Ill Ilah. This enabled her to open her 'third eye' and utilise extremely potent magic.
Claiming to be the strongest swordsman in Alma Torran, Arba is tremendously skilled master swordswoman, as she was the one who taught it to Solomon in his childhood and he has yet to beat her. She could fight and subdue Hakuryuu Ren in a one-on-one sword fight and hold her own against Hakuryuu and the two generals, Kokuhyou Shuu and Seiryuu Ri, even fatally injured them before losing.
Among the techniques known to her included:
- Borg (防壁魔法ボルグ Borugu, "Magic Barrier") :
- Medoun Al-Samm (滅葬メドウン・アルサーム, Medoun.Arusāmu, Funeral Destruction) : a magic attacked that struck a opponent in the direction of her hands destroying everything in its path to inflict a huge amount of damage to the opponent. This magic was so powerful, that it heavily damaged both Judar and Hakuryuu, leaving them extremely injured on the ground.
- Bararaq Saiqa (雷光剣バララーク・サイカ, Bararāku.Saika, Lightning Sword) : Arba harnesses lightning brought down from the sky and throws it at her opponent.
After being imprisoned alongside the rest of Al-Thamen and Ill Ilah in another space by Solomon, Arba devised a unique method of abandoning one’s physical body and becoming a being of pure thought in order to escape their imprisonment and go to the New World created by Ugo. While using a Doll as a body was more than enough, Arba was stated to be unable to use the same power she had as a Magi or use the rest of her full power she had in Alma Toran if she used a doll for her body. Because of that Arba instead possessed an unnamed woman centuries in the past after entering the New World and from there used her to give birth to her next host body. Arba would continue existing in the world by possessing her descendants and then using them to birth new bodies for her as time went forward. As shown where in recent times, she existed in the body of Gyokuen Ren’s mother, before possessing and taking over her body after the 1st and 2nd sons of Hakutoku Ren’s were born and then used Gyokuen’s body to birth Hakuei Ren and Hakuryuu Ren as new bodies for her to inhabit. Arba is extremely resistant and tough. She is able to take head-on Yunan's Bararaq Saiqa and to be still standing afterwards, even though it destroys her Borg and skins her alive. Furthermore, when Yunan crushes her body entirely, spreading her blood and guts all over the ground and himself, she is able to reconstitute her own body from her two hands, leaving her unscathed. Yunan realises that a thousand years of tenacity turned her into an immortal monster and that she is not really human anymore.
Arba came to be the founder and leader of Al-Thamen (アル・サーメン, Aru.Sāmen).
Notes
- Arba was created by Shinobu Ohtaka where she featured in the setting of the Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic universe.
In other media
Television
Appearances
- Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic:
- Magi: The Kingdom of Magic:
External Links
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
