Michael Roa Valdamjong

Michael Roa Valdamjong is a male anime and manga character who features in Tsukihime.

Biography

Michael Roa Valdamjong (Japanese: ミハイル・ロア・バルダムヨォン, Hepburn: Mihairu Roa Barudamuyōn)

As a high-ranking priest of the Church, he alongside Narbareck were responsible for founding the Burial Agency.

Shiki Tohno (遠野 四季 Tōno Shiki) was Roa's 18th incarnation and can be considered "the real Shiki Tohno". This Shiki is not to be confused with Shiki Tohno (遠野 志貴 Tōno Shiki), the protagonist of Tsukihime; though both of them are named Shiki, the kanji in their names are different. For the purpose of distinction, the real Shiki Tohno (Roa's current host) is often referred to as "SHIKI." The real SHIKI Tohno was good friends with Shiki (an adopted member of the Tohno family from the Nanaya clan). SHIKI, however, went berserk after he lost control to his demonic blood, though Shiki initially believes it was because Roa took control of him at that moment. SHIKI nearly killed the adopted Shiki (who was defending Akiha), however Makihisa Tohno (SHIKI's father) forced the real SHIKI to the brink of death. He was then kept locked up in the Tohno Mansion's cellar for around eight years. Shiki's wounds nearly killed him, so Akiha gave him half her life, but, not completely dead himself, SHIKI used the Mystic Eyes that he gained from nearly dying and stole half of the borrowed life from Shiki, connecting the two Shikis, each possessing 1/4 a life, with Akiha having the other half.

Overview

Personality and attributes

He came to be known as the Serpent of Akasha (アカシャの蛇, Akasha no Hebi?) and as the Infinite Reincarnator (転生無限者, Tensei Mugensha?) due to his power of reincarnation. His power to reincarnate was likened to a snake where he shed his skin thus symbolising how he discarded his host bodies. It was known that his seventeenth incarnation was called Elesia (エレイシア, Ereishia?) whilst his eighteenth incarnation was SHIKI Tohno (遠野 四季, Tōno Shiki?).

Roa was a high-ranking priest of the church who at one point held a major position within the Mage's Association but began to spy on the latter for the former, highlighting his long career of betrayal. He sought immortality and tricked Arcueid into drinking his blood, causing her to go berserk and wipe out almost all the True Ancestors. This action also turned Roa into one of the most powerful Dead Apostles. In fact, he had gotten to the point where he was so powerful he was strong enough to defeat even Altrouge Brunestud when she tried to "teach him a lesson" as her and the rest of the Dead Apostles saw him as an upstart.

It seems Roa was popular as a virtuous man when he was a priest up until his betrayal. He seems to have great dislike for the Church, commenting that the already ruined Church has degraded even further in eight hundred years, but also says the existence of a woman like Riesbyfe makes it not quite as bad. He had some form of a close relationship with Nabareck, as, while she did not want to leave the Church or live with Roa, she was willing to pass on the information to her child to ignore a newcomer Dead Apostle in one hundred years.

He is an acquaintance with Nrvnqsr Chaos, and they are close enough to call each other friends. Nrvnqsr believes that he understands Roa more than the other Ancestors, having talked extensively about their own meanings of eternity and Roa having taught him the "Soil of Genesis" with the idea of having him use it to capture Arcueid. While they are both heretics by the standards of vampires, Nrvnqsr states that each case is isolated, and that doesn't mean that they understand each other on that point. Like the rest of the Ancestors, this causes him not accept Roa as one of them. When they meet again in Actress Again, Nrvnqsr remarks that the "name of the archangel has fallen indeed" after Roa calls him "pal." While he has become cruder than in the past, Nrvnqsr finds his incarnation as SHIKI is the worst. He compares his gradual assimilation with chaos with Roa's constantly diluting ego, and comments that it may be the last time they trade words. While Roa found perfecting the “Soil of Genesis” to be fun, and that the idea of working together on cooperative research is appealing, they decided to simply crush each other following their natural destructive urges.

His original body was finally defeated by a coalition composed of Arcueid and the Church's Burial Agency, and he has been re-incarnating ever since then. By the time of Tsukihime he had already re-incarnated seventeen times and had been destroyed by Arcueid each time as she seeks to gain her stolen power back, and perhaps to achieve some measure of revenge. Roa has two requirements for choosing the host of his next reincarnation: the host's family must have a high social standing so that he would be born into luxury, and a body with high magical potential and perhaps unique latent powers. His last host was Ciel, who was chosen in haste and thus was born into a bakery's family but in exchange had a body with an extremely high magical potential that was relatively close to that of his original form. In Tsukihime, Roa is responsible for the grisly vampire murders throughout the city.

Powers and abilities

The original Roa was an immensely skilled sorcerer, supposedly unmatched during his time, and, because of his reincarnation ability, he is considered the sorcerer closest to the root (Akasha). He specialized in Numerology (数秘術, Sūhijutsu?) that was an art by which one could apply metaphysical mathematical principles onto spells. Such applications of this art could be seen in Square, a skill which multiplied the strength of his sorcery, and his Reality Marble, Overload, which automatically applied Square to all of his spells. His magic often revolves around electricity.

Roa reached his peak as a human, so he sought to become a Dead Apostle to complete his magical theory, the thesis on immortality, and obtain Magic. Normally, the process to become a vampire would have taken at least one hundred years starting from the level of a Ghoul, but Roa wished to greatly speed up that process. When becoming a Dead Apostle by having a True Ancestor suck their blood, the power of the Dead Apostle raises in proportion to the True Ancestor's strength. He used the strongest True Ancestor, Arcueid Brunestud, in order to instantly become the strongest Dead Apostle by skipping the stages of growth with her immense power, and planned to rise to the top of the hierarchy in just ten years. Upon having her take his blood, he stole a large amount of her power, and managed to reach the apex of his magical abilities as he built up his power. Taking the place of a Dead Apostle Ancestor sealed by the Church, he gained their followers and rose in power among the twenty-seven, and managed to defeat Altrouge Brunestud in battle. He was eventually destroyed by Arcueid who had joined forces with the Church, but he had already managed to establish his system of reincarnation. While he is considered as an Ancestor by the Church, and Arcueid considers them to be a group of twenty-eight rather than twenty-seven, he is listed as "Extra" outside of the regular twenty-seven because they consider him to be a heretic who does not uphold the ideals of regular vampires.

After becoming a vampire, he came to be ranked as a numberless Dead Apostle as he stood outside their number.

In his 18th incarnation, he had Mystic Eyes (魔眼, Magan?) that were similar to those of Shiki Tohno's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, having gained this ability after he was nearly killed by his father Makihisa Tohno. His eyes are significantly different from Shiki's, they lack the ability to destroy inanimate objects and is more akin to cutting the "life" of a person rather than the "death". Unlike Shiki's ability, if he cuts the 'lines', the person is not cut into pieces. Instead, the person is drained of 'life', falling to the ground an empty corpse. Roa considers it a weapon, and does not understand the true meaning of death, despite the fact that he has died seventeen times.

Roa's “soul” is automatically transferred to a new body each time his current one is destroyed, however, his "mind" had already expired by his first transfer. His original consciousness and personality had already fizzled away, however his memory, knowledge, and power still remained, and this memory and knowledge is expanded with each new lifetime. When he enters a new host, the host still has all of the personality traits they obtained throughout their lifetime, however, being flooded with Roa’s memories as if they had actually experienced them changes their original perceptions, causing Roa’s hosts to develop similar tastes to the original. Roa’s memories only appear gradually, so Arcueid is usually able to destroy his current body before he regains any significant magical knowledge: his appearance in Tsukihime is such a case.

Notes

• Michael Roa Valdamjong was created by Type-Moon where he appeared in the setting of the Type-Moon universe.

In other media

Television

• In Tsukihime, Lunar Legend, Michael Roa Valdamjong appeared in the setting of the 2003 anime television series adaptation voiced by Japanese actor Takako Honda and by English actor Kirk Thornton in the dub.

Appearances

• Tsukihime:

External Links

• Type-Moon Wiki Entry

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