Trismegistus

, usually (short for ), is a Transcendent of the Bridge Builders Cabal, introduced in Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index. Between the Lines 1
==Etymology==
Trismegistus, specifically ("Thrice-Great") - syncretized from the Greek and the Egyptian , is a legendary figure whose attributed works form the basis of Hermeticism.
The initials before Trismegistus are derived from the first letters of either the syncretized deities behind Hermes Trismegistus (the default above) or the deities he is currently invoking (e.g. Z. I. Trismegistus with Zeus and Indra).
==Appearance==
Trismegistus is a black-haired man, Contents Illustration described as looking like a gloomy young butler. He wears an old-fashioned black coat with a brown lining, a light blue tailcoat, a white inner shirt, a brown cravat, dark grey trousers, white gloves, black shoes and triangular brimmed hat. He also has a black cane, less than a 1m long, hiding a sword.
==Personality==
Trismegistus is calm and polite on the surface, acting as a butler to Alice Anotherbible, calling her his 'beloved' master (afraid of her anger as a tyrant in his heart) and himself merely a servant. Chapter 3 Chapter 4 However, he is also ruthless against any obstacles or threats, and if he determines something to be a dangerous element, he will immediately move to eliminate it without holding back.
Trismegistus bases his actions on what he believes to be (frequently incorporating the phrase or variants in his speech). He despises things which would distort "common sense", driven by emotions, superstitions and other factors, and has expressed dismay when his sense of "common sense" is shaken. He believes that the Transcendents should deal salvation evenhandedly.
==Background==
The legendary figure Hermes Trismegistus ("Hermes Thrice-Great"), a syncretization of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth, was the attributed author of works such as the Hermetica, which form the basis of Hermeticism. Outside the story and legend behind it, the name Trismegistus was something like a shared penname which ancient scholars and academics used to release their papers anonymously. Chapter 3 Part 1Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Agnese's Magic Side Work Experience Chapter 6 Part 7
Besides the influence of Hermeticism (and thus Trismegistus) on the Golden Dawn (a.k.a. the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn), aspects tied to Trismegistus are also present in Thelema and Magick, with Hermes and Thoth are equated in Aleister Crowley's occult dictionary Liber 777, Chapter 2 Part 7The relevant columns in Table I of Liber 777 are XIX, XX (Egyptian Gods), and XXXIV (Greek Gods). and correspond at 2, 8 and 12.Liber 777 by Aleister Crowley as well as Thoth's name being used for the Thoth Tarot and the Egyptian god of writing also being associated with the Holy Guardian Angel Aiwass. Chapter 2 Part 7
The background of the individual who took on the identity of Trismegistus as a Transcendent of the Bridge Builders Cabal is currently unknown, Chapter 3 Part 6 though his fixation on common sense, his mentions of the and how superstitions creep into academia and distort common sense, and remarks on how no matter how logically one explains their academia theories there was nothing one could do when people brush them aside based on emotion, seem to show Touma glimpses as to what led him down his path.
Trismegistus has been with Alice longer than any other member of the Bridge Builders Cabal, being the one who discovered Alice Anotherbible living on the streets in the modern day. He first encountered her by coincidence in the shadows of a roofless shelter in a foreign city, in a state similar to a wild animal and would take her in, unaware of her immense power and only realizing her value some time later when he was well into raising her. Chapter 3 Part 3 He, and the others that subsequently gathered around the girl, would extract portions of the magic responsible for Alice's transformation and adapt that open-source spell to transform themselves into Transcendents, leading to the formation of the Bridge Builders Cabal. Chapter 2 Part 1 Chapter 3 Part 10
==Chronology==
===Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index===
====Post-Handcuffs Arc====
When Aradia was guiding Anna around their base, she prioritized introduction to Alice, saying that Trismegistus could wait. After the events surrounding the crash of the Overhunting, as well as the battle in the Vanishing Tunnel, Alice was brought back from Academy City by Anna. Greeting Alice upon her return, H. T. Trismegistus and the others in the group were shocked and dismayed to find that Alice's newfound interest in Kamijou Touma had swayed her from using her magic to benefit their plans. Epilogue
As the cabal became split over how to tackle the matter of Touma's effect on Alice, between those who wished to kill him or preserve him, Trismegistus sided with the Killers. Chapter 3 Part 5
====New Year's Arc====
On January 1st, Trismegistus and Good Old Mary accompanied Alice when she went to greet Kamijou Touma as he and others were making their New Year's Day shrine visits in School District 12. During the encounter, he dissuaded Shokuhou Misaki from peering inside Alice's psychedelic mind. Chapter 2 Part 2
On January 2nd, Trismegistus greeted Alice when she brought Touma's group to the cabal's newly established consulate, cleaning mud from her clothes and beginning to prepare some games to amuse her for when she showed the guests around her new secret base. After briefly facing Alice's wrath when Touma inadvertently told her about the Killers and Rescuers, Trismegistus explained how the cabal were intending to execute Anna Sprengel for her betrayal, with Mut Thebes present. Chapter 2 Part 5 He was also present for dinner and washed up afterwards.
On January 3rd, Trismegistus encountered Touma and Aradia just after Touma had decided to try and convince the cabal to not to straight up execute Anna Sprengel, with Aradia having just been convinced by Othinus that Touma met her protection conditions. On hearing what the two had to say on the matter, Trismegistus decided that Touma was a dangerous element and immediately moved to kill him at full power, after having struck down Aradia.
After releasing his seal and renewing himself from H. T. to Z. I. Trismegistus, he pursued Touma through the grounds, intending to finish him off before Alice could learn of what he was doing. Trismegistus eventually decapitated him, but Touma had brought enough time for Mary to arrive and revive him, meeting her conditions. The two Transcendents then fought, with Mary eventually releasing her own seal, until Alice arrived to punish them, with only Touma's intervention preventing her from killing them.
Following Touma's escape from the consulate, seeing Alice left in a broken state, Trismegistus unleashed Mut Thebes with an enraged roar, splitting himself down the middle as he did so. After composing himself before the recovered Bologna Succubus (whom he sent to aid Mut Thebes in seeking out her target), he decided to call in other Transcendents from outside the city, with the cabal to immediately begin their ceremony, with the risk of Alice's condition worsening to the point of being unable to perform. Between the Lines 1
Over the next two days, Trismegistus directed the cabal's complex ceremony as its timekeeper. Late on January 4th, he took to the stage himself for the conclusion of the ceremony, which supposedly brought their intended savior Christian Rosencreutz into the world. Presenting him with a robe and telling him why they had brought him into the world, Trismegistus was then shocked when "CRC" knocked him and the other Transcendents down, revealing himself to be drastically different for the worse from what his legend claimed. Helpless on the ground, a distraught Trismegistus could only watch in horror as CRC turned his attention to Alice, the only one still standing, and crushed the motionless girl's head. Epilogue Epilogue
Trismegistus was absent from most of the events in the summoning's aftermath and the struggle to halt "CRC"'s advance on January 5th, Chapter 1 Part 8 Chapter 2 Part 4 with the Bologna Succubus describing him as "gone" to her compatriots. However, he reappeared by Alice's side on January 6th as her headless corpse revived and struck the downed "CRC" following his defeat, stripping Johann Valentin Andreae of both his guise as CRC and his life. Epilogue
==Abilities==
Trismegistus's exact capabilities are currently unknown, but as a Transcendent of the Bridge Builders Cabal, he is said to be powerful enough to rival the regular magic side on his own under the right circumstances. Chapter 2 Part 1 Like some other Transcendents, he uses common tone creation to translate and synthesize his speech into unfamiliar languages. Chapter 3 Part 2
Trismegistus is capable of producing various items from thin air in a manner resembling that of a stage magician, as well as making them disappear again. Whether this involves storage compartments hidden within his cloak is unknown. s he has produced include cleaning tools and a long, narrow adult-sized coffin with slits for stabbing swords into.
He uses a in battle, a spiritual item concealed within his cane, Chapter 4 Part 9 rapidly unsheathing it from its scabbard and slashing, in the manner of . The blade's fast projectile slash can take varying paths and its sharpness can be infused into various phenomena.
===Transcendence===
Like many other Transcendents in the Bridge Builders Cabal, Chapter 4 Part 2 Chapter 4 Part 4 Chapter 4 Part 6 Epilogue Trismegistus can release a seal in order to draw on power transcending that of regular humans, with an incantation involving the declaration of and . In the case of Trismegistus, this power is in the form of a and the nature of his seal is a .
By invoking the names and powers of two gods which correspond in Liber 777 into his right and left hands, Trismegistus forms a from his hands (the invoked gods) and his main body (himself), implanting the world with a false definition that he is a god too, making his own power into that of a new, false god. When doing this, his initials change to reflect the deities he is invoking (e.g. (H), (T), (Z), (I), (O), (M) etc), with the characteristics of his magic changing depending on the combinations of these gods.With regards to the other deities Trismegistus has invoked (or Good Old Mary mentioned as ones he could invoke), the relevant columns in Table I of Liber 777 are XIX, XX (Egyptian), XIII (Hindu), XXXIV (Greek), XXXV (Roman) and XXXIII (Norse/Scandinavian). and correspond at rows 4 and 21. , , and correspond at row 8.
==Character Art Design==
===Gallery===
File:Trismegistus (Full).png|Trismegistus as he appears in the contents of Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Volume 7 by Haimura Kiyotaka
File:Trismegistus (Design).jpg|Trismegistus's character design by Haimura Kiyotaka
==Trivia==
*s which Trismegistus has produced from his pockets or out of mid-air besides the coffin, include a leather notebook, a heavy load of movie pamphlets and TRPG rulebooks, a handkerchief, detergent, a dryer, an iron, and a leather jacket.
==Notes==
==References==
==Navigation==
Category:Characters
Category:Magic Side Characters
Category:Magicians
Category:Bridge Builders Cabal