Myne | Ferdinand
Commoners and Temple Members | Nobles (Ehrenfest (Archducal Family))
Characters appearing in Ascendance of a Bookworm. Beware of spoilers.
- Myne
- Ferdinand
- Commoners and Temple Members note
- Nobles note
- Ehrenfest note
- Archducal Family note
- Ehrenfest note
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People from Urano's life
Urano's mother
Urano's mother
- Dramatically Missing the Point: She's prone to this when it comes to saving water and electricity. Myne describes her as the kind of person who will turn water off while brushing her teeth but leave it running while doing the dishes and would unplug the television when it's not in use all while regularly falling asleep while it's still on.
- Fleeting Passionate Hobbies: She has a tendency to get very invested in various hobbies for short periods of time. The fact that many of them were crafts is the reason Myne knows how to hand-craft so many items. Myne even tells Ferdinand that she frequently lasted longer in the hobbies than her mother did.
- Glamorous Single Mother: There is no sign of her struggling financially despite the materials demanded by her various hobbies and her support of Urano's reading habit. The only time she's mentioned trying to save money is as yet another hobby, rather than any real need of doing so. Lack of trouble with other aspects of raising Urano can be put down to the fact that Urano was fairly easy to keep occupied.
- Good Parents: Myne remembers her fondly, and regrets not telling her good-bye and being able to repay her efforts in raising her.
Shuu
Shuu
The childhood friend of Urano, who has been her next door neighbor for all of their lives. They were essentially raised together, which concretely means he was stuck being her Only Friend and Cloudcuckoolander's Minder.- Adapted Out: Not only he hasn't been mentioned nor shown in the anime, but he has also never appeared in the manga.
- Affectionate Nickname: Not exactly a nickname, but in Japanese Urano calls him Shuu-chan, which shows how close they are.
- Childhood Friends: Having known her since they were little, Shuu knows Urano's obsession and behaviour around books painfully well.
- Like Brother and Sister: In his narration he notes that he and Urano lived as if both of them were siblings, as he often spent time in her house, like eating dinner there when his mother was working or going on trips as family with both of their mothers.
- Only Friend: Urano's.
Other
Schwartz & Weiss (Spoilers)
Schwartz & Weiss
Debut: Part 4 (Volume 1)
Schwartz, Rozemyne & Weiss
A pair of magical dolls that look like Funny Animal shumils that were made to be helpers in the Royal Academy's library. As they need at least an archnoble's mana to function, they were literally shelved when the civil war left the library in the care of a lone mednoble and their last mana recharge ran out.
Rozemyne accidentally brings them back to life and becomes their new owner in the process. She's all too happy to continue caring for them, as she considers that the library can use all the help it can get.
- Bunnies for Cuteness: Shumils look just like rabbits and everyone who sees them agrees that they look cute. Rozemyne guesses that the woman who made them was of the same opinion.
- Clothes Make the Superman: The clothes they wear have hidden protective charms and magic circles that protect them from theft. They also can attack back if their feystones are charged with enough mana.
- Funny Animal: They are bipedal and wear clothes, making them more anthropomorphic than actual shumils.
- Hostile Animatronics: They are made to look like giant shumils, rabbit-like creatures, but they react violently when their master is attacked, as is seen in Part 4 Volume 2. They are also supposed to kill zent candidates who attempt to get the Grutrissheit that is hidden in the underground library, and are not part of the royal family. Their original creator wanted to monopolize Grutrissheit for her family alone, which is how the royal family came to be.
- Lost Technology: They have existed for long enough that nobody knows how to make something like them anymore. Hirschur attempts to rectify this. And she manages to do this with Ferdinand and Rozemyne's help.
- Magical Guide: Schwartz and Weiss will offer help in getting the Book of Mestionora the normal way. They ask Rozemyne twice to donate mana to Mestionora's statue and will note when someone doesn't have enough mana, all colors or didn't pray enough (which is a hint that one should visit the shrines of the primary gods and offer prayers).
- Meaningful Name: Schwarz and Weiß are the German words for black and white respectively. Schwartz is the black shumil, while Weiss is the white one. They need mana with Darkness and Light attributes to move.
- No Biological Sex: They don't have a sex due to ultimately being Magitek robots that only look like shumils. Their most recent owner before Rozemyne elected to have both of them wear dresses, but they have been dressed in all kinds of outfits in the past. Rozemyne dresses Schwartz in clothes for men, while Weiss is given clothes for women.
- Painting the Medium: Schwartz and Weiss' speech is rendered in hiragana (the most basic form of written Japanese) in the original Japanese text, which is supposed to stress their childish and cutesy way of talking.
- Pale Females, Dark Males: The clothing Rozemyne gives them follows this theme, as Weiss, the white-colored one, gets clothes meant for women and Schwartz, the black-colored one, gets clothes meant for men.
- Robot Maid: They assist in managing the libraries. Rozemyne decides to dress Schwartz like a butler, while Weiss is given maid clothes.
- Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence: Somewhere between the "average human" and "robot animal" level. They are good at what they were made to do, but they function best with someone to tell them what they should be doing.
- Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: They appear to be equipped with far more dangerous weapons than is necessary to work in the library. As is revealed in Part 5 Volume 7, they are monitoring potential zent candidates and are tasked to kill any non-royal zent candidate who attempts to enter the part of the underground library where Grutrissheit is.
- Terse Talker: They can speak, but are sometimes laconic enough that what they are saying needs to be given context.
- Verbal Tic: Their creator was a woman, which is why they address their current master as "ひめさま" (hime-sama, milady), regardless of gender.
Pantheon
General
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Every primary god and the element they rule over is associated with a color. The God of Darkness is colored black, the Goddess of Light is golden, the Goddess of Water is green, the God of Fire is blue, the Goddess of Wind is yellow, the God of Life is white, and the Goddess of Earth is red.
- Classical Elements Ensemble: The four main seasonal gods do double duty as this, with water for spring, fire for summer, wind for autumn and earth for winter. Each of the three other prominent gods has a frequently-seen Element No. 5: light, darkness and life.
- Divine Delegation: The mortal realm is ruled by the Eternal Five. Above them rule the King and Queen of dark and light, who also rule over the heavens. Each primary god also has 12 subordinate gods, except for Geduldh.
- Elemental Powers: Every primary god rules over one of the seven elements, as indicated by their names.
- Fantasy Pantheon: In Myne's world, the gods are very real and Religion is Magic.
- Patron God: Praying to the gods, offering mana, and doing something they approve of earns a noble the god's favor. In fact, the schtappe was given to nobles to help the their prayers reach the gods and allows nobles to use magic. The mana of a noble also has elemental affinities, which indicates which god favors them. Royal Academy students in their third year participate in a ritual to earn the divine protection of a god, and receiving the divine protection of a god drastically reduces the mana costs for the respective element. Usually one only gets the divine protections of the primary gods associated with the color of one's mana, but as is shown in Part 5, Rozemyne, who has prayed to the gods since she entered the temple, obtains the divine protection of over 40 subordinate gods on top of all seven primary gods.
- Stock Gods: While the primary gods represent Elemental Powers and the Eternal Five are also seasonal gods, their subordinates are gods of certain things such as order, healing, smithing, fertility, marriage, alcohol, etc.
- Weapon Specialization: Many of the gods are associated with a weapon. The Goddess of Water wields a staff, the God of Fire a spear, the Goddess of Wind a shield, and the God of Life a sword.
Primary Gods
King and Queen gods
God of Darkness
God of Darkness
Debut: Part 1 (Volume 3)
The God of Darkness is the king of the heavens, the husband of the Goddess of Light, and the father of the Goddess of Water, the God of Fire, the Goddess of Wind, and the Goddess of Earth.
He represents the night sky. His divine instrument is a cloak and black is his divine colour.
- Badass Cape: His divine instrument is a cape, which has Darkness properties.
- Energy Absorption: Beings, feystones, or weapons blessed with a Darkness element have the ability to absorb mana.
- God Couple: With his wife the Goddess of Light.
- Happily Married: His marriage with his wife is harmonious and brought joy to his previously lonely life.
- I Want Grandkids: One of the reasons he allowed his youngest daughter's marriage was the prospect of her and her husband having children of their own.
- Meaningful Name: Part 5 reveals Rozemyne's own unique name for the God of Darkness, Schicksantracht (シックザントラハト, Shikkuzantorahato), which looks like a portmanteau of the German words "Schicksal" (destiny) and "Eintracht" (unity, harmony).
- No Name Given: Unlike his children and other gods and goddesses, his given name is unknown. Actually, the God of Darkness has many names. It is later revealed in Part 5 that archduke candidates learn in their special course at the Royal Academy their unique names for the God of Darkness and the Goddess of Light, which is fundamental for them whenever they may use archducal magic. Rozemyne's name for the God of Darkness for instance is Schicksantracht.
- The Sacred Darkness: He may be the God of Darkness, but he is not evil and is actually considered in a positive light as he is the patriarch of the gods and the ruler of the heavens. Among his subordinates are gods who ward off evil.
- Stealth Expert: The God of Concealment Verbergen is one of the gods of Darkness. He also played an instrumental role in hiding Mestionora and anything or anyone that carries his mark will be invisible.
- Top God: He is the king and ruler of the gods along with his wife.
Goddess of Light
Goddess of Light
Debut: Part 1 (Volume 3)
The Goddess of Light is the Queen of Heavens, the wife of the God of Darkness, and the mother of the Goddess of Water, the God of Fire, the Goddess of Wind, and the Goddess of Earth.
She represents the sun. Her divine instrument is a crown and her divine colour is gold.
- Barely-Changed Dub Name: In Part 5 Volume 1, Rozemyne learns her unique name for the Goddess of Light, which is Versprechredi. In Japanese, her name is フェアシュプレーディ (Feashupurēdi), which sounds more like Verspredi, but was deemed too short for a god's name.
- Crown of Power: Her Crown of Light is a common tool used to establish contracts like in the Starbind Ceremony.
- Curtains Match the Window: She has golden hair to match her golden eyes.
- God Couple: With her husband the God of Darkness. Unlike the other well-known romance (Geduldh and Ewigeliebe), her life with the God of Darkness is described as harmonious.
- God of Light: Goddess in her case.
- God of Order: The Goddess of Order is one of her subordinates. Every time a magic contract is established, the contract burns away with a golden flame.
- Happily Married: She and her husband have a happy married life.
- Love Goddess: The Goddess of Matchmaking Liebeskhilfe note is one of the subordinates of the Goddess of Light.
- Mama Bear: Not long after she lost contact with her recently married daughter Geduldh, she started searching for her and later helped release her from her captivity by her husband.
- Meaningful Name: Part 5 reveals Rozemyne's own unique name for the Goddess of Light, Versprechredi (フェアシュプレーディ, Feashupurēdi), which looks like a portmanteau of the German word "Versprechen" (promise) and "lady".
- No Name Given: Unlike her children and other gods and goddesses, her given name is unknown. Actually, the Goddess of Light has many names. It is later revealed in Part 5 that archduke candidates learn in their special course at the Royal Academy their unique names for the God of Darkness and the Goddess of Light, which is fundamental for them whenever they may use archducal magic. Rozemyne's name for the Goddess of Light for instance is Versprechredi.
- Top God: She is the queen and ruler of the gods along with her husband.
Eternal Five
Goddess of Water
Flutrane
Debut: Part 1 (Volume 3)
Flutrane, also known as the Goddess of Water, is the oldest child of the God of Darkness and Goddess of Light. She is also one of the Eternal Five who rule the mortal realm.
Flutrane's divine colour is green symbolising the sprouting plants in spring, which is the season she represents, and her divine instrument is a staff.
- Big Sister Instinct: Flutrane and her mother were the first who came to help Geduldh. She washed away the ice that her mother melted which encased Geduldh.
- Does Not Like Men: Downplayed as she just greatly favours women over men. However, she started barring men from her bath after some subordinate gods of fire once peeped at her bathing, which is probably the reason why the men in Rozemyne's entourage couldn't enter the Goddess' Bath in Part 3 Volume 3.
- Fertility Goddess: The Goddess of Childbirth is one of Flutrane's subordinates.
- God of Thunder: One of her subordinates is the Goddess of Thunder. Praying to her and the other Goddesses of Spring near the beginning of spring will bring about an end of winter as demonstrated in Part 4 Volume 4.
- Healer God: Flutrane and one of her subordinates, Heilschmerz, Heal It with Water.
- Magic Staff: Flutrane's staff is commonly used to heal either people or damaged land.
- Meaningful Name: Her name is most likely derived from the German word "Frühträne" which translates to "early tear" or it might also be a shortened version of "Frühlingsträne" meaning "spring tear".
- Sweet Tooth: She has a fondness for sweet things, with honey, fruit and milk being offerings that would certainly please her.
God of Fire
Leidenschaft
Debut: Part 1 (Volume 3)
Leidenschaft, also known as the God of Fire, is the second child of the God of Darkness and Goddess of Light, and one of the Eternal Five who rule the mortal realm.
Leidenschaft's divine colour is blue symbolising the vast sky, and his divine instrument is a spear supporting growth. He is associated with the season of summer.
- Color Motif: Blue, which is associated with the skies. The blue priests and shrine maidens wear blue because it encourages growth.
- Fertility God: Leidenschaft with his warmth encouraged the growth of the plants created by Geduldh and Ewigeliebe after Flutrane freed them from ice. Anwachs the God of Nurture (German for "to grow") is one of Leidenschaft's subordinates.
- God of Fire: Leidenschaft's element is fire and one of his subordinates is the God of Passion (which is also what Leidenschaft means in German).
- Meaningful Name: His name is most likely derived from the German word "Leidenschaft" which translates to "passion", as he is the God of Fire and represents the warmest of all seasons.
- War God: Leidenschaft is also associated with war, as one of his subordinates is Angriff (German for "attack") the God of War.
Goddess of Wind
Schutzaria
Debut: Part 1 (Volume 3)
Schutzaria, also known as the Goddess of Wind, is the third child of the God of Darkness and Goddess of Light. She is one of the Eternal Five who rule the mortal realm.
Schutzaria's divine colour is yellow, symbolising bountiful wheat, and her divine instrument is a shield. She represents the season of autumn.
- Barrier Warrior: Schutzaria uses her power over wind to create barriers. Mages can invoke her name to call upon her shield of Wind.
- Big Sister Instinct: In the Creation Myth of the seasons, Schutzaria tried to keep Ewigeliebe away from Geduldh and combined her power with her little sister's one, which is how autumn came to be.
- Blow You Away: As is indicated in her name and title, Schutzaria is the Goddess of Wind.
- Detect Evil: Areas protected by Schutzaria's shield have the ability to detect malice and throw anyone with hostility out.
- Food God: Autumn is the season of harvest, which is why one of Schutzaria's subordinates is Forsternte the Goddess of Harvests.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Schutzaria's weapon is a shield. Shields created with her wind will block any attack as long as the user has enough mana.
- Meaningful Name: Her name is most likely derived from the German word "Schutz" which translates to "protection", and the Italian word "aria" which translates to "air".
Goddess of Earth
Geduldh
Debut: Part 1 (Volume 3)
Geduldh, also known as the Goddess of Earth, is the youngest child of the God of Darkness and Goddess of Light. She is one of the Eternal Five, who rule the mortal realm, and the center of the Creation Myth of the seasons.
Geduldh's divine colour is red, symbolising a warm furnace, and her divine instrument is a chalice accepting everyone and everything. Alongside her husband she is associated with the winter season. Unlike the other gods of the Eternal Five, Geduldh does not have any subordinate gods as all of them were chased away by her jealous husband.
- Barely-Changed Dub Name: Romanized directly, ゲドゥルリーヒ (Gedururīhi) would be Gedulrig.
- Everyone's Baby Sister: As Geduldh is the youngest, her older siblings and parents would already be prone to be protective of her. And since shortly after her marriage with Ewigeliebe, he isolated her and later made her captive, her family became more concerned for Geduldh and took action to ensure her safety. Thus the seasons are a constant battle between Ewigeliebe and Geduldh's siblings trying to protect their little sister.
- Eyes Always Shut: She is always shown with her eyes closed, which may represent her passivity and accepting nature and how she is yearly sealed away by her husband in the winter.
- Love Martyr: As her divine instrument is described, Geduldh too seems to "accept everyone and everything", as there's never once a description of her own feelings and thoughts about her marital situation and the ordeals she faces every year.
- Meaningful Name: Her name most likely derives from the German word "Geduld" or "geduldig" which translates to "patience" and "patient" respectively.
- Mother Goddess: Geduldh is the Goddess of Earth and mother to countless children with Ewigeliebe, although due to their father's jealousy they lost their divinity. These are the humans with the Devouring (mana). Geduldh is thus the progenitor of Yurgenschmidt's people.
- Proper Lady: In noble society Geduldh is considered the epitome of female beauty and charm, with her divine colour, red, being associated with femininity.
God of Life
Ewigeliebe
Debut: Part 1 (Volume 3)
Ewigeliebe, also known as the God of Life, is one of the Eternal Five, who rule the mortal realm, and Geduldh's husband. One day, he saw Geduldh and fell in love with her. He then approached the God of Darkness to ask for Geduldh's hand to which her father consented. Their marriage started harmoniously, but after the Goddess of Chaos manipulated him, Ewigeliebe grew possessive of Geduldh and encased her and their children in ice.
Ewigeliebe's divine colour is white and his divine instrument is a sword. Alongside his wife he is associated with the winter season.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The other gods would love to kill him but can't. If he died, no new life could be born.
- Color Motif: White. People build white/ivory buildings to hide from Ewigeliebe.
- Cool Sword: Ewigeliebe's sword has the power to summon winter feybeasts, as is demonstrated in Part 5 Volume 2.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: The primary example of this trope in the setting. His strong desire to monopolize his wife is what ended up creating the seasons in the world. Whenever a man is too possessive of his lover he ends up being compared to Ewigeliebe.
- Hate Sink: There is really no one who likes him. Even his old friends turned against him after what he did to Geduldh. This is why it's generally difficult to perform a seven-colored blessing: the Life attribute is rare and since every other god dislikes him, it's tough to invoke a blessing that involves Ewigeliebe.
- An Ice Person: Ewigeliebe is the God of Winter and has the power over ice. Every winter he encases Geduldh in ice. Contrary to the pun, he is not a nice person.
- Jealous Parent: He is even jealous of his own children with Geduldh. He robs them of their divinity and actively tries to kill them.
- Love God: The God of Treasure Beischmacht note is actually a god of sex and one of Ewigeliebe's subordinates. He favors people who are very sexually active. And that includes Sylvester when he goes through the divine protection ceremony again in Part 5.
- Marital Rape License: Winter is the season when Ewigeliebe is finally able to retrieve Geduldh and embrace her once again. It is not consensual.
- Meaningful Name: His name is most like derived from the German words "ewige Liebe" which translates to "eternal love".
- Winter Warfare: He is naturally the strongest when it's winter. Ewigeliebe's sword also can only be used in winter.
- Yandere: Geduldh is his and his alone.
Subordinate Gods
Wind
Goddess of Wisdom (Spoiler Character)
Warning: This character is a Part 5 Walking Spoiler and had so many tropes whited out that it just became redundant. As such, all spoilers about her are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
Mestionora
Mestionora is the Goddess of Wisdom. According to the foundation story of Yurgenschmidt, its first king was allowed to copy Mestionora's book, the Grutrissheit, the first bible.
She is also the only offspring of the winter gods, Geduldh and Ewigeliebe, that managed to escape her father's jealousy and retained her divinity, later becoming one of her aunt Schutzaria's subordinate goddesses.
- Child by Rape: She is Ewigeliebe and Geduldh's daughter. She was the only one of their children whose divinity wasn't robbed by their father.
- Declaration of Protection: Don't harm Erwarmen or you will regret it. What she did for Yurgenschmidt, she really did for him.
- Foil: To Rozemyne. It's no wonder people in Part 5 start calling Rozemyne Mestionora's avatar, especially after Mestionora temporarily takes over Rozemyne's body at the end of Part 5.
- They are very similar in appearance. Both have blue (nearly black) hair and golden eyes.
- Both Mestionora and Rozemyne were hunted by Ewigeliebe in a sense. However, Mestionora is divine, while Rozemyne is mortal.
- Mestionora was also said to wield the divine instruments of her relatives, not unlike Rozemyne, and the way she protects Erwarmen is similar to how Rozemyne tries to protect Ferdinand.
- Mestionora bestows knowledge to the people of Yurgenschmidt by giving her book to the zents and the zent candidates, just like Rozemyne is spreading books to the people in the present.
- God of Knowledge: In the setting's mythology, she's the one who provided humanity with its first bible. In the present day, among a pantheon of dozens, she's the one who gets statues of her in every single place that can call itself a library.
- Great Big Book of Everything: Mestionora's book, Grutrissheit, is a Sacred Scripture with seemingly sheer unlimited knowledge.
- Mystical White Hair: Her hair used to be white and she had red eyes actually. She inherited the colors of her parents, but they were dyed by her grandparents to disguise her from her father.
- Power Floats: While incarnating in Rozemyne, one of the characteristics that shows her divinity is that her feet don't touch the floor.
- Power Glows: Similar to above, Rozemyne glows with a golden aura while Mestionora hitches a ride in her body.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Mestionora is said to be a beautiful woman with midnight-blue hair, pale skin, and golden eyes. Her hair was blessed by her grandfather, the God of Darkness, as part of a Dye or Die disguise to hide her from her father.
- Really 700 Years Old: The gods all seemingly don't age, but Mestionora is a notable Older Than She Looks case here, because she doesn't bind her hair like everyone else. Considering how the marriage of her parents turned out, she may deliberately try to not look like she is of marriageable age.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: Mestionora's golden eyes are a gift of the Goddess of Light. Her grandmother gave them Mestionora as a part of her Dye or Die disguise.
- Walking Spoiler: Mestionora is linked to the foundation story of Yurgenschmidt. She is deeply connected to the founder of Yurgenschmidt and her book becomes a central plot in Part 5.
