The Magi-verse is actually a parallel universe of our world after something catastrophic happened in Solomon's time.
A lot of stylistic elements in Magi are reminiscent of ancient cultures from our world, though the chronological placement of empires is a bit off. From that little scene with Kouen and the scroll, we know that in the past there were multiple languages but there is only one in the present. In addition, the dungeons that pop up here and there are very similar to some architectural wonders of our ancient world. Thus, some kind of apocalyptic massive event happened during Solomon's reign that created everything we find strange about the Magi world and obliterated the old world from the vernacular and set the stage for the rise of the current powers.Verified with the Alma Torran arc.
Kouha's driver is related to Alibaba.
The driver had practically the same introduction Alibaba had, with both of them rejecting Aladdin's request for a ride at first then seeing the potential a good relationship with him could have. Their personalities are very similar at first as well. They even have the same Ahoge. The King Vessel is actually a person and that person is Sinbad.
The King Vessel is most likely a metal vessel taken up to eleven, so it is only logical that it would be the physical vessel of the world's most powerful human and that the spirit to reside in him would be Solomon himself. This is the reason why everyone noticed his birth, which was an obvious Shout-Out to Jesus. Sinbad is either going to die as per The Worf Effect or is going to go to The Dark Side and then die.
Come on, he is way too good a character to remain a good background protagonist. Just look at how long his character section is compared to those of our heroes! Sinbad is Too Cool to Live and will have to get taken care of somehow so that the main characters get some more Angst and Character Development.- Confirmed. Sinbad was killed by Ugo as punishment for attempting to reach the Sacred Palace. David is the true FV.
Ja'far will become a Dark Djinn user for Sinbad's sake.
Of the Sindria folk, Ja'far is The Cynic combined with Undying Loyalty for Sinbad. He probably doesn't value his own life very much and would gladly take the chance to throw himself away to gain enough power to protect his king while not thinking of how much his life means to said king. Aladdin is not really a Magi; he's Solomon's son.
There are supposed to be only three Magi in the world, and, like Judal, they are born into the world as human and then become transformed by Rukh into Magi. Aladdin, however, is given no such past and has apparently stayed in Uugo's dungeon as long as he can remember. Later, we find out that Uugo doesn't even "belong" to Aladdin; his loyalty stayed with Solomon. Aladdin has incredible rukh manipulation skills because of his heritage. He's also the only one seen so far with Solomon's Wisdom.- This theory seems in way of being confirmated, thanks to chapter 226 revealing that Solomon inpregnate Sheba.
- Confirmed in chapter 234. In a very tragic and Tear Jerker way.
At the end, all of the metal users will form an alliance against Al-Sarmen for an epic showdown.
We see, through multiple points of view, that none of the dungeon conquerors are truly "evil". Everyone is simply acting in the best interest of his/her loved ones or ideals. When all of them get to know each other in war, they will realize their similarities and reconcile their differences to band against the true evil, Al-Sarmen.- A preview of this is seen in the recent chapters, with 13 metal vessel users banding together against what Ren Gyokuen called Al-Sarmen's father.
Being good at rukh manipulation makes you immortal.
Gyokuen is ridiculously youthful even though she's a dame in her fifties. In the flashback to Sinbad's birth thirty years ago, we see that she looks exactly the same as she did then. In the same flashback, Yunan, Scheherazade, and Mogamett look the same as well. We already know that Magi are more or less immune to the flow of time thanks to Scheherazade, but maybe being able to manipulate The Lifestream grants eternal youth to anyone who can do it.- Jossed. Scheherazade made clones of herself to give the appareance of eternal youth. Yunan maybe it's a case of Older Than He Looks, Mogamett was already old so he couldn't change more and Gyokuen use magic to make herself look youthfull according with the DVD sets.
- It's implied that Yunan was kept youthful by Solomon returning him to life immediately after he died, and with all his memories intact. Solomon tried to do the same with Scheherazade, but she gave the chance to return to life to Titus.
Yunan and Pisti are from the same country
Both have an affinity with birds, both have light, flaxen hair and blue eyes, and both are ridiculously young looking for their age. Yunan is at least 50-60 years old, but he only looks 20 while Pisti is 18, but looks 10. While it's not the soundest evidence in the world, this troper thinks it's more than possible. Kouen and Sinbad may or may not fight
Kouen has basically being described as Sinbad's Foil and it's the only one besides him to have more than one Djinn. So, someday, Kouen and Sinbad:- Will fight; but since Kouen is 4 Djinn weaker than Sinbad, he will rely on strategy rather and sheer strenght (a la Weak, but Skilled/Unskilled, but Strong). This battle then would be stopped by Aladdin.
- Will not fight; instead, Kouen will tell Sinbad that Kou has being usurped by Gyokuren and Al-Sarmen and they will unit to get back Kou and defeat Al-Sarmen in a epic battle.
- Or alternatively, they will fight first and unit for the greater good later; Kouen will try to take Sindria (as we know he's really excited at the idea) and Sinbad will fight him in defence of his country but then someone (maybe Aladdin or, who knows, Hakuei) will unite them against Al-Sarmen who's the common enemy (Sinbad prey on them and Kouen would take Kou back by defeat them) and since both look for a united world one way or another, they will stop fighting after defeating Al-Sarmen.
The Rukh are not just black and white
The big conflicts in magi revolve around the good guys who use the white Rukh, which represent the power of fate/destiny, versus the bad guys, who use the black Rukh, which represent their desire to Screw Destiny. The basis of this appears to be that you can only be one or the other. However, it is likely that a third type of Rukh will emerge, representing people who diverge from the Great Flow that the white Rukh represent, not by destroying fate, but by forging their own.- Most likely jossed, as the white Rukh represent free will and struggling against destiny, while the black Rukh come from cursing Fate and thus basically resigning yourself to a higher power.
The Wisdom of Solomon is not enough
Aladdin and the various djinn are always talking about how important it is to follow the Wisdom of Solomon, because he apparently laid the foundations for the King Choosing system. However, as we've seen in Aladdin's flashbacks, the kingdom Solomon built was eventually destroyed. This means that the Wisdom of Solomon is insufficient to build a true utopia in the world and is something Aladdin will have to surpass in order to find an answer to save the world.- You could be right; Judal got a dosis of Solomon's Wisdom and discovered Al-Sarmen took him away from his real family and he's still an asshole. So Solomon's Wisdom isn't that mighty after all.
- It's plenty mighty. It brought Ithmanim back to "Solomon's side" and Judal is now showing signs that maybe he cares just a bit more about what Al-Sarmen did to him than he's letting on. (Even going so far as to gather the black rukh of the "Medium" behind Al-Sarmen's back and helping Hakuryu in his vengeance plot against them.)
The three Magi and Aladdin
Judal's visit to Sindria revealed that Aladdin's status as a Magi is weird enough since there was supposed to just be three living Magi and that's all. So this is what I think:The three "official" Magi represent the three kinds of mages; Judal is the Black Mage, Scheherazade is the White Mage and Yunan's the Red Mage while Aladdin is the Wild Card first Magi of all times who lose his memories at the destruction of Alma Toran and sealed himself in the Room of Solicitude until the time the world would need his intervention again as the three Magi started to screw things up or as one theory says he's indeed Solomon's son who's loved by the Rukh because his father was the original King Vessel. Gyokuen is manipulating Hakuryuu
Hakuryuu's goal is tear apart the Kou Empire from the inside, but before Al-Sarmen's corruption, the Kou Empire was a small and rather benevolent kingdom which first emperor, according with Hakuei, also shared Kouen's idea of one world. But then Al-Sarmen via Gyokuen started to mess things up, starting with first emperor plus his olders sons's death, scarring Hakuryuu's for life.My theory is Gyokuen, somehow, knew all along that Hakuyuu would tell Hakuryuu that she was the culprit (even, she could had tell him to do it) so Hakuryuu will became an Al-Sarmen's Unwitting Pawn under her manipulation. The Kou Empire's world domination's plan is an Al-Sarmen's move to Screw Destiny but, maybe, the self-destruction of the Kou Empire is even a bigger move. Gyokuen's usurping the throne is a way to the royal family became a bigger powder keg and Hakuryuu will be the first in turning on the flame to its explosion. The key for all this plan to function is Hakuryuu cursing his destiny, that's why Judal offered his help in his plan if he do it so.
Gyokuen as a member of Al-Sarmen is looking for covering the world in darkness, and the Kou Empire is looking for assimilate the world into it; so she's patiently waiting for Kouen to do the dirty job so when all the world is under Kou's rule, she'll break Hakuryuu until he curse his destiny and start the destruction of the royal family (except for his sister), taking a lot of collateral damage with him and that way destroying the world just how it could had happen with Alma Toran. Hakuryuu may or may not will go to the extreme to turn himself in a Dark Djinn, but if my theory is right and seeing how Knight Templar he's about destroying Kou, just the author will decide it.
- Hakuryuu has already been shown having "fallen to depravity." While we aren't shown the details, he has expressly stated his intent to still fracture the Kou empire purely for the sake of striking at his mother and Al-Sarmen behind her.
Yunan will be the Big Bad or Final Boss of the manga
He seems REALLY ambiguously evil.- Partly jossed. The manga seems to evoke Sinbad's Big Good card, but only time will tell.
Aladdin is Solomon reborn
He has "Solomon's Wisdom" because he is Solomon. He's not really the "fourth" Magi, he's the Magis' king. The reason he's a Dirty Kid is because Solomon, in keeping with his Biblical roots, was a Dirty Old Man.- It's quite possible. That would explain why Aladdin was 10 years all alone with only Uugo, Solomon's own Djinn as companion and why Uugo protected him from Judar to the point of going berserk; he wasn't just protecting his friend, he was protecting his king.
- Jossed. Aladdin is not Solomon, he's his son.
Judar is going to turn on Al-Sarmen
He was present for the fight against the Meduim, whose victory is Al-Sarmen's ultimate goal yet he did nothing except seemingly absorb the mass of black Rukh it released. He's also got Hakuryuu who outright hates Al-Sarmen hanging around. My guess is he's planning to turn on them either because he's actually a little more pissed about the whole "forcibly kidnapped and magically tortured into having black Rukh" thing than he let on or he intends to try to stop their "end the world" plots so he can have more of those wars he loves so much. (spoilers for Chapter 212) Ja'far is one of the three people Sinbad has infected with Zepar
Sinbad stated that one of them is "in [his] territory", and who better than his right hand to turn into his eyes and ears in a much more literal fashion? The People Puppets aspect is pretty much useless to Sinbad in this case, because he already has Ja'far completely enthralled to him by mundane More than Mind Control methods. Djinn are Time Lords, the metal vessels are their TARDIS-es, and the dungeon conquerors are companions.
It's already apparent that the metal vessels are Bigger on the Inside, and the Djinn have been around since Alma Toran, and the place that Ugo sends Aladdin into during the Balbadd arc can be the inside of his TARDIS. However, there have been no signs of regeneration. Ahbmad is researching the Toran people
because he secretly plans on making an army out of them.He's learning their customs because he just wants to get on their good side, and when the time comes, he will try to start an empire by conquering neighbouring countries. Aladdin is an artificial being, similar to Titus.
Just instead of being a clone of Scheherazade, he's a clone of either Solomon or one of the other magi at Alma Toran.- Jossed. Aladdin is Solomon's son, naturally born from his lover Sheba.
Ja'far has serious underlying psychological issues, and, whether he means to be or not, Sinbad is his enabler.
Ja'far went straight from an intensely abusive pseudo-military environment into the care of someone whose natural charisma and leadership abilities are canonically considered dangerously easy to get swept up by. Although Sinbad almost certainly intended otherwise, Ja'far was at no point truly free; he just had a new master and the tasks he was set to were less bloody. Due to being a 14-year-old in a world where There Are No Therapists, Sinbad didn't know how to really address Ja'far's deeper issues, and even now that they're adults, all Sinbad knows how to do for him is let him stay inside the Sinbad-centric safe bubble.Ja'far doesn't have hobbies. Ja'far can't have hobbies, because if he doesn't have work to do, he gets so stressed he breaks out in hives. Ja'far doesn't have friends. Ja'far is socially isolated from people who aren't either Sinbad, one of Sinbad's other generals, someone he's interacting with in an official capacity as Sinbad's head advisor/assassin/paper-pusher/babysitter/spy, or someone he's interacting with because they're pawns in Sinbad's game. Ja'far doesn't have a life outside of serving Sinbad, and just because Sinbad doesn't seem to be abusing that doesn't make it healthy.
. . . And, given Sinbad's Manipulative Bastard tendencies, it's perfectly plausible that Sinbad is abusing this. He can trust Ja'far absolutely because Ja'far is absolutely dependent on him for meaning in life.
Ja'far has an anxiety disorder.
Building off of the above point about Ja'far breaking out in hives if he can't occupy himself with work. Sinbad's Third Manchurian Agent
...Is Alba.
Sinbad is playing matters concerning them very close to his chest - not even giving their whereabouts - which is odd when compared to the almost blase way in which he outs Kougyoku. But that makes sense, because would you really imply to your mark that you've gotten an agent in their midst?
Heck, the entire reveal is kinda odd. Surely if Sinbad wanted to comfort Alibaba, he could have found a moment to speak with him some other time. Or even have sent a agent.
I'm betting the whole Kougyoku reveal is just a ploy to rattle Alibaba and Aladdin in order to thrown them off Alba's scent. Sinbad is too much of a Manipulative Bastard not to have predicted their reactions, and it's these intense 'ZOMG THIS IS SO WRONG' outcries that he was hoping for. After all, if you're busy panicking about the goings on in other people's camps, then you pay less attention to what's happening in your own.
And Alba has been staying in Sindria for months, which is more than enough time for Sinbad to do this thing.
As to the reason why he's watching Alibaba's group, well, take your pick. Alibaba is the only king's candiate of the world's first ever fourth magi. Said fourth magi also has access to Solomon's Wisdom, possess very good relations with Reim, and is an object of interest for the head of the Kou Empire. Speaking of the Kou empire, if Alibaba accepts their proposal he'll be catapulted right into their inner circle, a position which is a far cry from what Kougyoku can reach without arousing suspicion. (A reason why Sinbad is all for the marriage, perchance?) Plus Morigana is buddies with Mu, the erthswhile leader of Reim and a direct line to all the goings all of the Fanalis.
- Problems: 1)We see Sinbad explicitly shielding Alibaba from Zepar, not suggestive of some cheapo hah-hah offscreen use 2) Alibaba is not important to the governing of Sindria 3) As Big Good and provider of mentors to the main characters Sinbad already has three household member and his own relationships to keep tabs on the Magi 4) Alibaba hasn't been around long in the grand scheme of things and is an unknown factor thus not a good intel source when you only have 3.
The Necropolis is actually the depopulated ruins of Alma Toran
Since apparently Al Thamen's "Father" coming down was some sort of Depopulation Bomb.Also, Alma Toran is the planet people see on the way in/out of the dungeons, the columns of light are the locations of the underground cities people took refuge in After the End, each of which was converted into a dungeon after the creation of the new world.
Sheba grows up to become Gyokuen
Since her staff is the same.- Jossed as of chapter 234. The staff was a Red Herring.
Sheba does not grow up to become Gyokuen
It's too straightforward-seeming. The staff could be a red herring; we've seen Aladdin take up the wand of a dead magician twice now.- Confirmed in chapter 234. Arba is Gyokuen and she stole Sheba's staff after killing her.
About Ill Illah
It's show that in its first descent to Alma Torran, it's a benevolent being that even gave magic to humans to help them not being eaten by the other species and for them to unify the world. But then, Amon stated that Al-Tharmen's father was Ill Illah too, and now it's a malevolent being that drains out the life of everything.I think that the reason of this is because they're indeed the same divine being, but Al-tharmen's corruption of black rukh on the medium that functions to bring him to the world by force is the responsable of it becoming evil.
Notices that, the first time, it went to the world it created, it did it by choice, because it fell like it was necessary to descent and help its creation. But when Al-Tharmen 'invites' it, they literally force it with the power of the lot of magoi they collected and the great amount of black rukh, that i'm pretty sure it corrupts it. Imagine what they did to Judar (making him fall into depravity by manipulating his mind with black rukh), but in a huge scale.
Ja'far somehow inherited the position of head of Sham Lash
, or otherwise was given the position for reasons unrelated to his ability to perform the job.Explaining his Improbable Age, since, when introduced in the Journey of Sinbad, he doesn't seem to either be supremely talented as an assassin or have any skill in leadership beyond being able to deal out verbal and physical abuse on a hair-trigger. But if one of his parents was the head of Sham Lash at the time he made himself a Self-Made Orphan, then it'd would make sense for him to at least nominally have the position, even if someone else is actually doing the job. Whether it's an issue of primogeniture or You Kill It, You Bought It or something else entirely is completely up in the air.All members of Sham Lash are eventually turned into Humanoid Abominations via Bio-Augmentation
Ja'far seems mostly normal, but he's still a small child, and the operations have high complications-to-usefulness ratios if the subject isn't done growing. The reason why he has no scent is that it was one of the few operations that's viable for children.Ja'far is still the little ball of rage and violence he's presented as in the Journey of Sinbad. He's just gotten much better at hiding it under a polite Stepford Smiler facade
Also, his first language is violence. Words were a secondary acquisition. Most of his non-killbot violent outbursts are meant to be communicative. Judar is actually Wahid and Falan's child.
- Basically Jossed. We learn that their child's name is Tess. Unless some crazy reincarnation stuff is going on...
Gyokuen is the daughter of Sheba and Solomon, and Aladdin is their son.
The similarities are close enough that there's likely some relation, if it's not a giant red-herring. Gyokuen is the older sibling, and rebelled against her father, while Aladdin is the younger sibling who was spirited away to a safe place.- This one is quite a good theory. I can see Gyokuen saying "Now, let us fight as Alma Torran's Magis...and children of its king!". It would also explain why Gyokuen looks not older than her late teens; Aladdin was born and (*snif*) Sheba died by childbirth, and Gyokuen inherited her mother's staff and grew to hate her fazther after he started to grow distant and arrogant after his wife's death. She iniciated the rebellion and betrayal 10 years later, giving Aladdin time to grow up without mother and be locked in the room with Uugo as guardian by Solomon's order.
- Partially jossed. Gyokuen is Arba, Solomon's and Sheba's mother figure. But Aladdin is indeed the son of Sheba and Solomon.
The person(s) who told Ja'far that all children born into Al Thamen are required to kill their parents and/or mentors eventually, or die themselves, was lying.
That's both a stupid and unsustainable practice (you're losing two presumably-competent adult agents for a now-heavily-traumatised prepubescent child). Too much Villain Ball there. Presumably Ja'far's parents were traitors or something, or at the very least considered expendable for the sake of accelerating Ja'far's fall. Due to the aforementioned trauma, Ja'far ended up developing a Split Personality.
The second Ja'far that's rendered in a dark screentone in his Mental World is a "tough" personality created to protect the original Ja'far by dealing with this whole violence-and-murder thing. Note that this Ja'far doesn't appear to get purged alongside the black Rukh; instead he gets dazzled into submission to Sinbad alongside the original personality.If Ja'far has retained said Split Personality into adulthood, it could be a better explanation for the abruptness of his erratic Beware the Quiet Ones moments than the Stepford Smiler WMG above.
If/when the author decides to use the name Harun Al-Rashid...
He will be the biggest Badass in the entire series. Gyokuen is insane
Not just in the generic Omnicidal Maniac way. The voice of Ill Illah that she claims guided her all her life is really just a symptom of her own insanity. Sinbad is casting Charm Person on everyone around him all the time, but doesn't realise it.
See Chapter 24 of Sinbad no Bouken. That Holy Backlight may be a metaphorical representation, but its effect is both tangible and not normal.The reason he's so frequently oblivious to women getting spontaneous crushes on him ("Ladykiller of the Seven Seas") is because he thinks lovestruck is just how the majority of women normally act.
The masked woman or her master is Gyokuen
.SPOILER: The last time that Hakuryuu tries to fight Gyokuen, she is able to overwhelm him without so much as a blink. Granted, he was likely hindered with his blinding rage BUT... For all that she gave him AND Judal one hell of a fight, it is extremely doubtful that a woman that has almost blithely cultivated her youngest son's hatred for most of his life wouldn't have had some contingency plan in the off-chance that she'd be killed. Al-Thamen people have a nasty habit of not staying dead at least once after all...- Jossed as of Chapter 273
The current "emperor" of the Kou empire is Kougyoku
Sinbad mentioned to Alibaba that the current "emperor" of the Kou empire is someone who is really dear to him and that he should look forward to meeting the emperor. Notice the quotation marks around the word, emperor. The word in question is typically held by a male, after all. Kougyoku was rather friendly with Alibaba, as well. Furthermore, with Hakuryuu missing in action, Kouen, Koumei, and Kouha in exile, and Hakuei currently possessed by Arba, there's not many potential successors left. Takeruhiko Yamato will supplant Sinbad as the Big Good
Post-time skip he's the one of the few to see Sinbad's increasingly getting more and more corrupt and left, taking his kingdom and his Djinn with him. Magi will end in the 1001st Night
Judar can't return to the white rukh.
Al-Thaman made him fall by directly manipulating his brain, and they intended to have him for life. Thus, there wasn't much concern with making the process reversible. Regardless of his state of mind, Judar's rukh will always be black. Arba was never a real person.
David created her to raise Solomon, yes, but he also took the long view when it came to his goals and everything she's done thus far has help him along. Around the same time he got what he wanted, Arba lost her ability to hear Ill-Illah, and had no idea what to do or what she wanted. The sudden Villain Decay makes perfect sense if she's little more than a biological robot following her programming, and it's run its course. Rurumu died during the fall of the first Sindria
It was mentioned that the first Sindria was attacked and destroyed by Parthevia. During the battle Sinbad lost someone important to him. What if that person was Rurumu? In a way, she can be seen as a mother figure to Sinbad as well as Ja'far. She did teach him a lot of things after all. this would also explain why Hinahoho is a widower in the present. Ill Illah Committed Suicide vis Heroic Sacrifice
Arba revealed that Ill Illah had its own consciousness before David consumed it, but that consciousness was nowhere to be seen during the Magician Orthodoxy, Solomon’s rebellion, or any point afterwards. Two theories about this: either making the humans into magicians killed it, or everything was part of its larger plan. Perhaps Ill Illah wanted to give people free will, but couldn’t because as the source of black rukh, Ill Illah is basically destiny itself, and couldn’t reject his own nature. So he had to commit suicide to do it, and every part history after that point until Solomon’s apotheosis was just Ill Illah’s way of facilitating that apotheosis, thus giving everyone free will. The fact that Solomon’s apotheosis was in fact fated according to David supports this. There’s no indication that it was possible to Screw Destiny before Solomon ascended, and if it was then Solomon’s Ascension would have been unnecessary, which means that the end of destiny was the work of destiny itself. Since Ill Illah is destiny, he must have chosen for it to end.