Echidna

This page is about the Witch of Greed Echidna, for the Artificial Spirit, see Echidna (Artificial Spirit).

Echidna (エキドナ) was the Witch of Greed. Mentioned throughout the series, particularly for her connection to Roswaal and Beatrice, she formally debuted in Arc 4 as a major supporting character and later secondary antagonist.

Throughout Arc 4, her soul served as the overseer of the trials to remove the magic barrier surrounding Sanctuary. Learning of Return By Death, she attempted to get close with Subaru, but he cut her off after discovering her motives. At the end of the arc, she achieved complete rebirth by transferring her soul into a clone.

Appearance
Echidna has been described with two words–white and black, which express her extraordinarily stark beauty. She has long white hair that reaches all the way down her back, and barely exposed white, porcelain-like skin. She has deep black eyes that shine with inhuman intelligence. Most of the time she wears a pitch-black dress which is more similar to a dress someone would wear to a funeral, than casual attire, and a black butterfly hairpin (jade green in the anime).

Despite her extraordinary beauty, Echidna induces overwhelming fear in everyone "lucky" enough to meet her, to the point people start vomiting in her presence. It is worth mentioning that, while he somehow did not receive that side effect, Subaru did note her presence felt as dangerous or more so than the White Whale or the Sin Archbishop of Sloth.

In actuality, Echidna from four centuries ago and Echidna from the Castle of Dreams were stated to be two separate entities. Accordingly, their appearances slightly vary–while being mostly identical, Echidna from four centuries ago is noted to be in her mid to late twenties, rather than late teens. Her face was almost the exact same as Trials Echidna, save for a much calmer and wise air it gave off.

She was often seen smiling and acting very nonchalantly, until the topic shifted to something she was genuinely interested in. Due to her beautiful appearance, she often gave off a maidenly impression.

Personality
Echidna's curiosity toward the unknown and her thirst for knowledge are the two things that define her behavior. She refers to it as love, and currently directs those feelings toward Subaru's Return by Death, which she is interested to the point that she longs to become his advisor to record the many possibilities created from his ability.

At first glance, she is polite, understanding, and even a bit childish. She is stated by the other Witches to be quite clumsy like the time when she accidentally set the forest on fire, nearly burning to death, as she was trying to warm herself. She is also somewhat forgetful in regards to daily tasks, almost forgetting her pyroxene crystal necklace that contained the souls of the other Witches and would've left it had it not been for Colette and Palmyra bringing it to her. The other Witches also mentioned that she once forgot to change from her nightgown, and accidentally went out in public.

Described as being black hearted, she cannot understand the feelings of others, and can be seen as a sociopath by normal standards. If it is to get a hold of more knowledge, she has no problems with employing sophistry, lying, and deceiving others. She is reasonably polite and even jovial to Subaru, whenever the two interacted. Even after the reveal that she is pretty much a sociopath and after Subaru called her a monster, she keeps acting like this, even keep aiding him, thus heavily implying that this is genuine of her. However, she interacts with ill will only toward three people in the world: Satella, Emilia, and one other person.

History
A long time ago, Echidna worried about everything, thinking of them as children that needed to be protected. She thought it was easy to control a world where things broke apart with the swing of a hand, however she decided to put her efforts into protecting things instead. Despite this, no matter what she tried, she was unable to do anything by herself, making her experience how powerless she was. Although she despaired, she didn't give up, knowing that she could reach her goal if she had more people with common interests. From that point on, she kept persevering, no matter how much she lost or was hurt, all to reach her goal.

Over 400 years ago, she served as a tutor for young Roswaal after saving him. In the following years, she created three Artificial spirits and started researching means of immortality by transferring her soul into a body which belonged to someone else. Throughout the years, she gathered humans and demi-humans alike, in order to create a perfect "sanctuary" which would be able to support the barrier. When Roswaal was 16 years old, he faced off against Hector and after being defeated and nearly killed, Echidna saved his life and engaged Melancholy. After Ryuzu Meyer, the Apostle of Greed, sacrificed herself in order to bypass the requirements and instantly activate the barrier, she successfully fended Hector off and saved the lives of everyone in the Sanctuary.

According to Echidna, royals of every country came to visit Echidna to borrow her wisdom at some point in the past when she was alive.

After the deaths of Typhon, Minerva, Daphne, Carmilla, and Sekhmet, Echidna later collected their souls and went to the Sanctuary where Volcanica sealed her off in her tomb. Her death has not been stated yet, however she initially states that the Witch of Envy killed her and the other five Witches, though this is later contradicted when how the other witches died was revealed.

Abilities
Authority of Greed (強欲の権能 Gōyoku no Ken'nō): Echidna is able to use the Authority of Greed.
 * Book of Wisdom (叡智の書): A white book that allows her to draw knowledge from the world's memory. The mind of an ordinary person attempting to read it would be fried by the sheer amount of knowledge flowing into the reader's mind. It is implied that the Book of Wisdom is connected to her Authority of Greed in some way, most likely being made with the usage of Echidna's special power. She later crafted two complete copies of her Book of Wisdom, giving them to her creation Beatrice and apprentice Roswaal.

Magic (魔法 Mahō): Echidna is able to use all six elements and is quite skilled in all of them. She's noted to be one of the three characters with the greatest magical potential in the series, though Roswaal L is mentioned to be around her level, with her capability of using all forms of magic in the world.
 * Goa: Echidna is able to manifest a blaze of fire to incinerate foes.

Item/Life Construction
 * Artificial Spirit Creation: Echidna was capable of creating the Artificial Spirits Puck, Beatrice, and Eridna. It is unknown how she created them, but it is stated that she turned Puck into an artificial spirit.
 * Clone Creation: Echidna was capable of creating Ryuzu Meyer copies through unknown methods by using the original Ryuzu Meyer as a basis for an experiment to research immortality. According to Ryuzu Alma, the clones' bodies are made of mana instead of flesh and bone, which is an artificial "Od" that is surrounded & together with mana. After the Sanctuary's fall, it is revealed that Echidna has slowly been latching more and more of her soul onto Shima, untill she successfully hijacked her body, later renaming her Omega.
 * Meteor Creation: Echidna created many Meteors before her untimely demise, which are used to the current day, namely by people who are unable to channel magic. One of these Meteors is Echidna's Meteor Staff, which is currently used by Felt.

Intelligence: As the embodiment of knowledge and Greed, Echidna is obsessed with gaining knowledge and is in possession of The Book of Wisdom which can show her the world's memory. Echidna possesses one of the greatest intellects in the world, and has conducted numerous experiments with magic, creating powerful meteors. Numerous people from every nation used to come to her, seeking her knowledge when she was alive. She possess vast knowledge about the older era, to the point she could boast there is nothing she didn't know.

Trivia

 * According to the author, Echidna's birthday is January 24.
 * Echidna's name refers to 42355 Typhon I Echidna, 42355 Typhon's moon and a companion to a binary asteroid. In Greek mythology, Echidna is a monster who was the mate of Typhon.
 * Before establishing the Sanctuary she used to live on a floating island that she created.
 * Echidna is the only person to have been born a witch.
 * The author stated that Echidna started calling herself the Witch of Greed after killing a "certain Witch".
 * According to the author, there was one book that Echidna held very dear to her heart, to the point that saying it changed her fate wouldn't be too far from the truth.
 * According to the author, Echidna's favorite color is silver.
 * The author has stated that Echidna is tone-deaf, much like Emilia.
 * The author has stated that Echidna's favorite witch is a spoiler.
 * According to the author, the witch that Echidna gets along the most with is Minerva.
 * According to the author, Echidna from the Castle of Dreams and Echidna from 400 years ago should be considered as two separate entities.
 * The author has stated that the one Echidna fears is Emilia.
 * Tappei once stated that Echidna's tea is in fact something similar to her saliva, as it doesn't have any taste.

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