The Wizard Marshal, Zelretch of the Jewel.
Also known by the name of Kaleidoscope, he is one of the five magicians.
(He’s also one of the 27 Dead Apostle Ancestors, but since that doesn’t have any bearing on the story of Fate/stay night let’s just gloss over that.)
A magus symbolized by jewels, he is an inscrutable old man that rages at evil and laughs at good.
Though he occasionally takes an apprentice on a whim, he has yet to find a successor.
Long, long ago, he was a monster who fought the king of the vampires in one-on-one combat and pushed back a giant falling rock with sheer strength.
However, he has aged considerably since then, and it seems he can no longer use his magic like he did in his prime.
By the way, whenever he takes an apprentice, they almost always end up being completely ruined.
This turned into something of a dilemma for the department heads at the Association, during the episode Rin related in Sakura’s true ending.
“If we don’t offer up our most promising students, there’s a good chance they won’t come back at all, but if we do offer up our most promising students it’ll be a huge loss if they end up useless!”
Truly, it was an all-or-nothing gamble.
Overview
The Wizard Marshall. One of the oldest mages, having been active since before the common era.
When the war between Crimson Moon and the Mage’s Association broke out around 300 AD, the mages were too preoccupied with their own single-player antics to be able to function as an army, so Zelretch took them by the neck and unified them, becoming feared as the Wizard Marshall in the process.
He repelled Crimson Moon, but in the process, the #3 of the 27 Dead Apostle Ancestors charged at him and sucked his blood, and though he defeated this one too, he was ultimately turned into a Dead Apostle.
Afterward, he was supposed to become mankind’s enemy, unable to oppose Crimson Moon… but he just thought “I wasn’t mankind’s ally to begin with—it’s about time I retire,” and so took the opportunity to disappear from the center stage of the magecraft world.
After becoming one of the 27 Ancestors, he came to understand Crimson Moon’s views, and began hating him even further.
On the other hand, comprehending the system behind the 27 Ancestors, made him aware of what the other Ancestors were all about, and so stopped hating vampires themselves. After all, some of the Ancestors were far more pure in their scholarship when compared to the advocates of pre-established privileges that could be found in the Mage’s Association.
Magician of the Second Magic - Kaleidoscope, peak of minerals-related magecraft.
Expert in constructing and stabilizing energy.
Appearance
From his outward appearance he looks to be in his sixties. His facial features are Germanic.
He is a stern-looking elder, his gray (originally blond) hair in a dishevelled back sweep, though on account of his youthful expressions, he can look as young as someone in their fifties.
190cm tall, well-built, and with excellent posture—the very stereotype of an esteemed military-man.
Consult the picture book that came with the Tsukihime anime as a bonus prologue for how his clothes look.
Personality
Lawful Good.
Extroverted, self-assured, proactive.
A thoughtful sage—one who assesses the whole and imagines a bright future. Though he looks scary enough that others distance themselves from him, he is still a man of social justice and has good and honest morals.
However, though he has them, that doesn’t mean he applies them to himself, and is rather a man of freedom who does whatever he likes.
“I’ll force rules upon the Mage’s Association for the sake of a brighter future, but I never said I’d follow those rules myself” is something he actually follows through with.
He has the same attitude as a grandpa who often laughs as he watches over the life of his mischievous grandchild.
Though he is an observer, he will still butt into arguments (in fact, if someone is about to make a blunder, he will warn them, a smile on his face), and if he realizes things are about to spill over onto him, he will childishly hinder it with full force. That’s the kind of adult he is.
Zelretch generally sees himself as an alumnus who has already graduated from “Earth Academy.” Meaning, as long as the academy itself doesn’t go under, he will just warmly watch on from afar at the various problems afflicting it—broad-mindedly thinking something like “I did about the same when I was young”
The highlight of Zelretch’s life was his showdown with Crimson Moon, so everything beyond that he sees as nothing more than “the rest of his days.”
Although, that is precisely why he’s very proactive when it comes to assessing the situation surrounding Crimson Moon. One could see it as taking care of the aftermath of his adolescent period. The reason Zelretch headed for the castle of the True Ancestors and blessed the birth of Arcueid was because she was the factor who would take his place in bringing an end to the Crimson Moon problem.
Manner of Talking
His first-person pronoun is “washi.”
He calls people by their personal name. If he has respect for someone of a more noble personage, he will use their appropriate title of honor—‘princess,” “king” and so forth.
If who he’s talking to is someone he personally likes, he may go as far inadvertently calling them “omae-san”.
He does not use “~ja” or “~jawai” or such, at the end of his sentences.
He speaks like a dignified elder, but try to keep in mind that his sentences are a bit youthful here and there.
“I intended to remain youthful forever, but it didn’t quite go as I wanted”
The ideal is to avoid long sentences—make him come through with each individual word.
Abilities
The father of jewel magecraft—to store magical energy in minerals, stabilize them and use it for various applications in life and for supporting civilization.
Even if we assume that the Earth did not fall into the hands of humanity—remaining in the Age of Gods—he might have still piloted rockets using just his jewels.
The Second Magic concerns the attestation and application of parallel worlds.
By making it possible to travel to parallel worlds, he proved that there is still room for the world to develop in alternate ways.
Thanks to this, the world’s lifespan has been extended. Even if our history fails, and we destroy ourselves, there might still be others of us out there—this concept granted hope to the planet, which had been in the process of losing its dreams.
Zelretch’s method for travelling through parallel words is a simple one—he transfers himself to a jewel in a different temporal axis.
For example: if he wants to transfer from World A to World B, he will gather jewels in World B until they gather up enough to take Zelretch’s shape, and then Zelretch’s soul will transfer over. In an instant, the jewel golem transforms into Zelretch. At that point, the Zelretch in World A will turn back into its original form as a pile of jewels.
As long as minerals and jewels exist there, he can travel into any world he wishes, but as he only has a single soul, he cannot be active in all of them at once.
He originally travelled with just his physical body, but because of various circumstances he eventually settled for this method as it was the easiest.
In addition, as a small amount of time lag occurs when he travels, he is also capable of a tiny bit of time travel as well.
To answer the question of “if he doesn’t travel with his physical body, how could he be a Dead Apostle?’—as someone who has inherited the Hemonomic Principle of one of the 27 Ancestors, he has been corrupted on the soul-level, so it’s impossible for him not to be.
Vampirification is not the transformation of the body, but of existence. It’s like if the entry in the Akashic Records that read “human” changed class to “Dead Apostle’—it means that one has become a vampire in one’s very being.
History
One of the oldest mages, having been active since B.C. Also one of King Solomon’s pupils.
After Solomon’s death, Zelretch witnessed the end of the Age of Gods with his own eyes, and then disappeared from the center stage.
Afterward, when one of his fellow students (Brissan1) was starting up the Mage’s Association, he helped out in laying its foundations.
As a result, with mages still not having gone under, they became involved in the war against Crimson Moon 200 years later. In this battle, Zelretch transformed from human to Dead Apostle.
He has been observing many different parallel words ever since, detachedly spectating the course of their events.
Standing
Attitude toward the Mages Association:
Due to his promise with Yumina, and the fact that he is old acquaintances with the headmaster, he shows up now and then to act as an advisor for them. He has accepted the weakening of mage ideals as something that happens. However, if some weakling comes before him and starts going off about their own theories he will beat them and their weak character into shape.
When there are issues concerning Magic, he appears before the Association and delivers fair and just judgment.
Attitude toward the Holy Church
He does not concern himself with them in the slightest.
Attitude toward the Dead Apostles
He does not interfere with them as long as they do not cause some particularly large-scale mischief.
He has seen through the mechanisms behind the 27 Ancestors, but has deliberately chosen to quietly observe them. He is tea-drinking companions with the three idiots of Agape, Lovematroos and Caubac. Rumors have it that he becomes like a simple grandpa doting on his grandchild when dealing with Agape.
Attitude toward the True Ancestors
Zelretch is highly regarded among the True Ancestors as he is one of the most prominent mages in the human world.
Zelretch, on account of having been alive since before the common era, is friendly with the elementals known as the True Ancestors, and often provides them with counsel:
“Kishua, hey, listen. You know that “Christianity” thing humans are doing among each other? What’s that? A new type of magecraft system?
“That’s a detailed Manual to Mankind’s Prosperity. It will one day even turn out to be a best-seller. Well, it’s for the best if you don’t know much about it. You’d probably lose your minds.
“I see, if you say so, then it’s probably true. By the way, I’d like to try a bit of that wine they make in Bourgogne. Could you get some?
Stuff like this.
Attitude toward Rin
‘Tohsaka’s descendants sure did well! Alright, there isn’t a room left for another Magician, but I can at least hammer some unreasonably difficult magecraft into you! Here’re some things I worked out but unfortunately never taught anyone!” So he goes, a bit happily.
The first thing a Magician’s pupil has to endure is a hell where they might accidentally destroy the universe—just like with Aoko from Mahoyo. That said, Rin never seemed to mind it that much. She simply tilted her head, wondering if maybe she had just had some kind of tremendously hellish thing shown to her, after which she kept puking for a whole month.
Translator’s Notes
- ^ This is probably the same figure as Brishisan, the one who gives his name to the Department of Lore. For some reason, it is spelled slightly differently here, however, and as a result, I’ve transcribed it differently. I am unsure as to what the difference really is.
