🌕Free-Willed Princess

Arcueid Brunestud is the White Princess of the True Ancestors. The title of Brunestud was given to those True Ancestors capable of manifesting the Millennium Castle Brunestud, and has been likened to be the vampire royal family, although this is not strictly true. The True Ancestors were a race of beings copied from Type-Moon, the ultimate being of the moon, also known as the Crimson Moon. Long ago the will of the planethad no defense mechanism against humanity, nothing to keep them in check. Thus the Crimson Moon came down and offered to help the planet make a race of ultimate beings to rule over humanity, thus resulting in them being the "consciousness of the planet".[5] True Ancestors are alike to occurrences such as earthquakes and typhoons rather than individuals as their actions, while evil and without justification, would come as naturally to her (Arcueid and other True Ancestors) as breathing. However the race was fundamentally flawed, they had a desire to drink blood that their original, the Crimson Moon, had.[6] The True Ancestors needed to use a large portion of their power to suppress this impulse, but as there was no cure, and with passage of time the impulse grew, more and more True Ancestors fell and began drinking blood indiscriminately, while others most likely went into eternal sleep.

The True Ancestors didn't have a specific reason in creating Arcueid. They normally only mold new True Ancestors to fit specific needs. There was no need for a being as strong as her, but in the end, she originated from nothingness, simply as a product to realize the pointless goal of "the strongest True Ancestor."[7] They used her great strength to make her into a weapon, the executioner of fallen True Ancestors and of the most powerful Dead Apostles. According to Ciel, this happened in the 12th century AD, when the number of fallen True Ancestors was very high. She was able to perform this duty splendidly, but she was nothing more than a tool. She was taught nothing beyond what she needed to know to hunt her targets, to the extent that she even ignored the fact that she was the same kind of creature as those she was supposed to destroy, and went to sleep after every kill, with her accumulated memories erased.[8][9]

As the executioner, she did not have any vampiric impulses, and the rest of the True Ancestors also believed she had none. A priest from the church seeking perfect immortality, Michael Roa Valdamjong, needed to become a Dead Apostle to continue his research as he had already reached the potential of his human body. Arcueid, ignorant of her nature as a vampire and the consequences of drinking blood, was easily tricked by Roa into drinking his and turned berserk, wiping out most of the True Ancestors, turning Roa into one of the strongest Dead Apostles and having a considerable portion of her power stolen by him, before she managed to regain her sanity long enough to chain herself to the throne and go to sleep. From then on she had to suppress her urge to drink blood like any other True Ancestors. The rest of the True Ancestors were wiped out either by Roa or the rest of the Dead Apostles, who made a game of trying to assassinate their creators.

Arcueid finally managed to destroy Roa's original body, although it took an alliance with the Burial Agency to do it. Roa was not killed however, as he had managed to master reincarnation, and constantly reincarnated into host bodies he chose before his deaths. These host bodies were chosen for a mix of social standing (rich families with influence) and the physical/magical potential of the body. After destroying Roa's original body, Arcueid went to sleep and awoke only to kill Roa's re-incarnations constantly, but was never able to destroy him and get her power back as he would simply re-incarnate each time. At the time of Tsukihime, Roa had re-incarnated 17 times, with his last re-incarnation being SHIKI Tohno.

Appearance

Arcueid is a beautiful woman with short blonde hair down to her neck, and bright red eyes. Her traditional outfit consists of a long sleeve white shirt, long purple skirt, and black boots. According to Takeuchi during a Q&A along with Nasu, Arcueid is an E-Cup.[10]

Phantasmoon (ファンタズムーン?) is a magical girl parody of Arcueid Brunestud that is detailed in Character Material. She wields Medea's Staff, which she stole.

J.C.StaffWP's character sheet of Arcueid in Tsukihime, Lunar Legend.

Arcueid's Arc Drive cut in image in Melty Blood.

Fluffy Idol Morcueid in Back Alley Satsuki - Chapter Heroine Sanctuary, illustrated by B-suke.

GR [gender reversal] Collection in TYPE-MOON Ace Volume 5, illustrated by Tomomasa Takuma.

Lerche'sWP character sheet of Arcueid in Carnival Phantasm.

Arcueid's character select image in Melty Blood.

Arcueid in Chibichuki!, illustrated by Hanabana Tsubomi.

Phantasmoon

Arcueid and her Remake counterpart in Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon-, illustrated by Takeru Kirishima.

Personality

Arcueid is shown to be a whimsical individual who, although knowing the basics of the modern era, does not seem to know about social norms. Both Nasu and Takeuchi think of her "image color" as white because she is pure in terms of appearance and personality. Once, she shows up at Shiki's school and waves to him from the school rear courtyard, luckily for Shiki only Ciel spots her. Her behaviour is almost childlike, due to the lonely nature of her upbringing, although she is over 800 years old, she spent most of it asleep and knows nearly nothing about the world or how to interact with others. As she works together with Shiki to stop Roa, she gradually begins to enjoy life and starts to like Shiki as more than just a friend.

Arcueid does everything in her power not to drink Shiki's blood, which nearly occurs several times in game as he is practically the only human at night with her, and she has problems controlling her Vampiric Impulses (吸血衝動, Kyūketsu Shōdō?) after being drastically weakened by Shiki's attack. She doesn't want to drink blood, as she doesn't want to become a monster that feeds on humans in order to survive.

Arcueid seems to thoroughly enjoy when Shiki cooks breakfast for her. In Melty Blood, Shiki threatens to stop doing this for her if she doesn't meet him in the park that night. When Sion questions whether such a threat would ever have any sort of effect on a True Ancestor, Shiki recounts to her a time that he managed to get Arcueid to immediately apologize to Akiha when she and her were arguing by making the same threat. Later that night, Arcueid does, in fact, meet Shiki and Sion in the park. She apparently cannot stand garlic. In a scene in Kagetsu Tohya, Arcueid eats instant noodles cooked by Shiki that had garlic in them, and becomes sick.

She was originally a being without emotions who never spoke. She only focused on her duties and then returned to sleep in an endless cycle. Shiki, by killing her, made her interested in something on her own for the first time and essentially "broke" her. The "airhead" version of her is something that shouldn't exist alongside her purpose as a weapon, but it was present in her foundation. She is not truly an airhead, but more childish and honest.[10]

She has a constant flow of income in the form of gold, so she has no issues with obtaining money. There is a special gold exchange shop for fugitives in the Mage's Association, and the owner of the shop gives her gold because he is a fan of her. She can be called rich, but she doesn't dress like it because she has no interest in clothing. She later changes to make Shiki happy.[10] She also receives help from Merem Solomon, who reveres her as a "Princess." He helps her travel around the world without much trouble, booking plane tickets and trading gold for money, but she does not know what to do with his unconditional affection.[11][12]

Arcueid shows up as Neco-Arc in Ciel-Sensei's lessons in Tsukihime and she randomly switches to that persona in some comedy scenes in Kagetsu Tohya, though Neco-Arc seems to be her own existence brought forth by Zelretch in the Melty Blood series.

When she loses control of her Vampiric Impulses, she is known as Red Arcueid.[13][14]When made aware of Dust of Orisis' plans, she mentioned that it was the same delusional idea that Goetia had.

Role

Tsukihime

Arcueid's route

You really are kind, Shiki. Yeah, I knew coming here to say goodbye was a good thing. I love you, Shiki. Your honesty, how you are always spaced out, how I'm the only one you yell at, how you always look forward to the future... I love all of you. So please, keep living like that, okay?ARCUEID SAYING GOODBYE TO SHIKI - ARCUEID'S ROUTE, EPILOGUE

After leaving school early because of an anemia attack, Shiki Tohno spots Arcueid on the street and is consumed by an irresistible urge to kill her because of his Nanaya blood. The Nanaya were a family of killers that specialized in hunting down non-humans, and Arcueid as a vampire awoke his Nanaya blood. Skillfully trailing Arcueid back to her apartment, he rings the doorbell and in the instant the door opens, sneaks through the crack and slices her into 17 pieces in an instantaneous single strike with his knife and his Mystic Eyes Of Death Perception.[15]

Arcueid waiting for Shiki after he sliced her.

The next day when heading to school, Shiki finds Arcueid waiting on a guard rail outside his school. Panicking, he runs, only to be chased into a dead alley and confronted by Arcueid. Their conversation is interrupted by one of Nrvnqsr's beasts, and Arcueid "convinces" Shiki to help her deal with the vampire in the town as she used up most of her power to re-form her body after Shiki killed her and will need time to regain the power she had lost.[2]

Arcueid after failing to kill Roa.

The two of them are partners against Nrvnqsr Chaos, with Shiki killing Nrvnqsr by striking his "death point".[16] The next night, Arcueid sends Len to Shiki's room to give him a dream of a sexual encounter.[17] The next day, they decide to again be partners to take out Roa who Arcueid has been targeting.[18][19] Over the course of her route she and Shiki begin to understand one another. Shiki shows Arcueid the various things she's unaware of, such as movies, which are things Arcueid can't comprehend as important. At several points she attempts to bite Shiki, though she manages to hold herself back in time, though usually she runs until her impulses have stopped.[20]Eventually she and Shiki have fallen in love with one another, despite her slightly unstable nature and vampire lineage.[21] However, she attempts to take out Roa by herself and is apparently killed in the process. Enraged and in grief, Shiki proceeds to destroy the walkway he and Roa are on as a distraction and utterly destroys Roa's point, thus nullifying his very existence and preventing him from ever reincarnating.[22]

Arcueid's True Ending.

In Arcueid's True Ending, Shiki waits in his classroom for her despite thinking she is dead. Arcueid surprisingly arrives, having regained the bit of power Roa stole from her. However she can no longer hold back her impulses and decides she should sleep from now on, dreaming of Shiki. Despite Shiki's pleas, even begging her to drink his blood, Arcueid says she cannot do so because she loves him and says farewell with Shiki greatly saddened, looking at the moon as he leaves the school.[23] This ending was the basis for the ending used in the anime, although a few details were changed. In the manga, after Arcueid left, he goes on a search for her and they are finally reunited together. It is left unsure whether this is reality or a hypothetical "what-if" situation playing in Arcueid's mind as she sleeps. But it is most likely to be in the real world, not the world of dreams, as shown on the manga that Shiki was looking for clues, along with Ciel, where the castle of Arcueid stood.[24]

In Arcueid's Good Ending, she spends an entire week suppressing her urges and meets Shiki on his way to school, exactly at the same point where he killed her at the beginning of the story. The two then go off to seemingly spend the day together.[25]

Ciel's route

Shiki, your unique eyes, they kill the meaning of things. What is destroyed is the existence. The extinguishing of life is only a side effect that comes afterwards. With your power, it is possible to kill the soul without harming the body. Usually, a body without a soul will cease to live, so it is like .ARCUEID EXPLAINING TO SHIKI THAT ROA STILL CAN BE DESTROYED - CIEL'S ROUTE, DAY 12

Arcueid's offer.

Arcueid has the same role as in her route, fighting against Dead Apostles.[26][27][28][29][30]While Shiki isn't romantically interested in her, he is slightly attracted to her. Arcueid falls in love with Shiki and wanted him for herself. After Shiki defeats Roa, however, he transfers the burden of his madness to him, causing Shiki to have murderous thoughts and strange dreams. Arcueid blames Ciel for it and offers to help Shiki if he obeys her.[31]

Arcueid defeats Ciel.

In Ciel's True Ending, he declines the offer and slices the line of her neck in order to escape, causing Arcueid to threaten to kill him for real. Ciel appears and drags Shiki away before Arcueid recovers. Ciel fights against Arcueid, but she is quickly defeated. Shiki, realizing that Roa has overtaken his body, tries to kill himself by slashing his throat, so Arcueid won’t have to finish him. After doing this, Arcueid returns to her senses and vanishes after saying farewell to Shiki.[31]

In Ciel's Good Ending, Shiki accepts the offer and tells Arcueid that he is attracted to her. After his response, Arcueid kisses him as she tries to get him to drink her blood, but she is stopped by Ciel. Ciel believes that if Shiki kills Arcueid, Roa might get weaker. As both girls discuss how to get rid of Roa, he overtakes Shiki's body. In order to stop it, Shiki slashes his chest in order to kill Roa.[31] After killing Roa, Arcueid decides to stay and Shiki is forced to "share" both her and Ciel much to Ciel's chagrin.[32]

Akiha's route

She makes one appearance in Akiha Tohno's route when Shiki Tohno sees her walking down the street from behind and has an urge to kill her, however Shiki gets distracted by Satsuki Yumizuka.[33]

Kagetsu Tohya

Before Kagetsu Tohya, she is one factor which causes the event indirectly because she's the one who calls out to Shiki when he gets involved in an accident.[34]

In Kagetsu Tohya, she spends most of her time in her apartment rather than going out in town like in Tsukihime. Arcueid accidently helps Shiki to point out a current event, and also explains the concept of famillars in fine details.[35]

If Shiki goes to her apartment when it is morning and lets her sleep near him, he will encounter Princess Arcueid in the Millenium Castle Brunestud, in a dream-like state. She doesn't seem to know Shiki, however, when he introduces himself, she shows murderous killing intent towards him, dissecting him in exactly 18 pieces before he's aware of what's happening.

Melty Blood

Arcueid's ending.

Archetype: Earth's Ending.

Arcueid's role in the first Melty Blood is limited. She fights Shiki Tohno and Sion Eltnam Atlasiaonce while investigating the occurrence of the Night of Wallachia, though the Arcueid they fight may only be a manifestation of a rumor or not, depending on the path. Wallachia's main goal is to manifest as a True Ancestor to finally it obtain the Sixth, so he hopes that the rumors lead to him developing as Arcueid. Shiki's fears about Arcueid losing control over her vampiric impulses combined with the rumors of her traveling through town at night allows for him to manifest in her form if there are no more prevalent rumors.

This manifestation, called Red Arcueid, is a hypothetical Arcueid that has ceased restraining her blood lust and succumbed entirely. Much like Shiki Nanaya, Red Arcueid doesn't truly exist. She is the version of Arcueid who has given fully into her bloodlust and unlocking her full powers for fighting, making her lose all traces of humanity and morality in her soul and desiring to do nothing but kill all in their path for fun, which is the greatest fear of Arcueid. However, she is an illusion created by Wallachia, a manifestation of the fears inside Arcueid's heart.

The main route of Melty Blood has Wallachia materialize as her for his plans of obtain the Sixth, but this form is defeated. The true Arcueid shows up afterward, utilizing Marble Phantasm to allow him to be fully killed. Red Arcueid is able to still be manifested within the sequels under the TATARI of White Len and Dust of Osiris.

Carnival Phantasm

Arcueid has a large role in Carnival Phantasm as one of the heroines of Tsukihime. It largely plays on her whimsicalness and her constant fighting with Ciel. It also utilizes her Phantasmoon persona for a number of small skits.

Other appearances

The Arcueid of the Fate/EXTRA world appears as a Servant, Berserker, under the command of Monji Gatou.

In Back Alley Satsuki, she is a gold heroine of sheep to protect the eighth temple and she is known as Fluffy Idol Morcueid (ふわふわアイドルモコクェイド, Fuwafuwa aidoru mokoku~eido?).

Abilities

Having foreseen that he couldn't coexist with Gaia or Alaya, Brunestud of the Crimson Moondecided to create a new body before his extermination. Desperately wishing to obtain a vessel that abided by the standards of the World, he helped create the True Ancestors, knowing that as Nature Spirits they wouldn't be targeted for elimination by the Monster of Alaya. Because Brunestud failed to create a being of the same degree of purity and scale as himself, he taught them how to create it with their own hands to speed up its creation. Since a True Ancestor of his purity wasn't born no matter how much he tried, he began to test other possibilities. One of the results was Altrouge Brunestud, but even she didn't reach a level high enough to succeed him. Despite having the Monster of Gaia under her control, which in a sense made her more monstrous than Crimson Moon, she herself was far too unstable. It wasn't until centuries after Crimson Moon's destruction at the hands of Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg that the True Ancestors succeeded in creating a perfect body, the White Princess Arcueid Brunestud.[36]

As the bastard child of the planet, Arcueid's powers are totally ridiculous.[9] Having been created for the sole purpose of killing the fallen True Ancestors and the Dead Apostlesincreasing in number,[8][9][21] Arcueid is the strongest True Ancestor.[7][29] Due to this, she was able to kill at least three True Ancestors without receiving any wounds whatsoever.[31][36]Although there were many witnesses, the Holy Church kept denying her existence because they couldn't admit that a being that rivals the Crimson Moon in scale existed.[36] Because Arcueid can stand her ground with Crimson Moon, she belongs in a league of her own.[10]Knowing that the power of a Dead Apostle is affected by the True Ancestor that sucked their blood, Michael Roa Valdamjong offered his blood to Arcueid hoping to become the strongest Dead Apostle.[29] After stealing some of her powers, Roa became powerful enough to kill the remaining True Ancestors excluding Arcueid.[23][31] Even Altrouge Brunestud wasn't powerful enough to defeat Roa.[37] Despite this, Roa refused to unbind Arcueid's chains because he had no way to keep her under control.[36] Finally, Kinoko Nasu stated in 2007 that Arcueid is the strongest character in the Nasuverse excluding Servants.[38]

Arcueid can be summoned as a Servant and she qualifies for the Berserker and Funny Vampclasses.[39] In the World of EXTRA where the information of the digital world takes precedence over the physical World, Arcueid is no longer the strongest. This is because in the digital world, legend becomes reality, and natural phenomena that have been incarnated as “God” can often hold more power than their original natural existence does. Despite being weakened, her Blut die Schwester Noble Phantasm makes her about the only character in Fate/EXTRA and CCC “capable of defeating Amaterasu, no matter how small the chance might be.”[40]

As a member of the True Ancestor royalty, Arcueid used to have much longer hair than she does now. The reason for its current length is that it was stolen from her during a battle with Altrouge Brunestud.[8]

World Backup

As opposed to Dead Apostles, whose immense ability is just an extension of Human ability refined to their full extent through their long lifespans, True Ancestors possess power beyond Human comprehension from the moment they are born. Thanks to being a Nature Spirit, Arcueid is an existence closer to the World than humans.[30] Since their power is linked to nature itself, they can draw as much power from the World as necessary.[30][31][9] During combat, her output always changes according to her opponent, surpassing them by one level.[41]

Arcueid's ability at 30% to deal with single opponents, "single entity ability", is roughly on the same level as Servants. If Arcueid faced a servant, her Parameters would approximately become twice as strong as that of her enemy.[41]In Tsukihime, her power is 4 times that of a Servant.[42][43][41] Arcueid could probably defeat a single Servant, but if faced with two, she might struggle with the first while the second seizes the opportunity to strike from behind.[42]Servants use their respective Noble Phantasmswhile Arcueid uses her unlimited backup to fight, and differences occur depending on affinity. A "simple-is-best" approach like Arcueid is an all-rounder, and so generally her chances of winning are only high, but there are those opponents that she just has helplessly awful compatibility with. For example, Gilgamesh has the "firepower" of over 5+ a Servants, whereas Arcueid is only able to draw strength based on "single entity ability." He has roughly the same Parameters as her, but his large and versatile amount of weaponry gives him a great advantage in a fight.[41] Furthermore, no matter how much Arcueid might be superior to Cú Chulainn in numbers, she will be killed by Gáe Bolg depending on her Luck.[44]

Normally, Shiki Tohno's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception can see the "Death" of animals, plants, walls, or the very air before him. However, he can't read the "death" from an existence like Arcueid,[31] who is close to being a perfect life form that doesn't even carry a Concept of Death.[30][31] As her powers derive from the World itself, in order to kill Arcueid, a Conceptual Weapon with the power to kill the World itself is needed.[30][31] Since such a type of weapon doesn't exist, her "death" cannot be caused by external factors.[30]

Despite Arcueid being Immortal during nighttime,[2] during the day, some "lines" appear on her body due to all the energy she spends moving under the sun.[2][31][34][9] Thanks to this, Shiki Tohno was able to kill her with his Mystic Eyes of Death Perception in the Near Side routes. For this reason, Arcueid needed 80% of her energy to regenerate, leaving her so weakened that the lines started appearing during the night as well.[2] In Ciel's route, Arcueid is able to regain her strength the more she rests, and by the 7th day, Shiki can't see her death during the night.[30] Five days later, Arcueid, now powered by a Full Moon, is so powerful that even by risking his own life and pushing his brain to its limits, Shiki can only see a few lines on her, but he still fails to see any points on her. Cutting one of them momentarily wounds Arcueid, but she can still heal it in a short period of time and resume fighting without much problem.[31]

It is possible to cut her off from this power by killing the land around her or sealing her off from the world through a powerful Bounded Fieldthat rewrites the world by switching the terrain effect with a different terrain effect or a Reality Marble that overwrites the current World. While her connection to nature can be interrupted by any such barrier, the ability to actually cut her off from the supply depends on what is being used as energy to hold up the barrier because the overwritten world generally has an even more colossal world seeping up from underneath it to return it to normal. She complains about White Len cutting off her backup with her dream barrier, but Arcueid could easily get serious, request backup from the planet, and blow away White Len along with the entire barrier if she so wished. Some form of alien deploying a Reality Marble may be able to cut her off from her energy source completely.[45] This is likely the reason as to why Arcueid can't win against ORT.[46]

Combat

Just like the other True Ancestors, Arcueid's Vampiric Impulses push her to suck the blood of others. In order to suppress that impulse, Arcueid consumes 70% of her power, leaving her only the remaining 30% to use for combat.[21][47][48] Those that can change the state of the World merely by thinking about it are instead forced to use almost all of those "thoughts" to restrain themselves. However, everything has a limit. Unable to resolve the problem at its root, the vampiric impulse accumulates, until finally, it becomes impossible for the True Ancestor to control with their power alone.[47][48] Due to this, Ciel believes that no matter how long Arcueid holds out, it is inevitable that she will drink it again.[21] If Arcueid succumbed to her vampiric impulse and lost her ability to reason, she would be viewed as the the same existence as Crimson Moon despite being a different entity.[13]

Despite being only at 30%, it is stated that Arcueid is probably the strongest character in the story of Tsukihime.[8] Nrvnqsr Chaos implied that he couldn't defeat full power Arcueid, and that his only choice was to kill her while she was fatigued.[2] After fighting wounded Arcueid, Nrvnqsr states that the warnings from other Dead Apostles telling him not to fight her were correct.[16] On the other hand, because Nrvnqsr has 666 lives, properly speaking he's a Dead Apostle that even a serious Arcueid wouldn't be able to kill.[49][50] Due to this, Arcueid states that she would have difficulty defeating Nrvnqsr even if she wasn't wounded.[18] Nrvnqsr states that even if she was at her full strength, Arcueid wouldn't be able to destroy the Soil of Genesisas she would need power equivalent to destroying a whole ContinentWP.[16] During Tsukihime, Arcueid is relieved Aoko Aozaki isn't in Japan, saying that it is safer not to fight her in the first place.[2] In a battle between her and Arcueid, Arcueid would have a 70% chance of winning, but if Aoko is cornered thoughtlessly, she would use "something not good" for Arcueid, so Arcueid avoids her.[51] When Akiha Tohno Inverted at the end of her route and became able to use her power to its fullest extent, she was equal to or stronger than Arcueid.[52] Neco-Arc is stated to be twice as strong as Arcueid.[42]

Due to being an Elemental, Arcueid possesses several special abilities:

Mystic Eyes of Enchantment: Arcueid's Mystic Eyes enable limited control over others, such as the ability to plant suggestions and paralyze people in place.[2]When Shiki Tohno first saw her Mystic Eyes, he was greatly intimidated. His instincts screamed telling him that he could not stand up to her because she is on an entirely different level. It was not a matter of her being higher or lower, but something beyond evaluation. His fear triggered his Killer instincts, and push him to kill her before she killed him instead.[20] Nrvnqsr Chaos stated that if Arcueid wasn't wounded by Shiki she would have been able to tell that his body is composed of 666 beasts with her Mystic Eyes.[16]

Regeneration: As an Elemental, Arcueid can regenerate her wounds rapidly, but her time during Tsukihime leaves her unable to do so while trying to hold back her bloodlust. Arcueid can create another body, even if the previous one has been completely destroyed, as it can be considered a form of resurrection.

Body Resistance: Arcueid is resistant against any type of Magecraft she has already experienced. Due to this, Runes and Kabbalah don't work on her. The only attacks she has yet to experience are ancient Shinto magecraft in Japan and the treasures in South AmericaWP, however, even those wouldn't be as effective as Shiki Tohno's Mystic Eyes of Death Perceptionduring daytime. The wounds caused by his eyes made her question what kind of Conceptual Weapon Shiki had used against her. Nrvnqsr Chaos also states that while there are only a limited number of Conceptual Weapons capable of harming her, the only people in possession of them are the Holy Church's Burial Agency.[2]

Shiki after slicing Arcueid into 17 pieces.

Arcueid states that in terms of non-fighting strength, Shiki Tohno is stronger than her.[27]While Arcueid was still off guard with surprise, Shiki killed her with his first strike and just finished her off by slicing her into 17 pieces.[16] In less than a second, Shiki drew his knife across Arcueid's body, stabbing slashing, piercing, driving, and splitting it into pieces. Through the neck, back of the head, from the right eye to the lips, upper right arm, lower right arm, right ring finger, left elbow, left thumb, left middle finger, left breast, from the rib to the heart, from the stomach to the abdomen in two places, left groin, left thigh, left leg, left toe.[15] Arcueid states that this was the first time someone managed to "embarrass" her to that extent.[2]She describes it as the perfect surprise attack; an unparalleled masterpiece.[16]

Weakened (Near Side)

Let's say she has 10 units of power, and she uses 7 of them to resist her Vampiric Impulses. But if for some reason she lost 5 out of those 10 units, then even if she used all her remaining power, she could only use 5 units to resist.CIEL, ARCUEID'S ROUTE: DAY 10

Normally, Arcueid can heal her entire body even if she was cut into 17 pieces, however, the wounds caused by Shiki Tohno's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception stop her healing abilities, forcing her to remake her missing body parts from scratch at the cost of 80% of her power.[2]Although Arcueid was able to rebuild her body in just one day, most of her nerves weren't connected yet, so she could only move through sheer will power rather than physically.[28]Nrvnqsr Chaos notes that while the previous Executor sent by the Dead Apostles could not even scratch Arcueid, while incapacitated, her presence is exceedingly weak. Even weaker than a member of The Dead. Nrvnqsr says he is fortunate Arcueid is tired, and that he should claim her head while he still has a chance at winning. If Arcueid was in perfect condition, she would defeat Michael Roa Valdamjong, but if she were to fight him in her weakened state, she would be the one annihilated. Despite being so fatigued, Arcueid initially believed that her athletic ability wasn't so low that she would be caught by Shiki.[2] Thanks to resting another day, Arcueid gets slightly better, but she's still heavily weakened.[28]

Arcueid killing Nrvnqsr Chaos' Familiars.

When Arcueid fights Nrvnqsr Chaos the 4th day, she is still so weakened she can't use her Marble Phantasm, making Nrvnqsr question why she would even bother challenging him. Despite Nrvnqsr leaping away from Arcueid when she attacks him, she is able to tear him apart from the neck to the waist, destroying over half his body with a single blow. She tore through a dozen of Nrvnqsr's Familiars as well, each of them powerful enough to tear a car or a tank into scraps. Nrvnqsr is impressed she had so much strength as weakened as she was, and says that the warnings from other Dead Apostles telling him not to fight her were correct. Nrvnqsr then traps her with the Soil of Genesis, a union of 500 of his parts.[16] Nrvnqsr in his 999th Beast form and Ciel are stated by Shiki to be evenly matched in speed with the Arcueid that tore apart Nrvnqsr's familiars.[16][29]

While Michael Roa Valdamjong should be nowhere close to Nrvnqsr Chaos in power, Arcueid worries that while she's weakened, the possibility that Roa has more power than her is actually high.[18] By the 10th day of her route, Arcueid has trouble defeating The Dead moving slower than Shiki can evade.[21] In the 12th day, Arcueid and Roa fight both empowered by a Full Moon. In this state, Arcueid is still heavily weakened, and Roa regards her as just a regular Vampire who doesn't even have the power of a True Ancestor anymore.[22] After Shiki Tohno kills Roa, the power he had stolen from Arcueid returned to her, reviving her. She could barely resist her Vampiric Impulses, so she decided to rest for 7 days until she regained her full power, allowing her to suppress her thirst once again.[25]

Arcueid defeating Ciel in their third fight.

Arcueid's first fight against Ciel isn't a simple fight. Sword in hand, Ciel jumps towards Arcueid, who is able to deflect the blade coming towards her chest with her hand and send Ciel flying through the air like a soccer ball with just a light touch in the chest.[29] One day later, Arcueid and Ciel fight again. This time, Arcueid had regained enough strength, to the point she believed even Shiki with his Mystic Eyes of Death Perception shouldn't be able to see her death. Shiki states that their battle is beyond himself, as he can't track the movement of Arcueid's body with his eyes. All he could see was a white blur running through the night. Surprisingly, Ciel didn't back off seeing her speed. While Ciel couldn't move as fast, she accurately deflects Arcueid's blazing attacks while standing on the ground. As a third person looking on, their strengths seemed equal. However, no matter how amazing Ciel was, her power is not something that goes beyond a certain point. In contrast, Arcueid seemed limitless. In the beginning, Ciel was overwhelming her, but Arcueid then matched her quickly and was easily surpassing her powers, quickly settling their match. Ciel flies lightly in the air and strikes the ground, rolling like "a piece of trash."[30] Five days later, Arcueid and Ciel fight yet again, this time under a Full Moon. In this state, even Ciel's Black Keys, which could kill a normal Vampire 6 times over, can't scratch Arcueid. Hopefully, for Ciel, she came prepared for "total war", as she brought Black Barrel from Rome. Arcueid notes that this proves the rumor of Ciel giving "boring knowledge" to Enhance is true. Ciel states that even with a treasure of The Holy Church she cannot destroy Arcueid, a True Ancestor. The best she can do is seal her away. When Arcueid goes berserk, she defeats Ciel with extreme ease.[31]

The next day, Arcueid, now powered by a Full Moon, fights Vampire Shiki Tohno. In this state, Arcueid's pressure is nothing like when he confronted Powered Ciel with the Seventh Holy Scripture and Shiki can't even see her movements. They keep repelling each other, but Shiki notes that Arcueid isn't serious at all, and that it should be easy for her to rip off his arms and legs. From the very start, Shiki knew he couldn't win against Arcueid, since he couldn't see any "lines" on her. After a while, Shiki finds a large "point" on the ground, the "death" of the very World around him. By stabbing it, Shiki kills the nature that Arcueid draws all of her power from. When Arcueid charges at Shiki, she succeeds in impaling him, making blood pour out his mouth. Probably because her movement was so fast, he didn't feel any pain or shock. Then, the slicing sound finally reached his ears. Then, Shiki forcefully swallowed the blood pouring from his mouth and sliced the "line" on her chest with one hand, forcing Arcueid to retreat to her castle to regenerate.[31]

Marble Phantasm

Arcueid Brunestud using Marble Phantasm on Roa in the Tsukihime manga.

Arcueid's most powerful attack is her Marble Phantasm, an ability possessed by Elementals, which are the sense of touch of the natural world. By connecting her will directly to the world, Arcueid transfigures the world into whatever environment she can imagine. However, things that exist independently of nature are immune to its transfiguration ability.[53][54] Due to this, it is very hard to face Humanssimply with the Marble Phantasm, despite being viable with other creatures.[10] Furthermore, in the Tsukihime World, spiritual realms are not alternate dimensions, but rather exist within the World itself. Due to this, it is possible for Humansto wander into them by accident. The Millennium Castle Brunestud in the mountains that Arcueid calls home is actually a product of her Marble Phantasm.[53][54]

If Arcueid took off her limiter, she could probably materialize an entire small village in the mountains. However, if used in a modern town she would first need to destroy the preexisting infrastructure before creating anything. Because extra time would be needed to do so, the Holy Church would be able to locate her and start a battle with her. Furthermore, the Marble Phantasm is connected to the "Clustering illusionWP" theory of probability.[10]

Despite Arcueid still being extremely fatigued by the wounds caused by Shiki Tohno's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, she was able to destroy Michael Roa Valdamjong with her Marble Phantasm.[22] Due to turning the layers of the AtmosphereWP in the hallway into a vacuum, similar to a carving knife slicing up a daikon radish, it was impossible for Roa to avoid the attack.[53] The finely sliced, distorted, and compressed atmosphere reduced Roa's body to his ankles.[22][53] Having used all her strength, Arcueid died. On the other hand, Roa was able to regenerate completely thanks to being empowered by the Full Moon. He states that if the Moon had been waving even the slightest bit, he could not have healed from such wounds and would have died.[22]

In Melty Blood, Arcueid's Marble Phantasmmakes an appearance as her Arc Drive. Countless chains act as an extension of her sense of touch, temporarily augmenting the sensation in her hands. As for why the organ doing the grabbing is a chain instead of hands, it's probably because of her feelings about always having to restrain herself.[54]

Crimson Moon

While Crimson Moon was destroyed by Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg before the creation of a perfect vessel could be realized, he still has a method for revival. His Reality Marble he left behind to spawn the True Ancestors would allow them to inherit a "seed" on which he can imbed himself. Its purpose is so that when a True Ancestor reaches the same purity as him and a body of his scale, the Reality Marble allow him to take over their bodies through Spiritual Possession. For this reason, "Crimson Moon" exists inside Arcueid's subconscious, waiting to fuse with her. Although every True Ancestor is an incarnation of Crimson Moon, at the same time, they remain a different being. Due to this, Crimson Moon is unable to take over Arcueid's body.[36] This isn't the case in her Archetype: Earth form.

Other Capabilities

Teleportation: Arcueid's natural method of transportation is teleportation. As a spirit with a free will, she can move anywhere in the World. Even though sending the matter that makes her up to a different place takes only a few moments, reforming it into her form probably takes a long time. Furthermore, if the particles of the place are scarce, then reforming would probably be even more difficult. That's why she traveled to Japan by plane instead.[55]

Familiar reforming: In the Near Side routes, Arcueid was able to repair and strengthen Shiki Tohno's body with one of Nrvnqsr Chaos' dead Familiars.[27][29]Arcueid states that he "powered up" because of it and that his body is now tougher than it's ever been.[27]

Development

Creation and Conception

The Canadian model, Amanda Dyer, used as the basis for Arcueid's appearance.

During the original draft of the basis for Tsukihime, Arcueid was a cold stereotypical vampire compared to her cheerful self in Tsukihime. The tone of the story lacked any sort of loving tone, and not much of it remained in Tsukihime. Upon developing the story for Tsukihime, they pictured Arcueid as a cool and princess-like "Noble Vampire", but thought that it overlapped with Akiha's "Lady" character. All of the heroines spoke politely to the main character, so they figured that the only character who could fit the role of someone who didn't speak politely would be Arcueid. They eventually came up with the idea of a "pure white" vampire that developed her character very differently from the original version.

While the name bears a resemblance to "AlucardWP", a common name in vampire stories created by reversing DraculaWP's name, "Arcueid" is actually just a name they had planned to give to a different character in a different story. They used a model when creating her design. During college, Takeuchi Takashi saw Canadian model Amanda Dyer in a fashion magazine.[56] She left an impression on him, and he wished to work her into one of his characters no matter how much trial and error, even with only the one vague image.[10]

Created Jun 30

Updated Jun 30

Published Jun 30

proxy allowed