This post will be dedicated to describing an item that is important in Innocence Seekers: The Black Rose. The setting itself has quite a large number of potentially useful items for the characters to find, use, protect and/or destroy, such as the World Orbs which are the focus of Innocence Seekers: April Light. However, I will only describe one item in this post. It should be warned, though, this post contains major spoilers for Innocence Seekers: Akari of the Light and Innocence Seekers: April Light. If you don’t mind a sneak peek, then by all means. But if you’re waiting for the story of Akari of the Light, wait until I’ve added the non-spoilery bits on to the wiki.
The item I will be describing is book that is around one millennium old. It appears to be a diary of some sort, belonging to a magical girl by the name of Ingiríðr Sigurðardóttir (hence it is often referred to as “Ingrid’s Diary”). The girl lived around a thousand years before the events of Innocence Seekers: The Black Rose, and originated from Norway. The text of the diary itself proved a bit difficult to decipher; although it was written in Old Norse, the fact is that this was written long before before the earliest Icelandic texts, and the language used in the diary is fairly archaic (for example, it uses vesa exclusively, where 13th century Old Icelandic used vera). Suffice to say, in the Innocence Seekers universe (not in real life), this item is the oldest substantial text written in Old Norse.
A few months before the events of Innocence Seekers: Akari of the Light, the diary was originally found in an abandoned home in Oslo, by a member of Puella. The member was, of course, unable to decipher the text, so she sent it to Puella Headquarters in Reykjavík for analysis. It would not be until late in Akari of the Light that the entire diary would be deciphered. What they found actually had implications for the battle against Gakran. The girl who wrote the diary was the magical girl who fought Gakran alongside three others all those years ago, and she described her journey in vivid detail, from her father’s sudden departure to Constantinople, her adventures through what is now Germany, then England and Ireland, the discovery of a portal to Fuenod north of Scotland, her journey through the portal and into Blyland, all the way through to finding out about Gakran’s evil deeds on another world, and setting off to stop him. In fact, it was later noted in the diary that Sigurd’s journey to Constantinople was actually a cover for his own quest to slay Gakran.
What was notable, though, is that after Ingrid, her companions, and her father managed to defeat Gakran, she noted that the demon was still alive in some form, and that it was impossible to kill him even with the power of Innocence. The diary ended with her mentioning splitting her spirit into two after death to find a way to defeat Gakran once and for all.
The concept of reincarnation into pairs was noted among magical girls throughout history, but in this context the fact that the means to defeat Gakran was split into two and that the girl knew it meant it had significant implications for the battle against Gakran. As such, before Akari and her friends headed off to Haralni to assault Gakran’s fortress, they were sent to Lobehaben to have a look at the diary, which had some residual mana from the girl who wrote it. As it turned out, Akari is a reincarnation of the girl, and the search for the other one began in earnest. Akari and her friends, of coursed, continued on their way to Gakran’s fortress.
After Gakran’s defeat, Puella, as well as Akari and her friends, knew that the war was not over yet. The search for the other reincarnation continued into the events of Innocence Seekers: April Light. Meanwhile, Gakran’s essence continued to drift across the galaxy, waiting for the right moment.
I have plans to incorporate this item into April Light (of course), but I won’t say any more. But I will say that Uzuki has been compared to Akari at least once before.
Anyway, Ingrid’s Diary has, after the events of Akari of the Light, fallen into the ownership of Emme Willemsdutter (whose daughter, Matilda Odakersdutter [rendered in Blylandic as Mattild Ǫdakersdutter], is, incidentally, a classmate of Akari). Emme has rewritten the contents of the diary into the first part of what is known as the Saga of Gakran (Blylandic: Gakrans Sagge), which itself is, as of April Light, available in a number of languages. The original was written in Blylandic, and the first translations were into English (by David Benson), Japanese (by Akane Kuritani) and Icelandic. An Old Blylandic translation is also available as a study aid for Blylandic classicalists (note that Blylandic sources sometimes referred to “Ingifridu Sigiwardorduhtir”, or the modern form of her name, “Ingrid Sigwerderdutter”, and her exploits in Blyland). Note that as of April Light, the Saga of Gakran is incomplete.
Anyway, that is all for now.
P.S. “Willemsdutter” and “Odakersdutter” are patronymics, not surnames. While Emme and Matilda do have surnames, they rarely use them (even girls like Michiru and Mirai do not use Emme’s surname when addressing her).
P.P.S. On a side note, The name “Gakran” was rendered in the diary as Gakrann (with accusative Gakran, genitive Gakrans and dative Gakrani), using normalised orthography (the actual spelling used I won’t elaborate).