Garion, an Arbiter of the Head
An Executioner of the Claw
A Claw executing a Taboo breaker
Garion Story Log Portrait
Claw Story Log Portrait
The Head, the Eye, the Claw
(Redirected from The Head)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| “ | ” | |
–Lobotomy Corporation, Midnight of White Ordeal | ||
The Head is the leader of the Wings and the central governing body of the City. It is supported in its work by the Eye and the Claw.
While they tend not to intervene in the affairs of the various Districts, the three are always watchful of the events that unfold in the City, as a looming presence in the background of Limbus Company as well as its preceding games.
Overview
The Head, the Eye, and the Claw are the three entities in direct control of A Corp., B Corp., and C Corp.—the Districts at the very center of the City—respectively.[1] The Head governs over the other Wings and retains control over the entire City, being flanked in its functions by the Eye and the Claw.
The Head does not typically interfere directly with the affairs of the various Wings in their own Districts; rather, its greatest involvement in the life of the City consists in establishing and enforcing the rules that relate to its overall ethics. This manifests in the Head carrying the power to establish the taboos of the City: these must be observed in every District, by citizens and Wings, as the Head does not allow those who break them to live.[2] The Eye is tasked with constantly surveilling the Cityfolk, while the Claw is tasked with taking care of any offenders, executing any that are found guilty without any possibility of appeal.[3] To ensure that the authority of the Head is respected, the Head possesses the single deadliest military force of the city, with only a couple Arbiters and Claws being more than enough to destroy entire Wings and kill swarms of Outskirts monsters by themselves while coming out completely unscathed. By contrast, everything else ranging from inhuman experiments to active attempts to utilize the Distortion Phenomenon to destroy their status quo are usually ignored.
Despite the Head's thorough control over the Nests, the Backstreets of the City can prove themselves to be difficult for the Head to manage due to direct opposition from the Five Fingers.[4] While taboos, notably ones related to Night in the Backstreets, still cannot be broken without punishment in these areas, the Fingers' efforts to keep the Backstreets in their control are notable enough that the Head cannot easily interfere with their businesses.
Ethics
The Head's will shapes the image of the City, as it wields the ability to decide when a part of it no longer fits in the vision, and to chase it outside its confines. Some speculate the Head's decisions in these matters aren't aimed at maintaining order, but rather that the Head wishes to preserve its ideal image of the City, and that for this reason they allow the various Stars of the City to keep existing, being aware of their importance to the Cityfolk.[5] This is corroborated by the agents of the Head themselves referring to their work as cultivating the "ecology" of the City.[6]
To preserve this vision, the Head retains the unique power to assign the highest risk level in the scale of hazards of the City, that of Impuritas Civitatis, or Impurity of the City. The risk level of Impurity signifies a hazard that violates the ethics of the City,[7] and that must be either destroyed or physically expelled from the confines of the City expeditiously.
At a certain point in history, the Head established that only humans are permitted to live in the confines of the City, and that the existence of non-humans within it is a taboo.[8] Sapient beings that weren't humans were driven out of the City and into the Outskirts, and creating any form of non-human sapient life became a taboo—marking the beginning of the City's "age of humanity".[9]
As part of this action, the Head introduced the Artificial Intelligence Ethics Amendment, which established a series of City-wide taboos against the creation of machines that resembled humans, outlawing the creation of both mechanical copies of a human body and machines with an intelligence comparable to that of humans.[9][10][11] It appears that similarly to other taboos of the City, undoing the breaking of such a taboo is typically of greater importance than the capture of the one who broke the taboo; in the case of the creation of an unauthorized sapient AI finding a means of becoming human, the Head would no longer consider their existence as the breaking of a taboo.[12]
Notably, the taboo does not include non-sapient monsters, such as the Whales of the Great Lake or the Trash Crabs of District 21, and monstrous creatures of human origin, such as Distortions,[13] Abnormalities, or Bloodfiends. Whether a being's existence effectively breaks a taboo is ultimately up to the Head, as can be seen by the Head being responsible for patenting the liquid and method that allows the creation of Sweepers.[14]
Furthermore, the Head released a treaty that established a taboo against the resurrection of a human being,[15][16] although forms of revival done through time manipulation seem to be permitted.[17]
The Head has also set a number of restrictions on the creation and distribution of firearms, including limits on the Workshops that produce them,[18] and on human cloning, which allow two copies of the same person to exist in the City for no longer than seven days according to A Corp.'s time scale.[19]
The Head is responsible for various other taboos of the City, which are effective in all Districts, such as not paying one's taxes, violating a residential area during the Night in the Backstreets,[20] surveillance and recordings during the Night in the Backstreets—including attempts at investigating any incidents that occured during the event—[21] and unauthorized usage of patented technologies.[22]
The punishment for violating the taboos established by the Head is noted to be different from breaking a taboo of a Nest, which usually involves being chased by a small number of taboo hunters. Breaking a taboo of the City is believed to be equivalent to a death sentence,[20] and for a Wing, it results in the stripping of its qualifications and immediate shutdown.[23]
The Head
The Head's identity is completely unknown, although it appears the term refers to a group of people rather than a singular entity.[9] Any detail regarding said identity is a closely guarded secret.
Through A Corp., the Head is responsible for authorizing Wings, managing patents and payment of fines related to them,[22] and for the minting of Ahn, the currency used in the City.[24] Through the Eye, the Head also watches over the citizens of the City constantly, with particular attention to the work of Wings and other Corporations.[25][26]
The Head is in control of the Sweepers. Sweepers are expected to abide to a set of rules provided by the Head, and they respond to it directly.[27] The Head has been shown to make use of the Sweepers to clean the remains of a site following its destruction at the hands of Arbiters and Claws, as punishment for the breaking of a major taboo.[28]
Arbiters
Arbiters are the agents of the Head. Augmented through various Singularities, Arbiters wield incredible power, capable of taking down entire Wings.
Arbiters appear to be a specialized unit for dealing with Impurities of the City, as seen by the deployment of an Arbiter to cleanse H Corp. after the creation of non-humans in the Kong Family laboratories. It is suggested that only one Arbiter is typically deployed, at the head of a group of Claws.[29][30]
Arbiters are augmented through Singularities and are able to utilize them in combat, being often seen making use of F Corp.'s fairies.[31] They also have an ability to quickly teleport out of situations should they deem it necessary.[32] Arbiters typically have human appearances, and wear a uniform featuring long black robes with golden highlights and hexagonal patterns.
Should an Arbiter find themselves stripped of their title, they will have any memory related to the secrets of the Head wiped, ensuring that even the smallest bit of information remains secure.[33] The Head also retrieves the corpses of former or deceased Arbiters, likely to prevent other parties from extracting information from them. It can be assumed that this procedure may apply to Claws and Beholders as well, as they too are privy to the Head's secrets.
The Eye and the Claw
Beholders
The role of the Eye is to monitor the people of the City, watchful for any threats to the authority of the Head.[34] The Eye's gaze extends to the confines of the City, but typically not beyond them, unless in search of a specific threat.[35][36] Its agents are called Beholders, but are rarely referred to as "Eyes".[35]
Unlike Claws and Arbiters, Beholders are not involved in physical combat. However, Beholders are sent out along with Arbiters and Claws as they destroy Impurity-level threats in the form of static glass panels or chambers, monitoring the situation from a distance.[37]
Claws
The duty of the Claw is to bring punishment down upon those who break the taboos of the Head, and swiftly remove any threat to the City. The Executioners are agents of the Claw, and are typically only referred to as "Claws".
Executioners are augmented through different methods, sporting prosthetic heads and clawed arms, to which are attached Serums that supposedly make use of various Singularities. Claws are typically seen making use of these Serums to enhance their abilities during combat, such as:
- Serum K, which allows for regeneration, likely derived from K Corp.'s Singularity;
- Serum W, which appears to make use of W Corp.'s space-bending Singularity;
- Serum R, which may make use of R Corp.'s Singularity to enhance attacks.
Beyond these, it appears they have a wider array of Serums at their disposal, as seen during the fall of the Kong Family, where one is seen using a purple-colored Serum ability. As the purple-colored Serum ability is visually represented as claw marks, this Serum might be connected to C Corp.'s own Singularity.
Like Arbiters, they also have an ability to teleport to or from a given area when needed.[32]
Claws are tasked with dealing with the breaking of lesser City taboos, such as eliminating clones that have survived past the seven day limit. They also accompany Arbiters during their visits to the sites of major taboo violations.
Gallery
Trivia
- Other members of The Head in Project Moon media include:
- In the English translation of Lobotomy Corporation, the Eye's Beholders (응시자 eungsija, lit. "watchers") are referred to as "Gazers". This was changed to "Beholders" in the English translation of Library of Ruina.
References
- ↑ Library of Ruina Hana Association (Episode 1) post-Reception
- ↑ Library of Ruina Mi's Page - "If ye didn’t know, the City’s taboos are a ‘uge deal, ‘s much more serious than taboos of the Nest. You break it, and yer life’s over right then n’ there!"
- ↑ Second Round of the Family Hierarch Evaluation/Floor 1 - Jia Mu: "The circumstance matters not; the context is meaningless. If a taboo is broken, they will be there to carry out the sentence. Almost as if they are… the executors of the natural law."
- ↑ Library of Ruina Sayo's Page: "The Hand of the Backstreets is possibly the biggest reason no one dares to take care of the lawless land that is the Backstreets; no Associations or Wings can touch it, and not even the Head itself can easily interfere."
- ↑ Library of Ruina Harold's Page
- ↑ Library of Ruina The Head, The Eye, The Claw pre-Reception
- ↑ Library of Ruina Mirinae's Page
- ↑ Second Round of the Family Hierarch Evaluation/Floor 2 - Garion: "In there… a non-human was birthed. Even when the City must not suffer their existence, even when the City permits only humans to live."
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Library of Ruina Hook Office post-Reception
- ↑ Library of Ruina The Brotherhood of Iron post-Reception
- ↑ Library of Ruina Wedge Office pre-Reception
- ↑ Library of Ruina The Head, The Eye, The Claw pre-Reception - Zena: "An entity that isn’t human entertained thoughts that only a human should have. (…) Had you fully become a human at the culmination of the ordeal, the City would have been more willing to accept you, alas."
- ↑ Library of Ruina The Head, The Eye, The Claw pre-Reception - Zena: "By all manner of means, Distortions are one of the many aspects of humanity. Their existence is not wholly wrongful from our point of view."
- ↑ Library of Ruina Anton's Page - "The liquid is patented with the approval of the Head; you must change your body to become like us if you wish to join our family."
- ↑ Canto 4-49 - Faust: "It may well be an act of taboo as established by the Head."
Gregor: "I guess it would only count as a taboo if both the mind and body are recovered." - ↑ Reminisced League of Nine/Floor 1 - Dongbaek: "Did you… bring it back… from the dead? I thought that kind of technology was forbidden by the Head's treaty…"
- ↑ Intervallo 6.5-7
- ↑ Library of Ruina Tamaki's Page - The guidelines include clauses such as: “The maximum length of the gun barrel must be shorter the higher the gun’s caliber is”, “No gun should possess the firepower to penetrate steel or building walls”, “A gunfire sound must be audible” (…) “Do not research or imagine technology that infringes the firearm manufacturing guidelines, as provided by the Head along with the license.”
- ↑ Library of Ruina R Corporation (Episode 2) pre-Reception
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 The Distortion Detective Chapter 34: The Night in the Backstreets
- ↑ Library of Ruina Wang's Page
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Library of Ruina Mika's Page
- ↑ Library of Ruina R Corporation (Episode 2) pre-Reception - T Corp Researcher 1: "As per A Corp’s rules, no more than one of an individual may exist in the City for longer than 7 days, clone or original. If R Corp. violates this rule, it will lose its qualification as a Wing and will be shut down according to B Corp’s regulations."
- ↑ Library of Ruina Hana Association (Episode 1) post-Reception - Roland: "A Corp—the Wing directly run by the Head—does stuff like managing patents, minting, and authorizing Wings on the surface. (…) They seek out anyone plotting to overthrow the City and uproot them."
- ↑ Second Round of the Family Hierarch Evaluation/Floor 1 - Jia Mu: "This is the omnipresent terror they cast over us; they are always watching, always primed to appear no matter where you are."
- ↑ Lobotomy Corporation Hod, Episode 5: "Maybe it was her fate to be used as a pawn of the Wings that were alert to us, or of the Head that would watch over us constantly."
- ↑ Library of Ruina Lyla's Page - "Of course, if the Head demands our service, we must assemble, day or night."
- ↑ Second Round of the Family Hierarch Evaluation/Floor 2 - Garion: "The Sweepers will be here soon. Wherever there is trash, they'll always be on time to gather it up."
- ↑ Library of Ruina Hana Association (Episode 1) post-Reception - Angela: "To protect her colleagues, Kali killed the Arbiter and the Claws before succumbing to injuries herself."
- ↑ Lobotomy Corporation Binah, Episode 5 - "And someone will replace me as one of the Arbiters of the Head, swinging their Claws at people like you."
- ↑ Binah's Combat Pages "Degraded Fairy" and "Fairy", along with the Fairy status effect exclusive to her Key Page.
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 During the "The Head, The Eye, The Claw" Reception in Library of Ruina, both Zena and Baral cannot be defeated and instead teleport out of the battlefield.
- ↑ Library of Ruina Binah, Episode IV - Binah: "I have already emptied my mind of all knowledge relating to it. Such is the fate of former Arbiters of the Head."
- ↑ Lobotomy Corporation Day 36 - Angela: "The Head and the Eye still watch us through their Arbiters and Gazers."
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 Library of Ruina Hod, Episode III - Hod: "The laboratory was in the Outskirts. To avoid the Head and its Eyes." (…)
Roland: "The Head bothered to dispatch an Arbiter just to take care of a research project that got some people killed? One that took place in the Outskirts, outside of the City’s limits?" - ↑ Lobotomy Corporation Gebura, Episode 5: "Michelle’s betrayal led the Eye to the den we hid in, then the Head mercilessly threw their Claws at us."
- ↑ Library of Ruina Hana Association (Episode 1) post-Reception - Roland: "When the Head determines something to be an impurity of the City, they’ll send Arbiters, Beholders, and Claws to try and get rid of it."
