Grutrissheit (Pre-Pub)

Grutrissheit (グルトリスハイト, Gurutorisuhaito) is the name of Mestionora's bible, as well as man-made transcriptions and copies of the divine book. According to legend, it is the original bible that the first king of the country was permitted to transcribe upon being chosen by the Gods. Therefore, it is the symbol of power for all Zents.

Presumably all other Bibles have been derived from this transcription by the first king.

Despite all sharing the same name, the term can refer to Mestionora's own book, in the whichever place the gods occupy, the knowledge contained within the book stored directly in a Zent candidate's mind and schtappe, or a physical magic tool created by a past Zent.

Often refered to as the True Book of Mestionora, this Grutrissheit isn't an object, but the knowledge contained within the holy book within a person's mind and schtappe, which allows them to morph their schtappe into a temporary manifesation of the book. To obtain it, a candidate must be omni-elemental and have the divine protection of all the Supreme Gods and Eternal Five. Should one lack any natural affinities, the only way to obtain the associated deity's divine protection is to pray at the Royal Academy's small shrines to first obtain the divine protection of each of the twelve subordinate gods of the deity in question, which not only give the person an affinity for the element, albeit at lesser efficiency than those naturally born with it, and qualify them to gain the deity's divine protection. Once a divine protection of a supreme or primary god is obtained, the person can then pray at that deity's large shrine, to gain a feystone tablet, which will then be absorbed by their schtappe and unlock a magical word in their mind.

Once all seven tablets and words have been obtained, the Zent candidate needs to fill the book-shaped magic tool in the hand of the statue of Mestionora on the second floor of the Royal Academy/Library with mana, which will see them teleported to a room, in which their virtue is tested by a guardian taking the shape of a golden shumil. If this test is passed, they will be transported to the Garden of Beginnings, were Erwaermen, the former God of Binding, will tranfer the knowledge of the Grutrissheit directly in the candidate's mind.

With this knowledge the Zent candidate is then able to transform their schtappe into a Grutrissheit and have access to not only the full functionality of the kingdom's foundation magic, but also the knowledge of every noble of archnoble level of mana or above, as well as a couple of the stronger mednobles, who ever lived and died, while being registered as Yurgenschmidt citizens.

As with most schtappe transformations, the Grutrissheit have a fixed appearance and can be shaped by the preconceptions and desires of the owner.

This magic tool is a fixture in the underground archive. Originally it was meant to be a reference to fill in any gaps of incomplete Grutrissheits only, should none of the Zent candidates of a generation manage to obtain a full Book of Mestionora.

Zent Garensorg found out that even someone rejected by the golden shumil guardian could use this magic tool to obtain enough of the Book of Mestionora, to still become Zent. For this method one still needed to be born omni-elemental, or become omni-elemental by praying to the lesser and large shrines to gain the empty shape of the Grutrissheit in their mind from the statue of Mestionora, but once omni-elemental, one could bypass the need to obtain all seven feystone tablets or pass the shumil's test of virtue.

This magic tool, created by Zent Albsenti, takes the shape of a physical book and unlike the failsafe magic tool, can be taken out of the room and used by people who are not omni-elemental.

Zent Albsenti, who was an expert in the creation of magic tools, created this tool to allow her favourite son Neigenheit to become Zent, despite lacking one element and not having the drive to obtain it via prayer. It was designed to teleport back to the room behind the underground archive upon death of the owner, but should a Zent pass it down to his successor, whilte still alive, this function can be bypassed.

Due to being founded by a former Yurgenschmidt prince, who had already obtained a Ture Book of Mestionora of his own, by the time his brother was chosen as the successor, the country of Lanzenave likewise has a Grutrissheit as the symbol of it's king, which is passed down by the royal family through the generations. It is currently unclear, how exactly the Lanzenavians pass this knowledge down from generation to generation.

Apart from the obvious function of containing religious stories and prayers and being the symbol of office for the king, all variants of the Grutrissheit are also integral parts of controlling Yurgenschmidt'd foundation magic and among other things an absolute necessity to open and close country gates, use the teleportation circles within the country gates, destroying or creating duchy foundations and redrawing borders of existing duchies. It also apparently makes charing the country's foundation with mana considerably more efficient.

Only the True Book of Mestionora is capable of accessing the knowledge of deceased Yurgenschmidt citizens, who have had a sufficient mana level to quality in life.

In the ancient past, all Zents went through the process of obtaining a True Book of Mestionora. Only when the Zent candidate Garensorg failed the golden shumil's test of virtue, was it discovered that just filling the statue of Mestionora alone, gives a noble the shape of the Grutrissheit in their mind and that this empty mental contruct can be filled with the knowledge in the Failsafe Magic Tool, opening up the chance to become Zent to a large number of otherwise unqualified people. This increase in the number of candidate and allowing people without virtue to compete for the position, led to a rise in conflicts over successon. With people's propensity to take the path of least resistence and effort, most Zent candidate took this easier and faste route to obtain a workable Grutrissheit, rather than the more arduous path to a True Book of Mestionora, but even so, the proper path remained in the public knowledge.

Perturbed by the many unnecessary deathes, Zent Raufestreita, a Zent with a True Book of Mestionora, created a barrier in the corridor leading to the room with the Failsafe Magic Tool, that would only allow those registered with the royal family to pass. Her reasoning was that, the cause of conflict was that anyone could become Zent, which naturally attracted power-hungry and selfish individuals. By making sure that only the members of her own house - who were all vehemently opposed to warfare - and their descendants, would have access to the only means to bypass the test of virture, the country would be ushered back into an era of peace.

Initially this met with harsh criticism, but when the peaceful era actually came to be, these voices died down and many nobles outright praised Zent Raufestreita for bringing stability and calm back to the country. This was the birth of the concept of a royal family, as well as princesses and princes. Unfortunately, her faith in her descendants would eventually be disappointed, since even within the same family, conflicts over succession would still flare up from time to time.

At some point after the establishment of Lanzenave 400 years ago, a Zent by the name of Albsenti, with many children, doted on one of her sons in particular and dearly wishes for him to ecome her successor. This son, Neigenheit, however lacked one element, as well as the drive to obtain it through praying at the shrines. As a master in crafting magic tools, Zent Albsenti set about creating a book-shaped, physical magic tool Grutrissheit for her beloved son, so he could still become Zent, despite his shortcomings. This Grutrissheit was designed to teleport to the hidden room in the underground archive, should the owner die. With this tool and all her political weight, Albsenti was able force this succession through and Neigenheit did become the next Zent.

Neigenheit's own son, Rundsein, was born omni-elemental and would have been able to obtain either a True Book of Mestionora, or the reduced version copied from the Failsafe Magic Tool. But seeing the physical Grutrissheit as the crystalization of his mother's love, Zent Neigenheit chose to pass this magic tool on to his son, while neglecting to mention that it would teleport to the underground archive, if it had no owner even for a moment. Never having been taught about other two ways of obtaining a Grutrissheit, Rundsein assumed that passing this particular magic tool from parent to child has been, how the Zents have done things since antiquity and thus it became not only the established, but the only known way to pass down the Grutrissheit.

Even the exact knowledge of this way to pass the Grutrissheit down through the generations, was kept in the strictest confidence, with most Zents apparently electing to only pass it down to their chosen successor verbally. In the absence of actual knowledge, many nobles and even other members of the royal family, wrongfully assumed that each successor would transcribe the Grutrissheit of their parent, rather than there being just a single instance of it, that was passed on, which directly led into the disatrous misunderstanding that would cause the latest Civil War between Zent Trauerqual's siblings.

Ferdinand of Ehrenfest speculates in private that its location has been passed down from kings to successors only orally. Since the current king was originally raised as a vassal to his older brothers and only became king due to exceptional circumstances, he never received this knowledge, leaving him unable to fulfill this duty.

In the course of her translations of the texts in the Underground Archive Rozemyne discovers hints, that the path to the Grutrissheit is connected to the Shrines scattered that can be found on the academy grounds. This is confirmed, when Prince Anastasius takes her to one of the shrines, where Rozemyne inadvertedly obtains a feystone tablet, granting her part of the key to Mestionora's book. Emboldened by this, Anastasius has Rozemyne acquire the entire set, at which point a previously hidden door within the underground archive becomes accessible to her. However Rozemyne is unable to reach the location that presumably holds physical Grutrissheit, due to a magical barrier that only allows people entry, who are registered with the royal family.

During her fourth year at the Royal Academy, Lady Rozemyne is able to fulfill the qualifications to become Zent and thus is summoned to Erwaermen to have the information making up the Grutrissheit sent directly into her mind, which enables her to turn her schtappe into her own version of the holy book. However, when the process is complete, she holds only something between 60 and 70 percent of the total knowledge. As it turned out, ten years earlier Ferdinand somehow forced his way into the process, but broke it off when only part of the information had been loaded into his mind. Furthermmore, due to a row of unlikely events, Rozemyne had ended up dyed in Ferdinand's mana for an unusually long time, which resulted in Erwaermen, who is only able to see mana, being unable to differentiate her signature from that of Ferdinand, which means that to the gods and to magic tools, the two essentially count as the same person and thus their Grutrissheit is now split between them. Erwaermen tasks Rozemyne to kill Ferdinand and absorb his feystone, to complete her bible and become a true Zent, but Rozemyne vehemently opposes the notion.

Despite only having an incomplete Grutrissheit, Rozemyne is still able to summon it by transforming her schtappe. Her version of Mestionora's book takes the shape of a modern day tablet.