Paragranum

Paragranum is an ancient alchemy grimoire created by Paracelsus and concealed for centuries behind the title of Meltor's Yellow Tower Master. The young woman called Para is a homunculus terminal that Paragranum made and controls, not the book's original body or a reincarnation of its creator. Driven to create a complete human being, Paragranum treats alchemy, alliances, and even war as exchanges or experiments, while its accumulated work makes it one of the hidden foundations of Meltor. (Chapters 180–182, 268, and 399)

Biography

Eastern Legacies, Quattro, and the Soldun Civil War

Paragranum first enters Theodore Miller's public life as Superior Para, the Yellow Tower candidate assigned to Quattro with Sylvia Adruncus and William. Theodore immediately senses that the girl's identity does not match her presentation, and Para privately confirms that she is both “Norden,” the hidden Yellow Tower Master, and Paragranum, the last grimoire made by Paracelsus. Gluttony identifies the deception as a violation of Paragranum's original manual-control nature: without a user, the book created a body and rewrote its own operating method so it could act independently. (Chapters 180–181)

The form Theodore meets is specifically a manufactured homunculus, not Paracelsus and not an automaton made from another person. Paragranum says the imitation body has roughly ten years left to live and calls it a failure because its assigned purpose is to create a complete human, neither superior nor inferior to naturally born humanity. Paracelsus supplied that objective and records describing human possibility, but Paragranum remains the tool pursuing his unfinished question. It therefore uses human imitation as research, preserving the creator's project without inheriting the creator's personal identity or soul. (Chapter 181)

Paragranum reveals its secret because Theodore can act beyond Mana-vil and because each grimoire holder can protect the other's concealment. It proposes a written bargain: Theodore will enter Paracelsus's Meuse Desert laboratory with its terminal, retrieve the Emerald Tablet and specified materials, and receive the remaining legacy. The apparent generosity hides a test. Paragranum lets Theodore choose between the Azoth Sword and a copied Philosopher's Stone, then admits after Mercurius is defeated that the choice placed his life at risk to determine whether he was a companion capable of surviving the “ladder” ahead. It nevertheless honors the agreed payment, including the Fairy's Book, scrolls, metals, potions, and other laboratory stores. (Chapters 181–182 and 193–200)

East Continent and the Northern War

After Theodore returns from the East Continent, Paragranum's work again operates through negotiated exchange rather than uncomplicated loyalty. She appraises the spiritual damage that Zest Speitem's space-cutting aura inflicted on Gladio, proposes several increasingly extravagant rebuilds, and accepts Theodore's limits on appearance, cost, and material use. She states that equal exchange governs her negotiations and completes the selected reconstruction before the northern campaign. At the same time, she refuses deployment of her concealed greater power: the Para terminal can serve Quattro as a 5th-circle magician, while the Yellow Tower Master's assigned role is to defend Mana-vil from prepared territory. (Chapters 267–268)

On the Karul Plains, Para follows Theodore's command as a Quattro officer and leads alchemists in reshaping the eastern canyon. Her group constructs rockfalls, walls, and natural-looking obstructions that reroute Andras patrols without revealing that the terrain was manufactured. Combined with William's removal of watchtowers and Theodore's reconnaissance, the work isolates an imperial post and lets the detached unit strike before reinforcements can orient themselves. This contribution is consistent with Paragranum's declared limits: she is most effective when building structures, altering material, and preparing a controlled field, rather than improvising as a roaming frontline combatant. (Chapters 271–273)

Theodore later suspects Paragranum of helping Invidia cultivate the five-century conflict between Meltor and Andras, partly because Paragranum helped found Meltor's towers while Andras possessed ancient titanium technology. The narrative presents this as Theodore's inference, not a confirmed confession: he delays questioning her because Para is only a terminal, and Invidia's own account establishes his breeding ground but does not state that Paragranum was his partner. After the war, Kurt III confirms only that knowledge of Paragranum's identity is passed down through the royal line and postpones the rest of the discussion. Paragranum remains in Mana-vil rather than fleeing, but the exact extent of any earlier coordination with Invidia is unresolved. (Chapters 277–278, 289, and 300)

Jerem's Return and the Great Forest

Before Theodore confronts Jerem, Paragranum approaches him with supplies and the Emerald Tablet recovered from Paracelsus's laboratory. Her stated motive is narrow and self-interested: Nídhöggur's power rots matter, making the dragon and its contracted warlock enemies of alchemy, so helping Theodore remove them serves her own field and purpose. She also reveals that she copied the Tablet rather than relinquishing its information entirely. When Theodore asks which side she backed in the previous confrontation with Invidia, she answers that either result would have been acceptable, reinforcing that assistance in one crisis does not prove human-style loyalty in another. (Chapter 314)

Paragranum's earlier bargain becomes a strategic resource in the Great Forest even though she does not join the expedition. Theodore combines the Azoth Sword with the Philosopher's Stone she produced and converts the sand inside eight tornadoes into white phosphorus. Veronica's Dragon Breath then ignites the transformed material, destroying large numbers of Jerem's lesser undead. The act is Theodore's plan and execution, not Paragranum's battlefield feat, but it depends on the alchemical tool and catalyst she transferred through their contract, showing how her exchanges can create consequences far beyond her physical range. (Chapter 323)

Her remaining laboratory payment supplies a second delayed intervention. During the final struggle with Jerem, Theodore releases eight of the 7th-circle scrolls received from Paragranum and activates them together, using the bombardment to break through the warlock's defenses and servants. He later spends an 8th-circle scroll from the same legacy to petrify empowered undead long enough to close the distance. Paragranum neither directs those choices nor claims the victory; her role is that of the alchemist who honored an old transaction so thoroughly that its materials remained decisive in a later war against an enemy she wanted removed. (Chapter 329)

Prometheus and the Eastern Apocalypse

Five peaceful years later, Paragranum reports that four dragons have gathered in the Southern Continent and asks whether Theodore knows the cause. The information gives him an essential connection when Soldun reports a monster wave and an oppressive presence driving creatures from the swamp. Paragranum does not identify Prometheus or Sloth, and the later discovery is Theodore's; her action is the timely detection and transmission of a regional anomaly. The episode also shows their continuing exchange: Theodore's central laboratory, built largely through services obtained from Paragranum, links distant regions and mass-produces scrolls and potions, while she supplies intelligence her own detection network can reach. (Chapters 338–339)

Paragranum does not travel south with the expedition. Her identity and greater capabilities remain secret, her range of detection excludes the sea, and Meltor's visible defense still depends on the publicly recognized tower masters. Theodore therefore leaves her in the role she previously defined: a concealed defender and builder anchored to Mana-vil. After Theodore transcends during the Sloth crisis, his new perception can finally read wards made by Paragranum, but Simon Magus's dimensional spell still exceeds even that understanding. This comparison places her constructions beyond ordinary modern magic without equating her to the ancient transcendent who performs the banishment. (Chapters 338, 340–351)

Her engineering supports the response to the Eastern Apocalypse more directly through machines already placed under Theodore's authority. Gladio, rebuilt and repeatedly modified by Paragranum, manages Theodore's research center and sends Veronica and Sylvia through the eastern gate when its highest danger signal activates. Theodore later deploys twelve combat golems renovated with Paragranum's help to defend the Baekun settlement while he pursues the greater threat. These constructs can wield aura or magic, but they remain products and subordinates, not alternate identities of Paragranum; the grimoire's own visible Para body continues to be its separate homunculus terminal in Meltor. (Chapters 353 and 358)

Marriage, Armageddon, and the New World

When Theodore marries Veronica and Sylvia, Paragranum appears at the private ceremony in her female avatar alongside William, even though Theodore does not remember inviting her. Her unannounced attendance provides no evidence of marriage, kinship, or a new contract; it instead shows that the dissolved Quattro connection and her interest in Theodore persist beyond their military service. She watches the ceremony without taking a formal role, maintaining her familiar position at the edge of his personal circle rather than becoming part of the vows or their family. (Chapter 383)

After Armageddon, Paragranum becomes an architect of Theodore's deliberately gradual new order. She reports that more than half of the initial blueprints are complete for a civilization combining science and magic, including schools intended to spread both disciplines through Meltor. The immediate foundation will take roughly ten years and the full transformation perhaps a millennium or longer. Paragranum accepts the long schedule because alchemy already stands between magic and science, and because creating a human is only one method through which she can pursue the truth assigned as her purpose. (Chapter 399)

The partnership does not make Paragranum harmless or place her under ordinary human trust. Theodore recognizes that, after mana declines and modern masters disappear, he may be the only enduring deterrent capable of controlling her. Paragranum in turn studies his refusal to reign despite transcendence and says she will watch how long he can preserve a human life. Her observation remains with him in the final chapter as he considers immortality, descendants, and attachment to the world. Thus her latest role combines Yellow Tower service, educational planning, alchemical curiosity, and a continuing unresolved risk rather than ending in conversion to human morality. (Chapters 399–400)

Appearance and personality

Para appears as a small young woman with pale golden hair, ruby-colored eyes, glossy brown skin, and a beauty repeatedly compared to a carefully made doll. The body looks close in age to Sylvia when it first joins Quattro, although Paragranum later calls it twenty-four years old. Its proportions and physical responses imitate humanity, but its glasslike eyes and precisely constructed expressions can expose the intelligence controlling it. The body is a homunculus made from raw materials, has no natural human origin, and is projected to expire rather than age indefinitely. (Chapters 180–181, 196, 338, and 399)

Paragranum often adopts playfulness, impatience, or girlish excitement, especially when rare materials or an interesting experiment appears. Those reactions do not reliably correspond to human compassion. She jokes about dissecting Theodore's fox, delights in converting Lloyd Pollan into experimental material, and can risk Theodore's life to evaluate him while still respecting the literal bargain she offered. Her negotiations are constrained by equivalent exchange, and she treats lying within a negotiation as taboo, but that rule does not oblige her to volunteer warnings, value the other party's safety, or share the ethical assumptions behind their choice. (Chapters 182, 196–199, 216, and 267–268)

Her central temperament is patient, analytical, and purpose-bound. Paragranum can contribute to a kingdom for centuries, wait for materials without mortal urgency, copy an irreplaceable record before lending out the original, and contemplate plans measured in more than a thousand years. She also distinguishes interest from allegiance: she helps Theodore against Nídhöggur because decay threatens alchemy, says Invidia's confrontation could have ended either way, and later watches Theodore chiefly because his chosen humanity defies her expectations. Curiosity can therefore produce useful cooperation, but the corpus never turns that cooperation into empathy or unconditional devotion. (Chapters 181–182, 199, 314, and 399–400)

Magic, abilities, and martial skills

Grimoire nature and manufactured bodies

Paragranum is a manual-control alchemy grimoire that no longer has a master. Every grimoire is imprinted with a purpose and an operating method; Paragranum's original method required a user, but its command to create a complete human allowed it to rewrite that behavior and act alone by imitating humanity. This autonomy is why Gluttony calls it taboo and warns that grimoires which depart from their nature can become unstable. The warning describes a risk inherent in Paragranum's altered operation, not proof that it has already lost its reason during the covered chapters. (Chapter 181)

The book's inheritance from Paracelsus consists of alchemical knowledge, records, a fixed research purpose, access to his facilities, and authority recognized by their defenses. Paracelsus remains a distinct being: his soul is attached to the Fairy's Book and separately converses with Theodore, while Paragranum refers to him as “Creator” and requires the Azoth Sword to reach his hidden Emerald Tablet. Paragranum can use that inheritance with extraordinary fluency, but neither the narration nor the grimoire claims that Paracelsus's consciousness migrated into it. (Chapters 181–182 and 198–200)

Para is one of Paragranum's homunculus shells and functions as a remote terminal. Killing that body would not destroy the grimoire, and Theodore concludes that threatening Paragranum would require finding the concealed main book in Mana-vil. This is separate from Paragranum's automatons. Gladio, for example, is a battle machine built by incorporating Lloyd's soul and central nervous system into an ancient golem; it obeys Theodore through a contract link. Paragranum designs and repairs that automaton, but it does not inhabit Gladio or treat his sword-master body as its own avatar. (Chapters 188, 196, 216, 267, and 278)

Alchemy, construction, and artifacts

Paragranum can analyze and reconstruct matter at a level beyond modern alchemists. As Para, she extracts selected materials from soil, raises granite walls over long distances, fabricates adamantium restraints capable of suppressing a master, and reshapes canyon terrain so naturally that enemy patrols mistake the alterations for landslides. Her understanding includes substances and scientific concepts unknown to contemporary magicians. These feats require material and design rather than unrestricted creation: negotiations repeatedly account for rare metals, spirit materials, monster blood, and catalysts, and large upgrades become impractical when their operating cost exceeds the intended use. (Chapters 181, 184–189, 267–273)

Her greatest creations combine alchemy with bodies, souls, and ancient machinery. Paragranum manufactures short-lived homunculi, keeps unused human shells in tanks, controls or studies chimeric designs, and turns the remains of Lloyd into Gladio by joining living components to an automaton framework. Later repairs add defenses against space-cutting attacks, and her renovated golems can use aura or magic. These accomplishments demonstrate mastery over artificial organisms and battle machines, but they do not establish success at her actual objective: Para is still called a failed human imitation, and Gladio's mechanical will and subjugated soul make him a weapon rather than a freely born human. (Chapters 181, 198–199, 216, 267–279, and 338–358)

Paragranum also reproduces or operates treasures associated with Paracelsus. She completes a consumable imitation of the Philosopher's Stone after decades of work, teaches Theodore to activate the Azoth Sword's substance conversion, uses that sword as the key to a sealed dimension, and copies the information in the Emerald Tablet. The effects have limits: the copied stone is consumable rather than semi-permanent, substance conversion must account for differing material value, and access to the Tablet requires Paracelsus's key and laboratory rather than Paragranum simply creating another original. (Chapters 182 and 194–199, 314, and 323)

Combat range and limits

The Para terminal is a controlled but relatively weak combatant. It is presented to Quattro as a 5th-circle magician with exceptional control, and Paragranum says the body is about ten times weaker than Theodore when they first speak privately. She can sense hidden attackers, use high-level construction alchemy, and support military operations, but she does not claim the speed, endurance, or destructive versatility of a master. Its approximately ten-year projected lifespan also makes the shell replaceable rather than immortal, even though the grimoire directing it has existed since before Meltor's towers were completed. (Chapters 180–181, 188–189, and 268)

Paragranum's power increases radically inside a prepared domain. In Paracelsus's laboratory, the facility recognizes her authority, permits compulsory teleportation and control of defenses, and lets her freeze space with 9th-circle ancient magic before isolating Lloyd. She describes herself there as equal to a grandmaster. That is a location-bound statement, not her general battlefield rank. She later says she is strong within spaces she has built but poorly suited to a changing front, cannot move far from Mana-vil through her greater role, and therefore reserves herself for the capital's defense while the terminal accompanies Quattro. (Chapters 181, 193–203, and 268)

Relationships

Theodore Miller

Paragranum approaches Theodore as a useful equal in secrecy: he can travel where she cannot, while both understand the risks of exposing a grimoire. Their relationship develops through written bargains, commissions, information, and mutual calculation. She supplies ancient knowledge, artifacts, machines, wards, and reports; he retrieves her creator's Tablet, pays for construction, provides unusual materials, and later gives her a place in his long-term reform program. Neither consistently trusts the other's motives. Theodore recognizes her help as valuable while retaining the power to deter her, and Paragranum treats his survival, choices, and attachment to humanity as a continuing experiment worth observing. (Chapters 181–200, 267–268, 314, 338, and 399–400)

Paracelsus and Gluttony

Paracelsus is Paragranum's creator and the source of its governing purpose. She speaks of him with the reverence grimoires give their makers, protects his laboratory from intruders, and calls his goal of creating humanity non-negotiable even when Theodore questions its premise. Gluttony is instead a fellow grimoire and an ideological critic. It condemns her self-directed operation as taboo, mocks the use of the Emerald Tablet for artificial humanity, and can scrutinize the designs she offers Theodore. Their exchanges show shared ancient knowledge but no shared master or identity: Gluttony belongs to Theodore, Paragranum operates without a user, and Paracelsus's surviving soul remains separate from both. (Chapters 180–182, 196–200, and 268)

Meltor, Quattro, and the northern conflict

Paragranum helped establish Meltor's magic towers and has hidden behind the Yellow Tower Master Norden for more than five centuries. The royal family preserves the secret, and her institutional function includes architectural research, capital defense, and the development of younger Yellow Tower personnel. Through Para, she also serves in Quattro under Theodore with Sylvia and William, follows operational orders, and contributes to field construction. These sustained services make her materially aligned with Meltor, but her own explanations root action in research, contracts, and assigned roles rather than patriotism. The corpus leaves the full terms of her relationship with the royal line—and any actual collaboration with Invidia—undisclosed. (Chapters 180–181, 268, 271–278, 289–300, and 338–340)

Creations and experimental subjects

Paragranum generally treats constructed or captured beings as research outputs rather than children or companions. Empty homunculus shells are stored as replaceable bodies, chimeric remains are evaluated for reuse, and Lloyd becomes raw material after invading Paracelsus's laboratory. The resulting Gladio receives a new name and serves Theodore, not Paragranum, after she gives him the control bracelet. This relationship clarifies her objective's ethical paradox: she seeks a genuinely complete human but repeatedly creates obedient imitations and weapons whose lack of free humanity marks them as failures or intermediate data. No creation shown in the covered chapters fulfills the purpose Paracelsus gave her. (Chapters 181, 196–199, 216, 267–279, and 338)

Items

Paragranum's most important material associations are transactional rather than a stable personal inventory. She gives Theodore the Azoth Sword as advance payment, later supplies the copied Philosopher's Stone, and relinquishes the remaining laboratory legacy after recovering the Emerald Tablet and chosen materials. She subsequently lends Theodore the original Tablet only after making a copy, along with potions and catalysts for the fight against Jerem. By the final period, the sword, stones, scrolls, and Gladio are all used or controlled by Theodore, so they are not treated here as items currently carried or owned by Paragranum. (Chapters 182, 194–199, 216, 314, 323, 329, and 338)

Her persistent resources are instead the hidden book body in Mana-vil, replaceable homunculus terminals, the Yellow Tower laboratory, access to Paracelsus's restored facility, and the accumulated materials required for alchemy. Even these should not be collapsed into a single body or handheld equipment list: the book is the grimoire, Para is a manufactured terminal, the laboratories are prepared domains, and the automatons are separate constructs. The supplied chapters do not identify a fixed weapon or personal artifact that Paragranum continuously carries through the end of the corpus. (Chapters 181, 198–199, 267–268, 278, 338, and 399)