Jihl
Jihl is a mysterious synthetic being who was sealed deep inside a hidden pod inside the Taranis. He was part of the Soul Cannon's final firing that ended both Vanargand and Shvein Hax. He's one of the main antagonists of Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2, and his actions drive much of the game's plot.
Appearance
Jihl has grey skin, long white hair, and blue eyes (which start glowing orange like the children's once he fully reawakens his powers). His overall appearance strikes a shocking resemblance to Jeanne's child form, including having a headband that gives him the appearance of having animal ears.
His gloves are patterned with circular shapes which are much like those seen on some Hybrids, with lines going over his fingers and nails, giving him the appearance of having claws. He is initially shown with both his legs and arms restrained by a floating "straightjacket" chair. This was likely a design choice made by his creators to prevent him from flailing about and damaging his energy pod and to prevent Jihl from killing himself from the extreme mental and physical anguish from having his life-force being harvested to repeatedly power the Soul Cannon. After finding the Belenos, he breaks from from his restraints and sports a metallic tail and floating metal parts around his shoulders.
Biography
Jihl was a Hybrid developed by the human organization Crusade, created to be the pilot of Belenos, a powerful machine that was designed to repair the damage left on Earth by the Titano-Machina and even resurrect the dead. Due to unknown flaws in its systems, it could never revive things properly, and its control systems proved immensely harmful to its intended pilots, of which Jihl became the only survivor. As a result, the project was canceled and Jihl was reassigned to the Belenos' sister weapon, the Taranis during the final days of humanity.
Thanks to his immense endurance, which allowed him to survive things other Hybrids would be killed by, Jihl was used as a reusable "battery" charge for the Soul Cannon, which caused him immense physical and mental stress over his lifeforce being drained, again and again. Ultimately, one of the engineers that worked on the Taranis, whom he referred to as "Mama" due to the bond they'd formed with each other, turned rogue and hid Jihl's stasis pod deep within the Taranis before she sacrificed herself to fire the Soul Cannon, out of remorse for the suffering her people put him through while she was unable to stop it. Her sacrifice was what allowed the Taranis to defeat the Vanargand, separating it from its core. Jihl never realized what Mama did, believing she'd abandoned him to his fate.
History
Fuga: Melodies of Steel
Around 2000 years after the Reset, while the Taranis faced off once more against the Vanargand, the tank's AI Jeanne, upon seeing the children's resolve to stop Shvein Hax and desperate to find a way to fire the Soul Cannon without harming them, found Jihl's stasis pod. Shocked by the overflowing amounts bio-energy coming from him, Jeanne used him and the remaining energy of the Taranis' systems to fuel the Soul Cannon one more time, obliterating Hax and defeating the Vanargand. When she did this, the drain made her shut down for good. Unfortunately, this awoke Jihl from his slumber.
Angry with the world that saw him as little more than a tool, he now realized that Mankind had gone extinct and had been replaced by walking talking beasts. Still stuck inside the Taranis, he would eventually be unknowingly retrieved with the tank and brought to Pharaoh to be studied by Gasco engineers a year after his awakening. Jihl could only bide his time and wait patiently for an opportunity to be free again.
Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2
Chapter 1
Jihl would wait inside the Taranis for an entire year until the Heroes of Gasco children would be summoned by Cannelle Muscat to attempt to open the Taranis. Once Malt and company reopened the tank, Jihl made his move. He promptly hijacked the Taranis and used its systems to brainwash Mei, Hanna, Socks, Boron, and Britz, before going on a rampage that devastated a large chunk of the city. This killed Shayne Muscat, and caused the remaining children to board the Tarascus (which had also been recovered to be studied by Gasco engineers) and to chase after the rampaging Taranis.
Mindless destruction, however, was not his real objective. Jihl actually sought to escape Pharaoh and find the Belenos. Seeing the children he'd unwittingly taken hostage as little more than disposable ammo, Jihl used them to crew the Taranis and fight back against the Tarascus' attempts to rescue them.
Jihl would eventually find another way to slow the Tarascus down, reanimating the remains of the destroyed Berman Empire Gheists that littered Gasco since the war.
Whenever the Taranis would suffer severe damage, Jihl would engage its repair systems and quickly escape while the Tarascus was busy recharging. This went on and on until he finally reached the ancient base Belenos was stored in.
(Work in progress)
Depending on the ending of the game, Jihl's fate has 2 outcomes.
Normal Ending
In most endings, Jihl finds enough strength to deliberately overload the Belenos, causing it to self destruct. This allows the children to destroy the Vanargand now that its healing capabilities are lost, but at the cost of killing Jihl and Hanna in the process.
True Ending
In the true ending, Jihl finds the strength to free the Belenos from the Vanargand, crashing it in a field below the battle. The children are then able to destroy the Vanargand now that it has lost its regenerative abilities, and race to where the Belenos lay. They find that the Belenos has lost power and Hanna has been returned to her physical form. Hanna reveals that Jihl has perished, using the last of his strength to revive Hanna to her physical form to "settle the score" with the children.
Jihl is last mentioned months later, when the children race around Petit Mona to honor his memory (and to settle the score with him as they promised) and the ghostly image of Jihl is seen running with them just before the credits to the game roll.
Gallery
-
-
-
-
-
Jihl in the Manga -
Jihl breaking free from his restraints in the Manga -
Jihl's face as his bio energy is used to power the Soul Cannon to destroy the Tarascus in the Manga -
The hidden room on the Taranis containing Jihl's pod as shown in the Manga -
Jihl's hidden pod in the manga
Trivia
- Jeanne's counterpart was sealed away & put into a deep slumber for what was likely centuries, very much like Baion's multi-millennia-long sleep.
- Despite only appearing briefly in Fuga: Melodies of Steel, his chamber is never shown on the Taranis in gameplay during intermissions, but it is shown in the Fuga: Melodies of Steel (manga) being behind the Soul Cannon chamber in the back of the tank.
- This is likely due to the camera hiding the area that his pod is in no matter where the player walks to on the Taranis.
