Hidden Sage

Hidden Sage
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Chinese	隐匿贤者
Aliases	Knowledge Pursuer (By Professor)
Vital Status	[Click the toggle] ✞ Deceased Killed By The Fool, God of Steam and Machinery and Lumian Lee Death Appearance Circle of Inevitability, Chapter 1072 Date of Death Year 1359 of the Fifth Epoch
Physical Description
Species	Mythical Creature
Relationship & Affiliation
Enemie(s)	God of Steam and Machinery The Fool
Occupation(s)	God of the Moses Ascetic Order
Affiliation(s)	Moses Ascetic Order
Pathways & Authorities
Hermit 1 (K)King of Angels With Uniqueness and 1 Sequence 1 Beyonder Characteristic - Knowledge Emperor
Hermit 1 (K)King of Angels With Uniqueness and 1 Sequence 1 Beyonder Characteristic - Knowledge Emperor
Hermit 1 (K)King of Angels With Uniqueness and 1 Sequence 1 Beyonder Characteristic - Knowledge Emperor
Hermit 1 (K)King of Angels With Uniqueness and 1 Sequence 1 Beyonder Characteristic - Knowledge Emperor
Appearance
Novel	Lord of Mysteries, Chapter 164 (Name Revealed) Lord of Mysteries, Chapter 1377 Circle of Inevitability, Chapter 29 (Mentioned) Circle of Inevitability, Chapter 1068

“	The Hidden Sage is an embodiment of knowledge itself. "He" is chasing us—every single Moses Ascetic Order member. When too much knowledge is injected into us, without us being able to quickly digest and master it, a situation like before would happen. Either I lower my defenses and open my mind to accept the modifications from the Hidden Sage, or I would tenaciously resist it or end up losing control.	„
— Cattleya about the Hidden Sage on Lord of Mysteries, Chapter 564

The Hidden Sage was a quasi-Sequence 0 of the Hermit Pathway. "He" was the Hermit Uniqueness coming to life and acquiring sentience, and contained a Knowledge Emperor characteristic. "His" birth was related to the Brood Hive's corruption and influence over the Knowledge Moor in the past.

Appearance

"He" appears as a illusory light formed from a flux of massive, complex and miscellaneous information.

"He" has showed himself behind Old Neil and Cattleya's back as a pair of ruthless, eyelash-less, almost transparent eyes.

Personality

“	My so-called ‘ear ringing’ does indeed hear "His" voice, where I gain knowledge, but it always puts me in pain. My head is close to exploding, and I wish I could lose control.[...] After being pursued by knowledge and experiencing pain for a long time, I feel that my mind and personality have undergone a certain mutation.	„
— Aurore to Lumian on Circle of Inevitability, Chapter 48

The Hidden Sage will routinely look at and test every Hermit Pathway Beyonder —especially during their Sequence advancement— by whispering knowledge into their ears. Failing to assimilate the knowledge will either cause the Beyonder to become a raving lunatic or an outright monster.

According to Aurore, 99% of the Knowledge Pursuit comes from the Hidden Sage. The remaining 1% is related to knowledge itself that has come to life and chased after the Beyonder.

According to Cattleya, the knowledge whispered by the Hidden Sage is actually correct and orthodox, and without any corruption or deception. It's just that the method of delivery is the worst. On the other hand, the Hidden Sage was definitely not an existence that lacked intelligence. "He" could attach negative influences in the knowledge in "His" ravings to corrupt the listener. Because "He" doesn't have a ridiculous level of malicious intent towards members of the Moses Ascetic Order, it is relatively safe for them to listen "Him".

According to The Fool, since the Hidden Sage suddenly came to life, and since "His" interactions with other beings were just about imparting knowledge and accepting supplications, "He" has mostly remained at the first layer of humanity. "He" didn't feel that begging for mercy is shameful, "He" didn't even have the concept of dignity and pride, which is something that human or human-like groups and societies have-"He" only had the instinct of survival and continuation.

History

Lord of Mysteries

"He" used to be an abstract imaginary concept used by the Moses Ascetic Order referring to the source of collective knowledge, until "He" suddenly came into being one day and turned into an unknown hidden existence.

Klein once saw the Hidden Sage's eye behind Old Neil, that was before the latter turned mad forcing his colleagues to kill him. Cattleya was about to lose control because of "Him" but was saved by Mr. Fool and joined the Tarot Club. Klein also protected Bernadette from the Hidden Sage during her advancement ritual to Sequence 2: Sage.

Roselle speculated that the Hidden Sage is only a conceptualized Uniqueness that became sentient and awakened due to some sort of accident. In particular, Roselle was able to become a Sequence 1 Knowledge Emperor of the Hermit Pathway with the Hidden Sage existing at the same time, which would not be possible if a true Sequence 0 existed for the Pathway.

“	The Hidden Sage is very mysterious, making it difficult to guess "His" thoughts, but "He" should know that I am hostile towards "Him."	„
— Klein Moretti on Lord of Mysteries, Chapter 1371

During Klein's Apotheosis Ritual, the Hidden Sage was on Amon's side and fought against the God of Steam and Machinery. To be more precise, what "He" and the Primordial Demoness really wanted was to immediately produce a Lord of Mysteries that doesn't have animosity towards “Them” to open the seal of the Western Continent and allow them access to the Sefirot there. "They" initially chose Amon because Klein was weaker than "Him" and was also hostile towards "Them." Later on, when the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings was on the verge of resurrecting, "They" didn't make any attempt to stop it because it will similarly achieve "Their" goal. This is because the pathways that “They” were in didn’t belong to the three pathways that were controlled by the Lord of Mysteries, and “They” didn’t have any feuds or conflicts of interest with "Him."

Later, The Fool commissioned Cattleya to find information related to the Hidden Sage coming to life.

Circle of Inevitability

The Hidden Sage was mentioned by Aurore Lee when she introduced the dangers of the Mystery Pryer Pathway. From what she said, she was also one of the victims of "His" influence.

When The Hostel ritual briefly opened the seal of Fourth Epoch Trier, Beyonders of the Hermit and Paragon Pathways experienced the same wilderness dream. Lumian suggested that their dream might be connected to the Celestial Master, and Franca speculated that the peculiar state of the Hidden Sage could also be linked to the Celestial Master.

Additionally, the Hidden Sage's indoctrination began occurring more frequently after the Hostel ritual. With his increasingly frequent and crazy knowledge infusions, even the Moses Ascetic Order, which had mastered safe "listening" methods, had Warlocks inevitably moving toward loss of control far more frequently than in previous years.

The Hidden Sage was finally killed by The Fool himself, under a joint operation of multiple churches, with the God of Steam and Machinery providing most of the assistance.

It is revealed by The Fool that the reason the Hidden Sage came to life is because the Knowledge Moor was once corrupted and influenced by the Brood Hive at some point in the past in the Western Continent. After "His" death, "His" remains included the Hermit Uniqueness, a Knowledge Emperor Beyonder Characteristic, and a Sage Beyonder Characteristic at least.

Trivia

• Before Book 2 was released, the author revealed in an interview that the revival of the Hidden Sage is related to the relationship between the Moses Ascetic Order and the God of Craftsmanship of the Fourth Epoch. It is unknown if this is still part of the setting, because Book 2 revealed that the Hidden Sage's birth was the result of the Brood Hive's influence over the Knowledge Moor.
• The Numinous Episcopate had gained inspiration from the Hidden Sage’s sudden coming to life and turning anthropomorphic to start the Artificial Death project.

Translations

Language	Official Translation
English	Hidden Sage
Chinese	隐匿贤者
Thai	เมธีผู้เร้นกาย