Émigré Manuscript

“	"It creates life from nothing and can be used to summon a god of death."	„
	~ Shadow Hearts

“	"...And the Émigré Manuscript, which creates life from death."	„
	~ Yuri Hyuga

The Émigré Manuscript, (also known as the "Émigré Document") is without a doubt the most infamous of the three books in the series, playing an active and key role in Koudelka, Shadow Hearts, Shadow Hearts: Covenant, and Shadow Hearts: From the New World.

Shaped like a human skull, it is a cursed tome that contains the so-called knowledge to bring the dead back to life. To achieve the ultimate goal of resurrection, it appears to describe a number of different rituals that can be used independently from each other. However, there are some basic structures that the rituals share.

These include:

The creation of a vessel to house a soul
Controlling the flow of time (mainly used to speed the growth of the vessel to the desired state)
The summoning ritual to call a soul back from the beyond

It should be noted, however, that the ritual has never been completed successfully. The only known time the ritual has been even marginally successful was prior to the events of Shadow Hearts: From the New World, and even then the ritual was not perfect. This is achieved thanks to to the utilization of an equal and substantial amount of Malice - the red light and Will - the blue light, since Malice can form a body for the dead, whereas Will can form their soul and memories. Using only Malice will only bring back a hollow shell with no soul, emotions and memories, driven only by instincts and malicious intents, and using only Will will either bring back the soul but with no body or a horrific monster that will murder those who carried out the ritual.

Another ritual mentioned is immortality, but not eternal youth, which Roger Bacon used on himself after he escaped the Pope once he finished making the new copy and transcribing the Émigré Manuscript. He mentions in Koudelka, that he is unable to perform the same act on others.

History[]

Originally written by The Formors in the ancient past, it documented the rituals that they had perfected to raise the dead from the grave. This knowledge was then passed down to the ancient Druids who sacrificed many to perform the ritual.

Before their passing, the information was given to the Celts, who, after being conquered by the Greek general, Alexander III of Macedon, more famously known as Alexander the Great, relinquished the text to him.

Alexander himself oversaw the translation of the text from Celtic to Greek, for the purpose of placing the text inside the ancient Library of Alexandria. Secluded from the other works in the library, it was placed in a restricted section, where none were allowed access. When the Library caught fire, the text was rescued from the blaze and traveled throughout Europe.

During this period of turmoil, the book exchanged many hands, and was taken to many places, eventually earning it the moniker of the "Émigré Document".

In the 6th century, with the rise and spread of the Catholic Church, and the booming trade in manuscripts and parchment, the manuscript wound up in the collection of the newly established monastery on The Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

While admiring the tome for the beauty its illustrations, the monks could not read Greek, and were thus unaware of the text's meaning.

It stayed in the monastic library until the early 9th century, where under threat of Viking invasion, it again travelled again. Making its way to Ireland, the Abbot of the monastery entrusted the document to the, Greek-understanding, siblings; Daniel, and Johannes Scotus Eriugena.

Astonished by the contents of the manuscript, and intrigued by the talk of a Holy Land in Wales, Daniel Scotus set off to consecrate the site, founding what would eventually become the Nemeton Monastery.

Johannes Scotus Eriugena, however, kept possession of the text, and took it to France, where he was in service of the French court. It remained with him until his death, where it was collected by the Vatican, among with his other papers, and placed inside the Papel Library to safeguard it from misuse.

Around the mid-thirteenth century, the document had fallen into a terrible and fragile state. Desperate to preserve the text, the Pope of the time, ordered the renowned alchemist and philosopher, Roger Bacon to transcribe the entire book to preserve its contents.

Reading through the text, Roger applied one of the rituals to himself in an attempt to become immortal, before erasing the ritual completely from the book so that it could not be abused by others.

Completing the transcription, he presented the manuscript to the Pope and fled, knowing the Pope wished to kill him in order to keep the document and its power a secret.

In the 16th century, alchemists John Dee, and Edward Kelley searching for the manuscript, located some of Roger's ciphered Welsh texts, and reworked them into a document that would later become known as the Voynich Manuscript, while the genuine book was placed back into the Vatican Library.

It stayed undisturbed for almost seven hundred years until it was stolen by Cardinal Albert Simon, taking with him the Pulse Tract and the Codex of Lurie - two other cursed, occult tomes - who gave it to Patrick Heyworth, sparking off the events of Koudelka.

Koudelka[]

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. (Skip section)

Elaine and Patrick — Patrick completes the Ritual

Sold by Cardinal Albert Simon to Patrick. Used by Patrick in an attempt to bring back his dead wife, Elaine. He realized too late that he could not call back her soul, only a twisted demon. This caused much of the unrest first sensed by Koudelka at Nemeton Monastery.

The ritual in this game involved the use of:

A sacred cauldron to house the body.
Many, many human and animal sacrifices.

This particular ritual had the unusual side effect of creating a gigantic "Tree of Life", at the top of which was a bud where Elaine's body resided.

Patrick only was able to bring back Elain's body and not her soul. Nemeton Monastery's dark history of being also a prison and with the senseless beating, torture, and horrible deaths must have created tons of Malice within the Monastery, and with Patrick causing more deaths within the Monastery's for the ritual bring back his dear wife caused the Malice to build up even more. And since Malice can only bring back the body, it reanimated her corpse, but had none of the personality or traits of Elaine, an entirely different entity, driven only by animalistic instinct and no reason. After the ritual was completed, the malice must have gotten to the poor souls who cannot crossover mutating them into monsters for the hatred of their horrible deaths.

Koudelka Manga[]

Emgireoriginal — The original Manuscript of the Exiles - Clad in chains

Translated as The Manuscript of the Exiles and though it is non-canonical, the original copy of the text (the one from which Roger transcribed) makes an appearance, the main plot this time around was to resurrect Mary Vermont, the late daughter of Lord Leslie.

The ritual begins — The Author begins the ritual

Lacking Roger's copy, the original was stolen from the Vatican by the "Royal Medical Society", although the ancient text was illegible and crumbling. Because of this, the society planned to summon the original author of the text and have him recite the text in full.

Roger left deliberate mistakes in his transcription, because doing the ritual correctly drained all life in the immediate area, and, if left unchecked, had the potential to drain all life on Earth.

This version of the ritual involved:

The use of a gigantic Cauldron, originally used by The Formors.
The sacrifice of still-living but aborted human foetuses

Queen Victoria[]

The second known and confirmed attempt at using the Émigré Manuscript, was in 1901 by followers of Queen Victoria. They had hoped to resurrect the dead sovereign and gathered the materials at the Queen's residence in Scotland.

However, the book was confiscated by the Vatican before the ritual could be attempted. This is a minor retcon introduced in Shadow Hearts: Covenant - it was established previously that the Vatican were unable to find the missing texts.

Shadow Hearts[]

Mammon appears — Jack's Mother reborn...

Offered by Albert Simon to Dr Jack, who became obsessed with the idea of bringing his late mother back to life and was driven mad. He was unable to resurrect her, creating instead a deformed monster.

The ritual used in this required:

A cauldron.
The sacrifice of children.

The mauscript could be obtained as a key item, and was used to access the Cave Temple Sidequest.

Descriptions[]

Legendary manuscript written on a skull. On it is scribbled: "Stone Temple.. Take the path of the left dragon...". The bookmark smells of violets.
Manuscript written on a skull. On it is scribbled: "Stone Temple.. Take the path of the right dragon". The smell of violets has been replaced by tiger lillies.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant[]

It was hidden in Nemeton Fissure by Roger Bacon and Yuri Hyuga after the previous events in Shadow Hearts. Obtained by Nicolai Conrad (who read it, but was repulsed by its cursed status) for negotiations with Kato Masaji as a representative of Japan.

Kato only used one portion of the text - the section relevant to controlling the Gates of Time - to speed the growth of Ouka's fetus. He also used this magic at the sacred Asuka Stone Platform to bring the entire world into the time-altering influence of Takamagahara.

Yuri and Roger attempted to bring Alice back to life with the materials retrieved from Queen's Garden. In order to perform this particular ritual, a material called the Moon Crystal was required.

Unfortunately, the Moon Crystal used was unable to withstand the magic and was destroyed, causing the vessel to begin to fall apart. Malicious spirits attempted to take over the body, but the aura of Yuri's fusion souls drove them away. For the first time in the book's history, the correct soul was actually called back (perhaps because of the strong bond between Yuri and Alice), but the disintegrating vessel terminated the resurrection attempt.

This ritual required the use of:

A container.
The Moon Crystal.

It also revealed one of the incantations used to try to revive the dead, Roger also figured out what Kato's plan and intentions via the incantation:
"Ouranos...Ouranos...Ouranos...By the wheels of the Cherubim, bring back this soul from beyond the Gates of Time!"

Shadow Hearts: From the New World[]

Shadow hearts 3 conceptart ezL4l — Johnny and Grace

Late in the game, it is revealed that Johnny Garland is the ceremony's only success, though even that was only because of his sister's sacrifice. The reason for the "success" this time round is most prior users of the manuscript used only the person's will or just malice to make the resurrection.

When Johnny and Grace died in a car accident, their father, Graham Garland, teamed up with the amatuer black magician Marlow Brown to attempt the ceremony. Distraught at the loss of both his children, he turned began to study the "dark arts" to find a solution to bring them both back. With Marlow's help, they managed to steal the manuscript from Roger and began their preperations. As well as utilizing the blue light of will, they attempted to combine the effects of the red light of malice into the ceremony ritual.

By combining the two, resurrection was possible for Grace Garland, but not for Johnny. Grace, seeing that her beloved brother was still dead, sacrificed her own will to guarantee his life. Ultimately she became a hollow shell of malice, the entity later known as Lady.

The infusion of Malice in the Émigré Ceremony changed Johnny. When he fell unconscious in Chelsea Theater, he gets surrounded by an aura of red light. In combat, he channels malice into his weapon to form a lightsaber-type blade. Eventually by releasing his malice, he assumes his true identity as the Awaker, his true physical self.

The ritual in this game required:

Will combined with Malice
Containers for the bodies

Another slight alteration of the incantation was revealed for this ritual.

"Oremus*...Oremus...By the power of the mighty Archangel Cherubim! Bring the lost souls of these two back from the void!"

Spoilers end here.

Etymology[]

The word émigré means to "migrate out" which could mean a refernce to the spirits migrating out of the realm of the dead to the realm of the living. It is used to describe residents of a country who leave for social-political reasons, which could reference the book's vast travels from state to state.

Trivia[]

Penny Blood Kickstarter Emigre Manuscript — The prop used in the kickstarter announcement

The word embossed on the cover ("Εμιγρσε") is, a transliteration of the word "Émigré" in the Greek alphabet. The codex is also written in Greek, having been transcribed by Roger.
In the item descriptions, the bookmark is said to smell of either violets or lilies.
Several of the scenes in the Koudelka (both game and manga) seem to reference a real life mysterious codex, the "Voynich Manuscript", which is written in an undecipherable script. Coincidentally, it is said to have been authored by Roger Bacon.
The skull-shaped manuscript as it appears over the course of the series is actually only about six-hundred-and-fity years old, having been transcribed from an older copy by Roger Bacon under orders from the Pope at the time.
In some of Patrick's notes he speculates that the presence of Saint Daniel Scotius delays the Ceremony of Émigré, which could possibly mean that holy icons or magic has power to delay the process of some of the rituals within it.
A prop of the manuscript features in the kickstarter announcement for Penny Blood, where it humourously serves as an "inspiration" for Shadow Hearts series director, Matsuzo Machida, to write in his ideas for a new game.