Sion Eltnam Atlasia

Sion Eltnam Atlasia (シオン・エルトナム・アトラシア) is the main heroine of the story mode of Melty Blood and Melty Blood Re-ACT.

Background
Originally named Sion Eltnam Sokaris (シオン・エルトナム・ソカリス), Sion is an alchemist of Atlas located in Egypt, one of the three main branches of the Mage's Association. She is a genius scientist and she excelled within Atlas. She is given a position equal to the representative of Atlas at an extremely young age. This event gave her the name of Atlasia, allowed to be used only by those who were the head of Atlas. As she hailed from the disgraced Eltnam family, she had long harbored doubts about her situation, and was troubled by the fact that she didn't know what the problem was.

Three years before Melty Blood, the Church organization learned that the next appearance of Night of Wallachia took place in a small mountain village in Italy. The Church petitioned Atlas for help with a vampire hunt due to their connection to Wallachia rather than the Prague alchemists, the angst-filled Sion volunteered her services. Sion and Riesbyfe Stridberg took part in the assignment to demolish the vampire. Both organizations confronted the TATARI, one of the 27 Dead Apostle Ancestors, as they only had normal Conceptual Weapons, they were unable to affect the phenomenon no matter how many times they defeated its materializations. Three days later, the mission was unsuccessful and TATARI annihilated the village and slaughtered everybody including the dispatched Knights of the Church. Riesbyfe sacrificed herself to save Sion and faced Wallachia alone so that Sion could escape. This vampire, Wallachia was the one who made her into one of his kind. She never returned to the Mage's Association from that day on and she is presently being chased both by the Church and Mage's Association. She feels a constant thirst for blood, and is searching for a cure before she becomes a vampire.

Three years after that incident and before of events of Melty Blood started, Sion arrive in Misaki Town during her search for Arcueid Brunestud, hoping that she may know a cure for vampirism, to turn her back into a human once more. She is also seeking out Wallachia to take revenge. Arriving in Misaki, she ended up meeting with Satsuki Yumizuka for  the first time in the back allies. Because both her ​​and Satsuki have had the same kind of tragic fate (being turned into vampires and escaping the current society), both quickly became friends and formed the Back Alley Alliance. They were acquainted when she was still alive even before Sion arrived to Japan, Sion is Satsuki's pen-pal friend. It seems that ever since the Back Alley Alliance was founded, safety in the alleys has improved remarkably. It was also thanks to Satsuki that Sion got the basic information about Shiki Tohno, Arcueid, Ciel, Akiha Tohno and their involvements in cases caused by Michael Roa Valdamjong and Nrvnqsr Chaos in Tsukihime.

Appearance
Sion has long, bright purple hair kept in a long braid, white skin and purple eyes. Her regular outfit consists of a white skirt, purple shoes and stockings, and a white blouse with a purple overshirt and cap; the last two are emblazoned with the symbol of Atlas. Sion wears a mustard yellow scarf tied in a manner reminiscent of a cravat, and adorns each of her wrists with a toroidal, yellow bracelet.

While in her vampire form, her skin is pale and her eye color changes to red. The parts of her clothes that would normally be purple are instead brown, and over her body some lines, possibly veins or arteries, become visible.

Personality
Her personality is overly serious and logical. Sion is frequently composed and calculating, always determined for perfection but deep down she's a warmhearted genius scholar. Having fun doesn't come naturally to her at all. However, that doesn't mean she's incapable of it. Perhaps it's more accurate to say she's a chairman-of-the-committee type, who really does want to have fun deep down. She is, in fact, moderately emotional and enormously easy to set off. She is a self-satisfied character, but whenever Shiki makes a remarkable statement, she gets displeased. Although she had lived most of her life in isolation, she gained her first true friend in Shiki. Unlike the other Tsukihime heroines who are always at odd with each other, she's a rare type capable of getting along with everybody in her own way. Sion originally thought of Riesbyfe as a reliable companion but it was only when they were torn apart is when they realized they had become friends. Sion shares the same elitism like the other Atlas alchemist and looks down on Roa on principle, even though they both subscribe to the common idea that "everything flows".

Upon becoming Sion TATARI, she greatly changes. Though she still possesses a shred of human reason during her arcade scenario, she completely degenerates into a vampire that revels in destruction and sucking blood in her ending. She has "inherited" Wallachia's "Cut, cut, cut!", but her rendition can be called "dignified and cute".

Development
Her initial design concept was "an alchemist and a soldier". Though Melty Blood diverges into various routes depending on the outcome of each fight, in the majority of the endings Sion leaves town having awakened to faint feelings of love but it was cut out. Vampire Sion was a hidden character in the original Melty Blood, but as of Re-ACT she's selectable by default.

Kinoko Nasu said that Sion and Riesbyfe story would continue as long as fans exists, Nasu said it would be great if French Bread would develop the Melty Blood remake alongside with the Tsukihime remake. Sion makes a guest appearance in UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH. Her inclusion came about as French Bread was beginning work on a tentative Melty Blood HD, but lacked a way to continue the story because Nasu was too busy with Mahou Tsukai no Yoru. The project is currently postponed, so while working on UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH, they had enough time after the early stage of development to add one more character. They didn't have enough time to fully create a new character, so they used a modified test character from "Melty Blood HD" with TYPE-MOON's permission.

Melty Blood
Sion is the heroine of Melty Blood, the game in which she first appears. She appeared in Misaki Town and met Tohno Shiki in Shinre Skyscraper when he was investigating the case of the return of the vampire serial killer in town. After a fight, they both agreed to help each other. As the Night of Wallachia appeared within the city of Misaki Town it was able to manifest the fear present in several of the main characters’ hearts, creating entities such as an evil Arcueid who had succumbed to her bloodlust, a form of the bloodthirsty assassin side of Shiki, and even the memory of Nrvnqsr Chaos. He even managed to make her succumb to her vampiric impulses for the first time, and made her fight against Shiki. Wallachia was eventually destroyed when Arcueid used her Marble Phantasm to prematurely summon Crimson Moon, stripping Wallachia of his power, after which he was killed by Shiki and Sion. She later returned to Atlas and persuaded the commission boards, as they denounced her for leaving Atlas, by presenting them Zepias's TATARI System, the destruction caused by Crimson Moon's return, and the concept for the self-contained computing unit named, the Osiris Sand System. In the end her name Eltnam, which she hates, and her Atlasia crown are the ones who did the favour for her. She gave away the intellectual property rights for all of them to the commission boards, yet her body still remembers what happens to her even if she tries to forget the memories. The information from Ries, which she stole from Wallachia, is still occupying two of her thought portions and thanks to it, her abilities have decreased. Yet, she is glad that the machine known as Sion Eltnam Atlasia is destroyed and that she is reborn as her current self. But it is still the fact that her current self is an alchemist who is at the same time a half-vampire with weak vampiric impulses. She still retains her vampire sense of smell even in her human form.

In the future, Sion would collaborate with Kohaku to development more devilish drugs in her Psycho Garden.

Other appearances
Sion has a minor role in Carnival Phantasm. Together with Satsuki and Riesbyfe, they share a segment called "The Back Alley Alliance" when Riesbyfe ignores Satsuki and often Sion has to stop them by saying the phrase "All according to my calculations". It should be noted that Sion often says that everything was according to her calculations, even about the smallest things. She even pretends she knows about things she really does not know at all.

In the Fate/Extra universe, Sion died when she was born and her younger twin sister Sialim Eltnam Re-Atlasia became the last Atlas Alchemist and the creator of Rani VIII.

Sion appears as a playable character in the game UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH under the name Eltnam (エルトナム). Eltnam's Infinite Worths (インフイニツトワース) is her Barrel Replica. Her Infinite Worths EX (インフイニツトワースイグジスト) is Tri Hermes Blackland (トライヘルメス・ブラックランド), where she summons Hermes to finish off opponents.

Abilities
Sion is an Alchemist who uses calculations during battle to gain an advantage over her opponents. Due to being a partial Dead Apostle, her battle capabilities have been strengthened enough that Arcueid Brunestud praises her ability to keep up with her in battle, at the cost of constantly yearning for blood. She attempts to gather data on known opponents beforehand and applies it actively during battle to predict the actions of opponents before they act. Using Thought Acceleration she can perform high-speed calculations, and using Memory Partition, she can separate her mind into up to seven partitions allowing for multiple lines of independent thought. She uses data to simulate all the possible patterns and fluctuations of the opponent, following a by the second "wire diagram" of all the possibilities to select the most likely outcome and act according to it to choose the most suitable attack. While capable of predicting the movements of someone far superior like Arcueid, she lacks the ability to follow through with her counter move, like knowing the trajectory of a bullet but being unable to dodge it.

Though Shiki is a better fighter than her, she uses her own way of fighting to put them on equal ground. She will not fight unless there is a way to predict a "future with victory", so she assembles the "proper ingredients", data, beforehand to best prepare. As Alchemists of Atlas lack physical strength or talent in magecraft, her style of fighting is to predict the future to steer it away from the wort outcome, investing her all to guide it to the single point where it can be reversed. She compares it to fighting her own mind rather than the enemy. While able to predict the opponent, it is only seeing one step ahead, so the possibility for defeat is always still present. Choosing the wrong path can easily render all her preparation void. Depending on the route, she rates the amount of choices Shiki has in combat as "merely seventy" and easily predicts his movements, or she fails to read him properly due to him acting outside of predictive behavior and easily loses.

She possesses Barrel Replica (バレルレプリカ), a Mystic Code that is a replica of the Black Barrel. It is a Conceptual Weapon of "natural lifespan" that puts outs a toxin, attack power, in proportion to that life form's natural life span. Sion's Arc Drive uses the Barrel Replica, but its original function isn't being utilized. Barrel Replica Obelisk, Sion's Last Arc, discharges energy from it horizontally, but requires anchoring her body to the ground with Etherlite to avoid being blown back by the recoil. Though it is incapable of wiping out Night of Wallachia, it can hamper the program by many years.

Etherlite
Etherlite (エーテライト) is a Mystic Code of the Eltnam family. It is an artificial nervous system constructed of ether and a nano-scale filament a micron thick with a maximum range of five kilometers, connected to her through a bracelet. Sion uses it like a whip to slice and entrap opponents during battle, but its true use is in attaching to the opponent's skin to integrate with their central nervous system and read their thoughts and memories. It was originally intended as a substitute nervous system for use by surgeons, so it can substitute destroyed nerves. The mental link formed between the user and the target has made the Eltnam name become synonymous with spiritual hacking. Though others find the thought-reading function to be vile in itself, it carries the even more dangerous ability to "merge with and copy memories and experiences." Thought of as inhumane and demonic even by Atlas, the "acquisition of another's life" is a technique unique to the Eltnam family. It can also be used to draw in information of her surroundings by spinning in place.

Attaching it to and removing it from an unknowing target is easy due to it being like a thread unable to be seen with the naked eye, giving her the ability to compel and coerce the human nervous system of the target. It is a true talent to completely invade and seize another individual through thousands of barriers like reason and instinct. Taking over the person's "hardware", it hacks into the only control center of the body, the brain, and becomes a second control center. Thought directs the body, so it hacks into that process and sabotages the original. It penetrates to the deepest level of the person, hacking orders to the body that believes came from its own brain. It instantly seeks out and fuses with their nerves, and its length is enough to easily fill a human body. It can be thought of as hacking both their mind and body, allowing her to either simply read their thoughts or have complete control of their actions.

It takes information from the brain to "create a blueprint of the soul" from which thought processes are derived. While other methods of collecting knowledge can damage the information and possibly the target, Etherlite does not leave a scar in the mind or negatively affect the brain. The thoughts can be invaded, downloaded, and rewritten without the target knowing at all. While it can move their body without their input, it is possible to resist commands to an extent. It is not fully mind reading, but instead the ability to read the subjects and verbs of the thoughts, minus the conjunctions. It can easily track a person so long as they are connected to it, and it cannot be removed by the target without frying their nervous system and body because it is considered a part of it. It would not be effective against a target like a True Ancestor, but she can easily send electricity to destroy the brain of a normal human and likely kill them with pain even before nerve damage begins.

The manga includes the ability to release the limiter on a person's nerves to greatly increase their physical ability as a last resort. Due to going over their normal limits by releasing the body's restraints, it puts large strain on the them and can not be used very often. Once the limiter is enabled again, the target is left unable to move for a time.

Vampire
Despite being bitten three years prior, Sion has yet to become a full vampire or be overtaken by her bloodlust. The poison of Wallachia's blood as a Dead Apostle is weak, so he cannot make others his complete subordinates like other Dead Apostles. He does not even normally seek to create others, only choosing Sion for the possibility that she could succeed his search for the Sixth. He is a being that does not "occur" for long periods of time, so she is able to remain human much more easily than others. She is still reaching her limits after three years, having become almost a half-vampire plagued by her thirst for blood. The more her abilities surpass her former self, the more nutrition she needs. She can walk during the day, but the sun still causes some harm. With Wallachia manifesting, his influence over her is immediate and overpowering. Without intelligence, he cannot influence her greatly, but he can impose his will upon her after fully forming due to her not being able to go against her parent vampire. If TATARI attempts to transfer his will to her or she takes part of him in willingly, she comes extremely close to fully becoming a Dead Apostle, gaining faster healing and needing only to drink blood to become complete.

In the case where she fully turns into a vampire, a state called Sion TATARI (吸血鬼シオン) and V Sion (Vシオン), she becomes TATARI's successor and becomes almost unrecognizable as Sion. As a master of statistics and random numbers, she is skilled at attacking through the manipulation of information just like Wallachia, using Terror News (テラーニュース) to actualize physical Malignant Information with prana. Using her Etherlite in combination with her ability Replicant Conductor (レプリカントコンダクター) can create a phantom-like copy of an individual that is able to reproduce his or her abilities to an extent. Forgoing the use of her Etherlite in direct battle for the most part, she prefers to attack with her own claws, and her Arc Drive, Cruel Blood (クルーエル・ブラッド), is Melty Blood's one-and-only act of bloodsucking. She has inherited all of the countless victims absorbed by Wallachia over the years and kept as information, but there is some that she cannot yet fully break down and rearrange. It is Riesbyfe's information, protected from being "digested" by her Apocrypha, that was transferred to Sion. While she may eventually "vomit it up", she is able to recreating Riesbyfe's information to attack an enemy for her Last Arc.