Michael Roa Valdamjong

Michael Roa Valdamjong (ミハイル・ロア・バルダムヨォン) is the main antagonist of Tsukihime. He a vampire and a numberless Dead Apostle Ancestor ranked as "Extra" outside of the regular twenty-seven because they consider him to be a heretic who does not uphold the ideals of regular vampires. He is called The Serpent of Akasha (アカシャの蛇) and The Infinite Reincarnator (転生無限者), which refers to his ability to constantly reincarnate after entering Akasha, the root of everything within the universe, no matter how many times he dies. His seventeenth incarnation is known as Elesia (エレイシア), and his eighteenth incarnation, Tohno SHIKI (遠野 四季), is his latest as of the time period of Tsukihime.

Background
He was originally a priest of the Church; along with Narbareck, he created a "burial class", the base of today's Burial Agency, though after betraying the Church to the Mage's Association he was left uncredited. He realized an immortality different from that of the other Dead Apostles, but, trying to overcome his limits as a mere human, he reluctantly became a vampire. He believed the prospect of eternity was the only goal worthy of effort. Ever since he was born, he had no interest in anything in particular, feeling more mechanical than human, but it seems he was popular as a virtuous man when he was a priest up until his betrayal.

He has realized eternal reincarnation far better than anyone else. As he puts it, "eternity exists only as long as there is an observer", and thus, he wanted to be that observer. Roa is an acquaintance of Nrvnqsr Chaos and taught him a method of manipulation of his chaos named Soil of Genesis.

When considering a way to become a Dead Apostle, his heart was snatched the instant he put his eyes on Arcueid Brunestud, and without noticing it himself, his plan went out of control thereafter. He never noticed that he genuinely fell in love with her. But since then onward, he lost his innocence when he turned away from his researches and started hating Arcueid for it.

When Arcueid, the most powerful True Ancestor, became weak to her vampiric impulse for the first time, he tricked her into drinking his blood, thus becoming a Dead Apostle. He gained a tremendous power from that, and took the empty place of a Dead Apostle that had then been sealed by the Church, quickly rising in power amongst the 27, building up his power. He earned himself the scorn of the other Dead Apostles Ancestors and eventually Altrouge Brunestud was left in charge of punishing the newcomer, but it turned against her as Roa was more powerful than her at that time, since he was at the climax of his magical abilities. Roa won the battle, but Altrouge managed to survive in the end. Afterwards, the others Dead Apostles Ancestors decided to ignore him.

He was eventually destroyed by Arcueid who had joined forces with the Church. Thereafter, he reincarnated repetitively on several children, only to be endlessly killed by Arcueid, up to the 17th time. That 17th host was Ciel, who was chosen in haste and thus was born into a bakery's family but instead had a body with an extremely high magical potential. In Tsukihime, Roa is responsible for the grisly vampire murders in the city.

Tohno SHIKI
Tohno SHIKI (遠野 四季) is Roa's 18th incarnation and can be considered "the real Tohno Shiki". This Shiki is not to be confused with Tohno Shiki (遠野 志貴), the protagonist of Tsukihime; though both of them are named Shiki, the kanji in their names are different. The real Shiki Tohno was good friends with Shiki (an adopted member of the Tohno family, from the Nanaya clan). The real Shiki however went berserk after he lost control to his demonic blood and nearly killed the adopted Shiki (who was defending Akiha), however Tohno Makihisa (Shiki's father) punished the real Shiki by nearly killing him. He was then kept locked up in the Tohno Mansion's cellar for around eight years. However, the adopted Shiki was gravely injured by the real Shiki so Akiha gave him half of her life, of which the real Shiki steals part of. This way both ended up sharing the same "life" which led to a connection of their minds eight years later.

Role
In both the "Near-Side Moon" stories (Arcueid and Ciel) and "Far-Side Moon" stories (Akiha, Hisui, and Kohaku) Shiki/Roa serves as an antagonist. However there are differences in his goals, appearance, and known abilities. For instance in the Near-Side stories Roa is a dominant personality over the real Shiki's body (though the real Shiki does manage to say a few words to the adopted Shiki) and looks (possibly) like Roa's original body (long black hair, dressed with a priests robe); his goal here is to kill Arcueid and doing nothing more than what normal Dead Apostles do (which involves killing and consuming). In the Far-Side stories the real Shiki's personality is dominant over Roa's though there are hints that Roa's personality lingers in his mind. His appearance resembles the real Shiki only eight years older with pale hair and wearing a kimono. His goal in this arc is primarily to kill the adopted Shiki and return to his place as part of the Tohno family.

Roa in Tsukihime manga is a mix of both versions of himself from the Far-Side and Near-Side routes. He bears an appearance similar to that of Far-Side route Roa, otherwise known as SHIKI, but contains the abilities, goals and, in the manga, the clothing of Near-side route Roa. He only appears four relatively small times in the anime, though his face briefly flashes across the screen during the opening. In the manga, he has made two major appearances, both times targeting Tohno Shiki and both times being interrupted by Ciel. In the manga he is also shown to have remembered how to use magic by his second appearance. In the anime he is voiced by Yoshino Hiroyuki.

Abilities
Roa reached his peak as a human, so he sought to become a Dead Apostle to complete his magical theory. Normally, the process to become a vampire would have taken at least one hundred years starting from the level of the Dead, but Roa wished to greatly speed up that process. When becoming a Dead Apostle by having a True Ancestor suck their blood, the power of the Dead Apostle raises in proportion to the True Ancestor's strength. He used the strongest True Ancestor, Arcueid Brunestud, in order to instantly become the strongest Dead Apostle by skipping the stages of growth with her immense power, and planned to rise to the top of the hierarchy in just ten years. Upon having her take his blood, he stole a large amount of her power, and managed to reach the apex of his magical abilities as he built up his power. Taking the place of a Dead Apostle Ancestor sealed by the Church, he gained their followers and rose in power among the twenty-seven, and managed to defeat Altrouge Brunestud in battle. He was eventually destroyed by Arcueid who had joined forces with the Church, but he had already managed to establish his system of reincarnation.

Roa's magecraft is Numerology (数紋法), which is related to the Kabbalah’s Thaumaturgical Theory. He specializes in lighting based attacks, and most of his abilities involve electrical discharges. He makes use of the spells Set (セット), a trap-type spell, Snap (スナップ), a magic projectile attack that falls under the Single Action-type, and Square (スクウェア), a spell that amplifies the power of other spells. As one of the Dead Apostle Ancestors, he possesses a Reality Marble, Overload (オーバーロード), which applies the effect of the Square spell to all of his spells while it is activated. Spells inherited by Ciel also show he has knowledge in High Speed Incantation, Simplified Repetitive Incantation, and Necromancy. He has the ability to modify his appearance to suit his own preferences, such as when modifying SHIKI's body, or briefly taking on his original appearance in Actress Again. He has vast knowledge in other areas as well, such as spells forgotten from the Age of Gods, one of which, Soil of Genesis, he teaches to Nrvnqsr Chaos in the interest of helping him control the chaos that makes up his existence. He doesn't use any magecraft within the events of the Tsukihime visual novel, and only makes use of it during his Melty Blood appearance and the Tsukihime manga.

The original Roa was a man, but he can possess people regardless of gender. When reincarnating as Tohno SHIKI, who had nearly died at the hands of his father, he gained special eyes close to the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, one that allowed him to see "the point that makes things live."

Fully manifested in the Near-Side routes, Roa has supreme healing regeneration from the deepest of wounds. He was able to revive himself from being slaughtered by Arcueid's Marble Phantasm which destroyed every part of his body with the exception of his ankles (from which he regenerates himself). Roa also has a knife which he uses against the adopted Shiki. This very version of Roa appears as a playable character in Melty Blood: Actress Again for both arcade and console ports. He has an ability similar to Tohno Shiki's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, having gained this ability after he was nearly killed Makihisa. His eyes are significantly different from Shiki's, they lack the ability to destroy inanimate objects and is more akin to cutting the "life" of a person rather than the "death". This ability may stem from the Tohno family's Origami skill, allowing Roa to perceive the "life " of a being, and to then "plunder" that life with a tool.

During the Far-side routes, SHIKI's original personality is dominant over that of Roa, so he makes use of the body's original capabilities. He uses melee attacks from both his knife and his own claws, he also has a skill which crystallizes blood which then can be used as a sword or thrown weapon. The real Shiki dominant Roa lacks the regeneration technique of Near-Side route Roa. Instead, he has an ability called "Immortality", which, rather than simply regenerating wounds, adapts around fatal injuries and allows him to survive even without vital organs. This ability also grants Shiki limited regenerative ability, evidenced by his ability to reattach, but not replace, lost limbs.

Reincarnation
Roa picks his next target beforehand (based on wealth and magical abilities) to transmigrate everytime his current incarnation is destroyed. His next reincarnation doesn't even have to be born yet. The transmigrated soul is definitely Roa, but he is raised as a different person, under a social community, growing up physically and mentally until he wakes up to Roa's intelligence. After Roa has awakened, he turns into a vampire, but the physical characteristics of the original remain.

His physical characteristics are based on the body he transmigrates into, but the personality is still Roa, coldhearted, thorough and selfish, yet gentle and intellectual. During every cycle, he was able to retain all the memories of his previous incarnations. As a consequence, since they all experienced the same things Roa has, their general opinions remained the same. His last reincarnation (the 18th) is Tohno SHIKI, and his previous one was Elesia (Ciel), who he considered his most powerful one other than the original. He had reincarnated 17 times, but he never reached the potential of the original Roa again. This is because, even though he technically possesses every memory his past incarnations had, he draws these memories only gradually from the Akashic record, so he is forced into waiting for the specifics of his former lives to reappear to him. This is the reason why he is unable to use magic during the events of Tsukihime; he simply no longer recalls exactly how to do so and must bide his time till he is able.

The soul scatters and returns to the Root, Akasha, upon death, but he altered his soul to allow it to be transmitted, making it lose the concept of destruction entirely and morphing it so that it would remain conscious while held within the record. However, as a side-effect, his own ego started to fade away after each new reincarnation and he eventually is reduced to just repeating the desire of the real Roa, to the extent that in his last incarnation, his host, SHIKI, was able to remain in partial control of the body, though this can be attributed to slight insanity. Still, as Roa himself considered one's ego as unnecessary, that might have been part of his objective all along.