Lyserg Diethel

Lyserg Diethel (リゼルグ・ダイゼル) is a fictional character from the manga and anime series of Shaman King. He is orphaned from a young age when Asakura Hao killed his parents for refusing to join him. This makes him seek revenge, and eventually participate in the Shaman Fight to kill Hao. He joined the extremist group known as the X-Laws, believing they would help him gain his revenge.

Appearance
Lyserg has a very androgynous appearance, at the first meeting being mistaken for a girl by Umemiya Ryunosuke. He has light green hair and green eyes, which he inherited from his late father.

Lyserg dresses in a similar fashion as his late father. He wears a green cloak with a yellow lining, a white t-shirt with a white folded cravat and black pants, and black leather shoes.

After Lyserg joined the X-Laws and swearing loyalty he was given a classical white uniform similar to the others. Lyserg's uniform has a completely open skirt and a pair of white shorts and black boots, with bare legs. When not in his X-Laws uniform he wears a white dress shirt, with rolled-up sleeves and black a tie, a pair of black shorts, and a shoulder strap for his derringer.

After training in hell, he discards his X-Laws uniform and begins wearing clothes similar to his original one except that he now wears a black cloak with a dark green lining and black shorts. He wears a white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, a white folded cravat, and long dark green boots.

Personality
Asakura Hao killed Lyserg's parents when he was young and since then he has sought revenge against Hao. He generally has a kind heart, although he has the qualities of an antihero. His goal is to take revenge on Hao and to become a great detective, much like his late father. Lyserg has a very deep-seated and passionate hatred towards Hao and will snap at the sight or even the mention of him. He also loves reading detective and mystery stories.

At first, Lyserg teams up with Asakura Yoh and his friends, but later joined the X-Laws, a group dedicated to destroying Hao. When Lyserg joins them, he is unsure about the ways the X-Laws try to eliminate Hao. Though Lyserg holds a deep hatred for Hao, his kindness and Yoh's own philosophies and personalities keep him from crossing the line.

Abilities and Powers
Lyserg is a dowser, a person who is able to find a person or persons using his special abilities. Lyserg uses his Crystal Pendulum for dowsing and even for spirit control. He went through hell training which in turn, gave him the power necessary for conquering Hao. He is called the cleverest of the five warriors by Pascal Avaf and is the second strongest among the five.

While fighting his way through the Plants, it is revealed that Lyserg's Furyoku is about 115,000, thus giving him the third-highest Furyoku reserve of the Five Elemental Warriors.

Spirits

 * See More: Morphine | Zelel | Spirit of Fire

His first guardian ghost is known as Morphine (Morphea in the English version of the manga series; Chloe in the English version of the anime series and video games). Morphine is the spirit that has been passed down from generation to generation in the Diethel family. It is known that she is the spirit of a poppy flower, which is a spirit of the Earth. When Lyserg was only six years old, he was given a test for his dowsing skills. He had to find the key to the cage, which was holding Morphine inside. In order for Morphine to be Lyserg's guardian ghost, he had to unlock her cage. Although the task of finding the key was quite difficult, he managed to find it within Big Ben, the famous clock tower clock.

Lyserg's second guardian ghost is Archangel Zelel, a mechanical Archangel that runs on the Angel Engine. The Archangels were modeled after sports cars, with Zelel being a Lotus Elise. One day, Marco began wondering where Lyserg's loyalties lay and decided it was time for his new weapon. Marco entrusted him with Zelel, wanting him to deliver justice with him. Lyserg first used this spirit when he saved Usui Horokeu from Hao's followers.

Lyserg would later fuse both Morphine and Zelel together to form his armor Over Soul, Mastema Dolkeem, and attuning his Furyoku to that of the element of fire. According to Lyserg, Mastema Dolkeem was created to prevent his hatred grudge from taking over his life, and not to fight Hao.

"My Mastema Dolkeem wasn't created for you. The reason behind this O.S... Yes! I just wanted to prevent the fire of my grudge from burning my soul!" -Lyserg Diethel to Asakura Hao about his new form Over Soul.

Lyserg is also one of the five warriors chosen by Sati Saigan. After Hao began uniting with the Great Spirit, he sent the spirit of Redseb Munzer, with the Spirit of Fire, to Lyserg and his friends, thus finally giving Lyserg the Spirit of Fire.

Past
Lyserg was born on May 17, 1986. in London, England and was raised by his father Liam Diethel to become a dowser. One day he was given a test to inherit his father's guardian ghost Morphine. After succeeding Lyserg came home to tell his father only to find Hao standing over the burning corpses of his parents. Hao turns to leave but Lyserg stops him. Lyserg tries Morphine but can not do anything due to his inexperience. Just before Hao knocks out Lyserg he grabs his father's pendulum, Lyserg is eventually rescued by the local firefighters and grows up with his maternal grandfather.

His grandfather eventually died and Lyserg was taken in by the wealthy Oknox where he lived together with a boy named Wat Hudson. Oknox was however revealed to be dealing with human trafficking and after killing Wat attempted to kill Lyserg, though Lyserg survived the shooting while Oknox was killed by Hao. Lyserg then traveled throughout England to find who burned down his house and killed his parents.

Lyserg was Qualified by Bron of the Ten Patch Officiants, and the fight took place in the rooftops of Tokyo. It took some doing on Lyserg's part since he could not track Bron, but eventually, Morphine tracked him down and hitting him allowing Lyserg to enter the Shaman Fights.

Travel Through America
Lyserg first appears dowsing for others who also sought out to find Patch Village. This had made his Pendulum point to the place, where Asakura Yoh and his friends were staying. When the group prepares to leave the next day, he appears and calls them to wait. Thinking he is a girl Umemiya Ryunosuke is immediately smitten with him.

Lyserg then gives a full introduction about himself and asks to join the group, to which Yoh politely greets him, much to the shock of the Horohoro and Tao Ren. After a brief debate about him by Horohoro and Ren, Ryu shockingly notes that Ren addresses Lyserg with "he" and asks if Lyserg is a guy to which Lyserg pulls down his pants and shows them proof, scaring Yoh and the gang. Lyserg then goes on to explain his dowsing abilities and reveals his spirit, Morphine.

After a scuffle between him and Horohoro, Horohoro prepares his snowboard for an attack against Lyserg, to which he shows off his oversoul and strikes Horohoro, who dodges. Horohoro reveals his own Over Soul, but the Pendulum Over Soul appears next to him and the pendulum tip is right in his face. Ren prepares to cut the wire with his own fully charged Over Soul, but Lyserg easily incapacitates both Ren and Horohoro by cutting them with the wire and crushing their mediums. Yoh quickly steps in and says that he wants to take his friends to the hospital while stating that he will show no mercy if Lyserg stands in his way. Loosing his calm demeanor, remembering how he came home to find his parents killed by Hao, he quickly strikes Yoh, only to have his pendulum stopped by the tip of Harusame, and later destroyed by a fully Over Souled Amidamaru.

Yoh and Ryu then leave to get Horohoro and Ren to the hospital, but Lyserg reveals another Crystal Pendulum and attacks at full force. Attaching his pendulum to a nearby billboard sign, Lyserg jumps above Yoh and creates the Big Ben Wire Frame, threatening to completely tear through Yoh. However, seeing Yoh's face is so similar to that of Hao so many years ago Lyserg loses himself and allows Yoh to cut down the attack. Yoh ends the fight by punching Lyserg in the face but still allows him to join the group.

The group finally arrives at what is supposed to be the Patch village and encounters Team "Tsuki-Gumi" and Team "Kaze-Gumi". Hearing that they are part of Hao's followers, Lyserg moves in to kill them, but Yoh holds him back. After small bickering with Boris Tepes Dracula, that involves Boris killing his own teammate, Boris appears behind Lyserg and bites him, turning him into a vampire. It is later revealed by Amidamaru that he is possessed by Boris' guardian ghost Blamuro the Vampire Hunter.

Eventually, they manage to free Boris' guardian ghost and free Lyserg. Ryu defeats Boris and he faints but is saved by Lyserg from falling. The X-Laws then appears to kill Boris leaving Lyserg in awe of their power. When the X-laws leave, Lyserg thinks about how incredible they were. As thanks to Yoh for saving him, Bill Burton leads the group through the underground caves until the presence of the Great Spirit makes them all faint from high amounts of spiritual energy.

Lyserg is seen in an empty room, recovering from the Great Spirit. He finds his way outside still crying and runs into Marco Lasso. The X-Laws get Lyserg to join them and together with Marco and Iron Maiden Jeanne, Lyserg forms Team "X-I". The next two months pass uneventfully with Lyserg learning about the X-Laws rules and requirements.

Shaman Fights Second Round
Two months later Team "X-I" is put up against Team "Niles". The fight starts with Lyserg destroying the Nile's mediums and crippling the leader of the opposing team. The Nile's leader uses the Wings of Death and Lyserg fires off a killing attack but stops before it finishes for an unknown reason. Jeanne gets into the fight by knocking Lyserg aside an asks Marco to unlock her which he obliges. Lyserg then watches Jeanne slaughter the Niles.

Later that night Yoh visits the X-Laws ship and talks to Lyserg. After a short violent confrontation with the remaining X-Laws, Yoh is invited to join the X-Laws by Jeanne herself. He refuses, however. This, in turn, causes Jeanne to cry and angers Marco. During the same night, Lyserg hears the plan of Team "X-III" and how they want to sacrifice themselves to kill Hao. As he leads them to not do it, he is punished by Marco. He is seen the next day watching the fight with Team "Hoshi-Gumi". There he, while crying, watched in horror as Team "X-III" is all brutally slaughtered by Hao.

When Yoh arrives at the X-laws' ship, Lyserg watches Yoh fight the X-laws excluding Jeanne. He then sees Luchist taking three archangels at the same time with his own archangel: Lucifer. Marco reveals that Luchist formed the X-laws and left them for Hao. When it is clear that Luchist is stronger than Marco and that his plan is to kill the Iron Maiden. Lyserg is distraught but Yoh reveals his plan to take down Luchist. Lyserg then creates an oversoul of himself and runs to convince Jeanne to help in their plan. Luchist then cuts down the oversoul of Lyserg and realities that he was tricked. Lyserg's Zeruel then destroys Lucifer and Luchist faints from the destruction.

When Anahol surprises Marco, Jeanne, Lyserg, Tamao, and Manta, killing Marco with his whip and forcing Lyserg to retreat using Zeel. Then the car explodes killing him and Jeanne. He then finds himself in London near Big Ben Clock tower, his version of Hell, and even Pascal Avaf is surprised to see him here, concluding that he must have had terrible darkness in his heart. Lyserg is then pummeled by the Devil Mastema. He then realizes that if he can think of something it can appear in this world. Lyserg imagines himself as an angel and believes that it will be destroyed but is again crushed. Pascal tells him to relax and stop thinking so much or he will really die. Pascal then congratulates him for thinking of a strategy so quickly and rewards him with Morphia and Zelel, telling him that only those with the strongest souls can be happy when they are under attack.

Lyserg is then revived and uses his new oversoul to break through the force field and stop Team "The Ren"'s and Team "Funbari Onsen"'s battle. He then shows them his new Over Soul: Masteema Dolkeem.

Invading the Plants
Lyserg is shown pushing the Iron Maiden (with wheels on it) with the group after Marco saved them from Luchist Lasso. He mourns his loss, believing that Marco will be killed, but is reminded that they have no time to be grieved. Opacho then comes up from behind to comfort him. Lyserg keeps Marco's glasses in his honor.

In the Plant of the Valley, Lyserg faces the next officiant, Bron, finding out that both of them had gotten stronger since they last fought. Lyserg begins losing his temper a bit and begins to strike. However, he was unable to hit him and was shot in the chest. Bron goes to finish off the others, but they are protected by Iron Maiden Jeanne. Lyserg suddenly regains consciousness and stops Bron's attack using his hand. The others assumed he was dead, but Lyserg explained that Marco's glasses were bulletproof and that they kept him safe from the blow.

With Bron's anger rising, Lyserg began examining him and thinking about when he could attack. The fight then ends with Lyserg explaining how mind over body works and him performing a move called "Cremation" severely burning and killing Bron.

He stands back and watches as Ren kills Magna and does nothing during their battle against Radim. When the group encounters Kalim they let Horohoro fight him and when they are unable to find Renim in the next Plant Lyserg suggests to torch the entire forest to smoke him out and allows Ren to fight Nichrom on his own. After seeing Thalim fight of Ren's lightning and Horohoro's ice with his plants he stands back realizing that Thalim was also prepared to face his fire, though he fails in the face of Chocolove's power of erosion.

As the group finally arrives at the 10th and final "Plant of the Universe" they realize that there is no oxygen and no gravity and begin to wonder how they are supposed to fight in there. At first, Lyserg suggests that they all protect themselves with their own personal O.S. but Ryu suddenly interrupts and suggests that they all use the heads of his O.S. Yamato No Orochi so that the rest can fight at full strength. As Ren questions the responsibility he would suddenly have he says that he wants to be useful too as the seven is currently his best place. Even though they are able to fight at their full strength they are still beaten by Rutherfor until Yoh nullifies her Over Soul.

When Hao finally awakens he sends a message to the Oracle Bells that reads "'so small" He arrives at the final plant and effortlessly kills everyone with a simple glance, excluding Rutherfor, Opacho and Yoh. After Hao attempts to banish Yoh from his area in the Great Spirit Ren, Lyserg, Chocolove, and Horohoro appear within it, with the Five Grand Elemental Spirits. A fierce battle between the 5 Elemental Warriors and the Shaman King begins.

In the end, Hao reveals that he was merely preparing for their end and use the Great Spirit to destroy a sun and create a black hole that almost sucks in the Five Warriors until the Soul Train arrives and anchors everyone. Hao is eventually discouraged from his plan of destroying humanity when his mother arrives and everyone is sent back.

Funbari no Uta
In the years after the Shaman Fights, Lyserg attended and graduate Oxford University. He became a policeman and used his shamanic abilities and combat skills that he learned in the X-Laws to capture criminals. Because of his high arrest rate, he was promoted to the British Secret Intelligence Agency.

He has gotten noticeably taller and his hair is no longer messy. He no longer wears his patched shawl. Instead, he now sports a black detective trenchcoat and black hat. In the Visionz images Lyserg is shown wearing a formal suit and green necktie and it would seem that he wears Marco's glasses at random.

Before the gathering, he helped Chocolove to get out of jail and despite the difficulty, Lyserg managed to get him permission to travel outside the country and the two of them arrive together at the meeting place where they reprinted Horohoro for scarring Asakura Hana. He like the others is shocked to see Ren arrive in a Horse Carriage and later he hints to Horohoro who the mother of Ren's son, Tao Men, might be. After welcoming Yoh and Anna home he participates in the party at the inn.

Anime/Manga Difference
Due to the fact the 2001 anime series ended a lot earlier than the manga series, different things happen. For a good example, the order of events changed and the locations of manga series fight changed. Yoh and the others fought Boris in a cathedral in the anime series whereas in the manga series Yoh and the others fought Boris near Mesa Verdede.

For his attitude, Lyserg appeared to be aggressive and friendly when he first met Yoh, Horohoro, Ren, and Ryu in the manga series. He even mentioned that he is smart, rich, fashionable, and strong. His attitude is more "open" compared to his 2001 anime series counterpart, where he is a little emotional and quite serious.

His name is a drug reference to lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD. The name of his spirit, Morphine, is obviously a drug reference as well and thus was changed to Chloe and Morphea for the English versions of both anime and manga, respectively.

Trivia

 * The appearance of Lyserg's father and Lyserg's own appearance in Funbari no Uta is based on the stereotypical look of Sherlock Holmes