Homunculus is a character in Shadow of Memories.
Description[]
Homunculus is Eike Kusch's mysterious benefactor who is determined to help Eike prevent his death. However, this powerful being has a sinister purpose with Eike.
Biography[]
*SPOILER WARNING: Plot and Ending details follow!*
A complicated and Unknown History[]
The origin of Homunculus is unknown. It is unclear if there are others like him, how he came to exist and how he ended up sealed within the Philosopher's Stone.
Because of the alternate timelines and his own time traveling abilities, Homunculus' story is difficult to understand. What is known is that, as the stone, he somehow came into the possession of Eike Kusch in 2001, before ending up in the possession of Dana when she was accidentally lost in 1580 by Eike. For the next four years, she kept the stone in her possession until she encountered Eike again, who had lost her a few hours before from his point of view. Homunculus was then returned to Eike, who went and gave it to an alchemist named Wolfgang Wagner.
Wolfgang Wagner freed the djinn form his prison, having dedicated his whole life to alchemy and the goal of creating the elixir of life and artificial life, was depressed and angry to discover that he only released Homunculus. At this point, history becomes complicated. When asked about it at a later date, Homunculus claimed that Wagner wished to be far away from Homunculus, allowing the djinn to make the alchemist vanish. Then, after the Wagner's Household had ended up destroyed few unknown means, the djinn met Eike before vanishing. However, in flashback it is revealed that Wagner wished to be young like Eike, who he was impressed by. Upon completing this wish, which revealed that Wagner was a younger version of Eike, Wagner then tried to seal Homunculus again. Despite succeeding by using a pentagram, Homunuclus cursed Eike with the "never ending night of eternal youth" which meant that Wagner was immortal and would suffer from reoccurring amnesia. As the Philosopher's Stone, he was taken by the memory-less Wolfgang Wagner.
Because of these two conflicting events, along with the large gap in time separating Homunculus from his first appearance (as the Philosopher's Stone) to the 1580s, it is unknown how Homunculus became free from the stone. However, it is possible that there are two alternate timelines that interact in 1584, which could explain how Homunculus became free. In one timeline, Eike kept the stone for centuries and forgot about it after being resurrected for the first time, and took it back to Wolfgang Wagner. Wolfgang Wagner then wished to be free from Homunculus, who then made him vanish and met Eike, not knowing who he was due to not meeting Wolfgang Wagner in his youth before. Then, Homunculus somehow made his past self appear near Eike so that he could take it back to 1584 to be given to Wolfgang Wagner, who then wishes to be young and reseals Homunculus, so the cycle begins again. This could mean that, through a complicated time loop, Homunculus created himself using his reality warping powers.
After being free however, Homunculus spent his time perfecting the plan to lead to his freedom by altering the timeline. At some point he swapped the infant daughters of the Wagner's and the Brums, thought was unable to successful replace the Brum's child with Margarete because of there being a large crowd. He also learned the existence of a powerful spirit in the former home of Wolfgang Wagner, which he stayed away from.
In 2001, he resurrected Eike from being killed by a time traveling Hugo Wagner, who had found his father's notes about Homunculus. Throughout Eike's adventure through time, Homunculus mainly resurrected him every time he died, thought at times he appeared physically to converse with Eike.
The End of the Story[]
Eventually, Eike returned the Philospher's Stone to Wolfgang Wagner as Homunculus had planned and learned that Hugo was the one trying to kill him upon returning to 2001. Hugo demanded that Eike find Homunculus, which leads to several alternate timelines, though most of them end the same way for Homunculus. With the exception of one, Homunculus would part ways with Eike, taking the digipad with him as he does. In one timeline however, he is accidentally injured by Eike, causing him to revert back into the stone and create a fully grown tree around him.
Losing Control[]
Unknown to Homunculus, after making Eike relive the events of his adventure so many times, the human had regained all his memories from all the timelines. As a result, Eike planned to escape Homunculus while in a new timeline. Grabbing hold of the Philosopher's Stone earlier than before, Eike came up with two plans to stop Homunculus.
Ending EX1[]
In one timeline, Eike goes back to 1580 and meets his daughter Margarete, who is actually the biological child of Eckart Brum. He then visits Wolfgang Wagner years before he was meant to and gives him the stone, before advising him on how to create the elixir of life.
Ending EX2[]
In another timeline, Eike chooses to die in the fire at the bar. This send him into Homunculus' realm, where he is able to throw the Philosopher's Stone at Homunculus. Because the stone and Homunculus are the same being from two different points of time, they both cease to exists.
The End of Homunculus[]
Regardless of how Eike did it, his actions caused Homunculus to remain imprisoned in the Philosopher's Stone, preventing him from controlling the timeline.This created a brand new timeline where everyone was free from his destructive influence. However, because the Philosopher's Stone still exists in the EX1 Ending, it is possible that Homunculus may still find a way to escape.
Personality[]
A mysterious individual, Homunculus at first doesn't appear before Eike and instead simply talks to to him. Keeping his true goals a secret, Homunculus instead pretends that he simply wants to help Eike prevent his death and his reasons are purely altruistic. However, as time passes Eike eventually discovers what Homunculus is truly like.
In truth, Homunculus is a merciless monster and a inhuman force of evil who cares only about himself. He sees humanity and all the people he meets as pawns, and happily manipulates them to further his goals. He appears to feel no guilt or regret over the pain he has caused, and is always arrogant and sure of his abilities.
Appearance[]
Homunculus appears as a deathly pale figure with black hair, red eyes, and dark black clothing. Due to his appearance, and the sound of his voice, is is easy to mistaken Homunculus for female. However, due to how everyone considers him not to be female including himself, he is male.
Powers and Weaknesses[]
Homunculus is the most powerful character seen in the game, possessing a wide range of abilities. Being a djinn, or genie, Homunculus has the power to warp reality to an unknown extent, thought it is known that by using it he can: create his own pocket universe, grant wishes, create artificial puppets, create items, and resurrect individuals, thought it is suspected that he needs some sort of aid in doing the latter. He is also able to, through the use of his reality warping capabilities or psychic abilities, erase someones memories, as well as curse them to periodical gain amnesia even if he isn't there.
Another ability, and one that he uses the most, his his power to control time and space. Using this power, Homunuclus is able to teleport and travel in time. Also, presumably through the use of his reality warping powers, he is able to create items that enable time travel for normal people, as well as energy orbs that power the items, and is able to transport a deceased Eike to an earlier point in the timeline to prevent his death. He also appears able to perceive, or at the very least sense, other timelines and how they interact with the timeline he is in. Because of this power, he has greater control and understanding how time works when compared to Eike. It is unknown if this power enables him to do even more.
Finally, another power Homunuclus has is immortality. While the djinn has never been shown to age in the game, and he has apparently existed long before Wagner unsealed him, it is unknown if his immortality means he can't age, as being sealed within the stone might stop him from aging. However, it is likely that he can live forever. It is known however that his immortality means that whenever he is killed, he becomes the stone again.
Despite his great power however, Homunuclus does have some weaknesses. His biggest is that, despite his wide range of supernatural powers, his physical body is largely weak and can be destroyed easily. For example, when moving the young Margarete and Dana, he felt drained and in one timeline a shard of the Digipad breaking his skin caused him to die and become sealed within the Philosopher's Stone again.
Another, less powerful weakness are pentagrams, which can trap him and repel him as seen in Ending D, bu curiously the pentagram in Ending E is not successful.
Relationships[]
Eike Kusch[]
Eike has known Homunculus for over four centuries, but by 2001 has forgotten everything about him. At first believing Homunculus to be the devil, an accusation that suits Homunculus, Eike is grateful for a chance to prevent his death. During the next few encounters with Homunculus, Eike attempts a civil and friendly relationship with Homunculus. However, after each encounter Eike grows more and more suspicious of the djinn and quickly loses all trust in Homunculus upon learning some of the things he had done. Despite this, in the main endings he parts ways with Homunculus on mostly civil terms. In the EX. Endings, due to having memory of everything Homunculus did, Eike was willing to do whatever he had to do to beat Homunculus. This included keeping Homunculus trapped in the stone in the EX1 Ending, or erasing him from existence in the EX2 Ending.
Hugo Wagner[]
While the two have never actually interacted, Hugo hated Homunculus with a passion only equal to his hatred for Eike. Homunculus himself seems to care little for Hugo, and in one ending send the boy to an unknown place after creating a puppet that looked like Wolfgang Wagner. It is possible that Homunculus trapped Hugo's soul just like he had done with Wolfgang Wagner previously.
Wolfgang Wagner[]
Because he was responsible for freeing Homunculus, the djinn was required to grant Wolfgang any wish. However, beyond that Homunculus didn't care about Wolfgang. The alchemist however was furious when he learned that he had only released Homunculus, instead of creating an artificial human, and wished for one of two things: either for Homunculus to be far away from Wolfgang, or for the human to be young again. In both cases however, Homunculus placed a twist on the wish: either he made Wolfgang vanish, thus making Homunculus far away from him, or Homunculus caused Wolfgang to suffer permanent recurring amnesia along with immortality after the alchemist tried to reseal him. The latter led to Wolfgang losing all memory of Homunculus, leading him down a long road that led him to take up the name Eike Kusch.
Helena Wagner/Fortune Teller[]
Helena and Homunculus hated each other, though for different reasons. Helena hated the djinn for how he destroyed her family and led to current events. Homunculus meanwhile, despite apparently not being aware that she was Helena Wagner, hated her for being a spirit and might have feared her power. It is never directly confirmed but it is possible that Homunculus gave Helena her strange illness in order to unleash the events that led to his creation.
Quotes[]
Homunculus: "Your soul? Oh please, in this day and age?"
Homunculus: "It is difficult, after all, isn’t it? To change one’s very destiny."
Homunculus: "Well, how about that? Just a small example of what I can do. How will you get home now? You’d better solve that one on your own. You should be able to handle a little thing like that, Eike."
Homunculus: "As you can see, my body is very fragile and won’t let me do much. I picked up a baby the other day and it was really quite terrible. Absolutely exhausted me. I won’t ever do that again."
Homunculus: "Ah, please don’t show that thing near me! I don’t like that symbol on the cover!"
Homunculus: "Now really, what is it this time? The Good Samaritan? Didn’t I tell you? Fate makes a powerful opponent. It’s tough enough changing your own fate. You can’t do much to someone else’s. Doing it over and over again doesn’t mean you’re going to get it right anytime soon. You may put yourself through the pain, the tears again and again. You should try concentrating on correcting your fate as quickly as possible. I’m saying this for your own sake. Goodbye for now."
Homunculus: "Excuse me? You’ve lost me there for a second, Eike. I’m sorry, but I’m not human, so I wouldn’t know anything about that."
Homunculus: "Excuse me? Are you trying to lecture me, Eike? After all I’ve done for you? Humans are nothing but trouble, really. Well, see you later then."
Homunculus: "Oh, you saw the spirit? So you can see it, can’t you? I can see the living, and I can see the souls of the dead, but I can’t see the thing that lives here. Gives me the creeps, really. I can sense something, but that’s it."
Homunculus: "What a nice guy I am. All services guaranteed."
Homunculus: "Oh please, enough with the gloomy angst, Eike. Are you trying to put me on a guilt trip?"
Homunculus: "Well, how many centuries has it been since I saw the light of day? Are you my so-called master this time around?"
Homunculus: "Amateur. You think you can pull that on me? Not in a thousand years, old man."
Trivia[]
- When Eike first meets Homunculus, he believes the djinn to be the devil. This may be a foreshadowing since Homunculus does actually control Eike's life, being able to resurrect the human whenever he wants and having manipulated him since he was Wolfgang Wagner.
Gallery[]
