Lumen is one of the supporting protagonists in Azure Striker Gunvolt and Azure Striker Gunvolt 3. Initially presented to the public as a corporate virtual idol by the Sumeragi Group, she was in truth the manifestation of the Muse Septima of an Adept girl, Joule, who Sumeragi exploited for her and Lumen's ability to track and influence Adepts. After Gunvolt rescued Joule from Sumeragi, Lumen supported him in battle with her Septima-enhancing songs. Although part of Joule thought she was a different person, Lumen was aware they were one and the same.[2]
In Azure Striker Gunvolt 3, after Kirin and GV's meeting a new Lumen is created from GV's memories as an advanced type of Image Pulse actually capable of communicating, and sings for them in battle. This Lumen has little to do with the original or Joule, and has little story presence overall compared to other characters.
Lumen is also one of the singers in the rhythm game GUNVOLT RECORDS Cychronicle, and an alternate-universe version of her is one of the protagonists of the drama CD Mirage Party.
Lumen is a pop star promoted by the media-owning Sumeragi Group, and is currently the most popular idol in the nation. However, Lumen is but an avatar; a projection created by Joule’s Septimal power, which takes on an entire form of its own completely separate from Joule. Unlike Joule, she has a very strong personality and is very much a free spirit. According to Lumen, however, this is just a manifestation of the person Joule truly wants to be. Even though the Sumeragi Group is promoting her as a pop star, she is in fact being used to locate other adepts that resonate with her ever-powerful Muse ability. These Adepts are then found and captured by Sumeragi.
An illusion of Lumen, a young woman who was once inseparable from Gunvolt, has been given physical form. Lumen uses the power of her song to support Kirin and Gunvolt in battle, and with the power of her anthem, she can awaken Gunvolt's powers should Kirin be defeated.
Lumen has long blonde hair, tied into a ponytail, with two pink strips that mimic a butterfly's antenna. On her head she wears a butterfly-shaped hairband, that also functions as headphones. She has rather large wings, gleaming blue with a sea blue on its borders and white details. She has a white dress with blue and purple stripes and white triangle details at the end of her skirt.
Her appearance is based on what Joule would look like at 17 years of age, but since it’s heavily influenced by Joule’s own ideals and insecurities, it’s unclear whether she’d actually come to look like that or not.
Lumen's current appearance (her figure, outfit, etc.) has been the same for the past year or so. Her outfit and appearance can be controlled to some extent by Joule's will.
In Gunvolt 3, her design has undergone a number of changes.
Over a year or more prior to the first Azure Striker Gunvolt, Sumeragi had realized the usefulness of Joule's Muse Septima and began exploiting Lumen, presenting her to the public as a virtual idol, using live performances and broadcasts to detect unwitting Adepts, and releasing albums with songs like Sakura Efflorescence. At this time the Diva Project, the long-term goal of using her to control the minds of Adepts and make them subservient, was already in the planning stages with Nova being involved. Hearing a broadcast of Lumen singing Sakura Efflorescence was what pushed Viper to accept Nova's offer to join Sumeragi.[3] Some time after this, Nova was made the Diva Project's manager.[4]
At an unknown point in time, thanks to the Septima detecting and copying ability of an Adept girl named Olga, the Adept supremacist union Eden became aware of Lumen's true nature. In order to exploit Lumen's Septima enhancing ability for their Adept revolution goals, Eden's co-leader Zonda became determined to infiltrate Sumeragi[5], with Eden later carrying out a high profile attack to secretly slip her into the country.[6]
Following the hacking of Sumeragi's MMORPG September Record, their overreaction caused the Adept rights and anti-Sumeragi resistance group QUILL to become suspicious and begin investigating the game. QUILL discovered Lumen's use as Adept sonar, but was still under the impression she was just a machine, and set out to destroy her.
After finding out that Lumen is stored in the basement of Sumeragi's Building 1, Team SHEEPS--Gunvolt, Asimov, Zeno, and Moniqa--commence the mission, with Gunvolt infiltrating the building but only finding an empty basement with signs of something recently being moved. In a gambit to acquire more info, he allows himself to be captured and ends up in an interrogation room with Sumeragi executive Romeo, who attempts to torture him for fun with an electric whip. The gambit succeeds as Romeo taunts GV about how his mission to "silence the Muse" failed due to Lumen being put on a freight train leaving the building. GV promptly escapes his restraints and makes haste to the train, managing to get onto the last car and tearing through the security soldiers and drones onboard guarding it.
Sumeragi sends in three tanks on a parallel track to intercept GV, but two are sniped by Asimov with his anti-tank rifle before they can reach the train, and GV destroys the third. After GV destroys one more Mantis which was guarding Lumen's car, he enters and discovers an adolescent girl strapped to a machine. Lumen appears before Gunvolt as an apparition and reveals that she is a manifestation of the young girl's Septimal powers.
Under the presumption that Gunvolt is not with Sumeragi, Lumen asks Gunvolt to free her vessel, Joule, from the Sumeragi Group—revealing that she and Joule are kept imprisoned against their will. Moved by their tragic situation, Gunvolt ultimately resigns from QUILL and decides to free Joule and Lumen. The three then escape the Sumeragi freight train and begin their journey.
Six months later, Gunvolt, Joule, and Lumen are living together in an apartment in the ghetto district, Sinner's Row. While he is no longer a member of QUILL, Gunvolt continues to take on QUILL missions as a mercenary to "pay the bills;" Joule and Lumen assist him in these such missions.
Orbital Space Station Firmament
After Gunvolt has defeated six Sumeragi adepts, Sumeragi discovers Joule's location and sends a resurrected incarnation of their space master, Merak, to capture Joule and Lumen.
On the night of Gunvolt's return home from his most recent QUILL mission, Merak confronts Gunvolt and Joule inside their apartment. He then quickly captures Joule and flees towards Sumeragi's orbital space station, Firmament, at which place Sumeragi ultimately and forcibly reinstates Joule's role as the Muse.
Gunvolt fervently makes a long trek to the pinnacle of Firmament, encountering and battling resurrected Sumeragi Adepts—whom Gunvolt had defeated previously—in all the meanwhile.
At the endmost room in Firmament, Gunvolt finds Joule strapped to a monstrous machine and, standing next to her, Sumeragi lieutenant and Project Muse executive—Nova. Nova boasts that the contraption before Gunvolt gives Sumeragi complete control over the Muse.
He then summons a silent Lumen to demonstrate such control. Lumen's appearance remains unchanged, but her behavior no longer shows signs of her former, "mischievous" self and is replaced by cold, programmatic responses to Nova's beck and call. Nova then engages Gunvolt in battle, with Lumen fighting alongside him. She periodically creates protective barriers around Nova throughout this fight.
Upon defeat, Nova dismisses Lumen and praises Sumeragi for creating such a powerful fighter in Gunvolt. He then summons three glaives and fuses with them as well as with Joule to unleash his full septimal abilities. He transforms into a colossal humanoid abomination and engages Gunvolt in battle once more—this time, in space.
After utterly defeating Nova, Gunvolt retrieves an unconscious Joule from Nova's crumbling body and battle arena. Lumen—broken from her robotic trance—creates a protective barrier around Gunvolt and her vessel so that they can safely descend to the space station. Lumen's apparition appears weak, and she admits to overexerting her septimal abilities. After pleading to Gunvolt to look after her vessel, she withdraws to dormancy.
Joule seemingly recovers posthaste and begins descending Firmament with Gunvolt. As the two are walking towards the space-to-Earth elevator, Babel, they encounter QUILL's leader, Asimov. Asimov expresses pride in the two young Adepts' endeavors in toppling Sumeragi.
He then says that they are ready to "rule in the age to come." Asimov continues to reveal his ultimate ideal in wiping out the entire human race to usher in an age ruled by Adepts. He had founded QUILL so that he could eventually attain this perceived utopia.
Gunvolt and Joule firmly refuse to help Asimov achieve his ideal, to which Asimov responds by pulling out a gun loaded with special, septima-neutralizing rounds. He quickly dispatches Gunvolt with a special round and Joule with a regular round.
Epilogue
If Gunvolt completes Firmament (Idolatry) without wearing the Homemade Necklace for the majority of the stage, then the game ends after the cutscene following Nova's defeat.
Re-loading the save file triggers a brief dialogue featuring Lumen, Joule, and Gunvolt. Lumen and Joule discuss the parallels between reality and fantasy, implying that the events of the ending achieved in this way may have been imagined.
If Gunvolt completes Firmament (Idolatry) while wearing the Homemade Necklace for the majority of the stage, then the game continues into an extended, optional stage: Firmament (Azure).
After having her vessel shot to near-death at the hands of Asimov, Lumen completely merges minds with Joule. As Joule's body is sure to die, the Muse transfers herself to Gunvolt's mind and cures his nearly fatal wound, reviving him and augmenting his physical capabilities beyond normal capacity.
When Gunvolt recuperates, Asimov is already on his descent to Earth. The Muse and Gunvolt immediately track and confront him inside Babel's descent. Unimpressed by the miraculous revival of his comrade, Asimov affirms that he and the two adept youths are in great disagreement before revealing that he, like Gunvolt, is an Azure Striker. He then proceeds to fight Gunvolt and the Muse in a decisive battle that ultimately kills him.
Upon defeat, Asimov acknowledges his death but warns Gunvolt that, with the power that he has, he is doomed to live a life of endless fighting. He expresses regret for not instilling stronger revolutionist values in raising Gunvolt before falling silent.
Once the elevator reaches the Earth's surface, the doors open to Gunvolt's former QUILL comrades. Shocked and confused by the death of his commander, one of them demands an explanation as Gunvolt quietly steps out of the elevator.
The Muse deeply understands Gunvolt's sorrow and quickly silences the confused comrade. As Gunvolt and the Muse step out into the dawn of a new day, the Muse comments on how they can go anywhere. Gunvolt and the Muse walk into the distance, "swallowed by the uncertain light of the rising sun."
Azure Striker Gunvolt 3
Post-intro stage - A Moving Image
Shortly after Kirin successfully seals Gunvolt's Primal Dragon, Sumeragi establishes the Bureau of Dragon Saviors in order to give Kirin and GV legitimacy in responding to Primal Dragon appearances. Lumen is made an assistant to Kirin and co. as a "cutting-edge support AI" based off the cyberdiva she was before.
In truth, Lumen is actually an Image Pulse, a projection of Lumen based on GV's memories of her, locked inside Kirin's talismans to make her presence permanent. For some reason, of all the Image Pulses gathered, Lumen is the only one that can move and speak of her own volition. This helps when the less-than-tech-savvy Kirin needs help navigating Sumeragi's paperwork and protocols or activating Anthem if Kirin falls in battle, risking Gunvolt's safety Fetters.
A century after Joule was killed in the Luminous Avenger iX timeline, Lumen appears to have been largely forgotten. A recording of her song Stratosphere survived on a music player that was inherited by a pair of Mino siblings, Nana and Miyumi. Nana, a fan of virtual idol Lola, sent her a request to sing the song, but she died from an illness before Lola saw the message. When Lola traced the message to its source, she encountered Miyumi, and performed a cover of Stratosphere at her request as a tribute to Nana.
Lumen's GV1 and GV3 versions appear in the crossover roguelite card-battling RPG Card-en-Ciel as cards representing the first Azure Striker Gunvolt game world and Azure Striker Gunvolt 3. As Muse cards, they appear and sing certain songs which grant abilities when certain conditions are met.
Cond: Activates Suspend 3 times. Effect: Forge a 0 Cost Copy of the first card to activate Suspend each turn.
"Reincarnation" Lumen focuses on Convert, so she ironically synergizes with Gunvolt and iX1 boss cards (including Nova, whose card doesn't have Convert but works with the archetype), but not GV's first two cards which focus on Break Points (instead, Joule's Muse cards work with those GVs).
"Memoria of 'He'" Lumen synergizes with Kirin's card, which in turn synergizes with GV's GV3 cards.
Gallery:
"Don't you mean, the long-awaited remodel, "Lumen Ver. 2.0?"
Skills
While Lumen does not fight directly, she can provide Gunvolt with the Anthem buff and create protective barriers.
Lumen visibly follows Nova around during the first phase of Gunvolt's fight with him in Gunvolt 1. If Gunvolt's sprite overlaps with hers, he will not receive contact damage.
Anthem
ソングオブディーバ、Song of Diva
Game
Translated
Romaji
Japanese
GV1
I can't let it end like this!
Konna tokoro de owarasenai...!
こんなところで終わらせない...！
GV2
I'll protect you!
Anata wa, watashi ga mamoru!
あなたは、わたしが守る！
Lumen's special support skill. Whenever Gunvolt dies in-game, there is a chance for Lumen to revive him back to full health and provide him with the Anthem buff, which gives him infinite EP. It also enables Prevasion, as well as unlimited Air Hops and Air Dashes regardless of whether his equipment offers these abilities. The stage's music is also overridden by Reincarnation, with some exceptions.
Gunvolt can increase the probability of this event by talking to Joule on the stage select screen before embarking on a mission.
Anthem cannot activate when Gunvolt dies by falling down a pit (unless in Easy Mode).
Gunvolt's Kudos are locked at 0 while under Anthem.
Anthem's Prevasion still can't protect against attacks that naturally bypass Prevasion, such as Carrera's Quasar Collapse.
If Gunvolt dies while already under Anthem, it will not activate and save him a second time.
Anthem can activate during Gunvolt's fight with Nova, even though Nova claims to have full control over Lumen.
A variant of Anthem exclusive to Gunvolt 3, triggered when Kirin is defeated in battle. Lumen unseals Gunvolt's power, allowing him to quickly obliterate all foes in his way and give Kirin room to recuperate. The stage BGM will be overridden with Reincarnation Fateful, with some exceptions.
Fetters Gauge is removed from the HUD while Awakening Anthem is active.
Gunvolt freely floats instead of going on foot while Awakening Anthem is active.
A number of Gunvolt's abilities are either powered up or replaced with stronger versions while Awakening Anthem is in effect. Refer to Gunvolt's page for details.
Awakening Anthem ends when a Hexapyle is broken or the boss is defeated. In case of the former, Kirin will be revived with full HP to begin the next part of the stage.
Unlike previous games where Anthem locked your rank at the lowest possible setting, Awakening Anthem simply freezes your Kudos and prevents you from gaining any more until one of the conditions to release Anthem is fulfilled.
As Gunvolt's power during Awakening Anthem is akin to that of a Primal Dragon, do keep in mind that overusing it can and will have consequences.
Gunvolt can trigger Awakening Anthem on command in D-nizer Mode, dubbed "D-nize".
Barrier
バリア
Lumen's support skill in her fight alongside Nova. Lumen creates a barrier around Nova at the start of the fight. If Gunvolt fires a dart at the barrier, the barrier absorbs the dart and sends a large purple needle towards Gunvolt's location.
Gunvolt can dissipate the barrier by keeping Lumen within the Flashfield's radius.
Lumen will recreate the barrier a couple of seconds after it has been dissipated by the Flashfield.
If Gunvolt hits Nova with an Offensive Skill, the barrier will not block it, and will be brought down for a few seconds.
It's the series' familiar Lumen, but it's not the Lumen of that time. I wanted to make a new design, and I actually tried to do it, but it looked like cosplay, and I felt it wasn't quite right. So we're going to change what we can change based on the traditional Lumen design......it was like that.
It took me a while to put it all together: the overall impression is different, but the impression has been carried over. I think it was effective to use curved lines for the furisode and the tail.
Lumen's Japanese name, Morpho, was originally taken from the concept motorcycle "Morpho", which was blue in color. Character designer Yoshitaka Hatakeyama did not know the name Morpho referenced a bike, instead taking it as a simple reference to the Morpho genus of butterflies, most of which have blue or green wings. Hatakeyama thought it fit well for a character who revives the player, as butterflies are a symbol of resurrection. This was the origin of Lumen's butterfly motif.[7]
The "lumen" is the unit of luminous flux, the total quantity of visible light emitted by a source per unit of time, in the International System of Units (SI).
Following the events of GV1 (and detailed in his side story with Quinn), one of Gunvolt's worries was that the ghost of Lumen/Joule following him around was just a delusion made by his Septima to assuage his mind. With the new Image Pulse Lumen's existence, it can be said that fear became reality in a way, although in this case the new Lumen is never regarded as more than just a unique Image Pulse.
Lumen and Luxia are the only characters across the Dragon Saviors and ATEMS to not have a loading screen profile in GV3.
Oddly, despite being an Image Pulse made from GV's memories, Lumen sports a slightly different design in GV3 compared to her appearance from the first game.
Although Lumen would not make her 3D debut until the music videos of Gunvolt 3 in 2022, series developer Inti Creates teased a 3D model of her on June 25th, 2014, before Gunvolt 1 had even come out.[8] According to series director Yoshihisa Tsuda, the model was something that was being produced on an experimental basis for 3D research (cost and quality). There are various other things that were confiscated.[9]
It's unconfirmed if there's a connection, but during development of the 3D game Gal*Gun: Double Peace (2013~2015) staff were experimenting with 3D models.[10]
.jpg "Lumen Concept Art (01).jpg (561 KB)")
