Geass

Biodata

Power Progression

Ask’s Geass Research Institute identifies three stages of development 44.

• Code inheritance is a separate possibility: a final-stage user can inherit Code if its bearer voluntarily relinquishes it, after which the former bearer dies 44.
• Final-stage Geass alone does not establish every condition for killing a Code bearer. Ask identifies unwavering will as one requirement but has not determined all the others 44.

Acquisition and Activation

Receiving Geass

• Code bearers can bestow Geass. Code also grants its bearer an ageless, immortal body 18.
• C.C.’s granting capacity is limited. Ask’s experiments establish a rate of one recipient per month; exceeding it produces defective results and can eventually prevent her from granting abilities at all 18.
• A kiss is not required. C.C. gives Lelouch Geass through direct eye contact, following Ask’s arrangements 14.
• A grant may involve an obligation. Lelouch understands that he must fulfill C.C.’s unspecified wish in exchange for his power; the context does not establish this as a universal requirement 28.
• Artificial acquisition is possible. According to C.C., most Geass Order users are experimental products rather than direct recipients of a Code bearer’s power, with an extremely high defect rate 59.

Eye Contact and Transmission

• Lelouch’s command ability requires access to the target’s eyes. Direct eye contact or reflected Geass light reaching the pupils allows him to issue commands; Knightmare cockpits obstruct this access 14 42.
• Screens do not directly transmit Geass in this novel’s setting 42.
• Reflection can enable self-targeting. Ask activates his Geass through a mirror to alter his own awareness 59 64.
• Closing or covering the relevant eyes blocks opportunities for activation. Suzaku covers Lelouch’s right eye during his capture, while Black Knights officers close their eyes or turn away when Lelouch unmasks 72 109.

Known Abilities

Cognitive Modification

Ask’s Geass rewrites a target’s understanding, making an imposed “setting” an unquestionable truth without removing their independent thoughts 64.

• Compulsory loyalty: three rebellion ringleaders accept that they are Ask’s dogs and that his orders take precedence over their lives. They obey even while frightened 64.
• Forced disclosure: Marianne remains conscious and resistant but reveals Charles’s plan under Ask’s command 95.
• Self-concealment: Ask makes himself forget that he possesses Geass, knows how to kill Code bearers, and intends to seize Code. This protects sensitive information against possible mind-reading 64 84.
• Behavioral prohibitions: Ask implants a fear of death that prevents Shamna’s suicide, then forbids her from harming him or the women around him 132.

Command and Obedience

Lelouch’s Geass forces targets to obey and erases their memories of the controlled period. Jeremiah describes being unable to remember his actions even after watching a recording 17.

• Infiltration: Lelouch controls a Narita lookout post and enters the Kyoto Six Houses’ premises under Geass-assisted cover 36 42.
• Political leverage: he makes Gao Hai and Gao Xiu swear loyalty, gaining access to diplomatic and trade resources 91.
• Lethal commands: he orders Imperial Household Agency personnel to die 78.
• Repeat-use limitation: Lelouch treats an unused target as a remaining opportunity and cannot apply Geass to Euphemia again after the runaway command. Ask later remains unsure whether removing Kallen’s existing Geass would permit a second application 66 67 103.

Thought Reading

Mao can hear people’s thoughts within approximately five hundred meters 44 45.

• Intelligence gathering: his ability exposes Lelouch’s identity as Zero 46.
• Mental overload: too many simultaneous thoughts disrupt processing and exhaust the nervous system. With his ability out of control, Mao stays away from crowds 45 47.
• Counterexample: Origami, who is immune to Geass, observes and kills him without his detecting her through thought reading 46 47.

Memory Alteration

Charles’s Geass changes Lelouch’s memories so that he returns to life as an ordinary student 74 78.

• Removed history: Lelouch loses his memories of being Zero, Marianne, and Nunnally 78.
• False family context: after recovering his memories, he recognizes that his supposed younger brother does not belong to his actual family history 78.
• Cancellation: sealed memories can return when the Geass responsible is dispelled, as demonstrated with Anya 96.

Perception-of-Time Suspension

Rolo can stop people’s perception of time. An encountered Knightmare pilot also possesses an ability described in these terms 80 83.

• Combat advantage: Kallen cannot respond normally to the pilot’s attack until Origami dispels the effect 80.
• Concealment: Rolo’s ability helps Lelouch escape situations in which his reaction could reveal that his memories have returned 86.
• Scope: the effect is described as stopping time for living beings, rather than establishing that time itself stops universally 80.

Consciousness Transfer

Marianne’s Geass places her consciousness inside another person’s mind upon death. C.C. granted her this ability 94.

• Survival through a host: Marianne inhabits Anya and can take control of her body 95.
• Uncertain repeatability: Ask initially describes it as a once-in-a-lifetime activation, then considers whether another transfer might occur if the host dies 94.
• Vulnerability: withdrawing from active control does not protect Marianne when Leila dispels the Geass affecting Anya 96.

Foresight

Bismarck possesses a Geass that grants foresight 128.

• Prediction: Origami uses Bismarck’s ability as a comparison when considering how an enemy anticipated her response 128.
• Limits: the supplied account does not establish its range or exact activation conditions.

Time Reset

Shamna can restart a cycle by ending her life 130.

• Repeated attempts: she uses Geass more than thirty times while responding to Britannia’s attack 130.
• Mental cost: repeated use strains her mind and can cause unconsciousness. With only a few uses remaining, she needs at least a day of rest 130.
• Code interaction: Ask’s Code prevents her resets from securing an information advantage over him 130.
• Countermeasure: Ask’s Cognitive Modification prevents her from killing herself. Shamna consequently tries to provoke him into killing her, believing a reset would remove the Geass imposed on her 132.

Countermeasures and Limitations

Geass Cancellation

Leila possesses a Geass capable of dispelling other Geass effects 96.

• Multiple effects: her intervention removes every Geass placed on Anya, ends Marianne’s control, and restores Anya’s sealed memories 96.
• Detection: Leila reacts when Ask is affected by Geass, making her part of his precautions against hostile abilities 84.
• Restoration: Ask’s promise to undo Euphemia’s condition is later supported by Suzaku’s statement that Ask reversed the damage caused by Lelouch 72 120.

Artificial Immunity

Ask’s researchers make Origami immune to all Geass using data from EU ruins and Leila’s ability as the experiment’s foundation. The procedure costs Origami an eye 46.

• Visible modification: her right eye displays an inverted Geass symbol 77.
• Active cancellation: she dispels the time-perception effect on Kallen 80.
• Confirmed resistance: Charles’s Geass fails when their eyes meet, allowing Origami to capture him 117.
• Later combat use: she remains unaffected by the enemy Geass that turns Kallen against her in Gilkestan 127 128.

Code Bearer Resistance

• Geass generally does not work on the Code bearer who granted it. A user must find another means of acting against that bearer 44.
• V.V. is immune to Geass, preventing Ask from using it to extract Charles’s plan from him 95.
• Resistance does not prevent physical intervention. Final-stage users can become capable of killing Code bearers under the required conditions 44.

Relationship with Code

Research and Associated Systems

Geass Research Organizations

Ask has researched Geass for ten years by the time Lelouch questions C.C. about his knowledge. C.C. conceals that history, allowing Lelouch to assume Ask has only recently begun investigating the power 83.

Research also involves human experimentation. Marianne experiments on children, including her own, to improve their aptitude for Geass; Ask’s EU institute uses captured Elevens as experimental subjects 62 94 95.

Geass Ruins and the Sword of Akasha

• Ancient structures: the ruins bear the Geass symbol, but their builders, age, and original purpose remain unknown to Ask’s researchers 21.
• Global connections: ruins around the world are connected and generate “data” when resonating with Geass 67.
• Runaway hypothesis: Ask suspects Charles may have activated that data to accelerate Lelouch’s loss of control. He does not establish this as the cause 67.
• Charles’s system: the Thought Elevator connects the ruins to the Sword of Akasha, with the ruins supplying the functions needed to charge and activate it 55.
• Intended result: Charles plans to destroy the unconscious aspect of humanity’s collective unconscious and link everyone’s thoughts into a “world without lies.” His plan requires two Codes to merge 55.
• Continuing danger: after Charles’s defeat, the completed system remains. Ask intends to destroy its data because another activation method might exist 123.
• Later access attempts: despite Ask sealing off C’s World, FARLAF abducts Nunnally in an attempt to exploit her connection to Charles. Shamna repeatedly fails to establish access through her 125 127 130.

Major Story Incidents