Egrigori (Project ARMS)

The Egrigori is an organization that features in Project ARMS.

History
The Egrigori were an organization that were traced to several decades ago when a group of scientists in North America detected a crashing meteor in the desert. This meteor proved to be a first contact with an alien intelligence known as Azazel with the scientists dedicating in uncovering its secrets. From the crater, the town of Gallows Bell was formed that became the birth place for the Egrigori. Its entire goal being the uncovering of the secrets behind Azazel that would lead to the creation of the ARMS that were based off it. (Episode: Link) Though a secret group, there were some individuals in the world that had heard of the rumor that the organization's birthplace was in Gallows Bell. (Episode: Hunted)

It was known that the Egrigori were noted to had formed collaborative agreements in secret with foreign governments where they collected bio-warfare research and conducted human testing. These arrangements allowed them to maintain a profit base by assisting in the assassination of forces in Third World countries. As a result, they became forever tied with these nations and if the Egrigori ever fell than their sponsers would fall with them. (Episode: Bluemen) Thus, they had formed a huge military industrial complex which became the source of their wealth. With their power, they engaged in illegal experiments where they wielded their power as a scalpel with impunity and taking apart humans in order to alter them whereupon the subjects were put back together. (Episode: Illusion) Their deeply held ties with various governments meant that police and military forces never intervened in the affairs of the Egrigori. (Episode: Bluemen) Their influence was to such an extent that it was believed that even governments turned a blind eye to their activities. (Episode: Illusion) Through their immense military capital, the Egrigori funded projects in three fields of research. These included the creation of cyborgs such as the Crimson Triad, the genetic manipulation of subjects to create the Ex Armis and finally the fusion of bodies with the ARMS weapons. The goal was the defy the laws of nature in order to find ways to artificially manipulate the human species. (Episode: Snark Hunt) However, at some point, their ruthless endeavours created disgust amongst various members in the organization. These individuals later decided to rebel against the Egrigori and they openly went against them when its members smuggled the prototype ARMS away. Once they accomplished this act, the rebels formed a rival group known as the Bluemen that were the enemies of their former parent organization. (Episode: Bluemen)

Their study into the human body also created the Drakken Battalion that consisted of advanced cyborg warriors led by Johann Horst. However, after he learnt that they were simply experiments to better study the ARMS, he and his men went rogue where they joined the Bluemen. (Episode: Drakken) At some point, they established the Carrion Research Corporation as a front organization for their research activities and even placed the newly cloned Kei Kuruma to one of their employees. (Episode: Forward) Doctor Samuel Tillingest who was considered among the greatest scientific minds was placed as the research director of the company. (Episode: Coma) Among the many recruits the organization managed to entice into their ranks was the dying and elderly Colonel Ganz Gaull who was provided a bio-engineered younger body. (Episode: Judgment) At some point, the Egrigori abandoned the research on the ARMS but had created new models from the prototypes though these were devoid of any inherent intelligence but were implanted within the Keith-series. (Episode: White Knight) Around ten years ago, this secret organization was responsible launching a devastating attack against Abumisawa Village where all the inhabitants were killed leaving only Hayato Shingu the only survivor. (Episode: Stranger) Afterwards, the Egrigori rebuilt the devastated village and used it as a site for research project in human experimentation to study the effects of mind control implants. Due to brain surgery being difficult, the test subjects all consisted of diposables in the form of noted criminals that were brought to Abumisawa where they were robotized. (Episode: Illusion)

One test group consisted of genetic mutations that were grown with specific abilities such as psychic powers with these subjects being known as the Ex Armis (X-Army). However, all the subjects were treated cruely by the Egrigori and were nothing more then guinea pigs for experiments with the data collected for another project called Redcap. This left the Ex-Armis frustrated and desperate to prove their worth but were unaware of the fact that the data being collected was intended to grow their replacements that were an army of cloned supersoldiers known as the Redcaps. (Episode: Snark Hunt) At some point, the organization discovered highly intelligent twin male children by the name of Al Bowen and Jeff Bowen. These twins had more knowledge and sheer mental power than any adult thus making them frightening adolescents who were abandoned by their school as well as their own parents. These traits, however, intrigued the Egrigori who took them in and attempted to reintegrate them into society by enrolling them in the Chapel Program. However, the Chapel Twins intelligence only continued to increase and they began to produce state of the art military weaponry which the Egrigori kept as their secret supply and used for their own cause. (Episode: Counterattack)

After the discovery of the ARMS children, the Chapel Twins volunteered for the task of capturing them where they deployed their combat cyborgs Plus and Minus for the task. (Episode: Counterattack) However, they engaged in an attack on the ARMS childrens school leading to the organization dispatching Keith to eliminate them as they had become a liability. During the encounter, Keith killed Jeff Bowen but spared his twin brother Al Bowen in amusement when the ARMS began to protect him. As a result, Al Bowen became determined in bringing about the destruction of the Egrigori and allied with the ARMS to achieve this goal. (Episode: Trust) In the rebuilt village of Abumisawa, the ARMS had to battle the brainwashed villagers along with the Crimson Triad elite cyborgs who were defying orders in not engaging the ARMS children. (Episode: Illusion) Afterwards, the Egrigori were notified of the ARMS teenagers being at Abumisawa village and staged an onslaught that wiped it out. (Episode: Jabberwock) By this point, they had also completed Project: Redcap that was based on the data retrieved from the Ex-Armis. Once the project was complete, the remaining Ex-Armis were eliminated whilst the Redcaps were deployed on their first military exercise against the ARMS children and their allies in Aisora City which was cut off from outside contact. At the same time, they Egrigori also attacked the Bluemen headquarters and seemingly destroyed it. (Episode: Snark Hunt) However, they were defeated by the ARMS and Bluemen who had survived the attack on their base. This saw the Redcaps dying after the failure in their mission as their engineering saw them turning into elderly dying men. (Episode: Judgment)

The ARMS children later travelled to America in order to find Katsumi who was within the Egrigori's custody. This saw them arriving in the country where they intended to meet members of the Blue Men in an isolated town. However, this proved to be a trap set by the Chapel Children who unleashed their Hound battalion against the ARMS. Ultimately, the Chapel Children headed by the prodigy Oscar Bernard sought to control the ARMS subjects and use them as a means of usurping control over the Egrigori. (Episode: Hound) The Egrigori would learn of this plot and send their forces in order to eliminate this insurrection headed by these child prodigies. (Episode: Link) Among the goals of the Epsilon strike force was to capture the ARMS children and the recovery of Azazel. (Episode: Hercules) Epsilon soldiers managed to breach the Gallows facility where they recovered Azazel but the alien intelligence awoke due to the presence of Jabberwock. However, Ryo managed to regain control of himself and influence Azazel who removed the presence of a nano-weapon within the air but at the cost of its existence. Azazel's apparent demise led to Keith Silver openly attacking the facility as he had nothing resided within it which he needed to protect. (Episode: Incubation)

Overview
They eventually took the name of Egrigori which was a word not recognized by the Church as being part of the Bible. It was an unauthorized part of the Old Testament and concerned the appearance of an angel in a disputed chapter. This angel was described as holding a face of metal and eyes that never closed with it being made the guardian of morals. It was known as the "Sleepless Keeper" due to its role in legend. The organization was described as being a huge conglomerate with military and political connections around the world. (Episode: Trust) They had such fine management over society to the point that they claimed that they controlled the likes of the police and media. (Episode: Intercept) The Egrigori were also known to not tolerate traitors amongst their ranks and ruthlessly exterminated them. (Episode: Evolution)

Its fighting forces included an elite strike force known as Epsilon that were the best fighting unit in all of America. (Episode: Hercules) In addition, they had a number of standard infantry soldiers that were heavily armed with many being stationed at their headquarters to protect them from assault.

Among the noted fields of study of the organization included cyborgs, mind control, illegal human reconstruction and genetic restructuring. They were noted to had gone to the edge in testing the limits of man/machine fusion. (Episode: Illusion) It was held that the Egrigori were the only group that had the means to create functional human clones. (Episode: Forward) The three primary fields of research were; cyborgs, genetic mutations and the ARMS. (Episode: Snark Hunt) Ultimately, the other fields of study were simply in taking apart the human body and putting it back together in order to learn on better integration with the ARMS. As a result, their cyborg programs often saw them taking innocent individuals whose minds were blanked and families were killed in order to breed living weapons for their purposes. (Episode: Drakken)

One technological field of study for the group was experimental mind control implants. Subjects were tagged with a barcode on their left ear and implanted with devices designed to make the subject respond like a machine. The implants themselves took the form of chips that were placed between the frontal and temporal lobe in the region that administered behavior, auditory and memory functions. This allowed the subject to be manipulated from a distance and allowed the users to remotely control the host bodies. However, this technology was experimental at best as some brains rejected the chips leading to the subjects eventual death. (Episode: Illusion) In terms of weaponry, they developed a nano-machine airborne based bioweapon that were created to serve as an the antithesis of the material coating Azazel. Once sprayed as a gas, this weapon referred to as Locust moved in the air and went through the lungs in order to attack the cell nuclei of living beings. Such victims died in excruciating pain and these nanomachines were even able to harm an ARMS subject due to its nature. (Episode: Hercules)

Another product of their experiments were the Hound Battalion in order to breed supersoldiers that worked in packs with a leader directing their operations. (Episode: Hound) A more advanced cyborg deployed by the Egrigoi had accelerator implants that allowed them to move at supersonic speeds that matched the fastest of the ARMS subjects. (Episode: Maze) Their cyborg program also bred an entire unit of elite cyborg commandos known as the Drakken Battalion though this unit went rogue and joined the Bluemen. (Episode: Drakken)

During the course of their experiments, they had created a wide range of products that included:
 * Chapel Children : these were children with heightened intelligence that were given up by their parents and used as scientists by the Egrigori. The first of their number was Alice who proved invaluable in the study of the alien entity known as Azazel. Some among them were involved in their own experiments that yielded new creations for the Egrigori. A large number of Chapel Children were also stationed at Gallows Bell for the study of a piece of Azazel.
 * Keith Series : this was a series of clones all created from the genetic material of Keith White who was the lead scientist and leader of the Egrigori. He created them shortly after Alice merged with Azazel and creating the four original ARMS cores. The first male clone was initially referred to as Zero but took the name Keith Black who was implanted with artificial ARMS whereupon he seemingly killed his genetic donor and took over the Egrigori. Black's siblings were similarly implanted with ARMS and became lead agents of the Egrigori.
 * Cyborgs : a wide range of cyborgs were created by the Egrigori who had cybernetic implants placed within them to enhance their capabilities. Combat cyborgs simply had added strength and reflexes making them above normal humans in terms of capabilities. A number of special cyborgs were created with enhanced abilities as well. These included some with accelerator implants that could match the speeds of an ARMS whilst others were cyborg pilots that were far superior to human ones. Some of the recruits for this process had their memories and even lives robbed for them for the experiment. Among their cybernetic creations included the Drakken Battalion and the elite trio known as the Crimson Triad. The Triad contained special implants such as ceramic armor, ultrasonic generators for flight and malleable bodies allowing for shape shifting. Ultimately, the cybernetic program was tasked with only improving scientific knowledge that could be spent on the ARMS.
 * X-Army : these were a range of genetic experiments some of which involved re-engineering subjects whilst others were enhanced in-utero. The process created individually unique mutants with various traits such as increased strength, better vision, telepathy or telekinesis. Members of this experiments were by-products for the next program namely Project: Redcap though the different abilities made X-Army operatives useful. In the English anime dub, they were referred to as the Ex-Armis.
 * Project Redcap : the Redcaps were the ultimate goal involving gathering the data from the X-Army in creating a small unit of supersoldiers that had each of the abilities of the X-Army added into them. As a result, all had accelerated healing abilities, super-enhanced vision and telepathic abilities that linked one another together. These genetic changes were not as powerful as the originals in the X-Army as the telepathy did not allow them to read mind but could communicate with one another and predict the moves of their enemies. However, their telepathy could not read those individuals that had were operating on blind instinct or other telepaths or people who had gone through training to resist telepathy. They were placed under the command of General Gauss Gall where the elderly soldier placed in a young cloned body.
 * Hound Battalion : a special non-cyborg combat unit developed by the Chapel Children who developed these soldiers with extensive gene modification known as the 'boosting' process. This provided them with extreme acute senses, near superhuman strength along with speed and stamina with them being given physical as well as mental traits somewhat similar to that of primitive humans. They also developed an intense pack-like mentality that required a leader to coordinate their movements with them developing a strong sense of loyalty to one another. The longer they fought the more adrenaline their bodies produced that greatly increased their strength and speed making them incredibly dangerous in long-term engagements. However, this also placed a severe strain on their bodies causing them to overheat and lead to catastrophic failure of body functions. The greatest advantage was their coordinated allowing them to overwhelm their enemies and were equipped with grapple ropes as well as rocket launchers in the arms
 * Successors : these soldiers stationed at Karrion Fortress were considered the pinnacle of cybernetic research but lacked cyborg brains. Instead, the technology in their creation was so far advanced that they lacked any brain. Instead, these former humans had their thought patterns and memories digitized that were stored in the quantum supercomputer at the Egrigori's headquarters that was constantly being updated. It allowed them to be resurrected into new bodies should their former one be badly damaged or destroyed making them effectively immortal so long as the computer remained operational. For combat, they were equipped with ultrasonic vibratin generators that allowed them to break any material down on a molecular level causing it to shatter and crumble that also served as a defensive capability. In addition, acceleration generators allowed them to move at high speeds as cyborgs and through wireless communication they were able to instantly coordinate wit one another. Each of these bald male specimens were referred to as Clark. In the English anime dub, they were called the NEXT.

The headquarters of the Egrigori was stated to be within the United States of America. (Episode: Snark Hunt) One of their bases was the Special Experimental Facility that was also known as the Asylum. This site was used to store genetic samples but was also used as a detention facility for dangerous prisoners. (Episode: Coma) Their headquarters was their own private island referred to as Karrion Fortress which even government or military personnel could not access without invitation. (Epiode: Turn) It was officially registered a military research wing of the Karrion Corporation that was a simply a cover for the Egrigori's base of operations. At the center of the island, there was a dome surrounded by four other structures. Each contained four levels but beneath them they had up to 50 levels underground that helped hide their operations. (Episode: Killing Field) The Karrion Fortress had a supercomputer deep within it that had the mind of a top Egrigori scientist that specialized in cybernetics and also administered the guard system that protected the facility.

Members

 * Al Bowen :
 * Jeff Bowen :
 * Samuel Tillinghast : a male 75 year old American scientist who was among the greatest mind in the world and considered an expert on the ARMS.
 * Dewey Graham : male doctor who was the head of the Egrigori's Cyborg Development Group who experimented on his own dying son Huey Graham turning him into one of the Successors. Dr. Graham would also upload his own mind into the quantum supercomputer at Karrion Fortress turning it effectively into his cyborg body.
 * Huey Graham : male son of Dr. Dewey Graham who was dying leading to his father experimenting on him turning him into the lead member of the Successors that became the internal security force of Karrion Fortress.

Appearances

 * Project ARMS: "Bluemen"
 * Project ARMS: "Snark Hunt"