Chakravartin

Chakravartin.

Chakravartin is a character from the 3D action beat 'em up game Asura's Wrath. He is the main antagonist of the last four episodes and the true final boss of the game.

Biography

Personality

As the God of Mantra, Chakravartin is a calm, all-seeing and wise individual. As the Golden Spider, he showed a knack of teasing Asura, speaking in riddles and questioning him on his motives and the reason of his anger. He is also shown to be very ruthless, as he didn't hesitate in destroying Olga to protect Mithra, due to the role she would fulfill in his plans.

Chakravartin likes to place his creations on "trials" to see if they are truly worthy of living, typically without paying attention to any collateral damage and suffering his trials entail. This includes creating and releasing the Gohma on Gaea, which sparked the conflict between the Demigods and the Gohma, and Deus' betrayal to gain enough power to create a new world. Ultimately, due to his unchecked actions, he's responsible for the misery and despair of both Gaea and Asura. He explains that he put Asura on a trial to choose him as the "new god" of Gaea, so that he can move on to other worlds under the false pretense of 'saving' them, implying that he is tired of having to look after Gaea.

When Asura denies and fights the god, he reacts in an extremely calm yet dissapointed manner, saying that he would have to destroy Gaea and make it anew, implying he has performed this process in the past. Even during its fight with Asura, he maintains a calm and patronizing manner towards the demigod, maintaining complete confidence in his abilities.

However, as Asura continues to withstand its attacks and damage the god, he begins to display visible anger and frustration and his arrogance grows even further, resorting to increasingly more aggressive means to kill Asura. Eventually as he transforms into his final state and both combatants go all out in a fist-fight, Chakravartin starts to display an increasing degree of disbelief at the extent of the injuries it sustains, claiming to the end he is the one true god and that his commands must be followed.

Appearance

Earlier in the story, Chakravartin appears as a spider-like entity made of gold plating and small thin legs. After possessing Mithra, Chakravartin becomes capable of using the full extent of his powers and assumes the shape of an androgynous, multi-armed giant, wielding two large staves. In this form, he is barefoot while wearing long golden robes and emits an eerily powerful golden glow. He possesses a multitude of arms which are a part of the large intricate halo that constantly floats behind his back.

Concept

Chakravartin's primary form in the game seems to be based off on or heavily influenced by the Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva due to his multiple armed appearance and twin staves that he carries with him.

His Golden Spider form may be a reference to the Buddhist tale "The Spider's Thread", where Buddha meditates in heaven and sees a sinner in Hell who had commited one good deed sparing a spider's life. He, like Chakravartin, intervened with fate and created a spider's thread allowing the sinner to climb to heaven, but the criminal's greed causes him to fall back to the underworld. His Golden Spider form can also be seen as a parallel to Western beliefs of spiders as manipulators who decieve people and weave complicated webs.

Powers and Abilities

As the original source of the "Spinner of Mantra", Chakravartin is, in theory, the most powerful being in the universe. Through the manipulation of Mantra, Chakravartin is shown to be physically capable of acomplishing virtually any feat imaginable without any sort of effort required.

While Chakravartin is not completely indestructible (as proven during his final battle with Asura), his resistance to damage alone has shown to be far greater than any other character present in the game, with only the strongest of beings capable of doing any sort of perceivable harm to him (with the only being who has shown this capability being Asura himself). Throughout the various forms he manifests in, Chakravartin is shown to boast exponential levels of strength, skill, durability and endurance, able to easily hold his own against even Destroyer Asura as well as simultaneously dealing critical level damage to the demigod all at once.

In addition to his immense physical power as well as his ability to shapeshift into several powerful and even colossal forms, Chakravartin, as the origin of all Mantra in the universe, has displayed the unique ability to manifest his Mantra in different shapes and forms in sync with whatever form he was currently inhabiting.

Forms

The Golden Spider

In this form, Chalravartin's Mantra is golden in appearance and he can manifest it in the form of massive beams as well as multiple massive orbs of energy, and can produce extremely powerful barriers that were able to restrict Asura in his Wrath form from reaching Mithra among other feats. He also possesses extreme levels of durability in this form as he did not sustain any visible damage given by noteworthy injuries from Destructor Asura's punches and was able to overpower both him and Yasha during their fight with relative ease. This form also displays an extreme level of strength, as shown when Chakravartin was able to literally shatter four of Destructor Asura's arms when enraged, albeit with some effort and minor damage to his own limbs.

As the Golden Spider, he was able to knead and manipulate a large amount of mantra strings strong enough to disarm, restrain and ultimately constrict Olga to death with apparently no effort at all.

Golden Chakravartin

After sending the Brahmastra crashing down onto Gaea, Chakravartin creates a colossal golden statue version of himself in a lotus meditation position. Its function is near-identical to that of the Karma Fortress, but its size and the power of its blasts far outclasses that of the Brahmastra. Its blast was capable of destroying multiple planets along its path without losing momentum, and it was capable of using planets and stars as projectiles as a show in the fight against Asura.

The inside of the statue is a pocket dimension, referred to as the Event Horizon. In this space, Chakravartin can freely manipulate the reality inside it to create powerful illusions to fool Asura. Even when Asura assumes the form of The Destructor, he still struggles against the Mantra God to maintain an advantage in their fight.

Chakravartin, the Creator

During his final battle with Asura, he assumes a new form. In this form, he is only slightly taller than Asura, his body is much thinner and much more sinister in appearance. This is Chakravartin's most powerful form in all aspects, as he was able to destroy all of Asura's arms in his Destroyer form with a single finger, reducing the demigod to his most basic form.

In this form, his combat style changes radically. Its mantra energy becomes dark greyish in color and he can manipulate the energy in the form of giant throwing knives, energy waves, and colossal energy balls among others. He can also stop time to better focus his attacks on Asura. In this form, Chakravartin's movements becomes akin to that of an ice skater, moving with grace through the battlefield. He also becomes a fierce hand-to-hand combatant, as he was able to go toe-to-toe with Asura in a brutal, prolonged display of martial arts, showing extreme strength, skill, durability and endurance before eventually succumbing to defeat at the demigod's hands.

As the origin and tether of Mantra, should Chakravartin be killed, all Mantra and mantra-related creations (such as the demigod race) will inevitably disappear as seen with Asura's death in the end.

Story

The Golden Spider appears when Asura first falls into Naraka, following Deus' attempt to destroy him. There the Spider appears, questioning Asura's motives as well as the reason for his anger and incites him to climb the tower and leave Naraka. He would later repeat this same role the second time Asura fell into Naraka after being cleaved in two by Yasha.

Eventually, the Spider appears on the Karma Fortress, after Deus and Vlitra were destroyed, preventing Olga from killing Mithra and destroying her himself. He then wraps Mithra in a cocoon of golden mantra strings and ends up taking control of her body, changing Mithra's hair color from dark to golden and speaking in a dual voice. After taking control of Mithra, the mysterious entity reveals its true form and separates itself from Mithra's body to appear as the primordial God, Chakravartin, the source of all Mantra.

Chakravartin explains that the events transpiring between the Gohma and the Demigods has all been a part of his plan to find a new heir to inherit Gaea, as he had grown tired of the planet. As he explains his plan, Asura leaps to attack him since Chakravartin is the reason for all the tragedies that have occurred in the world and is the "one [he] should kill". Chakravartin calls this attack another test and battles both Yasha and Asura, defeating them both and forcing them to flee (partly due to Asura wearing himself out attempting to rescue the captive Mithra). Disappointed, Chakravartin declares it will have to remake the world as it has done countless times in the past, and subsequently plummets the Brahmastra towards Gaea in fiery ruin before taking on a new planet-sized form to destroy the planet.

After completing his planet sized transformation, Chakravartin destroyed multiple planets using a beam of concentrated Mantra that he fired towards Earth, but the attack was quickly absorbed by Asura at the last moment. Amused, Chakravartin beckoned Asura to face him while firing multiple projectiles (i.e. suns, planets, comets, etc.) to test his abilities. Upon breaking through the structure and appearing in his pocket dimension, Chakravartin calmly congratulated Asura on exceeding his expectations and declared him the one truly fit as a perfect being to rule Gaea stating the planet must be "ruled by one of its own". As part of Asura's reward, Chakravartin returned Mithra to Asura while stating he was planning on traveling to other worlds in need of his "guidance". As a gesture of good will, Chakravartin stretched out his hand to Asura to have his heir accept his offer only to be struck in the face by the angry demigod who refused to take part in the destructive god's plan.

Enraged at being spurned for his offer, Chakravartin attacks Asura only to be angered at his inability to destroy the demigod and the latter's ability to cause him harm. Losing his composure, Chakravartin takes Mithra back and viciously attacks the demigod, throwing away his staves and engaging Asura in a fistfight that damages both fighters, but is quickly knocked away by the demigod. No longer tolerant of his foe's insolence, Chakravartin declares he will erase Asura's very existence and transforms into his most powerful form to deal a grievous amount of damage to Asura. As the battle continues, the Mantra God grows more tired, while Asura continues to beat Chakravartin to the point where he finally shatters his composure. In a final bout, Chakravartin uses whatever strength he had left to battle the demigod only to be shrugged off and outmatched in might, all the while questioning in disbelief how a demigod could become so powerful.

In a final attack on the weakened god, Asura delivers a final punch to Chakravartin's face which shattered the tyrannical deity's face and caused him to vanish a whirlwind of energy and screaming anguish. With his death, all traces of Mantra disappeared from the world, ending the threat of Chakravartin forever, but also meaning that without Mantra, it meant Asura ceasing to exist as he fades away into the heavens to his late wife and to later be reincarnated with the other demi-gods.

Trivia

• Ironically, while he appears to be the supreme being of the Asura's Wrath universe, in real-life Hindu theology, Chakravartin is a character in India that represents "The Ideal Ruler" and not necessarily the "Ruler of All".

• In terms of physical size, Chakravartin is one of the largest Capcom characters. Others include Darkstalkers character Pyron (who can grow big enough to wear planets around his fingers like rings and even surpass the size of the Milkyway) and the Viewtiful Joe protaganist's Six Machine (which was comparable to the solar system in size).

• In his final battle, Chakravartin frequently stops time and throws knives at Asura which launch at high speed when time resumes normally. This could be a reference to manga character DIO (who wields similar powers) from the third part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Stardust Crusaders.

Gallery

Golden Spider

Golden Chakravartin

Chakravartin, The Creator

Chakravartin and Mithra.