Phil Rings

"Ragishss Cryhausen"

- on the Phil Rings.

About
The Phil Rings (フィールの指輪, fīru no yubiwa) are four magical artifacts created by the famed magic researcher Of Phil for the mage Ragishss Cryhausen. They bestow great power to their wearers but also cause violent changes in their personality. A hidden side-effect is that the Phil Rings may channel power from their wearers to another person. Once the power of 40 mages has been siphoned, their new wearer will receive enormous power. They were the primary catalyst for the events of Rance 02 and the incident involving the Four Witches of Kathtom.

At the start of Rance 02, the Rings were given to Shizuka Masou, Eleanor Ran, Mill Yorks, and Maria Custard as a gift from Ragishss to commemorate their graduation from his Magic Academy. The four girls underwent a drastic personality change and promptly killed him. Next they cursed the town, began performing forbidden magic, and kidnapped various women from Kathtom for use in magical experiments, which lead to the involvement of the adventurer Rance. Over the course of the adventure, the Rings were removed from the girls and their personalities returned to normal. The incident concluded when the spirit of Ragishss tricked Rance into giving him the recovered Phil Rings by possessing local townswoman Cith Gode and sleeping with Rance. The power-hungry mage was opposed by Rance, Sill Plain, Milli Yorks, and the previously controlled "four witches." Ragishss obtained great new power from the Rings but it was ultimately too much for him and his body was overcome by the influx of energy.

The effects of wearing a Phil Ring are enticing and dangerous. A mage's magical capabilities will be increased, as well as being able to produce new kinds of magical creations (such as the underground labyrinths of Rance 02). However, the wearer's personality will alter, often towards something vicious and lewd. Mild-mannered Eleanor began performing sexual torture on her captives and cut off the arm of adventurer Bird Lithfie. The Rings also display a capacity to alter one's physiology, as Mill's body was changed from that of a pre-teen girl to a developed woman. Despite these changes, the feelings and motivations of the original person remain intact to some degree. Despite her violent actions, Mill was overcome by the threat of her beloved sister Milli Yorks as a hostage, leading her to surrender. Shizuka's depraved actions were ultimately undertaken to alter history and save the life of her father. The exact nature of the Phil Rings' transformational power is unknown but it may be surmised that they enhance a person's desires and what they are willing to do to achieve them.

The Rings will only have this effect on people who are both mages and virgins, so any non-mage non-virgin person wearing the Rings will undergo no effect. Any virgin wearing a Phil Ring who suddenly loses their virginity (say, due to the intervention of Rance) will drop the Phil Ring and have its effects dispelled. This is why Rance initially saw no problem is giving the Phil Rings to Cith to try on.

The only person capable of wearing the Phil Rings and not being subject to their limitations or side-effects is the one to whom they are siphoning power; in this case Ragishss Cryhausen. Sometime before the Kathtom incident, Ragishss had absorbed the power of 36 female mages and needed only 4 more to fully power the Rings. This was achieved during Rance 02 and Ragishss completed his ambitious plot. However, while the Rings are capable of containing near limitless power, the human body is not. Ragishss' attempt to overcome Rance's party lead to drawing upon too much power from the Rings and his body burst from the inundation of magic. The spirits of the 40 girls were released from the Phil Rings and they rewarded Rance's efforts by granting his wish (the only wish Rance would want when faced with 40 women). The current whereabouts of the Rings are unknown but they were presumably destroyed along with Ragishss during their incident.