Re:Zero: Why Is The Witch Cult After The Witch's Remains In Priestella?

Re:Zero season 3 kicked off with a bang, as the Water Gate City of Priestella falls under siege by the Witch Cult.

Adding to the chaos, the cult demands the remains of a witch buried within the city.

While the identity of the witch is not immediately revealed, Al and Subaru later deduce that the remains belong to Typhon, the Witch of Pride.

This raises an important question: Why are a witch’s remains in Priestella in the first place, and why is the Witch Cult so interested in them?

Table of Contents

Why Does Priestella Have Typhon’s Remains?

To understand this, we need to dig into the history of Priestella. The Water Gate City wasn’t just built for show, as both Anastasia and Beatrice revealed.

It was actually designed as a giant trap! Think of it as a mechanism to deal with incredibly dangerous beings like Witches and powerful witchbeasts.

The city’s control towers can unleash a devastating flood, capable of drowning even a Witch. And guess what? This isn’t just theoretical. This flood mechanism was used in the past to kill Typhon.

Typhon was revealed to have drowned in a flood. That connection is crucial in finding out her identity.

Typhon’s remains—a single withered arm—are still hidden within the Great Temple in Priestella. After the Council of Ten was slaughtered, Kiritaka Muse, the city’s last surviving leader, revealed that only he knew how to access the temple where the remains were kept.

Eventually, a group consisting of Garfiel, Ezzo, Liliana, and Ricardo managed to retrieve her remains.

Now here’s the catch: Typhon’s remains weren’t just sitting around doing nothing. They played a crucial role in Priestella’s very existence.

Kiritaka Muse reveals in the Re:Zero light novels that the Witch’s remains possess a special power that acts as the foundation of the city.

Removing them would be catastrophic, causing damage on par with, or even exceeding, the flood that killed Typhon. Basically, handing over the remains to the Witch Cult would be like handing them the keys to destroy the city!

Why Did the Witch Cult Want the Witch’s Remains?

While the Re:Zero anime or light novel hasn’t explicitly revealed their motives, we can make some educated guesses based on what we know about the Witch Cult.

The Witch Cult’s actions are often guided by the Gospels they carry. It’s possible that their demand for the Witch’s remains is based on some prophecy or instruction within these Gospels.

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And that brings to two major possibilities.

Getting closer to unsealing Satella:

It’s quite possible that the Witch Cult’s desire for Typhon’s remains stems from a combination of their thirst for power and their ultimate goal of unsealing Satella. This was .

We know that the Witch’s remains hold immense power. The cult might believe that harnessing the power within Typhon’s remains could give them a significant advantage in their endeavors, perhaps even providing them with the means to overcome obstacles they’ve encountered in their quest to free Satella.

Think about it: if the remains are the foundation of Priestella’s very existence, imagine the kind of power they could wield if they were to control it.

It could be a source of immense magical energy, or maybe even a key to unlocking ancient spells or rituals that could aid them in their plans.

Just like Emilia possessed the key to , does Typhon’s remains too possess something that will help the Witch Cult unseal Satella?

This theory gains more weight when you consider the Witch Cult’s history of seeking out objects and artifacts related to the Witches.

They revere Satella and seem to believe that collecting the belongings or remains of witches associated with her will bring them closer to their goals.

In a way, it’s like they’re trying to gather pieces of a puzzle scattered across the world, and Typhon’s remains might be a crucial piece they believe is necessary to unseal Satella

The Pride witch factor:

There is a one major spoiler in this section for anime only fans, so proceed with caution!!

Now this one is a bit tricky. The idea that the Witch Cult might be after Typhon’s remains to create or awaken the Pride Witch Factor is a compelling theory.

Firstly, the Witch Cult is conspicuously missing an Archbishop of Pride. We know that each Archbishop embodies one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and Pride is a significant absence in their ranks.

Petelgeuse, the Archbishop of Sloth, even directly asked Subaru if he was the Archbishop of Pride, highlighting the vacancy within the cult.

Secondly, the Witch Factor’s ability to be transferred or inherited adds another layer to this theory. and Regulus’s Witch Factors demonstrates that these powers can move between individuals.

This raises the question: what happened to the Pride Witch Factor after the death of its previous holder, Stride Vollachia?

Since Stride died long before Subaru’s arrival, it’s possible that the Pride Witch Factor became dormant or lost. In fact, Stride’s words suggest that he may not even have possessed the Pride Witch Factor!!

Perhaps the Witch Cult believes that Typhon’s remains hold the key to awakening or even recreating the Pride Witch Factor, since she was the Witch of Pride herself.

Why do you think the Witch Cult wants Typhon’s remains? Let me know your theories in the comments below!