Character Guide: Gold Saints

Above is a picture of 12 Gold Saints of Athena Sanctuary. They are: (front row, from left to right) Libra Dohko (the old master), Aquarius Camus; (second row) Scorpio Milo, Leo Aioria, Capricorn Shura; (third row) Cancer Deathmask, Sagittarius Aioros, Pisces Aphrodite; (fourth row) Aries Mu, Gemini Saga, Virgo Shaka; (back row) Taurus Aldebaran.

Gold Saints are the elite mortal warriors of Athena and protectors of her Sanctuary. Each one of them represents a constellation on the Zodiac, and guards the corresponding temple in the Sanctuary. According to the tradition, one of the 12 Gold Saints is appointed as the Pope by his predecessor. The Pope acts as the earthly representative of Athena in her absence. He has the supreme power over all the Saints.

To be a Gold Saint, one must be able to discover and use his seventh sense. The seventh sense gives a Gold Saint a significant edge in his fighting skills. For example, any one of the 12 is able to attack beyond the speed of light on top of his own unique fighting techniques. In addition to his superior personal power, a Gold Saint also possesses a Gold Cloth, a gold armor in the shape of the particular Zodiac Sign, which provides extremely strong body protection in the battles. An interesting thing about these Gold Clothes is that they are not lifeless pieces of metals: they can bear the wills of Gold Saints who wear them and move to faraway places (in the cases of Aioros, Dohko, and Camus); they can also leave Gold Saints who are too morally corrupted to wear them (Deathmask).

Most Gold Saints are decent, brave folks who pledge their lives to fight for Athena. However, if we observe more closely, it seems that they fight for love and justice in whatever ways they consider proper: Athena just happened to represent these things most of the times. Anyway, the Gold Saints are NOT brainless "good soldiers". They have very distinctive personalities, loves and hates; they can appear quite religious /philosophical (Shaka), or place friendship above their lives and official duties(Camus).

Of cource, as in any group, there are always "forces of Evil". Cancer Deathmask is one example; Pisces Aphrodite is another, maybe to a lesser extent. Even so, they are clearly defined characters, not cardboard villains. For instance, Aphrodite's remarks about "Power is Justice" isn't at all wrong, either in the story or in real life.

All right, that's enough for an introduction. If you are interested to know more about the Gold Saints, the followings are their biographical records. Just click on their names to see their personal profiles.

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