Being X

Being X is the main antagonist of the Youjo Senki series. It is, in its own words, "God", but Tanya in her first meeting with it labeled it as the devil. Being X is a mysterious being. It claims to be a God, the God of the Bible, the one that gave the 10 commandments to Moses

However, there are a number of Gods and Archangels overseeing the world(s), which goes against what is postulated in the First Commandment. Its goal appears to be the increase of the number of faithful people in the world.

Plot
Being X is the one that summons Tanya to the new world after her former Japanese body (an unknown salaryman) meets his afterlife and unfavorably reviews God’s system of building the human civilization while maintaining religious devotion. After hearing the review, Being X told him that the significant part of the human race being atheists like him is due to them having to live in a peaceful scientific world, without facing any major setback.

By changing all those conditions (and his gender), Being X hypothesized that the Japanese atheist will become a faithful individual and thus, the Japanese Salaryman is reborn as the experimental subject Tanya Degurechaff. At a conference between Gods, said Gods show preoccupation looking at the rampant decrease in faithful individuals throughout many worlds. They protected humanity in the past from various disasters, helped those who were reached out for them and never hindered civilization’s development. On the contrary, the Gods wanted humans to seek the mysteries behind their workings and reach a higher level of philosophy and thus, welcomed scientific progress. They expected mankind would evolve from mindless worship to reverent devotion with greater understanding and reach higher-order intellection.

However, they couldn’t foresee that the rapidly increase in living standards and scientific progress would lead to loss of faith (in them). The prevalent lack of faith appears to be a threat to their own existence. They use a system called the “Circle of Rebirth” to keep every soul alive and in theory, the number of faithful individuals stable and their power as well. However, with the increasing number of atheists in a faithless world, the system is reaching its limits as inevitably the reborn individuals end up becoming atheists again while the number of faithful individuals keeps decreasing. In order to increase the number of faithful individuals in the world without directly imposing their will, they decided to teach words of prayer and give new miracles to the humans so that they can regain their faith in the Gods by themselves.

Their first action is to help Schugel with the Type 95 Operation Orb, a device that uses knowledge very close to the realm of the Gods. However, they opted to give him a miracle instead of finishing the Type 95 orb for him or showing him how to do it. Hence, the Type 95 operation orb was able to function in its last field test- despite not being upgraded- just by the power of words of prayer, making Schugel a believer.

God's Domain
This ability gives the authorized person to stop time accordingly. It can use it anytime to interfere and to talk to Tanya.

God's Possession (Anime Only)
It can possess anyone and any living things such as animals, insects and even humans whether dead or alive. However, it only took effect when someone believes and have faith on It.

God's Will (Deus lo vult)
The ability to give its blessings to someone. Being X used this authority to let Tanya von Degurechaff and Mary Sue use it for spreading its word to its believers and convert all those who are non-believers.

Quotes
(To Tanya) : "You are lacking in faith, is driven by your sexual lust, holds me in disregard, and completely ignores ethics."

(To Tanya) : "So the reason for the problem, according to you, is that living in a scientific world, is a man, not knowing what is war and having never fallen into any dead ends right? If that’s the case, all I need to do is just throw you into that kind of environment and you will start to believe and have faith again?"

The light novel
Gods have names from Christian angelic hierarchy, like Cherub, Seraph, and Thrones. They are working for “the Lord”, and whenever they want to impact on a world, they always ask for the Lord's consent. From vol.1 to vol.3, They only impact on this alternate world for 3 times.
 * 1) Send the Japanese salaryman's soul into a female embryo.
 * 2) Send the miracle to Tanya's Elinium type-95 so that none can use the type-95 except her.
 * 3) Send more miracles to the faithful people so that more apostles will appear.

The anime
The anime didn't reveal much info about how the system works. Hence, whether Being X is part of the group of Gods, a spokesperson for the group, a single entity comprising of all the divine beings, or even the Devil like Tanya claims, is still to be determined. It also doesn't have stable form and uses its power to impact on this world more often. It attempts to send more miracles to this world, and then intensify the conflicts in this world, which might increase of the number of faithful people.

The manga
Most of the settings get close to the light novel. There is some differences : Gods have various forms, like Jehovah, Shiva, seven-eyed fire titan, and the angel wearing knight armor. Aside of their forms, they also sent 3 miracles, which were all finally, accidentally given for Mary Sue, to the world.

Trivia

 * Tanya blames Being X for cursing her with the Type 95 operation Orb when it was the God of Invention who instructed Schugel on how to make the orb work.


 * Another known member of the God’s Collective is the Angel of Wisdom. He’s the one who concludes that the Gods’ plan is not wrong and what’s needed is a way to increase the number of faithful people. Incidentally, his approach is the same one Being X uses when he reincarnates the unknown Japanese salaryman as Tanya Degurechaff.