Material-S

Stern
Stern in Reflection
Character profile
Other names	Material-S (portable) Stern the Destructor (GoD and movie) Stern of Annihilation (official movie peripheral product) Dream of the Book of Darkness (portable)
Gender	Female
Species	Material (portable) Familiar (movie)
Family	Purple Sky family(siblings)
Background
Affiliation	System U-D
Magic
Color	Cherry blossom pink (BoA) Vermillion (GoD and movie) Deep pink (movie trailer)
System	Midchilda (portable) Formula-emulated Midchilda (movie)
Device	Luciferion Blast Claw (movie)
Production
Japanese name	星光の殲滅者(シュテル・ザ・デストラクター) (Shuteru za Desutorakutā)
First app.	Battle of Aces
Voiced by	Yukari Tamura
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Material-S (マテリアル－Ｓ Materiaru Esu) is first introduced as one of the chief antagonists in The Battle of Aces, along with Material-L and Material-D.

Name and origins

In the portable continuity, Material-S is the Material in charge of "logic" (理 ri), part of the System U-D materialised as a clone of Nanoha Takamachi during the Dark Fragment Incident. She is first introduced in The Battle of Aces in English Material-S and in Japanese "Annihilator of Starlight" (星光の殲滅者 Seikō no Senmetsusha).

In the sequel The Gears of Destiny, it is revealed her full name/title is Stern the Destructor (シュテル・ザ・デストラクター Shuteru za Desutorakutā, usually rubied as 星光の殲滅者(シュテル・ザ・デストラクター)), which may be shortened as Stern (シュテル Shuteru, usually rubied as 星光(シュテル)), German for "Star". Nevertheless, in the scenario U-D still calls her Material-S in Japanese.

In the movie continuity, her name is merely Stern (シュテル Shuteru). She also introduces herself to Nanoha with the title "Stern of Annihilation" (殲滅のシュテル Senmetsu no Shuteru).

Appearance

Material-S looks like her original, Nanoha, except that her hair is brown rather than auburn, and cut much shorter. Her eyes are also light blue rather than dark blue, and her pupils are always contracted, like the other two Materials.

Alternate continuities

Portable

Stern the Destructor in The Gears of Destiny

Stern appears in both Battle of Aces and Gears of Destiny.

In The Battle of the Aces she reveals that she is the Dream of the Book of Darkness thus recognizing Fate Testarossa (unlike Nanoha) and commands her to return to her depths during Fate's path.

In Reinforce's path she informs Reinforce that she and the other Materials intend to revive the Book of Darkness (with them successfully reviving the Master Control Program with memories from Reinforce's past self to serve as the Dark Fragment Core until Dearche the Darkness of the Book of Darkness is resurrected) before declaring she intends to claim Reinforce's resources for that purpose.

Stern is very polite and calm, but nevertheless extremely dangerous. She is also respectful to strong opponents whom she loses to, e.g. explaining the Materials to Reinforce, admitting Yuuno Scrya (Nanoha's magic teacher in her cognition) as her teacher (師匠 shishō) etc.

Movie

Stern appears in Reflection and Detonation.

She is the materialised state of a "soul" awakened by the Tome of the Night Sky's pages, with reference to Nanoha's appearance and magic talents, in 0067 instead. In Detonation, it's revealed that Stern, Levi and Dearche were originally cats who lived with Yuri and Iris. During Yuri face against Phil Maxwell in 40 years ago, along with Levi and Dearche was bite Phil's shoulder to save Yuri. After the bite, Yuri tells the cats to hide inside the Book of Darkness. Due to Yuri never releases the cats from the tome, the cats died inside the tome.

Brave Duel

Stern Starks (シュテル・スタークス Shuteru Sutākusu) is an international student studying abroad in Uminari City, owning the title "Stern the Destructor" for Brave Duel games. As a human, her pupils are no longer contracted. Her battle-related designs are based on Nanoha's in The MOVIE 2nd A's instead.

Powers

Stern's Device is a staff named Luciferion. It is a copy of Raising Heart Exelion, but its primary color is metallic red and its gem is purple.

In The Battle of Aces, Material-S is one of the most powerful characters, combining Nanoha's long range attack power with Vita's melee and Zafira's defense skills. After Stern acquires her new powers upon reviving in The Gears of Destiny, fiery effects are added to her spells, matching her new/true magic color and the names of her spells.

Barrier Jacket

As revealed in The Gears of Destiny Material Girls., Stern's protective clothing, presumably a Midchildan Barrier Jacket, is known as Heat Suit (殲滅服(ヒートスーツ) Hīto Sūtsu, lit. Exterminate Clothing). Its design (except colors) is same as that of Nanoha's Barrier Jacket "Sacred Mode" in A's.

In the movie continuity, Stern's Heat Suit has instead an original new design with a chest armor plate, although its overall style is still similar to Nanoha's. In addition, Her left arm is also equipped with Blast Claw, which looks like a gauntlet of his protective clothing.

Spells

Spell	System	Category	Type	Rank
Axel Fin	Midchilda	Support	Transport
Blast Fire	Midchilda	Attack	Bombardment
Dream of the Book of Darkness	Ancient Belka	Illusion
Luciferion Breaker	Midchilda	Attack	Bombardment
Pyro Shooter	Midchilda	Attack	Shooting
Rubellite	Midchilda	Capture	Bind
Strike Flame	Midchilda	Attack	Energy blade

Stern about to bombard U-D with Luciferion's Disaster Head

In the scenario of The Gears of Destiny, Stern probably casts a copy of Exelion Buster (using Disaster Head) to vaccinate U-D when her attention is drawn away by Levi the Slasher. Her command phrase here is "Blast Shoot!" She also casts copies of Axel Fin and Strike Flame for flight support and Disaster Head (A.C.S Open Mode), respectively.

Although not revealed in the series, all these copies should have different names from Nanoha's original spells, based on the naming of Stern's other copied spells.

In the games

Spells in The Battle of Aces
		Cross Range	Long Range	Long Range (Charged)
▢	Attack/Basic	[unnamed]	Pyro Shooter
△	Block/High	Exterminate Bolt	Blast Fire
◯	Catch/Bind	Pyro Blast	Rubellite
L	FDB	Luciferion Breaker	---
R	Guard	Round Shield		---

Spells in The Gears of Destiny
		Cross Range	Long Range	Long Range (Charged)
▢	Attack/Basic	[unnamed]	Pyro Shooter
△	Block/High	[unnamed fiery punch]	Blast Fire	Disaster Heat
◯	Catch/Bind	Metsusai (滅砕 Metsusai, fiery palm strike)	Rubellite
△△	EX Attack	[unnamed fiery upper]	---
L	FDB	True Luciferion Breaker	---
R	Guard	Round Shield		---

Gallery