Thoma Avenir

Thoma Avenir (トーマ・アヴェニール) is the male lead of Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force. He is a traveller originally from the planet Vaizen.

Name
Thoma's surname presumably refers to.

Past
Thoma was born on Vaizen in 0066 and has traveled a lot. In 0074, when he was eight years old, his town was destroyed by two mages bearing "blue wings" tattoos of the Hückebein family. He himself was almost crushed by the debris but survived and was wandering Vaizen as a homeless orphan for some time. He accidentally met Subaru Nakajima (whom he calls "Su-chan"), who was training in recluse, and the two quickly grew close. She helped him search for any surviving relatives, and then found an orphanage for him. About half a year before the events of Force, the Nakajima family offered to adopt him. However, he still hadn't coped with his past, and decided to go on a journey, hoping to make the decision along the way. In particular, he was searching any clues on the identity of the ones who destroyed his hometown, without any success.

In chapter 2, he says that he has been helped by a "kind person" once, which apparently became a character-defining experience. This presumably referred to Subaru.

In Force
At the beginning of Force, Thoma has been traveling across Ruwella for two days to reach a ruined mine complex. Upon his arrival, however, he is surprised to find a small military force preparing to leave the place. Although he prefers not to get involved, an unknown girl establishes telepathic contact with him from inside the ruins and begs to help her. Thoma has no choice but enter the ruins and free the girl, revealed to be Lily-Strosek. Upon meeting her, his left eye's iris turns red and starts to bleed, but he shrugs it off.

Thoma's intrusion is soon detected and the military attempts to incinerate them both with the Plasma Arc. Lily, however, engages with him and they survive. Thoma emerges from the rubble with an altered appearance, similar to someone in Unison, and an EC Divider in his hand, which he uses to take out their attackers with a single Divide Zero attack (though it is later discovered that he didn't injure anyone fatally). It becomes apparent that Thoma has lost control of his body for a while after the transformation, only regaining it shortly before his new outfit and Divider dissolve into thin air. He is, however, left with a silver Engage Ring on his right hand, which he cannot take off. An identical Ring is thereafter worn by Lily.

After escaping the ruins, Thoma and Lily reach Port Town, where they buy new clothes for Lily from Isis Egret and stay at a hotel. However, when police comes searching for them (on suspicion of theft), Isis runs ahead to warn them and leads them to safety. As they stop to rest in the forest, Thoma explains more about himself and Lily to Isis and says that he is going to ensure Lily's safety, then contact Subaru. To do this, they journey to the nearest Church, only to find that it has been attacked. Among the bodies of killed nuns, Thoma meets a strange man, later revealed to be Veyron, who demands that he returns "the Divider and the Reactor" (presumably meaning Lily). The man is shown to bear the same tattoo as the ones who destroyed Thoma's village.

Thoma demands to know whether Veyron was the one who killed the nuns and destroyed his village on Vaizen. Instead of answering, Veyron attacks but Thoma displays unexpected fighting proficiency with his Divider. Surprised, Veyron breaks off and asks why Thoma "stole" the Divider, to which Thoma replies that he only wanted to save Lily. Veyron mocks him for being unaware of what's really going on, enraging Thoma, who proceeds to activate the Divider further and attack him. However, Veyron overpowers him and badly burns his left arm, in passing admitting that he was among those responsible for the destruction on Vaizen. After the last desperate attack, Thoma is left motionless and defenseless but Veyron spares him when Isis arrives, saying he is out of ammo. He then leaves, introducing himself as "Veyron of the Hückebein Family" and saying that Thoma's "life and his Divider" are in his hands for now.

Outside, Veyron states to Arnage that Thoma is completely infected with Eclipse and that he will come to Hückebein eventually. Elsewhere, Thoma regains consciousness with Isis and Lily watching over him. He notices that his badly damaged arm has healed by some kind of symbol has been spreading from under his Engage Ring. He then falls unconscious again with a fever of 39.6°C. Isis leaves for Port Town to fetch food, while Steed sets off to scout the area. While they are away, Thoma dreams of his hard but happy past life on Vaizen, which was taken away when his town was destroyed, then of his present life with Subaru, Teana, and their friends, who taught him to be happy again. He says that his journey was actually a symbolic way to put his past behind but although he didn't expect to find discover Hückebein, he cannot look away from the facts. However, before Veyron dares to take Thoma's present happiness away, he resolves to kill him.

At this moment, Thoma wakes up, still delirious from fever, and throws up. Lily, the only one left at his side, frantically tries to reach him, Isis, or Steed with her telepathy but fails. At this moment, they are found by Cypha of Hückebein, who tells Lily that Thoma is becoming "just what an Eclipse Driver should be" and that Lily would soon "become one" with him. Lily doesn't understand what she means and Cypha concludes that she has been damaged and should be destroyed before Hückebein claims Thoma. They are saved, however, by the timely arrival of Signum and Agito. Thoma remains passive throughout the most of their battle and only regains full consciousness when Isis returns and tries to carry him to a safer location. When he does, however, he pushes her away and lets out a scream of pain. Cypha comments that since he has awoken, he must be one of them now and she will take him with her.

Back on Vaizen, Subaru is informed by her colleagues about Thoma's involvement in the Eclipse case. Although slightly distraught, she says that she has to confirm it herself first.

Thoma's body is controlled by Eclipse, while he himself sees the flashbacks from his past, which are suddenly interrupted by a vision of Veyron. Veyron reminds him to take revenge on the destroyers of his hometown, inciting hate in him. Thoma's body screams, as he summons the second form of his Barrier Jacket-like "battle equipment". Seeing that, Cypha says that a person infected with Eclipse cannot return to normal and asks Signum whether he will be able to live in "her world". She then says that Hückebein won't abandon him. Signum orders Agito to unison out and restrain Thoma, but after neutralizing Signum, Cypha knocks Agito out from afar. Thoma, apparently having lost any sense of self, almost attacks Isis and Lily but all three of them are restrained and knocked out by the newly-arrived Arnage of Hückebein. She and Cypha then prepare to take them to the Hückebein base.

Combat Protective Clothing
The Eclipse Drivers' equivalent of Barrier Jacket, Thoma's Combat Protective Clothing consists of black garments with several metallic parts and is summoned whenever Thoma starts using his EC-induced abilities. It additionally has the second form, "Black Knight", which is further optimized for offensive combat.