Th10/characters setting.txt/en

--- ○東方風神録 (Touhou Fuujinroku: Eastern Wind God Chronicles)　～ Mountain of Faith.

Character Intros and Spoilers

Team Shanghai Alice Leader ZUN 2007/08/17

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======================================================= ■0.Settings TOC

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=======================================================　■1. Extra Story ■2. Character Settings

There's lots of extreme spoilers here, even about the ending. Only look at it if you've given up on clearing it, or just don't mind that sort of thing.

Move down 1000 ri from here ↓

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======================================================= 1. Extra Story

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Hakurei Shrine in beautiful autumnal colours. The tension from the mountain god's threat to take over the shrine had vanished. Somehow, Reimu had managed to talk Gensokyo's new god into a peaceful resolution. The shrine might get more visitors from now on Reimu thought, heaving a sigh of relief.

Marisa "I brought some chestnuts."

Reimu "Did you go back to the mountain?"

Marisa "Yep, 'cos it's an autumn of harvesting."

Reimu "It's not my problem if the tengu catch you."

Perhaps encouraged by her initial successes, Marisa had continued to sneak into the mountain to find interesting things.

Reimu "I've never seen chestnuts that big before."

Marisa "I found this really monstrous chestnut tree. Oh, I heard a weird rumour, too."

Reimu "What, that the chestnuts are a trap?"

Marisa "It has nothing to do with the chestnuts... There's this rumour among the tengu that "there's another god" in that wind god's shrine."

The tengu and kappa of the mountain had reconciled with Kanako Yasaka, and so, the shrine was allowed to stay. Kanako's skillful words had won over the mountain youkai, and it appeared she was already revered as the god of Youkai Mountain. Their faith in Kanako, who was well-endowed with divine traits, was a great benefit to the youkai of the mountain. Faith was the best way to make life peaceful and plentiful. The only troubling aspect of the situation was that the mountain youkai had become quite powerful, threatening the balance of power between them and the youkai at the foot of the mountain...

Reimu "Oh, didn't Kanako say anything about that?"

Marisa "She might be hiding something. Although, she didn't seem that shady a character to me. She's really cheerful."

Reimu "That's true. Japanese gods usually are cheery. Still, it's a little suspicious how she won over the mountain youkai so quickly... If there really is another god, maybe that has something to do with it."

Marisa "Suspicious."

As a matter of fact, Kanako had not been at the shrine, but at the lake. Moreover, she herself had said that her true residence was not the shrine, but the mountain itself.

In that case, what sort of god could be living in the shrine's inner sanctum?

If there was already another god in the shrine, wouldn't that mean Kanako wouldn't be able to use it freely? The more they thought about it, the less they understood. And so, to clear away their questions, the two set out for the shrine atop the mountain again.

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======================================================= ■2. Character Settings

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◇Player Characters

The Shrine Maiden of Paradise Reimu Hakurei

Species: Human Ability: Capable of flying in the air

The all-too-familiar shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine.

She treats everyone basically the same way. However, since her job is hunting youkai, she takes a fairly strict stance against youkai, but she's actually equally uninterested in humans and youkai.

This time, there's a conspiracy surrounding her gods. She may be their spokesperson, but her circumstances as a youkai hunter are different, so she feels a bit lost.

An Ordinary Magician Marisa Kirisame

Species: Human Ability: Ability to use magic

An ordinary magician living in Gensokyo. She also has a mania for collecting things.

She seems a bit weird, but in reality she's the most straightforward. She always wears black clothing because she thinks that's what magic-users should do and because it hides dirt very well. Very straightforward.

This time she's just following Reimu's lead, but since this doesn't look like a typical incident, she decides to take on the mountain first while thinking about what to say when she's reached her goal.

◇Enemy Characters

Stage 1 Mid-Boss: Symbol of Loneliness and Demise Shizuha Aki

Species: Goddess of autumn leaves Abilities: Governing autumn leaves

The older sister of the stage 1 boss, Minoriko. Normally they control autumn together as sisters. They're not terribly good at fighting, but they thought they'd come to warn and punish the humans who came to disrupt the autumn.

She believes that the autumn colors of the turning leaves are the best thing about autumn, and is filled with a sense of superiority when she can show her younger sister their beauty. When winter comes, she becomes sorrowful.

Stage 1 Boss: Symbol of Abundance and Harvest

Minoriko Aki

Species: Harvest Goddess Abilities: Governing abundant harvest

The first stage boss, and Shizuha's younger sister. Normally, they rule over autumn as sisters. She's called to the village as a special guest at the harvest festival every year. If she is not called for before the harvest, she is not able to guarantee an abundant harvest, but that's not her problem, and she would not point it out.

She's always surrounded by a sweet scent of fruits and other harvest items, and has something of a superiority complex with regards to her older sister. When winter comes, she becomes sorrowful.

Stage 2 Boss Nagashi-bina of the Hidden God

Hina Kagiyama

Species: Misfortune god Power: Stockpiling misfortune

Head of the tragic Nagashi-bina doll army. She stores up all the curses that are expelled during exorcisms. Even those with no real spiritual experience can tell that she's surrounded by curses.

Any human or youkai around her will run into misfortune. However, she herself never has this problem. It only affects those around her. Hina does her best to make sure that misfortune does not befall humans once again.

Stage 3 Boss Super Youkai Warhead

Nitori Kawashiro

Species: Kappa Ability: Manipulating water

A kappa that lives on Youkai Mountain. For a long time, kappa haven't let themselves be seen by humans, but since they usually hide to watch humans, they like to think that they are on good terms with humans.

She may suddenly change her attitude or speech, and she possesses a rather odd personality, but she's unexpectedly shy. She runs away the moment she sees a human.

Since she's an engineering nut, whenever she sees something man-made, she takes it apart and puts it back together. Because of this, her clothes are stuffed with tools.

She wanted to chase away Reimu and the others who had entered the mountain, but this is only because she believed that there was some sort of emergency occurring on the mountain, and she thought the humans would be in danger.

In the end, since Reimu and company didn't take her advice, Nitori secretly decided to let them into the mountain. She thought it would be interesting to watch them interact with the mysterious new god.

As a result of the ensuing battle, the kappa came to accept the new god of the mountain.

Stage 4 Midboss The Petty Patrol Tengu Momiji Inubashiri

Species: White Wolf Tengu Ability: Seeing a thousand ri ahead

A tengu that patrols the Youkai Mountain. Thanks to her superior senses of sight and smell, she can detect any intruder in an instant. When she discovers intruders she attempts to intimidate them with simple attacks, and once they cannot handle the intruders, they reports to the Great Tengu.

Her forces are usually lying in wait behind the waterfall. She has a very cooperative personality and executes her duties faithfully. This is unusual for youkai, but not uncommon in tengu society.

However, she usually has a lot of free time, as the Youkai Mountain doesn't receive many intruders. While awaiting orders, she enjoys playing a rather time-consuming game called Dai shogi with the nearby kappa.

It's hard for the especially long-lived youkai to find good ways to pass the time.

The Tengu Closest to the Village

Aya Shameimaru

Species: Crow Tengu Ability: Manipulating wind

A news reporter on the Youkai Mountain. A tengu who typically writes local news stories about the girls of Gensokyo.

This time around, she got word from the white wolf tengu that an intruder had entered the mountain. Normally, the white wolf tengu are charged by the great tengu with patrolling the mountain, and conducting negotiations and defensive operations.

However, in this case, the great tengu decided to call on this member of the information media to conduct negotiations. Cocking her head to one side in doubt, she headed to the scene of the event, where her confusion was immediately dispelled.

The intruder was one of the girls she was always covering in her newspaper.

In other words, the great tengu understood that Aya had the most in-depth knowledge of the intruder, and had the best chance of being told outright what the intruder's aim was.

Aya went easy on the intruder, put on a show of vigorously defending herself, and purposefully lost. After all, if she let the intruder enter the mountain without putting up a fight, she would likely be suspected of being an accomplice to the humans.

Aya pretended to lose to the humans, and guided them to the mysterious shrine that had appeared recently. She reported to her superiors that the intruders had no business with the tengu society, but were instead interested in the troublesome, enigmatic shrine that had appeared of late.

The great tengu took in her report, and then commended Aya for turning around a potential threat into an opportunity. He then ordered the underling Inubashiri to continue her observation of the humans, and go to investigate the shrine of the mysterious god.

According to Inubashiri's report, the mysterious god and the humans had waged battle, but it was truly a playful event where the two parties seemed to be enjoying themselves. Their respective personalities were bright, and their heads kept level. There was little, if any, real danger - rather, by pursuing a friendly relationship with the shrine, the youkai of the mountain might be better off in the end.

After that, the chief of the tengu, Lord Tenma, entered into secret negotiations with the mountain god. The details of their discussions were not made public, but it was made known that they had agreed to share the mountain with each other and pursue friendly relations.

Since then, the tengu and the kappa came to have faith in their new god. Though, it was really more of an agreement to all celebrate together than a matter of faith.

Deified Human of the Wind

Sanae Kochiya

Species: Human Occupation: Wind Priestess Ability: Causing miracles

A human who possesses the knowledge of a secretly inherited art. She has a very straightforward personality, so she has a lot of confidence in her own abilities. Sometimes, perhaps a bit too much confidence.

Wind Priestesses were originally a devotees of the wind god, but as they used their secret abilities to create miracles such as summoning the wind and rain, the people around them began to believe in these humans with mysterious abilities.

In short, over time, people began to mistake the miracles caused by the wind god as being caused by them.

In addition, as keepers of secrets, they began to accrue faith and be treated as gods, even though they were humans. They became living gods.

When she was young, Sanae had mastered the secrets to call upon miracles that had been passed down through an oral tradition only. A young girl that could call upon the power of miracles would certainly collect great amounts of faith --- one would expect.

However, the outside world had changed a great deal. Faith in even gods with many divine virtues had been decreasing rapidly. There were few who would worship even a living god who had attained divinity during their life as a human.

Though she didn't really have much faith, Sanae was able to live as a normal human without any real problems, but this would not do for the god she worshiped, Kanako.

When people lose faith in gods, the gods lose their power. They can't manifest their divine virtues. This is the same as death, for a god.

Kanako came to a decision. There were limits to the amount of faith that could come from humans. From now on, she would have to also look to youkai as a source of her faith.

Sanae was surprised to hear the details of her plan: a world called "Gensokyo" has existed within our nation since time immemorial. It is said that this world still exists, hidden. Gensokyo has collected a number of things that have become lost - or, become fantasy - in the outside world. One could say that even people's faith in gods is in the process of moving to Gensokyo. And so, Kanako decided to move her shrine into Gensokyo. She would say farewell to the world of humans.

Sanae was afraid of leaving the world of humans, but as a person with the power to call on miracles, going to a world of miracles was one of the fun parts.

She did not take the humans of Gensokyo seriously. She thought that if they threatened the only shrine in Gensokyo, the Hakurei Shrine, Gensokyo itself would submit to their every wish. She went to deliver her ominous message to Reimu, and then was in turn defeated.

The humans who lived in Gensokyo were more troublesome than she'd imagined, and in time she learned of the power they held, as well.

Here, she was nothing special. She realized she had gone from being a god incarnate to just a normal human being. All she could do now was to live a normal, peaceful life as a human of Gensokyo.

Stage 6 Boss The Avatar of Mountains and Lakes

Kanako Yasaka

Species: God Ability: Creating the heavens

The goddess who, together with her shrine, recently moved to the Youkai Mountain.

Because of her name 'Yasaka' (countless hills), she's been said to be a mountain deity, but she's actually a deity of wind and rain. She controls the rain and the winds. In other words, she's been worshiped as a goddess of agriculture.

The sequence of events that led to her being worshiped as a mountain deity are extremely complicated and the only ones who know the truth are Kanako and Suwako.

Kanako's trademark 'shimenawa' (lit. enclosing rope) represents the figure of an entwined snake. The snake, which continually sheds its scales, symbolizes resurrection, rebirth and eternity.

However, humans came to know mortality and started disbelieving in eternity. Even in agriculture, they continued to acquire skills that defied the rain and winds. They learned that mountains were created from volcanoes and changes in the earth's crust. They became able to cross mountains easily and without danger.

Yes, humans had begun to believe in science and information. In tandem with that, the faith they had in gods like Kanako continued to wane.

Kanako searched for a way to regain faith. And she came up with a big gamble. And that was, "to make the shrine into a thing of fantasy in the world of humans, and collect faith in Gensokyo".

Although it would mean that she would lose all the faith she still had left currently and thus lose her power temporarily, this way held more potential. She chose a future with potential rather over the crumbling glories of the past.

--And so, her plans seemed to be successful. The shrine was accepted into Gensokyo more smoothly than she had expected, and she quickly began to be worshiped as the deity of the Youkai Mountain.

Although she had her doubts now and again at the excessive smoothness, once she saw how Gensokyo worked, she believed she understood why things went so well.

In Gensokyo there was a shrine called the Hakurei Shrine. Although that shrine had almost completely lost all its faith, it was popular with youkai and it was said there was always some youkai frequenting it.

For the youkai, the shrine seemed to have become a suitable playground.

Along with becoming an object of worship, Kanako was also accepted as a playmate of the youkai. Feasts were held almost every night.

Actually, to play together was what gods wished for. Festivals were venues for humans and gods to play together. By forgetting about everyday life and coming together to play, gods and humans gained the feeling of solidarity within a community. Even if the humans were exchanged for youkai, it was the same.

This was exactly the kind of faith Kanako was wishing for.

However, the knowledge Kanako held of Gensokyo was limited.

She didn't know that among the youkai of Gensokyo, there existed a number of powers. Nevertheless, she collected the faith of the mountain youkai, and attained great divine virtue. She did not realize that this meant that the power of the mountain youkai, in other words the tengu and the kappa, were becoming too great. With that, there was the fear that the power balance of tranquil Gensokyo would collapse.

Kanako thought that to keep Gensokyo's balance, she must now acquire the faith of the youkai and humans beneath the mountain.

To achieve that, she must utilize the Hakurei Shrine else things won't proceed smoothly. Much remained before she would be able to regain the same amount of faith she'd had in the outside world.

Extra Boss The Top of Native Gods

Suwako Moriya

Species: God Ability: Creating earth

The true god of the Shrine of Moriya(守矢). She is the God of Mountains, and was once the leader of the many gods that lived in the Mountains.

During ancient times, she was a god in control of "Mishaguji". Mishaguji were curse gods who had obtained enormous amounts of faith, cursing birth, harvest, military, and many other things. Making light of these fearsome gods would lead to divine punishment. The only one able to tame these gods was Suwako. Because of this, she gained an extraordinary amount of faith, and cultivated a kingdom as its ruler while still being a god.

However, many other gods of Yamato (ancient Japan) invaded her kingdom. One of those gods was Kanako. The many gods of Yamato continually conquered the small kingdom for themselves. They said that ultimately, they would unify all countries and create a single country called Japan.

Naturally, Suwako resisted and fought with the finest iron weapons of the time. However, Kanako held out a thin vine, and Suwako's large iron arsenal instantly rusted. Suwako realized the difference in their divine powers and her defeat. She valiantly forfeited and relinquished her kingdom.

And so, Kanako attained the kingdom of Moriya(洩矢).

However, the people of Moriya(洩矢) could not forget the fear of their native gods, Mishaguji, and were unable to accept their new god.

Kanako thought she could not gain the faith of the people, and gave up on making the kingdom hers. Instead, she called forth a new god and combined it with Moriya's(洩矢) god. Within the kingdom, this new god was called Moriya(守矢), but was called by a different name outside of the kingdom. This way, it seemed as if it was ruling the kingdom. Moriya(守矢) is, of course, Moriya(洩矢). And thus Kanako borrowed Suwako's powers, and silently ruled as the God of Mountains.

The new god that was said to have reigned over the kingdom was a god only in name, existing only to preserve the legend of Yamato. In reality, Suwako continued to rule over the kingdom. Although the gods of the modern world have mostly been replaced by the Yamato Legends, she is still in her original form discreetly gathering faith.

However, the faith she has gathered throughout the eras is slowly fading with the introduction of the era of science.

Suwako didn't mind so much, but Kanako panicked and moved the whole shrine to Gensokyo.

Suwako didn't know how well she could get by in Gensokyo, but she decided to enjoy it as her final amusement. The reason she didn't argue with Kanako for deserting the kingdom and coming to Gensokyo was because she had no regrets left in the outer world. There were few people that knew her name.

After all, even the closest human to Suwako, Sanae, doesn't know much about her.

Sanae is currently Kanako's Shrine Maiden, but the reason she can create miracles is because she is Suwako's distant descendant. Despite this, she does not seem to understand why there are two gods within her own shrine.

Suwako didn't care whether or not she was fated to be forgotten anymore. She's actually thankful to Kanako as it seems she'll be able to enjoy a second life in Gensokyo.

Now, Kanako is the God of wind, but why is a snake-patterned rope her trademark?

There are two reasons.

The first is because the snake symbolizes reincarnation. It was to oppose the fear of Mishaguji.

And the second reason is because... She wanted to casually stress the fact that she won against Suwako.

Why, you ask? Suwako is a god that takes the form of a frog, and snakes eat frogs. Rituals of the new kingdom included sacrificing frogs to state that "The Snake now rules this kingdom in place of the Frog."

This is one reason why Suwako and Kanako argue a lot.

They share common interests and are actually very good friends.