Here are the links to my other accounts. This thing above is my “political blog”, where I post everything I already posted on my main account, plus “political stuff” I chose to avoid posting on my main blog.
And these are my other accounts:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LProcion
DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/coyam99
AO3 (Archive of Our Own): https://archiveofourown.org/users/mashounen2003
If you like something on either of my blogs, please reblog it in addition to clicking the Like button. Many other people here have already explained it before and much better than me, but in a nutshell: quite the contrary to how it works on Twitter, liking a Tumblr post without reblogging it is useless, it doesn't spread the post or even make it appear on your blog (the post you liked does appear, but only in a “Likes” section nobody visits). Besides, most of the content in my blogs is reblogged from other people, so reblogging content from my blogs will greatly help those other users as well. Feel free to add whatever you want to the post when reblogging it, too.
Also, all my Sonic fanfiction and Sonic-related opinions, along with my commentaries about my own work and related stuff, will be under the tags #sonic%20fanfiction%20by%20mashounen and #sonic%20opinions%20by%20mashounen.
i read an anecdote ages and ages ago from a gay person who grew up with gay parents, and struggled to find any kind of belonging in the gay community because everyone else there was bonding over having homophobic parents. everyone else was defining themselves by their suffering and oppression rather than by their sexuality, leaving this gay person to feel like they weren't really gay because they didn't have the right experiences. they wondered whether more gay people would feel this way as more children grew up with gay parents, if the gay community would leave them behind for not having suffered enough. i think about that anecdote a lot.
a lot of the current rhetoric around gender reminds me of that anecdote. a lot of people are willing to go "transgender people are oppressed for their gender presentation, therefore if you're not oppressed for your gender presentation, you're not trans." but i don't think we should be defining ourselves by our suffering and oppression. what will we do, in a few years, in a few decades, as there start to be, say, adults who were supported in their transition as children? what will we do when a stereotypical trans person can genuinely say they didn't suffer hardship for being trans?
i'm afraid i know the answer. i'm afraid that people are going to close ranks as they've already started closing ranks against intersex people, against nonbinary people, against double binary people, against closeted people. as some people have started closing ranks against people who transitioned in the opposite direction from them. as many people have closed ranks against people with edge case gender experiences. "i don't consider you to be oppressed, therefore you are not welcome to share in this community you might otherwise belong in."
i wish people would understand that we shouldn't do this. i wish people would understand that we benefit from a broader, more inclusive community more than we benefit from whatever purity testing oppression olympics it is that i keep running into.
#it seems like you might be vaguing about a specific argument or discourse so I want to state clearly that I'm not involved with that#BUT. I do want to say. You say in a few years to decades#There have actually been trans kids who were supported in their transition for a while now#my elementary school had at least three#one of whom was close friends with my little sister so I saw first hand that she really was being treated like any other little girl#up to and including the big tweenage friend group breakup rip#wherever she is she's 23 now#and I transitioned later but I was never really closeted just took a long time to figure shit out#everyone was supportive I haven't had to fight for jack shit#literally no one has been actually transphobic to my face#(my ex's mom was snide behind my back but that sucked for my ex more than for me)#the future is now and i feel like more people should know that (via @savouryduck)
this is good information! i would guess that the statistic vary wildly from community to community; i'm not personally aware of any trans adult in my circles who was supported in their transition from a young age, but i don't actually know all that many people in the grand scheme of things. i do feel like this also supports my ultimate point about who gets to be included; if we already have stereotypically trans adults who've experienced very little friction about their identity, then we're very late to grappling with the idea of transgender identity that isn't tied to suffering.
StumbleUpon once sent me to a supercut of Lion King, Lion King 1 1/2, and Lion King II, the main edit being that the scenes of Lion King and Lion King 1 1/2 were interspersed so that they happened in the order they actually happened.
The Bored Button - "Press the Bored Button and be bored no more."
The Useless Web
Cloudhiker - "Discover the most interesting, weird and awesome websites of the Internet" (not really a rebrand, it's a different person running it but they have the same intention in mind)
Astronaut.io - "These videos come from YouTube. They were uploaded in the last week and have titles like DSC 1234 and IMG 4321. They have almost zero previous views. They are unnamed, unedited, and unseen (by anyone but you)."
Marginalia - "This is an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed."
Sulfur combusts on contact with air to create stunning blue lava-like rivers of light in the Kawah Ijen crater on the island of Java | Ph: Olivier Grunewald
So! This is a perfect case study in situations where you should be wary of misinformation.
Take a moment and ask yourself, a project like this requires a lot of time, money and dedication of resources, why would scientists dedicate that time to something that could just be done by a tree?
The answer is they wouldn't. So that means this claim requires further investigation!
This project is called LIQUID 3, and it's not meant for cities with wide open spaces, it's meant for cities like Belgrade in Serbia. These cities are densely populated and heavily polluted, to the point where pollution actually chokes out current trees and makes creating green spaces difficult.
Liquid 3 was a PhD scientists answer to these problems. The microalgae tank is intended for spaces where you either:
Don't have enough space to plant full trees, or
Don't have enough time to plant trees and wait for them to grow up.
The tank is extremely efficient when you consider the amount of space needed compared to the amount of CO2 turned into oxygen. The tank can operate throughout the winter. And most importantly, it can be quickly set up in areas that desperately need relief from air pollution NOW not in 10 years when trees are done growing. Children currently suffocating on polluted air can't wait for trees to grow, they need to be taken care of now, and Liquid 3 is one of the ways to take care of them. Depending on the species of microalgea used, a number have shown a pretty amazing capacity to pull heavy metals out of the air which is something trees can get choked up by.
The tanks aren't just tanks either! Liquid 3 have solar panels placed on top, they have lighting and mobile phone charging, and they work as public benches. The designers of it want to encourage green spaces where there's room, but where there isn't room or time, Liquid 3 can step in. Realistically, this isn't a replacement for trees. It's replacing boring metal city benches with new, cooler benches that also clean the air (and have at least some heating during the winter).
Not only that, but the microalgea that grows is native to Serbia and all that microalgea has a ton of great uses! It makes for great fertilizer, compost, wastewater treatment, cleaner biofuels and even for helping create new tanks for further air purification. They only require a quick algae divide once a month, and the produced algae can be carted off to where ever it's needed. This makes them effective solutions for areas that can't sustain complex installations.
So yeah, there's actually quite a lot of places that would like these. Lots of people currently breathing in terrible quality air would much rather have their boring city benches replaced with really fucking cool algae tanks that clean the air and can be used to help create + sustain future green spaces in cities. I dunno about you, but I'd take that over a dumb metal bench any day. Put these at every bus stop and I'd be delighted.
Serbian here living in Belgrade! This is all true and I've actually seen some of these around the city a few times. They're amazing at what they do and really cool to watch up close because you can see pretty swirling inside them. It's not only functional but aesthetically pretty nice as well!
That's what the council calls it. A 'dispute'. A 'little tiff', if Alicia Acorn's input is worth anything, and a 'long time coming' if Maximillian's is to be considered similarly. The council, once again, debates the potential dissolution of the Freedom Fighters, and argues over the merits of re-establishing a royal brigade.
Nicole is nowhere to be found, which is for the best, honestly- too much time listening to people argue over whether you can be trusted will turn you into someone that you, personally, wouldn't trust.
Charles - Uncle Chuck, rather - just presses his lips into a thin line when he hears the news. Rosemary Prower successfully leverages the council's constant bickering into a pure stalemate, which is a skill she has become frighteningly good at, and the other Freedom Fighters - Rotor, Antoine, Bunnie, and Tails - try to keep their noses out of it while not-so-secretly asking indirect questions of each other about what they think the couple was actually arguing about.
The arguments didn't really become more or less common over the years, but the subject being argued over became gradually more obtuse. It used to be about Sonic's pigheaded 'you can't stop me anyway, so nyeh' method towards saving the day versus Sally's pragmatic, long-term war plans that were largely responsible for keeping the Freedom Fighters on the map, and as much of the Eggman Empire off of the map as possible.
It would be a lot easier to solve if just one of them were objectively right, but for all intents and purposes - they both were, which means neither of them were.
They'd long settled that point, and so, every argument devolved into the minutiae of minutes (whenever such an argument happened). Whether they should have turned left or right, or whether it would have killed Sonic to wait for a second before breaking into a sprint, or whether Sally could just 'cool it' already with the whole 'stick to the plan' thing.
So: things were tense between them, and nobody could really explain why or over what.
As it so happened, they didn't actually need to worry - after four or so hours of trying-not-to-look-like-they-were searching for Sonic and Sally, Bunnie found the two somewhat stuck together in a tangle of limbs, breathless lips, and exhaustion in Sally's room.
Nicole, who was somewhat stuck between them, was the first to notice the rabbot, and immediately vanished out of existence out of shame and embarrassment. Sonic and Sally, meanwhile, just wished they could disappear, and avoided any and all eye contact while they waited for Bunnie to stop laughing.
Recent Commission completed for Anonymous! If you'd like to commission me, my comms are open! 8 Slots remain for July! Commissioning me helps pay bills and keep my comic work afloat!
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A bunch of posts I found about real-life inspirations for Touhou lore and a few interesting fan-theories (and my own thoughts on them)
I had originally put all this together for a Reddit post, but now I've decided to post that here as well, even though almost all my sources are already from Tumblr. I'll also translate it all to Spanish.
Two or three months ago, "Levander" a.k.a. @chireikiden (currently, the main English translator of official Touhou print works by ZUN and fan-made Touhou print works by other artists that get published as part of Strange Creators of Outer World) got an ask on their Tumblr blog and provided the following answer:
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[15-04-2026]
An ask by an anonymous user for @chireikiden:
"Are the Watatsuki sisters considered kami? Could Yorihime summon her sister Toyohime out of the blue?"
The answer by @chireikiden (https://chireikiden.tumblr.com/post/813991281994924032):
"In terms of family trees and mythologically recognizable characters, the likes of Eirin, Sagume and, indeed, the Watatsuki sisters are pretty unambiguously Heavenly Kami, that is, the Japanese gods. (By extension, we have to assume Kaguya is a Heavenly Kami as well; although the original Princess Kaguya is a fairytale character with no specific religious status, it isn't much of a leap to call her one, even within the original Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.)
Beyond that, the Ephemeral Moon Vignette saga (that is, both Silent Sinner in Blue and Cage-in Lunatic Runagate) make it explicit that both Reimu and Yorihime are also summoning Lunarian gods when they do their thing. With Yorihime being able to summon the likes of Amaterasu, I have to assume she could summon Toyohime too, yeah. Note that we're putting aside any unknowable questions about whether she'd be allowed to do so without 'the proper measures' or 'permission' (chapter 6 of Cage-in Lunatic Runagate).
It's specified (most explicitly in chapter 6 of Silent Sinner in Blue) that gods, including those with physical bodies, are simply cloned when summoned into a new location. This would also apply to Toyohime. I guess that's a good reason not to try to summon her.
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That said, as a tangent: although the Lunarians' 'summonability' seems to be one of the least ambiguous things about them, there's a lot about the Lunarians' exact nature that gets into the territory of what I'd call 'dubious by omission': stuff that isn't directly contradictory per se, but has been left ambiguous and starts getting more and more dubious the longer it goes without being mentioned or clarified in any way, even when the Lunarians otherwise come up. It's really hard to see Lunarians running on very similar rules as Earthly Kami such as the ones at the Moriya Shrine or the Aki sisters, but they may have simply outgrown such concerns when they moved to the Moon and chose a new form of immortality. And of course, the ones we're most familiar with –Eirin and Kaguya– also have the Hourai Elixir as an added complication.
I think a lot of the Touhou lore surrounding the Moon exists in a kind of confusing state partly because Touhou 8 (released in 2004) was a very early entry of the series from the era when its setting was still pretty unformed, yet the Ephemeral Moon Vignette saga (published from 2007 to 2009) ended up discussing it at quite some length and then more games (namely, Touhou 15 in 2015 and Touhou 20 in 2025) kept on coming back to the subject. But the boundaries around the status of kami being very fuzzy is appropriate for both the Touhou universe and real-life Shintou lore, anyway."
Tags added by @rosymerry (https://rosymerry.tumblr.com/post/813991600822829056):
"The lore about kami and the Lunarians in Touhou is delightfully ambiguous. I'm currently re-reading through all material, hoping to get insights on them (particularly how Heaven relates to the Lunar Capital), but I don't expect their status/nature will be truly clarified in canon."
A reply by @clarste:
"Bunrei."
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The reply by "clarste" mentioning the bunrei, along with this part of Levander's answer...
"It's specified (most explicitly in chapter 6 of Silent Sinner in Blue) that gods, including those with physical bodies, are simply cloned when summoned into a new location."
... reminded me of the following piece of Touhou lore and its possible basis on real-life Shintou religious practices:
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[25-11-2023]
A post by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/734999981348552704):
"Where's the f***ing thing about splitting up kami, leaving each bit as whole instances of that kami, that I know I've read once? 'Infinite chocolate' type guys.
(By the way, this is the basis for my idea that there are variants of each Heavenly Kami in Gensoukyou and in the Lunar Capital at the same time.)"
A reply by @sukimas:
"It's in Strange and Bright Nature Deity, the second manga of The Three Fairies of Light (published from 2006 to 2009). It's also at the beginning of Silent Sinner in Blue."
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I had read about a process in real-life Shintou religion called "kanjou", as well as the "bunrei" or "wakemitama". The whole thing reminds me so much of this bit of Touhou lore that @occasionaltouhou and @sukimas were talking about, that I can't help but wonder if the lore from Strange and Bright Nature Deity and Silent Sinner in Blue was inspired by this. I'll copy-paste it here from Wikipedia; it should be a good enough summary:
"Bunrei or wakemitama [「分霊」] is a Shintou technical term that indicates both the process of dividing a kami to be re-enshrined somewhere else (such as a house's kamidana or miniature altar), and the spirit itself produced by the division.
Shrines conduct bunrei in order to distribute kami to 'child' shrines elsewhere. The spirit of the kami does not decrease through this act, and a bunrei functions the same way as the original spirit. The reason for conducting bunrei is often to make a kami more accessible to worshipers far from the main shrine."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunrei
"Kanjou [「勧請」] in Shintou terminology indicates a propagation process through which a kami, previously divided through the process of bunrei, is invited to another location and re-enshrined there.
It was originally a Buddhist term: called 'abhiṣeka' ['अभिषेक'] in Sanskrit, it initially referred to the request of the buddha's sermon with a sincere heart; later, it came to mean the urging of a buddha or bodhisattva to remain in this world to preach and save other human beings, and then the concept evolved further to mean the act (and the actual words) of asking buddhas or bodhisattvas to descend to the altar during a Buddhist service. In Japan, the word entered Shintou vocabulary and gradually assumed the present meaning of enshrinement of a buddha or kami in a building for the first time.
Inari is the kami that has been subjected to the process of kanjou more often than any other."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanj%C5%8D
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In turn, this reminded me of a bunch of other cool Touhou theories and ideas proposed by @occasionaltouhou, whom you can also find as "godmedallion" in Archive Of Our Own. Most of them are related to either the Lunarians or Iwanaga-hime, and they also inspired me to come up with my own thoughts on the matter:
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[25-11-2023]
A post by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/734950414258241536):
"To be honest, if Gensoukyou can't survive heat death, I doubt the Hourai Elixir could either. Because, ultimately, that stuff is still fuelled by human belief in an elixir of immortality. Arguably, that's its active ingredient."
A reply by @every1sno1fangirl:
"Is the Hourai Elixir fuelled by human belief? I wouldn't think so, I don't think the Lunarians are in the same way people of Gensoukyou are."
The response by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/734998492673703937):
"Lunarians are just kami, the same as the ones who live in Gensoukyou. So yeah, they're dependent upon human belief, the same as anything else. They'll never f***ing admit it, though.
(As a general rule, treat anything the Lunarians say as suspect. The instant Kaguya said they invented youkai, I knew they didn't know s***.)"
A reply by @derxwnakapsyla:
"Now I'm just imagining a future where Gensoukyou (including all associated sub-realms) is just drifting through space, mostly unaware that the entirety of the universe is gone, because Utsuho is producing an artificial Sun and Eirin is producing an artificial Moon, so little has functionally changed for them."
The response by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/734998492673703937):
"In an empty universe, Earth remains, and it is simply vibing."
Tags added by @monikatouhou a.k.a. @monidoll (https://monidoll.tumblr.com/post/734998846620434432):
"I think Lunarians are now an indistinguishable mix of actual kami and newly immortal humans; this way, since technically there are humans on the Lunar Capital, its system is internally self-sustaining. At least on the timescale of centuries and millennia, it should be stable enough; millions and billions of years is probably too long of a time to consider here in the first place."
The response by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/734999566825472000):
"This actually gives me the chance to bring up an idea I've had for a while: I don't think the Lunarians are a mix of gods and humans, nor do I think they're trying to turn themselves into humans – humans, prone as they are to life and death, are inherently beings of kegare/impurity.
I think they're attempting to turn themselves from kami into proper, capital-G Gods, and I think that the Moon Rabbits are there to maintain the system: they're artificial worshippers who provide the faith required to sustain the Lunarians.
Unfortunately for them, this is a ridiculous plan because it hinges upon the fact that they exist as things humans came up with in the first place. Their isolated system only works as long as someone who's actually real and wasn't imagined into being thinks they might exist – this would remain true even if they were able to turn themselves into humans, because they'd still have turned themselves into humans who don't experience human things like... you know... getting sick and dying."
A reblog by @that-which-isnt:
"I'm not really at all familiar with Chinese mythology, but my understanding from Wikipedia-level browsing was that Lunarians are essentially the same thing as Celestials like Tenshi, which is to say, humans reborn in a Pure Land because of good karma or favouritism from gods and made functionally immortal through the continual consumption of heavenly foods. The difference between Lunarians and regular Celestials is just that the Moon-dwellers made their own Pure Land rather than having one given to them by the gods.
The Moon Rabbits are anyone's guess and one of the biggest mysteries in Touhou in my opinion, but personally, I think the idea of them being engineered beings created to act as slaves and a faith farm is probably correct. My only question is if they were made from scratch, or if there used to be a lot more Lunarians and a lot fewer Moon Rabbits."
The response by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735003769968918528):
"The thing about the Lunarians being Celestials is that it's pretty explicit that the Lunarians are meant to be the Heavenly Kami, because every Lunarian we've been given the name of is a Heavenly Kami. The Celestials are all off in Heaven; the Lunar Capital is a counterfeit. Given that it was designed by Eirin, it was probably intended to piggyback off the idea of the Moon being inhabited by Celestials – after all, the Lunarians think of themselves as being equivalent, and do everything that they can to ensure that it is the case (which is, of course, not something an actual Celestial would ever need to do)."
A reply by @paradizetobefound:
"Can it be said that the Moon merely reflecting sunlight instead of being a legitimate source of sky illumination provides further symbolism to Lunarians being counterfeit Celestials in a forgery of Heaven?"
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[25-11-2023]
A post by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735001095414382592):
"Anyway... Yeah, the Lunarians are... like... basically just one version of the Heavenly Kami. They're not even the genuine article, because there isn't one for kami, that's not how they 'work'. And I know in my heart that this eats them up inside. Wretched little shadows of the Heavenly Kami, hiding on the Moon with all their fake worshippers.
(I can feel myself slipping into Yukari Mode. I need to go eat something.)"
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[25-11-2023]
An ask by @tennco for @occasionaltouhou:
"I saw that post about the Hourai Elixir and was wondering: what happens to belief or faith when no one's around to... well... believe? Does it have to come in a constant supply? Does belief persist after the death of the one who originated it? Are the dead allowed to believe?"
The answer by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735000275731054593):
"We know that youkai can provide faith, so it follows that the spirits of the dead can do so too. My theory is that, provided that people believe in some kind of afterlife, those spirits can provide (a very small amount of) belief in stuff. But that only holds true so long as there are people who believe in a world beyond death.
But yeah, it'd have to be a constant supply – that's why they had to build the Hakurei Barrier when they did: because you can't really get back what was already lost once nobody believes in it anymore, even if you re-develop that belief afterwards – or at least, it wouldn't be the same as what was there beforehand.
(So long as the idea of the youkai exists and they're believed in, the individual variants can just appear in much smaller amounts, on account of the fact that they were already existing. I hope this helps.)"
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I find this part interesting:
"[...] even if you re-develop that belief afterwards, [...] it wouldn't be the same as what was there beforehand."
I've read a long fanfic a while ago (if I remember correctly, it was "Powerless Hakurei Tales" by "Carmichael_Micaalus") that briefly addresses what would happen to youkai if they could peacefully coexist with humans in Gensoukyou, instead of needing to eat humans and depending on humans' fear of youkai as well as their belief in them.
The answer the author came up with is that yes, it's possible for Gensoukyou's humans to still believe in the existence of youkai and even their powers, and interact with them without fearing them. In this scenario, youkai could still exist and even keep their previous physical forms and powers, but at a more fundamental, existential level, they'd be something different; they'd not be exactly the same as the youkai they used to be.
However, I'd suggest that y'all take this (and any other thing relative to my personal interpretation of canon and my tastes in Touhou fanfiction) with a grain of salt: as it can be deduced from this other post I wrote a while ago (https://mashounen2003.tumblr.com/post/820008374765764608), the way I tend to envision Gensoukyou and the interactions between all its inhabitants, while not necessarily being incongruent with Touhou canon, is probably much more optimistic and idealistic than what would be allowed by the current fandom consensus (as an example unrelated to the topic of this post: I have the opinion that, when the Spell Card Rules were introduced, life in Gensoukyou was no longer "business as usual" and Reimu coming up with that idea was a big change and marked a turning point in Gensoukyou's history by proposing a way to solve issues that didn't require humans and youkai to fear and hate and kill each other).
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[26-11-2023]
A post by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735004757194932224):
"The Lunar Capital is a masterwork: home to incredible wonders, technology far in advance of that of the surface... But it is a forgery – a forgery among forgeries, certainly, but a forgery nonetheless, made by some rather small-minded beings trying desperately to ignore the truth of their own existence. As always: don't get tricked, alright?"
A reply by @itspurvis:
"Forgeries own.
Han van Meegeren is a better and more accomplished artist than Vermeer ever was."
The response by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735030980178477056):
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not dismissing forgeries, nor the work put into them – creating an imitation Heaven is something only a genius like Eirin could pull off.
My point was that it's not Heaven, and the Lunarians are not Celestials, and when you really dig down, the Lunar Capital is simply an exercise in trying to ignore the stuff you don't want to deal with (kegare, being reliant on human belief, the general concept of entropy) by plugging your ears and hoping that they eventually stop mattering."
A reply by @itspurvis:
"If I may be slightly more serious for a moment: it seems that the crux of this is that Lunarians are 'Fake' and Celestials are 'Real'. Where is that coming from, exactly?
I've always kind of assumed that the Lunar Capital and the Celestials' realm are both sub-sections of the Gods' Realm (one of the 6 Buddhist Realms, which is also where the Animal Realm comes from), two different flavours of the same thing, particularly since the Dragon Palace seems to exist in both."
The response by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735088321947156480):
"While the Lunar Capital being fake is not exactly a thing ZUN has said 'outright', there's a bunch of stuff that can easily lead one to that impression. But the main thing is that... you know... it was made: it was designed, by Eirin, specifically to be a Pure Land. Meanwhile, as far as we know, the Celestials' Heaven simply 'exists' out there, as the other Buddhist Realms do – and it doesn't have a firm location in the way the Lunar Capital does: it's simply 'above the clouds'. Arguably, the Dragon Palace existing in both cements the idea of the Lunar Capital being a fraud.
The thing is that the Lunar Capital exists as a mirror to Gensoukyou: it is the totalitarian, walled-off form of Gensoukyou, the version that ignores the possibility of growth in favour of unchanging perpetuity. And for that to work, thematically speaking, it needs to be built off the same principles – it wouldn't work if it wasn't a false Heaven."
A reply by @sukimas:
"I will note that Izumo, the other vibes-based inspiration for the Lunar Capital, is also explicitly a 'constructed paradise'."
The response by @occasionaltouhou:
"It's artificial Heavens all the way down."
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[26-11-2023]
An ask by an anonymous user for @occasionaltouhou:
"Since the topic of the day seems to be the Lunarians, do you have any recommendations for writing/playing one in a TTRPG?"
The answer by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735031704708890624):
"First, read all of Silent Sinner in Blue. Then, for good measure, look up a bunch of Eirin's manga appearances and read those too. Now that you have a taste, we can dig into specifics.
I'd say that, when playing a Lunarian, you need to keep these things in mind:
=> They're extremely confident, both in themselves and in the strength & stability of the Lunar Capital.
=> They're xenophobic, but not to an absurd degree (they'll work with non-Lunarians if they need to).
=> They're kind of clueless. These are people who spend all their time in a bubble they made for themselves, where everything simply continues, no matter what – putting one into a situation where they're at a disadvantage might make them start acting increasingly irrational.
=> As far as they're concerned, Earth is a prison that they made for humans and youkai (this is not true, but they believe it).
=> Whichever Heavenly Kami you pick as their base, they can do what that kami would be able to do. A Lunarian is simply a single instance of a specific kami who decided to be an idiot on the Moon.
=> They generally have great respect for the higher-ups of the Lunar Capital (Tsukuyomi, Eirin, other high-ranking Heavenly Kami) and little to no respect for the Moon Rabbits.
=> The 'lunatic' in 'Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom' (the English title of Touhou 15) refers to them: only a lunatic would put their faith in the Lunar Capital.
That's all I got off the top of my head. There's probably more, though."
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All of this is very helpful, even though the kind of game I'd make is either a MetroidVania like Luna Nights, or a classic linear 2D platformer, or maybe a clone of Mega Man Battle Network in a similar vein to ShangHai.EXE: Gensou Network. Then, the plot of this game would have Lunarians involved. (TTRPGs never caught my interest, sorry about that)
Just imagine... Koumajou Densetsu 3: Edgy 2000s Vampire Hunter Reimu Goes to the Moon (and pisses on it, like Dr Eggman in Snapcube's real-time fan-dubs) in Revenge for the Lunarians' BS.
I'll say, though, that making a game with a plot strongly connected to the Lunar Capital will be complicated: sure, Lunarian society is doomed to collapse in the far future, but at present, individual Lunarians like Yorihime are still OP, and the gameplay would be obligated to show that. Unless...
Unless, for some plot contrivance, this game's setting is the Outside World, so both the characters from Gensokyo and the Lunarians are brought down to the same power level due to entering a "belief-less" environment.
It'll also take work to imagine why Lunarians would even bother to intervene directly in any Earth matters to begin with. However, after the events of Touhou 20 (Yuiman being freed, the Lunar Capital losing their "purification mountain" facilities where they used her as their AI), they might be getting desperate; that could work as the plot for another Touhou game where the Lunar Capital starts a new incident. Namely, the 3rd point in the list made by @occasionaltouhou above...
"[...] putting a Lunarian into a situation where they're at a disadvantage might make them start acting increasingly irrational."
... makes me think the Touhou 20 aftermath might be enough to make Lunarians lose their marbles.
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[31-01-2024]
An ask by @d6b-onion for @occasionaltouhou:
"What do you think about Misumaru? Personally... I don't know, maybe it's unfortunate, but she doesn't look like a particularly interesting character.
People joke and talk about how 'she's a MILF' or whatever, and... Sure... But somehow, with her, it gives her a boring vibe. It feels... like... contrary to all other Touhou characters: she isn't just vibing.
I personally don't really like her design: Tenshi did the rainbow thing better, and Misumaru's pose is kinda silly.
What drives me up the wall is that she's a boring character... who crafted Reimu's Yin-Yang Orbs! When was the last time we got actual, bona fide Reimu lore before that?! There could be all sorts of connections to the Hakurei God... but she's kind of a nothing-burger. It's a shame, really. Maybe you disagree."
The answer by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/741021778815713280):
"Misumaru, huh... She's definitely a character who hasn't gotten her time to shine. Misumaru is actually kind of a 'Big Deal' in a lot of ways. First and foremost, at least based on her name, she's Tama-no-Oya-no-Mikoto, which means she's a Heavenly Kami who's closely tied both to the provenance of a clan that technically predates modern Japan itself, and also to the myth of Amaterasu in her cave – which, of course, also theoretically ties Misumaru directly to the Lunarians. And just to top it all off, Tama-no-Oya-no-Mikoto is also the creator of the Yasakani-no-Magatama, which is... you know... about as big of a deal as it gets in Japanese mythology.
So, just from which kami she is, she's already got a lot going on. And she is, of course, the creator of the Yin-Yang Orbs – why wouldn't you hire a master craftsman to create the go-shintai for the kami used as a lynchpin of Gensoukyou?
There are a few more interesting facets to her, one of which is the very fact that she hasn't shown up before or since Touhou 18 – she's specifically protecting her interests in Youkai Mountain. She's firm and competent, she provides guidance and aid, and she's about as selfish as we've seen of any kami. The only reason she showed up is because people were taking rocks she claimed as hers!
So, she's a Heavenly Kami... but not a Lunarian. Also, it's worth noting that there aren't many shrines to Tama-no-Oya-no-Mikoto; really, she's only a step or two above Hina in terms of being a so-called 'feral kami'. She doesn't really seem to have any allegiance to Gensoukyou, or to the Hakurei Shrine (or else... you know... she'd probably have shown up at any other time). She's just kind of a weird artisan. And she makes magatama and balls. And she throws them at people for fun. What's better than this?"
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[02-11-2023]
An ask by an anonymous user for @occasional-touhou:
"Could you please explain the 'Iwanaga-hime is the Hakurei God' theory?"
[For context: at 09-02-2023, @occasionaltouhou had posted the designs of two Touhou OCs, one of them being a character inspired by Iwanaga-hime; the post in question included summaries where the author mentioned a theory that Iwanaga-hime is the true identity of the Hakurei God. The link to the original post by @occasionaltouhou is https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/708805168606691328.]
The answer by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/732913388035915776):
"The quick + shrimple explanation is that Iwanaga-hime is the most relevant kami of Gensoukyou as a whole, so it'd make sense for the shrine most significant to Gensoukyou to also be related to her. To elaborate...
First and foremost, Youkai Mountain is the real-life Yatsugatake mountain range, that is, Iwanaga-hime's mountain (mythologically, the Yatsugatake mountains are the remains of Iwanaga-hime's mountain, and Youkai Mountain could be interpreted as the original form of said mountain before it was destroyed). We know this from Mokou's chapter of Cage-in Lunatic Runagate, one of the most critical Touhou lore objects. I feel like, right from the start, it needs to be emphasised how crucial it is that the main thing differentiating Gensoukyou from the Outside World –potentially and arguably being a lynchpin of its existence– belongs to a myth about Iwanaga-hime specifically (in case you're curious, there's no contradiction in both Iwanaga-hime and Yasakatome/Takeminakata/Kanako being the Kami of Youkai Mountain, though I imagine Iwanaga-hime isn't happy about it given who Kanako is as a person).
The second reason is that the Hieda clan –and Akyuu in particular– also worship Iwanaga-hime. In fact, they're specifically noted to do so in a way that you don't really get for basically any other kami . Akyuu does so hoping for the gift of longevity (because... you know... Akyuu...), but that doesn't really elaborate on why the rest of the family does beyond that it's a thing that they do.
Iwanaga-hime is extremely important to both the giant f***ing rock in the middle of Gensoukyou and also its main chronicler, someone who is arguably as critical as the Hakurei shrine maidens to maintaining the status quo of Gensoukyou. At the very least, Iwanaga-hime would absolutely have been a part of the negotiations for the development of Gensoukyou right from the start, if nothing else. She's 'kind of important'.
So, you know, you have this kami whose whole thing is making sure things last, who's crucial to Gensoukyou's existence, and whose go-shintai is a huge f***ing rock. Are you picking up what I'm putting down?"
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There are a few things introduced in Touhou 20 that might throw a wrench into things, but everything else described here still fits too well in the current Touhou canon, so I still adhere to this theory, which also gave me ideas for a few things I'd like to work on.
For now, here's what I thought up when I looked for a way to reconcile the idea of Iwanaga-hime (or Ariya Iwanaga, in this case) being the Hakurei God with the more recently established Touhou canon.
The big question here is how Ariya could have participated in the creation of Gensoukyou if she was still sealed in the Pyramid. Maybe Yukari or any of the Sages invoked Iwanaga's power or something like that, and they achieved this by using the Yatsugatake mountains as a substitute for Ariya herself (this mountain range is Ariya's go-shintai after all, and it'd still be there, no matter if she was sealed under them); they managed to make it work, but Ariya couldn't control it in the state she was in.
(Also, this reminded me that Ariya probably was able to at least vaguely/subconsciously sense, not only the Sages using her mountains to create Gensoukyou, but also the Hieda family praying to her for longevity while still being unable to answer those prayers. Now that Ariya has been freed, she can do something for Akyuu, but... Damn, remembering all those prayers that went unanswered, all the times Akyuu died young and had to reincarnate because Ariya couldn't prevent it or even mitigate it in any way, and the feelings of guilt from that, must still be eating Ariya from the inside if this is all true.)
While Ariya's power over permanence and the immutable would be useful to upkeep Gensoukyou, the incident in Touhou 20 proves this is a double-edged sword: she unleashed her power indiscriminately, which stopped the normal flow of time and was going to leave Gensoukyou devoid of kegare, and that threatened Gensoukyou's whole existence (it's pointed out at least twice in Touhou 20 alone that the complete absence of kegare, which happens in the Lunar Capital and would have happened in Gensoukyou if the incident hadn't been solved, is comparable to being dead).
Now, when "occasionaltouhou" initially proposed this theory (that was at least two years before the release of Touhou 20 featuring Ariya Iwanaga, and if we count from when they posted their Iwanaga-inspired OC and mentioned this theory for the first time, it was even before the release of Touhou 19), they speculated that Iwanaga-hime would not like to share Youkai Mountain with someone like Kanako. Now that Ariya was introduced and she has a strong grudge with the Lunarians, she might find common ground with Kanako on sharing this grudge at least (and if the story also decides to delve into Yuiman's past and Kanako's old friendship with her, Ariya and Kanako could also find common ground in wishing the best for Yuiman, but this is just the shipping-obsessed part of my brain talking). More importantly to the roles of both Ariya's power and Youkai Mountain in Gensoukyou, and something that addresses the issue I talked about in the previous paragraph: after the Touhou 20 incident, Ariya would understand that her power of immutability is necessary but must be used with moderation as well (both to keep Gensoukyou alive and to not follow on the Lunarians' steps), and Kanako is pragmatic and willing to accept change (she even tries to present herself as a kami of innovation); with Ariya and Kanako sharing the role of "the Kami of Youkai Mountain", they might be able to arrange a sort of "work relationship" where they balance each other.
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This is it for now. I just wanted to take all this interesting stuff proposed by other Touhou fans, put it all together and organised in one place, and share it here for anyone interested. Feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments (and also give credit and go follow/subscribe to all the people mentioned here, of course).
Un grupo de posts que encontré acerca de las inspiraciones de la vida real para el lore de Touhou y algunas teorías interesantes propuestas for fans (y mis propias opiniones al respecto)
Originalmente yo había juntado todo esto para un post de Reddit, pero ahora he decidido publicarlo acá también: aun cuando casi todas mis fuentes ya son de Tumblr. A continuación, les presento una traducción al castellano de aquel post.
Hace unos dos o tres meses, "Levander" alias @chireikiden (actualmente el principal traductor al inglés de las obras impresas de Touhou, tanto las oficiales escritas por ZUN como las hechas for fans que son publicadas como parte de la revista Extraños Creadores del Mundo Exterior) recibió una pregunta en su blog de Tumblr y dio la siguiente respuesta:
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[15 de abril de 2026]
Una pregunta de un usuario anónimo para @chireikiden:
"¿Las hermanas Watatsuki son consideradas kami? ¿Yorihime podría directamente invocar a su hermana Toyohime?"
La respuesta de @chireikiden (https://chireikiden.tumblr.com/post/813991281994924032):
"En términos de árboles genealógicos y personajes reconocibles por su mitología, sujetos tales como Eirin Yagokoro, Sagume Kishin y, efectivamente, las hermanas Watatsuki son, de manera bastante poco ambigua, Kami Celestiales, es decir, los dioses japoneses (por extensión, tenemos que asumir que Kaguya Houraisan también es una Kami Celestial; aunque la Princesa Kaguya original es una personaje de cuento de hadas sin un estatus religioso específico, no es muy descabellado tratarla como una Kami Celestial, incluso dentro del contexto del Cuento del Cortador de Bambú original).
Aparte de eso, la Saga de Relatos Cortos de una Luna Efímera (es decir, Silencioso Pecador en Azul y Renegado Lunático Encerrado combinados) establecen claramente que tanto Reimu Hakurei como Yorihime de Watatsuki también están invocando dioses Selenitas cuando usan sus poderes. Dado que los dioses que Yorihime puede invocar incluyen a Amaterasu, tengo que asumir que ella también podría invocar a Toyohime de Watatsuki, efectivamente. Nótese que acá estamos dejando de lado cualquier pregunta incognoscible respecto a si ella tendría permitido hacer esto sin "los procedimientos y autorizaciones apropiados" (capítulo 6 de Renegado Lunático Encerrado).
Se especifica (especialmente en el capítulo 6 de Silencioso Pecador en Azul) que los dioses, incluyendo aquellos que ya tienen cuerpos físicos, son simplemente clonados cuando se los invoca en una nueva ubicación. Esto también se aplicaría a Toyohime. Supongo que esta es un buen motivo para no intentar invocarla.
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Dicho esto, permítame ir por una tangente: aunque la 'invocabilidad' de los Selenitas aparenta ser uno de los elementos menos ambiguos sobre ellos, hay mucho sobre la naturaleza de los Selenitas que entra en una categoría que yo llamaría 'dudoso por omisión': cosas que no son directamente contradictorias per se, pero han sido dejadas ambiguas y empiezan a ponerse cada vez más dudosas cuanto más tiempo pasa sin que sean mencionadas de nuevo o clarificadas de alguna manera, aun cuando los propios Selenitas siguen apareciendo de otros modos. Es realmente difícil concebir a los Selenitas rigiéndose por el mismo tipo de reglas que rigen a los Kami Terrenales tales como las diosas del Santuario Moriya o las hermanas Aki, pero puede que ellos simplemente hayan dejado atrás tales preocupaciones cuando se mudaron a la Luna y eligieron una nueva forma de inmortalidad. Y por supuesto, las Selenitas con las que estamos más familiarizados –Eirin y Kaguya– tienen la complicación adicional de que son inmortales gracias al Elixir de PéngLái, que Eirin inventó.
Creo que gran parte del lore de Touhou relativo a la Luna existe en un estado algo confuso porque, entre otras razones, Touhou 8: Relatos Cortos de la Noche Eterna ~ Noche Imperecedera (lanzado en 2004) fue una entrada muy temprana de la serie de Touhou, de la época en que gran parte de su escenario todavía estaba sin formar, pero la Saga de Relatos Cortos de una Luna Efímera (publicada entre 2007 y 2009) terminó hablando bastante de ese tema y otros juegos posteriores (a saber, Touhou 15: el Cuento del Orbe Ultramarino ~ Legado de Reino Lunático en 2015 y Touhou 20: Capital Coronada en Gloria ~ Maravillas Fosilizadas en 2025) siguieron retomándolo. Pero de todas maneras, que los límites en torno al estatus de los kami sean muy difusos es bastante apropiado tanto para el universo ficcional de Touhou como para la tradición Shintou en la vida real."
Etiquetas agregadas por @rosymerry (https://rosymerry.tumblr.com/post/813991600822829056):
"El lore acerca de los kami y los Selenitas en Touhou es deliciosamente ambiguo. Ahora mismo estoy re-leyendo todo el material, con la esperanza de deducir algo más sobre ellos (en particular, cómo el Cielo y los Celestiales se relacionan con la Capital Lunar), pero no espero que su estatus/naturaleza vaya a ser verdaderamente aclarado en el canon algún día."
Un comentario de @clarste:
"Bunrei."
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El comentario de @clarste mencionando el bunrei, junto con este fragmento de la respuesta de Levander...
"Se especifica (especialmente en el capítulo 6 de Silencioso Pecador en Azul) que los dioses, incluyendo aquellos que ya tienen cuerpos físicos, son simplemente clonados cuando se los invoca en una nueva ubicación."
... me hicieron recordar la siguiente pieza de lore de Touhou y su posible inspiración en prácticas religiosas Shintou de la vida real:
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[25 de noviembre de 2023]
Un post de @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/734999981348552704):
"¿Dónde estaba la p*** cosa acerca de partir en pedazos un kami y dejar cada pedazo como una réplica completa de ese kami? Sé que lo leí en algún lugar. Esos tipos son como el truco del chocolate infinito."
(Por cierto, esta es la base para mi idea de que existen variantes de cada Kami Celestial en Gensoukyou y en la Capital Lunar al mismo tiempo.)"
Un comentario de @sukimas:
"Se encuentra en Extraña y Brillante Deidad de la Naturaleza, el segundo manga de Las Tres Hadas de la Luz (publicado de 2006 a 2009). También está al comienzo de Silencioso Pecador en Azul."
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Yo había leído sobre dos procesos en el Shintou de la vida real, el "kanjou" y el "bunrei" o "wakemitama". Esos dos rituales juntos me recuerdan mucho a esta porción de lore de Touhou de la que @occasionaltouhou y @sukimas estaban hablando, y no puedo evitar preguntarme si lo explicado en Extraña y Brillante Deidad de la Naturaleza y en Silencioso Pecador en Azul estuvo inspirado por esto. Copiaré acá lo que encontré en Wikipedia; debería ser un resumen más o menos decente:
"El bunrei o wakemitama [「分霊」] es un término técnico del Shintou que indica tanto el proceso de dividir a un kami para volver a consagrarlo en algún otro lugar (por ejemplo, un kamidana o altar hogareño), como también el propio espíritu producido por la división.
Los santuarios Shintou conducen el bunrei para distribuir los kami hacia santuarios secundarios en otras ubicaciones. El espíritu del kami no se reduce por esta acción, y un bunrei funciona en la misma capacidad que el espíritu original. La razón para llevar a cabo el bunrei es usualmente para hacer que un kami sea más accesible para quienes le rinden culto lejos del santuario principal."
Fuente: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunrei
"El Kanjou [「勧請」] en la terminología Shintou indica un proceso de propagación por el cual un kami, previamente dividido mediante el proceso de bunrei, es invitado a otra ubicación y consagrado nuevamente allí.
Originalmente, era un término budista: llamado 'abhiṣeka' ['अभिषेक'] en sánscrito, inicialmente se refería a la petición del sermón del buda con un corazón sincero; más tarde, pasó a significar la exhortación de un buda o bodhisattva a permanecer en este mundo para predicar y salvar a otros seres humanos, y luego el concepto evolucionó aun más para significar el acto (y las palabras reales) de pedir a los budas o bodhisattvas que desciendan al altar durante un rito budista. En Japón, la palabra fue incorporada al vocabulario Shintou y gradualmente tomó el significado actual de consagrar por primera vez a un buda o a un kami en un sitio de culto.
Inari es el kami que ha sido sujeto al proceso de kanjou con mayor frecuencia que cualquier otro."
Fuente: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanj%C5%8D
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A su vez, esto me recordó a un conjunto de otras interesantes ideas y teorías sobre Touhou propuestas por @occasionaltouhou (quien también se puede encontrar bajo el nombre de "godmedallion" en Archive Of Our Own). La mayoría están relacionadas ya sea con los Selenitas o con Iwanaga-hime, y también fueron la inspiración para mis propios pensamientos en la materia:
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[25 de noviembre de 2023]
Un post de @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/734950414258241536):
"Honestamente, si Gensoukyou no puede sobrevivir a la muerte térmica del universo, dudo que el Elixir de PéngLái pueda hacerlo tampoco. Porque al final del día, esa cosa sigue estando alimentada por la creencia humana en un elixir de la inmortalidad. Incluso se podría argumentar que su ingrediente activo es esa creencia humana."
Un comentario de @every1sno1fangirl:
"¿El Elixir de PéngLái es alimentado por la creencia humana? No lo creo, me parece que los Selenitas no son el mismo tipo de seres que los que viven en Gensoukyou."
La respuesta de @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/734998492673703937):
"Los Selenitas son sólo kami, al igual que los kami que viven en Gensoukyou. Entonces sí, son dependientes de la creencia humana, al igual que todos los demás. Pero ellos jamás de los jamases lo van a admitir.
(Como regla general, sospeche de cualquier cosa dicha por un Selenita. En el instante mismo en que Kaguya dijo que ellos crearon a los youkai, yo ya supe que no sabían un c***** de nada.)"
Un comentario de @derxwnakapsyla:
"Ahora estoy imaginando un futuro en el que Gensoukyou (incluyendo todos sus sub-reinos asociados) simplemente flota a la deriva en el espacio exterior, sin saber en gran parte que el resto del universo ya no está, porque Utsuho está produciendo un Sol artificial y Eirin está produciendo una Luna artificial, así que muy poco ha cambiado para la gente funcionalmente."
La respuesta de @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/734998492673703937):
"En un universo vacío, la Tierra perdura, y simplemente está metida en lo suyo."
Etiquetas agregadas por @monikatouhou alias @monidoll (https://monidoll.tumblr.com/post/734998846620434432):
"Creo que ahora los Selenitas son una mezcla indistinguible de kami verdaderos y humanos que recién alcanzaron la inmortalidad; de esta manera, dado que técnicamente hay humanos en la Capital Lunar, su sistema es internamente auto-suficiente. Al menos en la escala de siglos y milenios, debería ser medianamente estable; millones y miles de millones de años es probablemente un tiempo demasiado largo como para siquiera considerarlo acá en primer lugar."
La respuesta de @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/734999566825472000):
"Esto en realidad me da la oportunidad para proponer una idea que he tenido desde hace un rato: no creo que los Selenitas sean una mezcla de dioses y humanos, ni tampoco creo que intenten convertirse en humanos – los humanos, siendo seres propensos a la vida y la muerte, son inherentemente seres de kegare/impurezas.
Creo que los Selenitas intentan dejar de ser kami para convertirse oficialmente en Dioses propiamente dichos, con D mayúscula, y creo que los Conejos Lunares están ahí para mantener el sistema funcionando: son seguidores artificiales que proveen la fe requerida para darle sustento a los Selenitas.
Desafortunadamente para ellos, este es un plan ridículo porque depende del hecho de que existen como ideas que los humanos concibieron en primer lugar. Su sistema aislado sólo funciona siempre y cuando alguien que existe en la vida real y que no empezó a existir como producto de la imaginación crea que ellos pueden existir – esto seguiría siendo cierto incluso si los Selenitas pudieran convertirse en humanos, porque de todas maneras se habrían convertido en humanos que no experimentan cosas humanas tales como... ya sabe... enfermarse y morir."
Un reblog de @that-which-isnt:
"La verdad que no estoy familiarizado con la mitología china, pero según tengo entendido después de echar un vistazo en Wikipedia, los Selenitas son esencialmente lo mismo que los Celestiales de Touhou tales como Tenshi Hinanawi: humanos renacidos en una Tierra Puro gracias a un buen karma o a favoritismo de los dioses, funcionalmente inmortales mediante el continuo consumo de alimentos celestiales. La diferencia entre los Selenitas y los Celestiales regulares es sólo que los Selenitas construyeron su propia Tierra Pura en lugar de recibir una de los dioses.
Los Conejos Lunares son un completo misterio, uno de los más grandes de Touhou en mi opinión, pero personalmente creo que probablemente estás en lo correcto con la idea de que son seres diseñados y creados para actuar como esclavos y una 'granja de fe'. Mi única duda es si fueron hechos desde cero, o si hubo una época en la que habían muchos más Selenitas y muchos menos Conejos Lunares."
La respuesta de @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735003769968918528):
"Respecto a si los Selenitas cuentan como Celestiales o son algo distinto, la cuestión es que es bastante explícito que se supone que los Selenitas son los Kami Celestiales del panteón Shintou, porque todos y cada uno de los Selenitas cuyo nombre se nos ha revelado son Kami Celestiales. Los Celestiales de Touhou están todos en otro mundo, el reino budista del Cielo; la Capital Lunar es una falsificación del Cielo. Dado que la Capital Lunar fue diseñada por Eirin, la intención probablemente era aprovecharse de la idea de que la Luna está habitada por Celestiales – después de todo, los Selenitas se ven a sí mismos como equivalentes a los Celestiales, y hacen todo en su poder para asegurarse de que sea así (algo que, por supuesto, un verdadero Celestial jamás necesitaría hacer)."
Un comentario de @paradizetobefound:
"¿Podría decirse que la Luna simplemente reflejando la luz del Sol en lugar de ser una fuente legítima de iluminación del cielo proporciona un simbolismo adicional a la idea de que los Selenitas son falsos Celestiales viviendo en una falsificación del Cielo?"
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[25 de noviembre de 2023]
Un post de @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735001095414382592):
"En fin... Sí, los Selenitas son... como... básicamente sólo una versión de los Kami Celestiales. Ni siquiera son la cosa auténtica, porque no existe tal cosa para los kami, así no es como 'funcionan'. Y sé en mi corazón que eso los carcome por dentro. Patéticas pequeñas sombras de los Kami Celestiales, escondiéndose en la Luna con todos sus falsos seguidores.
(Puedo sentir cómo caigo lentamente en el 'modo Yukari'. Necesito comer algo.)"
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[25 de noviembre de 2023]
Una pregunta de @tennco para @occasionaltouhou:
"Vi ese post acerca del Elixir de PéngLái, y me estuve preguntando: ¿Qué le pasa a la creencia o a la fe cuando no queda nadie más que pueda... bueno... creer? ¿La fe tiene que venir en un suministro constante? ¿La fe persiste luego de la muerte de la persona que la originó? ¿Los muertos tienen permitido creer?"
La respuesta de @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735000275731054593):
"Se sabe que los youkai pueden proveer fe, así que se deduce que los espíritus de los muertos pueden hacerlo también. Mi teoría es que, siempre y cuando la gente crea en algún tipo de vida después de la muerte, esos espíritus pueden proveer (una muy pequeña cantidad de) fe en cosas. Pero eso sólo es verdad siempre y cuando haya gente que cree en un mundo más allá de la muerte.
Pero sí, tendría que ser un suministro constante – por eso tuvieron que construir la Gran Barrera de Hakurei cuando lo hicieron: porque no se puede realmente recuperar lo que ya se perdió cuando ya nadie cree más en una cosa, incluso si vos desarrollas nuevamente esa fe posteriormente – o al menos no sería lo mismo que lo que había antes.
(Mientras la idea de los youkai exista y haya una creencia en ellos, las variantes individuales pueden simplemente aparecer en cantidades mucho más pequeñas, debido al hecho de que ya estaban existiendo. Espero que esto ayude.)"
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Esta parte me parece interesante:
"[...] incluso si vos desarrollas nuevamente esa fe posteriormente, [...] no sería lo mismo que lo que había antes."
Cierto tiempo atrás, he leído un fanfiction largo (si mal no recuerdo, era "Powerless Hakurei Tales", escrito por "Carmichael_Micaalus") que aborda brevemente lo que les pasaría a los youkai si pudieran coexistir pacíficamente con los humanos en Gensoukyou, en lugar de que necesiten atacar y alimentarse de humanos y dependan de que los humanos le tengan miedo a los youkai además de creer en ellos.
La respuesta propuesta por el autor para este interrogante era que sí, es posible que los humanos de Gensoukyou todavía crean en la existencia e incluso los poderes de los youkai e interactúen con ellos sin temerles. En este escenario, los youkai todavía podrían existir e incluso conservar las formas físicas y podres que siempre tuvieron, pero a un nivel más fundamental y/o existencial, serían algo diferente, no exactamente lo mismo que los youkai que solían ser.
Sin embargo, les sugiero tomar esto (y cualquier otra cosa relativa a mi interpretación personal del canon y mis gustos en cuanto a fanfiction de Touhou) con cierto grado de escepticismo: tal como se puede ver en este otro post que yo escribí un tiempo atrás (https://mashounen2003.tumblr.com/post/820008374765764608), la manera en que yo tiendo a imaginar a Gensoukyou y las interacciones entre todos sus habitantes, mientras no es necesariamente incongruente con el canon de Touhou oficial, sí es probablemente mucho más optimista e idealista que lo que sería permitido por el actual consenso entre los fans (a modo de ejemplo sin relación con el tema principal de este post: tengo la opinión de que, cuando las Reglas de los Spell Cards entraron en vigor, la vida cotidiana en Gensoukyou definitivamente dejó de ser "lo mismo de siempre" y Reimu concibiendo esa idea fue un gran cambio y marcó un momento crucial en la historia de Gensoukyou al proponer un método para resolver desacuerdos sin la necesidad de que los humanos y los youkai se teman, se odien y se maten unos a otros).
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[26 de noviembre de 2023]
Un post de @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735004757194932224):
"La Capital Lunar es una obra maestra: alberga maravillas increíbles y tecnología mucho más avanzada que la de la superficie de la Tierra... Pero es una falsificación – es una incomparable e insuperable, ciertamente, pero sigue siendo al fin y al cabo una falsificación, hecha por unos seres de mentes pequeñas intentando desesperadamente ignorar la verdad de su propia existencia. Como siempre: no se dejen engañar, ¿De acuerdo?"
Un comentario de @itspurvis:
"Las falsificaciones son geniales.
Han van Meegeren es un artista mejor y más consumado que lo que Vermeer jamás haya podido ser."
La respuesta de @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735030980178477056):
"No me malinterprete, no estoy menospreciando las falsificaciones, ni tampoco el esfuerzo dedicado a ellas – crear un símil del Cielo budista es algo que sólo una genia como Eirin podría lograr.
Mi argumento es que la Capital Lunar no es el Cielo, los Selenitas no son Celestiales, y cuando uno realmente va al fondo de la cuestión, la Capital Lunar es simplemente un ejercicio para intentar ignorar las cosas con las que no querés lidiar (el kegare, ser dependiente de la fe humana, el concepto de la entropía en general) tapándote los oídos con la esperanza de que esas cosas eventualmente dejen de importar."
Un comentario de @itspurvis:
"Si me permite hablar un poco más en serio por un momento: parece que la clave de todo esto es que los Selenitas son 'Falsos' y los Celestiales son 'Verdaderos'. ¿De dónde viene exactamente esa idea?
Siempre he tendido a asumir que tanto la Capital Lunar como el reino de los Celestiales son sub-secciones del Reino de los Dioses/Devas (uno de los Seis Reinos del budismo, que incluyen también al Reino Animal, con su propio equivalente en el universo de Touhou): son la misma cosa en dos 'sabores' diferentes, en particular porque el RyuuGuu-Jou (el palacio submarino del dios dragón RyuuJin) aparentemente existe en ambos."
La respuesta de @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735088321947156480):
"Aunque ZUN no ha establecido 'oficialmente' que la Capital Lunar es falsa, hay varios indicios que fácilmente pueden llevar a esa conclusión. Pero el principal indicio es que la Capital Lunar fue... ya sabe... 'construida': fue diseñada, por Eirin, específicamente para ser una Tierra Pura. Mientras tanto, hasta donde sabemos, el Cielo de los Celestiales simplemente 'existe' allá fuera, al igual que los demás Reinos del budismo – y no tiene una ubicación fija como sí la tiene la Capital Lunar, simplemente está 'sobre las nubes'. Se podría argumentar que el hecho de que el Palacio del Dios Dragón exista en ambos refuerza la idea de que la Capital Lunar es un fraude.
Lo importante aquí es que la Capital Lunar existe como espejo de Gensoukyou: es la forma totalitaria y amurallada de Gensoukyou, la versión de Gensoukyou que ignora las posibilidades del crecimiento y en cambio prefiere la perpetuidad inmutable. Y para que eso funcione, hablando en términos narrativos y de temas de una historia, la Capital Lunar tiene que estar construida a partir de los mismos principios – no funcionaría si no fuese un falso Cielo."
Un comentario de @sukimas:
"Cabe destacar que Izumo, el otro lugar mítico que vagamente sirve de inspiración para la Capital Lunar, también es explícitamente un 'paraíso construido'."
La respuesta de @occasionaltouhou:
"Son todos Cielos artificiales al final del día."
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[26 de noviembre de 2023]
Una pregunta de un usuario anónimo para @occasionaltouhou:
"Dado que el tema del día parece ser los Selenitas, ¿Tenés alguna recomendación para escribir o interpretar a un Selenita en un juego de rol de mesa?"
La respuesta de @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735031704708890624):
"Primero, lea la totalidad de Silencioso Pecador en Azul. Luego, para complementar esto, busque también algunas de las apariciones de Eirin en los mangas de Touhou y léalos también. Una vez que ya tenga una idea inicial, podemos entrar en los detalles más específicos.
Yo diría que, al interpretar a un Selenita, necesita mantener en mente estas cosas:
=> Son extremadamente confiados, tanto sobre sí mismos como sobre la fuerza y estabilidad de la Capital Lunar.
=> Son xenófobos, pero no en un grado absurdo (colaborarán con no-Selenitas si lo creen necesario).
=> Son un poco despistados. Esta gente se pasa todo el tiempo en una burbuja que armaron para sí mismos, donde todo simplemente sigue adelante, no importa qué; poner a uno de ellos en una situación donde está en desventaja podría hacer que empiece a actuar cada vez más irracionalmente.
=> Hasta donde les concierne, la Tierra es una prisión que ellos crearon para los humanos y los youkai (esto no es verdad, pero ellos lo creen firmemente).
=> Sea cual sea el Kami Celestial que elija como inspiración para su personaje Selenita, el Selenita en cuestión será capaz de hacer lo que sea que ese Kami Celestial sea capaz de hacer. Un Selenita es simplemente una encarnación de un kami específico que decidió irse a ser un idiota en la Luna.
=> Generalmente sienten un gran respeto por los jerarcas de la Capital Lunar (Tsukuyomi, otros Kami Celestiales de alto rango, incluso Eirin a pesar de que ella desertó de la Capital Lunar) y le tienen poco o ningún respeto a los Conejos Lunares.
=> La parte de 'lunático' en 'Legado de Reino Lunático' (la parte en inglés del título completo de Touhou 15) se refiere a los Selenitas: sólo un lunático le tendría fe a la Capital Lunar.
Esto es todo lo que se me ocurre ahora mismo. Probablemente haya más cosas."
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Todo esto es muy útil, aunque el tipo de juego que yo crearía sería un MetroidVania como Luna Nights, o un clásico juego de plataformas lineal en 2D, o quizás un clon de Rockman.EXE al estilo de ShangHai.EXE: Gensou Network. Entonces, los Selenitas estarían involucrados en su trama. (Los juegos de rol de mesa nunca me han llamado la atención, lo siento)
Tan sólo imagínese... Leyenda del Castillo del Diablo Escarlata 3: la Reimu caza-vampiros "edgy" de los 2000 viaja a la Luna (y orina en ella, como el Dr Eggman en los doblajes en tiempo real de Snapcube) para vengarse de todos los líos causados por los Selenitas.
Sin embargo, debo decir que desarrollar un juego con una trama fuertemente ligada a la Capital Lunar será complicado: es cierto que la sociedad Selenita está condenada a un eventual colapso en el futuro, pero en el presente, hay Selenitas individuales como Yorihime que siguen siendo absurdamente poderosas, y las mecánicas de este juego estarán obligadas a reflejar eso. A menos que...
A menos que, por alguna artimaña de la trama, este juego esté ambientado en el Mundo Exterior, así que tanto los personajes originarios de Gensoukyou como los Selenitas están rebajados a un nivel de poder similar debido a que se encuentran en un ambiente "carente de fe".
También tomará trabajo imaginar por qué los Selenitas siquiera se molestarían en intervenir directamente en algún asunto de la Tierra para empezar. Sin embargo, luego de los eventos de Touhou 20 (donde Yuiman Asama es liberada, costándole a la Capital Lunar sus instalaciones de la "montaña purificadora" donde usaban a Yuiman como su IA), los Selenitas podrían empezar a desesperarse; eso podría funcionar como trama para otro juego de Touhou donde la Capital Lunar inicia un nuevo incidente. En particular, el 3er punto enumerado por @occasionaltouhou en la lista ya mencionada...
"[...] poner a un Selenita en una situación donde está en desventaja podría hacer que empiece a actuar cada vez más irracionalmente."
... me hace pensar que las secuelas de lo que pasó en Touhou 20 podría ser suficiente para hacer que los Selenitas pierdan sus cabales.
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[31 de enero de 2024]
Una pregunta de @d6b-onion para @occasionaltouhou:
"¿Qué opinás de Misumaru Tamatsukuri? Personalmente... No lo sé, quizás sea desafortunado, pero ella no parece un personaje particularmente interesante.
La gente bromea y habla de que ella es una MILF, y... Supongo que sí... Pero de alguna manera, cuando se trata de ella, eso la vuelve algo aburrida. Se siente... como... lo contrario a todas las demás personajes de Touhou: ella no está simplemente metida en lo suyo.
A mí personalmente no me gusta su diseño realmente: Tenshi hizo mejor la estética del arcoiris, y la pose de Misumaru es un poco ridícula.
Lo que me saca de quicio es que ella es una personaje aburrida... que talló los Orbes Yin-Yang de Reimu! ¡¿Cuándo fue la última vez que tuvimos verdadero lore fidedigno sobre Reimu antes de eso?! Podría haber toda clase de conexiones con el Kami del Santuario de Hakurei... pero Misumaru es algo insignificante. Es una lástima, la verdad. Pero quizás vos tengas una opinión distinta."
La respuesta de @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/741021778815713280):
"Misumaru, ¿Eh? ... Definitivamente es una personaje que todavía no tuvo su momento en los focos. Misumaru es en realidad una figura bastante importante en muchos sentidos. Primero y principal, al menos si pensamos en su nombre completo, ella es Tama-no-Oya-no-Mikoto; es decir, ella es una Kami Celestial estrechamente ligada, tanto al origen de un clan que técnicamente es anterior a la propia nación moderna de Japón, como también al mito sobre el exilio de Amaterasu en una caverna; desde luego, teóricamente esto también vincula a Misumaru directamente con los Selenitas. Y sólo para agregarle aun más a todo esto, Tama-no-Oya-no-Mikoto es también quien creó la Yasakani-no-Magatama (la joya curvada –la magatama– de jade de dos metros y medio), uno de los tres Tesoros Imperiales de Japón, lo cual es... ya sabe... una de las cosas más importantes que se puede esperar encontrar en la mitología japonesa.
Entonces, simplemente tomando en cuenta cuál es el kami que Misumaru representa, ella ya tiene un montón entre manos. Y ella es, por supuesto, la creadora de los Orbes Yin-Yang: ¿Por qué no encargarle a una artesana maestra la creación del go-shintai para el kami usado como pilar fundamental para Gensoukyou?
Hay algunas otras facetas interesantes sobre Misumaru, una de las cuales es el propio dato de que ella no ha tenido ninguna otra aparición ni antes ni después de Touhou 18: la Cueva del Dragón Arcoíris ~ Mercaderes Inconexos: ella está específicamente protegiendo sus propios intereses en la Montaña de los Youkai. Es firme y competente, provee ayuda y consejo, y ella es casi tan egoísta como lo que hemos visto de otros kami. ¡La única razón por la que ella apareció es porque había gente llevándose rocas que ella ve como suyas!
Entonces, ella es una Kami Celestial... pero no es una Selenita. Además, vale señalar que no hay muchos santuarios Shintou dedicados a Tama-no-Oya-no-Mikoto; la verdad, ella está apenas uno o dos escalones por encima de Hina Kagiyama en términos de lo que llaman 'kami salvaje' (un kami sin seguidores que le provean fe o un santuario donde resida y se le rinda culto, y que usualmente se convierte en un youkai como resultado). Ella no parece tener realmente alguna lealdad ni a Gensoukyou ni al Santuario de Hakurei (de lo contrario... ya sabe... ella probablemente se habría hecho presente en un momento anterior). Ella simplemente es una artesana peculiar. Y hace magatamas y pelotas. Y se las tira a la gente por diversión. ¿Qué puede ser mejor que esto?"
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[2 de noviembre 2023]
Una pregunta de un usuario anónimo para @occasionaltouhou:
"Por favor, ¿Podrías explicarnos la teoría de que Iwanaga-hime es la Kami de Hakurei?"
[Para darle contexto: el 9 de febrero de 2023, @occasionaltouhou había publicado sus diseños de dos personajes originales de Touhou, siendo una de ellas inspirada en Iwanaga-hime; el post en cuestión incluyó resúmenes donde el autor mencionó una teoría de que Iwanaga-hime es la verdadera identidad del Kami de Hakurei. El enlace al post original de @occasionaltouhou es https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/708805168606691328.]
La respuesta de @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/732913388035915776):
"La explicación rápida y simple es que Iwanaga-hime es la kami más relevante para Gensoukyou en su conjunto, así que tendría sentido que el santuario Shintou más significativo para Gensoukyou también esté relacionado con ella. Para entrar más en detalle...
Primero y principal, la Montaña de los Youkai es en la vida real la cordillera Yatsugatake, es decir, la montaña de Iwanaga-hime (mitológicamente, las montañas Yatsugatake son los restos de la montaña de Iwanaga-hime, y la Montaña de los Youkai podría ser interpretada como la forma original de dicha montaña antes de que fuese destruida). Sabemos esto gracias al capítulo dedicado a Mokou en Renegado Lunático Encerrado, una de las más críticas fuentes de lore de Touhou. Creo que se tiene que enfatizar, ya desde el comienzo, lo crucial que es que la principal cosa separando y diferenciando a Gensoukyou respecto del Mundo Exterior –siendo potencial y razonablemente un pilar fundamental para la existencia de Gensoukyou– pertenece a un mito que es específicamente acerca de Iwanaga-hime (en caso de que tengas curiosidad sobre esto, no hay ninguna contradicción en que tanto Iwanaga-hime como Yasakatome/Takeminakata/Kanako Yasaka sean las Kami de la Montaña de los Youkai, aunque me imagino que Iwanaga-hime no se alegra mucho por esto dada la clase de persona que es Kanako).
La segunda razón es que el Clan Hieda –en particular, Akyuu de Hieda– también le rinde culto a Iwanaga-hime. De hecho, este dato sobre ellos es específicamente señalado de una manera en que no sucede realmente para básicamente ningún otro kami. Akyuu le reza a Iwanaga-hime con la esperanza de que le otorgue longevidad (debido a la ya infame corta esperanza de vida de Akyuu), pero eso no da realmente detalles respecto a por qué el resto del Clan Hieda lo hace aparte de que es una tradición familiar.
Iwanaga-hime es extremadamente importante tanto para la p*** roca gigante en medio de Gensoukyou como para la principal cronista de Gensoukyou, alguien cuyo rol se podría considerar tan crítico como el de las mikos de Hakurei para la preservación del statu quo del lugar. Como mínimo, Iwanaga-hime absolutamente habría tenido que ser parte de las negociaciones para el desarrollo de Gensoukyou directamente desde el comienzo, si es que no estuvo metida en nada más. Ella es algo importante.
Entonces... ya sabe... tenemos a esta kami cuya función entera es asegurarse de que las cosas duren, alguien crucial para la existencia de Gensoukyou, y alguien cuyo go-shintai es una enorme p*** roca. ¿Se puede ver lo que intento presentar?"
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Hay algunas cosas reveladas en Touhou 20 que podrían complicar las cosas, pero todo lo demás descrito aquí encaja demasiado bien en el canon actual de Touhou, así que todavía adhiero a esta teoría, la cual también me dio ideas para algunas cosas en las que me gustaría trabajar.
Por ahora, he aquí lo que se me ocurrió cuando busque una manera de tomar la idea de que Iwanaga-hime (o en este caso, Ariya Iwanaga) sea la Kami de Hakurei y conciliarla con el canon establecido en Touhou más recientemente.
La gran pregunta aquí es cómo Ariya podría haber participado en la creación de Gensoukyou si ella todavía estaba sellada en la Pirámide. Tal vez Yukari Yakumo y/o alguna otra de las Sabias de Gensoukyou invocó el poder de Iwanaga o algo así, y ellas lograron esto usando las montañas Yatsugatake como un sustituto para la propia Ariya (después de todo, esta cordillera es el go-shintai de Ariya, así que seguiría estando allí sin importar que ella esté sellada bajo las montañas); las Sabias de Gensoukyou lograron que esto funcione, pero Ariya no podía controlarlo dado el estado en el que ella se encontraba.
(Esto también me recordó que probablemente Ariya pudo al menos sentir subconsciente o vagamente, no solamente las Sabias usando sus montañas para crear Gensoukyou, sino también el Clan Hieda rezándole por longevidad mientras ella seguía siendo incapaz de responder esas plegarias. Ahora que Ariya ha sido liberada, ella podría finalmente hacer algo por Akyuu, pero... Dios, recordar todas esas plegarias que quedaron sin respuesta, todas las veces que Akyuu murió joven y tuvo que pasar por el proceso de reencarnación porque Ariya no pudo impedirlo o siquiera mitigarlo de alguna manera, y los sentimientos de culpa resultantes, todavía deben estar carcomiendo a Ariya si todo esto es verdad.)
Mientras el poder de Ariya sobre la permanencia y lo inmutable sería útil para mantener estable a Gensoukyou, el incidente en Touhou 20 muestra que es un arma de doble filo: ella desató su poder indiscriminadamente, lo cual detuvo el flujo normal del tiempo e iba a dejar Gensoukyou sin nada de kegare , y eso amenazaba la existencia misma de Gensoukyou (sólo en Touhou 20, se señaló al menos dos veces que la ausencia total de kegare –tal como pasa en la Capital Lunar y habría pasado en Gensoukyou si el incidente no hubiera sido resuelto– es comparable con estar muerto).
Ahora bien, cuando "occasionaltouhou" postuló inicialmente esta teoría (eso fue al menos dos años antes del lanzamiento de Touhou 20 y el debut de Ariya Iwanaga, y si contamos desde cuando "occasionaltouhou" presentó su personaje original inspirada en Iwanaga-hime y mencionó esta teoría por primera vez, fue incluso antes del lanzamiento de Touhou 19 ), especuló que a Iwanaga-hime no le gustaría compartir la Montaña de los Youkai con alguien como Kanako. Ahora que Ariya ha sido presentada y ella ha demostrado tener un profundo rencor contra los Selenitas, ella podría encontrar puntos en común con Kanako al compartir este rencor al menos (y si la historia también decide profundizar en el pasado de Yuiman y la vieja amistad de Kanako con ella, Ariya y Kanako también podrían hallar puntos en común al desear lo mejor para Yuiman, pero esto es sólo lo que dice la región de mi cerebro que se obsesiona con emparejar a los personajes). Más importante para los roles del poder de Ariya y de la Montaña de los Youkai en Gensoukyou, y algo que aborda la cuestión de la que hablé en el párrafo anterior: después del incidente en Touhou 20, Ariya entendería que su poder sobre la inmutabilidad es necesario pero también debe ser usado con moderación (para mantener vivo a Gensoukyou, además de para evitar seguir los pasos de los Selenitas), y Kanako es pragmática y está dispuesta a aceptar los cambios (ella incluso intenta presentarse como una kami de la innovación); con Ariya y Kanako compartiendo el rol de "Kami de la Montaña de los Youkai", quizás puedan establecer una especie de "relación laboral" en la que se equilibren la una a la otra.
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Esto es todo por ahora. Simplemente quise agarrar todas estas interesantes ideas propuestas por fans de Touhou, juntarlas todas y organizarlas en un único texto, y compartirlo aquí para cualquiera a quien pudiese interesarle. Siéntanse libres de compartir sus propias opiniones en los comentarios (y también darle crédito y seguir y/o suscribirse a toda la gente mencionada aquí, por supuesto).
A bunch of posts I found about real-life inspirations for Touhou lore and a few interesting fan-theories (and my own thoughts on them)
I had originally put all this together for a Reddit post, but now I've decided to post that here as well, even though almost all my sources are already from Tumblr. I'll also translate it all to Spanish.
Two or three months ago, "Levander" a.k.a. @chireikiden (currently, the main English translator of official Touhou print works by ZUN and fan-made Touhou print works by other artists that get published as part of Strange Creators of Outer World) got an ask on their Tumblr blog and provided the following answer:
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[15-04-2026]
An ask by an anonymous user for @chireikiden:
"Are the Watatsuki sisters considered kami? Could Yorihime summon her sister Toyohime out of the blue?"
The answer by @chireikiden (https://chireikiden.tumblr.com/post/813991281994924032):
"In terms of family trees and mythologically recognizable characters, the likes of Eirin, Sagume and, indeed, the Watatsuki sisters are pretty unambiguously Heavenly Kami, that is, the Japanese gods. (By extension, we have to assume Kaguya is a Heavenly Kami as well; although the original Princess Kaguya is a fairytale character with no specific religious status, it isn't much of a leap to call her one, even within the original Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.)
Beyond that, the Ephemeral Moon Vignette saga (that is, both Silent Sinner in Blue and Cage-in Lunatic Runagate) make it explicit that both Reimu and Yorihime are also summoning Lunarian gods when they do their thing. With Yorihime being able to summon the likes of Amaterasu, I have to assume she could summon Toyohime too, yeah. Note that we're putting aside any unknowable questions about whether she'd be allowed to do so without 'the proper measures' or 'permission' (chapter 6 of Cage-in Lunatic Runagate).
It's specified (most explicitly in chapter 6 of Silent Sinner in Blue) that gods, including those with physical bodies, are simply cloned when summoned into a new location. This would also apply to Toyohime. I guess that's a good reason not to try to summon her.
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That said, as a tangent: although the Lunarians' 'summonability' seems to be one of the least ambiguous things about them, there's a lot about the Lunarians' exact nature that gets into the territory of what I'd call 'dubious by omission': stuff that isn't directly contradictory per se, but has been left ambiguous and starts getting more and more dubious the longer it goes without being mentioned or clarified in any way, even when the Lunarians otherwise come up. It's really hard to see Lunarians running on very similar rules as Earthly Kami such as the ones at the Moriya Shrine or the Aki sisters, but they may have simply outgrown such concerns when they moved to the Moon and chose a new form of immortality. And of course, the ones we're most familiar with –Eirin and Kaguya– also have the Hourai Elixir as an added complication.
I think a lot of the Touhou lore surrounding the Moon exists in a kind of confusing state partly because Touhou 8 (released in 2004) was a very early entry of the series from the era when its setting was still pretty unformed, yet the Ephemeral Moon Vignette saga (published from 2007 to 2009) ended up discussing it at quite some length and then more games (namely, Touhou 15 in 2015 and Touhou 20 in 2025) kept on coming back to the subject. But the boundaries around the status of kami being very fuzzy is appropriate for both the Touhou universe and real-life Shintou lore, anyway."
Tags added by @rosymerry (https://rosymerry.tumblr.com/post/813991600822829056):
"The lore about kami and the Lunarians in Touhou is delightfully ambiguous. I'm currently re-reading through all material, hoping to get insights on them (particularly how Heaven relates to the Lunar Capital), but I don't expect their status/nature will be truly clarified in canon."
A reply by @clarste:
"Bunrei."
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The reply by "clarste" mentioning the bunrei, along with this part of Levander's answer...
"It's specified (most explicitly in chapter 6 of Silent Sinner in Blue) that gods, including those with physical bodies, are simply cloned when summoned into a new location."
... reminded me of the following piece of Touhou lore and its possible basis on real-life Shintou religious practices:
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[25-11-2023]
A post by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/734999981348552704):
"Where's the f***ing thing about splitting up kami, leaving each bit as whole instances of that kami, that I know I've read once? 'Infinite chocolate' type guys.
(By the way, this is the basis for my idea that there are variants of each Heavenly Kami in Gensoukyou and in the Lunar Capital at the same time.)"
A reply by @sukimas:
"It's in Strange and Bright Nature Deity, the second manga of The Three Fairies of Light (published from 2006 to 2009). It's also at the beginning of Silent Sinner in Blue."
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I had read about a process in real-life Shintou religion called "kanjou", as well as the "bunrei" or "wakemitama". The whole thing reminds me so much of this bit of Touhou lore that @occasionaltouhou and @sukimas were talking about, that I can't help but wonder if the lore from Strange and Bright Nature Deity and Silent Sinner in Blue was inspired by this. I'll copy-paste it here from Wikipedia; it should be a good enough summary:
"Bunrei or wakemitama [「分霊」] is a Shintou technical term that indicates both the process of dividing a kami to be re-enshrined somewhere else (such as a house's kamidana or miniature altar), and the spirit itself produced by the division.
Shrines conduct bunrei in order to distribute kami to 'child' shrines elsewhere. The spirit of the kami does not decrease through this act, and a bunrei functions the same way as the original spirit. The reason for conducting bunrei is often to make a kami more accessible to worshipers far from the main shrine."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunrei
"Kanjou [「勧請」] in Shintou terminology indicates a propagation process through which a kami, previously divided through the process of bunrei, is invited to another location and re-enshrined there.
It was originally a Buddhist term: called 'abhiṣeka' ['अभिषेक'] in Sanskrit, it initially referred to the request of the buddha's sermon with a sincere heart; later, it came to mean the urging of a buddha or bodhisattva to remain in this world to preach and save other human beings, and then the concept evolved further to mean the act (and the actual words) of asking buddhas or bodhisattvas to descend to the altar during a Buddhist service. In Japan, the word entered Shintou vocabulary and gradually assumed the present meaning of enshrinement of a buddha or kami in a building for the first time.
Inari is the kami that has been subjected to the process of kanjou more often than any other."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanj%C5%8D
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In turn, this reminded me of a bunch of other cool Touhou theories and ideas proposed by @occasionaltouhou, whom you can also find as "godmedallion" in Archive Of Our Own. Most of them are related to either the Lunarians or Iwanaga-hime, and they also inspired me to come up with my own thoughts on the matter:
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[25-11-2023]
A post by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/734950414258241536):
"To be honest, if Gensoukyou can't survive heat death, I doubt the Hourai Elixir could either. Because, ultimately, that stuff is still fuelled by human belief in an elixir of immortality. Arguably, that's its active ingredient."
A reply by @every1sno1fangirl:
"Is the Hourai Elixir fuelled by human belief? I wouldn't think so, I don't think the Lunarians are in the same way people of Gensoukyou are."
The response by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/734998492673703937):
"Lunarians are just kami, the same as the ones who live in Gensoukyou. So yeah, they're dependent upon human belief, the same as anything else. They'll never f***ing admit it, though.
(As a general rule, treat anything the Lunarians say as suspect. The instant Kaguya said they invented youkai, I knew they didn't know s***.)"
A reply by @derxwnakapsyla:
"Now I'm just imagining a future where Gensoukyou (including all associated sub-realms) is just drifting through space, mostly unaware that the entirety of the universe is gone, because Utsuho is producing an artificial Sun and Eirin is producing an artificial Moon, so little has functionally changed for them."
The response by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/734998492673703937):
"In an empty universe, Earth remains, and it is simply vibing."
Tags added by @monikatouhou a.k.a. @monidoll (https://monidoll.tumblr.com/post/734998846620434432):
"I think Lunarians are now an indistinguishable mix of actual kami and newly immortal humans; this way, since technically there are humans on the Lunar Capital, its system is internally self-sustaining. At least on the timescale of centuries and millennia, it should be stable enough; millions and billions of years is probably too long of a time to consider here in the first place."
The response by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/734999566825472000):
"This actually gives me the chance to bring up an idea I've had for a while: I don't think the Lunarians are a mix of gods and humans, nor do I think they're trying to turn themselves into humans – humans, prone as they are to life and death, are inherently beings of kegare/impurity.
I think they're attempting to turn themselves from kami into proper, capital-G Gods, and I think that the Moon Rabbits are there to maintain the system: they're artificial worshippers who provide the faith required to sustain the Lunarians.
Unfortunately for them, this is a ridiculous plan because it hinges upon the fact that they exist as things humans came up with in the first place. Their isolated system only works as long as someone who's actually real and wasn't imagined into being thinks they might exist – this would remain true even if they were able to turn themselves into humans, because they'd still have turned themselves into humans who don't experience human things like... you know... getting sick and dying."
A reblog by @that-which-isnt:
"I'm not really at all familiar with Chinese mythology, but my understanding from Wikipedia-level browsing was that Lunarians are essentially the same thing as Celestials like Tenshi, which is to say, humans reborn in a Pure Land because of good karma or favouritism from gods and made functionally immortal through the continual consumption of heavenly foods. The difference between Lunarians and regular Celestials is just that the Moon-dwellers made their own Pure Land rather than having one given to them by the gods.
The Moon Rabbits are anyone's guess and one of the biggest mysteries in Touhou in my opinion, but personally, I think the idea of them being engineered beings created to act as slaves and a faith farm is probably correct. My only question is if they were made from scratch, or if there used to be a lot more Lunarians and a lot fewer Moon Rabbits."
The response by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735003769968918528):
"The thing about the Lunarians being Celestials is that it's pretty explicit that the Lunarians are meant to be the Heavenly Kami, because every Lunarian we've been given the name of is a Heavenly Kami. The Celestials are all off in Heaven; the Lunar Capital is a counterfeit. Given that it was designed by Eirin, it was probably intended to piggyback off the idea of the Moon being inhabited by Celestials – after all, the Lunarians think of themselves as being equivalent, and do everything that they can to ensure that it is the case (which is, of course, not something an actual Celestial would ever need to do)."
A reply by @paradizetobefound:
"Can it be said that the Moon merely reflecting sunlight instead of being a legitimate source of sky illumination provides further symbolism to Lunarians being counterfeit Celestials in a forgery of Heaven?"
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[25-11-2023]
A post by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735001095414382592):
"Anyway... Yeah, the Lunarians are... like... basically just one version of the Heavenly Kami. They're not even the genuine article, because there isn't one for kami, that's not how they 'work'. And I know in my heart that this eats them up inside. Wretched little shadows of the Heavenly Kami, hiding on the Moon with all their fake worshippers.
(I can feel myself slipping into Yukari Mode. I need to go eat something.)"
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[25-11-2023]
An ask by @tennco for @occasionaltouhou:
"I saw that post about the Hourai Elixir and was wondering: what happens to belief or faith when no one's around to... well... believe? Does it have to come in a constant supply? Does belief persist after the death of the one who originated it? Are the dead allowed to believe?"
The answer by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735000275731054593):
"We know that youkai can provide faith, so it follows that the spirits of the dead can do so too. My theory is that, provided that people believe in some kind of afterlife, those spirits can provide (a very small amount of) belief in stuff. But that only holds true so long as there are people who believe in a world beyond death.
But yeah, it'd have to be a constant supply – that's why they had to build the Hakurei Barrier when they did: because you can't really get back what was already lost once nobody believes in it anymore, even if you re-develop that belief afterwards – or at least, it wouldn't be the same as what was there beforehand.
(So long as the idea of the youkai exists and they're believed in, the individual variants can just appear in much smaller amounts, on account of the fact that they were already existing. I hope this helps.)"
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I find this part interesting:
"[...] even if you re-develop that belief afterwards, [...] it wouldn't be the same as what was there beforehand."
I've read a long fanfic a while ago (if I remember correctly, it was "Powerless Hakurei Tales" by "Carmichael_Micaalus") that briefly addresses what would happen to youkai if they could peacefully coexist with humans in Gensoukyou, instead of needing to eat humans and depending on humans' fear of youkai as well as their belief in them.
The answer the author came up with is that yes, it's possible for Gensoukyou's humans to still believe in the existence of youkai and even their powers, and interact with them without fearing them. In this scenario, youkai could still exist and even keep their previous physical forms and powers, but at a more fundamental, existential level, they'd be something different; they'd not be exactly the same as the youkai they used to be.
However, I'd suggest that y'all take this (and any other thing relative to my personal interpretation of canon and my tastes in Touhou fanfiction) with a grain of salt: as it can be deduced from this other post I wrote a while ago (https://mashounen2003.tumblr.com/post/820008374765764608), the way I tend to envision Gensoukyou and the interactions between all its inhabitants, while not necessarily being incongruent with Touhou canon, is probably much more optimistic and idealistic than what would be allowed by the current fandom consensus (as an example unrelated to the topic of this post: I have the opinion that, when the Spell Card Rules were introduced, life in Gensoukyou was no longer "business as usual" and Reimu coming up with that idea was a big change and marked a turning point in Gensoukyou's history by proposing a way to solve issues that didn't require humans and youkai to fear and hate and kill each other).
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[26-11-2023]
A post by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735004757194932224):
"The Lunar Capital is a masterwork: home to incredible wonders, technology far in advance of that of the surface... But it is a forgery – a forgery among forgeries, certainly, but a forgery nonetheless, made by some rather small-minded beings trying desperately to ignore the truth of their own existence. As always: don't get tricked, alright?"
A reply by @itspurvis:
"Forgeries own.
Han van Meegeren is a better and more accomplished artist than Vermeer ever was."
The response by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735030980178477056):
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not dismissing forgeries, nor the work put into them – creating an imitation Heaven is something only a genius like Eirin could pull off.
My point was that it's not Heaven, and the Lunarians are not Celestials, and when you really dig down, the Lunar Capital is simply an exercise in trying to ignore the stuff you don't want to deal with (kegare, being reliant on human belief, the general concept of entropy) by plugging your ears and hoping that they eventually stop mattering."
A reply by @itspurvis:
"If I may be slightly more serious for a moment: it seems that the crux of this is that Lunarians are 'Fake' and Celestials are 'Real'. Where is that coming from, exactly?
I've always kind of assumed that the Lunar Capital and the Celestials' realm are both sub-sections of the Gods' Realm (one of the 6 Buddhist Realms, which is also where the Animal Realm comes from), two different flavours of the same thing, particularly since the Dragon Palace seems to exist in both."
The response by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735088321947156480):
"While the Lunar Capital being fake is not exactly a thing ZUN has said 'outright', there's a bunch of stuff that can easily lead one to that impression. But the main thing is that... you know... it was made: it was designed, by Eirin, specifically to be a Pure Land. Meanwhile, as far as we know, the Celestials' Heaven simply 'exists' out there, as the other Buddhist Realms do – and it doesn't have a firm location in the way the Lunar Capital does: it's simply 'above the clouds'. Arguably, the Dragon Palace existing in both cements the idea of the Lunar Capital being a fraud.
The thing is that the Lunar Capital exists as a mirror to Gensoukyou: it is the totalitarian, walled-off form of Gensoukyou, the version that ignores the possibility of growth in favour of unchanging perpetuity. And for that to work, thematically speaking, it needs to be built off the same principles – it wouldn't work if it wasn't a false Heaven."
A reply by @sukimas:
"I will note that Izumo, the other vibes-based inspiration for the Lunar Capital, is also explicitly a 'constructed paradise'."
The response by @occasionaltouhou:
"It's artificial Heavens all the way down."
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[26-11-2023]
An ask by an anonymous user for @occasionaltouhou:
"Since the topic of the day seems to be the Lunarians, do you have any recommendations for writing/playing one in a TTRPG?"
The answer by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/735031704708890624):
"First, read all of Silent Sinner in Blue. Then, for good measure, look up a bunch of Eirin's manga appearances and read those too. Now that you have a taste, we can dig into specifics.
I'd say that, when playing a Lunarian, you need to keep these things in mind:
=> They're extremely confident, both in themselves and in the strength & stability of the Lunar Capital.
=> They're xenophobic, but not to an absurd degree (they'll work with non-Lunarians if they need to).
=> They're kind of clueless. These are people who spend all their time in a bubble they made for themselves, where everything simply continues, no matter what – putting one into a situation where they're at a disadvantage might make them start acting increasingly irrational.
=> As far as they're concerned, Earth is a prison that they made for humans and youkai (this is not true, but they believe it).
=> Whichever Heavenly Kami you pick as their base, they can do what that kami would be able to do. A Lunarian is simply a single instance of a specific kami who decided to be an idiot on the Moon.
=> They generally have great respect for the higher-ups of the Lunar Capital (Tsukuyomi, Eirin, other high-ranking Heavenly Kami) and little to no respect for the Moon Rabbits.
=> The 'lunatic' in 'Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom' (the English title of Touhou 15) refers to them: only a lunatic would put their faith in the Lunar Capital.
That's all I got off the top of my head. There's probably more, though."
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All of this is very helpful, even though the kind of game I'd make is either a MetroidVania like Luna Nights, or a classic linear 2D platformer, or maybe a clone of Mega Man Battle Network in a similar vein to ShangHai.EXE: Gensou Network. Then, the plot of this game would have Lunarians involved. (TTRPGs never caught my interest, sorry about that)
Just imagine... Koumajou Densetsu 3: Edgy 2000s Vampire Hunter Reimu Goes to the Moon (and pisses on it, like Dr Eggman in Snapcube's real-time fan-dubs) in Revenge for the Lunarians' BS.
I'll say, though, that making a game with a plot strongly connected to the Lunar Capital will be complicated: sure, Lunarian society is doomed to collapse in the far future, but at present, individual Lunarians like Yorihime are still OP, and the gameplay would be obligated to show that. Unless...
Unless, for some plot contrivance, this game's setting is the Outside World, so both the characters from Gensokyo and the Lunarians are brought down to the same power level due to entering a "belief-less" environment.
It'll also take work to imagine why Lunarians would even bother to intervene directly in any Earth matters to begin with. However, after the events of Touhou 20 (Yuiman being freed, the Lunar Capital losing their "purification mountain" facilities where they used her as their AI), they might be getting desperate; that could work as the plot for another Touhou game where the Lunar Capital starts a new incident. Namely, the 3rd point in the list made by @occasionaltouhou above...
"[...] putting a Lunarian into a situation where they're at a disadvantage might make them start acting increasingly irrational."
... makes me think the Touhou 20 aftermath might be enough to make Lunarians lose their marbles.
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[31-01-2024]
An ask by @d6b-onion for @occasionaltouhou:
"What do you think about Misumaru? Personally... I don't know, maybe it's unfortunate, but she doesn't look like a particularly interesting character.
People joke and talk about how 'she's a MILF' or whatever, and... Sure... But somehow, with her, it gives her a boring vibe. It feels... like... contrary to all other Touhou characters: she isn't just vibing.
I personally don't really like her design: Tenshi did the rainbow thing better, and Misumaru's pose is kinda silly.
What drives me up the wall is that she's a boring character... who crafted Reimu's Yin-Yang Orbs! When was the last time we got actual, bona fide Reimu lore before that?! There could be all sorts of connections to the Hakurei God... but she's kind of a nothing-burger. It's a shame, really. Maybe you disagree."
The answer by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/741021778815713280):
"Misumaru, huh... She's definitely a character who hasn't gotten her time to shine. Misumaru is actually kind of a 'Big Deal' in a lot of ways. First and foremost, at least based on her name, she's Tama-no-Oya-no-Mikoto, which means she's a Heavenly Kami who's closely tied both to the provenance of a clan that technically predates modern Japan itself, and also to the myth of Amaterasu in her cave – which, of course, also theoretically ties Misumaru directly to the Lunarians. And just to top it all off, Tama-no-Oya-no-Mikoto is also the creator of the Yasakani-no-Magatama, which is... you know... about as big of a deal as it gets in Japanese mythology.
So, just from which kami she is, she's already got a lot going on. And she is, of course, the creator of the Yin-Yang Orbs – why wouldn't you hire a master craftsman to create the go-shintai for the kami used as a lynchpin of Gensoukyou?
There are a few more interesting facets to her, one of which is the very fact that she hasn't shown up before or since Touhou 18 – she's specifically protecting her interests in Youkai Mountain. She's firm and competent, she provides guidance and aid, and she's about as selfish as we've seen of any kami. The only reason she showed up is because people were taking rocks she claimed as hers!
So, she's a Heavenly Kami... but not a Lunarian. Also, it's worth noting that there aren't many shrines to Tama-no-Oya-no-Mikoto; really, she's only a step or two above Hina in terms of being a so-called 'feral kami'. She doesn't really seem to have any allegiance to Gensoukyou, or to the Hakurei Shrine (or else... you know... she'd probably have shown up at any other time). She's just kind of a weird artisan. And she makes magatama and balls. And she throws them at people for fun. What's better than this?"
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[02-11-2023]
An ask by an anonymous user for @occasional-touhou:
"Could you please explain the 'Iwanaga-hime is the Hakurei God' theory?"
[For context: at 09-02-2023, @occasionaltouhou had posted the designs of two Touhou OCs, one of them being a character inspired by Iwanaga-hime; the post in question included summaries where the author mentioned a theory that Iwanaga-hime is the true identity of the Hakurei God. The link to the original post by @occasionaltouhou is https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/708805168606691328.]
The answer by @occasionaltouhou (https://occasionaltouhou.tumblr.com/post/732913388035915776):
"The quick + shrimple explanation is that Iwanaga-hime is the most relevant kami of Gensoukyou as a whole, so it'd make sense for the shrine most significant to Gensoukyou to also be related to her. To elaborate...
First and foremost, Youkai Mountain is the real-life Yatsugatake mountain range, that is, Iwanaga-hime's mountain (mythologically, the Yatsugatake mountains are the remains of Iwanaga-hime's mountain, and Youkai Mountain could be interpreted as the original form of said mountain before it was destroyed). We know this from Mokou's chapter of Cage-in Lunatic Runagate, one of the most critical Touhou lore objects. I feel like, right from the start, it needs to be emphasised how crucial it is that the main thing differentiating Gensoukyou from the Outside World –potentially and arguably being a lynchpin of its existence– belongs to a myth about Iwanaga-hime specifically (in case you're curious, there's no contradiction in both Iwanaga-hime and Yasakatome/Takeminakata/Kanako being the Kami of Youkai Mountain, though I imagine Iwanaga-hime isn't happy about it given who Kanako is as a person).
The second reason is that the Hieda clan –and Akyuu in particular– also worship Iwanaga-hime. In fact, they're specifically noted to do so in a way that you don't really get for basically any other kami . Akyuu does so hoping for the gift of longevity (because... you know... Akyuu...), but that doesn't really elaborate on why the rest of the family does beyond that it's a thing that they do.
Iwanaga-hime is extremely important to both the giant f***ing rock in the middle of Gensoukyou and also its main chronicler, someone who is arguably as critical as the Hakurei shrine maidens to maintaining the status quo of Gensoukyou. At the very least, Iwanaga-hime would absolutely have been a part of the negotiations for the development of Gensoukyou right from the start, if nothing else. She's 'kind of important'.
So, you know, you have this kami whose whole thing is making sure things last, who's crucial to Gensoukyou's existence, and whose go-shintai is a huge f***ing rock. Are you picking up what I'm putting down?"
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There are a few things introduced in Touhou 20 that might throw a wrench into things, but everything else described here still fits too well in the current Touhou canon, so I still adhere to this theory, which also gave me ideas for a few things I'd like to work on.
For now, here's what I thought up when I looked for a way to reconcile the idea of Iwanaga-hime (or Ariya Iwanaga, in this case) being the Hakurei God with the more recently established Touhou canon.
The big question here is how Ariya could have participated in the creation of Gensoukyou if she was still sealed in the Pyramid. Maybe Yukari or any of the Sages invoked Iwanaga's power or something like that, and they achieved this by using the Yatsugatake mountains as a substitute for Ariya herself (this mountain range is Ariya's go-shintai after all, and it'd still be there, no matter if she was sealed under them); they managed to make it work, but Ariya couldn't control it in the state she was in.
(Also, this reminded me that Ariya probably was able to at least vaguely/subconsciously sense, not only the Sages using her mountains to create Gensoukyou, but also the Hieda family praying to her for longevity while still being unable to answer those prayers. Now that Ariya has been freed, she can do something for Akyuu, but... Damn, remembering all those prayers that went unanswered, all the times Akyuu died young and had to reincarnate because Ariya couldn't prevent it or even mitigate it in any way, and the feelings of guilt from that, must still be eating Ariya from the inside if this is all true.)
While Ariya's power over permanence and the immutable would be useful to upkeep Gensoukyou, the incident in Touhou 20 proves this is a double-edged sword: she unleashed her power indiscriminately, which stopped the normal flow of time and was going to leave Gensoukyou devoid of kegare, and that threatened Gensoukyou's whole existence (it's pointed out at least twice in Touhou 20 alone that the complete absence of kegare, which happens in the Lunar Capital and would have happened in Gensoukyou if the incident hadn't been solved, is comparable to being dead).
Now, when "occasionaltouhou" initially proposed this theory (that was at least two years before the release of Touhou 20 featuring Ariya Iwanaga, and if we count from when they posted their Iwanaga-inspired OC and mentioned this theory for the first time, it was even before the release of Touhou 19), they speculated that Iwanaga-hime would not like to share Youkai Mountain with someone like Kanako. Now that Ariya was introduced and she has a strong grudge with the Lunarians, she might find common ground with Kanako on sharing this grudge at least (and if the story also decides to delve into Yuiman's past and Kanako's old friendship with her, Ariya and Kanako could also find common ground in wishing the best for Yuiman, but this is just the shipping-obsessed part of my brain talking). More importantly to the roles of both Ariya's power and Youkai Mountain in Gensoukyou, and something that addresses the issue I talked about in the previous paragraph: after the Touhou 20 incident, Ariya would understand that her power of immutability is necessary but must be used with moderation as well (both to keep Gensoukyou alive and to not follow on the Lunarians' steps), and Kanako is pragmatic and willing to accept change (she even tries to present herself as a kami of innovation); with Ariya and Kanako sharing the role of "the Kami of Youkai Mountain", they might be able to arrange a sort of "work relationship" where they balance each other.
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This is it for now. I just wanted to take all this interesting stuff proposed by other Touhou fans, put it all together and organised in one place, and share it here for anyone interested. Feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments (and also give credit and go follow/subscribe to all the people mentioned here, of course).
yeah so-called "urbanists" are up there with the solarpunk crowd in being the most insufferable idealists with zero self-criticism skills to talk to
they've latched onto the idea of "public transport good car bad" without considering why, and without a hint of irony suggest like, forcefully relocating rural people into cities, or running a regular bus line in an area with like 5km between individual people and dirt roads between them
both of those being real arguments i've heard from "urbanists"
not to mention the unconditional love for cyclists, despite the capital-C Cyclists being more dangerous to me as a pedestrian without a car than any driver
1 i think long distance busses are ok
2 you could make a bus that handles dirt well
3 the worst I've heard was 'actually we should put trams in everywhere, including rural spaces
yeah, long distance buses are reasonable, but like generally you want to have people in rural areas drive a personal vehicle to a central location where they can get on a bus or regional train
it's just not very resource-efficient to run a bus at any sort of reasonable interval when there'll maybe be 5 people on it on a good day
that is assuming those people don't just skirt the rules if cars are banned, and instead get groceries in a tractor, which knowing rural people they absolutely would
i also think a lot of those people have never actually been to a rural area and think it means like, a small concentrated town, and not people living several kilometres apart in the sticks
4 funnier when its in america and the rural distance is.... oooh... far.
5 had many europeans down talk me for mentioning its better to approach things in a holistic way.
6 instead of a one size fits all.
yeah it's similar with Finland, the rural distances are something completely different from the rest of Europe especially up north, and their methods or those of urban yanks just don't work in a lot of cases
I'm just saying, if you're going to worldbuild magic being a "raw, primal force, akin to and interweaving with nature itself" you gotta explain to me why animals don't use it
I know the normal answer is "they just aren't smart enough for it" but idk I've seen enough media where a character uses a spell in a moment of brain-off panic ilI feel like animals could probably stumble into a spell or two like, accidentally
group of wizards who ask this in-universe, and after extensive study learn to their surprise that animals are casting spells all the time, just that their magic is so fundamental as to be unrecognizable to humans. turns out the only reason acorns grow on trees is because squirrels keep wishing for them.
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