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So you're saying even my joke Yorigami sisters theory is more likely? lol. But good point in debunking it since where here to discuss and try to figure this out. I gave this some thought and came up with something to add on: Rather than Yukari being the Kami, I believe that Genoskyo itself is the Kami. Yukari, then, I believe would be the physical manifestation of Gensokyo. But if everyone knew Yukari is Gensokyo and its kami, that may attract more unwanted attention and deter her from protecting it. But if she's just a "very powerful Youkai" then she is, at the end of the day "still only a youkai" and merely feared. So through Reimu's actions is how she 'gathers the faith" in a more roundabout way. The Shrine itself would be her true base and the "poverty" of the shrine would be intentional to keep the excessively curious from figuring this out. I'd say even Reimu doesn't know and that too is part of Yukari's plot. Reimu would be too obsessed with wanting to relax, getting donations, etc. rather than trying to ever genuinely sit down and think about where her powers come from. Her personality happens to be the ideal type for Yukari to manipulate, which is probably why she was chosen (something I don't recall ever being shown/mentioned: How Hakurei shrine maidens are chosen. Even if one argues "bloodline" then who chose the very first Maiden? Reimu clearly isn't the first one...) Someone brought to my attention recently that many outsiders who come into Gensokyo tend to first appear at the Hakurei Shrine, as if the shrine itself is a "gap" or rather, that it is the borderline between Gensokyo and the Outside World, as in, it is the only place that overlaps the two, but only Yukari is able to fluidly go between them. So then, perhaps the Torii itself of the Hakurei Shrine is the final border between the 'mundane' (outside world) and the sacred (or 'fantasy' in this case: Gensokyo) and the moment one walks into Hakurei Shrine, they are in a unique place in Gensokyo that is "closest to the outside world" but still not quite there. Taking this into account, no one would ever think that gate is "reversed" as the Hakurei Shrine is the least sacred area in Gensokyo as it is the 'closest to the outside world" Once you step outside the shrine and into the rest of Gensokyo, is where the 'sacred fantasy' begins. Even if this is isn't completely accurate in terms of how Shinto Shrines work, Hakurei Shrine is no ordinary Shrine to begin with and therefore I believe some exceptions could in fact be accurate. I hold an additional theory that Yukari keeps everyone imprisoned within Gensokyo and thus why no one can leave it unless she allows it. After all, no matter how powerful you are, if no one believes in you, you're no 'kami'. If people started leaving Gensokyo and if Yukari is indeed the Kami of Gensokyo as a whole/Gensokyo itself, then she would lose faith/followers/power if people started leaving. Going back to Gensokyo=Kami: Both us in the outside world and the residents of Gensokyo who believe in Reimu's power to resolve incidents and protect Gensokyo are where the faith comes from and thus why, give or take, "Reimu always wins when it matters" despite clearly not being the single most powerful being within Gensokyo. Lastly if Genso=Kami=Yukari, she may actually "nerf' Reimu to only be able to utilize her full power when needed, both to hide her true identity as a kami and the physical strain it would cause Reimu as she is, at the end of the day, still human.

"I am sorry…I should have seen this coming. I should have remained detached and watched from the safety of my Gaps. Maybe then I could have stopped this…look at what has happened to my beautiful home…" No one knows how it happened. The great Hakurei Barrier had always been there, keeping the outside world at bay. But in Season 123, something seemed to change in the barrier. Small shifts in the fabric of the barrier. Its guardian assumed these were normal ebbs in the flow of magic. Quick to appear and vanish again. All seemed normal, until the impossible happened. The magic within Gensokyo began to fade. The powers of great witches and youkai alike declined, until the fearsome power of the Spell Cards became a distant memory. With the rules of the Danmaku now forever broken, the natives of Gensokyo turned to the greatest of their kind for protection. Across this once-innocent land, banners rose to newborn nations. Dividing the land among themselves. Though in such tumultuous times, it was not long before Gensokyo fell into conflict… That is not to say all is safe away from the battlefields of these nations. Desperate to retain their powers, wild Youkai began to attack humans on the fringes of Gensokyo, hungry for their life force. Human supremacists, longing to see the day the Youkai are dealt with once and for all, operate in the shadows of free nations. Outsiders, guarding one of the few remaining paths to the outside world, plunder our home for its wealth and magicks. And all the while, the Lunarians silently monitor us all from the shadows… You are one of the few remaining heroines in this age of war. A champion, or perhaps a citizen, of one of these great nations. Perhaps you are a heroine who knew the world as it was, or a new champion rising to meet this new conflict. Perhaps you can throw a punch, shoot an arrow, fire a gun or know a blade. You may even know how to cast basic magic. As the armies of a divided Gensokyo march to war, you have no idea you will find yourself thrust into a quest to save the land the gods loved… ------ OoC ------ Hello one and all, and welcome to another Interest Check from Yumetou! With the votes for the next game tied, and my free time very limited, I decided Illusionary Nirvana might be the best RP to continue our reconquest of Eientai. The story is simple. The land is shattered as magic declines, dividing Gensokyo into several competing factions. You as heroines are destined to meet, and reverse this terrible fate for Gensokyo. Rules: 1) You may play as one character, either canonically from a Touhou game or a character of your own creation. 2) The only characters off-limits for the game are the leaders of the ten factions. Any other character is available. 3) Fill out the form below. When approved, you may post in the IC. 4) Have fun! Character Sheet ------ Lore ------ Major Factions Minor Factions (NPC) Timeline

So.... Hi i'm just someone who (around the time of late middle school/early high school) found random clips of Memories of Phantasm and said "woah it seems really good! What is this?" Then i started to dive down into the music and then one day i said "I want to learn more about this thing called "Touhou"!" And from there it became my favourite series and i became a passionate fan of it. Thanks to this wonderful site, i had the possibility to play the official games and not only did i do a Normal 1cc of every game i played (currently trying to complete Touhou 16) but i became a fan of shoot'em ups too! Also, Touhou made me start writing stories about the series, especially after i read other's fanfictions and fell in love with them too. So yeah, sorry for the long post or for the (likely) spelling mistakes (as English is my second language, i hope you can forgive me), but thank you Moriya Shrine for existing and i hope i can try to discuss the lore and the philosophy of Touhou with other people :)!

i fell on my knees an hour ago. ow.

Its not helped by the fact that Reimu is a lazy wastrel. We get some insight into the god and what it wants in the early game. But its virtually untouched on in subsequent games. We don't even know the god's domain or personality. Part of the reason is its simply not really relevant to the story. While seemingly the source of Reimu's power and training, it doesn't take an active role. One reason why I thought this would be fun to speculate on. :) Looking at the lore, I think the character who most fits the role of the Kami is Yukari. She is clearly a woman of immense power (I mean she is so strong she enslaved a powerful yokai as her minion, who in turn enslaved another yokai). She is repeatedly at the center of Gensokyo's formation and history prior to Reimu's rise to power, and has a vested interest in Reimu's success and power. She also is very protective of Gensokyo. If my memory serves, she imposed the Spell Card rules after Remilia's arrival. She also banned eating human flesh, and humbled the youkai in a pointless war when they had plans to spread outside Gensokyo. It also fits the implication she is a human who became a youkai. If she could grow from a human to a youkai, why not a youkai to a kami? Humans have become both in Shinto after all, and her deeds would qualify her for the rank of Kami...that is, if anyone worshipped her. In my fanon though? Its Mima. And not just because I have a fascination with the major character turned baby's-first-piece-of-obscure-touhou-lore. Mima has a very significant place in early Touhou lore, being both Reimu's most persistent antagonist and unwitting ally. Its also the period where we had the most information on the Kami. Portrayed as a forgotten god angry at Reimu for being forgotten. A sentiment which describes Mima to a tee. Angry Kami can become 'evil spirits' like Mima, especially when they are forgotten or unhonored. Mima is also clearly a powerful being, with an interest in keeping Reimu alive against her other enemies, and while sadistic never pushes her torments of Reimu too far. She seems to lack a long-term goal outside of being seen as a god and keeping Reimu's attention, yet gladly fights demons and monsters alongside her supposed sworn enemy. For my final proposal, I would suggest ‘the meta option’, my Reddit tier fan theory. That the Kami of the shrine is...you. The player. Think about it. The Kami is a figure who is unknown to Reimu, one whose name and nature she does not even know. Simultaneously, that Kami empowers her, giving her abilities to fight youkai. These all could be applied to the player. The 4th wall is never broached to the best of my knowledge. Reimu has no idea of your presence, despite the fact that without you she is powerless. Its a story you have no place in, but without you is impossible. I'll take my karma and gold now.

YES! So yea, thanks everyone for the replies! To "Carpet Reply" to everyone, I love the aspect of Hatate's ability not really letting her make 'new' content but rather 'expand on what's already there' creating a new perspective instead. I think that is, in a sense, the soul of Touhou and the fandom as a whole. That, and she has a wonderful balance of cute/cool/beautiful. She may not be too many's favorite or even in the radar of a "top" list, but that makes me wanna love her that much more! (If anyone is interested, I may make a top 10 list on my profile sometime~) There may not be much Hatate content... so maybe I should playfully make some? But then, will I appease Hatate with my efforts? Oh my, is she gathering faith from me? Fufufufu... My dream: To have a cup of coffee/tea with Hatate and helping her write an article. Also I wonder how she'd feel if I gave her one of those old phones where you had to spin that little disc thing to make calls as a gimmick... Gah I gotta stop! Otherwise I won't stop gushing over her!

The issue with this is that though shrines can change hands in ownership, they only belong to one god. For example, moriya has kanako, myouren technically has bishamonten due to shou, and hakurei we don’t know. Reimu’s god channeling is similar to yorihime, just not as “at will” as yori. The shrine in general seems to not have any people worshipping for one specific thing, which is why it’s so hard to pinpoint the god.

Heya newcomer! Nice to see new people come to the shrine. I see you also follow the path of liking a very niche character even though other characters have much more stuff for them. Though I’m not huge on hatate, I respect it lol.

The game is called "poor miko's suffering" and it was made as a xmas present for someone years ago on tumblr. I found it on my old hard drive and thought I should post it. It's bigger than the 100mb size limit so will post it on google drive. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mjvW2rod1XUoLEKC2HNhh-xP4J_yG4Jg/view?usp=sharing It's a visual novel with a lot of comedy and from what I remember, it was a time based mystery with different events happening in different places depending on what time you went throughout the day.

Warning! This text contains heavy spoilers for all of the Hifuu Club’s stories, Sumireko’s and Yukari’s stories. The following text began as an attempt to explain the themes that ZUN approaches in the Hifuu Club’s stories, but it ended up becoming an analysis of a bunch of different lore pieces glued together, with some theories sprinkled on top. The text participates in the #HifuuDay , a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the first Hifuu story, Ghostly Field Club. “Dreams and reality are different. That's why it's possible to make dreams reality with great effort.” Changeability of Strange Dream. Gensokyo's reason to exist: It’s important that we refresh this now. In Touhou’s world, people slowly, but surely stopped believing in the supernatural (myths, legends, gods, etc.). This made the Youkai enter an existential threat, as they require faith (that one believes something unexplainable exists) to continue living. Yukari Yakumo and the Hakurei Clan decided to create a separate world to harbor all of the Earth’s Youkai, preventing their extinction. First by making this place, Gensokyo, be able to draw the supernatural to itself. Gensokyo was later isolated from the world in 1885 A.D, due to humans loosing their faith in Youkai. A very small amount of supernatural beings remained in the outside world, mainly Mamizou, Yukari, Kanako and Suwako. With the latter two moving into Gensokyo quite recently. The world truly stopped believing, not even gods could survive with so little faith. But a few people in the outside world noticed that those myths and legends were real. Either via a divine bloodline, like in Sanae Kochiya's case or in Sumireko Usami's, as she unexplicably manifested psychic powers. She plays a crucial role here. Sumireko is the founder of the Hifuu Club, an organization dedicated to study the supernatural. Once she figured out that all of the Youkai gathered in the magical land of Gensokyo (probably thanks to Yukari), she knew what to do. Revealing that Youkai are not a mere legend. Unfortunately, things went south for her, as she got trapped in Gensokyo as revenge for messing around. Seeing no other chance, she decided to attempt a suicide attack at the barrier. With the goal to unleash all the Youkai to the outside world. Of course, Reimu stopped her. But this lead to unforeseen consequences for Sumireko. Due to her abusing the ability to enter Gensokyo in her dreams, she switched places with her Dream World self, among other side effects in the disease known as Fantasy Syndrome. The first time, she got the help of Yukari and Doremy to get out of truble, but the second time she switched places with her Doppelgänger for about three weeks. During that event, before Sumireko could stop Dream Sumireko, as a way of surviving the onslaught of bullets found in her dreams, she managed to collected pictures of the danmaku of all the residents of the Dream World. Essentially creating evidence of Gensokyo. She posted all of that to social media, gathering a pretty decent following. As you probably guessed, nobody believed in Sumireko and just saw her posts as something entertaining. It probably didn’t help that the memories of the events of Violet Detector vanished from Sumireko’s mind. In the end, the world didn’t believe in a quite powerful psychic with photographic evidence of Gensokyo. What a helpful evidence... ”The true nature of Chuunibyou is the heat of life. It's an explosion of one's imaginative power. It's a form of resistance against a chilled society, wielding both purity and creativity.” Dateless Bar “Old Adam”. A Broken Future: Zun presents us with a world set in an undetermined future. In a subtle way, he tells us this future has philosophical problems that go straight to its core. As we saw with Sumireko’s experience, people stopped believing in the supernatural, they stopped dreaming of achieving the impossible, children stopped having fun. The neglected nature was emulated with fancy paintings in buildings and fake, over-enhanced landscapes locked away inside a screen. Moon travel was possible, but inaccessible to everyone. Everything just had to have an explanation, and unexplainable but provable information was discarded as nonsense made by a bunch of lunatics. This futuristic world is the one that Maribel Hearn and Renko Usami inhabit. It’s very likely that Sumireko is an ancestor of Renko, due to all the similarities between them. It’s also likely that Renko had the material at hand, just believing that her ancestor was pretty good at fabricating stuff (keep in mind, she studies physics, there’s only rational explanations in her mind). Only to get her assumptions broken into pieces by Maribel’s abilities, that shared some resemblance to her ancestor from long ago, Sumireko. We can actually prove that Renko had access to Sumireko’s archive, what other explanation is there for the following?: During Ghostly Field Club, Renko urged Maribel to help her search the boundary to enter The Netherworld. In this story, she had a notebook with some undisclosed photos. Including one of The Hakurei Shrine. "How come you have a photo of the Netherworld?" "I have a back and forth route you don't know about, Merry." My partner took out a picture and started talking as usual. "But never mind that, Merry, why don't we go see the entrance at the Hakurei Shrine?" It’s almost always Renko the one that proposes new plans and activities for the club. During all of the Hifuu Club’s stories, we clearly see that our mystic duo is troubled with the state of the world. Only recently in “Dateless Bar Old Adam” did they feel more included in the world, as they found more people that think alike, after the publication of their book under the pen name of Dr. Latency became somewhat popular in Japan. They had no other choice but to form the Hifuu Club, in order to be themselves, investigate the supernatural, and maybe with some luck bring the faith of the supernatural back to the world. “The real reason she was put in the sanatorium was probably because it was determined she had some kind of psychological anomaly. Of course that wasn't the case, but society just isn't receptive to strange people. That's why Merry had to keep her ability secret, as some element of the occult.” Neo-traditionalism of Japan. Maribel and Yukari's connections: Again, we come back to Sumireko to find the keys for the next step in the story. During the events of “Anitomy of Common Flowers”, Yukari helps out Sumireko in her first experience dealing with Dream Sumireko escaping to the real world, by forcefully dragging Sumireko into Gensokyo, forcing her escape from The Dream World and then to teleport her to the real world for a duel with Dream Sumireko. This was quite an outreach on Yukari’s part, this intervention broke the rules of The Dream World as stated by Doremy. No actual consequence was explicitly shared, but Doremy is not the kind of character that gets easily pissed off and she did this time. In “Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia”, Aya develops a theory that the only one who could have assisted Sumireko in traveling and descovering Gensokyo, had to be Yukari, with her theorized goal being doing a reset of Gensokyo with a select group of Youkai. Even with the explanation of Sumireko using the urban legend of the Seven Wonders and the Occult Balls with the power of the Wonders, as a way of getting inside Gensokyo, how did she manage to enter Gensokyo without knowing anything about it or the Urban Legend incident in the first place? We know that she didn’t use the conventional entry, as that is what Mamizou used to trick and trap Sumireko inside Gensokyo. Aya is right, it’s pretty unlikely for a human to enter in such a particular way, and even stranger to see one that developed impressive powers without magic gadgets or a connection to the gods. Why would Yukari bother in helping out a dangerous human with psychic powers from the outside world? We know that Ms. Yakumo is pretty lazy, as she delegates most tasks to Ran and Chen. It’s pretty out of character for her to risk Gensokyo’s existence. Even more knowing that all of this ended up allowing the Lunarian invasion in “Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom” and her backstory with Lunarians. All the times she or her shikigami have been playable, it was to prevent a bigger disaster from striking Gensokyo. But thinking that Maribel is somehow related to Yukari, if not Lady Yakumo herself, explains why Yukari bothered with helping Sumireko in different occasions. Zun gives us some small gems to work with. 1) Time of creation We know that Yukari and Maribel were created around the same time. Perfect Cherry Blossom came out the 17th of August 2003, Ghostly Field Club came out the 30th of December 2003. 2) The relationship to Lafcadio Hearn: He was a foreigner who traveled to Japan, who quickly renamed himself as Koizumi Yakumo. Lafcadio was extremely important, as he gathered and translated many of Japan’s folk stories into books for the world to enjoy (most Youkai come from his compilations). 3) Powers: Both characters share a similar kind of power. Yukari’s power is like a more absolute version of Maribel’s. 4) Designs: Their designs are nearly identical, their clothing is close in style. The biggest difference is that Maribel’s eyes are yellow, but Yukari’s are usually purple (opposite colors) Now, the connecting point is not there, we just don’t know. The fact is that there is no grand, explicit evidence that connects these two characters. There are a few theories that come to mind to explain possible paths to make the relationship between these two a real thing. Before focusing in the one that i have been building up to, let me explore the other scenarios. 1) No relation. Knowing Zun, it's just likely that there is no direct relationship and it's just one more wasted plot point to add into Touhou's already large list. 2) Yukari is Maribel's ancestor Another likely scenario and the one that makes most sense, is that Yukari is family of Maribel. It was already stated that Maribel's family had supernatural powers, it's very likely that Yukari was a prodigy that ended up transforming into a Youkai and that Maribel is unknowingly following her footsteps at becoming a great magician and possibly a Youkai. 3) Maribel and Yukari are the same person Get your tinfoil hats, it's theory time. Is Maribel going to become Yukari? As we go along reading the stories of the Hifuu Club, we start to notice something particular. Maribel’s powers start to get out of control. At first, it’s just the ability to observe where the boundaries of reality are, but it would evolve to dreams were Maribel would appear inside Gensokyo. She started to question the nature of reality at this point, because some of the objects that appeared in her dreams started showing up in her real life. Renko clearly noticed that something strange and potentially dangerous was happening, as Maribel just making objects appear out of nowhere breaks the laws of physics. She theorized that maybe her power evolved to manipulate boundaries. Could she get spirited away or eaten by a Youkai in her dreams? In “Trojan Green Asteroid” we saw that Renko’s fears were right. Maribel managed to bring Renko along to see the Torifune spacial station in outer space, probably thanks to a small Shinto shrine gate located in the station. During their exploration, a strange winged cat managed to scratch Maribel. It was bad enough that she had to go to the hospital. They truly were inside Torifune. After that, in Neo-traditionalism of Japan, we found out that Maribel was quarantined for months in a remote location in the mountains. The sickness was labeled as a form of delirium caused by an unknown virus. She would come out alright, but Renko kept seeing that things were going strangely. The latest development in Maribel’s powers is the ability to show images at will of strange places via a hand mirror. “Come to think of it, recently it felt as if Merry's abilities were getting stronger. At first they had fun enough with just being able to catch a glimpse of strange new worlds, but now they were bringing things back from those worlds as if it were nothing.” Neo-traditionalism of Japan Unfortunately, it’s been 7 years since the last development in the Hifuu Club’s stories (outside the reference of Misumaru’s magatmas being made from Izangi Objects). This leaves us at a really awkward spot, because we are expectant to see how the pen name of Dr. Latency evolved and if Maribel’s powers kept going in crazy directions. Just at the turning point, because the next story should introduce new elements to keep the narrative fresh. I have no option but theorize. My theory is that Maribel’s powers will keep getting out of control, eventually leading to her turning into a Youkai, Yukari Yakumo. The main reason I think this will be the case is that it explains Yukari’s strange behavior regarding Sumireko. I bet that Yukari is a time traveler. Getting time into the matter is crucial, maybe Yukari is stuck in a “Back to the Future” situation, where story events need to progress in exactly a certain manner to allow for her creation. Like how in the movie, Marty has to make sure that his parents will end up together after he uknowingly screws up the meeting that would make them fall in love. If she didn’t help Sumireko in that way, it would risk breaking the timeline or deleting her existence (and therefore, Gensokyo). If Sumireko truly is Renko’s ancestry, if something bad happened to her, Renko wouldn’t exist and that changes everything. Due to this, Yukari is forced to intervene. Another scenario is that Maribel and Yukari are in a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation. That Maribel turns into “Mr. Hyde” at probably random times and that’s when she does all the Yukari business. This explains why Yukari is labeled as “lazy”, it’s not that she is lazy, but rather she has a limited time of action. It could even work in the same way as Sumireko traveling to gensokyo in her dreams. Once Maribel “wakes up”, Yukari has to banish from whatever thing she is doing and return to her real body. This would also make Yukari’s time traveling less powerful and more of a side effect. Another possibility would be that Yukari “glitches out” and sometimes Maribel’s mind ends up in Yukari’s body (just like Sumireko with her Dream Doppelgänger) and those are the situations we see depicted in the Hifuu Club’s stories. “If you try tossing your faith in information aside, you just might be able to get more enjoyment out of the fanzine(?) that Renko and Merry wrote.” Dr. Latency’s Freak Report Is Zun just drunk? Maybe it’s all part of Zun’s plan in criticizing today’s day and age’s obsession with seeking an explanation in cryptic subjects. Playing with rhymes and poetry that alludes a meaning that doesn’t exist, or one that the individual must create on interpretation. I think that Zun has something planned, but who knows at this point. Maybe it is done to inspire his followers in creating an explanation? Just like I just did, or was he just drunk? The important thing, more than theorizing and scheming, are the messages found hidden away and reflecting upon them. Is our world becoming more and more alike Maribel and Renko’s future world? Is that a good or a bad thing? Do people exist out there with mystical powers? How real are urban legends? What role does faith place in our lives? Is our scientific progress damaging us? Why do we hate and fear what’s different and unknown? “I'm not so worried about where the "Sealing Club" is headed, but... Yes, Merry and Renko, who was featured in the text and is part of the mysterious "Sealing Club" that participates in all sorts of occult activities. While I didn't go into great detail, has scientific progress prevented them from eating wild bamboo shoots? What a pity.” Changeability of Strange Dream.