A Crimson Denizen (紅世の徒 Guze no Tomogara), also simply called Denizen (徒 Tomogara), is an inhabitant of the Crimson Realm. The term "Denizen" was coined for them by a poet who had knowledge about them, as they originally did not have a term in which to call themselves. As they are not from this world, they have to consume Power of Existence in order to manifest themselves, and they do so by taking it from humans, which are beings similar to themselves. Using Power of Existence, they can bring forth miracles that should not be possible in this world via Unrestricted Spells.
Epithet[]
- Those who are not human (人ならぬ者 Hitonaranu Mono)
- Overhunters (乱獲者 Rankakusha) (of Power of Existence)
- Evil Spirit (悪霊 Akuryō) - The term used by The Four Gods of Earth.
History[]
In the very distant past, Crimson Denizens, residing in "an adjacent world which cannot be reached" (歩いて行けない隣 Aruite Yukenai Tonari), began to sense and resonate emotions given out by humans. Their desire to explore their curiosities as well as escape from the harsh environs of their world led to a Denizen to create a technique which allows them to cross the Rift Between Both Worlds and arrive into our world. And by absorbing Power of Existence from humans, they would manifest in various forms and begin to roam our world in order to fulfill their various desires.
Prior to the "Spiral Organ" Leanan-sidhe's invention and popularization of Fūzetsu, most Denizens blended and mingled with human societies. In ancient times, they would openly appear to humans as various mythological gods, demons, fairies and even wizards. Though by the latter half of the 19th century, due to advances in human society as well as the increased use of Fūzetsu, they began to hide their true form and assumed human form.
Characteristics[]
Crimson Denizens are existences who are loyal to their own desires and seek pleasure. They all have a fundamental desire known as their "Essence of Existence" (存在の本質 Sonzai no Honshitsu) and much of the Power of Existence they take is used to fulfill this desire.[1] They mostly act with wild abandon, but can form factions and organizations when required.[2]
They possess emotions which are basically similar to that of humans, in which they are able to get drunk, enjoy food, feel angry at comrades getting annihilated, fall in love with each other or even with humans.
Crimson Denizens have existed for millennia, and though they do distinguish between young and elderly Denizens, there is no mention of whether Denizens "die naturally" or even how old they are. Upon being "born" in the Crimson Realm, they immediately possess consciousness and knowledge of their own powers and begin their struggle for survival right away. Each Denizen has their own distinct flame colour.
Similar to Torches, when they are annihilated, all human memories of them and objects they leave behind would disappear. However, some are able to make a record of their existence via encrypted texts and glyphs. And if humans were to make such encrypted recordings, their existence would be remembered as legends and myths.
Genders[]
As with humans, Crimson Denizens too have gender differences (though slightly different from humans in a stricter sense), and are fundamentally able to replicate their existences in a way which is similar to how living beings in this world reproduce. While their biological nature exists on a different plane, the fact remains that both humans and Denizens have male and female counterparts.[3] However, there is no concept of reproduction back in the Crimson Realm, as a new Crimson Denizen is born out of the distortion from another Denizen's death when they have exhausted all their power.[4]
Their genders and functions are as followed:
- Females who are the main subjects responsible for the differentiation of their own existence, and of the act of acquisition of uniqueness of those differentiated individuals.
- Males who are the ones who provide the factors for these alterations which create uniqueness.[3]
Names[]
Crimson Denizens which come to the human world usually possess two distinct names:
- True Name (真名 mana): True names are given to Crimson Denizens since their birth in the Crimson Realm and refers to their traits and powers they possess. However, it does not mean that the true names in the Crimson Realm and this world are exactly the same. For example, Alastor's true name in the language of the Crimson Realm expresses the meaning of "burning everything to ashes"; his true name is then translated into this world's language as the "Flame of Heaven".
- Alias (通称 Tsūshō): The etiquette of aliases starts when ancient humans, after witnessing the extraordinary powers the Crimson Denizens displayed, gave them nicknames. Crimson Denizens then took pride in these names given to them as testaments to their powers and influences. There are also those who create aliases by themselves.[5] Origins of their aliases differ, for examples:
- Given by humans out of reverence or fear when they witness that Crimson Denizen's powers.[5]
- Given when there was a name of deities or demons in that cultural sphere that befits that Crimson Denizen.[5]
- Arbitrarily taken from the alias meant for another Crimson Denizen.[5]
- Taken from the deceased Crimson Denizen's alias, which has been incorporated into a mythological system.[5] (In this case, that Crimson Denizen must have been influential enough for their name to be recorded in normal humans' folklore)[6]
- The same Crimson Denizen possesses different names in different cultural spheres.[5]
- That Crimson Denizen renames their own alias on a whim.[5] For example, the Snake of the Festival discards his previous alias Fu Xi for his substitute body's, Yūji Sakai. Some like Crimson Lords of The Four Gods of Earth who come to this world even before the rise of Aztec civilization (from 1300 to 1521) all updated their aliases to the new ones taken from their mythology (Quetzalcóatl, Tlaloc, etc.)[7]
In the human world, the true name becomes like a surname, while the alias functions as a first name.
Crimson Denizens, both allies and enemies, mostly call each other's with their true names. In organizations, some high-ranking Denizens have their subordinates call them only by their true names (e.g. Orgon and Vine) to show formality and respect. On the other hand, aliases, which function like a human's first name, are used with those they are more intimate with (e.g. Flame Haze and their contracted Crimson Lords). However, when Crimson Denizens meet each other, even as enemies, they usually introduce themselves with both their true names and aliases, as an etiquette. Similar to the Eastern naming order, they introduce the true name (surname) first and then the alias (first name).
Classification[]
Powerful Crimson Denizens are called Crimson Lords, though the difference between a Crimson Lord and a Crimson Denizen is only in their strength. For both Crimson Lords and Crimson Denizens, some would choose to manifest in human form, while others would opt to manifest in forms which closely match their "essence" from the Crimson Realm, thus appearing as "gods" and other mythological beings to humans.
While a Denizen's growth and survival depends on his/her innate talents, their ability to learn and adapt would also allow them to evolve into a Crimson Lord. An analogy is to compare a Denizen to a boat, and Power of Existence to fuels. A Crimson Lord is merely a larger ship which is able to contain more "fuel" than a normal Denizen.[8] Though if both use up their fuels without refilling, they would both "sink" and be annihilated.
There are also Crimson Gods, who are congenitally bestowed upon the duty of materializing the very laws of the Crimson Realm. However, when they are not utilizing their authorities via the required summoning.
Abilities[]
Crimson Denizens are able to freely manipulate Power of Existence, as well as the ability to empathize with strong emotions and intentions from far away. There are many ways in which Power of Existence collected can be used, from manipulation spells to the creation of Rinnes to the creation of Treasure Tools.
The reason Denizens absorb Power of Existence from humans is due to the similar spiritual and emotional foundations between the two species. While Denizens are also able to break down and absorb the existences of non-humans, including dead objects, the Power of Existence provided would be harmful, as their senses of self would be swallowed up and weakened by it.[9] Hence, they mainly feed on humans (or their own brethren as other possible sources). Therefore, the only sources of power were usually the “nemeses” and human beings.Though the forbidden technique, City Devourer, allows a Denizen to devour a huge amount of existences of both humans and non-humans by refining them into a highly concentrated existence.
Denizens are able to utilize the Power of Existence which they absorbed for various things, though the ability to control these existence varies between each Denizen. Crimson Lords are called as such due to their ability to manipulate large amounts of existences. Though for both Denizens and Lords, if the amount of existences used exceeded the amount of existence stored, then they would end up getting themselves destroyed.
Trivia[]
- As each of every Crimson Denizens have their own unique powers and appearances, it is nearly impossible to design every Denizens appeared on screen in the final season. This leads to the making of Crimson Denizen "mobs", designed by Junya Ishigaki, to easily depict Crimson Denizen army; they are depicted as humanoid wearing black bodysuit-like clothes with various types of heads. Some of them also uses weapons like swords and polearms.
- Almost every Crimson Denizens choose to go by the name of a mythical or folkloric creature, deity, demon, or angel. The only one who does not bother to adopt an alias for herself is "Bridle of Wilderness".
- Some Crimson Denizens, like Crimson Lords who made contracts with the oldest Flame Haze who come to this world since ancient time usually possessed older aliases before changing to the current ones. As explained by the author (via Friagne in his Q&A session), those old aliases were names of gods or goddesses that were already obsolete or lost in time.[10] This is probably to avoid the inconsistency between the event of the Ancient War (around 1000 BC) and the birth of mythologies their aliases were taken from.
- Similar to Flame Haze's titles, there are naming rules for Crimson Denizen's true names when written in Japanese.
- True names will always have from three to eight morae (For morae, see Flame Haze's trivia).
- As explained by Friagne in his Q&A session, there are roughly two types of true names, namely Pattern A and Pattern B. Pattern A names are made of only kanji; Pattern B has "no" (の) in-between the kanji.
- Pattern A always comprises of only two or three kanji. The only exception is Dantalion's true name
探耽求究 which has four kanji. - No more than two kanji before/after "no" (の) in Pattern B.
- In Japanese, all the terms closely related to Crimson Denizens (Crimson Denizen, Crimson Lord, their true names, Divine Vessel's names) are written inside double quotation marks (“...”), e.g., “紅世の徒”, “紅世の王”, “天壌の劫火” and “コキュートス”.
| Pattern | Arrangement
(numbers are morae counts) |
Description | Example | In hiragana | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 123 | 2 Kanji (3 morae) | Gaap | ||
| A | 1234 | 2-3 Kanji (4 morae) | Friagne | ||
| A | 12345 | 3 Kanji (5 morae) | Sorath | ||
| A | 123456 | 3 Kanji (6 morae) | Orgon | ||
| B | 1 の 3456 | 1 Kanji (1 mora) + no + 1-2 Kanji (4 mora) | Halphas | ||
| B | 12 の 456 | 1-2 Kanji (2 morae) + no + 1-2 Kanji (3 mora) | Merihim | ||
| B | 12 の 4567 | 1-2 Kanji (2 morae) + no + 1-2 Kanji (4 mora) | Takemikazuchi | ||
| B | 123 の 56 | 1-2 Kanji (3 morae) + no + 1-2 Kanji (2 mora) | Pirsoyn | ||
| B | 123 の 567 | 1-2 Kanji (3 morae) + no + 1-2 Kanji (3 mora) | Bel-Peol | ||
| B | 123 の 5678 | 1-2 Kanji (3 morae) + no + 1-2 Kanji (4 mora) | Leanan-sidhe | ||
| B | 1234 の 6 | 1-2 Kanji (4 morae) + no + 1 Kanji (1 mora) | Ninurta | ||
| B | 1234 の 67 | 1-2 Kanji (4 morae) + no + 1-2 Kanji (2 mora) | Snake of the Festival | ||
| B | 1234 の 678 | 1-2 Kanji (4 morae) + no + 1-2 Kanji (3 mora) | Alastor | ||
| Special case | 12345678 | 4 Kanji (8 morae) | Dantalion |
See Also[]
References[]
- ↑ Shakugan no Shana Guide Book Nyūmon-hen page 10
- ↑ Shakugan no Shana Guide Book Nyūmon-hen page 11
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Shakugan no Shana Light Novel Volume 06 page 79
- ↑ Shakugan no Shana Light Novel Volume SIV page 229
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Shakugan no Shana Light Novel Volume SII page 262
- ↑ Shakugan no Shana Light Novel Volume SII page 262-263
- ↑ Shakugan no Shana no Subete Kan page 136
- ↑ Shakugan no Shana Light Novel Volume S page 304
- ↑ Shakugan no Shana Light Novel Volume 01 page 81
- ↑ Kariudo no Friagne Nandemo Shitsumon-bako Shucchō-ban Set 3 Page 5