Divine Summoning

Divine Summoning (神威召喚, Shin'i Shōkan, Summoning God's Power) or simply Summoning (召喚, Shōkan), is the term used to refer to ceremonies requesting the advent of the true Gods of the Crimson Realm. It is not known whether this ceremony is a type of Unrestricted Spell or not.

Background and Usage

Divine Summoning ceremonies can be generalized as having two steps: "Directing God's will towards the one who seeks their power" and "making a sacrifice as compensation for gaining God's consent". When a God's power is summoned using this ceremony, they are able to wield greater power than usual that is aligned with their authorities.

The Divine Summoning concerns the summoner paying their compensation or sacrificing something to call out the Gods (or activate their powers). The Gods have their own way of summoning:

• Alastor uses nearby Crimson Denizens (whether their agreement or not) as the sacrifice.
• The Snake of the Festival and Shaher uses their kindreds.

Summoning in the birth of Flame Haze

The concept of Divine Summoning is applied in the ceremony to give birth to a Flame Haze.

Initially, the Divine Summoning ceremonies were for summoning their true Gods of the Crimson Realm. However, Crimson Lords of ancient times, who feared that the Great Calamity would occur from the rampage of Crimson Denizens in this world, adjusted the ceremony so that they would be able to make use of it. Through many trials and errors, they finally perfected the ceremony to create Flame Haze; a "disguise" for them to exist in this world. The human, likely to have a grudge against Denizens, would conduct the ceremony, offering their entire existence, which is their Vessel Known as Destiny, and the Crimson Lord selects the resulting vacuum as their Vessel, summoning and transferring themselves inside the Vessel. This results in the birth of a Flame Haze. This ceremony is not to call forth the authorities of God, but merely an operation in which compensation is made in order to transfer into this world.

Asiz's Resummoning

see full article: Resummoning

Another example of an application of Divine Summoning was "Abyssal Ring" Asiz's Unrestricted Spell Resummoning. In this case Asiz, who was both the summoner and the one to be summoned, secured the Power of Existence needed to manifest beforehand, then offered his connection to the Crimson Realm in order to summon and transfer himself outside his Vessel, "Weaver of Coffins" Tis, releasing himself from the body bounded to this world and allowing him to manifest. If he simply wanted to manifest in this world as a Crimson Denizen, there would be no need to resummon himself, but Asiz chose to pay compensation and transfer outside his Vessel while preserving the use of his power, Pure Coffin. He had resummoned himself in order to not destroy his Vessel, the corpse of Tis.

List of Divine Summoning

Below is the list of Divine Summoning revealed in the story so far.

Tenpa Jōsai

see full article: Tenpa Jōsai

The most renowned Divine Summoning in the series which is the ceremony to summon Alastor, the true Crimson God who have the authorities over "Judgement" and "Conviction". This ceremony was first performed by Mathilde Saint-Omer as the mean to stop Asiz's Grand Scheme during the Great War. In that time, Jarri was the sacrifice for this Divine Summoning against his will. Only Alastor's ceremony seems to have a chant during summoning.

Saiki Reisō

see full article: Saiki Reisō

The ceremony to summon the Snake of the Festival's authentic powers over "Creation" and "Settlement" to create thing. This ceremony is performed during the final phase of creating Xanadu, the Denizen Paradise. The compensation of the summoning is the Priestess of the Trinity, Hecate.

In the Snake of the Festival's case, Saiki Reisō is referred to as "Recalling God's Power" (神威召還, Shin'i Shōkan) which has the same pronunciation in Japanese. The reason "Recalling" is used here is likely because the Snake of the Festival is already manifested in this world when Saiki Reisō is to be carried out.

Shōhi Ginsei

see full article: Shōhi Ginsei

The distinctive ceremony performed more than other Divine Summoning. The ceremony is to summon Shaher's voice which is sent to every single person involving the Crimson Realm; Flame Haze and Denizens alike. This voice cannot be blocked meaning everyone will know about the news Shaher announced. The news she had announced includes How to crosses the Rift, existence of the Treasure Tool, Spell to take human shape and Flame Haze's creation. Shaher will be summoned through sacrifice of her designated kindreds who roam the world searching the new thing which has to be informed to everyone.

In Shaher's case, Shōhi Ginsei is referred to as "Recalling God's Will" (神意召還, Shin'i Shōkan) which has the same pronunciation in Japanese. The reason "God's Will" is used here instead of "God's Power" is likely because Shaher has no physical body and is already in this world.

Trivia

• The ceremony's name is the usage of the God's true names:
  • Alastor's "Tenpa Jōsai" (天破壌砕) from his true name, "Tenjō no Gōka" (天壌の劫火)
  • Snake of the Festival's "Saiki Reisō" (祭基礼創) from his true name, "Sairei no Hebi" (祭礼の蛇)
  • Shaher's "Shōhi Ginsei" (嘯飛吟声) from her true name, "Kaku no Shōgin" の (覚の嘨吟)
• There are inconsistencies in the terms for the Snake of the Festival and Shaher. There is currently no confirmation on which ones are correct.
  • In the Snake of the Festival's case, when it was revealed in Volume XXII, it is written as "神威召還" which means "Recalling God's Power". Then, it was written in the guidebook Shakugan no Shana no Subete Kan as both "神威召還" and "神威召喚" (the same as Alastor's).
  • In Shaher's case, when it was revealed in Volume XXII, it is written as "神意召還" which means "Recalling God's Will". Then, it was written in the aforementioned guidebook as both "神意召還" and "神意召喚".