Gemeinde (ゲマインデ Gemainde) was the inherent Unrestricted Spell of "Village of Jestful Slumber" Mare.[1] It created a dream world which drew in the consciousnesses of surrounding people and allowed Mare to play with those consciousnesses by controlling the dream's environment. Events that occurred in the dream world were but an instant in reality so that when Gemeinde was dispelled, no matter how much time passed in the dream, the people affected by Gemeinde returned to reality at the moment in which it was first activated. When this occurred, everyone except for Mare lost all memories of occurrences within the dream world, so usually no one except for Mare could register that the Unrestricted Spell had even been activated.
Background[]
Though it was not necessary for Gemeinde's activation, Mare used the Treasure Tool Papagena as a catalyst to increase her concentration,[2] and when she did so, a small but detailed Unrestricted Spell Insignia whirled around it. The people targeted by Gemeinde initially mistook it for a Fūzetsu, but at that point they would have already been trapped in the dream world. This is due to a Fūzetsu being cast simultaneously with the dream starting.
The dream world was constructed by Mare herself or from the memories of the person trapped inside. However, one person's dream has limits, making the scope of the world only what that person knows and causing it to be unnatural with a weak sense of reality. To make up for this and make the dream created with Gemeinde seem like reality, another person besides the targeted person could be brought into the dream. The Mare who appeared within Gemeinde was basically invincible, being able to recover from any damage and use advanced Unrestricted Spells which she could not normally use.
However, killing opponents in the dream had no effect on reality. Additionally, Gemeinde was a very delicate Unrestricted Spell. The dream world could only be created from memories of the people inside and Gemeinde would collapse when the trapped people realized that the world wasn't reality and became aware it was a dream. When this happened, Mare would receive damage in reality.[2] It was impossible to look into the minds and interfere with the consciousnesses of beings greater than Mare, such as powerful Crimson Denizens or Flame Haze, nor was it possible to construct dreams from their consciousnesses or cloud their consciousnesses to prevent them from discovering that it was a dream.
Though Gemeinde had these big weaknesses and no actual effect on reality, Mare was able to devise two effective ways of using it.
The original way of using Gemeinde was to make trapped enemies fight within the dream, allowing Mare to ascertain their strength and abilities.[2] Even if she could not defeat the enemy, gathering information on their abilities and methods of attacking may help her escape from them in reality. This was fairly useful for Mare even though there was a risk of receiving great damage if the opponent discovered it was a dream. However, this method of using Gemeinde was useless against a powerful enemy that Mare would not be able to escape no matter how she struggled.
The second way of using Gemeinde was to take control of a Mystes. Gemeinde was able to interfere with the consciousnesses of beings lower than Crimson Denizens, so Mare was able to use her superiority as a Denizen existence to interfere with the consciousnesses of Torches and take them over. Though most Denizens could easily interfere with the consciousness of a Torch, Mare could do so within Gemeinde from afar without touching the Torch and within an instant of Gemeinde activating. Most importantly, the unique ability of Gemeinde was its power to destroy Kaikin, which were often given to Mystes housing Treasure Tools used for battle. It did so by changing the Kaikin into enemies within the dream and having the people trapped within the dream destroy the enemies and thus the Kaikin, resulting in them destroying themselves. The targeted person goes about their daily life within the dream, destroying the enemies formed from the Kaikin who appear within their consciousness until the Kaikin has been removed entirely, allowing Mare to parasitize the Mystes.[2] The Mystes being eroded by Mare felt an unnatural fatigue within their dream while trapped in Gemeinde.
Plot[]
Mare used Gemeinde against Liu Yang, who easily saw through it with Haji Honbaku. Sabrac was able to remember seeing Mare's face.[3]
As the Reiji Maigo and its Mystes Yūji Sakai were not specialized in battle, Shana was brought into the dream to destroy the Kaikin disguised as enemies. The Presence leaking out of Shana was used as the intermediary to change the Kaikin into enemies, with permanent scars from enemies and traces of their power used to replicate their appearance and power.[citation needed] The enemies that appeared were extracted and reconstructed from the trapped people's memories, so interactions between them were as if they had first met. Kazumi Yoshida's consciousness was targeted and brought into the dream as an intermediary for more memories to supplement the dream world. By having the three show each other things only they knew about, the dream world was adjusted so that they wouldn't harbor a sense of unease about it. Another purpose for this was insurance that even if "Yūji Sakai's dream" was broken through, Gemeinde would not be dispelled as long as "Kazumi Yoshida's dream" remained.
After Yūji's analytical mind broke through his dream, Mare moved to Yoshida's dream and put her in a deep sleep so that she would not awake. Mare battled Shana and Yūji, who had pursued her, but only to buy time for her true body hiding within Yūji to destroy the Kaikin. Mare eventually failed, but had gotten quite close to removing the Kaikin.
When Gemeinde was dispelled, events that occurred within the dream were almost completely forgotten. However, it was possible for fragments of memories concerning strong emotions to just barely remain. When "Snake of the Festival" Yūji Sakai was returning to Misaki City, he recalled going on a train in summer,[4] which happened when he took a train to the beach while within Gemeinde.[5]
Differences in the anime[]
Gemeinde was first used against Yūji only, and only later being used on all of Yūji, Shana and Yoshida. The main difference between Gemeinde in the anime and the game is that in the anime, it was not an Unrestricted Spell that could destroy Kaikin. Sabrac had also not told Mare that Yūji had a Kaikin. The enemies that appeared within were just part of the dream brought forth from memories and not reconstructed from the Kaikin. Mare was therefore struck by the Kaikin and easily destroyed. The trapped people's memories were not rearranged and they remembered the dream even after Gemeinde had collapsed and Mare had been destroyed.
The primary method of using the anime version of Gemeinde was to have the targeted people die in battle against enemies from their past materialized from their memories. These enemies do not receive damage from battle but the wounds they inflicted in the dream were reflected in reality, and therefore people who die in the dream would die in reality. As the strength of enemies materialized from the memories of trapped people became part of Mare's military might and were not influenced by her own meager strength, she could battle and potentially defeat powerful enemies like Shana despite being a small existence.[6][7]
In the anime, although parasitizing a Mystes was also done through Gemeinde, it was taking time for Mare to do so to Yūji, who she thought did not possess a Kaikin. It is also unknown why Mare needed to bring Shana into the dream as well. Mare also needed to use Papagena to activate Gemeinde.[8] Papagena's ringing was the last sound heard by a person before they fell into the Unrestricted Spell's effects.
Within the dream, phenomena outside what the trapped person has experienced were cancelled out. Mare could use their memories to construct a closed space.[8]
Trivia[]
- The word "Gemeinde" is the German word for "community".
References[]
- ↑ Anime Shakugan no Shana II no Subete page 41
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Shakugan no Shana no Subete Kan page 65
- ↑ Side Story: Juggle
- ↑ Shakugan no Shana Light Novel Volume 16 Chapter 3, page 151
- ↑ Shakugan no Shana no Subete Kan page 76
- ↑ Shakugan no Shana Second DVD Volume 1 booklet
- ↑ Anime Shakugan no Shana II no Subete page 40
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Official Shakugan no Shana Website