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Notes on Legend of Fairies
By: Michelle Rogers
This is Part I of The Fairy Gods Series. A light fantasy story with enjoyable characters and cute designs. Good for an afternoon when you just want to kick back with light
entertainment.
The Story
Jango is a Shikigami Master who still suffers nightmares of his past in the Organization, but lives today as
an investigator. He's called on to aide a young girl named Mika whose father disappeared a decade ago. In his efforts to help her
locate him he encounters members of the Organization sent to kill him for his betrayal for leaving and a shock that Mika's father
has all this time been the president of a corporation linked to the Organization. Along his path he grows in his skill as a Shikigami Master
and ultimately has five of them by his side.
Themes & Symbols
Like I said, the plot is pretty simple, and thus this game is rather short. But there's quite a bit of
magic references and folklore to note. Notes will contain spoilers.
Beastlings: These are individuals who with the aide of the full moon can transform into an animal.
Kuri is one. She is a Chinese fighter with the blood of a tiger; she's half-tiger. Transformative
animals and people are common in folklore and fairy tales, from tales of were wolves in France to
fairy tales of cursed humans found around the world. The reference mentioned below of the fox is such
an example. For more on the power of the moon, see my notes for Giniro.
Fox Bewitchment: The Bunny of Spades makes reference to this. In Japanese folklore the fox
is a trickster animal, with powers to deceive humans by their voice or by a disguise.
Hitokata: From GTJ hitokata are defined as "an object representing the human form and into which evil spirits
can be transferred in a rite of purification or exorcism."* In the game, hitokata is a general word for a spirit, any type of nature spirit or spirits such as ghosts or goblins. In other words, fairies.
In the game, any non-human being is a hitokata, they look human but not quite and possess powers only intune with a kami or spirit.
When a hitokata becomes domesticated or binds itself to a human, it becomes a shikigami (a fairy or spirit that is bound by contract to love
and serve a human). The humans whose lives are entwined with these shikigami are called Shikigami Masters.
Lordrex: She is magician from Northern Europe. Her magic is Scandinavian based. The first
obvious link is her use of runes. Runes comes from the Old English for secret. They were commonly
found in parts of Northern Europe, Scandinavia, and the British Isles. Each rune might have a magical value attributed to it.
They could be used in poetry, divination, as charms, or in writing. The knowledge of the use of runes was said to
originate with Odin who speared himself to the World Tree for nine nights, and in return was granted the power and
wisdom of the runes. The second notable magic enhancement is her use of body markings or tattoos. These might be words or symbols of magic,
or they might be markings for either protection during spell casting or as a focal or energy sign. The symbol on her forhead could be
a kind of third eye, a symbol of enlightenement but also heightened abilities.
Magic: Shikigami are servants or familiars to an onmyoji (a practioner of a form of Taoism that is based on magic and astrology
of yin and yang), which are what Shikigami Masters are. Magical Taoism is "power from the natural elements and from the spirits, immortals, and deities is invoked and channeled by the practicioner...
Two kinds of power are recognized by the practicioners of Magical Taoism: those that come from nature, and those that come from spirits and deities. Typically, an individual who draws power from nature is a magician, whereas a person who draws power from deities and spirits (including plants and animals) is a sorcerer."**
The hitokata draw power from the natural world around them. This of course is a reference to another
type of Taoist belief, but it can also reference back to Shinto where it is believed there is a life force and a kami or spirit in all
animate and inanimate objects. That hitokata are nature spirits it is reasonable that they would draw on energy from the surrounding creatures
and places. The shikigami are a bit different; once they are tied to a human they depend on their Master. They draw on
their Master's life force. The relationship becomes a give and take, the shikigami gain strength and survive by
their Master, but their Master gains power and strength from the bond to their shikigami. For a Master to gain strength, in the game
they will play games of mahjong. These games are special as they are games of skill and psychic ability. The player with the most
power and ability wins, and their shikigami of course make them stronger when they are present, as their is a psychic bond.
The victor gains power in a special way from the opponent. It is done through a release of sexual energy. This is
a branch of Taoism called sexual alchemy. In this practice all desire and arousal must be absent and the sexual act used with the explicit purpose of taking energy from the partner into oneself to restore one's generative energy.
Shikigami: Five shikigami characters are introduced in the game.
Hyoko: she has the spirit of the white tiger; the white tiger in Japanese and Chinese belief is one of the four
gods, one of the four noble deities, and each rules a quadrant of the sky; the white tiger is known as Byakko (the others are Suzaku, Seiryuu, and Genbu, the
phoenix, dragon, and tortoise); this is why to defeat Kuri with the tiger spirit, they seek out a hitokata like her, she has
one of the four deity spirits as her clan as it were or guardian or essence, making her a truly powerful spirit
Kumi and Koukaku: spirits of the mountain, their clan has a shrine dedicated to them and villagers
bring offerings (Shinto belief in kami is the reference here, protective deities that if honored will watch over
the people), they can sense auras, also have ability to transform (at least Kumi is shown to); Koukaku can create a
barrier
Rakushi: gossamer wings, a bug spirit, she even has a fondness for lights and flowers; probably she is
also an air spirit
Rinka: very old hitokata; her wings are red which is probably a reference to the crow or tengu of Japanese legend (crow goblin) or to the red bird, phoenix, a symbol of immortality as it dies
and rises again from its ashes, this would fit well as Rinka is a very old spirit; Kasha says of her, "She is the
spirit of the raven, which has been alive and watching this world for hundreds of years," the raven of course is sometimes associated with death or foretelling the future, the raven is also an animal associated
with some creation myths in certain Native American traditions; Rinka can neutralize any magic or spell, she is very wise, and she can read thoughts
Yayoi: There are two significant links to magic illustrated through her. The first, is both magic but also
feminine stages. Yayoi appears in three forms, the 8-10 year old innocent, the real Yayoi (a young, ordinary woman), and
a woman in the form of a demon (bat wings, horns, etc). This is a kind of triple goddess representation (the maiden, mother, and crone). The first
is only a disguise in the game, simply an innocent reflection of herself long ago.
Perhaps countering the darkness she's been engulfed by, her disguise takes the form of a child not just to deceive but
to reflect an unconscious wish to hold to her human side. The mother or woman, the true Yayoi is only seen
at the end of the game. She's healed of the evil in her heart, and can now live once more in the median between her
two halves (the good/innocent and the dark side). So the true Yayoi and the middle aspect of the goddess represents the magicless
side in this case, the inbetween of the two, the balance of herself (neither one nor the other, and yet both). The crone
in this case is the dark aspect. She is the demon that Yayoi became once consumed by revenge and greed. She is the
other extreme for Yayoi.
With the demon form of Yayoi, we must also note the other side of magic. Just as Jango and the shikigami
represent the good and a positive force in magic and developing energy forces, this form of Yayoi
represents the counter side to this. The result of not maintaining a balance with nature and
forces.
*http://d-training.aots.or.jp/GTJ/html/h.html (Gates to Japan: H: Accessed July 7, '04).
**From page 5 and 99 of The Shambhala Guide to Taoism by Eva Wong
This essay is copyright of Michelle Rogers 2004.