#abe seimei devil summoner

[randomlyfallen]

Final farewell

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

[specterthief]

religion of solitude

[kidcapes]

Source: Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha vs the Soulless Army Official Fan Book

This makes more sense if you know that Kuzunoha Clan are named after a kitsune said to be the mother of Abe no Seimei.

[randomkposts]

With Persona 3 and Nocturne being remastered, It would be absolutely fantastic if Digital Devil Saga and Raidou Kuzunoha came out again too. I enjoyed watching the movies, and think I would really enjoy playing them, particularly the former. The Later, however, is part of a lore I am really enjoying learning about, and that is Devil Summoners.

The series as we know it started with the invention of the COMP, by Akemi Nakajima- a Bishōnen programer and amature magician- back in Digital Devil Megami Tensei story, a game based on novels by Aya Nishitani. Check out Marsh if you want to learn more about them. 

But back to devil summoners, the most known is Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th, of the Kuzunoha clan, and the protagonist of the Raidou Kuzunoha games. The Kuzunoha clan is a clan of devil summoners based on the legend of Kuzunoha in Japan. 

"Kuzunoha is the name of a popular fox spirit of Japanese folklore, and is closely connected to the legends surrounding famed Onmyōdō Abe no Seimei. In the legend, the father of Seimei, Abe no Yasuno was visiting a shrine in Shinoda when he came across a hunter who had trapped a white fox in order to take its liver to sell as medicine. Abe no Yasuno fought off the hunter and saved the white fox, but not before sustaining serious injuries to himself. In the aftermath, he is saved by a mysterious, enchanting woman named Kuzunoha and the two eventually fall in love and get married.  

Later, Kuzunoha gave birth to Abe no Seimei, who was born with strange powers, and by the age of five, he was said to be able to to see and command lesser Oni. One day, when Abe no Seimei was still a child, he noticed his mother possessed a fox's tail under her kimono. Realizing her disguise had been found out, she fled her home and returned to Shinoda; her husband and son pursued her and she revealed she was the very same white fox that Abe no Yasuno had saved many years ago. Kuzunoha gives her son a special book that will allow him to speak with beasts, and bids farewell to her family, never to be seen again. Her famous farewell poem can be found on a silk parchment in the Inari Shrine in Izumi."

So in the Megami Tensei overall lore, naturally that forms the basis of a clan of devil summoners who exist long before COMPS become a thing. This is also a history where the Taisho era lasted longer than IRL.

 Also Hirasaki City area was once part of a small country that fought the Yamato dynasty off with magic and demons, had ties to China, and defeated the Yamato army, but lost in the long run, whereupon the queens only daughter was captured, tortured, and executed in a cruel manor, and her spirit was so angry it needed to be sealed for safety. 

And then there's whatever is going on with Sumaru that has students in school during July, but the rumors coming true isn't new (I'd guess ten years but an exact timeline is hard to pin), and that's before the city was retconned by rumors to have a history involving things like a local princess, as of The EP timeline from which the other persona games follow. 

It's also a reality where SMT 1 was averted, and instead If timeline events happened. So there are people who are born naturally capable of using magic (such as law and chaos hero), and a highschool student brought his school into an alternate dimension, filled with demons, true death was canceled, and he became ruler. Two students then proceeded to fight their way through said world and defeat him to get back to the human world. 

The history students are screaming. The devil summoner games have connections to the persona games, and the crossover brings me joy. The tech tree evolution is hilariously wack. 

So that all said, let's talk about Summoners, facts, extrapolation, and headcanons. Starting with Showing up in multiple games. (Soul hackers 2 not included as I have not yet interacted) 

Madame Ginko:- the overseer of the Kuzunoha clan, and the most respectfully treated trans person in the series, the owner of Club Cretaceous (understandably has a lot of summoners), and has preference for Dragon Demons, according to Demikids. 

In spite of her showing up the most of anyone on this list, I don't really have a lot of headcanons for her really. I heard she was a bodyswapper, and according to her bio her hobby is moon watching, and favorite food is Oden. Her blood type is Type A, which in Japan does give personality indication.

Maybe later I'll do a post on blood types and Megaten universe characters who share that blood type. 

Has a bodyguard in the form of Utsumi Kunihiko, blood type AB, who likes pizza and breeding tropical fish. 

Kinap:- first showing up in Devil Summoners as a user of the DDS-Net who gives you hints and hacks into a museum sincerity system for you. 

In Soul Hackers, Kinap is probably not the same being as last time, but who knows, as he is never shown on screen.  Spoilers ahead for plot points in Devil summoner soul hackers. 

In mythology:- "In Mi'kmaq folklore, a Kinap is a mortal human gifted with uncanny physical strength and other powers. In many legends, a Kinap's power manifests as a child, and he either becomes a child-hero or dies young by using too much of his strength too early. In other legends, an adult Kinap features as a mortal hero slaying a terrible monster or leading the other Micmac men into battle. ."

He sends the protagonist on vision quests throughout the game. Apparently Kinap was once a Shaman who tamed Manitou, and proceeded to use him in battles to be Victorious in wars, and used the slain foes as sacrifices, to grow Manitou stronger.

Then one day he realized "oh snap. Feeding it all these souls might make it too strong and I will lose control one day." So he took preventive action and sealed Manitou away. He also created Nemissa out of a fragment of his soul, but for her to be effective, she would need to understand humans. Rather than introduce her to some humans he knew then,  he sealed her and abandoned his mortal form to watch over them. And possibly Devil Summoners Protagonist IDK. Obviously that goes super well, lol. 

Let's deffine Manitou :- " Manitou is the belief of Algonquians meaning “mysterious being,” or simply “mystery”. It is an Algonquian word that represents the unknown power of life and the universe. Common among the indigenous peoples of North America, it is related to the concept of mana, a personal supernatural force, and connected to the worship of the sun. A supernatural force that according to an Algonquian belief permeates the natural world. 

Manitou is universal and manifests everywhere: the environment, events, organisms, etc. When the world was created, Aashaa monetoo meaning the “good spirit” or “great spirit”, gave the land to the indigenous peoples, specifically to Algonquian-speaking ethnic group indigenous Shawnee. In some Algonquian traditions, it was also called Gitche Manitou.

Native Americans acknowledge traditional healers and spiritual leaders who used manitou to see the future, heal illness, and change the weather. Ojibwe traditional healers used their spiritual connection to cure patients since the illness was believed to be caused by spirits and magic. To communicate with spirits and influence manitou, a healer would sing, dance, and drum beats to enter a trance. They sometimes also used hallucinogens to make a connection. For non-healers, they interacted with spirits by embarking upon a “vision quest,” by means of hallucinogens, fasting, praying, and by isolating themselves from society. A person who underwent vision quests would see objects or animals and also heard voices that would become later on as his or her guardian spirit.

In tribes that practice shamanistic rituals, manitous are connected to an inanimate object or animals to achieve the desired effect. A buffalo manitous for a successful hunt or plant manitous may be connected for healing. It involved the belief that shamans had the power to communicate with spirits, heal the sick, and help bring souls of the dead to the afterlife.

The early Native Americans in Illinois believed that each person has his own god, which they call their Manitou. It could come in a form of a bird, serpent, or other similar things, of which they have dreamed while sleeping. These manitous were considered as a lucky token. For war, manitous came in the form of species of birds, including falcons, crows, ducks, swallows, and parakeets. Representations such as skin or feathers of their manitous were displayed on their homes to ask for guidance and power when they went for fishing, hunting, or war.

As soon as adolescents became aware, it was expected that young adults start their vision quest in the wilderness. To trigger a manitou in a dream, the young adults went fasting without food and water for up to seven days. A manitou could take the form of a bear, wolf, bison, mountain lion, deer, bobcat, bird, or some other animal. "

What does the megaten wiki say about Manitou? 

"Originally Manitou was a great spirit of the land found in North America, but Kinap utilized Manitou as a weapon in ancient times. Contact with mankind and their souls threatened to turn the peaceful mindless force into an entity of destruction. Kinap then sealed Manitou away and created Nemissa from Manitou to bring death to it should it ever be awakened and become a force of destruction.

The Phantom Society and Kadokura find the entity, and make their own plans to give it the souls of mankind for their own agendas. Manitou is also capable of feeding on the souls of demons, as shown by the slain Godly soul that it gains power from. "

It kind of sounds like Manitou should have been the one sending you on Vision quests, and generally working with Kinap. They have just sort of used Manitou as a buzzword. Nemissa Is a legend of a star goddess who seduces a hunter.

But yeah, they are more used as cool names, not particularly respectfully researched or portrayed use of legends from native people. I like Nemissa as a character, but as far as mythology goes, she's an OC with a legend based name. 

If they wanted a native legend that actually ate souls, they could go for Nalusa Chito, assuming they did their research with cultural consultants of the mythology they are inspired from and portray it respectfully. 

" Nalusa Chito, also known as a Impa Shilup, was the soul-eater, a great black beingIf individuals allowed evil thoughts or depression to enter their minds, Impa Shilup would creep inside them and eat their souls. "

Don't speak their names. 

For more info, go to

As an antagonist, it could probably suit the cyberpunk setting of the time pretty well. 

"Cyberpunk narratives often incorporate a sense of hopelessness or nihilism, typically featuring a gritty and violent backdrop, with crime, artificial intelligence, class uprising, governmental and corporate corruption, anarchy, gang warfare, and transhumanism all being central themes. The range is broad but the combination of these themes in the cyberpunk aesthetic is often used to convey deeper meanings and commentate on modern society and sometimes predictions of future society."

Soul hackers was first published in 1997, during Japan's lost decade, the name for its economic crisis. 

For more information on what caused that, check here

For more information on how that impacts the people socially and culturally, check this video by Lady Virgilia

I think ending the game by defeating a soul eating depression monster , especially during Japan's lost decade would have been a hopeful ending to the game. A way of saying "maybe it does suck now, but we can turn it around"

Oh wow, I've wandered pretty off topic. I'll end this one here, and come back and talk about Rei, and other characters later.

[gabriulio]

Persona World’s Demon Encyclopedia - Days 7-10

Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Day 4 - Day 5 - Day 6 - Twitter thread

All entries can be found in my blog, tagged as “demonic compendium.”

Sorry for not posting anything in the past few days. Real Life™ has been hectic, but here’s all the profiles that should have been posted if everything went according to plan. Since I missed four days it should’ve meant 12 profiles, but 3 of those are stuff I’ve already translated in the past so they don’t count. Which means here’s a whooping FIFTEEN profiles in total. Enjoy!

Ah Puch

Mayan death god. He looks like a white skeletal figure with protruding ribs and patches of decayed skin. He wears bells all throughout his body and is accompanied by a dog and an owl.

Ah Puch is the leader of the Bolontiku, a group of nine gods who govern Xibalba, the Mayan underworld. He also presides over Mitnal, the lowermost layer of Xibalba.

Abe no Seimei

An onmyōji who lived in Japan during the Heian (794-1185) period. It is speculated that he’s a descendant of Abe no Musaki, but his mother’s identity is unknown, though some believe that his mother was the fox spirit Kuzunoha.

Seimei’s name has also been recorded in multiple manuscripts, some of them depicting legends that stray from reality. In the Konjaku Monogatari, Seimei was a pupil of Kamo no Tadayuki and learned the secret arts from him. It was also said that he had outstanding abilities, such as being able to divine the cause of the Emperor’s illness, and also employ a total of twelve shikigami.

Seimei’s arch nemesis was Ashiya Douman. The two of them once competed to see who was superior and Seimei won. In retaliation, Douman assassinated Seimei’s father, but Seimei was able to revive him using his power.

Nowadays, the Seimei ward of Kyoto houses the Seimei Shrine, which celebrates the anniversary of Seimei’s death every year with a festival on September 26.

Apep

Egyptian snake god born from the primordial sea. He embodies chaos itself, and is also called “The Great Serpent.” He’s also associated with Ouroboros, the giant serpent from Greek mythology that surrounds the world.

As his name suggests, Apep’s body is gigantic. Every day, the sun god Ra carries the sky from West to East, and Apep attempts to swallow it. As a result of Apep’s actions, the day-night cycle exists.

Apollo

A Greek god. He and his twin sister Artemis were born from Zeus and the goddess Leto. He was fed nectar and ambrosia, the drink and food of the gods, and thus grew into an adult in only a few days. He performed many heroic deeds, such as slaying the giant snake Python and the giant Tityos.

Apollo was a young and beautiful god, and so there are many legends that talk about his love life. However, he was repeatedly deceived and betrayed, and so his love was never returned.

Amatsu Mikaboshi

Also known as Ame no Kakaseo or Hoshi no Kakaseo, he is the Japanese god of stars.

In the Nihon Shoki, the gods Take-Mikazuchi and Futsunushi tried to subjugate Ashihara no Nakatsu Kuni during the Tenson Kōrin, but Amatsu Mikaboshi resisted them until the very end, granting him the epithet of "disobedient fierce god." However, in the end he was defeated by Shitsuri and Take-Hazuchi.

Maihime Amano

An original character appearing in Eternal Punishment.

She is a daughter from one of Kiyotada Sumaru’s branch families and Maya Amano’s ancestor. She and her lover Tatsunoshin Suou assassinated Kiyotada Sumaru, the tyrant who wanted to take over all of Japan. Even after Kiyotada’s death, her mummified remains keep watch over the city of Sumaru.

When summoned as a Persona, she has the appearance of a red-haired woman sporting two horns and wearing long-sleeved clothes.

Ameretat

One of the seven archangels from Zoroastrianism, the Amesha Spenta. She’s a daughter of the chief god Ahura Mazda and her name means “Immortality.” She’s the guardian angel of plants and responsible for governing the spiritual power of the sacred tree Haoma.

She often appears in conjunction with the god Haurvatat, whose name means “wholeness” and “satisfaction,” as the two of them are associated with water and plants. By uniting their powers, the two of them are capable of sending forth rain. Flowers are given as offerings in rituals that worship Ameretat.

Ame no Uzume

Japanese goddess of kagura and performing arts. When the goddess Amaterasu hid herself inside a cave known as Ama no Iwato and darkness fell over the world, Ame no Uzume danced in front of it with her breasts and crotch exposed, attracting Amaterasu’s attention and drawing her out of the cave.

“Uzume” means traditional Japanese hair ornaments, also known as kanzashi, which she wears when performing a kagura. It’s also believed that Ame no Uzume was originally a mortal woman who became deified.

Amon-Ra

The chief god of ancient Egypt. His name means "he who is hidden," and he's commonly depicted in murals as a person wearing a large feather hat.

Originally, Amon and Ra were two separate gods, but once the capital was moved to Thebes during the Middle Kingdom, the two gods were merged into one. They became Amon-Ra, sun god and supreme deity of Egypt. He's also the guardian deity of the pharaohs, and according to legend the pharaohs are his descendants.

Pride

An original demon from Ibunroku with the shape of a mask. It represents the human emotion of believing oneself to be superior and looking down on others. Other names for this emotion include: arrogance, haughtiness, and insolence.

Alastor

From Greek mythology, he’s the official in charge of performing executions in Hell. Alastor is also known as “the executioner” in Zoroastrianism.

He was originally the son of the sea god Nereus, but Alastor had his wife stolen by his step-father, which prompted him to take revenge. Ever since the Middle Ages, Alastor came to be seen as an executioner who follows the orders of the devil. Because of this, the name “Alastor” itself means “avenger.”

Arianrhod

A Welsh goddess worshiped as the guardian deity of the Corona Borealis. She’s the daughter of the mother goddess Don and sister of Gwydion. Her role is to keep the silver wheels representing time turning for all eternity. Aside from turning the wheels of time, Arianrhod is also responsible for ferrying those who die in combat to the afterlife in a large boat. She’s also called the mother of the Aryan race and believed to be the same entity as the Greek Ariadne.

Alice

A mysterious girl. Her name and features resemble the protagonist of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

She's an original demon in the Megami Tensei series, first appearing in Shin Megami Tensei. Afterwards, she kept appearing in other games of the franchise as a rare demon.

Arachne

Greek goddess of wisdom, crafts, and weaving. She was the daughter of the famous dyer Idmon and possessed exceptional skill at weaving. However, Arachne’s pride grew too big, which made her challenge the gods to a weaving contest. In the contest, she weaved various depictions of scandals committed by the gods in a tapestry, which drew their ire. As punishment, the goddess Athena transformed her into a spider.

Artemis

One of the twelve Olympians from Greek mythology. She is the goddess of the moon and hunting. She can always be found running in the woods, carrying bow and arrows and accompanied by a group of nymphs and hunting dogs.

Artemis is fastidious and merciless. She once transformed Actaeon, a hunter who caught a glimpse of her naked body, into a stag and then had his own hunting dogs kill him. She also transformed a woman who broke her vow of chastity and got pregnant into a bear.

Her Roman counterpart is the moon goddess Selene.

Wow, this was a lot!

TOMORROW: Alecto, Ares, and Aonbharr.

[dusksummoner-blog]

I decided to share a little that I know about the Kuzunoha, the namesake of the clan.

During the reign of Emperor Murakami (946—967 CE), the onmyōji Abe no Yasuna sought to rebuild his family house. The Abe family had once been a rich and powerful one, but their land and status were lost years before by Yasuna’s father, who had been tricked by con men. While rebuilding his house, Yasuna regularly traveled to the Inari shrine in Shinoda, Izumi Province, to pray for the god’s blessings. One day, while walking through the woods of Shinoda, a beautiful white fox jumped in front of Yasuna’s path. It was being chased by a hunter, and it asked Yasuna to save it. Yasuna knew that white foxes were holy to Inari, and he helped the creature to escape. Shortly afterwards, the hunter came to where Yasuna was and the two got into a fight. Yasuna was wounded in the fight, and fell to the ground. After the hunter left, a young woman came out of the forest to Yasuna’s side. She told him her name was Kuzunoha. She took Yasuna all the way back to his home, and nursed him back to health. The woman continued to visit Yasuna, caring for him and checking up on his recovery. At some point during her visits, Kuzunoha and Yasuna had fallen in love, and so when he was better they got married. Eventually Kuzunoha became pregnant, and she bore Yasuna a son. They three of them lived happily for some time. However, when their son was five years old, he witnessed something strange. Some say it was when she looked in a mirror, others say it was while she was sleeping; but his mother accidentally let her true form appear for a brief second: she a white-furred kitsune! Her secret having been discovered, Kuzunoha had no choice but to leave her beloved family. Holding a brush in her mouth, she wrote a farewell tanka on the paper door and vanished:

「 If you love me, come and visit, in the forest of Shinoda in Izumi, the resentful kudzu leaf 」

When Yasuna read her poem, he realized that his beloved wife was the fox whom he had saved years earlier. He and their son traveled to the forests of Shinoda, where Kuzunoha had first entered the world of humankind. There, Kuzunoha appeared before them one last time. She presented them a crystal ball and a golden box as parting gifts, and then she left her human family forever. Kuzunoha and Yasuna’s son grew up to become a powerful sorcerer, thanks to the magical gifts his mother had given him, her yōkai lineage, and his father’s onmyōji training. He took the name Abe no Seimei, and became the most powerful onmyōji in all of Japanese history.

(source)

According to the legends, Abe no Seimei could control weak oni to do his bidding at very young age. In the manga Raidou Kuzunoha VS the Lone Marebito  we are introduced to Abe Seimei, a direct descendant of Abe no Seimei and also a devil summoner under the Yatagarasu.

Also, according to the legends, Abe no Seimei unmasked and killed a kitsune, the famous Tamamo-no-Mae. gdi talk about being a hypocrite.

[superbtheoristcollective-blog]

This series explores one of the most well-known legends of Swynlake, which often draws both Magick and Mundus to the small town: the thirteen magical objects of Merlin the Great himself.  The story goes that, before mysteriously vanishing, Merlin collected his most prized possessions and created a game for his apprentices–he would hide them in his magic town, masked in powerful enchantment, with only a collection of riddles to help find them.  “You will have to use that magickal wit and wonder,” he is reported to have told his pupils, before laughing merrily and whisking away.

Ever since then, there has been a treasure hunt that has stretched on and on for hundreds of years. Whether or not Merlin’s test was simply a trick or the challenge should be taken seriously, no one knows…but the power held within the mythological objects is too great to ignore.

Book Of Morgause

The Book of Morgause is a legendary book about black magic, alleged to have been buried with its author, the sorceress Morgause, sister to the more-infamous Morgan Le Fay (arch-nemesis/rumoured lover of Merlin). However, the history of the text is not so simple nor is its authoress the only creator. Documents suggest that Morgause simply acted as editor to what would become a cross-cultural anthology of the darkest magics, secrets gathered and stolen from sorcerers more powerful than she. Thus, the patchwork of pages may very well be a Frankensteinian creation of magic--its power so great it is rumoured to have led to Morgause’s untimely end.

So which texts might be found within the Book? See an incomplete list of texts below:

Book of Thoth, a legendary book containing powerful spells and knowledge supposed to have been written by the god Thoth, said to have been buried with the Prince Neferkaptah in Necropolis. There are detailed reports of Morgause wrecking Neferkaptah’s tomb and the book’s subsequent disappearance.

Jade Books in Heaven, described in several Daoist cosmographies as instrumental in creating and maintaining the divine structure of the universe, or as regulating national or personal destiny. Demonologists have long sought out these lost texts as the key to understanding the Three Worlds, and the function and structure of the Gates.

Rauðskinna (Book of Power), a legendary book about black magic, alleged to have been buried with its author, the Bishop Gottskálk grimmi Nikulásson of Holar.  

Senji Ryakketsu (The Summary to Judgments of Divinations), the texts written by the legendary Abe no Seimei during the Heian Period in Japan. The text contains six thousand forecast and thirty-six fortune-telling techniques based on divination through use of shikigami. Many of these divinations relate to normal daily lives such as determining the gender of an unborn child, finding lost or missing objects, and advice on how to lead one's personal life.

Galdrabók (Book of Magic), a grimoire containing a collection of 47 spells. The various spells consist of Latin and runic material as well as Icelandic magical staves, invocations to Christian entities, demons and the Norse gods as well as instructions for the use of herbs and magical items.

The original Emerald Tablet (also Smaragdine Table or Tabula Smaragdina)-- a compact and cryptic piece of the Hermetica reputed to contain the secret of transmutation magic. It was highly regarded by European alchemists as the foundation of their art, associated with the creation of the philosopher's stone, laboratory experimentation, phase transition, the alchemical magnum opus, the ancient, classical, element system, and the correspondence between macrocosm and microcosm. Newton’s translation of parts of the Tablet live in the King’s College, London. However, the original Emerald Tablet is said to be able to create another philosopher’s stone.

Book of the Dead, a written set of spells designed to help a deceased person's spirit survive the trials of the afterlife from Egyptian mythology.

The Red Dragon, a black magic grimoire authored by someone named Antonio Venitiana del Rabina who supposedly gathered this information from original writings of King Solomon. This book contains instructions purported to summon Lucifer or Lucifuge Rofocale, for the purpose of forming a Deal with the Devil.

Where is it now?

The legend is that Merlin challenged and defeated Morgause in a duel over the book, but fearing its great power, elected to bury it with Morgause’s corpse, who still defends the book till this day.Another rumour, however, tells of the book swallowing Morgause whole and Merlin simply burying it after so the same fate would not befall him. Either way, Morgause and the book are said to lay beneath the waters that flow to death, suggesting a burial in one of Swynlake’s rivers, or perhaps, even, Atlantis lake.

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

[specterthief]

Maybe Abe Seimei for the Blingus?

truly the komaeda of devil summoner

[randomlyfallen]

Whoa art dump in here