Join the new world

(fly; something that residents of Gensokyo does on daily basis)

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Touhou (東方) literally means "the east" in Japanese language. The series had been named so because it's "a fantasy that happens in the mysterious far East", in the very deep mountains of Japan. In there, a land of mystery exist, and creatures of fantasy lives in harmony (well, sort of) with humans. This place, in which the stories of Touhou series takes place, Gensokyo (幻想郷), literally means "the land of fantasy" for such reason.

So, what is Gensokyo like?

- It's separated from the external environment with a special magical border. Gensokyo was meant to be a land in which preserves the fantasy creatures; it's said that people's belief or dreams on the fantasy diminish so much in the modern days, that Yukari (the creator of Gensokyo, a youkai) made a decision in 1885 to separate the fantasy creatures of Japan from most of the ordinary humans, hide them in the deepest moutains, and make a magical borders that separate them apart from the ordinary world.



(an image of Yukari)

- Youkai: folk tale or legendary fantasy creatures of Japan, examples include Tengu, Oni, Kappa, Shikigami, Obake, Tanuki, Kitsune..and so on. Most of them possess supernatural powers, which is a pretty common phenomenal in Gensokyo.

- Fantasy creatures of the western world also exists; it's been said that they have escaped from the modern world to Gensokyo. Examples include vampire, witch, and demon.



(a demon; a lot more cute than what you would image, eh?)

- Many of these fantasy creatures, actually, DO hurt humans; many are able to treat human as food. For this reason, humans in Gensokyo (yes, humans do do exist in the fantasy land; they live without modern technology, and pretty much have what technology Japan has in 1885), when encountering an unfamiliar youkai, almost always need to figure out whether or not the youkai is hungry or not as soon as possible.

- Fortunately, most youkai are not hungry all the time, and they don't have to eat humans; offering youkai ordinary food can often save a person's life (unless the youkai really want some human flesh as dinner).

- In addition, there are many youkai or fantasy creatures that have no interest in food or human-eating. For example, Tengu of Gensokyo are probably capable of eating human if they choose to, but they love gossips so much, and have real no biological need of food, that humans would generally consider them as 100& safe besides from been annoying with gossips.



(example of a Tengu)

- This creates a weird, semi-harmony state in Gensokyo: humans live in peace with those youkai that they know to be safe, but in the meanwhile still need to worry about being eaten by other youkai who are not that friendly.

- One human village exists in Gensokyo; it's the place where most humans live, and a place that is generally considered as safe. Youkai have a mutual agreement on not attacking the village, and if any youkai dare to, the human-friendly youkai would stop them. However, anybody outside of the village, especially if traveling alone, are prone to be eaten.

- How to travel safely in Gensokyo: ask humans who also have super nature power (yes, humans in Gensokyo can learn magic, fight youkai, and all that sort) or human-friendly youkai to travel with you. Youkais are not deceiving in nature: some of them do play tricks for fun, but they would never do things like lie about been human friendly, and eat you by surprise, making them trustworthy on this aspect.

- But also note that, some youkai who have no intention of eating human, can still cause casualty for other reasons. For example, Chirono, a care-free, child-like ice fairy, who has no intention of human consumption (fairies do not eat human), can sometimes still choose to freeze human to death for fun. She doesn't do it often, and there are ways to avoid it, but it can still happen.



(Chiruno, the ice fairy)

- Hakurei Reimu, a human, a miko (who obviously also has super nature power), monitors Gensokyo. She is the protagonist of the Touhou series, and steps out in punishing youkai who causes too much trouble, which forms the main story of the Touhou Series.

- Kirisame Marisa is another protagonist of the Touhou Series; she is also a human, and a magician. Unlike Reimu, who has the responsibility as a miko, Marisa goes into battles with youkai for fun.



(Reimu [on the left] and Marisa [on the right])

- Spell-Card Rule: It's a rule for the battles in Gensokyo. Basically, the rule says that, instead of treating battles like as if you always need to kill each other, treat it more as a sport. If two individuals in Gensokyo has conflict, they would play this "spell card rule" game, and the one who loses the game would need to yield to the winner. In practice, this is the shooting game that players play in game. This rule was set up by Reimu, and most youkai follow it because it's fun (youkai value "fun" more than any other thing in the world; it's just that their definition of "fun" may differ).

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That's it for now!