The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Is Elis really some sort of vampire/devil/creature thing?

That, or an oriental magician who happens to have a devilish appearance.

Well, let's give an uncertain smattering of applause for the winged lady with the magic wand. Coming up will be Yukari, Hata no Kokoro, and some flying canine. But first - shh! Quiet in the library.

Patchouli Knowledge

Stage: Mansion of Darkness ~ Save the Mind
BGM: "Voile, the Magic Library"^note Stage 4 theme. From here, the game moves indoors, so it's composed with indoor atmospheres in mind. Its tone shifts to something more ominous halfway through the song, where you would normally meet the mid-stage boss. Other than that, there's nothing special about this theme, but really, it's not a shooting game piece :)
Theme: "Locked Girl ~ The Girl's Secret Room"^note Patchouli Knowledge's theme. Again with this sick feeling... It's a dark song, without any light or bright moments, despite its quite fast-paced nature. It could stand to be a little less heavy, as listening to this piece could drag someone down :)

Spellcard Motif: Fire, Water, Wood, Earth, Metal, the Sun, the Moon, or any combination of the above

Sample Spellcards: EoSD, GoM, IaMP, SWR, StB, 'Soku\\ -Fire Sign "Agni Radiance," Water Sign "Bury In Lake," Wood Sign "Green Storm," Earth Sign "Trilithon Shake," Metal Sign "Silver Dragon," Moon Sign "Silent Selene," Sun Sign "Royal Flare," Fire & Earth Sign "Lava Cromlech," Wood & Fire Sign "Forest Blaze," Metal & Water Sign "Mercury Poison," Sun & Water Sign "Hydrogenous Prominence," Moon Wood Sign "Satellite Himawari," Sun Moon Sign "Royal Diamond Ring,"Fire Water Wood Metal Earth Sign "Philosopher's Stone"

Write-up:
A natural-born magician, master of elemental magic, and the Scarlet Devil Mansion's resident witch, Patchouli Knowledge's arcane power is matched only by her poor physical condition. She's at least a century old, and spent most of that time indoors with her vast collection of tomes, so between her asthma and anemia and Vitamin A deficiency she can have trouble actually reciting her spells.

Patchouli happens to be friends with Remilia Scarlet, and when not busy reading or adding to her collection of arcane tomes, the magician helps out around the vampire's manor by alternatively solving and causing problems, as needed. This can place her into conflict with heroines trying to stop Remilia's latest scheme, while at other times it's Patchouli who is venturing forth to resolve an Incident. Or providing tactical support to an Incident-resolver by looking up important information about the last enemy they defeated, as the case may be.

Relations:

• Remilia Scarlet (friend)
• Flandre Scarlet (friend's sister)
• Sakuya Izayoi, Hong Meiling (friend's employees)
• Koakuma (sighted nearby)
• Marisa Kirisame (thief)

See also the previous two compendiums.

edited 1st May '16 3:59:51 PM by Tacitus

Patchouli Knowledge:

A powerful elemental spellcaster and an old friend of Remilia. Spends most of her time in the Voile, the Magic Library. Very sickly.

Patchouli's one of several magicians in Gensokyo. Her claim to fame is having complete mastery over every element in existence. Her combinations are quite the sight to behold. However, she's normally not the fighting type. Due to her myriad of sicknesses, her stamina ain't what it used to be. Holing yourself up in a library ain't good for you physically, kids! But for what it's worth, it doesn't look like she regrets it. After all, libraries are bastions of wisdom.

Speaking of bastions, Voile's one special library. You can cause as much noise as ya want! And don't say it ain't so, for her security system rains beams on intruders.

I wonder if any fan games had Patchouli as a Barrier Change Boss

I don't think there's any evidence of her fighting that way in the canon, but on the other hand that kind of tactic sounds right up her alley - hunker down behind defenses while she prepares her attacks. And with as many elements as Patchy knows, it's pretty unlikely that an enemy would know enough magic to take down every kind of barrier.

Something I learned this time around that I hadn't before is that Patchouli has been able to not only combine five elements at once with stuff like "Philosopher's Stone," but she's even able to combine opposite elements, like fire and water for "Phlogistic Rain." Impressive. Apparently the only combination she hasn't pulled off yet is wood and earth, but I'm having trouble figuring out why that's harder to do than "Metal Wood Sign 'Elemental Harvester.'" It'd just be something like moss on a stone, right?

I still wonder where she came from. I think last time around we went with the idea that she was from Europe like Remi and evidently had hippie parents a hundred years early, but the Patchouli plant is native to much of Asia, so it's possible she's more local. And just decided against giving herself a Japanese name in favor of a phonetic attempt at English?

edited 4th May '16 9:21:27 PM by Tacitus

Patchouli is an Asian plant? I didn't know that. Still, Patchouli could a Japanese magus who became youkai through studying.

Pache met Remi back in the old country, when Patchouli was a young girl and Remilia had been a nine year old for more than three and a half centuries. They hit it off right away. Pache quickly realized that her new friend was older than any of the humans she knew. Remi just knew that they would be BF Fs. (She really did know this. Occasional visions of the future are part of her fate ability.)

As Pache grew up and Remi stayed nine their friendship grew stronger. Patchouli proved invaluable in protecting Flandre from the world and protecting the world from Flandre. Remila helped to find and obtain many valuable exotic books and scrolls. In no particular order, they hired Sakuya, Meiling, Koakuma, and a bunch of fairies and hobgoblins, and moved to Gensokyo.

Patchouli fancies herself to be an arrogant aloof loner, so she never bothered to learn the proper name of the migrant worker who does so much to maintain her library. Koakuma is the only other person allowed to shelve her books. The library is so big that a misshelved book might as well be on the Moon. This gives Koa very many opportunities for mischief. Nevertheless she does her job perfectly. Except when she wants to be punished by Patchouli-sama. And Koa saves that for special occasions.

Smite God who best represents Patchouli: Nu Wa. They both base their combat magic on eastern mystical elements. And in both cases, those elements can manifest as floating colored crystals. There are differences of course. Between god battles, Nu Wa concerns herself with Heaven and with The Earth and with the relationship between them. When she's not busy with her magical research, Patchouli mostly tries to keep her best friend, an eternal impatient nine year old, from getting bored.

I guess Metal and Wood are incompatible more because of the philosophical nature of them. Nature and technology, faith and science, enlightenment and romanticism, etc, etc.. That's sort of the contrast that Gensokyo and Earth run around; it makes perfect sense that she would have no idea how to combine them because according to Touhou as well as history they just do not work together.

And if you're thinking "Hey, Metal does not represent progress! That's a twentieth century thing!", blacksmiths have been symbols of that sort of thing since the Iron Age. It's Older Than They Think.

Patchouli managed to combine the old-fashioned and the new-fangled in Silent Sinner in Blue, when she designed a Wooden spaceship inspired by the Metal spaceships of the outside world. And that spaceship went to the Moon!

On the other hand, that spaceship failed hard on arrival. Maybe if she'd had more compatible elements to work with, she could have managed a round trip.

Patchouli is an alchemist, I wonder if she knows about Philosopher's Stone? Seriously, I wonder about her relationship with other magus in Gensokyo? She seems like a loner to me.

Aren't her spellcards a reference to the philosopher's stone? At least this one is.

I forgot about that.

On the one hand, there is that spellcard, and she spends a lot of time blending elements, but on the other hand, Patchy's health problems are the result of living indoors, while Marisa has picked up some acquired poison immunities from the amount of hazards substances she plays with.

So Marisa may actually be more of an alchemist than the gal with the "Philosopher's Stone" spellcard. It's not like Patchouli is sitting down with a chemistry set or anything, she's evoking pure elemental forces and expertly blending them together. Might be as much artistry as (magic) science involved.

And yet she keeps showing up - according to the wiki she's third only to the Big Two in appearances. I think last time we noticed how often she popped up in Aya's interviews and wondered whether Patchouli secretly likes to be quoted as an authority on things. My hunch is that she prioritizes Books! over being aloof, it's just that since the others in the Scarlet Devil Mansion can't match her enthusiasm, Patchouli gets to read by herself most of the time. She's not so much retreating from others as it is others aren't following her into the library, in other words.

As for other mages specifically, I don't know how much it's reinforced by canon, but I like the idea of Patchouli being interested in a little "peer review." Maybe she's got an almost pathological need to categorize data and has her own Grimoire of Patchouli with notes on other spellcasters' magic, or maybe she just likes to talk with her fellow arcane enthusiasts.

There used to be a Danbooru pool for "Mage's Guild of Gensokyo," though you can get a similar effect by searching for both Patchy and Byakuren. Sometimes they're studying, sometimes they're experimenting, other times they're having tea or having a jam session.

On the subject the Philosopher's Stone spellcard: Interestingly enough, in alchemy the Philosopher's Stone is referred to as the product of the marriage of the Sun and the Moon (The Red King and White Queen, also known as Sulfur and Mercury^note This last one is a bit iffy. Depending on the individual alchemist in question the Moon can either represent the substance Mercury or it can be used to represent Silver. In the case of the latter the substance Mercury is represented by the planet Mercury. Also in addition to Silver in Paracelsian alchemy the Moon also represents Salt. The Sulfur, Salt and Mercury group is referred to as the Tria Prima (Three Primaries) and according to Paracelsus is the foundation for everything that exists but I'm getting off topic here.) the two elements that Patchouli leaves out of her spellcard. I know ZUN was going for the Wu Xing group but still thought I should bring it up.

edited 8th May '16 9:11:17 PM by FalseDichotomy

Does Patchoulli use the Chinese elemental system?

A modified version.

There isn't any Sun or Moon element in the Wu Xing but other than that, she does.

She uses the days of the week, which are based on the celestial bodies. Monday (Moon), Tuesday (Mars, Fire), Wednesday (Mercury, Water), Thursday (Jupiter, Wood), Friday (Venus, Metal), Saturday (Saturn, Earth), and Sunday (Sun). The planets just happen to be named after the elements in Eastern astronomy. Well, I'm sure it was extremely important to ancient astrology, but from our perspective they're pretty arbitrary.

Naming the days of the week after the planets was actually imported all the way from Rome, which is why we share Sunday and Moonday. The English names are of course derived from the Norse gods who happen to correlate with equivalent Roman gods, ie: Thursday = Thor = Thunder God = Jupiter = the planet Jupiter = Wood Star = Wood Day.

Edit: Come to think of it, it wouldn't be entirely inappropriate to translate her spellcard signs as the planets instead of the elements. Venus-Saturn Sign "Emerald Megalith" Mars-Jupiter Sign "Forest Blaze"

edited 9th May '16 12:56:57 AM by Clarste

Eh, that might suggest she's some sort of astronomy-themed spellcaster, and we wouldn't want to step on anyone's nonexistent, foggy toes. Better to keep Patchouli the "one week girl" with the elemental-themed spells, and see who can make the connection between the two. Or rather, keep waiting for someone to figure it out.

Heh, wonder if that's why ZUN added that bit explaining Patchouli's "secret hobby" in the IaMP manual, because nobody caught on in EoSD?

Well, my point is that she is an astronomy themed caster, it just happens to be the case that in Japanese the planets are named after the classical elements instead of gods. So there is no distinction at all between being astronomy-themed and being elemental-themed.

The days of the week are inherently astronomy-themed as well.

edited 9th May '16 7:40:58 PM by Clarste

Patchoulli uses astronomy themed spellcards huh? I wonder how the elements play into the theme?

I thought I just explained that. The planets in Japanese are named after elements. Mars is Kasei (Fire Star), Mercury is Suisei (Water Star), etc. It's just impossible to name the planets without being reminded of the elements.

When the seven day calendar spread from Rome, the days were all named after planets. Sun Day, Moon Day, Mars Day, Mercury Day, etc. When it got to Japan, they just imposed their own existing elemental planet names on the days of the week, so Mars Day became Fire Day, Mercury Day became Water Day, etc.

edited 9th May '16 9:18:45 PM by Clarste

Ohh sorry about that I was making sure I got it right.

I should say that Patchouli isn't as astronomy-themed as she could be. She's not dropping Blazing Stars or Orreries Suns, and she doesn't have constellations on her PJs, just a relatively understated crescent emblem. Instead she's adopted a gimmick that restricts her magical repertoire to what is thematically-appropriate that day.

Or maybe it's not so much a gimmick as it is a handicap? She's such a powerful mage she tries to limit herself to just one or two facets of her spellbook? And she doesn't view her poor health as enough of a handicap already?

Now, Patchy pictures: lots to go through, probably too much for one post, especially since I accidentally closed a window after spending twenty minutes sorting stuff.

As you can imagine, there's lots of pics of her with her nose in a book
Or with a book in general
Glasses are a popular addition
Peek
The rare work with her outdoors
Out on the patio
"Fun" in the sun
Crazy hair and constellations
Be careful with that atom
On the go
Patchy simplified
You have her attention
Miss the "Frill Hell" pool
Brass shelves?
Either realistic and gorgeous\\ or Uncanny Valley, depending on the viewer
Shorter skirt and Odango Hair
Monochrome mage outfit
This artist does some good contemporary stuff
Embrace your inner Magical Girl
Or change class to Knight, whatever
Awesome beret
Action executive Patchy
Exchange mob cap for hood
Her library might be haunted
Icy-cool lighting?
Just stacks of books
Don't drop anything
Sketchy Voile
Well we call it that, but we still don't know if it has an official name
Think this is how it's portrayed in the fighting games
Can you crack her cunning cypher?
Are they underwater?
Guess it relocated to the clock tower
Speaking of gears...
Did she build a time machine?
Still my favorite take on the library
Focus on the tea and the book, ignore the screams and explosions

edited 11th May '16 8:52:30 PM by Tacitus

Patchoulli uses astronomy themed cards that can also be alchemy cards?

Nah, she uses cards based around certain types of magic - or combinations of those types - and you can interpret this in different ways. The blending together of Fire and Metal or Water and Wood is similar to alchemy, while the elements Patchouli uses also correspond to heavenly bodies. But she doesn't bill herself as the Arcane Alchemist or the Celestial Spellcaster, she's the One Week Wizard, who prefers to limit herself to certain types of magic on certain days.

Hmm, maybe this isn't a handicap, but a sign of how her mind works? Take a task, like mastering magic, and break it down into smaller parts, like mastering individual types of magic. Then once you get a handle on those components, start putting them together until you've mastered the whole. Not sure if this is the "by-the-book" approach her profile mentions, but there's a methodology to it.

Wonder what a Fire Water Wood Metal Earth Sun Moon spell would like look like? Or would that be Ultima magic?

Anyway, continued picdump:

Neutral
Quietly content
Sleepy?
Unimpressed
Timid
Trying to figure out Evangelion
Aloof
No le gusta
Somewhat haughty
Exhausted
Bad Moon rising
Vitamin D deficiency
Why am I suddenly reminded of Tharja?
Flat-out happy
Playing with fire
Making a splash
The power of the sun
I am distracted by her glasses
Think that's a case of impossible clothing
Weaponized galaxy
Just ignore the muppet
Of course she has an EX-form
Night light
Bookcases all the way up
Library rotunda
Less modest
Why are my favorite Patchouli pics ones with her in alternate outfits?
A dark magician girl
Out in the sun
Dantewontdie doing his thing
Still love her Koumajou Densetsu design
It's not the most flattering depiction of her, but for some reason that just makes me like it more
The power of the elements against the power of beer
The caster and her familiar
Cuddle-kuma
Not sure whether she's adding or subtracting from the pile
The magic lesson
Staying warm
Staying fashionably warm
Winter at the SDM
Winter inside the SDM
Those Minecraft floating bookcases?
The other devil
Guess there's some symbolism or something going on
This dark horse pairing is not without opposition
The other other devil
Creatures of habit
Tea party
Study session
Must be a hell of a story behind this
A challenger appears
This artist does some good contemporary stuff
Probably the worst possible choice for the job
Magical girls
Never mind, THIS is the worst choice for the job(s)
Patchy as steed
Patchy as rider
Damn, I can hear the music now
Who'd have thought a vampire could be such a goofball?
Completely unamused
Disastrous dominoes
Welp
Same same patchouli?
Sock-hat
The great sorceress demands upsies
Don't think they had these outfits a century ago, but whatever
Throwing the book at her
Throwing the books at them
I suspect drugs
Mukyu on demand
Charge-up mukyu
Triple mukyu
Patchouli and patchouli
Does not like errors
Just another day at the library

I could see Patchoulli as being a logical thinker who breaks things down into parts to see what works. Patchoulli is a scientist basically.