The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Tengu hermits still exist huh? I guess that is it for me as far the Tengu although where do they get those cool hats?

"Individually friendly but hostile as a group," huh? So there's every chance that Momiji has no beef with humans personally, but policy's policy.

Individual human: worthy of evaluation, if nothing else. Humanity: Bunch of bastards.

edited 28th Jun '16 4:22:37 AM by Ernie

Well, he also cynically says humans are like that too, so I think he's just referring to general tribalism: where it's easy to see faceless groups of "others" as an enemy, but much harder to see individuals you interact with directly as anything other than people. This is often rationalized by bigots as "well, you're the exception."

Also, policy being policy is the way that tribalism can be supported even by people who wouldn't be overly tribalistic themselves. It either gives them an "out" to ease their conscience, or outright forces them to do things they wouldn't otherwise.

The Great Youkai Tailor is a powerful being indeed, if not due to raw magical might, but from the sheer number of Gensokyo's denizens who owe her favors for providing them with such snazzy accessories.

Let's give Momiji a round of applause as she heads back to her post (but not too loud, we don't want to attract any unwanted attention from the crows). Coming up will be Sukuna, the -getsu sisters, and someone who gets really horny on certain nights. But first,

Sariel

Stage: The Fallen Temple, Makai
BGM: "The Legend of KAGE"^note This is the second song in my heart, composed right after "Strange Oriental Discourse". Originally, the tempo was pretty messed up, so I slowed it a bit. [...] This song istelf is an interpretation of my personal image of a ninja, in as much of a "new age" style as I could manage. I think ninjas are cool and should be fashionable. I like ninjas in and of themselves, too, but in the end, they didn't end up appearing in Touhou (because they're not girls). Also, I hate kunoichi (LOL). So for those reasons, this will probably be the only ninja theme song in Touhou. (In the past there were several original ninja theme songs I made, though)
Themes: "Now, Until the Moment You Die"^note Nice piece for endgame, huh? Once you finally get here, it doesn't feel all that Japanese, does it. This may be a lot easier on the ears than the original piece., "We Shall Die Together"^note I've almost never used this piece. It's only used for a brief moment in the game. I actually composed this for its title, so I couldn't use it afterward... For the arrangement, I tried touching it up to give the feel of its title. (This piece is my favorite.)

Write-up:
A seraph from Judeo-Christian mythology inexplicably encountered in an Eastern setting. This in itself raises more questions about Sariel than are usual even for characters from the Touhou game without dialogue or character profiles.

The traditional Sariel has been cast as both a benevolent force and a fallen angel, alternatively a protector, an angel of death, and a patron of wizards. This last interpretation may explain why Sariel is encountered in a realm rich in magic, but not why the archangel would then go on to pick a fight with a turtle-riding shrine maiden in an adjacent dimension. At any rate, and assuming Sariel was indeed the one beyond that first attack on the Hakurei Shrine, the angel hasn't been seen since, so presumably any evil plots were foiled.

See also the previous two compendiums.

edited 28th Jun '16 8:22:09 PM by Tacitus

I basically assume Reimu encountered Sariel because of Rule of Cool. She's the Grim Reaper, for fuck's sake.

I'm not really that familiar with Sariel, but I do wonder how much basis this Ask the 5 Magic Stones post has in canon. More specifically, this:

Oh good, that's still around. I thought I remembered it disappearing at some point and got sad.

Is Sariel the Sariel? A little over a year ago I'd have said no, and called Sariel another random reference to Western mythology like possibly Elis/Eris, maybe even a bit of Judeo-Christian apocrypha that ZUN picked up through another work. As Touhou has gone on and Gensokyo has become more defined and refined, it's become pretty solidly Eastern, the Scarlets notwithstanding.

But now, thanks to Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom, we have strong references to the Greek goddess Hecate and her lampads (and hell, Apollo is even mentioned in Hecatia's profile). So it looks like crossovers with other religions are possible, which means yeah, an obscure and mysterious seraph from the oldest parts of the Bible might have shown up in a dimension parallel to our favorite eastern wonderland.

Which reminds me, holy shit it's been a year since LoLK came out. Any objections to me adding those characters to the virtual hat?

No objections from me.

Is Sariel really an androgynous entity in the Makai? Was Shinki inspired by angels when she created Sariel? And how did get her hand son the Yin Yang Orbs?

edited 30th Jun '16 1:53:14 PM by GAP

It's not posting any new stuff, but the existing posts continue to exist.

We have to remember that Sariel predates Shinki in terms of game appearance, and debuted before Makai was populated by beings she claimed to have created. Since devils like Elis and other youkai in general can be found in Makai for the same reasons humans sometimes visit the place, I don't think they're "Makai residents" in the same way that Sara, Luize, Yuki, Mai and Yumeko (and Alice?) are, i.e. Shinki's direct creations.

And anyway, what does Shinki gain from creating a simulacrum seraph to antagonize a shrine maiden in Gensokyo? Though of course this begs the question of what Sariel hoped to accomplish by attacking the Hakurei Shrine... Maybe it's a test run? See if you can overthrow a forgotten eastern deity's stronghold before working up to the Pearly Gates?

edited 30th Jun '16 8:27:14 PM by Tacitus

Sariel:

An angel of death, as well as a fine practitioner of magic.

Embrace the Grace of Death:

Here's a possible angle. One high-class magician struck fear into the hearts of many with magic that could be best described as "tragic". They who despaired gave her accolades of aliases. Heck, even "Sariel" was among the monikers bestowed on her. The magician felt a strange affinity towards that name and so she rolled with it. Soon, she felt being called names all the time while keeping the same appearance wasn't cutting it anymore. She desired to become a being that resembled the people's expectations(fear).

Sariel ventured to Makai, a realm said to amplify the power of mages. Her prolonged stay eventually gave rise to her current appearance(s). However, there was one problem with her vacation in Makai; it was so long, that the masses who feared her had already moved on with their lives, leaving her brand of despair in the past. This absolutely must not stand! And so, in an attempt to restore her lost popularity and power, she decided to uproot a shrine. This majestic display of despair would surely make people remember the name of grand melancholy...

Completely unaware that the proprietor of said uprooted shrine would put an end to her comeback... Getting thrashed so soundly woke Sariel up from her grand dream. She finally realized her ego was getting too bloated, riding on the expectations(fear) of the people. She got this far on her own merits, the praises(fear) of the people was just a bonus. And thus, Sariel continues to unravel new aspects of her magic and of herself.

Yeah, I could see someone adopting the name Sariel to give themselves that additional otherworldly air. Might have been given by her enemies, or maybe she flipped through some books on foreign religions and latched onto a name that sounded cool. Either way, this mage really did her homework when coming up with the Sariel costume, even added a shield to the chest to hit the "angel of protection" angle.

On the other hand, I also like the idea that Sariel is indeed a figure from a different mythology who has wound up in a different realm. That would fit with the theme of gods and other supernatural figures being forced to take extreme steps to survive in a world of science. Maybe Sariel was more or less trapped in Makai, an obscure angel with so few people's belief/faith to survive on that Makai's miasma was more or less a life support system.

And that'd be kind of sad, wouldn't it? A once-feared fallen angel or angel of death, a once-mighty patron of mages and protectors, now living in a crappy shrine in a demon world, all but forgotten by mortals. Maybe Shinki was fully aware of Sariel's presence but gave the angel a home out of mercy. There might be a whole community of exiled gods, angels and devils from various faiths, hanging on as best they can in the twilight world of Makai.

I could see that Sariel could be some angel who had lost faith and taken refuge int he Makai.

Oooh, that is an interesting angle. Not so much a fallen angel as a defector who has grown disenfranchised with one divine hierarchy and fled to a border world. Maybe Sariel was putting in job applications to various Shinto deities or seeing if Buddhism had a place for an angel of death with six thousand years' work experience.

Picdump time. Hard to believe there's only been about four new pages of Sariel fanart since the last compendium, but them's the breaks for the Old Ones.

Still like this artist
Light is not necessarily good
Sketchy but happy
Sparkly
Very refined
Dark rain
Circles of power
Backlit
Angel of the blue roses
A bit crazed
A bit of remorse?
Get out of the shot, Rika
Red astral knight, blue angel
Nice pixels
Mistaken identity
This could have some interesting implications for EX-Rumia
Alice might be in trouble
Don't smudge the shield, Shinki
Requiescat in pace
Hallelujah
Chibi of the apocalypse

Hell's bells have tolled. May mercy be upon they who witness her holy eradication...

Exaltation of Divine Annihilation
Ode to Death
Derelict Kingdom
Magic's Revelation
Mage's Whisper
Good-bye L-world
Mutual Destruction

edited 6th Jul '16 12:25:01 AM by Diamite

What kind of an angel Sariel is?

edited 6th Jul '16 12:33:56 AM by GAP

Going by the wings I'd say a Seraph, which means as far as angels go she's pretty damn powerful.

Sariel - A Brief History: Now Until The Moment You Die

Sariel (Command of God) is apparently powerful enough to offer the same level of protection when invoked as Gabriel, Michael or Raphael. Certainly ranking highly amongst the Angelic hosts of Heaven. But, who is this angel who may or may not have attacked a shrine in another dimension?

Strangely, nobody really seems to know. In Scripture, Sariel appears many times with variable names, and descriptions that say anything from being an interpreter of dreams to a noble angel of death to a fallen angel who lusted after the daughters of man. Sariel also apparently spilled the secret of the lunar Callander to man.

There is no unifying theme behind these stories, no solid base for a reputation like other high-ranking Angels have and so lines and descriptions blurred. For the angel in question nothing would ever be the same again.

Poor Sariel, unsure of not only what her job should be but even how she should say her own name slowly slipped, undefined from the minds of those around her and was forgotten, both by Heaven above and by the Earth below.

Wandering without purpose Sariel slipped from the realm she had always known into the domain of another, unbeknownst to her she had arrived in Makai. Here there were no traces of her brethren, no one seemed to know any angels at all in fact.

This was her chance!

She found a nice location, a shrine that reminded her a little of home (It was a tad dilapidated but what could you do?) and set out to define herself.

The rest as they say is History. Taking a little from all sides Sariel became a beautiful (at least she hoped so) woman who carried out dream based divinations and predicted peoples' deaths.

Everything was going swimmingly and she really felt like she was fitting in, theme music and all! Until, that is, she was approached by a red and white shrine maiden who was spouting some nonsense about destroying a shrine. Sariel tried to explain it had been that way since she first found it but the Shrine maiden either didn't believe her or didn't care.

After heavy application of a yin-yang orb to her face Sariel, perhaps with less grace than she might have liked, withdrew into seclusion. Several years later she learned that she was not the only one who had suffered at the hands of the Red-White, there were many like her from the ruler of Makai, Shinki all the way down to a simple travelling tourist.

A club was formed that day who's sole purpose wad to keep its members as far from Reimu Hakurei as possible.

A short passage about one of the more positive interpretations of Sariel, since I really like her design and her themes. I just found the idea of her being forgotten, getting lost in Makai and building a new life culminating in making friends with Reimu's other victims after Mystic Square rather entertaining.

It's certainly different from the "ultimate villain returned from the start of the series to end it" angle that some works use. And Sariel becoming a diviner makes some sense - it's probably hard to be an Angel of Death when there's yama and shinigami already about, and what's the point of being an Angel of Magic if there's already a handy plane that enhances magic? Setting up shop as an oracle, especially one with such a specialty as death prognostications, seems like a more viable career move.

Welp, any final ruminations on a possible angel of death before we move on to Sukuna?

& I really like that idea of Sariel being some sort of Angel of Death who out of place in Gensokyo. I wonder if she did try to apply to become a shinigami for the Yama?

That idea makes me picture a celestial/infernal unemployment line. With cast off angels and demons looking for work in places like Gensokyo.

Clarste did mention how the Celestial Bureaucracy is incompetent and organized.