Enlightenment: The Six Realms of Reincarnation and the Six Races

Unless a soul attains enlightenment and is reborn into paradise, it continues to transmigrate through the Six Realms.

● The Heavenly Realm (White)

Also called the Deva realm. Those who go by the names of gods, angels, and the like are mostly these. Whatever their outward appearance, they have no sex as such, and they do not reproduce.

In a dungeon, both their summoning cost and their upkeep cost are high. Moreover, without dungeon energy they can neither fly nor work miracles.

Their lifespans are long, but as the end nears, there come what are called the Five Signs of a Deva's Decay: wash as they might, they stay filthy; their heads grow grubby and patchy-bald; a dreadful body odor reeks off them; and in that state they wander about. It is further said that their whole body gives off an unbearable stench, and that their eyes grow dim.

● Asura (Blue)

A race that carries the elements of plants. The Asura Realm is a world of strife, where shared resources such as light and water are fought over.

They are generally said to be strong in pride and prone to looking down on others, though there are many exceptions. They are individualistic and tend not to meddle in others' affairs.

Perhaps because plants sip muddy water, no matter what they eat, it tastes only of muddy water.

Their methods of reproduction are seeds and clones, and many of them have no reproductive organs in their human form. Because their skeletons are wood-based rather than bone, they weigh somewhat less.

Even an annual plant, as an "Asura," needs several to about ten years to mature. Their lifespans are several decades, though some live for several centuries or more.

The objects of reincarnation include ordinary plants too, but only Asura can gain dungeon energy.

There are arrogant ones, such as the Orchid family, who style themselves the "higher species," and the Chrysanthemum family, who style themselves "the most evolved, most differentiated clan." There are also families with distinctive traits: the Orchid family, for instance, generally bears the Greek word "orchis," the root of the English "orchid." The only Asura the Library-City Dungeon can summon are the Shiso family, and it seems many of them are the square, inflexible sort.

● Humans (Color Unknown?)

The most numerous race. Their breeding rate is high. Biologically they are animals, but in religious terms they are distinguished from the Beast Realm.

Whether races such as tengu and kappa are humans or Beasts is unknown.

● Beasts (Yellow)

A race that carries the elements of animals. Because "Beast" also includes ordinary animals, the term "beastfolk" is used to distinguish them. Including ordinary animals, they are said to number 3.4 billion kinds.

Their forms are varied: animals capable of walking on two legs, beings whose heads or limbs are animal but whose skeletons are human, and so on.

A "Beast" needs several to about ten years to mature. Their lifespans are several decades, generally about the same as the original animal's or a little longer.

The objects of reincarnation include ordinary animals too, but no dungeon energy can be gained from them. There is no strict boundary with ordinary animals: if no dungeon energy can be gained, it's just an animal. Something like that.

【Animals Capable of Walking on Two Legs】

They look like animals but walk upright. Beastfolk in the general sense. In the otherworld's out-of-copyright fiction, that would be Peter Rabbit. Their size sometimes differs from the original animal's.

The Library-City Dungeon's catfish is a giant catfish with limbs. In the otherworld, it's a familiar sight in catfish-prints.

【Humans Whose Heads or Limbs Are Animal】

Ox-Head and Horse-Head, or the otherworld myth's Minotaur. Of course, in this world they are not called Minotaurs, but the Dungeon Master calls the male a Minotaur and the female a Minowakka. Hida-beef and Hida wagyū are limited to black-haired wagyū produced in Gifu Prefecture, but the otherworld's Mino-beef may be Holstein so long as it's produced in Gifu Prefecture. For this reason, just as there is Hida-beef produced in Mino, in the otherworld there is also Mino-beef produced in Hida.

【Lower Half Is Animal】

The otherworld myth's satyrs and merfolk. The Library-City Dungeon's horse-beastfolk are "Silenus" types, with the lower half, tail, and ears of a horse. Of course, in this world they aren't called that, but referred to as "horse-legs" and the like.

【Constraints on Bird-Folk】

Because a certain brain size is needed to possess intelligence, "bird-folk" grow large and struggle to fly. Furthermore, human-sized bird-folk, and half-bird-folk whose bodies are partly in human form like the otherworld myth's harpies, can fly only if they possess the corresponding unique law or are in a large dungeon. (Of course, in this world they aren't called "harpies.")

【Constraints on Insect-Folk】

A certain brain size is needed to possess intelligence, but insects have exoskeletons and breathe through spiracles, so "insect-folk" can exist only within certain dungeons. The same goes for large insects such as giant ants.

【As for Foxes and Tanuki Shapeshifting】

A fox's or tanuki's shapeshifting also runs on dungeon energy. As mere illusion, it is comparatively easy to shapeshift even without a unique law, but the trick is exposed if one touches them. To change the actual outward appearance requires a comparatively large dungeon. To change even one's mass is exceedingly difficult.

● Preta (Red)

A race that carries the elements of minerals. They do not reproduce; they are born from stone.

Basically nocturnal.

They can neither eat nor drink, able only to imbibe alcohol or ether, so they suffer from chronic hunger. They do not, however, starve to death; they merely fall into suspended animation. If left in that state for a long time and weathered away, they die.

Because their skeletons contain a great deal of silicon, they are heavy. They are not, of course, silicon-based life.

Long ago there was a saying, "the Preta are the stone wall, the Preta are the castle"; the tactic was to build a castle of Preta in suspended animation and, when war made them necessary, to give them liquor.

Ordinary minerals are not living things, so they are not objects of reincarnation.

● Hell (Black)

The details are unknown. Marie's guess is that "Library Hell" is one of the following: being forced to read books all day long; or, conversely, having a great many books before one's eyes but never being permitted to read a single one; or else being buried under books and, as one of the damned, being unable to die.