- 1,812
- 317
Some minor changes to the White Queen and a minor ability to all Materials in general recently came up in a discussion with DontTalk, so let's do it.
1. White Queen should have "resistance to Fate Manipulation".
One of the strongest Unexplored-class Materials after her, the Red Lady, can manipulate destiny and force something to happen by fixing the future in place, but even she is completely helpless against the White Queen. If this implication is not enough, in several non-canon crossovers the White Queen has disregarded fate holding any value over her or straight up resisted fate manipulation. You can take a look at the quotes here.
2. White Queen should have "resistance to Mind Manipulation".
In volume 2 the plan of the antagonists included separating the White Queen's mind from her body to use her and her power as tools "safely". But Kyousuke Shiroyama, an ace summoner, the person who knows more about the White Queen than almost any other human and an overall genius points out this only happened because the White Queen let it happen and that she could break free any moment she wanted (she was going along with the plan to have the chance of spending time with Kyousuke, a common occurrence in the series), which she confirms. This while being separated from her power.
"That is of course powerful, but also fickle. She is a lot like a plasma fusion reactor with no guarantee of safety."
"But placing everyone in a protective circle without giving them a vessel requires a bit of risk. And I have separated her mind from her body, mistress. I doubt she can wield her power of her own free will at the moment."
[...]
<When those two were referring to "that", they meant me. And it seems this White Queen has been built in as a foundation for their world without death. As a safety measure, the mind you are speaking with now has been separated from the body that acts as the source of my power.>
[...]
<Well, boredom is the greatest sin. They probably think I will lend them my body without bothering to break free of their cage if they let me behave as I please.>
[...]
<See, see? And by that theory, I couldn't hurt a fly while separated from my body like this. So stop giving me that unpleasant look and start flirting with this harmless and powerless version of me☆>
Kyousuke refused to believe it so easily.
For one thing…
"(Why are you helping humans? A space station? The End of the World? If you wanted to, you could easily break free of that manmade cage.)"
<It seems "this" is the safety method to keep that from happening. By binding my body but giving my mind freedom, they hope I won't get bored. As long as I'm happy, I won't go on a rampage.>
"(That doesn't explain anything. You're the strongest of the strong, so I can't imagine why you would obey anyone else.)"
<Because I knew you would show up before long if I did this. In that way, they passed with flying colors.>
3. White Queen should be able to resist the soul hax of the Ashen Shrine Maide, as like the Red Lady discussed above she's just another worm to the White Queen that can't hope to ever win a fight with her. This presents a small issue, though. What kind of resistance are we talking about?
It could be resistance to Soul Manipulation. However, the Ashen Shrine Maiden soul hax is based on curses and poisons delivered to the enemy through multiple vectors. The White Queen has resistance to 48 status effects, including instant death. Poison and Curse seem like something that would fall in that resistance, given their status as stock RPG status effects, especially in the case of Poison.
Should we add Poison and Curse to the status effects she resists or make a bigger assumption and add resistance to Soul Manipulation?
4. All Materials should have "capable of fighting spiritual beings like ghosts" added to their pages, and summoners should get "can exorcise ghosts via Incense Grenades".
Volume 2 of the series deals with a ghost, and one of the things mentioned in passing is that dealing with ghosts is a common job for summoners, and that most of the time they don't need to fight them with a Material as they can exorcise them with an Artificial Sacred Ground. This has the obvious conclusion that, if necessary, a Material can fight a ghost, which is explicitly a soul that's stuck on the physical world.
In the world of the summoning ceremony, ghosts were said to come from a place, not an individual.
Something was needed to pass between this world and the other world.
When that grew clogged up for some reason, the soul that should have departed would be stuck there.
Ghost exterminations were one of the most basic requests.
Unless the ghost was a very powerful vengeful spirit, it was almost never necessary to fight the ghost with a Material.
In most cases, one only needed to throw an Incense Grenade and set up an Artificial Sacred Ground. The ghost was a paranormal being, so the Artificial Sacred Ground would give them a boost and allow them to wield greater power than normal.
However, they could not actually use that power.
Once the conditions were set to summon a Material, the "clog" would be forcibly removed and the ghost would vanish like the rainwater left in the drain pipe.
Did the ghosts go to heaven as the religious claimed, were they sent to the other world where all the Materials lurked, or were they simply annihilated?
The answer to that question was not yet known.
But as far as the humans in this world were concerned, the problem was solved.
1. White Queen should have "resistance to Fate Manipulation".
One of the strongest Unexplored-class Materials after her, the Red Lady, can manipulate destiny and force something to happen by fixing the future in place, but even she is completely helpless against the White Queen. If this implication is not enough, in several non-canon crossovers the White Queen has disregarded fate holding any value over her or straight up resisted fate manipulation. You can take a look at the quotes here.
2. White Queen should have "resistance to Mind Manipulation".
In volume 2 the plan of the antagonists included separating the White Queen's mind from her body to use her and her power as tools "safely". But Kyousuke Shiroyama, an ace summoner, the person who knows more about the White Queen than almost any other human and an overall genius points out this only happened because the White Queen let it happen and that she could break free any moment she wanted (she was going along with the plan to have the chance of spending time with Kyousuke, a common occurrence in the series), which she confirms. This while being separated from her power.
"That is of course powerful, but also fickle. She is a lot like a plasma fusion reactor with no guarantee of safety."
"But placing everyone in a protective circle without giving them a vessel requires a bit of risk. And I have separated her mind from her body, mistress. I doubt she can wield her power of her own free will at the moment."
[...]
<When those two were referring to "that", they meant me. And it seems this White Queen has been built in as a foundation for their world without death. As a safety measure, the mind you are speaking with now has been separated from the body that acts as the source of my power.>
[...]
<Well, boredom is the greatest sin. They probably think I will lend them my body without bothering to break free of their cage if they let me behave as I please.>
[...]
<See, see? And by that theory, I couldn't hurt a fly while separated from my body like this. So stop giving me that unpleasant look and start flirting with this harmless and powerless version of me☆>
Kyousuke refused to believe it so easily.
For one thing…
"(Why are you helping humans? A space station? The End of the World? If you wanted to, you could easily break free of that manmade cage.)"
<It seems "this" is the safety method to keep that from happening. By binding my body but giving my mind freedom, they hope I won't get bored. As long as I'm happy, I won't go on a rampage.>
"(That doesn't explain anything. You're the strongest of the strong, so I can't imagine why you would obey anyone else.)"
<Because I knew you would show up before long if I did this. In that way, they passed with flying colors.>
3. White Queen should be able to resist the soul hax of the Ashen Shrine Maide, as like the Red Lady discussed above she's just another worm to the White Queen that can't hope to ever win a fight with her. This presents a small issue, though. What kind of resistance are we talking about?
It could be resistance to Soul Manipulation. However, the Ashen Shrine Maiden soul hax is based on curses and poisons delivered to the enemy through multiple vectors. The White Queen has resistance to 48 status effects, including instant death. Poison and Curse seem like something that would fall in that resistance, given their status as stock RPG status effects, especially in the case of Poison.
Should we add Poison and Curse to the status effects she resists or make a bigger assumption and add resistance to Soul Manipulation?
4. All Materials should have "capable of fighting spiritual beings like ghosts" added to their pages, and summoners should get "can exorcise ghosts via Incense Grenades".
Volume 2 of the series deals with a ghost, and one of the things mentioned in passing is that dealing with ghosts is a common job for summoners, and that most of the time they don't need to fight them with a Material as they can exorcise them with an Artificial Sacred Ground. This has the obvious conclusion that, if necessary, a Material can fight a ghost, which is explicitly a soul that's stuck on the physical world.
In the world of the summoning ceremony, ghosts were said to come from a place, not an individual.
Something was needed to pass between this world and the other world.
When that grew clogged up for some reason, the soul that should have departed would be stuck there.
Ghost exterminations were one of the most basic requests.
Unless the ghost was a very powerful vengeful spirit, it was almost never necessary to fight the ghost with a Material.
In most cases, one only needed to throw an Incense Grenade and set up an Artificial Sacred Ground. The ghost was a paranormal being, so the Artificial Sacred Ground would give them a boost and allow them to wield greater power than normal.
However, they could not actually use that power.
Once the conditions were set to summon a Material, the "clog" would be forcibly removed and the ghost would vanish like the rainwater left in the drain pipe.
Did the ghosts go to heaven as the religious claimed, were they sent to the other world where all the Materials lurked, or were they simply annihilated?
The answer to that question was not yet known.
But as far as the humans in this world were concerned, the problem was solved.
