Musing on Ancient Mugenri History
I've been thinking about this topic recently and there's a lot in my mind, so I thought to write it down before it starts fading lol.
To be clear, this is going to involve a lot of speculation, and not much is gonna be based on concrete proof, which is a rather great departure from what I usually prefer, but hey, speculation is fun every now then~
This is gonna be split into several parts, which I hope makes things neat enough. In any case, let's begin!
The People of Mugenri
Before we look into the general ancient history of Mugenri, let's take a quick look at what the residents of Mugenri could've been like in the distant past.
Canon Information
First, let's start with the history of its population. Here, we look at these this line from A World That Isn't Fantasy — To Mugenri:
Hoojiro "Another world….. A land of a race that broke off from mankind long, long ago."
Haru immediately recognises this as referencing the "Land of Non-humans", which Tsubakura had apparently been looking into prior to being spirited away.
This land is generally accepted to refer to Mugenri, and this is the assumption I will be going off of here as well.
Additionally, let's also take a look at this bit of information from the 2021 Interview with JynX.
Characters (BPoHC) — Question 242 Q: Considering that God is moreso a qualification rather than a species, are Yago and Souko's longevity thanks to their original species rather than their status as a god? Does becoming a god even grant you new abilities? A: They both gained their longevity after becoming gods and were originally human-like.
Interpretation
Putting these two together, I propose the following: Mugenri was initially inhabited by a "primordial race", the very human-like race that Yago and Souko belonged to prior to their ascension to godhood.
Somewhere a long the way, this original race split into "humans" and "non-humans", who once co-existed peacefully but had a fall-out of some sorts.
This lead to the event Hoojiro described, the non-humans "breaking off" from the humans and settling in Mugenri, creating the "Land of Non-humans"
Caveats
There are, I think, 2 major caveats to this idea:
I'm making an assumption that the non-humans "breaking off" from the humans applies to both their evolutionary path as well as the relationship between the two.
There's nothing explicitly connecting the "human-like" race and the modern humans and non-humans.
Mugenri's Ancient History
This is where we get really speculative, as all I really have to go on are these names from BotC Back Issue EE Yabusame's Route - Stage 1:
Gods' Tabooed Land
Garden of Eden
Lost Horizon
Oppressed Land of Exile
It should absolutely be noted NiLU suggests that not all of these names originally referred to Mugenri, but that they only got conflated with Mugenri later down the line.
Nevertheless, they're helpful for taking a glimpse into Mugenri's nature. So, let's try to piece a timeline together using these names.
Step 0. Gods' Tabooed Land
"Tabooed Land" is a concept from Shinto that refers to a location said to be reserved for the gods and within which humans are forbidden, often believed to be where the gods descended to and from earth.
Admittedly, I'm unsure whether this step would be placed here or further down, hence "step 0".
If we were to place this here, this would refer to when the gods first descended to earth and started their work, landing in what would become Mugenri and creating "human-like" beings to inhabit it.
Step 1. Garden of Eden
This of course refers to the biblical paradise mentioned in Abrahamic religions where the first humans Adam and Eve once lived before being exiled by God for eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
It's a rather safe bet to place as the first stage of Mugenri, as it is where humanity originated. Paralleling, in the case of Len'en, Mugenri being where the human-like primordial race came from.
It would also be during this period that Yago Ametsukana ascended to godhood, and perhaps Souko Shirami as well, though I'm have less proof for that one outside of the two gods' basis sharing a similar time period in the irl myths.
I would guess that somewhere along the way, whether they have already speciated into human and non-humans aside, the original inhabitants of Mugenri got themselves exiled from Mugenri.
Fondly remembering the paradisical life they used to lead in Mugenri, and lamenting its lost, the land eventually became known as, or equated with, the name "Garden of Eden".
Side Note — Yago's Ascension You might be curious as to why I'm so sure that Yago's ascension is so likely to have taken place in this stage, even specifically before the residents got exiled. This comes from a spell card of theirs, Sword Shot "The Cherubim and the Whirling Sword of Flame". This spell references what the Abrahamic God sent to guard the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve's exile. Thus, Yago having this spell card quite heavily suggests that it was the Ametsukana who forged the "whirling sword of flame" and sent it with the cherubim to guard the garden.
Step 2A. Lost Horizon
Lost Horizon is a 1933 novel by English writer James Hilton, famous for being the origin of Shangri-La, a fictional utopian lamasery.
Having been banished from Mugenri, and as the time passed, it's not beyond belief that the people (especially the humans) would've forgotten where Mugenri was once located, rending a truly lost location from their perspective.
It is also during this phase, I would guess, that the two categories of humans and non-humans must have came to be, no later than this. Explanation to come later.
Step 2B. Gods' Tabooed Land
Yep, the "Gods' Tabooed Land" returns once again. For those who did not forget Mugenri, where it was and its history; or perhaps from the gods' own perspective, Mugenri isn't "lost" at all, it's right there!
Instead, these people would've understood Mugenri as a place now exclusively belonging to the gods, and where humans especially are not allowed to enter.
(After all, while the line between human and god is fairly clear, that between youkai and god is often less so.)
Step 3. Oppressed Land of Exile
Unlike the other names, this one doesn't seem to be a reference of any sort, but is just a simple description of the land.
It is during this time period that I propose the "breaking off" between humans and non-humans must've occurred. For whatever reason, the two races were no longer able to peacefully co-exist.
This lead to the non-humans returning to Mugenri (like I mentioned, it's a lot more likely for them to know where it is after all this time). There, they either locked themselves within to cut all possible contact with the humans or they got locked within by the humans.
Having been exiled from the outside world, the inhabitants of Mugenri started a new era of their lives, adopting the Ruri calendar. "Ruri" meaning "exile", further strengthening this idea.
Side Note I've been using "Mugenri" to refer to this location this entire time, but it only makes sense to assume that this name isn't always what it was called. In fact, I think it's rather likely that it was only used after the barrier was created and a separate world formed. Here, I'll use "Ruri Mugenri", named after its Ruri calendar, to denote specifically the Mugenri as we know it now, separated from the outside by the barrier.
The "exiled non-humans" theory does raise a curious question though: Why are there also humans in Ruri Mugenri?
Of course, this could be explained simply by the fact that humans occasionally wander into Mugenri, but I get the impression that humans have always been in the Ruri Mugenri from the very beginning.
There are, in my opinion, three ways we can explain this:
These early humans were sympathizers to the non-humans, and in solidarity joined them in their self-imposed exile.
These early humans were those who sacrificed their own freedom to forever trap the non-humans in Mugenri.
These early humans were not interested in the race conflict, but was simply hoping to start anew or escape the outside world.
Personally, I would imagine that all these cases could be found, though I'd like to focus on the 2nd option. Because this, I believe, is the origin of the Senri Shrine.
We know that the 1st Senri priest was among those who created the Mugenri Barrier, and considering their successor, Tsurubami Senri's, stance towards youkai, it's not hard to see how I came to this conclusion.
Additionally, this also answers the question of whether the non-humans willingly shut themselves in Mugenri or were trapped in there by the humans.
This idea is somewhat supported by this from the 2021 Interview with JynX:
Mugenri — Question 86 Q: Can you think of Mugenri as a trap or prison, maybe a birdcage? Why else would it be so easy to get in but extremely difficult to get out? A: Something like that. The details are secret~.
Unhelpful JynX aside (lol), they did agree, to some extent, that Mugenri is a trap or a prison, further strengthening the idea that the non-humans aren't exactly willing participants.
The Human/Non-human Conflict
Finally, let's take a quick look at what could've caused this conflict between the two sides in the first place. I have a few theories, so let's go into that here.
First off, there's always the good old human fear of the unknown and the different, the easiest and most typical explanation for these situations and plots.
Perhaps the humans gradually grew more and more intolerant of the non-humans, and eventually took to taking up arms against them, leading to this conflict.
Of course, it's frankly hard to believe that these primeval humans would've been able to fight against the myriad of youkai and other non-humans all by themselves.
Here I suggest that the humans weren't alone, but were instead supported by a certain subset of gods. To see where this idea comes from, let's revisit A World That Isn't Fantasy, this time looking at Alice Leaping Atop Lily Pad Ice.
Hoojiro "Have you ever heard of it? The story of the imperial family and the Earthly Gods buried by history's darkness."
This is, at first glance, seemingly just a throwaway line. Hoojiro brings it up out of nowhere, and Haru quickly brushes her aside.
But even ignoring why Hoojiro brought it up, from an out-of-universe perspective, this line is far too loaded to be nothing, especially from a writer like JynX.
From an in-universe perspective, Hoojiro then follows this up with the talk on the Land of Non-humans in the next section, To Mugenri. This, to me at least, seems to hint that these two must be related somehow.
After all, Tsubakura was looking into the Land of Non-humans, and Hoojiro would've certainly had a good idea of everything they looked into and found.
So! Let's try to figure out what this is about.
First off, I'll tell you right now that this is referring to the mythologised telling of how the Yamato dynasty of Japan came to rule over these islands.
See the imperial family of Japan, according to their mythology, is descendant from Amaterasu Ōmikami, a sun goddess. She is what is considered a "heavenly god" (天津神 amatsukami), gods belonging to or originating from the heavenly realm of Takamagahara.
The counterpart to these heavenly gods are thus the "earthly gods" (国津神 kunitsukami), the native gods of the earth. They were the original rulers of the land (Japan), and it was through both diplomacy and force that the heavenly gods got the earthly gods to relinquish control of the earth to them.
This, I am certain, is the "story of the imperial family and the Earthly Gods", Hoojiro refers to. And I have a feeling that this is what caused the relationship between the humans and non-humans to sour.
Basing it on the myths, it would appear that the heavenly gods chose, for whatever reason, to side with the humans in the conflict, allowing them claim the world as their own.
Having identified the heavenly gods with the humans, this would leave the earthly gods with the non-humans, neither of whom fared very well in this exchange, and were forced to submit before the heavenly gods and their humans.
Thus the losers of this conflict, the earthly gods and non-humans, were "exiled" from the known world, put into an almost mirror-dimension-like plane of existence, their only way back out into the greater world through the outside, the Land of the Humans.
Note — Too Harsh on the Humans? History is written by the victors, or in this case, the imprisoned losers. All the sources we have so far are fairly Ruri Mugenri-centric, even those from outside. There is every chance that the humans were somewhat justified in their attack on the non-humans at first, perhaps the non-humans first took over and oppressed them, much like how the earthly gods were the original rulers of Japan. If this were true, that it'd be rather easy to see why the heavenly gods sided with the humans, perhaps out of pity, or a desire to use them to eliminate a common enemy.
Ending
Phew! That was a lot, wasn't it?
But this indeed concludes my thoughts on what the hypothetical ancient history of the land of Mugenri might be like, from it's initial inception to the establishment of Ruri Mugenri.
Like I mentioned at the beginning, a lot more guesswork and speculation this time, so its canonicity is very doubtful. Still, I think it's at least plausible.
As usual, I hope you enjoyed it~! :)
