Celestial

Template:Species Infobox

## General Information

Celestials (天人) are humans who have achieved nirvana and ascended to Heaven. Considered a kind of hermit, they come in two varieties: those who retain their physical bodies and have achieved immortality, and those who died in a state of nirvana and have become pure spirits unbound by the physical world. The latter must possess the bodies of the living in order to interact with the world, including their fellow Celestials, but the former live like earthly humans except that they lead lives of luxury without earthly cares.

As they have achieved nirvana, all Celestials lack desires of any kind. This does not mean that they do not set goals for themselves or that they do not prefer for one outcome to occur instead of another, but they do not truly "desire" these things, meaning that if these things do not come to pass, they are not bothered at all. Similarly, Celestials may keep possessions, but they have no real attachment to these possessions and therefore are not bothered if they are taken from them, although they might still attempt to recover them if given the opportunity. Even a Celestial's own life is of no special concern to him or her, as while he or she will attempt to defend it if it does not interfere with any of his or her other goals, he or she will sacrifice it without a second thought in the interest of a greater cause and will not be upset at the prospect of having it taken away. Essentially, Celestials think completely logically, weighing costs and benefits without attachment or bias.

This does not mean that Celestials are not emotional beings, however, nor that they all act the same way. Rather, while a Celestial's lack of desire may mean that he or she has no reason to do a given thing, it also means that he or she has no reason *not* to do that thing. Because of this, Celestials' personalities can vary wildly, with some being benign and some being mischievous or even malicious, depending on certain factors such as their upbringing. In fact, because they have no real attachments to any things or people, Celestials are free to act more or less according to their whims.

Celestials are capable of having children, and the child of a Celestial is a Celestial as well. Since the children of Celestials are born already in a state of nirvana, this means that they do not have to undergo Buddhist training in order to rid themselves of their desires, which may affect their perception of the world and cause them to behave wildly different from those Celestials who did undergo training in order to achieve nirvana. These younger generations are a large part of the reason for the capricious reputation of Celestials.

As residents of Heaven, an even purer realm than the Moon, Celestials possess an inherent purity that exceeds even that of Lunarians. In fact, because they are so pure, they do not share the Lunarians' weakness to impurity, as their purity is so complete that most forms of impurity simply bounce right off them. Because of this, they cannot be detected by Udonge trees, and weapons that target impurity are completely ineffective against them. However, it is possible for a Celestial to become impure if exposed to a large enough amount of impurity over a long enough period of time, but it would be extremely difficult, and the tainted Celestial would quickly become pure again once they were removed from their impure environment.

### **☯Abilities**

Unlike ordinary hermits who have not achieved nirvana, a Celestial's flesh is poisonous to youkai when ingested. Youkai can generally touch a Celestial without repercussion, but consuming any part of one or even one's blood or other bodily fluids can be fatal. Celestials project an invisible "aura" of sorts that makes youkai slightly unsettled around them, which serves as a warning not to prey on them. Gods, animals, and other non-youkai beings are unaffected by a Celestial's poisonous qualities, but the same aura of Celestials that unsettles youkai also pacifies animals.

Due to their enlightened state, Celestials are capable of utilizing powerful magic that goes beyond even what some of the most powerful earthly magicians are capable of. Even the weakest of Celestials stands a decent chance against the strongest of youkai, and the most powerful Celestials wield powers on par with those of the highest-ranking Lunarians. However, most of these more powerful Celestials are of the variety that lack physical bodies and thus rarely interfere in the affairs of the Earth, although even those who do have bodies can be quite powerful.

Celestials are not inherently stronger or faster than a normal human, but the peaches that grow in Heaven have properties that allow a person to mold their body to their will when eaten over a long period of time, so most Celestials do have bodies with superhuman properties. Although Celestials cannot be as strong as an oni or as fast as a tengu, they can come close, and most are also durable enough that physical attacks barely even scratch them. This same property of Heaven's peaches also allows Celestials to more or less choose their own appearance, although they cannot change it on a whim as the process usually takes months or even years.

These same peaches also prevent Celestials from aging, if they so choose, but normally even this would not stop them from dying once they reached their appointed age. Rather, Celestials derive their immortality from their ability to defeat the kishin who come to assassinate them and collect their souls. Usually, these kishin come roughly once every 100 years to collect a Celestial, and most Celestials spend large portions of their lives training for these occasions. As long as a Celestial can continue to defeat all of the kishin that come to assassinate him or her, he or she can continue living indefinitely.

### **☯Celestial Veils**

Traditionally, all Celestial maidens are granted special veils upon their birth or ascension by the lord of Heaven, the most powerful Celestial who rules over the others, which they are intended to wear on their wedding day. A common misconception holds that these veils are used to travel between Heaven and Earth, due to comparison with the Lunar Veils sometimes used by Lunarians to travel between the Moon and the Earth, but this is not true. Instead, their function is purely symbolic. Celestial tradition holds that if a man manages to steal a Celestial maiden's veil, she will be obligated to marry him, but while some Celestial maidens do uphold this tradition, it is in no way compulsory and many Celestials simply choose to take back their veils instead. Still, because the tradition of these veils is so strong in Celestial culture, most Celestial women keep their veils well-hidden until their wedding day in order to prevent them from being stolen or lost.

By tradition, these veils are made of antimatter. Normally, this would make them very difficult to handle, much less wear, as antimatter annihilates and explodes upon contact with ordinary matter, but they are also surrounded by a very thin and flexible magical barrier that prevents them from coming into contact with surrounding matter, making them safe to touch. Antimatter is used because of its exotic nature, which actually provides yet another reason for a potential thief to steal one, besides the hope of marriage. The average Celestial veil has an estimated worth in the trillions of yen.