Five Principal Clans

The **Five Principal Clans**, also known as the **Five Great Families**, are the five well known distinguished clans, which have purified evil spirits since ancient times.

## Summary

The Five Principal Clans are five powerful clans composed of Japanese Witches who possess a divine connection to the Shinto Gods and have served them for generations. All their members from ancient times have been blessed to be capable of manipulating one of the five elements also regarded as the **Five Phases**, which is apart of their respective clans due to both their fervent faith and strict worship in Shintoism.

However, those who haven't been blessed with those powers from birth as by Hanezu Himejima, the previous Section Head of the Utsusemi Agency and the other members were outcasts and exiled from their respective clans. Certain members such as Shuri and Himejima Ageha who violate their religious laws are either executed or even banished as the former had given birth to the daughter of a Fallen Angel; while the latter for her practice of Buddhist Magic, which is from a different religion.

The Five Principal Clans are suspicious of supernatural beings such as from foreign factions as proven by Grigori and Magicians from Grauzauberer. Due to their zealot belief in the Shinto gods, they deemed Magicians such as those from the History Complication Committee as inferiors, mainly due to the fact Magicians were able to use magic through equations while their magical abilities were direct blessings from the gods.

While they normally have a neutral relationship with the Youkai, certain Youkai bear a grudge against the Five Principal Clans such as Inugami Gyoubu. They believe in the idea that all Youkai of Japan should be subservient to them, as they are the direct messengers of the gods who preside over the island nation they are inhabitted in.

Due to their strict belief in Shintoism, the Five Principal Clans have an aversion towards the members of their clans who are born with Sacred Gears, which are supernatural powers and items originating from the Abrahamic Beliefs as possessing them is considered heresy .

This is most notable for Longinus possessors who are feared due to their Sacred Gears' powerful potential to kill even Gods, as proven with Ikuse Tobio who is of Himejima descent who holds the Longinus, Canis Lykaon, which possesses the Ame-no-Ohabari, a divine blade used to kill Kagutsuchi - the Shinto Goddess of Fire that the Himejima Clan worshipped. Nakiri Momiji was also forced to live in reclusion due to her ownership of the Longinus Telos Karma.

## Abilities

In addition to the power of the Five Elements and Eastern Magic of Shintoism, the five clans have command over the **Five Sacred Beasts** with the strongest members of their respective clans inheriting them and their names.

The Five Principal Clans and the Sacred Beasts linked to the respective clans are:

 Doumon
 Shinra
 Himejima
 Nakiri

## Trivia

* Each of the surnames of the five families means:
	+ Nakiri (百鬼|なきり) means "Hundred Demons".
	+ Himejima (姫島|ひめじま) means "Princess Island".
	+ Kushihashi (櫛橋|くしはし) means "Comb Bridge".
	+ Doumon (童門|どうもん) means "Child Gate".
	+ Shinra (真羅|しんら) means "True Fabric".