Demigods

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Demigods
Demigods celebrating in the crown city of Shinto
Homeworld	Gaea
Nation	Shinkoku Trastrium
Ruler	Deus Emperor Strada (former)
Affiliation	Shinkoku Trastrium
Occupation	Govern Gaea and the humans Harness Mantra Battle the Gohma

The Demigods (神人) are a superior race of beings that rule over the humans and one of the highest class of characters inhabiting Gaea. They govern the ruling nation of Gaea, Shinkoku Trastrium. The Demigods are the descendants of genetically enhanced humans, and they are the only beings capable of harnessing and manipulating Mantra. They constantly battle the Gohma in a neverending conflict.

The demigods are the instigators of many of the events taking a place throughout the Asura's Wrath storyline.

Appearance

The demigods appear to be strikingly similar to normal humans but wear intricate, extravagant and fanciful clothing and attire. Most of their clothing appears to be similar to those worn by ancient Chinese and Japanese nobles. Apart from the regular demigods, the elite demigods such as the Eight Guardian Generals resemble deities from several Asian mythologies.

The demigods generally appear to have markings and symbols running throughout their face and body. However, that specific trait appears to be more prominent and apparent in males, while being seemingly less prominent in females, either because they do not have them or because they are covered; female demigoddesses like Durga appear to lack that trait, while Mithra and Olga, who are the priestess of Shinkoku and an elite demigoddess respectively, bear those markings on their body.

Physiognomy

The demigods are the descendants of genetically altered humans, and they are the only beings able to manipulate Mantra. By activating the Mantra within their bodies, they are able to enhance their physical abilities to a great extent. Due to their ability to harness Mantra, the combative demigods' bodies have mostly relinquished flesh in favor of mechanical/cybernetic parts, having the special ability to have the typical organs or appendages they sufficiently use for fighting in fierce conflicts converted from flesh to metal, greatly augmenting their strength, resilience and physical performance.

A great majority of the race were not exhibited to have blood significantly differing from that of humans, being a dull red in color, possibly due to not being combatants. Only the Eight Guardian Generals have been observed to have an orange ichor-like fluid flowing through their veins, though it is unknown if this is part of the augmentations touted by the Generals or simply a trait defined by the saturation of Mantra into their bodies.

All Demigods seem to be extremely long-lived and can maintain the prime of their youth for a long period of time before showing signs of age, if at all.

The most important element within a demigod is their reactor, an engine whose conductors resonate with Mantra and transform it into fuel. In this way, the demigods achieve incredible supernatural abilities, and are able to increase their power exponentially the more Mantra they possess and generate. Additionally, all demigods possess a basic ability to activate the Mantra within their bodies and cover them with additional layers of metallic armour; the process and degree of metalisation differs among each of them. When in use, the reactor would generate a vertical halo behind the user that varied in size and detail depending on the amount exerted. This would dissolve, however, if enough kinetic force was applied to the host to knock the object far enough to where the reactor could no longer sustain it. Very few demigods went out of their way to intentionally restore the ring once it was destroyed, implicating that the creation of one required a degree of concentration not afforded to someone in the thick of battle.

History

The Demigods were originally a group of regular humans who were given the ability to harness the power of Mantra, the life-giving energy produced by emotions, using their bodies and will by Chakravartin. As they harnessed the Mantra, they became more technologically advanced and eventually elevated themselves into a race of cybernetically augmented humans. By activating the Mantra within their bodies, they were able to enhance their physical abilities to superhuman levels. They used these enhanced capabilities and advancements in technology to promote the advancement of civilisation and govern the baseline humans. Demigods showing an aptitude in the eight forms of Mantra were periodically selected to fill the seats of the Eight Guardian Generals, who commanded the Shinkoku army against the Gohma, a race of twisted creatures generated by Gaea's Gohma Vlitra to impede the Demigods' theft of souls in order to power their devices and their abuse of natural resources.

The humans living on Gaea treated Shinkoku's denizens as divine beings as such. However, in reality, this was but a misconception fostered by the enhanced, as they relied on the Mantra generated by humanity's prayers and souls as a crucial energy source for both their implants and machines. The Demigods' power actually stemmed from reactors implanted in their bodies at birth that, as a side effect, slowly converted commonly used assets of the host into a type of metal, an example being Yasha's hands or Asura's entire arms.

After the death of the God of Mantra, Chakravartin, at the hands of the demigod Asura, all Mantra in the universe would cease to exist. Consequently, the demigod race would come to its end, with the demigods reverting back to normal humans or dying, vanishing without a trace.

Powers and Abilities

Physical Abilities

Superhuman Physiology: Demigods were originally humans who were powered by Mantra, enhancing their physical abilities and power to incredible superhuman levels. Regular humans came to treat them as divine beings.

• Cybernetic Implantation/Cyborgization: Many Demigods, most notably those specialized in the art of war, possess other physical enhancements in the form of cybernetic implants and augmentations, with some individuals being more machine than flesh. The reactor implanted in their bodies is the core that allows them to harness Mantra, enabling them to achieve incredible supernatural abilities and increase their power exponentially the more Mantra they possess and generate.

Immortality: Thanks to Mantra, the demigods possess eternal life and are unable to age, having a virtually eternal lifespan in comparison to humans. They also cannot be killed by conventional methods and can only be destroyed by other deities or the Gohma.

Vacuum Adaptation: The demigods are capable of surviving in areas normal humans cannot such as outer space and the Moon unaided and without any form of discomfort. They are not affected by the lack of atmosphere and increased level of cosmic radiation.

Mantra

Mantra Manipulation: The demigods' ability to harness and manipulate Mantra is the very foundation of their society as a whole, the origin of their abilities and the power source of their technology and weapons. By activating the Mantra within their bodies through their reactor, the demigods are able to enhance their physical abilities and power to a great extent. They use these abilities and their prowess of manipulating Mantra to promote the advancement of civilisation and govern the humans. They also use their abilities to fight against the Gohma and protect their way of life.

• Emotion Empowerment: The Eight Guardian Generals are capable of growing stronger from the Eight Mantras' emotions of Wrath, Pride, Melancholy, Lust, Violence, Greed, Sloth and Vanity.

• Prayer Empowerment: Demigods are beings who are powered by Mantra, metaphysical energy permeating the whole universe that can be found in living beings (souls) and prayers. Prayers chanted by humans and other demigods empower them.

• Soul Extraction: Many of the Demigods have the ability to extract the souls of mortals.

• Size Manipulation: One of the Seven Deities, Wyzen, is capable of changing his size from being larger than a human, to mountain size and even to planetary size. After having the Mantra Reactor of the Karma Fortress implanted in his chest, Asura also became capable of growing to planetary sizes.

• Soul Manipulation Resistance: Asura has a very resilient soul, having returned from Naraka several times.

• Lightning Manipulation/Electrokinesis: Deus, the leader of the Seven Deities, has the power to generate and control lightning and electricity.

• Flight: Asura and the Demigods have the ability to fly through the air by the use of Mantra to travel at high speeds to different places such as outer space.

• Healing Factor: Asura has shown the power to heal his body through the use of Mantra.

• Halo: The demigods have the ability to activate their own individual halo, allowing them to unleash their full power.

Energy Transference: The Demigods are able to turn souls into Mantra with machines, which they use to power themselves and their weapons.

Trivia

• The name of the race draws from the real life term, Demigod, which denotes an individual being part-human and part-god and having god-like powers or traits that lend credence to their being sired by a deity. A demigod is often someone who is the offspring of a god and a human.