Phantasmal Species

幻想種 - Gensoushu

Legendary creatures

A term for those non-humans that are creatures of legends, rather than a separate ranking for beasts. Creatures that can only be found in fantasy. Encompasses demi-humans such as fairies and giants as well as monsters such as dragons and Oni. Unlike demons, these are active and not passive entities.

Just as magi gain power through the accumulation of knowledge, phantasm races gain power with age. But, while a magus is limited to a lifespan of a mere 500 years for amassing their thaumaturgy, phantasm races have lived since ancient times. A mystery of only 500 years is no match for them. In fact, their very existence can be said to be on the level of true magic.

The longer they live, the more they grow to be farther away from the world. A phantasm race that reaches the level of a mythical beast is shifted to the "back side" of the world. Currently, the ones remaining are only those that have lived in units of centuries instead of millennia. Modern thaumaturgy is incapable of reproducing mysteries of this kind of scale.

Einnashe, Rider's Pegasus (which had come from the Age of Gods), the Unicorn from which the 7th Scripture was created, and the Oni that the Tohnos and the Kishimas are descended from fall into the category of phantasm races.