In Innocence Seekers, there are entities of problems that are far beyond the comprehension of whatever is facing them. This blog post will detail some of these “outside-context” entities, and what influences they have on the story. Note, however, that there are unmarked spoilers ahead.
The biggest “outside-context” entity in Innocence Seekers: The Black Rose is, of course, magic. Unlike most other planets, where magic is largely accepted, if not widely utilised, magic on Earth has historically been relegated to small-scale, individual users with no large projects using magic and the population largely ignorant of magic. On Earth, magic users have historically been persecuted, and the Zodiac Warriors and Puella have largely operated covertly. The main exception is East Asia, where both Japan and Korea have embraced magic under the influence of Namari, and China has also persued large-scale projects using magic.
This led to a society run almost purely by technology. While Earth has weapons that can allow ordinary humans to fight mages on a level playing field (it is often mentioned that modern-day firearms are one of the only types of hand-held weapons that can reliably hurt a mage), and are capable of repelling even witch invasions, their ignorance of magic inevitably leads to disaster, as seen in Akari of the Light. It is only after Gakran is defeated do they adopt magical technology, and even then, such technology is relegated to specialised military uses (such as strategic weapons and defensive systems).
Another “outside-context” problem is the nations outside Earth. Very few citizens of Earth who are not in some way associated with the Zodiac Warriors or Puella have zero knowledge of the nations outside Earth; in fact, they may not even know about the existence of other human-inhabited planets. While this is not much of an issue with nations under Namari influence or with non-democratic nations, democracies are the nations most susceptible to this problem. In particular, Akane singles out the United States as the nation that is the most susceptible to underestimation of the nations outside Earth. She explains that the ideals held by many (but not all) of its citizens are incompatible with world peace, and they appear to be the ones most engaged in politics. She predicts (successfully) that one day America will find itself at war with one of the non-Earth nations over a conflict in political ideology, and that America will lose badly.
Indeed, that prediction came to pass in the interval between April Light and New World Revolution. The rise of reactionary isolationists within America (and the rest of Earth) led to the election of a president who cared more about “protecting” the nation than actually behaving as a proper member of the international community. The isolationist stance of the new president brought him directly into conflict with the nations outside Earth, which he never knew even existed before being elected. Eventually, in 2018, Namari declared war, and proceeded to utterly wipe the floor with them, winning the war in only a matter of days, and cowing America’s allies by threatening world domination.
Speaking of which, Namari itself is an “outside-context” entity to many nations of Earth. While in real life many nations engage in oppression, discrimination and human rights violations with impunity as the alternative to allowing such things to happen would be World War III, in Innocence Seekers all of the most powerful nations outside Earth have thoroughly embraced the ideal of absolute equality, and see the nations of Earth as primitive at best. Part of this stems from the Second Likkran War, where Emma, who eventually won the war, preached for a society where everyone, regardless of race or gender, can live in harmony. In the present day, these nations are each individually powerful enough to take over all of Earth without encountering much resistance. Namari happens to be the most powerful of these nations.
While historically these nations have left the nations of Earth to their own devices, after the events of April Light, the nations of Earth have become more disruptive to the wider galactic community, whether it be through ignorance or a sense of entitlement. One notable incident occurred in 2017, when a group of female mages sent by the Zodiac Warriors for an official mission was arrested in Saudi Arabia. This led to the Zodiac Warriors sternly warning the kingdom that under galactic law it must release the mages so they can fulfil their mission. The Saudi government rebuked the Zodiac Warriors, claiming that only their laws applied to their land. This resulted in Namari entering the spat, threatening military action should it not comply (at the time, there were no diplomatic relations whatsoever between the two nations, mainly because Namari is fiercely anti-Islam). The Saudis effectively responded by scolding Namari for trying to interfere in its internal affairs, at which point Namari sent the Amaterasu to Earth and ordered it to bombard Riyadh from orbit. The end result was over a million dead and much of the Saudi government annihilated, with what remained of the government surrendering.
This incident sent shockwaves throughout Earth. For the first time, a nation outside of Earth asserted its dominance to enforce galactic law, and the show of firepower by Namari made the UN realise that it was far outmatched (of course, America didn’t get the memo, leading to occupation by Namari the next year). While Saudi Arabia’s allies briefly considered retaliating, they realised that without spaceships they needed to either convince Ireland to allow the use of the portal to Fuenod, which was highly unlikely as Ireland and the United Kingdom were allied with Namari ally Nodaima, or to attack Namari’s most visible Earth-based entity, which was Japan. For the latter, Japan was known to be protected by a magic barrier that is known to be impervious to even nuclear weapons (confirmed by the Chinese with permission from the Japanese government), making a conventional attack almost impossible.
The final “outside-context” entity I will mention is the Donsilans. Before their first appearance in Akari of the Light, they were thought to be extinct. However, they were not, and their return could have spelt doom for humanity, who were unable to defeat the Donsilans in a straight fight due to a severe disadvantage in technology and magic.
That will be all for now. I might add more later, though.
P.S. Wow. Three chapters in three weeks. I didn’t think I would be able to do that. Anyway, I hope to be able to complete episode 36 by the end of October (originally I intended to end the chapter at that time, but possible expansion of the chapter may push the date back).