Genius Loci: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Something about this place feels... alive."''|'''Katara''', ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''}}

 

 

Usually, the Genius Loci has [[Shapeshifting|some control over its own form]], and uses that control to communicate with the other characters. [[Mobile Maze|Alternately, it can]] [[Closed Circle|trap them]] in [[Alien Geometries]] and torment them with [[Living Memory|Living Memories]] for [[The Lost Woods|shoots]] and giggles. It can be a [[Hive Mind]] formed from the various organic life-forms that inhabit a place, a nonphysical being [[Demonic Possession|possessing the area itself]], a mythological spirit of a locale, or a computer system laced through the brick and stone. It can be helpful, neutral, or antagonistic.

 

The [[Other Wiki]] has a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_living_planets list of living planets].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* The Shikima realm, at least in the newest ''[[La Blue Girl (Anime)|La Blue Girl]]'' series, is very much this trope (it's described as "self-regulating"), and the parts of it are actually described corresponding to a body. The appendix is apparently a prison, the brain may just control the entire universe, and it has an anus. I will say it again, of course: it's a world * with an anus.* On the other hand, this self-regulating world that maybe controls the universe has also decided that it likes the local clan of demons with [[Naughty Tentacles]], so.

* In ''[[Angel Sanctuary (Manga)|Angel Sanctuary]]'', after Lucifer rebelled against God {{spoiler|because ''God said so''}} and retreated to Shioul, he and his follower fallen angels found out that it was a barren wasteland, so Lucifer had to merge with the plane itself in order to support any possible life, thus making Hell a Genius Loci. {{spoiler|Except for the fact that Luci's soul was sealed into Alexiel's sword somewhere between that and Alexiel's own rebellion, so Hell isn't much sentient anymore.}}

* ''[[Digimon (Franchise)|Digimon]]'' has Housemon, which is [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin]]: a giant house digimon.

** Also, one forest and one city have turned out to be [[Turtle Island|giant turtle]] Digimon. (They're not the same turtle, either.)

* The eponymous planet from [[Stanislaw Lem]]'s ''[[Solaris (Literature)|Solaris]]''.

* In the [[Faction Paradox]] books, there's mention of the City of the Saved, a huge galaxy-sized colony in which every human being ever to exist lives again. And yes. [[Captain Obvious|It's sentient.]] Not so bad, and even quite nice... until you find its {{spoiler|"son" infested parts of its structure, transforming really nice places into industrial nightmares with specialized factories for the processing of human beings. }}

** Another Anne McCaffrey series, the ''[[Petaybee]]'' series, features the titular sentient planet that communicates via echoes and lightshows in caves, and changing the climate/topography of the land when it's so inclined to benefit its inhabitants or drive off bad guys.

* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' [[Horus Heresy]] novel ''Fulgrim'', the Laer temple makes Julius think that it's alive.

** [[The Fair Folk]] in their native, unshaped state as well.

* Autocthonia also appears in ''[[Mage: The Ascension (Tabletop Game)|Mage: The Ascension]]'', made by the same folks who did Exalted (White Wolf). This time around it was a sentient machine world and "living" manifestation of Order hanging in the spirit realm, discovered and colonized by a transhumanist faction of superscientists/mages.

** And the first real enemy in the quick start scenario is {{spoiler|a spirit of laziness and apathy that possesses an abandoned baseball stadium. And is actually capable of causing a [[Total Party Kill]].}}

** Also, in the original ''Mage'', there was a Merit-Flaw combination (Manifest Avatar/Phylactery) that could turn your soul into one of these. Meaning that you had to be standing in that place (and somehow make it obvious that it was important) to be able to cast, but it would act as a [[Genius Loci]] on its own. Since [[Our Souls Are Different|the soul has a semi-distinct personality from the mind]], this might get... interesting.

** The other genii locorum are secondary systems that have lost communication with the crypt and library, and are significantly less smart-exhibiting an obnoxious tendency to be in charge of sensitive areas, where they try (and often succeed) to kill workers sent by the library to repair those areas. Although the library/crypt and the chapel are ''relatively'' significantly saner than the rest of the Castle, they're [[Heroic Sociopath|quite kill-happy]]; when Agatha stops the crypt killing a man who believes the Heterodynes to be extinct, it poutingly cries (through Carson, the old seneschal), "Fine! Maybe I just won't kill anyone at all!" Oh, and when she asks the Chapel to have the Torchmen keep her enemies out of Mechanicsburg airspace, it gleefully interprets this as permission to hassle ''Castle Wulfenbach,'' of all things. Good times forever.

*** ''Of course'' it's kill-happy. It was given its mind by old Faustus Heterdyne, who was apparently one of the ''[[Mad Scientist|madder]]'' Heterodynes, which is like saying that a particular inmate is one of the crazier people in the asylum.

** Also, played with in Black Mage. Nexus points are locations along the faultlines of reality which contain great raw energy and destructive force, but Black Mage is in the rather unique position of being the manifestation of a nexus point, so he's actually more like a [[Genius Loci]] unto himself. He's closer to an [[Eldritch Abomination]] than to human, and when he finally loses his [[Restraining Bolt|physical form]] he gets exponentially more powerful. [[Omnicidal Maniac|Unfortunately for the universe]] <ref> When this ''includes'' the legions of hell, that's really not a good sign</ref>.

* In ''[[Earthsong]]'' all of the planets have spirits, and can sometimes manifest in humanoid, ghostly forms. Many of the planets are said to be "asleep" and rarely venture in their spirit form, but the eponymous planet is an active part of the story.

* The Foggy Swamp in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', location of [[The World Tree]]. The Avatar themself is the human form of the World Spirit, which explains their connection with all four lands; [[All There in the Manual|this is not actually said in the show, but it is implied]].

* "[[The Fairly Odd Parents|MIKE, THE ]]''[[The Fairly Odd Parents|EVIL LIVING BUILDING]]''!''

* In the ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'' episode "Godfellas", Bender encounters what appears to be a sentient ''galaxy'', which initially speaks in binary and may or may not be God.

** Bender himself is a sentient location earlier in the episode when he is colonized by aliens.

[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]

[[Category:Genius Loci]]