On Star Seeds

 

So this was actually a blog I was asked to do. Star Seeds are a concept in the Sailor Moon universe, and one that gets the most discussion powerscaling wise. What do they equate to, what are their properties and how do things related to them work when compared to characters from other series? This blog will not be super powerscale-y per se, this will be just a general analysis and explanation of Star Seeds. 

This blog will be seperated into four sections: Background, Nature, Function, and Narrative. If you want to skip to a section what these will entail are:

-What is the Basis of Star Seeds

-What are Star Seeds

-What do Star Seeds do

-and What is the Narrative Purpose of Star Seeds

Background:

The first thing to know is that Star Seeds are not an idea Naoko Takeuchi made up. Naoko incorporated numerous Mystical and New Age type elements into the Sailor Moon universe. Some examples of these would including Fire Reading

Dowsing

Psychometry

and many many more. 

These Mystical/New Age Notions are similar in that they are believed by a more occult/spiritualist community but are not believed in by Mainstream Science. That said it's clear that in the Sailor Moon universe these practices are actually real. Star Seeds are one of these belief systems. Like many of these New Age beliefs, Star Seeds do not have a singular description of what they are, but numerous. 

The oldest reference comes from Brad Steiger's 1976 book "Gods of Aquarius" which introduces the concept of "Sky People" or "Star People" described as being from Indigenous American accounts and comparing them to that of European Fae

Brad Steiger accounts how he and his wife were adopted into the Wolf Clan of the Seneca Tribe and learned more information on the Star People, namely that there was coming a time of great purification of the Earth but that their Star would assist in the survival of humanity and their uplifting to wisdom and "the path of peace"

The chapter primarily deals with the explanation of UFO Phenomena. When discussing possible external explanations for such beings, the author expresses them as higher dimensional, as intellects and consciousness that are higher forms of being taking on human personage

I can't link every account of Star Seeds but as the concept has evolved, it has become more and more general, that Star Seeds are people from higher dimensions or planes of reality, who take on human form to guide humanity. 

This for instance is the most popular video on the notion on Youtube. They are described as "residents of higher dimensions that incarnated into a physical human experience with the intention to help raise the collective consciousness of humanity" It is stated that the determination if one is a Star Seed is "to look within and determine if they feel a very strong mission, a very strong purpose towards being able to help heal the Earth as well as raise the collective unconsciousness." They are also noted to reincarnate into the Earth system numerous times to better understand the human condition. Other traits commonly noted in this video and elsewhere are that Star Seeds are higher in perception and often eccentric. 

What does this have to do with Sailor Moon? While Naoko Takeuchi doesn't use the concept exactly the same, this should give a good idea of what she was invoking when she used it in the story. In particular while everyone in the Sailor Moon universe has a Star Seed, the archetype of Star Seed is instead something Naoko evokes in the Sailor Senshi:

The Sailor Senshi are girls born with unusual abilities and are outcasted usually because of them:

=

However the Sol Senshi are all good souls:

They reincarnate across lifetimes but have to awaken again to their true identity

This true self is actually a deeper metaphysical self 

They came to this system not just to guide humanity but specifically to guide their evolution by removing negative influences

The parallels go deeper but I hope the point is made. Naoko clearly is very interested in these New Age-y concepts and took inspiration from the Star Seed concept when writing the Sailor Senshi. 

Nature:

Star Seeds have been in the series since the very beginning with the series central Plot Element, "幻の銀水晶"/"Maboroushi no Ginzhuisho", roughly translated "Legendary Silver Crystal" being a Star Seed. However our first descriptions of them as a group are from the Fourth Arc, and it is only in the Fifth and Final Arc that they are explicitly described.

They are first described in a flashback sequence by Queen Serenity to a scared young Princess Serenity. Queen Serenity says that within each of our hearts is a star and that in order to defeat those who's heart is dark, one must keep their star shining brightly

Later in the chapter in a very clear call back, Mamoru says that now that his Golden Crystal has awoken, he feels as though a star was born inside him, and Usagi describes it as the Star of his Heart and the warmth he feels is the sign it is shining brightly

This is a poetic description obviously and is the first expression of what Star Seeds represent, the light in one's heart that allows one to persevere. 

 The final arc has more explicit descriptions with the primary description of Star Seeds coming from Yaten. She describes them:

"Everything in the Heavens grows from a Star Seed. And not just Stars. They come in all shapes and sizes, and they have different names but everything with life grows from a Star Seed."

On Sailor Crystals she says that Sailor Crystals are born as Special Star Seeds. Those seeds are sent off to their Chosen Planet to develop alongside it eventually becoming its Sailor Senshi

Finally she says directly that everything that makes a Sailor Guardian is contained in their Sailor Crystal, that they are distillations of unknown power and will never fade away. 

So to review some of the points Yaten made and expand upon them

Are Star Seeds universal? 

Yes, everything has a Star Seed including, it would seem, the Cosmos and Chaos themselves

The only qualifier is that everything "with life" has a Star Seed. This probably doesn't mean biological life as planets and stars possess Star Seeds but instead life as in vitality or animacy with Celestial Bodies in the Sailor Moon universe being animate

Are Star Seeds Metaphysical?

So, this is a surprisingly interesting question. Yaten says that they are the Distillations of the Senshi' Power. Other translations render is as Crystallizations. The notion there is an immaterial thing that is rendered physical. In other words there is a metaphysical star within the hearts of people and when removed from them crystalizes into a physical form.

We see this exact thing happen in the first arc.  At the death of  her true love, Princess Serenity cries a tear in which there is a light that crystalizes into the Silver Crystal

This is as described earlier the Star of Usagi's heart leaving her body and crystalizing.

The light then leaves the Crystal and enters into Mamoru's body, leaving the Crystal a dead stone

This Crystal component, the shell that housed the light of Usagi's heart is clearly physical. Kenji a normal human is able to physically handle it fine

However the underlying thing INSIDE the Crystal is not material, as shown it passed into Mamoru's body without physical resistance. 

So in other words, Star Seeds are the physical crystallizations of something immaterial within someone. The shell component of a Star Seed can be physically manipulated but the immaterial part, most often conceptualized as a "light", can't be. 

What are Sailor Crystals? 

Sailor Crystals are special Star Seeds that Sailor Senshi have that sent off to their chosen planet to guard them. Those with Sailor Crystals have a special aura of stellar energy

and women with them are Sailor Senshi and can transform into a Sailor Senshi form. 

Sailor Crystals are consistently noted to be the most powerful of the Star Seeds with the greatest shine of them and for those of the Shadow Galactica who worship power they therefore consider them the ultimate or higher class of Star Seeds

Though non Sailor Senshi can have Star Seeds with nearly the same power and radiance as Sailor Crystals

Men can possess Sailor Crystals but are not Sailor Senshi, and cannot transform into a Sailor Senshi form, though can access their Sailor Crystal's power

What is the Lifecycle of Star Seeds?

The final thing of of note from Yaten's description is that Star Seeds will "never fade away." There is a recurrent dichotomy between the temporal physical forms of people and their eternal Star Seeds throughout the Stars Arc and will form the basis of Usagi and Galaxia's philosophical conflict I will talk about later.

Star Seeds like all things are born at the Galaxy Cauldron, a Cosmological Structure in the Sailor Moon universe. Within it all "stars and possibilities" are born

Galaxia herself describes it as the place as the birthplace of the planets and stars of the galaxy, clearly using stars not to just refer to stars as the celestial bodies but also persons via their Star Seeds as indicated by her expression of "Scum and Sailor Guardians." before mentioning that it is where they also pass away

Thus it would appear that Star Seeds are born at Galaxy Cauldron and should they return, they are extinguished. Otherwise they are eternal. If you are wondering about the odd emphasis on the galaxy I will write an addendum about that at the end of this blog. 

Outside Yaten's description, do we know other things about the nature of the Star Seeds? Some. 

Are Star Seeds aware?

Star Seeds, or at least Sailor Crystals seem to possess animacy and awareness themselves. The Silver Crystal has been known to act to protect Usagi and even people close to her even when she is unconscious or even dead

Sailor Senshi can have unusual aging where they don't age for 900 years or rapidly age for an upcoming crisis

This seems to be a function of the Sailor Crystals. 

Do Star Seeds change?

The Star Seeds are eternal in that they don't die naturally, but there is some level of change, usually in correspondence with the state of the thing connected to them. It is noted that they grow alongside their planet

When a Sailor Senshi develops as a person particularly in a way that develops their sense of self the Crystal seems to develop as well such as when Sailor Moon was in despair at feeling like she was alone causing the Silver Crystal to develop into a Lotus shape or Chibi-Moon beginning to step out of her mother's shadow causing her Silver Crystal to become the Pink Moon Crystal

and of course their most famous part, the legendary shine of the Star within. This Shine corresponds to the Star of one's heart and whether one keeps bright

When the body and mind connected to a Sailor Crystal is destroyed, this light is faint. This status is compared to something like sleeping, presumably the Sailor Crystal waiting for the reincarnation 

 

Are Sailor Crystals Souls/Minds?

No, we see them very much contrasted. Souls in Sailor Moon have a humanoid appearance and the Third Arc clearly differentiates them from Sailor Crystal with sequences such as Chibiusa's soul holding her Silver Crystal, her Star Seed

and as mentioned the Star Seed persists though goes into a state of dormancy if both the body and mind are destroyed. 

I believe it is most likely Star Seed should be seen as something conceptual in nature as even conceptual entities like Chaos possess one, showing that even an entity of that level of fundamentality possesses a Star Seed. So what are Star Seeds?

Can one have multiple Star Seeds?

Surprisingly yes, and this actually brings up one of the most important pages for thematic analysis of the Stars Arc and in my opinion for understanding Star Seeds in general

Sailor Galaxia notes that the Sailor Senshi bear two both a human Star Seed but also a Sailor Crystal, wondering at how they cling to their human Star Seeds when they have the unrivaled Sailor Crystals. She demonstrates the difference by destroying human Star Seeds when she uses the Cauldron to destroy Sailor Crystals.

This to me is the key to understanding what a Star Seed is meant to be. What does a Sailor Senshi have that a normal Human only has one of? The answer is something to the effect of "Identities." There's a lot of thematic stuff surrounding this in the Fifth Arc which I will get into the fourth part but here see we what I believe to be key to understanding Star Seeds. The Human Star Seed of the Sol Sailor Senshi represents their Human lifespan while their Sailor Crystal represents their eternal life as a reincarnating Cosmic Guardian. 

Function:

So what do the Star Seeds do? This will be a much shorter section because the answer is much broader. A Star Seed determines much, perhaps everything about its person. 

The most obvious facet of that fact is that when Galaxia took the Star Seeds of Sailor Moon's friends, she used the Sailor Crystals to resurrect them as her evil loyal minions. In this monologue she describes the Sailor Crystals and Power which they represent as the only true reality

as mentioned Yaten describes them everything that makes a Sailor Guardian is contained in their Sailor Crystal, a very comprehensive statement that suggests that everything that makes that identity comes from the Sailor Crystal. 

Star Seeds, or at least Sailor Crystals, seem to be associated most often with protecting the person connected to them. In the Third Arc, the villains powers are thwarted as noted several times because the Senshi possess "the light of the stars, celestial protection"

Star Seeds' primary function seems the maintenance of one's existence. 

When one's Star Seed is removed, it causes one to be erased from existence. 

This does not immediately erase one in other time periods, though at least their future self will gradually begin to fade as though there is a delay

if one's Star Seed is destroyed, which for a Sailor Crystal can only be done from the Galaxy Cauldron it not only erases the individual but their influence from history, this can seen when erased in the Galaxy Cauldron and Chibiusa, his daughter from the future is instantly erased

So one's Star Seed maintains and informs one's existence. 

Sailor Crystals also unlike other Star Seeds grant one their Sailor Senshi abilities obviously. 

Narrative:

So I've said I think Star Seeds represent Identities, but what about thematic reasons for such?

So I've written a lot about this in my Sailor Moon act Reviews, but much of the Final Arc is about laying out the dichotomy between Usagi and Galaxia and what they represent. 

Galaxia represents a kind of Gnostic Search for meaning and the eternal in a world full of flawed temporal things. Galaxia is one of the two strongest Sailor Senshi yet she was born on a trash world in isolation without any deeper meaning

unwilling to believe that such a world was her destiny, she sought to find a world worthy of her, rejecting every world she found as unworthy of her and destroying them

When Galaxia questions why the Sol Senshi cling to their Human Star Seeds, she's asking why they trust in something seemingly so temporal and weak. It's actually very important to her emotionally to get Usagi to admit this as she demands Usagi acknowledge that the things she trusts in are just shadows of the true reality

and when Usagi argues the point Galaxia and insists that it's because of her friends that she has power, because of the temporal things Galaxia believes as just fleeting shadows, Galaxia is taken aback and asks in resentment why USAGI is the one with the strongest Sailor Crystal

Galaxia is the anti-Usagi. At the end of the First Arc, Usagi was offered the life of being the new Queen of the Moon by the spirit of Queen Serenity and instead chose to live as a normal girl on Earth choosing her human life over a celestial life

and at the end of the Fifth Arc Usagi chooses again a life of struggle on Earth with her loved ones that remaining in the Cauldron in perfect heavenly existence

where Galaxia asks why cling to their human star seeds, Usagi wishes that their physical bodies would also exist forever

where Galaxia represents rejecting all, Usagi represents embracing all even a future of never ending conflict, even Chaos the ultimate enemy

The narrative battle between Galaxia and Usagi represents the battle between a Gnostic Rejection of the world as a manifested physical temporality with all its flaws in search for an eternal world vs Love and finding a perfected metaphysical eternal reality within it. Galaxia is depicted as searching and ultimately trying to force a perfect world worthy of her to come into being but it is when she comes to understand Usagi's love, a love that would embrace a future of endless struggle that she finally finds that perfect existence in Usagi

The Sailor Crystals in this arc's dichotomy represent the difference between their philosophy. 

Galaxia thinks that only the Sailor Crystals, that the perfect existence is the only thing that matters, powerful and independent and immortal. It's why she doesn't see any meaning in the temporary and flawed. The series makes an allusion to Plato here when it references that the things formed from the Sailor Crystals are just fleeting shadows in comparison to them and indeed Galaxia's philosophy can be said to be parallel to Platonic/Gnostic thinking, a belief and search for an ultimate reality independent of and "flawed" physical existence

but Usagi argues with it, saying it is specifically because of those temporal things that Galaxia disregards that Usagi is as strong as she is 

Understanding this in terms of identities and the choices they made in regards to living a mortal life vs a purely celestial one, and what the arc is saying is that Galaxia only cares about persons in their eternal metaphysical aspect but Usagi cares about persons in the wholeness of their being. This is essentially the difference between Gnosticism as a Christian Heretic Cult and a more Broad Christian viewpoint for instance, the difference between saying only a person's soul matters and that all parts of a person has a sanctity to it including their soul and their body. There are other religious parallels one can draw obviously including to the Japanese concept of Kami, an invisible spiritual presence in all things with vitality and all the parts of nature. 

Because there's a reason that Naoko gave all people Star Seeds as opposed to just making it so that only Sailor Senshi have Star Seeds as the original concept of Star Seeds was. It's because she wanted to emphasize, as Usagi recognizes at the climax of the manga, that all people have a Star in their hearts, that we all are lonely stars seeking to gather together as one, that we all have a metaphysical part of our being

The Star Seed, the Star in our Hearts, represents the eternal part of ourselves constantly trying to reach each other through this transient physical reality we share. This is why the series ends with the marriage of Usagi and Mamoru, representing the Moon and the Earth, the Celestial and Mundane worlds, coming together to form a new future together. 

TLDR:

Star Seeds represent our Identities. Compared to other verses these can be equated roughly to one's concept, or part of one's concept, or something even more fundamental then one's concept if you think the Law of Identity type stuff is more fundamental than a concept. Star Seed Manipulation broadly does two things

1: Having your star seed removed causes you to be hit by existence erasure. To resist this requires powerful existence erasure resistance stronger then at least the Sailor Senshi who can resist existence erasure

2: If someone gets your Star Seed they can use it, or at least Galaxia can, to alter you in basically anyway they want. This is conceptual manipulation. I hear some people call it information manipulation. Personally I don't see this as very different from conceptual manipulation but to the extent it is different then yeah it should also allow for that. Resisting this requires conceptual manipulation resistance

Addendum: The Emphasis on the Galaxy

If you're wondering at the emphasis of the Milky Way Galaxy in Sailor Moon, this is actually because in Japan the "Milky Way" is actually Amanogawa (天の川) which translates more literally to "The Heavenly River." The Heavenly River is a fixture of some Japanese religious traditions as a poetic image. In folklore the Sky King's daughter Shokujo married the cowherd Kengyu but with the Heavenly River created to separate them so they can only meet once per year, an occasion celebrated on Tanabata. This event is referenced directly in Sailor Moon

and is shown to be a true account

Amanogawa in Japan is heavily linked with the expression of love, and particularly a distant or impossible love. In Classical Japanese poetry the flooding or misting over of the Heavenly River was connected with the fortunes of lovers separated by space or fate. A poem from the "The Romance of the Milky Way (Amanogawa)" for instance:

"Though the waters of the River of Heaven have not greatly risen, yet to cross this near stream and to wait upon him remains impossible."

The Stars Arc in particular also takes a substantial amount from other East Asian Cultures for inspiration such as Princess Kakyuu taking much in design from Chinese History and Myth and the Three Starlights Sailor Star Fighter, Sailor Star Maker, and Sailor Star Healer corresponding to the Trimurti of Hinduism. In China while still associated with distant love, it is also seen as a representation of fate or divine authority. Consider the beginning of the Tang Dynasty Poem "A Ballad of Heaven" by Li He:

"The River of Heaven wheels at night

Drifting the circling stars

At Silver Bank, the floating clouds

Mimic the Murmur of Water

By the Palace of Jade, the cassia blossoms

Have not yet fallen

Fairy Maidens gather their fragrance

For their dangling girdle-satchels"

to go back to Sailor Moon, Galaxia considers herself divinely chosen, characterized by the highest of ambition, and her ambition is speculated to be to use the Milky Way to control the procession of stars and their development

As such I don't believe that the character's reference to using the Cauldron to control the stars of the galaxy is meant to be a limiting factor on the Cauldron's influence. Numerous Stars from the Cauldron emerged in other DIMENSIONS such as Pharaoh 90, and furthermore it is said numerous times that the Cauldron can be used to rule over the universe or even to create a new universe

Rather that the conquest of the Heavenly River is meant to represent Galaxia's divine level of ambition, her Luciferian desire to be the Lord of Heaven, that she considers herself to be a God, and perhaps to represent that the way she stole Mamoru, Usagi's love, creating a sense of romantic separation. I wrote about this more in my Sailor Moon reviews but there is a narrative separation between the Earth, Usagi's world which Galaxia considers inconsequential and the "Heavenly" world of Galaxia, the cosmic and eternal. For a comparison it's like a verse based on Greek Myth having characters very focused on getting control of Mount Olympus and getting its power. It's not saying they are mountain level, but that the mountain has a special religious significance. 

Feel free to ask if there are any more clarifying questions I can answer about the Sailor Moon universe.

Devil Hunter Yohko-verse Strategy Guide

 

It's been a bit since I did a short strategy guide on a random Magical Girl-verse. So how to be OP in the Devil Hunter Yohko-verse

Large Building Tier:

The tier for all but two of the fighters in the series are in the Tons of TNT Range. This is based off a few things including the death of Reiko causing an explosion that eclipsed a building sized pillar (and possibly Reiko creating the space containing the pillar), Ryujin the Dragon King possibly shifting the clouds over an area, and the Red Demon creating an energy shockwave that traveled multiple city blocks. The first of these feats was seemingly tanked by Yohko despite Yohko already being battle damaged yet Tateno, a completely regular basketball player accidentally hurt Yohko's face when he threw a basketball and hit her. As such pretty much everyone in the tier should scale to roughly this level. Granted Yohko was not transformed during the second incident though it's implied Yohko's stats aren't vastly different between the two states. In terms of speed it's fairly straightforward, multiple enemies manipulate lightning including Onra literally summoning lightning from the clouds which Yohko dodges, which means the tier should be massively hypersonic as well. 

So the first thing to know is that this a very high skill verse. Yohko regularly demonstrates superhuman skill feats including midair flips that adjust her direction, jumping on top of enemy weapons in midair multiple times, and fighting an enemy that moves so fast it's just a blur to her and immediately catching it while on her side between her legs. While characters have abilities, most fights are primarily supernatural martial arts battles. Pretty much everyone in the series has high martial skill. Madoka Mano, the 107th Devil Hunter and Yohko's grandmother is considered more skilled then Yohko herself until roughly episode 5 yet in episode 1 Yohko's mom engages her grandmother in a martial arts battle during breakfast, the two being evenly matched and implied to do this often in the morning with Yohko's mom being someone who probably has little to no combat training or experience given her personality. 

The main character is Yohko Mano, the 108th Generation Devil Hunter. As a Devil Hunter, Yohko has superhuman stats including agility with another Devil Hunter Ayako training her agility by superleaping up large sections of a cliff over falling boulders with Yohko being comparable. Devil Hunters can manipulate energy even when untransformed creating energy auras, barriers, and blasts. They also have the Youma Ring which allows them to transform into their Devil Hunter State. In this state they can summon their Sword which can seal away enemies and also undo seals if they want. This sword can also block energy/lightning and channel their energy manipulation. For highly skilled Devil Hunters the Youma Ring also has time manipulation powers capable of resurrecting people by reversing their time, and allowing for time travel. There are numerous other spiritual techniques Devil Hunters can learn, though as Yohko is essentially a valley girl more focused on boys then fighting she lacks knowledge of most of them. 

Yohko is aided by her grandmother Madoka and her young apprentice Azusa. Due to their experience and eagerness respectively they both know spiritual techniques that Yohko doesn't though due to being an older woman and a younger girl respectively they have lower physical stats.  Madoka has a twin Chiaki who is very similar to her who, bitter at not being chosen to be Devil Hunter, trained her own granddaughter Ayako to usurp the position of 108th Devil Hunter. Ayako is a Dark Magical Girl counterpart to Yohko, comparable to Yohko in physical stats, but even more skilled and knowledgeable though lacking in teamwork. Ayako also has her own apprentice who looks identical to Azusa. 

Numerous spiritual techniques are seen by Madoka and Azusa, as well as an old woman retainer to the royal Master Biryu. These powers including exorcisms, setting up spiritual barriers, clairvoyance and alarms should conditions be met, creating portals even between dimensions, creating illusions, manipulating the dreams of others even across dimensions, and levitation of self and others

DHY-verse has numerous supernatural entities the Devil Hunters keep humans safe from. This primarily include spirits. The spirits of the cursed wood, angered at their woods being disturbed, showed the powers to drive men insane and causing technology to stop working. They also showed telekinesis strong enough to bind Azusa and crater the construction site. They take physical form to fight directly including possessing animals or just creating physical bodies for themselves resembling Samurai Armor. Yanagi of the Willows is another such spirit who created a shield to protect Yohko. The verse also has Dragons, the most notable of which is Ryujin the Dragon King. Ryujin can shapeshift and fly. It's suggested he can summon clouds over the local area. More hax then this Ryujin also has sealing such that he sealed his son Biryu and Yanagi of the Willows inside two Demons, as well as regeneration so potent that he regenerated from being vertically sliced in two. 

However the primary threats the Devil Hunters protect against, as their name suggests, are the Demons. Demons in general possess shapeshifting and possession with which some use to infiltrate human society. They also possess skill and agility enough to match the Devil Hunters, enhanced lifespans, and get stronger during a Full Moon. For a series comprised of six OVAs, there is a large variety of abilities and demons in the series. Some ones seen briefly include a slime demon, an insectoid demon moving fast enough to be a blur to even Yohko, a scorpion demon, a harpy demon, and a two-headed dragon demon named Kuma. However some of the demons are more prominent and many of them use demonic magic.

Two prominent demons were sealed in the wilds and were unsealed by accident, more forces of raw destruction and violence. This includes Onra, the ruler of the Forest Spirits with likely their same powers, as well as lightning manipulation and regeneration. His regeneration has only shown to heal the cuts from Yohko's blade, though it's arguably stronger then Ryujin's as Yohko was able to overcome Ryujin's regen by channeling the energy of her love and will into her blade while Onra required Yohko and Azusa to work together just to seal him away. The Red Demon is another Demon like Onra, a wild demon who's seal was disturbed. Upon his unsealing he created an energy wave that disrupted multiple city blocks and he required Yohko and Ayako to work together to fight him. He can shoot lightning and cause paralysis with a gesture, though this can only work on one person at a time. He does not have regeneration though he does have a level of universal animacy as his severed arm was able to still fight. He's also a skilled manipulator as he manipulated Ayako to bring about his unsealing. 

Other Demons are already unsealed and disguise themselves among humans. The Principle of Yohko's school, the first villain she fights is a Demon who demonstrates more powers then probably any other demon in the tier. She shows corruption turning Yohko's friends evil with evil Osamu showing brainwashing as well, suggesting she has brainwashing. She showed spatial manipulation causing the school pool to extend into a watery dimension below where a bunch of tendrils grabbed and binded Yohko to try and drown her. She was able to grow wolverine claws to fight Madoka and showed a strange ability where she wrote a letter for Yohko where the ink turned to blood as she read it and fell to the ground becoming a pathway of blood. 

Her superior was Reiko, the popular girl at school and in reality the Queen of the Demons. She was a Vampire like demon that grew fangs to drain the blood of others and can summon a demon blade with which to fight Yohko in melee. She possibly created the space for the demon ritual containing a giant pillar the size of a building and on her death an explosion encompassed the entire area. Beyond that, Reiko's true threat is that she knows a ritual that on Full Moon and after draining the blood of a mortal she can bring the Demon Realm to the Mortal Plane, causing Demons to overrun the Earth. She also levitates a mortal at one point though it's clear if this is from her demon magic or if it's one of the spiritual techniques from earlier. 

So what strategies would be helpful here? So the first thing to know is that while Skill is broadly very high in this verse, the characters all fight focused on it. Almost all fights are melee battles of skill. Other Stats are not super impressive and when fairly basic forms are used such as Ryujin' Range via staying in the sky to attack, The Red Demon using Intelligence by manipulating Ayako wanting to be the Devil Hunter, and The Demon Principle using Stealth by taking on a human disguise and hiding in the shadows they're very effective. This is due to most powers being close range and with a lack of special sensory abilities limited only to the spiritual clairvoyance/alarm technique Madoka uses. 

Also while many characters have very strong abilities, there are very few defenses in the verse especially as spirits tend to take physical form to fight. Yohko and Azusa have both been brainwashed before without any resistance. The only defensive abilities are barrier creation and regeneration, both of which most forms of offensive hax would bypass. 

The strategy this broadly suggests is using ambush strategies of stealth, manipulation, or sniping mixed with attacking via some ability that bypasses physical defenses. Defenses against mental attacks common enough in this verse with things like the spirits driving people mad, and Demons having possession/brainwashing would be a bonus as would be the ability to hit the spirits in their natural form to not give them forewarning. 

Sniper from Yu Yu Hakusho

Sniper via his Demon Energy amping can reach C Class physically, the level of Saint Beasts Arc Yusuke who could lightning time even reacting to Suzaku's demon energy amped lightning, and scale to Lower C Class Byakko's roars which could obliterate stone pillars, calced into the tons of tnt range, putting him at the same tier as this verse.

Using Yoki or Demon energy, Sniper can hit even spiritual plane entities as shown when Toguro's passive demon energy destroyed evil spirits that got close to him meaning he should to nullify the regeneration of Ryujin and Onra, and hit the angry spirits of the forest. This also gives him far enhanced senses over everyone in the verse. This leads to his main strategy

Sniper is, as the name suggests, a Sniper with a range of over half a kilometer, meaning he can hit people from way outside the range of anyone here. This would take off guard anyone individually in the tier and without knowing where it's coming from he could pretty easily take down groups before they realize where the attacks are coming from. Unlike the Demons of DHY, Sniper has no particular desire to engage his opponent in a direct melee fight and doesn't mind shooting them before they can react.

Couldn't the characters in the tier once aware block the attacks with their skill. Well Yusuke has comparable if not superior skill to many of the fighters in this tier, regularly proving more skilled then demons with centuries or higher skill and with Team Urameshi having numerous superhuman skill feats. Despite this Sniper's attacks were hard to dodge even for him, and when he used his territory it became almost impossible despite Yusuke likely being at least as skilled as the most skilled characters in the tier and far stronger/faster then his C Class self that this tier is mostly comparable to. 

Now granted if they actually did manage to get into close range, Sniper would be at a real disadvantage, and some of the Spiritualists do have dimensional portals that could allow them if they figured out Sniper. For a counter that they would have a much harder time surprising, you could use

Liara T'Soni from Mass Effect

Liara is one of the Asari's the galaxy's masters of Biotics, psychic powers and should be comparable, maybe even superior to the Human Biotic Prodigy Jack who after escaping from imprisonment and making a quick attack to escape, created a hole in a steel wall calced as requiring somewhere between 2 to 10 tons of TNT. This is comparable with powerful Biotics having shields and offensive psychic powers on the level of power of high end rounds which can create explosions that incinerate everyone in the area calced to over 15.5 tons of TNT or even more high explosive grenades that can do the same on a larger radius calced to 75 tons of TNT. Asari Commandos, the elites of the Asari can shield from even these high explosive grenades with Biotic Power, and Liara at least after her character development should definitely have comparable psychic power. The elite Human Military Soldier James Vega was able to move comparable to a mass accelerator round, a firearm that functions by accelerating projectiles to extreme speeds, calced at between Mach 110 and Mach 230. This would give Liara around the same physical stats as end of series Yohko. 

In terms of secondary stats, while Liara was initially a shy and less experienced then the other Squadmates, she eventually becomes the Shadow Broker, an urban legend figure who runs a shadow organization that controls the flow of information across the galaxy. The level of stealth and intelligence it requires to be such, would be unthinkable for the verse who mostly use conventional stealth and manipulation techniques ninjas might use. This level of intelligence would let her easily figure out who is a Demon in disguise and what her opponents plans are to counter them. Her range would be very formidable as her powers can work on the scale of dozens or hundreds of meters where almost no one in Devil Hunter Yokho's can. While she's not out-skilling the verse, she's also no slouch, able to escape from an assassination attempt by one of the Spectres, meant to be the best agents of the Citadel, the interstellar alliance of races controlling much of the galaxy who should have skill similar to the Devil Hunters if not superior. 

Liara uses the advanced sci-fi weapons and armor of the late 2100s including armor that bolsters her durability, medi-gel that can heal her, and submarine guns/heavy pistols with specialty ammo. With similar stats between her and the tier, this would mean just in a weapons based fight you have martial artists armed with swords and spears vs a modern commando with submachine gun. She complements this with her Biotic Barrier ability which would add an extra level of defense and keep melee based hax like the Devil Hunter Sealing from working.  

Offensively Liara has access to some of the best Biotic offensive abilities. Singularity opens a dark energy sphere over an area that gravitionally draws people in which not only damages but Liara regularly combines with telekinesis to disarm opponents of their weapons. She has both Stasis which was shown in the Red Demon fight to be a powerful ability in DHY as well as gravity manipulation via Singularity and otherwise which can mess up the skill based strategies of the verse by messing with their bodily motions. Beyond that Liara has Warp an extremely powerful Biotic ability that breaks opponents down on a molecular level negating regeneration which needless to say would absolutely destroy Ryujin and Onra despite their regeneration.

Liara also should have some level of resistance to various forms of mind manipulation. Asari in general are used to mind melding with others and maintaining their sense of selves and all of Shepard's crewmates in the war against the Reapers had to prevent themselves from becoming indoctrinated or controlled by the subtle mind control of the Reapers. With that she doesn't have explicit mind manipulation resistance feats and without the ability to hit spiritual entities in their natural state it's possible that the spirits of the forest could drive her mad if they uncharacteristically choose to not take physical form to fight. I don't think it's likely especially as if she can resist it for a while just like Indoctrination they presumably will stop trying to drive her mad and attack her physically but for the ultimate counter, someone who can fight the tier on its own terms, I would suggest

Katana from DC Comics

Katana has been able to fight Post-Mutation Killer Croc in physical combat, a character who is considered relative if not slightly superior to Batman in terms of physical stats scaling to a number of feats in the tons of tnt range including possibly Batman's recent feat of withstanding an Atomic Skull explosion that encompassed a city block. Even a substantially weaker DC Street Tier character like Post-Crisis Batgirl able to lighting time against Livewire. Katana is known for her speed among humans able to blitz Black Lightning at close range, and would be a blur to most DHY-characters. Now granted so was the insectoid demon and if you're skilled enough in comparison to your opponent, you can still tag them. About that...

Katana is a ronin from the DC Universe and one of the greatest swordswomen in the universe by scaling. Like most highly skilled DC Street Tiers she has shown the ability to anticipate and evade attacks from outright super speedsters that dwarf Yohko's feat of grabbing a demon who was blurrily visible ot her. She was able to stalemate Ras Al Ghul in a sword duel, Ras being a constant rival to Batman who even during his training had mastered every martial art and has a plethora of superhuman if not cosmic skill tier feats. Most of the tier would never be able to tag her.

Katana is known for her blade, the Soultaker. Soultaker takes the soul of whomever it cuts, sealing them into the blade. This sealing is a superior version of the sealing that the Devil Hunter blade has. It has worked on an embodiment of war before and should absolutely work on the forest spirits and easily bypasses the regen of Ryujin and Onra. The Soultaker has regularly cut even Herald Tier enemies and things like energy barriers would do nothing to stop it. 

In terms of the verse's offenses, the verse has plenty of the more potent ones require some contact such as possession and sealing which are not tagging Katana. The Forest Spirits were able to telekinetically Azusa but Katana is stronger and would likely be able to break through it faster. The verse has brainwashing from The Demon Principle and madness manipulation from the forest spirits. However the Soultaker can actually do the same things as it can compel even spirits to do what it commands and will drive insane anyone who tries to use it that it doesn't approve of. If they tried to do this to Katana, the spirit inside the sword would just take hold of her mind and approve of her. 

Couple this with extremely high other secondary stats for the verse. Katana is highly trained in stealth as a Ronin able to sneak up even on Batman despite his senses, which would basically make her invisible to anyone here and has her own enhanced senses able to sense through Enchantress trying to sneak up on her. She has a modest range advantage over a some of the fighters using her shuriken and coil sword which would be helpful. Beyond that Katana has a reputation for her apparent wisdom coming from the fact that she can command the souls trapped by the soul to give her what information they know and the sword can even foretell the future which would make her seem supernaturally knowing to the people in Devil Hunter Yohko. Overall Katana not only takes advantage of every weakness of the verse to some extent but can also outdo them at their own game with her own spiritually sealing blade and martial arts that are on a completely different dimension. 

Town Tier:

The Top Tiers of Devil Hunter Yohko are the primary reason I wanted to make this blog. There are two of them and one of them presents a pretty big problem. 

This tier in terms of direct attack potency and durability are town level. Tokima even still mostly sealed was clearly more powerful then any prior enemy, able to easily beat Yohko and Madoka. However this was when the seals were limiting him to 1% of his power. Even conservatively a hundred times the power of the prior tier would be in the Kiloton range. Such power or greater is also implied by Tokima's ability to cause storms, though this may be a function of his particular power. In terms of speed they seem the same speed or a bit faster then the prior tiers, so still MHS. 

Tokima is stated to be and also clearly is the most powerful of all demons. He has all the standard demon abilities as well as his signature ability, complete control over the "continuums of space and time." In other words Tokima has universal spatial manipulation and temporal manipulation. And unlike most demons he is not shy about using his hax in combat. He regularly does tricks like traveling inside someone's shadow and then popping one claw out to impale them, opening dimensional bfrs to bfr people (portals he can possibly make as big as the entire mortal world as he threatened to suck it into the demon realm) or freezing time in a fight that he feels threatened in. It was he via his spatial manipulation who first brought the demon plane and mortal plane together to allow demons to invade the mortal plane. His presence passively causing time keeping devices to go haywire and he can reverse the particular time of things such as de-aging Madoka to a younger girl. This is possibly how he caused the storm, by causing a storm that did happen or would happen in the future to happen again or sooner. Or he can just do that. He has shown other abilities as well. In combat her conjured a tornado around himself, and has emanated energy. He brainwashed Azusa and empowered her to fight Yohko and automatically resurrects every few hundred years despite many seals on his power. Oh and if all this wasn't enough, he was able to duplicate by summoning himself from the past over and over, along with having some of the best secondary stats in series. 

However during the age of demons, one mortal girl stood to defeat him, the first Devil Hunter Haruka Mano. She has mastered all the Devil Hunter Abilities and is the most skilled fighter in the series battling against Tokima's spatial manipulation primarily with pure skill. She wrested some of Tokima's power from him inside the Youma Ring, the reason it can manipulate time. Haruka has clearly mastered the time manipulation abilities of the Youma Ring. She has used it to threaten to banish Tokima to the crevices of time, brought her and Yohko back into the future, and negated Tokima's time stop. Similarly when Tokima multiplied himself, Haruka used the Youma Ring to summon the 107 Generations of Devil Hunters from across Time to seal them all away. 

So this is a LITTLE bit of a problem. Tokima's universal spacetime hax is VERY potent for his tier and it's genuinely hard to think of potential counter strategies. One of the things I thought of was potentially higher plane entities. Some verses treat beings in higher planes of being as still being within spacetime whereas others treat them as having their own higher metaphysical spacetime so that's kind of contentious and case by case. 

A more consistent strategy is taking advantage of the fact that Tokima still doesn't have any kind of sensory abilities and hypothetically ambushing him could work. In particular a character who has time travel or dimensional travel as well as the ability to see transtemporally or transdimensionally could essentially ambush him across spacetime before he knows they are there. Finally Tokima's weakness both in and out of universe is ironically his own power. Haruka used Tokima's power to beat him, and someone else who could similarly manipulate time freely could do things like use age manipulation Tokima to cause his seals to reappear on him greatly limiting his power or could banish him into temporal depths like Haruka threatened. So having your own versatile time hax or age hax, or having some way of using your opponent's powers would also work. 

Haruka is similar but different. She has her own time manipulation, arguably equal to Tokima's, though she lacks his demon and spatial manipulation. In contrast she has spiritual abilities including sealing and clairvoyance as well as quite possibly the most combat skill of any character in the genre, depending on you assess. Some of the strategies used against Tokima should work against Haruka, her sensory abilities are relatively limited. The first I thing I though of was telekinesis to try and disarm her since her weapons provide most of her abilities, however while it might deprive her of the Youma Ring and her time manipulation, as a Devil Hunter she can summon her sword to her, and still has her extreme skill. Obviously any strategy used against her has to be something Tokima couldn't have done. Her range might not be very high outside of her time manipulation for instance but Tokima also has broad range and she defeated it via her skill. Even though she can time travel however she was only able to seal Tokima once and was unable to pursue him after he fled from her as she lacks sensory abilities that extend across time or dimensions so similar to Tokima a transdimensional or transtemporal type of combat where the other character has sensory abilities as well would probably work.

So who could you use? One character you could use is

Saint Lucia from Dante's Inferno

Saint Lucia is a more conventional counter to the characters here. In terms of power she is one of the general High Tiers of Dante's Inferno as an Angel and should scale above the early bosses Death and Cleopatra. Death the first boss in the game creates a dimension that would likely be city block to town level in scope while Cleopatra creates a storm around her giant tower in the Circle of Lust, also early game. This means Saint Lucia should have relative power to the tier, if not higher. She should also scale to Dante being able to lightning time and probably to Gabriel almost instantly traveling to near the center of Hell, which would give her relative to superior speed to Tokima and Haruka.

Saint Lucia should have many of the same abilities as Lucifer given his abilities are likely mostly the remnants of his abilities from when he was an Angel. This would include a cosmic awareness and dimensional manipulation able to trap Dante in another dimension and watch him from there showing a transdimensional combat. Tokima and Haruka can both traverse dimensions but without transdimensional sensing they would have no way of perceiving Saint Lucia's position. She has flight and could stay out of range from Haruka with a longer melee weapon and ranged weapons, and as an Angel should share Lucifer's immortality, such that even Death's Scythe could kill him, meaning raw damage shouldn't be able to kill her. Similarly Dante was able to resist the mind manipulation of the Temptresses and Saint Lucia as a much more holy entity then he was should easily be able to resist Tokima's mind hax. 

Saint Lucia probably can't resist Tokima's spacetime hax directly outside of being able to return from a BFR unless Dante's Inferno Angels retain the property of their Commedia counterparts and being able to exist and move outside of space and time. That said if Tokima doesn't go for a wide scale attack or things an ability worked and he won pre-emptively, Saint Lucia can punish him quickly. Her eyes are holy and can shoot a holy light blast and deflect ranged attacks meaning if Tokima tried to shoot a de-aging blast at Saint Lucia she can knock it back, returning his seals to him. Her Sickle is a Holy Weapon that can allow her to damn or absolute solves including demons which would be a one-shot against Tokima or Haruka, bypassing Tokima's resurrection.

Against Haruka Saint Lucia may be able to keep up with her in skill as there's an argument she should be relative to Dante in skill, Dante as just a crusader soul being able to kill Death himself. She has a higher range which she can exploit with her flight and mentioned Haruka wouldn't be able to kill Saint Lucia with her physical force while if her Sickle hits Haruka, it would give Lucia the ability to damn or absolve her. 

This strategy isn't perfect. If Lucia fought them conventionally Tokima could freeze her in time or Haruka could potentially seal her. However as Lucifer granted precognition to the Damned souls and it's likely Lucia can see the future, she is likely to know to fight them with a trans-dimensional strategy and even if not she still has a lot of advantages. Still for another counter you could use

Toffee possessing Ludo's Body (from Star versus the Forces of Evil)

Star versus characters have the benefit of Toonforce where numerous characters have mushroom cloud surviving feats including normal humans that Ludo's body should scale to. Low Tiers like Cloudy also have lightning timing showings while a faster character like Hekapoo can seemingly circle the planet quickly which Toffee-Ludo can scale to in speed. There's an extra caveat, this form of Ludo has half of the Royal Magical Wand, a wand with universal destroying capabilities inside him giving him universal destructive capacity. However this is actually allowed as Tokima also has universal destructive capacity via his control over the space and time continuums. 

So Toffee/Ludo is known for his particular capacity to drain the lifeforce and magic from entities. Demon abilities are called magic in Devil Hunter Yohko so this strongly suggests that just as Haruka did, Toffee could steal Tokima's own magic and beat him with it, if he needs to as lifeforce draining him would presumably bypass Tokima's resurrection. 

What would happen if Toffee-Ludo fought Tokima and Haruka together? We actually have a good sense from his fight against the Magic High Commission. They have almost the exact same abilities as Tokima and Haruka except higher stats:

Universal Spacetime Manipulation: Omnitraxus

Dimensional Portals and Duplication: Hekapoo

Sealing: Rhombulus

Resurrection: Lekmet

They might not have as high skill as Haruka but if you think Moon has remotely relative skill to her daughter who before even getting the wand would defeat military bands of physically relative monsters for fun then he should be used to fighting highly skilled magical girls too.

Against this group with much similar abilities and more as well as higher stats, Toffee-Ludo by draining their magic/lifeforce and using their powers against them. If you think Toffee-Ludo from the end of the fight is a valid counter it's even more insane as he basically starts with almost every power Tokima and Haruka have and use the powers Tokima lords over others against him. 

The only thing that might be a problem is Tokima's mind hax. The Butterfly family do have mind affecting spells and Rhombulus did tank Eclipsa's hypnosis magic but it's unlikely that even at the end of the Magic High Commission Toffee-Ludo would scale to it. There's an argument Toffee might be able to resist mind hax due to not losing his mind in the magic dimension the way most people do and Tokima doesn't use his mind hax in combat as much as his strongest ability, but still for the best counter I would use

The Hound of Tindalos from The Cthulhu Mythos

In terms of Power the Hounds of Tindalos were able to cause an earthquake to break into a space that was spherical and without angles. This would put them around the level of Tokima and Haruka in raw power. Speed is inapplicable in a battle against the Hounds due to how they function.

The Hounds of Tindalos are entities from a higher dimension outside spacetime. They pursue opponents across space and time, smelling and tracking down an opponent quintillions of years away. They can only attack through angles, however with only two characters here and neither being that high in intelligence they are never going to figure that out in time. 

Even if they did the Hounds are immune to basically every Tokima and Haruka could do. They exist outside the space and time continuums and would be immune to manipulation of it. They are not from a universe of matter and energy so they can't be damaged by conventional force. Tokima has mind manipulation but as the Hounds of Tindalos are actually just a part of a higher dimensional being interacting with the universe, that is unlikely to work in the same way that trying to brainwash the finger of a giant who is broadly outside your range wouldn't work. The only offense they have that might work is the sealing of the Devil Hunter's blade but that assumes Haruka can even hit them when they can just appear at any angle and furthermore from a universe not made of matter-energy. The Devil Hunters have never shown the ability to hit metaphysical entities with the forest spirits taking physical form to fight them. It's possible Haruka's blade would just go through them. 

In terms of defenses while Tokima has his resurrection, the Hounds fight by draining the "essence" of things and through an otherworldly poison, the former of which should probably kill Tokima. Tokima could try to use his spatial hax to hide in a shadow, however the problem with this is what makes the Hounds so impossible to evade. They can appear at any angled space, so if the shadow Tokima is in ever reaches the edge of a wall for instance or comes across another object that is not spherical, they can still attack him. They can also just attack Tokima further back/forward in time when he was sealed or attack Haruka after she grew old and presumably weakened the way Madoka did. They even have stealth capabilities as when they entered Chalmers' room they flooded it with smoke which would obscure them to both Tokima and Haruka as neither have any known passive sensory abilities. 

And that's how to be OP in the Devil Hunter Yohko-verse

How they Compare: Baron Fairweather (Changeling: The Lost)

 

(Apologies for lack of pictures but there is only one canonical picture of Baron Fairweather)

Tales have long been told that humans abducted into that mysterious other world of dreams, the fae realm. These poor souls when they have returned are changed forever by that experience. With time they may heal, but it's hard when their former captors send Huntsmen to recapture them. Even that however is not the worst possibility. There are many kinds of fae creatures one can encounter even on Earth but perhaps scariest is if one of THEM, The Gentry, The Kindly Ones, the Old Gods show up in the mortal world themselves. Baron Fairweather is a fae creature but not just any, for he is, in reality... one of the True Fae themselves, the captors. 

For Centuries, a strange and eccentric businessman has showed up, one with a perfect and handsome appearance but a devious smile and smoldering eyes. He has gone by many names but his current title is one Baron Keith Fairweather, business consultant of MaxMart. He has integrated himself into human society, growing his pet business to slowly encompass the entire world economy. He presents himself as a good businessman whose business will improve the local conditions with jobs and good product at good prices. However it is slowly indebting people and making them his dependents. The True Fae are captors who take people for theirs. Baron Fairweather's form of this is slowly making people indebting themselves to him until he can literally take them as his property. He was historically associated with the Slave Trade and still seeks to take others for his, especially if they do it to themselves. 

Of course the humanoid form is not Baron Fairweather's true form. The Lost who can see Mien, one's true soul self see his true is a Dragonlike Reptillian Monster, something his disguise always has a slight hint to, and which he can take the form of at will. Like a Dragon, he is an embodiment of greed, taking all he can for his hoard, taking people as his slaves. Who might his Captives be? Captured Princesses Fairests, Wizened Accountants made to count his riches over and over, Musclebound Ogre slaves to move it, Elementals that were people literally turned to gold statues. He is called the Free Market Dragon, for he is the Modern Dragon, the ruthless lord resting on his reaches, his horror being at once the fear of being a small person looking into the predatory eyes of a dragon, and being of the poor and indebted looking into the predatory eyes of a ruthless deal-maker. 

In terms of stats: in all stats: physical, mental, and social Baron Fairweather is rated between 4 and 6 which is the range of "exceptional human" to superhuman. As a True Fae and a particularly powerful True Fae at that, Baron Fairweather even in the mortal world would have very powerful magic likely at least comparable to the most powerful of Changeling Contracts. It is stated that "The Mightiest of Contracts can level mountains" in a section specifically about how Changeling Contracts pale in comparison to the power of the True Fae. This is consistent with how other powerful spellcasters in the setting can do things like create large storms including both Mages and Mummies that are not at the apex of their power. In terms of speed, Baron Fairweather has 6 Speed and 3 Athletics giving a decent chance at dodging bullets at close range (Difficulty 9-10). This is consistent as Vampires with even a single dot of Celerity have an increased chance of dodging bullets and a True Fae should probably be comparable to the lowest Vampires. Granted he's probably not AS fast as bullets, but subsonic speed is probably pretty fair. 

As a True Fae, Baron Fairweather naturally has access to all the basic Fae abilities that are essentially watered down versions of what the True Fae do. He can absorb glamour, the energy of wonder and horror from nearby individuals, and if need can be forcibly take it from them. He can induce emotions, primarily fear and freed for Baron Fairweather himself. He can perceive and communicate with conceptual things and in the Hedge, the boundary realm surrounding the material he can form objects through the technique of Hedge-spinning. He can open and close boundaries with some extension to the Hedge at will. He can also use glamour to make himself seem even more visually appealing, is completely immune to non-lethal damage due to his immoral Fae flesh, and has a supernatural willpower tied to his greed. It's also suggested he could have widescale brain manipulation as it's stated that the MegaMart don't use any kind of supernatural persuasion to addict people to their products... unless the storyteller wants Baron Fairweather to use such. 

Outside of these, Baron Fairweather also has contracts, agreements with various concepts to grant him powers just as the Changeling do however Baron Fairweather's contracts are all at the maximum power:

His contract with Dreams allows him the ability to enter into dreams and shape them to his will, pull objects from dreams into the physical realm, and gain information about the local hedge at will.

His contract with Fire allows him to manipulate and shape fire, summon it to him, or turn into fire with him often turning into a fiery serpent in combat

His contract with Reptiles allows him to regain his reptilian form with enhanced senses and claws and horns and fangs, and he can also communicate with and command reptiles. 

His contract with Mirror allows him to shape his own body how pleases, which can be broadly used for disguises. 

His contact with Beauty/Vainglory allows him to bolster his charisma to supernatural levels, able to alter minds and memories with his presence or to inspire great fear

Moreover, Baron Fairweather as someone connected to the Wyrd like all True Fae he can make new contracts with any aspect of reality. The Source books are clear that any aspect of reality from things like Fate and Time to things like Fire or Birds can be made a contract with though generally will require finding a physical thing acting as representative and giving a service or good in exchange. While for a Changeling this process could take years and doing it more then once is the stuff of Legends, a True Fae can make a new Contract with an Aspect of Reality "with a thought" if they make an oath upon their Title or their Name. 

Finally killing Baron Fairweather is a fool's errand. Because what appears to be Baron Fairweather is not. If "killed" the Baron will reappear with time, as he is part of something greater. You see all mentioned prior is far from his best. One of the biggest weakness of the True Fae is arguably that when outside their realm of Arcadia, they are far weaker. Baron Fairweather is the True Fae...but he's also not. He is the manifestation of something greater...some deeper and more ancient in the distant fae realm

When a Changeling is first kidnapped and dragged away from this mortal realm, they go to the other side... a world beyond the Hedge and beyond human imagination. It is a world of wonders and horrors and things beyond words, Arcadia. And no one KNOWs if what was seen in Arcadia even was Arcadia or just a limited mortal perception of it. Arcadia is the land of the True Fae and it IS the True Fae. There in Arcadia are the domains of the True Fae, the worlds described as a shifting kaleidoscope made of the pure energy of possibility. Each domain is made by a True Fae and sometimes simply IS the True Fae. This entire world pulsates with the strange Fae Magic know as the Wyrd. It in this place that the incomprehensible True Fae play their games with each other, creating a world made out of negotiated contracts with each other and stories of conflicts with each other rather then any such arbitrary thing like reality.

Baron Fairweather is the manifestation of the True Fae Title Cloistered Baron of Impossible Dreams, basically the Cloistered Baron dipping a small part of itself into the material world. As part of the True Fae's games, the Cloistered Baron of Impossible Dreams has sworn to take the Title of Lord of the Material World this greed is manifesting as the manifestation of pure greed Baron Fairweather. While a True Fae in the Material World is powerful, a strong Motley of Changelings can beat them. But even great Archmages don't dare fight a True Fae in their own domain. 

A True Fae has total and complete control over their domain with things like space, time, physics, and nature being suggestions. They can easily make it infinite, infinitely spatially looping, make it so time moves at a glacial rate inside, can shift it into a world where water instantly kills but lava refreshes, deserts with Two Suns comparable to Hell, an icy vastness where fires will not start, a giant ocean that can be breathed like air etc. 

The True Fae in their own realm is so powerful that it's part of their narrative that their actions are fueled in trying to find a limit, going on The Hunt to other realms, or battling with each other for their titles in narrative battles called Legends. They are known to manipulate both Form and Stories in their Legend Battle, that their Realms can have their own Myth-Cycles, metafictional narratives that govern them. There is NO natural law in Arcadia, for the laws there are the laws of Dream and Story, and they can fashion things from reality and unreality with equal ease. It is explicitly said that the limit to their power is the one they choose in order to exist and conflict. 

The Cloistered Baron of Impossible Dreams like all True Fae can take on one of four forms to interact with others. 

-An Actor is appearing as a person such as Baron Fairweather though obviously in his realm of Arcadia he is far more powerful.

-A Prop is appearing as an object of relevance to them. This object is invulnerable save for one specific weakness unique to it. 

-A Realm is appearing as his domain itself, a world capable of containing its populace, rules, and stories

-A Wisp is appearing as a group of something, such as when they used to visit the human realm as groups of house elves and hearth Gods. A group of "servants" or an "army" of the Fae, may truly just be him in another face. 

To kill such a being may be impossible, but even if it was possible, you might not want to... there's a reason I have referred to the Cloistered Baron of Impossible Dreams as a "Title"

From time to time a section of the Wyrd makes the first and ultimate contract: The Contract of Life, the Contract of Being where they come into being from will and negotiation with reality. Birth is the hardest of Contracts, a challenge of Will against the pure chaos of Being. But existence requires duality, a self and other, so in order to come into being requires the formation of limits. Thus is the birth of a True Fae. All True Fae possess a willpower great enough to bring themselves into being. But existence is not guaranteed to them as it is to mortals so they must define themselves, make it clear what their boundary is. This is the reason for the Legends and Hunts and why the True Fae collect identities, definitions of who they are.

True Fae hold anywhere from one to five Titles at once which is how they rank themselves in power. The Cloistered Baron of Impossible Dreams is but one of four Titles of the True Fae who holds it, one of four selves he inhabits. To lose a Title is painful for a True Fae and while it weakens them, if one were to destroy somehow the Cloistered Baron of Impossible Dreams, they would be under the scorn of Three Fae Beings on his power who seem to be separate entities but are actually the same being. What is this being? What is this being's name? If I knew that...

I'd have control over him.

The Nameless True Fae behind the Cloistered Baron of Impossible Dreams is a four-selved being, a being of Pure Wyrd with Four Conceptual Selves it controls at all times. Actually killing this entity, requires destroying every one of his Title and then gaining power over or destroying his True Name. 

The True Fae itself beyond its title is natively Trandual and beyond conceptual limitations as it requires setting said limitations to achieve duality and existence. 

For how incredibly powerful they are, the True Fae actually have a bunch of weaknesses. There are roughly three groups. First among them is that they are native to Arcadia and leaving it makes them vastly weaker and more vulnerable. If a Title or even the True Name fully leaves Arcadia and is destroyed in the Mortal Realm, it is destroyed fully and permanently. For this reason, the True Fae usually only manifest a small part of a Title in the Mortal Realm at once. 

Second the True Fae are bound to the strange fairy laws of the Wyrd. Even they don't know all the rules but some things are clear. Cold Iron is immune to the magic of the Wyrd and kills all things of Arcadia. When a True Fae makes an oath on their Title it is binding and breaking it destroys their Title. And one of the few ways to actually kill a True Fae fully is to trick them into breaking the most powerful Oath they can make, an Oath on their True Name. True Fae must follow the dictates of their story as it is the bound they accepted in taking Form and Title. Baron Fairweather has several such weaknesses: he can never refuse gifts as an expression of greed, he must sleep with gold under his pillow or it damages him as does contact with spoiled milk.

Finally, True Fae lack one entirely one of the greatest strengths of humanity, the major reason Changelings even have a chance of escaping and hiding from them. The True Fae lack humanity's imagination and creativity. They are sterile both physically and mentally. The True Fae are almighty idiots, they know everything related to their domain and stories and literally nothing else. Baron Fairweather is incredible at manipulating the greed of others but he literally cannot conceive of someone acting generous or resisting greed. The story of Baron Fairweather is the despair of being enslaved to greed and debt and the Horror of those predatory consuming eyes from those who have what you need. But it's possible for a Changeling to escape his grasp if they don't act by the dictates of his story, if they are able break their slavery to greed. 

Name: Baron Fairweather, The Free-Market Dragon, The New Robber Baron | The Cloistered Baron of Impossible Dreams | ???

Origin: Chronicles of Darkness

Powers and Abilities: Supernatural Stats and Senses, Immortality, Shapeshifting, Regeneration (Mid-Godly, dependent on his Title in Arcadia), Supernatural Charisma, Supernatural Willpower, Fire Manipulation, Emotional Manipulation, Mind Manipulation, Memory Manipulation, Dream Manipulation, Summoning/Creation, Portal Creation (to the Hedge), Immunity to Bashing Damage, Power Acquisition (Can Create new Contracts if need be), Resistance to some Fae Abilities | All of the Prior, Infinite Conceptual Reality-Warping, Plot Manipulation (Can create Myth-Cycles in his domain, and can create Legends with other True Fae), Law Manipulation (True Fae can create laws for their Domains), Can interact with things like possibility and unreality | All the Prior, Transduality, Infinite Metaconceptual Reality-Warping, Has Four Conceptual Selves

Weaknesses: Limited by his Story and Lacks Human Creativity, Fae Weaknesses to things like Cold Iron, Much Weaker outside Arcadia

Attack Potency: Likely City Level (Should be comparable to the strongest of Changeling Contracts as a Four Title True Fae, which can Level Mountains) | Infinite Conceptual Power (Has complete control over his domain on a conceptual level and can change its dimensions as he pleases) | Infinite Metaconceptual Power (Beyond Duality, Has to define a limit for himself)

Range: Likely National or Planetary (It's suggested his mind manipulation can extend over the scope of MegaMart which is slowly taking of the global economy)

Speed: Subsonic | Infinite | Irrelevant

Durability: Human Level, Immune to Bashing Damage (Brute Force Damage) | Infinite Conceptual Durability | Infinite Metaconceptual Durability

Stamina: Peak Human Level (Has a 5 in Stamina) | Infinite | Irrelevant

Intelligence: Knows everything about his Domain and Story. Knows literally nothing else

Key: Baron Fairweather | The Cloistered Baron of Impossible Dreams | The True Name

So what if the Free Market Dragon set up shop in other series?

 

In DC Comics, Baron Fairweather would be a substantive disadvantage against most actual superheroes and supervillains in that DC has much higher speed scaling with even lower tiered vigilantes able to dodge bullets. With that said his actual powers would be quite potent, not necessarily in the overall scale of which he's affected but things like being able to form Contracts with actual concepts and having a Mid Godly Regen. He would essentially be like the emanation of a Godsphere level entity, albeit a weaker one. His mind manipulation would be relatively potent in the DC Universe with most psychics not being able to defeat that level of power and if he gains a foothold in the collective unconscious he could actually become a much larger threat, however DC Magic Users are VERY well trained in dealing with Fey Entities and would know how to stop him. 

The Actual True Fae though is a different story. Arcadia is roughly the equivalent of Dream and Nightmare in DC and in comparison to them, the True Fae would be an entity that would rival Dream of the Endless himself, with His Titles being comparable to Dream's various selves like Morpheus or Daniel Hall and the True Name being comparable to the real Dream, having infinite conceptual and metaconceptual power respectively. This would make The Cloistered Baron of Impossible Dreams a real powerhouse in the Godsphere as Morpheus is a very powerful entity. However if you compare them directly, while Dream was initially bound by his rules and stories his character development in part was developing past that while the True Fae is still bound by his. Also Dream has had many interactions with very powerful Fae like Oberon and Titania and would understand how to deal with a Godly Fae entity. Plus while this Fae has four Titles, Dream has infinite versions of himself. So that's a plus for him. He'd still be obviously a major threat and would likely to take control of DC's version of Faerie from Oberon and Titania, making Faerie a much much nightmarish place. The Lords of the other Godsphere Realms, people like Zeus and Odin for Skyland or Darkseid and Highfather for Apokolips and New Genesis could probably repel The Cloisted Baron of Impossible Dreams from taking their realms though it would take entities that strong unless he is actually tricked into leaving Dream himself where he'd presumably be not as strong.

 The actual True Fae Name while it could hang around the Godsphere could also enter into the higher dimensions of the Fifth Dimensional Realm and the Sixth Dimensional Realm much like Dream of the Endless' true self. There he would probably be delighted to find entire races of ridiculously powerful entities to define himself against such as the Monitors, the Imps, The Hands, and so forth. 

What if you put Baron Fairweather in one of the other big two Horror verses, the Dark Tower-verse? The Symbolic and Narrative powers of the Fae would be well familiar to the verse where narrative in the form of Ka, the principle of the verse representing story. Baron's level of power would be extremely high to those people in Low-Time, the mundane characters as most only get into the building ranges, though not entirely unheard of. Pennywise was a magical entity creating of creating a large earthquake and the strongest psychics from the decayed Old Ones empire were capable of creating power comparable to nuclear power. So he wouldn't be untouchable, but he would be one of the most powerful normal magical entities one could run into albeit with his fair share of weaknesses physical and psychological. A battle between him and Pennywise would likely be very entertaining though as both just the slightest part of a much stronger cosmic entity, neither could kill each other permanently. 

The True Fae would stronger and it gets rather esoteric where it would fit in the Cosmology. But above Low Time are the layers of the Dark Tower, the layers of Long Time, each one being a reality that views the one below it as fiction, an illusory mirage. The Cloistered Baron of Impossible Dreams in Arcadia would be equivalent to the First Layer of the Tower with the specific weakness of being unable to interact with the beings of Low Time without weakening himself. He would be very versatile and powerful among them but no threat to the beings of the next layer up. 

The True Name is different and more interpretative as he is described as being beyond duality and having to create his own limits above hierarchies. This would make him more equivalent to the Cosmic Entities that exist outside the Hierarchies of the Tower itself like Maturin and the Deadlights who are similarly transdual and can't be understood linearly. I would need to do a lot more analysis and assessment of the verse to say how would compare to entities like this specifically. 

What about if Baron Fairweather was in the OTHER of the other Big 2 Horror verses, The Cthulhu Mythos? Baron Fairweather would be odd in terms of powers by most things within the primary universe of the Cthulhu Mythos. His raw power level would be above most alien species that exist in the verse, and for once his hax LEVEL would be fairly normal with low tier Mythos characters having comparably broken powers, he would honestly just be more of a threat due to his hax VERSATILITY. Like the Mythos characters with some very broken powers even on the low tiers like Witches that can BFR someone to the Void but most of them only have that power while the Baron has multiple broken kinds of offenses, various defenses, as well the ability to just gain powers he needs to via Contracts. The best fight for him I think would be one of the Avatars of Nyaralthotep who are described as having similar power and hax as well as somewhat similar versatility. Both would also once again have the thing where neither can permanently kill each other as they are both just tiny parts of a Cosmic Entity that is far beyond them. 

The Actual True Fae just based on what it is would almost certainly be a Dreamlands entity. It would be conceptually similar to a Dreamer only with even less sense and even more power, enough that most of the Dream Beasts would not be a threat. The Gods of Earth reside there, and it's likely these would be the most similar entities to someone like the Cloistered Baron of Impossible Dreams. This would be ideal for him, to battle them and define itself in causing Chaos in the Dream Realms from him. 

However the True Fae should be wary of trying to rise to high, for if it tries to go past the gates as Hypnos did, it would suffer a similar fate. The True Fae's power is incomprehensible, self-defined. But it explicitly does not participate in the Ultimate Reality. Beyond the Ultimate Gate lies the Ultimate Gods of which broke the mind of Hypnos and would do similar to a True Fae. The True Fae can be lord of its own reality fine, can seek the material universe or the cities and forests of Dream, but True Fae are creatures still of stories and shouldn't wander into the world where story and word cannot speak of.  

World of Darkness is easily one of the biggest Tabletop RPGs so what if you took Baron Fairweather and put him in the BIGGEST Tabletop RPG, Dungeons and Dragons? In terms of power, Baron Fairweather would be around the strength of the strongest non Epic Level characters with high level magic being able to do effects similar to that of powerful magic users and the most potent Contracts in World of Darkness such as shifting the environment with earthquakes or raw heat such as the Elemental Prince of Fire, large storms and weather changing, etc.  He would be much more sinister then most Fae in the Material Universe but not that dissimilar to an Unseelie. His ability to form Contracts would be potent in versatility but similar to what's done by spellcasters like Warlocks. He'd be a relatively strong spellcaster and his power depends on which material sphere he'd be on, being a normal strong evil in a world like Faerun, the main world of adventure, but honestly probably an overall boon on a world like Dark Sun ruled by Evil Sorcerer-Kings. Adding a powerful Unseelie to most Crystal Spheres the powerful of an Adult Dragon is in a powerful local to regional threat, but can be as a big a threat as a worldwide threat or even a small boon when a sphere is ruled by powers more actively malicious then Baron Fairweather. 

In terms of the Baron within Arcadia he is of much greater power comparable to the Deities themselves, though even the Greater Deities who are concepts that passively affect the entire multiverse are moreso akin in Changeling terms to the Elemental Forces that the Fae make Contracts with and below the power of the actual True Fae who simply decide the conceptual reality of their dimension. Granted they are still in the same tier and given that D&D Deities are much smarter and more creative, tricking the Baron out of Arcadia wouldn't be impossible. Still he would be considered an Enigmatic Far Realms entities in the same range of power of the strongest deities, and that's just the one Title.

The True Fae himself would be beyond even further more akin to Overdeity type characters like Ao or the Lady of Pain although with vastly greater weaknesses then them. As such it would be an immense shift to the Multiverse's balance if he appeared, though not one that couldn't be stopped by Ao, the Overdeity in charge of the Great Wheel.

Finally, how would Baron Fairweather do in another verse known for OP Fairies? Well physically Baron Fairweather would be WAY outclassed by even normal humans as the entire verse benefits from toonforce physical stats beyond most of Earth's supernaturals in Chronicles of Darkness. On the other hand, the characters in this verse are comically idiotic with even the smartest characters in terms of general cognition is average human level. Baron Fairweather is mentally highly proficient. He is not very creative due to his fae nature, but he is very good at manipulating the greed of others, something he could do to gradually gain power not even including his brainwashing and dream manipulation. Even if found out his regen would let him just return while his disguise abilities would let him appear in new form. Some people here would do especially well in combat from Timmy with his magic proof cloak or Dragons that are immune to fae magic but being even better in direct combat wouldn't especially help when Baron Fairweather would become a threat from manipulation. The best counter strategy would be Mr. Turner using his mind-reading to tell Baron's true nature and Mandie trapping him in stasis as she did to Cosmo and Wanda, though that's a highly specific counter that is likely temporary at best. 

Of course a Godkid with fairies can win with them but that brings up the true battle, what would happen if the strongest horror fairies encountered the strongest cartoon fairies? Assuming it's in Arcadia and the Fairies have fully charged wands, both can be arbitrarily at any level of power they want, have whatever powers they want, and have whatever resistances they want. Both are bound to an unknown extent to an arcane and strange set of rules and have a good number other weaknesses as well. In terms of general cognition, The FOP Fairies are a race of complete idiots across the board while a True Fae is nigh-omniscient in their specific domain and story, but know literally nothing at all outside of it and have zero creativity. The True Fae would never think to trap them in a butterfly net, nor would he be able to get to Fairy World to disrupt the Big Wand as True Fae are far weaker outside Arcadia and he would never risk it. On the other hand the FOP Fairies are never going to be able to trick him into breaking an Oath or know his weakness is Cold Iron. The FOP Fairies were aware of it, they could even change the True Fae's name to depower him, though this is something they would never think of. I initially thought the True Fae's Plot Manipulation might win due to the rarity of metafictional powers in Nickelodeon however Jorgan has shown Plot Manipulation via Fairy Magic in Timmy the Barbarian. Both have also affected things with non-existent physiology as well, the two are definitely a good match for each other. At the moment I think it might go either way, though one thing I think the Fairies might have as an advantage is numbers, not just in that there are worlds of fairies and fairy like entities in FOP vs 1 True Fae, but True Fae seem to have problems duplicating on a Title Level. The reason Actor and Wisps are different is they are inhabiting a number of forms instead of just one, and the Wisps are consequently weaker, with the beings inhabiting a realm form being weaker then even Wisp forms. At most the True Fae has access to Four Titles at once while a Fairy can create duplicates enough to fill a planet seemingly without dividing themselves at all. On the other hand it is plausible scenario to imagine The Baron selling the Fairies some object in exchange for their wand that they could have just conjured with their wand. It fits both the story of the Baron's dark irony as well the Absurdist Humor of FOP and for the True Fae things that fit stories meant they have more likeliness to happen. 

Outside the fairies themselves, the verse has other entities of similar power that are threats like Genies which are similarly powerful but more akin to a human in intelligence, even if sealed and Eliminators, Robot Assassins designed to hunt down Fairies and can resist their magic which if you translate to being able to resist the True Fae's magic would be absolutely insane. And above this even more is their master the Darkness, which just absorbs any magic used against it. Of course someone with a human heart could try to show it love in return, but True Fae don't really know anything about that unless it's part of their story so the True Fae would likely just be consumed by the Darkness.