Mugenri

无現里（むげんり） Mugenri mɯᵝɡ̃ẽ̞nɾi
The entrance to Mugenri in Evanescent Existence
Information
Other Names	Gods' Tabooed Land (神々の禁足地) Garden of Eden (エデンの園) Lost Horizon (失われし地平線) Oppressed Land of Exile (虐げられし流刑地) Land of Non-humans (人外の国, Jingai no Kuni)
Creator	Senri Shrine's first priest
Capital	Devanagara
Ruler	Tsurubami Senri
Residents	Humans, Youkai, Gods, etc.
Appearances
Prime location of all the Len'en Project games Evanescent Existence Earthen Miraculous Sword Reactivate Majestical Imperial Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle Book of the Cafe

Mugenri (无現里, Mugenri) is the primary setting of the Len'en Project games. It's unclear of what the region is, but it's supposed to be a forgotten land that is sealed away from the outside world by the Mugenri Barrier. Tsubakura Enraku, Yabusame Houlen and their acquaintances are spirited away there by the priest Tsurubami Senri, starting their adventures in this strange land.

The world of Mugenri is based on Gensokyo of the Touhou Project, thus having many similarities.

General Information

Entrance into and exiting out of Mugenri is highly restrictive, largely due to the Mugenri Barrier's complexity. The process can be compared to "making a deal" or a "trade". The dimension that Mugenri is located in has rules that allow flight, which is why many of the characters seen are capable of flight, although the specific mechanisms behind flight are not yet revealed. Mugenri is said to be alive and has a soul of its own, although both Yaorochi and Sukune agree that it will never be able to reincarnate.

Name

"Mugenri" (无現里, lit. "Unreal Land") is the name most widely known and used by the residents of the realm, and is a wordplay on mugen no en (無限の縁, lit. "limitless relations") and mugen no ri ("illusionary laws").

According to Tom C. Zemlja, Mugenri is also known by a number of other titles. However, NiLU suggests that Mugenri may have only gained some of the titles thanks to being conflated with other similar places, and that Mugenri may not truly be the locations these titles claim it to be. These titles include, but are not limited to:

• The Gods' Tabooed Land (神々の禁足地, Kamigami no Kinsokuchi); Tabooed Land (禁足地, kinsokuchi) is a concept in Shinto. Typically found within Shinto shrine grounds, they are sacred spaces that humans are prohibited from entering and are restricted for the gods only, said to be where they dwelled or descended to from the heavens.
• The Garden of Eden (エデンの園, Eden no Sono); The Garden of Eden is a biblical paradise mentioned in Abrahamic religions, where the first humans Adam and Eve once lived before being exiled by God for eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
• The Lost Horizon (失われし地平線, Ushinawareshi Chiheisen); Lost Horizon is a 1933 novel by English writer James Hilton, famous for being the origin of Shangri-La, a fictional utopian lamasery. It is notable that name mentioned by Tom is written as Ushinawareshi Chiheisen (失われし地平線 ), while the original book's title is most commonly translated as Ushinawareta Chiheisen (失われた地平線).
• The Oppressed Land of Exile (虐げられし流刑地, Shiitagerareshi Rukeichi)
• It is likely that the Land of Non-humans (人外の国, Jingai no Kuni) that Tsubakura was looking into prior to the events of Evanescent Existence, mentioned in A World Outside Fantasy, is also another name for Mugenri.

In addition, Tom also describes Mugenri as a "World of Possibilities and Choices" (可能性と選択の世界, Kanousei to Sentaku no Sekai) that comes with its own risks as well, although it's unclear whether this is meant to be a descriptor of the nature of Mugenri, or actually another title the land is known by.

External Geography

The land of Mugenri was once one with the Outside World, although having been separated a long time ago, it is no longer well known outside. During its creation, it was appropriate to describe Mugenri as "on the inside" and the Outside World as "on the outside". However, after the completion of the Mugenri Barrier and the two locations were completely separate, it came to be more appropriate to describe Mugenri as "on the back" and the Outside World as "on the front". In fact, even referring to the Outside World as such by Mugenri's residents is a vestige from when the two lands were one.

The barrier known as the Mugenri Barrier separates it from the Outside World, but outsider humans still occasionally wander into Mugenri, or can even be purposefully spirited away into Mugenri, as shown in Evanescent Existence. However, it is much more difficult to leave Mugenri than it is to enter it, which makes Mugenri residents getting to the Outside World a much rarer occurrence, and likely always purposeful.

Mugenri is apparently a very restrictive location, and travel to most other realms from Mugenri must be done through the Outside World. Other than the Outside World, only two external realms that are directly accessible from Mugenri are known:

• Mugenri's Spirit World (a.k.a. Netherworld), a land of the afterlife that souls of the dead from Mugenri go to, where they are dealt with by the world's master.
• Mugenri's Makai (魔界, lit. "Demon World"), a land where demons and other magical beings reside.

Both of these locations, while separate from Mugenri, correspond to it specifically, which may be why they are directly accessible from Mugenri.

Internal Geography and People

Mugenri is most markedly co-inhabited by both humans and various "non-humans", mostly youkai, though other non-human beings not classified within the term "youkai" may be found as well, such as homunculi. The relationship between the two races varying from place to place, and even on an individual basis.

Four major areas of Mugenri are currently known, they are:

• The Sanctuary
• The imperial capital Devanagara, separated from the Sanctuary by the Gloomy Straits
• The Southern Country of Penguins, where Medias comes from
• A "North Pole-like" region, where polar bears can be found.

While the distances between areas are unknown, it is known that the distance between the Senri Shrine and Devanagara is greater than those from the shrine to the Dragonfly Castle and the length of the Shrine Road taken in Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle.

Mugenri does not have a unified currency, and what is used depends on the region that you are in. Devanagara is seemingly the most advanced, using coins and banknotes under the modern Japanese yen (円) system, while the Sanctuary uses cash coins under the older Japanese mon (文) currency and system, with Yen starting to catch on as well. However, bartering is accepted as a form of trade all over Mugenri, with alcohol being a popular item to barter with.

Mugenri has its own calendar system called Ruri (流離), which means "exile" or "to wander". It's similar to Japan's old lunisolar calendar, with Mugenri's birth as the starting point of its first era. However, the current year is unknown. The Ruri calendar's months have different names in the different regions of Mugenri, but it is acceptable to refer to them the same way we do in reality for convenience's sake.

As for religions, while Shintoism and Buddhism are Mugenri's main religions, JynX has stated that at the very least Christianity exists within Mugenri as well.

History

Little is known about the far past of the world of Mugenri, since more of the characters travelled from far away or were spirited away there. What is known is that the first-generation Shinto priest of the Senri Shrine was the among the group who created Mugenri, and the second priest of the shrine was the one who introduced the spell card system.

Tsurubami Senri, the current official priest of the Senri Shrine, had tyrannically ruled Mugenri with an iron fist for a long time, oppressing its people and youkai. Because of this, many youkai hide away during the day, fearful of them. Ever since after the events of Evanescent Existence, Tsurubami has not appeared in Mugenri because they are having a holiday in the Outside World, replacing themself with Yabusame Houlen and Tsubakura Enraku to take care of the job of being the youkai exterminators of Mugenri.

Homeologues

In the Len'en Project, Homeologues (同祖体, Dōsōtai, Lit. "Common Ancestor Forms") is a term that refers to similar people across different dimensions, although they do not necessarily exist in every dimension, first used in this sense by Tsubakura Enraku. Homeologues share several common factors, whether it be in appearance, personality, mannerism or otherwise. Interestingly, Suzumi Kuzu has noted that Mugenri has a lot of homeologues from their perspective, likely having from rewinded time to experience multiple timelines. In reality, the word originates from the study of genetics, where "homeologues" refer to to a set of similar genes or chromosomes between two life forms that arose from sharing a common ancestral origin.

Additional Information

• According to JynX, the movements of celestial bodies in Mugenri differ from that of "our universe".
• The famous Hokkaido Japanese breed of cantaloupe, the Yubari King melon, which are a favourite of Tenkai Zuifeng can be found within Mugenri as well.
• Curiously, the stage 3 theme of Earthen Miraculous Sword, Though the Way Home Is Lost ~ KEEP IN, is modelled after the image of Mugenri itself.