Iwanaga Ariya - Touhou

Stage 6 Boss The Princess of Permanence

Ariya Iwanaga

Species: Stone goddess Ability: Capable of causing one to give up on change

The pyramid was very much not a Lunar Capital facility.

Here, there was once a very large shrine. Its main temple was the pyramid, and the Sanctuary was its courtyard. The gods worshiped there were the princess of Yuimankoku, elevated to divine status, and Ariya, the goddess of stone.

Her power is the power of perpetuity. The power to maintain the same shape, as long-lived as stone.

The People of the Moon adored that eternal power, but she rejected the idea of joining their ranks. The power of perpetuity is the power of rejection.

Even when her shrine fell under the Moon's administration, she continued to reject them. This pyramid-- this man-made mountain-- was built in the shape of Mount Asama, where the princess of Yuimankoku once lived. She was absolutely not going to hand it over to the People of the Moon.

She continued to reject all change around her, and was sealed deep underground along with her shrine.

She had no regrets. Because as a perpetual being, she always found herself alone in the end.

Then one day, one of the People of the Moon visited her.

"The preparations for every stratagem are complete. However, we will need to borrow your power in the end for any of them to succeed. I would like you to freeze all of Gensokyo, in order to stop the impurity coming from outside." "All of Gensokyo, too? You're living in Gensokyo to shelter that princess, aren't you? If I do this, you'll be stuck too, ex-Lunarian or no." "I'm prepared for that. But a human will come to defeat you. Guaranteed. With the guidance of stones crafted by Gensokyo's gods... And if she doesn't come, well, then that's that."

So if I cooperate with you, a human will come to defeat me? I've never heard such a bizarre solicitation before in my life-- but if I don't do anything, then there'll be no saving Yuiman.

Her heart of stone shifted, ever so slightly.

Character Design Origin Ariya is based on Iwanaga-hime (石長比売, or 磐長姫), goddess of longevity, usually in a comparison between stone and immutability. She is also sometimes considered the goddess of the Yatsugatake mountain range, the basis for Youkai Mountain.

Name Her full name is Iwanaga Ariya (磐永 阿梨夜). The iwa (磐) in her surname means "stone" or "large boulder", and the naga (永) refers to "eternity". Ariya (阿梨夜) appears to be ateji, characters assigned to a word for its phonetics rather than any intrinsic meaning, which is a common practice with Shinto god names. Notably, ri (梨) is the kanji for "pear", and ya (夜) means "night".

Design Ariya wears a white, long sleeved shirt with fossilized vertebrae motifs and a skirt made of rocks. She has a skeletal tail, large exposed ribs on fire that appear to form a phoenix wing, and a dark-colored wing with eye and triangle patterns, composed of bird bones. Has short brown hair, brown eyes and wears an elaborate stone mask that only covers the left side of her face.