Universe
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The world of six gates is an alternate universe to the regular earth. The exact nature of this remains unclear; creatures of Six Gates World (Rokumon Sekai) tend to refer to the other world as the Human World (Ningen Kai), due to being governed by humans, while the residents of said human world refer to their own as the real world (Genji Sekai). This implies that Six Gates World may be a Fantasia of sorts.

The anime interpretation of the setting differs from novel canon, where the world is a flat world floating as the center of the universe, and an elemental realm is placed in one of the six directions of the axis. Instead, the anime features a globe and discards the association of the elements with the latitudes. It does however feature four realms for the cardinal elements, while the holy and demon realms exists in separate sub-dimensions.

Also see Technology, Mon Mon Items and Miscellaneous Items.


Six Elements

The magic of the six elements is kept in check by a mathematical form : a hexagram encased in a ring, kept in balance by two smaller rings. The spikes of the hexagram represent the six elements, and they both form and are founded on the seventh core piece; the hidden seventh element. The structure is essentially a door, either a locked one or an opened one. It invokes elemental magic by transporting the appropriate energy from the root realm to wherever it is called to, as well as governs its distribution. Its effects are largely invisible, lest something passes through it.

Each element has a title, though invoking it is not necessary. They are traditionally aligned in this order, with the first four clockwise, and he latter two apart.

Non-opposing elements can be "combined" to create a similar effect as certain natural phenomenon. The opposing elements of fire + water and wind + earth are mutually exclusive. The exception is holy + demon, which can effective be combined. These two elements can also be used to make a composite with any other element, which will render them simply as light or dark versions.
The cardinal combinations are thus :

Fire + Wind = Lightning (Atmospheric Discharge)
Fire + Earth = Petrification (Deepearth)
Earth + Water = Poison (Bog)
Water + Wind = Blizzard (Atmospheric Motion)

Each of these elements has a representative legendary item, called Mon Mon Items. When these six are combined, they create a bridge to another universe. Each element also has a giant and a dragon, as well as several other dragons for the variant elements. Finally, the four cardinal elements have a guardian angel, who more or less serves as political representative. The elements of light and darkness obtain guardians by the end of the anime.

Time/Toki is the seventh element, which is both created and made by the other six, like the middle piece of a hexagram. In a sense much like Gaia Hypothesis, this results in fate manifesting in a somewhat more tangible form, and the universe will arrange itself in a way that allows its continued existence. This should not be taken in a manner to say free will does not exist, but rather as adapting itself to the existence of free will and its occasionally problematic consequences. The majority of the world doesn't know this element even exists.


Monsters

A monster in Rokumon Sekai defines a creature with a True Name and an Elemental Root, this includes humans. They may have additional affinities (talents) for multiple elements.

Due to their power being directly linked to the ecosystem, many monsters embody an aspect of nature, such as Winter in the form of the Frost Dragon. Areas with a great deal of water or fire will always have a monster of the opposing element to balance it out, and monsters grow large depending on necessity. Thereby, not all monsters are required to live in their root realm in order to function, though they may be less strong.

The novels establish six dominant species in the four cardinal worlds, these being humans, elves, dwarfs, centaurs, lizardmen and orcs. All of these appear in the anime, but it does not clarify if they are the dominant nations. They do not seem to be great military forces, with the centaurs being an exception. Instead, it is the Cloud Islands that have the most advanced society, both in magicology, buildings and worldly position.

Signs persist of a long gone society that held greater magicology, coming in the form of massive ancient ruins that suspiciously resemble ours, as well as the occasional golems. If this society went down in the same manner as in the novels, they destroyed themselves in their quest for control, and were the ones to develop the summon system on base of the existing six elements.

Overall there is no organized governing system, and crime is largely to be dealt with on case by case base. Summoners can be requested to solve cases of theft and trespassing, rendering them a type of lawkeepers. Valkyries have a similar purpose, but are only a small group. Angels likewise make a habit of representing justice, but only insofar their laws permit.

Religion is referred to only on minimal base, contrast to the novels. The Gillmen recognize the Sea Giant as a god, and crosses can be seen from time to time.

More on civilizations can be found by clicking a certain c-word in this sentence, and a list of monsters by tribe is available.


Summoning

This is a magical art that allows one entity to teleport a monster to their location, which creates a mental link between the two.

A summoning requires several elements :

  • to be able to invoke a magical circle of the proper element
  • to know the name of the monster
  • to be able to mentally control the monster

Summon works like a computer system, and the above requirements strike a contract with a monster.

In the series, four ways to create a circle are seen : project them from a card (in the novels, jewelry is also used), create them using a Stone Circle (Beginner's blue stones) or being able to just make them with sheer willpower (the angels and a few other monsters can do this). The fourth is having the Mon Mon Items.

Cards are designed to help inexperienced summoners, and do absolutely nothing if the user can't make a mental link to the monster. Being on a summoning terrain makes summoning easier and Count Collection and company can only summon when on such a field, because they never learned how to do it with skill.

Gaining a mental link does not mean one can control the monster per say. There is a 1-10 scale assigned to control level. Luke for example is level 4, which is extremely high for his 12 years and means he is a child prodigy. But when he summoned a level 6 monster, the Basilisk, it rebelled against him after only a brief period of obedience.

Controlling a monster can be done in other manners too, as Count Collection uses his Tan Tan Tanchiki. Rut can cast Curse Circle if Zaha provides the energy, but needs to steal cards for this to establish a link. Reda meanwhile can cast Curse Circle using only a blink of his mask.

Empathy is a deeper grounding of the mental link. This allowed Rokuna to receive a talent, which lets her speak telepathically to monsters without needing to strike a contract. Over time, this talent developed into an actual sixth sense. Its benefits are that she can sense some things, and eventually even mess with control over monsters, but the downside is that she is more sensitive to the pain of monsters she is linked to.

One of the side mangas elaborates on why there are trading cards in the first place. A certain Hitoshi Yasuda visited the Rokumon Sekai and used the concept to create a franchise in the human world as well as distributing them in the Rokumon Sekai. While it remained an ordinary kid's game in the former, the human summoner schools in the latter caught on quickly, as the card were cheap and safe ways for their students to practice. Not to say the cards guaranteed success, since it merely overrides the need for circle creation and name invocation.