SHRINE PRIESTESS, The Shaman Pokegirl

SHRINE PRIESTESS, The Shaman Pokegirl

Type: Very Near Human
Element: Magic
Frequency: Very Rare
Diet: human-like diet
Role: Religious leaders, healers, community protector
Libido: Average
Strong Vs: Fire, Water, Plant, Poison, Ghosts
Weak Vs: Dragon, Rock, Flying, Normal
Attacks: Foresight, Heal, Esuna, Cupid's Bow, Barrier, Duet, Relaxing Gaze, Exorcism, Reflect, Affinity Arrow, Bestow Luck, Soothing Voice
Enhancements: Empathic Aura, Precognition, Spirit Sense, Phase Touch, Reduced Feral, Innate Knowledge (Religion,Magic), Intuitive Aptitude (Magic) Enhanced Agility (x2); [In some] Longevity
Evolves: none
Evolves From: Any (Mechanism Uncertain)
Revised: July, 2012

Shrine Priestesses, the younger ones are commonly called Shrine Maidens, are a rare breed of pokegirl and very few are found in the harems of tamers. Most live at various holy sites located across the globe helping perform religious ceremonies, maintaining the sites and helping protect the surrounding area.

Shrine Priestesses have likely been around since the Revenge War, but due to their being indistinguishable physically from normal human women and their usual preference to resolve conflicts peacefully their existence wasn't realized until much later. It wasn't till a group of infernal pokegirls attacked a village in the Edo League where a Shrine Priestess lived that it was discovered that these shrine tenders were in fact pokegirls. The Priestess using a combination of holy and prophetic magic saved the village from the attackers. Once word of this instance got out to researchers they began to study these pokegirls.

Shrine Priestesses have been known to evolve from a number of different pokegirls and so far no scientific reason has been found to explain why. In fact the only plausible theory as to why this evolution occurs at all is that it happens when a pokegirl reaches a certain level of spiritual enlightenment and prays to their deity to be allowed to directly serve them. This theory is somewhat supported by the fact that there have been no known cases of a girl thresholding directly into a Shrine Priestesss. But that might be caused by the fact that Shrine Priestess are very rare and their genes simply may not be common enough yet to cause threshold. The breed's rarity, while largely caused by their unknown evolution method, is also due to them rarely giving birth to more than one child at once. In fact their tendency to have multiple children from a single pregnancy is only about as high as that of a regular human woman.

Shrine Priestesses, as stated earlier, have no physical features that distinguish them from a beautiful human woman. If they had any non-human traits before evolving they lose them upon doing so. Most have hair and eye colors that would be considered normal for the region they were born in but some have less traditional coloration. Their height also runs the usual human norm. In fact the main way that most people can recognize a Shrine Priestess as such, other than with a pokedex scan, is that Shrine Priestesses prefer to wear their regions traditional clothes for a priestess or a shaman. For example in the Edo region, where they are most common, this tends to be scarlet red hakama, a white kimono shirt with swinging sleeves and white socks.

However despite their normal looks Shrine Priestesses do tend to stand out due to their Empathy Aura enhancement. When they talk people tend to listen carefully and politely, even if they disagree with what is being said. Also when a Shrine Priestess smiles or is happy people near them tend to find themselves in a better mood. And when angry people around them tend to look dis-favorably on who or whatever has raised their ire.

Because of their aura and the fact that most Shrine Priestesses help the community by acting as spiritual leaders, healers and protectors they tend to be held in high regard in most areas. In fact many communities, and leagues, treat Shrine Priestesses much like Celestials; allowing them to choose and leave tamers as they will. Further many areas have laws in place that prevent the use of level three or higher conditioning cycles on members of this breed.

Or course the reason for such a ban may have something to do with the strange fact that whenever a level five conditioning cycle is attempted on a Shrine Priestess the machinery mysteriously malfunctions. Further those who attempt such an act usually start to have a case of serious, sometimes fatal, bad luck. However this may just be coincidental.

Shrine Priestesses are powerful combatants. While they don't have the physical enhancements that many breeds do they are powerful spellcasters and have access to a wide variety of magic and abilities that more often than not leaves them the victor in a fight. Just what magic they have can vary quite a bit depending on the deity they serve making it hard to predict their tactics. However almost all of them have at least some divination, protective, healing, song and dance magic. Also while Shrine Priestess are powerful in combat in general, they are especially dangerous to ghost type pokegirls due to their spirit sense and phase touch enhancements. Further most do train themselves in martial arts or the use of weapons, most commonly a bow so that they can use their Affinity Arrow attack.

Despite their power Shrine Priestesses prefer to avoid conflict if possible. Most will attempt to peacefully defuse a situation before the need for combat arises. However once they commit to the fight they will do their best to bring the fight to an end quickly.

While most Shrine Priestesses tend to have a shrine they stay and protect some do travel. Typically this is the younger Priestesses, those searching for a shrine that suits them or looking for a place to establish a new one. However some Shrine Priestesses have been known to go on pilgrimages or to travel to complete some task that they feel their deity has called them to do.

It is these traveling Shrine Priestesses that typically end up in harems. While in harems they usually end up as Alphas. While not necessarily the best of strategists or fighters, they don't typically gloat or have an overbearing ego. Further since they tend to be well liked most of the other harem members will willingly follow their commands.

During taming Shrine Priestess usually prefer more tender intimacy. As such they often make a good first partner for timid Pokégirls. Their Soothing Voice technique calms nervous, anxious or otherwise timid lovers while simultaneously exciting them. Tamers should remember that while a Shrine Priestess' libido is only average that should they be bored or relaxed for extended periods of time that they start to act like they have a high libido instead. Sometimes this goes so far as they will temporarily alter religious rituals to include sex just so to add some excitement in their lives.

While extremely rare for a Shrine Priestess to go feral it has happened occasionally. Most often so to those who had the unfortunate experience of losing their tamer while in the wilderness or those that maintain remote and hard to get at shrines. Study of these few cases have proven that they have the reduced feral enhancement, becoming easily distracted, somewhat illogical and a bit klutzy instead of going truly feral. Oddly they have no trouble remembering the details of their religion or how to use the magic they receive from their deity. Further those who go feral while away from a shrine seem to always find a 'sacred' areas to protect. Just what they consider to be a sacred area is hard to predict, but there is usually some sort of basis in their religious practices that make them consider it to be sacred.

Tamers should be aware that it is possible for a Shrine Priestess to become what is referred to as a Fallen Priestess. A Fallen Priestess, while still scanning as a regular Shrine Priestess, loses all of their attack abilities and any of the religiously affiliated magic they posses. In fact they become almost like Ingenues as far as combat ability goes. The reasons for them becoming Fallen Priestess vary case by case but typically it either involves the Shrine Priestess repeatedly and knowingly breaking a key aspect of their religion or if they simply lose their faith in their deity altogether. This phenomena happens only rarely and there does appear to be a way to reverse it. In the case of those who knowingly broke the teaching of their religion this is typically through some sort of atonement. For those who became Fallen through loss of faith they can regain their powers simply by regaining that faith or by putting their faith in another deity. Should it be the latter they gain magic appropriate to that kami rather than that they had known previously.

People should also be aware that while most Shrine Priestesses tend to serve benevolent deities some have been known to worship destructive or evil beings. These dark or black priestesses, as they are commonly called, can be very dangerous. They will use their powers to manipulate and control tamers into helping them complete their dark goals.