Introduction
Youma are the ‘monsters of the day’ in the Sailor Moon universe. Each season (or arc, in manga terms) had its own brand of youma to personalize the arc. However, at the end of the day, they always had the same intent or purpose: give the Sailor Guardians someone to fight.
At Eternal, we allow our members to have youmas as NPCs in threads without staff needing to portray them. However, we do call our youma by a different name: Homunculus.
While members of the Dark Alliance may originate from a certain series with a unique name, they will have joined the fold and address them as Homunculi. This is primarily because when Chaos had revived each division of the Dark Alliance, Chaos intentionally made them unified through this power.
Who can summon Homunculi?
Members of the Dark Kingdom, Makaiju, Death Busters, Dead Moon and the Shadow Galactica can summon Homunculi. The Black Moons traditionally prefer not to use summoning’s and have opted out to not have the ability, claiming it ‘weak’ that others are having their work done for them.
Differentiating
Differentiating the summoner versus the Homunculus may be confusing to some, but to us at Eternal, it’s quite simple. We consider Homunculi to be monstrous creatures, and while the majority may be humanoid, there are some who are not.
The summoner is the person who has been able to use their power to conjure the Homunculi from whence they came. The summoner is also the active character on the board, e.g. Mercury Knight would be considered a summoner.
Members of the Dark Alliance should not ever be considered Homunculus. While it is possible for some Homunculi to possess a human, the possessed are often unstable.
Appearance
Each Homunculus has a unique appearance, and most summoners prefer to summon Homunculi as humanoids. While they aren’t necessarily restricted to being humanoid, it is the preferred, relatable route by most.
The summoner doesn’t have the ability to choose the appearance of their summoned Homunculi. What they summon depends on how much energy they put into the summon.
Species
Standard
Cardian
Daimon
The type of Homunculus that the Death Busters are capable of utilizing, their summoning technique is different than most. They implant an egg of a daimon inside the body of a human host, who then (if their vesselization failed) become transformed into daimon Homunculi. They are beast-like creatures who have various shapes and forms.
Lemures
The type of Homunculus that the Dead Moon are able to request the aid of. Lemures are actually ancient citizens of the Nether Moon whose souls were removed from their body, resulting in them becoming humanoid monsters. Lemures maintain their Lunarian appearances with most of them having light skin and pointed ears, though due to the nature of the Dead Moon characterizing itself as a circus, Lemures take on the appearance of people that you would find in a circus, but twisted, including clowns, people with multiple appendages, fur all over their bodies, backwards knees, and who are connected like conjoined twins.
Phage
During the Sailor Wars, the Shadow Galactica could transform a person into a Phage when they yanked out the person’s Star Seed. While this isn’t the case here as they can no longer steal a person's Star Seed, they have chosen to name their Homunculi Phage in honor of them.
The Phage of the remnants of the Shadow Galactica each retain something significant: Sailor Collars, and they’re humanoid monsters. Because Sailor Galaxia, Phi and Chi are powerful in their own right, Phage that are summoned tend to be on the higher tier of intellect and are extremely dangerous.