Barriers

The barriers is a term used for a variety of magical and dimensional wards which protect Yuriba in various ways.

Yuriba is a separate, self-contained magical dimension, containing several connected sub-dimensions, such as Underhill. It is intermittently linked to a variety of different versions of earth as well as other dimensions and worlds, with a tendency to more stability in connection to magic-heavy worlds. Among the most well known of the barriers is one that ensures all arrivals are of a female gender when they arrive (regardless of what quite they were before, and sometimes to the individuals joy, sometimes consternation). Among other barriers are ones that protect the dimension from those who would feed on the limited population within to devastating levels. Generally, this barriers prevent beings who devour life force, mana, emotions, or anything else that is drained from other intelligent beings in order to continue to exist (such as vampires, succubi, some demons) from entering Yuriba.

Yuriba is protected by its dimensional isolation, which separates it from the outside worlds and also prevents most threats from coming in. Although unclear, indications suggest that the ageless being known as Yuriko plays some part in the control and manipulation of these protective methods. These protections generally prevent the entry of entities likely to be widely malicious or deadly to the local life. 'Smaller' evils, who are likely to make lives miserable or ruined but unlikely to wipe the world out, find it much easier to slip through these protections, which are aimed largely at the control of major threats. Beings who can warp or manipulate dimensional magic also sometimes find their way around these protections, although they are largely reliable.

Some of the locals would describe these protections as the Goddesses not only wishing to establish a society and sisterhood, but also to protect it from those who would threaten it or be jealous of it. It does seem clear that whatever form these barriers or wards take, they seem to allow through those who identify as female in body or spirit, as well as female-attracted, in much greater numbers, as well as those who find some need drawing them to Yuriba. The wards constantly shift, adapting to new threats, and will forcibly eject those who approach the realm with malice in their hearts, and will react much more strongly to true threats to the realm or those who would directly attack it. Non-sapient creatures such as animals or plants that encounter dimensional barriers can pass over them freely, lacking active malice, and there's great evidence that many naturalized Yuriban species originally came from other worlds.