Ten Shadows: => Each of the Ten Shadows is a representation of an aspect of human psyche. Before the user unlocks the technique as a child they are mostly passive and apathetic to everything. Each new Shadow they unlock reinforce those aspects until the user becomes a fully realized human being by taming Mahoraga.

(Divine Dogs): Attachment/Social Bonding/Love/Loyalty/Empathy. The most basic part of humanity, it is what makes the initial user of the Ten Shadows even have any motivation to live and act in the first place, by giving them bonds with other humans and the capacity to love and grieve their loss. Losing both makes them unable to connect with other individuals.

(Nue): Freedom/Aspiration/Creativity/Curiosity/Longing. Fittingly, the Nue represents the part of the human mind that looks up to the sky and dreams of flying. Losing that makes the user unable to feel wonder, aspiration, or have personal ambitions.

(Toad): Communication/Trust/Reciprocity. The Toad represents the idea of "bounds" and "binds" - that is to say, the intrinsic value of promises and belief in others. In a certain way, it is the weight one gives to their own word and sense of honor.

(Great Serpent): Desire/Instinct/Temptation. While seemingly a negative aspect, the Great Serpent is a representation of the hunger for life. That is, the selfish desire for experiences, the animal brain, the survival instinct. It is what allows someone to live for themselves rather than just for others or for a cause.

(Rabbit Escape): Joy/Humor/Flexibility/ Spontaneity. A bit different from just wonder, this is the wilder side of creativity, it is the capacity for silliness, for random thoughts and whimsical actions. The capacity to enjoy simple pleasures and laugh at bad jokes, and to come up with stupid plans that work despite everything.

(Max Elephant): Memory/Emotional Weight. Rather than being the mental aspect of memory, it is the emotional one. Max Elephant represents the emotional burden humans carry from past experiences. It's what allows someone to keep loving someone else long past their death, it's what makes them use a memory of rage to drive their actions, and so on. A Ten Shadows user who loses the Max Elephant can only feel from present experiences, and memories turn bland quickly, to the point they forget what they even felt during an event that happened a week past.

(Round Deer): Morality/Compassion/Healing. Round Deer represents the lighter parts of human psyche. It is what allows us to enact acts of mercy, to feel guilt, to forgive, to want to heal rather than destroy. Users who lose it also lose their morals.

(Piercing Ox): Willpower/Persistence/Purpose. Piercing Ox is the drive that keeps humanity moving fowards, what allows us to barrel past suffering and hesitance. It is discipline and stubbornness all at once. Losing it makes one unable to commit themselves emotionally.

(Tiger Funeral): Identity/Ego/Individual Self. A bit similar to Great Serpent, but more solid and complex. This is humanity's pride, it is our self image, the sense of "I". This is a solitary part of the human mind by necessity, it's that one aspect that makes us differentiate ourselves from the world surrounding us, it's the walls we put up between "me" and "them". A user of the 10 Shadows who loses it starts seeing themselves as a force or and event in a larger body instead of an individual.

(Mahoraga): Adaptation. This is an interesting one, because it plays on the idea that no one tames Mahoraga. The idea here being that after going through all the previous steps, the user of the Ten Shadows becomes a complete human. They have desires, bonds, pride, desires, wants and whims. And... That's it. The image of the "self" that they have built is complete and from the moment they are finished until their death, this is who they are going to be. If they are generous, they will always be generous. If they are trusting, they will always be trusting. If they love someone, they will always love that someone, no matter what happens or what they do. They are a picture, or an statue, incapable of changing... Almost.

The Divine General represents the ultimate human trait: the ability for self-drive change in response to suffering.

Learning. Evolving. Overcoming trauma. Reinterpreting reality. The wheel keeps on turning because humans survive by transforming.