Shadow Hearts Covenant: Blood Types

In Shadow Hearts: Covenant there's a door that will only open for people with a specific blood-type (or, rather, if you open it with someone else, the treasure will disappear).  There's a little puzzle you can do to find out their blood types, and the results are as follows.

Karin - type A.
Lucia - type B.
Yuri - type O.
Joachim - type A.
Gepetto - type AB.

In Japan, blood types are used as personality markers, kind of like how horoscopes are in the West.  So it makes sense that this door is in an area with a zodiac puzzle!  The wiki article, here, has a chart listing the traits individuals of each blood type are supposed to have.

Like Karin and Joachim, I'm type A.  I know this because I donate blood, and my twelfth donation is coming up soon. Save a life - if you're in the UK, you can make an appointment here.

Anyway, type A individuals are supposedly earnest, creative, sensible, reserved, patient, and responsible.  Our worst traits are being fastidious, overearnest, stubborn, and tense.  I'm also a Leo (creative, noble, loyal) born in the year of the earth dragon (1988), which makes me magnanimous, stately, vigorous, strong, self-assured, proud, noble, direct, dignified, and passionate but also tactless, arrogant, imperious, tyrannical, demanding, rebellious, intolerant, dogmatic, violent, and impetuous.  I never realised how many traits Leos and Dragons supposedly shared until I went and looked that up here. 

Horoscopes are worked out based on which constellation the sun appeared to be when you were born.  Apparently, where the other planets - including the moon - where at the time also have an effect on your personality.  For instance, in my case, the moon was also in Leo, so I get a double whammy.  The moon supposedly affects how you deal with things internally, while, for instance, Mars indicates your temper and Venus is how you love.  The constellation that appeared on the horizon at the time of your birth indicates  how you initially come across.  That changes every two and half hours or so.  Your midheaven is the sign directly above you when you were born, and that indicates how you go after your goals.

I should make it clear at this point that I don't think any of this is literally true.  There's no evidence for any of it.  That said, it is really fun to think about it, and if you enjoy writing, it can be a fun way to make up characters.  For instance, say you have someone who has all their planets in Taurus, so they have all the traits of that sign - patient, sensual, etc.  But then they have just one planet - maybe Mars - in Scorpio.  You end up with a loving, down-to-earth person with a cold and spiteful temper.

You can cast your own birth chart here if you want to have a look.

I don't know nearly as much about Chinese New Year signs.  I know there's also an elemental aspect, which changes every twelve years.  In other words, everyone born in my twelve-year 'cycle' is Earth.  Dragons born in 2000 are Metal, while those born in 2012 are water.

Incidentally, this means Yuri was born in the year of the Earth Ox, while Alice Elliot was born in the year of the Water Snake.  Karin is also an Earth Ox.  You can look up your sign and element here.

Going back to blood.  AB or O basically indicate extra 'bits' that can be in blood.  'O' blood has no bits in it.  A blood has A bits, and B blood has B bits.  AB has both A and B bits.

Bodies will attack the bits they don't recognise.  So, if you give a transfusion of AB blood to an O person, their body would reject the blood because it would think the AB bits were a virus.  That's why O blood is the universal donor - you can give O blood to anyone with any blood type, because there are no bits that look like viruses in there.  People with AB blood are the universal recipient - they can have any kind of blood given to them.

Unfortunately, this means that people with O blood can only take donations of O blood.  That's why other types of donors can still be useful.  My A blood can go to anyone with A or AB blood, freeing up the O blood for someone who really needs it.

To complicate things further, positive or negative refers to the presence of rhesus particles, another bit that can be mistaken for a virus.  Positive means you have them, negative means you don't.  I'm A positive, so if I ever need a donation, my body won't attack blood with rhesus particles in it.  It will attack blood with B bits.

This is where people with O negative blood get the short end of the stick again.  They can't accept O positive blood, because, again, their body will think the rhesus bits are viruses and try to destroy them.

The more you know!