In Ancient Takamagahara, the Kushaka Clan had possessed the ability to forcibly seize another person's body with their souls!
The Ōtsutsuki Clan had suffered greatly at their hands. Even after the melee ended, many Kushaka clansmen remained hidden among them, secretly stirring up trouble!
Thus, the Divine Mandate Banner had been created to determine whether a soul and its body were truly one!
Basara still refused to believe that one of his own had turned traitor. He was more inclined to believe that Kushaka Uddumbara had used his ability to seize the body of an expert from the clan and infiltrate their ranks!
So he ordered his people to bring out the Divine Mandate Banner!
The Divine Mandate Banner consisted of a pole, a tally, a banner, and an "eye" at its tip!
The pole's base was fired from heavenly earth, while its shaft was a Divine Tree branch plated with heavenly gold. It had a long vertical shaft and a short horizontal crossbar. From the top of the base, the vertical shaft measured three Heaven-Measuring Rulers [the Heaven-Measuring Ruler was a unit of measurement in Takamagahara, equivalent to 1.76 meters]. The crossbar intersected the shaft at its neck, forming a cross, with talisman pendants symbolizing yin and yang, the sun and moon, hanging from its two ends!
The tally was embedded where the crossbar and shaft intersected, between the yin and yang talismans. It was forged from heavenly gold, but the divine blood and various restrictions incorporated into it had turned it pitch-black!
The banner hung from beneath the eye at the tip, covering the crossbar and tally. It moved without wind, its surface sometimes flowing like a gentle stream, sometimes blazing fiercely. Red divine markings shaped like lightning flickered across it. It resembled both water and fire, yet