Holy Beast

About
The four Holy Beasts (聖獣, seijū) are four colossal beings that carry The Continent on their backs. They're called the Four Holy Beasts now because there are four of them, but it seems there may have been more in the distant past.

During the time of creation, Ludo-Rathowm created them to take charge of gravity control and structural support for the Continent. They're asleep most of the time, but sometimes they will stir and send rippling shockwaves through the Continent, this is akin to the movement of tectonic plates on our own planet, and more often than not this results in earthquakes. Since they are technically lower ranked Gods, the Holy Beasts are claimed to be immensely powerful and are capable of piercing the Invincibility Field of Dark Lords. This hardly matters however, since they don't take part in the world's affairs at all and only serve as its support.

Their bodies are composed of Souls, so strictly speaking they are technically "alive" but they act more as structures than anything. Sometimes their skin will flake off into soul particles and end up on the Continent, this is how Insects were created. This process also contributed to the formation of the 5th Holy Beast named Orochi, a soulless snake beast that ended up becoming responsible for the support of JAPAN, while also creating Youkai in the process.

The Four Holy Beasts

 * Lizard (トカゲ, tokage): The Holy Beast that supports the southeastern portion of the Continent. Resembles a Komodo dragon. Roughly the size of the Free Cities and Zeth combined.
 * Elephant (ゾウ, zō): The Holy Beast that supports the southwestern portion of the Continent. Resembles an elephant. Roughly the size of two-thirds of the Kayblis Faction territory.
 * Monk (坊主, bōzu): The Holy Beast that supports the northeastern portion of the Continent. Resembles a meditating male humanoid.
 * Fly (ハエ, hae): The Holy Beast that supports the northwestern portion of the Continent. Resembles a horsefly.

Orochi
A lazy Holy Beast that wandered around with no responsibilities. In the year NC321, Orochi, who had no job or responsibilities, decided to rampage around the eastern part of the Continent. The thrashing around caused the Eastern Holy Earthquake, which split the land off. The land began to fall, so Orochi burrowed into the earth and decided it would become the support.

The land, now known as JAPAN, was kept afloat thanks to Orochi focusing its energy. After the creation of the Tenma Bridge, Orochi was no longer needed as a foundation of the country, so it fell asleep, creating vast earthquakes as it occasionally shedded its skin. Sacrifices were fed to the Holy Beast to reduce the intensity of these quakes. In the year LP0004, Orochi was felled in battle against the forces of Oda House, finally freeing JAPAN of its influence.

Trivia

 * The concept of the world being supported on the backs of gigantic creatures is derived from a common mytheme present across many cultural mythologies. In particular, the two most prominent Holy Beasts, the lizard and the elephant, seem to be based on the World Elephant and World Serpent featured in Hindu mythology.
 * The northeastern and northwestern Holy Beasts have never been depicted in any official artwork of the Continent, and were only revealed by Orion, the lead artist of the Rance Series, via Twitter over a year after the series concluded. According to Orion, he came up with the idea of using a fly while the appearances of all of the other Holy Beasts were chosen by TADA, the series' director. Orion admitted to being shocked by the monk; both for how odd of a choice it was and for how naturally TADA decided on it.