Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26091970-20150415230802/@comment-26988710-20150416010103

My personal interpretation is that the shipgirls are like Avatars (the Aang/Korra variety, not blue space-Native-Americans): they're born as normal human girls with their own soul, but with an additional soul that cohabitates their body (like Avatar/Raava). Continuing the analogy, their inhuman abilities are due to being in a constant Avatar-state.

The other soul in the shipgirl is a bit...philosophical, I suppose? It borrows from how Noble Phantasms are created in the Fate series: the feelings around and legends of those WWII ships "crystallize" and give rise to a new entity. The sailors who grew attached to their vessels, and people since then who love naval history essentially "think" these entities into existence; as long as people remember the real life Akagi/Maya/whatever, then their spirits will live on. As such, there are other shipgirls for other nations (e.g.: aHood or Enterprise kanmusu)

Construction is tricky for me, and it really comes down to me basically playing the game as a fanfiction: shipgirls that I construct and choose to keep have been "reassigned" or "recruited" to my naval base. Anyone who I don't intend to keep was never really there at all. Modernization amounts to breaking down spare equipment and using it as parts to enhance a girls current gear. Likewise, scrapping is just disposing of gear I have a surplus of. There are no multiples of a particular shipgirl because - as noted - they're born and grow the same as normal humans; they aren't cyborgs or machines or clones or anything like that.

Abyssals...I honestly don't have any thoughts on other than that I hate the "Abyssals = Zombie!shipgirls" idea. I just roll with them being Pacific Rim-style monsters from another dimension. And fairies could be refugees from a dimension they've already conquered, I guess?

KanColle doesn't really seem to have a story outside of what the individual player makes for it.