The World of Sekiro: Dragon Heirs. Part I. Lord Takeru and Lady Tomoe

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Hello ┬┴┬┴┤・ω・)ノ

Well, the last Remnants post was written... about 6 months ago. After the easy-to-follow Remnants railroad had ended, I decided to look into Takeru and Tomoe's story since I was adamant that the original text would tell me more than any localization. The more I read and discovered, the more questions I had - and almost zero answers. At some point, it just became overwhelming. Hopeful still, I decided to expand the research for this post beyond Takeru and Tomoe and look at Kuro since he is also a Dragon Heir, and at Wolf through the position he shares with Tomoe. And then Dragonrot. And then the Dragon and his tears. As you can probably guess, it became even more overwhelming and just lead to more and more questions.

I love Sekiro more than any other Soulsborne title mostly because it has a very coherent story and fleshed out characters. You are not a random Ashen One/Bearer of the Curse, but a character with a personal story that goes far back before the plot picks up. You are Wolf, and you are a shinobi; you have a foster father, a mentor and a little master that you're sworn to protect, and you're not sure if you need to cook rice before eating it. The rest of the characters also have their personal stories and connections that are - oh my god - explained to you through dialogues that are abundant in Sekiro compared to other FromSoft games.

I think, I got so incredibly crestfallen and discouraged to continue my research because I stepped right into Miyazaki's trap (¬_¬). Since the story in Sekiro is so detailed, the cast of main and secondary characters is so fleshed out, I became completely lost in the illusion that this story has all the answers. I just need to find them. If I can't find the answers - well, it just means that I'm stupid. I didn't really like feeling stupid, so I continued pondering the million questions, doing some translations when I was feeling slightly less crestfallen than usual and waiting for some kind of revelation.

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When I was searching Hirata Estate and looking at every single wooden plank with the Monocular, I was thinking whether the people of the Hirata clan even knew who Kuro was, and also who gave him that dofuku that he wears with an embroidered Dragon Heir sigil on the back.

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I was sure I'll find this sigil somewhere in Hirata Estate but my search proved fruitless and I didn't find anything that would even remotely indicate that the Estate was home to a Dragon Heir. It was the moment of revelation, even if it wasn't exactly the revelation I expected. Here's what I thought:

  1. Answers I'm searching for might not even be there.
  2. That's not the point of these posts.

In my pursuit of THE TRUTH I forgot the simple fact that this game was still made by FromSoft, which means it was made by Miyazaki. If the story is more detailed and more... upfront than the stories that came before, it still doesn't mean that it contains all the answers. I'm not stupid because I can't find them. They might not even be there.

At what point did this research become the hunt for the truth anyway? I'm interested to see whether the localization succeeded or failed in adapting the many nuances of Sekiro story and lore, how much was lost and how crucial the losses are. Of course, I want to uncover all the secrets. But that is not the point, it never was. Cool if I can construct a new theory and back it up with the facts that I find while reading the original but the point of "The World of Sekiro" was never theorycrafting. In time my focus shifted, I lost my initial course and it distorted my workflow.

Add to this the feeling of hyperresponsibility I have for everything I write or say, and yeah. The picture is pretty sad. Honestly though, I get anxious about every single kanji as if me misreading or mistyping a Prosthetic Tool name or some other stuff will lead to some kind of real-life harm, it's ridiculous. I think, I've got to lower some aspects of my ludicrous standards and just relax a bit, otherwise I'll never finish this project __φ(..)

Well, enough with the gloom. Standard procedure:

Disclaimer #0 — common sense is still everything. Please do not assume that I have access to some secret true knowledge; I'm just entertained by reading Sekiro in Japanese. My lore theories are just theories so treat them accordingly.

Disclaimer #1trust me, I'm a professional if this fact is somehow important - I am a certified linguist. My major is English and Japanese as foreign languages, my minor is intercultural communication. Fun stuff!

Disclaimer #2 — I am not a professional translator, I have never worked in localization. Yes, I will say that something is translated poorly and something is not, and it will be my personal point of view. People have been complaining that I am picking on minor things or have weird opinions when it comes to "better translations". I want to emphasize that it's okay to have those :) Ultimately, my goal is to give you the information so you can see if the localization was good or not, whether something important was lost or not. My opinion is just that and I choose to share it, however odd it might seem.

Disclaimer #3 — I am not an expert on Buddhism, so if I get something wrong in the religious side of things, I'm sorry :D FromSoftware had a theological consultant who helped them build the religious narrative in Sekiro. I will leave links to the Buddhist terms that we will undoubtedly encounter so you can read more on your own, if you are interested.

Why do kanji (Japanese characters) have different readings?

This is a popular question in the comment section. In a nutshell, Japanese kanji usually have two types of readings: on-reading and kun-reading, there might be a number of them in each category. On-readings have carried over from Chinese since kanji were borrowed from there, and kun-readings are native to Japanese. When a kanji stands on its own and is used as a single word, it is read with its kun-reading. When a kanji is used as a part of a multi-kanji word, it is read with its on-reading. It is slightly more complicated, but in broad strokes I think it explains it.

Localization info

As far as I know, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was localized into English by Mugen Creations.

Tiny Transcription Legend

[:] — colon after a vowel means that it's a long sound;

['] — apostrophe after a vowel or before a vowel (or between two [n]) means that these are two different syllables, not a single long one.

The transcriptions I give do not follow all academic rules, and I don't think it's necessary. They are just here to represent the pronunciation.

Sources

For this research I mostly used Sekiro Shadows Die Twice Official Artworks, English wiki and a number of dictionaries.

Lord Takeru and Lady Tomoe

For some weird reason I've always been reading as [take], and I was sure that he is "Lord Take" but the English localization invented "Takeru" so people wouldn't read him as lord [teik]. I believe I refer to him as "Lord Take" in some of my videos, sorry about that :D He is indeed written as [take] but it's read as [takeru], according to both Kuro and Emma. I have no clue how I missed it but now I'm finally on the right track. Sorry for misleading you (¬_¬)

kanji is present in many Japanese personal names: it can be read as [takashi], as [tsukasa], as [takeru] and in many other ways. It denotes some fairly general concepts such as "height", "stature", and a specific one - "magnificence (of a poem)". I would love to gain more understanding as to why this name and, most importantly, this kanji was chosen for him because currently I have no clue.

Lady Tomoe didn't surprise me at all, her name is written as [tomoe]. Tomoe is a symbol traditionally used in Japanese mon (紋), meaning family crests or sigils. Tomoe looks like a comma-like swirl and resembles a magatama.

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It's hard to say where the concept of "tomoe" comes from, some people think that it originates from 鞆絵 [tomoe] - a round arm protector that Japanese archers used to wear. The best thing is that in Sekiro tomoe as a symbol is used in the Fountainhead Palace sigil. It's right in the middle.

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To be precise, it's a hidari-mitsudomoe, left threefold tomoe symbol. This tomoe looks like a vortex, that's why it is often in part associated with water and placed on the roofs to serve as a protection from fire.

All Sekiro wikis say that Tomoe's character is based on Tomoe Gozen. She was a legendary warrior that appeared in the 14th century Japanese literature. She was never proven to exist but she served as an inspiration for many generations of samurai. Tomoe Gozen is said to wield masterfully both a bow and a sword.

This historical reference for a character is one of a few that I can believe. Many Sekiro wikis say that every single character in the game is based on a bunch of historical characters, it's kind of exhausting. However, I think that Tomoe Gozen and lady Tomoe parallel is solid.

We'll look at Takeru and Tomoe's associated items as we try to reconstruct the approximate timeline. We know that Tomoe and Takeru lived in Ashina Castle shortly before the story picks up: Genichiro was learning his sword and bow skills from Tomoe, and Emma remembers her dancing beneath the branches of the Everblossom. It's unknown whether Kuro and Takeru existed simultaneously but I think they did not. Consequently, it's highly unlikely that Wolf ever met Takeru or Tomoe.

Spiral Cloud Passage

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Spiral Cloud Passage is basically the Floating Passage upgrade and the most expensive combat art in the game. Its original name is 渦雲渡り [uzugumo watari]. 渦雲 consists of "whirlpool/vortex" and "cloud", the English localization called it "Spiral Cloud". Emma mentions the Spiral Cloud in the Dragonspring sake dialogue and you can actually see it for yourself if you look on the horizon to the left of Takeru and Tomoe's graves.

The last paragraph is what we're after here since it tells us a very important thing that was not adapted by the English localization in the best way.

「源の渦をのぞむ、己が主|その小さな背中が、巴にとっては全てだった。」- "Her master gazed longingly at the Fountainhead Spiral. For Tomoe, his little figure meant everything".

The localization says "young master" but the original says 小さな背中 - small back (of a body), meaning small height. I think, it's safe to say that Takeru looked like Kuro. Do Dragon Heirs age, or do they always look like children? Are they just chosen at a young age? There isn't anything tragic happening yet but we can clearly see how much Takeru misses home.

If you, much like myself, didn't notice, the little Combat Art pictures depict those who are supposed to wield this art. You can see little monks drawn in Temple Arts, little samurai in Ashina Style, and for Floating Passage, Spiral Cloud Passage and Sakura Dance it's okami.

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If I had some tiny doubts about Tomoe really being an okami warrior, now I have none. Tomoe was, indeed, an okami warrior.

Page's Diary

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小姓の日記 [kosho: no nikki] - page's diary, one of the few items that describe Takeru and Tomoe's attempts to return to 仙郷 [senkyo:] - Divine Realm where the Dragon resides.

The original says that Takeru's wound healed while the page was blinking so he didn't see the wound itself. It corresponds to what we see later in the game: Kuro handles Fushigiri himself (Fishigiri is Mortal Blade, I call it Fushigiri because I'm unable to memorize its English name, sorry). Moreover, he asks Wolf to close his eyes so that he wouldn't see his blood. Maybe, you can't watch a Dragon Heir bleed because their blood is divine. On the other hand, when Kuro is stabbed by Genichiro with the second Mortal Blade he bleeds all over the place and no one is closing eyes. Idk.

Takeru and Tomoe tried to reconstruct the Fountainhead Fragrance but ultimately could not, since they didn't have Fushigiri to spill the Dragon Heir's blood. As we're about to find out, Fushigiri, or rather the lack of it, became the reason why Takeru and Tomoe perished.

It's interesting that Kuro finds this diary in Genichiro's study. How did it end up there? Maybe, Genichiro kept whatever mentions of Tomoe were left after she died in memory of her. They must have been close as a teacher and a student.

Fragrant Flower Note

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香花の手記 [ko:bana no shuki] is literally "fragrant flower note".

The localization says "relatives of Tomoe", the original uses the word 一族 [ichizoku]. It can mean family (also in a very broad sense), relatives or a clan, and I think "clan" is the most fitting option here.

It's unknown to whom this note was addressed, it obviously isn't Tomoe. Was Takeru writing this note for the next Dragon Heir because he knew the next one would come? Did he intend to send someone else for the white flower? But who? Well, maybe he was just keeping a diary.

Curious that the recipe for the Fountainhead Fragrance Takeru most likely received from Tomoe since it was her clan that successfully constructed it in the first place and reached the Fountainhead Palace. Just imagine: in unspecified time a clan gathered all the ingredients for the fragrance and ascended. It means that they did not only have the Dragon Heir but also the Fushigiri to draw the Heir's blood. That's kind of mindblowing.

To be honest, I always liked the theory of okami arriving to Ashina together with the Dragon but apparently it's not what happened. A clan of humans - the women of the clan, to be precise - gathered the fragrance and ascended. For all I can tell, they started to transform into okami while living in the Palace. They have a fairly simple life: they watch sakura trees, drink sake, dance, play kemari and just enjoy their eternal existence. It's a dream, really. I have no clue why carpmen eat them and why okami seem to be protecting them. It's also unknown if the okami in the Palace are the very same people who ascended or their descendants. Maybe the answers I'm looking for are not there, and maybe I just can't find them, who knows. We know that in the lands of Ashina there are those who have okami's blood - for example, Shirahagi, Shirafuji and, apparently, O'Rin.

Also, in theory Tomoe wouldn't be able to retrieve the flower since you have to cross the poisonous swamps to get there, and okami are particularly vulnerable to poison. Maybe, that was the reason that Takeru was instructing somebody else to go and get the flower.

Sakura Dance

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Sakura Dance was added to the game later with the Gauntlets, and since I'm usually not interested in boss rushes I didn't even know this Combat Art existed :D

It has a very beautiful name - 桜舞い [sakuramai], Sakura Dance. The localization conveys the mechanics of this Combat Art really well, they did some sentence-combining there, and the results are quite impressive.

The rest of the description is, honestly, heartbreaking to read.

「桜散る日は、もう近い」- "the day when sakura blossoms fall is already close"

「帰れぬならば、せめても舞いを」- "if we cannot return, then at least - this dance..."

I'm not crying, you are.

せめても [semetemo] means "at the very least" but can also be used to describe something minimal one does for comfort or consolation, so the localization is not wrong here and their version makes for a better sentence. The Japanese version doesn't use any pronouns in the phrase "if [] cannot return" but since they intended to go back home together, I'd say that Tomoe was talking about herself here too.

This must be after Owl broke off the Aromatic Branch and the Everblossom started withering. The only thing Takeru and Tomoe now have as a memory of the Fountainhead Palace and the Divine Realm is this dance. If you look closely at the picture, you can see tiny sakura petals around the little okami. Okami from the Fountainhead Palace have a very similar attack, although it does not stir around any petals. Sakura Dance can also reflect lightning.

At this point Tomoe and Takeru cannot return home but they still have the Everblossom.

Tomoe's Note

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Its original name is exactly what you would expect, 巴の手記 [tomoe no shuki] - Tomoe's Note. It's unknown for whom Tomoe wrote this note, probably for the sole purpose of pushing this storyline :D From this note we learn what happened to Takeru and why he and Tomoe started to search for a way to get rid of the Dragon's Heritage.

I really like how the English localization preserves tiny details of these descriptions, like "soft handwriting". Not all localizations do, from my experience.

「丈様の咳は、ひどくなられるばかり。」 - "Lord Takeru's cough is becoming worse".

This is the key sentence that allows us to unravel the whole tragedy behind Takeru and Tomoe's storyline.

We'll talk about Dragonrot in the next post but what you need to know is that in the original it is called 竜咳 [ryu:gai] - Dragon Cough. This note tells us that the Dragon Heirs themselves can catch Dragonrot, which is rather surprising. The most confusing thing to me is that for some reason there was so much stagnation in Takeru and Tomoe's timeline that there was a Dragonrot epidemic and even the Dragon Heir got infected. Why though? Did Tomoe die too often? Their life in the Ashina Castle seemed to be really peaceful: Takeru spent his time reading books, playing the flute and gazing at the clouds, and Tomoe was dancing and teaching Genichiro to murder people effectively with sword and bow. How did her multiple deaths occur? It's possible that the stagnation just accumulates on its own over a very long period of time even if the one bound by the Dragon Heir's blood does not die very often.

At the start of the game Emma says that before the Dragonrot epidemic that Wolf starts, there was another one, and since the cure was never found, everyone who caught Dragonrot, died. I think, it's safe to assume that the list of Dragonrot victims included lord Takeru.

"Returning to the divine realm" line tells us two very important things:

  1. Takeru and Tomoe were indeed searching for a way to go back to the Divine Realm but had to abandon this idea because they couldn't obtain Fushigiri.
  2. "Returnung" (in the original 帰る [kaeru]) clearly implies that they came from the Divine Realm and Takeru was born there. We'll read about it more later.

Since the return was not an option, Tomoe came up with a new plan: break the shackles of the Dragon's Heritage and make Takeru human again. This is the ending that Emma is suggesting to Wolf - Purification Ending, where Wolf dies and Kuro becomes human.

"Restoration requires the Everblossom and the Mortal Blade and yet I cannot acquire the latter".

Here you can see a kind of... hmmm... logical issue with Tomoe's new plan. They wanted to return to the Divine Realm but couldn't because they didn't have the Mortal Blade to draw the Heir's blood. The new plan is to make him human again, and for that you need the Mortal Blade... twice. To construct the aroma (which they couldn't) and get the Dragon's Tears and then for Tomoe to kill herself. Well, this is kind of... weird. Maybe I'm missing something though.

Curious that she knew for certain that Fushigiri was hidden by the Senpou monks but still couldn't find it. The priests did not want to "sever the immortal ties", but why though? As far as I know, they didn't do anything with legitimate Dragon Heirs, they were conducting their experiments on the mountain and tried to produce fake Dragon Heirs. They didn't have any business with either Takeru or Kuro, as far as we know. What profit did they have from legitimate Dragon Heirs being alive and keeping their divine power?

Immortal Severance Scrap

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Its original name is 竜胤断ちの紙片 [ryu:intachi no shihen] - literally "a scrap (of paper)" on Dragon Heir's Severance.

This whole term 竜胤断ち - Dragon Heir's Severance - sounds like something well-known and documented, and honestly this book page proves that it kind of is. It's quite likely that there were many Dragon Heirs before Takeru - so many that the world actually has knowledge on them and on what they can do with the Heritage: destroy it by sacrificing themselves or renounce it in favor of becoming human.

Curiously, "the beheading" also sounds in Japanese as a well-establish procedure -「竜胤の介錯」[ryu:in no kaishaku], "beheading of the Dragon Heir". In the original text Takeru is not all that sure that he will ask Tomoe to assist him with the beheading but he is conteplating the idea of asking her.

As we can clearly see, he, much like Kuro, came to the conclusion that there is no place for the Dragon's Heritage in the mortal world and he needs to destroy it so there are no Dragon Heirs in the future. Takeru pursues the same ending as Kuro - Immortal Severance, where the Dragon Heir sacrifices themselves, breaking the shackles of the Dragon's Heritage, and the Heritage is no more.

Immortal Severance Text

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The original name is pretty straightforward - 竜胤断ちの書 [ryu:intachi no sho], a book/a document on Dragon Heir's Severance.

The Sanctuary mentioned in the description is 「源の宮の、さらに神域」 - "sanctuary/shinto shrine in the far part of the Fountainhead Palace." Yes, the big rock through which Wolf gains access to the Divine Realm is a special rock, and the cave is referred to as "the shrine", we'll get to in the post about the Fountainhead Palace later.

"Imbibe the tears" is quite good, the original uses 戴く [itadaku] - "to respectfully accept", it's a kenjougo word that conveys the utmost respect.

Remember how I told you that I spent quite a lot of time in Hirata Estate trying to find the crest of the Dragon Heirs that Kuro has embroidered on the back? There is a sakura flower in the center and sakura branches all around. Couldn't find it anywhere.

Look at the blue cloth under this book.

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Yep, found it. The world certainly has enough knowledge on Dragon Heirs - maybe, they accumulated this knowledge themselves and passed it on. Maybe, Takeru left everything for the next Dragon Heir in case he failed the Immortal Severance, hoping that they would be able to achieve something he could not.

Aromatic Branch

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Interestingly enough, its original name is 常桜の香木 [tokozakura no ko:boku] - fragrant wood of the Everblossom. 香木 also denotes Japanese incense. If you remember, there is a dialogue where Kuro and Wolf discuss the incense burner that belonged to Takeru, and they notice how it still faintly smells of sakura. Probably, from time to time Takeru used the Everblossom wood for the incense burner.

"The Everblossom is a sakura tree, and as such is ripe with nostalgia" sounds really poetic and kind of weird in a good way. It's trying to adapt the original line that is very short: 「常桜は、望郷の桜」 - "The Everblossom is a sakura of homesickness". While the localization is generalizing that all sakura trees are ripe with nostalgia, and since the Everblossom is a sakura tree, it is too, the original is much more personal. The Everblossom is a sakura of homesickness because Takeru took the branch with him from the Divine Realm so it would remind him of home.

This is the very branch that Takeru brought with him originally and then grafted onto a plain sakura tree in Ashina.

Aromatic Flower

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Aromatic Flower is literally 常桜の花 [tokozakura no hana] - flower(s) of the Everblossom. The Japanese text says that the branch was a 名残 [nagori]. This word denotes remains, a relic, but also the sorrow of parting. I think, the English "parting relic" conveys the idea really well.

Then you have the recipe for the Purification Ending: give the Heir both Everblossom Flower and Dragon Tears, and then...

Oh.

Oh no.

The recipe is incomplete! You won't achieve Purification with these instructions! What about the paragraph on the one bound by the Heir's blood?..

The English localization just didn't have enough space so the paragraph was lost. Look at the picture, they've used up all the lines. The original text continues like this:

そうして、もう一つ

「竜胤の力を受けた不死は、そのぬしを縛る」

ゆえにそれを断つことだ

And one more thing

"The Undying who accepted the blood of the Dragon Heir, binds their master."

This bond must be broken.

So the original text gives the full guide to the Purification Ending: you give Flowers and Tears to the Heir, and then use Fishigiri to kill the oathbound.

Emma mentions that she witnessed Tomoe's suicide attempt. Tomoe tried to commit 自刃 [jijin] - suicide by the sword. Tomoe's words that Emma repeats are exactly as the description of the Flower says, I mean the line in the quotation marks. "The Undying who accepted the blood of the Dragon Heir, binds their master." These are Tomoe's words.

So, of all ingredients necessary for Takeru to renounce his gift and become human again, Tomoe only had the Everblossom. She didn't have Fushigiri to end her oath, and, consequently, she couldn't get Dragon Tears because she couldn't draw Takeru's blood and get to the Dragon.

Kuro asks Wolf if he noticed the lingering aroma from the incense burner, and if you choose to say "Yes", Wolf will say that he finds this aroma nostalgic but cannot say where or when he encountered it for the first time. Only now I realize that he felt it from his father. After Owl plucked the branch of the Everblossom, he carried it with him - for years - that's why Wolf receives the branch both times after he defeats him. If the aroma had lingered in the incense burner for years, I imagine that would be the same with Owl.

Sakura Droplet

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桜雫 [sakurashiziku] is literally "sakura droplet".

So, the big thing with Sakura Droplet is that the localization says, "Pale pink crystal residue known to form when an immortal oath fails to establish".

Firstly, "fails to establish" - what does that mean? That you tried to become oathbound to the Dragon Heir but for some reason couldn't? This mechanism that is not mentioned anywhere else has always bothered me because there aren't any conditions that we know of that can lead to the failure in this procedure. The only connections between Heirs and their oathbound we know of are successful: Takeru and Tomoe, Kuro and Wolf.

Secondly, Wolf gets this crystal from Lady Butterfly, and for some time I thought that Lady Butterfly must have tried to bind herself to Kuro and somehow failed, hence the Droplet.

However, Kuro later says that this Droplet is lord Takeru's power. Takeru had only one oathbound, and it was Tomoe.

「不死の契約成らざる時に」- the original says that this Droplet is left "when the contract of the Undying ceases to exist". Funny that in the dialogue Kuro repeats this very phrase but the English localization translates it differently:

"When the Undying Pledge of the Dragon's Heritage is broken".

Sakura Droplet was left when Takeru died and thus his contract with Tomoe was broken. Curious that Kuro knows at a first glance what this item is and who it belongs to. Kuro is very knowledgeable in general :3

After Takeru died, this crystal probably found its way to Owl and Co, and they intended to use Kuro for activating it to get +1 Undying, although it is never explicitly said how many Undying one Dragon Heir can have.

Conclusion

The English localization overall did a great job and thanks to the pretty accurate translation we can reconstruct this story basically how it is in the original. The lost paragraph in the Aromatic Flower description is a pity but there was nothing they could do, they just ran out of space there.

We know that Tomoe couldn't save her master because she didn't have the Mortal Blade. However, we can't say that she didn't try to obtain it.

When Wolf arrives at the Halls of Illusion to catch the Monkeys, he meets a monk. The monk tells him that there was someone else who tried to catch the Monkeys but they couldn't and in the end they left. I thought it was Genichiro, since the English subtitles say "he". However, the original conversation is gender-neutral, like Japanese generally is. The monk says "Once, someone like you came here". I think, by "someone like you" he means "the one bound by the blood of the Dragon Heir". He also says something about "the mission" - 使命 [shimei]. The monk sees right away that Wolf came to the Halls with "the mission" and says that the one who was here before also came with "the mission". It so happens that Tomoe and Wolf have exactly the same mission, so I think we can assume that Tomoe came to the Halls of Illusion but she could not catch the Monkeys and thus left without Fushigiri.

I have to say, this story was the most interesting storyline in Sekiro for me, I yearned to learn more. Although the details of what happened many years ago to Takeru and Tomoe are quite sparse - a few item descriptions, a pinch of dialogues - we can reconstruct the story quite successfully. However, there are so many questions that we cannot answer.

Why would Takery leave the Divine Realm in the first place? He missed it so much, he wanted to go back home; he took a sakura branch with him as a parting gift, it doesn't seem to me that he wanted to go anywhere. Why? As far as I can see, all he ever did in Ashina was reading books and playing the flute. What purpose did he have in the mortal world?

The ONLY theory I have right now is that sending Heirs into the mortal world was a way for the Dragon to search for means of returning home. He ended up in Ashina accidentally, we know it for sure. Maybe, he is homesick too. He hoped that Heirs would find a way to reach Homecoming Ending. It's definitely a stretch and I have zero proof as of now, but I just wanted to share this thought anyway.

Most importantly - how was Takeru even born in the Divine Realm? And as a human? Are there people just living there? Are all Heirs born there? Was Kuro? How does one even become a Dragon Heir? Is it a random thing to just be gifted to you or does the Dragon pick and choose who gets the honor?

It's just a few of the questions that overwhelmed me into not doing anything for half a year. I'm okay now, I'm still passionate about this project and shortly I will be back on track.

In the next post we'll discuss Kuro, Wolf, Dragon Tears and Dragonrot.

As usual, stay tuned here and on the Lair's YouTube channel not to miss out on anything.

Thank you for your time.

Take care.

The World of Sekiro: Remnants I

The World of Sekiro: Remnants II

The World of Sekiro: Remnants III

The World of Sekiro: Sugars, Spiritfalls and the Headless

Soulsborne posts

Shetani

My name is Shetani. I am a linguist (EN-JP), and I write about videogames. Welcome to the Lair!

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