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Jan. 10th, 2016 02:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shroudofgrayPlayer Information:
Name: GreenRivers
Age: 30
Contact: Plurk: GreenRivers
Other Characters Played: Klaus Von Reinherz | Blood Blockade Battlefront
Most Recent AC Link: Here
Character Information:
Name: Yorda
Canon: ICO
Canon Point: Just as she sends Ico off in the boat
Age: Complicated. Let's roll with 15-16
Reference Links:
ICO
Yorda
Setting:
Alright, the first major thing to set aside is that while the characters and the setting are largely distinct, most fans are left wanting as far as concrete lore goes. While the minimalist approach is great for the story's simple, fairy tale structure, the lack of solid explanations mean a lot of headcanons and fanon are used to fill in the blanks. A novelization of ICO is pretty helpful as well, but there are two major issues with using it completely. One is that about halfway through it takes a couple of critical turns from the events in game, and the other being that it was written before Shadow of the Colossus which ended up mostly contradicting its history. While both games are more than capable of standing on their own legs, SotC's ending gives us a solid origin of where the curse of the horned children originated from. It won't come much into play, but it does flesh out the world more.
So details we know from the game will be in black, applicable information from the novel will be in red, fanon linking ICO and SotC together will be in blue. My own headcanon will be in obnoxious lime green.
ICO takes place largely in the fortress known only as the Castle in the Mists, which spans a small island off the cliffside coast of... somewhere. The region appears to be temperate, and the season can be anywhere from late spring to mid-summer.
The castle itself is a character in its own right. It lacks the pretty spires and gilded archways one might expect in a fairy-tale castle. No, the Castle in the Mists is a fortress, clearly built to withstand siege. It clings to the outcrop of islands like a storm cloud – low and foreboding. It is here that the children born with horns are brought in a strange ritual sacrifice and left in great stone sarcophagi to die.
The Queen draws her power from these sacrifices – perhaps even the source of how Yorda was created. I can't see the Queen having a daughter by traditional means, and Yorda appears as unearthly as her mother. It is more probable that she was made rather than born.
The level of technology in the world seems to be a little beyond medieval. Gunpowder exists and seems to have been around for a while since bombs are found laying around the castle and Ico seems to know what they are and what they do. The cultures are largely steeped in ritual and shamanistic practices. Though any civilizations near the Castle in the Mists have been turn to stone, along with any armies that marched on the castle in ages past. Stone figures still line the coastal ridges, forever in mid-stride.
Now, the big question is – how did the horned children come to be, and why are they considered cursed?
Like ICO, that story also begins with a sacrifice. The young woman Mono, who would eventually become the shadowy Queen, was sacrificed on account of having a vaguely defined “cursed fate”. A nameless nomad known aptly as 'Wander' crossed a great distance to bring her to a place known only as The Forbidden Lands where a dark god called Dormin was imprisoned. It was those very lands legends spoke of the dead being able to return to the world of the living.
Wander made a pact with Dormin to slay the sixteen collossi that were scattered about the lands, and in doing so, gradually freed Dormin – half of the god's essence going into Mono, the other half gradually possessing Wander.
A shaman named Emon and a group of warriors were not far behind Wander and tracked him to the temple. They were too late – the last idol crumbled and Dormin was revived through Wander. Emon managed to mitigate the damage, dispelling the god and breaking the bridge into the Forbidden Lands.
When Mono awoke, she found Wander reborn as a horned child.
Most fans agree that the horned children brought to the castle are Wanders descendents, and Yorda was to be the vessel for the reunion and resurrection of Dormin. Most fans also agree that the Queen is Mono, or a descendent of hers, inhabited by the feminine half of Dormin. It plays well into the whole 'cursed fate' becoming a terrible self-fulfilling prophecy after all.
Personality:
Yorda is a quiet girl who may initially come across as timid or passive, though like everything in ICO there is more there than meets the eye.
Yorda may have begun her journey as a timid damsel in distress, but that's not where she ended. Her bond with Ico was vital to her emotional growth- years of neglect, imprisonment and isolation weren't erased in the short time she spent escaping the castle, but finding a friend who understood her fear even through the language barrier gave her the strength to move forward. Throughout the game she showed traits of intelligence, loyalty and bravery.
Her change was gradual but with each successive scene, it' was noticeable. In the beginning when Ico freed her from her cage, she was uncertain. She seemed to go along with him more out of curiosity than holding onto any hope they had a chance to escape. She was obedient, doing what she was told because that was how she was conditioned. In the first scene with her mother, Yorda was paralyzed with fear. She didn't even try to run away because she has angered her mother. However, once the shadowy woman vanished to god knows where, she resumed her escape effort with Ico. She worked hard to pull her weight since she wasn't strong enough to carry out many of the physical feats Ico was capable of. She would open the idol gates, and point Ico in the right direction in making a path she could traverse.
The second time Yorda's mother appeared, the two had another brush with freedom and once again Yorda had collapsed but not from fear. Rather she had just spent every last ounce of her power trying to make the gates open. Her mother was already trying to interfere with their escape, splitting the bridge with Yorda on the castle's side and Ico on the path to freedom.
Inseparable as they both were, Ico had no intention of leaving Yorda behind. He jumped the gap, but could barely make it. Like so often he had done for her, Yorda caught his hand and, showing a grit hitherto unseen, she gradually began to pull him up. In spite of the fact their last chance to escape was gone - in spite of the fact her mother was looming only a few feet away - Yorda's last act before she was turned to stone was an act of pure, bald-faced defiance to the person who had hurt her, and utter loyalty to the only friend she'd ever known.
In the last moments as the Queen died and Yorda was un-petrified, she was free but she appeared as one of the shadowy wraiths that had been hounding her and Ico. She still seemed to be in her right mind however, and she carried her unconscious friend through the crumbling castle and set him off in a boat away from the destruction and remained behind.
Appearance:
Thin and gangly, like any teenager on the cusp of adulthood. Her movements are awkward and clumsy, as though she's not used to walking around on her own two legs. Her hair is short and straight and a washed out sort-of brown. Her eyes are pupil-less, and pale gray. She dresses in a gauzy white dress that may give some the impression of a ghost.
More noticeable, however, is her unearthly, almost ethereal palour. She doesn't so much glow as her body simply seems to repel shadows. This gives her a flat, vague, undefined look, like a bad green-screening effect that had been shot in too much lighting.
Abilities:
Game: Yorda's abilities are limited and not entirely within her control. Her magic tends to react automatically to magic seals or magically hidden places and objects. Bursts of her power can also instantly dissipate the shadow wraiths that hunt her and Ico (all her powers seem to be very similar to the rune sword Ico later finds).
She may also possess some weak form of telepathy- it's likely the dream Ico had of the dark figure emerging from the pool of shadow in the cage was a desperate effort to reach out for help from Yorda- though like all her abilities it was out of her control and I doubt she has any idea how to repeat the effect or that she managed it at all.
At the end of the game, after her mother was defeated, Yorda was able to draw upon the powers of the sacrificed children to revive herself from petrification, though she had the same shadowy countenance that Ico saw her with in the vision he had at the beginning of the game. When he found her washed up on shore, she was wholly herself.
Her magic will likely only manifest in times of great emotional distress or if she's in the presence of something that will react automatically to her power.
Novelization: The novelization expands on Yorda's possible telepathy, treating it instead as her being able to show people visions – either of the past or possible futures. Like most things, she has little control of these powers. She also has a low-grade ability to heal and invigorate a person with prolonged proximity. It was Miyabe's way of explaining how Ico was able to go so long without need of food or much rest and how a thirteen year old boy could survive such drastic falls. It's the one ability she's shown to have some some degree of power over.
Inventory:
One white dress.
All the gumption and determination a confused teenager can muster.
Suitability:
Yorda comes from a world steeped in dark and strange magics – of which she is a product. Her naivety may make her an easy target to manipulate – after all, many of her abilities may possess some appeal to the pragmatically minded seeking a living magical skeleton key.
She would also be pretty wary of people at first as well. She has had no contact with the world beyond the Castle and even with the language barrier gone, she lacks a lot of basic concepts.
On the other hand, Yorda's intelligent, and logical. She could offer a unique perspective on things, and, of course, her magic would be very useful. ...If she gets any kind of control over it.
Soul Gem:
A silver pin set with an Agate Druzy Cabachon, attached to a white ribbon she wears either around the neck or the wrist.
In-Character Samples:
Third Person (Prose):
Yorda awoke to the sound of the ocean, half-drowned, barely alive. Her hair was matted with sand and bits of seaweed clung to her. She didn't move much for a while, drifting in and out of consciousness. Whatever strength she had found carrying Ico from the crumbling castle had been utterly spent. But she was alive.
It was her last act of defiance, years and years of cages and obedience, and she had defied the last will of her mother. She had saved Ico. And she had saved herself.
Her fingers curled and uncurled, her gray eyes fixed with fascination on the small movements. Feeling gradually returned to her body and her face, so often impassive like a porcelain doll, contorted into a cringe.
Pain. She felt pain.
It was, she reflected, an odd feeling. Unpleasant. Whatever horrors she'd endured in the castle, she had never been physically injured. After all, what good would she be as a vessel if her body was damaged?
She sat up slowly, the waves lapping against her thin legs. She was tall for her age, which must have been around fourteen or fifteen, gangly, and blade slim. There was a certain quality of atrophy to her physique. But the strange thing about Yorda (at least at a glance), was her unearthly palour. She didn't quite glow. Rather, she seemed to repel shadows. They slid off her like water from a duck, and her features had little definition. She stood out like a bad special effect.
Yorda got shakily to her feet. Ico was surely nearby. She searched for any sign of the small, wooden boat. Stumbling a bit (it was her first time walking in sand), she set out to find her friend, calling his name, hoping against hope they weren't separated for good.
Network:
[Video]
[A young girl appears on screen. Her appearance is unearthly, inhuman and treads deep into the uncanny valley. Beyond that, she looks confused and a little frightened by the device.]
H-ello?
[Her voice is soft, quiet, and halting, as though speaking is strange to her. Her eyes shift about, and seeming to come to some kind of decision, and speaks again. Her tone is almost defiant.]
I am Yorda.
[And with that riveting bit of dialogue, she wanders off somewhere else, likely to go investigate that flock of pigeons that landed outside. Eventually, someone comes by to turn the feed off.]
Name: GreenRivers
Age: 30
Contact: Plurk: GreenRivers
Other Characters Played: Klaus Von Reinherz | Blood Blockade Battlefront
Most Recent AC Link: Here
Character Information:
Name: Yorda
Canon: ICO
Canon Point: Just as she sends Ico off in the boat
Age: Complicated. Let's roll with 15-16
Reference Links:
ICO
Yorda
Setting:
Alright, the first major thing to set aside is that while the characters and the setting are largely distinct, most fans are left wanting as far as concrete lore goes. While the minimalist approach is great for the story's simple, fairy tale structure, the lack of solid explanations mean a lot of headcanons and fanon are used to fill in the blanks. A novelization of ICO is pretty helpful as well, but there are two major issues with using it completely. One is that about halfway through it takes a couple of critical turns from the events in game, and the other being that it was written before Shadow of the Colossus which ended up mostly contradicting its history. While both games are more than capable of standing on their own legs, SotC's ending gives us a solid origin of where the curse of the horned children originated from. It won't come much into play, but it does flesh out the world more.
So details we know from the game will be in black, applicable information from the novel will be in red, fanon linking ICO and SotC together will be in blue. My own headcanon will be in obnoxious lime green.
ICO takes place largely in the fortress known only as the Castle in the Mists, which spans a small island off the cliffside coast of... somewhere. The region appears to be temperate, and the season can be anywhere from late spring to mid-summer.
The castle itself is a character in its own right. It lacks the pretty spires and gilded archways one might expect in a fairy-tale castle. No, the Castle in the Mists is a fortress, clearly built to withstand siege. It clings to the outcrop of islands like a storm cloud – low and foreboding. It is here that the children born with horns are brought in a strange ritual sacrifice and left in great stone sarcophagi to die.
The Queen draws her power from these sacrifices – perhaps even the source of how Yorda was created. I can't see the Queen having a daughter by traditional means, and Yorda appears as unearthly as her mother. It is more probable that she was made rather than born.
The level of technology in the world seems to be a little beyond medieval. Gunpowder exists and seems to have been around for a while since bombs are found laying around the castle and Ico seems to know what they are and what they do. The cultures are largely steeped in ritual and shamanistic practices. Though any civilizations near the Castle in the Mists have been turn to stone, along with any armies that marched on the castle in ages past. Stone figures still line the coastal ridges, forever in mid-stride.
Now, the big question is – how did the horned children come to be, and why are they considered cursed?
Like ICO, that story also begins with a sacrifice. The young woman Mono, who would eventually become the shadowy Queen, was sacrificed on account of having a vaguely defined “cursed fate”. A nameless nomad known aptly as 'Wander' crossed a great distance to bring her to a place known only as The Forbidden Lands where a dark god called Dormin was imprisoned. It was those very lands legends spoke of the dead being able to return to the world of the living.
Wander made a pact with Dormin to slay the sixteen collossi that were scattered about the lands, and in doing so, gradually freed Dormin – half of the god's essence going into Mono, the other half gradually possessing Wander.
A shaman named Emon and a group of warriors were not far behind Wander and tracked him to the temple. They were too late – the last idol crumbled and Dormin was revived through Wander. Emon managed to mitigate the damage, dispelling the god and breaking the bridge into the Forbidden Lands.
When Mono awoke, she found Wander reborn as a horned child.
Most fans agree that the horned children brought to the castle are Wanders descendents, and Yorda was to be the vessel for the reunion and resurrection of Dormin. Most fans also agree that the Queen is Mono, or a descendent of hers, inhabited by the feminine half of Dormin. It plays well into the whole 'cursed fate' becoming a terrible self-fulfilling prophecy after all.
Personality:
Yorda is a quiet girl who may initially come across as timid or passive, though like everything in ICO there is more there than meets the eye.
Yorda may have begun her journey as a timid damsel in distress, but that's not where she ended. Her bond with Ico was vital to her emotional growth- years of neglect, imprisonment and isolation weren't erased in the short time she spent escaping the castle, but finding a friend who understood her fear even through the language barrier gave her the strength to move forward. Throughout the game she showed traits of intelligence, loyalty and bravery.
Her change was gradual but with each successive scene, it' was noticeable. In the beginning when Ico freed her from her cage, she was uncertain. She seemed to go along with him more out of curiosity than holding onto any hope they had a chance to escape. She was obedient, doing what she was told because that was how she was conditioned. In the first scene with her mother, Yorda was paralyzed with fear. She didn't even try to run away because she has angered her mother. However, once the shadowy woman vanished to god knows where, she resumed her escape effort with Ico. She worked hard to pull her weight since she wasn't strong enough to carry out many of the physical feats Ico was capable of. She would open the idol gates, and point Ico in the right direction in making a path she could traverse.
The second time Yorda's mother appeared, the two had another brush with freedom and once again Yorda had collapsed but not from fear. Rather she had just spent every last ounce of her power trying to make the gates open. Her mother was already trying to interfere with their escape, splitting the bridge with Yorda on the castle's side and Ico on the path to freedom.
Inseparable as they both were, Ico had no intention of leaving Yorda behind. He jumped the gap, but could barely make it. Like so often he had done for her, Yorda caught his hand and, showing a grit hitherto unseen, she gradually began to pull him up. In spite of the fact their last chance to escape was gone - in spite of the fact her mother was looming only a few feet away - Yorda's last act before she was turned to stone was an act of pure, bald-faced defiance to the person who had hurt her, and utter loyalty to the only friend she'd ever known.
In the last moments as the Queen died and Yorda was un-petrified, she was free but she appeared as one of the shadowy wraiths that had been hounding her and Ico. She still seemed to be in her right mind however, and she carried her unconscious friend through the crumbling castle and set him off in a boat away from the destruction and remained behind.
Appearance:
Thin and gangly, like any teenager on the cusp of adulthood. Her movements are awkward and clumsy, as though she's not used to walking around on her own two legs. Her hair is short and straight and a washed out sort-of brown. Her eyes are pupil-less, and pale gray. She dresses in a gauzy white dress that may give some the impression of a ghost.
More noticeable, however, is her unearthly, almost ethereal palour. She doesn't so much glow as her body simply seems to repel shadows. This gives her a flat, vague, undefined look, like a bad green-screening effect that had been shot in too much lighting.
Abilities:
Game: Yorda's abilities are limited and not entirely within her control. Her magic tends to react automatically to magic seals or magically hidden places and objects. Bursts of her power can also instantly dissipate the shadow wraiths that hunt her and Ico (all her powers seem to be very similar to the rune sword Ico later finds).
She may also possess some weak form of telepathy- it's likely the dream Ico had of the dark figure emerging from the pool of shadow in the cage was a desperate effort to reach out for help from Yorda- though like all her abilities it was out of her control and I doubt she has any idea how to repeat the effect or that she managed it at all.
At the end of the game, after her mother was defeated, Yorda was able to draw upon the powers of the sacrificed children to revive herself from petrification, though she had the same shadowy countenance that Ico saw her with in the vision he had at the beginning of the game. When he found her washed up on shore, she was wholly herself.
Her magic will likely only manifest in times of great emotional distress or if she's in the presence of something that will react automatically to her power.
Novelization: The novelization expands on Yorda's possible telepathy, treating it instead as her being able to show people visions – either of the past or possible futures. Like most things, she has little control of these powers. She also has a low-grade ability to heal and invigorate a person with prolonged proximity. It was Miyabe's way of explaining how Ico was able to go so long without need of food or much rest and how a thirteen year old boy could survive such drastic falls. It's the one ability she's shown to have some some degree of power over.
Inventory:
One white dress.
All the gumption and determination a confused teenager can muster.
Suitability:
Yorda comes from a world steeped in dark and strange magics – of which she is a product. Her naivety may make her an easy target to manipulate – after all, many of her abilities may possess some appeal to the pragmatically minded seeking a living magical skeleton key.
She would also be pretty wary of people at first as well. She has had no contact with the world beyond the Castle and even with the language barrier gone, she lacks a lot of basic concepts.
On the other hand, Yorda's intelligent, and logical. She could offer a unique perspective on things, and, of course, her magic would be very useful. ...If she gets any kind of control over it.
Soul Gem:
A silver pin set with an Agate Druzy Cabachon, attached to a white ribbon she wears either around the neck or the wrist.
In-Character Samples:
Third Person (Prose):
Yorda awoke to the sound of the ocean, half-drowned, barely alive. Her hair was matted with sand and bits of seaweed clung to her. She didn't move much for a while, drifting in and out of consciousness. Whatever strength she had found carrying Ico from the crumbling castle had been utterly spent. But she was alive.
It was her last act of defiance, years and years of cages and obedience, and she had defied the last will of her mother. She had saved Ico. And she had saved herself.
Her fingers curled and uncurled, her gray eyes fixed with fascination on the small movements. Feeling gradually returned to her body and her face, so often impassive like a porcelain doll, contorted into a cringe.
Pain. She felt pain.
It was, she reflected, an odd feeling. Unpleasant. Whatever horrors she'd endured in the castle, she had never been physically injured. After all, what good would she be as a vessel if her body was damaged?
She sat up slowly, the waves lapping against her thin legs. She was tall for her age, which must have been around fourteen or fifteen, gangly, and blade slim. There was a certain quality of atrophy to her physique. But the strange thing about Yorda (at least at a glance), was her unearthly palour. She didn't quite glow. Rather, she seemed to repel shadows. They slid off her like water from a duck, and her features had little definition. She stood out like a bad special effect.
Yorda got shakily to her feet. Ico was surely nearby. She searched for any sign of the small, wooden boat. Stumbling a bit (it was her first time walking in sand), she set out to find her friend, calling his name, hoping against hope they weren't separated for good.
Network:
[Video]
[A young girl appears on screen. Her appearance is unearthly, inhuman and treads deep into the uncanny valley. Beyond that, she looks confused and a little frightened by the device.]
H-ello?
[Her voice is soft, quiet, and halting, as though speaking is strange to her. Her eyes shift about, and seeming to come to some kind of decision, and speaks again. Her tone is almost defiant.]
I am Yorda.
[And with that riveting bit of dialogue, she wanders off somewhere else, likely to go investigate that flock of pigeons that landed outside. Eventually, someone comes by to turn the feed off.]
