Despite Ico being the first game to be released by ‘Team Ico’ it’s actually the second in the story’s chronological order, Shadow of the Colossus is essentially the prequel to Ico. Now, there are lots and lots of spoilers below so don’t read on unless you want to know everything about the game. There are a lot of questions about Shadow of the Colossus but I’ll only be covering several major ones as they are all rather complicated.
Short summary: When Wander finishes destroying all of the Colossi of the forbidden land he’s possessed by Dormin, a likely reference to the mythological king Nimrod, and turns into a horned baby, starting a long race of ‘cursed’ horned boys that Ico is descendent from. Wait, what?
Story explanations and some additional theories
Plot summary:
The game starts with Wander entering the Forbidden Lands carrying the body of Mono on the back of his horse. At some point prior to the game’s events Wander acquired an ancient sword, the only weapon capable of defeating the Colossi of these lands suggesting that Wander knows what he must do to bring Mono back. Mono was sacrificed due to having a cursed fate but her relationship with Wander and Lord Eamon is unknown, it is possible that Lord Eamon played a part in the ritual that ended her life but there is no direct evidence for this. Either way, Wander cares deeply for her and brings her to the Shrine of Worship, lays her body upon the altar and pulls away the sheet that was covering her lifeless form.
This disturbance within the Temple of Worship awakens Dormin and, initially to protect the sanctity of the land, several shadowy figures that rise from the ground to attack Wander. When Wander raises his sword to defend himself the shadows melt away and are instead replaced by the unseen voice of Dormin, speaking to Wander. Dormin and Wander discuss why Wander is there and what Wander must do to return Mono’s soul to her body, Dormin initially attempts to dissuade Wander into proceeding as it goes against natural law and will have dire consequences. Wander insists and states that he does not care what the consequences are and, giving in, Dormin agrees to assist Wander in his mission. Dormin explains that the sixteen idols of the temple must be destroyed and in order to do this all of the colossi who the idols represent must be slain using the specific sword that Wander has on his person. Only when all sixteen colossi are dead will Mono be resurrected. Once Wander agrees to this proposition, consequences or no, he sets out with his horse Agro to find and destroy the Colossi with Dormin’s voice helping him along the way
Once the final Colossus is slain Wander is teleported back to the Temple of Worship and, at this point, Lord Eamon arrives just in time to see this. Eamon is furious and shouts at Wander, asking him if he knows what he has done and reveals Dormin’s true identity to Wander, claiming that Wander has been manipulated. Eamon explains that Dormin has been simply using Wander to free themselves and return to their true form but, shortly after Eamon’s explanation, Wander is shot dead by one of Eamon’s men. As Wander dies his body is enveloped by darkness and Dormin comes forth from his new host, explaining how they were locked away and sealed in the colossi. Dormin moves to attack Eamon and his men but Wander’s spirit fights back for control, during this struggle between Dormin and Wander one of Eamon’s men steals the sword and, on the way out, Eamon thrusts the sword into the pool of water at the end of the room. Eamon does this to try and banish Dormin once and for all, a swirling vortex of light explodes from the depths of the pool and pulls Dormin into it but, as he fades, Wander’s form reappears. Wander struggles not to also be pulled into the vortex of light and reaches for Mono who is still lying lifeless on the altar, unfortunantly he too is pulled into the light which finally fades, revealing that the pool is now dried up. Silence falls over the temple once more. Close by, Mono’s soul is returned to her body and she awakens. Agro greets her and they appear to know one another.
The scene cuts to the sight of Eamon’s men fleeing the Forbidden Lands as the bridge collapses, whether this is initiated by him or Dormin is unknown. As Eamon looks out at the temple all you can see is destruction stewn across the lands before him which appears to be a representation of the path of destruction and death that Wander carved in an effort to bring back Mono. The scene returns to Mono who is now walking with Agro to the end of the temple. She finds a horned baby lying in the hole where the pool of water once was, the sword is no longer there. Mono gently picks up the child and, following Agro, walks to the sacred garden atop the Temple of Worship which is full and thriving with life. The camera pans away as it follows a hawk before returning to the screen that the game started on as every comes full circle.
What’s the relevance of the shadowy figures and the tentacles?
Each time a colossus is slain mysterious, black tendrils erupt from the final sigil on its body and seek out Wander before stabbing through him, rendering him unconscious. Somehow transported back into the temple you notice that shadowy figures, gradually increasing in number, collect around Wander’s lifeless body to look down at him. The dark tendrils are fragments of Dormin’s true form which have been locked into each and every of the sixteen colossi that you fight, by killing them Wander is releasing these fragments from their prison. But he’s not just releasing them; he’s physically taking the fragments into his own being which is why they appear to penetrate his chest. An additional bodily figure appears around Wander each time another colossus is killed and these too are representations of the fragments of Dormin’s true form.
As you progress through the game Wander’s appearance changes ever so subtly; his hair darkens, his skin pales, he grows small horns and he develops a red, veiny appearance on his face. These changes to his outward appearance are reflective of the internal changes occurring from Dormin’s gradual possession of him. By the time the final colossus is felled Wander has absorbed every single fragment of Dormin, except one; the source of Dormin’s voice.
Who is Dormin?
The voice guiding Wander actually belongs to Dormin and the focus on the light in the top of the temple poses him as some sort of heavenly being, which is wrong. Dormin actually looks like this;
It should also be noted that Dormin refers to itself as ‘we’ and without gender pronouns, this is due to the fact that Dormin is a collection of powerful spirits and not an individual one. Now, Dormin doesn’t look particularly heavenly though not exactly evil either as, despite the fact that Western cultures commonly associate horns with the devil, that’s not a worldwide association. An interesting observation about the true nature of Dormin starts with their name which, backwards, spells ‘Nimrod’. Nimrod was a warrior king in mythology who killed a bull with his bare hands and, as a showcase of his strength and triumph, wore its horns upon his head as a crown. Nimrod was also responsible for the building of the Tower of Babel, a very tall tower that was built to reach the voice of God that also has connections with the Hanging Gardens of Babylon as they were both situated in Babylon; the city that Nimrod ruled. Take a look at the Tower of Babel next to the Temple of Worship and see what you think about it.
Remember that sacred garden at the top of the very Babel-esque Temple of Worship? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, also situated where the Tower of Babel supposedly was, could very easily be represented by the hidden garden as both are wonders of the world. It’s also interesting to note that Babylon was apparently a polytheistic society and that, within the Temple of Worship, there are sixteen idols that are worshipped by whatever culture use to dwell in these sacred lands. Is this place a video game representation of the lost kingdom of Babylon? It’s not out of the question.
The similarities between Dormin and Nimrod continue beyond Dormin inhabiting a lair similar to that built by Nimrod. After Nimrod dies his body was split into separate pieces and spread out throughout the Earth whereas in Shadow of the Colossus Dormin’s soul is also separated and spread out across the world in the form of the Colossi. Nimrod’s death also prompted his wife, Semiramis, to claim that Nimrod had become the Sun God and whenever Dormin is talking during the game the camera is focused solely on the large hole in the ceiling of the shrine where there is nothing to be seen except pure sunlight. Lastly, Semiramis had a son after the death of Dormin whom she claimed was a virgin birth and who was also, apparently, Nimrod reborn into the mortal world. At the end of the game we see a sort of virgin birth whereby there is a horned baby, most likely Dormin or Wander reincarnated, who is left with Mono to be raised. It’s definitely something to think about but there are more immediate questions to be asked in direction relation to the game, such as…
Is Dormin good or evil?
Dormin is good:
Even though Dormin ended up possessing Wander they did warn him about the dire consequences of killing the colossi and they also did uphold their part of the bargain and brought Mono back to life. After Wander and Dormin’s combined form was destroyed by Emon, Wander was also brought back to life in baby form. Whether this is intentional or not is arguable but it’s likely Dormin could have simply saved themselves and not bothered with Wander.
Our only real indication that Dormin is evil stems from Emon’s reaction to finding out they had been freed and the implication it was Emon who banished Dormin in the first place. However, just because Emon thinks Dormin is evil does not make it so and, truthfully, it is likely Emon hailed from the same village that Wander and Mono did. Emon obviously knew of Wander’s intention to come to these Forbidden Lands and has likely been following him for a while, if this is the case then Emon could have a direct correlation with why Mono was sacrified due to her ‘cursed fate’. A fear of ‘Old Gods’ may be the reason why Emon is fearful of the Dormin as they are obviously powerful and ancient beings. It may simply be that Dormin is part of a religion that Emon follows that paints him as an evil being or, simply, Dormin could be an Old God that is no longer worshipped. When Dormin possesses Wander they use the word ‘borrow’ to describe what is happening, suggesting the possession is not permenant, it could be that Dormin was using this chance to exact revenge over Emon and his men for banishing Dormin. A little revenge after being split up and imprisoned in Colossi in a forgotten land is no indication of evil, I think everybody would try and find some way out of it, even if it included using the body of a wandering mortal.
Dormin is evil:
The very fact that Dormin is divided and sealed up in a forbidden land is fairly indicative of either extreme power or extreme evil, or both. Emon, or whomever banished Dormin to begin with, very likely trapped him due to the Dormin being too dangerous to be allowed freedom. Whilst the Dormin explicitly tells Wander there will be dire consequences to his actions they never fully disclosed what these consequences would be and this points towards the Dormin manipulating Wander. It may be that the Dormin were simply testing to see how ignorant and stubborn Wander was and, after Wander proved he was willing to do absolutely anything to bring Mono back, decided Wander would take it all the way and carve the Dormin a path back into the mortal realm.
Just because Mono was resurrected at the end does not indicate that Dormin is good and that it could have simply been a side effect of Dormin’s resurrection. For all we know, Dormin needed Mono to rid themselves of a part that was stopping them from taking on a physical form which follows onto my current favourite theory, that Dormin is a symbol of balance like Ying/Yang:
Dormin is neutral:
Dormin could very well be both good and evil which, as a potential deity, is not unlikely. Dormin could again have been sealed due to being an ancient being that mankind has feared but not exactly an evil one, simply one that consists of many spirits where some are good and some are bad.
An interesting observation about the Dormin is that they may become progressively evil or darker as the game goes on. As more and more Colossi are killed you’ll notice that doves appear around Mono who grows lighter and lighter whilst Wander darkens and collects shadows around him. This could be a symbol of Wander having to give up his life to save Mono’s in the form of human transmutation where, usually, bringing a life back requires you to give your own life in return. In this case, Wander has to give his life up to Dormin in order to provide Dormin with the necessary tools to do as Wander asks. Rather than possessing Wander Dormin is simply finishing up the process required of them to return Mono’s life back to her. Soul resurrection is, after all, no simple task.
Now, the Dormin’s voice at the beginning of the game is a mixture of several voices due to be a collection of spirits, not just one entity, these voices include male and female ones. However, these female voices appear to become less audible as the game goes on suggesting that some kind of ‘good’ or ‘pure’ part of the Dormin is leaving in order to bring back Mono leaving only only the darker side behind. If this is the case then the entity that takes over Wander’s body is the darker, more evil part of Dormin and not Dormin in its entirety whilst Mono is inhabited by the lighter, purer part of Dormin. What would have happened had Emon not killed the shadowy being of Dormin is unknown but Dormin again hints at only borrowing Wander’s body. Would this part of the Dormin just left, inhabited somewhere else, found another body? Who knows, but it’s interesting to think about.
How are the two games connected?
Shadow of the Colossus is an official prequel to the game of Ico and so previous theories such as Ico and Shadow of the Colossus being set in the same time have been rendered as impossible. The games are set in the same world as one another but whether or not it is the same location remains to be proven. It is perfectly likely that the Forbidden Land and the Temple could be changed to the degree we see it in Ico.
The horned baby in the game started the line of cursed horned boys that you see in Ico, the horned baby is officially confirmed to be Wander so Ico and all the other horned children are descendants of Wander. As well as the horns it could be that some of Dormin’s power is passed on through the lineage that Wander creates and, if this is the case, then the evil Queen in Ico could very well be attempting to acquire this power. The Queen is interested in possessing her daughter’s body and, since Dormin had power over the dead and could transfer a living soul into a corpse, it is likely he would have the power to transfer a soul from one body to another.
At the end of Shadow of the colossus we see that Wander has developed horns due to the destruction he reigned down upon the sacred, forbidden lands. These horns are a punishment and at the end we hear the narrator saying that maybe one day Wander can atone for what he has done. This appears to have started the horned boy curse that we see in Ico yet, at the end of Ico, Ico loses his horns after rescuing Yorda and destroying the evil Queen. If this theory is correct then this indicates that Ico is the first of Wander’s descendants to finally break the curse and atone for the sins of his ancestor.
I haven’t gone into full detail about this game as I could probably write even more of an essay about it but feel free to add in your own additions, are Shadow of the Colosuss and Ico set in the same location? Those bridges look pretty similar to me… Is there a connection between Yorda and Shadow of the Colossus? Does Dormin exist in any form during Ico, why are the shadowy figures from Ico very similar in appearance to the ones in Shadow of the Colossus? So many questions!
