PART II: THE HISTORY OF DORMIN |
"That place began from the resonance of intersecting points..."
Dormin's history preceding the events of Shadow of the Colossus are as mysterious as his links to the netherworld. Any theories I present to you are nothing more than speculation, but hopefully Ueda has dropped some clues that may help slim down the number of possibilities regarding his apotheosis in the eyes of the ancient civilization. Let's take a look.
Regarding Dormin's origins, Lord Emon gives us a very mysterious line: "That place... began from the resonance of intersecting points... They are memories replaced by ens and naught and etched into stone. Blood, young sprouts, sky--and the one with the ability to control beings created from light." It's difficult to say with certainty, as this could also be a bit of mythologizing on Emon's part, but it seems as though Dormin has existed in the Forbidden Lands since the creation of the world, making his age impossible to tell.
Still, we can surmise that there was a point at which these people encountered Dormin. Perhaps they stumbled upon him or maybe it was he who found them. Either way, he convinced them, possibly by demonstrating his gift, that he was a powerful being. These people may have been a simple village or a nomadic tribe of horsemen, but under Dormin's direction, they obviously flourished, possibly even absorbing and assimilating other nearby populations. They built monuments to Dormin, the tallest of which was the Shrine of Worship, a dauntingly colossal tower. It also appears that they settled there, as we can see what are possibly the remains of public buildings.
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To the west, secluded in the desert, we find what looks like a prison. To the northeast, there lies a giant fortress near the threshold of the Forbidden Lands. Directly south of the Shrine, we see what could've once been a beautiful mansion, and scattered about the peninsula we find colosseums, fortresses, water complexes, sacrificial temples, lake pavilions, bridges, and even a secluded city to the northwest. It likely took them years to construct all of these places.
A point of notable relevance is this: did Dormin rule through fear or benevolence? The structures erected by his subjects are certainly beautiful and elegant, but is this due to their love of Dormin or because of his mandate?
We cannot definitively conclude, but deciding on one of these can indicate the nature of the people's choice to abandon him. It could be that an incident revealed Dormin's manipulative nature, and they turned on him; it could also be that, fearing Dormin and/or loathing his talent, they plotted his abandonment almost from the beginning. It's even a relatively popular theory that the people found another being to worship, and they renounced Dormin in its favor.
Personally, I like the idea that one of these resurrections didn't go so well, that the people were so offended and horrified by the unnatural consequences of Dormin's power, they felt obligated to seal him away.
In any case, these people found a way to trap him. How they did this is yet another detail that is completely up to our imagination, as we're left with no specifics. It could've been by trickery, by some force of magic, or by a sudden opportunity that he was sealed into the colossi. I'll save my thoughts on that for another time.
Now that we've painted a picture of Dormin's abilities and his past, let's take another look at the events which occur during Shadow of the Colossus.
PLEASE CONTINUE TO PART III
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