The Story of Sekiro ► Senpou Temple and the Dragon's Return 

Heyyyyy, cameraman here. Hope you like the footage!

Hundreds of hours watching your videos and studying lore: Vaati: "Commit sudoku"

"Its impossible to reach the inner sanctum". Single door between the monk and the inner sanctum: Am I a joke to you?

Hey I'm not sure if this is useful info, but in ancient Japan there were Buddhist monks that would seek immortality to await the Buddha's return. They would do this through a mummification process where they would fast and meditate for like 1000 days at a time. The monks would fast on this tree bark that had a toxic chemical that acted as a way to kill bacteria. And ironically the mountains they resided in had water springs that were contaminated with Arsenic. This his how the monks were able to mummify naturally because the toxin build up in their body would prevent bacteria and insects from trying to decompose the body. The high priest looks exactly like the real high priest that really made this technique famous. While not Sekiro lore, maybe this can give you some extra leads on exploring the parallels with real Japanese lore. Seeing mummified Bhuddist monks that sought out immortality that look like real Bhuddist monks that did the same thing just really stood out to me. Anyway I hope this gives you some more homework to do :)

15:40 The oathbound commit sudoku Very nice vaati

I'm still impressed on how Fromsoft build their lore so together to the point that even item location adds to it. If it wasn't for Vaati, I would've never fully appreciate the work they put in.

1:59 "The monks may not be as evil as they are being portrayed." *Entire level has dead bodies just completely everywhere* Somehow I doubt it.

Oh wow, that smooooth free-camera looks so radical, I bet whoever got that up and running is a real bodacious dude!

15:42 commits sudoku... the oathbound gotta finish that 9x9 sudoku in under 10 minutes

Dark Souls: Oh my god, we can‘t die anymore and will turn into mindless monsters! What do we do?! Sekiro: Oh my god, there’s a way for us not to die any more, sure it will turn us into mindless monsters, but still! How do we start?!

A big moment in the game for me was realizing the Rejuvenating Waters themselves must carry the centipede larvae. Seeing the luminescent worms on the fish carcass was rewarding as it further supported that idea. I was really happy to hear you had the same conclusion Vaati!

I can proudly say that due to me being bad at Sekiro, I was able to get the Return ending on my first playthrough without a wiki due to my Rice addiction when I ran up against bosses.

Thanks for all your likes & support, as always. I decided to split the rest of the story into multiple videos..so next we have the Sunken Valley, then Ashina Depths, then the Fountainhead Palace. It's amazing that I can make 25 minute deep dives like this and you all still have the passion to sit through and watch it. Not many RU-vidrs can say that about their audience! Also, shoutout to the guy who designed the Notification Bell animation at 21:08! You can follow/commission him here twitter.com/rave20XX?lang=en luv u all

*For me the **_"Gracious Gift of Tears"_* is when Vaatividya uploads a video

I always feel like the Armored knight is cursing me whenever i beat him. "Robertooooo!"

Something to add: I don't think Robert is one of the devine children. I think he suffered from some severe illness that his father wanted to cure at all costs. This is the item description of Robert's firecracker sold by the Memorial Mob: Firecrackers from across southern seas. Can be fitted to the Shinobi Prosthetic to become a Prosthetic Tool. Makes a deafening sound, frightening to animals. Sold by little Robert and his father to raise funds for their travels. Their voyage brought them to Japan, where they would seek the "Undying" in an attempt to extend Robert's life.

There’s actually a mistake...or maybe I should call it a “misunderstanding” in this video. The different sugars of Senpou temple receive their namesake from Japanese Buddhism deities, not from the headless. For instance: Ako, comprises of two kanji “阿攻”, which 阿 stands for the deity “Agyou”, and 攻 literally means “attack”. Likewise, the kanji for Ungo is “哞護”, 哞 stands for “Unngyou” and 護 means “protection”. These two are the “Kongorikishiki” often to be seen guarding the entrance of the Japanese Buddhism temples, so the two monks that activate Ako and Ungo sugar at the entrance are actually representing these to deities. The Gokan sugar is linked to Ususamamyouou; the Gachin sugar is related to Gakkoubosatsu, aka the Candraprabha; and the Yashariku sugar is related to Yaksha, kanji of which, “夜叉戮” literally translate to “The onslaught of Yaksha”.

"Commit Sudoku" LOL

I’m glad fromsoft finally figured out what a centipede looks like (somewhat)

5:58 I think you misunderstood these "short assassins." They weren't spying on Asina, they were residents of Ashina. You can see that they said "Genichiro on our side." If you noticed, there was one more short assassin hiding behind a tree. This short assassin is the "rat" that Isshin was after, and this one was spying on the two short assassins that were expressing their concerns for Isshin's health. Not all of the short assassins are rats.

Sekiro Lore, I must feed on it's fruit of knowledge.

Is the DLC gonna be "Senpou Wonka candy factory"?

*Haven't played Sekiro* *Watches Vaati video* *Sees underwater enemy* "Oh fu-"

12:52 Could it be that the "someone" who looked for the Mortal blade was Lady Tomoe? Why would Genichiro want the Red Mortal Blade? The Red Mortal Blade is meant for severing immortality. What he wants is to attain immortality.

Alternative Video Title „What your Sugar of Choice Says about you“

Commits Sudoku "yes my lord. . .to save you I have to solve this math puzzle"

Vaati, the quality of your lore videos and the thought that you put into these is simply remarkable and well-worth the wait. Thanks for keeping it up despite your hectic time on being a new father: speaking of which, congratulations man!

I thought the dead giant carp was infested with the "truly precious bait" that the pot noble gives. Since there are many giant carp corps, I thought it was like a cyclical thing. Pot noble poisons giant carp, he becomes giant carp, then another pot noble poisons him. So on and so on.

The Sakura dragon is holding a sword like the 7-branched sword. a ceremonial sword given to the Japanese emperor by a Korean king.

I think someone already suggested this, but Prepare to Cry for Sekiro should be "Sekiro: Shadows Cry Twice" :)

Vaati on the Centipedes: "That may be their goal, but.. will get to that later." WHEN'S LATER, Vaati??

Interesting, the dragon being in this reminds me of similar sounding Old Ones in Bloodbourne as coming from another place and they are where they were not intended to be and they are wrong and causing problems. The Dragons blood is the origin of much strangeness, Like Kos, parasites warping the inhabitants in the old fishing village (bloodbourne), and the other Old One that they find inthe underground caverns n Bloodbourne where the original experimenters use the old blood for healing and longevity, but it causes mutations into beasts and other strangeness. It just stood out to me to sound like all the games have similar ancient creatures that fell out of some other reality or dimension, Except Dark Souls dragons seem to be more numerous in its lore,and perhaps the Sekiro dragon is a refugee from the purge of dragons in the dark souls world. But then Demon Souls doesnt fit the pattern, except that Demons are prevalent in that game and also in Sekiro. They are all very fascinating.

"The monks at Senpou temple may not be as bad as they appear" THEY EXPERIMENTED ON CHILDREN KILLING MOST OF THEM WHILE BETRAYING THE CYCLE OF REBIRTH!

‘Hesitation is defeat’ - Isshin, Sengoku Japan

This journey to the west to me sound like a reverse of the famous "Journey to The West". It about a monk, his horse who is a former dragon, 3 demons. The demons act as his protectors and students, learning compassion and decency. They go to the west, the land of the immortals and Buddha himself to attain the text that would allow humans to achieve enlightenment and immortality. In Dragon's Return, the protector would be Sekiro, the monk is now the one carrying the dragon, and they go to the West to return immortality to its birthplace.

16:35 .. “he must have looked into a wiki or something” totally agree.

it's 12 am . . . I have a quiz tomorrow. * see 25 minute * Awh shit . . . here we go again.

Shura is not a demon. According to Isshin's words it's what you become (not possessed by) when overcome by bloodlust. It's a reference to the demi-gods called Asuras in buddhism. The demon of hatred is NOT a Shura.

3:08 Sekiro and the Candy Factory is the Dark Souls of Roald Dahl adaptations.

I thought the green thingys on the giant carp corpse was the special bait

I find it darkly funny how Senpo Temple is basically a super evil version of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, complete with their own little oompa loompa minions.

I’ve been waiting this video since the first day the game came out... greets from Mexico, I love your Bloodborne videos

I think the Senpou High Priest might have learnt of the Dragon's return through the old women seers. One of them guided Sekiro towards that vision too. Also interesting to note is that there are Senpou assassins located in areas that lead to the giant snakes. There's one dying at the entrance of the Sunken Valley, one with the medicinal note just after the first snake encounter, and one flying the kite that leads to Sunken Valley entrance. This could imply that they were sent to retrieve the viscera. Good job, Vaati! This video is very well put together and feels like the best analysed lore video for Senpou temple!

The depth he goes into is so amazing, just makes you realise how deep the story is

8:25 No, I´m domkey, remember?

What do you think the dead, bound men scattered around Senpou Temple mean? They wear different robes and their bodies appear to be hidden almost out of sight which I thought was interesting. It made me wonder if the monks we see there now took over Senpou Temple from the “real” monks that were there before. And then seeing the Buddha statue at the bottom of the river seemed like it could be associated with this. No one has addressed this in any videos and I would love to know if you have any insight!

I still come back time and time again to these videos. The stories behind all the fromsoft games are so incredibley detailed and beautiful

A stunning video with amazing visuals and great depth. Thank you for taking the painstaking time to put it all together.

15:38 committing 'sudoku' lol

This is awesome Vaati. Well done and congrats on being a father. Hope you hit me up for a collab some time. Much love

1:54 the way vaati says "rotten degenerates" is frickin hilarious!

Brilliantly put together. Editing, lore knowledge and story telling 10/10.

Waited so long for this video, well worth the wait. Great video my man :)

The story of the children of rejuvenation is really sad. Great video as always, Thank you

Even though I already knew most of this, the way you deliver is outstanding, really amazing how you piece together the whole picture and come up with theories which are almost either always right or damn close. Love what you do and i'm always super excited to watch more, really makes me want to go back to the game as well whenever you release a video

Very glad ya are making these more detailed cause... I love the detail and your voice is so great at delivering them

Thanks for the video! This makes me think that the entire rash of infestation below was in fact thanks to simple noble hierarchy struggles. There is only ever one carp, evidenced by the rivalry between the two pot nobles who want you to kill the current carp (you can only help one of them succeed). The Nobles convince others to poison their current Carp with Truly Precious Bait, the Bait becomes the infestation that leaks all over the palace and to the lands below, and they continue with their power games even after their society collapses. All so they can become an "immortal" Carp that will almost certainly be assassinated by the next successor. Allegory!

Camerawork was amazing and these lore videos are very informative, thank you vaati very cool

I think it's hilarious that the Inner Sanctum has the vibes of being in some other realm beyond or dimension but in actuality is just in a locked room a few feet away from the table with the bell that brings you to the monkkes.

Really stellar work with these! I just completed the game early yesterday, and a friend recommended your series to me. It's already enriched my reading of the game's lore and events I witnessed, while also filling in holes & questions along the way. Excellent job w/ the edits, supporting text, etc. I rang the notifications bell (love that little animation, btw) :)

*remembers that in dark souls dragons were immortal and people to gods to even dragons wanted their immortality* Ah, shit. Here we go again

Vaati is bae Edit: Pog

Really nice to see how much this channel has grown. Always loved your get ready to cry series.

This is one of your best videos for sure. In terms of the script, camera angles, music etc. 10/10.

Great stuff, you really bring out a new dimension to these already amazing games, but you also must have a very good imagination because your videos inspire me to do something creative. I've watched most of your videos since the Dark Souls days, these games deserve a person like you who so expertly and lovingly weave together the dots. Further proof that videogames can be a unique artistic medium capable of delivering its own brand of amazing feels...

Finally beat the game, now to dive into the lore with Vaati

Excellent work as always Vaati, and excellent camera work TheParryGod! Can't wait for the next video!

4:56 There's actually another possible theory here: I'm massively simplifying it, but Fudou Myouou is a guardian buddha. He typically holds a sword in its hand (it also typically has it in the right hand as opposed to left as it would be in the game, but for now let's ignore this point) called the Kurikara sword, which is actually the sword form of a black(!) dragon god that wraps itself in flames(!). If you take a closer look, that hand is completely burned off. The black immortal edge's name is "Open gate", as in to the underworld; it's why it has the power to bring back Isshin in the game. It would make sense to think that such a sword can manifest the feelings of those in the underworld, such as the flames of hatred. If both of the immortal edges were in the hands of the Senpou monks (We were never told if only one or both of the immortal edges were at Senpou Temple, only that Isshin knows at least one is/was there), the natural solution [for monks] to a blade with such an issue would be to place it in the inner sanctum out of reach of the people, in the hands of a guardian buddha would could bear the onus of withstanding that hatred. Assuming that's the case, there's an in-game explanation as to why the Monkey is the bearer of hatred: the Monkey took the blade from the buddha, thus receiving the onus of being the bearer of hatred. It would explain why he continues to sculpt buddhist statues, because he knew that's how the hatred was withheld before. Why would the monkey steal the sword? Because Tomoe wanted the Immortal Severance. Seeing what it did to the monkey, however, probably changed the minds of Isshin and Tomoe in some way that ended up having the former cut down his own shinobi, and the latter never achieveing Immortal Severance. It'd also explain why Geniichiro knew where the sword was, seeing as it was a matter resolved by the Ashina top, they would have records of where they sealed the sword. 7:40 If I have my facts straight, ema only mentions Doujun as a disciple of Dougen. From the note Dousaku writes to Doujun, it sounds like Dousaku and Dougen were rivals in their research, rather than disciple and master. 22:06 It's not a translation error. The Japanese text for the fragrant flower note says (partially) "The water which flows from the source is the key to the fragrance. Where the water of the fountain...in other words, the rejuvenating water, collects, you might find that white, fragrant flower bloom." It out right says the two are one and the same. 23:01 I don't think those are centipedes, but there's also no need to confine the infested to centipedes, as we know there certain other infested manifests themselves as other bugs as shown by the vomitting monks. 24:08 What if it was the dragon who told him about it? After all, who else would know better than the divine traveler itself? If you consider how detailed the dragon's return was written, it sounds almost as if the children of the rejuvenation were meant to be potential cradles for the divine heir, right? How else would the child come to the conclusion that she can become that cradle, after reading the text? Once you let the child eat the persimmon/hearts, the old ladies that pray to her seem to know already that they will be heading for a journey (They're also the people guiding you to the snake persimmons), so it sounds like this was part of the original plan all along. The exile of one of them (on the bridge to Ashina castle) would also be evidence of the change in the Senpou monks' ways, as they would not want to follow the original plan of sending the dragon off, which would cut off their possible immortality.

The depth of the story in this game has got to be in the running for one of the best of all time. It’s absolutely incredible 👏🏼

22:55 I always thought those bugs are like the Truly Precious Bait that you give to the Great Colored Carp to kill it, not centipedes. Like foreshadowing the death of the Great Card because it's not quite clear that the Precious Bait kills the carp.

I was looking foward to this. Thanks man! Keep up the good job

Excellent video. Always enjoy watching and rewatching them while I'm at work.

The sudoku running joke gets me every time, I literally never expect it

19:16 Is it my imagination or is the dress of the divine child very similar to the attire the corrupted monk wears?

Oh man these videos are so damn good. The quality just keeps on getting better. well done.

Amazing video my dude , I felt like this breakdown had enough to do a whole tv series , very entertaining , makes me more curious about Sengoku Era History and enough content to have multiple watch throughs to digest it all. I just finished this game and this brings the metacric to a 100 as a addendum to the game . Congrats on the success , well earned

LOVED this video vaati. If the rest of the episodes are like this, you've got it in the bag.

It's possible that it was Takeru/Tomoe who chased the Folding Screen Monkeys, as despite seeking the Mortal Blade they could not obtain it. Perhaps the Monkeys were the reason for this?

AH, FINALLY!!! it's here. So many lore videos uploaded before, and yet this is the first sekiro lore video I have watched. Well done as always~

I just want to say I love you. You gave me an incredible appreciation for Miyazaki's ability to right well layered stories :]

Ok, hear me out. At the end of the game, with the Dragon Return ending, it is explicitly said that the Dragon essence comes from the west. What if the Divine Dragon in Sekiro was banished by the other dragons because he could use lightnings, to which they are weak. While the other dragons died to Gwyn in the west, the Divine Dragon had already moved to Japan.

Dragon: "Ah man, I just wanted to show you my cool sword." *cries*

15:43 Commiting Sudoku really is the greatest sacrifice

The way you talk and the way you make the videos flow...i sheded a few tears.

Not sure if it was known when making this video but, the divine child is in a side room in the main hall, you can open a door to get from the inner sanctum to the main hall. Seemed like in the video you thought her room was in its own realm

OH MY GOD! Vaati, I've been waiting for you to do Sekiro lore for awhile now! Bless you!

Great video. Shred a tear at the Divine child's backstory and the music.

Your editing skills have really grown with this video! Beautiful

Great video Vaati. I can't express how much I fucking love the lore vids, keep up the great work! Btw got the dragons homecoming ending yesterday

Sekiro was my first fledged souls game. I dabbled with Bloodbourne but not nearly of the extent of Sekiro. Needless to say a rude awakening. But, a pleasant one.. on top of a great story. By far the best game ive played so far.

Only joy whenever vaati brings out a new video. Never has someone made me feel more invested in a game, its story and a series as this. I feel like I’m part of something so much more.

Your voice is so beautiful and soft. I could fall asleep listening to it at the right pitch of volume

Finally. All these other copycat channels don't put in as much work

Darn, I was really hoping for some Long-Arm Giraffe lore. Loved the video Vaati, it's one more reason not to commit Sudoku.

I’ve been waiting for you to drop this! Only channel I love getting lore from :D

I must be another person to Gush all ove Vatis videos. When you beat the game with one ending, but weeks pass then listening to this video has me booting it back up! Well produced

Vaati I got my sweater in the mail and I gotta say, it is the comfiest hoodie I have, I have lot of music concert hoodies but the material of your merch is as snuggly and warm-hearted as your vids are!! Thank you again for all you do!

These videos really get your mind thinking about all the weird and wonderful things you’ve seen whilst playing through sekiro. I’ve almost finished the game (my choice I’m waiting to kill isshin) I’ve been exploring world & I’ve came across all sorts of unusual beautiful things. Can’t wait till you cover Orin of the water & all the freaky tragic characters in this masterpiece. Can’t wait to see how the story progresses as I’ve almost finished it sending the dragon home to the West & im excited!

Love your vids bro. Hope you drop more “secrets you missed” videos too!

I never even noticed the candies were named after the headless nor considered that Senpou distributed them. You're videos are very good because they open my eyes to a way of thinking of the plot I never considered before!