In a February interview with Japanese gaming outlet Famitsu, Elden Ring's director, Hidataka Miyazaki, dropped so many interesting pieces of information about the upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree DLC that I think some of it may have gotten overshadowed, so to speak. One portion of the interview that I think has gotten less attention, for example, is a section where they discuss a few of the eight new weapon classes being added into the game, some of which have a clearly Japanese-inspired theme. Specifically, there's mention of the addition of an oodachi, a huge Japanese sword that looks like something that Sephiroth might use, but interestingly actually has a real historical basis. Take for example this depiction of a samurai named Magara Naotaka, a retainer of the Asakura clan, who was said to wield an oodachi that measured 288 centimeters from handle to blade. That's nine and a half feet long for my fellow Americans out there who don't really get the metric system. And you guys can tell me in the comments if this is a reach, but I'm hopeful that more Japanese styled weapons means that we'll get to learn a little bit more about a place that has long intrigued me, but that we never really get to see an Elden Ring. The Land of Reeds So in this video I want to try and cover everything we currently know about this mysterious location And you guys can let me know in the comments if I miss anything Being a Japanese company, it's probably not really surprising that FromSoft incorporate elements of Japanese culture into many of their games. Sekiro is of course the most obvious example of this, being set in a fantasy version of Japan during the Sengoku Jidai. But this was the case even in the Souls series to a lesser degree. However, as a developer, how do you go about incorporating traditional Japanese elements into game series that are set so firmly in a more western sword and sorcery aesthetic? Doesn't really make much sense to have Japanese things in a world with no Japan in it. Well, in Dark Souls this was accomplished by alluding to a place called the Eastern Land. Basically, anything that looks like it has a Japanese influence is described as coming from this unseen Eastern locale. The Iaito, Murakumo, and Uchigatana are all examples of weapons forged in this eastern land. The description of the long-time fan favorite Uchigatana reads, "Katana forged in an eastern land. Known for its brisk slashing motions, the Uchigatana cuts beautifully and causes bleeding, but its blade is easily nicked." Elden Ring also handles Japanese-esque weapons and items in a similar way, but the cool thing is that we're given quite a bit more information about where these things come from. Rather than a nameless Eastern land, we're told that things like this samurai armor and other Japanese artifacts originate in a place called the Land of Reeds. And we can actually glean a lot more about this place from various item descriptions and other in-game text than we ever could about the Eastern Land of the Souls series. For one thing, in Elden Ring's starting character creator, we're given the option to play as a samurai starting class, a much more explicit reference to Japan than anything we find in the Souls games. And we're also able to select a character template of someone from the Land of Reeds, the aptly named "Reedlander". The description reads "Face from the far away isolated Land of Reeds, where blood is a familiar sight." And blood is definitely going to be a recurring theme when discussing the land of reeds, so let's put a pin in that. It's also worth mentioning here perhaps that the word "reeds" is something FromSoft has used before when dealing with a Japanese setting. Written with this kanji here that reads "ashi", it's the same kanji used for Sekiro's Ashina clan, who are central to the story of that game. Probably more important to our discussion though is this location from Japanese mythology, "Ashihara no Nakatsukuni", which translates roughly to "Middle Country of Reed Beds". So, one thing you might wonder about if you hear that name is, well, what is it in the middle of? Although they're a bit different from their Western analogues, Japanese mythology has equivalent realms for heaven and hell. Heaven, a godly realm of creation and light, is referred to as "Takamagahara". Conversely, hell, a realm of death and darkness, is referred to as "Yomi". "Ashihara no Nakatsukuni" meanwhile is said to sit between these two planes, and is sometimes translated as "Purgatory". Eventually though, this phrase became a way of referring to Japan itself, a land located between heaven and hell, and covered in damp reeds. Now, when you consider the fact that the world we inhabit in Elden Ring is referred to as the "Lands Between," Ashiharanonakatsukuni seems like a perfect choice. Although it is worth noting that the land of reeds in Elden Ring is called Ashinochi, which drops several of the kanji from Ashiharanonakatsukuni, probably as a way of being more consistent with the way that the lands between, Hazamanochi, is rendered in kanji. But still, I think the land of reeds is definitely more fitting from a thematic standpoint than sticking with the more generic eastern lands used in the Souls series. Outside of the character creator, we unfortunately never hear the Land of Reeds explicitly mentioned by anyone. However, we do have quite a few item and weapon descriptions that provide us with more information. Probably the most informative is the description of the Land of Reeds set, which describes its namesake as a place locked in a miserable civil war, during which time it has remained alienated from the cultures of its neighbors. Little wonder that the entire nation has succumbed to blood-soaked madness, or so it is said. And so yet again, we see blood come up as a theme when describing the Land of Reeds. And it certainly isn't going to be the last time. For instance, the Ash of War Sepuku is a forbidden technique used by swordsmen from the Land of Reeds in which the user plunges a blade into their stomach to stain it with blood, increasing its attack power and improving its ability to inflict blood loss. This is of course an obvious creative exploration of the ancient Japanese practice of the same name, seppuku, the act of ritual suicide through disembowelment with a blade. Seppuku is also referred to as harakiri, which literally means to cut one's own stomach. In the West, people sometimes call this harikari, which kind of hurts my soul a little bit when I hear it. But I digress. In ancient times, seppuku was used by samurai as a way to die with honor in the event they faced enemy capture. It also served as a kind of capital punishment for samurai, who committed an offense that brought dishonor or shame upon themselves or their families. Not so fun fact, according to Wikipedia, the first recorded act of seppuku dates back to 1177, and was committed by a samurai named Minamoto Tametomo after he waged an unsuccessful rebellion. Another example linking the land of reeds to bloodshed is the Katana Rivers of Blood, the weapon of Okina, swordsman from the land of reeds, a cursed weapon that has felled countless men. I feel like Okina is pretty high on the list when it comes to characters with super interesting backstories that we unfortunately never really get to learn more about in greater detail. His name "Okina" translates to "old man" or "venerable gentleman" and is apparently a nickname that he earned from wearing the Okina mask. We learn from his mask's description that Okina achieved some sort of mental transcendence by sharpening his mind to the point that the absurdities of the world came into stark relief. And so Okina renounced it all and rose to a higher plane. There was only himself, his katana, and its mastery. Before long, Okina became a demon of a swordsman. In addition to his mastery of the rivers of blood which he wields in his right hand, Okina also uses a short blade or wakizashi in his left hand, making him what the Japanese refer to as a nitorio or a dual wielder. An unorthodox style that's reserved for truly elite swordsmen. So what did Okina do once he rose to this higher plane of sword mastery? Well, apparently he left the land of Reeds behind, finding his way to the lands between. In addition to being able to summon Okina to help us in the Radahn fight, we also encounter him at the church of repose in the mountaintops of the giants, where he invades us as a bloody finger for a one-on-one duel to the death. Upon Okina's defeat, we received both his mask and weapon, the Rivers of Blood. And we learn from its description that our tarnished isn't the only powerful figure to lose blood to Okina. As its description states, "When Mohg, the Lord of Blood, first felt Okina's sword and madness upon his flesh, he had a proposal, to offer Okina the life of a demon, whose thirst would never go unsated." And learning about this kind of blew my mind a little bit. You guys can correct me if I'm wrong in the comments, but think that this is a pretty unusual instance of a demigod being explicitly harmed, or perhaps even defeated in battle, by a non-demigod. Well, excluding Godwin's death at the hands of the Black Knife assassins. So for Okina to just roll up on Mohg and overpower him with his swordsmanship, to the point that Mohg had to offer him a deal, Okina is clearly pretty badass. It's no wonder then that during his time in the Land of Reeds, Okina was followed by a group of devout disciples called the Inaba, who we learn about from the White Reeds set. The Inaba traveled in pursuit of not only the master who abandoned them, but also proper deaths, one honorably through hard-fought combat. To be a White Reed is to seek death, fitting for the Inaba, who desired nothing more than to die by the sword. So we do have to speculate a little bit here to piece everything together, but to me it sounds like Okina achieved his enlightenment, then left the Land of Reeds for the Lands Between, abandoning his followers in the process. But the Inaba couldn't simply accept being left behind by their master, and pursued Okina to the Lands Between, hoping to find both him, and perhaps an honorable death along the way. And this apparently isn't the only case of Reedlanders pursuing one another across the Lands Between, which brings us to the last characters we know of with ties to the Land of Reeds. Yura and Eleonora. Yura, the hunter of Bloody Fingers, is a really great character who unfortunately fell victim to having some of his more interesting dialogue cut from the final game. I'll try to intersperse some of those lines throughout this section. Wearing a distinctive iron kasa that is meant to imitate woven straw hats worn in the Land of Reeds, the Bloody Fingerslayer Yura is a character that seems all too aware of the madness that often comes with the pursuit of power. He, for example, warns us about the dangers of dragon communion, a practice that offers great power, but threatens to erode the practitioner's humanity in exchange. Those who partake in dragon communion, will one day shed their humanity, their hunger for dragon, their yearning. Only worsens until the floodgates burst, unleashing eternal torment, the strength of a mighty dragon, magnificent, but deadly. It's no surprise that dragon communion is ruinous. His set states that Yoda is said to have kept a woman in the deepest reaches of his heart. And while we aren't ever explicitly told who this might be, it's heavily implied that this woman is Violet Bloodyfinger Elinoro. Wielding a twinned Naginata forged in the land of Reeds, Elinora's mastery of the sword was such that her onslaught was likened to a whirlwind, but now her legacy is stained by a cursed blood. And so we circle back to talking once again about Mohg. In Elden Ring, the bloody fingers you see throughout the game are all tarnished who serve Mohg, and are infused by him with a cursed sess blood that imparts on the afflicted a kind of bloodlust that compels them to slay their own tarnished kind. This sess blood may be tied to the formless mother, an outer god that Mohg made contact with underground, and led him to develop his blood flame magic. For reasons unknown, Yura seeks to end the Bloody Fingers. "The Bloody Finger. The end is nigh... for you." and to save Elinora from further defiling her blade by continuing to yield to this S-blood. Unfortunately for Yura, he has a lot of things working against him. For one thing, as you may already know, he's in the process of being consumed from within by an ominous force. I still haven't found Elinora. A thousand curses. I'm running out of time. The worm-like writhing that has long plagued the back of my eyes is spreading to my brain. And hot. After taking out several bloody fingers, he eventually does track down and confront Elinora. But Yura is mortally wounded in this fight and parishes soon after. He uses his last breaths to beg Elinora not to give in to the temptation of the cessblood. Specifically, he says this bit of dialogue, which I'm actually hoping to get your guys' thoughts on in the comments. "Eleonora, it seems I am no match for you, but I've learned a thing or two myself. You see, I've sliced the finger off. Please. Please, Eleonora, yield to the cessplock no longer. Do not stain, be a micro-lessy of your sword, your flesh, your fire." To me it seems like this could maybe be interpreted in one of two ways. Either one, Yura was himself once a bloody finger, and cut off his finger during their fight as a way to ward off the cessblood. Or two, during their battle Yura managed to cut off Eleonora's bloody finger as a way to weaken her for us to go in and finish the job. But what do you guys think? When we confront Eleonora it becomes clear why Yura was so knowledgeable about dragon communion, as in addition to becoming a bloody finger in her pursuit of power, Eleonora wields powerful dragon incantations, blasting us away with Graol's roar and incinerating us with dragon fire. We of course are able to eventually dispatch Eleonora, but like so many in the lands between, Yura's story doesn't end happily. We later find that the condition Yura spoke of consuming him from within was actually the spirit of Shabiri, worshipper of the Three Fingers and the Flame of Frenzy. Oh my. Why the long face? I fear that you were previously acquainted with this vessel. Well, that is most unfortunate. For he is dead, as for his flesh. He gave it to me. Shabiri. It's pretty tragic that Yura, a character so keenly aware of the dangers of losing oneself in the pursuit of power, is in the end killed by the woman he loves, and loses himself to a being set on sending the world into chaos. "Ah, may chaos take the world. May chaos take the world!" As a concept, the land of reeds holds so much potential for further exploration. And while I unfortunately don't think we'll actually get to visit in the Shadow of the Urg Tree expansion, at the very least I'm hopeful that the newly added weapons will provide us with some more information to sink our teeth into. In any case, I hope you enjoyed this fairly comprehensive look at what we currently know about the land of reeds. As always, I'm almost positive I missed some important stuff, so I'm looking forward to hearing what you guys have to say in the comments. If you enjoyed this video, don't forget to like and subscribe, and hit the bell to get notified about future videos. And hey, I'd genuinely appreciate it if you considered supporting this channel through Patreon by becoming a YouTube member, or maybe by sending a super thanks. Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you next time.
