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| “ | When my child's strength faltered and the last breath was drawn... My light revived Ori, a new age had dawned. | „ |
| ~ The Spirit Tree's narration |
Summary
Ori is a Spirit Guardian and the main protagonist of Ori and the Blind Forest. A long time ago, a leaf was stolen away from the Spirit Tree during the Great Storm and came under the care of Naru to form them. Due to being away from the Spirit Tree, Kuro strikes to steal the light away from the tree. This causes decay and corruption across Nibel, in which they go out to restore the land with the help of Sein, along with learning abilities along the way from deceased Spirit Guardians.
Reappearing as the main protagonist of the series again in Ori and the Will of the Wisps, they raise Ku, the daughter of Kuro, alongside Gumo and Naru. During a flight lesson in a different region named Niwen, they get separated during a storm. They are attacked by an undead Owl named Shriek while Ku gets badly damaged. As Ku is near her death, they undertake the task to help restore Niwen as a hero once more and in hopes of saving Ku.
Credit to the Ori Wiki for this summary.
Ori and the Blind Forest
Ori's story begins on the night of the Great Storm, a powerful weather event that rips them free of the Spirit Tree's branches before they were born and carries them as a glowing leaf on the wind. Naru, who had been observing the storm from afar, sees Ori's leaf float by her and immediately investigates. Upon landing in the foliage, Ori is "born" into their real form. Naru, seeing the small creature as one who needs protection, takes Ori into her embrace and acts as their adoptive mother.
Sometime later, Ori awakens to a scenic summer day and Naru's smiling face. With their nearby fruit trees running low on fruit, the pair spend the day working together to build a bridge across a long stretch of water, gaining access to more plentiful specimens. After having, at last, made it to the other side at night time and enjoying the delicious fruit in the quietude of night, Ori wraps a bunch of the fruit in their arms and heads back to their cave to store it for later. However, before they can make it inside, Ori sees the Spirit Tree from afar ablaze with light, unaware that the flood of illumination is calling for them. Naru, worried for Ori's safety, takes hold of her stunned child and hurries them inside out of harm's way.
Unaware that what they witnessed would eventually lead the Nibel's ruin, Ori and Naru slowly eat their supply of fruit until only a single piece was left. Naru unsuccessfully attempts to find more, but the slow decay of the forest means it is near impossible. After Naru insists Ori take the last piece for themself and realizing that they would both starve without more food, Ori sets out into the barren wasteland of what was once beautiful forest and discovers untouched fruit on a high branch of a tree. After shaking it down to the ground, Ori makes their way back home, thinking back on happier memories from before the forest turned blind. Ori eventually returns to the cave and offers Naru the fruit they have found. Naru does not answer. With mewls of concern for their mother, Ori tries to wake her up, but with no avail. Realizing that Naru had died of starvation in an act of selflessness for them, Ori lays down on her body, devastated by the loss.
Ori decides to leave their lifelong home shortly after, with no reason to stay now that the only parent they ever knew was dead. As they journey deeper into the decaying forest, Ori becomes very weak without food or the supporting light of the Spirit Tree. They trudge aimlessly forward into withering darkness, each step growing more and more difficult until it all becomes too much. Ori falls from exhaustion and draws one last breath. Upon their death, thousands of tiny white flowers grow and chase away the cloud of darkness, revealing that Ori had nearly made it to the Spirit Tree. Sensing that his child had fallen, the Spirit Tree uses the last of his strength and light to revive Ori, ultimately starting the game.
After being revived, Ori travels through the Sunken Glades and encounters a mysterious light. They find out that this light is Sein, the eyes and source of the Spirit Tree's light. Sein becomes Ori's guide and support from that point onward and the pair of them travel to the Spirit Tree himself. It is here that Ori learns why Nibel began to decay: during the Light Ceremony that was intended to call Ori back home, the Spirit Tree and Ori's kin were attacked by a malevolent force, Kuro. She stole Sein from the Spirit Tree's branches and disrupted the balance of the three Elements of Light, throwing Nibel into chaos. Sein tells Ori that the Spirit Tree's light is now inside them and that the fate of the forest now rests on their shoulders. Hearing about how they must travel to the Ginso Tree, Forlorn Ruins and Mount Horu in order to restore the Elements, Ori travels forth with the determination to save their home.
During the journey to restore the Element of Waters, Ori encounters Gumo, a member of the Gumon race who had become corrupted by Nibel's decay. Though initially having to contend with Gumo's traps in order to take back the Water Vein, Ori frees Gumo from being pinned down by large rocks, an act of kindness that eventually brings the Gumon back to the light. After restoring the Element of Water, Ori encounters Kuro for the first time and is nearly sent to their second death being flung from the heights of the Ginso Tree. Gumo repays Ori's kindness with some of his own and saves the spirit, leaving them to see the waters restored.
Ori and Sein travel into the Misty Woods in order to unlock the Forlorn Ruins. After having found the Gumon Seal, they enter the Ruins to find them frozen over in a terrible cold. The Gumon who lived there all perished in the freeze, leaving Gumo as the sole survivor. After reaching the heart of the ruins and vowing to restore the Element of Winds in memory of the Gumon, Gumo overhears Ori's intentions and decides to repay them by taking the Light Vessel back to Ori's home. After escaping the Ruins, Ori and Sein find themselves in Kuro's nest and discover the true reason why she attacked the Spirit Tree: the Light Ceremony had accidentally killed her three hatchlings from its intensity, leaving only one egg left and causing Kuro to attack in her rage. Kuro herself then appears, forcing Ori to dive from her nest and flee.
With only the Element of Warmth to rekindle, Ori and Sein set out to reach Sorrow Pass and then eventually Mount Horu. At the same time as Ori finding the Sunstone needed to enter the mountain, Gumo arrives back at Ori's home with the Light Vessel and discovers Naru's body. With Ori's kindness and forgiveness inspiring him, Gumo uses the Vessel's light to revive Naru. Together, the pair of them travel to the mountain at the same time that Ori enters its depths. Through skill and courage, Ori beats the mountain's trials and finally rekindles the Element of Warmth. Before they have the chance to celebrate however, Kuro appears and forces Ori to escape the rising fires. Though nearly making it back to the Spirit Tree to restore Nibel, Kuro knocks Ori unconscious just as Naru makes her way through the burning forest. As Naru cradles Ori in her arms, Kuro watches and realizes that she has become the monster she saw the Spirit Tree as; killing the children of others. Seeing what she had done, and also finding her egg on the edge of burning, Kuro sacrifices herself, returning Sein to the Spirit Tree and dying from the light.
The Spirit Tree returns balance to Nibel. As Naru and Gumo watch from afar with Kuro's unborn chick in their care, Ori stays with the Spirit Tree and watches their fellow Spirit Guardians fall and be born from the Tree's branches.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Shortly after Ku's birth, Naru, Ori, and Gumo help raise Ku in Nibel for the span of a few years. After a few failed flying lessons, Ku was discouraged, prompting Ori to use Kuro's feather to allow Ku's deformed wing the capability to fly. With Gumo's aid, the pair became successful in their flight, taking their voyage around Nibel and soared over to a different region called Niwen. However, a storm separates the pair, with Ori landing in Inkwater Marsh and Ku landing in the Silent Woods.
While searching for Ku, Ori learns that Niwen has been suffering from the Decay for a long period of time, and encounters Shriek, an orphaned owl who was born with deformities caused by the Decay. While evading Shriek, Ori manages to reunite with Ku, only for the moment to cut short by the undead owl's presence. They then try to search for the feather in order to return home, while being hunted by Shriek. Just when they corner the feather in a brach in an open space, it is blown away by Shriek's arrival as she corners them. She tries to attack Ori causing them to be thrown into a pit, while Ku tries to attack Shriek to defend Ori. After flinging Ku off of her, Shriek walks over to Ku who is unknowingly cornered at a ledge. Ku tries to stand up to her as Shriek crushes Ku under her stone bone spear limb while sending the owlet off the edge.
Ku is found by Ori and the Moki in critical condition and brought back to Kwolok's Hollow, where The Voice of the Forest surrounds Ku with a field of flowers trying to help her, but as Kwolok explains to Ori, it is currently too weak in its own dying state to fully heal her. This is because, with the Spirit Willow's passing, the light it carried broke apart and scattered all across Niwen, leaving the forest vulnerable to corruption and decay. If The Will of the Wisps: the Memory, Eyes, Strength, and Heart of the Forest are brought back together in time with the Voice to reform Seir, the Spirit Willow's light, all of Niwen, including Ku can be saved.
Ori eventually becomes successful in forming Seir, but along the way, Kwolok, who aided in the search for the Strength of the Forest, dies from injuries caused by the Stink Spirit's control at Luma Pools and learning of a prophecy of a guardian spirit returning to Niwen to restore life to the forest in Windtorn Ruins. They run into another encounter with Shriek. After Seir prevents Shriek from attacking the pair, Ori attempts to befriend Shriek but is rejected instead due to Shriek's childhood trauma. Ori and Seir head to the site of the Spirit Willow and learn that Ori will have to embrace Seir's light in order to replace the dying Spirit Willow and save Niwen at the cost of Ori's old life.
Before Ori and Seir could merge, Shriek attacks the pair one more time, separating them, before engaging Ori in a grueling duel for the fate of Niwen that tore the dying Spirit Willow and Weeping Ridge asunder. Ori successfully defeats Shriek but is also wounded in the process. Ori limps their way to Seir and reflects on their past memory of their time with their family and in Niwen before accepting the new responsibility as Niwen's Spirit Tree in order to save Ku. Ori's sacrifice restores Niwen to life and heals Ku as well as her disabled wing.
Naru, Ku, Gumo, and a small group of Moki head to the site of Ori's merging, and witness Ori's spirit tree sprouting. Over the course of a number of years, Naru and Gumo help Ori's spirit tree grow. Naru eventually passes away, lying at the Tree's roots. Now having grown into a giant spirit tree, a spirit leaf flies away from Ori's tree branch to begin a new life.
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