The Queen

Quote: "[Yordayoruda] lives in a different world than some boy with horns!" -The Queen

The Queen is the main antagonist of the game and the ruler of The Castle in the Mist.

She is a tall woman of indeterminate age with unnaturally pale skin, cloudy grey eyes, and frail frame. All but her face, neck, and shoulders are wreathed in a mass of black shadows that form a long gown and spiked headress, each fringed by a thin layer of dark blue. She can cover and uncover her face with these shadows at will. Black energy strands, wavering and jolting, run from her waist down to the ground, like dark bolts of electricity.

When Icoe-koʊ meets Yorda,yoruda, she is in a cage. Worse than that, she's in a cage that is suspended over a long drop, several stories high. But it is only a microcosm of the bigger picture, a claustrophobic copy of her home itself: a castle fortress, suspended over turbulent ocean waves.

The Queen keeps everything behind locks. Even her daughter. Yorda,yoruda, as a prisoner of the castle, is restricted not just physically, but vocally and mentally. The Queen's presence sparks fear in Yorda.yoruda. When the initial race towards the Main Gate is interrupted by The Queen, Yordayoruda is brought to her knees and does not dare to rise, or even speak, until her mother has vanished.

While we haven't seen their past interactions, it is clear that Yorda'syorudas reserved behavior is only extrapolated in her mother's presence, and thus it's not a stretch to suggest that might be a learned behavior. Times she spoke up or walked away in the past may have ended poorly. Such memories may come to the forefront when The Queen appears before her. And through this fear, the Queen creates a mental lock.

She tightens the hold by insisting to Yordayoruda that she cannot survive in the outside world. Whether this is true or not, it is remains very convenient for The Queen to push a sense of weakness into the young girl.

The Queen is also bilingual, speaking both Icoe-koʊ and Yorda'syorudas languages fluently. Ico'se-koʊs language is one used by the people of his village, the priests that escorted him to the castle, and presumably most other nearby communities. But Yordayoruda doesn't speak that language. Because she was never taught it.

She was taught a language that is initially shown to the players via hieroglyphs, a shorthand way to suggest an ancient language. A dead language. A language that only her mother speaks.

In this way, The Queen has intentionally created another barrier between Yordayoruda and the outside world. When people from beyond the castle walls enter, there's only one way to absolutely ensure she never speak with or understand them... In short, Yorda'syorudas connection to anyone but The Queen is forbidden. For all her life, The Queen intends to be the only person that Yordayoruda can ever truly talk to.

The Queen makes two things very clear: She needs Yordayoruda to inherit The Castle in the Mist and she is not phased by Ico'se-koʊs attempts to escape with her.

It's implied through both dialogue and her sparing appearances that she sees both him and their escape attempt as inconsequential. And it very much is, as she undoes all of their progress without so much as lifting a finger.

The only reason she is defeated is because she refuses to shy away from Icoe-koʊ when he arrives at her throne room with a weapon capable of killing her. Though she did seem, initially, to be hiding from him, she was ultimately drawn out (and the boss battle can only be triggered) after Ico ascends the dais to her throne.

A dais, historically, is a spot reserved for royalty and their esteemed guests. People of importance and power alone are meant to rise up those stairs. It is not a place for lowly commonfolk. We can potentially read her sudden appearance after Ico'se-koʊs act as the striking of a nerve, an insult to her pride and the order she hopes to maintain within the castle.

Regardless of why she appeared, she had the power to retreat easily at any time, but she took on each attack and continued. Likely because her pride would not allow her to cower in fear of a sacrifice.

The Queen tends to intervene only when she absolutely has to, and does so with the absolute minimal effort required. This is partially due to her aging body, which seems to limit her physical capabilities. But she intends to remedy this.

According to a more accurate re-translation of her existing dialogue by GlitterBerri: The Queen intends to 'bind her will' to Yordayoruda and reincarnate through her. The means by which this is meant to happen are left intentionally vague, but she makes it very clear what the end result will be.

All that matters to her is securing the continuation of her legacy by mentally and/or physically controlling her sole heir. The Queen's single-minded goal is the preservation and projection of her will through Yordayoruda. And there is a very real possibility, given her assuredness in how reincarnation works, that her current body once belonged to a prior heir who's will she still controls.

At both the Main Gate and in her Throne Room, she demonstrates the capacity to appear and disappear at will. In the first instance, the action is loud, bright, and thunderous, both in her arrival and departure. In the second demonstration, she appears very suddenly and silently in the room, already on her throne, which was empty just moments before.

After shutting down Icoe-koʊ and Yorda'syorudas first attempt to escape via the Main Gate, The Queen teleports away, but she isn't entirely gone. She reacts and makes additional comments to Yordayoruda through a voice from above, which both characters can hear and react to.

This is the only time she demonstrates this ability.

There are hints that The Queen is aware of things that happen in the castle, even as she is not present to witness them. She reacts to Ico'se-koʊs presence in her throne room, even as she is absent from it, seemingly aware of his position as she teleports into it.

All of the above powers might also be explained as parts of the same power, as alluded to in the NTSC-U Manual only.

This statement is very strangely worded, and is unique to this manual, which gives it less credence than phrases that can be found across multiple sources. But if we assume The Queen's spirit form makes her invisible and intangible, it could explain her sudden appearances as well as her voice projecting from somewhere beyond. She'd also likely be able to see what goes on in the castle by moving through the space unhindered.

However, the Shadows's 'pure spirit forms' don't really replicate the teleportation/invisibility, which makes the association made to them a bit unusual. And if she must inhabit her body to take on human form, that implies she must leave it to enter her pure spirit form, yet we never see an example of The Queen leaving her body behind.

The Queen has the capability to send out a shockwave of dark magic that travels as a thin layer across the ground and the surfaces of walls, shrouding its surroundings in a translucent darkness. At the edge of this shockwave is a ring of white and seafoam green, which tends to be a signature color of The Queen's magic. She seems to be able to control therate which this wave travels.

If this shockwave touches organic matter, it will instantly turn to stone. This same event has a side effect of erasing Shadow Creatures upon contact.

The limits of the shockwave's range are unknown. When enacted in an area exposed to the outside world, the wave can be seen extending far past the player and out towards the mainland, with no sign of halting.

The Shadows seem unnaturally forced to follow the will of The Queen. This idea is reinforced both by the behavior of the Shadows and the specific language of the NTSC Manual.

This power only affects Shadow Creatures, but it uses the same visual effect described in the Petrification section. This is unusual for Shadow Creatures, who themselves are not known to use magic. In addition, this power takes some time to activate, as though it is not the Shadow initiating the power, but an outside force. Thus, my assumption is that The Queen grants this power to the Shadow Creatures that need it.

When The Queen dies, the entirety of the castle's foundations and structure begin to collapse. It's as though her life were the only thing maintaining it. It is also possible that the wear seen throughout the castle was then also a reflection of The Queen's deteriorating physical body.

• The Queen's frail bodily physique is only visible once in the entire game, as the quick flash of a white silhouette, just as she teleports away from the Main Gate. Strangely enough, this figure includes a helmet that existed in the game's early concept art, but remains unseen in her typical, cloaked appearance.

• The Queen's final design bears a resemblance to Queen Promethium. Particularly her appearance in "Galaxy Express 999: the Movie". Promethium, too, was a cold leader who had achieved eternal life and put value on her only daughter, who suffered emotionally under her.

  Ueda has cited Galaxy Express 999's manga as an inspiration for ICOe-koʊ in the context of Icoe-koʊ and Yorda'syorudas height difference, but the inspiration could extend to this design choice as well.