In many of my old posts, I'm always asking:
Why does Soh poof into white light in the normal ending but in the true ending, she turns into her spirit state and disappears into the heavens?
It finally dawned on me the obvious: the normal ending takes place within Yoshiro.
It's even shown directly.
(God, grant me better eyes so I may stop humiliating myself)
The Soh she meets is the piece of the Goddess she held within her.
Now that her duty is done, Soh leaves Yoshiro's body.(?)
If Soh's spirit that resided within the former Spirit Stone Maiden is returned to her after Yoshiro absorbs Nanamagari(both the defilement and the spirit in its belly) then the glowing Soh in the normal ending is the glowing Soh in the true ending because Soh regains her full powers as the Goddess in both.
(But why nullify the pact in the latter?)
The True Ending occurs because Soh's spirit becomes cursed from the defiled body it's been housed in. The Goddess spirit mixing with the Maiden's putrid body.
Soh's mask contains the pattern of impurity and it is her mask that remains with the Maiden inside her spirit stone.
(Is this what the director meant when he said Soh's mask represents her relationship to the Maidens?)
But this means a piece of the Goddess remains in the crystallized body of the Maiden for there to be remnants of Her power in the spirit stone.
So why does Soh poof away in the normal ending? Doesn't the spirit of the Maiden and Goddess remain together, inside her body?
Or is leaving her mask with Yoshiro meant to be leaving some of her spirit behind?
In the opening, Yoshiro is praying to the spirit stone. We know she prays to ancestral spirits, so is she praying to her ancestor, the Maiden, or is she praying to the Goddess inside? Or both?
Yoshiro comes from a long line of Maidens such as herself, according to Soh's Japanese bio:
本作の主人公であり、山の巫女「世代」の護人。村人たちと協力し、自らも刀を取って巫女を護りぬく。
She is the protagonist of this story and the guardian of the mountain shrine maiden, who belongs to a long line of such maidens. She cooperates with the villagers and takes up a sword herself to protect the shrine maiden.
Yoshiro's:
穢れ祓いの力を宿した山の巫女。穢れに覆われた村々を救うために宗と共に各所を巡る。その力が原因で、人々を脅かす存在である「畏哭」に狙われている。
A mountain shrine maiden possessing the power to purify corruption. She travels with So, visiting various villages to save them from being overwhelmed by corruption. Because of her power, she is targeted by "Ikoku," a being that threatens humanity.
It specifies that Soh took up a sword herself. Does it have meaning for it to be phrased that way? Perhaps t's about Soh descending to help?
The normal ending has people praying to Yoshiro the same way she prayed to the stone. Is this meant to show how the lines blur and the Goddess and Maiden become intertwined through worship?
Then again, she's housing the Goddess so praying to her is fine.
To rehash:
A Spirit Stone Maiden is a girl who becomes crystallized after purifying the mountain using her body, and then her crystallized body continues to serve as a yorishiro for the Goddess, warding off calamity and misfortune. Because this crystal also houses defilement which accumulates through generations, the influx of impurity in the 7th stone defiled the Goddess.
I made a post claiming Yoshiro was and is and will be Soh's Spirit Stone.
Now I realize it becomes more sensible if I replace 'Spirit Stone' with 'yorishiro'. Or just abode, as I've always called her.
The Maiden serves as an abode until the next time calamity hits. This means she's still housing the Goddess even when she's a spirit stone. This is how the Goddess becoming mixed with impurity occurred. Her vessel was tainted, always. For 8 cycles, including ours.
When the game starts, it starts with Yoshiro activating her powers as an abode, and allowing Soh to occupy physical space in the world. Soh can no longer manifest once the spirit stone is taken and so Yoshiro is the next abode.
(Why does she appear so far from Yoshiro?)
Yoshiro is the 'body of the goddess'. The Spirit Stone Maiden. Her destiny is to become the next Spirit Stone.
In the Normal Ending, we see Soh watching a Maiden, which made me think this Maiden was already an abode. Instead, it's more likely that Soh is still tethered to our Yoshiro. Only when the spirit stone is stolen by Seethe for the Goddess power within it, does Soh need a new abode.
(Speaking of stolen power and stolen masks, when Nanamagari stole the Spirit Stone, did it steal the mask of the Goddess that was given to/left with the Maiden? Is this why Nanamagari wears a bastardized version of the Goddess's mask in its first phase? Or did it steal the power, but the power is symbolized as the mask?)
As for the True Ending, I believe Soh turns into a spirit because Yoshiro is no longer an abode.
As she departs, she says something about the mask. Maybe that she's taking it back, if the mask symbolizes a portion of her power?
Is Yoshiro holding the mask within her? Who can really say...but she certainly is in the normal ending.
This nullifies quite a bit of what I've previous said, I think...
The story is quite simple, isn't it?
The Messenger of the Goddess is the Goddess that's manifest when she uses a yorishiro.
A cursed yorishiro produces a cursed messenger. And when said yorishiro has 'merged' with the Goddess, its form is alike a sum of its parts.
But the mirror part of Cursed Soh's plaque is still mysterious to me.
This represents the normal ending. We receive it when Yoshiro is nearly completely stone.
What battle? Against impurity? But it's a part of life.
Or is the battle against Cursed Soh actually occurring multiple times?
(I have many unpublished posts and in one, I thought the circles on Yoshiro's head were related to her becoming an abode. Rather than it being fashion lol. I have come a long way with theories. It's impressive, the leaps I have made in the past.)
Remember someone calling Yoshiro a Living Buddha? Crystallized alive...