Ku

Ku
Profile
Type:	Owl
Gender:	Female
Status:	Alive
Relations
Family:	Kuro (mother) Three Unnamed Hatchlings (siblings) Naru Gumo Ori
Other
Found in:	Ori and the Blind Forest (Definitive Edition) Ori and the Will of the Wisps

“	'"It's clear now why she hunts us, Kuro is just protecting her last child!"'	„
	—Sein to Ori after escaping Kuro

Ku is the only remaining offspring of Kuro.

Description

Kuro's Egg has the familiar appearance of a normal bird's egg, being ovular in shape but uncommonly huge in size. In fact, it is bigger than most of the characters in the game, save Kuro herself. The cream-colored shell of Kuro's Egg is speckled with dots.

History

Warning! Spoilers ahead.

After Ori flees from the Forlorn Ruins, they eventually find themselves at Kuro's Nest, where they discover her egg. In a short cutscene, Kuro's actions in Ori and the Blind Forest are explained, proving she was only trying to protect her unborn owlet from the fate its siblings endured.

For most of the time afterwards the egg remains absent, until the ending sequence when Kuro realizes the damage she caused may result in her egg being burned alive in the fire. The flames of the burning forest are spreading and creeping quickly toward Kuro's Egg, when its mother makes the decision to revive the smoldering Spirit Tree.

Once light has been restored to Nibel, Kuro's Egg is seen one last time. Naru enters the cave she and Ori once shared, and the camera pans to reveal the egg nestled cozily within. Naru smiles as a small crack develops on the shell, just before the game ends, leading to Ku's birth in the following game.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

When Ku hatched, Naru, Gumo and Ori came to see her. For some time they lived together in Swallow's Nest. With time passing, "the sky called to her", as Ori narrates. Ku couldn't leave Swallow's Nest due to her damaged wing, leaving her disheartened. Ori came up with a solution: with Gumo's help, they attach Kuro's Feather to Ku's wing, thus making her able to fly. During their flight through Nibel, Ori and Ku leave their home and fly towards Niwen, a forest across the water. A storm brews, separating the two and blowing away the feather.

Ku is revealed to have landed in the Silent Woods, searching for Kuro's feather while hiding from the woods' Enforcer of Silence, Shriek. After Ori finds their way to the Silent Woods, they reunite with Ku, and Shriek discovers them, hunting for them while they try to search for the feather to return home. When they find the feather on a branch in an open space, it is blown away by Shriek's wings as she corners them. She attacks Ori, causing them to fall 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 cornered at a ledge. Ku tries to stand up to her as Shriek crushes Ku under her stone wing, sending the owlet off the edge.

Ku is found and mourned over by Ori and the Moki in critical condition and brought back to Kwolok's Hollow and wrapped in a leaf. The Voice of the Forest surrounds Ku with a field of magic flowers trying to help her. However, as Kwolok explains to Ori, it is currently too weak in its own dying state to fully heal Ku. This is because with the Spirit Willow's passing, the light it carried shattered 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 and all of Niwen including Ku can be saved.

While Ori journeys across Niwen to restore Seir to full power, the Moki watch over Ku as the flowers around her slowly disappear, representing how much time she and the Light have left before death claims them and all of Niwen is taken by Decay. Naru and Gumo arrive and mourn her as the last of the flowers fade. However, before death could claim her, Ori fulfills their true destiny as the next Spirit Tree as they embrace the fully restored Seir the Golden Light, which restores Niwen and fully heals Ku and her wing. Ku stays with Gumo and Naru at Ori's tree site while helping Ori's tree grow until her adulthood before taking a solo flight on her own.

Family

Tree

		Kuro*						Unknown
		Ku						Three Unnamed Owlets*

* Deceased.

Gallery

Ori finds Kuro's Egg

Kuro's Egg in Flashback

Almost in the Fire

Ku

Flying to the New World

Ku in E32019 Trailer

Ku being held by Naru after her birth

Ku learning walking

Ku's first attempt at flight

Ori and Ku cuddling

Concept art for Ku and Naru

Trivia

• Ku was originally meant to permanently die after her encounter with Shriek in the middle of the story. This didn't sit right for playtesters who grew to like Ku, and after story changes, Ku's condition was changed to that of a coma, but it still kept the story forward. In the end, bringing Ku back to life avoided undermining Kuro’s sacrifice in Blind Forest and strike a bittersweet balance.