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'"She guarded the silence...and silence was kept."'
—Narrator in Silent Woods


Shriek, also known as The Stone-Wing, was an Owl and is the main antagonist in Ori and the Will of the Wisps. She hatched within the Silent Woods after the death of the Spirit Willow. Because of the Decay's corrupting effects, she was born with extreme deformities, featuring a layer of stone over her body and two stony stilts that she used in order to walk. When flying, these stilts fold beneath her wings. It is implied that these stilts may be severely malformed wing bones.

Biography[]


Early Life[]

Finding herself alone as a hatchling, she sought the comfort of friends and a place to call home. However, due to her unusual appearance and the risk posed by the decay on her body, both the Moki, and more notably, the Owls, rejected her. As a result of this rejection, especially from her own kind, she had no choice but to return to the Silent Woods. These experiences are responsible for her outlook on the world, and is why she came to despise the Light and any creature associated with it.

Hunting Ori[]

Immediately after their crash landing in Niwen, Ori was eventually led into the Silent Woods where they would be reunited with Ku. Along the way, Ori came upon Shriek, who could be seen crushing Moki huts beneath her talons in search of food or any trespassing creatures. Once Ori and Ku found each other, Shriek confronted them and attempted to kill them both. She stomped the ground, plunging Ori into a cave below. Ku was left up above, and bravely pecked at one of Shriek's stalks. Shriek's response was to kick her away and then stomp on her, leaving her in a near-death state[2]. Additionally, in Ori's quest to restore the Wisps, Shriek frequently made attempts to rid of them. She would try to chase and kill Ori at Baur's Peak after finding The Memory of The Forest, and could be found lurking in the Feeding Grounds, guarding the path between the Silent Woods and the Windswept Wastes.

Demise[]

As Ori and the recently-restored Seir made their way back across the Feeding Grounds to reach Willow's End, Shriek again descended upon them in another attempt on Ori's life. As she was about to crush Ori, Seir repelled the owl with an incredibly powerful burst of light, knocking her to the ground. Before Seir could deliver a finishing blow, Ori held Seir back in an attempt to relay that they did not want to harm Shriek. However, this attempt at friendship failed, and Shriek fled the area in a fit of confusion. She seemed to have difficulty believing that such an offer was made towards her.

Shriek returned for a final battle at the Spirit Willow. After Seir briefly revived the Spirit Willow and began her flight back down to Ori, Shriek swooped in and caught Seir out of the air, disabling it and tossing it into The Weeping Ridge. After a prolonged struggle between the two, Shriek was defeated by Ori and crashed into The Weeping Ridge. With what remained of her strength, she flew back to her old nest in the Silent Woods, where she sat herself beneath the wings of her parents, almost as if to allow them to embrace her, and then passed away.[1]

Attacks and Abilities[]

Note that none of these ability names are official, and have been assigned by the community for the sake of readability.

Abilities[]

  • Flight: Despite being encased by stone, Shriek displays incredible flight abilities that are on par with or may exceed that of any normal Owl.
  • Crawling Stone: She can use an attribute of decay referred to by Tuley as The Crawling Stone to turn any living entity into a stone husk, representative of what it once was.

Attacks[]

The following is a list of all attacks Shriek uses in her boss fight. A fan-made walkthrough exists as well.

Phase #1[]

Phase #1 occurs while Ori is on the platform as the battle begins. All abilities mentioned here are reused for all phases unless mentioned otherwise.

  • Stomp: Shriek raises her two talons up before slamming them into the ground beneath her.
  • Crush: Shriek raises one of her stony stilts before slamming it into the ground, releasing two waves of blue fire which travel in either direction.
  • Laser Breath: Shriek wiggles her head before opening her beak wide, firing a blue laser which moves across the arena toward Ori.
  • Screech: Shriek opens her beak and lets out a great screech, dealing damage in a modest-sized radius around her head.
  • Pounce: Shriek flies into the air before quickly descending down onto Ori's position. Her landing spot is telegraphed by a purple glow on the ground.
  • Swoop: Shriek flies off before quickly dashing across the battlefield in one direction. Her direction is telegraphed by a shadowy column which flows in the same direction that Shriek will fly. In Phase 1, this is strictly horizontal.
  • Fire Spit: Shriek shakes her head slightly before letting out a squawk, releasing around a dozen or so projectiles that travel in arcs away from her head. These projectiles can be deflected back at her to deal damage with either the Bash Ability or Spirit Edge. At least one projectile is always aimed at Ori.
  • Swipe: If Ori gets too close to her while on the ground, Shriek raises one of her talons before lunging sideways toward Ori.

Phase #2[]

Phase #2 occurs on the platform once Shriek is at 75% health. Some previous attacks from Phase 1 are reused with some minor alterations, namely:

  • Roar: At the beginning of phase 2, Shriek will land on the far left of the platform and screech at the player. This attack is only done once in the entire phase, unless the battle is restarted, and possesses a small range.
  • Swoop: Shriek flies into the background and toward the viewer at the bottom of the screen. Ori must go airborne or onto the blue moss on the side of the platform to dodge as the entire floor becomes a hazard area. She also gains the ability to dash diagonally.
  • Fire Rain: Shriek will fly into the background before screeching into the air, causing blue and 1-4 violet-colored rain to come down. Each violet rain can hone in on Ori, but can be bashed to remove the effect. Violet-colored rain also has a slightly larger explosion compared to blue rain.
  • Fire Spit: Shriek will fly up from whatever side Ori is on (if Ori is left, she appears on the left) before spitting projectiles at a 45 degree angle. At least one projectile is aimed toward Ori.
  • Stomp: Shriek will fly offscreen before slamming the ground 3 times, each stomp's location indicated by a purple shadow. If she is below 50% health and slams the mid-right or far left of the platform, she breaks it off.
  • Laser Breath: Shriek will fly center-screen before sweeping the platform with her laser.
  • Screech: Shriek will fly to where Ori is on the platform before screeching with mid-sized range.
  • Cover: Shriek will fly high above the platform, covering it entirely; this is indicated by purple smoke on the ground. Ori will need to jump off the platform, time a Launch, or go on the blue moss on the sides of the platform to dodge this attack.

Phase #3[]

Phase #3 begins when Shriek is lower than or equal to 10% of her maximum health. At this point, Shriek will break the ground from left to right until the platform is gone, restricting Ori to an aerial battle. There are a number of alterations here as well and a new ability is implemented.

  • Fire Rain: Shriek initiates a rain of projectiles falling from the top to the bottom of the screen. Unlike phase 2, violet rain does not appear and the attack remains for the rest of the phase.
  • Swoop: Remains the same as in previous phases, but it is done in a pattern of horizontal and then diagonal attacks.
  • Stomp, Pounce, Crush, Cover, Screech, and Swipe: These are no longer used due to the lack of ground.
  • Laser Breath: Is no longer used.
  • Fire Spit: Is modified to be unidirectional; Shriek will fly to the right side of the screen and spray out an alternative kind of projectile toward the player in a 30 degree angle. None of these projectiles are directed toward the player intentionally, but they create a dangerous area in a manner akin to Bullet Hell.

Achievements[]

Achievement stonecold

Stone Cold

Defeat Shriek

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • In an early story draft, Moon Studios had specified Shriek being inextricably linked to Decay, because she was born from it. This caused her to spread decay, both intentionally and unintentionally. In that earlier version of the story, there was a cinematic showing Shriek turn Howl to stone. However, this aspect of Shriek’s character became less important over time, to the point that the studio felt it was better to leave it up to the player’s imagination.[3]
  • Shriek is referred to by Grom as the "shadow in the sky", and by Moki as the "shrieker".
  • Shriek's height is approximately 25 times taller than Ori whilst standing on top of her stilts, relative to the scale of the 3D models directly stored within the game. Certain scene elements may attempt to exaggerate or minimize this scale depending on the cinematic goals, making it appear to deviate from this scale. Depending on the height metric used for Ori, this would put Shriek at 61'6" (18.75m) or 25'0" (7.62m), using the most popular metrics.

References[]

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