Line Individualism - Yura

SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!

Yura in Elden Ring takes the role of a wizened veteran hunter of “bloody fingers”, i.e. people having gone deranged with bloodlust, thus he effeche ctively is a bounty-hunter of sorts – he is also along with a few other characters, representing the samurai class arch-type.

Voiced by Northern English voice-actor Shaun Dooley, his timber adds an agedness to the character, a trait that is already present in his Japanese lines, which we will take a closer look at in this post, along with another aspect, though this veers into spoilerous territory.

His becoming possessed by a spirit of chaos, Shabriri, which changes his personality completely – and although it is the same voice-actor, Dooley changes the tone to one much lighter and suspiciously meeker.

Thus, when we first meet Yura, it is outside the old hunting grounds of a dragon named Agheel:

…お主、新参の褪せ人だな
ならば、気を付けることだ。このアギール湖は、竜の縄張りよ
あれは強く、美しく、そして恐ろしい
竜炎に焼かれ、死を望む亡者でもなければ
…近付くなど、愚者の望業よ

… Onushi, shinsan no asebito da na
Naraba, ki o tsukeru koto da. Kono Agîru-ko wa, ryuu no nawabari yo
Are wa tsuyoku, utsukushiku, soshite osoroshii
Ryuuen ni yakare, shi o nozomu mouja demo nakereba
…chikazuku nado, gusha no bougyou yo

“Thou art a newly Tarnished One, I see.
Well then, thou oughst to take heed. This is Lake Agheel, the hunting grounds of a dragon.
It is strong, beautiful and also fearsome.
If thy death wish is not to be burned asunder by dragon fire,
Then stay clear, it is a fool’s errand.”

And, if the player has challenged the dragon prior to Yura’s warning:

…お主、新参の褪せ人だな
それに、とんでもない愚者のようだ
まさか竜に挑むなどと
…だが、止めはせん。どうせ無駄であろう
…どうやら儂は、愚者に縁があるらしいわ

… Onushi, shinsan no asebito da na
Sore ni, tondemonai gusha no you da
Masaka ryuu ni idomunado to
Daga tome wa sen. Douse  muda de arou
… Douyara washi wa, gusha ni en ga aru rashii wa

“Thou art a newly Tarnish One, I see.
Moreover, a most absurd fool at that.
Don’t tell me that thou hast challenged the dragon,
But I shan’t stop thee. ‘Tis pointless, anyhow.
… ‘Twould seem that I am linked by fate to this fool.”

Even if he uses “da” over “ja”, the latter being the stereotypical way for oldsters to end their sentences in popular culture, his pronouns washi and onushi point towards both generic Samurai speech and that of an old man, here clearly worn down from years of fighting – and fools meeting him along the way.

He does, later on, use more polite language when lamenting the fact that he could not save his ally-to-turned-enemy, Eleonora, whilst suffering wounds from his fight against her:

…エレオノーラ、やはり、貴女には及びませぬか
…Ereonôra, yahari, anata niwa oboyamasenu ka
“Eleonora, I was not even a match to your abilities, my Lady.”

“My Lady” here translating the kanji-wise aspect of anata (“you”), which is written with the characters for “precious woman” (貴女) rather than “precious personage” (貴方), that is the usual kanji for the pronoun, but can in somse cases be used to differentiate between the interlocutors. He still uses washi (儂, “I, the old man”) as his pronoun regardless of the formality in later parts of his speech.

Much, much later on in the narrative, he gets possessed by a spirit of chaos called Shabriri, whose speech patterns are consistently polite even when you aggravate him:

…参りましたね
でも、王なる気が無いのなら
貴方に用はありませんね

Mairimashita ne
Demo, ou ni naru ki ga nai no nara
Anata ni you wa arimasen ne

“… Here I come, sir/madam. But if you do not wish to become a Lord, then you are of no more use to me.”

Using the gender-neutral, “precious personage” form of anata and also mairu (“to humbly go/come”), he also uses the verbs nasaru
(“the sir/madam does”) when questioning what the player is doing:

おかしなことをなさいますな
Okashi na koto o nasaimasuna
“You are fooling around, sir/madam”

This being prior to being aggravated, if the player continues to attack Shabriri.

Shabriri uses wata(ku)shi (私), the gender-neutral polite first person pronoun in contrast to Yura’s washi.

The chaotic spirit also has habit of dishing out imperatives in the formal mode which makes him sound like a parent admonishing a child:

…王となるべき褪せ人よ、険しき道をお行きなさい
…Ou to narubeki asebito yo, kewashiki michi o oyukinasai
“O Faded One, who shall become King/Queen, please tread the perilous path!”

The imperative being お行きなさい (oyukinasai), with ~nasai imperatives (derived from nasaru) being polite if bossy, and the added o~ gives it and even stuffier tone to it. He expects you to perform your duty as a Tarnished One – like some imperious if incorporeal headmaster, that has the habit of possessing the bodies of old knackered blokes.

Overall, Shabriri seems gloatingly polite towards the player, whereas Yura in contrast is amiable if gruff.