Episode 53: Ruu & Tsurumi Island

Ruu. Poor, sweet, little Ruu.

We were all touched by his story, even if a little a tired from running around the island unlocking and locking trees like Bee said.

Tsurumi Island, known as the foggy island, is in the southernmost area of Inazuma. You can only visit the island if you’ve first unlocked the quest – Through the Mist – with Sumida. If not, it kicks you out like you’ve hit the borders of the map. One loophole that Tif found is that you can take a waverider around the island and get to the Golden Wolflord to fight him.

Feens talked about the many peaks around the island and how some people have speculated that it may be where the skynail first fell thousands of years ago. We haven’t found concrete evidence of its exact location, but we know it landed somewhere.

One possible location is Shirikoro Peak, which would make sense because that’s where we find the entrance into the underground ruins. We know little of the civilization that lived down there before Ruu’s people inhabited the island. But there are a lot of similarities to other underground spaces we’ve seen elsewhere in Teyvat.

One such repetitive architecture motif we see at all the places the ancient people lived is circle doors. Feens mentions a few other locations we’ve seen these massive doors, one being on Dragonspine where we find murals left by the people of Sal Vindagnyr. More specifically, drawn by the Princess of Sal Vindagnyr as prophetic visions into the future.

And what do we find behind our circle doors at Tsurumi? You guessed it…more murals. We talk about the significance of these murals and what they can mean. Below are links to view each one larger, and in order in which they are discussed.

View Mural 1
View Mural 2
View Mural 3
View Mural 4
View Mural 5

Fanta, Fresca, Frescoes.

These murals are called frescoes. Which is an Italian word describing a specific process of how the paintings were made. In short, earthy pigments are used directly on wet plaster to almost seal the paint into the wall.

Al mentioned that @felixfellius on Reddit translated the text on the murals so we didn’t have to. Check out this in-depth post for more information.

Read on Reddit: Tsurumi Murals Revisit

The ceremonial site is located on the southern side of Tsurumi Island, just east of Mt. Kanna.

The Thundering Fury Artifact Set is where a lot of the lore mentioned in this episode is found.

Feens references a final scene in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix) and the similarities of Sabrina’s sacrifice and Ruu’s.

Throughout Tsurumi Island you’ll see many, many spirits. Some you interact with, others just appear and disappear.

Asase, aka ‘Cat Island’ is located to the west of Seirai Island. The island is home to the Asase Shrine, where Neko – Her Ladyship, the Provisional Head Priestess – watches over the shrine and a lot of cute kitties.

The Thunder Manifestation, a remnant of Kanna Kapatcir, resides high above Seirai Island. Ruu sings his song to her thinking it was Kanna, or so we believed. He lets us know afterward that he did know that Kanna was not up there.

Ruu’s Melody is a haunting, sweet song. Which is, of course, very fitting of the story. Tif mentions that you can also play this song in your teapot once you’ve obtained Radiant Spincrystal #67.

Watch on YouTube: Ruu’s Melody

Tif also mentions the similarities of Ruu’s melody to another hauntingly sweet song from the 1982 film Poltergeist. Do you hear the similarities too?

Listen on YouTube: Carol Anne’s Theme

Sumida & Kama are the duo we interact with most during Ruu’s story. After the quest is over, these two leave Inazuma for adventuring around Teyvat as Sumida gets ideas for her novel. Once you’ve completed the quest, you can find them at a stall in Liyue Harbor. After interacting with them, you can then find them in the library in Mondstadt.

We also discuss the Golden Wolflord, a boss at the southern tip of the island. An unintentional creation of Rhinedottir (aka Gold), the monster can dissolve space and create rifts into worlds it does not belong to. Great, just what we need.