Tale.05: The Eagle - 'Guilt' and Inner Darkness Brought Out by Drugs

Introduction: The Battlefield of the “Unconscious” Beyond the Tsushima Strait

In the main story of Ghost of Tsushima, the protagonist, Jin Sakai, experienced a tearing conflict within the dichotomy of “Samurai Honor” and “the ruthless means to save Tsushima (The Ghost).” The main antagonist of the base game, Khotun Khan, was the embodiment of “violence in the name of Rationalism,” ravaging Tsushima after studying the Samurai language, traditions, and beliefs, as well as learning which villages to tame and which to burn. His invasion was a visible war of physical territorial usurpation and domination through military strategy.

However, the theme presented in the expansion Iki Island is a more private, primal, and murky aspect of the human psyche: namely, “trauma and guilt.” Ankhsar Khatun (commonly known as The Eagle), who rules Iki, wages war with an entirely different approach from Khotun Khan. She uses drugs and witchcraft to invade the “territory of the mind” of the islanders and captives. Her battle is not fought with swords or bows; it is an extremely insidious and philosophical one that exposes the darkest memories lurking in an individual’s heart, subjugating their spirit through self-hatred and despair.

The public identity of a Samurai may serve as armor to protect oneself from the blades of external enemies, but it cannot prevent the poison of self-hatred welling up from within. This report provides a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the historical and ideological background of the figure known as The Eagle, the mechanism of the hallucinations brought about by the “Sacred medicine (poison)” she uses, and the guilt surrounding the death of his father, Kazumasa Sakai, which it dragged out of Jin Sakai’s heart. Through the process of facing past karma as a vulnerable human being after the public mask of the Samurai has been stripped away, we will unravel the views on life and death and the philosophy of salvation depicted in this work.

1. The Background of Ankhsar Khatun and Her Philosophy as a “Shepherd of Souls”

The Eagle (real name: Ankhsar Khatun) is an extremely unique existence among the antagonists appearing in this work. She is not merely an invader from the Mongol Empire, but is established as a figure with deep ties to the islands she invades.

1.1 Reincarnation from a Heretic of Iki to a Mongol Shaman

Ankhsar Khatun was originally a person of Iki, and in her youth, she was a field medic responsible for treating pirates (Raiders). However, when the Samurai led by Kazumasa Sakai (Jin’s father) once invaded Iki, she lost one of her eyes in the midst of battle. Furthermore, the unique medicine she used to treat the wounded Raiders often destroyed the patients’ minds and drove them mad, causing her to be detested as a heretic and subjected to persecution even by her fellow people of Iki.

Later, during a fierce battle in the Cloud Forest where Samurai and Raiders clashed, a massive flood occurred. The people of Iki believed she had been swallowed by the muddy stream and died, but she survived, left the island, and joined the Mongol Empire. Undergoing rigorous training there, she distinguished herself as a powerful shaman and came to lead the mysterious “Eagle Tribe,” who are absolutely obedient to her commands. Bestowed the title of “The Eagle” directly by Khotun Khan, she returned leading the forces of the Mongol Empire to dominate her homeland of Iki, which had once rejected her.

1.2 Tengrism in a Historical Context and Shamanism in the Game

As the religious background of the Mongol Empire, “Tengrism” was widely practiced in historical fact. This was a polytheistic belief system centered on the sky god Tengri, based on shamanism and Animism, aiming for harmony with the universe. Historical shamans were believed to possess spiritual powers such as controlling the weather, and are said to have brought psychological superiority in the battles of Genghis Khan.

However, The Eagle’s behavior in the game is closer to “heretical witchcraft” specialized in fear and mind control, rather than pure Tengrism. She is a conqueror of nations, while simultaneously identifying herself as a “shepherd of souls.” Her method of domination lies not in military subjugation (armed force), but in eradicating the very will to resist by controlling the fear and guilt at the root of the mind.

1.3 Spiritual Subordination in the Name of “Salvation”

The terror of The Eagle lies in the fact that her own behavioral principles are not based on “pure malice,” but on a kind of “twisted salvation (healing).” The drug (poison) she uses forces the consumer to directly confront their deepest traumas and guilt. Within The Eagle’s tribe, this medicine is used as a rite of passage; it is said that the shamans and she herself have taken this medicine, and by overcoming their trauma, they have devoted themselves to her.

In real-world shamanism, rituals using hallucinogens like ayahuasca are known to aim for the healing of the soul by escaping an internal hell through the temporary collapse and reconstruction of the ego. The Eagle has weaponized this spiritual healing process as a means of military brainwashing. After making them taste the hell of fear and self-hatred brought about by the poison, she frees them from that agony and grants them “peace of mind” by making them subordinate to her teachings. Even toward Jin Sakai, knowing he was the greatest swordsman in Tsushima, she intended not simply to kill him, but to brainwash him into becoming one of her shamans who would sing of his own past.

2. The Mechanism of the “Poison” and the Architecture of Hallucinations

Upon landing on Iki, when Jin Sakai reaches the stronghold, Fort Sakai, he is taken prisoner by The Eagle and forcibly made to drink the “Sacred medicine (poison).” The hallucinatory experience that begins here is an extremely literary and psychological system that fuses the game’s gameplay and narrative expression.

2.1 “The Eagle’s Voice” as the Spokesperson of the Unconscious

The hallucinations Jin experiences due to the effects of the poison are always accompanied by the mocking voice of The Eagle. However, as a noteworthy fact, this voice is not The Eagle speaking to him telepathically from afar. As Jin tells Tenzo during the story, it is merely “the self-hatred and anxiety that Jin himself unconsciously harbors, echoing in his brain by borrowing the form of The Eagle’s voice.”

This suggests an extremely cruel fact. When The Eagle’s voice whispers, “You are a coward,” “You let your father die,” or “Are you not ashamed to be alive?”, it is not slander from another person, but the manifestation of the words with which Jin himself is judging himself at the bottom of his heart. The fact that, subconsciously, Jin had continued to carry a self-hatred (guilt) so deep that he even considered taking his own life, is exposed to the light of day by this medicine.

2.2 Structural Classification and Psychological Analysis of Hallucinations

The hallucinations in the game include those that occur randomly and those triggered by Jin’s specific actions or environmental factors (locations and objects). The hallucinations are accompanied by visual effects where the field of vision is dyed reddish-purple and a large number of eagles fly about, transforming what should be a peaceful landscape into a world of madness.

Below is a structural classification showing the correlation between the action-dependent hallucinations caused by the poison and the internal meaning for Jin that accompanies them.

Furthermore, by touching objects or collectibles placed in specific locations, phantoms of those lost in the main story or those with whom he has deep ties appear.

The hallucinations function not merely as a gameplay hindrance (debuff), but as a “psychoanalytical medical record” of Jin Sakai. As a matter of fact, this poison completely neutralizes the consumer’s mental defenses and continuously attacks their most vulnerable parts. Players are forced to constantly battle the “inner darkness” nesting in Jin’s heart while simultaneously fighting physical Mongol soldiers.

3. “Vulture of Tsushima” Kazumasa Sakai and the Trauma of Senjo Gorge

Jin’s greatest weakness, which The Eagle’s poison thoroughly targeted, is his deep regret over the death of his father, Kazumasa Sakai. In unraveling the story of Iki, an analysis of the duality of the figure Kazumasa Sakai and the enmity he left behind among the people of Iki is unavoidable.

3.1 The Duality of Kazumasa Sakai: A Ruthless General and a Clumsy Father

In Tsushima, Kazumasa Sakai was praised as a great general, likened to the “Vulture of Tsushima,” or even to thunder and avalanches. However, in Iki, he was feared as “The Butcher of Iki,” who mercilessly slaughtered even innocent civilians, and remains a target of hatred to this day.

Synthesizing community speculation and in-game depictions (Yuriko’s testimony and the fragmented conversations in the “Memories of Your Father” left in various places), it becomes clear that Kazumasa’s cruelty was not innate, but was triggered by the death of his beloved wife, Chiyoko (Lord Shimura’s sister and Jin’s mother). When Chiyoko was alive, her affection and gentle heart that loved nature (the source of Jin’s aesthetic sense and ethics) neutralized the ruthlessness of Kazumasa the soldier, bringing harmony to the family.

However, after Chiyoko passed away from illness, Kazumasa could only sublimate his deep sorrow through violence on the battlefield. Not knowing how to interact as a parent, he could only force a strict “way of the Samurai” upon the kind-hearted Jin, who possessed the sensibilities of a poet. It can also be interpreted that behind the just cause of pacifying Iki lay a destructive impulse to fill the sense of emptiness from losing his wife.

By touching the “Memories of Your Father” left in various parts of Iki (Memory of Foreboding, Memory of Anguish, Memory of Sorrow, Memory of Kinship, Memory of an Unfinished Song), Jin fragmentarily recalls the terror of his father he saw in his childhood, and the clumsy affection that lay behind it. It was not that Kazumasa did not love Jin; he was also a pitiful man who could only live by covering his self, which had collapsed due to his wife’s death, with the armor of a “Samurai.”

3.2 The Tragedy of Senjo Gorge

The core of the story is the truth behind the death of Kazumasa Sakai, which occurred at Senjo Gorge during the final phase of the pacification of Iki 15 years ago. Ambushed by the Raiders of Iki, Kazumasa suffered a fatal wound. At this time, Kazumasa pleaded with the young Jin, who was hiding in the shadows, to “come help,” but Jin, paralyzed by fear, could not move. Then, a young Raider (later Tenzo) delivered the finishing blow to Kazumasa. At that moment, Tenzo uttered the words, “May your death benefit all beings,” and ended Kazumasa’s life.

This moment carved an eternal curse into Jin’s soul. According to “Honor,” a child should risk their life to fight for the one who is their lord and father. However, Jin was dominated by the “primal human emotion” of fear and failed to fulfill his duty as a Samurai. This “death of his father due to inaction” is the origin of the psychological compensatory behavior where Jin later adhered to “Honor” to an excessive degree and tried to meet Lord Shimura’s expectations. For Jin, Bushido was arguably less a noble ideal and more an “obsession” to cover up the guilt of letting his father die.

3.3 “May your death benefit all beings” — Buddhist Views on Life and Death and the Reversal of Murderous Intent

The words uttered by Tenzo, “May your death benefit all beings,” are originally a prayer signifying the compassion of a Bodhisattva or self-sacrifice (almsgiving) in Buddhism. However, the people of Iki used this as a just cause—namely, the justification of violence—meaning “by killing the oppressor (Kazumasa Sakai), many other lives will be saved.”

This composition, where a religious and altruistic prayer is inverted into a curse at the moment of slaughter, demonstrates how war distorts individual ethics and religious values. These words were burned into Jin’s mind, and the moment the adult Tenzo spoke these words later, Jin became convinced that he was his father’s killer.

4. Separation of Fact and Speculation — The Genealogy of the “Poison” and Narrative Contradictions

Here, we will clearly distinguish and organize the “facts” explicitly stated in the game and the “speculations” derived from historical context and circumstantial evidence. These are important for understanding what kind of causality The Eagle’s existence brings to the story of the main game in Tsushima.

4.1 Contradictory Facts: The Whereabouts of the Father’s Killer

In the game, there is a decisive discrepancy in testimonies regarding the father’s killer.

• Fact A: At Senjo Gorge in Iki, the one who killed Jin’s father, Kazumasa, was Tenzo in his youth.

• Fact B: In the Tsushima main story’s “The Conspirator” (Masako’s Tale), Lady Masako tells Jin, “Lord Shimura tracked down the Raider who killed Kazumasa and beheaded him.”

This “fact that Tenzo is alive” and the “past testimony that the killer was avenged” clearly contradict each other. In community speculations, there is a strong view from a meta-perspective that this is a “retcon accompanying the DLC development,” but as a psychological interpretation within the narrative, the theory that “Lord Shimura lied” is prominent. It is highly likely that Lord Shimura executed another innocent Raider as the culprit and proclaimed that “the killer was avenged” in order to reassure Lady Masako (or the young Jin), or to preserve the “face of the Sakai clan, unable to achieve revenge while their head was murdered.” If so, it serves as cruel evidence showing how much Samurai “Honor” contains vanity to keep up appearances.

4.2 [Speculation] The Origins of the “Poison” and Its Repercussions on the Main Story

As an even deeper causality, there is speculation regarding the impact The Eagle’s poison had on the developments of the Tsushima main story. In the main story, there is a development where Jin uses a lethal poison made from Wolfsbane to retake Castle Shimura, and as a result, Khotun Khan’s forces learn the method of making the poison and use it on the people of Tsushima. Due to this incident, Lord Shimura and the Shogun condemn Jin as a “traitor who poisoned the enemy through heretical means.” However, synthesizing the following facts reveals a different truth.

• Fact: In the Mythic Tale of the Tsushima main story (The Curse of Uchitsune), a mysterious figure wearing a Tengu mask uses a “hallucinogenic poison” on Jin.

• Fact: In the Iki collectible “Records of Iki,” it is clearly stated that this figure wearing the Tengu mask was originally from Iki and was a victim (test subject) of The Eagle’s poison.

From this circumstantial evidence, a strong inference can be made that “the hallucinogenic poison used by the Tengu in Tsushima ultimately originated from The Eagle’s medicine.” In other words, it is conceivable that the Mongol forces led by Khotun Khan already harbored shamans with advanced knowledge of herbalism and witchcraft like The Eagle within their ranks even before Jin used poison, and possessed the knowledge and operational capability regarding poisonous plants. Even if Jin had not used poison, it is highly likely that the Mongol forces would have eventually deployed poison tactics throughout Tsushima. It can be said that even Jin’s guilt that “poison spread through Tsushima because of me” was a tragic sense of self-reproach based on a misconception of the facts of military logistics and information transmission.

Below is a summary of the facts and speculations regarding the poison and historical causality.

5. The Truth of Iki Told by the “Records of Iki”

The 25 “Records of Iki” scattered across Iki Island vividly record how The Eagle’s invasion destroyed the daily lives and minds of the islanders. These are not mere collectibles, but first-class historical materials for deciphering the structure of The Eagle’s domination.

For example, a record titled “To My Future Shaman, Zenshin” is discovered at the Cloud Forest Temple. This indicates the fact that The Eagle’s tribe is not simply murdering the islanders, but is trying to make them convert to her doctrines and cultivate them as the next generation of shamans. Those who survive The Eagle’s poison are remade from the root of their minds and incorporated as her pawns.

Also, the record “Beware the Tengu-Masked Archer” proves, as mentioned in Chapter 4, that the maddened archer who appeared in the Mythic Tale of the Tsushima main story was a victim who escaped the tragedy of Iki. Furthermore, “Come Home” and other records bear the names of people such as Genzo and Emotaro, spelling out the sorrow of how they were torn between Tsushima and Iki, or lost amidst The Eagle’s madness.

These records highlight that, unlike the “physical destruction and plunder” carried out by Khotun Khan, The Eagle’s invasion was an “assimilation through the falsification of community memories and psychological brainwashing.” Her forces used poison to turn individual memories into hell, and by positioning herself as the sole savior from that hell, she was implanting a faith called madness throughout the entire island.

6. The Final Battle and the Philosophy of “Forgiveness”

In the final stages of the story, Jin once again heads to Senjo Gorge, where his father lost his life, and faces the final battle with The Eagle in this fateful land. This decisive battle is not merely the subjugation of a Mongol general, but holds the ritualistic meaning of Jin’s own parting with his “past (the ghost of Kazumasa Sakai).“

6.1 Liberation from Revenge and the Acceptance of Contradiction

The Eagle uses the power of the poison until the very end, attempting to break Jin’s spirit. While crossing blades, she whispers, “No matter where you go, your mind remains broken. You no longer know if you are dreaming or awake.” Within the hallucination, Kazumasa’s ghost presses Jin to “kill your father’s killer (Tenzo) and fulfill your revenge.”

According to Samurai ethics, Tenzo, who killed his father, is a detestable enemy, and cutting him down is “Honor.” However, Jin chooses not to kill Tenzo, but the path of defeating The Eagle together. Tenzo admonished that “Kazumasa was my enemy, but he is not Jin’s enemy,” and showed his resolve to accept his own death, but Jin saves him. Here, the “chain of blood and revenge” embodied by Kazumasa Sakai is severed.

Furthermore, there is a subtle chronological branching in Jin’s dialogue during the confrontation with The Eagle, depending on the player’s progression. There is a scene where Jin bluffs that “Khotun Khan is already dead,” and this line is spoken even before clearing the main story. This can be interpreted not merely as a chronological contradiction, but as a “defensive reaction as a weak human being,” where Jin puts up a brave front against The Eagle’s psychological attacks and tries to hide his own fear.

6.2 The State of Having “Forgiven Myself”

After defeating The Eagle, in the epilogue, Tenzo asks Jin, “How did you overcome The Eagle’s poison?” In response to this question, the player (Jin) can choose an answer from two options.

• “I overcame my guilt”

• “I forgave myself”

This very line is the philosophical culmination of the tale of Iki Island. The reason Jin was able to resist the poison was not thanks to his robust mental fortitude as a Samurai or his “Honor.” He stopped “being bound by the dead, trying to answer to him, blaming himself for his death, and hating himself for choosing to survive.”

He did not turn his back on the tragedy of the past; rather, by accepting his powerless childhood self and affirming the fact that he survived, he eliminated the gap for the poison (guilt) to exploit. Jin further adds, “The darkness never leaves completely, but it recedes.” Trauma is not something to be erased, but something to live with. Having reached this state, Jin, while bearing the karma of his father who was once cursed by the people of Iki with “May your death benefit all beings,” shows the true path of salvation by “guiding those suffering from The Eagle’s poison through their memories and helping them face their fears.”

6.3 When a Samurai Bows to a Raider

Upon parting, Tenzo is surprised and smiles, saying, “A samurai bowing to a raider. Now I’ve seen everything.” This quiet and melancholic bow symbolizes the figure of Jin Sakai as a single human being who has completely cast off the rigid shell of class, status, and “Samurai face.” The “wall of the class system” and the “absoluteness of the Samurai” that Lord Shimura risked his life to protect in the Tsushima main story were lightly overcome in this land of Iki by the true freedom of forgiving others and forgiving oneself.

Conclusion: The Scars Left by The Eagle and the Birth of a New “Ghost”

Ankhsar Khatun (The Eagle) is not a conventional antagonist who seizes territory through armed force or military strategy. She was a terrifying surgeon of the mind who, using the potent drug known as “Sacred medicine,” forcibly pried open the “self-deception in the name of Samurai Honor” and the “trauma regarding his father’s death” concealed in the depths of the heart of the man named Jin Sakai.

The hallucinations brought about by The Eagle’s poison were by no means her own words, but the “echoes of guilt” with which Jin had continued to punish himself. If Jin had been a “perfect Samurai” living according to Lord Shimura’s teachings, he might have committed suicide out of shame for his own survival and despair at failing to avenge his father. However, at the bottom of the darkness in his heart exposed by the poison, Jin grasped not his “father’s expectations” or the “Samurai code,” but an “affirmation of life” and “forgiveness” as a single human being.

“Honor” may protect oneself from physical blades, but it cannot protect from the guilt (poison) welling up from one’s own heart. At the end of The Eagle’s cruel psychological invasion, Jin Sakai severed his greatest curse: the ghost of the past (Kazumasa Sakai). Ironically, because The Eagle attempted to brainwash him, Jin completely overcame the framework of a Samurai and came to see his spiritual completion as a true “Ghost” bound by no one.

The scars carved into the history of Tsushima and Iki by the shaman known as The Eagle are deep. However, it can be concluded that this very pain was an indispensable rite of passage to dismantle the contradictions inherent in the era of the Samurai and for a single hero to obtain true freedom. The darkness never leaves completely. But when one accepts that shadow falling at their own feet, a person can, for the first time, begin to walk forward with a tranquil resolve.