Fox girls of Yanxia

Okay so here is a topic that has been bothering me from quite some time now. The Three fox girls of Yanxia. We have Kinko, Ginko and Mikuzume who is actually a gigantic kitsune called Tamamo no Gozen. Based on FATE descriptions we can infer that Kinko and Ginko are servants of TnG and she suffers from amnesia. Likely after her shrine got destroyed. We also learn in 4.2 that TnG used to hang out in Hell's Lid with the other auspices. Also apparently the Onmyouji of Hingashi want to kidnap the three girls (or at least Kinko and Mikuzume) because reasons. I don't know I'm not going to judge people for their fetishes.

This is where things get complicated: We fight Kinko in the Astrologian questline for stormblood. Except Kinko here is nothing like the Kinko in Yanxia. For starters she is associated with Kugane and there is no indication she ever set foot in Yanxia. Second, she only shows up as a fox and never as the girl from the FATES. Third, she is long dead and it's only her angry spirit we are dealing with. So what's up?

My theory is that Kinko is merely a title or rank and only sounds like a name because everything sounds like a badass name in japanese. This is supported by Kinko being referred to as Kinko the Golden Fox (which is kinda what Kinko means) and the final fight in Foxfire referring to her as Kinko Kugane. As in the Kinko of Kugane. Sort of makes sense as in the Heian period everyone was adressed by their rank or job as personal names were a strict nope. So there are two Kinkos. If not, we need some serious explanation and some backstory for poor Ginko, who is really the only one with only that single FATE to flesh out for backstory.


Are there any ideas, opinions, Moose theories or Koji posts regarding the topic?

One thing I can tell you before researching the rest is that Kinko and Ginko have the same names in every client language, while Kinko Kugane is meant to be read as "Golden Fox" specifically. That is, while English keeps the "Hingan" (Japanese) word intact (like how Japanese keeps most "Eorzean" (English) words intact via katakana), French and German translated it. (Kinko and Ginko, even in Japanese, remain katakana, like most proper names.)

In the game scripting, Kinko Kugane is called NUSHI, or [Guardian Spirit]. Between that and terms like [auspice] [kami] and [amnesia-stricken thousand-year old shapeshifting foxes bound to the corporeal realm] we can make a guess as to what these "guardian spirits" really are: kitsune (Kyubi of Nine Tails). This would explain all the "kinko" references: after 1,000 years, a kitsune grows its ninth tail and turns white / yellow / gold.

Kinko and Ginko seem to just be girls that were interrupted while trying to pay homage to the guardian spirit of Yanxia, though Ginko is just the victim of Namazu, while Kinko gets caught up with the onmyoji, who are antagonizing actual kyubi in hopes of stealing their power. Much like in Eorzea, sorcerers are vague. What WE see is what in-game characters ASSUME to be true. Onmyoji are suggested to either be voidmages or arcanists, with it being ambiguous (perhaps even a case by case basis) what the "shikigami" they summon (or summon into things) really are. In this case, I'm assuming they're legit voidmages.

Tamamo-no-Gozen then is the guardian kitsune of Yanxia (to repay a kind lord who saved her from a wolf trap, if the stories are true). If I'm reading it right, 25 years ago, she suffered grievous wounds against the Garleans and has been either living as or within Mikuzume. I'd need to go back and re-do the FATE chain to try to get all the speech bubbles and NPC shouts to be sure, but perhaps they Onmyoji tried to exorcise her and not only woke her true spirit, but caused her ara-mitama to take over, with the FATE acting as a restoration of balance a la Byakko...?

I'll keep an eye out for it.

I knew I could count on you, Moose. Voidmage or no Onmoji are the Mystics from Tactics. Or at least that was the original japanese name for Mystic. I wonder if we would get them as a playable class instead of Geomancer. The latter is way too similar to astrologian and even appears to be inferior.

Well Ginko and Kinko don't have fox features unlike Mikuzume, but it would be a strange coincidence if the two girls caught up in the TnG shenanigans just happened to be named Golden Fox and Silver Fox.

Another funny thing is that the "amnesia-stricken fox" is bound ro the corporeal relm. The wording suggests that she'd rather not be. So what does that tell us? Is Tamamo-no-Gozen actually dead?

Probably necroing this, but just a heads up, Tamamo-no-Gozen is mentioned in the new content regardian Byakko at the Reisen Temple

on a small side note: I think Tamano's destroyed shrine can be found ingame at the back of the Heron's Flight (X:34; Y:12). I saw one of the little foxes sit there staring at it one day while looking for a B rank. I assume it only appears there at specific times, most likely depending on progress in the fate chain

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Originally Posted by Balipu

Except Kinko here is nothing like the Kinko in Yanxia. For starters she is associated with Kugane and there is no indication she ever set foot in Yanxia. Second, she only shows up as a fox and never as the girl from the FATES. Third, she is long dead and it's only her angry spirit we are dealing with. So what's up?

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There's a concept in Shinto of everything having four souls; the ara-mitama (荒御霊・荒御魂, rude soul), the nigi-mitama (和御霊・和御魂, harmonious soul), the saki-mitama (幸御魂, happy soul) and the kushi-mitama (奇御霊・奇御魂, wondrous soul) - as stolen blatantly from Wikipedia - but functionally mostly it concerns itself with two, the ara-mitama and the nigi-mitama. When it comes to kami the nigi-mitama is their civilised and benevolent state and the ara-mitama is their wild and dangerous state and it's standard for both aspects to be treated as distinct and worshiped at separate shrines.

The Kinko we fight in Kugane would be the ara-mitama side since those shrines are dedicated to her pacification. The one we protect in Yanxia would be her nigi-mitama side as she was probably worshiped there in a positive sense as an attendant of Tamamo no Gozen.

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Originally Posted by FJerome

There's a concept in Shinto of everything having four souls; the ara-mitama (荒御霊・荒御魂, rude soul), the nigi-mitama (和御霊・和御魂, harmonious soul), the saki-mitama (幸御魂, happy soul) and the kushi-mitama (奇御霊・奇御魂, wondrous soul) - as stolen blatantly from Wikipedia - but functionally mostly it concerns itself with two, the ara-mitama and the nigi-mitama. When it comes to kami the nigi-mitama is their civilised and benevolent state and the ara-mitama is their wild and dangerous state and it's standard for both aspects to be treated as distinct and worshiped at separate shrines.

The Kinko we fight in Kugane would be the ara-mitama side since those shrines are dedicated to her pacification. The one we protect in Yanxia would be her nigi-mitama side as she was probably worshiped there in a positive sense as an attendant of Tamamo no Gozen.

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^ A fantastic summary. I was also reading into this and it was said in most Shinto beliefs, the Kushimitama and Sakimitama are often merged with the Nigimitama as one collective whole, whereas the Aramitama is just the angry, violent side and is always separated into its own.

Very interesting concept they have developed here, allowing natural species of Hydaelyn to attain godlike status which I would imagine would lead to the creation of primals as their legends would follow in the wake of their deeds

Phew, my sub runs out for a few months and things get interesting. So it might also be possible that the two Kinkos are just the different manifestations of the same fox girl....err lady. We really need that second lorebook, Koji.

Is it just me or this, along with the four lords, should have been the main scenario instead of Doma and it's liberation as a tool for helping out the uninteresting angry hobos in Ala Mhigo?

so the broken shrine at the Heron's Flight is indeed dedicated to Tamano. I paid it a little visit while the Foxy Lady FATE was up, and found a praying elderly villager NPC that you can talk to. Here's her dialogue in German as well as a translation:

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Ältere Namai: Oh, Reisende verirren sich selten hierher. Bist du gekommen, um der Fuchsfee zu huldigen? Seit die Garlear unsere Religion verboten haben, ist der Schrein verlassen. Nur ich komme manchmal hierher. Aber alleine kann ich den Schrein nicht pflegen. Du siehst ja... Der Schrein wurde vor vielen Jahrhunderten von einem Priester errichtet, dem die Fuchsfee geholfen hatte. Seither hat sie immer über uns gewacht.

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Elderly Namai: Oh, travellers are a rare sight here. Did you come to honour the fox spirit? The shrine has been abandoned ever since the Garleans banned our religion. Only I come here from time to time. But I cannot take care of the shrine by myself. As you can see... The shrine has been erected by a priests hundreds of years ago after the fox spirit helped him. She has been watching over us ever since then

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btw, the sightseeing log entry for the sunken Garlean craft mentions that it was shot down by Tamano

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Originally Posted by Balipu

Phew, my sub runs out for a few months and things get interesting. So it might also be possible that the two Kinkos are just the different manifestations of the same fox girl....err lady. We really need that second lorebook, Koji.

Is it just me or this, along with the four lords, should have been the main scenario instead of Doma and it's liberation as a tool for helping out the uninteresting angry hobos in Ala Mhigo?

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I agree, most of Othard and Hingashi has been more interesting than Ala Mhigo's angry hobos.