Colossi

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Character Group
Name: Colossi
Type: Species (?)
Fandom: Shadow of the Colossus
Members: Valus, Quadratus, Gaius, Phaedra, Avion, Barba, Hydrus, Kuromori, Basaran, Dirge, Celosia, Pelagia, Phalanx, Cenobia, Argus, Malus.
Other:
Related:
Ueda and the Colossi (Aug 2016) by TedAgriogianis, featuring creator of SotC Fumito Ueda surrounded by all 16 Colossi
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

The Colossi are 16 creatures, usually quite large, that inhabit the Forbidden Lands and who the player character Wander is tasked with killing in the video game Shadow of the Colossus. Each one houses a part of Dormin's essense, which is released into Wander when the Colossus is killed.

The individual Colossi don't have official names, though the developers had their own nicknames to refer to them by. Instead, each Colossus is either referred to as the 1st-16th Colossus, a Roman Numeral (I-XVI), or a fan name. The fan names are as follows: Valus, Quadratus, Gaius, Phaedra, Avion, Barba, Hydrus, Kuromori, Basaran, Dirge, Celosia, Pelagia, Phalanx, Cenobia, Argus, and finally Malus.

There are also 10 known unused Colossi, also known as the Beta Colossi. Projects attempting to recreate them in fangames, alongside other cut content, have arisen, most notably Beyond the Forbidden Lands and Tribute to Shadow of the Colossus.

Fans often have a favourite Colossus, influenced by, among other things, aesthetic preferences, temperament, and boss battle quality. Gaius in particular is popular in fanart. Some fans will also create their own original Colossi.

Canon

Colossi are beings each housing a part of Dormin. Most are quite large, as the main objective in the game involves climbing them as main character Wander in order to kill them, though a few are much smaller.

Unused Colossi

Alongside the 16 Colossi in the game, there are 10 other known Colossi to have been scrapped relatively late in development: Devil, Evis, Griffin, Phoenix, Roc, Saru, Sirius, Spider, Worm, and Yamori A. Originally, 48 Colossi had been planned, before being cut down to 24, then 20, and then finally 16 in the final game.

Fandom

Being one of the main draws of the game, the Colossi are a large focus of the fandom. They are frequently ranked by fans and media outlets, and many have favourite Colossi.

Names

The developer name, common fan name, and binomial fan name for each Colossus is as follows:[1][2]

Number Developer Name Common Fan Name Binomial Fan Name
I Minotaur A Valus Minotaurus colossus
II Mammoth Quadratus Taurus magnus
III Knight Gaius Terrestris veritas
IV Kirin Phaedra Equus bellator apex
V Bird Avion Avis praeda
VI Minotaur B Barba Belua maximus
VII Eel Hydrus Draco marinus
VIII Yamori B/The Gecko Kuromori Parietinae umbra
IX Kame/The Turtle Basaran Nimbus recanto
X Narga Dirge Harena tigris
XI Leo Celosia Ignis excubitor
XII Poseidon Pelagia Permagnus pistrix
XIII Snake Phalanx Aeris velivolus
XIV Cerberus Cenobia Clades candor
XV Minotaur C Argus Praesidium vigilo
XVI Evis Malus Grandis supernus

Their origin appears to have come from a forum post in 2005, claiming the poster had been sent the list of names by a friend in Japan who had read them in an issue of Dengeki PlayStation Magazine.[3] This has long been debunked.[4][5]

[JoojToranja]
do you think this guy giggles every time he sees someone refer to the colossi using the names he made up?[6]
[Beautiful_Quantity62]
The unofficial names are still comfy for me. He might’ve been full of shit, but they do roll off the tongue.

A reddit comment described the state of the SotC fandom at the time:

[ikeeptheoath]
In the 2000s/early 2010s, there was a lot more mysticism surrounding Shadow of the Colossus. There weren't really any exhaustive tools or code dumps to 100% verify that there wasn't anything like a 17th colossus still in the game, and things like developer interviews were much less accessible, especially since Shadow of the Colossus was a lauded game, but a small one with a small dedicated fan following. When the fan names for the colossi circulated around, they were taken as truth by a lot of people, and it's only comparatively more recently that a lot of people pushed back and said, "Wait, source?" and then realized there wasn't one and actually marked the fan-names as fan-names.

That's why the fan-names are so prolific — they basically circulated around a small fandom hungry for something new in an era where source checking was more difficult (and where no small amount of wishful thinking from fans would lead them to propagating new "discoveries" anyways). Didn't help that sometimes those bigger discoveries were really legitimate, like unused colossi from the PS2 version, so it was often a smaller ask to get people to believe the fan-names were real and were revealed in some obscure Japanese supplemental material.[7]

The common fan names are by far the most popular way for fans to refer to them as in fandom. The names are so frequently used in fact that even Sony themselves have used them in official material.[8]

Original Colossi

Fans of the game have been known to create their own Colossi, usually based on animals. A similiar thing happens in the fandom for the Horizon video game series, with Machines.

Common Tropes & Themes

  • Gen - Most fanworks in the SotC fandom are gen, and this extends towards the Colossi.
  • Original Characters - OC Colossi are frequently created by fans.
  • Restoring Cut Colossi

Fanworks

Fanfiction

Fanart

Links

Gallery

Resources & External Links

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ [2]
  3. ^ [3]
  4. ^ [4]
  5. ^ [5]
  6. ^ [6]
  7. ^ [7]
  8. ^ [8]
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