Twin Shrine Maidens
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- "When the twins were born, I was miserable knowing that they were doomed. They were raised freely, without pain or sadness. They say the pain of the ✻ never stops. The elder sister must kill the younger in the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual. It's a cruel horrible fate."
- ―Ryokan Kurosawa src
In All God's Village, the Twin Shrine Maidens are revered as guardian deities, and are thus simultaneously respected and feared. From birth, they are destined to perform the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual.
*While the normal age for Twin Shrine Maidens to participate in the ritual was 15 years, there were times when the village was desperate and had to use younger twins. One such example is the ritual of Azami and Akane Kiryu, although it is noted in game text that the children were far too young to grasp what was happening and had difficulty completing the ritual.
Crimson Sacrifice Ritual
The ritual occurs periodically, approximately every ten years. When the time of the ritual is near, the twins leave their family and move into the Twin Houses, the Kiryu House and the Tachibana House, for a period of cleansing. Purification is very important in Shinto.
On the night of the ceremony, the twins are escorted to the Hellish Abyss by a group of Veiled Priests and the Ceremony Master. The first-born twin, who is considered the younger according to village custom, lies down on the stone slab in front of the Abyss. The elder (second-born) twin then strangles their sibling. The Mourners throw the body of the younger twin into the Abyss. If the ritual is a success, they will become a crimson butterfly. It is not clear whether the sacrifice was solely performed on the stone slab in front of the Abyss, or whether it was also performed in the Sacrificial Altar, as suggested in game artwork and the spirit list ghost "Eternal Ritual".
The aftermath
If the sacrificed twin becomes a crimson butterfly, they will pass through the Abyss and calm the earth. The surviving twin, regardless of whether the ritual is successful or not, is called a 'Remaining'. A twin deity statue is erected somewhere within or on the boundaries of the village in honor of the twins(as seen in the opening of Fatal Frame II). When the Remaining twin dies, she or he is enshrined in the Old Tree.
Twins mentioned in the Fatal Frame Series
- Kurosawa Twins - Ryokan and his brother. (Unknown outcome - assumed successful)
- Osaka Twins - Musubi and Tsuzuri (Successful)
- Kiryu Twins - Akane and Azami (Successful)
- Tachibana Twins - Mutsuki and Itsuki (Failure)
- Kurosawa Twins - Sae and Yae (Failure)
- Amakura Twins - Mio and Mayu (Successful in canon ending)
Unknown Pairs of twins
- Escaping Twins
- Hanging Twins
- Eternal Sacrifice Twins
See Also
- For other shrine maidens, see Shrine Maiden.
- For other rituals in Fatal Frame II, see Fatal Frame II Rituals.
- For other twin pairs, see Twins.