The Colossi

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The Colossi
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Appears in	Shadow of the Colossus (PS2 / PS4) The ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)

“	In this land, there exist colossi that are the incarnations of those idols. If thou defeat those colossi-- the idols shall fall.	”
–Dormin

The main goal of Shadow of the Colossus is to destroy sixteen giant idols in the Shrine of Worship, a quest that can only be achieved by seeking out and killing the sixteen colossi (巨像 Kyozō) in the Forbidden Lands, at a heavy price. The colossi are ancient, imposing creatures that have dark fur (and sometimes moss) resembling grass, and several stone parts that appear manmade (or, at least, resemble human architecture). Each colossus must be viewed not simply as an adversary, but also as a sentient puzzle that must be outwitted, their weaknesses exploited to bring about their downfall. Despite appearing to be invulnerable, they can be destroyed by damaging their magic sigils.

When Wander is killed while fighting a colossus, a game over screen appears, featuring the head of the colossus he was fighting.

Icon	Number	Developer Name	Fan Name	Is Agro Present?	Time Attack Goals (Normal / Hard)
					PS2 and PS3	PS4 Remake
	I	Minotaur A	Valus	No	2:30 / 2:50	2:30 / 2:45
	II	Mammoth	Quadratus	Yes	4:00 / 4:30	3:30 / 4:30
	III	Knight	Gaius	No	6:00 / 5:00	6:00 / 6:30
	IV	Kirin	Phaedra	Yes	5:30 / 5:00	5:00 / 6:15
	V	Bird	Avion	No	5:30 / 5:30	5:00 / 4:15
	VI	Minotaur B	Barba	No	3:30 / 6:30	3:30 / 6:00
	VII	Eel	Hydrus	No	12:00 / 8:00	9:00 / 7:30
	VIII	Yamori B	Kuromori	No	8:00 / 7:30	6:00 / 7:00
	IX	Kame	Basaran	Yes	7:30 / 5:30	5:30 / 5:45
	X	Narga	Dirge	Yes	6:00 / 5:00	5:30 / 4:30
	XI	Leo	Celosia	No	5:30 / 5:30	4:30 / 4:15
	XII	Poseidon	Pelagia	No	9:30 / 10:00	8:30 / 9:30
	XIII	Snake	Phalanx	Yes	12:00 / 13:00	12:00 / 10:15
	XIV	Cerberus	Cenobia	No	9:00 / 9:00	9:00 / 8:15
	XV	Minotaur C	Argus	No	11:00 / 11:30	7:30 / 10:00
	XVI	Evis	Malus	No	9:30 / 13:00	9:30 / 10:45

Common Traits

In simplest terms, a colossus is a gigantic statue, constructed to prominently portray or display something or someone of great importance. The titular creatures of Shadow of the Colossus do indeed fit this definition, as they are partly made out of rock, with some pieces in crude forms, and others appearing finely crafted and hewn, usually fitting the appearance of their environment, reflecting the appearance of nearby natural features as well as the architectural style of the structures built around them. Furthermore, some parts of them may be decorated with, reinforced by, or completely made out of metal, like the facial rings of the 6th colossus, and parts of the garments of the 16th (which even has a fences on its right shoulder). The 12th even has crystal teeth on its head (while, in the PS4 remake, its tusks are also crystalline, encased within metal grills.

Despite their seemingly-artificial nature as supernatural automatons of stone, the colossi also bear organic features, like bare, tough skin (which also resembles hardened mud), flesh, fur, and other peculiar body parts like the air sacs seen in the 13th colossus. The stone parts of some colossi are even shaped like bones, with one example being the ribs of the 2nd, 4th, and 12th colossi. Furthermore, colossi can breathe (the 11th and the 14th breathe heavily after losing their back armor, or, in the case of the 14th, being knocked unconscious when ramming something after losing its back armor, while the 8th breathes even during its idle animation), and they may experience emotions like anger and fear (the eyes of the colossi turn from blue to orange when they are hostile or injured, while the 11th is outright afraid of the very fire it guards). Most importantly, the quest Dormin gave to Wander is possible to achieve because, while the colossi likely lasted for centuries or even millennia (with a select few not even suffering degradation or plant growth over such a long period of time), they are ultimately not fully immortal. They can feel discomfort and pain (not just from wounds, for the 12th recoils whenever the teeth on the top of its head are struck), and there are certain fleshy parts of their body that must be stabbed, causing them to bleed black substance from within. Once attacked enough times, the colossi lose power, expire, and break into pieces, their corpses eventually being reduced to a mass of earth, plants, and architectural ruins.

While they all share similar characteristics, the colossi are heavily varied, with no two creatures looking and acting exactly the same.

Size

As indicated by their name, the colossi are massive beings. The smallest of them are still slightly larger than a fully-grown African elephant, while the biggest colossi dwarf the largest animals that ever existed (even sauropod dinosaurs and blue whales), being within the size range of buildings (fitting, given their architectural aspects) and other fictional giant monsters (one of the inspirations behind the very concept of Shadow of the Colossus).

View Size of Colossi in the Final Version of the Game

Icon	Number	Size		Modifications
		Real World	In-game
	I	Height: 22 meters (72 feet)	Height: 16 meters (52 feet)	N/A
	II	Height: 33 meters (108 feet) Length: 44 meters (144 feet)	Height: 24 meters (78 feet) Length: 32 meters (104 feet)	N/A
	III	Height: 33 meters (108 feet)	Height: 24 meters (78 feet)	N/A
	IV	Height: 34.5 meters (113 feet) Length: 32 meters (105 feet)	Height: 25 meters (82 feet) Length: 23 meters (75 feet)	Size increased by 50% (1.5x of original) in-game. Its original model size matches its early sketches.
	V	Height: 11 meters (36 feet) Length: 48.3 meters (158 feet) Wingspan: 38.6 meters (127 feet)	Height: 8 meters (26 feet) Length: 35 meters (114 feet) Wingspan: 28 meters (91 feet)	Size decreased by 50% (0.5x of original) in-game.
	VI	Height: 29 meters (95 feet)	Height: 21 meters (68 feet)	Size increased by 25% (1.25x of original) in-game.
	VII	Length: 96.6 meters (317 feet)	Length: 70 meters (229 feet)	Size decreased by 55% (0.45x of original) in-game.
	VIII	Height: 6 meters (20 feet) Length: 19.3 meters (63 feet, 4 inches)	Height: 4 meters (13 feet) Length: 14 meters (42 feet)	Size decreased by 75% (0.25x of original) in-game.
	IX	Height: 25 meters (82 feet) Length: 58 meters (190 inches)	Height: 18 meters (59 feet) Length: 42 meters (137 feet)	N/A
	X	Length: 94 meters (308 feet)	Length: 68 meters (223 feet)	N/A
	XI	Height: 4 meters (13 feet) Length: 7.5 meters (24 feet, 7 inches)	Height: 3 meters (10 feet) Length: 5 meters (16 feet)	N/A
	XII	Height: 30 meters (98 feet) Length: 32 meters (105 feet)	Height: 22 meters (72 feet) Length: 23 meters (75 feet)	No
	XIII	Height: 25 meters (82 feet) Length: 200 meters (656 feet) Wingspan: 70 meters (230 feet)	Height: 18 meters (59 feet) Length: 146 meters (479 feet) Wingspan: 50 meters (164 feet)	Size decreased by 15% (0.85x of original) in-game.
	XIV	Height: 4 meters (13 feet) Length: 7 meters (23 feet)	Height: 3 meters (10 feet) Length: 5 meters (16 feet)	N/A
	XV	Height: 27.6 meters (91 feet)	Height: 20 meters (65 feet)	Size increased by 17.5% (1.175x of original) in-game.
	XVI	Height: 66 meters (217 feet)	Height: 48 meters (157 feet)	Size increased by 100% (2.0x of original) in-game. Its original model size matches its early sketches.

Eyes

While no two colossi are alike, most of them possess dark eye sockets filled with glowing, pulsating irises with a deep pupil in the center. Although most colossi possess a pair of eyes, one, the 12th, has none, instead possessing glowing, energized tusks. Another exception is the 13th colossus, which has one eye on its left side and two eyes on its right.

Whenever a colossus is passive, its eyes (tusks in the case of the 12th) are normally a shade of sky blue. When angered or injured (or, in the case of the 11th, frightened), this blue glow fades into a fierce orange glare. When Wander stays out of their sight for long enough (by hiding behind objects, turning invisible using the Cloak of Deception, or simply staying out of the range of their vision), the eye sockets of colossi turn completely black. When colossi die, however, their eye sockets are revealed to not be black voids or deep holes, instead merely being shallow, embossed rings or reliefs carved on their faces, with nothing but more stone within.

Energy

A select few colossi possess powerful energy in the form of fire or lightning. Some, like the 7th and 16th, use this energy as a form of armor, generate flames or electricity around certain parts of their body, rendering them harmful to get close to, let alone touch. Most, however (e.g. the 8th, 9th, 12th, and also the 16th), would instead use this energy for more offensive purposes, charging up power to launch devastating bursts of plasma from a distance.

Magic Sigils

All colossi have magic sigils signified by a dim blue-green or yellow glow. They come in two types: the major and the minor sigil.

Major sigils are glowing tattoo-like patterns similar to the design on Wander's tabard. Striking these points inflicts great damage to colossi (as these are the only parts of their bodies that can be hit to inflict mortal wounds), though some sigils will vanish after a certain amount of damage has been done, forcing Wander to find another. Only once all the sigils of a colossus are fully damaged are they actually slain.

The minor sigils are lesser in prominence and significance. Some, when struck, only suffer minor damage (and eventually receive no damage when struck more than enough times), while others suffer no damage at all no matter how many times they are struck. Nevertheless, the hitting of minor sigils cause colossi great discomfort (whether or not attacking these do any sort of damage), and thus must usually be struck to make their major sigils more vulnerable and easier to reach. Minor sigils may appear as glowing crack-like wounds on the skin of the colossi, glowing body parts (e.g. the feet of the 2nd, the legs of the 8th, and the ankles of the 9th), or other vulnerable points (e.g. the eyes of the 10th, the teeth on top of the head of the 12th, and the air sacs of the 13th).

Essence

The most important aspect of the colossi is the essence they hold within. Colossi have a black, ichorous blood coursing through their bodies. Whenever damage is done to a colossus, this black blood will gush from the wound in the form of black mist. Striking a major sigil on the body will eject a geyser of blood, indicating the severity of damage done.

Immediately after dying, colossi turn completely black, and black tendrils of energy burst out of their corpses, spreading out in several directions before seeking out Wander to forcefully enter his body. In the PS4 remake, these tendrils look less like energy and more like shadowy mist, almost identical in appearance to the blood of the colossi, thus making it clear that the blood and the tendrils are one and the same.

Purpose

“	Thou severed our body into sixteen segments for an eternity in order to seal away our power. We, Dormin, have arisen anew.	”
–Dormin

Numerous black tendrils - the embodiment of Dormin - rise from a defeated colossus and quickly gather inside Wander.

Because of the vague history and lore of Shadow of the Colossus, almost nothing is known about the colossi except for the fact that they were used to contain the sixteen split parts of Dormin, who promised to revive Mono for Wander if he slays all the colossi. Whether the colossi were originally constructed for another purpose, or were made solely to seal away Dormin's essence, is unclear. Hence, it should be known that there is no canonical explanation ever given about why and how the colossi came to be, or what purpose they were meant to serve.

Given how most of them appear weathered and worn (with some even bearing plants), the colossi were likely made centuries or even millennia before the events of the game, placed in various areas. Some were built to guard certain areas (likely for various reasons, like the sacredness of the place, or its important purpose in times of war and peace), and thus are left to roam and watch over the structures they are tasked to protect for as long as they exist, motivating some of them would seek out and attack Wander on sight rather than only engaging him when he confronts them, with this also explaining why some colossi can generate energy, for the purpose of defense from a distance. Others may have been used in warfare; aside from the energy-wielding colossi, most of the humanoid ones are equipped with weapons like clubs, swords, and knives, with the 1st even having structures on its back that were likely meant to support at least one howdah, a carriage mounted on the backs of elephants for wars and expeditions. Other possible roles they could have played may include construction and other forms of labor, transportation, criminal execution, or even ceremonial purposes, like worship and display (especially given how they are incarnations of the idols in the Shrine of Worship, implying that they may or may not be modeled after the gods of the former inhabitants of the Forbidden Lands).

However, there is also the theory that some - if not all - colossi were constructed for the specific purpose of serving as tests (and thus, only wake up when they detect the one who will undergo the tests, likely due to the presence of the Ancient Sword necessary to defeat them). Hence, they were constructed in a way that they are possible to slay so that Dormin (whose essence might be the only thing keeping them alive in the first place) could be released by someone when needed (though Wander clearly did not free Dormin for reasons that his people, or, at the very least, Lord Emon, deemed necessary or right, and he likely did not even realize what he is doing). The justifications given for this reason include the parts and tactics that allow colossi to be reasonably outwitted, exploited, climbed (in ways both intended and unintended), and killed, to the point that some would not even think to use their hands to grab Wander, roll over and crush him, or stay out of his reach (by diving to the deepest parts of a lake, or staying underground, for extended periods of time) even though they are very much capable of doing so. Another thing that is usually brought up to support this is the fact that some colossi were sealed away rather than allowed to roam free (the 2nd is kept behind a seaside wall that it only breaks out of once Wander is right before it, the 6th is confined behind the sliding door of an underground temple, and the 16th has its feet shackled to the ground). Even the ones that can move around cannot leave their respective areas even if they tried (the 5th might not be able to fly high enough to go over the walls of its canyon, and the rings in the desert are theorized to block the 13th whether it flies or burrows underground, though, again, these are all unconfirmed, like the rest of these ideas).

The following elements below are related or directly linked to the colossi, either implying why they were made to exist in the first place, or leaving more mysteries rather than answering them.

Idol Statues

A wallpaper from the official Japanese site showing all sixteen idols.

“	Behold the idols that stand along the wall... Thou art to destroy all of them. But those idols cannot be destroyed-- by the mere hands of a mortal...	”
–Dormin

Sixteen gigantic idols line the east and west sides of the Shrine of Worship's main hall. The colossi are stated to be incarnations of the idols (perhaps implying that the colossi are based on the gods of the former inhabitants of the Forbidden Lands). Because of this link, when Wander defeats a colossus, their corresponding idol explodes once he is returned to the Shrine (except for the 16th statue, which explodes once Lord Emon's entourage reaches the shrine's main hall, just before Wander is returned to the Shrine).

Even after a colossus' idol is destroyed, it is still available in Time Attack before clearing the game again.

The idols are arranged in a specific order. The southernmost one at the east side of the hall belongs to the 1st colossus, and the 2nd colossus' idol faces it on the west side of the hall. The 3rd colossus' idol is next to the 1st, and so on. The idols are all roughly the same size, despite the actual enormous range of sizes in the colossi (especially the relatively small 11th and 14th colossi).

Dormin's Essence

Black tendrils pursue Wander.

When Wander kills a colossus, several black tendrils escape from the fatal wound, traveling erratically in several directions before seeking out Wander to abruptly and violently enter his body. The tendrils cannot be outrun and can even go straight through solid objects if necessary. Once Wander absorbs the tendrils, he blacks out and is later returned to the Shrine of Worship through mysterious means. After defeating the final colossus, it is shown that his unconscious body levitates, implying that he may be pulled into the sky, through the air, and sent back to the shrine that way.

Dormin's essence accumulates inside Wander with each colossus felled, increasing his health, stamina, and physical strength. This is reflected in the amount of damage a single stab will do to sigils, something made very apparent with subsequent playthroughs (to the point that, four to five games in, Wander can kill a colossus that has only one major sigil with a single well-charged stab). At the cost of all this, his body is shown slowly deteriorating, until finally, when he has completed his quest, Wander was reduced to looking more like a possessed corpse, with his eyes resembling that of the colossi, while his head has a pair of horns.

Reminiscence Mode

The old-film filter applied to battles in Reminiscence Mode.

If Wander returns to a fallen colossus' lair, one will notice that the corpse of the colossus has decayed, loosely resembling its original form, with the body overgrown with plants, the stone pieces scattered and suffering deterioration, and what was once fur and flesh reduced to dirt. If is pressed next to (or on top of) any of the remains, Wander will pray before them, and a prompt to enter "Reminiscence Mode" will pop up. Here, the player can choose to fight the colossus again, and if they do, the battle will be loaded up again, complete with a vignetted grainy old-film filter.

The player is not timed in this mode, so this is not a substitute for Time Attack. Much like that mode, however, the battle will end if Wander strays too far from the arena. Also if Wander defeats a colossus in Reminiscence Mode and he dies afterwards, he will be teleported to the corpse of the colossus just defeated.

Since this feature can only be encountered optionally, its canonicity is unclear. However, the way the mode is triggered (by kneeling down before the corpse of the colossus to be battled, as if to pay respects to the ones killed for a certain cause, namely, the revival of Mono) may be related to the fact that the colossi are linked to the idols in the Shrine of Worship, and are thus also representatives of the gods that the idols symbolize.

Pillars of Light

Great beams of light point up to the sky to indicate a place in the Lands where a colossus has fallen.

After defeating a colossus, a gigantic pillar of light will appear in the skies far above its corpse. These can be seen from every corner of the Forbidden Lands and serve as a record of Wander's travels and deeds. Early screenshots show that these have been a part of the game from very early on in its development; although they were the way of guiding the player to the next colossus they needed to battle instead of the sword's light. In the final game, they can help remind players about the location of a colossus' corpse if they wish to fight them in Reminiscence Mode.

Pillars of Light as seen in the PS4 remake.

While it is possible that the pillars of light were only made by the developers of the game for the purpose stated above, in terms of plot, it has been theorized that these are formed by the process that returns Wander's unconscious body to the Shrine of Worship, with at least two scenes in the game implying that this is the case. A cutscene after the defeat 12th colossus shows a closeup of a pillar as it is forming; the dramatically swirling clouds and the hole at their center are noticeably larger, as if opening up for something to pass through. Furthermore, following the death of the final colossus, Wander's body is briefly seen lifting up into the air.

The White Tunnel.

The white tunnel that Wander enters before waking within the Shrine is likely the view his soul sees of the above event. A very unique feature of the associated White Tunnel is Wander's ability to hear Mono's voice, possibly because, through this unnatural process, he briefly enters the realm of souls.