Shiro Tagachi - His story

I think it's time we got our own thread about Shiro Tagachi. The villain in factions. I hope that as factions is released and played through, we can update the thread and finally have the whole story behind Shiro Tagachi.

To those not knowing who he is, this is the guy:

The Factions Cinematic featuring Shiro can be downloaded here:
http://www.guildwars.com/gallery/video/default.php

First, let's go over what we already know about him:

• Shiro Tagachi was the bodyguard of the 27th Emperor of Cantha. He killed the very Emperor he was sworn to protect.
• 200 years ago, The 27th Emperor of Cantha was attending the Harvest Festival in Kaoya Zun Temple and as he bowed his head down to pray to the gods, Shiro came up behind him and slew him in cold blood in that holy place. The champions of Cantha who were present at the ceremony all rushed to avenge their Emperor, but Shiro was without match in the use of the blade. He slew many of the rampaging soldiers until two champions finally bested him and killed him with the very blades he used to slay the Emperor.
• In his final living moments, overcome with pain, rage and and malice, Shiro let out a terrible cry that caused a Jade Wind to sweep across the lands of Cantha, petrifying the forest and turning the sea into pure jade.
• Prior to his betrayal, Shiro was an honorable man entrusted with the greatest duty a soldier can take on. It is unknown what turned him into a cowardly traitor and murderer
• The tale of Shiro Tagachi in present day Cantha is more of a bogeyman story mixed with myth and a cautionary tale against the dangers of magical power.

We also have hints that he may have returned, but that is unconfirmed.

This is what I have been able to find out about him. Please post here if you have additional information, and I'll update my post.

I think it said he comes back in undead form (not familiar at all ) on the GW site.

in the trailer, there is also a female assassin that helps out, along with the kurzik and luxon champions who defeat shiro

I believe the female assassin is Nika, or at least she appears to be. Maybe she'll reveal the story through the early stages of factions? (200 years old? @_@)

A GuildWiki page said that Gaile Grey confirmed that the assassin who helped kill Shiro was NOT Nika. Scroll down to the notes section.

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Nika

I am not sure how one of the emperor's most loyal and elite guards would turn on him. I think he was possessed or was simply corrupted, kind of like Arthas from the Warcraft series. In fact, that cinematic reminds me a lot of the cutscene when Arthas kills his father.

She's just the girl on the cover.

Remember Nika would have to be 200 years old to meet you again.

Shiro was simply corrupted by evil.

Remember in the trailer that symbol that was burned into the floor?

Interesting theory. But like I mentioned in my post, we still do not know what turned him into a betrayer and a murderer.

I'm guessing there's something behind this plot with Shiro. There's going to be a huge twist, I'll bet. The story: 'Emperor was murdered by bodyguard 200 years ago, then bodyguard was killed and let out a big scream, now he is coming back OMG we must unite against this haXoR!' - I don't think that's big enough for an entire story to be set around. At first, we'll be uniting the Kurzicks and Luxons to go together against Shiro...but then what? He was killed before...yes he's undead but surely if we have all these big armies and get him enclosed he'll be in for it?
I'm thinking that Shiro will be a bit of a trickster, and will be killing people all over the place and disappearing - our task: to follow him, and be drawn into a plot twist. There is a greater evil behind this man, the evil that corrupted him in the first place.
As to uniting the Luxons and the Kurzicks against Shiro - will that ever happen? I mean...if the Factions war thing is going to go on forever, does that mean...they'll just hold hands for a second and pwn this Shiro guy, but carry on the war anyways?

I also highly doubt that we will have a situation like "The 2 factions united and defeated Shiro. Peace was restored in Cantha". I think the Luxons and Kurzicks will have important roles. Perhaps 1 side will join with Shiro or perhaps an other character?

Perhaps Shiro will become such a threat that the two Factions have to turn their attention to him more quickly than expected. He might start killing the clan leaders and house leaders of the factions (well, they're pretty easy targets for him I think). Maybe Shiro's mischievous actions will cause the two factions to fight against each other more bitterly?

I've been thinking about how the story will take us elsewhere, such as into all those other areas of the city. Maybe we go into the emperor's palace because Shiro is lurking about and they think he's going to kill the emperor. Maybe he actually manages that, and then escapes, leading us to chase him across the city, but the evil power behind him has gathered a force that gets in our way.

That would be an interesting mission...chasing Shiro through the palace before he gets to the emperor and murders him.

ArenaNet is composed of former Blizzard employees, but I don't think they'd be so unoriginal to pull off the "horde joins with the alliance to defeat the Burning Legion" scenario, but with the Kurzicks, Luxons, and Shiro.

His final defeat could be something in which, as stated earlier, you will fight a greater evil. Or perhaps said evil will show its true form, as a demon of pure hatred or something.

Symeon - Hehe, they did that in the WarCraft universe. Everybody loves each other in TFT, then come WoW, it's back to war (kind of). And once again, ArenaNet is mainly composed of former Blizzard workers, so it's possible they would attempt to pull something like that.

Do we really know of Shiro's current influence? The Canthans speak as if he's out there destroying everything, meanwhile the only real destruction going on is the conflict between the two factions. How is Shiro related to this? Had his ghostly cry send some dark veil over the two factions, thusly turning them against each other? In which case, Shiro's intention may simply be to influence these massive wars until they all kill one another. I doubt it would be that simple, however.

In the gameplay movie you can see a shot of a party fighting some long haired dude with 2 swords in a red suit, who seems to be a boss...

The Oni (those silver guys) look very demon-like, and I do not think they are natural denizens to Cantha. They may have some relevancy to the source of evil behind Shiro's corruption.

Lexar - Wow, I never noticed before, but that fellow DOES look a lot like Shiro (for those who do not know, he appears at 0:25 in the SECOND gameplay trailer. The one without the Main Menu music).

I would expect the confrontation with Shiro to be much more dramatic, if that is him. Perhaps he will flee, or he is so evil you will need to fight various forms of him.

Beh I could solo him with gladiators defence

Shiros army are called the Shiro'ken, we got a taste of them at the.. *ahem* server clearout... at the end of the faction weekend.

Spooky eh?

The main enemy at these raids was the dragon Kuunavang, pictured below, who proclaimed out loud that he was sent by his 'new master', Shiro, to wipe out the people in the main outposts.



I'm guessing he'll be 'The Undead Rurik of Factions'... the last evil henchman before finally tackling the boss man himself, Shiro.

Well, here's some info from Gaile:

I guess that helps to explain exactly what happens in the cinematic and who the other characters involved in the event are.

The 'cryptic symbol' is more or less the same as the one on the back of shiro's cape btw.

well, i think i read somewhere, that 8 kurzicks and 8 luxons got to fight together to defeat shiro?
this would mean shiro is the "charr" after the canthan "guildwars" ;-)

/edit:
the trailer is awesome

What's wrong with older women?


...

For some reason, I'm willing to bet that Shiro is not the end-all of the story, and we're probably on the wrong side again. White Mantle, Shining Blade, the Vizier, what?

aahh canthan empire is eeeviiil :P

but why should he turn the whole world into jade?

hmmm