Part 184

Explore Nioh 3 lore on Derrick the Executioner, Edward Kelley, and Oda Nobunaga, including their roles and motivations.

Oda Nobunaga

Nobunaga possessed insatiable curiosity about the world beyond Japan's borders. He favored foreign innovations like world globes and clocks, and even showed favor to the foreigner Yasuke. As his conquest of Japan neared completion, he desired to explore further, intending to use spirit stones (Amrita) to travel overseas. This ambition for innovation and discovery was a factor in his betrayal by Akechi Mitsuhide, who prioritized social order. Nobunaga was also a cultured individual who enjoyed the tea ceremony, poetry, go, and dance. His philosophy on life and death is reflected in the Kowakamai song "Atsumori": "A man's fifty years, compared even to the lowliest celestial realm, are but a dream. Having been born, what shall not pass away?" He rejected an offer of a second life from Kelley, choosing instead to pass on.

Derrick the Executioner

Derrick served as the Tower of London's executioner, having been pardoned for a capital crime on the condition he take the position. He executed over 3000 people, including political prisoners and dissidents, often with his gigantic axe in public spectacles. Initially brutal, he became increasingly violent. Though he faithfully obeyed Kelley and his associates, he became emotionless and non-verbal. Besides decapitation, he also executed by hanging and invented a device for hoisting people, a type of crane still named after him. Stabbed with an Amrita crystal by Kelley, he transformed into a more violent yokai (supernatural being), but was slain by William. His yokai body did not fully decay and became a roaming beast until William finally ended its misery.

Edward Kelley

Edward Kelley is an English alchemist who can turn lead into gold and uses Amrita to transform humans into monsters and reanimate corpses. His Guardian Spirit is Uroboros. He can disappear, disguise himself, and steal other people's guardian spirits. On John Dee's orders, he stole Saoirse, who can detect Amrita, from William and traveled to Japan, a land rich in Amrita. Kelley is cruel and determined, reveling in chaos and human suffering. He arrived in Japan before William, disguised himself, and fanned the flames of conflict. He views Saoirse as a tool to gather Amrita. Kelley resurrected Oda Nobunaga to plunge Japan back into civil war, but Nobunaga refused to obey and eventually moved on to the next world after battling William. In response, Kelley used a large amount of Amrita to summon Yamata-no-Orochi, but William defeated him. Kelley's Guardian Spirit, Uroboros, is a serpent eating its tail, symbolizing cycles of destruction, creation, death, and rebirth, and representing unity in opposition, similar to Onmyo (Yin and Yang) magic. Kelley was a homunculus created by John Dee, and the Kelley in Japan was merely a vessel; countless others await their turn in the Tower of London.