NorioWarrior monk

Norio begins by tending the wounded and burying the dead. He ends somewhere considerably further along, and the Tale is honest that he chose it.

The Mongols target temples and monks specifically, both for supplies and because a burned shrine breaks a village's morale more efficiently than a burned field. Norio's response is to arm the surviving monks.

His Tale is the one most directly about Jin's own question — whether the thing you become to win the war is something you can put down afterwards — with the advantage that Norio has a philosophical vocabulary for it and Jin does not.

He is also the most straightforwardly warm character in Jin's circle, which makes the direction he travels land harder.

Their arc runs to 9 tales, beginning with The Last Warrior Monk and ending with This Threefold World. The ally questlines are the best writing in the game and they run in order — each tale assumes the ones before it, so they reward being followed as a sequence rather than picked at.

• The Last Warrior Monk1 of 9 · Act 2 · Norio says a fellow monk of Cedar Temple is helping the people of Akashima Village. The first tale in the arc where prayer stops being enough.
• Three Actions Three Illusions2 of 9 · Act 2 · Norio has found where the Mongols took his temple’s senior healer, who is needed to keep training healers in Akashima.
• Ghosts in The Fog3 of 9 · Act 2 · The monks are safe, and the Mongols have come back for the village that sheltered them.
• The Birth of Suffering4 of 9 · Act 2 · Jin walks into the middle of a Mongol attack on Kushi Temple. Lives are lost, but he arrives before the temple itself goes.
• The Blood Sutra5 of 9 · Act 2 · The abbot has been preaching resistance to the Mongols. Norio and Jin have to find him or Kushi Temple falls.
• The Cause of Suffering6 of 9 · Act 2 · The Mongols have taken an ancient statue of the Buddha from Kushi Temple and the monks are ready to give up. Getting it back is the point.
• The End of Suffering7 of 9 · Act 2 · The Mongols are coming for Kushi Temple. Jin takes the monks outside the grounds; Norio insists on defending the temple itself.
• The Guardian of Tsushima8 of 9 · Act 3 · Norio has gathered a group to take Cedar Temple back from the Mongols.
• This Threefold World9 of 9 · Act 3 · A monk at Cedar Temple says Norio has taken his brother’s ashes to a cemetery nearby. Jin goes to talk him into coming back and leading.

• Ghosts in The FogSide Tale (Norio Tale 3 of 9) · Act 2 — Quest giver
• The Birth of SufferingSide Tale (Norio Tale 4 of 9) · Act 2 — Quest giver
• The Blood SutraSide Tale (Norio Tale 5 of 9) · Act 2 — Quest giver
• The Cause of SufferingSide Tale (Norio Tale 6 of 9) · Act 2 — Quest giver
• The End of SufferingSide Tale (Norio Tale 7 of 9) · Act 2 — Quest giver
• The Guardian of TsushimaSide Tale (Norio Tale 8 of 9) · Act 3 — Quest giver
• The Last Warrior MonkSide Tale (Norio Tale 1 of 9) · Act 2 — Quest giver
• This Threefold WorldSide Tale (Norio Tale 9 of 9) · Act 3 — Quest giver
• Three Actions Three IllusionsSide Tale (Norio Tale 2 of 9) · Act 2 — Quest giver
• a New HorizonMain Tale · Act 2 — Appears
• Eternal Blue SkyMain Tale · Act 3 — Appears
• The Fate of TsushimaMain Tale · Act 2 — Appears

• Warrior monks — sōhei — were a real feature of medieval Japan, and armed temple orders were a genuine political force well before the Mongol invasions.
• Norio's Tale is one of the routes to additional charms, which fits a character whose whole arc is about what you are willing to carry.

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