Seal of Memories
The Seal of Memories or Glyphs of Memory[1] are an engraving carved on the back of members of the Ishtar family's Tomb Keeper clan, in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga and anime. (In the English anime, the seal is a tattoo, rather than an engraving.)
The seal is the family's way of passing down the secrets of the Pharaoh's memories until his return. It contains a depiction of the three Egyptian Gods and hieroglyphs, saying that the Pharaoh's soul will reside in the person who wields the three Gods.
The card "Gravekeeper's Inscription" is based on the Seal of Memories.
Contents
Seal[edit]
The Seal of Memories is carved onto male members of the family, who are to inherit the family's duties of preserving the secret of the Pharaoh's memories. This is done in a ritual, called the Rite of The Tomb Keepers, when the boy is ten years old. The engravings depict pictures of the three Egyptian Gods and hieroglyphs containing a prophecy, saying that the Pharaoh will return and shall be identified by his wielding of the three gods.
In the future, one will come who will wield the stone slabs of the three Gods... By the Gods shall you know him... for it is he in whom the Pharaoh's soul resides.
Marik Ishtar's Seal of Memories in the manga...
... and in the anime.
History[edit]
Origins[edit]
The first Tomb Keeper served under the royal family in the 18th dynasty of Egypt.[2] They began the tradition of protecting the memories of the Pharaoh, so that he may rise again. This involved protecting the Millennium Items, passing them through family generations, and presenting them to the Pharaoh on his return. The only clue for finding the Pharaoh on his return was written in the Book of the Dead, which said that he would be identified by his wielding of the three Gods.[3]
Marik's Rite of the Tomb Keepers[edit]
The Ishtar family were descendants of the first Tomb Keepers and watched over the Millennium Necklace and Millennium Rod. For generations, they protected the secret prophecy by carving the Seal of Memories onto the backs of male heirs, in a painful ceremony called the Rite of the Tomb Keepers. The seal contained the hieroglyphs telling the prophecy and pictures of stone slabs, depicting the three Egyptian Gods.[2]
Marik and Ishizu's father had the Seal of Memories engraved on his back. He and his wife intended to perform the Rite of the Tomb Keepers onto a son of their own. The two had raised Odion, whom they had found abandoned as a baby. Marik and Ishizu's mother proposed that they perform the Rite of the Tomb Keepers on Odion, if they had not produced a male heir by the time he turned ten, an idea the father was not keen on. When Ishizu was born, the couple were disappointed as the tradition's agnatic primogeniture required that they have a son. Marik became the heir when he was born. Complications from his birth resulted in the death of his mother.[4]
One week before his tenth birthday, Marik told Odion about the ritual and how he was afraid to go through with it because of the pain. He asked if Odion would take his place and said that it would make him accepted as part of the family. Odion presented the idea to Marik's father and lied when asked if Marik talked him into it. Marik's father angrily declined and threatened to cut off Odion's tongue if he spoke of the family's secret again.[4]
On Marik's tenth birthday, his father used a hot dagger to cut the Seal of Memories onto his back. Since he could not take Marik's pain, Odion performed a ritual of his own, by cutting hieroglyphs onto his own face.[4] The physical and psychological trauma of the ritual, caused Marik to want to die. In order to survive, he developed a split personality, Yami Marik, who was capable of emerging when Marik was filled with rage.[5]
Marik was bandaged up after the ritual. He staggered in pain towards Odion and asked who he was to hate for this, but was surprised to see the cuts on Odion's face, laughed, and said that he liked it because even before he was born, Rishid had always been his shadow.[4] Since Odion's actions calmed Marik, his presence became capable of suppressing Yami Marik's control of Marik.[5]
Marik's father's death[edit]
Marik's father was killed by Yami Marik, who emerged while Odion was unconscious. Yami Marik cut the skin containing the Seal of Memories from off of Marik's father's back and put it onto Odion, mocking Odion for having wanted to prove he was part of the family. Odion then regained consciousness, suppressing Yami Marik.[6]
Marik was unaware of how his father died, but was told by Shadi that he had been driven to his death by the will of the Pharaoh.[6] This caused Marik to grow a hatred of the Pharaoh and come up with his own interpretation of the Seal of Memories' prophecy; believing that whoever wielded the three Gods would become Pharaoh. He hoped to fulfill the prophecy to become Pharaoh himself and kill the original Pharaoh, blaming him for his father's death.
Battle City[edit]
Yami Bakura helped Marik by Dueling against Yami Marik. However he did it in order to take the Millennium Rod and see the Seal of Memories on Marik's back. He intended to burn Marik's body when he was done, a condition that Marik was okay with.[7]
When Yami Yugi defeated Yami Marik in the Battle City finals and won the last of the three Egyptian God cards, Marik showed him the Seal of Memories on his back.
References[edit]
- ↑ Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel 231 (Duelist Duel 172): "Out of the Past"
- ↑ a b Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel 277 (Duelist Duel 218): "The End of Alcatraz"
- ↑ Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel 165 (Duelist Duel 106): "The Tablet of Memories"
- ↑ a b c d Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel 214 (Duelist Duel 155): "The Cursed Bloodline!"
- ↑ a b Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel 223 (Duelist Duel 164): "The Depths of Darkness!"
- ↑ a b Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel 232 (Duelist Duel 173): "The Clan of Darkness!"
- ↑ Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel 233 (Duelist Duel 174): "Duel in the Dark!"
