Season of The 9 Colored Deer
The 20th Season of Sky and the 3rd collab season will be starting sometime next year. Here’s some cool facts to prepare you for this season before the Crescent Oasis opens up in the vault of knowledge! Right now it’s still in beta so the spirit and some aspects of the story are subject to change but will still be staying true to the source material. You can watch the animated movie here:
History
The Season of the 9 Colored Deer is the next season coming to Sky! It’s a collab season based on the 1981 animated adaptation of the story from Shanghai fine arts film studio. The original story comes from a fresco painting in the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, China. "The Deer King Jataka" painting was made during the Northern Wei Dynasty and tells of the past life of Sakyamuni (Buddha) as the Deer King.
Animated Adaptation
In the animated story, the 9 colored deer saves a group of traveling merchants from a storm and they thank the deer for its kindness. Later on the Deer saves some animals from a storm and brings them to an oasis where it makes the flowers bloom out of season to feed the animals and give them a comfortable place to stay. This area is portrayed in Sky as the Crescent Oasis.
The Deer later saves a man who sells medicinal herbs for snake bites that fell into the lake looking for herbs. The birds that the deer saved warn them that they must be careful, worrying that humans would come hunt them. The Deer however is not concerned as it believes that no one would betray them for doing good deeds and reassures the bird that they cannot be killed.
The merchants from earlier arrive at the palace and tell the king that they were rescued by the 9 colored deer. The queen after hearing of this is intrigued by the creature and has a dream about it. She finds it so beautiful that she demands they make her a coat from its fur. (a Cruella Deville moment) The king says that this creature cannot be killed but the queen tells him that if he does not get it for her, she will kill herself in 3 days. The king, worrying for the safety of his queen, offers a huge reward for anyone who is able to find the deer. In the original story the king was the one who wanted the deerskin coat, The addition of the queen is unique to this adaptation.
The potion seller is tempted by the reward and betrays the deer, his skin becomes dark and gray as he loses himself to greed. He leads the king’s soldiers to the lake where he met the deer and pretends to drown to lure them. The Deer, despite the bird warning them, comes to his rescue only to find that the man betrayed their kindness. The deer turns the men’s arrows to dust and drowns the potion seller, with the moral of the story being that acts of good deserve good in return and evil will be met with punishment. It’s a rather dark story but that just seems to be the theme of Sky colab seasons.
The Sky adaptation of the story is not complete but it is already very similar. The player will likely take on a similar role to the bird that warns the deer of what the king was planning. The first quest has the player get rescued by the deer similar to how the merchants were rescued at the beginning of the story.
The Season guide is most likely intended to be an apsara, a celestial nymph-like being that features in stories from Hindu and Buddhist cultures. The season guide resembles the paintings of apsara that can be found throughout the Northern Wei era paintings in the Mogao Grottoes.
The spirits are all based on characters from the animation, whether their roles in the Sky version of the story will be the same or not remains a mystery but their memories suggest that it will likely be similar.
The King and the spirit that's based on him.
The Queen and the spirit that's based on her.
The Hunter and the spirit that's based on him.
The potion seller and the spirit that's based on him
If you are interested in reading more about the history of this story, you can check the following resources: