What’s Up With Yoba? | Stardew Valley

What’s Up With Yoba? | Stardew Valley

stardew Valley is a game coded in layers upon layers of lore if I were to wager a guess I’d say you probably at least seen the surface of Pelican Town’s deep history whether willingly or via Tik Tok shoving Harvey edits down your poor throat why did they choose Harvey of all people I mean really take care of yourselves you deserve better with 12 eccentric personality heavy marriage candidates to fall for a lush fleshed out town to explore and hidden lands to uncover it’s pretty easy to lose yourself in stardew there’s a good reason this farming Sim is one of the bestselling video games of all time and it’s not just because you can sacrifice your children and turn them into doves I know it’s shocking but there’s far more to do than just recreating the movie mother when you arrive each face in the valley is eager to get to know the new farmer and hopefully you’re just as thrilled learning the ins and outs of your new neighbors and forming real relationships throughout the town fills the story with life and also religion if you’ve ever wandered through the general store and thought hey what’s up with the old haunted looking church this video is for you if you have Catholic Guild this video is for you stard spiritual practices though hinted at here and there are more hidden than you might think today we are going to piece together a portrait of Yoba stardew Valley’s mysterious God [Music] quick disclaimer time yay yippee you’ve been waiting for this one I know this was on your list of things you had to see before you died I’ll be comparing Yoba to other real religions in this video and if you don’t want to hear that feel free to go I’m not holding you captive nor is YouTube the world is your oyster my friend be free be free I did try to keep that to an absolute minimum though because my knowledge is not extensive so please feel free to comment below any comparisons I may have missed because I want to hear from you and I don’t know everything let’s begin with the foundations as most people would reasonably think to do stardo tends to build its World piece by piece rather than with an epic style narrative like other RPGs nuggets of information are dropped by character dialogue clickable items and the visual environment which makes it a bit harder to get a perfect look at the religious side of Pelican town but surprisingly we do have a good amount to go off of Yoba is often represented by a symbol which looks sort of like a bent cross or a stick with arms who has a New York accent though it Bears a good amount of resemblance to Christian imagery it is actually an anglosaxon Rune Anglo-Saxon runes were an alphabet used by the Anglo-Saxons and medieval fans created to record both Old English and the old fian language basically it was a foundation for writing the English language we know today developing from the co Germanic runic alphabet you may also hear this alphabet called fuor so if you’ve heard that before that’s this this alphabet was used between the 5th Century and the 11th century making it barely older than George’s crispy ass Anglo-Saxon runes are unfortunately not very well understood but we do have an inkling and it’s very interesting yoba’s symbol our New Yorker here is the anglosaxon Rune ear spelled like the body part but not referring to it the exact meaning of ear isn’t known but it’s believed to have been along the lines of Earth or in some cases grave keep that in mind for later we’ll Circle back sorry for saying Circle back this isn’t a work meeting you’re safe I swear you’re okay depending on concerned ap’s intention behind using a rune to symbolize Yoba it could be inferred that a belief in Yoba originated sometime between the 5th and 11th century this would make it a fairly young religion compared to Catholicism or Buddhism of course the symbols could have evolved over time as language evolved so we can’t be sure I wish I had the Tik Tock atmology guide weigh on on this but I do what I can with the shriveled caffeine addicted brain I have on my shoulders anyway that’s also assuming that the Anglo-Saxon runes exist in this universe and the yopa symbol isn’t just completely random which could definitely be the case it’s often referred to in game as a sign of the vessel the first time we ever see a hint of yoke in the game is in the opening cut scene with good old ping pong table grandpa on the wall beside his semblance of a bed we can see a decoration depicting the Yoba symbol although this scene is our introduction to Yoba it paints a pretty good picture of where they’ll come up in the future after we’ve settled into our new Valley home we can head towards Pierre’s General Store where we’ll see our next hint of Yoba in the bottom right corner of the shop we can find what appears to be a chapel of sorts tucked away visually it’s more on the fancy side with huge gold pillars towering upward and an altar sitting in the middle it isn’t particularly massive but it is inside of both a house and a store so what can you do the altar itself is also gold shaped like a castle with the sign of the vessel in its Center as it’s specifically described as an altar in its interaction blurp rather than a shrine we can assume that offerings can be made to it a shrine that can make sacrifices to is specifically called an altar if you were wondering fun fact every Sunday a church-like service is held in the chapel Caroline and Pier who both live in and operate the General Store are not Believers in Yoba in conversation Caroline says that the chapel was already there when they purchased the building and they left it untouched for those who do believe in Yoba Caroline and Pierre do explicitly say they aren’t religious at all though so it seems that that atheism is a respected belief in Pelican Town Shane has a similar possible quote in his fun happy cute C6 heart cut scene when he asks the player why he shouldn’t just roll off the cliff side buddy with rent prices these days I do not have an answer for you I’m so sorry one of the response options the player could pick is it would be a sin if for some reason you choose that option Shane will reply Yoba don’t you know I’m an atheist uh Shane will also tell the that his name means gift from Yoba after marriage in real life Shane does mean gift from God or God is gracious so the names do align which is neat the only other confirmed non-believer in the game is oddly enough George despite attending the Chapel Services every Sunday he will tell the player that he’s never been religious ending it with but hey I’m old in contrast quite a few other neighbors do Express their belief in Yoba jod mentions praying to Yoba to bring Kent back safely from his time at War Demetrius and Robin both use Yoba in place of God in expressions like saying sweet Yoba or thank Yoba that point is neither here nor there since it’s just a figure of speech but you could argue that it points them more in the direction of atheism since in many religions it’s considered a sin to use a deity’s name in vain I’d say Emily is the most interesting case out of all Pelican Town residents because she’s known for being more eccentric in personality in practices a lot of people tend to characterize her as Pagan or more on the witchy spiritual side of things but after your married she says may Yoba bless you on this day if you take her to a movie She dislikes she’ll hold up a small symbol of Yoba and ask them to protect her from Dark Energy first of all I love that she carries a little guy around with her big fan of that Emily will always own my heart second of all we can sort of take this in two different directions either a yogacentric faith can be intertwined with whatever Emily is doing or that those practices are simply a part of the religion itself she also refers to using crystals for protection and attracting wealth so we can use that as another clue since Yoba in theory is intertwined with the earth I don’t see why Earth and materials would contrast the religion too much but we don’t know our good old Pam here is also a believer in Yoba with her religion playing a large part in her nine heart cut scene after you purchase Penny and Pam a new house if you’ve got that kind of goddamn money you can walk in on Pam praying by a sign of the vessel statue she tells the player that she loves her new home but that she hasn’t been able to kick her drinking habit she then purchased the statue hoping that Yoba might help her curb her urge the player can either respond I’m glad you’re feeling hopeful or I’m sorry Pam but Yoba isn’t real choosing the lad prompts Pam to get upset and announce her Faith yelling what in the void is wrong with you while the other just has her say she’s getting sappy as she ages that quote from Pam can point us toward the in Universe hell being known as the void with the word being used in place of Hell in that expression denouncing her beliefs lowers your friendship level with her as well so maybe don’t do that or do I’m not in charge of you do whatever makes your heart sing now kobus on the other hand is a very intriguing case if you go down to the sewers on on a Friday kobis will remain silent in Devotion to Yoba he also sells a sign of the vessel statue like the one mentioned previously in Pam’s house you can also steal hers if you’d like but I don’t know the in-game repercussions of that maybe you go to hell who knows however kobis loves void eggs or Mayo which contrasts with Yoba quite a bit the description of void Essence says that it emanates dark energy and if Emily’s beliefs align with the rest of the religion you’d assume one would want to you know Steer clear that but kobus is a shadow creature and his hostile counterparts in the minds almost always drop void Essence as well so I don’t really know what to make of that one like inherent evilness is he a sign of the dark listen though if kobis really is the epitome of darkness and evil I ain’t going to heaven I’m water sliding down that pit to hell that is my son I keep a picture of him in my wallet and I show show it off to all the old ladies at Kroger Yoba does seem to be a protective symbol with Emily’s pocket yob and Harvey hanging a similar plaque in his office if you click on the sign in the clinic it will say it’s there to provide comfort for believers in Yoba this could be misleading though as I believe Harvey exists to terrorize this Earth whether yoba’s involved or not moving into the Golden Sands of the Calico desert we can get some very cool insight into Yoba but it is up for your discretion whether or not you’d like to treat this bit as real Cannon I want you to take your brain out of its little home its little resting cavity and shake it a little and have it decide okay you got it great fantastic originally the return scepter an item sold by kobus which allows you to teleport to your farm at will was meant to be a wand that needed to be charged before usage you would have had to head over to the General Store and place it upon the altar in order to fuel it up if you did not do so before trying to use it a popup would say nothing happens Sandy said something about infusing it with the power of Yoba because that facet of the item wasn’t actually added it’s dubious to use it as a reference but again you can decide that for yourself we took our brains out for a reason put that in some formaldahyde [Music] that do drop the massive Yoba lore book well okay technically that book does exist within the game in the Museum’s Library you can find a book titled highlights from the book of Yoba unfortunately it is only a single highlight so I don’t know why it says highlights plural but it does tell us something I don’t think I’ve seen too many people ever reference and that my friends is the stardo valley creation Story the book reads before time there was only the endless Golden Light the light called out to itself Yoba Yoba wanted more Yoba swirled the golden light into a Vortex Yoba swirled and swirled until a hole formed in the eye of the Vortex from this hole sprung a seed Yoba smooth the Golden Light Yoba smoothed and smoothed and the light became soil into this soil Yoba planted the seed the seed sprouted and behold a Vine sprung Skyward twisting and probing casting a Rising Shadow onto the golden void after 11 days the vine bore fruit Yoba with knowing wisdom peeled the tough skin of the fruit and saw that the world was inside and so that is how the world came to be this is a really fun piece of Lord toy because it tells us a lot about Yoba as an entity Yoba seems to be both the personification of light and able to manipulate light if I’m understanding this correctly light and Yoba both existed Before Time itself the book does not state that Yoba created light but it also doesn’t say that light was ever created in general Yoba simply seems to shape the light and grow something from inside of it the vine That Grew cast a shadow over the endless light possibly being the first sense of Darkness ever seen we could maybe take that shadow as the creation of sin with it both mirroring the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil from the Bible and also casting a literal shadow on to the light but if we go with that interpretation it doesn’t seem to blame mankind itself for sin if we follow that direction we could see light and dark as equal facets of the world with both coming together to create it anyway I really wish we had more pieces of the book of Yoba since it would really shed a lot more light pun intended onto the ethical side of Yoba ISM Yoba ISM vessel ISM I don’t know I don’t know I’m tired but running with that the only reason we know about the concept of a sin is because of the Shane dialogue it could be wildly different than our perception of sin there is a lot of room to speculate in this situation particularly so I can’t really say anything concrete one other thing though is that the shadow people do have Shadow Shaman a shaman being a religious practitioner who can interact with Spirits this could indicate that there is a separate religion that’s being practiced by the shadow Shaman or that they can speak with some sort of spirit in the Yoba cannon with all of that said and my apologies for bogging your brain down with it I’m sure most of you have one main question junimos question mark listen man this part was rough junimos have a weirdly small amount of lore and so I had to head down some rabbit holes in order to even grasp it straws I’m trying my best here okay I’m just a little guy of course the junimos are Forest Spirits which guide you through the game they’re normally found in the community center acting skittish and running away when you try to interact with them they’re magical beings though they can be controlled somewhat by humans in the case of the junimo Hut Lewis for example is completely unable to see them in the community center at first but you can and so can the wizard though that part could be because nobody wants to see Lewis let alone these guys junimos also seem to be able to materialize and dematerialize at will magic as a whole is pretty much a sure thing in stardew Valley from the totems to the Wizard’s existence to the aformentioned return scepter it isn’t really clear how much access the average person has to magic or how much access they can gain but it certainly is possible which could Mix us up a little bit it’s important here to remember that Yoba does not seem to explicitly dislike or prohibit magic in fact if we move back to that quote from Sandy he gives gives you his power to use at will of course anything could be true here but we don’t know with yoba’s symbol also relating to the Earth and junimos being Forest Spirits maybe the junimos and Yoba work together or are even the same type of being but here’s a little kicker for you in Penny’s spouse room there’s a book titled fairies junimos and other fables which implies that junimos aren’t thought to be real if Yoba is one with magic like I said previous viously that would mean followers of Yoba might not know that a facet of their religion is even real which is interesting digging even deeper though we need to look at the wizard the biggest Clues I can muster up from him lie in his basement and his ex-wife’s Hut in the Wizard’s basement we can see something called The Shrine of Illusions where you’re able to change your appearance for a fee of 500 gold similarly to yoba’s altar it has a golden Sheen to it but yoba’s symbol isn’t anywhere on it and it isn’t explicitly said who you’re making your offering of gold to after you’ve been given the dark Talisman Quest byol rasmodius you gain access to the Hut of his ex-wife a bitter green witch in this Hut three more shrines are made available each one prefaced by the word dark they’re technically altars since you make offerings to them but it’s fine it’s fine I’m okay the first the dark Shrine of memory erases your ex-spouse’s hateful memories of you very Eternal Sunshine it’ll cost you a hefty sum of 30,000 gold but it does work on kobus as well if you kick him out thankfully nobody would ever do that because that would make you a monster the second is the dark Shrine of selfishness which I’m sure you’ve heard of in the past for one Prismatic Shard you can turn your children into doves removing them from the game permanently the dove children will occasionally haunt you in place of stardo CPS I assume no more funding for CPS the taxpayers are happy the kids are doves the last one is the dark Shrine of Night Terrors which toggles the appearance of mobs on your farm it requires a strange bun for any interaction with it meaning you’d need two buns to turn it on and off these shrines can give us a hint that both light magic and dark magic seem to coexist within the universe and can also help us better match the void with evil and the light with good as all of these dark shrines have an immoral purpose or immoral As We Know know it there seems to be some sort of deity that’s willing to Grant more dubious wishes whether or not that deity is Yoba we don’t know but it’s something to think about again comparing this religion to ones we’re familiar with in Evelyn and George’s house you can find a letter from their deceased daughter Clara the letter advises her parents not to worry as she’s with Yoba now which implies the belief in some sort of afterlife that involves closeness to God of course we were already somewhat aware of this with Grandpa but this gives us a bit more context to what the afterlife might be like as I’m pretty sure you know this aligns again with many different cultures and practices but it’s hard to definitively grab anything from it it is interesting though as Clara must have either converted to believing in Yoba or Evelyn believes in Yoba and George does not on Ginger Island we can also see an indication of Yoba in the volcano dungeons once you complete each floor and head up to the four a top of the mountain you can find a carving of the sign of the vessel depending on how old that Forge is it could be a fairly historic piece of the puzzle we’ll never know really but it does add a bit more depth sorry I went off on a tangent anyway I know that isn’t a direct explanation for the Juno’s existence but to put a long story short my best guess is that magic was created by Yoba to Aid them or that magic and Yoba are two separate things in the same theology that’s really all I got in that respect but if you have any theories I’d love to hear them but after searching far and wide across the stardy valley Wiki exploring the map and falling down a rabbit hole of stardew Valley lore that is all I’ve been able to scr up about the game’s Infamous God there are tons of different theories we could pull from all this information and very little has actually been confirmed by concerned ape if he ever does a Q&A I will have a CVS receipt of questions to ask him because now I’m insane L invested I’d really love to know more but hey this was the best I could do in conclusion it weall you can take your pick on what you’d like to believe Yoba is I think it’s beyond fun that so many small hints about an in-game religion can come together to enhance the world so much maybe it can even give us a new perspective on how we play the game but like I said I’m not in charge of you go do and believe whatever you want if I compared your religion to stardy valleys and you’re mad about it I’m sorry but also maybe consider switching to yism maybe it’ll treat you better I don’t know drink a cup of coffee and come back to me anyway thank you so much for watching I appreciate you guys with my whole heart and I will see you next time thank you to all of my members stay safe stay wonderful and goodbye

thank yoba this video is done

Huge thanks to @StardewValleyMuseum for some of the cutscene footage used in this video! I usually play on switch so having these readily available was so helpful!

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