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Senua is a Pict warrior and protagonist of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. A young woman with a troubled history and life amplified by her severe psychosis, she finds herself on a personal journey into the depths of Helheim in order to save the soul of her lover, Dillion.

Appearance

Senua is a young woman who wears traditional Celtic clothing. She wears a simple outfit made of an ancient version of tartan, with detailed patterning on the chest, bare arms and a fur collar based around a wolf's fur. She carries her sword at her left hip, next to Dillion's head, and a polished iron mirror on the opposite side. She wears a headpiece based around Celtic jewelwry and her hair is tied back into a dreadlock style based on an old Pict practice of clumping their hair together with lime.

In the present time frame that the game takes place in, Senua wears disctinctive light blue face paint around her eyes on her lips, a trait that the Pict tribe were well known for.

History

At a young age, Senua's psychosis manifested itself in visions that only she could see, an ailment she shared with her mother, Galena. Though Galena tried to show Senua that her 'sight' was a special thing, her druid father Zynbel saw their conditions as 'darkness', a curse from the gods that would doom them all. In order to appease those gods, Zynbel killed Galena when Senua was only five, burning her alive. Senua's trauma at witnessing the event caused her psychosis to worsen and repress the memory, believing that her mother took her own life in order to escape her darkness.

For the next few years of her life, Senua was kept inside her home and abused by Zynbel, both emotionally and physically. He would lock her away in a put and belittle her condition in an effort to defeat the darkness. On one of the rare occasions she was able to leave, she met Dillion and befriended him after watching him practice swordplay from afar. The two of them eventually fell in love and Senua saw Dillion as her one ray of light in a world that seemed to conspire against her. However, after a plague broke out in Senua's village and killed many, including Dillion's father, Senua began to wonder whether Zynbel was right about her condition being a curse.

Senua decided to journey into the wilds in an effort to protect Dillion and overcome the darkness that plagued her. Out there, she encountered Druth, a old scholar who had been badly burnt in his attempts to escape his Northmen slave masters. The pair of them bonded as Druth told stories of his captors, giving life to their myths and lore in tales of Norse gods. Though he eventually succumbed to his wounds, he vowed to aid Senua in this life and the next for listening to his stories.

However, once Senua returned home, she found that her village had been attacked by the Northmen that Druth had warned her about. She discovered Dillion, sacrificed in a gruesome display of a "blood eagle" to the Norse gods and suffered a psychotic breakdown. Remembering the stories of the gods she was told, Senua reasoned that if she took Dillion's head to Helheim, the Norse realm of the dead, she would be able to bargain with the it's ruler Hela and win back his soul. With nothing else to say otherwise, Senua journeyed north.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

After remembering Druth's instructions to reach the borders of Helheim, Senua finds herself on the outskirts and begins to venture in. As she travels further inside, she begins to remember pieces of her past, including her memories of meeting and spending time with Dillion as well as Druth's stories in order to overcome the obstacles that face her. At every turn, the voices of the Furies continue to both taunt and encourage her in a confusing contradiction. She is also pursued by an entity called the Shadow, a dark manifested voice that discourages Senua in her efforts to save Dillion, warning that it will always be with her. Despite the Shadow's attempts to stop her, Senua is able to defeat the gods Surtr and Valravn, as well as the great beast Fenrir, gaining confidence with each new victory over her foes.

By the time that Senua reaches the inner most sanctum of Helheim and meets Hela, she realises that the Shadow is her mind's manifestation of her father, continuing to abuse her even years after her village was attacked. As Hela herself speak with the Shadow's voice, she charges through wave after wave of Northmen in an attempt to reach the goddess and kill her.

When Senua is eventually overwhelmed by her enemies, Hela kneels before her. Senua both curses and pleads with Hela, claiming she's not afraid of sacrificing her life to save Dillion but also begging to set him free. A whirlwind of emotions tears through her mind before finally, Hela kills her. As Senua slumps to the ground, Hela takes Dillion's head to the edge of the battleground and lets it fall into the abyss. As the camera pans back, Hela has become Senua and the corpse on the ground has the appearance of Hela instead.

With the guilt of losing Dillion finally lifted from her mind, Senua is able to accept that the voices in her head are not a curse or a darkness, but simply a part of who she is and that it didn't cause all the plague, Northmen invasion, or her mother's death. As the hellish imagery of Helheim fades away, Senua addresses the player, inviting them to follow her and her Furies as they have another story to tell.

Gallery

Trivia

  • It is unclear how much of Senua's journey is actually real and how much of it is based in the psychotic delusions of her mind. Though there are supernatural elements at play, all of Senua's experiences are based on her interpretations of the Norse stories that Druth told her. The ending scenes seem to symbolise that Senua has come to realise that her psychosis is not a curse, but an illness that she must learn to deal with and the fantasy of confronting the gods fades as she does so.
  • Senua's name from the Celt god Senuna, whose name was originally thought to be Senua when evidence of her existed was first discovered.
  • Senua is performed by Melina Juergens, Ninja Theory's video producer. While the developers were searching for an actress for the role of Senua, they simultaneously had Melina test out the motion capture technology and act out Senua's lines until they decided to use her instead. She had no acting experience prior to this.
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