Da Ji

Da Ji is one of the primary antagonists in Koei's crossover series, Warriors Orochi. She can be playable in the original Warriors Orochi once the player has personally completed every stage in the game (including the gaiden stages). In Warriors Orochi 2, she is one of the initially available characters in the Orochi story.

In the Warriors Orochi series, her height is 170 cm (almost 5'7"). In Fengshen Yanyi, her height is 163 cm (5'4") and her body is 25 years old. For the English dub of Mystic Heroes, she is known as Sheva.

Warriors Orochi
Based on conversations with the other Mystics, Da Ji is a runaway immortal being who was bored of her previous life. Sympathetic with the serpent king and wanting to entertain herself, she unleashed Orochi from his prison and agreed to serve him. Acting as his main strategist, she uses her schemes and sorcery to inflict confusion in battle. She coordinates their army's advances and personally orders Orochi's minions. She also doubles as the army's inventor as she created the cannons surrounding Koshi Castle. During Orochi's story, she helps plan her lord's rise to power.

In the final conflict with Orochi, she survives the assault and flees from the battlefield. Sometime after the battle, she meets Himiko and, knowing that she is the key for her lord's resurrection, fiercely guards the girl's safety. They travel together to find Kiyomori, who is interested in reviving the serpent king. By this time, Taigong Wang and his comrades have recovered from their previous defeat and join with other factions to capture her. She sacrifices her own safety to ensure that Himiko reaches her destination and escapes to serve the resurrected Orochi.

In Warriors Orochi Z, she cons Benkei to join Orochi's army and joyfully pits Yoshitsune against his friend. She also has three dream stages in this title. In one of them, she teams with Xing Cai and Gracia to prove women's might to the men of the world.

Fengshen Yanyi
Da Ji acts as one of the primary villains in the series. Like the novel, she is actually a fox demon who possessed Su Hu's daughter and killed the spirit of the real Da Ji. On orders from her master, Tongtian Jiaozhu, she manipulates King Zhou to do her evil biding. She does this by constantly staying near him and maintaining a spell of obedience, which breaks during fragmented times. With her younger sisters, Hu Ximei and Wang Guiren, they cause suffering to the land. Later, it is revealed that she and her sisters were feigning loyalty to Tongtian Jiaozhu and were using his disciples as blood sacrifices for their dark orb of destruction. Using the bloodshed and this artifact, they desire to invoke their real master, Chi You, and cause eternal suffering. At the end of Fengshen Yanyi, she is slain and her soul is offered to Chi You as a final sacrifice. Her spirit is supposedly sealed away into darkness when Chi You is destroyed.

Her continued revival acts as a main plot element in the following sequels. The main conflict in Magical Fengshen rotates around her sisters resurrecting her. In this title, she is quickly slain by Sora and his party when she was raised a second time. In Fengshen Yanyi 2, her and King Zhou's child, King Shou, carrying on her legacy. Mystic Heroes has King Zhou revive her -along with himself, Wen Zhong and E Lai.

Personality
Two notable characteristics of Da Ji are that she is very good at deception and that she also has a penchant for "reminding" officers under Orochi's control of that fact often taunting them for it. She is a very sadistic and cruel person who reveals in vanity and human suffering. She is occasionally called a "vixen" or "fox" by many of the other characters. Fond of her inventions, she pouts when they're destroyed or taken by the enemy. She fondly treats Himiko as a sister though her true sincerity for the girl is never made clear. As such, Da Ji doesn't get along with Sun Wukong as she is suspicious of the monkey king's intentions to steal Himiko for himself.

Her belittlement and spite for her rival, Taigong Wang, is emphasized in the Fengshen Yanyi‎‎ series. She acts as a low-keyed and sultry woman to hide her sadistic plans for the Shang Dynasty. Like the Warriors Orochi series, she continues to refer to the heroes as "boy". Though she usually acts unfazed to anyone who insults her, she will get flustered when her rival or Wen Zhong berate her.

Character Symbolism
Da Ji's weapons are originally named to follow the concept of a beautiful woman leading to the end of a nation. Each weapon uses key characters to describe it. First, her charms catch the king's attention and she becomes his treasure. His attention to political affairs slackens as he becomes drunken with attending to her pleasures. In due time, the king's men lose their trust in him and raise their arms to revolt. Through the rebellion, the nation will fall to ruin. It summarizes her role and the fate of King Zhou in Fengshen Yanyi.

Voice Actors

 * Stephanie Sheh - Warriors Orochi series (English)
 * Mami Kingetsu - Warriors Orochi series (Japanese)
 * Shinobu Adachi - Fengshen Yanyi
 * Yumi Tōma - Fengshen Yanyi Drama CD series

Quotes

 * "How do you like my dance? Deadly enough for you?"
 * "You're simply inferior!"
 * "How pathetic!"
 * "Aim...Aim...Aim...and fire!"
 * "Lower your head and knees down to the ground!"
 * "Lord Orochi shall be your King!"
 * "Such filthy mortals, out of my way!"
 * "I thought I was...immortal..."
 * "With my charm and beauty, you shall bow before me!"
 * "Hahaha! Screams of hells... how melodious!"
 * "Your pain shall bring joy to me and Lord Orochi!"
 * Uh-oh I think he's angry...
 * "Men, you can't live with them, you can't just have them slaughered."
 * "You're just mad because you want what I have have."

Gameplay
Moveset

Ground Moveset

 * undefined: Erects a large dark purple pillar in front of her.
 * ,undefined: Performs a back handspring. Her orbs arc around her from the sides and launches the enemy upward.
 * ,,undefined,(undefined,undefined,undefined): While spinning, Da Ji crouches with her orbs outward. She gradually rises to spin on one foot, leaning downwards and arching her other foot behind her in the air. She ends the move by rising to her feet and spinning her orbs in front of her.
 * ,,,undefined: Performs an exaggerated figure skating jump, spinning with her hips and sliding across the ground on her landing. Her orbs spin rapidly around her.
 * ,,,,undefined: Performs a handstand and flips forward to her feet. Her orbs spin along the ground and rise as she moves.
 * ,,,,,undefined: Levitates her orbs in front of her hands and shoots two violet lasers through them.
 * ,,,,,,,: Spins on one foot twice with her orbs levitating around her hands and takes two graceful leaps forward while her orbs continue spinning. Tips forward with one leg arched behind her while her orbs follow her hands to the ground. Repeats two more ballet spins and one more leap. Ends the chain by turning her back to the enemy and lets her orbs spin upward.
 * Levitates high in the air and hurls fireballs from each hand towards the ground in front of her while hovering in place. After her final toss, she flips backwards to land on her feet.


 * , : Has her orbs rotate once in a horizontal clockwise arc.
 * , undefined: Dives headfirst downward with her orbs in her hands.
 * Dashing : Bends backwards and allows her orbs to rotate around her while sliding in a half-circular motion.


 * R1: Sends an unblockable dark pillar forward. Four other pillars appear in a row afterwards.
 * R1 (counter): Hops forward while spinning her orbs on both sides of her.

Horse Moveset

 * undefined: Swings her arms backwards, sending both orbs quickly forward and behind her in one motion.
 * ,, , , , : Left and right individual swings with her orbs.
 * Quicker (and stronger) version of her string.

Fighting Style
Da Ji fights primarily with the two floating orbs that follow her. She is constantly in motion, dancing in a graceful ballet-like motion while her orbs swing around her. She also uses magic for her more powerful moves. The fact that she doesn't stay still while attacking can be a challenge for new players.

Historical Information
Daji was the name of one of King Zhou's concubines. According to historical record, Daji was the beautiful daughter of a noble family named Su (蘇) in the state of Yousu (有蘇). In 1047 BC, Zhou, the king of Shang, conquered the state of Su and took Daji as his trophy. She was known as a beautiful woman who excelled in dancing and singing. Her arrival caused a great disadvantage to the kingdom, as the state of the land worsened due to King Zhou being distracted by her. According to the Records of the Grand Historian, he would listen to any of Daji's desires and would grant them without hesitation. It is said that she invented an early version of crimson makeup by crushing the petals of a peach flower.

Eventually Daji found a brutal source of entertainment from people wailing in pain. Once, as she saw a farmer walking barefoot on the ice, she ordered his feet be cut off so that she could study it and figure out the cause of its resistance to cold temperature. In another occasion, she had a pregnant woman’s belly cut open so that she could satisfy her curiosity of finding out what happened therein. According to the Lienü zhuan, to verify the old saying that "a good man’s heart had seven openings," she had the heart of Bi Gan cut out and subjected it to her fertile scrutiny.

On top of all those atrocities, Daji was best known for her invention of a device of torture called Paolao (炮烙): a bronze cylinder heated like a furnace with charcoal until the sides were extremely hot. A large bronze cylinder covered with oil was placed on top of a pile of burning charcoal. Prisoners were made to walk on top of the slowly heating cylinder. As the cylinder became hot, the prisoners are forced to shift their feet to avoid the burning. In turn, the oil made it difficult for the prisoners to maintain their stance. If they fell into the charcoal, they would burn to death. The prisoners are thus forced to dance in agony and fear, screaming in prolonged pain, while Zhou and Daji laughed at the tortured dances. When the Shang Dynasty fell, she was charged for capital punishment and was personally killed by King Wu.

Daji is also associated with the four character compound, "jiǔ​ chí​ ròu​ lín" (酒池肉林), due to a description of her parties in the Records of the Grand Historian. Each character literally means "wine pool, meat grove". Wine was drunk from a pool, meat was caught from the county and served to the diners' whim, and men and women drank and sang to a witless stupor. Originally used to state the livelihood and extravagance of the events, it now carries various sexual connotations due to the mesh of men and women involved.

Da Ji in Fiction
In the Quanxiang pinghua (全相平話), she was recognized as one of the examples of the nine-tailed fox legend. Her real name unknown, she invaded Daji's body and posed as her. This element carried over to the well known Fengshen Yanyi novel, in which she is a 1,000 year old fox spirit who possessed the real Daji "Su Daji" (蘇妲己). Her younger sisters, Hu Ximei and Wang Guiren, as well as her servitude to Nuwa were also elements introduced in this story. She continues to act as a devious schemer who ruins the king's reputation and rule. Her torture schemes are replicated and expanded in detail, since she would use them as a way to sate her appetite for human flesh. Early in the story, she also lusted for Bo Yi Kao and, when her advances failed, ordered for him to be slowly cut alive and baked the pieces of flesh into pies for his father. Several people tried to remove her from the kingdom but they all met failure.

When Grand Master Wen Zhong returned from his campaigns, the torture devices were destroyed. Unfortunately, his wish to remove her from the capital was denied. Daji would continue to stay by King Zhou's side until she fled with her sisters late in the story. She was captured by an angered Nuwa and executed by Jiang Ziya.