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There are some species in our reality which are more active in light than others.
Ku gets revived by one of the wisps similarly to how Ori was revived by the spirit tree. They were dead or at the very least at the brink of death... now they are not. It's fine that the wisp could only barely bring her back as it was just 1 small fragment compared to the all powerful Spirit Tree who used the last of its energy to save Ori. What I don't understand... is why Ku is not harmed by any of this. It's established that light is needed for life, but Ku, the daughter of Kuro, is a dark owl. The light hurts them and literally killed every member of her family (save for her father we know nothing about). Yet, Ku is not only brought back from the brink by the light... but it completely healed! Not a scratch on her!
I dunno... I think they may have had to rewrite the story somewhere and streams got crossed.
I agree with your points regarding Ku, we don't know what kind of light Niwen provides. Regarding the fact that Shriek can survive multiple light defense maneuvers during the game and still live long enough to fight Ori.
Ku not being harmed is probably a side-effect of having been so close to Ori. She basically grew up with the light, and was touched by it before she hatched. That might be why the light could heal her during the ending.
I also don't think that the owl's eggs needed light to hatch, so much as the area where they lived, the Silent Forest, was hit hardest by the Decay. Shriek being deformed could just be because her egg was warped by the Decay, but she was close enough to hatching that she managed to break out of her egg before it completely turned to stone.
As far as Shriek is concerned... she brings more questions too but moreso in regard to the decay than the light. She was born exposed to the decay... that's why she is deformed and part of her is stone. She was rejected by everything and everyone... truely alone. Unlike Kuro, Shriek never knew love. Shriek is afraid of being vulnerable and that's why she refuses to accept change... opting to try and stop Ori from restoring the forest. In her final moments she seeks comfort in the only thing she ever knew... ashes and bone. So she's pretty well wrapped up... but the decay itself is not. It is assumed that the decay takes place wherever there is an absence of light. Happened in both Nibel and Niwen albeit under different circumstances. Light is required for life.
A Moki goes to the Silent Forest and is petrified in mere moments. The Howler suffered the same fate... Shriek spends all of her time here and yet seems to be immune to the decay. Is she immune to it because of her birth? If that's so then does life require light or will life simply find a way? How does the Decay work? Is darkness a force much like Light? If so... why did the dark owls become petrified when they are creatures of dark? Is the Decay something else entirely?
It really does stink of a retcon.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1057090/discussions/0/2149846789262256937/
Kuro was old enough and strong enough to fly into the same light that killed her chicks without suffering perhaps more than the slightest of injuries, and then assaulted the Spirit Tree directly whilst it was still blazing with Spirit Light. Now some of that resilience might have been bestowed by the sheer inexpressible RAGE of seeing her chicks dead, providing something of a shield whilst in her vengeful fury.
Quite what happened to the Niwen Owls with the Decay is unknown. Certainly the Decay *can* be seen to be extremely fast - we see petrified animals frozen in mid-movement for instance, and that unfortunate Moki father succumbed very quickly too - but not everything fails at the same speed.
It may also be that when the Spirit Willow "died" and Seir shattered, inducing the Decay, there was a similar explosion of Spirit Light as when Ori was lost in Nibel. Perhaps it was enough to weaken the Niwen Owls - many of them, like Shriek's own parents, seem to have been aware of the danger and are shielding their nests - and when the Decay set in, they just happened to be the first and quickest to perish.
Note: not all the Owls died at once. Shriek was able to hatch and go wandering around in search of others, after having already been touched by the Decay, and was driven off by adult Owls - presumably as fearful for their chicks as Naru's father was when he saw her playing with two spirits and their Light Burst ball. They succumbed later.
The reason the Luma Pools are still so vibrant is expressly stated to be because the Strength Wisp fell there, with much of the power of the Spirit Willow contained within; and similarly Kwolok has kept much of the Decay back from his territory through sheer force of will.
Everywhere else has fallen extremely rapidly - the Gorlek domain was basically outright destroyed and reduced to so much sand, and even Baur's Reach was encased in endless winter. Infusions of almost-Gumon artifice, harnessing the power of heat and Spirit Light, are needed to provide even localised temperate effects.
Note that the Mouldwood Depths, though clearly home to a lightless species, are not entirely fallen to Decay. Part of that may well be that Mora helped to fight against it by sealing the way in, and by being protected against the theoretical explosion of Spirit Light the way the Owls weren't through the simple virtue of being underground - but as a lightless creature, she was not strong enough to keep her domain as healthy as Kwolok was able to.
So, another question: given that we see many creatures succumb to the petrifying power of Decay, what makes certain exceptions exist? Some Kii endure despite even Ancestor Trees failing. Lightless creatures abound in the Silent Woods when you revisit it - perhaps they are trying to make a home here and do not understand that it means their eventual death - and Shriek herself hunts them if they disturb the silence.
Come to think of it, we only see the Howl dead as it is trying to struggle out of the corrupted sludge and after Shriek goes to investigate its noise. Perhaps the Howl was weakened by the Decay-infused sludge and then finished off by Shriek as it desperately tried to pull itself free onto dry land. I am not entirely sure it is that so terrible and mighty a creature in general, to be honest.
Remember, the Howl was only truly terrifying to the Moki and to the new-arrived Ori, who drove off the Howl with a simple flaming brand. I would hesitate to argue that the Ori who battles ANY of Mora, Enslaved!Kwolok, and Shriek would be even remotely phased by Howl in a rematch. Several of the corrupted Gorleks you encounter near the end of the game are stronger and more resilient by any measure.
What does that mean for Shriek at the end of the game? Your guess is as good as mine. I believe a combination of her physical and emotional injuries - the latter only worsened by seeing Ori stopping Seir from blasting her again, despite how often she tried to kill Ori - finally took from her the strength to keep fighting the Decay. She curled up beneath her parents in pain and confusion and grief, and let herself follow them into oblivion.
Decay itself seems to be inconsistent. It is a breakdown of order and therefore barely even obeys its own rules. This means that the devs can have it do whatever it needs to in order to have the plot work.
Yeah that was how I thought of it.