Today, Ubisoft announced Far Cry 4, the Himalaya-based sequel to Far Cry 3, which is being developed at a number of Ubisoft’s global studios, including Ubisoft Shanghai. The company hasn’t told us much yet about the game aside from its setting—a fictional Himalayan region—and its release date (November 18). More details will be unveiled in the coming months.
Having once been a student of Buddhist art, though, I couldn’t help but notice that the game’s apparent antagonist is sitting on a destroyed statue with both of its hands intact, and making a distinct gesture. In Buddhist statuary, these gestures—called mudras—have meanings. This statue appears to be touching the thumb and middle finger on both hands, which is called the shuni mudra. It is known as the seal of patience, and it symbolizes patience, focus, and discipline.
What does that mean in the context of Far Cry 4? I have no idea, but it doesn’t seem too likely to be random. Perhaps whoever made this image was simply copying the gesture from some reference art, but otherwise I doubt that any artist would choose this particular hand gesture unless they were trying to send some kind of message.
(It’s also worth noting that Ubisoft does seem to have been paying attention to details with this image as the prayer flags you can see on the left, for example, are arranged in the correct color order).
So, here we have the villain (presumably) of Far Cry 4 sitting in the lap of a headless statue that symbolizes patience and focus. A hint about the themes of the single-player campaign? A message to gamers who don’t want to wait until November to play? Your guess is as good as mine, so if you’ve got some interesting conspiracy theories, please share them in the comments!
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