Sekiro: 7 Weirdest Enemies (And What They Represent)

7. Rat

Rats in Sekiro are humanoid, small and grotesque looking, hiding under bamboo hats, found lurking in the recesses of Ashina as they discuss plans for a secret mission.

All in all, you don't really learn much about these guys in-game, but the Rats of Sekiro seem to tie in particularly efficiently with the tale of Tesso. Tesso is a supernatural monster akin to a werewolf, though this creature in essence a wererat, if you will - which reflects admirably on the small, hunched bodies of the Sekiro rat, who seem caught between animal and man.

The story of the wererat was born with Raigō, a monk who died of hunger whilst demanding payment from an emperor, which the emperor could not enact due to pressure from a warrior-monk monastery. Raigō came back from the dead as Tesso and brought with him an army of rats to terrorise the monastery, cited to have skin as hard as stone and teeth like iron as he razed the place to the ground.

Considering how tough Sekiro rats are, as well as their hidden agenda of a fight that they whisper about when eavesdropped on, AND that they're described as assassins from Senpou Temple - and the legend could well have inspired these beasts into gaming existence.