Through a Gate, Darkly

 is a Side Quest.

Starting
Speak to the Devout Priest at the Sacred Lake.

Objectives

 * Ask the High Priest about the torii gates.
 * Cross through the torii gates.
 * Find the Philosopher inside the Highbelow.
 * Pose your koans to the Philosopher.
 * Return to the High Priest with the answered koans.

Ask the High Priest about the torii gates.
Travel to Miyako Village and speak to the High Priest in the temple there. He will hand you the Koan Scroll.

Cross through the torii gates.
Travel back to the Sacred Lake. Each torii gate leads to a different location in The Highbelow?.

Find the Philosopher inside the Highbelow.
You will need to speak to The Philosopher. To do so, enter the torii gate numbered 11 on the map, climb up the northern wall, then jump over two ledges (first north then east). The Philosopher is wearing a Molgu costume.

Pose your koans to the Philosopher.
The correct responses are:
 * If a tree falls and nobody sees it... (Middle Option) (Philosopher response: Bubblewum Pink)
 * Two hands make a clap, what does one... (Bottom Option) (Philosopher response: Wike dis, wook!)
 * What do you do when you can do nothing? (Bottom Option) (Philosopher response: Take anothew wawm bath au natuwew!)

Return to the High Priest with the answered koans.
Return to Miyako Village and speak to the High Priest once again. You can answer the questions he asks with the responses that The Philosopher gave you, or you can simply skip the whole dialog by holding right click.

Items

 * Koan Scroll, a Quest Item received and submitted during the quest

Story
The Devout Priest tells the player that the Sacred Lake is not the truly sacred location, but merely an antechamber to the Highbelow. The Highbelow is neither here nor there, but somewhere and nowhere. They suggest speaking to the High Priest to learn more.

The High Priest is... less than cooperative. He does not like the player asking him to explain the torii gates, which take years of study to truly understand. The simple explanation is that the Highbelow is a place not in this universe, but separate. There are a lot of metaphysical topics that the High priest gets into, but the truly important thing is that the Highbelow is the realm of the Volgon, a mythic Temtem. The High Priest asks the player to speak to The Philosopher, an elusive individual that the High Priest has no time to find, in The Highbelow?.

The Philosopher turns out to be the mirror version of the Mascot of the Onsenshima. Unfortunately (or fortunately) he spweaks win twe swame way, uwu. The player asks them the questions of the High Priest, then sets off back to Miyako Village where they inform the High Priest of the Philosopher's answers.