Scholar of Scholar 2.5: of Scholars

[01/23 - I fucked up and dated Vinheim to before Melfia. Melfia's older than Vinheim. The founders were probably contemporaries of the Leydia and originally brought High-Period Anor Londo magic to Drang with Gwynevere et al. Moonlight, Seathe, Ruin, and crystallization aren't necessarily linked, although there's a lot of overlap. Never finished the revision. Or anything. Unreadable in spots. Enjoy.]

[1/2020 - beginning revision. It'll probably look weird for a while. - FM]

If you're new, start at Olaphis. Table of Contents is here.

The Drangleic section will take a while to write. In the meantime, I'm going to try to outline some of the stuff that doesn't fit well into any of the other sections, mostly about magic.





Chloranthy
In a sense it's going to be a history of spellcasting minus miracles, as those were covered in the Olaphis section and will be explored further in a later post detailing the lands surrounding Drangleic.

Magic is mostly passed on via master-pupil relationships so, in a sense, to study the masters and pupils is to study the schools, and to study the schools is to study...everything, really.

Sorcery and pyromancy will be discussed first, followed by a discussion of hexes and the Pilgrims of Dark. The Pilgrims of Dark covenant isn't directly related to spell-casting, but is one of the most important lore areas of the game.

Straid

All things are rooted in souls,

but what drives our thirst for them?

Abstinence from this elixir may be

the truest homage to an enduring self.

- Agape Ring 

We'll start with Straid, since he seems to be one of the most informed people in the game. First, his gear and some notes on his wares, then we'll examine who he is and try to flesh out a picture of early Olaphis.

That blue rock thing shows up a few places.

His staff of wisdom is described as being from Olaphis, and the workmanship (as well as the Helix Halberd and the Sanctum Shield) show that early Olaph design was almost supernaturally advanced compared to later kingdoms. The staff does not cast hexes. Straid obviously could cast any hex he wants, so that he carries this staff indicates that he chooses not to to such a degree that he doesn't even see using hexes as a choice.

He carries no other weapons, or chooses not to use them if he does. I recall reading somewhere that he has a rapier or a longsword he'll switch to under certain conditions but I might've dreamed that or something. Point is, Straid is smart enough that he can do anything he wants, and Straid wants to use sorceries.

His armor, the Black Set, is described as being enchanted to resist magic and slightly improve casting speed. This would seem to indicate that ole Straid saw other sorcerers as his biggest threat and saw the value in being slightly quicker on the draw than the other guy. It goes on to describe Straid as being invited to the "old kingdom of Olaphis for his wisdom," meaning that even though he's described as '...of Olaphis,' he isn't originally from there. When pressed for answers, he turned out to be so knowledgeable that he scared the rulers of Olaphis, and may have been one of the reasons sorcerers and pyromancers were scapegoated for the curse. These rulers later set the trap that turned him into a statue for 'several lifetimes.'

Combined with his dialogue, we soon realize that Straid's life mostly pre-dated even the earliest mentioned events in-game, save for DS1 references, which he drops. I don't know if he was an Anor colonist (being 'invited' may mean he was invited to join the exodus from Anor Londo, the implication that Straid wasn't from Anor Londo either,) but he does know things only an Anor colonist would know, such as the witch of Izalith harnessing flame and leading 'her daughters into war against the Old Ones,' an event he calls a legend (and therefore suspect).

One notable lore variance with the other games is that he attributes Queen Izalith with creating pyromancy, rather than flame sorcery or the raw chaos that was eventually refined into pyromancy [update: in the Japanese script I think he uses the generic term for 'magic,' meaning the root art of all that came after].




He invented at least two advanced pyromancies, Lingering Flame and Flame Swathe. These describe an oddly gifted wandering mage that never took an apprentice, and lament the loss of his extensive knowledge. Lingering Flame is essentially a proximity mine, while Flame Swathe ignites foes from a distance. The conjurator pyromancers at the Rise of the Dead cast Lingering Flame. Might not seem important now.

Straid has a great many rings, some of which are attributed to him. The Dispelling Ring says that the 'artistry required to attune the varying powers of four different [elemental] stones within one ring could only be described as transcendental," and the Resistance Ring reaffirms that Straid was so powerful that he became widely feared.

He has sorceries attributed to him, such as the homing soul arrow spells, so those asshole Amana casters are his fault. Soul Bolt is described as being devised by Straid when he perfected an unwieldy spell that back-fired on its caster. If the 'unwieldy spell' was Logan's Crystal Dragon Breath (crystals cause Curse, remember,) then I would suspect that this would put Straid on par with at least Aldia, and may in fact be an example of someone gifted with god-level abilities that also has the sheer willpower (not the stat) to not only master the four elements, but master their mastery and overcome the curse of Moonlight/The Ruin, something Aldia, Logan, Oceiros and probably a host of others couldn't accomplish.

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As an aside: I keep saying 'the four elements/humours,' but to be clear, I mean three humourss (light, dark, and life,) and sorcery, which involves moonlight which isn't necessarily related to Seath -- it seems like one can 'invent' the Soul Arrow spells independently of, like, the influence of Seath, Vinheim or Yoel -- but does generally seem to eventually seem to lead to Seathdom. The Ruin, which I don't know if the Ruin is the same thing as moonlight, does seem to be directly related to Seath, as are the crystallized soul sorceries.

What I think sorcery is, to use the example of Vinheim, is a perversion the light element derived from the Oolacile mystics' perversion of the dark element; essentially inverting the polarity of a/the Light Soul so that it pursues a target.

The underlying story of Dark Souls - Gwyn and the Dark Lord and the Kiln and all of it - is a story of Dark pursuing Light. This quality is generally associated with want, desire, love, envy, and so on. The thing the Dark wants/pursues is Light. Light cannot pursue. Light is true to its purpose, straight as an arrow. Light could even be thought of as purpose: will incarnate.

Dark is action without thought, Light is thought without action.

A Soul Arrow is what happens when one siphons a clump of ambient Light Soul into a catalyst and curses it with want/pursuance.

Praxis, because of the terms of the physics is necessarily brief, although some bright souls manage to outrun the final negation of hollowing for an incredibly long time. But for the purposes of blasting someone with a magic missile: if 10 INT is what it takes to learn SA then I suspect 20 INT is what it takes to 'invent' it by thinking about it for an hour.

This 'curse' that's applied to create Soul Arrows, in most cases I suspect, involves 'injecting' the clump of souls with tiny amounts of ambient humanity.

What makes Seath's sorceries unique is that his application causes the light soul to crystallize. The game calls this Moonlight. I don't know if all Moonlight is derived from Seath, but it might as well be.

Seath's ability to conjure crystals by cursing the surrounding light existed since...probably since the Dawn of Fire at least, and I imagine anyone with half a brain figured out something like Farron Dart or SA shortly after, but it seems like it was never systematized into to the magic that led to humans having widespread access GHSA or Soul Spear until, or shortly after, the Artorias of the Abyss stuff. I could be wrong about that, but Vinheim doesn't seem that old in the first game.

This, also, would put the Anor Londo exodus - and therefore the founding of Olaphis - later in the timeline, possibly during or after the drowning of New Londo, assuming it happened significantly later.

What I'm saying is Straid is way too old to have learned Crystal Dragon Breath from Logan, as Logan himself learned the spell shortly - perhaps a generation or so - before Vendrick arrived in Lordran.

Straid doesn't seem to care for miracles, but he does sell miracles relating to the Firstborn. He also has strange connections to Volgen and the Lindelt Monastery (I'm of the opinion that Volgen and Lindelt are, in some fashion, the same place). Volgen is described in the Cursebearers age as a merchant state that is taken over by Blue Sentinels acting as a state-sanctioned gang. It's also the place the Falconer mercenaries most recently hailed from, and the Falconers would seem to be Sunbros and therefore possibly represent a Red and Blue schism, perhaps tying into House Osteria feeling 'taken for granted.'

"Osteria" is an interesting name, and belongs to an old and prosperous family.

How or if any of that relates to Straid is beyond me, but the White/Blue/Red dynamic of Volgen/Lindelt - as well as their possible ties to other events - needed to be established.




Straid also sells Affinity, an 'advanced hex based on an ancient sorcery...that seems to pursue its target with a will of its own. It appear to be a manifestation of...hate [or] perhaps of love." It's essentially dark homing soulmass, and references the Pursuers dark sorcery from Oolacile. I have no clue why he has this, beyond the possibility that he's an original colonist. If that were the case then he could date to either post-Oolacile or the Dark Tales (Kaathe's first first attempt to manufacture a Dark Lord, usurp Gwyn, and advance the cycle of nature into, basically, middle-age. Personally, I feel like the latter makes more sense, and also because it would be rad to think that he faced the first Darkwraiths. So, if this were the case, he may have been something like a court sorcerer in Anor Londo who didn't leave with Nameless, but did leave with Gwynevere. This would explain how common sorcery existed prior to Vinnheim and Logan - possibly alongside Oolacilian light magic - since it clearly must have.

The Dark arts discovered by the Oolacilian mystics were mostly lost with the kingdom's fall into the Chasm of the Abyss (of course, there's evidence that spells can be rediscovered as a kind of convergent evolution,) as were their light spells. Following the death of Manus, the Chasm collapsed and dissipated, continuing on as tiny, Dark pockets deep beneath the earth. From these 'shrines' (Grandahl) the warped Abyss of Oolacile re-emerged; tiny fragments of dark infused with the will of Manus, each seeking a will of their own.

As a final, tangential thought on Straid - his most central aspects seem to be sorcery and pyromancy, and the school founded by the Olaph refugees taught both sorcery and pyromancy.

Ool Chasm beneath Drangleic, maybe. 

Sorcery

Though unknown for certain, 

some say the founders of the academy 

were sinful men who came from 

across the northern seas.

The sorceries they left behind were 

fragmentary, and barely legible, 

leading to the loss of much of their wisdom. 

 -slumbering dragoncrest

After the curse broke out, the ships of Olaphis were packed with chained sorcerers and pyromancers to be cast out, that not even their souls might remain in Olaphis the Great.

Some of them survived, somehow, in land to the south. There, they founded a school, the Melfian Magic Academy, though much of their wisdom was lost to time. Notably different from Vinnheim in that both sorceries and pyromancies are taught there, and potentially more advanced than the Dragon School because of it.

As usually happens with these things, heroic adventurers turn into crotchety old men refusing to acknowledge the possibility of new heroes happening. Olenford, known as the father of sorcery in Melfia, may have echoed both Logan and Carhillion in giving up on the school in disgust and leaving on one last grand adventure (when they're waaaay too old to be doing shit like this,) to find the Big Legendary Magic Thing.

The Big Legendary Magic Thingy's in there. Not really. 

This 'Seeker' archetype is a recurring... character? What I mean is, Carhillion, Olenford, and Logan are all highly respected sorcerers at prestigious schools full of shitty, hyper-competitive rich kids with zero imagination or sense of perspective, but tons of daddy issues and Machiavellian narcissism. The Seeker - the one Old Guy that managed to neither ossify or sell out - leaves the school to find the Source.

From here, he somehow Bumblefuck Quixote's his way into possession of the Source's Diary, with history being split on what happens next. The last we see Carhillion, for example, he's trying to kill Fume Knight with, like, Fume Knight food, so who knows what's going on with that guy.






Lissen-a-me old man if not for me youd still be sitting on that dock catching arrows with your FACE

Carhillion is contrasted with Pyromancer Glocken. If Carhillion is the war hero that managed to keep his honor intact, Glocken is the war hero's overly-ambitious Baby Boomer kid. Glocken is best known for being Rosabeth's former teacher and for mass producing the ____plate rings.

He was criticized for the rings, despite them being clearly beneficial to society, and rumors were spread about the profits being made by Glocken. The old-guard faculty saw the plate rings as 'lessons' gained from 'harsh training,' and that their value shouldn't be cheapened by making them available to anyone with a spare 2,000 souls. "Back in my day, we had to climb to the top of Sen's Fortress and pay a graverobber 15,000 souls for marginal lightning reduction!" That kind of thing.

Despite the possible profiteering, Glocken genuinely liked the academy, and was reportedly angered when Carhillion said the school was a terrible environment for learning magic.



Rosabeth, to switch over, seems to be immune to everything but petrification and fashion sense. She made it across the borderline-impassible mountains into Drangleic in a dress. She, perhaps, represents the Gen-X character, disillusioned with the shallowness of the hegemonic culture and desiring to learn magic 'the old-fashioned way', but still too struck with hero worship to question the establishment itself and still to ignorant to do anything to effectively right the ship of Melfia's course. 

This is an inconsistency. Melfia is to the south. Carhillion and Felkin and Rosabeth would've arrived by ship or magic. The overland route taken by characters like Benhart and Lucatiel, I think, was used in the narrative to show Rose's proficiency as a pyromancer, and I suspect that her dialogue had already been point-of-no-returned before anyone noticed the mistake. Had Rose been, say, a Desert Sorceress, then her coming across the mountains would have made more sense, but would've required a rewrite for Carhillion and Melfia. Several characters storylines were changed in revision, so this might be related to that.

Seekers: the Pina Colada Song of people. 

Big picture: Vinnheim sorceries were brought to Olaphis. After the outbreak of the curse sorcerers and pyromancers were packed into cargo ships and cast off into the southern sea to either find land or sink. They found, or founded, Melfia. Melfia, in other words, began as a cargo cult around the memories of shipwreck survivors, influenced heavily by the Vinnheim school. Notably, despite being a school of pyromancy, Melfia seems to have zero stories about Izalith, Chaos, the Daughters, Salaman, the Great Swamp, or anything else relating to the history of pyromancy.

It could be that any accounts of that nature were purged after the Lost Sinner did...whatever she did, or it could be that the Fold decided no wimminz, as I seem to recall them having something to say about Gwynevere being fake news.

Pyromancy

There's, like, no lore on pyromancy in the game [YOU FOOL YOU'VE DOOMED US BOTH]. I mean, the basic stuff is there, but there's no real hint at what the Lost Sinner trying to 'link the First Flame' means. There doesn't seem to be any demons, either, at least not in the Bed of Chaos sense.

There are conjurator-type pyromancers around, for what that's worth. Two of them act as back-up for the Lost Sinner in NG+, and several more are scattered around Amana, with the highest concentration around the Rise of the Dead.

For this reason, and others, I think that whatever the Lost Sinner did, she did at Amana. The altar at the Rise of the Dead (made from the same material as the Shrines used to access the Dark Chasm,) looks like it may have been a central feature of whatever happened there.

What we see is some kind of black lordvessel with two hollow figures inside of it, back-to-back. The figures have two sets of arms each. They are being prayed to by a Milfanito. The shrine reverses hollowing if you're out of human effigies. Fuck if I know what else is going on there.

That's it, as far as big lore surrounding Chaos-derived Pyromancy. More could be said about Eleum Loyce, but I'm saving that for the Forossa section.




As an aside: if you look around you can see that that weird, empty, heavily-defended circle full of brightbugs just past Rhoy's Resting Place has a big...tree heart(?) directly above it, and a little ways away is a weird spire being held up by roots. You can see the spire from the Demon of Song chamber and some other places.

Shit's spooky yo.





So, since there doesn't seem to be a unifying narrative, here's random crap:

• Eygil, the Iron King's magus, seems to have created pyromancies derived from the black flames of Nadalia, or it may be that Nadalia's pyromancies are some aspect of Eygil that she absorbed as smoke.
• The Skeleton Lords of Huntsmans Copse use pyromancies, and Tichy Gren sells them. 
• The Brotherhood of Blood has weird connections to pyromancy in general, hopefully something more concrete will become apparent in the covenants section [Jugo, dummy - future me].
• It's hinted that Darkstalkers are what happens to some pyromancers under certain conditions (like being driven literally and figuratively underground). If so, then there were a lot of pyromancers in No Man's Wharf at some point.
• The Desert Sorceresses are described as having an ability like the Rapport spell, which isn't in the game but is interesting.
• I didn't talk about Mytha at all because her story relies too heavily on later events and the sequel and would still sound crazy at this point.
• Sorcery doesn't seem to make a serious comeback until the Dragonrider period - or possibly just before, in Tseldora - both of which will be discussed later.

Hex

Gilleah

At some point in Drang's (or perhaps Melfia's,) history, Gilleah - the father of Hexing - modified existing Soul Arrow sorceries to fire Dark orbs of Humanity [Dark Orb/Hail]. This seems to be an example of convergent evolution with Oolacile, though the Drang 'school' perhaps emerged later, after the Chasm beneath Oolacile drifted closer to Drang and the fallen pygmy lord's Lords Soul could begin to exert influence over the land (or whatever happened). This could give timeline information as to when the colonists arrived, if I can ever find anything else about Gilleah.




The art was (and is) viewed as an affront to all life by his peers and any respectable magic user, and was outlawed in most places when it was discovered that the use of hexes ate away at the caster's essence (Dead Again, Dark Fog,) in a way I assume is not unlike the crystal curse.

Therefore, Gilleah, if he was from Drang, may have been part of whatever magic problem triggered the king's purgings. Otherwise, he would almost have to be from Melfia, only Felkin is from Melfia and seems to be following in Gilleah's footsteps, in some sense.

In Lordran Pyromancy, while not being outlawed, was viewed as a low and vulgar art used by savages, while sorcery was treated as a lofty pursuit. In Melfia, however, pyromancers can hold positions as lofty as that of a sorcerer (Glocken). Be this as it may, Gilleah's hexes were not tolerated by (we assume) either sub-school.

Gilleah took no apprentice, and the mystery of how his spells were passed down has led some to suspect that the art originated from another source altogether (Repel). I think we've established by this point that that there's a Riddle of Steel going on with this stuff where people just keep rediscovering the shit that killed their ancestors.

Felkin

Felkin developed, among other things, the Dark and Resonant Weapon hexes independently from Gilleah, likely long after the Melfian Academy was established, as he was a student there and seems to share Carhillion's views of the faculty. I suspect Felkin is about the same age as Glocken and would've made a fortune selling rings.

From his description of the place it would seem reasonable to assume that his instructors were the 'backbiting and power squabbles' sort described by Carhillion. Felkin claimed to have learned nothing, and was 'admonished by all manner of sorcerers' [Dark Weapon] for his pursuits. He eventually left the Academy to pursue a truer Dark in Drangleic, where he stares at a wall next to a tent that's barely a tent surrounded by hollows where he probably sleeps. 




Strangely, he sells catalysts belonging to the Archdrakes of Lindelt. The reason for this may be that Felkin traveled to Lindelt from Melfia, where his interest in dark sorceries turned to an interest in dark miracles, before ultimately moving on to Drangleic. Another hypothesis could be that after arriving in Drangleic Felkin braved either or both Shulva and Amana in his search for Dark, and had him a run-in with the Archdrakes.

The Chaos Rapier and Shield that he sells imply that he was once a brilliant young sorcerer that cast aside his desires to devote himself to the Dark in hopes of bringing new magics into the world. These, along with his staff, seem to describe Navlaan. Navlaan is up there with Nadalia and Lloyd's Apostle in terms of how much of a headach 

The third hexer I'm going to talk about relates to the Pilgrims of Dark covenant, which will segue into a discussion about Oolacile and Manus.

Grandahl




Grandahl is perhaps the most intriguing and perplexing character in the entire game. We find statues of him – or someone much like him – in the depths of the Undead Crypt. His red robes have led some to speculate that he may in fact be the missing Third Sealer of New Londo (both Grandahl and Ingward have the same voice actor,) and though he clearly can't use his legs, he appears in some of the most difficult to reach areas of the game.

When we manage to find him at the three Shrines of the Abyss he invites us to join the Pilgrims of Dark, a covenant focused on making pilgrimage to the remains of the Chasm beneath Oolacile, which seems to have drifted beneath Drangleic.

needless sensationalism. 

When you reach rank 1 in the Pilgrims of Dark covenant, Grandahl says that

You have seen Dark that has existed from times long past.
What once was a great void of darkness became but fragments.
But slowly, the scattered fragments grew, absorbing all things.
It is we who will be pilgrims to these sacred sites.

In other words, this great void of darkness, heavily implied to be the Chasm beneath Oolacile, fragmented over time following the death of Manus. These fragments of the original void are the sacred sites the player makes pilgrimage to. I'm not entirely sure what he means by 'the scattered fragments grew, absorbing all things." We know that the Daughters of Manus emerged from these chasms, and that they began as 'tiny fragments.' Grandahl seems to be referring to the shrines themselves as being the fragments that absorb all things. He seems to be referring to the Abyss' apparent desire to pursue powerful Light souls, but there's also the phenomenon where heavy concentrations of Oolacilian Abyss sort of unmakes reality, as we see in the Royal Woods in the Artorias expansion.

When reaching rank 2 he says

Dark is the mother of all. 

All things were born from it.

If there was a singular Pygmy Lord at the dawn of the Age of Fire, that later gave rise to the pygmy lords and humans, then there's no reason to assume that they would be male. It could also mean that Dark is the primal element, that dark necessarily predates light and life and death.

At rank 3

Young Undead, you've discovered the truest Dark within you. 

A deep, deep Dark it is. 

The Dark that we must all face. 

We need the Abyss, 

more now than ever. 

So, upon completion of the covenant we've allegedly found the 'truest Dark' within ourselves. The line about the Abyss I don't really understand, beyond maybe Grandahl seeing the need for a Dark Lord to usher in the Age of Man, which might be the point of the entire game.




Upon lighting the three braziers and dropping into the black fog we're taken to the Darklurker. The Darklurker is a hooded humanoid figure that has four arms and angelic wings. This the first instance of a character that could be described as 'an angel' in anything other than a poetic sense. Its skin color is difficult to determine for certain, but is either the pale green of hollows or the pale blue associated with the Fenito, and its arms reveal what appear to be a network of sub-cutaneous roots.

The only other instance of 'angels' in-game are a statue and a few carvings in the Iron Keep.

The Darklurker is a very skilled caster, using unique spells that include a Soul Greatsword variant; chained fireballs reminiscent of Forbidden Sun; a dark laser similar to the one used by Nashandra; a trick-shot hex that involves sending an exploding Dark Orb into a portal, where it then teleports to a second portal, emerges, and homes in on the player; a Dark Wrath of the Gods type AoE spell; and the ability to teleport 

At around 2/3's health the Darklurker will split/copy itself, with the second sharing the healthpool and moveset of the first.

It needs to be restated just how singular the arts wielded by the Darklurker are. Most noteworthy are the 'portal' spells, which appear as a type of darksign from which the appropriate element is conjured. The soul spear and soul greatsword spells are pale purple. These are unique, in that regular soul spears are created, evidently, by crystallizing Gwyn-type souls using a method devised, originally, by Seath.

The crystals created by Seath are cursed. Whether they're cursed by Seath himself or by the primordial crystal he uses is up for debate, but given that his breath both creates crystals and causes curse buildup, and given that the Homing Crystal Soulmass spell tells us that the mysteries of 'souls, crystals, and sorceries are deeply intertwined,' it would be reasonable to assume that soul spears are created by applying Seath's moonlight art to fragments of the Light Soul, and the light blue tint represents this “quintessence of sorcery.”
Given soul spears are seen as 'legendary' and being 'on par with Gwyn's lightning,' it would also be somewhat reasonable to assume that, if Seath fought other dragons, he fought them with something much like soul spears: crystal-based weapons created by applying a (apparently fairly simple if you're smart enough,) non-humanity-based curse to a mass of souls.

I'm well aware of what a lattice-work of a hypothesis the above is, but if it holds up, then hexes – as originally discovered in Oolacile and rediscovered in Drangleic – would be a similar art, only this one involves applying a light-based curse to humanity.

So, if the color of Darklurker's soul spears aren't merely a design choice, then it is possible that they are the original, true soul spears, created by applying a humanity-based curse to a mass of light souls, and that these were later mimicked by Seath using the Primordial Crystal, eventually to give rise to the Vinnheim school.

Maybe.





The writing around the outside says "No. Way off."


Upon defeat, the Darklurker drops its soul, which is a 'light' soul. The soul's description states that the Chasm is the “remnant of some ancient dissipated being” that the Darklurker...well, lurked inside of. The soul can be transposed by Straid into the Lifedrain Patch: a hex that “consumes a number of souls to affix dark to a certain spot.” This stationary orb has the ability to – of course – drain the life-force of any who touch it, including the player and ally phantoms.

Upon completion of the dungeon Grandahl rewards the player with the Dragon Chime - the Darkdiver's own catalyst - as well as the Xanthous Set. The Dragon Chime was said to have 'sat long in the Dark Chasm.' This is strange, as the chime is described as 'pure' and significantly better at casting Light miracles, rewarding only those with the deepest faith.

The Xanthous Set originally appeared in Ariamis, being worn by the 'legendary exile' King Jeremiah. It also references an early work of cosmic horror by Robert Chambers called the King in Yellow. Jeremiah is...well, too complicated to talk about here, but among other things a chaos pyromancer. It's popularly theorized that his head was one of the wall-huggers you see in Blighttown. The set is described as still being 'blindingly bright,' despite being nearly in tatters.



Clearly this is meant to draw a parallel between the Chasm/Lurker and Grandahl. Grandahl, giver and seeker of Dark, is perversely the greatest miracle user in the game (lore-wise, mechanically the Licia we invade is pretty monstrous). So, the person most drawn to Dark is also the most “pure” and “faithful,” just as the thing in the very heart of the Abyss is a 'shining angel,' of sorts.

WHERE HAVE WE SEEN THIS BEFORE LATER 

As to what the Darklurker is, it would seem reasonable to assume that it is what remains of the original Pygmy Lord from Oolacile, lurking in the Abyss of Manus. Of that 'primordial human' we know very little, save that he, or she, may have been a sorcerer, and had a stone pendant he cared a lot about. Marvelous Chester – thought to be from Carim – ended up with one half of this pendant, and the Chosen Undead (after stealing it from Seath,) had the other. He also seemed to have an obsession with Princess Dusk, the nature of which may mirror the relationship between Manus' 'daughters' and their kings.

That's a lot of information, and I feel like I'm not tying it together well, mostly because it's a lot of loose ends that will hopefully tie themselves together later.

[Taking a break - FM]

Golems









Another 'school' of 'magic' worth mentioning is golemwork.




Often called puppets, golems are created by grafting a soul onto a suit of armor or other acceptable vessel. In Dark Souls 1 we first knowingly encounter one of these in the form of the Iron Golem. It's speculated that the Ornstein we fight in the chapel is a golem created from Ornstein's soul (if his deific status was rescinded [soul ripped out by Seath,] when he finally grew disillusioned with his vows, it could explain why he turns dark in his new life abroad).




In Olaphis they created the Ruin Sentinels (and presumably the Old Knights). The Sentinels were creations of the jailer (likely the Sunken King or someone acting on his orders), their soul doesn't give us either their sweet hammer or shield, but the Heavy Homing Soul Arrow spell, attributed to 'Straid, the great mage of Olaphis.' Further, 'Fires thick, powerful soul arrows that seek their targets to the ends of the earth." This, of course, explains little, other than mentioning Straid, Olaphis, and foreshadowing a tale from the third game. The Sentinels at the Bastille have names, Alessia, Ricce, and Yahim, but I have no idea why or what they mean.








I'm sure this doesn't make sense.







These were followed by bell keepers of Venn. Far less physically impressive than the Sentinels, the bell keepers are far more life-like - may even be alive - and are capable of speech, although they say about what you'd expect a broken AI to say.







Later, when Alken rose to power, there was a return to mighty empty suits with the Ironclad and, later still, the Alonne knights. At some point, Mytha created her own puppets, the manikins.




Final Thoughts


Okay, so that probably mostly didn't lead anywhere, but it wasn't really supposed to. These are all loose ends, in some sense. Hopefully most of them will be tied up in the next section.

Scholar of Scholar 2: Alken and Venn

Part one is here. Table of Contents is here.

This is split between two sections, one covering the fall of Olaphis and the reformation as Venn, the other covering the rise and fall of the Iron Kingdom of Alken. As a general note, I tend to use Drang to refer to the subcontinent, Drangleic to the period between Vendrick's rise and the Cursebearer's Thronetaking, and ur-Drang to refer to whatever kindom/s existed before Olaphis.

[update, xmas 2019: there was an update. - FM]

From Olaph to Venn

Gwynevere and a bunch of the other old gods of Anor Londo left shortly after Gwyn linked the fire. She married Flann, who was hypothetically a giant and the king of prehistoric Drangleic.

They forged an empire, Olaphis, whose story closely mirrors Lordran. Olaphis, like early Lordran, attempted to ignite a second First Flame. This event, the Lost Sin, involved a Chaos Witch and potential princess of Izalith, and was a continent-spanning ritual centered around the Shrine of Amana. 

The failed firelinking may have lined up with the death of Manus, and may have served as the beacon that initially drew the Abyss to Drang, and may have used King Olaph I as the ritual sacrifice. Gwynevere probably left at this point, if she hadn't already. I suspect she went to Mirrah and, in due course, ended up in a war with her brother that would ruin both their countries. In Olaphis this would mean that they entered the period of Olaph II, the Sunken King, unless the Sunken King was also Olaph I.

The Lost Sin likely accelerated the Curse in Olaphis. Straid arrives at the court at this point and lays the truth on the ruling class of Olaphis; the church - a divergent Way of White sect that predates Thorolund - and the nobility - Gwynevere, the other colonists, and their loyalists. 

The nobles decided to blame the Curse on pyromancers and sorcerers in a purging that became the foundation of the Melfia Academy. 

If Gwynevere hadn't left already she now leaves, and if the Sunken King hadn't taken up kingship he now does so. The Church, something like a Way of Light Blue, becomes the primary, possibly only, institution holding the empire together. At some point Elana appears and eventually becomes queen and matriarch of the church.

What usually happens when you put the church in charge of things happens, and the empire fell to chaos that, eventually resolves itself enough to something approaching a civil war between two factions: 

The Drakebloods, who would become Alken (Arcane,) and  The Archdrakes, who would become Venn (Vain).

The territory of Alken, in the eastern mountains, encompassed the Huntsman's Copse, Harvest Valley, and the eastern mountains.

Venn, to the south, follows the coast from Heide to... I'm not sure, but Venn also controlled the Lost Bastille, which was probably reconverted from prison to fortress (cell doors have been refashioned into ladders, and the "battlements" on some of the towers - particularly Luna - look noticeably newer, (although given Venn's limited manpower, I might be reading into it too much). 

Drang was actually being run by whoever the toughest bandit lord was in any given area.

The Bastille is on the Sentinel's left, Luna on the right.

Here's the thing.

I'm saying that Alken was the Iron Prince's territory and Venn was the Ivory Princess' territory. The Soulslore wiki, which I consider an authoritative source, agrees. I'm not 100% convinced though, and think there's a slight possibility I've got the names reversed. Luna Bell Keeper dialogue (I've taken the extramation points out):

The Princess made me, to guard the Bell of Alken! 

In Alken (is) the bell of the princess! 

In Venn (is) the bell of the prince, yes!

Of course, the Bell Keeper in Sol says about the opposite so who knows. But just so everything is clear moving forward, I take all of it to mean that the Bell in Venn (Luna,) belongs to the Prince, and the Bell in Alken (Sol,) belongs to the Princess, so that each belfry belongs to the ruler of the other territory.

...but Titanite Chunks, though, right?

The reason I'm being so anal about it is because by my figuring - which may not be right, but is at least in harmony with the rest of the larger narrative - Aldia is named after Alken/the Iron Kingdom, while Vendrick is named after Venn/Olaphis, and that seems backwards when considering their natures.

Aldia would have fit right in with the mad scholars of Olaphis-Venn, and Vendrick would have been a great champion in the Alken-Iron vein. As mentioned in the previous post, I'm convinced that the lore from Vendrick's shield about Destiny vs. Birthright, concluding with the line about the King's name serving to unite the country, is critical to understanding both how Vendrick rose to power, why, and what the dynamic between Aldia and Vendrick was, as well as how it led to their eventual schism.

If I find out I'm wrong later I'll put my goddamned hand through this monitor i swear to fuck

[By my even more exhaustive figuring, Aldia's name could mean something like 'dawn of Al(ken)' and Vendrick could be something like 'breaker of Venn'. This would, of course, line up with the arc of the civil war as Aldia is older and I'm sure siring a bastard with the leader of the other army didn't look good in Venn, either]

"Whatever this is," Shulva 

We don't know how long the war lasted, but in my head it lasts about a generation (However long that is in Souls terms,) as it seems like it was largely a war of attrition between Venn - who had money, weapons, and defenses but no soldiers - and Alken, who had land, raw materials, and people, but no money or food or weapons.

Venn, the faction descended from the church and royal family of Olaphis, would have nominally been the 'legitimate' ruler of the empire, even if they didn't have the power to actually do anything with it other than cede territory to bandits, upstarts, and neighbors. A case could be made that Forossa even claimed lands as far west as the Shaded Woods during this period.

By the time it was known as something distinct from Olaphis, Venn was ruled by an unnamed Princess. I kid, her name was Ivory. Little is known about her, save that she was a puppeteer, probably was related to the Sunken King in some fashion, and may have had a brief rule, depending on how the war went. We don't know who exactly her parents were, but I suspect she's the 'rightful' heir under the King of Olaphis.

Except she vanished.

Venn likely used Heide as the capitol, but had lost most of her leadership, military, and the once-mighty church, which are important things to have if you're running a theocratic monarchy.

Venn was likely economically rich, for whatever that was worth at the time, as it's contrasted with the impoverished land of Alken. If we assume that the three eastern kingdoms still existed, then it's likely Venn hired foreign mercenaries, through which tales of Drangleic reached the outside world. This would help draw in explorers like Carhillion, Licia, Chloanne, Gilligan, and Benhart, many of whom seem to have a better understanding of Alken than the most recent kingdom, Drangleic.

Imperfect

The Blue Sentinels and Way of Blue factions need to be talked about at length, as they would have likely represented the primary means by which Venn maintained power for however long it did, but covenants seem like some of the deepest lore, so I'm going to have a larger discussion about them later. Some points that need to be established, however, are

• The Blue Sentinels were likely just The Sentinels before Venn remade the order to fall in line with the local folk religion,
• The Way of Blue, which is described as "not being a developed religion," but rather a "humble prayer that spread naturally amongst those seeking help." In other words, the Blue Sentinels were born out of Venn's need to drum up support for their cause.
• I'm sure their similarities to the Darkmoon Blades and Princess Guard are no coincidence.

That specific type of stone circle, I think, represents the Way of White. They're all over in the place across the three games.

There were also, of course, the Old Knights and the Ruin Sentinels. Both appear to be puppets of Olaphis that were retained by Venn, with the arms race of the war largely revolving around Alken slowly catching up to and surpassing Venn at the art of puppetry/golems.

The Ruin Sentinels are likely the parent faction to the Blue Sentinels, and are described as being creations of the 'jailer,' which likely refers to the Sunken King - or someone acting on his behalf, like another colonist, the princess, Elana, or even Yorgh - making the king or his agent the original puppeteer.

The Ruin Sentinels, presuming she could control them, would have represented a significant force in the Venn arsenal. Even so, Venn couldn't run an empire with empty suits. Eventually whatever troops remained loyal to Venn were withdrawn from places like the Bastille, which were abandoned or lost to time and border skirmishes.

I describe the war as kind of a decades-long siege. I don't mean I think the Prince was literally camped outside of the Majula Gate most of the time, but I do think that the ruling class of Venn was essentially trapped in Heide and No-Man's Wharf, with a possible naval force. Or at least boats. The Alken 'barbarian horde' consisted mostly of the Prince, Mytha (we assume,) and eventually Alonne trying to turn starving, sick, uneducated, out-of-work peasants into an empire to rival the gods.

Venn's entire strategy may have consisted of slowly running out of money and food while waiting for help to maybe show up,

OR,

the Princess peaced out to Forossa early, making the barbarians think she was holed up and running out of food. While Alken was focused on Heide, Venn (and possibly her brother,) could have been moving to flank in the Shaded Woods.

That's the sensationalist-ass long shot option.

Regardless, Venn was soon a small group of loyalist survivors in a sinking city on the losing side of a war of (mostly) attrition.

You're fucking terrible at this, Cale, and that's from someone that misspelled OIKing which ISNT EVEN A WORD

As for the Princess herself, well, I hinted at what I think happened up there, but it's a big pill to swallow, and I'll go more in-depth about it in the Three Kingdoms section, but...

Princess Venn

People like Princess Venn don't just vanish from history. She was a Gwyndolin-esque figure, in that she appears to have been quite intelligent but chose to channel her intelligence through the church and ran a group of secret police so secret they didn't even know they were the secret police.

If she isn't the Sinner (Doubtful,) and didn't die with the fall of Venn (I can't imagine the Prince, even at the height of the Iron Kingdom, would want her dead,) then I'm almost certain the Princess quit her holdings and relocated to Forossa, where she may have had allies, after all.

I'm seriously going to explore her character later in a section about the three kingdoms. It might even be an entire post. But just some points to consider before yelling at me:

• The Ivory King never unmasks in public.
• Why they call their general the 'king' though?
• Why it's tigers not lions?
• Why we get a Drangleic crown from a Forossa DLC?
• Why the crown's so pretty though?

[Glares in Ye Olde Englishe]

There's more to be said about Venn, and especially the Princess, but that outlines what and where Venn was, as well as their side of the war.

From Venn to Alken

Alken

You can't run a country with empty suits, but you can sure conquer one. While Venn was walled off and scheming, the Prince of Alken slowly began to amass some serious power.

Alken was ruled by an unnamed Prince, although evidence suggests that this prince went on to become the Iron King. Gilligan's description of the love triangle between the prince, princess, and Queen Mytha would seem to support the idea that the 'prince of that nearby castle' is the Iron King, and his 'feelings for another' lines up with the tale of the forbidden love between the prince and princess that resulted in the bell towers.

Also, as to timelines, the belfries were probably built somewhat late in the war, given that the Iron Keep wasn't created until after Brume had been reacquired. Possibly it was a parting gesture just before Venn surrendered the territory.

Given what we know of Olaphis it's not improbable that the reason the love between the prince and princess was forbidden is because they were related. Yorgh and Sunken may have been brothers, or at least brothers in arms, and the twin dragon crest their family motif. If so, then this might make the prince and princess cousins or something. I have no hard evidence of this, beyond appeals to the obvious Game of Thrones influence and historical precedent.

Old Statue, Bastille

Personally, I see the Alken faction as being comprised mostly of Drang natives and the Venn faction being comprised mostly of Anor-Olaph nobles and their direct allies and servants. There's no real reason to think the family relationship is there other than the Firstborn/Gwyndolin dynamic they have. However, it is FromSoft and they love sneaking things like that past censors.

The Prince of Alken - whether or not he was an offspring or descendant of Yorgh, the Sunken King, or just some random guy that liked the twin dragon crest thing and later tagged his knight captains with it - was a lord of a poor and barren land. The primary reason for this may have been that Sihn's initial stockpile of poison could have seeped up into the mines and farms, making them unworkable.

I've heard it argued that Vendrick placed the crest on the Alonne Captains after he raided the Keep, but that seems like a weird thing to do if you're Vendrick. Tag "TWIN DRAGONZ 4 LYFE" on the commissioned officers and leave? Maybe. I've also heard it argued that Yorgh was one of Vendrick's men, but that just seems weird to me. "Hey, go poke Sihn. Here's a ring with my crest to deflect the spells they don't have."

CUZ THIS IS THRILLER

Commoners probably liked the Prince, particularly in the early days before the curse broke out. I imagine his story is in some ways reminiscent of the European fables about nobles being hidden away as infants and raised as farmers, later revealing their royal heritage at the narratively correct moment, and of course the crown shaped birthmark is there the ideology is there, the commoner is not the hero, you are not the hero, all is predestined, accept complacency, and so on and so on [sniffs]. 

Plus, it would be easy to blame the crop failures and mine disasters on 'those coward Venns and their godsdamned foreign cult shit.' Especially early in the war when Venn was still more apparently in control.

Undated Statue, Ruined Fork Road

The Prince didn't have any soldiers though, until Alonne trained them. He didn't have any money, and what he did probably got spent on grain and wood. He also didn't have much magic until pyromancy reentered the kingdom via however. And Mytha, whenever she appears.

Probably the Prince was a Warrior of Sunlight, and the placement of the shrine could represent that being the 'Prince' half of his life, with the minotaur representing the Iron King period.

I say that to say that the Prince was probably a populist, and I say that because the Prince was also probably a clinical narcissist with no greater ambition than to be thought of as great and ambitious.

Brought from Anor or crafted by a colonist, is my guess.

Along comes Alonne. A wandering knight from an unnamed eastern land, he decided for whatever reason that the Iron Prince would make a worthy lord to serve, and swore himself to Alken's cause.

Which is strange, because Alonne is a ronin.

A ronin is a historical thing that grew into an archetype similar to a knight errant or wandering gunslinger. A masterless samurai, put briefly. Someone who once was powerful (in the sense of exercising control over others,) and was seen as an authority figure, but was subordinate to some local governor or noble house. They're also almost always top-shelf ass-kickers.

Ronin are very divisive figures, at least from what I've seen as an idiot westerner. This usually comes down to how the former samurai became unemployed. Usually, it's because either the authority he was pledged to died or gave them the boot, but occasionally the samurai deserts or even kills the authority out of a well-or-ill advised sense of justice.

Weirdly, the former were usually seen as more honorable than the latter, despite the former being more likely to become a bandit chieftain or usurper, and the lord-killer being more likely to become a folk hero.

But again, I'm mostly going from action movies and videos on HEMA-flavored Youtube channels, so I'm probably wrong.

'"They're Four , But Hole"? Jerry, did you write this?'

 , 

And so, this wandering army-less captain meets the Prince during his early days and pledges allegiance. Alonne trains the (probably,) dirt farmers and poison miners of Alken in how to fight since

1. Probably all the Prince got out of the Shulva deal was a name and a chance to be famous with local informed nobodies because of who his dad or sister or whoever was and definitely no army or money.

2. You don't have time to personally train soldiers when you're taking over the world and

3. When you grow up in the shadow of Very Flawed Legends you generally have a hard time relating to normal people trying to be all buddy-buddy with you like you might not have to hunt their family for sport later, even if you did drink a beer with the guy and laugh at his joke.

4. King Alken may have had horns. That can weird people out. His animal mascot is a minotaur. Ichorous Earth has horns. Mytha has horns. The smelter demon has horns, and smelter is the Dark Souls of Frankenstein stories. I don't really think he had horns.

WHOLE FUCKING ROYAL FAMILY HAS HORNS WHATS THAT

But he might've.

WHERE THEY GET HORNS FROM FROM THEY ALL DRAGON PEOPLE OR WHAT

Exhausting his limited resources, the would-be king managed to reclaim the Iron Scepter and/or Brume Tower from Venn, granting him a near-infinite source of iron and titanite, and the war was basically over.

Imagine Gwyndolin, the Darkmoon Knightess, and Seathe trying to hold position in Anor Londo, but with half the knights, broken sentinels, and no Way of White or Frampt propagandizing on their behalf. Checkmate. The Bull takes the kingdom.

Iron wins wars, then as now. So the son becomes the father, in a sense. Great Lighting Spear Becomes The Sun.

So what now? Empire of peace and enlightenment Higher truths and deeper meaning? Fully-automated luxury gay space communist?

Fuck out of here with that. The Bull has won the world is mine and my ex-girlfriends off being a hero and my wife is actively plotting against me , Eygil, and there's fucking zombies everywhere so I"M GONNA MAKE A DRAGON OUT OF LAVA. LAVA, EYGIL. L-A-V-A LAVA. AND I DON'T GIVE A FUCK IF IT'S REALLY MAGMA OR SEIMOGRAPHIC VULCANISM OR WHATEVER THE FUCK, EYGIL. LAVA DRAGONS. MAKE EM HAPPEN SMARTY PANTS.

So the king uses his miracle iron to build a castle on top of what would turn out to be a volcano and try to make lava dragons because the Iron King was, among other things, an idiot.

The King was described as a simple man unconcerned with understanding the nature of the Soul, consumed as he was with power for its own sake. When the curse emerged he came down on it even more harshly than Olaphis, rounding up undead and banishing them to a nearby secluded wood that would come to be known as the Huntsmans Copse. 

In these woods the King led gruesome hunts of the undead, and charged his men with their continuance. Long after the fall of the kingdom the hunts lived on, until time and the Curse eroded almost all difference between hunter and hunted. Undead too brutalized to make sport of were shuffled off to the Undead Purgatory, to be mowed down by the Executioner Chariot until they became, one assumes, pulp.

This insanity continued until time and hollowing purged the memories of the hunters, and a kingdom of bone and blood rose from the slaughter. 

Nahr Alma

In his latter years, the King cast his net abroad for people that could contribute to the might of the kingdom. One of the King's most suspect guests was the Magus Eygil. A pyromancer, among other things, Eygil dreamed of giving life to the flame, and as an artisan he fashioned the great bull-headed idol and (we can assume,) all of the Brume Lite mechanisms it controls. His pyromancies may represent some kind of early incarnation of Nadalia (dancing, dark flame,) and may offer insight into how the Dark Queens come into being. Conversely, he may have been somehow preventing her from manifesting. Who knows, I guess.

Eygil, maybe.

With Eygil's help, I would imagine, the art of puppetry was revitalized. By grafting souls to empty suits of armor they created the Ironclad: tireless automatons of war that would outlast all the wars to come.

At some point Alonne left the kingdom. History records him as having left the King's service, probably because of his lord's descent into debauchery. In reality, it seems like he was killed in a normally-inaccessible section of the Iron Keep by a time-traveling Cursebearer. It's possible Alonne was under some kind of influence, as his sword seems to indicate that the sword is 'bewitched,' and relies on some kind of blood magic.

It seems weird that someone like Alonne would carry a weapon like that, unless he was more towards the bandit lord end of the knight errant spectrum.

In the end, the King created – or unearthed – the Smelter Demon, a raging titan of flame and iron that struck the King down in a blow. Presently, The Iron Keep began to sink under its own weight, the lava slowly consuming it. The King's body slipped into he molten lake, where it is thought to have encountered the soul of another power-mad king lost to flame, and became the vessel for Ichorous Earth.

Sure, it's an angel. But why's it chained up? Or down, rather?

The kingdom was again leaderless.

The Iron Keep, as well as the smelting tower, became draws for scavengers looking to strip them of riches. What they found at Brume was a Dark Fog. The dancer, Nadalia, was a Child of Dark, a fragment of ancient, dissipated Manus. This 'augur of solitude' made the tower her home and, after renouncing her flesh and forsaking her soul, her rule was complete, as the former inhabitants – even empty suits of armor and opportunistic thieves – were enslaved by the cursed smog of Brume Tower.

Mytha
Hooboy. I'm going to try giving the surface-level story and then scraping until things start to make sense.

Mytha was the Queen of Alken, and wife of the Iron King. Gilligan - whose information likely comes third-hand from Blue Sentinels or Falconers in Volgen - tells us that Mytha was wed to 'the prince of that nearby castle,' but that the prince 'had feelings for another.' Spurned, Mytha began using poison harvested from underground – possibly from Shulva – in an attempt to augment her reportedly legendary beauty.

The influence of Sihn's poison could have brought about Mytha's mutation, given what we've seen of dragon hybrids thus far. As dragons exist outside of time and are therefore unaffected by regular souls, the serpentification process have caused or enhanced Mytha's abilities as a caster. Here's a really, really neat thing about Mytha: she casts Soul Geyser like it's nothing. That's a 64 INT, ~2 cast spell. Here's a really neat thing about Soul Geyser:

This blasphemous spell is a family heirloom of Lord Aldia's.

Additionally, Mytha created her own puppets, the manikins, and may have been a pyromancer. Not only is the Sihn-Elana connection there with the poison from the valley, but descriptions of her seem to imply that she wass quite gifted at Rapport, so much so that she's drawn pyromancer enchantresses from distant Jugo.

The poison had a bootstrapping effect on the queen's madness, and by that I mean the very specific form of Fromsoft madness where really it's just an incredibly smart person that's disappeared completely up their own ass and no one can tell what they're trying to accomplish.

Personally, I suspect that inasmuch as Drangleic was united as a kingdom during the period between the Iron and Dragon kingdoms it was united around the idea of Mytha being the rightful Queen of Drangleic, and that a good portion of current interests that aren't being pushed by other nations or Aldia are being pushed by and for her.

Yeah, I said it.

That Gilligan's information is dated to a time when the Iron King was still the Prince, it might be safe to assume that he and Mytha were married during the Sunbro period of Iron's life, before he conquered Venn and was recognized as King.

Iron Keep

I described the Iron King as probably being a popular King for most of his reign over Alken. Mytha, however, went on to be worshiped across the lands until the end of time.

At some point, I don't know when or who by, Mytha was beheaded, and now uses her severed head as a catalyst for (incredibly) high-level sorceries.

In a kingdom where sorcery was mostly outlawed until quite recently.

In a sense she seems to exist in a state similar to Vengarl, only with body and mind acting in concert. Also: she has horns, as do the minotaur statues representing the Iron King.

As a final note, she inspired such devotion that it resulted in a Covetous Demon, an event someone in Eleum Loyce seems to have similarly inspired. The Covetous Demons seem to follow the 'cannibalism causes bloating' rule.

I don't now much else about Mytha. I don't know if I'll ever write one of these for Lothric, but if I do, I'll be approaching it, in part, from Mytha's perspective.

Onward.

"Smelter Throne," Irithyll

Errata

• The Simpleton and Skeptic Spices, though they're found all over, seem to exist in especially high concentrations in areas associated with the Prince and Princess. The Simpleton's Spice lowers Intelligence requirements, is red, and can be found in the Iron Keep and Sol. The Skeptic's Spice lowers Faith requirements, is blue, and can be found in the Bastille and Luna areas. 
• Both require Magerold's assistance to use. There's a lot of interesting stuff about Magerold, Durgo, and Lanafir, but I don't know how it plugs into the rest of the story.
• Blue Smelter Demon - It might be a lazy reskin, but it also might be important. Across all three games there have been references to 'blue flame.' First, if I recall correctly, was at the Battle of Stoicism. Next were the Blue Flame weapons by the Leydia White pyromancers, and the map in the Drangleic basement (the flames turn blue at NG+8). I don't know if all those things are related to each other or the Smelter Demon, and might just be a dead end, lore-wise.
• Flame Salamanders - I don't know what these things are either, but they're related to pyromancy, might be old-school demons and first appear in the Iron Kingdom. 
• Jester Thomas protects the Imperfect but attacks Mytha. If we allow that Thomas may have been an actual jester for an actual noble we may be able to puzzle out his intentions. He may date to Olaphis, or he may be loyal to Queen Elana, and see Mytha as an usurper similar to Yorgh (who was possibly her husband's father or grandfather).

It would be nice if I could say 'those are definitely Leydia apostles and therefore IMPLICATIONS' but I can't.

With the death of the Iron King, Drang fell into a period of lawlessness and chaos even greater than the period after the fall of Olaphis,and with greater hardship, as the country may have had as little as a single generation to attempt to rebuild before everything re-collapsed. 

Eventually, from the eastern mountains, a new order would rise from the scrum and reunite the empire: 

The Dragonriders.