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.
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.
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| 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.
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| ...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]
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| "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.
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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.
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| 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
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.
- 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.
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| 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.
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| 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?
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| [Glares in Ye Olde Englishe] |
From Venn to Alken
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| 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.
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| 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."
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| CUZ THIS IS THRILLER |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| '"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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Iron Keep |
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.
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| "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).
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| It would be nice if I could say 'those are definitely Leydia apostles and therefore IMPLICATIONS' but I can't. |
Eventually, from the eastern mountains, a new order would rise from the scrum and reunite the empire:
The Dragonriders.
