Lo! ’t is a gala nightWithin the lonesome latter years!An angel throng, bewinged, bedightIn veils, and drowned in tears,Sit in a theatre, to seeA play of hopes and fears,While the orchestra breathes fitfullyThe music of the spheres.Mimes, in the form of God on high,Mutter and mumble low,And hither and thither fly—Mere puppets they, who come and goAt bidding of vast formless thingsThat shift the scenery to and fro,Flapping from out their Condor wingsInvisible Wo!That motley drama—oh, be sureIt shall not be forgot!With its Phantom chased for evermoreBy a crowd that seize it not,Through a circle that ever returneth inTo the self-same spot,And much of Madness, and more of Sin,And Horror the soul of the plot.But see, amid the mimic rout,A crawling shape intrude!A blood-red thing that writhes from outThe scenic solitude!It writhes!—it writhes!—with mortal pangsThe mimes become its food,And seraphs sob at vermin fangsIn human gore imbued.Out—out are the lights—out all!And, over each quivering form,The curtain, a funeral pall,Comes down with the rush of a storm,While the angels, all pallid and wan,Uprising, unveiling, affirmThat the play is the tragedy, “Man,”And its hero, the Conqueror Worm
This is going to be the story of Dark Souls 3, as well as a continuation of Scholar of Scholar, the meta-analysis of the history/various lore theories of Dark Souls 2. Hopefully this will all result in a less incoherent narrative for the entire series, which is sorely lacking beyond the general (surface level) consensus around Dark 2, which I liken to the community's understanding of Bloodborne before Redgrave, JSF, Aegon and so on really cracked the code on how to think about these games.
As to how I come to the conclusions I do, I consider very little of this my own work, beyond the actual writing and screenshots, and maybe some of the connective tissue.
I don't think any of this is 'right'.
Dark Souls are the only video games I play anymore. I'm playing it now, by writing this. You're playing it by reading this. Even if you're reading this and have somehow never played Dark Souls: you don't know it, but you are playing Dark Souls. Or it's playing you, I don't know.
Dark Souls games are like the Sutter Kane books from the movie In the Mouth of Madness, with you, hypothetical stranger, the hapless Sam Neill way out at the edge of the vortex being menaced by crazy people with axes. Only real. Not the menacing axes, part, though, that's not real. But the rest of it. Well, maybe it's real, but probably not for a whole lot of people. Like I'm sure you could find anecdotal evidence of Nyarlathotep-based axe murderers that play Dark Souls, but that's, like, not representative of any kind of larger societal trend.
If you are somewhat familiar with souls-lore but haven't read Scholar this is going to sound like bad fan faction. If you've read Scholar this is going to sound like crazy fan fiction. Bear with me.
 |
| Like, I say 'oh I don't understand the story,' but that's me being self-deprecating and admitting I'm mortal and therefore fallible and all that. When I say 'I don't understand...' I mean I have a Logan-level understanding of the first two games, and that makes me sound crazy to anyone with a Griggs-level understanding of the first game and a, let's say, Benhart-level understanding of the second game, so there aren't many people I can hash this stuff out with. |
Right up front: I do not understand the timeline of 3, and am half-convinced it's designed to not be understood. Sometimes I think I'll crack the code, but then always end up feeling like I'm completely wrong. Additionally, there's a possibility that some of these stories, such as Farron and Carthus or Aldritch and Lothric, overlap to such a degree that, even were time and space not collapsing, thinking of them in terms of before-and-after might not even make sense. I mean, the in medias res finds us in the middle of what looks like a war between Blue and Red Lothric factions, Sulyvahn's church, and Londor, but like no one really brings it up.
 |
| EMMA: Civil war? What civil war? Things are fine. Nothing duplicitous here. Mind the cleric beast monster on your way out, love. Under siege? Whatever makes you think that? Run along, Ashen One. |
Like, I'm not a game designer and have no idea what the limitations of the hard and software they're working with is, but patching that would've been on my 'things we need to knock out the day after launch' list.
 |
| Hooraaaaaaaaay consoles |
Consequently, there will probably be fewer screenshots, particularly early on, since I'm going through the game as I write this and Carthus comes after the Abyss Watchers, who I don't want to kill yet because I might need screenshots and don't have the time or patience to fuck with another playthrough or swapping around save states because, let's be honest, I work on this for an hour or two a day, two or three days a week, plus any free time I can scrape out, usually balls-ass early before the wife or kid wake up, and it'll take months to finish a single post if I want to get it 'right.'
I'm going to start with Carthus, and try to build from there. I have a feeling that, inasmuch as time makes sense in this game, Carthus was one of the earliest events that's still documented well enough to construct a narrative around.
To immediately repeat myself: time and space are collapsing, at least in the Ashen One's time. Physical relations are not what they were in the previous games. By that I mean they got their physics all fuckered up. Time doesn't mean what it did, space doesn't mean what it did. In 2 we had some indications that there was some time/space warpy stuff going on, but effects still followed causes and it was mostly related to things like dimensional portals and pocket dimensions.
My underlying assumption will be that all the mentioned lands, unless otherwise noted in-game, have existed as long as each other. For example, the Crystal Sages started in Lothric Archives, and one left to join Farron to train the Legion's sorcerers, so Lothric and Farron have both existed somewhat continuously for multiple cycles (if Farron's current state could be said to be still 'existing').
So with that,
Blood and Bone
I'm going to start with Carthus, and try to build from there. I have a feeling that, inasmuch as time makes sense in this game, Carthus was one of the earliest events that's still documented well enough to construct a narrative around.
To immediately repeat myself: time and space are collapsing, at least in the Ashen One's time. Physical relations are not what they were in the previous games. By that I mean they got their physics all fuckered up. Time doesn't mean what it did, space doesn't mean what it did. In 2 we had some indications that there was some time/space warpy stuff going on, but effects still followed causes and it was mostly related to things like dimensional portals and pocket dimensions.
My underlying assumption will be that all the mentioned lands, unless otherwise noted in-game, have existed as long as each other. For example, the Crystal Sages started in Lothric Archives, and one left to join Farron to train the Legion's sorcerers, so Lothric and Farron have both existed somewhat continuously for multiple cycles (if Farron's current state could be said to be still 'existing').
So with that,
Blood and Bone
Long ago (maybe,) in a walled-off land far to the north (maybe,) the dead queen of a fallen kingdom began to amass an army from the corpses of her fallen empire. The kingdom, a place that only ever knew war and want, had a great many dead.
The queen was an evil forbidden poisonous snake enchantress witch queen of the dead. Among other things.
The queen allied herself with the Grave Wardens-- stalwart defenders of the world's dead. She bathed in dragon's blood, united the dead and hollow of fallen kingdoms, redefined the limits of puppetry, and raised a legion of blood-crazed madmen to terrorize the lands of law and light.
And this all happened after she was beheaded.
In the first days of the Age of Dark (maybe) the queen's empire, fallen Alken, was loosed upon an unsuspecting world, even if the snake queen and her Empire of the Dead were to be buried in history (such as it is).
Because when the Dark Lord took his Throne Death became the Curse, just as Dark had cursed the Light before her.
The dead poured across the world as a storm unending. Where her armies marched only desert remained, and from those armies of blood drunk hollows and scoured bones rose a Champion, a warlord the likes of which the world had never seen.
Wolnir
valr - Old Norse; 'corpse, body, or battlefield'
The queen was an evil forbidden poisonous snake enchantress witch queen of the dead. Among other things.
The queen allied herself with the Grave Wardens-- stalwart defenders of the world's dead. She bathed in dragon's blood, united the dead and hollow of fallen kingdoms, redefined the limits of puppetry, and raised a legion of blood-crazed madmen to terrorize the lands of law and light.
And this all happened after she was beheaded.
In the first days of the Age of Dark (maybe) the queen's empire, fallen Alken, was loosed upon an unsuspecting world, even if the snake queen and her Empire of the Dead were to be buried in history (such as it is).
Because when the Dark Lord took his Throne Death became the Curse, just as Dark had cursed the Light before her.
The dead poured across the world as a storm unending. Where her armies marched only desert remained, and from those armies of blood drunk hollows and scoured bones rose a Champion, a warlord the likes of which the world had never seen.
Wolnir
valr - Old Norse; 'corpse, body, or battlefield'
nýr - Old Norse; "new"
After the Cursebearer took the Ascend ending we can assume that some kind of kingdom arose in some kind of golden age in Drangleic. My current best theorizing leads me to conclude that this kingdom, at least to some degree, was modeled after High Olaphis, itself modeled after Gwyn's High Anor period. This kingdom, which serves at stepping stone from the Drangleic of the second game to the Lothric we find in the third.
This post-Drangleic, proto-Lothric kingdom, I suspect, was overseen by a number of in-world factions, with Elana acting as something like queen. The factions include The Blue Sentinels (both Heide and Volgen factions,) Carim (they seem to have been building power in Drangleic when we arrive and have a heavy, for Carim, presence in Shulva,) elements of Forossa and Mirrah, and possibly support from Gwyndolin's Neo-Anor (the hypothetical golden age overseen by Gwyndolin and Thorolund following the Link the Fire ending of DS1).
Since Drangleic always falls to civil war I find it fairly safe to assume that, if something like the above is true, then something like a Neo-Alken would arise in opposition to Neo-Olaphis.
Since Drangleic always falls to civil war I find it fairly safe to assume that, if something like the above is true, then something like a Neo-Alken would arise in opposition to Neo-Olaphis.
So, to switch to the third game, or rather the world that would become the third game when Neo-Olaphis were, eventually, forced out of Drangleic by something like a Neo-Alken following the Renounce ending:
Locations matter in Neo-Anor. For example, Lothric -- the kingdom founded by Neo-Olaphis in or near Lordran -- has a history rooted in a story rooted in the second game. Farron's history, on the other hand, represents a more-or-less unbroken continuation of the society of Forest Hunters that settled in Darkroot. In other words, the founders of Lothric, some of them at least, had an incomplete understanding of the history of Lordran but had first-hand knowledge of post-Cursebearer Drangleic, where Carthus first arose.
Mythologically, the rise of Neo-Alken could be thought of as Nito/The Dead making a big move on the chessboard of history. It, of course, culminates in the Agdayne aspects of Nito (death as a kind of impartial Samurai Grim Reaper,) slowly falling to the more Way of White-esque aspects of Nito (death as a kind of slow process of stagnation and corruption).
Neo-Alken, eventually, produced a Champion, and before this Champion all the kingdoms known to Drangleic would be ground to dust:
Wolnir, king of kings, and beholden to no god, old or new.
Perhaps it was this atheistic conviction that led, indirectly, to the creation of the Sandworm. Lord Carthus, from lands long distrustful of faith, may well have repeated an atrocity born of ancient sin: condemning all who served the gods to death and burying them in a mass grave. I'm reasonably certain that this first event is what created the Rotten. This event repeated, in an Age of Dark rather than an Age of Light, had consequences.
It should probably be mentioned the possibility of the Carthus Sandworm being the remains of the descendants of the Lindelt Monastery, which would have probably pulled the strings for the Way of Blue in Neo-Olaphis. As far as I know this could be the case, but I think it's equally likely that it represents the Thorolund-era Way of White, and may have been the calamity that led to the WoW merging with Carim. The difference would be that, if it was Lindelt, the Sandworm would have been born in Drangleic and led Carthus to Lordran; if it was Thorolund it would have been born in Lordran and attacked Carthus before being driven back.
Warriors fought the ravaging worm in the crypts and hollow places beneath Drangleic (or possibly beneath Farron/Oolacile [if those are even different places). At some point the beast tumbled, or burrowed, into the ruins surrounding old Izalith, and the Army of the Dead followed to the lands of the First Lord.
The pyromancies of Carthus evolved in isolation, divorced from their own history by the purgings of lords past. The Throne that was taken by the Cursebearer had in all likelihood been created, or possibly repurposed, by a Daughter of Chaos; but that's the kind of rumor that was old when Carthus was young. Carthus' understanding of the roots of pyromancy was most likely rooted in whatever faith or history the Jugo pyromancers had. Jugo, like the Great Swamp, may have been a place with a kind of Astora-Anor relationship to Izalith pre-Chaos, or Jugo could have been visited by the wandering dark pyromancer of Oolacile
But here before them, stumbled across by accident, was the Source of their war beacon: a land of demons and molten earth.
I'll be discussing things like why Smouldering Lake is and what happened to Izalith more in-depth later. The big takeaway here is that Wolnir came to Lordran from somewhere like Jugo or Drangleic, probably by an underground route, which set the stage for
Their cloud spell, Acid Surge, was designed to break the arms and armor of their foes in combat, unlike the poison/toxic cloud spells of Eingyi, which would have been used to spread illness or dispatch foes while avoiding direct conflict. Cartus warriors 'attached great value to victory,' and the use of underhanded tactics like Acid Surge bothered them not at all, 'for where is the honor in death and scoured bones?'
Of the pyromantic arts of Carthus, which were largely used to supplement their warriors' swordwork, the Flame Arc was seemingly the most traditional, and maybe the only Cart pyromancy that actually used fire. It's been theorized that Flame Weapon is a pyromancy so old that it's actually a flame sorcery (Old Witch Soul, DS2,) and the convergent evolution of the Flame Arc of Carthus likely symbolizes the 'return' of the distant heirs of the Lost Sinner to the ruins of Izalith.
It seems obvious, but needs to be stressed: Cathus was an army of the dead that primarily used life magic, that later went on to attempt conquer the fallen Kingdom of Life. That seems like at least two different kinds of necromancy. I say 'attempt' because we don't actually know how successful Wolnir was in Lordran, but we can assume that Carthus is likely the one responsible for the slaughter of the remaining demons.
With that out of the way, let's skip back to Drangleic and try to figure out the Black Serpent.
Darkdrift
Carthus arose from the kingdom forged by Mytha and Agdayne, the Red faction to Elana's Blue. Mytha was, as you'll recall, turned into a serpent woman by Sihn's poison, and that Agdayne was a hexer that could have well been an incarnation of the Dead Soul. Agdayne, notably, was perhaps the first, Grave Warden, appointed personally by either Nito or some entity closely tied to Nito. Agdayne is also one of the most informed characters in the game. After meeting Vendrick he gives the Cursebearer Darkdrift as 'proof' of their visit to Undead Crypt and (presumably,) Agdayne's approval.
Darkdrift is a cursed sword with an unseen blade that, like its old master, 'exists imperfectly between planes.' The original owner was known as 'the one who gave us the first death,' and the blade was later carried by Yuria of Londor, who was 'said to have claimed a hundred lives' with the weapon.
Nothing can defend from Darkdrift.
This 'existing imperfectly between the planes' aspect of death is fleshed out further by Numbness, a hex that apparently moves the caster partially out of phase with their home dimension, says that 'if it cannot be observed it must not exist. Certainly a common conception, but one with far too many exceptions in this world.'
In my mind this is both explaining how the Dead Soul works and telling players that 'look, if you've puzzled your way down this far you're probably also the type to figure out that an old man doesn't really live in the sky and that your government lies to you about everything and that people believe a lot of dumb shit for no good reason and so on, so being hyperskeptical about BS-sounding explanatory mechanisms is probably second nature to you, but that kind of thing can be taken to far, especially when you start using it like a hammer to shut down new ideas or perspectives or potentially better explanatory mechanisms or, yknow, trying to figure out Nito's story.'
The One Who Gave Us the First Death: Agdayne references this character. It's unclear if this is the same character as the Great Dead One referenced by the Milfanito. I'll refer to these entities, which might just be one, as First Death and First Dead.
It would seem obvious that First Death means 'Nito,' but we don't know that it means Nito. To use a Biblical analogy, if Nito is Abel - the first person to lose a life - then Darkdrift's original master, the First Death entity, may have been Cain - the first person to take a life - if you see what I'm saying.
Unity becomes duality in the Soulsverse. Quelaag and Quelana, Nameless and Gwyndolin: I think this might also be true for Death.
First Dead - the murdered - is the more straightforward Nitoan entity. It gave birth to the Brightbugs, which grant comfort to those afflicted with death and dark. S/he also first introduced song into the world, granting it to the Milfanito that they might bring peace to the dark. This, I think, is also the stagnation/corruption aspect of Death embodied by Elana or the old Way of White.
Anyway, enough making myself crazy.
From Agdayne we learn all kinds of things.
Agdayne, a Fenito, was granted guardianship of the Undead Crypt. This is symbolized by the Crypt Blacksword, a weapon that has never seen the light of day and is 'steeped in dark.' This is the sword Agdayne actually uses in combat, not Darkdrift. We wouldn't even know Agdayne was carrying Darkdrift unless he gave it to us as 'proof' our visit and, probably to a lesser degree, of fuckouting Velstadt the Fucking Cleric.
The Crypt Blacksword that symbolizes Head Grave Wardenship is created from the Old Dead One Soul, which we pick up from the Rotten, who is clearly not a Grave Warden. I've outlined the Red and Blue factions of the Dead extensively in scholar, but this split seems especially noteworthy, mostly because I find it confusing. If the Rotten's Dead One Soul was used to craft Darkdrift and Agdayne gave us the Blacksword as proof of our visit to the Crypt the whole thing would, seemingly, be more parsimonious.
Which makes me think that there's some reason why this is not the case.
Anyway, I'm sure Nito and the Dead Soul will be talked about again, a lot, throughout this series. To get back to Carthus, this next section will discuss another Grave Warden from another age, Wolnir's squire.
He is described as an old man that 'began as a squire' that carried his 'master's accoutrements' until the end of his days. He seems like he's also the pyromancer that became a grave warden, as he seems to have survived Wolnir (sorta, we find Wolnir next to his body in the Abyss). His Umbral Ash unlocks the following items:
Carthus Rouge - probably the same substance labeled Bleeding Serum in the previous game, it's a substance obtained from 'viscous scarlet plant secretions,' harvested from a 'carnivorous plant' [bleeding serum]. 'Carnivorous plant' could refer to some kind of cannibal witchtree, but I'm only saying that because it's obvious. The bleeding caused by this secretion is standard bleeding, as opposed to Rotworm-based bleeding.
Kukri - 'Small throwing machete' that causes bleeding. Possible connection to Earthen Peak, as the Manikin's falcata-style saber was kukri-shaped. Although it's not a concrete connection, Gilligan sells lacerating knives and bleeding serum, and is first found in EP.
Yellow Bug Pellet - medicinal pill made from crushed insects. 'Used by Carthus Grave Wardens to repel a great sand worm. The worm tumbled to the catacombs and proceeded to dominate...Smoldering Lake.' This sandworm seems to be mostly made up of corpses, and its proficiency with lightning may have had something to do with Wolnir's disdain for the gods. As these pellets are implied to date to the grave warden's earlier days serving Wolnir, this gives us some idea of a timeline, with the Sandworm occurring before the Black Serpent, with the implication that the Sandworm led Carthus to Izalith, where something something black serpents and shadowless flames.
Wolnir's downfall was predicated on his discovering this 'Black Serpent' - a pyromancy that infringes on humanity, releasing black flames that traced the ground towards ones opponents. This would seemingly be the pyromancy long sought by Eygil and may serve as a connection to Brume and Nadalia, thematically if not narratively. It also puts Wolnir into the pyromancer category, which calls attention to the fact that he's an apparently highly-intelligent skeleton using life magic. With the history of pyromancy suppressed in Drangleic even more heavily than the history of the church or sorcery it's no surprise that Carthus gave rise to a completely divergent school of pyromancy completely ignorant of Izalith.
This black serpent was discovered by Wolnir from the Abyss, and inspired the arts of the grave warden/squire. Its creation may have been inspired by the 'light serpent' Wolnir had previously hunted.
The Grave Warden's pyromancy tome appears to have been burned, quartered, and reassembled, before being lost to and returned from the Abyss. It would not surprise me in the least if it were bound in flesh and inked in human blood.
The pyromancies discovered by the grave warden inflict dark damage and strike with 'weighty force.' The black flames 'born from the Abyss, bear no shadow,' and are 'the impenetrable fires of humanity.' I assume the same is also true of Elfriede, in some sense.
Law and Cast 1
Mythologically, the rise of Neo-Alken could be thought of as Nito/The Dead making a big move on the chessboard of history. It, of course, culminates in the Agdayne aspects of Nito (death as a kind of impartial Samurai Grim Reaper,) slowly falling to the more Way of White-esque aspects of Nito (death as a kind of slow process of stagnation and corruption).
Neo-Alken, eventually, produced a Champion, and before this Champion all the kingdoms known to Drangleic would be ground to dust:
Wolnir, king of kings, and beholden to no god, old or new.
 |
| Ironically this is the only picture I have of Wolnir. ARE THE MIRACLE CIRCLES A REAL LANGUAGE FROM ANSWER ME |
Perhaps it was this atheistic conviction that led, indirectly, to the creation of the Sandworm. Lord Carthus, from lands long distrustful of faith, may well have repeated an atrocity born of ancient sin: condemning all who served the gods to death and burying them in a mass grave. I'm reasonably certain that this first event is what created the Rotten. This event repeated, in an Age of Dark rather than an Age of Light, had consequences.
It should probably be mentioned the possibility of the Carthus Sandworm being the remains of the descendants of the Lindelt Monastery, which would have probably pulled the strings for the Way of Blue in Neo-Olaphis. As far as I know this could be the case, but I think it's equally likely that it represents the Thorolund-era Way of White, and may have been the calamity that led to the WoW merging with Carim. The difference would be that, if it was Lindelt, the Sandworm would have been born in Drangleic and led Carthus to Lordran; if it was Thorolund it would have been born in Lordran and attacked Carthus before being driven back.
Warriors fought the ravaging worm in the crypts and hollow places beneath Drangleic (or possibly beneath Farron/Oolacile [if those are even different places). At some point the beast tumbled, or burrowed, into the ruins surrounding old Izalith, and the Army of the Dead followed to the lands of the First Lord.
The pyromancies of Carthus evolved in isolation, divorced from their own history by the purgings of lords past. The Throne that was taken by the Cursebearer had in all likelihood been created, or possibly repurposed, by a Daughter of Chaos; but that's the kind of rumor that was old when Carthus was young. Carthus' understanding of the roots of pyromancy was most likely rooted in whatever faith or history the Jugo pyromancers had. Jugo, like the Great Swamp, may have been a place with a kind of Astora-Anor relationship to Izalith pre-Chaos, or Jugo could have been visited by the wandering dark pyromancer of Oolacile
But here before them, stumbled across by accident, was the Source of their war beacon: a land of demons and molten earth.
I'll be discussing things like why Smouldering Lake is and what happened to Izalith more in-depth later. The big takeaway here is that Wolnir came to Lordran from somewhere like Jugo or Drangleic, probably by an underground route, which set the stage for
- Carthus' takeover of Izalith/Demon Ruins
- The discovery of the Black Flame and the slide of Carthus into the Abyss.
- Probably a pretty big war between Carthus and Lothric/Irithyll that was eventually won (pyrrhically,) by the Abyss Watchers.
Their cloud spell, Acid Surge, was designed to break the arms and armor of their foes in combat, unlike the poison/toxic cloud spells of Eingyi, which would have been used to spread illness or dispatch foes while avoiding direct conflict. Cartus warriors 'attached great value to victory,' and the use of underhanded tactics like Acid Surge bothered them not at all, 'for where is the honor in death and scoured bones?'
Of the pyromantic arts of Carthus, which were largely used to supplement their warriors' swordwork, the Flame Arc was seemingly the most traditional, and maybe the only Cart pyromancy that actually used fire. It's been theorized that Flame Weapon is a pyromancy so old that it's actually a flame sorcery (Old Witch Soul, DS2,) and the convergent evolution of the Flame Arc of Carthus likely symbolizes the 'return' of the distant heirs of the Lost Sinner to the ruins of Izalith.
It seems obvious, but needs to be stressed: Cathus was an army of the dead that primarily used life magic, that later went on to attempt conquer the fallen Kingdom of Life. That seems like at least two different kinds of necromancy. I say 'attempt' because we don't actually know how successful Wolnir was in Lordran, but we can assume that Carthus is likely the one responsible for the slaughter of the remaining demons.
With that out of the way, let's skip back to Drangleic and try to figure out the Black Serpent.
Darkdrift
Carthus arose from the kingdom forged by Mytha and Agdayne, the Red faction to Elana's Blue. Mytha was, as you'll recall, turned into a serpent woman by Sihn's poison, and that Agdayne was a hexer that could have well been an incarnation of the Dead Soul. Agdayne, notably, was perhaps the first, Grave Warden, appointed personally by either Nito or some entity closely tied to Nito. Agdayne is also one of the most informed characters in the game. After meeting Vendrick he gives the Cursebearer Darkdrift as 'proof' of their visit to Undead Crypt and (presumably,) Agdayne's approval.
Darkdrift is a cursed sword with an unseen blade that, like its old master, 'exists imperfectly between planes.' The original owner was known as 'the one who gave us the first death,' and the blade was later carried by Yuria of Londor, who was 'said to have claimed a hundred lives' with the weapon.
Nothing can defend from Darkdrift.
This 'existing imperfectly between the planes' aspect of death is fleshed out further by Numbness, a hex that apparently moves the caster partially out of phase with their home dimension, says that 'if it cannot be observed it must not exist. Certainly a common conception, but one with far too many exceptions in this world.'
In my mind this is both explaining how the Dead Soul works and telling players that 'look, if you've puzzled your way down this far you're probably also the type to figure out that an old man doesn't really live in the sky and that your government lies to you about everything and that people believe a lot of dumb shit for no good reason and so on, so being hyperskeptical about BS-sounding explanatory mechanisms is probably second nature to you, but that kind of thing can be taken to far, especially when you start using it like a hammer to shut down new ideas or perspectives or potentially better explanatory mechanisms or, yknow, trying to figure out Nito's story.'
The One Who Gave Us the First Death: Agdayne references this character. It's unclear if this is the same character as the Great Dead One referenced by the Milfanito. I'll refer to these entities, which might just be one, as First Death and First Dead.
It would seem obvious that First Death means 'Nito,' but we don't know that it means Nito. To use a Biblical analogy, if Nito is Abel - the first person to lose a life - then Darkdrift's original master, the First Death entity, may have been Cain - the first person to take a life - if you see what I'm saying.
Unity becomes duality in the Soulsverse. Quelaag and Quelana, Nameless and Gwyndolin: I think this might also be true for Death.
First Dead - the murdered - is the more straightforward Nitoan entity. It gave birth to the Brightbugs, which grant comfort to those afflicted with death and dark. S/he also first introduced song into the world, granting it to the Milfanito that they might bring peace to the dark. This, I think, is also the stagnation/corruption aspect of Death embodied by Elana or the old Way of White.
Anyway, enough making myself crazy.
From Agdayne we learn all kinds of things.
- The dead view Dark as a kind of peaceful cradle to be embraced.
- In the past, humans were one with the dark, but 'the former King of Light...feared humans. Feared that they would usher in an age of dark.' This could refer to either/both Gwyn or King Olaphis.
- He finds it strange that humans never bother separating truth from fiction.
- 'Death is equitable, accepting. We will all, one day, be welcomed by her embrace.' 'Her' is likely used in a poetic sense, but I can't help feeling like he's referring to a specific deity, possibly Galib.
- 'May you find your peace one day.'
Agdayne, a Fenito, was granted guardianship of the Undead Crypt. This is symbolized by the Crypt Blacksword, a weapon that has never seen the light of day and is 'steeped in dark.' This is the sword Agdayne actually uses in combat, not Darkdrift. We wouldn't even know Agdayne was carrying Darkdrift unless he gave it to us as 'proof' our visit and, probably to a lesser degree, of fuckouting Velstadt the Fucking Cleric.
The Crypt Blacksword that symbolizes Head Grave Wardenship is created from the Old Dead One Soul, which we pick up from the Rotten, who is clearly not a Grave Warden. I've outlined the Red and Blue factions of the Dead extensively in scholar, but this split seems especially noteworthy, mostly because I find it confusing. If the Rotten's Dead One Soul was used to craft Darkdrift and Agdayne gave us the Blacksword as proof of our visit to the Crypt the whole thing would, seemingly, be more parsimonious.
Which makes me think that there's some reason why this is not the case.
Anyway, I'm sure Nito and the Dead Soul will be talked about again, a lot, throughout this series. To get back to Carthus, this next section will discuss another Grave Warden from another age, Wolnir's squire.
He is described as an old man that 'began as a squire' that carried his 'master's accoutrements' until the end of his days. He seems like he's also the pyromancer that became a grave warden, as he seems to have survived Wolnir (sorta, we find Wolnir next to his body in the Abyss). His Umbral Ash unlocks the following items:
Carthus Rouge - probably the same substance labeled Bleeding Serum in the previous game, it's a substance obtained from 'viscous scarlet plant secretions,' harvested from a 'carnivorous plant' [bleeding serum]. 'Carnivorous plant' could refer to some kind of cannibal witchtree, but I'm only saying that because it's obvious. The bleeding caused by this secretion is standard bleeding, as opposed to Rotworm-based bleeding.
Kukri - 'Small throwing machete' that causes bleeding. Possible connection to Earthen Peak, as the Manikin's falcata-style saber was kukri-shaped. Although it's not a concrete connection, Gilligan sells lacerating knives and bleeding serum, and is first found in EP.
Yellow Bug Pellet - medicinal pill made from crushed insects. 'Used by Carthus Grave Wardens to repel a great sand worm. The worm tumbled to the catacombs and proceeded to dominate...Smoldering Lake.' This sandworm seems to be mostly made up of corpses, and its proficiency with lightning may have had something to do with Wolnir's disdain for the gods. As these pellets are implied to date to the grave warden's earlier days serving Wolnir, this gives us some idea of a timeline, with the Sandworm occurring before the Black Serpent, with the implication that the Sandworm led Carthus to Izalith, where something something black serpents and shadowless flames.
Wolnir's downfall was predicated on his discovering this 'Black Serpent' - a pyromancy that infringes on humanity, releasing black flames that traced the ground towards ones opponents. This would seemingly be the pyromancy long sought by Eygil and may serve as a connection to Brume and Nadalia, thematically if not narratively. It also puts Wolnir into the pyromancer category, which calls attention to the fact that he's an apparently highly-intelligent skeleton using life magic. With the history of pyromancy suppressed in Drangleic even more heavily than the history of the church or sorcery it's no surprise that Carthus gave rise to a completely divergent school of pyromancy completely ignorant of Izalith.
This black serpent was discovered by Wolnir from the Abyss, and inspired the arts of the grave warden/squire. Its creation may have been inspired by the 'light serpent' Wolnir had previously hunted.
The Grave Warden's pyromancy tome appears to have been burned, quartered, and reassembled, before being lost to and returned from the Abyss. It would not surprise me in the least if it were bound in flesh and inked in human blood.
The pyromancies discovered by the grave warden inflict dark damage and strike with 'weighty force.' The black flames 'born from the Abyss, bear no shadow,' and are 'the impenetrable fires of humanity.' I assume the same is also true of Elfriede, in some sense.
It's notable that these Black fireballs are the first 'traditional' lobbing-a-glob-of-basically-napalmed-bug-poop-at-someone pyromancies associated with Carthus, as they weren't devised until after their discovery of the Demon Ruins.
Wolnir was 'supposed' to Link the Flame and usher in the Age of the Dead, at least from the perspective of the Cycle of Flame. It's possible he, Wolnir didn't even know about Linking the Fire, or didn't care, or was intentionally misled by someone-or-thing. Wolnir was an atheist, though, so it's not like the Way of White would have had his ear, at least until the very end.
So, rather than taking some hypothetical Throne of Peace and reducing himself to something as finite and mutable as the Lord of an Age, Wolnir sought to usher in the Age of the Dead himself, mechanically and personally and perpetually, desiring as he did to rule the world until the end of time. This madness was, in all likelihood, what led him to tampering with humanity, whence the birth of the Black Serpent, which seems to be a metaphor, or whatever, for Mytha and Agdayne's Kingdom of Blood and Bone faction in the second game.
So, by not becoming lord and granting death to the Flame, Wolnir helped to turn the Dark Age into an Abyssal Age, assuming somebody hadn't already managed to do that.
The forces of Carthus were unlike any army before them: they were motivated by victory. This should be an obvious motivation in battle, but it's not the one generally used. 'Why do they fight?' generally returns answers like 'for glory,' or 'for the greater good' or 'in defense of their people' or 'to punish evil' or 'to amass power' or 'because they have stuff we want.' Certainly these may all have been motivations for Wolnir/Carthus, but they were secondary to the primary goal: 'to win.' Which they did.
I hope that gives us pause.
Wolnir was 'supposed' to Link the Flame and usher in the Age of the Dead, at least from the perspective of the Cycle of Flame. It's possible he, Wolnir didn't even know about Linking the Fire, or didn't care, or was intentionally misled by someone-or-thing. Wolnir was an atheist, though, so it's not like the Way of White would have had his ear, at least until the very end.
So, rather than taking some hypothetical Throne of Peace and reducing himself to something as finite and mutable as the Lord of an Age, Wolnir sought to usher in the Age of the Dead himself, mechanically and personally and perpetually, desiring as he did to rule the world until the end of time. This madness was, in all likelihood, what led him to tampering with humanity, whence the birth of the Black Serpent, which seems to be a metaphor, or whatever, for Mytha and Agdayne's Kingdom of Blood and Bone faction in the second game.
So, by not becoming lord and granting death to the Flame, Wolnir helped to turn the Dark Age into an Abyssal Age, assuming somebody hadn't already managed to do that.
The forces of Carthus were unlike any army before them: they were motivated by victory. This should be an obvious motivation in battle, but it's not the one generally used. 'Why do they fight?' generally returns answers like 'for glory,' or 'for the greater good' or 'in defense of their people' or 'to punish evil' or 'to amass power' or 'because they have stuff we want.' Certainly these may all have been motivations for Wolnir/Carthus, but they were secondary to the primary goal: 'to win.' Which they did.
I hope that gives us pause.
Bishop - English derivation from the New Testament of the Christian Bible (Greek epískopos: "overseer", "guardian") is an ordained, consecrated, or appointed member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight.
Thorolund and the WoW have been documented as well as can be documented elsewhere, but my goal with this series is to plug the third game into the previous two, so I'll need to hit a few points I think are critical before discussing the merger with Carim in a later post.
The Way of White, in the first game, was overseen by a head bishop, which I take as a synonym for archbishop, charged with upholding the teachings of the gods and acting as guardian of law and caste. The bishop reported to Lloyd, Gwyn's 'uncle' and all-father of the gods, allegedly. Lloyd was seemingly the source of many of the Way of White's miracles, as well as the estus-inhibiting hunter charms, all of which seemingly came down to the larger church via the Allfather's apostle, the head bishop.
One reading of this is that there never was an all-father Lloyd, that is was the archbishop the whole time mwahahahaha, or that AfL was a basically decent if misguided, physically unimpressive person that had big ideas but needed someone like a bishop to see them realized.
A bishop was generally someone that acted like the governor of part of the larger church's territory. In the third game this larger church is headed by a Pontiff, or Pope, but the early Way of White was probably something more like a sect of pre-Nicaean Council Christians, where it was just gangs of Trump Supporters tearing society apart over whether or not cutting their dicks off to please father was to be compulsory, or just heavily encouraged.
And some of the sects were, I assume, good people, but because the vehicle of faith is so easy to pervert for evil even good acts would eventually be perverted, as those kinds of power levers can only be controlled for if you actively plan for it in advance, which no one ever does, or at least not well enough that the mechanisms to prevent corruption aren't being exploited by the original planner's spoilt-fuck kids and their toadies inside of 40 years.
Havel, of course, was the only named bishop in the first game, though not specifically tied to the Way of White, and his moniker 'The Rock' is shared with the Biblical Peter (from 'petra,' same as Petrus,) whose faith was such that it was to be the rock upon which Jesus founded his church. Whether Havel was the Bishop of Thorolund or not, we can assume that the Thorolund bishop would have aspired to similar ideals.
By the time we come across the sect in the first game the White has clearly entered 'spoiled' territory, where the wolves are far more murderous and sadistic than real wolves could ever be, while the flock is far more docile and useless than actual sheep ever are.
This iteration of the Way of White is obsessed with Nito, and their teachings have become so ambivalent towards which god they follow that one wonders if Nito was originally one of the 'real' church founders.Among other things, the Way of White of Thorolund seemed to be intricately linked to the creation and maintenance of the bonfire system, as is Nito via the Rite of Kindling. In fact, it would seemingly only be possible to create an item like Lloyd's Talismans if one started with a thorough understanding of the bonfires and estus.
These talismans, additionally, are used to put mimics to sleep, implying some connection to the church. Mimics are described as members of a 'long lost clan' that were branded and exiled for their sin of avarice. The Symbol of Avarice headpiece describes an 'incorrigibly covetous ancient deity' whose brand became a symbol of shame. The seemingly obvious connections here would be to either the Primordial Serpents or the Evil Eye of Astora, as Thorolund is also closely tied to Astora.
This Way of White is contrasted with Carim, a seemingly Chaotic Evil country with a church devoted to (possibly,) 3 dark goddesses: Caitha, Fina, and Velka. The relationship between the two countries, in the first game, is best outlined in Anastacia and Lautrec's storyline.
Lautrec - a murderous, selfish, irredeemable bastard - was embraced by the goddess Fina in his journey to Lordran. Whether he was exiled or was considered a 'right and proper' knight on mission is unknown (an echo of the WoW's 'missions,') but Fina's love came semingly with the charge of freeing Anastacia and delivering her to her goddess in Anor Londo.
Doesn't sound so bad when you put it like that, does it?
But consider Anastasia's position - a tortured, hobbled, muted prisoner whose only crime was being born an unwanted daughter of Astoran nobility - and you soon realize that death is the only freedom or peace Anastasia will ever know, and is a mercy that the WoW will almost certainly never grant her, to say nothing of the unlikeliness of Thorolund allowing her to be united with her Goddess, such as she is.
Consider also: the Black Eye Orb, though not an object related to Fina, ensures that once the Keeper's soul is delivered to the chapel, the fickle goddess's favor no longer embraces Lautrec.
Of course some asshole could always bring the soul back to the body like 'hey, you have a tongue now, how about using it to thank me,' but what kind of asshole'd do that?
This relationship between Carim knights and Maidens of the WoW carries through to the third game, after the Way of White is usurped/merges with Carim.
As a final note: Ana's name literally means 'resurrection.' Although I can't find anything to connect directly to it, it's possible that this makes her the/a Firekeeper that 'went beyond death' and/or 'returned from the Abyss.'
Closing
That's that. Next up will be Farron, from Oolacile through to the Ghru and the Watchdogs. I don't know how much sense it will make. I'll probably also have a section outlining Astora in the first game, to be plugged into Thorolund, Carim, and the third game in a more distant post. If you're reading this after it first posts: it will probably look somewhat different, as I consider it a work in progress. Mostly because I need pics of the Catacombs and Wolnir, but also because I'm sure I'll change my mind about things.
The Way of White, in the first game, was overseen by a head bishop, which I take as a synonym for archbishop, charged with upholding the teachings of the gods and acting as guardian of law and caste. The bishop reported to Lloyd, Gwyn's 'uncle' and all-father of the gods, allegedly. Lloyd was seemingly the source of many of the Way of White's miracles, as well as the estus-inhibiting hunter charms, all of which seemingly came down to the larger church via the Allfather's apostle, the head bishop.
One reading of this is that there never was an all-father Lloyd, that is was the archbishop the whole time mwahahahaha, or that AfL was a basically decent if misguided, physically unimpressive person that had big ideas but needed someone like a bishop to see them realized.
A bishop was generally someone that acted like the governor of part of the larger church's territory. In the third game this larger church is headed by a Pontiff, or Pope, but the early Way of White was probably something more like a sect of pre-Nicaean Council Christians, where it was just gangs of Trump Supporters tearing society apart over whether or not cutting their dicks off to please father was to be compulsory, or just heavily encouraged.
And some of the sects were, I assume, good people, but because the vehicle of faith is so easy to pervert for evil even good acts would eventually be perverted, as those kinds of power levers can only be controlled for if you actively plan for it in advance, which no one ever does, or at least not well enough that the mechanisms to prevent corruption aren't being exploited by the original planner's spoilt-fuck kids and their toadies inside of 40 years.
Havel, of course, was the only named bishop in the first game, though not specifically tied to the Way of White, and his moniker 'The Rock' is shared with the Biblical Peter (from 'petra,' same as Petrus,) whose faith was such that it was to be the rock upon which Jesus founded his church. Whether Havel was the Bishop of Thorolund or not, we can assume that the Thorolund bishop would have aspired to similar ideals.
By the time we come across the sect in the first game the White has clearly entered 'spoiled' territory, where the wolves are far more murderous and sadistic than real wolves could ever be, while the flock is far more docile and useless than actual sheep ever are.
This iteration of the Way of White is obsessed with Nito, and their teachings have become so ambivalent towards which god they follow that one wonders if Nito was originally one of the 'real' church founders.Among other things, the Way of White of Thorolund seemed to be intricately linked to the creation and maintenance of the bonfire system, as is Nito via the Rite of Kindling. In fact, it would seemingly only be possible to create an item like Lloyd's Talismans if one started with a thorough understanding of the bonfires and estus.
These talismans, additionally, are used to put mimics to sleep, implying some connection to the church. Mimics are described as members of a 'long lost clan' that were branded and exiled for their sin of avarice. The Symbol of Avarice headpiece describes an 'incorrigibly covetous ancient deity' whose brand became a symbol of shame. The seemingly obvious connections here would be to either the Primordial Serpents or the Evil Eye of Astora, as Thorolund is also closely tied to Astora.
This Way of White is contrasted with Carim, a seemingly Chaotic Evil country with a church devoted to (possibly,) 3 dark goddesses: Caitha, Fina, and Velka. The relationship between the two countries, in the first game, is best outlined in Anastacia and Lautrec's storyline.
Lautrec - a murderous, selfish, irredeemable bastard - was embraced by the goddess Fina in his journey to Lordran. Whether he was exiled or was considered a 'right and proper' knight on mission is unknown (an echo of the WoW's 'missions,') but Fina's love came semingly with the charge of freeing Anastacia and delivering her to her goddess in Anor Londo.
Doesn't sound so bad when you put it like that, does it?
But consider Anastasia's position - a tortured, hobbled, muted prisoner whose only crime was being born an unwanted daughter of Astoran nobility - and you soon realize that death is the only freedom or peace Anastasia will ever know, and is a mercy that the WoW will almost certainly never grant her, to say nothing of the unlikeliness of Thorolund allowing her to be united with her Goddess, such as she is.
Consider also: the Black Eye Orb, though not an object related to Fina, ensures that once the Keeper's soul is delivered to the chapel, the fickle goddess's favor no longer embraces Lautrec.
Of course some asshole could always bring the soul back to the body like 'hey, you have a tongue now, how about using it to thank me,' but what kind of asshole'd do that?
 |
| "Oh boy back to being cursed thanks chosen one" |
As a final note: Ana's name literally means 'resurrection.' Although I can't find anything to connect directly to it, it's possible that this makes her the/a Firekeeper that 'went beyond death' and/or 'returned from the Abyss.'
Closing
That's that. Next up will be Farron, from Oolacile through to the Ghru and the Watchdogs. I don't know how much sense it will make. I'll probably also have a section outlining Astora in the first game, to be plugged into Thorolund, Carim, and the third game in a more distant post. If you're reading this after it first posts: it will probably look somewhat different, as I consider it a work in progress. Mostly because I need pics of the Catacombs and Wolnir, but also because I'm sure I'll change my mind about things.
