AI 005 - Stripped of Ornamentation

This is about Llewellyn, believe it or not. The previous post accidentally bat-logicked into Mirrah Tin Hat territory, and I'm sure we'll be revisiting this guy when I finally am definitely sure I really do have a firm enough grasp of the story to for real move on to the third game.

So buckle your legendary-but-not-actually-that-remarkable swordbelts, young hollows, and get ready for another round of What In The Balls Did Vendrick Think He Was Doing.

Lugh Belenus

I know like next to nothing about Celtic mythology. I'm sure I'm about to butcher my attempt at synthesizing some of it. If anything is egregiously wrong take it up with Google.

The name Llewellyn seems to be a cognate of the Celtic gods Lugus/Lugh and Bel/Belenus. The etymology of Lugh is contested, with one of the most common candidates being something like 'oath, oathmaster, God of Oaths, God under Oath' and so on; but Belenus is more straightforward and means something like 'The Shining [High] God'.

Lugh is associated with triplism for reasons I don't fully understand, but depictions of him resemble (holy shit) the Looking-Glass Knight. Lugh's holy day, Lughnasa/Lunasa is associated with an end-of-summer/first harvest festival on August 1, similar in nature to the ancient Olympics, including all of the politics and partying and feats of prowess. For this reason he's associated with grains and breads.

From the Wikipedia page.

Lugh is portrayed as a heroic king, a master (and possible creator) of all skills, such as 'smith, wright, craftsman, swordsman, harpist, poet, historian, sorcerer, physician, and champion,' as well as the 'secrets of the land, including when to plough, sow, and reap.'

Lugh  is associated with the light, thunderstorms, the raven, and the hound.

Lugh possessed, among other things, his sea god step-father's sentient and bloodthirsty and flaming spear called Slaughterer (holy shit). He also had a 'holy shit' sword because why not. The sword, when held to a person's throat, renders them unable to tell a lie or to move while under the wielder's interrogation. The sword is called the Answerer, and any wound dealt by it is fatal.

Lugh also killed his grandfather, Balor of the Evil Eye; a cyclopian tyrant whose seven-lidded eye burned all it beheld. Balor is associated with drought, blight, and the scorching sun, while his grandson Lugh - son of a sun princess (Balor's daughter Ethniu,) and raised by a sea god (Manannan, who rescued Lugh after Balor attempted to drown or cast the child adrift) - represents humanity taming the blight of summer with craft, skill, resourcefulness, and, of course, by smashing your grandfather's eyeball out of the back of his skull with a rock.

How did these people lose to Christians?

It seems like Lugh might get commonly mistaken for a sun god, but he's technically more of a god of light, but I don't know how or if that figures into anything.

One common depiction of Belenus, who probably was a sun god,  is a kind of 'sunlight medal' featuring a crazy old bearded guy with, from what I can tell, twin serpents whispering in his ears. His symbol was the wheel, he's a healer associated with with holy springs and the sun. . His holy day, May 1 is Beltane (Bright Fire), an end-of-Spring festival involving ceremonial bonfires and herb gathering and so on. Probably boning.

Note Serpents

Belenus' symbol is the wheel, and yes it's the same wheel as the Wheel Hunter Badge in Bloodborne. The horse and wheel both symbolize Belenus' chariot, which drags the sun across the sky each day.

Belenus is sometimes depicted as battling 'the chthonic forces of a snake-limbed giant' by hurling lightning bolts and using his wheel as a shield.

A more iffy translation of Llewellyn could view it as llew-ellen. The proto-Brythonic Lew seems to derive from Leo, while the etymology of 'ellen' is an Old English word that has the meanings of 'zeal, strength, courage; comfort, grace'. Courageous Lion or By the Grace of the Lion could be possible translations, with the understanding that 'ellen' has religious overtones. Just as a weird aside, leo is synonymous with 'courage,' so the name could even mean Courage the Courageous.

Now that I think about it, if you read it as "Lion of the Sun God," then Llewellyn would be a great alternate name for Ornstein.

To move on to the actual smith himself, I've repeatedly outlined his role in the story, but to try to fill in the timeline we can look at the armaments he produced. His designs focus on speed, efficiency, and functionality, of a style seemingly lost in Drang from the period of High Olaphis (Alva's Set,) until...well, until he returned. "Trimmed to reduce weight" seems to be the idea behind his armor designs, although it's possible that the smith also make complex, ornamental stuff like the Looking Glass Knight's get up.

Llewellyn brought his namesake shield with him to present as a gift upon arival in Drangleic. We get the shield as a drop from the stone knights, who were Velstadt's men. This could be important, as the shield ends up in the hands of Horace, and...well, Horace later. "The Stone Knight" is one of those ideas that I've been thiiiiiiissss close to having a breakthrough on for years now. Him and Nadalia. Always Nadalia.

The most obvious set of gear associated with Llew belongs to Wellager, and was presented to 'a select few.' The armor - like all of the smith's armors - seems to attempt to take a unique set of heavy armor, Vendrick's in this case, and render it down into a medium set for mass production. Wellager's arms include the Espada Ropera and the Royal Dirk. The name is Spanish and means 'dress sword,' and funnily enough irl espada roperas were the original incarnation of the rapier-style sword, with 'rapier' being the more accurate but less literal translation of 'espada ropera'. The dagger mentions that Vendrick offered Llewellyn the contract in order to introduce geisteel into the country.

Geis/Geas is an Irish/Scottish word that something like an enchantment or spell of binding (in the sense of being bound to a course of action). Attempting to renounce, betray, ignore, or otherwise attempt to buck the injunction of the geis generally results in misfortune equivalent to the transgression. 'Enchanted steel' may be the meaning. Similarly, it might read as geist-steel, or ghost steel.

Geisteel is one of several (presumably titanite) alloys mentioned in-game. Geisteel is mentioned as being particularly durable. Bradden, another common alloy, is mentioned as having been developed in Drangleic in an attempt to recreate the lightning-infused mystery alloy of Heide. This doesn't make sense to me since this information is related via armor from Astora that appears in Eleum Loyce. Provided you have the Eye of the Priestess.

On the other hand, I may have also raised another question: The Heide Greatlance (found in the Gutter in Scholar,) implies the Heide Knights may have once been dragonriders themselves.

So, mysteries unsolved or design/translation oversight I'm wasting my time on?

Come to think of it, Syan's set looks like a variant of these as well.

Anyway, back to Lleyellyn.

Other potential Llewellyn designs include the Royal Soldiers set (based on Raime's armor,) and the Royal Swordsmens' set. The Soldier set suggestsLlew arrived before Raime's betrayal. Raime's betrayal seems to have happened during the war with the giants, and probably involved the appearance of Ironclad, Armorer Dennis, and salamanders in the fort. The Syan set states that copies of his gear were made, which happened at - or just before - the beginning of the war.

Right, so, big question: why would Llewellyn the Great Smith of Mirrah want to serve a kingdom mired, or about to be mired, in an apparently unwinnable and unending war?

Let's say Llew arrived before the War, maybe before Nashandra, but also after the fall of the Three Kingdoms. Vengarl makes it seem like a large part of Vendrick's early forces were made up of former Forossans, and this may be where Wellager originally came from (assuming he isn't a native). So, Vendrick hears tales of Mirrah, with her holy water and official knights and magic knights and shadow knights and anti-magic knights and traitor knights and errant knights and imposer knights and The Unstoppable Juggernaut knights and a great smith who knew the secret of geisteel which is like way better than bradden for some reason.

Here's what I think is happening.

Forossa is associated with followers of the Nameless King of Anor Londo.

Jugo is associated with a divergent school of pyromancy.

Mirrah is associated with the Occult Rebellion.

Let's talk about Mirrah.

Hawkshaw's latest video detailing the Occult Rebellion, Havel, and Giant Smith seems like it might help form a starting point from which to work towards Llewellyn, as both Havel and Smith seem to be associated with Mirrah in the second game.

Giant Smith (not to be confused with Help Anytime, smith who is a giant,) was the blacksmith deity of Anor Londo. Probably s/he pre-dated Anor Londo. Maybe s/he - as a kind of Giant King - pre-dated Fire and, instead of embracing it internally, chose to use wield it as a tool for making tools.

Time passes, things are good, Smith takes apprentices. These apprentices would come to be known as holy smiths. These include people like Vamos and Help Anytime in Lordran, and McDuff and Llewellyn in Drangleic (and environs). The Blacksmith Deity probably trained one smith at a time from each 'kingdom' Anor Londo had alliances with. These holy smiths are contrasted with "common" smiths, like Rickert or Lenigrast. 

I say all that because, and I feel like I say this a lot but it bears repeating: Smiths represent a kingdom's technological ceiling. When the Chosen Undead finds lost Anor Londo it's an echo of it's former glory, but their holy smith is able to craft Boss Soul weapons from common weapons, while Lothric and Drangleic both have to resort to transmutation. Great Smith the Blacksmith God, therefore, would have been one of the most important people in Gwyn (and later the Firstborn's) kingdom. Havel's cool and all but he's just a bishop: Smith is the hammer than forged the sword that won an entire world.

The Rebellion goes down, as outlined by Hawkshaw; Havel, Smith and other survivors make their way to Mirrah, or maybe to where they establish Mirrah, and Mirrah's border is marked by the High Wall we see just past Aldia's Keep.

It's possible that Gwynevere relocated to Mirrah when the Curse emerged in Olaphis, although I don't know when this happens in relation to the occult rebellion. If the uprising happened because of something like Oolacile digging up and reanimating the corpse of a pygmy lord, then the timeline would look something like

1. "Manus" is disinterred.
2. Havel and Smith move against the other Gods.
3. Havel and Smith (or Llewellyn) relocate to Mirrah.
4. The Chasm and Kalameet appear. Gwynevere and most of the remaining gods quietly quit Anor Londo, leaving Gwyndolin, Seathe, and the four knight captains in charge.
5. Olaphis begins to rise. Mirrah, Forossa, and Jugo begin to war with each other.
6. "Artorias" slays Manus and Kalameet. Olaphis attempts a firelinking ritual.
7. Oolacile falls into the Chasm, which begins to dissipate and drift towards Drang, which has some kind of antipodal relationship to Lordran. The Curse appears in Olaphis.
8. "Gwynevere" relocates to Mirrah, "Havel" relocates to Olaphis.
9. Elana, a troubadour and witchtree, emerges from the Abyss. Main-story stuff happens, time passes. Forossa falls or enters serious decline, and Vendrick & Aldia hire an army of  Foross mercenaries to take and unify Drangleic.
10. Vendrick buys out Llewellyn.
11. Mirrah falls or enters serious decline. Vendrick shores up his strength with Mir mercenaries.
12. Main-story stuff happens, time passes, Llewellyn's arms and armor and the legacy of the three kingdoms re-emerge in Lothric.

Down for Mirrah.

Llewellyn, then, could have been trained as a holy smith by Smith -- may even be Smith or an heir to Smith himself. His dual-sungod name may represent some kind of political union between the Occultists and the Princess Guard when Gwynevere retired as Queen Olaphis I.

From there Mirrah collapses from war, Llew eventually accepts Vendrick's contract, dot dot dot Llewellyn is viewed as a/the Great Smith in the third game.

It could well be that the name Llewellyn is meant to indicate that the smith represents some kind of union, covenant, or alliance between two different characters or factions roughly aligning with descriptions of Lugh and Belenus. Further, this union would be important to both Mirrah's history and third game events. Lu/Lugh/Lugus, as master of all crafts, seems like a match for Giant Smith, while Bel/Belen/Belenus seems to represent someone of Gwyn's lineage. Given what we know of Mirrah, it's possible that this was Gwynevere, but I feel like I've been saying that way to often lately.

I think that's as far as we can dig for now.

Next time: Dragons, maybe.

AI 004 - Translation Notes/The Stone Garden

Boyd - from Celtic boidhe, or yellow. This form of yellow has more of an association with gold or sunlight than a word like 'xanthous,' which invokes something like rot or illness. Boyd can also mean 'lucky' or 'grateful.' A modern English variant could be something like Blondie. In modern Gaelic (this is from the Beltane Wikipedia page,) the festival of Beltane is called La Buidhe Bealltain, or The Yellow Day of Belenus (the Fair Shining One). This is generally translated to the outside world as Bright May Day and marks the advent of summer. Ashen Knight Boyd, therefore, might be retranslated as something like Shining Unkindled Knight or Beaming Knight of Ash.

Boyd is an Ashen Knight (we assume,) which in the context of DS2 Ashen Knights are related to Nadalia and her champion, the Fume Knight. Given that the Irithyllian nobles obviously knew the importance of the Smelter Throne it means that there's a possible story there. 

Boyd, possibly, slays a 'dragon' in what may have been his homeland with the Freja/Tseldora/Duke Aldia stuff. Possibly he fights a stand-in for Lugh, another Celtic sun god, when facing the Mirror Knight: the thing that shows you what you are, really. 

I'm sure all that's not important or more people would've commented on it by now.

that witch only embraces itself...

Dark Souls is smart. This gets commented on a lot.

Language is important, and as Chomsky tells us: 'language isn't real. There's just ways people talk that are more or less like each other.' Or, to put it in Insufferable Stirnerist terms: language is a spook.

It evolves though, just like everything else. Language wends it's way through history twists, a mad uphill flood across brief centuries, a thousand tributaries born from a central river spat from the great ocean of life, crissing and crossing, creating lakes and marshes and valleys of dialects and sub-dialects and 'right' ways of talking and 'wrong' ways of talking.

Why is this important?

Because maybe it's important, maybe it's not.

There's a Celtic holiday called La Boyd Beltane, which means The Golden Day of Belenus. There is a character in-game, possibly even associated with Boyd, that partially shares the name of Belenus: Llewellyn of Mirrah. 

The name Llewellyn means Lugh-Belenus.

My point is, Dark Souls is full of weird linguistic shit like that. Is it lore related? Fucked if I know, but if you allow that it is then it doesn't contradict any of the other weird 'this can't possibly be lore' things that seem an awful lot like they're lore that I've been outlining for however long I've been doing this.

I'm willing to allow that, further, the interplay of these languages, the Gaellic and the Latin, the inscrutable Aramaic stuff, the fleeting but pervasive Old Norse, is all lore-relevant. Now, I'm not saying it's something that can be understood from the outside, but I'm at the point I'm convinced that the miraculous "prayer circles" or those words coming off of Quelaag or the Pinwheel Lantern tracers are all some kind of understandable set of languages, we just need to save all our boxtops and send off for the decoder ring or something. 

I also think that, since my dumb experiment with translating the Crushed Eye yielded pretty surprising results, I'm slightly less crazy for thinking that literally anything that looks like language in Souls really is language, even if we haven't been able to find any reliable cyphers beyond Futhark=Titanite Runes.

Vorgel the Sinner - From proto-Germanic fluglaz, meaning 'bird' or 'that which flies.' Same root we get the word fowl from. Vorgel is apparently another of Raime's soldiers. Where Boyd shared a connection via ashen knighthood, Vorgel shares an association with birds. Additionally, it should be noted that Vorgel is specifically a sinner, in an area associated with the Lost Sinner, and is dressed in armor based on armor based on Paladin Leeroy's.

Ever since I found out what his name means I have been unable to think of him as anything other than Fowl the Foul.

Fowl the Foul his name is Fowl the Foul.

Stachoos

There are a lot of statues in these games. Some of them appear in more than one location. Here are some of the ones that stand out to me. I like to think of them as riddles, as well as some of the many reasons I don't and will never have a six figure income or normal human relationships.

Mother

This is the statue that kicked off my weird obsession. This character is depicted most prominently in the Undead Crypt, where we find three different versions. First is the skull-headed version, shown as being worshiped by various robed figures. The second shows the goddess in her more common, human form. This version appears alone, but is bordered by skull-headed cherubs. The third version of the statue appears like the second, but has a large candle melted onto her head. Upon lighting the candle we're presented with the message ['when the flame is lit shadows are revealed']. Additionally, in the Scholar update, lighting this statue causes the braziers held by the giant Leydia statues to light up and the red phantom cleric knights to appear. Killing the cleric knights will gradually cause the Leydia braziers to extinguish.

The Mother figure also appears in the Fort of Fallen Giants, prominently and obviously and usually completely overlooked, in the overgrown Cardinal Tower. This version is blood-stained, and is found in a room with Melentia, a bonfire, and a Divine Blessing. The vegetation in the room is some of the healthiest in the series, the room is directly above the salamander pit, and the tower is surrounded by crows/ravens and heavily associated with Raime.

The statue, or a version of it, can also be found in the Iron Keep. just before reaching the area where Armorer Dennis and the Shulvan loyalist invades is a kinda-but-not-really gatehouse structure featuring several statues. At the top is the statue, depicted as an angel. The statue is covered in chains that appear to be symbolically tying her down.

Finally, the statue appears in the third game. In the final hallway leading to the Twin Princes boss fight you can turn around and find a version of the Holy Skull Mother mural from the Undead Crypt. This version has two cherubs holding a crown over Skull Mother's head. The goddess's face is obscured, implying that the mural could be either the human or skull form, or might represent an 'ascended' or unseen incarnation of the goddess. Or, of course, be a reference to her buried history.

Maiden

This one is more obscure. In the Cave of the Dead in the Shulva DLC, an area no one in their right mind has any reason to visit, hidden in a nook around a blind corner, is a large statue of a praying woman that spews petrification mist.

It might as well have been a taco truck for as much sense as it made to me for, like, years.

I say she's praying, but she could just as easily be singing or puking or something.

Playing around with Chameleon one day I realized that there are several areas in the game with unique transformations. You can turn into Elizabeth in Amana, for example. Around the Ruined Fork Road bonfire, the area associated with the statue of what I assume is something like Gwynevere/Queen Olaphis/Princess Venn the Bountiful, the player can turn into a small version of the Shulva Maiden. The Shaded Woods deserves its own post, so we'll come back to this then, if it ever happens.

Trying to connect the areas we find her with any kind of 'what I think happened' theory is pretty impossible, but what I think happened is that the Flower Dress belonged to Elana, long before she became the Queen. The Pharros Mask, I think, is meant to inform us that Pharros

• Was Shulva's - maybe even all of Olaphis' - architect.
• Had a big beard like how a Gyrm'd have.
• Gots a big old case of the sads.
• Was strong against fire, but weak against lightning. And maybe fatally weak against Dark.
• Probably died a long time ago, maybe was even killed by the royals under Elana.
• Still in the running for Left Shoulder Guy on The Rotten

But so who was the Maiden?

I haven't found any other copies of her, at least not anything similar enough to say I'm sure about, but her association-by-proximity to both Elana and a Gwynevere stand-in has me convinced that she must have been someone important, like maybe the Cardinal of Shulva or the matriarch of the pre-Elana faith of Olaphis or the first firekeeper of the second bonfire system.

Her robes look somewhat similar to a Way of Way Maiden or, again, the retired firekeepers or, again again, the statues holding vigil along the High Wall of Lothric. Also again: I'm not sure about any of those.

Melentia best waifu. No, I'm right, you're just remembering wrong.

Crone

I'm dumb, okay.

This statue caught my attention early on. It's old, older than the Bastille, I imagine. It's in a room next to a giant, almost-new statue of who I assume is a gloating Aldia approaching the peak of his madness.

Aldia would like you to know how impressive he is.

Around the time Ashes of Ariandel came out I realized the statue was also in the third game.

Around six months ago when I finally played DS:R it finally finally dawned on me.

I had seen this statue before.

Often. A ridiculous number of times. Uncountable times.

I had seen this statue, dozens of them, nothing but them, long corridors of this statue, over and over, for years. The only way FROM could have made this statue more prominent would be throwing to a cutscene showing the statue and just the statue any and every time my genius ass goes chasing after wizards.

Well yeah and like her, obviously, jesus christ why even have eyeballs

Right, so obviously this is an incredibly important character in all three games, and she's depicted as getting older over a very, very long time. She was probably the master of the Archives before Seathe took them over. The statue of her in the Bastille may have been brought by the colonists, or it may have been a statue of one of the colonists. The statue in the third game is of an obviously older person, but the gesture is unmistakable.

She seems to be associated with Seathe, in that she was probably an object of his obsession in High Anor Londo. This may have carried over to Aldia, who had possibly been poisoned by the Ruin in Tseldora. The Ruin, from what I can tell, doesn't like make Seathe possess you like a demon, but sort of warps one's natural instincts and desires into mad, paradoxical obsessions more in line with Seathe's psychology.

Her statue is in the Lothric Archives in the third game, but mostly in out-of-the-way places, like on top of bookshelves. The copies of her in the Ariandel archives are prominent, but have had their head removed, indicating that the original scholars - either the native crow people or Way of White/Blue painting restorers - saw her as good, while Friede's order saw her as evil.

I think the dynamic here might be something like Inviting Wisdom = Beckoning Ruin.

Her appearance in the third game is evocative of the Priestess Pillar, but her location and history would seem to associate her with the Scholar. She looks, in the third, quite a bit like the Way of Blue Firekeepers (who I'm convinced basically are the Priestess/WoB in Lothric).

By that I mean that, since Lothric was founded by descendants of Drang, Forossa, Mirrah and so on, their understanding of firelinking is informed by the events of the second game, hence the inclusion of concepts like firekeepers appearing somewhat uniform (Saulden's dialogue, Black Firekeeper's Set,) 'Going Beyond Death' (marketing,) or firelinking champions needing to first get kill-married in order become a true king/queen (Nashandra & Vendrick/Cursebearer, Yuria's questline).

Sentinel

This character appears most prominently in the Cathedral of Blue in heide, and is probably Targray's 'Great Sentinel.' We find a copy of the statues head just past the Shrine of Winter. The fact that there's a tree growing over it seems to indicate that, like the other ruins, it probably pre-dates Drangleic. Other 'copies' of him I'm less sure about.

Sentinel in the Sky, I can get twice as high. Take a Look. It's in a book. WHY BRAIN WHY

There are a couple of similar statues that I think may relate to it. It should be pointed out that the 'Aldia' statues have a very similar Balder-esque greatsword, as well as a scroll, which may relate to Aldia being heir of both Yorgh's martial prowess and Mytha's sorcery.

The first is on the Iron Keep bridge support thing I mentioned in the Silent Goddess description. The pillars holding her statue up each have two statues, one of a young scholar - possibly Aldia - and the other a young warrior - possibly Vendrick.

I get the feeling the chains, the warrior, and the angel are meant to symbolize OIK's Cluster B disorder, while the Aldia statue is meant to symbolize him starting off on the wrong foot. Or hand, in this case. Important note: IT PROBABLY DOESN"T EVEN REPRESENT THEM

Finally, there's the Bearded Sentinels watching the ocean at the Fort of Fallen Giants. These statues are of a much older character carrying a greatshield. The head of one of these statues serves not only as the gate leading to the Pursuer boss fight and one of the Watcher Trees, but also acts as the ball in the ball trap leading to the Giant Lord boss fight in the past. Presumably the head is severed by the Giant Lord when he sees us approaching.

These last two statues probably aren't of the Sentinel. Their helmets are different, for one. They may, however, each represent Vendrick, first as a young prince of Alken (although he was probably kept in ignorance of his heritage and just served as captain of the guard or something similar,) and the second as the ascendant king of Drangleic. The war against the Giants spanned generations, with the giants probably attacking in waves with the defenders spending the time between waves making repairs and searching for reinforcements. In the past we arrive at the end of the war, shortly after Vendrick quit the field, and find Capt. Drummond, whose grandfather served as a Captain in the same war. So it could be that the Giant Sentinel is supposed to be the middle-aged Vendrick who started the war with the Giants, with the Giant Lord symbolically ending the war by cutting the statue's head off after the much older Vendrick finally retreats.

So, who is the sentinel?

The Blue Sentinels serve the same function as the Darkmoon Blades. You could almost think of them as a Blue faction's Red faction. In the third game they /are/ Darkmoon Blades, they just don't always know it. If the Iron Keep Statues are meant to represent young Aldia and Vendrick, then this red/blue relationship could, in a sense, be mirrored in their relationship. For example, Aldia was the rightful king under Alken, but as a blue character chose to instead help his very red brother become king so that, as duke, he would be free to pursue his work.

The King of Olaphis was killed by Sir Yorgh, Captain of the Drakeblood knights. We don't know who Yorgh was, really, apart from sharing the twin dragon charge with kings Alken and Vendrick. Vendrick, in the time of Alken, would have been a bastard and probably wasn't welcome in the Iron Court, at least not as a prince. I mentioned above how he may have served as something like Captain of the Guard (Yorgh or the Great Sentinel may once have filled a similar role in Olaphis-Shulva,) before leaving to find his fortune in Lordran.

The Older Sentinel at the Fort of Fallen Giants has an inverted Odal/Othala rune on his helmet. From Sunny Way 

Othala: O: Ancestral property - 

Inherited property or possessions, a house, a home. 

What is truly important to one. 

Group order, group prosperity. 

Land of birth, spiritual heritage, experience and fundamental values. 

Aid in spiritual and physical journeys. 

Source of safety, increase and abundance. 

Othala Reversed or Merkstave - 

Lack of customary order, totalitarianism, slavery, poverty, homelessness. 

Bad karma, prejudice, clannishness, provincialism. 

What a man is bound to.

Odal as inheritance or ancestral lands lines up with Vendrick, as does the merkstave presentation of totalitarian descent and being bound to bad karma. As with a depressingly large amount of Norse imagery, the Odal rune figures heavily in fascist imagery, because nazis love stealing shit.

There's a break in the wall where a giant sword has lodged itself in the fort. I can't tell if it's meant to belong to the statue or the giant lord. It looks like the statue's, but it would be impossible for the statue's sword to have embedded itself there. You can climb up this sword to find a body with a halberd that looks as if it's been specifically arranged in a kind of sky burial. Infantrymen will drop down from above and attack you if you ouch the body. You also find the arms and armor of the Captain of the Fort near here, minus the helmet, which you collect from Drummond in the past.

This would seem to present someone in Drummond/Raulmond's line as a candidate for the First Sentinel of Drangleic, rather than Vendrick. Given the game's tendency to basically invert every story the second time I wouldn't be surprised if my last post was wrong and Drummond is somehow descended from Flann or Gwynevere or something.

Whatever the case, neither of these possibilities sheds much more light on the Great Sentinel of Blue, unless we allow that Yorgh was both the Great Sentinel and Vendrick's ancestor and that Vendrick served as Sentinel for both Alken and Drangleic.

Of course, I may be completely wrong about everything and just spent most of the morning making myself crazy over nothing.

The Mural

One of these things is not like the other.

I have a whole post about Elana and Shulva planned, but it took me a long time to realize that this wasn't just the same asset recycled for Shulva so I don't know how it connects or why it changed. Sure, you could say they had to move the staff wielder because of the door, but then why would you change the wyvern or other supplicants?