AI 007 - Cordial Intrusion

Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Agreed to have a battle;
For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
Had spoiled his nice new rattle.
Just then flew down a monstrous crow,
As black as a tar-barrel;
Which frightened both the heroes so,
They quite forgot their quarrel.

- Original ditties for the nursery. I guess British people think rattle and quarrel rhyme.

Yes, they had cinderblock in Anor Londo. No, I don't know if it's lore relevant.

This one is going to be about cops. Specifically I'll be outlining the Darkmoon Blade, Blue Sentinel, Way of Blue, and Brotherhood of Blood covenants and how they seem to interrelate. I try to avoid talking about third game stuff in this series because deep waters are still. I do, however, go into stuff around Lothric Kingdom a little bit just to point out how the story really does connect across the games and From really did intentionally design the games the way they did intentionally when they designed them.

Blades of the Darkmoon

The Blades of the Darkmoon are Lordran's secret police. So secret that even a lot of Darkmoon Blades (DmBs) don't realize they're the secret police. The covenant is overseen by Knight Captain/Prince/ess/King/Queen/Pontiff Gwyndolin, last of his name. In what seems like an unusual division of power, the covenant's guidelines and judgements are overseen by Velka, a rogue, seemingly omnipresent (in the mundane spy network sense) deity mostly associated with Carim. It could be that Velka & Gwyndolin share or at one point shared a close bond, as both would seem to be the central authority figures for the Blades.

The most notable mechanical aspect of the covenant is the namesake miracle, which traditionally uses faith to channel sorcery. This is at odds with the traditions of both Velka's church (pardoners use intelligence to channel faith,) the Way of White (faith is faith and excessive thoughtfulness should be distrusted,) pretty much any jutsu-class school of magic, which either prefer INT or a even-ish mix of the two.

In other words, Gwyndolin is a faith-based sorcerer and Velka is an intelligence-based cleric. Both are implied dexterity builds, between Velka's association with rapiers and Gwyndolin's use of the bow.

We don't know much about 'Darkmoon,' either. It's associated with the feminine, of course, and appears purple in color, making it appear closer to a hex (Dark Blade,) than a sorcery (Great Magic Weapon). Astrologically it's represented by what I assume is a waning crescent moon.

Gwyndolin herself uses what appear to be the more common 'sky blue' Moonlight/Ruin-based sorceries, which I can't make sense of beyond something like the DmB miracle actually being a blessing of Velka that Gwyndolin hadn't had the chance to earn. I mean, ten ears would mean ten people found and attacked her since she took up residence in the crypt. I think that, like Princess Venn, it wasn't a case of Gwyndolin lacking the martial skill or talent, but having been born to a station very rarely threatened by violence in a way survivable.

The reason for the Darkmoon being associated with a kind of light-ish purple might indicate the nature of the covenant itself: a union of the light and dark aspects of the Anor and Carimite faiths.

DmBs, like sorcerers, tend to be Dex builds when not casting. Gwyndolin has a magical bow, Oswald [I know he's not a DMB, but he does function as a priest for the Blades, plus Cromwell is gonna tie into all this in the sequel post, whenever that happens] carries Velka's Rapier, and Sirris an Estoc.

Sin falls into two broad categories, PvE and PvP. PvE sins include making an NPC hostile, angering a god (Gwyndolin, Alvina, Priscilla,) or destroying the illusion of Gwynevere. All of these sins can be absolved by Oswald, but the sin of destroying False Gwynevere will immediately be re-incurred after paying for its removal.

Destroying Gwynevere also counts as a PvP sin, and opens the player up to Blue Eye Darkmoon invasions in Anor Londo. Other PvP sins include being indicted by another player (Oswald sells indictments,) being kicked out of a covenant for breaking the rules (abandoning the covenant doesn't count,) or answering Alvina's questions for some reason, regardless of response. PvP sin cannot be absolved, but will be removed point by point by dying to a DmB. Players with PvP sin will appear in the Book of the Guilty.

Finally, we can farm the covenant ranking item, Souvenirs of Reprisal, from the Ariamis Crow People. Presumably this means the Crows could be considered DmBs, but I suspect they respresent some kind of precursor or off-shoot sect, possibly relating more directly to Velka.

Of course, the Blades have been discussed to death elsewhere, so let's move on. In the next few sections I'll be discussing the WoB, Blue Sentinels, and Brotherhood of Blood covenants from the second game.

Oh yay I left my HUD on oh boy

The Way of Blue

The Way of Blue is, I think, the first covenant the player is able to join. Crestfallen Saulden serves as the covenant captain. Saulden is also, as near as I can tell, the first Crestfallen we find in a From game whose condition improves over time, which makes sense. If you've already lost everything and given up you have nothing left but to find something new and get started, right?

Saul's dialogue has a few interesting insights. When he tells us about Heide, and he can see Heide from his perch, he makes the Sentinel covenant sound more lively than it is, and suggests the Venn/Alken gate contraption is locked in the Alken position in his world. He's one of the very few, maybe the only, character to directly mention Firekeepers, and does so in a way that makes it clear that the actual Firekeepers are long gone.

Saulden gives us the 'time is convoluted' spiel, and a part of this involves 'fissures between worlds' that allow things like soapstone messages to cross over. 'Saulden's Fissures,' therefore, is what I call the principle by which items and entities are able to cross over. I don't know if it covers everything from Crystal Lizard despawns to auto-summoning to paintings and mirrors, but I've been operating under the assumption that they're all related to this same 'school' of 'magic.'


Saulden carries the Ring of Steel Protection, associated with Knight King Rendal, Balder in the first game, and Mirrah in the second (Lucatiel and the Looking Glass Knight carry the +1 and +2 versions, LGK is potentially related to Mirrah via Llewellyn,) meaning that Saulden is likely from Mirrah.

Ruin Sentinel, Castle Drangleic

A discussion of stuff specifically related to the covenant follows.

Joining gets the player the Blue Seal ring.Increases HP 3%. "The Way of Blue is not a developed religion. It is a humble prayer that spread naturally amongst those seeking help...When apostles of Blue are invaded by dark spirits, they can receive assistance from masters of other worlds." The ring shows what looks to be an almond-shaped leaf.

Rank 1 nets us the Bloodbite Ring. The bite rings aren't tied directly to Carim in the second game, but do state that all of the bite rings likely come from a common source: a master craftsman who 'clearly knew his trade.' The ring can also be bought from Cromwell (Carim connection) and the +1 version can be found in the Shulva DLC.

Rank 2 yields (running out of synonyms here,) the Hush sorcery, known as Spook in the other games. The Hush variant is linked to the Shadow Knights of Mirrah, who are contrasted with the Official Order that gave us Lucatiel. The Shadow order are described as assassins who 'quietly carry out unspeakable tasks.' The spell can also be found in the Ruin Sentinel arena in the Bastille. Given the name change, I suspect we're meant to assume that Hush is an example of convergent evolution with the Vinheim school, rather than a divergence from it. The Shadow Knights themselves have a crest on their face-masks that matches the crest on the Manikins' shoulder, despite at least some of them having been mercenaries under the employ of Vendrick.

Rank 3 gets us the Blue Tearstone Ring. Besides being thematically appropriate, it also connects to Carim/Caitha. Well, if we want to be logic lords about it was associated with Catarina in the first game, but like I still don't really have a clue with the Profaned Capitol or the Seigward/meyer stuff and how you end up with a Sunbro with weird connections to Caitha, but on the other hand that's basically what we find in Lothric so who fucking knows. The ring features a tear of mourning shed by the goddess for 'those who have lost loved ones.' This ring is also found in Belfry Luna. The red variant is found along the path towards Aldia's Keep, in that gross puddle with the inexplicable white birch tree. It's possible the ring's location has something to do with the schism between Vendrick (heir of Venn) and Aldia (heir of Alken). The red ring has a tear shed for 'the undeserving dead.'

So the first five thousand times I looked at that list it made zero sense to me, but a pattern is finally starting to emerge here: Carim, Mirrah, Olaphis-Venn, with Elana ruling in place of Ivory of Venn.

Blue Sentinels

Joining the covenant gives us the Guardian's Seal, which autosummons to a Blue Apostle's world to protect them from invaders. "The ring is engraved with the crest of the WoB, symbolizing the dignified oath to protect each world's master from dark spirits.' The crest shows an elaborate clover or flower variant of the Blue Seal leaf.

Rank 1 gives the Spirit Tree Shield. This is the version that appears in the third game, and the one carried by the Drakebloods, not the variant carried by Targray. It has terrible stats but allows for spell deflection but seriously has terrible really terrible stats. It weighs 5 units which is 5 units for an unbelievably terrible shield that has like ~58% average reduction because it's terrible. The shield mentions the allegory of Quella. This and other Sentinel rewards are sold by Wellager in NG++ but don't buy it because it's 10,000 souls for a terrible shield. You can get the version Targray has in the Iron Keep at the end of Belfry Sol. It's comparably useless but easy to get.

Rank 2 is Wrath of the Gods, the enigmatic root miracle of Force.

Rank 3 is Bountiful Sunlight, one of Gwynevere's miracles. Passed down through the ages, 'this miracle, once kept by the Lindelt Monastery, was stolen and never recovered.' This is the same description Licia's Soothing Sunlight miracle carries. While I'm glad they dropped the mechanic, it's weird that they went from these being Gwnevere-covenant-exclusive miracles to only being carried by people that stole them. Well, and Wellager, but fuck Wellager he's the Spirit Tree Shield of ghosts he probably stole them himself anyway. It heals 840 HP over 2 minutes according to wikidot which is not impressive but maybe it's a case of stacking it with a mushroom  and a root and a lifegem and the Evil and Wicked Eye effects or something super useful like that. So either get halfway through NG++ or be summoned into and successfully dispatch the invader of another player's world FIVE HUNDRED TIMES and the miracle's yours.

These guys are Blue Sentinels. Or the ones in Heide are, at least. It's implied in the Design Works interview that the Throne Defender was maybe related to them.

Cracked Blue Eye Orb - Sentinel exclusive item. Invade and punish the guilty. They cost 10,000 souls each, but unlike the Spirit Tree Shield are useful. They're dropped by the Old Knights of Heide and the Wicked Eye red phantom Sentinels on NG+.

Token of Fidelity - Shows the depths of the holder's fidelity. Can be used to heal the host during cordial intrusion or used to compete in the Sentinel arena.

Wicked Eye Greatshield - Weird, right? It was originally called the Guardian Shield. It's located in the Gutter. I haven't come to any conclusions about the Gutter yet, but I do know that anything down there is very, very old. The connection with the Sentinels is via the two NG+ red phantom Sentinels (weird, right?). And they carry Blue Eyes, so they're definitely Sentinels.

Finally, and this is a much less solid connection, but the Ruin Sentinels could possibly have represented a precursor line of Sentinels during High Olaphis. These in turn may have been inspired by the Giant Sentinels of Anor Londo, who seem to function as Princess Guards. Even further back we have the painting in the (I think) Red Room of Anor Londo, which shows an extra giant Giant Sentinel against a background of either the Dragon or Chaos War. I'll be discussing them more in a post about golems.

Brotherhood of Blood

I'll probably be discussing these guys in the Targray post, as well as others because they're incredibly important to the plot of the third game, but I wanted to outline some of the relevant stuff.

Cracked Red Eye Orb - 'The residual sins of those who have succumbed to dark temptations are contained in the form of the Cracked Red Eye Orb.' Farmed from BoB Torturers around the arena, as well as the Majula pigs and Fallen Giant salamanders. 

Bloodied Whip - "A tool made for a purpose forbidden by the gods." Gosh I wonder why. Torturer drop. I'm sure there will be an in-depth discussion of blood magic eventually.

Nahr Alma set - 'Those who profess faith in Nahr Alma have rejected all that is this world, and now vow to travel a path stained with blood.'

Curved Twinblade - Rank 1 reward. Weapon from a 'foreign land' that causes bleeding. The blades are more reminiscent of scimitars than katanas, in case anyone's wondering if it was Alonne's. 

Crescent Sickle - Rank 2 reward. Enchanted by magic, but not intended as a weapon, rather it was used as a ceremonial instrument. It looks like a spear stabbing a Darkmoon crescent. Mytha seems to be the source of magic in the kingdom, so I assume this is her doing. The Grave Wardens and flesh golems, also aligned with Mytha, carry similar weapons. I don't get why there's so much Darkmoon symbolism around, unless it's being done in mockery, like 'oh, don't go doing blood magic sez the person that thinks /she's/ the secret and forbidden and magic snake queen of the gods? I'm gonna  make a bunch of razor sharp sickle weapons in honor our proud proletarian heritage and let the waters of Alken flow eternally in the name of the light of the eternally waning moon, how bow dah?'

Scythe of Nahr Alma - Another ceremonial scythe sold by Gren. This one is enchanted with dark, but this is no place for talk of such things. The statue of Nahr Alma is carrying a measure, implying that s/he is a god seeking balance rather than sheer mindless carnage.

Great Scythe - The description makes it seem that the reason the scythe is so revered as a weapon, despite being a terrible weapon when you think about it, is because scythes leech power from the 'fears of those hunted by this fearsome thing.' The hunted being, yknow, those people who generally have cause to be afraid when the scythes and pitchforks come out. Like colonizers or kings. The idea seems to be that certain barely-weapons get sort of mythologized via folk tales that should be more about the people carrying the arms than the arms themselves. The Great Club is another example. In other words, the BoB functions more as a folk religion than the 'official' folk religion of the WoB, even if it is a death cult loyal to an undying mad forbidden waterbearing poisonous snake witch queen enchantress of the dead. with horns.

Great Chaos Fireball - Rank 3 reward. Mentions the Chaos Flame devouring the mother of pyromancy. Mytha has some kind of pyromancy grow operation happening, and Jugo seems to have aligned with her. Aldia, of course, seems to have been an expert on the Chaos Flame himself, although I don't think that's related beyond Al being Mytha's son. It's possible all the pyromancy stuff ties in with the Lost Sinner in some way more than it does the Iron King, himself a likely pyromancer.

A lot of the BoB-related stuff relates to rituals, more than even the much more overtly religious Blue covenants. The only kind of underlying philosophy talks about 'the bitterness of the grudges the holder has accumulated,' and a knowing commitment to forsake 'all that is this world' in pursuit of the Brotherhood's insane objective. Clearly it lines up with with Mytha-era Alken's grudge against...well, everyone, eventually. 

If the Blue Sentinels are the Darkmoon Blades of the second game, it could be that the Brotherhood of Blood are the heirs of the old Warrior of Sunlight faith, which seems to have been buried/abandoned/forgotten by Alken at some point during the rise of the Iron King, maybe as a result of the rise of pyromancy in an echo of the downfall of Sunlight Maggot Solaire. It could even be that as the Venn-aligned Sentinels began to infiltrate the Way of Blue there was a schism, resulting in one faction turning into a kind of 'evil Sunbro' red faction.

Discussion

I'm trying really hard to not talk about the third game. I do need to point out that the WoB seems to be the state religion of Lothric via the Priestess, and that Lothric Priestesses look like DS2 Fire Keepers. Emma, of course, gives us access to the covenant, but the Shrine Handmaiden (via her interactions with Sirris,) seems to think all this 'soppy gossip' about 'cordial intrusion' is a fool's errand, probably because of the loss of Gwyndolin. Carim seems to have switched sides from Blue to White at some point, and the remaining Sentinels would seem to be more or less beseiged by both Sulyvahn and the White, as well as whatever Gertrude/Angelic/Londor/Pilgrim/Kaathe civil war is transpiring.

So that's all a mess, but we at least know where we need to land. As outlined in Prisoner, Carim was allied with Drangleic/Lothric early on, but switched sides to Lordran/Thorolund when the two factions came into conflict. By my reasoning, Carim is in charge of Thorolund, rather than the reverse, but it's unclear if Carim accepts/approves of either Sulyvahn or post-Firelink Aldrich. Probably I could work out an answer but I've already talked about the third game more than I meant to MOVING ON.

Shulva looks to be aligned with Lindelt looks to be aligned with Carim looks to be aligned with Mirrah looks to be aligned with Balder (Mirrah is already fallen in the Cursebearer's time, and Balder had fallen by the Chosen Undead's timeline,) with Lothric coming out the other side, with early Lothric at least partially beholden to Carim (never underestimate Carim). So there you go.

Discussion for real though

Right, so let's start with the Way of Blue. It was a folk religion that probably arose during and as a result of the Iron King's rule. Since then the faith has split into the Brotherhood and Sentinel factions, with the Sentinel faction ultimately loyal to Anor Londo and Olaphis but functionally loyal to 'Light' Mirrah, Shulva, and probably Lindelt-Volgen. These people are going places.

The Brotherhood faction can be thought of as Alken loyalists. With Aldia and Vendrick gone the throne is uncontested, and Mytha has filled the vacuum with what can broadly be thought of as Drang loyalists, as well as Jugo, the Undead Crypt, probably the Rat King, 'Dark' Mirrah, and probably Vendrick in his time. 

Currently my best working theory as to what happens is the Elana-Sentinel-Carim-Lindelt faction seizes power after the Cursebearer takes the throne, and consolidates power in what would eventually be known as Lothric.

Mytha continues to win support to her totally not insane vision of unleashing an invincible army of flaming skeletons to drown Venn in the blood of its own defenders, eventually giving rise to Wolnir as the 'Reject the Throne' Champion who would chase Olaphis/Carim out of Drangleic for good.

In other words, the Sentinels win out in the short term.

The Way of Blue gives the player rewards that specifically help cowards stand against the Brotherhood's onslaught: bleed resistance, defense bonuses, and a spell to help them sneak around. The Sentinels and Brothers, however, receive rewards that clearly mark them for who they are: a red and a blue faction fighting a civil war that's been repeating since Gwyn first linked the Fire. The main difference is that the war has happened so many times that everything is beginning to 'twist,' yes as in 'twisted souls,' with each side coming up with different red and blue components, like Vendrick the Red's capacity for scholarship and reflection, or the Sentinels' allegiance to Elana because of her title (of Olaphis,) rather than who she actually is (a child of Manus).

I feel a lot safer making the connection between the Pus of Man/Lothric Wyverns and the 'clandestine rituals' of Shulva, specifically the Imperfect and those pain in the ass immune-to-weapons ghost soldiers.

Also, if you're wondering, yes the reason there are no pictures of the DmB miracle is because I didn't want to farm ears.

AI 006 - A Storm of Dragons

This post is going to outline dragons, partial dragons, and possible dragons across the three games. I take some liberty with some of the descriptive-class names. I'm not discussing everything because I either have nothing to say or forgot.

(UPDATE 2023: Gonna fix this one this time, he said ambitiously.)

Some things are obviously dragons, some things are obviously not dragons. Some things are kinda-maybe-sorta related to dragons, like

• Darkroot amphibians
• Flame Salamanders
• Primordial serpents (yes, I understand the 'never was a dragon' thing, but they certainly aren't fucking primates or mosquitos are they)
• The two Undead Dragons in DS1 (Are they animated as themselves or are they like a hollow/zombie?)
• The Iron King, Mytha (THEY. HAS. HORNS.)
• Basilisks
• The projected Drakes of Lothric
• Gargoyles. They almost seem like a cross between a drake and a batwing demon, but they're clearly creatures of stone.

Things with low-but-non-zero probability for inclusion include:

• Dragon apostles w/o torso/headstone effect (Hawkwood, Magerold)
• Cats, potentially (Alvina, Shalquior, Aava etc)
• Prince Lothric
• Pus of Man 
• Kreimheld, the Crystal Sages, and objects fully possessed by Ruin (naked Logan, Channelers, Entity Navlaan).
• Sulyvahn's Beasts/Outrider Knights 
• Cursed books

DS1

Hellkite, Undead Parish:

I think this might actually be a human warrior that ascended to drakehood by some means. She's positioned in a place that could indicate either a Seathe-based path (Boar and Channeler are nearby) or a Nameless-based path of ascension (obviously).

I think Hellkites might be artificially created to some extent. Like the end of the line for a Sunbro is becoming either Solaire or the Iron King or advancing and becoming a Dragonbro and, at the end of that journey, a bro dragon.

Dragon King, Blighttown

Starting from the head, the creature is is quite similar to Seathe's sword & board snakemen. Gaping may have been the progenitor of the species, and therefore their 'king.' I don't think he's a 'real' dragon, although he may have been around since the Age of Ancients or very shortly thereafter. Like if you made a serpentman eat a bone from a King Dragon like, it wouldn't digest, right? Like you can't digest immortal, I'm pretty sure that's what the whole Godskin Apostles job was about, getting rid of all the mud-packed skin zombies running around. So hypothetically the bone would just slowly adapt to it's new environment and the host would slowly be warped by the bone. I'm not saying that's what happened, but just judging from the Channeler watching/defending it it reeks of mad science.

The Paledrake, Anor Londo Archives

Seathe, obviously, is a dragon, but he's also very obviously not a normal dragon. 

Seathe is immortal, but his body isn't. He had been using a link to the primordial crystal to keep his original body alive, but following DS1 his consciousness seems to have turned into a kind of miasma or ghost that seeks out suitable hosts to infect/possess. I'm calling this 'ghost Seathe' Ruin or the Ruin. I'm not at all sure about this, because the Ruin, as in the Writhing Ruin may be something Moonlight-centric and independent of Seathe, and Seathe may actually have been this Moonlight Ruin's victim.

See and here there's this big long side discussion about brightstone vs crystal I need to focus on dragons.

I feel fairly comfortable saying that Logan, Straid, Aldia, Navlaan, Oceiros, and Freja all encountered the Ruin/Seathe, with varying results.

Aldia took an 'I can handle it' approach towards inquiries into the Paledrake, and I assume became infected but managed to outrun it for longer than any other character in the series, save Straid, from what I can tell.

Current theory:

Aldia was Lord Tseldora. He had a partner/mentor that was a Chaos Witch, possibly from the Leydia sect. Her name was Najka. Maybe. 

On the back of Vendrick's success Aldia drove the Gyrm out of Tseldora and sent the settlers and cultists in. Whatever else he found down there he found brightstone, which brought wealth to the settlement but also obsession. Eventually they plumbed the depths of the ruins and found both a dragon corpse and Ruin, which was attempting to graft itself onto the corpse, for lack of a better explanation for how Ruin came to be there to begin with.  

Aldia, and let's not forget that Aldia is really fucking smart, seems to have done one of two things. First explanation: he tricked or brute-force magicked the Ruin into a royal apprentice sorcerer, who calls himself Navlaan now. Having successfully captured a 'copy' of Seathe/Ruin, he sets Freja loose. 

Freja was Tark and Najka's sister, for anyone following along at home. 

Now, obviousest question: who's the guy matching Lord Tseldora's description in Aldia's study?

Fiorenza. 

Serpentmen, Sen's Fortress

These are the sword & board warriors and the hooded, flamberge-wielding sorcerer variants guarding Sen's. I'm tempted to include Channelers here, but won't. The soldier variant is pretty straightforward, intelligent enough to oversee the prison section of the Archives, but dumb enough to let prisoners escape. The sorcerer variants are smaller, have six limbs, and seem to be more associated with Sen's.

Waitaminute six limbs how many arms Gaping King 

Primordial Serpents, various

These guys have been discussed extensively elsewhere. But since I'm here to hopefully blow minds.

See? It's him, see?

Twin Lizard, Darkroot Garden

These are the two-headed lizards we find in upper Darkroot. They drop egg vermifuge (vermin killer). We find what could be one of them as part of the design on the Curved Dragon Greatsword from the second game. The only thing I can kind of relate them to are the Flexile Sentries.

Crystal Lizard (common), various

I think these are whelps. They have the ability to, I assume, slip through one of Saulden's fissures into another world. This feat is signaled by the lizard performing a cute little prayer/dance/burrowing motion. Given their shape, and assuming they are dragon whelps, they look like they might grow up to be Sihn/Undead Dragon-type dragons. I sure am typing the word dragons a lot today.

Hydra, Darkroot Basin, Ash Lake

Maybe these things pre-dated fire and they spit water but it's magic water and maybe they work for Seathe unless Seathe's there studying them idkwtf

Stone Dragon, Ash Lake

This seems like a young ancient dragon, in that it's younger than fire but has been left undisturbed long enough to develop. Watch Hawkshaw's thing if you haven't.

Kalameet the Black, Royal Wood

I don't know Kalameet's origins, but it could be that she... I don't even want to speculate. She's associated with the Abyss, and plays a role in both the second and third games. In the second, the arms of the dragon knights we find in the Dragon Shrine - the Villard and Edde guys - are forged from Kalameet's tail, and their armor is made from her scales. In the third game, after being summoned inside, there's a shrine to Kalameet just inside. Kalameet is portrayed as being a breed similar to the nearby archdrakes, rather than how K actually looked, which was similar to Sihn.

Priscilla, Ariamis

I've written so much about the painting that I haven't published that I can't even remember if I've actually written anything about the paintings yet. I know I meant to at one point. I think she's part rat. She can turn fully invisible. She's the first frost sorcerer we encounter. I don't understand what Lifehunt's meant to be. Her and ole King Bughead of Carcosa are gonna be interesting af if anyone ever figures them out.

Calamity buff

Iron Golem Core, Sen's Fortress

It's a soul - probably of someone like Knight King Rendall or something - grafted onto a dragon bone that functions as a kind of motor for the golem. I suppose at some point we need to consider if dragon weapons are literally and legitimately dragons, as dragons are immortal. Let's say you're out adventuring and you come across a dormant dragon and decide 'I need dragon weapons' and cut a couple pieces of the dragon off of the dragon. Now, if each piece of the dragon is alive and a dragon in the same way the dragon as a whole is alive and a dragon then: dragon weapons are generally 'alive' in some sense, but are they also dragons?

Stormdrake colony, Valley of the Drakes

I think by the time Nameless took over as King of the Gods dragons, and even drakes, were basically extinct in Lordran. I've talked about it elsewhere, but I suspect the blue, lightning-breathing drakes were bred and hunted in the dragon-slaying equivalent of canned hare hunts. King of Storms from the third game might be a mature one.

Undead Dragon, various

I think these are self-explanatory. That they breath poison was the basis for my theory of Sihn being septic due to her flame going out. The Spitfire Spear from DS2, I think, is literally the mechanism a drake/dragon uses to ignite their waste. Additionally, the Undead Dragons seems to be of a breed similar to the Ancient Dragon from DS2, rather than the sleeker Sihn/Kalameet variety. These, or at least their lower halves (and again: if each part of a dragon is a dragon: is each dragon part the same dragon?) might be animated by chaos.

So to recap, we have hares (Hellkites,) foxes (Kalameet,) bulls (Ancient) and longhorn (Stone).

Dragonman type A

This is the Path of the Dragon transformation. It looks very birdlike.

DS2

Ancient Dragon, Dragon Shrine

This is the corpse of a dragon animated by the soul of a giant and is the result, we assume, of one of Aldia's experiments. Odds are that the entity we interact with, despite its appearance, has the giant's personality. We get this dragon's soul from the memory of the corpse we find at the bottom of Tseldora. When traveling the memory we find ourselves atop a forest of broken archtrees. The general vibe seems to be that this was a recent battlefield during the Dragon War, and that the Ancient Dragon died in this war and eventually ended up buried under the eastern Drang mountains, where it would later be discovered by the Ruin and Aldia.

Nesting and Patrol Drakes, Dragon Aerie

The Aerie deserves its own post, but the Nesting Drakes, we can assume, are female. The Patrol Drakes (the ones in the sky box,) would probably be males. If dragons even work that way. The Nesting Drakes drop Flameplate Rings and pyromancies. Explain that, Bill Nye.

Curious Drake, Heide

I think the one lance-wielding knight at the top of the stares was the drake's mount.

I'm not at all sure about this, but.

Maybe everyone here, except possibly the Dragonrider, is loyal to the Sentinels, and the Heide Knight's attitude indicates that they literally have nothing to do but wait, provided the path to the port remains in check. Maybe this represents some kind of agreement between Heide and Vendrick that the territory - excluding the Bastille and Wharf - could remain as a kind of Olaph-Venn embassy awaiting word from Mirrah or Elana or Anor Londo or whoever.

Guardian Dragon, Aldia's Keep

It seems older and more battle-hardened than the other drakes, and may have served as Aldia's personal mount at some point.

For the first time since I started I didn't have enough DS2 pictures.

Crystal Lizard (turret), Shulva

These lizards, which seem to be regular lizards, just older and bigger, have had their crystals replaced with statue clusters. The statues represent Elena, obviously. It's unclear if the statues are grown or grafted on somehow.

Crystal Lizard (red), various

These explode. I think Aldia made them.

The Imperfect, Shulva

Here we find what looks like the mouth of a primordial serpent attached to the lower half of an undead dragon, all of which is covered in the pus of man. It has a Dark Lightning breath attack. Thomas doesn't want us dicking around with them. It does seem like a lot of the 'clandestine rituals' developed in Shulva figured heavily into DS3, so I'm sure in another two years I'll have something more crazy sounding to say about them.

C'mon man, please, all of my stuff's about to break

Flexile Sentries, various

Oh hey another two headed lizard. Descriptions of their weapons use the words 'vile' and 'warped' and 'merciless' and 'unsettling,' and describe them packing Olaphis' sorcerers and pyromancers onto ships and casting them out to sea, where the few survivors imparted their knowledge to the people of what would become Melfia. This is strange because we find a Sentry in Eleum Loyce, and we also find a sorcerer's twinblade under guard next to a Divine Blessing in Eleum Loyce and plus the whole area's riddled with magic. The EL Sentry is guarding the Garrison Ward key, the only way to leave the citadel to the south save for the shrine. The Dragon Bone Fist is also in the room but, well, I've already made a bad Dragon Ball reference and what else is there to say?

Dragonmen type B, Dragon Shrine

These are the Dragon Knight guys. They're based off of Kalameet and look the best of the three variants. The Kalameet stuff feels dissonant with the Shrine itself. It's possible the High City we see in the intro movie is the Dragon Shrine during the time of Olaphis, and we find it after it's been partially restored.

Someone pointed out the Black Dragon Weapons kinda look like Quelaag's Furysword.

Mytha Queen of Alken, Earthen Peak

Her transformation was brought about by Sihn's poison, and is clearly turning her into a serpent. So it's not 100% yes that she's a dragon, but if you buy that the poison from the mines is seeping up from Shulva, and that serpents can be counted as a type of dragon (the silver and gold rings dispute this,) then she's a dragon. If not, then she's not.

I just occurred to me that Shulva's location would have a large effect on how extensively it floods. I've always kind of assumed it was under Heide, but if it's Sihn's poison that ruined Alken - which would explain the uprising - then it's possible that the Harvest Valley area was once a land of lakes and meadows. This would also maybe inform Mytha's depictions as some kind of water-bearer.

Shanalotte/Emerald Herald/Muse, Dragon Shrine

Like I figure if I allowed comments or posted updates to reddit or anything like that I'd just get endless lines of assholes trying to argue the 'Mytha is a dragon' thing until the sun goes out and not one of them would have a problem with Shanallote the Clearly Not a Dragon being a dragon, even though for all we know her 'child of dragons' moniker might just refer to her having been raised by the Ancient Dragon and the drakes of the Aerie. The 'older' versions of her we find in the world are projections of the Muse at the Shrine. According to [lokey and JSF] this is the same thing Pinwheel does.

She's probably going to get something like her own post eventually, but I feel like I'm still a looooong way from understanding her.

I GAVE ME THIS NAME FROM THE FIREKEEPER YOU'RE PRETENDING YOU'RE NOT IMPERSONATING WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR WRIST SHANALOTTE

'Writhing Ruin,' Tseldora

I've discussed this extensively, how Seathe continues to exist as a kind of incorporeal essense that, while not Seathe himself, does have all of the properties of Seathe. By that I mean the Ruin, Seathe's 'ghost' or 'spirit' or whatever, doesn't have any of Seathe's memories and isn't sentient from what I can tell, so in that sense the Ruin is not Seathe; the Ruin, however, /does/ have, or at least causes, creatures exposed to it to eventually take on aspects of Seathe's personality, such as obsessive madness and a severely warped sense of ethics.

The important thing about the Ruin, what sets it apart from other such curses, is that it seems to act most virulently on characters who would otherwise be naturally resistant to curses: mighty warriors and great scholars. It's almost as if the Ruin, rather than striking where the victim is weakest, perverts the victims' strengths towards its own ends. Which the Ruin doesn't have ends, it's just an obsession with attaining the one thing one can't have.

So, is the Ruin a dragon?

It's of Seathe, who definitely is a dragon, but it's not necessarily of dragons. Whatever it is, it might be the thing that isn't dragon that caused Seathe to radicalize. The Ruin could be Moonlight - a kind of anti-light - that causes souls to spontaneously develop will, which normally only Dark ever seems to do. Dark follows Light in the cycle, and Humanity pursues the Soul as a general principle, but when Moonlight is involved the Soul seems to pursue Humanity. As Firekeepers and at least some WoW maidens are, or can, function as a kind of bottomless well of Humanity, this might explain why Seathe's perversion found its way out the way it did.

CAW CAW

Sihn

Discussed extensively elsewhere. Seems to be of the same 'fox' breed as Kalameet. If crystal lizards grow up to be Ancient and Undead Dragons, maybe cats or wolves grow up to be Sihns. I suppose we could think of the more muscular breed as 'bulls,' hellkites as 'hares,' and DS3 wyverns as, I don't know, ostriches?

One point that almost never gets made is that, when we arrive in Shulva, we find Sihn perched up towards the top of the cavern, about as far away as she can possibly get from Elana and the Shulvettes. When she sees us she retreats to her 'shrine,' where she's 'supposed' to have been the whole time, according to the official narrative. One of the item descriptions for the area questions whether the dragon even heard the lullaby. I initially took this to mean that the singing was being done primarily to keep anyone remaining in Shulva compliant, a la Amana and Castle Drangleic. It never really occurred to me that Sihn may have been actively trying to escape.

Zandroe and Zinder, mentioned characters

iirc, this was actually just one name that was translated differently in one item description. It's possible the mistake was left intentionally, as it seems to represent a Frampt or Kaathe-like character. Serpents aren't really dragons, of course, but nothing's really a dragon, not even Hawkwood.

Lothian's Quarry, implied character

Lothian quitting the field may have caused the downfall of Forossa. We don't know exactly what happened to him, but he left Forossa to hunt a dragon, passed through Drangleic, maybe more than once, and is probably the first mentioned character in an item description in-game. It seems like he backed himself into a corner and got eaten by the ogre, but there's no way to tell if this was in the beginning, middle, or end of Lothian's journey. If you light all the torches in Betwixt you get invaded by a character dressed as a traveler that doesn't use a shield. Maaaaaybe?

DS3

Wyvern, Lothric

I'm not gonna say much about the DS3 stuff because I feel like I understand it slightly less well than I did when I started Prisoner of Ash[]. Plus also if I did this post would take four years to write. I think they might be some kind of bunshin-no-jutsu/projected entity like Dreg Heap angels, Pinwheel, or Darklurker.

I think the gold/bronze is meant to represent the Knight, and the White the Scholar.

Serpentmen, Archdragon Peak

They seem to be straight-line descendants of the Serpentmen of Lordran. Some of them have the ability to breathe fire or use advanced weaponry like big fuggoff meteor axes they can throw from half a goddamn mile away.

Dragonmen type C, ADP

These are not only the least impressive-looking Dragonman, they're also the least impressive-looking thing. They're weak to everything, but you gain the kind of abilities that seem designed to never work. Hypothetically they're baby 4-limbed Archdrakes, the way you had 'baby' Stone Dragons in the first game and 'baby' Kalameets in the second. This weakness could be indicative of how long it takes a baby dragon to become big enough to really be impressive. Like, yeah, I might die to a strong breeze now, but just you come back in 18,000 years and see if you don't mistake me for a mountain.

Channelers, ADP

These are why I think the DS1 Channelers were maybe serpentmen as well. They, the DS3 channelers, have abilities that seem to be based off of Kalameet's yellow-on-black type of Dark. They can summon Maybe Havel, Prince Ricard, or a Drakeblood Knight. With the Drakeblood it's unclear if it's the same Drakeblood over and over or if there's like a contingent of them, because Havel and Ricard stop showing up if we beat them. If it's the same Drakeblood, then it might be the guy just past Oceiros, being summoned from the same fissure or whatever.

'Havel' seems to exist in as many as three locations, one on the Great Bridge, one on the roof past the entrance to the Gauntlet, and one summoned by the Channeler. They all seem to be connected, as spawns and item drops and so on interact with each other. Bridge Havel's armor shows up if we kill Roof Havel, for example.

We don't know where Ricard comes from, but he's wearing Wolnir's crown for some reason, maybe to symbolize the prince mastering everything that had been set before him, maybe to indicate that he, like Wolnir, was a type of Abysswalker.

Ancient Wyvern, ADP

These are maybe real versions of the ones on the High Wall of Lothric, who I suspect are being projected by the pus of man in a way similar to Gertrude's Angels and the Pilgrim Butterfly. The real ones look almost like they're constructed from ash. If we revisit the 'is a part of a dragon the whole dragon?' question, it could be that these are something like a dragon golem created from the atomized parts of dragons that had gone before. Since dragons can be used to create golems this is entirely feasible. The vessel dragon could then theoretically use souls to build its 'core,' and speed its development.

The spines could have a few different explanations. It could relate to the Ravenous Crystal Lizards, who seem to excrete a kind of brittle, low-density brightstone due to being kind of in the middle of the evolutionary process of learning how to digest souls. In other words, when dragons try to 'eat' souls, their natural Immortality Scales/Soul/Flame resistance means that they can't really digest Light souls and crap them out in crystalized form. Dragons, however, are able to 'injest' Dark/Humanity, as evidenced numerous times throughout the series.

They're quadrapeds, right? I swear they just RNG limb numbers with anything non-human. Personally, I think anything 4-limbed probably used to be human.

Actually, now that I think about it, if brightstone is dragon waste, Seathe might actually technically be a shit dragon. mechanically, this would make him the dragon equivalent of a pyromancer.

Anyway, with the ostrich/wyvern Archdrakes, the spines could be a result of the dragon expelling soul waste by kind of compacting it and forcing it outwards into a spike.

Alternately, since there is a feathered dragon nearby and their faces look the way they do, they might be related to the down-covered Stone Dragon of the first game, and the quills are actually vestigial feathers. It seems like if that were the case they'd have the two longhorn-type horns, though.

King Oceiros, Lothric

This is a pretty good case for 'Moonlight/The Ruin is a dragon, specifically Seathe,' because Oceiros came out looking like a dragon. Because our master never dies, only changes form.

Prince Ocelotte, Lothric

Well, I mean, thanks to Sanadsk we know he's real now. Or was.

The sad thing isn't that Hawkwood deserted in shame over wanting to not constantly die in battle, but that he chose that shield over almost any other one. The king ain't been making real good decisions lately either.

King of Storms, ADP

There's a couple of interesting theories about this one. It could be that it's an ascended Ornstein, it could be a child of the nearby actual Dragon cunningly disguised as a mountain, it could be one of the baby stormdrakes from Lordran.

The Wretched, Irithyll Dungeon

Clearly failed attempts to create a hybrid. They have dragon weapons. According to Sinclair and them they probably started out as failed attempts to create either Prince Lothric or Ocelotte, but were moved around and ended up in Sulyvahn's territory for reasons hopefully.

Crystal Lizard, large

Clearly this is what happens when they aren't murdered on sight as infants by anyone with a weapon and functioning arm.

Crystal Lizard, Ravenous

As I explained above, I think these things, along with everything else that survived the First Flame, are adapting to existence during the Age of Fire by evolving the ability to eat souls and, rather than being possessed by them, use them to speed their natural development-through-slow-environmental-accrual growth process.

Hawkwood

Hawkwood is Dragon.

Hawkwood, and Ashen One, doesn't take enlightenment well. Or rather, he takes enlightenment pretty well in the sense that after he loses everything, especially his ideals, and becomes forlorn, he ends up on a path as 'noble' and 'righteous' and 'good' as any.

He, a noble himself, sets out to kill the king, himself a dragon. You, an Ashen One, can ignore Oceiros and ADP altogether. But if you don't, and team up with HW against O, then you can meet again at the Gauntlet of ADP. The Gauntlet, especially the first playthrough, is one of the most difficult sections in the entire series. If you try to speed through w/o Spook and Hidden Body, or if one of them wears off before you're through the gatehouse, you're gonna get surrounded and die. If you try to fight it out you're probably gonna get caught up trying to break the greatshield-wielders' guard, get surrounded, and die. If you try to lure them out one at a time you're probably gonna run out of arrows, get frustrated, assume you've killed enough serpentmen to finish the rest off in melee, get hit with a meteor axe through a wall, panic, get surrounded, run around a corner, get headbutted off a cliff by a crystal lizard, and die.

...yeah, and you'll have your wrist instantly broken for you, you try holding a sword like that all edgelordy. I mean it would look better held properly, from a toxic masculinity perspective.

Unless you summon Hawkwood.

Hawkwood has his own agenda. He's there for the Gauntlet.

Hawkwood gives us two more options, lorewise (three once you've mastered the area). The first: he runs up and draws all the aggro and dies bravely and honorably while you sneak past, steal the treasure, and bone out. Or, you can help him by casting Atonement, rushing past the mooks while yelling 'hey look I'm a meat shield!' and taking on the big guys in the gatehouse so Hawkwood can make it through and take the next step along the Path in as fair & square a manner as can be expected in Souls.

In Hawkwood's world, he survives and is Dragon. In your world, you survive and are Dragon. From here you have to fall in love with a mortal and then meet the Kurgan in an old church and become Goku but not in the second movie where you're an alien suddenly and not Scottish and Clancy Brown's all like 'what in the name of hell are you doing Lambert? This is a no. A no. Many no's. All of the no's there are, as many as you need. I'm not doing this movie for less than a lot of a lot of money.' But then you're like, well, no, Goku was an alien in the much more inferior sequel as well and everyone likes that so that's fine.

That's basically a poop-powered atomic fusion laser of Soul and Humanity that then cools off to something you might could think of as 'fire.' 

Painter of Ash, Ariandel

She has reptilian eyes, may be related to Priscilla, and has some unique property (her 'those ken to fire must not use 'ken' and 'kin' interchangeably in the same script if you're also going to use archaic and regional word variations intentionally a lot' line,) that allows her to paint.

Duchess Shira, Ringed City

I mean, she's called daughter of the Duke, has a maneater pearl crown, and is a hell of a fighter. Even if she doesn't know it, Seathe is dead so she is technically the Duchess and rightful heir of Anor Londo, at least if we wake Filianore.

Darkeater Midir, Ringed City

Midir seems unable to digest Dark and excretes it as obsidian, which seems to be the Dark counterpart to brightstone. We found obsidian in the Royal Woods around Oolacile, but it was of the brittle variety, rather than something more like a Dark version of Twinkling Titanite.  Midir himself is covered in it, and Shira - who shares some kind of telepathic connection with Midir - worries that he's finally succumbing to Dark. Presumably, Midir was charged with, first, preventing anyone without the banner from entering or leaving the city and, second, making sure no one approaches the Shared Grave/backdoor to Filianore's Church.

Midir, the name, has Celtic roots, but I can't figure out how or if it connects to the in-game dragon. He's mostly known from the "Old Irish Saga Tochmarc Etaine ("The Wooing of Etain")". From what I can tell Midir was married to a lady call Fuamnach, who's described as something like Zullie or Velka; a kind of vengeful, upper-class witch. Etain is a 'passion and jealousy' Sun Goddess, and Fuamnach lays a series of curses on her after the two elope, including turning her into water, and then a worm. The worm eventually becomes a butterfly that becomes Midir's companions, although Midir doesn't realize it's Etain. More of Fuamnach's curses include summoning storms that blow Etain around for seven years at a time, and she, Etain, is eventually swallowed and somehow reborn as baby Etain a thousand years after her origin.

baby Etain grows up and marries the king. When Midir realizes what's happened, he wins a kiss from baby Etain from the king in a board game. The two embrace, turn into swans, and fly off to Midir's fairy mound home.

Both Midir and Fuamnach were royalty and equals, described as a lesser king and queen of the Tuatha de Danann. Midir is associated with birds, often adopts the appearance of a bird, crafts rivers & lakes, and is pretty shrewd. His name probably means 'judge'. If all of this somehow relates to Darkeater Midir then you'd need to understand the mythology a lot better than I do to parse it.

As for the Darkeater: it could be that Midir can't digest Dark, and excretes it as obsidian, and a much denser variety than we find around Kalameet. Shira worries that he's finally succumbing to Dark, and small wonder. I'm sure I'll be discussing him more later.

Archdragon Peak, the real one

According to Lance, JSF, et al, that's an actual rigged character model, not just terrain made to look like a dragon. There isn't a whole lot to say about it beyond 'it's a really big dragon,' but it happens to be the dragon at the end of the Path of the Dragon, and we interact with it by making a gesture almost universally associated with seeking some kind of peace. It's possible she's sleeping, rather than dead, as we initially find Sihn in a similar pose.

Anyway, we kinda trod deep waters lightly with this one, and someday there's probably gonna be more Path of the Dragon stuff either in one of these or in Prisoner if I ever get to where I feel like I'm ready to try to tackle it again.

Next is...I don't know what next is. Archtrees, maybe.