Princess Toadstool doesn't have any hair. I mean why would she?
She doesn't have a crown either.
After WW2 the world entered what generally gets referred to as the Cold War, a decades-long war between communist and capitalist factions. As more states turned Red the war became less and less cold.
The war was called Cold not because there wasn't oceans of blood and mountains of skulls, but because the underlying threat was mutually-assured destruction, which is when two superpowers -- a state with access to extinction-level-event nuclear weapons -- shoot their extinction-level-event nuclear weapons at each other.
Western Europe -- which still has monarchies and popes and shit to this day -- followed in the US'es shadow, right, because we didn't 'win' so much as we 'came in at the last minute and took all the credit' and had the important strategic advantage of having a gd bigass ocean on either side.
But, well, we can all see what happened with the US. Nazi science and self-worship and every humane instinct perverted to evil ends.
The great and shining city on a hill.
Everybody knows House Toadstool turned its own lower class into bricks and coins enchanting treasures that'll shimmer you blind.
Just like everybody knows mushrooms don't have hair and can't wear crowns.
But you can pretend to have hair and wear crowns. Lure in some very strong and good-natured, industry-appropriate, working-class warriors from a far away land with a, let's call it a very childlike and ahistorical understanding of what monarchy was is & breeds.
The communists, of course, are generally people who never had power before and mostly want good things for most people and generally don't like fighting and are consequently not much good in a fight, but those who do fight fight fucking hard because they know the truth and they know the stakes.
So mean ole Uncle Joe comes along one day and steal just steals for no reason, our beautiful and totally absolutely 100% a human woman princess, for no reason. Communists sure are evil, huh? Break blocks to find treasure! See you at the next castle!
Friday, February 28, 2020
Saturday, February 1, 2020
AI 019 - Peasants and Pigs and Pickaxes True
The first part talks about various subtypes and groups of hollows, and probably gets racist despite my best efforts. The second part talks about the invader in the second church of Tseldora. The third part puts on a special hat to keep out the brain waves and starts thinking it can talk to birds. IT'S ALL IMPORTANT BECAUSE IMPLICATIONS
Hollow
Notes Regarding the Hollows of Lordran
The first non-combatant hollows we find are in the Undead Asylum, helpfully standing next to messages like 'try backstabbing' and 'he deserves it'. They, the passives, keep to the lower cells and I believe are found only in areas accessible before the Asylum Demon. They are pretty clearly DS3-definition Forlorn. They aren't there when we return to the area later.
Above the lower cells we find hollows armed with broken swords, torches, and bows. They're clearly intelligent enough to use bows and set off traps.
These more aggressive hollows are found in different locations later carry torches, and are significantly stronger. If they even are the same hollows.
The two most obvious explanations for the changes are that the Black Knights granted them, the missing passives, something like 'true death' or that they took up arms (torches, specifically,) and are in the process of taking over the asylum following the upheaval of the Demon dying and the knights arriving. Meaning that the torch bearers are the passives from earlier.
We find a large colony of docile hollows on the shores of New Londo. Their behavior clearly indicates a bottomless grief and communal trauma suffered at the loss of the city. If we talk to Crestbro after Frampt shows up he joins their ranks as a guardian.
I bring him up because there's not much to say about the hollows themselves, but he acts as their protector, witting or not. He obviously wears the chain set, marking him as a prisoner, and carries the Estoc, later associated with Sirris.
His reaction to Frampt may be more than just being appalled by the serpent's breath. Frampt might exude a kind of aura of avarice that repels the warrior who, being crestfallen, wants nothing but to be left alone. Even the Chosen Undead, when they turn into Corporal Questions, makes Cresty regret his initial offer to help.
We find another group of dociles gathered around the Warriors of Sunlight altar. Their positioning would seem to make it clear that their displays of faith and loss are meant to invoke Nameless rather than the Mother and Child couple.
Solaire is the NPC associated with this area, and we all know Solaire.
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| YOU NEED TO GO TALK TO/BEAT UP YOUR REAL DAD SOLAIRE |
The egg-burdened Servants of Chaos could almost be thought of as 'recovering forlorn,' in that they still exhibit a hollow's almost-mindless desire to have faith in something like purpose, which was granted by the Fair Maiden.
Eingyi is effectively their spokesperson, and could even be thought of as a kind of heir to the Fire Sages of Old, albeit one apparently completely ignorant of the true thoughts and desires of the Chaos Witches themselves.
In the Painting, we find a single passive bloated pyromancer in an isolated tower only accessible via the sewer. S/he drops Flame Surge, an outland pyromancy also used by Sharp Eyes. They, too, seem overcome by grief, but the pyromancer's seems to be of a more internal nature.
The bloated pyromancers in the area use a very different casting animation to cast very different pyromancies. Rather than squirting a glob of poop into their palm and igniting it with the parasite's spitfire mechanism they perform what I would call a "magician's flourish" and shoot a straight-line fireball (they may track, I forget).
The two handmaids of Gwynevere outside of Logan's Cell match the description of other docile enemies, and are even audibly weeping over their circumstances.
It doesn't seem to match up mechanically, but I believe we're meant to infer that these creatures are normally docile until the Serpent's Phonograph is played. This could tie into Crestbro's response to Frampt, an instinct-level 'berserker' state brought about by the presence of the proposed aura of avarice.
It should also be noted that the second game significantly expanded the lore around song magic. Specifically, it's considered an art of the Dead, and its proper use is to bring peace to those bound by death and dark (from the Milfanito and Agdayne). In other words, the Platonic Ideal of a Souls Song is probably a lullaby, just as we find in Shulva, Amana and even Oceiros' Garden. The Serpent's Song we hear in the Archives could be an intentional perversion of this art concocted by Seath: a lullaby that does the opposite of what a lullaby is supposed to do.
Notes Regarding the Hollows of Drangleic
There's a special type of enemy, invisible hollows, found everywhere and nowhere in-game. They're often near torches and can be found by their shadows. Presumably they've been at peace for so long they're beginning to dissipate naturally.
We find docile hollows in a variety of areas in Drangleic, mostly minding their own business, and can be found in Huntsman's Copse, Earthen Peak, the Grave of Saints, the Gutter, and I'm sure other places. Some are what I would call passive-aggressive, in that they don't seem to attack us for any particular reason beyond animal-level instinct or even a failed attempt to hug a stranger.
They seem to be grouped by type between the white, tattooed "Venn" variety and the green, burnt-looking "Alken" variety. The Whites are found in the Alken-related areas and the blacks in Venn-related areas. For example, in the Copse the Green Hollows tend to attack us and lead us into traps, while the white hollows tend to idle in their cells. There aren't many whites in the Grave of Saints, but very few of the greens attack us. The Gutter is a relative metropolis of Greens, comfortable living with ants and mushroomancers, but with no whites (unless you count the exploding hollows). If you do count the exploding hollows then we might consider these whites that didn't get the tattoos.
I'm referring to the fact that white hollows are covered in tattoos. The exploders don't have them. The runes may serve to preserve the whites, meaning that they would be 'older' than the greens. Or that the greens naturally live longer. I suspect the latter.
There are a mix of whites and blacks in the Undead Crypt, all hostile, with the whites seemingly favored by the Leydia, if not the Grave Wardens themselves. Remind me to check to see if the Wardens attack Torchbro.
To sum up, the whites tend to be more crafty (torchbros and UDC bell-ringers are whites,) while the greens tend to be openly hostile (although there are greens in the Copse that try to get you to chase them into danger).
The final group of passive hollows are a bit different. They're green in appearance but significantly more fucked up that normal greens. They also wear a kind of mask. The reason for their passivity may have less to do with them not wanting to attack and more to do with the big, explodey barrels they carry. You find them all over Brume Tower. They, along with the fat exploders worshiping the Scorching Iron Scepter (a satellite tower, where Nadalia's influence might be slightly weaker) might be the only living creatures in the whole place.
There are a number of non-hollow (well, not hollow as in the basic enemy, several of them are probably hollow in the psychological 'they've completely forgotten their old life and are yet to start a new one' sense,) passive enemies as well, although many of them are conditional.
Two smaller groups of dociles I'd like to mention are the exploders in Straid's cell and the spiders in Cromwell's attic. The exploders are, I think, hollows that have become so cracked that they can no longer absorb souls. Beyond repair in other words. Again, this may relate to their lack of tattoos, and the fact that they're most numerous in the Bastille would seemingly date them to at least Olaphis. The spiders are interesting because the spiders around Ornifex will still attack when you approach her.
And that's interesting because Ornifex and Cromwell are both characters that would be associated with Velka in the first game.
One point I'd like to make about Cromwell's church...Two points I'd like to make about Cromwell'...Three points I'd like to make about Cromwell's Church.
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And chimes aren't even foreign to Lordran, just everyone in Lordran stopped using them for some reason (probably Filianore). They, chimes, are rooted in the mythology of bells, which obviously play an important role in Lordran's history.
Second, the Magus/Congregation boss fight involves an Aldian Warlock, two Drangleic priests, and a group of decaying hollows of indeterminable color (upon examination I'd call them greens in a state of serious decomposition. Unlike whites, who may lose their 'core' first, greens might lose their limbs. We find another large group of them around the Shrine of Amana. The second group was accompanied by an Aldian Warlock in the base game, but that was swapped to a group of DS1-style pyromancers. In other words, an Izalith-based faction messing with Nitoan stuff, which may be a kind of inversion of the Brotherhood of Blood.
Third: Vendrick only tolerated clerics in the kingdom to the degree that they did their job and didn't fuck up. Part of that job may have involved forging a secret alliance with Carim. Carim would seem to favor Elana/Lothric, but Aldia would seem to favor Mytha/Carthus. Aldia seems to have ended up serving as Scholar for early Lothric, but that may have resulted from the Brotherhood faction of Mytha's Alken going out of control and driving Elana's neo-Olaphis to resettle Lordran as Lothric.
In other words, we don't know why Carimite goddesses are being normalized in Drangleic, only that they are and have been for some time, and that it was/is being done with the, uh, blessing of Vendrick and Aldia.
The hollow peasants of Tseldora, on the army camp side, are white, and they're in pretty good condition despite not having tattoos. They certainly hit hard enough.
Notes Regarding the Hollows of Lothric
Passive hollows are all over this game.
We first find dozens of them on the High Wall of Lothric. They're arranged in displays of prayer, and their positioning makes it clear that it isn't about what or why they're praying, only that they're praying. If we start swinging weapons around them they'll panic and curl up.
They seem to be in the process of becoming trees, but a couple of them are in the process of succumbing to the Pus of Man.
The Undead Settlement also has a host of hollows. These are in worse condition than the Lothric hollows, and the Workers appear to hunt them for sport. They mostly keep to themselves, and appear in various states of despair or idleness. Both these and the Lothric hollows are white, while the Workers are black.
Some of the corvians along the Path of Sacrifices are passive, if wary, and tend not to aggro unless commanded by a storyteller.
The infested hollows around the Cathedral aren't exactly passive, but they're not particularly hostile either, and tend to be found in positions of idleness (when they're not vomiting, at least).
There are three non-hostile lesser Deacons around the Cathedral, two at the altar just outside the boss fight, one standing beneath the bell on the way to rafters. This single deacon drops the Deep Ring.
There's also one or potentially two non-hostile mangrubs around Rosaria. The first drops the Red Soapstone, the second is Heysel if we complete her quest. The Heysel grub prevents use of the bonfire, which generally requires the Ashen One kill her, although I believe it's possible to kick her over to the door and out of range.
The skeleton ball worker-wizards of Carthus won't attack us directly, although they're clearly hostile.
The Irithyll slaves are hostile, but when viewed from a distance can be seen engaging in 'typical' hollow behavior.
The lesser Crow People of Ariandel, like the Corvians, tend not to be hostile, but they will attempt to shoo the player off if they get too close.
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| Game's like 'sepia filter or too dark, those are the lighting options pal.' |
The lesser locusts of the Ringed City won't attack the player, and will run off and bury themselves if approached.
Right, I think that about does it. Probably there's more I'll add as I think of/come across them.
My big takeaway from the second game is that the white hollows tend to be docile much more than green, but they're also in a position to be docile more than green. It also appears that whites and blacks have an open dislike of each other, with UDS and Irithyll being examples of each keeping the other as a slave/untouchable class. In Lothric we don't have any greens, and lower class whites seem to have it relatively good until we come along, unlike the slaves of Irithyll.
Irithyll Dungeon is a bit of a puzzler, as always. The problem derives from Sulyvahn apparently using it as a museum for magic-users, which confounds any real attempt to extract a narrative, where you have, like, heirlooms of Jeremiah and Dusk in the same cell despite them being tied to Priscilla and Manus, respectively, in the first game. The whites in the area are of the docile-hostile infested variety around the Cathedral, and seem to be working with the Jailers.
They also aren't locked up as I pointed out in the last post.
The impostor Jailers -- Settlement Workers -- are green hollows, but I have no idea if this means that the Jailers from the Capital are green as well.
The first Wretch we come across is docile.
In the Ringed City we don't find any neutral enemies that I can recall, but we do find green and white hollows in the red paladins and blue clerics and. I say that because I'm compelled by George Soros to make everything racial, but not only that I really do think there is a racial or nationalistic system or systems at play between the two types of hollows we find in the second and third game.
Londor, if it exists at the end of the world, was founded on the remains of the Ringed City. The Sable Church seems to be descended from Carim, and the citizens include hollows of both types, I assume.
Yoel and Chameleon, as well as the other Londor Pilgrims, seem to be descended from the Ringed City clerics. Not even 'descended from,' they are the RC clerics, just much much older. We don't see any greens in Londor, and I don't know if that means there are none or that greens always wear helmets (meaning Yuria, Lilliane and Vilhelm could be greens).
Now, just hopefully this doesn't need to be stated but to outline what I think the game is saying is something like
- I do think the skin color binary exists for a reason, BUT
- I don't know if it's meant to represent a Lordran/Drangleic designation or
- Hollows start off generally the same but are influenced by their environment in a way that causes the differences.
- I don't think the skin color thing relates directly to any specific, real-life examples of, like, South Africa or the whole "the US prison system is a direct descendant of chattel slavery and the police largely exist to collect minorities to use as slave labor" or "Ronald Reagan was Literally the Devil" or anything like that, HOWEVER
- I do believe the skin color binary thing is meant to be commentative on those types of racist systems in general.
Right, so, moving on to less charged topics.
Pigs
If you've been keeping up you'll recall that Lordran was a kingdom founded by legendary dragonslayers.
Over time dragon slaying turned into dragon hunting. Once dragons were functionally extinct, stormdrakes were bred for canned dragon hunts. When this was finally outlawed, boars were used in place of the drakes in the ceremonial hunts.
Pigs are strange animals. Pigs are strange because, like rats, they're a lot more like humans than a lot of humans are comfortable with.
You can farm Cracked Red Eyes from the three little pigs hanging out next to the Majula mansion. You know, the house with the spooky library and sentient map and hanged body in the well and broken Lordvessel in the sub-basement and so on? That Mansion, the one where the pigs are standing basically directly on top of all that First Flame arcanery? So you farm those pigs and they drop CREOs and eventually despawn.
Two adult boar begin spawning in the same location. Same deal: CREOs, eventual despawn.
A mature Fang Boar, unarmored and very undead, spawns in the same location. It drops three CREOs, guaranteed, despawns.
Weird right?
You fight three boar in the first game, first in Undead Parish, then a pair guarding the entrance to the Duke's Archives. The 'helmet' they drop mentions claiming the head in a manner reminiscent of the dragon hunts of old.
The Armored Fang Boar are associated with Seath and are weak to being lured into fire and invisible walls.
In the second game we find a number boar in various locations and states of development, the previously in Majula, more in Tseldora, and arguably more still in Shulva.
In the army camp of Tseldora we find a number of mid-sized Undead Boar mixed in with the Falconers. There's a very low chance that one of these will spawn as a little pig, and in NG++ the mid-sized boar are replaced by their fully-developed counterparts.
I don't know how well-known this is, but to get the Pickaxe in the second game you have to kite a boar from the Army Camp down to the big chamber leading to the Ruin. Once there the pig will start rooting around in the mushroom patch and unearth the legendary weapon.
I don't know if the mushrooms are lore significant. I assume not, but it could have Implications re things like Seath and Alvina.
Obviously I think the Pickaxe is lore significant. Especially since you find a red phantom Peasant in the same building equipped with the Pickaxe and the Porcine Shield. That's two connections which would be like an hour-and-a-half of mind-numbing dialogue in most RPGs.
You find the pig shield in the Iron Keep, on the stairs just past the Smelter Demon. This, maybe, somehow, faintly, maybe could provide a link between OIK and Aldia, but that's a big maybe.
The shield is in a treasure chest. The Iron King guards a primordial bonfire and Brume Tower; Smelter -- who is significantly more difficult than OIK -- guards a strategically well-positioned but otherwise unremarkable bonfire and the pig shield.
Now, you may recall that the Phoenix Parma is in front of Smelter's chamber. It is a shield fit for a king, in the worst sense, while the Porcine Shield is a shield fit for 'a coward who debases himself.' They're both terrible shields.
It's generally accepted that the OIK had something like Cluster B Sunbro Disorder and was meant to ask a question like 'what if someone like Gwyn's Firstborn grew up in relative poverty, the son of a failed revolutionary?'
He, Iron, clearly valued strength of arm and mindlessness of brain above all else, at least with his 'men.' Yet he was romantically involved with two of the most important magic users in the game, Mytha and Ivory. I've hypothesized that his two sons, Aldia and Vendrick, were each the son of the other and both took after their own.
Aldia, I suspect, was viewed as a 'coward who debased himself' in the eyes of his father. I say that because I also believe that Aldia either was Duke Tseldora or studied under him and inherited both research and Ruin. Apart from the shrine to her in his mansion he doesn't seem to have particularly close ties to his mother, but he doesn't seem have had close ties to anything, really, even in life.
And that little mote of sadness, I suspect, is the core of his character.
So a possible take on Alken ascendant has Iron viewing young Aldia as a coward who would rather consort with the dirt farmers of Tseldora (before Brightstone was discovered,) and tutor under women (the hypothetical chaos witch that taught Aldia pyromancy,) than the kind of distinguished guests and men of honor and reknown that Iron would later court for his Court (that seemingly betrayed him in the name of a chaos witch [the hypothetical Ant Queen character]).
Vendrick, in his devotion to beauty and grace -- despite being raised, by the looks of him, as a knight errant in the hinterlands remote even to Tseldora -- is a reflection of Ivory-that-was but born into a position of heroism, rather than having it thrust upon her in midlife as Ivory had.
And so a hero Vendrick was, and by all accounts he was brave and proud and compassionate and just and it all went well until it started to fall apart. Late in the War of Giants he began pillaging his father's ruins for weapons. Ivory (then Princess Venn,) Vendrick's mother, was probably a Dusk-type (possibly shading to Gwyndolin,) light sorceress who was forced to take up the sword when her kingdom fell to war and her brothers fell to Sihn; a magic never meant for battle, repurposed into a weapon. A weapon graceful and brilliant and outshining all Dark but, when you get right down to it,
kind of a terrible thing to use as a weapon.
I mean...jousting armor? Your highness, your horses have mosteth verily run off.
Aldia, with his mad experiments on the very elements of life and death (and light and dark and undeath and dragons and giants and so on,) is clearly the son of Mytha, I mean count the number of weird magics and insane ambitions going on with her.
One of Elana's possible summons, apart from Velstadt and a trio of skeletons, are three little pigs. I'm not sure if these are the same pigs from Majula, or copies of them, but it would almost be weird if they weren't.
So, let's look at the Falconers. These guys are mercenaries and sunbros. This would seem to align them with Alken, and given their secretive and sellsword nature I might even go so far as to say the Falconers of Volgen may be acting in Mytha's interests. Volgen, of course, also has Sentinels running some kind of racketeering scam.
Alken, of course, is where cracked red eyes come from, the pigs carry red eyes, as do Brotherhood of Blood members, and so on.
SO
We get to the Majula Army camp. We clear out the enemies as best we can and begin kiting the pig down to the ruins, a route that includes drop downs and mob ambushes and things like that.
He digs up the body of, we assume, Porcine Peasant. Opening a gate we proceed to fight the spirit of said Porky Picker. The back exit leads to the Ruin, the side exit leads to a spider cave containing a Chaos Pyromancy and a Black Knight Greatsword -- a forbidden magic and a tool for combating that same magic.
Three DS1 connections, in other words: Seath, Izalith, and Gwyn.
And here is a miner, murdered and murderous, carrying a symbol associated with the fall of Alken.
Okay, buckle up.
Inquisition Into the Crows' Final Riddle
In the DS3 we can trade items with a crow. Well, we can do this in all three games, but the crow trader in the third game, after each successful trade, will exclaim 'Pump-a-rum!" or 'Pickle-Pee!"
These seemingly nonsense phrases are a reference to an old (but not very old) poem for children about a Ceremonial Band. Specifically, the trader references the noises made by the drum and the fife.
The poem is describing the orchestra of King Dorchester, the finest of ceremonial bands. The flutes and the fifes were particularly nice, the finest brass in the land.
It may seem random that, out of the half dozen or so instruments referenced in the poem, the drum and the fife were picked for the crow trader. It's not.
Drum and fife music has an interesting military history. Scan those links. Or don't, I don't care.
The drum is the rhythm of the corps: strong, steady, solid. The fife is the melody: it gives purpose and direction to the engine that is the drum.
In military terms you could think of the drum as the infantry or NCO and the fife as the officer. In terms of weapons; club and spear. In terms of Souls alignment; red and blue.
I went a little math crazy with the crow trades and think I may have stumbled across a pattern. The crow is telling us some kind of story, as well as just being friendly.
We give her a gift, and in exchange we receive a gift that she views as appropriate in terms of both the quality and character of the object given.
The Drum or Fife designation corresponds to the object given by the player, and the object received corresponds to the designation in reference to the object given. In other words,
Here's a spreadsheet I made, followed by proposed translations.
1-4. Discussed above and below.
4. "A box full of light for a box full of light."
5. "I will watch over the child, here are some pants as you must've just given birth."
6. "Here is a warm and snuggly sun to protect the tummy holding the warm and snuggly yummy we're drinking (hic)."
7. When she gives a Hawkeye carving she's probably 'literally' saying the expression of the carving. "Hello to you too." She might be saying "hello" to the alluring skull.
8. "Seeking light as a weapon? Here is light as a weapon."
9. "A rare and valuable tool for a rare and valuable tool."
10. Discussed below.
11. "Receive a blessing, honorable warrior who welcomes ire for the good of others."
12. "For your/her sacrifice."
13. As w/ 10.
14. As w/ 10, god tier.
15. "Ouch, try wearing these."
16. "Ouch, try wearing this."
17/18. The crow really likes Gwynevere/Queen Lothric.
19. I think this might be the crow insulting you, possibly by comparing you to either Aldia or the Iron King, something like "you are not worthy of your sainthood, pig."
20. Discussed below.
21. "My condolences for having lost even the ability to start over."
22. Discussed below.
23. Discussed below.
Okay, so, as I said, I went a little crazy with the math and noticed a few trends that I'm not willing to call patterns. Skip down to the next picture to skip over the math parth.
Apart from the drum/fife designation, given items can be split into three broad categories, and received items fall into two.
Player Given items are either common consumable items like; rare items that have to be farmed, bought, or have limited numbers; and unique items that relate to a specific character/are limited to one-per-playthrough.
Received by player items, weirdly, are either upgrade materials (titanite & gems) or relate to a specific character.
There are 23 total trades, with 11 drums and 12 fifes. The Drums consist 7 upgrade materials and 4 unique items. Fifes consist of 3 upgrade materials and 9 unique items.
The received items reference Solaire five times (three times as a drum, twice as a fife), Hawkeye Gough five times (once as a drum, four times as a fife), Lucatiel Aldia & Velka are referenced once each as a fife.
The seven unique items that can be given result in six upgrade materials (three drums, three fifes) and one character item, the Ring of Sacrifice (fife).
The ten rare items that can be given result in one upgrade material (L. Leather Shield for Twinkle [drum]), and 9 character items (7 fifes, two drums).
The crow trader is an Anor loyalist, but loyal to Anor Londo as it was in the distant past. She seems to prefer fifes to drums ('calls us over' when first receiving a fife), She doesn't seem happy about her current situation, and may be a prisoner (she 'asks for help' when we give her an item associated with Drangleic priests and clerics [fife]).
The items that receive a Solaire response are the Lightning Urn, Giant Seed, Siegbrau, Homeward Bone, and the Mendicant's Staff.
Lightning Urns come from Melfia, as in "Melfian Magic Academy,' the Purging of Olaphis, and the lost history of sorcery and pyromancy in Drangleic. That the crow gives us the helmet of a great hero of Lordran in exchange for a Drang item might represent her saying 'protect what's in your head, stranger.'
Other than the potential Inappropriate New Dad Joke outlined above, both Solaire and the Giant Seed serve to help newcomers fend off the dangers of the world at the expense of the world itself. Solaire, I think canonically, was the First Firelinker to succeed Lord Gwyn, and firelinking, in the long-term, seems to always leave the world a worse off than it was the previous cycle. Not to dwell on nature of the Seed, but we're killing a potential archtree every time we make Heysel, Hodrick, the Watchdogs and the Crabs all fight each other for our amusement.
But we kill a lot of potential archtrees.
The homeward bone item doesn't get talked about a lot, but it's worth re-outlining. We know from Bloodborne that Miyazaki thinks bone marrow is magic, and bone marrow may be the 'humour' associated with the Dead Soul in the Soulsverse, just as blood is associated with Dark, poop with fire, and spit with light. No, really, spit is light: imagined as thought, inspired as word, and given substance as prayer in the medium of saliva. That's why, in the real world, we spit to ward off evil, bleed when we're at our most human, and shit on creatives.
Anyway, the bones in the Bonfire systems hijack this Homeward principle associated with bone marrow, (cross-reference the Homeward miracle,) that allows bones to return 'home' when their body 'dies.' Once an undead bearing the Sign uses a bonfire they have their 'homeward instinct' hijacked by the bonfire system. It may follow that usually only those bearing the Sign can see the bonfires. It would follow, therefore, that an un-Signed/Unlinked undead would, over time, detach from their original 'home' and begin resurrecting on the spot they last fell. It probably looks a lot like a skeleton assembling itself but grosser.
This is all Very Important re: Forlorn.
The crow gives us Solaire's minimalist gauntlets in exchange for one of these magical, mystical, marrowful bones. Since players tend to cut weight for builds by forgoing gauntlets, as they're the least important part of the set for Fashion Souls, the crow may give you these because, from a 'real' role-playing perspective you'd be fucking insane to not want some kind of protection for the most vulnerable part of your sword arm were it an option.
"Mendicant" tends to get vulgarized as "beggar," not that there's anything wrong with beggars, I used to be a beggar. But a mendicant isn't just a beggar.
A mendicant is a specific type of beggar: a holy person, usually an ascetic, who has taken vows of poverty and good works and so on, and who therefore exists at the charity of others. Jesus was a mendicant, for example, as was Maxx. As is Joel Osteen.
That last paragraph probably appears as incomprehensible garbled text to any US citizens reading this as everyone knows beggars deserve everything bad that happens to them and need to learn how to be more vicious and greedy, right?
In the past mendicants were associated more with temples and monastaries. Representatives of the religious institution would, periodically, travel to town to collect alms and interact with the people.
You can see how this would seem to be a self-regulating relationship: times are good, alms go up, therefore do good in the community to get more alms.
And therein lies the paradox. They expanded on this idea in Sekiro, in the Senpou esoteric text. Also in Game of Thrones leading up to Circi's Walk of Shame. The danger is that a successful group of mendicants end up memorialized and institutionalized and traditionalized and revered into the exact opposite of what the founders of the order would have wanted, with even the most devout and selfless acolyte being a potential Pat Robertson were the ball to bounce the other way a few times.
And so in exchange for this begging bowl, based on a lordvessel and carried by a Channeler, we receive the Sunlight Shield.
Now, one way to look at it, and I think it might be right, is to say that the Sunlight Shield is the Biggest Sunlight Medal of All, and the reason she, the crow, gives us the BSMoA is because the people that visit the crow almost always try to offer her Sunlight Medals, meaning that the crow must think that the visitors themselves think the medals are incredibly valuable even though, from the crow's perspective, it's a not particularly compelling trinket.
The crow may think that we have come from ADP collecting, in this case trading for, alms. She gives us a Giant Gold Coin. Go and do some good with it, little dragon.
The Eleonara gets us a Hollow Gem. Hollow Gems are pretty hard to come by, especially in the base-game. Hollow Gems are associated with Londor, by description, and the Profaned Capital, by use.
Hollow weapons 'peer into the essence' of their wielder and gain scaling from the Luck stat. This would seem to imply that hollows, seemingly against all evidence, are quite lucky indeed.
Alright, this next subsection may be me chasing a shadow, so scroll to picture to skip discussion of Victorian-era weirdo's weird hangups.
Eleonora was a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe doesn't seem to have been as direct or as obvious an influence on Souls as someone like Robert Chalmers or the Fighting Fantasy game books, but this is an instance where I think it may apply.
Eleonora is a story about a vaguely racist narrator who lives in relative isolation in a hidden valley paradise with his aunt and cousin. The valley is described as being dark, verdant, and difficult to locate. The narrator eventually falls in love with his cousin, which leads to the valley becoming even more beautiful, but the cousin eventually sickens and dies, and the Valley of the Many-Colored Grass loses its luster.
When Eleonora knows she's going to die she has a vision of the narrator souring on the Valley, moving away, and falling in love with another. The narrator describes Ele as naive, guileless, and artless, and the half-sincere oath he swears to remain ever faithful is meant to ease her mind. Nevertheless the narrator couples his oath with the invocation of a terrible curse should he ever break it.
Time passes and the Valley continues to lose the mystical qualities it held in the narrator's youth. He eventually moves away to a great city and becomes employed by a king. The narrator begins to descend into a depression as he continues to hold true to his vows while surrounded by young noblewomen. Ermengarde, A maiden comes to the Court from a distant land, and the narrator immediately falls into the most 'ardent' and 'abject' of love. The two marry, the narrator uncaring of the cursicological implications.
The end of the story is considered a cop out, even by Poe himself, as it sees him marrying Ermengarde, not invoking the curse, and being visited by the spirit of Eleonora who blesses the union and promises more will be revealed in Heaven and everyone was happy and nothing bad ever happened. Which even Poe didn't like the ending.
So, we have Eleonara ("The Other Aenor [famous treasure]"), Ermengarde ("Universal Guardian" or "Protector of All"), the narrator, the aunt, the Valley of Many-Colored Grass, and the Great City. The Valley and the City, if they're meant to represent Souls areas, are probably the Profaned Capital and Anor Londo/Irithyll.
The short story contains a could of latin phrases attributed to Ramon Llull that I can't track down the source for. A rough re-translation of a pull-quote I found, into Dark Souls Terms, might be something like
Dicebant mihi sodales, si sepulchrum amicae visitarem,
curas meas aliquantulum fore levatas.
Sub conservatione formae specificae salva anima.
Agressi sunt mare tenebrarum, quid in eo esset exploraturi.
"My compatriots advised me to visit the grave of my Beloved,
That it might alleviate my misery.
My Soul is safekept by the blessing of Her enduring beauty.
And so I enter that Dark ocean, to lay bare its truths."
Don't @me, Self-Appointed Latin Expert dorks, I'm exploring themes not grammar for law students.
Right, it's tempting to dive deeper into all this stuff, but I need to move on.
I think Hollow Gems might be calcified darksigns. Apart from the Eleonara trade, we find of them scattered around game. The first is near the Atonement miracle, and it seems like both items belong to the same Londorian or group of same. We can summon the Pale Shade at the nearby bonfire, so it may be from him.
The next Gem is found on the roof of the Grand Archives, on an 'officially abandoned' balcony where we also find a group of Corvians attending a storyteller. As Storytellers drop Hollow Gems, so it may belong to her.
The third we find in Ariandel, around the corner from Vilhelm when we first encounter him. I assume this is meant to convey that Vilhelm was killed there, before his body was thrown to the flies. In other words, Vilhelm wasn't swarmed by flies in the undercroft, he was murdered beneath the open sky and dumped in the basement.
The fourth is in the Ringed City, on a corpse on a ledge just before the first Ringed Knight encounter. Probably the gem belongs to Lapp, as he'd have a hard time getting down those stairs in that armor without dying of curse buildup.
And, of course, the sentient Gem we receive in exchange for Eleonara the Beautiful and Undying.
We have to give the Profaned Coal to Andre to use these gems, and the Coal is found encased in an 'icy skull' in a cell full of Wretches. The Wretches, incidentally, quite resemble descriptions of Poe's Eleonora. I'm not gonna go into the Behind the Music on the short story, but it quite matches the general tone of the Capital.
Andre gives some of his most revealing dialogue when presented with the Coal. He seems shocked that we found it, meaning that it, the Profaned Flame, and the Capital, were lost when last he was outside of the shrine. We know Sulyvahn rediscovering it was a fairly recent development, but we don't know if the Capital was lost before, during, or after Yhorm's Firelinking or where that happened in relation to Andre leaving Farron.
Andre claims the coal is 'too Dark,' and that he can 'see the Abyss in it.' He rallies himself, saying that he remains a smith and won't turn down a request, but cautions us
"Your fight is for the flame, and y'fellow kin. Just like mine."
It's unclear if Andre is referring to our designation as Ash or not, but it confirms that Andre is motivated by more than love of iron. Come to think of it we don't even know if Andre is Undead or not. The Flameless Shrine seems to imply that the third game Andre may have died at some point and been resurrected, but that just means he died at some point and was returned to a living state at some point, not that he...undied and went hollow and forgot what hammers did or whatever. He may have just had a heart attack in the days of early Lothric and woke up the next day at the end of the world. So for Andre, Andre's 'kin' might be...well, humans or elves or really short giants or really articulated golems or whatever Andre started life out as. Corollary: he might therefore be the last of his species.
"A cursed fate this may be, but hope remains, does it not?"
Does it, Andre?
Yhorm, given that he's the only character seemingly implicated in some kind of love, could be a potential Narrator for the Poe story, with Curse-Rotted therefore being the real Eleonora and whatever Dark Oracle Queen is represented by the axe the 'real' Ermengarde, who would have been 'wed' to Yhorm in order to ensure success. I imagine this Oracle-ess might have been someone like Karla or Zullie, or even someone who was supposed to have the qualities of a Karla or Zullie in the way Gundyr was supposed to have the qualities of Ivory and Vendrick, but probably not actually Karla or Zullie.
Because the Capitalists were scholars, after all. Legitimate scholars. Big Hats and everything.
Speaking of up-their-own-ass scholars: 020 is probably going to revisit Zullie and expand into Karla and creep every closer to the big Nadalia post that keeps getting further and further away and that I originally started this series to discuss.
So, we find an enchanted axe in a magical valley. The double-headed axe has a chime built into it that, when rung, grants the wielder and nearby allies laceration and HP absorb.
We give it to the crow. She gives us something that peers at us. Something that may have come about as the result of Yhorm's Firelinking.
"This is for what that little bell tolls, good sir."
Right, okay, here we are.
Really, there's not much to tie up. Well, there is, but as far as the original point of the post we just need to discuss the Undead Bone Shard/Porcine Shield trade.
The still-burning bones of a saint that cast themselves into the fire to preserve our world, the last embers of Humanity-that-was ours to offer as kindling that we might preserve our world.
"Pig, good ser, pig as the Ram and the Bull and Pale White Thing from before. Have shame, milord."
We get to the Majula Army camp. We clear out the enemies as best we can and begin kiting the pig down to the ruins, a route that includes drop downs and mob ambushes and things like that.
He digs up the body of, we assume, Porcine Peasant. Opening a gate we proceed to fight the spirit of said Porky Picker. The back exit leads to the Ruin, the side exit leads to a spider cave containing a Chaos Pyromancy and a Black Knight Greatsword -- a forbidden magic and a tool for combating that same magic.
Three DS1 connections, in other words: Seath, Izalith, and Gwyn.
And here is a miner, murdered and murderous, carrying a symbol associated with the fall of Alken.
Okay, buckle up.
Inquisition Into the Crows' Final Riddle
In the DS3 we can trade items with a crow. Well, we can do this in all three games, but the crow trader in the third game, after each successful trade, will exclaim 'Pump-a-rum!" or 'Pickle-Pee!"
These seemingly nonsense phrases are a reference to an old (but not very old) poem for children about a Ceremonial Band. Specifically, the trader references the noises made by the drum and the fife.
The poem is describing the orchestra of King Dorchester, the finest of ceremonial bands. The flutes and the fifes were particularly nice, the finest brass in the land.
It may seem random that, out of the half dozen or so instruments referenced in the poem, the drum and the fife were picked for the crow trader. It's not.
Drum and fife music has an interesting military history. Scan those links. Or don't, I don't care.
The drum is the rhythm of the corps: strong, steady, solid. The fife is the melody: it gives purpose and direction to the engine that is the drum.
In military terms you could think of the drum as the infantry or NCO and the fife as the officer. In terms of weapons; club and spear. In terms of Souls alignment; red and blue.
I went a little math crazy with the crow trades and think I may have stumbled across a pattern. The crow is telling us some kind of story, as well as just being friendly.
We give her a gift, and in exchange we receive a gift that she views as appropriate in terms of both the quality and character of the object given.
The Drum or Fife designation corresponds to the object given by the player, and the object received corresponds to the designation in reference to the object given. In other words,
- we offer a Firebomb
- she designates the object (and therefore the object giver,) as drum/infantry
- she offers a Large Titanite shard to the 'soldier'
- translation: "I recognize you, common fighter, are giving up a weapon, here is something to help one of your other weapons."
Alternately,
- we offer Lightning Urn
- she designates the object/us as being a fife/officer
- she offers a Titanite Chunk to the 'officer'
- translation: "I recognize you, Ser Knight, are giving up a weapon..."
Here's a spreadsheet I made, followed by proposed translations.
 |
1-4. Discussed above and below.
4. "A box full of light for a box full of light."
5. "I will watch over the child, here are some pants as you must've just given birth."
6. "Here is a warm and snuggly sun to protect the tummy holding the warm and snuggly yummy we're drinking (hic)."
7. When she gives a Hawkeye carving she's probably 'literally' saying the expression of the carving. "Hello to you too." She might be saying "hello" to the alluring skull.
8. "Seeking light as a weapon? Here is light as a weapon."
9. "A rare and valuable tool for a rare and valuable tool."
10. Discussed below.
11. "Receive a blessing, honorable warrior who welcomes ire for the good of others."
12. "For your/her sacrifice."
13. As w/ 10.
14. As w/ 10, god tier.
15. "Ouch, try wearing these."
16. "Ouch, try wearing this."
17/18. The crow really likes Gwynevere/Queen Lothric.
19. I think this might be the crow insulting you, possibly by comparing you to either Aldia or the Iron King, something like "you are not worthy of your sainthood, pig."
20. Discussed below.
21. "My condolences for having lost even the ability to start over."
22. Discussed below.
23. Discussed below.
Okay, so, as I said, I went a little crazy with the math and noticed a few trends that I'm not willing to call patterns. Skip down to the next picture to skip over the math parth.
Apart from the drum/fife designation, given items can be split into three broad categories, and received items fall into two.
Player Given items are either common consumable items like; rare items that have to be farmed, bought, or have limited numbers; and unique items that relate to a specific character/are limited to one-per-playthrough.
Received by player items, weirdly, are either upgrade materials (titanite & gems) or relate to a specific character.
There are 23 total trades, with 11 drums and 12 fifes. The Drums consist 7 upgrade materials and 4 unique items. Fifes consist of 3 upgrade materials and 9 unique items.
The received items reference Solaire five times (three times as a drum, twice as a fife), Hawkeye Gough five times (once as a drum, four times as a fife), Lucatiel Aldia & Velka are referenced once each as a fife.
The seven unique items that can be given result in six upgrade materials (three drums, three fifes) and one character item, the Ring of Sacrifice (fife).
The ten rare items that can be given result in one upgrade material (L. Leather Shield for Twinkle [drum]), and 9 character items (7 fifes, two drums).
The crow trader is an Anor loyalist, but loyal to Anor Londo as it was in the distant past. She seems to prefer fifes to drums ('calls us over' when first receiving a fife), She doesn't seem happy about her current situation, and may be a prisoner (she 'asks for help' when we give her an item associated with Drangleic priests and clerics [fife]).
The items that receive a Solaire response are the Lightning Urn, Giant Seed, Siegbrau, Homeward Bone, and the Mendicant's Staff.
Lightning Urns come from Melfia, as in "Melfian Magic Academy,' the Purging of Olaphis, and the lost history of sorcery and pyromancy in Drangleic. That the crow gives us the helmet of a great hero of Lordran in exchange for a Drang item might represent her saying 'protect what's in your head, stranger.'
Other than the potential Inappropriate New Dad Joke outlined above, both Solaire and the Giant Seed serve to help newcomers fend off the dangers of the world at the expense of the world itself. Solaire, I think canonically, was the First Firelinker to succeed Lord Gwyn, and firelinking, in the long-term, seems to always leave the world a worse off than it was the previous cycle. Not to dwell on nature of the Seed, but we're killing a potential archtree every time we make Heysel, Hodrick, the Watchdogs and the Crabs all fight each other for our amusement.
But we kill a lot of potential archtrees.
The homeward bone item doesn't get talked about a lot, but it's worth re-outlining. We know from Bloodborne that Miyazaki thinks bone marrow is magic, and bone marrow may be the 'humour' associated with the Dead Soul in the Soulsverse, just as blood is associated with Dark, poop with fire, and spit with light. No, really, spit is light: imagined as thought, inspired as word, and given substance as prayer in the medium of saliva. That's why, in the real world, we spit to ward off evil, bleed when we're at our most human, and shit on creatives.
Anyway, the bones in the Bonfire systems hijack this Homeward principle associated with bone marrow, (cross-reference the Homeward miracle,) that allows bones to return 'home' when their body 'dies.' Once an undead bearing the Sign uses a bonfire they have their 'homeward instinct' hijacked by the bonfire system. It may follow that usually only those bearing the Sign can see the bonfires. It would follow, therefore, that an un-Signed/Unlinked undead would, over time, detach from their original 'home' and begin resurrecting on the spot they last fell. It probably looks a lot like a skeleton assembling itself but grosser.
This is all Very Important re: Forlorn.
The crow gives us Solaire's minimalist gauntlets in exchange for one of these magical, mystical, marrowful bones. Since players tend to cut weight for builds by forgoing gauntlets, as they're the least important part of the set for Fashion Souls, the crow may give you these because, from a 'real' role-playing perspective you'd be fucking insane to not want some kind of protection for the most vulnerable part of your sword arm were it an option.
 |
| 'SCUSE ME I NEED TO GO SOMEWHERE REALLY DARK WHERE THE LIGHT'S BETTER |
"Mendicant" tends to get vulgarized as "beggar," not that there's anything wrong with beggars, I used to be a beggar. But a mendicant isn't just a beggar.
A mendicant is a specific type of beggar: a holy person, usually an ascetic, who has taken vows of poverty and good works and so on, and who therefore exists at the charity of others. Jesus was a mendicant, for example, as was Maxx. As is Joel Osteen.
That last paragraph probably appears as incomprehensible garbled text to any US citizens reading this as everyone knows beggars deserve everything bad that happens to them and need to learn how to be more vicious and greedy, right?
In the past mendicants were associated more with temples and monastaries. Representatives of the religious institution would, periodically, travel to town to collect alms and interact with the people.
You can see how this would seem to be a self-regulating relationship: times are good, alms go up, therefore do good in the community to get more alms.
And therein lies the paradox. They expanded on this idea in Sekiro, in the Senpou esoteric text. Also in Game of Thrones leading up to Circi's Walk of Shame. The danger is that a successful group of mendicants end up memorialized and institutionalized and traditionalized and revered into the exact opposite of what the founders of the order would have wanted, with even the most devout and selfless acolyte being a potential Pat Robertson were the ball to bounce the other way a few times.
And so in exchange for this begging bowl, based on a lordvessel and carried by a Channeler, we receive the Sunlight Shield.
Now, one way to look at it, and I think it might be right, is to say that the Sunlight Shield is the Biggest Sunlight Medal of All, and the reason she, the crow, gives us the BSMoA is because the people that visit the crow almost always try to offer her Sunlight Medals, meaning that the crow must think that the visitors themselves think the medals are incredibly valuable even though, from the crow's perspective, it's a not particularly compelling trinket.
The crow may think that we have come from ADP collecting, in this case trading for, alms. She gives us a Giant Gold Coin. Go and do some good with it, little dragon.
The Eleonara gets us a Hollow Gem. Hollow Gems are pretty hard to come by, especially in the base-game. Hollow Gems are associated with Londor, by description, and the Profaned Capital, by use.
Hollow weapons 'peer into the essence' of their wielder and gain scaling from the Luck stat. This would seem to imply that hollows, seemingly against all evidence, are quite lucky indeed.
Alright, this next subsection may be me chasing a shadow, so scroll to picture to skip discussion of Victorian-era weirdo's weird hangups.
Eleonora was a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe doesn't seem to have been as direct or as obvious an influence on Souls as someone like Robert Chalmers or the Fighting Fantasy game books, but this is an instance where I think it may apply.
Eleonora is a story about a vaguely racist narrator who lives in relative isolation in a hidden valley paradise with his aunt and cousin. The valley is described as being dark, verdant, and difficult to locate. The narrator eventually falls in love with his cousin, which leads to the valley becoming even more beautiful, but the cousin eventually sickens and dies, and the Valley of the Many-Colored Grass loses its luster.
When Eleonora knows she's going to die she has a vision of the narrator souring on the Valley, moving away, and falling in love with another. The narrator describes Ele as naive, guileless, and artless, and the half-sincere oath he swears to remain ever faithful is meant to ease her mind. Nevertheless the narrator couples his oath with the invocation of a terrible curse should he ever break it.
Time passes and the Valley continues to lose the mystical qualities it held in the narrator's youth. He eventually moves away to a great city and becomes employed by a king. The narrator begins to descend into a depression as he continues to hold true to his vows while surrounded by young noblewomen. Ermengarde, A maiden comes to the Court from a distant land, and the narrator immediately falls into the most 'ardent' and 'abject' of love. The two marry, the narrator uncaring of the cursicological implications.
The end of the story is considered a cop out, even by Poe himself, as it sees him marrying Ermengarde, not invoking the curse, and being visited by the spirit of Eleonora who blesses the union and promises more will be revealed in Heaven and everyone was happy and nothing bad ever happened. Which even Poe didn't like the ending.
So, we have Eleonara ("The Other Aenor [famous treasure]"), Ermengarde ("Universal Guardian" or "Protector of All"), the narrator, the aunt, the Valley of Many-Colored Grass, and the Great City. The Valley and the City, if they're meant to represent Souls areas, are probably the Profaned Capital and Anor Londo/Irithyll.
The short story contains a could of latin phrases attributed to Ramon Llull that I can't track down the source for. A rough re-translation of a pull-quote I found, into Dark Souls Terms, might be something like
Dicebant mihi sodales, si sepulchrum amicae visitarem,
curas meas aliquantulum fore levatas.
Sub conservatione formae specificae salva anima.
Agressi sunt mare tenebrarum, quid in eo esset exploraturi.
"My compatriots advised me to visit the grave of my Beloved,
That it might alleviate my misery.
My Soul is safekept by the blessing of Her enduring beauty.
And so I enter that Dark ocean, to lay bare its truths."
Don't @me, Self-Appointed Latin Expert dorks, I'm exploring themes not grammar for law students.
Right, it's tempting to dive deeper into all this stuff, but I need to move on.
I think Hollow Gems might be calcified darksigns. Apart from the Eleonara trade, we find of them scattered around game. The first is near the Atonement miracle, and it seems like both items belong to the same Londorian or group of same. We can summon the Pale Shade at the nearby bonfire, so it may be from him.
The next Gem is found on the roof of the Grand Archives, on an 'officially abandoned' balcony where we also find a group of Corvians attending a storyteller. As Storytellers drop Hollow Gems, so it may belong to her.
The third we find in Ariandel, around the corner from Vilhelm when we first encounter him. I assume this is meant to convey that Vilhelm was killed there, before his body was thrown to the flies. In other words, Vilhelm wasn't swarmed by flies in the undercroft, he was murdered beneath the open sky and dumped in the basement.
The fourth is in the Ringed City, on a corpse on a ledge just before the first Ringed Knight encounter. Probably the gem belongs to Lapp, as he'd have a hard time getting down those stairs in that armor without dying of curse buildup.
And, of course, the sentient Gem we receive in exchange for Eleonara the Beautiful and Undying.
We have to give the Profaned Coal to Andre to use these gems, and the Coal is found encased in an 'icy skull' in a cell full of Wretches. The Wretches, incidentally, quite resemble descriptions of Poe's Eleonora. I'm not gonna go into the Behind the Music on the short story, but it quite matches the general tone of the Capital.
Andre gives some of his most revealing dialogue when presented with the Coal. He seems shocked that we found it, meaning that it, the Profaned Flame, and the Capital, were lost when last he was outside of the shrine. We know Sulyvahn rediscovering it was a fairly recent development, but we don't know if the Capital was lost before, during, or after Yhorm's Firelinking or where that happened in relation to Andre leaving Farron.
Andre claims the coal is 'too Dark,' and that he can 'see the Abyss in it.' He rallies himself, saying that he remains a smith and won't turn down a request, but cautions us
"Your fight is for the flame, and y'fellow kin. Just like mine."
It's unclear if Andre is referring to our designation as Ash or not, but it confirms that Andre is motivated by more than love of iron. Come to think of it we don't even know if Andre is Undead or not. The Flameless Shrine seems to imply that the third game Andre may have died at some point and been resurrected, but that just means he died at some point and was returned to a living state at some point, not that he...undied and went hollow and forgot what hammers did or whatever. He may have just had a heart attack in the days of early Lothric and woke up the next day at the end of the world. So for Andre, Andre's 'kin' might be...well, humans or elves or really short giants or really articulated golems or whatever Andre started life out as. Corollary: he might therefore be the last of his species.
"A cursed fate this may be, but hope remains, does it not?"
Does it, Andre?
Yhorm, given that he's the only character seemingly implicated in some kind of love, could be a potential Narrator for the Poe story, with Curse-Rotted therefore being the real Eleonora and whatever Dark Oracle Queen is represented by the axe the 'real' Ermengarde, who would have been 'wed' to Yhorm in order to ensure success. I imagine this Oracle-ess might have been someone like Karla or Zullie, or even someone who was supposed to have the qualities of a Karla or Zullie in the way Gundyr was supposed to have the qualities of Ivory and Vendrick, but probably not actually Karla or Zullie.
Because the Capitalists were scholars, after all. Legitimate scholars. Big Hats and everything.
Speaking of up-their-own-ass scholars: 020 is probably going to revisit Zullie and expand into Karla and creep every closer to the big Nadalia post that keeps getting further and further away and that I originally started this series to discuss.
So, we find an enchanted axe in a magical valley. The double-headed axe has a chime built into it that, when rung, grants the wielder and nearby allies laceration and HP absorb.
We give it to the crow. She gives us something that peers at us. Something that may have come about as the result of Yhorm's Firelinking.
"This is for what that little bell tolls, good sir."
Right, okay, here we are.
Really, there's not much to tie up. Well, there is, but as far as the original point of the post we just need to discuss the Undead Bone Shard/Porcine Shield trade.
The still-burning bones of a saint that cast themselves into the fire to preserve our world, the last embers of Humanity-that-was ours to offer as kindling that we might preserve our world.
"Pig, good ser, pig as the Ram and the Bull and Pale White Thing from before. Have shame, milord."
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