This post is going to discuss gods. There are three gods, maybe more, maybe only two, from DS2 that I want to discuss. Two are referenced, Galib and Quella, and third we encounter: the Darklurker.
Galib is the god of Death and is represented by Agdayne. Quella is the god of Dreams and is represented by whoever is pulling the strings with the Blue Sentinels. My money is still on the Elana/neo-Olaphis/proto-Lothric faction, but some of the stuff outlined below casts that into doubt.
This post doesn't have a lot of answers but does raise a lot of questions that may lead to answers. As of April 2020 it's in the middle of two concurrent rewrites and there's a plague on so it can be hard to, like, take time out to double check all the multitudinous plot threads I'm trying to track and dealing with the goddamn run-up to Darklurker just to get a pic of her uncrossing her arms when she casts Floating Chaos and the feather spell. Consider it a work in progress and also happy Easter.
Soul Appease
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| Here is an angel nobody bothered noticing. |
Galib is the god of disease, and it's implied that Galib oversees both the dispensation of death and the prolongation of life, at least in some sense.
It's unclear if Galib is the same entity referenced as the Milfanitos' 'Giver of First Death'.
It's unclear if Galib is the Drang name for Nito, or if Galib is something that could broadly be defined as a 'family member' of Nito, or if Galib is a completely separate death god entity.
It's heavily implied that Agdayne & the Grave Wardens serve Galib directly.
It's outright stated that the Leydia sect, who were possibly pre-Chaos-Izalith flame sorceresses and the original pyromancy order of Drangleic, were executed and enslaved posthumously (if they were human,) by the Wardens for 'abusing' Galib's powers, which included the taking and extending of life. This event may have even pre-dated the Lost Sin and definitely pre-dated the Melfia Purgings.
In the DS1 intro cinematic it states that "Nito unleashed a miasma of death and disease."
In the Japanese script "and disease" isn't mentioned. Since this post deals somewhat heavily with these kinds of discrepancies I'm going to explore the idea that, whether or not the conflicting (or at least different) translations are lore relevant.
Nito exists only as both one and infinity. By that I mean that, unlike mortals and even the gods -- who exist as families and communities and countries and nations -- Nito exists in, not exactly a binary state, but Nito is both an individual entity -- the singular God of Death -- and all of the things that have died. This latter title, 'infinity,' is a hypothetically countable number if you could find the birth and death certificates of everyone in the 'world,' but will eventually be the number of everything that has ever lived.
Only,
There are three coffins in Nito's room. Two of them are empty, one of them is hidden.
So, let us assume, hypothetically, that 'death and disease' are actual 'children' of Nito created during the Dragon War, and represent Red/Blue Oni aspects of Nito in the same way that Nameless and Gwyndolin represent the Red/Blue aspects of Gwyn.
Galib would, therefore, be the Miasma of Disease aspect of Nito and also the god/ess of the hidden coffin. Galib is both a god/ess of Drangleic and a god/ess of the unseen. Contagion, illness, and miraculous recovery all seem to be under his/her domain, as well as the Darkdrift katana being granted as proof of having earned his/her favor in some nebulous but lore-relevant fashion.
Galib would also seem to be a katanamancer of some description, but not one descended from Izalith, or at least a branch of the tree much, much more basal than Chaos, as Warmth describes a healing flame kept in the Undead Crypt that heals because 'fire is what the caster wishes it to be.'
White Ring
Quella is the goddess of dreams, and is associated with spirit trees and the Blue Sentinels.
Lowkey pointed out that in the Japanese script 'Quella' is 'Nera.'
These are two very different names oh holy shit yes indeed
I think "Quella" I think "Chaos Sister," and I'm still trying to huh all that together, and maybe I found a lead.
Up til this post I've had Quella kind of nebulously defined as somehow involved with the Call (the dreams that beckon undead to Drangleic,) the Blue Sentinels (via the shields,) and by extension Olaphis-Venn and Elana's Archdrake faction.
When I think 'Nera' I think, and if you've read more than one post you probably understand why I think this is important, 'Celtic.'
Nera, of the Ulster Saga, Which I Don't Understand Well Enough To Be Commenting On But Why Come No One Else Is
One night, a long time ago, a king held a feast with his bravest warriors in honor of summersend. As the warriors reveled a storm sprang up outside, and the king devised a feat to find the bravest and best warrior.
Summersend marks the transition to darkness, and is a time when dark is particularly potent, a time of spirits and visitors from far places.
A time of fear, and fear exposed.
The king declared a prize to any warrior brave enough to travel to the gallows and tie about the ankles of the hanged a seal of wicker.
Most turned back, and a few reportedly died, encountering the things one would expect on such a night. Mostly the realization that you are alone in the dark with yourself, which is one of the most fearsome monsters of all.
But one soldier, Nera, made the gallows. Binding the first corpse to its bed, the soldier turned to the second when, behind them, a voice croaked 'that'll never hold.'
Nera turn, yet unafraid, to find the hanged man addressing him. "Could I get a drink? I was so thirsty this morning I couldn't even enjoy the hanging, and now you shackle me even in death. I'm owed a drink, surely?"
A short time later we find a still-curious but thoroughly-lost Nera, the criminal lashed to his back, wandering amid the stormy woods in search of drink.
The pair spot a house, which is consumed by fire, sparked of lightning, at their approach. The pair approach a second house, which is consumed by a storm-driven flood at their approach.
A third house welcomes the weary pair, and offers them drink as they wait out the storm.
The corpse pulls, and a second, but the third is by him spit upon the family of the house, who promptly die. Satisfied, the corpse bids Nera return him to the gallows, where he will be content in his binding.
The corpse re-tied, Nera returns to the castle to find it ablaze, felled by unknown foe. Within the feast hall he found all the warriors and their king beheaded, without the soldier spied a distant and strange battalion marching towards a hill.
The hill, a sidhe, revealed a cave, and inside the cave Nera met a member of the sith, a creature that can be thought of as a fairy and a ghost and an elf and a dwarf and a vampire and an angel and an oracle and any or none of the above, but are generally regarded as one of man's sister species that exist 'out of phase' with our world into something like, in Souls terms, a Painting. The sith and their fairy world is one of many such 'dreamworlds' that man drove away in his ironmad conquest.
The si (like elves, but lovecraftier,) told Nera that the dead man had offered a vision of what was to come, lest the king and his warriors destroy the hill and the armies that massed below.
The si (like elves, but lovecraftier,) told Nera that the dead man had offered a vision of what was to come, lest the king and his warriors destroy the hill and the armies that massed below.
Nera blinks, and the brave soldier is once more before the dead man, binding about the doomed man's ankle a seal of wicker.
So why is that so interesting?
Nera, for whatever reason, was given a vision of the future. This would make Nera, in Souls terms, something like an oracle. Nera was a brave and loyal warrior, whose loyalty and bravery was used by his king to inflict cruelty in the name of glory, although that's probably a very modernist interpretation. In attempting to bind the dead man, Nera ended up bound to the dead man himself. The dead man had shown Nera a vision, via dream, of a different time.
First of a home engulfed by flame.
Second of a home consumed by flood.
Third of a home doomed by Nera's own hand.
Fourth, of a kingdom fallen due to Nera's absence with this whole dick-waving stunt.
Fifth, of an underground fairy world wherein our hero encounters something like a friendly phantom with questionable motives providing helpful explanations and dire warnings about the impending attack.
Gower's Ring of Protection might be relevant here. The ring belonged to the assassin Gower, who specialized in kings and clergy, and significantly reduces backstab damage. The ring accomplishes this by somehow causing a phantasmal hollow to cling to the cursebearer's neck similar to how Lorian the Elder carries Lothric the Younger. Lorian and Lothric's father, Oceiros, was a king that also possessed an anti-backstab ring, and we find that ring next to an assassin matching Sharp Eyes of the East's description.
So how does all that connect? Dunno yet.
Next we come to the Ashen Mist Heart. This item allows us to travel, or trespass, into dreams. This includes the dreams of dormant-but-undying creatures like dragons, giants, Vendrick, and the arms & armor of Sir Alonne.
In the intro cinematic the fourth firekeeper knows that those recently touched by the Darksign are having dreams of a 'walled off land, far to the North.' The dream seems to be of High Olaphis. In other words, the cursebearers are channeling a dream of the distant past, travelling there, and finding the place in ruins that have been rebuilt and re-ruined on at least three different occasions.
And somehow this all ties into an allegory of a frightened boy and a magical tree from the Dreamworld that turned itself into a shield to protect him.
It'll make sense later, maybe.
The Great Divider
There are only three instances when Darklurker uncrosses her arms. The most common is when casting Great Floating Chaos. Next is at the point of mitosis, when mothers and daughters and twins part. The third is their death animation (which doesn't even always trigger - half the time she dies completing a cast,) and even then the final frames show the her half attempting to re-embrace. So why is that so interesting?
Nera, for whatever reason, was given a vision of the future. This would make Nera, in Souls terms, something like an oracle. Nera was a brave and loyal warrior, whose loyalty and bravery was used by his king to inflict cruelty in the name of glory, although that's probably a very modernist interpretation. In attempting to bind the dead man, Nera ended up bound to the dead man himself. The dead man had shown Nera a vision, via dream, of a different time.
First of a home engulfed by flame.
Second of a home consumed by flood.
Third of a home doomed by Nera's own hand.
Fourth, of a kingdom fallen due to Nera's absence with this whole dick-waving stunt.
Fifth, of an underground fairy world wherein our hero encounters something like a friendly phantom with questionable motives providing helpful explanations and dire warnings about the impending attack.
Gower's Ring of Protection might be relevant here. The ring belonged to the assassin Gower, who specialized in kings and clergy, and significantly reduces backstab damage. The ring accomplishes this by somehow causing a phantasmal hollow to cling to the cursebearer's neck similar to how Lorian the Elder carries Lothric the Younger. Lorian and Lothric's father, Oceiros, was a king that also possessed an anti-backstab ring, and we find that ring next to an assassin matching Sharp Eyes of the East's description.
So how does all that connect? Dunno yet.
Next we come to the Ashen Mist Heart. This item allows us to travel, or trespass, into dreams. This includes the dreams of dormant-but-undying creatures like dragons, giants, Vendrick, and the arms & armor of Sir Alonne.
In the intro cinematic the fourth firekeeper knows that those recently touched by the Darksign are having dreams of a 'walled off land, far to the North.' The dream seems to be of High Olaphis. In other words, the cursebearers are channeling a dream of the distant past, travelling there, and finding the place in ruins that have been rebuilt and re-ruined on at least three different occasions.
And somehow this all ties into an allegory of a frightened boy and a magical tree from the Dreamworld that turned itself into a shield to protect him.
It'll make sense later, maybe.
The Great Divider
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At all other times she hugs themself. Her-and-himselfes. Themselves's. Goddamn English pronouns suck. The folded arms belong to the female half, the casting arms belong to the male half. That's the idea. I'm calling her her or they. Unless they're thirds with whatever bird Sanctuary Guardian was thirds with.
"Her" probably invented the Sanctuary Guardian.
"Her" maybe walked Oolacile that was.
"Her" was maybe with or was part of or was searching for or was responsible for "Him".
"He" was the dark that once had form but dissipated.
Lets go over their arsenal again.
1. Soul Spear (his standard sorcery color is light purple,)
2. Soul Greatsword
3. Hidden Passage (Turns invisible and relocates)
4. Dark Passage (Teleports via darksign portal)
5. Dark Pursuit (portals an exploding pursuer behind player)
6. Mitosis (splits into two Darklurkers with a common healthpool)
7. Floating Chaos (I'd guess this is the root sorcery for Dunnel's version)
8. Greater Great Combustion (two-handed, dark flames).
9. Soul Stream (similar to Nashandra, Freja, and Iron King's versions).
10. Lifedrain (transposed from their soul)
1/2. Their most prosaic spells are purple-tinted versions of Soul Greatsword and Soul Spear. Soul Spear was allegedly created by Big Hat Logan post-Oolacile despite being known as a weapon on par with Gwyn's lightning during the Dragon War, and the obvious answer to that paradox and the answer generally accepted by the lore community is that Seath invented it at the Dawn of Fire.
Except Lurker's is a light purple, rather than light blue, and far lighter than the deep purple associated with hexes.
I suspect Lurker's is the original.
The angel's Soul Greatsword seems much more stable than the version player's can wield. Lurker's continues to exist between swings, like a light saber, and Lurker can combo up to I think four swings.
Soul Greatsword, the usable sorcery, is found in a chest in Drangleic Castle, past the Twin Dragonriders and at the start of the 'treasure house' section of the castle. In the third game it's offered by both Yoel and Orbeck, so it's not like a secret 'only certain people are supposed to know/use this spell' spell, like with Chaos pyromancy or Soul Stream. The spell 'endangers' the caster because it's effectively swordplay, and the spell is described as having been designed for 'sorcerer-swordsmen,' and mentions that even 'magical purists' will use it in a pinch. Purists, of course, scoff at arts like Magic Weapon as brutish and inelegant.
A variant of Soul Greatsword is Dark Greatsword (called Dark Edge in the third game). DGS takes Dark, normally tranquil, and channels it into a 'focused blade, in an uncharacteristic flash of brilliance.' This blade, like SGS, exists as an extension of the caster. In other words, this is the caster's soul/humanity being weaponized. This is important, because spells like Soul Arrow seem to hoover up souls from the atmosphere and hexes seem to beckon/grant a will to atmospheric dark.
Right, so, and Dark Edge is [surprise] tied to the Profaned Capital. Karla, specifically. The spurned Child of Dark. The description is...very very interesting, but needs more background before it can be fleshed out.
Okay, so there's Lurkers first two attacks briefly outlined. Yeesh.
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| source |
3/4/5. Lurker has two 'teleportation' spells. The first involves them fading from view, a la Priscilla or Elfriede, and drifting away from the player. The second involves creating a large Darksign portal in one part of the room and reappearing out of another in a different part of the room later. This portal technique is also used to cast an exploding Pursuer-type hex that enters the portal next to Lurker and exits a portal behind the player. Some Gael-level tactics.
6. Lurker's 'mitosis', where they split into two Lurkers with a shared healthpool, is a spell because it has a particle effect and that effect - and I'm gonna slow down because this is what you could call an important detail so get out your notebooks - that particle effect is
magical.
feathers.
During the moment of mitosis Lurker is most vulnerable, because during that instance -- when humanity twins -- they both exist in the same place and therefore hits count double. The osmosis spell is accompanied by a 'blue feather' particle effect. Hopefully you just thought of Shanalotte and Gertrude.
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| Why tf did I make the font so small? I can't seem to avoid that. |
7. There aren't a whole lot of 8-limbed bipeds in the series. The most remarkable octopod, to me at least, are the Ghru chaos priestesses. They cast Floating Chaos, just like Darklurker, who is also an octopod. Right?
All ghru have at least six limbs, but the Priestesses have 8, although the 'wing' arms seem nonfunctional. The priestess' 'female' limbs carry an orb of chaos around, which the male off-hand uses to cast fireball and fire whip. If you haven't noticed, the male arm reaches into the Chaos heart the female arms are carrying, and either pulls out or ignites the male arm's pyromancy. Because demons's flames be going out so you gotta like borrow a lighter sometimes.
The female arms cast the Floating Chaos spells, which continue to exist for as long as the Chaos Heart exists. The priestesses let out a very unpleasant cry when they cast the spell. The previous sentence is an understatement.
8. Fairly self-explanatory: Lurker uses both male arms to make a big explosion in front of itself. Combustion is another spell sneered at by magic purists.
9. Soul Stream, the version invented by Straid, is a 'pure' example of Logan's Crystalized version, a spell described as having turned on its creator, but was later perfected by Straid.
I hope that's a mistranslation or error, because either Logan is older than Oolacile or nothing else in the timeline makes sense. I think the obvious explanation is that, as with everything else in these games, these spells have always existed, maybe not continuously but as a kind of convergent evolution in different spell schools. One thing that seems self-evident is that all schools of magic were a lot more powerful the further back in time you go.
In other words, Columbus didn't discover America, and Straid probably improved on the formula of a much more ancient sorcerer than Logan, possibly Seath, possibly a Daughter of Izalith, possibly a scholar in Ur-Drang.
Soul Stream is a sorcery, but the bosses that cast it cast it as a pyromancy. By that I mean from either the host's palm (catalyst's anus) or mouth (also the mouth. I hope). Unless the mosquito goes in the other way around.
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| These things squirt fire out of their tail too. Cuz it's all made from poop. |
Look. Those mosquitoes in Blighttown: those are pyromancy flames after they hatch. They can spit from either end, just like the Crag Spiders, just like pyromancers. Laurentius doesn't go crazy or hollow, he's protecting them from us. Except in Drangleic where probably the pyromancy flames are a lot closer to ants.
10. Lurker's Soul can be used to convert sovereignless light souls into Lifedrain. Lifedrain, at least this iteration of it, functions by creating...I don't know how best to describe it. Like if you took a darksign, turned it into a tiny black hole, and then stuck it in the air in front of you. It causes heavy Dark damage to anything that touches it, even you and your friends.
Which makes sense, right? you can suicide at any time by touching your own Darksign, so by extension someone else could hypothetically suicide by touching yours. Which means whatever is inside of the Darksign (dark, probably,) is instantly fatal, so if you could just create one...
In the first game Lifedrain is described as a Dark art taught, hypothetically by Kaathe, to human knights, Darkwraiths, that involves siphoning off the humanity of a creature of light, via a Dark Hand, mechanically speaking.
So there, possible connection to Kaathe: creature of the abyss, share some kind of relation to Lifedrain, Oolacile.
Gwyndolin shares thematic elements with Lurker, though they are less obvious. Lurker is, by my reckoning, a chaos pyromancer wed* to something like a spellsword. Specifically the pyromancer that wandered Oolacile and the pygmy lord that 'birthed' Manus.
Now, I'm not very convinced about this next one, but a case could be made that Manus, the male pygmy lord half, before he was Manus, was both a sorcerer and a smith. I would go as far as to say that Manus-that-was (Nera, if you will, as a placeholder name) could even have been the creator of the Dragonslayer Armor. That sounds completely out of nowhere, I know, as all the Ringed City stuff made it sound like he was a nerd. If you're interested in more of that kind of thinking, I'd recommend Aldia Tours' lorethrough
* In the Church of Londor sense
The Embracing
Let's try tracking down some loose ends relating to Lurker.
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| note similarities |
Two areas Lurker is associated with are Amana and the Undead Crypt. Amana, obviously, has the creepy 'Two become one' shrine of the dead, featuring the same kind of obsidian stonework as found in the Pilgrim Shrines. We find, in the Crypt, a line of magic users linked to both pyromancy and the nebulous Blue Flame.
That's right, kids, it's time to talk about the Crypt.
I'm gonna outline the enemies here, minus Vendrick's attendants, then discuss each.
1. Syan Knight
2. Leydia Black
3. Worshipper Hollow
4. The Imperious
5. Torchbro II
6. Grave Wardens
7. Undying Hollow
8. Leydia White
9. The Insolent
10. Nameless Usurper
11. Wall Warrior
5. Torchbro II
6. Grave Wardens
7. Undying Hollow
8. Leydia White
9. The Insolent
10. Nameless Usurper
11. Wall Warrior
1. They're not relevant to this post, I was just wondering is it pronounced like Shawn or like Cyan.
2. A pair of start spam casting Affinity pretty early on in the Crypt. They appear to be preaching to a congregation of tattooed hollows, who will stop praying and try to sneak up on the player while we're occupied with the witches. If you've played Demon's Souls it's very reminiscent of the Fool's Idol boss.
The witches wear garments that appear to have the language of Izalith, or possibly Nito, on them (The flaming text surrounding Izalith nobles or the effects tied to Pinwheel's lanterns in the first game is what I'm referring to). Everything about the Leydia Black screams Izalith: the staff, the rainments, the zombie-porno sexiness, the Firestorm.
Oh, and the hat that, in the Profaned Capital in the third game, is associated with oracles.
Their story, part of it, is that initially they lived in the Crypt, alongside the Fenito. It's possible that they were also the line of priestesses that originally oversaw Amana. Over time they 'grew conceited' and began using their powers to manipulate the 'onset and curing of diseases, making themselves the gatekeepers of the Crypt.' For this they were branded transgressors, hunted down as traitors, executed for blasphemy, denied peaceful deaths and pressed to service guarding the Crypt.
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| The staff is just for show |
They worship Galib, the god of disease. Couple things here. It says 'they worship' not 'they worshiped,' meaning whatever Olaphian or pre-Olaphian (or even Ool,) order they served in life isn't necessarily the order they're bound to in death, if you see what I'm saying. Galib's symbol, according to the Name-Engraved Ring, is a cursed skull. Quella's is of an angel. Not the Rusted Coin angel, more like an adult cupid angel. Fucking... rampant to sinister, rather than affronte or whatever, heraldry nerds.
The reason I bring it up is because we now have three gods involved in this 'union of Quella and the Pygmy Lord of Oolacile (he came there from the Ringed City as part of Halflight's Mission and, look, it gets complicated' theory. Galib is the god/dess of disease, and is clearly a god of the crypt, rather than a god of Izalith, where I'm almost certain the witches are from. My justification for it is something like 'Galib is the/a god Agdayne is loyal to, and the witches, originally loyal to Quella, began to fuck around with dead shit -- which includes the 'curing of disease' -- meaning they, the witches, had the power to say who lived and who died and when and when not.
If the hat connection between them and the Profaned Scholar holds, then the Leydia Black were known as oracles. I don't know if you know this, but if you predict 'eventually they die' you're going to be right. I say that because they're acting like priestesses for the white hollows, similar to Mytha's Desert Sorceresses, who also go hooded, which is a theme.
Oh, and hold the presses what's this: they palm cast. Everything. The Izalith staves are apparently just an accessory/symbol of authority. Hmm... Hmmmmmm......
Oh, and hold the presses what's this: they palm cast. Everything. The Izalith staves are apparently just an accessory/symbol of authority. Hmm... Hmmmmmm......
4. The Imperious Knights are the big guys with the Orma and Reeve Twin Greatshields. They're...invisible, I guess. Darklurker can turn invisible, it's one of two ways they 'teleport.' The Empire they were so Imperially Imperious for was most likely Olaphis, and the same for the Insolent.
They, the Way of White of Olaphis I assume, tried to conquer the Crypt. This could have happened at a number of points and for a number of reasons. Especially considering Olaphis' history with magic users. The Leydia and the Imperious/Insolent factions would have opposed each other after the Lost Sin, because of the purges. It could be that the Leydia, while they were 'acting as gatekeepers' were working with the Olaphis White to bring about the Lost Sin (the failed firelinking ritual that flooded Amana [basically a failed attempt to perfect the Chaos Flame]). If so, then they could have been low-key Pinwheeling power from Galib and feeding it to Olaphis, who eventually launched a failed assault. This would explain why the Leydia Black cast Lightning Spear.
The Imperious 'didn't carry weapons,' but their attitude is described as 'playful' when they use the weapons they don't have to grind opponents into pulp. Really, they're like the perfect cleric weapon. Orma and Reeve are described as 'messengers from the hereafter who welcome the recently dead by reviewing the merits of their deeds in life.' Again, in the context they're presented: perfect cleric weapons.
5. Probably Pate eventually ends up a torchbro. Creighton acts more like a green hollow.
6. These guys are working with Mytha I want to underline that because Mytha and Agdayne form the nucleus of what eventually becomes Carthus.
7. Now we're getting to the good stuff. The hollows in the actual crypt part of the Crypt respawn, I think some of them infinitely. I know it's in the name, but the place is called the Undead Crypt. It's a place for the undying to 'fake' being dead. If any light shows up and 'agitates' the peace of the crypt these guys claw their way up and try to put the light out. And when they inevitably get got they get to get up again. Usually they'll try to go for a bell.
You know about bells and Dark Souls right?
8. When the bell is rung in the crypt any nearby Leydia White gravestones will spawn a pyromancer. I could write an entire post about chimes and bells and song and miracles-as-cheating-Death, but for now I'll just point out: this is an example of that.
The Leydia White are absolute monsters to fight. They're glass cannon builds and can be one-shot fairly easily, thank god. They cast Soul Geyser, a 'family heirloom' of Aldia and Mytha, which, again, Alken. They also cast Great Chaos Fireball and Flame Pillar -- a targeted Firestorm spout later used by the Fire Witches of Irithyll (the came from the Profaned Capital originally).
The White pyromancers carry the Blue Flame straight sword and the Magic Shield small shield. "Blue Flame" is another theme running across the games that I'm associating more and more with the Enchanted Ember of Darkroot.
Locations of blue flames:
Locations of blue flames:
- New Londo torches
- Battle of Stoicism bonfires
- Brume Smelter Demon and her arena
- Majula map at NG7+
- Profaned Capital handmaids
The White are invisible, like the Imperious, and also hooded, like the Desert Sorceresses and Darklurker. They look a lot like Darklurker, and the final group we encounter spawn out of the large...I guess they're graves, with statues of who I think is supposed to be Grandahl.
9. The Insolent were part of the same party as the Imperious. They only appear when either the obvious trap torch is lit or the hidden candle of the goddess is lit. They're described as having once been 'venerated,' and that their deaths have been postponed so that they can serve as guardians of the crypt.
Their arms are interesting. Like the Imperious, their shield features a face in profile, this one of an old man. The shield grants stamina regeneration but is otherwise pretty garbage. Their mace matches the Blue Flame of the Leydia in that it's both a weapon and a catalyst and can be double-buffed with Sunlight Blade or Resonant Soul.
As both of these weapons date to at least Olaphis it could be that the Sanctum Shield represents a continuation of this 'story,' with the Shield signifying the relationship between whatever remaining un-Grave Wardened elements of the Leydia and the Olaph White ultimately ended up loyal to Elana.
The imperial assault on the Crypt may have coincided with the fall of Olaphis, which included the fall of the church, the death of the Sunken King, and the abandonment of Brume Tower.
10. Licia, c'mon, it's Licia. A cleric associated with a faith of Gwynevere poking around in a tomb that also contains an insane Black Eye Orb that reacts to Licia, a character whose lies have lies. Yes, it's a different character model and Usurper doesn't cast, but Licia doesn't cast hexes even though she's better at casting hexes.
The Usurper invades as we approach the Pit of Death beneath a pristine statue of the Embracing Goddess. This statue THIS STATUE is why I started this blog, because THIS STATUE is the same statue we find over the Cardinal Tower bonfire in the Fort of Fallen Giants. WHY AND WHO
I still don't have an answer for that, but the truth is maybe slightly less murky.
Maybe, maybe, the Licia is meant to represent a nashandra-esque character (I don't think Licia is a Child of Dark, but she could be,) and we're meant to represent a Vendrick-like character, with the saintess secretly betraying the prince in order to prevent the prince from learning the truth: that his 'goddess of war' is actually a 'goddess of death.'
I don't know. Usurper goes hooded, though, and that seems to be a theme with Lurker-related stuff, while the Embracing Goddess, who I'm once again back to thinking of as Galib, may represent Galib. I think I may have tied her to the Moonlight Scholar of Anor Londo that pre-dated Seath as Master of Archives, but that goddess only has one arm outstreched. Moonlight Scholar appears everywhere: DS1 Archives, DS2 Bastille, DS3 Ariandel & Archives.
The Embracing Goddess, Galib for now, would therefore also be the goddess above the door of the don jon leading to the Princes Lothric bossfight in DS3.
Right, I've pointed all that stuff out elsewhere, so here's the addition:
Galib the Embracing is Agdayne's goddess. Agdayne is allied with Mytha, Queen of Alken. In the third game, in the Painted World, in a chapel above what I assume is the Profaned Flame of the Profaned Capital, we are attacked by a dark cleric pretending to be a saint of the light, who casts no miracles. The dark/light saint is protecting a statue that appears to be an effigy of Mytha, hooded (and headed, for that matter, which casts doubt on the theory). The statue is above a bonfire, normally hidden even to the Ashen, that leads to the Dreg Heap at the end of time, beneath which we find the remains of Alken, still ruled over by a queen. That queen is hooded, and dressed as a devotee of Mytha.
11. These guys seem to be in the same condition as Wellegar, which is a different condition than what the shades of the Shaded Woods have. Also, when we summon the ghosts of NPC's we killed they appear in this state as well. Just wanted to point that out.
Forbidden Sun
Same as above, but Dark Chasm enemies, and I'm including the Rise of the Dead because I'm confident saying they're connected by this point. I know I discussed a lot of this in Scholar somewhere but it needs to be revisited, revised, and expanded on. Names, as usual, are from the wikidot wiki.
Shrine of Shade
1. Tenebrous Rogue X2
2. Underworld Deadeye
3. Forest Spirit (Faith variant)
Shrine of the Forgotten
4. Chip Off the Old Rock
5. Ghost of Princes Past
6. Forest Spirit (Intelligence variant)
7. Shadowveil Assassin
Shrine of the Gulch
8. Abyss Ironclad X2
9. Pretender to the Xanthous Throne X2
10. Forest Spirit (Intelligence variant)
Rise of the Dead
11. Congregants
12. Conjurator pyromancer
13. Milfanito
14. [Aldian warlock]
1. 'Tenebrous' means dark, gloomy, or shadowy. These guys are high level versions of the base starting class enemies we find in Things Betwixt. They dual-wield bandit knives and rely on stunlocking their opponents.
2. The Guide Description, which I don't think guide descriptions are canon, but I also don't think guide descriptions are /not/ canon, hints that this character may in fact be Durgo of Lanafir. It might be a stretch, but the only other Lanafirian character in the game, Magerold, is the only character that can use Skeptic/Simpleton Spices, and the only place you can farm spices is from the Leydia.
Durgo's hat can be found in Eleum Loyce, behind the first group of shaded Astoran Knights, hidden by a Pharos contraption.
Durgo's ring can be found in the Fallen Giant Fort, on a corpse in the upper salamander chamber.
Durgo would seem to be a character based on a mix of Evlana/Pharis and Gough. His ring would seem to connect him directly to Gough, but Lanafir, along with Zena, are the two places in souls I don't think are figure-out-able.
Right, so let's say spices are a type of pollen or resin originally gathered in Amana by the Leydia -- currently the Archdrakes -- Durgo would seem to have been aligned with either/both Venn & Forossa based on where we find his hat. We find his ring in a place associated with the Iron King & Raime's Betrayal.
Magerold we find in the Iron Keep, looking for Dragons and selling armor associated with the Iron Kingdom (as well as the Dragonriders for some reason). He also sells the Forossan Bandit Set and the Jester Set.
In other words, Mags is pretty clearly interested in Alken, and may even be Jester Thomas, while Durgo is framed as a secret treasure of Venn and a discarded enemy of Alken.
3. I think this is the only faith-build Forest Spirit in the game. All the others cast Unleash Magic and the Homing Soulmass-type spell. This guy casts Lightning Spears and Sacred (or possibly Secret) Oath. I've gone on about them at length before, but Oath is a high end miracle hypothetically only known to the most broiest of sunbros.
4/5/6. Chip is one of two Havel Knights in-game (three if we count the armor set in the Gutter,) the other being part of the Gank Squad, and given that the Chasms are a series of gank squads this may have a narrative purpose. Ricard, whether he's an imposter or not, did travel to Alken, as his sword is kept in a chest in an Ancient sanctuary and guarded by a giant basilisk.
These two are accompanied by one of the more common sorcerer-type trees. They cast Unleash Magic, a miracle which references 'shadowy things' born as an unintentional result of Aldia's misdeeds, and we can buy the spell from Navlaan after completing the Entity's questline.
Now, to try to tie this together, We find 'human form' witchtrees in Eleum Loyce, so we can probably assume that those are the trees in their more-or-less natural state, with the 'spirit form' witchtrees being the aberration, even though they're the only variant in the base game and therefore the 'original' in terms of irl chronology. The Spirit Trees of the Chasm exist in the same state as Wellegar, a character that would have been quite close to Aldia.
In other words, the reason that Wellegar the Cancer and the Spirit Trees is the way they be may be quite closely related.
SO, right, now we're getting somewhere.
Havel, and by extension his knights, represent absolute rock-hard devotion to whatever cause they swear themselves to, as impenetrable as their individual motives may be from the outside. Hawkshaw's [final inquiry] laid out a case for the DS1 Havel Knight having been imprisoned due to his involvement in the Occult Rebellion. Varg would seem to be devoted to protecting the Big Secret about roses.
So what dark cause has Chip, along with Dick the prince, found themselves sworn to?
Both of these characters are based out of Lordran-related territories, obviously, and both see possible third-game reincarnations at Archdragon Peak, where both can be summoned by Channelers using Kalameet-based hexes. Third game Ricard wears nothing but Wolnir's crown, which is a hypothetical connection to Alken, and doesn't even carry a shield, which could represent a continuation of Ricard's 'quality build that should have been a dexterity build' storyline, as Richy Rich's previous incarnations carried parrying shields, as opposed to one of the more standard enchanted blue shields. Third game Rocky casts Armor of the Rock, which covers him in rocks. It's Iron Flesh but with stone magic.
Chip and Ricard II are much more basic than their third game counterparts. Chip charges in and tries to splat you, Prince charges in and tries to pincushion you. Chip, I suspect, is a colonist dating to the Exodus of Gwynevere. Ricard, we assume, ended up in the Abyss via somewhere like Darkroot or the New Londo well following his defeat in Sen's Fortress. In other words, Chip has been in or around Drangleic since the founding of Olaphis (maybe earlier,) while Ricard, if it is Ricard, has been there since the fall of the Iron Kingdom at the earliest, and probably around the time of Solaire's Firelinking in first-game terms.
7. After overcoming the trio we're presented with a single Desert Sorceress, who uses no sorceries, and who carries a Shotel and a Warped Blade. The Warped Blade is the sword transposed from the Flexile Sentries' soul that reflects the 'warped over time' nature of the Sentries' creator, rather than the Sentries 'born warped and will always be so' nature.
Obviously this marks another connection to Alken. This is important, because until now I've been operating on the assumption that the Pilgrims were probably aligned with Elana due to the fact that the spirit trees are, well, trees, and trees are Elana's thing.
Of course, when I wrote Scholar I also though Elana was the source of the Call, and I'm much less sure about that these days.
brume. brume. brume. brume. brume.
8/9/10. In the Chasm of Old accessible from the Black Gulch we encounter two trios of the same kind of enemies. Or the same trio of enemies twice. Shit's murky yall.
I've discussed the trees, so the focus here are the Abyss Ironclad and the Pretenders to the Xanthous Throne.
The Xanthous Set is one of the rewards Grandahl gives us for completing the Pilgrims questline.
I've discussed before how I think these/this guy/s is/are from...lets just assume there's two of them. I think these guys are either from Anor Londo or the Eastern Lands or Jugo (if the Eastern Lands and Jugo are different places). The popular theory regarding Jeremiah is that his headwrap is covering something like a Blighttown wallhugger attached to a hollow the way the red-eye Sunlight Maggot attaches itself to Solaire.
These guys don't have that kind of head, and their headwrap is much more normal-sized. In the third game, even normal looking pyromancers have a tradition of covering their eyes to better see Flame (Cornyx/Cuculus). They also connect to a third game tradition of Ool scholars who 'merely dress in yellow' in imitation of a legendary greater power (Elizabeth and them, for the Undead Legion faction).
It could also mean that whatever order Heysel and the Farron Acolytes belonged to either were or were heavily influenced by the Pilgrims of Dark, whose shrines are literally Oolacile. Plus, of course, I can't ignore the potential connection between the Xanthous Pretenders and the Crystal Sages, but that doesn't seem to connect to Lurker directly oh wait a minute, the Prince Lothric Galib door mural thing oh well there's another loose end.
Lothric, the kingdom, was born out of Olaphis-Shulva, under Elana, just like Carthus was born out of Alken and the Undead Crypt, under Mytha, and I suspect both of these 'Kingdoms of the Dead' would like to lay claim to Darklurker's favor, with Alken-Carthus winning in Drangleic and Olaphis-Lothric winning out in Lordran.
So, why the apparent switch in loyalties?
One explanation could be that Lurker exists in some kind of Doctor Manhattan-like state where things like the distinctions between mortal factions and ideologies is irrelevant. Another is that the Pilgrim Sect infiltrated Lothric during the fall of Carthus to the Black Flame or Yhorm's Firelinking. Finally, the Lurker, being a bi-or-triune diety may have divided loyalties, with the Quella/chaos sister half being loyal to Mytha and the Nera/pygmy lord half being loyal to Elana.
Or it could be that the Pilgrims are a relatively new institution comprised of old characters that are attempting to make First Contact with the Lurker since...whatever happened happened.
Conclusions such as they are
I think the Pilgrims of the Dark are attempting to 'Prime the ignition' of whatever failed ritual happened at the Shrine of Amana. I suspect they're what the three black lordvessels we light are about: a firelinking in microcosm.
So what would success look like?
I'm starting to think that it would look a lot like the Profaned Capitol.
As both of these weapons date to at least Olaphis it could be that the Sanctum Shield represents a continuation of this 'story,' with the Shield signifying the relationship between whatever remaining un-Grave Wardened elements of the Leydia and the Olaph White ultimately ended up loyal to Elana.
The imperial assault on the Crypt may have coincided with the fall of Olaphis, which included the fall of the church, the death of the Sunken King, and the abandonment of Brume Tower.
10. Licia, c'mon, it's Licia. A cleric associated with a faith of Gwynevere poking around in a tomb that also contains an insane Black Eye Orb that reacts to Licia, a character whose lies have lies. Yes, it's a different character model and Usurper doesn't cast, but Licia doesn't cast hexes even though she's better at casting hexes.
The Usurper invades as we approach the Pit of Death beneath a pristine statue of the Embracing Goddess. This statue THIS STATUE is why I started this blog, because THIS STATUE is the same statue we find over the Cardinal Tower bonfire in the Fort of Fallen Giants. WHY AND WHO
I still don't have an answer for that, but the truth is maybe slightly less murky.
Maybe, maybe, the Licia is meant to represent a nashandra-esque character (I don't think Licia is a Child of Dark, but she could be,) and we're meant to represent a Vendrick-like character, with the saintess secretly betraying the prince in order to prevent the prince from learning the truth: that his 'goddess of war' is actually a 'goddess of death.'
I don't know. Usurper goes hooded, though, and that seems to be a theme with Lurker-related stuff, while the Embracing Goddess, who I'm once again back to thinking of as Galib, may represent Galib. I think I may have tied her to the Moonlight Scholar of Anor Londo that pre-dated Seath as Master of Archives, but that goddess only has one arm outstreched. Moonlight Scholar appears everywhere: DS1 Archives, DS2 Bastille, DS3 Ariandel & Archives.
The Embracing Goddess, Galib for now, would therefore also be the goddess above the door of the don jon leading to the Princes Lothric bossfight in DS3.
Right, I've pointed all that stuff out elsewhere, so here's the addition:
Galib the Embracing is Agdayne's goddess. Agdayne is allied with Mytha, Queen of Alken. In the third game, in the Painted World, in a chapel above what I assume is the Profaned Flame of the Profaned Capital, we are attacked by a dark cleric pretending to be a saint of the light, who casts no miracles. The dark/light saint is protecting a statue that appears to be an effigy of Mytha, hooded (and headed, for that matter, which casts doubt on the theory). The statue is above a bonfire, normally hidden even to the Ashen, that leads to the Dreg Heap at the end of time, beneath which we find the remains of Alken, still ruled over by a queen. That queen is hooded, and dressed as a devotee of Mytha.
11. These guys seem to be in the same condition as Wellegar, which is a different condition than what the shades of the Shaded Woods have. Also, when we summon the ghosts of NPC's we killed they appear in this state as well. Just wanted to point that out.
Forbidden Sun
Same as above, but Dark Chasm enemies, and I'm including the Rise of the Dead because I'm confident saying they're connected by this point. I know I discussed a lot of this in Scholar somewhere but it needs to be revisited, revised, and expanded on. Names, as usual, are from the wikidot wiki.
 |
| They cast Acid Cloud, rather than Poison or Toxic. |
Shrine of Shade
1. Tenebrous Rogue X2
2. Underworld Deadeye
3. Forest Spirit (Faith variant)
Shrine of the Forgotten
4. Chip Off the Old Rock
5. Ghost of Princes Past
6. Forest Spirit (Intelligence variant)
7. Shadowveil Assassin
Shrine of the Gulch
8. Abyss Ironclad X2
9. Pretender to the Xanthous Throne X2
10. Forest Spirit (Intelligence variant)
Rise of the Dead
11. Congregants
12. Conjurator pyromancer
13. Milfanito
14. [Aldian warlock]
1. 'Tenebrous' means dark, gloomy, or shadowy. These guys are high level versions of the base starting class enemies we find in Things Betwixt. They dual-wield bandit knives and rely on stunlocking their opponents.
2. The Guide Description, which I don't think guide descriptions are canon, but I also don't think guide descriptions are /not/ canon, hints that this character may in fact be Durgo of Lanafir. It might be a stretch, but the only other Lanafirian character in the game, Magerold, is the only character that can use Skeptic/Simpleton Spices, and the only place you can farm spices is from the Leydia.
Durgo's hat can be found in Eleum Loyce, behind the first group of shaded Astoran Knights, hidden by a Pharos contraption.
Durgo's ring can be found in the Fallen Giant Fort, on a corpse in the upper salamander chamber.
Durgo would seem to be a character based on a mix of Evlana/Pharis and Gough. His ring would seem to connect him directly to Gough, but Lanafir, along with Zena, are the two places in souls I don't think are figure-out-able.
Right, so let's say spices are a type of pollen or resin originally gathered in Amana by the Leydia -- currently the Archdrakes -- Durgo would seem to have been aligned with either/both Venn & Forossa based on where we find his hat. We find his ring in a place associated with the Iron King & Raime's Betrayal.
Magerold we find in the Iron Keep, looking for Dragons and selling armor associated with the Iron Kingdom (as well as the Dragonriders for some reason). He also sells the Forossan Bandit Set and the Jester Set.
In other words, Mags is pretty clearly interested in Alken, and may even be Jester Thomas, while Durgo is framed as a secret treasure of Venn and a discarded enemy of Alken.
3. I think this is the only faith-build Forest Spirit in the game. All the others cast Unleash Magic and the Homing Soulmass-type spell. This guy casts Lightning Spears and Sacred (or possibly Secret) Oath. I've gone on about them at length before, but Oath is a high end miracle hypothetically only known to the most broiest of sunbros.
4/5/6. Chip is one of two Havel Knights in-game (three if we count the armor set in the Gutter,) the other being part of the Gank Squad, and given that the Chasms are a series of gank squads this may have a narrative purpose. Ricard, whether he's an imposter or not, did travel to Alken, as his sword is kept in a chest in an Ancient sanctuary and guarded by a giant basilisk.
These two are accompanied by one of the more common sorcerer-type trees. They cast Unleash Magic, a miracle which references 'shadowy things' born as an unintentional result of Aldia's misdeeds, and we can buy the spell from Navlaan after completing the Entity's questline.
Now, to try to tie this together, We find 'human form' witchtrees in Eleum Loyce, so we can probably assume that those are the trees in their more-or-less natural state, with the 'spirit form' witchtrees being the aberration, even though they're the only variant in the base game and therefore the 'original' in terms of irl chronology. The Spirit Trees of the Chasm exist in the same state as Wellegar, a character that would have been quite close to Aldia.
In other words, the reason that Wellegar the Cancer and the Spirit Trees is the way they be may be quite closely related.
SO, right, now we're getting somewhere.
Havel, and by extension his knights, represent absolute rock-hard devotion to whatever cause they swear themselves to, as impenetrable as their individual motives may be from the outside. Hawkshaw's [final inquiry] laid out a case for the DS1 Havel Knight having been imprisoned due to his involvement in the Occult Rebellion. Varg would seem to be devoted to protecting the Big Secret about roses.
So what dark cause has Chip, along with Dick the prince, found themselves sworn to?
Both of these characters are based out of Lordran-related territories, obviously, and both see possible third-game reincarnations at Archdragon Peak, where both can be summoned by Channelers using Kalameet-based hexes. Third game Ricard wears nothing but Wolnir's crown, which is a hypothetical connection to Alken, and doesn't even carry a shield, which could represent a continuation of Ricard's 'quality build that should have been a dexterity build' storyline, as Richy Rich's previous incarnations carried parrying shields, as opposed to one of the more standard enchanted blue shields. Third game Rocky casts Armor of the Rock, which covers him in rocks. It's Iron Flesh but with stone magic.
Chip and Ricard II are much more basic than their third game counterparts. Chip charges in and tries to splat you, Prince charges in and tries to pincushion you. Chip, I suspect, is a colonist dating to the Exodus of Gwynevere. Ricard, we assume, ended up in the Abyss via somewhere like Darkroot or the New Londo well following his defeat in Sen's Fortress. In other words, Chip has been in or around Drangleic since the founding of Olaphis (maybe earlier,) while Ricard, if it is Ricard, has been there since the fall of the Iron Kingdom at the earliest, and probably around the time of Solaire's Firelinking in first-game terms.
7. After overcoming the trio we're presented with a single Desert Sorceress, who uses no sorceries, and who carries a Shotel and a Warped Blade. The Warped Blade is the sword transposed from the Flexile Sentries' soul that reflects the 'warped over time' nature of the Sentries' creator, rather than the Sentries 'born warped and will always be so' nature.
Obviously this marks another connection to Alken. This is important, because until now I've been operating on the assumption that the Pilgrims were probably aligned with Elana due to the fact that the spirit trees are, well, trees, and trees are Elana's thing.
Of course, when I wrote Scholar I also though Elana was the source of the Call, and I'm much less sure about that these days.
brume. brume. brume. brume. brume.
8/9/10. In the Chasm of Old accessible from the Black Gulch we encounter two trios of the same kind of enemies. Or the same trio of enemies twice. Shit's murky yall.
I've discussed the trees, so the focus here are the Abyss Ironclad and the Pretenders to the Xanthous Throne.
The Xanthous Set is one of the rewards Grandahl gives us for completing the Pilgrims questline.
I've discussed before how I think these/this guy/s is/are from...lets just assume there's two of them. I think these guys are either from Anor Londo or the Eastern Lands or Jugo (if the Eastern Lands and Jugo are different places). The popular theory regarding Jeremiah is that his headwrap is covering something like a Blighttown wallhugger attached to a hollow the way the red-eye Sunlight Maggot attaches itself to Solaire.
These guys don't have that kind of head, and their headwrap is much more normal-sized. In the third game, even normal looking pyromancers have a tradition of covering their eyes to better see Flame (Cornyx/Cuculus). They also connect to a third game tradition of Ool scholars who 'merely dress in yellow' in imitation of a legendary greater power (Elizabeth and them, for the Undead Legion faction).
It could also mean that whatever order Heysel and the Farron Acolytes belonged to either were or were heavily influenced by the Pilgrims of Dark, whose shrines are literally Oolacile. Plus, of course, I can't ignore the potential connection between the Xanthous Pretenders and the Crystal Sages, but that doesn't seem to connect to Lurker directly oh wait a minute, the Prince Lothric Galib door mural thing oh well there's another loose end.
Lothric, the kingdom, was born out of Olaphis-Shulva, under Elana, just like Carthus was born out of Alken and the Undead Crypt, under Mytha, and I suspect both of these 'Kingdoms of the Dead' would like to lay claim to Darklurker's favor, with Alken-Carthus winning in Drangleic and Olaphis-Lothric winning out in Lordran.
So, why the apparent switch in loyalties?
 |
| Get your shit together, Heysel. |
One explanation could be that Lurker exists in some kind of Doctor Manhattan-like state where things like the distinctions between mortal factions and ideologies is irrelevant. Another is that the Pilgrim Sect infiltrated Lothric during the fall of Carthus to the Black Flame or Yhorm's Firelinking. Finally, the Lurker, being a bi-or-triune diety may have divided loyalties, with the Quella/chaos sister half being loyal to Mytha and the Nera/pygmy lord half being loyal to Elana.
Or it could be that the Pilgrims are a relatively new institution comprised of old characters that are attempting to make First Contact with the Lurker since...whatever happened happened.
Conclusions such as they are
I think the Pilgrims of the Dark are attempting to 'Prime the ignition' of whatever failed ritual happened at the Shrine of Amana. I suspect they're what the three black lordvessels we light are about: a firelinking in microcosm.
So what would success look like?
I'm starting to think that it would look a lot like the Profaned Capitol.
A rich man lost his fortune,
But it returned to him twofold.
He was swift to squander his retrieved fortune,
Smugly confident that it was bound to double once again.
I think the 'rich man' may have been Oolacile, and the 'fortune' was the pygmy lord/Manus but which 'returned two fold' via Carthus and was 'squandered' by Yhorm. Farron's War with the Abyss, Aldrich's Age of Deep Waters, and even the Angelic Faith of Lothric could all represent the, let's call them, 'redoubled blessings of the Angel in Darkness.'
Luck is described as being an aspect of Dark. Item discovery scales with humanity and so on.
Destroying an image of Darklurker increases Item discovery. This superstition was practiced by 'those who had lost their fortunes, hoping to retrieve what was once theirs, and more.' This makes the coins immensely valuable, but according to both their third game description and Patches' inventory, the common, 'copper' variety are worth exactly as much as Rubbish.
In the Profaned Capital the gold variant is by for the more common coin. Because the treasure of the capital wasn't squandered in the sense that it was spent on cocaine and poker, but squandered in the sense that it was left to stagnate.
