This is a work in progress. It needs to be edited and finished and then re-edited and then cauterized and prayed over.
Onward.
I'm going to attempt to catalogue potential descendants of Queen Izalith. I'll try to start with 'is definitely a princess' and work my way out to 'probably doesn't exist' and, as always, get sidetracked a lot.
Quelaag is probably the most well-known. She seems to be something like the leader of the Chaos Servants and Izalith's general. It's implied she can 'speak a human tongue,' both by Eingyi and her, Quelaag's, own cut dialogue:
Go back,
Forbidden be these parts,
The realm of the creatures of Chaos.
They accept their banished fate.
Go back,
Lest the flames devour us all,
And the children of Chaos feed upon your charred ashes.
Those who defy the pact,
Those who trespass Quelaag's Domain;
May you feel the depth of Our wroth.
We could speculate until the end of time what all that means and how much, if any, of it fits in with the 'final' version of the story. In fact I plan to speculate until the end of time on that kind of thing so may as well start now.
Leading theory: Quelaag and probably Gwyndolin formed some kind of pact or truce following the Chaos War. In fact, the pact might be quite recent (in the metanarrative sense). The upper bell is housed in 'the new church,' as Andre describes it, while the lower bell can only be accessed by 'those who trespass Quelaag's Domain,' assuming her cut dialogue is at all trustworthy. This could mean that, moving forward in Lordran's immediate timeline, the Blades would get a boost from Solaire's firelinking but would immediately fall to (open) war with the Servants, who probably team up with the Hunters once they meet in the middle and lay the groundwork for Farron and the latter-day Demon Ruins.
Quelaag's spider half seems to have the same disorder as Ceaseless Discharge. Both are examples of the primal Chaos that was refined into pyromancy and in-game demons.
I cut a paragraph here that hinged on the reader having a somewhat working understanding of 20+ year old RA Salvatore novels. When I was a kid you could get a box of old books at a garage sale for like a dollar and take it to a used book store and they'd give you store credit and when you have nothing but 2 TV channels and AM Hate radio for escape a box of random Shadowrun and Dragonlance novels does a lot to keep your sanity. There's that's a much better paragraph than the one about Menzobarennzan I'm not even googling the spelling.
People 'of Izalith' are bugs that function like the fantasy equivalent of Venom from Spiderman. Only also Ninja Turtles. Thank god those references held up.
Quelaag has a potentially twin sister that has a terrible affliction that keeps her trapped between life and death this is a THEME.
The Fair Lady is... sad. Sad-making. Induces sadness. Lorian & Lothric and Pain & Below and Ivory and Alsanna are sad in the same way but like a 2 on the Prepare to Cry-ometer sad this is The Biggest Number sad. Even trying to spin her relationship with Quelana from the first game to the third a dozen different ways doesn't work they're all sad a bottomless well of sadness.
After the death of the Queen the Fair Lady would have, in all likelihood, been viewed as the new Queen by Izalith.
Quelana is the invisible third sister. This is another Theme.
When people say things like 'and all of this will play out again,' in-universe, what they mean is these same dozen or so stories will be played out, with semi-random variations, by Fire using hollows, again, once the Fire is linked and the Great Soul recycled into the ecosystem. The Sacred Oath miracle is an example, I suspect, of this same kind of 'three siblings/comrades in arms' story.
There is, of course a Fourth Sibling Proper Noun (Dark Flame Scorpioness/Fillianore) aligning with the Dead Soul which, by the principle of Numbness, isn't just hidden but is actively absent and can only be inferred by the impression they leave on the rest of the story.
There is then revealed a Fifth Sibling and Sixth Sibling out to a 'very rare eighth color' and once you work that one out have the secret The Secret Ingredients for Godking Gwyn's Secret Sauce.
But we're meant to be talking about Quelana here.
Quelana, mother or godmother of in-game pyromancy, appears to be spending her time in-game hanging out in a swamp waiting for a powerful enough pyromancer to come along so she can train them up and then ask them to kill her family.
The story goes that shortly after the Chaos Flame went nuclear Quelana, having escaped relatively unscathed, came into contact with Salaman, the Great Fireball of the Great Swamp. It's unclear if she traveled to the Swamp or if Salaman traveled to Lordran. The extent to which pyromancy has spread suggests the former, Quelana's personality suggests the latter. In any event, Salaman became Quelana's first and, as far as in-universe history is concerned, only apprentice. This is another one of the meta-stories, reflected with Lloyd and his Apostle, about an institution, usually religious, being founded by a relationship between a mortal and a god that, from an outside perspective, might never have even existed.
Quelana's early pyromancy was much closer to Quelaag's than Laurentius'. By that I mean that the Chaos she inherited was wild and uncontrollable and would probably result in a lot of self-detonating hollows if you tried to teach it to them. Quelana and Salaman's Legacy was refining the early chaos pyromancy down to the more controllable stuff we find in-game.
I know I say this a lot but From really does make this point clear and people seem really acknowledging-It-averse but let's spell this out:
Pyromancy is the art of burning poop. Cloud-based spells, like those devised by Eingyi? Those are considered perverse distractions from the art. This led to Eingyi's exile from the Great Swamp but Eingyi found that, because of his selfless service to the Brood, he was allowed to serve as a religious functionary. Not just a functionary, but Eingyi was the Fair Lady's personal attendant and had access to vermifuge chestnuts, which are normally forbidden by the Servants.
Eingyi is or is implied to be an ascended pyromancer and suspects that Quelana is somewhere around the Domain, but can't see her. This confirms that Quelana can and does hide herself from high level pyromancers if they're associated with her family.
It's somewhat assumed that Quelana uses Rapport to hide herself, meaning that she's not actually invisible or a ghost, but that she actively mind controls anyone in the vicinity into not seeing her.
Guelana - This is the Chaos Sister guarding the entrance to the Bed of Chaos. The name is kind of fan-canon based on translations of her name in the Japanese official guide, which her name is almost identical to Quelana's (Gulaana vs Kulaana). Not much is known about her beyond she is apparently her mother's personal attendant and last line of defense, Kirk notwithstanding. It's assumed that Chaos Fire Whip is her signature spell and that she is the eldest daughter.
Guelaag - This is the corpse in the Ceaseless Discharge arena, and kind of Exhibit A in the case for Quelana is a Ghost. Personally, I've never been a hard believer in the "Seven Daughters in the cinematic means ONLY Seven Daughters," only that there were seven daughters associated with the Dragon War.
Ceaseless Discharge - His story is pretty straightforward. A prince of the 'failed champion' variety. Something like a Melted Iron King. It should probably be noted that he should be considered a Fire God. Poor Guy.
I feel like there's something big and obvious I'm missing about his relationship between the Centipede Demon and Orange Charred Ring...
Jeremiah - My very first lore post was about Jeremiah. I think it's still up. Mostly because I think the Dracula stuff is important. The Blighttown wallhugger may be his brother.
Jeremiah is from the Eastern Lands. Therefore he may be related to Aurous and his pyromancy is derived from the same source as the Desert Priestesses and Shiva's attendant. Jugo, in other words.
I'll go into more detail about the Source below.
The Lost Sinner - A Chaos Sister (possibly pre-Chaos Sister,) who sought to light a First Flame of Drangleic by improving on the Chaos Flame ritual. This event, the Lost Sin, led to the downfall of Olaphis. The Sinner has remained imprisoned since, and has renounced the use of fire (even preferring to fight in darkness), although her attendants -- apparently Great Swamp pyromancers -- have no qualms about indulging in the art.
It's possible that it was the Sinner that imparted knowledge of Izalith and pyromancy to Straid.
Scorpioness of the Darkflame - This is another example of a mostly-inferred character associated with Oolacile, specifically with the creation of the Sanctuary Guardians and the pyromancy we find in the Chasm. Since the Guardians pre-date and are unrelated to Manus' resurrection we can assume that this sister created the guardians earlier in her life and discovered/created the dark pyromancy later in her life. I don't even know if she's a singluar character or two different pyromancers and if so which two. Her inclusion in the DLC makes me think she's associated with a DS2 character/s who I've alluded to in past posts but don't think I've ever really tried to address head on. I think the Ool Pyromancer -- who may have pre-dated Chaos and definitely pre-dated Quelana's pyromancy -- may have been some combination of the following characters:
Freja (or their ancestor), Najka, and/or the female half of Darklurker (a character I call The Hooded). Let's Discuss.
Freja - Right, time to defend one of my insaner theories.
Aldia was an apprentice to a Chaos Pyromancer. Let me back up.
Aldia was Duke Tseldora.
Now a Duke is a very specific peerage title. It doesn't just mean 'a lord' or 'some bigshot' or 'someone highly valued by the royal family.' A duke, originally, was when something like a head general was promoted to something like a prime minister and, outside of the monarch's direct family, was the most powerful person in a kingdom. In other words if the entire royal family gets poisoned at dinner the duke is automatically the lead suspect.
In the first game Seath was the Duke of Anor Londo. Just like in real history, this dukedom was awarded for service, rather than inherited.
In the second game Aldia is implied to be the eldest son of the Iron King and Mytha, and rightful king of Drangleic under Alken. Except, like Seath, he doesn't want the job because it would interfere with his research. So, instead, he helps his younger half-brother, the bastard of Venn, steal the Great Soul from the gods of Lordran and bring it to the half-brothers' fallen homelands that they might forge a new empire. This played well politically as Vendrick could easily be reframed from 'bastard of both kingdoms' to 'heir of both' and thereby use his name to re-unite the kingdom.
Aldia, then, would be awarded dukedom -- if he hadn't been already --- and allowed to pursue his research.
Right, so now we're to Tseldora. There are two powerful magics buried in Tseldora. At least two. No, at least three, the dragon counts but is unrelated to pyromancy beyond being a thematic plot device.
The corpse of the dragon has attracted a number of admirers. The Ruin is an obvious one, and would seem to be associated with Seath, or at least Moonlight, and is implied to be the source of the Brightstone.
The spiders are also admirers.
The chapels in the vicinity both make clear that the spiders are considered holy. It's also clear from item descriptions that Duke Tseldora intentionally used the spiders to murder the settlement. In the lower chapel (the pickaxe chapel, not the dragon ruins below,) we find a well-locked door hiding a Black Knight weapon used for killing demons and Great Fireball: Salaman's ultimate pyromantical achievement in the art of refining chaos.
Freja isn't, or doesn't seem to be, a Daughter of Izalith. She's described as having been a 'solitary insect' that was kept by the Duke, who had a fascination with spiders. The insect was then possessed by the warped souls of the land and mutated, broke out of her cage, grew (possibly by feeding on the dragon), and became the Keeper of the Writhing Ruin, which seems to be centered around the same dragon, which Freja is using as a nest. The Tseldora skull spiders are presumably her offspring, even though they look nothing alike.
Design-wise Freja appears to be a reinterpretation of the Chaos Servant twins, with the twist being that rather than a spider stuck to a lady it's a spider stuck to a spider.
The dragon corpse beneath Tseldora is, obviously. the Big Treasure whose discovery culminated in the Tseldora Spiderpocalypse. The story of Tseldora is that it was an impoverished, probably Gyrm, mining community in the eastern mountains. Brightstone was discovered and the town struck it rich, triggering something like a gold rush. Volgen has a particularly heavy and very current, from an in-game perspective, presence there.
Tseldora was overseen by a Lord, a duke. A duke, generally speaking, is the highest ranking member of a royal family outside of the nuclear family. So like a brother or uncle of the king. Historically a duke meant something like king asskicker. Like Vendrick is a duke in the ancient sense, Aldia is a duke in the ye olde European sense. I mean like Europe's still got dukes and silly shit like that they're just mostly really old...like the Trump Boys? My point, goodness, where's it gone.
Are the peasants the settlers or are the merchants the settlers?
We get the set Maughlin wears - which features a brightstone crystal and boosts souls gained - from the spider zombies (another variation of DS1 'demons', just free of the influence of the Chaos Flame [but not free of the influence of the Writhing Ruin, hence Freja casting Soulstream instead of, yknow, Quelaag's fire attack]). The spider zombies are only found after the Congregation. Sigh. These posts are so damn hard to write.
look.
I gotta figure out how to record game footage so I can just talk about it while it's happening like a fucking normal person would do. That means I gotta buy a new computer and that makes my skin want to crawl off. I don't know fuck about computers I'm like ten years too old to have been there for the internet. Wanna know what the first game I fell in love with was? Fucking ZORK. Like on a 5"X5"...you know what records are right? THE STATUE IN THE CHURCH IN THE ALDIA CHURCH IN THE PARDORNER CHURCH HAS A FUCKING HAIR TALISMAN WHO HAS THOSE
Now.
Let's back up.
I want everyone to sit down and think "hey, maybe DS2 is actually full of a bunch of big, obvious shit everybody missed the first time through.
Aldia was Lord Tseldora.
As a young prince of Alken Aldia would have spent a lot of his time being tutored by the likes of Eygil and Mytha. While his father devolves into hedonism and cruelty and his mother succumbed to her grudges Aldia must have been doing something. Maybe he served in the military, or travelled, or just studied all day long.
Eventually Vendrick returns with the DS1 Great Soul and Aldia's Plan gets underway. Vendrick had probably already amassed a sizeable following, and it's entirely possible that some of the apparently more recent arrivals from Lordran -- Ornifex, the implied knight of Berenike in the Fort of Giants -- came here with Prince Vendrick on his return trip.
Aldia then fills out the ranks by conscripting mercenaries from Forossa and Mirrah, and they begin shuttling troops into the country through the Tseldora cave systems -- the Rat King's lands -- to stage their army in the Shaded Woods and expand westward and pacify the sub-continent.
They get to Majula and Aldia sets up in the Mansion. It's possible the broken lordvessel we find in the basement was Vendrick's, used to transport the Great Soul to Drangleic where it was used to help fuel portions of this campaign. Once it was spent, released back into the wild as sovereignless souls, some of the older, more powerful souls began to re-coalesce into appropriate vessels; King Alken and The Firstborn, Izalith and Sinner, Rotten and Nito and
Freja and Seath.
Freja has a number of 'spells' she can cast. Obviously there are web-based spells that slow movement, and also a kind of stomach acid vomit attack. The most impressive, however, is her Soul Stream (Soul Bolt in DS2 terms) attack. This spell has a number of variations in the game -- Iron King and Nashandra both use versions -- but only Freja's features the standard light blue of moonlight sorcery.
Soul Bolt, the version the player can wield, is described as having been devised by Straid after witnessing an 'unwieldy spell that backfired on its owner.' I've talked before about how this apparently alludes to Logan's Crystal Dragon Breath spell and how, even with the timeline overlapping as much as it does, there's no way a character that dates to at least Olaphis could have contact with an institution as recent as Vinnheim. It's possible the spell Straid witnessed was related to Seath, who could have been involved with the Anor Londo colonists that founded Olaphis up until probably either the failure of the Lost Sin or Gwynevere's second exodus.
We find Straid's staff in upper Tseldora, in the old ruined house only accessible via the well. Here's a couple of interesting facts about the staff. First, its spider-like design is a closer match for the chapel inscriptions than Freja's brood, and the brood are a closer match for the inscriptions than Freja. Second, it only casts sorceries. No hexes, no other schools.
I've mentioned how Tseldora seems to have had several successive settlements and upheavals over time but I'll lay out my current best guess as to what and when.
Olaphis Period - This region was probably under the control of the Rat King and Gyrm, and was probably a mining settlement, if it was even a settlement. If there were any humans around they were probably farmers. The ruins, especially the ones leading down to Freja, seem very old, and obviously are older than Vendrick-era installations like Giants Fort or Castle Drangleic. My guess is whatever mad science passion play that played out with Aldia and this hypothetical master sorceress of Izalith also played out in Olaphis, possibly between the Lost Sinner and whatever character filled the Old Moonlight role at the time, and probably also played out between Seath and the old mistress of the Anor archives (whose statue reappears in the Bastille, the Lothric Archives, and the Ariamis Archives). The Old Archivist is clearly an important character and probably qualifies for this post but I don't have enough of her story worked out to include it, but I will say that her statue in the Bastille -- weathered and unrecognizable -- is placed next to a very big very new very 'look how big my dick is' statue of Aldia.
Later, Aldia sets himself up as duke and begins exploring the place, possibly as early as the civil war or as late as Vendrick's return. They discover Brightstone and, more importantly, the dragon corpse. Aldia completes his studies, kills the town to keep it quiet, and the place is abandoned, again, save for Aldian cultists and the Keepers.
Then Volgen arrives. It's difficult to tell what their interest in the place is, apart from economic (and there has to be easier ways to get rich). The Volgen forces are mostly comprised of falconers and merchants. The, I guess we can call them lesser spider demon enemies drop Volgen merchant equipment and there are a few references to Fiorenza the merchant lord scattered around the lower areas.
I would make the case at this point that the person we find in the Lord's Private Chamber is Fiorenza.
Freja's children are interesting. Mostly because they look very little like Freja. Freja looks like a big tarantula; scary, sure, but not actually all that dangerous. The children look like the kind of spiders that can crawl into your dreams and if they bite you your three closest relatives die. The spiders fear fire, for whatever reason. We find a group of non-hostile spiders in the attic of the upper chapel with Pardoner Cromwell. In the chapel below is a statue of a witch brandishing a book and a Lordranic miracle talisman. I suspect that the Pardoner and the statue are both recent arrivals but maybe not as recent as the Volgen forces.
Right, so to conclude: how is Freja a Chaos Sister? I've already stated that she's not, or probably not. I do believe that she and the other spiders, along with the hidden pyromancy and black knight weapon are evidence of a Chaos Sister that, in some sense, was the mother to the spiders and a tutor to Aldia until Aldia betrayed her.
So who was she?
I don't know. But luckily Freja has a sister. And a brother. In some sense.
Najka - Right, obviously she's a scorpion and not a spider. But she does wear a skull, which the spiders are marked by a skull, and she's quite near to Tseldora just beyond the Doors of Pharros. She's also a demoness, possibly, that uses sorcery.
Tark relates a very interesting tale regarding Najka, Freja, Aldia, and the Pale Old Being. Tark and Najka are married and were once inseparable. They were created long, long ago by the Paledrake character at the peak of his madness. Let's assume Olaphis here. Tark states that their master never dies, only changes form. The pale being is described as being 'tragically lonely' and that this solitude 'eroded his reason,' and led to the master's 'fatal flaw' turning into an all-consuming curse. This flaw is described as a hatred born of resentment towards those who had what he lacked.
Tark believes that Najka has succumbed to this same Ruin and seeks the players assistance in overcoming their stalemate. Tark further relates that, once, there was a 'third being, with powers similar to ours, that took the form of a spider' and disappeared. Tark suspects that the spider was seduced by the same madness that afflicts his wife and master. When we talk to him after killing Freja -- who was possessed by the paledrake -- he thanks us for killing his master but laments that he will inevitably return.
Now, the wording of item descriptions and interpretation of dialogue is a big part of the lore game, so let's really try to figure out what's going on as best we can.
Tark, Najka, and Freja were all created artificially, and not as a result of the Chaos Flame. Najka and Freja are both sorcerers and both possessed by the same madness that Ruined Seath and Logan. If we learn how to speak monster and speak to Tark he asks us to kill his wife in a way not unlike Quelana's request for us to kill her mother.
The same stories. Over and over and over.
Seath is credited as being the Typhoid Mary of Ruin but Typhoid Mary didn't invent Typhoid and was, in fact, trying to help prevent its spread. I'm not trying to humanize Seath that much but I would like to raise the possibility that Seath may not be the source of the curse of the paledrake.
The Old Moonlight Greatsword spell in the third game seems to spell out, well, first that if you liked Dark Souls you should check out From's back catalogue but secondly that Seath maybe wasn't the original wielder of the Moonlight Greatsword and that the entity that did possibly predated Seath and induced his madness.
Seath's madness is twofold: first his lack of corporeal immortality, second his inability to breed naturally. Again, not trying to portray him as sympathetic or be like 'aww see the fascist woman hater really just has a big sad :( " like no, fuck Seath fuck Logan they are Bad Guys inasmuch as that title means anything. But it does seem to outline the mechanics behind his apparently contradictory madness of abducting and experimenting on young mortal women while also being the 'father' of at least one and almost definitely two young mortal women. Shira may not be mortal but you get the idea.
ANYWAY, jesus christ, this is the point where I segue to Flame Weapon, the spell we can craft from the Old Witch's soul. Pyromancy and sorcery share a common origin. The fire arts and the soul arts share a single, common art somewhere in the Soulsverse's pre-history. And, by inference, they share a single, common artist.
A lot of theorizing has been done around the idea that witches, at least some of them, are daughters of Izalith untouched by Chaos. This list usually includes characters like Velka, Caitha, Zullie, and Beatrice. I think this may be what's going on, but this post is long enough without dragging them into it. I just want to point it out as possible evidence that daughters, or Daughters, of Izalith can (or at one point had the option to,) choose between or possibly use sorcery and pyromancy. This would seem to indicate that Queen Izalith is not just Mother of Life and Queen of Birth and High Goddess of Fire but also The Source. Or at least the one who worked out how to channel The Source and raised her children accordingly.
So, knowing all this, what can we possibly infer about Najka, Tark, and Freja?
Before they became what they are we can maybe infer that the trio existed as 6 distinct entities: a two-tailed scorpion, a, well, let's be more specific, Tark resembles a whip scorpion or vinegaroon, Freja and her brood resemble harvestmen. The two humans involved in the experiment would have been a paladin or sentinel of some description (Based on his weapon of choice), and a sorceress who may not have always used sorcery exclusively.
Let's assume the bugs were sentient, at least to a greater degree than normal conjoined spiders and two-tailed tarantulas, which I hope is not very. Let's also assume that they also had the potential to bond with a hollow/mortal/undead/god?/giant? in a way not unlike Venom from the spider man comics only, well, Sekiro exists now, tha'ts what's going on. I hope that 'Izalithians are bugs that like to bond with human hosts' thing, at least, is evident by this point.
Look, let me back up.
The Chaos Servants exist, publicly, to guard the Demon Ruins and Izalith and secretly to take over Undead Burg and even more secretly to funnel humanity to Fair Lady. Presumably this had something to do with the spider half's, uh, prolific egg-laying abilities.
Right, so Quelana, mother of mosquitos and onebro clubists, spent her long life taking the raw-ish Chaos we see on display with the Molten Giant and rendering it down to Fireball, then back up to Great Fireball.
Should a mortal shell manage to master Great Fireball they're ready to learn more primal arts, like Fire Tempest and Chaos Fireball.
It's back-to-front, but there's an evolution going on with Quelana's magic system. Not that it's exclusively Quelana's, there's plenty of evidence to suggest convergent evolution happens with Chaos. Further, there's a case to be made that Chaos has been 'invented' more than once.
Quelana's history happened. Her children evolved. So did Quelaag and the Fair Ladys. The Taurus and Capra demons look blended in a way that older demons -- Q & FL, The Worm (plural), Ceaseless -- do not. The zodiac demons look like the kind of super soldiers you'd engineer in a science fiction movie if given given mad genetic science, a rat, a bull, and a human. A particularly nice touch is how the extra limbs have been shortened down to bone plating on the shoulders. \
Sanctuary Guardian, our only example of probably-pre-Chaos demon-craft still looks like four different animals stitched together. then we have the Demon Princes, who were probably born shortly after Chaos and look much more chaotic and monstrous, and these are eventually refined by the Servants down to the much more cohesive Tauruses and Capras.
So I've made the case how middle-aged-ish Aldia could have been mentored (or pillaged knowledge from) a legit Princess of Chaos in either the Lost Sinner or the Scorpioness of Oolacile or the Archivist or even just by studying Vendrick's accounts of the Chaos Servants and experimenting with the Life aspect of Vendrick's pillaged Great Soul that would eventually find its way to the Lost Sinner.
Aldia was in the grip of Ruin by this point, Tark makes this pretty clear. When Aldia murdered Tseldora and retired to his manor Freja broke out of her cage and made her way to the Dragon Temple and began laying eggs/ guarding the Ruin (she's described as the Writhing Ruin's Keeper. This would seem to imply that the Ruin was, maybe in some sense, imprisoned by Aldia with Freja acting as a guard. Possibly also Aldia figured out a way to transfer the Ruin from himself to the spider. Doesn't really matter I suppose this isn't a Seath post. Point is Tark associates both Duke Tseldora and Freja with Ornifex's Pale Beast.
Point is is it was mad obsession with something unobtainable that led to Aldia demonizing Tark, Najka, and Freja (and probably the Lion Knights once he got the hang of it). Freja falls victim to the Ruin (or is focused on makin babies), while Najka seems to succumb to an unrelated madness, despite Najka being a moonlight sorceress.
I can't make sense of her spear. Clearly it's curved to evoke a scorpion's tail but is it also a shepherd's crook? There's obvious symbolism there if so, but the only connections to sheep I've found are the ram's skulls found in Tseldora and Aldia's Keep, which is not nothing but also not enough to tell more of the story, at least at this point.
The Ant Queen
Believe it or not the Ant Queen potentially makes an appearance in official Dark Souls media. I forget which one but one of the anthology series features a story about a demoness that looks like Quelaag or Najka only an ant that uses moonlight sorcery and petrification-based attacks.
Her children like bonding with mushrooms in particular and appear to be divided into Elana and Mytha factions based on whether they use poison or corrosion-based attacks, although the factioning may be more related to environment.
Alonne may serve the Ant Queen. Alternately he may have beheaded her.
The ant queen may have a sister, or half of a sister, in the Gutter. She seems happy.
Lady of Leydia
The Leydia priestess are obviously pyromancers with a direct direct connection to Izalith in the form of their helix staves. The Izalith Catalyst definitely dates to Pre-Chaos and are possibly Pre-Fire. This would seem to imply that whoever founded their order was in all likelihood a pre-Chaos flame artist. We don't know who the original artist was, but candidates include Lost Sinner, Galib, Pre-Scorpioness Najka, and Darklurker's 'female' half.
[glares]
Alright.
