#ds1 lore

[a2zillustration]

Not sure if I just missed it, but why is their name Croissant?❤️

Me playing BG3 reason: I always name my characters silly things, and I had no idea people would enjoy them this much.

In-canon reason: Because of their fey ancestry, they felt uncomfortable using their given name, even a nickname, around people outside their closest family and friends. They settled on Croissant because they really like the pastries and liked how the word sounds.

(This panel is from the comic where Croissant tells Gale their true name!)

[go-go-devil]

The Everlasting Dragon In Ash Lake Was Once A Human Being

Yes, really.

Look, there are a LOT of theories about pretty much every character in the original Dark Souls, as was the intention of this game, but in my humble opinion one of the most mysterious and compelling characters of all is the Everlasting Dragon of Ash Lake. The last survivor of the war against the archdragons, hidden away in a small pocket of how the world once was and recruiting undead to evolve into dragons themselves. A very compelling creature to be sure!

However, the more I've looked into both the design and odd quirks of this dragon, the more I've come to the conclusion that this beast is not a "descendant" of the Ancients in the traditional sense...

First, let's take a look at the model and compare it to the few good shots we get of the archdragons in the intro cutscene. Screenshots of Everlasting Dragon close-ups & unused animations were taken from this video by youtuber Crest:

That is quite an odd look compared to those of the ones that came before it! Its eyes are pitch black and appear more forward facing (if the archdragons even have eyes to compare it to, I can't see them at all in these shots!). More notable, however, is that its body is coated in a thick layer of fur that the archdragons notably lack. The two pairs of wings are definitely an exact match, but there are already enough differences to at least raise an eyebrow.

But I expected many of you have already guessed this isn't an actual archdragon. The description of the dragon greatsword you get from cutting off its tail plainly states that it is a "descendant of the ancient dragons," NOT the last of its kind. Seath, Kalameet, and the Gaping Dragon are close descendants too and they also look radically different from the Ancients. What point am I making with this observation?

Here's my point. Study the model again, especially its legs:

And now check out at one of its unused poses:

This dragon isn't sitting down like any tetrapod animal would; its hind legs are crossed in a meditating position. The unused pose goes even further in showing off how unnaturally human-like the dragon appears, but that's not all! My next piece of evidence lies in its claws, or should I say, "hands."

Those are four fingers and a thumb, all in the EXACT shape of a human hand!

To better show just how bizarre this is for a dragon to have, let's compare this to Seath and Kalameet's own hands/paws:

Just like all the wyverns, these closest descendants of the Ancients are tetradactyl. They lack the fifth digit that the everlasting dragon has, showing even more just how unnatural this is for a dragon to possess. This design detail remains consistent within the entire series, as the two other major descendants we see in the sequels, Sinh and Midir, also possess only four-digit toes.

I should note that the Gaping Dragon is also unique in that it possesses five digits on its two hind legs and six digits on its front paws, but those lack the human fingers & toes resemblance and instead appear much more like lizard feet.

And all of this isn't even the CRUX of my theory!

I want you all to remember when you first encountered the dragon at the very end of Ash Lake. Wasn't it a bit strange that the bonfire in front of it was already lit and filled your estus flask up to ten?

The only other bonfires in the world which are already kindled by the time you reach them are ones tended to by firekeepers, and all firekeepers are tied closely to humanity (yes, even the Fair Lady, since demons have also been shown to possess humanity + she too has a firekeeper's soul).

Now the picture is complete! At some point in the past a human, specifically a firekeeper, had found her way into the depths of Ash Lake and by means still unknown to us managed to transcend her human form and become the (near) perfect image of an Everlasting Dragon!

It makes sense why this dragon isn't hostile to us, but it more so explains why the Dragon Covenant even exists in the first place. The Undead, like the archdragons and their closest descendants, are functionally immortal beings in their cursed state. It's the very reason why Seath the Scaleless became so obsessed with studying them. The way I see it, the Everlasting One and the dragon apostles who discovered her/it see their undead state not as a "curse," but instead as a means of evolving into a superior form free of all pain and suffering.

The dragon being a firekeeper also makes sense thematically with how its covenant works. Much like how we give the souls of deceased firekeepers to a living one in order to strengthen our estus flask, the Everlasting Dragon needs us to bring dragon scales taken from deceased dragons and/or dragon relatives in order to strengthen our form as a dragonoid. In a sense, the dragon head and torso stones given to us are as much the soul of the once-human firekeeper as estus.

In conclusion, never underestimate a scalie's determination! 🐲

[katyspersonal]

I realized something bittersweet about Filianore just now...

There are four flowers on Gwyn's tomb, and it honestly makes a lot of sense if each is from one of his four children! But Filianore is absent in the Ringed City, waiting for her dad to come pick her up, right?

...unless, she isn't! There was a delegation from Oolacile in the Ringed City at some point! Gwyndolin very much ruled Oolacile somewhere after Manus was buried deep under it and prior to its downfall. Their light magic, that also animates their stone guardians, is given by him, there are plenty of statues of him in Oolacile but holding a branch catalyst instead of his normal one, all that! So, what if Gwyndolin, very reasonably, sent what was basically his people, to inform his sister that Gwyn died? This is not the information you want to withhold from a family member!

So what if Filianore learned that father was never coming back, but she still chose to forever do what he would have wanted of her? ;-;

Everyone (except for Halflight) left back in Lordran anyways, passing as much as a flower to join other three is definitely something they could do, too

[navlaanchair]

i saw your character ask, could you please do lord gwyn?

IT'S MY TIME TO SHINE!!!

favorite thing about them: i love gwyn so much, honestly my favorite thing about him is how well-portrayed his paranoia is in the lore. the fact he sacrificed himself for fear that his whole kingdom would've hollowed is just hdcjdiwkr

least favorite thing about them: i don't think i have one...

favorite line: he doesn't have any but i sure love this desc about him: "For the pygmies, who took the dark soul, the Great Lord gifted the Ringed City, an isolated place at world's end, and his beloved youngest daughter, promising her that he would come for her when the day came."

brOTP: Gwyn and Lloyd! jealous uncle waiting for his nephew's downfall...

OTP: GWYN X VELKA MY BELOVEDS

nOTP: Gwyn x Gwyndolin, ew.

random headcanon: he had a soft spot for his wife.

unpopular opinion: he is not as evil as the fandom portrays him.

song i associate with them: Just | Radiohead

favorite picture of them: this one by @lowstrear67:

[alberichfanpage]

Roll credits

[knightscanfeeltoo]

A Disturbing Theory That I came up with about the Slime Monsters from Dark Souls 1...

(Dark Souls is F*cked...)

[sausage-rolll]

“You need to spend dozens of hours reading item descriptions and watching lore videos to understand the story of fromsoft games” factoid actually just statistical error. Lore hunter Georg, who spends upwards of hundreds of hours analysing the story and lore of these games and cross referencing interpretations of the plot is an outlier and should not have been counted.

[hollowwaterfairy]

I think about this a lot

the usage of different types of english in elden ring

most human/tarnished NPCs we meet, like rogier, ansbach, and nepheli, use late modern english:

"a sorcerer, as you might have guessed. i'm looking for a little something, here in the castle. when i'm not hotfooting it from the troops, that is." - rogier, first meeting "general radahn. a pleasure to see you, after all this time. but those remains do not belong to you." - ansbach, upon summon for PCR

but older demigods like messmer, ranni, and morgott use early modern english:

"thou'rt tarnished, it seemeth. mother, wouldst thou truly lordship sanction, in one so bereft of light? yet… my purpose standeth unchanged." - messmer, pre-battle cutscene "thou needst not indulge them unduly, but they too wish to appraise thy worth. it hath been a passing long time since a newcomer entered my service, after all." - ranni, after agreeing to serve her

then there are the younger demigods, like miquella, malenia, and potentially melina, who use a later variant of modern english, similar to the tarnished NPCs we speak to:

"if we honour our part of the vow, promise me you'll be my consort. i'll make the world a gentler place." - miquella, post-PCR cutscene "the scarlet bloom flowers once more. you will witness true horror. now, rot!" - malenia, phase 2 transition cutscene

finally, the hornsent NPCs like the hornsent, hornsent grandam, and the hornsent spirits such as the one outside the whipping hut, who use late middle english similar to the english found in shakespeare's sonnets:

"fie, another? ... then, as that woman would surely say, we are in our purposes well aligned. but understand. your kind are not forgiven. the erdtree is my people's enemy. by marika long betray'd, set aflame." - hornsent, first meeting "all your resentment lingers yet... the raw stuff from which i shall surely forge a curse. upon the dastard messmer's head. upon marika's children each and all." - scorched ruins hornsent spirit

i find it interesting how different the usage of english is in the game, and i feel that it can be a hint on how to properly date an individual's occupation in the lands between/land of shadow. the hornsent, being a people much older than many in the lands between, use the most archaic version of english, while the tarnished and younger demigods use a form of english more closely related to our own in the current period. older demigods (and marika herself, as heard from melina's recounts of marika's spoken echoes) use a form of english more closely related to the period of transition from middle english to early modern english.

additionally, another interesting thing to me: mohg is almost certainly nearly the same age as morgott (since they're referred to as twins), yet he speaks a little differently compared to morgott:

"tarnished, thou'rt but a fool." - morgott, post-battle dialogue "dearest miquella. you must abide alone a while." - mohg, pre-battle cutscene

this makes me wonder if it's possible that, assuming that miquella's verbiage is indicative of his younger age in comparison to the older demigods (aka the demigods born before the marika/radagon union), miquella's charm altered mohg's perception enough to also alter his manner of speaking and carrying himself in some way. if his pursuit of finery (dressing in embroidered robes and handling himself with poise, juxtaposing his bestial growls and strength) was mainly done in an effort to fit into miquella's ideal of a consort. of course, mohg could just be as vain as he seems to be all on his own accord, but i find that it's interesting to entertain the idea that even his current state of being was due to miquella's charm.

i'd love to hear what others think about this. i'm not very learned when it comes to english (it's not really my first language), but i find this all very cool to think about.

[freshcut-chetney]

I've rewatched the Death Stranding 2 release trailer about 8 times now and feeling a particular brand of unhinged on this Thursday afternoon

[qeiciqe]

my fandom posts will be unfathomably countless once i tackle that huge exam I'll have in june to get into the uni i want... just you all wait...

[irithylldancer]

.

[choccy-milky]

☼ seb & clora x elden ring ☼

SUPER self-indulgent thing i had to draw once i got the idea, bc i love FromSoftware and all their games (...& also bc i will never get tired of drawing clora like an ethereal lightbulb LOL 🔆) ↓ extra doodles and a lot of yapping below❗ ↓ (& elden ring DLC final boss spoilers)

their boss mechanics bc im a nerd LMAO🥰

if you target clora and kill her before seb, seb will be inflicted with madness/frenzy, and his stats will be raised for the remainder of the fight

with clora dead, seb will stop using holy/slash damage, and will instead use occult, madness/frenzied flame, and his own blood to inflict bleed damage

killing clora first makes the fight wayy harder, but also reaps much better rewards/a unique item (like the ornstein and smough boss fight in DS1)

if you kill seb first and don't finish off clora quickly enough, she'll just keep reviving him over and over (like the twin princes fight in DS3)

when you get seb down to like 10% health, he'll stop going on the offensive and will instead do everything he can to protect clora (while being visibly beaten up & limping😭kinda like sif in DS1)

this is the boss i re-skinned them as (promised consort radahn) bc i love this design...and even the lore makes sense bc the big guy (radahn) was brought back to life to serve miquella and fight for him (kinda like my seb and his horcrux👀) i also considered giving clora a halo similar to miquella's (but in the design of her hairclip) except i scrapped that bc i thought it looked weird LOL. i still like the idea tho so...just pretend its there LMAO🙂‍↕️🙏 ok im done 🗣️

[sexhaver]

the common understanding of Dark Souls lore is that there's supposed to be a natural cycle alternating between the Age of Fire (gods) and the Age of Dark (men), but Gwyn didn't listen when mom said it was humanity's turn to use the controller and has been selfishly clinging onto the gods' power by prolonging the Age of Fire long past when it should have ended. this reading holds that the "good" ending of DS3 is the one where you simply let the fire die out. this explicitly does not bring about a permanent Age of Dark, and an Age of Fire will almost certainly rise again in the future; the Firekeeper straight up tells you as much:

my spiciest lore take is that this was never meant to be a cycle. the Age of Fire was meant to end and be done forever, followed by the Age of Dark. doing anything other than ending the Age of Fire forever is still "resisting the course of nature". the Usurpation of Fire ending to DS3, then, is the only one that actually restores the natural order of things.

if you set aside the ubiquitous fan theory that the Ages of Fire and Dark are supposed to alternate, there's nothing in the lore itself to support the idea that that's how things were supposed to be. as best boy Kaathe so helpfully loredumps in DS1:

so right off the bat we have a shocking revelation: Gwyn didn't just prolong the Age of Fire, he actively reversed the Age of Dark. and THIS is what Kaathe refers to as "resisting the course of nature", THIS is the titular "first sin" from DS2. this also explains why Gwyn was so scared of the Age of Dark and humanity in general. if, as the DS3 Firekeeper suggests, Lords of Cinder can persist through an Age of Dark and presumably give rise to another Age of Fire (and the Untended Graves are evidence that this has already happened at least once), and Gwyn became the first Lord of Cinder by kindling the First Flame, then the only logical conclusion is that, had Gwyn not linked the Flame, there would be no Lords of Cinder and therefore no way for an Age of Fire to reignite. Gwyn wasn't just being selfish and refusing to give humanity their own age because he didn't want to wait through it. Gwyn was afraid of his Age, and all that he built, dying forever.

going by this reading, the only ending to DS3 that actually "restores the natural order" is the Usurpation of Fire. you claim all of the power of the First Flame, denying the possibility of any Lords reigniting it in the future, and rise as the Lord of Man/Hollows. the Age of Fire is permanently over and will never rise again, as it always should have been from the start.

this raises an obvious question and also leads to an obvious counterargument against Usurpation being the "best" ending: what age comes after the Age of Dark if not the Age of Fire, and what is stopping this new Lord of Man from following the same path as Gwyn and resisting the end of their own age in defiance of the natural order? luckily, we already have a definitive answer to both of these questions from someone who can literally see the future:

Aldrich saw the coming Age of Deep Sea, beyond even the Age of Dark, and ate the fucking gods themselves to hasten the permanent end of the Age(s) of Fire. so the intended natural chronology of the world is supposed to be Age of Ancients -> Age of Dark -> [anywhere from 0 to potentially infinite intermediate Ages] -> Age of Deep Sea -> ???. thank you for attending my TED Talk, i will not be taking questions at this time

[ludens4030]

some things from the trailer remind me of unused or early concepts from the death stranding 1 artbook. here's some of them and my thoughts! okay to reblog & expand ideas!

so lou after dying becomes a 'beached thing' or at least we're expected to 'think' she is the thing in the pod now or something. pods already spoke to the odradek so perhaps no longer being part of both worlds and solely on the beach she loses her 'baby' shape.

in the artbook we have fragiles duffle bag for equipment. we know she carries a bb in this eventually because she brings back higgs doll in ds1 to show sam. its interesting that neil appears to have an amelie bb in pre stranding if we are not being mislead, much like cliff had once and also i think neil will be cliffs commander or something similar due to the oddness of the same soldiers, etc. now, i think this is a curious connection and i just wanted to put it out there. perhaps like amelie x higgs and the 'madness' this bb x neil is seemingly 'disturbing him' as he shakes his head oddly. also his soldiers have a sort of ludens-esque 'skull face', much like higgs golden face mask later.

Higgs does harken back to his original design which i hope is shifted forward to help fit the 'out of ' order timeline/plot were sort of seeing. so perhaps him and lou on the beach or just in general a baby. It seems to be more in line with his white make up face. You can also see in the top left initial design he appears to have longer blong hair, maybe bangs? and has had a neck lace of sorts since the beginning of 'his concept'.

i'm thrilled to see them going back to their more original designs. they spoke about how in ds1 they needed them to be less fleshed out to make them more scary. now that people have seen ds1 they can go more in depth and flesh them out as bts are more background to plot now. the top right resembles what we say young tarman seeming to view?

we saw a 1 to 1 of this from mama's concept bb mobile in the art book in the ds2 trailer.

still mother original concept art vs mothers what appears a similar lighting situation. and a young sam maybe bridges i looking at a blanketed body but no pregnancy i dont think. i actually think this could be higgs somehow or someone similar that we know but dont realize. it looks very coffin like.

these i think are important. they were supposed to be the last cut scene of the game but they didn't use it. you have a bb 'as the world', bridget, a melie esque one, and then a sickly/stillmother nursing gown. but they are also very higgs esque and now tomorrow esque with the chiral tears and face paint.

while i am so pro dad! higgs or him raising her on the beach if it's lou, i am also keen on her coming into her powers like he did, suddenly and without much control. in the game he is called king midas and said to have a golden death mask . tomorrow comes out of the 'egg' with a gold facemask of sorts, and the matching make up. i also know the king midas lore includes him having a daughter that he cannot touch/kills with his golden touch and then ofc the one where king midas starves to death because he can't eat, everything is gold when he bites it....

[knightscanfeeltoo]

I could Not Care any less about how Dark Souls should Win the Oscar Game Awards Thing when I just want More Fan Arts of Oscar of Astora...

(Just Me????)

[demilypyro]

Your streams and posts have inspired me to play through dark souls 3 again! Anyway whats your ranking of all the level up maidens in the souls games. Counting melina too of course

The Unnamed Firekeeper (Dark Souls 3)

Melina (Elden Ring)

The Emerald Herald/Shanalotte (Dark Souls 2)

The Firekeeper/Anastacia of Astora (Dark Souls 1)

Irina of Carim (Dark Souls 3)

The Doll (Bloodborne)

The Maiden in Black (Demon's Souls)

The DS3 Firekeeper wins mostly because she's very charming and she has a small amount of agency in the plot. If you give her the Firekeeper's Eyes from the hidden Untended Graves area, she becomes open to the idea of betraying her religion (epic) and snuffing out the fire entirely, and I'm always down to blaspheme with my wife. Having a firekeeper be materially relevant to one of the endings is a lot of fun, and I'm always happy to go back Firelink and see her again. I love emoting near her.

I quite like Melina. I'm pretty sure she has some of the most dialogue of any level-up girl in the series, and she has some actual agency in the plot. Unfortunately, most of that dialogue is just lore dumping, and you never really get a sense of what her deal is. She's one of few characters in Elden Ring I never fully figured out the lore of? She's Marika's daughter, I think? And she wants to do... stuff? For reasons? And unlike best girl Ranni, she never really has a cute, disarming moment where the mask slips and she's really straight with you. I dunno she's good but she could've been better.

Shanalotte from DS2 is somewhat similar to Melina, in that she has a goal of her own that she manipulates the player into completing. However this twist is pretty out of nowhere and is ultimately pretty inconsequential, because what she wants you to do is... kill bosses? And killing bosses was always the goal anyway so it's not like we weren't gonna do that without her tricking us into it. I dunno, she cute.

Whether the Firekeeper from DS1 even counts for this list is debatable, since you can level up at any bonfire, and there's even multiple firekeepers. But when she dies you can't level up at Firelink Shrine anymore, so I guess that sort of counts? Idk. She's alright. I always let her die but then go kill Lautrec and give her soul back so she can speak. She's very adorable.

Irina really is just here on a technicality. Her ability to level you up is more like an easter egg reward for getting the good ending to her questline. She's mostly just a miracle trainer. I like her though so she goes on the list. It's my house.

The Doll from Bloodborne is decently charming but there's really nothing going on behind the eyes with her. While she questions if her feelings for you are genuine or artificial, nothing ever really comes of this one way or the other, so she falls kind of flat for me. She does win some points for responding to emotes though. Idk Maria better.

Finally you can tell the Maiden in Black is sort of the prototype for all the level-up ladies to follow. A lady, chained to the hub area by duty, who can't see and has bare feet? Miyazaki really showed his whole ass right from the get-go. There's really not that much to her beyond that though. She alright.