#and statue behind memory altar depends on whether you think they used a real person-

[katyspersonal]

Rom might not even exist as an individual character!

In Japanese, she is Roma! Countries such as Poland have a female name like this, but also it is written in the exact same way as a word to refer to Romani. Rom is also fought multiple times - in the lake, in a preset dungeon, and in randomized dungeons! I myself pass it as Rom being immortal and having physical and astral body split (like Queen Yharnam). But... as a BOSS she is like Amygdalas - a type of Great One, not a singular.

Miyazaki also could have referred to the specific spider in the lake as she, so it is A she, not THE she. Byrgenwerth notes just say 'Byrgenwerth spider' never mentioning her name - so what if Rom is NOT a name? Corpse Ebrietas is crying over? Could have been a priest that used to care for her (since Ebby is said to be abandoned Great One). Or maybe it was once her mother since Ebrietas is adolescent celestial larvae (Arianna's baby type). And Rom being a scholar in Byrgenwerth is not canon, it is just what everyone assumed based on her location!

The title of this boss is also strange one, and ironically one shifting more onto 'an individual' theory. Localization chose word 'vacuous' but original word, 'hakuchi', literally means 'mentally disabled'. Think of being called idiotic spider but as a legit "diagnosis" and not an insult. So, Micolash saying 'as you once did to the vacuous Rom' might mean that Kos blessed the ancient folks rather than one person. Yeah, this IS where things get a plot hole, because even under assumption of there being *intellectually inferior folks within the lore - the last time I checked, Romani were nothing of sorts gfjghfj No, but seriously. If that was the case, they'd made up a name for folks. However, it might be that not people were 'idiotic', but their spider ascension specifically! That knowing literally everything creates some strange sort of nirvana that is as good as losing intellect - you don't need it anymore if you learned everything, haha. And for Micolash such fate is apparently desirable... Would make sense for a madman. The boss is called 'hakuchi no kumo Roma' in Japanese with kumo being spider. So yeah, again, localization made it sound like a single person, but in original? Spider might be used as adjective for a type of a Great One.

The one, ONE thing that can't be questioned is, again, consistency of being off-brand. They never say Chikage originates from or Yamamura comes from Japan - they say "distant land". Same with first Hunters of Hunters originating from Tibet-coded place that is also just a foreign land. So why would they break the mystery and use real word all of a sudden? Would be more likely if they made up a name for people and subtly coded them as Romani. They use real individual names but don't use names of real places, people and alike, they just... don't.

So yeah, all in all, existence of Rom is in fact held on an extremely weak glue. The only thing we REALLY have is consistency of how things are referred in Souls settings, so assuming she just has female middle European name (like 90% of the characters) might me more palatable. Or she is named that for a Haha Funny because Willem is just like a pope... so he is with 'Rome'... xD I mean, Rosaria from Dark Souls is named Rosaria :facepalm: And Willem WAS going to be 'husk of Micolash' in development, whereas Micolash WAS going to be leader of the Church... But that is still debatable.

I just think this is another moment to appreciate how much cool stuff fandom can do based on a hasty assumption and make a character that might not even exist! Reminds me of all cool stuff that happened when Undertale fandom just assumed that Mysterious Man sprite WAS W. D. Gaster. Situation where not thinking about lore enough actually turned out to be good!