#human seath

[pkbth]

Hold him like a princess 👀

#fromsoftware #havel the rock #seath the scaleless #human seath #dark souls

[cerastes]

so Drimo for those of us who do not know what is the Armored Core series about [leaves out convenient soapbox for no reason]

If you asked a room of 100 people nowadays, "do you guys know FromSoftware?", the majority of them would stand up and answer, "oh, yeah! The guys that made Dark Souls, right?" You would hear about people wondering when Bloodborne will be ported to PC, or when it will get a sequel. You would hear lamentation for the lack of Sekiro DLC. You would hear praise and anticipation for Elden Ring DLC.

If you were in 2008 and asked a room of 100 people, "do you guys know FromSoftware?", maybe 4 would stand up and say "Oh, the guys that make Armored Core, right? My cousin had it, it looked ok."

The truth of the matter is, FromSoft was a niche studio before Demon's Souls planted a seed and it grew into the massive tree we know as Dark Souls, and its countless branches lush with beautiful flowers, like Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring. It even inspired nearby trees, all beautiful in their own right! Trees like Code Vein, Nioh, and others.

But I'm not here to talk about fucking trees and their god damn branches.

I'm here to talk about the sterile wasteland, the wilderness of fallen angels, where the ocean meets the sand. I'm here to talk about pre-Soulsborne FromSoft, when FromSoftware was an unknown, niche, small video game developer barely hanging on to relevancy. They had games like King's Field. They had games like Shadow Tower. They had games like Armored Core. Hell, all of these games still live on in Soulsborne! Did you know? The notorious Mushroom enemies that punch your entire lifebar out from Dark Souls are originally from 1999's Shadow Tower:

Iconic boss fight, Seath the Scaleless from Dark Souls? He's originally from King's Field 2!

The well-loved bald rascal with a penchant for annoying fighting styles and kicking, Patches? Originally from Armored Core! Lucky Patches AKA Patch the Good Luck:

The Moonlight Greatsword? That's originally from King's Field:

Knight Commander Dragonslayer Ornstein? The Bloodborne Reiterpallasch? Armored Core originals, baby:

The truth is, Soulsborne is as dear to old school FromSoft fans such as myself as it is because it carries the past of FromSoft, it carries part of all the old games. The old, niche, unknown FromSoft that we fell in love with lives on in this new, successful, popular FromSoft of nowadays, all without selling out. FromSoft's design philosophy and mission statement has always been to make things that are out there, that aren't generic, that have that slab of esotericism to it, that are inspired and raw and difficult and challenging and oh so rewarding. Soulsborne wasn't a surprise hit. Soulsborne exists built on a foundation of trial and error that carries in its DNA years upon years upon years of difficult, niche titles. I've not even mentioned all the Tenchu references that Sekiro has! How the Powderkeg weapons from Bloodborne are mostly Armored Core weapons scaled down to human size, such as the iconic Stake Driver being the mighty Kiku from Armored Core!

Armored Core was the biggest franchise FromSoft had prior to Soulsborne. The biggest. And it wasn't too big, to be honest. A rather niche, unknown game franchise with numerous titles that did just well enough to justify sequels, with strong cult followings, Armored Core is all about that mecha high octane action, right? Well, it's 50% about that mecha high octane action! Your average Armored Core is a high intensity, breakneck fast game full of machine guns, laser swords and huge explosions when you're in the field, but in order to be able to do that, you must construct your machine, your Armored Core, piece by piece. Not just the chest core or the head piece or the arms, we're taking about generator, radiator, targeting system, thrusters, subsystems, all of that! And each given piece has a stat screen that looks like this:

This is a single laser rifle's stat screen. Every piece has about this many numbers to it. As you can imagine, it wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but for those that took the time to understand it? That familiarized themselves with the game well enough to just be able to look at a piece and understand what it did and roughly how well it performed? Oh, this was to die for. The amount of unique builds, of mechs that were your very own, unique creation, catering to your own specific tastes, was basically infinite. You could make your own dream gameplay machine, that operated in exactly the way you wanted it to. 50% of the time, you were in your garage, tinkering, mixing and matching different parts to improve your Armored Core more and more, to make it better, comfier, stronger, cooler.

Do you know what was influential in Dark Souls' success? And I say this with all the love in my heart, as a massive Dark Souls fan: It was simplification. Dark Souls is a different beast in many regards, of course, compared to Armored Core, but what Dark Souls did was simplify the Armored Core formula, in both comparative gameplay execution and building, and focused on other aspects, like making incredibly cool unique enemies, polished combat, great enemy placement, the works. But end of the day, Dark Souls is a simplified Armored Core. You're not boosting around and firing laser weapons in Dark Souls, but the fundamentals are all there: Tempo based fighting, with intensifying speed, lots of numbers to play with in order to optimize your character to your preference and needs, and the flexibility to switch around builds to certain degrees, more so in the mid game and late game. Hell, the ever-present "little plain white number above the enemy that shows you how much damage you did recently" and how Poise works in Dark Souls are both originally Armored Core things. Most every Armored Core veteran that I know, myself included, that played Dark Souls just felt it click naturally after a bit. Because it's an extension of Armored Core (and King's Field/Shadow Tower).

Armored Core, since its inception, has been about being a mercenary in a callous world where companies that are as powerful as countries, plural, wage in economic war with each other. Rarely has there ever been a good guy in Armored Core, it's the pristine FromSoft absolutely horrid and doomed world narrative that they love so much. You can even go into debt! Your rewards at the end of any mission are affected by how much ammo you consumed and how banged up your AC got, you have to foot the bill for repairs and ammo (unless your client specifically states that they'll cover it for you), and if you don't perform too well and end up going into sufficiently big debt? Why, you forcibly get put into the Human-PLUS program to offset your debt, which actually makes your stronger, since it gives you the ability to ignore Total Weight restrictions and gives you infinite energy! At the cost of, you know, your humanity. At that point, you're literally just a corporate drone with more machine than brain in the nogging. It's a fancy Easy Mode toggle, so to speak, that comes with lore. This game is from 1997. Even from back then, they were making stuff like this. The setting of Armored Core is ruthless, cruel, and brutal... And yet, beautiful, the little things, they are there. But I won't tell you about them. You have to find them yourself. The beautiful things only have value if you find them in a horrid world by your own merit.

This is true for Armored Core, and this is true for Dark Souls.

Armored Core, on a personal level, is what I grew up with, what inspired me as a child, the kind of storytelling that gives you a few explicit morsels, and the rest, figure it out yourself. Armored Core is basically what came before Dark Souls. I consider Soulsborne sequels to Armored Core. They are so very alike.

Brutal gameplay, challenging management, ruthless storytelling... It's heaven.

Armored Core is a series of a gaming era long gone. Armored Core is the opposite of "cinematic experience" games. Armored Core is brutal, it wants to test you, it grants you no quarter, but it wants you to succeed. Armored Core wants you to master its management systems and its high speed combat. Armored Core wants you to be a sharper, better you.

Armored Core is a video game series about giant robots blowing each other to bits.

Armored Core is both a test and teacher, and it wants you to win. It wants you to become the you that can beat it.

Armored Core loves you. Armored Core will do all in its power to prevent you from winning. Armored Core knows you can win, which is why it tries so hard.

Armored Core is a good video game.

#zeravmain #armored core #dark souls #fromsoft

[beesmygod]

Gwyn and the Pale King both suck but PK feels particularly hands-on about it. Gwyn's solution to his kingdom's stagnation was to immediately immolate himself and have Frampt fool suckers into doing the same thing later, forever. The Pale King didn't HAVE any usable suckers, so he went and fucked a mushroom to make a billion soulless goo babies to use. Except aw shit, turns out they DO have souls and aw shit, he loved the best candidate as a son and fucked it all up. Oh well, get in the egg, son.

im still sort of figuring out third hand what it is the pale king even did (use his kids as vessels for something? whatever. they should get over it its not a big deal) but gwyn is a huge freak if you think about it. its just that i think the DS writing and story-telling is a lot quieter about it and has a better flair for communicating this information without outright telling you. i thought about it and i think i have a good list of weird shit gwyn did (as of DS1):

-killed all the dragons -kicked his son out of historical record for some unspecified family problem -had a weird level of control over gwyndolin -let seath do his weird sex experiments and let him invent the soul arts. again. when are these guys gonna learn to stop inventing soul arts!!! -put priscilla in a painting for being ugly -blocked the power of the dark soul with the darksign because he feared humanity's ability to thrive in the abyss. -artificially extended the age of gods to maintain his unjust reign over his subjects, delaying the age of man and bringing stagnation into the world. -tricked solaire (mean) (not ok)

[katyspersonal]

What are your opinions on our Lord and Savior Gywn?

He didn't save SHIT!! He took the perfectly (?) functioning humanity and ruined it! Look at it, it got Hollowing!!

Okay, I am making the 'Marika is a MILF Gwyn' jokes here and there, but 1) Marika is a bit more of a straight up cold and mean person, all things considered 2) Yet she still has enough nuance, and a lot of her actions might be written on reasonable fears and 3) Gwyn is even MORE nuanced than Marika, from what I have concluded so far! Laurence is a similar kind of sinner too. Comparison of the characters that share a trope is helpful for my thought process, so bear with me a little! With Marika I see a more direct disdain and fear before the very nature of life, cyclic and treacherous, uncontrollable, being meant to perish one day but with new life sprouting from it, and thus doing lovely things like shunning Crucible-related lifeforms. With Laurence, we have enough evidence so far that beasthood was not created by Healing Church but something already lingering in the human code after Pthumerians and Loran, so ambition to seize and control it it was risky but understandable!

But with Gwyn, we are confirmed that human nature itself is dark, undesirable an terrifying, as well as how he sorta had the chance to see it 'in action' during uniting with humans to take war on dragons. And also in Dark Souls the cyclic nature of Ages is just a fact, and it would make sense that should Age of Dark come, he and his family would be the first to go as beings of Light. It is a combination of things: his kind being in true danger and not just "risking to lose power", the treacherourness of how political allyship simply works (your today's ally country against the common enemy could tomorrow ally with someone else to start the war on YOU) and simply the not-so-metaphorical horrors of the Dark itself! is not a speculation, the dangers are RIGHT here!

Gwyn messed the natural order of humanity in a way that I personally dislike and express it on multiple occasions: trying to get rid of what's barbaric and dangerous yet natural and not accepting that there is no light without shadow, or life without death. But I also feel sympathetic because he had a legit reason to fear the darkness within men. In is not as much philosophical but a literal concept in Dark Souls lore. He acted out of fear, backed up with a precedent, and it brought the ruin to himself and everyone else. Writing this I'd say he sorta falls for the type of a person I can only like in fiction but resent in reality. I guess I don't need to explain what kind of people this is, paranoid "but for a valid reason", being "preventive" with their drastic measures.. Good intentions path to hell self-fulfilling prophesy blablabla. His specieism doesn't help his case in the slighest. Ironically, all extremely human behavior of him!

(LOL thank you based Goldmask as usual xddd) At the same time, he is not entirely corrupt with the power he seized and used to strip humanity of what was natural for them; he, in the end, committed to what he believed was better for everyone and sacrificed HIMSELF too. I can respect the cunning and machiavellian person who, in the end, is above the vanity of a 'savior' and can give themselves too, not only others. He also did share his power with some humans, showing that he can take kinda benevolent choices even with those he fears. Yeah, part of calculated risk could be there; dude gave the city and his daughter to the Pygmy to, again, preemptively avoid some animosity. But in the case with the four kings, did he HAVE to? Or Seath for that matter, who is a dragon, another species he doesn't like?

I find it hard to detect 'truly' corrupt people in Soulsborne setting in general, and yeah we can fiddle with 'nuanced character' and 'everyone is morally grey' forever and never discover THE big bad we'd love to hate. But, out of those big bads, I think he deserves the benefit of being seen as a way more nuanced character than the corrupt leader the most! It is the case where he should not have done anything, but also should not have NOT done anything.. Soulsborne is eager with placing characters in a position and knowledge where every choice is wrong and they just pick a poison for themselves (and everyone else xd). Jokes about "haha people in power moment" are still mostly jokes for me. He is sympathetic in a way not like I think I'd have done the same (let's be real, I revel in darkness gfjjghk) but in a way where I understand too much to feel negative 🤔

#though you can NOT take my word since I apologize aldrich and mico lmao #dark souls #dark souls 1 #gwyn lord of cinder #I say all this but after writing all this I feel like liking him more xd #closer examination helps! #also sorry this is not my average infodump essay I just need more time! #i try to cram more DS lore in my brain but it gives me 'STORAGE FULL REMOVE SOME BB/ER LORE' error gghhh #again I just need (more eyes on my brain) time xd #also am I tripping or I had ask about Gael too? #i need to fix my inbox its so broken #but also yes advantage of asking my DS opinions is that they're ACTUAL opinions #and not autism xd #ask replies

[snakeskins-world]

True loves kiss

Requested:no

Word count:5381

Warning:fighting, magic coma

I don't own any characters

The battle raged around the schools, students fought eachother, Good and Evil constantly swapping, none noticing the shaking building. The teachers were stuck in the library, trying to get out, but Sophie locked the door with magic.

"We have to stop this." Dovey said, still trying to unlock the door with her fingerglow

"Good job, none of us knew that." Manley said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. The teachers started bickering between eachother.

Lady Lesso was looking around, she then saw the window was cracked open..she looked to the other teachers, and a small sense of guilt hit her as she looked to them. She got them in this situation, and the school might fall, if she had only told them sooner that she knew Rafal was here.

"I got it." She said before mogrifying into a raven, her cane hit the floor and she flew out the window as a raven. She flew to the headmasters tower, seeing a dove fly there. She got to the window a few seconds later, she landed on the frame and turned back to her human form.

Tedros pinned to the door by magic, Rafal stalking closer to him, his eyes glowing a malevolent, evil, crimson red. He carried a dagger made of bone. Agatha seemed frozen with fear and shocked, Sophie was stuck with magic to the floor. She made her fingerglow work, but it died out. Lady Lesso then flung the excalibur to Agatha. She saw the evil dean, she grabbed the sword and ran at Rafal, he turned to see her just as she made the sword slash him in the chest. Lady Lesso rushed to Sophie, the girl stood up. Rafal flung a spell at her, a last desperate attempt. Lady Lesso shoved Sophie, taking the blast. She felt her body get thrown back, then everything turned black and she fell unconscious.

Sophie spun round, Lady Lesso layed on the floor, her head was bleeding from the crash. Tedros stared in shock, Agatha rushed forward. She looked at the deans unconscious body, feeling a sense of fear was over her.

"Dont be dead, don't be dead, don't be dead." Agatha whispered, pressing her fingers to the deans wrist, she waited a few seconds then sighed in relief. The dean was just unconscious.

"We have to get her back." Tedros said firmly, leaving little to no room for argument, putting the excalibur into his seathe.

"How? We're three teenagers and she's a fully grown adult woman." Sophie said "I won't ruin my dress-"

"Well she just saved your life. Now use your fingerglow." Agatha said to Sophie. Sophie shut up quickly.

Back at the hall, the students were talking, both mixing between good and evil. The teachers got into the hall, then stopped seeing the scene. The students looked to them "Where's Lady Lesso?" Kiko asked

"She..she was with us in the library.." Anemone said, they all look around, silence enveloped the hall, then the doors opened. Sophie entered first, looking sheepish.

"Could we borrow you?" She asked the teachers. "Now, preferably."

The teachers followed her to the headmasters tower, Sophie climbed the steps quickly, the teachers struggling to keep up with her steps, "how is she doing this in heels?" Pollux wheezed, out of breath. They reach the doors, Sophie stopped and turned to them.

"So, just be prepared, we have no idea what's wrong but she won't wake up, we tried spells but nothing working."

The teachers stopped, looking confused ajd concerned.

"Where's Lady Lesso?" Dovey asked hesitantly, not sure if she wanted the answer or not.

Sophie took a breath and opened the doors, then entered. The teachers followed. Agatha and Tedros were stood by the sofa, both with extremely concerned faces

"Even that didn't work? That always works!" Tedros said,

"even Professor Yuba said so!" Agatha agreed

"What's going on?" Princess Uma asked and both students fell silent. Tedros tried to speak, but couldn't find the words, so Agatha just blurted it all out

"We got attacked, Lady Lesso came to save us and Rafal got killed, He tried to shoot Sophie but, Lady Lesso saved her but now she won't wake up!" Agatha said in a quick, worried tone.

"Move it." Castor said, the three students moved, the teachers weren't ready for what they saw.

Lady Lesso layed on the sofa, her face looked peaceful, her clothes were perfect, her hair was splayed out slightly as she layed there, her chest rose and fell slowly, as if she was sleeping.

Dovey walked forward and shook the deans shoulder, Lady Lesso didn't respond, her head fell slightly. Dovey took her wand and tapped the Deans forhead, no reaction.

A pens scribble echoed through the empty room.

They turned to the storian

"What's it writing?" Anemone asked, but Dovey was already there.

Cursed to an eternal slumber, never to awake, much like sleeping beauty, however, she had a prince to awaken her. The dean for evil did not believe in such things, saying love was for fools, now that love is the only thing able to awaken her, to save her from this fate

The teachers froze, looking at the page, the students looked to them

"So she has to be kissed?" Agatha asked, shrugging.

"It has to be true love!" Princess Uma said "Nevers don't have true love though" She said.

The dean for good clenched her fists. Feeling hot tears sting her eyes. She wouldn't allow this, she would find a cure for her friend. She then turned and left the tower, going to make her way to the library. She would save her friend no matter what.

#lady lesso #s.g.e #school for good and evil #leonora x clarissa #clarissa dovey #dovey #dovesso

[heraldofcrow]

MOOOOOOOOOM, I am telling Val that Seath doesn't count with the guys like Aldia, Allant, Aldrich, Shabriri, Micolash and Laurence (idk what this type of a guy is called) because he breaks the pattern of having once been human but he thinks this argument is void because Micolash for one didn't transform into anything else, bro just straight up DIED so he already "breaks the pattern" and that it is the vibe that counts and I just hate dragons :(((( Can you judge us (if you choose the wrong side I will stab you btw <3 )

I will solve this in the only way I know.

By pissing off both sides.

Ehehehemuhahahaahahaa

KATY. Your hatred of dragons is a skill issue. They are BASED creatures and deserve eternal respect. They can BREATHE ARSON and the Dark Souls/Elden Ring dragons are literally some of the best characters in the Soulsborne series.

VAL. You are mistaken. Seath doesn’t fit the type, because he is on a quest for immortality after being denied it by fate and cast out by his fellow immortal dragons.

What these other characters have in common is that they saw the cruel cycle of the world and sought to mend it or escape it through ascension, destruction, and revolution, but they ended up ruining and sacrificing countless lives in the process.

(Laurence is a bit iffy on this one. Yes, he is the guy that ruined everything, but part of the theme with these guys is they succeed in some way with their original goals by escaping or destroying the cycle. Micolash is far more “the guy” for Bloodborne).

So. Who is actually “the guy” for Dark Souls 1?

It’s obviously Gwyn. That’s like…the whole point. He feared the world’s natural cycle and tried to “fix” it, but ended up turning into a hollow husk of his former self and later became an amalgamation of sacrificed souls that had only been sacrificed BECAUSE of the sin he committed by linking the fire. Gwyn is very similar to Allant, except his motivations are fear-based rather than despair-based.

And don’t forget, these guys almost always sacrifice or ruin themselves along with other people. Allant turned into a demon, Gwyn became hollow, Aldia became…a tree lol, Aldrich melted into sludge, Micolash became a nightmare host with a corpse in the real world, and god knows what really happened to Shabriri, but he clearly is formless and has to rely on the flesh of others to commune with others.

Gwyn is closer in temperament to Allant and Aldia, in that he is sympathetic because you understand his desire to be free from some fateful cycle, whereas Mico, Shabriri, and Aldrich come off as very evil by reputation alone, but they are ALL the big fuck-ups of their respective games with enormous kill counts lmao.

And the worst part is, in some ways, they were the victors that left the world permanently scarred.

Now go to bed. Both of you.

#lmaoo #you and val don’t do dash wars so it has to go through me 💀💀 #help #asks #mutuals #lore council #soulsborne #dark souls

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Scorpioness Najka hides a thorny existential question

It's hard not to see Scorpioness Najka as a throwback to Quelaag, both topless raven haired half-woman half-arachnid monster characters, but their stories are essentially opposite.

Najka is sort of implied to be a surviving creation of Seath the Scaleless, who is driven mad by her own monstrous body and eventually reverts to a fully feral state, in which the player finds her. Her companion and partner, Tark, begs you to put her down, a complete reversal of the relationship between Quelaag and the Fair Lady.

And Najka is once again Dark Souls 2 confronting the player with a split identity - Najka was once lucid and mentally human as it were, but has been taken over by her scorpion half. She has been subsumed into her own baser instinct, lost herself - or you could say her self has been transformed by the state of her body. Are people more than their thoughts? Can you separate a mind from the body it occupies? There are some thorny existential questions buried in this fantasy trope.

And design wise, thus, it makes sense that Tark, retaining his faculties, has a much more even size between his scorpion and human body, but Najka, having lost herself, is vastly more scorpion than human. It's basic visual storytelling, but I think it works.

My full analysis of Scorpioness Najka

#tbskyen #dark souls #dark souls 2 #fromsoft #from software #soulsborne #dark souls lore #scorpioness najka #manscorpion tark #Youtube

[hottest-fromsoft-monster]

ROUND 1 BRACKETS (64)

SIDE A

1. Black Blade Kindred (ER)

2. Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella (ER)

XXX

1. Kingseeker Frampt (DS1)

2. Seath the Scaleless (DS1)

XXX

1. Mytha, the Baneful Queen (DS2)

2. Demon of Song (DS2)

XXX

1. Asylum Demon (DS1)

2. Chaos Witch Quelaag (DS1)

XXX

1. Winter Lantern (BB)

2. Crystalian (ER)

XXX

1. Queen Nashandra (DS2)

2. Black Dragon Kalameet (DS1)

XXX

1. Abductor Virgin (ER)

2. Dragonlord Placidusax (ER)

XXX

1. Dragon God (DeS)

2. Astel, Naturalborn of the Void (ER)

XXX

1. Mergo’s Wet Nurse (BB)

2. Aldrich, Devourer of Gods (DS3)

XXX

1. Ancient Dragon (DS2)

2. Old Demon King (DS3)

XXX

1. Capra Demon (DS1)

2. Kindred of Rot

XXX

1. Daughter of Chaos (DS1)

2. Magma Wyrm Makar (ER)

XXX

1. Bloodletting Beast (BB)

2. Blood-Starved Beast (BB)

XXX

1. Corrupted Monk (S:SDT)

2. Mimics (DS1-3)

XXX

1. Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy (ER)

2. Divine Dragon (S:SDT)

XXX

1. Manscorpion Tark (DS2)

2. Ludwig the Holy Blade (BB)

XXX

SIDE B

1. Old Iron King (DS2)

2. Gravelord Nito (DS1)

XXX

1. Dancer of the Boreal Valley (DS3)

2. Beast Gascoigne (BB)

XXX

1. Manus, Father of the Abyss (DS1)

2. Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos (BB)

XXX

1. Demon Prince (DS3)

2. Ornifex (DS2)

XXX

1. Mimic Tear (ER)

2. Amygdala (BB)

XXX

1. Laurence, the First Vicar (BB)

2. Demi-Human Queen (ER)

XXX

1. Vordt of the Boreal Valley (DS3)

2. Moon Presence (BB)

XXX

1. Wormface (ER)

2. Darkbeast Paarl (BB)

XXX

1. Rom, the Vacuous Spider (BB)

2. Father Ariandel (DS3)

XXX

1. Deep Accursed (DS3)

2. Demon of Hatred (S:SDT)

XXX

1. The Storm King (DeS)

2. Scorpioness Najka (DS2)

XXX

1. Pontiff Sulyvahn (DS3)

2. Oceiros, the Consumed King (DS3)

XXX

1. Death Rite Bird (ER)

2. High Lord Wolnir (DS3)

XXX

1. Spider Patches (BB)

2. Darklurker (DS2)

XXX

1. Mother Kos (BB)

2. Leonine Misbegotten (ER)

XXX

1. Sulyvahn’s Beast (DS3)

2. Cleric Beast (BB)

XXX

#hottest fromsoft monster #round 1 #round 1 brackets

[headcanontheshitoutofsoulsborne]

All dragons can transform into another species or an in-between. Seath's human in-between looks like how he was in Kingsfield.

#dark souls #seath the scaleless #headcanon

[pkbth]

Revisit Dark souls remastered

And cannot stop brainrotting about these two.

#seath the scaleless #havel the rock #yes this is my crack ship #seathvel #havel is a smol aggressive bean #seath is a tall and lanky sassy ass old man #fromsoftware #dark souls remastered #human seath

[nikkisticki]

I'd like to hear about dark souls if you mean it :)

Oh, the Ds3 thing?

Alright, so Ds1 is a video game...and it's meant to be Miyazaki's big reflection on Demon Souls and a lot of ideas that have been bouncing around his head, and the endings are meant to be viewed by themselves. Miyazaki was adamantly against any sequel and had no intention of continuing this world.

If you're not aware, two endings await you at the end of DS1, either you light yourself on fire and let your immense soul burn to revitalize reality, or you abandon it and permit the age of Light to fade, instead ruling it as the Dark Lord.

Now, a basic interpretation would be that these are on a Good/Evil axis, which is blatantly untrue. Both endings are intentionally left vague and what happens afterwards effectively up to you, the player.

Perhaps lighting yourself on fire starts a new thousand year era of peace, but to what end, another great hollowing that forces another to repeat this process, buying smaller and smaller periods of "good" eras as less and less souls can be found to burn?

Or, perhaps the second lighting led to others seeking pilgrimage to continue the tradition, burning themselves to keep the world running and never permitting it to occur again.

Similarly, the dark ending could be that you've allowed endless darkness to consume the decaying bones of reality...or perhaps you wisely realized that going Hollow was a flaw of Humanity (the thing in your chest), and sought to correct it, to create a new age or dark where humans can prosper freely and not under the rule of tyrant gods.

it's entirely left to you, and meant to represent that you've overcome this lands Gods to do...something. Something that Miyazaki specifically wanted to be left to you, not given concrete meaning by a game he didn't make-

Now, post launch, Miyazaki moves immediately onto Bloodborne, but the current head of the company (who would be later assassinated by Miyazaki and replaced by him) wanted MORE MONEY, and wanted Miyazaki to make a sequel, a sequel he firmly believed shouldn't ever exist.

So they got some other guy to make it! Halfway through development of Ds2, that guy was replaced by one of Miyazaki's best (Yui Tanimura) after the whole Assassination thing (it's true look it up by searching "Ds2 assassin r34"), who then tried to put what he could together...but at the end of the day, Ds2's base existence shits on Ds1.

Ds2 makes the very silly argument that the Age of Light and the Age of Dark are just two ways that reality always goes, that this process has been repeated over and over and over with the four Gods eternally reincarnated into new bodies or otherwise represented (One of the last Witches of Izalith possesses the Lost Sinner, The Rotten is LITERALLY JUST A BABY NITO, The Duke himself is Seath being reincarnated and the stupid fucking Balrog is Gywn, somehow?) and no matter what you do, you're fucked and realities fucked.

I'm going to ignore talking about ds2 anymore as I'd have to stop and explain some of the actually good ideas (like the shards of Manus), but just by existing DS2 says that Ds1's ending is meaningless and pointless.

Now, Ds3 comes around and is clearly Miyazaki's last straw, clearly a game he felt compelled to make to clean up Dark Souls image, and put it to rest forever. These endless cycles have led to countless Kings and Lords who've all been long forgotten, reality itself has fallen apart and now regions are just in the wrong place (The entrance to Irithyll is actually blocked off by the mountain that the Carthus Catacombs exist within, which is not where it's suppose to be if you look at the road leading into town), with every ending a variation of "Reality is FUCKING DONE FOR", and the true ending post the dlc confirms both in canon and out that the next world should be one entirely different then this (check out the painters dialogue for that).

However, what's particularly fascinating is that entities that should be dead simply aren't, like Ornstein who has been killed twice in two games and yet still somehow was with the Nameless King. Some people take to the belief that Ds1's Ornstein was a golem and Ds2's Ornstein is the real deal, but in actuality I believe it's meant to be part of the timeline thing.

I'd try to find the interview, but as Miyazaki has given HUNDREDS OF THEM, I'll never find it without spending an hour looking, but as I mentioned previously Miyazaki has tried to explain before that the timeline of the games isn't directly linear, and how is pretty simple to figure out.

In Ds1's own canon, once you complete the game this becomes its own seperate timeline, meaning these endless cycles don't occur as the Chosen Undead does whatever you the player wanted, making DS2/Ds3 noncanon to your playthrough, while DS2 is effectively turned into a sort of "What if...?" game, with it's ending having the same rule.

This can be gathered if you at look at Wolnir (also known as Big Skeleton OG) and his crown of many lords he took from them which the Bearer of the Curse should instead possess, but additional points can be made such as that Tarkus knockoff invader carrying one of the rings of the Ivory Knights, who he supposedly killed the last of (which is impossible as the last of them joined you in putting down the Ivory King). There's some more evidence to be gathered, but the key one is that none of the games ever mention other games protagonists, nobody ever says "HEY DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE BEARER OF THE CURSE? DUDE HAS A LASER SWORD!", because they never came to be.

Ds3 then sits as the final gasp of the series, entirely demanding that another game in this timeline can never occur (although Miyazaki could change his mind, he has mentioned the idea of a prequel to Ds1 once or twice) and effectively just exists to make Ds2 less ruinous to Ds1.

There's a good chunk more, but essentially

Ds1 ----> Ds1 Ending

Ds2 -----> Ds2 Ending

Ds3 -----> Ds3 Ending

#Miyazaki hates Ds2 and to be fair hes not wrong #Theres a lot of really badly thought out ideas in base Ds2 and scholar only sort of fixes it

[beesmygod]

i like thinking way too much about fromsoft games. there’s something about the light touch the writers use to carve out their worlds that just absolutely tickles my brain. writing way too much about the most trivial details using college essay formats is the easiest exercise to make sure my brain can still make basic connections and convey those connections to other people. but as a lore prescriptivist (snob), i try to only stick to what’s in front of me without attempting to drag in outside resources or succumb to the apparent impulse to engage in wild speculation that many fans find themselves mired in. additionally, i try to make things as clear as possible for the fandom rubbernecks who like to read lore dumps about things that are totally outside their wheelhouse (i do this).

here’s something really annoying to keep in mind with these games: they write the scripts in english and translate them to japanese. but the dev team obviously works in japanese and have a tendency to reveal connections that are either relevant to unlocking questions not addressed in the game (such as the parasitic wall hugger having the file name “Prince Izalith”). there are also inconsistencies between the english and japanese translations, which raises more questions about what the authorial intent REALLY is. so the best we can do is filter the noise, ignore the innate desire to put words or ideas in any developer’s mouth, and stick to things you can copy-paste to support your argument.

that said i have one theory i refuse to give up entirely on the basis that it is really funny to think about: Gwyn’s firstborn is the father of Crossbreed Priscilla.

look out bitch! look out bitch!

i will go over all the reasons that support my argument and then i will discuss the objective problems with my theory, which is absolutely not one i think anyone holds but me. generally, the community is in agreement that her father is traitor turned mad scientist Seath The Scaleless. seath is an albino dragon who, due to his jealously of the scales that granted eternal life to the other dragons, betrayed his brethren and helped the gods wipe the once everlasting dragons off the planet. his bottom half looks like microwaved tinfoil because he’s been fucking around with crystals. also he was just born fucked up.

seath was rewarded with dukedom and a slice of Gwyn’s (king of the gods. who are a race separate from humans, rather than literal gods) soul.

first let’s talk about what supports my theory, so you can get a feel for the timeline of events and the social mores within the world of dark souls (?? i typed this)

PRO:

Crossbreed Priscilla lives in the Painted World of Ariamis: this is explicitly a location for things and people that the gods want to either forget about or sentence to exile. there are very few residents in the painting; the entire population is priscilla, the corpse of xanthous king jeremiah, a rotting dragon descendant (a wyvern), phalanx from demon souls who got lost somehow, a handful of hollows and skeleton wheels, and velka’s crow worshippers.

Xanthous Crown - A mysterious item once worn by the Xanthous King Jeremiah, the legendary exile

Peculiar Doll - There once was an abomination who had no place in this world. She clutched this doll tightly, and eventually was drawn into a cold and lonely painted world.

Dark Ember - The church long hid the forbidden black ember, and no living blacksmith knows of it. Occult weapons were used to hunt the Gods, and are effective against their followers and kin

velka, an unseen goddess with a single worshipper, is an entire other kettle of fish, but she’s not as complicated as people make her out to be. she was banished or killed by the gods for participating in the plot to overthrow them (this is another subject that causes people to spin out). i dont have time to get into this, it just matters that she’s persona non-grata.

priscilla herself is described as a “crossbreed bastard child” in her soul description. this confirms that she is the result of an unauthorized fuck and suck. as the “antithesis to all life”, she wields a weapon called the lifehunt scythe that mows down gods and drains any mortal that tries to use it.

Lifehunt Scythe - Even the Gods feared Priscilla's lifehunt ability, and in the hands of a mortal, its power will turn upon its wielder.

why the fuck would gwyn keep around someone who could kill him and everything he’s been working for? the man was so freaked out over the idea of the age of gods ending and losing power that he threw himself on a pyre and invented a new way to suffer to prolong the inevitable. why is there a black knight, gwyn’s most trusted troops, protecting the doll and one of three berenike troops in the entire game protecting priscilla herself? the answer is the same reason why he kept gwyndolin in spite of her snake leg deformity and simply hid her away: she’s family.

CONCLUSION: PRISCILLA IS GWYN’S GRANDDAUGHTER

Gwyn’s firstborn was erased from history for an unknown, unforgivable trespass: the amount of Mad gwyn is at his firstborn son cannot be understated; statues across lordran depicting him have been shattered, he was stripped of his godhood, and he was exiled from anor londo.

Ring of the Sun’s Firstborn - Lord Gwyn's firstborn was a god of war, but his foolishness led to a loss of the annals, and rescinding of his deific status. Today, even his name is not known.

Sunlight Blade - The power of sunlight, manifested as lightning, is very effective against dragons. When the eldest son was stripped of his deific status, he left this on his father's coffin, perhaps as a final farewell.

“foolishness” is such a weird ass turn of phrase for something that got you disowned so hard your dad forgot who you were. its so like...mild. just an observation. an example of a thing gwyn specifically might find unforgivable is fucking a dragon, as they are his mortal enemies and he just spent all that time killing them.

you DO eventually meet this son, The Nameless King, in ds3.

CONCLUSION: THE NAMELESS KING’S TRESPASS WAS SHAMEFUL ENOUGH TO HIDE WHAT HE DID AND WHO HE WAS, BUT NOT KILL HIM

The Nameless King has been deified by dragons and their worshippers: this one is so weird. by ds3 you are told outright that the nameless king “sacrificed everything to ally himself” with dragons and those who want to become them. he’s not even the first dark souls character to do it all for the nookie.

archdragon peak, a location where dragon worshippers go to begin their physical transformation, is riddled with statues of him looking badass. this is also where you fight him and his drake (it has 4 wings, but no everlasting scales) friend, the ambiguously named “king of the storm”. its not clear if the “king of the storm” is a title they share together or what the nameless king calls himself when he’s with his dragon lover or if thats the name of the dragon. regardless, killing the dragon begins the phase 2 solo fight against the nameless king. making this more confusing is that in japanese, both phases are named “the nameless king” and calls the king of the storm a wyvern instead of a stormdrake.

Lightning Storm - Once a slayer of dragons, the former king and wargod tamed a Stormdrake, on which he led a lifetime of battle. This miracle is likely a tale of their bond.

wow. love truly conquers all. gay rights!

CONCLUSION: THE NAMELESS KING IS COOL

Seath has never had sex: look at him. no way.

MY THEORY: gwyn’s firstborn, overtaken with sexual desire, fucked a dragon. the result of their copulation was priscilla, an abomination whose innate abilities made her extremely dangerous. gwyn threw his firstborn’s ass out from a combination of shame and anger, but could not bring himself to kill either. ariamis was commissioned to create a world for her, which became an all purpose dump for shit gwyn didnt want to think about any more.

AGAINST:

Priscilla is white: it’s pretty hard to ignore the fact that seath and priscilla share the same very unique skin tone...color palate? you know what i mean. the most common theory is that priscilla is the result of seath’s experiments or his daughter by way of gwynevere. what we do know about seath’s experiments is that the failed results transformed women into snake-ish creatures called pisacas. as stated many times in the series: a snake is a failed dragon (this is true in real life too). maybe one of them was successful.

BUT: there’s some problems with this, actually. for one thing priscilla isn’t albino; her eyes are white and she’s fluffy, like the everlasting dragons we do see. gwynevere married some guy named flann and booked it out of anor londo years ago.

Ring of the Sun Princess - The Princess of Sunlight Gwynevere left Anor Londo along many other deities, and later became wife to Flame God Flann.

so the gwynevere theory is out. it’s more likely that she’s a successful experiment who got too scary so she had to go in the paint. i dont really get why he was trying to turn women into dragons, if thats what he was up to. maybe he was trying to have sex. he was tired of using his j/o crystals or whatever.

Yorshka and The Painter: okay, we can assume that the painter of the next painted world, a dragon scaled young girl, is the daughter of priscilla and her weird husband mentioned in the ds3 dlc. i dont get company captain yorshka at all. i have nothing. she’s obviously a dragon crossbreed but has 2 insane things that make her completely impossible to make sense of.

first, she has fucking neck tentacles? no one else has this shit. what is that.

second, she calls herself the sister of gwyndolin. what! huh?! excuse me?

it’s insane enough that one of the dlcs revealed that gwyn had ANOTHER surprise kid who didnt get to share in the narcissistic family naming convention and was forgotten by history (filianore). but now there’s a DRAGON one?! i don’t know man. she’s inscrutable and i don’t understand her relation to the original crossbreed or why she didnt get painting’d. her existence is pretty hard to patch over with my theory. i dont think the nameless king was pumping them out and then shipping them over to gwyn for him to deal with more than once. mostly because gwyn has been dead forever by the time ds3 happens. maybe gwyndolin just handles these problems better now that shes de-facto ruler of anor londo.

well, i guess that’s all i actually have. my point with all this (besides entertaining the three people who enjoy reading DS lore) is that i can recognize the obvious flaws in my crackpot theory, yet it offers me the most satisfying answer because the idea of getting disowned for being a furry (scalie i guess) is really really funny. and as we all know, the comedy is when you need a 2 million word explainer about having sex with dragons. well. bye.

#dark souls #lore #long post #im not putting it under a read more look at my post boy

[glitchyk]

Yet again, boredom, so, I drew Seath, that’s how I’m going to spell his name, on purpose it shall be spelt differently from the Bible Seth, purely just to spite myself since I know I’ll forget like every day

I had to use a base since like I can’t do shit without bases for art, it’s Seath but for the amazing digital carnival. Bros just confused. His explanation is only a few posts down, basically he’s Caine and Able’s younger brother that just sorta exists and everyone forgets that he does.

I can’t wait to write sibling drama, I have so many siblings so it’s gonna be hella fun to put all my trauma into them/j anyways here it is. Bro has no clue what’s going on

The Amazing Digital Carnival belongs to @sm-baby

So look at their stuff, now, if you don’t know what it is.

It’s practically a swap role wise, as in, Caine and his brother Able are players/coders for the game, their actual human who got stuck there, whereas all the other characters are AI’s that all sort of have their own levels, Pomni being the only ai that doesn’t want to murder Caine, really. It is a sort of showtime (Caine x Pomni) thing just for anyone wondering.

#tadc #the amazing digital carnival #sm baby #tadc oc #tadc au #tadc Seath #random art #I don’t art so it looks like shit lol #tadc caine #the amazing digital circus au #the amazing digital circus oc #the amazing digital circus Caine #able tadc #tadc able #the amazing digital circus able #tadc AU art #glitchyk oc #Seath tadc OC

[dreamsandtadpoles]

SIDE BLOGS INFO

@wackyinflatablearmtubeman - Small Sign spinner who is just trying his best to hold down a job despite having horrible luck doing so.

@king-vortigern-pendragon - Legend Of The Sword Rp blog for Vortigern Pendragon

@somanydumbwaystodie - Airheaded idiot cop who is cursed to die in horrible ways and can never find peace.

@brain-over-brawn - Tiny Alien Brain who is trying to disguise as a human to study them and learn how to take over the world with his boss.

@running-on-co2 - Once turned science experiment now the worlds greatest robotic assassin.

@chalk-it-up-to-fate - Well known Artist who traps people in a fake world of his own creation due to envy of the people in the human / real world.

@in-heaven-everything-is-fine - Eraserhead baby Au blog from the movie Eraserhead.

@twists-and-turns-of-fate - Demon muse that wants revenge on one man and seeks out a way to destroy him and the clones that he has created as well as others he sees as threats

@heartbrokenwhispers - Yandere muse blog for a man trying to find love but who keeps having horrible luck doing so.

@the-dukes-archives - Dark souls Rp blog for Seath the scaleless and other muses from that fandom.

@ceaseless-chaos - Prince of Chaos who is cursed to be in pain all his life and only find comfort in his own siblings corpse that he thinks still watches him.

@the-monster-of-scotland - NESSIE!

@lordseekerlucius - Lucius Corin blog / Envy from Dragon Age Inquisition.

@you-reap-what-you-sow - Harold blog from Scary Stories to tell in the Dark series.

@run-run-as-fast-as-u-can - Smol tiny baker trying his best with a cursed magic oven that can make baked goods come to life.

@rise-up-like-glitter-and-gold- Elden Ring Multi Muse blog for my tarnished and my OC Rune.

@the-galaxy-is-on-orions-belt - Small Alien Prince tasked with keeping the world safe from destruction.

@bee-my-queen - Bumblebee OC that made a human appearance hive to go out and try to date and find a new queen.

@deathisjustthebeginning - Elden Ring OC for a man who was once human now cursed to spread death after he tried to cheat it and became a horrible disfigured monster in the process now having to hide behind a fake human mask of his own design.

@the-king-of-villains - King of all villains who learned to steal powers from other villains to become stronger

@ill-met-by-m00nlight - WEREWOLF SWEET BABY :D

@atlas-jericho-carmichael - Atlas Carmichael blog from UA

@squirming-evil - Oogie from TNBC

@bright-and-clever-no-matter-watt - OC blog for the smartest inventor ever.

@bloodline-rewritten - intravenous System OC Muse

@klaus-the-hessian - Dullahan muse

@pastor-of-vows - Miriel from Elden Ring

@all-the-kings-horses-and-men - Soldier that was sent 200 years in the future due to being in a coma after getting injured.

@of-direwolves-and-broken-things - Elden Ring legless baby and his pet direwolf.

@wouldyoustillloveme - Librarian baby who has trouble finding love out of fear of being abandoned / hated

@let-your-dreams-flood-in - Sloth Demon from DAO

@wooden-lies- Pinocchio Au / OC blog

@lord-jab-desilijic-tiure - Jabba the hutt muse

@let-your-evil-shine - Grigori Rasputin from Anastasia blog

@who-can-take-the-sunrise - Literal Chocolatier

@dont-trust-a-thing - Alien shapeshifter :D

@villainsthatliveinmyhead- Gabriel / Madison blog from Malignant

@lord-of-the-dead-aidoneus - Hades from Disney's Hercules

@ruler-of-artisans - Toasty from Spyro

@the-first-murderer - Cain aka the first murderer

@another-1-bites-the-dust - Smol Robot Janitor

@hit-me-one-time-hit-me-twice - Hexxus from Ferngully

@culex-headquarters - Group of assassins that track people Via blood.

@within-a-sea-of-stars - Sea Star OC

@go-ahead-make-your-choice - Imshael / Choice Spirit

@ask-randall-boggs - Randall from monsters inc

@audacity-reigns - Humanized Dagger that chooses those who are worthy

@devourer-of-the-gods - Aldrich from Dark Souls 3

@unfinished-calamity - Calamitous from Jimmy Neutron

@killing-is-mere-childs-play - Charles Lee Ray

@as-luck-may-have-it - Good Luck Charm muse

[hybristophiliac-respite]

Guess who's back?

That's right fellow meat bags, it's been way too long since there's been a post, or been on Tumblr, or on the computer even! However, with this return, I thought I would bring forth a short story of mine, the sort of birth of my hybristophilia I suppose?

When I was younger, and first discovering my odd attractions, I remember there was a discussion of crushes in my fourth or fifth grade, between classmates as expected. At this time I was a rather lonesome kid, finding other people to be irritating and burdensome, thus my only friend was a kid with similar ideas, however we were in different classes. Regardless, the question eventually rolled to me, and surprisingly I did actually have a crush at the time, but not on any of my classmates. Not even on a human. No, I was infatuated with a Dark Souls boss, Seath the Scaleless. I at first tried to deflect the question, mildly annoyed to be questioned, but they pushed, and I gave.

When none of them knew who he was, I began describing him, a massive white dragon with beautiful wings and no eyes, and they thought it was some kind of joke. When it wasn't, they mocked me, and did so for the rest of the year, finding every oddity in me to pull apart and try to wear me down. All I could think of was how Seath was similarly treated poorly by his kind too, and how I wished I could be a dragon, even an outcasted one, to show them why picking on others is cruel. To make them scared of the kid they hated so much, and to make them leave me alone if nothing else.

Seath killed all the other dragons for their cruelty towards the conditions he could not control, after all, what was me only scaring a few humans to be nice about mine?

To this day, I still find Seath beautiful despite his madness, and have only grown more bitter towards human cruelty. Some people need to be scared to be kind, it seems.

[sapphicwhump]

After Irithyll 6 - Blame

Fandoms: Dark Souls, Dark Souls III Tropes: emotional whump, traumatized whumpee TWs: self-victim-blaming, internalized misogyny

[ Previous | First | Read on AO3 ]

��       There are a few different reasons for why you’re seeking out Karla today.

        First and foremost is the ancient pyromancy tome you currently have under your arm. It had been the subject of a heated argument between you and Cornyx this morning, and now you’re putting some distance between you and him as an act of petty frustration.

        “Quelana’s pyromancies are for women” my ass. While Cornyx is dependable as a friend, he’s considerably less so as an educator. The old fool wouldn’t know arcane power if it fell into his lap, even literally so, in this case.

        Your other primary reason for visiting Karla is the surprise you’ve prepared for her, and the makeshift canvas talisman tucked away in your back pocket. Irina had been more than happy to teach you one of her healing miracles, but having to painstakingly memorize all its lines of scripture in a language you can’t understand makes you pity anyone who can call themselves a cleric. However, as long as Karla appreciates it, it’ll have been more than worth it.

        As soon as Karla lifts the curtain over her alcove, you present the confounding tome to her. “Cornyx refused to teach me this. He said I needed to learn it from a witch.”

        She takes it from you, parsing its singed cover with a curious eye. “Hm, alright. Not exactly my field of expertise, but I will unravel it as best I can.” She gestures an invitation to enter, and you take a seat beside her in the alcove, prepared to delve into the tome’s arcane content from over her shoulder.

        “Sorry for bothering you with this. I don’t know why Cornyx was so insistent. I checked the pages for any sort of magical infusion that would prevent a man from reading it, but it’s completely mundane. There’s no reason he shouldn’t be able to.”

        She examines the inside of the front cover, pausing to focus on a tiny scribble in the bottom corner. “Hm… I recognize this signature. Oh, this tome was penned by Quelana herself! That might explain Cornyx’s reluctance.”

        “Yeah, that’s what he told me. I get that it’s ancient, but I still don’t understand why he’d deny himself the chance to learn some of the very first pyromancies ever cast by humans.”

        She sighs, but her knowing smile suggests no exasperation. “You likely already picked up on this, but the origins of the different magical arts has led to preconceived notions of them being inherently masculine or feminine. Starting with the Witch of Izalith and then later Quelana, pyromancy was created first and foremost by women, and thus some see female pyromancers as emulating the art’s originators more closely.” She briefly grins in amusement. “Perhaps Cornyx felt that learning Quelana’s spells would be emasculating.”

        “That would explain why he refused my suggestion to wear the Reversal Ring while reading it.” The laugh that Karla responds with warms you from within.

        Your earlier frustration has been supplanted by curiosity. “So what kind of magic would be considered manly?”

        “As you might expect, soul sorceries have a more masculine reputation. Seath the Paledrake fathered the soul arts to compensate for his lack of dragon breath, and as such, sorcery schools tend to be rather patriarchal institutions. The field is still heavily male-dominated.”

        The information lines up with your observations in the field. You’ve certainly faced far more master sorcerers than master sorceresses in battle. “You said hexes are passed down matrilineally; I take it it’s similar?”

        “Yes. Although Manus was the father of the Dark, the matrilineal tradition began with his four daughters. The hat in particular — ” she tips hers, “ — is the mark of one who follows this tradition.”

        “Wait… you’re a Daughter of Manus!?”

        “Well, not directly. More like great-great-great-I don’t know how many greats-granddaughter. Still, the magic is in our very blood. It is my mother's curse, the first thing she ever gave to me.”

        “That’s so cool!”

        Karla balks. “ Cool? My lineage is one of the most accursed in existence. We were spawned from a terrible sin, and that sin has been passed down from mother to mother until me. Our blood is tainted with the foulest darkness ever seen in Lordran, and we have reveled in it for generations. How is that cool? ”

        “Why wouldn’t it be? Manus gifted your ancestor with a chunk of his Dark Soul, much more than the tiny sliver the rest of us have. It’s like you’re part magic itself! I admire your family’s commitment to the study of that power.”

        “Power is only admirable when divorced from context. If that power comes at the expense of your morality, or your wellbeing, or your freedom, I think you’d agree there’s little to admire in that.” She gestures to you with the book’s open pages. “Now, I believe you requested we learn about pyromancies, not my family history.”

        “You really think learning hexes requires the sacrifice of those things?”

        She groans. “Is this truly relevant to your edification?”

        “Absolutely.”

        “...Hm . Fine, since it’s clear where your interests lie.” She snaps the pyromancy tome shut and sets it aside. “While sacrifice may not be the right word for it, hexing certainly takes its toll in other ways. This magic has a way of… catching up with you. There was a reason I was reluctant to teach it to you, and I still have my misgivings about it.”

        “And those would be?”

        “Well for one, you’re not my daughter. I know it makes no difference, but on some level, it still feels somewhat improper to violate that tradition. But, that’s not the primary reason.

        “Witchcraft is… more base than other forms of magic, such as soul sorcery. Sorcery comes from an intellectual understanding and mastery over one’s own soul, while my hexes are irrational and chaotic, drawn only from raw emotion. Sorcery is an enlightened pursuit of knowledge; hexing is a degenerative reveling in the muck of humanity. I feel some guilt over leading you down my mother’s dark path.”

        Your lip pulls up in distaste. “Oh, please don’t tell me that that has anything to do with them being matrilineal.”

        Her eyes are distant. “...I’m really not sure anymore.”

        “Y’know, a lot of people also look down on pyromancy as base and chaotic. Pyromancers are typically shunned rather than imprisoned, though; that’s why the biggest pyromancy school is set up in a swamp far away from society. Did Izalith’s daughters draw as much scorn as you did for daring to practice magic as women?”

        “I think it’s more likely that they drew scorn for unleashing demons upon the world.” Karla distances herself from you, shifting to the middle of the alcove. “However, that scorn you mention is another of my misgivings. There are truths hidden in the Dark that mankind would rather shut away forever, and this has long been used as justification for acts of extreme violence against those like us. Irithyll dungeon is hardly the worst of it; the Abyss Watchers favored crucifixion. I’ve grown rather fond of you, so I’d prefer not to see you go hollow locked away in a cell or nailed to a cross.”

        “It seems like other people are what’s dangerous, not hexes.”

        “It doesn’t matter much when the end result is the same, does it? Either way, it was my own study of hexes that brought my imprisonment upon me. I would hate to bring a similar fate upon you.”

        “I’m an adult. I know the risks. If I wasn’t confident that dealing with the prejudice was worth it, then I wouldn’t have asked to be your apprentice. If anyone has a problem with that, they can talk to my Flame.”

        Karla emits a short laugh, cynical and cheerless. “It’s funny; as a child, I had a very similar attitude. I’d rage and shout empty threats at anyone who dared insult me over the hat, even got into a few fights over it. Now… I find it increasingly difficult to disagree with them.”

        “Is that why you’re so fond of deprecating yourself?”

        Karla narrows her eyes at you. “I was imprisoned for a reason. I told you as much when you carried me out of the dungeon. ‘I am no exception,’ remember?” Her next sentence is muttered, and you barely catch it under her breath. “Still can’t fathom why you even let me out in the first place.”

        You reel back. “Karla…”

        You don’t deserve this, you want to shout at her. How do I show you you don't deserve this? How can I make you see in yourself the same things I see in you?

        “Imagine if I was in that position. If I was the heretic, and you rescued me from the dungeon. Would you tell me I’m the one at fault for getting myself locked up? Would I be the one to blame for my own suffering?”

        That gets her attention. She gives a shameful wince, if only for a moment.

        “I don’t—” she stops herself short. “You’re not like me. I wouldn’t ever want to see you in that dungeon.”

        “How am I different?”

        She has to briefly pause in thought. “...You’re kind. You give endlessly without any expectation of reciprocity, despite how undeserving I am. You may be… simple, perhaps, but I find your single-minded dedication just as endearing as it is frustrating.”

        “And you’re not kind?”

        She scoffs. “Kindness doesn’t befit a hexer. Cruelty is inherent to the magic, wallowing in our own suffering to inflict it on others. You’ve done it yourself; you know what it feels like.”

        “Well then… maybe you should be a bit more kind to yourself? Gods know you’ve had enough cruelty in your life.”

        She places a hand over her forearm. “I… will not argue with that.”

        An awkward silence falls between you. You wait for her to further protest, but she seems no longer inclined to continue the argument.

        “Now, shall we get back to a more relevant topic?” she lifts the pyromancy tome to you.

        “Actually, speaking of kindness, I, um… I wanted to do something kind for you today.”

        “Oh?”

        “The pyromancy tome isn’t the only thing I wanted to show you. I know you like to keep your distance from Irina, but I got her to teach me a healing miracle.” Karla eyes you cautiously, as if you might turn a blade on her at any moment. “And after I saw your arm a few days ago…”

        You extract the canvas talisman from your pocket. As soon as she realizes where you’re going with this, her face immediately twists from hesitance to exasperation. From the pain in her eyes, you immediately feel as if you've misstepped.

        “...I realized what must have happened. So I was hoping I could maybe do something about that scar?”

        She’s clutching her forearm again when she answers. “No, it’s… it’s fine, Ashen One. You shouldn’t have wasted so much time memorizing that miracle for me.”

        “It’s not a waste if it would help you.”

        “Then you truly did waste your efforts. I am not interested in your help, or your pity.” she snaps. “My disfigurements are my own. It doesn't behoove you to go digging in open wounds.”

        You can't help but wince. “Look… if you wish to keep the scar, that's your business. But if it really is a disfigurement to you, please let me help you. I want you to be safe and healthy and—”

        She pushes Quelana's pyromancy tome back into your arms. "Leave. I am not interested in speaking of this right now.”

        You fall silent immediately. “R-right. Sorry.”

        The walk of shame away from Karla’s alcove is a familiar one by this point. Regret bites into you as you climb the stairs to the atrium. Shouldn’t have said anything, shouldn’t have pried, shouldn’t have made it worse. You wonder how many more times Karla will shove you away just as you get close; if you're doomed to forever be separated at arms' length. If that's what she wants, you care for her too much to turn her down, you suppose.

        With nothing else to do today, you sink back into your own alcove and crack open Quelana's tome to glean what you can on your own.

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#dark souls #dark souls 3 #ds3 #karla #whump #lady whump #female whumpee #caretaker pov #after irithyll