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Syzygy

“There is no path. Beyond the scope of light, beyond the reach of Dark…” — Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin

Dianna
24 min readApr 20, 2017
Courtesy:FromSoftware公式/Bandai Namco & VG247

Every beginning must have an end. Like light and dark, warmth and cold, cacophony and silence, and life and death; an ending is nothing without its beginning and vice-versa. The final expansion pack for Dark Souls III, The Ringed City, is an end that gives meaning to a beginning that banished a world of gray. Consequences for the First Sin are paid under the enduring march of entropy. Here, the various influences upon the franchise up to this point are represented like a swelling cacophony, before they are violently snuffed out into a scream of silence.

Dark Souls is a meditation on Fear. More specifically, the fear of loss. Gwyn acted because of his deep and abiding fear of the Dark. Resulting in the obfuscation of Humanity’s past, artificially extending the Age of Fire, and creating a world where Humanity was caught in the middle — neither living or dead. Fear caused the downfall of Drangleic, with Vendrick fearing the mantle of King and Aldia feared not just the alluring lie that Life gives, but also of a question without an answer. Finally, this fear is at the center of Dark Souls III, at the heart of many of the events in the game. In Dark Souls, fear creates a hell, a prison, and an apocalypse of our own making.

Fear is a universal emotion and because of this, Dark Souls pulls influences from many different belief systems and philosophical thought, synthesizing them to be a retelling of our shared ur-mythology.

This essay will be divided into a couple of sections. First, we’ll go over a few different concepts that we should keep in mind when ruminating about The Ringed City. This includes a brief and hopefully understandable overview of ontological thinking and the existence of multiple realities, the concept of Eternal Return, and the symbolism of the Ouroboros and accompanying World Egg. Part two will go over how the ‘End’ is depicted in humanity’s stories or our eschatology, as well as go over our player character’s descent into the Underworld, or Katabasis. Finally, we’ll try to wrap this up and examine where what we’ve experienced leaves us.

For lore hunters, the dueling narrative bookends about the beginning, Artorias of the Abyss, and the end, The Ringed City, are important and evocative since this is so similar to our search for truth and meaning in our beginning and to our end.

Concepts:

The Nature of Reality:

“But of the Word Brahman, there is no end.”
— Taittiriya Samhita VII.3.1.4, Translated by Barbara Holdrege

What is real? What defines existence? What constitutes identity? These questions are at the heart of the study of Ontology. For many, reality is simply that which can be observed around us whether or not we can understand it. Ontology goes a bit further than this, trying to explain and figure out how ‘categories of reality’ and thought relates to one another (Wikipedia; Ontology).

Categories of reality, or simply ‘categories,’ are defined as “the highest classes under which all elements of being, whether material or conceptual, can be classified (Wikipedia;Categories of Being).” In a way, this means that this is a facet of something used to describe that something. A tree is both tall and old and all of these reflect its reality of being. Categories have, since the time of Aristotle, become more and more abstract to define the reality of being. Karl Jaspers, working off of Emanuel Kant’s work gives these categories the terms “Substantiality, Communication, and Will (Wikipedia; Ontology / Categories of Being).”

Equipped with these tools, one can attempt to describe reality.

And so equipped, some in the field of Ontology have rejected a ‘reductionist’ view on reality, that there can be a theory of everything or that there is a single reality. Some have postulated that there are more than a single reality at play at one time. The way it works can be thought of like the rings of a tree, each ring lives in a different reality — and thus looks different because of the different conditions. However, it is all a single tree. (Gleiser)

However, the nature of reality and the belief of a multi-layered reality isn’t just the domain of philosophers, but it also figures into religious thinking. In the Vedic belief systems, the Brahman is the Universal Principle from which all other realities flow, including the Atman or the ‘essence of the self — the Soul(Wikipedia; Brahman).’

In Buddhism there are two sets of cosmologies that dovetail together, grouped as a vertical and a horizontal constellation of worlds. The vertical constellation of worlds are thirty-one planes stacked upon one another. In contrast the horizontal constellation, or otherwise known as the Sahasra cosmology, groups the vertical constellation and is a bit like a wheel (Wikipedia; Buddhist cosmology).

In Dark Souls there are multiple realities at play, with two separate but linked cosmologies much in the same way as Buddhism and its parent religion, Vedic thinking, saw reality.One way in which this manifests, is in the game’s worlds for different players and NPCs; vertically arranged and stacked upon one another. Horizontally the hierarchy would be the new-game cycle each individual player would be on. Another way is in how the game arranges its realities in a horizontal and vertical manner, is how the game is designed from a macro point of view. Dark Souls I is fairly vertical, the Chosen Undead travels through different layers of reality in a north-south manner. Dark Souls II and III are more horizontally arranged with Dark Souls II being most like a wheel.

The Ringed City takes this further by introducing realities within realities thanks to Gwyndolin’s power and it introduces an argument on the nature of reality put forth by philosophers like René Descartes. Descartes’ Dream Argument asks us if the reality we think we know is simply a dream (Wikipedia; Dream Argument).

“Time is a Flat Circle”

8.19 — This [same] elementary world only happens again & again; Annihilates upon arrival of night, [and] originates upon arrival of day. — Bhagavad Gita

Time and space are infinite and everything that has happened, will happen again. This is at the center of the concept known as ‘eternal return’ or ‘eternal recurrence.’ In other words, you will read this essay for the first time over and over again. The idea of eternal return is an old one, with roots in ancient Egypt and Indian philosophies, but fell out of disuse as Judeo-Christian thought of time being linear and finite, spread. Nietzsche is famously credited with bringing the idea of ‘eternal recurrence’ and thus the idea of the cyclical nature of the universe back into consciousness. (Wikipedia: Eternal Return)

One symbol that obviously relates to the idea of ‘eternal return’ is the Oroboros; the snake eating its own tail. Or, a primordial serpent eating its own tail.

The snake has taken on much in the way of meaning and symbols. In general the serpent is a symbol of chaos, temptation, and evil power just as much as it is a symbol of life and healing and in some cases, they are one and the same with Dragons (Wikipedia:Serpent (symbolism)). In the Biblical garden of Eden, it is a trickster and a tempter getting Eve and Adam to eat of the tree of knowledge. In Egypt, Apep was emblematic of chaos and was an opponent of light and order (Wikipedia: Apep). In the Rig Vedas, Vritra held the waters of the world hostage until it was struck down by the thunderbolts of Indra (Wikipedia: Vritra). Jörmungandr was the Midgard World Serpent (Wikipedia: Jormungandr). Each of these serpents also embodied the cyclical nature of time, as seen in the Oroboros.

An important symbol in its own right, the Ouroboros has been a constant symbol with beginnings in Ancient Egyptian thinking and even more recently, Hermetic Alchemical belief systems. In all of these traditions, the Ouroboros is both a symbol of introspection, to a symbol of time’s endless cycle of destruction and creation. (Wikipedia: Ouroboros)

It is not a coincidence that the Primordial Serpents, Frampt and Kaathe, figure in the background of both the beginning and the end of Dark Souls. Just like the Ouroboros, the Primordial Serpents of Dark Souls represent the dueling symbols of life and death, light and dark, and the beginning and the end. Remember also, that there is one symbol that neither serpent admits to, and that is their joint association with Greed. Perhaps it is the Serpents who have played their role as trickster and tempter well, putting in motion the cycle where they eat their own tail. Where we repeat the same mistakes again and again, for the first time.

The World Egg

The Cosmic Egg and World Serpent

The World Egg or the Cosmic Egg is a theme found in many of the world’s genesis stories. From Vedic scriptures which calls it the ‘egg-shaped cosmos,’ to the egg that birthed the Greek Gods in the Theogony, and even in Chinese mythology with the legend of Pangu where the God of the same name, was birthed in an egg and from the shell of the egg, he created the earth and sky. (Wikipedia: World Egg)

Jacob Bryant’s iconic piece of art depicting the World Egg is a depiction of the Greek Orphic Egg, and it, like all depictions of the Orphic Egg, is depicted with a serpent wound around it. The egg, of course, is the Universe. (Wikipedia: World Egg)

This symbol’s importance to Dark Souls, considering the eternity represented by the Ouroboros and the importance of serpents to the Series and the World Egg in particular, don’t make themselves known until the final DLC, The Ringed City.

The Scream of Silence

“And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” (Revelations 8:1 KJV)

Dark Souls III is a game about the end, accepting it, and moving on. But unlike the other games in the franchise, the End isn’t something that can be held back. It isn’t an enemy nor an obstacle to be defeated or overcome. The end is inevitable. It isn’t a curse nor is it a tool to be harnessed, something King Vendrick explains by saying, “With fire, they say, a true king can harness the curse. A lie, but I knew no better… (Wikidot: Memory of the King).” However, before, in Dark Souls I and II the end can be put off, postponed and denied, but the linking and inheriting of the Fire is ultimately a short term solution. By the time the Ashen Ones rise from their graves, the End has already passed the point of no return. Entropy and the fading of the fire is ultimately unstoppable.

The End takes place at the place where the ending began, The Ringed City.

Depictions of the End

Before we can take on what The Ringed City tells us more directly, we should take a look at how eschatology has been depicted in human culture. In the West, especially, the end has been a pre-occupation for as long as Man has perceived of its own life and that life, ends. In this way, religious and secular versions of the ‘Apocalypse’ have been fairly intertwined. Colloquially, the term ‘apocalypse’ is taken to mean the end of the world, and the end of life as one knows it. However, the term ‘apocalypse’ simply means a ‘revelation’ or a ‘disclosure of divine secrets.’ (Wikipedia; Apocalypse). The Ringed City is an apocalypse in both senses of the word. But, for human culture, God has always been a part and parcel of the End, even in supposed secular versions of Eschatological visions.

In the West and near-East, God’s involvement in the end offers a glimmer of hope for renewal and his presence even lends an ‘apocalyptic vision,’ meaning. It assures those that whatever happens is part of God’s plan and with it, there is hope for a new beginning and a new, heavenly age. (Heinzekehr)

Vedic and Hindu eschatology likewise shares this hope for renewal and regeneration. At the close of the current Age, seen in the “progressive decline in morality, (Wikipedia: Hindu Eschatology),” Kalki will appear and gather with him the last pious souls to form an army to destroy the Demons and bring about Judgement. Harihara, the combination of Shiva and Vishnu, will then dissolve and regenerate the universe (Wikipedia: Hindu Eschatology/Harihara).

However, the idea of ‘the Apocolypse’ as an End or even, eschatology in general, is foreign to Japanese thought. As Justin Heinzekehr explains in his Article The Reenchantment of Eschatology: Religious Secular Apocalypse in Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, because of the cyclical nature of Japanese belief systems, the idea of ‘an end to the world’ is a foreign one, and death is simply another step on a cycle. In fact, as Heinzekehr points out, “Shintoism has traditionally done without any form of eschatology whatsoever (Heinzekehr).” What ideas might be part of the cultural knowledge of Japan in particular, would come from Buddhism which itself is descended from the Vedic lines of thought. Heinzekehr further argues that it is the horror of the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima that forced a new, terrifying idea of ‘The End’ into the Japanese cultural consciousness, one without meaning and one ultimately nihilistic in nature:

“Apocalypticism, virtually unknown in Eastern paradigms, has forced its way into the Japanese psyche with Hiroshima. But this apocalypticism is not even the prophetic, value-laden apocalypticism of Christianity. At least the Christian vision of the end-times overlays ultimate meaning onto its view of hopelessness for this world. The nuclear age has shown the East, and Japan in particular, an uncompromising materialistic apocalypse. The resulting nihilism appears to leave no room for ultimate value.” (Heinzekehr)

Particularly for the Japanese mindset, the end is an apocalypse of our own creation and means nothing outside of our collective extinction. Godzilla is as J. Hoberman in his essay Godzilla: Poetry After the A-Bomb articulated, “ an acute nuclear anxiety regarding the possibility of collective extinction, or what, in his review of I Live in Fear, Parker Tyler calls ‘atomophobia’. (Hoberman)” Godzilla, is emblematic of a human-caused end, via the horrors of the atomic-bomb and given form as an unstoppable monster.

Popular Culture, however, is a reflection on different ideas and thought filtering in through specific lenses, giving it new intertextual relationships. While Kurosawa Akira’s Dreams show the fears of an Apocalypse spruned from Greed and Technology. Other storyteller’s have drawn from the West’s visions of the Apocalypse and merged it with their own Japanese thinking into a combination of the secular and religious.(Heinzekehr)

One of these storytellers is the four woman manga-ka group CLAMP and their epic, X (X/1999), which is published by FromSoftware’s parent company, Kadokawa Shoten. In it, the Seven Seals from the Book of Revelation are given personhood in the Dragons of Heaven, to be broken not by the Lamb of God, but by one of the Seven Angels or the Dragons of Earth. The ideological difference between the Dragons of Earth and Heaven is the belief of whether or not mankind can live in harmony with the Earth and if saving the Earth means the destruction of man. While X is littered with allusions to Christian Eschatology, it is given a new spin as it is seen through a particularly Japanese lens and its usage of Japanese traditions along with Western and near-Eastern ones (Wikipedia: X (Manga)).

Dark Souls III masterfully combines multiple sources of eschatology together, from the Judeo Christian to the Buddhist and Vedic, to create something incredibly new and even post-modern. For most players, this vision of the End will be somewhat familiar to them and perhaps even visceral. This is because the inspirations that informs the game’s vision of the end draws from, have been part of the psyche of Man for quite sometime.

Katabasis

Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied,and human eyes are never satisfied. (Proverbs 27:20, NRSV)

“The gates of hell are open night and day; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way…” (The Aeneid, Virgil)

History is replete with journeys into the underworld. Orpheus is one of the more famous examples in the West, as he traveled into Hades to rescue his bride Eurydice. Inanna or Ishtar in Sumerian mythology, the Goddess of Love, fertility, and wisdom, also descends into the Underworld in a way to understand herself and her darker side (Wikipedia: Inanna’s Descent). Each night, Ra journeys into the underworld and becomes Osiris-Ra, walking among the Dead (Wikipedia: Ra). While the dead themselves, in ancient Egyptian thought, journey through the Underworld to reunite the soul, spirit, and body (Wikipedia: Ancient Egyptian Concept of the Soul). Even the story of Izanagi and Izanami fit into this trope found in Human civilization, once again showing how death pre-occupies human consciousness.

The Ashen One’s descent into the Underworld, fits very well into this tradition.

After leaving the realms of the Lords of Cinder, the realities in which the Champion of Ash travels through in the base game in their initial journey, the Champion finds themselves at the Dreg Heap. The literal and figurative world’s end. The ‘end of the world’ here is an incidentally good bit of wordplay — it is the ‘end of the world’ in all senses of the world: at the end of time and the end of life. Here, the churning lands have converged around a dead archtree, crunching and leaving nothing but ash in its wake.

This is in itself somewhat of a reference to the Book of Revelation:

“The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.” (Revelation 6:12–14 NIV)

The Archtrees in and of themselves, by the way, are seemingly references to the Norse mythological tree of Yggdrasil, the tree of myth connecting the nine worlds of Norse cosmology (Wikipedia: Yggdrasil). It may also be a reference to the eight great trees in Vedic belief, growing out of one of the dismembered pieces of Rudra’s body. These places are also known as the eight great charnel grounds (Rigpawiki: Eight Great Charnel Grounds) and surrounded by a corona of flame.

It is through an Arch Tree the Champion of Ash descends through, landing in a familiar place that is now the domain of a pair of Demons attempting to survive. The arena in and of itself, might be more interesting than the actual fight, being that it is the remains of the Firelink Shrine from the first Dark Souls. The Champion of Ash has walked backwards through time, through the layers of realities that have preceded them and within an Arch Tree found the shattered corpse of the original Firelink Shrine.

Wandering forward, the Champion finds the standard of Gwyn and a gateway taking us further ‘beneath it all. (Fextralife:Lapp)’ This gateway, formerly the home of Frampt and the way in which we traveled to the Kiln, has become our gateway into the Underworld. In this, it holds much in common with other mythologized gates to the underworld that one might find in our world. Similarities to the Lacus Curtinus, Pluto’s Gate, and the Cave of the Sibyl are probably intentional (AtlasObscura). Once through the gateway, the Dark Sign Sun is nowhere to be seen and only the barest hint of the Ringed City can be viewed through the clouds.

The Cave of Sybil

The Ringed City itself, takes its form from the classical Mandala, though broken and collapsed on one side in a bit of narrative foreshadowing. In Hinduism and Buddhism, the Mandala is a simulacra of the Universe, where each pattern used in it is representative of the cosmos. And surrounded by a ring of Fire which signifies wisdom and impermanence (Wikipedia: Mandala). Further, the Ringed City itself seems to be a reference to Shambhala — which to Western Audiences may recognize with the name Shangri-La (Wikipedia: Shambhala).

Shambhala is thought of as an occluded, mystic kingdom where, at least to Theosophical thought, is an extra-dimensional spiritual reality where the governing deity of Earth dwells and “is an expression of the Will of God (Wikipedia:Shambala)” In Buddhism and particularly the Vishnu Purana, Shambhala is also the birthplace of Kalki — the final incarnation of Vishnu before he will usher in a new Golden Age (Wikipedia: Kalki). Traditionally, Shambhala in art-work is depicted in a mandala with the center being what is known as the Bindu, where creation began (Wikipedia: Buddhism Cosmology).

Kalachakra Mandala Courtesy: Wikipedia

In essence, the message being sent is simple: the Ringed City is where everything began and where it will end.

Beneath its visual narration, however, there is something else going on in the Ringed City, just beneath the surface. The Ringed City, is an Underworld masquerading itself as an Elysium. At once both a kingdom and a prison given to the Pygmy Lords by Gwyn. It is an Underworld that takes many narrative cues and symbols from such places as the Hebrew Sheol and Revelations, with its own version of Persephone at its heart.

In the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, the Sheol is a ‘place of darkness to which all the dead go (Wikipedia: Sheol).’ This is regardless as to who you were in life, whether you were Lord or Pauper, Sage or Idiot, or even righteous or evil. The Sheol, a place of stillness and darkness, was awaiting every one of them. Another word that comes with ‘Sheol’ and may be thought of in the same breath, is the word ‘Abaddon,’ which means ‘place of destruction. (Wikipedia: Abaddon)’

In Christian eschatology, however, Abaddon isn’t simply a ‘place’ like it is in Jewish scriptures, it is also an entity: “And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. (Revelation 9:11 KJV)” For Christian eschatology, Abaddon is an Angel of the Abyss and the King of the Plague of Locusts. Revelations describes the Abaddon as,

“like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months (Revelations 9:7–10 NIV).”

This should strike those who have played through The Ringed City as familiar to the Locust Preachers, who are both enemies and NPCs throughout the Ringed City. They speak to, and preach on, the virtues of the Abyss, hoping to bring more to the Dark (Wikidot: Preacher’s Right Arm). Tellingly enough, and confirming their identity and role within the Ringed City, in the game’s code the Locust Preachers are named ‘Abaddon (Sandask).’ Each one speaks about the Sins, or bad kharma accrued, by past NPCs. Namely: Alva who couldn’t let go and chased after ghosts, Eygon who was afraid of his charge, Irina who was also afraid of herself, and Sirris who killed her own flesh and blood.

It is the Locust Preachers, burrowing upwards from the Abyssal Swamp, who are heralding the End and heralding the final destruction of the Ringed City, with a common refrain of, “Fear not the Dark.”

On our journey we find out that along with Gwyn’s ‘gift’ of the Ringed City to the Furtive Pygmy, and Lordship over it, Gwyn offered his youngest, beloved daughter Filianore to them. Filianore herself, seems to take on a Persephone-esque role. She is the Goddess of new growth, adopting the crest of new growing grass as her own, and is the Goddess behind the power of the Chloranthy Ring — Chloranthy being the process by which a flower’s petals become leaves — and the Grass Crest Shield (Wikipedia: Persephone).

In Greek myth, Perspehone was likewise the Goddess of new growth and the Spring and was also the daughter of Zeus — one of the very inspirations of Gwyn himself. In the Fall and Winter, she was brought into the Underworld as the wife of Hades in a very similar way that Gwyn gave his own daughter to the Pygmy Lords, along with their Lordship. (Wikipedia: Persephone) Filianore holds a very similar function, symbolically wed to the Pygmy Lord and the Dark Soul, as told to us by Shira, “As the fire waneth, does she lie by the dark, all for the sake of Man (Fextralife:Shira).” In so doing, FIlianore fulfills another of Persephone’s roles, as Homer tells us, “who carries into effect the curses of men upon the souls of the dead (Homer. Odyssey, 10.494).”

Shira, as it turns out also asks us another question — to put Darkeater Midir to rest. Midir isn’t the only dragon to be associated with the Underworld, however. Kur in Sumerian thought is one such who was both the first Dragon and a name of the Underworld (Wikipedia: Kur). However, the name Midir, as YouTube user Nitenshi pointed out and further explained by the Mythology Dictionary is an Irish God of the Underworld (MythDictionary: Midir).

In some occasions within Irish Mythology, Midir is also identified as Gwyn (MythDictionary:Midir). Speaking to the possibility that the Dragon was named to honor Gwyn.

For Shira, putting Midir down is a mercy and a preventative measure, as the Dark that Midir fought against has been invading his own Soul. As we know from the Abyss Watchers’ story, fighting the Darkness only results in Pyrrhic victories; eventually the Dark will win.

When we come to the throne room of Filianore, we find her fast asleep and cradling the shell of the World Egg, that which perhaps nurtured the Dark Soul. Touching it breaks it and wakes Filianore. As her blackened eyes alight upon the Champion of Ash she disappears in a flood of white light, breaking whatever final seal was placed upon the world. Did she know that her beloved Father would never come for her? Waking Filianore both destroying the illusion of Elysium placed upon the Ringed City by Gwyndolin (evidence for this being his symbolic sentry position on Filianore’s doors), and breaks Filianore’s dream, revealing the Underworld for what it is and removing the one thing keeping the world afloat. After all, it is through her power that our character’s stamina regenerates quicker, her dream does the same for the world and without it — the world dies.

The death of Filianore’s dream reveals a place shrouded in dark and covered in Ash.

Here we find Gael, who was probably the reason for the partially broken shell. He found the Pygmy Lords, but what he found was nothing but dried, desiccated blood (FextraLife:Blood of the Dark Soul). Knowing he would be enslaved to it and ruined by it, but remaining true to his promise, he devoured what was left of the Dark Soul in an attempt to give it new blood, his own blood to empower it anew. Luck was on his side that it was the Champion of Ash that found him.

The Dark Soul enslaved the Slave Knight Gael and burned him away from within, resultant from his Dark Sign Seal, while simultaneously empowering him with the same Greed that makes us Human — as per Patches and Aldia — the desire to live.

When Gael is felled, there is nothing but the scream of silence and the Champion of Ash is confronted with a dead world.

With the Dark Soul, the Champion of Ash is able to return to the Painter. A God in her own right, she creates worlds and visions — understanding but not absorbed by Fire — and knowing the delicate balance that dark and light must play. The Painted World that she will create is more than just a simple painting but a new world, a new reality, for the Champion of Ash to lead those left to and to begin the new Age.

Power In the Blood:

Bonfires are more than simple warp and check-points within the game world and The Ringed City finally tell us a little reason as to what makes them so important. Humanity and the Blood are intrinsically linked, and why Luck — the ‘essential property intrinsic to Humans’ (Wikidot:Anri’s Straight Sword) — also governs bleed and poison. Blood is the vessel by which Humanity is carried and blood is created in bone marrow. This, then, is why bonfires are created from the bones of Humans rather than wood, why Gael couldn’t find the Dark Soul of Man in the desiccated corpses of the Pygmy Lords, why the Painter needed Blood laden with the Dark Soul of Man to create a new world, and why Ariendel kept feeding the Flame of the Painted World his own blood.

Humanity lives in the Blood, falling in line with thought in our reality. Such as in Greek Mythology where the Blood of the Gods was called Ichor and was sacred (Wikipedia:Ichor), and the Blood of Christ is so central to Judeo-Christian religions as seen in the gospel song, There is Power in the Blood (Wikipedia: Blood of Christ).

From The Forgotten Recordings, Mahalia Jackson — YouTube

Blood is exceedingly important because of its ability to house Humanity. Through Humanity, and through Blood, can we travel through the realities that the Bonfires allow us to visit, as Heirs to the First Flame and the last Flame of Humanity.

“So Dark the Con of Man”:

Realizing what we do of the End in the Ringed City, gives both credence to what Kaathe and Frampt stated when recounting Humanity’s occluded history. It also fills in some of the blanks. Gwyn feared the Dark of Humans, this much is certain. He feared his fate and destiny, and his age being dethroned, a fear Gwyn shared with Zeus.

Because of this fear, Gwyn placed the Dark Sign on humanity to seal in Life, in a manner akin to what was done to the Ringed Knights, whose gear and weapons read something similar to, “…betrayed a smidgen of life, For this reason the gods cast a seal of fire upon these swords, and those who possessed them (Wikidot: Ringed Knight Straight Sword).” The Dark Sign then, was a seal placed on Humanity by the Gods to prevent life.

“Once, the Lord of Light banished Dark, and all that stemmed from humanity. And men assumed a fleeting form. (Wikidot: Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin).”

Perhaps this is the truth of becoming Hollow. That life is being suppressed by the Dark Sign and when it manifests life has nowhere to go and devours itself, leaving the victim nothing but a shell — if that. Life is also greedy, always wanting and yearning for more, much in the same way Fire consumes everything around it. So suppressed, ‘Life’ was made to be something else. But this ‘something else’ this ‘peace’ is a lie, an illusion, and a facade as Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin explains to the Seeker of the Throne.

Gwyn, then, became as a God to give Humanity something to fight for and believe in; leaving his children to shepherd Humanity and sacrificing his youngest to his fear.

The Ringed City, the Kingdom, must have sounded to the Furtive Pygmy as a sort of forgiveness. But the City proved itself a doubled edged sword for it was also the Pygmy’s prison and created him as a Lord of the Underworld; to be forgotten by his descendants because of fear of death and the Last Flame.

“…One’s demise is always one’s own making…”
— Hawkeye Gough

Thanks:

AssaulterBob for Editing.

Citations:

Further Reading:

Gaming
Dark Souls 3
Eschatology

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Dianna

Written by Dianna

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Generalities and random thoughts that have fallen out and I am too arsed to pick up. Discord: https://discord.gg/vQn52Rg

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