#Lothric castle

[julijbee]

do you think it will rain?

[lothricsage]

Gertrude, the heavenly daughter (rkgk) 👸🪽

[areas-of-fromsoft]

DS3 Round 1, Match 1. Favourite Area?

[confusedlocalgod]

Yeah but video games do be filling that niche tho.

From the Dark Souls series we have:

Anor Londo, the realm of the gods

Castle Drangleic, the dark tower in an eternal storm

Lothric Castle, home of the last Lord of Cinder

Not to mention the ever changing castle that created a new genre, Dracula's Castle-Castlevania from well Castlevania

And the Granddaddy of them all

BOWSERS CASTLE FROM MARIO

animated fantasy films just don’t make fucked up evil castles like they used to

[tzitzki]

Rhys the Omitted and Lorian, Elder Prince

Rhys is a knight still linked to her liege's soul, though that's all that remains, forcing her to endlessly roam until she falls in battle defending the remainder of what she vowed to protect.

TLDR; strong knight go brr (sad remix)

[cactus-chowder]

You don't want to know me now [xxx]

[mailperson]

Dark Souls 3 felt like they gave someone’s souls fan game concept a full budget and team. Occasional fascinating segments and concepts drowned by the most bland and inoffensive locales and ideas, tired criticism but extremely bogged down by its parallels to DS1

[blades-of-miquella]

Millicent being Malenia early on is an oddly common theory but has literally zero evidence behind it. They have different VAs at least as early as the CNT credits, which would have been super far back as Malenia's credited VA isn't Warner there,and Marland said her character was "looking for her mum." Millicent in eventparams is also named マレニアの娘. Likely our "dearest companion" status was just a result of Milli's quest, getting Malenia the dew needle followed by more talking and saving Miquella.

given they both had different VAs and there's evidence recording for elden ring went on for a very long time (per miquella's VA's linkedin stating she recorded with them for a year), i'm not sure if this is strong evidence of anything. the credits aren't exactly a great source of info because for example rico's VA is never credited across 1.00, CNT, or release, despite rico's voice lines being included in the CNT. the 1.00 credits itself uses placeholder names for the majority of the npcs.

it's also worth stating a lot of this earlier 1.00 lore is likely from the earliest drafts, before they even began voice recording.

on the topic of 1.00 text, the needle is specifically said to suppress malenia's rot. other 1.00-specific text doesn't attribute the rot to specifically malenia in the same way (rather that it's just an illness of legend) so to me that implies that the idea is to treat her with the needle and not millicent.

it's also worth pointing out again that millicent is the only character who happens to not have an entry in the designworks. this would not be the first character that this happened with either, as yura was initially conceptualized as guilbert (whose armor set was later given to jerren!).

but moreover malenia being millicent in an earlier version smooths over the rough areas of the questline, clarifies things like the bloom at the haligtree, contextualizes the "valkyrie's prosthetic" and the needle in particular more coherently. when combined with the fact that the player definitively did speak to malenia at some point, and had the opportunity to become closer to her.... the reason it's such a popular idea is because that it makes sense and addresses issues that arise with millicent's questline as presented.

fwiw i'm not taking this as like Literal Development History or Fact, hence my use of 'implication'. it's just that we know both miquella and malenia (and mohg, by proxy) went through a truly ridiculous amount of deep and lengthy rewrites throughout the course of development, in part to facilitate removing miquella's character, so naturally i would assume millicent was part of that.

[siofra-river]

Trying to find non dlc areas to invade that isn’t anor londo

[lothricsage]

Happy Halloween from Lothric Castle and Anor Londo 🎃🧡🤴🤴 🌙👰‍♀️🧡🎃 (very late)

[prismatic-starstuff]

Just unironically read a post talking about an 'eldritch horror' as 'Aldrich horror' and I do not like that actually—

[neanmoins-que]

<3

(still) human Aldrich by @/All_Lee24 on twi

[espace--positif]

I've been replaying Dark Souls 3 recently, and I realized that there are a lot of parallels between Miquella and Lothric. So naturally, I wrote a way-too-long post exploring these parallels.

The notion of a Lord of Cinder and an Empyrean are already similar enough - both are chosen to ascend to a great purpose that is determined for them. Lords of Cinder have to rekindle the First Flame, and Empyreans must become the vessel of the Elden Ring. In this, both Miquella the Empyrean and Lothric the Lord of Cinder are chosen by a higher power to continue some form of cycle (maintaining the First Flame / maintaining Order).

Miquella and Lothric are interestingly both cursed with similar afflictions, and they share these afflictions with a loyal, ever-devoted twin. Miquella and his twin Malenia hold somewhat opposing curses - everlasting youth and stagnation - and both were sickly in their youth.

Lothric's curse is more complex, as it isn't an inherently shared curse. Lothric is born sick, frail, and weak, never growing (like Miquella), and Lorian decides to shoulder part of Lothric's curse later in life, even at the cost of his own body's condition.

Lorian, raised as a knight, is said to have been left mute and crippled by his younger brother's curse. It is also said that Lorian, in fact, wished it so. (Lorian's Set, Item Description)

Malenia and Lorian, twin counterparts to their godly siblings, have an undying allegiance to Miquella and Lothric. Lorian essentially sacrifices himself for Lothric, and is even referred to as the "unyielding sword of Lothric's prince" by Lothric during the boss battle. Malenia, Blade of Miquella, adopts this moniker herself, but is also referred to by Miquella as "my loyal blade" in the intro cutscene to the PCR fight. Miquella and Lothric both inspire undying and unconditional devotion and loyalty in their respective twins (and even their followings) - Malenia and Lorian's sacrifices are not borne out of an ask nor a debt, but instead seem inexorable and weaved into their very existences.

Miquella and Lothric's stories should arguably converge as they're forced to confront similar circumstances - the unfairness of the world, the neverending cycle, the burden placed upon them by higher powers. But the decisions they made and the way their stories end couldn't be more different.

We find Lothric and Lorian, now united in soul, in the depths of the castle, having given up on changing the ways of the world, having refused to link the First Flame, simply waiting to watch the world end.

The two princes rejected their duty to become Lords of Cinder, and settled down far, far away to watch the fire fade from a distance. A curse makes their souls nearly inseparable. (Soul of the Twin Princes, Item Description)

Now, the "End of Fire" and "Usurpation of Fire" endings teach us that there are some potential ways to end the Age of Fire and fix the world. I say potential because, in true Fromsoft fashion, we can't know that this definitively fixes the world. In "End of Fire", there are tiny flames dancing on the horizon, implying that another Age of Fire will inevitably come back. And I can't say with certainty that the Age of Man in "Usurpation of Fire" would be free of stagnancy and decay, which plague the Age of Fire. Just as there is no definitive good ending in Elden Ring (yes, not even Perfect Order, but that's a story for another time), there is no definitive good ending in DS3.

Now, does this mean that trying to fix the world is a futile endeavour?

Lothric believes so. Miquella does not. And honestly, who's to say which one of them is right?

This is where their stories diverge. Lothric learns more about the nature of the world, of flame, and of the abyss from his mentor (widely accepted to be Aldia, who would have uncovered and studied Gwyn's sin and how it doomed humanity).

The first of the Scholars doubted the linking of the fire, and was alleged to be a private mentor to the Royal Prince. (Soul Stream, Item Description)

The way I see it, a combination of Lothric's insight on the true nature of the First Flame, and the ways he personally saw how cruel the world and its people were, particularly how the Royal Family treats him and Lorian as tools (a means to the linking of the flame) convinces Lothric that the world isn't worth saving. He becomes jaded, removes himself from the equation, and is the reason the events of DS3 take place in the first place - we literally have to drag him and the other Lords to sit on the thrones as smouldering remains (I still maintain that we are the bad guy for doing this). Knowing what he knows thanks to Aldia, which I presume includes the possibility of "End of Fire" and "Usurpation of Fire", Lothric still does not seek out a solution - and we know he would be more than capable with Lorian's help, as evidenced by their immense prowess in combat against a pretty beefed up Ashen One.

In constrast, Miquella also witnesses the cruelty of the world, but he isn't exactly privy to all its details, nor the fallacies in the notion of elevating a single being to godhood and letting them forge the shape of Order. Hell, we only really find out at the very end of Elden Ring, if we follow Goldmask's questline, that the world will continue to be messed up as long as the fickleness of gods persists. And that's not even the end of it; we're still not sure that the Greater Will is an impartial and dispassionate entity (I don't think that it is, seeing as it's one half of the One Great, its counterpart being the Frenzied Flame aka Chaos, which is definitely not dispassionate). The Greater Will craves order by any means necessary, and this thrusts the unjust burden of existence as an Empyrean onto willing and unwilling participants.

All this to say, the nature of Elden Ring's world is more complex than we understand, and more complex than Miquella understands. This gap in knowledge might be why he persists in his naive beliefs that he will be the one to fix the world, that he will usher in an age of compassion, where the cruelties which forged him are banished, and where all the suffering he has witnessed (and tried to mitigate with the Haligtree) will cease to exist. Miquella, like the Greater Will, tramples over the notion of free will in the name of a greater cause when he finally ascends to godhood in SOTE.

So Lothric exercises his free will in letting the world end, while Miquella attempts to excise free will from the world in order to fix it. Both end up slain by a "chosen one" who, arguably, doesn't really fix the world either, because there isn't really a definitive way to do so. There isn't really a clean, bow-on-top conclusion to this analysis, as I just thought that both these characters are really interesting parallels to each other.

Both Miquella and Lothric are characters who are dealt some awful cards since birth and are sprung into roles that they didn't get to choose. Miquella's ending is especially tragic, because he ends up abandoning the very fabric of who he is physically and spiritually, leading him to commit horrendous acts, to abandon his twin, and to lose himself even further despite ascending to godhood. Lothric, in choosing his death and rejecting the mantle of Lord of Cinder, can remain himself, small, frail, and cursed, yet whole alongside Lorian until the end.

---

Whew, that was a lot. If you made it this far, thank you for reading! DS3's lore has got me in a chokehold right now, so I just had to get some of these thoughts out. I love talking about this stuff, so please feel free to interact if you have anything to add, anything you see differently, etc. :)

[septemberlikestea]

big shadow of the erdtree final boss spoilerful thoughts. really long and rambly read!

a problem i have is that i LOVED how miquellas story unfolded and how well it fit in with most of my previous thoughts about him. like that hes kind and has truly noble and good intentions but doesnt completely refuse to use force if pushed (his charm to subdue any ill intent towards him, malenia serving to enact violence on his behalf), the curse extending beyond eternal youth to twist his fate into dangling his full potential just out of reach all the time (failing to save malenia from the scarlet rot, failing to either revive or fully kill godwyn, the haligtree failing to grow into a new erdtree, failing to bring in a new age because we kill him, etc) and that he truly does tend to make others do work for him (likely because of his eternal youth and therefore fragility). it was so compelling to me.

the fresh revelations about him i also enjoyed so thoroughly (how his charm actually works, st trina, how he truly sees the world the way a child does - there is injustice and thats unfair, everyone should be kind to everyone) and the way the messages of the crosses slowly went from him abandoning his flesh to abandoning aspects of his very being... i havent played dark sauce three but making him act as the lothric of the final boss is also very interesting because i do very much enjoy how these games take old concepts and play with them like dolls. its very fun and a unique way of storytelling that fromsoft can do with how rich their game history is.

somehow i did not find myself terribly upset with the lack of mentions of malenia (even though its still a bit.. hmm the way malenia cannot be mentioned without miquella but miquella... can. and is mentioned without malenia) due to how miquellas journey seems to have taken him to the rauh ruins and romina, who accepted and embraced the rot? im a little confused about how dryleaf dane is a summon for her even though hes on miquellas side but tbh the followers of miquella do some pretty misguided things because they want to be closer to him. im still inclined to believe romina could be an ally to miquella or at least agree with his philosophy - she guards the sealing tree that protects him in enir-ilim. she is compassionate, reaching out to the abandoned pests and aeonian butterflies to comfort them. miquellas statements on the order he intends to bring (the age of compassion and love) doesnt say anything about the rot, because the rot itself isnt inherently cruel or loving. it just is. and there isnt any obvious sign of conflict between miquella and romina that i found - and it ties in interestingly to how miquellas cut dialogue for malenias phase transition says "let all things flourish, whether graceful or malign." which always read to me like he is accepting that he cant help malenias scarlet rot beyond what he already did, now choosing to love and embrace her even as she becomes something other than herself. of course, cut dialogue is cut dialogue, but i find that it does offer some insight into the direction miquellas story could have taken and possibly did take.

...but i just cant get over how much of an asspull radahn 2 was like 😭 i did the questlines and i suspected he was going to be there from the dialogues (i still believed the leaks were fake because lets be real. he did look very modded) and i can KIND OF look back and see that there were things that MAYBE served as foreshadowing in the main game... like the st trina items in caelid or the lilies by redmane castle and that the true reason for the battle of aeonia was never wholly clear. i wont count the trailer whisper because that could have been anything. like i KIND OF can get behind the fact that radahn, being a sorcerer and a son of the greatest sorceress to ever live #1 queen rennala, would have a primal glintstone and therefore a soul that is quite friendly to being moved from body to body. we have at least two examples of this occurring, from characters with stories that involve quite a bit of body hopping and also are related to radahn being slain - ranni (his SISTER!!) and sellen (who is the character that introduces the concept of properly switching bodies).

so rannis body is made in her mentors image (though likely the face isnt the snow crones) but even if it wasnt - its a manmade puppet that can be made into anything. it also doesnt look anything like rannis empyrean body, being small and blue. sellens bodies are also puppets and we see that they dont suddenly morph in appearance to fit her soul - her old and new body have different hair colors and facial features. they look like her because they were made to look like her!

so why!! does radahn 2 look absolutely nothing like mohg!! the tiny horns on his arms are the least mohg thing he could have - mohg didnt have horns there!! where are mohgs horns that poked out his eye? where are the wings?? why is he so yassified. like.. hello... we established with ranni and sellen that the newly inhabited body doesnt change to look like the soul. if anything the soul itself might change to fit the body - rannis spirit face doesnt match up with her empyrean bodys face. what the hell happened there.

miquella was not established to be able to give makeovers to people, i dont think. like thats not a thing he was ever stated to be able to do in main game? but he can do that now? what happened? the intent seems to be that radahn 2 is a younger version of radahn but why is that... is it miquellas eternal youth applying to him now too? is he doing some twin prince curse sharing that makes his and radahns age even out? why is he wearing his old armor though.. and if radahn 2 is the idealised version of radahn from miquellas childhood memories im just a little confused why that is. was war enthusiast radahn really so reclusive that miquella never saw him since then? was miquella too busy to go to caelid? were all paintings of radahn property of rykard, even though rykard also seems to have interacted with miquella to some degree? i feel like the reason why radahn 2 looks the way he does is very much lost on me.

i feel like the already bad perception of radahn 2: electric boogaloo i got from having the buildup be so scarce in comparison to the other final boss (elden beast admittedly is a little twist boss but radagon is VERY well established through your whole journey, you learn so much about him as you go) combined with the fact that hes literally being dragged from the grave of his pretty complete story to be here... was made so much worse with his design. wouldnt it have been so much more enjoyable if he was a little... you know... fromsoft freaky. like good ole ludwig the horse-man abomination. or the one reborn. or godrick. or putrescent knight. ???

like even the fact that shamans had flesh that had the property of being able to fuse with others contributes little to explaining why radahn 2 looks the way he does - there shouldnt be any radahn flesh? alexander ate it armor and all? its just his soul in there? argh.

and the fact that omen horns disappear on death (sometimes! aka with morgott, mohgs literal twin. doesnt seem to work this way for other cruicible horned beings?) doesnt seem to be related here because radahn 2 HAS horns. and also two eyes. did he just... always have little horns under all his armor? why is this being revealed now.

also what kind of kindness did radahn have... kindness towards sellia? towards his horsey? the cut description of his cat? he is described as a general, his armies love fighting and war. hes godfreys #1 stan, and godfrey killed soooo many giants for being.. giants. waging war was so central to godfreys being that losing the opportunity to fight made him worthless to marika. he is loving towards dead morgott and that doesnt make him a kind person. radahn being a person and capable of experiencing love doesnt make him a kind person!! what did i miss!! i dont really think there was a retcon but i definitely think that something is really really lacking with this specifc bit.

to close this off ill say that initially i full-on hated the boss reveal. both how it worked as our first meeting with miquella and radahn 2. my feelings have settled a lot since then! but while reviewing miquellas story made me feel satisfied with his arc, i am really really struggling to enjoy radahn being... there. and he definitely is just There. he exists. doesnt say anything. with how little influence he has on the dlc plot i feel like they could have just cut the middleman and kept mohg around. would have honestly worked well enough with the formless mother influence everywhere. though frejya would probably have to go with radahn and that would suck. is it worth having an unsatisfying boss in order to have a very enjoyable npc? i dont know what to think.

also the vessel and lord thing is really adding a new layer of "???" with godfrey. is he also possessing a body that wasnt his??? is there some deep lore about how godfrey is the soul but hoarah loux is the body??? god. i dont know. i dont know.

i do expect that my opinions will inevitably change somehow as time goes on and i find more connections between things... but after 2 weeks of digesting the lore im still not liking how this all turned out.

TL;DR: i love miquella but why is radahn there.

[beesmygod]

dark souls 3 post

but like. has anyone noticed that vordt and the dancer have the same dynamic as carim knights and their maidens? the whole thing about carim knights is that they accompany nuns who are attempting to become firekeepers. they are tied to this one girl for as long as they live, right. vordt and the dancer are basically within a stone's throw of each other on the map and his soul says explicitly that he was always by her side.

like all carim knights, vordt carries a big mallet as a weapon and his helmet looks like a gargoyle, even if its been warped and twisted by magic along with the rest of him. here's eygon of carim compared to vordt's concept art to get an idea of what i mean by their surface similarity:

the dancer on the other hand...maybe something is getting lost in translation? in particular, the information revolving around her relationship to the "former royal family". what is a "distant daughter" lol. wtf does that even mean. isnt it kind of nonsense. it is deliciously vague about WHICH royal family she came from though. context clues would suggest lothric castle, but if she came from the boreal valley, then why couldn't she have been a goddess from the "old" anor londo/irithyll royal line (defunct as of the time of the game)?

morne, the carim knight the tradition is based off of, served the goddess caitha. it's not totally out of pocket i think to imagine vordt and the dancer come from similar circumstances.

most critically, i do not think the dancer is gwynevere, a common theory. you can change the dancer's soul into a miracle described as being "granted to the maidens of the Princess of Sunlight". to compare, the soul of the powerful goddess of rebirth rosaria can only be used to create a miracle described as simply being "granted by the Princess of Sunlight".

[girlballs]

god what the fuck was wrong with fromsoft during the ds3 era wrt item drops. all the elemental infusion gems drop from like 1 or 2 enemies each, like. oh you want lightning gems? fuck you, go all the way to archdragon peak or the end of lothric castle