#witch of izalith

[ivyjinna]

Lord souls and discovery of first flame.

[maranigai]

Them.

[earlgraytay]

For the Reverse Unpopular Opinion Meme, give me Dark Souls.

Gwyndolin and the Witch of Izalith are both fascinating characters, and I really wish they got more fandom exploration.

Specifically, I wish fandom would explore the villainous/vengeance-focused side of Gwyndolin's character more often, and I wish that fandom would explore the Byronic/Prometheus/hero side of the Witch's character more often.

Gwyndolin's carrying on his family's monstrous legacy, mostly out of inertia. He's sending so many humans- "heroes" all- to kindle the flame and die in the process. And for what? Gwyn's dead, the Nameless King isn't coming back, Gwynevere is somewhere far away, and Velka fucked right off.

(Velka's another character I wish fandom would explore more. The concept of a goddess of sin is fascinating, especially given what little we know about the concept of 'sin' in Dark Souls... and the implication that she's the mother of Gwyn's children. But that's a whole nother kettle of fish.)

Point is, Gwyndolin is doing some truly monstrous things, in the name of propping up the old order. The old order that's never been particularly sustainable, and is becoming less and less so with time. The old order that full well half the playerbase wants to see torn down. His personal world's basically as over as the Age of Fire is, and keeping things The Same As They Always Were isn't making anyone happy.

Out of all the people left alive in the setting, Gwyndolin is probably the person best equipped to try to find a new way to keep the world running. But he's not even trying! He's just keeping things the same, and meteing out vengeance to anyone who gets in the way of that. For gods' sakes, the Blades of the Darkmoon cut off sinners' ears and bring them back to him.

I find Gwyndolin a deeply tragic and sympathetic figure, but I wish people would engage with this side of him, rather than just "oh, he's got a soft voice and is some kind of trans, let's assume he's never done anything wrong in his life." I'd love to see more people explore just how much of a miserable monster Gwyndolin is. How much fuckery he's doing, while not even seeming to enjoy it. How much agency he's given up to (his interpretation of) the whims of dead people, and how the nature of godhood means that giving up that agency is the worst thing he could possibly do. And how giving up that agency is honestly the politically savvy thing to do! Except that politics is dead and he should know that by now.

Similarly? I'd love to see people explore the Witch of Izalith as a tragic hero. Because, like, fandom doesn't do shit with her, but she's the one person in the setting who even tried to do (what most of us think is) the 'right' thing.

The Witch of Izalith is the one person in this goddamn world who tried to solve the trolley problem by derailing the train. The world depends on the First Flame for everything that humans need to thrive? The First Flame's going out? Okay, let's make a new fucking Flame, then, what are we waiting for?

She sacrificed everything- her followers, her daughters, her son, her husband, even her own physical form! - to try to make this work. She gave everything she had to save the world, making way more sacrifices than Gwyn or any of his children made, trying desperately to save the world-- and it was all for nothing. Her creation of demons made everything worse for everyone. But she kept going anyway, because what other choice did she have?

The Witch of Izalith's like a much more sympathetic Laurence. Sketchy, conniving, yet incredibly idealistic and passionate? Incredibly learned, but in ways that let her do more dangerously stupid stuff faster and more efficiently? Crazy enough to think this just might work?

I love her. I would love to see more fandom love for her, and her daughters, and the witches of this series in general. I get not seeing it from Tumblr fandom- we ship twinks here, sir- but honestly, I don't even see it from the reddit side of fandom that likes to ship the fromsoft waifs, and that makes me really sad.

But yeah. More love for the fucked up parts of Gwyndolin's character. More love for the Witch of Izalith and her passionate intensity.

(ETA: I realized while writing this that this turned into more salt than gushing, because my unpopular opinions about Dark Souls get salty- buuuuuut I do love me some evil Gwyndolin and some Witch of Izalith, so this stands.)

[martinisnotavampire]

The thing

[knightscanfeeltoo]

If Laurentius ever found and met Quelana and probably keeps Begging her to Teach him...

(Like how Hidetaka Miyazaki Begged From Software to do Demon's Souls I think...)

[v03]

Man, why is Dark Souls so sad that it has me crying over a half-spider, half-human girlie 😞

Anyways, I'm watching Dark Souls lore videos again because my mind has decided to forget about half of the lore (ehem, Elden Ring's fault, ehem)

[helga-ackerman]

❤️‍🔥 Witch of Izalith ❤️‍🔥

[bri-the-nautilus]

Sinner's Rise

I finally got over my writer's block! This is one I'm excited about. It's a Dark Souls/Dark Souls II piece featuring my lovely blorbos Lucatiel of Mirrah and... the Lost Sinner? She's a blorbo to me

Anyway I'm on a fucking roll right now so updates for this and Unnatural Born are gonna be hot and heavy for a bit.

[underlordmenace]

My personal headcannon is that they play poker every weekend

[arx-aru]

she's so big

(her dick must be massive im talkin hulking and bulbous)

[marikedrawinge]

Daughter of Izalith 2020

[truedarksword]

Bed of chaos

Ds1

The willow woman.

Photo taken by The Henge Shop, Avebury.

[maranigai]

They, but they're a medieval miniature.

[minespatchart]

Soulsfumos for the Witch of Izalith, stone dragon, and dragon apostle. I need to do some fumos for the upcoming video, so had to draw these ahead of time.

Commissions are open, check out my kofi: https://ko-fi.com/minespatch https://pic.x.com/g5icxL76YQ

[knightscanfeeltoo]

Johan and Peewit meeting more Dark Souls Characters like Quelaan and Quelaag...

(I know this looks Bad because this is my First Time drawing the Crab Spider Ladies...)