#zullie and alva

[agzdegrey]

Lovers until The End 🥀

[alberichfanpage]

Welcome back Zullie and Alva

A witch and her raven <3

OUR WHAT

[empthylee]

Black Witch's scheme💝

[goonevere]

Zullie x Alva

[jowanana]

Family

[katyspersonal]

By now I had not one but TWO dreams featuring Saint Serreta shown in person, and in both she had her hair and eyes turn very white, so now I am thinking about what was the deal with her 🤔 The case of incurable illness in the setting with healing miracles, healing waters and so on feels like a big deal. Besides, her being a Saint feels like she would be in Lindelt and it makes it even more significant that clerics could not heal a person who is basically their princess lol

It makes me think of Blighttown and Fair Lady becoming sick by absorbing illness of people effected by that blight. At the same time, Lindelt takes root from Drakeblood Knights who attacked Shulva - another place effected by awful poison! It isn't really in the game, but developers clarified that Sinh was absorbing poison from the earth by sleeping on it:

Maybe this sort of blight is basically an early version of Scarlet Rot: something that just exists in nature and setting and can't be cured, only can be stalled (or in the case of Dark Souls, taken from someone by becoming sick instead of them). Eigiy was banished from the Great Swamp FOR playing with poison so I questioned whether this is exactly what other Pyromancers feared, and he eventually unleashed this force of nature in where Blighttown is now? Yulva tried to cure people there and could not. Seems like nobody really could do anything besides just isolating the place and making Gaping Dragon eat the key. It is incurable.

In any case, it is possible that surviving Drakeblood Knights were blighted too and so, people in what is now Lindelt were sick for generations! Until Serreta appeared and discovered a way to heal them by accepting their illnesses as a surrogate.. until she no longer could. But martyrdom like that is more than enough to earn a rank of a Saint! Also makes her same trope of character as Astraea and Fair Lady, and we love reused tropes in Fromsoft! Alternatively, it could also be something simpler like her descending from one of those sickly survivors and inheriting illness. People should really think hard how their children and children of their children will live and pay for their sins before doing dumb shit no one asked for! Or maybe she is a descendant of Yorgh, and of Shulva surviving descendants snuck into her trust, never having their ancestry found out, and found a way to poison her as revenge and sense of retribution!

There is also a thing that Serreta had to be a good person, or as good as someone involved in Lindelt authorities could be. Zullie wished to sabotage Alva's quest of finding cure for Serreta but eventually changed her mind and came around to start helping him instead! Zullie apparently didn't like a holy person in power as a witch, they are natural enemies. But also if Serreta had blood on her hands and infamy as one of rotten clerics, I doubt Zullie would change her mind. Zullie must have wished Serreta death not for what she did, but for what she represented 🤔 And Alva would be the one to give insight on actual character of Serreta, that she didn't deserve the ire and generalising razor, if not had plans to make peace with witches and other hated people if she lived to do so.

I kind of question a fourth explanation of this: assassination attempt! Lindelt clerics' sect hides a nasty secret of their shameful past, they've blurred the history and they act very authoritarian! Those who tried to learn the truth "simply disappeared"! It is likely that Serreta herself was oblivious of what really happened in Shulva, and tried to figure it out (maybe along with Alva too). So, they poisoned her with dragon venom they definitely had now, so it looked like she suddenly gotten sick and would distract her from prying for sure! (Besides, the trope of an authority being manipulated and pushed around by oligarchy or cult within their own subjects fucks)

I guess in any case Serreta payed for the sins of her ancestors, and definitely didn't deserve to.

[fantomette22]

Girllll so you got struck with now ESPECIALLY liking Malenia and Miquella? x) What triggered it, exactly? Was it something in the DLC, or just something you saw meanwhile in the fandom? Or something else?

So yeah basically it happened 😂 I mean it went step by step but still quite fast!

And yeah dlc trigger it! As such i got way more involve & more interested in them! Also i got more enthusiast to go dig fan content as well! Not sure what triggered it exactly too. I really like Elden Ring & dark souls but not to the point of being obsesses like with bloodborne h24 XD I guess when I said I wanted to wait to have the entire story, so the dlc, I wasn't joking & my brain really took it to the word lmao

But even if I tried to avoid spoilers it didn't work that much but I still put it in a corner. Spoilers are punished in the dark corner until I finished the dlc and be sure I won't accidentally spoils people too XD So idk but because of a part of it, I supposed I began to really ask myself questions how Malenia and Miquella used to be before, what cause their changed to ended up where they are etc and so idk I just finally saw how wholesome they are try to strongly imagined and day dream what their early life was.

Also I got quite a few thoughts on Miquella that make what we learn, yes tragic it already is A LOT but at least I feel more comfortable and at ease with the explanation I might have come up with! It will probably be wrong and lot of people would probably disagree but I don't care it's my interpretations and true in my heart!!!

But first I need to finish the dlc!

[shyce-overgod]

Worshippers of the Dead

This may very well show how not up to date I am, but since I've never seen it mentioned or referenced, I might as well make the proper observation.

The boss at the end of the Cave of the Dead is a trio of NPCs made up by Afflicted Graverobber, Ancient Soldier Varg, and Cerah the Old Explorer.

We call them the "Gank Squad" or "Graverobbers" or whatever else because unlike other group bosses, they don't have a common denomination. Yahim, Alessia and Ricce are the Ruin Sentinels. The Belfry Gargoyles are, well, the Gargoyles. But these fuckers at the end of the Cave of the Dead don't seem to have a common name. Until you look at the soundtrack.

The name of the song that plays when fighting this trio is called Worshippers of the Dead

And that gives paints them in a new perspective. Worshipping through imitation is something we see a lot in the Dark Souls setting. Dragons and Nito are the two main examples that come to mind. We see that Afflicted Graverobber is dressed like Alva, and Ancient Soldier Varg like a Havel Knight. And Cerah... Well, Cerah is dressed like someone. All three dressed in imitation to someone who died, at the heart of a cave dedicated to those who have died. It's easy to conclude they are tomb raiders, specially when one is literally named "graverobber" but the theme song just implies something else.

And I want to go into detail about each of these guys.

First in line is the Afflicted Graverobber, dressed in Alva's armor and dual-wielding berserker blades. The chances of this being the real Alva are minimal, if you ask me. Firstly, Alva's armor is not unique, as we know that Maughlin the Armorer just sells it to you (and, arguably, any of his other customers). Secondly, the weapons he is wielding might be the wrong ones. I'll bite the bullet and refer to the Seeker of the Spurned dark spirit in Dark Souls 3, who calls itself Alva, wears his armor, and is defending a corpse with Zullie the Witch's clothes. I'm inclined to believe that dark spirit is what remains of Alva, although how and why he ended up in the Ringed City is beyond me right now. The point is that this dark spirit wields a murakumo, which description in Dark Souls 2 reads

It's not conclusive in any way, but it could easily be talking about Alva. He was Alva the Wayfarer; he travelled the world. Further, his armor is all about being fairly lightweight but providing good resistance, which I think parallels this weapons description of having a considerable weight but smooth slicing.

All this to say, Afflicted Graverobber is imitating Alva, donning a replica of his armor and fighting with similar enough weapons.

(Or! Imitating a knight from the same order as Alva's, if you think he was part of one.)

I believe Ancient Soldier Varg is pretty self explanatory at this point. He wears a Havel set and wields a dragon tooth; he is imitating a Havel Knight. I don't think he is imitating Havel himself, because the chances of seeing a dead Havel Knight would be much higher than seeing Havel's own corpse (consider: all of his knights wore the same armor).

Finally, Cerah the Old Explorer. Easier conclusion is that Cerah is wearing Lucatiel's mask, becasue at this point Lucatiel's quest is over... But I don't like this idea one bit. Lucatiel gives you her mask. Why would this fucker have it, who isn't even wearing her armor?

And that's just it. Cerah isn't wearing the whole of Lucatiel's set. Had the Old Explorer received the mask in a different world, that would include the armor, and to properly imitate Lucatiel, Cerah would have to (and could) wear the whole thing. Additionally, it would be odd For Cerah to be worshipping someone who just died, compared to the other two worshipping people who died long ago. Hell, Lucatiel didn't even die as far as we know, she went hollow. And Alva and Unknown Havel Knight #33 both died, hence the worshipping.

Lucatiel's dialogue the first time we met her implies, to me, that her mask is not unique. She says:

You are an odd one. Normally, people keep a safe distance when they see this mask. But you…

Why would people avoid her when seeing her mask? Is she really that famous? Maybe in Mirrah, sure, but in Drangleic? Yes, you can make an argument that her mask is well known all over the land and we just approach because we've lost any memories about that, but that's just not a satisfactory explanation, y'know?

To me, it sounds like there is a group of knights who wear this mask. A group notorious and dangerous enough that people who know about it would try to avoid them, but secretive enough that when they irremediably disappear, the mask can still be known as Lucatiel's Mask much, much time later (Dark Souls 3) (although that point is null if you think the mask in DS3 is the very same of DS2). I don't think it's the shadow knights of Mirrah. Lucatiel doesn't use magic nor gives the vibes of someone who "carries out unspeakable tasks." So maybe an elite order of Mirrah knights? Maybe whoever her Lord was back in Mirrah would make his knights wear this mask, and the guy was notoriously merciless? Aslatiel also wears the same kind of mask...

Regardless, I believe Cerah found the final resting place of a knight from the same group as Lucatiel's and, like the other two, decided to wear the armor to worship that dead through emulating them. Maybe the reason Cerah wears the black leather armor is because this knight's armor wasn't available or was in too bad a state to be worn.

Long story short, I think these three are interesting, and I hope I gave you something to think about next time you go to fight them.

[katyspersonal]

Zullie feeling pangs of guilt halfway through her plan to sabotage Alva's quest be like:

okay i lied put your clothes back on we're not having sex i'm fundamentally evil and i need you to kill me

[esspurrr]

zullie: gonna make this guy experience pain agony suffering etc oh wait no hes kinda cute ☹

[astro-matic]

as you an see in the results section of my doodles research paper. p<0.01 so the findings are statistically significant: they’re all trans & in love

[alberichfanpage]

I skipped ahead quite a bit so I could save Karla and get access to more dark spells. It was very worth it

[uncleasriel]

You get it.

That game is dedicated to misery as an aesthetic. I love it. The very act of dying is a literal slow and hollowing experience. Your body doesn't work the way it used to (in the old games). You spend so much time trying to yourself beautiful but each failure slowly ages and decays you until you're a withered raisin.

It absolutely works as a metaphor for aging! But it also sucks.

And yet...the characters (and item descriptions) are so compelling!

Enough time has passed that even the names and purpose of the Old Gods has been forgotten. The Souls (and what they stood for) are barely remembered. But as Sweet Shalquior (aka best cat) says: "

"This place is already dead. Everything will crumble and waste away, so that something new may be born. Isn't it wonderful? Hee hee hee…"

And that's what Dark Souls 2 really has going on - characters who are free of that history and are loose in this tangled world to discover Rediscover? Forget? themselves in new ways. The asshole Merchant who becomes more andmorecloser to achieving his dreams the more you pay him, until he forgets everything he used to be. The pyromancer who was freed from a statue, only a stone's throw away from her srocerous teacher. The stone enthusaist, long forgotten her father's name, watched over by her mouldering but loving father.

Even NPCs we only learn about through item descriptions, like Alva the Wander, Saint Serrata,and Zullie the Witch, are utterly fascinating and compelling and even romantic, and it's a crying shame they don't get more focus in the fandom.

god i hate how DS2 has so many interesting characters that would get loved by everyone but the game fucking sucks because everyone says so so these characters will never get enough recognition

like yes even Aldia applies to this, even if he's the most loved character in the game he still has... nothing?

i feel like many souls fans just care about the flaws of the games instead of appreciating their beauty anyway, many characters in DS2 have actually very cute concepts and it would be great if i can talk about it with someone else instead of hearing hating on this game over and over

I GET IT Frigid Outskirts exist and it sucks can we PLEAASE talk about the story now?

[asexualchad]

god solaire... making so many dudes consider gay sex for the first time.... resulting in so much terrible fanfiction.....

[sweetiecenter]

So we ain’t gonna talk about how Kaguya-Sama straight up referenced Dark Souls

[katyspersonal]

@val-of-the-north said that since Afflicted Graverobber (in Shulva) wears Alva's set and Gutter Denizen (well... in Gutter...) wears Zullie's set it isn't assets reuse but they are in fact doing kinky roleplay as Alva and Zullie 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀