In the original dark souls, two bosses are linked to the catacombs: Nito, of course and Pinwheel who searches about necromancy. Necromancy is no stranger to the notion of sharing many bodies in one entity. Nito, first of the dead, is comfortable with it, but not Pinwheel who is in constant search of a way to part his bodies. I believe the rotten suffers a similar pain of sharing so many consciounesses and bodies in one entity. That would be why he moans. As for the figures, it's like the statues of the mother and the father. I think he builds one statue for each of the bodies that join him in a vain attempt to differentiate his identities and remember he was once unique.
Or maybe the statues are the Rotten's way of reminding itself that its originally Pharros. It's Pharros reminding himself who he was within the amalgamation of undead corpses.
I'm thinking maybe the statues are supposed to be Human Effigies. The Rotten/Pharros keeps making them to reclaim his true self, but cannot due to the fact that he cannot remember what he looked like. That, and for every statue made, his now collective consciousness are all trying to do the same thing, and no one can focus. Great video :)
Dark Souls lore is so interesting. I always love fighting a boss and then looking up the lore behind it. While most games are just "HEY it's a big monster! Shoot it!" Dark Souls has a deep and interesting story behind everything in it's world.
+Helldober I agree with you there! i find most games lore interesting , dark souls, skyrim etc. However after facing this boss i have only one lore for him : " The rotten....a monster created for the sole purpose of making your game nearly imposible to continue. Legends say heroes from a far and wide after facing this monster turned to madnening fury or as they would say "rage quit". Trully a terifying foe. Rumors say that his moans are actualy him saying "pownd again noob". The hundreds of statues around him are actualy the number of times you will have to die before you defeat him....if you defeat him" Yeah.......i hate that boss!
@@markosimunic4770 Wait, was he that hard? I beat in two tries though. I just kept reminding myself not to get greedy for one more hit. I just hit him one or two times and rolled and moved out. Wait for his combo and then do it again.
@@stevenlee3240 He wasn't that hard, but he can punish you hard for greediness with the grab. And his sweep attack is hard to avoid even though it gives you enough time to heal after.
I didn't even realize until like, last week, that the cat is the replacement for the guy in dark souls 1 that gives you the clues on where to go. I always just thought the cat sold you rings and said one or two things. Didn't know she had so much to say.
its weird how much the dlc's add to the lore surrounding these areas and bosses. it sorta renders this video outdated. You find pharros's mask in the second dlc, confirming where he ended up. this means he can't be the rotten. What this leaves is the possibility that the rotten is the remains of the sunken king, reanimated in death along with the castaways of the world as a horrid creature, weeping over the statues of his former queen, elana. (Elana's outfit looks like a melted version of the statues's outfit) Also, the crowns you get in the dlc's contain a reference to shalquoir claiming that nobody remembers the names of the old ones anymore. For OIK, this lines up perfectly, and it creates yet another link between the sunken king and the rotten. Also, namco leaked that the rotten had a name in development. Gryth, The Rotten. Gryth, the Sunken King has a ring to it as well.... Sinh's soul implies that he was made poisonous, since he was once pure, which would mean that elana made him poisonous when or before the sunken king built his shrine to the poison dragon, and that would explain why the statues spit poison, as that's elana's nature. Also, Nito's nature was poison, so it would make sense that he's paired to this poison city under majula. it's also possible that the gutter was created by residents of shulva, since they're well furnished and have the statues placed in and arround the homes, and eventually became a home for those cast off from the world. Also, the sunken king may be the human that broke the rat's treaty that all that the sun does not touch shall belong to rats. I'm a little rushed right now so i can't get into details, but in short. DLC is retconing lore: Pharros is not The Rotten, his corpse rests in the Iron Passage. The Statues are of Elana, the Squalid Queen Elana poisoned Sinh The Gutter may have been constructed by refugees of Shulva's poison disaster. The Rotten is the Corpse of the Sunken King fused with other corpses of the underground The Sunken King broke the Rat King Covenant
A couple things on this -> I definitely think some of the videos need "updating" / Newer versions , and as I do that, I'll provide annotations and such with the new information. - I don't think that the Pharros Mask proves that particular character with it was Pharros. While it does provide a possibility, I wouldn't call it proof. (But, yes, it does take away from the theory I provided in this video of the Rotten being Pharros). I don't believe there's any proof Elana poisoned Sinh. Him becoming purified in his description doesn't mean he was poisoned. Akin to Kalameet releasing black/dark flames, it's highly likely Sinh is a poison-type Dragon. - I think the video of mine that is the most outdated/need of fixing/annotations i the "Prince & Princess of Alken & Venn" video, as there's definitely more information pertaining to those.
DaveControlLive If its of any interest to you, here's a recent post on Reddit I made on the subject, I felt it appropriate for Lore Conversation. ....start post here.... "Sunken king is the Rotten. Elana is the visage of the poison statues. The crowns all mirror Shalquoir's dialogue about no one remembering the old ones' names anymore. Vendrick conquered the old ones, as they were the past rulers of dranglaec. Elanas nature is poison. She was designed to resemble the statues of the main game, but in a charred and rotting state. Her dress cups up her head in the same way, but its burned away above the neck. Also, her brow and the bridge of her nose are more pronounced than other female characters to make her look like the statues. The rotten is crying over the statue because its broken. You dont assemble a statue, and you can clearly see the head and neck have cracked from it breaking, on accident as the rotten is crying over it. He's also crying over it because she was his queen before he died and went hollow. He eventually built up corpses of those cast into the gutter, the gateway to shulva, and became The Rotten. Thats why you dont find his corpse in the sihn fight, it was the hollow at the shoulder of the rotten, commanding the hollows of his body as a king would from on high. Pharros aint the rotten, his corpse is in the iron passage after the super smelter demon. Also, The Rotten's in dev name was Gryth The Rotten. So the boss was never planned as pharros. The inclusion of pharros's remains in the dlc may be one of many cases where From used the dc to disprove fan theory, as they did with Varg being a dude in havel's armor to quell all the "ugh everywhere i look its havel havel havel" The gutter may have begun as refugees of the poison breath of sinh that destroyed shulva. Thats why the homes of the gutter are as well kept as they are, adorned with idols of their former queen, eventually becoming home to the castoffs of the world above. Thats why, despite having livable quarters, there isnt a single civilian hollow in shulva. They were evacuated as the soldiers fought yorgh's army. Elana's Velstadt summon becomes interesting as it seems that, with what we learn of Raime in Brume Tower, she may have had a hand in Raime's exhile, possibly making a false velstadt to trick raime and spur the rivalry that split the hands of the king, with Raime eventually becoming tainted by dark. Bonus: The Sunken King is the human king that broke the rat king's treaty with humans, settling in the lands that light does not touch, driving the rats from their burrows." ....end post here.... Hope you found some of that interesting, DCL. If you have any responses to it, please let me know. I'd love to hear it. :) Additionally: The Prince and Princess thing has gotten interesting. The lore on the trident you use to power the machine in the main tower (you lose it after using it, so most people missed the description) tells of the iron king conquering the kingdom of Venn, which is interesting, because it means Mytha and Covetous Demon are relics of the land that OIK conquered, and not directly related to his story at all. What I was thinking about, though, is the possibility of the third dlc's main area being behind Lost Sinner's bonfire. On that, Lost Sinner (Is apparently the bug, not the swordsman) is one of 3 "normal" old ones. (Freya is not technically an old one, the Ancient Dragon is the old one, but it's already out of the picture, which is why that embrace occurs the way it does, and why freya doesn't have a swirling orange soul like the others) So if they're making 3 dlc's for each of the 3 old ones that have empty bonfire rooms (Tseldora's has the dragon memories and some npc enemies to liven up it's bonfire already) then we may get a Sinner's Rise DLC area for Ivory Crown, involving a QUEEN (not a king) and we may find out the other half of the story in the former land of Alken. It may also make for an interesting dlc as it would be a journey through a blizzard to a false kiln. (It would also be interesting if the Crown belonged to a queen, as it would add gender diversity, and possibly give us a masculine shard of manus) The possibility of getting the rest of the Alken story is pretty exciting. (if that were the case, wondering if shrine of winter would still have a place, as the dlc pr mentioned something for beating all 3) But yeah, the DLC is turning shit upsidedown, and it's really exciting to think about what we'll have for the game in it's complete state after the third dlc hits in september.
DaveControlLive I may be missing something, but i thought the big skeleton hanging in the first area where you encounter the Rat Cov (above the gutter), was Pharros?
Shanelololol the pharros mask description states that he made it. Either that corpse is pharros or no one is pharros, because he's certainly not the rotten. no one knows their names anymore. Vendrick conquered the old ones, and pharros was around since after vendrick, since pharros built lockstone contraptions into vendrick's shit. In all 3 dlc's you find evidence of vendrick's forces having a presence in these areas at some time, which is probably meant to evoke what Shalquoir said. The old iron king became the demon we fought, the lost sinner possessed a prisoner, the rotten is corpses with one hollow leading the rest, and....the ancient dragon is the 4th old one, not freya. Vendrick sends you to collect the crowns that he could not. He conquered the kingdoms, but failed to attain the prizes he sought, to break the curse. (retcons) The "gryth the sunken king" was an aside and not a main point factor. The main element of that was "he had a name while they were writing the game and they removed it to fit with shalquoir's line about the old ones not having names that anyone knows." There's absolutely no reason for it to be pharros. the lockstone drops off of a hollow that falls out of the rotten. at earthen peak you find a lockstone on another hollow's corpse, and several other places. The rotten is either nameless corpses or its the sunken king. The emotional reaction it has for the statues of elana would be the clue there. Also, the rotten was not constructing a statue, as those statues are not constructed in that way. it was a broken statue that he was trying to place the head back onto. You can tell by how the neck is shattered like it cracked. you're mixing up points I said and not laying them all out.
I just realized something. In the doors of Pharros, the gyrms, (according to the item description of their armor) were exiled. And the rotten "embraced all that was thrown away into his sanctuary". I think that he welcomed the gyrms to his sanctuary, but not the black gulch, the doors of Pharros. I believe that is the sanctuary that is spoken of. I have even more proof but I need to figure it out first.
I wish more were done, lore'wise, with the Gyrm. They had such a unique look for what would normally be just more of your typical "Tolkien Dwarf" archetype. But no, just 'wheel'.
I always thought those statues were suppose to represent the Fire Keepers. Since there was three of them near the hole and the fact that there are three of them in Things Betwix just hogging around and making fun of any Undead passerby.
I believe that the statues represent the Emerald Herald, as in the Hollows in the gutter are either worshipping her or more likely cursing her ( as in the poison coming out of the mouth ) for she is the one that probably led them to their quest into the gutter or their demise in Drangleic ( and were then tossed into the Gutter ). Because the Rotten is a whole lot of Hollows fused together they are capable to create the statues. I believe that the statues represent the feelings the tossed away hollows have for the Emerald Herald, and that they are building statues of her to constantly remind them of her ( even when eventually Hollowed ). PS If you look at the statues, they have a hood and sort of resemble a female character.
As for the Pharros - Rotten connection, i think that the hollow ontop of the arm of the Rotten ( seen telegraphing the Rotten ) is Pharros, as only when you cut the arm with him on it, the Pharros Lockstone will drop..
The only thing about your theory on the hollows making the statues is that Pharros also made them and stockpiled them in Doors of Pharros and even right beside the pit. None of them outside the gutter/black gulch shoot poison, so I'm thinking maybe Pharros was spartakicked into the pit also, and used his knowledge to turn the once-revered statues of the emerald herald into weapons to reflect her nature.
What I've found odd about them is in the gutter and black gulch they spit poison at you but the ones in the doors of pharos don't, neither do the ones in majula on the surface AND the ones next to the giant ant that cures poison. Why do only those ones not try to kill you but the others do? I'm not to sure if he hates the person the statues are supposed to be though as he seems very upset that he can't fix the broken one (for my money hes definitely trying to fix a broken one not making a new one), unless its a love hate relationship he had with whoever it was, loved then but was betrayed. I'm not convinced its the herald either, Licia of Lindelt is as the crushed eye orb says a dishonourable miscreant and she has the rotunda lockstone, which not only has being a lockstone to link it to pharos sort of but its description says its a fine feat of engineering.
Barnesofthenorth That's a very good catch. Very possible Licia could have betrayed Pharros and thrown him into the well, also tossing most of the statues he made with him. Then I'm sure he could have easily modified the statues to protect his path as he descended, explaining why only the ones in the pit are poison-firing.
I know it's an old video but replaying SotFS in prep for DS3. Here is a theory what if Pharros was meant to be the next monarch. he was reported to have traveled far and wide things which we would assume any undead would have to do in order to acquire all of the Great souls. And what if upon acquiring the death soul it corrupted him. here is my reasoning, the statues look like representations of Shanalotte. If he had been attempting to become the next monarch it would have been Shanalotte leading him to do so. She also would be giving him comfort and strength. this would explain the Rotton's obsession with the statues especially since he would be unable to return from the depths of the Black Gulch. Then over many years what if that obsession turned to hatred and just maybe the poison that spews from the Shanalotte statues mouth was just as metaphoric as literal.
The statues might be the Emerald Herald. All cursed undead are drawn to her, and the Rotten is an amalgamation of many, many undead, and is fused with Nito's great soul, so it makes perfect sense that the Rotten would be obsessed with her since all the undead he's made of are obsessed with her.
All of these theories are great, except for one thing. The Rat King constantly mentions a human who was among the rats in the past. Let's assume that person is Pharros. In both the Doors of Pharros and the Grave of Saints, we see plenty of Pharros contraptions that are quite harmful to humans. If, perhaps, Pharros created these contraptions because he wanted to help the rats, it might explain why this human that the Rat King talks about is so glorified. Now, the thing that I think breaks the theory. Just past the Rat King's location in the Grave of Saints, we see a human skeleton. It seems to have been buried carefully, and it is clearly something special because... 1. It is not with the rest of the corpses in the assortment of coffins just below. 2. It is placed right next to the Rat King, meaning that it is clearly important and/or respected. 3. The skeleton is preserved almost perfectly, suggesting that it is constantly cared for. I believe that that is the skeleton of Pharros the Vagabond. That being said, the Undead on the Rotten's left shoulder is probably just another Undead. However, I do believe that there is still a link between Pharros and the Rotten. Perhaps Pharros ventured from the Grave of Saints down the Gutter and into the Black Gulch. There he might have found a fragment of the Old Dead One's Soul. (Or, maybe he found it on the way. Perhaps in one of the open coffins that we see in the Grave of Saints.) Being a master of contraptions, he might have accidentally created the Rotten with the Old Dead One's Soul. This would explain the Undead that is on the Rotten's shoulder, because if it was a Pharros Contraption, it needs a functioning part. While in the Black Gulch, it is possible that Pharros was poisoned. He might have died from poisoning shortly after reaching the Grave of Saints on his return trip. After all, his skeleton is slightly larger than a human's, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was something more than human. If anyone else would like to add to or challenge any of this, feel free to reply. I kind of made up a lot of that on the spot.
pbandme24 its near to a spot called harvels resting place .harvel might be in some item description i just feel like pharros wasn't the only human on the side of the rats.
8 years late but your point makes so much sense. I always thought of the Rotten as a personal friend of Pharos that he pitied. During his travels, Pharos may have accumulated the soul and instead of using it for himself he gave it to his friend, creating the Rotten. I assume the statues were a calling card or location claim for Pharos and it was one of the few aspects that the Rotten remembers vividly, creating them as a way of remembrance for one of the few people that cared for them. Either that or Pharos Kobe’d the soul into the pit and a bunch of undead fought for the soul, creating a mass of flesh but that’s a jokey perspective on my behalf really.
My guess would be that Pharros was an undead, eventually sent on an adventure like us by the Emerald Herald. While exploring for "Greater Souls" he came across the soul of The Gravelord Nito and was changed by it, becoming like the soul's original host, a mass of many to form one. Really can't know for sure though, the lore of these games are near pure speculation. But what story is better than the one you make?
I think there is a big possibility that you are right. And I think that the thing next to the bonfire was Pharros' attempt to make another contraption, but he was changed by the soul, and was to clumsy with his huge hands to make it. It seems like a but of a stretch but I think it's possible.
According to the new Rotten's soul description from the DX11 version, the Rotten is actually Gryth, the King of Shulva, who was terribly malformed by Sinh's poison.
What is also interesting to notice are the new mobs in the upcoming DLC. In a small part of the trailer we can see a lizardcreature that carries 3-4 of the human statues which the rotten has build. The question would be where the connection lies between these and the Rotten.
DaveControlLive did you know that when yo kill the rotten with both arms off a dead body will appear and I'm guessing its pharos. Or maybe its just when you cut his arm that is not wielding a butcher's knife. The body is cut in half.
I'm bit late, but it's ok, I guess According to what you said in your video, Pharros went into the Gutter and disappeared there What if Pharros WAS the one controlling the Rotten ? Here's my theory : Pharros went down the big hole in Majula because he heard there were living people in there who needed help (the hollows which built the wood foundations). In there, he met the Rat King, which he helped Then, he went even deeper, and he met the hundreds of people trying to escape As he couldn't escape the Gutter anymore, he managed to find a safe place to create a sanctuary for all people in need And in the middle of the cave he chose (The Rotten's boss room), he found Nito's Soul The power within the soul was so amazing, it would allow him to help all those who were in need ! He tried to call together all the undead present in the Black Gutter, but one day... The power of the Soul drove him mad And then, the soul, with it's own will, tried to reform the corpse which possessed it looong ago, by gluing together all the innocent people present in the sanctuary And The Rotten was created As it's written in Pharro's Lockstones' description, Pharros always helped those who were in sincere need And what do the statues the Rotten is repairing represent ? Yeah, Humans (or at least Undeads) I think it's just the last remaining part of Pharros, which is still trying to help other "Humans" That's my theory, you can give me your opinion about it if you want to And sorry for all possible grammar mistakes, I'm French~
This theory is severely underrated. I think it holds water, especially the speculation of why the Rotten is comprised of several undead beings glued together.
another theory is that the rats were once human, so maybe while pharros was trying to help the rat king he found ntios soul and then what you said happened
Maybe the statues are Pharros's way of mourning those undead which he assimilated into his Rotten form. He is plagued by the guilt of "gluing" the bodies to himself and wishes to atone by memorializing each damned soul. When his statues are broken, or more specifically, when a repair of a statue is disrupted, perhaps The Rotten Pharros is enraged, as his guilt resurfaces as a result of these unique gravestones being disrespected.
TeleTowbie dude your theory is just so good and adding to it what @Audible Sigh Games said it all makes sense ...but he is now the suking king ?? i didn't play this DLC yet but couldn't the sunking king be pharros in anyway ?
Having just faced the rotten and gotten my life squeezed out of me I think I have an idea what the rotten is about. I think what happened to the rotten is a paralell story of what happened to the Pinwheel (Necromancer dude stealing powers from Nito to revive his family): Probably a human has had a great loss, either his wife or daughter have died. Destraught he goes out searching for a way to bring them back and comes across the old tales of a powerfull soul that was known to revive the dead. On his search he, like many others, stumbles across Majula and finds his way to the bottom of the well. There he finds the powerfull soul and tries to revive what he has lost, but only sees how he fails. The closest he ever comes to reviving the one he has lost are the statues that are littered all over the poisonous bog. In desperation he tries and tries again, but only manages to create statues that spit poison in his face, as if to tell him that his plans are futile and he only poisons himself. With time he loses everything and his body molds together with the other bodies landing on the bottom of the well. I hope the story I wrote here makes sense. The way the rotten picked my character up and squeezed the hell out of him made me think of how you'd squeeze a fruit to get to its juice. What the rotten tries to pry from you is your humanity, what makes you cling to your life to infuse the statues he has been building for who knows how long. As the empty vessel falls to the ground it melds together with the rotten, which has something to do with the soul of Nito, who himself was a grand collection of skeletons. Another fact that has been striking me the whole time is how the statues have a beating heart. Whenever you're near a statue in the depths you can hear it's heart beat and the heartbeat stops when you smash a statue, meaning that those statues are actually alive, but without soul. The fact that there are so many and we see the rotten trying to fix one of them in his lair makes me believe, that all statues have been failed experiments to bring someone back to live. TL;DR: I think The Rotten is a character like the Pinwheel in DS1 who tries and fails to revive someone dear to him. Cheers Shareyourworldwide
The statues feel like a tombstone, where it signifies the resting place of the dead. It's likeness of the hooded woman seems to signify the emerald, though it could be that it also signifies firekeepers of the past as well.
Idea on the Demon of Song (unrelated topic) I think it's possible that the face of the Embedded is the Demon of Song's horribly creepy face. The Soul of the Demon of Song mentions that it developed a taste for human flesh. The Key to the Embedded says that the Embedded was tempted by flesh and, realizing he couldn't resist, "bound himself eternally with chains." He's waiting for someone to find his key and kill him. What if you need to kill his face before you can kill him? Finding his key requires that you kill a demon that exists only as a face and arms, but the Embedded himself is exposed entirely, except for his face. Maybe I'm stretching for a connection here, but in a game with such twisted, dark lore, it sounds reasonable to me.
Please read this!!! I belive the rotten is an other creation of lord Aldia, created with the soul of gravelors Nito and Pharros himself, and I have sone prof!! So we all know that Aldia has been doing weird speriments with souls, usually giant souls, but it s possible that by finding the souls of the old dead one he tried creatibg something else. On an item description is said that many travelers whent as guests in Aldia s keep, to then desapear, I believe Pharros was one of theese, in fact you can also find a pharros mouth in Aldia s manor. So aldia created the rotten, but it didn t come out as intentioned, so he locked him in a cage (the cage on the head of the rotten kinda resembles the cages in Aldia s manor), but at the end he decided to throw him away in the black gulch, where many of his creations can be found: the dog monsters (also found in the acid pool in aldia s manor), and the giant spider/ant. now I have no idea of what the statues rapresent, but they could be statues of Pharos, protecting the black gulch from intruders.
It's definitely possible! A few things - the Pharros contraptions can be found all throughout Drangleic. (In pretty much every single location) - the reason I harped on the Doors of Pharros and Grave of Saints is because there are so many in those areas. The giant ant is (according to the strategy guide) an ant from Jugo - and (may) be its natural size. I do like your connections with the mutated dogs, and I think it is a plausible theory!
thats a cool idea, but i kinda think that aldia was far too obsessed with dragons, to make anything like the rotten. in my oppinion, people simply rejected aldia's creations, and tossed any they found into the gutter :/
Do you wanna know one thing im dying to know that no one has talked about? the history of majula, what was it before drangleic fell, what about even before drangleic existed, why do many npcs say that its the place that everyone seems to end up?
I think there is some connection between the emerald herald and the rotten because first off the statues resemble her, and they also leak out into Majula where she is. I believe they were lovers at some point and that's why she stays in Majula most of the game. Also that is why the rotten is crying because he lost her
The Emerald Herald is probably the best candidate for it. She is quite old, as old as the fall of Drangleic, and she has made countless undead movie in a quest to become a new monarch. Pharros was likely one of these, entering the catacomb and finding he was trapped with the filth. Pharros took pity on the forgotten and helped the rats and undead build a world under it. His obsession with statues is probably either he was in love the the Herald, her beauty and some form of care for the undead might have lured him in. now he sits their, crying over what he cannot attain.
So just noticed something pretty significant. In the locked room in Aldia's Keep, across from the room leading down to the acid pits, there's a room that holds a whole mess of butcher knives hanging from the ceiling. Food for thought.
I love how you start every episode with "What's up guys, I'm Dave Klein..." (sorry if that's spelled wrong). Totally gives an awesome feel to all your videos and gives them a nice brand. Keep up the awesome videos!
you mentioned the connection between Nito and the Rotten with the soul you get in NG+ having influence over the rotten, maybe the stone faces are the few remains memories/influence of what old Nito has of his previous life and wife/love/kidnapped victim? *the assumed identity of the empty coffin next to Nito in DS1*. Just a shot in the dark!
Dave first thanks for this video, thanks to it i have formed a theory of who the statues are supposed to be. Pharrohs in his travels fell in love with a women and eventually she left him leaving him heart broken. Now in his new form he still remembers his former love crying and making statues in her honor, he even makes the statues spit poison to symbolize the pain she has made him feel.
I think the Statues look like a fire keeper like Anastacia...it may be the hood. Also the dingy set is found when going deeper down in the Grave of Saints near the Gutter.
You forgot to add; In Majula there are the statues, selectively connected with Pharos, however did you remember that in the house of Majula, behind the book room, there is a Pharos lock stone? Also, connecting the rotten to Nito, a collective of skeletons to make a whole, their are two skeletons that attack you, guarding an Estus flask shard and a chest. The chest has selective patterns which match those which were introduced in areas of dark souls 1. Hope you say 'ohhhhhhh' when you read this, just discovered it myself
The two things that interested me in this video: the undead controlling the Rotten - blew my mind; and part of the description that said 'the Pharros.' Likely just a translation error, but in that singular part it seems like Pharros isn't a person.
The Rotten's "head" appears to be a cage, and judging from the hook at the top, a hanging cage at that. There's also a few chains wrapped around the bulk of its body, so I think the majority of the undead that the Rotten is comprised of were prisoners of some sort. The butcher knife it wields is also far too large for any human, and stained with blood. Could it originally have been a Giant's armament? The questions I have about Black Gulch concern exactly where does the luminescent slime originate from (and if it is the poisonous substance the statues spit), and how did tar get all the way down there, and how did the tar in the Rotten's chamber get ignited.
Now we know because of the Sunken King DLC that the poison seeping out from the Black Gulch is actually a remnant of the massive miasmic cloud of poison Sinh the Slumbering Dragon spewed out after being attacked by Sir Yorgh, leader of the Drakeblood Knights, who worshipped the blood of dragons.
I believe Pharros is the game's way of changing Pharis from the first game (an archer whose hat becomes popular with children) and the amount of explorers wearing Pharis hats then gave way to the idea that Pharros invented the lockstone when really it was multiple corpses with Pharis hats carrying "lockstones" which were merely rocks shaped like keys for tomb contraption style locks such as the ones carried by indiana jones. Perhaps one of the explorers made it in to the rotten's arm
Dave, probably someone else already thought about this theory, but what if the statues are supposed to rapresent the fire keepers? They are what keeps the bonfires alive and sometimes they are depicted as symbols of humanity, and considering how hollows desires either their humanity back or to be dead forever, the statues resembling the fire keepers may be a mockery of them, an insult for having them condemned to a cylce of eternal non-existence, with the soul of the dead one as the last remnant of a conscience. What i wonder though is why Pharros that apparently was doing really well in the Rat Covenant just became hollow, and why the statues are even at the Doors of Pharros.
I find it much more likely that the reasoning for Pharros' influences observable on the road to The Rotten is because Pharros hailed from Shulva, a land beyond the Black Gulch, known for it's people's craftsmanship. Hailing from an underground land, it's easy to assume Pharros had an affinity for the Rat Covenant. His influences in the world matured and culminated in the Doors of Pharros, which indicates he traveled there after Grave of Saints. In the Iron King DLC, you can also find a corpse with his mask. The Iron King's land might have been his final destination in life.
Maybe the Pharros contraption in the Black Gulch Mouth was Pharros's last contraption while he was going Hollow and while he was designing it's use he came across The Old Dead One's Soul and that was what pushed him into Hollow then when he found a pile of dead bodies and used the soul on them so that's why he was controlling it & maybe the statues are of his wife / loved one and that was one of the two things on his mind when he went hollowed. Another theory was he became The Rotten before he made the Pharros-like contraption so when he tried to he found out that he couldn't because of his massive squishy hands so he turned to the only other thing ob his mind... his loved one and since he found nothing else to do he began weeping and moaning from missing her and not being able to get to her or that she would reject him for his new freakish look and started to do the next best thing, creating statues. So he slowly became better at usib=ng his new freakish hand and fashioned a Cleaver out of metal he found (possibly he found a vein while he was constructing his contraption) and Pharros quickly climbed through the Rotten to see what he was doing ( he probably went to the left because he didn't want to chop himself off). If you want to point anything out that I didn't talk about let me know!
I forgot some stiff myself so I will discuss that. The Rotten might have begun feeling upset that he knew she wasn't going to love him so he thought it would be fitting if her words ( the poison shoots out of her mouth) would poison others like she did to him possibly because she (while she was going Hollow she thought it would be best for them to break up/divorce (harshly) so then after he got to the Rotten's Lair he thought that he agreed with her and she did it for him/ her safety and realized he should forgive her so he stop making them shoot poison. Another (joke) theory is that The Rotten ejaculates poison and he overflowed the statues with....poison... and he was crying because he is a pathetic loser!
SW4G ST3PH4N0 My thinking is since Pharros is a named as a lenged maybe he could be one of the undeads that tried to venture himself saving the kingdom, at this point he meet Shanalotte and he fall in love for her. But after joining the Rat Covenant and losing himself she left him alone (Maybe the statues represent Shanalotte herself, and those who spits poison may represent the lies behind her when she left him). At this point he gone mad and after using his souls on the undeads that survived the fall (He embraces them, as the soul description suggests, cause it's like he is feeling theyr pain for being abandoned and forsaken) into the pit he became the Rotten. Anyway, sorry for my broken english.
If pharaoh was an inventor, by the time he became the rotten it was much harder for him to do what he loved, which I think is the reason he is heard mourning outside the fog wall. His statues are just figures of what he once was.
I think that the Rotten's statues are of the Emerald Herald; She is the one who shepards the undead, tells them what they should/have to do to progress in the game, and as the Rotten is composed of a mass of undead, it's not impossible that the Undead that make up New-Nito are all people that had formerly followed her, but along their journeys went hollow, and have an obsession with her even after death
i dare say the statues are statues of pharros before pharros inherited the soul of the dark old one and hollowed out into a mass of corpses. he builds these statues to remind not just others, but also himself of who he once was, and he also makes one for every undead that it consumes to grow, making so many
Just a guess but I think it would be interesting if the humanoid statues existed to give physical representation to the undead the Rotten is compromised of. Maybe it feels a loss of identity and forges the statues to remember it's various pasts or something?
I think the statues are depictions of Pharros himself. A vain attempt to be remembered after so long. Or even just for him to remember who he once was.
also the connecting to Nito and the Rotten shows that the Rotten can do the same Aoe attack like him. You know that attack were he shouts out a loud cry which souns like the same cry like the one Nitos attack does
The Lockstones are everywhere. The only thing proven by the Rotten having one is that he used to be a wandering undead much like the player character. On that note, I believe that the Rotten is Alva the Wayfarer. The statues would be of Saint Serrate. They look like they are wearing the Sain't Set and the reason that they spit poison is because it represents how she died of a terrible sickness. The Rotten is crying over the broken statue because he failed to save her. His entire welcoming embrace thing is because of the intense guilt he feels over failing her. Now I wonder what happened to Zullie...?
I've heard The Rotten is Alva theory before, and I do find it interesting. I, however, think that there's too much that points to Pharros. But, I could be wrong, and hopefully the DLC will clarify a little bit. :)
I think the statues are a representation of the rotten's hate for the Emerald Herald. the fact that they spit poison could be refering to his idea that she tells nothing but lies. I also think that the undead that sits on his shoulder is indeed Pharros. you get the lockstone from the left arm which is on the same side, and the statues themselves appearing where they do pretty much convinces me alone that he is Pharros.
Very good read, I highly enjoyed the (intelligent) posts here as a lot of knowledge was being dropped along with intuitive, well-thought speculation. GG
The statues are statues of what Pharros used to look like. He was revered at the Doors of Pharros, and because of that there are statues of him there, erected in his honor. (although small) I believe that the Rotten is recreating these statues to remind himself of who he was originally. Or maybe he makes a statue for each undead he has absorbed. I believe that to some degree the undeads he has amassed are still having a conscious or atleast a subconsciousness. And thats why they're moaning, the ones at his feet, clawing to get away. If you look closely, even the ones that face the opposite path of where he moves, claw forward.
Although the Rotten-Pharros connection is pretty good, we must remember that in Majula's mansion there's a corpse with a Pharros stone, there's this huge pile of books, including that gigantic one and even the map chiseled in stone (all appropriate things if you're a traveler creator of contraptions). Pharros could have been living in the mansion and use the pit hole to dump the imperfect statues. Maybe Cale killed him in his cartography obsession and dump him too (Cale is one of the NPCs with most memory problems and the first time you met him he seems to try to kill you with that rock trap). Fuck everything, Cale is Pharros and Pharros is the firstborn of Gwyn but he can't remember shit ^^
Hi there! Thx for the video, love these lore videos. Today i was fighting with the Demon of song in NG+, and looked up. And i noticed that there are big trees with massive amount of roots. I don`t know actually, but maybe shrine of Amana is located under the ash lake from dark souls 1? Because it looked pretty similair.
And also in shrine of Amana there are archdrake knights and in Dark souls 1 in ash lake, there was everlasting dragon, which allows to join path of the dragon covenant. Maybe there is some connection between them?
ManarokChannel Nice interpretation, but I personally say No to your theory ;). Those Archdrake Knights are simply from Lindelt, another country which fought a war with Drangleic. Watch the lore video with the country and you get a nice explanation, which hasn't to be true of course but I think it's kinda logical. Also I think Shrine of Amana is not that far below so it can be UNDER the ashlake of DS1. But that's just my believe :)
The statues depict Pharos' old lover, who he failed to save, sparking his desire to help others. Now that he has become the Rotten, he is trapped down there, as he looks after the other undead that make up his body. He builds the statues of the one he loved and laments his inability to save them
I like Hawkshaw's explanation for the statues, that they're the same as the figure depicted in Anor Londo's architecture, shown harvesting wheat and baking bread. This being a mirror of the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone, the nameless character was Nito's beloved and had a smaller coffin next to his. Which also explains the harvesting scythe found in the Catacombs and all the Greek-style pithos containers found there. Long story short: Hawkshaw's theory is that this woman eventually left, along with all the other gods, and Nito's been sulking ever since. This then bleeds into the Rotten obsessively making statues in her image, eons later.
I...I would like to deny that the hollow is pharros, and that the statues are supposed to resemble the emerald herald, but...the facts are too obvious On the other hand, why the fuck would pharros, who seems to be a good guy kinda character, build statues of the firekeeper deep down in the gutter? If this is true, the story they aimed for is shit... Man, I miss Dark Souls, everything there seemed to make perfect sense, storywise And in DS2 it's also pretty obvious, but doesn't make sense to me
For me the statues are definitely Licia, it doesn't look unlike her and she is described as a dishonourable miscreant AND has the rotunda lockstone which is described as a fine feat of engineering
It's most definitely Pharos after hearing this video, it all seems to make sense. I believe that the statues are supposed to represent Pharos lost love when he was still human, most likely explanation.
Do you remember demo on IGN? Aldia's Pharros contraption wasn't even in the wall, it was right in the middle of passage. Also, there are no contraptions in Drangleic Castle, DLCs (although breakable wall with one of Olaphis' spells looks like a place for a contraption), Brightstone Cove Tseldora, Gutter and Black Gulch. I think this means that Pharros lived right before Vendrick, Aldia and Tseldora, but after all other important characters. If he isn't having his contraptions somewhere, then he is either cannot get there (as with DLCs), or a location wasn't present at the time.
maybe theres a connection to the baneful queen and the rotten? The statues do represent some sort of peacefulness on their faces and they do shoot poison at you.
I have a good question I seem to be stumped by. Why are the Belfry areas protected by Pharros lockstones? Maybe the rat king and the prince and princess were enemies. Or maybe just game design. But I am very curious about it.
Not sure if this has been brought up before but the Pharos Lighthouse was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Maybe Pharros is just a reference to the traps and such being a beacon of light (helping you). Drunkenly watching a documentary on it and thought about DkS2.
I believe that the statues represent the Emerald Herald for you can see the characteristic hood. The reason why you can see the statues throughout the Gutter and Black Gulch is because the Hollows still remember all the help that she gave in their time of need and all the figures of the Rotten moan as one for they miss her. Another thing is I believe that the one who has control over the Rotten is not Pharros because if you talk to the Rat King it is hinted Pharros is the one he talks of who showed the rats kindness and helped to protect them as shown by the many contraptions that activate traps and his final resting place can be seen in the grave of saints at a grave in which a few rats are under almost protecting it from anyone who would dare do it harm.
I would like to say that pinwheel is linked in some way to this due to the statues. They are similar to the mother statues in the crypts of dark souls 1
i think pharros is the rotten, and i was thinking that maybe each one of the humanoid statues he creates is maybe one of the hollows who has fused into him? like maybe as a token of thanks, "fuse with me and you get a statue dedicated to you?" something like that
I'm fairly certain that The Rotten is not the creator of the annoying doll statues. What is shown in the cutscene appears to be him clumsily attempting to put a broken statue back together, only to rage furiously like an oversized child when its head falls off.
I always felt bad for fighting The Rotten despite not really knowing his lore. He was just minding his own business building his stone friends. He didn’t want to fight and he never puts up much of one. He just wanted to be left alone. He’s so adorable.
Idea for who the statues represent. What if they're meant to be the Emeral Herald? Pharros could have journeyed to Drangleic to discover the cure for the undead curse, much like you. Then the Herald convinced him to go on the same journey you take. Only somewhere along the line, Pharros fails or is betrayed or misled by the Herald. He creates the statues, many of which spit poison from their mouths, perhaps as a representatin of what he thought was the Fiscal Herald's lies to him? It also explains why some statues are found hung or smashed.
I believe the Rotten is all the undead who were told to 'seek greater souls' by the Emerald Herald, and after eons they all became one, with hate for the Herald who lead them to their fate.
Well, I always thought that those figures are meant to be like "little gravestones", representing those who've been tossed down the pit, so they shouldn't be forgotten nevertheless.
In the original dark souls, two bosses are linked to the catacombs: Nito, of course and Pinwheel who searches about necromancy. Necromancy is no stranger to the notion of sharing many bodies in one entity. Nito, first of the dead, is comfortable with it, but not Pinwheel who is in constant search of a way to part his bodies. I believe the rotten suffers a similar pain of sharing so many consciounesses and bodies in one entity. That would be why he moans. As for the figures, it's like the statues of the mother and the father. I think he builds one statue for each of the bodies that join him in a vain attempt to differentiate his identities and remember he was once unique.
So its like the mound makers from dark souls 3? Or the cages with bodies in them found in the same area in Dark souls 3?
elweaaa13 who pinwheel ?
@@scamin441 weakest boss in dark souls 1
Muhammad hiari yup since then I have played the game and I agree that is the weakest boss in the game
I chose to be a negromancer
Or maybe the statues are the Rotten's way of reminding itself that its originally Pharros. It's Pharros reminding himself who he was within the amalgamation of undead corpses.
I'm thinking maybe the statues are supposed to be Human Effigies. The Rotten/Pharros keeps making them to reclaim his true self, but cannot due to the fact that he cannot remember what he looked like. That, and for every statue made, his now collective consciousness are all trying to do the same thing, and no one can focus. Great video :)
4:57 "oh shit I'm in the shot"
Lol
Dark Souls lore is so interesting. I always love fighting a boss and then looking up the lore behind it. While most games are just "HEY it's a big monster! Shoot it!" Dark Souls has a deep and interesting story behind everything in it's world.
+Helldober I agree with you there! i find most games lore interesting , dark souls, skyrim etc.
However after facing this boss i have only one lore for him :
" The rotten....a monster created for the sole purpose of making your game nearly imposible to continue. Legends say heroes from a far and wide after facing this monster turned to madnening fury or as they would say "rage quit". Trully a terifying foe. Rumors say that his moans are actualy him saying "pownd again noob". The hundreds of statues around him are actualy the number of times you will have to die before you defeat him....if you defeat him"
Yeah.......i hate that boss!
+Helldober love that darth Nihlus lord of hunger
@@markosimunic4770 Wait, was he that hard? I beat in two tries though. I just kept reminding myself not to get greedy for one more hit. I just hit him one or two times and rolled and moved out. Wait for his combo and then do it again.
@@stevenlee3240 He wasn't that hard, but he can punish you hard for greediness with the grab. And his sweep attack is hard to avoid even though it gives you enough time to heal after.
@@markosimunic4770I truly hope you’re still out there struggling with probably the easiest boss in the game
I love that freaking cat XD
Me too.
I didn't even realize until like, last week, that the cat is the replacement for the guy in dark souls 1 that gives you the clues on where to go. I always just thought the cat sold you rings and said one or two things. Didn't know she had so much to say.
I don even know there is a cat there..
5:38 $10 That the sign says "Try wheel!"
gavlan deal.
its weird how much the dlc's add to the lore surrounding these areas and bosses.
it sorta renders this video outdated.
You find pharros's mask in the second dlc, confirming where he ended up. this means he can't be the rotten. What this leaves is the possibility that the rotten is the remains of the sunken king, reanimated in death along with the castaways of the world as a horrid creature, weeping over the statues of his former queen, elana. (Elana's outfit looks like a melted version of the statues's outfit) Also, the crowns you get in the dlc's contain a reference to shalquoir claiming that nobody remembers the names of the old ones anymore. For OIK, this lines up perfectly, and it creates yet another link between the sunken king and the rotten. Also, namco leaked that the rotten had a name in development. Gryth, The Rotten.
Gryth, the Sunken King has a ring to it as well....
Sinh's soul implies that he was made poisonous, since he was once pure, which would mean that elana made him poisonous when or before the sunken king built his shrine to the poison dragon, and that would explain why the statues spit poison, as that's elana's nature. Also, Nito's nature was poison, so it would make sense that he's paired to this poison city under majula.
it's also possible that the gutter was created by residents of shulva, since they're well furnished and have the statues placed in and arround the homes, and eventually became a home for those cast off from the world.
Also, the sunken king may be the human that broke the rat's treaty that all that the sun does not touch shall belong to rats.
I'm a little rushed right now so i can't get into details, but in short. DLC is retconing lore:
Pharros is not The Rotten, his corpse rests in the Iron Passage.
The Statues are of Elana, the Squalid Queen
Elana poisoned Sinh
The Gutter may have been constructed by refugees of Shulva's poison disaster.
The Rotten is the Corpse of the Sunken King fused with other corpses of the underground
The Sunken King broke the Rat King Covenant
A couple things on this ->
I definitely think some of the videos need "updating" / Newer versions , and as I do that, I'll provide annotations and such with the new information.
- I don't think that the Pharros Mask proves that particular character with it was Pharros. While it does provide a possibility, I wouldn't call it proof. (But, yes, it does take away from the theory I provided in this video of the Rotten being Pharros).
I don't believe there's any proof Elana poisoned Sinh. Him becoming purified in his description doesn't mean he was poisoned. Akin to Kalameet releasing black/dark flames, it's highly likely Sinh is a poison-type Dragon.
- I think the video of mine that is the most outdated/need of fixing/annotations i the "Prince & Princess of Alken & Venn" video, as there's definitely more information pertaining to those.
DaveControlLive If its of any interest to you, here's a recent post on Reddit I made on the subject, I felt it appropriate for Lore Conversation.
....start post here....
"Sunken king is the Rotten. Elana is the visage of the poison statues.
The crowns all mirror Shalquoir's dialogue about no one remembering the old ones' names anymore. Vendrick conquered the old ones, as they were the past rulers of dranglaec.
Elanas nature is poison. She was designed to resemble the statues of the main game, but in a charred and rotting state. Her dress cups up her head in the same way, but its burned away above the neck. Also, her brow and the bridge of her nose are more pronounced than other female characters to make her look like the statues.
The rotten is crying over the statue because its broken. You dont assemble a statue, and you can clearly see the head and neck have cracked from it breaking, on accident as the rotten is crying over it. He's also crying over it because she was his queen before he died and went hollow. He eventually built up corpses of those cast into the gutter, the gateway to shulva, and became The Rotten. Thats why you dont find his corpse in the sihn fight, it was the hollow at the shoulder of the rotten, commanding the hollows of his body as a king would from on high.
Pharros aint the rotten, his corpse is in the iron passage after the super smelter demon. Also, The Rotten's in dev name was Gryth The Rotten. So the boss was never planned as pharros. The inclusion of pharros's remains in the dlc may be one of many cases where From used the dc to disprove fan theory, as they did with Varg being a dude in havel's armor to quell all the "ugh everywhere i look its havel havel havel"
The gutter may have begun as refugees of the poison breath of sinh that destroyed shulva. Thats why the homes of the gutter are as well kept as they are, adorned with idols of their former queen, eventually becoming home to the castoffs of the world above. Thats why, despite having livable quarters, there isnt a single civilian hollow in shulva. They were evacuated as the soldiers fought yorgh's army.
Elana's Velstadt summon becomes interesting as it seems that, with what we learn of Raime in Brume Tower, she may have had a hand in Raime's exhile, possibly making a false velstadt to trick raime and spur the rivalry that split the hands of the king, with Raime eventually becoming tainted by dark.
Bonus: The Sunken King is the human king that broke the rat king's treaty with humans, settling in the lands that light does not touch, driving the rats from their burrows."
....end post here....
Hope you found some of that interesting, DCL. If you have any responses to it, please let me know. I'd love to hear it. :)
Additionally:
The Prince and Princess thing has gotten interesting. The lore on the trident you use to power the machine in the main tower (you lose it after using it, so most people missed the description) tells of the iron king conquering the kingdom of Venn, which is interesting, because it means Mytha and Covetous Demon are relics of the land that OIK conquered, and not directly related to his story at all. What I was thinking about, though, is the possibility of the third dlc's main area being behind Lost Sinner's bonfire.
On that, Lost Sinner (Is apparently the bug, not the swordsman) is one of 3 "normal" old ones. (Freya is not technically an old one, the Ancient Dragon is the old one, but it's already out of the picture, which is why that embrace occurs the way it does, and why freya doesn't have a swirling orange soul like the others)
So if they're making 3 dlc's for each of the 3 old ones that have empty bonfire rooms (Tseldora's has the dragon memories and some npc enemies to liven up it's bonfire already) then we may get a Sinner's Rise DLC area for Ivory Crown, involving a QUEEN (not a king) and we may find out the other half of the story in the former land of Alken.
It may also make for an interesting dlc as it would be a journey through a blizzard to a false kiln. (It would also be interesting if the Crown belonged to a queen, as it would add gender diversity, and possibly give us a masculine shard of manus)
The possibility of getting the rest of the Alken story is pretty exciting. (if that were the case, wondering if shrine of winter would still have a place, as the dlc pr mentioned something for beating all 3)
But yeah, the DLC is turning shit upsidedown, and it's really exciting to think about what we'll have for the game in it's complete state after the third dlc hits in september.
DaveControlLive
I may be missing something, but i thought the big skeleton hanging in the first area where you encounter the Rat Cov (above the gutter), was Pharros?
Shanelololol
no its not. did you actually read it, or are you just antagonizing?
Shanelololol
the pharros mask description states that he made it. Either that corpse is pharros or no one is pharros, because he's certainly not the rotten. no one knows their names anymore.
Vendrick conquered the old ones, and pharros was around since after vendrick, since pharros built lockstone contraptions into vendrick's shit. In all 3 dlc's you find evidence of vendrick's forces having a presence in these areas at some time, which is probably meant to evoke what Shalquoir said. The old iron king became the demon we fought, the lost sinner possessed a prisoner, the rotten is corpses with one hollow leading the rest, and....the ancient dragon is the 4th old one, not freya. Vendrick sends you to collect the crowns that he could not. He conquered the kingdoms, but failed to attain the prizes he sought, to break the curse. (retcons)
The "gryth the sunken king" was an aside and not a main point factor. The main element of that was "he had a name while they were writing the game and they removed it to fit with shalquoir's line about the old ones not having names that anyone knows."
There's absolutely no reason for it to be pharros. the lockstone drops off of a hollow that falls out of the rotten. at earthen peak you find a lockstone on another hollow's corpse, and several other places. The rotten is either nameless corpses or its the sunken king.
The emotional reaction it has for the statues of elana would be the clue there. Also, the rotten was not constructing a statue, as those statues are not constructed in that way. it was a broken statue that he was trying to place the head back onto. You can tell by how the neck is shattered like it cracked.
you're mixing up points I said and not laying them all out.
I just realized something. In the doors of Pharros, the gyrms, (according to the item description of their armor) were exiled. And the rotten "embraced all that was thrown away into his sanctuary". I think that he welcomed the gyrms to his sanctuary, but not the black gulch, the doors of Pharros. I believe that is the sanctuary that is spoken of. I have even more proof but I need to figure it out first.
I'd be interested to hear when you do! :)
When u cut the rottens arm off it turns into a pharros lockstone
I wish more were done, lore'wise, with the Gyrm. They had such a unique look for what would normally be just more of your typical "Tolkien Dwarf" archetype. But no, just 'wheel'.
I always thought those statues were suppose to represent the Fire Keepers. Since there was three of them near the hole and the fact that there are three of them in Things Betwix just hogging around and making fun of any Undead passerby.
Impressive analysis, friend. This video helps me a lot in figuring out who the Rotten is.
+Nicholaus Edward Wijaya As a note - I made this before the Sunken King DLC, so it's very possible this is the Sunken King.
+DaveControl could the statue be Velka
+Mars Ultor that's a good theory
+Mars Ultor yea ha ha but it was still good
I believe that the statues represent the Emerald Herald, as in the Hollows in the gutter are either worshipping her or more likely cursing her ( as in the poison coming out of the mouth ) for she is the one that probably led them to their quest into the gutter or their demise in Drangleic ( and were then tossed into the Gutter ). Because the Rotten is a whole lot of Hollows fused together they are capable to create the statues.
I believe that the statues represent the feelings the tossed away hollows have for the Emerald Herald, and that they are building statues of her to constantly remind them of her ( even when eventually Hollowed ).
PS If you look at the statues, they have a hood and sort of resemble a female character.
As for the Pharros - Rotten connection, i think that the hollow ontop of the arm of the Rotten ( seen telegraphing the Rotten ) is Pharros, as only when you cut the arm with him on it, the Pharros Lockstone will drop..
The only thing about your theory on the hollows making the statues is that Pharros also made them and stockpiled them in Doors of Pharros and even right beside the pit. None of them outside the gutter/black gulch shoot poison, so I'm thinking maybe Pharros was spartakicked into the pit also, and used his knowledge to turn the once-revered statues of the emerald herald into weapons to reflect her nature.
What I've found odd about them is in the gutter and black gulch they spit poison at you but the ones in the doors of pharos don't, neither do the ones in majula on the surface AND the ones next to the giant ant that cures poison. Why do only those ones not try to kill you but the others do?
I'm not to sure if he hates the person the statues are supposed to be though as he seems very upset that he can't fix the broken one (for my money hes definitely trying to fix a broken one not making a new one), unless its a love hate relationship he had with whoever it was, loved then but was betrayed.
I'm not convinced its the herald either, Licia of Lindelt is as the crushed eye orb says a dishonourable miscreant and she has the rotunda lockstone, which not only has being a lockstone to link it to pharos sort of but its description says its a fine feat of engineering.
Barnesofthenorth That's a very good catch. Very possible Licia could have betrayed Pharros and thrown him into the well, also tossing most of the statues he made with him. Then I'm sure he could have easily modified the statues to protect his path as he descended, explaining why only the ones in the pit are poison-firing.
Barnesofthenorth oh wow....I never thought of that....maybe the poison resembles her true inside self being terrible, and looking nice on the outside.
I know it's an old video but replaying SotFS in prep for DS3.
Here is a theory
what if Pharros was meant to be the next monarch. he was reported to have traveled far and wide things which we would assume any undead would have to do in order to acquire all of the Great souls. And what if upon acquiring the death soul it corrupted him. here is my reasoning, the statues look like representations of Shanalotte. If he had been attempting to become the next monarch it would have been Shanalotte leading him to do so. She also would be giving him comfort and strength. this would explain the Rotton's obsession with the statues especially since he would be unable to return from the depths of the Black Gulch. Then over many years what if that obsession turned to hatred and just maybe the poison that spews from the Shanalotte statues mouth was just as metaphoric as literal.
+Mitch Radspinner
Nice theory, it actually holds preety good.
Eeey! That's pretty goooood...
Nice man!
Not to mention the Rotten Resembles a really fleshy Big Daddy
That’s what I always thought lol
The statues might be the Emerald Herald. All cursed undead are drawn to her, and the Rotten is an amalgamation of many, many undead, and is fused with Nito's great soul, so it makes perfect sense that the Rotten would be obsessed with her since all the undead he's made of are obsessed with her.
All of these theories are great, except for one thing.
The Rat King constantly mentions a human who was among the rats in the past. Let's assume that person is Pharros. In both the Doors of Pharros and the Grave of Saints, we see plenty of Pharros contraptions that are quite harmful to humans. If, perhaps, Pharros created these contraptions because he wanted to help the rats, it might explain why this human that the Rat King talks about is so glorified.
Now, the thing that I think breaks the theory. Just past the Rat King's location in the Grave of Saints, we see a human skeleton. It seems to have been buried carefully, and it is clearly something special because...
1. It is not with the rest of the corpses in the assortment of coffins just below.
2. It is placed right next to the Rat King, meaning that it is clearly important and/or respected.
3. The skeleton is preserved almost perfectly, suggesting that it is constantly cared for.
I believe that that is the skeleton of Pharros the Vagabond. That being said, the Undead on the Rotten's left shoulder is probably just another Undead.
However, I do believe that there is still a link between Pharros and the Rotten. Perhaps Pharros ventured from the Grave of Saints down the Gutter and into the Black Gulch. There he might have found a fragment of the Old Dead One's Soul. (Or, maybe he found it on the way. Perhaps in one of the open coffins that we see in the Grave of Saints.) Being a master of contraptions, he might have accidentally created the Rotten with the Old Dead One's Soul. This would explain the Undead that is on the Rotten's shoulder, because if it was a Pharros Contraption, it needs a functioning part.
While in the Black Gulch, it is possible that Pharros was poisoned. He might have died from poisoning shortly after reaching the Grave of Saints on his return trip. After all, his skeleton is slightly larger than a human's, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was something more than human.
If anyone else would like to add to or challenge any of this, feel free to reply. I kind of made up a lot of that on the spot.
pbandme24 its near to a spot called harvels resting place .harvel might be in some item description i just feel like pharros wasn't the only human on the side of the rats.
8 years late but your point makes so much sense. I always thought of the Rotten as a personal friend of Pharos that he pitied. During his travels, Pharos may have accumulated the soul and instead of using it for himself he gave it to his friend, creating the Rotten. I assume the statues were a calling card or location claim for Pharos and it was one of the few aspects that the Rotten remembers vividly, creating them as a way of remembrance for one of the few people that cared for them. Either that or Pharos Kobe’d the soul into the pit and a bunch of undead fought for the soul, creating a mass of flesh but that’s a jokey perspective on my behalf really.
My guess would be that Pharros was an undead, eventually sent on an adventure like us by the Emerald Herald. While exploring for "Greater Souls" he came across the soul of The Gravelord Nito and was changed by it, becoming like the soul's original host, a mass of many to form one. Really can't know for sure though, the lore of these games are near pure speculation. But what story is better than the one you make?
I think there is a big possibility that you are right. And I think that the thing next to the bonfire was Pharros' attempt to make another contraption, but he was changed by the soul, and was to clumsy with his huge hands to make it. It seems like a but of a stretch but I think it's possible.
The Rotten's cage/helmet somehow reminds me of the onion-knight from Dark Souls 1, and you do find his unharmed helmet somewhere in DS 2.
VERY. GOOD.
According to the new Rotten's soul description from the DX11 version, the Rotten is actually Gryth, the King of Shulva, who was terribly malformed by Sinh's poison.
What is also interesting to notice are the new mobs in the upcoming DLC.
In a small part of the trailer we can see a lizardcreature that carries 3-4 of the human statues which the rotten has build. The question would be where the connection lies between these and the Rotten.
Can't wait to find out!
Hopefully there will be some connection and more lore given!
DaveControlLive did you know that when yo kill the rotten with both arms off a dead body will appear and I'm guessing its pharos. Or maybe its just when you cut his arm that is not wielding a butcher's knife. The body is cut in half.
Drew Geraci
were will this body appear?
It will appear where the rotton died
Gravylord Meato, First of the Delicious.
Great videos man! The lore of this game is so amazing!
Very good vídeo, Dave! I never had noticed the human telegraphing rotten's attacks.
OMG those lore vids are fucking good !! Congrats Dave !! You're the best !
Thanks for the video Dave , i enjoy these lore videos the most. Keep 'em coming !
Another great video! And it's no problem man, I love sharing my discoveries with the community.
Statues are the Emerald Herald I'd say. The Rotten has some serious stalker craziness going on!
I'm bit late, but it's ok, I guess
According to what you said in your video, Pharros went into the Gutter and disappeared there
What if Pharros WAS the one controlling the Rotten ?
Here's my theory :
Pharros went down the big hole in Majula because he heard there were living people in there who needed help (the hollows which built the wood foundations). In there, he met the Rat King, which he helped
Then, he went even deeper, and he met the hundreds of people trying to escape
As he couldn't escape the Gutter anymore, he managed to find a safe place to create a sanctuary for all people in need
And in the middle of the cave he chose (The Rotten's boss room), he found Nito's Soul
The power within the soul was so amazing, it would allow him to help all those who were in need !
He tried to call together all the undead present in the Black Gutter, but one day... The power of the Soul drove him mad
And then, the soul, with it's own will, tried to reform the corpse which possessed it looong ago, by gluing together all the innocent people present in the sanctuary
And The Rotten was created
As it's written in Pharro's Lockstones' description, Pharros always helped those who were in sincere need
And what do the statues the Rotten is repairing represent ? Yeah, Humans (or at least Undeads)
I think it's just the last remaining part of Pharros, which is still trying to help other "Humans"
That's my theory, you can give me your opinion about it if you want to
And sorry for all possible grammar mistakes, I'm French~
This theory is severely underrated. I think it holds water, especially the speculation of why the Rotten is comprised of several undead beings glued together.
another theory is that the rats were once human, so maybe while pharros was trying to help the rat king he found ntios soul and then what you said happened
Maybe the statues are Pharros's way of mourning those undead which he assimilated into his Rotten form. He is plagued by the guilt of "gluing" the bodies to himself and wishes to atone by memorializing each damned soul. When his statues are broken, or more specifically, when a repair of a statue is disrupted, perhaps The Rotten Pharros is enraged, as his guilt resurfaces as a result of these unique gravestones being disrespected.
Guys, since the Scholar update, it's told in The Rotten's Soul description that The Rotten is actually the Sunken King
My theory no longer holds haha
TeleTowbie dude your theory is just so good and adding to it what @Audible Sigh Games said it all makes sense ...but he is now the suking king ?? i didn't play this DLC yet but couldn't the sunking king be pharros in anyway ?
Having just faced the rotten and gotten my life squeezed out of me I think I have an idea what the rotten is about.
I think what happened to the rotten is a paralell story of what happened to the Pinwheel (Necromancer dude stealing powers from Nito to revive his family):
Probably a human has had a great loss, either his wife or daughter have died. Destraught he goes out searching for a way to bring them back and comes across the old tales of a powerfull soul that was known to revive the dead.
On his search he, like many others, stumbles across Majula and finds his way to the bottom of the well. There he finds the powerfull soul and tries to revive what he has lost, but only sees how he fails. The closest he ever comes to reviving the one he has lost are the statues that are littered all over the poisonous bog.
In desperation he tries and tries again, but only manages to create statues that spit poison in his face, as if to tell him that his plans are futile and he only poisons himself. With time he loses everything and his body molds together with the other bodies landing on the bottom of the well.
I hope the story I wrote here makes sense.
The way the rotten picked my character up and squeezed the hell out of him made me think of how you'd squeeze a fruit to get to its juice.
What the rotten tries to pry from you is your humanity, what makes you cling to your life to infuse the statues he has been building for who knows how long.
As the empty vessel falls to the ground it melds together with the rotten, which has something to do with the soul of Nito, who himself was a grand collection of skeletons.
Another fact that has been striking me the whole time is how the statues have a beating heart. Whenever you're near a statue in the depths you can hear it's heart beat and the heartbeat stops when you smash a statue, meaning that those statues are actually alive, but without soul. The fact that there are so many and we see the rotten trying to fix one of them in his lair makes me believe, that all statues have been failed experiments to bring someone back to live.
TL;DR: I think The Rotten is a character like the Pinwheel in DS1 who tries and fails to revive someone dear to him.
Cheers
Shareyourworldwide
This is what I love about Dark Souls enthusiasts. I liked how you interpreted the attack pattern and the link with its story.
The statues feel like a tombstone, where it signifies the resting place of the dead. It's likeness of the hooded woman seems to signify the emerald, though it could be that it also signifies firekeepers of the past as well.
Idea on the Demon of Song (unrelated topic)
I think it's possible that the face of the Embedded is the Demon of Song's horribly creepy face. The Soul of the Demon of Song mentions that it developed a taste for human flesh. The Key to the Embedded says that the Embedded was tempted by flesh and, realizing he couldn't resist, "bound himself eternally with chains." He's waiting for someone to find his key and kill him. What if you need to kill his face before you can kill him? Finding his key requires that you kill a demon that exists only as a face and arms, but the Embedded himself is exposed entirely, except for his face. Maybe I'm stretching for a connection here, but in a game with such twisted, dark lore, it sounds reasonable to me.
I like your theory
Heragio Neptune thanks... I sometimes wonder why i put it on this video
Man i like ur questioning stuff style with getting a bit more deep in lore (Including noticing corpse on his shoulder) More than vaatividya videos
Please read this!!!
I belive the rotten is an other creation of lord Aldia, created with the soul of gravelors Nito and Pharros himself, and I have sone prof!!
So we all know that Aldia has been doing weird speriments with souls, usually giant souls, but it s possible that by finding the souls of the old dead one he tried creatibg something else. On an item description is said that many travelers whent as guests in Aldia s keep, to then desapear, I believe Pharros was one of theese, in fact you can also find a pharros mouth in Aldia s manor.
So aldia created the rotten, but it didn t come out as intentioned, so he locked him in a cage (the cage on the head of the rotten kinda resembles the cages in Aldia s manor), but at the end he decided to throw him away in the black gulch, where many of his creations can be found: the dog monsters (also found in the acid pool in aldia s manor), and the giant spider/ant.
now I have no idea of what the statues rapresent, but they could be statues of Pharos, protecting the black gulch from intruders.
The statues look feminine and Pharros sounds so much like a male so that messes with your theory on the statues or is that Pharros always wore robes
Giant Dad like I said, I have no idea of who the statues really are ;)
It's definitely possible!
A few things - the Pharros contraptions can be found all throughout Drangleic. (In pretty much every single location) - the reason I harped on the Doors of Pharros and Grave of Saints is because there are so many in those areas.
The giant ant is (according to the strategy guide) an ant from Jugo - and (may) be its natural size.
I do like your connections with the mutated dogs, and I think it is a plausible theory!
thats a cool idea, but i kinda think that aldia was far too obsessed with dragons, to make anything like the rotten. in my oppinion, people simply rejected aldia's creations, and tossed any they found into the gutter :/
DaveControlLive Also,The ants which were said to also be experimented on by Lord Aldia as well.But,They Originated in Jugo.
Amazing video bro! Keep up the great investigating !
I love the way you explained this :) Amazing video
Do you wanna know one thing im dying to know that no one has talked about? the history of majula, what was it before drangleic fell, what about even before drangleic existed, why do many npcs say that its the place that everyone seems to end up?
I think there is some connection between the emerald herald and the rotten because first off the statues resemble her, and they also leak out into Majula where she is. I believe they were lovers at some point and that's why she stays in Majula most of the game. Also that is why the rotten is crying because he lost her
The Emerald Herald is probably the best candidate for it. She is quite old, as old as the fall of Drangleic, and she has made countless undead movie in a quest to become a new monarch. Pharros was likely one of these, entering the catacomb and finding he was trapped with the filth. Pharros took pity on the forgotten and helped the rats and undead build a world under it. His obsession with statues is probably either he was in love the the Herald, her beauty and some form of care for the undead might have lured him in. now he sits their, crying over what he cannot attain.
I fucking love dark souls lore!
I never played dark souls, but by watching tour videos, I realized something. That cat is a f*cking genious.
So just noticed something pretty significant. In the locked room in Aldia's Keep, across from the room leading down to the acid pits, there's a room that holds a whole mess of butcher knives hanging from the ceiling. Food for thought.
I love how you start every episode with "What's up guys, I'm Dave Klein..." (sorry if that's spelled wrong). Totally gives an awesome feel to all your videos and gives them a nice brand.
Keep up the awesome videos!
I love these games. I really love Dark Souls 2. Reading all your theories here is awesome.
you mentioned the connection between Nito and the Rotten with the soul you get in NG+ having influence over the rotten, maybe the stone faces are the few remains memories/influence of what old Nito has of his previous life and wife/love/kidnapped victim? *the assumed identity of the empty coffin next to Nito in DS1*. Just a shot in the dark!
Dave first thanks for this video, thanks to it i have formed a theory of who the statues are supposed to be. Pharrohs in his travels fell in love with a women and eventually she left him leaving him heart broken. Now in his new form he still remembers his former love crying and making statues in her honor, he even makes the statues spit poison to symbolize the pain she has made him feel.
I feel extremely sorry for this guy. May he rest with past lords gone by.
I think the Statues look like a fire keeper like Anastacia...it may be the hood. Also the dingy set is found when going deeper down in the Grave of Saints near the Gutter.
You forgot to add;
In Majula there are the statues, selectively connected with Pharos, however did you remember that in the house of Majula, behind the book room, there is a Pharos lock stone? Also, connecting the rotten to Nito, a collective of skeletons to make a whole, their are two skeletons that attack you, guarding an Estus flask shard and a chest. The chest has selective patterns which match those which were introduced in areas of dark souls 1.
Hope you say 'ohhhhhhh' when you read this, just discovered it myself
The two things that interested me in this video: the undead controlling the Rotten - blew my mind; and part of the description that said 'the Pharros.' Likely just a translation error, but in that singular part it seems like Pharros isn't a person.
Maybe they are statues of someone connected to the Witch of Izalith's soul, who captured the affections of a great inventor that is left nameless.
The Rotten's "head" appears to be a cage, and judging from the hook at the top, a hanging cage at that. There's also a few chains wrapped around the bulk of its body, so I think the majority of the undead that the Rotten is comprised of were prisoners of some sort.
The butcher knife it wields is also far too large for any human, and stained with blood. Could it originally have been a Giant's armament?
The questions I have about Black Gulch concern exactly where does the luminescent slime originate from (and if it is the poisonous substance the statues spit), and how did tar get all the way down there, and how did the tar in the Rotten's chamber get ignited.
You can find a butcher knife mounted on a wall or laying on a table in aldia's manor where the dragon priests are.
Now we know because of the Sunken King DLC that the poison seeping out from the Black Gulch is actually a remnant of the massive miasmic cloud of poison Sinh the Slumbering Dragon spewed out after being attacked by Sir Yorgh, leader of the Drakeblood Knights, who worshipped the blood of dragons.
I believe Pharros is the game's way of changing Pharis from the first game (an archer whose hat becomes popular with children) and the amount of explorers wearing Pharis hats then gave way to the idea that Pharros invented the lockstone when really it was multiple corpses with Pharis hats carrying "lockstones" which were merely rocks shaped like keys for tomb contraption style locks such as the ones carried by indiana jones. Perhaps one of the explorers made it in to the rotten's arm
Also note that the arm containing the lockstone is the one beneath the undead controlling the rotten.
It’s weird how much you expect to hear vaati and get scared that Dave is better in his own right.
Dave, probably someone else already thought about this theory, but what if the statues are supposed to rapresent the fire keepers? They are what keeps the bonfires alive and sometimes they are depicted as symbols of humanity, and considering how hollows desires either their humanity back or to be dead forever, the statues resembling the fire keepers may be a mockery of them, an insult for having them condemned to a cylce of eternal non-existence, with the soul of the dead one as the last remnant of a conscience.
What i wonder though is why Pharros that apparently was doing really well in the Rat Covenant just became hollow, and why the statues are even at the Doors of Pharros.
I find it much more likely that the reasoning for Pharros' influences observable on the road to The Rotten is because Pharros hailed from Shulva, a land beyond the Black Gulch, known for it's people's craftsmanship.
Hailing from an underground land, it's easy to assume Pharros had an affinity for the Rat Covenant. His influences in the world matured and culminated in the Doors of Pharros, which indicates he traveled there after Grave of Saints.
In the Iron King DLC, you can also find a corpse with his mask. The Iron King's land might have been his final destination in life.
Maybe the Pharros contraption in the Black Gulch Mouth was Pharros's last contraption while he was going Hollow and while he was designing it's use he came across The Old Dead One's Soul and that was what pushed him into Hollow then when he found a pile of dead bodies and used the soul on them so that's why he was controlling it & maybe the statues are of his wife / loved one and that was one of the two things on his mind when he went hollowed. Another theory was he became The Rotten before he made the Pharros-like contraption so when he tried to he found out that he couldn't because of his massive squishy hands so he turned to the only other thing ob his mind... his loved one and since he found nothing else to do he began weeping and moaning from missing her and not being able to get to her or that she would reject him for his new freakish look and started to do the next best thing, creating statues. So he slowly became better at usib=ng his new freakish hand and fashioned a Cleaver out of metal he found (possibly he found a vein while he was constructing his contraption) and Pharros quickly climbed through the Rotten to see what he was doing ( he probably went to the left because he didn't want to chop himself off). If you want to point anything out that I didn't talk about let me know!
I forgot some stiff myself so I will discuss that. The Rotten might have begun feeling upset that he knew she wasn't going to love him so he thought it would be fitting if her words ( the poison shoots out of her mouth) would poison others like she did to him possibly because she (while she was going Hollow she thought it would be best for them to break up/divorce (harshly) so then after he got to the Rotten's Lair he thought that he agreed with her and she did it for him/ her safety and realized he should forgive her so he stop making them shoot poison. Another (joke) theory is that The Rotten ejaculates poison and he overflowed the statues with....poison... and he was crying because he is a pathetic loser!
SW4G ST3PH4N0
My thinking is since Pharros is a named as a lenged maybe he could be one of the undeads that tried to venture himself saving the kingdom, at this point he meet Shanalotte and he fall in love for her. But after joining the Rat Covenant and losing himself she left him alone (Maybe the statues represent Shanalotte herself, and those who spits poison may represent the lies behind her when she left him). At this point he gone mad and after using his souls on the undeads that survived the fall (He embraces them, as the soul description suggests, cause it's like he is feeling theyr pain for being abandoned and forsaken) into the pit he became the Rotten.
Anyway, sorry for my broken english.
Collin McHenry Yes?
Those were some very good questions you posed at the end... I wish you had attempted to answer them...
If pharaoh was an inventor, by the time he became the rotten it was much harder for him to do what he loved, which I think is the reason he is heard mourning outside the fog wall. His statues are just figures of what he once was.
The Rotten: has sad back story and is just an amalgation of unwanted corpses
Nito: badass king of the skellingtons
I think that the Rotten's statues are of the Emerald Herald; She is the one who shepards the undead, tells them what they should/have to do to progress in the game, and as the Rotten is composed of a mass of undead, it's not impossible that the Undead that make up New-Nito are all people that had formerly followed her, but along their journeys went hollow, and have an obsession with her even after death
i dare say the statues are statues of pharros before pharros inherited the soul of the dark old one and hollowed out into a mass of corpses.
he builds these statues to remind not just others, but also himself of who he once was, and he also makes one for every undead that it consumes to grow, making so many
Just a guess but I think it would be interesting if the humanoid statues existed to give physical representation to the undead the Rotten is compromised of. Maybe it feels a loss of identity and forges the statues to remember it's various pasts or something?
I think the statues are depictions of Pharros himself. A vain attempt to be remembered after so long. Or even just for him to remember who he once was.
also the connecting to Nito and the Rotten shows that the Rotten can do the same Aoe attack like him. You know that attack were he shouts out a loud cry which souns like the same cry like the one Nitos attack does
The Lockstones are everywhere. The only thing proven by the Rotten having one is that he used to be a wandering undead much like the player character. On that note, I believe that the Rotten is Alva the Wayfarer. The statues would be of Saint Serrate. They look like they are wearing the Sain't Set and the reason that they spit poison is because it represents how she died of a terrible sickness. The Rotten is crying over the broken statue because he failed to save her. His entire welcoming embrace thing is because of the intense guilt he feels over failing her.
Now I wonder what happened to Zullie...?
I've heard The Rotten is Alva theory before, and I do find it interesting. I, however, think that there's too much that points to Pharros. But, I could be wrong, and hopefully the DLC will clarify a little bit. :)
I think the statues are a representation of the rotten's hate for the Emerald Herald. the fact that they spit poison could be refering to his idea that she tells nothing but lies.
I also think that the undead that sits on his shoulder is indeed Pharros. you get the lockstone from the left arm which is on the same side, and the statues themselves appearing where they do pretty much convinces me alone that he is Pharros.
Very good read, I highly enjoyed the (intelligent) posts here as a lot of knowledge was being dropped along with intuitive, well-thought speculation. GG
The statues are statues of what Pharros used to look like. He was revered at the Doors of Pharros, and because of that there are statues of him there, erected in his honor. (although small)
I believe that the Rotten is recreating these statues to remind himself of who he was originally.
Or maybe he makes a statue for each undead he has absorbed.
I believe that to some degree the undeads he has amassed are still having a conscious or atleast a subconsciousness.
And thats why they're moaning, the ones at his feet, clawing to get away. If you look closely, even the ones that face the opposite path of where he moves, claw forward.
Although the Rotten-Pharros connection is pretty good, we must remember that in Majula's mansion there's a corpse with a Pharros stone, there's this huge pile of books, including that gigantic one and even the map chiseled in stone (all appropriate things if you're a traveler creator of contraptions). Pharros could have been living in the mansion and use the pit hole to dump the imperfect statues. Maybe Cale killed him in his cartography obsession and dump him too (Cale is one of the NPCs with most memory problems and the first time you met him he seems to try to kill you with that rock trap). Fuck everything, Cale is Pharros and Pharros is the firstborn of Gwyn but he can't remember shit ^^
Hi there! Thx for the video, love these lore videos. Today i was fighting with the Demon of song in NG+, and looked up. And i noticed that there are big trees with massive amount of roots. I don`t know actually, but maybe shrine of Amana is located under the ash lake from dark souls 1? Because it looked pretty similair.
And also in shrine of Amana there are archdrake knights and in Dark souls 1 in ash lake, there was everlasting dragon, which allows to join path of the dragon covenant. Maybe there is some connection between them?
ManarokChannel
Nice interpretation, but I personally say No to your theory ;). Those Archdrake Knights are simply from Lindelt, another country which fought a war with Drangleic. Watch the lore video with the country and you get a nice explanation, which hasn't to be true of course but I think it's kinda logical.
Also I think Shrine of Amana is not that far below so it can be UNDER the ashlake of DS1. But that's just my believe :)
Gilligan is a undead who escaped from the King army , the first time you seem him he said he escape somebody
The statues depict Pharos' old lover, who he failed to save, sparking his desire to help others.
Now that he has become the Rotten, he is trapped down there, as he looks after the other undead that make up his body. He builds the statues of the one he loved and laments his inability to save them
I like Hawkshaw's explanation for the statues, that they're the same as the figure depicted in Anor Londo's architecture, shown harvesting wheat and baking bread. This being a mirror of the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone, the nameless character was Nito's beloved and had a smaller coffin next to his. Which also explains the harvesting scythe found in the Catacombs and all the Greek-style pithos containers found there. Long story short: Hawkshaw's theory is that this woman eventually left, along with all the other gods, and Nito's been sulking ever since. This then bleeds into the Rotten obsessively making statues in her image, eons later.
I...I would like to deny that the hollow is pharros, and that the statues are supposed to resemble the emerald herald, but...the facts are too obvious
On the other hand, why the fuck would pharros, who seems to be a good guy kinda character, build statues of the firekeeper deep down in the gutter?
If this is true, the story they aimed for is shit...
Man, I miss Dark Souls, everything there seemed to make perfect sense, storywise
And in DS2 it's also pretty obvious, but doesn't make sense to me
For me the statues are definitely Licia, it doesn't look unlike her and she is described as a dishonourable miscreant AND has the rotunda lockstone which is described as a fine feat of engineering
It's most definitely Pharos after hearing this video, it all seems to make sense. I believe that the statues are supposed to represent Pharos lost love when he was still human, most likely explanation.
Do you remember demo on IGN? Aldia's Pharros contraption wasn't even in the wall, it was right in the middle of passage. Also, there are no contraptions in Drangleic Castle, DLCs (although breakable wall with one of Olaphis' spells looks like a place for a contraption), Brightstone Cove Tseldora, Gutter and Black Gulch. I think this means that Pharros lived right before Vendrick, Aldia and Tseldora, but after all other important characters. If he isn't having his contraptions somewhere, then he is either cannot get there (as with DLCs), or a location wasn't present at the time.
maybe theres a connection to the baneful queen and the rotten? The statues do represent some sort of peacefulness on their faces and they do shoot poison at you.
I have a good question I seem to be stumped by. Why are the Belfry areas protected by Pharros lockstones? Maybe the rat king and the prince and princess were enemies. Or maybe just game design. But I am very curious about it.
Wow, I don't know how I never noticed that tank commander on the rottens shoulder.
Does shooting the little guy on the Rotten's shoulder with an arrow or spell do anything? Like extra damage or even stun?
I'm not sure... it's worth looking into, though!
I tried it with a bow, I saw no extra damage and it didn't stun him
Not sure if this has been brought up before but the Pharos Lighthouse was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Maybe Pharros is just a reference to the traps and such being a beacon of light (helping you). Drunkenly watching a documentary on it and thought about DkS2.
I feel immensely sorry for the rotten :'(
I believe that the statues represent the Emerald Herald for you can see the characteristic hood. The reason why you can see the statues throughout the Gutter and Black Gulch is because the Hollows still remember all the help that she gave in their time of need and all the figures of the Rotten moan as one for they miss her. Another thing is I believe that the one who has control over the Rotten is not Pharros because if you talk to the Rat King it is hinted Pharros is the one he talks of who showed the rats kindness and helped to protect them as shown by the many contraptions that activate traps and his final resting place can be seen in the grave of saints at a grave in which a few rats are under almost protecting it from anyone who would dare do it harm.
I would like to say that pinwheel is linked in some way to this due to the statues. They are similar to the mother statues in the crypts of dark souls 1
the statues look a bit like emerald herald, maybe we'll learn more about them in the dlc
i think pharros is the rotten, and i was thinking that maybe each one of the humanoid statues he creates is maybe one of the hollows who has fused into him? like maybe as a token of thanks, "fuse with me and you get a statue dedicated to you?"
something like that
Good stuff mate.
the statue is probably that saint that alva the wayfarer was trying to find a cure for
I'm fairly certain that The Rotten is not the creator of the annoying doll statues. What is shown in the cutscene appears to be him clumsily attempting to put a broken statue back together, only to rage furiously like an oversized child when its head falls off.
also you can choo the rotten arm off after he does the fist smash to the ground and you get dropped a pharros lockstone for it
I always felt bad for fighting The Rotten despite not really knowing his lore. He was just minding his own business building his stone friends. He didn’t want to fight and he never puts up much of one. He just wanted to be left alone. He’s so adorable.
I think the statues represent a former lover of the rotten in which he has a obsession with
Idea for who the statues represent. What if they're meant to be the Emeral Herald? Pharros could have journeyed to Drangleic to discover the cure for the undead curse, much like you. Then the Herald convinced him to go on the same journey you take. Only somewhere along the line, Pharros fails or is betrayed or misled by the Herald. He creates the statues, many of which spit poison from their mouths, perhaps as a representatin of what he thought was the Fiscal Herald's lies to him? It also explains why some statues are found hung or smashed.
I believe the Rotten is all the undead who were told to 'seek greater souls' by the Emerald Herald, and after eons they all became one, with hate for the Herald who lead them to their fate.
maybe the statues represent the miracles girl you need to safe in the catacombes and he misses her
After the new dlcs, the undead that seemingly controls the actions of the rotten might be the Sunken King.
Well, I always thought that those figures are meant to be like "little gravestones", representing those who've been tossed down the pit, so they shouldn't be forgotten nevertheless.
Can't help but feel bad for this lonesome incarnation of Nito.