Something I've never noticed until now is that Logan is referred to as a heretic multiple times but isn't labelled as blasphemous, which Aldia's Soul Geyser heirloom is. Many people treat heresy and blasphemy as interchangeable because real world theologians look down on both equally, but there really is a big difference between the two that makes me wonder more about Aldia's wider ambition because it appears he's from a family line who are outright adversarial to the gods, which I don't think anyone has ever talked about before in the lore community.
I completely agree with you. Logan is referred to as a heretic, which is異端(heresy) or 異端者(heretic) But for Aldia, his blasphemous method is 邪法. 邪法 can be translated as blasphemous, evil ways, or sometimes heresy. And like heresy and blasphemy, 邪法 & 異端 are treated interchangeably, but the two are quite different as well. This is amazing. I need to look into this now. Thank you for this find.
Great video Yoshimitsu! A clarifying question I had; when talking about Soul stream in the Japanese dialogue what was your translation for all of the parts regarding the first of the scholars? We didn't get to go over if they were essentially the same or if there was a difference between them. I think you are on to something with this video. The Soul Stream spell in English has always implied to me that Lothric and the first of the Scholar knew each other personally, which is why I am interested in
The translation for first of the scholars in Souls Stream is pretty much the same between Japanese and English. In Japanese, [最初の賢者は火継ぎの懐疑者であり, また密かに、王子の師でもあったという], which I would say is essentially same as the English of, "The first of the Scholars doubted the linking of the fire, and was alleged to be a private mentor to the Royal Prince." The term 賢者 was translated as Scholar, which I think should be translated as Sage. I'm not against 賢者 being translated as Scholar. But I do disagree with how both 賢者(sage) & 探究者(researcher) were both translated as Scholar. I'd probably word it, "The first sage was a skeptic of firelinking, and was secretly, the prince's teacher." I do agree that the first scholar and lothric knew each other personally. I also get that impression from the Japanese. :)
Yooo, more based lore from Yoshi. I think Logan venerates Velka as well as Seath (hence the hat, see also 13:09, also note how his original imprisonment mirrors cornyx's crow-cage). I think she worked closely with Seath; even conceiving Priscilla together Consider also Avelyn's placement in the Archives, or the Witch's Locks in DS3, or the Judgment Set *and* Crystal Magic Weapon in Dragon Shrine DS2. Aldia also seems to have been influenced by both - as does his spiritual successor, Sulyvahn. (One of Aldia's focuses was studying mimicry; Logan's Homing Soulmass mimics Pursuers.) The Scholars are based on the secret Caitha-Candle from Undead Crypt in DS2, and Caitha is Velka's name in Lindelt. (Scholars are also, imo, a stealth pun on Channeler Vs Chandler [candlestick-maker]) Crystal Sages also have links to Velka (billed masks) and, weirdly, Pinwheel (exact same gimmick). Court Sorcerer Hood is based on the hat of Sir Edward Kelley, who claimed to communicate with Angels by scrying through a *crystal ball* - (the gargoyles of the profaned capital and grand archives are stone angels).
Velka is a difference branch of sorcery to Logan's as Velka is about Dark Moon sorcery. You see this in game with the different blue hues in specific spells and embers. They both had contact with Seath but they never met one another.
How is he the first sage of the Great Archive in Lothric, millenia after the waning age of fire of Lordran and especially after seeing him gone mad and killing him. Even if you'd say we dont kill him or we something something "time paradoxes in the DS universe" - he was gone mad.
I personally think it has to do with the nature of Lothric. The lands that are in Lothric are former homes of the Lords of Cinders. I'm of the theory that most of the lands and people in Lothric are not all from the same era and many of the lands and people, drifted to Lothric. You're question gave me an idea for another video. I'll explain the nature of Lothric better in that video. Apologies for the lack of a good answer.
@@ChannelYoshimitsu Don't apologize, I was just pointing out stuff. Im with you here that Lothric is like Lordran. This is where the lands 'converge' as it is stated. Where the undead/ashen ones congregate to heed their calling of linking the fire/putting the resurrected former Lords of Cinder to the blade and use their ashes as kindling. There's also the example of Astora you made from Anri. That it was destroyed by the Evil Eye that was basically sent out by Sullivahn. But Sullivahn came so much later. He was from the painted world of ariandel and only then came to Lothric. Astora was already destroyed before we came to Lordran though. So that also wouldnt make sense - or what do you think? Edit: Source: Evil Eye Ring from DS1 and I think Frozen Mist sorcery from DS3 (mentioning that Sullivahn was born in Ariandel)
I've always assumed it was Kaathe since there are Primordial Serpent statues in the Grand Archives, and it's the kind of character that would tempt young Lothric to abandon his duty I don't see how Logan could have possibly directly influenced Lothric, unless his soul somehow lived on
Sulyvahn is working on behalf of Kaathe and Londor He seeks a True Monarch to begin a True Age of Man, but will settle for any False Monarch who would bring about an Age of Dark.
The serpent statues are depicted separately from the Scholar, Priestess and King statues. None of them represent specific people, most likely, so much as they embody the institutions responsible for Linking The Fire. To assume they are depicting Kaathe in a kingdom dedicated to said Linking until recently is utterly preposterous.
@@alyseleem2692 The idea that the first of the scholar, preusmably an influtential figure in Lothric, doubted the Linking of the Fire and supposedly manipulated Lothric into siding with him is preposterous regardless of his identity. That's the point, that within Lothric's archives there was a very important individual who was essentially a cultural heretic. This is what the game communicates indirectly. The idea that Kaathe infiltrated the archive hierarchy marries well it.
@@lumendrake2265 Except it doesn't. For a heretic to be secret, he has to be a heretic that is not well-known for his heresy. Literally everyone knows the story about Kaathe and the Abyss. Him and every primordial serpent besides Frampt are against the Linking. If any one of them knocked Lothric's gates, they'd be burnt to a crisp. There is nothing preposterous about a normal-looking man hiding treacherous thoughts about the Linking to himself, especially with how the cycle has been going, especially if he is a Scholar who trained himself to doubt and inspect all knowledge. It also isn't preposterous that he would share these sentiments with his students. What is preposterous is the image of the royal family allowing any one of those toothy $##ers anywhere near their sweet Prince.
@@lumendrake2265 Except it doesn't. For a heretic to be secret, he has to be a heretic that is not well-known for his heresy. Literally everyone knows the story about Kaathe and the Abyss. Him and every primordial serpent besides Frampt are against the Linking. If any one of them knocked Lothric's gates, they'd be burnt to a crisp. There is nothing top strange about a normal-looking man hiding treacherous thoughts about the Linking to himself, especially with how the cycle has been going, and especially if he was a Scholar who trained himself to doubt instead of blindly believe. It also isn't strange that he would share these sentiments with his students. What is beyond belief s the image of the royal family allowing any one of those toothy $##ers anywhere near their sweet Prince. Let alone teach him.
This is quite conundrum. You've largely convinced me regarding Aldia not being the First Scholar, but there is one important problem: The timeline of events. Not necessarily the length of it. No. Rather, something more...causal in nature. Logan's enlightenment is the result of us, the Chosen Undead, following his entire questline to it's very end, all the way to killing him and obtaining the White Dragon Breath spell; the spell that signified his, and later Oceiros', enlightenment. This is important for one reason; The Chosen Undead is the only existing channel by which the rest of the world recieved Logan's knowledge on crystal sorceries. No one else was taught them. No one else recieved them. Not Griggs. Not a lucky sorcerer stumbling on Logan whilst you weren't there. No. You, and only you, were taught these specific sorceries by Logan. As for how they were passed down? Simple. The process of learning sorcery in and of itself seems to require recording it in some way. As such, whoever found the notes left by the Chosen Undead and Logan became the next sage. This is demonstrated by the nature of the cursed books in the Grand Archives. All of them are possessed by a malignant essence reaching out. That essence likely belongs to whoever wrote them; passing down both knowledge and madness. By the time Lothric was founded, both Logan and the Chosen Undead were long gone. The First Scholar's name doesn't indicate them to be the First of ALL Scholars, but the first of Lothric's Scholars; the one who brought it to Lothric and eventually gained the Grand Archives as the official territory of their own faction. Both the Twin Sages and whoever followed Logan's teachings likely pre-existed Lothric by a good margin, in much the same way the Undead Legion did, with their three fires ritual representing three of the Lords defeated in the first Linking of the Fire. Both base their culture and belief systems on events that took place during the life and times of the original Chosen Undead. As such, there are two options: 1. One of the Twin Sages is the First Scholar. 2. Their teacher was. Why? Because again, whoever their teacher was, it couldn't have been Logan! The very fact White Dragon Breath is available as a spell confirms that Logan died at the hands of the Chosen Undead, as that is the only way by which it was gained and later recorded. ( Regarding Aldia, whilst I don't think he is the First Scholar, I believe he had rekations with them, with how ecletic his own research was. The paintings in his manor include ones from Anor Londo; this, combined with a shattered Lordvessel in what may have been his house in Majula, indicate he may have visited Lordran at some point during his journey to crack the cycle's code. A possible date for this may have been Vendrick's invasion of the Giants, who may have themselves been the current denizens of Lordran at the time)
I dont understand why Aldia couldnt be the First of the Scholar ... The First of the Scholar was present in Lothric since the very foundations of it's archieves up until the teenage years of Lothric ... How any normal human could survive in that position for millenia? And its hard to believe the Crystal sages "predates" Lothric when the Kingdom has existed for a looooooong time ... In fact only recently they joined the Kingdom and introduced the scholars to the culture of Seath and the research of Logan meaning before that Lothric researches didnt have that much of a knowledge
recommend you reading lokey lores theses on aldia, drangleic, and the first scholar, but its way more likely that its aldia, here is why: 1- the statues we see of the first scholar are that of a hooded tree-like man holding a book, and these surround prince lothrics chamber 2- the name for the sorcery soul stream is "soul torrent", the same as that of aldias soul geyser, or soul torrent in jpn 3- the description says that the first scholar is from the beginning of both lothric and its archives, meaning, to have survived generations, he isnt human, and isnt undead since undead are banished by many countries in the world of man 4- aldia was a firelinking skeptic, not logan, logan never says anything regarding the firelinking in the jpn, while on the other hand, aldia tries to dissuade us in our path and reject the first flame and the age of dark, thus making the world be in a perpetual twilight between light and dark until the first flame fades as the torches fading in the leave the throne ending implies 6- literally the world of ds3 is in a twilight era where light and dark are fighting, prince lothric doesnt want to become king of kindling despite him being able to match the heat of an official king of kindling (thats why it says lord of cinder defeated even tho lothric isnt one) and he doesnt want to become king of dark as well since they are doing nothing except resting in their rooms, the same thing we do in the leave the throne ending, nothing 7- logan is already dead by the times of ds3 and we have countries like vinheim and the profaned capital fighting in regards to who has his legacy iirc (jpn of crystal scroll says that profaned capital has a legitimate basis) lothric has heard the word of aldia, not logan
@@goshingbot01 I am glad you asked. Let's start with Lothric: Logan is stated to have found the essence of sorcery within the Grand Archives. Compare the Grand Archives to the Duke's Archives. The two have exactly two things in common: 1. They're in relatively the same position compared to Anor Londo on the world map. 2. Both are filled with books. In other words, in the time since Logan discovered the essence of sorcery, the Duke's Archives have been destroyed, rediscovered and rebuilt. Obviously, Lothric didn't exist in DS1, meaning it had to have been founded sometime after Logan's death. Moreover, the priests of Lothric use chimes instead of tailsmans and follow the Way Of Blue, indicating their religious tradition to come from somewhere in Drangleic, in contrast to the tailsmans common to Lordran during DS1. Most importantly, behind Oceiros' arena is a Drakeblood Knight enshrined in the Path Of The Dragon gesture, indicating that Lothric has some connections to the Drakebloods in it's foundation. Finally, as noted on this channel before, the Three Pillars were depicted on the Tower Of Flame in Heide in DS2. In other words, Lothric's form of government, religion and culture point to it's people originating from Drangleic, but as we know, the Grand Archives and the presence of Anor Londo( shifting lands notwithstanding) indicate that they built their nation over what we once called Lordran. This is not strange; nearly the entire human population of Lordran was composed of Undead from different parts of the world outside Lordran,migrating to fulfill the prophecy of otherwise escape persecution in their own homes. In other words, Lothric had to have been founded at least long after DS1,and most likely after DS2. The Crystal Sages likely predate Lothric because of this. And no, they didn't recently join. As Logan's successors, they were in the Grand Archives before anyone else. Only after Lothric was founded did the Scholars need permission to enter what was essentially their version of sacred ground. It may have been the King who gave it to them, but before there was a king, a kingdom called Lothric even, there was Logan and those who followed his example after his death. Speaking of Undead, have you ever noticed Andre? The fact that he's still here since the first game should tell you something . " Seeker Of Fire, you know not the depth of Dark within you. It grows deeper still,the more Flame you covet. " " With Dark unshackled, a curse will be upon us, and men will take their true shape. " " Men will be free from death, left to wander eternally." Dark is what lengthens the lifespan of an Undead. Dark responds primarily to will and desire. Therefore, Andre, a blacksmith who desired to aid all other Undead in their journeys, has survived the ages due to having a constant purpose. Apply that to the First Scholar. Aldia could not have been the First Scholar for reasons similar to Logan; when we first meet Aldia, he has alaready sacrificed any means of having a human form, let alone one that was presentable to fellow human beings. Whilst it is likely he held influence on the expedition that would lead to Lothric's founding, and that Soul Stream was developed by studying his techniques, the First Scholar ( Of Lothric, not of all Scholars) is unlikely to have been Aldia himself for this reason.
@@Nobrezmil I agree it isn't Logan. Please read my comment first. I, however, also see Yoshimitsu's point; that the two spells named Soul Geyser are two very different variants. Whilst it is likely one influenced the other, they were developed by two different people. Master and student, perhaps. Perhaps Aldia taught the First Scholar. ( regarding the statues, the figures being depicted are not specific people, but representations of the King, High Priestess and Scholar as positions and pillars of Lothric. The figure of the Scholar, in particular, isn't covered in tree roots, but rather, the wax used by all Scholars as an indication of their duty. )
@@alyseleem2692 the ds2 spell says this in jpn: "Secret art that releases a strong gush of souls. The pursuing soul mass pierces enemies and deals damage repeatedly. It is imparted that this spell which can be called a black art, devised with the goal to keep pursuing the enemy until they run out of breath, is An Diel’s legacy." As we see with many aldian warlocks, they employ the Dark, Aldia was creating spells which at the very least risk the researcher falling to the Dark, something which would have definitely made the religious elements of Drangleic society mobilize against him, Soul Geyser only suggests that he had been trying to hide any sign of these interests early on, keep their dabbling to a select few closest to him, dont you think that aldia would remove those dark aspects when presenting himself to the fire-venerating Lothric?? ds3 spell: "Sorcery that the first wise man is considered to have imparted at the beginning of Lothric and the Great Archives. Fires a tremendous torrent of souls. It is said that the first wise man was a firelinking skeptic and also secretly the prince’s teacher." the problem of the first scholar being some adherent of aldia is age the word here says BEGINNING of lothric and its achives, in other words, its founding, the first scholar can't be human because many, MANY generations of the lothric line since the founding have passed to reach to prince lothric, the scholars were established during the foundation of Lothric, yet its first scholar was advising its last in generations of royals, the statue melting like candle wax nonetheless looking more tree root than human, and a tree form brings Aldia’s physical manifestation in DS2 to mind, and it would certainly make sense for the scholars’ statue to portray its primary member, and these statues litter the entrance to the room of the prince that rejects both light and dark, just like aldia
Will you do some Elden Ring DLC videos? I know Western Elden Ring players are really defensive about their obvious mistranslations (lol, lmao), but I'd like to see some opinions from an actual native Japanese speaker.
yo yoshimitsu, do you have discord i wanna talk about the lore of mirrah in detail if you could explain it since you have explain it better. I have Comic Project that might ties with Mirrah and Forossa.
I don't have a discord channel but I do have a discord account. btw, apologies, I'm still figuring out discord(I have no idea why discord is giving me so much trouble in my mind either).
.....no its way more likely that its aldia, here is why: 1- the statues we see of the first scholar are that of a hooded tree-like man holding a book, and these surround prince lothrics chamber 2- the name for the sorcery soul stream is "soul torrent", the same as that of aldias soul geyser, or soul torrent in jpn 3- the description says that the first scholar is from the beginning of both lothric and its archives, meaning, to have survived generations, he isnt human, and isnt undead since undead are banished by many countries in the world of man 4- aldia was a firelinking skeptic, not logan, logan never says anything regarding the firelinking in the jpn, while on the other hand, aldia tries to dissuade us in our path and reject the first flame and the age of dark, thus making the world be in a perpetual twilight between light and dark until the first flame fades as the torches fading in the leave the throne ending implies 6- literally the world of ds3 is in a twilight era where light and dark are fighting, prince lothric doesnt want to become king of kindling despite him being able to match the heat of an official king of kindling (thats why it says lord of cinder defeated even tho lothric isnt one) and he doesnt want to become king of dark as well since they are doing nothing except resting in their rooms, the same thing we do in the leave the throne ending, nothing 7- logan is already dead by the times of ds3 and we have countries like vinheim and the profaned capital fighting in regards to who has his legacy iirc (jpn of crystal scroll says that profaned capital has a legitimate basis) lothric has heard the word of aldia, not logan the term “wise man” and its associated image are typically shorthand for sorcerers, and Aldia does later obtain the title of a Scholar, or “researcher”, (探究者) and dedicate himself to magical experiments, and the soul geyser description says that it can almost be called a dark art due its proximity to the dark, it would be best for aldia to take those aspects out of soul torrent given lothrics fire veneration
I'll to my best to explain. :) Aldia as the first scholar is the popular theory. And I'm all for it. But I do find it weird some mistranslations are used but some are completely ignored. DS2 soul geyser and DS3 Soul torrent are both ソウルの奔流 in Japanese. the Japanese for the first scholar is 最初の賢者. First Sage Aldia, the scholar of the first sin is 原罪の探究者. Researcher of the First Sin. It feels weird to me when some of the original Japanese text is used but others are completely ignored. I personally don't think Aldia had much to do with Lothric. Even when looking at Aldia's Keep, he has zero books, no connection with crystal or crystal sorcery. And while I get the name of soul geyser and Soul torrent are the same in Japanese, the spells operate differently, require different int stats, and different icons. Grand Archives has multiple connections with crystal, crystal sorcery, Seath, enlightenment and heresy. All of which, have strong ties with 賢者Sage Logan. It makes more sense the first scholar(which is 賢者/Sage) of the Grand Archives was Logan. Btw, could you clarify this? (jpn of crystal scroll says that profaned capital has a legitimate basis) I don't think any item description says the profaned capitol has a legitimate basis as heirs to Logans magic.
@@ChannelYoshimitsu the reason why everything is crystal sorcery is due to them sages being seath worshippers, thats it, and along with this, just because his mansion doesnt have books that doesnt mean he wasnt a sorcerer, we see statues of him in aldias keep and lost bastille, a capital where many magical nations like venn and olaphis prospered that was once lived by aldia and even aldia has a sorcery that is his legacy, soul torrent, and the reason why they operate differently is due to the ds2 version being close to dark as the description points out, while ds3 isnt, and a nation like lothric certainly would notice that i think i mistook the scroll, but here it is: "Logan’s scrolls. Secret treasure texts of the court sorcerers of the Capital of Sin. Can learn Logan’s sorceries by giving it to a sorcerer. Those are certainly the sorceries of the “Big Hat”, so it would seem that the court sorcerers, who called themselves Logan’s successors, also had their reasons." i recommend you reading aldias theses, first scholar and profaned capital theses from loukeysouls yoshimitsubro 🫡🫡
Pontiff Sulyvahn is a tree person, a powerful sorcerer / scholar, and wants the age of dark to arrive as soon as possible. What if, after gaining control over Irithyll, he makes some sort of alliance between himself and Lothric. King Oceiros, in theory, allows him to mentor Prince Lothric and he convinces him to not fulfill his duty in linking the flame? After all, the Dancer of the Boreal Valley, one of Sulyvahn’s knights, is guarding entry to Lothric castle. She’s probably there because Sulyavhn doesn’t want you getting near Prince Lothric so that you don’t link the flame.
@@rigorm136 we see that sulyvahn indeed works with oceiros, BUT, not for lothric, he has no interest in him, as we see with the imperfect of irithyll dungeon, sulyvahn was helping oceiros in his want for dragonification with moonlight, and again, sorcery is the same as aldia, same name, the scholar statue is of a hooded tree man, sulyvahn is a human suffering from dendrification (thats what causes our heart roots as hollows and makes hollows trees), and the first scholar has been in Lothric since its FOUNDING, while sulyvahn wasnt even born at that time in Ariandel, i recommend you reading the thesis of lokeybrolore at his website
@@Nobrezmil my brother in christ Sulyvahn’s mother is a literally a tree woman. Those trees you see in high wall of lothric are effigies made to resemble pilgrim butterflies and their eventual arrival. Hollows are not turning into trees.
You can say some things lose nuance in translations but From Software is going to understand what the actual title of their games mean in English. If they can't get a grasp on what the word "scholar" means in English then that means they are too incompetent to write anything at all.
From an English centric view, yes, I agree. But I think you might be surprised at how much is lost with translation. Not just from Japanese to English but also between English and Japanese. I also think most authors don't care too much about translated material. Not saying Miyazaki doesn't care at all. But I think he cares about the English translation about the same as how much George Lucas cares about the Japanese translation for Star Wars.
@@ChannelYoshimitsu This isn't about the English version. This is about the actual literal Japanese version of the game. It says 'Scholar of the Sin', in English, on the Japanese box art. Also, you know, the game has an English only dub for all dialogue. I get back in the day this stuff could be silly but if the title of the game and all the spoken dialogue is just haphazard who cares no quality checking then there is literally no reason to believe the writing is coherent whatsoever.
I see what you're saying. You're referring to the box art title of スカラーオブザファーストシン, which is yes, the phrase Scholar of the First Sin, imported directly into Japanese. But the Japanese title of Scholar of the Sin is 原罪の探索者. 探索者generally speaking, is researcher or investigator. And many translations between Japanese and English have the same issues and vice-versa. This isn't isolated to Dark Souls. So I don't think it's fair to write off the writing coherency of the authors in this situation. Mistranslations are the norm in the industry for anime, manga, literature and video games. Most just don't notice or even know about it. I personally don't see what the spoken dialogue being in English has anything to do with what we're talking about though.
@@ChannelYoshimitsu The Japanese box art of the game Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin has the title in ENGLISH. Not translated, actual English characters. i.ebayimg.com/images/g/1ewAAOSw9bpilMr2/s-l1600.jpg And yes, the fact the dialogue of the game is in every single version including the Japanese is important! Why wouldn't it be??
Something I've never noticed until now is that Logan is referred to as a heretic multiple times but isn't labelled as blasphemous, which Aldia's Soul Geyser heirloom is. Many people treat heresy and blasphemy as interchangeable because real world theologians look down on both equally, but there really is a big difference between the two that makes me wonder more about Aldia's wider ambition because it appears he's from a family line who are outright adversarial to the gods, which I don't think anyone has ever talked about before in the lore community.
I completely agree with you. Logan is referred to as a heretic, which is異端(heresy) or 異端者(heretic)
But for Aldia, his blasphemous method is 邪法. 邪法 can be translated as blasphemous, evil ways, or sometimes heresy. And like heresy and blasphemy, 邪法 & 異端 are treated interchangeably, but the two are quite different as well.
This is amazing. I need to look into this now. Thank you for this find.
Great video Yoshimitsu! A clarifying question I had; when talking about Soul stream in the Japanese dialogue what was your translation for all of the parts regarding the first of the scholars? We didn't get to go over if they were essentially the same or if there was a difference between them.
I think you are on to something with this video. The Soul Stream spell in English has always implied to me that Lothric and the first of the Scholar knew each other personally, which is why I am interested in
The translation for first of the scholars in Souls Stream is pretty much the same between Japanese and English. In Japanese, [最初の賢者は火継ぎの懐疑者であり, また密かに、王子の師でもあったという], which I would say is essentially same as the English of, "The first of the Scholars doubted the linking of the fire, and was alleged to be a private mentor to the Royal Prince."
The term 賢者 was translated as Scholar, which I think should be translated as Sage. I'm not against 賢者 being translated as Scholar. But I do disagree with how both 賢者(sage) & 探究者(researcher) were both translated as Scholar.
I'd probably word it, "The first sage was a skeptic of firelinking, and was secretly, the prince's teacher."
I do agree that the first scholar and lothric knew each other personally. I also get that impression from the Japanese. :)
Yooo, more based lore from Yoshi.
I think Logan venerates Velka as well as Seath (hence the hat, see also 13:09, also note how his original imprisonment mirrors cornyx's crow-cage). I think she worked closely with Seath; even conceiving Priscilla together
Consider also Avelyn's placement in the Archives, or the Witch's Locks in DS3, or the Judgment Set *and* Crystal Magic Weapon in Dragon Shrine DS2.
Aldia also seems to have been influenced by both - as does his spiritual successor, Sulyvahn.
(One of Aldia's focuses was studying mimicry; Logan's Homing Soulmass mimics Pursuers.)
The Scholars are based on the secret Caitha-Candle from Undead Crypt in DS2, and Caitha is Velka's name in Lindelt. (Scholars are also, imo, a stealth pun on Channeler Vs Chandler [candlestick-maker])
Crystal Sages also have links to Velka (billed masks) and, weirdly, Pinwheel (exact same gimmick).
Court Sorcerer Hood is based on the hat of Sir Edward Kelley, who claimed to communicate with Angels by scrying through a *crystal ball* - (the gargoyles of the profaned capital and grand archives are stone angels).
Velka is a difference branch of sorcery to Logan's as Velka is about Dark Moon sorcery. You see this in game with the different blue hues in specific spells and embers. They both had contact with Seath but they never met one another.
How is he the first sage of the Great Archive in Lothric, millenia after the waning age of fire of Lordran and especially after seeing him gone mad and killing him. Even if you'd say we dont kill him or we something something "time paradoxes in the DS universe" - he was gone mad.
I personally think it has to do with the nature of Lothric. The lands that are in Lothric are former homes of the Lords of Cinders. I'm of the theory that most of the lands and people in Lothric are not all from the same era and many of the lands and people, drifted to Lothric.
You're question gave me an idea for another video. I'll explain the nature of Lothric better in that video. Apologies for the lack of a good answer.
@@ChannelYoshimitsu Don't apologize, I was just pointing out stuff.
Im with you here that Lothric is like Lordran. This is where the lands 'converge' as it is stated. Where the undead/ashen ones congregate to heed their calling of linking the fire/putting the resurrected former Lords of Cinder to the blade and use their ashes as kindling.
There's also the example of Astora you made from Anri. That it was destroyed by the Evil Eye that was basically sent out by Sullivahn. But Sullivahn came so much later. He was from the painted world of ariandel and only then came to Lothric. Astora was already destroyed before we came to Lordran though. So that also wouldnt make sense - or what do you think?
Edit: Source: Evil Eye Ring from DS1 and I think Frozen Mist sorcery from DS3 (mentioning that Sullivahn was born in Ariandel)
En ring city hay un altar de Lothric lo que puede significar que los orígenes de dicha liena familiar son mas antiguos de lo que se creía.
This makes spo much sense :o
Great work as always
Your videos are always such a pleasure to watch and learn from. Thank you for sharing these
Respect yoshi 🙏
I've always assumed it was Kaathe since there are Primordial Serpent statues in the Grand Archives, and it's the kind of character that would tempt young Lothric to abandon his duty
I don't see how Logan could have possibly directly influenced Lothric, unless his soul somehow lived on
Sulyvahn is working on behalf of Kaathe and Londor
He seeks a True Monarch to begin a True Age of Man, but will settle for any False Monarch who would bring about an Age of Dark.
The serpent statues are depicted separately from the Scholar, Priestess and King statues. None of them represent specific people, most likely, so much as they embody the institutions responsible for Linking The Fire.
To assume they are depicting Kaathe in a kingdom dedicated to said Linking until recently is utterly preposterous.
@@alyseleem2692 The idea that the first of the scholar, preusmably an influtential figure in Lothric, doubted the Linking of the Fire and supposedly manipulated Lothric into siding with him is preposterous regardless of his identity. That's the point, that within Lothric's archives there was a very important individual who was essentially a cultural heretic. This is what the game communicates indirectly. The idea that Kaathe infiltrated the archive hierarchy marries well it.
@@lumendrake2265 Except it doesn't.
For a heretic to be secret, he has to be a heretic that is not well-known for his heresy.
Literally everyone knows the story about Kaathe and the Abyss. Him and every primordial serpent besides Frampt are against the Linking. If any one of them knocked Lothric's gates, they'd be burnt to a crisp.
There is nothing preposterous about a normal-looking man hiding treacherous thoughts about the Linking to himself, especially with how the cycle has been going, especially if he is a Scholar who trained himself to doubt and inspect all knowledge. It also isn't preposterous that he would share these sentiments with his students.
What is preposterous is the image of the royal family allowing any one of those toothy $##ers anywhere near their sweet Prince.
@@lumendrake2265 Except it doesn't.
For a heretic to be secret, he has to be a heretic that is not well-known for his heresy.
Literally everyone knows the story about Kaathe and the Abyss. Him and every primordial serpent besides Frampt are against the Linking. If any one of them knocked Lothric's gates, they'd be burnt to a crisp.
There is nothing top strange about a normal-looking man hiding treacherous thoughts about the Linking to himself, especially with how the cycle has been going, and especially if he was a Scholar who trained himself to doubt instead of blindly believe. It also isn't strange that he would share these sentiments with his students.
What is beyond belief s the image of the royal family allowing any one of those toothy $##ers anywhere near their sweet Prince. Let alone teach him.
Could you confirm that the bonfire of ds2 cardinal tower has that name in Japanese? Or if it has any religious connotation, be it Orthodox or Roman?
Yeah! :)
This is quite conundrum.
You've largely convinced me regarding Aldia not being the First Scholar, but there is one important problem:
The timeline of events.
Not necessarily the length of it. No. Rather, something more...causal in nature.
Logan's enlightenment is the result of us, the Chosen Undead, following his entire questline to it's very end, all the way to killing him and obtaining the White Dragon Breath spell; the spell that signified his, and later Oceiros', enlightenment.
This is important for one reason;
The Chosen Undead is the only existing channel by which the rest of the world recieved Logan's knowledge on crystal sorceries.
No one else was taught them. No one else recieved them. Not Griggs. Not a lucky sorcerer stumbling on Logan whilst you weren't there. No.
You, and only you, were taught these specific sorceries by Logan.
As for how they were passed down?
Simple. The process of learning sorcery in and of itself seems to require recording it in some way. As such, whoever found the notes left by the Chosen Undead and Logan became the next sage.
This is demonstrated by the nature of the cursed books in the Grand Archives. All of them are possessed by a malignant essence reaching out. That essence likely belongs to whoever wrote them; passing down both knowledge and madness.
By the time Lothric was founded, both Logan and the Chosen Undead were long gone. The First Scholar's name doesn't indicate them to be the First of ALL Scholars, but the first of Lothric's Scholars; the one who brought it to Lothric and eventually gained the Grand Archives as the official territory of their own faction.
Both the Twin Sages and whoever followed Logan's teachings likely pre-existed Lothric by a good margin, in much the same way the Undead Legion did, with their three fires ritual representing three of the Lords defeated in the first Linking of the Fire. Both base their culture and belief systems on events that took place during the life and times of the original Chosen Undead.
As such, there are two options:
1. One of the Twin Sages is the First Scholar.
2. Their teacher was.
Why?
Because again, whoever their teacher was, it couldn't have been Logan! The very fact White Dragon Breath is available as a spell confirms that Logan died at the hands of the Chosen Undead, as that is the only way by which it was gained and later recorded.
( Regarding Aldia, whilst I don't think he is the First Scholar, I believe he had rekations with them, with how ecletic his own research was. The paintings in his manor include ones from Anor Londo; this, combined with a shattered Lordvessel in what may have been his house in Majula, indicate he may have visited Lordran at some point during his journey to crack the cycle's code. A possible date for this may have been Vendrick's invasion of the Giants, who may have themselves been the current denizens of Lordran at the time)
I dont understand why Aldia couldnt be the First of the Scholar ... The First of the Scholar was present in Lothric since the very foundations of it's archieves up until the teenage years of Lothric ... How any normal human could survive in that position for millenia?
And its hard to believe the Crystal sages "predates" Lothric when the Kingdom has existed for a looooooong time ... In fact only recently they joined the Kingdom and introduced the scholars to the culture of Seath and the research of Logan meaning before that Lothric researches didnt have that much of a knowledge
recommend you reading lokey lores theses on aldia, drangleic, and the first scholar, but its way more likely that its aldia, here is why:
1- the statues we see of the first scholar are that of a hooded tree-like man holding a book, and these surround prince lothrics chamber
2- the name for the sorcery soul stream is "soul torrent", the same as that of aldias soul geyser, or soul torrent in jpn
3- the description says that the first scholar is from the beginning of both lothric and its archives, meaning, to have survived generations, he isnt human, and isnt undead since undead are banished by many countries in the world of man
4- aldia was a firelinking skeptic, not logan, logan never says anything regarding the firelinking in the jpn, while on the other hand, aldia tries to dissuade us in our path and reject the first flame and the age of dark, thus making the world be in a perpetual twilight between light and dark until the first flame fades as the torches fading in the leave the throne ending implies
6- literally the world of ds3 is in a twilight era where light and dark are fighting, prince lothric doesnt want to become king of kindling despite him being able to match the heat of an official king of kindling (thats why it says lord of cinder defeated even tho lothric isnt one) and he doesnt want to become king of dark as well since they are doing nothing except resting in their rooms, the same thing we do in the leave the throne ending, nothing
7- logan is already dead by the times of ds3 and we have countries like vinheim and the profaned capital fighting in regards to who has his legacy iirc (jpn of crystal scroll says that profaned capital has a legitimate basis)
lothric has heard the word of aldia, not logan
@@goshingbot01 I am glad you asked.
Let's start with Lothric:
Logan is stated to have found the essence of sorcery within the Grand Archives.
Compare the Grand Archives to the Duke's Archives.
The two have exactly two things in common:
1. They're in relatively the same position compared to Anor Londo on the world map.
2. Both are filled with books.
In other words, in the time since Logan discovered the essence of sorcery, the Duke's Archives have been destroyed, rediscovered and rebuilt. Obviously, Lothric didn't exist in DS1, meaning it had to have been founded sometime after Logan's death.
Moreover, the priests of Lothric use chimes instead of tailsmans and follow the Way Of Blue, indicating their religious tradition to come from somewhere in Drangleic, in contrast to the tailsmans common to Lordran during DS1.
Most importantly, behind Oceiros' arena is a Drakeblood Knight enshrined in the Path Of The Dragon gesture, indicating that Lothric has some connections to the Drakebloods in it's foundation.
Finally, as noted on this channel before, the Three Pillars were depicted on the Tower Of Flame in Heide in DS2.
In other words, Lothric's form of government, religion and culture point to it's people originating from Drangleic, but as we know, the Grand Archives and the presence of Anor Londo( shifting lands notwithstanding) indicate that they built their nation over what we once called Lordran. This is not strange; nearly the entire human population of Lordran was composed of Undead from different parts of the world outside Lordran,migrating to fulfill the prophecy of otherwise escape persecution in their own homes.
In other words, Lothric had to have been founded at least long after DS1,and most likely after DS2. The Crystal Sages likely predate Lothric because of this.
And no, they didn't recently join. As Logan's successors, they were in the Grand Archives before anyone else. Only after Lothric was founded did the Scholars need permission to enter what was essentially their version of sacred ground. It may have been the King who gave it to them, but before there was a king, a kingdom called Lothric even, there was Logan and those who followed his example after his death.
Speaking of Undead, have you ever noticed Andre?
The fact that he's still here since the first game should tell you something .
" Seeker Of Fire, you know not the depth of Dark within you. It grows deeper still,the more Flame you covet. "
" With Dark unshackled, a curse will be upon us, and men will take their true shape. "
" Men will be free from death, left to wander eternally."
Dark is what lengthens the lifespan of an Undead. Dark responds primarily to will and desire. Therefore, Andre, a blacksmith who desired to aid all other Undead in their journeys, has survived the ages due to having a constant purpose.
Apply that to the First Scholar.
Aldia could not have been the First Scholar for reasons similar to Logan; when we first meet Aldia, he has alaready sacrificed any means of having a human form, let alone one that was presentable to fellow human beings. Whilst it is likely he held influence on the expedition that would lead to Lothric's founding, and that Soul Stream was developed by studying his techniques, the First Scholar ( Of Lothric, not of all Scholars) is unlikely to have been Aldia himself for this reason.
@@Nobrezmil I agree it isn't Logan. Please read my comment first.
I, however, also see Yoshimitsu's point; that the two spells named Soul Geyser are two very different variants. Whilst it is likely one influenced the other, they were developed by two different people. Master and student, perhaps.
Perhaps Aldia taught the First Scholar.
( regarding the statues, the figures being depicted are not specific people, but representations of the King, High Priestess and Scholar as positions and pillars of Lothric. The figure of the Scholar, in particular, isn't covered in tree roots, but rather, the wax used by all Scholars as an indication of their duty. )
@@alyseleem2692 the ds2 spell says this in jpn:
"Secret art that releases a strong gush of souls. The pursuing soul mass pierces enemies and deals damage repeatedly.
It is imparted that this spell which can be called a black art, devised with the goal to keep pursuing the enemy until they run out of breath, is An Diel’s legacy."
As we see with many aldian warlocks, they employ the Dark, Aldia was creating spells which at the very least risk the researcher falling to the Dark, something which would have definitely made the religious elements of Drangleic society mobilize against him, Soul Geyser only suggests that he had been trying to hide any sign of these interests early on, keep their dabbling to a select few closest to him, dont you think that aldia would remove those dark aspects when presenting himself to the fire-venerating Lothric??
ds3 spell:
"Sorcery that the first wise man is considered to have imparted at the beginning of Lothric and the Great Archives.
Fires a tremendous torrent of souls.
It is said that the first wise man was a firelinking skeptic and also secretly the prince’s teacher."
the problem of the first scholar being some adherent of aldia is age
the word here says BEGINNING of lothric and its achives, in other words, its founding, the first scholar can't be human because many, MANY generations of the lothric line since the founding have passed to reach to prince lothric, the scholars were established during the foundation of Lothric, yet its first scholar was advising its last in generations of royals, the statue melting like candle wax nonetheless looking more tree root than human, and a tree form brings Aldia’s physical manifestation in DS2 to mind, and it would certainly make sense for the scholars’ statue to portray its primary member, and these statues litter the entrance to the room of the prince that rejects both light and dark, just like aldia
I'd love for you to tackle Elden Ring one day too
Will you do some Elden Ring DLC videos? I know Western Elden Ring players are really defensive about their obvious mistranslations (lol, lmao), but I'd like to see some opinions from an actual native Japanese speaker.
YES! New video!
yo yoshimitsu, do you have discord i wanna talk about the lore of mirrah in detail if you could explain it since you have explain it better. I have Comic Project that might ties with Mirrah and Forossa.
I don't have a discord channel but I do have a discord account.
btw, apologies, I'm still figuring out discord(I have no idea why discord is giving me so much trouble in my mind either).
@@ChannelYoshimitsu i can add you if you want. or perhaps the hardest part is making video on mirrah and forossa.
.....no
its way more likely that its aldia, here is why:
1- the statues we see of the first scholar are that of a hooded tree-like man holding a book, and these surround prince lothrics chamber
2- the name for the sorcery soul stream is "soul torrent", the same as that of aldias soul geyser, or soul torrent in jpn
3- the description says that the first scholar is from the beginning of both lothric and its archives, meaning, to have survived generations, he isnt human, and isnt undead since undead are banished by many countries in the world of man
4- aldia was a firelinking skeptic, not logan, logan never says anything regarding the firelinking in the jpn, while on the other hand, aldia tries to dissuade us in our path and reject the first flame and the age of dark, thus making the world be in a perpetual twilight between light and dark until the first flame fades as the torches fading in the leave the throne ending implies
6- literally the world of ds3 is in a twilight era where light and dark are fighting, prince lothric doesnt want to become king of kindling despite him being able to match the heat of an official king of kindling (thats why it says lord of cinder defeated even tho lothric isnt one) and he doesnt want to become king of dark as well since they are doing nothing except resting in their rooms, the same thing we do in the leave the throne ending, nothing
7- logan is already dead by the times of ds3 and we have countries like vinheim and the profaned capital fighting in regards to who has his legacy iirc (jpn of crystal scroll says that profaned capital has a legitimate basis)
lothric has heard the word of aldia, not logan
the term “wise man” and its associated image are typically shorthand for sorcerers, and Aldia does later obtain the title of a Scholar, or “researcher”, (探究者) and dedicate himself to magical experiments, and the soul geyser description says that it can almost be called a dark art
due its proximity to the dark, it would be best for aldia to take those aspects out of soul torrent given lothrics fire veneration
I'll to my best to explain. :)
Aldia as the first scholar is the popular theory. And I'm all for it.
But I do find it weird some mistranslations are used but some are completely ignored.
DS2 soul geyser and DS3 Soul torrent are both ソウルの奔流 in Japanese.
the Japanese for the first scholar is 最初の賢者. First Sage
Aldia, the scholar of the first sin is 原罪の探究者. Researcher of the First Sin.
It feels weird to me when some of the original Japanese text is used but others are completely ignored.
I personally don't think Aldia had much to do with Lothric. Even when looking at Aldia's Keep, he has zero books, no connection with crystal or crystal sorcery. And while I get the name of soul geyser and Soul torrent are the same in Japanese, the spells operate differently, require different int stats, and different icons.
Grand Archives has multiple connections with crystal, crystal sorcery, Seath, enlightenment and heresy. All of which, have strong ties with 賢者Sage Logan.
It makes more sense the first scholar(which is 賢者/Sage) of the Grand Archives was Logan.
Btw, could you clarify this?
(jpn of crystal scroll says that profaned capital has a legitimate basis)
I don't think any item description says the profaned capitol has a legitimate basis as heirs to Logans magic.
@@ChannelYoshimitsu the reason why everything is crystal sorcery is due to them sages being seath worshippers, thats it, and along with this, just because his mansion doesnt have books that doesnt mean he wasnt a sorcerer, we see statues of him in aldias keep and lost bastille, a capital where many magical nations like venn and olaphis prospered that was once lived by aldia
and even aldia has a sorcery that is his legacy, soul torrent, and the reason why they operate differently is due to the ds2 version being close to dark as the description points out, while ds3 isnt, and a nation like lothric certainly would notice that
i think i mistook the scroll, but here it is:
"Logan’s scrolls. Secret treasure texts of the court sorcerers of the Capital of Sin.
Can learn Logan’s sorceries by giving it to a sorcerer.
Those are certainly the sorceries of the “Big Hat”, so it would seem that the court sorcerers, who called themselves Logan’s successors, also had their reasons."
i recommend you reading aldias theses, first scholar and profaned capital theses from loukeysouls yoshimitsubro 🫡🫡
Pontiff Sulyvahn is a tree person, a powerful sorcerer / scholar, and wants the age of dark to arrive as soon as possible. What if, after gaining control over Irithyll, he makes some sort of alliance between himself and Lothric. King Oceiros, in theory, allows him to mentor Prince Lothric and he convinces him to not fulfill his duty in linking the flame? After all, the Dancer of the Boreal Valley, one of Sulyvahn’s knights, is guarding entry to Lothric castle. She’s probably there because Sulyavhn doesn’t want you getting near Prince Lothric so that you don’t link the flame.
@@rigorm136 we see that sulyvahn indeed works with oceiros, BUT, not for lothric, he has no interest in him, as we see with the imperfect of irithyll dungeon, sulyvahn was helping oceiros in his want for dragonification with moonlight, and again, sorcery is the same as aldia, same name, the scholar statue is of a hooded tree man, sulyvahn is a human suffering from dendrification (thats what causes our heart roots as hollows and makes hollows trees), and the first scholar has been in Lothric since its FOUNDING, while sulyvahn wasnt even born at that time in Ariandel, i recommend you reading the thesis of lokeybrolore at his website
@@Nobrezmil my brother in christ Sulyvahn’s mother is a literally a tree woman. Those trees you see in high wall of lothric are effigies made to resemble pilgrim butterflies and their eventual arrival. Hollows are not turning into trees.
You can say some things lose nuance in translations but From Software is going to understand what the actual title of their games mean in English. If they can't get a grasp on what the word "scholar" means in English then that means they are too incompetent to write anything at all.
From an English centric view, yes, I agree.
But I think you might be surprised at how much is lost with translation. Not just from Japanese to English but also between English and Japanese.
I also think most authors don't care too much about translated material. Not saying Miyazaki doesn't care at all. But I think he cares about the English translation about the same as how much George Lucas cares about the Japanese translation for Star Wars.
@@ChannelYoshimitsu This isn't about the English version. This is about the actual literal Japanese version of the game. It says 'Scholar of the Sin', in English, on the Japanese box art.
Also, you know, the game has an English only dub for all dialogue. I get back in the day this stuff could be silly but if the title of the game and all the spoken dialogue is just haphazard who cares no quality checking then there is literally no reason to believe the writing is coherent whatsoever.
I see what you're saying. You're referring to the box art title of スカラーオブザファーストシン, which is yes, the phrase Scholar of the First Sin, imported directly into Japanese.
But the Japanese title of Scholar of the Sin is 原罪の探索者. 探索者generally speaking, is researcher or investigator.
And many translations between Japanese and English have the same issues and vice-versa. This isn't isolated to Dark Souls. So I don't think it's fair to write off the writing coherency of the authors in this situation.
Mistranslations are the norm in the industry for anime, manga, literature and video games. Most just don't notice or even know about it.
I personally don't see what the spoken dialogue being in English has anything to do with what we're talking about though.
@@ChannelYoshimitsu The Japanese box art of the game Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin has the title in ENGLISH. Not translated, actual English characters.
i.ebayimg.com/images/g/1ewAAOSw9bpilMr2/s-l1600.jpg
And yes, the fact the dialogue of the game is in every single version including the Japanese is important! Why wouldn't it be??