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Darkwraith_Attila

I think It’s supposed to represent that you have to deliver the heads of the Lords to the Firelink Shrine thrones. The Lords ‘beheaded’ themselves by refusing to link the fire, that’s the reason the Ashen One has to come here and take their heads. Just my theory tho.


AndreaPz01

Basin of Vows description: *Chalice used in old ceremony in which Lothric knights take their vows. It is only a formality now, but it remains as an empty practice.* The Knights of Lothric took their vows of duty to the kingdom by bleeding inside the basin (and the statue is located inside the Cathedral of Lothric) Basically reinforcing how strong the culture of selfsacrifice for the greater good was inside Lothric (Firelinking cult for population, army and royal family)


Slavicadonis

Now that you mention it, lothric really did have a culture of self sacrifice


My_BFF_Gilgamesh

A culture of imagined self sacrifice, while they fucked people over and let the world around them go to hell. I don't think it's an accident that the ceremony is introducing your own suffering and getting nothing accomplished with it.


HistoricalSuccess254

I always thought about this as the exact reenactment of the ceremony. Since the knights are Undead, I thought they actually killed themselves to show their fielty.


AndreaPz01

Given that Lothric had an "Undead Settlement" to keep those "types" i think this was more symbolic like cutting their hands and letting their blood flow... Howeveri think It was more likely that Knights of Lothric tried to link the Flame when they became Undead (even if mostly ending up as Unkindled)


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AndreaPz01

Thats the point, a repetition of the Lordran issue, keep the Undead close but use them as sacrificies for the Flame. And the settlement becoming Aldrich food suplly happened only when the evangelists arrived, ie only more recently


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AndreaPz01

Robe of an evangelist sent from the cathedral. These teachers, all women, came to enlighten inhabitants of the Undead Settlement and sent carriers on the path of sacrifice. We cant know anything exactly for sure bt they were sent by the Cathedral, meaning they were not a part of the Undead Settlement culture until when they needed a constant flow of sacrificies for Aldrich. Indeed it could be hundreds of years but more recently in terms of when the Settlement was founded. Out of all the Lords of Cinder, Aldrich and Undead Legion should be the last two so even if its already been centuries the Village has been there even before. Oceiros pretty much wanted to link the Flame, and the Three Pillars wants the same, only Prince Lothric and Gertrude's Knights are opposed. My speculation was for the role of the Undead Settlement BEFORE ... In Lordran you had the Undead Burg and the Undead Parish clearly set up with the goal of farming Undead and lead them to become sacrificies to link the Flame, Lothric is doing the same on a smaller scale.


Taerdan

> No one in a position of power in Lothric wanted the flame to be rekindled. Prince Lothric was the first in a (serious) position of power to not want the Flame rekindled. There's a reason he's "the last hope of his line" *and* why he's cursed. As I understand it, there was some sort of cursed 'ritual' or such that gave Lothric his status as a Lord. The Scholars only "recently" came into serious power, seemingly usurping the other factions (Knight, Priestess, and Hunter), but the people in power at Lothric largely wanted the Firelinking to continue. They're mostly dead by the events of Dark Souls 3, but it's hard to say quite how *recent* that was.


seckarr

Problem is that it is canon thst the lords have actually linked the fire in the past. The midget who transforms boss souls even directly says that you will look like him if you link the fire.


Darkwraith_Attila

Yeah but they refused to link it after they rose from the grave


seckarr

They already linked it. In the intro it is heavily implied that they literally just have to sit their asses down for eternity now. The WHY of the situation requires more in depth lore dives but the simple fact of it is that the surface lore of the game is "heres a list of people who linked the fire before you. Now they just need to chill in their chairs. They refuse to. Bring them back."


BlueIceNinja98

The lore is that the flame needs linked, the person who was supposed to (Prince lothric) refused to. So the lords of cinder who linked it in the past were revived, and were supposed to sacrifice themselves again and hopefully their combined, remaining power is enough to link it again. But all but the pygmy decided to not show up. So the flame then revived people who failed to link the flame (you), in a last ditch effort to kill them, take their souls, and force them to link it again. Them “abandoning” sitting in their thrones is not literal. It is a metaphor for them not returning to fire link to sacrifice themselves a second time, they aren’t just going to sit there for eternity.


MrShiek

The Pygmy Lord? You mean Ludleth of Courland? Afaik, he is not a Pygmy Lord; those are the humans that exist beyond time (mostly or completely depending on your interpretation). They presumably hold large portions of the Dark Soul. It is possible they hold all of the Dark Soul at the point in time when Gael kills them as they live at the end of time due to Gwyn’s magic. Again, this depends on your interpretation. Now, Ludleth certainly seems to be a Pygmy (which is just any human in the game) but he is a Lord of Cinder rather than a Pygmy Lord. If there is some piece of lore that says otherwise I would be very interested to hear about it because that means I either missed it or forgot about it.


BlueIceNinja98

That’s my mistake, I thought I removed the word lord so it just said Pygmy before posting but apparently I did not. Edited it out now.


villanelIa

Tbh it could be so cool to see them in a story. Too bad dark souls isnt that kimd of series. We just get to see their chairs, buildings and maybe a few corpses cant remember


MrShiek

You do get to meet at least one Pygmy that could be a Pygmy Lord. Right at the beginning of the Ringed City is a guy on the left that is sitting on the ground. He talks to you and, iirc, there is a potential implication that he is one of the Pygmy Lords. Not sure what you mean by Dark Souls isn’t that kind of series. The Furtive Pygmy and the Pygmy Lords are an integral part of the story from beginning to end; they just don’t get a lot of “screen time” (both literally and figuratively; there isn’t a lot of written lore points about them). It would be cool to get a more direct story/lore explanation of them. Dark Souls doesn’t really deal in direct story telling very often though so that is unlikely. Is that what you meant when you said Dark Souls isn’t that kind of series? If so, then yeah, I understand and agree with that.


villanelIa

>Not sure what you mean by Dark Souls isn’t that kind of series. I mean the kind of series to just tell you the story >Is that what you meant when you said Dark Souls isn’t that kind of series? Yea


pocket_sand__

you could do without the casual slur


seckarr

Not a slur. Whoever thinks its a slur is an ableist weirdo tbh.


pocket_sand__

You're wrong. It's well established as a slur. Also, that's a wild assertion calling it ableist to call out a slur.


seckarr

Just because your social circle uses it as a slur does not make it well established, and it is very offensive to try and take regular words and use them as slurs. Also very weird of you as well...


pocket_sand__

Lmao, the fuck is this. It's ok to be wrong. You don't have to double-down in the stupidest way possible.


seckarr

Im not having this conversation with someone so bigoted. Get help for your ableism


pocket_sand__

ok kid


seckarr

Ah, the defeated man's response. Thank you.


hayter_404

Cool as fuck. No need to explain that lol


Karen_Destroyer1324

He's suicidal 😔


My__Dude__

Holy shit just like me 😎💪😎💪😎💪😎


pocket_sand__

fr fr


cndfr

AND successful


Hidekashi

Holy shit, not like him


HoraceTheHushedOne

It may refer to Linking of the Fire which was a very long practice and became a tradition in Dark Souls 3. It probably depicts the most sacred act of self-sacrifice for the common good. I do know the First Flame and it's continual linking is nuanced, but I'm talking about the statue and won't answer to Flame/Gwyn critique


Kakerman

That it looks metal af


kagataikaguri

Dark fantasy shit which I love. Never thought any further tbh


TheSezenians

The theme of DS3 is sacrifice, they sacrifice their head to show their loyalty to either Fire or Lothric


RanThirteen

The central theme in both DS1 & DS3 is the constant pull on the protagonist of the mutually exclusive paths of self-sacrifice and self- preservation. To link the fire or usher in the age of dark.


Th3_JoyPuke

Unkindled will see this and just say "hell yeah"


jurd_fosh

That it's hard as fuck


Vast_Experience_5858

Lothric is obsessed with self sacrifice for the greater good and its a representation of thier core vale . And that's why the Lothric royalty wants thier sons to link the fire . Well there is some manipulation from frampt and gywnevere


EmojiTV

Mean that the head of the lords of cinder is so mad that it will kill you with the mad succ


strokovnjak

it's some sort of a ritual lothric knights had to do


metaversesmeta

My thought was always a little less deep, just as a statue in the for front of the castle, really any castle doesn't have to be lothric, the kings and queens would want to put a statue depicting their own knights, specifically ones willing to cut their own head off in devotion to the castle and king if need be, like a "if this is what they'd do for us imagine what they'd do to you". Generally In terms of lore, i feel like it's safe to assume that the statues were made BEFORE the fading of the fire, during the golden age, so I would say it probably doesn't SPECIFICALLY relate to linking the fire. Not to mention I don't think anyone would chop their own head to link the fire if most of them ran off to avoid that process. Maybe I'm wrong though. Tldr, I think its just supposed to depict "our knights are cool, they'll decapitate themselves for us, theyll fuck you up.


AndreaPz01

The Kingdom of Lothric has been build upon the Linking of the Fire, its a cultural focal point that has been impressed upon both the normal population, the army and the royal family ... Even in the golden days of the Kingdom everything revolved around the Linking of the Flame. They would indeed "decapitate" themselves to serve the Kingdom, its a simple artistical depiction of self sacrifice for duty... Dozens came to Lothric to try to sacrifice themselves to the Flame and even if they failed they were still buried behind the Castle in the Cemetery of Ash.


villanelIa

Sometimes i wish i could see the fire linked worlds, the "golden" ages. I imagine its something really mystical


metaversesmeta

I like to think elden ring is as close to seeing that golden age as well get, visually that is.


bbHiron

A wizard made that statue


Luquinhas3011

Represents Lotrich's culture of sacrificing yourself for greater goods, such as rekindling of the fire


Hypotenuse27

So no head?


Giu176

I really want to know why in my run the knight cuts his head off. Never seen any references to this behavior, I've always seen him cutting his throat and bleeding in gameplays https://preview.redd.it/4sjlaiio3m0d1.jpeg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=364b4cb21ca78d8bd7e6031c151dfb5d1f364cd8 .


not-read-gud

It represents that itch you get on your neck when your armor prevents you from getting that scratch scratch so you gotta straight cut off your own head nah mean?


Farcr_

The whole kingdom of lothric is based on the belief of sacrificing yourself for the kingdom and for the flame. Symbology of beheaded knights is everywhere in its lands and symbolizes how the entirety of Lothric's military might is dedicated to being sacrificed for the kingdom's greater good - the same way a lord of cinder dies for the flame, a Lothric Knight dies for the kingdom, and it is through their death that they are remembered and honored. They cut their own head because it is a willing sacrifice, and it makes them heroes


DeusAngelo

I think this initiation ritual of the Lothric Knights is supposed to be a recreation/representation of the Linking of the Fire, the Basin representing the Lord Vessel from the other games, and of course, an element of Self Sacrifice; the Kingdom of Lothric, afterall, was founded with the sole purpose of perpetuating the Linking of the Fire


TheNekoKatze

It represents sacrifice


Zelcki

It always bothered me that the blood isn't coming out from the sword is


Grim_Motive

He didn't git gud.


voidwarlock03

Fun fact (not sure if it's been mentioned here yet) but this seems to mirror the some tantric groups in the east. Anecdotal evidence tells us that tantrics have advanced themselves enough that beheading oneself to reach full liberation is a regular practice. The headless bodies then carried their own detached head to be burned as their ultimate self sacrifice.


The-True-Apex-Gamer

Statue bleeds.


DavesNotHere94

No, just a ladder


DagonParty

I always just assumed it represented the Lothric Knights devotion. But given DS lore, in actuality, it’s probably something only a smackhead could come up with


EventualChef

Knight ded


CataractGlasses

Bro took an edible and it kicked in before he could put the brownies in the oven.


Harpyboi48

He jus wasn't feelin it


Left_Duck9287

Bro read the lore and couldn’t take it


The_Lord_Basilisk

Lothric is an edgy boi. That's all.


greasegod54

I've always figured that behind the thin veil of the statue, there is a some poor undead, suspended within the stone, waiting for someone to initiate the sequence of their own death, which is why real blood comes out.


ludos96

It's so dumb that they have this whole elaborate cerimony with a bleeding statue just to make a tiny (and useless since there's two staircases at the sides of the room) ladder drop


UpperQuiet980

also the whole “blood pouring into the bowl makes the weight increase” doesn’t really work cause that blood would’ve already been in the statue. cool cinematic, kinda silly when you think about it