Transcription
This is Gael. Once he was a hollow slave, an undead warrior used as fodder in the bleakest of battles. Now he searches for a second Ashen one to enter the painting, for the tales tell of two Ashes who'll burn Ariandel away. [Laughing Sinisterly] His story will have its time in the light, but not right now. Subscribe, and look for these videos, so we can give each character the attention to detail they deserve. But by the end of this video, you'll have a good understanding of the entire painted world and our place within it.
"Rejoice, my new friend," "for this is a true haven of the forlorn." "The cold and gentle painted world of Ariandel." "A sweetly rotting bed to lie upon..."
Ariandel, like the Painted world of Ariamis, has always been a place for forlorn souls. Almost all of the beings here have a story that belongs in the outside world, something that they're keen to forget, and a story sad enough that it would cause them to get sucked into the painting. For example, these warriors are the followers of Farron, and they should look familiar. Their pointed steel helms mark them as a set of warriors from the undead legion of Farron. Farron and its watchers fell to ruin, of course, but the followers survived, forlorn. With a home fallen to ruin, and compatriots dead or corrupted by the abyss, it's easy to understand how they were pulled into the painting.
Also pulled into the painting were the Millwood knights, an order said to fight hand in hand with the earth itself. These are the fights that will drain you to your last remaining Estus till you're climbing that tower to take out the bowman making your life hell. Here, in this tower, you'll find the Captain's Ashes, and these sort of allow you to piece together the missing chunk of the Millwood Knights story. Long ago, when the Millwood Knights lost the forest they called home, they began a journey so long that even thoughts of their sworn enemy washed away, replaced by a vision of a cold and brittle wood. We'll talk about their sworn enemy, the loss of their forest, and how that led to their journey to the painting soon. It's one of the more tragic stories.
Finally, you make it to the bridge, and to the Chapel of Ariandel. "If you've lost your way," "the words of Lady Friede will guide you." "Now go on inside, show respect, and listen carefully." This is Sir Vilhelm, a knight completely loyal to the Lady inside. "A meek, and faded thing." "But t'will guide thee, nonetheless." "Now," "Return for whence thou cam'st." "Thou'st a place in that world," "and that alone, is cause to rejoice."
This ring is given to you, because this ring was never meant to grace Friede's hand. The painting, and its frost as well, it became her home. "There is one thing you should know." "Inside the cold painting," "curiosity could be your cross." "Stray from the withering flame," "and the snow will swallow you whole." (screeching)
Within the snow are the crawling, crow-like Corvians. And these Corvians are markedly different from the Corvians we've seen before. These ones are pitiful. They're dragging their defilement along with them, and they're barely even a threat. I think that this easy gameplay sequence is meant to reinforce that. Further along, we meet the creature that likely crippled them. This is a Corvian too, but it's a Corvian Knight. Does it look familiar? It has the same body structure and this same peck move as the crows of Velka did in Dark Souls 1, and it's vicious. When we find the Corvian Knight weapons upon the rooftops, they reveal that the Corvian Knights became infatuated with Sister Friede, the woman we met in the Ariandel Chapel just now. Like her, these creatures embraced the rot, and swore to protect the painting from fire. This decision was what led them to execute their own brethren. And their brethren clearly had other ideas about fire and rot.
"Oh, wondrous Ash." "Grant us our wish." "Make the tales true," "and burn this world away." "Surely you've seen the rot that afflicts our world." "But that witch fooled the good father," "and buried the flame." "After we had all made up our minds, too..." "So," "please," "grant us one wish." "My lady must see flame," "and you have only to show her."
This dialogue reveals a lot, and the story really starts to take shape here. This is a tale of fire versus rot, and the Corvian at the start, with the feathers, he told us to embrace the rot, and accept it. But Gael told us, this world needs a proper flame that will burn the rot away. This creature tells us once, that they all made up their minds to burn the world away, rot, and all. Unfortunately, Friede came along, and convinced the Father otherwise. The Corvian Knights, infatuated with Friede, betrayed their brethren and enforced her rule. Friede asked us to leave this place, and Vilhelm threatened us to. They fear the second Ash, because, according to the tales, it is the second Ash that heralds the flame. So, it's our job to find the rest of the secrets in the painting, and they're very close by.
From his items, we learn who Vilhelm, The Knight of Londor, really is. So he served the three sisters who founded the Sable Church, and before this video, we only knew about two of these sisters. We talked a lot about them in the Hollows of Londor video. Go and check that out. So there was Liliane, the youngest, who first spoke about a lot of their miracles. There was Yuria, the second-eldest, who guides us to become a Lord of Hollows in the base game, and now we know the identity of the third sister. The eldest, Elfriede. Vilhelm, his armor reads, was particularly loyal to the eldest.
The contraption key leads to the attic of the archive. Long ago, Sir Vilhelm lead a white haired woman up here, and kept this key, as it were his life. I wondered what she's doing here, and it's almost like she's scraping a dent in the table, out of some compulsion to paint, maybe? We'll hear more from the white haired girl later.
Did you notice this? Entrenched in the snow is a bell that looks really similar to the one in Firelink, albeit, with slightly different engravings. Our Firelink bell in Dark Souls III is what unearths the Unkindled from their graves, so that they can link the fire. And, think about this, in a way, this world craves fire too, just like the world outside, and this world has a bell as well. The tales tell of a second Ash that will come and bring fire to the painting. Considering Vilhelm and Friede don't want fire, it's logical that they wouldn't want no bell ringing either. And this explains why Vilhelm is surprised you made it here, even though there is no bell. Curious, right? So I think that's why the bell is entrenched.
And past Vilhelm, below Elfriede, in the heart of the mountain, is this huge concentration of rot inflicting the world. Hidden, amongst the flies is the only way to unlock the vault behind Friede. A lever that looks and functions identically to the one in the Painted World of Dark Souls 1, rotates a statue of a woman holding a young child, and it opens the way. (ominous wind howling)
This is a damn good boss fight, and for most of us I think it's going to help justify how short this DLC was. This first phase is tough, mainly because of this trick. All of a sudden, you're straining your ears for footsteps, knowing that this woman is running towards you & not a 100% sure where it's going to come from. But once you get over your fear of this move, it actually becomes her weakness. You get the timing down, you figure out where she tends to move to in her invisibility, and then, the match swings in your favor.
Friede was the first Ash to enter the painting, but together, with the Good Father, they chose rot over fire. When she disappears, most of us said, "Holy shit, just like Priscilla.", right? She certainly is taking after her. I've mentioned that Elfriede was a sister of the Sable Church, but what I haven't really mentioned is that she renounced her former life, and discovered a people she wished to protect in the painting, assuming the precise form that they yearned for. So she became this polite, scythe wielding Lady of the Painting. But, Elfriede isn't a half dragon crossbreed, like Priscilla was. She's Unkindled Ash, and as such, she's supposed to seek flame. But instead, her and the father chose rot over fire. In order to suppress the flame, the father shreds his own skin. That's why he asks for his flail at the start of the fight. It's his blood that appeases the flame for, I quote: "The painting was painted with blood, and only blood can protect the sacred." And regardless of whether Elfriede manipulated the father into doing this, he's completely dependent upon her now, and you take her away from him. (unintelligible screaming) (chains braking) (unintelligible screaming) (explosion) (screams) Ahhh.
Father, not Lloyd, disturbs the flame, and the flame brings Elfriede back, which isn't too strange, considering the fire brings us back to life as well, as an Unkindled. And so, the two Ashes fighting causes the fire to flare. The white haired woman is going to see flame. By enraging Ariandel, we're getting what we want, in a way. I need a break though, at this point, phase two is tough.
Upstairs now, in the chapel, she's moved. The white haired woman has returned to her canvas and she wishes to paint a new world to replace this one. From this, we learn that new paintings can arise, when the old ones fall to rot. There was rot, in the old painting of Ariamis. Also, don't forget there was the poison spewing dragon, there was the Undead Phalanx, there was the bloated monstrosities. In an unchanging canvas, which is home to the terrible & the unwanted, and the rotten, maybe it makes a lot of sense for rot to inevitably take over the painting. So the painting of Ariamis undoubtedly fell, but Father Ariandel is said to have restored the painting. This is his world he created, and Friede came and convinced him not to ever let go of his painting, and so the rot took over, but they embraced it. Yet, a new creator lies waiting to paint a new vision. So with the white haired girl in mind, we kill Ariandel and Sister Friede once more.
This little event here, is worthy of an entire video, pretty much. And you'll get one, but for now, what is Black Flame? Well, it's indicative of the Abyss that lies within man, described as the impenetrable fires of humanity. We'll leave it at that, for now. So for those of you who did this spoiler free, how incredible is this moment? A three phase boss fight, where you empty a full health bar each time. It's unheard of and completely demoralizing. Especially when you discover how tough phase three is. It's like fighting Lady Maria of Bloodborne, but with the slower character pacing of the Dark Souls series. The best way I found to beat her, my first time, was to try and keep Gael alive in round two so that we could stun lock her together in round three. And when Gael's AI decided to behave, I got her low enough that I could take her out with my relatively underpowered character. And that is the end.
When we finish, we come face to face with a human with a snake for a lower body. This DLC has a lot of curiosities, and, I hope you make this channel your place to explore them. But there's no curiosity more curious than this piece of dialogue that we receive at the end. Thank you for watching. (Subtitles by VaatiVidya and Crimson Ghoul)