Our character has started to hollow
and it all started with Yoel
As I have said: I was once
a sorcerer, alas the magic of Londor is a far cry from the wonders of Vinheim.
But I can teach you what I know...
I believe that I can help tease out your true strength.
We Pilgrims of Londor are keenly aware
So, drawing out your true strength at Yoel yields you a level, completely for free without any soul
requirement, however it also subtly and without any notification creates a Dark Sigil
found within your key slot in your inventory.
The Dark Sigil description reads:
"A black gaping hole in the flesh that resembles the brand of an undead, the
darkness of humanity seeps from this bottomless pitch black hole, the gap
filled by the accumulation of the curse" and once this dark sigil appears and is
triggered by Yoel, every subsequent death will cause you to hollow further and you can
now track the level of your hollowing on your stats screen. This dark sigil will never
heal but there is a tale told of a firekeeper who returned from the abyss and brought
great comfort to a bearer of the curse. After getting twenty thousand souls you
can buy the tower key from the Handmaiden and then you can explore the Bell Tower
behind Firelink Shrine. We journey up there and we find what remains of this old,
legendary fire keeper. Soul of a fire keeper, who is said to have returned from the abyss, this fire
keeper preserves the bonfire and serves its champion, she is said to have soothed
and accepted the Dark Sigil which has tainted her soul and yet her soul will one
day in bed itself in the bosom of another fire keeper. The tower key reads,
"The bell tower is the grave firekeepers past, when a firekeeper has served her purpose, she is led to..."
"true darkness, where she enjoys a long deserved sleep."
As we journeyed down, I got
really lucky. I looked over the edge here and I saw that a corpse had been thrown
down here but it got caught on the edge and it's another fire keeper.
And below, are hundreds more.
This, apparently, is the fate of fire keepers who serve the flame.
The fire keepers were robbed of light to
better serve as vessels for souls. Only those who cherish the writhing, searing
darkness were given the fire keeper's black attire. The Estus Ring, reads,
"This ring was entrusted to a certain fire keeper, but in the end, she never met her champion, and..."
"The ensuing tragic farce became a favorite tale of the masses." I hope you
guys are keeping up with me. This is a really lore-heavy episode and apparently
this fire keeper who returned from the abyss existed during Ludleth of
Coreland's cycle. Before he linked the fire, presumably.
There's a story here for sure... But, parts are missing. Who did Coreland seek to
spare her from? Who was the betrayer? And, what did this fire keeper who returned
from the Abyss, apparently, see?
Healing the Dark Sigil costs a ridiculous amount of souls and even after its removed, your
points of hollowing still remain and there is always the option to acquire
more Dark Sigils from Yoel. As far as I can tell, the only effect of hollowing
is that it allows you to occasionally acquire another dark sigil from Yoel,
and this lets you level up for free, so in a sense it's a way to lessen the pain
of dying so many times, this is the best theory I have and I've gone
painstakingly over every piece of footage I have. But there's more because
of the 5 free levels and five Dark Sigils, Yoel says you have attained ample
strength and that soon all will become clear.
And then, after reloading the area, watching over Yoel's newfound corpse was a
woman named Yuria.
The notable items she sells are the Purging
Stone, which seems to say that it will cure the visual effects of hollowing and
the dark hand from Dark Souls one. There's also two rings the change you into
human or phantom form and the Londor Braille Divine Tome, which teaches us
dark miracles, if we can find someone to read it, and... I know where to find her.
Siegmeier and Andre, they aren't the only souls to be reborn this man from Carim, just
quoted a line from Lautrec, of Dark Souls one and both of them are obsessed with
the firekeepers.
Irina, unwillingly, eventually reads the braille tome to us and she can teach us three hexes. Hexes are confirmed.
Dark Blade, Vow of Silence, and Dead Again.
Isn't it better to burn a Soul Vessel than to be a dirty hexer scum?
"Maybe I can try a Dex build."
So, around this point, I started feeling really pressured, I knew I was at the end of my pre-release
session with Dark Souls 3 so, in a last ditch effort to just to learn something
more, I kill everyone I can think of in the Shrine.
Arine drops the tower key, and
then her prior captor makes good on his promise and he ambushes you in the shrine for killing her. You get his
hammer and his shield when you kill him. The Handmaiden respawns but every time
you kill her, she increases the prices of her wares in revenge. I think the tower key
ended up costing like 40,000 instead of 20,000, it was insane. Don't do this. Andre... Does not
give a shit when you attack him. I guess he's been blacksmithing for like
generations and he's been smithing stuff through countless apocalypses, 1 undead
slashing at him isn't going to stop him. Though when you do kill him, he refuses
to help you at all so don't do this either.
And finally we killed Yuria.
I found it interesting that she shares her name with "Yuria" of Demon Souls.
Who, in that game was a witch who practiced the dark arts that stem from emotion. I
always remember that bit of dialogue and it's interesting, Yuria of Dark Souls 3 has
connections to hexes and dark miracles that also reference emotion in many
descriptions.
Kathe. This makes it click with us that Londor is New Londo from Dark Souls one. A land where the
Four Kings were corrupted by the way whisperings of Kathe the home of the dark
wraithes, who look to be ruled over by a Darklord which lines up with the end of
Dark Souls 1, as you become a dark lord who embraces the curse, a Lordof Hollows.
So much more to talk about but no time. The final boss of the demo is the Cursed
Greatwood. I don't know about others, but this fight was really disappointing
for me. His attacks did really low damage for how easy they were to avoid. However,
he does drop something hugely important. He drops a transposing kiln.
The most interesting item here is the Black Eye Ring I think because it gives
you health back on successive hits which means it encourages more aggressive play
style which is awesome. The demo ends with another fight against a Boreal Knight and
this one is down the elevator where we first met Siegward, the crestfallen
knight calls this path the path to Aldrich, Saint of the Deep, there is a lot
more I want to talk about, and I wish I wasn't under time constraints because come March 24th, I'll
be able to do a much better job than what I have done here and that's going
to be exciting. March 24th is when the Japanese version releases by the way but
for now this is all I have to show. I really did try my best with all this.
I only got four hours of sleep every night so thank you all for watching, so much and I'll see
you again soon. Time for sleep.