What's Up Guys, I'm Dave Klein, and today, we're going to talk about The Father of the
Abyss who spread the curse that plagues Lordran, as well as the forgotten lord who found the
Dark Soul... are they one in the same?
It's time to talk about Manus and the Furtive Pgymy.
When talking about Manus, it all starts with Oolacile.
According to the Oolacile Ivory Catalyst, "The whitebark boosts sorcery adjustment,
but the sorceries of this lost land are gentle and not affected by intelligence."
In fact -- when first looking at Oolacile, it would seem all sorceries of the land are
just that - gentle in nature.
No spells immediately available from the land of Oolacile directly deal damage, but primarily
focus on evasion and usefulness, such as casting light, and are even put to use in the elevators
of the land.
Yet, Oolacile, a township known for its positive and peaceful magicks had a dark secret...
one hidden away deep in the mountainside it was built along...
"Seduced by a Dark serpent or no, They awoke that thing themselves, and drove
it mad.
...One's demise is always one's own making."
Deep into the depths of Oolacile, lies the Oolacile dungeon... a dungeon where it would
seem the townsfolk tortured various humans they found.
Broken through cells are can be found, with chains dangling from the ceiling.
Players find one such tortured soul, a human transformed by the abyss, who seems to have
been mounted and chained to a pole.
We can infer this creature was a human, as its only drops are from the chain set...
"Chainmail armor of thin interlinking rings of steel.
It is common throughout the human world since it can be easily produced, is not too heavy,
and offers good defense."
And what was Oolacile, a peaceful township doing torturing the various humans?
I believe they were trying to draw out and discover new dark magic.
Dark Fog is described as "in theory, relatively close to humanity, it also happens to be a
terrible poison for humans.
Perhaps it reflects man's cruelty against his own."
Most dark sorceries are described as an "Abyss sorcery discovered by an Oolacile sorcerer
on the brink of madness."
I believe that, in order to discover this sorcery, the sorcerer had to take part in
torturing the various humans, and was possibly human as well.
As Gough tells the player, Oolacile was seduced by a Dark Serpent, likely Kaathe, telling
them a tale of the power of the Dark, and in their quest for power, they discovered
an ancient burial ground... where they awoke and enraged the primeval human that lay there.
TerraMantis has a great video describing just this event in his Legends of Lordran series,
which I highly recommend checking out, as it helped give me several clues as to what
really happened in Oolacile.
I believe the people of Oolacile awoke the primeval human who lay in the burial, and
tortured it.
They tortured it to the brink of madness, as they were accustomed to.
I believe that throughout these events, the primeval human had one trinket that kept it
sane... the broken pendant.
"Half of a broken stone pendant.
The vine appears to originate from Oolacile.
A powerful magic can be sensed from this ancient stone.
Yet men of this time can neither manipulate nor sense its power, which has a distinct
air consisting of both reverence and nostalgia."
It seems to me, the Oolacile sorcerers torturing this primeval human, realized the significance
of the pendant, and snapped it in order to take the final thing this primeval human had,
setting him over the edge and transforming him into Manus, Father of the Abyss.
"Ancient Manus was clearly once human.
But he became the Father of the Abyss after his humanity went wild, eternally seeking
his precious broken pendant."
"I still think on that creature from the Abyss that preyed upon me.
My faculties were far from lucid, but I quite clearly sensed certain emotions.
A wrenching nostalgia, a lost joy, an object of obsession, and a sincere hope to reclaim
it...
Could these thoughts belong to the beast from the Abyss?
But if that were true, then perhaps it is no beast after all?
Oh, please forgive my ramblings.
It's just that, I wish to know the truth.
An no one, not even loving Elizabeth, will tell me."
By trading Manus' soul to Snuggly the crow, the character will receive Pursuers, which
is the "Sorcery of Manus, Father of the Abyss.
"The will feels envy, or perhaps love, and despite the inevitably trite and tragic ending,
the will sees no alternative, and is driven madly toward its target."
That target, being Manus' pendant.
Manus, driven mad, attacked everything around him.
His humanity and power gone rampant, created a spreading abyss, and powerful spread of
dark that began to consume all of Oolacile, transforming and corrupting all in its path.
The sorcerers of Oolacile got what they wanted, but could have never predicted the sheer power
emanating from the primeval human in which they awoke, a power... of perhaps the Dark
Soul?
In his rage, Manus trampled all around him, and even stole the beloved princess of Oolacile,
Dusk.
"But Princess Dusk is here no longer," "Snatched away by that horrifying primeval
human."
The player too is snatched away by the power of Manus, through time itself, in his rage
and attempt to find his precious broken pendant.
But... is Manus the Furtive Pygmy?
Let's first look at what we know about the Furtive Pgymy.
"Then From the Dark They Came...
And found the Souls of Lords within the Flame."
"And the Furtive Pygmy, so easily forgotten."
So, what do we know for certain about this Furtive Pygmy?
Well, if Kaathe can be trusted, which...
well, he can't.
He regardless gives the player our only info about this Furtive Pygmy:
"After the advent of fire, the ancient lords found the three souls.
But your progenitor found a fourth, unique soul.
The Dark Soul.
Your ancestor claimed the Dark Soul and waited for Fire to subside.
And soon, the flames did fade, and only Dark remained.
Thus began the age of men, the Age of Dark."
Kaathe implies that the Furtive Pygmy is, in fact, the ancestor of mankind.
Beyond that, he equates the Furtive Pygmy with the power of the dark, which emanates
from humankind.
I believe, while Kaathe cannot be completely trusted, in this we actually are receiving
accurate information from him.
Another quote, I find incredibly interesting, comes from Japanese radio show "Game no Shokutaku".
In an interview about the Furtive Pygmy, Miyazaki reveals: "The image is something like a human
ancestor.
It found the Lord Soul and humanity is like a fragment of it.
Kinda like an ancestor, so the descendants have a part of that soul."
With this information, we can look at the various humanity sprites the player finds
throughout the game, "This black sprite is called humanity, but little is known about
its true nature.
If the soul is the source of all life, then what distinguishes the humanity we hold within
ourselves?"
Each human has a fragment of the Dark Soul within them, which is their humanity.
So, I believe we can say we know for certain The Furtive Pygmy was the ancestor of humankind.
He found the Dark Soul, and this split into several humanity shards, which is what all
humankind have within themselves, making them human, and not just some wandering lost soul.
I think it's also safe to say, The Furtive Pygmy would have had a powerful humanity in
order to do this, as its humanity is The Dark Soul.
With that said, take a look at Manus' Soul and compare it to humanity.
"This extraordinary soul is a viscous, lukewarm lump of gentle humanity.
Ancient Manus was clearly once human.
But he became the Father of the Abyss after his humanity went wild."
You can actually SEE the humanity going wild, and at the core of his soul is humanity.
We also know, thanks to Elizabeth, that Manus is a "primeval human".
Furthermore, looking at his burial site, we know he was incredibly important.
As my buddy John Quick pointed out to me, the stones encircling Manus' burial are reminiscent
of Stonehenge.
It is a clearly marked burial site, and one that seems to be extremely important.
As we know, humanity is central to the influence of the Furtive Pygmy, we actually see humanity
sprites within the Oolacile Dungeon, which seems to be created by the spreading Abyss
created by Manus.
A final clue we have, is that Manus is the Father of the Abyss.
Bear in mind, we know various other humans have been tortured by Oolacile, yet none have
created such a catastrophe.
I believe Manus is not only the Father of the Abyss, but in fact the Furtive Pygmy.
His soul is the Dark Soul, and thus why it is so powerful.
It is powerful enough to cause him, in his madness, to create The Abyss, a spreading
darkness and power to contend with the likes of the Bed of Chaos.
While the Bed of Chaos was the Life Soul gone rampant, transforming all life around it into
demons; I believe The Abyss is the Dark Soul gone rampant.
Its power transforms Manus from a normal human into a beast, and one powerful enough to pull
the player through time itself.
The evidence to support Manus as the Furtive Pygmy goes beyond just in-game content.
When looking at the name Manus, it has a number of implications.
In Latin, Manus translates to "Hand" or "The Hands", which is a good description of Manus,
who has a giant transformed hand.
Reddit user MSPainting pointed out to me Dark Souls seems to borrow heavily form Hindu mythology.
One great example is in the god Ila, who is know for his 'slash' her sex changes... from
male to female.
Ila is also considered the chief progenitor of the Lunar Dynasty... sound familiar?
Further in Hindu Mytholgy is Manu, who in some Hindu traditions... is the progenitor
of Humanity, and is the first man.
I believe The Furtive Pygmy was the progenitor of humankind, as Kaathe suggested, and went
into a deep slumber where he was worshipped as a God by the first humans, and eventually
forgotten overtime.
The people of Oolacile eventually discovered his burial site, where they drove him mad
transforming him into Manus, and causing the Dark Soul to run rampant, creating The Abyss
in its wake.
Alright guys, that wraps up my Manus and The Furtive Pygmy lore video.
If you don't believe Manus was the Furtive Pygmy, as I suggest in my video, I'd love
to hear your thoughts, and I'm curious to see what you guys think!
I also want to once again share TerraMantis' Manus Legends of Lordran video, as I think
it was a great take on what Manus was going through from his perspective as he was tortured
by the people of Oolacile, and it really opened up my mind for a lot of my thoughts on Manus.
I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you next time!
Peace!