"But my duty must be done, even alone"
"For the children I knew, bless their souls"
Anri and Horace
Two of the only children to have ever escaped the clutches of aldrich
The man eater
now, undead and unkindled
they stride willingly back into his grasp
"Oh hello"
"How do you do?"
"I am Anri of Astora"
"Unkindled like you"
"Are you too in search of The Lords of Cinder?"
"We seek the cathedral"
"Home of the grim Aldrich"
"We may go our seperate ways now"
"But we are both seekers of lords"
"The next time we cross paths"
"One of us may find the other in a time of need"
"Oh yes! Horace."
"He's not very talkative"
"But don't think Ill of him"
"He is an upstanding kind hearted knight"
"Fine partner for this grueling journey"
"Please stop this!"
"You've gone hollow, have you?"
"Than I shall put you to rest!"
"Horace, join me"
"And may the flames watch over us"
"Oh Horace, Why?"
"Don't leave me"
"Not you"
"Not like the others"
"Oh Horace"
"Horace..."
"Everyone"
"Forgive me"
"I was weak on my own"
From this, we learn of Anri's fear
Fear that those by her side, will die
You can imagine this fear would have been born
From her childhood in the cathedral
As the children along side her, were sacrificed
So, if Horace lives
Then he remains a source of strength to her
For a little longer
Anri's blue sentinel...
"Without his help, I would have cursed this onerous duty long ago"
At the end of The Road of Sacrifices sits the cathedral of the deep
And deep within the cathedral
Is the monumental coffin of Aldrich the Man Eater
"A right and proper cleric, only he developed a habit of devouring men"
"He ate so many that he bloated like a drowned pig"
"And softened into sludge"
"So they him stuck in the cathedral of the deep"
Back then the Cathedral of the Deep was a holy place
Full of god fearing deacons devoted to the way of white
And to the linking of the fire
And it was imperative that the fire be linked
For thats the way its always been
At the end of every cycle
A powerful being must be sacrificed
To keep the flame lit
The cathedral
A place of sacrifice
May have well been designed for this
So it came to be that a saint named Aldrich was sacrificed
"And they made him a Lord of Cinder, not for virtue, but for might"
"Such is a lord, I suppose"
The fire doesn't care if you've consumed men, women, children...
If that's made you more powerful, then all the better
So Aldrich, this terrible, gluttonous saint, must have been powerful indeed
The deacons tended to the flame
And slowly, they were corrupted by the evil, they were tending to
Eventually, of course, even this fire faded
The world darkened
But this time, no one stepped forward to link the fire
So the world continued to darken
Till the firelink bell tolled
Lords of old rose from their graves
Aldrich among them, brought back to link the fire again
These lords came back, clinging to to life and they were loathe to let it go
So they refused to sit their thrones once more
And with this refusal came the unkindled
ashen undead, each tied to a lord
Siegward to Yhorm, the giants friend
Hawkwood to the legion he abandoned
And Anri to Aldrich
Whose clutches she escaped as a child
After her and Horace escape the Cathedral of the Deep
They went on to do great things
Anri found herself drawn to the land of Astora
As it was being destroyed by the spirit of Evil Eye
With nothing but a dull blade
And luck
She defeated the creature
Horace killed a corrupt executioner
He stripped the executioner of his armor
And gave it a new legacy
He would become a blue sentinal
Protecting the weak from Rosaria's fingers
These red phantoms, who take the tongues of those they kill in battle
I'd say that explains the voice
And death could not keep either of them
With Horace undead and Anri unkindled
They rejoin forces and
Fight their way back into this horrific home, they left as children
To fight a familiar evil that rises again
And alas, Anri and Horace find themselves staring into an empty coffin
"I'm well-pleased to see you safe"
"We've reached the Cathedral of the Deep"
"But Aldrich's coffin was empty"
"The man-eater must have left for his true home"
"The little doll in the empty coffin told me"
Wherever you go, the moon still sets in Irithyll
Wherever you may be
Irithyll is your home
"A pilgrim told me that the city lies beyond Farron Keep"
"And so becomes our destination"
"Oh, hello"
"How very fortunate"
"Have you seen my companion Horace?"
"To my shame, I was snared by a trap and we've become seperated"
"I've not been able to find him since"
If you tell Anri where he is, then Anri will go to find him
Full of fear that she might have to confront Aldrich,
This childhood horror, alone
But a hollow remembers no one
So it is better that she go on alone
"Oh Horace"
"Where have you run off to?"
"Have you abandoned me?"
"no..."
"What a horrible thought"
We find Anri next in the Church of Yorshka
She is alone, she is tired
You can see this in her stance
She is losing faith, and she is so close to Aldrich
Who hides behind the Pontiff, who called him home
"Oh, I thought it might be you"
"Good to see you"
"I never managed to find Horace"
"But my duty must be done, even alone"
"As an unkindled lord seeker"
"For the children I knew, bless their souls"
"We all have our reasons, don't we?"
Unkindled are born from the ash of undead
Who tried to link the fire in a past age
Unkindled can go hollow too
Just as Horace did, reverting to that hollowed state
Devoid of a soul
Even lords can go hollow
But it is men who are branded with the dark sign
That leaks their humanity, their soul, from them
Here, if you do nothing, then Anri will go hollow
But what if there is more to the dark sign?
To hollowing
"We pilgrims of Londor are keenly aware"
"That those branded by the dark sign"
"Possess something quite special"
"A pilgrim told me that the city lies beyond Farron Keep"
"Knowest thou of a maid named Anri?"
"She is hollow"
"And will join thee in wedlock"
"A fellow of mine guides her at this moment"
"When the time is ripe"
"Thou mayest make thy salutations"
"For what lord taketh no spouse?"
To become a lord of hollows is to embrace the curse
That mankind was given, you make it your strength
Not your weakness, you embrace a new identity
But you must take the sigils of others
In the name of that goal
And as you rest the flame from it's mantle
Anri kneels in the background, her purpose forgotten
In exchange for yours
Would you abandon your humanity for this?
"Why?"
"lady"
"Yuria..."
"Ah"
"You are brave indeed"
"To face your duty alone"
"I would do well to learn from you"
"May the flames guide your way"
But neither of you are alone
Together you kill the Pontiff
And together, you face Aldrich
"Ah"
"I thought it might be you"
"Then I am afraid Horace..."
"No"
"This only bolsters my resolve"
"Please, lend me your strength"
"Help me vanquish Aldrich"
"The man-eating fiend"
"Yes!"
"We did it!"
"I owe this to you"
"Thank you, truly"
"Horace, we've done it"
"We really have"
"Knows thou the name: Anri of Astora?"
"The brave girl left this, as thanks"
"Now, heed this little warning"
"From this little lord"
"Seek not the girl"
"She knoweth her fate, what will become of her upon her duty's end"
"She would not wish thee follow her"
Her duty fulfilled, Anri will hollow in one of two places
If you told her where Horace hollowed
But killed him to protect her
Then Anri places one last prism stone and hollows alongside her companion
Her duty fulfilled
If Anri never found Horace, then she hollows in-front of these tiny graves
Maybe built for Horace
Or for the children, they once knew
So, how will your story end?