To be forlorn is to despair, to be alone without purpose.
These are the souls drawn into the painting,
to the cold, gentle world of Ariandel
Some, like Elfrida, they lost faith in their duty
and some, like the followers, simply outlived their duty.
And others, like the Millwood Knights we'll be talking about in this video,
had their duty and their home taken from them.
Millwood is a land of primitive earth worship
and it's fabled knights were know to fight hand in hand with the earth itself.
This hammer, for example, with its head of naturally formed stone
and an attack that rips the earth up from under you, is simbolic of that relationship.
In fact, the chieftain knights who we disturb in the painting,
would actually be more accurately called high priests.
Many of their heavy bronze weapons, for example, actually have a modest faith requirement
and they were normally used in sacred rites, not battle.
Upon the blades of these weapons, like the battleaxe, is this symbol of the ethereal oak,
a sacred tree, which is clearly at the heart of their civilization.
This tree appears on their weaponry, on their capes, on their shields,
and even their helmets are adorned with antlers believed to grow from the blessed beast of the ethereal oak.
Judging from the horns, I think that would be a kind of a stag,
strange, right?
It's a very curious tree from all descriptions,
and it also appers to be a very bountiful tree,
considering they cut from it the horns for their helmets
and maybe even the wood for their shields.
I'm very confident that the ethereal oak is actually a spirit tree,
as they are described in other item descriptions,
for the word ethereal can mean: not of this world
and spirit trees have been referenced multiple times to be otherworldly, the things of dreams.
In all the games, spirit trees are actually some of the kindest beings in the series
for with every new spirit tree mentioned, we learn a little bit more about them
In dark souls 2, for example,
a spirit tree was said to have turned itself into a shield, to protect a small, frightened child
In the sunken kingdom, we found one that repairs the weapons you hit it with
and, even in the Undead Settlement,
the Cursed Rotted Greatwood consumed the curses of the townsfolk, at its own sacrifice
They're very selfless and noble beings, considering all the sacrifices they go through
and here, to the Milwood knights, is this tree so bountiful,
that an entire society was built around it
Unfortunately, of course, according to the Milwood armour,
when the fabled Milwood Forest was discovered, it was a vacant ruin,
the only thing left, was the ethereal oak, stood rotting
It's said that arranged around the rotting ethereal oak, around the bases of their civilization,
were the belongings of the Millwood knights
and they were arranged neatly on the ground
yet despite the ruin and the rotting tree, no corpses were found
And I believe the reason the description mentions that no corpses were found
is because the knights themselves, their being, not necessarily their belongings,
were drawn into the painting
but we'll get to that
So, what caused this?
What, or who, caused their forest to be brought to ruin?
Well, we find an answer in the Millwood Greatbows
which were crafted and wielded by the knights, so that thay could face their sworn enemy
This sworn enemy was, and I quote, "the Abyss Dragon"
and the closest thing we have to an Abyss Dragon, in my opinion, in Souls lore,
is the Black Dragon Kalameet
which is an ancient dragon that spews abyss tainted flame and is known as the bringer of calamity
So, for an abyss dragon who brought ruin to the Millwood forest,
I think that Kalameet, the calamitous dragon, certainly fits the bill,
don't you?
For posterity, I considered some other things,
I considered the Puss of Man, because it resembles a dragon,
but there are multiple Puss of Men and they already have a name and it's not 'Abyss Dragon'
There's also Kaathe, a primordial serpent, and serpents are known as imperfect dragons,
and he's an imperfect dragon who resides in the Abyss,
however, he doesn't really fit either.
The Millwood knights created Greatbows to take down this creature
and, you know, it makes a great degree of sense to think
that they would craft greatbows to shoot down giant flying beasts, such as Kalameet
and this exact thing has already happened, because it was Kalameet on the receiving end of a greatarrow
in another forest, long ago
So this could be a sort of repeat of that scenario
in the same sense that so many other scenarios are repeated in Dark Souls 3
But regardless, right, whoever this dragon was,
even if it isn't Kalameet,
it would seem that their greatbows, they weren't enough to take this thing down
The Millwood forest was brought to ruin
and, according to their captain's ashes,
the Millwood knights lost the forest they called home and began a journey so long,
that even thoughts of their sworn enemy washed away, replaced by a vision of a cold and brittle wood
The Knights, forlorn, withdrawn into the Painted World of Ariandel
and they likely found a home to wash away the trauma of their past and the terrible things they've seen
a save place, at least until the unkindled ash comes to kill them all, promising...
Fire for Ariandel
Hey guys, thank you for watching,
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next week's video will be on the Corvians,
so see you then