Dark Souls 1: Ranking NPCs Strength Based on Lore.

welcome to a new installment of the series ranking the power of characters based on law this video will be focusing entirely on the NPCs of the game from Phantoms characters vendors Invaders and more but excluding any character spoken of as a boss for that was the subject of my other video on Dark Souls 1 you'll be surprised by the Shar depth of a lot of these entries characters such as the primordial serpents Alvina and boss MPC hybrids will also be excluded the reason Alvina and the primordial serpents are excluded are based on their status as an almost Tom Bombadil type character Haring an almost demig guard and metaphysical position in the game seemingly Immortal but entirely physically unable to personally change the events of the game K framp and Alvina all require words to change the trajectory of the game however there is one notable exception you will see on this list there no sponsors on this video just the hope that you guys will feel justified in hitting that subscribe button but without further Ado let's get into the [Music] list it may not come as a surprise to anyone that quag sister also known as the fair lady comes here on the list as a member of isolate's initial tribe of children she alongside her brother are the worst affected by the events of isolat transformation into the Bed of Chaos while our initial visit to her Bears no context at all as we are unable to speak to her in her own tongue we can immediately gauge from both angi's dialogue and the environmental context that she exists as a tortured remnant of her mother's sins taking the form of a spider similar to her sister she is at the time we meet her rendered completely immobile at the brink of death preserved only by a covenant likely erected by her sister to bring her resources to keep her alive while her initial form is never spoken of Angi suggests that upon the events of the Flames of chaos the fair lady took pity on the residents of the neighboring Bight town and dedicated her life to appeasing their suffering in her new form she would take on their blight pass a condition likely disease inherited by those exposed to blight Town's environment in this the fair lady that initially resembled a being similar to quag took on a new form one that was burdened by the consequences of her own selflessness the disease is so potent that she is unable to reproduce her own eggs either and while she clings to those stillborn eggs she continues to hoddle humanity at a desperate attempt at giving life but instead hosting a bonfire for traversing Travelers continuing to project her selflessness with quag dead she is too destined to die as her sister would dedicate her life to keep keeping the fair lady Alive by killing Undead Champions seeking the bells of Awakening blinded by the infection we can converse with the fair lady who mistakes us for her sister leaving us with two decisions let her wither and die or continue to supply her with Humanity until inevitably she dies anyway well there is a scenario where the fair lady chose against helping the residents of Bight town and followed in qu's footsteps and therefore maintained a powerful hybrid between primordial witch and Demon just like her sister she instead chose to be left a helpless caretaker of the unfortunate humans of Bight town the fair lady is the only character in the game that is outwardly at the brink of death she is blind and without the capacity to even move or talk without being in pain with no indication that she holds any degree of power and in a state where she is essentially left on life support the fair lady ranks here on the [Music] list ao's entire history is predicated on the continuation of the an Orondo project in The Wider World taking heavy influence from the gods of an orando and reproducing its gospels onto the common folk it's therefore unsurprising that a large number of Undead we meet on a quest to link the first flame hail from this land in this aora became quite an advanced civilization as they would have been co-signed by Gwyn and the royal family themselves hosting an array of elite soldiers and highquality Armory as per the description of the elite Knight set however it's not only anol londo's nightly Traditions that would become pervasive in this region as clerics and worshippers of the Gods would become common place too one of such a cleric was Anastasia Anastasia's history and estor is entirely unclear we do however know that she would become victim of aor rigid the Ry due to an action that is not described but perceived to relate to words of blasphemy as per the crestfallen Warriors dialogue as a result of this Anastasia would suffer life-altering trauma broken legs and more distinctly the removal of her tongue although speculated it's assumed that she would come to lordran as a means of rekindling her Affinity to the gods while physically unable to fulfill Gwynn's prophecy she would instead dedicate her life to helping others attain this goal if we follow her story and resurrect her after being killed by lre her tongue will be restored and she speaks fondly of the character's ambition to link the first flame and even openly shares allegiance to framp who of course is the primordial serpent intimately Allied to Gwynn's age of fire her dialogue also gives us in her own voice the context we need to rank her on this list she tells us she is powerless and while her Resurrection may have brought her facilities to move and talk back her dialogue and context clues shows us an image of a helpless [Music] Maiden in Dark Soul 1's only DLC we can finally meet the progenitors of the most peculiar enemy in the game this of course being the mushroom people while the events of vorus of the Abyss happen long before the present day events of lordran Elizabeth holds a striking resemblance to the mushroom people the story of Elizabeth is inherently tied to the story of ulil ulil was a Place full of life vegetation but also Rich cultural traditions in ulil beings known as the mystics would populate the land and develop the golden sorceries as ulil preceded the turbulent events of the main game ulil developed during an era of Peace time at the height of Gwynn's New Order and echoing the Zeitgeist of this era golden sorcery was none offensive in every form as there was no reason to be oil's population were made up of farmers Guardians and Mystics in complete harmony with their surroundings when we meet Elizabeth she introduces herself as the guardian of this sanctuary and godmother to princess dusk while guardian of this Sanctuary May indicate she was a powerful protector it's more likely she was the governor of the sanctuary's bureaucracy and a trusted Confidant of its population rather than powerful as she would assume this position prior to the events of Manis and the physical threat of the Abyss she was likely granted this position too as she understood its culture and grew up in the region she tells us she is one of the Sorcerers of ulil indicating a close relationship to the most influential segment of its population the mystics she can teach us a majority of the golden sorcery spells further indicating this proximity and trust but also solidifying the notion that she does not Harbor any physical offensive capabilities well we know golden sorceries in later Dark Souls series would develop itself in more complex and maybe even offensive forms all aspects of these spells in Dark Souls 1 have no offensive capabilities at all at the time we meet Elizabeth it appears she has become either one with nature or has always been this way and doesn't even Harbor the facilities to attack Us in any physical format this tied in with spells of no harm suggests she is no threat at all we can however encounter beings known as sanctuary Guardians as bosses in the DLC it's likely Elizabeth would exercise physical guardianship of ulil through these beings rather than doing so directly however as this ranking relates to individual characters Elizabeth is unfortunately a Sitting Duck to any malicious entity in the event you're able to get past a chimus first though it's for this reason Elizabeth ranks here on the list as a being of great influence but little to say for her own offensive capabilities it's no wonder why the mushroom people in the current timeline are completely passive to unaggressive players inheriting her pacifistic streak in truth she ranks above Anastasia as there is a blind spot in the law that may indicate she had a greater power over her natural surroundings as offensive tools but realistically is no more of a threat than Anastasia from just the law [Music] alone The Dusk of Vil is the character that Pilots the story of the DLC she is a woman from the age of Vil and is inferred to have been captured by Manus and saved later by either artorius or yourself considering the convolution of the timeline either can be plausible despite meeting her before you even get the chance to travel back and save her just like the entry for Elizabeth dusk of olil though a proficient sorcerer she is only ever referred to being able to utilize this Proficiency in the art of golden sorcery a sorcery that bear no threat to anyone rather a wide array of utility during a time of Peace we are reiterated this sentiment for dusk through the description of her Antiquated set that tells us while it was imbued with magic power this power was entirely linked to the ancient sorceries of ulil and never meant to be worn in battle we know she is an entirely non combative character as even if we are to attack her she does not fight back and rather simply awaits for you to kill her the reason I place her above Elizabeth and Anastasia is purely down to every piece of description iterating she had a Mastery over the Golden sorceries but more notably is able to move and even survive through traumatic events to the point we meet her in the original timeline there's really not much else of relevance to say for her consolidating her position overall here on the [Music] list much like in real feudal times the world of Dark Souls 1 is governed by the material conditions of a feudal system theocracy governed the boundaries of authority Gwyn and his age of fire represented the hegemonic religious order while Gwynn maintained the dominant position in this system under him were notable costs of bureaucratized power all father Lloyd represented one of such bureaucracy after the events of gwyn's sacrifice in order to preserve the first flame his bureaucracy in an orando maintained his influence and Lloyd represented the branch that specialized in law and social classes Lloyd would go on to create a covenant of worshippers known as the way of white specialized in conserving the influence of the Gods in the face of a dwindling age of fire however after many gods began to Exile anando likely due to the inevitable decline of their power as a result of the undead plague and Gwynn's dwindling power Lloyd would restructure the way of the white in a separate region known as thurland thurland would hence become the cultural and political center of the age of Fire's theocracy something akin to the modern-day Vatican the nobility of thorland would go on to adopt positions of religious Authority and mediums to exert all father Lloyd's teachings one of such noble families was the royal family of thurland a group we only hear about through petus and Rea storyline we learn the way of the white despite their conservatism weren't an entirely clerical sect of followers as we'll come to know later in the list paladins such as that of Leroy would represent the way of the white combative wing and lay the foundations for a paladin class of worshippers despite this Royal members of the family did remain at their purely religious posts bringing us directly to Rea well re's position in the bloodline is anybody's guest petus reinforces that she is indeed directly related to the royal thorland family and is on a mission to lordran to bring home the right of kindling an artifact associated with increasing the potency of a bonfire and its closeness to the first flame it's no doubt that this mission was related to The increased rates of humans turning Hollow and a last ditch attempt to preserve the humanity of the religious capital of the world we learn very quickly that rehea herself is in no way a combatant she Bears no weapon and is even alluded to being an outright pacifist so much so that she on her mission is accompanied by two Warrior clerics of land Vince and Nico both Vince and NCO are referred to as Rey's contemporaries and we learn without them Rey is completely defenseless if we progress re's storyline we can find her an outright stalemate in the Tomb of the Giants on the unfortunate consequence of both Vince and Nico turning Hollow however there is a peculiar detail that elevates Rea above Elizabeth and Anastasia that being the offensive spell that she can teach us known as The Wrath of the gods a spell described as a primal form of force in this according to the law Rea does maintain the distinct ability to cause harm through spellcasting and not just any ordinary spell either the Wrath of the Gods is actually one of the most advanced offensive miracles in the entire series and if it wasn't for the other context of rehea being incredibly frail she may actually position much higher on this list from this detail alone [Music] this next entry is not to be mistaken with the undead male Merchant as his story is coming up on the list well many players May dismiss this character she is just like her male counterpart a breath of fresh air in a world dominated by hollowed individuals seeking only your death there is a prominent theory that the undead Merchant used to be a character named YULA as Clues from New Londo suggest yulva was once one of the sealers of New Londo that later abandoned her profession for reasons unknown the sealers were proficient healers and remedy workers and even at times combative Sorcerers when faced with the rising threat of the Four Kings Covenant of Warriors known as the dark wraiths the extension is made to the undead Merchant as she is bar the DLC vendors the only character able to sell us remedial treatment to poisons and toxins from new londo's neighboring blight town but more prominently an infent supply of curses and remedies to those curses it's assumed yulva would become Hollow much like the other sealers in an attempt to combat the dark rates and the threats of New Londo leaving ingward as the lone practitioner it's not a stretch to assume the undead female Merchant is what remains of yulva still holding on to her profession of helping those with curses and disease but it's clear whatever defensive proess she is assumed to have had is now completely Net Zero refusing to even fight back when aggravated and choosing instead to flee in that scenario it's clear her old profession as a remedial worker has allowed the female Undead Merchant from going Hollow as those who retain their Humanity often do so through specific motivations platforming their Ambitions to keep their Humanity intact however her previous credentials as likely a companion to ingood and also her ability to have survived the terrains of the undead Berg New Londo and Blight Town all up until the point that we meet her while retaining Humanity keep her above characters with absolutely no defense mechanisms of their own such as Elizabeth of ulil placing her here on the [Music] list much like the name suggests the undead Merchant is as much as you can expect a resident of the UND dead Berg retaining just enough Humanity to build a small business of stolen goods in an effort to retain just enough souls to suffice well we have no notations on his Origins nor his true identity we do have a few Clues to indicate the man he used to be alongside the man he has become outside of an early game Mercantile MPC the first thing you'll notice about the undead Merchant are his Wares prioritizing the most basic of items he's able to sell us the usual artillery of the undead soldiers of the undead Berg such as firebombs axes and daggers we learned the undead Merchant obtained his infantry on the back of looting the remnants of other beings in the undead Berg which begs the question how is he able to do so without becoming a victim himself as it's clear he is not yet completely hollowed if we choose to attack the undead Merchant he unveils the key to this mystery wielding the uchigatana we're given insight into the remnants of the man he used used to be Dua Katana tells us Katana forged in an Eastern land suggesting the undead Merchant much like the player is a nomad not native to lordran and while we'll delve into more about the eastern land with a certain upcoming entry the description of the Eastern armor from Dark Souls 3 and the Muma allude to a sect of incredibly skilled Swordsmen that would often be tasked with special missions due to their particular set of skills we know the ucha katana is not just a stolen prop from his escapades as unlike his entire shop of items the ucha katana is not found anywhere near his place of residence and business suggesting this came alongside the unad merchant as he traveled into lordran something further evidenced by dialogue suggesting he was driven out due to his undying form from the Eastern lands it's clear no matter his proficiency with swords the undead Merchant found himself facing the same fate as a majority of those campaigning to lordran in seek of absolution ution failing over and over again until hollowing had taken its form alas holding on to what remained and leading a mertile life to Aid others in their own Journey but worn down by death and rebirth leaving a shallow man a hollow of his former self when aggravating the undead Merchant although carrying the uchigatana with slow confidence he's not much greater a threat than the hollows outside his storefront he fights not just like a hollow but also an old man defending him self as a final Act of survival it's for this reason while the undead Merchant may have represented a greater force in his earlier life is nothing more than a hollow in his contemporary life holding on to purpose through his profession as a grave robber and Obsession for something called ulia speculated to be a personified memory of his former life motivating him in this helpless land he lands here on the list on the virtue that comparatively to the other entries previous to himself he's able to actually fight and pose a threat to us albeit in a severely weakened [Music] form hailing from the Great Swamp we learn that pyromancy as an Art of War was predominantly practiced by the residents of this area from Loren's dialogue we learned pyromancers made the Great Swamp their home as practicing the art required a closeness to Nature and the swamp was an abundant store of nature the residents of the Great Swamp and therefore the art of pyromancy were an incredibly insulated Community as their traditions and even the practice of pyromancy were viewed as heretical by The Wider world this is likely due to the fact that pyromancy is Holy Reliant upon the chaos flame which of course is an aspect of the witch of isit's failure to replicate the sacred first flame inadvertently creating demons and a force against Gwynn's age of fire during a time in which gwyn's influence was at its height AI however took the heresy of pyromancy to length even those of the Great Swamp could not accept we learned Angi would be responsible for creating two pyromancies of his own poison mist and toxic Mist the description of toxic Mist tells us unique pyromancy crafted by Angi considered a heretic even at the Great Swamp why was Angi driven from the Great Swamp one only need cast this pyromancy a perverse diversion from the art of fire to find out this tells us even previously mentioned marginalized pyromancers from the Great Swamp held some degree of conservatism in practicing the art the irony of course is that pyromancy itself is born from the perversion of the first flame and angi's actions were in many ways as truthful to the story of pyromancy than anything practiced by those of the Great Swamp it's not surprising therefore to find I upon banishment would find himself right at the heart of disease in Blight Town and through actions unknown and likely related to his pursuit to further poisonous pyromancy Angi would become infected by blight blight pus is what is likely the disease that has deformed the population of Bight Town however before Angi would truly lose himself to the toxic of his own doing he would meet a peculiar woman named The Fair Lady of course the fair lady as we have already discussed relates to the blind sister of quac and luckily for Angi she took pity on him as she had many other residents of blight town and sucked the blight out of him this action so greatly affected Angi that he would choose to enslave his own body to the fair lady and carry her eggs in gratitude it would be angi's proficiency with pyromancy and a deep understanding of the chaos flame that would later bring him to governing the chaos servant Covenant and even winning the eye of her most ferocious sister in the form of quag unfortunately Angi in this form is near immobile and limp and while there are a variety of Clues to indicate he was an incredibly well-renowned pyromancer in his own right evidenced by his ability to commission his own unique offensive spells that would go on to influence every game henceforth and even his ability to Grant his pyromancy flame to us which starts an incredibly High tier he in the form he is at the point we meet him is nothing of his former self while there is a world where Angi could have taken the role not too dissimilar to Big Hat Logan in the realm of pyroman we are unfortunately never able to see this reality and instead are left with a being bound to the ground from the weight of parasites with a glimpse of the pyromancer he used to be and it's his retention of his pyromancy flame and the suggested ability he's able to use it that keep him slightly above other more docile characters on this list [Music] R is the first on the list to beckon the law of the great nation of Vinheim headed by The elusive Dragon School the Dragon School would lead the tradition for one of the oldest forms of sorcery in the entire game while the dragon school's influence began much after the Advent of the age of fire its roots trace it back to the beginning of the world the story of the Dragon School as alluded from the institution's name begins with an aspect of the primordial World SE the scaleless was an albino Arch Dragon known mostly for his role in the war of ancients and his betrayal of the ancient dragons SE sought the immortality he lacked and was granted a library to research this as a byproduct he would develop Crystal sorcery manipulating crystals in an attempt to develop the scales of immortality that he fundamentally lacked while se's research was diabolical and inhumane it didn't stop a school of Scholars studying his work through this the Dragon School was erected though it's unclear as to what figures LED this campaign their research was able to develop soul sorceries and a means to cast it through catalysts the Dragon School would build their influence on this discovery and solidify the art of sold sorcery in Vinheim various schools would be built within the institution from offensive forces to spies but most importantly for this entry blacksmiths while we'll delve into the details of the main branch of offensive Sorcerers in in later entries from the description of the maage Smith set adorned by Ricket and the general sorcerer set Ricket was never coronated as a spellcaster something solidified further by his inability to teach us Great Soul Arrow which is stated to be the spell that would coronate a sorcerer at the Dragon School coronated Sorcerers are likely the wing of the Dragon School initially used to gain dominion over Vinheim and therefore Ricket fell short of what we can expect of a coronated sorcerer in terms of power however what Ricket did have was a base understanding of using spells as he's able to teach us the fundamental spells of soul arrow and heavy soul arrow where he lacked an offense Ricket did make it up through his proficiency Mage smithing AKA The Art of enriching ordinary weapons with magical potential while it can be argued Ricket would be elevated by the presence of this enrichment it's never indicated that he was proficient in wielding these weapons only in building them this on top of his base understanding of offensive spellcasting puts Ricket well below what we expect of the powerful wing of offensive Sorcerers from Vinheim placing him here on the list elevated slightly by his ability to cast fundamental sorcery the tragedy of Prince Rickard is either quite sad or entirely amusing depending on your class-based political orientation a s found walking aimlessly through s's Fortress he immediately stands out as a knight from stora who could not best s's Fortress in an attempt to fulfill his own Knight's Journey when we defeat this seemingly aimless Hollow we are granted a weapon that begins to open up the story of this character Rick's rap here not only tells us this Undead was more than just an ordinary unnamed Knight but also a prince and judging by his armor he was clearly a prince from a stora as did discussed earlier aora modeled itself closely to anondo and therefore took the orders of gods as gospel facing the undead plague it was a stora that made up the majority of undeads taking the pilgrimage to lordran for a chance to fulfill Gwynn's prophecy it wouldn't be surprising therefore that the events of the undead plague would equalize the hierarchy of aor and readjust their political priorities to doing whatever they can to fulfill the commands of Gwyn regardless of royalty all able-bodied men had to take the pilgrimage to lordran as suggested by Oscar in the opening area of the game donning the armor of his men it's not entirely clear If Prince Rickard came alone or with a posy of men from aor but what is clear through the item descriptions is that he came to fulfill a hero's journey a narrative tool used to describe a protagonist overcoming a challenge to come home as a changed man a hero it wouldn't be surprising to find out that Rickard back at home was losing the legitimacy as a royal member of aora as he described as being born into royalty and Infamous amongst those who knew him and following the prophecy was the only way he saw fit to legitimize his Royal position unfortunately as is the case for all desperate humans looking to Lord ran out of desperation he fell short at Sen's Fortress and no matter how intricate the decorations of his rap here were the undead plague once again acted as the great equalizer regarding his strength some argue there is at least more to say for Ricker than there is for characters such as Oscar as Oscar could not even make it past the Undead Asylum however it's most likely that Rickard came accompanied directly to lordran and did not have to face the trials at the Undead Asylum and may have even been helped by his countrymen during his push towards Sen's Fortress we know it's not uncommon to hear of groups of people specifically those of royalty coming to S Fortress together as was the case for the knights of bonique and Boulder to me the story told in the item descriptions of rickets Rapier paints an image of an entirely incapable Prince following an ill-conceived hero's journey and falling short almost immediately only to be immortalized as an Infamous figure and despite wearing the elite Knight armor that Oscar wears symbolizing a highly achieved Warrior of aora it's most likely he did not unlike Oscar earned the title and just like his Rapier it was nothing more than decorations rather than Medals of Honor all in all placing him here on the list above blacksmith Ricket as there is indication that Prince Ricket aided his countrymen facing Sen's Fortress to some degree of success whereas blacksmith Ricket has little in the way of physical [Music] victories sigm adjacent to Solair had become a fan favorite character in the series in a similar sense to Solair his one of a few characters entirely optimistic during our encounters with him initially outside the walls of s Fortress he reiterates a story we've heard quite a few times through the game already that he was told of Untold Adventures that await if one can prove themselves at s's Fortress and win Gwynn's attention it's clear however sigm unlike the historians is not here on religious grounds rather just the adventure as he knows little about the true prophecy and the ringing of the bells of Awakening however we can progress his story of we ourselves unlock the gates starting a trend that will come to characterize sigm from here on he's more ambitious than capable and it's only with our help he's able to make it through the trials he Endeavors towards while the trials required to get sigmay to an orando are not combat focused he is clearly following our lead through Sen's Fortress and as we do encounter him in anando it's indicated as is all aspects of his story progression that he followed our lead as we open the way for him in this sense his capacity to overcome Sen's Fortress likely did not require him to prove himself against some of the greater challenges such as that of the Iron Golem predictably in an orando sigmay is unable to pass through the castle and is captured by gwin silver Knights still stationed at the abandoned city indicating once again while sigm may have had to overcome some of an's challenges alone the handiwork and likely our own actions of unlocking the way made it significantly simpler for him as if we do not proceed to continue saving siga he either turns Hollow indicating defeat or is at a certain standstill this same concept of being saved gets sigm significantly further than a majority of characters in the game even getting him to lost isth but eventually his luck does run out and it's up to his daughter seend to end his new life as a hollow it's on this premise that it's quite difficult to assess sigm on the back of his achievements in the game and law as a majority of these are a result of player intervention what we can say is that sigm is not entirely useless it's clear he has the capacity to navigate a majority of Lord Ran's challenges but falls short of those that are specifically difficult getting to anond even without defeating the Iron Golem would require confronting many obstacles however the context assume siga is no different than any ordinary Warrior from Katarina we can learn the people of Katarina aren't specifically a warrior class of people rather ones that enjoyed festivities and had deep cultural roots in their Community we do however learned that unlike a large portion of the world Katarina's Traditions outlived its peer seemingly Untouched by the time we even enter Dark Souls 3 and their nightly tradition endured a testament to the unspoken power of their night class and the strength of their culture it's on this estimation that siga may have just been an ordinary night of Katarina and it's this Merit and the knowledge of the of kinian knights that place sigm here on the [Music] list I won't bog you down with too much backstory regarding Vince and Nico as the context of thurland as a region has already been covered in Rey's entry the reason Vince and Nico come as a pair in this are wholly down to the fact that the Lord does not distinguish the two as people of their own their ranking is not a combined ranking rather Vince and Nico as individual characters Vincent Niko's purpose and lordran are to be bodyguards to rehea as she travels through lordran seeking the right of kindling this alone does give us quite a bit of context surrounding the nature of Vincent Niko's power though thorland of course being the religious capital of the world also hosted some of the greatest cleric knights we can assume cleric Knights would go on to create the tradition of faith-based warriors in the game and in the lore alone Vince and Nico accompanying a member of the Royal Family to lordran immediately suggest they as cleric Knights were tasked to do so due to their distinct strength amongst others of the same class however it may also be likely that rehea independently chose Vince and Nico as Pet's dialogue suggests they were schoolmates and the familiarity between the trio would explain why they came as a whole this is further solidified as we learn the cleric Knights of thorland actually came in two forms regular Knights and Elite Knights while the descriptions are identical for the two armor sets petus is the only character that wears the elite set whereas Vince and NCO wear the regular set suggesting Vince and NCO were no more than regular cleric Knights unrecognized as distinctly powerful while Petrus was their distinctly powerful senior while this canonically reduces Vince and Niko's standing in power in accordance to Petrus we do know that the presence of Vince and Niko is the only things stopping petus from murdering Rea as later in rea's Story Once Vince and Nico have hollowed Petrus takes it upon himself to kill reyer so while Vince or niik are not as great as Petrus Vince and Nico are greater than petus maintaining themselves as representative of the nship of thorland a power evidenced by the fact that they were able to navigate reyya all the way to the end of the tomb of Giants no doubt fending off against the giant beasts and were only cut short by the scheming of patches [Music] as one of the most interesting characters in the entire timeline blacksmith vamar says very little and is completely alien to all other characters in the game this likely has to do with his self-imposed Retreat from civilization and choice to remain a Hermit in the catacombs interestingly even V's dialogue is extremely conservative only issuing conversation on Embers it's clear he remains antisocial but has an affinity to working with artifacts associated with isth this could indicate two things he either is intimately affiliated with the isth clan from the primordial days or was an apprentice of another who was giving him the chaos Ember reveals that it may be the former as he does not recognize the chaos flame but can pinpoint its Origins to isth herself suggesting he knows the original fire sorcery of the primordial days so well he can associate it directly to the witch herself in the design phase of Dark Souls 1 vamos was suggested to have worn an item known as the Royal Helm while the the Royal Helm itself made it to the end product he never wears it but does drop the artifact on death it reads Helm of vamos skeleton blacksmith of the Catacombs partially made of gold the helm is believed to belong to an ancient Royal line but only vamos would know for sure and he shall never speak again suggesting the helm both belongs to an ancient Royal line but is also intimately referred to as vos's own helmet in this we can infer two things he's affiliated with isth but also a royal member of a clan together this Paints the picture of vamos holding Royal Authority in isolate's Old Kingdom as a legendary blacksmith while royalty is not mutual to strength his resilience Through the Ages on their own commands a degree of power however his reclusive nature may be the reason he has avoided death thus far rather than his power to fight off the threats of the ages his unfamiliarity with the events of isolate's chaos suggests this too his hammer Echoes sentiments not dissimilar to Andre's and assumes that he is a blacksmith first but retains a power to fight distinct to his own style this being said there is no more to vas's law outside of these item descriptions and association with the Embers but his primordial history Royal lineage Associated Loosely to isth and his command over fire Weaponry consolidate him a position as a secretly powerful being amongst his vendor [Music] contemporaries Oscar is the first character we meet in the game acting as our initial savior he grants us an escape from the original iron bars we find ourselves in during the beginning of the game in the Undead Asylum Oscar originally a resident of aora comes from a background of adherence to the hegemonic rule of Gwyn and therefore the influence of anondo this is further exaggerating as when we speak to him he tells us directly of gwyn's Prophecy as if he'd been taught it as a nursery rhyme in his formative years judging by his armor he was likely a member of the elite Knight class from aora who of course driven by their local religious conviction saw the linking of the first flame as a pilgrimage win or lose it's this premise that brings him to aiding us on this journey while we don't have a clear image of how comparatively powerful the elite Knights of aor were the context we do have for stora being a human parallel to an orando would draw loose parallels between the elite Knights of aora to Gwynn's own Elite sect of knights the silver Knights of an orando however our most descriptive context for Oscar's strength are the events that follow our first encounter we learn from the description of the elite night set and the trust we have in our own eyes that Oscar fell short of escaping the Undead Asylum due to his inability to face the Asylum Demon and as Conquering the Undead Asylum is something inferred as being the first test of those Undead in lordran by the crestfallen Knight it gives us a clear metric as to the threshold of his strength using this as a limiting factor but the context of aor as a nation and Oscar's position as an elite Knight Oscar a more than capable Knight ranks here on the list [Music] as we've learned from Anastasia's entry the land of aoro is built in the image of anando but much of its own functions are emulated in its land too silver Knights Drew parallels to Elite Knights clerics Drew influence from Lloyd's teachings but more specifically to this entry are The Artisans we learn in later entries that an orando and specifically its Giants were Master Craftsman the giant blacksmith in an Orlando is described as creating the lightning Armory of Gwynn's dragon slaying Battalion aa's take on crafts are not too different the blacksmiths of aor became worldly renowned for being able to work on a majority of the materials of the world and devise Weaponry fit to defend Gwynn's tradition in The Wider World while blacksmiths may have been many only one rose to the distinction of the giant Artisans of an orando this of course was Andre of estor it's clear even before Andre would find himself near the church in the undead Parish he boasted an expansive career at as a blacksmith this is clear as he's the only character able to utilize a wide range of Embers such as that of the large very large divine and dark Ember speaking on their properties in a familiar tone and utilizing them to craft with ease it's speculated that Andre is in lran for similar reasons to Anastasia to Aid adventurers on their quest to fulfill Gwynn's prophecy and restore the first flame to undo the undead plague his dialogue points to this and even gives us reason to believe he's well versed in the traditions and culture of an orando we can assume Andre would travel in a fashion not unlike Anastasia to lordon one that did not require them to have to overcome the Undead Asylum and a journey un testing of one's strength so despite this what can we do to assess Andre's strength well there is one huge elephant in the room with Andre he canonically lives through a majority of the entire game's timeline existing even at the Fink Shrine of Dark Souls 3 this suggests that Andre having seen thousands of f linking Cycles surv rived up until what seems to be the end of the world it would be wild to assume he had to fight his way to this position though as he likely had kinship with influential enough Warriors notably a large portion of Undead Champions who would go on to link the first flame this would have granted him some degree of prosperity peace and protection due to his influence however from the blacksmith's Hammer we know Andre was specifically talented at utilizing the hammer in ways more specific than smithing laying the foundation to believe he as a vendor probably won more battles compared to the others and although speculative I believe he definitely fought off his fair share of Rogue Undead Champions consolidating his position here on the [Music] list the giant blacksmith is an interesting character on this list as with all other vendors in the game that surround the gameplay Loop of reinforcing weapons rarely have notations on their strength however unlike the other vendors the giant blacksmith as the name would indicate is not a human the story around Giants embellishes a lot of stories in the game and the strength is openly spoke about in major sections of every game and it gives us context as to where the Giants sat on the tree of power in the first game Giants were a race of beings Allied by choice and force in some instances Giants were present throughout an orando specifically before anol Lando's great retreat but their presence is represented by gwindel who of course cast the illusion to maintain the image of anando as it remained in its pre-ex state Giants were as large as they were physically capable the ones we do meet can carry and work with large Boulders for what seems an indefinite amount of time other Giants were used as Smiths as their size would be particularly helpful in creating Artisan equipment for the gods something the giant blacksmith's Hammer suggests in its item description in later games we learn the original Giants descended onto forms that would build nations of their own Dark Souls 2 Chronicles the power of Giants and a king amongst them as a parallel to Vendrick who of course canonically accumulated the power of four Lord souls and remained the provisional chosen Undead sought to take over Gwynn's mantle the giant nation in Dark Souls 2 was so powerful Vendrick with his combined power led a preemptive strike by surprise in order to subdue a Potential Threat to his own domain only to suffer great losses during that war and the counter offensive that would decimate a large portion of Drang Lake in Dark Souls 3 we learned Giants themselves specifically yor harbored enough power to even link the first flame placing their capacity adjacent to even some of the greatest humans and gods in Dark Souls 1 we can witness the power of generic Giants in the form of the Sentinels the giant equivalent of the silver Knights placing their expertise parallel to Gwynn's own closest Knight that of course fought the chaos flame and even the war of ancients to a generally successful degree however dialogue from Andre in the third installment suggests the giant blacksmith was never such a combatant rather a peaceful being that s against conflict and indulged entirely in his craft as a Smith alternatively as we'll come to see in goff's entry his giant peers Rose to such great levels that Gwyn himself would Knight them as members of his own round table for their efforts not only as servants to the age of fire but some of the greatest powers during the age of ancients slaying dragons with ease the giant blacksmith for this reason would likely hold strength similar to an ordinary giant civilian even sharing aesthetic similarities to the slave Giants in s's Fortress reinforcing this archetype therefore holding the merits of the race of giants being specifically powerful due to their size and strength but no benefits of a trained Warrior the giant blacksmith lands here on the list as an artist with the generic capacity greater than his human peers of the same nature the giant blacksmith is found dead in Dark Souls 3 at the exact spot he acted as a vendor for us in the first game suggesting even during Sullivan's raid on contemporary anondo he never fought back but was taken down true to his adage as a peaceful Artisan loved by anyone Associated to him [Music] the Great Swamp is a place alluded to in various entries of the souls franchise its Origins is only truly spoken of during Dark Souls 1 however this story is entirely told Through The Narrative of laurentius and some aspects as we've already spoken of through AI well lenus is a character rarely discussed in law videos in the souls Community as his place in the overall Narrative of the game is undermined by more present characters such as Solair his story arc actually gives us quite a fleshed out understanding of pyromancy and its presence as a force in the game better than any other character arguably even more so than being such as quana while quana and the story of isth is the definitive origins of pyromancy lenus is the story of pyromancy in the ordinary realm of humans if you cast your mind back to ai's entry the Great Swamp hosted a majority of the world's pyromancers and the residents of this part of the world would create an insular Community due to the prosecution of traditions tied down by the chaos flame which was of course an inherently antithetical Force to gwyn's reigning age of fire however none of this stigma would stop laurentius from pursuing a lifetime of learning to pyromancy although it's not told who laurentius sought tutelage from regarding his own training we know he was taught in the way of a famous pyromancer known as Carina due to spells he can teach us that reference their influence while it's not said Carmin taught lenus personally we know it was either them or their influence that brought lenus to the rank of pyromancer pushing Loren's power as greater than just any ordinary pyromancer from the Great Swamp Kamina themselves was a student of Salomon a person referenced by quana as one of her earliest and most successful students later being renowned as a master pyromancer and even the founder of the great Fireball spell we are never told of any other human pyromancer stronger than Salomon and as he alone is referred to as the master pyromancer we can assert he was indeed the strongest pyromancer of the age by proximity this brings lenus to higher distinction as salomon's influence definitely followed through Carmina to laurentius however Lorena's story actually does him less favors in referencing the power he truly held our first encounter with him has us freeing him from the butcher stock room evidently being tied down and beaten by the butcher while the butcher is definitely a powerful being as we'll delve into more detail in reference to Manita Mildred it does add a stain to how powerful lenus is giving us the clear image that although he was taught under a great pyromancer he never truly did reach salomon's or even carmin's height of power when rescued laurentius can teach us a variety of spells most distinctly are the defensive spells of Carmina iron flesh and Flash swear both unique spells only obtainable through lenus however the only offensive spells he does sell are the basic fire orb combustion and Fireball while the defensive spells show lenus to be above the litter in relation to ordinary pyromancers the offensive spells tell us the story of an entirely ordinary pyromancer the combustion spell tells us this specifically and even his most advanced offensive spell in the form of the fire orb suggest it was just an ordinary example of the power of a pyromancer Loren's creative defensive skills but lack of offensive ones gives us insight into how he was caught short of the butcher in the depths and even how he was unable to best Bight town in attempting to reach quana to further this quana tells us only the most Adept pyromancers are able to even perceive her and as laurentius is found Hollow in Blight Town Without quana Even mentioning an encounter with him suggest he was both too weak to persevere the dangers of Bight town but also too unskilled to even see quana it's precisely for this reason that lorentia is probably one of the nicest characters in the entire franchise lands a position this low on the list despite his tutelage under the influence of some of the most legendary pyromancers in the entire [Music] franchise my favorite analogy about the story of the crest Fallen Warrior is that he represents the players who stopped playing the game after failing far too many times and therefore chose to as the name would suggest drop their Crest and retire their Ambitions while it's fun to think about the character this way and be entirely dismissive of his story as a person with a place in this universe in a way he does represent a major part of this universe as at the moment We join the timeline the world has been utterly swept by the curse of the undead and people such as ordinary Warriors have had to draft themselves on a pilgrimage to the land of the Lords only to be faced by the demoralizing reality of death and rebirth at the face of the challenges unfit for ordinary men while it's not told to us explicitly the crestfallen Warrior is likely just this person echoed by his Dialogue on Big Hat Logan that tells us this place is simply mad Legendary Heroes popping up left and right they're making me feel quite inadequate to be honest but also his regurgitation of the same prophecy Oscar told us regarding the belts of Awakening suggesting the ordinary folk from around the world once Afflicted would be drafted towards lordran as the only viable path for Redemption whether they liked it or not or whether they were powerful or not the key difference of course between Oscar and the crest Fallen Warrior is where we meet them Oscar falls short of the Asylum walls and is never able to make it through the gates of the prison however the crestfallen Warrior does while it may seem a leap to suggest the crest Fallen Warrior had to enjo the asylum on our arrival he does give us a clue to indicate he made the same Journey he tells us let me guess fate of the undead right well you're not the first but there's no salvation here you'd have done better to rot in the Undead Asylum but too late now suggesting the crestfallen Warrior is well acquainted with the conditions of the Undead Asylum and how we're not the first to leave the place this Q tells us the crest Fallen Warrior despite his inherent nihilism is in fact a very capable Knight and while I don't care to add gameplay cues to the ranking in these lists his distinct ability to Parry quite efficiently adds an extra layer of depth to how he is above the litter in reference to other notable nights in the game and the act of parrying itself would reference a previously hardened successful career as a warrior amongst Warriors and if we prematurely kill the crestfallen Warrior he even grants us a unique bit of dialogue that suggests he's quite impressed by your ability to best him adding a the layer of nuance to his preest Fallen credentials through the game the crestfallen Warrior acts as narrative relief through our own adventure narrating the whatabouts of the filing Shrine and interestingly if we went by dialogue alone in the Lord the filing Shrine takes on a much more communal picture where Griggs can't stop talking about Big Hat Logan and laurentius is infectious optimism balances the crestfallen warriors's pessimism the crest Fallen Warrior actually has a few witty nicknames for those around the campfire such as referring to Griggs as a Nutty sorcerer the image painted in the law actually has us in a warm rest bite where adventurers from cultures far and wide found a common place to rest eat and refill their Esters but most importantly of all socialize as greater lordran is anything but a social place outside The Narrative of the crest Fallen Warrior being an accomplished Warrior From A Distant yet unnamed land we can equate his success of getting to Fink and retaining his Humanity as a boost to his power references in his dialogue and even the way he fights tells us the story of a great warrior who was witty and charming and maybe even a local hero that was eventually cast under the plague of undying and forced either by guilt Duty or shame to follow Gwynn's prophecy and become an undead Champion only to witness legendary figures much greater than him on a similar path fail and thus give up but still retaining a Charming wit we can't help but feel warmed by if you can't tell already I love the crest Fallen warrior in Dark Souls 1 gladly placing him here on the [Music] list well it could be easy to just Corner this ranking off by saying Petrus as per the entry for Vince and Nico is just an elite version of them and therefore leave him here on the list in reality Pet's credentials are much more explicit than just his Elite distinction it's not clear what petr's Origins are but from Clues between his interactions with Vince Nico and Rea and his armor set we can assume he comes from Authority in his respective homeland of thorland however outside of this we learn Petrus lives a more than holy lifestyle have you ever wondered why there is a weird stash and fent Shri if you leap off the elevator when heading towards the parish well we can learn that this stash is not just a gift from the gods to the curious but Petes we know this as the items we can obtain from the stash are a similar weapon and Talisman within the stash too is a cracked red eye orb an item used by those guilty of Mal inent Oswald of kareim when referencing Petrus tells us as their acquaintance with Petrus of thorland I wager you twoo has lightly found much in common for is he not too drenched in sin suggesting petus outside of his role as a clerical Knight is responsible for using cracked Redeye orbs to kill others which of course is the only way Oswald of kareim would label one as with guilt and draw parallel between our character and petus in that guilty State while it's not clear how many or who Petrus would kill his actions as a adds another Untold aspect to his power and Oswald's statement that he is drenched in sin suggests a long and illustrious career in killing something reinforced by the idea that he has been in Lord ran longer than even his thorland based company the only hard Mark against his power is that he's clearly limited by the presence of both Vince and Nico as his plans to murder Ry birth from his growing disdain towards Rey's class as a royal member of thurland are never materialized while both Vince and Nico are present only once they are hollowed will he kill Rea most of petr's power lays in his ability to fight rather than cast miracles as his Talisman suggest his faith was limited and relied heavily on the thorland Talisman to boost his power in faith-based spellcasting something represented by his very limited selection of faith-based spells he's able to use it's for these reasons that Petrus ranks here on the list in his words he's a wolf in sheep's CL clothing with a bite that has allowed him to Traverse through lordran committing the sin of murder until he was drenched in sin we can watch Petra circumnavigating some of Lord Ran's harshest areas such as the Tomb of the Giants and making it back in one piece coming together to rank here on the [Music] list which beatric is another one of those summon characters that bear much more depth than you would originally assume if her unique Armory didn't originally catch your eye the description of her staff would have Beatrice's Catalyst tells us that it contrasts with Vinheim own Catalyst this ancient Catalyst shows signs of being used for age-old sorceries it has passed the hands of many generations to get here alongside this we learn from her armor set that almost all magic users employ a wand studied at the dragon school but Beatrice's is one of the few exceptions both of these indicate that beatric utilized a form of spellcasting far before the art of Soul sorceries were pioneered by the Dragon School of Vinheim this immediately stands out as the only other ancient form of sorcery was the golden sorceries of ulil however these sorceries were inherently non-offensive as they were birthed from a region of the world that built a culture around their peaceful cohesion with nature there are no offensive golden sorceries however we are told beatric would utilize her spellcasting as an offensive tool against the abyss which begs the question what spells was she using there are key indicators to suggest the ancient form of sorcery she utilized were completely unrelated to ulil as she does not wear the traditional zanthus scarbs of ail's Mystics rather a completely unique set of her own with no influence from the region which is quite confusing as she's found in the Dark Root Garden which are canonically the area of the game that ulil would become after the events of Manus and the abyss what's more likely is that she descends from a coven of ulil sorcerers that took on the spellcasting traditions of ulil and readjusted their skill set into the soul sorceries of SE after the events of Manis and the abyss and while uninfluenced by the Dragon School Beatrice's lineage adjacent to the initial Dragon School Scholars also use SE to teach themselves Soul sorcery which would explain her ability to use some basic soul sorceries but through a catalyst untraditional to the Dragon School and aesthetically similar to aasil and the golden sorcery tradition instead Beatrice's staff indicates that she comes from a long line of sorcerers and it isn't a stretch to assume as the Four Kings of New Londo began their campaign of dark not dissimilar to the events of ulil beatric saw this as an opportunity to exact Vengeance against the force that drove ulil into the dark route woods but as per the description of her armor and where we find her body fell short at the final hurdles not making it past the gates of New Londo we get an insight into her attempts as we can summon her before our fight with the Four Kings but she clearly even according to the gameplay gets defeated by the Four Kings however assuming her ability to make it through what is presumed the pre flood nondo past an array of dark raids consolidate the idea that she was a very talented sorcerer despite only seeming to have a rudimentary grasp of Soul sorceries when compared to the advanced Scholars of the Dragon School ultimately consolidating her position here on the list as an insight into the microcultures in the [Music] game while most Undead and Lord ran have the ultimate goal of linking the first flame and fulfilling gw's Prophecy with the hope the plague will subside there are other Undead who relish their condition and in indulge the worst excesses of their condition Manita Mildred comes from a tradition of beings in Dark Souls referred to as butchers we only find butchers in their regular form in the depths two butchers can be found ambiently cutting up what appear to be human meat with the purpose of feeding the overgrown rats that maintain a symbiotic relationship with them we know Manita Mildred comes from this same group of beings as she carries the same headu but also a weapon that specifically describes the butchers from the depths we also know from Miyazaki himself that The Butchers are all women the main difference however is that Mildred is referred to by name and also uses her skills as a butcher not to feed rats but to consume people herself this being known we actually come across Mildred's story much before we meet her ourselves if you save laurentius from the depths he tells us that he was trapped by a butcher that'll have me for lunch suggesting unlike the butchers in the depths he may have encountered mil herself and trapped him in a barrel after defeating him to butcher later this immediately gives us an idea of Mildred's strength as being much greater than the pyroman laurentius powerful enough that he is in utter fear of her return going as far as to plead the player to release him further credit to Mildred's success in overpowering other humans is the fact that her name itself alludes to her as a specifically vicious butcher in the game rather than just butcher she is referred to as Mildred but also the man eer suggesting a long and successful tenure we know the butchers essentially run a large portion of the depths their presence is clearly well established and the Rats that overrun the area seem to share their domain The Depths itself is littered with Undead and the corpse of adventuras since past suggesting The Depths are incredibly dangerous and if we assume The Butchers are in charge we can pass on the dangers of the depths to the powers of the butchers this being said we know Mildred was a distinctly br bral butcher she was powerful enough to leave the area to invade others so well that she would Garner a reputation of her own and unlike characters such as Petrus she didn't rely on scheming to murder rather she did so openly with much greater success this ultimately paints a picture of a true Rogue Menace In lordran worthy of a position here on the [Music] list as we have come to learn the dragon school's greatest achievements were exemplified by one figure Above All Else Big Hat Logan behind Logan's success however were the Great Sorcerers of Vinheim the Great Soul Arrow tells us the title sorcerer itself originates at Vinheim and it's the acquisition of this spell that graduates an apprentice to a sorcerer the sorcerer's Rob set tells us the sorcerers were proud of their position and affiliation with the Dragon School wearing their High acted as a token of strength indicating the Dragon School on merits already established but already acknowledged as a powerful institution by the world on the back of their sorcery tradition something reinforced by the hush spells description which tells us Vinheim is controlled by the Dragon School noting the entire nation was under the power of this institution while it could be argued Big Hat Logan was the progenitor of the institution's power we learned the institution predates Logan and Logan instead joined after its construction and Rose its ranks this suggests the sorcerer's absent of Logan's influence still maintained enough power to govern an entire nation while the dragon school's influence in lordran is not as great as it is in Vinheim we are told of two Sorcerers that originate from this land of course Big Hat Logan but also his self-proclaimed Apprentice Griggs Griggs story does indeed be again at venim we know he rose the ranks through the ordinary path of sorcerer at a very young age based on how young he is in lordran Griggs powered through the institution and admired Logan during his tenure in the Dragon School while the timeline is a bit muddy we know Logan would eventually leave Vinheim to seek knowledge in the land of the Lords and through Seath who of course was the Prime subject of the Dragon School we learned the Dragon School weren't entirely an acceptance of Logan's quick departure but but due to Logan's executive rank in the school he would leave unobstructed from the black sorcerer's robes we learned that the Dragon School weren't only prevalent as Sorcerers but also as spies they held proficiency with stealth-based spells the hush spell udes to the Dragon School specializing in this art of spellcasting as a means to exert secret influence on the nation of Vinheim at the height of this secret cabal were the elusive black Sorcerers robed in Black attire the item description tells us cloaks worn by the secret Sorcerers at Vinheim Dragon School they secretly worked with sound based spells and never reveal themselves interestingly Griggs is one of these said Sorcerers darning the black sorcerer attire himself indicating of course that Griggs went beyond just an ordinary coronated Sorcerer And instead took on the role of a black sorcerer to follow and study Big Hat Logan on behalf of the Dragon School Institution the Dragon School were conservative in giving out extra territorial duties and it would not be a stretch to suggest Griggs showed such great strength that they would task him not only as a black sorcerer but more importantly their eyes on Big Hat Logan after his departure as the Dragon School knew their future achievements lay with the outcome of Logan's research it's likely that this is a task that Griggs intentionally asked for as it's clear he reveres Big Hat Logan 2 where whether his affiliations are closer to the dragon school's bureaucracy or Logan is unclear but dialogue indicates the latter as the crest fallen soldier tells us he went to almost suicidal lengths to maintain proximity to Logan it's GG's relationship with Logan that offers further insight into how powerful Griggs truly was as upon big hat Logan's departure we learn Griggs was left with a few of Logan's old books and his proficiency and intellect allows him to teach us these spells indicating although Griggs may seem aloof he is an incredibly proficient spellcaster and not only a fan of Logan but also one of his greatest students too we learned from Rickett's dialogue that Big Hat Logan was the single most proficient sorcerer in the Dragon School and Grigg's ability to mimic and even teach big hat Logan's most advanced spells such as the soul spear which is described as a sorcery developed by Big Hat Logan a symbol of Logan's strength and referenced repeatedly in Legends and said to be on par with Lord Gwynn's lightning adds further credit that Griggs not only studied Logan but also came as close to him to recall the power he became legendary for Griggs can also teach us homing Soul Mass which description States this sorcery is a window into Logan's methods suggesting Griggs not only replicated Logan's spells but also understood the methodology he used to learn and cast them this shouldn't come as a surprise as the Dragon School likely accepted Griggs offer to follow Logan on these merits as it would not be surprising to suggest the entirety of the black Sorcerers of the Dragon School would VI for the chance to follow Logan and embed themselves in the greatest aspect of the Dragon school's history Grigg's story comes to an end when we find a hollowed version of him in s's Fortress likely falling short of following in Logan's footsteps while his failure at s's Fortress may seem to knock his ranking and power down we learn from the crestfallen Merchant that even legendary Warriors such as renal would not make this journey and as we come to learn Logan himself would be caught short of Victory here too solidifying Grigg's rank here on the list as Logan's greatest contemporary [Music] Apprentice a lot of what I can say about shiva's Shadow has its context tied into the upcoming entry of Shiva himself what we can say here is that according to the armor the Shadow wears we learn he helds much like Shiva from the Eastern land a place that would become synonymous with great warriors but also assassins known as Spooks easterners often travel away from their land tasked with specific duties or with a specific purpose while a majority of this is related to espionage we learn sometimes it's a lot more specific as was the case for Shiva Shiva likely a warrior leader from the Eastern lands traveled to lram with the intent of capturing rare and valuable weapons weapons specifically the chaos blade as the journey through lordran is ladened with threats it's not surprising Shiva would hire upon one of his homeland's most prominent exports their Spooks however Shiva Shadow is even more special than just an ordinary Eastern assassin Shiva tells us ah did you notice that one sharp eyes he is one of the clan from the East like myself always slinking in the shadows but he is a tough one you will see what I mean suggesting that even amongst the Assassins of the East shiva's Shadow is specifically tough and considering Shiva a leader from the East Praises him but more specifically chooses him as company to lordran further solidifies this fact in Shiva and his Shadows journey through lordran they rise the ranks of the forest Hunters Covenant effortlessly traversed Bight town and even accumulate so many victories that shiva's shop host some of the greatest and rarest weapons in the entire game while these achievements sit mostly with Shiva himself we can't help but expect that the shadow aided him in these victories too placing shiva's Shadow here on the [Music] list the story of the crest Fallen Merchant lets us for the first time truly dive into what the trials and tribulations of s Fortress means for those who participate in it s Fortress acts as Gwynn's final hurdle to all budding chosen undeads as a means to challenge their metal and serve as a test for those worthy to challenge an orando and win an audience with gwi the Fortress itself is wrought with traps from falling Boulders and pressure plates with thorny consequences to make matters worse serpents Allied to se maintain the Fortress and act as a further obstacle navigating s Fortress stresses agility but also power many have tried to to beat Sen's Fortress in the hope of an audience with the Lords but most have failed falling short of its greatest and final test the Iron Golem measuring power in accordance to s's Fortress is a clear metric as we know legendary Warriors such as the leader of the boulder Knights the Knight King renal fell short of the Iron Golem and lost a majority of his men considering we meet the quest Fallen Merchant near the Iron Golem we can assume he was able to navigate the entirety of the Fortress and gave up at the precipice of the final hurdle we get the detail that the crestfallen Merchant himself was a part of a group of knights known as the barinque knights Knights described by the steel set as the mightiest of the mighty indicating as a class of Warriors they were by average the most powerful however as the plague of the undead ravaged the world the berque knights set out to fulfill the prophecy of the chosen Undead and while we can see a few of the berque knights in and around s's Fortress we know most of them were unable to even even face the Iron Golem the crestfallen Merchant indicates he was a member of the beron campaign however fell short much like his comrades he tells us the barque campaign was primarily driven by conceit indicating none of them were really working together in overcoming The Fortress and this may be the reason why their combined forces were unable to overcome its challenges at the height of the castle he tells us he's at the brink of hollowing and has given up on the original Mission instead he now Cho uses to sit and pillage the remnants of those falling victim to The Fortress while some have indicated that the crestf Fallen Merchant is actually not a berque knight and has just pillaged their armor his name as a crestfallen just like the crestfallen Warrior at fing Shrine indicates he does reign from a land and position of previous pride and the fact that he adorns The Heavy Armor and is also able to Traverse through Sen's Fortress without dying and even making it to its final challenge further add credit to the idea he truly was a barinque knight but also one that was talented enough to overcome the challenges even his peers couldn't through his Wares we learned that all sorts of legendary night classes would fall victim to The Fortress from those of Boulder to Katarina the quest Fallen Merchant for this reason truly was a great warrior one that took on Sen's Fortress and learned to navigate its terrain something not even esteemed great Warriors from around the world could however Testament to his name the crest for Fallen Merchant fell short accepting defeat at the final hurdle and felling his Crest giving up [Music] entirely the story of ingu is tied intimately with both the story of New Londo but more peculiarly Gwynn's Elite sector of knights known as the Dark Moon Covenant while Ingrid's personal life and own motivations are nowhere to be found his personality is conveyed brilliantly in every encounter with him refreshingly he's a very open character with clear intentions and acts as the prime guiding force in one of the game's most difficult locations while the nature of new londo's role in the world is unknown we do know gwin Tas four formidable Knights likely pygmy Warriors born from the Dark Soul to command the city gwy revered these four Knights due to their role during the war of ancients and as we come to see in later installments the pygmy warriors were integral to gwyn's success during this campaign Gwyn would coronate the Four Knights with an aspect of his own soul offering them further strength to look over the soon to be second capital of the land of the Lords unfortunately for Gwyn however this would act as Gwynn's first lesson as to the nature of the world and the antithetical power of those born from the Dark Soul soon a primordial serpent named K would set into action a series of events that would awaken the dormant powers of the abyss and eventually lead k to the Four Kings of New Londo enlightening them on their Birthright as the rightful rulers of the coming age of man kth would teach the Knights of a power known as life drone drawing from the strength of their Dark Soul they were granted the ability to sap the humanity of other beings materializing a true method to challenge Gwyn even during Gwynn's height of power the Four Kings would heed K's message and begin a secret campaign to build a force powerful enough to topple the age of fire in this the Four Kings brought together the Warriors of New Londo and taught them too of this power and potential formerly creating the dark raids a pact of men sworn to topple gwyn's age of fire and build a new age of men Unshackled by Gwynn's oppression the dark rats would eventually become powerful enough that they would begin attacking the Agents of fire however eventually Gwyn would take notice and initially lead a campaign against New Londo in the form of the banishment Sorcerers the tin banishment Catalyst tells us Catalyst of the banishment Sorcerers who flooded New Londo to seal off the dark rates and the Kings who fell to the dark the fact that Gwyn saw it fit to place these banishment Sorcerers to fend off against the dark rats who Beed the power of Life drain indicates they were quite a powerful sect of Mages however we learned they weren't powerful enough to fight off against the dark rats and eventually gwin in the face of an existential threat to the age of fire acts in desperation and floods New Londo murdering hundreds of thousands if not millions of people in New Londo we meet ingwood situated at top of building in the now drowned New Londo according to the tin banishment Catalyst he is the final living banishment sorcerer in New Londo suggesting he rose above their ranks and considering these Sorcerers fought the incredibly powerful dark rats we can assume ingood was far above power and now in his isolation looks over nondo successfully fending off ghosts and Remains the sole being dued and trusted by the Agents of fire to look over this realm interestingly ingwood wears a necklace that appears to be a crescent moon suggesting his affiliations with the power of the dark moon Covenant which would explain why he survived above all the other banishment Sorcerers as it was this Covenant that would act as Gwynn's most executive wing of Defenders against all elements of the dark it wouldn't be a stretch to assume ingwood was tasked as the head of the initial campaign of banishment Sorcerers due to his already established rank in the Dark Moon Covenant cut content suggests ingwood was far more powerful than dark rates asking the player to defeat one in order to win his trust it's the Merit of ingward being a blade of the Dark Moon alongside his position as the most powerful banishment Sorcerer And the sole being trusted to maintain vigilance over a land that once be the power power to overthrow Gwyn that places him here on the [Music] list s's Fortress would become the prime Proving Grounds for some of the greatest warriors in the expanded universe with champions from lands known for their power coming to try their hand at passing one of gwyn's harshest hurdles to initiate people into an orando and a chance at the Lord vessel and therefore the Kil of the first flame we learned that Legendary Heroes from the Knights of Boulder Scholars of the Dragon School and even champions from aora all failed to make it through the region but there is one champion who distinctly rises above all else so well that we are able to even witness him defeat its greatest challenge all by himself tarus comes from a tradition of knights and berque known specifically for their strength and towering figures but as goes the description of the black Iron set tarus Rose even greater than his peers able to wield a heavy armor with even greater ease the description of the great sword gives us further insight into how distinctly powerful tarus was as it describes the weapon as popularized by the Knights of berque but specifically by tarus indicating that tarus may be the prime blueprint that the Knights of barque Drew inspiration from it's therefore likely that tarus himself was more so a general and the master of the Baroni style of combat the great sword reads a favorite of the Knights of barque known for The Heavy Armor and black Iron tarus drawing close attention to the idea that the barque nightly tradition owes its popularity to tarus by name using this press he alone amongst his companions would overcome the Iron Golem we know he is not aided by other Knights of berque as the crest Fallen Merchant grants us the Insight that the berque approached the challenges of s fortress on their own despite coming as a company rarely do I draw attention to gameplay but there is an exception for T here though as for him I believe the gameplay was distinctly made to convey the power tarus had in overcoming the Iron Golem as he is 99% of the time able to single-handedly defeat the Iron Golem alone we know tarus would go on to an orando and attempt an audience with gwy but in what is likely the most anticlimactic event in the entire game he would fall off the rafters in anando dying to what is likely the painting Guardians and the environment this alone leaves us with the question of How likely was tarus to get through an orando a challenge a majority of characters in lordran could only dream of doing while this is pure speculation at this point from the descriptions of his items and recorded actions it wouldn't be a stretch to assume if not for a weakness to the intricate movements required on anol Lando's Rafters he would have at least made it to orstein and smow on his own valtion and this on top of overcoming the Iron Golem consolidates his position quite high on this list however it's true that tarus remains is one of those characters that have their potential cut abruptly [Music] short the Dark Moon Knight's real identity is completely a Miss however much like many of the other characters on this list her identity does not matter she came to lordran already Undead and instead of seeking the first flame she was sidetracked to a lifelong Duty with the Dark Moon Covenant and G while her Origins can be suggested to hail from kareim due to her parrying dagger it's clear she overshadows her own Heritage just by how far she made it through lordran and her association with the Dark Moon Covenant appearing in an orando we can assume she already has passed the trials and tribulations of s's Fortress and even overcame the Iron Golem as her armor suggests she came not on request but by her own valtion to the land of the Lords well the details are for speculation she would join the Dark Moon Covenant upon an audience directly with gwindel suggesting she won a degree of trust seldom seen in the times of the undead plague especially as an undead Warrior herself her profession as a dark moon blade likely saw countless victories and considering her location her victories would be quite notable as only the greatest warriors would make it past s's Fortress we also know that she would eventually take on the role as a firekeeper if we cast our mind back to the other two FireKeepers in the game from Anastasia to the fair lady we know they are able to upkeep their bonfire on the Merit of the humanity that they were supplied while Anastasia had the benefits of enormous activity at the faring Shrine and the fair lady had quana and the chaos servants to bring her back Humanity one can only ask where the dark moonight s gathered her Humanity that sourced her bonfire but through deduction we can assume she did this on her own means as a dark moon blade killing guilty and Deads that trespassed in an orando meaning her success must have been vast something further evidenced by the fact that she uses the Miracles of the Dark Moon blade at their highest strength indicating she Rose the ranks of the Dark Moon blades right to the top surely on the Merit of her ability to kill the guilty it's not surprising to find She Knows gwindel by name and even understands the nature of anol Lando's Illusions as her rank would make her a close Confidant to the last remaining Lord in an orando if we disrupt gwindel and's illusion she greets us at the gates of the palace and fights us for our transgressions something she seem quite familiar with doing giving us an insight into how she garnered her reputation as one of the most proficient members of the Dark Moon Covenant an organization that acted as the age of Fire's Monopoly on power in Lord ran [Music] marvelous Chester hosts a very unique place on this list as he's not an undead seeking to fulfill Gwynn's prophecy nor is he even related to that prophecy or the events of lordran at all our first encounter with marvelous Chester is just before our battle with artorius we learn much like us he has been dragged into the past by Manus his armor is described as exquisitely made and his crossbow as originating from kareim his Origins are not that easy to place as all of the reference points for kareim in the game show a vastly different cultural attire a great video by zali the witch demonstrates that although Chester seems to be a nod towards bloodborne and therefore perhaps being dragged from yanum into Dark Souls it's an unlikely Theory as both universes are entirely different and nonadjacent Zully finds instead that we know his design is more so a nod from both from software's past and present design ideology sharing from yanum but also from demon olds boletaria although this does not mean he's from either Universe it reveals the truth that chesta is an amalgamation of past present and plausibly a character from a culture that could exist in the Dark Souls universe and as he comes from a section of the timeline in a place where we never get to visit it's most likely he represents a future version of kareim that took on a Gothic and Victorian archetype we also learn he took the same route through the sanctuary as we did even speaking to Elizabeth and encounter both Elizabeth and Chester reference this alone means nothing but considering it's a necessity to defeat the sanctuary Guardians in order to reach the Royal Woods assume that you and Chester may not be the only ones grabbed by Manus but both of you were the only ones able to overcome the sanctuary guardian and considering the sanctuary Guardian are Chimera Demons by law and likely recruited by Gwen after their decisive Victory against the chaos flame and isth there is a degree of power we have to assume Chester has even by just being here we also know that obtaining an heirloom associated with Manis is a prerequisite to beckoning the father of the abyss and while our own Journey getting that heirloom in the form of the pendant is not the same as Chesters it would not be a difficult thing to imagine Chester's own sequence of events leading to Manis as one of a hardened Adventurer while we are not told of Chester's position in his version of kareim we know from his armor and weaponry that he was was a skilled sniper and his armor specifically Paints the image of an aristocrat or potentially a decorated assassin there isn't much else to say for Chester but from his Inspirations and how he is the only other present human from the future in ulil we can assume he was adjacent to ourselves as a chosen Undead and therefore occupies a prestigious position on this list and as he is referred to as marvelous this could indicate that he's not only marvelous in his perceived flamboyance of attire but potentially marvelous due to his achievements from the land of his Origins there is an unspoken story I'm sure of marvelous Chester one of karim's greatest and Elusive figures that was Unstoppable in his Ambitions and eventually it would be his ambition that would catch him in an extremely unique sequence of events that Manis himself would be allowed to his presence bringing him way back to the time of aasil it's on this premise I believe marvelous Chester ranks here on the list while not greater than the legendary first class of Undead Champions who sought the first flame in lordran he remains a phenomenon of his own [Music] timeline L tr's story outside of all other entries gives us the context for an incredibly influential but often overlooked region in the game kareim while there was a slight mention of Kareem in the previous entry Kareem even during the time of lordran and Dark Souls 1 operated very differently to the other regions in the game as it appears they have no strong affiliation or connection to the age of fire on the contrary places like thorland and aora rever the age of fire and Gwyn modeling their Traditions off of this reverence while Kareem is never told specifically to be anti-theistic in this regard we learn from oswal and La Trek that kareim had a diversity of religious beliefs often giving home to those who worship the Gods in opposition to the age of fire or had since left Gwynn's bureaucracy such as goddess velka but more importantly for this entry goddess Fina Fina is spoken little of but it's indicated she was once a member of Gwynn's bureaucracy not dissimilar to all father Lloyd and Gwynn's direct children but after the events of Gwynn's sacrifice and the mass Exile of an orando she would renounce her affection to Gwyn and continue her work independently elsewhere While others such as all father Lloyd would leave an orando but remain faithful to Gwynn's age of fire we know other gods such as velka would renounce their faith in Gwyn likely on the back of learning of his subversion of the natural cycle of the world and his consistent oppressive streak against humanity velka is notably told to have left for this reason as we'll discuss in oswal's entry but Fina is never told to have left for any specific reason it's not surprising therefore that all descriptions of Fina are referred to as fickle which of course describes an unreliable and consistently changing character we also know that Fina is often referred to as favor embracing and protective which may elude to what her original role was as a God in an orando during the time of Gwynn's Reign this alone opens up the story as to why she may have left an orando and the age of Fire's favor as she may have been the goddess of love and protection over all of the age of Fire's denisons and upon Gwinn subversion of Nature and the creation of the dark sign to bind Humanity to preserving an age in inherently oppressive to their own she through her love for lesser beings detested Gwynn's actions and while it's not clear if Fina would Retreat to kareim it's not surprising that a section of kareim would rever her as a satellite God and now Trek may have been the most devoted of these followers we learn from the description of the Armor of Favor from both Dark Souls 1 and three that he modeled the armor to replicate fena Embrace her arms protecting and coddling him his entire armor set and ring indicate his affection to to be boundless and there's reason to believe Fina acknowledged La tr's affection as his ring symbolizes her reciprocation we learned from the Shel that La Trak was also a very talented Warrior the shotel tells us requires Great skill to wield while the parrying dagger gives us Insight that he followed the nightly traditions of kareim to at least the standard they were Infamous for however our true insight into how powerful La TR was is if we follow his story to the final stage La TR with a blind face to Fina is exacting Vengeance to the age of Fire's bureaucracy on behalf of Fina conspiring to kill one of the most important FireKeepers in the game as a means to stop other Undead champions from fulfilling and extending Gwynn's influence and prophecy on the world while we know he is responsible for Anastasia's death it tells us little of his strength and more so about his intentions as Anastasia is no challenge at all we do get a better understanding of his strength when we follow him all the way to gw's bed chamber where we can meet him and a group of his followers likely attempting to continue a plot against the age of fire and slay gwy and gwindel where this takes place alone tells us La Trak was able to overcome s's Fortress but also make it to the doors of one of anol londo's greatest challenges well we are not told specifically if La Trek would have been able to overcome onstein and smow their success thus far would assume assum he would give it a good shot considering lre is the only character in the game to have the direct favor of Fina it would not be surprising if he would leverage this power of the god to increase his own strength and it is this direct blessing from Fina alongside his continued success in an incredibly ambitious plan to disrupt and exact Vengeance against the age of fire that make L Trek such a standout character however unlike say velker it's never indicated what power Fina truly held or the nature of her power in relation to the strength of other gods as figures such as velka have explicit mentions of their power as we'll learn in Oswald's entry on top of this lre has no specific mention of what power Fina granted him outside of an increased level of Vitality and luck something while worthy of Distinction does not raise the bar far too high there is one cave yet to mention here though when we meet lre he's trapped in what seems to be be a cage managed by a six-eyed Channeler and while the channelers are very unique and powerful characters themselves if it's true he lost to the Channeler his rank would immediately suffer however it may be more likely judging by his demeanor that he intentionally submit to the Channeler as a means to Fast Track himself to an orando through the juke's archives as experiment father much like Big Hat Logan may have however just like Logan he may have miscalculated how long they would have to wait and the possibility of being outright for forgotten about this would make sense as the hurdles La Trek would have to overcome to get to where he is far outweigh the power of A6 eyed Channeler it's for these reasons lre ranks here as a blessed servant of Fina with distinct achievements under his belt and what is likely the power to challenge onstein and smau for a chance to face gwy and gwindel his position alludes to victories over a variety of anol Lando's challenges and his motivation indicate he would have overcome gwindel in's Dark Moon blades to as he pushed towards gwi's bed [Music] chamber as we have alluded to during the entry of the undead male Merchant and shiva's Shadow there is a land in the Dark Souls Universe known for warriors so great they would be tasked with extr territorial duties of Espionage and assassination the Shiva of the East is according to the dialogue of Alvina an incredibly powerful Warrior hailing from the East her initial skepticism towards him May originate from the fact that he has left the Eastern lands to lordran for reasons outside of hollowing as he shows no signs of such undying curse or willingness to link the first flame knowledgeable on the reputation of the easterners especially those of Greater claim alven senses ulterior motives for his time in lordran this theory is further credited by the fact that he is a accompanied by another easterner this of course refers to his shadow as detailed in their respective earlier entry nevertheless Shiva would eventually prove his worth and Heritage as a great warrior to Alvina and she would have no choice but to recruit him as a captain of the forest Hunter Covenant a clan of men dedicated to protect the great Forest a further indication of his power as despite her reservations she cannot help but assign him this prestigious role on the back of his power alone later in the game we can buy Wares from him at the grounds of Blight Town selling incredibly rare items likely salvaged from his time as a forest Hunter as pillaging the trespasses was a right bestowed by Alvina to all of those in the clan shiva's Wares indicate he performed his role incredibly well and took down great foes foes that bear Weaponry only attainable through great notable achievements such as slaying demons cut dialogue finds that shiva's story extends further than this however as he tells us his main reason of being in lordran was the search for the chaos blade a weapon described as inheriting the chaotic nature of quag and a perfect tool to elevate his power as a great leader of the East to that of a legendary Warrior of the world Shiva in many ways inherits a position as one of the most ambitious characters in the game but equal to his ambition was his power and unlike most characters Shiva never dies in his story and traverses Blight Town to the very bottom with relative ease taking a hold of a top position as a forest Hunter and doing so by killing champions from distant lands as per the items in his shop but also Warriors who had gone through lordran successfully killing some of its greatest threats only to be stopped by Shiva it's rare that we find a character in the game this openly formidable and referred to as such by even demigods such as Alvina the Easter set recurs throughout the entire Trilogy and it's clear his story even after our own encounter carries through the legends of the game becoming archetypical of the greatness of the Eastern lands many characters find their end in Bight town and as we leave Shiva unscathed in this place it's not an exaggeration to believe he did obtain the chaos blade on his own accord as it reappears in all of the other games in Dark Souls Souls 3 we get an item known as the easterner ashes that directly refer to his character from Dark Souls 1 and sell Armory of the great onislayer and Warriors of the Iron Keep suggesting even the Alon Knights have affiliations to him elevating Shiva as one of the greatest characters in Dark Souls 1 a character that chose to enter lordran on their own valtion not out of desperation but also a character that conquered everything he intended to and even LED what can be speculated to be a successful campaign to obtain the chaos blade consolidating his influence in the world hither to and testament to the adage that easterners when tasked with a duty have the aptitude to fulfill it regardless of the [Music] challenge as we have already spoken about sigm we can skip over the context of Katarina and understand Lind as a character of her own Merit sein's story is entirely connected to the events associated with her father SE meire hailing from the same area and culture of knights while the context of SE Lind is based purely on her father it's through her father's actions that we can learn a lot about how powerful segland was we learn that on siga's journey to S Fortress segland followed her father however unlike her father seend is an immense powerful Warrior our first insight into this is when we officially meet her for the first time if we've braved an orando and ventured into the juke's archives we can free sind from a special Crystal Golem deep in the archives while seemingly a trivial encounter this does give us a huge deal of context from this we know see Glinda unlike her father was able to get to an orando and even the Duke's archives on her own merits this would suggest that se Linda knew her father was going to try to get through s's Fortress and on her own valtion proceeded to The Proving Grounds and proved her worth all on her own and was eventually granted access to an orando always on the heels of her father it appears she either came too early or too late to an orando and her journey would have her not only defeat s's Fortress but pass through an orando all the way to the all elusive Jukes archives the crestfallen Merchant tells us even legendary warriors were unable to pass through s's Fortress and see glind with all her humility does so without even a mention of the events immediately placing her amongst the ranks of the others who too passed s Fortress upon saving her she details her purpose in lra not as a hollow seeking Absolution rather a worried daughter looking to save her father eventually after aiding sigm he likely due to his bruised ego and pride from the events of our actions eventually loses the will to continue and goes Hollow in the Ash Lake it's here that se Linda finally catches up to him only to find a husk of her father striking him down with relative ease seend unlike her father is never told to have struggled with her journey through lordran she never shows hollowing or the crestfallen effect it seems to have on a majority of those who come to lordran and once we meet her for a final time in Ash Lake she even grants us a titanite slab suggesting it serves her no more purpose the titanite slab are ancient relics directly Associated to the gods and an incredibly scarce resource in the game often requiring the player to overcome an incredibly challenging task often Associated to the power of everlasting dragons themselves something we can assume see Glinda had done in getting to where she is right now and as she leaves lordran she does not require it anymore this alone shoots siglinda even further up in the ranks as the single only character in the entire game to have possessed such an artifact an artifact she did not bring with her rather obtained in lordran and left it there on her departure it's for these reasons Sinda the image of humility Reigns as one of the greatest characters in the entire game and it's her spirit that manifests itself in Dark Souls 3 with seagood and she likely represented the power of Katarina associated with this longlasting spirit and consistent victory [Music] iies out of every character in the entire series zanthus King Jeremiah stands out as the single most speculative character in the entire game his character design puts him in so many different places in the game we can never be entirely sure where he truly came from or what kingdom he ruled over his pyromancy puts him close to the witch of isth after the events of the chaos flame his armor puts him close to ulil and the yellow Sorcerers while his crown puts him close to Bight town and the parasitic wallhugger and of course where we meet him puts him at the heart of the painted world of Aramis and devela theories regarding his Origins are entirely scattered within the Dark Souls community and for the ranking of his power at the point we meet him it's not entirely necessary to understand what his story was as his power is clear based on the Spells he's able to cast and where he is when we meet him regardless I'll offer up my speculation on what his story is based on the primary information we get from in-game descriptions and environmental details it's clear Jeremiah's story starts in ulil his original yellow garbs as indicated in Dark Souls 3 are the garbs worn by the ancient Mystics of UIL it may be that Jeremiah would earn his position as a king here as the presiding governing entity in the entirely peaceful land it would be however the events of Manis and the abyss that would draw Jeremiah out where he would eventually find his way to the now mutated isth carrying an already established Affinity to the golden sorceries he would begin to learn under the post chaos eolith and rise in power to a position where he would make a name for himself as a pyromancer of not just the usual orientation but one that had the unique ability to command the greatest pyromancy of them all the chaos Firestorm a power directly Associated to the initial mutating fire of isit's Bed of Chaos we even though during this period he may have been a peer to the great Solomon a master of pyromancer directly associated with quana as Dark Souls 3 suggest through the dialogue cornic gives us that the use of the chaos Firestorm was pioneered by Solomon and it's Jeremiah's use of the spell and where he sits in the timeline that could make them peers or even more speculatively the same person eventually however the events of Gwynn's attack on isth would begin the Great War against the chaos flame and it would RAV isth and push it into the corners of lordran it's in this war that Jeremiah would eventually be captured and thrown into the painted world of aramus as a being that harbored a power far too inherently powerful against gwyn's order joining other exiled powers and granting him the title of an exiled King a once reigning ruler of a land holy Associated to Gwynn's age of fire in ulil to the sasit for all things sinful towards the age of fire I appreciate the above story is is purely speculative as is every other theory about Jeremiah but the incoherent and Scattered story does offer the chance to choose how we picture Jeremiah's story while being unable to pinpoint canonically what it actually looked like what we can say for certain is that he did become so powerful in the art of chaos pyromancy that Gwyn himself would as he did all other inhabitants of Aramis command his exile to the painted world it's under this premise that Jeremiah an ulil Mystic turned one of the greatest pyromancers lands here on the [Music] list Donal of Zena plays a very distinct role in the game and many first playthroughs may miss his entire story arc completely if he is found he acts as one of the best vendors in the entire game selling the armor of bosses you specifically have been able to overcome while his story or even the story of the land of Zena is mostly unknown his Armory and wees paint a picture of a very complex and in-depth character the land of Zena is only ever spoken of through the adventurer's armor set and the character Creations menu describing the land is both ancient and a place renowned for merchants and wisdom Donal clearly takes on the mertile tradition in lordran but his character is more than just a traveling vendor his armor has two types of assertions on donal's traits presumptive and assertive the presumptive traits are characterized by the believ to be prefix while the assertive traits are characterized by the symbol symbolized prefix the presumptive traits tell us of wisdom and Glory both traits associated with those who come from Zena while the assertive traits tell us he was a vanquisher and Explorer both traits we can verify through in-game cues this suggests that Donal has made a stronger name for himself as a vanquisher and Explorer through his independent actions while his affiliations with Zena indicate he may also be of wisdom and Glory but both are unverified by his recorded actions Miyazaki in his design work interview outright described Zena as a trickster suggesting he uses the veil of his Heritage in Zena to occupy a very different character in lordran a character that likely takes advantage of this presumed archetype Zena's assertive traits of vanquisher and Explorer immediately put him as an outlier in the world of the characters in Dark Souls 1 most inhabitants of the region are closer to the crestfallen and lost of ambition unable to carry on however Zena maintains cheerful attitude through his entire storyline and is able to follow us throughout the entire game as indicated by the Wares he is able to sell to us right after our victories where as that even stretch to the DLC area where we travel back in time as he can even sell us gwinn's armor set he's the only character outside yourself and Solair that is able to make it to the Kil of the first flame but the question remains how did he do so and does it have something to do with his title as a vanquisher we find out it most likely does as we learn he is profoundly knowledgeable about traversing various parts of lordran even before we have set foot in the area he can give us information about the catacombs regarding Divine weaponry and skeleton mobs while also giving information around the extremely elusive ancient dragon in Ash Lake this would suggest Donal already familiar with the territory has traversed and Vanquish many of their challenges already something we can verify by testing his theories as being completely true and massively helpful it's not difficult therefore to imagine how Donald was able to follow our character through a majority of the game and pick up on our leftovers to sell back to us in a wide array of Wares which also gives us context around why he gives us information about traversing lordran so that when we defeat bosses he can pick up our leftovers this also gives us context as to why Miyazaki refers to him as a trickster and a pragmatist don't be misled though as he doesn't entirely rely on the main prot to find his way around lordran as his weapons and initial selection of we suggest he alone was able to go in and out of the Duke's archives in an orando and obtain fully realized Crystal Weaponry items even according to the law were locked to the archives itself in the design work interview Miyazaki even suggests that Donal was supposed to use the weapon avalin the triple crossbow an item associated with the archives and idas an interesting tidbit on Donald's armor tells tells us that he equips a crystal Shield plus 5 and as we can find out Crystal Armory is unupgraded by anyone in the game and it may also show an affiliation between legendary Craftsman Idis and Donal adding a further level of depth to his skill and influence and context as to how Donal has survived this long in lordran successfully maintaining his wits YouTuber Hawkshaw created a really great video on Donal which Paints the picture of him being a potential member of the occult plot against the god his knowledge of the Grave Lord curses the occult and also the extremely elusive Ash Lake Point towards this we learned this plot was a rebellion Uprising led by havl to bring seat's immoral institution down while Donal may have joined H's posy with the potential of treasure rather than Justice he may have just as well been flipped by SE with the promise of Crystal Armory and no ordinary kind either upgraded Crystal Armory explaining his possession of the oneof a kind shield in return Donal would Aid the gods in overturning the Rebellion from within solidifying his position as a vanquisher and a character of great strength with all this being said it's clear Donal is a character with much greater depth than meets the eye and while I will be using a majority of my theories on Donal as a means to rank him here on the list the consensus and the specifics of his actions are still somewhat subjective but what is not subjective are the facts that he is in lordran not as a desperate Undead lost without ambition but a vanquisher and explorer who has tested his metal in the land and never lost always coming out on top and even sharing the tactics he used to achieve it following us to the very end of the game Donal assumes this position on the [Music] list wielding one of my favorite armor sets from the entirety of Dark Souls 1 Paladin Leroy is a truly unique character in the first installment of the game while we're not specifically told what part of the world he reigns from we know he was deeply affiliated with the way of the white Covenant a covenant we know originates from anando and all father Lloyd that would eventually find a home in thurland interestingly when it comes to the timeline Leroy is suggested to be one of the first beings in the entire game to become Hollow and may even be the first to venture into lordran to seek Absolution through the right of kindling the first flame as we have mentioned Erland was the holiest land outside of an orando as all father Lloyd the figurehead for preserving gwin's theocracy governed the territory it's not surprising therefore to see that on finding out Leroy was Undead he would be given no choice but to venture into lordran to further Gwynn's will while we don't know what kind of man Leroy was before becoming Undead there are clues that he was already both an incredibly spiritual figure but also inhumanely strong for the the way of the white this may have seemed like a perfect turn of events and Leroy's transformation as almost miraculous the way of white would construct Leroy's armor and weaponry as supremely Divine and built for Leroy's inhuman strength casting it as a beacon of power against the dark not only to Vanquish the trials of darkness in lordran but also Stave off his own impending hollowing the pieces of armor known as Granton Sanctus just like Leroy's Divine Mission would be given legendary status as described by the Paladin set reiterating their inherent power and a projection of the power of thurland Leroy was going to represent the way of the white and his armor had to resemble the force the region commanded but what of Leroy successes well there are Snippets of History we can see through our encounters with Leroy's Phantoms in the game in our first encounter Leroy AIDS us against the catacombs and defeating pin wheel well seemingly a no Victory if you cast your mind back to the boss ranked video we know that pin wheel was no pushover as pin wheel had stolen and empowered himself with a great aspect of one of the most powerful entities in the game the primordial Lord Neo in this we know that Paladin Leroy was able to on his own just as tarus had overcome one of Lord Ran's greatest challenges however would eventually fall short at the feet of grave Lord Neo we know this is the case as if we kill lero Phantom we can find his armor in nito's Boss encounter room but regardless of dying to Nito we know that Leroy would have had to have already obtained the Lord vessel which would require defeating s's Fortress taking on an orando and winning the affection of gwy all by himself to challenge one of these primordial Lords this would even explain why his Phantom invades the player if we've obtained the Lord vessel As We Know know only one Undead Champion can take gwyn's mantle on the premise that he alone is found dead in nito's chamber places him far beyond most of the other characters in the game and he may be even more so than tarus the closest thing to capturing the four Lord souls and taking on Gwynn's mantle this wouldn't be surprising either as his descriptions relate him to a being of Legend the first true Undead champion and the representation of all father Lloyd's power a Sy of the Holy raging against the dark much as his aesthetic successor in Dark Souls 2 [Music] would the night Kirk is an interesting character that even Miyazaki couldn't help us speak deeply about during interviews as unique as his aesthetic is his law is something we encounter many times in Dark Souls although his background is entirely subjective we get two defining Clues as to his purpose and his origins in lordran according to his armor he is referred initially as an Infamous dark wraith who was specifically murderous during his tenure dark rats and dark souls are the beings that originated in yulo and took up arms with the Four Kings in order to rebel against the age of fire on the advice of K kth Illuminating the humans about Humanity as born from the Dark Soul would teach the art of Life drain in order to invade and kill as many agents of the age of fire as possible to accumulate their humanity and inflate their own Dark Soul which as we learned from the final game is the antithesis to the fiery Lord Souls that fueled Gwynn's era and the predicated material condition to overthrowing his ruling order the Four Kings and New Londo would grow so powerful that Gwyn himself would act in his most brutal way ever and drown the entirety of New Londo killing millions of inhabitants as collateral just to seal away a threat so powerful it challenged gwyn's rule even during his prime while a majority of the strength can be credited to the Four Kings themselves as they were gifted a portion of gwyn's soul and therefore a true to form power from within the dark rates also projected the Four Kings influence onto the wider world we learn dark rates never truly were fully taken away by Gwynn's initial actions and their legacy exists throughout the game all the way to the final installment their vicious and cut dialogue assumes that they were an incredible powerful force worthy of Praise even if just one of their agents were taken on by the player in the final installment and entire Covenant and even a champion of fire was initially dued with battling the abyss and subsequently the dark rates indicating their power even absence of their initial Kings remained substantial enough to develop a significant threat in the order of the world on top of this Kirk was not just an ordinary Warrior of this already already exclusive and Powerful group of humans we learn his power would have been Monumental even on its own and comparatively to his colleagues after the events of new londo's ruin dark wraths would scatter across the Earth and a major section of them would go on to develop londor a kingdom of men and Hollows inspired by karth that dependent on what ending you chose seemingly overcome the age of fire and commence the age of Hollows unlike them however Kirk would find new meaning to his life after the events of New Londo acknowledging his profound and Unstoppable ability to invade and defeat others he would focus his talents on a different cause of the same premise to help the helpless an extension of what grounds the philosophy of the dark rats however instead of helping the oppressed humans undo the oppressive shackles of the age of fire he helped to ease the pain of another specific victim of Gwynn's oppressive streak the Fair Lady of isth as we have already discussed the fair lady was the consequences of eth's desperate attempt at preserving Gwynn's age of fire which backfired and mutated her own daughters the fair lady being one of the most unfortunate of those victims Gwyn would go on to decimate isit's domain in an almost genocidal campaign that would confine them to a corner of the world in this corner the fair lady represented the silent plea of this new demon race something that demonstrated the demons much like any other beings are a race that sought to build a home for themselves but were unfairly maligned as antithetical to Gwynn's age of fire Kirk taking his press would dedicate his life to alleviating the suffering of the fair lady and continue bringing her Humanity in order to sustain her his success is incredibly clear as he effortlessly traverses the entirety of lordran not only surviving but defeating others who would make it that far too so well was his actions it may be the reason the fair lady continues living despite qu lag's death unlike most characters Kirk makes it through the events of the first second and even the third game pragmatic in his use of abilities he would go on to continue helping other helpless characters so well that he's present in the final installment of the series known to us in Dark Souls 3 as longfinger Kirk a member of tortured rosaria's Elite group of Warriors his long finger prefix indicates he not only served her but yet again just as he did for the dark rates achieved the highest ranking position in the Covenant in this Kirk's story is one that deserves its own adaptation you can just imagine his story as an unbeaten lone Shadow carrying the dark wraith tradition to all facets of influential covenants acting as their dominant arm so long as their goals aligned with his own and it's in this that Kirk longfinger Kirk Kirk the infamous dark wraith solidifies a legendary position on this [Music] list oswal's backstory is a complete mystery he reveals very little of himself and no character Bears direct relation to him nor do they ever mention him found at top what it's likely most players first spell of Awakening he's referenced immediately as a pardoner and Associated deeply with goddess velka selling the spell comic Justice indicated to be directly associated with velka Oswald is the only character in the game that can share the all elusive velker based spells it's therefore important to first understand velka before making an assumption on the power of Oswalt who of course is a clear practitioner of velka's power in lordon according to the book of guilty we are told velka much like all all father Lloyd was a distinguished member of Gwynn's bureaucracy in an orando while Alla Lloyd was responsible for the preservation of gwyn's theocracy the spell comic Justice tells us velka was responsible in defining sin and according punishment in this sense velka represented an or Lando's Judiciary naturally her role as the crown member of the Judiciary would bring her into close proximity with the blades of the Dark Moon and it may be velka's influence that purposed many of the dark Moon Covenant spells which would explain their iconic purple Hue the blades of the Dark Moon were the executive wing of an orando they acted as the institution's Monopoly of power in a similar sense while velka represented the courts and legislature gwindel represented the police and Armed Forces it's therefore not surprising to see the parallels between velka and the Dark Moon Covenant as they were both symbiotic during the Heyday in anondo while it's told that velka was responsible for the definement and recording of sin and the blades of the Dark Moon the tool used to exact punishment don't be mistaken and assume velka was any less powerful than the blades of the dark moon or even gwindel in herself as we learn on gwinn's self-sacrifice to preserve the first flame velka despite her previous affiliations detested Gwynn's actions as inherently sinful as it disrupted the natural order of the world and it's because of her rejection of Gwyn that velka would have eventually be referred to as a rogue a heretic but also a great and disruptive power in the realm of the Gods as per the vow of silence item description it's in these moments that velka would leave an's bureaucracy and Ally herself with those in opposition to Gwynn's age of fire namely in the painted world of Aramis an alternative realm used to seal away characters creatures and artifacts that threatened the age of fire and the Very Gods Vela during her Premiership would Garner a huge collection of followers these followers would reside in two forms some would remain in the waking World continuing her efforts alongside gwindel others would follow her to the painted world of Aramis where the domain would be influenced heavily by her presence while it's unclear what velka did in the painted world it can be assumed that she feeling as though Gwyn deserved Punishment Due to his sinful actions began to Ally herself with the very place that hosted the power to truly bring down the very Gods here she would win their affection by championing for their right to exist and monuments would be built in Her Image throughout the area just on the notion that she was revered by some of the greatest powers in the game such as Priscilla are an important mark on her overall power eventually in Aramis a crucial change would begin to happen to velka's image from one that solely cast judgment to punish to one that welcomed the judged for absolution a concept represented by her image in later installments as a mother reaching out below her while velka's story of existing as a shadow against the age of fire carries through in later installments of the game her influence was immediately potent even in Lord ran after her self-imposed Exile as during this time velka would enrich her followers with the power of the occult an enchantment that is described as used to hunt the gods and is effective against their following and kin while many of the followers existed within the confines of the painted world one of her greatest warriors remained in lordran to continue her original duty of overseeing the sinful in the land of the Lords and etching her influence beyond the painting this of course is Oswald while initially Oswald seems nothing more than a cleric once attacked he Reveals His True position in velka's Covenant wielding velka's Rapier and casting Miracles directly associated with velka he is the most proficient representation of velka's power still in the game velka's rapia tells us a symbolic powerful thrusting sword used by the pardoner serving velka goddess of sin it's no mere symbol to be sure the pardoner is an inhuman swordsman and wields this Enchanted Blade with special sword technique indicating that Oswald may not have just been a high-ranking member of velka's Covenant but potentially her singular pardoner one that velka trusted to cast pardoning to the guilty someone who would have won a great deal of respect from velka to be granted the ability to absolve those of guilt on behalf of her in her absence it's not surprising too that Oswald is referred to as an inhuman swordsman as affiliation with contemporary Vel bear mutating effects likely birth from her Association to the occult and it wouldn't be a stretch to assume Oswald would also bear a great deal of power Associated to the occult just by proximity which of course is a Monumental force that was powerful enough to potentially Dethrone the very Gods even during their height we learn in later installments the three sisters of Londo and the Sable Church in Dark Souls 3 would use her influence to challenge the gods to great effect even influencing an ending where londor would begin an age of Hollows toppling the prevailing Powers despite Oswald's fight being lackluster in the game by the law he is the representation of velka's new image of a rogue Goddess that bear the power to topple the very Gods casting velka's Miracles and bringing her Ault influence to lordran Oswald in many ways is the Prototype of the power of the Sable church and as Miracles are the stories of great beings his close affiliation with velka herself would suggest he alone was the closest regular character that could project the true power of velka in his own Arsenal however he's brought down by no tangible comparisons able to be made about his power it's never alluded to as to any notable victories and while we can assume he would be responsible for reproducing velka's power in later installments of the game and therefore the influence of velka's miracles in those games attributable to his power we can't say for certain that they weren't other champions of velka that came before or after him in the timeline that influenced this [Music] too this next entry details the story of a character that even those unfamiliar with the souls franchise will be familiar with so L's law doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of his influence and impact in the game and The Wider philosophy of Dark Souls and if you want a really in-depth understanding of this gentle Titan I made a video going over this previously so L's in-game law start with aora while I won't bore you with another entry detailing the story of asora what is to be said here is that he encapsulated aso's Affinity to not only the gods but specifically Gwyn himself so close was Sol's Affinity with Gwyn the sunlight Talisman a i it unique to Solair refers to Solair as the KN of sunlight a homage to Gwynn's own title as the Lord of sunlight his armor even tells us that he obtained this closeness not only on his unwavering Faith but his incredible press from rigorous training alone we constantly told that Solair had no particular powers and his achievements were obtained not on the Merit of enchantments and Armory but pure talent as a knight with that being said what exactly are Sol's achievements while it's not detailed what campaign Solair would win to farther the reputation as the one-of-a-kind night of sunlight we can assume the distinctive title required distinctive victories and assuming this was a society that had a expansive hierarchy of knights as suggested by the elite Knight set we can only assume they were incredibly ground something that may allude to his status are his Rank and affiliation with the warrior of sunlight covenant seemingly the sole practitioner of this Covenant in lordran we learn in later entries that this was the Covenant affiliated with gwyn's lost son the nameless King and it's not surprising that so Le would find an affinity with the Lost Covenant as we learn Gwynn's sunlight Powers were solely inherited by the nameless King and on Gwynn's sacrifice to the first Flame the nameless King is the only other being in the game able to conjure the true sunlight that brought down the legendary Arch dragons and gave birth to the age of fire it's never explained if Solair knows who the nameless King is or who the figure on the sunlight covenant is depicting but he does true to form sense its closeness to the Sun and therefore draws himself closer without hesitation this closeness is unique to Solair and it explains why he's able to conjure the extremely powerful lightning Spears as if you cast your mind back it is through this Covenant that we're able to be granted wanted gwyn's sunlight Spear and the great Lightning Spear and as Solair heads the operation in lordran we can with confidence assume he knows how to hurl a lightning bolt better than any other character in the game channeling the power of the nameless King himself eons before we even learn of his existence so Lea armed with Incredible physical capabilities but also an affinity to Gwynn's lightning unseen in the entirety of the game wins his battles alongside the chosen dead throughout the entire game he's the most summonable character in the entire game from the Bell Gargoyles the deps with the gaping dragon an Orlando with onstein and smau the Dark Moon tomb centipede boss in isth and even before the fight with Gwyn himself so L stands as possibly the only other character in the entire game that demonstrates enough power to become a true chosen Undead parallel to our own protagonist but as we all know by now his life is cut short by his own Blind Faith to the age of fire only to be drawn into a frenzy and eventually Hollow in isth but in the moment he's beside us he stands as a parallel to the chosen Undead throughout the entirety of the [Music] game as what is likely the most unique placement on this list the stone Dragon unlike other more esoteric character such as Alvina and the primordial serpents Harbors a place in the lore shrouded in as much mystery as it is power found at the end of The Secret Ash Lake it's not surprising to see that a large section of the souls Community initially believed the stone Dragon to be a true to form Everlasting Dragon sharing their Stony appearance and more interestingly what appears to be their immortality too however from the description of the Dragon Great Sword a weapon obtained through directly tearing off the stone Dragon's Tail we learn the dragon is a descendant of the ancient dragons considering where Dark Souls 1 finds itself in the timeline and it's one of a kind unique indifference to pain or damage it's likely the stone dragon is the closest relative to the ancient dragons outside of SE and madia who of course were true to life Everlasting dragons of notable distinction even amongst their own race from this we can assess the strength of the stone dragon as near adjacent to other dragons of a similar lineage such as calam a dragon referred colloquially as ancient much as the stone dragon is we learned camit would be so great his presence alone would threaten anando even during its height of power unlike calam however it doesn't appear the stone Dragon takes much pride in being a destructive force rather prioritizes its own Solitude Miyazaki during his no shokutaku interview tells us the everl in dragons harbored two primary traits half living and half element and while camit as a descendant inherited the living destructive and emotional states the stone Dragon took on their more Elemental State one that was closer to Nature closer to the great Arch trees of old and while this does mean the stone Dragon himself was less destructive to the Great Dragon of Calamity calamite it doesn't mean he bore no power at all the dragon great tells us through the stone Dragon channeled a great mystical power and much like the original Everlasting dragons there may be conditions that would cause the stone Dragon to fight back with such mystical might something reinforced by a few bits of cut content where the stone Dragon had the capacity to move and even fight we learn its innate power was so great that the first ever dragon covenant would be erected under the stone dragon's influence serving the stone Dragon Under the path of the dragon covenant even allows the worshippers to transcend their own human form into one of a dragon hybrid the stone dragon's ability to altered the nature of its worshippers furthers the context that it harbored the unique Elemental distinctions of the original Everlasting dragons something we never get to see again in the franchise outside of the ancient dragon in Dark Souls 2 which is a fitting similarity as this was Alia's most successful experiment in bringing back a true to life everl lasting dragon and while we can transform into a dragon hybrid in Dark Souls 3 the stone tablet used to do this is referenced as being a direct artifact from the original Stone dragon in Dark Souls 1 going full circle back to this entry it's in this that the stone Dragon symbolized the solitary Attunement with nature that the original Everlasting dragons had before the war of ancients while the unfiltered rage for vengeance later developed during the war of ancients is represented by calam this being said the stone dragon in many ways represents the first line of everlasting dragons that were blindsided by gwyn's declaration of war and as spoken of by goth for one of them Gwyn lost five of his own Knights it's in this that the stone Dragon ranks here outweighed only by characters believed to have either taken on Everlasting Dragon successfully or had the explicit capability on part with those who [Music] did as discussed in passing during Grigg's entry on this list Big Hat Logan is the Dragon School and subsequently Vinheim greatest figure although little is known of Logan's past we are introduced to his story through Legends of his time at the Dragon School we learn Logan Rose the ranks of the school at record pace and even secured his position at their Royal Court Logan achieved his Success Through an unmatched Longing To Learn for the sake of Discovery upon graduating from an apprentice Logan according to the sage robe description chose against even changing his attire and continued to wear his Apprentice robes the sorcerers robes tells us the Sorcerers of Vinheim upon graduation would take pride in then newly earned sorcerer's robes but Logan uncaring for titles did not carry on this tradition the only change Logan would make would be to Dawn his famous big hat the description of which tells us famously antisocial Logan used it to block out noise and people stare so he could focus on his own thoughts adding more credit to his Persona as a knowledge seeking fundamentalist we are told Logan would learn everything the Dragon School had left to offer and his time there would even develop the Dragon School further than any other single being in the region Greg tells us Logan was an accomplished scholar the Arts of sorcery would never have come this far without his contributions indicating many of the Spells we credit to the Dragon School may have Logan to thank for them too Vinheim would go on to become one of the strongest influences in the entire Trilogy and Logan's influence is hearkened back to in later installments suggesting much of their curriculum spells and even methodology were first asserted by Logan while Logan's time at the Dragon School was short he had already accomplished such great feats that people such as Ricket and even the crestfallen Merchant and Warrior people from vastly different regions of the world could recall legendary Tales of its influence and power some would even refer to Logan adjacent to the very Gods the soul spere tells us Logan projected power akin to even Gwynn's lightning this of course is a fitting description as Logan himself is referred to as atheistic and skeptical of the power of gods asserting it bear the fundamentals to challenge their place in the hierarchy of the world a tradition that would Echo throughout the game specifically in his spiritual successors such as Osiris in Dark Souls 3 and as the plague of the undead was beginning to emerge Logan would leave the Dragon School on the mission to further his knowledge from the birthplace of sorcery itself and the namesake of the Vinheim institution the great pale Drake Seath it's on this journey that we first encounter Big Hat Logan seemingly at a loss trapped in a cage in sense Fortress well this may come as a surprise to those familiar with Logan's power the description of the cage key alludes to the idea that Logan being as intelligent as he was intentionally chose to be captured on the premise he would be taken directly to se's Archive as experiment father unfortunately for Logan it appears he failed to account for the fact that he may have been altogether forgotten by se's servants and would remain in the cage indefinitely thankfully for him we can release Logan and once released he's able to make his way to the archives all on his own adding further credit to the notion that he intentionally gave himself up and did in fact have the power to overcome sends fortress on his own and it's his time in the archives that helps us truly understand the power of Big Hat Logan while in the institution he takes residence in the archives and teaches himself see work on sorcery and even begins to understand the property of crystals in his own work reinforcing his spells with this Crystal property the crystal Souls spear tells us his ability to reinforce his spells with crystals elevated it to a place on par with the omnt of the ancient Lords the difference between this and the Soul Spear is that while the soul spear tells us is said to be on par with gwinn's lightning the crystal soul spere is without a doubt on par with it Logan's Endeavors would eventually culminate into the perfect spell and a symbol to indicate he himself Rose to the rank of the Gods this of course being the white dragon breath spells described as a replication of the power of ancient dragons and the raw strength of Seath the scaleless while Logan would succumb to the madness associated with the power of crystals and Seath he would live on through his idea the idea that humans bear the power to reach godhood it's not surprising therefore to find that the entirety of the spellcasting tradition were underpinned by Logan henceforth the greatest spellcasters all share Logan's ideals and even bear aesthetic similarities to him considering eons would pass between Dark Souls 1 and three his successes in the form of the preacher twins aka the crystal sages Osiris the consumed King and even the governing Scholars of lothric all show this to be true it's not surprising that Logan is the most referenced character in the series even before we meet him he's known as a legendary figure and upon his discovery of Crystal spells he confidently solidifies his position even amongst the gods when we cast faith-based spells in the game we are essentially retelling the stories of gwyn's power for he was its primary source in a similar fashion Logan conceptualized the ability to cast Crystal sorcery for humans whenever we cast this spell we are essentially calling upon Logan's methodology ology and this secondhand execution of an aspect of Logan's mind would bolster humans to Godly Heights even after his death so imagine what kind of power Logan the mind that truly understood the functions of Crystal sorcery could do firsthand Logan confidently finds his position here on the list not as a successful scholar but a man that saw the power of the Gods Not as a subject of fear but a goal to achieve and Achieve he [Music] did Although our encounter with Kiran in the game seems trivial at best her law actually paints her out to be one of Gwynn's closest and influential allies even during the height of his Reign Over the world and the age of fire Kuran consistently implies that she is distinctly other to humans she refers to humanity in a condescending tone implying she's more than human we can learn that she was once one of gwyn's four Knights each individual heads of certain bureaucracies under Gwynn's Monopoly of power we know Dragon Slayer onstein and gof were in charge of the Dragon Slayers respective of their mode of combat we know artorius headed the operations around combating the abyss and we also know Kiran was the head of the Lord's blades the Lords blades are described as responsible for Gwynn's covert operations and assassinations while it suggests that a majority of the Lord's blades would climb Gwynn's ranks to consolidate their position Kiran May instead come from a Godly line of Heroes dating back to the age of ancients itself something similar to artorius or onstein however in a peculiar sense Lords blade Kuran gives us a juxtaposed position to say prince Rickard he is a servant of Gwyn that rejects her nepotism instead to win her own accolades we learn from her mask that she paid certain attention to Only adorning The Mask of the Lord's blades on the Merit of her honorable actions and as she wears this item when we meet her we can assume she had indeed won this honor despite existing during the primordial war against the Ancients this honor is alluded to in the description of the Hornet ring which suggests that Kuran had an extensively tenured role as an assassin taking down W's personal enemies immediately shooting her rank to a level adjacent to the gods themselves while we're not told who these enemies were we can assume from gwyn's position as the premier of the world that he had accumulated threats to his life on a degree somewhat adjacent to his own power and while it's not told if he was a descendant of gwy or the gods she occupies a space reserved for those Gods Not dissimilar to gwyn's direct descendant gwindel who of course heads the dark Moon blades a position not dissimilar to kiran's we know her fighting style too Harbors a distinct format unfamiliar to any other character already in the game this fighting style was so potent that eons later those associated with the Royal lineage such as the dancer of the Boreal Valley pay homage to it not only an act but materially to taking on the design philosophy of kiran's Weaponry the slicers while the stories of Gwynn's age of are reduced to Pinnacle moments there is a rich history under all of this that consolidates how gwy was able to Galvanize the entire world under his Rule and within those stories are the covert operations of the Lords Blaze the assassinations of Rogue Warlords the destruction of the elements of the dark and even the destruction of certain aspects of the chaos flame while this Paints the picture of a truly powerful figure we do however get the understanding that she was entirely unable to to kill artorius and as such she thanks us upon his death suggesting it was the morally correct action that she herself was unable to commit however it may also be likely that she did have the facilities to defeat artorius but as context from GF and her dialogue suggest she may have had strong feelings for aorus and emotionally could not engage in the act itself well Kuran just on the Merit of being Gwynn's personal secret agent are enough to place her here on the list we have to make concessions on the fact that she is not told to have specifically completed a deed powerful enough to assume she had power adjacent to the direct lineage of the Lords the same way characters such as quana would as we can witness her power in the main game whereas Kiran has no such context but remains true to her nature greater than a majority of human characters in the game with influence of her power echoing through till even the final installment of the series [Music] one of the greatest missed opportunities for my last video regarding the bosses ranked by law was the chance to speak on Hawkeye Goff for he is explicitly one of the most openly powerful characters in the entire game found only once when we travel back to the past we can find Goff alone at top a watchtower over aasil a friendly face he greets us and thanks us for dispatching his former colleague artorius upon the abyss taking a hold of him it's this connection to artorius that begins to build the image of hawkey gof despite his reserved humility we get more context when we see the description of his Gauntlet that tells us he adorned armor not dissimilar to the silver Knights of Gwynn's first company painting a picture of goof as a knight that was there during the original Siege against the ancient dragons the role he played is further contextualized by his bow in this we are told this bow is larger than those used by the famed Dragon Slayers only their leader Goff had the strength to handle it alluding to goof as not only a Bowman from the age of ancients but one that was so proficient at his duty that he did not only live through it but was bestowed the highest rank amongst the tribe of Dragon Slayers some of which would go into the history of the franchise as the most revolutionary forces in the game G's armor even tells tell us armor dawned by goth since his days as a dragon slayer The Medallion bequeathed by the Lord himself and the dragon bone pauldrons are symbols of the highest honors telling us not only did he carve a position amongst the dragon slayes as a leader he also found specific commendations from Gwyn himself for his efforts efforts that are explicitly stated to have granted him the highest honors when we considered these accolades were gained on the virtue of slaying true Everlasting Dragons It's hard to properly accept how powerful goth truly was Everlasting dragons were such a great force that it took the combined power of three Lord souls and as per the events of the Ring City tells us the power of the furtive pygmy combined to defeat it Everlasting dragons in their true form represent a power only wished upon by those in the timeline specifically Dark Souls 2 and the events of Alia's great experiments that were nearly able to mimic the power of a true Everlasting Dragon and we learn just the false imitation was able to conjure powers that bear control over time itself and the existence and power of SE and even media gives us a peak into what we could expect of everlasting dragons during the age of ancients really contextualizing the reigning power that goof must have been of course we don't really meet Prime goth as he is aged but if we progress his story we learn his talents have remained and even while blind he's able to ground black dragon calam a dragon openly suggested as being so great that an orando itself feared aggravating it despite it terrorizing one of its closest domains despite his humility hawy gof reminds us why Dark Souls 1 is such a great installment in the trilogy as in retrospect we visit a world of primordial beings in history beings that exist exist as mythology in later installments but reality in this first installment remaining gentle and with humility the leader of gwinn's Dragon Slayers ranks here on the list a true giant that could have easily stood toet to toe to the greatest beings even in the boss ranking [Music] list havl is an interesting character on this list as there will be no doubt discussion around his true identity in the game and as his identity is related to the primordial age of ancients and the war against the ancient dragons reconciling his historical achievements to the being we meet in the game can shift his power level to a place that could quite easily overshadow every other character in the game so who is havl in history and contemporary Dark Souls law interestingly we learned that much like the other Godly figures that would find themselves at the height of gwyn's bureaucracy hav won his stripes during the war against the Everlasting dragons unlike others told to have been present during this conflict havl is outright described as a destructive force and a battlefield compatriot to none other than Gwyn the Lord of sunlight himself drawing his presence adjacent to even other Lords during this period havl would win so many decisive victories during this period that he would Adorn the teeth of the Everlasting dragons as his own form of Weaponry in The Game and his describ Red by his armor as having never flinched or retreated and every battle he faced he literally beat them to a pulp after the age of ancients gwy would Grant havl the authority over a covenant of cleric Warriors that served him a ring would be granted to all of H's Knights to symbolize this position of authority however as we know the world of Dark Souls is rarely ever happily ever after as during this time Gwyn would also bring others to stations of authority such as the four king Kings but notably for this entry SE the scaleless the arch Dragon traitor who was granted a portion of Gwyn Soul se's Royal position as an everlasting Dragon likely didn't sit well with havl to begin with but he tolerated se's position of power as his loyalty still sat firmly with gy however SE would as we all learn come to abuse his position and begin a streak of unethical experiments indiscriminately across lordran an act that would infuriate havl leading to an underground initiative led by havl with the goal to destroy sea a notable event during this would be H's creation of a spell known as great magic barrier something peculiar as it is specifically a miracle that we can learn and as we're told Miracles are essentially retellings of stories as a means of projecting the power of a Godlike being in a diluted form and as we learn havl himself is associated with the great magic barrier spell we know he is the primary source of this miracle the same way quid for the sunlight spells through this we learn havl is not just human but a Godlike human powerful enough to conj spells of his own so powerful the stories of his power L throughout the entirety of the series havl is consistently told to be gwyn's right-hand man and this alone proves that to be true unfortunately for havl the occult Rebellion would eventually be quashed by Gwyn after being informed or perhaps even framed by SE Gwyn unable to outright kill his old friend would eventually trap him in a tower the Watchtower basement key tells us the basement of the Watchtower forms a stone cell there are rumors of a hero turned Hollow who was locked away here by a dear friend suggesting havl was irreconcilable and Gwyn himself would subdue havl in the basement where we find him while there are Community notes around if havl in the basement is the one of Legend I believe he absolutely is as he wields both the dragon tooth and H's great Shield described as legendary heirlooms uniquely held by havl and while many other Warriors would end up joining H's Covenant of nights it's only the armor he wears that states armor worn by hav The Rock's Warriors while the weapon and shield suggest these are the specific legendary heirlooms of havl himself as havl is distinctly described as hollowed and by the estimation of his size and stature it's likely havl was indeed human rather than an outright God like Kiran however unlike Quran hav is suggested time and time again to be such a decorated Warrior from the age of ancients that he is singlehandedly far beyond the power of everlasting dragons having never lost the fight and carrying power Gwyn personally considered strong enough to overthrow a being with a saction of his own Lord Soul he trumps a majority of the characters in the game H's story would make a huge imprint on the culture of the world and in every installment of the series even towards the end of the universe his power would still be considered miraculous and his Armory still adorned as legendary and as the series progressed we get more details around the sheer gravity of the power of the Everlasting dragons further contextualizing hav strength as far beyond even our initial [Music] estimations before I speak on our number one position there is a quick elephant in the room I'll address there is another NPC character that ties into this final position this of course being the unnamed daughter of isth We Fight Before the Bed of Chaos much of her Merit stands close to quana and is potentially just below quana these are for reasons Associated to the Grand Narrative of pyromancy details that we will go into shortly pyromancy is much like Miracles the remnants of a lord soul so powerful just projecting its Essence can caus Devastation while Miracles are essentially faith in the stories of Gwynn's magnificent acts during the war of ancients pyromancy represents the lasting vestiges of isel's fire sorcery the story of fire sorcery is in many ways the first type of sorcery in the entire game as at the height of the war against the ancient dragons isth the bearer of a primordial Lord Soul was granted the ability to weave firestorms to help decimate the ancient dragons and while the witch of isth was able to manipulate fire with her bare hands her kin notably her daughters were only able to channel this power through their Catalyst our first sight of catalyst are in the opening cutscene where we can watch eth's coven of witches casting fire through long scepter and it would not be a stretch to assume the concept of channeling the power of the Gods through catalysts originated here and were appropriated in other forms later on in places such as the Dragon School with staffs and Chimes the primordial power of fire sorcery is only ever referred to as being controlled by isit's daughters and a very peculiar demon fire Sage an interesting feature in my boss's ranked video in this we learn much like havl isit's daughters were at the Forefront of defeating the Everlasting dragons however at the zenet of the age of the Lords and at the moment the first flame sourcing the age's power began to dwindle isth in an attempt to recreate the first flame would become the Bed of Chaos and subsequently birth the chaos flame a crude mockery of the first flame but a power so great it would challenge the heart of the age of Fire's power even during its height in lordon this action would mutate a large majority of lordran including her own followers residents and even children while the severity of the mutations would differ between each affected quana would escape with what seems to be all of her faculties however the quana we meet seems to have lost her Catalyst or has done away with the tool as the isth she wants channeled her fire sorcery from was no longer the same being in her place was a very different source of power the chaos flame from the description of the pyromancy flame we learn quana is referred to as the mother of pyromancy likely derived from quana's intention to imitate the power of fire sorcery from the Bed of Chaos in the absence of her mother's previous form in the place of catalysts quana would utilize a pyromancy flame an aspect of the Bed of Chaos brought down to be according to its description nurtured often for an entire lifetime and shared to others through a self-imposed Exile quana would leave the now mutated isth and her deformed siblings for the depths of Bight Town watching over its entrance unable to overcome her survivor's guilt we learn at some point she would encounter a man named Solomon while their encounter is not accounted for in detail we learn he would demonstrate enough strength that she would share the flame with him and bring him to a level of Mastery over the flame Solomon would go on to popularize the art of pyromancy in the Great Swamp a story you can revisit in laurentius is entry the most pertinent section of this story is that quana was the greatest living practitioner of pyromancy having birthed the power to channel the Bed of Chaos a power so great it would be echoed throughout the entire franchise to the literal end of the world the description of the great chaos Fireball tells us that it replicated the very fire that mutated the entirety of eth's domain and isth herself a primordial Lord while the chaos fire whip specifically notes that quana is responsible for this replication of power when we use pyromancy in games since Dark Souls one in many ways it's a replication of a replication as it's suggested Solomon is responsible for granting the human world the art of pyromancy taught directly to him by quana indicating quana hosts the greatest level of proficiency with this art in the entire series an art that would go on to bring kingdoms to the ground and platform some of the most notable figures in the entire series it's for this reason quana is the rawest form of the power of pyromancy and the sole medium between the Lost Art of fire sorcery and Humanity's wish to rekindle this power granting her a position here on the list a figure of Legend comparable somewhat to Big Hat Logan but much greater as she directly descends from a primordial Lord undoubtedly too there are stories of the distinct achievements of each isth daughter during the age of ancients however it would be the story of isit's Destruction that would overshadow any such accolades in modern history quana a direct descendant of a god directly accountable to the destruction of the Everlasting dragons and the being responsible for the art of pyromancy during a Time the chaos flame were at the height of power trumps even havl for this prestigious position on this [Music] list every age it seems is Tainted by the greed of [Music] men rubbish to one such as I devoid of all worldly wants [Laughter] a fine Dark Soul to you [Music] [Music]

Channel: The Bestiary

Views: 69,798

Keywords: Dark Souls, Ranked, Every Boss, Lore, Explained, Dark Souls explained, Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Souls Series, Vaatividya, Iron Pineapple, Dark Souls Bosses Ranked, Bosses, Every Boss Ranked, DLC, Character, NPCs, NPC, Strongest, Secret

Id: ho8BGwwBWxY

Length: 166min 39sec (9999 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 08 2024