Dark Souls 2: Ranking Bosses Strength Based on Lore

hi guys it's finally here Dark Souls 2 bosses ranked by law before I get into it just a quick thing from me everything said here is my opinion the sheer number of bosses in Dark Souls 2 is immense and developing the law for each entry to make a point was one of the hardest things I've had to do so there may be some discrepancies you don't agree with and that is fine it's this sort of thing that makes this community Thrive without further Ado here's the first entry the First on our list is the Royal Rat Vanguard as simple in gameplay as it is in the law the Royal Rat Vanguard is not too dissimilar to his more average overgrown rat kin distinguished likely in two means the Vanguard is for one able to bring to life petrified Statues of other rats and may even possess the ability to do the same for other petrified beings but this is never really elaborated ated on alongside its ability to bring to life petrified rats it seems to also have the authority to command their actions with an influence over the Rats of the Underworld the Vanguard acts as a confidant for the Royal Rat Authority in assessing who is deemed worthy for an audience with the King however it is clear that the Royal Rat Vanguard was less of a combatant and bear most of the Hallmarks of a regular rat something you yourself could probably take on in a fight throughout both lists thus far it's rare that a boss's gameplay matches their LW strength from the shock I read from a lot of you guys regarding pin wheel's placement in the last game to the frustration some of you guys felt seeing Gwyn being placed eighth the truth is for the most part the game play is rarely fully indicative of the true strength a boss should command if you go by law alone alone thankfully the next entry is perfectly in line with both game playay and law the Covetous Demon is a being of Unknown Origin that would fall in love with mea the banful queen mea however was preoccupied entirely by her love for a separate man and likely the royalty of a neighboring domain me the story is for later in the video though the Covetous Demon would mourn his inability to win over the queen and would lay in close proximity to her longing for a chance to share his affection unfortunately no such chance would arise and he would just like any good protagonist from aamcom drown his sorrows in copious amounts of ice cream except the ice cream in this case was actually just whatever food he could find it's indicated in his sole description that eating is an expression of Desire there was once a man whose deep affection was unrequitted he transformed into the cous demon which only made him lonelier than before in assessing the strength of the Covetous Demon there are two Avenues we can explore the first is his title proclaimed a demon by much of the titling in this game there is actually very little evidence to indicate he is a demon in the Dark Soul sense of the term with no affiliation with the Monumental strength of the Bed of Chaos it's likely he is only a demon in a colloquial sense grotesque in design and seemingly mutated it's not surprising to see how the residents of Drang Lake would see him this way of course the second way we can measure his strength or maybe more relatively his weakness is in his item descriptions the bone Scythe tells us the curved spine of the Covetous Demon is as hard as rock and rather than slicing through flesh the weapon seems to grind it apart if we equate some of the themes of his boss battle and the item descriptions it seems the Covetous Demon was less of a predator and more so something more akin to a scavenger as his prowess lies not within how he can kill his foes and more so in how he was able to eat them efficiently he may even have just just been a waste disposal unit for the Earth and Peaks various victims or even a bottom feeder that would consume the corpses of less fortunate beings regardless he is by all metrics a foe of very little danger to any prepared Undead seeking his demise ranking just above the Royal Rat vanguards due to his size following the trend of easy gameplay bosses sharing similar Credit in the law we have the prowling maggus and congregation selora was once a place of Prosper named after the man who would find the originally abandoned mining Colony selora saw potential in the region and began a campaign to restart its economy soon selora would find a secret laying beneath the land a cave filled with crystals by investing a large amount of resources cultivating these crystals Sora was able to transform the old colony into a prosperous business and built a town around the Crystal Caves named after himself as greedy as Sor was ambitious he dug and dug and eventually found a very small spider that caught his aore a tiny being that likely hearkened his ambition and greed he cherished the spider housed it and eventually gave away everything to its own hunger for influence but that's a story for a later entry what we do know here is that Freya the spider who would overrun selora Unleashed a tyrant of minions and took complete control over the town Vendrick acknowledging the rising threat of the Jukes dear fryer would eventually dispatch some of his own subjects to Aid the town in their fight against the spider building a camp around the town they were barely powerful enough to push any further than their own camps with victims pouring out on mass Vendrick accompanied his Royal army with priests and Mages as refugees piled into the camps the priests took the role of tending to the wounded and eventually a Magus likely from ala's domain would come to the refugees it's unclear as to what the Magus intended to do here was it to look over the denisons to research or maybe to take advantage of their weakened state for his own game we will never know but what we do know is when we arrive in the land many of the Royals Warriors refugees priests and even the Magus have gone Hollow consumed by the abyss the Magus hosts a Congregation of these refugees and priests in a church and it is here that we Face Off against this hostile group The Magus himself is likely not to be too notable in strength likely talented in sorcery and in this Hollow State can actually take advantage of dark magics just like the Mages of ulil alongside him however are two priests equipped with with priest Chimes that indicate they were high ranking clerics and may have originally joined the party to heal the refugees but by the time that we meet them they are utilizing lightning Spears to fend us off and for the congregation well they are all but withered into crawling corpses with little in the way to fend for themselves the battle is less of a battle against a hardened group of combatants and more so an interruption of a congregation clinging to each other as they lose grp rip of their souls and thus their memory as to why they were there in the first place likely the first shock of this list the next entry on the list is Vendrick much like Gwynn's story from Dark Souls 1 vendrick's story is not just one of a boss who adds some layer of context to the world vendrick's story is the context of Drang Lake details of his story are the narrative foundations of the entire world not unlike our own protagonist Vendrick found himself in the lands between in the very spot we later call Drang Lake likely the World burdened by the existence of four Lord Souls vendrick's First Act in this new land was to defeat the forbearers of the Lord Souls capture their souls and utilize the immensity of his new found strength and influence to build Drang Lake a region under a new bureaucracy one of his own one that put the strength of simple men at the Forefront of all decisions eventually a woman named Nashandra of Unknown Origin would find herself in Dr Lake and develop a loving relationship with the now established Monarch Vendrick too would fall in love with this woman and in time Nashandra now Queen of the realm would advise her now loyal husband to attack the distant Land of the Giants for warning of their existential threat launching a full-scale Invasion Vendrick alongside his wife would lead a devastating campaign against the Giants and would win taking home a prize though unnamed the prize in question is likely the Giant's kinship an artifact or knowledge he would bring home using this pillaged knowledge he would join arms with his brother Alia Alia would devise golems that possess the ability to come alive ever grateful to nandra for her foresight he would then used this invention to build Drang Lake Castle a home for his wife situated right above the Kiln of the first flame a place Vendrick already held a deep affinity for it's after this that Nash shandra's influence would begin overshadowing vendrick's own and Drang Lake would succumb to a peace unlike any other a peace Chancellor Weller describes as the dark some of vendrick's allies would begin to to worry about this development and air their grievances Vendrick disregarded them and these events would even lead to the banishment of one of vendrick's most closest confidants R soon after R's Exile Drang Lake would face some level of karmic justice as the Giants are back to retaliate and are led by their very own reflection of Vendrick the giant king the Giant's Invasion would cause Devastation through Drang Lake leing much of the region in rubble never to be recovered however the giant king would be brought down and Vendrick would eventually return to his castle unfortunately this return is lowly met as soon the undead curse would begin to afflict many of his subjects fearful of this Vendrick would commission his brother alier to research into souls and a means of suppressing the curse both would learn a great deal about the nature of humanity the dark and the undead curse but despite various attempts and failed experiments nothing fruitful would ever come in this time Nashandra would begin urging the king to seek the Throne of want and bring about a new age entirely one that likely in Nashandra sake allowed for an age of entire Darkness finally seeing through Nash shandra's deceit understanding that nandra was a being of the dark and fearful that he was susceptible to her influence he would flee to the shrine of a Mana abandon his soul away behind layers of Illusion and protections and finally find a resting place deep within the Crips and by the time that we meet Vendrick he's still in the Crips completely hollowed and soless even his magnificent soul that harbored the four great ones was left elsewhere he is a complete soulless husk at this point regardless of his entire history he is as shallow as the very Hollows that roam his kingdom Vendrick undergrown his own attire walks aimlessly left limp and lackluster our fight with this formerly chosen one is likely to be anything but physically difficult but the mental anguish of facing Vendrick may be the real challenge here this is why Vendrick is ranked so low as in truth Prime Vendrick would likely rank right at the top of this very list if Vendrick was the thesis of the world of Dark Souls I 2 The Last Giant was his antithesis in this the last giant was in many ways vendrick's contemporary or better yet arch rival as once the Giants unprepared for a full invasion by Drang Lake were left pillaged and Barren they sought Revenge led by the king of Giants and likely vendrick's parallel the Giants crossed the Seas and wa waged war on Drang Lake laying Rubble to the Cardinal Towers eventually however the forces of Vendrick would gain the advantage and bring an end to the conflict albit facing incredible losses a major turning point of the war was when an unnamed hero would best the giant Lord and bring him down casting him in Chains and leaving him to suffer within the rubbles of his own vengeful ey while his Fallen comrades returned to the natural cycle of rebirth being being born again as trees the giant Lord lay beneath the land while the immensity of his soul was preserved by the time we meet the present giant Lord he has been reduced to a form that eerily resembles his Nemesis and contemporary Vendrick physically hollowed he is at the cusp of rebirth the last giant had such an unwavering Soul even by the time we meet him in the original timeline he is left standing having persisted blatant torture and imprisonment if we're able to measure him by the time that we actually meet him in the game he is a shallow experience when compared to what is spoken of for his former self at the end of his life this battle is likely to be a favor resting his vengel soul allowing him the rest he deserves this in many ways Echoes the state we meet Vendrick except the last giant unlike Vendrick fought to The Bitter End with his soul intact whereas the Vendrick we meet is rendered completely soulless fearing his inability to wave off Nash shandra's influence this is why the last giant ranks higher than Vendrick in a change of pace the next up is the flexile Sentry a much more enatic being understanding the strength of the flexile Sentry requires combining environmental analysis alongside the mostly limited descriptive context provided by item description the flexile Sentry is initially described as a merciless creature whose purpose is to punish the undead not unlike many of the other entries on this list what distinguishes the flexile Sentry is their physicality combining various limbs that hold distinctly torturous weapons such as the Warped sword Ark sword and barbed club although the flexile Sentry was not Duty purely to torture people its prowess in doing so would fix an air of author to their presence overall it's hard to understand where exactly the flexile centuries were first introduced to the world likely commissioned much before we even arrive in Drang Lake we see their presence throughout various aspects of the timeline in various kingdoms from Drang Lake all the way to Elam Lo this helps us understand the sheer influence the flexile centuries were able to draw Through the Ages and regardless of the mystery as to who commissioned these beings first the persist and consistent use through various powerful kingdoms help us understand how strong these beings truly were dued by kingdoms to act as sentes while prisoners were transported by boats they are for the most part above average prison guards and are thus let down by a mostly mundane set of distinct abilities on the note of high ranking Knights commissioned with specific duties we have a slightly complex entry in the Ruin Sentinels the Ruin Sentinels are a class of beings that are according to item descriptions likely reanimated souls incased in plates of armor duty to watch over the undead prisoners of the Lost pastile less significant than our in-game encounter with these beings would suggest it seems they are as mundane as the flexile sentries however there is a caveat I'm willing to concede to the ruined Sentinels we encounter in Boss form carrying the names Yim aesi and Rich it's likely these specific Sentinels were either strong or influential enough to command names of their own likely bearing The Souls of greater than average beings the trio we meet in the lus steel are distinguished in their own right and actually Harbor unique move sets to other Ruin Sentinels we find in Drang Lake ad dawned with brass Armory they are tall agile and mostly Orthodox net ability to fight utilizing fast movement and specifically the ones we meet in the last Bes Ste unique uses of their Shield too mundane in the face of their competition their placement is elevated as it's likely these are not just high ranking guards of a prison but ones that were strong enough be it through their soul or earned Merit to Warrant individuality in the form of names still slightly on theme the next entry is the belfree Gargoyles hearkening back to the events of the first game and likely close relatives to the bell gargo of lordran the belfrey gargo share many aesthetic and Duty based similarities As the Bell Gargoyles it's very unlikely that the belfree Gargoyles are the exact same gargoyles we encounter in Lord run however the gargoyle Biden does indicate that their design and weaponry is likely an imitation of the original gargoyles as the original Bell g girls were created by Gwyn himself these were likely created by a much lesser being named ven it's unlikely the belfree g girls can stand as tall as their predecessor did though regardless however they do share many strengths originally associated with the Bell gargo utilizing forces of lightning and weaponry that call forth the same strengths the B gargo were anything but standout bosses in Dark Souls 1 and in the same breath the belfrey gargo although powerful in context to other beings in Drang Lake stand quite shallow in comparison to many of the other bosses this is slightly offset by the fact that you face five of these guys in one go which is why they hold this position on the list Vendrick prided much of the ranking of his Knights on sheer strength it's the sole indicator for how he viewed their worth in Drang Lake many Knights would rise to distinction from v r and even the Looking Glass Knight but some would not find the name distinction the way the previously mentioned would some very talented Warriors would go on to become pursuers on the virtue of their Affliction others would become lowly guards Stone soldiers cyan soldiers and Royal Guards but between common and namely distinct lies the elite Knights of Vendrick many of the elite Knight class of Drang Lake would go on to become Dragon Riders members of vendrick's royal guard these Knights would rise the ranks of vendrick's guard by demonstrating what the Dragon Rider bow describes as inhuman strength but a more notable distinction of these knights was their ability to ride withen likely something similar to The Guardian Drakes we find later in the game by the time we reach Dr Lake however these Dragon Riders would be very much Dragoness and dismounted guarding key locations in Drang Lake likely on the orders of their King still wielding weapons likely fashioned for utility ofrs they are equipped with large hirs twin blades and bows on the Merit that these beings are namely Elite amongst the rank of Vendrick knights we can assume they hold more strength than other beings that lack such description such as the Ruin Sentinels and may even Trump the infamous highly specialized pursuers while they were in their Wen riding Prime however the Dragon Riders we meet are ironically Dragoness and it is on this Merit that we can assume their position in the strength of all things is greatly hindered rendered to just very strong Knights distinctly standing out amongst other more common Knights the origins of the Demon of Song is hard to gauge impossible even as Dark Souls 2 offers little in the way of knowing where exactly this being came from we learn from dialogue and item descriptions that the Demon of Song was born somewhat non-malicious but somewhere down the line gained a taste for human flesh fearing the Demon's threat to humans priestesses of ammana would seal the demon away however the priestesses in charge of this had little in the way of HS to take on their Duty and eventually died off inadvertently allowing the demon to escape the demon itself is less of an aggressive predator and relies more so on luring victims to its domain to utilize the advantage of its playing field to kill and consume its unfortunate victims eventually the demon would adopt the songs of the Milito in an attempt to law victims in a more proactive way the mil fenito by this point had become Hollow and the songstresses voiceless giving the demon perfect grounds to imitate this without rousing suspicion living at the base of the home of the milfanito the Demon of Song would sing and LW victims in and by the time that we meet it we are in the same predicament as many victims before us already in assessing the strength of the demon we can note that it's likely a being of some degree of power related distinction the residents of ammana clearly knew of the threat of the demon of s and instead of killing it had to find another means of forcing it from causing further harm even by the time we meet it it Remains unchallenged by both the Milito or priestesses and arre knights found close to it indicating it bought enough strength to wave off the potential repercussions from some quite formidable forces however there is a likelihood the milfanito themselves did not see the songs of the demon as an entirely bad thing as it was a continuation of a Melody they themselves commissioned in truth the only means of equating its strength is on the basis that he has lasted so long without being killed by likely opposing forces surrounding it we also learned that from the item descriptions it has a very large pool of victims under its belt on the Merit of its size status of a being that has lived as long as it has and the extent of its victims the Demon of Song earns itself this position on the list with the caveat that if there is any new details found out about exactly the extent of its power it would likely land much higher on the list I'll make this one quick as everything already mentioned about the Dragon Riders have been mentioned not too much earlier essentially the reason the Twin Dragon Riders are higher here is that there is two of them utilizing the dynamic use of a bow wielding Dragon Rider and a twin blade wielding one their threat level is raised to some extent however nothing to what they would have been if at least even one of these guys were mounted on a fire breathing Drake in open air [Music] originally not Lord Le at all members of the old iron King's hunting team the skeleton Lords were humans tasked with capturing all the undeads during the undead hunts incredibly talented at the heinous task the skeleton Lords captured many Undead and are likely the leading force in the imprisonment of undeads in the Huntsman cops however in a cruel Twist of irony the captors began to resemble the captive eventually turning Hollow they would lose memory of their original purpose and as the skeleton lord soul suggests once they became overcome by the very curse they sought to oppress they would assume the position of the skeleton Lords watching over and commanding their previously captivated Undead victims and forming an undead Army to rule over the Huntsman cops the majority of the strength of the skeleton Lords lay in their ability to command the thousands of undead beings arm armed with very ordinary sets of Weaponry they utilize pyromancy scythes and halberds it is in the ability to collectively command such a large portion of undead beings that position the skeleton Lords so high on the list as it's clear the influence was strong enough to look over a major portion of Drang Lake however holding little in the way of individual strength and being confined by a mostly ordinary Army of tortured Undead Hollows the skeleton Lords are unlikely the greatest threat we face in Dark Souls too but definitely a force to be reckoned with within the circumstances that we meet them in right at the heart of the Huntsman cops Landing them this position on the list so far we have spoken much on Vendrick but the story of Drang Lake has some much deeper cuts that bear equal mention than that of Vendrick the next entry on this list is Alia The Scholar of the first The Narrative history of Drang Lake begins with Vendrick but it was alier who sought to write the end Alia was the incredibly gifted brother of Vendrick not gifted in his combat Acumen but immensely intelligent resourceful and most importantly ambitious Alia would initially come to prominence adjacent to his brother as Vendrick built Drang Lake on The Souls of the four Lords it was alier who built the roads to Drake L success Alia's first Great ACT would be to utilize the knowledge of the Giants to build the Golems beings charged with Souls they would build Drang Lake castle and pave the route to the Kil of the first flame however as the curse of the undead began to take prominence in Dark Souls Vendrick in desperation came to his brother for a solution Alia's First Act in this was to research the source of the undead curse and what he uncovered was a history of the world beings born from the dark lord Souls at the precipice of the age of fire tracking the humanity of every human to the Dark Soul and the fve pygmy alier was second only to Kar in understanding the undead curse as a byproduct of Gwynn's betrayal it was Gwyn who cursed Humanity out of fear of Nature's course Gwyn feared the coming of the age of dark and selfishly cursed Humanity with the dark sign as s that trapped The Souls of the progenitors of man from realizing its full potential in this humans descendants of the pygmies were destined to be confined by the preservation of the age of fire an age that intrinsically oppressed their Birthright Gwynn's actions were the first sin and this Revelation would become Alia's namesake as the scholar of the first sin Alia stumped at a means of overcoming the dark sign began to look further back before the Lords he would eventually come to the knowledge that overcoming this curse required disassociating with the nature Gwyn had subverted he sought what the Everlasting dragons had existing outside the framework of Gwynn's actions a place where nature sits stagnant and un hollowing Alia would go on to experiment and Gwyn would commission his own place of study that facilitated these experiments in desperation Alia would experiment on all beings from Giants to humans in finding a means of combining the soul of man with the essence of ancient dragons Vendrick would learn of Alia's actions and shun his brothers means of attaining knowledge and both siblings would abandon each other for the rest of time Alia Unshackled would birth two notable Creations the ancient dragon and Shanola the ancient Dragon utilized the remnants of everlasting dragons in a giant Soul and would manifest into a being that almost shared a one toone resemblance with the Everlasting dragons of the old however no matter how much Alia and his company revered this being it did nothing to saave off the undead curse on this relative success Alia would attempt the same this time with a human birthing Shanola a being birthed from a baby girl and the Ence of dragons her existence much like the ancient dragon did little to affect the hollowing of Drang Lake however out of ideas Alia would settle his Ambitions and fall deep into a nihilism accepting the curse as a new way of life and the cycle of fire and dark as an inherent law of nature Alia meets us throughout the game having taken the form of a fiery conglomeration of mass likely due to exposure to the eldrich truths of the world and close proximity to countless experimentations acting as a doomsayer he follows us through to the end and when we meet him as an opponent at the gates of the first flame he battles us utilizing manifestations of fire and mutated tendrils however according to the law there is no indication that Alia was much of a combatant his fighting press is never mentioned and it is unlikely that he ever posed much of a threat as an individual however his new understanding of the world and close proximity to the eldrich truth of the world and the first flame has granted him powers of fire acting as his primary defense mechanism the challenge is likely to be of a very medium level of threat relative to his bloodline and position and influence in the world Alia is one of the greatest bosses in Dark Souls he's fleshed out with context backstories and relationship ships with other beings in the game our next entry is not one of such bosses the guardian dragon is less a dragon and more so akin to a distant relative of an everlasting Dragon adopting more Drake likee characteristics the drakewing ultra great sword tells us Drakes are likely descendants of ancient dragons and although their strength pales in comparison to what is described in Legends to Mere humans they are still Mighty beasts and it is in this section of the description that gives us the best insight into the power of this Beast as benign as its story is it's still a descendant of one of the greatest beings to ever grace the world of Dark Souls posing a much greater threat than ordinary Knights and even Sentinels of the land the guardian Drake has the ability to breathe fire greater size to other Drake of the series and even maintains the ability to fly dragons and Dark Souls have consistently been beings of great strength and it's no illusion why this is as most dragons we see in this game are distant relatives of beings originally believed to be immortal and one that required the combined strength of the F of pygmy Gwyn Nito isth and the armies of these Lords to bring down even distant relatives of these primordial beings are threats Worthy of the ages and it is why the guardian Dragon ranks so high on this list when speaking on iconic encounters from the second installment of Dark Souls many are likely to point out the all elusive pursuers little is known about the individual identities of the pursuers themselves however what we do know from item descriptions is that they are likely beings that hail from a region named alen originally incredibly proficient Warriors wielding weapons that are exclusively utilized by only the most talented Swordsmen as per the description of their sword and shield as human Warriors of Greater claim in their original land they would succumb eventually to the curse of hollowing however unlike regular denisons they instead fought back against the hollowing through what would be seen as very conventional means in the land of Drang Lake at the time taking up arms against the very concept of hollowing they would enroll in the profession of pursuers knights that would seek the bearers of the sign and will not rest until slain the cruel irony was not lost on the beings though as the curse of hollowing was consistently misunderstood and this misunderstanding is a heavy theme in Dark Souls too and then they are too just a victim of this cultural naivity believing they could repent for their own curse they would slay other Hollows while hollowing themselves and held the faith that the sins that supposedly caused the curse would eventually be lifted their hollowing is evident when looking at their fight style utilizing a truly unique move set fast movement and incredible agility they also bear the power to use hexes a distant calling card of beings that have had their Humanity run wild the combination of the proess details about their swordmanship utility in using hex's and their unchallenged presence in Drang Lake the pursuers hold a very strong position in this list as Warriors above many other Warriors the complexity of of this entry relates heavily to the lack of direct context we get on scorpiones najka the rundown goes like this scorpion s NASKA is likely a being born from the experimentations of SE maintaining hybrid characteristics we are not too sure about the origins of nka is she being born from seat experimentations or a mutated version of a former self that se had caused regardless there are very notable cues in the law that we can use to assume her overall strength tied closely with man scorpion tar many item descriptions and thematic elements such as noa's ability to utilize the old spells of Big Hat Logan indicate that she has a very close affiliation to the albino Arch dragon and therefore some degree of primordial strength in the game we learned that najka is able to harness the powers of Big Hat Logan in combat utilizing the near Primal sorcery of the Vinheim Dragon School she flexes much of her strength to Powers we only ever see in Big Hat Logan such as the Homing Soul mass and soul spear on the Merit of conjuring the powers of Big Hat Logan we can assume her strength is comparable to some degree to that of Logan's Logan would become one of the most legendary figures in the entirety of the series birthing sects of followers and researchers that hold influence all the way to the final installment of the game we also learned that she is likely the direct creation of SE as when we meet her husband man scorpion talk he tells us that both himself and najka were born a very long time ago and upon the defeat of the Duke's Dear freyer who subsequently drops the pale Drake Soul he thanks us for defeating their Master likely referring to se rather than Freya when we combine the direct descendants to the albino Arch draggon a being that harbored an aspect of prime gwyn's soul and responsible for the creation of Crystal sorcery and her ability to utilize the Spells of Big Hat Logan to a degree we only see again in the final installment of the game in the form of the crystal Mages nka is a being that definitely deserves a position this high on the list although the next entry is likely to be the hardest boss in the entire game and probably the whole series all together gameplay-wise the law for these two pets of the king put them much further away from that L and zullen were two of the ivory King's seven pets tasked to Watch Over The Frigid outskirts offering the resy of death to those exiled to its Barren conditions likely much weaker will than their more powerful sibling ARA they became encapsulated by the dark of their Queen and began inhabiting the wild Humanity characterized by this dark enveloping them in a darkish hue there is a theory that their darkening Hue was caused by the countless Souls they would have to kill in The Frigid outskirts and by proximity would find more Humanity likely hollowed humans in their assigned territory however it's more like a thematic connection between the lingering origins of the queen a story will go into much more depth when we speak about the ivory King unlike ARA their distinction is less amable to their overall strength displaying much of the skill that ARA has dampened by the fact that they were given less important roles as described in their souls as the video progresses I'll have a better chance at describing why Ava was was a much more powerful being aa's role held parallels to the great of even velt start and R whereas Len zullen befitted a lower ranking position as merciful executioners for the exiled however both L and zullen together are forces worthy of note demonstrating much of the proess we can come to appreciate in the greater ARA such a spellcasting and a large frame complemented with Incredible nimbleness and when we equate both beings as a Duo boss battle we can happily secure their position here on the list the next entry is the only entry not only on this list but the entirety of the series that has absolutely no item descriptions or written or narrative context explaining their Origins source of power or even influence in this world the only context we are given is that that they are made up of a grave robber ancient Soldier and old Explorer and that we meet them likely hollowed in the sunken Kingdom understanding their relative strength is somewhat of a difficult task but there are some Clues here we can draw from that being their armor the distinctiveness of their armor suggests the trio are likely well-traveled journeyman acquiring an impressive array of omnimon such as hav set Dragon tooth and a Dragon Hunter bow though their story is long forgotten it's likely the trio were a band of adventurers that saw some quite impressive victories and it's a shame that their stories are nowhere to be found as the group seems like they've really lived through this universe met some great scenes but as it is the story of all and dead became fated to a meaningless end but somehow still stuck together likely Bound by the hardened memories these folk have accumulated together persevering somewhere deep in their hollowed Minds the fact that they wield the omnt that they do demonstrate a great degree of skill and in truth this is all we have and for me this is enough to put them this high on the list as I'm hopeful that this ragtag group of individuals could tell us beautiful stories of their Adventures over a bonfire in a world where they retained their Humanity the next entry is as much a tragic story as it is a testament to the strength of a being stuck in the Zenith of obsession mea the banful queen is a being we meet deep in the earn Peak watching over a tribe of mannequin dond assassins her story spans much further in the past than that though L Smith Gilligan gives us context as to mea's current form he tells us she was once the fairest in the land and would fall in love with an unnamed king of a neighboring land theories are Rife as to the identity of this king from alen to the Iron King what matters to us though is that her love for this figure of royalty was unreciprocated this rejection would become Consolidated once the king so adorned by mea would wed another MEA plagued by anguish and jealousy would attempt to win the King by highlighting what she knew was her most distinguishing characteristic her beauty this would push mea to Obsession and she would become accustomed to the vast consumption of poison relentlessly pursuing Beauty as a means to win back her only love she would become completely taken a Hold by this poison and it would transform her into a serpent the origins of this poison are hard to truly say as the item descriptions from her Bent Blade suggests was it the poison found deep within the Earth or the passion that consumed her heart regardless this would eventually transform her completely and mea would assume a new home within the poisonous shallows of the earn Peak notations on her strength are in two forms the first are the fact that she is one of the few bosses that are able to utilize poisonous elements in her repertoire facing mea in the place that we do is likely much more of a difficult Endeavor just on the back of this reality secondly and likely more importantly she is likely to have become a being of recognizable strength maintaining dominance of the region we find her in her influence would be grand enough that she was able to command enough strength to maintain a monopoly of power over the area as the mannequin mask tells us that she likely defiled her subjects and turned their remnants into what we now know as the mannequin assassins as the remaining dominant force of a central region of Drang Lake neighboring colossal kingdoms such as that of the Iron Keep mea is able to utilize the unique environmental hazards of the earn Peak while also being holy responsible for the creation of the mannequin assassins in this mea firmly finds herself this spot on the list the undead Chariot was less of a being of war and more so a means to torture a tool during the old iron King's Reign the Executioner Chariot was commissioned to pulverize undeads endlessly often accompanied by necromancers used to resurrect the unfortunate Hollows to ensure they would indeed suffer endlessly The Chariot itself is the main threat here and it's likely the old iron King's greatest means of torturing the most amount of undeads during the entirety of his Reign boasting a large size immense force and an Undying Will to fulfill its job the Executioner Chariot Soul tells us the only purpose to the execution of Chariot was to torture the undead unlikely holding much capacity in the way of a head-on threat however we meet the undead Chariot in its own Arena a circular Hall perfectly aligned with its method of torture in this we have to face this challenge not on the battlefield but as a perspective Undead that has found themselves tra trapped in the same predicament as the poor victims left to suffer before them the legionaire that sits at Top This Chariot is also specifically armed with a crossbow that tells us it was created to protect from possible retribution from any Undead that chose to revolt against their torturous existence in this we have to battle the execution or Chariot in exactly the place they want us to be in trapped in a circular torture Hall with a crossbow pointed towards our head endlessly looped by a spiked Chariot for those familiar with Dark Souls 2 this next entry will come as somewhat of a surprise the Royal Rat Authority is likely the primary offensive arm of the Rat Kingdom in understanding the strength of this being we have to first look at what the rat kingdom was and is at the time our paths cross the rat kingdom was founded on the back of the mostly ordinary Rat King the Rat King is known as the ancient ruler of the underworld having grown so far in influence that the underworld of Drang Lake became canonically his domain eventually the Rat King would develop an alliance with the overworlds through an agreement with a cers Chieftain we don't know for certain who this Chieftain was but it's likely that this was not Vendrick but a ruler who pre dates even him as Gilligan tells us the grave of the saints that lay in the rat's Kingdom date back much before Vendrick and even before vendra came to the island that would eventually be called Drang Lake eventually however within this timeline the Overworld would go against their peaceful Accord and come to the underworld seeking The Riches of the Rat King's domain we don't know exactly how successful the Overworld was in this campaign but we do know the Rat King was able to fend off the threat and remains in control of the lower section of Drang Lake acting as vendrick's underworld counterpart many beings would come to Aid the Rat King from madon germs rats and even humans a covenant was created to honor the ranks of those who would join there is little Clarity on what forces are at work that allows the Rat King to maintain dominance of the underworld but we can say for certain that the Royal Rat Authority has a large hand in its preservation as there is little context clues about the strength of the Royal Rat Authority we can assume its strength on the back of the strength of the Rat Kingdom and see the authority as its arm or main source of power that offers its dominance and Monopoly over the underworld domain in many ways the Rat Authority is to the Rat King what vas is to Vendrick and the preservation of the Rat Kingdom even to the point we encounter it gives us insight into the true true strength of this being built much larger than its regular counterparts the Royal Rat Authority is colossal ferocious and the main force of power for the underworld Landon get such an unlikely High position on this list the next entry is a familiar one throughout this video you will see that Dark Souls 2 has a recurring theme of Mighty Souls from the original installment reappearing in various forms in Drang Lake from Nito SE isth and even Gwyn but the next entry shows that Lord Souls were not the only Souls powerful enough to transcend their original timeline the origins of the old dragon slayer is and will remain to be a hot button debate with no clear end what we do know is that a being exists in hid's Tower of flame that shares an almost onetoone striking resemblance to onstein with a darkened Hue we meet the old dragon slayer behind the Gates of the blue Cathedral however can we say for certain that this is onstein this is unlikely as we learn in the final installment of the game that onstein would meet his ultimate demise at the arch Dragon Peak interestingly this onstein is found as a corpse with only his armor remaining the armor we find in the later installments retains its golden complexion indicating that the dragon slayer we meet in Drang Lake is very unlikely to be onstein himself rather a careful imitation even though the old dragon slayer drops a soul reminiscent of onstein the Soul itself doesn't for sure indicate that this is onstein instead it tells us the old dragon slayer is reminiscent of a certain night that appears in Old Legends the key word here being reminiscent likely the being we find here is a very talented dragon slayer that manifested much of his own strength from the tales of onstein in Dark Souls memories themselves hold some degree of material potency as a major form of spellcasting is Miracles essentially stories of the past that have the power to materialize effect using this knowledge the old dragon slayer in my opinion is not onstein in this we can assess the strength of the old dragon slayer void of the Merit that he shares the Monumental strength of Gwynn's most favored Knight however this does not detract from much of the strength we can assume the old dragon slayer does have bearing the ability to utilize lightning Miracles a proficiency with a weapon very similar to that of ain's and skill to indicate he is more than just a talented imitator the old dragon slayer likely also a proficient Slayer of dragons is alone in Drang Lake and in fact the entire timeline as a being that got the closest to mimicking the strength of a truly revolutionary and legendary figure a being that came closest to truly mimicking the strength of the legendary captain of gwinn's Knight and interestingly also able to utilize some degree of dark spellcasting the old dragon slayer commands a prestigious position on this list above other notable Knights such as the pursuer as in the case of the the pursuer many Knights were able to join these ranks but only one was able to justify ornstein's title as a final point if we look back onto this very list with the understanding that the guardian Dragon was likely more ferocious than most talented Knights and then consider that the old dragon slayer was likely a being that had numerous of such beings under his kill list we can say for certain the old dragon slayer deserves this spot on on the list the next entry comes with a caveat I will not be discussing the identity of the rotten there are so many well fleshed out theories indicating it's fos or maybe residence of schula who fled the poison City regardless of which you believe is Canon the truth is there is little canonical evidence to say either is correct and thankfully for the sake of this video the identity of the rotten has little cont text relating to his overall strength in Dark Souls Neo is one of the original Lords who found the fiery Lord Souls during the age of ancients known as the first of the Dead Neo had control over death disease and Decay his contributions to the Revolutionary force that would bring about the age of fire were only comparable to Gwyn isth and the furtive pygmy the consequences of his power can be seen throughout the first installment of the the game and the Monumental impact his power was able to play in the world is visibly one of the most potent in Dark Souls 2 the concept of Soul fragments being carried over and influencing different beings is a thematic continuation within the context of Dark Souls 2's law the rotten strength is deeply tied to these very fragments of souls most notably is the soul of Nito we know nito's soul is associated to the rotten as the old dead one soul is dropped by the rotten if defeated on ng+ it also shares a striking similarity to Nito in physical design unfortunately the rot in itself shows little similarity to Nito in his ability to fight there is no indication either in N descriptions law prompts or gameplay to suggest the rotten has any press in any of nito's abilities in necromancy Decay or disease we also know Dark Souls to is not shy in indicating the strength of the beings that would inherit the Lord Souls from the previous game as example through Duke's Dear freer's ability to use Primal sorceries for this reason the rotten strength is only and wholly tied to its size and affiliations with the soul of Nito ultimately realizing his position on the list so uncharacteristically low for an inheritor of a lord soul right I'm going to skip most of the reason why this is here because I'll give you more than enough context as to the strength the Smelter Demon possess when I talk about the Smelter Demon from the main game I just want you to remember that the reason the DLC Smelter Demon ranks lower is because it was likely a much earlier iteration that one did not yet have the power to harness the fire magas eagle originally intended and two its achievements pale in comparison to the main game game Smelter Demon but as it is likely similar enough to the Smelter Demon of the main game it earns merits as being a colossal entity that deserves a position this high on the list the next entry is the first on the list that features a distinct Knight of vendrick's order of Warriors although unnamed the looking last night is one of a kind he was King vendrick's Lieutenant who served alongside the king during his rule over Drang Lake initially positioned as a challenge for anyone who sought the recognition as a knight of the Kingdom the Looking Glass KN would take on a different Duty when the curse of the undead returned to the kingdom and N shandra's real intentions of using Vendrick to commandeer the power of the Throne of want was revealed using the description of the thorned Greatsword we understand that Vendrick would one day flee from the castle and subsequently ditch his kingly omnimon in a mana and and hide himself away in the CPS subverting the Gaze of Nashandra and staving off her access to the influence to the throne we also learned that Vendrick would entrust the Looking Glass Knight to be one of the last lines of defense against anyone who would come searching for am mana and the throne it's likely Vendrick placed the Looking Glass Knight here for two reasons the first as mentioned would be to defend against Nash shandra's force from getting to him and secondly to act as a test for any chosen Undead that sought the throne ensuring they were strong enough to take on the mantle of the Throne of want but also fend off against Nashandra as she sought to usurp the power of the throne the most distinct strength of the Looking Glass Knight is its ability to utilize the unique effects of his shield the king's mirror this allowed the Looking Glass Knight to act as a bridge between the interconnected timeline of Dark Souls and from gameplay cues it's likely the Looking Glass Knight was able to summon upon other Knight kns of Vendrick to Aid him in battle as a member of the royal guard the Looking Glass Knight is likely only succeeded in strength by V and Rain able to utilize the immensity of the king's mirror and being of such great strength that Vendrick himself appointed him to be one of the last bastions of defense against the antithetical forces of Nashandra the Looking Glass Knight easily assumed such a high placement on this list for our next entry I want to begin by dispelling a major theory that has made quite some ground with this boss though the boss is never explicitly told to be a descendant of prominent bosses from Dark Souls 1 many have come to assume a few theories that indicate they are the most prominent theory is that the dark lurker is in fact a Reincarnation of some aspect of manace this is incredibly unlikely for a few reasons though firstly all descendants already mentioned in the game game have souls that share some striking resemblance to their spiritual ancestor such as the Old Iron King to Gwyn Seath to fry and even nandra to Manis this is simply not the case for the dark lurker secondly the dark lurker has a clear Affinity to Faith dropping a dragon chime that reads this chime sat long in the dark Chasm but still one senses a Sublime Purity only those with the deepest Faith Can wield this chime indicating the being is likely well-versed in a clerical past some have argued that the dark lurker is not Manis but Reincarnation of the Four Kings though this Theory holds some relative value due to many gameplay similarities such as appearance of clones and the fact that its Soul can transpose into life drain patch the dark lurker is much more likely to be a being that ventured into the dark as some campaign against the elements of the Abyss equipped with a dragon chime and a high resistance to the dark the dark lurker likely waged a war against the dark and found the power of Life drain in their descent there is a reason why the dark diver Covenant and grindal reward the player for defeating the being and why it can only be summoned upon by bringing light to the abyss with this in mind when speaking about the strength of the dark lurker we are talking about a being that has three essential characteristics one this being has harnessed the power of Life Trin an art that was feared even by Gwyn during his Prime and had the potential of challenging the very fiber of the age of fire two the dark lurker was able to bring convictions of Faith deep into the abyss and disrupt it enough that even devout followers such as the dark divers saw it as a threat worthy of Extinction bringing praise to anyone able to bring the being down and finally number three the dark lur is likely an incredible Miracle Caster as the dragon chime indicates only the most faithful were able to utilize this chime's potential this combined with the dark lurker ability to use pyromancy and even some level of dark magic likely as a byproduct of exposure to the dark put the dark lurker as one of the greater beings in Dark Souls too a combination of the Ancient Art of Life drain the ability to challenge dark Soul's most powerful antithetical force in the form of the abyss and a Proficiency in spellcasting faith-based and otherwise put the dark ler in a prestigious position on this list many heroes in Dark Souls 2 have little context as to their origins The Narrative strength lies in what they offer to the acceleration of major aspects of the law but for Alan it wasn't the grand Narrative of the law he accentuated but the story of one of the greatest Kings of the land the Old Iron King on the precipice of the old iron King's victory over ven sir Alon would find himself in the company of the ambitious Lord with plans of even greater things altoe allured to his Affinity to Greatness Alan an extremely talented Warrior from the East would Aid the king in building an empire to overshadow those that came before and set the standard for those that would come after Alon would offer counsel to the king and quickly took charge of the old iron King's army training the Warriors in the way of Eastern Warfare he would teach them the ability to use katas and great bows a distinction that would solidify the iron King's military strength in the world the Old Iron King would eventually go on to create a great Kingdom and on this Quest would find the iron scepter a means to take control of molten Earth itself and most importantly the manipulation of iron star eyed the king would abuse this Revelation and build a kingdom to match his inflating ego exporting his own unfounded ambition to his domain bringing greed and gluttony to his people Alan likely distastes ful at his King's new image left the kingdom and sought refuge in a land not too far away bringing some of the iron King's own Knights trained by Alon to watch over his new home this Refuge however was peaceful for a very short period of time as once the Old Iron King would learn of this treachery he would leave the kingdom and seek Vengeance and vengance he would find tracking Alan and decimating the traitors he would bring down the Eastern Warrior something we can witness firsthand in the memories of the king in the game though ultimately defeated when assessing alon's strength do not be dissuaded by his shortcomings to the one who would bear the soul of Gwyn as it's less of an indictment on his combat proess and more so a Triumph of the power of the Old Iron King sir Alon single-handedly trained the Knights of the Old Iron King's domain from Mere Warriors to stalwart knights we learn from his Weaponry that even on defeat the Old Iron King would give alon's namesake to those Warriors likely shameful at his actions that were blinded by anger and also a testament to the lasting influence of Alan's way of combat on the virtue of what we know about the lasting proess of the Alan Knights and the distinct nature of alon's abilities and special characteristics of his Weaponry we can easily assume Alan this position on the list ARA was one of seven of the king's pets tasked in the later life in service of the Kingdom ARA found itself at the gates of the King's throne room it's unclear as to if ARA was placed here before the king's sacrifice or after but what is clear is that it was given the task of overlooking the queen herself amongst the seven pets it's likely that ARA was the greatest of the seven in charge of the most prestigious role in harboring the distinct quality of invisibility we can compare ARA in many ways as the contemporaries of beings such as velart and R as mentioned the real distinguishing characteristic outside its specific high ranking duty is that ARA bear the ability to remain invisible to any of whom that did not possess the eyes of the priestesses a powerful difference that would add Monumental strength to our face off against it gaining such an eye alone would be a difficult task and even if you were able to obtain this the fight itself would likely resemble something similar to her contemporaries although assessing ARA's strength as comparable to either vstar or R would be dishonest as velart and R have done more than just existing as Kendrick's loyal guards hosting a resume that truly overshiner Lake in any case ARA utilizes powers of frost that are characterized in the description of the ivory straight sword and when we add this to the context as to her role in one of the greatest kingdoms and ferosa ARA consolidates a position easily this high on the list found in the height of the sinners rise the Lost Sinners Origins are one of the greater mysteries in Dark Souls too there are however many theories as to who she truly is the Lost Sinner is a being found locked in the Lost bestile likely locked out of her own valtion as the Sinner's Rise has an exit that is wide open draped in at Tire described as penal garments we know the Lost Sinner is atoning for actions but we never get a direct description of this the soul of the Lost Sinner tells us that the Lost Sinner eternally punishes herself for her sins of her past and the penal straight jacket adds that no one truly knows what reason she is punishing herself however there are some great Clues we get through the environment and cutscenes that indicate a primary motive on our introduction to the Lost Sinner A peculiar parasite seems to have found a host in the Lost Sinner's eye a being that directly resembles the remnants of the witch of isth and the Bed of Chaos if we hearken back to my previous video on this topic we learn that the witch of isth in an attempt at preserving the age of fire attempted to recreate the first flame but in a cruel twist of fate created the chaos flame a mutating force that devastated herself her children and birthed a new force that directed contended against the forces of the age of fire it's likely that the sinner is atoning not for her own sins but rather The Witch of isit's sins in the form of the creation of the chaos flame associations to the witch of isth even extend to our fight with the Lost Sinner as in the NG plus playthrough of the game the Lost Sinner is able to summon forth pyromancers and we know that pyromancy is directly linked to the manipulation of the original chaos flame to add to this undefeat during the NG plus playthrough the Lost Sinner drops the Old Witch's Soul sharing an identical design to the witch of isth soul from the first game and the namesake to match it's increasingly likely too that the Lost Sinner may have sins of her own relating to Fire and the parasite associated with the Bed of Chaos may have found a host with the Lost Sinner due to this pre-existing shame harbored by the being regardless what's important here is that we know the Lost Sinner combines both the strength of her own and the strength of what remains of the Bed of Chaos and The Witch of eth's Soul considering the sheer strength of the Bed of Chaos from the previous game and the lost Sinners proess with her unique Ultra great sword we can measure her strength and proximity to the bed of chaoses from the first game giving her a ranking this high on the list however her strength is somewhat limited to say the Old Iron King due to her self-imposed disabilities hailing from a far away land and of unparalleled Beauty she came to King Vendrick after he had claimed the four Lord souls and built Drang Lake a lord to his great King's Soul it was initially unclear as to her intentions assuming love as her motivation she would wed the king and would come extrem extremely close to him enough so he would affectionately claim her to be his dear Shandra however Nashandra was no ordinary woman she was A Shard of the Nows slain Manus on his death Manus Departed the major aspects of his soul the Dark Soul into fragments across the land these little shards would grow into women we know of the existence of Nashandra Elana and Elana it it would be nandra that would become the most prominent figure in our playthrough revealing her true colors upon learning of her history with Vendrick and subsequently vendrick's self-imposed Exile Nashandra was tied directly to the most major aspect of the furtive pygmy and in this she harbored an immense influence on bearers of humanity Vendrick being such a prominent human would slowly come under Nash shandra's influence and this influence is exactly what led him to the Land of the Giants to bring back a gift that allowed him to build Drang Lake castle and subsequently create the path to the Kil of the first flame Nashandra sought to Puppeteer the king into taking the throne and using his influence to usher in what is likely an age of the dark an age where Humanity reclaimed the power subverted by gwy during the sins of the age of Fire essentially the continued mission of her now slain father and the dark stalker K who would awaken him from his Slumber however Vendrick eventually came to know the queen as a being of the dark and fled the kingdom departing his soul somewhere she was unlikely to pass and himself in the Crips to Hollow in peace away from the influence of his dear Queen Vendrick likely was much more powerful than nandra but her ability to influence the humanity at the core of his being and the lasting love he had for Nashandra stopped him from forcefully stopping her Sly transgressions Nashandra in relation to strength is likely a very strong entity in the last video I demonstrated why Manus ranked as the strongest entity in the game with the knowledge that his soul would manifest in three queens and the foresight that in the third installment of this game it would be these fragments of his being that coal L the ability for us to bring about the age of londor we know even small fragments of this being still command immense levels of power however we learn from the chime of want that Nashandra and her sisters were likely the smallest of mance's fragments as it was the smallest fragments that evolved into human forms this early on yearning for power and for self-preservation likely through the powerful soul of Kings as proxies Nash shandra's core strength though powerful including a repertoire of dark based spells according to the law was not immense instead it was her ability to utilize the magnetism of the Dark Soul that made her such a powerful force similar to how Manus was able to form the abyss and the corruption of ulil and countless other beings by the time we meet her she is her full realized self harboring all of her corrupting Force our largest obstacle would be allowing ourselves the full capacity to directly fight her as we are human and harbor the same Humanity that nandra corrupting influence is so inherently tied to if overcome though the challenge itself is likely to be a whisper of what Manus was but this alone should not be understated as remember Manus was the greatest battle in Dark Souls one by a long shot yet another fragment of Manus much like nandra the only other iteration of man's Legacy we get to go toe-to-toe with is Elana unlike Nashandra however Elana seemed much more successful in her Endeavors in the world of Dark Souls 2 we get to visit Three Kingdoms with three queens and three kings all queens bearing mance's Essence we learn that Manis his ability to influence carried through to his offspring in the DLC of the game we get to visit Shula the sanctum City a kingdom that sits more like a ruin built around a sleeping Dragon schula had developed many Customs around this Dragon holding the Colossal being with great reverence many Customs would ensue and a city would be built around the shared Customs at the heart of this Society was the sunken King Elana his queen and the sleeping Dragon Sin Sin lay dormant at the heart of the city and the inhabitants would sing to it as a means of either appeasing it while it Slumbers fearing its wake or to rever it in the hope that it would grant them some kind of blessing dragons in Dark Souls bear Primal Origins beings that existed outside the confines of life itself they harbored abilities to look into the past and it was these distinct characteristics that many would come to rever covenants would emerge and worshippers existed throughout the timeline we even get to see some of these outside the Ancient Dragon Shrine in the main game nevertheless shulva would become such a shrine Drang Lake existing adjacent to shulver harbored a different type of reverence for Dragons both Vendrick and his brother both shared an affinity to dragons as they believed dragons held the clues as to the plight of man from the undead curse to solutions for war it is therefore unsurprising to see Vendrick commission a group known as the Drake blood Knights to seek out the blood of dragons for answers in time the Drake blood Knights would invade sha led by yorg they decimated the kingdom slew the king and reached sin yor would Pierce sin in an attempt at pocketing his blood but would be met by a disturbing truth the dragon was filled with poison upon this realization yorg would Retreat and leave Shula but the poison would forever ravage the kingdom casting a green Mist all over there are prominent theories to suggest Elana was a cause of the poison and her songs were what filled the Dragon with the toxins rot and filth are inherent in her design and it's not too far-fetched to say she projected this into the dragon her soul states that she laid waiting for the time that the dragon would seek Vengeance we know the fragments of Manis held the properties to corrupt beings to work in their own ends and it's likely Alana sought to corrupt sin but such corruption was caught early by jorg's campaign when we find Elana she is yet singing the dragon into Slumber in the remnants of her kingdom she has assumed a form reminiscent of her true colors a rotted being still singing to the dragon as her lover and kingdom is left in ruin Elana taking form of a human at the same time as nandra is great indication that she likely Harbors a similar strength to her sister the chime of want tells us that it was the smallest fragments of Manis that took human form in this age and Alana had likely taken form at the same time as nandra indicating a similar capacity of power Elana distinctly too is able to summon upon wretched images of other beings to Aid her in combat notably including a mirage of elart Hosting spells of disease and Decay she holds a uniqueness to Nashandra Elana likely SATs adjacent in regard to power to n Andra though and her placement sits at exactly the same spot the next entry is likely Dark Souls first main Community mystery as the only true indication we get to the scale of everlasting dragons the ancient dragon is the closest living being we see to that of the true primordial beings but the closest does not indicate it's exactly as we see both sweet Shala and nandra Enlighten us to the true identity of the dragon as one of an imitation but not just any imitation one that bears the strength to match its size which evidently is colossal so large in fact that it is likely the largest being in the entire game a size reminiscent of the Everlasting dragons from the first ever cutscene in the first installment of the series we learned that the ancient dragon is in fact much like many beings in Drang Lake an experiment by oldia oldia would spend much of his time in his keep far to the East and his Magnus Opus was to be the creation of a being that transcended the confines of the undead curse of course what other being than the Everlasting dragons would fit this criteria a being that existed absent of life and death there is evidence of failed experiment throughout Alia's keep and at the end of our Venture through his domain we find this ancient dragon perched upon a large platform surrounded by Drakes and knights with an affinity for Dragons under its command even if we consider the ancient dragon as just an imitation we have to admit it's an incredible one one that bears reverence by such a large domain of beings one that is even able to transfer us the Ashen missed heart which is likely an aspect of real Everlasting dragons something that lets us peer deep into the past as of course Everlasting dragons do not exist in time as we do when we utilize this Ashen Mist Heart we can go back in time and one peculiar experience from this is meeting an actual dead Everlasting Dragon this being sharing a striking resemblance to the ancient dragon we meet be is the real soul of an ancient dragon in this we learn the ancient dragon is a much greater replica than we could ever imagine and on this fact alone we can assume the ancient dragon even if it is an imitator this high of a position on the list Vendrick had much confidence in the Knights of his domain Grant ing positions of authority to simple Warriors who staked their every battle on strength alone although Vendrick had little Affinity to clerical practices vstart a cleric From A Distant land would find himself in a position that put him at the very top of vendrick's bureaucracy but how did a cleric a man of Faith assume a position so close close to a skeptic close enough that he's frequently described as the Lord's very own shadow hailing from the land of shulva V for reasons even he cannot recall found himself at the foot of Drang Lake but what we do know is vstat would eventually find himself in the service of Vendrick likely during the early years of the Kingdom's rise as its clear V St had left schula before the Drake blood Knights would invade the place Drake Bloods that were tied to Drang Lake likely developed and commissioned by Vendrick himself it wouldn't be long before vstar would prove himself to the king likely much before even the events of the invasion of the land of giants as through context from The Saga of R and vat we learn he had already assumed the role as the King's right arm before these events as Vendrick lightly ranked his soldiers on the Merit of strength alone vstart would have likely already proven himself as one of the mightiest amongst all of vendrick's knights even against the odds of being a cleric velart armed in goldplated armor and a sacred chime climbed these ranks right to the top beating out legendary Warriors such as even that of the looking last night we get a much more direct understanding of Art's strength when we learn of R's story as once R challenged the king's Authority and N shandra's influence vstar fought R to decisive Victory leading to R's Exile we know R even before his descent into the broom Tower was too distinctly more powerful than all the other Knights of the domain and V's victory over R clearly puts him in a place of real Authority when it comes to overall strength in the story line we can add another layer to this as even before V had come to Drang Lake he is likely to have already established himself as a mighty warrior in Shula as aana still conjures memories of him during her boss battle Testament to the last lasting strength vstart was able to demonstrate wherever he went by the time we meet vstart he is true to his nature lying dutifully at the foot of his now Hollow Lord valart despite casting an AA to repel the dark has manifested much of the dark's qualities into his own but much like artorius this dark has not unsettled much of his fighting ability only embellished it with a much more unstable core this fight with velart is likely one of the greatest challenges we face in Dark Souls 2 as one of the last obstacles to the throne of want and the chance to Commander a new age befitting your own narrative we have two very enigmatic beings who sit awaiting you the the Throne Watcher and Throne Defender as beings with absolutely no direct clue of their Origins there is one thing we know for certain as per their item descriptions we learn that they have been here a very long time so long they likely existed before Drang Lake and even Vendrick we learned that Drang Lake Castle was built upon the remnants of the Kiln of the first flame and hence the tombs of the first flame itself Vendrick at the cusp of taking the throne and the ability to start a new age betrayed his Birthright as the chosen Undead and fled to a place of Eternal hiding as he knew nandra had ultimately influenced the construction of Drang Lake Castle through the Golems she commissioned through vendrick's ability to steal the ancient artifact or Knowledge from the Land of the Giants she ultimately sought to influence the king into taking the throne and acting as a proxy for her own gain likely to usher in the age of the dark an age that translated the goals of her father Manus it's likely that both the Throne Watcher and Defender were subjects of the previous chosen Undead now long forgotten these Guardians are likely in the place of this previous chosen Undead to ensure that the next Monarch is of worthy caliber to link the first flame much as gwy did and much as their previous Undead Champion had before we can use all this information to measure the strength level of both beings let's get a quick definitive Benchmark out the way first though Prime Vendrick likely could overpower both Guardians with ease as their existence was predetermined as beings who would be overcome by the bearer of the four Lord souls and in this case this was Vendrick but if we are to truly assess where the two Heroes go it's likely they played a role not too dissimilar to vstart and R in an alternative Universe I can definitely see both Velar and R assuming their position when Vendrick took the throne in this we can assume their combined strength would resemble something of that caliber as they were likely the V start and re of a long for Goten chosen Undead when we combined the item description of their soul we learned that their power was appropriate for the Kil of the first flame in this the estimation of their strength is likely to be immense as this was indeed Gwynn's old mantle juk sora's obsession with acquiring knowledge and power eventually LED led him to discovering the Brightstone Cove The Cove is likely the remnant of seat's original Crystal Cave during this time selor utilized much of his resources to mine the crystals of this Cove and became incredibly wealthy developing a strong economy and many Denis flocking to his Empire for work alongside his affinity for wealth selora had also began a fascination with spiders or more so a spider named Freer an originally small and solitary being as indicated by his bed chamber it's likely Sora found this spider during his plundering of the brigh Cove all Lord to this feeble thing the Juke would take the spider and give it a home in his own bed chamber and cherish it as his own child referring to it as his dear Freya likely unbeknownst to the Juke the spider in his POS possession held on to what is described in the game as the writhing ruin and likely the ineffable soul of SE the scaleless selora as described in the game's item description is often touted as greedy and ambitious not unlike see and it's very likely that this greed is what he projected through the spider allowing it to begin to consume his own citizens and grow large large than the Juke had ever imagined outgrowing her cage and much like the Lord she harbored the soul of creating an ecosystem of her own spiders would begin to invade the town to such an extent it would overrun the entire region selora either in guilt Madness or a twisted sense of Pride would watch on as his realm succumbed to the influence of Freya Freya was able to consume and manifest The Souls of the majority of this large town and reproduce what is likely a massive Army of spiders under her command growing extremely large in size too Freya would actualize a major portion of seed's soul and draw an affinity to sorcery too freya's power became a reflection of se's very own and unlike many of the other inheritors of the Lord Souls already mentioned it's likely she was at the time we meet her the closest reflection of the lord soul she inherited developing her own hardened skin Ain to the crystals of SE the ability to use sorcery and a domain completely under her grasp a domain remember that even fended off against Prime vendrick's own battalions the juk the of Freya easily sits a top even some of the other Lord inheriting entries the Old eying King originally a budding Lord had visions of power and glory on his path to realize these he would utilize these Ambitions to overthrow the old rulers of Ven commanding Victory he stood tall as its new ruler with dreams of an even greater Kingdom he would meet sir Alon a talented Warrior from the distant East Alon took favor to the Old Iron King and even trained various members of his domain granting them a unique proess with katanas and great bows it's unmentioned why Alan bore an affinity for the Iron King was he drawn to his ambition or a certain soul that manifested within this ambition regardless these soldiers trained by Alan would bolster the strength of the ambitious Kingdom and eventually the Old Iron King would find an iron producing Miracle all allowing him the ability to manipulate iron it's important to note too during this time that the Old Iron King may have come to the possession of Gwynn's Lord Soul there is some debate as to when the lord soul was found by the Old Iron King as there is some indication that the Old Iron King only found the lord soul upon his final act as he sunk into the lava however it's more likely that the Old Iron King was either born with the lord soul causing his un wavering ambition for greatness or found or manifested it through this very ambition with the power of Gwynn's lord soul and the ability to manipulate iron he harbored the means to build a kingdom of iron and called on various Craftsmen from different regions to help him realize his former Ambitions of greatness and many would heed this call notably was Magus Eagle a man who sought to breathe fire into life on the back of this the Iron King was able to build a domain so large that it eclipsed the former Kingdom of Ven in notoriety eventually he would even create automatons with the help of Eagle fulfilling Eagles longing to create living Fire by granting them Souls likely the same way Gwyn did in the original game with an Empire both powerful and large the old Ding King couldn't be too complacent for long as just like in gwyn's Old Empire his domain was being threatened by the undead curse and much like Gwyn he took drastic measures and Incredibly unethical methods in dealing with this curse commissioning various groups of Undead hunters jailers and torturers he led the most prominent campaign against the undead creating the Executioner Chariot and the Legion of men who would eventually become the skeleton Lords in the Huntsman cops with a campaign against the undead underway the Old Iron King began to change taking on a much more hedonistic form upon this realization Alan would become distasteful at his old friend's New Image and would leave the iron Kingdom to seek refuge in a place of his own bringing a few fellow Warriors from the kingdom his Refuge would be shortlived as the all dying King vengeful at the thought of this betrayal would charge into alon's keep executing the treasonous knights and eventually slaying Alon a testament to the acquired might of the king the Old Iron King would soon see his own undoing when one notable automaton granted a soul by the Old Iron King began to Rebel much like the Four Kings of New Londo did for Gwyn except this automaton the smelted demon was much more successful than the Four Kings and would eventually go on to destroy the entire Kingdom and The Old Iron King forcing him deep into the lava of his own undoing the effortlessness of the Smelter Demon killing the Old Iron King is less of an indictment on the inability for the Old Iron King to fend for himself and more so a praise of how monumentally power powerful the Smelter Demon was as the old dying King through his Reign demonstrated the greatest strength and influence to his contemporaries and even shines well above the other inheritors of the Lord Souls such as the Dukes the afraa and the Lost Sinner by the time we meet the Old Iron King he has reisen from the lava and much like gwin had after he had burned himself to the first flame was reborn in a new way taking on the form of a horn Beast we Face Off against a malformed version of the king retaining great size in the soul of Gwyn it's hard to assume how much of the strength from the law is retained at the point that we meet him but for the video I'll assume he is just as strong as he was during his Peak as the Iron King Hammer states that the Old Iron King even when he was thrown into the lava continued to be a vessel that bred Icarus Earth and the magma Within retaining a smoldering core for these reasons amongst his three other Lord inheriting contemporaries the Old Iron King is likely the most powerful what more would you expect from a spiritual descendant of Gwyn likely the closest descendant to the Everlasting dragons we meet in this game sin is a mighty dragon of similar caliber to calam from the original game sharing size design flight and even the ability to breathe fire upon its residence many inhabitants would come to rever the Goliath of a beast and likely wanted to draw an affinity to the Beast as a means of sharing its primordial Essence in the same way that Drang Lakes sought to be close to the remnants of everlasting dragons with the intention it would unlock many of the mysteries of life from the curse to the history of the land Drang Lake's Affinity to the dragons would culminate into a sect of men likely commissioned by Vendrick to seek out the blood of dragons likely as a means for alier to further his experimentations the Drake blood Knights led by yorg would face off against Shula find the Beast and Pierce its scales only to find it was harboring a much deeper secret than the blood of a dragon sin was filled with a poisonous pus so great that the entirety of shulver would become clouded in this poison disfiguring the city for the rest of time when assessing the strength of sin we have quite a few things to go off of firstly the dragon was able to withstand so much inherent poison likely Afflicted to him by a Lana and yet survive a feat unmatched in the timeline secondly Alana a being of Manis required strength to project her will Nashandra found strength in Vendrick Elana found strength in sin in this we can assume Elana saw sin as a being that represented a comparable Force to a chosen Undead that held all four Lord souls or at least a force that could Elevate herself in the same way Vendrick could from nashan ra third sin's power measurements are direct we know the city of shulva and even Alana knew the dragon alone bear enough power to destroy the city and all of its inhabitants alone rituals were developed by the people of shulva as a means of keeping the Beast asleep to preserve their Kingdom as they knew too its threat was Monumental finally once awoken and relieved of a large portion of its poison sin is able to ravage the city uncontested something we actually get to see firsthand when we do formally face off against sin he is pierced but the piercing is likely to have made the being stronger than its earlier iteration as we learn from various item descriptions that York's actions may have actually returned the Beast to a former level of Purity a form that precedes Elana's poison poisoning in this our battle is one with a beast that holds the power to bring an entire city to its knees a beast that was formerly poisoned and posed a threat even then but now has been purified and holds an even greater threat now under all of these factors sin proves to have the ability to facilitate immense Feats of power which are further embellished by its close descendants to the Everlasting dragons in this sin easily secures a place this high on the [Music] list born R the fume KN is the story of a man of talent nobility humiliation and rebirth originally a swordsman of vendrick's domain R quickly Rose the ranks of vendrick's God we learn learn from item descriptions that Vendrick famed Warriors who displayed strength Above All Else and R epitomized everything Vendrick valued reaching his Zenith as vendrick's Royal AIS alongside vstart he served Vendrick ferociously and stood by his side for his entire tenure however as his dear King began falling closer to the influence of Nashandra at the precipice of an aggressive war against the Giants R disavowed his plans and was seen as a traitor V St furious at R's betrayal fought R and R was beaten left humiliated R left Drang Lake abandoning his shield seeking strength strength that would allow him to actualize his moral compass R traveled far and would eventually find a land covered in a black smog a smog that remind reminded him of the darkness of Nashandra venturing into the fug R would find an eerily similar presence in the land nadalia the Bride of Ash a being born from the same fragments of Manis that Nashandra and her sisters were born from with the intention of defeating nadalia and wielding the power to do so as described in the fume Ultra great sword r instead found a parental figure not unlike what he saw in Vendrick nadalia consoled R and it was in this consolation that R would find an eerie peace one that caused him to abandon his original Mission and chose instead to live alongside nadalia the fume sword tells us he would live alongside the company of the child of the dark and her Essence would imbue itself into his very being his omnt and his soul and we learn from the banful ring that rain would find immense power from nadalia one that formed a stalwart Warrior a being that could finally defeat V ironically Nalia's influence would untempered defending his Queen this is exactly where we meet R much like vstart Standing Tall at the gates of their Monarch however where vstart was relu L becoming infused by the dark R had embraced it and it is in this Embrace that R has adopted incredibly great strength through this we are facing off against the primordial power of both nadalia and the incredible swordmanship of R epitomized in his new form as the fume night and it's this combination of power from nadalia and R that make the f Doom Knight one of the most powerful beings in Dark Souls 2 and why it ranks so high on this list so far above even V the next entry is one of my favorites I love a case where in Dark Souls a being's true strength is kept mostly hidden but we are told explicitly that they were able to command such strength that even successors to primordial Lords would be brought down by them effortlessly the Smelter Demon is a mass of iron that had been given Life by The Old Iron King Bearing the soul of Gwyn the old dying King and likely his loyal inventor Magus Eagle would utilize the power of fire the scorching iron scepter and likely gwyn's ability to transfer portions of his own soul to create automatons as described in the Smelter Demon Soul item description many automatons were created but one stood tallest among the others the Smelter Demon the Smelter Demon we are speaking of in this entry relates to the main game Smelter Demon though much not all of its merits can also be translated to its DLC counterpart just like the original recipients of gwyn's Primal soul from the first game these demons once sworn to their creators would Harbor independent Ambitions of their own even if it unaligned them from the goals of their creator much like the Four Kings of New Londo we learn the Smelter Demon harbored some antagonism to their master and unlike the Four Kings were actually able to overthrow their Master with one single swing as indicated by the item descriptions of the smelter sword this one swing would bring down the Old Iron King and drown his kingdom in a pool of molten iron forever maling the territory with such explicit detail on the strength of the smelter demons it's clear they were crafted to near Perfection masters of Their Own Strength with powers able to disturb pools of lava fit to cover an entire seemingly impenetrable Kingdom the Old Iron King to was no pushover boasting one of the longest reigning kingdoms Drang Lake would ever see and such influence that the world saw his domain as the main hub for trade we have we have to ask ourselves how immensely powerful must the Smelter Demon be to undo all of this in a single swipe when we meet the Smelter Demon it's very likely the exact Smelter Demon that brought down the Old Iron King in a single swipe and as we stand trapped in a circular room with this Behemoth a swift death is likely to be our only concern with such explicit written detail to the strength of the smelted demon it's likely the strongest boss by pure description alone the final entries after this Edge out on top due to the narrative detail and influence on their overall strength the next entry is a mighty one the giant Lord is two things the king of the Giants and also in the present day the last giant found under the forest of the Fallen Giants there are striking parallels between Vendrick and the giant Lord both aesthetically but also thematically in the present day we meet the giant Lord in the form of the last giant likely at the end of his life with a soul at the brink of dwindling it's likely the last giant is little more than a sentient bark filled with vengeance at this point and on the other side we meet Vendrick a being who is completely soulless and hollowed aimlessly wandering around his his Crypt with little in the way of force but the Thematic tones of both the giant Lord and Vendrick were likely present even during their Heyday although we know little about the giant Lord's rise to royalty it's likely he was on a parallel trajectory to Vendrick himself awarded commanding authority over the entirety of the land of giants in the same way Vendrick did over the land of humans in Drang Lake Vendrick influenced by nandra would pursue the land of Giants and wage a prolonged conflict eventually coming out on top and stealing a special something this allowed him the ability to create golems in this Vendrick had created a collision course with the king of the Giants and in some time the giant Lord would invade Drang Lake and cause irreparable damage to the kingdom and just fall short condemned to be a prisoner in the rubble in many instances the strength of the giant Lord is likely the closest parallel we have to the power of prime Vendrick everything in the law from Captain Drummond's dialogue to item descriptions of his soul and the Giant's kinship indicate the giant Lord maintained the same level of force as Vendrick himself bearing thematic parallels and an almost identical stature and omnt to match in many senses the closest thing we get to facing Prime Vendrick is by traveling through the Memories Back To The Past to face off against one of his greatest rivals in the giant Lord the Giants alone are one of the most formidable forces in the game and even their soul alone was able to be used to revive an old Everlasting Dragon when we consider the giant Lord was not only just a regular giant but one who held the greatest most influential position in their bloodline one that was so Monumental that slaying the Beast granted the key to controlling Golems made in their image we can only assume his strength to either just fall short of Vendrick himself or on a parallel level to Vendrick it's likely the only reason the giant was brought down was due to an intervention by a certain chosen Undead and without such intervention the giant would likely have made it to Vendrick himself converging for what as likely to be one of the greatest battles in the history of the souls games it's no doubt that nandra saw the threat of the Giants long before any such conflict was realized and it's likely she knew the only way of overcoming the Giants was through a Undeclared preemptive strike at a time the Giants were least expecting it the giant Lord secures itself a position I would usually reserve for Prime Vendrick as we never truly do get to meet Prime Vendrick in such a manner as a boss battle unlike the Iron King the ivory King did not build a kingdom on the Ambitions of materializing a home for his ego instead he erected a kingdom selflessly tasking himself with keeping at Bay one of the greatest forces in the entire Dark Souls timeline born in ferosa the ivory King found himself at the height of greatness formalizing his position as the highest ranking Knight this alone is a feat rarely matched in the entire game as ferosa hosted some of the most notable heroes in the Game Heroes that would become famed for their ability to fight Heroes who found lifelong success as cell swords the ivory King however did not take on this profession for he was bound by a moral compass that saw him at the front line of War whenever his country was under threat it was under this treaties that the ivory king would erect Elam Lo built on top of the lasting remnants of the Bed of Chaos the ivory King knew only he was of the aptitude to keep this existential threat at Bay Bound by his ambition to protect he created a kingdom at the heart of this Terror housing his throne at the entrance of the Twisted flame of chaos he vowed to be the first and final welcome to the horrors that would emerge bringing his faithful Knights he organized a council of talented Warriors hailing from ferosa to watch over the flames and did so with such efficiency that the threats of which we never see at any point of the game however all kings are duw a queen and much like those before him a queen would come and just like the other kings this queen was born from Manus the father of the Abyss the burnt Ivory King however knew this and fiercely loyal to protecting those who could not defend themselves sheltered the queen and bear the weight of both the Flames of chaos and the abyss all at once once the ivory King's Soul was immense but as we have learned Souls that burn the brightest cast the bigger Shadow and either at the realization of his hollowing or the power of His dwindling Soul he cast himself into the Flames of chaos to forever be bound by it and use his will as a direct Force to keep it at Bay alsana his wife unlike her sisters or although intended to use the King as a proxy for their own homecoming at first instead revered her Lord his resolve unmatched his will unwavering she cast off the sum of her own parts and in the wake of her King's absence took charge of alam Lo not as the queen of dark but as an extension of her King's Legacy locking the gates of alam Lo in an avalanche of ice forever keeping in the threats that would one day come to be as the ivory King fought the powers of the Flames of chaos he was followed head first by his loyal Knights who were too in reverence of their King's will and happily gave their own to be by his side when we meet the ivory King it's the only fight ever that we are asked to recruit the help of his Knights that stayed behind as we Face Off against him and his own company there is a the reason why even gameplay-wise such a feat is necessary as the law points out five key features as to why defeating the ivory King is The Game's greatest achievement firstly he was the only King able to tame the darkness in his Queen a testament to the strength of his soul secondly he was likely the most powerful knight of ferosa a land that likely harbored the greatest in the entire Trilogy third he single-handedly kept the Flames of chaos at Bay ask yourself why we never see any demons borne from the chaos flame in this game when we consider the sheer extent to how powerful the bed of chaoses in the first game a force that Gwyn was unable to isolate even during his prime this achievement takes on a new meaning as the fourth point he is so powerful we canonically are asked to fight him with company the only time in the game that we are ever told to do so even in the burnt State we meet him his power seems to have not dwindled at all still harboring the extent of his icy abilities in this he was able to withstand the mutating force of the Bed of Chaos for as long as he did while still hosting his own form all in all position iing the ivory King as the greatest Force we face headon in the game Testament to one man's Talent resolve ambition and a legacy that still United a kingdom many ages after his final act the actions of the ivory King remain unmatched in this entire installation of the series and his achievements though subtle overshadow any of which we see from any other being in its history including that of Vendrick The Chosen Undead to conquer the four Lord Souls bringing us to the end of the video thank you guys for making it all the way through Dark Souls 2 has more bosses than any other installation of the souls franchise and getting in the research of every boss law and ranking were quite an undertaking I appreciate a lot of you will have differing opinions and I'd love to hear what you thought where did you place each boss please let me know in the comment section I'm currently working on the Dark Souls 3 version of this video so if you'd like to see more of this sort of content please feel free to like And subscribe to keep up to date with all of my [Music] content

Channel: The Bestiary

Views: 234,154

Keywords: Dark, Souls, Dark Souls 2, Scholar of the First Sin, Ranked, Lore, Ranked by Lore, The Bestiary, Lorewise, Dark Souls lore, Elden Ring, Elden Ring Lore, Fromsoftware, Secrets, Dark Souls 2 Ranked, Dark Souls 2 Reivew

Id: BBER17og3iA

Length: 118min 44sec (7124 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 13 2023