Covenant of Artorias(Lore)

I think we should try to iron out the fine details behind Artorias, now that we have new content to add to his lore. I'm by no means an expert on lore here, so bear with me and please add your input.

What was the sequence of events that led him to his death?

Artorias's legend has him going to the Abyss to hunt the Darkwraiths, and we know that along the way he established a covenant with the Abyss, and this would probably mean Kaathe, though it isn't entirely clear. The common thought surrounding this is that he switched sides and joined the Darkwraiths, but there is absolutely no evidence for this as far as I have seen.

Based on the new stuff, it would seem to me that he entered the Abyss from Oolacile in order to prevent the spreading darkness emenating from Manus, but did this come before or after his covenant? Was this covenant started in the Abyssal opening in New Londo, then he traveled the Abyss to its new openings within Oolacile? What is the timeline between the events at New Londo and the fall of Oolacile?

Another thing: How do the other knights factor in? Did Ciaran and Gough accompany him to Oolacile to save it? Or were they elsewhere and only showed up when they had heard he was corrupted? Where the hell was Ornstein all this time?

Is Artorias connected to Beatrice, aside from both are the only ones besides the player that walked the Abyss? How was Beatrice able to do it without the covenant ring?

I haven't played the DLC yet, but I beleive Artorias went to Oolacile to fight the Abyss, Ciarin followed him for support without him knowing, and Gough was just tracking Kalaamet who ended up going to Oolacile during that time.

Wall of Text ahead ------- +105 / -5

Well, I played it all, so here it goes:

For me, Artorias was a great knight. When he heard about Manus and his outrage with Oolacile, he went to rescue the Princess Dusk (and Oolacile itself), I believe Ciaran traveled there too but only after he heard he was corrupted. Gough is clearly locked up in a room. I believe someone locked him there, possibly the creatures of the Abyss, and as he said, he didn't care anymore because there were no more dragons to hunt. Now your question about Ornstein is completely valid, and the best I can guess is that he decided to stay in Anor Londo to protect Gwynevere (or it's illusion). That's why we don't find the other knights protecting Anor Londo, only Ornstein decided to stay.

Now Artorias, to be able to fight the Abyss, made a pact with Kaathe, or at least some of the creatures of the Abyss. That's how he became the Abysswalker. He then, was defeated by Manus, and corrupted. Before being defeated he gave his shield enchanted with a Magic Aura to protect his friend Sif, from the creatures of the Abyss. That's why the player has to save Sif in the past, and he gets the shield.

Then the player defeats Artorias' corrupted body, liberating his soul from the Abyss. Ciaran asks the player for his soul, possibly just to keep it, or destroy it hoping to give him eternal rest.

Both Ciaran and Gough are grateful to the player for liberating Artorias from the Corruption.

The player then kills Manus and rescues Dusk. Dusk was harmed by the Abyss at the time, and his senses were weak.

Then when the player asks Dusk about her past in the present, she tells her that long ago, a creature of the abyss kidnapped her, and Artorias saved her. Or at least she believes so, because at the time her senses were weak, but she strongly believes it was Artorias, and she says she always knew there was something special about Artorias.

He mentions how the player resembles her rescuer, but then simply concludes saying it wouldn't be possible for the player to be his rescuer because it was centuries ago.

Because of this, Artorias became the savior of Oolacile, and the famous Abysswalker, who died fighting the Abyss; instead of the player. That's why he is so famous and admired. And that's why Gough and Ciaran say the player saved Artorias' honor, because that way no one will ever know he was ever corrupted.

All this info is based in dialogues of Dusk, Elizabeth, Ciaran and Gough.

Also it's important to know that Manus was once a human. And Gough tells the player that the he believes the primordial serpent (very probably Kaathe), tempted the Oolacile people to awake the primeval man, and they caused his fury to rage upon them. That's why I believe the primordial man, is Manus itself, who became that being we see now when his humanity went crazy (< this is mentioned in her Soul description), and joining the points, the primeval man is to me THE PIGMY.

DUN DUN DUN

I'll leave the topic in the pc section for now, because of spoilers.

I guess Beatrice has the covenant ring. Since you can summon her in the garden she was probably on her way to fight sif.
Strangely I have not seen anyone experimenting with the covenant ring in the dlc areas either.

ublug wrote:I'll leave the topic in the pc section for now, because of spoilers.

I guess Beatrice has the covenant ring. Since you can summon her in the garden she was probably on her way to fight sif.
Strangely I have not seen anyone experimenting with the covenant ring in the dlc areas either.

I don't believe there would be much use of the abyss ring. There are no abyss-like areas in the new content. Even in the Chasm of the Abyss, unless someone feels like using Rings of Sacrifice and tries dropping in most dark places that surely lead to death. I explored the Boss area of Manus, and there is no possible way to get out of that circle. You can't even drop from the top again, the fall would kill you.

ChizFreak wrote:I don't believe there would be much use of the abyss ring. There are no abyss-like areas in the new content.

A little bird told me it might have something to do with a certain npc.

ChizFreak wrote:I explored the Boss area of Manus, and there is no possible way to get out of that circle. You can't even drop from the top again, the fall would kill you.

The drop down to Manus' area should not inflict fall damage, not after he's dead either.

You can jump down there again. the fall does no damage.

Spurgun wrote:You can jump down there again. the fall does no damage.

God damn it! Prism stones, you failed to me again!

ublug wrote:
A little bird told me it might have something to do with a certain npc.

Do tell.

SEANB240 wrote:Do tell.

That's all I know. I haven't got the pc version so I can't test it myself.
It could also be about the wolf ring.

InfiniteDoomsday wrote:This belongs to The Archives Page, is there a mod to move this..?

who de-reped this???

nsane32 wrote:

InfiniteDoomsday wrote:This belongs to The Archives Page, is there a mod to move this..?

who de-reped this???

I did. This belongs here for the DLC spoilers.

https://soulswiki.forumotion.com/t10323-pc-section-threads-and-spoilers