Pendant Theories

What I'm going to be testing on a new playthrough is dropping it in front of hollowed characters to see if it has any effect.

I posted a lore theory earlier on Emergence's new thread but dropped in for another reason. In my new quest for lore I decided to revisit Anor Londo's inner rooms and scope the paintings out. There are many pretty depictions of Anor Londo and something perhaps more interesting my binoculars made it easier to see. Hope this makes sense....in the room leading to the stairwell up to the roof there are mostly portraits rather than landscapes. I'm sure most people saw the painting of Chesty LaRue in this room. On the other side of the bed there are two portraits of what I believe are the same person. A little girl with a red dress and a young woman in a black one. They have the same hair and complexion and carry what appears to be either a paint brush or small wand in the right hand. Ok...binocular up and look at the girl in red portrait. You can see it without but this will let you focus. There is a thin cord from around her neck leading to below her left hand. It ends in a circle that strongly resembles the pendant (color, etc). I at first said to myself the cord was too long as the pendant should be like a necklace. I looked in my items anyway and from what I can tell, the pendant cord has several loops in it, meaning it does have a long cord like the painting. I tried to take a picture but it was garbage.

Im going to Anor Londo. Right NOW.

Ok I got 2 theories. If that is a girl with a brush, it could be Ariamis. If it is a boy with a wand, it should be Gwyndolin, as he was raised as a girl. The portrait with the black dress also has like some napkin in one hand, like the Darkmoon talisman. All of these paintings reminded me of Rembrandt and I found a portrait that looks similar to the man with the fur coat. I think he has the Tin Darkmoon Catalyst.

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/rembrandt#supersized-portrait-220369

I was wondering about it being Ariamis as well but Gwyndolin makes sense too. I also noted that all of the portraits except for Gwynevere appear to be in the same style (Rembrandtish). Gwynevere looks more like a cartoon, like her illusion in her chamber. GREAT link. If that painting in Anor Londo isn't supposed to resemble that one I'll be darned for sure. The little girl's pic looked more like a brush but the young woman I though looked more like a wand. The last portrait in the room looks like it could be the same male as the Rembrandt one. Might have to look at more of his work to see if there's another obvious inspiration. I clicked through some from your link and saw a few that could be similar. Also, there's one that looks like the Xanthous King kind of. I wonder if Ariamis is the gentlemen in the pictures and Gwyndolin is the young lad(y), suggesting this could have been his room. The portrait of Gwynevere looking exactly like her illusion could mean that Gwyndolin sought to emulate Ariamis or be an artist as well and is responsible for that painting as well as the illusion.

Anyway.......I was literally startled last night looking at that picture and saw the potential pendant. I was there digging for other lore and actually you helped me a ton by pretty much confirming the Rembrandt connection.

I'll definatley check this out, I remember taking a long look at those painting during my first playthrough, but I didn't know enough about the lore then to read anything into them.

My first thought about why the illusion and the painting look the same is that when Gwenyvere left, Gwyndolin used the painting as the template for his illusion. That dosen't explain the difference in style though...

AeroSigma, trying not to hijack another thread with lore so check out the latest stuff in Emergence's linking lore thread. The Gwynevere painting is a different style from the rest in the room but looks pretty spot on for the illusion. I'm pretty sure that your theory is the best answer at this time.

Getting back to the pendant....I did drop one in front of the young Gwyndolin portrait (I will assume it's him for now) but didn't have the heart to quit/reload as I didn't have a spare. I do now so could test this out I suppose. Not sure if this matters or I mentioned this but I am in Dark Londo. If someone is in Bright Londo to take a looksee at the paintings I would be interested to know if they all look the same. There are recurring images of war and carnage in the city (or so I believe) which goes along with concept of the darkened city. Perhaps in bright Londo, Gwyndolin has some of the images altered (more illusions).

@Wyrm- awesome find!

I'm going to try to cross-reference some pictures from that online catalog with those in the room. I'm thinking that if we can find the specific source material, we'll be able to tell what exactly From changed in each of the pictures. All that art is in the public domain because it is so old, so there wasn't a legal reason that they needed to modify it. Hopefully the modifications will make clear that Pendant's owner, though I suspect it to be Gwyndolin as well. This is additionally support by the fact that the Pendants only function in the game is to trade for a Souvenir of Reprisal, the trophies of the Darkmoons.

Also the picture of Gwynevere is straight from the concept art/art book. Maybe its artist just wanted to put it in the game, and can't paint like Rembrandt. I don't know that the stylistic differences are necessarily significant. Now whose bedroom that is- that I would like to know!

I like the new direction these theories have taken. I was pretty sure the pendant wouldn't be used so close to where you pick it up, so I like Anor Londo. I don't have anything concrete to contribute, but I can offer a line of thought:

The theory is that Petrus drops the pendant you get from Reah's corpse. If anyone can explain why he does that, it could help us find more precisely where it's supposed to be used, possibly in Anor Londo.

The only explanation from a criminal point of view to drop an item would be to implicate someone else as the murderer. If the pendant really is tied to Gwyndolin then it could be he wanted to send a message she betrayed her covenant and/or make it look like a Darkmoon did it.

From a religious perspective an item would be left as part of a rite. I doubt it is correlated to the Catholic "last rites" as it would be expected that Rhea would leave pendants for her pals. Although I concede that they aren't killed until after we get there and the corpses don't remain. However, I theorized a while ago that the trio of corpses in the ToG is Rhea and the bodyguards. I have no idea if that's so but seems to fit somewhat. If it IS true then two of those corpses should have had pendants. So....a different rite. I know there's speculation that Petrus is an assassin or is bound to "clean up" should the mission fail so it could be a rite of assassination or the pendant is used as a decree or writ of assassination. His actions and words don't add up to assassin to me but that's certainly a possibility.

This is all assuming the pendant is tied to him at all. I haven't read all the theories on it belonging to Petrus so won't go there at but the above are the only motivations that leap out.....wait....just thought of one more.....

I also accused one of the bodyguards of having a thing for Rhea. I still stand by that but what if Petrus did too? Nothing like a lover scorned right? Petrus being at Firelink first meant that Rhea and the guards had some time without him. Maybe upon their reunion Petrus noticed some googly eyes in between divine skull crushing in the catacombs, went crazy with jealousy and abandoned the group. I won't (continue) boring you with murder motives but after the deed is done......he feels compelled to offer a final gift.

Welllllll with the pendant, it is something you earn as a prize for a successful Forest Invasion.

Here is always what intrigued me about the Hunters: the overlap in methodology with the Darkmoons.

Both covenants have a summoning ring.
Both covenants invade as blue spirits. Green or any other color could have easily been used.

It just seems like one was modeled after the other, perhaps in emulation.

Now with a pendant possibly being Gwyndolins, we have something linking both covenants.

Petrus in the text dumps refers to himself at one point as "a wolf in sheep's clothing", which may imply he was a Hunter undercover in the WoW. May also explain why he has a pendant.

I have always never quite bought Alvina as the covenant head, more of a caretaker to be honest. These covenants typically have gods or demigods as their heads. Someone else may be behind this covenant completely.

I think Petrus's connection with the pendant have to do with the description. The fod memories comforting travellers may have to o with the journey after death. By dropping on the corpse of the person he kills he wishes them an easy journey to the afterlife. Sort of like ho the greeks used to put coins under the tongues of their dead so they could pay charon to ferry them across the river.

DoughGuy wrote:I think Petrus's connection with the pendant have to do with the description. The fond memories comforting travellers may have to do with the journey after death. By dropping on the corpse of the person he kills he wishes them an easy journey to the afterlife. Sort of like how the greeks used to put coins under the tongues of their dead so they could pay charon to ferry them across the river.

He also gives you a copper coin: Those who dream of returning to the outside world are fond of carrying these around.

Petrus just fled from the catacombs without helping the others, he didn't cause the incident, but maybe he had something else planned. Maybe his motives to kill her was just to silence her. He will initially require you to join the covenant to learn miracles, but when Reah arrives he'll teach them without joining, why? Reah will not require you to join the covenant either. From what he says it sounds like he's got some dislikes against her family for being of a higher caste: The head bishop of the Way of White is the guardian of law and caste, and one of the great royals of Thorolund.

Apart from my meanderings above my first impression was that he wasn't a fan of rhea. Also, i don't think he initially has the guts to off her. He abandons them and then later tries to get you to kill her for him. Only after you let her live a while does the murder happen. I speculate that, unless its a frame up Petrus isn't leaving jack on Rhea's corpse. The rite of death idea is fascinating but if he followed a specific tradition (like coins under tongue or on eyes) that's a clue on who killed her. So if petrus dropped the pendant on purpose, I believe its intended to implicate someone else.

What about the pendant's connection to the 'undead pilgrimage' to the bell(s) of awakening? I always thought that those that have a darksign are thrown into the asylum to 'await the end of days' and yet the bells exist to awaken Frampt. Maybe the pendants ARE a sort of last rite. If they were thrown into the asylum and then given the pendant or something like that.

I am also curious about the ties it has to the hunters, the WoW, and Anor Londo. Maybe the pendants where for those who took pilgrimages to Lordran to converse with the gods? I like to think that 'The Land of Lords' was atleast seen as a holy land in the past.

cloudyeki wrote:I am also curious about the ties it has to the hunters, the WoW, and Anor Londo. Maybe the pendants where for those who took pilgrimages to Lordran to converse with the gods? I like to think that 'The Land of Lords' was atleast seen as a holy land in the past.

If we only knew for certain what made them drop from invaders, that could be a clue. Is it just a random drop? Must they have it in their possession? Did they choose it as a gift? Are they members of way of white?

Next time I kill a farmer and get one I'll grill them on it and see what they say

I expect some kinda hate mail reply

I spent a good time in the forest trying to do this, everytime I got one I sent a message and got no reply... they aren't very keen on chatting with hunters it seems.

It would probably be easier to set up a meeting and do tests with forum members

*Coughs*

Questions about forest hunters? And I wasn't invited?

It is a completely random drop, from the same group of farmers you can get a pendant or something random. I've managed to get them from duellists who have said they did not have a pendant, and gotten it from people who did have one. It is a completely random drop I'm pretty sure. Although with relation to the Pendant Petrus and Reah do come to mind.

Tolvo.....whispering the word forest seems all but guaranteed to catch your ears and is always an invitation naturally.

Not sure if this one has been added to the pendant thread yet:

Miyazaki is a complete troll with the pendant.

I'm gonna go with my Muninn explanation on Emergence's thread as ravens are coo l and this lets me sleep at night. Says the guy who just a few days ago added another possible sighting

Lulz, every revelation brings more questions.

Damn, I made an account to post my find, but it seems it has been posted already

Made a thread for this post already, but thought it would be suitable to post this update from Miyazaki here too:

"Finally, we asked Miyazaki about the mysterious pendant that players of the console version can select as a gift at the start of the game, but which seemingly has little use in the subsequent adventure. Is there more to this controversial trinket? "Oh, the pendant?" he laughed. "I am aware that many people are wondering about the meaning of it ... but let's keep it as a secret. I can't answer the question now. I won't answer it for the rest of my life."

This is taken from this article relating the PC rerelease to consoles etc: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2012/apr/17/dark-souls-pc-dlc-news

It leans much more towards a symbolic idea such as a link in the lore or to Demons etc in my opinion.

what do you guys think it means?