What Happened to Pharis?

Pharis's Hat
Broad-brimmed hat favored by the archer hero Pharis.
Pharis was an accomplished archer, and though he was human, he ranked alongside Hawkeye Gough, one of the Four Knights of Lord Gwyn.  His hat is universally popular among children.

Black Bow of Pharis
The preferred black bow of the heroic archer Pharis.
Has a longer range than standard bows, but is more difficult to use.  Without proper abilities, results will be underwhelming.

On death of the Archer Forest Hunter in Darkroot, she drops the Black Bow of Pharis, a Twin Humanity, and Pharis's Hat.

Now then I was wondering if people have ever noticed something of a deal of interest to me.  Now the two items of Pharis are dropped upon the death of the female hunter, or is there a third?  The twin humanities, she doesn't respawn and perhaps it was given to her just as extra loot for the difficulty in killing her while not allowing for her to respawn.  Her respawn would allow for the Hat and Bow to be picked up multiple times when they are seen as novelty items or rare items regardless.  


This was listed as concept art but looking at the style I think this is actually just fanart.  In either case might as well liven things up a bit.

So what do you guys think happened to Pharis?  I have a few ideas, one of the crazier ones being that the woman in the woods was some sort of fan that stalked and killed him, dressing like him and using his bow.  A thing to note is the hat has duplicates so the one we get may just be one of the stylistic hats, but the Bow is definitely belonging to Pharis.  With the Twin Humanity, that might mean one of the humanities belonged to Pharis.

Or of course she was just a fan that took his bow after his death, or she was just an archer hoping to use his bow in battle having stolen it from his grave.  Maybe she killed him succeeding Pharis or perhaps she is a family member and inherited it.  

What do you guys think happened to Pharis?

I think she was one of the children who was a fan or possibly a descendant. If Pharis was on par with Gough that means he was likely alive during or before the DLC since it's the likely end of Gough (either we kill him or the abyss does) to make them contemporaries. Pharis being human means that with a couple hundred years until we see the female archer she never met him.

So if she's a fan she read about him and tracked down the bow. If she's family it was passed down.

Or "The Princess Bride" explanation. Pharis started a "Dread Pirate Roberts" like tradition in which "Pharis" started as a real person but chooses a new person to be "Pharis." I like that one. I'll stick with that...

I thought she was Pharis, actually.

However, looking at the information here it's possible that the NPC that we kill in Darkroot may be a descendant of Pharis that inherited his bow. In my mind, the stalker situation could happen since he was celebrated as a hero but part of me doubts it at the same time.

Is it possible that Pharis may have entered the woods before in order to get Artorias's ring and was killed in battle against the forest hunters? The person we fight may have just recognized the value of the bow he had and looted it from him.

I think it is legit concept art but not of Pharis. By looking at this from Gamescom 2011 you can see it is in fact (I think) concept art for the Hunter class. The characters and styles are identical minus the hat and bow.

Fair point, it is art of a person in a Pharis hat but as the item suggests, it is a hat that is popular among his fans who are also likely archers.  So maybe at a point in development the hunter class started with said hat to go with that.  In the artwork they don't wield a bow and ignoring color they don't look alike.  

It's also a good question about what kind of archer Pharis was.  It should be noted he was an archer and it does not anywhere list him as a hunter though the hat is often associated with hunters in medieval times.  Did he fight for someone?

I think that Pharis was an all around badass to have ranked along side Gough.

Now think about it, if Gough was using a larger, more powerful bow, and had the Hawk ring, and Pharis was on par with his skills, then Pharis wouldn't have been killed so easily by a mere stalker, in my opinion.

Pharis probably is very old, as well. I don't think that archer was around when Pharis passed away. Pharis was most likely not undead, as the game says that "He WAS human". Past tense leading towards the fact that he has died, unless it means that he has become undead and is no longer human. Undeads are refered to as man, but not human. That might take a bit of speculation.

The first thing we need to think of, is where he originated from.

What country/province was known for it's archers?

The Bow and Arrow was one of the most remarkable and scientific weapons of that time, besides maybe the crossbows. What places do we know of, that made simple yet remarkable pieces of machinery and weaponry and spells?

Oolacile, and Astora.

Both of these places were known for their achievements in certain fields of science and magic.

Where do we find the gear, and Hawkeye gough?

Darkroot forest AkA Oolacile.

The Knights seemed to really like Oolacile, we find three out of four of them there. It would be no surprise to say that Hawkeye Gough and Pharis competed here.

Pharis's legend was most likely started when the dragons were still very potent in the world, where they both shot their fair share, and in a time span from then to now the legend could have been altered, to make it seem like Gough challenged Pharis and Oolacile, why else would they be discriminant of him and lock him up?

Humans are the obvious bottom of the social food chain in lordran, so it would be no surprise that a giant would have his discrimination against humans as well.

"Humans…hmph…" - Hawkeye Gough

So if Pharis was the almighty legend who we know, who ranked along side the captain of the dragonslayer archers....

How did he die?

Speculation 1:

I think that he passed on naturally, and his armor and weapon were passed down through the family. When the abyss struck the family most likely fled, because the weapons were not found there in past time. But they returned later on. And that is how the hat turned up with the Female Archer.


Speculation 2:

Perhaps Pharis was never real, maybe the player is Pharis.

Hawkeye Gough never knew your name, he could have given you a word translated from his language if giants had a native language. You killed one of the most ferocious of the ancient dragons, with his help.

Of course he would say you're an equal.

What if you killed Gough though?

"Time is distorted in Lordran, heroes centuries old have phased in and out."

It could have been someone else as well. History in lordran repeats itself, Quite literally in fact.

Speculation 3:

This one has no facts whatsoever, and changes a bit of my previous speculation.

Pharis may just be a children's story with no origin, and could have been used to control certain people.

There have been times were people used false legends to manipulate large amounts of people.

-COUGH- Frampt -COUGH-

Pharis's bow is nothing to brag about, it has no special abilities whatsoever, has a longer range, and does a decent amount of damage. But the longbow is about equal to it. Pharis was human, not superhuman. He could not have ranked along side gough with that  bow, there is no possible way that that little bow could shoot farther and stronger than gough's.

Gough shot a moving dragon, while he was blind.

Pharis had to have been using a dragonslayer greatbow if he was real, and his black bow could have been for smaller targets.

-End of Speculation-

Gough was most likely shamed for being equaled by a human, so maybe Gough did something about it.

Here is my list of possible deaths for him

1. He passed away normally.

2. Gough killed him in a battle.

3. Pharis never died, he is undead and is somewhere in lordran.

I don't think that the bandit in the woods was any match for Pharis.

This speculation wasn't very organized as I got different ideas while I typed it and looked things up, but w/e piece it together as you will.

NOTE: Pharis does not = Archer in woods.

Why?

"HE was human" -Pharis Bow description

That's why.

Another piece of speculation is that the woman possibly graverobbed Pharis' tomb. As Alvina seems to have formed the Forest Hunters to protect not only the Artorias myth but as she states 'I command a clan of hunters who track down defilers of the forest graves.' 'Graves' implies more than just the Artorias memorial lies in the woods.




Of course this is all based upon the assumption that Pharis lived and died in Oolacile. If he was indeed as famed as the item descriptions claim then he would have had the honour of a grand burial indeed.

Ah yeah how could I have missed that?

But there only seems to be one gravestone in the forest that's visible.

However it's a good point.

+1


EDIT: I just realised I can't vote anymore today...

Well i'll rep you tommorow then

I don't know about the bow and the hat but I always thought the Twin Humanities was symbolic in meaning that the Forest Hunter who drops Pharis' gear dedicated so much of herself to being like Pharis that her Humanity became twinned with Pharis'.

There are other graves in the wood. Just underneath the Artorias memorial. Human sized ones. Looking at this concept art. (Can't find a decent in game image online.)



But it is still all based upon assumptions. Which, I guess is all we have for more minor characters.

Pharis was a bad ***, we all agree on that. It seems likely that Pharis is buried alongside Artorias. But if the forest hunter covenant wants to stop grave defilers, why is there someone in their cov that has stolen items from Pharis' grave? Or am I misunderstanding?

Thxodore wrote:Pharis was a bad ***, we all agree on that. It seems likely that Pharis is buried alongside Artorias. But if the forest hunter covenant wants to stop grave defilers, why is there someone in their cov that has stolen items from Pharis' grave? Or am I misunderstanding?

I think she is his family and it got passed down by forest hunters explains why she leader/strongest of human npc ( I know the cat is in charged of hunters)

or it u look at items
The preferred black bow of the heroic
archer Pharis.
Has a longer range than standard bows,
but is more difficult to use. Without proper
abilities, results will be underwhelming


note the word preferred which mean many may have used this black bow but It was called the black bow due to pharis heroic human feats with that bow and the hat is popular among children which mean she may have bought one for her kid or herself

I don't think that the bow was replicated. It hints at it being a singluar, legendary-ish weapon. Like Havel's hammer.

Maybe she killed Pharis and took it from his corpse?

To sum it up this is what happened:

Pharis goes in the woods thinking he's hot stuff, shooting at forest hunters

Pharis finds her, but she's talented and gets the upper-hand and kills him, or she just sneaks up on him with the fog ring.

Noticing she killed Pharis, she wore his hat and wielded his bow out of either respect for the legendary archer, or because his bow is famous, and powerful.

That or there was a goof up on From's part and the archer was coded into the game before Pharis' lore was written, and they forgot about it.

I'd go with the graverobber theory, it's the most realistic one for someone who fights in the forest with his hat and bow.
The black bow is a very valuable item; the temptation must have been huge for an archer-forest hunter

that's assuming of course that Pharis is buried there, which is not unlikely, since we find Artorias, and a trace of Ciaran there; that place could have been a graveyard for Lordran's heroes, after three of the four knights, who died in Oolacile were buried there. (or, Pharis simply died in Oolacile)

Maybe Alvina got her to work for the forest hunters in exchange for what she stole.

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offtopic start:

Latitoast wrote:Maybe she killed Pharis and took it from his corpse?

To sum it up this is what happened:

Pharis goes in the woods thinking he's hot stuff, shooting at forest hunters

Pharis finds her, but she's talented and gets the upper-hand and kills him, or she just sneaks up on him with the fog ring.

Noticing she killed Pharis, she wore his hat and wielded his bow out of either respect for the legendary archer, or because his bow is famous, and powerful.

That or there was a goof up on From's part and the archer was coded into the game before Pharis' lore was written, and they forgot about it.

i bet she went like
"you are dead, dead, deaaad
you are dead, dead, deaaad
you thought you were hot, guess what, you're not
you are dead, dead, deaaad..."

offtopic end

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You deserve +10000

Hue's always got a trick or two up his sleeve, lol