Dark Souls 3 Lore | Manus in Love 

White birch bow is a reference to the Manus cheese kill, in which you shoot him from outside fog wall with a bow.

Even tho it sounds like a good theory, the idea that halflight is such an important character gets destroyed by the fact that he gets swapped out by human invaders in the online game. He just seems to be a follower of the covenant and nothing more actually.

I know it isn't as fun as wild theories, but you should try to take a look at the principle of Occam's Razor.

Awesome vid

One mistake in the video. Dark Souls certanly does follow the almighty force of gravity. FeelsRedMan

the more videos i watch the less i know about what the fuck is going on

I love how every souls player forgets that the Primodial Serpents have caused all this havoc for entertainment.

Spoilers! the painter creates half life 3 after you give her the blood of the steam soul

what if the bow was Just a reference to all the people that cheesed manus' boss fight shooting arrows at him from above ? great theory by the way

Manus is dead in Majora's Mask.

I know this is years late and you might've had different theories about this sense, but Nashandra's human form also resembles Dusk and Nashandra was born of Manus' soul.

the problem I see with this theory is that in DS1 seems to indicate that Manus was already ancient by the time of Dusk. He was dead and buried until Kaathe convinced Oolacile to exhume him, at which point he awoke and realized his pendant was missing

umm... i think we all know that Elizabeth the mushroom is manus's real lover

Slightly different as it may be - "Manhus" is also ancient Anglo Saxon for "hell," or, "home of wickedness."

I miss Manus

I don't think so. It's stated in DS1 that the people of Oolacile "upturned the grave of primeval man and incited his ornery wrath." Seems like he's far too ancient to have had any relationship with the young Princess Dusk.

Oh Boy. Manus? After playing that whole DLC your first theory is Manus? LOL I should have seen that coming :)

The one hole that you could poke at this theory considering the Soulmass spell, would be that it seems to be a spell of the Spears of the Church - which Half-Light wasn't the first, but the last of - due to every single spear (pvp spear) using it. Also, it's technically not a soulmass, but if you look closely it's actually spear-tips that pierce the enemy - although the windup part does look awfully similar. I'd strongly assume that this magic is native to the Spears - but then again, there's a good chance the pigmy's were somehow infatuated with Oolacile back in the first cycle(s). At least the legend of the abysswalker seemingly spread to the Ringed City - which makes sense, since it's a city of man (though following the gods instead of Kaathe), and the tale is basically a tale of man(us). Another point is that the item description said "a mission who venture to the ringed city" (or something along the lines), which means that Half-Light actually entered the Ringed City willingly and still human. It could be that he entered it in the first cycle - as the city itself is presumably very, very old - and then pledged himself to Judicator Argo, but then again, why would he give up his search for Dusk in order to pledge himself to Filianore? And how did he end up in his own grave then? And last, but not least, we are actually not fighting a sorcerer when fighting Half-Light, but someone who's seemingly rather fond of Dex Weapons; although both his weapons have an intelligence scaling, it'd be odd to have a sorcerer prefer physical weapons over actual magic. Especially interesting is the fact that the Frayed Blade is "symbolizing Darkeater Midir", which means it was crafted after Midir - due to the dark damage presumably after his fall to the Darkness, so after the Abyss had spread, which means Manus would have been a beast at that point already. Also interesting is that the "once exquisite blade is now stained black, and frayed at the hilt", and that "without its sheath, it will soon crumble into nothing" - two things that to me suggest that this weapon is not just "older", but downright ancient (speaking in normal human terms). This weapon wouldn't have been that old, frayed and stained in the first age of Lords; I think it safe to assume Half-Light aquired the weapon a long time after the Abyss had spread. It could of course be that he aquired the weapon after being summoned, but since its not actually in any way related to his bossfight, I somewhat doubt that he'd aquire it after being summoned to our age.

It's an interesting idea, but Manus in Artorias of the Abyss is specifically referred to as a "Primordial Man", as well as the fact that his tomb was deep into the earth, probably existing for a long time before Oolacile was even built. Manus is presented as being an incredibly old entity (hence all the speculation of him being the Furtive Pygmy) and that doesn't mesh with the idea of him being Halflight or somehow related to him.

This is actually really cool. The DLC didn't answer a lot of questions but is a gold mine of speculations.

Halflight is not necessarily his name, the player is invaded by "the moaning knight" whose name is actually eygon. Not disagreeing just adding additional evidence to note.

Hey man, I want you to know that I'm genuinely sorry that a lot of your lore videos have been uprooted by TRC. I know you put a lot of work into them.

Awesome work on noticing the pendant! Didn't consider that for a second. I tend to think that Manus might have been given the pendant as a symbol of honor before his journey to the Ringed City, and that the love he had for Dusk was mostly unrequited. One of your best vids yet.

"Sometimes doing dark souls 3 lore makes me say things that arent going to happen" Too real man, too real.

Ah I love listening to lore theories in the background

My call is that they changed the description because there was a mistake in the phrasing. My theory is that "sorcerer" was supposed to be either "sorceress" or something more vague about sorcery. OR that it belonged to a sorcerer (Halflight) from Oolacile and that Oolacile is connected with the tale, not the bow's user. It just means that Oolacile played an important part on the tale of Artorias, the Abysswalker, and that its magic is unique and still remains in the bow. I mean, it makes way more sense than "The prime evil man from the start of literally the recorded history also was a human sorcerer AND a missionaire AND devote to Filianore AND apparently was able to be in several places at the same time" and the proof points nowhere near Manus in my opinion. Interesting video though, makes me wander who the actual f*ck is halflight (and I'd just say... we can't know, he's just an npc with almost no backstory that we fight and comes from Oolacile what can we do with that!?). Also it just makes more sense to me that he kidnaps her to "be whole" again in some sense by devouring one of the children of dark and that the pendant has some meaning for him and wants to kill you for having it and take it for himself.

I think Halflight is their son cause he uses both Dark and Light during his fight (it also could be Manus, and his involvement with Midir and the Frayed Blade were what made him be consumed by the Abyss)and speaking of the Duke's Archives Shira, who's also a member of the Spears, says that she is the Duke's daughter, furthering the connection between Manus and The Ringed City.

What if the "Father" in Manus' name isn't "Dad" but more like "Cleric"?

I think you spent too much time watching the new Beauty and the Beast movie.

All these years I thought I was the only one that thought Manus was in love and I found you;) Thank you.

Sadly the White Birch Bow did not say that it belonged to an old sorcerer, but only that it originated from his home. I really like your theory as a theory, but I think Halflight could never be Manus. I think he is just a loyal warrior from Oolacile, who choose to protect Gwyn's youngest daughter.

Amazing and fascinating theory, brilliantly explained!

it's a wild theory. they make half light out to be just one of the missionaries that visited the ringed city. the white birch bow also says it's from the land of oolacile and not belonging to the sorcery of the abyss. I think he's just a sorcery from oolacile during the time when Manus was lord/king. finally if half light was the son of Manus then we would get a piece of the dark soul when we killed him if he was. we didn't so he can't possibly be.

Finishing the DLC thinking you have everything figured out than getting your mind blown by a lore video. Damn good feeling.

It is an interesting theory. However one small thing that kinda breakes the theory a bit. The spells the Halflight uses are miracles, not sorcery. It wouldn't make sence that someone that uses scorcery which the gods consider heracey would be a spear of the church of the gods.

Velkafanboi31 Love your theory crafting. Well done!

This theory doesn't seem to accomodate the importance of "primeval" man. The sorceror who supposedly became Manus can't be primeval man. No regular human or sorceror in any of the games is referenced as primeval. There is no logical conclusion derived from the lore that can explain how Manus became the father of the abyss without being exceptional in some way. Its clear no human can become something like Manus, given we see all forms of abyssal corruption in the Olicile towns folk. This also suppoorted by how Manus' soul fragments into other beings. Humans just cant do that. I've always leaned towards Manus being the furtive pygmy, given the references to primeval man, and how the Manus boss room is identical to the Pygmy chamber in the ds1 opening cinematic. There is definately a connection there though. The pendant definately has its place somewhere, I just think the lore of the first game needs some reexamination.

when you're secretly hoping for half life 3 existence and didnt want to say it but your mouth betrays you

I'm not gonna hate on the theory, on the contrary, I think it's very interesting. That being said, I don't like it, especially because it has one aspect that, in my opinion, has been detrimental to Souls theory crafting for years. I'm talking about the whole "time is convoluted" thing. I don't like that. I'm willing to bet that was a mere gameplay explanation concept for the multiplayer component of the game; I guess from software​ should have used the term space instead of time. Sure, I'm not gonna deny that there are some time distortioms here and there present over the course of the games, but I don't think it means time is fucked up all the time. Another aspect I don't like either, but doesn't bother me as much as the time thing, is that you are using a previous Item description as the basis of your theory. If they changed it, it means that it shouldn't be considered canon anymore. I mean, by that logic Priscilla is still our partner, because it is a previous idea that changed. Again, I'm not trying to hate or anything. Believe me, I'm a huge fan, and personally I couldn't even come up with a single theory even if I tried to do just that for a month. Its just that, it seems so easy to simply say "oh yeah, time is convoluted"

I know this was 3 years ago but i just have to say: wasnt the pendant broken after the sorcerers found it? That was a huge part of what drove him into madness. He cherished it when it was whole. And also he is referred to as a "primevil man" no matter the timeline, i dont see how he can go from that to a proud warrior. Perhaps the object around Halflights neck was the broken pendant of Manus, but i think the father of the Abyss still died within his chasm. As we know that Artorias still had his same fate, meaning Manus still created the Abyss through this timeline.

Look, we all do respect to your speculation and theories, but even you have to admit that Velka being the Furtive Pygmy and the Witch of Izalith sounds at least a little ridiculous. It doesn't make sense from a story wise perspective or a lore wise one. Why would one character take on three identities that are all completely different? You'd think that if that was Fromsoft's intention, they would hint at it a little more. I am not trying to criticise you, I just think that due to how ridiculous this theory sounds, that it was spawned mainly from wishful thinking. I think that when you make other massive lore theories you should look into information that could disprove your theory as well as information that could support it.

I like to think that Manus wasn't in love with dusk, but rather Philianore, and dusk and half light were their children.

I always thought of Manus as a parallel between both the player and the essence of humanity (the rl concept of humanity); the player because of the Pendant and humanity because Manus is described as "the primeval man" and went wild because of a "wrenching nostalgia". Characters getting carried by obsession is a very common theme in Dark Souls since the first game (Manus and his obsession with his pendant; Lautrec and his obsession with Fina; Solaire and his obsession with "his sun"). DS3 straight up mocks the player for his obsession with the Dark Soul and the Lore, take Lappatches' dialogues for instance. Sorry, Jake, I do love your theories about Velka... But I think you should stop making unecessary connections to DS1. That's your obsession there. Seriously, narratively speaking, what benefit the Lore would gain from Halflight being Manus to begin with? "Hey, remember that boss from DS1? He's a servant to Judicator Argo now!"??? The golden soulmass is not even his spell, that's caused by the Covenant... He is a dude from Oolacile indeed, but "this one character is actually this another character" is getting pretty old.

Half-light? Half-dark. totally. And, although you state that they were in love, I think more likely that the parallels with Berzerk are strong here, like when Guts has to witness Casca being raped by demons. I know that sucks, and it's really dark and bad. But I wouldn't exactly say Dusk was found "unharmed" after we defeat Manus, she can't speak, she's panting, exhausted etc. It does not look good. It isn't all bad i guess, there is some ambiguity, Dusk senses some endearing qualities to Manus and manus at least sees in her a symbol of what he desperately wants. But the parallel to guts picking up Casca is undeniable even if no one wants to admit it. Half-light could be their offspring either way tho if it happened before and in a happy way as you describe, then Dusk is really aloof to her son and her dead husband. I am SO happy you found the stone pendant, like unbelievably so. For me that and the white birch bow solidifies this theory for me. Also, Dusk being Princess Peach isn't too far off if we consider the Mario shout-out about how the mushroom people at one time went to war against chimera tortoises. Princess Toadstool vs Bowser. Also, mario can be seen in DS2 wearing a frog-suit as the Demon of Song(kidding!). But also, Alice in Wonderland, given Alvina of the Darkroot Garden is obv the cheshire cat.. anyways! So, back to the pendant. I want to fully believe it is the pendant. Perhaps it is broken because we kick his ass and they send his dead body back to manus and that's why he's mad/sad. But Manus' pendant looks distinctly red and seems to have written markings on it. Maybe it's just worn and soaked in half-light's blood, idk. The twine looks different than the weaved rope too. still, could be worn. There is some evidence to Half-light being the major contender for Filianore's hand in marriage and Filianore not really wanting this to be the case. Her being handed off by Gwyn in a deal with the pygmies to stay in their Ringed Prison-city, I wouldn't blame her. But my point is there is a parallel of unrequited love. Regarding time being convoluted there is one very annoying thing in the Ringed City. For the most part it seems to be a city in the distant past, perhaps as far back as Oolicile given the extent to which the Abyss has run rampant. But that damned Dragonslayer Armor... ruins EVERYTHING... it reads "The Armour, defeated by the Champion of Ash in Lothric (seriously...), was left ages to rust (oh god), where it slipped into an abyssal swamp yada yada". I thought Ringed City was going to help us understand shit.... what is this madness?? Maybe the Abyss itself is a medium for time-travel. I mean, we don't get to the DLC until we are teleported to the convoluted center of the Dreg Heap where everything coalesces... and then go all the way the bottom, where the dark egg thing teleports us to the secret pygmy meeting where the Dark Soul seems to be the epicenter.... Lastly, I'm surprised you haven't mentioned Filianore's black hair and the fact that the Painted(Church) Guardians assist Half-light in defending her. Ties to Velka homie.

It looks like Halflight's bow is a definite reference to Oolacile, but perhaps not directly to Manus. After all, the bit about "the land famous for the Legend of the Abysswalker" was the part they kept in both versions. So Halflight is definitely from Oolacile. But then where is all his offensive magic coming from? Oolacile was a land famous for its benevolent, or at least non-combative sorceries. That's why the discovery of Kaathe's involvement and Manus' torture came as such a shock. And of course after the Abyss took over, there WAS no Oolacile anymore. So when did he develop all this unique, combative magic? Is he primeval man? The primeval men are supposed to be the Pygmies -- of whom we only meet one, Ludleth, in a non-Hollow-looking state. And Ludleth still looks a bit gray around the -- well, around the everywhere to be honest. Halflight, by contrast, just looks like a normal human sorcerer. He also looks a little too refined ("prissy", some would say) to qualify for the term 'primeval' IMO. Also, the pendant on Halflight's gear is clearly wrapped with a kind of braided black rope, not a vine. (HD graphics FTW) It's harder to make out the image of the Broken Pendant (as it was a whole console generation ago), but that doesn't quite fit the image of what we're seeing on Halflight's stuff. None of this is to say your theory's wrong, they're just small things that I noticed that bug the heck out of me.

We already knew that Manus was obsessed with Dusk... because she reminded him of his love... the one who he gave the pendant to or she gave it to him... but Dusk was not the woman he loved but maybe a descendant? and Manus' "tomb" was buried under Oolacile loooooog before Dusk was even born... Also Dusk is a sorcerer... its not far off to assume that she was the wielder of the bow... -.- Manus has all but been confirmed to be the Furtive Pygmy and split the dark soul that started all of this... Long story short... NOT MANUS... Jesus someone says abyss and everyone goes crying Manus...

Argo says in one of his lines that he is summoning a "divine spear of yore". "Yore" meaning "of long ago or former times". He's literally using the same type of magic Manus later/earlier will use to grab people from the future, to bring Halflight from the past/long ago/former times into Filianore's church. I believe this theory now. Solid work! :)

I can't believe FROM didn't create a unique backstab and riposte animation for scythes. Same goes for whips. Just have them do a brutal kick to the shins, making the opponent fall to their knees, then the scythe is put to their throat and with a very fast motion, the throat is cut. Alternatively, have them do the kick and cut down diagonally across the entire body, maybe with a little stop in between and a rip-out animation to go along with the riposte/backstab sound effect they chose for DS3. For whips - the exact same thing. Kick to the shins from behind or the front, then a quick, brutal diagonal cut/whip from top to bottom or bottom to top, doesn't matter.

Isn't Manus supposed to be ancient? I mean, primevil basically means that. And he's Primevil during times of Oolacile. And he was searching for the pendant through time and space even while already having Dusk brought to the Abyss - that's the point in time hand brings you to. I always took it as Manus having some lover in the past, having a pendant form them and when people of Oolaciel drove him insane he kidnapped Dusk because she reminded him of his lover.

Hey Ashen, have you taken a look at the *Crucifix of the Mad King*? It says that there was a pigmy king who was born mad and as such, was promptly killed by Shira, but it simply pinned itself to it as a half death thing that inhabits the weapon she used. When you take a good look at the corpse of the Mad King, you can definitely tell it's not the size of a pigmy, it is in fact gigantic when compared to even a regular human, and it has the dark imbued within. This leads me to believe the mad king was gradually becoming like Manus and as such, was killed to avoid him becoming too powerful.

I kinda feel like the connection is super tenuous. Honestly, if anything, I'm more likely to believe that Halflight is a descendant of Dusk, not super directly. I just feel like the errata on the bow was done purposefully to fix a plot hole, one that might lead people to believe that Manus wasn't originally the furtive pygmy. It would make more sense to me if Fillianore was the one of Manus's affection, and it so happened that Dusk resembled Fillianore, seeing as she and the ringed city where gifts entrusted to the pygmy by Gwynn.

This is an out of the blue question, but how does prince lothric knows spells of oolacile? is there a connection i'm not seeing? Is it maybe halflight who taught him the magic and doubted the linking of the first flame (because his father is manus and mother is dusk)? is it possible that the royal family didn't like what halflight was doing with their only hope of linking the fire so the send him off to the ringed city as outcast. or maybe wanted to search for more answers. so prince lothric gave halflight the aquamarine dagger as farewell gift. description "Engraved with a prayer in the old tongue to ward off incident. Perhaps it was a parting gift given to one sent off on great travels." (prince lothric spoke the old tongue and he's known with prayers. also an aquamarine dagger is costly but not for a prince) but an item like soulstream discredits this "Sorcery imparted by the first of the Scholars, when Lothric and the Grand Archives were but young. The first of the Scholars doubted the linking of the fire, and was alleged to be a private mentor to the Royal Prince."

I think it's more likely that they changed the bow's description not because it was "too easy to tell it was Manus' bow", but because people were mistakenly thinking it *was* his bow; the previous description mentions Manus in passing, as a description of Oolacile, and how the bow comes from there, not that it belonged to Manus. By that logic you could equally say that it was Artorias' bow. This way it makes it clearer that the bow wasn't necessarily Manus' bow, rather that it was merely from Oolacile, which kind of undermines the whole premise of this theory. Not to mention that either Halflight or his corpse would have had to returned to Oolacile from the ringed city in order to then be dug up again to become Manus, which seems unlikely since Halflight's entire deal was that he decided to stay behind and dedicate himself to the church.

I feel like the only real issue with this theory is that Manus is called Father of the Abyss, meaning that he started it/created it/birthed it/whatever, so, if he were Halflight, he wouldn't really be able to be corrupted by the Abyss if he hadn't created the Abyss yet (assuming that he wouldn't create it until Manus was in beast form). I had no idea that the item description was changed, so thanks for pointing that out.

I do belive manus was a sorcerer from oolacile, you can even make a catalyst with his soul. Also, as the white tree related to oolacile and dusk, in farron keep (belived to be oolacile), you can find clothes of dusk and the white tree...and in the new DLC you can find another white tree qith branches,wich very close to the place where you find the bow.

I've just been watching all the amazing Velka videos when suddenly - boom, new upload from our lore master, and I'm like hell yeah, here we go, lore jackpot tonight, baby!!) Thank you very much, The Ashen Hollow, this stuff just keeps me going all night!)

the original description of the birch bow doesn't imply it was manus'. just that it was a relic from the land where manus came from (oolacile)

There’s one massive plot hole with this theory, in both the old and new description of the white birch bow they never say anything that hints at it belonging to manus, it only says it is from the same land as an old sorcerer (assumed to be manus) originating from the same land does not mean it was owned by manus

Wait Wait Wait! An emotionally disturbed reindeer quicked my ass for 2 weeks?! Fuck life man...

MY GOD this was well explained, i was stuck in this entire video because of how good it was, editing, music, just everything.

tell you the truth I am quite disappointed that fillanoire doesn't hold another broken pendant to connect manus as the furtive pygmy

Stopped watching when he said it couldn't be a translation error. They changed from "a land of an old sorcerer" to "an ancient land of sorceries". I mean, am i missing something here ? It's just a mistranslation imo.

I thought it would have been princess filianore since there is a connection between her and early man who obviously still had a deep contact and connection with the abyss

I read both of those descriptions as "coming from the 'land' of oolacile". Not belonging to any one person.

Am I the only one who's angry that they didn't add the miracles that where use during the half light spear boss?

Jake: “I don’t speak Japanese” I don’t speak Japanese either, but Japanese for Artorias is senpai (I promise I’m not gay)

half-life 3 confirmed

oh for heaven's sake I'm getting so tired of "TIME IS CONVOLUTED HERE!~"

3:09 no I dont know.. Please, tell me... Keep up the good work, I feel like we dont have enough Lore speakers in Dark souls. Vaati is great but we need more fellow dark souls creating content, great video.

well this just blew my mind

Been waiting for this ty for uploading this.

Great video, thanks for the hard work!

So Manus was in love, got rejected, became the ultimate Emo by becoming a being of pure darkness, then got his ass kicked and split into some ladies? Makes sense.

I really liked this theory. It's very interesting and gives new light to the character of Manus.

i love this theory but we have to remember manus' title as father of the abyss. which means that he didn't fall to it he spawned it and the bow is probably talking about artorias. although the ringed knights themselves and the antiquated garb make the life of the abyss much more... complicated. ill reply with more later

Amazing buddy, really amazing theory awesome.

maybe halflight is dusk's brother?

Really cool and intriguing theory, but I have a hard time believing it when it is supported by "time is convoluted," personally, time is not convoluted its an excuse to explain things that are beyond our understanding. Looking into it, the bow is most likely referring to Manus, however, it could also have belonged to Dusk. The "his role" could be yet another common translation error similar to how they referred to Longbow Oolan and Lady Maria as guys, when they were actually girls. That may have caused the edit, along with many lore inconsistencies if Halflight were Manus. Antiquated Plain Garb says it belonged to a missionary from Oolacile, who stayed behind and became the last known Spear of the Church. This is obviously referring to Halflight, and if Halflight is in the Ringed City how can he also be Manus in Oolacile. Second, Manus grave is in the cavern in his boss arena under Oolacile, with Gough and Chester both confirming that the citizens of Oolacile awoke Manus from his grave. Yet again Manus is referred to as the primeval man, meaning one of the first ancient humans, in other words a pygmy. Halflight doesn't seem to be a pygmy. Oolacile missionaries were sent to the Ringed City on a mission. What was the mission? To find the Dark Soul of course, the only reason people visit this "dung heap," and they probably planned to use it to awake the primeval man that slept beneath the city. If this is infact their mission and if Halflight is one of the missionaries sent to the city on this very mission, then it is impossible for Manus and Halflight to be the same person.

Dude, awesome video. I'm on the side of him possibly being his son. Just because humans in this world is so easily forgotten. Just like the furtive pygmy, it feels like Elizabeth wouldn't remember, since she is currently dead for years while protecting Dusk. I could imagine Dusk dying through birth, while giving life to Halflight, and Elizabeth using her own Mushrooms, to make sure the child was healthy, sacrificing herself, for the child. Makes me believe that's why you see her corpse, in Farrons Keep, next to the Dusks clothing. Manus is the Abyss and if the Abyss is still at large, I believe that he was still around as Manus. My speculation is that Manus is possessing Midir currently. Midir was a dragon who the gods made eat the Abyss, thinking the dragon would overcome it because of its ancient roots. Sadly, the dragon ends up being possessed by the Abyss and becomes who he is now. Midir even uses one of Manus's iconic moves, that every being possessed by the dark uses, and that's the Pursuers Affinity spell. Even Midir's soul has the humanity sprite with the small white eyes, and the swirling out of control darkness around. As if a different soul was inside the dragon, controlling his every move. And wouldn't it be smart, to possess an Ancient Dragon, that can live for eternity?

Beauty and the Beast basically

This is super farfetched...

There is a pleasing parallel between Manus "protecting" Dusk and Halflight protecting princess Filianore. Assuming Halflight IS Manus, perhaps he decided to stay in the ringed city because he fell in love with Filianore. Maybe the pendant he treasures so much was a gift from Filianore herself. That could explain the utter frenzy he enters when he loses it. Perhaps in his frenzy, he reverted to his Spear of the Church ways and kidnapped Dusk thinking she was the woman he loved; Filianore?

Speaking of the Abyss... I noticed that weapons like the Farron Greatsword deal more than against Abyssal enemies. Aldritch is the Saint of the Deep, but he takes more damage from the Farron Greatsword, so he is an Abyssal enemy? (many sources say so) So that means the Deep = the Abyss? I hope that you could one day cover this theory haha

@The Ashen Hollow: today i think to have "discovered"/noticed something that i haven't seen ANYONE mentioning anywhere,not in the wikis, youtube videos ecc about one of the "misteries" of "the ringed city" dlc I was playing Dark Souls 1, and something pretty rare ocurred to me; something that probably many people either never experienced or just don't remember: a vagrant invaded me..and while i was watching it, with it's white shell and the dark humanity contained within it i thought: no way, that can't not be linked to the "shell" that Filianoire sleeps upon..somehow

Here is my theory. The hero who wielded the bow is the first chosen undead. Because the easiest way to kill Manus was to shoot him from up on that ledge. The 'Invisible' arrows, are a reference to the fact that manus was just like *Prick* OW! *Prick* OUCH *Prick* The Fuck These arrows Coming From?!!?

Isn't Manus described as "Primeval Man"? As in a Pygmy? Halflight's design doesn't fit the design of the Pygmies. But I could imagine Halflight being the child of the two.

Hm, I don't know. Manus is old, even for Oolacile's standards. Elizabeth calls him "primeval" which shows he's ancient even in her eyes. Manus was probably there waaaay before Elizabeth and Dusk were. Sure, time is convoluted in DS but it's laid on pretty thick that he's old as hell.

I think you could be right about Manus impregnating Dusk when she was holding her prisoner. But I don't think Halflight is Manus, Manus clearly has children as stated in DS2 and DS3. The entire area is a source of humanity and the darkwraiths were hunting down humanity to bring to Kathe, and he made his way to Oolacile and taught them the ways of the darkwraiths and they "angered manus". In DS2 some lore talks about Manus' daughters, one of which is the final boss of DS2 (If you don't count the Scholar of the first sin optional final boss fight), Vendricks wife, queen whatever-the-fuck.. and another is the dark lady in ds3 firelink who arrives after that old turtle sorcerer dude dies when you get to max hollow, she leads the sable church. Lore in DS2 states the daughters of Manus went out and were attracted to powerful souls and positions of power. There was a lore theory going around that one of them could of even been Lord Gwyn's wife. So fully possible he has sons too, he did amass a shit-ton of humanity in the chasm

Just adding a bit here, could it be possible that, instead of Dusk, what if its Shira that Manus desires? After all she is a decendant of the gods, whos to say Dusk and her arent related? Also it might be even further hinted with Alva and the Witch's presence in the Ringed City in accordance to Halfite, and Shira's relationship. Just a thought, otherwise nice work on the video man ^-^ *also I still believe Manus is the Furtive Pygmy just to be clear. I do think Halfite and Shira along with a lot of other things in the Ringed City poke at stuff in DS1 and 2.

final comment to be clear- the game fully illustrates the cut text. Halflight's set mentions its wearer is from oolacile. Halfight wields the birch bow. Birch is from oolacile, halflighjts set is from oolacile. So we learn halflight is a sorcerer (and a katana dualist, *cough* Yuria and Friede) so we know that the bow is Halflights, and halflight is from oolacile. -and as you cleveryl point out the man wears the stone pendant.... so..... Manus speculation ahoy. My only question would be how did he get buried in olacile again. but i think time might be REALLY screwed in the ringed city and that the egg of fillanore may have already been broken in a previous causative timeloop before we actually do it.

Why can't the White Birch Bow be referring to Dusk? She is a sorcerer (her outfit is made to boost sorceries) and when we come to Oolacile she is swallowed by the Abyss (literally being kidnapped by Manus and being dragged into the chasm of the abyss). The white branches are also associated with her, so are the white trees around DS 3. The Unseen Arrow skill would also suit Dusk's apparently mischievous nature.

The miracle that Halflight casts is cast by all Spears of the Church when summoned by Argo. It is gold just like the ritual spear and divine spear fragments. Unless Halflight imbued all future Spears of the Church with his miracle or it's tied to Argo's magical summons.

the word "manus" also translates to "dude" in Hungarian. We know that Hungarian and Japanese languages have similarities. What kind of lore implications might this reveal? Maybe Manus gave himself this name because he wanted people to know, that he's a dude. Why would he do that? Because it wasn't obvious! Manus is transgender confirmed.

Perhaps Filianore is the daughter of Gwyn and VELKA. Gwyn’s children seem to all have blond or white hair and Filianore has black. DS goes out of its way to say that Velka has black hair. Gwyn gives her to the Pygmies and that Sacrifice enrages Velka and this is why she rebels. (the eyes of the fire keeper talk about betrayal, velka is associated with the ring of sacrifice, etc.) She then creates the curse for the undead in the hope that someday one of them will break Filianore out of her eternal sleep. I think that the Ashen Hollow’s theory of Halflight being Manus also makes sense since I have read some theories that TRC is actually the time right before the first linking of the flame. There are allusions to this jump back in time in the DLC that can be found - a few of which are the changing sun, Shira speaking as is Gwyn is still around and now this theory that Halflight is Manus. I haven’t detailed this or organized this well but maybe it can be used as a good jumping off point to look into further.

Furtive Pigmy = the blacksmith of the Ringed Knights (Ringed Knights armor set + dark ember + white slab/demon titanite) = Manus. The broken pedant was the object where he kept a dark soul part and was consumed with rage when Steath stole it.

Hey Ashen Hollow, I don't know if you know this, but "Manus" in Latin also had an additional meaning: It meant the power of the lord of the household over his family (especially his wife). Meaning he had to give permission for his wife to purchase stuff and important decisions, otherwise the wife was not allowed to do these things at all. Just thought it was interesting, because it has a nice synergy with Manus' obsession/love with Dusk (and the fact he kidnapped her). Keep it up man, your videos are great!

Hey Jake, what are your thoughts on this: The Ringe City pretty much seems to have a crescent form with Filianore and the Pygmy Lords being in the middle/close to the middle of it. The ringed city is surrounded by this convolution of all times. All the buildings etc seem to be drawn towards the ringed city. Later, once you fight Gael in the ruins of TRC, the middle of the map seems to be flat, while it's surrounded by all these giant sand piles or whatever they are. And within this arena are the remains of the Pygmy Lords and Gael who eats them. Again it seems like everything is drawn towards them, towards the Dark Soul. Well, at least this is how it seems to me. I'm not quite sure what it means, but perhaps it also has something to do with The Dark Sign, which also is a ring.

And the Lord is back, excellent video now I can't just kill Manus, and it's now kinda ironic the Tale of the Abyss Walker, because now the fight between Manus and Artorias is two men who got corrupted by the abyss not just the shining tragic Knight who fought until he got defeated by the beast of the abyss

The description on the bow never once appears to point to Manus. The wording was changed to make the intention of the sentence clear. The land was swallowed by he Abyss not the Sorcerer, but the clumsy wording of the original makes it easy to misinterpret the description. I believe the bow is referring to Halflight and that he is as his gear describes, a missionary who went to the ring city and opted to stay as a Spear of the Church. Consider this, a missionary is someone who acts on a religious mandate, now they go to a place where one of GOD'S children is resting and they are having open recruiting to protect her. It is the behavior that would be expected of someone with strong religious inclinations. The chance to fufill one of God's last mandates. Manus was/is Manus, a primeval human who died a long time ago and his humanity festered and they poked him enough until that sludgy build up of humanity began spewing out everywhere and he transformed. Manus's only significant moments to the goings on in the lore was when he was pulled from his grave and everyone got to see what happens when the Dark fills a space for the first time (The reason they would call him father of the Abyss, they didn't know any better), then the Abysswalker Legend "plays out."

The bow is a relic from the LAND. That LAND that has the old sorcerer. So not necessary that the bow belongs to that sorcerer. Anyway, this also confirmed this sorcerer is the one who went mad and invented dark magic ( Dark magic Item description )