The enemy of all living things 

While Dark Souls 1 didn't have Frost as a status effect, it would eventually be introduced in Dark Souls III, where it behaves somewhat similarly to Bleed, so it feels like the Bleed buildup being used for Lifehunt may have been sort of working with what was available at the time. If Priscilla's nature is to oppose Fire, and had she been like the Maiden in Black or the Firekeeper, heroines who are directly involved in the endings of their games, it's interesting to think her purpose may have been to snuff out the First Flame entirely.

The gods rightly feared a bleed and frostbite build.

the only boss in the game i can never beat thanks to her super OP move of politely asking me to leave.

>Priscilla originally meant to be the heroine >Priscilla is barefoot. I can see the lingering influence.

Maybe she’s even the REASON the painted world is snowy. She could be insanely powerful in an innate way that she can’t control.

I'm ngl when you said "her element could be ice and that could explain her lethality" my brain immediately went "oh yeah because Ice is super effective against dragons, that makes sense"

i don't care how potentially dangerous she is, i will continue to love her and her fluffy tail anyway

3:01 oh i forgot how crispy Gwyn was until that close up

Heroine Priscilla is a huge missed opportunity

That theory on her powers being Ice-derived makes sense with the Lifehunt miracle in DS3, where it absorbs health. Cold objects don't just make whatever they're in contact in lower in temperature, they steal the heat from it. In a world where heat=life this would be a vampiric effect on the lifeforce of individuals. Maybe its also why the Lifehunt Scythe in DS1 makes you bleed, it is stealing your heat to function.

This land is peaceful, its inhabitants kind

Oh, so that is why Priscilla is barefoot. She was initially akin to the Maiden in Black.

"Your favorite DS1 waifu is antithesis of all life" Me: "..."

I find it fascinating how Miyazaki builds his worlds seemingly “bottom-up”. While the worlds and its inhabitants are gradually designed and built, the storyline and meaning of things changes many times over, things are reshuffled, bosses swapped, etc. It’s certainly unique, and I am not sure if it would be possible without the kind of indirect storytelling that has become his trademark.

I never fought Priscilla. She never struck me as a boss fight monster exactly, despite knowing that you can trigger a boss fight with her. You meet her in the painting and she nicely asks you to leave, pointing to the door. So I do. Her status as both a prisoner and enemy to the laughably self styled "gods" just makes her one of the good guys. I think of her less as a boss than as just being any of the other NPCs who will defend themselves if you attack them. This NPC just happens to be a giant half dragon so she gets a name bar.

if not friend then why friend shaped?

my life devouring dragon can't be this cute

a friend introduced me to Slay the Princess the other day and folks, I gotta say this all resonates.

As a genuine half-dragon, Priscilla represented the ideal that the dragon worshippers aspired to but could never reach for all time until the end of the age of fire.

She's been my beloved since I first played DS1. I refused to ever beat her and still have never beaten every boss. She may be the enemy of all living things but she has captured the heart of this undead.

You know who *else* is the enemy of all living things?

Her face is still so amicable. Love the fluffy halfling.

The game's text is so mean to Priscilla, "There one was an *abomination* who had no place in this world." "Use the soul of this *crossbreed bastard child* and *antithesis to all life* ," what did she do to deserve this.. QwQ

Equivalent to Destined Death in Elden Ring.

Ohh, idk how i never considered that, but ice being the "lifehunt" makes so much sense, and with how she was lethal to gods, and gods were fire and she was ice. I feel like suddenly realizing something that was very obvious lol. Also this made me think how if Priscilla was in DS3 then there would be frost instead of bleed on her weapons, but we already have a woman in the painting with frost scythe in DS3! Sister Friede! I cant think as of right now, but i wonder if there are more parallels between Priscilla and Friede. They both wield scythes, they both urge you to leave the painted world, but Priscilla has some sort of calmness and earnesty in her trying to get you out of the door, like she really wants this place undisturbed, while Friede tries to keep the painting rotting away, and i say she's kinda unkind to the inhabitans of the painting (and to her own guard to an extent). Im rusty on the lore of the dlc tho so im not sure im seeing the situation correctly, but anyhow, it made me eager to revisit the painting! Thank you for the great video!

It's also worth mentioning she has a bunch of cut idle animations found in the game's files and someone even found a placement where she would temporarily be at Firelink Shrine. So yes, it's probably likely she was supposed to have a larger role. Similar to Lost Izalith, Priscilla might just be a victim of time constraints and shifting ideas (the painted world being Nito's original location, for example)

Priscilla is one of those characters where you just want to pat them on the head and tell them it'll be alright.

In another universe, Priscilla would have been our level up tall halfbreed dragon waifu, sitting beside us at a fire. But alas, Miyazaki was either a genious for knowing he wouldnt be able to recreate perfection, or a genious for knowing we wouldnt be able to bear having less then that in future games.

I misread the thumbnail as "what makes her so gorgeous" and I was like "She dragon :)".

Priscilla: I am the enemy of all life! Players: Oh fluffy tail!

Pricilla resting next to a bonfire was the spark my life needed, thank you Zullie.

Wow, I don't think I've seen Lord Gwyn's face... quite that close before. Man, for some reason, I thought he at least had eyes left.

Even the gods knew they were no match for that fluffy tail.

i just wanna point out how much i appreciate and love the zelda music that you use in your videos. i get waves of nostalgia every time

I wonder if Priscilla's storyline included an option to revert the world to its original state. Dark Lord ending isn't really natural, because concept itself exists because of humanity. Its an opposition to another concept. In dragon times there were no duality, no change.

I want to live in a world where game Devs have no deadlines and can spend however much time they need to fully complete their games.

"My Half Dragon Grim Reaper cant be this cute?!"

The theory is plausible. In thermodynamics, there's no technical concept of "coldness". There is only the quantifiable presence of thermal energy (temperature). If we're equating life to fire, then we're equating life with temperature. If she commands frost then that means she's able to *destroy* energy, which again from a thermodynamics and physics perspective is terrifying. You can't create/destroy matter and energy, only transform or transfer it. If she can conjure and control cold, she theoretically had the capability to permanently destroy anything if she figured out how to make the cold equivalent of Gwyn's rekindling of the First Flame.

0:55 My god this shot just looks fantastic. She's so beautiful

The idea of “cold” being the antithesis of life from the flame makes me wonder about the existence of irithyll, since that’s an entire society of cold

The deadliest aspects of these worlds has always been the draining of life's essence, usually blood, and the absence of warmth that gives energy to life, not just cold, but a cold that permeates everywhere, snuffing out warmth. Especially since Seath created her as an experiment to achieve immortality, Priscilla seems to embody concepts akin to permanancy: the cold and the dark. Life in this setting (allegedly, so say the Gods) needs light and warmth, and Priscilla lives despite having neither. From her, coldness and darkness would spread through the whole world, so she was locked away in an entirely separate world where her effects could be contained. She could have caused the First Flame to go out much sooner just by existing.

It's interesting that Priscilla is one of the few who use ice so early in the series. Ice based bosses are hidden or in the dlc like in the future games, making fire much more prominent

AND she's cuuuute!

I'm not sure what makes it stranger, the idea that Priscilla's weapons theoretically could've had DS3's frostbite in place of bleed, or the fact that the DS3 spell doesn't have any frostbite on it

The painting girl in DS3 also might give more credence to ice being the antithesis of fire, and thus a threat to the Age of Fire itself when manifested in powerful beings such as Priscilla. When she speaks of her painting after receiving the Dark Soul, she describes the world she creates as a "cold, dark, and very gentle place." Those are descriptors strongly opposite of the Age of Fire, which is imbued with warm flame and its light, but also permanently trapped in a war against its own inevitable end. Not to mention the parallels between the Painted World of Ariandel and Ariamis in both being winter-flavored and featuring a scythe-wielding lady who would rather you leave than fight.

There's another aspect to consider. There's a lot of lies hidden in the Souls series, so it is possible that her being "antithetical" to life may actually mean that she was actually antithetical to the official "party line" of the Lords. What lie does her existence expose? That the dragons needed to be wiped out for the Lords and humanity to rise. She is living proof that dragons and non-dragons can coexist, so by her very existence she proves the destruction of the dragons was an atrocity and not a necessity. Think on that for a moment. We're never given a reason for the war between the Lords and the dragons, just that after the Lords rose, they went to war with the dragons. There's no indication of who struck the first blow or why, just that there was a war. In the cutscene depicting the war, all we see is the Lords and their servants attacking the dragons, with no indication that the dragons ever fought back. It is fully possible that the dragons were pacifists, and that the Lords didn't fight a war, they committed a slaughter of beings who were peaceful and pacifistic in nature. The only true dragon we find in Dark Souls is actually really chill, even if you cut off its tail, and even after that will still make a covenant with you. Further, the Dragon Covenant offers humanity the opportunity to join the dragons, implying that the dragons were fully willing and able to let humans join their side, even after the war. There's a very real possibility that the dragons were simply an immensely chill group of beings who never intended any harm to anyone, and the other dragons we encounter, including Kalameet, were exceptions and not the rule, caused by the one-sided massacre of their kind. Given the many lies and atrocities we learn the Lords have committed in the lore, the idea that the dragons were pacifists that the Lords needlessly slaughtered solely because they didn't want to share the world with them is hardly a stretch.

Taken as its own little experience, I think the Painted World of Ariamis is still my personal favourite slice of Souls content. Great pacing, great visuals, great story concept, great variety and a wonderfully haunting, melancholy atmosphere. Just *chef's kiss* all around.

I think "Lifehunt" is represented in-game by her weapons' "Occult" modifier, not by them having bleed. Occult weapons deal bonus damage to "Divine" enemies, and the corresponding ember is also hidden in Ariamis. Maybe she's the origin of those kind of weapons, and the ember was used to replicate the same effect.

Never could make myself fight Priscilla and sweet Ciaran.

With Cold/Ice being opposed to Flame, there's a possible parallel between Priscilla and Ranni. Ranni was inspired by the dark moon and ice magic. Inevitably leading her to strive to overthrow the Golden Order. Meanwhile, Priscilla was locked away because of her existence being antithetical to Flame and the Fire Lords. Both, willingly or not, were opposed to the status quo of their worlds.

Huh, how interesting. I had no idea she was supposed to play a bigger role. It's weird to think about, Priscillia is one of my favorite DS NPC as is, specifically because she's this mysterious non-hostile entity in her own pocket dimension. I'd argue that "the gods being afraid of her" doesn't necessarily mean that she's inherently dangerous to normal beings. Gods are petty and self-absorbed in FromSoft games (and most mythologies I guess). I can see her playing a bigger role in the Dark Lord ending, maybe similar to Melina or Ranni in Elden Ring?

Feels like a better fit than what we got, honestly. Chaos / Heat is Life, where it births hordes of magma spitting symbiotic/parasitic bugs out of a tree of life, with an opposite in a single, ice based, grim reaper, so aligned with Death it can kill gods. The Death we got, Nito, always felt weird to me, since he and his minions are closer to being undead, which treads on the Dark / Physical aspects of the hollows.

The Painted World of Ariamis is so interesting in general. It's like a forbidden junk yard where the gods tossed everything (and everyone) that they deemed a potential threat to their livelihood. They sealed it all away in a painting and surrounded it with armed guards. You find Occult items, references to Velka, a dragon who couldn't accept death, rotting hollows, and of course the subject of this video - a woman whose very being is apparently feared. Priscilla's origin is absolutely mysterious, and is possibly linked to the peculiar doll found in the Northern Undead Asylum - a doll that was seemingly placed more recently, in YOUR cell, by someone who was apparently escorted by Gwyn's knights. There have been theories over the years - some say that Priscilla is the daughter of Seath and Gwynevere, other says she is another of Gwyn's secret children. The existence of Yorshka in Dark Souls III, who clearly has similarities to Priscilla, adds further mystery.

Something that I wondered about her was why she is so dangerous to the gods if she can only make herself invisible. but now I remember the night of the black knives and it all makes sense. Considering that Miyazaki never abandons his ideas and eventually ends up integrating them in one way or another, I wonder if being a god-killer was her first role

The DS3 DLC may have hinted to what became of Priscilla. The pyromancer Dunnel at her former arena and his Parting Flame hint that she remained in the painting. The Painter also remembers her mother who may have been Priscilla, given their shared kind, yet draconic nature. Then again, Aldritch seems to have learned how to Lifehunt as well, leaving her ultimate fate a mystery.

That’s insane to think about. She was originally suppose to be the heroine. It’s so fascinating to learn about development of games and hear what crazy ideas they had to cut, both for better or worse.

So firstly, that shot at about @2:57 is the most ominous I've ever seen Priscilla look. Fantastic staging, as always. Secondly, it's funny that in all of the *many* games that came after, they never quite captured the awe and mystery of Priscilla again. There were characters and mysteries that echoed her, even ones that might have come *from* her. But none of them quite settled in the mind the way this innocent, dangerous girl did. And for theories: the one that Seath is her father is common. But knowing what we do now of what *Humanity* actually is, in the setting... What if Seath made her with a human mother? What if she was a crossbreed of the inherent, monstrous and all-consuming nature of humanity, and the get of creatures that were (or should have been) entirely immortal? Leaving Gwynevere out of the equation, it's the first theory I've hit on that could explain *what* she seemed to be, perfectly.

Ooooooh, I love this headcanon! This sorta thing is my favorite type of Zullie content - all these close ups on the models we could never see at rest in game, various animations playing, like her blowing over her hand, and curled up near a bonfire... REALLY cool meta-narrative assonance that her role as Heroine Guide was cut, so she was literally moved out onto the fringes of the world, unable to affect any of the story. I will fully accept that Ice element headcanon for her :D

I believe it’s a fairly common theory that Priscilla is the child of Seath the Scaleless and the Princess of Sunlight Gwynevere. It could be that the Lifehunt ability stems from this heritage as a form of curse born from Gwynevere joining with an entity who bore a shard of her father’s Lord Soul. Almost like an incestuous deformation. Alternatively, I’m of the mind that Seath may exist as an embodiment of “Disparity” or “Antithesis”, as if the world overly adjusted to the sudden disparity by spawning in Seath as disparity incarnate. He would be a dragon, but would lack their immortality. He would receive a soul shard from the Lord of Sunlight, but would wield powers linked to Dark or the Moon like magic and his cursed mist breath. He would eventually grant his body immortality, but his mind would begin to fade. If then he is a being of “Disparity”, then naturally his joining with the goddess of fertility would give birth to a being wielding the bane of all living things.

I really enjoy the idea of a mythological being that is more like a universal force that reveals itself (like gravity occurring wherever there’s matter) than it is like fauna. It evokes a very real, often worrying feeling that certain things are beyond our understanding, as mythical being should be.

She had to be sealed away, for none could resist the floof and feet.

i was under the impression Seath's element was "Soul" since he grandfathered soul sorcery, his coloration, and the connection he found between souls and crystals. but that's probably due to how vague crystal stuff is left💀

Kinda like the knights of zamor hating the fire giants it seems that one major universal theme is the inability for opposites to coexist. It doesnt seem like light and dark can exist at the same time in a peaceful manner.

For a small prototype map, the Painted World is so unique and I really love the place. Nice visual presentations for the video as always, by the way

I hadn't considered the implications of her powers (and the Painted World) as a whole being themed around ice and cold in a world in which life is based on fire! Your videos are always so thought provoking.

Zullie : Priscilla is dangerous Us : Haha, fluffy tail 🥰

Based on the original plan to have Priscilla be the level-up maiden heroine, it's possible that the original concept of level itself in Dark Souls is Lifehunt Empowerment that enables the player to slay the gods, essentially infusing players with occult power. What's interesting is that this seemed to have eventually been reworked into Elden Ring's narrative regarding Destined Death, so Lifehunt was likely the conceptual prototype idea for Destined Death. Ranni may also effectively be "mini-Priscilla 2.0" due to being an ice-themed woman who uses a power that brings death to the gods to destroy their golden age, which really goes to show how Fromsoft's ideas are never truly scrapped, but rather end up becoming repurposed for future games under a new coat of paint.

Interesting to think about; a "Cold" world is similar in nature to the "Deep Sea" that Aldrich dreamt of, in that it's an alternative "ending" that cannot be actually achieved. The endings for Dark Souls are ordinarily Light or Dark, a continuation of rejection of the Age of Fire. But there are frequent hints that those aren't the only paths. Aldrich's dream of the "Age of the Deep Sea" and Priscilla's existence and anti-thesis to all fire based life (An "Age of Frost" I guess) are both pathways out of the Cycle of Flame that cannot be achieved-- for Aldrich because of his destined death at the hands of the Tarnished, and for Priscilla because she does not wish to leave Ariandel and usher in a "new age" even if she's capable of it.

Learning that she has ice powers I'm now picturing her singing 'Let It Go' in the painted world.

Catch me off guard this video about the fluffiest of all characters in the Souls series and my personal favorite, thank you so much ❤

Dragon waif ❤ If we're considering that Priscilla is supposed to represent ice and cold... We could probably make some parallels with Sister Freide whom also wields a scythe and uses ice attacks (Also, can go invisible like Priscilla). I wonder if there's a connection there, or if Freide was simply inspired by Priscilla?

Never forget what Miyazaki took from us.

Priscilla originally being a fire keeper but also being a creature of ice does cast some interesting implications that the intro line may have at one point been more direct.

They say "don't judge a book by it's cover" But sometimes i can't get over the Cover.

Ranni is their second attempt at Priscilla.

So if her power is cold, Lifehunt could potentially be a form of ultimate entropy - 0 Kelvin or something - that stops both light and, thus, time?

Her beauty can steal everyone's hearts, she was too pure for this world. Priscilla being removed from her heroine role is the most tragic thing that ever happened to videogames.

The fact that videos can still be made about the original Dark Souls today, just goes to show what an incredible game it is, and just how talented of a creator Zullie is. I will forever be subbed, even past when the last flickering embers of the first flame finally die out for the final time.

as we can see Priscilla is a frost bleed build therefore must be locked away

maybe she is a threat to the order of things literally in the sense that the developers did not know where to include her naturally in the game

I just want to highlight that a vaguely heroine role as a scythe wielding maiden feels like another one of those "from-isms" , where they iterate on an idea from a previous property. In this case, Rurufon from Shadow Tower

I find these videos super cool, it's Always nice to gain some lore on franchises like this even if you are not interested and even more impressed by the amount of information you give within those 4 minutes

I always thought that the danger of Priscilla was overstated and she ended in painted world just because Gwyn personally disliked Sith's experiments but couldn't just forbid them, and Sith himself couldn't give two shits about her after he deduced she wouldn't help him achieve immortality. So she was dumped in the landfill of all unwanted things, painted world.

Not only the softeat dragon, but also the perfect anti-Gwyn being. Very cool

Zullie your use of so many Twilight Princess soundtracks always bring back nostalgia for me! Absolutely love it

Amazing work as always Zullie!

Imagine if she was our DS1 Ranni, both an antithesis to the gods, and… other things…

Priscilla was actually intended to be my wife.

She has so much potential as a deep character and heroine. It's such a shame she become completely forgotten.

It could be something like She is not Death, but Absence of life. Like a void that represents not just the END of life, but the complete removal of it entirely. Cold as in the Darkness between stars rather then Ice and Snow.

a secret third ending where you ally with Priscilla to use the power of lifehunt to bring a new era...

The "Antithisis to Life" is litterally the only pacifist in the game and arguably the sanest character, living in harmony with other denizens of her home. I just don't buy it. It's Annor Londo propoganda. They only feared that she could potentially kill them with lifehunt if she chose to and trained to. But she evidently chose not to. If she was truly so dangerous how could they physically force her into the painting? they didn't, she went of her own accord for their benefit. This is exactly how Gwyn treats the dark soul/humanity too. Just because they have the potnetial to indirectly cause his house to fall from power he cursed them all and subjugated them mercislessly. Lifehunt might be linked to occult damage, but also may have just been an unfinished idea. Havel who wields a dragon tooth, his armor is found next to an occult club. But thats pretty flimsy connection. It could also be linked to the curse debuff, which seeth applies. While initally it might seem odd that Ciri doesn cause curse with her lifehunt weapons, that may have been just because they didn't want the player to have a weapon with the ability to curse. It would be a pain to implement. Item descriptions are an unreliable narrator often making subjective claims and musing on unknowns. Specifically they always seem to praise the "gods" of annor londo and speak less favorably about humans and annor londos enemies. Consider how much they tell us at times, specific names and events. Yet never do they name Gwyns first born, despite knowing of gwyndolins secrets and true identity and stranger still the princess guard ring you get from gwyndolins illusion of gwynyvere claiming she, the last valid heir of Gwyn abandoned the throne to marry some nobody thats never mentioned again in the entire series.

Makes even more sense when you notice that the other disparities are divided among the 'Lord' souls. Light and dark, life and death, only heat and cold remain lordless. Priscilla of the Cold has a ring to it, given her design.

Her element being cold/frost certainly ties the series quite nicely forward to Dark Souls 3 with Sister Friede and her scythe, plus any other connection to the snowy painted world.

I want priscilla to hug me

If not friend, then why friend shaped?

Yeah cold makes sense because antithesis of life in this universe must mean something that is not related to death and not undeath but just returning the world back to the age of the dragons. It would make sense actually if they feared her power was capable of that.

One of your best vids so far! Really cool stuff!

Thank you for making such an interesting video, Zullie!

Dark Souls 1 Pog