Aldrich, Devourer of Gods

Aldrich, Devourer of Gods is a boss and one of the Lords of Cinder in Dark Souls III.

Location
Found in Anor Londo, in the same hall of the cathedral where Ornstein and Smough were fought in Dark Souls.

Lore
A former holy cleric who developed an insatiable appetite for human flesh, Aldrich's growing strength eventually transformed him into an abomination and he became a Lord of Cinder. While thinking on the fading First Flame, he began to have visions of a "coming age of the deep sea", from which he founded the Church of the Deep, utilizing a darkness far beyond that of humanity known as the "Deep". The Church of the Deep was founded to serve Aldrich and provide a steady stream of sacrifices, overseen by Pontiff Sulyvahn and Archdeacon Royce.

After Aldrich was revived as a Lord of Cinder, he began dreaming of the Old Gods and sought to devour them. Sulyvahn traveled with him to Anor Londo and managed to capture Gwyndolin, who sacrificed himself to save Captain Yorshka. She managed to evade capture but Aldrich devoured and assimilated Gwyndolin, who became the upper body of the abomination. In addition to assuming Gwyndolin's form, Aldrich gained the abilities and sorceries of the Darkmoon god as well.

After devouring Gwyndolin, he fell into a deep slumber and dreamed about a young, pale girl in hiding.

Fight overview
The encounter begins with Aldrich standing on the far end of the room, imbuing his scythe with magic and wielding it menacingly while he prepares for battle. He specializes in ranged combat, doing so by casting diverse dangerous magical spells. Conversely, his close combat abilities become heavily comprised due to his sluggish mobility and tendency to miss hits with his weapon. His substandard melee abilities should not be overestimated, however, because what he lacks in accuracy, he more than makes in damage-dealing potential.

Throughout the course of the battle, Aldrich will be constantly summoning small homing projectiles. Each one of these, on its own, only deals a small amount of damage and the player may even opt to sustain a few of them in exchange of inflicting some damage to the boss. However, if they are caught by the full attack, they will sustain heavy damage, which may even kill them in a single barrage.

Aldrich is most vulnerable on his tail, which provides an area where the player may attack without risking themselves too much from being in the scythe's range.

Upon receiving some damage, Aldrich will raise his scythe and create a big vortex on the ground in front of him, plunging inside to escape from punishment. This vortex is heavily damaging and the player would be wise in not attacking the boss too many times in a row, preparing instead to move away when it is cast. Aldrich will emerge a moment later on the other side of the hall, as far away from the player as possible, trying to buy some time to cast more spells.

Once Aldrich has lost about 40% of his health, he will buff his scythe with fire. At this point, every time he emerges from the ground, he will do so while a much greater amount of homing projectiles spawn with him as he rises.

His most devastating attack is, without a doubt, taking out Gwyndolin's bow and shooting toward the sky, making an extensive barrage of arrows rain over the player and follow them for a considerable amount of time. He telegraphs this attack by suddenly stopping and erecting his upper body, while a white flash of light emanates from him. Being caught under the rain of arrows, practically means instant death. As soon as this attack is detected, the player is advised to completely disengage from battle and start running throughout the room with no specific direction, trying to end near Aldrich when they calculate the attack is about to end.

Strategy
At the beginning of the fight, charge at Aldrich to avoid his hard-hitting soul spear. Get behind him and focus your attacks on his tail. This leaves him with nothing to do but swing his two slow, devastating melee attacks or teleport across the room (usually, adjacent to where he teleported from).

At about 55%-60% health, he will teleport and come back up, buffed with fire. His arrows also go from going forward to following a specific player. If the arrows following the player catch up to them, then that player will most likely go down quick. Blue Bug and Red Bug Pellets are recommended for this fight.

Trivia

 * His throne in Firelink Shrine refers to him as "Aldrich, Saint of the Deep".
 * His appearance resembles an amalgamation of Gwyndolin and Nito from Dark Souls. Since the cycle starts anew every time the Flame is linked, it is possible that Aldrich (who came out of his coffin as a featureless sludge) devoured an entity similar to Nito, thus acquiring his organic "cloak" and the multitude of bones that we can see floating in his mass. Priscilla is more or less mentioned while Aldrich possesses a Lifehunt Scythe.
 * His appearance is a worm-like sludge with the torso of Gwyndolin as its upper body, due to having already devoured Gwyndolin.
 * His melee attacks, during his first phase, closely resemble those of Nito.
 * His name, besides being an actual name, can also be a play on the word "eldritch", meaning esoteric or mysterious.
 * Aldrich's staff, presumably inherited from Gwyndolin, bears a semblance to the Golden Ritual Spear.