Humans

The Furtive Pygmy, the first Dark Lord, and progenitor of Humankind.

The Humans are a race in the Dark Souls series, and one of the four primary races in the lore. All playable characters are humans afflicted with the Undead Curse.

Description

Like the Gods, the race of Men varies in size and physical appearance, but are almost consistently amongst the shortest of the races. It seems that size is naturally varied and has been for all time, as the Ringed Knights are towering figures, while the Pygmy Lords are slightly shorter than modern man. They also have a much more consistent anatomy, as opposed to the Gods.

All human beings are made Human by a fragment of the Dark Soul, known as their Humanity, which looks like a black sprite with blank white eyes. Humans are also capable of withstanding the Abyss, provided that they have not become untuned to it, and even find a sort of comfort in it.

By the time of that human's death, their Humanity could be in any number of states. Emotion seems to make Humanity stronger, but also unstable, and the human body can be mutated by its own essence if control is lost.

Lore

The Dark Soul of Man.

Age of Ancients

The Humans were created by the Furtive Pygmy, a forgotten Lord from the dawn of Fire, who claimed a small spark known as the Dark Soul. With this soul, the Pygmy raised up the Human race, binding their nature with the Dark. When the other Lords prepared to battle the Dragons, they came to the Humans, and conscripted them into their ranks. To this, Humans began to forge arms and armor in the Abyss, which drew upon the power of a dark flame. Gwyn, Lord of Light, and his children, the Gods, cast a seal of fire upon them due to their nature. So it was that the Human army, who were dubbed the Ringed Knights, set out with the Lords and their armies to eradicate the Everlasting Dragons, but due to their status, their roles were not recorded.

A Ringed Knight, a member of the early Human army.

After the war, Gwyn "gifted" the Human Lords a place called the Ringed City, which sits far away at the end of the very world. He also gifted them his youngest daughter, the goddess Filianore, promising her that he would come back for her. Though the humans spread throughout the world, many remained in the Ringed City as well.

Age of Gods

In the Ringed City, the true Dark Soul was spread out amidst several individuals, who became the Pygmy Lords. With the Dark Soul, they were ageless, and they and their descendants isolated themselves from the rest of the city.

A statue depicting Gwyn and an unknown lifeform.

A spell fell on Filianore, and as long as she remained asleep, time had no influence on the city or its inhabitants. By the decree of an ill-described "King," a covenant was formed to protect Filianore from disturbance, most of its members being survivors of failed attempts to steal the Dark Soul. The last person, for much of history, to willingly become a member of this covenant was a missionary named Halflight. Victims of the Abyss' corruption were resurrected from the Abyss, to help protect the city streets.

Despite the fact that all of this was for the sake of the Human race, some were opposed to the loyalty to Gwyn, who even went so far as to raise a young Dragon named Midir to combat the abyssal entities of the Ringed City. A few secretly wished for the sleeping princess Filianore to be awoken, and ruin cast upon the city, but such individuals are apparently few and far between in terms of open admittance. A race of beings called the White-faced Locust was risen from the Abyss to give sermons on the Dark, as they were kindred to Humans, but most were gluttonous and sought to eat people instead.

Manus, Father of the Abyss, and one of the primeval Humans.

Meanwhile, in a place called Oolacile, the land of golden sorceries, God-loyal humans were convinced by the Darkwraith leader named Kaathe, a primordial serpent loyal to the Pygmy, to raise up a primeval man who had been buried there. He went mad, and his Humanity bubbled over from his uncontrollable rage, mutating him into a dark monster. His Humanity overflowed and consumed the very world around him, generating another Abyss, and corrupting the citizens of Oolacile. Knight Artorias, one of the four knights of Gwyn, would be corrupted by the Abyss.

Kaathe also manipulated the inhabitants of New Londo, where he enticed the Four Kings with the art of Lifedrain, which ancient Humans used to steal Humanity from others. Even they were corrupted, and New Londo was flooded, to contain the Abyss that generated there. But despite these failures, Kaathe kept searching for a human who could become the Dark Lord, and usher in the Age of Man.

At the close of the Age of Gods, Gwyn realized that the power of the Dark Soul would wax to its utmost maximum, while the power of the other Lord Souls would fade. Fearing that the world would be ruled by the Humans, Gwyn cast himself into the First Flame, artificially extending the Age of Fire for another thousand years. At Gwyn's command, The Gods shepherded the Human race afterwards.

Over time, others would repeat Gwyn's sacrifice-either for their own reasons or to follow in his footsteps-to rekindle the First Flame. As the First Flame was not intended to burn as long as it had, the fabric of reality began to suffer.

Last Days of Fire

One of the Pygmy Lords, bearers of the Dark Soul, before his death.

Dozens of thousands of years have gone by, or even more than that, and the linking of the Fire has become a staple in the world. Finally, when the new "Lord of Cinder" Prince Lothric was destined to sacrifice himself to the Flame, he refused and opted to watch the Age of Dark settle. To save the Age of Gods, four previous Lords of Cinder are resurrected as Undead, but three of them either sought the Age of Dark, or no longer cared either way. One last contingency plan existed, to awaken the Unkindled, who failed to prolong the Age of Fire with their sacrifices. Kaathe's will has been reinterpreted by the Sable Church of Londor, who aim for a different Age of Dark than what Kaathe sought; an age ruled by a Lord of Hollows.

On their quest, the Ashen One encounters the Painted World of Ariandel, and a little girl whose duty it is to become the new Painter, and replace it with a fresh, unrotted version. To do this, she reveals that she needs the blood of the bearer of the Dark Soul, and that her guardian Gael has gone to find it. Just as the flames are reduced to embers and sparks, the entire world has begun to collapse in on itself, surrounding the ageless Ringed City. Gael travels to this heap of reality to find the Dark Soul, with the Ashen One following suit, eventually slaying Argo, the leader of the Spears of the Church.

Upon doing so, they come across Filianore and awaken her. This transports the Ashen One to a desert of unknown nature containing the ruins of the Ringed City, Lothric, and Anor Londo. By the time Gael comes across the Pygmy Lords, their blood has dried up, though the Dark Soul keeps their decrepit remains alive. Gael kills and drinks the blood of the Pygmy Lords, becoming the new bearer of the Dark Soul. In his maddened state he fights the Ashen One, eventually discovering that he now bleeds the very blood that he once sought, and draws strength from the Dark Soul. Once he is vanquished, the Ashen One gives his blood to the Painter, who names the new painting in their honor.

Slave Knight Gael, resident of Ariandel, and the last bearer of the Dark Soul.

Trivia

• Many combat related Humanity powers have been described as representing a depraved Human quality, such as ignorance or excessive love, reflecting how those qualities are destructive when encountered in normal existence.
• Though they are true Humans, the weapons of Gael and of the Ringed Knights bear actual fire power instead of dark. It must be noticed, however, that this fire is of a somewhat darker hue which resembles the Dark Soul, implying that the flames are indeed connected to Humanity.
• A statue in the Ringed City depicts a shriveled being squatting before Gwyn, who gifts it a crown and a glowing essence (in the game, this is a Chloranthy Ring).
  • This statue, when proportions are taken into account, depicts this shriveled being possessing a height almost like Gwyn. While it cannot be said who this statue depicts crouching before Gwyn, it shows that early Humans were not truly "pygmies" to the Gods, implying that it was merely a term used to insult them.
  • This crown appears similar to both Gwyn's own and the crown of the Pygmy King.