- For other uses, see Miracle (disambiguation).
Miracles are a form of magic in the world of Dark Souls.
Lore[]
Dark Souls[]
A human is able to cast a miracle by learning a tale of the Gods and saying a prayer to receive the blessing of its revelations[1]. Since humans are not able to freely harness these holy powers in the same way of the Gods they must use Talismans as a medium to cast their miracles[2]. Since to use miracles a human needs to remember a more or less long story and believe in the content, the strongest miracles require great Faith from the caster[3]
Miracles trace their origin to the dawn of the Age of Fire, when Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight led his knights and the other lords in a war against the Archdragons. The tales of the Lord's hunts of the dragons thus became the first legends of the Gods that would allow human to recount their deeds and replicate their powers[4].
Miracles, as stories of different deities, allow different powers to be invoked for a wide range of effects, from traditional support, to offense, to empowerment and negation. Miracles of Gwynevere, Princess of Sunlight like Bountiful Sunlight employ sunlight to heal the caster and others[5], miracles of Gwyn's Firstborn like Great Lightning Spear employ lightning to create mighty bolts[6], miracles of Dark Sun Gwyndolin like Darkmoon Blade employ the rays of moonlight to empower weapons with magic[7], miracles of Velka, Goddess of Sin like the secret rite of Vow of Silence employ dark powers to counter the casting of magic in the area[8], miracles of Lloyd like Replenishment are more suited for fighting healing[9] while the miracles of Havel the Rock like Magic Barrier are more suited to defend from magic[10]. Even the servants of Gravelord Nito employed miracles like Gravelord Sword Dance to create a magical copy of the deadly sword of their Lord[11].
It is not necessary to learn entirely or precisely the story contained in the miracles to obtain, at least in part, the benefits offered and for this reason the Way of White also produced generalized and simpler copies of miracles to ensure that even those who did not have great faith could take advantage, albeit in a limited way, of the powers they offered. Such were the cases of Magic Barrier, a reduced version of the tale contained in Great Magic Barrier[12] and Great Heal, a long tale that only a select few learned[13] but from which only several verses in the form of Great Heal Excerpt were borrowed to allow more clerics to use it[14] or even shorter summaries like Heal designed for novice clerics[15].
Dark Souls II[]
In the region and times of Drangleic, the socio-political conditions of the world changed radically from those of Lordran. Incredibly distant in space and time from the influence of the ancient gods of Anor Londo and the Way of White, the religion of the Drangleic lands inevitably underwent evolutions. This is because the knowledge available to these peoples was not only fragmentary but was slowly eroded by the continuous collapse of various kingdoms[16] and by the fact that those who succeeded them inherited only parts of the knowledge of their predecessors, which was not controlled or regulated by any cultural entity capable of remaining stable during all the political vicissitudes or linked to the cyclical nature of the curse of Undeath[16][17].
As an obvious consequence the very names of the ancient deities of the Gwyn clan and pantheon of the Way of White were forgotten[18][19]. The Nameless King of the clan of Gwyn's was lost to time even if the "gross incandescence" of the father of his followers never waned[19]. Velka's name was lost and only the fact that sin was her domain is preserved while the robes of her priests lost their purpose[20]. Gwynevere's name was long forgotten too and, although urns containing holy water blessed by her are still found in the Drangleic region, there are even institutions that go so far as to publicly deny that she ever existed[21]. The fact that even the names of the long-lost gods were forgotten led the Drangleic people to continue to worship some of them, only knowing them by different names[22].
The particular cultural condition of Drangleic, therefore also led to effects in miracles, since the gods of Anor Londo no longer had an influence in the region to regulate such a delicate matter as their own legends. The priests of Lindelt, the country with the greatest religious influence and knowledge, were instructed that miracles are powers that find their origin in the beginnings of the world that belonged to the followers of the gods, yet they are not even aware of what the First Flame is[23][17]. The original tomes that contained the ancient miracles of the gods of Anor Londo and their stories have remained in their entirety in only small numbers and most are restorations, [17] and the very names of the gods from which they drew power have long ago been forgotten even by the priests[18].
Over time, the most erudite men on the subject even began to rework and remold the sacred legends of the gods to their satisfaction and to obtain new and different powers[24]. The constant manipulations of the divine stories therefore led to many imitative miracles to such an extent that it was impossible to even discern which was the original and which was the imitation[25], leaving scholars and priests to argue about their origin and truth[26]. The priests of the Drangleic region even went so far as to "develop" miracles that were in no way part of the legacy of the Way of White, such as Unveil, Perseverance, Denial and Caressing Prayer, a miracle whose very authenticity as a divine tale was questioned and which inherited knowledge of the healing sorceries of fallen New Londo[27]. In addition the Warriors of Sunlight devised a new miracles based on tales on their god of war and sun, his first knight and their faithful followers[28] while in the Undead Crypt lost and unique miracles like Soul Appease were preserved[29].
Dark Souls III[]
Towards the end of Lothric's kingdom, when the power of the gods over the world had almost completely disappeared, humans began to produce miracles that had nothing to do with the ancient deities and took their powers from completely different sources.
In the Cathedral of the Deep, the deacons who were supposed to contain the monstrosities of the Deep allowed themselves to be seduced or lost their minds[30], adding to the miracles that were supposed to protect them darker stories about the Deep itself[31], leading them to develop heretical miracles, like Gnaw, that drew on the stagnant darkness to manifest the ravenous insects that lurked in the depths[32]. In Londor, a land of hollows, Liliane's Sable Church began to spread miracles that recounted tales portraying the suffering and conflict of Hollows[33] and that offered salvation to them[34], allowing one to draw upon their darkness to infuse their weapons or "bless" corpses[35], consequently highlighting how the subject of these stories and miracles were no longer the ancient gods but human beings, undead or hollows, themselves who had begun to put their "faith" in their own race.
Variations[]
TBA
References[]
- ↑ Heal description.
- ↑ Talisman description.
- ↑ Faith requirement for the use of miracles.
- ↑ Sunlight Spear (Dark Souls III) description.
- ↑ Bountiful Sunlight description.
- ↑ Great Lightning Spear description.
- ↑ Darkmoon Blade description.
- ↑ Vow of Silence description.
- ↑ Replenishment (Dark Souls III) description.
- ↑ Magic Barrier description.
- ↑ Gravelord Sword Dance description.
- ↑ Magic Barrier description
- ↑ Great Heal description.
- ↑ Great Heal Excerpt description.
- ↑ Heal description.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Straid of Olaphis dialogue.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Med Heal description.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Wrath of the Gods (Dark Souls II) description.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Great Lightning Spear (Dark Souls II) description.
- ↑ Judgment Set description.
- ↑ Divine Blessing (Dark Souls II) description.
- ↑ Name-engraved Ring description.
- ↑ Licia of Lindeldt dialogue.
- ↑ Splintering Lightning Spear description.
- ↑ Emit Force (Dark Souls II) description.
- ↑ Heavenly Thunder description.
- ↑ Remedy and Caressing Prayer description.
- ↑ Sacred Oath and Sacred Oath (Dark Souls III) description.
- ↑ Soul Appease description.
- ↑ Dorhys' Gnawing description.
- ↑ Deep Braille Divine Tome description.
- ↑ Gnaw description.
- ↑ Dark Blade description.
- ↑ Londor Braille Divine Tome description.
- ↑ Dark Blade and Dead Again (Dark Souls III) description.