The Deep

The Deep (深み Fukami, Depths) is a concept in Dark Souls III.

Description

Dregs of the Dark within humans.

The Deep is a corrupted and unnatural version of the Abyss, that instead of being the result of a great gathering of Dark Souls is the product of an immense mass of accumulated and stagnated Human Dregs, the densest and heaviest parts of the Dark Soul that have stewed for ages.

The Deep inside the Ringed City and its inhabitant.

The Deep is different from the Abyss, which is a place completely blanketed in darkness and quiet, as it appears murky, damp and more similar to a swamp bottom. Like humanities, the dregs that form the Deep are also able to condense and take the more solid form of dark purple crystals.

Like the Abyss, the Deep is also capable of generating life but it is abominable, dirty and violent, these life forms naturally take on the appearance of small insects that have jaws lined with fangs to tear open the skin and burrow into the flesh in the blink of an eye, very different from the natural Humanity Phantoms. Furthermore, the large masses of human dregs that accumulate in the Deep can possess human bodies, leading to the birth of the Murkmen, beings that emerge from the depths and despite their damp and rotten form are capable of employing dark weapons and sorcery. The Deep also led to a degenerate evolution of the ancient humans who inhabited the Ringed City, transforming them into humanoid white locusts that feed on humans.

Lore

The part of this article about the events of lore is inaccurate, missing sources and requires expansions and additions to be considered useful WORK IN PROGRESS

Deep Gem, made from solidified dregs.

It first manifested inside the Cathedral of the Deep with the cleric Aldrich, who experienced visions of the Deep Sea. This led him to discover another nature of the Dark, wherein the dregs of it will sink to the lowest depth possible, and form the new nature that would bind and form the world..

Sorcery that utilizes the Deep's powers.

After his departure from his home Irithyll, the young Aldrich was sent to a great cathedral of the Way of White near the Undead Settlement, a known and peaceful religious center, overseen by three archdeacons: Royce, McDonnell, and Klimt). His corruption though led to him consuming human flesh, reveling in the screams of those he would consume. Many of the deacons encouraged this behaviour, as his followers began to supply him with sacrifices, and even began to gather children to feed to him. Through cannibalism, Aldrich gathered more and more strength and power, turning him into a suitable sacrifice for the Linking of the Fire, and to be made a Lord of Cinder: because of this, he was declared a saint, and began to revel in vice.

Cathedral of the Deep

The cathedral hosts a very particular place, the Cleansing Chapel: facing the path leading to the Undead Settlement and the Crucifixion Woods, it was meant to welcome and administrate a ritual of cleansing, purification and flogging. The ritual was meant to purify the worshippers of the Fire from the cursed darkness within them, with impurities in the blood shed with whips dropped into puddles that were later wiped away, released into the lake by the chapel. In time, the constant droppings polluted the lake, the dregs falling far into its depths and left there to pile up, unmoved by any flow and far from the eye: the stagnation led those dregs rotting deep underwater and eventually corrupting the lake itself, becoming the flourishing bosom of parasites, nasty insects and far more terrifying lurking creatures. If there is a physical place to be identified as "the Deep", this is it: a small lake, polluted by an ages lasting flow of dregs and human impurities that have darkened its very core and turned it into a rotting pond, a stagnating Abyss.

The once peaceful Cathedral of the Deep became the home to things most foul, and as of such, the deacons were required to protect themselves from it. Some of those who slipped into the Deep began to wallow in this filth, while others were steadfast and resisted the maddening corruption to some meaningful degree, though they still began to actively practice dark arts.

Aldrich, Saint of the Deep

Aldrich, Saint of the Deep.

When Aldrich noticed it and understood what was truly happening before their own eyes, he foresaw what this could have led to: an Age of Dark, but different from the old legends'. It would have been an era of corrupted, twisted Darkness, generated by the stagnation that had led to the formation of the Deep and that was slowly engulfing the cathedral itself: the world would have been flooded by an abyssal dark, similar to a deep sea's. He started to reveal this pre-visions of his with few and managed to convert two of the three Archdeacons of the Cathedral, being Royce and McDonnel. Eventually, he consumed so many men and children that the dregs of the Dark built up within him, before it collapsed onto itself, transforming Aldrich into a mass of dregs and his own rotting remains. Despite this sorrowful state, he remained sentient and sane, further proving his sainthood. Sheltered by the clergy, he became massive, sustained by flesh and filled with endless bones.

His power made him a candidate to link the First Flame, however he was worthy only for the power of the Deep within him, and was linked against his will. His body was taken away from the burning Kiln and closed safely into his coffin, to serve the Linking ritual again when the time would have come for his awakening. Meanwhile, the Church of the Deep would start spreading its faith among the Way of White's ranks and more and more clerics and members joined, as the Depths' corruption was spreading more into the cathedral and many horrors started to lurk within its halls. Meanwhile, in Irithyll, Sulhyvahn would consolidate his power as the new Pontiff of the Way of White, closing an eye on Royce and McDonnel's practices as long as they didn't go against his rule and doing.

After Aldrich revived and learnt of the world's state, he foresaw the inevitable age of the deep sea coming closer and that the time had come, and neglected his throne. His visions showed him the last of the old royalty of Anor Londo, and resolved with courage in his heart to devour all of the Old Gods himself. Leaving Royce and the main clergy to keep watch over the Cathedral, and their saint's coffin, he marched with McDonnel and his clerics against Irithyll, defying the orders of Sulhyvahn himself and taking over the city, slaughtering the Pontiff's Knights and forcing the Pontiff to allow Aldrich the access to the Old Cathedral of Anor Londo, where the Dark Sun Gwyndolin was kept. Aldrich devoured Gwyndolin in its constant hunger for more power to stand as the new Lord of the approaching new era of the Deep Sea.

Age of Deep

A "human" of the Age of Deep.

The Age of Deep is a condition that the world would assume once the First Flame has gone out. In fact, if naturally the Age of Fire should have been followed by an Age of Dark, the Dark Soul has been corrupted and stagnated by the unnatural prolongation of the life of the Flame through the repeated acts of linking it. As a result the Dark Soul itself has remained trapped and castrated within human bodies due to the Darksign for millennia, leading it to decay into dregs or worse to explode in the form of ferocious pus, becoming something beyond the natural darkness.

In this situation the human dregs that sink to the lowest possible depths will become the basis of everything and, as envisioned by Aldrich, a "deep sea" would engulf the world in rotten, putrid darkness. These dark soul dregs, having stewed for ages in the depths would also possess what remains of humans, envoloping them in the dark dampness of the Deep. Consequently, in the midst of a world covered in stagnant slime, the condition of the human race would become that of murky humanoid beings possessed by stewed or out-of-control dark souls even if capable of using the power of the Deep to cast dark sorceries and instill their weapons. In addition, the Depths would have continued to generate parasitic and hungry larvae and insects that would plague the humans.

In the Age of the Deep, Aldrich, as the owner of an immense quantity of dark soul dregs and able to control their dark power, as well as having the cinders of the First Flame within himself, would be the undisputed Lord of the world, continuing to devour whatever catches his attention for his perversed pleasure and venerated by a cult of deacons who similarly allowed themselves to be seduced by the vision of their saint.

To prevent the advent of the Age of Deep following the weakening of the First Flame, the plan of the Sable Church of Londor has become to tear the Flame off its Kiln and preserve it within a Lord of Hollows who can exploit its power, freezing the state of the world thanks to their Dark Sigil.

Artifacts

• Human Dregs
• Deep Gem
• Deep Soul
• Great Deep Soul
• Great Soul Dregs
• Deep Braille Divine Tome
• Deep Protection
• Gnaw
• Dorhys' Gnawing
• Deep Ring
• Aldrich's Ruby
• Aldrich's Sapphire
• Archdeacon's Great Staff
• Cleric's Candlestick
• Murky Hand Scythe
• Murky Longstaff

Entities

• Aldrich, Devourer of Gods
• Archdeacon McDonnell
• Deacons of the Deep
• Deacons
• Devout of the Deep
• Evangelists
• Deep Accursed
• Writhing Rotten Flesh
• Murkmen
• White-faced Locusts

Trivia

• Next to the Cathedral, there is a black void that is watery in appearance when closely observed. It could be that this is where the dark of the Deep is located in the Cathedral.
• As the nature of the Deep is that of stagnated Dark, and the Age of Dark emphasizes humanity’s rule, it’s likely that the Age of Deep is an age of Dark but for a perversed and unnatural humanity.