Londor

Londor, also known as the Hollow Realms^[1] or the Land of Hollows^[2] is a mentioned location in Dark Souls III.

Description[]

Londor is a realm located in the south of Lothric^[3], consequently placing it even further south of Drangleic^[4], in a region corresponding to that of the ancient Lordran^[5].

Lore[]

The origins of Londor can be traced back to when the Primordial Serpent Kaathe^[6][7][8] welcomed three human sisters into his service as his maidens: Elfriede, the eldest^[9], Yuria, the middle one^[6], and Liliane, the youngest^[10]. Kaathe's past attempts to find a candidate for the title of Dark Lord, prevent the linking of the First Flame, and to finally bring about the Dark Age^[11] of humans had all failed^[12], leaving the gods in command of men and the world, and allowing the Age of Fire to continue, albeit increasingly faintly^[13]. However the Primordial Serpent had continued to try to reach his goals and the acceptance of these three sisters as his maidens represented the first step in finding and empowering a Dark Lord who could usurp the First Flame for themselves and use it to shape a new world for the sake of all Hollows - what was left of humanity after thousands of years of oppression by the Darksign^[14][6][15]. And so Kaathe taught the three sisters, already highly skilled fencers^[8], the art of the Dark Hand, capable of absorbing the humanity of their enemies^[16][17].

Wearing their dark attire, the three women would thus become the founders of the Sable Church^[8]: a faith and an organization that preached the coming of the Dark Lord that would claim the First Flame^[15] and aimed to offer salvation to all Hollows^[8]. At some point the three sisters, now mentors of the Sable Church^[8], settled in a land that would become known as Londor, the Hollow Realm^[1], and over time an increasing number of undead and hollows would find refuge there^[1]. In Londor, the Sable Church would construct black and twisted towers^[18] to serve as their physical place of worship, and Elfriede, as the eldest sister, became the leader of the organization^[9]. The fact that there were three founding sisters was important as it ensured that their legacy would survive, each being able to carry on their mission and ensure that the Dark Lord emerged even if the others went missing^[15].

Over time, the number of hollows that find refuge thanks to the Sable Church continued to increase until Londor became a true undead society, a "Hollow Realm"^[1]. Its inhabitants were in fact wretchedly aged humans, fraught with deceit, and dubiously secretive, so it was no wonder that they are deeply detested in the rest of the world^[19]. The Hollows of Londor thus began to employ illusory rings that allowed them to retain a human appearance even while hollow^[19] and Purging Stones that reduced undead curse build-up and cured hollowing, allowing the inhabitants of Londor to feign normalcy and continue to live as apparently human, even if occasionally a hollow would fool even themselves and turn on their own kind^[20]. The inhabitants of Londor also managed to mine their stagnant humanity and use it to infuse titanite, creating Hollow Gems that they would then use to forge hollow weapons - artifacts that were able to peer into the "essence" of their wielders and increase their damage based on their luck^[21], the unique and elusive essential property of humans^[22].

A culture and even religion completely opposite to the Way of White, which worshiped the gods through miracles^[23], also began to take shape in Londor. Liliane, as one of the founders of the Sable Church, started to recount tales that portrayed the suffering and conflict of Hollows, which the church aimed to bring salvation to^[10]. She even created a tome of dark miracles that were forbidden in the rest of the world as they offered salvation to the hollows and conversely cursed all living beings^[24]. The culture of Londor therefore not only rejected the gods and their rules and stories, but shifted the object of veneration towards the Hollow themselves, bringing attention to their tales and placing their faith on their own kind to perform miracles^[25]. The Sable Church thus developed several different dark miracles such as the Dark Blade, which could be used to reinforce weapons with the power of the dark^[10], and and even sacrilegious miracles that blessed corpses, transforming them into dark traps, as they believed that if undeath was human there would be no need to hesitate blessing corpses that were, after all, incompatible with living things^[1]. The ancient dark miracles of Velka, that allowed the blocking of the magic of those around the caster, including themselves, were also recovered^[26].

Now a full-fledged organization, the Sable Church even began to train agents to enact its will in the wider world. Such agents, all skilled swordsmen, were taught to trust only their blade, and thus, entrusting of anyone they might encounter, they were said to bring the silence of Londor with them wherever they went^[26]. They also learned the art of the Dark Hand passed down by Kaathe^[27], the ancient miracles of Velka, now part of the repertoire of the Sable Church^[28], and a forbidden dark sorcery^[29] that infused a manifestation of humanity with strong emotions to make it tenaciously pursue its target^[30]. These swordsmen became known as the Pale Shades of Londor, a group of assassins who killed in the name and interests of the Sable Church in the rest of the world in order to fulfill their goals^[31]. They were all undying hollows that fought neither for honor nor exaltation and yielded nothing but withered moans, giving rise to much fear and contempt^[32]. They were equipped with lethal curved claws that cause heavy bleeding^[31] and poisoned throwing knives^[33]. Though dark and shriveled hollows, they wore pure white attire^[32] and golden masks with faint, kindly smiles which earned them the moniker "Harlots of Death"^[34]. Sir Vilhelm, one of the hollow knights of Londor known for being a cold-blooded hangman, would also directly serve the three sisters of the Sable Church, becoming particularly loyal to Elfriede^[35].

The goal of Londor, however, always remained to find their awaited Lord of Hollows who was able to break the order of the gods and inherit the First Flame, wrestling it from its kiln and using it to reveal the true face of mankind ^[36]. Thus, the Hollow Realm and the Sable Church continued to study the Dark Soul and the Darksign, so that they could gain the knowledge and power necessary to break the chains of the gods and usurp the First Flame^[37]. The result of their research was the Dark Sigil, an artifact capable of bypassing the Dark sign of Fire placed around the Dark Soul^[38], allowing the darkness which had accumulated in the body to flow again, unlocking the true power of humans,^[39][40], thus allowing a Hollow to reach the strength required to usurp the Flame^[41].

At some point, Elfriede, as leader of the Sable Church, attempted to usurp the First Flame herself^[42]. However, she only managed to take control of a spark, turning into a blackflame^[43], before she ended up failing as the power of the Flame consumed her, burning her face^[44] and leaving her an Unkindled ash^[45][46]. After her failure, she renounced everything^[47], leaving behind her role as leader of the Sable Church, Londor^[48] and even her name, becoming known simply as "Friede"^[49]. Having lost her purpose, she was eventually drawn into the Painted World of Ariandel^[50] and came to consider it her new home^[51], leaving Yuria and Liliane to carry on the mission of Londor.

Learning from this failure, Londor created a method to further increase the future Lord of Hollows' dark power through a "marriage ceremony". By using the Sword of Avowal in a ritual^[52][53][54], the Dark Lord could extract and transfer the darkness of another Hollow into themselves, thus increasing their power to a sufficient level to claim the First Flame^[55].

At some point before reaching his goal, Kaathe died, leaving the remaining sisters of the Sable Church to carry on his vision of an Age of Dark lead by the Dark Lord ^[56]

As the First Flame continued to fade and Prince Lothric refused to link it, the Unkindled were exhumed from their graves to hunt down the Lords of Cinder of the past that had refused to return to their "thrones" and serve as fuel for the Flame a second time^[57]. It was at this pivotal moment that Londor and the Sable Church decided to make their move^[58]. Hundreds of Hollows were thus cast out from Londor and sent to Lothric on a pilgrimage with the specific goal of "dying"^[59][60]. They were equipped with shell-shaped protections chained to their backs^[61], similar to the robes of clerics created to contain the prevent them from becoming seedbeds for stagnant darkness during long journeys, which could manifest the Pus of Man^[62][63]. In addition these pilgrims were given a dark miracle, the only tale known to them, that they believed carried words of forgiveness. In reality they were cursed by this magic, which attracted more attention from foes, and consequently accelerated the achievement of their goal of "dying"^[59][64]. These pilgrims of Londor, whose humanity had accumulated and stagnated inside their body during their journey, upon death, underwent a peculiar transformation which caused their corpse to grow and evolve into a new form of sentient life, similar in appearance to a humanoid insect^[65][66][67]. These humanoid "Pilgrim Pupa" are harmless on their own but are capable of manifesting and controlling physical bodies that resemble Angels equipped with large shiny wings and capable of striking with overwhelming power^[68][69][70]. Some Pilgrims, however, seemingly did not turn into Pupa that created angels, and instead became similar but more twisted entities known as a Pilgrim Butterfly. These Pilgrim Butterflies had only the vaguest of similarities to the angels, but yet like the Pilgrims still try to make their way to upper Lothric, flying around in the sky. A few of these Butterflies would even take a symbiotic host in the Dragonslayer Armour similar to Angels and their Pupae, allowing them to control it^[71] but binding their life to it; those few Butterflies dying once the Armour was slain.

The pilgrims of Londor continued to reach Lothric by passing through the main gate across the bridge to get to the Cathedral^[72]. However, the bridge was broken when the High Walls appear with the sudden lifting of hundreds of meters of the rock under the city, preventing the pilgrims who have arrived from continuing^[73]. Despite this, one day one of the Angels spawned from their corpses managed to visit Gertrude, the holy maiden of Gwynevere, Queen of Lothric^[74] and it revealed to her a truth capable of manifesting pillars of light^[75]. The holy maiden was convinced by this truth and began to spread the worship of those she considered "divine messengers"^[76]. However this faith was viewed as heresy in Lothric, as it opposed the worship of the ancient gods and the duty to continue linking the First Flame, so was consequently unrecognized by any of the Three Pillars that govern the realm^[77], leading to a civil war inside the walls of Lothric between those still loyal to the Pillars and the Winged Knights that followed Gertrude's angelic faith^[78]

At a certain point even Yuria, one of the founders of the Sable Church of Londor, arrived in Lothric^[79]. Her goal was to find an Unkindled strong enough that, with the additional power granted by Dark Sigils, as well the marriage ceremony Londor had developed^[80], create a being capable of usurping the First Flame, ripping it from its Kiln and taking it inside their body, thus becoming the Lord of Hollows that Londor awaited^[81].

Trivia[]

• The English localization of many descriptions regarding Londor use terms such as "foul", "unsavory" and "leaden silence" to describe the land with a negative meaning. However in a more accurate translation these adjectives simply do not exist and the atmosphere of Londor appears much more neutral despite its dark aspects.
  • Example1: Dead Again (Dark Souls III) description: "Londor, the Hollow Realm, is a society of undead, comprised of the corpses and shades of those who led unsavory lives. Is such blessing really something one must ponder?"
    However a more accurate translation would be: "In Londor, the land of the Dead, Immortality is Human, and corpses are not related with the living anymore, since they are incompatible after all. Why should we hesitate to bless them?"
  • Example2: Vow of Silence (Dark Souls III) description: "Members of the Sable Church are all trained swordsmen, each sworn only to their weapons as they bear the leaden silence of Londor."
    However a more accurate translation would be: "Members of the Black Church are all excellent swordsmen, the silence of Londor is always with them and the sword alone will never betray them."

Characters[]

• Kaathe (mentioned only)
• Elfriede
• Yuria
• Liliane (mentioned only)
• Sir Vilhelm
• Yoel of Londor
• Old Woman of Londor
• Londor Pale Shade

Artifacts[]

• Black Set (Dark Souls III)
• Dark Hand (Dark Souls III)
• Morion Blade
• Onyx Blade
• Londor Braille Divine Tome
• Dark Blade
• Vow of Silence (Dark Souls III)
• Dead Again (Dark Souls III)
• Atonement
• Untrue Dark Ring
• Untrue White Ring
• Purging Stone (Dark Souls III)
• Hollow Gem
• Pale Shade Set
• Manikin Claws (Dark Souls III)
• Poison Throwing Knife (Dark Souls III)
• Dark Sigil
• Sword of Avowal

References[]