Melfia

Melfia (メルヴィア) is a mentioned location in Dark Souls II.

Lore[]

The country of Melfia is located to the south of Drangleic^[1].

Melfia was founded by several sorcerers from the region of Drangleic, in particular from the lost kingdom of Olaphis^[2]. With his kingdom plagued by the curse of undeath that was rapidly spreading across his land, the king of Olaphis became wracked with fear and suspicion and began to see the progenitor of curse in anything and everything^[3], each of his subjects as a carrier of the blight. In a foolish attemp to keep the undead out of sight, the king swept them up and locked them in droves inside the Bastille, that was then turned into a prison^[4]. Now paranoid and aware of his own frailty, the king seized anybody that he perceived as a threat and he found undesirable, cursed or no, and impounded them in the prison fortress^[5]. Sorcerers in particular suffered dreadful persecution^[3] and among them even the incredibly skilled and famous Straid of Olaphis was imprisoned^[5]. As the prison of the Bastille reached the point of being saturated with undead, the king of Olaphis used the Flexile Sentry golems to cram them into crude ships and sent them to the sea to certain death^[6]. Many sank with the ships, however a small number of survivors drifted to the south and settled down^[6]. Among them there were several sorcerers and therefore they imparted their knowledge to the new land where they ended up^[6]. Olenford in particular became revered as the father of sorcery in the country that would became known by the name of Melfia^[2].

The great Magic Academy for which the country became famous was thus founded in Melfia. The school became an institution that would collect, preserve, teach and develop knowledge about magic in different fields, mainly sorcery and pyromancy, through several academies^[1]. Magical schools devoted to the pursuit of knowledge grew and attracted important scholars and researchers, consequently leading Melfia to become a lush land with sorceries and pyromancies in which these arts thrived^[1][7]. Thanks to their researches, sorcerers and pyromancers of Melfia were even able to create new spells like Shockwave^[8] and rework ancient advanced sorceries like with Soul Spear Barrage^[9]. Even pyromancies that were considered heretical in ancient times were taught^[10] but dark sorcery remained a firm taboo and those that choose to study this type of magic were admonished and distanced by every other sorcerer^[11][12]. While a great knowledge of the past of magic has been achieved by Melfia, its history remain largely unknown and many arts were lost over the ages. An unspecified "great white being" is correctly remembered as the founder of sorcery but they have no way of knowing if such claims are true. The Academy also knows that before pyromancy there were the more primordial fire sorceries but they were long forgotten alongside their mother^[7]. Additionally, not even them, like in the rest of the entire Drangleic region remember the name of Big Hat Logan, the great sorcerer master, that was lost in time^[13]. The very history of the Magic Academy of Melfia has become confused as, during the centuries that it has existed, the details of its establishment have become unclear due to the fact that it has suffered from repeated scattering and gatherings of its faculties^[14].

Sorcerers at the Academy attempted to alter the state of titanite to imbue it with elements, but were said to fail^[15]. Despite this claim, at some point someone must have succeeded, because of the appearance of various types of valuable elemental titanite stones imbued with powers such as bleed, poison, dark, fire, lightning, magic, or even enchanted titanites that were able to convert the intelligence of the user directly into physical damage^[16]. The Academy of Melfia was also dedicated to the study of the celestial bodies and Astrologists thought that there were rules for the movements of the sun, moon and stars and that magic power could be obtained from their alignments^[17]. Even with multiple researchers and years of study, however, they were unable to acquire sorcery from the sky but from their ideas and study processes led to the creation of new and useful magic devices^[17]. The Academy of Melfia also learned how to infuse different magic and soul powers into crystals, creating quartz rings that were bestowed upon students that reached a certain level in their studies to increase their defense from magic, fire, dark or lightning^[18]. At one point the Pyromancer Glocken began to craft replicas of these rings causing much dismay from the conservative, old guard faculty of the school and his fellow magicians scolded him for underming the lessons gained from harsh training. Despite this, Glocken continued to craft many rings, so much that they became widespread and known for having saved the lives of many travelers, while also making him very rich^[18].

The country of Melfia is not only dedicated to the search for magic for the pure interest of knowledge and in fact the sorceries developed by the Academy are used by the magic warriors who defend their land with sorceries. One of these spells is capable of creating a greatsword with souls making the use of the sorcery not dissimilar to swordplay and thus making it popular with the magic warriors of Melfia^[19], while other spells instead imbue the weapon with magic^[20]. Despite the advantage represented by the advanced spells at Melfia's disposal, wielding a sword and casting a sorcery are still considered two different things and the old purists of the Magic Academy view these fighting spells as impure and swordplay as a barbaric form of engagement^[20][21]. The prejudices of some, however, did not stop some warriors of Melfia from using twinblades that were also able to double as catalysts for sorceries thanks to their honed skills in both staves and swords^[22].

Although the Magic Academy is supposed to be an institution devoted to the pursuit of truth, Carhillion, a renowned sorcerer, came to perceive the scholars as uninterested in truth, paltry of ambitions and more engaged in petty squabbles, making it the academies a terrible place to learn magic^[1][7]. The stubborness of the Magic Academy in certain subjects can in fact be highlighted by how the institution persists in denying the very existence of Gwynevere, despite the presence of several of her relics containing the water blessed by the goddess, thus distorting the search for the truth^[23]. Their research based on logic and the secular mentality of the Melfia school's scholars thus led them to deny the existence of holy magic, thus explaining how forms of magic based on faith like miracles are not studied at the Magical Academy.

Characters[]

• Carhillion of the Fold
• Rosabeth of Melfia
• Felkin the Outcast
• Olenford (mentioned only)
• Pyromancer Glocken (mentioned only)

Artifacts[]

• Olenford's Staff
• Astrologist's Set
• Sorcerer's Twinblade
• Soul Greatsword
• Magic Weapon (Dark Souls II)
• Great Magic Weapon (Dark Souls II)
• Soul Spear Barrage
• Shockwave^{[Note 1]}
• Yearn^{[Note 1]}
• Fireball (Dark Souls II)^{[Note 2]}
• Fire Orb (Dark Souls II)^{[Note 2]}
• Combustion (Dark Souls II)^{[Note 2]}
• Poison Mist (Dark Souls II)^{[Note 2]}
• Flash Sweat (Dark Souls II)^{[Note 2]}
• Iron Flesh (Dark Souls II)^{[Note 2]}
• Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring (Dark Souls II)
• Spell Quartz Ring
• Flame Quartz Ring
• Thunder Quartz Ring
• Dark Quartz Ring
• Magic Stone
• Bleed Stone
• Poison Stone
• Darknight Stone
• Firedrake Stone
• Boltstone
• Faintstone

Notes[]