Oceiros, the Consumed King

Oceiros, the Consumed King (Japanese: 妖王オスロエス, Hepburn: Yāo-Ō Osuroesu, lit. 'Oceiros, the Bewitched King') is an optional boss in Dark Souls III.

Description[]

Oceiros appears as an old, decaying dragon with pale, translucent skin and a notable lack of scales. He is still capable of articulate speech but also roars and screams like an enraged beast when provoked. He holds a sorcery staff in one hand and his invisible child Ocelotte in the other.

Location[]

Found at the far end of the Consumed King's Garden, in a ruined temple located behind a terrace guarded by two knights.

Lore[]

Oceiros is the former king of Lothric and father of Lorian, Elder Prince and Lothric, Younger Prince. With his title he represented the entire culture of linking of the Fire of the kingdom^[1], shouldering the burden of the duty of firelinking^[2]. His emblem, boldly depicted in gold on the shields of his royal guard, in fact represented a large bird looking up to the sky, toward a crown^[3], symbolizing the royal's most cherished desire of producing a worthy Champion to maintain the Age of Fire^[4].

At some point the king would marry Gwynevere, Queen of Lothric^[5] and with her generated the divine princes of the kingdom who were entrusted with different destinies^[6]. Lorian, as the eldest prince, was designated heir to the throne and for this reason he received the ancient brass armor handed down by the royal family together with a crown helmet patterned with flame, symbol of the kingdom's tradition of firelinking^[7]. Lothric instead, as the youngest prince, was designated to become a Lord of Cinder, sacrificing himself in the linking of the First Flame to keep the Age of Fire alive^[8]. The prince was in fact the hope not only of the entire kingdom but the result of the long obsession of Oceiros and the royal family to produce a worthy Champion^[9], for the young man who was supposed to enter the Kiln of the Flame arena, a platinum sword was created and blessed with strong magic by the High Priestess even before he was ready to fullfill his destiny^[10]. Oceiros in fact created immense propaganda around his son Lothric^[11], not only giving him the name of the kingdom, but building statues that depicted him ready for sacrifice and with his sacred sword even before he linked the Flame^[12], already preparing his throne at the Firelink Shrine who called him the "Holy King of Lothric" and the hope of the kingdom and its lineage^[13]. Despite all the hopes that were placed in him, Lothric soon revealed himself to be a sick and shriveled child, so weak that he never grew out of his baby clothes, which remained his only clothing throughout his life and were blessed to at least try to keep him healthy^[14].

When the royal family and Oceiros realized that Lothric would not improve from his condition, they resorted to repulsive acts in an attempt to obtain a worthy Champion for the linking, even if it ment to create something inhuman: they would in fact bind the souls of the two brother princes together with a curse, in the hope that the weaker Lothric would thus share the strength of Lorian, making them able to sacrifice themselves to the Flame together^[15]. However, their union also led the older brother to share the younger's condition, making Lorian crippled and mute to the point of being unable to walk on his own legs and the two unable to link the Flame^[16] In his later years, now consumed by continuous failures in the search for a solution to the problem of finding a worthy Champion and driven to insanity by his work with Lothric's blood^[17], Oceiros became fascinated by dragons^[18] and began to slide into madness, eventually turning to the cursed knowledge of the Grand Archives^[19]. Here Oceiros found the twisted worship of the White Dragon Seath^[20] and became so absorbed in it that he wore a ring with a dragon scale^[21] and had his army use shields decorated with a "white dragon"^[22] while giving his royal palace guards magic stoneplate rings that absorbed magic damage^[23].

After losing his sanity to his delusions, Oceiros became known as the "Consumed King" and many assassins were sent to try to kill him and remove him from power^[24], but he always managed to survive attributing his resilience to the divine "protection" of the dragon scale of his ring^[25]." Continuing to study the sorceries and knowledge contained in the Archives and brought to Lothric by the Crystal Sages, the successors of White Dragon Seath and Big Hat Logan's researches, ^[26], Oceiros found himself walking the same path Logan, reaching the same level of "enlightenment" of the sorcerer and then going completely mad^[27]. The king, in his deep delusions, believed he had to become a dragon himself in order to produce an heir strong enough to link the Flame^[28]. Eventually, Oceiros managed to transform himself into a scaleless dragon form^[29], albeit an imperfect and distorted one, even obtaining the sorcery of Seath's crystal breath^[30].

Once his desire for transcendence was satiated^[31], Oceiros once again fathered a child with Gwynevere^[32], believing that a descendant of dragons would make a worthy Champion^[33]. Once he obtained his child Ocelotte, Oceiros retreated with his royal guard to the royal gardens close to the Firelink Shrine, completely ignoring the state of his kingdom to protect the "child of dragons" who represented the culmination of his desires and the only thing left in his life^[34]. Despite everything, the king was not even able to see Ocelotte, holding him tightly in his palm and relying only on his madness^[35][36].

Theories[]

• It is possible to theorize that the transformation of Oceiros into a deformed pale dragon was a project carried out with the collaboration of Pontiff Sulyvahn. In fact, although the partial transformation into a dragon is a technique already owned by the cult of the Path of the Dragon, it is a long process that requires particular practices^[37], but which does not offer the certainty of transforming into the particular dragon that Oceiros aspired to, namely Seath^[38]. In the dungeons of Irithyll it is possible to find abominations, with a very similar appearance to the draconic form of Oceiros^[39], the result of failed experiments to transform human beings into ancient dragons^[40], but with no scales and a pale complexion. The Pale Pine Resin made from their bodies possesses magical power and can also be found within Lothric Castle^[41]. It is good to remember that Lothric and Irithyll remained on good terms even after Sulyvahn's coup, with the Pontiff sending Gargoyle from the Profaned Capital to the Grand Archives^[42] and Grand Archives Scholars going to Irithyll^[43].

Fight overview[]

The battle starts with a cutscene of King Oceiros in a delusional state while holding his youngest child, Ocelotte in his palm. Once he notices the Ashen One's presence, he will pick up his staff from the floor and prepare for battle, willing to defend the welfare of his child with his own life.

On his first phase, he attacks almost solely by swinging his staff. His attacks are very slow and easy to avoid, taking a considerable amount of time between swings. Additionally, most of his attacks are performed in front of him, leaving his lower body open to attack most of the time. He will occasionally perform a jump to smash onto the player and also summon fountains around him that inflict Curse build-up upon touch.

On his second phase, however, Oceiros becomes much more aggressive. He will brutally dispose of the baby in his palm and tearing his staff to pieces by smashing them into the ground. He then proceeds to stand on all four limbs and the battle then becomes much more similar to that of Vordt's, by rushing at the player from one end of the arena to the other.

Some of his attacks now include performing a series of ferocious bites at the player in a very similar fashion as the Sulyvahn's Beast, an extensive barrage of claw-swipes, and a spinning move when both he and the player end up occupying the same space.

He also can now unleash a white breath that summons crystals that inflict Curse build-up. Most importantly, he now has an aerial attack where he jumps up and glides toward the player, unleashing a trail of the same crystals and which can kill the player almost instantly.

Strategy[]

The first phase of the battle is not very difficult. Just rush toward the king's hind legs and attack. Since most of his attacks will end up in front of him, staying below him will prevent the player from being damaged for the most part. Most likely, he will then proceed to jump up and try to smash onto the player, be ready to move or roll away when this happens.

The fountains he summons are also very easy to avoid, as they are amply telegraphed and take a moment before they start dealing damage.

If the player ends up occupying the same space as the king, he will unleash a spinning attack. This is telegraphed with enough time and has poor collision detection, making it easy to avoid.

When about 40% of Oceiros's health has been depleted, he will switch to his secondary phase. Tactics for this phase change drastically from the first one. The player should keep distance from the king and let him attack first, retaliating only while he is recovering.

Most of the time, he will lunge at the player with great force, usually ending at the other side of the arena. When he finishes this move, he will turn around and roar, leaving him completely vulnerable at that moment. The player must evade this attack and then rush after him to hit him in the face. If the player is able to hit him enough times directly to the face, he will stagger and become open to a critical attack (in a similar way as the Sulyvahn's Beasts).

His barrage of claw-swipes have very poor tracking and if the player can evade it in the first place, the king will be vulnerable from behind for a considerable amount of time while he keeps on walking forward, finishing the move.

His white breath is also easy to avoid and amply telegraphed. He makes a pause and then unleashes it from the right to the left side of the screen. Circle him by the left and attack him while he is performing the attack.

His flying attack, on the other hand, is extremely dangerous and can kill the player almost instantly if they let themselves be caught inside the trail of crystals, which fill up the Curse meter at an alarming rate. When the player sees him jumping from a distance, they must make it a priority to run or roll in a perpendicular direction from the trail.

Oceiros will say a few dialogues throughout the course of the battle. While these are onscreen, the player will be restricted from performing most actions. When these appear, tap the action button to make the dialogue scroll and disappear as soon as possible.

Summons[]

Hawkwood the Deserter: If the player has exhausted Hawkwood's dialogue at the Firelink Shrine, he will leave for good. His summon sign can then be found on the platform just before the terrace guarded by two Consumed King's Knights.

Drops[]

Item	Soul of Consumed Oceiros
Drop Rate	Guaranteed

Dialogue[]

Trivia[]

• Oceiros' title uses the kanji "妖王" that can be literally translated as "Demon/Ghost/Witch King", however "妖" used as an adjective can be translated as "Bewitched", more fitting for Oceiros story of obsession and sorcery.
• Oceiros is voiced by William Houston, who previously also voiced Marvelous Chester and Vendrick.
• Oceiros has a unique death animation if he is defeated in his first phase. A Video showing this can be seen here.
  • This can be done without cheating, but it requires a build capable of doing 8,000+ damage in a very short time (this is only possible with a hyper-mode build and abusing buffs), but any normal player won't see this due to them most likely lacking the DPS needed to two-shot Oceiros. Video of this can be seen here.
• Looking through the source files of the game, one can find an unused model for an infant. The mesh file has to be applied though source rigging, but the infant is dark and malformed. Additionally, one of the latest pre-release versions of the game feats Oceiros holding that baby, Ocelotte, in his hand during the first fight. It was removed in the final version because of censorship, for the starting of the bossfight's second phase would have portrayed Oceiros that, enraged and blinded by insanity, smashes the infant on the ground, killing them, before going berserk against the player.
• Looking through the source files of the game, the player can spot a cutscene with an unused sound effect. It is likely that, due to controversy, that sound was not used in the version released after the day one.

Gallery[]

Oceiros picking up his staff

Videos[]

Music[]