This is an explanation of my thoughts when I wrote the "story" The Curse of the Abyss. If you want to read the story first, go here.The biggest question I had was about the timeline. Did Oolacile’s events happen first? Or was it the downfall of New Londo? I thought New Londo came first since Artorias wouldn’t have been able to hunt down the Darkwraiths since the Abyss swallowed him in Oolacile. But then I thought, if that’s the case, then how did the Abyss come in New Londo if Manus is the one that created it? I finally came to the conclusion that both events had to happen somewhat at the same time.
The first thing that needed to happen was Manus getting woken up and going mad to create the Abyss. Then I knew some time had passed between that event and Artorias’s visit because pyromancers and sorcerers had enough time to travel to Oolacile and create Abyss sorceries and pyromancies (Black Flame, “A pyromancy discovered from the Dark of the Abyss by a pyromancer who wandered Oolacile” and Dark Bead, “Abyss sorcery discovered by an Oolacile sorcerer on the brink of madness”, amongst others). So from there, I figured that while all of this was happening in Oolacile, Kaathe had run off to New Londo to wreak havoc. Once Artorias had dealt with the Darkwraiths and received the Silver Pendant, he had to go save the Princess in Oolacile, where he would lose his Silver Pendant and eventually get swallowed by the Abyss. Now that the timeline was established, I had to organize the details from the item descriptions and the dialogue.
First off, what happened in Oolacile to wake up Manus. Hawkeye Gough and Marvelous Chester both mention the citizens getting fooled by a serpent and waking up the primeval man. Since Elizabeth mentions the Princess has been abducted by a primeval human, we can safely assume the citizens woke up Manus by upturning his grave and somehow made him mad. Also, a “toothy serpent” that would cause trouble? Who else would it be but dear old Kaathe. Now that Manus is awake, what would make him go mad? Let’s start with the obvious: the Soul of Manus description. It says “[...]he became the Father of the Abyss after his humanity went wild, eternally seeking his precious broken pendant.” But would a mere broken pendant really make him go wild, enough to create the Abyss? If you take into consideration what Dusk mentions after saving her, “I still think on that creature from the Abyss that preyed on me. My faculties were far from lucid, but I quite clearly sensed emotions. A wrenching nostalgia, a lost joy, an object of obsession, and a sincere hope to reclaim it...”, and the description of said Broken Pendant, “[...]has a distinct air consisting of both reverence and nostalgia.”, we can assume this pendant had a meaning for Manus. This pendant might have belonged to someone he loved and getting it stolen would probably make him go mad. That is why I think Kaathe made the citizens think the pendant had special powers or something to make them steal it from Manus so that Manus would go mad and create the Abyss.
Now that the Abyss has been created, let’s move to New Londo, where Kaathe has now tempted the Four Kings into turning Dark. We know it’s Kaathe’s doing again because Ingward says “When an evil serpent dangled the art of Lifedrain before [the Four Kings], they were unable to resist, and became pawns of evil.”. With Kaathe being the leader of the Darkwraith covenant, we know only him could give the power of Lifedrain to someone. We also know the knights that followed the Four Kings became Darkwraiths when the Four Kings were seduced by evil from the Dark Sword description. And thanks to the description of Dark Hand, we have the confirmation of Kaathe being the one inciting the absorption of humanity. We don’t know for sure what brought the Abyss to New Londo, but since it came once the Four Kings fell to Dark and the Darkwraiths started absorbing humanity from the other citizens, we can presume these are the actions that manifested the Abyss in New Londo. I think this version of the Abyss is somehow corrupted because you need Artorias’s ring to be able to go into this Abyss, but you don’t need it to go fight Manus in his Abyss. Also, I presume the corruption is from the Four Kings because once you defeat them, you can safely take off the ring while in the Abyss.
With the Darkwraiths stealing the humanity of the citizens of New Londo, Artorias decides to hunt them down. We know he did hunt them because Ingward mentions Artorias annihilating the Darkwraiths in the Abyss and the description of the Greatsword of Artorias says he hunted the Darkwraiths. We know Artorias had to make a deal with the creatures from the Abyss to traverse it because of the Covenant of Artorias description, “Knight Artorias made a covenant with the beasts of the Abyss to be able to traverse the Abyss”, and we know this pact cursed his sword because of the Greatsword of Artorias (cursed) description, “Artorias’s sword was cursed when Artorias joined a covenant with the creatures of the Abyss[...]”. We know it’s after this event that he received the Silver Pendant because we find it in Oolacile, which means he had already received it when he went there. Also, he couldn’t receive much after being swallowed by the Abyss in Oolacile.
Now that Artorias has taken care of the Darkwraiths, he sets off to save Dusk and stop the Abyss. We know these were his intentions because of Elizabeth: “Knight Artorias came to stop this[...]”. This Abyss slowly took a toll on Artorias because he doesn’t have any Dark in him. We know this because of Elizabeth: “[...]but such a hero has nary a murmur of Dark.”. We know he got overwhelmed by the Humanity Sprites because of where we find Syf. Thanks to the description of the Cleansing Greatshield, we know Artorias formed a barrier to protect Sif when he got too hurt: “Artorias, deeply scarred by the Abyss, used his greatshield to form a barrier to protect his compatriot Syf.”
Either while Artorias is trying to deal with Oolacile, or after, New Londo was once again overrun by Darkwraiths. Even though Ingward says Artorias annihilated them, we know they came back because once we open the seal, there are Darkwraiths there. We know they flooded the city first and then blocked off the city because of the descriptions of Key to New Londo Ruins, “The ruins of New Londo were blocked off, for the cursed ghosts posed danger to life and spirit[...]”, and Key to the Seal, “The Sealers flooded new Londo to banish the Darkwraiths and the Four Kings.[...]The victims now roam the ruins as ghosts”. They wouldn’t block off the city because of ghosts threatening the outside world if there were no ghosts, and there are ghosts because they sacrificed the remaining citizens when flooding the city to contain the Darkwraiths and the Four Kings.
There you have it! My thought process in writing the story of Oolacile, New Londo and Artorias. I hope I didn’t forget anything and everything is explained clearly. If not, feel free to ask me any question and I’ll try to answer if I can.
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