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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Aldrich, infamous for his appetite for flesh, apparently had the desire to share with others his joy of imbibing the final shudders of life while luxuriating in his victim's screams. | „ |
| ~ The description of Aldrich's Ruby. |
Aldrich, also known as the Saint of the Deep and Devourer of Gods, is the secondary antagonist of the 2016 action role-playing game Dark Souls III.
He is one of the four resurrected Lords of Cinder residing in Lothric, those who kindled the First Flame to prolong the Age of Fire. The most sadistic of the Lords, Aldrich formed a cult of fanatics that worship him as a god, with the members regularly sacrificing people for him to feast on, including Dark Sun Gwyndolin.
What makes him Pure Evil?[]
- Aldrich has always displayed cannibalistic tendencies and a craving for human flesh, even as a simple holy cleric of the Way of White, taking genuine pleasure in eating people alive and listening to their agonized screams.
- He began to experience prophetic visions of a coming age of the "deep sea", which Aldrich believed in so strongly that he vowed to devour all existing gods to bring about its coming.
- Consuming countless humans (including children) became a routine for him, to the point where at one point his body could no longer hold it in and he transformed into a huge, grotesque mass of black ooze with ribcage-like bones sticking out everywhere.
- Furthermore, in the Japanese version of the game, it is made clear that some of the children he devoured were his own, making the whole act even more repulsive.
- The only children to have long since escaped the Aldrich were Anri and Horace, who years later vowed to return to Anor Londo and kill kim, most likely to avenge the other children who had fallen victim to the Devouer of Gods.
- Though he became the Lord of Cinder who united the First Flame to extend the Age of Fire, he did not do so out of any altruistic or noble motives, but was simply forced to do so by his immense power, and Aldrich himself cared only for his own desire for power and the desire to make more human sacrifices to him.
- The sheer amount of dark souls absorbed by Aldrich from eating so many people stagnated and fermented in his body, tainting the cleansing water from the Cathedral of the Deep with a stagnating darkness that contained repulsive monsters and filth, a corruption that persisted in his absence after linking the First Flame. The Deacons tried to combat it but eventually succumbed, abandoning their faith in the Gods of Anor Londo to worship the Deep and it's horrors and offer countless innocents to be devoured by Aldrich. The visions he experienced and the newfound power he gained from cannibalism and absorbing the souls of those he ate served as the foundation upon the Aldrich Faithful were created, seeking to spread the Deep's horrors.
- The Undead Settlement served as a source of victims, luring Undead with promises of enlightenment through a group of female agents called Evangelists, shipping them through the Road of Sacrifices to be devoured by Aldrich. The instruments of torture they carry and the masses of hollowed corpses crammed in cages imply many Undead were tortured and killed in the settlement.
- Aldrich took such sadistic pleasure in cannibalism that he even created special rings for his followers so that they could feel his disturbing joy in the suffering of his victims.
- Upon being awakened from his coffin to reunite the First Flame, which was fading, Aldrich completely ignored his duty, constantly dreaming of the Old Gods, all of whom he longed to devour.
- In the Japanese version of the game, Aldrich and his forces invaded Anor Londo, defeating the forces of Pontiff Sulyvahn, who had cowardly joined forces with his cult to save himself and sacrificed the now gravely ill Gwyndolin to Aldrich, whom he imprisoned in old Anor Londo.
- Upon reaching Anor Londo, Aldrich began slowly eating Gwyndolin alive, who was so weakened by his illness that he was unable to defend himself against the Devourer of Gods at all.
- While devouring Gwyndolin, Aldrich had a dream about a pale girl who had escaped Anor Londo and gone into hiding. It was most likely the Crossbreed Priscilla, whom Aldrich also most likely wanted to devour, as she was a god-dragon hybrid, after he had finished with Gwyndolin.
- When the Ashen One entered Aldrich's arena, the Devourer of Gods dealt Gwyndolin a fate worse than death (as he can be heard groaning in agony during the fight) by taking control of the half-absorbed body of the Old God and using its powers to kill the intruder, ultimately resulting in his own well-deserved death and allowing Gwyndolin to finally rest in peace.
- He sought to bring about the Age of Deep, a version of the Age of Dark whose it's early stages are shown during the second DLC: hostile monsters created from corpses called the Murkmen wander the converging ruins in the Dreg Heap and creatures called White-faced Locusts that share Aldrich's man-eating habits rise from an abyssal swamp in the Ringed City's ruined streets.
Trivia[]
- Him, Seath the Scaleless, Nashandra and Pontiff Sulyvahn are the only Dark Souls villains to be Pure Evil.
- He is the only Lord of Cinder to be Pure Evil.
- It's possible that many of the children Aldrich devoured were results of sexual violence inflicted by him upon Rosaria while he was in the Cathedral of the Deep, as the room where she resides is filled with empty cradles, Aldrich was said to have multiple children in the Japanese translation, and Ringfinger Leonhard constantly talks about her being ravaged. If true, it would make him even worse.
External Links[]
- Aldrich on the Villains Wiki
- Aldrich on the Dark Souls Wiki
- Aldrich on the Hate Sink Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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Aldrich | Nashandra | Pontiff Sulyvahn | Seath the Scaleless | ||