The popular Dark Souls, arguably the king of difficult RPG’s, has quite a lot of lore. And by a lot, it’s enough to fill multiple books. But, where is all the lore outside of a few sparse cutscenes? Well, it’s usually hidden within subtext, item descriptions, and NPC dialogue. Frankly, even more so than the lore in Demon’s Souls (which may get changed in the remaster). With enough digging, anyone can find out info on any character in the entire franchise, except for one.
Information and background on the Furtive Pygmy, arguably one of the most important characters in the series, is few and far between. But, there is some info that has been uncovered over the years about this mysterious figure(s).
10 They Split Their Soul Into What Later Became Known As “Humanity”
First, the world was grey and ruled by the Everlasting Dragons. Then these hollow creatures found the First Flame, and with it, the Four Lord Souls. One of life (Witch of Izalith), one of light (Gwyn), and one of Death (Gravelord Nito).
The final one of these Lord Souls was found by the Furtive Pygmy, and after finding it, he split it into many different pieces and created humanity by imparted these fragments to those around him. But what this intro cutscene doesn’t tell people is that these pieces of the Dark Soul are actually in every single human, and are what known as the insanely useful “humanity” items throughout the games.
9 Kaathe Talks For Them, But It’s Never Confirmed If He’s Telling The Truth
For a character fans never directly talk to (that they know of), a bunch of characters sure do talk about their goals for them. Darkstalker Kaathe the Primordial Serpent is the main one. This Immortal yet imperfect dragon talks like they knew the ancestor of man AKA the Furtive Pygmy and what their ultimate goal was.
But, remember, the word Furtive means to seem secretive/guilt and the need to avoid attention, so this Furtive Pygmy likely never spoke about their true intentions with Kaathe. If that’s true, then why does this freaky looking snake act like their goals are the goals of the pygmy?
8 The Statue Within The Ringed City
There is only one scene that shows the appearance of the Furtive Pygmy, creator of humanity, and it is in this same introductory cutscene for the original Dark Souls (which still holds up really well, by the way). But, it turns out there’s actually one possible depiction of him, and it has some implications people likely didn’t expect.
There’s a specific statue found within the Ringed City in Dark Souls 3 that shows Gwen taking a crown from a hollowed man, maybe in exchange for a soul of light. It isn’t confirmed, but the most likely theory is that this is the Furtive Pygmy, and Gwen is taking away his right to rule in favor of the Pygmy Kings, who were submissive to the Lord of Cinder.
7 He Was The First Dark Lord, Has Unbreakable Ties To The Abyss, And Created The Art Of Lifedrain
The Abyss is just confusing, it has a lot of potential explanations and many of them make little to no sense. Some people say that the Abyss is a realm created by Manus, but gamers do know that it is inherently tied to the Dark Soul. The same Dark Soul that the Pygmy found and the same Abyss where Darkseeker Kaathe made the Pygmy the first Dark Lord and taught him Lifedrain.
The Abyss is essentially rampant fragments of humanity given form, and the Furtive Pygmy is linked to it in their pursuit of the Age of Dark. This relation is a large reason why many people assume that the pygmy was Manus, after all.
6 His Lord Soul Is Arguably The Most Powerful
Once each of these Four Lords grabbed the souls they found near the First Flame, their forms were forever changed and they became something inherently different from hollows/humans. But, all of Humanity holds the Dark Soul or at least a piece of it, and when they hollow, they’re actually taking back their true form before Gwyn cursed them with the Dark Sign.
Because hollows are immortal and because the player takes control of a human who slays all these forlorn gods, it could be said that the Dark Soul is the most powerful of the Four Lord Souls.
5 His Identity Was Always Intended To Be Vague
The Dark Souls series is known for leaving just enough hints about the lore for players to make their own conclusions, but rarely leaving quite enough for there to be a concrete answer. And, one such character that is intentionally left vague is the Furtive Pygmy.
In the actual cutscene talking about them, it’s said that the Furtive Pygmy is easily forgotten, and when asked about it in the famous Game no Shokutaku interview, head developer Hidetaka Miyazaki himself seemed unsure of who the Furtive Pygmy actually was.
4 He Had Nothing To Do With The Dark Sign’s Creation
While the Furtive Pygmy was the original bearer of the Dark Soul and wanted to bring in the age of Dark, it doesn’t mean he was behind the Dark Sign that branded all of humanity. No, this was likely done by Gwyn when he first linked the flame and is told in more detail by Aldia in DSII who basically calls this the First Sin.
Gwyn linked humanity to the cycle of rebirth, forced them to feed their humanity to the Kiln, and cursed humanity with the Dark Sign. While it might seem like all these words with Dark in them have ties to the Furtive Pygmy, this is the one instance where it does not.
3 Ludleth Might Be His Actual Confirmed Identity
First and foremost is the most recent conclusion by the fanbase that the Furtive Pygmy was actually Ludleth, a man of small stature in DS3 who always seems to act like he’s hiding something, and can’t stop reiterating that he willingly linked the flame of his own volition during his cycle.
It’s hard to nail down all the pieces of lore that point towards him, but the Ashes of Ariandel DLC for DS3 gave the players tons to work with in regard to this theory (plus three of the best boss fights in the series).
2 Or, It May Have Been Manus
The Primeval Man known as Manus was the most widely regarded theory for the Furtive Pgymy’s identity until Dark Souls 3, and that’s just because of the sheer amount of hints pointing towards him in the Oolacile DLC for the original game. In fact, the developers could have easily changed their minds when creating DS3 and changed the canon from Manus to Ludleth.
Manus is the penultimate boss of this DLC, and one of the most atmospheric and difficult bosses in the entire Dark Souls franchise. There’s a million little NPC interactions and item descriptions that hint that this Father of the Abyss is the Furtive Pygmy, but his literal name comes from Mannus, the father of mankind in Germanic folklore. And, who split their soul to create humanity? Ah, that’s right, the Furtive Pyg…Manus.
1 Maybe, It Was All Of Us The Whole Time
This last guess at the Furtive’s identity comes off as a bit of a cop-out, but because of that same Game No Shokutaku interview, it seems like it might be what Miyazaki originally intended. The word furtive means to be nonchalant or acting in a way that lets one avoid attention, and the word Pygmy comes from Anthropology and generally describes peoples of short stature.
So, combining the two words creates an image of a group of small, secretive, and easily forgettable people that are smaller than the rest of the lifeforms in their world. And, thinking back, just how many creatures, gods, beasts, and more end up towering over all the humans in the game?
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