Dark Souls: The Tale of Slave Knight Gael

In Dark Souls, the Slave Knights are part of an order of undead who fought the bloodiest battles, relentlessly, with no chance of rest. Even as their bodies withered and their minds faded, they were never released from service.

Gael was the first to free himself from his duties as a slave knight. His appearance is characteristic of the members of this order, with worn and battered armor, an old red cloak with a hood, and a long cape torn and soiled by countless battles. His sword is long and rusty, old and scarred, just like the old knight. What little of his face is visible shows a long, shaggy gray beard, indicating that Gael had reached a certain age.

Painted World of Ariandel

After freeing himself from his vows as a slave knight, Gael arrived in the Painted World of Ariandel, a refuge for lost souls with no place to call home. There, he met the Painter, a young woman who was the Lady of that place and whom the inhabitants served. The Painter possessed some knowledge of things such as the First Flame and the Dark Soul, and was able to use these concepts to conceive of a new painting, a new world where the people of Ariandel would find a new home, far from the decay of the outside world.

Ariandel is a sort of Ariamis from another era, the future of the Painted World we encounter in Dark Souls I. Over time, Gael formed a strong bond with the painter, becoming "Uncle Gael," and harboring a strong sense of duty toward the young Lady.

At some point, Friede, a nun from the Church of Londor, arrived in Ariandel seeking refuge like the others and found her home there. Friede was soon filled with the desire to protect the place, even from its own inhabitants.

Gael managed to escape from the painting and went in search of another undead to fulfill the prophecy that said that "When the ashes are two, a flame ignites", prophesying that if another unkindled one entered the painting, then there would still be hope of burning the rot and saving that world.

The Unkindled

After a long search, Gael finally finds another unkindled one, but not just any unkindled, but the Ashen One. Gael convinces the protagonist to go to the painting and face Father Ariandel and Sister Friede in a fierce battle, but with the help of the slave knight, the hero emerges victorious.

The flame is freed, and the young painter can now begin a new painting, creating a gentle world to serve as a refuge for her people. But she still needs another ingredient to create the ideal paint: the Dark Soul.

Gael sets out again to fulfill his promise to his mistress, this time in search of the Dark Soul, the original fragment of the First Flame that was inherited by one of the Four Lords at the beginning of time.

What is the Dark Soul?

When the original flame arose in the age of the eternal dragons, four beings rose from the darkness to claim it: Nito, the Lord of the Dead; the Witch of Izalith and her Daughters of Chaos; Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight; and the small, furtive Pygmy, a meaningless being who simply held the spark of the flame in his hands and let it fade, thus creating the Dark Soul.

The Pygmy's sons and daughters gave rise to the human race, and the Dark Soul fragmented like the lifeblood of these beings, but without losing its potential. Unlike the other fragments of the flame, the Dark Soul would never disappear or be extinguished, for it is darkness itself.

The Ringed City

Gael's journey took him to the ends of the earth, where time and reality ended and the world would meet its end, plunging into darkness. The Ringed City was home to the Pygmy's direct descendants, bearers of the Dark Soul.

The Pygmy Kings were so old and time worn that their blood had long since dried, and the darkness within them was practically useless. Desperate, Gael killed them all on the spot and consumed the blackened dust that gushed from their bodies, attempting to absorb the Dark Soul and make it active again. But the darkness was too much for the knight, and he was corrupted by its power.

The Battle at the End of Time

It is here that the protagonist meets Gael again, now consumed and driven mad by the power of the abyss. The knight demands that the Unkindled surrender his own soul to him, as he too is a human carrying a bit of the Dark Soul, and thus the final battle of the saga begins: the Slave Knight versus the Unkindled Hero.

This is still considered one of the most incredible and challenging boss fights in the entire Souls saga, with Gael possessing more than one phase and unleashing the full power of the abyss. In the end, Gael is killed, and the Dark Soul pigment is delivered by the Unkindled to the painter so she can finish her new painting and fulfill Gael's wish.

Gael is one of the most complex and well-developed characters in the entire Souls trilogy, with an incredible and memorable questline. There are many similarities between him and another beloved character in the franchise, the Knight Artorias. Both are swordsmen who fight with enormous swords, both have an incredible design that, curiously, references Guts from the manga Berserk, and both end up corrupted by the abyss, requiring the protagonist's help and perishing in a fight against him.

This concludes another article. Leave your questions, suggestions, criticisms, and/or compliments in the comments. Thank you for reading, and see you next time.