Quick Links

Gwynevere is one of the shortest-lived NPCs in all of Dark Souls history, yet she remains one of the most beloved. Gywnevere is the mother deity of the Dark Souls series and is one of the friendliest NPCs the player will meet on their journey to link the first flame. She hands over the Lord Vessel to you, a critical step in completing your adventure. Gwynevere seems to be the only character in the game who helps you without expecting anything in return, with no ulterior motive.

Related: You Died: The Most Infuriating Traps In Soulsborne Games, Ranked

But looks can be deceiving, and like everywhere else in the game, Gwynevere's bright home of Anor Londo hides a deep and dark rot just below the surface. Despite her brief appearance, this goddess of bounty can shed light on events that led up to Dark Souls and perhaps even what comes after. Without further ado, here is everything you need to know about the radiant Princess of Sunlight.

Who Is Gwynevere?

Dark Souls Details Missed gwynevere

Gwynevere is the second-born child of Lord Gwyn and his firstborn daughter. For eons, she served as a goddess of fertility and bounty and was beloved by all, according to the miracles associated with her. Outside of this, the game is very cryptic about her role in greater society. The game is also not very clear about the feats she accomplished during her lifetime either. We do not know if she participated in the Dragon Wars with her father, nor if she had a hand in aiding with the assault on the Abyss or Lost Izilath.

Related: What Dark Souls Boss Are You Based On Your Zodiac Sign?

All we as know initially is what we can see: A giant radiant goddess who reclines atop a pristine throne at the top of the world. After a brief interaction with her, she hands over the Lord Vessel and urges us to link the First Flame. At face value, she's to be a benevolent goddess who only exists to give us a brief respite from the horrors of the outside world. However, by giving her a solid whack with your equipped weapon, the reality of the situation will quickly set in.

What Does She Have To Do With Dark Anor Londo?

Dark Anor Londo Dark Souls

In a hidden hallway, behind an illusory statue of Lord Gwyn, lies Gwydolin, the youngest of Gwyn's children. It turns out that he is a god of deception, and cast the illusion of Anor Londo and his sister himself. Additionally, not far from the god's boss room is a magnificent painting that provides refuge to a half-dragon woman, considered an abomination by Gwyn. These two things may not seem to correlate, but there is some subtext there that may help us to decipher why Gwyndolin decided to use the image of his sister in his illusion.

What this means is that Gwynevere was never actually in Anor Londo to begin with. The Gwynevere we interact with was simply an illusion all along. It seems the Gwynevere may double as a goddess of light, and her absence cast Anor Londo into perpetual darkness. Gwynevere certainly would have known that fleeing the golden city would have this consequence, but she left anyway, suggesting that there was something she feared intensely that pressured her out of the city.

A Plot Against The Gods

Velka Statue From Dark Souls 3

There is a subplot in Dark Souls that is easily missed, wherein a number of factions are trying to overthrow the reign of the gods by snuffing out the First Flame. The first character you may be thinking of when it comes to schemes against the gods is Kaathe, but did you know that there is another character who has been actively hunting down the gods? This character is a lesser god known as Velka. She is never seen in-game, and is rarely discussed at all, but she actually spearheaded a movement to kill the gods. Velka is relevant to this discussion, because she has ties to Priscilla, who may have ties to Gwynevere. Follow this convoluted rabbit hole, and we may arrive at an answer.

Crossbreed Priscilla is found in the Painted World of Ariamis. It is widely accepted that her father is Seathe the Scaleless, but her mother is still a point of contention. There are three strong candidates for who could be her mother. They are, listed in order of least to most likely, Velka, Goddess of Sin, The Fair Lady of Lost Izilath, and Gwynevere herself.

Velka, at first, seems like a great candidate for being the mother of Priscilla. Priscilla, after all, does house within her the Lifehunt Scythe, the only known weapon that can kill a god. This would be a great asset for Velka to have at her disposal, and would have given her a lot of motivation to keep Priscilla safe within the Painting. The Fair Lady would also be a good candidate, due to all the pyromancers found in the Painting. However, both were banished from Anor Londo, and thus had no access to the Painting in any way, nor to the man who would paint it.

Related:Elden Ring: Every Demigod And Their Motivation

Gwynevere certainly had the access to Anor Londo, and given that she is explicitly referenced as a fertility goddess and would have resided in such proximity to this crossbreed that is called a "bastard", all the signs point to Gwynevere. Gwynevere was beloved by all, most of all by her father, Gwyn. As much as Gwyn loved his first daughter, he equally hated dragons. As such, it would make a lot of sense that Gwynevere would hide her daughter away nearby. Furthermore, if she knew she was leaving the Lands Between, it would make sense that she would secretly ally herself with Velka and The Fair Lady, both of whom had a bone to pick with Gwyn, in order to raise a defense force that could look over Priscilla when Gwynevere was away.

Why Did Gwynevere Leave?

Anor Londo Light

After speaking with Dark Moon Gwyndolin, it becomes clear that many of the gods abandoned the world after Gwyn marched on the First Flame. Gwynevere was one of them, which is one reason why Gwyndolin uses her image in Anor Londo. When or exactly why Gwynevere left the Lands Between is not completely clear. Assuming Priscilla really is her daughter, we can make some educated guesses as to what caused her to flee.

Gwynevere was closest to her brother Gwyndolin, and her father Gwyn. Gwyn, as stated before hated dragons, and giving birth to a half-dragon that could kill gods would have been considered a sin even higher than that of Velka's. On top of her father, Gwynevere had her younger brother nearby, who was basically an incredibly loyal lapdog to Gwyn. Gwyndolin founded the Blades of the Darkmoon, a group dedicated to killing those who commit heresy against the gods. He is so passionate about the cause that he still spearheads it well into the events of Dark Souls 3 when Gwyn has long gone hollow. He would not have hesitated to kill Priscilla or her mother if he found out about either of them.

Related:Elden Ring: Items You Didn't Realize Were Horrifying

This explains why Gwynevere would have taken so many steps to hide Priscilla. Why then, would she leave her behind after putting in so much effort to protect her? This is most likely because she knew that hiding Priscilla in the Painting was only a temporary solution. A fact that seems to be supported in Dark Souls 3 where we encounter Yorshka outside of the Painting, who seems to be a descendent of Priscilla. With her father and brother acting as potential threats, Gwynevere saw her way out: The world was going to hell with the Chaos witches transformed into demons, the onslaught of the Abyss, and the ever-advancing hollow plague. With all these events happening at once, many gods took the opportunity to flee. It seems that Gwynevere used the mass exodus to also take her leave.

Is there any trace of Gwynevere?

Painted World of Ariandel from Dark Souls 1

In Dark Souls, not really. There is, of course, her projection in Anor Londo, as well as the temple that houses the Painting that is filled with statues of her. There are also the Divine Blessings that scatter the land which were all blessed by Gwynevere herself. Barring these few examples though, it seems that the real Gwynevere has been gone so long that she has faded from the collective memory of the mortal world, even though her influence was once very far-flung.

However, if we look at some other games in the series, we do see a resurgence of Gwynevere's presence in the Lands Between. In Dark Souls 3, Divine Blessings are still in great supply, even though Gwynevere had supposedly fled the world many thousands of years ago. There are many signs in the third instalment of the series that indicate that Gwynevere returned for a time.

Related: Elden Ring: Things Only Players Of The Soulsborne Games Noticed

The Sun Princess Ring has a new, more intricate design in this game, indicating that it is not the same ring from the first game. Based on how intricate it is, and the fact that it is found on Gwynevere's throne, it is thought that she abandoned her own personal ring when she left Lordran for good this time. Furthermore, there is much evidence to suggest that she is the mother to the Twin Princes, as well as the baby that Oceiros wails about, Ocelotte. This would make sense given her past affiliation with the dragons, and would match up with about the time she returned to Lordran.

Where Did She Go?

Character from Elden Ring Staring into space

It seems that Gwynevere had a compelling reason to leave the Lands Between. What precisely her motives were, we can't be completely sure. At the time she left, the world was tumbling into chaos and turmoil. Izilath had become a hive of demons, Nito was no longer ensuring the dead stayed that way, and the Abyss was on an unstoppable warpath. Any of these would have been a fine motive to pack up and make anew start somewhere else.

However, it is possible that Gwynevere left to find something. She most likely knew that her deception with Priscilla would not go unnoticed forever, so she needed to lie low. But more than that, she also probably knew that the Painted World was not a permanent instalment, as we come to learn in Dark Souls 3. From its very conception, the Painting was afflicted by rot, and by the time the events of Dark Souls 3 happen, there is but a scrap left of the once-immense canvas.

Related: Elden Ring: Who Is Miquella?

It seems most likely that Gwynevere left in search of the elusive material that would allow the Painting to persist into eternity. As we come to learn, this material is the blood, or the very essence of every human that has ever lived on the plane, congealed into a fine paint. By all accounts, Gwynevere was a benevolent goddess to her core. Whether she knew the macabre details of the Painting or not is unknown, but she certainly wouldn't have had the stomach to carry out Slave Knight Gael's crusade against the Pygmies. She most likely left in search of a substitute material to cement the Painting into perpetuity.

What Was Her Ultimate Fate?

Aldritch and Prscilla from Dark Souls 3 And Dark Souls

This, again, is not totally known. We know that sometime before the events of Dark Souls 3, she returned to the world of mortals, where she gave birth to a few holy children, and then cast aside her legendary ring. The exact reason as to why she returned is yet again a mystery. Perhaps she found that her task was impossible and returned to try and save her daughter. Maybe she succeeded in her task and found a way to revive the painting. Or maybe she was simply homesick and missed the two brothers, Gwyndolin and The Nameless King, that she had left behind and stopped by the Lands Between to check in on them.

No matter what brought her back, we can be sure, in true Dark Souls fashion, that her fate was a grim one. When she returned to her home, she was to find it in an even greater state of disarray than when she left it. Whether she found a solution for the Painting or not, she could never find the frozen world, as it was reduced to a single scrap in the coat of a wandering nomad.

Her beloved brother Gwyndolin and the Nameless King had hidden away so well, it is likely that she could not find them. It seems that at this point, she clung to the hope that her daughter had somehow escaped the painting and had gone on to live life in her absence. She tried to assuage her grief and revive her bloodline, first by a child with the Mad King Ocieros. Here she had to watch him twist and mutate into a hideous beast and kill their child in a fit of madness.

Related:Most Convoluted Side Quests In Elden Ring

Next, it seems she sought out the king of the land, to bear children of royal lineage. Royal they were, but the child of fate, Lothric was born deformed and unable to carry out the ultimate plan of Lord Gwyn from so many centuries ago. Gwynevere must have been distraught; she is the goddess of fertility and bounty now alone in the world and can only give birth to cursed children, perhaps due to her travels.

At this point she must have returned to Anor Londo, perhaps to bathe in the familiarity of it all. Despite all the tragedy she endured in her life, she could at least rest in the knowledge that her first daughter was out there somewhere, and that her younger brother was most likely still hiding in these walls, just out of her line of sight. That is when she must have entered the grand cathedral to recline on her throne one last time.

But instead of glimmering marble floors, she found the area coated in sludge and body waste. In the middle of her great church sat the bloated form of some dark slug with the half-digested torso of her beloved brother Gwyndolin. Gwynevere must have felt her resolve shake at this mo. However, at least she still had one daughter out there; one of her bloodline that had been able to escape the horrors of this world. That is when Aldrich, Devourer of Gods leveled the Lifehunt Scythe against her, and Gwenevere knew all was truly lost.

This is the true tragedy of finding Gwynevere's ring upon her empty throne. She was so thoroughly broken by this world she had returned to that she symbolically revoked her godhood and left it for another passerby to claim. Whether she fled once again after coming to the realization that her brother and daughter were both eaten by Aldrich is unknown. However, the fact that Aldrich is the Devourer of Gods plural, it is most likely that Gwynevere simply let herself be consumed by the monster without putting up much of a fight.

Next: The Origin Of Dark Souls