I've been racking my brain lately over what the hell that black, sentient deformity is that sporadically shows itself in the game. Since I cannot find any dialogue or item descriptions that cover this "corruption," I'm more than curious on what everyone here thinks.

My observations (which hopefully provide context clues to someone smarter than me):

1. The corruption only shows up on three different enemies
   1. Iudex Gundyr (not champion Gundyr)
   2. Skeleton-knife dudes
   3. The two Lothric dragons
2. It typically manifests above/on the back of enemies. The only other location it manifests is on the feet of the two Lothric dragons.
3. It has red eyes (indicating being in "fury mode")
4. The only place where the corruption doesn't transform and manifest out of a normal enemy is in the King's Consumed Garden. Everywhere else it appears, it is lying dormant and manifesting out of enemies.
5. It mostly appears in the Lothric area. However, if you consider the Untended Graves a sort of time-space loop, then it could be argued that the Cemetery of Ash is behind an alternate version of the Consumed King's Garden, which would make it 100% Lothric as far as location.

I feel like this enemy type is important to the narrative somehow since the game makes their appearance somewhat of an exclamation point in the gameplay. Also, are there any spells/pyromancies that duplicate this corruption? If so, does its item description lend any clues?

Looking forward to Giant Bomb gumshoes cracking this one open.

I thought there was something about Gundyr having accumulated a great burden of sorrow on his back or something like that but i cant remember where i read/heard that.

Is it related to the black holes all hollow humans are having?

The Abyss rearing its ugly head since the Undead Legion went mad?

I think they've been corrupted by the Abyss. The red eyes on the monstrosities and other enemies throughout the game are apparently a sign of that corruption.

I don't know why they've been corrupted, though. Maybe it represents the work of the primordial serpent Kaathe (from Dark Souls 1) who wanted to spread the Dark. If it was Kaathe that could be why the corruption takes the form of a serpent.

Could you also count Aldritch (the oozing thing eating Gwyndolin) as an instance of the dark goo?

I agree with others that it is something to do with the Abyss and general corrupting influence of the dark.

The Red eye enemies are those that have been corrupted by the dark, although most don't have the dark ooze come out of them. Maybe a link with Red Eye Orbs here.

Honestly the goo seems like something they planned to be a major thing and then scrapped the idea, leaving the very few instances of it in the game. Maybe it'll be explored more in the DLC.

Also I'm confused, you guys mention the red eyes being an indication but through out that entire game I only saw a single enemy transform ever and that's the one you see in the video GBEast did before release that crashed a bunch. I saw plenty of eye eyed enemies but no transformations ever. Is that supposed to be a more common thing?

Wasn't there a DLC boss that was corrupted by the Abyss, and he had the same goo.

I would assume that it has something to do with manus or the abyss, maybe dlc?

Iudex Gundyr transforms and there are two enemies in the High Wall of Lothric that transform, although one of those is kind of out of the way. There are also several in Lothric Castle, especially near the dragons, that transform. One of those dragons has a lot of black goo coming out of its hand. There are a few in the Consumed King's Garden that are already transformed when you get there. That's all I can think of at the moment.

I think people are saying that the red eyes are related to the goo, perhaps an early stage of it (as in, the red-eyed enemies will eventually have goo problems themselves). Most red eyed enemies are stronger, so perhaps stronger enemies can somehow contain the black goo and they just get red eyes as a side effect?

Honestly the goo seems like something they planned to be a major thing and then scrapped the idea, leaving the very few instances of it in the game. Maybe it'll be explored more in the DLC.

All of that said, I think this is more likely the case. When I saw GBeast play Dark Souls III, I figured the whole black goo thing would be a major part of the game and we'd see lots of abyss, lots of "corruption" or whatever, and the late game would have a lot of Lovecraftian horrors kinda like Bloodborne. As we see now, that is not the case, which is very weird for something that is introduced so memorably and so early in the game. It really seems like a scrapped idea and they left traces of it in there because they make for some of the more interesting non-boss encounters in the early game.

I assumed it was an aspect of the dark/humanity/abyss. It's reminiscent of Manus, or any of the dark queens from Dark Souls 2.

Maybe it spread because the watchers are now fighting each other. And when you fight them, the one has red eyes. So maybe they became infected with the abyss themselves. Which is why they are fighting each other.

@dudeglove:

awfully similar to archdragon peak enemies (so, what, does that mean if cathedral is associated with dragon stuff when the cathedral is clearly abyss-related? Are dragons in fact born of the abyss? Probably not).

I actually thought the Archdragon Peak enemies were the lizardmen that you see in Sen's Fortress and The Duke's Archives in Dark Souls I.

"Aldritch", "Eldritch" hmmm....

To me it feels like "a thing from another game but not really" kind of reference, which DS3 has so many of.

If the black goo is a manifestation of the Abyss, why did a little fish come out of Holloway's eye?

@dudeglove: It is consistent the things are only around areas in Lothric city and its graveyard. The thing is that their is a very strong suggestion that not only is time but also the lands themselves are in flux when you meet the old priestess, she talks about the churning lands. The guy who teaches you pyromancy talks about the home of pyromancy drifting close by and there's an item description talking about the wall that separates lorthic and the undead settlement just appearing one day as the city just raised up and then theirs that end game location. All this means that Lothric for who knows how long has been rather separated from the rest up high as it is.

About those two dragons with black goo on ther backs late in the game. Has anyone tried to kill the black goo before they killed the dragons?

I didnt know there was any black goo when i first slew the dragons but later it struck me that maybe the dragons would have behaved differently if i took care of the goo first for them. Yes? No?

@dudeglove said: "Elsewhere the Pilgrims of Londor keep the shell on their backs to stop the humanity running wild"

This one line sort of blew my mind. I always wondered about the pilgrims and the rocks on their backs.

The two theories, one of humanity and the other of dragons, are both really compelling. I think we can all agree that this probably goes a lot deeper than we anticipated, and hopefully the DLC really expands on this.

I also agree that perhaps this "angle" of the story was maybe abandoned as development went on since its theme is brought up so prominently at the beginning of the game and then is never really expounded upon in any meaningful way.

One more question: When you defeat an enemy that is corrupted/goo/infected, the blood spatter that they leave behind is extremely dark red, borderline black.

Does this blood color have any significance or is it telling in any way?

@caleums: I heard Brad say that in the quicklook aswell but from my experience it aint any different than bloodspatter from any other enemy. Its just a particularly big bloodsplatter becouse the enemy is so big.

@rethla: You also get a lot of dark blood splatter from the little dudes. The Hollow Slaves/Bloodmen. Which leads me to believe they are corrupted in some way also. Because other Hollow enemies don't have that dark splatter.

@caleums: first thing oily blood makes me think of is the goo found around oolacile township in DS1. Wanna say maybe the creatures there also bleed that color too, at least in the opening cutscene of artorias?

EDIT: No... it bleeds red in artorias' cutscene. Wonder if that has significance, perhaps it's red because they're still mostly human, whereas the things we fight in DS3 are pure abyss?

Just checked the wiki seems the wolf sword and the other boss weapon both do extra damage to those guys so them originating from the abyss seems confirmed.

@rethla they die in the same way the silver knight do in DS1 theirs no corpse probably because of their size.

@claybrez There's quite a few hollows that seem to be turning into trees rather than the malformed creature of the abyss they give a real age of gray feel their also the fact we see baby stone dragons on arch peak and ash is constantly falling from the sky makes me feel that theirs another age of gray coming and that this has been a cycle that's taken place before.

It's the Deep.

I dropped off the bridge, ran around the path underneath, and made my way to a door that the red dragon had his hand stuck through. Attacking that hand enough causes the black goo to come out, which I stood on the other side of the room and shot arrows at. When the black goo died, the whole dragon died, and the other dragon... died? Or something? He stopped moving and breathing fire and stuff and just laid his head down and I didn't have to worry about him again. I came back later and he was gone.

When the other dragon stops moving when you kill the first one, you can find a goo on him too a little later in the level (when you circle back around). So even though he stopped when you kill the first one for some reason, he's apparently still alive, because the goo is hostile still.

@justin258 said:

The second dragon also has black goo coming out of one of his rear appendages and will be killed if you destroy the goo creature. You can get to it by going from the bonfire through the raised gate and taking a left to get to the bridge where you fight the Dragonslayer Armor. Instead of going to the bridge, take a left to walk counterclockwise around the outside of the church. If you peek over the ledge on the side with the dragon you will be able to see the black goo and quickly kill it with some fire arrows.

I am wondering what the connection is between the black goo and the animated dragons that were apparently being fought at Lothric. Maybe the black goo was a part of some kind of dark magic being used to create false dragons that were then used in an assault on Lothric?

@modernalkemie: Its stated many many times that Lothric tamed the dragons that they once fought this may be how they did so

@ikramit: So then the "corruption" could be a taming/manipulating agent? If so, who is wielding it? How did they get access to it?

Just gets more and more confusing.

@caleums: Well, the dragons there are stopping your path towards the Princes. The Princes have given in to the dark, or at least they are not linking the fire. As they are the rulers of Lothric, and Lothric is known to have tamed the dragons, maybe there is an old link.

Even if they are not controlling the dragons directly, it is in the interest of 'the Dark' to have them there blocking the path.

It sure looks like some Abyss shit, like Aldrich and Artorias' sludge, but I figured the dragon sludge comes out of the Darksign. Thought that was on your shoulder/back. When I got a level from Yoel and got that item (or a Dark Ring or something) I figured I'd get a Stand myself, but never did.

Abyss or The Deep. Whatever the difference is.

I'll be the first to say it:

I have absolutely no fucking clue at all what it is.

I'm assuming that it will play into the DLC, or at least I'm hoping it does. It seems like a really throwaway thing in the game overall, and it was kind of disappointing to me. It could also have something to do with some already established stuff in the game itself (I mean, I ASSUME it has to do with the Abyss), but if it does, I didn't catch anything about it. It seemed to show up in super random places.

@redhotchilimist: Dragons don't have anything to do with the first flame though because they came before that so they would not be affected by the state of the flame like humans have been.

@caleums: Well I think it's important that we consider the fact that the queen of Lothric is gwynevere of fertility that she had miracles of creation at her call then there's the king who is obsessed with dragons. The next thing I think of is the deep who are known to take miracles of the way of white and subvert them for their own ends. When you give the deep tome to the blind girl she talks about how it reminds her of the darkness that eats at her considering we know from DS1, firekeepers are vessels for humanity and that it gnaws away at them.

I think its safe to say that their miracles were changed to humanity based like the ones manuse uses in stage 2 of his fight. Another thing that backs this up is the fact that Aldrich stared out like any other good cleric (follower of the way of white) so it says in the game but something changed and he started to eat people and he become more powerful as a result. What do people all have in common (outside of the undead ) they all have humanity, as he continued to eat the size of his dark soul must of increased as humanity are pieces of the dark soul. I think its not just dark miracles (like manus) he was using though and this is backed up by the fact that he also ate gwyndolin (again relating back to the way of white and the old pantheon). I think this happened after the dragons were tamed though.

Another thing I know is that once you reach rank 2 in the covenant of Aldrich you get a description about how they combined magic with these miracles and that the result are abominations from a staff you get as the reward . Now I think events happened like this the king of Lothric was having dragon issues his wife had a set of unique miracles and Aldrich has a special way of using those miracles. So he offered Aldrich who was not of his lands the title of saint not only that but a steady supply of humanity creating a road leading form the cathedral of the deep to a settlement not to far form the church in return for creating a parasite to gain control over the dragons to rid him of his issues and allow him to indulge in his obsessions. Their is also the fact that in the cathedral you get those black looking blobs that are weak to fire and look quite like those parasites and this is all probably wrong :).

I kinda thought all the ancient dragons were dead, except that one guy in Ash Lake. The ones in this and Dark Souls 2 are some wyvern/drake-looking things, and the one dragon in Dark Souls 2 was Aldia's creation. Don't know about Sinh, though. If the dragons in dark souls 3 are transformed humans somehow, or just wyverns, I don't think it's a stretch that they were affected by the Abyss. Although, I wonder if they would have darksigns.

I also got the impression that the Queen of Lothric was one of Gwynewere's many children, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was herself. Honestly, it's a little odd that the queen in a land that's at least somewhat fallen to darkness was either Gwynewere or her descendant, because Dark Souls 2 and its DLC was about the daughters of Manus marrying kings that had gathered souls and trying to lead their lands to Dark. I never cared for that lore, but considering it's unclear what catastrophe happened to the land except for the general Undead Curse, I'm not sure what to think. I hope there's some lore in here about the primordial Serpents I haven't found. Those things are decidedly not dragons, but they are all about the Dark considering the Dark Lord ending. Maybe the dragon-like sludge is supposed to be more serpent-like.

@redhotchilimist: Theirs a bit of the description on Divine Blessing that makes me 90% sure its Gwynewere, as their children don't seem to necessarily inherit their power or at the very least their title, look at Gwyn and his children, anyway here's the description :

"The Queen of Lothric, married to the former King Oceiros, was initially revered as a goddess of fertility and bounty. After giving birth to Ocelotte, her youngest, she quietly disappeared."

Gwynewere is stated to be the one who creates the Divine blessings DS1.

As for DS2 I feel its not much of a factor here as events like the age of gray coming back seem to suggest that this is set very much after DS2 and while you get some items relating to DS2 in the game (shield of want) lands like astora, carim(you meet people form their) and figures like gwyndolin are very much know to all yet in DS2 their called "long forgotten" theirs talk of High Lord Wolnir in game taking over the lands of lords and becoming the one true king I think that in this verse Wolnir toke over the lands of DS2 before much could take place either way DS2 is pretty much a non factor in DS3. Which is fine by me because DS2 lore is a mess. (Btw I say the age of gray is coming back because you have the ash continually falling from the sky its especially noticeable in the last cutscene. Then you have the first flame its almost completely out all souls are connected to the first flame so when its gone no ages of fire or dark will exist. Then you have the organic matter turning into trees and at dragon peak those stone lizards consider crystal lizards as they grow they become far larger and a lot more dragon like then look at the stone lizards they are far large and made completely made of stone breath fire and are on dragon's peak considering how crystal lizards mature I think those guys may be baby stone dragons)

We see in DS3 what humans that transform into dragons look like, they look nothing like the ones guarding the bridge the darksign is related to the dark soul.No dragon in DS1 or DS3 drop souls items even if they do now have souls I dont see how they relate to the pygmy so I dont think it has to do with the darksign. You are right in saying the Abyss can effect none humans in a bad way the magicians of Oolacile and artorias are prime examples of that but that seems a more full body malformation more then the parasites that seem to have their own sense of will out side the host.

@rethla: When I was there first time (not reached it on NG+ yet, but will try this then as well) I went a bit further before killing the first black goo that sprouts from the heel of the first dragon. And it appeared to me that both of the dragons had died as soon as the goo sprouted out. Both of them was not moving at all, and their heads was lowered in the same way that all the dead dragons looked up to this point. So from what I could see the black goo somehow killed the dragons, or might have simply controlled the dead bodies of those dragons? I am going to try and walk around a lot more next time I come to that location, to see if they are actually dead or if they just went dormant when I am close to the goo.

I noticed that as well. I thought opening the gate triggered it but the black goo coming out of the foot seems more a factor. It definitely appears parasitic. Abyss seems more like a mist or black void, usually.