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Manus is perhaps one of the hardest boss fights in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dark Souls. Found at the bottom of a ൲monster-filled cavern🔯 and a life-draining runback should you fail, the fight against him is a brutal, non-stop slugfest filled with wide-reaching magic attacks that limit your escape options and chunk through your health bar in seconds.
For many, he’s just an 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:extremely hard DLC boss with a big hairy monster hand, but for those that look into the deep lore of Dark Souls, like everyone in this world Manus too has a sad and painful tale behind him. In typical FromSoftware fashion, it’s something that’s not immediately clear. It can take a lot of time to parse through all the item descriptions and background lore to piece it all together yourself, so to make things easier, here’s a co🦹ndensed rundown of what you need to know about Manus in Dark Souls.
Origins
Many sources describe Manus as a human ancestor who was part of a race that found a Lord Soul, which implies he’s one of the humans that were descendants of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the Furtive Pygmy. He was supposedly a priest from the Ringed City who visited Oolacile, and though what happened afterward is unknown, he eventually died there and the body of this primeval man was put to rest in a crypt far beneath the city.
Then when the Witch of Izalith and her daughters caused the calamity that created the Chaos Flame and spread the undead curse throughout the land, Manus awoke deep within his tomb, an undying man out of time, confused and alone. Eventually he would be unearthed by the people of Oolacile, who were seeking power as they tortured him to learn the secrets of the Primeval Man from which he was descended. This misery caused his Humanity to run wild, turning him into a corrupted and terrible monster of great size and strength as he laid waste to his captors and fled back to his tomb beneath the city. There he hid as his wrath manifested as a dark miasma that would𝕴 spread and eat at the city like a cancer, mutating all within and slow🍨ly destroying it.
During the events of the Abysswalker DLC, Manus rips the Chosen Undead through time to Oolacile after they acquire the Broken Pendant from a Crystal Golem within the Duke's Archives. After a climactic battle, he is defeated and finally laid to rest by the time-traveling champion, who ♍is then sent back to present-day Darkroot Basin, their part in a grand narrative unwittingly played.
Oolacile
You can't start a conversation about Manus without mentioning the city he singlehandedly reduced to ruin. Oolacile is seen in the DLC as it was in the past, a once idyllic and advanced city reduced to a pus-filled dilapidated wreck.
Before their downfall, Oolacile had giant stone guardians to protect them and a lush forest filled with wildlife to hunt. There was even a tenuous relationship with the mushroom folk that allowed them to farm and survive in the wild. But this all changed when the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Black Dragon Khalameet appeared. A creature not even Anor Londo would dare provoke, it began burning everything in sight. The township, with no means of protecting themselves, sought power. Prompted by the primordial serpent Darkstalker Kaathe, they learned of a powerful being that dwelled underneath them. A potential solution to their dragon problem, or so t🐓hey bel🐽ieved.
The Downfall Of A Civilization
And so the township began a grand excavation, unearthing the old tombs beneath the city where they found the body of Manus now reanimated after the Witch of Izalith's accident that involved the unleashing of the Flame of Chaos. Removing him from his crypt, they began cruel and inhuman experiments on the undead creature.
Trying to learn his secrets, the years of torture defiled the tombs below as a dark creeping miasma spread out from within, corrupting or killing all who came near. The poisonous energy eventually isolated and decayed this once-grand metropolis. It’s a sad series of events that Marvelous Chester rather coldly remarks is something the township brought upon itself, possibly meaning their downfall is looked down upon by most outsiders. It's an ideology that isn’t a first for Dark Souls, but it’s suitably grim and helps cement the feeling of how rejected and disdained by the outside world Oolacile has become.
Artorias The Abysswalker
Though his dominion over Oolacile was fast, it was not to last long. Gwyn, ever fearful of the threat that Humanity posed to his power, sent some of his most trusted knights to wipe clean the spreading taint of the Abyss and expunge the humans from the land. Leading this charge was the legendary slayer of the Dark Wraiths, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Artorias the Abysswalker, backed up by the quiet-spoken giant, Hawk-Eye Gough.
Though his companion would remain above to deal with the dragon Khalameet, Artorias ventured below, seeking Manus and the origins of the spreading taint of darkness. What followed was said to be a climactic duel between the two titans where Manus was summarily defeated, the dark creature's soul fracturing, the splinters gaining sentience of their own over time. According to Scholars, Artorias died from wounds sustained in th🎃e battle and was summarily immortalized in history for his heroic efforts, or so the legend goes.
The Legend Is A Lie
Artorias the Abysswalker was known as a great warrior who slew the Dark Wraiths of New Londo and defeated the Primeval Man in his tomb. But in reality, like many things involving the forces of Light, this was an illusion hiding something dark and terrible. For in reality, this great warrior failed to contain the Dark Wraiths as Gwyn ordered New Londo flooded, murdering the entire corrupted populace in one fell swoop. Then he failed once again in Oolacile, falling into the dark corruption of the Abyss after his duel with Manus, a fight that left his arm shattered and his mind a broken shell, attacking any and all that came near.
This tormented soul was eventually put to rest by a time-traveling Chosen Undead, and his previous failures absolved as Manus is defeated by this unknown interloper, who then disappears without a trace. And in the end, Artorias’ legend remained untainted as the only witness to the battle, Princess Dusk, was less than lucid and unable to recall specifics, believing it was Artorias that rescued her.
Returning to the modern era reveals that the legend of the Abysswalker was, like many things in Dark Souls, another sad lie, but one that we helped create. It's an incredibly heartbreaking bit of world-building in the game that can leave you feeling, much like the protagonist, hollow. But it’s a great connection to the story that makes the battle with Sif the Great Grey Wolf all the more impactful as you’re now fighting an ally, something that Sif sadly acknowledges in a secret extended cutscene.
Not The Beast He Seems
Despite his monstrous appearance, Manus is more than just the mindless creature he seems. Similar to the Chosen Undead, he’s a man out of time, in another land, who underwent torment at the hands of captors that pushed him to the point of breaking over and over again. What’s left of him is mostly animalistic, but deep inside there’s a part of him that’s still vaguely aware of where he is and what he’s become.
It’s a point that’s further strengthened by Dusk, who remarks that she often thinks about the time she spent around Manus, commenting that though whilst she wasn’t completely lucid, she did sense that he wasn’t a mindless animal. Instead, he was fueled by strong emotions of wrenching nostalgia, lost joy, and a sincere hope to reclaim an object of obsession, an item that’s implied to be the Broken Pendant, which explains why it's used to access the DLC and Chester's appearance as he too had a half and was ripped through time to Oolacile by Manus when he somehow sensed its presence.