Lord of Cinder | Dark Souls 3

All Lords of Cinder in Dark souls 3

The Lords of Cinder are among the main bosses in Dark Souls 3, playing a crucial role in the game's narrative and progression. The player is tasked with defeating these powerful beings to link the First Flame and prolong the Age of Fire. Each Lord of Cinder has a unique background and significance, making their defeat both challenging and rewarding. The main Lords of Cinder that the player must defeat are:

• Ludleth of Courland
• Abyss Watchers
• Aldrich, Devourer of Gods
• Yhorm the Giant
• Lothric, Younger Prince

DS3 Notes, Trivia and Tips

• While it is true Lords of Cinders tend to undergo a visual transformation when reaching their power, Prince Lothric is excluded from this rule. When the Abyss Watchers, Aldrich, Devourer of Gods, or Yhorm the Giantenter their second phases, they will begin a special visual effect, causing their bodies to smolder with the First Flame. However, Lothric lacks this effect. During his second phase, his body remains unburnt and devoid of embers. This speculated due to his refusal to link the First Flame.
• The defeat of the Lords of Cinder is tied to the altered world states. Specifically, Dark Souls 3 tracks the deaths of the Abyss Watchers, Yhorm the Giant, and Aldrich, Devourer of Gods. The moment the third of these specific Lords is defeated regardless of the order they are slain, a sequence initiates, teleporting the Ashen One out of their current location and placing them directly in front of High Priestess Emma in Lothric Castle. Because this forced teleportation leads into a mandatory boss encounter, understanding this three-Lord threshold allows the Ashen One to optimize their equipment and spend accumulated souls before dealing the final blow to their third target.
• The act of slaying the Lords of Cinder accelerates the physical degradation of the world. Upon the death of the third Lord of Cinder, The World changes to reflects this. The standard sun is replaced by the Darksign a bleeding, eclipsed sun and the ambient lighting shifts to a pale hue. This environmental remains locked for the remainder of the playthrough, serving as a visual indicator that the Ashen One is forcing the convergence of the transitory lands by consolidating the scattered embers of the previous Lords.

DS3 Lord of Cinder Lore Speculation

• Unkindled are failed Lords of Cinder, succeeding in linking the flame, but too weak to survive the burst of fire.
• Lords of Cinder cannot Link the Flame on their own, and all five are needed.
• The Lords of Cinder have linked the fire long ago, but it still fades and it was deemed "not enough". The new order was to have all 5 of them link it again, this time together for a stronger sacrifice.
  Only Ludleth of Courland was willing to make the sacrifice. He had his legs removed should his will waver, as the first time he linked the fire must had been traumatic. No one else wants to link the flame. It might be that they barely survived the first time or it hurts like hell.
• The champion of ash, along with many other unkindled are awoken from death, possibly by the fire's call, to bring all mighty Lords back, dead or alive.
• Despite having served as the fuel for the First Flame for this long of a time the Lords of Cinder still retain a good amount of the fire within their body. This aspect in itself is somehow standing against the purpose of “sacrificing oneself to prolong the inevitable” as it implies that this power is taken from the already dying First Flame and thereby weakening it even further.
  This in fact could be the very reason the Player Character has to find the Lords of Cinder, slay them and thereby retake their souls to then feed them to the First Flame again by Linking it.
• The young prince Lothric is being called a Lord of Cinder, even though he is implied to have never actually linked the First Flame. He is also not shown to have any of the fire powers the other lords use in their second boss phase. All the fire attacks used are stemming from his older brothers sword (which got its effect from Demon fire).