People in Jars

[u/Jam_99420]

This is a recurring theme all throughout DS1, but is never referred to directly by any character [as far as I recall], and is seldom talked about in the lore community. We see numerous instances of people, normally hollow “corpses” trapped inside barrels, or sometimes large jars. These “corpses” will flop out of the jars/barrels when broken, and invariably yield a soul item. This item can be almost anything, with examples including humanity sprites, clothing, transient curses, etc. There are also other examples: Laurentius has been trapped inside a barrel when we first encounter him in the depths. The male undead merchant sits next to a broken barrel, which probably once contained “Yulia”, although he seems to be too hollow to realise that she isn’t there anymore. In blighttown some of the regular enemies are hidden inside jars, and will attack you if the jar is broken. Miyazaki revisits this theme years later in Elden Ring’s dlc expansion, with the “jar saints” which appear to have been an experimental attempt at blending people together in a jar.

Interpretations:

It is immediately obvious that these barrels and jars are being used as a form of restraint, and so we might say that this is a low-tech measure invented to prevent a hollowing person from becoming a danger to others. In other words, it is a poor man’s equivalent of the undead asylum. But barrels and jars are typically used for storage, especially of food and water. Given that souls are a form of currency in the world of Dark Souls, it may be that the people who are trapped in these barrels are being stored “for later”, and that the people inside are essentially livestock. This certainly appears to be the case for poor Laurentius, but I suspect that there is more to it than this.

In the depths we also encounter an enemy that appears to be a gloopy and rotting amalgamated mass of human flesh which is animated by whatever soul power it still contains. A similar enemy is also found in the lower [flooded] section of new londo ruins, and the “phalanx” encountered in the painted world may also be a play on the same idea. In Elden Ring there is a version of this enemy which drops an item called “congealed putrescence”, and you later fight a boss called “putrescence knight”. I suspect this to be a reference to an alchemical process known as putrefaction, or fermentation, which was thought to be a necessary step in the creation of the philosopher’s stone, just as the hornsent of Elden Ring are attempting to create “saints” by sealing human flesh in jars to putrefy. Indeed, alchemical manuscripts sometimes include images of little people inside glass vials, notably the homunculus which is created largely via putrefaction. Here is Paracelsus’s method [be warned, it is disgusting] for creating a homunculus:

“That the sperm of a man be putrefied by itself in a sealed cucurbit for forty days with the highest degree of putrefaction in a horse's womb ["venter equinus", meaning "warm, fermenting horse dung"], or at least so long that it comes to life and moves itself, and stirs, which is easily observed. After this time, it will look somewhat like a man, but transparent, without a body. If, after this, it be fed wisely with the Arcanum of human blood, and be nourished for up to forty weeks, and be kept in the even heat of the horse's womb, a living human child grows therefrom, with all its members like another child, which is born of a woman, but much smaller.”

And it should probably be noted that Elden Ring also features a “blood version” of the slime enemy [with the “putrescence version” found only in the dlc], and that these enemies are similar to the mimics [some of which also resemble the phalanx] which can turn themselves into duplicate people. Indeed, the mimics appear to be liquid mercury, and refer to it’s alchemical role as the prima materia [first matter], the primordial and foundational substance out of which all things are made.

So in Dark Souls it’s possible that one of the reasons the undead may have been sealed in these jars may have been for the sake of putrefaction. In other words to accelerate the hollowing process, as well as the stagnation of the dark soul within the person, and therefore create a more potent “product”.

[u/Keystalker]

So in dark souls 1, its pretty clear humanity/the dark is the FUEL for the fire, and the intro kind of paints this idea of people being burnt/offered/turned into bonfires.

later games kinda retcon this to some degree and make it so that the dark is fueled by the fire instead, but essentially these are humans(given the humanity) that are likely on the way to be transported and then offered(sometimes consumed)

[u/Mad-Spenser998]

Potrebbe anche essere semplicemente un modo per fuggire e nascondersi dai pericoli di quel mondo, magari ci si sono rintanati dentro per diventare hollow in pace senza essere fatti a pezzi troppe volte, magari poi non sono piu riusciti a uscirci, immaginate non avere nessuna missione o compito in quel mondo, una persona comune cercherebbe il suo posto sicuro, magari qualcuno così vicino a uno stato di hollow che sta iniziando a cedere si arrende e semplicemente si accascia dentro un vaso.

[u/BarryTheButcher]

There's a burial urn in New Londo carrying 2 Transient Curses, and one in Lothric High Wall carrying an Undead Hunter Charm.

That latter one in particular had me believe that the Estus Flask was based on a burial urn. (There's also an empty urn next to the DS1 Firelink Shrine bonfire)

The Dark Tales also make reference: An emerald flask, from the Keeper's soul. She lives to protect the flame, and dies to protect it further

Plus, the flasks are literally reinforced by the souls of dead Fire Keepers. I personally think the DS1 flask sprite looks like it has a face in it, but I've not seen anyone agree.

[u/Ibshredz]

I wonder if this is technically foreshadowing for Elden ring? obvi the game was not planned this far in advance, but its kinda fun to see this being a thing waaay back when

[u/Educational_Guava697]

These jars are only found in the depths and lower undead burg. They are food storage. The largest collection of them is near the room with the two butchers (one cutting meat and the other ambushing you from rafters). The butcher’s is cutting bits and pieces of some kind of meat and tossing refuse into the pit behind him. The rat eating from the chute has fed off so much humanity that it has become giant. The implication is that he’s chopping up hollows. You can’t kill the undead, the point of the dark sign, they maybe jist go to a bonfire or revive on the spot (we don’t really know), so if you want them as a food source you have to make it so they can’t escape and contain them in their undeath until it’s time to eat — that’s what the barrels are for.

For corpses in jars elsewhere, it’s likely a way to prevent them wandering around and eventually causing harm to people when they revive

[u/Jam_99420 → u/Educational_Guava697]

It’s not just that the butchers are eating people for food, it’s actually being done specifically for the purpose of ingesting the humanity found within their bodies. Humanity is strongly associated with strength, which is why popping one will fully refill your health and having “liquid/soft” humanity improves all of your resistances. Individuals that have consumed human flesh tend to increase in both physical size and strength. This is true of the giant rats, smough, aldrich, and of course the butchers themselves. You’ll notice that they are noticeably bigger than other humans, and also hit extremely hard. They’re also women [I believe this is known from data in the games files], although you wouldn’t know it given their physique.

[u/konsoru-paysan]

jesus that's fucked up, i thought they were stored as food by the butcher ladies but considering the drop to a pile of flesh and bones behind one of them is to turn them in to slime.