Carthus Poster Transcript

0. Mawdie Mahjura - The Old Saltpiles - موضع مهجورة
"A desert shoreline catches a strange South-Easterly breeze, carrying the smell of spice and blood. Sand and dust and salt sweep up the hills and rattle the small villages still eking out a living here. A gigantic salt mine, which once rationed the armies of Carthus and set the exchange rate for foreign goods, is now abandoned. Only ghosts roam those desolate shafts now.

Thou art a new thing. A creature soon-to-be-called 'Undead' ─ caused by a great God's refusal to let the world die ─ awoken from your cruel death by that unusual scent. Driven by vengeance for thine life's miserable circumstances, thy corpse hath picked itself back together and a blackened circle drips fresh gore from thine chest. Where now wilt thou go?"

1. Qabr alMalik al'Asfar - Overblown Sepulchre -قبر الملك الأصفر
"Deep within in this windswept desert, where the mountains poke above the sands, a crypt is hewn into the stone. And within that crypt is a chapel. Here is the final resting place of the old royal family of this land, before it was ever known as Carthus. They were mummified in golden sheets by an ancient and powerful sage, to protect them from evil. But evil was within that sickly old king all along. And the tendrils of dark chaos crept around the yellow graves.

In this place, on a pilgrimage, a young and decadent prince first encountered that dark and potent touch, and so he knew what it would mean to truly die. Then, when the prince became a king, he warred against all his allies and ground their crowns to dust. It was not enough. The tomb has surely been long-since plundered for all it's riches, including three holy bangles, but maybe something remains..."

2. Al-Muqamarat 'Arkhabil - Crescent Shores - المقمرة أرخبيلر
"This seemingly forgotten peninsula has been conquered by darkness. Disparate fishing towns dot the coastlines and islands, but few are still occupied since High Lord's armies passed through.  They say to never approach the water, for a sleeping beast lurks in the depths and waits for a great awakening.

The night is eternal here: Either a god or a demon holds sway over the moon, and their lullaby keeps the beast in slumber. The islands are dangerous, but the water's blue light is so enthralling. O' can't something be done?"

3. Juko Qadim - The Hanging Swamp - جُكو قديم
"This place was once a desert too, home to giant ants that burrowed deep and built mounding nests up from bedrock to the skyline. A sinister people who stole the art of pyromancy from the Great Swamp once lived here too. Until the climate turned, and rains fell upon the disturbed soil, washing it away. All that remained were dense earthen peaks.

When Wolnir came to this land, he slew it's king and forced it's people into slavery to harvest food for his constantly marching army. Out of vengance and grief, the deposed queen swore a blood curse upon her conqueror and beheaded herself. Her curse poisoned the land; and now only foul water flows in the steaming valleys, and sickly climbing plants choke the towering walls."

4. Ardu alEumaliqa - Nefilim's Haunt - أرض العمالقة
"In these red and sable mountains live a different kind of people, renown for their great stature, long life, and keen senses. Long ago, they were driven out from their original homeland and settled here instead. When Wolnir tried to invade, he found it difficult. He settled with them more peaceably than he had with any other nation: with the bestowment of a new bride, a master-crafted blade, and a healthy stipend, the High Lord left the crimson ridges and continued his pillage Westward.

The people here have no love left for the king of Carthus now, and one day they shall venture back across the seas and return home; where the white trees grow."

5. Baldat alMaladh - The Great Oasis - بلدة الملاذ
"A tiered sprawl of adobe buildings and palm trees line the hills beneath a bright blue lake. The place seems like a refuge from the evil creeping across the land, and yet even here there is darkness. During the day, strange sounds can be heard from beneath the ground; and at night, people hide in their homes, but many a dragged out by screaming beasts.

At night, these cannibal creatures resemble both man and hyena, but in the day they blend in seamlessly with the other residents. The whole populace is on edge, markets are closing down, the lake water has gone stagnant and begun to steam, and it's only a matter of time before the emperor turns his ire on this township too."

6. Sahra' al'Azraq - Azure Barrens - صحراء الأزرق
"This sweltering dry desert region is almost impossible to survive in for long, and yet even here a living of-sorts can be found. Among the dusty blue dunes live a hardy nomadic folk, who's only currency is water. They follow the migration tracks of the great Carthus sandworms: incredible blind beasts with the power to drag storms wherever they roam.

They thrive in the loose sand, and can swim down to a depth of over a mile as though it were the ocean, but they cannot tunnel through stone. It is said that they can grow up to a hundred fathoms long, and are the cause of the wasteland's blue hue."

7. Maebad alEaj alMashriq - The Pale Eminence - منتصر صعود البشرية
"Here is the Tail of the World ─ a long and winding ridge that reaches all the way North ─ at it's apex is the mountain of triumphant ascendance, and at it's base is a resplendent white temple. Many from across the world journeyed to this shining mountain, to try to reach it's peak. None have ever succeeded, but it is said that a colourful and benevolent bird with the face of a sleeping man will grant a wish to one who makes it to their roost.

The temple monks lived here in peace with the wilderness, but their immaculate presence was disturbing to some. The High Lord came here once, seeking wisdom, power, and guidance: but the monastery turned him away. He returned with fire and steel, and now the temple is home only to the forces of nature. Perhaps thou would still attain that which Wolnir could not?"

8. Sahat alHadid - Rotten Plains - ساحة الحديد
"Upon this ancient battle-ground Wolnir and his forces stood against the invaders from the far East. They came through the blood jungles and up onto the savanna. When the two forces clashed, they were evenly matched for many months. The Carthusian's direct attacks did little against the Easterner's defences; and so it was that the High Lord resorted to his dark arts. He unleashed gouts of corrosive ichorous flame onto the fields, and both the invaders and his own soldiers were consumed.

Now the rusted arms of so many fallen warriors stain the land, and nothing grows there; but the dead still thrive, and the ghouls of that war fight on eternally."

9. Al-Wolnirah - The Black Capital - الولنيرة
"At the heart of the city, a thousand-thousand bodies are exsanguinated: Thown from the cliffs into great flames ─ their humanity stripped ─ the smoke stacks blacken the world, inviting the Abyss. Each reawakens from the putrid smell and their hatred for the regal executioner. Yet, they are crippled and broken, and their dark signs ─ unlike thine own ─ will be their final undoing.

And their blood-sodden ashes will doom this land until nought but dust and dark remains."

This is the final location, the black city and namesake of it's ruler: Wolnir. It is located at the centre of a 'Richat structure' (a tectonic structure caused by a geological dome collapsing in on itself and eroding, leaving a concentric ring shape). Potentially, this is also the location of the Ringed City in the far future.

You may notice some references to other places and characters in the Souls series. This is because in researching this, I came to the conclusion that 'Carthus' is really a name for a whole collection of places that were all conquered by Wolnir at some point (equivalent, perhaps, to the word 'Europe'). The timeline is also a bit bendy, but my sort-of 'head canon' is that the whole world had a deep interconnected history before the cycles began that we get wrapped up with in the main three games.