Rekka’s origins first start with his mother and father. His mother was a Great Swamp pyromancer and healer, using her talents with flame to create a soothing warmth that healed wounds. His father was a minor noble of Catarina, a knight errant looking for honor and glory. The two met one day when his mother, banished from her home due to monsters, was saved her Rekka’s father. They fell in love after fending off the dark beasts, and soon Rekka was born in his father’s home country.

Rekka took after his father mostly, as the knight dearly wished for his son to become a knight as well. Even as a lad, he began his training with his father, and as he grew older and stronger Rekka became more accustomed to his father’s skills. Unlike most knights of Catarina, his father favored heavy weapons like the axe or hammer, citing that while a sword can slay beasts, one needs a heavier blade against a worthy foe (I.e. other knights). Indeed, while his father was certainly a skilled knight of Catarina, there were some dark rumors that he often turned his blade against other noble knights for pretty reasons. But as his father tells him, Rekka’s father only used his blade against the unjust and corrupt. And while the Catarina knights are generally known for being jovial and honorable, Rekka’s father assures him that no one is perfect.

But Rekka was still only a young man when his mother and father were struck ill by a plague. His father was the first to die, as he caught the plague while he was out on a campaign with his fellow knights. Widowed and grieving, Rekka and his mother left the lands of Catarina and hoped to find somewhere where they would be safe from the plague. They intended to head to Astora, but Rekka’s mother was stricken with the plague and died as well. Well aware from any friend, family, or home, Rekka was left alone in the wilderness with nothing but the momento of his mother and father.

With no other choice, Rekka turned to thievery and robbery to try and survive. But he was far from successful, and even the few times he managed to get away with something, it was only a minor victory. Soon Rekka became envious of the knights and nobility who were free to feast and fatten themselves on the labor of others, while Rekka starved in a ditch. He grew more desperate to the point that instead of robbing others, he simply invaded people’s homes and killed them for their belongings. Countless amounts of people, from peasants to minor nobility, were slain by Rekka’s blade, to feed his hunger.

Of course it wasn’t long before wandering knights heard of his menace, and soon a mob was formed to hunt him down. When they found him, Rekka fought long and hard, but was ultimately slain. But not for long. Soon he rose back up again, near an old campsite he had passed so long ago. He was no longer hungry. No longer tired. He felt no pain, and his body was whole despite being drawn and quartered. But when he felt a pain on his neck, and saw something in a water’s reflection, that Rekka realized what had befallen him; he had become an undead.

Rekka had heard of the undead, and relished in it. Still filled with fury and vengeance, he sought out those who participated in his execution hunted them down, killing them in whatever fashion he felt most satisfying at the time. He relished in other acts of violence and banditry as well, typically robbing and pillaging, with a side of raping and burning. Once more a band of knights joined together to take Rekka down, as well as other brigands and hollows, and once more Rekka fought until he was ultimately defeated. Knowing that simply killing him wouldn’t stop him, Rekka was put into chains and sent to the Undead Asylum, in the far off lands of Lordran.

It was here that Rekka spent many a unknown years rotting in his cell. Without any way to gather humanity or even company, Rekka was slowly going more insane. He lashed out against the walls, attempted to commit suicide many times, but alas, he was confined to his cell. It wasn’t until one fateful moment when a corpse fell into his cell did Rekka find his freedom. The key was dropped by a fellow inmate, another hollow seeking to liberate himself from the asylum. Rekka, in his insane state, chose to follow this man in hopes for some sort of freedom. Of course, he didn’t realize he was being used.

Soon Rekka and the inmate were confronted by the Asylum Demon, where Rekka was left behind as bait. With nothing but a broken short sword as his weapon, Rekka was sure he would die. And he did. Many times. And each time his fate was the same, attempting to bypass the demon only to find no escape. It wasn’t until after one resurrection that he came across the same inmate who had betrayed him. Rekka didn’t listen to his excuses and attacked him, disarming the hollow of his knife and slaying him with his barehands. With the key to his freedom, and more importantly a weapon, Rekka slew the asylum demon and escaped.

From there Rekka was left to explore Lordran. There were a scant few people where, aside from hollows and those soon to be hollows. There was a morose fellow who gave him some direction in the form of ”ringing the bells”, but this was something he only did when it presented the opportunity for himself.

Later Rekka would be recognized as a “Chosen Undead”, but he knew this title was empty. He wasn’t chosen for anything, he thought. He was merely another piece of fodder to throw into a fire. While he initially journeyed throughout Lordran to find something to do, meeting a few friends and killing many enemies along the way, he wasn’t until he arrived in Blight Town did he find purpose. It was there he met her, Quelaag. At the time, she was not immediately hostile to him. She simply told him to turn away, lest she turn him into a feast for her gross chaos beast. But Rekka refused, admitting a certain one-sided infatuation with the Daughter of Chaos. With her interest piqued, she decided to make use of Rekka and allowed him to join her covenant: the Chaos Servants.

His task was simple: Collect Humanity and give it to Quelaag. She was honest with Rekka as well, stating that she needed it to alleviate the pain of her sister. Her sister whom under no circumstances would Rekka ever get to meet, which was fine with him. He felt… Fulfilled collecting humanity for her. More so since one of the best ways to collect humanity involved his most favorite activity, hunting rats killing other hollows. To best facilitate this, he was given strange objects known as cracked red eye orbs, which would allow him to invade other worlds as an ethereal phantom and slay its host for their souls and humanity. While Rekka wasn’t always successful in this task, he made a steady career of hunting down other hollows and their allies for their sweet, sweet humanity, which he offered to Quelaag.

However, his supply of red eye orbs were limited. He needed to find more, but without anyone who sells them or knowing a foe that could reliably have them (And basilisk proving too much of a nuisance to farm), Rekka unknowingly continued on his quest as a Chosen Undead in search of humanity. He braved many hazardous zones, such as Sen’s Fortress and Ando Londo, obtaining the Lordvessel and having no idea what to do with it (It had been quite some time since he had returned to the Firelink Shrine). And though Gwynevere was certainly a tempting misstress to be a knight of, Rekka had already made his vows to Quelaag, and thus departed from the Princess of Sunlight’s company in search for humanity.

It was during this search that things spiralled out of control. Rekka had arrived to the Grand Archives seeking knowledge. There he fought the archive’s guardians, including a particular crystal golem with a mysterious pendant. Thinking nothing of it, Rekka kept this pendant, figuring that it would make a good gift for his mistress. It was while going through the archives that Rekka learned of the existence of another covenant that would facilitate his need to gather humanity from other hollows: The Darkwraiths. Little was known about this faction, only that they reside in the flooded ruins of New Londo (Which was apparently not the Ando Londo that Rekka was at but an old one abandoned long ago, much to his confusion). There he would need to traverse a realm known as “the Abyss” to contact it’s dark lord. But Rekka would never make it that far, or rather, he would soon meet the father of the Abyss himself.

Following some leads, Rekka had arrived to the Darkroot Garden seeking the Covenant of Artorias. Rekka knew little of the knight aside that he was supposedly quite a mighty warrior, but alas had fallen to an evil corruption. His grave was in the Darkroot Garden and Rekka needed to go there to obtain his ring. But lost in these deep woods, Rekka encountered more Crystal Golems. Rekka should have known that something was amiss then, but he thought nothing of it. As he fought the golems, he was attacked by a hydra. Attacked from both sides, Rekka died a few more times against these foes, but he would not admit defeat. After eliminating the goelms Rekka faced the hydra alone, eventually slaying it and clearing his way through Darkroot. But instead of ascending up the cliffside, Rekka explored the watery passage. There he fought another crystal golem, albeit a golden colored one.

And that’s when everything took a turn for the worse.

After slaying the crystal golem, a dark hand emerged from a dark portal. Rekka fought back as quickly as he could, but it was all for naught. He was grabbed by the hand and pulled into the portal, where he awoke in some sort of cave. Crawling out he was immediately met by a furious beast who slew him pretty much immediately. Knowing what laid ahead of him, and seeing no way back from the cave he awoke, he steeled his resolve to fight the beast. After many hard fought battles, Rekka managed to defeat the beast and continued onwards where he met Elizabeth, the talking mushroom. She seemed just as confused as Rekka was about him being here, but regardless she had a question for Rekka; to save a Princess, Dusk of Oolacile. Initially, Rekka wanted no part of it and desired to head back to his world, but alas, Elizabeth did not know the way. Not until Rekka described how he got here in the first place, recognizing the monstrous hand that grabbed him as that of Manus, Father of the Abyss. Surely if Rekka wished to return to his world, he would need to confront him. And incidentally, save Dusk of Oolacile while she was at it.

Conceding to the mushroom’s request, Rekka journeyed through these abyss corrupted lands. He fought pass stone guardians and enchanted scarecrows, cutting a swath through demon dogs and abyss corrupted monsters. Until eventually, he arrived to an arena. There, he thought he would face more Abyss corrupted monsters. In a way he did… But he’d never expected that he’d fight Artorias The Abysswalker. What followed was a brutal slaughter, where Rekka was repeatedly maimed and killed before he could even get a slash in. Even when he could land a heavy blow on the fallen knight, Artorias stopped at nothing to kill Rekka with extreme prejudice.

Rekka wasn’t sure how long he battled Artorias. Many times, he knew, and slowly but surely Rekka was able to get a read on Artorias’s attacks. He eventually fought the knight long enough to be able to see his moves and avoid them, lasting long enough and landing enough blows to defeat the Abysswalker once and for all. In his final breaths of life, Artorias asked Rekka to halt the approach of the Abyss, to succeed where he had failed. Rekka wasn’t sure, knowing that Artorias was many levels stronger than Rekka. For him to succeed at something which Artorias himself had failed seemed… Impossible. But regardless, Rekka had to continue on.

Continue to fight through the ruins of Oolacile. More Abyss Corrupted creatures spawned here, and despite believing himself to be alone, there were also invaders. He fought on, even as the twisted and horrific realm weighed heavily on Rekka’s mind. Only the sweet memories of Quelaag, his mistress, allowed him to continue onwards. Rekka continued through the township into the Chasm of the Abyss, where he faced off against Humanity Spirits. These strange ghostly abominations were nothing like he had faced before, and while he could slay them with ease, they came in waves and he could not defend himself from them. Channeling Artorias own belligerent strength, Rekka cut a swath through the dark spirits in hopes of finding Manus and finishing him off.

And then Rekka fell off a cliff.

It was very dark in the Abyss after all, and in an attempt to dodge the spirits attacking him Rekka dove to the side and fell some distance away. But when he came to, he wasn’t dead, much to his surprise. No, instead he appeared to have fallen deeper into the darkness. But in the distance he saw what appeared to be some sort of… Demonic cat. Rekka wasn’t sure what to make of it, but he followed it regardless. It lead him safely pass most of the phantoms, oddly enough, until he came across a strange sight: a wolf being attacked by the phantoms. However they couldn’t actually harm the beast for some reason or another. Rekka attacked and drove off the phantoms. The wolf looked up to him, and though Rekka normally doesn’t understand animals… He felt gratitude from the beast. The wolf howled and vanished, leaving Rekka alone in the darkness. Where the wolf once stood, there was only a silver pendant.

Once more Rekka was alone and lost. But not too far away there was a small light. A prism stone… A guide towards Manus. It was not long before Rekka finally reached the Abyss. A thick fog separated Rekka from the Father of the Abyss. He knew that this was it. Once he goes down there, he had to win. So many deaths just to get here, and Rekka had come so far… If he died here, he wasn’t sure if he could hold it together. He started to lose hope until he spotted a glowing sign. He recognized it, as an old friend once told him what these were: Summoning Signs. With these he could call allies from another world. And when he used this one, that wolf from before appeared, gripping a sword in her mouth. Rekka realized now that this wolf was going to help him because he saved her. And remembering this, Rekka remembered that there were others he had to save too. Dusk of Oolicile, Quelaag’s sister, and Rekka himself. Gripping the silver pendant, Rekka dove into the Abyss.

Alongside the Great Wolf Sif, Rekka attacked Manus. Both were aggressive and fought each other madly, trading blow for blow. When it looked like Rekka was going to fall, Sig charged in and gave him enough time to restore his health before charging back to the fray. Rekka used everything he had; all his tools, all his strength, and every weapon in his arsenal. He fought tooth and nail, and along the way Sif fell, leaving him to face Manus alone. He began to use dark magics against him, but with the Silver Pendant Rekka was able to deflect most of the spells. Finally, with no more tricks left up his sleeve, Rekka had no other option but one: Attack.

Manus summoned the power of the Abyss to destroy Rekka. All Rekka had was his trust axe. It was a race against time as Rekka charged forward, just as Manus rained death from above. The blow connected. Rekka’s axe sank deep into a gash across Manus’s face, a wound inflicted by Sif. With his blade sinking deeper into Manus’s face, Rekka had slew the Father of the Abyss. As his body vanished into dust, Rekka fell onto the ground alongside none other than Dusk of Oolicile. He didn’t know how she got here, or why Manus even wanted her in the first place. After some time, Rekka started to forget other things too, like why he was even here or what he was going to do now. Everything faded into darkness.

And then Rekka woke up. He was in an arena of some sort. He had thought he was alone until he noticed a strange humanoid figure. She called out to him, asking who he was. After some confusion and uncertainty he introduced himself, and she told Rekka her name: Ciaran. She had come to pay respect to a man here, but when she looked at Rekka again she noticed that Rekka had something; The Soul of Artorias. She wished to have it, to pay proper respect. Rekka, not too certain what to do with such a thing, gave it to her. In exchange, Ciaran gave Rekka her blades, as well as offered advice seeing that he was rather lost. Her advice led Rekka back to Elizabeth the mushroom, who seemed to have remembered him, even though Rekka’s own memory was fuzzy.

It was there that Elizabeth explained what had happened to Rekka, where he was, and what he had done. That he was in Oolicile, and from what she could gleam from Rekka’s own memories, he was from the far future. For in Rekka’s time, Oolicile was long gone, consumed by the abyss. This very tragedy occurring right now. But it was too late for Oolicile anyways, as once Manus was summoned by the town folk, their doom was sealed. But thanks to Rekka’s efforts, the spread of the Abyss stopped here. Knight Artorias was suppose to have stopped Manus, but was defeated in battle and corrupted by the Abyss, hence why Rekka had to fight him at the arena. Artorias was here not only to stop Manus, but to save Princess Dusk, who for reasons unknown to nearly everyone, was kidnapped by Manus. But now she is saved, and Manus has been stopped. A bonfire appeared for Rekka to return to his world. Elizabeth told him that while Rekka’s actions has done far more good than he could realize, because he was indeed from the future, Elizabeth must hide the truth of Rekka’s involvement so that what he did today does not negatively affect the world he came from. Much of this information was too much for Rekka to take in all at once. He simply wanted to return to his time. And so after saying their farewells, Rekka took the bonfire back to his world. Back to his mistress.

But the world has changed.

When he went to find Quelaag, she was nowhere to be found. He had waited in her chambers where he always met her for days on end, but she never arrived. The only thing he found there was an old ring. As his mind was slowly begining to crack under the pressure of not only his time in the Abyss, but from the thought of losing his mistress, Rekka dared venture further into the ruins to look for Quelaag. But what he had found instead… Was the Fair Lady. Quelaag’s sister. She was paler than ice, with hair as white as snow. Her body was fair and weak. Unlike Quelaag, her sister would have no hope in defending herself… And then she spoke. Rekka could understand her perfectly, and for the first time since he was undead, Rekka cried.

He cried because he knew Quelaag had died. During his absence, she was slain. He cried because her sister, his Fair Lady, thought Rekka her sister, and appreciates all that he has done to alleviate her pain. Despite all the blighted sacks of pus surrounding her, the dead eggs from her body, the humanity that Rekka had worked so hard for was, in some ways, healing the Fair Lady. But Rekka was lost now. Because while he still called himself a Chaos Servant, Quelaag was dead. He had failed her, and was unworthy of servicing the Fair Lady, less he fail her too. Grief stricken Rekka poured his humanity into the Fair Lady, leavening behind much of his belongings. He exiled himself from the lands of Lordran, believing that even if he followed the path as a Chosen Undead, he is unworthy of whatever fortune he had in the end.

Rekka walked, one by one losing his belongings. His weapons, his equipment, his gifts. The only few things he kept were his rings, and the silver pendent. Even his memories began to fade as he only vaguely remembers Lordran, and whenever he remembers them he always felt sadness. He traveled for what felt like eternity until he was confronted by armed brigands looking to rob him of his few possessions. But while Rekka had lost much of his memories and nearly all his equipment, he never lost his bloodlust. These brigands, more used to robbing hollow peasants then hollow warriors. Despite being weaponless Rekka disarmed one of the robbers of his short sword, and proceeded to make short work of the other two. He donned their armor bits and continued onwards, assaulted by more bandits. They too fell to Rekka’s blade as he collected their arms and armor until soon he was able to piece together crude, rather intimidating armor.

After dealing with even more bandits, Rekka left one alive to question. This bandit told Rekka that he was in the lands of Forossa, which has recently begun to fall apart due to it’s constant state of war with it’s neighbors. It’s common citizens have now become bandits, much like the ones Rekka had slain recently, with many warlords trying to unique what is left of Forossa to reclaim the kingdom’s glory. Rekka cared little about the politics, but felt that this was a good opprotunity to revel in some good old fashioned violence. So slaying the helpful bandit, Rekka finished his armor and found himself another axe, and proceeded to sell his service to the warlords.

Rekka’s memories of the war is vague considering that there was very little of it that he considers interesting. Sure there were plenty of fights that had brought him to the brink of death (And quite a few more where he did die), and he remembered prominent figures such as the Lion Knights, Vengarl, and even fought alongside the renowned Ivory King. But these battles were just fodder to stave off Rekka’s iminate hollowing. Without a sense of purpose, the only thing that fueled him was his bloodlust and battle rage, and soon even that would be consumed by the oppressive darkness consuming his fire.

At some point Forossa was lost. The Lion Knights became nothing more than mercinaries, Vengarl was reported dead, and the Ivory King left the lands of Forossa to found his own kingdom. Once more Rekka was left with nothing to do, nothing but time and other hollows to kill. So he traveled once more, lost, bored, and slowing growing mad when he heard of an order of warriors made to counter the growth of the Abyss. A familiar concept to the mad warrior. And upon hearing more about these “Abyss Watcher”, a hint of nostalgia and regret tange inside of him. Rekka could not remember why he felt these feelings, but he felt that this group was far more… Relevant than being a mercenary right now. Although uncertain, Rekka sought these Abyss Watchers, hoping to find meaning among their ranks.