They're doomed to turn into horrible monsters

It all seems kind of rigged against them.

Song used: Village Ruins & East Valley - King's Field IV OST

[repcom]

- Would you rather be a butterfly or an angel?
- _I'd_ _rather_ _die_

[ZullietheWitch]

Shoutout to the corpse at the edge of the cliff whose arm is spaghetti.

[dgrimm]

"It all seems kind of rigged against them." That's just Dark Souls *finger guns*

[realkingofantarctica]

This is deeply upsetting. They're cute little round guys who grow up to either become Satan's pet butterflies or gun me down in the Dreg Heap.

[luistorresch]

Zully carrying the whole souls fanbase all the way to elden ring by herself again

[ComradeSeanski]

fromsoft needs to start including a model viewer in their games, so much lore hidden in plain sight

[avaman]

It's their fault.
They should have carried an everstone instead of a stupid random rock.

[Consumstra]

The immense detail of every grotesque creature in dark souls is both inspiring yet disgusting

[PieMastyr]

I love how no matter what path they end up on, they will always shoot lasers. Which tbh might be worth it

[lemonacid]

Could we maybe take a closer look at the Corvian race? The knights, the settlers and maybe a upright model of Father Ariandel?

[maxdennis]

The whole series is partly about the existential threat of the curse, ie, losing yourself and becoming hollow, but also about how no matter how much power and status one attains it remains a fundamental part of your being. "Mark my words Ashen One, you remain among the accursed, " that sort of thing. The pilgrims are hollow but retain their intelligence (bear in mind this is just my interpretation) because they've embraced this truth and cast their identities and worldly attachments aside. Yoel was "once a sorcerer, " and the pilgrim in the Dreg Heap "was once the wet nurse of royalty, " but those earthly roles have ceased to define them. Their only goal is to die and be reborn, so they both embody and transcend the vicious cycle that defines the Souls gameplay loop and it's overarching themes. Honestly I think the hubris of placing yourself above all the "worthless, faceless undead" that are actually your fellow man is adequately rubbed in when an Angel that spawned from a lowly hollow disintegrates you with its lasers.

[Maylage]

Pausing at 1:41, you can see the Angel Larvae bursting THROUGH the stone on the back, implying that this has to happen in order for the Pilgrim to become an Angel.

This implies to me that if the Angel Larvae isn't strong enough to burst through the stone, it explodes out backwards instead, through the ribcage. This creates a Pilgrim Butterfly instead.

The stones could be a rite of passage for the Angel itself, and the Pilgrims are compelled to wear them for this reason.

[Kai-nnsw]

As much fun as the speculative nature of Dark Souls can be, this is one of those case where I wish things were spelled out more. The whole concept of angels in Ds3 is woefully underutilized.

[mtr-music]

So you’re telling the those pilgrim butterfly’s are actually upside down and that they basically hanging there on their backs? Oh..

[WillcraftAnimations]

The pilgrims are one of several aspects of DSIII that don't feel... finished. They're apparently important enough to be featured in the opening cinematic, but in-game... to call their presence "understated" is an "understatement", hueh. Not that I wanted them to be the centerpiece of the story or anything, but I'm still not 100% sure what they even... are. I don't need to know everything about them, in fact I don't want to, that's not how Dark Souls lore goes, but usually I at least have a grasp on the basic concept. Like, I was under the impression that they WANTED to transform until now, and even now I remain unconvinced of the contrary since I can find hardly anything to confirm what's being said here. I still don't get what their pilgrimage entails or anything of the sort, and that lack of info doesn't feel intentional. As if they were supposed to have a bigger role (as implied by their unused animations) but that was cut.

The pus of man is another example of this sort of thing. At first you're led to believe that this'll be an important plot element, because the first boss you fight exhibits this theme and some early enemies do too, and then it largely vanishes and is never explained beyond basic fan speculation. In that particular case I don't mind because I find them to be rather silly, but as for the pilgrims I love their design and some of their implications. I wish they were more fleshed out. Again, in that Dark Souls way where "fleshed out" mostly means "gives you just enough answers to get you asking more questions".

[vhynnz-]

I love and hate those angels. They look amazing and terrifying at the same time, but godamn they are annoying. Shoutout to the sweet Stone-Humped Hag that (in theory) became one and didn't laser me back to the bonfire.

[waltersullivan]

I feel like when we happen upon them in the Dreg Heap they aren’t even done with their metamorphosis yet. As the Londor growers are referred to as pupa in the artbook probably waiting for the Age of Man/Dark to be in full effect.

[MitridatedCarbon]

The way I see it Angels (which include locusts, butterflies, Corvians and those strange giant flies born from the rotten humanity's blood from Ariandel's painting) are basically Demons but for the Dark instead of fire.
Even the name technically gives it away, despite their origins being swapped (Demons come from life and light, Angels come from death and darkness).
The Abyss is the opposite of Chaos, which are both a failed attempts to control their respective force (Dark and fire).
And both are a seedbed for life, albeit Chaos is more predatory while the Abyss seems to create almost opportunistic and parasitic life.
Both Chaos and the Abyss take the form of a liquid (lava for chaos, stagnating water or even the deep for the abyss).
However, Demons seem to work more or less like mutations, and the Chaos almost like radiation. Angels seem to be an infestation of overgrown darkness created by the person's humanity.
In my opinion, the only reason Lothric started worshipping angels was out of their culture, steeming from both Dragon Worshipping (wings) and the Anor Londo's gods (golden-hued magic).

Londor's pilgrims, if they really come from the future, might have known this and have used that as a chance to conquer Lothric, maybe for the whole "Age of the Deep", so they are trying to find the tallest point in the world to survive.
Also, if the deep is linked to the abyss and the dark, and it's basically going to flood the world of Dark Souls, it makes sense that creatures of the Dark would evolve as winged insect-like humanoids since the world would probably be a giant stagnating ocean, and insects prosper in stagnating waters.
Also, I think the grubs and the whole covenant of Rosaria, being set in the Cathedral of the Deep, seems to stem from this: they want to push humans to evolve into angels through rebirth, however by being an artificial "Angelification" they are just reborn as larvas. basically they wasted their "privilege" to become angels by being to scared of the incoming end of the world and taking a shortcut through Rosaria.

[Shruggernauts]

I never put two-and-two together about pilgrims and pilgrim butterflies. Jesus, it's so bleak. I love it.

[ENCHANTMEN_]

Here's something neat: the shell backpack is similar to the one worn in the Cleric set. Based on its item description, it could be what the pilgrims once looked like.

"Garb worn by a cleric turned undead. Unmistakable vibrant blue robes.

It is said that the blue-robed travelers were entrusted with a duty.

They bore large covers on their backs to ensure that they would not become seedbeds for spreading darkness."