Dark Souls 3 is full of mysterious and often sinister characters that you can come across on your journey. Every character you meet is on their own journey and by helping them out, you learn more and more about them.

One such character is Anri of Astora, a knight traveling with a silent companion that you meet during your journey. Anri has become a fan favorite character and that’s thanks in large part to their questline where we get to learn more about their backstory. Since Dark Souls doesn’t like to spoon-feed the story, it’s left to player to figure things out. Let’s take a look at some things about Anri you may have missed.

10 Either Male Or Female

Dark Souls 3 is a game that let’s players create and customize their own characters, including picking what gender they’d like to play as. Players who have only played as one gender for their character might not have known that Anri’s gender actually depends on the player character’s gender.

If the player is playing a male character, Anri will be female, but if the player is playing a female character, Anri will be male. It’s also worth noting that in Japan, Anri is a unigender name and works for both the male or female version!

9 That Voice Sounds Familiar

When fans of the Soulsborne series first encountered the female Anri, they may have felt that her voice seemed familiar, and they were right. If you had played Bloodborne before getting to Dark Souls 3, then you had already Anri’s voice before.

Female Anri is voiced by Lucy Briggs-Owen who previously lent her voice to Bloodborne where she voiced Vicar Amelia, Imposter Iosefka, and Sister Adella. FromSoftware has had several voice actors from their previous games appear in their recent titles, and it’s always a treat when you can recognize the voice.

8 Wedding Bells Are Ringing

So the reason Anri’s gender is always the opposite of the player character’s is because there’s a hidden questline that lets you marry them (but there’s also a mod that adds a gay marriage option).

It’s not the most ideal wedding ceremony, however, as when the player arrives at the Temple of the Darkmoon for the ceremony, Anri is lying on a bed of flower petals with a cloth over their face looking quite dead. Marrying Anri really just means stabbing a sword through his or her face to receive power.

7 Necessary For One Of The Endings

So the questline we mentioned concerning marrying Anri is actually part of a questline to unlock a secret ending for the game that many argue is the canon ending. Marrying Anri is only one part of the questline, but it’s arguably the most important part of it.

Anri plays an integral role to be able to get the “Usurpation of Fire” ending, which sees the player character becoming the Lord of Hollows. The one guiding the player on this questline is Yuria of Londor who says that a lord needs a spouse and so ropes Anri into the whole thing.

6 Horace’s Shrine

When you first encounter Anri they’re being accompanied by a silent companion named Horace the Hushed, and together they’re looking for Aldrich. It’s clear from the dialogue that Anri and Horace have a shared past that deeply affected them and they vowed to always have each other’s back.

Unfortunately, they get separated and Horace ends up Hollowing, meaning he goes insane and will attack on sight. If you kill him and tell Anri where he was, they’ll go and make a small shrine with Horace’s weapon, shield, and a prism stone which you can visit.

5 Is Already Hollow When You Meet Them

The “Usurpation of Fire” questline is about the player character becoming the Lord of Hollows, and they only able to marry Anri after Yuria of Londor reveals that Anri is a Hollow.

Most people assumed that Anri went Hollow after being separated from Horace but it turns out that both Anri and Horace were already Hollow (physically, at least) when you first meet them. Some clever players have found ways to remove helmets from NPCs and discovered that Anri is already physically Hollow.

4 Anri Gives Up

We’ve already touched on how getting separated from Horace impacts Anri. They go into a bit of a downward spiral of depression but they do bounce back and continue on their journey with hopes of avenging Horace’s death.

However, killing Horace before he Hollows and in front of Anri will cause Anri to straight out give up. After killing Horace in front of them, Anri will stop attacking you, collapse to their knees, and lament Horace’s death, as you either leave or kill Anri. It’s a much more depressing and evil route to take with Anri’s story.

3 Appears In “Usurpation Of Fire” Ending

After stabbing Anri through the face in the strangest wedding ceremony ever, the player is well on their way to becoming the Lord of Hollows and usurping the Fire but it’s the last players see of Anri. Or so many thought.

It can be tough to see because the ending cutscene’s lighting is quite dark but eagle-eyed players have noticed the silhouette of a character wearing the Elite Knight set, the same armor Anri wears, kneeling among the other Hollows. There really aren’t any other characters it can be except Anri.

2 Might Not Actually Be From Astora

Almost nothing story-wise is explicitly stated in the Dark Souls games. It’s purposefully left open to interpretation which has resulted in plenty of lore theories accompanied by some compelling evidence. One such compelling theory is that Anri of Astora is not actually from Astora.

If you read the item description for Anri’s Straight Sword, it reveals that not only is the sword not originally Anri’s but it also reveals that Astora is a ruined land. Likewise, the item description for the Elite Knight set reveals that Anri knows of Astora only by name and was simply drawn to the idea of Astora.

1 Ties To Aldrich, Devourer Of Gods

When you first meet Anri, they say that they and Horace are on their way to the Cathedral of the Deep to find and kill Aldrich, but they never explain why. It’s something players have to piece together with item descriptions and such but it reveals a grim story.

There are some grim implications that Aldrich, known for his penchant for cannibalism, kidnapped children and ate them. Not only were Anri and Horace two of those children, but they were also the only two to ever escape Aldrich’s clutches and have sworn revenge against him.

NEXT: Dark Souls: 10 Most Intelligent Characters Across The Series, Ranked