Stray Demon

Lore

The Stray Demon is the second boss in the Undead Asylum, but can only be fought during the return visit to the Asylum later in the game. His shape is similar to that of the Asylum Demon, but much stronger with magic explosion attacks akin to that of the Demon Firesage and Chaos Witch Quelaag

The Stray Demon can be seen at the very beginning of the game, from the hallway outside the starting cell.
He can be heard walking around underneath the floor from the Asylum Demon's boss arena. He is also likely a prisoner.

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Design Works Interview

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Nakamura: Right from the initial concept stages, when we were still working from key words like "ancient dragon", "chaos demon" and "undead" I thought long and hard about how to create something fresh and new for the people who played Demon's Souls.

Miyazaki: The demon in the Undead Asylum, the Taurus and Capra demons - in fact, the majority of the demon enemies were designed by Mr. Nakamura. I really love all of his designs, they're simple but not predictable. Exactly the kind of creatures that I imagined populating the Dark Souls world. They're just fantastic.

Theories

An Imprisoned High-Ranking Demon

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The Stray Demon has a lot of parallels to the Demon Firesage, the first demon, and master of the old fire sorceries. They both wield the Izalith Catalyst. They both have the same attack movesets, two of which include the same magical explosion (likely part of the old fire arts, given Quelaag uses it too). And both are the same size and drop the same amount of souls, which hints at them being the same age or power-level. This strongly suggests that the Stray Demon is much like the Firesage, a master of old pyromancies.

However, he is locked up, given his boss room has no clear openings other than the ceiling which you abruptly break into. Curiously Black Knights, which hunt demons, appear in the Undead Asylum. Could this be to check up on the status of the demon?

As to why he is imprisoned, this is likely due to his knowledge given that the only demons of the cities of Lordran (which act as patrolmen and guards) who use magic, are the Bat Wing Demons of Anor Londo. However, their magic is that of the gods, Lightning, and not connected to Izalith. Another theory as to why he might've been imprisoned was because he was a demon captured during the early ages of the Chaos Flame. This is strongly suggested given that the Demon Firesage, the first demon, is of the same size as the Stray Demon. Could this be a hint that they were contemporaries of an old age?

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PREV: Sif, the Great Grey Wolf

NEXT: Taurus Demon

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Comments

Theory?

Blarsnir 19 Dec 2017 01:50

This is just speculation, but maybe the stray demon was locked up in there. I mean obviously he cannot get out. Him being “stray” probably means he defected from the demons, and was locked up for it. I also noted that his weapon is similar to the firesage, who was deduced to be a higher ranking demon. A priest of some sort maybe. I think this shows that the stray demon was once a similar ranking firesage, defected, and was locked up. He still can use the chaos flame to an extant with his area effects, but as he is not close to the chaos flame, the flame has clearly died down in him.

Blarsnir 19 Dec 2017 01:52

Btw I got the demonfiresage= priest thing from a Dave control video