'Empty ashes of war, devoid of any memories of battle. Unable to apply any kind of affinity in their current state, but can be used by Smithing Master Hewg of the Roundtable Hold to recreate other ashes of war.' Hewg sits in the Roundtable's smithy, motionless, an old creature of indeterminate species, possibly a wretched Misbegotten, possibly a scab-skinned Tarnished kept alive too long. He has been bound to his anvil by the Two Fingers' compulsion : he cannot leave, cannot stop working, cannot refuse a request. He polishes the Tarnished's weapons. He copies Ashes of War onto blank vessels. He is, the questline gradually reveals, the only smith left who can forge the weapon that crowns the next Elden Lord.

Hewg's slow self-revelation is the canon's second great quiet tragedy : he was once a free man, a wanderer, perhaps a warrior. He was caught in some plot. He chose duty. The Two Fingers gave him the gift of immortal smithing in exchange for the rest of his life. Roderika the spirit-tuner, by carrying her chrysalis to him, becomes the only person who can ever release him : when she becomes a master spirit-tuner she takes over the smithy, and Hewg, finally relieved, sits down quietly and lets his hands stop. He does not die so much as exhale.

◆ Sources

ItemLost Ashes of War

Empty ashes of war, devoid of any memories of battle. Unable to apply any kind of affinity in their current state, but can be used by Smithing Master Hewg of the Roundtable Hold to recreate other ashes of war.