Post by galakan on Dec 7, 2016 1:14:29 GMT
Hey guys! Not sure if these threads are helpful or inspiring, but I enjoy writing them, as it helps me think of stuff for my games (is that selfish?)
Anyway, on to more Dark Souls lore/inspirations! This one highlighting the undead curse and the struggle between Dark and Light in the game!
This is going to be shorter than my original post found here so hopefully it is less daunting. Keep in mind that most of this info is not spelled out in the game, and are my own opinions based on the story snippets given.
SPOILER WARNING!!!! THE DARK SOULS SERIES IS AWESOME AND YOU SHOULD PLAY IT! IF YOU HAVE NOT, THIS MAY RUIN SOME OF THE PLOT!
ARE YOU SUFFICIENTLY READY TO BE SPOILED!?...okay
Gwyn The Lord of Light's Rule
So I briefly touched on this during part one, but let's get a little more targeted and less exposition-ish. To summarize, there were four powerful souls found from this thing called The First Flame that pretty much kick-started the world. A ruler named Gwyn found the Soul of Light that was the most powerful of the souls created.
After Gwyn and his knights defeated the dragons, the lord fashioned himself a god and built a powerful kingdom called Lordran. From this kingdom, civilization flourished and things were good for a time. BUT! There is one core tenant of the Dark Souls universe, which states that everything is a cycle and what has flourished must come to an end. In this case The Age Of Light (also called the Age of Fire) would slowly fade into an Age Of Dark.
The Furtive Pygmy, the Dark Soul, and the Rise of Humanity
So when the First Flame created these powerful souls, one of them was not formed by the flame itself, but from the shadows it created. This soul was the Dark Soul, and was originally the weakest of the Great Souls. It was found by a creature known as The Furtive Pygmy, the first human. Using the Dark Soul, the Pygmy created more Humans. Each human would harbor part of the Dark Soul's power and as more humans were born, the power of the Dark Soul grew exponentially.
Now Gwyn and the other gods originally saw humanity as a good thing, for it gave them a labor force and worshipers. Humans were the bees knees.
But one aspect of the Dark Soul was a hidden and terrifying essence of corruption known as The Abyss. Human emotion and character in the world of Dark Souls is defined by the constant struggle between the good (light) side of a person, and the temptation of The Abyss. As humans grew in population this aspect grew more unruly and made humanity too chaotic for Gwyn to control. And humanity began to become corrupt, trading their essence for dark hexes and shortcuts to power that twisted their forms into horrible figures.
The Undead Curse
As humanity grew more uncontrollable Gwyn sought to maintain his foothold on power. As with any ruler, he couldn't bare to see his dynasty destroyed. He figured that he could split his soul among the kings of men (known as the 4 kings) in an attempt to show them that Light is a good thing. This worked for a time, but that hope was shattered when the 4 kings gave themselves over to the Abyss fully under a promise of immortality. To punish this transgression, Gwyn flooded the kingdom of the 4 kings, trapping/killing all inside and sealing away the powers of The Abyss.
Seeing no other choice, Gwyn sacrificed himself and linked his own soul BACK to the First Flame, using the energy it provided to create a powerful curse. Bonfires that were linked to the First Flame cropped up all over the world and could harness humanity to feed the Age of Light and protect those that still lived. Select humans also received a brand known as the Darksign, which doomed them with un-death. This pitted humanity against one another. Those that were undead were seen as abominations and were corralled into a mountain fortress named The Undead Asylum. To avoid this fate, undead fought humans relentlessly until pretty all normal humans in Lordran were gone, and all that remain are undead who have lost all sense of themselves.
Hollowing
It is important to point out that being "undead" in this universe is not quite the same as normal D&D. Undead in Dark Souls are still intelligent normal looking people to begin with. They retain most of what they were before the Dark Sign appeared on them. But this does not last forever. The curse of the undead chips away at the mind and body slowly. Over time memories and emotion fade into nothingness until you are but a hallow husk of what you once were. After the mind is gone, the body fades into a normal zombie-like state for some. For others, their greatest passion or some defining feature of what they once were takes over. Turning them into monstrous versions of themselves.
Anyway! I hope you guys like this! I have run out of time, but will post a top 5 for this section if it interests people!
Anyway, on to more Dark Souls lore/inspirations! This one highlighting the undead curse and the struggle between Dark and Light in the game!
This is going to be shorter than my original post found here so hopefully it is less daunting. Keep in mind that most of this info is not spelled out in the game, and are my own opinions based on the story snippets given.
SPOILER WARNING!!!! THE DARK SOULS SERIES IS AWESOME AND YOU SHOULD PLAY IT! IF YOU HAVE NOT, THIS MAY RUIN SOME OF THE PLOT!
ARE YOU SUFFICIENTLY READY TO BE SPOILED!?...okay
Gwyn The Lord of Light's Rule
So I briefly touched on this during part one, but let's get a little more targeted and less exposition-ish. To summarize, there were four powerful souls found from this thing called The First Flame that pretty much kick-started the world. A ruler named Gwyn found the Soul of Light that was the most powerful of the souls created.
After Gwyn and his knights defeated the dragons, the lord fashioned himself a god and built a powerful kingdom called Lordran. From this kingdom, civilization flourished and things were good for a time. BUT! There is one core tenant of the Dark Souls universe, which states that everything is a cycle and what has flourished must come to an end. In this case The Age Of Light (also called the Age of Fire) would slowly fade into an Age Of Dark.
The Furtive Pygmy, the Dark Soul, and the Rise of Humanity
So when the First Flame created these powerful souls, one of them was not formed by the flame itself, but from the shadows it created. This soul was the Dark Soul, and was originally the weakest of the Great Souls. It was found by a creature known as The Furtive Pygmy, the first human. Using the Dark Soul, the Pygmy created more Humans. Each human would harbor part of the Dark Soul's power and as more humans were born, the power of the Dark Soul grew exponentially.
Now Gwyn and the other gods originally saw humanity as a good thing, for it gave them a labor force and worshipers. Humans were the bees knees.
But one aspect of the Dark Soul was a hidden and terrifying essence of corruption known as The Abyss. Human emotion and character in the world of Dark Souls is defined by the constant struggle between the good (light) side of a person, and the temptation of The Abyss. As humans grew in population this aspect grew more unruly and made humanity too chaotic for Gwyn to control. And humanity began to become corrupt, trading their essence for dark hexes and shortcuts to power that twisted their forms into horrible figures.
The Undead Curse
As humanity grew more uncontrollable Gwyn sought to maintain his foothold on power. As with any ruler, he couldn't bare to see his dynasty destroyed. He figured that he could split his soul among the kings of men (known as the 4 kings) in an attempt to show them that Light is a good thing. This worked for a time, but that hope was shattered when the 4 kings gave themselves over to the Abyss fully under a promise of immortality. To punish this transgression, Gwyn flooded the kingdom of the 4 kings, trapping/killing all inside and sealing away the powers of The Abyss.
Seeing no other choice, Gwyn sacrificed himself and linked his own soul BACK to the First Flame, using the energy it provided to create a powerful curse. Bonfires that were linked to the First Flame cropped up all over the world and could harness humanity to feed the Age of Light and protect those that still lived. Select humans also received a brand known as the Darksign, which doomed them with un-death. This pitted humanity against one another. Those that were undead were seen as abominations and were corralled into a mountain fortress named The Undead Asylum. To avoid this fate, undead fought humans relentlessly until pretty all normal humans in Lordran were gone, and all that remain are undead who have lost all sense of themselves.
Hollowing
It is important to point out that being "undead" in this universe is not quite the same as normal D&D. Undead in Dark Souls are still intelligent normal looking people to begin with. They retain most of what they were before the Dark Sign appeared on them. But this does not last forever. The curse of the undead chips away at the mind and body slowly. Over time memories and emotion fade into nothingness until you are but a hallow husk of what you once were. After the mind is gone, the body fades into a normal zombie-like state for some. For others, their greatest passion or some defining feature of what they once were takes over. Turning them into monstrous versions of themselves.
Anyway! I hope you guys like this! I have run out of time, but will post a top 5 for this section if it interests people!