Dark Souls LORE THREAD

Priscilla is the daughter of Nameless King and the Stormdrake. NK got dispossessed because he was a dragonfucker.

Velka pardoned NK, which earned her the enmity of the gods. It's also why neither NK nor Priscilla were killed.

Velka didn't approve of Priscilla getting imprisoned because she didn't commit any sins so Velka snuck some of her servants into Aramis to keep her company (raven demons, skelewheels, the knight, Jericho).

Velka raised Gwyndolin, that's why he so obsessed with sin.

Yorskha is the daughter of Gwyndolin and Seath (magic ain't gotta explain shit).

Lothric and Loren are Gwynevere and Oceiros' kids.

ABYSS DID NOTHING WRONG FIREKEKS FUCK OFF REEEEEEEEE

How does one become undead or recieve the mark exactly?
Fate? Just wake up with it one day? Catch it? Inflicted?

>Lothric and Loren are Gwynevere and Oceiros' kids.

THE QUEEN OF LOTHRIC IS NOT GWYNEVERE.

SHE IS A DAUGHTER OF GWYNEVERE, JUST LIKE THE DANCER.

The intro to dark souls 1 made it sound like it was just a thing some people had. So presumably you have it, then when you die you get back up and start going hollow.
Unless you're in DA FUTURE and end up as a worthless unkindled. Then you only get the mark if you accept some dark magic into your soul.

It shows up when you have enough Humanity in you, presumably, given that Humanity is fragments of the Dark Souls.

What's the bad side of this dark magic? Just never dying or something?

You start leaking souls and gradually go insane because of it.

You turn into beef jerky. On the upside, you get a harem.

So wait, let me get this straight.
You are born just a normal human, live a normal life, and if you are cursed, you die and become undead. If you are undead and don't have humanity, you go insane. If you have humanity, you receive the dark mark and can do Estus and bonfire stuff?

>People still don't remember that Gwynevere had a husband she left with and was probably fucking on the reg.

I dunno I guess the secret end was kind of a hot compromise for the end of the series

You eventually go insane. The more often you die, the faster you go insane. Consuming humanity (Or kindling your ember, if you're unkindled) can reverse it somewhat.

>People still don't remember that Gwynevere had a husband she left with and was probably fucking on the reg.

I've been saying that this entire thread, though.

She left Anor Londo to settle down with the Fire God Flann and had a LOT of children, since "several" typically means a whole lot of them.

Odds are Rosaria is a daughter of Gwynevere, and the Dancer was one of her children.

>fertility goddess
>isn't a huge slut

>worthless unkindled
I never really understood why these guys were worthless. It seems like being able to resurrect without going hollow is a pretty sweet deal and the Ashen One's power level appears to be beyond his predecessors' if the multiple Lord of Cinder kills are any indication.

She's a slut for her husband, user.

They're worthless because they can't link the fire, user.

Mostly because they literally can't be used to kindle the fire in their normal state and don't have that little bit of power from the old Pygmy. That's why unkindled need Intelligence and Faith to use pyromancy and nobody else does. They don't have any connection to the primordial Fire that keeps the world going. But pretty much everyone and everything else does, except for things that are super abyss tainted.

It's all a bit unclear.

Too much Humanity is bad, but too little Humanity is also bad. Humans are creatures of Dark who wish to live in the Fire.
Given that Estus is literally bottled fire, and it restores your life, some conclusion could be drawn there.
Also, Aldia, Vendrick and the Cursed One seem to have done something to the curse, which shows in 3; the Unkindled seem less awful than previous bearers of the Darksign.

I like how Aldia said the Age of Fire *and* the Age of Dark are fucking stupid.

Though it makes me want to see what "those who went beyond death" means.

What exactly happens when you have too much humanity?

Oolacile. New Londo. Any kind of Abyss bullshit.

Humanity is fragments of the Dark Soul. More humanity, bigger fragment.

Ever been to Oolacile?

I only played Darksouls 1 without DLC. I heard it's shit for PC, so I never bothered picking it up.

DELETE THIS

FUCK YOU KAATHE, GO BE AMBIGUOUSLY EVIL SOMEWHERE ELSE.

YOU TURN INTO THIS SHIT
OR WORSE

fuck off toothy serpent
you're worse than backstabber frampt

Remember the New Londo area with the Four Kings n shit?

That's what happened when Kaathe taught people how to gain assloads of Humanity, and the Darkwraiths started existing.

Reminder to protect waifu

By choosing the End of Fire

Excuse me, my fellow undead but I must point out that tragedies at New Londo and Oolacile are not indicative of the REAL nature of the Abyss and/or Darkness but were instead the products of Human greed gone awry. There is literally nothing wrong with either the Abyss or Darkness.

>If you have humanity, you receive the dark mark and can do Estus and bonfire stuff
Estus doesn't appear to be limited to the sane undead. Numerous hollow enemies throughout the games can and will stop for a sippy if injured.

I just got Dark Souls 3 and was wondering if playing the first two games are needed to understand this series. Where does Bloodborne fit into this also?

Bloodborne has nothing to do with the Souls series.

Dark Souls 1 should be played before 3. The two games are directly linked. 2 is not necessary to understand most of what you see in 3, there are only a few minor references in items. You will be missing out if you haven't played 1 before playing 3.

Sorry it's late and I should be going to bed soon. I'll try to get 1 and 2 soon.

Bloodborne and Demon's Souls aren't directly related to Dark Souls.
Relative to Dark Souls 3, Dark Souls 1 is ages ago (In the mythological sense of ages, with three or four entire pantheons of gods come and gone), Dark Souls 2 is slightly less ages ago (Still a pantheon or two), but also not as related. It's kind of off doing its own thing.

So why do you have to kill the Lords of Cinder in DaS3 again? Some kind of 'get the qualifications to open the kiln' type deal?

>So why do you have to kill the Lords of Cinder in DaS3 again?

You need the embers within their corpses to have enough kindling to reignite the First Flame.

You still fail even with that, though.

No, more like they're a bunch of lazy/insane bastards and the thing you need to do doesn't actually need them to be conscious or alive, as long as their embers are still burning when you scrape them onto their chairs. Theoretically, they could just go there and sit themselves down like the one guy with no legs does, but then you wouldn't have as many bosses to fight.

Thanks, user. I don't want spoilers but thankfully I'll forget anything spoiler related with my tired self .

>Theoretically, they could just go there and sit themselves down like the one guy with no legs does, but then you wouldn't have as many bosses to fight.

Aldrich was fucking insane and lured to Anor Londo to feast on Gwyndolin's trap booty.

Yhorm already experienced what it's like to Link the Flame, and refused to have any of that.

The Abyss Watchers were too busy killing each other to really go to the Firelink Shrine.

Prince Lothric refused his duty and chose to sit in bed and wait for the world to die.

>you still fail
How so? Did I miss something in the cutscene?

>Yhorm already experienced what it's like to Link the Flame, and refused to have any of that.
He also would never have fit through the doors to Firelink Shrine in the first place.

youtube.com/watch?v=kPXMR1DioZU
youtube.com/watch?v=I_XhXDaCEpc

In one, flame everywhere, fire successfully restarted. In the other, you just sit there and smoulder a little.

Yes, but they could sit their asses down if they were motivated and it would work exactly the same as you sucking the ashes out with a straw and spitting them back up on the chairs.

explain the Usurpation ending to me

like does Man steal the Fire for themselves or something

I take the DS3 one as hammering in the fact that the world is living on borrowed time, and that linking the flame isn't going to make anything better.

I imagine that's why the Soul of Cinder is called that. All that's left of the First Flame is cinders.If it straight up failed, then the fire would fail to light at all.

But as with most things in a Souls game, it's a lot about your interpretation.

How are you going to motivate the big goopy goober to plop down on the chair without eating everyone in the Shrine.

someone checked the japanese and apparently 'cinder' is actually translated poorly and it's supposed to be more like kindling or fuel

You're not. But if you did somehow do it, then it would function exactly the same as if you beat the shit out of the giant cow plop and dumped its soul on the chair.
The guy who is already there is a good example. He's there, he's willing, his soul works for the ritual just fine without him dying first. The others could have done the same thing if they weren't a bunch of insane, unmotivated bastards.

Have the Abyss Watchers draw straws and feed the unlucky ones to him. Their throne doesn't appear to have nearly enough surface area for all of their asses anyway, so someone has to take a hit for the team.

pastebin.com/8SnskKPB
>Lords of Cinder 薪の王 Kindling lords 燃え殻の王
>The wording can mean that the lords, themselves, are kindling; That they're perishable items to be used to prolong the life of the flame.

Then we get to Ludleth of Courland. He's a special case.

>Aldrich was fucking insane and lured to Anor Londo to feast on Gwyndolin's trap booty
Aldrich knows what's good in life then. Damn. Now I don't wanna kill him.

Wait, Demon's Souls isn't related? I was under the impression Bloodborne was an entirely different game, but Demon's Souls seems pretty tied into Dark Souls as a precursor to DS1.

Bump with my most drastic and "out there" theory that I currently possess, but very deeply wish to share:

>The Kingdom of Lothric was heavily influenced by the survivors of Drangleic and their lord and chosen undead who may have very well been the original descendent of the "lothric line".

>The Bearer of the Curse from Dark souls 2's canon ending was the abandonment of fire and darkness; instead opting out to wander the land in search of a permanent cure to the undead and an end to the cycle due to the constant prompts from aldia.

>In his adventures he amassed and salvaged what he could out of Drangliec and brought with him many followers including taking the emerald herald as his wife/mate/queen.

>The Bearer of the Curse eventually found his way to Anor Londo bringing his own ideologies and a few relics of his abandoned homeland and neighboring kingdom.

>They introduced the kingdom to the techniques and methods of dragon breeding, taming and riding- forming their own dragonknights as reminiscent of Drangleic. Something that would be foreign to a land devoted to HUNTING Dragons.

>They also carried on the custom of using "chimes" as opposed to talismans.

>The Caitha Chime and "Red tearstone ring" may be found in Lothric castles: heirlooms to the Drangleic known god of Caitha; goddess of tears.

>The personal scholar to prince lothric may have also have been a sorceror from Drangleic; a peculiar man who possessed foreign powerful sorceries while espousing his own lack of faith in the cycle of fire.

>Most importantly though The Bearer of The Curse brought with him the green emerald's DRAGON BLOOD: Ocerius the consumed king is a direct descendant of the two' coupling and at some point found out of the green emerald's inception via dragons- becoming obsessed with his draconic destiny.

>What's more, there still remains the Lion Knight Albert in the Archives who bears a shield from Drangleic and the Faraam knight's armor and is loyal to the lothric family.

No, separate settings.

Unclear. It just kind of shows up on some people, though Solaire also indicates that the Dark Sign can be contracted willingly ("I became undead to pursue this.")

This is actually pretty good. Drangleic is clearly in a different location than Lordran, and there are plenty of links.

Perhaps the hijacking of the fire-linking by Aldia and the Bearer of the Curse's rejection is why the Unkindled and Lords of Cinder were put into place, to make sure no one could interfere?

They're beings who linked the flame in previous cycles, and now they aren't returning to their thrones to do it again for one reason or another.

Is it the part with him making a pocket dimension to unfuck everything?

We better get to see Aldia's end-goal in DLC and meet that glorious bastard again.

SOTFS was probably the best Souls game in the series in terms of lore and plot, and much of that is because of him.

Firelink Shrine is not a pocket dimension, it's a separate world or set in the past.

How is it a separate world or set in the past? You can literally look up and see Lothric right there next to the Cemetery of Ash.

What's the deal with Firelink between DS1 and DS3? They're nothing alike, geographically or structurally.

How do I stick my Pickle Pee in your Pump a Rum?

My Fucking Nigger

Bumping with another one that's a lot more obvious, but still some people haven't observed:

>Champion Gundyr was an unkindle/chosen undead much like the PC was but during his time he was too late: The fire had faded early and the fire keeper was dead -possibly because she had eyes and meant to betray the flame the whole time-

>Champion Gundyr however contemplates what he will do in one of the last bonfires available; the old fire maiden telling him that even though the fire faded and souls fade in the darkness tiny little embers still exist in the darkness.

>One such tiny ember confronts him: The Player character.

>Champion Gundyr recognizes their power and soul and reasons killing them might be an opportunity to end the darkness, but they end up being slain themselves and their own soul(s) stolen.

>ALTERNATIVELY: It might have also been the "Sword Master" who kills Champion Gundyr as he is another "tiny ember" in the darkness seeking worthy foes persistently. He owned the legendary "chaos blade" during the time of darkness, but in the "future/present" he seems to have lost it- perhaps due in part to the PC looting the blade at the tower.. and also quite possibly why he remains there in the future.

>With his defeat champion Gundyr chains himself up and impales himself upon the faded coiled bonfire sword: he reasons that one day a champion will arise in a time to link the fires and his hollowed body will test their might as he accepts his fate and lets the abyss take him.

He's a man anyway.
Unless you're into that sort of thing.

With firebombs, black firebombs and the pretty coloured rocks you drop down holes.

Gotta love how they basically just upscaled this fella and added some more limbs for the Amygdala.

Can someone like, tell me what the fuck is going on with the sun in Souls 3

Long story short, the world is fucked and is about to end.

Also here's what I think -generally- happened with Gwyndolin:

>Gwyndolin was left alive and untouched after the events of Dark Souls 1.

>Gwyndolin survived as the only remaining god left alive in Anor Londo and not knowing what to do attempted to rebuild Anor Londo as best he could: guiding the humans, reclaiming many miracles, establishing the kingdom once more and so on and so forth.

>Gwyndolin however was not his father and neither was he Gwynevere; he could not replicate the warmth and INCANDESCENCE of his siblings and instead produce the snowy hinterland of the arboreal valley- the whole land of anor londo plunged into constant twilight by his crescent moon influence.

>The Lord of Cinder title was also established by Gwyndolin: Reasoning that the fire would obviously die down once more, he built up the infrastructure and the title/ceremony of the lord of cinder to produce rightful heirs of fire and so forth so the fire could be linked again and again.

>Gwyndolin eventually even managed to bring back some of his siblings: quite possibly even marrying off his sister Gwynevere(or an unknown neice) to the rival king Ocerius in Lothric who at the time had been an enemy to anor londo due to their distrust for the gods.

>However this all ended when the "Church of The Deep" proclaimed themselves lords over the Ithrily valley and cast-aside Gwyndolin as the "old royalty". Abusing their position to ostracize any one descendant of the Gods.

>Their big power play finally came when Aldritch climbed out of his coffin during Dark Souls 3 and with the help of Oontiff Sulyvahn ATE Gwyndolin.

You know....more then usual.
Really, the world is about to end a LOT in Dark Souls. I think that's why From Software is ending the series officially (though I imagine they'll just make a new series of similar stylings), because they can't just have EVERY game be about the slow ending of the world ALL the time.

>TFW you recognized the resemblance after seeing the scene at the Kiln

The Sun is a massive DARKSIGN

Is that really at all surprising?
Miyazaki is really up-front about his visual references and cues, he just knows how to make good use of them.

you decide everyone being hollows is the shit and usher in the age of beef jerky men with Anri and Yuria as your waifus.

You are also probably are Kaath's bitch

Yorshka specifically calls Gwynevere her sister and Gwyn her father.

What system would you use to run a heavily Dark Souls inspired game? (i.e. heavy and deadly combat with exploration in a nigh on post-apocalyptic setting and a side of soul redemption)

No idea. Something homebrewed? Riddle of Steel, maybe?
I could work with the themes and visuals just by doing D&D 5e without much effort on my part, but replicating the mechanics faithfully enough to make it feel the same gameplay-wise (and gameplay is 90% of the Souls series) I honestly don't have an actual answer for off the top of my head.

so how come bloodborne has so much better lore?

>homebrew
I was thinking of making a homebrew based upon the board game coming out. The mechanic of stamina being tied to health and so forth feels like a good start.

Less continuity to be stuck with.
Less 'time is mysterious' bullshit.
Generally more descriptive locations.
Wayyyyy more atmosphere.

Is there any reason why Rosaria might not just be a corrupted Gwynevere? I don't remember any evidence that she even died
Well I certainly wasn't thinking about Nasu's bleeding anus at the time

Weather you LIKE the lore of Bloodborne or not is subjective, which you already know because you are not an idiot.
But if you mean the depth and heavy visual aids absolutely everywhere in Bloodborne used to sprinkle the area with the lore?
That actually has more to due with Yharnam having a unified visual aesthetic and thus rather then spending lots of time designing new areas (mountains, castles, prisons, ruins, fortresses, cities, lava caves, icy peaks, etc) they can design just a few and then FILL them with lots of visual aids to explain the story and work them into the lore of the setting because they pretty much already knew what they were going to be doing with the level's appearance well before they even got around to texturing it.

Basically, it's a lot less work providing the necessary detail when you have only three or so environments to work with (Gothic Victorian Cityscape, Haunted-as-Fuck Forest, Epic Gothic Cathedrals, and crumbling Victorian schools) and you can focus on adding the little touches here and there, like for example....an item found in exactly the right spot on a grave on a hill where an NPC prays sometimes.
That blew my fucking mind when I put that one together.

>an item found in exactly the right spot on a grave on a hill where an NPC prays sometimes.
>That blew my fucking mind when I put that one together.
I'm not sure who you're talking about here. Who are you talking about?

"Father Gwyn" and "Sister Gwynevere" hardly sound familial. They're titles.