Dark Souls, by FromSoftware is a complex and multifaceted game with enough different layers and aspects to have many potential interpretations.
The Dark Souls series and by extension, every game made by FromSoftware and Hidetaka Miyazaki make great use of environmental storytelling, and fully embrace the principle of show, don’t tell. A first time player running through the game will likely gain only a surface level understanding of what is going on, but with each subsequent playthrough, they will gain a much deeper understanding of the events that take place.
Much of the story is presented through optional details, such as the descriptions of items in the player’s inventory, optional dialogues with characters and where enemies appear within the game’s world.
A thoughtful player that takes the time to piece all the different parts together will be greatly rewarded as they unveil the hidden narratives present in the game, and gain a better view into the game’s story and underlying philosophy.
Image taken from: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/36yeA [1]
Dark Souls, at its core, is all about cycles and whether we should perpetuate them. Before getting into the actual philosophy, it is important to understand how the world of Dark Souls began. In the beginning of the Dark Souls universe there was the Age of Ancients[2]. Everything was made out of stone and the only living beings were ancient stone dragons known as the Everlasting Dragons. They ruled as the dominant creatures until The Fire, which is when the Dark Souls world as we see it begins. When The Fire first appeared, it brought with it a concept called Disparity - essentially the different aspects related to fire and their opposites, each in groups of 2. There was Heat/Cold, Life/Death and Light/Dark. The Fire also began giving life to the various entities of the world who were drawn to The Flame. The first creatures who touched The Flame were granted what the games refer to as Lord Souls - extremely powerful Souls that granted their wielders near god-like power. Each of the Lords represented various aspects of The Flame: - Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight represented Light
- The Witch of Izalith (later turned into the Bed of Chaos) represents Life and Heat
- Gravelord Nito represents Death
- Seath The Scaleless (a dragon that betrayed his kin) represents Cold
- an unnamed Lord only referred to as The Furtive Pygmy represents Dark[3]
When the Lords had been created, they went to war with the Everlasting Dragons. After the Dragon War and the Lords’ victory, the Age of Fire officially began.
During the war, the Pygmy began splitting his Dark Soul to create soldiers to fight dragons, and he continued to do so after the war. The effect of this was creating humanity. Gwyn got scared of humanity and the possibility they would end his Age of Fire and usher in the Age of Dark. Gwyn then cursed them with the Dark Sign - which would make them mindless husks known as Hollows, unless they retained their humanity through the various bonfires scattered throughout the world, which would help Gwyn keep the Age of Fire going. So, that is what began the world of Dark Souls. The cycle aspect comes into play when discussing The First Flame, aka The Fire that gave the Lords their souls. The main philosophical question is whether we should kill Gwyn and put out The Flame, thus progressing everything into the next Age of Dark, or whether we should keep rekindling the The First Flame and perpetuate the cycle of the Age of Fire and nothing changes.
Dark Souls 3 is the culmination of this question. The end game boss The Soul of Cinder essentially guards the The First Flame. It is the culmination of all those who chose to rekindle the The First Flame, incorporating their fighting style into its own, even to the point where it has access to Gwyn’s abilities.
[4](The Soul of Cinder, Serrels, 2016)
Upon defeating The Soul of Cinder, dependent on your actions, you get 1 of a number of endings. There are 2 main endings I will bring up for the purpose of this blog - The King of Hollows ending and the Sacrifice ending. During the Sacrifice ending, the player character (referred to as the Ashen One) sacrifices themselves to revive The Flame as it begins to fade. This would perpetuate the cycle of the Age of Fire until someone has to rekindle it again. On a side note, there is a special edition of Dark Souls 3 called The Fire Fades Edition, which is a nod to the whole plot of Dark Souls 3 - The First Flame is fading and about to go out. During The King of Hollows ending, the player character absorbs the remnants of The First Flame into themselves and uses their dark sign to expel it, destroying it. The player character, whilst ushering in the Age of Dark, becomes King of the Hollows and presumably leads them through the Age of Dark.
In conclusion, Dark Souls is a very complex series and has many philosophical aspects to it, far more than I could explain in this blog post. I would highly recommend anyone to research the various theories people have put forwards, or even play the games and develop their own meaning from their experience.
By Connor Edwards
-Bibliography-
[1] Martin, C., 2018. The Painted World of Ariamis - Dark Souls. [online] Available at: <https://www.artstation.com/artwork/36yeA> [Accessed 16 March 2021].
[2] Darksouls.wikidot.com. 2014. Story - Dark Souls Wiki. [online] Available at: <http://darksouls.wikidot.com/story> [Accessed 11 March 2021].
[3] Dark Souls Wiki. 2021. Lord Soul. [online] Available at: <https://darksouls.fandom.com/wiki/Lord_Soul> [Accessed 11 March 2021].
[4] Serrels, M., 2016. The Boss Battle That Almost Drove Me Insane. [online] Kotaku Australia. Available at: <https://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/06/the-dark-souls-boss-battle-that-almost-drove-me-insane/> [Accessed 11 March 2021].
Whilst not at academic source I would like to thank my friend Daniel Pitt for helping me formulate my views with his knowledge of the Dark Souls lore.
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