A Dark Souls 1 Story Retrospective

dark souls 1 is a fantastic game it's got a  wonderful story that would set in motion numerous   events that would occur throughout the trilogy  but just within the bounds of its own game   dark souls 1 has some incredibly deep and  rich lore filled with some of the greatest   backstories this series has to offer and today  i want to discuss why, so without further ado   let's get started so the opening cinematic of  dark souls 1 starts at the gray world one that is   filled with giant trees and dragons and while the  world stayed like that for a while one day fire   was born as for how this fire came to be well it's  never explained this is one of the many things we   just have to accept the world of dark souls is  fantasy and many things just can't be explained   it's never mentioned how the first flame was  created as it just happened but because the   first flame was born disparity came with it life  and death heat and cold and light and dark this   description is literal since the first flame was  created the people of the world felt its warmth   and understood what heat was when they walked  away from the flame they realized its heat didn't   reach them which created the feeling of cold the  discovery of fire during the stone age is to this   day the greatest discovery known to man and in  dark souls this is no different given how unique   something like this in the world of dark souls was  those who discovered it were obviously attracted   to its power four notable people would discover  lord souls next to these flames and be given   immense power these people were nito izalith gwyn  and the pygmy from the intro we can infer that   there was a civilization of people that existed  during the age of ancients izalith had daughters   that were with her when she found her lord's  soul and gwyn had his nights with him implying   that people did exist during the time of the age  of ancients but weren't of much value to the world   given how powerful the dragons were eventually  nito izalith and gwyn would band together and   use their power to overthrow the dragons gwyn used  this lightning izalith used her flames and nito   used his death and disease they also received help  from a seath the scalists a dragon who betrayed   his own kind now that the new lords were on top of  the food chain the age of ancients was no more and   the age of fire had begun this period would last  thousands of years until we get to today currently   the fire is fading and it needs to be rekindled  in order to keep it lit but doing this is not   as simple as it sounds you may have noticed i  forgot to talk about the pygmy well the pygmy   had a unique soul called the dark soul using his  soul he created something called humanity he would   then share this humanity with his people these  dark soul imbued people became known as humans   the pygmy is essentially our ancestor gwyn feared  this power though and created the dark sign which   inadvertently caused the undead curse this isn't  explained much in dark souls 1 but it is by far   the most important plot in the whole series and  while i just wanted to talk about this game for   the whole video this needs to be explained or  else the rest of the video going forward will   make no sense the undead curse the dark sign  and the fading of the fire are all linked the   dark soul gets more powerful the closer the fire  is to fading thus meaning humans should get more   powerful over time but gwyn screwed humanity twice  by rekindling the flame thus removing our chance   at power but also by branding humans with the dark  side think of this as a literal wall of fire that   prevents the dark soul within men from getting  too powerful the dark side only activates when   the flame is fading because that is when the dark  soul within men starts to grow stronger this dark   sign also prevents humans from dying but it also  causes them to go undead these fleshy creatures   were once undead humans but they have crossed the  barrier of no return even though humans are able   to revive after death eventually this will cause  them to lose their humanity lose their minds and   lose their purpose causing them to go hollow  these creatures are hollows beings who don't   even remember who they are where they are or what  they're even doing gwyn likes being on top and he   fears the day that he will lose his power so he'll  do anything he can to prevent that from happening   he did this by branding humanity with the  dark side but by also rekindling the flame   which is known as the first sin see the world  is like a set of operations things are born but   eventually they'll die but then more things  will be born only to die soon after that's   just the way the world works but gwyn broke the  laws of the world by rekindling the first flame   it was meant to be extinguished but due to  gwyn wanting to hold on to what he held dear   he couldn't dare see it go he sacrificed himself  by using himself as kindling for the first flame   since he had one of the four original lord  souls that came from the first flame it was   deemed sufficient enough to be used as fuel unless  the gauge of fire continued but as we know it is   fading once more the undead curse is back humans  are turning hollow and the world is in chaos   doesn't this sound like a fantastic story that's  because it is this intro and even the game display   a sense of desperation within our characters  how far people willing to go to get what they   want or keep what they have and while each of  their desires is different it always comes out   the same dark souls 1 is just the start but the  actions of its characters will continue to echo   throughout the entire trilogy and we're just  getting started after the opening cinematic   we get to see the state of the world as it is  today or at least the state of this prison we're   an undead that is sitting in their cell awaiting  the end of the world but one day we're given the   key to our cell and are able to leave this person  is oscar and he speaks of a prophecy there is an   old saying in my family thou who art undead are  chosen and thine exodus from the undead asylum   maketh pilgrimage to the land of ancient  lords when thou ringeth the bell of awakening   the fate of the undead thou shalt know this  prophecy also happens to be the main objective   of the game but it's only the first part the  rest we'll have to discover later the intro of   dark souls 1 sets up a new world by showcasing  multiple important events in the world's history   and also gives us enough information to understand  the basic premise of the game while also purposely   withholding some of that information to give us  a reason to seek out said information one thing   we need to consider though is our character's  motivations why even bother making the trip   to lordran the land of lords well what else is  there to do it's the end of the world and you   were just given the keys to your cell allowing  you to explore the world to your heart's content   even if you're convinced that life is doomed in  the world as we know it will disappear for good   why not make the most out of it have some fun kill  some hollows it's a whole lot better than rotting   in a cell with our objective laid out to us thanks  to oscar we can now set out to lordran and ring   the bells technically the first area you're meant  to go is the undead burg but one wrong step and   you can make it to new londo out of all the souls  games dark souls 1 will provide the best blind   playthrough as due to its connected world players  will go in different directions which in turn will   create different experiences new londo is actually  a late game area since the enemies here are quite   strong and the boss at the end of the level is  quite tough but you may stumble upon this area   by accident within five minutes of arriving  this is due in part to dark souls ones a level   design which may have the best level design in the  whole franchise it's been coined as a metroidvania   a genre that started with the game's metroid  and castlevania these games have non-linear   progression as many areas can be accessed right  away but others can't causing the player to go   around the map looking for the key then running  back to that same location such as this door that   leads to havel which can only be found in the dark  route basin past the boss the door is found pretty   early on in your playthrough but the key is found  much later plus you'll also have to remember where   that key goes you'll be doing lots of running  in this game the highlight of one of my play   sessions was going from blighttown to andre  because i forgot to ascend my weapon before   a boss fight meaning i had to take a three minute  walk up to him then a three minute walk back down   in future titles this would be remedied by fast  travel but dark souls 1 doesn't have fast travel   initially and even when you do gain the power  of fast travel via the lord vessel it's not   the typical fast travel we're familiar with as  we're only allowed to travel to specific bonfires   these decisions further immerse the player  into the world as it's all one connected level   and since they're all connected that means you  can see certain levels from different places   such as blighttown which is visible from firelink  shrine so not only was the level design of each   area taken into account but also how the levels  connected to one another and how this connection   would affect other areas regardless of where you  end up though whether that be new londo or undead   burg the very first enemies you'll come to see are  these hollow men like the ones back in the asylum   all the undead we see here are humans who have  lost their humanity causing them to go hollow   and now since we are human we should go hollow too  however it's a bit more meta than that hollowing   is a bit hard to define as everyone can go hollow  for different reasons but the two main ideas seem   to stem from constant death or a loss of purpose  given that our character is set on ringing the   bells he never goes hollow despite being undead as  he still has a purpose should the player quit and   uninstall the game they would lose their purpose  so permanently quitting the game is sort of like   hollowing in a sense i don't think everything  needs to be explained with lore so this is more   than likely just a gameplay mechanic but that's  how i've interpreted hollowing on our way to   the bells of awakening will come across various  different locations but sadly there isn't a whole   lot of backstory involved in their creation  locations like undead burg are just undead   settlements and the valley of drake's is just  a valley filled with drakes the only exceptions   though are ash lake and blighttown blighttown is  next to a location called the depths and at the   end of the depths is the gaping dragon and while  an interesting boss what's more important is the   arena we can see water coming from the depths  and going into the sewer system which leads to   blighttown according to various keys in the game  we can piece together that those who previously   lived in the undead burg but were banished  from the settlement were sent to blighttown   as punishment this is reinforced by the giant door  that separates the sewer system from the outside   world but this water from the sewer is poisonous  well in blighttown there's a spell called poison   mist and according to its description it seems  that eingyi this egg-bearing individual may have   caused this as he was the creator of the poison  miss spell it's not fully confirmed that he did   this but it's clear that blighttown isn't in the  greatest state and it's due to the circumstances   surrounding blighttown that the townsfolk seem  to have built above the water in hopes of getting   away from it this is a common theme in these games  of things being built on top of one another as we   see blighttown above the swamp depths above  blighttown and the undead burg above all that   the idea of pushing things down and leaving them  to fester is also a common theme within this game   but not everything is in such a sad state as  at the lowest point of lordran we see ash lake   a seemingly infinite land filled with archeries  that are surrounded by an equally infinite body   this seems to be where the dragons used to live or  at least one part of it as it's eerily similar to   the environment in the intro which we do know was  the land of the everlasting dragons we can even   find one of the few remaining dragons down here  in ash lake he's a part of the dragon covenant   in-game and from various descriptions it seems  like many people worship the dragons and tried   to ascend to their level it's unclear though if  that worked once the player feels confident in   their fighting abilities they can approach the  bosses defending the bells of awakening these   being the bell gargoyles and chaos witch quelaag after bringing both bells we'll see that sen's   fortress a place that was originally blocked with  a large gate is now open but if we travel back to   firelink shrine we'll find a primordial serpent  named frampt he claims to be a close friend of   gwyns and also claims to know our fate very  well then i am pleased to share chosen undead   your fate is to succeed the great lord  gwyn so that you may link the fire   cast away the dark and undo the curse of the  undead to this end you must visit anor londo   and acquire the lord vessel just like before  this second part of the prophecy also happens   to be our newest objective but frampt is quite a  complex character if certain conditions are met   within the game we can also be granted an audience  with kaathe he however tells us a different story   your ancestor claimed the dark soul and waited  for fire to subside and soon the flames did fade   and only dark remained thus began the age of men  the age of dark so it wasn't just the fact that   the fire was fading that caused gwen to rekindle  it the flame actually went out furthermore despite   being the same species both frampt and kaathe have  different views on the world frampt wants to keep   the age of fire going but kaathe wants to usher  in an age of darkness the question is who do   we trust well that's up to you as these are the  two endings of the game extinguish the flame or   rekindle it the choice is yours what is important  to note though is their motivations why are they   doing this why are they against each other well  we still don't know and it's been a widely debated   topic that hasn't been given a proper answer yet  regardless i don't think you should trust any of   them frampt claims that the undead curse will be  cured if we link the flame but this isn't correct   as we'll see in dark souls 2 and 3 the curse  is still present frampt and kaathe are like   politicians, they say what needs to be said but  never elaborate by technicality the undead curse   will be cured when we link the flame as we know  the darksign only appears when fire fades and if   it's not fading then the curse of the dark sign  is gone which means the curse goes with it but   it will eventually come back things are meant to  run their course so over time the fire will fade   again and the curse will come back just not in our  character's lifetime frampt whether intentional or   not is leading the player to believe that the  curse will disappear permanently when indeed it   only just disappears for a few thousand years but  kaathe is also lying as he isn't fully explaining   what this age of darkness entails and as we'll see  kaathe isn't exactly the nicest person in the soul's   universe i've always seen these two as immortal  beings ones that are ageless and due to this when   the time comes they like to move the pieces a bit  and see what happens kaathe and frampt are basically   playing a long game of chess but without the  stakes regardless of who wins they both continue   to live one just managed to convince the chosen  undead more so why not cause a bit of chaos a lie   or two here wouldn't hurt anybody as it's just  extra pieces on the board to them to this day   we still don't know what they really want from us  and whether their goals they conveyed to us were   actually genuine my interpretation of these could  be wildly incorrect but that's the beauty of these   games they allow you to shape your own story  and create your own adventure and in my story   i don't trust these two regardless of who you  believe the one thing they agree on is that we   need the lord vessel thus we need to get to anor  londo to get there we'll need to pass through   sen's fortress a place filled with deadly traps  and is easily the most infuriating area in the   whole game the fortress is also used as a sort  of trial as this leads us to anor londo but many   people have tried and failed to get there this is  of course due to the numerous traps throughout the   fortress and the iron golem at the top although he  was surprisingly the easiest part of the fortress   once the golem is defeated we are then grabbed  by these demons and taken to anor londo it's hard to forget your first time in anor  londo nothing up until this point has been more   extravagant and beautiful looking than this place  and that's what makes it so memorable in a world   devoid of beauty and color there's this incredible  place that just exists but it's on the other side   of the wall but something is off it feels empty  like we showed up late to a party and in a more   metaphorical and literal sense we have this  place is gorgeous but if you'll excuse the pun   it's also quite hollow lots of your time in  anor londo is spent walking but if you manage   to make it past these giants and exploit the  ai of these silver knights then you'll make it   to the climactic fight of ornstein and smough, O&S is  undoubtedly my favorite fight in dark souls 1 the   balance of these two is unmatched as ornstein  is a quick nimble fighter that can go halfway   across the arena just to hit you but his damage  is nowhere near as staggering as the force that   is smough whereas ornstein instills fear from his  speed smoughs fear comes from his power ornstein   at the beginning of the fight is more or less a  pushover he does deal decent damage but it's not   enough to warrant a healing item but no amount of  damage resistance especially this early on could   protect you from smough's hammer and one hit from  this hammer can make orenstein seem a lot more   threatening their power grows from the other's  presence as the more ornstein chips at your health   the closer you are to being within one shot range  of smough and if smough hits you once well there's   nothing that can compare to that level of stress  they feed off each other in such a balanced way in   fact they actually feed on each other as whoever  falls first becomes the power source for the other   their health also goes back to full so it's  never about dwindling them down over time it's   committing to one and sticking with it the problem  is knowing when to strike and how given how well   they complement each other it might seem like  there's never an opening and that's what makes   them such a difficult fight all that's required  though from the player is patience it's arguably   one of the best fights in the game and even  the series as a whole and i can finally see why   while O&S may seem like the climactic finish  to the level hold your load as behind them is   the real climax the princess of sunlight Gwynevere  feel free to interpret climax however you want she   is the one who gives us the lord vessel we need  to progress through the game but as i said earlier   it feels like we arrived late to a party well i  wasn't lying once the post nut clarity settles   in if we attack gwynevere the world of anor londo  shows its true colors and reveals that it's just   as depressing as everything else in lordran and  the one responsible for this illusion is dark   sun gwyndolin, gwyndolin is an interesting case to  me as he was the last born child of gwyn who was   a male but was raised as a female this was due to  his strong affinity with moon magic i'm not sure   what the connection is but maybe it's some sort of  cultural thing where the moon is seen as a sort of   feminine symbol which would actually explain a lot  regarding a future game and two of its characters   gwyndolin also created the illusion of anor londo  to seemingly entice the chosen undead to continue   their duty remember gwyndolin only appears when  we kill gwynevere illusion meaning that this   is actually gwyndolin speaking to us through  his sister he also shares the same viewpoints   as frampt which is interesting as he's basically  telling us to kill his father and continue the   age of fire gwyndolin seems to want to hold on to  the power his family has and keep things running   smoothly which is why he wants the age of fire to  continue so that his family and their powers can   stay and the reason why he created the illusion of  anor londo was also to desperately hold on to the   past ha i guess it runs in the family then as for  how gwynevere fits into this while she was gwyn's   second born child who like many other deities  left in orlando she would then meet with a flame   god flan and later become his wife besides these  two gwyn had two other children but we'll have to   wait for dark souls 3 to discuss more about them  so in orlando the city of gods this place that   was supposed to be seen as a beacon of hope to all  within lordran is just an illusion but anor londo   isn't the only illusion of lordran but making our  way to the painting inside the city upon touching   it were thrown into the painted world of ariamis  ariamis as a concept is fascinating as it's this   world within a world and these people inside the  painting could possibly never know of the world   outside of it from exploring this hidden world  we learn that ariamis was made for things the   gods feared ariamis is home to the followers of  velka and velka is known as the goddess of sin   furthermore this is the only location in the game  where you can find the dark ember which according   to its item description is used to make occult  weaponry weapons that were favorable amongst those   who plan to kill the gods and their kin velka was  more than likely someone who wanted to hunt the   gods but was killed or thrown into the painting  it's clear that this place has a malicious history   behind it but it's not all bad as the person  who watches over ariamis is crossbreed priscilla   priscilla is a half-human half-dragon crossbreed  due to this unique birth she also gained some   unique abilities mainly the ability of life hunt  which he uses on her scythe these powers of hers   could threaten the gods rule so they also threw  her into the painted world but what's rather   interesting is priscilla herself she's the only  boss in the game that doesn't want to fight us   she even tells us how to leave ariamus meaning not  only does she have no intent of enacting revenge   but she knows how to leave yet refuses priscilla  may have felt how these new arrivals feel but   instead of using vengeance she uses acceptance  and instead welcomes these people into her painted   world it's actually quite wholesome and is the  reason why i couldn't kill her every boss in   this game is hell-bent on killing me so when i  finally discovered one that didn't want to and   in fact help me i couldn't refuse so i left with  the hope that priscilla would be able to make this   place a proper home for her people this whole area  is swarming with hollows and other creatures that   want nothing more than to kill us but they were  either tricked into here or thrown in because the   gods willed it and yeah some of them probably  do belong in here but if priscilla is set on   making this place a home for those who have found  themselves here then who am i to intervene after   acquiring the lord vessel when we meet with koth  or frampt they'll tell us that to gain access to   gwyn we must gather the remaining lord souls and  use them to satiate the lord vessel these lord   souls belong to four individuals seath the scaleless  the witch of izalith nito and the four kings three   of whom you will have already recognized from  here we can tackle the game in any order we want   so let's start with the four kings the four kings  are well four kings who ruled over new londo they   were given fragments of gwyn's soul which is why  we need to kill them you may recognize their boss   location as this is the same dark abyss that  we met kaathe well long ago the four kings   were tricked by kaathe and were consumed by the  abyss this caused the kings to go mad and this   also caused the citizens to either become these  blobs of mass or the dark wraith soldiers this   area really utilizes the environment to tell its  tale as this place is overrun by the ghosts of the   villagers and when we actually unlock the door to  lower new londo we see piles of corpses scattered   throughout the land kaathe single-handedly destroyed  an entire city simply by tricking its inhabitants   and unleashing the abyss upon them while the  mass extinction of a city sounds bad there is   still more destruction to be seen one thing you  may have noticed is a severe lack of human bosses   quelaag would probably count as the first one  you'd meet although she's sort of half human but   there's a reason for this as this has to do with  the witch of izalith while gwyn was frantically   running around trying to figure out what to do  with the flame the witch of izalith had a plan she   was going to create a new flame that would replace  the first flame but she attempted to create a   replica in the presence of the very thing that was  created which brought with it massive consequences   the witch of izalith wanted to create a new first  flame but there was already a first flame present   in the world there can't be two first flames due  to this the flame that she created couldn't be   contained for long causing it to erupt and this  not only consumed her and her children but also   created new life as it gave birth to demons the  asylum taurus and capra demon roughly the first   three bosses in the game were created from this  event in fact anything that has the word demon   in it is most likely derived from this flame of  chaos but not only was new life created old life   was altered all of izalith's family who were caught  in the explosion were all transformed into demons   themselves chaos which quelaag the fair lady  and ceaseless discharge are three of izalith's   children just as gwyn was desperate to continue  the age of fire in an attempt to keep what he   had so too did izalith but the consequences are  a reflection of her actions in an attempt to give   life to something bright and warm she ended up  giving life to something cold and dark she also   wanted to extend the age of fire in order to  continue her prosperous life with her children   but by doing so she ended up making their lives  a living hell not a single person in this family   tree is living a robust life anymore quelaag and  her sister the fair lady are half demon and are   more than likely suffering from their condition  as told to us by the fair lady ceaseless discharge was covered in lava sores   from birth so his life was a living hell from  the start the flame of chaos just made it worse   ceaseless discharge just like priscilla doesn't  actually want to fight us it's only until we   steal this clothing set that he attacks us this  clothing set rests upon a grave that belonged to   his sister quelana who he believes died in the  explosion when in fact she was the only one who   escaped quelana will appear in blighttown if  the player is sufficient enough in pyromancy   quelana explains that she was the only one who  made it out of the reaches of the flame of chaos   in fact she was actually able to harness the power  of the flame of chaos and create magic which we   know as pyromancy quelana wants us to fulfill her  duty for her as she does not have the strength to   go on she instructs us that we need to put down  her siblings and her mother so that they may rest   in peace this whole family dynamic is horrific as  ceaseless believes that all his sisters are dead   even though qulana is alive and quelana is only  a few meters from her sister and yet we can tell   her about this clearly this is turning into a very  depressing story but it only gets worse as we get   closer to the final boss of the area we'll meet  with a pyromancer who is assumed to be another   daughter of izalith although it's unclear why she  is so far down in these ruins yet is completely   unharmed it's possible that she like quelana  escaped the flame of chaos but this daughter   came back to finish off the boss right behind her  or has possibly gone insane and is now defending   said boss and by going down this slide we will  meet this monstrosity who is the bed of chaos   this is the witch of izalith one of the four most  powerful people in the world has been demoted to   this deformed tree-like creature there are also  these orbs next to her that we need to destroy   in order to damage her and it's assumed by many  that these are her other two daughters that were   closest to her when the flame erupted so we have  two daughters stuck to their mother two daughters   who were half afflicted by the flame a son who  is arguably the most affected and two daughters   who manage to survive one who doesn't have the  strength to carry on anymore and another who sits   outside her mother's arena this is by far the most  depressing story i've ever had the misfortune of   uncovering the further we push into lost izalith  the more of the family we get to meet allowing   us to see the consequences of her actions we can  see the pain that all of them are in as some of   them are just wishing for their siblings back and  others just want to stay alive it's an awful story   that all leads to the final fight with izalith  herself and it is by far the most anti-climactic   ending i've ever experienced it is agreed upon by  many that the bet of chaos is the worst fight in   dark souls 1. the boss is insanely difficult but  it's not the difficulty itself that's the issue   it's why the boss is difficult i would argue that  just within the main game the two hardest bosses   are the four kings and ornstein and smough  are difficult bosses because there's two of them   you have to have both on screen at all times or  you'll lose this fight this is balanced by having   ornstein be fast but not as lethal and smough being  slow and hard-hitting it's a wonderful dichotomy   that makes for a satisfying fight and the four  kings is a dps check as every 30 to 45 seconds   a second king will spawn and this will keep going  until 4 on your screen at once to succeed you need   to kill the current king before this happens both  boss fights are hard but have weaknesses you can   exploit the bet of chaos has none to defeat the  boss you need to destroy both orbs on her sides   then go down the middle inside of her so you  can find the source of her power she's actually   extremely weak as both the orbs and her die in one  hit it's getting there that's the issue her hand   attack is oddly timed and due to her design it's  unclear where her hitbox ends after defeating one   of the orbs the floor will start to crumble so not  only do you need to avoid her attacks but you'll   also need to avoid the floor there's also a strict  path you're meant to follow for this fight which   will lead you right next to a broken piece and  the flooring so you'll more than likely get hit   and fall in and die the walk back to this boss is  also just as atrocious as you'll more than likely   spend more time walking to the boss than actually  fighting her thankfully there is no reset involved   in this boss as every single run you've done is  carried over to the next as it essentially has   unlimited checkpoints it's like from software knew  it was bad but still kept it in even if i actually   enjoyed the fight the payoff narratively isn't  worth the time we ventured further and further   into the depths of lost izalith coming across all  of her children who were these hideous beasts that   did incredible damage and she's just a puzzle the  witch of izalith has one of the best backstories   in the game as the tale of her children is  heartbreaking and being able to see their   conditions face to face does take a lot out of you  but it's completely soured by a boss fight that is   mechanically and narratively a letdown our third  lord soul belongs to grave lord nito and he's   interesting to say the least nito might have the  most detailed boss design but the most basic story   out of all the four lords if you were to just  assume that nito simply became the grim reaper   and just administered death you wouldn't be  far off which is a shame for someone of his   importance gravelord nito lives in the tomb  of giants which is accessed via the catacombs   both these areas share a similar theme of death as  this is where the dead are buried so we know that   he administers death but what else does he do well  not much else he does have a covenant that you can   join but their goal is just to spread more death  across the world it seems like he doesn't care   about what's going on in the world as the only  reason he attacks you is because we're obviously   here with malicious intent leader doesn't have any  lore regarding his life during the age of fire and   it's just about him administering death from this  we can infer that nito either doesn't care about   the age of fire or maybe even just wants the age  of darkness to occur the only other bit of lore   surrounding him is a boss named pinwheel who is a  necromancer presumably made up of three people as   referenced by the number of masks on the  body who stole an item from him known as the   rite of kindling there are quite a few theories  regarding pinwheel like the fact that pinwheel was   originally a father but his wife and child died so  he attempted to resurrect them but it failed and   some have stated further that he's still trying  to figure out how to revive them as we can see   skeletons throughout the room which could be seen  as his test subjects but other than that we've   pretty much discussed all of nito there  isn't anything else to speak about which is a   real shame his backstory has a massive amount of  potential but it just felt unfinished there are no   major themes tied to nito he just kinda exists our  final lord soul belongs to seath the scaleless seath as   we remember allied himself with our four lords  and attacked the dragons the reason he did this   was because seath unlike the other dragons was not  immortal all the other dragons had impenetrable   scales that could not be broken with any type  of weapon sheath was not born with these scales   so in a sense he was not immortal it was only  until gwyn was given their weakness from seath   which we know is lightning that gwyn was able to  pierce the dragon's scales and actually kill them   seath was envious of his brethren as they had what  he didn't so as thanks for working with gwyn he   was named the duke and given the duke's archives  as well as some of gwyn's lord soul for power   during the war seath found the primordial crystal  an item that gave him temporary immortality but   during this time in the duke's archives he  eventually went mad with his experiments in   his research he is considered the grandfather of  sorcery as well as the creator of these creatures   and the moonlight butterfly our first interaction  with seath is that he ends up killing us   and throwing us in a prison cell we can see that  theme of desperation as seth is trying everything   he can to get what he wants but in the process it  made him mad he's not as mindful of his actions as   he used to be in a sort of a shadow of his former  self one thing i find interesting in this prison   is the abundance of miracle-related items and the  clothing that are scattered throughout the prison   it's possible that clerics were deemed suitable  subjects for seath experiments maybe this is due   to their magical power or because they were so  easy to defeat to kill seath though we need to   head to the crystal caves which i was originally  going to say was probably the worst level in this   game due to half the map being invisible but the  walk to the boss is surprisingly straightforward   venturing off that path though is where the  problem lies to defeat seath we need to break   his primordial crystal so that we can sever his  immortality giving us a chance to kill him the   story of these lords caused a bit of an imbalance  throughout my playthrough you can go through lost   izalith and the demon ruins which is filled with  rich lore tons of backstory and compelling bosses   that fit with the lore surrounding the witch of  izalith but then you go to the four kings and just   find out that they were lords of new londo who  got tricked by kaathe and consumed by the abyss it   feels jarring going from one to the other as one  feels thorough while the other feels incomplete   like you missed something or there was more that  should have been said i don't think every boss   needs to have a multi-page wikipedia article in  order for it to be considered a good story i think   that the boss's story said what needed to be said  in regards to the overarching plot but i can't   lie to you and tell you that i didn't leave these  locations wanting more i wanted to know more about   the four kings and how they rose to power and i  wanted to know more about nito and sith in general   but i never got that and i guess in a way this  could be viewed as a positive as i didn't walk out   of these places not wanting to learn them at all  but rather wanted to learn more the game invested   me so much into its story thanks to its characters  and environmental storytelling that i wanted the   game to provide me with more information on it  i wanted to be encapsulated by this story more   than i already was as with many souls games not  all answers are explicitly told to us but there   were still a lot of burning questions i had that  never got mentioned with the lord's souls on the   vessel we are now able to fight gwyn but we still  have one final location we need to visit which is   the land of oolacile accessed by the artorius of  the abyss dlc the one and only dlc that dark souls   1 would have we start this dlc by defeating this  gold golem that has a woman named dusk captured   inside dusk was the princess of a place called  oolacile according to her it's a place from an   age that existed long ago hilariously enough she  doesn't actually say anything after this you would   think that the dlc would sort of spin a story that  her home is in danger and we need to save her but   she doesn't actually tell us that she just sells  us sorceries the dlc doesn't officially start   though until we return back to her location with  an item called the broken pendant which causes us   to get sucked in into this portal and taken to  oolacile as dusk said oolacile was a place from   long ago and while you may be confused on how this  fits within the geography of lordran this place is   a lot closer than you think in fact we already ran  through it to get to the dlc the dark rouge garden   is oolacile this is evident by the tree enemies  who have a similar design to these tree-like   enemies and the same plants that are only found in  the dark root garden are also found here as well   oolusio was a city hundreds of years before the  dark rouge garden came to be so something happened   that made this place turn into the garden that we  know of well to understand the story of oolacile we   need to talk to elizabeth but princess dusk is  here no longer snatched away by that horrifying   primeval human and so i must ask could thou  once more play the savior an abyss was begat   of the ancient beast and threatens to swallow the  whole of oolacile knight artorias came to stop this   but such a hero has neary a murmur of dark  without doubt he will be swallowed by the abyss   overcome by its utter blackness indeed the  abyss may be unstoppable still i have faith that   princess dusk may be rescued yet this prime evil  human is manus of the abyss the final boss of the   dlc and the thing that sucked us into oolacile in  the first place so our job is to hunt manus down   my main gripe with the dlc is justification as  technically with the lord vessel we can just leave   so why do we need to worry about this it's not an  immersion breaking problem but it is a shame while   traveling through the land of oolacile you will  come across this coliseum-like structure which is   where we get to meet our next boss artorias of the  abyss artorias was one of the four knights of gwyn   the other three are hawkeye gough who is sitting  at the top of the tower right next to the coliseum   ciaran who appears in the coliseum after we defeat  artorias and the final light is ornstein each of   them were skilled in their own ways as hawkeye  used his powerful grepo to shoot down dragons in   fact he can actually help us shoot down calamite  who was the last of the ancient dragons ornstein   also used his spear that was able to cut through  the scales of dragons with ease and we can also   see the spoils of his war due to the amount of  dragon heads that exist in anor londo artorius is   also able to wield his greatsword with incredible  finesse and ciaran used her two daggers to cut down   anyone who opposed gwyn's rule but all of them  minus ornstein are way past their prime which   is a growing theme amongst the entire series gough  was imprisoned in this tower with nothing left to   do but to make carvings he also couldn't use his  great bow anymore as all the dragons have been   wiped out so he has no purpose ciaran may have had  a deep love for artorias says when we visit her she   is next to the grave she made for him and asks  if we can give her his soul if we do she gives   us her weapons and continues to sit by the grave  implying that she no longer wants to be a knight   anymore and artorias came to oolacile in an attempt to  stop the abyss from spreading but ended up losing   and being corrupted himself his left arm is also  dangling which might suggest that it's broken this   is because he used his shield to protect his  wolf companion sif the same sif from the main   game although he is much smaller in this dlc sif  also has a different intro if you do the dlc first   because oolacile is in the past so he'll remember  you in the present and it makes killing him that   much harder in regards to sif it's possible that  he doesn't want us getting the covenant of the   abyss ring as that allows us to travel through  the abyss to kill the four kings and given his   owner's condition sif probably doesn't want us  to end up like artorias the artorias boss fight   was actually really entertaining he was the first  boss that felt like the antithesis of this game's   combat most of the game's pace has been very slow  and methodical but he has these fast attacks and   very few openers i do wish though that there was  at least an ounce of build up to this fight as   you can literally start the dlc and be at the boss  room in about 10 minutes i think having the player   traverse some of the areas that are covered in  these abyss creatures that grow in number as we   get closer to artorias would have been great  as it's slowly leading us towards this person   responsible for all this death well narratively it  felt a bit too fast for me the fight mechanically   was great after artorias we can explore the rest  of oolacile and we can see how much this land has   been affected by the abyss as all the inhabitants  have been infected by this dark energy turning   them into these disgusting creatures eventually  we'll reach the bottom and this feeling of fear   starts to set in as the world becomes darker and  darker the further we go down here in the chasm of   the abyss is where the darkness reaches its peak  and it's where these dark sprites of humanity live   these are very similar in design to the actual  humanity we consume in game this seems to be   humanity in a more physical form one that is  more exposed and not constricted by the dark side   at the foot of the chasm is our final boss  manus the father of the abyss manus has an   interesting story apparently the people of oolacile were tricked by a serpent who was probably coughed   into digging manus grave up in doing so it caused  manus to go wild and unleash his wrath upon them   according to his soul manus was once a human  but became father of the abyss when his humanity   went wild and now he eternally seeks his broken  pendant the same pendant we had to find to start   the dlc it's unclear why he liked this pendant so  much but it was possibly nostalgic to him or was   given to him by someone he loved and because this  pendant was so important to him he did everything   he could to get it back which inevitably drove him  to insanity it seems that he got so desperate to   find the pendant that he pulled in random people  into this world as the npc marvelous chester is   clearly not from this world and he even says so  himself he also kind of looks like the hunters   from bloodborne which is a nice reference to the  game the main question many within the community   have though is who was manus before he became his  current deformed state well we really don't know   many have said it's the furtive pygmy and i like  that idea but i think it's less interesting than   that many of the spells in this dlc say that  they were created by an oolacilian sorcerer on   the brink of madness i can't help but think that  this is perfect for manus's description one thing   that is interesting is that in the middle of the  arena is a grave with a humanity-shaped hole so   maybe manus was one of these humanity sprites when  he died or that this is what he turned into when   he died regardless it's a very interesting detail  i also couldn't get any footage of this as she   disappears when you leave the boss room but dusk  apparently appears out of manus when we kill him   meaning that he kidnapped her this may confuse  some people as dusk has been sort of all over   the place in this game and due to her going from  the past to the present it sort of screws with the   time a bit it seems like she was sent into our  time somehow and was captured by this golem she   then disappears and goes back into her time which  then leads to the abyss incident with the people   of oolacile artorias is then called to defeat the  abyss but fails and then we get summoned into this   world via manus hand then save dusk and go back to  the present it's still a little confusing and the   world of dark souls is also very confusing when it  comes to time as always during this fading of the   fire time is very convoluted because we can summon  people as phantoms and the time sort of stops   it's very confusing but that's how i think it  went down but with manus dead we have officially   finished the dlc however this won't be the last  time we'll hear of manus but that's for dark souls  2 artorias of the abyss was a great dlc while it  does lack in motivation in regards to the player   the actual story of the dlc was great it provides  us with a nice timeline of events as well as more   insight into the abyss and its effects on the  world and while not known at the time it would   eventually set up the plot to dark souls 2. it is  without a doubt a worthy extension to the game's   story but now we can finally go to the kiln of  the first flame and determine the fate of lordran   the kiln is coated in action we can see the  spirits of those who followed gwyn into the   kiln walk around aimlessly as we approach the  first flame we have one person in our way and   that is the lord of sunlight himself earlier i  said gwyn sacrificed himself to rekindle the flame   and he did but because of his lord soul's power  he was able to keep his body but his mind was gone   gwyn has gone hollow and while i'm  more than capable of killing him myself   i couldn't dare start the fight without the guy  who's been by my side since the very beginning   solaire of astora is easily the most well-known  npc in the entire souls franchise and his story is   a perfect representation of the mood this game is  trying to convey throughout the whole game we've   been meeting with npcs of all kinds some with  goals and others without but none of them have   managed to touch my heart in a way that solaire  and siegmeyer did both of them had a goal in mind   one wants to find his sunlight and the other  wants to explore the world but both are stuck   sigmar always seems to be getting himself caught  in some situation whether that be a locked gate   he can enter or a poison swap he can cross and  solaire can find his sunlight they both willingly   became undead in order to achieve their goals and  it tore me apart to hear that sigmar couldn't see   it through sigmar prides himself on being a knight  of catarina and that he can handle all of his   troubles on his own but with my help i showed  him that he wasn't a worthy knight after all   and that he always needed someone to rescue him  more often than not in these games your assistance   will lead to their death so it's either converse  with them and enjoy their company knowing that   they will die because of you or distance yourself  from them knowing that while it hurts it's better   that they get to live another day npcs of these  games will usually end up achieving a terrible   fate but this sadness makes the few times a happy  outcome occurs all the better solaire wasn't able   to find sunlight of his own he became depressed  and wondered if this journey was really worth   taking conveying the tone of the entire game is  our journey and our struggle really worth it in   the end which is why i owed it to him to make it  right it may not be the actual sun but the first   flame could be considered the sun so for one final  time i summoned solaire and we took down lord gwyn gwyn's theme has such a fitting tune all these  bosses have these intense sounds with loud music   but gwyn's is such a simple piano it's not intense  it's almost sad in a way that the most powerful   man in the world has been reduced to nothing  and what was supposed to be a glorious fight   between two warriors really isn't it makes it  all the more worse when you realize that gwyn   can be parried and once you nail this timing down  this fight is a cake walk further showing how far   from grace he has truly fallen with gwyn defeated  we can now choose our ending but we aren't the   only one who's able to choose since we managed to  bring solaire all the way to the end of the game   he was able to also fight gwyn in his own world  thanks to the convoluted timelines of dark souls   and it is canonized that he succeeded and linked  the flame in his own world he became the sunlight   he was searching for and that might be one of  the greatest endings in the entire franchise   but while solaire linked the flame that doesn't  mean we have to if we choose the age of fire   the world continues we rekindle the flame and use  ourselves as kindling to continue this age of fire   if we instead choose to leave we let the flame  extinguish itself we join the primordial serpents   including kaathe and probably frampt and usher  in an age of dark one where humanity is at   the top and we ourselves are the ruler at least  that's what we think will happen like many plots   in the souls series this is once again left up  to interpretation we only get to see the very   beginning of our choice so anything after is just  pure speculation who knows what will happen after   and who knows if our choice was really the  correct one that's always been up to the   player to decide but i've always felt that these  endings are about comfort do we stay comfortable   knowing that in the age of fire we aren't on  top and might be mistreated due to our lack of   strength or do we take the risk and see what the  age of dark is about one thing to note though is   the circumstances regarding these endings fram  says that the undead curse will be cured if we   go with the age of fire and not even kaathe says  anything about this when we talk with him about   it so does that mean that we'll stay undead or  at least still have the risk of going hollow   in the age of dark furthermore the age of fire  was a time ruled by the gods and they did what   they could to keep it that way but we killed  them everyone in anor londo that is a god is   either dead or gone gwyndolin is the only one  that canonically lives thanks to dark souls 3.   so even though an age of fire can be seen as the  age of gods that might not be true anymore as we   took care of most of them so there is positives  and negatives both ways and that's really been   the point there's never going to be a clear  answer it's just whatever you think is right as   for me i think an age of dark is the proper way  to go as we said in the intro the world of dark   souls is like a set of operations things come  and things go and the age of dark should have   followed after the age of fire but due to gwen  breaking the rules of the world that didn't happen   so i think in an attempt to set things back on  track before further destruction an age of dark   is the way to go regardless of what happens in  this age of dark at the very least things will   transition back to the way it was supposed to be  however that might not be the actual ending given   the future titles some have debated on proper  endings and given the status of dark souls 3   linking the flame i think is the real ending and  is definitely the most agreed upon as just about   every person in this game will speak about linking  the flame we only hear about the age of dark from   kaathe who we have to jump through several hoops to  just even meet i can almost guarantee someone has   gone throughout the entire game and didn't even  know that an age of dark was the real option   because of how hidden it is and while it's not my  preferred ending continuing the age of fire would   set in motion numerous events for us to discover  dark souls 1 was a fantastic experience from   start to finish and while the road was a little  bumpy sometimes along the way its story wrapped   up wonderfully it's a game that i recommend  you play at least once in your lifetime as   you will never get to experience something like  this ever again but we're just getting started   but now we've made it to the outro thank you all  for watching today and i hope you all enjoyed   if you did please be sure to like and subscribe if  you're new we still have quite a few souls games   to get through so get ready as we're going to be  going through dark souls 2 next and i must say i'm   honestly quite excited and i hope you all  are too to wrap things up as always thank   you to my returning viewers for coming back to  another video and take care everyone goodbye

Channel: Gingy

Views: 211,919

Keywords: dark souls 1, dark souls, dark souls story, dark souls 1 story, dark souls 1 explained, dark souls explained, dark souls ending, dark souls 1 ending, dark souls 1 story explained, dark souls story explained, dark souls retrospective, dark souls story retrospective, dark souls dlc, dark souls 1 story summary, dark souls story summary, gingy

Id: X1rZ9RHWUdU

Length: 46min 0sec (2760 seconds)

Published: Sat May 28 2022