When it comes to story and lore, Dark Souls is a game that keeps its cards close to its chest. The game doesn’t spoonfeed the story to players, it instead invites them to delve into its lore if they choose to. There are only a small handful of cutscenes in the game, so players have to actively seek out information about the world that they are playing in.
One of the few cutscenes in the game occurs at the very start. A short cutscene plays that gives players a brief backstory of events leading up to the game. This backstory predominantly revolves around the Four Lords and their actions after discovering the First Flame, which bought life and light to the dark, lifeless world. It contained Lord Souls that the Four Lords claimed. Three of the lords fought the Everlasting Dragons who resided in the world and defeated them. The First Flame is fading though, and an era of dark may soon return.
The Four Lords’ lore isn’t just explained in this opening cutscene. As is common in the Soulsborne games, players can learn far more about the lords by interacting with other characters, and in unorthodox ways such as by reading item and weapon descriptions.
10 Gravelord Nito
The first of the dead, Gravelord Nito aided Lord Gwyn in the fight against the Everlasting Dragons and now resides in the Tomb of the Giants, an area within The Catacombs.
Gravelord Nito has amassed a following of skeletons and travelers who spread death using the Eye of Death. It is possible for players to join this covenant. To join, Nito must still be alive, and players need to have an Eye of Death in their possession. Joining the covenant will allow players to become a Gravelord Servant, and invade other player’s worlds with an army of phantoms.
9 Nito’s Connection To Pinwheel
There are two bosses in the Dark Souls series that probably aren’t on Nito’s Christmas card list. The first is Pinwheel. Despite being the easiest boss in the entire souls series, Pinwheel surprisingly once bested Nito.
Pinwheel stole Nito’s power in hopes of reviving his deceased wife and child. Pinwheel’s disturbing form, and piles of books that litter his boss room, show that Pinwheel’s desperate attempts have failed and backfired.
8 Nito’s Connection To Aldrich
The second is Aldrich, Devourer of Gods. The aptly named boss once devoured and consumed Gwyn’s last born child Dark Sun Gwyndolin and subsequently has similar attacks and appearance to the Dark Souls boss.
Aldrich also appears to have a connection to Nito, as he has Nito’s Gravelord Sword at the end of his staff and a boss arena full of skulls. Aldrich seemingly either devoured Nito or took his place as Gravelord.
7 Witch of Izalith
The Witch of Izalith also fought against the Everlasting Dragons alongside Lord Gwyn. As described in the opening cutscene, she “weaved great firestorms” to help defeat the dragons.
Years after the fight against the dragons, the witch became afraid of the First Flame fading, so she attempted to create a new flame. Similarly to Pinwheel, her desperate attempts failed. The Witch inadvertently created the Flame of Chaos. She could not control this flame and it consumed her and most of her children, turning them into disturbing beings.
6 The Flame’s Disturbing Creations
Many of the Flame of Chaos’ monstrous creations appear in the game. Chaos Witch Quelaag and her unnamed sister are two of them. The pair have some of their prior forms still intact but are mutilated with spider-like disfigurement. Parts of their appearance and sanity are still present as they were able to escape the flame.
The grimly named Ceaseless Discharge wasn’t so lucky though. Subsequently, they became one of the game’s largest and most disturbing bosses. Ceaseless Discharge does appear to have a smidgen of sanity left, as the boss will become enraged if the player takes an armor set that sits atop the grave of one of his sisters.
5 Further Creations
One of the game’s key bosses, the Bed of Chaos was also created by the Flame of Chaos. The Bed of Chaos is a giant, tree-like being that is possibly a mutation of the Witch of Izalith herself. The Flame of Chaos didn’t just affect the witch and her children, though. The entire city of Izalith became engulfed by the Flame of Chaos, killing, destroying, or mutating the entire city and its inhabitants.
One of the witch’s children who wasn’t consumed by the flame also appears in the game. Quelana of Izalith can be found in Blightown and will teach the player pyromancy.
4 Gwyn, Lord of Cinder
Gwyn, Lord of Cinder is the game’s final boss. He is the Lord of Sunlight and led the battle against the Everlasting Dragons. Similarly to the Witch of Izalith, Lord Gwyn was afraid of the First Flame fading.
Lord Gwyn prolonged the Age of Fire by linking the First Flame, an act that reduced him to the Lord of Cinder. At the end of the game, players have the option to take Gwyn’s place and link the fire themselves.
3 Sharing Is Caring
Lord Gwyn was evidently very generous to those who were loyal to him. He rewarded parts of his souls to the Four Kings, who ruled over New Londo for Gwyn.
Gwyn also rewarded Seath the Scaleless. Seath betrayed his fellow dragons and aided Gwyn in the ancient battle. Seath was envious of the other dragons due to his lack of scales, which are the key to dragons’ immortality. Gwyn rewarded Seath with the title of Duke and a fragment of his soul.
Despite giving away fragments of his Lord Soul and linking the fire, Gwyn’s soul is still described in the soul’s description as being “a powerful thing indeed.”
2 A Fitting End
Most game’s final bosses are epic battles accompanied by adrenaline-pumping music. Gwyn’s battle, on the contrary, takes place in a dark and dingy cave with a soft piano loop for a musical score. It may seem jarring to players at first, but it makes sense in context.
Gwyn, Lord of Cinder is no longer the powerful god that he once was, but instead has become feeble and afraid, sitting by the flame that he worries will extinguish. After defeating Gywn players have the aforementioned choice to Link the Fire and take his place. Alternatively, players can choose not to Link the Fire. In this ending, players become The Dark Lord in the Age of Dark.
1 Furtive Pygmy
“And the Furtive Pygmy, so easily forgotten.“
Those few words from the opening cutscene aptly describe the Furtive Pygmy, as so little is known about the fourth and final Lord Soul claimer. The Pygmy found the Dark Soul and used it to create humanity. It is unclear whether they fought alongside Gwyn in the war against the Dragons, although other humans certainly did.
According to Darkstalker Kaathe, the player is a descendant of the Furtive Pygmy and is destined to bring upon an Age of Dark, something that Kaathe claims the Pygmy predicted.
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