Dark Souls lore

After reading through a ton of discussion threads, item descriptions and character dialogues, I have
what I find to be a fairly cohesive layout of the who's, what' s and why' s of Dark Souls. Anything stated as
fact is strongly supported or directly stated by the game in some way or another. Anything that is based
in part on speculation, even if it is likely true, will be phrased as speculation. l've laid it out by what seem
to be the most distinct eras of the game. This is a long post, but I think people who are interested in the
lore with find it worthwhile to read.

Before the First Flame:

The game's prologue states that before the first flame, there was nothing but grey crags,
archtrees and everlasting dragons. There no differentiation between life and death/light and dark. You
know that there were other beings aside from the dragons that would become deities/humans/etc, as
they are described in terms of "before the first flame" and were described as receiving the lord souls.
There were also imperfect dragons such as Seeth the Scale-less, who lacked scales (and therefore true
immortality) and had deformed legs and poor sight, as well as the primordial serpents (described as
imperfect dragons representing greed and gluttony), including Frampt and Kaathe.

The First Flame:

When the first flame came to be, it held the lord souls (which, as the most powerful lord soul is
that of the Lord of cinder and sunlight, could represent light) and the dark soul (which could obviously
represent the directly antithesis of light: dark, given the first flame's representation of disparity). The
lord souls were claimed by Gwyn, Nito and the Witch of Izalith; this created the deities, inhuman witches
and animated dead that populate the world of Dark Souls. The dark soul is left behind and claimed by
the furtive pygmy, perhaps ignored given the pygmy's solitude upon claiming it. His descendents are
almost directly stated to be humans, who are much more fragile and of limited lifespan than the other
beings of the age of fire. The new lords and their allies, using the power of the lord souls, engaged the
eternal dragons. Given their status as "eternal", it is possible that they became defeatable as a result of
Nito, who is stated as sacrificing much of the power of his lord soul in the creation of death. The witches
weaved firestorms using ancient fire arts that differed from modern pyromancy. Gwyn attacked with
power of the sun (light) manifested as lightning bolts. The pygmy is not stated to have fought the eternal
dragons, and instead waited for the first flame to fade. At this point in the timeline, we are also
introduced to the subjects of the new lords. The Witch of Izalith led her daughters of chaos. Gwyn lead
an army of loyal knights and an esteemed group of warriors composed of Hawkeye Gough, Lord's Blade
Ciaran, Artorias the Abyss-Walker and Gwyn's highest-ranking knight, Ornstein the Dragon-Slayer,
whose Dragons|ayer spear dealt lightning damage that devastated the eternal dragons.

It is also not unfair to assume that others enlightened into life or death were to have
participated in the Great War. Gwyn's uncle Al|father Lloyd was a powerful cleric and leader of the Way
of White, which was followed by powerful knights who would later hunt the undead. It is stated that the
a post le t o Lloy d's Way of Whit e was a bisho p, Ii kely be ing Bisho p Have I t he Roc k, who was c lad in solid
stone armor and wielded the tooth of an eternal dragon, also leading powerful knights in impenetrable
armor. The weapons used by the God's were stated as being created by an unnamed blacksmith deity,
some of his titanite slabs degenerating into prowling demons following his death. A big part of the
victory over the eternal dragons was the defecting of imperfect dragons to the side of the lords. Seeth
was key in this, but given the motivations and suggested self-serving nature of Frampt and Kaathe, it is
likely that they chose side against the dragons as well, albeit on different sides from one another. It
can't really be speculated as to the role they played or the roles of other hypothetical primordial
serpents. Seeth had a number of abnormalities, such as deformed legs and poor vision, but his lack of
scales of immortality was the most glaring omission. Given his later descent into insanity trying to
recreate them from crystal, resentment and envy is what most likely drove the betrayal. With this
defecting, Seeth stole the primordial crystal, allowing him to regenerate his body when damaged,
although without true immortality.

The Age of Fire:

After the defeat of the eternal dragons, great cities were created in Lordran, such as Anor
Londo . A varie t y of d e it ie s a nd ki ngs r u le d ove r/liv e d in Lord ra n, suc h as O Id M a n M cLoyf (god of
medicine and drink) and Knight King Rendel (king famous for slashing a drink to pieces), whose faces
both mark ancient Lordran currency. Gwyn has three deific children: An unnamed firstborn God of War,
Gwyenevre the princess of sunlight, and dark sun Gwyndolin. Seeth is made a duke for his assistance. He
is given the cavernous archives in Anor Londo to research immortality. The father of sorcery, he create
powerful magics in his attempts to duplicate the scales of immortality that followers of the path of the
dragon hunt in the future for the very same reason; becoming immortal through the powers of the
eternal dragons. In his attempts, he creates the magic beasts of Darkroot forest and the crustal caves:
the moonlight butterflies and crystal go|ems. He also creates abominations from maidens captured for
experimentation; all monsters formed from his crystal sorceries. Eventually Seeth is driven insane from
his unreached goal. Although Seeth was made a Duke, not all of Gwyn's friends accepted him. Bishop
Havel the Rock despised magic and is explicitly stated to be Seeths sworn enemy. He even created a
miracle for the purpose of defending one against magic attacks. Big Hat Logan later seeks out the Duke's
archives as a powerful sorcerer and creates several devastating crystal sorceries from the knowledge he
gains. Logan states that he does not believe in any gods, w hic h may o pe n a w indow int o Seet h's st udies
of magic and f urt he r ex pla in h is c onf lict s wit h t he Way of Whit e . Seet h is also possibly t he fat he r of
Halfbreed Priscilla, a half-dragon half-humanoid who was unaccepted in Lordran, eventually being
drawn into the painted world of Aramis. This would do little to make Seeth a liked figure and may have
contributed to Gwynevere's abandonment of Anor Londo should she have been the mother. In this
departure, Gwynevere is said to have married Fiann the flame God. This may also be to blame for this
event, as Gwyn's Black Knights are stated to have gone to battle against chaos demons, which would
have been chaos witches before the Bed of Chaos event. A marriage to a flame god may be considered a
betrayal.

Linking the First Flame:

At some point following the beginning of the Age of Fire, humanity was cursed with the dark
sign. Those marked with it were unable to truly die, instead losing their humanity and reviving with
every death until they became hollow and went insane. Kaathe, having chosen the side of the dark,
sways the four kings of new londo using the temptation of the art of lifedrain. The kings are persuaded
and their knights become darkwraiths, servents of the coming dark lord and perceived as enemies of
Gwyn. New Londo is flooded to contain them at the cost of many lives. Gwyn feared humans, and the
dark sign threatened the Age of Fire. It is possible that this is because of what the dark sign represents.
In light of the first flame, which set the line between life and death, the hollows violated this rule that
defined the power of Gwyn's lord soul. The hollows brought the threat of the Age of Dark, stated by
Kaathe as leading to the rise of man over the lords. Gwyn, fearing this power shift, divided most of the
power of his soul among the Four Kings and Seethe before heading to the kiln of the first flame. The fear
of the Age of Dark may explain the emptiness of Anor Londo, as it is clearly stated that an exodus of
some sort occurred. Some of Gwyns loyal knights followed him to the first kiln where he burned as
cinder to relight it, charring the knights to dust and leaving their armor to be reanimated by their spirits
to roam Lordran. The rest of his knights remained in Anor Londo. It is at some point around here that
Gwyn's firstborn is expelled from Anor Londo, as his last act is to lay the sunlight blade miracle on his
father' s grave. Given his connect ions to the warrior of sunlight covenant and the seeking of his own sun,
Solaire is one of the more likely identities of the sunlight deity who lost his status and memory, but still
Wat c hes over h is covenant .

Gwyn's knight Ornstein and executioner Smough stayed behind, guarding a false image of
Gwynevere created by Gwyndolin. Given his obsession with the sun and efforts put into creating a false
perception of Anor Londo, it is possible t hat Gwy ndolin see ks t o be t he next lo rd of su nlight him se If . He
was raised as a daughter given his clear association with the moon, although he is stated as admiring
sunlight, and has a deformed figure. He controls the blades of the darkmoon, who punish anyone who
violates his false Anor Londo. A firekeeper follower of the darkmoon wishes for you to perform the
wishes of G wy nevere, su pport ing t he c ha rade . Ve Ika, goddess of sin, also controls the list of the guilty
who are punished by Gwyndolin's covenant as well, but it is less certain how this fits in to the big
picture. As for the other knights of Gwyn, Hawkeye Gough is not to be seen, but has left his ring by the
G iant Blac ksm it h . G ive n t he blac ksm it h's wares of d ragonslay ing a rrows and light ning bolt s, it is possible
that the two were friends and Hawkeye left intentionally, leaving the ring in his care. Artorias is known
to have formed a covenant with the beasts of the abyss, likely Kaathe, allowing him the ability to
traverse the abyss itself. Legend says that he made the covenant to annihilate the darkwraiths, but some
things suggest otherwise. His grave is outside of Anor Londo, guarded by the forest covenant; Alvina, Sif
and their forest guardians. His ring is also found outside of the city walls, lost in the forest. Sif is the
intimate defense, his soul seeming to represent the power of Artorias himself. It can be used to create a
regular greatsword as used by Artorias, as well as a cursed one implying the dark nature of his soul. Sif
may be specifically defending the ring of Artorias' abyss-walking covenant, which given the behavior of
Sif during the fight could strongly imply his purpose as a test to ensure that only the true dark lord gains
access to Kaathe in the abyss. The final argument is the hornet ring behind his grave. This ring is found
on a body and belonged to Lord's Blade Ciaran. Ciaran was a deadly assassin, and not being the build for
fighting outright enemies of Gwyn, would be more likely to secretly kill unsuspecting traitors with
vicious backstabs with his dagger. This suggests a possibly successful assassination attempt on Artorias
by Ciaran, but whatever happened, Ciaran did not make it out alive in the resulting aftermath.

In a similar endeavor to Gwyn to retain the power of the first flame, the Witch of Izalith used her
lord soul in a n att e m pt t o rec reat e it . Inst ead, a powerf uI bed of life was created, consuming her and
numerous of her daughters of chaos. Quelana was the only one to truly escape unharmed. Queelag and
her fair sister were not consumed, but instead transformed into chaos demons. Quelana continues of to
develop true pyromancy separate from the flame magic used by her sisters which she teaches to great
pyromancers like Salaman, who created several powerful pyromancies himself. Given his assertions of
adoring fire to accomplish pyromancy, he is likely the regret of Quelana's teachings that she states as
never \anting to see happen again, and that very well may have taught her the mantra of fearing the
flame, lest you be consumed by it. It could be argued that Salaman's consumption by the flame created
Cease less Discharge, who a p pears t o guard a c haos daught er' s body . This st ory line may also a p ply t o t he
unknown brother given a ring to soothe his lava-inflamed sores who managed to then drop the ring,
creating the centipede demon, but would be less likely.

The Age of Dark:

This is the point at which the game starts. Frampt and Kaathe are fighting to find the chosen
undead to guide the world as they see fit, as the gluttonous and seemingly manipulative serpents they
are. The undead are hunted by clerics, a very obvious call-back to Gwyn's connections to the Way of
White and fears of the Pygmy's descendents ending his age of fire. There does not seem to be an
obvious right or wrong in terms of what your character should do. This is exacerbated by the greedy
nature of the "imperfect dragons" trying to guide the post-dragon world, each one equally biased and
sure of their own truths. Your options are to link the flame as did Gwyn and refuel the Age of Fire for a
while longer, or plunge the world into a new and uncertain Age of Dark.

Boletaria:

There is also some evidence to believe that this game is indirectly set to be a prequel to the
demon's Souls world. The first comes from the obvious physical similarities between the Bed of Chaos
and the Old One. The ancient and primordial designs suggest similar creations from ages in the past. The
Bed of Chaos is stated as being the source of all demons, and is clearly created through the use of soul
arts (use of the lord soul by the witch of Izalith) that would later threaten Boletaria. This creation event
could have caused the first demon threat, resulting in the creation of the archstones. As anyone who
played Demon,s Souls knows, the second demon threat resulted in the destruction of the archstone
leading to the land of the giants. This implies that the land of the giants was the source of the threat.
Given the impressive stature of Lordran's inhabitants compared to the furtive pygmy's human
descendents (the name "pygmy" tells it all), it would not be unfair to view Lordran as being the land of
the giants, and it most certainly would have been the source of the demons. Add this to the fact that
Patches is found in Lordran, hunted as an undead by clerics, only to escape to the nexus and retain this
specific hatred, and there is enough to argue a fair case. This is only speculation, however, as the legal
rights to Demon's Souls do lie outside what the Dark Souls writers had to work with.