I've been really liking the mystery behind the story of the Dark Souls franchise ever since I saw my SO play it. I had plans to play the game and figure out the lore and share my thoughts here, but sadly it simply isn't a game that I can sanely play. Way too stressful for me haha. Luckily, I have a great SO that accepted to replay the games and the Internet to help me in my research. Since I haven't gone through the three games yet, only the first, this post will only be the story of the first game. As in, what you play, nothing about the lore. I'm still going to give you a spoiler warning in case you haven't played the game. Here's the story of the first Dark Souls game:
SPOILER WARNING
You are sitting in a cell when a knight suddenly drops a corpse in front of you. The corpse holds the key to you cell. You use the key to get out and start looking for a way out. During your search, you find that same knight sitting in some rubble not looking too good. He informs you of a pilgrimage he was supposed to go on in the land of Ancient Lords. He was to ring the Bell of Awakening and the fate of the Undead would be revealed to him. He hands you a key and with his dying breath, he entrusts you with the task to complete his pilgrimage. You use the key to get to a balcony above the Asylum Demon. With this advantage, you defeat the demon and get the key to leave the Asylum. After using that key to open the doors, you make your way up the mountain and a giant crow grabs you.
The crow drops you in Firelink Shrine where you see a man sitting on rocks. He enlightens you on the task the knight gave you. He says that there are actually two Bells of Awakening. One in the Undead Church and one in Blighttown. Something is supposed to happen once both have been rung. You start your journey by going up the stairs to the ruins of Undead Burg. You proceed through the place, fighting a Taurus Demon along the way to get to the roof of the cathedral. There, you kill two Bell Gargoyles to be able to go up the tower and ring the first Bell of Awakening.
You go back down the ladders and stairs and continue down to the Lower Undead Burg where you fight a Capra Demon to get the Key to Depths. In the Depths, you go through the sewers to get to the Gaping Dragon, who drops the Blighttown Key upon its death. You continue your way down into the Depths to the entrance to Blighttown and use your key to enter. Once in Blighttown, you make your way to the bottom, waddle through a poisonous swamp and find the entrance to Quelaag’s Domain. There, you fight Chaos Witch Quelaag. After killing her, you can go up to ring the second Bell of Awakening. A cut scene plays to show a giant pulling a chain to open the gates to Sen’s Fortress, your next destination.
Inside the fortress, you escape many traps to get to the roof and fight against the Iron Golem, the guardian to Anor Londo. After killing him, three bat wing demons grab you and carry you to the lost city of the Gods, Anor Londo. In Anor Londo, you head to a cathedral where you fight against Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough. After winning the fight, you take the elevator up to find Gwynevere. She asks you to succeed Lord Gwyn in keeping the First Flame alive to end the eternal twilight and avert further Undead sacrifices.You accept the quest and she gives you the Lordvessel.
Now in possession of the Lordvessel, you warp back to Firelink Shrine where you find a giant serpent named Kingseeker Frampt. He reinforces the idea that your fate is to succeed the Great Lord Gwyn and link the Fire to cast away the Dark and undo the curse of the Undead. He takes you to the Firelink Altar where you put down the Lordvessel in front of the door. He then instructs you to seek out the powerful souls of Gravelord Nito, the Witch of Izalith, the Four Kings of New Londo and Seath the Scaleless to fill the Lordvessel and open the door.
Now knowing your purpose, you go down to the New Londo Ruins to kill the Four Kings. There, you find Ingward and learn what happened to New Londo. You also learn that you’ll need the power of Artorias to traverse the Abyss, where the Four Kings reside. Having heard rumors of his grave being in Darkroot Garden, you leave New Londo Ruins and go to Darkroot Garden to find his grave.
In Darkroot Garden, you take a path down to Darkroot Basin where you fight off some Crystal Golems to get to a Hydra. After defeating the Hydra, you take a long ladder up to the other side of Darkroot Garden. On this side of the garden, you pass through a forest to get to a bridge with giant doors on the other side. After opening these doors, you see a clearing with many swords planted in the ground, surrounding a giant gravestone. When you approach it, the Great Grey Wolf Sif jumps out from behind the gravestone and attacks you. After defeating the wolf, you get the ring Covenant of Artorias that will allow you to traverse the Abyss.
With the ability to go into the Abyss, you go back to New Londo Ruins and open the seal keeping the Darkwraiths and the Four Kings locked away. You battle your way to a pit where you drop off to kill the Four Kings, receiving their Bequeathed Lord Soul Shard upon their death. You then go through The Duke’s Archives to get to the inner garden and enter the Crystal Cave. In there, you find Seath the Scaleless ready for battle. You destroy his primeval crystal that heals him and defeat him to get his Bequeathed Lord Soul Shard.
With both shards in hand, it’s time to hunt the full Lord Souls left. You go to the Demon Ruins where you kill Ceaseless Discharge to get rid of the lava. You can then make your way to a fight against Demon Firesage and then Centipede Demon to finaly enter Lost Izalith. In Lost Izalith, you proceed to find the Bed of Chaos. After defeating it, you get the Lord Soul of the Witch of Izalith. Your last target being Gravelord Nito, you head down to the Catacombs where you first fight Pinwheel before entering the Tomb of the Giants. There, you push your way through skeletons to get to Gravelord Nito. After killing him, you obtain his Lord Soul and can finally go back to Firelink Shrine.
You talk to Frampt and he brings you back to the Firelink Altar where you pour the two Bequeathed Lord Soul Shards and the two Lord Souls into the Lordvessel. With all this power, the door to the Kiln of the First Flame opens. You see before you a place filled with ashes. You work your way down, fighting the Black Knights protecting Gwyn on the way. When you finally arrive in front of Gwyn, he enflames his sword and attacks you immediately. You fight back and with much effort defeat Gwyn, Lord of Cinder. You walk up to the remnants of the First Flame and rekindle it, setting your own body on fire in the process. The whole place lights up in flames, thus keeping the Age of Fire alive.
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