Dark Souls plot synopsis:
As I said in my earlier post,
Dark Souls employs a rhetorical strategy very different from the conventional narratives we are accustomed to with beginning, middle, and end. I said it was unlikely that any two players would agree on the game's plot. So, feel free to present complementary or conflicting views on the following synopsis. Note that this is a basic framework. It glosses over the wealth of activity that must be undertaken in order to arrive at one of the two game endings:
There are three ages:
Age of the Ancients: In the beginning, the world of Dark Souls is inhabited by powerful entities—dragons and archtrees. These can be viewed as primordial forces of nature.
Age of Fire: The primordial darkness is broken by the appearance of fire at the Kiln of the First Flame. From this mystical fire emerge four Lord Souls—Nito (Death), the Witch of Izalith (Life), Gwyn (Lightning), and the Furtive Pygmy (Dark Soul that he fragments and installs a fragment in each of the newly created humans).
The Lord Souls battle and defeat almost all the dragons helped by a scaleless, mortal dragon. This can be viewed as a struggle to tame nature bringing about an age of prosperous civilization. Lord Gwyn rules this age of prosperity.
Present Day—Ushering in the
Age of Dark: About a thousand years before the beginning of the game, the mystical fires begin to fade. Prosperous times are at an end as civilization decays. Demons appear in great numbers and humans, suffering through cycles of death & rebirth, begin to lose their souls. A soulless human turns into an insane being called a hollow.
You, as the game’s protagonist, are imprisoned in the Undead Asylum. A knight, Oscar, provides you with the key to escape. He says he is about to become a hollow and will lose his mind. So, he bequeaths his quest to you—that of the Chosen Undead.
You use Oscar’s key to unlock your ‘cell’ and defeat the Asylum Demon to make good your escape. Once free, a giant bird flies you to the Firelink Shrine in Lordran, the Land of the Ancient Lords.
You embark upon the quest of the Chosen Undead. You have an important choice to make that will lead to one of two possible endings:
1. Comply with the serpent Frampt’s request regarding an artifact called the Lord Vessel: You undertake a sequence of activities in order to gain access to Gwyn’s resting place. There, you defeat the Witch of Izalith, Gravelord Nito, the Four Kings, and the Scaleless Dragon. You place the souls of the vanquished in an arifact called the Lordvessel. When filled, this opens up the way to the Kiln of the First Flame. There you confront and defeat Gwyn and sacrifice yourself to
prolong the Age of Fire.
2. Reject Frampt’s request regarding the Lord Vessel: If you do not place the Lord Vessel as Frampt asks, you go on to meet another serpent (Darkstalker Kaathe) in the Abyss. He tells you about the Furtive Pygmy. Kaathe says the Furtive Pygmy intended the Chosen Undead to inherit the power of the Dark Soul and become the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord will then usher in the
Age of the Dark as its ruler.