Figured it was about time we can start talking about the story and lore in DS3 and how it relates to the past games.
I'm afraid to say I originally had much more written but my laptop had a rare crash and I lost several paragraphs of musings and theories on the story. I'll try my best to rewrite what I had before, but it's really just to get the discussion started more so than because I know what I'm talking about (I rarely do).
It seems to me that one of the main themes of Dark Souls 3 is convergence of worlds. Lothric doesn't seem like a new kingdom that rose in the same place as the last kingdoms that cycled in and out (Drangleic, Lordran), it seems more like a hub that links all of those worlds together. I feel this is best evidenced at the end of the game when you approach the kiln of the first flame, the Firelink Shrine that you appear in, viewed from the outside, is an absolute cluster fuck of sideways keeps, castle towers and geography, like worlds from the past are colliding in a big multi-dimensional Dark Souls katamari.
Keeping that in mind, characters and locations from different worlds, and likely timelines, find themselves interacting with each other in a blurry time-space chaos.
I'll just put in some of the few things I've noticed:
1. Gwyn has a fourth child, Yorshka, who is a half-breed like Priscilla, as evidenced by her tail. She was probably half-god, half-dragon like Priscilla, and was exiled to the tower in Anor Londo, not unlike Priscilla being exiled to the Painted World. Her being sealed away in a tower may also explain her not being mentioned in DS1 as one of Gwyn's children, similarly to how it is said kings would have illegitimate children who were never recognized or named. Her having her own church is further evidence of her (at least partial) deific status. She mentions her father as Gwyn, her sister Gwynevere, and the other unnamed brother who she hints as still being alive (well, as alive as any hollow can be), which brings me to point 2:
2. The Nameless King is without a doubt Lord Gwyn's unnamed firstborn, who was stripped of his status as a deity and chose to fight alongside the dragons Gwyn's mortal enemies. First of all, the resemblance is uncanny - look at the crown in particular.
But of course there are relevant item descriptions from DS1:
So Lord Gwyn's firstborn was a wargod who used lightning.
From DS3:
So that's an interesting link to lore in DS1. I don't want to make this opening post like its own wikipedia, but that's my first contribution.
UPDATE: Reddit post containing long index of well-researched observations and discoveries, as recommended by Noray:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls3JPN/comments/4e9j66/lets_talk_lore_compendium/
A question for all to start off the discussion: what do you think the implications are of there still being embers if you choose to end the fire by giving the fire keeper a pair of eyes and having her assist you in snuffing out the first flame? It would seem to me almost that the entire premise of linking the fire is perpetuating a terrible cycle in which the world inevitably goes to shit, saved by an undead who managed to gather enough souls to become strong enough to link the fire and become a lord.
It almost seems like a communal ending, vs. the status quo ending or the "become a god" endings (either a god of fire or a dark lord) - the fire keeper says that fires will one day dance upon the darkness, like embers linked from lords past. Like the fire, and one assumes life along with it, will naturally return. It leads credence to Kaathe's claims that Gwyn linked the fires to suppress humanity because he was afraid of a human dark lord being born. Perhaps linking the flame robbed the world of the potential for life to flourish because its essence was being concentrated in the first flame and the lords who linked it? I tend to think that ending the flame is the "good ending" because a shit-ass world of shit like Lothric and it's other manifestations would do well to get a complete rebirth.
Anyway, I know there are a lot of mixed opinions about the story of DS3 and the amount of references to Demon's Souls and Dark Souls in the game. I personally think that Boletaria simply has to be a part of the Dark Souls universe, not least because the Maiden in Black has nearly identical dialog to the Fire Keeper in DS3. Perhaps Miyazaki internally reneged on the rejection of that idea?
Let's hear your thoughts, opinions and discoveries.
I'm afraid to say I originally had much more written but my laptop had a rare crash and I lost several paragraphs of musings and theories on the story. I'll try my best to rewrite what I had before, but it's really just to get the discussion started more so than because I know what I'm talking about (I rarely do).
It seems to me that one of the main themes of Dark Souls 3 is convergence of worlds. Lothric doesn't seem like a new kingdom that rose in the same place as the last kingdoms that cycled in and out (Drangleic, Lordran), it seems more like a hub that links all of those worlds together. I feel this is best evidenced at the end of the game when you approach the kiln of the first flame, the Firelink Shrine that you appear in, viewed from the outside, is an absolute cluster fuck of sideways keeps, castle towers and geography, like worlds from the past are colliding in a big multi-dimensional Dark Souls katamari.
Keeping that in mind, characters and locations from different worlds, and likely timelines, find themselves interacting with each other in a blurry time-space chaos.
I'll just put in some of the few things I've noticed:
1. Gwyn has a fourth child, Yorshka, who is a half-breed like Priscilla, as evidenced by her tail. She was probably half-god, half-dragon like Priscilla, and was exiled to the tower in Anor Londo, not unlike Priscilla being exiled to the Painted World. Her being sealed away in a tower may also explain her not being mentioned in DS1 as one of Gwyn's children, similarly to how it is said kings would have illegitimate children who were never recognized or named. Her having her own church is further evidence of her (at least partial) deific status. She mentions her father as Gwyn, her sister Gwynevere, and the other unnamed brother who she hints as still being alive (well, as alive as any hollow can be), which brings me to point 2:
2. The Nameless King is without a doubt Lord Gwyn's unnamed firstborn, who was stripped of his status as a deity and chose to fight alongside the dragons Gwyn's mortal enemies. First of all, the resemblance is uncanny - look at the crown in particular.
But of course there are relevant item descriptions from DS1:
So Lord Gwyn's firstborn was a wargod who used lightning.
From DS3:
So that's an interesting link to lore in DS1. I don't want to make this opening post like its own wikipedia, but that's my first contribution.
UPDATE: Reddit post containing long index of well-researched observations and discoveries, as recommended by Noray:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls3JPN/comments/4e9j66/lets_talk_lore_compendium/
A question for all to start off the discussion: what do you think the implications are of there still being embers if you choose to end the fire by giving the fire keeper a pair of eyes and having her assist you in snuffing out the first flame? It would seem to me almost that the entire premise of linking the fire is perpetuating a terrible cycle in which the world inevitably goes to shit, saved by an undead who managed to gather enough souls to become strong enough to link the fire and become a lord.
It almost seems like a communal ending, vs. the status quo ending or the "become a god" endings (either a god of fire or a dark lord) - the fire keeper says that fires will one day dance upon the darkness, like embers linked from lords past. Like the fire, and one assumes life along with it, will naturally return. It leads credence to Kaathe's claims that Gwyn linked the fires to suppress humanity because he was afraid of a human dark lord being born. Perhaps linking the flame robbed the world of the potential for life to flourish because its essence was being concentrated in the first flame and the lords who linked it? I tend to think that ending the flame is the "good ending" because a shit-ass world of shit like Lothric and it's other manifestations would do well to get a complete rebirth.
Anyway, I know there are a lot of mixed opinions about the story of DS3 and the amount of references to Demon's Souls and Dark Souls in the game. I personally think that Boletaria simply has to be a part of the Dark Souls universe, not least because the Maiden in Black has nearly identical dialog to the Fire Keeper in DS3. Perhaps Miyazaki internally reneged on the rejection of that idea?
Let's hear your thoughts, opinions and discoveries.
