Foreword. Fire Keeper's maintain the bonfires. The Dark Soul kindles those bonfires to keep the undead rested. Souls fuel those undead to keep them sane along their journey. And those undead are fuel for the first flame. My name is Kotani, I travel from a distant land. like most of my kind, I am undead. Chosen if you must, I bear the prophecy. Although on pilgrimage I find myself, traversing not only Lordran, but the great Abyss itself. I cannot do this alone, that I know. Along my travels, I must gain knowledge unlike any other. To save or raze is my chosen fate. And follow it to the end I shall.
Prologue "...Thou who art undead art chosen..." -Oscar of Astoria
When the knights, and dear master Llyod found me, I was ready. They were going to take me to the place of all the undead, having the fear of the chosen undead ruining their way of life, the Undead Asylum. It was a mad house. And not something I was looking forward to. I closed my eyes, I was not to take in my surroundings. For this would show remorse, regret, and weakness. Weakness that I had not time to dwindle on.
"On your feet, bearer of the mark!" a commanding voice growled from a far, I opened my Eyes to find a man of the cloth before me, with two knights dressed in the blackest of armor behind him. He was holding a small medallion. I reached behind me, to make sure my Estus Flask was still on hand. Without hesitation, the man threw his medallion at my feet, it shattered and encased my Flask in a sort of fog.
With that, I drew my sword. It seemed to glow in my hand. It was special, a gift from my father. From an accursed land that has since been long forgotten. It was forged with a certain type of pine resin. This one was not available within this land, all that I could tell of the blade when it connected with it's target, it glowed blue. The sword itself was three feet in length. A cold black hilt, and a golden crossguard.
The knights charged me, and I gripped my sword with both of my hands. Lloyd stayed behind and watched his pawns go to work. The knights both had long swords and shields, matching their armor. With every growing second, they closed in upon myself. Thoughts raced through my mind as I formulated a plan of attack. I had heard of All-Father Lloyd and his group of knights who hunted the undead, my kin, and sent them forth to the Undead Asylum, north of Lordran, the kingdom of Gywen, Lord of Fire. Both of the knights were within fourteen meters of me, I lunged at the closest knight and throated my sword at him as he raised his blade and stabbed him in the chest, burying the sword hilt-deep in his armor, the knight crumpled and vanished before my eyes with a sharp wail. I pulled my sword back and readied my self for the second knight's charge. He stood there with a shield raised, guarding himself from my sword, "I am a bearer of the curse! An undead servant! Doth thou wish to ascend me upon my journey?!" I shouted as a taunt towards Lloyd, every member of my town had gathered to watch what was going down. I heard cries and pleas begging for my release, and others of my surrender.
Lloyd spat on the ground and grunted, "You don't even matter within these parts, undead scum. I have been sent by Lord Gwyen to round up you putrid filth, I hope you enjoy being hallow." With that, the second knight charged me, I rolled out of the way as he did a lunging stab. He recovered before I did, and spun around with a sweep of his sword, tossing me to my back. I got up and readied my weapon, expecting an attack. But they both just stood there. Lloyd held up a talisman and a golden spear arose from it. He threw the spear towards me with great force. When it connected with my body, I could smell the lightning course throughout my body. Within seconds, I was dead.
Chapter 1 Asylum Escape.
My body awoke in a cell, I had no idea what time it was, or when I got here, surrounded by the remains of those hollowed before me. I took a look at my hand, and studied it. The flesh was rotting, all of it seemed zombified. I came to the slow conclusion that I was going hollow. This cell would be my end. The sword that I carried along with me was no more, the only thing that remained was my hair, and my garbs. Filthy tattered brown robes that connected in the middle by a row of buttons. My black leather boots still stood tall, always by me.
Shouts of help arose from adjacent cells and screams from the hallway. I stood up, and assessed myself. My lengthy hair was the color of blood. It covered the left side if my face, concealing my eyes. My father before me was an undead, and shared the fate that which I now am following. Weather he escaped this asylum or not is beyond me.
It felt as if I wasn't moving, but I could feel my essence approach the bars, and my eyes drifted down the hall. There were hollows littering the floor and the cells, All of which have lost their minds, no salvation of them what so ever. Suddenly, I felt a heavier presence Appear on my belt. I patted around the area, and found my Estus Flask dangling from nothing, holding itself to my waist. This was obviously a sign of something... Something that I couldn't remember... The memory was fleeting from me.
I didn't let that bother me. I had to escape this cell. I was not going to become hollow here in this Asylum. A loud THUD came from the floor behind me, and I turned around as quickly as an undead could. What I saw was an amazing sight; a hollowed out corpse lay before me. From it, a glowing blue orb. I looked up and saw a knight crouching over the sun roof of my cell. He gave a quick nod and was off. It wasn't until later that I would realize who he was.
I knelt down to the corpse, and checked his body for something that might be of use. My efforts came back with a resounding reward, a cell key. I turned the key in my hand, it was rusted. Almost cartoonish looking. A generic dungeon cell key with a couple of notches on the end of it.
When inserted in to the lock, it seemed as if it were new. The lock's gears rotated as I turned the key inside of it. The cell door swung open on it's hinges. It creaked and groaned as if it wanted to give away and break apart. I stepped outside of my cell and had a feeling of accomplishment. Like I was now apart of something. Although what it was, was just that, a thought. I knew that my memory was a fading thing, I was slowly going hollow before myself. I could still recall my name, Kotani. Lordran is north of where I lived... But my town name escaped me. Even the kingdom of which ruled over my town eluded me.
I put my thoughts aside for now, "Foward, think of forward" and so I did. The hall of which my cell was located was narrow. Very narrow. It was only maybe six feet wide. Fairly short, but foreshadowing it seemed. As I peered to my right, through a set of rusted bars, I saw a hulking green beast, wielding the largest hammer I had ever seen.
When the hall was behind me, and I had ascended the staircase, a ladder sat in front of me. Although ascending did feel like a good idea, the thought of dying did not sit well with me, so I was skeptical about what lie ahead.
The top of the ladder had comforted me. Sunlight shone in through ruined brick and holes in another passage. At the end of this tunnel, however, was light. Pure light! And a bonfire! I couldn't help but run forward and out in to the sun. I closed my eyes to let the sun beat on my skin, yet, could not feel anything in my rotten state. A sense of rage over came me, I wished that "All Father Loyd" could have his skull smashed in.
Without second thought, I approached the bonfire, a rusted sword that stuck out of ashen bones, and thrust my hand at the hilt, causing the entire thing to catch fire. My green Estus Flask had been rejuvenated and filled with the essence of flame, something that too gave me new life.
Before me lay a set of large green looking double doors. Just beneath them, was a stone staircase leading up to it. As my feet touched down upon each step, I could hear the echo of my movements like I was in a closed off hallway, yet this yard I was in had no acoustics.
The doors felt metallic, as my hards pushed open either one, they grew lighter and lighter, as if they had been wanting me to open them for some time now. As they halted to a stop, a large room lay before me, stone pillars line the walls and a chunk of the roof was blown out of the ceiling. Directly at the other end if the room was another set of rusted looking doors, an exit! Finally! I could leave this gods forsaken place.
My feet began in a sprint towards the doors, willing myself faster and faster! Everything was going so smooth until time slowed down, my instincts kicked in as I saw a giant green hulking mass drop from the ceiling, I rolled left, out of the way as it's giant hammer slammed against the floor. As I recovered, I noticed a hole in the wall, so like a fool, I dove in to that. As soon as I did, a gate fell shut before me. A loud bellowing came from behind me, the demon was probably not too happy about my escaping his clutches. The hole in the wall led me down a staircase, and at the bottom, was another bonfire. Past the bonfire, water rose up a set of steps that led in to another hallway. I lit the bonfire and could feel it's essence fill my body.
I took a step in to the water and hesitated, I couldn't help but look down, at the reflection if myself. The flesh was falling off of my face, my brown ceremonial garb was now grey from sweat, water, blood, and dirt. My trousers maintained their color. My boots still looked like one might wear if they were a guard in a city district or something. I still felt like myself, but I just didn't look the part anymore. I couldn't even tell what color my eyes were. "Stop your whining. You're undead, this is just your curse." I shouted aloud.
Angry with myself, I proceeded down in to the hallway. As soon as I did, however, I was greeted with an arrow. An archer say at the opposite end of the hallway notching arrows as he saw fit. He was hollow, so I could tell that this was going to be easy. I bolted in to the expanse and dove in to an open room, in there, I found a a kite shield, it resembled the one that I had back at my old town, at least, that's what the memories told me. It was blue, with a golden trim on it and no design on the front. It was customary in my town, we were not allowed to rally behind a crest.
I gripped the strap on the back if the metal shield and charged outside, the pang of arrows ringing from my seemingly invincible wall. I rushed the hollow and bashed him in the chest with the edge of the shield. Next to him, in a blue orb lay a sword. A steel blade, a gold cross guard and a cold, black hilt. This sword seemed very familiar to me, yet I had no use why. I picked it up and held it in my hand, extending it completely, it was three feet in length. I instantly felt more comfortable with this weapon than I would a set of armor. To my left opened up another hall way, a small one, and instantly opened up to a corridor.
As my steps echoed within the corridor, I peered over the low edge that faced my left side and noticed the bonfire that I had first come to. To my right was a set of stairs that seemed blocked by some large boulder and a wall, to me, it was a little bit foreboding. Kind of ominous in a sense too. But, I figures that was the only way to go, so I decided to trip the trap. As I ran up the stairs, the boulder roared to life and came tumbling after me, I threw my self against the gate that barred up the left Sid of the staircase, and the rock smashed itself in to the wall that stood behind me, reducing it to ruble. One of those hollows stood in place of where the boulder was, so, naturally, I charged him. As I got to the top of the staircase, I thrust my sword forward blindly and the tip connected with it's chest, causing him to wail out in pain and evaporate in to nothingness.
I felt sort of filled by slaying it. Like, something new had come to me. I could see a white glow lace my waist, I wouldn't have paid it much attention, yet it seemed to go inside of me. Like I absorbed the poor hollow's soul.
There was a door behind where the hollow stood, I tried to open it, but it seemed locked. So, I decided to look for a key.
My searches led me to that hole that the the boulder had made earlier. As I approached, a man, who had looked young, was bound by the wrists to the chains that hung out of the wall, when he saw me, he gave a sigh of relief and stood up, his wrists of not much use, "You there! You're not hollow, like them, right?"
This question had shocked me greatly, it hadn't occurred to me that I hadn't met anyone who wasn't a hollow so far. I cleared my throat and approached the shackled man, "No, I am not. Might I ask whom you might be? Before I set you free, I must know if you are to be trusted."
"Reasonable, enough. I am Oscar, knight of Astora. I came here on pilgrimage to fulfill the prophecy within this Age of Man. What is your name?"
"My name is Kotani, I am not sure where I am from, but I know it is foreign to this place. I can't remember much of anything that took place in my life before I came to this place," I told him as I took one swing at his rusted chains and broke the shackles.
Oscar stood and rubbed the cuffs of his wrists, he wore a full suit of armor, it seemed like the custom set from Astora, like he had served in it's military.
We stood and put a hand on my right shoulder, "I must thank thee for my rescue. Perhaps we shall both find exit from this asylum. Won't you come with me?"
I bowed and gave thanks, "But of course! The only thing is that the door leading up is locked, perhaps you had a key?"
He rummaged around his trousers and pulled out a rusted key, "Do you mean one like this?"
I couldn't help but smile, it seems that I had made a friend.
We made our way up the staircase, and Oscar had opened the door. From a short hallway, a large section of the ramparts opened up.
Hollowed out bowmen and guards stood along their places, ready to defend from the most vile scourge, and seemed to all turn in unison as we approached them. Most unsheathed swords and charged, but a few stood back and notched arrows, brandishing their bow. From parries to back-stabs, these humanoid creatures seemed to not even put up that much of a fight, one grazed my left arm with a blind thrust.
With everything dead and gone, Oscar and I approached another large set of double doors that hugged a tight alleyway, and each took part in pushing one open.
We found ourselves on a small platform above the main entrance, and that hulking demon. My sword seemed to launch me forward and off of the platform, causing me to plunge my sword in to the top of the beats head. With a whale of pain, it threw me and my sword off of it and in to a pillar that cracked under the force of my limp body. Oscar followed my actions but instead leapt from the monster before it could react. I jumped up and charged the thing once more, it wasn't going to get me down again. I dashed at the monster and slashed up it's belly with my sword in an arc. The entire blade turned blue as it first touched flesh, bringing back some memories of the blade, the distant land long forgotten, and my father who had gifted me this blade before he departed for Lordran.
Oscar followed up my strike with thrust in to the new wound that I created, ripping it's stomach and causing this Asylum Demon to topple back. With a loud sharp pitch, it exploded in to nothing. A key fell from where the beast was, and I caught it in my hand. It was tater fat all the way around, and a little bit short, the cold metallic feeling sent a chill down my spine.
"Well," Oscar had started, "It seems that we both are chosen."
Author's Note!
This story is going to focus on mainly the darker side of Dark Souls. And by darker, I mean more deep lore of the sort, everything in Dark Souls is rather depressing.
Over the years, FromSoft has produced games that have kept me sane, (while making me Hollow) filled me with laughter from countless n00b invasions, etc. This franchise means so much to me, I know that starting a YouTube channel about it would be useless, so, I decided to bring my love to this community and tell this story. The entire story is about the way that I see things, or the way I interpreted it during my first play through. Like I said though, it will be lore filled, so please, ask away with questions on people, places, or things!
Anyway(s), if you liked it, please let me know by like... Ummm... Following the story! Or leaving a review, how ever appreciation is showed!
Stay classy Anor Londo!
-Brady.