This is my first shot at a Dark Souls fanfic.
Instead of the whole "X gets sucked into the Y universe" thing as I've done before, I'm going to try to mesh the two universes together.
Allow me to clarify a few things:
I don't want to do what I did with The Cactus Juice Saga and emphasize the comedy to the degree where it feels like TeamFourStar; I want to do this straight, and stay true to the bleak, hopeless nature of Dark Souls while maintaining the positive vibes of Avatar. There will be a sense of culture-shock, either side may find the other equally strange, but no particular character will be the exclusive butt of my jokes (apart of course from Sokka - the exclusive butt of Avatar's jokes, who will likely have a lot of gittin gud to do)
Certain characters will obviously be AU to account for the amalgamation. I, who have played Dark Souls and Dark Souls III and am constantly looking at the WIKI for reference, am well aware that Lorian, in the game/lore, is a mute crippled giant who mindlessly protects Lothric at all costs, but for the purpose that will soon come clear to you as you read, I am altering certain characters to fit with the story - basically, I'm making Dark Souls the Fire Nation, and somebody has to be Zuko, and Lorian is the closest thing to Zuko I could find.
Also, since it's unclear how people in Dark Souls become Undead, I'm just going with vampire rules: anyone who is killed by an Undead will also become Undead; this can extend to animals as well. Therefore, an Undead, in order to prevent becoming Hollow, must take a life, be it a person, an animal, or another Undead, to maintain their Humanity and prevent themselves from becoming Hollow. The hollowing process can be delayed by maintaining one's sanity, thus greatly reducing the number of lives/souls that need to be taken. I will not make an Undead immediately look Hollow after one death, because really that's just a game mechanic, so maybe just a little Hollow, which will get worse unless the Undead maintains sanity/ takes more lives before they die again. I want to explore the impact of the Undead Curse upon the outside world before moving on to the game's plot.
Another thing, as far as Avatar is concerned, we all know the story, I'm not going over every episode or line for that matter; I'm prioritizing the Dark Souls aspect of the story and so most dialogue will be surrounded around that. I'll be summarizing ATLA in the meantime just so you have the world-building. But, given that Avatar has a clear 19th-century steam power theme going, I will likely add some Bloodborne elements to the Dark Souls portion for consistency.
So before I go too far with the author's note, let's begin.
In the Age of Ancients, the world was unformed, shrouded by fog. A land of gray crags, Archtrees, and Everlasting Dragons.
But then there was Fire and with fire came disparity.
Heat and cold, life and death, and of course... light and dark.
Then from the dark, They came, and found the Souls of Lords within the Flame:
Nito, the First of the Dead.
A mound of bones and smoke collected to comprise a hulking humanoid figure, holding a small flame in its fleshless hand.
The Witch of Izalith and her Daughters of Chaos
Three women in black robes gathered around a small flame with their heads bowed, as is if praying to it.
Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and his faithful knights...
A tall, strong old man with a crown adorning his head held the flame, with row after row of silver-clad knights standing behind.
...And Wan, the Furtive Pygmy, so easily forgotten...
A frail young man tentatively kept the small flame as close as possible to his shriveled person, as he hid crouched within the dark cavern.
With the strength of Lords, they challenged the Dragons.
From his perch on the mountain, the giant drake shook the gray clouds with its wrathful bellow. A swarm of winged beasts took up the expanse of the sky. Some dragons gracefully sailed through the air, their serpentine forms waving like fish eels in a river; other dragons pounded the air with their enormous bat wings, furiously shaking their horned heads like demonic bulls. A great shadow curtained the land, but the army of humans was undeterred.
Gwyn's mighty bolts peeled apart their stone scales.
The King and his knights behind him created spears of lightning, and hurled them at the army of dragons like electrified raindrops; many dragons were felled as the lightning bolt easily pierced their natural armor, intruducing to the dragons the sting of mortality.
The Witches weaved great firestorms
Cyclones and tornadoes of blazing orange tore up the landscape as much as the ranks of dragons were torn through.
Nito unleashed a miasma of death and disease
The great skeleton being raised its arms, calling forth a tidal wave of black air; the dragons clenched their scaly throats, writhing in agony as their eyes were eaten away by corrosive winds, dropping like flies with thunderous landings.
And Seath the Scaleless betrayed his own,
A huge pale dragon clutched the scales of other dragons in his hand, and roared in victory as he stood over the corpses of his kind without shame.
...and the Dragons were no more.
Thus began the Age of Fire.
"Water... Earth... Fire... Air...
My grandmother used to tell me stories about the old days, a time of peace when the Avatar kept the balance between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads.
But that all changed when Fire Nation attacked.
An armored general ignited his longsword in fire, and directed it to the opposing army with a roar. The knights followed suit with their own blazing swords, axes, morning stars, and spears, trampling the land with their charge.
Armored boar and ostrich horse crashed together. The soldiers of the Earth Kingdom fended off the invaders with dwindling strength, smashing skulls with flying stones and crushing knights into red stains under boulders. Spearheads and swords were driven through the torso of many Earth Kindom soldiers; limbs and heads were sliced off, and many soldiers found their skin boiling as they were engulfed in merciless flame. Sorcerers raised their staffs and unleashed a hail of soul arrows that cut down the rest of the Earth Kingdom forces.
The Fire Nation spread across the world,
In the center of a subjugated village, the people of the Earth Kingdom were forced to witness the fates of the resisting citizens. Mothers shrieked for their sons as they were beheaded, their faces roasted before the unwilling audience to demonstrate the consequences of rebellion.
And with them spread a curse: some of their victims rose again to become Undead, hollow shells of humans that only feast on the souls of the living.
Another village was besieged by a new enemy. The town hall was boarded up, the main doors held shut by desperate hands. Hands from the outside bursts through gaps in the wooden boards, frantically grabbing at any possible prey. The boards were hacked down with hatchets, and the Hollows pours in. The gnarled, gray-skinned Undead looked to the living with empty sockets and unhinged jaws. The family was consumed by the shadow of death as the tall Hollow brought its axe down.
Only Avatar Artorias, master of all four elements, master of light and darkness, could stop the Fire Nation. But when the world needed him most, he vanished.
A hundred years have passed and The Fire Nation is nearing victory in the war. Two years ago, my father and the men of my tribe journeyed to the Earth Kingdom to help fight against The Fire Nation, leaving me and my brother to look after our tribe.
Some people believe that the Avatar's Soul was never reborn into the Air Nomads and that the cycle is broken, but I haven't lost hope. I still believe that somehow the Avatar will return to save the world."
Somewhere, within the boundless expanse of glaciers and icebergs that floated upon the cold sea like clouds in the sky, two youths rode on a small wooden canoe, out fishing, but only bickering.
Two young natives of the Southern Water Tribe, easily identified by their thick blue wardrobe, tan skin, brown hair, and blue eyes. The younger sister, Katara, was idly practicing her inherent gift, the power of waterbending, and became loud with excitement at her success. Her noise had disturbed the focus of the older brother, Sokka, still in futility attempting to ensnare a fish from the sea with his raised spear. Upon seeing a fish, Sokka pulled the spear back to thrust, the butt of the spear jabbing the mass of water controlled by Katara and popping it like a bubble, thus leading to the argument.
Katara wished that Sokka would support her in her endeavor to learn the art of waterbending all on her own; Sokka just wanted to catch a damn fish, just one, without being interrupted by annoying water magic.
Their argument was briefly interrupted upon the collision with several masses of ice, their boat sailing uncontrollably through the sudden current, driving their canoe directly into one last iceberg, shattering it, with the momentum launching the two teenagers onto the ice. After which, they happily resumed their bickering...
Katara chided Sokka for his inability to steer a boat, while Sokka blamed Katara simply for being a girl because all girls can do besides their chores was screw things up.
Katara's brow twitched, her nerve been struck one too many times. She grilled Sokka for his dismissive misogyny; as her rage built up within her, so did the waves behind, her; only Sokka seemed to notice that, with each frustrated thrash of her sister's arms, more and more cracks trailed down the large iceberg behind her. Sokka tried to warn her, but it only angers Katara more, causing her to spread longer cracks in the ice; until with one more thrash, the iceberg crumbled to pieces, frightening the two as they held their balance against the following waves.
The turbulence subsided, and the siblings relaxed, only for something bizarre to follow. Perhaps due to the girl's waterbending, an enormous orb of ice, its one glow shining upon the siblings, emerged out of the surface. The two straightway saw that, within the giant ball, was a massive beast, and below it, a small human figure, sitting crossed legged with its legs folded. The figure's eyes opened, releasing light even more radiant.
The kindhearted girl rushed across the ice, using her brother's club to thwack at the ice orb to free the person. At first, the strikes did nothing; but on the fifthe strike, the orb was disturbed, and a massive surge of energy erupted from the orb, sending a column of pure blue light into the sky for hundreds of miles to see.
And the light was indeed seen, even from the view of a black, entirely metal, steam-driven ship. Upon the deck stood a figure beholding the light: an unusually tall, long-haired grey-haired, pale-skinned young man in a thick black robe whose sharp orange eye widened at the sight."Finally" he hissed."Do you know what this means?" he said (with his refined British accent), turning around to someone behind him.
That someone was a man covered head to toe in a robust, round, almost adorable set of lime-white armor, sitting at the table as he stared down at the game board and rubbing the lower portion of his onion-shaped helmet as though it were his chin."hmmmm..."
"It means my search - it's about to come to an end..." the young man said.
"hmmm..." the knight repeated, still staring at the gameboard, unlike the other crewmembers distracted by the light.
"That light came from an incredibly powerful source. It has to be him!" the young man deduced.
"hmmmm..." again moaned the knight.
"Seigward!" the young man barked.
The altered knight spun his helm around."Oh! Pardon me, Prince Lorian, I was absorbed in thought..." Seigward calmly apologized, his voice muffled inside the large helm.
"Seigward, please tell me you actually noticed the giant pillar of light in the sky?" Prince Lorian deadpanned, pointing outward to the horizon.
"Oh that," Seigward replied, "That was probably nothing; a trick of the sunlight, aurora borealis and all that," he blew his armored hand dismissively." I'm more concerned with finishing this intriguing game..." the fat knight reasoned, his wide helm revolving back toward the table.
"That was no sunlight!" Lorian growled."It was an enormous surge of pure soul magic!"
"I'm sure that's what aurora borealis looks like to the untrained eye," Seigward persisted,"We've been down this road before, Prince Lorian. I don't want you to get too excited over nothing. Please, sit. Why don't you enjoy a glass of calming brandy?"
Prine Lorian lurched forward."I do not need your bloody booze! I need to find the Dark Lord! Helmsmen, head a course for the light!"
"Oh dear, I suppose I won't get to finish my game after all..." Seigward lowered his head.