13.
The Past, Ornstein, Great Souls and The Old Chaos
The reason Ornstein is in the cathedral is merely symbolism. I don't believe it's actually Ornstein from ds1. But it's supposed to represent a past that can't be buried. The past is there to haunt us from ever repeating it. The moment you see Ornstein in ds2, memories of terror as confusion pop up as we remember the infamous battle between Ornstein and Smough. The past has this immortality that is evident to reemerge and always haunt. Despite the Nazis being defeated, the swastika and Nazi uniforms will always exist and so will the atrocities behind them. We might forget every now and then,
But there is this resonance, this haunting eternal echo that always vibrates by having come into existence. A good example of this is a Canticle by Leibowitz by Walter m. Miller. In this novel nuclear war devastates earth and the survivors try to rebuild in a span of thousands of years. In the ruins documents are found in which it explains how to make nuclear weapons. Humanity having regressed to ignorance is unable to fully understand the severity of this knowledge. The documents become persevered for the future when humanity is knowledgeable enough to understand it. The simple fact that nuclear weapons can exist and have been brought into existence is enough to create a cyclical pattern for humanity. Later in the novel, the reconstructed future does not learn from their past, instead the past existence emerges to haunt and creates a cycle again. This to me represents the symbolism of Ornstein, the great souls and the old chaos. I don't believe its Ornstein but someone wearing Ornstein haunting armor. I don't believe the great souls reincarnate, but I do believe they influence the host; it's a past that reemerges from the past to echo what once was in existence. The great souls are like ideologies, similar to communism, even though these ideas have become negative, the words are still written and anyone can stumble upon and be inspired by it enough to shake the structures again. Certain pasts are immortal and so are ideas? The way we learn from them or apply them into functioning ways of living is how to amend the past for a while. But for the most part we are supposed to bear the past just as how we bear the curse in dark souls.
14. The lessons learned from the crowns
1. Man will not worship, kill of other races, man needs to learn how to co-exist with others and nature. Sunken crown
2. Man is not god, this world is not made solely for him to rape and deplete resources. The more it wants and bigger it becomes the more it consumes and comes closer to collapse. Man will learn to balance itself. Iron crown
3. Man is weak, man is frail, and man is easily corrupted. Man must learn humility. Humility felt in the indifference nature has for us. Ivory crown
4.man must learn to empathize, learn from mistakes, carry heavy the burden of others in order for him to find resolutions. Man must peek into their souls and find the essence of one another in order to harmonize their existence. Vendrick’s Crown.
Empathy
Humility
Balance
Coexistence
This
is what was necessary to ward of the curse and keep humanity thriving
Now it's up to you, will you learn from the past or bound to repeat the same mistakes.
"Seeker of fire, deliverer of crowns.
What do you see in the flames?
Find the crowns, and your own answers. The crowns hold the strength of lords from time long past.
Seek adversity, as befits you."-Vendrick
Now it's up to you, will you learn from the past or bound to repeat the same mistakes.
"Seeker of fire, deliverer of crowns.
What do you see in the flames?
Find the crowns, and your own answers. The crowns hold the strength of lords from time long past.
Seek adversity, as befits you."-Vendrick
15.Non backed theories that lore contradicts
The
dark is peace, the dark is clarity, the dark is reflective, the dark reveals
truths we try to ignore, and the dark could mean a fresh start. Most of my
favorite writers had to face the dark, the bleak, the ugly truths about the
human condition, and therefore created timeless, beautiful literature that
speaks volumes of human nature. They braved the abyss and with it carried
burdens of knowledge shared with us all. One of these writers is Fyodor Dostoyevsky,
he wrote one of my favorite books, notes from underground. Darkdiver Grandahl
and Felkin the outcast share similarities with the narrator, the underground
man. In underground, the narrator is a crippled man by how much he overthinks
the possibilities. He acknowledges all the outcomes of many events and how they
play out, at the end he never acts on any. I believe this is why Grandahl and Felkin
are crippled and sitting down. The narrator lives underground in isolation as
an outcast, Grandahl seems to always be in secretive underground areas in
isolation. In underground, the narrator brings up the concept of the stone
wall, it symbolizes the futility of man thinking he has freedom, since the laws
of nature restrict and oppress the illusion, we are not free as long as 2+2 =4,
or when we are hungry we'll need to eat, or when we hurt ourselves we'll feel
pain, or when we want to live forever, death is there to crush the wish, the
stone wall is there to show the laws of nature that oppress man, making freedom
inevitable. The narrator mentions smashing his head onto the wall until it
eventually breaks knowing very well its futility. We encounter Felkin sitting down,
facing a blank wall, now this could mean many things perhaps this wall is like
Dostoyevsky's where Felkin and his love for the dark compares to the oppression
of the wall. Walls are also seen as symbols of progress, since our ancestors
used walls to express themselves artistically, or the destruction of the Berlin
Wall. Dark is a restart and perhaps Felkin sees this empty wall as an endless
possibility the dark brings.
I also like to believe Nashandra was trying to seduce king Vendrick’s knights, Velstadt and Raime. Nashandra strength is in manipulating, and conquering kings. In her true form she wears a skirt of bones from kings she's brought to ruin. Velstadt was able to conquer the seduction but not the corruption of darkness Nashandra was using to seduce him to hand over Vendrick. We see even in death after defeating Vendrick, that Velstadt soul serves a sister of dark, as he becomes a puppet of Elana, or perhaps he came through in anger to avenge his beloved king. Raime was not able to overcome the seduction and tries to hand over Vendrick to Nashandra. This deems him as a traitor and is exiled. Raime having failed both Vendrick and Nashandra is forced to leave corrupted and aimless, looking for another sister of dark to serve, until he finds Nadalia in brume tower. At the end both face tragic ends as they become puppets of seductress.
I think bright stone cove has something to say about the negative aspects of cults/religion and our dependency on foreign oil. Spiders often symbolize control and manipulation as they weave spider webs that are unnoticeable to the prey it catches. But the game itself conveys this as we see spiders possessing Human corpses like puppets. Enemy by Director Denis Villeneuve is a great film that uses spiders as a metaphor for manipulation and control. In this same area we find two religious entities, magus and congregation represents a cult, and the pardoner as religion. Cult leaders throughout history have also been known to manipulate people for various reasons whether it being a money scam, or radicalizes it's member to kill for them. Examples of this are Jim jones and Charles Manson. Religion can also be used to manipulate people into feeling guilty. Through guilt they are able to control their flock and lead them into thinking, believing or doing anything. I also believe the quicksand is very relevant to these themes. One could be that following cults is like quicksand, a good example of this is Jim jones and the people he took to South America to create a utopia called Jonestown. As time went by many people wanted to leave this cult as they started seeing many flaws with the leader. Some were not able to escape, and were force to stay against their will. As Jonestown came to its end, Jim jones brainwashed many into committing revolutionary suicide, and those refusing were forced at gunpoint to take the poison, this whole experience must have felt like being on quicksand. This area also has a very Middle Eastern feel, and we can see peasants were mining this area for resources; perhaps this is how they began the quick sands. In our world peak oil is a very real threat to our lives, and the dependency on oil and how much is consumed is an inevitable catastrophe waiting to happen.The Sunni and shiite conflict in the Middle East also resonates in this area, with creighton and pate battling out over a misunderstanding or misinterpretation. This could also be seen as the conflict of Israel and the many Muslim states around the area. It's important to note that creighton and pate are here to symbolize man's inability to solve problems without resorting to violence. In dark souls 1 we never see the gods fighting each other.
Vendrick and Aldia created a being of light with the guidance of Grandahl, to dive into the chasms and explore the dark, due to his age. This being of light was corrupted by the dark and becomes a protector of the chasm, the dark lurker. Grandahl needs someone to dive into the chasms and draw it out by intensifying the dark with fire. He needs someone fit enough to face this strong being. 2 giants seek refuge from extinction and meet Grandahl. Grandahl being an agent of dark just like Nashandra tricks them into safety in a hideout. Without knowing they are being imprisoned to be used as a testing ground for an undead. Those who defeat the 2 giants are fit enough to traverse the dark and accomplish Grandahl’s dark pilgrimage. I believe he's ensuring safe passage for future generations that want to dive in and explore. Perhaps he wants to jump in one last time and become one with the dark.
16. Scholar of the first sin
I don't have anything against sequels or trilogies, but I do have something against people demanding a clearer ending to the story and people wanting grander spectacle out of sequels, most of the times this kills my suspension of disbelief. The story that dark souls told in one game, took 5 games for god of war to tell with less mystery, intrigue, engagement and subtlety. The reason I love dark souls 2 is because, while flawed, it never becomes over ambitious, it never throws too much craziness and wow factors that would
Make it obviously feel like a developed sequel instead of a natural sequel, dark souls 2 feels like an epic haunting epilogue to the first game and everything in it is subtle enough to never kill my suspension of disbelief, this is something to admire of dark souls 2, it never forcefully tries to be grander, ridiculous and over blow the scale of the original. As to where games and developers feel the need to outdo themselves from their last game and create something way too exaggerated in an attempt to be epic and satisfy players who expect more, and who have been jaded by spectacle. With all this said, I wouldn’t desire a Dark Souls 3. I would like to see them make spiritual successors with the Souls formula they've perfected but making new mythologies and adding texture of new gameplay and interesting game design that ties in with game narrative. Bloodborne is the way to go, this is brave from fromsoftware, not using a beloved franchise to death like other companies who drag their games down to the ground with cash grab intentions. Regarding lore and narrative I don't want the mystery ruined, I don't want answers to be handed to me, I enjoy putting the puzzle together and interpreting the mystery with my girlfriend, and reading the interesting speculation of others, and in a game that depends on this type of interaction to engage the player, one should not demand clear answers, sequels that explain the unanswered, and exaggerated epicness. I understand why fans demanded a different ending to mass effect 3; it told its story directly and was a heavy handed story driven game. They gave you the ending instead of the player making their own with their decisions. By way of disappointing fans, many even came out with better theories and speculations about the ending. The Souls games are different and one needs to engage in filling the story voids with their imagination and speculation, this is an important aspect of role playing. I really hope fromsoft never caters to people who want clear answers and smoother edges to their story telling, there are very few games that encourage participation in piecing a mystery, and the souls games should be left alone when it comes to this aspect of their games. There are many games that tell the story directly to you and if you crave one, pick one out of the many. The souls should always be left ambiguous and cryptic making people question the meaning of the different aspects of the narrative, it makes you practice your imagination and intellect, and I hope more people participate in analyzing and creating their own lore with the game. I write this because scholar of the first sin seems to be catering to people who are demanding resolutions to the story. If the new added npc just straight out spews the answers to us, I'm going to be really disappointed in from soft and the players who took the narrative freedom of souls. In doing this they are destroying the many theories fans apply to their games in understanding and enjoying them, because when giving out the answers you either disappoint since you are taking away the great flare of mystery and it won't add up to people's expectations, or you make it even more vague with more questions to answer because then you would have to answer everything to make us understand it all, either way it's bound to disappoint everyone. Here’s to hoping the scholar blows our mind with answers, or to making the game even more vague and contradicting.
Extra Credits: Spectacle Creep
17. The mistake of life and the chaos of existence
At the beginning in the world of dark souls there was perpetual nothingness, almost a limbo state of foggy unconsciousness, life had no purpose since there was no struggle or motion. No reason for existence. There was a balance in rendering disparity extinct. There was a peace that could not be felt with the burden of life and the chaos that ensues with existence. When the lords picked up their souls, disparity appeared, and with it life and death, light and dark. There was no space for 2 races to exist so a chaotic battle was unavoidable. So the victors built their kingdom on top of this once normal and peaceful existence, replacing humble silence with noise and grandeur. Life in order to survive needed to consume, devour others in order to exist, it needed to procreate in order to progress, it needed a struggle to have something to strive for. It carved on the walls of nothingness meaning filled with adversity. But as life becomes more complex, kingdoms started to collapse, this failed experiment of life kept repeating cyclically over and over again with new races rising up to the challenge and being consumed by the cyclical nature of existence. Perhaps life is the curse, to exist on this very earth, perhaps the curse is there to simplify life and return to that peaceful nothingness found at the beginning of time, perhaps life is to perfect ourselves and learn from the mistakes of our ancestors.
"Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms. It's by talking nonsense that one gets to the truth! I talk nonsense therefore I'm human." -Fyodor Dostoyevsky Notes from Underground
I also like to believe Nashandra was trying to seduce king Vendrick’s knights, Velstadt and Raime. Nashandra strength is in manipulating, and conquering kings. In her true form she wears a skirt of bones from kings she's brought to ruin. Velstadt was able to conquer the seduction but not the corruption of darkness Nashandra was using to seduce him to hand over Vendrick. We see even in death after defeating Vendrick, that Velstadt soul serves a sister of dark, as he becomes a puppet of Elana, or perhaps he came through in anger to avenge his beloved king. Raime was not able to overcome the seduction and tries to hand over Vendrick to Nashandra. This deems him as a traitor and is exiled. Raime having failed both Vendrick and Nashandra is forced to leave corrupted and aimless, looking for another sister of dark to serve, until he finds Nadalia in brume tower. At the end both face tragic ends as they become puppets of seductress.
I think bright stone cove has something to say about the negative aspects of cults/religion and our dependency on foreign oil. Spiders often symbolize control and manipulation as they weave spider webs that are unnoticeable to the prey it catches. But the game itself conveys this as we see spiders possessing Human corpses like puppets. Enemy by Director Denis Villeneuve is a great film that uses spiders as a metaphor for manipulation and control. In this same area we find two religious entities, magus and congregation represents a cult, and the pardoner as religion. Cult leaders throughout history have also been known to manipulate people for various reasons whether it being a money scam, or radicalizes it's member to kill for them. Examples of this are Jim jones and Charles Manson. Religion can also be used to manipulate people into feeling guilty. Through guilt they are able to control their flock and lead them into thinking, believing or doing anything. I also believe the quicksand is very relevant to these themes. One could be that following cults is like quicksand, a good example of this is Jim jones and the people he took to South America to create a utopia called Jonestown. As time went by many people wanted to leave this cult as they started seeing many flaws with the leader. Some were not able to escape, and were force to stay against their will. As Jonestown came to its end, Jim jones brainwashed many into committing revolutionary suicide, and those refusing were forced at gunpoint to take the poison, this whole experience must have felt like being on quicksand. This area also has a very Middle Eastern feel, and we can see peasants were mining this area for resources; perhaps this is how they began the quick sands. In our world peak oil is a very real threat to our lives, and the dependency on oil and how much is consumed is an inevitable catastrophe waiting to happen.The Sunni and shiite conflict in the Middle East also resonates in this area, with creighton and pate battling out over a misunderstanding or misinterpretation. This could also be seen as the conflict of Israel and the many Muslim states around the area. It's important to note that creighton and pate are here to symbolize man's inability to solve problems without resorting to violence. In dark souls 1 we never see the gods fighting each other.
Vendrick and Aldia created a being of light with the guidance of Grandahl, to dive into the chasms and explore the dark, due to his age. This being of light was corrupted by the dark and becomes a protector of the chasm, the dark lurker. Grandahl needs someone to dive into the chasms and draw it out by intensifying the dark with fire. He needs someone fit enough to face this strong being. 2 giants seek refuge from extinction and meet Grandahl. Grandahl being an agent of dark just like Nashandra tricks them into safety in a hideout. Without knowing they are being imprisoned to be used as a testing ground for an undead. Those who defeat the 2 giants are fit enough to traverse the dark and accomplish Grandahl’s dark pilgrimage. I believe he's ensuring safe passage for future generations that want to dive in and explore. Perhaps he wants to jump in one last time and become one with the dark.
16. Scholar of the first sin
I don't have anything against sequels or trilogies, but I do have something against people demanding a clearer ending to the story and people wanting grander spectacle out of sequels, most of the times this kills my suspension of disbelief. The story that dark souls told in one game, took 5 games for god of war to tell with less mystery, intrigue, engagement and subtlety. The reason I love dark souls 2 is because, while flawed, it never becomes over ambitious, it never throws too much craziness and wow factors that would
Make it obviously feel like a developed sequel instead of a natural sequel, dark souls 2 feels like an epic haunting epilogue to the first game and everything in it is subtle enough to never kill my suspension of disbelief, this is something to admire of dark souls 2, it never forcefully tries to be grander, ridiculous and over blow the scale of the original. As to where games and developers feel the need to outdo themselves from their last game and create something way too exaggerated in an attempt to be epic and satisfy players who expect more, and who have been jaded by spectacle. With all this said, I wouldn’t desire a Dark Souls 3. I would like to see them make spiritual successors with the Souls formula they've perfected but making new mythologies and adding texture of new gameplay and interesting game design that ties in with game narrative. Bloodborne is the way to go, this is brave from fromsoftware, not using a beloved franchise to death like other companies who drag their games down to the ground with cash grab intentions. Regarding lore and narrative I don't want the mystery ruined, I don't want answers to be handed to me, I enjoy putting the puzzle together and interpreting the mystery with my girlfriend, and reading the interesting speculation of others, and in a game that depends on this type of interaction to engage the player, one should not demand clear answers, sequels that explain the unanswered, and exaggerated epicness. I understand why fans demanded a different ending to mass effect 3; it told its story directly and was a heavy handed story driven game. They gave you the ending instead of the player making their own with their decisions. By way of disappointing fans, many even came out with better theories and speculations about the ending. The Souls games are different and one needs to engage in filling the story voids with their imagination and speculation, this is an important aspect of role playing. I really hope fromsoft never caters to people who want clear answers and smoother edges to their story telling, there are very few games that encourage participation in piecing a mystery, and the souls games should be left alone when it comes to this aspect of their games. There are many games that tell the story directly to you and if you crave one, pick one out of the many. The souls should always be left ambiguous and cryptic making people question the meaning of the different aspects of the narrative, it makes you practice your imagination and intellect, and I hope more people participate in analyzing and creating their own lore with the game. I write this because scholar of the first sin seems to be catering to people who are demanding resolutions to the story. If the new added npc just straight out spews the answers to us, I'm going to be really disappointed in from soft and the players who took the narrative freedom of souls. In doing this they are destroying the many theories fans apply to their games in understanding and enjoying them, because when giving out the answers you either disappoint since you are taking away the great flare of mystery and it won't add up to people's expectations, or you make it even more vague with more questions to answer because then you would have to answer everything to make us understand it all, either way it's bound to disappoint everyone. Here’s to hoping the scholar blows our mind with answers, or to making the game even more vague and contradicting.
Extra Credits: Spectacle Creep
17. The mistake of life and the chaos of existence
At the beginning in the world of dark souls there was perpetual nothingness, almost a limbo state of foggy unconsciousness, life had no purpose since there was no struggle or motion. No reason for existence. There was a balance in rendering disparity extinct. There was a peace that could not be felt with the burden of life and the chaos that ensues with existence. When the lords picked up their souls, disparity appeared, and with it life and death, light and dark. There was no space for 2 races to exist so a chaotic battle was unavoidable. So the victors built their kingdom on top of this once normal and peaceful existence, replacing humble silence with noise and grandeur. Life in order to survive needed to consume, devour others in order to exist, it needed to procreate in order to progress, it needed a struggle to have something to strive for. It carved on the walls of nothingness meaning filled with adversity. But as life becomes more complex, kingdoms started to collapse, this failed experiment of life kept repeating cyclically over and over again with new races rising up to the challenge and being consumed by the cyclical nature of existence. Perhaps life is the curse, to exist on this very earth, perhaps the curse is there to simplify life and return to that peaceful nothingness found at the beginning of time, perhaps life is to perfect ourselves and learn from the mistakes of our ancestors.
"Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms. It's by talking nonsense that one gets to the truth! I talk nonsense therefore I'm human." -Fyodor Dostoyevsky Notes from Underground
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