We are the souls

Aye, siwmae

This post is about role playing and consists of edgy stories that have no weight other than my desire to share something I find fun. I love creating stories for my characters in any game. So skip it, you won't lose anything.

Also this post contains spoilers for the Dark Souls series, so if you haven't played them yet, I highly recommend. Or to get into atmosphere, watch some theory videos like Hawkshaw's lore videos.

Why Dark Souls?

Dark Souls is something I never knew I'd enjoy before trying it out when Dark Souls Remastered came out. I've lost countless hours and souls exploring dead worlds with avatars of my consciousness, bonding with last survivors of the age of Fire. In 3 games I have spent days and weeks, completed challenge runs and watched a wholesome community of users across the globe also being emotionally attached to games that do not forgive, but care about the players all the same.

Also, because it's an RPG that means I get to roleplay! It mostly boiled down to giving my character a back story and planning their equipment and decisions in less statistical way. If not for this, I wouldn't have linked the fire as many times as I did.

So You are going to read some lore of my characters from Dark Souls 3. What motivated them to be Ashen Ones they are, What I think of them and What happened after I stopped playing as them.

And why DS3?

Because it's my favorite part of the series, of course!

Dark Flames of the Keeper

Slipping in and out, or not even that. There is nothing but darkness after all, it might be just remembering that you exist. Remembering what was, before the abyss swallowed you whole...

The flame, so fragile yet so alluring. How many burned their hands on yet to be cold ashes? You can count at least one fool. As a Fire Keeper, one must tender the fire, tireless watchers, suffering ladies. You just couldn't handle it. One of many, lost to the fire, ash to ash, just another human.

Yet, you are reborn, as the one who shall link the fire. But, if you were destined to bring the light back into this world, why it's so dark here? Uh, yes, Alluring flames, Vilhelm held it tight, but a crushing defeat after a near endless fall made him reconsider Church's teachings.

Now look at you. With but a dress you inherited from your late sister, and an Onyx blade, that can create its own fire. Why would you even need this linking nonsense? So that another poor lass could die for those damned flames, this world suffered enough, let it have its end. Fitting of your black flame.

But for that you need power. And Yoel of Londor promised a great half of that, in exchange for the looks, and the darkness within you. But all bargains end with the trader's profit. You came a great length, but unscalable wall made of Dragon Steel was all it took to lose hope. Even if for a bit, you plunged into the abyss, there is no going back. Hollowing can't be stopped.

Anger, Vengeance, Hope. That's all it amounted to, all pointless in death and in undeath.

Some lore for the emo mess above

So, that was a story I made up for my first Dark Souls 3 character that was abandonment because I couldn't keep playing at 20 fps in 450p while being wrecked for 100th time by Dragonslayer Armour. I am a big ymfah fan (no, I don't know how to pronounce it), and before starting playing DS3, I watched this video and got inspired to have Onyx blade to be my first proper weapon and complete the whole game with it. So, I cheesed Vilhelm by dropping him off a cliff, and learned some dark pyromancy from Karla. Also got the cool fire keeper's dress for 20K souls, best investment ever.

Also, I only create female characters in DS3, idk why. In most other games I don't care about that, it mostly depends on the mood or game mechanics. But all characters going forward will be girls. And on a better PC too, because my brother let me play DS3 on his beefy ahhh pc. So I created a new character and went for my first 100% of the game.

Mercenary Sister

Cemeteries lost their meaning long before your time. Labyrinthy catacombs and locked prisons replaced their purpose of keeping the dead in peace. That's where your family resides, along with your sister, who lost all hope on church's teachings and turned a hollow husk of the joyful little rascal you remember.

With words "I was never a deep believer, nor does anyone keep me here anymore", you started to wander. A Sword for hire, going to west with your trusty Black Blade. Kinda embarrassing naming a simple katana something like that, but it's a testament to how you grew with it from a young age.

But as long as you kept the edge thin and stance strong, no foe could hold a candle to your superior swordplay. And you began to wonder, if there is something more you could do, something greater than fading into the legends of countless swordsmen, feeding stories of blood and fear.

And that's the story before you Kindled the fire, before you fought your way trou gods, demons. Making Firelink Shrine your new home, and warming it up with so many comrades. Before you unraveled the truth of Painted worlds, and Got a glimpse into what future holds for everyone.

But you'd do anything to make your dear sister rest the way she'd want to, just for a moment you will create joy in this sorrowful lands and may it be reborn, again, anew.

True Heroine

Thus concludes the second character story. I beat the whole game, including DLCs with her, so she is truly THE Main Character as of now. I can remember trying Gael on her, and listening to a Jpop song on loop for an hour. If my blood capillaries were weak, I'd bleed from my nose - that's how much joy the fight gave me.

Also tried saving every NPC too, so some of their story lines weren't complete, yeah Dark Souls is fricking dark dude.

I really liked the Two-handed R2 of the Black Blade, so I based the whole build around waiting for the moment to strike absolute nastiest blow onto the opponent. It was a less aesthetically cool but more gameplay-oriented build, so I don't even remember what she wore, I think it was a mix of Brass Set and Sellsword set.

I actually remember basing her story off the first one, as a Sister who saw the light instead of plunging into darkness, but it seems more fitting to have them separate.

May your ashes rot and your soul burn

The true magic was born in Izalith. No dragon cults, nor the glory chapels of so-called gods will accept this simple truth. Witches - creators of higher world, society that was feared by lesser beings. Even the descendants of first pyromancy, dwellers of the Great Swamp, were none the wiser, fearing the wonders of new flames. Exiling those who dare to innovate, exhausting all creativity of my being and, in the end, I abandoned that boring land.

Lothric, built on top of Lordran, sitting just above the bedding of out ancestors, The Lost Izalith. I venture forth, to acquire the forgotten knowledge, the lost imagination that was the Chaos Flame. To show them all, that bordered flames are no match to my art, of the exiled, of the ridiculed. May the world know the flames; may it burn once again.

I like challenges

This was my first "challenge" run of Dark Souls 3, pyromancy-only. Beat the game and DLCs, no dark pyromancy of course. I heavily relied on Toxic Mist, the creation of Eingyi to beat some bosses with HP bars that are too damn long for my estus count. Hence the emphasis on the "exiled" part of the story.

It's short but simple. And I think it's a nice continuation of the first character, because they both rely on pyromancy, but while one disregarded some aspect of it, this one went full throttle.

This is not the end of me, this is the beginning

Hello again, hope you didn't cringe to death from over-the-top scratches on the wall that some schizo calls "stories". Well, undead always rise again anyways.

In the end, stories from this post don't make sense. They shouldn't, because it's just on-the-fly interpretations of characters I play as. It's just a glimpse into what makes games fun for me, and I hope it can inspire you to go beyond "META", to strive for more than perfection.

This world is full of stories to tell, but it doesn't mean you can't make your own. In many worlds to come, games to play, music to listen to - never forget your imagination as the tool that nobody else can give you.