Is there anyone actually alive in Dark Souls or Demon's Souls?

[Summerland]

Everyone seems like they are Hallowed, Unkindled or undead & cursed.

So I tend to wonder what's worth saving in the universe. In Demon's Souls the curse was never really lifted. Those that died stayed dead, and those that seemed still alive in the Fire Link shrine (or whatever it was called in Demon's Souls) were just a witch and half a dozen others. I guess people lived outside the city walls where the fog didn't envelop, unless the fog got that before to.

In DS3 it seems your returned from ash, but destined to go insane, unless the story ending changes that. I'm so far just at the swamp. For reference I've played Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1 and part of 3 and next I'm playing Bloodborne. I didn't read all the lore in DS, I know shame on me, I don't have the entire picture. Is there a lore for the universe made simple for dummies? TY

[32x32 Riker jpeg]

If I'm remembering rightly, DS1 and 3 take place in a sort of "quarantine zone" where undead go to or are forced to to help contain the spread of the undead curse. So there are actually people outside of the kingdom that aren't cursed, it's just slowly spreading like a plague.

oh, expect that tol change in Bloodborne as well, there are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of people in that game who aren't cursed, and generally treat you like ♥♥♥♥ for being cursed.

[Crackawacka]

The lore is not simple at all. It is purposefully vague so there is room for interpretation and some of the lore is a lie so you have to sift through that too. I would watch VaatiVidya videos on youtube, those are some of the best lore videos for the Souls series.

[Artek [General]]

VaatiVidya does great lore videos on everything Dark Souls related.

In short: The First Flame is a magical flame that holds the world together and lets souls to burn bright. However with proper souls come the struggles of life - such as ability to actually die.

As the First Flame starts to fade and weaken so does the power of souls. A new inflication starts ravaging the world - The Undead Curse. Those affected by it cannot die - instead they simply lose a piece of their soul each time they die, until they turn hollow at which stage they become soulless husks that attack anything that still has a soul in the hope to consume it for themselves. Think zombies, but screaming "SOULS" instead of "BRAINS".

To this day it is unknown what causes this curse to begin with. There's speculation that Gwyn created it intentionally, but there's no proper evidence. It seems to be just something that can happen in this world, but for some reasons it happens only when First Flame begins to weaken. Perhaps, its just the first symptoms of incoming Age of Dark, since "dark" endings in all of the games never try to fix the undead curse, they simply embrace it and carry on being soulless husks like its normal.

So, that leaves us with Gwyn's solution.
Gwyn's point of view is simple: screw Dark, screw the Age of Dark, i'm not letting it happen.
There's speculation that this is a wrong thing to do, because supposedly the Age of Dark and Age of Fire are perfectly normal cycles of this world's life, like night and day on a cosmic scale. I'm not convinced, since Dark related things tend to be... Unsavoury in both appearence and behavior.

So Gwyn came up with a plan to feed his soul - the most powerful one there is - to the Flame, in the hopes that it will make it burn bright once again, removing the undead curse and letting souls flourish again.
Gwyn's plan worked... But this solution is always temporary. The First Flame eventually starts fading again and the whole shtick happens again.
Chosen Undead in Dark Souls 1 did exactly the same thing as Gwyn and it appers that it worked. This solution does staves off the Age of Dark and lifts the undead curse, even if for a time. Hence why in Dark Souls 3 we find an entire culture dedicated just to finding worhy successors who can link the Flame again and again. Abyss Watchers, Aldrich, Yhorm, Ludleth - they all did what DS1 protagonist did. And it works, even if for a time.

The problems began when Prince Lothric refused to do the same. Or rather not so much refused but there was a confusion as to who should link the fire - Lothric or Lorian. Lorian was disqualified - there are hints that he ATTEMPTED to link the fire, but it didn't work.
And Lothric is clearly too weak to do it, so while everyone were arguing at to what to do - Lothric just simply said "nah, screw this, i'm not doing it". Which started the Civil War the scars of which can be seen around Lothric Castle.

As a Plan B - previous fire-linkers (Lords of Cinder) were called from their graves to link the fire instead of Lothric, but all of them refused as well for reasoons unknoown and just ♥♥♥♥♥♥ off to do whatever they wanted:
Abyss Watchers went home and locked themselves up as a form of quarantine, presumably aware that they're about to succumb to the Abyss.
Yhorm went home to Profane Capital to... Nobody knows. His thing was watching after Profane Flame, so perhaps he thought it was a more important thing to do?
Aldrich went to go and prepare for the coming of the Deep by eating remaining gods. It is unknown wether or not Age of the Deep is the same Age of Dark, or its something completely different.
And Ludleth - the little guy that transfuses boss souls - is the only one who was completely on board with Plan B, but unfortunately he can't do it without the rest.

Plan B failed. So now Plan C had to be activated instead - wake up Unkindled ones from their graves, in hope that one of them will best the rogue Lords of Cinder and force them to do what they must just like Chosen Undead did long ago.
But its important to point out that Unkindled are a completely new... Species? They do not suffer from Hollowing (at least not without outside help) and so they are not technically undead. They are something completely different, that was never mentioned before.
So who knows. Maybe this time it'll work for good.



The way i see it - the entire Dark Souls lore is a metaphor for struggles of life and responsibility that comes with it.
Everything that lives has to die, and in this case its world itself that is dying.
But there's responsibility to leave something for those who will come after. Secure a bright tommorow at least for them. Hence the constant relinking of the fire - yes, its painful, its temporary, the suffering eventually comes back. But it's worth it. Its virtuous.

The Dark endings seem to be basically selfish endings of vice. Why suffer through the fading of First Flame when you can just let it fade, let the Age of Dark come and enjoy your peace and quiet as an immortal hollow traversing a sunless realm of ethernal darkness. It's not that i don't see the appeal, but...

Blacksmith Andre says something special when you give him any of the "bad" coals, that i think represents very well how most people in Dark Souls universe see the whole thing:

"Lords... Where didye hap'n upon this coal?
This is much too dark. I see the Abyss in it...
Yet, a smith I remain. I won't turn down a request.
But forget not,

Your fight is for the flame, and for y' fellow kin. Just like mine.
A cursed fate this may be, but hope remains, does it not?"

[Andrey Ⅱ]

DS 2 have answers for all your questions.