Dark Souls, to some it is just the name of a game, a brutally difficult game. But I assure you, it is much more than that. Dark Souls is a masterpiece, it is a masterfully handcrafted piece of art. Dark Souls is a complicated and hard to comprehend philosophy book. Dark Souls is a guide to life which tries to teach valuable lessons. Dark Souls deserves to be the best game, art, book, and anything else you can imagine.

But what is the reason I claim that? You will understand after you finish reading my guide. Thank you in advance for reading my work, I hope it can prove helpful and teach you something about life.

This guide is divided into two soft sections, first part explains the in-game lore and the story of Dark Souls while the second part tells you about its relation with real life and the true meaning behind it.

And last but not least, I've only covered the parts of the story that is relevant to what I'm trying to say not the whole story completely.

Dark Souls is filled with countless metaphors and poetic lines meant to be open to interpretation. A great deal of things can be learned from the world of Dark Souls if we assume that this dark fantasy world is in fact, a metaphor of our real world. From Software has masterfully concealed its lessons and ideas within the world of Dark Souls, waiting to be discovered one day. I tell you, that day could be now.

If the world of Dark Souls itself is a metaphor of real life, then everything inside it must have a metaphorical meaning that ties it to our real world. Everything is there for a reason, everything is thought thorough by the developers and every single word is placed there to have a meaning beyond it's simple definition.

You might think I'm exaggerating a lot, which might be a little bit true but I'm telling you, From Software had a reason for creating this masterpiece. They wanted to leave a legacy behind, something that can live through the ages and they've done it right.

If you're sceptical about my claims, I encourage you to finish reading this article and then think again and if you still can't believe it, well, I guess to each his own...

Originally posted by Dark Souls Wikia:

The Age of Fire began after the defeat of the Everlasting Dragons, at the hands of Gwyn and the other Lords. The Age of Fire was unnaturally prolonged when Gwyn sacrificed himself to kindle the First Flame. According to Darkstalker Kaathe, the curse of undeath was created when Gwyn, Lord of Cinder refused to relinquish the Age of Fire to make way for the Age of Dark. How undeath is transmitted is unknown, but it almost always occurs regardless of the victim's intentions.

The Curse is like a diseases, an affliction that prevents a human from dying. Undead, are the carriers of the accursed Darksign. They cannot die, they are cursed to live forever, if you could call it living. When an undead dies, his or her body is resurrected at a Bonfire. An undead is essentially an undying zombie.

The game itself provides no definite answer as to why the curse itself must exist but there could be various explanations, all of which are irrelevant to some degree (within the context of this article). The point it, the curse does exist and that's it. It doesn't matter why it exists or how it was created, all that matters is, it's there now.

It's unknown how the curse is actually acquired but there is no permanent cure. Once you're cursed, you're an undead and you're done for. Many undead have gone to the ends of the world to find a cure, many have come close yet so far away. You can fight the curse, you can control it, you can temporarily terminate it but you can never break it.

Originally posted by Dark Souls Wikia:

The symptomatology of being Hollow is primarily characterized by a lack of free will. Those that are Hollow may still have attractions to things they valued as living and Undead. This might explain why so many have maintained stations at various posts as well as their aggression towards non-Hollows.

Beyond this, drastic changes in physical appearance can be observed. Skin appears slightly decomposed and the body thoroughly dehydrated, prominent veins can be seen surrounding the heart although physical signs may only be indicative of progression into a Hollowed state and not of being entirely Hollowed.

The exact process of turning Hollow is not entirely clear. Many Undead characters encountered in Lordran will eventually turn Hollow if certain prerequisites are met. Most characters are fearful of going Hollow and try to ward it off as much as possible, though the Crestfallen Warrior seems to find the prospect of going Hollow to be desirable.

The Chosen Undead is already in a somewhat Hollowed state when escaping from the Undead Asylum and seems to be subject to a different progression pattern compared to other Undead characters in Lordran. Despite the Chosen Undead's appearance as a Hollow, he or she is able to maintain their free will and this is immediately recognized by other characters.

In general, it seems that Undead go Hollow more quickly when they have no further goals or purpose. Even characters like Blacksmith Lenigrast who are visibly almost fully Hollow can maintain their lucidity if they are focused on their craft.

There are two distinct types of Hollowing (often misunderstood as two stages): Decomposition of body and losing free will. While the decomposition of the body is a sign of losing your mind, it doesn't necessarily mean that a zombie-looking character has lost his or her free will. This is evident as you see many hollowed characters which still have some degree of free will (i.e. the undead merchant, the hollow blacksmith, etc.).

And the a firm evidence for this claim is The Chosen Undead. A decayed appearance doesn't necessarily signify the loss of free will. Hence, the two types (not stages) of Hollowing.

The second type of Hollowing is losing the free will or insanity which is often followed by decaying of body. In other words, an insane hollow would most likely have a decomposed body (zombie appearance). They can however, still maintain some small degree of free will.

Originally posted by Dark Souls Wikia:

Humanity is required to revert to the unhollowed state. Humanity can be spent at bonfires to reverse Hollowing or to kindle bonfires.

The process of Hollowing can be reversed by expending Humanity. Keep it mind that Humanity has no effect on The Curse itself, it cannot cure The Curse but can merely keep it at bay. Hollowing and The Curse are completely different and should not be confused with each other.

The Curse can possibly (most likely for many of the afflicted) lead to Hollowing but it's not caused directly by The Curse itself. The Curse only takes away the ability to die and rest in peace, it does not make an undead Hollow by default. The reason is often leads to Hollowing is because it's impossible to be broken. It initiate a vicious cycle of suffering and pain which ultimately leads to Hollowing.

Originally posted by Dark Souls Wikia:

To Link the Fire and The Dark Lord are the two endings that can be chosen in Dark Souls. The Chosen Undead may choose to perpetuate the Age of Fire, or instead bring about the Age of Dark.

To Link the Fire ending is obtained by lighting the bonfire that appears after defeating Gwyn, Lord of Cinder. In sacrifice, the Chosen Undead links the First Flame as Gwyn had done before him/her, thus fulfilling Kingseeker Frampt's goal of continuing the Age of Fire.

The Dark Lord ending is obtained after exiting the arena where the Chosen Undead felled Gwyn instead of lighting the bonfire. All the primordial serpents bow before the new ruler, the Chosen Undead, who has thus become the "Dark Lord". By choosing this ending, the Age of Fire is relinquished and Darkstalker Kaathe's goal of starting the Age of Dark is fulfilled.

Both endings are arguably bad or neutral at best, the game is basically open ended and open to interpretations. The ending just adds another piece to the puzzle, the big picture. It does not matter which ending the players chooses, The Curse still either lives on or comes back again eventually (Dark Souls II).

No matter how hard you try, no matter what choices you make, no matter what happens, The Curse will never be permanently broken. That's the whole point behind the story of Dark Souls, The Curse is part of the world now and will never go away. It might not have been there since the beginning, but it's there now and there's no way to end it.

And then the cycle begins again, the souls will flourish anew. The cycle goes into infinity, it never ends.

Originally posted by Dark Souls Wikia:

The Lord Souls are four incredibly powerful souls that were found in the First Flame during the Age of Ancients. These souls were found by four beings, who upon claiming them were transformed by them.

A soul of death was found by Nito, First of the Dead. It transformed Nito into a creature of death and disease, an amalgamation of skeletons constituting his body.

A soul of life was found by the Witch of Izalith, which granted her power over fire and whose power would later become corrupted by the Witch's attempt to recreate the First Flame, giving birth to countless foul demons.

A soul of light was found by Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight. This soul gave Gwyn the power of Miracles and allowed him to weave lightning and light freely. Gwyn would later split his soul, giving fragments of it to worthy servants such as Seath the Scaleless and the Four Kings.

And lastly, the Dark Soul was found by the Furtive Pygmy. The Pygmy split his soul into countless fragments, becoming the ancestor of the human race. The Pygmy hoped that one day, the Dark Lord would be born among humanity, someone who could end the Age of Fire and usher in the Age of Dark.

In other make the ultimate choice and finish the story, The Chosen Undead needs two of the Lord Souls (Soul of Death, Soul of Life) and two fragments of Soul of Light. Lordvessel does not need the Dark Souls or any of its fragments.

The Chosen Undead must fight and defeat the holders of those souls in order to get the souls and feed them to the Lordvessel.

• The world is not meant to be perfect, it never was. We're supposed to make it better and keep trying to make it a better place but it will never be perfect. A perfect world is one that will degenerate, decay, fade away and die. Perfection must be an unreachable goal in order to make us strive to achieve it but the ultimate perfection is impossible to gain. Just some food for thought. Here's a dialog from The Matrix which tells us exactly the same thing: Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization.
  
  
• Victory must be achieved through struggle, easy come easy go. Nothing is supposed to be easy, if something is gained easily it has no value. It is the struggle that makes us better, we improve through trying for failure is the road to success.
  
  
• Good and evil are NOT inherently favorable or unfavorable, they are mere incomplete and faulty classifications that can switch places. What matters is the results of actions, in other words the end justifies the means. Here's how The Witcher puts it: There is no good or evil, only decisions and consequences. A movie that totally nails this concept would be DayWatch/NightWatch (and the video games), I would highly recommend this movie and game.
  
  
• You can run but you can't hide forever. Problems must be solved and obstacles must be removed, running away from problems won't solve them as they will just stalk you relentlessly until eternity. This life is full of small and big problems and they must be solved, it's the only way they will ever go away. You can't run away from them, there's no escape. You are bound to face your own problems yourself and there's no other way.
  
  
• One can make all the difference, this is perhaps the most important lesson taught by Dark Souls. This is a foolish excuse we all make, we always want to change others but never ourselves. Why? Because we can't make a difference alone anyway. Well, the truth is YOU CAN. All the biggest changes in the world always started with a single person, that's right ONE PERSON. Tell me, why do you vote if one can't make a difference? Mahatma Gandhi once said: In a gentle way, you can shake the world. If the world is going to hell, it's because YOU let it.

I believe, these are the main points Dark Souls is trying to make and the main lessons it tries to teach us. Just some food for thought...

Originally posted by Wikipedia:

Major depressive disorder (MDD) (also known as clinical depression, major depression, unipolar depression, or unipolar disorder; or as recurrent depression in the case of repeated episodes) is a mental disorder characterized by a pervasive and persistent low mood that is accompanied by low self-esteem and by a loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. The term "depression" is used in a number of different ways. It is often used to mean this syndrome but may refer to other mood disorders or simply to a low mood. Major depressive disorder is a disabling condition that adversely affects a person's family, work or school life, sleeping and eating habits, and general health. In the United States, around 3.4% of people with major depression commit suicide, and up to 60% of people who commit suicide had depression or another mood disorder.

One of the main concepts of this game, is accurate depiction of Depression. The Curse itself is the metaphor of Depression and Hollowing is the metaphor of what depression does to humans. Once afflicted, you can only pretend to have found a cure but deep down inside, you will always know that there has never been a cure and there never will be. It's a part of you, this is who you are. You carry the accursed Darksign, the sign of depression that makes you slowly die inside.

It's quite ironic that the developers are Japanese (since Japan has a disturbingly high suicide rates despite being one of the most successful countries across the globe). This irony is quite bitter. The game tries to explain what created depression and its origins. So what created the curse? Prolonging the age of fire did. What was the age of fire? Basically, it was that perfection we were talking about. Bingo!

Depression is not caused by not having something, it's caused by not having a purpose. Without a goal, everything is truly meaningless. In a perfect world, there is no goal. The Curse emerged because the age of fire (perfection) was forced to continue. Depression came when our lives lost their true meaning. Do you know why many famous people suffered and suffer from Depression while they had/have everything? Actually, because they had/have everything. The irony strikes again with its bleed-infused blade.

This is further inspected in Dark Souls II where The Curse emerged again after Drangleic had almost reached the ultimate perfection. Perfection is what triggers The Curse, because it makes new goals cease to exist. Without a goal, there is no reason to strive and without striving there is no meaning.

The Curse isn't an affliction, it's a part of us and we all carry is within ourself: The potential of suffering from Depression. It's just the question of whether it's triggered or not. Humans are not meant to live in perfection because the depression will be triggered by the lack of purpose and will lead to their demise.

But science can easily cure depression, it's just like any other disease, isn't it? No, it's not. First off, Depression is technically a disease but it's clearly different from a bacterial or viral infection, all mental disorders are. Even if you "cure" it, it can come back any time. Anyone can be afflicted, no one is safe. There's no vaccine, there's no magic miracle that will cure it permanently. It's just who we are.

So what is the role of Humanity and Reversing Hollowing? Well, that's exactly what depressed people do. They mask it, hide their true feelings from others. How do they do it? Humanity, they fake being normal. The smiling mask you put on your face to hide your tears is Humanity and is easily lost after being hurt. The true form of an undead is the zombie-like decayed body, not the pretty skin they have when they're hiding behind their humanity. The same thing applies to Depressed people...

Depression itself is often mistaken with what triggers it, that's what makes the whole thing difficult to understand. The Curse wasn't created, it emerged because it had the potential to be. Same thing applies to Depression. The Curse itself is, without a doubt, a depicition (metaphor) of Depression in real life.

I believe, once the developers find a way to truly cure The Curse, we will have found the ultimate cure to depression and the perfect treatment for it (but that will never happen...). Now the real question is, why does perfection always have to lead to degeneration?

In order to get to the end and make the ultimate choice, The Chosen Undead must first conquer the great lords, harness their Lord Souls and feed them to the Lordvessel. Each Soul has a metaphorical meaning, so does the Lordvessel itself.

Lordvessel is the metaphor of action. It's what one person does to change the world, or rather how that person does those things. Life, Death and Light. The Lord Souls are the metaphor of what a person needs to gain in order to change the world.

Bear in mind, I'm not talking about whether this will be a good change, a neutral change or a terrible change. It's just what a person needs to make that choice.

One needs four things to make a change:

• The Soul of Life: Metaphor of power. It's gaining the power to affect the lives of others. This could be political power, religious power, or any other form of power. Celebrities have it, politicians have it, and so on. One can gain "Soul of Life" through becoming famous or having his/her voice heard, but there might be other ways as well. Power can result in corruption (i.e. the witch made demons).
  
  
• The Soul of Death: Metaphor of sacrifice. It's the willingness to sacrifice yourself for your beliefs (whether good or bad) in order to achieve your goal. It is NOT the same as selflessness because the goal can be detrimental to others (i.e. suicide bombing). Nito sacrificed himself to fight the everlasting dragons (i.e. he actually died, that's why he's the first of the dead). That creature of death and disease is NOT Nito himself, rather his legacy. It's the idea he left behind after he died. A relevant dialog from V for Vendetta: Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.
  
  
• The Soul of Light: Metaphor of allies, friends and followers. It's gaining the support of allies and/or followers. I'm pretty sure you get what I mean, but in case you didn't, let me explain it in other words. Remember that one can make a difference, but in order for that one person to make a difference, he/she will need help from others. Revolution always starts with one person, but ends with many. Allies can result in making the wrong choice (i.e. Gwyn rekindled the flame).
  
  
• The Dark Soul: The human mind, everyone has it. This is the reason you don't need to gain a fragment of Dark Soul in other to satiate the Lordvessel, you already have it in you. A human already has a mind, therefore doesn't need to get one. However, one might need to change or train the current mind he/she has.

The outcome of the change can be either positive or negative for the rest of the world. Hitler had all four, look at what terrible things he did. Mahatma Gandhi had four, he tried to make the world a better place. The two choices at the end are trying to convey the idea that good or bad depends on your point of view. Who knows, maybe Hitler truly believed what he was doing a good thing?

You can't really decide which ending is the good ending because they're both equally sad to see, so are the outcomes of big changes usually.

It wouldn't be exaggeration if I say that Dark Souls Series are truly the best games I have ever played in my entire life. I am truly thankful for this experience and wish the developers best of luck in their lives. This is the only game that could teach me so many great things about life, I truly believe Dark Souls deserves to be a book.

Again, I truly hope that players might one day play games for a better reason than just having fun and/or passing time, that reason could be learning something valuable...

And at last, I want to thank you for reading my guide and hope my work could have been of help.

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Many people would believe that The Curse is a metaphor of Alzheimer's Disease, specially after the release of Dark Souls II. However, while this might sound just about right at first, if you dig in deeper, you would find that it actually represents Clinical Depression rather than Alzheimer's Disease.


Alzheimer's Disease causes progressive memory loss, that is correct but this reason alone doesn't mean The Curse is a metaphor of Alzheimer's Disease. Clinical Depression could often lead to selective amnesia in later stages if untreated as well. Also, it's not explicitly mentioned that The Curse itself causes memory loss directly, like how Alzheimer's Disease does.

The memory loss resulted from the curse could be an indirect side-effect like how depression might possibly cause selective amnesia.


This is the most important reason The Curse could not be Alzheimer. Most Undead are aware of their Curse and strive to find a cure or a relief. This is exactly the case with Depression, even if they choose to ignore or defend it, they are aware of their condition.

Alzheimer's Disease makes you lose your identity in a way that you can no longer understand that you need help. The afflicted would never desperately search for a cure themselves.


Alzheimer's Disease is a pretty well-known disease but depression is a more general and still a mystery to many scientists. The Curse isn't transmitted because every human has the potential to be afflicted, just like depression. It's not created, it's already inside every human waiting to be triggered and once triggered there is no turning back.

Depression would make much more sense in this context than Alzheimer's Disease.


Alzheimer's Disease's effects can not be reserved, it can't be cured are made better. It can only be prevented, once you're afflicted, you can only control the disease to reduce the damage it does. However, Depression can be fought, controlled and possibly reversed. Neither disease can be completely cured.

This is another important reason that The Curse is not Alzheimer's Disease.