[Dtoid community blogger Last Scion of the blah blah blah shares an awesome analysis of Dark Souls from a mythological perspective. Want to see your own blog appear on our front page? Go write something! --Mr Andy Dixon]
In the Age of Ancients, the world was unformed, shrouded by fog.
A land of grey 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,
the Witch of Izalith, and her Daughters of Chaos,
Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and his faithful knights,
and the furtive pygmy, so easily forgotten.
With the Strength of Lords, they challenged the dragons.
Gwyn's mighty bolts peeled apart their stone scales.
The witches weaved great firestorms.
Nito unleashed a miasma of death and disease.
And Seath the Scaleless betrayed his own, and the dragons were no more.
Thus began the Age of Fire.
But soon, the flames will fade, and only Dark will remain.
Even now, there are only embers, and man sees not light, but only endless nights.
And amongst the living are seen, carriers of the accursed Darksign.
Thus begins Dark Souls, a game that I, for lack of a better term, absolutely f*cking love. I could go on and on about it. However, there is something else that I love. Mythology. This is a thing that Dark Souls is rife with, and which I (amongst others) have attempted to clarify. You see, nothing is very clear in Dark Souls. There are some things that are unlikely to ever be explained.
This is a reflection of Hidetaki Miyazaki, the director of Dark Souls, and his experience with Western fantasy books. A fan of fantasy and mythology, he was unable to fully understand what he was reading, leaving holes for him to fill in with his imagination, which is what we are often required to do. Now, in creating an entirely new world, it is understandable that one would draw from existing sources, so I've compiled some of the characters and other things that I believe have a strong connection to existing legends.
Just for fun.
Read more...
via destructoid http://www.destructoid.com/darks-souls-and-mythology-267395.phtml