It's crazy how the first souls game came out almost 15 years ago and ive played it around 30 times probably and watched countless lore videos and still cant get enough. What an incredible game and world they built
Same here, even when I got every achievement, I still come back at least once a year and do playthro in one of the souls games. It's weird that it's such a comfort game for me.
World they built is fine, to many gamers just do nothing but eat comfort food all day. Food needs to be smacked out of your hand, stop playing it over and over again, try something new.
And somehow he still only has a small fraction of the subscribers he deserves after putting over 1/3 of his life into Souls content. He's one of the very first Souls content creators I ever saw on TH-cam. Way back when I first bought Dark Souls. At least a decade ago.
To me the greatest mystery in all of souls is why Dark Souls 2 is the only game that doesnt boot you to the main menu if you get disconnected. Baffling that they never implemented this feature into any of the other games.
It’s frustrating that in a game where half the bosses are so forgettable, Darklurker was left as a complete afterthought and hidden away so 90% of players would never even find him. Despite the fact that his design is so badass they could’ve make him the freaking final boss and people would’ve loved it.
Tbf having a boss hidden behind such an obscure and convoluted quest is pretty badass, even if most players dont get to experience, those who do got their minds blown
Seeing the Nameless King, the Firekeeper, Dancer and Sulyvahn's beasts in Nightreign makes me think the Deep/Abyss/whathaveyou is an integral part of all worlds. Also, that big old door the Nightlord is presumably behind looks a lot like the door to the Kiln of the First Flame.
The fake stars are a type of fungus, keeping with the theme, the falling star beast comes from a meteor and the crater has glowing spores in it because technically fungus can live in the vacuum of space and could have originated from meteors
What did Havel look like? Who was Shalquoir and why did she know so much? Was Smough a man or a woman? Why do bosses stop being immortal or respawning like other undead when the player kills them? How come so few dragons are actually weak to lightning? Who actually lived in blight town, if undead were sent to the Undead Asylum(s)? Was Seath always legless, or did he lose his legs in a tragic woodchipper accident hours before the age of dark? What was Nito's endgame? Why did he seem to be doing by far the best of the Great Souls in 2, yet be almost entirely absent from 3? How did the Abyss Watchers come to the conclusion Artorious held an offhand dagger? Who are all the extra dead Andres in Dark Souls 1? Is there an entire race of Andres? What are Astora, Carim, and Catarina actually? Why is the Crimson Waistcloth from Dark Souls 1 so absurdly protective considering the materials it is made of? Why is the city of Oolacile considered lost, when you can see it from Firelink? Why did Gwyn keep breaking bits of himself off into daughters, with only two sons, one of which he disowned, the other he had raised as a daughter?
Do we have reason to believe bosses like Ornstien and Smough for example, are even undead and thus subject to canonical revival? (Remember enemies like the toxic blowdart guys in blighttoen don't respawn in game, but they seem to be hollow, so lore wise there wouldnt be a reason to suddenly stop regenerating) just a handful of other other bosses include Sif, The Capra Demon, Gwyndolin, all of these are not canonically afflicted with the undead curse I can imagine a case being made for the 4 kings of new Londo, and Nito, being undead, but again game mechanics do not always like up exactly with lore.
@benjaminjenkins2384 Mostly undead bosses are in 2 and 3. Undeath in general was a lot rarer, and considered unusual in DS1, wheras in DS2 and 3, I don't think there's a single non-undead human left.
Darklurker for me is our own dark soul manifested through the Dark Chasm of Old dimension. When we defeat him, Grandahl says: Young Undead, you've discovered the truest Dark within you. A deep, deep Dark it is. The Dark that we must all face. We need the Abyss, more now than ever.
If you remember the darklord ending we see about six different heads all bowing. I believe both frampt and kaathe are here. Possibly still two heads of the same being. If not physically attached, I think they all work together to guide the player to reach an age of fire or darkness. It doesn’t matter which because they only seek to rule from the shadows as advisers of sorts, whatever ending the player chooses.
Except before the ending, when one of then has won, they actively drive you toward two different goals. If they were working to push you toward the same ending the other one wouldn't exist...
I have no proof of that, but I'm pretty sure that From Software's design process looks like something like that: 1. An artist produces some kind of concept art, only vaguely directed. 2. A writer takes a look at the concept art and then tries to fit the scenery or the character into the lore they themselves understand only vaguely. Every single From Software game has this certain "post-apocalyptic" vibe exactly so this way of designing can work. It also allows for the reusing of the assets between games. Probably Sekiro has been the project born from the internal excess of the Japanese-themed concept art.
Data miners have found a lot of evidence of the developers shuffling and repurposing elements, characters, and even entire plotlines right up to the 11th hour before release. Aesthetics are certainly the priority over telling a coherent story. I've always said that the real genius of the storytelling in these games is that they always know exactly how much to explain and how much to leave out. Even though the story is clearly incomplete, it never feels like there are holes in the narrative (like missing pages in a novel).They always manage to give the impression of a deep, complicated history that's just hidden from us, so it allows the player to speculate on the missing pieces and how they fit together.
Elden ring would be the exception, because the whole reason that game exists is because of its unique lore, as in it wasn't made just internally and that they had to respect the actul source material of what Martin wrote and build off from there
@@ASpooneyBard I think that speaks to how heavily theme and imagery/iconography can drive storytelling. I know Angels Egg became sort of a meme in the souls community around the ringed city release, but it's a good example of that. I've been meaning to write something longer about it for ages, but take for example the fishermen chasing the shadows of non-existing fish in a story where literally Jesus is present - it begs to be taken seriously, even if the director just thought it was some cool imagery. Same with Dark Souls - Kino is kino, whether it was intentional or not.
For me, the water in Ash Lake is explained by the ash - one of the byproducts of burning most things is water! And it would fit thematically for me that all disparity was absent until the first flame, we get dichotomies of light/dark, life/death, so surely getting fire/water makes sense too!
I've always thought that the Darklurker is the reincarnation of the Four Kings/what became of their soul, ala the other Lord Soul bosses in the game. He hangs out in the Abyss and the way he clones himself is kind of reminiscent of how the Four Kings were also a multi-enemy boss fight. His attacks look like the Darksign, and the Four Kings were Undead Kings. While his soul doesn't use the same sprite as the other great soul items, it *does* show a regular/light soul - even though 'Dark'/humanity filled souls were a well established thing by then (Daughters of Manus, Fume Knight, etc) - implying it's something not born of or quite at home in the Abyss, and that same soul gives you a spell with Lifedrain in the name.
Yeah, judging from the multiple limbs, darkness, splitting off into two etc, I think it's fair to think there could be some connections between the 4K and DL.
I'm kind of surprised this didn't include a part about Black Gulch in Dark Souls 2, considering how it also features thick tar like liquid in the deep, not unlike the Abyss or the Deep in the other games.
Wow, I just rediscovered your channel after not seeing it for years. Always liked your content, and you have a good voice to listen to. Hope you're doing good!
A lot of this is explained better in the Japanese version and poorly explained in the translation. Ash Lake is a chunk of low-altitude land that is covered in the literal and metaphorical ash of the first flame - ash and water. The first flame separated the fog that filled the universe into air and water and when it burns out there will be nothing but ash, air and water. The serpents evolved from dragons - dragons that got too close to the first flame were mutated into living beings with souls instead of animate rock beings without souls and gained the ability to reproduce. Frampt is the one and only serpent that is aligned with Gwyn versus the rest of them preferring the dark, not because they have an affinity for dark but because the serpents are unironic accelerationists who want the world to reach it's natural end state. The drift effect of the first flame that brings places together in DS3 earlier brought pieces of Lordran to what is now Drangleic - the lord souls, bits of Anor Londo (who built a new society they called Heide) and bits of Manus. The Darklurker is the animate being that was born from Manus' darksign shackle, as evidenced from its attacks consisting of throwing humanity wrapped in a thin layer of flame at us.
None of the points you listed are explained any better in the Japanese script. You are just paraphrasing Lokey's theories which, while interesting and arguably even true, aren't really supported by the text (at least not the ones you mentioned).
While this is quite a major longshot, with Elden Ring Nightreign confirmed and notably including enemies from previous games and pretty clearly connected to darkness and the night... we might yet get some answers for who the primordial serpents and especially Darklurker are. I could definitely see Darklurker, a boss that can split into two, making a return in a game built around co-op...
Oh yeah I know a lot of people are going wild with the whole Nightreign lore implications showing NK and all that. Personally, I'll wait and see but I think they are mostly just going for a "let's do it 'cos we can" gameplay first element.
1) Ash lake is the chasm left behind by after the birth of the first flame. Ash falls from above the cracks of the surface. As you see in the opening cutscene there are clouds above before the upper crust is born. The water likely comes from those clouds now that Heat and Cold came to existence, causing condensation. We see the results of Ash Lake in Dark Souls 3 where it has nearly filled to the surface at the new Demon Ruins and is even spilling out, which we see the results of at the end of time where we fight Gael. 2) The Primordial Serpents, as hinted by the name Primordial, are serpents from before fire. Imperfect dragons like you said. We see in Dark Souls 3 images of them becoming more, gaining wings and such at the royal archives. They are likely on the same pursuits as Seethe and trying to outlive the end of fire and/or cause the Usurpation as well. 3) Darklurker is a waste of time to me to analyze as are many things in Dark Souls 2. 4) The Deep is a new side element after the main ones like Lightning, Fire, Chaos, etc. established by Aldritch becoming a Lord and ruminating on the concept. It seems to be a pure acceptance of the worst of one's self, sinking to unfathomable depths of depravity. A willful sinking and falling that one could rise up from if they tried, like how one can swim up from falling in water, but they choose not to. It technically always existed, but wasn't given definition until Aldritch. 5) The Nox cities are remnants of ancient civilizations that belonged to the Nox's precursors who created the metaphorical metal Quicksilver. Quicksilver is related to the night/Black Moon like how Silver is related to the regular Moon. They attempted to make Quicksilver into copies of things, as the Silver Tears do, working their way up to making their own clone of a lord. There's quicksilver all over the place in both halves of the city making up objects like plants and candle holders. Indications of how old they are found in the Shadow realm where at night you can find larval tears at blue ghost graves. The ghost graves are graves that have been around so long even the graves themselves are dying and becoming ghosts (as said on the ghost grave fragment), meaning the Nox have been around for as long as anyone else and were accepted as a people topside enough to allow to be buried among the rest of the populace. (Or they burying themselves in secret among people as the graves are hidden till night time). They were likely buried underground, significantly weakened after attempting to usurp the Order by use of a falling star that split the earth. That star's remnants are likely the glintstone in the air. Also note the order never went near the site of their sacred treasure, the finger slaying knife and the giant corpse of what is likely the last of their two precursors whose mausoleums hold the knife and a Great Ghost Glovewort, one of the only ones in the game, which is only put on the graves of a deeply venerated hero (likely in dedication to the dead precursor above it)
Y'know, I had never really thought about the water in the ash lake. Yeah, the "sand" we walk on is probably the ash, but what about the lake, was it always there? Why is it called a lake in the first place? How did the ash form a beach is that shape, was there land there already?
I assumed it was a result of the first fire/ the sun. The intro is all about separating the grey origin of the world, with the fog mentioned in the intro I assume being separated into air and water. As to the shape of the beach, now this is all conjecture, but Silvermont wondered about how long Frampts/ Kaaths bodies really are, and that stretch of sand really seems to... snake... from the great hollow all the way to what is probably the last *pure* dragon, doesn't it?
I have always been interested in Darklurker. My favorite theory is that he is depicted by the effigy giving statue in the shrine of Amana and connected to Nito. Explaining him using dark energy (like nito's magic looking like dark magic), but having a light soul, and why lighting fires in the abyss could compel him to attack. Lighting fires in the abyss could potentially disturb it, so he stops you before you do permanent damage (as the abyss is once again hostile in 3, especially in Wolnir's spooky cup... something you'd likely want to avoid.). Basically, his job is to keep the abyss peaceful and from going wild (Like Manus) or hostile (like it was when the 4 kings held dominion over it). Additionally, though ds2 is referencing both the great and old dead ones, perhaps Nito could be the old dead one and Darklurker could be the great dead one... Granted both titles could just be Nito. Idk, just an interesting theory.
I thought the star in the underground of elden ring was something placed there by the greater will to mock the people banished there that worshipped the stars but never see them again
Ash Lake is based off of one of my favourite films Nausicaa Valley of the wind. From 1984. I watched a lot of ghilbis in the 90s. Still own some of my VHSs of old animes.
from what I remember, I think the darklurker is implied to be a way of white priest or something that found the chasm of old and became the darklurker? would need to check though, but his soul does become a miracle if i remember right alright, confirmed, you can use his soul to get a hex instead, but there are some traits that make him seem to be not an inherently dark being -his soul isn't swathed in dark -killing him seems to be something grandahl wants so it must be an unwanted entity -it is reminiscent of the leydian pyromancers -it has some resemblance to the statue in shrine of amana where you can restore your humanity -you receive the xanthous set and dragon chime for defeating him, both mysteriously unaffected by age/the abyss the xanthous set might be important. perhaps, the darklurker is an entity that despite it's state of afflicted by dark, is still untouched by it's corruption and degradation?
You forget in dark souls 3 we have Aldrich who assumed next age will be age of high seas or something with a lot of water. I assume water found in Ashlake is a sign that he could be right or his ideas come from somehow knowing water was a later addition to the ash lake. This said ash is for sure should be a product of Age of Fire
After playing ds3 where soul dregs were brought up I always assumed that the water in ash lake was the dregs from the war with the dragons. I also figured that was why there is an entire ocean in ds2 and 3. All the souls of the past have become a sea of humanity. By the time we fight gael at the end of time the ocean has dried up and only the ashes of countless cycles of the flame being relit remain.
Holy shit... Silver Mont... It's been years... The moment I heard "Hey there, I'm Alex" I felt a wave of nostalgia. I'm not sure when you disappeared from my timeline, but all of a sudden you and terra mantis are back on it, Prod is doing Adventures of the Worst Dark souls 3 Invader videos again... I feel like I'm a teenager again.
@@SilverMont that's sad... i did check out the other videos though, they're unfortunately not my cup of tea. in my honest opinion your voice as well as the way you speak and present things, are excellent for not only lore but contemplation in general
one sure thing about frampt and kaathe is that they are inspired from "Twee mannen en een monster in een werkkamer" (two man and a monster in a workshop) by Johannes Josephus Aarts.
Within occultism everyone has a guardian angel, and likely a "guardian demon", they can make contact with: The darklurker may be either of those, as the chasm of the dark seems to be about exploring ones own subconscious/inner world
You know what's the biggest secret the lore gave us some interesting clues to talk to us about but never made much of anything with it? Velka. Not even the Ringed City had much of anything about her at all.
You when we'll find these answers out? In the shitty Dark Souls Netflix show we are gonna get when Sony sells the rights to Netflix once they own Fromsoft.
Ds is supposedly getting a Netflix animation from long before Sony got involved. Getting really tired of people using Sony as a scapegoat for what they don’t like..
@@saltminer7065 Well, the American branch of Sony, at least, has earned itself a pretty bad reputation. That they are connected to Sony as a whole, is only going to make people distrust the company as a whole.
Regarding the star things in the elden ring underground, the graven head ball thing in one of raya lucaria’s towers above the church seems to be surrounded by them. No clue what that means, just something I note whenever I grab that staff
The greatest mystery in dark souls saga is what happened to the primordial serpents in the other games of the francise. I really found then uncanny and was eager to see more of them in the other games
My guess is that they didn't know what to do with them and just ditched the concept outside of a few mentions here and there. The early version of DaS3 seemed like it might've included more serpent stuff though
Nice to see you still using the shield you designed as a part of that DS2 competition all those years ago, I always make a point to try to get the Pheonix Parma unless i'm doing a no-death playthrough.
The hydra can jump to the other side?!? I've killed that thing a hundred times, but its always the first thing i do, so i don't get blasted in the ass dealing with the giant clams.
@SilverMont hmm. Maybe a video showing references or connections between souls/ fromsoft games. Like for example finding ds1 stuff in ds3, but touching on the less known stuff? Also I’ve been really wanting a chronological collection of a fromsoft games cutscenes tied with NPC dialogues to form a movie of sorts, would be awesome to fall asleep to that.
Not quite the same, but I do have a video called "Do the souls games share a universe" or something if you search for it, which is an interesting topic, given what we saw in Nightreign haha
Age of Deep Sea more than a phisical abyss from the deep is, well, imagine a world when the fire fades and finally the Dark reign supreme, but instead of the "normal" Dark of Ds1 is mostly the Dark after ages of caging under the rule of the Fire supremacy, the same dark that now generates Human Pus and the Depth. To be less words, remember the deep monster at the start of Ringed City dlc? That is human future in Deep Sea future.
@ I can dig it. I just was going to through all my favorite soulsborne creators and your in my top five so was just curious that I didn’t see your take on it. I have a feeling more info and more media on it are not that far off so maybe wait for that. Obviously don’t listen to me hahahaha just keep up the good work man love the channel!!
@ I am an artist, I do a lot of character design, I like ink with fine line work, acrylics, and graffiti I’m all over the place with mediums I like to use I like to switch it up
Hmm... if you mean the "Ash Lake" vaguely looking area in the intro, I think that's at the bottom. If you meant the human city area, that's prob at the top. Is my guess.
It's crazy how the first souls game came out almost 15 years ago and ive played it around 30 times probably and watched countless lore videos and still cant get enough. What an incredible game and world they built
Same here, even when I got every achievement, I still come back at least once a year and do playthro in one of the souls games. It's weird that it's such a comfort game for me.
same, and every time I play through I notice something new.
💯
It's certainly a generational game!
World they built is fine, to many gamers just do nothing but eat comfort food all day. Food needs to be smacked out of your hand, stop playing it over and over again, try something new.
The greatest mystery is why they call him Big Hat Logan
He shy
The Big Hat nickname is a subtle reference to the size of the condoms he used
It's because his mind is so vast, it's symbolism for his intelligence. Big Hat actually means Big Brain.
isn't it because his huge hat?
It's crazy how I watched your Dark Souls 1 boss guides back when I was 10 and now I'm still watching your souls content at 21.
That's wild haha, man, yeah I started doing this when I was 22 and now I'm 34!
And somehow he still only has a small fraction of the subscribers he deserves after putting over 1/3 of his life into Souls content.
He's one of the very first Souls content creators I ever saw on TH-cam. Way back when I first bought Dark Souls. At least a decade ago.
Never really did it for the subscribers/views to be fair! Being able to pay some of the bills with this was certainly an excellent bonus, though.
Bruh I swear it's been a decade damn
To me the greatest mystery in all of souls is why Dark Souls 2 is the only game that doesnt boot you to the main menu if you get disconnected. Baffling that they never implemented this feature into any of the other games.
It’s frustrating that in a game where half the bosses are so forgettable, Darklurker was left as a complete afterthought and hidden away so 90% of players would never even find him.
Despite the fact that his design is so badass they could’ve make him the freaking final boss and people would’ve loved it.
Right? I wonder if at one point he was planned for more
@@SilverMont He was originally meant be connected to Agdayne in some way, being referred internally as his 'stand', funnily enough.
Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I do remember reading something like that! I think the belfry dude was connected to Lucatiel at some point too
@@SilverMont Yeah, they were going to form a weird Don Quixote/Sancho Panza inspired pairing iirc.
Tbf having a boss hidden behind such an obscure and convoluted quest is pretty badass, even if most players dont get to experience, those who do got their minds blown
Seeing the Nameless King, the Firekeeper, Dancer and Sulyvahn's beasts in Nightreign makes me think the Deep/Abyss/whathaveyou is an integral part of all worlds. Also, that big old door the Nightlord is presumably behind looks a lot like the door to the Kiln of the First Flame.
Haha it made me think of the 'throne' at the end of DaS2!
There was no sulyvhan beasts, those 3 headed dogs look nothing like them😊
The fake stars are a type of fungus, keeping with the theme, the falling star beast comes from a meteor and the crater has glowing spores in it because technically fungus can live in the vacuum of space and could have originated from meteors
Space shroomz
It seems like the Erdtree in Elden Ring is covered in the stuff
Frampt looks really funny, same with the rest of them. The mental image of necks being connected to a big sphere is also pretty funny
Yeah, it's one of those things - whatever is at the other 'end' of that neck is bound to look weird, in reality.
What did Havel look like?
Who was Shalquoir and why did she know so much?
Was Smough a man or a woman?
Why do bosses stop being immortal or respawning like other undead when the player kills them?
How come so few dragons are actually weak to lightning?
Who actually lived in blight town, if undead were sent to the Undead Asylum(s)?
Was Seath always legless, or did he lose his legs in a tragic woodchipper accident hours before the age of dark?
What was Nito's endgame? Why did he seem to be doing by far the best of the Great Souls in 2, yet be almost entirely absent from 3?
How did the Abyss Watchers come to the conclusion Artorious held an offhand dagger?
Who are all the extra dead Andres in Dark Souls 1? Is there an entire race of Andres?
What are Astora, Carim, and Catarina actually?
Why is the Crimson Waistcloth from Dark Souls 1 so absurdly protective considering the materials it is made of?
Why is the city of Oolacile considered lost, when you can see it from Firelink?
Why did Gwyn keep breaking bits of himself off into daughters, with only two sons, one of which he disowned, the other he had raised as a daughter?
For bosses, that's just game mechanics. If we really need a lore reason, they don't respawn because we take their soul or somethin' I guess
Do we have reason to believe bosses like Ornstien and Smough for example, are even undead and thus subject to canonical revival? (Remember enemies like the toxic blowdart guys in blighttoen don't respawn in game, but they seem to be hollow, so lore wise there wouldnt be a reason to suddenly stop regenerating) just a handful of other other bosses include Sif, The Capra Demon, Gwyndolin, all of these are not canonically afflicted with the undead curse I can imagine a case being made for the 4 kings of new Londo, and Nito, being undead, but again game mechanics do not always like up exactly with lore.
@benjaminjenkins2384
Mostly undead bosses are in 2 and 3.
Undeath in general was a lot rarer, and considered unusual in DS1, wheras in DS2 and 3, I don't think there's a single non-undead human left.
Darklurker for me is our own dark soul manifested through the Dark Chasm of Old dimension.
When we defeat him, Grandahl says:
Young Undead, you've discovered the truest Dark within you.
A deep, deep Dark it is.
The Dark that we must all face.
We need the Abyss, more now than ever.
Hand it over, that thing, your Darklurker(tm)
In DS3, we can see the body of Frampt in a statue right at the room where you jump down to fight Midir.
Sure it's Frampt?
If you remember the darklord ending we see about six different heads all bowing. I believe both frampt and kaathe are here. Possibly still two heads of the same being. If not physically attached, I think they all work together to guide the player to reach an age of fire or darkness. It doesn’t matter which because they only seek to rule from the shadows as advisers of sorts, whatever ending the player chooses.
Except before the ending, when one of then has won, they actively drive you toward two different goals. If they were working to push you toward the same ending the other one wouldn't exist...
I have no proof of that, but I'm pretty sure that From Software's design process looks like something like that:
1. An artist produces some kind of concept art, only vaguely directed.
2. A writer takes a look at the concept art and then tries to fit the scenery or the character into the lore they themselves understand only vaguely.
Every single From Software game has this certain "post-apocalyptic" vibe exactly so this way of designing can work. It also allows for the reusing of the assets between games.
Probably Sekiro has been the project born from the internal excess of the Japanese-themed concept art.
Agreed, the lore isn't that important for them, I think. Or at least, I think it's not a priority compared to gameplay and design
Data miners have found a lot of evidence of the developers shuffling and repurposing elements, characters, and even entire plotlines right up to the 11th hour before release. Aesthetics are certainly the priority over telling a coherent story.
I've always said that the real genius of the storytelling in these games is that they always know exactly how much to explain and how much to leave out. Even though the story is clearly incomplete, it never feels like there are holes in the narrative (like missing pages in a novel).They always manage to give the impression of a deep, complicated history that's just hidden from us, so it allows the player to speculate on the missing pieces and how they fit together.
Elden ring would be the exception, because the whole reason that game exists is because of its unique lore, as in it wasn't made just internally and that they had to respect the actul source material of what Martin wrote and build off from there
@@ASpooneyBard I think that speaks to how heavily theme and imagery/iconography can drive storytelling. I know Angels Egg became sort of a meme in the souls community around the ringed city release, but it's a good example of that. I've been meaning to write something longer about it for ages, but take for example the fishermen chasing the shadows of non-existing fish in a story where literally Jesus is present - it begs to be taken seriously, even if the director just thought it was some cool imagery. Same with Dark Souls - Kino is kino, whether it was intentional or not.
For me, the water in Ash Lake is explained by the ash - one of the byproducts of burning most things is water! And it would fit thematically for me that all disparity was absent until the first flame, we get dichotomies of light/dark, life/death, so surely getting fire/water makes sense too!
You are and will always be one of the great soulstubers. Always excited to watch your videos.
Glad you like them brother
I've always thought that the Darklurker is the reincarnation of the Four Kings/what became of their soul, ala the other Lord Soul bosses in the game. He hangs out in the Abyss and the way he clones himself is kind of reminiscent of how the Four Kings were also a multi-enemy boss fight. His attacks look like the Darksign, and the Four Kings were Undead Kings. While his soul doesn't use the same sprite as the other great soul items, it *does* show a regular/light soul - even though 'Dark'/humanity filled souls were a well established thing by then (Daughters of Manus, Fume Knight, etc) - implying it's something not born of or quite at home in the Abyss, and that same soul gives you a spell with Lifedrain in the name.
Yeah, judging from the multiple limbs, darkness, splitting off into two etc, I think it's fair to think there could be some connections between the 4K and DL.
I'm kind of surprised this didn't include a part about Black Gulch in Dark Souls 2, considering how it also features thick tar like liquid in the deep, not unlike the Abyss or the Deep in the other games.
Ah, that's fair! I guess in my brain, that stuff was just like, oil or whatever
Wow, I just rediscovered your channel after not seeing it for years. Always liked your content, and you have a good voice to listen to. Hope you're doing good!
I just had the same experience/reaction
Thanks! And been a while huh?
Silver Mont. Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.
Of course I know him. He's me!
A lot of this is explained better in the Japanese version and poorly explained in the translation.
Ash Lake is a chunk of low-altitude land that is covered in the literal and metaphorical ash of the first flame - ash and water. The first flame separated the fog that filled the universe into air and water and when it burns out there will be nothing but ash, air and water.
The serpents evolved from dragons - dragons that got too close to the first flame were mutated into living beings with souls instead of animate rock beings without souls and gained the ability to reproduce. Frampt is the one and only serpent that is aligned with Gwyn versus the rest of them preferring the dark, not because they have an affinity for dark but because the serpents are unironic accelerationists who want the world to reach it's natural end state.
The drift effect of the first flame that brings places together in DS3 earlier brought pieces of Lordran to what is now Drangleic - the lord souls, bits of Anor Londo (who built a new society they called Heide) and bits of Manus. The Darklurker is the animate being that was born from Manus' darksign shackle, as evidenced from its attacks consisting of throwing humanity wrapped in a thin layer of flame at us.
None of the points you listed are explained any better in the Japanese script. You are just paraphrasing Lokey's theories which, while interesting and arguably even true, aren't really supported by the text (at least not the ones you mentioned).
While this is quite a major longshot, with Elden Ring Nightreign confirmed and notably including enemies from previous games and pretty clearly connected to darkness and the night... we might yet get some answers for who the primordial serpents and especially Darklurker are. I could definitely see Darklurker, a boss that can split into two, making a return in a game built around co-op...
Oh yeah I know a lot of people are going wild with the whole Nightreign lore implications showing NK and all that. Personally, I'll wait and see but I think they are mostly just going for a "let's do it 'cos we can" gameplay first element.
1) Ash lake is the chasm left behind by after the birth of the first flame. Ash falls from above the cracks of the surface. As you see in the opening cutscene there are clouds above before the upper crust is born. The water likely comes from those clouds now that Heat and Cold came to existence, causing condensation. We see the results of Ash Lake in Dark Souls 3 where it has nearly filled to the surface at the new Demon Ruins and is even spilling out, which we see the results of at the end of time where we fight Gael.
2) The Primordial Serpents, as hinted by the name Primordial, are serpents from before fire. Imperfect dragons like you said. We see in Dark Souls 3 images of them becoming more, gaining wings and such at the royal archives. They are likely on the same pursuits as Seethe and trying to outlive the end of fire and/or cause the Usurpation as well.
3) Darklurker is a waste of time to me to analyze as are many things in Dark Souls 2.
4) The Deep is a new side element after the main ones like Lightning, Fire, Chaos, etc. established by Aldritch becoming a Lord and ruminating on the concept. It seems to be a pure acceptance of the worst of one's self, sinking to unfathomable depths of depravity. A willful sinking and falling that one could rise up from if they tried, like how one can swim up from falling in water, but they choose not to. It technically always existed, but wasn't given definition until Aldritch.
5) The Nox cities are remnants of ancient civilizations that belonged to the Nox's precursors who created the metaphorical metal Quicksilver. Quicksilver is related to the night/Black Moon like how Silver is related to the regular Moon. They attempted to make Quicksilver into copies of things, as the Silver Tears do, working their way up to making their own clone of a lord. There's quicksilver all over the place in both halves of the city making up objects like plants and candle holders. Indications of how old they are found in the Shadow realm where at night you can find larval tears at blue ghost graves. The ghost graves are graves that have been around so long even the graves themselves are dying and becoming ghosts (as said on the ghost grave fragment), meaning the Nox have been around for as long as anyone else and were accepted as a people topside enough to allow to be buried among the rest of the populace. (Or they burying themselves in secret among people as the graves are hidden till night time). They were likely buried underground, significantly weakened after attempting to usurp the Order by use of a falling star that split the earth. That star's remnants are likely the glintstone in the air. Also note the order never went near the site of their sacred treasure, the finger slaying knife and the giant corpse of what is likely the last of their two precursors whose mausoleums hold the knife and a Great Ghost Glovewort, one of the only ones in the game, which is only put on the graves of a deeply venerated hero (likely in dedication to the dead precursor above it)
cringe reddit dark souls 2 hater
Idk how I’m just now finding your channel. ER was my first souls game and been hooked to them all since. Subbed.
Oh man I've got like ten thousand souls videos for you, in that case!
Y'know, I had never really thought about the water in the ash lake. Yeah, the "sand" we walk on is probably the ash, but what about the lake, was it always there? Why is it called a lake in the first place? How did the ash form a beach is that shape, was there land there already?
The idea of a sea at the centre of the earth is pretty cool
I assumed it was a result of the first fire/ the sun. The intro is all about separating the grey origin of the world, with the fog mentioned in the intro I assume being separated into air and water. As to the shape of the beach, now this is all conjecture, but Silvermont wondered about how long Frampts/ Kaaths bodies really are, and that stretch of sand really seems to... snake... from the great hollow all the way to what is probably the last *pure* dragon, doesn't it?
Silver Mont’s voice is so smooth and silky that I can’t concentrate on what he’s saying and get lulled into a trance
OOooOooO I am hypnotising you, send me £7500 so I can pay my bills, and such!
If there's ever a remake of the first souls game, a boss fight against the serpents would be an absolutely great addition to have.
Also I haven’t seen one of your videos pop up in a min for me I’m glad this came up
TH-cam doesn't suggest a lot of my stuff these past few years for some reason
I have always been interested in Darklurker. My favorite theory is that he is depicted by the effigy giving statue in the shrine of Amana and connected to Nito. Explaining him using dark energy (like nito's magic looking like dark magic), but having a light soul, and why lighting fires in the abyss could compel him to attack. Lighting fires in the abyss could potentially disturb it, so he stops you before you do permanent damage (as the abyss is once again hostile in 3, especially in Wolnir's spooky cup... something you'd likely want to avoid.). Basically, his job is to keep the abyss peaceful and from going wild (Like Manus) or hostile (like it was when the 4 kings held dominion over it). Additionally, though ds2 is referencing both the great and old dead ones, perhaps Nito could be the old dead one and Darklurker could be the great dead one... Granted both titles could just be Nito. Idk, just an interesting theory.
1:44 is this a modded brass set?
Yup!
Good eye I was trynna figure out what set it was
You know we love your dark souls stuff, my boy. Those videos are a favorite of mine, I used them to get my friends into the game.
The more the merrier!
I thought the star in the underground of elden ring was something placed there by the greater will to mock the people banished there that worshipped the stars but never see them again
Ash Lake is based off of one of my favourite films Nausicaa Valley of the wind. From 1984. I watched a lot of ghilbis in the 90s. Still own some of my VHSs of old animes.
from what I remember, I think the darklurker is implied to be a way of white priest or something that found the chasm of old and became the darklurker? would need to check though, but his soul does become a miracle if i remember right
alright, confirmed, you can use his soul to get a hex instead, but there are some traits that make him seem to be not an inherently dark being
-his soul isn't swathed in dark
-killing him seems to be something grandahl wants so it must be an unwanted entity
-it is reminiscent of the leydian pyromancers
-it has some resemblance to the statue in shrine of amana where you can restore your humanity
-you receive the xanthous set and dragon chime for defeating him, both mysteriously unaffected by age/the abyss
the xanthous set might be important. perhaps, the darklurker is an entity that despite it's state of afflicted by dark, is still untouched by it's corruption and degradation?
You forget in dark souls 3 we have Aldrich who assumed next age will be age of high seas or something with a lot of water. I assume water found in Ashlake is a sign that he could be right or his ideas come from somehow knowing water was a later addition to the ash lake. This said ash is for sure should be a product of Age of Fire
After playing ds3 where soul dregs were brought up I always assumed that the water in ash lake was the dregs from the war with the dragons. I also figured that was why there is an entire ocean in ds2 and 3. All the souls of the past have become a sea of humanity. By the time we fight gael at the end of time the ocean has dried up and only the ashes of countless cycles of the flame being relit remain.
Holy shit... Silver Mont... It's been years... The moment I heard "Hey there, I'm Alex" I felt a wave of nostalgia. I'm not sure when you disappeared from my timeline, but all of a sudden you and terra mantis are back on it, Prod is doing Adventures of the Worst Dark souls 3 Invader videos again... I feel like I'm a teenager again.
TH-cam seems to not show many of my videos, for whatever reason!
@@SilverMont that's sad... i did check out the other videos though, they're unfortunately not my cup of tea. in my honest opinion your voice as well as the way you speak and present things, are excellent for not only lore but contemplation in general
one sure thing about frampt and kaathe is that they are inspired from "Twee mannen en een monster in een werkkamer" (two man and a monster in a workshop) by Johannes Josephus Aarts.
Haha, I can see the similarities, upon looking that up
Within occultism everyone has a guardian angel, and likely a "guardian demon", they can make contact with:
The darklurker may be either of those, as the chasm of the dark seems to be about exploring ones own subconscious/inner world
You know what's the biggest secret the lore gave us some interesting clues to talk to us about but never made much of anything with it? Velka. Not even the Ringed City had much of anything about her at all.
Right? She remains the big mystery, I think
You when we'll find these answers out? In the shitty Dark Souls Netflix show we are gonna get when Sony sells the rights to Netflix once they own Fromsoft.
Don't even joke about such things 😞
Ds is supposedly getting a Netflix animation from long before Sony got involved. Getting really tired of people using Sony as a scapegoat for what they don’t like..
@@saltminer7065well sony is garbage, deserved hate
@@saltminer7065 Well, the American branch of Sony, at least, has earned itself a pretty bad reputation. That they are connected to Sony as a whole, is only going to make people distrust the company as a whole.
My theory on ash Lake is thats whats left of the world of the everlasting dragons.
What armor are you using in this video?
Brass set with edited textures
Regarding the star things in the elden ring underground, the graven head ball thing in one of raya lucaria’s towers above the church seems to be surrounded by them. No clue what that means, just something I note whenever I grab that staff
Oh, indeed!
The greatest mystery in dark souls saga is what happened to the primordial serpents in the other games of the francise. I really found then uncanny and was eager to see more of them in the other games
My guess is that they didn't know what to do with them and just ditched the concept outside of a few mentions here and there. The early version of DaS3 seemed like it might've included more serpent stuff though
The water in Ash Lake might be foreboding the age of ocean that comes after the age of dark that is creeping around
The age of take care you're not soaked in water
What if Ash Lake was Aldritch’s deep sea.
Aldritch/Eldritch
The hydra is maybe an Eldritch style sea monster?
The Lord of Night is probably the Tarnished if he chooses to simp for Ranni by choosing The Age of the Stars ending.
That's funny. Goldmask ending > Ranni, anyway
@SilverMont Obviously!
Nice to see you still using the shield you designed as a part of that DS2 competition all those years ago, I always make a point to try to get the Pheonix Parma unless i'm doing a no-death playthrough.
I think most of the footage here is from my older DaS2 videos, but I think any time I play DaS2 I'm gonna grab that one on principle haha
You have that griffith/gwyndolin/lothric voice vibe
Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
The lord of Night might be answered in the coming game. At least i'm hoping there'll be a connection or 2.
It'll be interesting to see what they do with Nightreign! Got a video talking a little about it coming up today
@@SilverMontSweet! I got notifications on 🫡
The hydra can jump to the other side?!? I've killed that thing a hundred times, but its always the first thing i do, so i don't get blasted in the ass dealing with the giant clams.
It's a very random thing it can do!
peeple never saw it cause they'll run torwards dragon or kill the hydra..lol
Awesome vid dude more please
What would you like to see?
@SilverMont hmm. Maybe a video showing references or connections between souls/ fromsoft games. Like for example finding ds1 stuff in ds3, but touching on the less known stuff? Also I’ve been really wanting a chronological collection of a fromsoft games cutscenes tied with NPC dialogues to form a movie of sorts, would be awesome to fall asleep to that.
@@SilverMontALSO dark souls is seriously lacking in terms of speed run history videos. If you’re looking for content ideas I think that could be big
Not quite the same, but I do have a video called "Do the souls games share a universe" or something if you search for it, which is an interesting topic, given what we saw in Nightreign haha
Age of Deep Sea more than a phisical abyss from the deep is, well, imagine a world when the fire fades and finally the Dark reign supreme, but instead of the "normal" Dark of Ds1 is mostly the Dark after ages of caging under the rule of the Fire supremacy, the same dark that now generates Human Pus and the Depth. To be less words, remember the deep monster at the start of Ringed City dlc? That is human future in Deep Sea future.
Mushroom party in the tunnel! 😆
That's why I hate mushrooms, get em outta here!
Some mysteries are beter left uncovered
Great hollow is my fav area
What is Havel's favourite colour??
Grey
Crazy fashion in this video 💪
You know it homeo chromeo
Waiting for your take on nightreign
I'll give my thoughts on that this weekend! Nothing too special to say though tbh
@ I can dig it. I just was going to through all my favorite soulsborne creators and your in my top five so was just curious that I didn’t see your take on it. I have a feeling more info and more media on it are not that far off so maybe wait for that. Obviously don’t listen to me hahahaha just keep up the good work man love the channel!!
@ btw if you ever need artwork for the channel lmk
Oh? You an artist, or got some connections?
@ I am an artist, I do a lot of character design, I like ink with fine line work, acrylics, and graffiti I’m all over the place with mediums I like to use I like to switch it up
I thought the opening sequence was the world above?
Ah and Lordran is way below?
@SilverMont so the arch dragons lived above everyone but were still underground?
Hmm... if you mean the "Ash Lake" vaguely looking area in the intro, I think that's at the bottom. If you meant the human city area, that's prob at the top. Is my guess.
@@SilverMont what the deuce
Souls mystery what’s the lore of the giant flys from the winter painting
They stinky
Where the bloody hell have you been?
Right here! I've been making videos this whole time
@Silvermont was a big fan of your stuff a good while back, glad to see you still at it man
Can go to ash lake in ds2
"Who is the lord of night?" *Nightrein enters*
Haaaa
I don't remember ds1 looking this shit 😂
Oh man, imagine if this was 360 footage
@SilverMont indeed, but back then it looked good!
The age of the deep always makes me think of the lands between tbh
Yeah?
Elden Ring Night Reign will answer all unanswered questions. 😋
😎
💚💚
Nameless king is called SEN
No
heard how u pronounced manus, immediately clicked off
Did you also turn the game off when Gough said it that way?
First!🎉
good video but annoying af voice
Let me swap to my other one
Bro wishes he was vaati
This guy's been making dark souls videos for like 15 years shithead
If I'm gonna be a Zelda villain, I'd want to be Ganondorf. Warlock punch yo ass
Punk ass, shut your mouth