tl;dr We are just sprites casting illusions to facilitate a fantasy on the border of everything. This is human futility in a larger game we cannot play. The song does not convey that sentiment to me. It conveys a feeling of transcendent power, as though a continuum is collapsing in order to manifest the reality we inhabit; a world eating another world before our eyes. Ash falls from the kindling of eternal trees, symbolizing waste and ruin; water acts as resistance to change but also perfect conformity to it. Ash Lake is reality's clock, and by "going hollow" we're literally losing what grounds us to reality and thus the next cycle. Access to this area is possible only because the kindler of the flame which props it up goes hollow in the process, forming an infinitely-returning loop. Humanity was ultimately a side effect of ignorance and desperation, and yet it comes to either "save" reality, or allow the clock to run out and allow another parallel of this reality to be overwritten by this process. Ash Lake symbolizes the futility of past, present, and future actions while under the dominion of another, and at the end of this area is an opportunity for humanity to tap into the natural powers at play: dragon kinship. Throughout the series, it is canonical that our player character's predecessors chose this route, and thusly created various forms of worship and academia of primordial beings. Encountering Ash Lake is tantamount to revealing an ultimate deception: The reality we inhabit is actually another separate universe which is being used as fuel to empower Gwyn. We are the dreams these trees have, and as they hollow from the inside out, consumed to kindle the flame and reverse time, they are left to rot in this lake. The Bed of Chaos was very close to completely unveiling this fact, as the attempt to recreate the first flame transformed the soul of the Witch of Izalith into an animate archtree. Her implicit humanity, born of the dark alongside Gwyn, meant that her consciousness - human will - would persist in this form, and so rather than be consumed to create a world, she corrupted her followers to reflects her very nature as an "enemy of order". A chaotic, twisted thing with human characteristics, driven to extremes; unbound and directionless, flaming darkness, referred to as "chaos"; A type of power that attempts to combine the natural process of the archtrees, the perversion of the flame which spawns worlds, and the infinite depths of humanity. This is the power of true destruction and resembles the abyss, rather than the façade of light or of one's human form. While it was a rushed and terrible boss fight, the Bed of Chaos symbolizes a catastrophic perversion of natural powers, which are not under any sort of control; a seemingly conscious and fluid force of life which is immediately hostile to other life. A living version of the clock ticking down - entropy infused with the instinct to survive. It is symbolism on crack. Separate realities are always conjoined in some way, as they originate from the same continuum. The vanity of the lords blinded them to the futility of "breaking away" from it. We're looking at the skeletons in their closet. Kind of the feeling you described, but without faulting oneself for stumbling upon the truth. Ash Lake is a warning sign for what ultimately occurs at the end of DS3 DLC 2.
That's not what it conveyed to me at all. It's more of a music that conveys something incredible ancient and profound. Like a once great thing now dead before you. And you are just an ant crawling at the foot of it's remains.
I think it's pretty clear Ash Lake is as far down as you can go in the Dark Souls world. I like to think this is how the whole world looked before the Age of Fire. Back when the Everlasting Dragons ruled everything. There's seemingly endless archtrees everywhere too. A purgatory of some sorts. The lighted up white ash shores contrast beautifully with the absolute black void that is the lake's water.
Pretty sure the ashes of these beaches is the burned remains of the ancient dragons. The Witch of Izalith wreathed them in storms of fire. This is why it's called Ash Lake.
That sums up my feelings as well. Most areas had clear borders or obstacles requiring certain items but this immediately felt like an Easter egg especially when you go through that first fog wall and then you keep going and going and wind up here. I can remember actually being nervous like I wasn't supposed to be there. Awesome moment in my gaming history 👌
I just got here yesterday. It's my first playthrough of the game and I was taken back when I saw the view, then the music kicked in and it instantly became my favorite area of the whole game.
Had my first DS playthrough a few months ago. Although i have seen a lot of gameplay and such, I stepped into the trap once i used the bonfire at the Dragon. Realizing you have to walk up with the jankiest platforming that has ever existed is dreadful. Great game :3
Honestly, everything goes hard in Dark Souls, no matter how small it is. Just look at the painted world in DS1, a very optional level, very very optional, yet it's one of the best in the series. Same for the Archdragon Peak, even more optional, yet it contains one of the best bosses in the series.
it's utterly dark souls that one of the coolest, most unique, mysterious and lore-pivotal areas in the game is not just completely optional, but also hidden behind 2 of the most hated, rushed areas.
Don't forget the not 1 but 2 fucking illusory walls, one of which hidden behind a chest which is like the worst fucking place to hide stuff since no one would think that it goes deeper than some loot I love dark souls
Blighttown is not rushed. Lost Izalith and Demon Souls were "rushed" (or rather, they had someone else than Miyazaki responsible for the area). But Miyazaki always said Blighttown was as he envisioned it, and as it is part of the first half of the game, there is no reason for it being "rushed".
Fromsoft games are full of stuff like this. It pierces through our modern brains and resonates so, so deeply in some ancient primordial corner of our brains, I really believe these games come as close as you can get to 'feeling' a pre-modern mythological understanding of the world
@@shidder I was under the impression that each of the nations was on top of one of the trees, like Astora, Catarina, Balder, Vinheim, etc. each had their own tree, and everyone who came from those places had to come to Lordran via Ash Lake.
@@knightshousegames I think the other nations are supposed to all be a part of Lordran. From what I understand, Lordran is the name of a continent, not a nation.
@@shidder Lordran is referred to in the prophecy as "The Land of Ancient Lords", and all of the characters who are from elsewhere like Siegmeyer and Solaire talk about coming to Lordran from their homelands. It is clearly it's own land. And honestly it's way cooler to have a world composed of these giant trees, each of which is it's own entire world, all connected by Ash Lake, this place where the far more ancient things in the world reside, where life originated Might even explain the cycle of linking the flame. There are some big trees in real life which have evolved to have seeds which germinate after a wildfire. Perhaps each time the fire is linked, the tree burns down, and in it's place grows a new tree.
This has always been my favorite location in souls its just so esthetically pleasing and I just can't seem to find the correct words to describe the feeling it gives me.
Place is ethereal bro. Playing DS1 for the first time and just found this place the other day, just waited at the bonfire listening to the music and enjoying the view!!
Notice how this is the only area in the game apart from firelink where there is actual music. Firelink theme is supposed to feel homey and relaxing -- it's a piece for you, the rest is all music that plays during hostile encounters. Music is dead everywhere else, and so is the world. But here, music welcomes you to the last place that still has some life left. And not in a hostile way... just a magnificent, grandiose choir.
There are actually 4 places in the game where music play But all of these places play a very significant role But the fact that nobody ever mentions a single word about ash lake in the game but when you enter in it has the music shows how significant this place is
There's also music on a small section of cliff in the Painted World of Ariamis. It's a choir as well and it subtly builds in intensity. Beautifully done
Love how somewhere with so much effort put into it is hidden so deeply in the game, most people playing it blind would never find this place which makes it all the more amazing, it's like something that would be a made up rumour but it's actually real
it just has a bunch of little details in it that a 12 year old would make up on the playground "Oh yeah man, there are like the frog things from the sewers there in a tree but they spray out black gas instead of white" "There are also the mushroom guys but the kids actually fight you" "At the bottom is actually a 2nd hydra and its harder and drops 2 dragon scales" "There's actually an everlasting dragon down there even though they're extinct and you can pray to it and become a dragon and breathe fire on people" Literally designed to be a disregarded rumor, which makes it even more badass that it actually exists.
@@thesantadestroyerYeah, I love that in the game you get hints in the same way, like how Domhnall of Zena tells you about people going to pray a real Dragon, but only if you spend enough. You need to be intuitive and lucky to get it on your own, but it's so satisfying.
Finding this place and hearing this track was the most jaw dropping moment of my gaming life. Fully immersed into this epic dungeon crawler and out of nowhere, I'm staring at giant trees spanning an endless fog, a haunting melody breaking the otherwise silent backdrop of the game. I put my controller down and just soaked it in for a few minutes.
same here, i've put the ring that silences our noise and just wandered around amused, instantly recognised as THE gaming moment of my life, i don't think nothing will ever come close to what i felt when i discovered this place
@@1joao123I'm with you all, but honestly, the first time i entered the Klin of The First Flame was a superior emotional and artistic experience for me. It's the culmination of probably what it's the best videogame of all time, and it so lives up to the rest. Everything clicks in that moment. Although the best, deepest moment i will probably ever live playing a videogame was with the mod for Stalker, Stalker Anomaly, but it was 100% emergent, and not planned by anybody ever, i was the artist that conceived that moment, unlike Miyazaki with this.
@@1joao123 em questao de jogos essa foi a maior sensação que eu ja tive jogando algo é como se voce fosse para outro plano e até os deuses fossem insignificantes com aquilo, a majestosidade, as criaturas, as musicas, tudo tao secreto como se voce tivesse descoberto algo alem do jogo
The soundtrack for DS1 is something special. The frequent use of male choir for melodies, the bells, it gives the music such a grand, holy, or ethereal feeling. As if it wouldn't be out of place in some place of worship.
A lot of FromSoft music could be played in a church or a classical concert and nobody would bat an eyelid. You could pass off False King Allant's OG pipe organ theme as a "lesser known Baroque piece". Midra, Rykard and Godrick all have that late 19th / early 20th century post-Wagnerian dissonance and it really suits them. Pretty much all of Bloodborne feels like straight up classical music.
When everything turns to ash and its your turn for judgment. What shall your answer be for your life's decisions? (Cringe I know but sounded cool at the time lol)
@JaceareenoWeak if that's what it takes to get to heaven and good decent people roast in hell while evil monsters go to heaven simply for believing that doesn't sound like a religion worth following.
Favorite location in Dark Souls (my interpretation and spoilers below) The Age of Fire has a history of cover ups. Up above, Anor Londo, the peak of divine beauty, is naught but a hollow shell of its former self. Most enemies, Gwynevere, and even sunlight is just an illusion sustained by the last remaining god with her sanity intact. Beneath Anor Londo’s shadow is the undead parish, a crumbling city filled with hollow soldiers. And buried in the earth below are New Londo Ruins and Blighttown, cities that have fallen to the undead curse so long ago, creatures’ forms are mutated beyond recognition if not gone entirely (in the case of ghosts). And finally, beneath even the underground cities lies the Ash Lake. A remnant of the Age of Ancients, it is buried deepest below because it serves as a reminder of the most horrific truth of all: the Age of Fire and reign of the gods only came about through genocide of the Ancient Dragons. With each layer down the chosen undead explores, these hidden ruins not only reveal the past, but the probable future. It is only a matter of time before Anor Londo becomes overrun by hollow undead, before undead parish crumbles beyond recognition like New Londo. And all of this, in time, will become just as forgotten as the Age of Ancients, disappearing almost without a trace.
Discovering the ash lake must have felt like the first people to stumble at a shore, staring out into the unknown, feeling smaller than life, then one day man set out to conquer the seas. Now we stare out at the infinite of space, knowing we are truly insignificant to it all, a pretentious spec of dust.
i watched a speedrun or something where the guy entered the tree for an item, later i went all the way down and was blown away by this beautiful sight. Im so glad i got sens fortress and anor londo spoiled just becsuse i got to see this for myself.
I will never forget the feeling when I first encountered this area for my first playthrough. This is true fantasy wonder and it's indescribably awe inspiring. Just absolutely incredible in every way. Thank you Hidetaka Miyazaki.
At the time of the Prepare to Die, I was astonished. I had lots of feelings mixed together. I was proud to have explored to this point, happy to finally have gone through all the Great Hollow, I was curious since this place raised so many questions, but most of all I was kinda scared. Not by enemies or bosses... but by the greatness of the whole thing. It's such a big place, probably bigger than the whole ds world, yet it's so well hidden. His greatness is so engulfing that it's almost frightening. It's like discovering something you shouldn't had discovered, a forbidden place left behi, a battleground wirh nothing left... or even the results of what the world actually is, hidden by all the lie you're told...
It’s such a shame that this area was never revisited in the future souls games and probably never will when you look at the state of dark souls 3 I wish we could’ve seen more
One of the greatest moments of my gaming life was stumbling across this place accidentally. I was SO into Dark Souls lore when this game released and I happened across this place. I think I had goosebumps for a solid hour. It was downright magical.
This is honestly top 3 best secret areas of all time. There's only 1 thing here but they went so damn hard on everything. The music, the unique environment, an actual dragon! the only one in the game like it after we hear about them constantly in the lore.
When i was going through dark souls for the first time my jaw dropped when i found this place, and it remained dropped for the entire time i was in ash lake.
The silent and horrible journey through blight town , through the double secret, then all the way down through the tree and out into ash lake to hear this was just magical. My favourite gaming moment of all time.
I love how Ash Lake isn't just a place in DS. It's a whole visual motif through most of the fromsoft's games. It feels like they are implying that every game are all a part of something bigger or a part of each other in some distant cosmic way. I mean even compare this theme to the end theme of Elden ring, and it gives kinda the same vibe to me 🔥
Ash Lake is just that: - An ash pathway surrounded by water, fog, and the Ancient Trees. With it's incredible aesthetic and soundtrack, one would feel...compelled to stay there, forever.
In the exit of the great hollow when you first enter Ash Lake looking at the ground cuts the music off and looking at the trees on the horizon starts it again so I sat there for a good bit just making the game go "bwaaaaaaaa"
seeing this area for the first time was so cool and breath taking - i really felt so small and insignificant being there, and this music only enhanced that feeling
No other souls game gets close to replicating this feeling. Its been a few years since i played ds1 and accidentally found this place. It left me entirely speechless. I thought up what the ash lake represents, besides the home of everlasting dragons. Ash lake is the beginning and end of all material things in dark souls. Life begins with trees which hold up entire kingdoms and one day crumble to dust, to ash, and fall to the bottom. The fading of fire means absolutely nothing here, for the lake is eternal. Remember: before fire and the entire world there was ash lake. Something i think ds3 gets very wrong is the ash (smouldering) lake. It cant get affected by the upper world ending and fuse with demon ruins. That kind of contradicts ds1.
I think the mere existence of dark souls 2 and 3 contradict dark souls 1. Makes an entire ending obsolete. They shouldve been different standalone games imo
I will never forget walking into Ash Lake and hearing this theme for the first time. Possibly the greatest expression of music design in a video game ever.
After discovering Elden Ring, I jumped to the roots. When I found ash lake on my first blind play through of DS1, it reminds me why I was playing video games in the first place. The wonders developers hide somewhere for you to feel like an explorer.
People hate on blighttown but I think it's incredibly important. It's the first time you really get out of your usual hub area and you just keep going deeper and deeper not knowing how you will get back. This area just adds to that, especially with this soundtrack. Feels like you shouldn't even be there
@@youngkappakhan You're asking for a very particular set of cirumstances to be fair. A blind playthrough still applies that same feeling of a neverending descent, even if the master key was chosen. And I feel like Blighttown isn't remembered fondly because of the old framerate issues that plagued it. The area itself isn't all *too* bad, especially in comparison to areas like NLR which feel far more brutal in structure and enemy placement. I'd hardly call most of it bullshit, although it can be disorienting.
Love how this area is hard af to get to and there isn't even anything important there. purely for exploration sake. I will never forget on my first playthrough I went to the great hollow first and got soft-locked by being cursed. I could barely survive the march back through blight-town and didn't yet realize there was a shortcut to firelink at the far end. I attempted like 20 times to hack my way up through upper blight-town before I found the shorcut. After I lifted the curse and went back down I couldn't believe Ash lake was just a dead end. Some might say bad design, but I will never forget that experience.
Nothing important.... ya if you ignore the giant stone dragon and it's covenant, Sigmires entire quest line and the titanite slab, and great magic barrier and the hydra then sure nothing important.
The trees in the background remind me of the pillars you see off in the distance in the hunters dream from bloodborne, theres even a fog sky that shrouds the top of them.
Didn't even know this area existed until my third time through the game. The immediate, striking nature of the scenery and the music will stick with me forever, and them choosing it to be something that they hid so thoroughly is incredible
This is the first ever song to bring me to tears not through sad lyrics or beauty, but the vocals and instruments alone. Reading the lore of this place and of DS in general at the same time also helped.
First time I ever went down there, I recognized the trees as the ones from the intro, and the music sounded grand but hollow, reinforcing that idea into my head. The Ash Lake, where the whole story began. The flame grew, and the dragons were slain. The trees go even deeper into the earth, but we can't follow them that far down. It feels like our kind are not meant to see the true roots of the world, only the trees that grow from them. I wonder what else lies down there? Any other First Flames? Perhaps a different and new breed of everlasting dragons? Anything could be down there, but we'll never know.
I went into that location lastly on my 2nd ever playthrough (before was Prepare to Die many years before), so you can imagine witnessing this again just before completing the game.
“An ash I know, Yggdrasil its name, With water white is the great tree wet; Thence come the dews that fall in the dales, Green by Urth’s well does it ever grow.”
I still remember my exact reaction to finding this area. I found it weird that the entire part of Blighttown near the tree had very little and became convinced there was some secret shortcut
Ash lake is truly a mythical place it has the remnants of a god, one of the last known pure blooded dragons, siegmeyer ends his journey here (next to the god skeleton), his daughter completes here journey here, there are remnants of seethe from the hydra to the clams, and there are mushrooms thriving leading me to believe there is time distortion going on as well. Truly one of the most ominously significant places in all of dark souls
I did my first ever playthrough of dark souls this year and after thinking I had seen all the places the map had to offer, my roommate who got me into the game laughed at me and simply said "not the ash lake boy" So he gives me directions and I follow them and when I got there I was hit with fear. Now I'm not saying I'm a hard man, but it truly takes something scary to scare me, I don't know what it is but if there is a hell then it's ash lake. The baran land where only dark waters of unknown depths with God knows what is waiting down there. And the music? I can't tell what it is but it makes me go tense and I get that scared feeling in my chest. Only song and place in the game and it's sequels to do that to me. Short version: they knew how to make a terrifying pla e and atmosphere
My first playthrough I found this by accident thinking I got through the horrors of blighttown. The the feeling with music and atmosphere was unreal… until I realized I couldn’t teleport yet and got killed/cursed by the basilisks in the great hollow trying to get back up.
I was very young when I played dark souls probably 11 or 12 and I was absolutely mind-blown by ash lake. My young brain that was only filled with Nickelodeon shows and call of duty games couldn't even fathom the existence of ash lake. Now I am 23 and no souls game that followed afterwards came even close to the feeling of discovering ash lake. I was not really interested in lore most of the time because I was all like "Dark Souls is hard?? I can do it!" But when I discovered this place I was DESPERATE to get any form of information what I just found.
This is honestly the most intimidating place in the game. You got trees tall as Hell stretching into the distance. Almost everywhere is just deep dark water. The area is so open that you can't help but feel small.
The Ash Lake always was my favorite location in Dark Souls. When i first entered Ash Lake i was fascinated and terrified at the same time, it felt like i discovered something that i was not supposed. The Hydra mini bossfight is way better than it was in darkroot basin, and when the hydra jumped from the water bombarding me with it's projectiles was amazing. Discovering Stone Dragon, the direct descendant of the Everlasting Dragons and their covenant shoked me, Stone Dragon is able to bolster the bonfire which means that it is a Firekeeper and the only female dragon found in Dark Souls 1. The Ash Lake is a vast and mysterious land and the Stone Dragon is probably just one of the all creatures hiding in this place from the Lords who destroyed their home and species, just for their own gain.
Once I was replaying DS1 and I didn’t feel like killing the hydra that spawned here so I just ran past it, and promptly fucking shat myself after the thing flew through the sky above me like an airplane.
No other theme is better at immediately conveying to the player "You probably don't belong here".
tl;dr We are just sprites casting illusions to facilitate a fantasy on the border of everything. This is human futility in a larger game we cannot play.
The song does not convey that sentiment to me. It conveys a feeling of transcendent power, as though a continuum is collapsing in order to manifest the reality we inhabit; a world eating another world before our eyes. Ash falls from the kindling of eternal trees, symbolizing waste and ruin; water acts as resistance to change but also perfect conformity to it. Ash Lake is reality's clock, and by "going hollow" we're literally losing what grounds us to reality and thus the next cycle. Access to this area is possible only because the kindler of the flame which props it up goes hollow in the process, forming an infinitely-returning loop. Humanity was ultimately a side effect of ignorance and desperation, and yet it comes to either "save" reality, or allow the clock to run out and allow another parallel of this reality to be overwritten by this process. Ash Lake symbolizes the futility of past, present, and future actions while under the dominion of another, and at the end of this area is an opportunity for humanity to tap into the natural powers at play: dragon kinship. Throughout the series, it is canonical that our player character's predecessors chose this route, and thusly created various forms of worship and academia of primordial beings.
Encountering Ash Lake is tantamount to revealing an ultimate deception: The reality we inhabit is actually another separate universe which is being used as fuel to empower Gwyn. We are the dreams these trees have, and as they hollow from the inside out, consumed to kindle the flame and reverse time, they are left to rot in this lake. The Bed of Chaos was very close to completely unveiling this fact, as the attempt to recreate the first flame transformed the soul of the Witch of Izalith into an animate archtree. Her implicit humanity, born of the dark alongside Gwyn, meant that her consciousness - human will - would persist in this form, and so rather than be consumed to create a world, she corrupted her followers to reflects her very nature as an "enemy of order".
A chaotic, twisted thing with human characteristics, driven to extremes; unbound and directionless, flaming darkness, referred to as "chaos"; A type of power that attempts to combine the natural process of the archtrees, the perversion of the flame which spawns worlds, and the infinite depths of humanity. This is the power of true destruction and resembles the abyss, rather than the façade of light or of one's human form. While it was a rushed and terrible boss fight, the Bed of Chaos symbolizes a catastrophic perversion of natural powers, which are not under any sort of control; a seemingly conscious and fluid force of life which is immediately hostile to other life. A living version of the clock ticking down - entropy infused with the instinct to survive. It is symbolism on crack.
Separate realities are always conjoined in some way, as they originate from the same continuum. The vanity of the lords blinded them to the futility of "breaking away" from it. We're looking at the skeletons in their closet. Kind of the feeling you described, but without faulting oneself for stumbling upon the truth. Ash Lake is a warning sign for what ultimately occurs at the end of DS3 DLC 2.
@@BeamMonsterZeusAmazing.
@@BeamMonsterZeus☝️🤓
@@dooley9117 Me when I am unable to comprehend anything more than a simple paragraph.
That's not what it conveyed to me at all. It's more of a music that conveys something incredible ancient and profound.
Like a once great thing now dead before you. And you are just an ant crawling at the foot of it's remains.
I think it's pretty clear Ash Lake is as far down as you can go in the Dark Souls world. I like to think this is how the whole world looked before the Age of Fire. Back when the Everlasting Dragons ruled everything. There's seemingly endless archtrees everywhere too. A purgatory of some sorts. The lighted up white ash shores contrast beautifully with the absolute black void that is the lake's water.
Imagine falling in that void as an Undead? I know you die in game, but in universe wouldn't you just keep falling forever?
@@johndough6225you would drown
What about the opening, it shows going inside one of the trees and deeper down where the fire was.
Pretty sure the ashes of these beaches is the burned remains of the ancient dragons. The Witch of Izalith wreathed them in storms of fire. This is why it's called Ash Lake.
There wasn't water in the opening either, as I recall, and presumably the roots have to go somewhere.
going into this zone is something i will never forget
That sums up my feelings as well. Most areas had clear borders or obstacles requiring certain items but this immediately felt like an Easter egg especially when you go through that first fog wall and then you keep going and going and wind up here. I can remember actually being nervous like I wasn't supposed to be there. Awesome moment in my gaming history 👌
As soon as I figure out how to leave I will update this comment.
This zone haunts me in a good way. The deep water is what does it but the music is too gooood
Ikr especially when I saw that dragon in the nest
even in first play through, which wasn't blind, i was blown away by the area's look and music.
Stilll gives me goosebumps, even after all these years. Ash Lake is truly an amazing part of the game
It is the one area that gets under my skin. The endless dark deep water, the emptiness and the music are enough to terrify me.
Common jojo fan W
All for a completely optional area that's easy enough to miss
I just got here yesterday. It's my first playthrough of the game and I was taken back when I saw the view, then the music kicked in and it instantly became my favorite area of the whole game.
Ash lake: 🗿🗿🗿😲😲💪🗣🐲
The stupid hollow tree: 👺👹👹🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬👺👹👹🐸🐸🐸💀☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️
this theme is the perfect representation of if you came here with no lord vessel
Dear god
@@JonselytheGreat why didn't you just take off some armor?
Had my first DS playthrough a few months ago. Although i have seen a lot of gameplay and such, I stepped into the trap once i used the bonfire at the Dragon.
Realizing you have to walk up with the jankiest platforming that has ever existed is dreadful.
Great game :3
@@Chr1saderjust finished mine too. Early on i went to this area and coming back my firekeeper was dead at firelink
The music did not have to go so hard for such a small part of the game like this but I’m happy it did
It really helps sell the unique feeling of the area. Even if the playable area is small, the scale is huge.
Honestly, everything goes hard in Dark Souls, no matter how small it is. Just look at the painted world in DS1, a very optional level, very very optional, yet it's one of the best in the series. Same for the Archdragon Peak, even more optional, yet it contains one of the best bosses in the series.
@@brunoactis1104 funny as well since apparently painted world was like a beta/test map? and then decided to keep it in
it's utterly dark souls that one of the coolest, most unique, mysterious and lore-pivotal areas in the game is not just completely optional, but also hidden behind 2 of the most hated, rushed areas.
All my homies hate the town of blight
Don't forget the not 1 but 2 fucking illusory walls, one of which hidden behind a chest which is like the worst fucking place to hide stuff since no one would think that it goes deeper than some loot
I love dark souls
Blighttown isn't rushed.
Blighttown is not rushed. Lost Izalith and Demon Souls were "rushed" (or rather, they had someone else than Miyazaki responsible for the area). But Miyazaki always said Blighttown was as he envisioned it, and as it is part of the first half of the game, there is no reason for it being "rushed".
I personally like Blighttown, because of how challenging it is.
I did hate the framerate drops tho...
Theres no way this area wasnt the inspiration for Elden RIng's final boss.
Everything was ash at the beginning lying on the bottom of a lake and everything converges into ash at the end of time
Also the hunters dream
also upper siofra river
Dark Souls has the Ash Lake
Bloodborne has the Hunters Dream
Elden Ring has the Elden Beast
Bro this game stole so much from Elden Ring it's not even funny
“Stfu.”
“I’m listening to *OOoOoooOOOOooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoOOOOoOOO”*
AaaaaaaaaaaAaaaaAaAAAAAaaaa*
Babe please stop, your not Ash lake
Me: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
“Shut up I’m listening to
*AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaAaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaa*~”
This area is actually unsettling. Scarier than any horror game. It's so powerful and I can't quite put my finger on why.
Perhaps 'Eldritch' might be the word you're looking for?
It's the secret key that ties the entire story together and when you realize that it's pretty wild.
agreed
Some creatures much more powerful than you were not just killed but completely decimated. It makes me feel weak and in danger.
Fromsoft games are full of stuff like this. It pierces through our modern brains and resonates so, so deeply in some ancient primordial corner of our brains, I really believe these games come as close as you can get to 'feeling' a pre-modern mythological understanding of the world
When you realize literally all of Lordran exists on top of a single tree....
There are at least two archtrees that support Lordran.
Don't all the trees rest under Lordran? The tree you exit is the great hollow, which ends well above the ground
@@shidder I was under the impression that each of the nations was on top of one of the trees, like Astora, Catarina, Balder, Vinheim, etc. each had their own tree, and everyone who came from those places had to come to Lordran via Ash Lake.
@@knightshousegames I think the other nations are supposed to all be a part of Lordran. From what I understand, Lordran is the name of a continent, not a nation.
@@shidder Lordran is referred to in the prophecy as "The Land of Ancient Lords", and all of the characters who are from elsewhere like Siegmeyer and Solaire talk about coming to Lordran from their homelands.
It is clearly it's own land. And honestly it's way cooler to have a world composed of these giant trees, each of which is it's own entire world, all connected by Ash Lake, this place where the far more ancient things in the world reside, where life originated
Might even explain the cycle of linking the flame. There are some big trees in real life which have evolved to have seeds which germinate after a wildfire. Perhaps each time the fire is linked, the tree burns down, and in it's place grows a new tree.
This has always been my favorite location in souls its just so esthetically pleasing and I just can't seem to find the correct words to describe the feeling it gives me.
Peace?
aesthetically*
magnificance?
@@schnibist 🤓
Place is ethereal bro. Playing DS1 for the first time and just found this place the other day, just waited at the bonfire listening to the music and enjoying the view!!
Notice how this is the only area in the game apart from firelink where there is actual music. Firelink theme is supposed to feel homey and relaxing -- it's a piece for you, the rest is all music that plays during hostile encounters. Music is dead everywhere else, and so is the world.
But here, music welcomes you to the last place that still has some life left. And not in a hostile way... just a magnificent, grandiose choir.
And Daughter of Chaos and Gwynevere chamber ???? (!)
@@Soulbreak-C yeah actually that's a good point. But they're more related to motherly comfort and stuff rather than grandiose ancestry.
There are actually 4 places in the game where music play
But all of these places play a very significant role
But the fact that nobody ever mentions a single word about ash lake in the game but when you enter in it has the music shows how significant this place is
There's also music on a small section of cliff in the Painted World of Ariamis. It's a choir as well and it subtly builds in intensity. Beautifully done
The Hydra waiting in the water 💀
And coming across her standing over his dead body, lamenting over his last adventure. A bittersweet emotional overload.
If you look through the slit in his helmet, he's blinking. He just fake death to keep adventuring. Sigma of Catarina
Love how somewhere with so much effort put into it is hidden so deeply in the game, most people playing it blind would never find this place which makes it all the more amazing, it's like something that would be a made up rumour but it's actually real
it just has a bunch of little details in it that a 12 year old would make up on the playground
"Oh yeah man, there are like the frog things from the sewers there in a tree but they spray out black gas instead of white" "There are also the mushroom guys but the kids actually fight you" "At the bottom is actually a 2nd hydra and its harder and drops 2 dragon scales" "There's actually an everlasting dragon down there even though they're extinct and you can pray to it and become a dragon and breathe fire on people"
Literally designed to be a disregarded rumor, which makes it even more badass that it actually exists.
Because of course people aregoing to cross two invisible walls in the middle of a poison lake.
@@AlfredoPuente8 I did it blind.
@@thesantadestroyerYeah, I love that in the game you get hints in the same way, like how Domhnall of Zena tells you about people going to pray a real Dragon, but only if you spend enough. You need to be intuitive and lucky to get it on your own, but it's so satisfying.
@@thesantadestroyeryou can also cut off that dragons tail and get a unique weapon. It won't even aggro either
This place, the Hunter’s Dream, and the arena for Elden Ring’s final boss all looking nearly identical definitely isn’t a coincidence.
Yeah Miyazaki has a kink for these
And the Smouldering Lake
Its all connected im sure
they like to reuse concepts that weren't fully realised in previous games
And aldias keep from ds2
best location in game
The game is not that great, but this particular location was awesome
@@Leo007619Biggest cap of the century
@@Leo007619 ratio'd
anor londo>
@@slipknotiowa312 nUh-uH
Finding this place and hearing this track was the most jaw dropping moment of my gaming life. Fully immersed into this epic dungeon crawler and out of nowhere, I'm staring at giant trees spanning an endless fog, a haunting melody breaking the otherwise silent backdrop of the game. I put my controller down and just soaked it in for a few minutes.
same here, i've put the ring that silences our noise and just wandered around amused, instantly recognised as THE gaming moment of my life, i don't think nothing will ever come close to what i felt when i discovered this place
@@1joao123I'm with you all, but honestly, the first time i entered the Klin of The First Flame was a superior emotional and artistic experience for me. It's the culmination of probably what it's the best videogame of all time, and it so lives up to the rest. Everything clicks in that moment.
Although the best, deepest moment i will probably ever live playing a videogame was with the mod for Stalker, Stalker Anomaly, but it was 100% emergent, and not planned by anybody ever, i was the artist that conceived that moment, unlike Miyazaki with this.
I did the same then immediately got merced by water bullets from the hydra. 😂
@@1joao123 em questao de jogos essa foi a maior sensação que eu ja tive jogando algo é como se voce fosse para outro plano e até os deuses fossem insignificantes com aquilo, a majestosidade, as criaturas, as musicas, tudo tao secreto como se voce tivesse descoberto algo alem do jogo
The soundtrack for DS1 is something special. The frequent use of male choir for melodies, the bells, it gives the music such a grand, holy, or ethereal feeling. As if it wouldn't be out of place in some place of worship.
A lot of FromSoft music could be played in a church or a classical concert and nobody would bat an eyelid. You could pass off False King Allant's OG pipe organ theme as a "lesser known Baroque piece".
Midra, Rykard and Godrick all have that late 19th / early 20th century post-Wagnerian dissonance and it really suits them.
Pretty much all of Bloodborne feels like straight up classical music.
Arriving this location for first time its shocking and amazimg, even if you do it in 2024, this game still rocking since the day came out
É uma sensação de insignificancia, toda a historia sendo insignificante ali até mesmo os deuses e a chama
This sounds like something you would hear on Judgement Day. Absolutely amazing.
Holy shit you nailed it, exactly what I was thinking
When everything turns to ash and its your turn for judgment. What shall your answer be for your life's decisions?
(Cringe I know but sounded cool at the time lol)
@JaceareenoWeak if that's what it takes to get to heaven and good decent people roast in hell while evil monsters go to heaven simply for believing that doesn't sound like a religion worth following.
@@spartanpozzum6855it’s cool, don’t worry
Favorite location in Dark Souls (my interpretation and spoilers below)
The Age of Fire has a history of cover ups. Up above, Anor Londo, the peak of divine beauty, is naught but a hollow shell of its former self. Most enemies, Gwynevere, and even sunlight is just an illusion sustained by the last remaining god with her sanity intact. Beneath Anor Londo’s shadow is the undead parish, a crumbling city filled with hollow soldiers. And buried in the earth below are New Londo Ruins and Blighttown, cities that have fallen to the undead curse so long ago, creatures’ forms are mutated beyond recognition if not gone entirely (in the case of ghosts). And finally, beneath even the underground cities lies the Ash Lake. A remnant of the Age of Ancients, it is buried deepest below because it serves as a reminder of the most horrific truth of all: the Age of Fire and reign of the gods only came about through genocide of the Ancient Dragons. With each layer down the chosen undead explores, these hidden ruins not only reveal the past, but the probable future. It is only a matter of time before Anor Londo becomes overrun by hollow undead, before undead parish crumbles beyond recognition like New Londo. And all of this, in time, will become just as forgotten as the Age of Ancients, disappearing almost without a trace.
Listening to Ash Lake ost, while reading what you are sayin' is dope
and ds3 confirmed it
Discovering the ash lake must have felt like the first people to stumble at a shore, staring out into the unknown, feeling smaller than life, then one day man set out to conquer the seas. Now we stare out at the infinite of space, knowing we are truly insignificant to it all, a pretentious spec of dust.
i watched a speedrun or something where the guy entered the tree for an item, later i went all the way down and was blown away by this beautiful sight. Im so glad i got sens fortress and anor londo spoiled just becsuse i got to see this for myself.
Which speedrunner is it? I wanna see lol
@thegravelord792 it's called something like "Lord vessel done quick, how to unlock warp fast (49 min)"
I will never forget the feeling when I first encountered this area for my first playthrough. This is true fantasy wonder and it's indescribably awe inspiring. Just absolutely incredible in every way. Thank you Hidetaka Miyazaki.
Me neither. It gave me a special type of dread, hopefulness, and bitter sweetness I had never felt before.
At the time of the Prepare to Die, I was astonished. I had lots of feelings mixed together. I was proud to have explored to this point, happy to finally have gone through all the Great Hollow, I was curious since this place raised so many questions, but most of all I was kinda scared. Not by enemies or bosses... but by the greatness of the whole thing. It's such a big place, probably bigger than the whole ds world, yet it's so well hidden. His greatness is so engulfing that it's almost frightening. It's like discovering something you shouldn't had discovered, a forbidden place left behi, a battleground wirh nothing left... or even the results of what the world actually is, hidden by all the lie you're told...
It’s such a shame that this area was never revisited in the future souls games and probably never will when you look at the state of dark souls 3 I wish we could’ve seen more
You can actually visit it in ds2's memory of an ancient dragon
When your home alone sleeping comfortably, sneeze and someone says "bless you" :
Finally I found the source of "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
One of the greatest moments of my gaming life was stumbling across this place accidentally. I was SO into Dark Souls lore when this game released and I happened across this place. I think I had goosebumps for a solid hour. It was downright magical.
This is honestly top 3 best secret areas of all time. There's only 1 thing here but they went so damn hard on everything. The music, the unique environment, an actual dragon! the only one in the game like it after we hear about them constantly in the lore.
Same
When i was going through dark souls for the first time my jaw dropped when i found this place, and it remained dropped for the entire time i was in ash lake.
Found ash lake for the first time and nearly shit myself. Love you, Dark Souls ❤️
This is the closest a location has ever come to that otherworldly feeling in any game for me, and it's mostly due to this soundtrack
If Post Nut clarity Had a Theme
best comment
The silent and horrible journey through blight town , through the double secret, then all the way down through the tree and out into ash lake to hear this was just magical. My favourite gaming moment of all time.
I will literally never forget this moment.
*Sometimes you have to search the absolute ends of the earth to find the most gorgeous, rare, and beautiful treasures.*
The moment I realized that Dark Souls 1 will leave a mark on me forever
I love how Ash Lake isn't just a place in DS. It's a whole visual motif through most of the fromsoft's games. It feels like they are implying that every game are all a part of something bigger or a part of each other in some distant cosmic way. I mean even compare this theme to the end theme of Elden ring, and it gives kinda the same vibe to me 🔥
They really said 🗿 🗿 🗿 with this one
This endless ocean, giant trees, and the size that I can feel fcking scared me when I encountered this area for the first time. And OST, of course.
Ash Lake is just that: - An ash pathway surrounded by water, fog, and the Ancient Trees. With it's incredible aesthetic and soundtrack, one would feel...compelled to stay there, forever.
The most atmospheric location in any FromSoft title. This place is simply surreal even if it is altogether unimportant.
this is the first thing that pops into my head when I think about "being summoned by the higher ups " for some reason
Play this at my funeral.
Play this at my birth
Play this on my documentary
Not funeral you will appear at your last campfire
still remember when i fucking discovered this place was absolutely mind blown by the music... it fucking amazed me
In the exit of the great hollow when you first enter Ash Lake looking at the ground cuts the music off and looking at the trees on the horizon starts it again so I sat there for a good bit just making the game go "bwaaaaaaaa"
seeing this area for the first time was so cool and breath taking - i really felt so small and insignificant being there, and this music only enhanced that feeling
No other souls game gets close to replicating this feeling. Its been a few years since i played ds1 and accidentally found this place. It left me entirely speechless. I thought up what the ash lake represents, besides the home of everlasting dragons.
Ash lake is the beginning and end of all material things in dark souls. Life begins with trees which hold up entire kingdoms and one day crumble to dust, to ash, and fall to the bottom. The fading of fire means absolutely nothing here, for the lake is eternal. Remember: before fire and the entire world there was ash lake.
Something i think ds3 gets very wrong is the ash (smouldering) lake. It cant get affected by the upper world ending and fuse with demon ruins. That kind of contradicts ds1.
I think the mere existence of dark souls 2 and 3 contradict dark souls 1. Makes an entire ending obsolete. They shouldve been different standalone games imo
I will never forget walking into Ash Lake and hearing this theme for the first time. Possibly the greatest expression of music design in a video game ever.
This is something you would see in your dreams.
After discovering Elden Ring, I jumped to the roots.
When I found ash lake on my first blind play through of DS1, it reminds me why I was playing video games in the first place. The wonders developers hide somewhere for you to feel like an explorer.
That's the background music of my life.
Ponderin' my *Orb™* to this rn
Best hidden area known to man
People hate on blighttown but I think it's incredibly important. It's the first time you really get out of your usual hub area and you just keep going deeper and deeper not knowing how you will get back. This area just adds to that, especially with this soundtrack. Feels like you shouldn't even be there
It's not really, none of the bullshit in blighttown is quintessential to the discovery of ash lake if you just take the master key.
@@youngkappakhan You're asking for a very particular set of cirumstances to be fair. A blind playthrough still applies that same feeling of a neverending descent, even if the master key was chosen. And I feel like Blighttown isn't remembered fondly because of the old framerate issues that plagued it. The area itself isn't all *too* bad, especially in comparison to areas like NLR which feel far more brutal in structure and enemy placement. I'd hardly call most of it bullshit, although it can be disorienting.
Wish dark souls would get the demon souls remake treatment
Then I probably wouldn't get out of fire link shrine just longing at the beautiful landscape
I'd be surprised if it didn't at some point. But it's probably gonna take a couple more years.
This is Why Darksoull 1 is Always the Best , Amazing
Lyrics: Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I thought it was uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I thought the females voice was ahhhhhhhh
Emotional
I dont think a video game area has ever had THIS much impact on me.
Love how this area is hard af to get to and there isn't even anything important there. purely for exploration sake. I will never forget on my first playthrough I went to the great hollow first and got soft-locked by being cursed. I could barely survive the march back through blight-town and didn't yet realize there was a shortcut to firelink at the far end. I attempted like 20 times to hack my way up through upper blight-town before I found the shorcut. After I lifted the curse and went back down I couldn't believe Ash lake was just a dead end. Some might say bad design, but I will never forget that experience.
Nothing important.... ya if you ignore the giant stone dragon and it's covenant, Sigmires entire quest line and the titanite slab, and great magic barrier and the hydra then sure nothing important.
Anything important? You can endlessly farm Twinkling Titanite there
@@WokeandProud I guess by not important they meant completely optional.
Walking into this place for the first time, hearing this music start, it was amazing.
The trees in the background remind me of the pillars you see off in the distance in the hunters dream from bloodborne, theres even a fog sky that shrouds the top of them.
my favorite area out of every soul game
Didn't even know this area existed until my third time through the game. The immediate, striking nature of the scenery and the music will stick with me forever, and them choosing it to be something that they hid so thoroughly is incredible
Non potrò mai dimenticare la prima volta che giunsi qui…
This is the first ever song to bring me to tears not through sad lyrics or beauty, but the vocals and instruments alone.
Reading the lore of this place and of DS in general at the same time also helped.
First time I ever went down there, I recognized the trees as the ones from the intro, and the music sounded grand but hollow, reinforcing that idea into my head. The Ash Lake, where the whole story began. The flame grew, and the dragons were slain. The trees go even deeper into the earth, but we can't follow them that far down. It feels like our kind are not meant to see the true roots of the world, only the trees that grow from them. I wonder what else lies down there? Any other First Flames? Perhaps a different and new breed of everlasting dragons? Anything could be down there, but we'll never know.
I went into that location lastly on my 2nd ever playthrough (before was Prepare to Die many years before), so you can imagine witnessing this again just before completing the game.
„Is this the final area ?“ everyones thaught when reaching this place 1st time
“An ash I know, Yggdrasil its name, With water white is the great tree wet; Thence come the dews that fall in the dales, Green by Urth’s well does it ever grow.”
Ash lake is the kind of place where you shit your pants the first time you walk in.
I still remember my exact reaction to finding this area. I found it weird that the entire part of Blighttown near the tree had very little and became convinced there was some secret shortcut
will you still love me in the catacombs?
Five seconds before I heard this amazing theme I got socked in the face by a giant mushroom man
One of the all time great gaming moments.
When you sneeze in your house and hear "bless you" despite living alone
Most beatiful place in the game, feels like you are in other world than Lordran.
The concept of Ash Lake alone terrifies me.
Ash lake is truly a mythical place it has the remnants of a god, one of the last known pure blooded dragons, siegmeyer ends his journey here (next to the god skeleton), his daughter completes here journey here, there are remnants of seethe from the hydra to the clams, and there are mushrooms thriving leading me to believe there is time distortion going on as well. Truly one of the most ominously significant places in all of dark souls
I was just exploring around jokingly when I found this area. It remains my favorite place from any of the Soulsborne games.
When they said "aah"? I felt that.
I did my first ever playthrough of dark souls this year and after thinking I had seen all the places the map had to offer, my roommate who got me into the game laughed at me and simply said "not the ash lake boy"
So he gives me directions and I follow them and when I got there I was hit with fear. Now I'm not saying I'm a hard man, but it truly takes something scary to scare me, I don't know what it is but if there is a hell then it's ash lake. The baran land where only dark waters of unknown depths with God knows what is waiting down there. And the music? I can't tell what it is but it makes me go tense and I get that scared feeling in my chest. Only song and place in the game and it's sequels to do that to me. Short version: they knew how to make a terrifying pla e and atmosphere
I get a mix of both fear and awe,as I love the music but the lake itself scares me
My first playthrough I found this by accident thinking I got through the horrors of blighttown. The the feeling with music and atmosphere was unreal… until I realized I couldn’t teleport yet and got killed/cursed by the basilisks in the great hollow trying to get back up.
Makes me think about NieR Replicant with the shadowlord's castle music
This location is so meditative, terrifying and unbelievable at the same time. My favourite place in the game😌
I was very young when I played dark souls probably 11 or 12 and I was absolutely mind-blown by ash lake. My young brain that was only filled with Nickelodeon shows and call of duty games couldn't even fathom the existence of ash lake.
Now I am 23 and no souls game that followed afterwards came even close to the feeling of discovering ash lake. I was not really interested in lore most of the time because I was all like "Dark Souls is hard?? I can do it!" But when I discovered this place I was DESPERATE to get any form of information what I just found.
This is honestly the most intimidating place in the game. You got trees tall as Hell stretching into the distance. Almost everywhere is just deep dark water. The area is so open that you can't help but feel small.
*Nameless Blacksmith Deity Giant Skull.png*
1:11 - 1:38 I really wish they extended this part 😭 it’s the best part
The Ash Lake always was my favorite location in Dark Souls. When i first entered Ash Lake i was fascinated and terrified at the same time, it felt like i discovered something that i was not supposed. The Hydra mini bossfight is way better than it was in darkroot basin, and when the hydra jumped from the water bombarding me with it's projectiles was amazing.
Discovering Stone Dragon, the direct descendant of the Everlasting Dragons and their covenant shoked me, Stone Dragon is able to bolster the bonfire which means that it is a Firekeeper and the only female dragon found in Dark Souls 1. The Ash Lake is a vast and mysterious land and the Stone Dragon is probably just one of the all creatures hiding in this place from the Lords who destroyed their home and species, just for their own gain.
When you know what makes this zone so important to the entire story this track just makes perfect sense.
Once I was replaying DS1 and I didn’t feel like killing the hydra that spawned here so I just ran past it, and promptly fucking shat myself after the thing flew through the sky above me like an airplane.
I could not help but get an eerie feeling when i went down here for the first time.
Dark Souls is an amazing experiance for itself!
" You've seen it haven't you? The power within each sticky bomb?"
I felt like a child on McDonald's coming out of Ash Lake with my Dragon Greatsword, definitely mi favorite place in dark souls.
My all time favorite area in the Souls games.
Favourite area in the game, seeing those giants trees stretch across the lake always make me wonder what lies beyond it.
When you slam your door and hear your mom yell your full name: