Ash Seeketh Embers: Exploration of Dark Souls as a Narrative

Introduction

I have been a massive fan of video games from a very young age. My first interaction with them was when I watched my dad play StarCraft at eight years old. Anyone raised in Korea has heard of this hallmark title that took the nation by storm during my generation. It was so popular that even someone as traditionalist as my dad was willing to try it. However, the immense difficulty and flashing lights took a toll on him. One day, he slammed the table angrily and left the room after a frustrating defeat, leaving me alone in the room. I gravitated towards the abandoned computer and began a hobby that remains an integral part of my identity. It must have been an adorable sight for my dad as he watched me, an eight-year-old, fumbling to learn the controls of a game that took years for him to master. It took me only a month to outrank him. Moreover, it took me just a few more months to become one of the nation’s top fifty players. The fire ignited in me that day has not waned in the slightest as I now look to pursue a career in esports after graduation.

To say that I only consume video games because of their competitive nature, however, is an immense oversimplification. To me, video games are the ultimate form of entertainment. Their interactive nature allows one to bend the narrative to the player’s will, enabling it to possess flexibility that traditional mediums such as film and literature do not possess. Even in games such as StarCraft, where the main attraction is its competitive nature, its vast world of three unique races in intergalactic warfare was readily available to be explored through a single-player campaign that also comes with the game. The player would explore Terrans’ dystopian world as a young couple, Jim and Sarah, struggled to find love against the fate that seemed to try and estrange them in every way possible. The story of Jim Raynor’s rebellion as he climbs from the lowest ranks to the savior of humanity to earn the love of his beloved moved countless hearts and gave the players yet another reason to love the franchise. I was one of them.

Despite these unique advantages that video games possess, it has been put under constant scrutiny. It is widely considered an inferior pastime, and people who indulge in it were widely vulnerable to stereotypes such as being overweight, unhealthy, and lazy. The development of these stigmas was not coincidental. The mass media and the government constantly employed it as a scapegoat for violent behaviors seen in the youth. In fact, one can see similar language being utilized by former President Trump and the conservative media after the mass school shootings during 2018 as politicians used it in late 1993. On both occasions, video games were blamed for twisting impressionable adolescent minds into normalizing the cruel behavior often seen in games. Even when the Entertainment Software Association was established to regulate vulgar, indecent content away from children, the stereotype continued to prevail. Ever since it became an increasingly popular topic, extensive research has been released that disproves any correlation between video games and violent behavior. Even with WHO’s relatively recent announcement in adding “gaming disorder” as a disease, research continues to prove that there are inherent differences between behaviors seen in traditional addictions, such as narcotics and gambling. Gamers’ behaviors are more similar to those observed in individuals during high levels of engagement. While this very debate continues today, video games continue to grow as a new pastime among the millennials as the constant discussions in mass media attract them to this new, revolutionary form of entertainment.

In many ways, the birth of the video game industry mirrors that of the film industry. Like the nickelodeons in the late 1890s, video games were initially introduced in dedicated designations called arcades. Arcades were filled with loud, flashy machines that featured games designed to have simple yet exciting concepts that they could enjoy for a quarter. The similarities between the arcades and the nickelodeons extend to their main customers; they were the new entertainment era mainly enjoyed by the younger, less affluent generation. The reason behind these arcades’ attractiveness is uncannily similar to why films piqued the interest of the youth back in the 1890s when theatre dominated the entertainment sector. The arcades’ games were much more flexible than movies, where they could be started at any time the player desired. Meanwhile, movies had strict showing times that had to be followed to enjoy the whole experience. While nickelodeons were initially short experiences, the industry’s drastic evolution during the cross-cultural fantasy era resulted in the featured films lasting for one to two hours. On the other hand, arcade games lasted at most ten to fifteen minutes as the difficulty of higher levels eventually forced average players to lose. Another significant revolution from the nickelodeons that the arcades took advantage of was the immense replayability of these games. The increasing difficulty and the sense of accomplishment that followed players being able to beat levels they formerly faltered encouraged them to spend countless quarters to beat the entire game. The explosive monetary success of these initial arcades and eventual home consoles such as the Atari-2600 set the foundation for the video game industry’s expansion in the 2000s.

Video games continued to grow as a pastime hobby for many people as years progressed. The days where people exchanged quarters at arcades to play one-shot, linear games quickly faded away as developers began to take advantage of the medium’s unprecedented possibilities. More popularity resulted in more revenue for the game developers. And they were enabled to take on more ambitious goals for their future projects. Today, the global gaming market has grown to a scale bigger than the film industry and the U.S. sports industry combined. A triple-A title, which is the video game equivalent to a blockbuster, Hollywood film, costs approximately the same to produce compared to its aforementioned cinema counterpart. As such, these games have become increasingly complex in narrative and content. Marketers for games boasted hundreds of hours that the consumers can enjoy. Many of them successfully delivered unique narratives that enhanced the interactive experience such as Batman: Arkham City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The developers of these games took full advantage of what their cinema predecessors have accomplished. Due to their proximity to many film studios, animators with extensive experience were recruited to enhance graphics’ quality. Simultaneously, famous actors such as Mark Hamill and Samuel L. Jackson breathed further life into the characters with their voice acting prowess.

Even with plenty of inspiration to take advantage of, video games began to show world-building limitations. Video games inherently became character-driven in order to emphasize their interactive nature. As a result, the environment became a mere setting for the story’s events to take place. Furthermore, the heavy emphasis placed on dialogue and character interaction resulted in cutscenes frequently featuring key figures advancing the story forward through long, extensive conversations that were such a stark contrast to the action-packed gameplay that players grew accustomed to. The players were right to voice complaints about this trend. After all, the advancing technologies continued to revolutionize the user experience for video games every day. Meanwhile, these games’ narratives seemed to stagnate and not go past the achievements established by other entertainment mediums. The game that best showcases this is Batman: Arkham City. The work had the immense advantage to start with, as it could tap into decades worth of comic books and movies of the beloved franchise. Furthermore, they were able to work with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, who respectively voice acted as Batman and the Joker for the widely celebrated Batman animated series in the 1990s. These advantages resulted in a game that was lauded for a story worthy of being a part of the franchise’s canon and a revolutionary gameplay experience revolving around intuitive yet sophisticated combat mechanics. However, critics voiced disappointments in the lack of creativity put into the design of the city. While the designers encouraged the players to explore by scattering “Riddler Trophies” all over the city, players quickly grew tired of the bland, repetitive alleyways and areas that showcased complicated puzzles that did not advance the narrative further. In the same year that Batman: Arkham City was released, a small Japanese developer of little pedigree released a game that shook the gaming community to its core: Dark Souls.

The initial preface to Dark Souls may make it seem like another typical medieval fantasy game. The player was to control the unnamed hero who was assigned a nigh-impossible task. The First Flame, the source of life in the world, was slowly fading away. The gods destined the hero to restore the First Flame by traveling to its kiln and rekindling it with their essence. To achieve this goal, the hero had to surpass countless challenges as the hostile world was ready to stop the hero at every corner. Despite these initial impressions, Dark Souls eventually accrued attention from both players and critics alike. For one, its unforgiving difficulty created a cult-like following amongst the players that enjoyed the immense challenge the game offered. What made Dark Souls stand out was not its formidable difficulty, however. There were plenty of games in the past that prided themselves on their impossible challenges such as Castlevania and Ghoul and Ghosts. What truly set Dark Souls apart from other games that preceded it was its willingness to break past precedents of a character-driven narrative. Players were shocked to realize that most of the game’s dialogues are entirely optional. At the same time, the hero that the player was able to control had the option to create different endings to the game depending on how the player has interacted with the world and its characters. This decision established an almost Goldilocks zone for both types of video game players. The players who enjoyed the gameplay were able to enjoy the game without worrying about the story. The players that were seeking an expansive narrative were rewarded with a shrewd and expansive world.

This paper will examine the world of Dark Souls and its sequels in detail and precisely portray how the games accomplish a new form of narrative that highlights the player’s agency while leading the story through subtle yet powerful clues that contribute to the overall lore revolving around the Age of Fire. The paper will also examine the franchise’s inspirations from the likes of theology and philosophy that embellish the world’s depth and maturity, allowing it to have a proper place in academia to critique and analyze. Multiple academic resources will be utilized to drive the arguments, which will be based around the optional dialogues, cutscenes, and the world that is explorable to the player, whether it be physical features or texts hidden in items that can be collected. Collectively, the paper strives to present video games, through the lens of Dark Souls, as a promising medium capable of accomplishing narrative achievements built from its predecessors. The franchise has proven that video games can elevate media to another level and potentially become the ultimate form of entertainment in the foreseeable future.

Methods

Organizing the narrative of the Dark Souls games is? much more complicated than one might expect. Due to the optional nature of the story, much of it is hidden away beneath the surface. The pieces that eventually add up to the overall lore are scattered throughout the game. For people who may be unfamiliar with these sources, providing an example where these sources are utilized to explain a subplot within the game seems necessary. The storyline of Siegward of Catarina in Dark Souls 3 is a perfect example of concise length that utilizes all these three elements. The Unkindled, the name of the player-controlled character, encounters Siegward throughout his journey when he is in immense peril. If the players assist Siegward, he gifts the Unkindled with Estus Soup, which is available in areas where Siegward can be reencountered. The soups are spotted in increasingly more dangerous places as it becomes evident that Siegward cannot hope to complete the task independently. The reasoning behind Siegward’s desperate journey can be found when Unkindled rescues him from another certain death:

“Have you heard? Somewhere, hidden right here in Irithyll, is a deep dungeon. And even below that, the Profaned Capital. Home of Yhorm, the reclusive giant lord. That reminds me, I’ve a grave promise to keep.”

The promise’s details can be discovered when the Unkindled acquires the Stormruler, which can be picked up from Siegward’s body after you help him kill Yhorm, the Giant. The item description explains why Siegward possesses the blade:

Yhorm the Giant once held two of these, but gave one to the humans that doubted him, and left the other to a dear friend before facing his fate as a Lord of Cinder.

As giants in Dark Souls are nigh-invincible beings, Yhorm gave one of the two swords that can kill him to Siegward to kill him when he failed to serve his duty as the Lord of Cinder. These sources, in combination, depict the journey of Siegward while adding more complexity behind the task of killing one of the Lords of Cinder.

As it was exemplified through the Siegward story, Dark Souls presents a collective narrative where these subplots often build into the main story rather than the subplots branching from the linear storyline. As such, an attempt to analyze the entirety of the three games’ overall narrative will not only be difficult but confusing to people who have not played the games. Due to these restrictions, the paper will focus primarily on key themes rather than the plot. The method of organizing the clues into a linear narrative doesn’t need to be accomplished. The readers will get the luxury of focusing on these themes, and the stories surrounding them will be supplements to enhance their comprehension. This method will ensure less confusion for people who have not played the game, which I assume to be the vast majority of the readers. Furthermore, focusing on the themes also makes it easier to find these ideas’ philosophical, theological, and literary origins. The juxtaposition between the inspirations and Dark Souls will also be streamlined using this process.

Part 1. In the Beginning

The world of Dark Souls borrows heavily from ancient mythology to create an intriguing, engaging world for its players to immerse themselves in. Consequently, the creation story for the Dark Souls universe greatly resembles the Babylonian myth of Tiamat. The details of the world before the First Flame can be acquired by examining a character named Aldrich in Dark Souls 3. The Unkindled, the game’s main character, can transpose the souls of his defeated foes into items through a process called soul transposition. Upon transposing Aldrich’s soul, the Unkindled discovers an item called Lifehunt Scythe that contains this text as its description:

Aldrich dreamt as he slowly devoured the God of the Darkmoon. In this dream, he perceived the form of a young, pale girl in hiding.

The details of his dream and the item that came out of Aldrich’s Soul give many contexts to his unique ability. Aldrich was able to identify Yorshka, a figure that is hiding from him despite never encountering her in person. The range of this vision is proven to extend to the past. The Lifehunt Scythe is an ability that Priscilla also uses in Dark Souls 1, and the events of that game occurred ages before the time of Aldrich. Aldrich also proves that he can look into the future through the description of his soul:

When Aldrich ruminated on the fading of the fire, it inspired visions of a coming age of the deep sea.

Aldrich describes a world of the deep sea, which was what the world was without the existence of the First Flame. And these details coincide with the known descriptions of Tiamat. After all, the very name originated from the word tiamtum, which means “sea” in ancient Babylon. Tiamat is the symbol of chaos and is depicted as a female serpent or dragon based on vague descriptions of her in Enuma Elish.

These similarities continue with more details of the age of the ancients, which an unknown narrator describes in the synopsis of Dark Souls 1:

The world was unformed, shrouded by fog. A land of gray crags, Arch Trees and Everlasting Dragons.

While there are no mentions of the ocean, traits of Tiamat can still be identified through the details provided in the synopsis. Dragons dominating over the formless, shapeless world can be considered nigh-duplicates to the myth of Tiamat and her dominion over the world before the rise of her rivals. The idea that the age of the ancients is symbolizing chaos can be further shown by the effect of the First Flame, which brings difference, hence order, into the formless world.

With fire came disparity. Heat and cold, life and death, light and dark.

The introduction of the First Flame also brings the rise of characters that rebel against the Tiamat-esque creatures that dominated this chaos. Amongst them, Gwyn, who is primarily lauded as the one that led the assault against the dragons, possesses many similarities to Marduk, the patron god of Babylon that defeated Tiamat. Marduk was thought to have control over storms, which he used to split the goddess of chaos in two. Similarly, Gwyn employs similar powers in his battle against the everlasting dragons:

Gwyn’s mighty bolts peeled apart their stone scales.

Even the consequence of the great battle is identical to one another. The divided body of Tiamat creates heaven and earth. The corpses of the everlasting dragons lift the unending fog and allow Gwyn to erect his kingdom in the now-visible lands. Upon closer inspection, one can immediately notice clear inspirations from the Babylonians that make the preface to the Dark Souls universe feel more like a creation myth.

The mythological aura of the world does not only stop at tales from Babylon, as there are heavy inspirations from the Zoroastrian faith when one closely examines the traits of the First Flame. The First Flame is an essential entity in the age of fire. The consequences of it fading away is depicted at the end of the synopsis for Dark Souls 1:

But soon, the flames will fade, and only Dark will remain.

Even now, there are only embers, and man sees not light, but only endless nights.

Due to these detrimental factors arising at the fading of the First Flame, the importance of sustaining it becomes a central task in the world. Great heroes who sacrifice themselves to the flames to fuel it are lauded as the Lords of Cinder and worshiped after their death. The sacred fire possesses an equally important role in Zoroastrianism. The religion revolves around the worship of Ahura Mazda, the all-powerful, all-good god of the world. He is constantly battling against the forces of Angra Mainyu, an evil, malevolent spirit that attempts to destroy and corrupt all of Ahura Mazda’s creations. The unifying trait of all their worship was revolving around the importance of the sacred fire. All Zoroastrian places of worship were called Fire Temples, where a fire roared at the center at all times. It was fueled five times a day, and every prayer was done in the presence of it. The maintenance of this fire was an essential part of the faith. The dousing of the sacred fire meant the loss of the testament of the great power and knowledge of Ahura Mazda. Without his power, the humans will be left vulnerable to the attacks from Angra Mainyu. Similarly, the world of Dark Souls suffers from the creeping of the Abyss, which consumes all creations of the First Flame.

Part 2. The Dark, Unconscious Soul

While the connections that the Dark Souls world and the ancient myths and religions may have may now seem more apparent, one can still question the necessity of such work. After all, why did the developers choose to ground their work in something already established when they could have also created something more original? Carl Jung, a famed psychologist during the 1900s, found ancient myths fascinating upon inquiring further about the same question. Through the lens of Jung, the lore of Dark Souls becomes not a standalone fiction or even an allegory. It becomes an original revelation of the preconscious psyche, involuntary statements about unconscious psychic happenings. The connection between the Dark Soul and humanity is quite explicit in the games. The soul is briefly mentioned in the exposition of the first game along with its wielder, who claimed to soul to himself after Gwyn and other greater lords departed with their Lord Souls:

And the furtive pygmy, so easily forgotten.

As there is very little information about the fourth lord, it is also one of the rare moments where the director of the series, Hidetaka Miyazaki, confirms that the furtive pygmy is the ancestor of humanity. By utilizing Jung’s theories of the unconscious, such as the Shadow and the archetypal persona, the battle between the First Flame and the Dark Soul of Man becomes a representation of the endless conflict between the unconscious and the ego inside the human psyche.

Despite the franchise being named after it, the amount of information available about the Dark Soul is scarce. Much of the world that is explorable in the three games is the byproduct of the three other souls. As they are understandable, defined areas of the world, the First Flame and its creations act as the ego-conscious: the central entity within the fathomable details of reality. When one understands that Age of Fire in this perspective, the role of the Dark Soul becomes one of the collective unconscious, the deeply rooted, automatic, inherited, and universal elements; hence the super-personal, or impersonal portions of the individual psyche. This explains the reasoning behind the lack of knowledge of the Dark Soul other than that it was used to father humanity. One of the few pieces of information that can be gathered is from the Chosen Undead’s, the protagonist of Dark Souls 1, interaction with Kaathe, the Primordial Serpent:

After the advent of fire, the ancient lords found the three souls. But your progenitor found a fourth, unique soul. The Dark Soul. Your ancestor claimed the Dark Soul and waited for Fire to subside. And soon, the flames did fade, and only Dark remained. Thus began the age of men, the Age of Dark.

The separation of the Dark Soul from the other Lord Souls is significant in a way where its power is inversely correlated with the status of the First Flame. While the other Lord Souls fade away along with it, the Dark Soul grows stronger.

The Dark Soul and the Dark’s effect is not considered a gentle occurrence but rather a perilous one. The Abyss, the ever-growing darkness that consumes the world as the First Flame fades, is a lethal entity in the world that destroys all that it touches that did not originate from the Dark Soul. Even humans are not necessarily safe from, however. Even though they can traverse through the Abyss, monsters creep from its depths and attack anyone that comes near. These details make the Abyss a symbol of the Jungian Shadow. This moral problem challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the Shadow without considerable honest effort. To become aware of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. While the Shadow continues to grow, the rebellion against the spreading darkness is described by Kaathe:

Lord Gwyn trembled at the Dark. Clinging to his Age of Fire, and in dire fear of humans, Lord Gwyn resisted the course of nature. By sacrificing himself to link the fire, and commanding his children to shepherd the humans.

With his sacrifice, the First Flame roared once more, and the Age of Dark was held at bay. The Age of Dark, or the Shadow, was deemed the world does not wish to be. While the Shadow is not necessarily entirely evil, it is an entity that is feared upon as it is full of the incomprehensible for the conscious. Regardless of the struggle of the conscious, the point is that the shadow cannot be eliminated. Such an attempt to quell the Dark Soul is shown through the artifacts found in the Ringed City.

The Ringed City acts as a symbolic representation of the unconscious as it inhibits the release of the Dark Soul and its attributed powers to the outside world. The pathway to the Ringed City begins to elude the sign of the collective unconscious according to the dialogues from the stone-humped hag:

At the close of the Age of Fire, all lands meet at the end of the earth. Great kingdoms and anemic townships will be one and the same. The forsaken Ringed City was walled off by the gods to contain the pygmies and the dark soul is better left well alone.

Such details can be seen from the variety of enemies that are preventing the progression of the Unkindled. Knights from different parts of the world can be seen while creatures corrupted by the Abyss are lingering throughout the area. The presence of the Abyss is intensified by monsters that possess the impenetrable dark as its heads, and they rise from the sludge of darkness and attack the living. This theory that the Ringed City symbolizes the collective unconscious is further confirmed by the second half of the dialogue with the hag when the Unkindled inquires further about its identity. Upon arriving at the city, it becomes glaringly evident that the defenses against the town are also meant to prevent the residents from leaving. Of all the subtle clues, the most visible one is the accursed Dark Sign branded onto the armor of the Ringed City Knights. The purpose of these signs are shown in the item description of the chest plates:

The armor of early men was forged in the Abyss, and betrays a smidgen of life. For this reason the gods cast a seal of fire upon such armor, and those who possessed them.

The armor possesses depthless darkness at the center, yet the darkness is prevented from spreading by the ring of fire surrounding it. Such visual symbolism is even seen in the sun as it slowly turns into the Dark Sign as the First Flame fades away.

The last addition to this allegorical city is Princess Filianore, the youngest daughter of Lord Gwyn:

For the pygmies, who took the dark soul, the Great Lord gifted the Ringed City, an isolated place at world’s end, and his beloved youngest daughter, promising her that he would come for her when the day came.

Filianore’s importance cannot be understated, given that much of the defenses are directly aimed at her protection. The giant Judicators can be seen throughout the city that summons spectral soldiers to attack the Unkindled. The leader of these guardians, Judicator Argo, iterate his order’s mission when the Unkindled attempt to enter Filianore’s resting place:

The Abyss runneth deep. By the King’s decree. None may distress our mistress’s slumber.

Upon inspecting Filianore’s physical details, there are further clues about the importance of her slumber. Firstly, her eyes are sealed shut since one cannot see her open them when she was awakened by the Unkindled. Secondly, upon her awakening, the world drastically changes into a devastated ruin, as her withered, dry corpse shows that her sleep has stalled the passing of time to prolong the imprisonment of the Dark Soul. This apocalyptic sight gives a grim reminder to the world. No matter how repressed the shadow may be, it will always resurge into the conscious. As if to prove this point, Dark Souls 3, which chronologically takes place generations after the first two games, shows the trace of the Abyss everywhere in the world. Furthermore, as the game progresses, it continues to broaden its domain as the world continues to grow darker towards the inevitable demise of the First Flame. For human nature is not constituted wholly of light but also abounds in shadows.

Part 3. The Archetype of the Lords of Cinder

The establishment of the Dark Soul and the Abyss as the symbol of the unconscious allows additional analysis to be done about the actions revolving around the rekindling of the First Flame. The primary objective of the three games revolves around the preservation of the Age of Fire. Much similar to the Zoroastrian sacred fire, the First Flame can be fueled by sacrificing the souls of great beings. Kaathe explains the ritual in Dark Souls 1 is one of his dialogues:

Lord Gwyn resisted the course of nature. By sacrificing himself to link the fire, and commanding his children to shepherd the humans.

Ever since then, this tradition has continued every time the flame was about to fade. The individuals that successfully preserved the First Flame are named Lords of Cinders. Examining these heralded heroes through a psychoanalytical perspective reveals an archetypal trend from the shadow’s collective fear. Archetypes are described as projections based on the unconscious that produce over the general population in the same or similar way. The recorded Lords of Cinder in Dark Souls 3 could not be more different from one another in terms of their story, physical appearance, and feats. To emphasize their differences, they are located in opposite corners of the world for the Unkindled to explore. For example, Aldrich, one of the Lords of Cinder, resides at Anor Londo, a city of the gods that can veer over all the other parts of the world. Meanwhile, Yhorm, who is also one of the Lords of Cinder, resides in the Profaned Capital, located in the depths of the world where only a glimpse of sunlight lights the otherwise dreary city. These differences, however, did not prevent these individuals from accomplishing the identical task of sustaining the Age of Fire. As such, the Lords of Cinder is functioning under a unison archetype that dissolves such individual differences. In this light, these personalities can be seen as a persona, an ephemeral identity of self that cannot sustain itself in the face of the unconscious’ continuous surfacing onto the conscious. As the fear of the shadow dominates not only them but the entire world, their attempt at individuality falters as they succumb to the archetype of the Lord of Cinder to do the duty that their predecessors have done for generations.

The physical projection of this archetype is the final foe of Dark Souls 3, the Soul of Cinder. The collective nature of this entity is better given away by its Japanese name, 王たちの化身, which translates to Incarnation of Kings. The description of the soul acquired once the Unkindled has defeated it also supports the theory:

Since Lord Gwyn, the first Lord of Cinder, many exalted lords have linked the First Flame, and it is their very souls that have manifested themselves as the defender of the flame.

Fitting to such a title, the Soul of Cinder utilizes countless weapons from all three games in combat. When the Unkindled proves to conquer through all the challenges, however, the Soul of Cinder musters its last strength to impersonate the first Lord of Cinder, Lord Gwyn. The broad sword swings, lightning attacks, and the solemn piano that is unmistakably his theme from the first game culminate the lengthy fight in both a brilliant homage and a symbolic proof of the existence of the archetype. For it is not he who thinks and speaks, but it feels and speaks within him.

Part 4. The End
The ending to the Dark Souls games leaves the protagonist in a decision regarding the survival of the First Flame. After all, the First Flame continues to fade, and the hero must decide between preserving it or letting it fade away. This decision can also be analyzed into a psychoanalytical one given the prior establishments made earlier in the paper. In Dark Souls 3, the Unkindled is essentially given two options. All the options revolve around the conflict between the conscious and the unconscious as the shadow inevitably continues to extend its reach.

First, he can rekindle the fire by sacrificing himself to the First Flame. The fire slowly consumes the Unkindled. However, there is a critical difference between the first rekindling and the revived First Flame size. When Lord Gwyn sacrificed himself, the magnitude of the resulting explosion consumed all of his following knights as well:

The knights followed Lord Gwyn when he departed to link the flame, but they were burned to ashes in newly kindled fire, wandering the world as disembodied spirits ever after.

On the other hand, there are no explosions of flame in Dark Souls 3 as the Unkindled idly wait for the slow, creeping flame to consume him. The efforts of repressing the unconscious are increasingly unsuccessful as the camera of the cinematic pans out into the dark world that does not grow brighter with the Unkindled’s sacrifice. The grim Dark Sign that replaced the sun acts as a grim reminder of the inevitable end of the Age of Fire as the screen goes dark.

Second, the Unkindled can allow the First Flame to fade and welcome the Age of Dark. Jung describes this process as an essential step towards individuation, searching for oneself in the chaos of the collective unconsciousness. The journey is a perilous one. The persona extracted from the unconscious archetypes can directly clash with the contents of the unconscious and leave the individual in a state of psychosis. The fear of the dark reaches the player as well as the light fades into complete darkness. However, the quiet voice of the Firekeeper, who has accompanied the Unkindled throughout his journey, gives assurance that the world has not come to an end, but is simply beginning once again.

Ashen one, hearest thou my voice still?