As the name would suggest, From Software's Dark Souls series can get rather gloomy. Taking place primarily in a kingdom or kingdoms that are on the precipice of ruin the setting indicates undeath in the same way that the gameplay and story do. Fallen kings and knights, mages who have lost their path, and many many failures make up the cast of the Dark Souls series.
While the game offers a subtle answer to this open-faced tragedy in the form of a message about persistence, that message fails to reach many of the characters in the story itself. Many storylines in the Dark Souls series seem designed from the ground up to show players what happens when the flame of perseverance gives up its last ember.
10 Quelaag Just Wanted To Help Her Sister
In most games, it would be pretty cut and dry to assume that a half-demon spider is evil and worthy of scorn. Dark Souls even delivers on that promise at first glance with the boss fight against Quelaag in Blighttown.
Upon further investigation, however, it becomes clear that Quelaag (one of the daughters of chaos) was simply a victim of a botched attempt to save the age of fire. Even worse, she only attacks the player in an attempt to gain humanity in order to help her nearly comatose sister who languishes not far from the boss arena.
9 Big Hat Logan Loses His Mind
The character of Big Hat Logan is one that gamers have seen in pop culture many times; the inquisitive scholar that decides to forgo all of life's normal pleasures in search of ultimate knowledge. It is rather ironic that Logan gains his moniker due to a hat so large it hides his face, avoiding the truth of his fame as a scholar. But far worse than the trite realization of trivial hypocrisy is the truly eldritch message that is sent by Logan's story.
If the player helps Logan and learns all that they can from him he will inevitably gain all the knowledge he ever sought. But instead of this knowledge allowing him to transcend into ultimate wisdom, in a Lovecraftian twist, it drives him completely insane.
8 Seath the Scaleless Betrayed His Own Kind To Genocide
In Dark Souls, the world began as a grey place ruled by immortal dragons. The dragons drew this immortality from stone scales that covered their body. Seath was born without the scales that gave his kind endless life and so he sought to find another path towards that end.
He learned the power of souls and of sorcery and eventually aided in the destruction of his own kind just to aid his attempts to make himself immortal. Eventually, he discovered a way to simulate the immortality of his brethren with crystals but gaining this insight cost him both his kin and his sanity.
7 The Legend Of Artorias Is Nothing But A Myth
The great knight Artorias is one of the most well-known characters in the Dark Souls series. His story however is not the tale of sacrificial heroism that it seems, however. Artorias's battle with the abyss is already a legend by the time Dark Souls begins and it is said that Artorias fell in battle saving the world from the abyss.
The sad truth is that Artorias fell and was trapped by the abyss long ago and it is only by the actions of the chosen undead, sent back in time, that the abyss is halted. While Artorias is remembered rightly as a hero, he was by no means as effective as his legend would indicate despite his epic boss fight.
6 Siegward of Catarina Has To Kill His Old Friend
At some point before the events of Dark Souls 3, Siegward of Catarina becomes close friends with Yhorm the Giant. If the ashen one goes through a series of quest triggers they might receive backup when they eventually face off against Yhorm. Siegward will appear and speak of making a promise to his old friend, that he would come and kill him when it became necessary.
When Yhorm fails to return to link the flame as his duty as a lord of cinder would require, Siegward will make good on his promise and assist the player in defeating Yhorm.
5 Slave Knight Gael Battled For Humanity Until The End Of Time
Among the oldest beings in the Dark Souls universe, Gael lived from the age of fire all the way until the bitter end of the final DLC of Dark Souls 3. He fought as a slave in endless wars, dying over and over again without hollowing. Then one day he found purpose in helping a new painted world come into being.
In order to do so, he warred against humanity until the end of time, consuming their souls. Yet it was all so that the dark soul of humanity could be used to paint a new world, one that might not fear and despise humans the same way the world of Gwyn did.
4 Gwyn Could Never Stave Off The Dark Forever
Gwyn was the lord of sunlight and shepherded the age of fire at the dawn of the Dark Souls world. But his great power came at the cost of fear. Fear that the dark soul of humanity would eventually lead to a new age of darkness.
So Gwyn did everything in his power to stop the age of darkness from coming. His allies accidentally created demons when they tried to make a new version of the first flame. He banished humans to a ringed city and accidentally created the undead with his dark sign. And eventually, he hollowed himself to make the fire last just a little bit longer.
3 Siegmeyer Of Catarina Cannot Be Saved
Many times during the first Dark Souls players will encounter the famous onion knight Siegmeyer of Catarina. On several occasions he tries to help the player out, offering his aid in battle. He also manages to get himself stuck in some bad places every so often. If the player saves him over and over he will eventually arrive to help save the player towards the end of the game.
He will tell the chosen undead to run and then sacrifices his life. If the player saves him from this fate an even darker ending awaits Siegmeyer. Siegmeyer views his incapability to save the player as a complete failure and goes hollow in his search for a warrior's death.
2 Solaire Might Never Find His Sun
Easily the most well-known character in Dark Souls is Solaire. His devotion to the warriors of sunlight and the sun itself has been among the greatest inspirations taken from the series and has found its way into artwork, videos, and stories wholly separated from Dark Souls. He is introduced early in the game and is the only NPC that can be summoned to battle Gwyn himself at the end should he manage to make it that far.
Sadly it is easy to miss certain aspects of his quests leading him to go insane and take a sunlight maggot as a crown. Should this happen, Solaire fails to ever find his sun or his purpose, instead he dies at the hands of the player.
1 Sif Is Duty Bound To Battle His Oldest Living Friend
When the chosen undead is sent back in time to battle Manus, the father of the abyss, they can find Artorias's wolf companion Sif. Sif can even help the chosen undead battle Manus and save the world from the abyss. But whether or not Sif meets the chosen undead or fights with them, Sif must fight them to the death in order to prevent them from taking Artorias's ring from his grave.
While the chosen undead and the player must take the ring in order to link the fire, Sif must protect it to keep the abyss sealed. And it is in this context of warring duties that the two old friends must kill one another. No matter how heroic of dutiful one is, they cannot persist cleanly in the land of Lordran.