The First Sin

40 min readApr 2, 2021

King’s Field.

The very title either elicits questioning looks or knowing nods from those knowledgeable about FromSoftware’s earlier works. Esoteric enough that it is generally lost to all but a very small group of dogged scholars and half-frenzied students.

A few years ago, I began my journey through the FromSoftware canon. Examining a game’s individual lore and piecing together what it means in a modern sense. No one game-studio is born from the head of Zeus fully formed, after all, and I wanted to experience the journey FromSoftware took to get to their modern works: the Dark Souls trilogy, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Déraciné. I was expecting to learn more about the developer, how they construct a game, narration, and their attention to level design. Ultimately, however, I expected totally unrelated games — isolated from one another in their own universes. I wasn’t expecting wild cameos and narrative threads that appear from game to game forming a loose tapestry, holding each game together like a prayer bead bracelet from either O*TO*GI or Sekiro.

With the release of Demon’s Souls (2020) a remake and partial re-imagining by SIE Japan Studio and Bluepoint Studios, there has been constant video essays and digital ink spilled; calling it the beginning of “the souls formula.” This isn’t particularly true. As I was inching my way through the catacombs in the Verdite Trilogy of King’s Field, battling reanimated skeletons and waging a war against the dragons Seath and Guyra for the freedom of man, I realized that Demon’s Souls is an evolution and a combination of the King’s Field and Shadow Tower formulae. Demon’s Souls picks up where both the Verdite Trilogy and Shadow Tower (particularly Abyss) narratively leave off.

Churn and Emergence

During the 90s, the business of video games was a wild west. There are stories of corporate espionage, of dramatic betrayals, and intra-corporation rivalries. After the US Video Game crash of the mid 80s — precipitated in part by Atari flying entirely too close to the sun — what emerged was leaner, younger, more lucrative, and far more cutthroat than ever. Led by the Japanese market, who were largely untouched by the video-game crash in the US, Nintendo and Sega’s efforts and rivalries in the home-console market were proving too lucrative for other electronic and game companies to resist and not also try their hand at the burgeoning industry.

The end of the fourth generation saw efforts from Phillips with the CD-I, Hudson Soft and NEC release the TurboGrafx, as well as Pioneer with the Lazer Active, all with varying degrees of success. The “Tower of Power” for the Sega Mega-Drive/Genesis was an attempt by Sega of America to extend the life span of the Sega Mega-Drive/Genesis, without knowing that Sega of Japan were simultaneously working on a successor in secret: The Sega Saturn. This duplicity, it is widely believed, is a major factor for Sega’s eventual exit from the home-console market.

With the year turning to 1993, Generation 5 was born and the market churn seen in Generation 4 continued, mostly resulting in failures despite speeding up technological innovation. Nintendo, seeing how companies were leveraging CD technology, given its ability to hold more data, began to dip their own toes into that space. First, with Sony in an attempt to upgrade the Super NES / Famicom in a deal stretching to 1988. Nintendo would back out in 1991 citing a contract that gave too much power to Sony, and would sign a deal with Phillips to leverage their knowledge of applying CD technology to games.

Incensed by the humiliation they felt at the abrupt end of their contract — without warning and during the middle of CES no less — with Nintendo and after a brief relationship with Sega, Sony decided to continue their Playstation project on their own. This, now, was a matter of Pride for Sony.

At the time, Sony was well positioned: they had a few years of experience working with Nintendo and Sega, as well as Sony Music’s experience with Audio CDs which proved pivotal. Later Sony would purchase the studio that would become SCE Liverpool who created a streamlined approach to creating games, as well as the first Playstation SDK. This SDK, combined with Sony’s aggressive courting of studios, meant that Sony would avoid the mistakes of other dead consoles and the isolated approach of Nintendo and Sega.

In December of 1994, the Sony Playstation would be launched in Japan to stunning sales, trailing the Sega Saturn by 200,000 units for the year. Among the Japanese launch titles was a game with a garish red and gold cover and an aggressively pointy font: King’s Field.

The Dungeons of Mad Overlords

Founded in 1977, ASCII Corporation ( 株式会社アスキ）began with publishing magazines on the ins and outs of computing; targeting the business user. It expanded with a partnership with Bill Gates resulting in the first overseas sales office for Microsoft, called ASCII Microsoft. The corporation rapidly expanded from there and eventually began to publish software, such as the Japanese port of a Canadian game from 1981 called Wizardry.

Wizardry would become incredibly influential to Japanese Game Creators in a way only matched by Ultima and Ultima Online to early American Game creators. Wizardry is a Dungeons and Dragons-esque dungeon crawler for PC that features monsters, puzzles, and hidden secrets to find. Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord was also fairly difficult, made more difficult by a poor translation into Japanese that did not explain in-jokes or parodies that would make sense only to a North American audience.

Only eight main games spanning the years of 1981 to 2001 were published. However, Japanese creators would create spin-offs, sequels, and their own original work within the Wizardry universe spanning 39 individual titles, all due to its incredible popularity. So popular was the game that there was even an OVA commissioned by ASCII Entertainment in 1991.

Among the Game Creators influenced by Wizardry was Naotoshi Zin, President of FromSoftware, a company at the time programming automation tasks for pig farms in Rural Japan. With the market churn in the Video Game industry, and his own near-death experience in a Motorcycle accident, Zin would begin to pivot FromSoftware towards the business of video games.

Guiding Moonlight

King’s Field was initially intended to be the second release after what would become Armored Core. Though due to programming issues, Armored Core would switch places in the release schedule with King’s Field as their first entry and would launch with the Japanese Playstation; not a small feat for a programming team of 18, two music composers, and a single sound effect programmer.

Like Wizardry and its list of achievements, King’s Field was a fully polygonal game and used the latest technology at its launch. There are no pre-rendered or image backgrounds. All of it was rendered in real time, an incredible achievement given that 3D polygonal games were in their infancy while contending with the limitations of the original Playstation. Even more incredible was the lack of loading of the world — only loading the whole floor when touching the teleport sigil. Also like Wizardry, the game is in first person with the player controlling the protagonist as he slowly moves through the catacombs, searching for his Father. And, also like Wizardry, King’s Field was difficult and replete with puzzles, hidden walls, and secrets to unravel to be able to travel to the next floor.

Publishing in the US was optioned to Wizardry publisher ASCII Entertainment. Though they would decline to publish this first entry as by the time the Playstation would release in North America, FromSoftware would have already released King’s Field II. ASCII Entertainment would publish King’s Field II and III as King’s Field I and II respectively. ASCII Entertainment’s North American Arm, wouldn’t spin off from ASCII and become independent until the dawn of the new Millennium, becoming AGETEC (Ascii Game Entertainment Technology).

The Verdite Trilogy

Without this unlikely group of incredible circumstances converging, it’s unlikely that King’s Field would have existed and we would have been all the worse for it.

Wearing its Wizardry influence on its sleeve, King’s Field is a first-person Action RPG and adventure game. Specific to FromSoftware and unlike the earlier entries into the Wizardry franchise, is its focus on the aesthetic of the game, level design, and their method of environmental storytelling; small tantalizing bits of lore that can be put together to see the larger whole.

King’s Field is set in the Northern Continent within the Kingdom of Verdite, which takes its name from an ultra-rare magical crystal that can be mined from the nearby mountains. Once, this crystal was revered by the High Elves and strengthened latent magical ability. The Northern Continent’s history and ontology stretches thousands of years even before John Alfred Forester of King’s Field entered Verdite’s Catacombs.

In primordial times, Gods walked the World; chief among them Vallad. Through Vallad, the world came into existence: grass grew, mountains formed, and all the races of the world came out of the creative muck. This includes humanity, high-elves, and dwarves. Gods, however, are not immune to the ravages of entropy and Time and soon, Vallad and his fellow Gods grew tired. Many had departed for Sylvan, a sort of afterlife, leaving Vallad by himself. As his final action, Vallad created the twin Dragons: Seath the White Dragon of Darkness and Guyra, the Black Dragon of the Forest. Each of them was given half of Vallad’s godhood and given the mandate to safeguard Vallad’s creation for the remainder of time.

Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan.

Seath and Guyra despised each other, each coveting the other half of Vallad’s godhood. Their war was terrible and many found their ends as part of the war. According to the Dragon Grasses, ancient trees who bore witness, after eons of fighting, Seath and Guyra could no longer draw enough energy to fight one another head to head. Instead, they created special swords meant to kill the other: the Moonlight Sword — meant to kill Seath — and the Dark Slayer — meant to kill Guyra. This began a long Proxy War, where the Dragons would lie and manipulate who they could in their terrible desire for the other’s power.

In fact, the creation of the Moonlight Sword and Guyra’s fall was such a momentous occasion, that it finds itself in world myth. In the Japanese manual of King’s Field II it is written 「青い光を佯った巨大な船が天から陛ち島の地中深く沈んだ」which reads approximately, “A huge ship bathed in a pillar of blue light, falls from the heavens to the underground of the island.”

Melanat was once the island home of the High-Elves. Its land was rich with magical crystals, and artifacts and the High-Elves, unknowing of Seath’s true aims, worshiped Seath. Upon Melanat, temples to Seath were built to exalt the White Dragon and his healing water fountains, to enshrine the Dragon Grass, as well as to enshrine the Black Crystal of Seath.

One of these faithful High-Elves was the warrior Merlin (Merrill Ur according to US KFII’s translation). Seath had gifted this talented warrior armor and the dark crystal — a requirement to create the Dark Slayer — and was sent to fight Guyra himself. His failure reverberated, and his equipment was sprinkled through the island; sealed by Seath’s magical power and the Dark Slayer reverted to its crystalline state. Yet, even their fealty and loyalty to Seath did not save them from being thought of as expendable in their great proxy war: Seath murdered most of the high-elves with a poisonous fog and water. Their spirits corrupted and became evil and they took the black power offered by Seath, the White Dragon of Darkness — unaware that it was Seath that engineered their destruction.

Only the High Elf Olfe, former high-priest of Seath, knew the truth of Seath’s duplicity. And in death, trapped in a blue primordial crystal, is trying to tell the truth of what happened to his home.

Seizing the island of Melanat from Seath, Guyra awaited a champion to wield his sword, allowing monsters to rise up and invade the island. The island and its poisonous waters left by Seath and Guyra make the island both a no-man’s land and a trap.

Another possible champion appeared in the form of the Wind King, King Harvine. Before his coronation, the Northern Continent was splintered into three kingdoms: Verdite, Granatiki, and Egret. The Wind King seized power and unified the continent under his crown, establishing Verdite as his capital as it held cache’s of the crystal that shared its name. As it turns out, aristocracy is in part, determined by magical aptitude, and only those with any modicum of it — and thus blood of a High-Elf — is part of what creates an aristocrat or royal.

King Harvine was powerful, but he was no great judge of character. The Wind King had two other Arch-Mages at his side: Shudom, Archmage of Earth and Tsedeck, Archmage of Fire. Perhaps unbeknownst to Harvine, Shudom and Tsedeck both had dark secrets of their own. Both magi, proteges of the Archmage Orladin, were talented in their own right. Shudom was working on the creation of Golems, in an attempt to follow in Orladin’s footsteps and create life in the ‘Place of the Beginning,’ the place where life began. Tsedeck masked craven wants for power.

Harvine, in an attempt to conquer the unconquerable — the Island of Melanat — which can be seen from his seat of power in Verdite, took Shudom and Tsedeck with him to the island. Tsedeck assisted in the creation of the castle and the lighthouses that dot the shoreline; however, the fire-mage was simply biding his time. At the Island of Melenat, Harvine wished to establish a splendid castle and to move his capital there, directly challenging the legends that he perhaps thought he would be untouched by.

He couldn’t have been more wrong.

The Island of Melanat, however, suffers no master — neither prince or pauper or pirate or King. It sees no difference between them and the Pirate Ship that crashed on the island. King Harvine was soon beset by monsters. With his castle and his ambitions in ruins, Harvine and Tsedeck fled with whatever spoils they could, including the Moonlight Sword. Their return back to Verdite was met with War between the three nations. Tsedeck took this opportunity and murdered Harvine, taking the crown for himself.

Shudom, meanwhile, took over Guyra’s Colosseum from the Water Archmage Kal Fargus. Here, at the island of Melanat, Shudom was able to continue his experimentation with the creation of life and abandoned his Golems in Verdite. Shudom pivoted to using and enslaving the Giants still living on the island and worked them to death.

Hundreds of years later, the three nations have long found an equilibrium and are diplomatically stable with one another. Magical aptitude is grouped into these royal families, high-elf blood having long been diluted within the rest of humanity. The marks of Harvine still remain. In Verdite, the temples of Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth are known for the Arch-mages of now legend. The Temple of Wind, in particular, takes on the sobriquet as the Palace of Wind in honor of King Harvine.

One feature of note in Verdite, within the Royal Grounds of the Castle is the entrance to a catacomb.

Except it wasn’t always a Catacomb.

Once, it was a shrine: not dissimilar to those in Melanat. Except where the ones on Melenat were dedicated to Seath, this was dedicated to Guyra, the Dragon of the Forest, and his Dragon Knights. Here the Dragon Knights were also enshrined and entombed here. Over time, this faith faded and the purpose of the shrine was lost; floors closer to the surface were converted into a winding, labyrinthine catacomb. Truth fades into legend, as it is liable to do, and the truth of what the purpose of the Shrine was for transformed into legends of magical artifacts and crystals buried in the depths. Faith was exchanged for the seductive whispers of power ripe for the taking if only one was bold enough to venture deeper. For FromSoftware, truth is the most fragile magic of all — as it so easily twists and morphs into an unrecognizable legend; a foundational piece of lore and essential to understand both Dark Souls II and III.

And thus, treachery roils within Verdite’s Royal Family. To the public, Randolph VIII died though mysteriously. Reinhardt II assumed the throne and appointed a magician and dark knight as his aides. However, Reinhardt II would disappear into the catacombs, flanked by the Black Knight and the Magician. This left Reinhardt III, especially prodigious in the magical arts, to take the crown to rule Verdite.

Reinhardt III’s first decree was to send his armies into the Catacombs, secretly in search of Magical Artifacts. Reinhardt III led his entire army, with Commander Hauser Forrester by his side, into the Catacombs, but none returned to the surface. Furthermore, Commander Hauser Forrester was well known to be exceptionally skilled with a sword, making the fact that he, of all people, have not emerged from the catacombs suspect.

His Son, John Alfred Forrester, had gone to The Kingdom of Granatiki to train with its second Prince, Alexander. Hearing of the disappearance of the retinue, his family sword, and more importantly his Father, John Alfred returned to his home and entered the Catacomb himself. Within, John Alfred finds that Reinhardt III’s retinue was beset by monsters and the raised dead, nearly immediately after entering the catacomb. The Crestfallen Knight, Basque Cruiz welcomes him and tells him of this initial, ill-fated encounter. Judas Kross, the retinues priest, remains but his pews remain empty.

Merchants and Grave Robbers have set up shop, hoping to make a few coins from desperate soldiers hoping to survive the monstrous onslaught and no way out. As John Alfred makes his way deeper into the Catacombs, he discovers the truth of the Royal Family’s infighting: Reinhart II orchestrated his rise to power, poisoning and sealing Randolph VIII into the Catacombs. Only to have Reinhardt III seize the crown and the later did John Alfred discover that Reinhardt III turned Reinhardt II to stone. More pressingly to John Alfred’s individual quest, however, his Father had died, while defeating Reinhardt II’s Black Knight.

Reinhardt III’s mission is to find magical crystals but more importantly searching for a Magical Artifact he believes is within the Catacombs. However, he is also being secretly manipulated by Guyra and his handmaiden, the Dragon Fairy Miria, to find and prove themselves worthy of the Moonlight Sword. Reinhardt III, however, is found wanting.

Fortunately, the Moonlight Sword — the legendary Magical Artifact that the Verdite Royals were killing themselves over — was never in the catacombs. It passed from Harvine’s retinue, into the Family Forrester. Its power having waned, the now named Dragon Sword was a Sword seemingly made of Stone. It is John Alfred who finds his Father’s sword resting with his Father’s remains, healing grasses growing in the dark over the burial mound, and resolves to see the matter through. In the process, finding the grotesque demon skeleton that was the Dark Magician of Reinhardt II’s retinue.

Guyra and Miria, seeing this new arrival find and prove himself worthy, restore the Dragon Sword to its former glory.

John Alfred Forrester finds what is now Reinhardt III, after finding the remains of Reinhardt II. Reinhardt III, in command of the legions of monsters and Demon Lords, is now himself a tree; feeding off of the magical energy of Guyra’s presence and Seath’s waters that have seeped through the soil and rock. He had failed in his quest for the Moonlight Sword as John Alfred’s Dragon Sword was the Moonlight Sword the whole time.

Defeating the grotesque Reinhardt III, John Alfred emerges from the Dragon Shrine Catacombs with the Holy Moonlight Sword and is crowned Holy King of Verdite by its people.

But Guyra did not bequeath the sword to John Alfred to become King.

Guyra meant for John Alfred to take the sword and fight and destroy Seath. When this did not happen, Guyra hatched a new plan to either find a new Champion or to force John Alfred to destroy Seath. For this, Guyra escaped to Melanat to regroup. Soon after, monsters attacked Verdite and when the Holy King of Verdite, (John) Alfred went to collect the Holy Moonlight Sword, Alfred found that it was stolen in the milieu. Though Alfred was willing and able to find the sword himself, he also had more responsibilities than just a sword. Alexander, his best friend and second Prince of Granatiki, volunteered to lead the search expedition to retrieve the treasure of Verdite.

Thus, would begin Alexander’s own descent and eventual disillusionment with the world mythos; as well as the rise of his belief in Humanity in and of itself.

Alfred didn’t send his best friend to go to Melanat on his own. Though the Island is a short distance from the shores of Verdite, the danger it posed spurred Alfred in sending a retinue along with Alexander. It did the young Granatikian Prince little good. On the voyage to the Island of Melanat, the ships carrying Alexander and his retinue were struck by a storm; sinking the ships. By some miracle or machination, Alexander survived. In this fight for survival, however, Alexander was stripped of his armors and weapons and would wake up beside a large Kraken.

As he explores, he comes across the villages that have sprung up through the island. The handful of which were erected in a bid to support the miners who are working tirelessly between two mines: the Big and Little mines. Most of the workers have been kidnapped and brought to the island. Drinking the waters from the springs that dot the island do the rest: the Seath Waters on the island — poisonous to High Elves — are simply addictive to the human populace to the point where the populace can no longer leave.

Of these people is a young woman called Nola Bagil, who is searching for her brother Dias. She arrived here with her brother, willingly, along with his friend, Fai. Dias was always a fighter and so Nola believes he’s disappeared in the depths of the mysterious island in a search. Fai, however, hides from Dias knowing very well what he’s become.

Dias, as Alexander comes to find out, has refashioned himself as the villain Necron after becoming the current champion of Guyra. Entranced by the idea of becoming stronger and of fighting and proving that strength, he gained Guyra’s favor. As their new master, Necron, those small villages that have been working tirelessly in the mines to collect as many magical elemental crystals as possible are blessed with Daylight while the rest are plunged into endless Night due to displeasing their new masters.

Necron’s enslavement of kidnapped peoples however, wasn’t the end of his atrocities in Guyra’s name and it wouldn’t be the end of a Dragon throwing away once faithful servants. Using the light crystals that have been mined through the island, Necron and Guyra used them as electricity sources and were experimenting upon the Dragon Fairies. Through their experimentation, the Dragon Fairies are being turned into the terrible Demon Lords.

Cutting down monster after monster and picking through the ill fated ruins of Harvine’s Castle, Alexander comes to know the truth of Guyra, Dragon of the Forest and Seath, the White Dragon of Darkness. The truth being that both Dragons care little about the world created by Vallad and will stop at nothing, with no atrocity being too great to kill the other. Finally, Alexander realizes the true purpose of the “Holy” Moonlight Sword and that Guyra only instigated its ‘disappearance’ to force John Alfred to come to the island. Things don’t go to Guyra’s plan and after Necron’s defeat, Alexander enters the Abyss where Guyra waits with the Holy Moonlight Sword captive at his tail.

With Guyra’s defeat, Alexander retrieves the sword that has caused so much pain and death and returns to Verdite. Truly disgusted with the whole situation, Alexander is scared by the new knowledge that the Dragon Pair do not hold their best interests in mind; they are far from benevolent gods and are more demons. Alexander decides that the power of the Moonlight Sword isn’t because of the Gods and Monsters who use them as playthings; but because of people’s faith in the Sword and thus the power of Humanity itself. The Moonlight Sword alongside the Dark Slayer, fashioned by one of the last remaining High Elves, Leon Shore, to defeat Guyra, became twin Verdite treasures.

Unfortunately, Seath was nowhere to be found and was simply biding his time upon the Moon waiting for his chance to strike.

The power vacuum left by the death of Guyra proved to be that chance.

Soon after the recovery of the swords from the Island of Melanat, the once beloved Holy King Alfred fell ill. Though the man recovered, he was no longer the man Alexander or Alfred’s Queen knew. His eyes were cold and hard and Alfred’s Queen died herself, very soon after. Alexander, resolved to fight the man he once thought of as his Best Friend and comrade. However, when Alexander went to retrieve the Moonlight Sword, it was broken into two halves; its luster dimmed.

With time running out, Alexander becomes a Light Mage with the remaining power of the Sword and seals the Castle to contain the rising threat of John Alfred Forester. Gathering four advisors to his side, Alexander bequeathed them pieces of this light with the only direction to give this light to John Alfred’s son, Austin Lyle. With the last of the power in the Sword and sacrificing his life, Alexander surrounded the whole of Verdite with a colorless fog-light, sealing the kingdom to await Lyle’s Coming of Age.

Lyle was the final hope of Verdite.

King’s Field III begins fifteen years after Alexander, in his desperation, sealed Verdite to its fate. Alexander’s sacrifice saved his own kingdom of Granatiki as well as Egret, but it was never a permanent option. It has been fifteen years since Austin Lyle was assumed dead, spirited away to live with Leon Shore; High-Elf Craftsman who made his way to the Northern Content from Melenat after the events of King’s Field II. It has been fifteen years since the young Prince has seen his father. The seals placed upon the castle and the seal placed around Verdite itself, are now failing. Austin Lyle no longer has the luxury of time and whether he is ready or not, childhood ends. However, Austin Lyle would not be without arms.

Leon, sensing that the time was near for Lyle to undertake his quest of regicide, set to work creating a third sword — the Crystal Sword called The Excellector. The Excellector would prove to be Leon Shore’s masterwork, a sword to rival the Dragon Swords: the Dark Slayer and the Moonlight Sword. It would be a sword that would be free of the influence of the Dragons — created as Humanity’s sword — and would grow with Lyle as he would prove himself worthy of the magic of the Advisors and acquire the relics of Ichrius. Only then, would Lyle gain entrance to the Royal Grounds and beyond, His Father.

Lyle enters the Royal Grounds after navigating through crags, ruined villages, incalculable loss, and death — most notably of his childhood friend and so many others. After dodging the incredulity of his surviving countrymen and the monsters that others have become, Lyle is faced with his final challenges. Here, on the grounds, Lyle finds the ghost of Alexander, trapped like Alfred is and offers Lyle advice.

Stepping into the Catacombs, the very same his Father entered years earlier on his own honorable quest, Lyle gets a taste of what his Father encountered. It is almost a reenactment. Lyle retraces his Father’s Footsteps to restore the Moonlight Sword to its power. The merchant from the strange Light Family still exists, though now the once rotund man is now nothing but a skeleton, still selling his wares and greedy for coins. Reaching the bottom, where the twisted, tree monster that was once Randolf III sits, is the horrible consciousness of Guyra.

Though defeated by Alexander, Guyra’s hateful consciousness remains — attempting to regain a sort of form in his power nexus. Once again, Guyra restores the Moonlight Sword in Lyle’s possession. It should be apparent, then, that to defeat the dragons they both need to be defeated.

Cutting through the monsters that festoon the castle, including Dragons and living suits of armor, Lyle approaches the throne room. Behind that door is the Father he, for the most part, probably doesn’t remember and the King that has caused so much strife. John Alfred, possessed by Seath, doesn’t recall the young man is who he is, but is impressed with the young mortal’s tenacity to stand before Seath’s wickedness.

The world changes and suddenly both Lyle and the Former Holy King are on the bloody battlefield littered with the bloody bodies of their countrymen.. Alfred is powerful, his magic coming from his blood rather than bequeathed to him and he carries the Dark Slayer at his hand; the Sword to destroy Guyra. It is a difficult battle and only after Alfred is felled, is the truth behind Alfred’s fall revealed: Seath himself; hiding on the moon, a craggy, barren landscape. Lyle realizes that his Father has long since not been his father; he has been controlled by the White Dragon for unknown ends.

Alfred’s defeat is also his death, putting an end to the story of a man who, at one time, idolized his father and simply wanted to be just like Hauser Forrester. With the last of his strength, Alfred thanks his son and puts the last of his strength and magic into the Moonlight Sword. Lyle has freed his father’s soul which was being held captive by Seath for 15 years.

Was Lyle prepared if his Father the King was simply mad? Would the young Prince be able to carry the weight of patricide? Thankfully, it recontextualizes itself as a rescue mission to wrest his Father’s soul from the clutches of Darkness and a Mad Dragon. Either way, Lyle has little time to regroup as Seath himself challenges Lyle.

As it turns out, Seath has been hiding on the Moon biding his time. Now that his champion’s body has fallen, Seath attempts to fight the Prince hoping to take Lyle’s body as a replacement. Seath is a strange, winged creature with Alfred’s face at chest, a symbol of his imprisonment. Like Guyra, Seath is a knock down drag-out fight, as Lyle is no longer fighting just for his Father but for himself and the World.

With Seath’s defeat on the moon, the clouds break and Lyle finds the demons that once terrorized the land crumbling to dust. Vallad, who has been nothing more than visions in dreams, tells Lyle that there are no longer Gods to shape the world. Humanity, though small, will have to bind together and take responsibility for one another. That as long as there is a Golden King, with a righteous heart, this moment of peace will be eternal.

Provided By: Zoh The Knight/ FromSoftware株式会社

The Idol of Sorrow and The Twin Dragons

King’s Field IV, The Ancient City does not take place within the Northern Kingdoms holding Verdite. Instead, it focuses on Prince Devian, chosen at seemingly random to return the Idol of Sorrow to the heart of the Ancient City. The Idol of Sorrow is a harbinger of doom, bringing destruction to the lands it finds itself in. Devian has no choice but to return the idol, his homeland is at stake. Adding to this lack of choice, Devian cannot lose the idol — or even sell it to someone else. It has bound itself to him.

A more intimate story than the Verdite Trilogy, Devian explores the twisting labyrinth of the Ancient City. There, he uncovers another story of ambition gone wrong and the utter tragedy it has brought. At the heart of the Ancient City is the pitiful creature of the former King of the Ancient City, his name lost. He asks a simple question: “Do you seek the Darkness too?”

King’s Field Additional I and Additional II, are a sidequel released in the Verdite Trilogy universe — assuming that Lyle does not defeat Seath and does not uncover the White Dragon’s plot. It is much more set up as a Wizardry like, complete with first person teleporting movement. Both games are really a single one with the first being required to reach the final ending in the second where our protagonist, from a different kingdom than Verdite, faces the Twin Dragons. Ultimately, destroying their horrible, unified form.

Analysis

These games establish the narrative tropes, meditations, and narratives on things that even today FromSoftware are known for: ambition misplaced, deconstruction of human exceptionalism, and the danger of “placing idols on a pedestal.” In this, many coming to these games from Dark Souls and even those who have played these games chronologically, will find a consistency in storytelling concepts.

Ambition

Ambition is a word that for many is a generally positive trait. Though for FromSoftware, ambition and particularly narcissistic ambition is something to be ashamed of. Nowhere in the Verdite Trilogy is this more apparent than with King Harvine. Despite the fact that Harvine is never met and that his entire arc is told through item descriptions and lore given to us by the Truth Mirror, his character arc is a parable on Narcissistic Ambition.

Unifier of the Northern Continent beneath his crown and Wind Mage of exceptional Power, things were going well for Harvine. Verdite became the seat of power for him, not just because of its central location but also for its proximity to the eponymous resource, Verdite. For Harvine, access to this incredibly rare resource — that promises a strengthening of his power — is worth more than even the most fertile farmland, or location near waterways.

Of course, this wouldn’t be enough. Not with the specter of the mysterious Island of Melanat at his proverbial doorstep. No, it was a thing he had to conquer despite the warnings from the Fortuneteller. Warnings that Melanat would not suffer a would-be conqueror, crown or not, went unheeded.

Without knowing it, Harvine’s actions would bring about his end covered in blood.

King Harvine’s attempts to not only build a castle on the island of Melanat but to also move his capital there, speaks to the folly of so many Kings in the FromSoftware Canon. None seem to truly understand the power they covet: whether it’s The Old Monk, Gwyn, Martyr Logarius, or even Sulyvahn. All of them seem to attempt to conquer thinking that it is their Divine right to do so, totemic in their crown, and that the world around them will simply bow to their whim.

The world does not.

Melanat, after all, already had a master.

Harvine’s folly on the Island of Melanat ends in disaster and humiliation. The King had to flee the island and left the majority of his armies behind to die to monsters, armed with only Harvine’s flimsy promise that he would return for them. He would not. Shuddom would not return with the retinue, his own obsessions taking precedence over his loyalty to Harvine. Harvine’s armies, decimated at the time, left Verdite defenseless when the other two kingdoms brought war to Verdite. Tsedeck too, was sharpening his knives.

Harvine would pay a hefty price for his ambition.

Deconstructing the Chosen Myth

Many games of this ilk frame the protagonist as an exceptional person, a hero, or even a Chosen One. In essence, these games ask the player to buy into the narrative of the exceptional human and sometimes by extension that Humanity itself is exceptional. Games like Baulder’s Gate, Dragon’s Age, and Guild Wars, even if you can play a different race, position humanity as a sort of bridge and kingmaker. Without the hand of Humans the world would not be saved.

King’s Field and by extension, Fromsoftware Canon, deconstructs this trope. While only certain people can wield magic, it isn’t because they are chosen by some higher power; it is simply by accident of birth. More tellingly, Humans are simply the tool left for Seath and Guyra to use in their terrible proxy war against one another. Humans were just the latest in their tools; they have treated all of their other tools, including Dragon Fairies, Giants, and High-Elves, as expendable.

Humanity doesn’t serve any grand purpose. There is no plan put forth for Humanity by Vallad. Humanity is simply another in a long line of races created to populate the world and weak at that, especially in the face of demons, monsters, and Dragons.

John Alfred Forrester is the closest we come to a classical Heroic character. But even he is revisited in King’s Field III, with his corruption revealing that he, like the player, is simply a person who chose to reach within themselves and do what had to be done. He wasn’t chosen, he simply chose to rise to the occasion to find his father and defeat a corrupted crown.

In Dark Souls, the player is given a false narrative that they are The Chosen Undead. It isn’t until the end of the second Act and the beginning of the third, does the mask come off. Your player character isn’t the Chosen Undead, prophesied to link the fire. Instead, you are one of many Chosen Undead. Thus begins the arc of just how little the world of Dark Souls thinks of and fears Humanity, even going so far as to bury the truth of Man’s place. Especially, after the reveals of the Ringed City.

One thing to note, however, is that the translation of King’s Field II, known as King’s Field US, strives to adjust the in-game narratives to cover for the missing first game. In so doing, it attempts to make Prince Alexander’s adventure into a Chosen One narrative — that he is “the Chosen Man with the Chosen Sword.” This is, unfortunately, an invention of AGETEC and isn’t present in the Japanese Script.

This makes the narrative choice to not have a Chosen Man in the Verdite Trilogy actually stand out. Alexander is simply a man, wishing to prove who he is to both himself and to his best friend and to retrieve his best friend’s Family Sword.

Covetous Dragons

Coveting another’s power or even competition for more power than another is a constant theme in these games. The power struggles between actors struggling to gain an upper hand have shaped the world and its mythos Though the war can be violent, most of the time it is carried out via proxies and monkey-paws: tools and the unwitting fools that inadvertently do their bidding. The cast has barely changed between games, speaking to some of the constancy of Fromsoftware’s seeming disapproval.

Bloodborne features a schism between Laurence, the first Vicar and Master Willhem. Between Byrgenwerth and the Choir. Each has used Yharnam in their quests for ascension and insight, but via differing paths: blood communion for one and the study of eldritch truths for the other. Their intellectual war flares up in their history but by the time your Hunter signs the contract, they suffer the same fate. Neither faction really understood the Great Ones or the eldritch power they both coveted; it was a nightmare for both just the same. All they really have is the burned shell of Old Yharnam, people frozen in the terror of their final moments in Yhar’har’gul, and the mummified dead in supplication around the dead form of Micholash.

Sekiro’s Owl and Ashina Genichiro are two sides of the same coin. Each one of them covets the Dragon’s Heritage to such a degree that they would betray their ethics to get it. Past his prime, Owl covets the immortality and power that might be blessed upon him if he was oathed to Kuro. As a result, he hastens the march of progress in the form of Oda Nobunaga to Ashina. He takes a direct role in the sabotaging of Ashina’s military, thereby betraying his oaths by opening the door to its destruction. Genichiro is obsessed with protecting Ashina, the face of Oda Nobunaga’s specter. For Genichiro, the adopted son of Ashina Isshin, he wanted to prove his loyalty and in so doing betrayed his family — and himself. He gives up his very humanity in his quest for the power promised by the Dragon’s Heritage and destroys himself in the process. Both are willing to tear their entire world down in their single minded goal. One has to wonder, what would be left for them to rule if either side was successful.

Doman, the antagonist in Kuon, presents a small twist. He is another Onmyouji obsessed with proving himself superior to Abe no Seimei. He covets her position and her power and sees the Kuon ritual as his way to prominence while stepping on Abe no Seimei’s head. To this end, he makes a deal with the Mulberry Twins, who have their own aims, and is directly responsible for the murder of the Fujiwara Compound. From peasant servants to Daimyo, all of them were murdered in increasingly gruesome ways.

The Cast of Kuon: (Sakuya L, Utsuki C, Kureha R)

Doman is not even above using his own daughters for this cause, sacrificing them to the Mulberry Twins without a single paternal thought. So blind to his obsession for more power and his lust for what Abe no Seimei has achieved, he doesn’t realize he also arms the daughters he destroyed the lives of like Owl inadvertently armed Wolf with the tool of Owl’s own destruction. Owl, similarly single minded in his drive for immortality, stabbed his son in the back during the original attack upon Ashina, which led to Wolf’s empowerment — inadvertently arming Wolf with the tools to defeat Owl and gain a measure of revenge. Doman’s story is framed as a Kaidan, which focuses on those who were once powerless, gaining that power for their revenge. Doman’s own dogged drive for immortality inadvertently empowers his daughters and revenge, his daughters receive. Instead of immortality, their father meets his end at the bottom of a bamboo box.

Nowhere is this a bigger keystone in the narrative than in both the King’s Field and Dark Souls games. Seath and Guyra (known as Kalameet in Dark Souls) covet one another’s godhood and, in King’s Field, have fought a war amongst themselves for so long that both are exhausted, resorting to proxies and puppet wars. They have murdered multitudes in their war, including those that thought the Dragons would protect them, rather than throw them into the meat grinder. They leave nothing but a world that only Demons and Monsters would inhabit.

In the mainline titles, it is fitting that the lowly human would end each of them in turn but the damage that they would leave behind would scar the landscape. In the twin Additional games, they would eventually merge. A single two headed monster that underscores the prison they have brought upon themselves.

Their war even transcends and is memorialized by Dark Souls.

Seath and Kalameet, with Kalameet being a stand-in for Guyra, have long had a war between the two as Kalameet is one of the last Dragons alive after Seath’s betrayal. It ended long before your character left the Undead Asylum, and yet your character is still at fault. Kalameet, the Black Dragon of the Forest, skulks the land around Oolacile. The town it circles has long since fallen to the Abyss, a victim of another pair of serpents who covet one another’s power. Kalameet is framed as a villain, a noble hunt for those of Gwyn’s knight hood, and thus explains why the four knights of Gwyn are even in the city.

It is theorized that Seath, with Gwyn’s ear bent towards him, manipulated the events that drew the knights to Oolacile; to destroy what Seath perhaps believed was the last Dragon. We do not know what type of patronage, if any, Kalameet held over Oolacile and must take Hawkeye Gough’s word for it. In the end, we defeat Kalameet and take the sword from his Tail (An echo from King’s Field II). Inadvertently, the Chosen Undead does Seath’s bidding in his mad quest to be the last Dragon standing.

The Primordial Serpents fight amongst one another, while also coveting the Dragon’s power, in both an echo and a mimicry of Seath and Kalameet’s conflict. In fact, the Covetous Serpent Rings both memorialize the conflict Kaath and Frampt hold against one another while also poking fun at their mimicry and their lust for a Dragon’s power — as they will never quite be a Dragon, and never quite have the power they lust after.

None of these factions, in any of these games, really seem to care much about your character. They only care about you as a tool for wars that our characters and ourselves can never hope to understand and have been going on for millennia before our inception.

The Crown

Though this will be a much longer discussion, I can’t ignore a trope that has pervaded much of FromSoftware’s canon. What makes a King? What makes a leader? When does that leader lose that ability to lead? King’s Field’s Verdite Trilogy seems to skirt the line between blood-lines bearing royal fruit, as John Alfred was from the royal family albeit a far-flung branch. John Alfred gained the blessing of a Dragon but at the same time, the game seems to suggest that the more important thing is that leadership is more borne by a person, with the right tools, choosing to take on that responsibility.

Again, this makes itself apparent by Austin Lyle. Though he is still quite young, and thrust into a kingdom that is ostensibly his but is little more than a hellscape; Austin Lyle chose to do the difficult thing instead of remaining as ‘dead’ to the world. He took up the Exellector and began his trek to the Castle to meet his Father. At the same time, John Alfred was no longer the man that the kingdom placed their faith into. Many of the peasants believe that it is John Alfred who has brought hell upon their heads. Rumors fly between them that the former king even eats his prisoners.

Although they are unaware of Seath’s hand on John Alfred, John Alfred’s reign was Seath’s first casualty. As soon as he lost the support of his people, he lost his crown. Even still King’s Field asks the player to draw their own conclusions — were they always ‘kingly?’ Is it their bloodlines? Is it simply the mundane choice to take on that responsibility? Or was it the blessing they gained from the Dragons?

‘What Makes a King?’ is a central question in Dark Souls particularly in its second entry Dark Souls II. Your character is asked this question time and time again even directly by Aldia. To the Scholar, there might have only been a binary to becoming a king — but even with this binary fulfilled in Vendrick, he wasn’t the true monarch. To the people of Drangleic, only the true Monarch may make a choice on how the world will proceed. Only the true monarch may lead to the age of their creation.

However, the game muses on whether it is the struggle and perseverance that forges the monarch, or if its fate? Does one achieve greatness, or is one born of greatness. It is a question that baffles Aldia, for he knows that the Hollow is not born with greatness or with fate’s blessing. His questions aimed at the character may as well also be aimed at the player. It is a question only the individual player might be able to answer.

It is a question that even FromSoftware, though they’ve been musing on this for nearly thirty-years, have not landed on an answer themselves.

Mythical Faith

Never put your idols on a pedestal.

Prior to King’s Field II, Seath and Guyra were ephemeral and seen only in glimpses. Seath was simply a name and a few rooms in King’s Field I with very little to his story other than being the opposite of Guyra who was only seen through a window. With the first two acts of King’s Field II, we learn more about Seath and his past on the island. Throughout, the pair of dragons are positioned as Deities. Seath, in King’s Field II, was worshipped and much beloved by the High-Elves on the island. And, it is the remaining High Elf, Leon Shore, who is able to reforge the Dragon Sword Dark Slayer. The Dragon Fairies worshipped Guyra in much the same way the High-Elves worshipped Seath.

Much of King’s Field II concerns itself with building up the facade that these are benevolent Gods, only to pull the rug out from this narrative in the final act of the game.

We learn that Guyra has been experimenting on his Dragon Fairies, refashioning them into weapons of war: Demon Lords. Seath, despite his healing powers and powers of resurrection, murdered the majority of the High-Elves on the island allowing many of their ghosts to corrupt to better serve him. Neither Dragon is particularly benevolent, having fought one another for so long and so bitterly that they refuse to give up now.

Alexander learns an important lesson: do not place your faith in an outside being, you will simply be disappointed. His disgust with this lesson pushes him towards a very gnostic faith in himself and humanity itself rather than any would-be deity.

In Dark Souls, this is obviously The Way of White and Gwyn, the God-King of Sunlight. We see what happens when faith is clung to so fervently. No matter how the quest with Rhea of Thurland goes, it always ends terribly for the Maiden. She is either experimented upon by Seath, or beset upon by her guardians — either out of greed or out of their own hollowing. Gwyn himself, though deified, reveals himself to be a being filled with fear of the potential of Humanity.

Because of this fear, Gwyn gives away his youngest daughter Fillianore. He constructs the entire Way of White apparatus. He blinds himself to Seath’s indiscretions, resulting in Seath using Gwyn’s own knights to kill his nemesis, Kalameet. Thus setting off the events in motion that end in those knights’ corruption and by extension, his own fall as well.

“Once, the Lord of Light Banished Dark, and all that stemmed from humanity.” (Wikidot, Aldia)

Demon’s Souls introduces a very binary magical system between Faith and a more Scientific Method of magic. Urbain’s crew posit that God gives them their ability to make miracles. While Friede dogmatically attempts to explain his magic as more elementary, a more formulaic and scientific working. Both are wrong and their attempts at explanation start to fall apart with the arrival of Yuria, who’s very existence as a sorceress herself, causes Friede to begin to reexamine things; and reveals his misogyny. The Talisman of Beasts does the rest, revealing that the Old One is the source of both and is not a God or Science at all, but a Demon.

In Shadow Tower: Abyss, many of the civilizations within the tower itself hope and pray for their God or God-King to return (they are separate entities but some civilizations are more sophisticated in their knowledge of this than others). In the end though, the God they all wished for, was nothing more than a bio-technical computer sphere, hidden away at the very top of the Tower.

Feeding on the Waters of Life

“Life is brilliant. Beautiful. It enchants us, to the point of obsession.” (Aldia, Wikidot)

Demon’s Souls Concept Art, Thanks to FromSoftware 株式会社

Perhaps it is greed that causes those sapient living creatures to continue to strive for more of what they have. Many of the tragedies in the FromSoftware canon are because so many strive and struggle to live with all of their hearts — to avoid death. To this end, they strive for more. More time, as is the case of Déraciné and Dark Souls. A fear of what comes ‘after’, as is the case with Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Dark Souls. Nowhere is this more apparent than the very presence of the Old One in Demon’s Souls and the very Spaceship Tree-Tower in Shadow Tower: Abyss.

FromSoftware uses Trees as short-hand for this yawning hunger for more life, this insatiability to live without regard for anything else.

It may be surprising to use Demon’s Souls in this. King Allant is nihilistic to a far further extreme than Saint Astrea; he wishes for oblivion for himself and his entire kingdom, to free them from pain. Allant’s familiarity gives him the belief that he can speak for the Old One, but in truth Allant simply used the Old One’s power in his mad quest for the Abyss. Allant never really knew it; he only projected his desires upon it.

But the Old One is a tree, a mind-bendingly ancient tree, but a tree nonetheless. The Old One, presented in water, feeds upon the ocean of souls that water it. Souls, as it is implied in Demon’s Souls, are made of water and many of the Demons that King Allant rose use these watery souls as a fuel source. Most notably, Tower Knight and the False King Allant. Both bosses feature jets of soul water and mist emanating from them; the Tower Knight from its wounds and King Allant’s ephemeral wings. Terrifyingly, the dark colorless fog may be burned up souls as fog is simply watery mist hanging close to the surface. The Old One knows nothing but consumption and is infantile in its presentation — to live, it consumes with little regard for anything else. Not the tragedies it engenders, the lives that feed it, or birds that fly about it. Only when it is asleep does it not seek to devour.

Reinhardt III in King’s Field I, is the genesis of this idea. After exhausting his resources and his armies on his insane quest for the Moonlight Sword, his corruption twisted him into a tree — feeding off of Guyra’s power and life. This idea also carries over to the Bed of Chaos.

The Witch of Izalith attempted to create a facsimile of life via a duplication of the First Flame. Instead, it created Chaos, a primal element that is neither life or death and is neither fire or dark, while also being both. It twisted her, her daughters, and her son; turning all but two into monstrous creatures; punishment for attempting to play God, for attempting to extend life. The Witch of Izalith’s heart became a bug parasite while her body morphed into a tree-catalyst to tap into the demonic power that she created. Below and around her? The demons she birthed tending to the lava, stagnant water, and chaos — the contradictory element masquerading as life.

The forest of trees with faces at their base in Dark Souls II is also strangely reminiscent of Randolf III in look. Dark Souls III uses this symbol constantly, from the people transforming into trees, to the Curse Rotted Greatwood, to the arena of the Demon Princes itself.

The Mulberry Trees in Kuon, twins themselves, twist this narrative slightly while also aligning very strictly to it. On the one hand, the Trees provide sustenance to the Silkworms that form the basis of the silk business of this branch of the Fujiwara. In essence, instead of strictly feeding on something they are fed on. However, the Mulberry Trees are also feeding on the blood and bodies of the Fujiwara in much the same way silkworms feed upon their leaves. The Mulberry Twins aim to procreate — to create life through their ritual that is centered upon a twisted circle of prey and predation.

Neither of them care about the gore and viscera that has painted the rice-screens of the Fujiwara compound. They only care about this life that they are aiming to create, to enjoy the biological immortality of doing such.

Sekiro twists this symbol again, by making the source of power and life into the Sakura Dragon, the source of the Dragon’s Blood that itself is corrupting because of the lust it inspires. It becomes the centerpiece of the obsession that Ashina Genichiro has, as he tries to save and buy time for his homeland even in the face of progress into another Age.

Even in Armored Core: Verdict Day, a series featuring a ruined and poisoned Earth, does it feature a Tree of a sort. As the dark poison mists that cover the earth begin to recede, the mega corporations of Verdict Day’s world start to find these tree-like structures dotting the environment. These shadow towers promise technology of incredible power and become the focal point for the main three mega corporations to fight over.

Nowhere is this more interesting however, than in Shadow Tower: Abyss. In Shadow Tower: Abyss the tree itself is the Field in which one plays with each level of the tree becoming a unique dungeon to overcome. The Tree itself is sapient, and in a cosmic horror twist, a spaceship arc that traveled from its world before crashing onto earth millennia ago. It too, only wished to live with “all of its heart,” a greed for more life, even going so far as to resurrect the defeated Rurufon to protect itself.

But it is in King’s Field where we first see the Tree as a symbol representing feeding insatiably to fulfill its desire to live and be powerful. Not just in a twisted, murderous king, but in the Dragons themselves and the Dragon Trees that have stood sentry since before Guyra and Seath. It is also symbolic in the Reapers: those twisted fleshy abominations that masquerade as trees, sucking the life-force out of what wanders too close to their limbs. It is in the log-stalkers, tree people made from transformed humans that wander around unmoored. To the crystal tree save points in King’s Field III combining symbols of magic and life into a single totem.

Guyra is the Black Dragon of the Forest, after all: it is in these forests where you find that which constantly feeds on flowing and stagnant water, and the light of the sun

What does lightning look like after all, but the twisted boughs of a tree?

Lingering Influences

No other game-studio, even with the output that they have had, has had such a consistency of narrative tropes as FromSoftware. This is a boon for those who have an interest in examining not just how Fromsoftware tells and constructs a story, what fascinates them, but also reveals how that studio has evolved over the years in a way that not many other studios can show.

Sure, a FromSoftware game is many things to many people at this point. They are by equal turns difficult and rage inducing. They are also mysterious, opaque, and inscrutable. Either they are combat show-cases or puzzle-boxes that garner obsession and analysis. Still, a FromSoftware game holds a unique identity that those in the know immediately can recognize. Much of this is in their consistency of narrative design, even though departures of key individuals or the ascension of others within the company have changed its face.

A FromSoftware game, remains a FromSoftware game.

Demon’s Souls marks the beginning of the modern-era of FromSoftware’s canon, but it is an evolution rather than a beginning. Their particular design philosophy, from art to level design has been a part of FromSoftware’s very core since the studio’s founding, and has persisted through top-level leadership changes. If anything, the questions and assertions that the studio has planted in 1994 under Zin Naotoshi’s leadership — questions of humanity’s place, the power of belief, and the twin snakes of lust and greed — have been given deeper consideration under Miyazaki Hidetaka’s own leadership. The roots of this identity grow very, very deeply and one can be assured that new games and new stories will continue to grow from this particular tree.

Let’s Plays/Lore Hunting:

Special Thanks

Thanks to AssaulterBob for editing
Rypietrowski for King’s Field Lore Fact-Checking
Crow for help with Retranslating