Dark Souls - Age of Ancients (No Spoilers)

Dark Souls Remastered is releasing soon and what better way to celebrate than discuss the original and brush up on some lore at the same time? To this end, there will be 10 articles posted all about need-to-know lore (labeled “No Spoilers”), more hidden lore (labeled “Spoilers”) and various bits of information or tips to make your trip to Lordran that much better. This first piece is all about the Age of Ancients and mostly covers what is shown in the opening cinematic. Hopefully reading this will serve as a way for newcomers to know what to expect and allow veterans to refresh this very important section of the Dark Souls chronology.

“In the Age of Ancients, the world was unformed, shrouded by fog.”

As this first line is spoken by our unknown narrator, we are greeted with a dull, gray landscape consisting of nothing but crags, archtrees and everlasting dragons. Desolate and unyielding, this Age seems to stand still. Immediately, it becomes clear that the state the world is in now knows no light, no warmth, no fire.

“But then, there was Fire.”

The very appearance of Fire created not only Heat, Life and Light, but their polar opposites, Cold, Death and Dark. It’s from this Dark that man first came and found the Souls of Lords. Acquiring these Souls gave power to four beings: Nito, the Witch of Izalith, Gwyn and the furtive pygmy, but no one remembers him.

“With the Strength of Lords, they challenged the dragons.”

While the dragons were initially shown to be everlasting, Gwyn, being the Lord of Sunlight, produced bolts of Sunlight that tore through their stone scales, exposing their vulnerable bodies. The Witch of Izalith and her Daughters of Chaos conjured firestorms that made short work of the many archtrees while Nito, as Lord of the dead, released a deadly miasma. Amongst all the fighting, a scaleless dragon, appropriately named Seath the Scaleless, betrayed his kin and helped the Lords secure victory.

After this, there is a small amount of information on the Age of Fire, but this is all we know about the Age of Ancients without spoiling anything using item descriptions or dialogue found later in the game. Before I sign off, I’m going to point any readers in the direction of VaatiVidya, a Dark Souls YouTuber who has videos on so much of the lore of the series it will make your head spin. His videos are high quality and are what inspired me to do this series in the first place. If you would like to learn more about the Age of Ancients including more detailed information and widely-accepted community theories, be sure to look out for the “Spoilers” version of this article coming in a few days.

 Until then, Praise the Sun and Vereor Nox.