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OH MAN OH MAN. I'm gonna try to give you the shortest possible explanation of "Dark Souls 2" (DS2), but to do that, I have to give you a bit of background on "Dark Souls" (DS1) because DS2 is essentially developer sanctioned fuckin FANFIC for DS1 and ok. So in the beginning, everything was the same. Grey water, grey trees, grey land. Eternal dragons made of grey stone that lived in huge everlasting stone archtrees. Nothing lived and nothing died and nothing changed. Everything just was.
But then was fire and with fire came disparity. Hot and cold, light and dark. And from the border between light and dark, beings emerged and found 3 great souls made of light called the "lord souls". The lords, with the help of Seath, a scaleless dragon who was jealous of his brothers' immortality, waged war on the dragons. The first lord soul was Nito's, first of the dead, a sort of being of pestilence and cursed magic. The second was taken by The Witch of Izalith who, with her daughters, were masters of fire sorcery. The third soul went to Gwynn, lord of light, who through great faith called lightning down from the sky and struck apart the dragons' stone scales while Nito unleashed a miasma of disease and the Witch burned down the arch trees that gave them shelter.
But there was a 4th soul that came when the fire sputtered, the "dark soul" picked up by the Furtive Pygmy, ancestor to Man. Nobody paid him much mind though, for he was small and his soul did not shine.
So commenced the age of fire, an age of prosperity ruled over by Gwynn and his fellow lords. But every fire must die and every day must end, so when the First Flame began to fade and Dark began to encroach, Gwynn called on The Witch of Izalith to rekindle it. Using her own lord soul as kindle, she attempted to reignite the First Flame -- only it was a disaster. In her hubris, she lost control of the flame which enveloped her city, turned her daughters into demons, and gave birth to the flames of Chaos. Gwynn took his silver knights and tried to combat Chaos, but they were beat back, silver armour burned black, and the fire still fading. Gwynn decided, in his desperation, to cast himself into the fire to prolong his age of light just a little bit longer, to stave off the Dark just a little bit more.
This is the story part of the plot. This is fairly straightforward. This next part isn't.
See, the "dark soul" wasn't a soul like the others made of light. Light souls are singular. They can be split, but they can't multiply. Gwynn actually divided his soul into pieces and gave them away to various members of his court. The dark soul, on the other hand, is humanity itself. It profligates. Every human that is ever born has within themselves a dark soul. So when the light began to fade, the dark grew, humanity grew, and began to grow out of control. This was when the Undead Curse began to appear. The curse basically makes you immortal but in a really terrible way. You can never die; every time you die, you simply reappear from the fire. But humans aren't meant for immortality and so those cursed slowly go hollow i.e. lose their minds as they lose their purpose and reasons to live. This became a massive problem for the various human kingdoms that become touched by the curse because no one could kill the insane undead wreaking havoc -- they'd just keep coming back. So they came up with a solution: round up all the undead and send them to the abandoned land of the lords to await the end of the world.
You, the player character, are one such cursed human. You are freed from your confines by a fellow undead adventurer who passes on to you his family' screed before he hollows out: "You who art undead art chosen. Journey to the land of the lords and know the fate of those undead". The player campaign through the game is to find a way into Gwynn's capital city and discover the nature of the curse and what it means.
It's stated in game that those who are "cursed with the undead are cursed with dark", but it's worth mentioning that all the histories of the world are written by those who have light souls. But humanity is dark and the curse of the undead is what happens when one loses one's humanity. Who's to say it's a curse? Who's to say humanity is responsible for it? There's a lot about conflicting information, untrustworthy sources, and general murky myth in the Dark Souls universe. It's up to the individual to determine how to suss it out.
Anyway, Humanity and Dark are physical substances in this universe. Not having humanity in the DS universe will make you go hollow; having too much humanity will drive you insane. There are certain human civilisations in game that are mislead into believing that feeding off the humanity of other humans will keep the curse away and give them power, but they all end in ruins.
So your player character goes on a quest to find the "fate of the undead". On the way, you're told you need to go collect all the lord souls in order to access the Kiln of the First Flame and find out where it all began. So you go around fighting monsters, other hollowed humans, certain abandoned guards, certain rogue factions, and you collect all the souls. At the Kiln, you finally meet Gwynn who recognises you as a human (one with the dark soul) and tries to keep you out. After you defeat him, you're presented with 2 choices: succeed Gwynn and cast yourself into the fire to keep it burning for any number of years or turn your back on light and become the lord of the Dark , let the age of fire end, and usher in an age of humanity, an age of dark, as is the natural progression of things.
SO NOW DS2. DS2 takes the premise that that last choice you make in DS1 (succeed Gwynn or reject the fire) as inconsequential. It takes the premise that even if you reject the fire, some other undead will come and take your place. So the world is trapped in cycles. The fire is relit, burns, and begins to fade. The Dark profligates and the Undead Curse begins to appear. An Undead will sacrifice himself to the fire again, and etc etc ad nauseum. DS2 takes place sometime in that cycle. It's not clear if it's 2 ages or 5 or 10 from Gwynn's Age of Fire, but it's another Age of Fire and it's ending again. You're an Undead. You've come to this land to find a cure this time for the curse, and you need to travel the land, pick up certain mcguffins, unravel a mystery, and beat a final boss, etc
Like in the 1st game, there are various NPCs you encounter on your quest who may help you or hinder you in your journey. You can choose to interact with them or not, and usually if you don't, their storylines stop where they stand. NOT THESE FUCKERS THOUGH.
Anyway, here's the best storyline video I can find on them, if you're inclined :)
It's a point we can either choose to ignore or emphasise that regardless of who you end up helping in their final encounter, they'll reward you with the same key to the same den.
It's also worth noting that they say the same thing when their stupid trapped treasure inevitably blows up in your face.
There's also a whole deal about a ring....
BUT YEAH hopefully after having experienced his smarmy, excessively genteel voice and mannerisms you get some idea for why Pate's referred to as "mild mannered" lulz
But then was fire and with fire came disparity. Hot and cold, light and dark. And from the border between light and dark, beings emerged and found 3 great souls made of light called the "lord souls". The lords, with the help of Seath, a scaleless dragon who was jealous of his brothers' immortality, waged war on the dragons. The first lord soul was Nito's, first of the dead, a sort of being of pestilence and cursed magic. The second was taken by The Witch of Izalith who, with her daughters, were masters of fire sorcery. The third soul went to Gwynn, lord of light, who through great faith called lightning down from the sky and struck apart the dragons' stone scales while Nito unleashed a miasma of disease and the Witch burned down the arch trees that gave them shelter.
But there was a 4th soul that came when the fire sputtered, the "dark soul" picked up by the Furtive Pygmy, ancestor to Man. Nobody paid him much mind though, for he was small and his soul did not shine.
So commenced the age of fire, an age of prosperity ruled over by Gwynn and his fellow lords. But every fire must die and every day must end, so when the First Flame began to fade and Dark began to encroach, Gwynn called on The Witch of Izalith to rekindle it. Using her own lord soul as kindle, she attempted to reignite the First Flame -- only it was a disaster. In her hubris, she lost control of the flame which enveloped her city, turned her daughters into demons, and gave birth to the flames of Chaos. Gwynn took his silver knights and tried to combat Chaos, but they were beat back, silver armour burned black, and the fire still fading. Gwynn decided, in his desperation, to cast himself into the fire to prolong his age of light just a little bit longer, to stave off the Dark just a little bit more.
This is the story part of the plot. This is fairly straightforward. This next part isn't.
See, the "dark soul" wasn't a soul like the others made of light. Light souls are singular. They can be split, but they can't multiply. Gwynn actually divided his soul into pieces and gave them away to various members of his court. The dark soul, on the other hand, is humanity itself. It profligates. Every human that is ever born has within themselves a dark soul. So when the light began to fade, the dark grew, humanity grew, and began to grow out of control. This was when the Undead Curse began to appear. The curse basically makes you immortal but in a really terrible way. You can never die; every time you die, you simply reappear from the fire. But humans aren't meant for immortality and so those cursed slowly go hollow i.e. lose their minds as they lose their purpose and reasons to live. This became a massive problem for the various human kingdoms that become touched by the curse because no one could kill the insane undead wreaking havoc -- they'd just keep coming back. So they came up with a solution: round up all the undead and send them to the abandoned land of the lords to await the end of the world.
You, the player character, are one such cursed human. You are freed from your confines by a fellow undead adventurer who passes on to you his family' screed before he hollows out: "You who art undead art chosen. Journey to the land of the lords and know the fate of those undead". The player campaign through the game is to find a way into Gwynn's capital city and discover the nature of the curse and what it means.
It's stated in game that those who are "cursed with the undead are cursed with dark", but it's worth mentioning that all the histories of the world are written by those who have light souls. But humanity is dark and the curse of the undead is what happens when one loses one's humanity. Who's to say it's a curse? Who's to say humanity is responsible for it? There's a lot about conflicting information, untrustworthy sources, and general murky myth in the Dark Souls universe. It's up to the individual to determine how to suss it out.
Anyway, Humanity and Dark are physical substances in this universe. Not having humanity in the DS universe will make you go hollow; having too much humanity will drive you insane. There are certain human civilisations in game that are mislead into believing that feeding off the humanity of other humans will keep the curse away and give them power, but they all end in ruins.
So your player character goes on a quest to find the "fate of the undead". On the way, you're told you need to go collect all the lord souls in order to access the Kiln of the First Flame and find out where it all began. So you go around fighting monsters, other hollowed humans, certain abandoned guards, certain rogue factions, and you collect all the souls. At the Kiln, you finally meet Gwynn who recognises you as a human (one with the dark soul) and tries to keep you out. After you defeat him, you're presented with 2 choices: succeed Gwynn and cast yourself into the fire to keep it burning for any number of years or turn your back on light and become the lord of the Dark , let the age of fire end, and usher in an age of humanity, an age of dark, as is the natural progression of things.
SO NOW DS2. DS2 takes the premise that that last choice you make in DS1 (succeed Gwynn or reject the fire) as inconsequential. It takes the premise that even if you reject the fire, some other undead will come and take your place. So the world is trapped in cycles. The fire is relit, burns, and begins to fade. The Dark profligates and the Undead Curse begins to appear. An Undead will sacrifice himself to the fire again, and etc etc ad nauseum. DS2 takes place sometime in that cycle. It's not clear if it's 2 ages or 5 or 10 from Gwynn's Age of Fire, but it's another Age of Fire and it's ending again. You're an Undead. You've come to this land to find a cure this time for the curse, and you need to travel the land, pick up certain mcguffins, unravel a mystery, and beat a final boss, etc
Like in the 1st game, there are various NPCs you encounter on your quest who may help you or hinder you in your journey. You can choose to interact with them or not, and usually if you don't, their storylines stop where they stand. NOT THESE FUCKERS THOUGH.
Anyway, here's the best storyline video I can find on them, if you're inclined :)
It's a point we can either choose to ignore or emphasise that regardless of who you end up helping in their final encounter, they'll reward you with the same key to the same den.
It's also worth noting that they say the same thing when their stupid trapped treasure inevitably blows up in your face.
There's also a whole deal about a ring....
BUT YEAH hopefully after having experienced his smarmy, excessively genteel voice and mannerisms you get some idea for why Pate's referred to as "mild mannered" lulz