dark souls lore: the undead curse and a whole lot of timefuck
Yeah, the “Scholar of the first sin” DLC/re-work/“sorry we fucked up so bad the first time please forgive us” for DS2 probably comes closest to actually talking about what the undead curse “really is”. But…eh. I’m not fully satisfied, so here’s my take on it:
Now, back at the beginning was the “Age of Ancients” with all the stone dragons and archtrees and shit. After that came the “Age of Fire”/ “Age of Light” which was with Gwyn and the Lords and all them. After the fire died out was supposed to come the “Age of Dark” or the “Age of Man”. This was supposed to be the proper progression of things, but Gwyn freaked his fuckin shit like “noooo not the dark” and lit himself on fire to stave off the “age of dark”. And so the proper progression of time got fucked up.
This is the origin of the “the flow of time itself is convoluted” problem in Lordran/Drangleic (aka Lordran X.0 aka they built that city on top of Lordran seriously they didn’t even fuckin move that shit). Time was supposed to be linear. It was supposed to be Ancients -> Fire -> Dark but Gwyn fucked it up. The world never got its Age of Dark. Instead, we’re stuck in this endless loop of “Age of Fire, fire fades, dark encroaches, but someone lights the flame again”. So on a micro level, this means that every time an undead sits down at a bonfire (all fire is the same fire in this world, btw; all bonfires are linked to the “first flame”) they do a mini “restart the timeline” thing in their universe. They re-rise from the first flame every time they die.
Solaire in DS1 (I’m sure you’ve heard of Solaire; “praise the sun” motherfucker. That guy) talks about how
There’s no telling how much longer your world and mine will remain in contact.
when he gives you the white soapstone.
Every undead exists in his/her own universe. Every undead has the potential to be the “chosen undead” or “bearer of the curse” as DS2 terms it. We’re all running the same track and sometimes, when we’re in the same place at the same time, we run into one another. That’s why we see other undead as “ghosts” in our game. That’s why sometimes NPCs “disappear” from our world and we can’t find them anywhere on our map. They’re phasing in and out of our world, as presumably, we fade in and out of theirs.
The Undead Curse itself is a product of this interrupted time flow. Proper progression was meant to extinguish the light, lead into an Age of Dark, and humanity with its dark souls was supposed to exist unchallenged in the world. But the light keeps reigniting and that’s fine for a while; the fire is strong, the fire burns away at the dark and there is no competition.
(This is a literal thing in DS1 and a critical part of both your game progression and the lore. To strengthen your bonfires you have to LITERALLY BURN AWAY AT THE DARK and BURN HUMANITY. See the side note on my about the darksign speculation for more detail)
But after a while, the light fades, and dark and humanity begin to win out in that light/dark battle. The problem is that there isn’t supposed to be a battle. And therein lies the origin of the curse: humanity’s Age of Dark is supposed to be allowed to take over. It’s supposed to be allowed to run its course. But it’s not. It’s being caught and it’s being stunted, and humanity’s timeline, that is each individual human’s timeline is being forced to bend into itself. That’s what the undead curse is: It’s humanity not being allowed to fully live and therefore not being allowed to fully die.
Every time you think you’re going out into that good night, the fire reignites and you wake up and step out of a bonfire. Every time the world thinks the fire is going to gutter out and dark be allowed to take its course, someone reignites the flame. It’s the same problem; it’s the same story; it’s just on a macro vs micro level.
The problem with the undead curse and hollowing out is, ultimately, tied to purpose and willpower. You can keep running this loop forever on end: rise from the bonfire, take damage, disintegrate, rise from the bonfire again as long as you have a reason to fuel you. If you stop having a purpose to fulfil, if you stop having a reason to keep going, you lose yourself, you go insane, you go hollow. Consuming a humanity/human effigy doesn’t give you or renew your purpose, it just repairs you physically by giving you an injection of “dark” or “humanity”. Remember that the fire burns away at dark, burns away at humanity. Every time you rise from it, a little bit gets eaten away. Consuming a humanity is really just “topping off” so to speak.
Your player character is almost kind of a meta commentary on this “purpose” quest. The only time your player character exists is when you, player, pick up the controller and imbue that character with your purpose. “I need to go talk to this guy” or “I need to go beat this boss” or “I need these items; let me farm”. So your player character can, by default, never go hollow because you, player, always have a next phase in mind, some next thing you need to do. You’re not “special” in that regard so much as lucky. NPCs in Dark Souls don’t have that “infinite player initiative”. Their quest lines are finite. Once they achieve their purpose, they have nothing more to do. That’s why they go hollow, and that’s why you don’t.
Now, back at the beginning was the “Age of Ancients” with all the stone dragons and archtrees and shit. After that came the “Age of Fire”/ “Age of Light” which was with Gwyn and the Lords and all them. After the fire died out was supposed to come the “Age of Dark” or the “Age of Man”. This was supposed to be the proper progression of things, but Gwyn freaked his fuckin shit like “noooo not the dark” and lit himself on fire to stave off the “age of dark”. And so the proper progression of time got fucked up.
This is the origin of the “the flow of time itself is convoluted” problem in Lordran/Drangleic (aka Lordran X.0 aka they built that city on top of Lordran seriously they didn’t even fuckin move that shit). Time was supposed to be linear. It was supposed to be Ancients -> Fire -> Dark but Gwyn fucked it up. The world never got its Age of Dark. Instead, we’re stuck in this endless loop of “Age of Fire, fire fades, dark encroaches, but someone lights the flame again”. So on a micro level, this means that every time an undead sits down at a bonfire (all fire is the same fire in this world, btw; all bonfires are linked to the “first flame”) they do a mini “restart the timeline” thing in their universe. They re-rise from the first flame every time they die.
Solaire in DS1 (I’m sure you’ve heard of Solaire; “praise the sun” motherfucker. That guy) talks about how
There’s no telling how much longer your world and mine will remain in contact.
when he gives you the white soapstone.
Every undead exists in his/her own universe. Every undead has the potential to be the “chosen undead” or “bearer of the curse” as DS2 terms it. We’re all running the same track and sometimes, when we’re in the same place at the same time, we run into one another. That’s why we see other undead as “ghosts” in our game. That’s why sometimes NPCs “disappear” from our world and we can’t find them anywhere on our map. They’re phasing in and out of our world, as presumably, we fade in and out of theirs.
The Undead Curse itself is a product of this interrupted time flow. Proper progression was meant to extinguish the light, lead into an Age of Dark, and humanity with its dark souls was supposed to exist unchallenged in the world. But the light keeps reigniting and that’s fine for a while; the fire is strong, the fire burns away at the dark and there is no competition.
(This is a literal thing in DS1 and a critical part of both your game progression and the lore. To strengthen your bonfires you have to LITERALLY BURN AWAY AT THE DARK and BURN HUMANITY. See the side note on my about the darksign speculation for more detail)
But after a while, the light fades, and dark and humanity begin to win out in that light/dark battle. The problem is that there isn’t supposed to be a battle. And therein lies the origin of the curse: humanity’s Age of Dark is supposed to be allowed to take over. It’s supposed to be allowed to run its course. But it’s not. It’s being caught and it’s being stunted, and humanity’s timeline, that is each individual human’s timeline is being forced to bend into itself. That’s what the undead curse is: It’s humanity not being allowed to fully live and therefore not being allowed to fully die.
Every time you think you’re going out into that good night, the fire reignites and you wake up and step out of a bonfire. Every time the world thinks the fire is going to gutter out and dark be allowed to take its course, someone reignites the flame. It’s the same problem; it’s the same story; it’s just on a macro vs micro level.
The problem with the undead curse and hollowing out is, ultimately, tied to purpose and willpower. You can keep running this loop forever on end: rise from the bonfire, take damage, disintegrate, rise from the bonfire again as long as you have a reason to fuel you. If you stop having a purpose to fulfil, if you stop having a reason to keep going, you lose yourself, you go insane, you go hollow. Consuming a humanity/human effigy doesn’t give you or renew your purpose, it just repairs you physically by giving you an injection of “dark” or “humanity”. Remember that the fire burns away at dark, burns away at humanity. Every time you rise from it, a little bit gets eaten away. Consuming a humanity is really just “topping off” so to speak.
Your player character is almost kind of a meta commentary on this “purpose” quest. The only time your player character exists is when you, player, pick up the controller and imbue that character with your purpose. “I need to go talk to this guy” or “I need to go beat this boss” or “I need these items; let me farm”. So your player character can, by default, never go hollow because you, player, always have a next phase in mind, some next thing you need to do. You’re not “special” in that regard so much as lucky. NPCs in Dark Souls don’t have that “infinite player initiative”. Their quest lines are finite. Once they achieve their purpose, they have nothing more to do. That’s why they go hollow, and that’s why you don’t.