#ds2addicts

One thing I enjoy about Dark Souls is that there isn't a true main protagonist. Sure, you can say most rpg don't ever have a "true" main protagonist but that the player character is the star of the show, the hero to save the day. But what is a hero? What constitutes a great hero and a regular hero? You find plenty of bodies in both Souls games that retain the Soul of Heroes and Great Heroes alike; but they fell at one point in their journey. It is unknown how any of them died; perhaps it was met by a very anti-climatic end.

Much like real life, there is no good and evil in the Dark Souls verse. The Souls universe is simply the culmination of a collective moral ambiguity, wreathed in failed intent and lonesome traveling in order to get answers. Good and evil are mere constructions of the mind, a mindless war that is fought within the individual until they either die by their convictions or die by the blade of another. But in Dark Souls, there is something that the real world doesn't have; or rather something that isn't quite the same. The Undead curse is a significant central part of the story of Dark Souls. The "soul" reason (I'm sorry, I couldn't resist) the Undead curse is even considered a curse is because an individual is subject to experiencing death over and over again, each time becoming losing more and more of what you once were. This process is known to those acquainted to such a thing is called going Hollow.

An individual that dies enough time eventually becomes a full-fledged Hollow, which is essentially a zombie that forever is lost to the broken world around them. They do not remember why it is they are doing what they do, though there is strong evidence that there is some aspect that remains within the individual that has gone Hollow. The enemies you encounter in both Souls games aren't in fact enemies. They are just individuals fulfilling duties left by a King that is no longer around, or lost souls that were thrown in a pit and tried to live a peaceful life. Alas, nothing escapes the curse of the Undead and any hopes of starting over are nothing but a doomed cause.

Despite going Hollow, the enemies retain something shared by the player character. It seems that Hollows have a will as strong as a Giant, chasing and relentlessly pursuing and attacking the player with nothing but your demise on their mind. When the player runs too far off, the Hollowed ones slowly find their way back to that familiar setting. It serves as the final memory of where they went Hollow and is the only place that makes the most sense to be at.  Hollows are the least of your problems, though. You will face monsters, fallen gods, demons of untold terror, Giants, illusions of past champions, and worse of all other player characters. It is common to be invaded by another supposed "chosen undead" with the intent of eradicating you. Facing another chosen undead in battle comes down to two things; who knows their style of weapon and whose will is stronger. Luckily there are individuals who feel the same sympathy as you do and will help you in times of dire need. However, when all is said and done, they go back to their worlds and move on. It seems they were using you for their own self-interests. Be wary, for those that aid you may actually end you before you even realize what's going on. 

There is always an end goal to a Souls game; rekindle the flame or let the kingdom fall. Of course, it becomes more complex than that as there are certain toothy serpents that see these supposed "chosen undead" as vessels to be used to achieve an end goal. Perhaps an Emerald Herald is aiding you for the singular goal of reigniting the flame for some currently unknown agenda. It is unknown why you or I are experiencing these hardships other than we enjoy it. We don't seem to truly care, so long as we have nice swords to play with. We become addicted to this world, forever seeking even harder challenges to hone our blades and practice our spells on. It seems at one end of the Undead curse, an individual gives up and becomes Hollow. At the other end, however, the Undead curse pushes us to seek greater hardships to achieve more souls so we can satisfy some strange void inside of us. Are we trying to fill the void of our missing humanity?

Humanity seems to be an aspect of the Dark Soul, the piece of the First Flame that has been the "big bang" of the challenges you and I face. Without it, we become Undead; beings that are after difficult challenges and yearn for nothing more. Once we give up, we become mindless versions of our old selves and are lost to the Dark forever. It seems to be a lose/lose situation, but how else are we to cope with this curse? We must power on so that we don't go Hollow, so we embrace the singular idea of facing great challenges for more souls. Is that not what a Hollow does? Become consumed by a single idea and fight to the bitter end? We are all Undead, and becoming Hollow is simply what happens when we let the curse consume us. We are all Hollow then, we just aren't zombies yet. Through each death that happens, we are a step closer to devolving into something full of emptyness. Or perhaps we are evolving, as humanity was born of the First Flame. Emptyness is, after all, the very essence of the old world of dragons and archtrees. Are we unnatural byproducts of the First Flame?  Now here you are, at the bonfire. Will you give up and let your mind completely die out or will you pursue yet another challenge? I think you and I both know the answer to that one.