Dark Souls II Scholar of The First Sinās Final Question: What About The Past?
Dark Souls IIās quest is a long an arduous path spanning multiple fallen kingdoms built upon fallen kingdoms. Each has had its own glory and downfall. Each plagued by its own sins. Each ruled by a person, or people, with their own faults.
Drangleic itself once belonged to another people, much like the United States. These people were killed, or perhaps driven underground (if you believe they are the dwarf-like gyrm people). Its king, Vendrick, was beloved by his people, and brought prosperity to the land, but also went overseas to conquer the land of the giants, which would follow him home to lay waste to the kingdom. You find undead soldiers still beating the corpses of giants, in what to me feels like a symbol for PTSD. The war never ended in their minds.
There is a land called Aldin where a ruler tried to contain a plague that drives people mad. The prisoners instanity makes them incredibly dangerous, going as far as blowing themselves up. The most dangerous prisoners were kept in matryoshka-style cages, just big enough for a single person. The ruler grew paranoid as the weight of their sins increased, and began sentencing anyone that might oppose them to the prison as well. Ultimately, they went mad with the very condition they sought to contain, and locked themselves away. The rest of the prisoners were simply left in their cells.
There was a queen who was rejected by the man she loved. In pursuit of beauty, she put her people to work, constructing a factory to produce chemicals that she felt improved her appearance. The toxic chemicals swept across the land, spoiling its crops, and transforming the people into monsters. The queen remained alone in her tower, tearing the faces off her personal guards so as to remain unseen.
There was a king who discovered a new way of forging iron. Proud of this technology, he had his castle cast in iron, but the castleās weight caused it to sink slowly into the earth, flooded by magma. The king and his loyal knights, patriotic to the end, went down with their castle.
There was a lord whose people struck gold. While his citizens fought over the earthās bounty, the lord sequestered himself in his private study, reading books, and caring for his exotic pet, a giant spider. The spider gave birth to millions of giant spiders, which overtook the land, and its people. Bereft of hope and leadership, the people fell into the hands of a cult, as their friends and neighbors died off one by one. Many still sought riches, despite everything. The lord just watched in amusement.
There was a king who worshipped a dragon. His people worked tirelessly to create a magnificent ziggurat to house the sleeping dragon. Another king saw the dragonās blood as a path to enlightenment. The two nations fought, fueled by their religious fervor, but in the end, the dragonās poisonous breath killed them all.
There was a good king, who inherited a great evil. Beneath his home burned the fires of an ancient evil. He and his bravest knights gave all they could to bury the sins of the past. The found themselves locked in an eternal struggle, unable to fully pacify it, and unable to look away. The knights souls fight on to this day. The queen, alone in her castle, prays their souls may one day find peace.
In the gutter, the rats feast on corpses and things discarded by humanity. Even they have their king. They defend what little they can from man, deep in the places nobody cares to look.
You travel the world as a nobody, seeking to end the curse afflicting yourself, and the people of Drangleic. Some people you meet on your travels suggest that life itself is the curse, and thag death is the only cure. Some cling to the religious stories of old, unsure of their original meaning or authenticity. Still others simply live life as normally as they can, selling trinkets and fighting monsters. Others spread malice and evil across the land, presenting no reason in particular.
Your quest leads you to seek the true throne of Drangleic, and become a ātrue monarchā. You put the souls of old kings and lords to rest, bearing witness to their follies. Eventually, everyone more powerful than you is dead. Itās just you, and the trone awaiting you, across a bridge made from the bodies of the last kingās slaves.
What will you do? Take the trone, or abandon it?
Will you accept the burden of history, or bury that history? Will you inherit a legacy of darkness, steering its future toward the light, or leave humanity to its own devices, uncontrolled, for better or worse?
I love this choice, because unlike Dark Soulsā choice of āset yourself on fire for the greater goodā or ābecome very evilā, Dark Souls II leaves it up to the player to imagine their characterās true goal. By making the choice about the means, rather than the end, Dark Souls II presents a really nuanced moral question about how we chose to relate to our own troubled history, with regards to our families (there is a lot of family stuff in this game too, two demons born from the same great darkness, both very troubled, one good and one evil, thereās also an estranged father/daughter in your hub town), our culture, and our society as well. In that sense, itās a bit of a coming of age story. After all, when we reach adulthood, everyone has to decide what traditional wisdom to follow, and what to ignore. Which memories to treasure, and which to move on from. What to do with oneās life, knowing thereās only so much any one person change, but that people really do change the world every day?
I particularly love the Emerald Heraldās monologue if you take the throne, stating that thereās no reason you have to do things the way theyāve been done before, just because youāve inherited the throne. You can do new things using the traditional channels!
You donāt need a revolution to make a difference!
You can be successful in the traditional sense, but what you do with that success is up to you!
Most importantly, you donāt need to embrace any political, religious, or cultural standard to attain that success. You can reject patriotism, bigotry, greed, superficiality, any religious or non-religious creed, and even your own upbringing, and still be a kind, strong, successful person.
Or you can reject the throne entirely, and forge your own path, as a lucky few manage to.
Thank you for reading.















