Chapter Text
This story begins always the same.
In the Age of Ancients, the world was unformed, shrouded by fog; it was a land of grey crags, archtrees and everlasting dragons. There was no life nor death, for there was no passing of time.
But then, in the middle of this unchanging era, Fire came to be, and with it came disparity: heat and cold; life and death; and of course, light and dark.
From the dark, all the life that was hiding in the depths of the earth rose to look upon the Fire. Within it, the Four Lords found the Great Souls that would rewrite the course of history...
Nito, the First of the Dead, found the soul of Death. In contrast, the Witch of Izalith and her Daughters of Chaos found the soul of Life.
Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and his faithful knights found the soul of Light.
The Furtive Pygmy found the soul of Dark, but kept it to himself, away from the other Lords, out of sight and out of mind. As he hid in the depths of the Earth, he split his newfound Dark Soul numerous times, giving birth to the first humans.
With their newfound strength, the Lords and their allies challenged the dragons. Gwyn’s knights fought valiantly against them, but for every one they took down, they lost three score of their own. It seemed like a lost cause, until Seath the Scaleless, an imperfect dragon, betrayed his own kind and revealed to Gwyn the secret to his brethren’s immortality, which was none other than their stone scales. He also told him about their weakness to lightning, an information that would turn this fight around in favour of the Lords.
And so, Gwyn’s mighty bolts peeled apart their stone scales; the Witches weaved great firestorms, burning the archtrees the dragons called their home; Nito unleashed a miasma of death and disease, dealing the last blow to the decaying dragons. And so, the ancient, everlasting dragons were brought to the brink of extinction.
Thus began Gwyn’s Age of Fire.
In this age, the descendants of the Dark Soul found by the Furtive Pygmy are generally looked down upon, and only those who earn Gwyn’s favour can as much as live a life free of strife. Lordran, the homeland of the Four Lords, became the capital of the world, with many humans making pilgrimages there in hopes to join a covenant and find a purpose to their fleeting existence.
But soon, the flames began to fade, and with this phenomenon came the Undead Curse. Those who were branded with the dark sign became unable to die, but also unable to stop withering away with each death, slowly losing their minds until only a hollow husk remained. The only way an undead could avoid this fate was by having a strong grip on their humanity and never losing sight of their purpose.
Gwyn trembled at the thought of his reign being engulfed in darkness and ordered his children to shepherd the humans, seeing how the descendants of the Dark soul could kindle the flame with their humanity. Some agreed to help the Lords maintain this Age of Fire, but some others wanted to see it fade; that was, after all, the course of nature, for no flame can burn forever.
This idea caused the various covenants in Lordran (and the rest of the world, too) to enter an argument on whether or not to perpetuate the First flame. Little did these humans know that, as they fought each other for what they believed was the best outcome, Gwyn had travelled to the depths of the earth, to the Kiln of the First Flame, to offer himself as kindling. This event is referred to as “linking the fire” by those who supported him, and “the first sin” by those who did not.
The covenants stopped fighting and came to an agreement: should the fires fade again, they would meet at the Firelink Shrine, at the centre of Lordran, and send their best warriors in a quest to retrieve the Four Lord Souls. The last one standing would decide the fate of the world, whether it was to perpetuate the Age of Fire once more, or let the darkness take over and usher in an age ruled by humankind.
Centuries passed and the world changed and evolved, but many aspects of it survived since the last Firelink; the various covenants still remembered the pact they made at the advent of this new Age of Fire, and while on the outside it felt like peace had been achieved, there was an ongoing war between them, with many rogue undead causing trouble behind the scenes; the Knights of Fina committed the most heinous crimes to please their goddess; the Darkwraiths stole humanity from enemy covenants to share among themselves; the Forest Hunters protected their Abyss-swallowed domain from trespassers by killing them on the spot, and Velka’s pardoners absolved them all from their sins, regardless of their covenant, as long as they could pay for their absolution.
However, despite all these undead embracing their true origins and traditions after all this time, this Age of Fire was a modern one; this Age of Fire had seen technology flourish, ideologies change and progress be made throughout the years. Some of these undead, these ageless, immortal humans, had managed to hold on to their humanity for centuries; some remembered using raven messengers and soapstone signs, all the way to social media, in a single lifetime. Even though knights were still being produced and clerics still had a certain status in society, this was, overall, a modern world that had evolved around the promise that the covenants would meet once the fire began to fade.
And of course, the fire did begin to fade, and many covenants began their pilgrimage to Lordran to meet with the ones that had always been there, where it all began and where it could all potentially end.
Ideally, this could’ve gone as everyone had expected, with all the covenants having a reasonable, fair competition to determine the fate of the world, but such thing was not possible in times as desperate as these. Days before the get-together at the Firelink Shrine, where all the participating covenants could have a chance to socialize, make alliances and, overall analyse the situation (under the pretence that it was merely a gathering to lift up their spirits), the Rite of Kindling was stolen from the Gravelord Servants, the only covenant that had agreed to stay out of the Firelink for their ability to kill even what could not be killed. Having them participate would put everyone at a great disadvantage, so they were begged not to. The Gravelord decided to grant them their wish, content to rest in the catacombs, as the dead should. This incident, however, changed everything.
The Rite of Kindling was a secret rite passed down among members of the Gravelord Servants, coveted by many for its ability to further kindle the various bonfires scattered around all of Lordran. It was common knowledge that the undead could use these bonfires to collect Estus, a liquid substance that allowed them to heal their wounds should they ever need to. The further a bonfire was kindled, the more Estus they could obtain from it.
Whomever stole the Rite of Kindling had an advantage over the other covenants now. Not only that, but they had disrespected the Gravelord himself, who was not going to keep his side of the bargain after such an insult.
And so, much against what he had been requested, he sent his infamous Gravedaughter to retrieve the Rite before the beginning of the Firelink. Should the guilty decide against redeeming themselves and handing it over for the sake of all covenants, she would be participating in the event.