Dark Souls Architecture: How the Real World Influences the Game's Locations & Lore
Jan. 20, 2017Dark Souls Architecture: How the Real World Influences the Game’s Locations & Lore
It would not be a mistake to say that one of the many reasons the Souls games are loved are their beautiful, intricate, and interestinglocationdesigns.
Often the locations are rather complicated, rarely linear, and use every square inch of the area. It’s something to be explored, rather than be simply scenery you pass by in your quest, presenting all the different ways and shortcuts that are opened as one progresses through the locations.
And, naturally, often the developers use real-life inspirations when creating their worlds.
However, I believe that the architecture choices for the Souls series worlds might be something more than simply designs for particular locations, but rather that they reflect the lore behind the given locations quite consistently. Upon closer examination, it seems that there may be a deeper idea behind the concepts of different areas.
It’s not only simple like when seeing the same architectural style in different locations that implies a relation between the given locations, but it’s also when seeing the different, yet architecturally related styles that reflect certain lore connections.
Our first example of this and how it applies to the overall theory of this piece is theArchdragon Peaklocation inDark Souls 3and it’s lore, which is related to the Kingdom of Lothric and its history. This location has possibly the most easily recognizable real-life inspiration for architecture and design.
The Dragon-Kin Mausoleum building is obviously inspired by the Hagia Sophia basilica (and subsequently a mosque) of Constantinople (modern day Istanbul).
But, the Byzantine style isn’t just limited to that building only as the elements of Byzantine architecture can be actually seen all over this location. For example, the paintings on the shields of the Serpent-people (which are said to be a result of exquisite but painstaking technique) are in fact very similar to the Byzantine mosaic icons.
Therefore, it seems that the cultural concept is that by the time of the game’s events, this Byzantine-inspired style corresponds to the dragon-worship culture, if we may call it that.
In fact the very same architectural elements, such as similar archways, floor mosaics, which are in fact inspired by the real-life Byzantine floor mosaics, may be found in theConsumed King’s Garden, particularly the building where we find theConsumed King Oceiros. This location is obviously related to the dragon-worship, as there we find a king obsessed with dragons, Serpent-men and, not coincidentally, the gesture that allows us to reach Archdragon Peak in the first place.
Adding to the intrigue is that the building where we find and fight Oceiros appears to be actually older thanLothric Castleand is also quite similar to the oldFirelink Shrineruins, being built in similar style to the Archdragon Peak and these buildings could in fact have been parts of the same complex of buildings at some point in the story. The Firelink Shrine itself looks like it could’ve been inspired by Byzantine/Later Roman/Early Christian architecture.
Returning to the Archdragon Peak, I believe that there might be some parallels between historical Hagia Sophia and the Dragon-kin Mausoleum, which doesn’t appear to be a real mausoleum at all. Hagia Sophia was initially built as Christian basilica and became seat of the Orthodox Christian Patriarch of Constantinople and a principal setting for Byzantine imperial ceremonies. It had also been a Catholic cathedral for almost 60 years during the Latin occupation, but ultimately it was converted into a mosque after the Conquest of Constantinople by Ottoman sultan Mehmet II.
On the other hand, as we discuss in the title video, it seems that the Archdragon Peak hasn’t always been a place of dragon-worship either. It seems initially that Archdragon Peak used to be a shrine of Gwyn’s Firstborn and as we see a giant dragon corpse on the mountain beside it, it appears that it was built at the place of some victory once achieved by Gwyn’s Firstborn when he still was a Dragonslaying god of war. In such cases, those dead dragons we find in the ‘mausoleum’ could in fact initially be trophies put on display.
In addition to that there are also several peculiar things about the Way of White:
As for the origins of the Consumed King’s building, built in a similar style to that of the Archdragon Peak, we know that Lothric knights were once dragon-hunters and we also can find theDragonslayer Armorwithin the Lothric castle which apparently was something like a sacred relic for Lothric.
Sometimes it’s easy to go so far down the rabbit hole in the Soulsborne series that you begin to wonder if you yourself are imagining the depth of connectivity in the details. Yet, when you take the time to explore and lay out the evidence one begins to see that there is in fact something there, some incredibly detailed care poured into the game’s development. When a game is so richly designed that careful study of its world leads to careful study of the real world, as a work of art, it takes on a literal transcendent quality. And that’s just for one architectural example. There are so many others to investigate. I don’t plan on looking away anytime soon.
Visit theDark Souls 3 Wiki
More onDark Souls 3
OswaldFromCarim
I enjoy playing Dark Souls and researching its lore, especially from the etymological approach, and thus I developed a hobby of making videos discussing various interesting things related to it (also, once I even came up with some fan-fic lore story, lol). Being a Souls fan it’s no wonder that I also love mangas by Kentaro Miura and works of JRR Tolkien. Generally I enjoy history, architecture and historical linguistics.
What are the names of the real life places that was compared with the images from dark souls?
Basically this video was really difficult to make (I started making it around the time I made videos about Sword Master in DaS I, Berserk References, Winged Knights) but only finished in December but it’s also very important to me.
Now I know that it’s extremely lame and I can’t draw and it’s just copying the real-life mosaic of Emperor Justinian I, and that’s the reason I abandoned it in the end, lol. Just look at the face of the guy on the left T_T And painitng those mosaic pieces was really such a pain, I spent couple of weeks like that lol
So, basically it was supposed to be something like an old, damaged Byzantine-like mosaic depicting Gwyn’s Firstborn along with his host of Warriors of Sunlight/Dragonslayers (Firstborn depicted in the middle, the part depicting his face was supposed to be damaged, erased, as he got expunged from history, his statues were ruined, and this was supposed to be something like a forgotten old mosaic in some old Way of White Church, because of the Byzantine stuff about its clerics we saw in DaS I).
And with all that stuff, imagine my feelings when I found the Leo Ring in DaS3 that proved the link between the Firstborn and Dragonslayers and then visited the Archdragon Peak and saw its “Hagia Sophia”. But as I still wasn’t 100% sure about some architecture things about Firelink Shrine so I wasn’t able to finish it until several months later (and it was really a difficult one to make, I even had to draw myself some charts to see in which order would it be better to place the different parts so it would be easier to watch, hopefully I didn’t pick the worst option at least)
Another funny thing that I didn’t remember until finally finding this “fanart” on my old PC, is the sword inspired by the real life Korean/Japanese Seven-Branched Sword (七支刀) which now possibly looks a little similar to Morion Blade (that possibly could also be inspired by the real-life Shichishito sword), but I simply wanted to place something in guys hand that would look like some ceremonial thing.
Well, the picture is kinda lame, but I really regret that I didn’t finish it back then, but at least I made this video and there’s this article now
Thanks, I’m glad that it was interesting for you, and I’d also like to thank the editors team for improving the article, it looks way better now
Dang Oswald, my arch history prof would be envious of yours skills. Your comparison to real world architecture would have been an awesome extra credit report. I’ve been to Hagia Sofia and other mosques in Istanbul, definitely have an Archdragon Peak feel.
This was a very interesting read – thank you! I like lore and architecture pieces on Souls and other games, it’s really great
Awesome read. I only have one thing to add which doesn’t change anything you have here but I find intriguing.
The interior and exterior views of where we find Oceiros are actually different buildings.
I just skimmed this because my bus ride was ending soon. It looks like an interesting read. I’ll have to get back to it sometime.Impressive research and correlations for sure.
