Summary
EveryDark Soulsfan is well aware of the rich and vivid cast of characters that populate FromSoftware’s apocalyptic fantasy worlds, and it’s very rare that any of them are wholesale good guys. In fact, someDark Soulsfranchise NPCs are awful people with tragic and hypocritical backstories.
Whether it’s lords tasked with reviving the world but are too scared to do it out of fear of death or betrayers of their own kind who become the very thing they hated, there are plenty ofmassive hypocrites in theDark Soulsfranchise.
8Seath The Scaleless
The Great Betrayer
In the ancient days ofDark Soulslore, dragons ruled over the world with an iron fist. However, Gwyn, the Lord of Cinder, decided to rebel against the rule of dragons, but he faced the problem of stripping the ancient dragons of their immortality. Enter Seath, the betrayer dragon,one of the most evil characters in the franchise.
Seath revealed to Gwyn that the dragon’s scales were key to their immortality, and those scales could be stripped off with lightning. Seath helped Gwyn win the war and usher in the Age of Fire, but in his pursuit of knowledge, Seath became a reclusive academic who tortured the people of Lordran, becoming just as tyrannical as the dragons he once helped overthrow.
7Nashandra
Poisonous Whispers
In mostDark Soulsgames, the final boss is telegraphed well in advance, but inDark Souls 2, Nashandra is the seemingly good Queen to the maddened King Vendrick, who emerges in a grim reaper-like form to stop the player as the final boss.
In the game’s lore, Nashandra, the reincarnation of Manus from the originalDark Souls,sees herself as the true inheritor of the Throne of Want to usher in a new age, deeming only the most powerful survive, but in the process, she refuses to let the player character, who becomes more powerful to her, to assume the throne. Fora transparently irredeemable character, Nashandra still can’t acknowledge that someone else could be more powerful than her.
6Aldia, Scholar Of The First Sin
The Academic Bubble
Aldia is one of the most beloved and interesting characters in all ofDark Souls, and that’s for good reason. Primarilyseen in the DLCs ofDark Souls 2, Aldia is the brother of King Vendrick. He had little interest in ruling and instead wished to determine the exact nature of the Undead Curse so that it could be undone, and the world could break free from its cycles of reincarnation.
However, Aldia also believes himself to be an educated scholar who is trying to save humanity, but in the process, he tortures and experiments on the people of Drangleic in his secluded estate. He is a cruel academic who refuses to see any other perspective as correct, ultimately proving to be a great, compelling villain.
5Lothric and Lorian
The Princes In The Tower
The world ofDark Souls 3is tired and apocalyptic, endlessly rebooted with diminishing returns until, finally, the Lords of Cinder are designated to lay down their lives to link the flame yet again. However, the Lords of Cinder (who are full of interesting facts and tidbits) abandon their post as the world rots away, and it’s the player’s job to hunt them down and bring them back to Firelink Shrine to be burned.
Lothric and Lorian are the twin princes who were brought up in an entire culture dedicated to linking the flame, with Lothric in particular being a result of constant tampering with the bloodlines of the world’s rulers to breed a Lord of Cinder. Yet, the Lord of Cinder refuses to go to the post that defines his power, resisting the player at every step.
4Pontiff Sulyvahn
The Unholy Figurehead
In a lore dominated by tyrants, murderers, and psychopaths, Pontiff Sulyvahn has the dubious distinction of being one of the most morally corrupt characters in all ofDark Souls. The so-called holy man used the discovery of the Profane Flame to build a religion where he could experiment to his heart’s content and feed Aldrich the Devourer as a result of his own ambition.
The world ofDark Souls 3is dominated by characters unable to accept the end of all things, and Pontiff Sulyvahn uses cruelty, brute force, andmanipulation to keep a hold on his power. He is a massive hypocrite considering the holy robes he dressed himself in where Irithyll could have stood as a sanctuary for the poor people of the world, not their doom.
3Darkstalker Kaathe
The Void Serpent
Of all the strange creatures that inhabit the world ofDark Souls, none are so strange, disconcerting, and potentially sinister as the primordial serpents that stalk the lands, constructing elaborate plans to bring an end to the Age of Fire and usher in the Age of Dark.
Kaathe is a sweet-talker who flatters the chosen undead, using the promise of the Age of Dark as something that is necessary. However, the Age of Dark is also heavily implied to be a world wherein the primordial serpents like Kaathe would rise to power. Kaathe is a hypocrite because he pretends that the Age of Dark is in the best interest of humanity, when he really thinks that it’s likely fueled by a desire for the unchecked power of Gwyn, the man he seeks to dethrone.
2Gwyn, Lord Of Light
The King Who Never Let Go
Some characters are so totemic inDark Soulslore that their reputation breaches the game itself and leaks over into its sequels.Gwyn is an essential character full of hidden lore, the instigator of the rebellion against the dragons, and the Lord who brought about the Age of Fire, which he reigns supreme over as a so-called benevolent leader of mankind.
However, the world is sick inDark Souls, embodied by the Undead Curse, but Gwyn refuses to let the Age of Fire die. Doing so means he would be superseded by a human Dark Lord to usher in an Age of Dark. So, despite his supposed benevolent leanings, he casts the world in a miserable apocalypse because he is too scared to accept a world different from the status quo.
1Patches
The Returning Reprobate
If Gwyn represents the noble hypocrite, then Patches is on the exact opposite side of the scale. He is unapologizing hypocrite who lies with every sentence and is willing to say whatever he likes in order to get what he needs.
Patches is defined by a simple cynicism of the world where he will attempt to trick, kill, and otherwise destroy anyone who treats him with kindness. When he’s confronted about his behavior, he inevitably begs for forgiveness, even though it’s not earnest. Patches is bare-faced hypocrisy personified, which is a large reason why he’s so beloved among the fans, ashe shows up across the majority of FromSoftware games.
