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Up and Down Three Times: The Hidden Helical Structure of Dark Souls 3

This essay presents a model for use in interpreting the world of Dark Souls 3. It is a hidden structure that is apparently relatively unknown even among lorekeepers, but is very useful in making sense of the surreal environments of this game and its mythologies. It was quite challenging to describe the structure without offering my own interpretations of the emergent symbolism! But the purpose here is to present the model on its own terms, and hopefully it is of use to whoever is interested in deepening their understanding of Souls lore and symbolism.

There are three forks in Dark Souls 3: three major crossroads where the player has the option to go higher or deeper. Each ascent occurs in two stages; each descent occurs in two stages. This structure is largely hidden by the game, since a normal journey through these lands is gradual, recursive, and non methodical. Some structural lines are dramatic and clear, while others are unassuming or obscured. A player may not even realize when she has set foot down one fork or the other. But once this structure is realized—through conceptually positioning the splits as the primary loci—the three primary zones of Dark Souls come into focus. The delineation of these three zones creates a dynamic tension that exposes a wealth of narrative and symbolic correspondences, and is thus extremely useful for critical reads of this game. Each of these zones is thematically and aesthetically cohesive. For this reason, I am terming these three zones as “realms” for use in this essay. So what are the three realms, diegetically? Two of them are fairly obvious. Without indulging in too much interpretation, it is clear that both the ascent and the descent from Irithyll fall under the umbrella of “Irithyll.” Likewise, when the path splits in Lothric, the following ascent and descent are both related to Lothric. So we can easily designate the “Irithyll Realm” and the “Lothric Realm.” On the other hand, the first split—in the Crucifixion Woods—is less obvious. Doesn’t the player technically leave the Road of Sacrifices when she enters the Catacombs or the Cathedral? Yes, but in this case all these areas are covered under the category of the terrestrial. Not to say these areas aren’t supernatural, but neither are they mythic or divine lands—in the Cathedral there are merely priests; in the Catacombs there are only the bones of history. Therefore the first act of Dark Souls can be said to constitute the “Mundane Realm.” [For a deeper exploration of this theory, check out this essay.] We will go more into the character of these 3 realms later; for now let us define our guiding axis.

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