02-09-2025, 10:05 PM
This is another one of my blogs on video game mysteries, oddities, rumors, trivia, and secrets. This time it's about Dark Souls by FromSoftware, I am not affiliated with FromSoftware. As usual I will release a video on this soon to go along with this post.
Here are the links to the video;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vFmu7lPMVI
https://old.bitchute.com/video/5LtVj4QM6tpZ/
Dark Souls was my first experience with a FromSoftware game, aside from that one game they released on the Gamecube, the first Dark Souls quickly became one of my favorite games of all time and is what made me pick up Demon's Souls after. There's a lot I love about it, playing the game on release almost felt like you were back in the early 2000s again due to how cryptic the game is in some areas and concepts, the amount of mysteries this game has is what kept me invested in it for so long, if you know me my favorite thing about video games is the oddities about them and theorizing with others on what they could mean, not necessarily easter eggs or glitches but something left in by the developers whether intentionally or what moreso has to do with cut content.
Dark Souls is the perfect game for this kind of stuff, also I know everyone generically says this but if you like the video I'd appreciate a thumbs up. let's start by talking about something intriguing about a specific weapon buff.
~ Blue Pine Resin ~
Pine resin isn't used very much outside of using that one tumble oversight or the Gaping Dragon, You have three kinds of resin in Dark Souls, gold, charcoal and rotten but there's an oddity that makes it seem like there's a fourth kind. Outside of the three gold resin you find near the start of the game in Undead Burg and a limited supply sold by shops, you'll have to go farm Elizabeth's future relatives or try to find a vagrant if you want the resin of the gold variety in order to see this oddity.
Once you have some gold pine resin go to the Dukes Archives, specifically the courtyard near the giant crystals, once you are here apply the resin to your buffable weapon and enter the crystal cave. There's nothing out of the ordinary, right? Now unequip your weapon or wait until the buff wears off and apply it again inside the cavern and see what happens. For some odd reason instead of the yellow electric color it's now blue, which looks really neat, it also kind of looks like it would do magic damage instead of the usual lightning damage. Every few years I try to look up if anyone has found a reason for this but I don't think anyone has bothered to look at the code, a part of me thinks this is an intentional decision by the developers considering you can even take the blue lightning buff out of the crystal cave and it will still be blue, if it turned back into gold it would most likely just be a glitch similar to what happens in older games where if you equip certain items part of the maps textures become effected.
Write in the comments why you think this happens or why the developers added it outside of it being a very cool and interesting secret.
~ Nito's Coffins ~
This one most likely has some lore significance although I don't have too much to say about it as I can't come up with any theories of my own for it, in Nito's domain if you look to the right of the two coffins, tucked away in the back corner is another one, I doubt this was put here just for show and to make the area have more stuff to look at, you need to have your brightness turned up and be standing in just the right place to see it making it very mysterious.
~ Doll Location ~
The location where you find the peculiar doll, right inside the starting cell, has been theorized on a lot, I always interrupted it and the Painted World as being connected to the chosen undead although Priscilla says otherwise. How much time has passed since the player left the Undead Asylum and why did someone put it there or who? Something many of us noticed is how this place is called the Northern Undead Asylum as if there's more parts to the area and if you look at the Painted World it seems very similar in design to the asylum itself, considering they made the Painted World as a place to put unfinished or cut content it would make sense if the two were once connected. I think there was another asylum demon type boss there at one point to add to the spam of that specific encounter although Nito was there at one point as well so who knows.
~ Ash Lake Oddities ~
Has anyone ever seen that one image on /v/ that usually gets posted in obscure video game mystery threads or sometimes Dark Souls ones? It shows someone standing in Havels' staring into the deep waters of Ash Lake and you can see some kind of giant skull or Lovecraftian creature staring back to him. This is how I always felt when I would go to the lake, it's a very ominous area when the jumping hydra is defeated, there's nothing here aside from a covenant, some clams, the dragon greatsword, dragon scales.
It's completely empty and feels like you walked into an unfinished area but not in the same way as Lost Izalith, it feels like something will happen if you wait here long enough. Speaking of ominous, here's the skull that everybody talked about and still do talk about to this day, there is absolutely no hints to what this could be from aside from an everlasting dragon or an asylum demon as they do look similar in shape but not in size, the skull is far too big.
By the way, what was Siegmeyer planning to do down here, why does he go from Blighttown to Lost Izalith and then back to Blighttown so he can go to Ash Lake afterwards, it's like he just learned of it's existence due to his travels to Izalith, his daughter somehow knows how to get there as well making this even more odd, it's like people go there on vacation or something like it's nothing out of the ordinary despite there being two illusory walls.
~ Invisible Coffin Near Quelana ~
If you are watching this video you most likely already know about the coffin stab mechanic in the catacombs, but did you know that for some reason there's a coffin stab possible near Quelana? There's no coffin object, you don't need to be laying in it, just simply being backstabbed around her is enough to cause this animation to play. I think someone has an explanation for this online but I'm not going to say their name because they are a raving he him new-to-the-internet poser that supports and encourages others to get surgeries I don't agree with.
~ Chained Prisoner ~
This one is my favorite, the chained prisoner, this thing acts like a mini-boss before you have your fight with Manus, for some reason he's not in the area with the cells, (which also wouldn't be able to fit in) he's in this large boss room looking chamber with strange statues which can be destroyed by him. The cells with the broken bars are way below this room so he must have taken the elevator somehow unless he escaped first in his original form and then the other citizens of Oolacile put the chains around him. Even though I refer to him as a mini-boss he goes down in around three hits with the right upgraded weapons, for this reason I feel like he has lore significance, it's not often a single enemy gets an entire boss sized room to themselves with breakable scenery to show them off unless it was meant to be a boss at first.
I think this is just for gameplay reasons but if you are gravelorded there's red phantom versions of him in the actual cell area if I recall, or they might be upstairs with the original one, it's been a while and I don't remember, either way it's one of those enemies you really don't expect there to be a phantom version of.
~ Duo Sanctuary Guardians ~
These two managed to make me jump when I first came across them a week or so after the release of the DLC, which is embarrassing to say as I just turned fifteen at the time (was 2012 really that long ago, wow) but hey, I just wasn't expecting to see an enemy like that respawn when walking peacefully through the world back to the starting point of said DLC. The enemy itself is really interesting as I believe it was planned to be one of the demons in Lost Izalith, there's an unfinished version of one in the original games files if I remember correctly, it has a unique tail cut weapon (which is absurdly hard to get, at least for me) but something else that it has is a unique soul like other bosses have, except the mysterious thing is that it doesn't do anything, you can't make any weapons or shields from it. I think even the design of the soul is unique too, the only reason I can think of as to why it drops a unique soul is to give the boss a description.
To make two of them spawn in the same area you have to defeat another DLC boss, if you choose to defeat Kalameet without speaking to Gough just to see this instead of going to Artorias first then have fun. I'm not sure why an additional two spawn in, if it was to give the player another chance of obtaining the tail why not just have one guardian instead? I should mention they also do not drop the unique boss soul again so if you're a completionist I recommend keeping that.
~ Empty Chest ~
I'm sure we all felt the same way when opening up that one chest next to Gwyn's tomb for the first time, just complete confusion or feeling as though we were missing something, I've heard rumors back in the day about it kind of like the playground rumors you'd hear about older games as a kid when the internet thankfully wasn't accessible to absolutely everyone, one of these rumors or theories is that it for some reason, under certain circumstances would contain the maiden set. I have no idea what the logic is behind this, I suppose it's close enough to the Dukes Archives, kind of. A set like that being in such a significant area doesn't make much sense, I remember watching a Pop Fiction episode on the pendant and this chest was brought up which is interesting. Does anyone else remember watching those videos a while back? What they had going for that series is the same feeling I had for this video.
~ Frog Ray ~
Frog Rays are the enemies you can find while going to get the wolf ring, they are those red spotted frogs that you can't find anywhere else in the game, what most don't know about them is that they have unique attacks you can't normally see, to see them you have to lure them into water. They kind of float or swim across it as well.
~ Mysterious Doors ~
There's a strange looking fenced off door in the Gaping Dragon's boss room, there's also a similar one in the Stray Demon's room. There's nothing to say about this I just thought it was worth noting.
~ Painted World Graveyard ~
There's unique ambience that plays while in the graveyard of the Painted World, this does not play anywhere else in the game and to make it stranger you have to be standing in an oddly specific spot to actually hear it so it's not even the entire graveyard that this can be heard in. There's nothing to do in the graveyard outside of encountering the invasion with King Jeremiah who gives you the notched whip along with his armor set that for some reason is found at the end of the bridge behind Priscilla and I think there's a spell to pick up near the cliff, I don't remember which one though.
This area gives off the same feeling I mentioned with Ash Lake but amplified, it definitely feels like there's supposed to be more to the graveyard, it feels as though by standing right where the ambient noise suspiciously plays that something will happen.
Here are the links to the video;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vFmu7lPMVI
https://old.bitchute.com/video/5LtVj4QM6tpZ/
Dark Souls was my first experience with a FromSoftware game, aside from that one game they released on the Gamecube, the first Dark Souls quickly became one of my favorite games of all time and is what made me pick up Demon's Souls after. There's a lot I love about it, playing the game on release almost felt like you were back in the early 2000s again due to how cryptic the game is in some areas and concepts, the amount of mysteries this game has is what kept me invested in it for so long, if you know me my favorite thing about video games is the oddities about them and theorizing with others on what they could mean, not necessarily easter eggs or glitches but something left in by the developers whether intentionally or what moreso has to do with cut content.
Dark Souls is the perfect game for this kind of stuff, also I know everyone generically says this but if you like the video I'd appreciate a thumbs up. let's start by talking about something intriguing about a specific weapon buff.
~ Blue Pine Resin ~
Pine resin isn't used very much outside of using that one tumble oversight or the Gaping Dragon, You have three kinds of resin in Dark Souls, gold, charcoal and rotten but there's an oddity that makes it seem like there's a fourth kind. Outside of the three gold resin you find near the start of the game in Undead Burg and a limited supply sold by shops, you'll have to go farm Elizabeth's future relatives or try to find a vagrant if you want the resin of the gold variety in order to see this oddity.
Once you have some gold pine resin go to the Dukes Archives, specifically the courtyard near the giant crystals, once you are here apply the resin to your buffable weapon and enter the crystal cave. There's nothing out of the ordinary, right? Now unequip your weapon or wait until the buff wears off and apply it again inside the cavern and see what happens. For some odd reason instead of the yellow electric color it's now blue, which looks really neat, it also kind of looks like it would do magic damage instead of the usual lightning damage. Every few years I try to look up if anyone has found a reason for this but I don't think anyone has bothered to look at the code, a part of me thinks this is an intentional decision by the developers considering you can even take the blue lightning buff out of the crystal cave and it will still be blue, if it turned back into gold it would most likely just be a glitch similar to what happens in older games where if you equip certain items part of the maps textures become effected.
Write in the comments why you think this happens or why the developers added it outside of it being a very cool and interesting secret.
~ Nito's Coffins ~
This one most likely has some lore significance although I don't have too much to say about it as I can't come up with any theories of my own for it, in Nito's domain if you look to the right of the two coffins, tucked away in the back corner is another one, I doubt this was put here just for show and to make the area have more stuff to look at, you need to have your brightness turned up and be standing in just the right place to see it making it very mysterious.
~ Doll Location ~
The location where you find the peculiar doll, right inside the starting cell, has been theorized on a lot, I always interrupted it and the Painted World as being connected to the chosen undead although Priscilla says otherwise. How much time has passed since the player left the Undead Asylum and why did someone put it there or who? Something many of us noticed is how this place is called the Northern Undead Asylum as if there's more parts to the area and if you look at the Painted World it seems very similar in design to the asylum itself, considering they made the Painted World as a place to put unfinished or cut content it would make sense if the two were once connected. I think there was another asylum demon type boss there at one point to add to the spam of that specific encounter although Nito was there at one point as well so who knows.
~ Ash Lake Oddities ~
Has anyone ever seen that one image on /v/ that usually gets posted in obscure video game mystery threads or sometimes Dark Souls ones? It shows someone standing in Havels' staring into the deep waters of Ash Lake and you can see some kind of giant skull or Lovecraftian creature staring back to him. This is how I always felt when I would go to the lake, it's a very ominous area when the jumping hydra is defeated, there's nothing here aside from a covenant, some clams, the dragon greatsword, dragon scales.
It's completely empty and feels like you walked into an unfinished area but not in the same way as Lost Izalith, it feels like something will happen if you wait here long enough. Speaking of ominous, here's the skull that everybody talked about and still do talk about to this day, there is absolutely no hints to what this could be from aside from an everlasting dragon or an asylum demon as they do look similar in shape but not in size, the skull is far too big.
By the way, what was Siegmeyer planning to do down here, why does he go from Blighttown to Lost Izalith and then back to Blighttown so he can go to Ash Lake afterwards, it's like he just learned of it's existence due to his travels to Izalith, his daughter somehow knows how to get there as well making this even more odd, it's like people go there on vacation or something like it's nothing out of the ordinary despite there being two illusory walls.
~ Invisible Coffin Near Quelana ~
If you are watching this video you most likely already know about the coffin stab mechanic in the catacombs, but did you know that for some reason there's a coffin stab possible near Quelana? There's no coffin object, you don't need to be laying in it, just simply being backstabbed around her is enough to cause this animation to play. I think someone has an explanation for this online but I'm not going to say their name because they are a raving he him new-to-the-internet poser that supports and encourages others to get surgeries I don't agree with.
~ Chained Prisoner ~
This one is my favorite, the chained prisoner, this thing acts like a mini-boss before you have your fight with Manus, for some reason he's not in the area with the cells, (which also wouldn't be able to fit in) he's in this large boss room looking chamber with strange statues which can be destroyed by him. The cells with the broken bars are way below this room so he must have taken the elevator somehow unless he escaped first in his original form and then the other citizens of Oolacile put the chains around him. Even though I refer to him as a mini-boss he goes down in around three hits with the right upgraded weapons, for this reason I feel like he has lore significance, it's not often a single enemy gets an entire boss sized room to themselves with breakable scenery to show them off unless it was meant to be a boss at first.
I think this is just for gameplay reasons but if you are gravelorded there's red phantom versions of him in the actual cell area if I recall, or they might be upstairs with the original one, it's been a while and I don't remember, either way it's one of those enemies you really don't expect there to be a phantom version of.
~ Duo Sanctuary Guardians ~
These two managed to make me jump when I first came across them a week or so after the release of the DLC, which is embarrassing to say as I just turned fifteen at the time (was 2012 really that long ago, wow) but hey, I just wasn't expecting to see an enemy like that respawn when walking peacefully through the world back to the starting point of said DLC. The enemy itself is really interesting as I believe it was planned to be one of the demons in Lost Izalith, there's an unfinished version of one in the original games files if I remember correctly, it has a unique tail cut weapon (which is absurdly hard to get, at least for me) but something else that it has is a unique soul like other bosses have, except the mysterious thing is that it doesn't do anything, you can't make any weapons or shields from it. I think even the design of the soul is unique too, the only reason I can think of as to why it drops a unique soul is to give the boss a description.
To make two of them spawn in the same area you have to defeat another DLC boss, if you choose to defeat Kalameet without speaking to Gough just to see this instead of going to Artorias first then have fun. I'm not sure why an additional two spawn in, if it was to give the player another chance of obtaining the tail why not just have one guardian instead? I should mention they also do not drop the unique boss soul again so if you're a completionist I recommend keeping that.
~ Empty Chest ~
I'm sure we all felt the same way when opening up that one chest next to Gwyn's tomb for the first time, just complete confusion or feeling as though we were missing something, I've heard rumors back in the day about it kind of like the playground rumors you'd hear about older games as a kid when the internet thankfully wasn't accessible to absolutely everyone, one of these rumors or theories is that it for some reason, under certain circumstances would contain the maiden set. I have no idea what the logic is behind this, I suppose it's close enough to the Dukes Archives, kind of. A set like that being in such a significant area doesn't make much sense, I remember watching a Pop Fiction episode on the pendant and this chest was brought up which is interesting. Does anyone else remember watching those videos a while back? What they had going for that series is the same feeling I had for this video.
~ Frog Ray ~
Frog Rays are the enemies you can find while going to get the wolf ring, they are those red spotted frogs that you can't find anywhere else in the game, what most don't know about them is that they have unique attacks you can't normally see, to see them you have to lure them into water. They kind of float or swim across it as well.
~ Mysterious Doors ~
There's a strange looking fenced off door in the Gaping Dragon's boss room, there's also a similar one in the Stray Demon's room. There's nothing to say about this I just thought it was worth noting.
~ Painted World Graveyard ~
There's unique ambience that plays while in the graveyard of the Painted World, this does not play anywhere else in the game and to make it stranger you have to be standing in an oddly specific spot to actually hear it so it's not even the entire graveyard that this can be heard in. There's nothing to do in the graveyard outside of encountering the invasion with King Jeremiah who gives you the notched whip along with his armor set that for some reason is found at the end of the bridge behind Priscilla and I think there's a spell to pick up near the cliff, I don't remember which one though.
This area gives off the same feeling I mentioned with Ash Lake but amplified, it definitely feels like there's supposed to be more to the graveyard, it feels as though by standing right where the ambient noise suspiciously plays that something will happen.