Dark Souls: Legends of the Flame

Dark Souls: Legends of the Flame is a two-issue limited comic series published by Titan Comics and written and illustrated by various talents.

The series consists of multiple short stories set in the world of Dark Souls, though they are not interconnected.

Issue 1 of Legends of the Flame was first released on 14th September 2016 and both issue 1 and 2 were later recollected into a trade paperback alongside both issues of Dark Souls: Tales of Ember on September 2017.

Plot[]

The Shrine (1)[]

A lone Unkindled stumbles upon a shrine. An old woman with a cat welcomes the traveler and encourages him to stare into the fire to observe the stories of similar undead who have suffered.

Crossroads[]

In a desert wasteland, an undead warrior encounters a ragged man strung up to a cross who warns him of the path ahead. The man introduces himself as Mortlock of Ithraic, punished for killing a man who stole from him. The undead introduces himself as Heroth of Harrowmark who seeks a cure for the Undead Curse. Mortlock bargains with Heroth that if he cut him down, he will escort him to a ruin where his curse can be cured. Heroth begrudgingly agrees. During the travel, Heroth tells of his past, how his village was ruptured by the curse and that those surviving burned the village to the ground in an attempt to put an end to the infection. At the ruins, Mortlock directs Heroth into a room to where he would presumably find the cure, but Heroth to his shock finds only decapitated bodies. Mortlock suddenly dons a sword and briskyly decapitates Heroth himself, citing that death is the only cure for the Undead.

Mortlock is then seen tied up to a cross in the same area as before, beckoning another gullible undead traveler to cut him loose.

The Flame's Return[]

The Flame's Return tells of a vengeful knight who lost his beloved, desperately seeking to find a way to bring her back. Through his travel's, the knight reaches a castle and strikes a deal with a mysterious shadowed figure. The knight begs the figure to "never let her die". Returning to his beloved, though the figure retained his promise, the knight's lover had resurrected into a monstrosity. The knight, realizing his mistake, readies his sword.

The Labyrinth[]

The city of Quon was once a thriving and fruitful place, ruled by the wise king Mistos. However, the undead threatened the prosperity of the city, and Mistos had his architect design a labyrinth ridden with traps to guard the forefront of the district from undead intruders. After realizing that the undead were getting closer and closer towards the city, Mistos' architect goads the king into allowing him to extend the labyrinth into the city walls. However, soon the undead horde the city, and its population are forever doomed to mindlessly navigate through the twisting and turning corridors of the city, falling victim to its traps.

T360x480bb — The now hollowing Mitos tells the tale of Quon to a traveler.

The story is narrated by a young warrior seeking Mistos' ring of emerald to aid him in his journey. At the labyrinth's entrance he sits and talks with a lone, slowly hollowing undead, who tells him the story of the downfall of Quon. When the warrior wishes to tell him his story, the undead rejects his offer, knowing that any tale of the outside world would result on him losing "his grip on that final shard of being - that the hollowness would take him full". The warrior leaves the undead at the entrance of the labyrinth where he eternally resides in a limbo state until his hollowing. The undead is revealed to be Mistos himself, still donning the emerald ring, who had managed to escape the city at the cost of his own broken mind.

The Shrine (2)[]

The old lady is surprised by the Unkindled's silence and indifference towards the stories. She gives the Unkindled a choice: to continue his journey onwards through one path or to seek fortune by simply traversing a fog wall nearby. Before the unkindled makes up its mind, the woman continues her stories.

The Devoted[]

The story is narrated by a soldier who succumbed to petrification by a female creature with an insectoid lower body. The soldier has remained petrified for an unknown extended period of time, and soon came to accept his petrification, even developing feelings for his killer.

A warrior soon arrives and battles the creature. To his dismay, the statue can only look on in despair as the lady he loves is killed by the warrior, leaving him forever alone.

That which holds us human[]

A lone warrior approaches a desolate village, only to be attacked by creatures visibly similar to that of Egg Burdened. The creatures kill the warrior for its Humanity. One of the creatures then hands the humanity to a Fire Keeper. Clinging on to what little life they have left, the creatures desire to keep the flame alit, waiting for the fire keepers return as another warrior approaches the slumbering hoard.

Action Replay[]

In an icy landscape, a prisoner with no memory of how he got there is forced by humanoid creatures to fight in a gladiatorial arena with a large Ogre-like being. The prisoner is easily killed. It is revealed that the prisoner is undead and is continuously killed by viscous creatures only to reawaken again for their own amusement.

The Shrine (3)[]

After her stories, the woman encourages the unkindled to now make a choice. The unkindled chooses fortune and enters the fog gate, much to her disappointment.