Untended Graves: The Dark Souls of Dark Souls

There are few things scarier than the unknown. Of wandering into the unknown and finding yourself completely lost in the moment, wrapped in fear and questions about where you are and what exactly is going on. Dark Souls has managed to grasp this idea and hold it tight throughout the series; be it the mystical unknown of Anor Londo, wandering through a strange history in the Forest of Fallen Giants, or finding your way through the rotting husk of an Undead Settlement. Dark Souls III is the cap of that for the “Souls” trilogy with one area, if not just a single moment, that defines this feeling of the unknown: the Untended Graves.

Dark Souls has never been shy on trying to mask lore and make the Player figure out the story for themselves. There are some bits that are easily placed. It’s fact that Gwyn spawned Gwyndolin and Gwynevere but it’s not fact that the Nameless King is his son. It’s 99% confirmed by item descriptions, but that 1% just keeps it a theory. Remember: it wasn’t long ago that it was basically agreed on by the community that Solaire was actually Gwyn’s son.

Regardless, the history of the world and the makings of it all are usually well laid-out in the opening and as the Player discovers the world around them. Optional areas usually help feed into already established areas of the game, explaining elements the Player has already discovered. But there is one area that makes the Player question everything they’ve been going through. And that’s why the Untended Graves is the “Dark Souls of Dark Souls.”

Credit where credit is due: Gary Butterfield of “Bonfire-side Chat” coined that phrase during their podcast episode where they discuss the Consumed King’s Garden and the Untended Graves. It’s a great episode and he, his partner Cole Ross, and the famed Youtube “Souls” analyst VaatiVidya, provide excellent commentary and introspection on just what the heck the Untended Graves are. The phrase “The Dark Souls of Dark Souls” is fitting enough, so, why not keep it?

I remember when I first saw the Untended Graves in someone else’s playthrough I was filled with absolute dread. It seemed, since I didn’t know it was a separate area (although it technically isn’t), that the Player fails in their mission and that the Flame goes out, snuffing out even the power of Firelink Shrine. Of course this isn’t the case, but it made me want to get to the area and find it all the more.

It’s also a stranger area to find. Usually optional areas won’t have hidden things for the Player to wade through, since it’s already optional and they don’t have to do anything about it. But the Untended Graves are a bit different. They’re hidden behind an illusory wall in the rotting part of Lothric Castle following the Oceiros fight. I always swear that the chest in front of the wall will be a Mimic, just as another test of strength to try and stray me away. It’d be almost as if the game is trying to sway me away from the truth of it all.

Since that’s not the case, all it takes is a swing of the sword and suddenly you’re thrust into a black void with familiar looking geography. I doesn’t really hit where you are until you reach the Lordvessel-looking object. It’s the Cemetery of Ash…but it’s also a black void?

The big reason why this is the “Dark Souls of Dark Souls” is because there is no solid explanation for how this place exists. It’d be one thing for us to cut through the wall and wind up at a Firelink Shrine with nobody there, just an empty place. It’d be a simple explanation of “it’s the past, whatever.” The skybox, though, is what muddles things. There is solid evidence that this is the past, though I’ve heard some say that since time is messed up so bad that this could be a warped version of the future. I disagree quite a bit with that idea, but you’re free to think whatever you want.

Visually, this is the most haunting area I think I’ve ever played through. While the Abyss in Dark Souls is spooky, it’s also just black, so you don’t know what surrounds you. This, though, is familiar ground wrapped up in pitch black. Something is wrong, very wrong, with this area. It’s the silence of it all, too. In most of the game there’s a hollowness to the sound design that feels like you’re surrounded by buildings and by life. In Untended Graves, there’s no sound other than when you’re swinging your weapon or being attacked. Again, it’s a void.

The heavy Dark Souls motifs are present here. The area alone takes a heavy swing at you and that’s not to mention the lore implications as well as the difficult enemies that can be found here. Corvians will come at you from where the Ashen Estus Ring is. The Gravewardens, enemies that are basically glass-cannons, leap out at you from nowhere. Black Knights surround Firelink and Champion Gundyr, one of the harder fights in the game, stands as the gatekeeper. The lore is thick and is all speculation.

It’s impossible to say for certain exactly when this is given some of the bits and pieces of the area. We know Champion Gundyr fought a legendary warrior in the past, and as it should turn out, it was you. He was late to the call of the Flame and was killed for being tardy. However, was he meant to be the Chosen Unkindled right before us? The Untended Firelink Shrine still has the names for all the Lords of Cinder we’re meant to hunt (and Ludleth). The Shrine Handmaiden is there, with Artorias’s gear, and will recognize you in the regular Firelink Shrine should you never speak to her prior to speaking to her in the Untended Firelink. However, since she’s all but confirmed to be the grandmother of Sirris of the Sunless Realms, it also calls into question her age and

AGH

Do you see the issue here?

Much as Dark Souls loves to give little nudges to you and allow you to figure it out, the Untended Graves is a little more than nudges and is just a shove off a cliff hoping you figure it out and climb back to the surface.

But I still love the area.

It’s just so rich and so open. Taking all these things into account lets you build on the overworld of Dark Souls III that much more. Those first few steps into Untended Graves are absolutely terrifying. There’s a sense of dread, a sense of real fear. Pitch blackness is associated with the Abyss, the root of evil, so if you think you’re back there then you’re basically screwed. This sensation is critical to the experience. You should never feel safe in a Dark Souls game because you never are safe. The world is out to get you, it’s designed to kill you. Why do you think Soul Level 1 runs are so impressive?

The Abyss adds a new element to this, though, as does this Shrine Handmaiden holding Artorias’s gear. You can get his sword from the Abyss Watchers, but the fact that his armor is here implies that this might be the Abyss. It could also be that someone found his armor in Oolacile (which is implied to be Farron Keep) and she now owns it, but what if this is the Abyss? What if it is the Abyss and the Abyss could only be driven back by the arrival of the Flame?

It’s curious. Manus, or perhaps one of his spawn like Nashandra, would want to strike while the Flame is weak: when there is no Champion of Ash. As we know, Gundyr was late to the call. He failed. The Abyss might’ve shot out of Oolacile or the New Londo Ruins, or wherever, to inhabit Firelink Shrine. Not to mention that, as we discover, Firelink Shrine is right next to Lothric Castle, where they’re getting ready to make an heir for linking the fire.

The proximity may give credence to the theory that Darkstalker Frampt has a hand in persuading Lothric and Lorian away from linking the fire. If this is the Abyss, where Frampt rested, then what would stop him from going after Lothric if it’s right there? Kaathe would obviously try to stop him, and that’s why both of their statues are seen around Lothric Castle.

But, of course, there’s no confirmation that this is indeed the Abyss besides the pure darkness of it. And if it were the past and this is the Abyss, I feel like it’d be worth mentioning in the present.

One theory that this entire area postulates is that Firelink Shrine is truly the present, and everything we do takes place in the past, not just the stuff in the Untended Graves. When we warp from bonfires, we are actually moving through time. After all, why else would enemies be respawning whenever we use the bonfires? That of course opens up the plothole of why bosses don’t reappear, but that could be any number of explanations: that we take their soul and they can’t respawn, that since they’re linked to the flame (“Heir of Fire” prompting after killing a boss signals that) that they’re also linked to the First Flame and get absorbed by it when they die…or it could just be an oversight.

I do have to wonder if Untended Graves has always been like this or if there is some darker interference going on. Queen Lothric would often go to the Untended Graves, according to the Ashen Estus Ring item description, to pay respects to fallen warriors. She left the Ashen Estus Ring in the graves for the Chosen Unkindled that would one day come to link the fire, and the Corvians there worship her. But was she there while all of this darkness settled in?

If there had been a fog-gate in front of this area, or if there had been a much steeper drop like when you fall into the Abyss in Dark Souls, I don’t think we’d have this discussion. Or at least not one of this length. A fog-gate almost signals some sort of different dimension sometimes, or at least an area closed off to time. A fog-gate would allow us to know that we’re entering a brand new place, something that’s disconnected. A steep drop into darkness would easily signal that, yes, this is the Abyss.

Another cool thing they could have done, but didn’t, is lock the area off until after killing the three Lords of Cinder prior to the Twin Princes. The black skybox would make a bit more sense. The skybox upon returning to Lothric signals that this is the Flame about to burn out. The Dark Sign appears in the sky, bleeding the final bits of flame out, and everyone is getting desperate to stop you. That would be the perfect time for the Abyss to strike.

Still, though, if this is all indeed in the past then why hasn’t Gundyr gone after the Lords of Cinder? Is it because he’s late? And why did the Lords of Cinder move from their graves we see them in during the opening cinematic? In the opening we see Aldrich as a clump of goop, not the form that’s absorbed Gwyndolin just yet. The Abyss Watchers also have more members than just the three we see, implying that all those bodies that are dead have been killed in the intervening time.

To quote Mystery Science Theatre 3000: “Space is warped and time is bendable!”

The Untended Graves throws a wrench in almost any core Dark Souls III theory having to deal with the makings of the world. It skews time and makes you wonder how everything works in relation to one another. I don’t want to posit an overarching clear answer because I know that there isn’t one and I don’t think there ever will be one. At the time of this writing, The Ringed City DLC has not been released, though I doubt we’ll get more answers there since that content seems to be all about the ENTIRE world of Dark Souls, from Lordran to Drangleic to Lothric to beyond, collapsing in on itself.

And I kind of don’t want answers. I like to think back and just wonder and speculate. That’s the fun of Dark Souls III. There are frustrating and contradictory bits with the lore, but the material with the Untended Graves goes beyond just one or two things. It takes up the entire scope of the game, maybe even the entire series. I like it when a game makes me be afraid of it’s content as well as making me think and speak critically on it. I foresee us talking about the Untended Graves for a while to come now, and I look forward to what the community has to say on it.

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