You're standing at the edge of the Kiln of the First Flame. The sky is a bleeding, warped mess of orange and black. Then, the music shifts. You hear those three distinct piano notes—Plin Plin Plon—and suddenly, it isn't just a boss fight anymore. It's a funeral.
Dark Souls 3 Dark Souls connections aren't just fanservice. They are the entire point of the game's existence, even if FromSoftware tried to play it cool at first.
Honestly, the way this game handles its predecessor is kinda messy but also brilliant. Some people call it a "Best Of" album. Others think it relies too much on nostalgia. But if you actually look at the lore, the heavy-handed references to the original Dark Souls are meant to show a world that is literally collapsing under the weight of its own history. The geography is physically folding in on itself. That’s why you find the Earthen Peak from DS2 right next to the Demon Ruins from DS1 in the DLC. It's a geographical car crash.
The Identity Crisis of the Soul of Cinder
When we talk about Dark Souls 3 Dark Souls parallels, we have to start with the final boss. The Soul of Cinder is basically a walking meta-commentary. He isn't just a guy in armor. He is a literal manifestation of every single person who ever linked the fire, including your player character from the first game.
That’s why he switches stances.
One second he's using a straight sword, the next he’s casting Sorceries or using a curved sword like a high-dexterity PVP meta build from 2011. It’s haunting. When the second phase hits and he adopts Gwyn’s moveset—the grab, the sunlight spear, the leaping strike—it’s Hidetaka Miyazaki telling us that the cycle has become a stagnant, rotting loop.
You’ve probably noticed that the armor set, the Firelink Set, looks like a charred, melted version of the elite knight armor. Everything in this game is a melted version of something else. It's the "Dark Souls 3 Dark Souls" effect in a nutshell: everything is recognizable but fundamentally broken.
Anor Londo and the Gwyndolin Tragedy
Finding Anor Londo in Irithyll is the biggest "holy crap" moment for most players. You walk through a semi-invisible barrier, rotate a familiar spiral elevator, and there it is. The cathedral.
But it’s cold.
The sun is gone. The giant blacksmith is dead (which, honestly, is the saddest detail in the whole series). And inside the main hall, you find Aldrich, Devourer of Gods. If you look closely at Aldrich, he’s not just a blob of sludge. The upper half of his body is Gwyndolin. He is literally in the middle of digesting the Dark Sun.
This isn't just a reference; it's a brutal subversion of the first game's divinity. The gods of the original Dark Souls are being eaten by the "Age of Deep" that Aldrich envisioned. It’s a direct response to the player's actions in the first game. You kept the fire going, and this is what it led to: a world so tired that its gods are being consumed by cannibals in their own homes.
The Problem with Andre of Astora
Okay, let's get real for a second. Andre being in the Firelink Shrine is weird.
In a game where almost every other character is a reincarnation or a descendant, Andre is just... Andre. He hasn't aged. He hasn't gone Hollow. He’s just there, hammering away at the same anvil.
- He recognizes the Profaned Coal.
- He remembers the Giant Blacksmith.
- He still uses the same voice actor.
Some lore hunters, like VaatiVidya, have pointed out that Andre was originally supposed to be a descendant of Gwyn in the early drafts of the first game. While that was scrapped, his presence in DS3 feels like a tether. He is the only constant in a universe that is falling apart. It’s comforting, but it also highlights how much the "Dark Souls 3 Dark Souls" connection relies on physical constants to keep the player grounded while the rest of the world turns into ash.
Why the Ringed City Changes Everything
The final DLC, The Ringed City, is where the Dark Souls 3 Dark Souls relationship gets truly cosmic. We go to the end of the world. What do we find? Desert. Just endless dunes of ash.
And in that ash, you fight Slave Knight Gael.
Gael is the perfect foil to the Chosen Undead. He’s a nobody. He’s a slave. But he has survived until the literal end of time to collect the Blood of the Dark Soul. This is the payoff for the "Dark Souls" title itself. For three games, we've been talking about the Dark Soul, the thing the Furtive Pygmy found. In the very last moments of the series, we finally see it.
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It’s not some grand, glowing artifact. It’s pigment. It’s paint.
The painter girl uses the blood of the Dark Soul to paint a new world. A world that is "cold, dark, and very gentle." It’s a meta-narrative about the developers leaving the franchise behind. They are literally painting over the old Dark Souls 3 Dark Souls baggage to create something new (which many think was a hint toward the direction of Elden Ring).
Common Misconceptions About the Lore Links
People often get confused about how the timelines work. Time in Lordran (and Lothric) is "convoluted." That’s the famous line from Solaire. But in DS3, it’s more like time is a sponge being squeezed.
- Lothric isn't Lordran. Well, it is and it isn't. The lands of the Lords of Cinder are physically drifting toward the flame. This is why you see pieces of different kingdoms smashed together.
- The Nameless King is Gwyn's Firstborn. This was a fan theory for years that DS3 finally confirmed. The evidence is everywhere: the Miracle "Great Lightning Spear," the Ring of the Sun's Firstborn, and his physical resemblance to Gwyn.
- The "Fire Fades" isn't a metaphor. It's a literal heat death of the universe. By the time we reach the end of the third game, the fire is so weak that even "linking" it only results in a tiny, pathetic flicker.
Actionable Takeaways for Your Next Playthrough
If you’re heading back into the game to spot these connections yourself, don't just look at the big bosses. The environmental storytelling is where the real Dark Souls 3 Dark Souls meat is hidden.
Check the statues in the High Wall of Lothric. You'll see figures draped in cloth that look suspiciously like the primordial serpents, Frampt and Kaathe. This suggests that the influence of the serpents didn't end in the first game; they likely manipulated the Lothric bloodline into their obsession with linking (or not linking) the fire.
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Look at the items you find in the Untended Graves. This is a dark version of the starting area, and it’s arguably set in the past. Finding the Eyes of a Fire Keeper here is the trigger for the "End of Fire" ending, which is widely considered the "true" conclusion to the trilogy.
Read the descriptions of the "Soul of the Lords." It explicitly states that the Amalgamation of Souls has defended the flame since Gwyn. Every time you parry a boss or dodge a roll, you are interacting with the ghosts of the first game.
The best way to experience these links is to play the games back-to-back. The shift from the bright, golden illusions of Anor Londo in DS1 to the dark, sludge-filled reality of the same room in DS3 is one of the most powerful visual transitions in gaming history. It’s not just a sequel. It’s a closing of a circle that took nearly a decade to complete.
Go to the Smouldering Lake. Look at the large, petrified demons. You'll realize they are the same demons you fought in the first game—the Taurus and Capra demons. They didn't die out in a war; they simply faded away as the Chaos Flame died. It’s a quiet, depressing end for the enemies that used to terrify us. That is the essence of the transition between the games: the terror of the past becoming the pathetic ash of the present.
Stop thinking of the games as separate stories. They are one long, agonizing exhale. Once you see the "Dark Souls 3 Dark Souls" connection as a story of exhaustion rather than just a collection of Easter eggs, the game becomes much heavier.