Dark Souls/WMG

Dark Souls takes place in the same world as Lost Kingdoms, only on the world's other continent.
Why? Because.
 * That actually sounds like it would apply more to Demon's Souls, where a colorless fog is explicitly mentioned, just like in Lost Kingdoms.

Dark Souls takes place in the Land of the Giants from Demon's Souls.
This explains all the enormous animals. Alternately, Lordran is known as the Land of the Giants because it's ruled by the giants of Anor Londo - even the smallest of the people/gods living there are a lot bigger than an ordinary human.

The Maiden Astraea is related to the The Maiden Reah.
Ast[raea] <==> Reah. They're pretty much pronounced the same way.

The Furtive Pygmy isn't actually in the game.
There have been no screen shots, the very comprehensive Future Press guide doesn't mention anything about him and all the claims about players finding him have yet to be backed up with evidence. The pendent and the Pygmy are just a wild goose chase.
 * It's true that the furtive pigmy isn't in the game in person, but he does come up in a major way.

Knight Solaire of Astora is the dethroned and humanized first-born of Gwyn and founder of the Warriors of Sunlight.
He has a good knowledge of the time ripples of Lordran, has the ability to induct you into the Warriors of Sunlight, likens the Sun to a father, came to Lordran (Gwyn's domain) in order to find his Sun, and the Sunlight Medals he loves to give out refer to the first-born as alive and still watching over his warriors.
 * If you find a way to save him, he'll also
 * That may be because you're fighting alongside his phantom and not Solaire himself. Or maybe Solaire knows the situation.
 * It may be that, in this instance,
 * Word of God states that when you This would mean that phantom Solaire is the real Solaire, and that when he assists you as a phantom he is taking action in his own continuity and yours simultaneously.

Ceaseless Discharge is another daughter of chaos, more ghoulishly transformed than her sisters.
The shrine that you take the gold-hemmed robes from is the shrine to the Witch of Izalith. The clothes state in their description that they once belonged to the witch. Ceaseless Discharge watches over the shrine and will only attack you if you hit her or violate the shrine by stealing the robes. When you do this she will attack you in such a rage that she won't even notice the gaping hole in the floor that she can fall into.
 * The two spheres on either side of the Bed of Chaos are two of her daughters. If we assume Ceaseless Discharge is a daughter for the reasons above, all seven daughters from the prologue are accounted for: The two half-spiders, Quelana, the eldest daughter defending the Bed of Chaos (this pyromancer uses a spell specifically stated by Quelana to be the specialty of her eldest sister), the Bed's spheres, and the Ceaseless Discharge.
 * Ultimately Jossed. The Ceaseless Discharge is actually the Witch of Izalith's only known son, who was afflicted with lava-spewing sores. However, the seventh daughter of chaos is still accounted for, because the tomb where you get the Gold-Hemmed armor set is hers.

The main events of the game and the fire ending are all a plot set up by Gwyndolin to succeed his father.
Various item descriptions and such outline how Gwyndolin, due to being born under moonlight, was considered feminine and weaker than most of his family and thus was raised as a daughter. Thus as Gwyn's power was waning and the world seemed ripe for change he arranged for the release of undead to be sent on a mission to ultimate defeat Gwyn. It's implied that Gwynevere actually left Anor Londo long ago due to marriage, and so the Gwynevere in game is just a fabrication of Gwyndolin's to push him towards using the Lordvessel to relight the fire, sacrifice himself and leave things open for Gwyndolin to take over.
 * I thought this was confirmed anyway by putting together all the various bits and pieces of information in the game?

Dark Souls is the prequel to Demon's Souls
Ultimately doesn't work, but it's fun to think about.

Of course, we all know how Demon's Souls ends up...

Conversely, Demon's Souls is the Prequel to Dark Souls.
From the Bad Ending of Demon's Souls I think it fits.

You go back in time to kill Lord Gwyn.
Posted on THE Image Board, but has been paraphrased for obvious reasons. If this theory is correct, soapstones aren't just a handwave.

As you enter the Kiln of the First Flame, it's unlike anything you've ever experienced. Same atmosphere from the intro sequence. Notice the Black Knights come out of fog gates just like you. You can even summon Solaire for the final battle  And if you link the fire,

Ornstein was trying to stop Gwyndolin's plan to rekindle the First Flame.
Why are Ornstein and Smough trying to kill you when you enter the cathedral? Ornstein was probably just talking to Gwynevere a minute ago; he jumps down from the balcony before the fight. He probably knows the score, so why would he try to kill the patsy undead if he's working for Gwyndolin? He knows that the Undead would have to kill Lord Gwyn in order to do it. Ornstein, being supremely loyal to his Lord, balked at this and tries to stop anyone from reaching Gwynevere and obtaining the Lordvessel. Ths is also why the Knights and most of the giants throughout the level are hostile; they are Ornstein's unit (with the remnants of Gough's archers) and he's going behind Gywndolin's back. The only non-hostile giants are withing a few hundred meters of the Darkmoon Firekeeper- this is so she doesn't cotton on if they start attacking some random guy unprovoked. He then bribed Smough with Astorias' vacated position on the Knights to get him to go along with it.

Priscilla is Seath's Daughter.
There's no real hard evidence, but a good deal of clues and interesting similarities.

1. Same coloration: both are white dragonoids with lizard-like scales as opposed to the stone scales of the Ancient Dragons. Their tails are the same shape as well.

2. Both have ice-related powers, although Seath's have been warped by the Primordial Crystal to become more mineral-based.

3. Seath is established as an amoral monster who routinely kidnaps and experiments on people, and specifically human women. Whose to say one of his experiments wasn't creating a human/dragon hybrid child just to see what happens? This doesn't mean Priscilla is a "natural" child, for obvious logistical reasons, but considering Seath is directly stated as being capable of creating life from scratch magically, creating a hybrid should be easy for him.

4. That she's alive at all implies that she's related to a member of Gwyn's court, as if she wasn't, Gwyn/Gwyndolin would have just had her killed outright for being part dragon- especially because of the Lifehunt. Seath, being Seath, managed to convince Gwyn/Gwyndolin to keep her alive but in exile, either out of genuine caring (not likely, as he's a bastard who doesn't care about anyone but himself even before he went mad), so he can run more experiments on her when he thinks of something, or just to avoid the political shitstorm her creation would have caused. The environment of the painting also suits her and complements her abilities perfectly; if Gwyn/Gwyndolin wanted to be a dick, he could have made her prison painting a river of lava, but he gives her something that she actually seems to like.


 * Someone on Game FAQs theorized that Gwynevere is Priscilla's mother. This would establish a relationship between her and Gwyn's court.
 * The main reason for that speculation is the apparent size compatibility between Seath and Ms. Ginormous Gozangas, but let's remember that, or evidence pointing to her being the only woman that huge.

Sir Artorias isn't a Fallen Hero; he's a Defector From Decadence
Admittedly, there isn't much evidence one way or another to determine the character's moral outlook in-game, but it's possible that his experience mirrors that of many pro-Darkness players. For most of his tenure, it was easy for him to view the world as Black and White Morality: the Powers That Be in Anor Londo were good, and the monsters outside of Anor Londo, particularly the Darkwraiths and other dark servants against which his sword specializes, were evil. Then for one reason or another, Artorias arrives in New Londo where he discovers the lengths to which Gwyn and his forces are willing to go in order to hold onto their power. Artorias experiences a Heroic BSOD when Darkstalker Kaathe contacts him and convinces him that the right thing to do is to side with the creatures of the abyss and combat the rogue Darkwraiths wandering new Londo who betrayed Kaathe. The forces of light branded him a heretic who made a Deal with the Devil and struck him down, leaving the Great Grey Wolf Sif his only remaining ally in the material world.

Patches is in Lordran because he was murdered by Mephistopheles' operative.
It's relatively simple. Either Yurt took him out, the Demon's Souls character, or Mephistopheles herself. Barring that, he may have just been killed by clerics (which might help to explain why his hatred for clerics is a lot more intense in this game).

The First Flame has absolutely nothing to do with the Darksign and its curse of undeath.
The Crestfallen Warrior mention's New Londo as having once been an undead city. Havel the rock is mentioned as having been an old friend of Gwyn.
 * If on payed very close attention, this is a pretty major inconsistency with Frampt claiming relinking the Flame would cure the Darksign- after all, the curse first appeared after the flame began to burn and the dragons were vanquished, but before Gwyn went to link the fire, and yet Gwyn's linking did nothing, and is a (very sneaky) clue that Frampt is lying.

The animals in Lordran aren't giant. You're just very small.
Not only is almost every monster huge, a lot of the natural areas are scaled similarly. The Great Hollow is a good example of a place that makes more sense if you were simply mouse-sized.

The "Old Fire Arts" are like Demon's Souls fire spells: cast from catalysts

 * Think about it: both Izalith Catalyst and Demon Catalyst mentions the old fire arts, which are distinct from pyromancy. Perhaps there may be a cut or dummied out content in which either (or both) of these catalysts can cast both spells and pyromancies (or at least Chaos ones).

The "Dark Soul" gained by the furtive pygmy IS the humanity the players consume and gain.

 * The Humanities are black sprites with mysterious properties. If the Dark Soul is as powerful as the Lord Souls, but split into billions of little pieces, then it might just be that Humanities are pieces of the Dark Soul that the Pygmy bestowed. From the opening, "they" came from the dark, which means that the natural state of humans/pygmies at the time were Hollow. The Dark Soul infuses these Hollows, becoming Humans. Now since Humans are different beings than the Giants (which is theorized to be Gwyn's race), the Giants are already sapient enough to form kingdoms and war capability while Humans are just being herded sheep. But while the Lord Soul is powerful, it is too overwhelming for any one individual to control, hence Seath's sanity slippage, Four Kings' descent to the darkness, the Witch of Izalith's failure to control her fire, and Nito's barely any grasp on his own powers of Death. In contrast, splitting the Dark Soul in millions of pieces enables Humans as a whole, to survive. Thus, the Dark Lord is simply the Lord that rules over those that possess the Dark Soul, Ruler of Humans.
 * Humanities even look like little black flames. Heck, their gameplay benefits are also evidence for this theory: they can be sacrificed to make the mystical bonfires stronger, and they enhance the power of the flames of chaos. It also explains why the title is "Dark Souls" instead of "Dark Soul".

The warrior on the NA cover of the game is the Wolf Knight Artorias
The armor he wears bears a resemblance to the Elite Armor Set, and the sword and shield he wields look like the Greatsword and Greatshield of Artorias.
 * Possibly Jossed. In the recently released artbook, there is concept art of what appears to be a grey/silver colored wolf-themed Ornstein carrying the Greatsword of Artorias.
 * Definitely Jossed. The PC box art has the real Artorias.

The Cragspiders in Blighttown are what the larva from Quelaag's eggs grow into
Why else would there be fire spewing spiders with some vaguely human features.

Many of the NPCs represent specific player archetypes in Dark Souls

 * Solaire, champion of Jolly Cooperation is a player who just wants to play with others. They don’t do it for the extra souls and humanity, they just enjoy the social aspect of the game. They’re always happy to help others navigate through the tougher areas, beat the hardest bosses, and fend off pesky invaders. Oftentimes, they’ll advertise their “services” on message boards so that other players will know when and where to find them.
 * Siegmeyer, on the other hand, is someone who’s always summoning help. These players lack skill and/or confidence, and don’t feel that they can beat the game on their own. Hence, they tend to spend a lot of time waiting around safe areas or bonfires for summon signs to appear. When signs don’t appear, as they sometimes won’t, well, like Siegmeyer, they’ll spend a lot of time waiting. And when help does arrive, the phantom usually ends up doing most of the work.
 * Sieglinde represents gamers who want to play with friends. It doesn’t matter whether they’re the summoner or the summonee, as long as they’re with people they like, they’re happy. Unfortunately for them, Dark Souls doesn’t support that kind of gameplay, so just how Sieglinde is blindly stumbling around Lordran in a fruitless bid to find her father, most of these players are trying and failing to hook up with their buddies. They may get in touch a few times, but like Sieglinde’s journey, it’s only a matter of time before at least one of the players moves on to another game.
 * Lautrec represents the more Jerkass playerbase. These people have decided that the best way to power level is not to proceed through the game as normal, but to go to any of the more popular PvP zones (like Anor Londo, the Kiln of the First Flame, or Darkroot Garden) in human form, and summon two phantoms. After that, they sit around, kill every invader effortlessly (using cheap tactics), and throw rude gestures around. In other words, they do exactly what Lautrec does in Anor Londo.
 * Lautrec pulls double duty, symbolizing players that are particularly murderous toward NPCs. Once an in-game character has outlived his/her usefulness, this player will kill them for additional items, souls, spells, and humanity.
 * Knight Kirk represents the persistent invader. These players go to a zone and invade others' games, over and over and over again. They just love the thrill of the hunt. And inevitably, whether they win or lose their fights, they’ll end up invading the same few people repeatedly, much to the latter’s chagrin.

The Dark Lord ending is the good ending.
There are all sorts of unknown factors as to what consequences there will be in the aftermath of Dark Souls' two endings. What kind of future awaits? What changes will we see? And more than anything, which one is truly better for the world at large? Perhaps the answer can be found not by staring into the hazy future, but at what we know of the past and present.

Looking at what we can see of the Age of Fire…things are not looking good in the world. Entire kingdoms have been swarmed by undead that have gone hollow. And despite both Frampt and Gwyndolin's "claims" to the contrary, the curse of undeath will not go away; it's always existed in the world in one form or another. Worse yet, linking the Fire isn’t going to make the current hollows disappear either; they’ll still remain in those fallen kingdoms, and continue to build up in number in the countries that are still standing. If anything, prolonging the Age of Fire may in fact doom humanity.

So what does the Age of Dark entail? The First Flame is gone now, as are all Bonfires in the world. As we see in game, whenever someone bearing the Dark Sign dies, he or she ends up back at the nearest Bonfire. So what will happen to the undead now that there aren’t anymore Bonfires to revive at? Chances are, they will...stay dead. That may not be quite the magical cure everyone was hoping for, but without the Fire consuming Humanity and recycling humans who by all rights should have passed on, the undead effectively regain their mortality. Hence, they are now free to die as normal and not simply wait for their minds to crack. And the undead who have already gone hollow, and who have subsequently caused numerous kingdoms to fall via Zombie Apocalypse can finally be eliminated once and for all.

From the ashes of the Age of Fire, humanity can finally rebuild.

God of Harmony will be a new boss in the PC version
Why? Because your character is so awesome he feels the need to kick the ass of ANOTHER game's final boss.

Artorias the Abysswalker and Hawkeye Gough became bitter enemies after the former's defection to the darkness.
One has a wolf motif going for him, the other has a hawk theme. This would hardly be the first Shout-Out to Berserk that either Dark Souls or Demon's Souls have had.

The Always Night aspect of Darkroot forest is an illusion created by Artorias similar to what Gwyndolin is using in Anor Londo.
The PC trailer shows a forested area bathed in the evening sun. There isn't an area in game that meets those exact features, though there is a forest. If you look on the bridge the Black Dragon sits on in the trailer, it looks exactly like the one in Darkroot Basin that leads to the three Great Felines. They've also announced that parts of Oolacile are going to be included in the game, which was once located in the Darkroot Forest. The new content will involve stealing the fake sunlight the illusory Gwynevere provides, and using it to light Darkroot forest and open the way to Artorias. Doing so will radically change the zone, and you will fight the Chimera of the Tomb at Sif's boss arena to access the Tomb of Artorias.
 * Half Jossed. A daytime Darkroot Forest is featured which is where you'll encounter Artorias, but you are entering into the zone's past.

Paladin Leeroy invades you because everyone has learned to not summon him.
The fight against Gravelord Nito is very similar to the situation in the Leeroy Jenkins Video; you have to move carefully, or else you'll stir up all sorts of powerful mooks (in this case, skeletal ones rather than dragon whelps) who will overwhelm you with numbers. Paladin Leeroy, being what he is, would make a habit of doing this each and every single time he faced Nito. He would do it alone, sometimes he would try and summon phantoms for help, and sometimes he would become a phantom himself, just so he could somehow defeat the Gravelord, and failed every single time for his reckless behavior. And after trying and failing so much while in the company of others, other Undead adventurers eventually learned that he's bad news and thus refuse to summon or assist him. Which leaves Leeroy, who never learned his lesson, in a bad situation; he lost so much humanity that he was in danger of going hollow. Thus his invasion of you is one last-ditch effort to try and get some humanity and keep his mind from cracking, since he could no longer get it by being summoned.
 * A good support for that theory is that his weapons are specifically equipped to counter reanimated skeletons, and that his equipment is also very heavily degraded. As for why his summon sign is so out of reach in the Catacombs, perhaps he's just...obtuse.

The Primordial Serpents were a race oppressed by the Everlasting Dragons during the Age of Ancients.
This would show parallels between the Age of Ancients and the Age of Fire. Serpents are meant to represent the Undead and are also coined as "imperfect" dragons. This would then provide back story to the divide between Frampt and Kaathe. The fact that the Gods and their allies defeated the oppressive dragons would paint them as saviours, leading Frampt to become good friends with Lord Gwyn. Kaathe, on the other hand, realises that the Gods are basically the next generation of abusive and power hungry rulers. He sides with the only other opposing force that could bring about a new era, the Furtive Pygmy and his eventual descendants. However, Kaathe is not without his own agenda, in that he secretly wants to usurp the humans/Undead once they come to power, all for the sake of a world where the Primordial Serpents finally reign supreme.
 * That certainly would explain how and why Frampt returns to the fold in the Dark Lord ending. He may not be entirely happy that Gwyn's legacy is over and the Age of Fire is ending, but knows he and his people will get something better.

The Witch of Izalith's real name is Queen.
Most fans have dubbed the Witch of Izalith as just Izalith, the place where she and her daughters come from and were they were probably born. Surely this would mean that if she was called Izalith, she named an entire city/civilization after her, which seems out of character in the world of Lordran. If you look at her named daughters, they have Que as a prefix. This is not uncommon in Dark Souls. Gwyn's named children also follow the example of starting with his name as a prefix. Perhaps then, calling her Queen would cement her as being a higher and wiser being than her daughters.

The hand in the PC Version Trailer will transport you to a new area.
If you look closely at the part of the trailer with the hand, the area behind the hand looks like the nook on the lake behind the hydra where the golden crystal golem is. This section of the trailer is definitely a cutscene, as your character wouldn't have their sword sheathed unless it was a cut scene. Also, if you look between the pinky and ring finger, you see a dark void. The hand will grab you and pull you into a new area similar to the scene when you enter the painted world.

Hollows and Undead actually ARE hollow
Well not litereally hollow. But it's a theory I came up with: Everytime the character makes a kill, we see that cloud of souls traveling from the 'source' to our character. We then see the 'count' of souls go up. So what if all undead are actually 'empty', and souls and Humanity fill that void? That would mean a 'standard' human has a set 'amount' of souls and one humanity, while the Undead lack those. This is why Hollows are mostly mindless husks that attack you on sight - they are looking for souls and humanity like animals prey for food. This would also explain why the souls are 'currency' in Lordran - if every merchant is Undead, they are seeking to fill themselves with souls - therefore trading their goods for souls from the character. That would mean sentient Undead can control the 'flow' of souls within their bodies. Now, this leads me to the assumption that 'leveling' means transferring the souls into the bonfire and permanently 'burning' them into the character's body, the same way we see the player using humanity to 'revive'. I know this is a shaky theory right now, and it might be 'obvious' to some.
 * This troper always thought that Lordran was some sort of surrogate of Heaven in the Souls universe, what with there being gods, a kingdom above the clouds and the fact that all Undead end up in Lordran. This could support the theory that Undead are merely humans who lost their physical body in their past life. This would then explain why certain Undead are so desperate to avoid becoming a mindless Hollow. Dying as an Undead/Hollow would mean they would forever dissipate from existence.