You don't belong here 

Aspects of Dark Souls III's story seem to have changed in ways we still don't really have the full picture of. The model we know as Sulyvahn currently was once the final boss, there's a leaked screenshot of what seems to be a friendly version of the Dancer, and there used to be world-altering ceremonies that may have changed locations in a similar way as Firelink Shrine and Untended Graves. The idea of Sulyvahn's Beasts being inspired by monsters that specifically hunt down time travelers may have implications about where the developers minds were at, which could imply a very different Dark Souls III. Unfortunately though, we can't even be sure how big or small some of the changes were, or if the whole Tindalos comparison was just the fact they teleport in through a cloud of smoke.

You know how insane Fromsoft gets with their world building concepts when the possibility that the mutant jumpscare dogs are extra dimensional time travelers in a dark medieval fantasy is just an unimportant footnote hidden in data files.

Gotta love mildly threatening notifications from Zullie

"This is not your world. You don't belong here" is a very existential way of asking someone to leave a party.

The idea of the whole game being one long invasion is funny to me. Imagine being glowing red the whole game

Huh, the fact that Untended Graves is directly connected to the main world, and what that means for the Firelink Shrine and everything never occurred to me.

I love it when Fromsoft puts an alternate version of our home base out there in the regular game world for us to stumble across. It's as intriguing as it is unsettling :)

Solar mentioned it in ds1. "Heros centuries old fading in and out. There's no telling how long your world and mine will stay in contact." In ds3 we are traveling into the future for the whole game. We are the hero's centuries old, fading in and out.

If dark souls 1 was considered a "Broken world". then by the time dark souls 3 happens it's just a soup made of ash and dust particles with a pinch of poison swamp mixed into it...

I feel like I recall from somewhere that there is a theory that the entire game world is the result of, of all people, Ludleth essentially breaking time in order to give the world one more shot at linking the First Flame. The Untended Graves are the original timeline, where Gundyr was corrupted and failed to reach Firelink in time and the world was doomed to fall into darkness, after which Ludleth traveled from the Ringed City (he's a pygmy lord, according to his Japanese dialogue) and somehow forced his way into becoming a Lord of Cinder (possibly something to do with his Soulfeeder ring?) in order to buy more time while sealing away the Untended Graves timeline.

The Hounds: "Hey mr ashened one! *You're not supposed to be here* " *lights him on fire*

In the meantime, Patches not only lives through the entire timespan of Dark Souls 3, but through MULTIVERSES.

Them being time traveling beasts definitely matches up to the cut content where you could change an areas "world state" to various alternate timelines. It would be interesting if the Sulyvahn's Beasts were originally intended to be creatures that would possibly show up in lots of different areas as you flowed through time.

It makes sense now why Vordt and the Dancer are all hunched over... they're turning into beasts.

I guess it's not just Lordran where the flow of time is convoluted.

holy shit, Hounds of Tindalos mentioned in 2024. one of my fav 'weird horror' stories

I find it interesting that when any of these enemies appear out of the veil of smoke or mist, it's always from behind the player when facing an impassible wall. The Sulvahn Beast at the impassible wall at Irithyll, Vordt at the Throned Door, and the Dancer trapping you in and setting the building on fire around you. They all attempt to close you in to keep you from escaping and then go for the kill.

Why does Twilight Princess have such an exceptionally good soundtrack, even when compared to other Zelda titles?

My favorite detail in ds3 is that if u riposte a salyvian beast and it lives..it will stay on its back and start praying

It's not a stretch to say the Ashen One is an invader from out of time, because they are a resurrected warrior from the past (possibly one of the black hands) but definitely significant to Prince Lothric in some capacity. Given that every other Lord of Cinder boss character has an Ashen One related to them that you encounter, it's a pretty safe conclusion that you, the PC, are the Ashen One that is responsible for making sure the Prince carries out his duty, willingly or not.

I really do love how they incorporate time travel aspects into their games

"You're not supposed to be in here..."

I like that connection to Thindarosu not just because of how it hints at time travel, but because it adds a interesting twist to the outrider knights as well. Sulivan might not just be sending them across the world, but across time as well. Which is scary to think about. I also like the potential type of time travel DS3 has. It seems like time itself is worn out and tired, and having a harder time keeping things from slipping through it. Though it seems to me like it's easier to slip forward in time then backward, seeing as things haven't changed too much from Untended Graves to Firelink Shrine, but drastically from firelink to the final area.

I was fighting some hounds of Tindalos in a pnp roleplaying game last week. I can always tell when they're coming because room descriptions go out of their way to describe the space as perfectly rounded, with no angles, except one small bit of damaged wall or something. There was a magical orrery that allowed us to see a live feed of both the past and the future, and apparently, that was enough for the hounds to come hunt my party, appearing through a crack in the wall.

Man, lovecraftian themes in games have to be some of my favorite content. Eldritch monsters and existential horrors can be such a fun element.

To me the scariest moment in the series was when i was in the irythill dungeon and i saw one of those failed dragons. Like bro, u cannot just make up a being so scary and just let it fester there in silence looking at me. 😢

I have always loved the idea that Dark Souls III is literally the end of the world, and that means the end of time to, things are melting and warping being pulled together, and we slip thru time as easily as we walk thru fog, and thats why old friends and motifs reappear as well, its not just a callback, but its the very world remembering or summoning forth a corrupted version of the place that really was, or even a memory of the people that were, like how the dragonslayer armor persists, but the man inside, long since lost to a world that is not quite his own, even igniting the fire is a pale memory of the engulfing inferno at the end of the age of Gods, or, whatever we are calling the events of DS1

Sulyvahn's beasts are actually opossums. I can't unsee it. Time travel hungry opossums.

“They eat time travelers” getting them on a consistent feeding schedule must be a nightmare.

"How obscure do you want everything in the game to be?" FromSoftware: "Yes."

That's... A menacing title

DS3 really is quite fascinating. I know a lot of things were changed late minute or left on the cutting room floor, but it's still definitely interesting how Miyazaki tackled this sequel, especially as it was clear it was not something he particularly wanted to do. He definitely went all-out on paying homage to his influences, that's for sure!

It certainly makes a good amount of sense that Sulyvahn himself may have been aware of potential time travel or warping, as he is the one who instructed Prince Lothric and led to him not linking the flame, as well him originating from the Painted World, which in itself is like another world separated in its own time and space. Perhaps he knew that down the road those passing through time and space would come to usurp him.

Makes me wonder if we're actually invaders in Gael's world. Meaning we're actually being called to help him fight Friede and the Demon Prince bosses.

My interpretation: The firelink shrine the ashen one uses is actually in the past. the firelink shrine you find in the world is what happened because the lords refused to link the flame. you are awoken in the past to drag them into it by force, so it doesn't end up like in the real world.

The Hounds of Tindalos, a concept which might have inspired Sapkowski when he wrote the Witcher books. Specifically talking about the Wild Hunt and their hounds. Super interesting insight.

My wife left me for my dad, but I got sun bro to balance it out

Between the theoretical destiny of the world to become an ocean, the implication that the player is in fact a time traveler, and all the themes carried from the older titles, it's both amazing and terrifying just everything that this game could have become and led into

You are most definitely time traveling at the start of DS3. In the present of Firelink Shrine everything is fine and there is no eclipse. What I can't decide at the end of the game is if you are time traveling far into the future, or if the chaos that results with all the buildings being eschew is you ripping the First Flame *out* of the pocket dimension it is in and into our reality.

Always had a theory that the way the ashen one experiences lothric is not how it' s inhabitants do or how it looks like in real life and we are basically out of phase time-wise so that we can access particular moments in time, explaining why entering certain places from the right angle can bring us to different eras. Physically, the world might look like the box-art and Gael's arena, but to us it changes shapes and form according to our purpose there. The wolves and pontiff's knights might be the only one able to do this. The dreg heap might not be a literal way the world ends, but how the tarnished experiences time and space collapsing from the fire fading

I wouldve never guessed the connection to the Hounds of Tindalos.

Love how you consistently add details to the lore I never even thought of or realized could be a thing! Still amazes me how something even as innocuous as the way a creature spawns in may have been intentionally well-thought out.

This reminds me of a bit of text from demons souls, it went something like "the veil of time is warped, with heroes centuries-old phasing in and out".

That's really mean Zullie..

Imagine learning that you are in fact a time traveller by suddenly finding yourself transported to some wet basement inhabited by TWO time traveller-devouring giant crocodile things. We can all agree that no one out there deserves to suffer such a cruel and twisted fate, can we not? Right? Heh...

The thought of the untended graves simply being in the present day of lothric where we spend most of the game, and our firelink being in the future is mind blowing.

The way the sky, environment and even the climate changes as you navigate your way through different parts of Dark Souls 3 always suggested to me that we weren't just seeing different places being drawn together by the fading of the fire, but different ages as well. When we skip and hop from place to place, we're not just traversing a warped land, but traversing warped time as well. Dark Souls 1 showed us the first signs of how the artificial extension of the age of fire would impact space and time as heroes and objects from centuries ago (or ahead) occasionally slipped into different moments in time, but Dark Souls 3 takes it much further, showing us a decaying world where physics have long since broken down and different eras collide wildly with one another. People and objects aren't just falling in and out of time, but entire countries are being displaced.

I love how the game is clear enough to get a grasp that something strange is happening with the world you're in but vague enough to not have it known exactly if what and where you're going to is in relation to what you perceive. The ringed city you teased at in the end, for example, is a good example. It's unclear if the ruins were the real world all this time or by the egg crumbling you managed to unstuck time, or perhaps even be launched far into the future. All you know for sure is that things aren't what they seem, and only few beings last.

My favorite visualization of "traveling through corners" comes from Adventure Time of all places. There's a scene where Peppermint Butler attempts to murder a monster hunter and he projects through the corner of the room. It's a really neat looking animation, though probably more of a reference to Dreams in the Witch House than Hounds of Tindalos.

It's like a full LORE video except in less than 5 minutes and without the monotone hypnosis youtuber voice. Love it.

Cool that they revisited the idea of the Untended Graves in Elden Ring, where the roundtable hold that we warp to seems to exist in a different time or outside of time altogether when compared to its counterpart in Leyndell. Stumbling upon both of these areas was chilling...especially finding poor Hewg's hammer.

Holy shit zullie. This is a good one. All the alternate worlds we passed through in DS3.... All the years untold souls, unable to travel via flame-link, lived out their lives, only to be born anew in a different world in a different time. Insane story, if you dig into it. >The whole game is an invasion, if you think about it this breaks me

Given how Miyazaki was previously working on Bloodborne, a game heavily inspired by Eldritch Myths (and which often Bleeds into Dark Souls 3 in other ways, such as faster gameplay and lack of poise), I wouldn't at all be surprised if Sulyvahn's entourage received some influence from those same eldritch myths. Looking into the Sulyvan Spider-Demons, maybe they have some other clues in their AI names?

Always loved the Sulyvahn's Beasts design it may feel very "Bloodborne" for DS but for the horrors found in DS3 they actually seem quite cute and amicable in comparison. I'd love to have a small one as a pet which I can't say for any of the other DS3 horrors, lol

I think time has pooled and stagnated so much due to the linking of the fire that when the fire fades it's nigh inevitable to time travel. Just take a wrong turn when getting some smoked hams from Geralt and you're already three cycles removed, thousands of years of time, real annoying.

Zullie casually just, completely shattering and reshaping my understanding of my all time favorite game. Cool. (pretty good video btw, couldn't have figured anything about that out on my own (mainly cuz I do not datamine nor have read Lovecraft's so...))

Makes me wonder where the Dancer and Vordt were at before we came into their domain. Are they just sitting in their locations in another dimension, or are they teleporting there when their dominion is threatened?

Time really do be convoluted.

Turns out that Langoliers/Dark Souls crossover that I've been asking for was here all along.

That line thing reminds me of the Hellraiser mythos, I wonder if that was lovecraft inspired. Like straight unbroken lines letting dimensional beings appear is a main part of the hellraiser lore

"Come along, Vordt" "Are you talking to me?" "No, my son is also named Vordt"

“Oh, hi Mr. Frog! *You’re not supposed to be here.*”

Love to see you doing some Dark Souls III content again Zullie. Feels like such a nostalgic throwback

I haven't thought much about these creatures before but this makes me like them a lot. A lot can be read into the idea that Sulyvahn would create beasts to hunt time travelers, when it's necessary for your quest in DS3 to become one.

I'm of the mind that the Untended Graves in DS3 are in the Abyss of DS1. The Abyss is potentially the birthplace of the entire Dark Souls universe as implied by the Archtrees sprouting from within it in Ash Lake. As such one could theorize the Abyss is the primordial waters from which all existence came about. This would include everything from the Age of Ancients due to the cyclical nature of Dark Souls and my interpretation comes from referencing real world influences like alchemy and the occult and some of the creation myths similar to what they tell. As such, time itself would have come from the Abyss. This could be a potential explanation for how the Untended Graves could be in the past based on the Shrine Maiden's dialogue as well as referencing the future when she recognizes you in spite of being in the past. This means the Untended Graves exist in both the past and future at the same time because all of time, past, present, and future, is all pooled within the Abyss, the primordial waters from which everything came. I mean, you even buy Artorias's set from her. Plus, Dark Souls lore makes it very likely canon that time is stagnate and so it isn't flowing in a straight line like it's supposed to but rather pooling up in a sort of temporal puddle thus creating a scatterplot of timelines which is how heroes from centuries past, or future, sometimes appear in your world. This is based on the concept of "kegare" that Miyazaki seems to really like. All speculation of course but it's my canon lol All that to say, the likelihood we are time travelers is very likely lol

Honey wake up! There a Zullie video

Thanks, Zullie. Without you, we would walk in darkness.

The Hound of Tyndalos reminded of the Dahaka from Prince of Persia the Warrior Within

This video has helped recontextualize DS3 for me in a way I don't think any other video on it really has - I never really considered that the world we're visiting by warping from the firelink shrine might not be literally our own, that by the game's own logic we are the "invaders". Untended Graves never made sense to me in-game until just now.

Those are some good ideas, I had already heard about the Sulyvahn Beasts being called "Thindarosu" in the files but hadn't thought about any potential extra implications of that detail. Etrian Odyssey II Untold: The Fafnir Knight on 3DS also has a side-quest inspired by this horror story, the incarnation of the Hounds there can be quite scary as well!

Thank you for continuing these videos.

i think all of this makes sense why they originally intended sullivan as the final boss before the direction change

That title roasted me

Elden Ring time travel is more distinct in that. Btw it is quite strange that pontyff not having any time traveling powers but his slave hounds act as the guardian of time.

The depths of madness one can unravel from these games is borderline insane. Idk if I did it subconsciously or if I'm a dunce, but I didn't think too hard about anything because I was only focused on continuing onward. Defeating the next foe. Unlocking the next door. Finding the next bonfire. Discovering as much loot and paths as possible. Beating the next boss. Ad infinitum. Just playing the hard video game. But that closed mindedness might be what protected me long enough to not go hollow (in lore). Much like how Lovecraft's horrors work. The more you uncover and understand, the worse it gets.

Great video Zullie ! I love the souls lore and you always make me see it from different angles.

I love the video, but is it really time travel in DS3 or is the time and space so destroyed by the constant Kindling of the flame that the concept of time is beginning to fall apart?

Always love your videos Zullie, thanks!

This video literally changed my perspective about the entire game! I wish you came out with this video before I started a brand new playthrough a couple months back. This would've been mind blowing if I were playing the game concurrently.

Really refreshing to have one of these dark souls videos that isn't just repeating common information, or mindless speculation

Glad to discover your channel, nice short lore videos not some 5 hours length like some others. And it brings many memories from playing older souls games many years ago.

One of you best vids yet! I love your content!

Zullie you and your channel are GOATed, been watching for years and it keeps getting better

As per usual, brilliant video Zullie! Have been curious about these "Berserk Beasts" but never really delved in to them, so this one was really fascinating! Keep up the good work :) - Love and kind regards from Sweden!

Awesome to see you back to the other souls like games, as always good job!

Always loving your use of music in the videos

I can't believe how much detail actually goes into these games. It's just so crazy. I've played these games over and over for years and these videos always blow me away with tomes and tomes of knowledge I was completely unaware of.

I can just smell the desperation they had to leave dark souls and go onto better things, I imagine the ds3 rewrite came as a last minute attempt to just be done w it

I think this is my new favorite video from you. Just a really cool video overall.

"The flow of time itself is convoluted(Stagnated)" -Solair of Astora

I love your videos. So strange and ... atmospheric ...

Love your vids and the music choices!

Finally I found you !!! Roughly a year ago I came across your video “the agony of immortality” and it was so fkng intriguing I watched it probably 7 times. Then I looked for it again for a whole year and never found it, but i decided to get Elden ring because of your dragon video and always wanted to let you know it was inspirational. I’ve now beat DS 1, 2 and 3 plus Elden ring and bloodborne and sekiro. You’ve made me a fromsoft fan. Soon as i seen this I knew it was you. A simple and distinct editing style. Easy to recognize. Well not I’ve told you. Excellent work. Keep at it. Miyazaki be with you !

Thank you Zullie. These videos give me a moment in time to escape to my own pocket realm.

Very interesting, thank you Zullie. Love your work.

I love how you added the Zelda music of twilight princess for this one! Very fitting.

You continue to be one of my favorite creators on the platform!

god damn, this is one of the coolest tidbits i can remember in a sea of already-amazing lore insights

Its crazy how this 3 minute video is so good that it feels a lot more than 3 minutes

I love these videos so much