Dark Souls Dissected #9 - Lordran's Layout Explained

For this episode of Dark Souls Dissected, we're doing a deep dive into the world design and level layout. Distant views/ skyboxes are closely examined, as well as the spatial relationship between maps.

Kayin's Dark Souls Map Explorer-

noclip websote-

0:00 - Intro
1:22 - Blighttown and the Great Hollow from Firelink Shrine
5:40 - The Other Burg
7:31 - Views from the Undead Burg
10:47 - The Duke's Archives and Anor Londo
16:59 - Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith
20:50 - Ash Lake and the Ash Lake Expanse
26:03 - Oolacile and the Darkroot Garden
30:09 - New Londo Ruins
32:35 - The Catacombs
34:25 - The Kiln and Closing Thoughts

[illusorywall]

Hey everyone! If you like the work that I do please consider supporting the Patreon I recently launched. Any amount helps!

[societyman]

In Dark Souls there are only two ‘Soul of a Great Hero’ items in the game. One is at the highest altitudinal point possible to reach, the other is at the lowest altitudinal point possible to reach.

[Guitar-Dog]

THE RIVER BELOW SENS FORTRESS IS FOR THE CATACOMBS!!!
Deep lore.

[SeaHorseOfYoutube]

Map errors in any franchise: Wtf devs
Map errors in Dark Souls: But wait what if this was intentional, how does this affect the lore

[xuanathan]

In the daughters of ash mod, you can actually see Ceaseless Discharge himself all the way from the tomb of the giants, which is honestly just really cool

[BrutuxMusic]

5:36 wait, so the big grime waterfall in the gaping dragon's arena drains into blighttown? So basically the sewers are constantly poisoning the town below

[NickBSM]

level designer : Sir, is that okay if the tree is not placed exactly like it is in the other level?
Miyazaki : It's alright son, nobody's ever gonna notice it anyway...

[MMA-CLIPS]

I never realised The Depths was actually so high up in Lordran.

[larsspargur]

When you looked off the cliff from firelink shrine and saw your bloodstain in blighttown my jaw literally dropped lmao. That is such incredible attention to detail.

[scantyer]

Also about darkroot garden: it's not really at night time but instead it's so dark because of the abyss. You can confirm that you look at the "moon" while in the level, that "moon" has no craters and it's too shiny. It's clearly the sun, being obfuscated by a dark fog

[GrandPaladinTyrux]

That bit about the Depths blew my mind. I wonder if the Gaping Dragon actually crawled out of Blighttown?

[jakewolf]

Amazing analysis, I can not express just how much I appreciate this video.

[mdogg]

Seeing the dukes archives from the undead burg is a really compelling feeling. Kinda creepy thinking about how Seath is up there somewhere, watching us with his servants

[TheNickofTime]

This has honestly become one of my favorite YouTube videos. I keep finding myself back here, it’s just so incredibly interesting no matter how many times I watch it.

[NewHorizons]

I definitely think the intention is that the archtrees are literally holding up the rest of the world. The branches intertwining with rock, having a dense "ceiling" of branches above Ash Lake, and the fact that you get there by going to one of the lowest areas of the game and then descending much further down the trunk (indicating IMO you are meant to be far below everything else when you emerge on the beach) all support that. It also meshes with the mythology of World Trees that it's clearly inspired by, as you mentioned.

Plus, all other times in the game where you go through a magical portal, it's not subtle. The white pathway to Gwyn with the ghostly knights, the abyss portal to the DLC, getting pulled into the Painted World - it's very clear cut. To get to Ash Lake, you just walk through a hole in the trunk.

To me, the grey crags described in the opening are not Ash Lake or what used to be there, they're what the archtrees were supporting before the first flame and disparity arose. It's the land that would become Lordran and the rest of the world, but at that time just barren rock populated by stone dragons and soulless husks. The archtrees are largely unchanged since that time, as they're basically the foundation of creation.

[linkkicksu]

DS1 Geography: Minor inconsistencies
DS2 Geography: And then you ride the elevator up from the top of the mountain and end up undeground in a lava-filled cavern.

[BadLeoG]

man creating this game must have been so goddamn satisfying, all those hidden secrets

[TooMuchSascha]

I always imagined the Izalith dome was meant to function more as a containment procedure much like Chernobyl's sarcophagus.

[GabZonY]

32:15 my theory would be, that sunken bit of ground once held a large lake. that skylight in new londo ruins was what was created to flood the city, draining that lake into it.

[BrvtusVG]

Re: the differences between Darkroot and Oolacile, I kind of like the idea that the culture of Oolacile isn't extinct at the time of the DLC, although it is dying. After all, SOMEONE had to relocate the grave of Artorias, and as you pointed out the Burg hadn't been constructed yet. My thinking is that after the Abyss receded, Oolacile survivors continued to live amongst the ruins, repurposing the magic that animated the original stone guardians and gardeners but slowly losing this knowledge over generations like a dying language. Maybe there were mass exodi at various points into the nascent Burg, or even Vinheim. The stonework that was used to build the Colosseum and original township could have been pillaged as materials for the Burg or New Londo, which is something that happened frequently to historical abandoned cities.