What do you think - are all the Soulsborne games connected by one large universe? Or are they completely disconnected from one another? EDIT: Hey guys, I see that some people are upset at the notion of a connected "souls" universe. I want to be clear that I am simply presenting this loose speculation as a possibility, without going into anything too specifically, just for the sake of talking about the concept. I don't think this should be taken too seriously; I just thought the idea of an overarching universe with similar rules for the games was interesting to talk about.

Well, it is heavily implied that the Lands Between are connected to other lands/worlds through a "wall of fog". So It is completely possible that things and people from other worlds cross into this particular world.

"We are amidst strange beings, in a strange land. The flow of time itself is convoluted; with heroes centuries old phasing in and out. The very fabric wavers, and relations shift and obscure. There's no telling how much longer your world and mine will remain in contact." -Solaire of Astora

There's also references to the FROM RPGs that started it all: King's Field and its sequels. In Dark Souls, there is the white dragon Seath and the black dragon Kalameet. In King's Field 2, Seath the white dragon is mentioned as Guyra the black dragon's counterpart. Guyra is fought in KF2 and Seath in KF3. In Dark Souls 2, there's references to tales featuring two dragons, a pale and a black one. Guyra and Seath from KF are demigods created by one of three elemental gods: Vallad, god of the earth. Vallad also had a remainder of his power, unbeknownst to him, grow as an evil seed deep beneath the continent where KF takes place. In Demon's Souls, the Old One is a giant tree demon believed by some to have been sent by God to destroy the world. It's depicted as coming from a seed in a drawing. In Dark Souls, the Witch of Izalith tries to create another First Flame and becomes a tree-shaped being with a core of yellow fire. She is the head of the Chaos Witches and becomes the originator of Chaos demons as the Seedbed of Chaos. In Elden Ring, the yellow Flame of Chaos, aka the Flame of Frenzy, can transform you into the Lord of Chaos, where your head becomes a yellow burning core, similar to the "head" of the Seedbed of Chaos/Witch of Izalith. In Dark Souls 2, Aldia is depicted as having achieved a state outside of the cycle of fire and dark, by becoming a tree-being that's on fire. In Demon Soul's, the way the Nexus combats the Old One's growing influence and repairs the fracturing of the world through the Monumentals, is to set the demon alight, depicted as a forest burning under the Nexus structure, floating in the sky. In Dark Souls, you set yourself alight with the remains of the First Flame and this restarts the cycle of life, with souls flowing out once more. There are four elemental magics in King's Field: earth, water, wind and fire, but only three elemental gods. However, a fourth, secret god is named, Sylval, who created the other three. Implied to be the god of fire? There is also a mentioned Old Flame, that is guarded by armored Fire Demons. Sylval created the world of King's Field, but every time he slumbers, he awakens to find it barren and dead. Life begins anew every time, so eventually he makes the other three to help govern the world. The notion of cycles that the world goes through is present in all the major RPGs FROM is known for. In King's Field, the final boss is a transformed king trying to open a portal to a "dark world" deep underground, maybe made from Vallad's seed's power? The concept of a dark world underground is eerily similar to the Abyss in Dark Souls. There is also a lightless abyss present in Bloodborne, where the Brain of Mensis is found. In Demon's Souls, God also sent the Moonlight Greatsword, one of several holy weapons. In King's Field, the Moonlight Sword is one of several holy swords meant to dispell evil with the power of Moonlight. It's created by Vallad, or rather one of his demigod parts, Guyra. Throughout the Dark Souls trilogy, the Moonlight Sword reappears in different forms and with one country having a belief that its Moonlight magic is effective against evil. Ironically, Seath of Dark Souls uses Moonlight magic to create the Moonlight Butterflies and a version of the Moonlight Greatsword appears from his tail if cut off. In Dark Souls III, a magic spell known as Old Moonlight can be found through the dragon Midir's soul, a memory he had of an ancient sword, one that's noted to be different from Seath's Moonlight and possibly from not long after the Beginning. In Japan, the First Flame is called the Fire of Beginning. In KFIII, there is a Land of Beginning and a Place of Beginning, said to be the site where creation of life began, deep underground, in a secret place. Dark Souls III also have primitive earth magic-worshippers, the Millwood Knights. Earth magic in KF comes from Vallad, and he appears in the shape of a dragon tree that looks translucent. In DSIII, the Millwood Knights found an Ethereal Oak that stood rotting. The Oak dispensed weapons and armor. In KFIII, Vallad's translucent dragon tree dispenses armor to the player. In Dark Souls 2, there is a legend of the Spirit Tree of the Dream-World that once gave armor to a frightened boy. In KFIII, the dragon tree first appears in dream sequences and later in real life to the player character, a boy. With the First Flame appearing deep under the roots of an Archtree, Vallad's avatar being a translucent dragon tree, the Ethereal Oak of Millwood, the Old One sent by God, the evil seed of Vallad's power, Izalith's Seedbed of Chaos, the Four Kings having transformed into tree beings in the Abyss, the Archtrees in general as they appear in Dark Souls and Elden Ring, the Erdtree, Aldia's burning tree state, corpses in DS and ER turning into trees, there is a pattern of trees and tree beings being important for the cycles of the world and its stability/governing. It can seem like in most FROM RPGs, the world's cycle ends with death giving birth to new life in the form of world trees that then hold up the next cycle. Burning them also seems to trigger creation and change. Some beings can transcend this either by retaining their personality or becoming dragons. The latter most likely due to Vallad's influence in the form of dragon demigods. With this, Elden Ring's backstory makes perfect sense, the dragons were either naturalborn or created from humans, inhabited and dominated the world in its newest cycle, just like the Archdragons of DS, and gradually lost their power again to humans, just like their ancient ancestors. The irony being that they might all have come from humans surviving the previous cycle of Fire and Dark. Other than this, there's some smaller items that tie the worlds together: The all-present fog separating lands and boss locations in Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Elden Ring. The mention of the player becoming a Golden King in KFIII's happy ending and the Golden Order and Godrick the Golden of ER, possibly also the gold magic of Oolacile and its influence on time itself in DS I-III. The flute knight sets from Demon Soul's found in Bloodborne's Chalice Dungeons (and Father Gascoigne's cut dialogue of "Umbasa"). The Archtrees in both Dark Souls, Bloodborne's Hunter's Dream and the Elden Beast's boss arena. The setting of lands with giants in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls being far to the North of the world. The map in Demon's Souls opening showing what could be the island of Melanat from King's Field 2, to the east of Boletaria. Bloodborne having the concept of layers of dream worlds and Dark Souls having a dream world. The Eldritch Truth of BB and Aldrich's dream of an Age of Deep Sea in Dark Souls 3. Aldrich is even named Eldritch in the Japanese version. Patches's speech in DS3's final dlc seems to imply he knows humans have lived through different ages and act greedily every time. In DS, we're previously only told humans came to be at the dawn of the Age of Fire and it still hasn't ended. Patches's statement would make sense, as he seems to be immortal and appears in different ages, himself. King Doran's set from Demon's Souls inspired Gundyr's armor in DS3, in the description it's inspired by that of an "ancient king". In the Japanese version of DeS, Doran is called "ancient king Doran". The First Firekeeper in DS3 looks to be the Maiden in Black from Demon's Souls. In the Japanese version of DeS, the Maiden is also called a "firekeeper" in dialogue. Lothric Castle shares some visual similarities with Boletaria's castle. Some DeS buildings are reused beneath Firelink Shrine in DS. The Old Monk in DeS is draped in demonic yellow cloth and was previously exiled. His sentient demon cloth wraps around the head of other characters to control them. King Jeremiah in DS is a "legendary exile" and draped his head in yellow cloth. He also seems to be associated with the Witch of Izalith, who begot Chaos demons(!). The Stormruler sword in DeS and DS3 fell giant enemies with the power of wind magic. The Dragon God's likeness on a greatshield in DS3, said to be the depiction of an Archdragon. New Londo's fate in DS is similar to the titular city of King's Field IV: The Ancient City, complete with sealing it off to prevent a dark world from spreading. There's probably more I missed from item descriptions, visuals etc.

What would've been nice to see included is that Elden Ring specifically constructs its lore ambiguously by mentioning the presence of Outer Gods. I'm not saying there's an explicit connection, but in mentioning Outer Gods and directly establishing their existence without giving a specific detail, it seems like they're intentionally leaving the history of the world and future DLC's or entire games very open-ended.

I really like the idea of Elden Ring being a prequel and depending on the choices made ends up in the worlds of past From Soft titles. Ranni's ending becomes bloodbourne, Frenzied Flame ending becomes Dark Souls, etc. Even if it's not true, it's my headcanon. Although, it's the fans who decide, if everyone sort of accepts it as truth it becomes truth. Think of the legend of Zelda franchise for example. Nintendo never had any plans for a timeline and was perfectly content on making all the games seperate, yet fans came up with the timeline and Nintendo eventually published the official timeline. The same can be true for the From Soft games.

I think we all ignored the most obvious connection, when you kill Gael and give the dark soul to the painter, she makes a new world using your blood that’s heavily centred around the same ideas and is supposedly cold and peaceful implying the need for fire, also if people were sent “beyond the fog” to become tarnished, that could possibly be them being removed from the painting to spend time in an age of darkness ruled by the ashen one in possession of the dark soul, removing the colour from their lives making them in every sense of the word “tarnished” and then when reawakened, are sent back to the painting with everyone outside of it aware of it’s existence and therefore capable of telling when the world is in danger and in need of help, sending the tarnished back to the world they came from

The thing is, the concept of cycles is very deeply tied into both Elden Ring and Dark Souls. With that in mind, is it really that much of a stretch to think that, following the Age of Fire, there were other Ages? An Age of Dark immediately after, followed by others as the world came to an end and was reborn with something new at the head. Eventually, we come to an age so far removed from the Age of Fire that its unrecognizable. The very root of the world remains the same, with people getting stronger with something gained from others, immortal heroes tasked with ending the current Cycle, knowingly or otherwise and others trying to maintain it. Its not hard to imagine that Dark Souls and Elden Ring, hell, take it a step further and add the other From Soft games to it, could all share the same world, just set in massively different parts of an endless cycle.

Miyazaki: This is a new game in a new world and it’s not another dark souls. We wanted to do something different and fresh. Players: Yeaaahhhh sureeeeee.

To add to the connections, in the underground cities, there are statues everywhere that look identical to the messengers from Bloodborne.

I immediately thought about the world the painter girl was making at the end of dark souls 3 when you give her the blood of the dark soul

8:14 Those are very similar to the pillars in the distance in The Hunters Dream.

Elden Souls: Demonborne.

I believe the lands between exist physically in the world they are in, but much like skull island or valinor they can only be found by those that either know exactly how to find them or are allowed to find them. I think the Tarnished left very very long ago, graceless and without a way back, they lived and died in worlds like Dark Souls or even Bloodborne. And that's how I theorize they're connected, not the same story or even world, but the same universe interconnected by seas and fogs that willyfully block/open paths between these lands. And I believe the lands between have existed for so long that this is why there are ruins and architecture that suggest even older civilizations than those that precede the Golden Order. Whole eras and stories have happened in the lands between even before the dragons ruled over it.

Also, to tie-in to humans becoming trees, deathblight makes a tree very violently grow out of the tarnished upon max accumulation. And that didn't happen in previous games. 🤔

Can you do a deep dive on the Age of the Erdtree ending that was found in the games files? Seems like that’s the only ending that ppl haven’t uncovered yet

I'm convinced that Elden Ring is a seed prequel to all 3 branches: Dark Souls, Demon Souls and Bloodborne. Each of the main 3 endings branching to one of the other games. In the case of dark souls the Frenzied Flame melted all life into one single sea of flame, and by the time of dark souls somehow very powerful souls started to shed away from the fire and become individuals again.

Theory time, every new title like Demon Souls or Elden Ring is a time jump from the flame going out and starting anew with new creatures and history

I love thinking of all the from soft games as being parallel universes of each other. Idk why people get upset just at the idea of that. Miyazaki has a type of game he likes to create, it's not our fault for drawing connections where there are connections.

I think the souls universe is already built in Miyazaki's mind and he pulls out stuff for each of his games from there. Like when you have a really cool dream, or in the souls universe a nightmare, but you can't really make sense of it and completely translate it to the world through any means (Writing it or talking about it), so you end up just sharing bits of it. Thats why the souls universe feels so related to one another but at the same time fragmented.

one theory that spoke to me is that Elden Ring is a result of the ending of DS3's Ringed City DLC, where you give the painter the Dark Soul and she makes a new painted world with it, and ER's art direction has a very "painted" feel to it as a result of this.

I don't think the roots are made of bodies in Elden ring, I'm fairly sure they're there because a proper death means returning to the Erd tree so they stick corpses at the roots to help them along their way. Also there are some monsters that are generally used in fantasy settings, rats, skellies, trolls, giants, dragons etc. I'm thinking specifically dungeons and dragons, so their use in this game doesn't necessarily mean that they share a universe, although the basilisks are harder to explain away. Elden ring is weird because most From games aren't as huge on release, so they're getting a lot of attention, so I imagine that they threw in a lot of easter eggs for the fans and so the newbies can be pointed towards older titles by mentioning them weird big eyed lizards to a friend who can point them in the direction of the original big eyed lizards. Cool video though, I like it as a theory. Maybe DLC can give us more answers like how DS3 had some DS2 areas in there.

My own theory these three (and bloodborne) are connected by their past. Specifically they were all a single world at some point in a single multiverse that was split apart by the respective top entity's so as to not start a war amongst themselves.

Glad to see you're still covering this game. I've been watching your videos now that I've consumed as much as possible. Also, don't be afraid to cover topics other youtubers had, I love hearing different perspectives from different youtubers on these topics.

For me it makes much more sense for elden ring to be before dark souls. At every bonfire in dark souls there is the same sword as the one that the elden beast has and that sword is made directly out of radagon and marika. Also not to mention that the arch trees look like more dead versions of all the trees around the elden beast.

The hunters dream in Bloodborne also features tall obelisks that reach the sky and are spaced out for eternity. Also you can sometimes hear the nomad merchants playing Gehrman's theme on their weird instruments.

I think assigning cause and effect between different IP's is too big a stretch but a multiverse theory with related natural laws and trends seems almost likely

One thing I came up with that I’ve not seen anyone else talk about is the millwood knights from the ashes of ariandel dlc. Nordic looking warriors, who come from a land where they worshipped a great tree before it died, the one thing that happens in every ending of Elden ring? It almost seems too obvious

I thought Elden Ring was a prequel. Which would mean maybe the Frenzied Flame ending is the true ending which is why the sites of grace turned into fire. And maybe they just forgot the name of runes and called them 'souls' after a few eons. Also... doesn't Patches on the side of the flame and is promised something from the people in the volcano. And doesn't he appear in the other games?

My theory is that elden ring is a prequel to ds. We see with the elden beast boss room that the trees are illuminated, but in ds they are devoid of life and grey. Also in elden ring lore the elden beast is “not of this world” so my idea is it came from somewhere in the ds universe (probably where the trees are) and ds must take place after elden ring because of the fact that the trees are blacked out. Another thing is the endings and how they could lead into the souls born games. Like how the frenzy ending could tie into ds. (Don’t flame me in the comments please just my take)

My personal favorite is that the world of elden ring is the continuation of the ringed city where in the end, the painter girl paints the perfect new world for all the souls (us) to live in. Its a new start albeit with similar rules and laws of nature. On a meta level, it implies how Miyazaki is finished with the souls lore and starts something fresh.

Can always trust Bandit to hit your feed with some quality content 😊 hope you have been well! Looking forward to more Tormented Souls 😁 no rush, man.

Not necessarily related to this video specifically, but I just wanted to say I really love your take on the Soulsborne universe, Bandit! A really good fit for an already amazing channel! Keep it up!

Aside from set pieces and Patches. The biggest clue would be the ecology of minor enemies, like the beast and demi humans could be seen as similar to bloodborne, the crabs and basilisk etc. Seeing how much they put into their stories how these creatures came to be, it would be too convenient that these creatures just happened to evolve the same way in an isolated different world with no ties to the others.

EXACTLY 💯 agree . I ve been noticing so much similarities , it's eerie. There is just too much to ignore.. even if nothing in the lore shows it's a shared world, there is just so much physical evidence and the way things look, it's either way into the future or way into the part. It's a very interesting theory and even if the creators says it's not, doesn't mean we cannot look at those connections

There’s a cool theory out there that Elden ring is a prequel with the canon endings being the beginnings of the different games. Essentially the frenzied flame ending is the start of Dark Souls, the seedbed curse ending is the start of Bloodborne, and the regular ending is the start of Demons souls. The link to Ranni’s ending doesn’t track to any games tho and doesn’t really seem to track to Sekiro…but then again I don’t know Sekiro too well.

Really appreciate your work on the video homie, was excited to see you dropped a video today. What this reminds me of is the movie "Prometheus" like 10 years back. It ended up to basically be like a prequel to the "Aliens" universe, but wasn't branded as such. We will probably get a tweet from Miyazaki in 20 years confirming any speculations 🤣

Just a little extra tidbit of information, if you guys have found it, there is a greatshield called Eclipse Greatshield, read its description and take a good look at it.

What if the Age of Dark is actually the world we see in Elden Ring

They really could just say the Elden Ring world is just one of the painted worlds from Dark Souls

I personally think its possible that the Painting Woman from DS3 is the answer here. Its clearly established that paintings in Dark Souls can harbor entire worlds, and in the end of the DS3 dlc the Painting Woman is given the power of the Dark Soul itself as something to use to create a whole new painted world. I think the Lands Between are what was born of that new painting, as that would describe why there's so much carry over from Dark Souls. Its also entirely possible this could be a connection between all of the "souls" games, those being Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1-3, Bloodborne, and Sekiro. It could be all of the games respective worlds are painted worlds

Are you going to keep making videos on the BanditPlays channel. If not thats fine, but I loved the videos on that channel especially the Metroid Dread and Skyward Sword playthroughs.

i usually skip forward past the sponsorship stuff at the beginning of videos, but i gotta say, you hooked me, and im getting some of these clothes now😭

I think these theories are fun, but I’m not convinced they are in the same universe…yet. Many of the points you made are a bit too flimsy for me to believe they are nothing more than subtle or even obvious nods to Dark Souls, easter eggs, or reuse of prior assets. Especially, the assets. It isn’t lazy. It is smart. It saves time on something extremely inconsequential while providing the player information on something familiar. Like how to use a type or weapon or how to tackle an enemy. With that being said, I appreciate drawing parallels between the games because it may offer clues on how to interpret the world, characters, and lore of Elden Ring. I would like to add one caveat to my response. While all these similarities could be nothing more than coincidence or convenience, they could just as easily decide in a future DLC or game that Dark Souls and Elden Ring are connected in some way. Fun video!

I absolutely see the games as sharing a universe, but I'm always torn as to how they share it. My main theory is that they're similar to Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere, so basically on different planets but within the same universe. With characters like Patches being like the Worldhoppers in the Cosmere. My other theories are that there's the distinct timeline (The one you showed in fact) with each ER ending corresponding to a different future (DeS, DS, and BB respectively), or that each of the worlds we see are the next Painted World. I do like the idea of them all being on one planet though. But I think this would be the least likely of them all.

Like how Kirito transfers all his skill to a new game 😊

Id argue that it's less connection and more alternate realities depending on your endings for the games and I think that makes sense given how time functions in the series as well as the multiple endings. I also believe Elden Ring is the first of the Cycle as the Souls series has been about cycles since forever or perhaps there's a God above everything else that essentially sets every realm in a cycles. Granted, I'm not a lore master or a God, so everything may not be 100% or even the most optimal theory. Anyways, here's my fun little connection theory I made before watching the video. *ELDEN RING REALM 1* Placud-whatever is the age of Dragons, ruling over the world before the gods appeared. The gods eventually do appear and the age of dragons is over, with there even being a dragon that sides with the Gods. A cosmic esc order is put into place via the Elden Ring. Something goes wrong in the cosmic order and that cosmic order brings back the undead to restore it and many of it's original follows abandon it, forcing the undead to challenge them to restore the order. Then we get to the endings and the resulting "ages". Each alternate reality that makes big enough changes is a "Realm" that results from the various "ages" (uses 9 realms because of the obvious basis of Norse mythology). Realm 1 ending can be the Elden Lord Ending. Side note - Sekiro is already connected via the fact that there is LITERALLY a "Land of Reeds", which is where Sekiro takes place, in Elden Ring itself. *BLOODBORNE REALM 2 (Age of the Stars)* The Age of Stars potentially leads to Bloodborne since we know that literally alien like beings exist within the stars AND the fact that Ranni herself is quite literally an alien given her lineage (Marika, the Nox, and the Numens are also all aliens). I also believe that the left over blood from Mohg's failed dynasty that exists literally within the city that an alien race has taken residence in serves as Bloodborne's ties with the blood shit, which we know the people of Yharnam specifically found underground. I would assume that something happened to Ranni or perhaps she left this world to us since there are multiple worlds, because I doubt she'd want Bloodborne to turn out the way it did. Anyways, perhaps we the consort became the Moon Presence, which would make sense power wise because we literally take down a God in Elden Ring. Also, I believe the reason why the blood transforms people into beasts, with many turning into wolf like creatures, is potentially because of Blaidd. Though that begs the question of why. The other alien like beings can easily be attributed to the fact that the stars fell and unleashed many of them from within, becoming active after the events of ER. Gehrman and the Doll are in reference to Ranni and her consort. I think the Vilebloods may have been started from taking the blood of Miquella and/or communion with The Formless Mother which explains their special ability to set their blood on fire. The Hunter's Nightmare and the sight mechanic can easily be linked to the fact that Ranni can setup powerful illusions. Of course, there's also the fact that there are Archtrees in Bloodborne, no longer golden because the Outer God/Golden Order isn't in control. *DEMON SOULS REALM 3 (Age of the Frenzied Flame)* The Frenzied Flame leads to the Souls series. With the power of the Frenzied Flame and it's supporting God, we become the entity known as "the old one", making the horrifying tale told to scare people away from worshipping the Frenzied Flame a reality. Through that power, we would cause complete chaos, "melt away the Order" and raise Demons from the depths, awakening the slumbering take of old. Of course, embers of the flame still exists but I'll get back to that. The last descendents of the DemiGods, Melina, and everyone else make it their mission to defeat us. The Greater Will does what it does best and finds it's new champion to take it down. I should also mention that thanks to the removal of Destined Death and nowhere for souls to go unless devoured by demons, souls travel through the Nexus until they reclaim their bodies. The Maiden in Black could either be Melina's descendant or a new body of hers, since she's HEAVILY connected to Ranni (if not the same person) and they likely have the same soul swapping ability. Monumentals may be a combination of Finger readers and the two Fingers themselves. This reality would end with putting the Old God in slumber and the Demon Souls world would continue. *DARK SOULS REALM 4 (Age of the Frenzied Flame and the Age of Fire)* This would come about if you choose NOT to put the Old One into slumber (I'm guessing Melina and others find a way to stop it). Melina perhaps dies or fades away, and her descendants are either killed, corrupted, or tricked by the Fire Maidens who are ancestors of Hyetta AKA the first (Frenzied Flame) Fire Maiden. After that, the kingdom/temple/etc of Farum Azula gains enough power and numbers, utilizing the fact that being so high up and potentially their God returning, they were largely unaffected by the Old One and take over the world. Of course, descendants of the DemiGods as well as others with little knowledge of the truth of the Frenzied Flame (the "Good" ending of Demon Souls literally said that people will eventually forget about the past. Although ironically, they would end up using the ancient teachings of the Golden Order or what's left of it as a basis to fight), rise up against the Dragons and win. The Age of Fire is established and to save time, we eventually get to DS3. However, I believe the embers of Frenzied Flame are tainted thanks to being spawned from the burning of the Erdtree and The Greater Will uses it to influence people until it regains power, hence why the Age of Fire is very much akin to the Age of the Golden Order. The ending for this timeline would be the upholding of the Age of Fire, thus you choose to link the flame everytime. Side note - Primordial Serpents are the Fingers of differing Gods, either reincarnated or simply new beings all together with the same purpose. Kaathe is of course Three Fingers and Frampt is Two Fingers. Kaathe wants the return of the Old One and restore the true power of the Frenzied Flame's influence as the lowly ember's are not enough. Frampt wants the return of The Greater Will, promoting the linking of the flame so The Greater Will can be restored. *DARK SOULS REALM 5 (Age of Darkness)* This Ending comes about if you choose NOT to link the flame in the Dark Souls realm or listen to Kaathe. Of course, we don't see the effects but perhaps The Old One makes a return through Kaathe. Could also lead into the Age of Rot or the Age of Blood as The Formless Mother still exists and it's heavily implied Melania will return under the full control of the Rot God. *BLOODBORNE/??? REALM 6 (Age of the Deep Sea)* Alternate theory is that Bloodborne is an potential future of Dark Souls, directly connected to DS3 and Aldritch was referring to it as "Age of the Deep Sea" instead of Bloodborne being an outcome of Elden Ring. Perhaps you can say that Ranni eventually establishes her Age of Stars with the help of Melina after the events of DS3 and it's leads to what happens in Realm 2 eventually. Perhaps this Ending would have no Moon Presence or vice versa. *DS3 USURPER ENDING REALM 7 (Age of the Dark Soul)* This takes place after the Usurper and the Ashes of Ariandel oy happen in this timeline. Of course, this would eventually lead into The Ringed City as it's the direct follow up to AoA. After that, a new world is created with the blood of the dark soul. Perhaps you can argue she painted Bloodborne AKA Age of the Deep Sea. *REALM 8/9* Can be any of the leftover endings.

"And a turtle pope, who I would gladly give my life for." All hail Miriel, hallow be his name.

Eygon and Edgar are both five letter names that start with E, both being guardian (in a literal sense for Eygon, a parental sense for Edgar) to a woman named Irina

I like the theory that the game is where it all started, and how these different worlds got the way they are.

Awesome vid! I will always love your Zelda content the most, but I support your decision to do whatever games or subjects you have a passion for. I wish you the best. I know you changed your name, but I thought you'd be interested in knowing that the card game, Magic the Gathering, just released a card called "Masked Bandits".

My theory is that the lands between are where the characters from the soulsborn/sekiro universes go when they die, and when you wake up as a tarnished and progress through the game each of the three endings represent the start of a new timeline. Ranni’s ages if stars ending represents bloodborne, the frenzied flame ending is definitely dark souls and the elden lord ending is where the world doesn’t undergo any crazy changes and would possibly lead to sekiro and maybe demon souls.

The real connection is the friends we made along the way

I believe in the facts below: 1. Patches is there for fan service (to make fans happy) 2. Basilisks are copypasta from dark souls to make us go "ugh this mf again" 3. Subtle nods like the sun face on dung eater are most likely there for fan service (to make fans nostalgic) 4. Similar world building bc Miyazaki is lazy and doesn't want to stray too far from the fire

I have two thoughts on this, at first I think of it more like FF has its recurring characters/enemy's but that doesn't mean it's connected. My second thought is that each tree is a different worlds/universe and so it's loosely connected. I don't think all their games, or specifically elden ring in this case happen on the same planet but I think it's entirely possible the pillars represent each world exactly like you said at the end Edit: just wanna say if you see this bandit, I'm not one of those people that's mad about it I love these fun speculation videos

My favorite connections are the enemies sharing move sets. The Omenkiller boss fight in the village of albenaurics is very similar to the Capra demon boss fight. Also, the erdtree avatars having the same move set as the asylum demons is cool. Pretty sure I heard the erdtree avatar was supposed to be in the spot of the grafted Scion at the beginning but I could be wrong. Either way, playing through all these games is a treat

Love this Im big fan of those series and so excited when we find the clue about how they connected

The introduction and voice made me think kingk finally got around to am elden ring video but was wrong but happily wrong, great video thank you

I haven't played wither game, but I have watched some lore videos. The vibe I'm getting is just that they take place in the same universe, but neither is necessarily a sequel to the other. 2 different stories in the same world

My initial thought after seeing the different endings was that the other IP's could be a result of some of the endings. Genius work 👏 very enjoyable to watch as a fan of soulsborne. Thanks, ill be subbing bc of this.

something i just thought about watching your video. in dark souls 2 you dont go back to lordran or anything like that you literally get brought to a place called the things betwixt " betwixt can also mean between" i think thats pretty significant

I just like hearing people making connections whether the world's are actually connected or not it's nice to believe

I had actually assumed since the beginning that it was a sequel that takes place on a different world but in the same universe. Only today did I learn that that’s not the official story but that still makes the most sense to me so I agree with you and I’m going to continue viewing it that way.

To add to your connection between the music of the games, the music of Stormveil Castle is supposedly the same as that played during the character creation screens of DS3.

Something I just noticed too is the great belfry in dark souls 3 and the three belfries in onion ring are both connecting you too dragons somehow

The Merchants often play Gerhmans theme on their Violins which is a really cool nod to BB

Greetings Bandit! Thank You For A Most Wonderful & Informative Video! I Really Dug The Trees & The Morne/Irina Bits. Hadn't Even Made That Connection & I Love That Armor! Thanks Again! Good Journey In The Lands Between. ~Captain XIT~

Dude... the multiple different endings leading to different Dark Souls games is incredible. I actually never thought of that. Also, I would love to be that guy by simply mentioning: Eternal Ring.

Crystal Cavern underneath Duke's Archives and Raya Lucaria Academy has a Crystal Cavern directly under it. Both filled with giant crystals, but Elden Ring's has no invisible paths.

“Please subscribe I need friends “ is what got you the subscription lol.

Finally someone acknowledges the demon souls theme and Elden ring theme share a verse

I’ve long held the belief that the games are a shared multi-verse, and with Elden Ring out now that perhaps the Lands Between are literally lands between the worlds or lands of the Soulsborne games. In addition, the Land of Reeds may be what Sekiro’s world is called. Instead of uniting Japan, the Interior Ministry is uniting the Land of Reeds. Admittedly, there are less overt connections in Sekiro to any of From’s other work.

It was shown in a lot of the games where the PC enters the respective land through an expanse of fog. Different worlds, different laws to abide by

While Elden Ring feels like and has a lot of visual themes similar to dark souls, I think it’s focus on alien gods interfering with mortals makes it better placed as a prequel to Bloodborne. Perhaps Ranni’s age of the moon ends up beckoning the moon presence Great One from Bloodborne. Also Bloodborne’s Doll and Ranni being a doll, and technology like the canon and the whirlygig saw being in Elden Ring and Bloodborne but not dark souls. Also might explain why bleed builds are OP.

I work as a software engineer, and my belief is that elden ring during early development, might have been envisioned as a true sequel (lore wise), to dark souls, but then further down the road, during development, From Software thought that the IP of dark souls and the pre established lore in that IP, was too convoluted, and too heavily grounded, for them to actually be able to Create a compelling story, for old veteran players, and new players alike. Sometimes, you need to put yourself in the shoes of the designer of a product, and try to use their thought process, as if you were developing that same product. Here is my take, if I were responsible for developing elden ring: 1. I need to craft a compelling story, that will interest both veteran players of other souls games, and new players alike. How do I do that? Well certainly not by creating a direct sequel/prequel to the dark souls lore. From a sales standpoint, it would be much harder to compel people to purchase the game, if the story in elden ring, could only be enjoyed fully, if you knew the lore from the previous 3 dark souls games. Imagine you had a friend, who has been on the fence of trying a From Software game, and you tell him about elden ring, and that he might be interested to try it out, only to be told immediately after "Yo remember to complete Dark Souls 1-3, first, before starting elden ring". Requiring people to own/have played a previous From Software title, before trying out your fresh new IP, is just lunacy, from a developers standpoint. It would reduce sales. TL:DR FOR POINT ONE: Miyazaki and from are not stupid enough to require people to play the previous dark souls games in order to enjoy the story and lore of elden ring, so therefore those worlds ARE NOT CONNECTED. 2. Miyazaki clearly has a formula for creating his games, and the lore within those games. Just for arguments sake, I will bring in all 4 of his recent IP's to compare their lore. Those being Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden ring. The first thing, lore wise these games have in common is, that they are all set in a world which timeline wise, is set after the peak of the established order that exists within. In dark souls, it is set after the peak of the age of fire, and at the end of that age actually. In Bloodborne, it is set after the peak of the healing church's power. The healing church is but a shadow of its former glory. In sekiro, it is set in the decline of the Land of Ashina. A "kingdom", currently in war with the imperial ministry of Japan, and Ashina is losing that war. Broken buildings, soldiers patrolling the lands, fires, and corpses everywhere. In elden ring, it is set after the Golden Age's peak of power. The golden order is nothing but a shadow of its former glory. Have you discovered the similarities yet? If not, I'll carve it out, for you: Miyazaki's stories are all set, in world's that are declining, and the final bosses you fight in those games have all declined, and are not in their peak prime, as their rule is about to end. Gwyn, and his age of fire is about to end. The Healing church leaders have all become mindless beasts. The Devine dragon, suffers from dragon rot, and Geniichiro, has been corrupted by divine sediment. Marika/radagon, and their children have been weakened, due to the shattering. Radagon for example is not a mindless zombie, when you fight him. Imagine if you actually fought that guy in his prime eh? So the overall theme in Miyazaki's games is "A WORLD IN DECLINE" or "A WORLD ON THE BRINK OF ENTERING A NEW AGE" Gwyn did not want the age of fire to end, Marika did not want the age of the erdtree to end, The healing church did not want their rule over Yharnam to end, Old king allant (Demons souls), did not want his kingdom of boletaria to perish, geniichiro did not want his beloved land Of Ashina to be taken by the Imperial Ministry. All of these leaders, in order to prevent their fates, took to desperate means to prevent it from happening, and Miyazaki, always deliberately places the player character, right in the end of that respective age, as you are the one who has to end their rule, and establish a new age. TL:DR FOR POINT TWO: Miyazaki uses the same themes for telling his stories, but that doesn't mean they are connected in the universe. 3. George RR. Martin actually knew very little about the development of elden ring. He was hired as a writer, to write out the mythos. Miyazaki and George sat down, and Miyazaki would present Martin with some themes, that he would like George to include in his mythos. And I am willing to bet my life on, that those themes that Miyazaki presented to George, are the ones I wrote about in point 2 of this comment. The theme of a great Power, in decline, in the brink of death/destruction, not willing to give up their world order, to the upcoming age. George took those themes to mind, and used them to craft a story EXTREMELY similar to From Software's previous games. And after he fleshed out the rough story of the game, and lore, From software thanked him for his work, and they both went their separate ways, and may I point out that this meeting between George RR. Martin and Miyazaki, happened years before actual production and development started on Elden ring. And at that time the game was probably not even called elden ring. Leaked insider information points to the game being called "Great rune" before settling on elden ring, and who knows what else it might have been called before that? Dark souls 4? Dark souls the prequel? My point is that George RR. Martin was hired to write the story years before the game was even announced, and at that time he might have been told that it was a dark souls sequel, since this was what it was, back then TL:DR FOR POINT THREE: George RR. Martin knew nothing. 4. Last but not least, you mention the billie Jean song, by Michael Jackson, and use an example of if he changed the name, of billie Jean, would it be a different song, in the same manner of that would be too obvious if miayazaki did the same, for his games. I would like to point out that that example is far too simple to illustrate how Miyazaki basically uses the same foundation for his story in his games. If Miyazaki took dark souls, and changed a few enemies, and added a little extra fluff to make it more appealing *Cough*dark souls 2*Cough* then yes there your example is valid. But crafting a whole new world, with a whole new design, with all new characters and using the same lore foundation for those, then it is still a new game. Let's take Stevie Nicks' song "Edge of seventeen" and compare it to Destiny's childs "Bootylicious" song. The melody from Stevie nicks' song was used in destinys child's song, but does that necessarily mean, that they are the same song? No they sound completely different, even though they are using the same melody. Well, since they are using the same melody, does that at least mean that those songs are connected, lyrics wise. Nope not all. My point is: Even if Miyazaki, and Beyonce from destinys child, use a formula for their products, already used before, that does not necessarily mean, that they have to be connected in other ways, than that they share similarities. Elden ring is its separate thing, just as much as Bootylicious is its separate thing, even though they are sampling content from previous games/songs. 5. Just because there are similar monsters in elden ring and in dark souls doesn't mean that the world's are connected, it means that From software are reusing assets from previous games, in order to save development time. And why wouldn't they? The same enemies from their previous games, have probably been designed, so that they can fit in, in multiple places, which is just smart design. So no, curse spewing lizards in both dark souls and elden ring does not mean that they share the same universe. It means that the developers wanted to save development time, so that they could ship the game, in time. TL:DR, You don't need to know anything about darks souls in order to enjoy elden ring, and even though they might share some common themes, that doesn't mean they are connected lore wise. Thank you for reading, let me know what you think.

You didnt mention Patches! I totally agree. And the connections doesn't need to have an especific explanation, maybe the links between games are done because they are just cool links to think about and rumble on. After all, we can talk about so many different things about this game, we can talk about death, identity, offspring, order in benefit of who and at what cost...

I’m exited to start this series let’s gooo

The dragon Borealis of the freezing fog sounds like it’s from the Boreal valley in ds3 it is a frost location.

Idk where i read it but on an item description in elden ring it said somn about it being a "remnant from an age long since passed" im thinking it was talking about gwyn an his order though

I know I'm late to this video and I also haven't even started it but man what if DS and ER are just alternate universes. Like Marika and Gwyn, grace and bonfire, both Patches and Moonlight Greatsword.

Elden Ring being an extreme prequel to the Souls games would make sense given the similarity of items within Leyndell and also Londo.

What with the presence of 'outer gods' (which are much like 'Great Ones') fiddling with the world, I think this is more a continuation of the Bloodborne world than Dark Souls...

I've wondered where my Tarnished is from, if I choose a samurai from The Land of Reeds, is that place here in The Lands Between? Or when my character died in The Land of Reeds is me passing through the fog like the River Styx or another place between life and death? The trees that look like broken stone pillars could be petrified trees that once were alive in DS???

Doesn’t Bloodborne also have giant pillars all stretching up into the sky? Maybe it’s all based on the multiverse and all these games are connected that way

Well if the trees are different worlds it’s possible that each tree is one of the franchise’s

“I understand why you’d *like to believe* it’s a totally different world” **shows the quote from Miyazaki answering a question stating “why isn’t this DS4 but a new IP, to which he says “we didn’t want to be limited”** 🤣 just messing, I know it’s just a theory - there’s a lot of connections, but I think they’re purely due to FS’s experience in crafting similar worlds

In ds3's untended graves you find the beginning area without flames, MOST IMPORTANTLY you find the eyes of fire keepers item. I gave the eyes to the fire keeper and she started going crazy and were talking about how fire keepers are not supposed to see the temptations of the dark. And behind the dark fire link shrine you can find a Chaos Blade. This sounds ways too similar to the three fingers in Elden Ring, where the finger maidens for chaos are also blind and not supposed to see the temptations of the dark. Also, in the dark fire link shrine you can buy a fingers item (forgot the name), which is an item with three fingers. My theory is that the linking of the fire in Dark Souls series IS the chaos flame of Elden Ring, but it was hundreds if not thousands of years apart. In Elden Ring, chaos flame is not really bad (as opposed to dungs eater's things about defilement of all living beings, which is a bad thing). It was not clear why people hate the chaos flame in Elden Ring except that they take over people's bodies, which is kind of what the curse of the undead from the dark sigils does. In the chaos flame ending in Elden Ring, your character starts burning and also the world around. Does this sound familiar? Yes, this is how lord of the cinders link the fire, you become the cinder that keeps the flame burning. If they are not related, these are just too many coincidences to be fromsoft.

I do think that fromsoft loves to repeat motifs, and I'm sure they're aware their fan base loves to dig through lore trying to make connections. They leave the lore just vague enough that we can make these connections, and make counter arguments to them as well.

It makes sense to me that the flame dies out. But the ring that binds humanity are used to create the age of lords. And that when humanity shattered the curse of the dark ring it allows for grace.. yet the erd tree is now able to grow because the world is no longer consumed by fire or whatever the souls are in harmony to allow the erd tree to grow. Whatever the case is. I believe that elden ring takes place much after dark souls.

sorry i havent been watching your elden ring videos, been busy with stuff and barley played the game myself so the little bit i do find out i usually come here first to watch about it. Been loving the Elden ring videos is what im saying too lol. fucking love these games theories. holy shit the themes ARE THE SAME just checked the nexus theme and the roundtable hold and they sound similiar.

If you look at Ash Lake from the Tomb of the Giants, the Arch trees being Erd trees is all but confirmed.

“For every age of light, there must be an age of dark…” -Darkstalker Kaathe I think elden ring is what happened once the first flame was finally allowed to die and there was another age of darkness. Perhaps grace was nature’s way of expelling the abyss since the abyss was created from the dark soul

im surprised you didn't mention coffin transport, or the milfanito/shamans song connection

the corpses on the tree roots are there due to the absense of true death in the world, id imagine that unless you are fullypowered by grace like a demigod your body weakens as it would do normally but you cant die so people are fed to the tree roots in order to give your soul back to the tree, living jars where made to collect broken bodies left behind and take them to the nearest tree so their souls can be returned to the tree and eventually be reborn.

How much grace have you touched, Bandit? 👀

I saw the Connection when i saw morne castle..the guy protecting irina in Ds3 has a morne weapon

I totally agree man awesome video I knew it was related

When I found a painting in elden ring for the first time without watching gameplay I thought maybe I was gonna be sucked into that winter world again from dark souls 3 DLC lmao.

I think the DLC makes these connections ever more obvious.

There's a certain character in Elden Ring named Okina thats theorised to be from the place Sekiro is set in.