A new Dark Souls story is being crafted by a New York Times bestselling author, who's previously created what many consider to be some of the best Star Wars books that have been written. The Dark Souls franchise is known for its glorious dark fantasy-inspired world, unforgiving combat, and untraditional methods of story-telling. Developer FromSoftware has made a name for themselves with incredibly well-received games like Elden Ring and Bloodborne. However, the Dark Souls trilogy continues to be a highly beloved series within the gaming community.
The gameplay featured prominently in the Dark Souls series is widely regarded as difficult, with a considerable learning curve for newcomers. Each Dark Souls game requires players to explore varied and beautiful lands ravaged by brutal wars waged by magical lords and intimidating mythical creatures. Unlike most games, the complicated lore of Dark Souls is not directly told to players in a traditional sense. Instead, it must be discovered by picking up clues and reading detailed item descriptions often filled with juicy Dark Souls lore. The dramatic and epic tales of the series' lords and undead warriors is rich with narrative possibility, and one author is crafting a novel with an original Dark Souls tale.
This October, Dark Souls: Masque of Vindication, a book by bestselling author Michael A. Stackpole, will tell a brand new Dark Souls story. As reported by Game Rant, the announcement came from the Twitter account of the book's publisher, Yen Press. According to Yen Press's website, the original story will be released physically and digitally worldwide on October 25th. The novel will not repeat the same cryptic story from the games, but will instead tell a new tale of an undead sorcerer named Ferranos who awakens in the Dark Souls world with a mission to rediscover himself and his memories in an epic adventure.
Mr. Stackpole is no stranger to writing great stories based in complex lore-filled worlds. Besides his New York Times bestselling Star Wars novels I, Jedi and Rogue Squadron, his other works include stories based on World of Warcraft, Gears of War, and both Wasteland games. The vast lore of Dark Souls is filled with epic tales to be told. While there have been some great Dark Souls comics, the upcoming book Masque of Vindication is the first novel that takes place in the popular franchise.
Epic fantasy games have grown in prevalence over the last decade. Many believe that the first Dark Souls game helped inspire the increasing interest in dark fantasy RPGs since it first launched in 2011. The series has gotten so popular that incredibly talented fantasy authors who don't usually play video games hear about it. George R.R. Martin, the author of the Game of Thrones books, was eager to collaborate with the game's creators to help craft the lore of this year's bestselling game Elden Ring. Fans are excited to see what sort of new dark fantasy story Mr. Stackpole's Dark Souls: Masque of Vindication will tell when it becomes available worldwide on October 25, 2022.
Sources: Game Rant, Yen Press/Twitter, Yen Press