Dark Souls Liminality

**Dark Souls Liminality** is a Storyline of the Exteria Multiverse. It takes place in a replica of **Lordran**, **Drangleic** and **Lothric** seen in Hotel Liminal and follows the perspective of Kalos Urd. It is followed by Bloodborne Liminality.

## Dark Souls Liminality I

### A Path Not Taken

An unnamed college student and **Dark Souls** casual player awakens in the jails of Lordran in the flesh of his character, pyromancer Kalos Urd. Without much of an explanation, Kalos begins exploring, using her knowledge of the game's mechanics and enemy placement to quickly escape the undead asylum, saving knight **Oscar** in the process, showing that actual human interaction can change the fate of the world's denizens.

Kalos keeps on going, barely surviving a strange invasion from a dark power, **Ozymandias**, which unleashes hordes of dark beasts upon her, and encounters Livana, a holy assassin on a mission to save Lordran. She acknowledges Kalos as a rival and potential partner before leaving. After befriending **Solaire** as well, Kalos goes on her business - only to discover an unnamed person has freed murderer **Lautrec** from his cell.

Lautrec's actions resulted in the death of Solaire and Oscar, driving Kalos to despair. At that time, the confessor of deity Velka appears and speaks of Kalos's "powers", before stabbing her in the heart. Kalos awakens back to the previous bonfire - back in time, before Lautrec's killing spree begins, Using her foreknowledge and allying herself with dragon **Seath** through her Channeler, Kalos kills Lautrec and manages to defy fate, saving her companions.

### Towards the Twilight

After using her powers, Kalos is contacted by Velka herself, warning her that overuse of her power, **The Path Not Taken**, could result in catastrophic consequences. Taking heed of this warning and promising not to do so, Kalos goes on, meeting with another chosen Undead, Aeden, responsible for the freeing of Lautrec and Ozymandias's assaults, yet Aeden remains peaceful, warning Kalos about Livana's future death.

Kalos goes on, meeting with fire witches **Quelaag** and her **pale sister**, sparing and protecting Quelaag and learning fire from them, as well as from pyromancer-queen **Quelana**. She then travels further, to Anor Londo, where she attempts to help Livana only to see fake deity **Gwynevere** be destroyed and Anor Londo turn to dark, at which point everyone there is slaughtered, including Kalos herself, by a massive dark presence, returning Kalos back in time.

### In A Dark Hour

Help from a wandering Ornstein hints at Kalos that the culprit is in fact a mutated version of Smough, but by the time that Kalos reaches him, Smough is strong enough to kill Solaire and Oscar. Refusing this, Kalos chooses death once more, encountering the wandering being Alatheia. The knowledgeable entity reveals herself as a Norn, a whimsical entity playing on a cosmic board against a variety of other players, although Alatheia is still a bystander.

Alatheia reveals that Norn Sophia guides Livana, that Hedone helps Aeden, and that Kalos herself was taken then promptly abandoned in the world by Aporia. Alatheia ultimately hints at Kalos that Smough's newfound ability to absorb souls has already been put into use before battle, allowing Kalos to understand that Smough is attempting to eat Priscilla and rush to her rescue, putting an end to Aeden and Hedone's plans to ravage Anor Londo.

### To Create a Perfect End

With Anor Londo saved, it is time for Kalos to protect the world - faced with letting Aeden smother the flame or Livana burn to it, she elects another solution. Attempting to obtain a fragment of Lord Soul from Seath, Kalos is instead faced by a variety of probability-defying trials exploiting Kalos's temporal return, forcing her to bail out. Seeking another way, Kalos returns to the distant past of Lordran by means of a broken pendant.

There, Kalos teams up with Aeden with shared interests: first to save knight **Artorias**, then to manage to seize and absorb Manus's soul - allowing Kalos to have enough power for what she seeks - and finally to make a deal with **Kalameet**, a dragon able to threaten Seath for Kalos to obtain his Lord Soul. With that - Aeden having the Lord Souls of the **Kings**, and Livana having taken **Nito**'s, the only Soul remaining is that of Izalith, the Witch-Queen.

This divergence results in Lordran slowly being eroded, but Kalos keeps perservering, making a truce between Aeden and Livana towards her own plan: to recreate the First Flame as Izalith once tried to, but using Manus's energy, Izalith's chaos, Kalameet's flame and her own timeless soul as catalyst. After defeating Izalith and Gwyn, Kalos burns herself to nothing, ending the game between Sophia and Hedone and giving the victory to Aporia.

## Dark Souls Liminality II

### In the Ashes, New Beginnings

Yet, without a victor to claim it in Aporia's absence, the realm that Kalos saved is destined to nothing. Kalos materializes in Hedone and Sophia's domain, Hotel Liminal, and protests this fate of the world. WIth the help of Alatheia and arbiter Kosmos, the four Norns agree to let Kalos prolong the game's fate, by inviting her to the world of Drangleic, where she must once again face off against several Norns and their powerful pawns.

In Drangleic - where giants still roam stronger than before, and with a furious Nashandra unleashing dark knights upon her enemies, Kalos encounters Kosmos's pawn, young guard captain and aspiring dragon-knight Lunya, as well as the manipulative Vritra, who shares Alatheia's thirst for knowledge. Rather than following the story's normal progression, Kalos instead attempts to seek the four shards of Manus - since, with Manus's soul tied to Kalos's own, they were contaminated by part of Kalos's personality.

### Gripes of Wrath

In the Sunken Kingdom, helped by Aeden whose interests converge with her own, Kalos faces her first difficulty in the form of dragon Kalameet and Sinh facing off against royal knight Ornstein, and manages after a few attempts to prevent their war from ravaging the kingdom. She is then able to recruit Elana, embodiment of her wrath, and cleanse her of corruption by taking it into her own body.

As Kalos attempts to further advance, she realizes the trap set for her by Alatheia: to access the final shard, Nashandra, she must seize four Great Souls; however, since Seath is alive, such progression is impossible. Searching for alternate roads, Kalos befriends wandering undead Lucatiel and teams up with her in order to defeat the Lost Sinner, turning out to be part of Kalos's previous body.

### On A Lonely Road

Afterwards, Kalos goes to the Iron Kingdom to reconstitute the soul of Nadalia, shard of loneliness, and stumbles upon a war between Nashandra and Gwyndolin's forces. After seemingly saving everyone in the castle, Kalos returns to her own world to discover Nashandra used the Iron Kingdom's time portal to warp the present and slaughter the entire continent in an effort to seize the throne.

Kalos dies, and returns to time to prevent Nashandra's endeavors, and saves Nadalia from her fate, absorbing her corruption and becoming more and more corrupted. As she keeps defeating Lords and absorbing their souls, she ends up striking a deal with Seath in order to create an artificial Great Soul and open the way to the castle. Before that, however, Kalos elects to team up with Aeden once more towards the Ivory Kingdom.

### Fear of Oneself

There, she finds nothing but lava and desolation. Chaos, it seems, is now much stronger than before, and Kalos must return to the heart of the Old Chaos, protecting Quelaag and her sisters from the threat of the Lamashtu - a strange demon inspired by Kalos's legend as a mother of demonkind, since Kalos's sacrifice created a new chaos flame and a new age of demons.

Kalos succesfully teams up with Alsanna, embodiment of her fear, to take down the Lamashtu, but in the process, her feverish mind travels to the limits of the world, where she glimpses her true nature, and starts to understand that she herself is Aporia, although she cannot fully understand how. Recoiling from the revelation, Kalos rushes towards Castle Drangleic in order to defeat Kosmos and Alatheia in a final match.

### To Want Everything

There, she is faced by a dilemma: if someone seizes the Throne of Want, Kosmos wins, but if no one does, Alatheia wins; there is no place for victory for Kalos or Aporia. Despite this, she goes on, rescuing Nashandra from a trap of dark memories set up by Alatheia, purifying her, and maanges to reach the throne room, offering it to not only Lunya but also a surviving Lucatiel, carefully using a loophole to ensure her own victory.

The game is thus over, allowing Kalos to claim victory and ascend as Aporia; however, as she is about to celebrate, she is interrupted by the intervention of Ataraxia, a terrifying Norn-killing Norn. Refusing Kalos's victory as she deems it unclean, Ataraxia challenges Kalos to a last game, before shattering her soul, erasing any presence of Aporia from her own body and leaving her alone, without any memories, in the realm of **Lothric**.

## Dark Souls Liminality III

### From Death, To Death

Kalos wakes up, barely alive, her memories in a haze, but she knows she must go on. Encounteringthe enigmatic Elaine, who threatens to reap her when Kalos reaches her apex, she moves on, defeating Gundyr with Lunya's help, and encountering the Firekeeper, to whom she pledges allegience. She then departs once more, although her will to live and triumph has been largely shattered.

In Lothric's church, she encounters the mysterious priestess **Gertrude**, who seems to control eerie angelic knights, and salutes Kalos both as a friend and foe. Moving on, Kalos reaches the Undead Settlement, where she briefly encounters Zephon, a dark wizard chosen by Ataraxia whose aim is to snuff out the world's light and return everything to a state of tranquil darkness, in what he deems a mercy kill.

### Trials of Darkness

Kalos also encounters Anri of Astora, and attempts to divert her from the tragic end that would await her should she continue to pursue blind vengence towards Aldritch. From Anri, she learns that Zephon and Aldritch work together, and vows to destroy them herself. With Anri's help, Kalos enters the Cathedral of the Deep, where she stumbles in Zephon's territory.

There, Zephon would have her fight a fight that is impossible for Kalos's abilities as a mage, while using Leonhart as a puppet to steal Rosaria's soul and preventing Kalos from effectively performing a rebirth and reallocating her stats; Kalos sees right through it, saves Rosaria, and defeats the reinforced Deacons without even resorting to her personal abilities.

### Prelude to the End

Kalos, after a brief encounter with pontiff Sulyvahn who offers an alliance she refuses, then heads towards Farron Keep, encountering Livana alongside Sirris, then meets up with Artorias, now an old man and a Lord of Cinder, having kindled the flame in his apprentices' stead. From an encounter with Ciaran, his lover, Kalos promises to prevent Artorias from sacrificing himself to reach the Kiln of the First Flame, then once again marches on.

After visiting the Catacombs, Kalos defeats Wolnir and encounters the last remnants of Chaos that have hidden under the catacombs. There, she learns that Elaine is actually able to steal other people's Authorities, and has already stolen Vritra's. Looking for the weaking Vritra, she learns from him that he has glimpsed through his omniscience that a threat lurked in Castle Lothric.

### Angels Descend, Mortals Fall

Kalos rushes towards the castle, alongside Lunya, and defeats the Dancer, before witnessing a strange phenomenon: as the eclipse appears in the sky, the Dancer, and the remaining people of Lothric, are slaughtered in a strange angels ritual performed by Gertrude in order to empower Sulyvahn, whom she believes to be a savior able to destroy the Norns' influence. Despite this, Kalos saves Gertrude from Sulyvahn's cruelty, becoming marked by angels in the process.

In a desperate hour, as Sulyvahn is about to return the world to nothing, Kalos understands the true purpose of Aporia's death and rebirth, and gouging her own eyes to gift them to the Firekeeper, removes her own Authority before fully forsaking her life, throwing herself to be torn by the angels that chase her. By doing so, she truly reaches the point in time where Aporia is born from her sacrifice, and forsakes herself to the Undead Curse.

### A Last Recurrence

Kalos wakes up, an eyeless shell of herself, caged in the deepest depths of Sulyvahn's prisons in the Forsaken Capital. Rescued by Nashandra and her sisters, she manages to grasp enough sense of self to move on, and snap Yhorn, the Giant, from his despair-induced renouncement, before leaving and enlisting Karla's help and reaching the surface once more.

On the surface, Kalos travels in Irythrill towards Aldritch's lair, and crosses path with a controlled Prince Lorian in Sulyvahn's cathredral. As she further advances, she is impeded by Zephon who challenges her to a last duel, driven by despair and a desire to silence the world. Kalos manages to challenge his worldview before Zephon can use his all-consuming Authority, and move on.

In the remains of Anor Londo, Kalos teams up with Lunya and Anri to defeat Aldritch once and for all,rescuring Lothric from his insides, but peace has not yet come to the world; Sulyvahn has reached the world's edge in Filianore's Rest, and it is up to every hero to reach him. Rejecting the way that would force Yhorm, Lothric and Artorias to die, Kalos instead searches for the path that crosses the world of Ariandel.

### The Final Road

With the help of Vritra and Aeden, Kalos enters Ariandel and discusses with Friede, who tells her that Elaine has stolen Kalos's authority. Acting as Ariandel's final boss, Elaine is invincible, using her time-traveling abilities and omniscience together to easily crush Kalos. Almost succumbing to despair, the hero resorts to trickery and Livana's help as a decoy to go through Elaine and reach the Dreg Heap.

There, Kalos teams up with Solaire, Anri and Lucatiel, allies from previous worlds, to defeat a variety of challenges, eventually reaching the Ringed City where she faces Ataraxia's last challenge: a strange puppet that has taken Gael's role and abilities, and poses a great difficulty to the whole team, but that Kalos finally manages to overpower.

### An Ocean of Lost Souls

Kalos also enlists the help of Midir, despite losing an arm in the process, by saving her from the corruption of the Dark she was forced to eat, in order to reach Filianore; there, with the help of Lothric's research and the assistance of Aeden, Kalos enters Filianore's last dream without waking her up. In doing so, she reaches an alternate Kiln of the First Flame that threatens to destroy all Norns and restore the world to a primal state.

Despite Sulyvahn's presence and great abilities, bolstered by angelic strength, Kalos defeats him, but not before Sulyvahn manages to steal Aporia and merge with her, creating an existence known as Cassiel. Cassiel proves to be the final enemy for Kalos, Zeden, Livana, Lunya, Vritra, Elaine and Zephon, who work together in order to defeat him and save Lothric once and for all. With Kalos fully ascended as Aporia, she chooses to preserve Lothric's inhabitants by transferring them to the Hotel in order to prevent their death with the Board's end.

## Characters

### Norns

* Aporia, the Endless Recurrence
* Sophia, the Heroic Martyr
* Hedone, the Betrayal of Man
* Alatheia, the Forbidden Secret
* Kosmos, the Unyielding Throne
* Chorismos, the Fractured Path
* Ataraxia, the Ultimate End

### Moira

* Kalos Urd
* Livana
* Aeden
* Vritra
* Lunya
* Elaine
* Zephon

### Others

* Twist
* Sulyvahn
* Friede
* Dark Souls Characters

## Trivia

* As the name implies, this first installment in the Liminality series is a study on the themes of **Dark Souls**.