Elden Ring. We were talking about the NPC questlines in FromSoft games and how brilliant they are. In the first Dark Souls game, Solaire’s questline demonstrates the mentality of FromSoft towards NPC questline. The first time through the game, you run into him and probably are just happy to have a friendly face in your game. In a land where everything is trying to kill you, it’s a relief to have a friend.
The first time you meet him, he’s looking out at the vista and in a jolly mood. One of the funniest things is that he never says his catch phrase which has been attributed to him–“Praise the sun.” It’s his emote, but he never utters the words. I can’t remember who is incredulous about it, but in one of the playthroughs I’ve watched, the person playing (a noob under the guidance of someone who’d played much more) said, “You mean he never actually says it?” No, he doesn’t. He does say ‘jolly cooperation’, though, which is his other big phrase.
You’ve been through so much by this point. You’ve slogged your way through the Northern Undead Asylum and made it to the Firelink Shrine. You’ve pushed your way through the Undead Burg, and you’ve beaten the Bell Gargs–the first roadblock of the game. Everything is relentlessly grim, and then you come upon Solaire and the jaunty feather in his iron helm. He is such a soothing presence, and it’s a nice moment when you first meet him.
Now, in a first playthrough, you probably won’t run into him again until the bonfire by Ornstein & Smough in Anor Londo. That’s halfway through the game. There, he flirts with you, but still makes it clear he’s looking for his sun. I forgot to say, that’s why he went intentionally hollow–and he knows that people think he’s crazy.
So, you go about your merry way and most likely the next time you run into him will be at the Lost Izalith bonfire. There, he will be inconsolable about not being able to find his sun. You will want to help him, but it will be too late. Why? Because here’s the deal. Oh, and you can run into him at the Sunlight Altar, but most people probably won’t find that area in the first playthrough.
Anyway. If you run into him at the Lost Izalith bonfire, it is too late. Of course, you won’t know that the first time around, but you have sealed his doom at this point. Why?
*Takes a deep breath*
He’s looking for his sun. He deliberately went hollow in order to find it. Then, as he went around Lordrain looking for his sun, he became more and more discouraged. When he reaches Lost Izalith, he gets attacked by a sunlight maggot. It attaches itself to his head and drives him crazy.
You can avoid this fate for him, but you have to do something that you have no way of knowing how to do. In fact, how the hell did someone figure this out? It’s so oblique and hidden. You have to become a Daughter of the Chaos by entering the spider lady’s covenant. Ok, fine. Anyone can do that. In fact, I did that because that’s the Pyro covenant. But, then, you have to give her THIRTY humanities (the thing that brings you back to life and enables you to summon), and she gives you the ability to open a passageway that means you can go kill the sunlight maggot before Solaire gets there.
Or, alternatively, you can use Poison Mist/Toxic Mist and breathe on the door to the passageway and kill the bug that way. In either case, you have to do it BEFORE you reach the Lost Izalith bonfire. I cannot stress this enough.
If you do not save Solaire, then you will run into Solaire in that passageway, and he’s lost his mind. He will attack you, and you have to decide if you want to kill him or not. Being attacked by him the first time…it was such a jolt. The only friend you have, and you have to kill him.
Well, that’s not exactly true. That he’s your only friend or the only one you have to kill. Laurentius of the Great Swamp, the pyro teacher, is the same. If you show him the Great Chaos Fire Orb you get from The Fair Lady (or talk to Quelana or, or, or….), then he goes mad and returns to the Great Swamp (Blighttown). If you run into him there, then he’ll attack you and you have to decide to kill him or not.
It’s not as emotional as Solaire’s storyline, but it’s still upsetting to me as he’s my favorite NPC in the game. Solaire…isn’t even in the top five in all the games, but I still have SOME affinity for him.
If you save him, you can summon him for the final boss, which is very fitting. Some hardcore fans are very unhappy that he was revealed not to be the son of Gwyn. I was not one of them because I really liked the lore surrounding The Nameless King and how it fit into the story. I get why some fans are upset about Solaire, but I prefer how FromSoft resolved that. Solaire is a hero in his own right and gets a tribute in the second game, but he’s not Gwyn’s son. There’s some poetic justice in that because–oh hell. There is no poetic justice. He’s just another bloke doing his best to make it in the exacting world of Lordran. That, in itself, is poetic justice.
My favorite NPCs are never the ones whom other people like best. Laurentius is number one in the first game, then Quelana, and maybe The Onion Knight third. In the second game, it’s Lucatiel all the way. Third game, Yuria, Sirrus, and Karla. Huh. I just noticed they are all woman in the third game. In Bloodborne, it’s Eileen the Crow. She’s probably a popular choice for a favorite. Her questline is pretty complicated, too, and can end in you having to fight her. I’m not exactly sure how to achieve that because I’ve never done it nor do I have any desire to fight her.
Sekiro, it’s Emma. That’s another obvious and easy answer. In Elden Ring, it’s Ranni (very popular) and Millicent (maybe popular? I don’t know. But, Blaidd is BAE; I wouldn’t mind banging D; and I want to be besties with Iji. Oh! I also really like Nephali Loux. Plus her questline is wild. WILD. There is something associated with it that I have not done because it is so repugnant to me. I wouldn’t mind doing it to another NPC who is loathsome, but this part of the questline is so goddamn fiddly.
I can’t tell you how intricate some of the questlines are in Elden Ring. Because there are areas of the game that are cut off once a certain thing happens, you have to make sure you do certain parts of the questline before doing the thing that changes the game irrevocably. I like that, by the way. It makes the game feel more alive.
FromSoft has long since shown themselves to be unafraid to put out content that no one sees. In almost any other game, the idea that there are entire areas that some players who finish the games never see would be unthinkable. In a FromSoft game, it’s just par the course. It’s one of my favorite things about FromSoft, and they have spoiled me for other games forever.