33bits

Cita:Anor Londo and Il Duomo

Hidetaki Miyazaki himself owns up to this in the superb Dark Souls: Design Works, but the community had long ago rumbled them. Il Duomo is a cathedral in Milan and the visual inspiration is obvious, but a particularly important detail is the balustrades ÔÇô one of which you have to cross in-game. Designer Masanori Waragai mentions that he visited this location: ÔÇ£I recall looking up at the buttresses and imagining how amazing it would feel to walk on them... it really inspires your adventurous side.ÔÇØ

Cita:Domhnall and Henry VIII

Henry VIII didn't just have six wives ÔÇô the phat bro had some crazy helmets going on too. This bad boy was given as a gift by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian 1, part of a complete armour set.

Cita:In-game Domhnall is the only person we meet from the region of Zena, and describes himself as 'a peddler, of sorts.' This isn't the whole truth. Domhnail's really a scavenger, following the player and picking up what they leave behind in order to sell later ÔÇô for example, after you've beaten many of the bosses go and see him to buy their armour sets. His own armour, which he'll happily sell you, is kind of a joke ÔÇô the grandiose naming bespeaks a land where intention is more important than accomplishment.

Cita:The real-life server.

The Server, ÔÇ£a curved greatsword used in a mysterious ancient rite,ÔÇØ turns out to be based on a real sword used in a mysterious ancient rite! The sword originated in either Nepal or India and was used to behead animals ready for sacrifice and, some say, even humans. In-game the server is associated with Shiva of the East, and is also notable for restoring a tiny bit of health with each hit ÔÇô the only weapon that does so

Cita:The Captain and the Composer

Cita:Ornstein, the reputed captain of Gwyn's knights, has a helmet shaped like a Lion ÔÇô and uses the Leo Ring, which strengthens counter-attacks with thrust weapons. In 2002 the composer Leo Ornstein died at the age of 109 after a frankly astonishing life. A piano prodigy, Ornstein's early compositions both shocked and fascinated the musical world of the 1920s ÔÇô and then he faded into obscurity, re-emerging in the 1980s with new compositions. For a short time Ornstein was the oldest published composer in history.

The link between Ornstein and Leo Ornstein is really more of a nod than anything substantial, though it is tempting to draw one thematic parallel ÔÇô that bright youth filled with promise, followed by a long period of withdrawal from the world, topped off by a final, bravura flourish.

Cita:Oh and ÔÇô thought Ornstein's helmet was total fantasy, eh? Well it's certainly a more refined take on the idea, but this 15th century Sallet from Italy, currently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection, suggests others have been there before. Wonder if they slew any dragons?

Cita:The Washing Pole and the Drying Pole

Cita:Sasaki Kojiro was a Japanese samurai, one of the greatest ÔÇô and in many accounts was taught to fight by Toda Seigen, a master of the short-bladed katana known as the kodachi. What does one use to counter a man fighting with a short-bladed katana? Why a long-bladed one of course, and in Kojiro's case this was the Monohoshi Zao ÔÇô 'the laundry drying-pole.' It's fair to say this was a man with a sense of humour to match his mad skills.

In Dark Souls you can acquire the 'Washing Pole' from the mysterious Shiva of the East, a katana with an enormous blade much favoured by PvPers. Kojiro's 'swallow strike,' a swift downwards stroke followed by an upwards cut, may just live on in the Washing Pole's many victories.

Cita:Kirk, Knight of Bear-Hunting

Cita:Come at me, bro!

Not really much to say about this one other than Kirk, the Knight of Thorns, hunts down noobs ÔÇô and apparently Siberians in the 19th century had similar ideas about how to hunt bears.

Cita:It makes complete Sens

Cita:Sen's Fortress has a few possible antecedents ÔÇô 'Sen' in Japanese, for example, means 'thousand', so it could be the fortress of a thousand traps. But then there's also William of Sens, an idea I first saw here. A master mason, Sens is one of the earliest known gothic architects ÔÇô and a particular detail about his life sticks out. He was incapacitated in a fall from his own scaffolding. I don't know Hidetaka Miyazaki personally, but I think I get his sense of humour ÔÇô and this would be a perfect example.

Cita:Lost Izalith and Angkor Wat

Cita:Angkor Wat is the model for Lost Izalith's architecture, but a particular inspiration is the temple of Ta Prohm or Rajavihara ÔÇô because unlike many of the other temples it's never been restored, and has been reclaimed by trees. The suggestion in-game is that Izalith, before the Witch of Izalith's disastrous attempt to recreate the first flame, was exactly like Angkor Wat ÔÇô then the birth of the Bed of Chaos led to destruction and a kind of rebirth represented by the tree that now winds and bends around the architecture. Nature reclaims all and, in Dark Souls and real life, nature can mean chaos.

Cita:New Londo Ruins and Mont Saint-Michel

Cita:The exact history of New Londo is, like almost everything in Dark Souls, blank but for a few details ÔÇô we know it was a human settlement, highly thought-of for its culture, and brought low by the venality of the Four Kings. Clearly the title and location (at the foot of the great wall) also imply this was man's equivalent to Anor Londo, and suggest something about man's standing in the old age. But by the time the player happens along, New Londo is a flooded ruin.

Cita:The model for New Londo is Mont Saint-Michel, an island fort in Normandy France ÔÇô which uses the tide as part of its natural defences. In Dark Souls: Design Works Miyazaki explains ÔÇ£we took the structural style straight from a building that exists in the real world: Mont Saint-Michel. Of course it's not an exact copy or anything, but I think you can easily spot the similarities if you compare the two.ÔÇØ

Cita:Even the Crystal Caves are real

Mexico's 'Cave of Crystals' is a natural marvel, and bears an uncanny resemblance to Seath's similarly-named retreat. The cave was discovered in the early 2000s and is located over a thousand feet below a mountain ÔÇô the crystals apparently grew to their giant form after being submerged in mineral-rich water for millenia. No word on giant magical butterflies though.

Cita:Hawkeye Gough, and a bit of a stretch...

This one's more tenuous than all the others, but let's live a little. Gough is a 'blind' giant, and one of Gwyn's four knights ÔÇô you find him imprisoned on the outskirts of Oolacile, carving away his days. One thing that's especially notable about Gough is his philosophical take on Dark Souls' world, and it's this that makes me think he may have some link to the 18th century natural philosopher John Gough, who lived in England's Lake District and also happened to be blind.

Cita:ÔÇ£At thy twilight old thoughts return, in great waves of nostalgia.ÔÇØ

A particularly strange connection here is John Gough's most lasting discovery ÔÇô that an elastic band, when stretched and then heated, would shrink rather than expand, an observation that would later become important in engineering and known as the Gough-Joule effect. For some reason this blind man, twanging his elastic bands and fascinated by the feel of animals, makes me think of Hawkeye Gough and his unused Greatbow, sitting and waiting for one final hare to hunt.

Cita:Seathe's books

There may be a deeper link, but for now this is just a neat nod ÔÇô you can find the works of Geoffrey Chaucer in The Duke's Archives. Perhaps Seathe was interested in the Parliament of Fowls, and ÔÇ£The raven wise, the crow the voice of careÔÇØ ÔÇô or perhaps he just enjoyed a Canterbury Tale of an evening. Credit for these up-close images goes to the Dark Souls subreddit.

Cita:On another note, the smart folks in this forum thread discovered that the index to William Playfair's book about British nobility is one of the spine textures in the Duke's Archive. Perhaps, given the British names that proliferate throughout the Souls series, this is one of Miyazaki's secret reference tomes ÔÇô or perhaps it's just a random texture.

Cita:Havel your cake, and eat it

Cita:Havel the Rock is one of Dark Souls' greatest NPCs. Václav Havel is one of the 20th century's greatest figures. Is the name just a tip of the hat?

The in-game history of Havel suggests not. It's been suggested by many YouTubers that Havel was a rebel, based primarily on the fact that you can find a stash of his gear in Anor Londo that includes an Occult Club ÔÇô that is, a weapon designed to combat the gods. Kind of interesting, though, that this weapon is found in a Mimic rather than a normal chest. Protection? Or a plant?

Cita:Václav Havel became the first president of the Czech Republic ÔÇô yet before this, was imprisoned numerous times. Havel the Rock was imprisoned and left to rot ÔÇ£by an old friend.ÔÇØ This is one of the most ambiguous pieces of lore in Dark Souls. Because it was ÔÇ£for his own good, of course.ÔÇØ One of the few things we know about Havel the Rock is that he was, of course, the sworn enemy of Seath the Scaleless ÔÇô an ally of Gwyn too powerful to be ignored. And that, somehow, Havel or one of his men found his way down to Ash Lake and the one Everlasting Dragon that remains.

ÔÇ£We never decided to become dissidents,ÔÇØ Václav Havel wrote. ÔÇ£We have been transformed into them, without quite knowing how, sometimes we have ended up in prison without precisely knowing how. We simply went ahead and did certain things that we felt we ought to do.ÔÇØ

Hola.

En la primera imágen hay una sombra oscura que sospechosamente parece estar sacando un arco.

Un saludo.

Se oyen los flechazos incrustarse en las cornisas.

Si te sale un arquero hijodeputa dale recuerdos de mis partes.

Locos los de la segunda foto, estar ahí en plan viva la vida sin llevar un escudo alzado. Los arqueros se los van a follar y luego vendrán a llorarnos por los foros.

(21-12-2014 03:38)seph1roth link [ -> ]Si te sale un arquero hijodeputa dale recuerdos de mis partes.

esos cabrones me dieron guerra, tuve que aprender a hacer parri para cepillarmelos de un golpe y que no me tirasen.

Se sabe donde es?

a mi me pasa que tras perdidos toda peli rodada en Hawaii la reconozco y me saca un montón de la peli

Deduzco que habláis de algún Dark Souls, no sé por qué.

Ahora miro donde es y, de paso, posteo el hilo completo, me llamó la atención ese lugar, pero es una web que vi con más de 10 sitios o referencias "reales" o similares de DS - Vida real.

La segunda foto me suena a la catedral de Milan.

(21-12-2014 13:06)Tas link [ -> ]La segunda foto me suena a la catedral de Milan.

Es, es...