Soulslike - Discussion, News, Memes

In ER you play as a Tarnished. The Tarnished once made up the elite army of the golden order, but Marika seemingly turned on them long ago, pulling her Grace from them and letting them lay in ruin. At the start of the game a bit of the old grace returns to the Tarnished, reviving your character and setting them on their quest. So you're an ex-soldier and that's why you have combat skills!

DS1: You got your own private cell in the asylum. Oscar chooses you specifically. So maybe you were extra dangerous before you've gone hollow? But also I've seen lots of "I play Dark Souls for the first time videos"; the player character doesn't seem to have much combat prowess in those. So maybe the player character only learns combat in Lordran?

DS2: You had a long, long journey since you've become cursed. So maybe you've picked up some skills on the way. Going from your happy family life to combat capable warrior.

DS3: See @YewEyeOwe31@lemmy.world answer. "Ash seeketh embers."

Bloodborne: On the one hand you've been chosen by Messengers to be a Hunter or at least for the dream. On the other, the Bloodborne player character feels more like a chosen one from the get go then the other Souls games, where you eventuallym due to your actions in game, become the chosen one. You already know about Paleblood (Moon Presence). You've come from outside, specifically seek out the Blood and you get a summon to Cain Hurst. (Were you a Noble before? You kinda look like one.) So you probably already had combat experience. Maybe not against beasts but you slaughter people just fine.

ER: "Arise now, ye Tarnished. Ye dead, who yet live." Not all tarnished were warriors, but a whole lot were Godfrey's lot. The percentage of combat capable tarnished is probably very high. So maybe you were one of the combat capable ones? (The "Hero" Origin is probably related to Hoarah Loux) I think, Elden Ring is the most vague. You had grace and then you lost it and now you get a bit back. Elden Ring leans more heavily on the "Origins" as Classes are called here and of course a Samurai can fight. It literally says in their description "A capable fighter". But the reason a naked person with a club can fight? No idea… Well, I'm off to bash Margit's brains out with a club.

In Dark Souls 3, you are an unkindled, a historic warrior that was strong enough to attempt to link the flame but who failed in their life. So there is some precedent for your character starting with skills of their chosen profession. Who knows, maybe they even made it as far as the Kiln before falling? You rise out of your grave because the Lords of Cinder, who actually linked the flame, had been revived at the end of the world and convergence of time and space (or something like that) to link it again, but refused. I like to think there is some ambiguity in these games, and you can write your character’s own backstory for who they were and what happened to them.

Unclothed enigma. Only armed with a club and an old plank shield.

Every starting class you can choose in the Dark Souls trilogy and Elden Ring implies a background of experience in that particular class. What exactly your character did in their past life before the start of each game is left to the imagination, but their experience carries forward even if they don't remember everything.

You're literally a warrior in every game. In BB you're a hunter. In the other games the classes are all warriors of some kind.

I think almost all of the character class descriptions indicate that the player character has experience in combat. (Deprived being the main exception, but I suppose the Royalty class might be fresh out of magic school...)

For Elden Ring, I buy the idea that the player is Godwyn the Golden's soul reincarnated.