Dark Souls is known for its relentless (but fair) difficulty, but it's also gained significant renown for its sweeping, dense lore and narrative. There are so many interesting nuggets tucked into the game's world, it can be difficult for even the most passionate fans to see and appreciate all of it.
The good news, then, is that there is a stunning book on the way that dives into all of it called 'Abyssal Archive'. Written by Dark Souls scholar 'Lokey' over the course of several years, the book comes in two volumes and boasts incredible detail throughout, with pre-orders set to ship in early 2023.

The set won't come cheap, however; the standard edition alone will set you back €180 / $180. There's also a Limited Edition on offer for €249 / $249 along with a 'Benefactor Edition' for a whopping €495 / $495. You can check out each edition on the website along with details on what each one contains.
Here's some more info from publisher Tune & Fairweather:
Abyssal Archive is the culmination of years of determined research and writing by veteran Souls scholar Lokey, who combined his understanding of Japanese and deep familiarity with Miyazaki’s oeuvre to mine unique insights from Dark Souls’ source material. All of that learning has been distilled in these two hardcover volumes for fans interested in deepening their understanding of Lordran’s tumultuous history as well as its characters’ exploits and tangled relationships.
The set also contains a fold-out companion map of Lordran by artist Judson Cowan. Bound individually and housed alongside the books, this map rounds out the set, making Abyssal Archive the definitive reference for fans of Miyazaki’s gothic masterpiece. Plotted out with the aid of a 3D map viewer to ensure fidelity of both level geometry and scale, this expansive map is the most faithful representation of Lordran ever produced.
Are you a big enough Dark Souls fan to pick this set up? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
[source tuneandfairweather.com, via kotaku.com]
Comments 15
Drools..............
Blah blah blah (just cos it would let me just post one word 🤷)
I'll dodge this one, if you know what I mean
Ahh, the fabled lore bible
think i'll stick with my dark souls trilogy compendium, thanks, put my faith in the theories of randos like lokey about as far as i can throw them
honestly, to some extent this irritates me--one of the joys of dark souls is theorizing and coming up with your own conclusions, and codifying it in a text (unofficial as it might be) would very easily lead to one common agreed upon theory/people pointing towards it as the "canon theory," kind of dismantling that on the whole
I can't figure out the difference between the versions besides a bookmark and some extra text on the box. The design also doesn't strike me as especially Dark Soulsy past the cover, so I think I'll just stick with the wiki for all my lore-binging needs.
I wish this person success with this endeavor.
I get it's a passion project and it's taken him years to finish but nothing justifies that price tag, especially when whatever information is in that book is very likely all online on youtube or wiki articles for free. If it was A LOT cheaper I'd get it.
£180.00? Yikes.
Although I love things like this - artbooks and gaming books are often fantastic additions; I have all the LoZ Dark Horse Books (Hyrule Historia, LoZ Encylopedia, Art and Artifacts and BoTW : Creating A Champion) as well as some of the Bitmap Book launches, and love flicking through them.
I'm sure anyone who buys this will absolutely love it!
Why did you have to post this 😩
Seriously this is one of my favorite things to read about in my spare time. Indeed, the lore is just insane and the tiny details and care that went into it all…. This is going on my wishlist
I grabbed 'You Died' which was superb and my copy of 'Soul Arts' will be here soon enough 😁 I imagine I'll grab the standard version of this too 😊
Tune & Fairweather, the guys responsible for these make absolutely incredible books. The quality is second to none.
I would love to buy this. I checked the shipping cost and it is quite high for me at €20 since they are based in Ireland according to twitter.
@AndyMK84 It's 180 euros which is around £153.
Pretty cool for those who like those torturous games.
@SilentHunter382 cheers. Still pricey for me, but it looks great all the same!
The book is really impressive, I liked it right away from the cover. Then I bought it and did not regret a drop. I even found where you can cite a book, I used https://edubirdie.com/citation/apa/cite-a-book/ in order to make time for that book. Then I took it at a discount. Now I don't know how much it costs. Obviously, the price has risen, maybe it appeared in an electronic version.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...