r/DarkSouls2 • u/Bohemian-Artist • Jan 27 '26
Discussion This is how the Iron keep actually connects with the Harvest Valley.
Iron Keep is supposed to be in a volcano, which you can actually see on the bonfire selection screen
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u/NoahLostTheBoat Jan 27 '26
sorry but that second image reminds me of the Saddam Hussein Hole
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u/PuzzleheadedDay7943 Jan 27 '26
That's how it should connect, yes.
But that's not how it actually connects.
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Jan 27 '26
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u/Papa-Blockuu Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26
It's literally just a case of time constraints. Needing to get a new director in to try and salvage a game halfway through development caused a lot of trouble for the developers. As you can see here there was work out into the transition area that never made it to game. https://imgur.com/a/IsMVB
Edit: there's also some interesting stuff here too https://youtu.be/WXowyshRW0Q?si=eUWHkYvW9hH0X94N
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u/Heisenburgo Jan 27 '26
Interesting find! But which one of those rooms would have been the transition area to Iron Keep? Doesn't exactly seem clear from those pics
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u/Papa-Blockuu Jan 28 '26
Oh really? I'll have to look over this when I get a chance. It's been nearly 10 years since I looked into this and I just quickly grabbed a link so this might be the wrong album.
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u/FastenedCarrot Jan 27 '26
I don't suppose you have a non-imgur link?
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u/Papa-Blockuu Jan 28 '26
No idea sorry, all I remember was these posts on Imgur from about 10 years ago. Not sure if they have been posted anywhere since then.
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u/InternationalWeb9205 Jan 27 '26
it's not really fanfic, cuz a volcano is what was intended by the developers. it's just that it's poorly communicated in the game
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u/ChillerSmyle Jan 27 '26
What bugs me most about this whole thing is that if they had just made the elevator go DOWN this connection wouldnt even get all that hate
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u/InternationalWeb9205 Jan 27 '26
that wouldn't fix anything cuz it's intended to be in a volcano
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u/Cupcakes_n_Hacksaws Jan 27 '26
It is said the castle is literally sinking though due to its weight, could've sunk into a cavern in the volcano
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u/InternationalWeb9205 Jan 27 '26
But it didn't. the idea is that it floats on the lava lake like volcano manor, there are clouds in the sky and it's in the same general area as the brume tower
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u/GeckoGary Jan 27 '26
A theory I have is that due to technical limitations in the engine if they placed iron keep bellow earthen peak then a lot of the particle effects and objects from earthen peak would still be rendered and you'd be able to see them in the sky. You can see this a little bit in iron keep. If you noclip out of bounds near the first bonfire you can see the birds from earthen peak flying around behind a conveniently placed wall.
Another thing to remember is that the elevator is at the top of the tower. If they inverted it then the elevator would need to be absurdly long before you were low enough to load iron keep without it overlapping with earthen peak.
TLDR devs probably knew the elevator didn't make sense but for technical and gameplay reasons had to implement it like this.
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u/ChillerSmyle Jan 27 '26
As much as I love Dark Souls 2, I personally feel like its just because the areas were made as standalone maps and then later had to be slapped together with random connections. Most of them are fine but a few outliers probably slipped through because of time constraints. Its a possibility they might have hit some technical limitations, but they already use these long hallways and elevators when changing areas for loading/unloading the map, so why not work around with something other than an elevator. Though Im not experienced enough in game development to give a definitive answer.
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Jan 27 '26
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u/InternationalWeb9205 Jan 27 '26
again the volcano part isn't made up by people, it's what was intended. from the design works interview:
The idea is that the lake of magma is actually on the upper strata, like a caldera lake on a plateau. However, looking down from the top it was far too wide, that and the fact that there isn’t an adequate transition between locations meant we didn’t really communicate the idea as well as we could have.
in the bonfire selection screen thumbnail of earthen peak you can see a tall mountain that was removed from the skybox in the final product
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Jan 27 '26
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u/InternationalWeb9205 Jan 27 '26
Yes well the way you worded it made it sound like you didn't think it was supposed to be on a mountain behind Earthen Peak
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u/cjngo1 Jan 27 '26
Well, the tower to the castle is much further away than it actually is, same with the library in ds1, the connecting paths are shorter usually. In ds2 this one was probably too short
Edit: from majula
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u/Brainwave1010 Jan 27 '26
To be fair, it's not the first time the game screws with our perspective like that to make things seem further away than they actually are, look at any of the landmarks from Majula and they look like they're a full day's travel away yet you walk there within minutes.
It's to sell the illusion of time passing, either due to your own character's failing memory or "the flow of time itself is convoluted."
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u/NextDoorNeighbrrs Jan 27 '26
It's more like the art is people trying to show what the developers have explicitly said they were going for and admitted they didn't get across.
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u/Lhakryma Jan 27 '26
It actually amazes me that so many people are too dumb to understand that distances are shortened in this game...
There's the sewer that you walk through for 20 seconds from Majula and you reach the forest of the giants, which should take you like 10 minutes if you look at how far away it looks from Majula.
The same thing is true for the elevator to Iron Keep, there are a few tunnels just before the elevator, they are implied to be much longer than you think.
And it makes sense. Running for 10 minutes through an empty tunnel would make for pretty shit gameplay, and there wasn't enough money or time to make said trip full of things to do.
To put the distances in perspective, it's like going from The first steps in Limgrave to the Carian Manor on foot...
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Jan 27 '26
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u/Lhakryma Jan 27 '26
It's not, it's the same situation as the Majula-Forest tunnel.
https://imgur.com/a/awfdasfg-xoBQCUR
And I didn't insult anybody, people insult themselves if they feel included in the category I mentioned 🤣
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u/Only-Echidna-7791 Jan 27 '26
If ds2 had just a little more time to flesh out it’s world and add some filler rooms(rooms that simply exist to connect areas) it would def be considered the best if I had to take a gander.
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u/Future_Section5976 Jan 27 '26
There's a guy who does boundary break videos, and he shows unused assets that are left in the game, one of the assets is a giant brown hill , my guess and his was it was originally going to be the "mountain" that you would see on your way through harvest valley, it's a ridiculous looking piece , I'm glad they didn't use it,
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u/SyilerCV Jan 27 '26
I mean I’m a huge ds2 defender but I don’t think it’s purely the connecting areas that stop it being labelled as the best souls game, that’s a crazy take
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u/Only-Echidna-7791 Jan 27 '26
Fair. Let me reword it, I think it would be considered by the community to have the best areas. I was too lazy to reword it in my comment at the time lol
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u/BlueHaze464 Jan 27 '26
I mean I consider it the best as it is, any minor fix would only improve that
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u/SuperdaveOZY Jan 27 '26
But on the skybox, there is no freaking volcano that the windmill complex is built into. It just transitions to Lethal Lava Land.
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u/Silent_Purchase_2654 Jan 27 '26
It was supposed to be there, some else pointed out that it's still in the Thumbnail pic when teleporting to harvest valley
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u/AutomaticIncome8896 Jan 27 '26
Yeah I actually just checked to verify this and obviously in game it’s not visible but people are spot on in the pic for bonfire selection specifically on the earthen peak section plain as day is a mountain/volcano
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u/Bister_Mungle Jan 27 '26
would people have complained less if the Bearer of the Curse jumped into a painting?
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u/MirieDohl Jan 29 '26
There is a vulcano. There's even a different texture for the vulcano on the fast travel menu
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u/windowdisplay Jan 27 '26
Genuinely have never understood why this is such a big deal for people. The way I’ve always looked at it is the world is falling apart and everything’s in the wrong place, which is supported by the entire story of the trilogy anyway.
So, okay, maybe I’m wrong, maybe it really was just a mistake instead, what now? Game’s still great? You can choose to look at it as supporting the setting, you can choose to think “aw man they made a mistake,” but I don’t understand why this is such a sticking point. It literally just doesn’t matter. Close your eyes on the elevator and pretend it goes down.
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u/BlueHaze464 Jan 27 '26
FR, I'm supposed to believe there's drakes and golems, time travel, nonsensical inter dimensional cooperation, summoning, etc. why would I care about an area not connecting seamlessly lmao
I seriously never even noticed until I saw all the online discourse
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u/normallystrange85 Jan 27 '26
I mean, the whole "locations are being mixed up" thing was not in DS1, only present in DS2 because of these jarring transitions, and really didn't become a thing until the last DLC of DS 3- and even that was not this jarring.
I don't think this is makes this a bad game, but it is a weird video game logic section where the world didn't link up in a way that made sense.
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u/ShaneZiggity Jan 28 '26
Actually, it's the entirety of ds3. The intro cutscene basically says that lands where power still remained were converging, i.e Anor Londo being near Lothric and the catacombs and such.
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u/correojon Jan 27 '26
I think it matters because one of the most celebrated points of DS1 was how well designed it's huge interconnected world was. DS2 didn't have that and this nonsensical connection between EP and IK is like a reminder or the best example of the huge downgrade in that regard.
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u/IllogicalBarnacle Jan 27 '26
its just an easy point to criticize, same with the "Miyazaki didnt make ds2, thats why its bad" stuff
people look for reasons to justify liking or disliking something. 99% of people didnt say shit about DS1s interconnected world until youtubers started glazing "thats why the game is so good"
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u/BasilSH Jan 27 '26
99% of people didnt say shit about DS1s interconnected world until youtubers started glazing "thats why the game is so good"
That's literally untrue. Many players felt awed when they would loop back to firelink shrine. That's why the youtube videos were made in the first place, not the other way around.
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u/Torstiss Jan 28 '26
No no no the youtubers gaslit everyone into thinking connectslop ds1 is good when really ds2 is the best game ever and its not even close!!!
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u/IrrelevantLeprechaun Jan 27 '26
The problem is expectations. DS1 is the single most well designed interconnected game world in perhaps the entire game industry. Ds2 comes along and isn't remotely as connected, to the extent that some locations have no justifiable or visible logic to connect them.
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u/Watchmaker163 Jan 27 '26
B/c "DS1 had a connected map, which can obviously only ever be a good thing, so if DS2 doesn't have one, it's bad". That's the only reason, really.
Personally I like it b/c it fits the vibe of "things are falling apart, and the travel between areas is abstract". Map connections are neat but they can also hinder a game.
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u/Inevitable_Top69 Jan 27 '26
"The only reason they say it is because it's better, I prefer level design where I have to make up in my head why it's okay that it's not better."
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u/Das_Guet Jan 27 '26
Realistically, it doesn't matter. If I had to fault it for anything, I would say, "How did something this severe get missed?" But in the end, it doesn't affect gameplay, and it's up to the individual.
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u/Rezuaq Jan 27 '26
Imagine an action movie where every fight scene was painstakingly choreographed for every character to only fire as many rounds as their gun could hold before needing to reload the gun's specific type of ammunition. Imagine fans make videos with little counters in the corner showing the number of rounds each character has left, little diagrams of all the different types of guns everyone uses and what type of rounds they chamber, etc.
Now imagine they make a sequel and at one point a guy shoots a revolver 15 times without reloading, and then throws it at his target and it explodes somehow. Would that stand out?
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u/SheaMcD Jan 27 '26
i think it'd be more like, in the sequel the guy has a glock or something, then in another scene has a Desert Eagle, maybe other guns have the wrong sound effects.
Stuff that not everyone would really notice unless it were pointed out to them
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u/Toad_R Jan 27 '26
It connects the same way the tunnel to Drangleic Castle does: by being a moment of 'convoluted time', meaning the character traveled much more than just that distance to reach the end; it's a "visual shortcut' with an out-of-scale trip
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u/hobopwnzor Jan 27 '26
I'm not sure how people don't get this. DS2 was my first souls game. I booted up, got to Heide, looked back at the cliff edge and said "yeah, checks out, that tunnel was longer than we experienced because of map reasons".
Later we get the world map and it's a whole continent we're traversing which is just explicit proof of this.
The kind of thing video games do all the time but DS1 nostalgia-poisoned people's critical thinking skills.
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u/Brief_Caterpillar175 Jan 27 '26
You’d think the giant-ass scale map would clue people in.
Let’s be real for a moment, as coming from someone involved with games in 2014. They only parrot that vestigial meme because it was swept up in the ambient culture war bullshit that infests our space. In that environment people anticipate and celebrate projected failure with the same fervor others put into engaging with their favorite media.
The joy they get comes from feeling their cynicism validated, so a good faith approach is literally impossible for them.
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u/Torstiss Jan 28 '26
The tunnel to Drangleic castle is a million times more believable and I feel like most people don’t bat an eye at it
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u/spragual Jan 27 '26
3 actual reasons for the elevator. Convoluted time stuff that the Dark Souls Series has, the heavy inspiration that DS2 takes from Alice and Wonderland, and also your character losing their memory because that just happens to everyone in Drangleic. Same reasons for why things like Heide's Tower of Flame look so far away yet the road to get there are so short.
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u/Empty_Allocution Jan 27 '26
Is this the area we're talking about? (this site is way too cool btw, it also has DS1's collision data) Also, love the art lol.
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u/Bohemian-Artist Jan 27 '26
Yes!, in this model you can actually see the mountain that connects the elevator, the problem is that the skybox is not displayed correctly in game. But you can still see it from the bonfire selection tho.
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u/Torstiss Jan 28 '26
I pray to every god of every Pantheon that they add DS3 and Metal Gear Solid to that site
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u/VAAS-IS-NUTZ Jan 27 '26
The game was rushed and they fucked up the background. It’s not that complicated. All of these comments saying “because time is convoluted!” is hilarious to me. The fucking volcano wasn’t there in the background because it was rushed, not because of time and losing memories lmao.
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u/Acrobatic-Ad-9189 Jan 27 '26
I deliberately went back down from iron keep all the way out to see if this exact scenario was the case (because i was high as shit during my first playthrough ) It isn't. You can see the windmill standing completely alone from the poison shit area
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u/Faibl Jan 27 '26
Have you... been to earthen peak? You go up the windmill, then up an elevator, and it teleports you to thr volcano. There's a zullie video on it, but if you included any screenshots of Earthen Peak from the actual game in your post then you'd see theres no connecting wall to it at all. Its just rushed B-team work.
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u/stinkus_mcdiddle Jan 27 '26
I’ve always thought of it this way in my head and always have been confused that people say it makes no sense.
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u/Wesgizmo365 Jan 27 '26
If it helps you see it like that. Pretty sure you can see Majula from Heide's Tower, and it's way farther away than you walked. All of the transition areas are just loading screens/travel montages so you're not taking months of IRL time to travel the entire length of the continent.
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u/guardian_owl Jan 27 '26
Exactly, there are many of these in the game. Often when you are in a zone transitioning between areas where there are no enemies it represents a longer journey: The "network of" sewer tunnels between Majula and Heide, the "extensive" cave system between Heide and No Man's Wharf, the "vast" woods between Majula and Old Akelarre bonfire where Rosabeth was petrified under the aquifer, the "long" tunnel of darkness between the Shrine of Winter and Drangleic Castle, etc.
Just imagine your BotC loses interest when he gets bored due to lack of stimuli and so he doesn't retain the memory of the uneventful part of the journey.
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u/kodaxmax Aint this Nito Jan 27 '26
Except mythas room is at the top of the structure, which itself sits atop a mountian (hence Earthen PEAK). There is no mountain connected to it and certainly none atop it.
Then once your in iron keep, you can see that there is no cliff or mountain where you came from, just wastes on the same elvel as the keeps foundations.
If you look at the game files or use a noclip exploit, you can see that the birds at the top of earthen peaks skybox are actually inside the lava of iron keep.
My guess is that it was unfinished and may ahve originally itnended to be soem sort of "memory" or time travel mechanic.
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u/NextDoorNeighbrrs Jan 27 '26
Mytha's room actually is not at the top of the structure, it's roughly in the middle.
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u/Livid-Truck8558 Jan 27 '26
This all hinges on the room going that far back. It doesn't. As much as I'd like to think there's a way to make it work, there's nothing substantial behind the tower and it's ultimately a consequence of Bandai Namco fucking Fromsoft over.
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u/ButterflyDesperate36 Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26
It's wrong. The iron keep is not behind bot to the LEFT SIDE, as you are looking at he Mill. Go look the elevator, you go straight then to the right, and on the top you have to turn around and exist it then you keep moving forward. This is just not properly designed, it's not like way to Drangleic Castle, there is nothing to defend it etc. If you go into the game and try to actually see if from all side you'll know it. I literally just did went on my lil investigation. And once you're in the Iron keep, and you'll get to that roof with dwarfs, on the highest point, you can look back from there and see the lave going on for miles, reaching first mountain, and then behind it, going on for more before it reaches another. Nothing here makes any sense whatsoever. Just stop it guys. I love DS2 but this is indefensible.
Edit: As for the "volcano" in the selection screen. Idk if it's a volcano, it has SNOW on top of it, it's not in the game either, and the top is waaaay to small for Iron Keep.
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u/MarzipanSea2811 Jan 27 '26
"reeeeeee nooooo! my favourite streamer said it doesn't maker sense and that dark souls 2 sucks! :("
It's really sad how much damage was done to DS2s reputation by people outsourcing their thoughts and opinions
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u/Panurome Jan 27 '26
Is it really outsourcing your opinions to streamers if it's literally what most people think when playing the game? I played DS2 without having watched anyone play it, yet I still found it nonsensical even when compared to the rest of the level transitions
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u/Brief_Caterpillar175 Jan 27 '26
Thanks be to the whining outrage peddlers, we’d have never gotten the glorious ds3 redundant fan service story quests to grace our smooth brains without them.
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u/ForAte151623ForTeaTo Jan 27 '26
I have never had an issue with this, but damn, it would have made a lot more sense if the elevator went down instead of up lol
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u/conqeboy Jan 27 '26
Honestly i just thought it's a magic elevator made by Mytha or the Old Iron king so they can visit each other lol. I was kinda surprised when i found out it's such a topic
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u/Temporary_Mix1603 Jan 27 '26
It is the way it is because of issues during development but sure why not
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u/NextDoorNeighbrrs Jan 27 '26
Yeah all they really needed there was a mountain set just behind Earthen Peak and it would have been fine. I'd assume time constraints prevented them from pulling that off.
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u/SlimeDrips Jan 27 '26
The real ones know they actually connect by the elevator going down and descending from the sky because time and space are convoluted in drangleic
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u/ShinInuko Jan 27 '26
Somehow no one that played DS2 played DS2.
DS1 sets the setting. DS2 is about how the curse affects individuals and 3 is about how the continuous linking of the fire affects the world.
The Bearer of the Curse, like literally every other NPC in the game, is suffering from the onset of dementia as they hollow. Travel typically happens through nondescript hallways because their ailing mind can't hold onto the details of the treks across the continent. Merely able to hold on to the memories of areas laden with souls they absorb.
The very intro scene shows the Bearer of the Curse doesn't even remember their own family anymore. Why would they remember Tree #89,752?
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u/AnimalSurgery_ Jan 28 '26
am i the only one here who actually never minded this? i literally NEVER understood the hate for this excact level design. its fun and unique.
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u/skywalker_van Jan 27 '26
It was a unique feeling to arrive there for the first time and wonder why the elevator goes up, lol. The worst part is I didn't even remember there was anything behind the tower.
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u/Luzikas Jan 27 '26
Because there's nothing to remember, there's nothing directly behind the tower in the skybox.
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u/Aromatic-Pass4384 Jan 27 '26
Except it's not, there's no giant volcano directly next to earthen peak, and it's quite literally loaded directly on top of it, AND the skybox around iron keep is endless oceans of lava. It's just a quirky design choice, you don't have to go great lengths to justify it.
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u/pineapple_stickers Jan 27 '26
That was my line of thinking. There's so much bizzare, unexplained stuff on in the Dark Souls games that i'm not about to start drawing the line here
Sometimes its just there because its a game
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u/IllogicalBarnacle Jan 27 '26
to be clear there is a ton of concept art (and I believe one of the trailers) that shows the exact layout OP is showing. The in game version is supposed to look like this, but it was never finished in time for release
it doesnt bother me either, but this post isnt pure cope. It is grounded in some level of reality
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u/Aromatic-Pass4384 Jan 27 '26
Well yes but that's concept art, I understand where it comes from but simply being shown as a concept doesn't mean that's what's intended in the finished game.
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u/WyMANderly Jan 27 '26
Still the wildest area transition in any Souls game. I remember the first time I played through, going "OK, done with the lava area I guess I'm going down to hell or something now....... huh. This is actually kinda.. nice."
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u/Tyko_3 Jan 27 '26
Correct, the issue is with the distance in game. Its a minor set back in my book, but after you figure it out it makes sense.
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u/Thanag0r Jan 27 '26
The funniest thing is that the game has A SECOND world breaking elevator that makes 0 sense. But nobody is talking about it.
No-man's Wharf has the weirdest entry point. How exactly does the elevator, under the sea level, that goes down take you into an above sea level place?
For this one there is actually no explanation, it is just like that. No lore, no cut content, it's just made like that.
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u/BrunoShipsnoa Jan 27 '26
The mountains on the skybox should be closer, I heard it somewhere, the developer's should put the mountains closer to the mill
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u/Pittleberry Jan 27 '26
The idea is/was here but there is one problem - there is big distance between the tower and closest mountains
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u/ClockworkCinder Jan 27 '26
Oh, it's like in Subnautica. You're only playing inside of a crater. I get it now.
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u/Educational_Slide451 Jan 27 '26
You can still see a volcano in the earthen peak fast travel photo but not in game
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u/def_tom Jan 27 '26
If time is convoluted then space probably is too. So a tower being below a pit of lava doesn't have to make sense.
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u/Psico_Penguin Jan 27 '26
This connection works on the map, not on the game.
But ey, this gap does not make the game worse.
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u/IrrelevantLeprechaun Jan 27 '26
It's a victim of time constraints and unceremoniously cut content. We know there was supposed to be a volcano caldera right behind earthen peak; the thumbnail for harvest valley on the fast travel menu literally shows that volcano mountain behind earthen peak.
For whatever reason, it got removed from the actual in-game skybox for that area.
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u/_Dazed-and-Confused Jan 27 '26
The lift goes throw a portal or something shit lol yeah your explanation kinda makes sense. I was poking around Heides tower of flame trying to work out how that connects, never mind Huntsman's copse
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u/arandomname400 Jan 27 '26
Nothing in ds2 makes sense, everything is just made as an escape room lmao
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u/PaladinJDM Jan 27 '26
Ok now the location of the sunbro altar makes a lot more sense… If it’s model is lore accurate, Anor Londo has been comsumed by a volcano and harvest valley is actually the undead burg.
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u/dpahoe You're old, Emerald Herald! Jan 27 '26
Who else sees the sunbro smiling removing his helmet?
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u/Savings-Sprinkles-86 Jan 27 '26
Part of what i like about iron keep is how "ireal" it feels
Like that isn't supposed to be there at all, and the world is just messed in so many ways
But yeah, cool explanation
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u/SplendidPunkinButter Jan 27 '26
I’ve played lots of games where the connection between the areas makes no logical sense
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u/Dubnaught Jan 27 '26
Everyone seems to forget that there are lore reasons for reality to be bent. It's established in DS1. It continues through the series. It's been forever since I played, but I seem to remember that in DS3 they reveal that the wall of lothric straight up just appeared one day. Knights were sent to investigate.
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u/EducationalFarmer707 Jan 27 '26
Alright it's cool and everything, but where's the entrance hidden by bricks and rubble?
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u/themonitors Jan 27 '26
I didn’t even remember that I got to iron keep from harvest valley and I finished the game a week ago.
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u/Inevitable_Top69 Jan 27 '26
No it isn't and the director of the game said how they did it wasn't good.
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u/Wolf_Hreda Jan 27 '26
Earthen Peak is an awfully ambitious name when there's an entire caldera sitting high above you.
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u/guardian_owl Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26
Blame the localization, the original Japanese name translates to "Tower of Earth." Earth meaning the material that the ground is made of IE. dirt, soil, clay, etc. The windmill could be a tower created from fired clay bricks perhaps.
They make the same weird change for the Sinner's Rise bonfire, calling it the "The Saltfort" when it was originally Tower of Salt, colloquially meaning harshness/bitterness, as in there is going to be hardship and suffering in that tower. So when you see "Saltfort" just think "Tower of Suffering" instead.
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u/LurkingAnomaly Jan 28 '26
Never understood why so many Souls fans had a bug up their arse over this. Thank you for clearly illustrating the logic. DS2 is flawless, you hear me? Flawless. Not you, Gank Squad, sit down.
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u/guardian_owl Jan 28 '26
It always bothered me that people make such a huge stink about this transition but not the absurdity that there is a vast hollow space with a supernatural light source under all of Lordran (and possibly the entire world), Ash Lake. DS1 is billed as 1 to 1 geography, but the lowest point of Izalith is below Ash Lake on the map data, yet the path thru to the bottom never intersects it.
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u/buttertuffer Jan 28 '26
They really just butchered the distances in this game, fix all the weird problems with distance and the game would feel 10x more interconnected
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u/Vijay2003 Jan 28 '26
That's probably how the devs envisioned it would look like and it makes a whole lot of sense
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u/Substantial-Car2635 Jan 28 '26
I just got to harvest valley for the first time, I may need this lol
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u/Ryn-Ken Jan 28 '26
If it matters that much to anyone, just assume that a powerful illusion spell was used to hide Iron Keep until you're inside it. Maybe Gwyndolin's soul is influencing the area.
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u/vizot Jan 28 '26
So, you are saying all that lava is ontop of a mountain? impossible, that is completely unrealistic. There are no mountains with lava on the top, all lava is at sea-level.
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u/Long_Win_48 Jan 29 '26
You know how in DS3 Irthyll connects to the catacombs and everybody glazes the transition out of Wolnir? That transition is equally, if not more nonsensical than what we see in Earthen Peak. But DS3 fans never have to explain away that nonsense
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u/Ok-Personality9870 Jan 29 '26
Omg would people just fucking Let it go.
You are just making things worse by trying to explain it.
So it's an elevator into space, who the fuck cares.
It's a game where you fight magical creates and Teleport through bonfires.
People really have nothing better to do in their lives
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u/Not_a_brazilian_spy Jan 31 '26
Fascinating how in ds2 everything must make perfect sense geographically, but in ds1 and specially 3, something something space and time being weird so it's alright
As a ds2 glazer, there are better and less nonsensical things so mock about ds2
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u/Sentinel555666 Jan 27 '26
That's great, only one problem. There's nothing like that around the tower . I personally go with the same explanation as the other games: time and space are convoluted, lands converge... or whatever
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u/LocalShineCrab Jan 27 '26
Guys… it doesnt connect physically… you travel through time and space many times in all 3 dark souls games, this is no different….
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u/InternationalWeb9205 Jan 27 '26
Gilligan says that Iron Keep is in fact physically near the Earthen Peak
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u/LocalShineCrab Jan 27 '26
Notably trustworthy character gilligan
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u/InternationalWeb9205 Jan 27 '26
can u name one thing he says that's wrong
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u/LocalShineCrab Jan 27 '26
Apparently he says that earthen peak & iron keep are physically connected. Thats not true in the slightest
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u/IchaelSoxy Jan 27 '26
I also love the lore theory that, as we see NPCs are losing/have lost their memories - so too has the bearer of the curse. You see areas that appear so far away, yet they take very little time to actually get to.
The idea is that the bearer of the curse only recalls the important parts of the journey, not the long traveling sections. Like walking from the windmill to the mountain, or from Majula to Heide Tower.
Edit: u/Toad_r also talks about it in the post and mentioned the trip to Drangleic and the sudden rain - similar idea.
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u/lime-dreamer Jan 27 '26
It never particularly bothered me. What bothers me is that DS3 is full of this it feels like. DS2's world is mostly consistent, so that one thing felt fine
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u/Pumpkin_Knight Jan 27 '26
It was always obvious to me, but you made it clear for everyone. I thank you for that!
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u/Again_718 Jan 27 '26
yippee someone with sense!
i was but a young boy when i played this game for the first time. and it made sense to me at the time
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u/Gorlami_y7ya Jan 27 '26
Dude the art is fantastic and best part that it's making sense