>>50826
It starts with this story about the ancient age, which was "motionless" so to speak, as in apparently it was a mass of grey land, without life or death, heat or cold etc. This age was ruled by immortal dragons. Until a thing called the First Fire appeared. Certain creatures discovered it and obtained Souls of Lords from it which turned them into living gods essentially. The Lords challenged the dragons and defeated them, starting a new Age of Fire. Those events are also implied to be when humans came into existence. Intro explains it well I think, also its super cool.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=e0l73vAlEBQ [Embed]

Then we fastforward to the events of actual game and it seems like the world is ending. Some people appear to be cursed and turning into undead. Our hero is one of them. We start in an undead asylum in some remote location, where we were sent to separate us from normal people, imprisoned until the end of the world. Becoming undead doesnt mean you turn into zombie like creature instantly. Initially, you just appear to not be able to die, but eventually you become a thing called a Hollow, your body deteriorates, loose your mind and become aggresive towards anyone that is not Hollow too. Most enemies in the game especially at the beginning are Hollows.

At the start of the game we become rescued from the asylum by another undead (the normal one) who informs us that we are a chosen one destined to travel to the ancient realm of the Lords called Lordran and discover the fate of the undead. So we do just that. Eventually we meet a primordial serpent Frampt, who claims to be a friend and companion of Lord Gwyn, and urges that we succeed Gwyn and prolong the age of fire. This is basically the point in the story I reached in my game. The rest what I write is from spoilers I accidentaly found somewhere.

It becomes revealed taht when the First Flame became fading, one of the Lords, the Witch of Izalith, attempted to create a new fire, which went horribly wrong, turned her into some kind of abomination and spawned demons that plague the land (also present in the game). Lord Gwyn attempted a different solution. He traveled to the Kiln of the First Fire (where they found it initially) and sacrificed himself in order to rekindle it. It worked but its only a temporary solution.

In the game we meet another primordial serpent who offers a different solution. He says the chosen undead should go and defeat Gwyn (or rather whats rest of him) but instead of rekindling the fire he should destroy it. This would start a new Age of Darkness with the player as the new lord, where humanity would truly shine. At the end of the game the player decides which solution he thinks is right.

I think in the sequels it becomes apparent that no matter the ending the player chooses, there will be eventually someone who will rekindle the fire and start the cycle all over again. Never played them so I can't tell much more.

Hopefully I didn't misremember anything.