A/N: So, slight problem- I've already informed you, my lovely readers, that I will be suspending all projects in order to focus on my sadistic highschool studies. The problem- I CAN'T STOP WRITING!

Everytime I try to halt my projects in order to focus on school- I end up getting all my work done in advance, and everytime I play games, all I can think about is how much I want to make my own content-

IT'S A NIGHTMARE! So, I've been thinking about this little project- actually a pretty big project: an entire level concept complete with enemies, maps, and even some lore for the theoretical Dks3- of course, some areas will expand as I get ideas- since I typically deal with a very small number of really well thought out ideas supported by a plethora of useless and generic ones.

That's not really my aim, but my thought processes typically lead me in that direction, any ideas to inspire me are appreciated. Rated M for violence, language, and blah blah I'm in a bad mood nobody reads this far anyhow…

Lore of the King of Ruin:

Madness. Corruption. Forbidden Knowledge. Fallen Monarchs. These things have existed since time immemorial, every land possessing a variation of the dark- more than the abyss, but, the darkness of humanity- the human mind- itself. But, in a land of the distant future, with roots to the distant past, there exists a land with all these things at once- where the darkest, most twisted nightmares of the human mind came to life and walked the lands.

This is the story- the story of a man so horrid, his very name was struck from history- reciting it aloud forbidden in every tongue in every land. The architect of the undead asylum, the lord of the Bastille, the one who drove the undead to the gutter, to name a few deeds to his lost name.

The story of a man known only as "The Puppet King", or "The King of Ruin"

His story begins when the curse of the undead first began- when people stopped dying, going mad as they died again and again, only to be reborn in the flames. It was nothing that couldn't be managed, at first- undead only went hollow after many deaths, the first undead quarantined and kept from death in special prisons within the cities. But, things begun to escalate, more and more, across the world, exponentially, begun to turn undead.

A generation passed- at the point when undead would naturally die of old age, by human standards. Elderly undead, those without souls or humanity, couldn't reverse age: coming back to life only grow old and die again within the week.

This marks a turning point in the curse: when the numbers of hollows rapidly begun to outnumber the undead and the undead outnumbered the living. Soul starved armies begun to erode kingdoms from within- outbreaks of undead sweeping through. All attempts to halt the curse failed, and monarchs of all lands sought out a solution. Enter the King of Ruin.

The puppet-master was very intelligent for a man, well versed in many old myths and legends, and begun by importing mass numbers of undead into asylums and Bastilles across the lands- promising the lords of various countries yet to be affected that he'd find a way to slow the curse- or at least eradicate hollows permanently to prevent them from killing undead and making more hollows. Doing so required subjects under the influence of the curse, of course- but that's what the undead in the asylums were for.

Using traces of the ancient, long forgotten soul arts- unearthed in an old, dead kingdom- it was he who discovered the art of draining souls to restore life and gather power, and the fact such power could be transferred upon the death of a thing, living or not. He begun to venture down a dark path- promising the neighboring kingdoms that he would, if left undisturbed, create for them an army that could suck the souls from hollows, strengthening themselves indefinitely, and furthermore, the undead showed remarkable adaptive properties, able to mold themselves into any form based on the souls consumed- able to withstand experimentation far beyond the limit of normal humans.

It was a desperate action, but desperate times drove them to accept his accord: he would import undead, and make them battle ready to face the growing mobs of hollows, though he still hadn't found how the curse itself spread.

What was done to the undead in the asylums is yet unknown, but the results spoke loudly: he indeed sent the kingdoms living weapons of unspeakable shapes, but also unspeakable power- his creations able to destroy thousands of hollows for every one lost. Furthermore, he gave the soul arts to undead, allowing them to grow stronger with every kill- putting hollows down for good. But, as no small consequence, the thirst for souls returned to the land- an action that's still felt to this day.

Then, came another twist in the tale: the king of ruin, who'd like so many others peered into the nature of the soul, grew old and died, resurrecting as an undead. But, he had an abundance of humanity and souls, and now had more insight than ever into the hollows and how they drained life- his power multiplying as he created living weapons of even greater power, his vigor for "perfecting" the hollow radiating all through the lands.

Other monarchs grew disconcerted- their requests for him to stand down and halt his fiendish exports falling on deaf ears- until it became clear this was never going to stop, the King of Ruin immortal and in command of the most powerful army of abominations the world had ever seen.

Pandora's Box was opened, there was no closing it again. But, it didn't matter anymore, the curse of the undead and the fading of the first flame toppled kingdoms like dominoes, even with the initial plague of hollows slowing down with the return of soul arts, civilization fell apart all around the king of ruin, who fled to his home kingdom.

For many years, he was able to repel the swarms of hollows ravaging the landscape, his methods and agents for policing the lands and recovering corpses to turn into more soldiers without equal.

But, though his kingdom grew more powerful than ever before- his armies invincible without question, he couldn't stop the curse of the undead form penetrating his borders.

The cycle of undead rising, being stolen away, hollowed, and turned into soldiers to hunt more undead ate his kingdom from the inside: a set of great battles and conflicts reducing his grand cites to ashes, destroying his castle and laying waste to his subjects, until not one, not a single solitary human was left untainted by the rotten lands.

His kingdom lies in ruins now: the stench of decay, and the burden of hubris and unnatural power hanging densely over the lands like fog for miles around. No-one in their right mind dares to enter, and no-one has ever left- for it is said the old puppet king of ruin yet lives: fully conscious of his surroundings in a sub-city deep under the ground, his laboratories still running strong through the ages.

But, it is the nature of the undead to seek powerful souls, and seek certain death at the hands of great beasts if it will promise great power in return- a nature that will inevitably overcome the warnings and draw him or her to these cursed lands. Enter- you :3