7 hours ago
This is me, TimeLierG and welcome to another episode of VidyuMyths, in this part I'm going to be talking about another mystery in the original Dark Souls, one that I talked about many times on the channel and one that can be found in the depths of Anor Londo behind an illusory wall that takes the form of Gwyn that can only be dispelled through the use of the darkmoon seance ring that is for some reason found within the Catacombs which is a bit of a mystery in of itself.
Unlike some of the other old mysteries in the game this is one that can be proven simply by making it past Gwyndolin, after dispelling the statue of Gwyn and defeating Gwyndolin you can proceed to the other end of the hallway to the tomb of Gwyn and see three chests, one contains the Sunlight Blade miracle, one contains the brass armor set and the one on the left side of the room doesn't contain any items. This is the only chest like this in the game if you don't count the one in Firelink Shrine that will have key items inside should you ever lose one of them such as the orange charred ring.
When the game came out there have been a few theories on this chest and the significance of it, everyone started theorizing on it's true purpose with some interesting posts being made in 2011 in regards to this seemingly empty chest. One post that I saw some time ago stated that the maiden set could somehow end up here when the right conditions were met while others speculated that the chest could be empty for a lore reason, perhaps there was a second brass armor set here, the one that the Anor Londo firekeeper wears since she seems closely related to Gwyndolin, possibly in his covenant judging by her dialogue. There was another interesting rumor aside from these few that states the chest itself has many glitchy effects about it, some may only be there on the pre-patch version of the game, one of these effects supposedly happens when you drop an item on top of the chest itself.
I'm going to be trying a few of these rumors out, both on the pre-patch version of the original Dark Souls PtDE of the game and on Dark Souls Remastered. The first thing I tried testing was dropping items into the chest which appeared to not cause anything to happen, I then tried opening the chests on my characters that haven't opened them yet, some on NG+ and some on a regular new game, something did happen eventually but it wasn't much, the game seemed to have lagged a bit as if something was going to happen upon the chest being opened, as far as I'm aware there's no script for anything to happen here otherwise it would have likely been talked about and widely known, I and other players have spent many years uncovering everything there is in this game, it's currently August 17th 2026 at the time of me writing the script for this video and it's been a good amount of time since the game came out.
The rumor that interested me the most were players supposedly finding the maiden set inside of this seemingly empty chest if the player has not yet been to the Duke's Archives, it's such an oddly specific thing that it makes me think there's something to it, I find it unlikely that this was a case of a playground rumor, a way to troll due to it being such an obscure thing to come up with, why the maiden set of all things? Whoever made this rumor could have said they received some unique armor set not found anywhere else in the game or a key to another undiscovered area but no, they claim that it's just an armor set that's obtained solely from the Duke's Archives. It could also be a simple mistake and they were thinking of that area instead of Anor Londo. Throughout my years of playing Dark Souls, throughout all of my playtime and characters I have not seen any items in this chest, at this point it's likely someone would have found something in there by now but anything is possible. There's been situations where Easter eggs have been discovered in older games decades later, if this isn't the case here then perhaps someone has or eventually will come up with an explanation for this in regards to the lore of the game such as the rumor of the chest once containing another set of brass armor that the Anor Londo firekeeper now wears.
There are a few things of interest in the Darkmoon Tomb where the three chests reside, there's two corners aside of each of the far chests that the player can walk through, there's also a limit to the illusory hallway during the boss fight with Gwyndolin, if the duel continues long enough the hallway eventually ends, this takes some time to do. Another thing are the statues of Gwyn and Gwynevere with a third pedestal meant for Gwyn's firstborn son, presumably there was a statue of him around Anor Londo but they've been removed after he was banished for supposedly siding with the ancient dragons, this could link back to the empty chest in the Darkmoon Tomb, maybe all three chests represented Gwynevere, Gwyn and his firstborn son but it couldn't have been the firstborn's chest as he left the Sunlight Blade miracle in the middle chest, some theories say that the empty chest was meant for an item from Gwynevere due to her leaving before Gwyn's journey to the kiln.
If there's no lore, roleplay or gameplay reason for the chest then perhaps it was something lost in development, there's quite a few unused items in Dark Souls one of which is named "Gwynevere's Talisman" and for some reason it is labeled as a "dragon talisman" in the item description, many assume this is where the talisman would have been placed, in the empty chest in Anor Londo within the Darkmoon Tomb. Another answer for the mysterious chest may be in another game, in Dark Souls 3 behind one of the empty corners as I mentioned before, the one on the right is no longer empty and contains a chest, within this chest is the reversal ring, while it doesn't bring us any closer to the truth of the empty chest from the original Dark Souls it is still interesting to point out, this is the only chest in this room in Dark Souls 3.
Whatever the truth is on this myth I think it is one of those mysteries that will keep all of us guessing at it for eternity or until a developer or Miyazaki himself states the reason for it, I feel as though it's better that the mystery persists so that we still have another thing to talk about and theorize on like many other unexplained rumors, myths, oddities and urban legends in video games, for me personally that's one of the best things about Dark Souls, it feels like an older game despite being released in 2011, when the game came out nobody knew what was in it, it felt endless like anything could happen at any time, the world of Lordran felt bigger than it actually is, but in a way because of these mysteries it is a bigger place, these virtual worlds are as deep as we make them out to be.
Video version; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNUmGEVkgbQ
Unlike some of the other old mysteries in the game this is one that can be proven simply by making it past Gwyndolin, after dispelling the statue of Gwyn and defeating Gwyndolin you can proceed to the other end of the hallway to the tomb of Gwyn and see three chests, one contains the Sunlight Blade miracle, one contains the brass armor set and the one on the left side of the room doesn't contain any items. This is the only chest like this in the game if you don't count the one in Firelink Shrine that will have key items inside should you ever lose one of them such as the orange charred ring.
When the game came out there have been a few theories on this chest and the significance of it, everyone started theorizing on it's true purpose with some interesting posts being made in 2011 in regards to this seemingly empty chest. One post that I saw some time ago stated that the maiden set could somehow end up here when the right conditions were met while others speculated that the chest could be empty for a lore reason, perhaps there was a second brass armor set here, the one that the Anor Londo firekeeper wears since she seems closely related to Gwyndolin, possibly in his covenant judging by her dialogue. There was another interesting rumor aside from these few that states the chest itself has many glitchy effects about it, some may only be there on the pre-patch version of the game, one of these effects supposedly happens when you drop an item on top of the chest itself.
I'm going to be trying a few of these rumors out, both on the pre-patch version of the original Dark Souls PtDE of the game and on Dark Souls Remastered. The first thing I tried testing was dropping items into the chest which appeared to not cause anything to happen, I then tried opening the chests on my characters that haven't opened them yet, some on NG+ and some on a regular new game, something did happen eventually but it wasn't much, the game seemed to have lagged a bit as if something was going to happen upon the chest being opened, as far as I'm aware there's no script for anything to happen here otherwise it would have likely been talked about and widely known, I and other players have spent many years uncovering everything there is in this game, it's currently August 17th 2026 at the time of me writing the script for this video and it's been a good amount of time since the game came out.
The rumor that interested me the most were players supposedly finding the maiden set inside of this seemingly empty chest if the player has not yet been to the Duke's Archives, it's such an oddly specific thing that it makes me think there's something to it, I find it unlikely that this was a case of a playground rumor, a way to troll due to it being such an obscure thing to come up with, why the maiden set of all things? Whoever made this rumor could have said they received some unique armor set not found anywhere else in the game or a key to another undiscovered area but no, they claim that it's just an armor set that's obtained solely from the Duke's Archives. It could also be a simple mistake and they were thinking of that area instead of Anor Londo. Throughout my years of playing Dark Souls, throughout all of my playtime and characters I have not seen any items in this chest, at this point it's likely someone would have found something in there by now but anything is possible. There's been situations where Easter eggs have been discovered in older games decades later, if this isn't the case here then perhaps someone has or eventually will come up with an explanation for this in regards to the lore of the game such as the rumor of the chest once containing another set of brass armor that the Anor Londo firekeeper now wears.
There are a few things of interest in the Darkmoon Tomb where the three chests reside, there's two corners aside of each of the far chests that the player can walk through, there's also a limit to the illusory hallway during the boss fight with Gwyndolin, if the duel continues long enough the hallway eventually ends, this takes some time to do. Another thing are the statues of Gwyn and Gwynevere with a third pedestal meant for Gwyn's firstborn son, presumably there was a statue of him around Anor Londo but they've been removed after he was banished for supposedly siding with the ancient dragons, this could link back to the empty chest in the Darkmoon Tomb, maybe all three chests represented Gwynevere, Gwyn and his firstborn son but it couldn't have been the firstborn's chest as he left the Sunlight Blade miracle in the middle chest, some theories say that the empty chest was meant for an item from Gwynevere due to her leaving before Gwyn's journey to the kiln.
If there's no lore, roleplay or gameplay reason for the chest then perhaps it was something lost in development, there's quite a few unused items in Dark Souls one of which is named "Gwynevere's Talisman" and for some reason it is labeled as a "dragon talisman" in the item description, many assume this is where the talisman would have been placed, in the empty chest in Anor Londo within the Darkmoon Tomb. Another answer for the mysterious chest may be in another game, in Dark Souls 3 behind one of the empty corners as I mentioned before, the one on the right is no longer empty and contains a chest, within this chest is the reversal ring, while it doesn't bring us any closer to the truth of the empty chest from the original Dark Souls it is still interesting to point out, this is the only chest in this room in Dark Souls 3.
Whatever the truth is on this myth I think it is one of those mysteries that will keep all of us guessing at it for eternity or until a developer or Miyazaki himself states the reason for it, I feel as though it's better that the mystery persists so that we still have another thing to talk about and theorize on like many other unexplained rumors, myths, oddities and urban legends in video games, for me personally that's one of the best things about Dark Souls, it feels like an older game despite being released in 2011, when the game came out nobody knew what was in it, it felt endless like anything could happen at any time, the world of Lordran felt bigger than it actually is, but in a way because of these mysteries it is a bigger place, these virtual worlds are as deep as we make them out to be.
Video version; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNUmGEVkgbQ