New book decodes FromSoftware’s Lore and Philosophy through discarded items

Scholar’s Codex is a beautifully illustrated, deeply philosophical exploration of the Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring universes curated by leading game studies researchers Prof. Stefano Gualeni, Dr Daniel Vella (University of Malta), Dom Ford  (University of Bergen), and Nele van de Mosselaer (Tilburg University).

The book chapters are both genuinely new contributions to the scholarship on FromSoftware games within game studies and approachable and readable for enthusiasts of the series who aren’t trained academics. These scholars explore the lore of the game worlds in academic traditions like philosophy, literary studies, history, psychology and critical theory offering new perspectives and insights about the games and beyond. 

Scholar’s Codex explores FromSoftware’s games in much the same way that the games reveal themselves, by focusing on individual items and their often cryptic descriptions. From a gem to a legendary hammer to the gathering bonfires of Dark Souls, this wide-ranging study navigates the complexity and ambiguity of games that are rich with human meaning.

For example, Stefano Gualeni used Madman’s Knowledge as a starting point to explore the role of failure and incompleteness. Daniel Vella used the Darksign to address romanticism in the FromSoftware games and the core idea of striving for the unattainable in the games.

Scholar’s Codex asks questions like: What does it mean to be human in Dark Souls? How do games like Demon’s Souls explore and ultimately subvert failure? Why do missing items, cut content, and fan speculation become part of the canon?

A free digital sample of the book is available or you can stop by the Institute of Digital Games to browse through the full premier printed edition of the book. 

About the Institute of Digital Games

The Institute of Digital Games explores games and play, uncovering new playful and generative possibilities in game design and technology. We delve into everything games can teach us about ourselves. Last year their students presented their game at Gamescom in Germany and won the prestigious NVIDIA Best Paper Award at the 2024 European Conference on Computer Vision.