8 Gaming Heroes You Didn’t Realise Probably Died Horrible Deaths

7. Solaire Of Astora - Dark Souls

The tale of Mr. Solaire is a resoundingly dour one, regardless of the various ways his story arc can pan out. He pops up a handful of times in FromSoftware's agonisingly-hard series to lend not just a hand in battle, but a few lines of dialogue that let you in on the secret of him trying to "find his sun".

Souls' core mythology and lore is actually an incredibly deep one, albeit reserved for people that will devote the hours to mining every art asset and line of dialogue throughout, however with Solaire you have someone who actively wants to help you out (an idea very rare in the world of Lordran). Available to be talked to for a bit of a morale-boost along with you saving him from losing his mind against the other creatures in the depths of the world who would otherwise bring him down, he'll eventually accompany you into the final showdown with Lord Gwyn.

Hang on a minute though...

After you finally defeat the flame-sword wielding menace, Solaire phases out of existence like he has in so many previous encounters, banished back into a different plain of existence to be summoned once again by another wandering soul. The twist this time round though is that your character has two choices that both bring about his destruction; you either manage to ignite the final flame, restoring light to Lordran - yourself becoming engulfed in the fire - but only for as long as your soul can burn and darkness once again consumes the land, or you walk away from such a duty to become the next Dark Lord, eventually killing Solaire in combat should someone else summon him against you.