A new Dark Souls story is coming from a prominent Star Wars creator

pcgamesn.com:

Michael Stackpole, author of the Star Wars: X-Wing novels, is teaming up with FromSoftware to write a new Dark Souls story called Dark Souls: Masque of Vindication, publisher Yen Press announced in a press release. Masque of Vindication releases in October 2022 and returns to the setting of the original Dark Souls and presents the action RPG through “fresh eyes,” Yen Press said. The key character is a nameless, hollowed sorcerer who awakens in a prison cell, surrounded by death and absorbing the flickers of life from the corpses around him to regain a sense of himself.

“The desert night stretches out beyond the graveyard, and the starry sky tells the sorcerer that a long time has passed since his death,” the book’s description reads. “Naming himself Ferranos after the meaningless word graven outside his tomb and armed with a dagger of a failed grave robber, he embarks on an epic adventure guided by fate.”

Stackpole is a prolific writer who penned over a dozen Star Wars novels during the late 1990s, including I, Jedi and Rogue Squadron. While  he may be best known by some for his work in George Lucas’ universe, Stackpole has a broad range of books to his name, including the Battletech series, the Crown Colony fantasy series, and, later, World of Warcraft and Gears novelizations.

This is the first time FromSoft has commissioned new narratives for any of its franchises outside video games, and there’s certainly plenty of room not just to tell rich and varied stories, but to experiment with different narrative styles.

The publisher’s traditional hands-off method of storytelling and world building may work wonderfully in a game setting, where players can create meaning and stories of their own, but it’s likely not something a