For reasons unknown to the Lords, their Souls began to dwindle in power, and the First Flame began to weaken. With the threat of Fire leaving the world, the Lords and the people begin to panic, terrified of returning to the Dark. The Witch of Izalith attempts to recreate the First Flame using powerful Sorcery, but fails and instead releases Fires of Chaos. These flames could not be controlled, and the Witch, her followers, and most of her children are consumed in this flame. The flames twisted the Witch and corrupted her completely, becoming the Bed of Chaos, the mother to all demons. Gwyn attempts to aid Izalith in this cataclysm, but it soon becomes apparent that Izalith is lost, and his knights return with armor charred black, an ill omen for what is to come. Finally conceding to what he sees as a final solution, Gwyn divides his power among his children, and leaves Anor Londo to link his soul to the First Flame, aptly located in the Kiln of the First Flame, hoping to feed it, allowing the Light to last a little longer. Much of his army followed him here, and when the flame rekindled, they were burned to ashes, leaving behind only suits of armour that now wander the world. For defying the coming Dark, Gwyn somehow proliferates the Undead Curse. It is not exactly clear how this curse came to be, but its effects are catastrophic. When one becomes Undead, they are marked by the accursed Darksign. Their bodies slowly decay, and upon death they are reborn from Bonfires, shrines to the First Flame. Slowly, over many deaths, Undead begin to Hollow, becoming more savage and less intelligent. The people of the world almost universally feared and hated those cursed with undeath, and built an Asylum in the far North, where they sent the Undead to await the end of the world. It is here, a thousand years after Gwyn linked the First Flame, that the Chosen Undead is found, and the events of Dark Souls take place.