FromSoftware knows what it's doing with The Duskbloods character Zork, the internet's new obsession: "I have developed a powerful, almost maternal affection"

There is nothing the internet loves more than collectively obsessing over a surprisingly cute animated character. Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. God of War Laufey's Phranque the Cube. The Overwatch hero Jetpack Cat, and his Marvel Rivals analogue, Jeff the Shark. Dark Souls developer FromSoftware knows what it's doing, and that's why we have Zork, a new and admittedly endearing playable character from The Duskbloods, the studio's upcoming Switch 2-exclusive multiplayer action game.

FromSoftware ended The Duskbloods' first closed network test early today after players flooded the servers and really put the stress in stress test. People are upset about that and talking about it a lot on The Duskbloods subreddit and elsewhere online, but deep, deep down, they know they can't be too mad. FromSoftware planned for this. Zork.

Zork can only do so much. Server issues are no fun... but you know what is fun? A dorky little armored freak with a beak shooting missiles and yeeting people off cliff edges. Zork. Following in the ancient tradition laid down by characters like Wooloo and Gooigi before it, Zork is here to do one thing: make you love him, and he's already stolen the hearts of so many.

Zork definitely knows how to stand out. Defiant next to Senator Samir Patres in the character selection screen, opting for a wide-eyed, tongue (beak?)-out expression instead of brooding like the rest of his playable brethren, Zork is clearly the class clown of Duskbloods' roster. There's also something indescribably cute about him, which makes him ideal meme material, and that's precisely what's happening.

Over the course of about 24 hours, likely hundreds of memes have turned Zork into a verb (zorking it), and otherwise infantilized what is in reality an extremely dangerous killing machine.

ZORK

— @berardbro.bsky.social (@berardbro.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-08-21T18:24:21.502Z

Despite the frivolity, a question with potentially disturbing implications lingers... what is Zork? Beneath the armor, beneath the three-inch steel veneer of innocent friendliness? Is there a soul in there? The Duskbloods characters are called Bloodsworn, Vampiric entities of a sort, but what does Zork actually look like without his armor? Some have speculated that he may have come from the sea due to various nautical references in his design and moveset, and the beak and propulsion method have led some to theorize he's actually a squid or octopus, but Zork's true nature will likely remain a mystery until launch.

In the meantime, you have to applaud FromSoftware of all studios, the crew famous for coming up with some of the most horrific, grotesque, mind-numbingly challenging monsters in all of video gamedom, for getting the internet to love-bomb a literal war machine.

The Duskbloods is a Switch 2 exclusive because Nintendo was the "right partner" and "very receptive" to FromSoftware's weird idea, says Hidetaka Miyazaki