This happened both ways! An excerpt from the wiki page of Hidetaka Miyazaki, director of Dark Souls and Elden Ring amongst other things:

Miyazaki was an avid reader as a child despite his parents being unable to afford him many books. He frequently borrowed from his local library, including English language fantasy and science fiction that he did not fully understand, allowing his imagination to fill in the blanks by using the accompanying illustrations. He would later cite that as a major influence on his design philosophy.

So in other words, Dark Souls lore is the way it is for the same reason