What's your Soulslike origin story?

One way or another, we've all found our way to this truly magnificent genre of video games. We've all had our humble beginnings and first trial runs of games the genre has to offer. But how did we get here? Who introduced us to the genre? That's what I want to know from you!

My very first introduction to the genre was via PewDiePie (yuck) from like 2013 or so when he first played it on his channel. Didn't know the next thing about the genre or the game at all but wanted to give it a try since it looked fun and I was an impressionable teen. I remember bearing Taurus Demon and then getting stuck on Undead Burg, so I didn't really play a lot.

The other person that influenced me in giving the genre a try was probably my former breakdance teacher who's a huge fan of Bloodborne. I had a digital copy off PS+ and got some encouragement from him to give the game a try. It didn't click with until a couple years later, or rather I was too scared to progress because I knew of an upcoming jumpscare that I didn't want to experience (that doesn't exist btw), but yea, those were my two first instances of being introduced to the genre.

Were you introduced to the genre by someone in particular? How did you get to give it a try?