Dark Souls 3 story discussion (spoilers obviously)

[EvilRoy]

Even if From Software decided on a canon ending for Dark Souls 1 I highly doubt that it would be the one were Solaire links the fire. Miyazaki has stated before that he feels the most appropriate ending for Solaire is the one where the Sunlight maggot drives him crazy and you have to kill him. I can't find the translation of that interview at the moment, but German Spy and Plague of Gripes have talked about it during lets plays of Dark Souls 1.

I wasn't actually aware of that, its a pretty interesting idea, if extremely depressing. Which I guess fits right in with Siggy.

Also, Gwyn never "came back" from linking the fire. Linking the fire didn't kill Gwyn, he stayed within the Kiln of the First Flame and burned for 1000 years as his soul was used as fuel for the fire. Gwyn wasn't undead at the end of the game, he was basically in the same state that he was in before he found the Light Soul within the first flame (during the intro cutscene). The only people who become "undead" are people with the Dark Sign, and the only people who carry the Dark Sign are humans. That's also why Gwyndolin shouldn't have been able to come back as an undead after being killed.

The two issues I see with that is that first: I was given to understand that 'your soul being used for the fire' is basically what being undead is. Based on some stuff by vaati, it seemed to me that the whole undeath/kindling thing is just peoples souls/humanity being siphoned off to keep the fire going a little longer, and try to encourage people to relink the fire. That is speculation, and I may be misremembering, but I can find no evidence that only humans specifically can carry the darksign. (There is, after all, some fucked up hard to explain shit you see over all the games as enemies).

The second is that given what we know of Gwyn and the first flame, it does not seem that his family is specifically different from the original form of humanity. We know that other gods like Faraam existed separately from the first flame, and we know that the creatures that approached the first flame all looked like the same gross hollow. It seems arguable to me that Gwyn just happened to get to the fire and figure out how to use it first and therefore ascend to godhood, separately from pre-existing guys like Faraam. Generally admirable, but not necessarily denoting him a different species than human. We do find out what happens to the pygmy after being left with a flame for long enough, and we see a daughter of Izalith that apparently avoided being mutated, but was still just a crazy hollow.

Edit to complete my thought, sorry: Therefore we know that a first flame is capable of causing extreme changes to a creature, and that creatures that should have been in extremely close proximity to a first flame (if not holding a portion of it) are capable of going hollow. I figure Gwyn mutated up and up and up, then went to the kiln and got blown back to undeath when he linked the fire.

 

[Samechiel]

-snip-

That actually was my understanding of it as well. Except this:

but I can find no evidence that only humans specifically can carry the darksign.

I believe Vaati talks about it. The Curse of Undeath only affects humans because of the First Sin; the Furtive Pygmy spread humanity to mankind, and then Gwyn linked mankind to the First Flame by committing the Sin. So while other beings can be corrupted in similar ways, only humans can carry the actual darksign.