Board Thread:Dark Souls II/@comment-46.64.182.203-20140312230146/@comment-129.21.82.199-20140412195050

184.5.186.240 wrote: Here's an interesting idea, what if the Old Dragonslayer (ODS henceforth) isn't the Ornstein but only someone that believes they are Ornstein.

The senario I envision for this is as follows. From the canon the original Ornstein is killed by the Chosen Undead (CU henceforth) in Anor Lando. The CU transforms his soul into the Dragonslayer Spear. The CU completes the story line of DS.

Here is where the wild speculation starts. The First Flame is linked and the CU is gone. Time passes and someone or something finds the Dragonslayer Spear, and perhaps the Leo Ring since both were last seen in the possession of the CU. Even though it is a spear, it is still the soul of Ornstein. Now since powerful souls can grant abilities, ie the Lord Souls, perhaps they can also pass along traits and even memories. The new owner of the spear is either similar to Ornstein to begin with or weak willed enough to be changed, though not completely, explaining the differences in behavior like using dark magic instead of lightning.

Over time the ODS's and Ornstein's personalities blend together. One day the ODS realizes realizes he is missing his armor, so he travels to Anor Lando, finds the remnants of Ornstein's armor, and patches it up as best he can, explaining the differences. Alternately if ODS was unable to find Ornstein's armor or maybe not even Anor Lando, he commissions a new set, as close to what is possible from Ornstein's memory and the smiths available to him, also explaining the differences. If he did not find it with the Dragonslayer Spear, ODS also searches for and finds the Leo Ring.

Now that ODS is fully armed, he is ready to take up his post. I personally like this part because it works whether Drangleic is Anor Lando or not. The original Ornstein died guarding a cathedral in Anor Lando. So the ODS found the Cathedral of the Blue and it was close enough in appearence that he stayed until his defeat in DS 2.

As for Targray, the Blue Sentinels have a similar mission to the Way of the Blue, so ODS believed that they were his allies, both serving Gwyndolin, and left them be.

Probably completely wrong, but I feel it is an interesting and novel enough of an idea for consideration. This seems like a pretty good theory, but what if we take away the idea that he's an entirely different character and insert the possibility that Ornstein, like so many others, is actually an undead. All of the reasoning applied here could simply be changed from 'trying to take on the role of Ornstein' to simply attempting to retain a sense of self and purpose to resist hollowing, i.e. like working with the Blue Sentinels, who function much like the Darkmoon Covenant which Gwyndolin controlled and working to reclaim lost gear and such. As far as the Dark powers he has now, it could be that he fell to the allure of its power after being trounsed in the first game, perhaps being reinforced by the lack of hostile dragons for him to face in this new land, making his lightning somewhat obsolete.

Some of this reasoning stems from VaatiVidya's lore video below, which brings up some interesting ideas about Heide in general.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQTjvhZ18u8&list=PLWLedd0Zw3c5SCqzfFpcy82pfliyAu2kl