Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-96.20.213.148-20170620101956/@comment-2001:48F8:3022:9C0:D112:364E:C633:3AE0-20170831024242

Gwyn locked up the Pygmies because they were the antithesis to his power.

There were Four Lords and Four Souls that they pulled from the First Flame. The Witch of Izalith got a Soul that she was eventually able to accidently make the Demon race with and one of her daughters invented pyromancy, which is called the art of manipulating life itself, fire being the common thing the spells are used to create. Nito got a Soul that made him the first to die and made him the Lord of Death. Gwyn has a Soul as well, the Soul of Light, while the Furtive Pygmy had the Dark Soul. See the comparison?

Gwyn was living large and in charge after the Dragons were all beaten, he wasn't gonna let humans threaten his power. He created the Undead Curse when he put the 'Brand of Fire' on the Ringed Knights and all of the humans and then locked all the Pygmies in a city at the end of the world.

When Gwyn went to Link the First Flame instead of remove the brand of fire, undoing the Undead Curse, he left the rest of the world to fall into ruin. All because he was afraid of the Abyss, which we don't even know if is evil or not.