Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-25654683-20141110083826/@comment-16047389-20141111153135

First off, the Four Kings never dropped their own souls. They all shared one Bequeathed Lord Soul Shard that was given to them by Gwyn.

Second, "four great kings"? Certainly there are only four ones that we know about, but you seem to be forgetting that before them there was also the nations of Venn and Alken which both had monarchies. Before them was the kingdom of Olaphis, and Straid implies that there were many more before that.

Finally, Vendrick was the only king that had anything to do with the Dark. The Sunken King might have been married to Elana, but there is no evidence that he was "seduced by the Dark", and the ruin that befell his kingdom was because of a group of knights coming after Sinh. It wasn't even his fault. The Old Iron King may not have even survived to see his kingdom ruined, as he was cast into the lava below and overtaken by "the one whose name must never be repeated". And the Ivory King and his knights were overwhelmed by the Old Chaos, not the Dark. And his kingdom was never led to ruin. He built the Eleum Loyce around the Old Chaos to prevent it from spreading.

There are no links between the Four Kings of Anor Londo and the four that are mentioned in Dark Souls 2. None of them sought out the art of Lifedrain. None of them brought the Abyss upon their kingdoms. None of them recreated an order of Darkwraiths. You can't just say that they are the Four Kings reincarnated, simply because there are four of them and they were kings. That's like saying Ornstein and Smough are now the Twin Dragonriders, because there's two of them and they guard the last remaining royal family member in a castle of a dying kingdom.