Talk:Abyss/@comment-67.7.241.210-20140804154043/@comment-16047389-20140821184612

I consider both the lords and the lord souls to be interchangeable, as it is a fact, not speculation, that the souls Gwyn, Nito, and the Witch of Izalith all return to the world multiple times after the events of Dark Souls. The souls even carry over personality and memory from their previous lives. Vendrick defeated their reincarnated form and claimed the lord souls, with which he built Drangleic. The protagonist of Dark Souls 2 slays the new four Great Ones, and claims the Lord Souls as well. Dialouge with Vendrick also heavily implies that this process has happened countless times before as well. If the First Flame fades, those souls will cease to exist. Even now they are being weathered down after constantly being used to fuel the First Flame.

Humanity is unique to Humans (and possibly rats, but that is hinted at with in the Rat Covenant in Dark Souls 2 and is a different theory altogether), as is confirmed by the Dark Sorceries, and several different item descriptions and pieces of dialouge confirm that humans didn't just come from the Dark, but they were in fact at one time part of it. The exact specifics on how humans and Humanity are directly connected to each other, and how Humanity replicates, is a matter of speculation. But Humanity, the Dark, and the Dark Soul are directly linked. The Dark Hand even uses the power of the Dark Soul to drain Humanity.

None of this is speculation. The evidence can be found in dialouge with cartain npcs and item descriptions, and logical reasoning connects the dots between.