Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-98.224.165.94-20140223210359

I was always pretty interested in what exactly is worshipped by the Way of the White. Clearly, they worship the gods and seek to serve them by kindling the flames that sustain their gods. But how do members see themselves?

Rhea was a very interesting character in Dark Souls, because she didn't say much. Her life definitely took a turn for the worst after becoming undead, and she clearly hates her mission and despairs on her purpose in life. But I was always interested in her "farewell" to you when you talk to her. She says "Vereor Nox".

Google searches would turn this into "I fear the night" or "The night is feared", or something along those lines. Unfortunately, this phrase actually has some ambiguous latin in it. Vereor is a deponent verb, i.e., it looks like it's passive but is actually active. It is the verb for "to fear". For those who know latin, though, understand that latin verbs are conjugated to fit their subject. Vereor is the first person conjugation of the verb, translating to "I fear". This always confused me, because Nox is in the nominative form. While linking sentences spout two nominative objects, the verb for fearing cannot be part of a linking sentence. This means one thing! The subjects are the same, and the reflexive direct object is gapped, a common latin practice. This would mean the translation would be "I, the Night/Darkness, fear myself". I would like to point out this may still not be the case, as medieval and church latin don't always correspond to true latin, and it could also be a bad translation. However, I like this version best :)

This would be such a cool revelation to the way we understand the Way of the White, that they understand that humanity harbors the Dark Soul and fears it, feeding the fires in order to stave off the percieved evil within every human. This also explains their undead hunts, as they would percieve the undead that weren't serving the church to be the heathens who would disrupt the order between light and dark, as the purpose of the undead is to feed the bonfires. This would correspond to Vaati's theory which paints Nito as an important aspect of the Undead Curse and the Way of the White, where Nito robs humans of permanent death so that the undead have to continually feed their humanity to the bonfires. Vaati also explains that this is why Paladin Leeroy helps you to get the Right of Kindling that Pinwheel stole but tries to kill you when you approach Nito. It also explains why Nito's covenat is about spreading as much death as possible.

Whew! Glad I got that out! What do you people think? Dark Souls 2 will no doubt elaborate on this somewhat, but I figured I'd clear up some of the confusion on the phrase "Vereor Nox". 