Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-5632187-20130119213241/@comment-46.73.235.245-20131117100717

Gonna drop my 2 cents here...

Considering that we now know that the core theme of the first game was "humanity" and the second game is about "curse" - I came to a conclusion that there are much more sinister things about Giants and Humans in DkS universe. According to descriptions of new items and hints given by Hag Merchant - our new location is not only located far away from Lordran, but it also has its own lore. To further support my idea - a Dragon Cleric character possessed Miracles and Hag mentions Giants crossing the sea, this event being followed by Drangleic's long waged war since their arrival... Human Effigy, which replaces humanity this time, seems to be something new judging by its description and by "new" I mean "new to this land". Undead Curse seems to be something uncommon in Drangleic - it seems that Giants have brought the Curse of Undeath along with them. And whom might these creatures be...? I believe that those are the remaining Dieties from Anor Londo - at least Gwynevere(War miracle mentions that it has originated from a warrior in service of the Princess of Sunlight). Humans in Lordran have been shephered by the Giants, but in Drangleic they seem to have story of their own - items like Black Robes speak of sorcerer Straid who has been a brother-in-arms of an Old King of Olaphis and their victory over an ancient Dragon. Pyromancy and other spells contain phrases like "...unknown who created... passed down by unknown practicioner... belonged to a long-forgotten hero(lightning)... originated as a sorcery(dark burst)...".

I think that while Gwyn and other Lords ruled in the land of Lordran - somewhere else Humans have managed to make a living on their own, free of giant's tyranny. And which is more importaint - free of Darkness. But after its outbreak in Lordran - Giants have abandoned the land and crossed the sea to seek refuge from it, finding Drangleic and other lands and establishing their rule there as well... but in the end - Darkness has managed to catch up with them or, possibly, Giants fuel the flames as it fuels their power and their rule. It makes sense to me that by taking the Lord Souls from the Flame - Gwyn, Nito and the Witch took a vital part of it - and it has been dying slowly all that time... But being powerlustful as they are - Giants would not return the power of the flame or allow nature take its course - so they, starting with Gwyn, have been artifically fueling the flame. Sun in Drangleic seems to exist, despite disappearing in Lordran.

In the first game we see that humanity, while being branded as "born of darkness" is neither good or evil, their rulers, Giants, while represented by "Sun" and assosiated with "Light" are far from being honest and all-mighty, and beasts of the Abyss, looking at Manus and Artorias, are not actually as evil as they are implied to be... This time around, imo, we would have to deal with the curse itself, its origin. The time has come to end the reign of Giants and proclaim the Age of Man, but not of Darkness.

@VincentVanZigel