Board Thread:Dark Souls II/@comment-50.44.12.82-20140327155324/@comment-124.13.37.156-20140810223433

It was implied that the first fire was the source of the Lord Souls, and rekindling it requires all those back. I think that the Lord Souls could be like a box of matches (that never runs out). The fire wanes, grab all the Lord Souls and rekindle the fire. And then nobody gives a crap about the flame till it starts to wane again, which is quite a long time, enough for the Lord Souls to find new owners. Y'know, you never pay attention to the matches until you need them, and then you start looking everywhere for it, as if they walked away on their own.

I don't doubt that the Lord Souls are powerful enough to influence their new host with a template of their original owners, giving subsequent owners a trait of their original hosts.