Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-68.68.96.39-20160430091301/@comment-4607943-20160430103143

As in all the games, the flow of time is convoluted and events don't always happen in the correct order. After Gundyr failed to reach Firelink he remained imprisoned there until the player character defeated him, he was then repurposed as the Iudex to test all further champions of Ash attempting to reach the firelink shrine that Ludleth created. The graves is still in darkness because no-one could link the fire and the age of dark arrived, consuming that timeline.

Ludleth chose to become a Lord willingly and is the only one willing to accept his part in opening the path to the first flame. This is likely because he witnessed first hand what the age of dark brings and wanted to prevent it.