Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-69.145.102.51-20130313220706/@comment-1687225-20130313235939

Ghost, the Shiva in Hinduism is male.

6 Xero 9, Alvina distrusts shiva due to cut content from the game. He was supposed to betray you, a fellow Forest Hunter, by killing you and taking the Chaos Blade. Refer to the textbin on Shiva of the East's page.

"East" here smacks of a Euro-centered (or in this case, Lordran-centered) point of view, further reinforcing the influence of western culture in Dark Souls.