Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-5632187-20130203042433/@comment-6003396-20140607023442

The whole pendant thing is widely misunderstood. Miyazaki was asked what starting gift he would recommend. He gives a more personal answer and said that from a role playing perspective he would either choose the pendant or nothing (he then laughs). He goes on to say that he ends up choosing Black Firebombs for the beginning stage. And somehow this means that anything From ever says is BS. This is the original interview on famitsu. (my translation isn't perfect)

Concerning the firstborn, the developers never said that Andre was the intended firstborn but that the idea was scrapped (therefore the firstborn isn't in the game). Miyazaki said that Andre was originally going to be a descendant of Gwyn and play a larger role in the game, but as development went on he just became a simple blacksmith. It's still possible that descendant meant firstborn, but it would be an assumption to say so. source