Talk:The Painter/@comment-39.60.232.8-20170616002223/@comment-173.67.159.37-20180724160210

I thought the line about "those absorbed by fire" was referring both to Gwyn and Sulyvahn. Gwyn's obsession with the First Flame created the Undead Curse and threw the world into a miserable cycle of unending death without reprise. Likewise, Sulyvahn's obsession with the Profaned Flame drove him and his servants mad, and he wound up enslaving the citizens of Irithyll and transforming the old royalty into beasts. Sulyvahn was also a native of the Painted World, but left in a quest to succeed the old gods with Aldrich. His deep-rooted connection with the Painted World is evident in the way that the Irithyllian slaves pray in secret to Yorshka, the supposed child of Priscilla, and the Japanese name for the Profaned Flame is actually the "Flame of Sin," connecting him to Velka, Goddess of Sin.

The obsession with fire only begets misery for the weak, who attempt to escape the cycle of rebirth by fleeing to the Painted World, where they attempt to live in peace. But first, the Painter must understand the danger--and beauty--of fire in order to create the Painted World, lest the forlorn turn on themselves and the painting begins to rot, as is the case with Ariandel. The ashes of this flame are preserved in the Painted World, only to be alighted again when order must be restored, giving rise to yet another Painted World.