Talk:Blue Sentinels (Dark Souls III)/@comment-34513637-20180217005638/@comment-2804:14D:32B0:4E3D:CC3A:977F:47C1:F895-20190125120845

I believe there's a lore reason for this. Gwyndolin started the Blades of the Darkmoon to hunt and punish the guilt. Then he probably realized that he could no longer operate just in the shadows and needed a covenant that could be be shown in major cities and the like, so he could expand his influence. Therefore he changed the covenant to "Blue Sentinels", a "benevolent" order that protects the innocent by defending them from sinners.

The Blades still did their job and gained some reputation, but of course they were not exactly the most merciful, and some took notice of this. Gwyndolin is very strict with rules, and you can see from Maughlin 's dialogue that they would regulate even normal shops in cities, and I bet their habit of taking ears wasn´t viewed as something normal.

In Dark Souls 2 the Blue Sentinels have 2 roles:to invade the world of sinners and kill them (their main duty) and defend the people and kill invaders before they can commit the sin (their public duty).

I suppose that after some time Gwyndolin separated the covenant into Blue Sentinels, who would continue protecting the member of the Way of the Blue, and the Blades of the Darkmoon, who would hunt down the sinners. He probably did this to keep new members of the Blue Sentinels from discovering the truth.

However, this changed after Gwyndolin was captured and sent to Aldrich and Yorshka took over.

You see, Yorshka is very naive and by the description of the Darkmoon Blade miracle we know she wasn´t aware of the Blade's duty to hunt the guilty. The miracles states "Miracles of the Darkmoon are tales of revenge, but Captain Yorshka recites only for the sake of remembering her brother, with out knowledge of its meaning."

I´m pretty sure that Yorshka only knew about the Blue Sentinels's duty to protect the people, and so when she became the leader of both covenants, she only commanded both covenants to protect the members of the Way of the Blue.