Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-25654683-20141110083826/@comment-16047389-20141113080714

75.169.101.218 wrote: While you make some excellent points, I have to disagree. None of the individuals possesing the Lord Souls in Dark Souls 2 are even close to being reincarnations of the previous Lords. For example, Gwyn was not a gigantic fire demon. While I admit that the fall of each respective kingdom was not directly caused by the Children of Dark, that was the intent. As far as we know, the Children of Dark's mission was to gain possession of the Crowns, and the Throne of Want (With the exception of Alsanna). Also, the description of the Four Kings soul states that the one you have collected is ONE of the shards granted to them by Lord Gwyn. "Soul of one of the Four Kings, who fell to'Dark. A fragment of a Lord Soul discovered'at the dawn of the Age of Fire."'"Lord Gwyn recognized the foresight of these'four great leaders of New Londo, and granted'them their ranks and the fragments of agreat soul. Although this is not a full Lord'Soul, it can still satiate the Lordvessel." I simply find it odd that we find all of the Lord Souls, including the shard gifted to Seath the Scaleless, scattered through Lordran, yet there is no sign of the shards gifted to the Four Kings. It is not unlikely that the possessors of the Four Crowns could be the possessors of the Four Kings Lord Soul shards. Yes, there were kingdoms that resided in the land of Drangliec prior to any of the ones mentioned above, but we heard nothing about Crowns of Power or Children of Dark mentioned in their legends. While you could say that the soul that we found belonging to Seath could be his original soul, I believe that to be incorrect. The lore states that the first souls were found within the First Flame, and the dragons existed before the first flame was found. In essence, the do not possess souls as we know them. So according to this, the Paledrake soul is the Bequethed Lord Soul shard granted to him by Lord Gwyn.

We're not talking about the reincarnated Lords, we're talking about this theory that Vendrick, the Sunken King, the Iron King, and the Ivory King are the reincarnated Four Kings of Anor Londo. That has nothing to do with the Four Great Ones/Lords of Lordran, except for the Old Iron King.

You cannot prove "intent" to bring thing kindoms to ruin. Especially when none of them had directly caused it, and two of the four weren't even around when the kingdoms were in ruin. It was the Giants that brought Drangleic to ruin. You could argue that Nashandra goaded Vendrick into causing their invasion, but she herself didn't cause it. Elana did absolutely NOTHING to cause the fall of Shulva, it was entirely the fault of the Drakeblood Knights. Nadalia showed up at Brume Tower AFTER the Old Iron King's kingdom had fallen to ruin. She herself did nothing to cause it. The same applies to Alsanna. Especially to Alsanna.

There is no evidence even remotely suggesting that the Four Kings of Anor Londo have, in any way shape or form, been reincarnated at all, much less that they are the four Old Kings.