Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-172.56.9.225-20140731112048/@comment-16047389-20140801193541

Jacen Veron wrote: So leaving the kiln is good. Given the Dark leads to death, tranquility, and rest. The whole reason the Chosen Undead is "chosen" was to end the curse of the undead. Being undead is an effect of the Fire, it went on for longer than it should have, which caused an adverse affect on humans, causing them to "live" until they lose sanity. Lighting the bonfire would simply prolong the curse and probably cost you your life. Leaving the Kiln allows those accursed undead to finally rest upon death, and you become the Dark Lord and recieve an army of Frampts. No, leaving the kiln is the equivalent of extinction for all life. Lighting the kiln also cures the Curse of the Undead, although only temporarily. The Curse isn't because the Age of Fire went on to long. It is a symptom of the Age of Fire waning. When the First Flame is kindled, the Curse fades and the golden age happens again. Drangleic rose during one of these golden ages, and just happened to survive long enough to see the effects of a waning Age of Fire.

This means that either the Curse of Undead also appeared during Gwyn's time, which was more reason for him to rekindle the First Flame, or Gwyn had the Curse of the Undead created specifically to ensure the Age of Fire's continuation. Bear with me on this point, because this is another of my theories. It's the time of Lordran, and the First Flame is beginning to die out. Gwyn, fully aware of the coming end, sets out to find ways to perpetuate the Age of Fire. The first attempt is to have the Witch of Izalith, arguably the expert on Fire, create a new flame. This fails, and instead creates the Bed of Chaos and all of the Demons of the world. Gwyn decides that the only way to continue the Age of Fire is to sacrifice his own soul to rekindle it. However, this solution would only be temporary, and with most of the other gods already having left Lordran, there may be no one else to rekindle the First Flame after him. So he goes to Nito, who may have created the Rite of Kindling in the first place. As Nito was the expert of dead (and possibly undead seeing as how necromancy most likely came from him or his power), he would be the most likely candidate for having created the Curse of the Undead. Why would he do this? Because humans had nothing to fear from the coming Age of Dark. They'd still exist. But what if suddenly they started becoming Hollows everytime the First Flame waned, and the only cure was to rekindle it? Now they had incentive to perpetuate the Age of Fire. Meanwhile, the Way of White teaches to fear the Undead, and to do everything they can to get rid of them. They also lead pilgrimages to retrieve the Rite of Kindling from Nito.

Interpret that how you will, the point is that the Curse of the Undead is a symptom of a waning Age of Fire. Upon rekindling, the golden age granted by an Age of Fire returns, and whole kingdoms (such as Drangleic) are allowed to grow and prosper. The simplest, yet most accurate, way to look at the Age of Fire vs the Age of Dark is in the form of a single question. What is better: Living, but having to sacrifice in order to maintain that life? Or death?