Some Theories.

Hello people, 1st time posting here but an avid player and frequent lurker to these forums !

Been playing the game and keeping track of contributors and noticing some few things and speculating a lot as well.
The few things i would like to bring up and don't know/can't find if they've been posted yet are: Wall of text incoming!

Npc appear order.
What im hinting at is the trainers and other npcs gathering around firelink shrine.

We've all seen them but i've been wondering lately if you can make them all or atleast a large portion appear at firelink shrine all at the same time.
I watched a ENB ptd runthrough vid(#3 to be exact) where he let lautrec out from the church and later appears at the firekeeper, now bear with me, lautrec mentions he'll kill patches if he sees him again.

Firelink altar.
Just speculating here, might be complete nonsense but still worth a mention.
In the back of the room there are chalices similar to the lordvessel.

My ideas:
1:Left over gamedesign with no function.
2:maybe former offers to link the fire or maybe even something game related.
there are stairs at either side of those chalices, so i started thinking because of pendant use not being revealed until you went into new game+ the only thing you actually got at first in newgame+ is Gwynn's soul.

So all the boss souls(9 total) could perhaps go into those+ there's a tenth one at the top that differs a bit from the rest.
Maybe humanity(the Darksouls particles) or the lord souls could go into that one.

Sorry for the long read had to get it out!
Hopefully it will make a little bit of sense and not seem like random rambling. :shock:

You're not the first to speculate about those chalices meaning something but as of yet i have heard of no-one succeeding in lighting even 1. i personally think its just for decoration but if you can light one you should mention how on the forums.
People at firelink
this is a list of NPC's who can be made to stay there for the rest of the playthrough.
igward
patches
larentius
logans apprentice (i forget his name)
anastacia
petrus
crestfallen knight (if you dont talk to him after ringing both bells)
domhall of zena (he goes under the bridge but as stated by the next post that is still technically at the firelink shrine.)

this is the NPC's who may at some point go to the shrine but will later leave
seigmayer
seligenade
lutrec
big hat logan
vince
nico
reah



i think thats everyone

Theres also Reah, Vince and Nico. Guess you can also count Domhnall, even though he's hanging out under the bridge.

I made most of them stay in Firelink by making the ones that leave hostile, which halts their progress. I think you have to choose between Siegmeyer and Sieglinde, since Sieglinde will only appear after Siegmeyer leaves Izalith. I messed up my npc-herder run when I managed to hit Siegmeyer during his Izalith quest. Haven't tried since.

Did some research and, the chalices are collidable, so in some way you can interact with them, a lot of things are textured and such but you can't physically touch them or shoot them(everything just passes right through).
Now just to find a way to reach them