Analysis Series: Firekeepers

Aestus
Estus Latin for Heat- Estus Flask holds the heat of the Bonfires for life restoration.
The Bonfires help ease the undead curse by allowing undead to maintain their
sanity and uses its bottled heat to keep from dying again. Therefore, assisting
anyone smart enough from going hollow, but, we see hollows using it themselves
for its life sustaining purposes only. Kindling gives you more Estus Flasks,
therefore Kindling increases your chances of not becoming a hollow. . .





It
seems as if lighting Bonfires is a right reserved only for Firekeepers. Let me
explain..





Rite of
Kindling:


This secret rite allows bonfires to be
bolstered further with Kindling,
so that even more Estus can be collected.


Kindling was a sacred rite passed down among clerics,
but all Undead can imitate the process in the same manner
that they restore their Hollowing with humanity.
How peculiar that humans had found little use for humanity until they
turned Undead.


I think
originally Fromsoft had planned to not let you Kindle at all until you received
this item. The whole “all Undead can imitate the process in the same manner”
means that an Undead can receive the Rite of Kindling and Kindle bonfires in
the same manner. Kindle in this sense only means to strengthen a flame that is
already burning. Yes, from a dictionaries definitions it can mean to light a
fire as well..However, seeing as for something to be “bolstered further” it has
to exist in the first place we can assume Kindling means what I previously mentioned,
to strengthen a fire. I think by changing their minds and letting us kindle
from the beginning Fromsoft has confused a lot of people as to what a firekeeper
really is and what they do. A firekeeper keeps a bonfire lit. When a firekeeper
dies . . .





Estus
Flask:


The Undead treasure these dull green flasks.
Fill with Estus at [i]bonfire.
Fills HP.[/i]


The Estus Flasks are linked to the Fire
Keepers. The Dark Tales also make reference:


An emerald flask, from the Keeper's soul
She lives to protect the flame,
And dies to protect it further


. . .
the bonfire goes with them. . But what do they mean by “dies to protect it
further”? They are most likely saying. .
. protecting it further by making others unable to use it, because no one but a
Firekeeper can light the bonfires. So how does one become a Firekeeper. . .
Well first of all for all we know all the Firekeepers are female from their
item descriptions. . . Also, the ones we do get to see we know have some kind
of deformity or suffer greatly. It is well known that women in general have a
higher thresh- hold when it comes to pain. And these women while they may seem
physically weak, with exception to the Darkmoon Knightess, are obviously
suffering a great deal of pain. So what is the difference between the others
and the Darkmoon Knightess?





Brass
Set:


Helm of the Darkmoon Knightess,
Fire Keeper of Anor Londo.


After becoming Undead, she visited the Dark
Sun Gwyndolin at the Mausoleum of the Spiral
Depths, became a Blade of Darkmoon,
and assumed the flame-keeping duty. She
received this helm, which hides her hideous
form and helps her hunt the guilty.


So it seems she chose to become a
Firekeeper. Interesting to note, the Darkmoon Knightess is refered to as Madien
Knight in the credits.. Also, from what I am seeing one must also be Undead. .
. However, I cannot confirm because I do not know if the Chaos Daughter is
Undead or not.. Reading the first sentence in this paragraph again begs the
question. . . Where the others forced to become firekeepers? The answer is quite ambiguous.


Ash Maiden Firekeeper Soul:


Soul of the Ash Maiden,
Fire Keeper of Firelink Shrine.


A Fire Keeper's soul is a draw for humanity,
and held within their bosoms, below just a
thin layer of skin, are swarms of humanity
that writhe and squirm.
Was the Ash Maiden locked in this dark prison
for some transgression, or by her own will?


So if one can chose to become a firekeeper, then you could say that one
could be forced to become a firekeeper. . . With the Ash Maiden’s blood stained
skirt set it seems as if she may have been forced….


Blood-Stained Skirt:


Worn by the Fire Keeper at Firelink Shrine.


It is thought to have once been the white
skirt of a maiden, but its true origin
is lost in patches of blood. Perhaps its
former wearer was maimed to prevent escape?


We get to see that she once roamed around in the intro during the very end.
She is kneeling over a seemingly dead body that is wearing a Knight’s Set and she
seems to be gathering embers that are drifting away from his body (humanity?).
Maybe this is why she was maimed, if she was seen doing this and the Darksign
was spreading she could be labeled a “witch” or a “heretic”. They would have
believed she was spreading the Darksign.


So to
continue, Bonfires when rested at restore life, burn humanity to kindle, burn
humanity to reverse hollow-ment and teleport you to other bonfires. Bonfires
are made up of . . .





Homeward
Bone:


Bone fragment reduced to white ash.
Return to last bonfire used for resting.


Bonfires are fueled by the bones of the Undead.
In rare cases, the strong urge of their previous owner's
to seek bonfires enchants their bones with a homeward instinct.


. . .the
bones of the Undead. The reason the Bonfires are fueled by the bones of the
Undead (speculation) is because this was the original way of extracting humanity
from their bodies. A sacrifice type of offering, also if more humans that were
not Undead were around they may have been attempting to rid the world of the
Undead “plague”. The sprites were later
discovered (by the Undead) as the flame grew weaker and they presented
themselves.





Going back
to the Darkmoon Knightess. She has a dialogue that goes against a lot of what
we have talked about.





Darkmoon
Knightess:


The bonfire attended by the Keepers
are special.
They are linked to one another, and their flames never die.
Yet never shall the Keepers of these flames meet.





She says “their flames never die”
and I think she’s saying their flames never die . . . while the firekeeper is
alive. . . She also suggests that the actual bonfires attended by the keepers
are themselves special. Maybe meaning the bonfires we light are not special.


So what do we know about the player character. Well, it can be male or
female, it can light and kindle bonfires. Also, it can collect large amounts of
humanity similar to a firekeeper. None of this proves that the player character
is a Firekeeper. As a matter of fact, from the Darkmoon Knightess suggesting
that the actual bonfires attended by the firekeepers are special pretty much
proves the opposite. That’s why if we kill a firekeeper we can’t just relight
the flame. In addition the last thing the Darkmoon Knightess tells us is “never
shall the Keepers of these flames meet”, and yet there you are, meeting them
all. However, our analysis does suggest the player character could have some
connection with the firekeepers, and maybe that connection is only the fact
they are all Undead.


So, This analysis ends with a big ????? This may be one answer we just can’t
get other than extrapolating and speculating. If any of you have any
information I may have missed please let me know otherwise happy hunting!


Items
and dialogue I looked at to come up with this:





All
Firekeepers Souls


Brass
Set


Dingy
Set


Humanity


Dark
Souls Intro


Homeward
Bone


Rite of
Kindling


Estus
Flask


Darkmoon
Knightess Dialogue




Ash
Maiden Dialogue
Chaos
Daughter Dialogue

It is likely that the Firekeepers have a duty to fuel the flames and keep the fires burning, much like the Candle Maiden had a similar charge in Demon's Souls. As far as i understand, towards the timeline that Dark Souls takes place in, undead are being coralled to a variety of prisons and then used to fan the flames once they go hollow. This is most likely a task that the Black Knights have been charged with, either via necessity or some other motivation.






Its very clear though that undead carrying the Dark Sign do not go hollow (which could be said of the player) and as thus we also need to seperate the idea of "undead" and "chosen undead" in this process. Its thus likely that the fires are kept as a means to combat the spread of the Abyss and in this case the art of kindling (conviniently a power that was once possessed by Nito...) is a means to fan the flames further by having a cleric maiden perform the rite.

In either case, there is a similar deal of deception that was used in Latria as well by King Jeremiah. A number of hollowed subjects of his kingdom were imprisoned in the dungeons, then ascended into the towers and consumed to fuel his slowly decaying heart. If we take this by a thought, its most likely that Lordran is also on life support in a similar way, but im fairly certain Gwyn found a way. Linking the fires within the Kiln extends the powers of the flame and instead of his aims being antagonistic, im fairly certain that Gwyn had nothing but the best of his intentions in mind when he journeyed to the Kiln, all form of life is corrupted when they lose their Soul.

So Kaathe was twisting the truth, leaving Lordran in the dark would usher nothing else but a second Oolacile, so its vital that the bonfires are protected, no matter the cost.

"Its very clear though that undead carrying the Dark Sign do not go hollow"
Look at the eyes of the insane hollows in the asylum and New londo. They clearly carry the dark sign.

I should have made it a bit clarified, what i meant is that those carrying the Dark Sign are reborn (instead of talking about the Hollows), there still is a very key difference between the player character and other characters. Canonically, the player character perseveres and links the fire / leaves Lordran to the dark thus his position as undead is special.

To make sense of it, the sentence should read:


Its very clear though that undead carrying the Dark Sign are reborn and as thus we also need to
seperate the idea of "undead" and "chosen undead" in this process. Its
thus likely that the fires are kept as a means to combat the spread of
the Abyss and in this case the art of kindling (conviniently a power
that was once possessed by Nito...) is a means to fan the flames further
by having a cleric maiden perform the rite.

I made a point in another thread that basically suggested that the Darksign was an indication that the world was draining humanity from someone. I don't know if that's true or not, I was just throwing out ideas.

I don't agree with the idea that Gwyn had the best of intentions when he linked the fire the second time, though. It's pretty clearly established that he did so out of fear of humans, not out of some great desire to save the world, at least not directly. Perhaps he thought that the gods were better rulers than humans were. There might be some validity to that.

Letting the fires go out signals the end of the age of fire, which in turn is the age of dark, because, again, there is no fire. Basically, the age of dark is the age of a lack of fire, or the age with no gods.

I don't know how well humans would do ruling the world by themselves, but I think its a bit premature to assume that they would all rush willy-nilly to kill themselves.