Kiln of The First Flame- Reasons for its ashen landscape

The Kiln of the First Flame is quite a site to behold, but why is it burnt to a crisp? I figure that it's probably from the fire that encompasses the being that ignites the flame, but does it really explode like that? Any thoughts?

Aliens.

In all seriousness though, it's a kiln; the whole point of it is too contain heat, or in this case energy. While the word was likely picked because it sounded cool (even I am having trouble thinking of a reason to use that term), it is still named after an oven. Which likely burns whatever is inside.

Yeah, but wouldn't Gwyn's body have been destroyed then? That's some serious energy to work.

A valid theory, but he split his soul and gave it to the Four Kings. That's why their Lord Soul is called "Bequeathed Lord Soul" in your inventory. Could he have saved the rest to leave a "shell" of himself to guard the flame along with his Black Knights? It's possible that it could be another illusion.

He's mindless, running on instinct. Even if he was running low on power, you would think he would still use lightning.

Gwyn threw himself into the fire, and his greatsword flares with flame, even though his element was lightning; clearly, linking the flame had some strange effects on him. It's quite possible he's immune to it's energy now.

Seath also drop a bequeathed lord soul shard

Do your math thing again Dibs, with 1/8 for seath

I believe the flame has been so powerful, it reached all of the kiln and not just inside of Gwyn's arena. This would explain why the Black knights are all burned up as well.
How come he still be standing? Seeing how powerful he is, even at his breaking point, I think we can conclude that Gwyn's body was strong enough to withstand the fire (Unfortunately, his sanity or Soul, wasn't as lucky)

Werdax is right, I believe there is an item or piece of armor (BK gear i think) that states when Gwyn linked the flames it burnt so hot that it burnt up the surroundings as well as his knights. It's not that it's a kiln, or even that it's hot, but the catalyst of burning up his God energy caused an explosive flame to occur.

Okay, I just read the Knights were indeed burned in the flame, but I thought their armor was charred black from fighting the demons of chaos?

The whole Gwyn leaving part of his soul behind theory makes sense to me, but he's still pretty tough. If that's just a fraction of the power of a Lord Soul, then why isn't Nito ridiculously strong? He has a whole Lord Soul.

I would imagine the souls powers are linked to the flame...as it dies, so too does the power...just a thought though.

Could you imagine fighting Gwyn in his prime? THAT would be tough fight.

Before you said that, I would have sworn up and down that you can't see the flame while fighting him. I still deny it, but now I have to wonder. Damn it.

How many builds do you have?

Wow. That's a lot of hours. I just fought Gwyn the other day, and I'm really sure that the fire is lit as you fight him.

Do you mostly PvP?