Taking another look at the opening cinematic there is something sitting right in the open that has always bugged me. The line: "And Found The Souls Of Lords Within." This implies that the Four Lords we know today didn't get their power directly from the flame, but rather found these "Souls of Lords" which lent them their power.
This may seem just like a syntax clarification, but the implication of them finding the lords of souls is that there much have been a reason for the souls being those of lords even before the age of fire and before the four lords.
To me this means that even before the age of the ancients there was some force that created or used these souls of lords. In other words, there would have been lords before the Age of Ancients as to designate these souls as "Lord" souls.
So how does the possibility of a past age before the ancients play into this?
Well we know of the dragon covenant with the description they have on all their items.
"The dragon apostles seek transcendence of
life itself, attainable by transformation
into an ancient dragon. This rite is only one
step, but it cannot be reversed until death."
The everlasting dragon provides those who seek him out with the ability to become an immortal dragon.
Then there is also the description of dragon scales:
"Dragon scale for reinforcing dragon weapons.
Peeled from an ancient dragon.
A dragon is inseparable from its scales,
and the transcendent apostles, who seek
the perpetuity of the ancient dragons,
have crossed the very end of the earth
to seek this invaluable treasure."
So we see that dragon scales are rare. And in the description it is stated that they must be peeled from the corpses of ancient dragons. Then when you have a dragon scale you can use it at the dragon covenant by offering it to the everlasting dragon and increasing your ascendance into an everlasting dragon yourself.
So what is the significance of this? The significance is there is a finite number of dragon scales. Made of stone, they are not biological, but more like a finite mineral, or a force of nature. This is why the way one must gain dragon scales other than killing dragons or their twisted descendants, or finding them, is by duels in which you must take another's dragon scales.
So in effect, there is always a constant amount of dragon scales, or life force of dragons, what I am going to call, "dragon energy" (clever, I know).
And from the fact that you can become a dragon, I suspect if the game was capable (and wasn't constrained to what it was) offering enough scales would eventually make you into a full sized dragon.
So how does this play in with the souls of lords part? I believe that dragons are something created as individuals consciously decide to give up their humanity (the concept, not the black sprite) and bodies for immortality, and tranquility.
This means that the age before the Age of The Ancients had some catastrophic event happen. Only those who had become dragons survived. And the souls of those who died, or maybe only the souls of those who decided to become dragons and discarded their human form and souls in order to do this make up the lords souls that the four lords would later find within the fire.
In essence, whenever an age of dragons comes about, it is like a hard reset for the entire world. The normal beings die out and only the dragons remain, making the world unformed and ready for the next rise of civilization.
Further, in the opening we have another strange line.
"Then, from the dark, they came,"
These are the undead that will become the first undead, and will collect the lords souls. From the video it seems they rose as the flames were lit. This makes me suspect that these lords are actually the dead from the age before the Age of The Ancients being brought back to life (well to undeadness) by the first flame. This is why Nito is the "first of the dead" because obviously the undead that rose from the flame didn't then die and then get immediately rise again to create Nito. No, the dead bodies he is formed from existed as the first flame was originally kindled.
So Nito is actually the first of the dead from the previous age, perhaps even not the very first of the dead, but rather the first of the dead in whatever apocalyptic devastation that altered the world into the Age of The Ancients.
This also means that there could have been any number of hard resets caused by dragons, such as the age of the ancients. Where populaces decide to give up their humanity for immortality, but become the apathetic dragons.
And yeah, that's about it.
This may seem just like a syntax clarification, but the implication of them finding the lords of souls is that there much have been a reason for the souls being those of lords even before the age of fire and before the four lords.
To me this means that even before the age of the ancients there was some force that created or used these souls of lords. In other words, there would have been lords before the Age of Ancients as to designate these souls as "Lord" souls.
So how does the possibility of a past age before the ancients play into this?
Well we know of the dragon covenant with the description they have on all their items.
"The dragon apostles seek transcendence of
life itself, attainable by transformation
into an ancient dragon. This rite is only one
step, but it cannot be reversed until death."
The everlasting dragon provides those who seek him out with the ability to become an immortal dragon.
Then there is also the description of dragon scales:
"Dragon scale for reinforcing dragon weapons.
Peeled from an ancient dragon.
A dragon is inseparable from its scales,
and the transcendent apostles, who seek
the perpetuity of the ancient dragons,
have crossed the very end of the earth
to seek this invaluable treasure."
So we see that dragon scales are rare. And in the description it is stated that they must be peeled from the corpses of ancient dragons. Then when you have a dragon scale you can use it at the dragon covenant by offering it to the everlasting dragon and increasing your ascendance into an everlasting dragon yourself.
So what is the significance of this? The significance is there is a finite number of dragon scales. Made of stone, they are not biological, but more like a finite mineral, or a force of nature. This is why the way one must gain dragon scales other than killing dragons or their twisted descendants, or finding them, is by duels in which you must take another's dragon scales.
So in effect, there is always a constant amount of dragon scales, or life force of dragons, what I am going to call, "dragon energy" (clever, I know).
And from the fact that you can become a dragon, I suspect if the game was capable (and wasn't constrained to what it was) offering enough scales would eventually make you into a full sized dragon.
So how does this play in with the souls of lords part? I believe that dragons are something created as individuals consciously decide to give up their humanity (the concept, not the black sprite) and bodies for immortality, and tranquility.
This means that the age before the Age of The Ancients had some catastrophic event happen. Only those who had become dragons survived. And the souls of those who died, or maybe only the souls of those who decided to become dragons and discarded their human form and souls in order to do this make up the lords souls that the four lords would later find within the fire.
In essence, whenever an age of dragons comes about, it is like a hard reset for the entire world. The normal beings die out and only the dragons remain, making the world unformed and ready for the next rise of civilization.
Further, in the opening we have another strange line.
"Then, from the dark, they came,"
These are the undead that will become the first undead, and will collect the lords souls. From the video it seems they rose as the flames were lit. This makes me suspect that these lords are actually the dead from the age before the Age of The Ancients being brought back to life (well to undeadness) by the first flame. This is why Nito is the "first of the dead" because obviously the undead that rose from the flame didn't then die and then get immediately rise again to create Nito. No, the dead bodies he is formed from existed as the first flame was originally kindled.
So Nito is actually the first of the dead from the previous age, perhaps even not the very first of the dead, but rather the first of the dead in whatever apocalyptic devastation that altered the world into the Age of The Ancients.
This also means that there could have been any number of hard resets caused by dragons, such as the age of the ancients. Where populaces decide to give up their humanity for immortality, but become the apathetic dragons.
And yeah, that's about it.