Five Kings of New Londo?

I was playing my dex build which is pretty weak right now aside from vit and end and it took me awhile to kill each of the four kings, which allowed another to spawn right before I finished off the previous. The fourth king was giving me a bit more trouble and took awhile longer, maybe because I was getting less tense since I knew I was not on a time limit anymore. Then suddenly, that sound came up again and in the distance right behind the fourth king was a fifth king. Needless to say, I freaked the hell out and went all out against the fourth king before the fifth could join the fray and slaughter me. Anybody had this happen to them yet?

Up to 8 (ive heard, at least 7 can) kings can spawn, although only 4 can spawn on screen at once. Its due to the way their life total works.

Think of it this way. You aren't killing a king when they explode into shimmering light, you're wounding him, so he has to disappear and recuperate It's just a gameplay thing. I've had up to six kings.

Or, if your read the description of the Lord Shard of the Four Kings, you realize you only obtain one of the four shards.

Judging at how the magic is similar to that of pinwheel in terms of dark magic, it would not be a far stretch to say that the four kings is just one.

Ah, I've never thought of that. Very clever theory. It would after all, explain why they look identical.

Damn...so basically I'm on a time limit throughout the ENTIRE fight? That sucks man

Wait wait wait wait... "One" of the "four" shards, are you saying the description is implying theres one shard? Or four shards and we only get one? In a lore sense that doesnt work because we need to return the souls to the vessel to open the kiln, but if theres still 3 shards unaccounted for were talking multiple play throughs... pendantzzzz...zzzz

Unless the being who is the Four Kings took the other three shards and added to his soul. Or, perhaps the Four Kings that is a creature of the Abyss was a king specifically chosen to carry the Shard to lead the rest.

But they were 4 kings before they fell. And Im pretty sure Gwyn gave them the soul before they fell. So eh would have had to give 4 soul shards. Im saying this cause I dont completely understand you acidic :oops:

could have been one king and he absorbed 3 fragments of the soul to duplicate himself thrice. that would explain why there are 4 kings and with the soul power, it would return back to him after the other kings have died so he could be remaking them over the course of the fight - idk xD

One king could have fallen to the dark, and hunted down the other three. The King's were not the first to be in the abyss, nor does any hint say that they were there when Artorias went down. They say that he met Dark Beasts... Beasts I am sure we only see twice until the Dark Lord ending.

The Four Kings seem to follow the same form as ghosts, however they are more solid. As it is said that Artorias was cursed, and that the people in New Londo who were cursed became undead... Who is to say that the Four Kings are in a similar stance as the ghosts as well.

Actually the kings were there before Artorias because it says somewhere (I can't for the life of me remember where right now) that Artorias formed a covenant with the creatures of the Abyss and became the fifth king in the process.

And story wise, the description on the lord soul fragment says that even though it is only a fragment it is enough to satiate the lordvessel, I'm assuming that makes it irrelevant to collect the other three shards. With that in mind, Seathe's soul is also only a shard of a lord soul given to him by Gwyn, but it is enough for the lordvessel too

It works the other way too. Because of the shared life bar if you do enough damage fast enough (usually with some summons assisting) you can win by only killing 3 of them.

seathtoldmeto8 wrote:Actually the kings were there before Artorias because it says somewhere (I can't for the life of me remember where right now) that Artorias formed a covenant with the creatures of the Abyss and became the fifth king in the process.

And story wise, the description on the lord soul fragment says that even though it is only a fragment it is enough to satiate the lordvessel, I'm assuming that makes it irrelevant to collect the other three shards. With that in mind, Seathe's soul is also only a shard of a lord soul given to him by Gwyn, but it is enough for the lordvessel too

Fifth King? :|

I also would like to remind you, that there are also the Serpents who are more so beast than the Four Kings. The Four Kings are little bit ghostly and human, and not much beastly to them.

Yes the beasts are likely the serpents of the abyss. We know the kings came before artorias fell because he hunted darkwraiths, and there werent darkwraiths until the kings fell because their knmights turned into darkwraiths.

DoughGuy wrote:Yes the beasts are likely the serpents of the abyss. We know the kings came before artorias fell because he hunted darkwraiths, and there werent darkwraiths until the kings fell because their knmights turned into darkwraiths.

Show me a description.

I cant find it but ive read it before. Ill search a bit more.

Found it.

http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/Darkwraith
Armor of the Darkwraiths, former knights of New Londo who descended
into Dark. Their Armor transformed, and remains a symbol of the Dark
servants and their diabolical art of Lifedrain.

http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/Darksword
The sword of the knights of the Four Kings of New Londo. Its blade is wide and thick and it is wielded in an unusual manner."
"When the Four Kings were seduced by evil, their knights became Darkwraiths, servants of the Dark who wielded these darkswords."

You should remember that there are other Darkwraiths that never wore such armour or used such swords... Kirk is a good example.

The Knights of the Four kings does not show them being the First to turn, just that these knights had transformed to the Dark after the Four Kings has been seduced by evil. They may be knights of the Four Kings, but they were possibly not the only Darkwraiths... nor does it state them to be the first.

I find it unlikely there was a large enough group of darkwraiths before the 4 kings fell for artorias to hunt them. Especially considering Gwyn was in power and the 4 kings were good guys. I doubt there are many access points to the abyss in the world where people could talk to kaathe.
Kirk's armour (if I remember rightly) has the same weight and poise of the DW armour making it likely his set simply mutated by the poewr of chaos or something when he swiutched sides.

Then how would a being such as Kirk be a Darkwraith before hand, if he had not had access to Kaathe? A being without much use of jumping down to the abyss must of had some way to become one at some point. He may have turned into a chaos servant, however his armour notes him as being infamous for being a darkwraith.

The 4 kinsg fell a long time (close to a 1000 years ago) ago. Plenty of time for kirk to find his way into the abyss through new londo once everyone else was dead. Also I never said it was impossible to join before the kings fell. I said it was unlikely they had a large enough following for one of gwyns4 demigod knights to bother paying attention to them. Sure there would have been a couple dozen but nothing significant.

A Knight of Thorns would have to had drained the place in order to join the Darkwraiths, he joined afterwards. The place was flooded after the threat of the Darkwraiths, being flooded after Artorias' confrontation (likely, as the place was noted to being flooded once).

And they may have had a a growth of Darkwraiths before Artorias came, it does not exactly have to start large. Things start slow at first. As the Darkwraiths started at New Londo and originated in a tower of Velka/Child (statues on rood and front of fog)... the beast perhaps had a chance influencing others. May I remind you that the tower has a large enough gap for the creature to swirl around upwards... as well as a broken roof.

And the best strategy is to always remove a potential threat before it actually becomes one. Seeing as how Artorias is one of intelligence, it isn't hard seeing him seeing such an idea. It is interesting of his philosophy of faith and intelligence is similar to Velka's ideals of his users being faifthful and intelligent, and that the abyss is accessed only from the tower of hers. That, and the knight of the wolf seems to have a dark sense to him... an aspect usually seen from the Goddess of Sin. How he ever was able to access the abyss, I wonder, is probably the same way Witch Beatrice had done so as well.

The Covenant of Artorias is probably not necessary for travel at all, I reckon.

Or...it could be as simple as Kirk being a more highly ranked knight of the four kings. Remember Gwyn himself has an army of knights with him but also four generals who were greater than his knights. It could be as simple as Kirk being a general to the four kings instead of a simple knight. And yes, Kirk's armor has the same stats as the DW armor but very slightly heavier due to the addition of the thorns