The following information was originally posted on the facebook page.

Let's talk about the "Covenant" system in Dark Souls II.

Already existing in Dark Souls, they come back in Dark Sousl II and provide a much deeper layer role-play dimension for both solo and multiplayer. The game has various covenants, nearly as much as there is play styles...

What is a covenant? It's a group that players can join under a certain condition. Depending on the sort of joined covenant, the online play style widens and various situation can be experienced.

Main Covenants introduction: -Way of Blue:　Covenant with devine protection of gods of Blue. When apostles of Blue are invaded by dark spirits, they can receive assistance from other Way of Blue members. -Blue Sentinels: Covenant to protect the blue apostles from the merciless beings. Let players be automatically summoned in the worlds of Blue apostles who have been invaded by dark spirits. - Brotherhood of Blood: Covenant of immortals haunted by blood. Its purpose is to sacrifice blood for Nahr Alma, god of war. through repeated invasion to many player's world. Heirs to the Sun: Worship of the sun, now a lost belief, was once widespread amongst great warriors. Its purpose to help other players. Bell Keepers:　The twin bells symbolize the bond between two lovers who could never be united. The bell keepers are their eternal guardians.

There are many other Covenants...Searching for them can be one of goal of your journey. Will you unveil all their secrets? You will know soon in Dark souls II, available from 14th March 2014.

It is accompanied by these images, but there's only one that really matters.

oh fuckin shitt

Man, I'm going to really enjoy the zeitgeist of playing this while people are still figuring everything out. That is always a ton of fun. The first month or two are really interesting for souls games.

@demoskinos: I wonder if we will see the return of epic name bro.

Praise the sun indeed.

I wanna join the Bell Keepers. I want to keep love alive, dammit.

I saw that, but I had missed that picture for some reason, awesome!

I'd imagine that the Way of Blue will be something you'll be able to join early game, while Sentinels will be mid to late game, when people are a little more decked out. I wonder what the limitations for summoning will be. This is all very exciting!

@jacksukeru: I'm most interested in the Brotherhood of Blood. They say they are sacrificing blood for the god of war Nahr Alma. However, in Dark Souls, the god of war was the exiled first born of Gwynn, and also presided over the sunbros. I wonder if this is a relevant lore detail.

@jimmyfenix: Well, I don't think ENB has gone anywhere. Right now, he's on track to finishing his first ever recorded Demon's Souls play-through after something like 3 previously aborted attempts.

I'm with you there. Luv 4eva!!!

@turambar: I assume there's multiple pantheons of gods, due to the comment about "Gods of Blue", so there could be 2 or more gods of war.

I have no intention of buying Dark Souls, but I'm really starting to warm up to Dark Souls II.

Does this make me a bad person?

@mikelemmer: It's more whether Nahr Alma is a god from the Age of Fire, or whether something happened since the first game that caused new gods to be created. The original gods partly got their power from the Lord Souls. Are bits and pieces of Lord Souls still around, is he powered by the Dark Soul which is suppose to gain power as time progresses, or is there a third yet unknown source of great power.

"Heirs to the Sun: Worship of the sun, now a lost belief, was once widespread amongst great warriors. Its purpose to help other players."

This could be a huge indicator that Soliare was the old God of War. Ring of the Sun's Firstborn item description says...

"Lord Gwyn's firstborn, who inherited the sunlight, once wore this ancient ring. Lord Gwyn's firstborn was a god of war, but his foolishness led to a loss of the annals, and rescinding of his deific status. Today, even his name is not known."

Why name the covenant "Heirs to the Sun" if it wasn't going to be a confirmation for Solaire's old god status? It would make sense to believe that a new God of War was put in place when Soliare was kicked out. Soliare was probably a pretty bad God of War given his helpful nature.

No, it just means they're making good improvements for Dark Souls 2. Besides, you may want to play Dark Souls after finishing Dark Souls 2.

Come on in, the water's fine. Mwahahahaha...

More Sunbroing to be done? Count me in.

Except Solaire wasn't exactly the founder of the Sunlight covenant. Outside of Solaire being a powerful warrior within the covenant, there is really no indication that he's the son. I'm sure that covenant has many strong warriors too. Also, the firstborn was stripped of his god status because he was careless and lost the old annals, not because he was too helpful to the people of his own covenant.

I remain convinced the son is already dead since you find his ring on a corpse in Anor Londo. That corpse is not just anywhere either, but sitting at the base of one of Gwyn's statues. Not only that, it is the illusionary statue that hides the passage to Gwyn's coffin. And according to Sunlight Blade, the firstborn left that miracle on his father's coffin as a final farewell. That suggests strongly that the corpse is the deceased firstborn.

I disagree. He was always helping by kicking people's asses. "You need help killing something? I'M GAME!"

This is not a guy who fights only because it's his duty or responsibility. This is a guy who leaps feet-first into battle chortling the entire time. He's a British berserker.

He know his foolishness led to a loss of the annals, but we don't know what the action was exactly. Solaire's personality and one track mind to find his own sun can be considered foolish. Who's to say that his helpful nature led to the loss?

The Ring of the Sun's Firstborn was indeed on that corpse. I think the more important thing to keep in mind is that it opens the path to Gwyndolin who's a confirmed lair and fabricator. He set up Anor Londo to keep the myth alive. We know where Gywn is and he's not in any coffin. He's in his prison. Why would the firstborn leave the miracle on his father's coffin when he left to keep the flame burning?

We know not of his reasoning, but we know for a fact that he did take that action. Additionally, while the coffin may not be Gwyn's true resting place, it's not unthinkable that it is symbolic of his passing.

Hopefully more lore about the Firstborn and the Warriors of Sunlight will come up once the game comes out.

Hell yeah I'm joining up with the Way of Blue, I'm always up for helping duders out. Or maybe I should be a Sunbro? Decisions, decisions......