rocketboot

@development: @myrmicus: It is identical to Vendrick's/Drangleic's coat of arms....

I feel like this adds credence to something I said a while back about the obelisk in Majula, and the smudged message on the back of it being readable in the Portuguese version of the game. "The giants crossed the sea, perhaps to return home." I put out the idea that this could mean the giants originated in Drangleic and the land itself is what Vendrick stole from them. I suppose he could have adopted their banner as well...

I'm guessing this will become clear in the DLC. We're going to learn about 3 kings: the Sunken King, the Old Iron King, and the Ivory King. We obviously already have information on the Iron King, but I'm definitely looking forward to more! The Sunken King could refer to the king of Heide, but the architecture of the buildings in that part of the trailer don't strike me as "Heide-like." The first thing that came to mind was that the colours and the stonework reminded me of the Shrine of Amana. It is also a ruin covered in water so it wouldn't be a stretch to place a sunken kingdom underneath it all. And finally we have the Ivory King, which I'm going to go ahead and suspect without evidence might refer to the Giant Lord, or some other king of the giants that came before him. Like I said I haven't seen anything to suggest this, it's just a hopeful suspicion.

Another idea that crossed my mind is that the 3 kings could have connections to the last game. The Old Iron KIng possesses the soul of Gwyn, maybe the other two have great souls as well. What other kings do we know of who are drowned? The four kings! There was unused content from Dark Souls where we would have encountered one of the four kings, the Undead King Jar-eel. He had an armour set, weapon and move set. It would be cool if they brought that in. I don't have an identity for the Ivory King that follows this theory though. Maybe Gwyndolin? He was a bit pale I guess. The obvious "ivory-skinned" character from Dark Souls 1 would be Seathe but we've already met him in Dark Souls 2. Maybe the Ivory King is the Duke of Tseldora?

edit: I just wanted to add a thought I just had that maybe the Ivory King will have some connection with the Primal Knights, because of their tusks

@haniball: Personally, I didn't think too much about the stories of Demon's and Dark until I realized how many theories were out there. I got really into that stuff after most of the strong ideas had formed. Now with Dark Souls 2 I was able to form my own ideas before anyone else had established indisputable theories. I played this game much differently than the previous 2, really closely examining every square inch of every corner of the world. To some people that probably sounds crazy but I'm sure there are others in this thread who would agree it adds richness to the experience.

I think a predisposition to conspiracy theories in the real world probably adds a bit to my obsessions here too... I just want to know all the secrets! What are they hiding!?

I originally suspected that DLC for this game would be accessed via the Ashen Mist Heart as memories in boss rooms or other random locations, but I'm not so sure anymore. It doesn't look like we'll be travelling through time for this one. I imagine we'll get carried by a bird or something along those lines, unless some of the doors that we saw in the main game that looked accessible but weren't, like the one between Heide's and No-Man's Warf.

If the announced DLC reveals Aldia to us about a quarter of the debates in this thread are going to be meaningless haha. I'd like to see a flow chart of all the evidence we have concerning Aldia connecting to all the conflicting theories. Maybe I'll try and put something together after I'm done fleshing out my "Aldia is Sweet Shalquoir" theory.

Anyway Tark and Najka definitely have the flavour of Aldia's experiments to them, and so do the spider-people in Tseldora. The only problem with this is Tark's dialogue stating their master created them "long, long ago." Although it doesn't have to be an issue, as we don't really know how long ago shit hit the fan in Drangleic.

@haniball: I had never even looked at it closely but a user on another forum said that the boots had high stats and the chest was very low, as if the values for the two had been switched by accident. I guess a lot of people were rocking the shoes because they were pretty strong and light. Lol I never even noticed.

@haniball: Yeah I know WoG got nerfed before, Santiers probably as well but they're both on the patch notes. Syan is definitely a step in the right direction, and apparently Pursuers Greatsword unlimited stun lock is what is being addressed there so that's another big fix. Tests have already been done showing the length of weapon buffs effect now scales with your stats. I think you need like 50 faith to get a whole minute of SLB.

@haniball: Yeah, mega nerf day today! Pursuers Greatsword, Santiers, weapon buffs, GRS and WoG all get nerfed too. There might be more but that's off the top of my head.

I didn't realise people have been having trouble hosting fight clubs, and I've been away from the arenas for a while too. Maybe I'll try back after the patch.

@development: Yeah I saw something about that on Reddit when I was goin nuts about the other statue in that room. This one is baffling to me. Is it a statue of the maidens Seath used for his experiments? And why is it in the Bastille? I'd like to believe these types of things aren't just reused assets for filler but this one is tough.

@myrmicus: I meant the part where he says "There is no direct connection as far as the story is concerned." My paraphrasing was a bit off. Regardless I still see it as contradictory.

Why? Because the stories of these 2 games are related. DkS2 is in a way a retelling of the cycle introduced in DkS, and it does so in a way that gives us more insight into what is going on with the cycle. It also takes great efforts to show us the world contains familiar artifacts and hasn't entirely forgotten what went on in the last game. Saying these two games aren't connected in terms of plot and story is like saying "the Cold War is not connected to World War 1." Without one the other would not exist; if the events of Dark Souls did not occur we would not have Dark Souls 2. If Manus wasn't defeated in the DLC there would be no Nashandra, if the Bed of Chaos hadn't been destroyed the Old Witch Soul could not possess the Lost Sinner, etc.

And to follow up with a more direct comparison of the plots, I want to take what you said about Dark Souls 2: "Nashandra wants the Throne of Want and uses you to aquire it." But lets add that the Emerald Herald also wants you to light the flame/take the Throne to stop Nashandra from doing so, among some other possibilities that are a little less clear (freeing Shanalotte? ending her journey?) When you look at it that way it is very much parallel to Gwyndolin and Frampt vs. Kaathe. You have an end goal through which different characters want to manipulate in carrying out their own devices.

Back to Star Wars, when George Lucas makes comments about his work that contradicts the work itself, maybe "the word of god" has gone a little crazy. If Anakin built the droids, why do none of them remember this in their encounters in the original trilogy? Why doesn't C3P0 share his memories of Luke's father with him? A creator has control of what he creates, but needs to abide by the rules of continuity at the risk of compromising his work. If errors in continuity are present I feel that is the point where fans can take liberties and speculate against the comments of the creators. And like I said before, a comment about a project that was over a year from completion and possibly poorly translated from another language should not be taken very seriously. But I suppose none of this is valid to you if you believe the Dark Souls 2 director's comment about story to be true. And if that's the point we disagree on, I think we should agree to disagree.

@myrmicus: I can't accept this "word of god" stuff just because it follows a popular trope. Allow me to reiterate my previous post for clarity: those examples I posted were not meant to connect the games' locations, but their plots and stories. In the same interview that the director said that Dark Souls 2 is not in the same part of the world, he also said that the plots and stories are in no way related. This statement was false. The two games are very obviously connected, hell you even link the first flame! Perhaps you could say his true meaning was lost in translation, or there were changes in development in the year and a half period between the interview and release of the game (not a stretch of the imagination, other aspects of the game were changed as we all know). Regardless it nullifies any argument you can make towards this whole "word of god" thing.

I'm gonna use Star Wars as an example here. When George Lucas said "R2D2 and C3P0 were built by Anakin Skywalker, that's the way I envisioned it back in the 70s" fans of the serious laughed, raged and did not accept that (because it's ridiculous). In fact many fans don't even accept the prequel trilogy. Even though they are "word of god" put forth by the creator of Star Wars.