What does the Age of Fire do? [Spoiled Lore]... Maybe

[Rays of Apollo]

So, before Gwyn got all crusty and hollow, he was burning as fuel for the age of fire in the Kiln... I assume that the whole are that is the Kiln of the First Flame was combusting since there's ash all over the place. I also assume that the stairs from the Lordvessel are like a portal because that was too weird...

Was Gwyn burning creating some perpetual sun or something? The sun in Anor Londo was an illusion. There's still daylight in Firelink and at Sen's even after you expose the true Anor Londo. There are so many questions regarding this game's sun...

[The Fountaineer 🖋]

The Age of Fire is more of a place than a time, I think. Much like the concept of Paradise, it simply exists: it's meant to denote an existence where only the gods reign supreme, knowledge and life are ubiquitous and eternal life is a blessing rather than a curse.

Keep in mind the alternatives, a world run by humans, corrupt yet pulsing with humanity (age of darkness), or the total swallowing of the world by the abyss.

[Rays of Apollo]

Ohh, that makes sense. I guess my understanding of it's importance will be more apparent once I meet Kaathe.

[WickedRequiem]

Originally posted by Mr. TehNoms:

Ohh, that makes sense. I guess my understanding of it's importance will be more apparent once I meet Kaathe.

SPOILER
No, no it won't. Probably will add more to the confusion

[Mr Anthony]

basically age of fire is when the gods run it and end with what gwyn did now if you choose not to basically what happens is what happened in ooacile e.g. darkness invades and corrupts everything

[MaximumEffort]

Simply put - it keeps the dark sign and the abyss away.

[Rays of Apollo]

Originally posted by sjrekis:

Simply put - it keeps the dark sign and the abyss away.

So, the dark sign is a product of the abyss? That's weird. Does that mean Artorias was a human?

[CazadorDeLobo]

Dark Sign is not a product of the abyss...

[Kochta]

Age of Fire - Gods rule
Age of Dark - (Wo)Men rule
Abyss - C'thulu rule

[Bonkers]

Originally posted by Mr. TehNoms:

Originally posted by sjrekis:

Simply put - it keeps the dark sign and the abyss away.

So, the dark sign is a product of the abyss? That's weird. Does that mean Artorias was a human?

The Gods branded Men with the Dark Sign...

[QuetzalCuttle]

Generally the dark and the abyss seem to be slightly different from what I can tell, abyss is mangled dark. The same way chaos is mangled fire.
Kaarth wants to speed up the age of dark so he tells the guys in oolacile to mess with dark magic and they end up creating the abyss. Super simplified version though.

Chester tells you some of this "Oolacile has brought the Abyss upon itself.
Fooled by that toothy serpent, they upturned the grave of primeval man, and incited his ornery wrath.
What could they have been thinking?"

[CazadorDeLobo]

Artorias was a human who was granted a powerful soul by Gwyn, thus turning him into... well.. wouldn't he technically be an arch-angel? You can confirm this theory by looking at Ornstein's Soul description.

I think the abyss serves to show what an Age of Dark would look like, considering it is literal Ground Zero of the Dark Soul Genesis or whatever. Consider that normal sorcery is made using the power of "soul" and the dark magic is made using the most human aspects of mentality(check the descriptions of dark magic). If humanity corrodes that which it touches, humans absorb souls, the abyss is entirely a void, and Manus is the primeval man, then is the DLC not a demonstration of the power and madness that man is capable of?

Also, once one bears humanity, are they unable to get rid of it without death? I mean, it seems to be the same as fire, in the sense that it clearly spreads over an area in the form of populations and abyss goo. Chaos does this as well, but it illuminates things, which is evidence to that mysterious "life and death, and of course.... light and dark" lore we get in the intro.

I just went to the wiki to see which bosses drop humanity - shockingly, it is either not listed at all, listed as "all bosses drop it" which is incorrect, or the list is incomplete. But anyway, consider that the Demon Firesage does not drop one whereas its nearly identical counterpart Stray does. Does this have something to do with how the Demon Firesage is emanating an aura of flame, which is not in any way real flame? Is the implication that the Dark or Humanity can be at the very least fused with fire to become something different?

If magic is of the Soul, and the soul is the source of all life(humanity desc.), and Dem. F. Sage deals magic damage with his spells, is the implication that when humanity and fire form a harmonious relationship, that it resembles the creation of life itself? Can it only be short lived, because the nature of dark and flame is that it consumes "fuel" of some sort?

[Инрико Пуччэ]

Did the prolonged Age of Fire brought any benefits to gods at all? There is little influence of gods in DS1, only the firstborn of Gwyn, Gwyndolin and probably Velka do something. In DS2, all covenants except sunbros and Company of Champions are run and made with non-godlike characters, could gods' powers dwindle so much that they strongly need representatives to do something?
Another question is, aren't some gods actually Dark-related? Nito looks like being covered in the Dark, infects you with toxins which is never done by Light entities in the series and his attacks despite of dealing magic damage are purple in colour. If FROM had introduced the Dark damage mechanic from the beginning, could they deal dark damage instead? Velka's Rapier has an occult modifier common for weapons buffed by the Dark Ember and one of her miracles is the dark miracles/hex in next DS parts. Mentioned Caitha and Nahr Alma in DS2 are related to items that deal Dark damage, could some gods be corrupted or initially being related to Dark like Velka and then became enemies to Light gods?

[The Fountaineer 🖋]

By the time Dark Souls is even started, the power of the Gods have been long faded. Gwynevere is an illusion run by Gwyndolin, Gwyn himself is a shallow husk of his former self, and Nito (an advocate of Death, not darkness), is asleep in his tomb cause nobody is really dying. pretty sure the gods initially banded together to stop the scourge of ever lasting dragons, a world in which only grey skies and grey fog existed.

[QuetzalCuttle]

Originally posted by Mr. Carcosia:

By the time Dark Souls is even started, the power of the Gods have been long faded. Gwynevere is an illusion run by Gwyndolin, Gwyn himself is a shallow husk of his former self, and Nito (an advocate of Death, not darkness), is asleep in his tomb cause nobody is really dying. pretty sure the gods initially banded together to stop the scourge of ever lasting dragons, a world in which only grey skies and grey fog existed.

Scourge isn't the right word; the dragons sort of represent nature itself, they are clearly very powerfull but don't have any motives, they just exist. Whereas the gods represent civilisation, in order to advance they have to overcome the dragons the same way people have evolved in real life.

You could say that it was a great thing to take the world from the dragons, or you could say it was mass genocide. Thats what makes the story interesting.

[The Fountaineer 🖋]

Yeah that works, I only say scourge because dragons are kinda obnoxious to have around, they can't even die properly and give the player hell throughout the series.