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I played through Dark Souls and sort of managed to follow the story most of the way, but ended up getting lost towards the end. By the end, I really had no idea why I was fighting Lord Gwyn or what significance rekindling the fire vs letting it die out played.

Can someone explain to me, story-wise, why our character wants to kill Lord Gwyn? If you want to let the fire he kindled die, it makes sense you have to kill him, but I don't understand why you have to kill him if you want the fire to keep burning. Right now the only motivation I understand is "because that's how you end the game".

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The story in Dark Souls is vague, and you only really get bits and pieces of it that you kind of have to align, and even then it doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense. I pulled some of this from Wikipedia, and others from plot discussion threads. Since the plot is sort of underdeveloped, canonical sources are hard to come by.

Some plot spoilers (I guess?) follow:

A long time ago, dragons ruled the world. The Fire of Lords was lit, and Lords and humans came into the world, although no one remembers how. The first Lords conquered the dragons and began a golden age called The Age of Fire, where powerful Lords/gods rule over the world. The Age of Fire only lasts as long as the Fire of Lords is lit. As the fire started to fade, Gwyn (one of the first Lords who conquered the dragons) linked his soul to it to keep it burning. There is some speculation that this event caused some bad side effects, including the Darksign.

Here's where the protagonist comes in. You are "destined" to replace Gwyn's soul as the soul keeping the fire burning. Most of the things you are fighting are descendants, consequences, leftovers, or failed experiments of the original Lords. At the end of the game, you can choose to take over and continue the Age of Fire, or end the Age of Fire and bring about the Age of Darkness (thereby giving humans dominion).

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Part of what I'm not clear on is... couldn't we just NOT kill Gwyn to keep the fire burning? Why do we need to kill him and then kindle it ourselves? Can he just not keep it going by himself? And if not and he made the sacrifice in the first place, wouldn't he welcome letting someone else take over? I've reworked my question a bit to include this, since I guess it's pretty obvious why you'd kill him if you want the fire to die. – Sterno Jan 6 '12 at 1:11
@Sterno, There's some speculation that you're being lied to when you're asked to rekindle the flame, and that you're actually supposed to be the decedent of the Pygmy, and are destined to bring about the Age of Darkness. This would probably be upsetting towards Gwyn. All the plot stuff is pretty speculative though, so you might as well just shrug and stab everything you see. It probably did something wrong to somebody, somewhere. – agent86♦ Jan 6 '12 at 2:17
I think that kind of fits with what I'd read when poking around before asking... you pretty much can't trust anything that comes out of an NPCs mouth, which means what you believe might be benevolent if you want to rekindle the flame is really something bad and which Gwyn is against. Which might explain why he'll fight you no matter which ending you're going for. – Sterno Jan 6 '12 at 3:11
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Hmm. Almost a year after this question was asked, I think I can provide some insight for any who arrive at this page through Google, as I did. Why allowing Gwyn to live if you want to continue the Age of Fire is essential is because he linked its life to his own soul, but that was a mistake. His quest to save the world from Darkness not only failed, but backfired spectacularly. When Lord Gwyn went hollow, the Fire of Lords was corrupted, creating the Darksign and turning all who once served Gwyn as Lord of Light into evil parodies of themselves. They all, effectively, became hollow soldiers with a desire only to kill. Since the hero has not lost his/her mind and soul to going Hollow, the Age of Fire can be continued. What, exactly, that means is vague. Somehow the Fire of Lords is purified, but I don't think that means no more Darksign/Undead, but I can't personally rule that out. It is reasonable to assume that some of the damage done by the Hollowing of Lord Gwyn is undone when he is destroyed, and new undead/bearers of the Darksign will not appear. Perhaps, even, existing undead will no longer go hollow if they are not already lost.

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