by FoxWound Wed May 02, 2012 11:10 pm
I did the no bonfire thing, and nothing happened. I cloud saved before killing any firekeepers, or beating the game. Id reload each time and only had access to the bonfire at stone dragon, the abyss and firelink altar. My idea was that estus drained humanity from the fire keepers, as did kindling.
I assumed the plot of this game is about the differences between religion/belief and forces of nature/the universe ala dragons(which represent a force of nature in asian culture) and gods/bonfires/humanity(representing something like religion). Religion has been known to mislead and misguide people, or to manipulate them, it is also a construct of man, who's conscience is easily dominated by superficial and materialistic concepts. Petrus is holy, but totally evil, tells you to light bonfires. Leeroy invades you from nito's lair, and he is supposed to be a paladin(his name also comes from WoW in which a dumb/naive paladin ruins the day). Solaire succumbs to the light if you dont intervene, he transforms with the sunlight maggot on his head into pure evil. You find priscilla half human, half dragon sequestered away under the protection of the gods in a painted world that you cannot leave unless you make a "leap of faith." King jeremiah the exile is relatable to jeremiah from hebrew scripture(who became an exile when babylonians conquered jerusalem), and you find his body next to priscilla which lines up with the story of jeremiah. Priscilla is this incarnation of these two forces combined, and jeremiah's message was to bring man closer to god by influencing them to seek out their own humanity and do the right thing. Not to embrace the holy light because someone says to... thats how religion manipulates people.
The firekeepers are imprisoned, and enslaved to watch over the bonfires which ultimately benefit gwyn and the gods. I thought by beating the game without returning to human form, using any bonfires I would get something different, but nope.
Goodluck beating the game without dying. I think a better approach might be that everything in lordran needs to be killed without visiting a bonefire, its almost the same as not dying.