Just something I was thinking about while wandering around the Tomb of Giants. Unlike the rest of the major Lords of Lordran (Gwynn, Izalith, the Four Kings, and Seath), we're never really given explicit detail as to what has been going on with Gravelord Nito for the last thousand years. He's one of the few bosses that we can see.interact with prior to actually fighting him, and when we do find him on our quest to join the Gravelords, he's pretty much settled down for a long winter's nap. Gwyndolin will speak to you from behind the curtain when you join the Darkmoons, the Daughter of Chaos will at least show some signs of life as we feed her Humanity, but Nito doesn't seem to be all there as we pledge allegiance. He's in a deep sleep, and he's not waking up unless we are there for the specific reason of trying to kill him.
It's interesting to think about why such a major character like Nito, who doesn't really have any particular reason to hide from the world (seeing the God of Death would be near the bottom of the strange occurrences in Lordran), would choose to keep himself tucked away and sleeping. And with not a ton of item drop info to go on, I think one of our best hints about why Nito is the way he is comes from our favorite toothy serpent. When Frampt is hiring us to put out the hit on the Lords, he mentions that they've either turned to Darkness, or outlived their usefulness, and given that Nito is probably actually dedicated to keeping the fires lit, what with the Rite of Kindling formerly being in his possession, it's probably the latter of Frampt's accusations that is aimed at the Gravelord. So why has he lost his usefulness? I think it's not only a matter of his losing the Rite of Kindling, but also the fact that, by and large, we don't see a whole lot in Lordran except Undead. You have a citizenship that is quite literally unable to die, and when that happens, what else is there for the God of Death to administrate over? In many ways, Nito's lost just about everything that gave him a purpose: he can't really administer death if no one is actually going to die, and he can't help increase the flame anymore to try and stop people from going Undead. Really, there's nothing for Nito to do but sleep; when we find him, he's not giving any hints of doing anything perhaps for the simple reason that there's nothing left for him to do. And with that in mind, he's every bit a victim of the Curse of the Undead as anyone else, as it has robbed him of all meaning.
Just something I was thinking about while wandering around the Tomb of Giants. Unlike the rest of the major Lords of Lordran (Gwynn, Izalith, the Four Kings, and Seath), we're never really given explicit detail as to what has been going on with Gravelord Nito for the last thousand years. He's one of the few bosses that we can see.interact with prior to actually fighting him, and when we do find him on our quest to join the Gravelords, he's pretty much settled down for a long winter's nap. Gwyndolin will speak to you from behind the curtain when you join the Darkmoons, the Daughter of Chaos will at least show some signs of life as we feed her Humanity, but Nito doesn't seem to be all there as we pledge allegiance. He's in a deep sleep, and he's not waking up unless we are there for the specific reason of trying to kill him.
It's interesting to think about why such a major character like Nito, who doesn't really have any particular reason to hide from the world (seeing the God of Death would be near the bottom of the strange occurrences in Lordran), would choose to keep himself tucked away and sleeping. And with not a ton of item drop info to go on, I think one of our best hints about why Nito is the way he is comes from our favorite toothy serpent. When Frampt is hiring us to put out the hit on the Lords, he mentions that they've either turned to Darkness, or outlived their usefulness, and given that Nito is probably actually dedicated to keeping the fires lit, what with the Rite of Kindling formerly being in his possession, it's probably the latter of Frampt's accusations that is aimed at the Gravelord. So why has he lost his usefulness? I think it's not only a matter of his losing the Rite of Kindling, but also the fact that, by and large, we don't see a whole lot in Lordran except Undead. You have a citizenship that is quite literally unable to die, and when that happens, what else is there for the God of Death to administrate over? In many ways, Nito's lost just about everything that gave him a purpose: he can't really administer death if no one is actually going to die, and he can't help increase the flame anymore to try and stop people from going Undead. Really, there's nothing for Nito to do but sleep; when we find him, he's not giving any hints of doing anything perhaps for the simple reason that there's nothing left for him to do. And with that in mind, he's every bit a victim of the Curse of the Undead as anyone else, as it has robbed him of all meaning.