Despite her rather prominent presence in the Boreal Valley, Gwynevere is noticeably absent from the record during the rise and subsequent tyranny of Pontiff Sulyvahn. There is no mention of the goddess being confined to the Anor Londo cathedral like Gwyndolin, and her old seat there remains empty. Neither is there reference to her being enslaved or otherwise degraded like her progeny with Flann. Why is she nowhere to be found during these critical years when she was such a public figure in the country’s past? Where had she gone to avoid the fate of her kin? The answer is that, by that point, she had already gone off and become the Queen of Lothric.

The Divine Blessing — and by extension its Hidden Blessing counterpart — is Gwynevere’s holy water from past games down to the exact same vial with ornate nature imagery it is contained in. The item even retains the same name, which is more accurately translated as “blessing of the goddess” (女神の祝福) to signify its specific owner’s divinity. Yet now they are handouts from a queen who just so happens to also be considered a goddess of good harvest and grace, in a human kingdom where piety is paramount. How convenient for this god-queen to have the same power to bless water with healing properties and recreate the exact same vessel to contain them in — it is almost as if they are the same person.

Holy water that the Queen of Lothric is considered to have blessed.

Completely recovers HP and cures all abnormalities.

It is said that she was the wife of the previous king Oceiros and was even likened to a goddess of good harvest and grace, but she disappeared after giving birth to her youngest child, Ocelotte.

Then there is Gertrude. The Queen of Lothric’s daughter served her as a holy woman with the unique miracle Bountiful Light. Its name and effect is clearly derived from Gwynevere’s Bountiful Sunlight spell, only weaker in power; coinciding with this, the magic looks more yellowish white than reddish orange. How convenient that the Queen’s child inherited a lesser version of the goddess’ miracle — it is almost as if they were mother and daughter. Adding to that, notice that human holy women attended to the Queen the same as Gwynevere during her days in Anor Londo; it may not even have been the first time that such a role fell upon a daughter. The Dancer’s soul can create one of the two miracles that Gwynevere had taught her covenant of holy women, making it possible for the young medial to have also once served as her mother’s divine attendant.

Miracle said to have been specially imparted to holy women who served the Princess of the Sun’s Light.

Greatly recovers HP, greatly including the surroundings.

The miracles of Gwynevere, who was loved by all, distributed their blessings to warriors widely.

Next is with regards to Gwynevere’s children as a whole. The descriptions for both Bountiful Sunlight and the Sun Princess Ring mention the goddess becoming a wife and mother, but the latter follows it up with a curious statement: she then bore “exalted” children. Tattoi (貴い) typically translates to “noble” or “precious”, but it can also be used in a spiritual sense to describe men and gods alike. Why essentially say that a god is birthing holy children? That much is obvious, unless there is something otherwise less than sacred about them — especially when compared to her previous medial offspring. The wording suggests that she birthed these children separately, with a different father. Perhaps the goddess’ new children were neither pureblooded medials nor sired by a god, making them most likely humans with the blood of divine royalty and thereby exalted.

Ring associated with the Princess of the Sun’s Light Gwynevere, known as the eldest daughter of Oldest King Gwyn.

It is slightly warm like sunlight. Slowly recovers HP.

She who left her homeland along with many gods eventually became a wife and a mother. It is said that she then bore exalted children.

Moreover, the Sun Princess Ring itself is suspect. While named the same as the Ring of the Sun Princess (太陽の王女の指輪) from the original Dark Souls, (DS1) this golden band doesn’t share its design. At best, the ring vaguely patterns its shape after the original’s etchings, but this design more resembles the silver pendants used by Blades of the Darkmoon. The two rings’ effects also differ. The new ring heals HP slowly over time like Bountiful Sunlight, but the original improved synergy with Lloyd’s white aureoles. Since those coronas disappeared following the previous Allfather’s fall from grace, it would make sense to craft a new ring with a different effect, hence the more Irithyllian style. But this new ring isn’t a generic covenant ring, it is associated specifically with Gwynevere. Put simply, it is her personal finger band, much like the rings of Gwyn’s Four Knights. The fact that the item is lying by itself in front of the goddess’ seat at the Anor Londo cathedral implies that she left it there herself. Why? Most likely to signify leaving her past with Anor Londo behind as she made her departure from Irithyll.

Combining the ring’s description with its location, and Gwynevere evidently went onto sire human-medial children after permanently leaving home. But this second flight abroad couldn’t have occurred without her younger brother’s notice, so the new Allfather must have permitted her leave, and for a good reason — such as a political marriage decided between him and another country’s King. And who would the god be willing to marry his beloved sister off to except the King of Lothric, steward of the current firelinking system? The Queen of Lothric ultimately sired four children with Oceiros, and their mother being a medial would account for the sons’ larger than average size for humans without simply hand-waving it as artistic license. And they were most certainly considered holy.

The stone-humped hag met at the Dreg Heap sells Lothric currency as well as the Queen’s holy waters, suggesting a connection to the kingdom’s royalty. Indeed, the old woman implies close familiarity with Prince Lorian, having heard him regale her about the chaos demons he battled. And unsurprisingly, the menu graphic for her ashes shows her wearing the Priestess Ring, although the artwork has been erroneously flipped. This means that the Hollow of Londor was once one of Lothric’s High Priestesses who serve as the princes’ wet nurses — in her case, raising Lorian. The description for her ashes admit as much, except they reference the prince as kijin. (貴人) Since he is not a nobleman, these kanji best translate to “exalted person” the same as Gwynevere’s later children. In short, it implies that Lorian is one of those sacred offspring.

Ashen remains of the lid-covered old woman.

Nothing but mere shadows of their former selves pile up in the Drift. Even the old woman was once an exalted person’s wet nurse.

Then there is the Queen’s queenly duties. Aside from her daughter embracing the monastic life, the royal mother made her own moves to align herself with the religious Pillar. It is she who was presented with the crystallized ash version of Firelink Shrine’s Estus Rings and decided to enshrine it among the unkindled in the graveyard the Lothric church oversees. It is she who likewise gifted cold variants of her holy water for when those ash awaken from their burial, including potentially ourselves. By all indications, the Queen was granted oversight of the Cemetery of Ash. With this, comes authority over at least part of the local church as well as the all-important firelinking system both Lothric and Irithyll treasure. Who better to be the lead caretaker of unwanted yet needed emergency firelinkers than a motherly goddess who united the two royalties?

Ash crystal ring made from fragments. Boosts the FP recovery amount of Est Ash Bottle.

It is said that it was originally brought to the Queen at one point and that she enshrined it in the Unrelated Graveyard. So that a fireless ash would someday get ahold of it.

And with the Queen’s departure comes the final nail in the coffin. During Lothric’s final days, the men had “forgotten” the Princess of Sunlight’s caress and bounty, according to Projected Heal’s description. The reference to Gwynevere’s two miracles is obvious, doubly so in the original script; iyashi (癒し) and megumi (恵み) are the exact same terms employed in the Japanese names for Soothing and Bountiful Sunlight, referencing the respective “comfort” and “grace” of the sun’s light. In other words, the description is a wordplay on the men losing these aspects of her both physically and miracle-wise. This prompted them to spin a crude yet earnest story of the goddess that became this miracle, which functions as another slightly different and less powerful version of Gwynevere’s spells.

Miracle that was discovered in Lothric in its final period.

Throws a light and recovers HP of the impact point’s surroundings.

The men who had forgotten the Princess of the Sun’s Light’s comfort and grace nevertheless pictured her retreating figure and spun a crude but earnest story.

Already this confirms that the goddess was present in Lothric during the last days that it was a functional state, but the connections run much deeper. When using their memory of Gwynevere to capture maybe a fragment of the goddess’ power, these men of Lothric specifically picture her retreating figure. This implies that the reason for them losing the goddess was that she simply walked away from them all, hence why they needed to write down a tale to retain some memory of her. How convenient that these events occurred during the same period that the Queen of Lothric had suddenly vanished, presumably having left in a similar manner after the trauma that she endured — it is almost as if they are the same person.

This leaves no reason to doubt that the Queen was the genuine article and not some relative or pretender. To perform her royal duties, the goddess left her and Flann’s children behind in the Boreal Valley, making her absent during Sulyvahn’s subsequent coup. As Queen of Lothric, Gwynevere could only accept the Pontiff’s public testimony and respect her new husband’s close collaboration with him; she may not have even known the current status of her children. Indeed, the decision to exile the Dancer as an outrider knight in command of the others may well have been a conscious choice on the crafty pope’s part. With Lothric in chaos, sending the daughter of its Queen would make it easier to reach out and reestablish diplomacy, assuming that the royals were still in charge and faithful to the gods. At worst, she could help smooth over Irithyll’s unwelcomed invasion. And if her relation to Gwynevere proved irrelevant, then there were other benefits from having a descendant of Anor Londo royalty there.

But even if that was Sulyvahn’s intent, the Queen had already left the country when the Dancer arrived. When it came to her final child, the Queen’s disappearance at the onset of her white dragon husband’s madness is so eerily reminiscent of Gwynevere’s past that one cannot blame the royal for fleeing from that horror show a second time. As to where the Princess of Sunlight has absconded to this time, who knows? There is no evidence of her fleeing with anyone else, and she definitely didn’t return to Irithyll. The goddess may have simply headed far and away from Lothric, hoping once again to escape her royal duties and wash her hands of all the turmoil and heartache that she has been forced to endure alone — this time, for good.

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