Elf Knight swears to find cure for Bleeding Saint's condition.
Spurned Witch becomes devoted to bringing about Elf Knight's ruin.
Elf Knight fails to cure Bleeding Saint.
Elf Knight relinquishes his knighthood, is reborn as Wayfarer Elf.
Spurned Witch and Wayfarer Elf discover new purpose.
Spurned Witch and Wayfarer Elf spend a lifetime together pursuing this.
Spurned Witch and Wayfarer Elf did not love each other.
Here are the puzzle pieces, as near as I can figure.
Saint Serreta
Saint, from what I can tell, has a dual meaning in Souls churches. Well, a singular meaning, but with a dual implication. The singular meaning is something like 'this is someone with some kind of exceedingly rare talent ability or gift...' and the secondary meanings are
'...and is therefore an asset.'
'...and is therefore a threat.'
With the synthesis being something like 'They should therefore be both defended and watched.'
Serreta, again this is just from my semi-advanced guesswork, might relate to the word serrate, and possibly the Latin 'serratus'. My guess is that her name means something like 'one who is sawn into tiny pieces' or 'one who saws into tiny pieces' or even 'one who tears/is torn into pieces by tiny saws.'
Why do I think an insane thing like that?
Because I think Serreta had a sickness very similar to what Irina of Carim had.
The only other meaning of the name I could find, but can't really make sense of, is a type of noseband for horses. Nosebands are used to control and direct a horse. This has an obvious enough meaning in a religious context, particularly with the treatment women generally receive at the hands of religion, both in-game and out. I just can't figure out where the word itself comes from, apart from people being into show-horses being difficult & unpleasant people in general.
Serreta and Zullie, I think, represent the dynamic at play in Irina and mirrored in Eygon. Because of Irina's indoctrination, she's trapped in a situation where she is terrified of the very thing that makes her a Saint: her potential as a Firekeeper, as she would seem to have the condition that allows her to store a potentially infinite amount of Dark/Deep with minimal consequences.
Barring infection.
Irina would pretty clearly seem to be infected with the same gnawing blood worms we find all over the Cathedral of the Deep, likely picked up on the Road of Sacrifices when they were attacked by infested hounds in their sleep.
If Irina were able to embrace her own nature, if she had managed to resist the lessons drilled into her head from childhood that she was supposed to hate and fear her own body, she would easily be able to address the infection. Probably it would be as simple as doing something like casting Power Within or Flash Sweat, as the worms seem to really not like heat.
But she can't. Because she thinks she needs a hero to come rescue her.
So, in her ignorance, she thinks the gnawing and the Dark are one and the same, and her fear prevents her from ever gaining any understanding of her condition or acceptance of her shadow self.
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Alva the Wayfarer
His name probably derives from the same 'alf' root as Alvina and Elfriede, which is kind of a hybrid of alf/elf and the Latin albus, meaning white ('albino' derives from it). "Elven [Male]" or "[The] White" could be translations.
In Scholar I hypothesized that Alva belonged to the same order of Old Guard knights as the Afflicted Graverobber and Bradley. Their armor is described as being designed for maximum strength/weight, a technique we later see associated with Llewellyn of Mirrah. In the third game Alva is associated with the Murakumo, although it seems he may have picked the weapon up after being reborn as a wanderer. The sword would indicate that he was probably a dex-favoring quality build, and his associations would imply that he had at least some access to miracles.
The later games describes him in terms of a tragic tales sung by troubadours, who were associated with Elana and the high-Olaphis period. By extension, song is associated with the Dead Soul.
Alva was also probably pretty dumb, otherwise he would've been spread way too thin, statwise. In other words, his quest to help the saint was likely noble but misguided, and the hardships he endured as a result of his failure smartened him up. As a result, he turned away from the light enough to find (or rediscover a lost) purpose and earn Zullie's respect.
I'm not going to speculate too much on what Alva and Zullie's new purpose was, as there's still going to be way too much to unravel at the end of this.
Zullie the Witch
Zullie's set has three headpieces, and is clearly designed to turn heads, although in a much more upscale sense than the Jugo sorceresses. The Dress is purple, associating it with (in DS2's color scheme,) Dark rather than Fire (purple poison in DS1 was associated with pyromancy, whereas green is in DS2 by virtue of...well, it's complicated).
The pointed hat that she wears is designed to be seen as a proud display of her status and heritage, rather than as the kind of mark of shame or perversion we see associated with Karla or the witch in Demon'ses Souls (I'm not saying her name to avoid confusions's and further tangents). The hat grants an additional attunement slot, indicating that it is magical and probably specifically built to last.
The veil, on the other hand, is worn to conceal her identity, including her implied attractiveness. The veil has high magic defense and makes the wearer immune to curses, which is the kind of thing you'd wear if there was a price on your head. I think I recall that the third game describes it as being worn while traveling.
The Domino Mask, we can assume, is meant to portray her as a shrewd political operator, as it looks a lot like a mask you'd wear at a Masquerade Ball, which are almost always associated with Machiavellian rich people shit. The implication is probably that this was the only way Zullie was allowed in polite society. I have no idea why we find it where we do in the third game.
It should be pointed out that people like Zullie may not be people. Or at least not people like Alva and Serreta are people. Alva and Serrata are hollows possessing, at least to some extent and at some point, souls and humanity. Zullie, given witches' association with Izalith, may be a hollow possessing/being possessed by a symbiotic parasite containing souls and humanity. This could explain her and Alva's romantic disinterest in each other, as it seems like twue wuv would be about the only thing that would make her change her mind about Alva. So this would seem to imply that Zullie's overall motivations and character remained constant while Alva had the change of heart.
Zullie seems to have inspired several devotees/imitators/associates across Drangleic. These include the Gutter Denizen, the Bell Keeper Mage, and the Dual Avelyn Bell Keeper. The Gutter Denizen appears after lighting all the torches in the Gutter, and is a male wearing the veiled version of Zullie's set. The two Bell Keepers (not literal Bell Keepers, but members of the covenant,) appear in Belfry Sol. The mage is dressed as an Astrologist and can drop a copy of the veil, while the Avelyn user is dressed as a Manikin, and can drop the Domino Mask. Maybe this is meant to imply that Zullie was once one of King Alken's talented but dubious guests.
Zullie's Black Witch's Staff is used by the Leydia Black apostles, as well as Peculiar Kindalur, who invades towards the end of Amana. The staff can cast sorceries, miracles, and hexes. I think it would be pretty safe to assume that Zullie dates to Olaphis or before, and that she may have been associated with the Leydia at some point.
Zullie's full set, with the Witch Hat, is sold by Navlaan. I have no idea if it's related, but Navlaan also sells the Astrologists Set worn by the Bell Keeper Mage.
To tie this back to Serreta and the kafkatrap of sainthood, Zullie might represent the 'shadow self'' that Serreta/Irina were taught to fear and reject. It could be argued that, in the third game, the Champion of Ash manages to 'cure' Irina by both liberating her from the church (represented by Eygon,) and forcing her to confront and come to terms with the Dark (by having her teach us Dark miracles). Of course, for Irina this probably just means something like she gets to hang out in the Bell Tower until the Firekeeper needs a new vessel. For Zullie and Serreta, this 'cure by reunification' could only have happened if Zullie had been more 'of the light,' in the sense of being more of a Compliant Housewife Barbie, and therefore more inclined to be charitable towards Serreta's plight and Alva's early endeavors. Conversely, Serreta, I think, could have probably liberated herself from her plight had she taken more of an Esmerelda Weatherwax approach to life.
(This footage is silent)
The relationship between Alva and Serreta may have had a similar dynamic as Eygon and Irina in the third game, although Serreta possibly wasn't accompanying Alva on his journey for a cure. The church of Olaphis, as I hypothesize in Scholar, was descended from the early Way of White and represents a schism in the church that possibly predates the rise of the WoW in Thorolund. The Olaphis White church was eventually taken over by Elana. As a result, when the rulership of Olaphis was overthrown at the start of what would become the Venn-Alken civil war, the clergy and other Olaph loyalists were rounded up and executed, presumably by being thrown into the Majula pit (hence 'Grave of Saints'). Survivors, the Archdrake Sect, eventually relocated to Lindelt/Volgen, where they altered/buried their own history and set up a monastery that would transform the region into the 'new home of miracles.' The Lindelt Sect may be working with Carim, and Carim may have been involved with Shulva, but it's impossible to say if Carim was involved with the pre-Shulva Olaph White church. My guess is that they weren't.
Regardless of the truth of the church, because of the fall of Olaphis, even if Alva had been successful in his original journey it would have probably made little difference for Serreta, her faith, or Alva's status as a Knight of the [at the time not very] Old Guard. In fact, the fall of the empire may have been what resulted in Alva's failure, with the knight being away from the kingdom searching for a cure when the waste matter impacted the ventilation system in Shulva.
Zullie is described as having used 'all manner' of tricks, deception, and seduction to ruin Alva's quest. It's unclear if any of these were successful, or if Zullie was personally responsible for Alva's failure. The nature and motivations of witches are unclear. They seem to be despised by both academic sorcerers and faith-based institutions. There's a possibility that they're descended from Izalith, and represent a faction of fire sorcerers/shamans/priestesses that responded to Chaos by rejecting their own nature.
What I mean is this.
Chaos is the result of a semi-failed attempt to re-create/copy the First Flame using Izalith's Lord Soul. It seems like this is meant to be a pretty obvious metaphor for nuclear weapons.
In the United States there's a testing site in the New Mexico desert called Trinity. Trinity is where mankind set off the Gadget. In the lead up to the test there was a concern that the Gadget might initiate a chain-reaction in the earth's atmosphere that would cause all of the air to explode.
All of it.
Everywhere.
Anyway, so Izalith does something like this and gets results closer to that. By my current reckoning there have been at least 5 different responses to Chaos.
Quelaag and the Fair Lady use it to breed demons, which I assume works the same way as with Ninja Turtles. The Chaos Servants' approach is that of a warrior: no spells, no tricks, just big goddamn soldiers and gang tactics.
Quelana and Salaman's approach was to selectively breed out the Dark aspect and thereby refine and stabilize Chaos into the much more manageable pyromancy, although there were side-effects. This is the approach of a scholar.
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Olaphis, before the purges and before even the church took over, attempted to improve on formula, in an event I think of as the Lost Sin of Amana, which probably led to the purges. For some reason this event seems to have, in some sense, completely removed the Fire aspect and may have led to a bunch of second-order problems. This is the approach of madmen.
At some point it seems like people started trying to link anything that would burn to the First Flame system in light of the First Flame failing, leading to the Diesel-and-Pus-Powered-First-Flame-The-XVII we're asked to puzzle out in the third game. This is the approach of desperate madmen.
Witches seem to have responded to Chaos by rejecting Fire, even if their other relations and motivations remain obscure or unique to them as individuals. From the perspective of Izalith this approach may be, as they say, the truest homage to an enduring self.
