In this post I'm going to attempt to provide a list of all the possible Heavenly Children/descendants/handmaidens/Princess Guards of Gwynevere.
I don't think all or even most of the following actually qualify as children or handmaidens, but I'm trying to be as inclusive as possible. My Spider Sense is telling me I forgot someone, so probably there'll be an update and this sentence won't be here in the future.
Dark Souls 1
Priscilla - Seath is most likely the father, and her 'birth' may have technically been more of a 'creation.' Additionally, she seems to be related in some way to the albino rats we find around the painting. Priscilla is able to turn fully invisible, which mortals are normally unable to do because of the possibility of 'dissolution.' She is also the first frost sorcerer we find in the series. Later characters associated with frost include Ivory/Alsanna in the second game, and Elfriede, Sulyvahn & the witchtrees from the third. Priscilla might be too young to be Gwynevere's. Priscilla has a complicated relationship with King Jeremiah and a fairly impenetrable relationship with Velka, who is at least as likely as Gwynevere to be P's mother.
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| She's part rat, you see. |
House Thorolund [ancestrally, includes Reah] - Gwynevere would have ruled Anor Londo from the period following the exile of the Nameless King until her exodus (assuming she wasn't deposed beforehand). In my opinion the exodus leads directly to the rise of Olaphis, but it's possible that she spent time in other lands on the way. I mention this as a possibility, but Hawkshaw's recent Ash Lake/Occult Rebellion series may have made some things more clear about the history and legitimacy of the White. [ENB] made a video a long time ago tying Gwynevere, or her illusion, to the Way of White. An 'Allfather Lloyd was a fraud' reading would seem to preclude the direct involvement of a member of the actual royal family in the early church, as I don't think the Gods of Lordran would take kindly to a human outlander pretending to be their senior. However, as time went on and the situation in Anor grew more dire an alliance becomes possible, especially considering Gwynevere would have been the third 'king' of the gods.
House Astora [ancestrally, and doesn't necessary apply to only the ruling house. Includes Ricard, Anastasia, and 'Oscar.' The bloodline probably didn't remain exclusive to the nobles because all nobles all rape always, historically, yes all of them its a fact jack] - As above, although Astora seems much more connected to the offensive miracles of Gwyn and Nameless. It seems like Gwyn's initial plan involved eventually having a noble son of House Astora link the fire as the Chosen Undead when the time came. Unfortunately for Team Anor the men of House Astora, with the exception of maybe Ricard, ended up with like the opposite of hybrid vigor. My current thinking is that the Lothric Royal Family is maybe descended from Astora nobility as well.
Fina - unlikely, but her favor seemingly only extends for as long as Lautrec is about the business of
delivering Ana's soul to Juniper.
Velka - Even less likely, but she does have an unusual relationship with Gwynevere, as first seen in Ricard's Tower.
Ornstein - He may have served as Princess Guard Prime. When the Nameless King outlawed canned drake hunts, or whatever he did, Ornstein sided against his former knight captain. At this point he probably became something like First Knight to the Queen. There's a popular theory that has it that the Ornstein we fight in DS1 is actually an elaborate golem crafted from Ornstein's lord's soul. One possibility is that the real Ornstein may have journeyed with Gwynevere to Drang, and remained behind in Heide when the remaining Olaph-Venn forces quit the field.
Honest Patches the Jolly Undead Outcast - Complicated and unlikely, but implied to be Undead Champion Prime, and has a vendetta against the WoW. Patches is actually a really great guy, even if he does occasionally get these urges, particularly around clerics. It's unclear if this is because he's for or against the Old Gods, but it's not impossible that he could himself be related to House Astora or Thorolund.
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| YEAH HES NOT NORMAL LIKE US PATCHES |
Obviously DS2 is a lot less closely connected to the Lordran story, but Gwynevere was involved in the second game. Her journey seems like it took her from Anor Londo to Olaphis, where she was possibly the first queen and/or something like a high priestess. She bore at least one child, Princess Venn, before quitting her station - one assumes due to the emergence of the Curse - to be replaced in olaphis by Elana the Troubadour. From here she reenters the fog of war, but it's possible she relocated to either Mirrah or Volgen-Lindelt. As the Melfian Magic Academy goes out of their way to deny her existence we can presume that the Second Exodus of Gwynevere post-dated the purging of jutsu-shi (magic users).
In the japanese script, sorcery pyromancy and hexery(?) are referred to as majutsu, jujutshu, and anjutsu. Jutsu means something like skill, art, or discipline, so Magic Skill, Shaman Skill, and Dark Skill. It's more complicated than that, but that's the general idea. A jutsu-shi is an undefined magic user, but not a miracle user, as they use the term 'kiseki,' which just means miracles. To me this classification system clarifies some of the more opaque things regarding the various spell schools in this game.
More on this topic, that I'm probably miscommunicating, here.
My current insane hypothesis is that Lothric was founded by an alliance of Foross, Mir, Volg, and Carimite forces at some point after the Cursebearer takes the throne, to create what would eventually come to be known as Lothric.
Flame God Flann/King Olaphis/Sunken King - I'm pretty sure the conclusion we're meant to draw was that he was Gwynevere's husband, and should be mentioned. It's unclear, even in the first game, whether or not he was native to Lordran. His lack of record in Anor Londo would imply he was from Drang, but his rivalry with Yorgh would imply he was from Lordran, as the Drakeblood-Archdrake war of Shulva seems like it was the precipitating event that led to the final descent of Olaphis into civil war between Venn (Lordran loyalists, Blue faction) and Alken (Drang natives, Red faction).
Flynn - Based on the name and his desire to be seen as a kind of Robin Hood figure, there's a better than zero chance he may have been a prince of Olaphis that bravely fled when Shulva was attacked. He was apparently tiny, packed a mighty punch, was a hero to the poor, and fought by using the wind. It's unclear if this means he literally used wind magic, which is associated with dragons, or if he was just a no-account scumbag that was only fooling himself. I suspect the latter. No I don't know how his parents being giants makes sense.
Queen Venn/The Ivory King - this one I'm almost certain of, with King Olaphis being her father. Moreover, and to kind of tease the problems I'm trying to sort out, I'm pretty sure Gundyr's armor was modeled after hers. If I had to guess, I would assume that from Lothric's perspective, King Ivory was probably the kind of world-altering god-king myth you get when oral traditions slowly evolve into written histories.
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| "So...like a hydroponic thing?" |
Ivory Rhones/Forsalle/Licia/Abbess Feeva/Lindelt Preceptor/Nameless Usurper - You get the idea. Essentially anyone of high enough rank in Lindelt could potentially either be or be descended from Olaph nobility. It's possible that Licia murdered this character as part of her theft of the miracle.
King Vendrick - Ivory was his mother, as near as I can tell.
House Mirrah - has connections to holy water, the Great Smith, and Havel. I suspect Gwynevere relocated here after abandoning Olaphis, possibly re-connecting with survivors of the Occult Rebellion. For reference, Forossa seems to be associated with Nameless' Exile, and Jugo the fall of Izalith.
House Osteria - Alternately, she may have relocated to Volgen, or even traveled there on her way to ur-Drang. I assume HP regen is like Gwynevere's signature blessing.
Sentinel Targray - Longshot, but I suspect he served in a Princess Guard capacity during Olaphis. I'm planning a post based around him later.
Eleum Priestesses - We all assume the line of priestesses was started by Alsanna, but Alsanna is still around, and I'm pretty sure High Priestess is a lifetime gig. It's a longshot, but one or more of them may have been related to Ivory.
Maldron the Assassin - Extra longshot, I just don't understand him.
The Cardinal of Shulva - Unhelpfulest item description ever.
Nehma/Caitha/Hanleth - Even if it were true with N and H, it doesn't seem to connect to anything. Caitha I'd be extremely skeptical of.
DS3
Rosaria - this is one of the more obvious ones. I've have a different theory but it's hard to explain. Well, it's easy to explain but hard to justify. I think maybe the thing in her lap is the actual Heavenly Child, and Rosaria is a saint acting as life support. I think this Child is the reason, lorewise, why Rosaria won't let you keep rebirthing yourself.
Leonhard - Hist ultimate motivation is unclear, but he is a noble and at the least his motivations paint him as some kind of smark Princess Guard/Darkmoon Blade. On top of that, his questline is obviously meant to invoke Lautrec. A surface-level reading paints him as a creepy, murdery, stalker type, but he may be acting out of something like familial obligation. While I don't think it's likely that Leonhard's connection is as direct as being Gwynevere's great-grandchild or anything, I do think it's possible he may be distantly related to the Gods of Anor Londo, perhaps by way of Astora. When we invade his world we find that he has apparently killed Aldritch and Sulyvahn to arrive at his terminus. This heavily suggests that his devotion to his goddess overrode any allegiance he had with the Church, as this would probably make him a multiple god-killer.
The Dancer - a 'distant daughter of the royal family,' Dancer is one of the more obvious candidates. She seems as if she might be related to the Church/Painting Guardians. My thinking is she might be the Lindelt Daughter, as church guardian outfits were seen as traditional, sacred, and ceremonial by the archdrakes. She is/was partnered with Vordt in some way, but it's unclear whether Vordt was a watcher, defender, or both.
The Firekeeper - There's a fairly popular theory that has it that the Firekeeper is Gwynevere herself, or a reincarnation of her.
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Prince Lothric - Lorian's cursed younger twin. Desperate to create a worthy heir of fire, Lothric's birth was achieved by 'unspeakable means.' Among other things, Lothric seems to be dead. He wears what seem to be robes from ancient Izalith, the same worn by the Daughters of Chaos. It could be that these are the only thing keeping Lothric 'alive.' Lothric is a proficient spellcaster, using the 'pure' light-based sorceries associated with Gertrude and the Angels, as well as teleportation and resurrection. It's implied that Lothric was actually much sicker/weaker before Lorian was 'left mute and crippled by his younger brother's curse.' I think the implication is that Lothric was basically the guy from Johnny Got His Gun before this. He was tutored by the First Scholar of the Grand Archives. This tutelage convinced the prince that the 'firelinking curse' should be abandoned, and that the flame should be left to fade. The game would seem to want us to believe that the First Scholar was either Aldia or Kaathe, but even if this isn't the case, FS would have had the insight of one of those characters. After this he seems to have taken up angel worship.
Ocelotte - Less likely that with Oceiros' other children, Ocelotte was created after the King was Ruined by the Paledrake. Described as the Queen's youngest - as well as the possible reason for her abandoning Lothric the Place - Ocelotte is a child of dragons and possibly has the 'invisibility at-will' talent possessed by Priscilla. Ocelotte may not have survived the fight between the Ashen One and Oceiros, although it's possible the child either escaped or had already snuck off before the fight. Of course, maybe it was just From trying to avoid calling down the bad kind of controversy. It's amazing how well they manage to skirt that edge. I imagine if the overall story of Souls were any less impenetrable then I imagine the games' treatment of religion, society, patriarchy and so on would draw a lot more ire if it didn't require dozens of hours of detective work, followed by dozens of more hours of reflecting on it through a feminist, marxist, luciferian, and/or peoples' historiographic framework to even understand the story well enough to understand that those kinds of criticisms were on offer.
The Ashen Painter - A longshot, but if Priscilla was related it's possible the Painter is related.
Shira - as with Priscilla, Shira may have been created by Seathe. Shira is a dragon-slayer-caliber knight and may have existed since the Dragon War along with the Pygmy Knights, but was written out of history because, well, like I said with Ocelotte. Given the timeline, it's actually slightly more likely that Shira is related to Gwynevere than Priscilla, as the events surrounding the Painting may not have happened until after the Exodus.
Gertrude - Gertrude was visited by an angel. This visitation left Gertrude mute and insane, and she was only able to record the encounter in a fragmentary scrawl, the study of which was forbidden. Everyone puzzles over this, even though the Stone Humped Hag (ahem) spells it out for us.
