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Anybody have any thoughts on what the story behind the rebel Raime might be? He's rarely ever mentioned, I only found out he existed when I found the Rebel's Greatshield down in the fire-salamander pit in Forest of the Fallen Giants. Here's what the shield description says:

"Shield of the rebel Raime.
Raime and Velstadt were known as the left- and right-arms of the King, until their wills clashed, and Raime was deemed a traitor.
The black raven is despised as an augur of death, but it was Raime's favorite bird."

Velstadt is pretty interesting and you come across him in the story, he's loyal to Vendrick till the end and beyond, but as far as I know Raime is never seen and only mentioned in this one item. What makes it so much more interesting to speculate on is the fact that although he was equal in rank to Velstadt his will clashed and Raime was deemed a traitor, so there has to be a lot of meat on that story but his existence is practically hidden. Then it gets even better, Raime's favorite bird is the black raven, which represents the Carim Goddess Velka from DS1. The raven people like the blacksmith Ornifex are all worshipers of Velka who turned into raven hybrids due to their zeal and adherence to Velka. Velka herself has never been seen as far as I know, and yet she's one of my favorite characters because of how little is known of her, yet the little we do know leads you to believe she was a huge deal, very powerful, extremely intelligent, and a real threat to the Gods. At least a real threat to Seath for some reason since he was the one to banish her from Anor Londo. The black ravens are clear symbology to Velka in the series so any time I see or hear about them I wonder what strings she might have pulled in the stories, and where her influence might be showing up.

There's no substantive or clear evidence to tie her to anything ever, really, but her power, intelligence, and shady nature lead me to believe that she could be involved in anything, working in mysterious ways. Yet none of it can be proved.

i now have a copy of Dark Souls 2...i'm still very early in the game, just been farming souls in the first area of the Forest of Fallen Giants...I believe it's called the Crestfallen Keep.  I made a small push forward last night after killing the Heide Knight and got the Heide Knight Sword, and poured some souls into Dexterity so my Knight could wield it.  i found a bonfire further up and rested there, ending my session.  more progress later...

Awesome! Keep us up to date on how it's going and what you think of the game. What platform are you playing it on?

To all the Dark Souls 2 veterans,

Should I even bother with magic in this game? I mostly tank/melee through Demons Souls/Dark Souls 1, and two handed great sword weapons and STR/VIT is my usual char build. Will I have a hard time getting through Dark Souls 2 this way? Y'all have been pretty loud about Faith builds in this game, which I usually avoid. Also which bow is best? I usually also use bow/arrow for enemy pull, not so much as a damage weapon. 

All the bows kinda suck in Dark Souls 2, you just have to find which one sucks the least for your character. For the first 30 hours of the game I was stuck with the Short Bow, but in No-Man's Wharf the Varangian archers that shoot at you can rarely drop a Sea Bow, which is better than the Short Bow, it has longer range and higher damage. If you're lucky enough to come across the Sea Bow, upgrade it a few times and stick with it most of the game. It isn't until late in the game at Drangleic Castle that I came across the Hunter's Black Bow, which has lower range but I think it has better Dexterity scaling so does a little more damage once you upgrade it all the way.

Pretty much all the bow combat sucks in DS2, but if you really like it and want to use it to lure enemies and snipe people, it all comes down to finding which bows suck the least. Sea Bow is good for early-to-mid game, and the Hunters Black Bow is fine enough for end game. There's some boss weapons like the Dragon Rider Great Bow, but it's nothing special, it does more damage but you can only shoot it twice because it drains a ton of stamina per shot. With the Hunters Black Bow you can shoot three times before getting gassed so it compensates well enough. You need at least 25 Dexterity to wield the Black Bow.

Faith magic is awesome in DS2, it's super fast to use and way more powerful than my melee tank build. There's nothing better than basically building Zeus and ripping bosses apart with lightning spears. Most bosses in the game are weak to the lightning because there's way more bosses that use Dark magic in this game. Bosses that were huge pains in the ass during my first playthrough are much simpler now that I can use lightning bolts on them.

Don't worry, you can still build a super powerful Faith character and still wear decent armor, wield greatswords, and deal with up close melee combat. You don't have to make a fragile character that just wears light robes and can't use swords and bows. My character uses pretty much everything. My Faith build has 45 Faith, does huge lightning damage, and I use an upgraded Chime (those are used for Miracles and Hexes), and I have a Drangleic shield, a Fire Bastard Sword +8, Lightning Bastard Sword +8, and a Lightning Short Bow +1. Almost all the characters in the game are weak to either lightning or fire, so having great swords that are embued with those is good to have. Plus, your lightning and fire weapons will scale a bunch with Faith so it'll make them way more powerful.

I think in my third playthrough I'm going to do an Intelligence build so that I can get an idea for how Magic damage swords, catalysts, spells, and INT scaling feel. I never played with magic in a Souls game until now, I always thought it was dumb. Turns out it's not, it's actually cool, and especially faster and funner to use in DS2.

 Ok, let's do this shit:

Favourite Boss: Executioner's Chariot
Least Favourite Boss: Freja - I cut both her heads off and couldn't finish the fight. Now that's fucking bullshit.

Hardest Boss: Ruin Sentinels (Yeah. I found the third boss I fought harder than any other in the game.)
Easiest Boss: Coveteous Demon - What a fucking joke. Also, Magnus + Congregation. They were easy as piss.

Favourite Area: Shrine of Amana. I especially loved the song being hummed. It was very reminiscent of the Once Royal Mistress from the Tower of Latria in Demon's Souls. The sheer drops were a pain though, as were the casters. But I really dug the Lizard Men enemies. They were creepy in all the right ways.

Least Favourite Area: Black Gultch. Thank Christ it was short. Those fucking poison statues can go fuck themselves.

Favourite Weapon: Flaming Halberdt +10

Favorite Boss: Giant Lord - The giants are awesome and often terrifying in this game, and the King of Giants is the coolest of them all. I like the way he looks and the scenery of the battle that's going on around the Forest of Fallen Giants fort during the flashback that he's in.

Least Favorite Boss: Smelter Demon - It's a grindy battle of attrition and math. He's easy to read and fight, but since I never have a 100% Fire Defense shield he always catches me on fire and it drains my health almost constantly throughout the battle, meaning I need to find the right time to heal, use an Elizabeth Mushroom, or just have a ton of health for him to drain from me.

Hardest Boss: Mytha The Baneful Queen - I can't do this fight without a summon. If I try to fight her ranged she'll use her magic to wreck me, and if I get too close her melee attacks suck all my stamina away and she wrecks me anyways, or squeezes me with her tail and kills me instantly. I always have to summon somebody to distract her the entire time. She's easy to kill once she's distracted, but its impossible for me to do it without that summon.

Easiest Boss: Old Iron King - He's super easy if you use ranged attacks, and hide from his attacks behind the wall on the right side of the arena. The only mildly difficult thing you have to do in the whole fight is dodge his fire laser he shoots out from his palm. All his other attacks can easily be avoided by hiding behind the wall, and everytime he dives into the lava you can walk over to the left side of the arena and he will always pop up there because he is programmed to spawn near the player every time he comes back up from the lava. So you can create a loop where he spawns in the same area every time, you hide behind the wall and shoot him when you can. It's super easy to finish the battle without ever taking damage, or even letting him get close.

Favorite Area: Drangleic Castle - Mastadon Warriors, Syan Knights, Twin Dragon Riders, and Looking Glass Knight are all rad. There's a mysterious painting of the Queen the curses you if you get close, that's rad. There's a sexy Melfinito locked away in the highest tower and the door of her cell has a gross undead chained upside down and making strange noises, that's rad. There's a ghost Duke that tells you stories and sells you things. The castle is super good.

Least Favorite Area: Belfry Luna - The dwarfs are shits because they can do tons of damage through shields. So instead of trying to guard yourself you have to run up and spam them with two-handed attacks, hoping that they die before you run out of stamina. There's four of them plus the dark spirit dwarf invader that gets summoned, all for you to fight in a small area. Then once all of that fun is over, you still have the Belfry Gargoyles to deal with. They're a pain to fight with a melee character, but I had a much easier time with my Faith build using lightning bolts. How difficult the Gargoyles are depends on your build, but the dwarfs in the belltower are annoying no matter what build you have. Despite only having a handful of dwarfs and a handful of gargoyles, this little area packs a punch.

Favorite Weapon: Great Lightning Spear - You can be Zeus and destroy dark monsters and titans with your lightning bolts, it's the best mythical fantasy power trip ever.

I haven't finished the game, but from what I've seen so far, this is my take. (Subject to changes after game completion)
 Favorite Boss: That first boss, the giant tree thing. It rips it's own arm off to beat you with it when it gets mad. How cool is that?
 Least Favorite Boss: The four gargoyles in the Bastille. They appear at about the same time as the ones from Dark Souls 1, but solo all four? It reminded me of 4 kings from Dark Souls 1, and those damned dwarfs leading up to the tower.

Hardest Boss: Pursuer. (Don't laugh!)  It was such a nightmare and felt unfair it gets dropped off by that eagle in the beginner area of the game. I eventually learned it's moves and melee forever taking a bit of health at a time. 
Easiest Boss: The Fat Worm boss that rolls on you thing from the poisin area.

Favorite Area: Iron Keep. Its very heavy metal! I like the look of this place alot. The lava. The metal knights. Turtle knights. 
Least Favorite Area: The shit hole under that pit in Majula. Fuck that place! 

Favorite Weapon: The Fire Long Sword you find early on is super useful, so I have to recommend it, but I also have a Bastard Sword which is currently getting me through tough areas and deals alot of damage.

Here's a great lore theory I found on Reddit regarding who The Rotten was, enjoy!

This is a lore theory I've been thinking about for a long time, and I've even convinced myself on it. I was never one for theory crafting, but I just felt like I should share with you guys. I was told to make it into it's own thread for some reason, so here it is. There are some spoilers in this post, just in-case you missed the warning in the title and the spoiler flair. You've been warned.

Now the identity of the boss in question is The Rotten. I have a very good suspicious feeling that that The Rotten is.... Pharros the Vagabond.

There are numerous failed and discarded experiments that litter the Gutter and Black Gulch that have connections to Aldia's Keep; flesh dogs, poison curing bug, exploding undead, This implies that Aldia could have been using the hole in Majula to dispose of experiments that have gone wrong, or to even prevent some experiments from escaping. As for the Rotten, it's evident that he has an extreme tie to Pharros the Vagabond due to what's around him. The poison spitting statues are directly from the Door of Pharros, you can see them lined up and stored away there. Pharros was known for his cunning inventions, but he was also gifted in creating traps (Grave of Saints and Door of Pharros). This would explain why the Gutter and Black Gulch are littered in poison spitting Pharros Statues. If you cut off the Rotten's right arm, he'll drop a Pharros Lockstone, and there's also another Pharros Lockstone hidden in a pot near the closest bonfire to his fog-wall.

With The Rotten holding the Soul of the Old Dead One in NG+, I have a feeling that Aldia might have kidnapped Pharros (possibly because Pharros was known for accidentally being credited for the the inventions of others, so it might have been jealousy, I'm really not sure) and tried to recreate a Lord (Nito) from the first game, but this obviously failed due to Pharros being transformed into what he is now. The opening cutscene for the Rotten shows him trying to repair one of his statues, which he fails because of his hideously grotesque form. He uses a Giant Butcher's Knife, which can also be found in one of the rooms in Aldia's Keep. In essence, Aldia transformed Pharros into the Rotten in a failed ritual or experiment, and discard Pharros and his statues (along with other experiments) down into the Gutter and Black Gulch.

Favorite Boss: Weird pick, but I'm going to go with the Flexile Sentry. He was easy, but his design was unique and incredibly awesome!

Least Favorite Boss: Smelter Demon. That asshole gave me numerous problems my first time through, and still does on occasions.

Favorite Area: Iron Keep. That place was awesome. I also liked the Belfry area's and their concept of PVP, I had a lot of fun being a Bell-Bro there.

Least Favorite Area: Shrine of Amala, because fuck those casters and the sudden drop-off points.

Favorite Weapon: Depends on my build... Melee Build: Mastadon Great Sword +10. Faith Build: Lighting Bastard Sword +10

I actually like this idea about Dark Souls 2 (speculation of course):
Drangleic IS Lordran thousands of years in the future after Dark Souls. The geography has changed but there are many similar areas. In Hades Tower you can see Anar Londo Ruins in the water. The Iron Keep sank into Izalith. Even the Black Gulch boss resembles Nito.  I think some of the boss souls share names with previous bosses from the last game, so these souls were all reincarnated some how. Of course, I am really forcing a connection to the previous game based on my impressions from my gameplay so far. Am I alone or wrong with this assumption. I really want to believe this.

 

If you beat those four bosses again on NG+, you'll find a nice surprise

A couple of thoughts about trees and Lordran and the opening cutscene...
1) Lordran
Gwenyvere fled Anor Londo along with her husband Flan, god of flame and other gods and settled in Hades Tower, which resembles Anor Londo. However this theory would make Drangleic a seperate location from Lordran and thus the Drangleic-is-future-Lordran wouldnt make sense.  

2) trees and opening video

In the opening video, the main character is standing near a tree and a massive archway missing a door. The tree is covered with fireflies and resemble embers, or at least make the tree appear to be on fire. The fireflies fly around the archway and light torches on the walls. After this happens, the camera pulls far back to a long shot where you can see a castle reflected in a lake and a door appears in the reflection where it does not exist on the surface, which then opens and a whirlpool begins. Does this game take place in a reflection of Lordran? Is this where the gods went to? Into a reflection? Gwenyvere created an illiusion of sunlight, maybe the whole world of Lordran  is an illusion? Or is Drangleic an upside down version of Lordran?

The level progression in the game is very fragmented with dead ends, like branches on a tree. One could say that Majula is the base of the tree, where everything spreads out from there. Also, there is a petrified woman, a pyromancer blocking the path to Drangleic Castle to the north. I suppose getting the fragrant branch of your would allow one to open the path to Drangleic Castle much eariler in the game than expected. Also the trees in the Shaded Woods moan when you hit them, and then there are the giants who turned into trees after dying. 

...
Whoa

Vaati made some videos that really shed some light for me on various topics, so I figured I'd share then here. Enjoy!

Those Vaati vids are pretty good, his ideas about the throne of want and the wants of all the game's main characters put some things in perspective for me. The only thing that still doesn't make any sense is when and how the Giant Lord conquered Drangleic. When Vaati was breaking down the story and sequence of events the conquering of Drangleic wasn't in there. What does the Giant Lord Soul mean by conquer anyways?

The whole sequence of events between Vendrick, Nashandra, Aldia, and the soap opera that occurred between the main Drangleic royalty makes plenty of sense. But the wars between them and giants is where things start getting too muddy. They invaded the giants, won, stole what they stole, and then there was long peace and they built the castle in victory and celebration. Then the giants come back and wage a generations long war. Supposedly some unnamed hero defeated the giants eventually but by the time he did, it was too late anyways. And they also say quite clearly that the Giant Lord conquered Drangleic, so I can't tell what all happened during the war or what they mean by conquered.

I heard one youtuber say that the "unnamed hero" was the player character or some long passed player character, but that doesn't make sense, I don't see how that ties into chosen undeads in any way. Vaati brings up a mysterious point that the throne of want isn't human/pygmy sized, it's naturally a much bigger seat but there's a small human sized niche carved into it. That implies much bigger characters sat in it, like Lords, of even giants, but I can't imagine the DS2 sized giants ever fitting into the kiln to sit in it.

The part where the Giant Lord succeeded in conquering Drangleic, and the part where some unnamed hero defeated the giants both make the whole story seem like nonsense for the moment. Those two specific events don't fit in for me, I can't see the ripples and effects they would've had, or anything. Everything else falls into perspective pretty well, but not those two.

The Giant Lord died, he was killed by the unnamed hero perhaps. You know he died because you kill him in the giant's memory, in which you take the place of the unnamed hero who killed the giant lord long ago, you're reliving that memory. What exactly did he conquer then, he obviously didn't kill Vendrick, Nashandra, or sit the throne, if he died right there in the Forest of Fallen Giant's ancient fort. Vendrick went on to seperate himself from his soul (protecting it in Shrine of Amana), and falling back to the Undead Crypt with Veldstatd beyond the Shrine in order to protect the King's Ring so Nashandra couldn't ever get it. Nashandra isn't dead or hollow, so I have no clue what they mean by the Giant Lord conquering Drangleic.

I'm not sure either man. We gotta dig some more though.

And also; I don't think you actually kill the Giant Lord. Instead, I think you simply stun him in to submission and he becomes the Last Giant. Think of it this way; he's the only boss who falls to his knees when you defeat him, and geographically, you're right above the area of the Last Giant, meaning that he could have simply fallen off the edge and into the pit where you find him. Perhaps he was unable to get out and the knights of Drangleic tried to subdue him within that pit, hence the numerous swords in his back and also the rage shown when the Last Giant spots you...

It's almost as if he recognizes you.
Not to mention, he's the only boss who literally tears of a limb while trying to kill you

I was thinking about the same thing. Some force returned to Drangleic to "conquer it" but what evidence is there of an occupation? Were these the forces that destroyed Hades Tower as well? From what I gather, at a certain point the king realized that the curse is a natural part of the flame cycle, when the ember dims the curse appears and the cycle repeats again. The fear of the cursed was the reason for the Bastille, or at least it was transformed into a prison. I read a theory that Hades Tower was used to trick the cursed seeking salvation and were hearded into the cave below and sent to the Bastille, which makes it very sad. Not to mention the Huntsmans Copse and Undead Pergatory were designed for hunting and torturing the cursed. And then some were thrown into the pit in Majula.

But, the king was defending himself from the queen in the end, or at least protecting the "flame" from her. Thus all the traps and challenges setup to strengthen the player to defeat the queen. If not the queen, then what was this other enemy? 

That's cool, I never considered that the last giant might be the Giant Lord. I kinda like that idea, they're both the same type and size of giant. They're the tall slim type of giant as opposed to the shorter stockier ones.

There's two snags to work out in that situation though, first, both have souls. In the present you take the Soul of the Last Giant, and in the memory you take the Giant Lord's Soul. Also when you use the soul of the last giant to make a boss weapon you get a big stone axe, and the Giant Lord uses a sword.

On a side note not related to this, I was surprised that you get a hex from the soul of the Giant Lord when you trade it in. We can tell the giants know pyromancy because they have specific soldiers that do pyromancy, but on top of that the Giant Lord himself knows intelligence and faith, and uses the Repel hex. The giants came from across the northern sea and are somewhat alien, but they seem to be pretty much like humans in everything but size. The have souls, they can use magics (the hex that Giant Lord uses mentions the man Gilleah and how he never took an apprentice so it's unknown how his knowledge passed down), and perhaps they even get the undead curse and go hollow.

The undead curse first came to be when Gwyn saw the first flame dying, he linked the flame and sacrificed himself to bring the fire back and prevent the Age of Man and the ascension of the Dark Lord, and when he linked the flame the undead curse was created. Back in Dark Souls 1 you meet people from outside Lordran that became undead and bore the darksign, meaning that the curse wasn't localized to just Lordran. Various NPCs mention the distant lands they came from and how undead are outcast or even hunted, and often end up finding their way to Lordran.

So it would be reasonable to assume that the curse affected the giants too, and all life across the world even in distant lands.

I was wondering about the world outside of Lordran and Drangleic. In Dark Souls your main character, or player character(PC) starts off in a prison, so I assume you must be from that world? But in Dark Souls 2, there is a knight character in the opening video that is taking a boat to a tree covered in embers and enters Drangleic through a whirlpool in a pond or lake. Does this origin have any significance to the lore or story? Or is it just a cool video for marketing? Who is this character supposed to be in this game becuase you get this "Faram" armor late in the game I believe? Is it just a mascot? In Dark Souls 1 there is a Crow that transports cursed or undead to the Asylum, but your character or PC seems to have entered this world through some kind of worm hole or something other dimensional. I question everything. Everything! I'm liking these theories guys. Im not alone in my obsession. LOL. 

The world of Drangleic is seperate from the outside world, but I'm not sure what the "outside world" means. When you begin the game, the younger woman Milibeth that looks after the three firekeepers in the hut goes on to tell you that the very first area of the game, Things Betwixt, is a limbo between the two worlds. Drangleic and everywhere you visit in the game takes place on one continent, so it would appear that the foreign lands of Melfia, Forossa, wherever the giants came from up north, and whatever other places I'm forgetting are all off the continent. I don't know if those places all constitute the "outside world", or if they are inside the seperated world along with Drangleic.

The opening cinematic of the game doesn't make much sense to me yet. It's clear that the person in the cinematic is being transported to another place, which is in line with what Milibeth tells you, that Things Betwixt is a limbo and Drangleic is seperated from the outside world. The place in the cinematic is awfully dark and dreary, there's never a sun shown, just a moon. And everything you see is in ruins, and there's a firekeeper there giving you the monologue. Then the whirlpool spawns and the undead enters it by falling through. Did anybody else ever notice the mark that shows on your character's body when you're undressed, on my character the mark is on the left shoulder. I'm not sure if it shows when you're human, but certainly when you're hollowed you can see the swirl mark on my character. That mark is perhaps the dark sign? It's a swirl, reminiscent of the whirlpool the person falls into during the opening cinematic.

I usually play without any armor unless I really need a specific buff against some element, but I didn't notice any marks on my char. I have to check next time I play. Im glad Im not alone in thinking about "the outside world". Ever since the opening cut scene I've thought about  the Abyss from DS1 or "Through the Looking Glass" or "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carol. Im not sure if "Things Betwixt" is the Limbo area alone, or the whole of Drangleic is a Limbo.  The trailer also shows dark warriors with Manequin Masks and they seem to kill the undead dude with arrows. I was wondering if this has any significance to the story since I haven't encountered these guys yet. 
 

Ok, update! Don't laugh, as I'm only a few hours into the game, and not Soul-crushing Drangleic terrors like the rest of you...

Anyway, I made it past the Last Giant and am right now clearing all enemies from all the Cardinal Tower before I make a run on the Pursuer.  I'm definitely going to have my summon sign out for that guy.  The more I play this game, the more I like it.   I know there's a story in here somewhere, but I won't bother putting the narrative together until after the game is all said and done.

Do I use the Soul of The Last Giant, or do I save it?  I recally reading somewhere about needing boss souls later in the game.

I once read an article back @ 1Up about how the Souls games aren't supposed to be "fun".....you could've fooled me.  I enjoy dying, and learning from my mistakes.

Oh god! About the game not being fun from 1up. Justin Haywald, a former 1up Reviewer just wrote a horrible review for Dark Souls 2 for gamespot in which he slams the game for not teaching the player basic rules about the game, and he gave up on it. I suppose there is some truth to the game being difficult for newcomers, that I cant argue against, but I cant think of a better game that can produce this kind of abusive fun? Demons Souls? Here is the recent bad review for Dark Souls 2:
http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/dark-souls-2-review-a-newcomer-in-drangleic/1900-6415748/ 

What a weirdo....the initial area teaches you plenty to get your feet wet.  He must want a magical line that guides you toward your destination.  Gonna go read the review, brb to comment on it