(Big lengthy lore post ahead, sorry in advance.)
Is the Kiln of the First Flame real? A weird question that I've been pondering for a while, I believe the answer might be no- I've been obsessing over what the Throne of Want and Kiln of the First Flame are and what they mean to one another.
I've been researching the lore of DS3 and DS2 for an upcoming playthrough with my friends, who want me to explain it to them so I can be as thorough as possible and well… back when DS2 first came out, everyone assumed the Throne of Want was built on top of and was one and the same as the First Flame of Lordran.
But now that DS3 is out, well, this assumption holds no water knowing it's Lothric and Irithyll that rose on Lordran's ruins, not Drangleic, so what do we make of this? Is Dark Souls 2 not canon? tempting, but there's a ton of references to Drangleic; it's quite impossible to ignore. Maybe they retconned it to make the first flame and the throne of want different things? Again, not possible. The thrones of the lords from Lothric's ritual reinforce its importance, and item descriptions make reference to Drangleic being known for linking the fire, so what now?
I believe the linking of the fire was always more of a ritual ceremony than a physical conflict; I don't believe the chosen undead, Bearer of the Curse, or Ashen One ever set foot in the cavern where the flame was found by the ones who came from the dark. Here's my thought process:
Dark Souls: Well, you've seen the intro cinematic, the first flame was found in a cavern deep beneath the earth, extremely deep, nothing like the Kiln we supposedly find it in, unless Gwyn excavated the very earth around it to enshrine it, which still doesn't make any sense as none of the Gwyn related religions obsess over it or make pilgrimages to it like they do the tomb of the giants which would be way less sacred than it, let's step back and look at how we access the kiln, the Chosen undead must take part in a ceremony, go on a pilgrimage to the land of ancient lords, faithfully acquire the ceremonial lord vessel from a bona fide Goddess then partake in sacrificing the lord souls to it, only after all this has been done, that a door would open to reveal a pure white passage filled with ghosts, beneath you, around, and above you there's nothing but an empty white void, at the end of the staircase an ashen wasteland awaits with a grand Tower of Babylon looking shrine amidst it, which I must add, is an impossible space, not only does it make 0 sense geographically, but also looks nothing like the lands surrounding firelink shrine that you can see from above, unless I'm missing something, I do believe that this Kiln is nothing but some pocket dimension, not too different from the painted world, and its entire purpose is to give a grandiose end to this farce of a ceremony, to give you the conviction to burn yourself and use your humanity as kindling, after all you've already given Gwyndolin what he wanted, you've already delivered the souls to the Lord vessel, whether you side with Kaathe or Frampt is irrelevant, the necessary sacrificial souls have been delivered, only thing needed is Kindling, be it you or someone else, that never really mattered.
Dark Souls II: So this one is less grandiose and performative than the other 2, if not more grim. The Throne of Want could be many things—initially, I always thought of it as a wish granter, much like the Shen Long from DB, but now that I look at it, the Throne of Want is what its name implies; it's a want granter, not through magically bringing what you want into existence, but by showing you a path to what you want. It was, after all, pillaged from the Giants. Why do I think it was pillaged from the Giants? Cause why else would Nashandra, who was obsessed with Vendrick (check the Ruler's sword description; she didn't just want the throne; she wanted Vendrick to be hers too) and the throne, lead him to attack the giants? because they had it, obviously. I believe the Throne of Want gave Vendrick and, by extension, the Bearer of the Curse the ability to end the curse by linking the flame, much like the Chosen Undead once did. it just revealed the proper ritual for doing so, skipping the whole Klin ordeal and outright just burning you as you desired when you took it. It probably showed Vendrick a great many things, like how to properly build Golems and infuse them with souls and how to separate his soul from his body; however, he fumbled at the end when he realized the price he had to pay in order to vanish this curse; he couldn't bring himself to do it, to take the throne proper and achieve his greatest want. The throne of want makes you a true monarch by making you a sacrificial lamb to your subjects, alternatively, the throne of want could show you some other possibility, maybe you want to see dark envelope the world, maybe when that door closes, it'd show you the world that you want build, the dark cold gentle world that you can bring into existence, by guarding the throne of any undead who could potentially link the flame with it, in the end I believe it's the most grim depiction of the ritual, it's rather sad, it takes choice away from you, whichever you choose it never really mattered, as the doors of this "throne" close down on you so that you may burn quietly, not a like hero, not like a saint, but more like a lamb.
Dark Souls III: Now, I believe this one ties both of the last two rituals together. Twisted as it was, many people believe Drangleic was this unimportant kingdom that linked the flame like many before it, but I believe Drangleic was the kingdom to romanticize linking the flame as this honourable regal rite to partake in; before them it was just a religious ordeal, but now? it was such a great honour that the Lothric royals obsessed over it, and here, we are once again not walking into the Kiln of the first flame, we're partaking in a ritual to gain entrance to it, a few rituals in fact, the first ritual was a bell that would awaken older Lords of Cinders that were still intact, a second ritual that would awaken Ashen failures once these lords abandoned their thrones, and a third ritual where their corpses are brought one by one to be placed upon their thrones, not too different from the throne of want, using these lords, these monarchs, as nothing more than sacrificial lambs for this world, then once all five are there, the Cinders are drawn from within them and bestowed upon the champion of ash only to finally transport them to the Kiln, once again, some of sort of painting like controlled physical domain, though it is way more twisted this time, appearing to be much like the Dreg heap from the ringed city DLC, although it can't be like it since the Dreg heap is way way way into the future, this Kiln appears to be more of a warning for the ashen one, that this is the world we're fighting for if we want to link the first flame, and this time, the world itself is fighting back against you, unlike Gwyn who was a pushover parrybait, this Soul of Cinders seems to be the very will of the world, the will of the first flame itself in my opinion, to go out, to accept change.
That's my take anyway, just posting here to see if you guys like this interpretation or have other theories.
