DEVOUR.

          Oh absolutely not. Quite the opposite, actually. For one, my Adrich was never particularly shallow from the start despite his other more glaring shortcomings as a person. And by the time he becomes touched by The Abyss, very little importance is placed on physical appearance. All are welcomed to join his flock.

          In the case of Gwyndolin, there is a bit of awe in the novelty of actually encountering undiluted divinity firsthand. Before then, he’d only heard the god’s voice by proxy in dreams and pilfered memories (From assimilated Darkmoon Blades.) and knew only of the fact that firsthand witness accounts of Gwyndolin were scarce and nigh non-existent not only among the blades, but in hallowed texts as well. Literary descriptions were often kept brief and awfully vague ( versus being noticeably absterged from holy texts a la the Nameless King ) in comparison to the others. So really he had no expectations for what they would look like besides perhaps being vaguely feminine as an eidolon of the moon. 

          During the actual encounter, Alrich knows Gwyndolin is weak. Yorshka tells us:

But he was stricken by illness, and leadership of the knights fell to me.Then Sulyvahn wrongfully proclaimed himself Pontiff, and took me prisoner. Oh where could my dear brother be?

which I’ve taken to imply that Sulyvahn actively poisoned Gwyndolin somehow in order to make him vulnerable to attack by Aldrich. What this means to me is that this was a coordinated conspiracy between the two and that Aldich must have expected Gwyndolin to be especially feeble. The purpose of consuming them was really for their magic and powerful soul. Their physical form didn’t matter in regards to sating Aldrich’s hunger because that wasn’t the goal this time. That magic was 👌👌👌.

Psst. Hey. You kids wanna see a dead body? Then come follow my hedonistic goo boy, Aldrich, for all your corpse/vore related needs. We keep it discreet and deadly around here so don’t be shy. Just smash that mf like and/or reblog button and help an independent and selective Eldritch horror sideblog out, yfm? 

Truuuue, but sickly gods can’t eat themselves~ Sure Adrich could stay in bed and be pampered like a giant Eldritch baby the same way he sorta did before getting burned, but assimilating Gwyndolin would have taken him to the next level and could have made him a powerful Dark Lord during the coming age of man.

          So what does it mean to be bestowed the title ‘Lord of Cinder’? According to the Wiki:

The Lords of Cinder are heroes who have linked the First Flame and prolonged the Age of Fire...

However, there is a clear distinction in-lore seeing as only four lords are roused from the dead by The Tolling Bell and granted distinct thrones at Firelink Shrine. This means that not every being who links the First Flame is worthy of the title ‘Lord of Cinder’. Those deemed unworthy because they are unable to sustain the First Flame for very long and are entirely lost to the ash pits and are dubbed Unkindled.  It’s something akin to the relationship between squares and rectangles.

         The process of linking the First Flame is essentially the equivalent of throwing a fresh log onto the fire to keep the Age of Fire going. And like a log: the larger a piece you throw in, the longer it may sustain a flame. And what determines who becomes a suitable candidate for being a particularly large log for the flame ( Lord of Cinder ) versus a small, fleeting twig ( Unkindled )? The amount of souls that a being carries within them. Aldrich has consumed other humans whole for years-- decades even-- with dedicated clergymen sustaining him on sacrifices and tributes of both the living and undead alike. His power is derivative of this fact since souls seem to translate directly to strength as well. This is seen in the leveling system throughout Dark Souls where the player accumulates souls as currency, with the ability to cash them in for permanent stat increases. The Chosen Undead / Curse Bearer / Ashen One all accumulate souls like Aldrich does, however it’s done in a less sadistic/gluttonous fashion by leaving the physical form out of the process of consumption. ( I’ll write more on the differences I’ve observed between soul absorption and fully-fledged cannibalism in Dark Souls because there are a few very big distinctions to make. )

          Honestly, the way they Hawkwood uses the language “Made him a Lord of Cinder” makes it seem as though they burned Aldrich entirely against his will-- which makes a lot of sense considering the fact that he was growing too big and too powerful to be ignored any longer. Especially since he makes the distinction that his status was one bestowed by way of strength, not virtue. Which leads me to believe that all the sitting Lords of Cinder volunteered their strength to prolong the age of fire, while Aldrich refused the call of sacrifice in order to welcome the looming Deep as a Dark Lord or he just did not care about the Flame. At the apex of his power ( before he was burned ), children were regularly being brought in to sate Aldrich’s particular tastes ( according to Horace’s executioner set where it states: “Steel armor of Horace the Hushed, who took a liking to its cold, bulky insides.The original owner was said to be a corrupt executioner, who was killed and stripped of his armor.Horace is one of only two children to escape Aldrich's clutches”. )  at the time and of course this kind of influence ( and barbarism ) couldn’t continue to go unchecked by the Way of White-- especially from a member of the church within its own ranks, so I entirely abide by the narrative of the highest officials deeming it necessary to toss Aldritch into The Kiln to kill two birds with one stone.

          However by the time he is sacrificed to the First Flame, Aldrich and his cult had already planted a sizeable seed of doubt within the church that would grow and fester immensely in the massive cracks already present in the Church due to disquiet over the Abyss’ power of corruption. We’ve seen what the abyss does to people. Continued exposure twists men into horrific effigies barely recognizable in comparison to their original forms. We’ve seen in Dark Souls 1 how corruption begins as something mental. Like a varying && gradual indoctrination that eventually drives those susceptible to utter madness while transforming them physically as seen with Knight Artorias and the denizens of Oolacile swallowed by the Abyss. None of them retain their former self-awareness and seem to revert to a feral and entirely violent state of being-- acting almost entirely upon instinct. ( I will eventually write up my thoughts on Abyssal corruption. )