dreamiggy:

A realization just hit me about the ending of the game and the past kings of Lucis. I think that it wasn’t just Ardyn who got cursed but his whole lineage!

Let me explain. We know that Ardyn is cursed with immortality because of his taint. But maybe betrayal that he suffered didn’t go unpunished either. I always assumed that the Ring of the Lucii is a gift of the gods, a weapon to fight against the darkness. What if it’s the kings’ punishment? We see it in Kingsglaive and in the game as well that their soul resides in the ring. But that means that they can’t move on either. They are trapped in limbo between the world of the living and the afterlife in a world that’s (judging by the end of the game) is much like the world of the crystal.

So they are closed in the ring and wait for the chosen king to finally free them. That’s why they are unwilling to just help anyone that tries to wear the ring. Because the ring demanded them their souls and bared them from finding true peace. And while they know that someone from the royal line will have to make that same sacrifice too they demand that anyone who wants to wear the ring make a sacrifice that’s similar too.

This would also explain why does Noctis have to die in the end. As he dies on the throne he absorbs the royal weapons but also the souls of the kings past. Literally becomes the harbinger of light. The king of kings. He is the only way through which the old kings can finally find peace because he carries them with him. Noctis didn’t just save the present and redeemed Ardyn’s soul. He set the souls of 113 kings, his whole lineage free.