Profile
The Scarlet Knight is a whole different person from the Orest you may know, although the core stays the same.
He's a big loner and veteran who is attached to nobody or anything, a knight without a larger purpose. His goals are very general, and it's just to do his job as Unkindled, to find and win against the greatest warriors of this world and to rekindle the Flame. (He never gets close to that, though)
He remembers a bit of his life before reawakening, and it's a rough past. He used to be with Lydia, a powerful mage, who he kept competing, but also sharing life with. It wasn't a good relationship and they kept treating each other more as rivals than companions, especially since she was one of the most powerful mages of her times. Eventually she experimented with darker magic too much and turned partially hollow, though still fully conscious. Discovering it, her manipulative behaviour and murders (she began to enjoy hunting down other Undead, just for fun and proving how mighty she is...) was too much for Orest and he left her. He doesn't remember much more, or how he died.
Now he's just travelling alone, studying different styles of fighting, trying to learn as much as possible about the world surrounding him, and trying to prove his worth, trying to do something special, to be an inspiration for stories and fairytales.
He is slowly consumed by his hunger for souls and killing. He realizes he has a problem with it and he began to enjoy it, so he's trying to supress it as much as possible, but it's an overwhelming task. His hunger for souls is growing, and with it, his body as well, he's literally getting taller while he's losing his humanity bit by bit.
He has one rule though, and it's avoiding conflicts with other people (well, undead would be a better word for it), definitely not killing them unless there's no other option, and helping them when he can.
Eventually he arrives in Farron Keep to face the Abyss Watchers, only for some stranger to try to take it from him. After a fight they are forced to face and take them down together, in a team. It's a very bitter for Orest, since this was going to his ultimate moment of glory, one he's waiting for all his life. After the fight they're forced to travel together for some time though and he's slowly changing his opinion on his unexpected companion, Piszczyk.
Their relations have lots of ups and downs (mostly due to Orest's condition, and several bad choices of his), but in the end the enemy turns into the only person he's trusted in ages. They end up helping and supporting each other a lot, in various ways, and all these good things suppress the corruption taking the knight's mind and body. Sadly, he didn't just let it heal him fully, he didn't let things happen, he believed there's no good ending for him anymore, and eventually he's left the browife that Piszczyk became for him. He didn't want to be a threat for him nor anyone else, and most of all he didn't want him to see him in the state of weakness and animallike behaviours that happen to him more and more.
Before that happened he actively helped Piszczyk in his quest to defeat the ultimate evil controlling the world at the time, Koschei. That goal and the many missions they have to complete before finding him is something extremely healing and fulfilling for the knight, who thought that all of the important events of his life are long gone and he has no purpose. Now he can actually do something good and help, even save someone he cares for.
And he really does learn to care for that guy. After spending years in isolation he usually does everything he can to scare off people or to run away from them, but this time is an exception, and it feels great. Both of them would have problems with surviving some of their journeys without the other one around... and it's not just that. It feels good to have someone to spend time with, share things with. It's a time when he really sees some purpose in life again, and the more bitter he is about losing it together with his humanity and consciousness.
But as it's been said, one day Orest runs away and never comes back. His plan is to hide himself from the whole world so he wouldn't be a threat to a single Undead. So he just travels as much as he can, until he arrives at a gloomest, darkest forest he could find, near the gloomest, darkest chapel he's ever seen. And once he gets there he just never leaves it again. After some time he is unable to do it anyway. His corruption erupted once he left his companion, he transformed shockingly fast after it, less and less aware of what is happening and who he is. His hunger becomes more and more literal and he's feeding on monsters surrounding his new home, often without killing them first. After some time he transforms fully into a beast too, and isn't even able to speak or think except for some very brief moments. He's grown ridiculously tall, so tall he could never leave this place, he barely fits in there at this point. He's broken his legs during one of his attacks, and they never healed properly, so he's crippled forever.
Long before he left he had a serious conversation with Piszczyk, and he made him promise that if it'll be possible he'll kill him after the transformation. The knight sure made this hard for the other man though. It's nearly impossible to find him, Piszczyk knows him like no other man though, and he searched actively. So he's found him.
He fulfills the promise, as hard as it is, both emotionally and physically. While Orest fought him with all of his might (not fully knowing why...nor understanding what's happening. After all he hoped to be killed by him, but his animalistic senses and mind don't let him think clearly. ) he greets his death with thankfulness and happiness. He is free now. And he can actually say he harmed no man despite his miserable form, and that mattered to him the most.
