Covenants from the first Dark Souls will be returning in Dark Souls 2. When you fulfill certain criteria, you can join an online group of protectors or player killers—or Covenants.
Covenants include the Way of the Blue Covenant, which allows blue members to team up against Red Phantoms in up to three-on-one fights whenever their realm is invaded.
If you prefer to invade other players’ games, you can join the Brotherhood of Blood, which serves as Dark Souls 2’s equivalent to the Darkwraith Covenant from the first game. However, instead of collecting humanity, you must defeat other players to sacrifice their blood to your god.
Players who prefer helping others can join the Heirs to the Sun Covenant, allowing you to show up in other player’s games as a Gold-colored phantom.
Finally, the Bell Keepers are members of a Covenant that are automatically summoned into a player’s world when they enter an area with a bell. Their goal is to defeat the approaching player.
The picture in the header shows all of the currently known covenant symbols.
