The Twinbird bears some resemblance to a phoenix, and her children have an association with fire, albeit the freezing Ghostflame. This could imply something about the nature of the oath of resurrection sworn to their guardians, symbolized by the Death Ritual Spear granted to them.
If the bodies inside the Death Bird are the priests that can appear in the wings, then perhaps that ritual gave the idea of Erdtree burial by roots, or even grafting itself? Or is grafting a "gift" from The Two Fingers? Even more so, I wonder why burning human bones produces ghostflame, which seemingly anyone can acquire.
If it's supposed to be a phoenix, maybe the other half of the agreement involves a hot fire for the rebirth, like the black and red bird on the shield. Not that we have much of an inkling as to what makes the twinbird a twin bird, but if it's a reference to alchemy it could have something to do with the process of separation.
Interestingly, we have a freezing white flame that represents the dead, and a burning black flame that represents death itself. Furthermore, the ghost flame does seem to offer yet more reasons for the golden order to spurn the idea of fire altogether
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Miyazaki’s games it’s that if it would be more metal for something to be made out of people then it’s made out of people.
The spirits appear to hold spears akin to the spears that have slain majority of the giants. Maybe Marika or Radagon or both used the Deathbirds to rid of the warriors that slew the giants for some kind of benefit and maybe are some how linked to the Twin bird. Also the bodies coming from the torso somewhat coming from a somewhat similar wound to the one housing the Elden Ring in Marika.
I gotta agree. I never saw the corpses in their body or wings. It makes them cooler (thinking of their spear rain attack), but also way worse. It's always worse with ER...
PS2 games used to include these all the time. It's funny that as gaming gets more modern, thought to this kind of feature becomes less and less important to devs to share with players. King's Field used to let you rotate around all the items in the game.
nah, it would remove the adventure feeling and these kind of "secrets", there would be no need to adventure in the lands in between in search of its lore if we got a full 3D museum with a couple of clicks.
@@Scaevola9449 I can almost guarantee you you’d hear more people upset that it wasn’t immediately available than you would people who wanted one if they didn’t implement it.
The nature of Death in Elden Ring is one of the most interesting parts of the lore. How many types of Death do we see in the Lands Between? The cold blue flames of the Deathbirds and old rites, the black and white flames of the Godskins and presumably the Gloam-eyed Queen, the red and black Rune of Death sealed within Maliketh. It seems the nature of Death is as fluid and prone to change as the Lands Between and whatever Outer God influences creep in.
My feeling on this is connected to the idea that Gods require faith to exist, a concept popular in fantasy and Dungeons and Dragons. The more followers, the stronger the god. A non-god can become a god with worship, and a god can weaken and die when they are forgotten. in those settings, its the concept of faith that powers the gods. But in elden ring, it feels like its claiming the souls of the dead that powers the gods, and that they fight over that. The Greater Will seemed to be winning with the Erdtree, so many were pledged to its roots, while the other gods had to scrabble for scraps with cults to claim the souls. Its interesting to think of how things will shape up with the erdtree burned, all those gods who were scrabbling at the edges will once again have the ability to claim followers
@@KieranSteeves yes, I feel like zullie should have mentioned that. Because the nature of the Great tree vs the Erdtree is an interesting little rabbit hole. In the Great root catacombs around the map. Bodies are fused together in the roots of the physical Greattree
I love the game's attempts to grapple with the finality of death. The ancestral spirits teaching about rebirth, the death birds making use of corpses and spirits in their rituals (and I guess lives?), And then the Golden Order just straight up defying death making everyone semi immortal.
My first encounter with them was in the Weeping Peninsula. I was simply riding to the castle when one just swooped down on me. What a creepy and cool experience. Although they are not the mainstream lores and I do not hope to see the DLC focused on their prime times, but I still want to learn more about them.
@@CleopatraKing There's one in Limgrave alongside the path to the illusion of Sellen, and one in Caelid past the Sellia Town path, along the way where a Night's Cavalry lurks.
I was getting bombarded by the first golem archer I'd ever seen, ducking in and out of cover, until I ducked in one area and OH HI GIANT DEATH BIRD I ran away. Really fast. Trying not to get shot with arrows the size of buildings.
Literally have been preaching this since the game came out. The Deathbirds and their associated weapons and spells are probably the coolest part of the game for me. It's also interesting to note that they have a screech attack that inflicts Death Blight, so there might be a direct connection with Godwyn. Maybe by becoming the Prince of Death he is turning into the Empyrean of the Deathbird's Outer God?
There is a chance their scream inflicts Deathblight because the Birds qualify as twisted soulless corpses. Perhaps having been lefted unattended has caused their ghostflame to fade and their bodies to wither as the ones in the mausoleum have withered. Perhaps the Birds are meant for a kind of maintence ritual, much like how the Gargoyles nees to be repaired by another. Perhaps the Birds have been left unattended too long. Further, I am hesitant to associate Godwyn with the Birds since Godwyn is associated with darkness/eciplses, decay and stagnancy, but still winds even they are immoving winds, and gold lightning even if it is lightning eciplsed in shadow. So they only thing they might share is their nature in undeath.
Doubt it. Death blight while connected to godwyn, is still just a aspect of death. Death is prolly the most wide spanning force in ER despite having it's rune ripped from the elden ring. It's connected to godskins, maliketh, black knives, death birds, godwyn etc. We can more see these death birds as powerful creatures in service to the Twinbird, and bc of their connection to death, they can utilize the ghost flame and death blight. Ghost flame, death blight and the destined death are all aspects of the greater, death.
@@goldengolem4670 honestly they wouldn't be that annoying if the time of day didn't reset every time you died. Running half way to the boss, only to remember that you haven't sat down and set it to night time yet. Bleh.
@@siegwardinspirit The same reason i never fight the night cavalry too, like if i am even steven on power with them and die, i dont want to have to wait every bloody time they kill me. That doesnt take intoö account that both NC and the birds have some INSANE reach and hitboxes. At least the birds have 1 good drop worth getting, the axe with the ancient horn charm passive.
I still remember when I got my friend to play this game, and he was in Weeping peninsula when he turned around and the Death Bird was right behind him (keep in mind, he’s one of those people that never gets scared by horror movies/games). He screamed so loud that the neighbors knocked on my door and asked if everything was ok
idk why people keep praising direct copypaste of concept art into the game when it makes zero sense from efficency point. NOBODY can see those details without hacks, this isn't level of detail, this is poor management and pointless waste of resources.
@@vazazell5967 You do you and not "waste any ressources on details", but something which is detailed is just more valuable. As you can see, to learn about these details brings enjoyment to people and lets them appreciate the game more. Therefore it is clearly useful to create a beloved game. The same is true for hidden details in the Witcher III and such. There is just more meat to these games than the eye can see, which makes them age better. And even if these details are hard to notice, we can't say how they might subconciously influence a player. Our brain still processes that information after all.
@@vazazell5967 because that's how games work bro. If you are a 3d modeler and can't copy paste the concept art into 3d you gonna get fired real soon, and sometimes you even have to build things that are not in the concept art. And if you only build what people can see normally then the game will look like it's from 2010. You don't usually see those thing but if it's not there you will immediately notice the difference.
@@mhmmm7044 you know what happens after it's copy pasted? It's gets tested to see if everything is communicated clearly. Those two bodies aren't communicated clearly. The design fails and needs adjustment.
I believe that Deathbirds may be inspired by Ascalaphus, the bird of Hades. From Wikipedia: "Ascalaphus was the custodian of the orchard of Hades. He told the other gods that Persephone had eaten pomegranate seeds in the Underworld. Because she had tasted food in the underworld, Persephone was obliged to return to the Underworld and spend four months (in later versions six months) there every year. Demeter was so angry, she buried Ascalaphus beneath a heavy rock in the Underworld, or alternatively it was Persephone who punished him. When Heracles went to the underworld, he rolled the stone away and released him from his prison. But then, Demeter transformed Ascalaphus into a short-eared owl. According to another myth, Persephone herself changed him into a short-eared owl by sprinkling him with water of the river Phlegethon. Ovid mentions: "So he became the vilest bird; a messenger of grief; the lazy owl; sad omen to mankind." As an owl, he became the familiar bird of Hades, god of the underworld." Their heads resembles owl's skull, they also appear at night, just like the owls.
Well, in school we were told that owls in ancient Greece were considered as bad omens. They were considered as harbingers of bad luck and death, but an owl is also the symbol of Athena. I kinda forgot about it, thanks for that comment, it triggered that memory. Ps Persephone stayed six months in the underworld and six in olympus, because that's the interpretation of the seasons changin.
Ok but I just googled Ascalaphus and there are a bunch of images of it as an owl with big muscular human legs xD I can definitely see that as a new Souls enemy
Its interesting how a big part of Elden Ring's backstory seems to be shaped by various gods fighting for control of the Lands Between, each offering their follower a different version of death and what happens to the soul thereafter.
I really like the deathbirds and the ghost flame. Kinda wish there was more around them, but that's likely because what we've got is just enough to incite the reaction of "I want to know more".
I appreciate the format of these videos and how they show off the details in the models. I wish they had a built-in beastiary for the game, because so many of these little touches go missed in normal gameplay.
I always felt like the twinbird was kinda cool in a way, specifically with the branchsword talismans. They worship death by clinging desperately to life, making sure it is one worth offering, and thats poetic in a way. I think the vengeful spirits are people who were burned in the ghostflame, but never truly lived their life as they should have, resulting in them wishing for more and returning as spirits.
I'm not gonna lie the liurnia one annoyed me enough that I stopped bothering with fighting them and instead just decided to drop a shit tonne of Holy pots on them They're cool as hell but irritable enough that I don't care to fight them "fairly"
The number of Deathbirds I tracked down between reaching the burned Erdtree and finishing the playthrough... I did so much exploration but missed a the majority of nighttime field bosses
I find Elden Ring's lore so interesting because a lot of the enemies' designs in the game revolve around the idea that they were previous inhabitants of the Lands Between along with their own Outer God envoys; but were eventually buried beneath the civilzations and gods that would precede them because their beliefs and ideals challenged those that would conquer them. It makes the Lands Between feel like a great fictional melting pot of cultures while also having a surprising amount of real world parallel. My favorite thing to think about is the fact that we only get to see a very slim history of the Lands Between; who knows what this world looked like before the reign of the Golden Order and Queen Marika, and even what it would look like after the various endings of the game
I thought about this when you showed the Twinbird Kite Shield, but it's quite interesting how a recurring theme of some (or maybe it's always the same?) Outer Gods is having an envoy with two "heads": the Two Fingers, Placidusax and the Twinbird.
Honestly I love your channel it gives you an insight on things you normally can't see while rolling around like a crackhead trying to survive with 1 hp
Zullie: These fascinating creatures have a plethora of backstory, not only through the usual item and weapon descriptions but also through their designs, which can only be truly admired in still frames, along with its interconnected relationship with other ennemies's lore and appearance, here's every detail I've noticed with a satisfying explanation. Me: Hah, cool fire-ghost bird you've got there, very good mini-boss stuff.
Knowing that The Realm of Shadow is the place where Marika became a god, it’ll be really cool to see how the lore of the base game is impacted or expanded by it. Considering ghostflame burial was common before the Golden Order, I’m really hoping we’ll see more of it in the form of weapons, incantations, and more.
I think if DLC brings the Twinbird as a potencial boss, there coud be more clarification on the culture and practice of ghostflame and the Ravenmount Assassins as there is only maybe 2 references to them (black feathers and the dude in Yuras quest). Hopefully it also brings the Gloomeyed queen wich is possibly the single most importnat character in the entire game other than marika and i'm positive she wasnt actually killed by Maliketh, just defeated
We could fight a personification/envoy of the Twinbird as a boss (something like the Elden Beast, but probably more bird-like), but I doubt we'll see an actual Outer God in-game. I don't think they *have* physical forms, or are even possible to defeat. It would be like trying to fight the laws of physics themselves.
Based on the Frenzy Flame ending if Melina is alive, she appears to be a remanifestation or spirit of the Gloameyed Queen. Brought into these events by Marika to eventually guide someone to Destined Death so they could slay the Elden Beast, and hopefully make the right call to side with Ranni to usurp the influence of the Greater Will and free everyone. With everything else burning and nothing binding her, the seal or scar on Melina’s left eye is faded and she opens her eye to reveal the purple hue of the Gloameyed Queen. She had been burnt and bodiless after her defeat, the rune of Destined Death she held taken and sealed away to buy Marika time to do something about the Greater Will before she would otherwise die and be replaced by one of the Empyrean candidates. Godwyn (the Golden) was most likely their first pick, so he needed to die. Malenia and Miquella were already somewhat apart from candidacy, seemingly tied to other Outer Gods. And Ranni rejected the notion herself, so she worked with Marika and her Black Knives to orchestrate the theft of the Rune of Death’s power. It was necessary to properly kill her body, and also to kill Godwyn, and through their coordination or some ritual they correctly killed both body and soul but not from the same person. This scheme also spooked Maliketh, no longer willing to operate as an executioner/punisher of demigods now that he knew the rune might be taken. However eventually someone would need to free the Rune of Death. And who could be a more natural guide than it’s proper prior bearer? As the Gloameyed Queen she had been another Empyrean, seemingly obeying the desire of the Greater Will and culling the swathes of demigods who had been born. After all, the demigods retained enough free will of their own to orchestrate plots like Marika and Ranni did. The flaw in the Golden Order that Goldmask would see, that the gods were not as subjugated to the Greater Will as all others and could therefore stir up trouble. But now Marika needed an Empyrean out of the running and Destined Death contained to delay her own impending demise, her body perhaps already starting to wear and crack. So the Gloameyed Queen was bested by Maliketh, champion of the godly Marika, and her body burned, perhaps by the true black flames of the rune taken from her. Yet some portion remained. Maliketh kept one eye, clawed out in battle and now turned to stone as we see dead or dying godly flesh will do. Maybe something more was kept close by Marika, or maybe she had other ways to reconstitute the slain woman and give her new purpose as Melina. Melina, who has one golden open eye, which upon the burning of Golden Order by the fenzied flame, loses its golden hue and goes pale. Melina, whom Destined Death should naturally return to. Melina, who had been burnt and left bodiless until a mother who did not birth her gave her new life and purpose on a path to create the one opportunity for a Tarnished to choose: would they free the land from the Greater Will, leave the land subjugated, or abandon reason and hope to burn everything away? So yeah anyway Gloameyed Queen is already in the game. Could definitely love some better elaboration on her past faction though. Lot of neat stuff that could be explored but not all of it means a boss fight.
@@nate_venture Pretty cool ideas my dude. Defeneatly share the same take regarding the purpose of Melinas creation and it seems to also be why Marika stole the grace from Godfrey and casted him to the Badlands so that he (or some other tarnished) woud eventually return to best the Elden beast. Never had i associated Melina with the Gloomeyed queen tho but it seems super plausible Don't know if that was exactly the flaw Goldmask saw tho. Since it manifests after you rveal that Marika is Radagon it coud be that he realyzes the selfishness in the perpetuation of the Age of gold, wich probably leads him to belive she is the reason why the leaves are falling or smth. This is only my baseless opinion tho, since he never actually talks its kinda hard to draw a complete interpretation
@@pedrovilar6123 There's something else tying Melina to the Gloam-Eyed Queen. Melina's eye tattoo is a 1:1 match to the clawmark present in the Eye of Death that Gurranq bequeaths to you, which is also the same color as the eye Melina has in the Frenzy Flame ending. Makes a lot of sense since Maliketh defeated the Gloam-Eyed Queen.
@@trielt1 It seems that at least some Outer Gods have physical forms; the god of Rot both seems to have a scorpion-like body (that the Scorpion Stinger was made out of) and was sealed in the Lake of Rot by the blind swordsman.
Appreciate all the hard work you give us, Zullie, truelly im always contemplating what this could mean for the understanding of my take on the lore everytime I view one!
oh hey, i asked for this video at one point! Thanks Zullie! - it's really interesting how important these birds are, or used to be, before the golden order (and by proxy erdtree burial) became the focal point of The Lands Between.
I just finished my first elden ring playthrough (a little late to the party) and am now watching videos on it. And OMG the kings field iv soundtrack in this brings back soo many memories. Love it
@@ernestozamora3207 "Central Tower" from Kings Field 4 But I like l the music from that game. It's all so interesting and unique. It's immediately like "Oh, that's Kingsfield"
If the land of shadows is still linked to the spirit realm somehow, and there's still evidence it could be, a fully intact 2-headed phoenix deathbird would make an awesome boss.
The Twinbird is said to be the envoy of the unnamed Death outer god in the same way the Elden Beast is the envoy of the Greater Will, so it definitely would work. We also don't have a ghostflame using boss, so I think it's more likely than not
Zullie I keep seeing ur videos when I eat, or when I have some time to spare. Just keep up the work and have fun doing it I just love ER Lore and you seem to have always an excelente topic to share.
About the bodys inside the Deathbird. It could also be, that these were eaten by the bird to prevent an Erdtreeburial. To take them away from the great circle of life death and rebirth
The thumbnail immediately caused my mind to conjure up a meme in the "full of pilk" style, with a Deathbird and text with the words "full of tortured souls".
First your videos are amazing, the fact that you just need some music and text to give so much entertainment speaks for the quality of information your providing. Second I love these birds, just made a whole build around the items you get from them. Death's Poker is amazing, Ghostflame Ignition might be the most fun to use ash of war. I really hope we get to see more of the different outer gods in the DLC.
I noticed this a few days ago while playing, but i legit thought It was in my head. I was waiting for you to post about it so i could know If i was imagining things haha
I love that with your videos I can see details I missed either due to the gameplay being too fast for me to see these details or because m tv is too small and has too low resolution for me to make these details out
The act of the bodies seemingly morphing with the Deathbirds kinda goes with the whole "unison" theme of the game with all of the multiple personalities of the characters in the game. Really cool stuff, love their design.
I'm pretty sure (as a "professional" bloodborne player) that ain't no kin, cuase kin got blue blood and I'm pretty sure they got red blood, so yeah 100% a beast.
maybe the bodies in the birds are because the birds ate them. Birds usually swallow their food whole, and when you cut open the stomach of a dead bird who's just eaten their food looks otherwise unscathed, similar to how the bodies in the torso are.
The makeshift wings on the Mausoleum Knights are a reference to the Winged Hussars, a heavy cavalry division in 16th-18th century Poland. They have the same makeshift wings on their back, though I'm not sure what this meant for the Winged Hussar's case
Not gonna lie, I'm not a fan of the FromSoft Souls-style games' lore, if only because there's so much lore about enemies like this that are only ever insinuations. Maybe I'm a bit spoiled, but I like to look up the lore of why enemies are the way that they are, so having these videos around scratches the itch that the wiki sadly never sorts out. Thank you, Zullie!
Watching your content is making me really baddly want to upgrade my PC sooner rather than later. I have yet to play ER and It is def on my list when I get good equipment, along with GoW. Cause darn this all looks fun and cool. Still yearning in my heart of hearts for a Bloodborne sequel/remake AN ANYTHING from it really... it is in my top 5 games of all time.
Crazy how much detail is put into things in this game. I don't even notice most of it. Probably doesn't help that the enemies are trying to kill me, but even weapons and such are awesome.
The bodies of the damn merged with it reminds me of the ghost of Christmas future in Scrooged. When the guy looked under the robe, there were faces of the damned underneath
The Twinbird bears some resemblance to a phoenix, and her children have an association with fire, albeit the freezing Ghostflame. This could imply something about the nature of the oath of resurrection sworn to their guardians, symbolized by the Death Ritual Spear granted to them.
If the bodies inside the Death Bird are the priests that can appear in the wings, then perhaps that ritual gave the idea of Erdtree burial by roots, or even grafting itself? Or is grafting a "gift" from The Two Fingers? Even more so, I wonder why burning human bones produces ghostflame, which seemingly anyone can acquire.
If it's supposed to be a phoenix, maybe the other half of the agreement involves a hot fire for the rebirth, like the black and red bird on the shield. Not that we have much of an inkling as to what makes the twinbird a twin bird, but if it's a reference to alchemy it could have something to do with the process of separation.
Interestingly, we have a freezing white flame that represents the dead, and a burning black flame that represents death itself.
Furthermore, the ghost flame does seem to offer yet more reasons for the golden order to spurn the idea of fire altogether
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Miyazaki’s games it’s that if it would be more metal for something to be made out of people then it’s made out of people.
The spirits appear to hold spears akin to the spears that have slain majority of the giants. Maybe Marika or Radagon or both used the Deathbirds to rid of the warriors that slew the giants for some kind of benefit and maybe are some how linked to the Twin bird. Also the bodies coming from the torso somewhat coming from a somewhat similar wound to the one housing the Elden Ring in Marika.
I love these videos
It's like revisiting a PTSD memory but instead of a counsellor, Zullie is just pointing out how much worse it actually was
Ah so just like actual therapy
@@disappointingperson9162 Yesn't
I gotta agree. I never saw the corpses in their body or wings. It makes them cooler (thinking of their spear rain attack), but also way worse. It's always worse with ER...
@@AkuniLesare It's a bit like the grafted scions.
@@peggedyourdad9560 We don't talk about those or the RRs. 😤
Stuff like this is why more developers need to add model viewer modes to their games.
PS2 games used to include these all the time. It's funny that as gaming gets more modern, thought to this kind of feature becomes less and less important to devs to share with players. King's Field used to let you rotate around all the items in the game.
nah, it would remove the adventure feeling and these kind of "secrets", there would be no need to adventure in the lands in between in search of its lore if we got a full 3D museum with a couple of clicks.
@@buggy5079 make it an unlock
@@buggy5079 Bad take.
@@Scaevola9449 I can almost guarantee you you’d hear more people upset that it wasn’t immediately available than you would people who wanted one if they didn’t implement it.
The nature of Death in Elden Ring is one of the most interesting parts of the lore. How many types of Death do we see in the Lands Between?
The cold blue flames of the Deathbirds and old rites, the black and white flames of the Godskins and presumably the Gloam-eyed Queen, the red and black Rune of Death sealed within Maliketh. It seems the nature of Death is as fluid and prone to change as the Lands Between and whatever Outer God influences creep in.
My feeling on this is connected to the idea that Gods require faith to exist, a concept popular in fantasy and Dungeons and Dragons. The more followers, the stronger the god. A non-god can become a god with worship, and a god can weaken and die when they are forgotten. in those settings, its the concept of faith that powers the gods.
But in elden ring, it feels like its claiming the souls of the dead that powers the gods, and that they fight over that. The Greater Will seemed to be winning with the Erdtree, so many were pledged to its roots, while the other gods had to scrabble for scraps with cults to claim the souls. Its interesting to think of how things will shape up with the erdtree burned, all those gods who were scrabbling at the edges will once again have the ability to claim followers
@@Saurawr The idea of the souls of the dead powering the gods reminds me a bit of the Soul Reaver/Blood Omen/Legacy of Kain franchise.
Also the Erdtree death cycle with the bodies in the roots in the tombs
@@KieranSteeves yes, I feel like zullie should have mentioned that. Because the nature of the Great tree vs the Erdtree is an interesting little rabbit hole. In the Great root catacombs around the map. Bodies are fused together in the roots of the physical Greattree
@@darkstalkerkaathe4582 there is no great tree that was a mistake
I love the game's attempts to grapple with the finality of death. The ancestral spirits teaching about rebirth, the death birds making use of corpses and spirits in their rituals (and I guess lives?), And then the Golden Order just straight up defying death making everyone semi immortal.
My first encounter with them was in the Weeping Peninsula. I was simply riding to the castle when one just swooped down on me. What a creepy and cool experience. Although they are not the mainstream lores and I do not hope to see the DLC focused on their prime times, but I still want to learn more about them.
What there's one in the Peninsula???
Fuck
@@CleopatraKing There's one in Limgrave alongside the path to the illusion of Sellen, and one in Caelid past the Sellia Town path, along the way where a Night's Cavalry lurks.
I'd never wanna focus on a death bird's prime times. Imagine how twisted their favorite TV shows are.
I was getting bombarded by the first golem archer I'd ever seen, ducking in and out of cover, until I ducked in one area and OH HI GIANT DEATH BIRD
I ran away. Really fast. Trying not to get shot with arrows the size of buildings.
@@CleopatraKing there are two in Limgrave
Literally have been preaching this since the game came out. The Deathbirds and their associated weapons and spells are probably the coolest part of the game for me.
It's also interesting to note that they have a screech attack that inflicts Death Blight, so there might be a direct connection with Godwyn. Maybe by becoming the Prince of Death he is turning into the Empyrean of the Deathbird's Outer God?
There is a chance their scream inflicts Deathblight because the Birds qualify as twisted soulless corpses. Perhaps having been lefted unattended has caused their ghostflame to fade and their bodies to wither as the ones in the mausoleum have withered. Perhaps the Birds are meant for a kind of maintence ritual, much like how the Gargoyles nees to be repaired by another. Perhaps the Birds have been left unattended too long.
Further, I am hesitant to associate Godwyn with the Birds since Godwyn is associated with darkness/eciplses, decay and stagnancy, but still winds even they are immoving winds, and gold lightning even if it is lightning eciplsed in shadow. So they only thing they might share is their nature in undeath.
Doubt it. Death blight while connected to godwyn, is still just a aspect of death. Death is prolly the most wide spanning force in ER despite having it's rune ripped from the elden ring.
It's connected to godskins, maliketh, black knives, death birds, godwyn etc.
We can more see these death birds as powerful creatures in service to the Twinbird, and bc of their connection to death, they can utilize the ghost flame and death blight. Ghost flame, death blight and the destined death are all aspects of the greater, death.
Idk dude, fighting them makes me want to peel my facemeat off with a potato peeler. ESPECIALLY THE MAGIC ONES WHICH 2 SHOT YOU IN HEAVY ARMOR.
@@goldengolem4670 honestly they wouldn't be that annoying if the time of day didn't reset every time you died. Running half way to the boss, only to remember that you haven't sat down and set it to night time yet. Bleh.
@@siegwardinspirit The same reason i never fight the night cavalry too, like if i am even steven on power with them and die, i dont want to have to wait every bloody time they kill me.
That doesnt take intoö account that both NC and the birds have some INSANE reach and hitboxes.
At least the birds have 1 good drop worth getting, the axe with the ancient horn charm passive.
I loved those scary moments when I was minding my own business when one of those birds drops and I start running away while gathering my bearings.
Man, the king's field soundtrack just drips with ambience, these songs still fit so well into showcasing modern FROM stuff :)
What is the name of this one?
@@eorlundgraumahne37 same i want the name
The Name of the Game is Kingsfield 4 if I remember correctly
I still remember when I got my friend to play this game, and he was in Weeping peninsula when he turned around and the Death Bird was right behind him (keep in mind, he’s one of those people that never gets scared by horror movies/games). He screamed so loud that the neighbors knocked on my door and asked if everything was ok
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 NICE!
lol
What.the.hell.
I never noticed this.
Talk about insane level of detail. Something From as a studio absolutely excels at
idk why people keep praising direct copypaste of concept art into the game when it makes zero sense from efficency point. NOBODY can see those details without hacks, this isn't level of detail, this is poor management and pointless waste of resources.
@@vazazell5967 nah it's pretty cool fr
@@vazazell5967 You do you and not "waste any ressources on details", but something which is detailed is just more valuable.
As you can see, to learn about these details brings enjoyment to people and lets them appreciate the game more.
Therefore it is clearly useful to create a beloved game.
The same is true for hidden details in the Witcher III and such.
There is just more meat to these games than the eye can see, which makes them age better.
And even if these details are hard to notice, we can't say how they might subconciously influence a player.
Our brain still processes that information after all.
@@vazazell5967 because that's how games work bro. If you are a 3d modeler and can't copy paste the concept art into 3d you gonna get fired real soon, and sometimes you even have to build things that are not in the concept art. And if you only build what people can see normally then the game will look like it's from 2010. You don't usually see those thing but if it's not there you will immediately notice the difference.
@@mhmmm7044 you know what happens after it's copy pasted? It's gets tested to see if everything is communicated clearly. Those two bodies aren't communicated clearly. The design fails and needs adjustment.
These guys are one of the coolest enemies in the entire game!
And most annoying to fight
@@Shinirkrog Yeah. Hitboxes on those ghostflames are way bigger than they look.
She screamed
Cool looking enemies, pain in the ass to fight, ESPECIALLY the death rite bird in the mountaintops before Castle Sol.
The Caelid one's "arena" can bugger off though
I believe that Deathbirds may be inspired by Ascalaphus, the bird of Hades. From Wikipedia:
"Ascalaphus was the custodian of the orchard of Hades. He told the other gods that Persephone had eaten pomegranate seeds in the Underworld. Because she had tasted food in the underworld, Persephone was obliged to return to the Underworld and spend four months (in later versions six months) there every year.
Demeter was so angry, she buried Ascalaphus beneath a heavy rock in the Underworld, or alternatively it was Persephone who punished him. When Heracles went to the underworld, he rolled the stone away and released him from his prison. But then, Demeter transformed Ascalaphus into a short-eared owl. According to another myth, Persephone herself changed him into a short-eared owl by sprinkling him with water of the river Phlegethon. Ovid mentions: "So he became the vilest bird; a messenger of grief; the lazy owl; sad omen to mankind." As an owl, he became the familiar bird of Hades, god of the underworld."
Their heads resembles owl's skull, they also appear at night, just like the owls.
that's interesting since I would associate owls with pallas athene
Well, in school we were told that owls in ancient Greece were considered as bad omens. They were considered as harbingers of bad luck and death, but an owl is also the symbol of Athena. I kinda forgot about it, thanks for that comment, it triggered that memory. Ps Persephone stayed six months in the underworld and six in olympus, because that's the interpretation of the seasons changin.
@Michael B So what they said about Deathbirds?
Ok but I just googled Ascalaphus and there are a bunch of images of it as an owl with big muscular human legs xD I can definitely see that as a new Souls enemy
@Michael B Alright michael, why don't you share the obvious with us?
Its interesting how a big part of Elden Ring's backstory seems to be shaped by various gods fighting for control of the Lands Between, each offering their follower a different version of death and what happens to the soul thereafter.
I really like the deathbirds and the ghost flame. Kinda wish there was more around them, but that's likely because what we've got is just enough to incite the reaction of "I want to know more".
I appreciate the format of these videos and how they show off the details in the models. I wish they had a built-in beastiary for the game, because so many of these little touches go missed in normal gameplay.
Babe, wake up - new Zullie just dropped.
I always felt like the twinbird was kinda cool in a way, specifically with the branchsword talismans. They worship death by clinging desperately to life, making sure it is one worth offering, and thats poetic in a way.
I think the vengeful spirits are people who were burned in the ghostflame, but never truly lived their life as they should have, resulting in them wishing for more and returning as spirits.
Yeah baby! that's what i'm talkin' about!
It's amazing the small details you start to notice in these games.
Or in the case of 99% of this community's fan base, the small details you start to notice that Zullie notices first.
These guys are terrifying but so cool at the same time
I'm not gonna lie the liurnia one annoyed me enough that I stopped bothering with fighting them and instead just decided to drop a shit tonne of Holy pots on them
They're cool as hell but irritable enough that I don't care to fight them "fairly"
today in the new episode of “What’s inside that enemy? we have… DEATHBIRD!”
This is super duper cool! I love your deep-dives into lore tidbits like this a bunch.
I'm so happy you're making these videos. So much of the game's lore and flavor are tied to enemies nobody normally can get a good look at.
This is one of my favorite enemy designs
The number of Deathbirds I tracked down between reaching the burned Erdtree and finishing the playthrough...
I did so much exploration but missed a the majority of nighttime field bosses
Maybe the bodies being stuffed in the lesser deathbird's cavity is a way of storing 'food' for later
These birds are like the middle evolution between the dragon humans kept in irithil dungeon and Osiris the fake dragon in ds3
Another absolute BANGER as always. I love these videos so much
This is one of my favorite designs in the game. Thanks you for covering them
I find Elden Ring's lore so interesting because a lot of the enemies' designs in the game revolve around the idea that they were previous inhabitants of the Lands Between along with their own Outer God envoys; but were eventually buried beneath the civilzations and gods that would precede them because their beliefs and ideals challenged those that would conquer them. It makes the Lands Between feel like a great fictional melting pot of cultures while also having a surprising amount of real world parallel. My favorite thing to think about is the fact that we only get to see a very slim history of the Lands Between; who knows what this world looked like before the reign of the Golden Order and Queen Marika, and even what it would look like after the various endings of the game
I thought about this when you showed the Twinbird Kite Shield, but it's quite interesting how a recurring theme of some (or maybe it's always the same?) Outer Gods is having an envoy with two "heads": the Two Fingers, Placidusax and the Twinbird.
Honestly I love your channel it gives you an insight on things you normally can't see while rolling around like a crackhead trying to survive with 1 hp
man those wings on the greater deathbirds are so sick
Stopped playing Elden ring a year ago, still love this channel.
Zullie: These fascinating creatures have a plethora of backstory, not only through the usual item and weapon descriptions but also through their designs, which can only be truly admired in still frames, along with its interconnected relationship with other ennemies's lore and appearance, here's every detail I've noticed with a satisfying explanation.
Me: Hah, cool fire-ghost bird you've got there, very good mini-boss stuff.
I’m loving the King’s Field soundtrack!
Thank you for showing all the details that probably go unnoticed during game play.
I've never played any of the games you cover but I watch all the content you make because it's so interesting
The level of detail in these items is astounding. Great video showing us all these things. Thank-you Zullie
Knowing that The Realm of Shadow is the place where Marika became a god, it’ll be really cool to see how the lore of the base game is impacted or expanded by it. Considering ghostflame burial was common before the Golden Order, I’m really hoping we’ll see more of it in the form of weapons, incantations, and more.
I hope we find out more about the Outer God the Twinbird is the envoy of. We know a good amount about all the others except this one.
I think if DLC brings the Twinbird as a potencial boss, there coud be more clarification on the culture and practice of ghostflame and the Ravenmount Assassins as there is only maybe 2 references to them (black feathers and the dude in Yuras quest).
Hopefully it also brings the Gloomeyed queen wich is possibly the single most importnat character in the entire game other than marika and i'm positive she wasnt actually killed by Maliketh, just defeated
We could fight a personification/envoy of the Twinbird as a boss (something like the Elden Beast, but probably more bird-like), but I doubt we'll see an actual Outer God in-game. I don't think they *have* physical forms, or are even possible to defeat. It would be like trying to fight the laws of physics themselves.
Based on the Frenzy Flame ending if Melina is alive, she appears to be a remanifestation or spirit of the Gloameyed Queen. Brought into these events by Marika to eventually guide someone to Destined Death so they could slay the Elden Beast, and hopefully make the right call to side with Ranni to usurp the influence of the Greater Will and free everyone.
With everything else burning and nothing binding her, the seal or scar on Melina’s left eye is faded and she opens her eye to reveal the purple hue of the Gloameyed Queen. She had been burnt and bodiless after her defeat, the rune of Destined Death she held taken and sealed away to buy Marika time to do something about the Greater Will before she would otherwise die and be replaced by one of the Empyrean candidates. Godwyn (the Golden) was most likely their first pick, so he needed to die. Malenia and Miquella were already somewhat apart from candidacy, seemingly tied to other Outer Gods. And Ranni rejected the notion herself, so she worked with Marika and her Black Knives to orchestrate the theft of the Rune of Death’s power. It was necessary to properly kill her body, and also to kill Godwyn, and through their coordination or some ritual they correctly killed both body and soul but not from the same person. This scheme also spooked Maliketh, no longer willing to operate as an executioner/punisher of demigods now that he knew the rune might be taken.
However eventually someone would need to free the Rune of Death. And who could be a more natural guide than it’s proper prior bearer? As the Gloameyed Queen she had been another Empyrean, seemingly obeying the desire of the Greater Will and culling the swathes of demigods who had been born. After all, the demigods retained enough free will of their own to orchestrate plots like Marika and Ranni did. The flaw in the Golden Order that Goldmask would see, that the gods were not as subjugated to the Greater Will as all others and could therefore stir up trouble. But now Marika needed an Empyrean out of the running and Destined Death contained to delay her own impending demise, her body perhaps already starting to wear and crack. So the Gloameyed Queen was bested by Maliketh, champion of the godly Marika, and her body burned, perhaps by the true black flames of the rune taken from her. Yet some portion remained. Maliketh kept one eye, clawed out in battle and now turned to stone as we see dead or dying godly flesh will do. Maybe something more was kept close by Marika, or maybe she had other ways to reconstitute the slain woman and give her new purpose as Melina. Melina, who has one golden open eye, which upon the burning of Golden Order by the fenzied flame, loses its golden hue and goes pale. Melina, whom Destined Death should naturally return to. Melina, who had been burnt and left bodiless until a mother who did not birth her gave her new life and purpose on a path to create the one opportunity for a Tarnished to choose: would they free the land from the Greater Will, leave the land subjugated, or abandon reason and hope to burn everything away?
So yeah anyway Gloameyed Queen is already in the game. Could definitely love some better elaboration on her past faction though. Lot of neat stuff that could be explored but not all of it means a boss fight.
@@nate_venture Pretty cool ideas my dude. Defeneatly share the same take regarding the purpose of Melinas creation and it seems to also be why Marika stole the grace from Godfrey and casted him to the Badlands so that he (or some other tarnished) woud eventually return to best the Elden beast. Never had i associated Melina with the Gloomeyed queen tho but it seems super plausible
Don't know if that was exactly the flaw Goldmask saw tho. Since it manifests after you rveal that Marika is Radagon it coud be that he realyzes the selfishness in the perpetuation of the Age of gold, wich probably leads him to belive she is the reason why the leaves are falling or smth. This is only my baseless opinion tho, since he never actually talks its kinda hard to draw a complete interpretation
@@pedrovilar6123 There's something else tying Melina to the Gloam-Eyed Queen. Melina's eye tattoo is a 1:1 match to the clawmark present in the Eye of Death that Gurranq bequeaths to you, which is also the same color as the eye Melina has in the Frenzy Flame ending. Makes a lot of sense since Maliketh defeated the Gloam-Eyed Queen.
@@trielt1 It seems that at least some Outer Gods have physical forms; the god of Rot both seems to have a scorpion-like body (that the Scorpion Stinger was made out of) and was sealed in the Lake of Rot by the blind swordsman.
The amount of lore tied together in this game is mind blowing
This deathbird has guys literally coming inside of him
Appreciate all the hard work you give us, Zullie, truelly im always contemplating what this could mean for the understanding of my take on the lore everytime I view one!
oh hey, i asked for this video at one point! Thanks Zullie! - it's really interesting how important these birds are, or used to be, before the golden order (and by proxy erdtree burial) became the focal point of The Lands Between.
I just finished my first elden ring playthrough (a little late to the party) and am now watching videos on it. And OMG the kings field iv soundtrack in this brings back soo many memories. Love it
I watch these videos like asmr for sleep because they relax me for some reason
This track is 🔥🔥🔥
One of the best designs in from soft history, striking, mysterious and intriguing all in one
Very good video, as per usual Zullie.
I always wanted to see you cover the Death Birds!
Death Rite Bird's Wings look like a portal to the Spirit world.
I can never take the Deathbirds seriously because the head is shaped like a Tweety bird head from Looney Tunes. Makes it kinda kawaii.
I've played this whole game through and through and never come across one of these before I'm so shocked. amazing
I absolutely love Kingsfield music.
Which song is it? O:
@@ernestozamora3207 "Central Tower" from Kings Field 4
But I like l the music from that game. It's all so interesting and unique.
It's immediately like "Oh, that's Kingsfield"
If the land of shadows is still linked to the spirit realm somehow, and there's still evidence it could be, a fully intact 2-headed phoenix deathbird would make an awesome boss.
The Twinbird is said to be the envoy of the unnamed Death outer god in the same way the Elden Beast is the envoy of the Greater Will, so it definitely would work. We also don't have a ghostflame using boss, so I think it's more likely than not
yo these are great and this a real sick track. it's perfect for the material.
Zullie I keep seeing ur videos when I eat, or when I have some time to spare. Just keep up the work and have fun doing it
I just love ER Lore and you seem to have always an excelente topic to share.
From are true masters at storytelling through imagery.
Great vid, I hope to see loads more
About the bodys inside the Deathbird.
It could also be, that these were eaten by the bird to prevent an Erdtreeburial. To take them away from the great circle of life death and rebirth
Man amazing content as usual
This King's Field music is so unsettling
The thumbnail immediately caused my mind to conjure up a meme in the "full of pilk" style, with a Deathbird and text with the words "full of tortured souls".
Kings field IV OST will never grow old
I haven't even played Elden Ring but I'm obsessed with these
First your videos are amazing, the fact that you just need some music and text to give so much entertainment speaks for the quality of information your providing. Second I love these birds, just made a whole build around the items you get from them. Death's Poker is amazing, Ghostflame Ignition might be the most fun to use ash of war. I really hope we get to see more of the different outer gods in the DLC.
The Death Rite Birds are some of the coolest looking enemies in any FromSoft game
This is King's field 4 music! I loved playing this as a kid.
I noticed this a few days ago while playing, but i legit thought It was in my head. I was waiting for you to post about it so i could know If i was imagining things haha
I love that with your videos I can see details I missed either due to the gameplay being too fast for me to see these details or because m tv is too small and has too low resolution for me to make these details out
The act of the bodies seemingly morphing with the Deathbirds kinda goes with the whole "unison" theme of the game with all of the multiple personalities of the characters in the game. Really cool stuff, love their design.
They took some of the bloodborne horror aspects and sprinkled it throughout the game, its really cool how they blended it all together
I'm pretty sure (as a "professional" bloodborne player) that ain't no kin, cuase kin got blue blood and I'm pretty sure they got red blood, so yeah 100% a beast.
@@ghosty3494 Kin bleed yellow, not blue
I love reading your writing.
elden rings such a huge game, crazy that so many little details can be found from so many different enemies, npcs, etc
maybe the bodies in the birds are because the birds ate them. Birds usually swallow their food whole, and when you cut open the stomach of a dead bird who's just eaten their food looks otherwise unscathed, similar to how the bodies in the torso are.
The makeshift wings on the Mausoleum Knights are a reference to the Winged Hussars, a heavy cavalry division in 16th-18th century Poland. They have the same makeshift wings on their back, though I'm not sure what this meant for the Winged Hussar's case
Spooky af, the bodies trapped inside reminds me of the Gargoyles faces fused together O.O. Great find Zullie
these birds had already a sweet spot in my nightmeres, now they are climbing the top 3 fffffffaaaakkk
Not gonna lie, I'm not a fan of the FromSoft Souls-style games' lore, if only because there's so much lore about enemies like this that are only ever insinuations. Maybe I'm a bit spoiled, but I like to look up the lore of why enemies are the way that they are, so having these videos around scratches the itch that the wiki sadly never sorts out.
Thank you, Zullie!
"elden ring - it gets weirder" is just a summation of all elden ring vids on this channel
Man, I think I encountered them like, twice, maybe, in my playthrough. Deathbirds are so dang cool.
The Deathbirds scared the ever loving spirit right out of me when I first encountered them.
Seems to me that deathbirds are the bodies, deathrites are the souls.
The Deathbirds have been one of my favorite enemy designs in ER from day one.
Oooh, nice shot at 1:20 Definitely something I'd never have noticed in game.
Watching your content is making me really baddly want to upgrade my PC sooner rather than later. I have yet to play ER and It is def on my list when I get good equipment, along with GoW. Cause darn this all looks fun and cool. Still yearning in my heart of hearts for a Bloodborne sequel/remake AN ANYTHING from it really... it is in my top 5 games of all time.
I watch these more than I actually play the game
Is it wrong for me to think that the deathbirds head looks like a baby skull, because I always thought it was before I saw the beak.🤨🐱
Nah man I thought that too
Looks like Tweety's head lol
Crazy how much detail is put into things in this game. I don't even notice most of it. Probably doesn't help that the enemies are trying to kill me, but even weapons and such are awesome.
Interesting observation! I honestly found these birds very annoying to fight. Thanks for awesome detailed videos about ER!
Zullie: "And NOW for something completely different!"
Let’s hope they get dlc time.
Does anybody think about Tweety whenever you see this guy?
Them havibg corpses in their torso reminds me of trolls having gravestones in there as well.
Zullie never misses with the music choice.
Ah, a new Zullie video! Time to learn something I will absolutely wish I did not know!
When you think something cannot get any worse, you discover it’s filled with corpses…
The bodies of the damn merged with it reminds me of the ghost of Christmas future in Scrooged. When the guy looked under the robe, there were faces of the damned underneath