Couple of things I wanted to add: - There are two more candletrees people have pointed out to me; one in the Weeping Peninsula, and another in Consecrated Snowfield. I haven't confirmed exactly where these are yet. - There are actually three versions of Roundtable Hold (Brilliant, right?) A third version is found when you travel to the hub after retrieving either half of the Haligtree Medallion, and Ensha invades you. This version is much darker than the hub, it's completely empty besides Ensha, and Ensha is able to attack you. - Another location from a previous Fromsoft game which is similar to the Ancestral Lake or Elden Beast arena is the Hunter's Dream from Bloodborne; there are a bunch of huge wooden pillars in the distance. This location is also not fully real, and also has a physical(?) counterpart. - The Fire Monk sword-tree objects can also be found near Zamor Ruins, where there is a group of Thorn-Fire Sorcerers and a Prelate nearby. - The strange statue of a bald man and a growing tree in the Roundtable Hold can also be found in Stormveil and Leyndell-- I haven't seen it anywhere else. However, he appears to have the same face as the giant smouldering heads in Limgrave present in the Network Test version which Lance McDonald has unearthed. Interesting to note that many bodies crucified a-la-Marika throughout Limgrave have smouldering bodies. - The Twinbird Kite Shield depicts a black bird against a red background and a red bird against a blue background. If the black bird is somehow represented or manifested by the Deathbirds, it begs the question what the red bird is. In alchemical symbolism, this would represent the raven and the phoenix, symbolizing a kind of physical death and release into the spiritual world (whether literal or metaphorical). - More on the Eclipse in my next video about Miquella. Edited-- PS: Several people have commented about Rosus and the statues which emit light pointing towards catacombs. To be honest this completely slipped my mind while making the video. Guiding light and undead seem related to the Helphen, but I’m not sure how exactly, so I don’t have any cogent thoughts about it anyway. PPS: Just noticed that the Confessor Armor has an insignia very similar to the pared-down Elden Ring/Ranni's Rune symbol I speak about near the end of the video. Anyone got theories about why this is here?
at 7:22 you show the swords in the Roundtable Hall which are seemingly turning into trees. They look to me themselves a connection between "death in battle" and a "tree of the dead". 12:47 that image of the Land Between during the Shattering is clearly inspired by the 1894 depiction of the Götterdämmerung (twilight of the gods, aka the ragnarok), "Valhalla in flames", by Max Brückner (image is the first picture of this wikipedia article - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6tterd%C3%A4mmerung ) If the Lands Between really are inspired by the Valhalla, then they are indeed a plane of existence separeted by the rest of the "human world" (by the Sea of Fog, anyone?), which incidentally makes Ranni's plan pointlessy redundant. 23:00 the red rays point to the head of a giant, they literally emanate from its mouth (or are drawn into it). You can vaguely see its outlines at 23:52 - 23:53
"The strange statue of a bald man and a growing tree in the Roundtable Hold can also be found in Stormveil and Leyndell" There are similar statues with more roots around the base found on the Bellum Highway iirc. Edit: Also, I am surprised you didn't mention Rosus. "Usher of Death, Rosus, who shows the path to the catacombs throughout the Lands Between, is depicted on this ritual axe. The dead easily lose their way, and have always been in sore need of a guiding hand." - Rosus' Axe. Rosus guides the dead with a lamp-like light, as seen in the statues presumably depicting him throughout the catacombs. It would also connect to your speculation that the Helphen tree is related to the Greattree roots of the catacombs. Rosus' summons and Tibia's summons also use similar language: "Summons a group of Those Lost in Death. Three skeletons will appear some distance from the caster and attack foes before disappearing. The dead have long been left to wander; what they need is leadership." - Tibia's Summons. "Raise the axe aloft to summon those lost in death. Three skeletons will appear at a distance and attack in tandem before vanishing." - Rosus' Summons. The statues that guide you to the catacombs (again, presumably Rosus) also emit a light similar to Grace. Rosus at the very least seems to fulfil a similar role to the Helphen tree and the Tibia mariners.
The eternal city which had its sky stolen is what is now the unnamed eternal city in Deeproot Depths. Same architecture, same ants, but anything Nox has been evacuated or stolen.
Yes but also no. I think ALL the Eternal Cities had their sky stolen. That was part of their punishment for trying to kill the fingers (fingerslayer blade below the giant maiden made from the corpse of a person) and when the city was buried they were given a false night sky "to wait for their Lord of Night" Uhl ruins in Liurnia stands just above an Eternal City, the same one Astel is in, both sharing Ancestor Spirit followers and the same statues so they were all buried and ruined. Both the Eternal Cities that have names Nokron and Nokstella Also both have 1 dead giantess maiden. The only city to be missing their giant maiden is the unnamed one. Using this I think Nokron and Nokstella were their names and what the cities were named after (Much like the current demigods sharing lots of name similarities)
@@veronicatazri9092 I'm pretty sure it's stated some places that the Astels were created long after the cities were buried, and the only city without a sky right now is the unnamed one. Common theory is that the Malformed Stars were made as a super-weapon or something, but then the strongest one, Astel, went rogue.
@@shybandit521 Astels aren't created. They're falling stars. The game even says this and their face/eye is identical to fallingstar beasts "A malformed star born in the flightless void far away. Once destroyed an Eternal City and took away their sky. A falling star of ill omen." and we find him in an Eternal City with a false night sky below a lake of rot The game also states numerous times the Eternal Cities commited "treason" and the Greater Will sent Astel to punish them "This blood-drenched fetish is proof of the high treason committed by the Eternal City and symbolizes its downfall." "Long ago the Nox invoked the ire of the Greater will and were banished deep underground. Now they live under a false night sky. In eternal anticipation of their liege, of the coming age of stars and their Lord of Night" Common theory doesn't interest me when I can read what the game tells me and everything fits into place.
Right so here are my general thoughts not sure how useful you will find them: 1. Mausoleums hold soulless demigods that died in the night of black knives after Godwyn. I think so based on: - Spirit dialogue: "The mausoleum prowls. Cradling the soulless demigod. O Marika, Queen Eternal. He is your unwanted child" -Trailer: "The rune of death was stolen and the demigods begain to fall starting with Godwyn The Golden." So this is a pretty straightforward connection. Now I do have more that are a bit more elusive 2. Deathbirds are somehow connected to Godwyn and other soulless demigods. I am not certain about the nature of this connection but it is clearly there because there are so many things that point this way: -"The wing-shaped ornaments on its back evoke the Deathbird. A self-inflicted curse that ties the spirits of these loyal knights to the land, having willingly beheaded themselves so that they may serve theirs masters in death." - armor decryption of the headless knight -"Hatchet used in ancient sacrificial rite. A Deathbird is depicted as a malevolent deity." - Hatchet dropped by one of the deathbirds -The skulls on the walking mausoleums resemble Rancorcall spell and skulls Rancor Pot: "In times of old, the dead were burned with ghostflame, and from those cinders arose vengeful spirits." and "In the time when there was no Erdtree, death was burned in ghostflame. Deathbirds were the keepers of that fire." - "Ritual spear used by priests of old who were permitted to come among the Deathbirds. The priests became guardians of the birds through the rite of Death, which also serves as an oath sworn to their distant resurrection. " - this is the decryption of Death Ritual Spear and the ritual described in it kinda reminds me of what is happening with the headless knights and soulless demigods. So we can kinda deduce that Deathbird magic is somehow responsible for protecting the walking mausoleums. 3. When we cast any of the ghostflame spells (associated with the deathbirds) we will see the mark of the centipede that is of course the same as: "Cursemark of Death" retrieved from Ranni body. Now it is perhaps just me but the eclipse symbol is very similar to "Mending Rune of the Death-Prince" so perhaps it didn't mean to symbolize the real eclipse but The Age of the Duskborn ?
I'd like to pose a thought if I may. It was never mentioned when a piece of the rune of death was stolen, only that it was and used to create the black knives. The rune of death was given to malikath by Marika for safe keeping. To my knowledge the only person with the ability explicitly told to break the Elden ring and respective runes was Marika. Could it be possible that when Marika removed her rune of death and gave it to Malikath that she broke a piece off and held onto it, and later on the piece of the rune of death stolen was not from Malikath but from her? Or if she did hold onto a piece of the rune of death, could it be possible she gave it to Ranni instead of having it stolen?
@@Alex_the_Copper Not a bad idea but it does conflict with the game. Why, if it was stolen from marika not him, would maliketh become a paranoid mess afterwards? He literally sealed the balde into his own flesh to safeguard it and says quote: "I will not have it stolen from me again"
@@raptorxrise5386 The idea I had was once the night of the black knives happened, it would be clear to Marika that the piece of the rune of death that she had kept for herself would be clear was stolen and used to kill her son. If this is so then her shattering the Elden ring would have been an act of grief considering all her manipulation of the Elden ring and its runes did not save her son. As far as Malikath goes he was not aware that Marika kept a piece for herself. When he hears that a piece was stolen and was used to kill Godwyn, the only logical conclusion would be that it was stolen from Malikath. Marika never told anyone she kept a piece for herself and Malikath was never aware he wasn't given the full rune of death. That would make him parinoid enough to seal the rune inside himself and would explain what "Marika's betrayal" to him was. She betrayed his trust in keeping that piece of the rune of death and it led to an event that if left to him would never have happened.
I keep coming back to this video because the idea of the Helphen and the Lampwood are very intriguing to me (and I’m willing to bet they’ll have a larger presence in the DLC). Something I wanted to point out was the rune that may be on the dark moon. This reminded me of the Eldritch Moon set that came out for Magic: the Gathering a few years back. I encourage anyone to look up the card “Imprisoned in the Moon” as it features a moon very similar to the Full Moon in Elden Ring with a large glowing rune carved in it. Though the rune from the card and the supposed rune on the Dark Moon do not match, we do know that Miyazaki has used Magic cards as inspiration before. If there is a rune on the dark moon, could it be possible it is containing some kind of eldritch horror similar to Emrakul from MTG?
Haligtree can be seen from Castle Sol, and vice versa. You can see The Lands Between from Farum Azula, and bestial sanctum is obviously a beast grave. Also, Farum Azula seems to be surrounded by some magical barrier, although it may be just the game mechanical "dungeon barrier".
you can also see faram azula from the isolated divine tower! and maybe elsewhere in the lands between. I've always wondered if faram azula is supposed to be locked in place in-lore, or if it's supposed to be a place that moves around with its storm
Hi, regarding your question about the statue in the Round Tabke Hold, Tarnished Archaeologist has a video explaining the significance of them. It's Godfrey and the Truth of the Crucible
Fun fact; the ruins in Deeproot basin once was the third eternal city that Astel destroyed. I can't remember how I came to that conclusion due to the hundreds of voice lines and item descriptions, but I'm fairly certain that this is true.
One interesting thing about those who live in death is their connection to water. Tibia Mariners are on boats, Godwyn is a fish monster, and a lot of things related to Ancestor spirits look like water (though this is among the weaker connections). Considering the general connections to fire in ghost flame, the black flame, and the rune of destined death, perhaps this is significant in some way as water magic does exist in the universe through the bubble sorceries. Perhaps it speaks to a division between spirits and those who live in death.
there's also the death frogs, but maybe Those who lives in death are affected by it because of the zone being watery at the roots, the source of death blight
Another clear allusion to real-world mythology in the river Styx, represented underground with the eternal cities and tying into the game's theme of fighting stagnation. Notice how Those Who Live In Death always seem to be found near standing water on the surface world, usually lakes with no inlet or outlet for the water to move.
It's weird that the round table hold burns exactly like the tree though. I felt while playing the game then, that our round table hold was inside the tree somehow. The wood looks really really similar anyways, imo.
My interpretation is that since the Roundtable was created by the Two Fingers/Greater Will, when the main seat of its power in the world burned it burned away the hold as well. Though it could also be that it happened because since the way to the Erdtree was opened the hold was no longer needed
imma take a stab at it. the roundtable exists in two places. the meta physical one were all familiar with and the actual physical one in Lyndell. Both locations are associated strongly with the grace of the two fingers which are emissaries of an outer god. We see another location that matches this description in the Hunters Workshop in Bloodborne. We know that the moon spirit wanted to use the player as a agent to kill other outer gods. when the player became too powerful to controll the workshop burns and we get a confrontation ending with the moon spirit's death. When drawing these comparisons we have to remember that the greater will exerts a greater control over the lands between than the moon spirit ever wanted. When we burn the erdtree we are confronted by Marika the agent and then by the erd beast. When we confront the erd beast he stands fully erect and broadcasts a light from him like a beacon. What the bloadcast was or who it was sent to I'm hoping for answers in upcoming dlc.
What if the roundtable hold is itself a remembrance, similar to those we gather from bosses? Hewn into the erdtree itself, and held together by the Tarnished as they fight, die, and seek the Elden Ring? That would fit my thought for it burning because it's within the Erdtree.
Great video, i always found the Helphen steeple sword to have one of the most intriguing lore tidbits, I also noticed how in each divine tower you can see strands of black fog when going up the elevator. A theory i would like to see explored is the importance of the Five fingers for the Beatsmens and why does it looks like the 3 fingers and the 2 fingers were maybe part of the same hand ages ago. I think the fracture of The One Great was maybe caused by the Nox cutting the old Fingers, separating the maddened 3 and the orderly 2 , as why we find multiple pairs of fingers and only one 3 fingers locked up , i think they may have kept the only one they couldnt destroy and hid it deep underground. *adjust gold foil hat*
Shadow of the erdtree could be referring to the Helphen Lampwood, mentioned in the helphen steeple, which talks it being in the “spirit world” and/or guides to the spirit world here is the description of the Helphen Steeple, Greatsword patterned after the black steeple of the Helphen, the lampwood which guides the dead of the spirit world. The lamplight is similar to grace in appearance, only it is said that it can only be seen by those who met their death in battle.
I think the Blood star is a envoy of the formless mother. Though I think we have yet to see it and may never due to the formless nature. The Elden Beast and even Astel are star entities.
Hmm Briars of sin is one of the Blood sorceries, and it requires pure faith to use. The blood oath incants like Bloodflame blade require a mix of faith and arcane to use Actually, is it possible that that need for arcane for the Blood oath incants is due to Mohg's influence?
@@es-rh8oo The formless mother seems to aid those that are helpless or overall lost and shunned. It wouldn't surprise me that in its pure form it just requires faith, since it literally appears when they are most desperate. But Mogh is not just trying to be desperate he is becoming strong and is trying to formalize its cult to the formless mother, if I am not confusing it most erdtree incantations are pure faith too but those that come from fundamentalists (those that try to formalize the cult to the erdtree/golden order) also require int.
Interesting thing about the blood star's identity, I am of the opinion that it's just another facet of the formless mother since briar sorceries work by wounding yourself to gain power, and wounds tend to be one of the larger themes with all the formless mother stuff especially with how all the blood incantations work by wounding the formless mother herself
Dude! I have been doing my best to spread this theory! Glad I have a fellow tarnished in the field! Btw, take a look at Alberich’s altered helm. Its entirely red glintstone, like azure and lusat!
The only thing that makes me see a distinction is that the formless mother craves wounds for herself, and no incantations tied to her harm the user, whereas the the thorn sorceries are powered by the users blood by converting the blood into glintstone (see: staff of the guilty description). i definitely think theres a relation but theres not enough info to say
@@dumbsterdives the dialogue from our favorite graven witch mentor, Sellen, claims that glintstone sorcery is a study of the stars since we are tapping into their residual life-essence, trapt within glintstone. Red glintstone is made, according to the staff Of the guilty, by creating a wound with glintstone. So…that is the connection between thorn sorcery and the formless mother. Blood incanations are you wounding her, thorn sorcery is wounding yourself to create an echo of that bond. Another interesting note is that seeing a primeval current results with a change within the caster that lets them affect the world…like Mogh seeing the mother and having his blood ignite
the blood star is probably some unique meteoric outer god that can only be seen by those who trap their DNA inside of glintstone, fusing themselves with glinstone and whatever lifeforce was already present within.
I'm not entirely certain if this information is useful, but the tibia mariners used to be called "bone-beckoner mariners" in earlier versions of the game
In terms of Mogh's face resembling that of the ancient dragons, I think it ties into an overarching connection between the Golden Lineage and the Crucible. We have Crucible Knights serving Godfrey amass. We have Godfrey managing to bond with Serosh in a manner akin to what would be expected from an Empyrean but different. Both Mogh and Morgott, his children, were victims of the Omen Cure which we can infer from various descriptions to be intertwined with the primodial crucible. We have Godwyn and Fortisssax having quite a strange bond and connection, with Fortissax somehow being able to enter Godfrey's husk by converting himself into an astral entity of sorts. We have Godrick instantly being able to graft a Dragon's head onto his arm, with little to no preparation, only to immediately be able to master it.
This is where my thoughts are as well. There’s also the fact that Lansseax could take human form, implying that dragons and humans could mate. Also, Godrick calls the dragon “kin” and “trueborn heir”.
@@CrunchyVideos That's a good catch. I never thought to take Godrick's claims of kinship to be somewhat literal. Godwyn's unique and mutated corpse, which appears to be an amalgamation of various lifeforms - notably seafaring creatures, also coincidentally mirrors the crucible being associated with the fusion of life, human and inhuman, in its totality. The manner by which Basilisks, among other lifeforms, have been influenced by Godwyn's traits, in turn, is also quite the coincidence. While Godwyn's appearance, upon reflection, is certainly immensely intriguing perhaps it's also worth speculating that Nepheli's experience with the Stormhawk King's ashes is also the result of some primordial power in her blood rather than simplistic lineage.
@ 18:35 I suppose Godwyn is the soulless demigod, as he was mentioned often in Fia's questline. Godwyn is Marika's child, and his soul was slain by the blackknives imbued with the power of the rune of Death. And from many instances within the game, we learn that the Golden Order opposes "Those Who Live in Death", or what we commonly known as the Undead. Since Godwyn was one the favored demigods of the Golden Order, after his soul died he became the demigod of the Undead, hence "unwanted" by Marika.
On the night of the black knives I’m pretty sure a lot of demigods were slain, hence Godwyns title ‘First Demigod to Die’ or something along those lines in the intro cinematic. I can’t remember exactly where it’s stated that lots of demigods were slain but it may have been the introduction cinematic or some item description. Another thing that adds to this is that the walking mausoleums each house a soulless demigod, and since it’s implied that Marika orchestrated the night of the black knives, presumably said demigods were unwanted. Hence that line from the spirit.
@@GoonCaved I don't think there's any great evidence for many other Demigods, we can only assume that the line that descended from Godfrey are the ones that are not accounted for in-game but all the lore we see on the night of the black knives only mentions Godwyn's soul and Ranni's body getting killed, so I choose to believe that was the extent of the damage. I'll also say I'm personally skeptical of the idea that Marika was behind it all because I don't think it makes much sense for her to murder the one of her offspring she seems to have considered to be an unfettered success from her point of view, like in comparison Morgott, Mohg, Melania and Miquella all had imperfections that compromised them in the eyes of herself and the Erdtree. I can see the possibility that maybe she was orchestrating the plot to target someone else but she was either tricked or things spiraled out of anyone's control and Godwyn was killed against her will.
@@GoonCaved Ranni says that line in the story trailer. Also I think there’s another line about the NotBK referring to Marika’s kin being killed but I can’t find it.
@@malleableconcrete late reply but my belief is that she orchestrated the night of the black lives in order to introduce hardship into the lands between. not only this, but to set into motion the return of the tarnished so that they may slay a god, aka the elden beast (hence the god slain message after defeating it). It’s clear through Hewg that Marika wants a god to die, it’s not clear specifically which one but it can be implied that it’s Marika / the elden beast (or even the greater will itself), since Marikas voice lines in the church say that she is going to search the depths of the golden order, calling Radagon a ‘leel hound’ to the golden order and such. She clearly has a distaste for the outer god which she was chosen to serve and thus seems to want to remove their influence. Since you mentioned that it makes more sense that if Marika was behind the NotBK, then it makes more sense for the imperfect children to die. Perhaps this is the very reason these ones weren’t killed, since they were imperfect from the perspective of the golden order. Not much to go off but something to think about.
ok the ridiculous similarity between the World Tree from Berserk and the Erdtree honestly shocked me the images might as well be interchangeable if you took out the colour from Elden Ring
Very interesting video, had similar thoughts myself. The implications of a spirit world is quite huge. The evergoals always bothered me, absolutely feels like a place just out of phase with reality, good place to seal away someone, I suppose. Love the music choices, especially L's theme!
Thanks! Yeah there’s definitely more on the evergaols I didn’t cover, especially the different colored spirits and why Vyke appears normal. Haha I’m glad someone noticed the music, thought it was fitting for ‘detective work’.
I've never seen anyone talk about this, everything related to TWLID (Those Who Live In Death) is so interesting. Perhaps the Mariners are like Charron, ferrying and leading the dead to a death outside of the Erdtree. Maybe this is like a kind of "Afterlife" or an alternative state of death given to certain individuals based on their deaths, kind of like a Valhalla of sorts given that it specifies "Those who died in battle". Or just maybe... the existence of TWLID is an act of rebellion against the Erdtree, The Golden Order and the Erdtree did fundamentally change death in The Lands Between, maybe its a way of showing the Greater Will that things were already in order before it arrived and now it tampers with the original and natural way of life that it replaced. i dunno man, it gets me thinkin'
The Charron reference is definitely intended, as we also get the river Styx connection with the underground river near the eternal cities, which is tied into the game's theme of fighting stagnation. TWLID are a result of Marika sealing true death, inducing stagnation to preserve her order. Okina's and the Land of Reeds' lore also reference stagnation as opposed to the purification brought by the underground river. Moving water washes away blood and the madness surrounding it. Moving water washes away blight and it's corruption. Interesting that TWLID have the guidance of the Tibia Mariners, yet seem to be led nowhere, as they are always found in disconnected lakes of still, standing water.
In regards to your comparison of Mohg to the dragons: omens, misbegotten, and dragons are all directly related to the Crucible, the primordial tree that existed before the dawn of the Erdtree. All life is said to have blended together during the age of the crucible, and omens are said to be born with features similar to the primordial age (where dragons were worshipped) so there’s definitely solid correlation. As far as I know though, the Great Tree of the Crucible isn’t related to the Helphen. However, in the comments I’ve seen under here, there might be a relation between the Helphen and Rosus, I’d love to see that more fleshed out
So, a (not-so-quick) thought-dump since you brought up some very interesting points... The red lights in the forbidden lands make sense to me as the most likely candidate for the lamplight that the Helphen's Steeple mentions. The fact that it's sort of formless and doesn't seem to lead anywhere actually makes that case even stronger, as that grace is only meant to be seen by people who have "died in battle" and is trying to "guide the dead of the spirit world". Whether or not the player character is dead or if the Lands Between is some sort of purgatory, I don't think is super important to this point. Our character can't make sense of it like we can with Golden Grace because we're not in the spirit world- that 'grace replacement', or Red Grace isn't meant for us. Thinking back to your conversation with Ratatoskr, that actually connects some things with Marika and why she wanted us to leave the Lands Between to die in the first place. Maybe if we hadn't died elsewhere, we wouldn't have seen the Golden Grace we know; we would instead be part of the spirit world at that point, and be subject to the Red Grace while it steers us in the wrong direction. The fact that there's so many spirit animals that just wander around in these areas **has** to be meaningful to that end. It's too strange of a coincidence for ghostly animals to be all over the Forbidden Lands for it to **not** be closely related to the spirit world. This could also link into why Marika broke the cycle of death in the first place- she needed us to die outside the Lands Between, so that by the time we came back, the cycle of death would be broken and we would have no choice but to follow the Golden Grace to the very end. Maybe if we died in the Lands Between, this would be an entirely different game, and the grace we'd be following would be red instead. As for why we need the Golden Grace in the first place... We know it's to lead us to becoming the Elden Lord. Maybe she's manipulating the Greater Will in this regard? As in, she's playing the long game by letting the Greater Will guide us to becoming Elden Lord, hoping that we'll supplant her and replace the Order with something else, something new and not as broken? I may be misunderstanding something here and this is mostly speculation, but from the lore hunting I've done, that's what I've gathered so far. I hope those thoughts I spilled made even the barest amount of sense. Anyways, this was a great video! Can't wait to see more from you if you decide to put out more lore content.
@@CrunchyVideos All Tarnished are dead brought back to life by grace so perhaps they're in a state of limbo, not truly living but also not dead, and there might be places where that alters their perception/interaction with the world. As for why it is only there, well a tundra landscape is pretty hostile to life. Only the dead can dwell there in any abundance.
Fun fact: Marika crucified on the Erdtree and pierced by a spear is also from Norse mythology. Odin hung from Yggdrisil for 9 days and 9 nights pierced by his own spear gungnir.
The eclipse star mentioned on the shield may well be a representation of the deathbird outer god, since we know the outer gods are associated with/represented by stars (elden star, blood star maybe for FM). This OG being the protector of the soulless demigods may make sense as well, since they appear shunned by Marika and the greater will as a whole. At one of the churches of marika, melina will quote marika as telling the demigods that if they amount to nothing they will be forsaken. This could be an explanation for the existence of the mausoleum demigods, and that they take refuge in death with the deathbird outer god since the GW doesn’t allow them to be reabsorbed into the erdtree
Omg you made a video on the thing we were discussing in comments! It's like 30 minutes long! So excited! Yay candletree mention! Really great video! Great flow between ideas! Oh and regarding somber stones being drained of color, if we look at some of the higher level ones, and gravel stone, they imply that ancient dragons once had gold tinged gravel stone scales. I believe that once the age of dragons ended, the gold was repurposed to the erdtrees and all their golden ecosystem stuff. Ancient dragons, including placidusax, still have bits of gold remaining if you look closely. (dead ones no longer have it). I think wormfaces have something to do with returning gold to the ecosystem, seeing as they drop gold tinged excrement, are worms, and the fact that they don golden cloaks in farum azula suggesting a connection to the dragon cult. I speculate they may help remove the gold from ancient dragons by using their death blight stuff. Like those parasite eating fish called lumpsuckers perhaps.
Fascinating idea about the wormfaces, I’ve been struggling a bit with them and the death blight. I’ll be thinking about what you said. Glad you enjoyed the video!
So theres the Death Flame, Thats whitish/blueish/blackish. There's Black Flame that the godslayers use, which seems white and black. and then there is the Prince of Death's Gold and Black stuff? its interesting because the Eclipse shotel's weapon art has it bathed is a Gold/Black flame. Add in the Red/Black flame that Maliketh has and we've got ourselves quite the Elden Ring mystery. Its also interesting that the ghost flame sorceries use the half circle rune of death as they sigil. So far i think we can say that the burning of the dead creates the cold flame, while the flame that can kill demigods is the red/black flame and the (possibly) drained white/black flame. it's really interesting that the Death of Godwyn seems to have created something unprecedented.
This man made a 27 minute video about one item description. Peak souls lmao - but I absolutely love it. I was glancing through this item description the other day and I really think it's RIPE for DLC possibilities, since I've theorized for a while now that we'll get some sort of death-focused DLC that centers around Deathbirds, the GEQ, Apostles, Nobles, possibly Ravenmount, Ghostflame etc etc. Really cool that you caught something I've wondered about too - the inhabitants of Evergaols... some of them have a blue aura, others do not. Vyke in Mountaintops stands out to me as someone who does not, while many others especially in the early game do. What gives? lol More thoughts - I knew there wer plenty of Berserk references in this game, but my word I had no idea about some of those. Are we sure we're not just playing Berserk: The Video Game? More more thoughts - really glad someone noticed the red grace like lights in the Forbidden Lands. That can't possibly be a mistake but what the hell is it?
We are definitely playing Berserk the video game. Re: evergaols, I’m making a bunch of appendices of things like that, so I might be able to piece something together soon.
The red grace beams might be a sort of sign from the Erdtree to not progress forward, seeing as the Land of the Giants is off-limits, so it being red is essentially a warning to leave.
@@spookytown7963 Or it could be connected to the rune of death and the red light refrenced in Helpens steeple. It could be guiding spirits who arnt vengeful, clinging onto life. It could be guiding those who dont live in death, afflicted with Godwyn the Goldens death blight (Get it. Black and Gold). I saw a video on the topic of how important colour is in Elden ring. You should give it a watch if you havent. I can look through my watched videos to find it if you want?
Among the most interesting and unique videos on elden ring lore I've seen thus far. Also exceedingly high quality. Phenomenal job, and really enjoyed your podcast with ratatoskr. Keep on doing it!!
I’ve seen a lot of content tracing Berserks impact on FromSoft, and I always appreciate it as a Berserk fan, but I’ve never seen a parallel this insightful. The comparison is obvious on the surface, but you ran with it to a very significant yet logical place. Great video.
First thing I thought of when I got this weapon was morne's hammer from ds3. I'm pretty sure morne's hammer was made to look like gargoyles on a castle or cathedral of some sort. Similarly, since the sword is named the Helphen's steeple, I believe it's modelled after the steeple of some sort of church or cathedral named the Helphen. The red gem at the tip of the sword may be some sort of beacon on the steeple of the church, and the steeple is named a lampwood in the description because of how the souls of the dead are drawn to the red lamp glow coming off of the sword. Along with that, the spiked branch-like structures coming off of the building make it resemble a tree. I also thought the line at the end of the description is quite interesting. The one that says the light is similar to grace, but can only be seen by those who met their death in battle. I'm not entirely sure about this, but I think the skeleton warrior enemies we find throughout the game are those who live in death. And similarly to godwyn, their souls are removed, but their bodies still left in the overworld. I think this might have something to do with the deathbirds who burn bodies in ghostflame, and the Helphen which guides spirits to the afterlife. Maybe they are both required to make sure both body and soul are safely transported to the spirit world. Hopefully anyone who actually sees this comment finds my interpretation useful.
I don’t think it’s a church, although the Morion Blade is another close connection; the kanji in Japanese calls it a lantern tree. I like the idea of the Deathbirds having a kind of protective role, it fits with all the ritualistic stuff.
Awesome concept for a video and thorough coverage. Great video! This is a super interesting topic. The liturgical town has to be the most mysterious place for me as it just feels so out of place
Thanks man, glad you enjoyed it! Yeah agreed, it’s very mysterious. I didn’t mention in the video but it also seems significant that you have to light candles inside the evergaol to unlock the waygate. Another instance of guiding light
When you started talking about the Great tree being the Helphen, I immediately thought about how the Erdtree controls life and death and rebirth, not leading to complete death (reminding me itself of a Bleach like dichotomy between purification and obliteration of “hollows”) Similarly the rune of death is like a centipede, the half centipede mark of death on Ranni’s eye and the golden centipedes found around lesser Erd trees and underground. There are so many connections that can be made
Farum Azula seems to be frozen in time after its initial destruction. I vaguely remember it being said that it has, and will be, continually in a state of wreckage forever.
Wow great video ! I had no idea the Helphen had this much implications. Also, a theory about the evergaols being some kind of separate dimensional spaces I have is that the purple rift from which the enemies trapped there comes out of may be somewhat related to the rift shield the prisoner class start with. The description reads : Small metal roundshiled depicting a sinister rift. An antiquated charm that glares back at an enemy, it boosts focus. My possible explanations for this theory is that from it's appearance it ressemble loosely the shape of the purple rift itself and there also seems to be (to my knowledge) no other mentions to any kind of rifts whatsoever in the game. Something interesting to note here is that it's also the prisoner class that starts with this shield, so maybe it could indicate another link of some sort to the everjails. And while I definitely think there are theories to be made as to what the rift actually represents, I cannot declare anything as certain for now. I hope my explanation is not too messy and I hope for you the best !
Appreciate the Berserk warning. So many channels just assume anyone who's played a fromsoft game must have read/seen all of Berserk. I've only watched some of the original anime, one of the movies and a handful of the manga. I still really like it and fully intend to read it, it's just that there are so many other things on my watch/readlist that I haven't gotten to it yet. I was able to skip the Berserk discussion and continue watching
Yeah that’s probably the reason. It’s interesting how the crucible aspects are all traits of dragons specifically, as if they are a kind of blended-together life.
Wonderful! You're going to be a fast rising star and you deserve it, my good man. I'd love to hear about your thoughts on associations and connections between beasts and dragons. I've also been spending a lot of time at the Divine Towers lately, and there are white and black dripping fog-ooze there at the bottom ... strange description, but I promise its accurate. I've been speculating on it and I have a few correlations I'm working out which connects to the 8 meteorites we find at them positioned around the perimeter. Any speculation you have on the Divine Towers and what might be in the center of them in the ocean obscured by that cloud or fog on the map?
Fascinating observation about the bases of the towers, I’ll have to check that out. My only real theory about the towers is that they appear to be a perfect hexagon around what is presumably the impact crater of the star/golden meteor that the Elden Beast arrived with. Inside the towers you can see gold meteoric ore inset into the walls, the same as you find under Fallingstar Beasts and by Alabaster/Onyx Lords. Btw, if you want to know what inspired them, take a look at the second image in the Ripley Scroll. Also, Eredin observed in his lore-through that they might be carved out of petrified trees, which is an idea I like because it connects with the Ancestral Lake and final boss arena.
Glintstone comes from stars, so red glintstone could have originally come from the blood star. While this might seem to contradict Alberich's set descriptions - what if those sacrifices became the star that produced the red glintstone? Those sacrifices could have been something like an extra heretical graven mass that actually succeeded in becoming a star. That or the blood star could be the Formless Mother's home/birthplace. Those are my two preeminent theories. I'm still unsure as to exactly how outer gods connect with the stars.
Interesting... I've been playing with the theory that at some point people's souls used to return to the stars, before the Erdtree came. That would line up with the idea of blood sacrifices and the blood star being essentially the same thing.
I recently played the game and noticed that the red eyes also exist in people in Castle Sol. I fought a Banished Knight with red eyes and they demolished me. What I noticed was they were a lot more aggressive. My theory is that the “flame of ambition” could be less of a metaphor and an actual thing. Red flames in particular are associated with death. So… Maybe the two are connected? I don’t know.
This is so well done! I really hope you keep doing these as other ideas come up. Nice job on all the editing too. I had been pretty confused about the odd stasis world at Roundtable Hold and the evergaols, so this was an interesting case for the spirit world referenced by Helphen's Steeple. It's funny that no other items or characters in ER reference Helphen, with it seeming to be a pretty important concept. I'll have to stew on some of these ideas a bit 🤔
Thank you! I definitely think both the Roundtable Hold and the Evergaols have something to do with this idea of spirit and memory being connected, although I still don't have a completely clear idea of how or why. Yes, I thought it's so strange that there's this one item that dumps huge implications and nowhere else is it mentioned-- there are quite a number of items like that in ER, like the Twinbird Kite Shield or Scorpion's Stinger.
As others have pointed out, the outer gods seem to be representative of different ideologies. I've tried mapping these out, but then come across some references like the last two items you mentioned which hint at other mysterious outer gods with very little contextual information. *cue evil cackling from Miyazaki* If you ever develop a theory on those I'd love to hear about it..
Elden Ring lore is so insanely complex and is easily my favorite out of all the from soft games. I think I've found a clear answer on something then I find new information and the complexity spirals out and I don't know whats correct anymore. Excellent video my dude definitely one of the most overlooked lore aspects.
to the objects impaling the Fire Giants can be linked to that line that Melina tells us quoting Marika speaking to Godfrey "Put the giants to the sword and confine the flame atop the mount." This can have dual meaning of just killing them but this could be a way that of killing the giants but also to drive the Fell God out??? Dunno just a thought Great video!
There is also blue Grace-like trails of light in Raya Lucaria atop parts of the roof, but they do not seem to point in any particular direction. Raya has magical seals all around it, which could be blocking or obscuring their paths. Add this to the dialog given by Sorceress Sellen talking about "restoring the primeval current", and I have come to believe that the primeval current is actually the blue Grace that is connected to the same power as Astel and the Star Seeds. The red Grace-like aura from the Snowfields looks very similar, I can't imagine this is unintentional.
It would be interesting if the red Grace-like lights of the Forbidden Lands are visible to us because we died in battle prior to our resurrection, but they are no longer ordered and able to guide us because we are no longer dead.
Given the points your bring up, my headcannon is now that the Lands Between is the spirit world and that the Helphen was an earlier incarnation of the Lands Between; the game seems to suggest the world below was not always so, and given the many trees underground, the Greattree seemingly being underground, and red being associated with the crucible (possibly because the grace of the greattree was red and the crucible was not powerful enough in the beginning to establish gold as the dominant colour), it seems like grace is just part of this world and not directly controlled by any outer god. On the other hand, maybe the Lands Between is an amalgamation of the Helphen with something else as per your Phantasia argument, the greattree being of the Helphen and the Erdtree being of the other world.
I don't believe that the Lands Between being an interstice between two worlds is a reach at all. I think you're spot on. The Erdtree is such a blatant and heavy handed reference to the World Spiral tree, after all. I do think that the Lands Between may not be an interstice specifically because of the events that brought them the Erdtree, though, which is where it differs from the World Spiral tree. We kind of know that magic, spirits, and so on, were all part of the Elden Ring world before the arrival of the Erdtree, so I think if there are any distinctions it would probably start there.
I think this has a lot to do with Miquella, what with him being some kind of god of dreams and now he's "sleeping" in a deathlike state Maybe he can enter or control this spirit world, or whatever that dimension actually is
17:55 about this. We know that when Marika came into the picture along with the elden ring and she decided to lock down death, the "black flame" or death flame or whatever you wanna call it lost much of its power, and as we know, changed color. I'm thinking the same happened with the ghost flame and/or with this red hue that people saw as a guide to the afterlife. Those statues that "guide" you (and also lost souls) to catacombs around the land, turn on a sort of lamp when you interact with them, a white/blue-ish flame, and they depict a quite skeletal figure that seems much older than marika's age. I believe that since people are not being directed to the afterlife/spirit world anymore, but instead they return to the Erdtree and are infact fed to its roots, and if we assume this started to be the case because of Marika, we could speculate that the same thing happened to the flame of those statues, that lost its guiding red hue, and has been twisted to guide spirits to the catacombs for a different end.
Regarding the unwanted children of Marika: I’ve wondered if they might have been loyalists of the Golden Order, or perhaps even thralls to it or the GW, as Radagon seemed to become. What might follow is they were put on a hit list by Marika herself and entrusted to the Black Knives to carry out. The nearly ceaseless movement of the Mausoleums might serve to prevent these Demi-gods from returning in the Erdtree’s recycle of deathless life through roots, and effectively cements them as the unwanted children they now are. Most of my speculation stems from the viewpoint that Marika is ultimately the mastermind behind the fall of the Erdtree, and that perhaps her secret motivation was this all along, or might have otherwise been prompted after a series of discoveries and events (“I declare mine intent to search the depths of the Golden Order”). I also favor the idea that the GW and the Erdtree (at least in its current form) likely have nefarious motives at worst, or are at best the cause of all the misery we see as a result of miscalculations or the law of unintended consequences. Moreover, Ranni omits truth from us on at least one occasion so when she takes full credit for the Plot, I can’t help but wonder if there is more credit to be shared than she lets on. Rogier’s comment when we relay Ranni’s account to him is, “Not everyone would believe such a tale,” which I think could be a hint. With that in mind, I tend to think that Godwyn might have been in on it as a willing sacrifice (Finger Reader nearest to Godwyn refers to him as martyr to Destined Death). We also see it confirmed that Ranni and Rykard were also in league together at some point, so the eventual divide that is alluded to seems to be between those who wanted to upend the status quo, Marika included, and those wanting to maintain /reinforce it (Rahdan, Radagon, etc). In summary, maybe the unwanted children fell in the camp of Golden Order status quo, or might have been more susceptible to the control of the GW somehow, and so were eliminated as causalities of a (cold) war against the GW.
Hello, i am not vert good at english so excuse my mistakes While watching your video ( very intersting btw ), i kept thinking about a place, the nameless city, because ils disconected from the rest of the map, sofria and aisel river are actually accesable from elevator on the map, but it is not the case for the nameless city, and here we can find: ghost of other player, we can enter a dream to fight a dragon who as became a "Spirit", and there is an enormous cut black tree that looks like the one described in the helphen description
Concerning the stone pillar in the lake around the ancestral woods, it's said that the Nox we're banished by the Greater Will and it's followers below the surface for worshipping the night, so maybe the stones are the Nox's version of the Erdtree Arena we fight the Elden Beast in, assuming that arena holds some lore/sacred properties
Godwin is Gwendolyn and that's why he fights so hard against the dark... He doesn't want to be stuck and in such a state ever again, dum dum DUMMMMMMMM!!! Kidding but that'd be wild, the eclipse sign just made me wonder, a bit wildly I'll admit
So nice to finally see a lore youtuber who doesn't make shit up and actually provides the logic behind his theories and intepretations. Good job, keep it up. I also appreciate the Berserk music in the background 👍🏻
Man, bit pompous to say but it's super cool to notice a little detail in a game and then go and stumble into a video like this about it, just one more thing about these games that keep me coming back, having new understanding each time
Edited bc Crunchy pointed out some corrections. Hey, recently I stumbled upon a similar item description that (imo) has huge implications but nobody talks about, though less important then Helphen’s. This is my first time ever trying to draw lore conclusions and I very likely may be way off base, but I wanted to share it with someone who knows what they’re talking about, on other forums people just see the theory and go “wow that’s cool, it works to me” but I know it’s highly unlikely I’m right. The ID is the Sun Realm Shield, dropped from some normal (Edit: those who live in death) skeletons: “*Shield of honor depicting a city crowned by the sun. It has seen better days.* *Much like the wear upon the shield, the Seat of the Sun is long faded away.*” This, to me, implies that an order once existed where the sun played the same role the Erdtree now does. I think the Erdtree’s arrival (possibly coming from a falling star, so in some ways a star itself like the sun, though Ratatoskr thinks the Greater Will’s widespread influence and ER preceded the Erdtree and the defeat of the dragons) made the sun redundant, and thus made the order of the Sun fade away relatively (and just visually because of the vibrancy of the Erdtree). This ties into Castle Sol and Miquella trying to make another Erdtree. Also, the sun possibly “crowned” a city much like the Erdtree crowns Leyndell if the image is representative of something (of course, the sun “crowns” every city in our world, but it’s possible that their sun works differently and I’m drawing this connection between the Erdtree and the sun). Farum Azula maybe? Someplace else? I arrived at the conclusion that the Erdtree replaced the sun bc the sun doesn’t really fit into the metaphysical ideas of the Golden Order at all. Besides the clearly very old shield (edit: actually pretty recently bc after the night of the black knives) carried by the dead, the only other reference to the sun can be found in one of the areas most far removed from the influence of the Greater Will, Castle Sol.
Glad someone else noticed that item. I had very very similar thoughts. Here’s a couple of other things to think about regarding that: Those shields are carried and dropped by skeletons (TWLID) which suggests they were alive relatively recently, as in after Godwyn’s death. Also the Eclipsed Sun is called a star (eclipse greatshield description) so maybe the sun is a star too, like in the actual lore. You can see a sun but it’s very small, also I think after burning the Erdtree it has red godrays when you look at it.
Now that I’m thinking about it, I suppose it’s possible they died earlier and were only revived after Godwyn’s death? Also I’ve been playing with this idea that maybe the crucible was a sun? Very loose thoughts atm
@@sams7068 Ooh thanks for the Consecrated Snowfield candletree, I totally missed that; I think I’ve explored that area the least. Re: the scripture shield, it says the cipher is ancient, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the shield is. Interesting that the cipher forms a single circle, as opposed to the two concentric circles of Two Fingers incantations. Also, where are you getting that Alberich wielded the Cipher Pata? Iirc it’s in another room on a different body, didn’t seem connected to him in my mind.
@@CrunchyVideos you’re right, I was just wrong a couple times in that comment. If you can and want to, keep making videos! Your perspective is great bc it’s very broad and theme-oriented, but you still get details right. Right now people are still telling individual story snapshots-cool and needed but the game is about so much more than the average player thinks.
So about the true color of ghost flame, im pretty sure there is a flower in game called a grave violet that is actually more akin to lavender and its description reads "A purple flower that blooms in graveyards. Material used for crafting items. The hue of ghostflame, it's believed to be useful in calling forth spirits"
Just some thoughts there. Colorless can be an indication of lack of loyalty or connection to an Outer God. The Lands Between seems to be in a state of 52 Outer God Pile Up. Colors are strongly associated with these gods. Gold for the Golden Order, Scarlet for the Scarlet Rot, Blue for the Full Moon, Red for the Formless Mother (Mohg's attacks and the red hue of the albinaurics down there), and Yellow for the Frenzied Flame. In this context a thing without color can be something outside the control of those gods and/or something divested of alignment/power that used to belong to one of these factions but doesn't any more. Death's color seems to be black, or perhaps a blend of monochrome and transparent is a better way to put it. Spirits are usually black and white. The blue phantoms seen throughout Liurnia are probably magical constructs just like the phantom weapons that can be conjured through glinstone sorceries. The closest I'd come to calling them spirits would be to postulate that maybe they're the souls of the dead given form, purpose, and direction via sorcery. Things take a bit of a twist with deathroot because that is gold and black. Black for Death plus gold for Godwyn: a fusion of two things that should not be paired. Death, the cessation of life being powered and directed (in a fashion) by a body that isn't just alive but is immortal with endless life is a fusion of two opposites. Then we've got the Rune of Death not just flooding out of its constrained form as a red wave but burning the Erd Tree in the same eerie light. Death's color seems to shift to whatever it is doing at the time or to show what force is using it. Maybe that's why somber stones are somber. Just one last thought on color, the outbreak of the Scarlet Rot in Caelid has caused land and sky to be filled with scarlet hues and Mohg's palace has a general red hue around it. Meanwhile the capital is described as being bathed in gold. The direct presence of an outer god's power does funky things to the electromagnetic spectrum in an area.
Toyour question about the blood star: Alberichs altered set looks similar to Lusat and Azur's condition after glimpsing into the primeval current. My theory is that the Briars are an ancient part of said current, they are heretical yet still red glintstone sorceries. The Star part also still connects them to the cosmos. Why they were used to presumably kill the giants i dont know.
In sellen’s quest she tells us sorcery comes from the life of the stars, which seems to confirm something about the blood star and others we discover in game. Also there are colorless rays at the moonlight altar that look like the golden rays on one of the maps. What if (spoiler) ranni’s order ending is actually further embracing the spirit world, somehow? She gives us our first spirit ashes and is dead/spectral herself. Maybe she is intending for their to only be a spirit world, based on her dialogue and involvement with death previously. Just something to think about.
One possible connection of interest is thet the Helphen steple is shaped like a black tree lit by a ghostflame. The Ertree of gold, blackens as you burn it with the flame contained within the rune of death. And the candletrees symbolize the burning of the erdtree, which is something also seen by prophets.
you can totally see farum azula from a divine tower, and can see miquella´s tree from the windmills village. only the round table is nowhere to be found.
18:30 the ghost is referring to Godwyn, he is the soulless demigod, cause his soul was slain in the black knives night. He is very close to mausoleums and mausoleum's knights and he is now the unwanted child of Marika beacause of what he became, a cancer in the Erdtree roots.
I believe finger symbolism needs to be looked into as well for the two fingers and three fingers likely have a connection for more lore from the 3 hour video. The tree branches are like fingers as well so the great tree rune (name my speculation) is in the dark moon I'd say and the other runes are rings on the fingers or branches per say. Just an odd thought also info on finger symbolism below from a jewelry site. Also note in game we have no rings to equip it was replaced with talismans for the rings are only meant for empyreans and their elden lords controlled by the will of two hands that were once one I believe. Finger Symbolism The left hand is the feminine, the YIN: stillness, dark trusting and patient and the receiving side. The right hand is the masculine, the YANG: active, heat, light, moment and the giving side. Pinky finger: If you need a little extra in your communications skills, intuition or professionalism. The pinky represents ending and the ability to finish what you started and end what is not serving you anymore. Connected to the planet Mercury. Ring finger: To show a symbol of love, freedom and trust. Gain better inspiration- and improvisation skills. Connected to the Sun. The middle finger: Here is where you should place your ring if you need to boost your skills in taking responsibility, to do your duties, find balance or to achieve coherence with your surroundings. Connected to Saturn. Index finger: A ring on your Index finger is a signal of ambition, focus on direction and pride. Connected to powerful Jupiter. Thumb: Wearing a ring on your thumb signals strength of character, will and endurance. Connected to Mars.
Unrelated passing thoughts but the eclipse can be viewed as a unification of opposites which has relations to the process of creation of a philosophers stone. And more specifically the alchemical rebis much like a certain final boss. Furthermore it’s theorized that Miquella created the mausoleums and castle sol to get Godwyn’s soul back. And an eclipse is viewed by some as a gateway of sorts to the other side. Perhaps the unification of opposites in the form of an eclipse is to achieve another form of great work. In this case Returning Goldwyn
Couple of things I wanted to add:
- There are two more candletrees people have pointed out to me; one in the Weeping Peninsula, and another in Consecrated Snowfield. I haven't confirmed exactly where these are yet.
- There are actually three versions of Roundtable Hold (Brilliant, right?) A third version is found when you travel to the hub after retrieving either half of the Haligtree Medallion, and Ensha invades you. This version is much darker than the hub, it's completely empty besides Ensha, and Ensha is able to attack you.
- Another location from a previous Fromsoft game which is similar to the Ancestral Lake or Elden Beast arena is the Hunter's Dream from Bloodborne; there are a bunch of huge wooden pillars in the distance. This location is also not fully real, and also has a physical(?) counterpart.
- The Fire Monk sword-tree objects can also be found near Zamor Ruins, where there is a group of Thorn-Fire Sorcerers and a Prelate nearby.
- The strange statue of a bald man and a growing tree in the Roundtable Hold can also be found in Stormveil and Leyndell-- I haven't seen it anywhere else. However, he appears to have the same face as the giant smouldering heads in Limgrave present in the Network Test version which Lance McDonald has unearthed. Interesting to note that many bodies crucified a-la-Marika throughout Limgrave have smouldering bodies.
- The Twinbird Kite Shield depicts a black bird against a red background and a red bird against a blue background. If the black bird is somehow represented or manifested by the Deathbirds, it begs the question what the red bird is. In alchemical symbolism, this would represent the raven and the phoenix, symbolizing a kind of physical death and release into the spiritual world (whether literal or metaphorical).
- More on the Eclipse in my next video about Miquella.
Edited--
PS: Several people have commented about Rosus and the statues which emit light pointing towards catacombs. To be honest this completely slipped my mind while making the video. Guiding light and undead seem related to the Helphen, but I’m not sure how exactly, so I don’t have any cogent thoughts about it anyway.
PPS: Just noticed that the Confessor Armor has an insignia very similar to the pared-down Elden Ring/Ranni's Rune symbol I speak about near the end of the video. Anyone got theories about why this is here?
at 7:22 you show the swords in the Roundtable Hall which are seemingly turning into trees. They look to me themselves a connection between "death in battle" and a "tree of the dead".
12:47 that image of the Land Between during the Shattering is clearly inspired by the 1894 depiction of the Götterdämmerung (twilight of the gods, aka the ragnarok), "Valhalla in flames", by Max Brückner (image is the first picture of this wikipedia article - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6tterd%C3%A4mmerung )
If the Lands Between really are inspired by the Valhalla, then they are indeed a plane of existence separeted by the rest of the "human world" (by the Sea of Fog, anyone?), which incidentally makes Ranni's plan pointlessy redundant.
23:00 the red rays point to the head of a giant, they literally emanate from its mouth (or are drawn into it). You can vaguely see its outlines at 23:52 - 23:53
"The strange statue of a bald man and a growing tree in the Roundtable Hold can also be found in Stormveil and Leyndell"
There are similar statues with more roots around the base found on the Bellum Highway iirc.
Edit: Also, I am surprised you didn't mention Rosus.
"Usher of Death, Rosus, who shows the path to the catacombs throughout the Lands Between, is depicted on this ritual axe.
The dead easily lose their way, and have always been in sore need of a guiding hand." - Rosus' Axe.
Rosus guides the dead with a lamp-like light, as seen in the statues presumably depicting him throughout the catacombs. It would also connect to your speculation that the Helphen tree is related to the Greattree roots of the catacombs.
Rosus' summons and Tibia's summons also use similar language:
"Summons a group of Those Lost in Death.
Three skeletons will appear some distance from the caster and attack foes before disappearing.
The dead have long been left to wander; what they need is leadership." - Tibia's Summons.
"Raise the axe aloft to summon those lost in death. Three skeletons will appear at a distance and attack in tandem before vanishing." - Rosus' Summons.
The statues that guide you to the catacombs (again, presumably Rosus) also emit a light similar to Grace. Rosus at the very least seems to fulfil a similar role to the Helphen tree and the Tibia mariners.
@@saulgoneman Ooh thanks I didn't notice Bellum Highway! Yeah I completely forgot about Rosus lol.
Fair, there are so many random lore tidbits of unclear significance that it's difficult to keep track of them all.
@@CrunchyVideos would like to add The Mending Rune of Death also looks like an Eclipse
Might be worth looking into for your eclipse video
Mans predicted the DLC 9 months before the announcement
The eternal city which had its sky stolen is what is now the unnamed eternal city in Deeproot Depths. Same architecture, same ants, but anything Nox has been evacuated or stolen.
Oh snap, that's actually a really great point!
Yes but also no.
I think ALL the Eternal Cities had their sky stolen. That was part of their punishment for trying to kill the fingers (fingerslayer blade below the giant maiden made from the corpse of a person) and when the city was buried they were given a false night sky "to wait for their Lord of Night"
Uhl ruins in Liurnia stands just above an Eternal City, the same one Astel is in, both sharing Ancestor Spirit followers and the same statues so they were all buried and ruined.
Both the Eternal Cities that have names
Nokron and Nokstella
Also both have 1 dead giantess maiden.
The only city to be missing their giant maiden is the unnamed one. Using this I think Nokron and Nokstella were their names and what the cities were named after
(Much like the current demigods sharing lots of name similarities)
@@veronicatazri9092 I'm pretty sure it's stated some places that the Astels were created long after the cities were buried, and the only city without a sky right now is the unnamed one. Common theory is that the Malformed Stars were made as a super-weapon or something, but then the strongest one, Astel, went rogue.
@@shybandit521
Astels aren't created. They're falling stars. The game even says this and their face/eye is identical to fallingstar beasts
"A malformed star born in the flightless void far away. Once destroyed an Eternal City and took away their sky. A falling star of ill omen."
and we find him in an Eternal City with a false night sky below a lake of rot
The game also states numerous times the Eternal Cities commited "treason" and the Greater Will sent Astel to punish them
"This blood-drenched fetish is proof of the high treason committed by the Eternal City and symbolizes its downfall."
"Long ago the Nox invoked the ire of the Greater will and were banished deep underground. Now they live under a false night sky. In eternal anticipation of their liege, of the coming age of stars and their Lord of Night"
Common theory doesn't interest me when I can read what the game tells me and everything fits into place.
@@shybandit521 I have litterally never heard anyone say the malformed stars were made by the nox
Berserk's music feels almost too perfect for this sort of speculative video, really nice hearing it used so pleasantly.
That sword discription sounds a lot like the DLC image we got.
Right so here are my general thoughts not sure how useful you will find them:
1. Mausoleums hold soulless demigods that died in the night of black knives after Godwyn. I think so based on:
- Spirit dialogue: "The mausoleum prowls. Cradling the soulless demigod. O Marika, Queen Eternal. He is your unwanted child"
-Trailer: "The rune of death was stolen and the demigods begain to fall starting with Godwyn The Golden."
So this is a pretty straightforward connection. Now I do have more that are a bit more elusive
2. Deathbirds are somehow connected to Godwyn and other soulless demigods. I am not certain about the nature of this connection but it is clearly there because there are so many things that point this way:
-"The wing-shaped ornaments on its back evoke the Deathbird. A self-inflicted curse that ties the spirits of these loyal knights to the land, having willingly beheaded themselves so that they may serve theirs masters in death." - armor decryption of the headless knight
-"Hatchet used in ancient sacrificial rite. A Deathbird is depicted as a malevolent deity." - Hatchet dropped by one of the deathbirds
-The skulls on the walking mausoleums resemble Rancorcall spell and skulls Rancor Pot: "In times of old, the dead were burned with ghostflame, and from those cinders arose vengeful spirits." and "In the time when there was no Erdtree, death was burned in ghostflame. Deathbirds were the keepers of that fire."
- "Ritual spear used by priests of old who were permitted to come among the Deathbirds. The priests became guardians of the birds through the rite of Death, which also serves as an oath sworn to their distant resurrection. " - this is the decryption of Death Ritual Spear and the ritual described in it kinda reminds me of what is happening with the headless knights and soulless demigods.
So we can kinda deduce that Deathbird magic is somehow responsible for protecting the walking mausoleums.
3. When we cast any of the ghostflame spells (associated with the deathbirds) we will see the mark of the centipede that is of course the same as: "Cursemark of Death" retrieved from Ranni body.
Now it is perhaps just me but the eclipse symbol is very similar to "Mending Rune of the Death-Prince" so perhaps it didn't mean to symbolize the real eclipse but The Age of the Duskborn ?
I'd like to pose a thought if I may.
It was never mentioned when a piece of the rune of death was stolen, only that it was and used to create the black knives. The rune of death was given to malikath by Marika for safe keeping. To my knowledge the only person with the ability explicitly told to break the Elden ring and respective runes was Marika.
Could it be possible that when Marika removed her rune of death and gave it to Malikath that she broke a piece off and held onto it, and later on the piece of the rune of death stolen was not from Malikath but from her? Or if she did hold onto a piece of the rune of death, could it be possible she gave it to Ranni instead of having it stolen?
@@Alex_the_Copper Not a bad idea but it does conflict with the game. Why, if it was stolen from marika not him, would maliketh become a paranoid mess afterwards? He literally sealed the balde into his own flesh to safeguard it and says quote: "I will not have it stolen from me again"
@@raptorxrise5386 The idea I had was once the night of the black knives happened, it would be clear to Marika that the piece of the rune of death that she had kept for herself would be clear was stolen and used to kill her son. If this is so then her shattering the Elden ring would have been an act of grief considering all her manipulation of the Elden ring and its runes did not save her son.
As far as Malikath goes he was not aware that Marika kept a piece for herself. When he hears that a piece was stolen and was used to kill Godwyn, the only logical conclusion would be that it was stolen from Malikath. Marika never told anyone she kept a piece for herself and Malikath was never aware he wasn't given the full rune of death. That would make him parinoid enough to seal the rune inside himself and would explain what "Marika's betrayal" to him was. She betrayed his trust in keeping that piece of the rune of death and it led to an event that if left to him would never have happened.
What a smart point. Death is fascinating isnt it?
I keep coming back to this video because the idea of the Helphen and the Lampwood are very intriguing to me (and I’m willing to bet they’ll have a larger presence in the DLC). Something I wanted to point out was the rune that may be on the dark moon. This reminded me of the Eldritch Moon set that came out for Magic: the Gathering a few years back. I encourage anyone to look up the card “Imprisoned in the Moon” as it features a moon very similar to the Full Moon in Elden Ring with a large glowing rune carved in it. Though the rune from the card and the supposed rune on the Dark Moon do not match, we do know that Miyazaki has used Magic cards as inspiration before. If there is a rune on the dark moon, could it be possible it is containing some kind of eldritch horror similar to Emrakul from MTG?
You’re likely right
Ranni's dark moon is talked about like another outer god, so that would make sense.
Haligtree can be seen from Castle Sol, and vice versa. You can see The Lands Between from Farum Azula, and bestial sanctum is obviously a beast grave. Also, Farum Azula seems to be surrounded by some magical barrier, although it may be just the game mechanical "dungeon barrier".
you can also see faram azula from the isolated divine tower! and maybe elsewhere in the lands between. I've always wondered if faram azula is supposed to be locked in place in-lore, or if it's supposed to be a place that moves around with its storm
@@Shmethan where exactly is that tower? Never been there. Is it where you need to go to activate Malenia's great rune?
@@arktisch36 Yup coz
you can also see the haligtree very clearly from the shaded castle, the map doesn't make any sense with the view however.
new elden ring screen shot for the shadow of the erdtree dlc may show the Helphen
I was thinking the same thing
Hi, regarding your question about the statue in the Round Tabke Hold, Tarnished Archaeologist has a video explaining the significance of them. It's Godfrey and the Truth of the Crucible
Fun fact; the ruins in Deeproot basin once was the third eternal city that Astel destroyed. I can't remember how I came to that conclusion due to the hundreds of voice lines and item descriptions, but I'm fairly certain that this is true.
The grace there is called the nameless eternal city and the ruins was what made me reach that conclusion as well.
@@chichocooks Oh yeah. Now I feel dumb for not remembering something that obvious. Thank you for citing the source that my brain couldn't.
One interesting thing about those who live in death is their connection to water. Tibia Mariners are on boats, Godwyn is a fish monster, and a lot of things related to Ancestor spirits look like water (though this is among the weaker connections). Considering the general connections to fire in ghost flame, the black flame, and the rune of destined death, perhaps this is significant in some way as water magic does exist in the universe through the bubble sorceries. Perhaps it speaks to a division between spirits and those who live in death.
Godwyn having an aquatic corpse is one of the biggest mysteries to me
Great observation, I haven’t seen anyone else saying this but it makes a ton of sense.
there's also the death frogs, but maybe Those who lives in death are affected by it because of the zone being watery at the roots, the source of death blight
Another clear allusion to real-world mythology in the river Styx, represented underground with the eternal cities and tying into the game's theme of fighting stagnation. Notice how Those Who Live In Death always seem to be found near standing water on the surface world, usually lakes with no inlet or outlet for the water to move.
Didn't expect music from Angel's Egg. I love that movie.
It's weird that the round table hold burns exactly like the tree though. I felt while playing the game then, that our round table hold was inside the tree somehow. The wood looks really really similar anyways, imo.
My interpretation is that since the Roundtable was created by the Two Fingers/Greater Will, when the main seat of its power in the world burned it burned away the hold as well. Though it could also be that it happened because since the way to the Erdtree was opened the hold was no longer needed
imma take a stab at it.
the roundtable exists in two places. the meta physical one were all familiar with and the actual physical one in Lyndell. Both locations are associated strongly with the grace of the two fingers which are emissaries of an outer god.
We see another location that matches this description in the Hunters Workshop in Bloodborne. We know that the moon spirit wanted to use the player as a agent to kill other outer gods. when the player became too powerful to controll the workshop burns and we get a confrontation ending with the moon spirit's death.
When drawing these comparisons we have to remember that the greater will exerts a greater control over the lands between than the moon spirit ever wanted. When we burn the erdtree we are confronted by Marika the agent and then by the erd beast. When we confront the erd beast he stands fully erect and broadcasts a light from him like a beacon. What the bloadcast was or who it was sent to I'm hoping for answers in upcoming dlc.
Simple, the Roundtable we go to is inside the erdtree, the Tarnished are supposed to serve Marika and the Greater Will afterall.
What if the roundtable hold is itself a remembrance, similar to those we gather from bosses? Hewn into the erdtree itself, and held together by the Tarnished as they fight, die, and seek the Elden Ring? That would fit my thought for it burning because it's within the Erdtree.
@@benglaser1345 I like this explanation the most
Great video, i always found the Helphen steeple sword to have one of the most intriguing lore tidbits, I also noticed how in each divine tower you can see strands of black fog when going up the elevator.
A theory i would like to see explored is the importance of the Five fingers for the Beatsmens and why does it looks like the 3 fingers and the 2 fingers were maybe part of the same hand ages ago.
I think the fracture of The One Great was maybe caused by the Nox cutting the old Fingers, separating the maddened 3 and the orderly 2 , as why we find multiple pairs of fingers and only one 3 fingers locked up , i think they may have kept the only one they couldnt destroy and hid it deep underground.
*adjust gold foil hat*
Shadow of the erdtree could be referring to the Helphen Lampwood, mentioned in the helphen steeple, which talks it being in the “spirit world” and/or guides to the spirit world here is the description of the Helphen Steeple,
Greatsword patterned after the black steeple of the Helphen, the lampwood which guides the dead of the spirit world.
The lamplight is similar to grace in appearance, only it is said that it can only be seen by those who met their death in battle.
I watched this when you first posted it and to date, this is still one of my favorite lore videos of all time! Looking forward to the DLC rehashing!!
I think the Blood star is a envoy of the formless mother. Though I think we have yet to see it and may never due to the formless nature. The Elden Beast and even Astel are star entities.
Hmm
Briars of sin is one of the Blood sorceries, and it requires pure faith to use. The blood oath incants like Bloodflame blade require a mix of faith and arcane to use
Actually, is it possible that that need for arcane for the Blood oath incants is due to Mohg's influence?
@@es-rh8oo The formless mother seems to aid those that are helpless or overall lost and shunned. It wouldn't surprise me that in its pure form it just requires faith, since it literally appears when they are most desperate. But Mogh is not just trying to be desperate he is becoming strong and is trying to formalize its cult to the formless mother, if I am not confusing it most erdtree incantations are pure faith too but those that come from fundamentalists (those that try to formalize the cult to the erdtree/golden order) also require int.
I love the Angel's Egg music. Fits so well.
Oh I'm glad you recognized it! I adore that soundtrack.
Interesting thing about the blood star's identity, I am of the opinion that it's just another facet of the formless mother since briar sorceries work by wounding yourself to gain power, and wounds tend to be one of the larger themes with all the formless mother stuff especially with how all the blood incantations work by wounding the formless mother herself
Dude! I have been doing my best to spread this theory! Glad I have a fellow tarnished in the field! Btw, take a look at Alberich’s altered helm. Its entirely red glintstone, like azure and lusat!
The only thing that makes me see a distinction is that the formless mother craves wounds for herself, and no incantations tied to her harm the user, whereas the the thorn sorceries are powered by the users blood by converting the blood into glintstone (see: staff of the guilty description). i definitely think theres a relation but theres not enough info to say
@@dumbsterdives the dialogue from our favorite graven witch mentor, Sellen, claims that glintstone sorcery is a study of the stars since we are tapping into their residual life-essence, trapt within glintstone.
Red glintstone is made, according to the staff
Of the guilty, by creating a wound with glintstone. So…that is the connection between thorn sorcery and the formless mother. Blood incanations are you wounding her, thorn sorcery is wounding yourself to create an echo of that bond.
Another interesting note is that seeing a primeval current results with a change within the caster that lets them affect the world…like Mogh seeing the mother and having his blood ignite
I bet the blood star is like the Erdtree but for the Formless Mother
the blood star is probably some unique meteoric outer god that can only be seen by those who trap their DNA inside of glintstone, fusing themselves with glinstone and whatever lifeforce was already present within.
I'm not entirely certain if this information is useful, but the tibia mariners used to be called "bone-beckoner mariners" in earlier versions of the game
There’s another tree lamp in weeping peninsula that takes you to the earth bore cave that has the bear boss
In terms of Mogh's face resembling that of the ancient dragons, I think it ties into an overarching connection between the Golden Lineage and the Crucible.
We have Crucible Knights serving Godfrey amass. We have Godfrey managing to bond with Serosh in a manner akin to what would be expected from an Empyrean but different. Both Mogh and Morgott, his children, were victims of the Omen Cure which we can infer from various descriptions to be intertwined with the primodial crucible. We have Godwyn and Fortisssax having quite a strange bond and connection, with Fortissax somehow being able to enter Godfrey's husk by converting himself into an astral entity of sorts. We have Godrick instantly being able to graft a Dragon's head onto his arm, with little to no preparation, only to immediately be able to master it.
This is where my thoughts are as well. There’s also the fact that Lansseax could take human form, implying that dragons and humans could mate. Also, Godrick calls the dragon “kin” and “trueborn heir”.
@@CrunchyVideos That's a good catch. I never thought to take Godrick's claims of kinship to be somewhat literal. Godwyn's unique and mutated corpse, which appears to be an amalgamation of various lifeforms - notably seafaring creatures, also coincidentally mirrors the crucible being associated with the fusion of life, human and inhuman, in its totality. The manner by which Basilisks, among other lifeforms, have been influenced by Godwyn's traits, in turn, is also quite the coincidence.
While Godwyn's appearance, upon reflection, is certainly immensely intriguing perhaps it's also worth speculating that Nepheli's experience with the Stormhawk King's ashes is also the result of some primordial power in her blood rather than simplistic lineage.
@ 18:35 I suppose Godwyn is the soulless demigod, as he was mentioned often in Fia's questline. Godwyn is Marika's child, and his soul was slain by the blackknives imbued with the power of the rune of Death. And from many instances within the game, we learn that the Golden Order opposes "Those Who Live in Death", or what we commonly known as the Undead. Since Godwyn was one the favored demigods of the Golden Order, after his soul died he became the demigod of the Undead, hence "unwanted" by Marika.
Yeah I was thinking the same, isn't Godwyn currently the god of those who live in death, as a result of his soul being slain?
On the night of the black knives I’m pretty sure a lot of demigods were slain, hence Godwyns title ‘First Demigod to Die’ or something along those lines in the intro cinematic. I can’t remember exactly where it’s stated that lots of demigods were slain but it may have been the introduction cinematic or some item description.
Another thing that adds to this is that the walking mausoleums each house a soulless demigod, and since it’s implied that Marika orchestrated the night of the black knives, presumably said demigods were unwanted. Hence that line from the spirit.
@@GoonCaved I don't think there's any great evidence for many other Demigods, we can only assume that the line that descended from Godfrey are the ones that are not accounted for in-game but all the lore we see on the night of the black knives only mentions Godwyn's soul and Ranni's body getting killed, so I choose to believe that was the extent of the damage.
I'll also say I'm personally skeptical of the idea that Marika was behind it all because I don't think it makes much sense for her to murder the one of her offspring she seems to have considered to be an unfettered success from her point of view, like in comparison Morgott, Mohg, Melania and Miquella all had imperfections that compromised them in the eyes of herself and the Erdtree. I can see the possibility that maybe she was orchestrating the plot to target someone else but she was either tricked or things spiraled out of anyone's control and Godwyn was killed against her will.
@@GoonCaved Ranni says that line in the story trailer. Also I think there’s another line about the NotBK referring to Marika’s kin being killed but I can’t find it.
@@malleableconcrete late reply but my belief is that she orchestrated the night of the black lives in order to introduce hardship into the lands between. not only this, but to set into motion the return of the tarnished so that they may slay a god, aka the elden beast (hence the god slain message after defeating it). It’s clear through Hewg that Marika wants a god to die, it’s not clear specifically which one but it can be implied that it’s Marika / the elden beast (or even the greater will itself), since Marikas voice lines in the church say that she is going to search the depths of the golden order, calling Radagon a ‘leel hound’ to the golden order and such. She clearly has a distaste for the outer god which she was chosen to serve and thus seems to want to remove their influence.
Since you mentioned that it makes more sense that if Marika was behind the NotBK, then it makes more sense for the imperfect children to die. Perhaps this is the very reason these ones weren’t killed, since they were imperfect from the perspective of the golden order. Not much to go off but something to think about.
ok the ridiculous similarity between the World Tree from Berserk and the Erdtree honestly shocked me
the images might as well be interchangeable if you took out the colour from Elden Ring
Yo, so glad you decided to make videos
Nice video! Really impressive for a first foray into Elden Ring lore. I enjoyed it
Very interesting video, had similar thoughts myself. The implications of a spirit world is quite huge. The evergoals always bothered me, absolutely feels like a place just out of phase with reality, good place to seal away someone, I suppose.
Love the music choices, especially L's theme!
Thanks! Yeah there’s definitely more on the evergaols I didn’t cover, especially the different colored spirits and why Vyke appears normal. Haha I’m glad someone noticed the music, thought it was fitting for ‘detective work’.
Calling it, that the spirit realm is the location of the DLC
I've never seen anyone talk about this, everything related to TWLID (Those Who Live In Death) is so interesting.
Perhaps the Mariners are like Charron, ferrying and leading the dead to a death outside of the Erdtree. Maybe this is like a kind of "Afterlife" or an alternative state of death given to certain individuals based on their deaths, kind of like a Valhalla of sorts given that it specifies "Those who died in battle".
Or just maybe... the existence of TWLID is an act of rebellion against the Erdtree, The Golden Order and the Erdtree did fundamentally change death in The Lands Between, maybe its a way of showing the Greater Will that things were already in order before it arrived and now it tampers with the original and natural way of life that it replaced.
i dunno man, it gets me thinkin'
The Charron reference is definitely intended, as we also get the river Styx connection with the underground river near the eternal cities, which is tied into the game's theme of fighting stagnation. TWLID are a result of Marika sealing true death, inducing stagnation to preserve her order. Okina's and the Land of Reeds' lore also reference stagnation as opposed to the purification brought by the underground river. Moving water washes away blood and the madness surrounding it. Moving water washes away blight and it's corruption. Interesting that TWLID have the guidance of the Tibia Mariners, yet seem to be led nowhere, as they are always found in disconnected lakes of still, standing water.
In regards to your comparison of Mohg to the dragons: omens, misbegotten, and dragons are all directly related to the Crucible, the primordial tree that existed before the dawn of the Erdtree. All life is said to have blended together during the age of the crucible, and omens are said to be born with features similar to the primordial age (where dragons were worshipped) so there’s definitely solid correlation. As far as I know though, the Great Tree of the Crucible isn’t related to the Helphen. However, in the comments I’ve seen under here, there might be a relation between the Helphen and Rosus, I’d love to see that more fleshed out
So, a (not-so-quick) thought-dump since you brought up some very interesting points...
The red lights in the forbidden lands make sense to me as the most likely candidate for the lamplight that the Helphen's Steeple mentions. The fact that it's sort of formless and doesn't seem to lead anywhere actually makes that case even stronger, as that grace is only meant to be seen by people who have "died in battle" and is trying to "guide the dead of the spirit world". Whether or not the player character is dead or if the Lands Between is some sort of purgatory, I don't think is super important to this point. Our character can't make sense of it like we can with Golden Grace because we're not in the spirit world- that 'grace replacement', or Red Grace isn't meant for us.
Thinking back to your conversation with Ratatoskr, that actually connects some things with Marika and why she wanted us to leave the Lands Between to die in the first place. Maybe if we hadn't died elsewhere, we wouldn't have seen the Golden Grace we know; we would instead be part of the spirit world at that point, and be subject to the Red Grace while it steers us in the wrong direction. The fact that there's so many spirit animals that just wander around in these areas **has** to be meaningful to that end. It's too strange of a coincidence for ghostly animals to be all over the Forbidden Lands for it to **not** be closely related to the spirit world.
This could also link into why Marika broke the cycle of death in the first place- she needed us to die outside the Lands Between, so that by the time we came back, the cycle of death would be broken and we would have no choice but to follow the Golden Grace to the very end. Maybe if we died in the Lands Between, this would be an entirely different game, and the grace we'd be following would be red instead.
As for why we need the Golden Grace in the first place... We know it's to lead us to becoming the Elden Lord. Maybe she's manipulating the Greater Will in this regard? As in, she's playing the long game by letting the Greater Will guide us to becoming Elden Lord, hoping that we'll supplant her and replace the Order with something else, something new and not as broken? I may be misunderstanding something here and this is mostly speculation, but from the lore hunting I've done, that's what I've gathered so far.
I hope those thoughts I spilled made even the barest amount of sense. Anyways, this was a great video! Can't wait to see more from you if you decide to put out more lore content.
I like the idea about leaving the lands... I guess I just wonder why we can only see the red grace in this one place? or why we can see it all?
@@CrunchyVideos All Tarnished are dead brought back to life by grace so perhaps they're in a state of limbo, not truly living but also not dead, and there might be places where that alters their perception/interaction with the world. As for why it is only there, well a tundra landscape is pretty hostile to life. Only the dead can dwell there in any abundance.
Fun fact: Marika crucified on the Erdtree and pierced by a spear is also from Norse mythology. Odin hung from Yggdrisil for 9 days and 9 nights pierced by his own spear gungnir.
The eclipse star mentioned on the shield may well be a representation of the deathbird outer god, since we know the outer gods are associated with/represented by stars (elden star, blood star maybe for FM). This OG being the protector of the soulless demigods may make sense as well, since they appear shunned by Marika and the greater will as a whole. At one of the churches of marika, melina will quote marika as telling the demigods that if they amount to nothing they will be forsaken. This could be an explanation for the existence of the mausoleum demigods, and that they take refuge in death with the deathbird outer god since the GW doesn’t allow them to be reabsorbed into the erdtree
Omg you made a video on the thing we were discussing in comments! It's like 30 minutes long! So excited!
Yay candletree mention!
Really great video! Great flow between ideas!
Oh and regarding somber stones being drained of color, if we look at some of the higher level ones, and gravel stone, they imply that ancient dragons once had gold tinged gravel stone scales. I believe that once the age of dragons ended, the gold was repurposed to the erdtrees and all their golden ecosystem stuff. Ancient dragons, including placidusax, still have bits of gold remaining if you look closely. (dead ones no longer have it).
I think wormfaces have something to do with returning gold to the ecosystem, seeing as they drop gold tinged excrement, are worms, and the fact that they don golden cloaks in farum azula suggesting a connection to the dragon cult. I speculate they may help remove the gold from ancient dragons by using their death blight stuff. Like those parasite eating fish called lumpsuckers perhaps.
Fascinating idea about the wormfaces, I’ve been struggling a bit with them and the death blight. I’ll be thinking about what you said. Glad you enjoyed the video!
So theres the Death Flame, Thats whitish/blueish/blackish. There's Black Flame that the godslayers use, which seems white and black. and then there is the Prince of Death's Gold and Black stuff? its interesting because the Eclipse shotel's weapon art has it bathed is a Gold/Black flame. Add in the Red/Black flame that Maliketh has and we've got ourselves quite the Elden Ring mystery.
Its also interesting that the ghost flame sorceries use the half circle rune of death as they sigil.
So far i think we can say that the burning of the dead creates the cold flame, while the flame that can kill demigods is the red/black flame and the (possibly) drained white/black flame. it's really interesting that the Death of Godwyn seems to have created something unprecedented.
when u wake up and see the elden ring dlc announcement u should definetely make a vid on it really think this is where its goin
This man made a 27 minute video about one item description. Peak souls lmao - but I absolutely love it.
I was glancing through this item description the other day and I really think it's RIPE for DLC possibilities, since I've theorized for a while now that we'll get some sort of death-focused DLC that centers around Deathbirds, the GEQ, Apostles, Nobles, possibly Ravenmount, Ghostflame etc etc.
Really cool that you caught something I've wondered about too - the inhabitants of Evergaols... some of them have a blue aura, others do not. Vyke in Mountaintops stands out to me as someone who does not, while many others especially in the early game do. What gives? lol
More thoughts - I knew there wer plenty of Berserk references in this game, but my word I had no idea about some of those. Are we sure we're not just playing Berserk: The Video Game?
More more thoughts - really glad someone noticed the red grace like lights in the Forbidden Lands. That can't possibly be a mistake but what the hell is it?
We are definitely playing Berserk the video game. Re: evergaols, I’m making a bunch of appendices of things like that, so I might be able to piece something together soon.
The red grace beams might be a sort of sign from the Erdtree to not progress forward, seeing as the Land of the Giants is off-limits, so it being red is essentially a warning to leave.
Berserk: The Videogame is just the Souls series played back to back
the dlc has been announced and i do believe that the Tree in the distance is the helphen or godwyn’s death root
@@spookytown7963 Or it could be connected to the rune of death and the red light refrenced in Helpens steeple.
It could be guiding spirits who arnt vengeful, clinging onto life. It could be guiding those who dont live in death, afflicted with Godwyn the Goldens death blight (Get it. Black and Gold).
I saw a video on the topic of how important colour is in Elden ring. You should give it a watch if you havent. I can look through my watched videos to find it if you want?
i come from the future ----- unwanted child of marika is called messmer the impiler
Among the most interesting and unique videos on elden ring lore I've seen thus far. Also exceedingly high quality. Phenomenal job, and really enjoyed your podcast with ratatoskr. Keep on doing it!!
I’ve seen a lot of content tracing Berserks impact on FromSoft, and I always appreciate it as a Berserk fan, but I’ve never seen a parallel this insightful. The comparison is obvious on the surface, but you ran with it to a very significant yet logical place. Great video.
First thing I thought of when I got this weapon was morne's hammer from ds3. I'm pretty sure morne's hammer was made to look like gargoyles on a castle or cathedral of some sort. Similarly, since the sword is named the Helphen's steeple, I believe it's modelled after the steeple of some sort of church or cathedral named the Helphen. The red gem at the tip of the sword may be some sort of beacon on the steeple of the church, and the steeple is named a lampwood in the description because of how the souls of the dead are drawn to the red lamp glow coming off of the sword. Along with that, the spiked branch-like structures coming off of the building make it resemble a tree.
I also thought the line at the end of the description is quite interesting. The one that says the light is similar to grace, but can only be seen by those who met their death in battle. I'm not entirely sure about this, but I think the skeleton warrior enemies we find throughout the game are those who live in death. And similarly to godwyn, their souls are removed, but their bodies still left in the overworld. I think this might have something to do with the deathbirds who burn bodies in ghostflame, and the Helphen which guides spirits to the afterlife. Maybe they are both required to make sure both body and soul are safely transported to the spirit world.
Hopefully anyone who actually sees this comment finds my interpretation useful.
I don’t think it’s a church, although the Morion Blade is another close connection; the kanji in Japanese calls it a lantern tree. I like the idea of the Deathbirds having a kind of protective role, it fits with all the ritualistic stuff.
Awesome concept for a video and thorough coverage. Great video!
This is a super interesting topic. The liturgical town has to be the most mysterious place for me as it just feels so out of place
Thanks man, glad you enjoyed it! Yeah agreed, it’s very mysterious. I didn’t mention in the video but it also seems significant that you have to light candles inside the evergaol to unlock the waygate. Another instance of guiding light
holy shit the dlc will be in the spirit world dude !!!
When you started talking about the Great tree being the Helphen, I immediately thought about how the Erdtree controls life and death and rebirth, not leading to complete death (reminding me itself of a Bleach like dichotomy between purification and obliteration of “hollows”) Similarly the rune of death is like a centipede, the half centipede mark of death on Ranni’s eye and the golden centipedes found around lesser Erd trees and underground. There are so many connections that can be made
Just as a head's up, the Haligtee can be seen from Altus, around the windmill village, indicating it is in the physical world.
Farum Azula seems to be frozen in time after its initial destruction. I vaguely remember it being said that it has, and will be, continually in a state of wreckage forever.
This was a fascinating video. There are so many items in the game I didn't know existed, that give even more strands of story that I didn't know of.
Wow great video ! I had no idea the Helphen had this much implications.
Also, a theory about the evergaols being some kind of separate dimensional spaces I have is that the purple rift from which the enemies trapped there comes out of may be somewhat related to the rift shield the prisoner class start with.
The description reads :
Small metal roundshiled depicting a sinister rift.
An antiquated charm that glares back at an enemy, it boosts focus.
My possible explanations for this theory is that from it's appearance it ressemble loosely the shape of the purple rift itself and there also seems to be (to my knowledge) no other mentions to any kind of rifts whatsoever in the game.
Something interesting to note here is that it's also the prisoner class that starts with this shield, so maybe it could indicate another link of some sort to the everjails.
And while I definitely think there are theories to be made as to what the rift actually represents, I cannot declare anything as certain for now.
I hope my explanation is not too messy and I hope for you the best !
The souls games have been pulling heavily from Berserk for like a decade, they might as well get it over with and make a berserk game
Appreciate the Berserk warning. So many channels just assume anyone who's played a fromsoft game must have read/seen all of Berserk. I've only watched some of the original anime, one of the movies and a handful of the manga. I still really like it and fully intend to read it, it's just that there are so many other things on my watch/readlist that I haven't gotten to it yet. I was able to skip the Berserk discussion and continue watching
The thing about mohgs face being similar to dragons is cuz he’s an omen so he’ll have features from when everything was one in the crucible
Yeah that’s probably the reason. It’s interesting how the crucible aspects are all traits of dragons specifically, as if they are a kind of blended-together life.
Crucible was before everything. But dont forget the first Elden Lord was an actual dragon so I'd say they are more closely related to the same-ish era
There are some zeros missing from your subscriber count! great video!
Wonderful! You're going to be a fast rising star and you deserve it, my good man. I'd love to hear about your thoughts on associations and connections between beasts and dragons.
I've also been spending a lot of time at the Divine Towers lately, and there are white and black dripping fog-ooze there at the bottom ... strange description, but I promise its accurate. I've been speculating on it and I have a few correlations I'm working out which connects to the 8 meteorites we find at them positioned around the perimeter.
Any speculation you have on the Divine Towers and what might be in the center of them in the ocean obscured by that cloud or fog on the map?
Fascinating observation about the bases of the towers, I’ll have to check that out. My only real theory about the towers is that they appear to be a perfect hexagon around what is presumably the impact crater of the star/golden meteor that the Elden Beast arrived with. Inside the towers you can see gold meteoric ore inset into the walls, the same as you find under Fallingstar Beasts and by Alabaster/Onyx Lords. Btw, if you want to know what inspired them, take a look at the second image in the Ripley Scroll. Also, Eredin observed in his lore-through that they might be carved out of petrified trees, which is an idea I like because it connects with the Ancestral Lake and final boss arena.
I LOVE how much you mention berserk. I see it everywhere in elden ring. But I makes me want a new berserk game even more
I always thought the Lands Between has that name because its between the Eternal Cities and the Sky Temple (Farum Azula).
Glintstone comes from stars, so red glintstone could have originally come from the blood star. While this might seem to contradict Alberich's set descriptions - what if those sacrifices became the star that produced the red glintstone? Those sacrifices could have been something like an extra heretical graven mass that actually succeeded in becoming a star.
That or the blood star could be the Formless Mother's home/birthplace. Those are my two preeminent theories. I'm still unsure as to exactly how outer gods connect with the stars.
Interesting... I've been playing with the theory that at some point people's souls used to return to the stars, before the Erdtree came. That would line up with the idea of blood sacrifices and the blood star being essentially the same thing.
I recently played the game and noticed that the red eyes also exist in people in Castle Sol. I fought a Banished Knight with red eyes and they demolished me. What I noticed was they were a lot more aggressive. My theory is that the “flame of ambition” could be less of a metaphor and an actual thing. Red flames in particular are associated with death. So… Maybe the two are connected? I don’t know.
There is one more of that candle light thingies at consecrated snowfield
This is so well done! I really hope you keep doing these as other ideas come up. Nice job on all the editing too.
I had been pretty confused about the odd stasis world at Roundtable Hold and the evergaols, so this was an interesting case for the spirit world referenced by Helphen's Steeple. It's funny that no other items or characters in ER reference Helphen, with it seeming to be a pretty important concept. I'll have to stew on some of these ideas a bit 🤔
Thank you! I definitely think both the Roundtable Hold and the Evergaols have something to do with this idea of spirit and memory being connected, although I still don't have a completely clear idea of how or why. Yes, I thought it's so strange that there's this one item that dumps huge implications and nowhere else is it mentioned-- there are quite a number of items like that in ER, like the Twinbird Kite Shield or Scorpion's Stinger.
As others have pointed out, the outer gods seem to be representative of different ideologies. I've tried mapping these out, but then come across some references like the last two items you mentioned which hint at other mysterious outer gods with very little contextual information. *cue evil cackling from Miyazaki*
If you ever develop a theory on those I'd love to hear about it..
Elden Ring lore is so insanely complex and is easily my favorite out of all the from soft games. I think I've found a clear answer on something then I find new information and the complexity spirals out and I don't know whats correct anymore. Excellent video my dude definitely one of the most overlooked lore aspects.
its not that complex, it only seems that way because its vague and you have to actually use your brain to speculate
to the objects impaling the Fire Giants can be linked to that line that Melina tells us quoting Marika speaking to Godfrey "Put the giants to the sword and confine the flame atop the mount." This can have dual meaning of just killing them but this could be a way that of killing the giants but also to drive the Fell God out???
Dunno just a thought
Great video!
There is also blue Grace-like trails of light in Raya Lucaria atop parts of the roof, but they do not seem to point in any particular direction. Raya has magical seals all around it, which could be blocking or obscuring their paths. Add this to the dialog given by Sorceress Sellen talking about "restoring the primeval current", and I have come to believe that the primeval current is actually the blue Grace that is connected to the same power as Astel and the Star Seeds. The red Grace-like aura from the Snowfields looks very similar, I can't imagine this is unintentional.
Great video man, really enjoyed the topic and your breakdown.
Rykard's Rancor seems to be a colorful version of Ghostflame.
It would be interesting if the red Grace-like lights of the Forbidden Lands are visible to us because we died in battle prior to our resurrection, but they are no longer ordered and able to guide us because we are no longer dead.
Given the points your bring up, my headcannon is now that the Lands Between is the spirit world and that the Helphen was an earlier incarnation of the Lands Between; the game seems to suggest the world below was not always so, and given the many trees underground, the Greattree seemingly being underground, and red being associated with the crucible (possibly because the grace of the greattree was red and the crucible was not powerful enough in the beginning to establish gold as the dominant colour), it seems like grace is just part of this world and not directly controlled by any outer god.
On the other hand, maybe the Lands Between is an amalgamation of the Helphen with something else as per your Phantasia argument, the greattree being of the Helphen and the Erdtree being of the other world.
I don't believe that the Lands Between being an interstice between two worlds is a reach at all. I think you're spot on. The Erdtree is such a blatant and heavy handed reference to the World Spiral tree, after all. I do think that the Lands Between may not be an interstice specifically because of the events that brought them the Erdtree, though, which is where it differs from the World Spiral tree. We kind of know that magic, spirits, and so on, were all part of the Elden Ring world before the arrival of the Erdtree, so I think if there are any distinctions it would probably start there.
I think this has a lot to do with Miquella, what with him being some kind of god of dreams and now he's "sleeping" in a deathlike state
Maybe he can enter or control this spirit world, or whatever that dimension actually is
17:55 about this. We know that when Marika came into the picture along with the elden ring and she decided to lock down death, the "black flame" or death flame or whatever you wanna call it lost much of its power, and as we know, changed color. I'm thinking the same happened with the ghost flame and/or with this red hue that people saw as a guide to the afterlife. Those statues that "guide" you (and also lost souls) to catacombs around the land, turn on a sort of lamp when you interact with them, a white/blue-ish flame, and they depict a quite skeletal figure that seems much older than marika's age. I believe that since people are not being directed to the afterlife/spirit world anymore, but instead they return to the Erdtree and are infact fed to its roots, and if we assume this started to be the case because of Marika, we could speculate that the same thing happened to the flame of those statues, that lost its guiding red hue, and has been twisted to guide spirits to the catacombs for a different end.
Great video :) Hope to see more of you in the future.
Very underrated video that deserves more attention...
Let's see if it's the Helphen that we see on the artwork for the new dlc :).
beautiful video, you deserve far more recognition
Regarding the unwanted children of Marika:
I’ve wondered if they might have been loyalists of the Golden Order, or perhaps even thralls to it or the GW, as Radagon seemed to become. What might follow is they were put on a hit list by Marika herself and entrusted to the Black Knives to carry out. The nearly ceaseless movement of the Mausoleums might serve to prevent these Demi-gods from returning in the Erdtree’s recycle of deathless life through roots, and effectively cements them as the unwanted children they now are.
Most of my speculation stems from the viewpoint that Marika is ultimately the mastermind behind the fall of the Erdtree, and that perhaps her secret motivation was this all along, or might have otherwise been prompted after a series of discoveries and events (“I declare mine intent to search the depths of the Golden Order”). I also favor the idea that the GW and the Erdtree (at least in its current form) likely have nefarious motives at worst, or are at best the cause of all the misery we see as a result of miscalculations or the law of unintended consequences.
Moreover, Ranni omits truth from us on at least one occasion so when she takes full credit for the Plot, I can’t help but wonder if there is more credit to be shared than she lets on. Rogier’s comment when we relay Ranni’s account to him is, “Not everyone would believe such a tale,” which I think could be a hint.
With that in mind, I tend to think that Godwyn might have been in on it as a willing sacrifice (Finger Reader nearest to Godwyn refers to him as martyr to Destined Death). We also see it confirmed that Ranni and Rykard were also in league together at some point, so the eventual divide that is alluded to seems to be between those who wanted to upend the status quo, Marika included, and those wanting to maintain /reinforce it (Rahdan, Radagon, etc).
In summary, maybe the unwanted children fell in the camp of Golden Order status quo, or might have been more susceptible to the control of the GW somehow, and so were eliminated as causalities of a (cold) war against the GW.
Hello, i am not vert good at english so excuse my mistakes
While watching your video ( very intersting btw ), i kept thinking about a place, the nameless city, because ils disconected from the rest of the map, sofria and aisel river are actually accesable from elevator on the map, but it is not the case for the nameless city, and here we can find: ghost of other player, we can enter a dream to fight a dragon who as became a "Spirit", and there is an enormous cut black tree that looks like the one described in the helphen description
Tibia Mariner = Ferryman of Lost Souls
Concerning the stone pillar in the lake around the ancestral woods, it's said that the Nox we're banished by the Greater Will and it's followers below the surface for worshipping the night, so maybe the stones are the Nox's version of the Erdtree Arena we fight the Elden Beast in, assuming that arena holds some lore/sacred properties
Godwin is Gwendolyn and that's why he fights so hard against the dark... He doesn't want to be stuck and in such a state ever again, dum dum DUMMMMMMMM!!!
Kidding but that'd be wild, the eclipse sign just made me wonder, a bit wildly I'll admit
DLC art has a giant black tree bleeding gold… what ya think ?
So nice to finally see a lore youtuber who doesn't make shit up and actually provides the logic behind his theories and intepretations. Good job, keep it up.
I also appreciate the Berserk music in the background 👍🏻
another little side "spirit world" area you can visit is the arenas where you fight the ancestor sprits
really great video
Man, bit pompous to say but it's super cool to notice a little detail in a game and then go and stumble into a video like this about it, just one more thing about these games that keep me coming back, having new understanding each time
Edited bc Crunchy pointed out some corrections.
Hey, recently I stumbled upon a similar item description that (imo) has huge implications but nobody talks about, though less important then Helphen’s. This is my first time ever trying to draw lore conclusions and I very likely may be way off base, but I wanted to share it with someone who knows what they’re talking about, on other forums people just see the theory and go “wow that’s cool, it works to me” but I know it’s highly unlikely I’m right.
The ID is the Sun Realm Shield, dropped from some normal (Edit: those who live in death) skeletons:
“*Shield of honor depicting a city crowned by the sun.
It has seen better days.*
*Much like the wear upon the shield, the Seat of the Sun is long faded away.*”
This, to me, implies that an order once existed where the sun played the same role the Erdtree now does. I think the Erdtree’s arrival (possibly coming from a falling star, so in some ways a star itself like the sun, though Ratatoskr thinks the Greater Will’s widespread influence and ER preceded the Erdtree and the defeat of the dragons) made the sun redundant, and thus made the order of the Sun fade away relatively (and just visually because of the vibrancy of the Erdtree). This ties into Castle Sol and Miquella trying to make another Erdtree.
Also, the sun possibly “crowned” a city much like the Erdtree crowns Leyndell if the image is representative of something (of course, the sun “crowns” every city in our world, but it’s possible that their sun works differently and I’m drawing this connection between the Erdtree and the sun). Farum Azula maybe? Someplace else?
I arrived at the conclusion that the Erdtree replaced the sun bc the sun doesn’t really fit into the metaphysical ideas of the Golden Order at all. Besides the clearly very old shield (edit: actually pretty recently bc after the night of the black knives) carried by the dead, the only other reference to the sun can be found in one of the areas most far removed from the influence of the Greater Will, Castle Sol.
Glad someone else noticed that item. I had very very similar thoughts. Here’s a couple of other things to think about regarding that: Those shields are carried and dropped by skeletons (TWLID) which suggests they were alive relatively recently, as in after Godwyn’s death. Also the Eclipsed Sun is called a star (eclipse greatshield description) so maybe the sun is a star too, like in the actual lore. You can see a sun but it’s very small, also I think after burning the Erdtree it has red godrays when you look at it.
Now that I’m thinking about it, I suppose it’s possible they died earlier and were only revived after Godwyn’s death? Also I’ve been playing with this idea that maybe the crucible was a sun? Very loose thoughts atm
@@sams7068 Ooh thanks for the Consecrated Snowfield candletree, I totally missed that; I think I’ve explored that area the least. Re: the scripture shield, it says the cipher is ancient, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the shield is. Interesting that the cipher forms a single circle, as opposed to the two concentric circles of Two Fingers incantations. Also, where are you getting that Alberich wielded the Cipher Pata? Iirc it’s in another room on a different body, didn’t seem connected to him in my mind.
@@CrunchyVideos you’re right, I was just wrong a couple times in that comment. If you can and want to, keep making videos! Your perspective is great bc it’s very broad and theme-oriented, but you still get details right. Right now people are still telling individual story snapshots-cool and needed but the game is about so much more than the average player thinks.
This is so telling about the DLC
So about the true color of ghost flame, im pretty sure there is a flower in game called a grave violet that is actually more akin to lavender and its description reads "A purple flower that blooms in graveyards.
Material used for crafting items.
The hue of ghostflame, it's believed to be useful in calling forth spirits"
i absolutely love that you used the angel's egg OST in this video. love your videos! keep up the great work!
im not done with the vid yet, but the border to the round table grace on the map looks alot like the evergaol circles
You’ve got a real talent for this. This is one of the best lore videos for elden ring that I’ve seen!
Just some thoughts there.
Colorless can be an indication of lack of loyalty or connection to an Outer God. The Lands Between seems to be in a state of 52 Outer God Pile Up. Colors are strongly associated with these gods. Gold for the Golden Order, Scarlet for the Scarlet Rot, Blue for the Full Moon, Red for the Formless Mother (Mohg's attacks and the red hue of the albinaurics down there), and Yellow for the Frenzied Flame. In this context a thing without color can be something outside the control of those gods and/or something divested of alignment/power that used to belong to one of these factions but doesn't any more.
Death's color seems to be black, or perhaps a blend of monochrome and transparent is a better way to put it. Spirits are usually black and white. The blue phantoms seen throughout Liurnia are probably magical constructs just like the phantom weapons that can be conjured through glinstone sorceries. The closest I'd come to calling them spirits would be to postulate that maybe they're the souls of the dead given form, purpose, and direction via sorcery. Things take a bit of a twist with deathroot because that is gold and black. Black for Death plus gold for Godwyn: a fusion of two things that should not be paired. Death, the cessation of life being powered and directed (in a fashion) by a body that isn't just alive but is immortal with endless life is a fusion of two opposites. Then we've got the Rune of Death not just flooding out of its constrained form as a red wave but burning the Erd Tree in the same eerie light. Death's color seems to shift to whatever it is doing at the time or to show what force is using it. Maybe that's why somber stones are somber.
Just one last thought on color, the outbreak of the Scarlet Rot in Caelid has caused land and sky to be filled with scarlet hues and Mohg's palace has a general red hue around it. Meanwhile the capital is described as being bathed in gold. The direct presence of an outer god's power does funky things to the electromagnetic spectrum in an area.
Toyour question about the blood star:
Alberichs altered set looks similar to Lusat and Azur's condition after glimpsing into the primeval current.
My theory is that the Briars are an ancient part of said current, they are heretical yet still red glintstone sorceries.
The Star part also still connects them to the cosmos.
Why they were used to presumably kill the giants i dont know.
In sellen’s quest she tells us sorcery comes from the life of the stars, which seems to confirm something about the blood star and others we discover in game. Also there are colorless rays at the moonlight altar that look like the golden rays on one of the maps. What if (spoiler) ranni’s order ending is actually further embracing the spirit world, somehow? She gives us our first spirit ashes and is dead/spectral herself. Maybe she is intending for their to only be a spirit world, based on her dialogue and involvement with death previously. Just something to think about.
One possible connection of interest is thet the Helphen steple is shaped like a black tree lit by a ghostflame. The Ertree of gold, blackens as you burn it with the flame contained within the rune of death. And the candletrees symbolize the burning of the erdtree, which is something also seen by prophets.
you can totally see farum azula from a divine tower, and can see miquella´s tree from the windmills village. only the round table is nowhere to be found.
18:30 the ghost is referring to Godwyn, he is the soulless demigod, cause his soul was slain in the black knives night. He is very close to mausoleums and mausoleum's knights and he is now the unwanted child of Marika beacause of what he became, a cancer in the Erdtree roots.
I believe finger symbolism needs to be looked into as well for the two fingers and three fingers likely have a connection for more lore from the 3 hour video. The tree branches are like fingers as well so the great tree rune (name my speculation) is in the dark moon I'd say and the other runes are rings on the fingers or branches per say. Just an odd thought also info on finger symbolism below from a jewelry site.
Also note in game we have no rings to equip it was replaced with talismans for the rings are only meant for empyreans and their elden lords controlled by the will of two hands that were once one I believe.
Finger Symbolism
The left hand is the feminine, the YIN: stillness, dark trusting and patient and the receiving side.
The right hand is the masculine, the YANG: active, heat, light, moment and the giving side.
Pinky finger:
If you need a little extra in your communications skills, intuition or professionalism. The pinky represents ending and the ability to finish what you started and end what is not serving you anymore. Connected to the planet Mercury.
Ring finger:
To show a symbol of love, freedom and trust. Gain better inspiration- and improvisation skills. Connected to the Sun.
The middle finger:
Here is where you should place your ring if you need to boost your skills in taking responsibility, to do your duties, find balance or to achieve coherence with your surroundings.
Connected to Saturn.
Index finger:
A ring on your Index finger is a signal of ambition, focus on direction and pride. Connected to powerful Jupiter.
Thumb:
Wearing a ring on your thumb signals strength of character, will and endurance. Connected to Mars.
Two more candidates for spiritual realms are Ascestor Spirit fights, and Lichdragon fight arena.
Has anyone else noticed that the fragments floating where the impact crater to Nokron is, is shaped the same as grace?
Whoa I gotta check that out
It was fascinating to hear your thoughts and connections fleshed out. Glad you made the video, hoping for more soon!
Unrelated passing thoughts but the eclipse can be viewed as a unification of opposites which has relations to the process of creation of a philosophers stone. And more specifically the alchemical rebis much like a certain final boss.
Furthermore it’s theorized that Miquella created the mausoleums and castle sol to get Godwyn’s soul back. And an eclipse is viewed by some as a gateway of sorts to the other side.
Perhaps the unification of opposites in the form of an eclipse is to achieve another form of great work. In this case Returning Goldwyn