It would be interesting if the Fingers slamming together was because they are trying to reach out to the Greater Will. But are frustrated because the Greater Will has abandoned the Lands Between and refuses to answer. Something about the slamming just seems melancholic or frustrating rather than celebratory.
This would make a lot of sense as to why it didn’t get used. At the end, Enia tells us that the Two Fingers are communing with the Greater Will, and that they will be communing for a very very long time. Instead of showing any movement, the Fingers joints are locked upwards as if they were radio antennae, likely communicating over vast astrological distances which would explain the wait I’m very excited for the likely Miquella & time travel DLC’s
I'd like to believe Loretta is a Albanauric, but 1 visual fact that keeps getting in the way is the fact that she bleeds red when you hit her vs Albanaurics who bleed silver when they take physical damage.
Yeah this is why I don't believe in the theory. I feel like Fromsoft pays too much attention to detail to miss out on something like this. I also feel like it makes her story more compelling if she did all this simply out of compassion for an oppressed group, to the point that people in their prejudice assumed she HAD to be one of them, otherwise she wouldn't show any empathy to them. Makes her stand out much more as a truly virtuous character.
Yeah, I even tested with jump attacks with bleed weapons to specifically get her and not her horse to bleed and it seems it was just an absurd rumor indeed and I like that as it makes her even more noble
I always thought the most interesting explanation would be that Loretta is a disabled human. Her disability being the same as the albinaurics would explain why she seems so attached to them and would explain why she bleeds red not silver.
it gives me chills how deep and well crafted, albeit subtle, the lore is; it almost makes it hard to believe this was a thought up world. I mean all media that I have interacted with, all such hints and factoids are usually very obvious, or meant to be discovered / taken note of. Here they're hidden, as they may actually be in such a fantastical world.
Fr, cuz usually more obscure lore details in a world have a bit of speculation involved, yknow? And while some elden ring stuff might involve this, there's also lots here that is pretty likely if not confirmed, just very well hidden
@@MarzaButTube totally agree! I mean, the fact that they intentionally left out any stakes of marika from Raya Lucaria is such a masterful detail I never even noticed until this video. This stuff is beautiful and Elden Ring is truly a work of art
I feel like it’s a perfect mixture between vague and meticulously planned .. like, a lot of stuff is left open ended or vague in order for players to draw the conclusions, but all the details are there if you look hard enough
@@samael4550 this is why I have no fucking clue when people say ER doesn't have rich lore compared to their other games. Not to mention this game is accomplishing all this in one game without any DLC yet, while every other game of theirs minus Sekiro has either gotten multiple entries or extensive DLCs to flesh their universes out.
The lore is hidden not because it is a fantastical world but because it is a world on the peak of collapse, all of the soulsborne games are (except sekiro) literally on their worst state, society has collapsed and only hundreds if maybe thousands of individuals remain and most are hostile torwards you, hence why I think it's natural that a story told by words is not one that would fit soulsborne games.
Something else noteworthy about the heroes graves is that our character spawns from one. This reminded me of one of the earliest Elden ring leaks, where it was said that the player could choose where to spawn. Perhaps at one point in development this was true, and the player could choose which heroes grave to spawn at. If this is true it obviously would have been cut early in the development process as it would have thrown away any balance the game had. Just something interesting to think about.
@@shadowlife15 the wildest class lorewise is the Hero, the description says descendant from a badlands chieftain and the armor itself says that that chieftain is hoarah loux himself
Regarding Pidia & Seluvis: When Pidia dies, you ordinarily loot Dolores' puppet off of his corpse which is 1 of 2 puppets with the flavor text "Favorite puppet of Seluvis". The interesting part is that Pidia can also drop another puppet - Nepheli Loux - if you handed her Seluvis' potion. Nepheli Loux is the other puppet with "Favorite puppet..." flavor text as well. Those 2 puppets are uniquely only obtained when Pidia dies, they're both uniquely favorites of Seluvis', and both of them relate to Gideon Ofnir one way or another.
While Ofnir does mention knowing Seluvis so he may or may not be aware of Pidia, his actions against the albinorics would certainly explain why Pidia is trying to take people close to Ofnir away from him. Pidia using Seluvis as cover to attack and disrupt a man that actively is destroying and searching for the hideaways of his people.
Also Pidia is facing the wall when you initially meet him and is startled when you interact with him. Interestingly enough he's facing exactly towards Seluvis' Rise, seemingly he was puppeting Seluvis until we talk to him where he is understandably shocked and sheepish that we've found his real form.
I think they wanted the fingers to be dead/dying in an ostensible sense. If they were moving so much, there'd be no doubt. While they occasionally twitch and move in Elden Ring, it's a very subtle and slow movement. Gives off the impression they're on the way out, which is I think the intention.
I always took their slow movements as indicating how subtle and long-term their influence is, why there needs to be special finger readers to interpret such subtle movements. Also makes them feel more like Trees, with their actions being so slow to almost being imperceptible.
@@Mordalon Same with Goldmask in that regard - While the model doesn't actually move, Corrin DOES sense movement in him and can interpret it. Subtle movement that can only be understood by someone initiated in a sacred art seems to be a storytelling tool in this case.
@@beckstheimpatient4135 Yeah, I was thinking about that as well. In this case, I guess it just didn't make sense to leave those erratic movements in the game, unless they made massive changes to their plans; so it's obviously just easier and better to cut it. Still, we fans obsess over even cut content, so it's great to know that it used to be a part of the game, because now it just opens up even more possibilities for headcanon and other fun stuff :)
@@YTDariuS-my6dg There is also the possibility that it was cut because it would potentially give spoilers on the whole thing, or perhaps to avoid making players think that there is only one correct path to the end. With the Souls games, Bloodborne, and now Elden Ring, the story is YOURS. It's your journey, and how it ends is up to you. What its story is, is up to you. The game is freer with information that previous titles, but there is still a lot that you have to pick up from context and simply looking at everything to draw your own conclusions.
I think there’s some additional meaning with the Cuckoo Knights and Radagon leaving an egg. Cuckoo eggs are hidden in other nests and cause the surrogate mother to neglect her own children to care for the imposter egg. Maybe part of Radagon/Marika’s larger plan to cause internal conflict between Caria and Raya Lucaria and weaken Liurnia as the golden order was unable to defeat them united?
Not sure about the reasoning for this, as Marika and Radagon are opposed to each other AND the Cuckoo knights were mercenaries specifically hired to fight against Renalla, but the fact that the Cuckoo is used as a symbol and Renalla is left with an egg that has the rune of rebirth is 100% something we should take seriously. A lot of people theorize that Radagon left Renalla with the amber egg with the rune of rebirth inside so he could be reborn as a new person, separate from Marika. This would also explain why he abandoned her, but left one of his red wolves with her as well as an all powerful great rune. I'm not fully convinced of this one, and as any Elden Ring theory there is always something in the game that goes against this interpretation, but I like it enough that I felt I should share it.
Miquella + Godwyn would be awesome Also would like to finally see all these gods we don’t get to see, like the gloom eyed queen, the god of rot, the frenzied flame god, the blood mother, the moon goddesses, etc There is so much lore that has not been explored
The stakes of Marika exist so that the tarnished can keep on fighting. Radagon and Marika did not want you to fight renalla. They left no stake of Marika near her, and even left a wolf of radagon to guard that place. Surprised at how the stakes of Marika were talked about in this vid but that angle wasn't considered or explored. There are a few other interesting placements of radagons wolves and absences of stakes of Marika iirc, but none jump to mind as I write this.
When Vaati said it I remembered the stake by the north gate close to the mausoleum, but why are there graces in Raya Lucaria?, the greater will maybe but wouldn't Marika struggle against it
@@Ed6026 we see that marika is controlled by the greater will when we enter the erdtree, if the greater will wishes a site of grace to be somewhere, theres little marika can do to prevent it
Important to note about the lack of Stakes of Marika in Raya Lucaria: There aren't any Stakes of Marika in *any* of the Legacy Dungeons. Not Stormveil, not Faram Azula, not even Lyndell. They are exclusive to the overworld and minor dungeons, presumably because the Legacy Dungeons have, you know, lots of Graces to revive at.
@@scottbecker4367 It would've been a bit more clearer earlier into the game that Radagon was Marika if they just used Radagon as the model for the Marika statue outside. It would also help people naturally come to the conclusion that they are the same person, and to use the miracle at the statue, since it would give the impression that they're an interchangeable icon. I don't think it would make sense though, since I'm pretty sure Rennala doesn't know that they're the same person. Perhaps a lasting gift that Marika would leave would be the statue, and could explain why Rennala doesn't die since she's always respawning. Albeit, that could be the statue behind her that is also in a crucifixion pose doing that as well. I doubt she would she really want to know anyway since they had war in the past which would make Marika's actions of going and sowing her "seed" in Liurnia, and ending the wars even more duplicitous. Killing with "kindness" seems to be her way, since her cruel actions seem to prevent people from dying altogether.
@@Drophinoia If you kill the folk at the upper room where ball comes from you do not even need to avoid the ball. Not that it's hard to avoid e.g. when keeping on the left.
One thing that nicks the whole Loretta is an albanauric theory is that she clearly bleeds red blood when you hit her or bleed her, unlike the greyish silver of the albanaurics. It's a detail I don't think that fromsoft would've missed or left out if they really wanted this to be a true theory
Agreed. The rumor that Loretta is an albinauric is just that. She instead seems to be a person who was thoroughly inspired by them and dedicated her life to honouring and helping them.
Exactly what I thought when I saw that statement. It feels more like someone trying to purposely blame her of being an Albinauric in a malicious way, and seeing how she went to the Haligtree perhaps after being treated badly because of the "Absurd Rumor" of being an Albinauric. It could be possible that she was sympathetic to the Albinaurics which some people didn't take it quite well which lead to them trying to create all the rumors just so she is also shuned like the rest of Albinaurics. PS - It is just how I felt like after looking at all the things and I don't have anything to support my statement so don't hound on me.
I didn't realize she bled red, definitely a sign she's not then, as you said they wouldn't have made that mistake. It was my thought she's not because to ride a horse you kind of need working legs or a special saddle contraption. It doesn't look like she has a special saddle or anything at all which makes me think her legs are indeed working.
For secret 16 it is important to remember that Godfrey was a character created by GRRM. This doesn’t rule out the eternal champion inspiration, but I think GRRM’s involvement is largely ignored by the Elden Ring community and his inspirations and ideas are very important for the overall themes of the world.
i wouldn‘t say largely ignored, everybody keeps it at the back of their minds. but it‘s also hard to distinguish where his influences on most of the games lore begin and end so it gets washed in with everything and nothing to specifically point at imo 🤷🏼♂️ but obviously we should be incredibly grateful for all of his contributions which definitely helped elden ring to have this expansive lore
the erd tree and minor trees scattered throughout the lands between are so GRRM, they are very similiar to the weirwood trees in ASOIAF. a lot of book readers think the weirwoods are a hive mind fungus organism that connects across westeros, and those with greenblood can latch onto them to see memories and events across space and time, at the cost of being subsumed into them as hosts. there are chapters in the most recent book where bran has visions of ancient northmen making blood sacrifices to the trees, and further theories that the starks, while portrayed as the most noble in the series, probably have a lovecraftian deal with others through the trees. all of this leads to the conclusion that the trees serve a dark gnostic god, not unlike the golden order being an all consuming dogmatic force that leads ranni and others to try to over throw it
Like you said it doesn't rule out the inspiration, but if anything it actually supports that idea even more. Most if not all renown writers of the last couple centuries take inspiration from other works. whether it is because the idea worked, or because they want to pay homage to an inspiration, or they just outright like the idea and just want to use it.
@@theartgoose I'm fairly certain he had a major hand in pretty much all of the backstory. At least all of it concerning the gods and demigods and the Shattering. Where it gets muddy for me its when it comes to the Tarnished.
The Albinauric chant is incredibly eerie and reminds me of the fishman priest muttering prayers and curses as you approach the Fishing Village in The Old Hunters. It's fun to see what themes carry through each FromSoft game, no matter how different they can be.
I wish we’d get more theories on Melina, I’m very curious as to who she is. The Lands Between mirror engagement with the wedding ring placed on the right hand (as seen with Ranni) and our first glimpse of Melina is her right hand with a ring on it. Is this a detail people are overlooking, I’ve never seen it brought up.
I think the current best theory is that Melina used to be the Gloam-eyed Queen. In the Frenzied Flame ending, it's revealed that her sealed eye is dark colored, and she promises upon you Destined Death - the domain of the Gloam-Eyed queen. She's also explicitly tied to Destined Death in other ways, such as her Blade of Calling being so similar to the Black Blades, and how the Blade of Calling says: "The one who walks alongside flame, Shall one day meet the road of Destined Death."
@@monsieurdorgat6864 I like that theory and there is definitely some connection there, but I think her name, her hair colour and that she fits the bill to be the missing link in the "butterfly-trio" suggest that she is a child of marika (Name) and Radagon (Hair). I suspect probably the youngest of them all. Maybe because she couldn't walk the path of fire in the frenzied flame ending, she has to walk a different path of fire then. There is so much to speculate, but sadly not enough information.
@@psychopath682 Thing is that her being related to Marika doesn't mean she isn't also the Gloam Eyed Queen. She can absolutely be both, in the same way that Miquella and Malenia are Marika's children yet also Empyreans who would one day replace her.
I think they cut the fingers clapping animation because its sort of "out of character". The fingers are serene and dont move much, and when they do it's in slow, soft motions to transition from one "hand sign" to another. Having such a fast and jerky clapping motion doesn't fit with the vibe they ultimately went for.
Saw a comment higher up about the idea of them being frustrated not being able to contact the greater will. This sudden change in demeanor could better fit that idea.
The giant Nox, if related to the giant Albinauric, could draw a connection to ants, being a giant queen that births new members of the species that has all female workers and warriors.
I find Farum Azula and the eternal cities really fascinating, as relics of the age before the Golden Order. I hope the DLC explores it a lot more, since it seems like Marika and the Golden Order might have gone out of their way to expunge as much of that history as possible.
4:43 On top of this, Lore wise I’m pretty sure that the lands between is starting to suffer from a similar fate as the dark souls worlds did. Its just a much much more earlier stage we’re witnessing. After the rune of death was stolen - death became allot more difficult to achieve besides a few means. With that issue at play I’m sure it just became another instance akin to undead (minus the hollowing). Allot have clearly still aged and become weak/malformed so I guess its not too dissimilar to the undead curse in ways. Prisons, dungeons and jails would be filled very quickly in times of such disarray and war. Issue is, you're not gonna be able to free up any cells any time soon neither since death isn't so readily available. Hence we see punishments like this. Perhaps they're beginning to get allot more "creative" with the less fortunate much like dark souls.
In regards to design similarities between Carians and Nox, the sigil that appears when casting Carian sorceries is VERY similar to the one for Sellia. They ARE distinct, but they're also exceptionally close.
Sellia was built by exiled sorcerers from Raya Lucaria, and consider: Sellen, who we know was exiled, and Seluvis, who… is a weirdo with ties to Radagon, so probably also exiled.
Slowly from watching all these lore videos I’m coming to the conclusion of several analogous themes, like The forces of night fighting the forces of day, silver and gold and the age of each, told as the passing of seasons, the conflicts over the powers of life and death, and their influence. I love these series so much.
Love this ! Especially Seluvis being a puppet. It’s also probably why Ranni only says, ‘Tell Blaidd and Iji, I love them’ No mention of Seluvis. She probably knew ?
No. She just doesnt like him since he is a dolly-bothering creep. She just uses his knowledge of puppet magic until it is no longer necessary. He also tries to give her a potion that would possibly turn her into his puppet. Regarding him being a puppet, i dont believe it at all. Just the timing of his and Pidia's death goes against the theory. Seluvis is already in the puppet pose (wich imo is because Ranni gave him one of his own potion as revenge) while Pidia is still alive until you go see him and hear him getting killed. For me this indicates that the active puppets went berserk after Seluvis was "killed".
@@mathieuxlaflamme2322 Yeah Seluvis is the puppet master, Pidia is the puppet caretaker. Ranni or Gideon (If you give him the potion) turns Seluvis into a puppet. Seluvis becomes a puppet, puppets break free, kill pidia the caretaker who hated them. Pidia's final dialog is just him begging for his life, saying anything that might save him. This explains everything, including why Pidia has Seluvis' puppets, meanwhile the mainstream theory has a massive gap in it. How would the puppets have broken free to murder Pidia, if he was the puppet master, this could be explained by 'magic weakening' or any cop out, but Seluvis discretely passes before Pidia, so it seems ridiculous to assume the cause for the puppets breaking free is anything but Seluvis becoming a puppet himself. To me this is a clear example of how people can use the right evidence and story telling to come to completely wrong conclusions.
@@noahhaller4540 yeah. It completely baffles me how people can miss the most obvious and direct clues that disprove that theory. People also really believe a crippled albinauric would be able to fool 3 of the most intelligent and knowledgeable people of the Lands Between? Ranni, Gideon and Seluvis would have to have been fooled from even before the Shattering and somehow Ranni and Gideon never realized that Seluvis was a puppet himself. There's already enough good mysteries in the lore to focus on, we dont need to invent mysteries where there is none.
@@noahhaller4540 There's an equally massive flaw in your theory though. You can't claim other people must be wrong because they need a cop out to explain why the puppets murder Pidia and then ignore that your own theory requires the same cop out. There is no reason why Ranni couldn't just snap her finger to make the puppets murder Pidia, or Gideon could have instead have reverse engineered the potion to cancel its effects out. Neither of those are less logical than those 2 turning Seluvis into a puppet, in fact they're more logical because in the rest of the game we never see either of those characters attempt to use Seluvis as a puppet, something that they'd probably be doing if they went into the trouble of making him one. The obvious answer to why Seluvis "discretely passes" at all is that he's a puppet all along. There's no sign or reason for him to die, the only event at the same time is Pidia being busy with some of his puppets... and if Pidia was busy, it would mean he wouldn't have time to control Seluvis. You have cause and effect reversed, Seluvis doesn't die before Pidia gets confronted by puppets, the puppets start to confront Pidia so he stops controlling Seluvis, and by time the player finds Pidia this confrontation turns deadly, so Seluvis as a masterless puppet never moves again. Your theory relies on the contrivance that Pidia has no control over puppets after Seluvis dies even though Pidia clearly controls some in Caria Manor, and it fails to explain why Ranni or Gideon would bother turning Seluvis into a puppet instead of something much easier like killing him if they never planned on using the puppet. After all, if they're aware a puppet can turn on their master like with Pidia, why risk keeping Seluvis as a puppet without any of the upside of having him as one?
@@gooblop I feel as if Seluvis is acting of his own free will, albeit I do believe he's been a puppet the whole time. I imagine Pidia and Seluvis had a deal worked out or worked together in some capacity. Perhaps similarly to how you helped Sellen inhabit a puppet body, Pidia helped Seluvis inhabit one too ala primordial glintstone (Seluvis was a powerful mage too according to Sellen.) It seems he's acting on his own personal desires to obtain Nepheli as a puppet (considering he has history with Gideon) so I don't think he's being expressly controlled by Pidia. Ranni is seemingly aware of Seluvis' intentions, so it's possible that when she no longer has any use for him she just destroys the primordial glintstone, thus leaving a lifeless puppet. Maybe she even forced him to use the puppets to kill Pidia too, or she just took control of the puppets, though she never mentions anything about the existence of Pidia so that's a hazy theory at best.
This is a minor thing I noticed around the Agheel Lake ruins. If you sit by and wait near the nobles who reside there, you could hear them say stuff about Agheel. Saying things about the flame of Agheel, almost like their praising the dragon’s ruinous strength. And if u consider how the Noble spirit Ashes would surrender if they see Agheel, maybe this implies a relation between nobles and dragons. How Nobles are aware of their power being incomparable to that of a dragon like Agheel, and would rather not fight but instead surrender to them. It’s a small thing really, but it does make the world feel more alive.
Vaati has already made a video about this, actually. Check out one of his Lore of the Bosses video, I think its his second one, that talks about Ghostflame. Long story short before the time of the Erdtree corpses were burned with Ghostflame so their spirits were released and left to die a true death and leave the lands between. Vaati theorizes that these nobles want Agheel to burn them so they may die a true death, similar to how ancient people used ghostflame to send the dead to the afterlife
Fun fact: as I was fighting Lorreta in the haligtree, I noticed most of her attacks were very similar to Gyobu's (I'm sorry if I misspelled it) specifically the jumping slam attack, although she does have a few unique ones, specifically the ones where she summons the swords
MY NAMEEEEE IS ...(Sekiro first maditory boss) AS I STAND, 👉🏽Sekiro 👈🏽 WILL NEVER CROSS ASHINA!!!! "Boy, allow me to show you the wrath of a Man, who stood with his country, as they took The Ashina" Gyobu reminds me of Lu Bu, who both are thematic ideas through Soulsborne and Soulslike games...
Yeah no there's still so much we have to understand about the game. Tarnished Archeologist's ongoing series has already completely changed my perspective on things. Charred Thermos had an equally interesting series on Bloodborne this year.
@@kachucho872 no. Datamining doesn't reveal facts about the story that only textual analysis can provide. Like how Fia is actually the dragon Fortissax.
about 4:45 the crucified and the speculation about them hanging on stakes in the air, away from the ground to make it harder/impossible for them to return to the erdtree also reminded me of how Marika herself was punished by the Greater Will to hang in the air, tied to a piece of the ring. the crucified's stakes also resemble that same shape, so I think there might be more to this than just wild speculation.
Regarding the whole "there are no Stakes of Marika in Raya Lucaria because Rennala hates Marika" at 17:51. While sure that lines up lore wise, it is also important to note that NONE of the so-called "legacy dungeons" have Stakes of Marika in them (Stormveil, Volcano Manor). One outlier might be Leyndell where there are no Stakes of Marika except for the 2 stakes just before the Godfrey-spirit/Gideon arena, where I think it was simply done because the run back would otherwise have been outrageously long. So overall I think Stakes of Marika were not supposed to be placed inside of legacy dungeons to mimic the "souls" level design more closely, but in the case of Leyndell they added some because they didnt want to spam so many sites of grace together but also didnt want to have an insanely long run back. So in conclusion the lore explanation works for Raya Lucaria and it should in turn also be applied to Stormveil and the Volcano Manor, but I mainly think it was a level design reason as to why they dont exist in legacy dungeons.
There could be a lore reason as to why like the the Stakes. Like they were only placed later in the lands history when the castle dungeons where closed off and after Marika was stung up in the tree, idk but there could be a good reason outside of just make the dungeons harder.
@@TarisRedwing Yeah, but From makes the rules. So they could simply adjust the lore (if it even is like that) in a minimal non problematic way and we still could have them in legacy dungeons.
Exactly, and I'll say there's no reason why the devs couldn't simply place a stake of grace on the balcony outside of Rennala's library. That boss run is sooo annoying
Another funny thing about Liurnia that all of the memory stone towers are called "Converted Towers", and have Marika statues inside. It implies to me that at one point these were actually shrines to Marika, but Renala had them all turned into towers. Dunno why she would keep the statues in them though
@@Gary_a_normal_human_being Yeah. The Converted Tower (same as Converted Fringe Tower) has a statue of Marika and has cut off access to the upper floors where the mage-y goodness is. This is a conversion TO Marika, not FROM her.
Along with other people pointing out that these were converted TO Marika shrines, not FROM them, it's also worth understanding that all those mage towers were Astrologer towers. These Astrologer towers are, themselves, probably related to the Nox/Numen of the Eternal Cities, as they seem to be the source of all Astrology/Star Worship in the Lands Between (They are the roots of both the Carian Nobility and the Sellians).
Something else I recently noticed about Selivus is that he also has almost the EXACT same inflection(may not be the right word) in his voice as Pidia. If you listen to the way they both end words and sentences it’s remarkably similar
I really hope the arenas have some PvE content. Something like being able to set up your own fights and picking different combinations of enemies to fight. Sometimes you just wanna challenge yourself and go up against four Crucible Knights.
That would've been really cool, it could've been a way for non PvP players to get something out of the Coliseum update. I only play offline so the Coliseums are useless to me.
A thought I had on why the Albinaurics are stunted in the way that they are is that the sacred dew could have come not from the Erdtree but the Haligtree, which had been nurtured and grown with Miquella’s blood - and with Miquella being cursed with stunted growth, so then would any beings created using the sap of that tree, with each iteration becoming more stunted perhaps stretching to second gen who by then had lost the ability to communicate (verbally anyway). The arcane nature of it though would have been filtered through - leaving the second gens primarily arcane with the ‘human’ traits having been sloughed off. Not necessarily a failure but probably not what was in mind when coming up with Haligtree replacing Erdtree.
Hypothesis: Ranni has some power over the starlight shards used to make puppets (we see Starlight Shards all over the place at the Cathedral of Manus Celes, she is trying to bring about the Age of Stars, etc.). When she leaves after you give her the Fingerslayer blade, she uses that control to sabotage Pidia's control over his puppets, causing Seluvis to deactivate and causing Pidia's other puppets to turn on him.
I’m excited to hear Moorcock’s work may have inspired characters in the game. His multiverse of Eternal Champions and their books are among my favorites
Also this one from Ziostorm, the reason the fingers look the way they do is because they are based on real-life mushrooms called Deadman's Fingers, which grow... Wait for it...near trees and parasitize them. Which could be quite revelant considering what we know about the Erdtree and the disputed bit of text that says that there was another tree that predates it which it took over.
I'm not sure if you mean xylaria polymorpha, but if so, it's a "saprobic" fungus, which means it feeds on decaying or dead biological matter. It can be argued that it's still a parasitic lifeform, but this would be in a more general philosophical sense. Saprotrophic nutrition in fungi are perhaps parasitic in the sense that dying plants might have their fate hastened by the fungus, but some organisms that grow near or on trees (like spanish moss) find nutrition *near* their host, rather than from it.
@@owfan4134 And the main religious practice as dictated by the Greater Will is to 'return to the erdtree' at death. I've always thought the greater will was just a parasite siphoning energy from the lands between. It takes over the Crucible tree, shuns the misbegotten, shuns those who live in death, has incantations specifically to ensure undead stay dead, and then makes sure everyone who dies is turned into a nice fertilizer through being burned and placed at the roots of the erdtree. If the fingers are based on these fungi then it makes sense they also 'gain nutrients' from the ashes/life force, that way they don't hurt the erdtree and can instead form a sort of symbiosis, where they take some nutrition and in return spread the greater will's influence as envoys
Seems like anything the Greater Will does is parasitic, the tree parasitizes the land through taking its dead and its envoys are in semblence parasitic
You mentioned that the petty criminals are high above the ground so that they don’t return to the erdtree roots, but what if marika did the same. The criminals are tied with there hands above there heads on the crescent, just like marika before you fight them.
I agree. I feel like it was probably pretty common as a punishment through the lands between. The reason for these not showing up more and In other areas could simply be because the only one who still utilizes this old style of punishment is godrick, since he's the only demigod left around that relatively has his wits about him
The greater will did that to her as punishment for shattering the ring. Since she was also Radagon he was punished to forge the ring that she shattered but she would always hit back when he went to repair it making it an infinite loop and unrepairable ring.
Seeing some of the fights in these videos done in a very cinematic way, really encaptures how if visualize or imagine in my head recalling the battles. Well done!
i like to imagine that rennala was aware of radagon and marika's duality, and the reason why she still loves radagon and loathes marika is that he was essentially forced to leave her by his alter ego and rennala knows this
It's still very ambiguous as to whether radagon and marika were always one person or not. Their character is one of the most fascinating parts of elden ring, I still think about it a lot.
@@diccchocolate416 Marika literally tells Radagon (as retold from echoes by Melina): "you have yet to become me". I genuinely think they were separate entities at some point. It's not entirely clear however WHEN that happens, and if that it during or after the marriage to Rennala. In other words, did Marika extend her being into Radagon while he was with Rennala, or did she do that when she summoned him to be her new Lord? Considering how cursed her second children are, I think it was after - because the children of Rennala and Radagon turned out fine (initially). Whereas Malenia and Miquella did not.
@@beckstheimpatient4135 however, she immediately follows that up with "thou'rt yet to become a god" and mentions how he's her other self and they will both be shattered, seemingly contradicting what she just said. i took it as a scornful way to say "you lack the authority and power to do what i can do as a god, despite being my other self, so be a good dog (leal hound), follow my lead and shatter the elden ring with me"
I actually have another theory about a possible inspiration for Godfrey, and it's none other than King Arthur! It's a bit of a long shot, seeing as it's based on some of the oldest references to Arthur that exist, but I learnt this right around the time I was fighting Godfrey in my playthrough so I couldn't help but notice the parallels, also given how much Celtic influence there already is in Elden Ring (names like Blaidd and Síofra are taken directly from Welsh and Irish) it's definitely not outside the realm of possibility. So, as you may know, Arthur wasn't originally an English folk-hero, but a Welsh one! In fact, his association with England is incredibly ironic given that in the earliest written mentions of Arthur he's explicitly fighting *against* the Anglo-Saxons. On top of that, in these earliest records he's not yet "King" Arthur, he's simply credited as leading men into battle alongside the Kings of the Britons, so most likely he was a war leader of some kind. The idea of a "barbarian" war leader being turned into a mythical King for the people he fought against is a neat parallel to how the warrior Horah Loux was tamed by Marika and turned into Godfrey, the Elden Lord.
Godfrey is probably inspired by the hero King Gilgamesh who's a also a demigod he share many similarities with Godfrey Both are demigods and warriors King's Both built great wall's to protect their cities Both have a beast Kin a friend and a consul Godfrey had serosh and Gilgamesh had Enkidu Both seek to get full godhood Godfrey wants to have his right is elden lord again and Gilgamesh seeks the herb of immortality to be full god Finally Both have lion's is their symbols
I'd also say that he's inspired by the greek hero Heracles. Demigod. Lion motiff. Heracles was famous for killing the Nemean Lion, which was invulnerable to weapons, and then skinning it to use it's pelt as armor. Godhood. Heracles dies and sheds his mortality to ascend to olympus. Serves/connected to a Goddess-Queen. Heracles's name translates roughly to "Glory of Hera." Hera was the most important god in his story, being the catalyst for all his suffering and adventures due to her husband Zeus being a horny bastard and not keeping it in his pants. Warrior. Heracles was famous for his wrestling skills. It's how he won against most of his foes. Guess who else decides to just throw hands when at half health? Overall, I'd say Godfrey is like a mix between Gilgamesh and Heracles, maybe a bit more Gilgamesh. Like, 60/40 or so.
@@wumpuswoo9946 indeed he seems a mix of them and interestingly they also known to love wrestling and brawling a lot be it with warrior's, monster's, beasts
- The mimic veil's veil looks like it was made from decomposing leaves (as if caterpillars ate away the substance between the veins). - Pidia seems to have red blood in his dying sequence, so not an albinauric or a mistake? Loretta also bleeds red.
For Loretta, it could be that she taught the Albanaurics how to fight. So it’s not her being similar to them, it’s then being similar to the one who taught them how to fight
I don't think Rennala lost her mind for love, I think it was intentional by Radagon. By poisoning her mind through the Egg he eliminated the greatest threat to the Erdtree, the only domain he couldn't beat. Leaving her for Marika would break their pact, thus by eliminating her he threw Liurnia into civil war, avoiding further problems to Leyndell.
Regarding the run back to Rennala, I'm interested if there's anyone who actually takes the path you showed. The broken bridge is so much easier to walk through instead of those godforsaken stairs. If anyone does use it kudos to you
@@thesaltypearl7163 you can clear the ball rolling pumpkin head and carian knight pvp encounter and guarantee that you don't waste estus. Whereas the left side path runs by 5 mages with homing spells every time.
@@lPuffalo yeah, confusing shortcut indeed. The same goes for the one from Malenia to the top of Elphael, which is never used since there's a grace nearby, although I guess the grace is later addition, since the walk back would be agonizing considering Malenia's difficulty.
@@thesaltypearl7163 I struggled with mages and their projectiles, always got hit and wasted estus. Until I discovered how not to get hit by the rolling ball and that ended up being the route I take
I find it kind of fascinating that cuckoo birds are a symbol of Raya Lucaria because they are notorious for laying their egg in another bird's nest. when that bird hatches, it gets rid of all of the other eggs or babies. with Rennala being the head of Raya Lucaria, and her theme is based around being a mother looking for her lost children, it's kind of fitting honestly.
Yo Vaati! Big fan of your content, especially with Bloodborne! It's amazing to see even more secrets in elden ring, like wow! Still playing the game and still discovering more secrets, i love it! Hope to see more content for elden ring if there's anything from the game awards!
I'm about 90% sure that miquella will be in the big dlc for elden ring. All content regarding miquella was cut save for items and his being kidnapped by mohg from the halig tree. With the ominous ending with the egg, I'm sure we'll see more. It'd be an extremely unsatisfying if nothing comes of it, but perhaps he simply lies dead on the throne/altar the lord of blood left him.
I can think of a good reason as to why they didn't use that animation for this fingers, its to make them remain more mysterious. The slamming conveys emotion, and would allow people to somewhat anthropomorphize them. Having them move less when 'communicating' makes them even more alien and mysterious.
I always had a theory that perhaps Radagon might be the part of Marika still loyal to the deity. Where Marika rebels the still loyal Radagon tries to fix it. Might be why she is strung up and trapped but when turning to Radagon her binding crack and then he fights you.
It's absolutely hilarious that you would bring up Kenneth Height and his disdane for Godrick, because last night while cooping someone cosplaying as Kenneth showed up and guided us through the castle to Godrick. I guess he wanted us to get rid of him!
The cheer amount of fine details from dialogue and descriptions to environment and texutures in this game is astounding. So much thought has to be invested into this masterpiece. This is THE GOTY.
18:34 if you manage to kill the sorcerers summoning the boulder, there's a far easier runback you can use. Jump from the right side to the bridge after exiting the debate parlor. Just thought I'd point that out!
It's kind of insane that we're still uncovering new secrets nearly 9 months after the game's release. Edit: kinda cute how every reply is just people berating me because apparently this is a common thing with all the fromsoft games. Ok. That's nice.
Maaan, i shure this is not the even middle of path of Elden Ring lore analysis And after dlc(s) release we'll get another hundreds of lore pieces in our face
I've always chuckled at the environmental storytelling at the colosseum in the capital. There's one Duelist waiting by the front door like he's late for work and the doors are already shut. The other one walking down the hill right near it is like "Dammit Tim -- I told you that wasn't a shortcut portal. Wait here incase someone comes -- I'll go see if I can find the maintenance guy with a key. Oh look -- a Tarnished. Hey! Do you know how we... OH GOD!"
Actually a TH-camr named Quelagg does extremely deep dives about the mythology and stuff in ER and she talks about how the Hatch Rune comes up in quite a lot of stuff. I highly recommend her videos.
"Marika's Mischief", Radagon cursed with the red hair of the giants, the ability to change genders, the "shadows" that take the form of beasts. Is Marika/Radagon a reference to Loki?
I just put down my cat that had issues with his livers and your voice was so comforting. Thank you for making me feel like things can keep going forward.
I laughed a little bit when you said "I have a spreadsheet that... (Explains all)" Almost sounded like a Meme or a 90s comedy "what about this on Elden Ring? - I HAVE A SPREADSHEET FOR THAT!!!"
I have a note book I keep for all the open world and rpgs I play where I list all the locations and items I’ve gotten so I known where things are and what I’ve already done. I was thinking of printing a map and marking it as well
As always your videos are a masterpiece, from secrets to lore. I am quite interested in the mystery revolving Marika's first-born, like why was Godwin (or godwyn) the gold chosen to be slain, why do we find his corpse in the area were the ancestral erdtree is ? We only hear tales about him much like Gwyn's first born, who also befriended the dragons.
this is absolutely great these lore videos their gold. i'm stuck in a bobcat doing snow removal for long periods at a time i usually listen to podcasts but that gets old just started listening to all these lore videos they are great! they make you think i'm on new game + 6 and still have no idea what the game is all about lol. thnx vaati! these are fun theories and really make a person think.
Vaati at 7:35: we have all these high res images of every item in the game, of course. Don't they look amazing also Vaati: doesn't give any links or mentions as to where these images actually are
C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy is a great listen on audiobook. Geoffrey Howard does a great read, and this trilogy is, in my opinion, some of Lewis' best work. The three books are: Out of the Silent Planet Perelandra That Hideous Strength Hope you enjoy!
0:50 in my view, the reason why the fingers, or Goldmask don't move and yet the finger readers or Corhyn are seemingly able to decipher their meaning is either supposed to make us question the reality of belief in the Golden Order, the Two Fingers and make us think they're all just grasping at straws or it's meant to make the player realise we may not be able to see what they see, just like some Tarnished can't see the Guidance of Grace but we can, maybe Enya and Corhyn can sense things we cannot.
The stake of Marika detail is in plenty of places in the game. Such as the Crumbling Farum Azula not having any with also requiring you to run a bit further to reach boss arenas. It's safe to say that you won't see a stake anywhere that she's not worshipped. So if you're annoyed with the run, it's probably because people there resent Marika or just have no admiration. Something to pay attention to here are zones where graces are near boss arenas instead of a stake.
I think Kenneth Height is going to play a part in the dlc, since he has to make us a knight. And he says it will be glorious so I am looking forward to that, maybe we will have to protect some demi humans or something crazy.
Magician by Raymond E. Feist started my love for fantasy as a kid, and i routinely re-read the series every few years. if you've never given it a look - jump straight in. the Audiobook narration is fantastic.
I've finished this game 3 times now and this video is the first time I hear about Pidia, had no idea that NPC exists. Makes me wonder what else I've missed...
Iirc, Marika’s forces had a very hard time in defeating the Carian Knights, which makes it a genius move on Marika’s part to simply turn herself into Radagon and make Rennala fall in love with her. She neutralized the threat of Raya Lucaria, begat more demigods, and left her so broken that her whole kingdom fell apart. All of that just clicked with me watching the “Marika the Trickster” segment.
A year late, but honestly? The fingers moving like that could've also been them trying to put out fires that might've been burning them as the hold burned
@@peenyyt4921 you're being a bit too literal in this case, because Marika even says "you are not yet me" to Radagon. A mimic tear is you in every way apart from not exactly matching your will, and that fits Radagon.
I've had that theory too. Theres a ton of evidence for it. So much so that its less "is this the case" and more "how long will it take to find something that explicitly states it" in my mind. Its just too much hinting at it for it to be a cooncidence.
1. When/where did Marika say that? I’m a lore fanatic and that’s news to me. 2. The mimic tears were stated to be an attempt by the ancient cities to create a lord, so Radagon being a tear would make sense, but also… Please no.
Like you said, shrooms...resemblance between the fingers and Deadman's Fingers mushrooms is uncanny. Not to mention they are parasitic too, which is revelant to the story if the Erdtree paratisized the older tree that predated it, cool find 😉
the sheer depth of knowledge in this game (and the others) is mind-blowing. That paired with the gorgeous detailing of the world and characters themselves makes this my favorite out of everything I've looked at.
As Sophie pointed out on the Sinclaire Lore channel, the idea that Radagon and Marika were ALWAYS the same person creates issues in the timeline of events. We know that at some point they absolutely became one, but I think the evidence points to that happening after Godfrey leaves the lands between. Radagon would of been likely merged with her after that, as Marika, who probably was frustrated by how difficult it was to control Godfrey, chose Radagon because he was loyal to the Erdtree and the Holy Order to a fault, and thus, easy to control by Marika. I would go as far to speculate that the merge of Ragadon and Marika is a perfected version of "grafting".
Also, one of Marika's lines Melina can tell you is "O Radagon, leal hound of the Golden Order. Thou'rt yet to become me." Which seems to me to heavily show that Marika and Radagon are two who became one, not one who split in two.
The greatest clue we have its the imprishioned zamor hero in the Evergaol in the weeping peninsula, he drops radagon soreseal Also, what issues it creates? Maybe we see it diferently, my view its that they are aspects of the same god, they could divide and rejoin at will, not just shapeshifting
@@Necrotaku999 my problem with assuming they are originally one is both Melina telling you of Marika's words on them becoming one, not returning to being one, and the fact that the two are clearly at odds with each other, at least in regards to their actions that led to the Shattering. Also, Marika is calling the Tarnished back to become her next consort, while Radagon plays a part in sealing the Erdtree, what seems to be his Great Rune can be seen in the impenetrable thorns.
Cuckoo - a bird that pushes other birds' eggs out of their nest and introduces their own. It's called a "brood parasite" I think it's interesting that the Cuckoo imagery is associated with Raya Lucaria, who have had an "egg" of sorts delivered by Radagon on his leaving the marriage
I think the fingers’ clapping animation was cut because they might have accidentally led to a “red herring”. If they were left in, players would try to find a “secret code” or some way to “interpret” the movement, when it may just be meaningless. It’s much easier to just have the old crone translate for us.
I'm really late to the party, so I doubt Vaati will see this, but actually no Legacy Dungeons have Stakes of Marika in them. Miyazaki said pre-launch that they wouldn't appear in Legacy Dungeons because those were intended to bring back the feeling of playing through a traditional Dark Souls level, where you only ever respawn at a bonfire equivalent. I don't doubt that Marika was persona non-grata in Liurnia after Radagon left (perhaps even earlier) but the lack of Stakes of Marika in the school has relatively little to do with it.
Dude, that stake of Marika piece of lore for Raya Lucaria is just.... such good story telling by From Software. There's levels to this game that still blow my mind a year later
Another piece of evidence supporting Loretta as an albinauric is that the face of her helmet is pretty similar to the pattern on the Albinauric shield, loosely depicting the same primordial dewdrop.
17:52 There's no Stake of Marika in Stormveil or the Haligtree, either. The only Stake of Marika in a legacy dungeon is the one outside the Erdtree Sanctuary.
I'm not sure if Audible will have this series, but The Chronicles of Amber series by Roger Zelazny is an interesting read, specifically the first five books. It begins with a man with amnesia trying to find out about who he is after a near-fatal car accident, and ends up becoming one of the most interesting takes on the Fantasy genre I've ever read.
@@EverTM Fair! I'd still rank both below "Lord of Light" but one can rarely go wrong with Zelazny. Shame his works were never made into movies or games.
It would be interesting if the Fingers slamming together was because they are trying to reach out to the Greater Will. But are frustrated because the Greater Will has abandoned the Lands Between and refuses to answer. Something about the slamming just seems melancholic or frustrating rather than celebratory.
That's kind of terrifyingly somber to think about
"THE FUCKER LEFT ME ON READ ENIA WHAT DO WE DO NOW"
If only the game wasn't awful and actually had a narrative and didn't require having the wiki open 24/7
@@Digger-Nick -🤓
This would make a lot of sense as to why it didn’t get used.
At the end, Enia tells us that the Two Fingers are communing with the Greater Will, and that they will be communing for a very very long time. Instead of showing any movement, the Fingers joints are locked upwards as if they were radio antennae, likely communicating over vast astrological distances which would explain the wait
I’m very excited for the likely Miquella & time travel DLC’s
I'm like..99% certain we'll be getting some form of Elden Ring DLC news in December. Anyone else?
Don't do this to me
Probably
I agree.
Surely a trailer soon . Release February prob but January would be better
Most likely, and if not by December maybe by early next year?
I'd like to believe Loretta is a Albanauric, but 1 visual fact that keeps getting in the way is the fact that she bleeds red when you hit her vs Albanaurics who bleed silver when they take physical damage.
Horse blood to keep the rumor moving
Yeah, she just seems like an ally to the albinaurics.
Yeah this is why I don't believe in the theory. I feel like Fromsoft pays too much attention to detail to miss out on something like this.
I also feel like it makes her story more compelling if she did all this simply out of compassion for an oppressed group, to the point that people in their prejudice assumed she HAD to be one of them, otherwise she wouldn't show any empathy to them. Makes her stand out much more as a truly virtuous character.
Yeah, I even tested with jump attacks with bleed weapons to specifically get her and not her horse to bleed and it seems it was just an absurd rumor indeed and I like that as it makes her even more noble
I always thought the most interesting explanation would be that Loretta is a disabled human. Her disability being the same as the albinaurics would explain why she seems so attached to them and would explain why she bleeds red not silver.
it gives me chills how deep and well crafted, albeit subtle, the lore is; it almost makes it hard to believe this was a thought up world. I mean all media that I have interacted with, all such hints and factoids are usually very obvious, or meant to be discovered / taken note of. Here they're hidden, as they may actually be in such a fantastical world.
Fr, cuz usually more obscure lore details in a world have a bit of speculation involved, yknow? And while some elden ring stuff might involve this, there's also lots here that is pretty likely if not confirmed, just very well hidden
@@MarzaButTube totally agree! I mean, the fact that they intentionally left out any stakes of marika from Raya Lucaria is such a masterful detail I never even noticed until this video. This stuff is beautiful and Elden Ring is truly a work of art
I feel like it’s a perfect mixture between vague and meticulously planned .. like, a lot of stuff is left open ended or vague in order for players to draw the conclusions, but all the details are there if you look hard enough
@@samael4550 this is why I have no fucking clue when people say ER doesn't have rich lore compared to their other games. Not to mention this game is accomplishing all this in one game without any DLC yet, while every other game of theirs minus Sekiro has either gotten multiple entries or extensive DLCs to flesh their universes out.
The lore is hidden not because it is a fantastical world but because it is a world on the peak of collapse, all of the soulsborne games are (except sekiro) literally on their worst state, society has collapsed and only hundreds if maybe thousands of individuals remain and most are hostile torwards you, hence why I think it's natural that a story told by words is not one that would fit soulsborne games.
Something else noteworthy about the heroes graves is that our character spawns from one. This reminded me of one of the earliest Elden ring leaks, where it was said that the player could choose where to spawn. Perhaps at one point in development this was true, and the player could choose which heroes grave to spawn at. If this is true it obviously would have been cut early in the development process as it would have thrown away any balance the game had. Just something interesting to think about.
Imagine if your spawn rescaled the rest of the areas, meaning if you spawned in the mountain tops Godrick would be one of the hardest bosses lmao
@@oakleyraverty1030 “I am the lord of all that is golden.. I have never known defeat.”
You're right, which also means our character would have been a hero at one point, resurrected by the erdtree.
but who were we?
@@shadowlife15 the wildest class lorewise is the Hero, the description says descendant from a badlands chieftain and the armor itself says that that chieftain is hoarah loux himself
Regarding Pidia & Seluvis:
When Pidia dies, you ordinarily loot Dolores' puppet off of his corpse which is 1 of 2 puppets with the flavor text "Favorite puppet of Seluvis". The interesting part is that Pidia can also drop another puppet - Nepheli Loux - if you handed her Seluvis' potion. Nepheli Loux is the other puppet with "Favorite puppet..." flavor text as well.
Those 2 puppets are uniquely only obtained when Pidia dies, they're both uniquely favorites of Seluvis', and both of them relate to Gideon Ofnir one way or another.
Not only that, but when you give Nepheli Loux the potion, Seluvis sells you not her ash, but Dolores'
While Ofnir does mention knowing Seluvis so he may or may not be aware of Pidia, his actions against the albinorics would certainly explain why Pidia is trying to take people close to Ofnir away from him. Pidia using Seluvis as cover to attack and disrupt a man that actively is destroying and searching for the hideaways of his people.
Also Pidia is facing the wall when you initially meet him and is startled when you interact with him. Interestingly enough he's facing exactly towards Seluvis' Rise, seemingly he was puppeting Seluvis until we talk to him where he is understandably shocked and sheepish that we've found his real form.
Fascinating
@zeratanus oh wow, yes, that makes a lot of sense. Pidia's motives were always opaque to me, but I think you're spot on.
I think they wanted the fingers to be dead/dying in an ostensible sense. If they were moving so much, there'd be no doubt. While they occasionally twitch and move in Elden Ring, it's a very subtle and slow movement. Gives off the impression they're on the way out, which is I think the intention.
I always took their slow movements as indicating how subtle and long-term their influence is, why there needs to be special finger readers to interpret such subtle movements. Also makes them feel more like Trees, with their actions being so slow to almost being imperceptible.
@@Mordalon Same with Goldmask in that regard - While the model doesn't actually move, Corrin DOES sense movement in him and can interpret it. Subtle movement that can only be understood by someone initiated in a sacred art seems to be a storytelling tool in this case.
@@beckstheimpatient4135 Yeah, I was thinking about that as well. In this case, I guess it just didn't make sense to leave those erratic movements in the game, unless they made massive changes to their plans; so it's obviously just easier and better to cut it. Still, we fans obsess over even cut content, so it's great to know that it used to be a part of the game, because now it just opens up even more possibilities for headcanon and other fun stuff :)
@@YTDariuS-my6dg There is also the possibility that it was cut because it would potentially give spoilers on the whole thing, or perhaps to avoid making players think that there is only one correct path to the end. With the Souls games, Bloodborne, and now Elden Ring, the story is YOURS. It's your journey, and how it ends is up to you. What its story is, is up to you. The game is freer with information that previous titles, but there is still a lot that you have to pick up from context and simply looking at everything to draw your own conclusions.
I think there’s some additional meaning with the Cuckoo Knights and Radagon leaving an egg. Cuckoo eggs are hidden in other nests and cause the surrogate mother to neglect her own children to care for the imposter egg. Maybe part of Radagon/Marika’s larger plan to cause internal conflict between Caria and Raya Lucaria and weaken Liurnia as the golden order was unable to defeat them united?
Not sure about the reasoning for this, as Marika and Radagon are opposed to each other AND the Cuckoo knights were mercenaries specifically hired to fight against Renalla, but the fact that the Cuckoo is used as a symbol and Renalla is left with an egg that has the rune of rebirth is 100% something we should take seriously.
A lot of people theorize that Radagon left Renalla with the amber egg with the rune of rebirth inside so he could be reborn as a new person, separate from Marika. This would also explain why he abandoned her, but left one of his red wolves with her as well as an all powerful great rune. I'm not fully convinced of this one, and as any Elden Ring theory there is always something in the game that goes against this interpretation, but I like it enough that I felt I should share it.
With all the cut dialogue Miquella has, I'm REALLY hoping we get a DLC centered around him. He's by far the one I want to know about the most
@FeverRub that's definitely what I had envisioned too. Either that or the cocoon itself being gone.
Miquella + Godwyn would be awesome
Also would like to finally see all these gods we don’t get to see, like the gloom eyed queen, the god of rot, the frenzied flame god, the blood mother, the moon goddesses, etc
There is so much lore that has not been explored
Her.
@FeverRub if the Corpse of Godwyn moves/becomes a boss, I'm gonna shit bricks
@@cheeky_casual fuckin hell, I hope we get an entire 10 hour dlc on that particular subject. And another 12 hours on miquella
The stakes of Marika exist so that the tarnished can keep on fighting. Radagon and Marika did not want you to fight renalla. They left no stake of Marika near her, and even left a wolf of radagon to guard that place. Surprised at how the stakes of Marika were talked about in this vid but that angle wasn't considered or explored. There are a few other interesting placements of radagons wolves and absences of stakes of Marika iirc, but none jump to mind as I write this.
Or the simpler explanation is that there is no stakes of Marika in any Legacy Dungeons.
@@mathieuxlaflamme2322 but there are radagon wolves in some (or maybe one?) dungeons
@@cyansy those are just called Red Wolves. The one in Raya Lucaria is specifically Radagon's hence the name.
When Vaati said it I remembered the stake by the north gate close to the mausoleum, but why are there graces in Raya Lucaria?, the greater will maybe but wouldn't Marika struggle against it
@@Ed6026 we see that marika is controlled by the greater will when we enter the erdtree, if the greater will wishes a site of grace to be somewhere, theres little marika can do to prevent it
Important to note about the lack of Stakes of Marika in Raya Lucaria: There aren't any Stakes of Marika in *any* of the Legacy Dungeons. Not Stormveil, not Faram Azula, not even Lyndell. They are exclusive to the overworld and minor dungeons, presumably because the Legacy Dungeons have, you know, lots of Graces to revive at.
there's a stake outside of Goldfrey's/Gideon's room
Which makes it even more annoying that they couldn't put a grace outside of Rennala's boss room.
@@scottbecker4367 It would've been a bit more clearer earlier into the game that Radagon was Marika if they just used Radagon as the model for the Marika statue outside. It would also help people naturally come to the conclusion that they are the same person, and to use the miracle at the statue, since it would give the impression that they're an interchangeable icon.
I don't think it would make sense though, since I'm pretty sure Rennala doesn't know that they're the same person. Perhaps a lasting gift that Marika would leave would be the statue, and could explain why Rennala doesn't die since she's always respawning. Albeit, that could be the statue behind her that is also in a crucifixion pose doing that as well.
I doubt she would she really want to know anyway since they had war in the past which would make Marika's actions of going and sowing her "seed" in Liurnia, and ending the wars even more duplicitous. Killing with "kindness" seems to be her way, since her cruel actions seem to prevent people from dying altogether.
@@scottbecker4367 if you die threre, which should be rare indeed at this point... just leap over to the short cut route and avoid the falling ball.
@@Drophinoia If you kill the folk at the upper room where ball comes from you do not even need to avoid the ball. Not that it's hard to avoid e.g. when keeping on the left.
One thing that nicks the whole Loretta is an albanauric theory is that she clearly bleeds red blood when you hit her or bleed her, unlike the greyish silver of the albanaurics. It's a detail I don't think that fromsoft would've missed or left out if they really wanted this to be a true theory
Agreed. The rumor that Loretta is an albinauric is just that. She instead seems to be a person who was thoroughly inspired by them and dedicated her life to honouring and helping them.
I suppose she could just be sympathetic to their blight.
Exactly what I thought when I saw that statement. It feels more like someone trying to purposely blame her of being an Albinauric in a malicious way, and seeing how she went to the Haligtree perhaps after being treated badly because of the "Absurd Rumor" of being an Albinauric. It could be possible that she was sympathetic to the Albinaurics which some people didn't take it quite well which lead to them trying to create all the rumors just so she is also shuned like the rest of Albinaurics.
PS - It is just how I felt like after looking at all the things and I don't have anything to support my statement so don't hound on me.
I didn't realize she bled red, definitely a sign she's not then, as you said they wouldn't have made that mistake. It was my thought she's not because to ride a horse you kind of need working legs or a special saddle contraption. It doesn't look like she has a special saddle or anything at all which makes me think her legs are indeed working.
Look at the proportion of her torso to arms. She is clearly not albanauric
For secret 16 it is important to remember that Godfrey was a character created by GRRM. This doesn’t rule out the eternal champion inspiration, but I think GRRM’s involvement is largely ignored by the Elden Ring community and his inspirations and ideas are very important for the overall themes of the world.
i wouldn‘t say largely ignored, everybody keeps it at the back of their minds. but it‘s also hard to distinguish where his influences on most of the games lore begin and end so it gets washed in with everything and nothing to specifically point at imo 🤷🏼♂️
but obviously we should be incredibly grateful for all of his contributions which definitely helped elden ring to have this expansive lore
the erd tree and minor trees scattered throughout the lands between are so GRRM, they are very similiar to the weirwood trees in ASOIAF. a lot of book readers think the weirwoods are a hive mind fungus organism that connects across westeros, and those with greenblood can latch onto them to see memories and events across space and time, at the cost of being subsumed into them as hosts.
there are chapters in the most recent book where bran has visions of ancient northmen making blood sacrifices to the trees, and further theories that the starks, while portrayed as the most noble in the series, probably have a lovecraftian deal with others through the trees. all of this leads to the conclusion that the trees serve a dark gnostic god, not unlike the golden order being an all consuming dogmatic force that leads ranni and others to try to over throw it
Like you said it doesn't rule out the inspiration, but if anything it actually supports that idea even more. Most if not all renown writers of the last couple centuries take inspiration from other works. whether it is because the idea worked, or because they want to pay homage to an inspiration, or they just outright like the idea and just want to use it.
@@theartgoose I'm fairly certain he had a major hand in pretty much all of the backstory.
At least all of it concerning the gods and demigods and the Shattering.
Where it gets muddy for me its when it comes to the Tarnished.
@@danriedi7653 He directly wrote the lore
The Albinauric chant is incredibly eerie and reminds me of the fishman priest muttering prayers and curses as you approach the Fishing Village in The Old Hunters. It's fun to see what themes carry through each FromSoft game, no matter how different they can be.
The Dungeater reminded me a lot of the Bloodborne DLC because of how much he went on about cursing everyone and their children's children etc.
I wish we’d get more theories on Melina, I’m very curious as to who she is. The Lands Between mirror engagement with the wedding ring placed on the right hand (as seen with Ranni) and our first glimpse of Melina is her right hand with a ring on it. Is this a detail people are overlooking, I’ve never seen it brought up.
I think it's the ring to summons torrent and she gives it to us at the beginning
I think the current best theory is that Melina used to be the Gloam-eyed Queen. In the Frenzied Flame ending, it's revealed that her sealed eye is dark colored, and she promises upon you Destined Death - the domain of the Gloam-Eyed queen. She's also explicitly tied to Destined Death in other ways, such as her Blade of Calling being so similar to the Black Blades, and how the Blade of Calling says: "The one who walks alongside flame, Shall one day meet the road of Destined Death."
@@monsieurdorgat6864 I like that theory and there is definitely some connection there, but I think her name, her hair colour and that she fits the bill to be the missing link in the "butterfly-trio" suggest that she is a child of marika (Name) and Radagon (Hair). I suspect probably the youngest of them all.
Maybe because she couldn't walk the path of fire in the frenzied flame ending, she has to walk a different path of fire then.
There is so much to speculate, but sadly not enough information.
I've been trying to share this info, Miquella also has a ring on the same finger
@@psychopath682 Thing is that her being related to Marika doesn't mean she isn't also the Gloam Eyed Queen. She can absolutely be both, in the same way that Miquella and Malenia are Marika's children yet also Empyreans who would one day replace her.
I think they cut the fingers clapping animation because its sort of "out of character". The fingers are serene and dont move much, and when they do it's in slow, soft motions to transition from one "hand sign" to another. Having such a fast and jerky clapping motion doesn't fit with the vibe they ultimately went for.
O agreed
Saw a comment higher up about the idea of them being frustrated not being able to contact the greater will. This sudden change in demeanor could better fit that idea.
I always read Selvius’ death pose as a result of him being force-fed the potion that we give to Ranni. A sort of “try to make me a puppet, will you?”
The giant Nox, if related to the giant Albinauric, could draw a connection to ants, being a giant queen that births new members of the species that has all female workers and warriors.
I find Farum Azula and the eternal cities really fascinating, as relics of the age before the Golden Order. I hope the DLC explores it a lot more, since it seems like Marika and the Golden Order might have gone out of their way to expunge as much of that history as possible.
An ancient farum azula would also open up the possibility of fighting a Full-Power DRAGONLORD Placidusax
Age before the erdtree.. Marika expunging history.. It's in a different way than you expected, but I have news for you!
4:43 On top of this,
Lore wise I’m pretty sure that the lands between is starting to suffer from a similar fate as the dark souls worlds did. Its just a much much more earlier stage we’re witnessing.
After the rune of death was stolen - death became allot more difficult to achieve besides a few means. With that issue at play I’m sure it just became another instance akin to undead (minus the hollowing). Allot have clearly still aged and become weak/malformed so I guess its not too dissimilar to the undead curse in ways.
Prisons, dungeons and jails would be filled very quickly in times of such disarray and war. Issue is, you're not gonna be able to free up any cells any time soon neither since death isn't so readily available. Hence we see punishments like this. Perhaps they're beginning to get allot more "creative" with the less fortunate much like dark souls.
In regards to design similarities between Carians and Nox, the sigil that appears when casting Carian sorceries is VERY similar to the one for Sellia. They ARE distinct, but they're also exceptionally close.
Sellia was built by exiled sorcerers from Raya Lucaria, and consider: Sellen, who we know was exiled, and Seluvis, who… is a weirdo with ties to Radagon, so probably also exiled.
Slowly from watching all these lore videos I’m coming to the conclusion of several analogous themes, like The forces of night fighting the forces of day, silver and gold and the age of each, told as the passing of seasons, the conflicts over the powers of life and death, and their influence. I love these series so much.
Love this ! Especially Seluvis being a puppet. It’s also probably why Ranni only says, ‘Tell Blaidd and Iji, I love them’ No mention of Seluvis. She probably knew ?
No. She just doesnt like him since he is a dolly-bothering creep. She just uses his knowledge of puppet magic until it is no longer necessary. He also tries to give her a potion that would possibly turn her into his puppet.
Regarding him being a puppet, i dont believe it at all. Just the timing of his and Pidia's death goes against the theory. Seluvis is already in the puppet pose (wich imo is because Ranni gave him one of his own potion as revenge) while Pidia is still alive until you go see him and hear him getting killed. For me this indicates that the active puppets went berserk after Seluvis was "killed".
@@mathieuxlaflamme2322 Yeah Seluvis is the puppet master, Pidia is the puppet caretaker. Ranni or Gideon (If you give him the potion) turns Seluvis into a puppet. Seluvis becomes a puppet, puppets break free, kill pidia the caretaker who hated them. Pidia's final dialog is just him begging for his life, saying anything that might save him. This explains everything, including why Pidia has Seluvis' puppets, meanwhile the mainstream theory has a massive gap in it. How would the puppets have broken free to murder Pidia, if he was the puppet master, this could be explained by 'magic weakening' or any cop out, but Seluvis discretely passes before Pidia, so it seems ridiculous to assume the cause for the puppets breaking free is anything but Seluvis becoming a puppet himself. To me this is a clear example of how people can use the right evidence and story telling to come to completely wrong conclusions.
@@noahhaller4540 yeah. It completely baffles me how people can miss the most obvious and direct clues that disprove that theory. People also really believe a crippled albinauric would be able to fool 3 of the most intelligent and knowledgeable people of the Lands Between? Ranni, Gideon and Seluvis would have to have been fooled from even before the Shattering and somehow Ranni and Gideon never realized that Seluvis was a puppet himself. There's already enough good mysteries in the lore to focus on, we dont need to invent mysteries where there is none.
@@noahhaller4540 There's an equally massive flaw in your theory though. You can't claim other people must be wrong because they need a cop out to explain why the puppets murder Pidia and then ignore that your own theory requires the same cop out. There is no reason why Ranni couldn't just snap her finger to make the puppets murder Pidia, or Gideon could have instead have reverse engineered the potion to cancel its effects out. Neither of those are less logical than those 2 turning Seluvis into a puppet, in fact they're more logical because in the rest of the game we never see either of those characters attempt to use Seluvis as a puppet, something that they'd probably be doing if they went into the trouble of making him one.
The obvious answer to why Seluvis "discretely passes" at all is that he's a puppet all along. There's no sign or reason for him to die, the only event at the same time is Pidia being busy with some of his puppets... and if Pidia was busy, it would mean he wouldn't have time to control Seluvis. You have cause and effect reversed, Seluvis doesn't die before Pidia gets confronted by puppets, the puppets start to confront Pidia so he stops controlling Seluvis, and by time the player finds Pidia this confrontation turns deadly, so Seluvis as a masterless puppet never moves again. Your theory relies on the contrivance that Pidia has no control over puppets after Seluvis dies even though Pidia clearly controls some in Caria Manor, and it fails to explain why Ranni or Gideon would bother turning Seluvis into a puppet instead of something much easier like killing him if they never planned on using the puppet. After all, if they're aware a puppet can turn on their master like with Pidia, why risk keeping Seluvis as a puppet without any of the upside of having him as one?
@@gooblop I feel as if Seluvis is acting of his own free will, albeit I do believe he's been a puppet the whole time. I imagine Pidia and Seluvis had a deal worked out or worked together in some capacity. Perhaps similarly to how you helped Sellen inhabit a puppet body, Pidia helped Seluvis inhabit one too ala primordial glintstone (Seluvis was a powerful mage too according to Sellen.) It seems he's acting on his own personal desires to obtain Nepheli as a puppet (considering he has history with Gideon) so I don't think he's being expressly controlled by Pidia. Ranni is seemingly aware of Seluvis' intentions, so it's possible that when she no longer has any use for him she just destroys the primordial glintstone, thus leaving a lifeless puppet. Maybe she even forced him to use the puppets to kill Pidia too, or she just took control of the puppets, though she never mentions anything about the existence of Pidia so that's a hazy theory at best.
This is a minor thing I noticed around the Agheel Lake ruins. If you sit by and wait near the nobles who reside there, you could hear them say stuff about Agheel. Saying things about the flame of Agheel, almost like their praising the dragon’s ruinous strength.
And if u consider how the Noble spirit Ashes would surrender if they see Agheel, maybe this implies a relation between nobles and dragons. How Nobles are aware of their power being incomparable to that of a dragon like Agheel, and would rather not fight but instead surrender to them. It’s a small thing really, but it does make the world feel more alive.
I think nobles wants to be burned in a dragon flame
That's neat
Vaati has already made a video about this, actually. Check out one of his Lore of the Bosses video, I think its his second one, that talks about Ghostflame. Long story short before the time of the Erdtree corpses were burned with Ghostflame so their spirits were released and left to die a true death and leave the lands between. Vaati theorizes that these nobles want Agheel to burn them so they may die a true death, similar to how ancient people used ghostflame to send the dead to the afterlife
Fun fact: as I was fighting Lorreta in the haligtree, I noticed most of her attacks were very similar to Gyobu's (I'm sorry if I misspelled it) specifically the jumping slam attack, although she does have a few unique ones, specifically the ones where she summons the swords
MY NAMEEEEE
IS ...(Sekiro first maditory boss)
AS I STAND, 👉🏽Sekiro 👈🏽 WILL NEVER CROSS ASHINA!!!!
"Boy, allow me to show you the wrath of a Man, who stood with his country, as they took The Ashina"
Gyobu reminds me of Lu Bu, who both are thematic ideas through Soulsborne and Soulslike games...
I honestly didn’t think there were any more secrets to find, I’ll be looking forward to the secrets of the DLC(s) when it comes out
People still finds secrets about dark souls After years. I think ER still has some secrets to Discover
You have to datamine these secrets, so it's not like a normal player would know about them.
Yeah no there's still so much we have to understand about the game. Tarnished Archeologist's ongoing series has already completely changed my perspective on things.
Charred Thermos had an equally interesting series on Bloodborne this year.
Psh. People haven't even scratched the surface on this game.
Fia is Fortissax. And Rennala is dead.
Big facts that just flew over everyone's heads.
@@kachucho872 no. Datamining doesn't reveal facts about the story that only textual analysis can provide.
Like how Fia is actually the dragon Fortissax.
about 4:45 the crucified and the speculation about them hanging on stakes in the air, away from the ground to make it harder/impossible for them to return to the erdtree also reminded me of how Marika herself was punished by the Greater Will to hang in the air, tied to a piece of the ring. the crucified's stakes also resemble that same shape, so I think there might be more to this than just wild speculation.
Regarding the whole "there are no Stakes of Marika in Raya Lucaria because Rennala hates Marika" at 17:51. While sure that lines up lore wise, it is also important to note that NONE of the so-called "legacy dungeons" have Stakes of Marika in them (Stormveil, Volcano Manor). One outlier might be Leyndell where there are no Stakes of Marika except for the 2 stakes just before the Godfrey-spirit/Gideon arena, where I think it was simply done because the run back would otherwise have been outrageously long. So overall I think Stakes of Marika were not supposed to be placed inside of legacy dungeons to mimic the "souls" level design more closely, but in the case of Leyndell they added some because they didnt want to spam so many sites of grace together but also didnt want to have an insanely long run back. So in conclusion the lore explanation works for Raya Lucaria and it should in turn also be applied to Stormveil and the Volcano Manor, but I mainly think it was a level design reason as to why they dont exist in legacy dungeons.
There could be a lore reason as to why like the the Stakes. Like they were only placed later in the lands history when the castle dungeons where closed off and after Marika was stung up in the tree, idk but there could be a good reason outside of just make the dungeons harder.
@@TarisRedwing Yeah, but From makes the rules. So they could simply adjust the lore (if it even is like that) in a minimal non problematic way and we still could have them in legacy dungeons.
Exactly, and I'll say there's no reason why the devs couldn't simply place a stake of grace on the balcony outside of Rennala's library. That boss run is sooo annoying
Another funny thing about Liurnia that all of the memory stone towers are called "Converted Towers", and have Marika statues inside. It implies to me that at one point these were actually shrines to Marika, but Renala had them all turned into towers.
Dunno why she would keep the statues in them though
Or the other way around, Marika put the statues in there
@@Gary_a_normal_human_being Yeah. The Converted Tower (same as Converted Fringe Tower) has a statue of Marika and has cut off access to the upper floors where the mage-y goodness is.
This is a conversion TO Marika, not FROM her.
Along with other people pointing out that these were converted TO Marika shrines, not FROM them, it's also worth understanding that all those mage towers were Astrologer towers. These Astrologer towers are, themselves, probably related to the Nox/Numen of the Eternal Cities, as they seem to be the source of all Astrology/Star Worship in the Lands Between (They are the roots of both the Carian Nobility and the Sellians).
Something else I recently noticed about Selivus is that he also has almost the EXACT same inflection(may not be the right word) in his voice as Pidia. If you listen to the way they both end words and sentences it’s remarkably similar
I really hope the arenas have some PvE content. Something like being able to set up your own fights and picking different combinations of enemies to fight. Sometimes you just wanna challenge yourself and go up against four Crucible Knights.
That would've been really cool, it could've been a way for non PvP players to get something out of the Coliseum update. I only play offline so the Coliseums are useless to me.
Or a Boss Run
A thought I had on why the Albinaurics are stunted in the way that they are is that the sacred dew could have come not from the Erdtree but the Haligtree, which had been nurtured and grown with Miquella’s blood - and with Miquella being cursed with stunted growth, so then would any beings created using the sap of that tree, with each iteration becoming more stunted perhaps stretching to second gen who by then had lost the ability to communicate (verbally anyway). The arcane nature of it though would have been filtered through - leaving the second gens primarily arcane with the ‘human’ traits having been sloughed off. Not necessarily a failure but probably not what was in mind when coming up with Haligtree replacing Erdtree.
Hypothesis: Ranni has some power over the starlight shards used to make puppets (we see Starlight Shards all over the place at the Cathedral of Manus Celes, she is trying to bring about the Age of Stars, etc.). When she leaves after you give her the Fingerslayer blade, she uses that control to sabotage Pidia's control over his puppets, causing Seluvis to deactivate and causing Pidia's other puppets to turn on him.
The simpler explanation is that she gave Seluvis one of his own puppet potion wich led to the puppets going wild.
I’m excited to hear Moorcock’s work may have inspired characters in the game. His multiverse of Eternal Champions and their books are among my favorites
Also this one from Ziostorm, the reason the fingers look the way they do is because they are based on real-life mushrooms called Deadman's Fingers, which grow... Wait for it...near trees and parasitize them.
Which could be quite revelant considering what we know about the Erdtree and the disputed bit of text that says that there was another tree that predates it which it took over.
I'm not sure if you mean xylaria polymorpha, but if so, it's a "saprobic" fungus, which means it feeds on decaying or dead biological matter. It can be argued that it's still a parasitic lifeform, but this would be in a more general philosophical sense. Saprotrophic nutrition in fungi are perhaps parasitic in the sense that dying plants might have their fate hastened by the fungus, but some organisms that grow near or on trees (like spanish moss) find nutrition *near* their host, rather than from it.
@@owfan4134 And the main religious practice as dictated by the Greater Will is to 'return to the erdtree' at death. I've always thought the greater will was just a parasite siphoning energy from the lands between. It takes over the Crucible tree, shuns the misbegotten, shuns those who live in death, has incantations specifically to ensure undead stay dead, and then makes sure everyone who dies is turned into a nice fertilizer through being burned and placed at the roots of the erdtree. If the fingers are based on these fungi then it makes sense they also 'gain nutrients' from the ashes/life force, that way they don't hurt the erdtree and can instead form a sort of symbiosis, where they take some nutrition and in return spread the greater will's influence as envoys
Seems like anything the Greater Will does is parasitic, the tree parasitizes the land through taking its dead and its envoys are in semblence parasitic
There's no such text that says there was another tree that predates the Erdtree.
The lattice stink horn and the devils fingers fungus also look like the scarlet rot infected areas.
Did anyone else notice that the sunflowers also all face the direction of the Erdtree?
You mentioned that the petty criminals are high above the ground so that they don’t return to the erdtree roots, but what if marika did the same. The criminals are tied with there hands above there heads on the crescent, just like marika before you fight them.
I agree. I feel like it was probably pretty common as a punishment through the lands between. The reason for these not showing up more and In other areas could simply be because the only one who still utilizes this old style of punishment is godrick, since he's the only demigod left around that relatively has his wits about him
The greater will did that to her as punishment for shattering the ring. Since she was also Radagon he was punished to forge the ring that she shattered but she would always hit back when he went to repair it making it an infinite loop and unrepairable ring.
Seeing some of the fights in these videos done in a very cinematic way, really encaptures how if visualize or imagine in my head recalling the battles. Well done!
Really wish we had director or at least photo mode for this game. It has such epic visuals
@@TheSuckoShow right?! Even a level of theatre mod that last a certain period of time once you activate it, and end if you want it too.
17:13 I always talked about this you can even see the tarnished use this item against a dragon in one of the trailers of the game
i like to imagine that rennala was aware of radagon and marika's duality, and the reason why she still loves radagon and loathes marika is that he was essentially forced to leave her by his alter ego and rennala knows this
It's still very ambiguous as to whether radagon and marika were always one person or not. Their character is one of the most fascinating parts of elden ring, I still think about it a lot.
@@k1xnt radagon and rennala had multiple kids before the egg my guy
@@k1xnt but marica also gave birth to godwyn so the omen twins wouldn’t be a reason to go to rennala for more kids
@@diccchocolate416 Marika literally tells Radagon (as retold from echoes by Melina): "you have yet to become me". I genuinely think they were separate entities at some point. It's not entirely clear however WHEN that happens, and if that it during or after the marriage to Rennala. In other words, did Marika extend her being into Radagon while he was with Rennala, or did she do that when she summoned him to be her new Lord? Considering how cursed her second children are, I think it was after - because the children of Rennala and Radagon turned out fine (initially). Whereas Malenia and Miquella did not.
@@beckstheimpatient4135 however, she immediately follows that up with "thou'rt yet to become a god" and mentions how he's her other self and they will both be shattered, seemingly contradicting what she just said. i took it as a scornful way to say "you lack the authority and power to do what i can do as a god, despite being my other self, so be a good dog (leal hound), follow my lead and shatter the elden ring with me"
I actually have another theory about a possible inspiration for Godfrey, and it's none other than King Arthur!
It's a bit of a long shot, seeing as it's based on some of the oldest references to Arthur that exist, but I learnt this right around the time I was fighting Godfrey in my playthrough so I couldn't help but notice the parallels, also given how much Celtic influence there already is in Elden Ring (names like Blaidd and Síofra are taken directly from Welsh and Irish) it's definitely not outside the realm of possibility.
So, as you may know, Arthur wasn't originally an English folk-hero, but a Welsh one! In fact, his association with England is incredibly ironic given that in the earliest written mentions of Arthur he's explicitly fighting *against* the Anglo-Saxons. On top of that, in these earliest records he's not yet "King" Arthur, he's simply credited as leading men into battle alongside the Kings of the Britons, so most likely he was a war leader of some kind.
The idea of a "barbarian" war leader being turned into a mythical King for the people he fought against is a neat parallel to how the warrior Horah Loux was tamed by Marika and turned into Godfrey, the Elden Lord.
Marika British confirmed
Godfrey is probably inspired by the hero King Gilgamesh who's a also a demigod he share many similarities with Godfrey
Both are demigods and warriors King's
Both built great wall's to protect their cities
Both have a beast Kin a friend and a consul Godfrey had serosh and Gilgamesh had Enkidu
Both seek to get full godhood Godfrey wants to have his right is elden lord again and Gilgamesh seeks the herb of immortality to be full god
Finally Both have lion's is their symbols
I'd also say that he's inspired by the greek hero Heracles.
Demigod.
Lion motiff. Heracles was famous for killing the Nemean Lion, which was invulnerable to weapons, and then skinning it to use it's pelt as armor.
Godhood. Heracles dies and sheds his mortality to ascend to olympus.
Serves/connected to a Goddess-Queen. Heracles's name translates roughly to "Glory of Hera." Hera was the most important god in his story, being the catalyst for all his suffering and adventures due to her husband Zeus being a horny bastard and not keeping it in his pants.
Warrior. Heracles was famous for his wrestling skills. It's how he won against most of his foes. Guess who else decides to just throw hands when at half health?
Overall, I'd say Godfrey is like a mix between Gilgamesh and Heracles, maybe a bit more Gilgamesh. Like, 60/40 or so.
@@wumpuswoo9946 indeed he seems a mix of them and interestingly they also known to love wrestling and brawling a lot be it with warrior's, monster's, beasts
godrick’s design also heavily references gilgamesh from final fantasy 5. i think you’re onto somethin
Random fact: Gilgamesh was probably a 14-18 foot tall giant, if we look his statues holding the lion
@@andrewart5343 yep he's holding a lion a kitten
- The mimic veil's veil looks like it was made from decomposing leaves (as if caterpillars ate away the substance between the veins).
- Pidia seems to have red blood in his dying sequence, so not an albinauric or a mistake? Loretta also bleeds red.
For Loretta, it could be that she taught the Albanaurics how to fight. So it’s not her being similar to them, it’s then being similar to the one who taught them how to fight
Love the part about Pidia and Seluvis, it really makes Seluvis and his standing with Ranni et al. make so much more sense
I have gotten my partner into Elden ring and I'm using your videos to help teach her the story!
When is it my turn? 😔
Nice must be fun my wife only likes Arcade style games or racing games
A thousand years from now there's going to be a Church of the Elden Ring.
I'm doing the same with my friend
I don't think Rennala lost her mind for love, I think it was intentional by Radagon. By poisoning her mind through the Egg he eliminated the greatest threat to the Erdtree, the only domain he couldn't beat. Leaving her for Marika would break their pact, thus by eliminating her he threw Liurnia into civil war, avoiding further problems to Leyndell.
Regarding the run back to Rennala, I'm interested if there's anyone who actually takes the path you showed. The broken bridge is so much easier to walk through instead of those godforsaken stairs. If anyone does use it kudos to you
Why is it easier? Both ways you just run there, going past everything. Both are equally as easy
@@thesaltypearl7163 you can clear the ball rolling pumpkin head and carian knight pvp encounter and guarantee that you don't waste estus. Whereas the left side path runs by 5 mages with homing spells every time.
@@lPuffalo yeah, confusing shortcut indeed. The same goes for the one from Malenia to the top of Elphael, which is never used since there's a grace nearby, although I guess the grace is later addition, since the walk back would be agonizing considering Malenia's difficulty.
@@thesaltypearl7163 I struggled with mages and their projectiles, always got hit and wasted estus. Until I discovered how not to get hit by the rolling ball and that ended up being the route I take
@@Zezadas15 Yee. God bless whoever at launch put the messages down on the right side of bridge marking the safe spots.
I find it kind of fascinating that cuckoo birds are a symbol of Raya Lucaria because they are notorious for laying their egg in another bird's nest. when that bird hatches, it gets rid of all of the other eggs or babies. with Rennala being the head of Raya Lucaria, and her theme is based around being a mother looking for her lost children, it's kind of fitting honestly.
Yo Vaati! Big fan of your content, especially with Bloodborne! It's amazing to see even more secrets in elden ring, like wow! Still playing the game and still discovering more secrets, i love it! Hope to see more content for elden ring if there's anything from the game awards!
I'm about 90% sure that miquella will be in the big dlc for elden ring. All content regarding miquella was cut save for items and his being kidnapped by mohg from the halig tree. With the ominous ending with the egg, I'm sure we'll see more. It'd be an extremely unsatisfying if nothing comes of it, but perhaps he simply lies dead on the throne/altar the lord of blood left him.
Sure enough you are right. Pretty much confirmed the DLC is going to involve Miquella.
hear hear 🎉🎉🎉
@@NivraNabru i was on the fuckin ball last year goddamn...
I can think of a good reason as to why they didn't use that animation for this fingers, its to make them remain more mysterious.
The slamming conveys emotion, and would allow people to somewhat anthropomorphize them. Having them move less when 'communicating' makes them even more alien and mysterious.
Watching Vaati run back to Renalla realizing he never went the ball way and stopped the ball from rolling
You have to go the ball way the first time to unlock the shortcut, so he definetly saw it
number 14 is just mind-blowing, how they implement the level design with the lore.
I always had a theory that perhaps Radagon might be the part of Marika still loyal to the deity. Where Marika rebels the still loyal Radagon tries to fix it. Might be why she is strung up and trapped but when turning to Radagon her binding crack and then he fights you.
In my first playthrough I was incredibly confused when I heard pidea's deathalogue on my way to seluvis. Im pretty sure it actually came from him
It's absolutely hilarious that you would bring up Kenneth Height and his disdane for Godrick, because last night while cooping someone cosplaying as Kenneth showed up and guided us through the castle to Godrick. I guess he wanted us to get rid of him!
The cheer amount of fine details from dialogue and descriptions to environment and texutures in this game is astounding. So much thought has to be invested into this masterpiece. This is THE GOTY.
18:34 if you manage to kill the sorcerers summoning the boulder, there's a far easier runback you can use. Jump from the right side to the bridge after exiting the debate parlor. Just thought I'd point that out!
It's kind of insane that we're still uncovering new secrets nearly 9 months after the game's release.
Edit: kinda cute how every reply is just people berating me because apparently this is a common thing with all the fromsoft games. Ok. That's nice.
You must be new to soulsborne
@@RustyShackleford_ imagine his reaction with the witcher 3...
Maaan, i shure this is not the even middle of path of Elden Ring lore analysis
And after dlc(s) release we'll get another hundreds of lore pieces in our face
@@kachucho872 Or breath of the wild.
Buddy. We didnt finish DS1 yet. Theres LOTS more to uncover in Elden Ring.
Like. Rennala is dead the whole time!
I've always chuckled at the environmental storytelling at the colosseum in the capital. There's one Duelist waiting by the front door like he's late for work and the doors are already shut. The other one walking down the hill right near it is like "Dammit Tim -- I told you that wasn't a shortcut portal. Wait here incase someone comes -- I'll go see if I can find the maintenance guy with a key. Oh look -- a Tarnished. Hey! Do you know how we... OH GOD!"
I haven’t seen anyone acknowledge that the Radagon’s Cross Hatch rune also makes up the back of the Raia Lucaria gate seals.
Actually a TH-camr named Quelagg does extremely deep dives about the mythology and stuff in ER and she talks about how the Hatch Rune comes up in quite a lot of stuff. I highly recommend her videos.
"Marika's Mischief", Radagon cursed with the red hair of the giants, the ability to change genders, the "shadows" that take the form of beasts. Is Marika/Radagon a reference to Loki?
I just put down my cat that had issues with his livers and your voice was so comforting. Thank you for making me feel like things can keep going forward.
I laughed a little bit when you said "I have a spreadsheet that... (Explains all)" Almost sounded like a Meme or a 90s comedy
"what about this on Elden Ring? - I HAVE A SPREADSHEET FOR THAT!!!"
I have a note book I keep for all the open world and rpgs I play where I list all the locations and items I’ve gotten so I known where things are and what I’ve already done. I was thinking of printing a map and marking it as well
Damn you were spot on with the colosseum update
As always your videos are a masterpiece, from secrets to lore. I am quite interested in the mystery revolving Marika's first-born, like why was Godwin (or godwyn) the gold chosen to be slain, why do we find his corpse in the area were the ancestral erdtree is ? We only hear tales about him much like Gwyn's first born, who also befriended the dragons.
And that's the beauty of FromSoft games. It's just never fail to make anyone thirsting for the lore.
this is absolutely great these lore videos their gold. i'm stuck in a bobcat doing snow removal for long periods at a time i usually listen to podcasts but that gets old just started listening to all these lore videos they are great! they make you think i'm on new game + 6 and still have no idea what the game is all about lol. thnx vaati! these are fun theories and really make a person think.
Vaati at 7:35: we have all these high res images of every item in the game, of course. Don't they look amazing
also Vaati: doesn't give any links or mentions as to where these images actually are
lol i came to the comments looking for a link too
Yeah he references a lot of stuff with no links in the description. Kinda sucks we gotta find it ourselves.
So many hours of playtime and this is the first time i am hearing of this pidia character
Mind-blown😳
C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy is a great listen on audiobook. Geoffrey Howard does a great read, and this trilogy is, in my opinion, some of Lewis' best work. The three books are:
Out of the Silent Planet
Perelandra
That Hideous Strength
Hope you enjoy!
0:50 in my view, the reason why the fingers, or Goldmask don't move and yet the finger readers or Corhyn are seemingly able to decipher their meaning is either supposed to make us question the reality of belief in the Golden Order, the Two Fingers and make us think they're all just grasping at straws
or it's meant to make the player realise we may not be able to see what they see, just like some Tarnished can't see the Guidance of Grace but we can, maybe Enya and Corhyn can sense things we cannot.
I've been listening to these videos to start my work days over the last week or two and they are so detailed and excellent. Thank you Vaati!!!
If you look at the helm of the gladiators, you will notice that the central snake has a face on its belly, just like the God devouring serpent/Rykard
The best warriors make the finest meals after all
The stake of Marika detail is in plenty of places in the game. Such as the Crumbling Farum Azula not having any with also requiring you to run a bit further to reach boss arenas.
It's safe to say that you won't see a stake anywhere that she's not worshipped. So if you're annoyed with the run, it's probably because people there resent Marika or just have no admiration.
Something to pay attention to here are zones where graces are near boss arenas instead of a stake.
I think Kenneth Height is going to play a part in the dlc, since he has to make us a knight. And he says it will be glorious so I am looking forward to that, maybe we will have to protect some demi humans or something crazy.
maybe it'll finally stop people killing him for the seed lol
I just talked to him in a new play through and holy shit, I had no idea he had a keep, idk how but I totally had no idea anything about him existed
@@finnmacdiarmid3250 He's also important to the end of Nepheli Loux's questline.
Magician by Raymond E. Feist started my love for fantasy as a kid, and i routinely re-read the series every few years. if you've never given it a look - jump straight in. the Audiobook narration is fantastic.
I've finished this game 3 times now and this video is the first time I hear about Pidia, had no idea that NPC exists. Makes me wonder what else I've missed...
I’m curious about the REALLY big skulls/skeletons in Caelid. Any lore theory there? Great vid, as always. 👍
Those could be ancient, dragons maybe
The lack of Statues of Marika in Raya Lucaria always bugged me. Putting 2 and 2 together here blew my mind! Such a deep set of lore....
None of the legacy dungeons have stakes... It's because of gameplay purposes
@Gavin McPhie two things can be true simultaneously.
@@gavinmcphie6936 there's a stake of Marika right outside where you fight Sir Gideon
@@paultapping9510 there's plenty of stakes in locations where Marika wouldn't have any influence. It's absolutely primarily a gameplay thing
Iirc, Marika’s forces had a very hard time in defeating the Carian Knights, which makes it a genius move on Marika’s part to simply turn herself into Radagon and make Rennala fall in love with her. She neutralized the threat of Raya Lucaria, begat more demigods, and left her so broken that her whole kingdom fell apart. All of that just clicked with me watching the “Marika the Trickster” segment.
Radagon led both wars against Raya Lucaria though.
I was just watching your whole series of these videos last night, so glad this one just came out!
A year late, but honestly? The fingers moving like that could've also been them trying to put out fires that might've been burning them as the hold burned
Applause for this guy for a great video 😁✨✨✨
The Mimic Veil and the Marika Radagon connection certainly backs the theory by Kosmos that Radagon is an advanced mimic tear.
No it doesn't because Marika IS radagon so that would mean Marika has to be a mimic tear and there's no way that she is
@@peenyyt4921 you're being a bit too literal in this case, because Marika even says "you are not yet me" to Radagon. A mimic tear is you in every way apart from not exactly matching your will, and that fits Radagon.
I've had that theory too. Theres a ton of evidence for it. So much so that its less "is this the case" and more "how long will it take to find something that explicitly states it" in my mind. Its just too much hinting at it for it to be a cooncidence.
1. When/where did Marika say that? I’m a lore fanatic and that’s news to me. 2. The mimic tears were stated to be an attempt by the ancient cities to create a lord, so Radagon being a tear would make sense, but also… Please no.
The fingers are so weird. Have we ever found a reason as to why they’re fingers? Why are they wounded? Why do they turn into wood when they die?
Like you said, shrooms...resemblance between the fingers and Deadman's Fingers mushrooms is uncanny.
Not to mention they are parasitic too, which is revelant to the story if the Erdtree paratisized the older tree that predated it, cool find 😉
@@AscendantStoic Honestly. I’ve been searching for a non-mushroom explanation and can’t find it. Hopefully DLC expands on them more
the sheer depth of knowledge in this game (and the others) is mind-blowing. That paired with the gorgeous detailing of the world and characters themselves makes this my favorite out of everything I've looked at.
Hi Vaati, amazing video as always
As Sophie pointed out on the Sinclaire Lore channel, the idea that Radagon and Marika were ALWAYS the same person creates issues in the timeline of events. We know that at some point they absolutely became one, but I think the evidence points to that happening after Godfrey leaves the lands between. Radagon would of been likely merged with her after that, as Marika, who probably was frustrated by how difficult it was to control Godfrey, chose Radagon because he was loyal to the Erdtree and the Holy Order to a fault, and thus, easy to control by Marika.
I would go as far to speculate that the merge of Ragadon and Marika is a perfected version of "grafting".
Also, one of Marika's lines Melina can tell you is "O Radagon, leal hound of the Golden Order. Thou'rt yet to become me." Which seems to me to heavily show that Marika and Radagon are two who became one, not one who split in two.
The greatest clue we have its the imprishioned zamor hero in the Evergaol in the weeping peninsula, he drops radagon soreseal
Also, what issues it creates? Maybe we see it diferently, my view its that they are aspects of the same god, they could divide and rejoin at will, not just shapeshifting
@@Necrotaku999 my problem with assuming they are originally one is both Melina telling you of Marika's words on them becoming one, not returning to being one, and the fact that the two are clearly at odds with each other, at least in regards to their actions that led to the Shattering.
Also, Marika is calling the Tarnished back to become her next consort, while Radagon plays a part in sealing the Erdtree, what seems to be his Great Rune can be seen in the impenetrable thorns.
@@joshuaarnett762 again all that is not conflicting if you use the 2 aspects of the same god logic
I agree as Marika was with Godfrey in the Capital the same time as Radagon waged war against Liurnia
Cuckoo - a bird that pushes other birds' eggs out of their nest and introduces their own. It's called a "brood parasite"
I think it's interesting that the Cuckoo imagery is associated with Raya Lucaria, who have had an "egg" of sorts delivered by Radagon on his leaving the marriage
I like this, there is elegance in the simplicity of it and why haven't I heard that before?
I think the fingers’ clapping animation was cut because they might have accidentally led to a “red herring”. If they were left in, players would try to find a “secret code” or some way to “interpret” the movement, when it may just be meaningless. It’s much easier to just have the old crone translate for us.
I'm really late to the party, so I doubt Vaati will see this, but actually no Legacy Dungeons have Stakes of Marika in them. Miyazaki said pre-launch that they wouldn't appear in Legacy Dungeons because those were intended to bring back the feeling of playing through a traditional Dark Souls level, where you only ever respawn at a bonfire equivalent. I don't doubt that Marika was persona non-grata in Liurnia after Radagon left (perhaps even earlier) but the lack of Stakes of Marika in the school has relatively little to do with it.
Dude, that stake of Marika piece of lore for Raya Lucaria is just.... such good story telling by From Software. There's levels to this game that still blow my mind a year later
Can’t wait for DLC!
In all my six playthroughs of this game, I had never even come across the NPC known as Pidia.
I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE HOW MUCH MORE THIS CHANNEL WILL FLOURISH WHEN DLC COMES OUT
Another piece of evidence supporting Loretta as an albinauric is that the face of her helmet is pretty similar to the pattern on the Albinauric shield, loosely depicting the same primordial dewdrop.
17:52 There's no Stake of Marika in Stormveil or the Haligtree, either. The only Stake of Marika in a legacy dungeon is the one outside the Erdtree Sanctuary.
I'm not sure if Audible will have this series, but The Chronicles of Amber series by Roger Zelazny is an interesting read, specifically the first five books.
It begins with a man with amnesia trying to find out about who he is after a near-fatal car accident, and ends up becoming one of the most interesting takes on the Fantasy genre I've ever read.
Merlin arc is also great, not just Corvin's.
@@jcoludar Never said it wasn't, I just found it lacked the direction that the first 5 books had, but the whole series is indeed great.
@@EverTM Fair! I'd still rank both below "Lord of Light" but one can rarely go wrong with Zelazny. Shame his works were never made into movies or games.
me listening to this video in a colosseum match. "hmmm... interesting"