I wonder if Godwyn was the only child that Marika gave birth to before being cursed, and that is why his death drove her to the brink. He IS the Golden Child. The perfect child of a god. She was no longer able to produce a child unmarked by the Omen Curse, leaving him to be the only one she would ever have untainted. And they killed him.
Last Protagonist has a video about that. In the original Japanese, the word that is otherwise used for the beings known as the Omens is not used in the Hornsent Grandam's dialogue. In any case, Commander Gaius knew Radahn, which indicates that Messmer's crusade took place at the very least AFTER the Second Liurnian War, meaning Morgott had probably been born before Messmer set the land ablaze.
@Nemo12417 this is correct. On the other hands this means Marika ascended to godhood way before the purge, which raises many questions: how could she climb the tower in Enir-Ilim and get to divine portal? How come there are no evidences of Messmer outside of the shadowland? He must have been around a lot. In consacrated snowfields there's a swords graveyard with a note about the war against the giants marking the bedinning of the Golden Order. How does this connect with the timeline described in SoTE?
@@marcopaparusso3808 - Marika probably used trickery to access the Gate of Divinity. - Given Messmer's deformity, it's possible that like Gwyndolin from Dark Souls, he was hidden from the public. - That I don't know.
Or maybe Godwyns deformity was just easier to hide. The crucible is a mixture of all animals including flys, birds, and horned creatures, Godwyns body is fishlike where his legs should be. Maybe he’s like naymor and aquaman
Nah i think Godwyn being like a nightmare merman is cuz of that Shaman blood hes got. They can meld with anything. And if his body was left at the foot of the tree next to sea life, i believe that explains it.
Another explanation would be that Godwin was born before the curse was set on Marika meaning that he wouldn’t be cursed, but any subsequent children that she had would be cursed a.k.a. Morgot and mohg yes that would mean that Messmer was born before the two omen twins, but we never get a confirmation on his father. In my opinion the strumpet line could be referring to Marika cheating on Godfrey with Radagon (or herself) during this time. (This would also explain why Rennalas children are not cursed)
There’s something weird going on with the Golden Lineage and why Godrick is reffered as a “runt” even with his demigod status. Also the Banished Knights, Nepheli’s questline, and Kenneth Height all seem to be hinting something about his illegitimacy. I’ve noticed that when you first meet Nepheli she’s standing over one of the banished knights, commenting about their “choice of master”. It brings up questions because the rulers of Stormveil would inevitably be Godfrey’s Golden Lineage after their conquest, but if the seat of the Golden Lineage must also be Stormveil and Godrick is confirmed to be the blood of Godfrey, how could he not be the heir to Stormveil? Kenneth calls Godrick a “usurper “ and constantly raves on about finding a “true and stalwart Lord of the **proper lineage** to take the reins of Limgrave.” There has to be a specific reason he chooses Nepheli and my working theory but is because Nepheli is one of last descendants of the stormhawk clan that built Stormveil, reinforced by her dialogue of “reminds me of my first hawk”of which lineage is the rightful by which Haight supports her claim to rule Stormveil. It’s very curious that Nepheli also doesn’t help us anywhere else except Godrick and Godfrey - not against any other demigod, or Morgott, or the Fire Giant or even Gideon himself. Why would she appear specifically to kill Hoarah Loux and recognise you as Elden Lord over someone with her surname and, in all honesty, rightful Elden Lord? She seems to be put purposely against Godfreys Golden Lineage which makes me think Godfrey might’ve been the cause of the terrible massacre she described witnessing as a child whilst he was still untamed by Serosh described in the Giant Crusher, “man turned against man”. She gives us the Arsenal Charm which could mean her true ascendant might be the lone revenger of Castle Morne who rode out to fight Godfrey which was likely the Storm Lord after the transition of power between him and Godfrey. The identity of who that is still up in the air but I will say that in all of the Banished Knight armor variations there is ornamentation of dragons most notably on the helm and decorations of thorns on the plate, particularly the gauntlets. These two are both associated with Godwyn judging from him founding the dragon cult and the description of the Marred Leather Shield. Another connection is that the oldest remnants of the Stormveil/Stormclan culture manifest Golden Lightning, such as Commander Niall and the Art of War seen on the Stormhawk Axe used by Nepheli herself which was Godwyns trademark lightning judging from the Death Lightning description. It further connects Godwyn to the storm because the same golden lightning can also be seen in “the heart of the storm”. I think it could be for this reason that in the Duskborn ending, you can see a storm start to weather again because Godwyn has been resurrected kinda similar to how the Weeping Peninsula is always raining too. What currently makes the most sense to me is that Godwyn is the heir of Placidusax and his lightning(red to gold). He began the cult in Farum Azula which is why you find the Prayerbook with the oldest Incantations stating “never reached the Lands Between”.
@@clintonclay3158 I often wondered what Enia meant by “distant relation” but the fact that he possesses a demigod status also seems to implicate he’s directly from Marika which even Godfrey had according to Godricks Great Rune description
Or it's simple, they come from the same tribe, and she likes you more then godfrey as you helped her so much. That's why she might join us with at that fight.
If the curse theory really plays a part in the story, Godwyn could indeed been born earlier than the said curse given that Godfrey has been with Marika before she ascended to godhood, because That would mark her betrayal towards the hornsent thus came the Omen curse. If Godwyn is Godfrey’s son. Which also means that Radagon is already with Renalla even when the Hornsent is still around because Radahn seems to have met Messmer before. However if Godfrey became Elden lord / Marika’s husband only after Marika reach godhood through the sacrificial massacre of Hornsent then that would mean the golden lineage is younger than the Carian siblings . If we have taken the aforementioned possibility in which Godfrey knew Marika only after she is a God ,and that , the theory of the video is true in which the Omen curse only works when marika is with another men that is not herself. Because whenever she tries to have progeny with her other half Radagon they are always afflicted with a more special curse. Also not to forget that this Omen curse would come only after the crusade. That would then beg the question who then is Godwyn’s father? Or if marika is even his mother? Miquella has golden hair but he has his own butterfly signifying his curse like messmer, melina and malenia. Godwyn on the other hand, is said to be perfect. Given that formsoft did not intentionally leave out his butterfly that indicates his curse or that they were gone after his death, if they follow by this theory. This lead me to an idea. Unless… Godwyn is an offspring between marika and the Elden beast or the Greater will? It might negate any curse afflicted on her or that she has Godwyn with greater will right before her betrayal. Before she met Godfrey. Is that The ultimate seduction? The only scion of the golden bough?😮
My guess is that Godwyn takes more after Marika than Godfrey, just as Morgot and Mohg seem to take more after Godfrey despite the Omen curse. My guess there is that Godwyn, Messmer, and Melina were born before the Omen Curse was forced upon the Golden Lineage and thus unaffected by it, as were all the children of the Marika-Radagon Rebis, presumably because Marika-Radagon is technically not Marika anymore and therefore exempt from the curse. In addition, I have a pet theory that Mesmer and Melina were both born tainted by the Fell-God of Fire, with Mesmer being further corrupted by the Abyssal Serpent and Melina bearing some vestige of the Gloam-Eyed Queen. My logic is that those two are Marika's first children, either by Godfrey or by herself, and that Radagon was created explicitly to force the corruptive elements of those gods out of her. Thus, Godwyn was born by Marika and Godfrey as a perfect demigod child, the first of the 'Golden Lineage', only for Morgott and Mohg to be afflicted by the Omen Curse placed upon Marika by the Hornsent, thus compelling her to send Mesmer off on his crusade and stopping her from having anymore children with Godfrey. After Radagon presumably purged himself of all known corruption through his children by Rennala, he reunited with Marika and they Miquella and Malenia, which I presume to embody both Marika's childish innocence and weakness and Marika-Radagon's final vulnerability to the influence of the Outer Gods, hence why Miquella is born physically weak, youthful and uncorrupted while Malenia is born vulnerable to the corruption of the Outer God of Rot and with Radagon's red hair but is otherwise free of any and all taint and is a monstrously powerful fighter. That's my personal head-canon anyways. All this talk of Godwyn being afflicted by the Omen Curse in some more subtle way is logical, but I prefer the idea that Godwyn is Marika's one truly perfect and pure child, hence why his death is supposedly the trigger for her to cause The Shattering and the subsequent civil war among the demigods, and to begin calling Godfrey and the Tarnished back from The Long March.
Yeah, I kinda feel that Godwyn is from the dragon lineage. Jack the Mimic and Scum Mage Infa have some good videos on him too. Scum Mage shows how the Malformed Dragon Helm has a dragon icon that looks eerily more like Godwyns fishy form than it does a regular dragon, which is interesting. We also know all this stuff from the dlc about dragons appearing human. Jack has videos on how Godwyn is related to the sun realm which is highly connected to Farum and the Dragons. Kinda weird that it never explicitly says he is som of godfrey or even part of golden lineage. Says he is scion of the golden bough, this means young shoot off of a main branch in a golden tree. Scum Mage Infas latest video shows how there was most likely two trees, relating to sun and moon before the age of the erdtree and they were ruled by dragons (golden in nature). I believe it is possible that Godwyn is related to Godfrey but not necesarily as a child. We know Godfrey has all sorts of connections to Farum azula, overcoming the lord of Beasts, having an axe with the same patterns as the beastman cleaver, Serosh stuff in Farum in the form of statues and his Hammer. I've been digging where your theories have been going and that you reference Kitetales' vid (it is one I am feeling is true :p ) Lots of stuff about godwyn to still uncover like his giant faces in tLoS and Stormveil.
He’s the son of Bayle who was successful in becoming a Drake inside of the forge of the giants hence the huge crack who while under the seduction of Marika who then challenged Placidusax and harmed him greatly which in turn made him escape in time in Farum Azula which then left it open for Marika, Metyr (who I believed left the Dragonlord to fend for himself imho, knowing he will be obedient and will wait as long as it takes to hear something from the Greater Will) and Godfrey to exploit. I believe Bayle was the father to Godfrey.
It would have been nice to have seen what Godwyn looked like in his prime before death, im sure Marika favoured him as her golden handsome son. Especially after experiencing the fear of another earlier son, Messmer and the Serpent affliction he was born with, and forgetting about him as she moved on with her own Golden Age in The Lands Between. I can see why it could have driven her to the brink, over the edge, losing Godwyn first of her golden age children to death, like her Shaman people before him, the Eternal experiencing death and loss again, and then shattering The Elden Ring. When i first seen the Elden Ring dlc story trailer, my first thought when i saw Marika holding the golden strands overhead, i thought she looked like a very similar figure, to the one seen as Godwyn dead on the floor, in the base game story trailer when Ranni said he was the first to die. Both Marika and Godwyn had long blonde hair, and both of their appearances resembled each other, in both story trailers, im sure Marika must have beared Godwyn herself.
Godwin was born from the honeymoon, the other two after Godfrey conquered the world for maraka and before she got tired of having him around all the time.
Messmer is clearly the oldest and before the dlc we believed that Godwin was the oldest so it’s not that much of a stretch that this curse was made after Godwin was born, then marika finds out about it with the birth of the omen twins. Then knowing this information finds a way around it to eventually have the other twins
@@mushroomy9899 How doesn't that make sense though? you can't say something doesn't make sense and provide absolutely nothing to back yourself up. Also, we KNOW Marika had children BEFORE she completely betrayed the Hornsent and orchestrated their eradication via Messmer and Melina.
Excellent video my man, I haven’t seen anyone point out such details as these and it really does make sense. The idea of Marika having Godwyn on her own makes him even more unique and it would actually explain why was he born and seen as a perfect being
I've Always assumed Godwyn was an omen too, because of his mermaid tail. Like, omen are linked to the crucible, and the aspects of the primordial crucible are animal like features like wings (mohg), horns (Morgott), and so maybe fish tails. Think about it, we nevers actually saw Godwyn's legs, even in the begining cutscene, they're always hidden
Could be that Godwyn was a numen of shaman heritage that Marika found in her travels. This could explain why his soulless body managed to infect the erdtree with deathroot, as well as why Marika would have taken his death so hard despite him not being her child
I don't think the hair colour thing really matters as evidence to suggest that Godwyn isn't Godfrey's child, considering that Rykard is blond while his siblings have red hair I also think that Godwyn's victory over and taming of the dragons mirrors Godfrey's victory over and taming of the divine beast Serosh. If anything, it seems like Godwyn is just a son of Godfrey who wasn't born with a curse. A more civilized mirror of his father, one who died too soon. I suspect also that there isn't a strict distinction between an offshoot personhood counterpart, and a normatively begotten child. Especially when it comes to these gods
@@aramkaizer7903 I don't know how you made that out, honestly. I just looked it up on images and The whole painting just seems to be in one shade of brown.
@@tevenpowell8023 It wasn't me, I think it was either on Reddit or some other medium where someone took the image and raised the light level on it a bunch. And he's blond
I interpreted the granddamme's curse to be more upon Marika's people of the Erdtree (the children of her empire) rather than her direct offspring. My reasoning being that Omen don't seem to have existed at all in any prior culture, the Hornsent are never described as being plagued by these nightmares and the only text in the entire DLC that mentions the concept of Omen is that line about cursing Marika's children, and that curse appears to be the origin of the Omen. Meanwhile the entire Erdtree culture seems to be plagued by children born as Omen that don't seem to exist anywhere else and likely aren't all the direct offspring of Marika. And I'm pretty sure the vengeful spirits they're haunted by are the Hornsent slaughtered by Messmer 🤷 Edit: eh, the Marika being jarred theory relies mostly on the idea of her being a "jar-saint", which has been pretty thoroughly debunked as being an actual concept in the game at this point (the closest thing being the kindly jar people in jarburg)
Last Protagonist had a video about the Hornsent Grandam's dialogue. The word that the base game uses for the creatures known as Omen is not used in the Japanese version of her dialogue. Also, when the Hornsent Grandam uses the word "omen", she doesn't capitalize it as most uses of it in the base game do.
Godywn was the oldest pre-curse pre-Marika taking power kid. Prob still Godfrey and Marika’s kid. The old crone says he was to be a martyer and the first born is likely the first to die. So it’s possible the Golden Order (and the removal of the rune of death) was done by Marika to prevent his death. As someone who witnessed the genocide of her people, I imagine the thought of her own soon dying was too much.
As for my comment here on Godwyn, this is just my take: You say The Hornsent cursed Marika due to her betrayal, which I completely agree. So in reference to Godwyn, what if his fate to die in soul and become the Death Prince was a result of the Hornsent's curse? Godwyn is talked up as having been *him*. He was the only Demigod born without defect, he was powerful, beautiful, and perfect, called "The Golden", he out of all the Demigods was most likely to succeed Marika as ruler. He was equally as kind, being naturally charismatic while Miquella had to charm people. He was truly her favorite child. Godwyn may have been born perfect, only to suffer such a horrible fate, merely as a means of punishing Marika, to show her she can never escape her past. His purpose in the game is sadly nothing more, than to have been the first demigod to die. So if Godwyn is in fact a child of Marika alone, then the hornsent's curse would've surely affected him all the same, just not the exact same as it did her other children. Think about it, among nearly 10 children you birth, only 1 is born without defect, and is then killed, most likely as a result of nothing more than the ghost of your past. This theory also works whether you belive Godwyn is Marika's child alone, or if he is in fact the child of Marika and Godfrey. And if Godwyn *was* born from Marika alone it raises the question... Was he too, an Empyrean?
@@ChavaGrace-c5h Me personally, I still believe he is the son of Godfrey and Marika. But I won't rule out the idea that he is Marika's child alone, because then that would make him an Empyrean, and to a degree also explain why he was so powerful, both in life and in death- As The Golden, he defeated the Ancient Dragons As The Death Prince, he is affecting the entire world, even places beyond time
@@thewhitespectre Oh I agree with you. I just assumed he was just as cursed as her other children. His fate was to die and become the total opposite of what he was in life imo.
@@ChavaGrace-c5h I wouldn't say he was just as cursed as her other children, because Godwyn's fate to a degree was preventable. Had someone known about The Night Of The Black Knives and stopped them from killing Godwyn, then he would likely still be alive and thriving. The rest of the demigods however, sadly never stood a chance. Morgott and Mohg were born omens, no way to prevent or fix that Messmer was born with the abyssal serpent, no way to prevent or fix that. Miquella and Malenia were respectively born cursed with scarlet rot and eternal youth, so far no way to prevent those, but just maybe fix them if Miquella succeeded his goals. Godwyn? All he had to do was not die, and he very well could've been saved. Had Ranni opted to kill any other demigod, or if the plot was altogether stopped, problem solved.
I often wonder if Melina and Messmer are children of Marika and the Flame God of the Fire Giants. So tied to fire, supposed to be Older than Radahn, explains the red hair ... It lines up with Marika's conquest of the Mountaintops.
Really cool to hear an alternate lore theory. I think sometimes the interpretationd put forth by Smough, Vaati are treated as gospel when they arent. Cant say I agree with the conclusions you come to but i agree there is more evidence for them than i would have expected
Very cool video, love ones like these that question what we really know about the world and the characters, something i would of never come up with on my own
Popped up in my recommendations and I instaclicked because of the title and thumbnail screaming "family drama!" big letters XD Jokes aside, personally I never believed Godwyn to be Godfrey's son. And especially after the DLC and what hornsent Grandam says, plus the thing with Godwyn being the Golden Child, the perfect offspring of a God, he must have been born before Marika was cursed. All in all, I have no such mental strength to go through all descriptions and piece things together so I highly appreciate such videos like yours :) Food for thought.
Ehhh… i dunno about this… You’re pretty much basing this whole theory on what Hornsent Grandam said, when, i feel like you misinterpreted it. She said the omen curse will strike you down in form of the sacred beasts ire. Honestly, i think that’s just referring to the devine beast dancing lion killing us, the tarnished, Marikas kin. Godwyn is almost certainly Godfrey’s son, there’s just too much behind it, the naming convention is probably the most notable one.
First...the grandma doesnt say that She said this: "A-Ah! Who art thou, stranger…? …by the look of thee, another of Messmer's peons, methinks. Tell me, dost thy kind never weary grow? How do these old bones fascinate thee yet? Our lands were by thy kind set aflame, our tower by thy kind veiled in shadow. Thou cam'st, robbing us of all, spoiling all. Have ye not basked in these deeds long enough? Listen, progeny of the wanton strumpet. For thy sins thou shalt have thy recompense - the sacred beast shall unleash its ire. Till then, with this old hag do what thou wilt, for all the good it'll do thee in the end!" Never says "omen"
I see your point. Title may be awfully bold lol, but i do believe what i say. I didnt want to get too far into it in this video, but my last video has a very fleshed out theory on the origin of the greater part of marikas children. And THAT is my biggest point…really. That if her children are what i believe they are, Godwyns parentage is simpler. But an alternative need be mentioned, and it is at the end of the video. But you are certainly correct in that there isnt mountains of evidence to support this claim. Although i do believe the evidence, albeit small, is valid.
I personally see the Golden Lineage as 3 parts of both Marika and Godfrey. Godfrey and Marika are connected to Morgott who signifies a humble and Regal demeanor They are connected to Mohg with a harsh, Brash and cruel nature as well And Godwyn as heroic and mysterious in their own right.
Unfortunately, Godwyn is the demigod we know the least about. But I do believe he is Godfrey and Marika's firstborn child. As for why he is not Omen/Crucible affiliated based on what we see of his human form, it's likely that Marika was more devoted to the Golden Order during her early rule (or at least pretended to be without having yet done anything that would upset her more traditional followers). I honestly suspect Marika had an affair with Radagon before the 1st Liurnian War, and again before the 2nd Liurnian war--resulting in the conception of Messmer and Melina (If we're all in agreement Radagon is their father). Because of the red hair, the hornsent likely picked up on Marika's misdeeds and it resulted in her next set of children with Godfrey to be touched by the Crucible. GRANTED the "Omen Curse" Grandam refers to could simply mean the Divine Beast's wrath quite plainly... The Omen Twins might have just been born the way they were because of some other reason. But I do think the birth order of the kids is as follows: Godwyn (M+G) -> Messmer (M+Ra) -> Melina (M+Ra) -> Morgott and Mohg (M+G) -> Radahn, Rykard and Ranni (Ra+Re. Order of birth never suggested) -> Malenia and Miquella (M+Ra).
A lot of people miss the line about ALL demigods being offspring of Marika, and the golden lineage being used for Marika or Godfrey without distinction, I have a theory that I've never seen anyone bring up. I think Godfrey might be Marika's first child. That's why the hornsent insults her about marrying Godfrey. The Golden lineage is all direct offspring of Marika. Marika created the GOLDEN order.
My latest interesting thought. The origin of the twin dragon lords. Perhaps Placidusax is a created lord through means of a jarring ritual containing ancient dragons. The jar can be found in Caelid and was later turned into a warrior jar with the bodies in the arena just behind. Bayle perhaps was created to spite the dragonlord and the ruling reign of the ancient culture. Forged in the crucible at the mountaintops of the Giants with aspects of the crucible and an ancientdragon heaet and gravel stones. Just a thought
I agree that Godwyn is likely not a child of Godfrey, but I think that by the time that Marika's invasion of the shadow lands occurs, morgott and mohg should already have been born. There's plenty of characters referencing connections to the Cathar family being involved with Mesmer's massacre, such as Rellana being Renalla's sister, or Commander Gaius being allies with radahn. This indicates that Radagon and Renalla have already had kids, and at least Radahn has reached military aid, which is long after the birth of Morgott and Mohg, who would definitely be older than Radahn by then. So it seems like their Omen curse occurred long before Mesmer's invasion, and thus I don't think Granny Hornsent could have been the one to curse the omen twins. I think it's most likely that they were omen simply from being born of Godfrey, one who's affiliated with the crucible, which is what makes me think that Godwyn must have been born some other way. I do also think the secret to his birth is a big reason why Ranni specifically chose him for the target of the night of the black knives . . . well that, or it's because of a super convoluted miquella theory I have where miquella made a fake miquella from Godwyn's corpse to trick Mohg into using to open the path to the shadowlands, but that's besides the point.
I think of Melinas hair as red, but dusted with ash. Also all these twins everywhere. Many assume Melina and Messmer are twins with the "younger sister" being a technicality. Then you got 3 Radagon babies and a lonely Godwyn in the mix. I'ts so tempting to pair them into more twins but beyond the cursemark being a twinned symbol of two pieces, theres no reasonable way pair them.
there are so many things that are still vague and unknown about the lore of elden ring, but the thing about this is the names, why the demigods name mostly the same starting letter, Radagon and Rennala bare Radahn Ranni Rykard, the thing is Morgott Mohg and Godwyn is M and G from Marika and Godfrey so Godwyn is Godfrey son possibilities is pretty high.
This makes a lot of sense! The fact that Miquella also divests parts of himself and one of these divestments results in the creation of a completely separate St. Trina lends a lot of credibility to the theory of Marika’s “children” actually being parts of herself. The question then becomes, is St. Trina so decrepit in the DLC because she was violently/carelessly divested by Miquella or are we to believe the same happened with Marika’s divestments but she instead chose to nurse and tend to them as if they were her children?
Timeline doesn't work. Marika's conquest of hornsent takes place at a very specific moment in time, after Godfrey is exiled and before Radagon is recalled from Raya Lucaria. Meaning Mogh and Morgott were already born, meaning Grandam curses Marika for something else. Most likely for ascending to Godhood using the gate.
Godwyn is a ancestor of Godefroy subsequently Godrick. If not him then who, Morgot, Mohg, some unnamed other child of golden lineage? Melina and Messmer were born to different father (probably Radagon) before Godfrey, but Godwyn could've been born in the window after Markia meet Godfrey but before The Omen curse, and maybe him turning into merman later in (un)life was the retroactive poetic fulfilment of the curse.
"The Golden Bough" mentioned by the finger-reader is the name of a book by James George Frazer It's subtitle is "A Study of Magic and Religion"; so there's a bit of a reference there There are other books such as Robert Graves' "The White Goddess" and Thomas Pynchon's "V." and "Gravity's Rainbow" (see: rainbow stones) that I think influenced Miyazaki, if you want to explore some synopses.
it's said that those the Dung Eater defiles are cursed, their souls are unable to reach the erdtree and so they're trapped as vengeful spirits. I wonder if the reason nightmares of vengeful spirits terrify the Omen so much is because that's what is fated to happen to them when they die? The Golden Order and Greater Will hate the Omen and won't allow them into their afterlife, so when the Omen die their souls just wander forever, and their nightmares are a reminder of this fate. It explains the Dung Eater's connection to the Omen
I also want to add that scion can mean descendent of an influential/noble family, _but_ it can also mean a section of a plant cut and grafted onto another, different plant. A scion of the golden bough = a piece cut from the golden bough and attached to something else. This could be read as Godwyn being detached from Marika's grace upon his soul's death and attached to a new type of system (living outside of death) beyond the boundaries of the Golden Order, or it could refer to him being the child of another father outside/before of the Golden Order, and yet grafted onto and adopted into this golden family -- "The dragon cult of the royal capital was compatible because the ancient dragons' lightning was imbued with gold."
Mequila's hair is golden too. And we are quite sure he is not Godfrey's son. But the naming methodology still towers over the hair colors. Did Miyazaki do this intentionally?
So was Miquella jarred too and that’s how he got St Trina? He was just also able to separate them like his mother? Or was Miquella two aspects of Marika she broke off into one being? Were they two separate beings Marika broke off and then joined together and then broke again? I get the theory but it’s puts a lot of question marks on Miquella and St Trina. Then again… she is called SAINT Trina?
Perhaps each of Maria's children are curses she obtained through defeating others in her conquest of the lands between that she then shot off, or perhaps Radigon himself is another of these off shoot curses from the giants.
Love this theory, I think it’s very plausible given the amount of information we are given in game. I also think the Cersei-Marika angle is a good one.
Sorry man but you had me til you mentioned the Jar Saint theory at the end. There is zero indication that the being shoved into the jar was ever supposed to make a god or be anything more than a punishment for heathens and heretics so I will never be able to take seriously an idea that Marika was "THE Jar Saint". And theres a much more rational reason for why marika's children wouldnt have to be traditionally born, that is brought up so many times in game, and it's the fact that the Shaman bloodline is essentially Tree People. The demigods prove this even more. Miquella was becoming a tree and even growing a new body in it, malenia bloomed flowers and her children come from those flowers, Godrick "grafts" which is a plant term for fusing two plants together, marika and radagon are "petrified" more like wood than stone, theres 2 shaman women turned into wood with branches growing from them, and there are womens bodies in the trees in Enir Elim. Many plants are able to self-fertilize and have male and female organs for reproduction, like Marika/Radagon, and Miquella/Trina. Therefore, why not just self-fertilize your children if your husband is just gonna give you children that look like your horned torturers?
Yessssss finally some vindication/affirmation! Been thinking this for awhile now, but nobody seemed to like my idea. I honestly thought he was Radagon's son, or someone Marika had an affair with. After all, why would his brothers both be Omen, but Godwyn not? Although there is a golden haired Lion Dancer mask in the same room as the Grandam, I don't know if that would have any connection to, well, anything. Godwyn being filled with the same maggots we see in the putrid corpse enemies, and the liquid seeping from his eyes appearing to be putrescence. So Godwyn is very probably linked to the corrupted dead that drift to the lands between in the stone coffins, slowly being sucked down into the great fissure Miquella discarded St. Trina down. Gold itself seems to pervade the lore, beyond the confines of the Golden Order. In other words, Gold has had a lasting impact on the Lands Between, beginning long before Marika ever sought Godhood. It clearly pervades the Hornsent, as we see in the upper reaches of their spiral tower, with golden trees with human forms appearing in their trunks. Interestingly there are dark-colored trees all over the base game that resemble one tree wrapped around another like the Scadutree, with a split in their bark that looks gold. They also grow pretty much exclusively where bodies are piled up or buried (albunauric village is a prime example of these trees, they're in the poison swamp and up in the village itself.) Then there's the gold of Grace, which seems like some kind of parasite or mind-control, spread through the brief period of Marika gifting the sap of the Erdtree to her people as a blessing. The old sigil of the Erdtree is identical to the small golden tree in the Shaman village. I realize that's all just a scattershot of schizo-posting, but I share these thoughts in the hopes that someone can make some sense of it, find some connections I can work with, because right now I know I'm missing some key piece of info to tie these things together. Everytime I think I'm onto a good theory, I realize it contradicts itself somewhere. What I am sure of is that certain aspects of the lore that get taken for granted as being "solved" or confirmed are not, the subject of this video being a prime example. I know George's writing well enough to have a decent feel for what kinds of twists this story has, but in typical Miyazaki fashion it's hard to nail down any of the specifics.
I had a similar theory that I didn't delve too deep into but it stemmed with Godwin's father being that of a dragon. As we see a statue of possibly marika in farum azula it could be thought that she was the fled god that abandoned him. Either she's very old or time doesn't work the same in farum azula. Beast men who are products of the greater will could link her shadow maliketh to faurm azula this her maybe. The grandam calling her a strumpet could be because of her relationships with the dragon lord, Godfrey(the one they probably chose for her) and radagon. Hair color it does seem important but the golden lineage having white hair seems possibly connected to the shaman as they also have white hair. I wonder if marika had white hair before claiming the power of gold.
Felt incomplete without acknowledging the hair. Im aware miquella is a blondie. However he would fall under the same scope of “offshoots” i refer to. Unlike renalla’s children, which i consider to be legitimate because of rennalla. And radagon. Radagon and Marika is sort of….just marika
@livingjarcletus yeah I get that and I appreciate it, but it's kind of a factoid that shouldn't be pointed at as "proof", a curious detail at most. Either all of Radagon's descendants have red hair or they don't. Either all of Godfrey's children have silver hair or they don't. Isn't it more likely that it's a simple genetic thing and some children/offshoots have the hair of either parent? or a diluted combination like blonde + red = rosegold / strawberry blonde, like in real life (and with Melina). I also had another bone to pick XD You later speak of other cursed omen. But you also speak of it like a curse placed by Omen Babushka on Marika's lineage specifically. Then, why would a curse upon Marika's children also affect the children of other people? And why not the children of all people? Or why not ALL the children of SOME people? Nobles and plebs alike had A FEW children with the omen curse, and other children didn't. For example, why MUST all of marika's children be cursed if not every noble children was cursed too and sent to the sewers?
@@livingjarcletus Rykard is also blonde as seen in his portrait and in the intro cutscene to the game, so the hair theory doesn’t quite fit. It did have me thinking on it though, until I remembered that detail
The Immaculate Conception of Godwyn the Golden. That would make Godwyn a Christ figure, and Marika a Mary figure. But whereas Mary accepts her sons sacrifice to save the world, Marika would sacrifice the world to protect her son. A false Madonna.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say something absolutely nuts. Godwyn is the child of Marika and Radagon, and Radagon Pre-dates Marika and likely melded Marika as the Crucible's inheritance as a Fell God. Godwyn basically looks like a perfectly blond Radagon and Radagon is specified in game of being of giants blood. What do we know about Giants? That's right, they predate humans. This ultimately means something even more insane: Messmer is Radagon and the Gloam Eyed Queen's son. And it's why Marika took out BOTH of his eyes and replaced one with an Iris of Grace, because Messmer had one Red storm eye like the Fire Giant and one Purple eye like Melina does too. Now this leaves left the reason why she even did this in the first place, i'm under the belief that the Hornsent were previously led by the Gloam Eyed Queen and this is who you see depicted all throughout Enir Ilim with the statue holding a child. Now onto my next insane take 💀 Melina is the daughter to the Gloam Eyed Queen and Marika, via fleshmelding of some sort as a seed into a tree. It explains why she has one Gloam Eye and one Gold Eye. This, would explain so much. The Betrayal, why Marika was even in good standings with the Hornsent at all instead of being stuffed into jars like all the other bloodflesh monstrosities with pretty female faces and long blonde hair. The Gloam Eyed Queen was in love with Marika... Even more so, Radagon was the Gloam Eyed Queen's Lord and the events of Marika's betrayal versus the Gloam Eyed Queen made him switch sides, probably unwillingly, hence why Marika treats him so non existant and calls him the Leelhound of the Golden Order. Now here's the kicker, Marika probably found out what the Gloam Eyed Queen's next step was for the gate of divinity and it probably wasn't good, i'm betting she was gonna sacrifice her firstborn AKA Messmer. Marika then steals Messmer and forces Radagon to work for her if she ever wants to see him again. (It would explain the virgin abductor and why rykard who made them was so obsessed with them) Now, ????? (I have no suggestions what actually happened in this war yet), Marika successfully overthrows and forces Maliketh to eat her (yes, I know almost factually this is what happened) causing his addiction to Deathroot (Marika is Rune of Life, Gloam Eyed Queen is literally the Rune of Death) and started spreading FROM Farum Azula. She then forces Radagon to become her lord, and makes it so that Radagon's body gets inhabited by the Fell God and melds with him to truly become a God. When she stepped through the gate of Divinity, she essentially Melded with the Crucible and it's why Miquella needed an Omen body for his Lord's Soul to do the same and it's why he previously chose Malenia because she could just make her bloom to a full possessed rot goddess to fulfil the Secret Rite Scroll The SECRET RITE SCROLL SPECIFIES THAT A LORDS SOUL WILL NEED A VESSEL SO THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE MIQUELLA DID HIS THING, THE LITERAL DIVINE GATEWAY ACTIVATION PROCESS SPECIFIES MIQUELLA DID NOT DO SOMETHING NEW. I have solved Marika and Radagon, this is it. Nobody can contradict a single thing i said. Now.... the only question remains. The Gloam Eyed Queen, Melina and THE RUNE OF DEATH IS UNBOUND! THE ECLIPSE IS STILL COMING AND THATS WHY MIQUELLA FAILED AT CASTLE SOL.
Perhaps it could be why Godwyn was Marika's most beloved, as all of her true children were each and all rejected due to the omen curse, killed and forever interred within the wandering Malsoleums. Maybe this DLC gave us more than we think as it gave us an answer to why the ghost outside the church of Pilgrimage said they are the rejected children of Marika And with how Ranni's plot went, this may explain why Marika grieved as much as she did, because the Black Knife assassins could have never secured the fragments of Destined Death with Maliketh guarding it, not without someone of her status to set him up to fail. So not only Godwyn was her only normal child without a curse, she was the one who allowed his death to happen. All to be part of her plan to topple the Golden Order
The idea that marika was put in a jar to become a god or something is based on a translation error. The word saint there refers to a good person not a divine being. Being put in a jar was meant to cleanse criminsls of their sins and make them into good people. They succeeded but the result wasn't a god marika but living jars like Alexander who are at their heart good people. Further I believe that godwyn was created not born. Marika's children were cursed so she turned to other methods. Methods of the numen, the nox, her people. Godwyn the golden is a golden tear. A mimic. A shapeshifter.
....holy SHIT my guy I think you tangentially cracked *why* Radagon married Rennala--to give Marika the opportunity to sire more non-Omen children 😮 I'm suddenly thinking that the Great Rune that was left with Rennala could have been a hint towards that answer. Another point in favor of Godfrey as definitely being the Omen Twins' father and Godwyn being such an outlier: Godfrey is *deeply* tied to the Crucible's primal, feral energies--the very same that cause the manifestation of horns and other bestial features to manifest in the Omen (and the Hornsent, AND the Misbegotten)--which makes him a prime connection point for the energies behind the curse to trace through. The DLC also makes it clear that the parentage sets or generations of Demigod children are *not* as distinct and seaparated by time as we may have initially thought. With Messmer and Melina seemingly being from the Radika pairing but also the first of Marika's children, and Messmer still being active in the Lands Between late enough to have been battle buddies with *Radahn*, things are clearly WAY messier than the base game made it seem. You 100% got me, man: either Godwyn was secretly afflicted and it was hidden, or he is NOT Godfrey's son.
IMO Marika at one point was betrothed to the son that the Hornsent Grandam mentions having. Betrothals in ancient/medieval times were serious business and breaking one could result in decades of enmity between powerful houses. I think she broke that betrothal for Godfrey, who had a lot more to offer towards her goals. I'm also really not a fan of the theory that Marika is the product of the Hornsent butchering Shamans and putting the pieces into jars, I think she was just a clever and powerful Shaman that outsmarted the ruling powers at the time. Basically, I resent the notion that the Hornsent's hideous butchery was successful even one time out of a million.
You onto something for sure, I agree with maybe 85% of this video outright, and feel like the remaining 15% is off or can't be known. Such is the way of FromSoft Lore I suppose.
This was my theory. Godwyn was of virgin birth. Marika was Mary and Godwyn analogous to Jesus. Godwyn was conceived through divine intervention (greater will). He was later killed (crucified) by his own people (Black knives = Numen = same people of Marika). Godwyn is the prince of death or a "dead" god while Jesus was known to be the "dead god" in some cultures and religion (He died and He has risen).
Ok so just my thoughts but hair color CAN indicate someone heritage but it clearly isn't an end all be all considering Miquella and Rykard. So I feel that isnt super strong evidence to suggest Godwyn ISNT Godfrey's son. With the omen curse I feel like it's just completely backwards maybe the vengeful spirits part makes sense but the omen curse causing Morgott and Mohg to be omens doesn't to me. If the hornsent see divinity in horns, why would the old hornsent then curse Marika to have what she and her people would view to be Divine like offspring? Like would it just be to make Marika feel the constant presence of the hornsent through her own children? I mean I suppose I could somewhat see that but if I was to curse someone's children Id rather they DIDNT come out looking super divine.. but besides that did the hornsent even use the term "Omen" to describe those with horns? I thought that was something the was coined in the lands between due to the context we learn that Marika despises them and pretty much got everyone else to shun them? I could be wrong and I'm not crazy knowledgeable just throwing my 2 cents in because I do enjoy lore stuffs. Correct me if Im wrong of course.
I started doubting Godwyn's parentage as soon as I realized his name doesn't fit the naming scheme. Mogh, Morgott, Messmer, Melina, Malenia, Miquella - Mothered by Marika, given M names Rykard, Radahn, Ranni - mothered by Rennala, given R names Godwyn - huh? Even if you argue that the R names from from Radagon, that doesn't explain why Godwyn would have a name that starts with G if he had the same parents as the Omen twins. It also doesn't explain why some children would be named after the letter in the father's name, but others would be named after the mother. I tend to think they're all named after the mother, given how important and revered mothers have been shown to be in this culture. In that case, is Godwyn the stolen baby that the game has been hinting about via abductor virgins and cuckoos? Who would mother G be?
That's actually a really good point! That seems more likely to me than the theory in this video. If he was abducted then they may have just named him after his new father at the time of taking where as all other children were named after their mother at birth. But that begs the question of how he became a demigod which all seem to be progeny of Marika?
@@Aleaf_Inwind because the other children that came from Godfrey and Marika were the Omen twins... so they didnt continue to name the children with the G for the Golden lineage as they were not wanted due to the omen curse
@@Aleaf_Inwind in some way, now that makes me think why was not Godwyn afflicted with the omen curse... i think maybe Godwyn was born still in the lands of shadow, before Marika betrayed the hornsent people, and thats why maybe he was celebrated as being from a Golden lineage, or Marika just wanted all of her children to be from the Golden lineage since Gold is very important to her order, but once the Omen twins were born she changed her mind, and deposited all her cards and efforts on Godwyn, thus when he died, she had nothing... and thus the shattering took place... he was mommas favourite son
Wait, if the hornscent’s beast is a lion then it explains why Merika seals her shadow beast and sent Godfrey away with Serosh. They could have been omens for the curse laid on her by the hornscent grandmother.
Now its a little easier for me to believe that he was his son between merika and godfrey. Her children were cursed.... she fought for a godhood that couldnt or wouldnt heal her cursed blood....... thus merika spilt by either her own will or the will of the elden beast to have children with someone else to have less cursed children........ to raise to godhood.....then merika feeling as if everything was slipping away from her because she could never love her children under the elden tree...... so she shattered it, hoping her children would force a change or destroy the tree......
I would mostly like to know what made merika feel like she had to create a child from within herself by herself or if the process is much darker....... when did radagon become or were they always a twin soul one body?
Since they are born like Athena and spawning from things what is godwyn is the connection to the Elden beast and that’s why godwyn is part eldritch beast
What I want to know is why do Godrick and Morgott turn into less beefy versions of themselves after you beat them? Seems like a glaring thing that hasn't been explored in any depth, so far as I know.
The problem with Elden Ring is that one tends to see the game as if hundreds of years have passed, when in reality eons have passed between one era and another; That is why Marika is known as the Eternal. Regarding Godwyn and the curse of the Omen, and why his hair is gold and not white it may be time. It may be that Godwyn was already born when the hornset cursed her. Or he can simply inherit the Queen's golden hair and that's why she considered him her favorite. Like an echo of its people.
Miyazaki likes leaving stuff like this up to interpretation. All we know is that Godwyn the Golden was a demigod and the first to fall, coinciding with the rune of death being stolen. What's not up for interpretation is the pronunciation of "Grandam." She's not a car.
I know in the past people give theories like this a lot of crap because there isn't a ton of evidence and they are definitely not very likely, but so much of the souls series is about giving off strong vibes, there is a lot of metaphor mixed with the literal. So while I don't agree that this reading is definitely 100% super true facts, it does however have immaculate vibes and is a perfectly acceptable personal reading or head canon. Its also important to know that even a lot of widely accepted theories are often head canon as well because these games very rarely give hard and unbiased answers in their text.
I don't know who his father is but I know (maybe just me) Godfrey isn't his father, it I had to take a guess, he was created by Marika, how and why don't know why, but the how maybe the jar saints might have the answer for that one
Just because Godwyn is called a demigod doesn't necessarily mean he's a child of Marika either since Godfrey was called a demigod aswell. It seems pure might may also grant one the title of demigod. He is called a scion of the golden bow though so perhaps a child of the royal line of the golden tree aka the Erdtree. Funny you made this video with that title while I've been looking into Godfrey more the last couple of days and had the same idea of him not being Godfrey's son.
Interresting theory,but i'm not sold on it. You said hair color have meaning,and it is true,but also naming conventions have meaning. Rennala+ Radagon = all children with the letter R. Marika + Radagon = names starting with M. Marika + Godfrey = Godwyn (and you can find a bit of it in Mohg and Morgott too,but it is not as obvious because they were cast away as not part of the Golden Lineage). Another thing is the Gandam's curse: The curse of the Omen shall strike thee down...In the form of the sacred beast's ire. His curse can be something intangible,it doesnt need to be a curse right from the start,but we can safely say that he is hella cursed in his current state. Maybe the curse was his unfortunate death ,the literall purest posterchild the Golden Order can imagine,loved by everyone,just to die a horrible death and spread his deathblight CURSE. His death hurt Marika way more than any other curse,so much that she shattered the Elden Ring because of it. His curse was that he has to die,no matter how much Marika tries to hide Destined Death,fate gonna catch up on him. How ironic is it that Marika tries to hide Destined Death so hard,just so his very own perfect child will become The Prince of Death itself? We also know that the first demigods were The Elden Lord Godfrey and his offspring, the golden lineage. So he is a firstborn,and Messmer's crusade started later on. So the Grandam's curse might not work retroactively (but the timeline is quite hard to understand properly)
That whole jar offshot makes 0 sense. If they were all born during the alleged jarring of marika, which is already suspect to begin with, then they would all have to be the same age, yet malenia and miquella was always described as born after radagon divorcing renalla. Besides we never met prime godwyn, all we got were a few lines of texts about how he is. I mean we dont even know what he looked like pre deathprincebomination. Only that he had golden hair and a normal looking eye.
They wouldnt have to be the same age. If its video game magic occuring in the first place im not sure why you draw the line at them coming about at different times…you should check out my last video. Genuinely, i think you may enjoy it. I strongly believe theres evidence for this but THIS video is not about that. My last one is though and i explain it much more thoroughly
@livingjarcletus eh? Like how they popped out but only arrived hundreds of years in the future....? I feel thats way too convinient even for fromsoft games lol.
i disagree. i like your video a lot, but there is one thing that has explained the particular line you see importance in with the Grandam, that led me to understanding how Godwyn could've been cursed
Giving birth to twin horned babies might be an experience. I mean, damn. It must hurts. That would be a good excuse to Marikas/Radagon/mastubation relationship.
Godfrey was a Highlander. He is one of them bear wrestlers. His moves are near identical to the red bear bosses. His white hair is most likely a link to his beast like divinity (the dancing lions white mane).
@@beniron5807 he definetly is connected to the red bear wrestling rituals those highlanders did but he has white hair simply because hes a regular old guy. morgott and godfrey because they arent really blessed with grace so they also regular old people
Doesn't really matter in tha context of tha video but I would call what Melina and Miquella are "emanations" of Marika/Radagon. If you look at old monotheistic writings they speak about God's emanations which are like 'pieces' of God that are distinct beings. I believe Marika's story is very much tha story of Yahweh (or more El, but I don't wanna get lost in tha weeds here lol)/Monotheism but personified.
I'd highly recommend watching a few videos on tha channel Esoterica about tha development of Yahweh and monotheism more generally and I promise you will start seeing connections almost immediately lol. Tha old world map from Babylon is just straight up in tha game designating tha Hornsent city as Babylon.
This video could’ve been two minutes, and you’re clearly coming at this with a ton of confirmation bias, I felt my time was wasted waiting for something clever to be brought up and it just wasn’t
I wonder if Godwyn was the only child that Marika gave birth to before being cursed, and that is why his death drove her to the brink. He IS the Golden Child. The perfect child of a god. She was no longer able to produce a child unmarked by the Omen Curse, leaving him to be the only one she would ever have untainted. And they killed him.
Last Protagonist has a video about that. In the original Japanese, the word that is otherwise used for the beings known as the Omens is not used in the Hornsent Grandam's dialogue. In any case, Commander Gaius knew Radahn, which indicates that Messmer's crusade took place at the very least AFTER the Second Liurnian War, meaning Morgott had probably been born before Messmer set the land ablaze.
@Nemo12417 this is correct. On the other hands this means Marika ascended to godhood way before the purge, which raises many questions:
how could she climb the tower in Enir-Ilim and get to divine portal?
How come there are no evidences of Messmer outside of the shadowland? He must have been around a lot.
In consacrated snowfields there's a swords graveyard with a note about the war against the giants marking the bedinning of the Golden Order. How does this connect with the timeline described in SoTE?
@@marcopaparusso3808
- Marika probably used trickery to access the Gate of Divinity.
- Given Messmer's deformity, it's possible that like Gwyndolin from Dark Souls, he was hidden from the public.
- That I don't know.
@@marcopaparusso3808 then it musy be Radagon doing this.
And perhaps he still failed. And that failure is why they veiled the land in shadow.
Or maybe Godwyns deformity was just easier to hide. The crucible is a mixture of all animals including flys, birds, and horned creatures, Godwyns body is fishlike where his legs should be. Maybe he’s like naymor and aquaman
Nah i think Godwyn being like a nightmare merman is cuz of that Shaman blood hes got. They can meld with anything. And if his body was left at the foot of the tree next to sea life, i believe that explains it.
Yes! But What Was He Hiding...Scales??? Fish Or Dragon?
@@copyninja8756 thats what im sayin
Another explanation would be that Godwin was born before the curse was set on Marika meaning that he wouldn’t be cursed, but any subsequent children that she had would be cursed a.k.a. Morgot and mohg yes that would mean that Messmer was born before the two omen twins, but we never get a confirmation on his father. In my opinion the strumpet line could be referring to Marika cheating on Godfrey with Radagon (or herself) during this time. (This would also explain why Rennalas children are not cursed)
There’s something weird going on with the Golden Lineage and why Godrick is reffered as a “runt” even with his demigod status. Also the Banished Knights, Nepheli’s questline, and Kenneth Height all seem to be hinting something about his illegitimacy. I’ve noticed that when you first meet Nepheli she’s standing over one of the banished knights, commenting about their “choice of master”. It brings up questions because the rulers of Stormveil would inevitably be Godfrey’s Golden Lineage after their conquest, but if the seat of the Golden Lineage must also be Stormveil and Godrick is confirmed to be the blood of Godfrey, how could he not be the heir to Stormveil? Kenneth calls Godrick a “usurper “ and constantly raves on about finding a “true and stalwart Lord of the **proper lineage** to take the reins of Limgrave.” There has to be a specific reason he chooses Nepheli and my working theory but is because Nepheli is one of last descendants of the stormhawk clan that built Stormveil, reinforced by her dialogue of “reminds me of my first hawk”of which lineage is the rightful by which Haight supports her claim to rule Stormveil. It’s very curious that Nepheli also doesn’t help us anywhere else except Godrick and Godfrey - not against any other demigod, or Morgott, or the Fire Giant or even Gideon himself. Why would she appear specifically to kill Hoarah Loux and recognise you as Elden Lord over someone with her surname and, in all honesty, rightful Elden Lord? She seems to be put purposely against Godfreys Golden Lineage which makes me think Godfrey might’ve been the cause of the terrible massacre she described witnessing as a child whilst he was still untamed by Serosh described in the Giant Crusher, “man turned against man”. She gives us the Arsenal Charm which could mean her true ascendant might be the lone revenger of Castle Morne who rode out to fight Godfrey which was likely the Storm Lord after the transition of power between him and Godfrey. The identity of who that is still up in the air but I will say that in all of the Banished Knight armor variations there is ornamentation of dragons most notably on the helm and decorations of thorns on the plate, particularly the gauntlets. These two are both associated with Godwyn judging from him founding the dragon cult and the description of the Marred Leather Shield. Another connection is that the oldest remnants of the Stormveil/Stormclan culture manifest Golden Lightning, such as Commander Niall and the Art of War seen on the Stormhawk Axe used by Nepheli herself which was Godwyns trademark lightning judging from the Death Lightning description. It further connects Godwyn to the storm because the same golden lightning can also be seen in “the heart of the storm”. I think it could be for this reason that in the Duskborn ending, you can see a storm start to weather again because Godwyn has been resurrected kinda similar to how the Weeping Peninsula is always raining too. What currently makes the most sense to me is that Godwyn is the heir of Placidusax and his lightning(red to gold). He began the cult in Farum Azula which is why you find the Prayerbook with the oldest Incantations stating “never reached the Lands Between”.
Have you consulted this with what everyone else has discovered? Particularly Hawkshaw?
@ How do you mean? I know about Hawkshaw but I have t seen him touch on these subjects too much unless I’ve missed something
Hes "the blood of godfrey" which means hes probably a great great great grandson through one of Godfreys children mixing with a non God.
@@clintonclay3158 I often wondered what Enia meant by “distant relation” but the fact that he possesses a demigod status also seems to implicate he’s directly from Marika which even Godfrey had according to Godricks Great Rune description
Or it's simple, they come from the same tribe, and she likes you more then godfrey as you helped her so much. That's why she might join us with at that fight.
If the curse theory really plays a part in the story, Godwyn could indeed been born earlier than the said curse given that Godfrey has been with Marika before she ascended to godhood, because That would mark her betrayal towards the hornsent thus came the Omen curse. If Godwyn is Godfrey’s son.
Which also means that Radagon is already with Renalla even when the Hornsent is still around because Radahn seems to have met Messmer before.
However if Godfrey became Elden lord / Marika’s husband only after Marika reach godhood through the sacrificial massacre of Hornsent then that would mean the golden lineage is younger than the Carian siblings .
If we have taken the aforementioned possibility in which Godfrey knew Marika only after she is a God ,and that , the theory of the video is true in which the Omen curse only works when marika is with another men that is not herself. Because whenever she tries to have progeny with her other half Radagon they are always afflicted with a more special curse. Also not to forget that this Omen curse would come only after the crusade.
That would then beg the question who then is Godwyn’s father? Or if marika is even his mother? Miquella has golden hair but he has his own butterfly signifying his curse like messmer, melina and malenia. Godwyn on the other hand, is said to be perfect. Given that formsoft did not intentionally leave out his butterfly that indicates his curse or that they were gone after his death, if they follow by this theory.
This lead me to an idea. Unless… Godwyn is an offspring between marika and the Elden beast or the Greater will? It might negate any curse afflicted on her or that she has Godwyn with greater will right before her betrayal. Before she met Godfrey. Is that The ultimate seduction? The only scion of the golden bough?😮
My guess is that Godwyn takes more after Marika than Godfrey, just as Morgot and Mohg seem to take more after Godfrey despite the Omen curse.
My guess there is that Godwyn, Messmer, and Melina were born before the Omen Curse was forced upon the Golden Lineage and thus unaffected by it, as were all the children of the Marika-Radagon Rebis, presumably because Marika-Radagon is technically not Marika anymore and therefore exempt from the curse.
In addition, I have a pet theory that Mesmer and Melina were both born tainted by the Fell-God of Fire, with Mesmer being further corrupted by the Abyssal Serpent and Melina bearing some vestige of the Gloam-Eyed Queen. My logic is that those two are Marika's first children, either by Godfrey or by herself, and that Radagon was created explicitly to force the corruptive elements of those gods out of her. Thus, Godwyn was born by Marika and Godfrey as a perfect demigod child, the first of the 'Golden Lineage', only for Morgott and Mohg to be afflicted by the Omen Curse placed upon Marika by the Hornsent, thus compelling her to send Mesmer off on his crusade and stopping her from having anymore children with Godfrey. After Radagon presumably purged himself of all known corruption through his children by Rennala, he reunited with Marika and they Miquella and Malenia, which I presume to embody both Marika's childish innocence and weakness and Marika-Radagon's final vulnerability to the influence of the Outer Gods, hence why Miquella is born physically weak, youthful and uncorrupted while Malenia is born vulnerable to the corruption of the Outer God of Rot and with Radagon's red hair but is otherwise free of any and all taint and is a monstrously powerful fighter.
That's my personal head-canon anyways. All this talk of Godwyn being afflicted by the Omen Curse in some more subtle way is logical, but I prefer the idea that Godwyn is Marika's one truly perfect and pure child, hence why his death is supposedly the trigger for her to cause The Shattering and the subsequent civil war among the demigods, and to begin calling Godfrey and the Tarnished back from The Long March.
Yeah, I kinda feel that Godwyn is from the dragon lineage.
Jack the Mimic and Scum Mage Infa have some good videos on him too. Scum Mage shows how the Malformed Dragon Helm has a dragon icon that looks eerily more like Godwyns fishy form than it does a regular dragon, which is interesting. We also know all this stuff from the dlc about dragons appearing human. Jack has videos on how Godwyn is related to the sun realm which is highly connected to Farum and the Dragons.
Kinda weird that it never explicitly says he is som of godfrey or even part of golden lineage. Says he is scion of the golden bough, this means young shoot off of a main branch in a golden tree.
Scum Mage Infas latest video shows how there was most likely two trees, relating to sun and moon before the age of the erdtree and they were ruled by dragons (golden in nature). I believe it is possible that Godwyn is related to Godfrey but not necesarily as a child.
We know Godfrey has all sorts of connections to Farum azula, overcoming the lord of Beasts, having an axe with the same patterns as the beastman cleaver, Serosh stuff in Farum in the form of statues and his Hammer.
I've been digging where your theories have been going and that you reference Kitetales' vid (it is one I am feeling is true :p )
Lots of stuff about godwyn to still uncover like his giant faces in tLoS and Stormveil.
He’s the son of Bayle who was successful in becoming a Drake inside of the forge of the giants hence the huge crack who while under the seduction of Marika who then challenged Placidusax and harmed him greatly which in turn made him escape in time in Farum Azula which then left it open for Marika, Metyr (who I believed left the Dragonlord to fend for himself imho, knowing he will be obedient and will wait as long as it takes to hear something from the Greater Will) and Godfrey to exploit.
I believe Bayle was the father to Godfrey.
It would have been nice to have seen what Godwyn looked like in his prime before death, im sure Marika favoured him as her golden handsome son. Especially after experiencing the fear of another earlier son, Messmer and the Serpent affliction he was born with, and forgetting about him as she moved on with her own Golden Age in The Lands Between. I can see why it could have driven her to the brink, over the edge, losing Godwyn first of her golden age children to death, like her Shaman people before him, the Eternal experiencing death and loss again, and then shattering The Elden Ring.
When i first seen the Elden Ring dlc story trailer, my first thought when i saw Marika holding the golden strands overhead, i thought she looked like a very similar figure, to the one seen as Godwyn dead on the floor, in the base game story trailer when Ranni said he was the first to die. Both Marika and Godwyn had long blonde hair, and both of their appearances resembled each other, in both story trailers, im sure Marika must have beared Godwyn herself.
We do actually get a decent look at him via trailers
Godwin was born from the honeymoon, the other two after Godfrey conquered the world for maraka and before she got tired of having him around all the time.
Maraka 🪇🪇
@@lukatosic09 Ay ay ay Marica!
What if godwyn was around way before the hornscent put the omen curse on morgoth and mogwhyn
that wouldn’t make any sense at all
Messmer is clearly the oldest and before the dlc we believed that Godwin was the oldest so it’s not that much of a stretch that this curse was made after Godwin was born, then marika finds out about it with the birth of the omen twins. Then knowing this information finds a way around it to eventually have the other twins
@@Dictator-China read my comment, i don’t even think the omen curse was placed on them
@@mushroomy9899 How doesn't that make sense though? you can't say something doesn't make sense and provide absolutely nothing to back yourself up. Also, we KNOW Marika had children BEFORE she completely betrayed the Hornsent and orchestrated their eradication via Messmer and Melina.
@@mushroomy9899 The Omen curse did get placed on the twins though. This is literally confirmed by their mere appearance, let alone the lore.
Excellent video my man, I haven’t seen anyone point out such details as these and it really does make sense. The idea of Marika having Godwyn on her own makes him even more unique and it would actually explain why was he born and seen as a perfect being
I've Always assumed Godwyn was an omen too, because of his mermaid tail. Like, omen are linked to the crucible, and the aspects of the primordial crucible are animal like features like wings (mohg), horns (Morgott), and so maybe fish tails. Think about it, we nevers actually saw Godwyn's legs, even in the begining cutscene, they're always hidden
No you’re right lmao. I’m glad I saw this I was in the middle of typing it.
Could be that Godwyn was a numen of shaman heritage that Marika found in her travels. This could explain why his soulless body managed to infect the erdtree with deathroot, as well as why Marika would have taken his death so hard despite him not being her child
I don't think the hair colour thing really matters as evidence to suggest that Godwyn isn't Godfrey's child, considering that Rykard is blond while his siblings have red hair
I also think that Godwyn's victory over and taming of the dragons mirrors Godfrey's victory over and taming of the divine beast Serosh. If anything, it seems like Godwyn is just a son of Godfrey who wasn't born with a curse. A more civilized mirror of his father, one who died too soon.
I suspect also that there isn't a strict distinction between an offshoot personhood counterpart, and a normatively begotten child. Especially when it comes to these gods
Isn’t there a portrait of Rykard in the Volcano Manor where he has red hair?
@@gudmundur-heimisson yea, that's bs
@@gudmundur-heimisson
No my icelandic friend, that painting of him shows him blond
@@aramkaizer7903 I don't know how you made that out, honestly.
I just looked it up on images and The whole painting just seems to be in one shade of brown.
@@tevenpowell8023
It wasn't me, I think it was either on Reddit or some other medium where someone took the image and raised the light level on it a bunch. And he's blond
The idea of Marika doing everything she can since the beginning to hide and avoid the curses of her children aligns with this idea so well. Subbed!
I interpreted the granddamme's curse to be more upon Marika's people of the Erdtree (the children of her empire) rather than her direct offspring. My reasoning being that Omen don't seem to have existed at all in any prior culture, the Hornsent are never described as being plagued by these nightmares and the only text in the entire DLC that mentions the concept of Omen is that line about cursing Marika's children, and that curse appears to be the origin of the Omen. Meanwhile the entire Erdtree culture seems to be plagued by children born as Omen that don't seem to exist anywhere else and likely aren't all the direct offspring of Marika. And I'm pretty sure the vengeful spirits they're haunted by are the Hornsent slaughtered by Messmer 🤷
Edit: eh, the Marika being jarred theory relies mostly on the idea of her being a "jar-saint", which has been pretty thoroughly debunked as being an actual concept in the game at this point (the closest thing being the kindly jar people in jarburg)
Last Protagonist had a video about the Hornsent Grandam's dialogue. The word that the base game uses for the creatures known as Omen is not used in the Japanese version of her dialogue. Also, when the Hornsent Grandam uses the word "omen", she doesn't capitalize it as most uses of it in the base game do.
One issue
Omens came about prior to the betrayal. We know this because there are omenkillers in the Land of Shadow.
Godywn was the oldest pre-curse pre-Marika taking power kid. Prob still Godfrey and Marika’s kid. The old crone says he was to be a martyer and the first born is likely the first to die. So it’s possible the Golden Order (and the removal of the rune of death) was done by Marika to prevent his death. As someone who witnessed the genocide of her people, I imagine the thought of her own soon dying was too much.
Godwyn's death blight looks like the omen bairn explosion thingy though
As for my comment here on Godwyn, this is just my take:
You say The Hornsent cursed Marika due to her betrayal, which I completely agree.
So in reference to Godwyn,
what if his fate to die in soul and become the Death Prince was a result of the Hornsent's curse?
Godwyn is talked up as having been *him*.
He was the only Demigod born without defect, he was powerful, beautiful, and perfect, called "The Golden", he out of all the Demigods was most likely to succeed Marika as ruler. He was equally as kind, being naturally charismatic while Miquella had to charm people. He was truly her favorite child.
Godwyn may have been born perfect, only to suffer such a horrible fate, merely as a means of punishing Marika, to show her she can never escape her past.
His purpose in the game is sadly nothing more, than to have been the first demigod to die.
So if Godwyn is in fact a child of Marika alone, then the hornsent's curse would've surely affected him all the same, just not the exact same as it did her other children.
Think about it, among nearly 10 children you birth, only 1 is born without defect, and is then killed, most likely as a result of nothing more than the ghost of your past.
This theory also works whether you belive Godwyn is Marika's child alone, or if he is in fact the child of Marika and Godfrey.
And if Godwyn *was* born from Marika alone it raises the question...
Was he too, an Empyrean?
Glad, I am not the only one to think this.
@@ChavaGrace-c5h
Me personally, I still believe he is the son of Godfrey and Marika.
But I won't rule out the idea that he is Marika's child alone, because then that would make him an Empyrean, and to a degree also explain why he was so powerful, both in life and in death-
As The Golden, he defeated the Ancient Dragons
As The Death Prince, he is affecting the entire world, even places beyond time
@@thewhitespectre Oh I agree with you. I just assumed he was just as cursed as her other children. His fate was to die and become the total opposite of what he was in life imo.
@@ChavaGrace-c5h
I wouldn't say he was just as cursed as her other children, because Godwyn's fate to a degree was preventable. Had someone known about The Night Of The Black Knives and stopped them from killing Godwyn, then he would likely still be alive and thriving.
The rest of the demigods however, sadly never stood a chance.
Morgott and Mohg were born omens, no way to prevent or fix that
Messmer was born with the abyssal serpent, no way to prevent or fix that.
Miquella and Malenia were respectively born cursed with scarlet rot and eternal youth, so far no way to prevent those, but just maybe fix them if Miquella succeeded his goals.
Godwyn? All he had to do was not die, and he very well could've been saved.
Had Ranni opted to kill any other demigod, or if the plot was altogether stopped, problem solved.
I often wonder if Melina and Messmer are children of Marika and the Flame God of the Fire Giants. So tied to fire, supposed to be Older than Radahn, explains the red hair ... It lines up with Marika's conquest of the Mountaintops.
This is the closest I've ever heard to my own tinfoil, and I appreciate you. Thank you!
Really cool to hear an alternate lore theory. I think sometimes the interpretationd put forth by Smough, Vaati are treated as gospel when they arent. Cant say I agree with the conclusions you come to but i agree there is more evidence for them than i would have expected
Very cool video, love ones like these that question what we really know about the world and the characters, something i would of never come up with on my own
Popped up in my recommendations and I instaclicked because of the title and thumbnail screaming "family drama!" big letters XD Jokes aside, personally I never believed Godwyn to be Godfrey's son. And especially after the DLC and what hornsent Grandam says, plus the thing with Godwyn being the Golden Child, the perfect offspring of a God, he must have been born before Marika was cursed. All in all, I have no such mental strength to go through all descriptions and piece things together so I highly appreciate such videos like yours :) Food for thought.
Ehhh… i dunno about this… You’re pretty much basing this whole theory on what Hornsent Grandam said, when, i feel like you misinterpreted it. She said the omen curse will strike you down in form of the sacred beasts ire. Honestly, i think that’s just referring to the devine beast dancing lion killing us, the tarnished, Marikas kin. Godwyn is almost certainly Godfrey’s son, there’s just too much behind it, the naming convention is probably the most notable one.
Godfrey isn’t really his name though right? It’s more so a title - I believe Hoarah Loux is his real name.
@@christopherlyndsay8611 so? as elden lord he is godfrey, as chieftain of the badlands he is hoarah loux, he had his kids when he was elden lord
First...the grandma doesnt say that
She said this:
"A-Ah! Who art thou, stranger…?
…by the look of thee, another of Messmer's peons, methinks.
Tell me, dost thy kind never weary grow? How do these old bones fascinate thee yet?
Our lands were by thy kind set aflame, our tower by thy kind veiled in shadow.
Thou cam'st, robbing us of all, spoiling all. Have ye not basked in these deeds long enough?
Listen, progeny of the wanton strumpet.
For thy sins thou shalt have thy recompense - the sacred beast shall unleash its ire.
Till then, with this old hag do what thou wilt, for all the good it'll do thee in the end!"
Never says "omen"
I see your point. Title may be awfully bold lol, but i do believe what i say. I didnt want to get too far into it in this video, but my last video has a very fleshed out theory on the origin of the greater part of marikas children. And THAT is my biggest point…really. That if her children are what i believe they are, Godwyns parentage is simpler. But an alternative need be mentioned, and it is at the end of the video. But you are certainly correct in that there isnt mountains of evidence to support this claim. Although i do believe the evidence, albeit small, is valid.
She does. You may have missed the dialogue, but she does
I personally see the Golden Lineage as 3 parts of both Marika and Godfrey.
Godfrey and Marika are connected to Morgott who signifies a humble and Regal demeanor
They are connected to Mohg with a harsh, Brash and cruel nature as well
And Godwyn as heroic and mysterious in their own right.
Radagodwyn
Unfortunately, Godwyn is the demigod we know the least about. But I do believe he is Godfrey and Marika's firstborn child. As for why he is not Omen/Crucible affiliated based on what we see of his human form, it's likely that Marika was more devoted to the Golden Order during her early rule (or at least pretended to be without having yet done anything that would upset her more traditional followers).
I honestly suspect Marika had an affair with Radagon before the 1st Liurnian War, and again before the 2nd Liurnian war--resulting in the conception of Messmer and Melina (If we're all in agreement Radagon is their father). Because of the red hair, the hornsent likely picked up on Marika's misdeeds and it resulted in her next set of children with Godfrey to be touched by the Crucible. GRANTED the "Omen Curse" Grandam refers to could simply mean the Divine Beast's wrath quite plainly... The Omen Twins might have just been born the way they were because of some other reason.
But I do think the birth order of the kids is as follows:
Godwyn (M+G) -> Messmer (M+Ra) -> Melina (M+Ra) -> Morgott and Mohg (M+G) -> Radahn, Rykard and Ranni (Ra+Re. Order of birth never suggested) -> Malenia and Miquella (M+Ra).
A lot of people miss the line about ALL demigods being offspring of Marika, and the golden lineage being used for Marika or Godfrey without distinction, I have a theory that I've never seen anyone bring up. I think Godfrey might be Marika's first child. That's why the hornsent insults her about marrying Godfrey. The Golden lineage is all direct offspring of Marika. Marika created the GOLDEN order.
Went into this thinking there’s no way you’re gonna change my mind and I stand corrected. I can see the theory
My latest interesting thought.
The origin of the twin dragon lords.
Perhaps Placidusax is a created lord through means of a jarring ritual containing ancient dragons. The jar can be found in Caelid and was later turned into a warrior jar with the bodies in the arena just behind.
Bayle perhaps was created to spite the dragonlord and the ruling reign of the ancient culture. Forged in the crucible at the mountaintops of the Giants with aspects of the crucible and an ancientdragon heaet and gravel stones.
Just a thought
That's a good one the mixed in flesh and hot stone that's why their is this magma theme with them and their hearts
We are of a same mind. Great theory
evidence? this doesn’t make any sense at all to me.
Dragonlord placi long predates the creation of the warrior jars entirely.
Wew lad that's hot fire. 🔥
I agree that Godwyn is likely not a child of Godfrey, but I think that by the time that Marika's invasion of the shadow lands occurs, morgott and mohg should already have been born. There's plenty of characters referencing connections to the Cathar family being involved with Mesmer's massacre, such as Rellana being Renalla's sister, or Commander Gaius being allies with radahn. This indicates that Radagon and Renalla have already had kids, and at least Radahn has reached military aid, which is long after the birth of Morgott and Mohg, who would definitely be older than Radahn by then. So it seems like their Omen curse occurred long before Mesmer's invasion, and thus I don't think Granny Hornsent could have been the one to curse the omen twins. I think it's most likely that they were omen simply from being born of Godfrey, one who's affiliated with the crucible, which is what makes me think that Godwyn must have been born some other way. I do also think the secret to his birth is a big reason why Ranni specifically chose him for the target of the night of the black knives . . . well that, or it's because of a super convoluted miquella theory I have where miquella made a fake miquella from Godwyn's corpse to trick Mohg into using to open the path to the shadowlands, but that's besides the point.
I think of Melinas hair as red, but dusted with ash.
Also all these twins everywhere. Many assume Melina and Messmer are twins with the "younger sister" being a technicality. Then you got 3 Radagon babies and a lonely Godwyn in the mix. I'ts so tempting to pair them into more twins but beyond the cursemark being a twinned symbol of two pieces, theres no reasonable way pair them.
there are so many things that are still vague and unknown about the lore of elden ring, but the thing about this is the names, why the demigods name mostly the same starting letter, Radagon and Rennala bare Radahn Ranni Rykard, the thing is Morgott Mohg and Godwyn is M and G from Marika and Godfrey so Godwyn is Godfrey son possibilities is pretty high.
This makes a lot of sense! The fact that Miquella also divests parts of himself and one of these divestments results in the creation of a completely separate St. Trina lends a lot of credibility to the theory of Marika’s “children” actually being parts of herself. The question then becomes, is St. Trina so decrepit in the DLC because she was violently/carelessly divested by Miquella or are we to believe the same happened with Marika’s divestments but she instead chose to nurse and tend to them as if they were her children?
Timeline doesn't work. Marika's conquest of hornsent takes place at a very specific moment in time, after Godfrey is exiled and before Radagon is recalled from Raya Lucaria. Meaning Mogh and Morgott were already born, meaning Grandam curses Marika for something else.
Most likely for ascending to Godhood using the gate.
Godwyn is a ancestor of Godefroy subsequently Godrick. If not him then who, Morgot, Mohg, some unnamed other child of golden lineage?
Melina and Messmer were born to different father (probably Radagon) before Godfrey, but Godwyn could've been born in the window after Markia meet Godfrey but before The Omen curse, and maybe him turning into merman later in (un)life was the retroactive poetic fulfilment of the curse.
"The Golden Bough" mentioned by the finger-reader is the name of a book by James George Frazer
It's subtitle is "A Study of Magic and Religion"; so there's a bit of a reference there
There are other books such as Robert Graves' "The White Goddess" and Thomas Pynchon's "V." and "Gravity's Rainbow" (see: rainbow stones) that I think influenced Miyazaki, if you want to explore some synopses.
it's said that those the Dung Eater defiles are cursed, their souls are unable to reach the erdtree and so they're trapped as vengeful spirits. I wonder if the reason nightmares of vengeful spirits terrify the Omen so much is because that's what is fated to happen to them when they die? The Golden Order and Greater Will hate the Omen and won't allow them into their afterlife, so when the Omen die their souls just wander forever, and their nightmares are a reminder of this fate. It explains the Dung Eater's connection to the Omen
I also want to add that scion can mean descendent of an influential/noble family, _but_ it can also mean a section of a plant cut and grafted onto another, different plant. A scion of the golden bough = a piece cut from the golden bough and attached to something else. This could be read as Godwyn being detached from Marika's grace upon his soul's death and attached to a new type of system (living outside of death) beyond the boundaries of the Golden Order, or it could refer to him being the child of another father outside/before of the Golden Order, and yet grafted onto and adopted into this golden family -- "The dragon cult of the royal capital was compatible because the ancient dragons' lightning was imbued with gold."
Mesmer was also born way before this curse was put on Marika. He was the leader of the Hornsent g3noc1de
Mequila's hair is golden too. And we are quite sure he is not Godfrey's son. But the naming methodology still towers over the hair colors. Did Miyazaki do this intentionally?
So was Miquella jarred too and that’s how he got St Trina? He was just also able to separate them like his mother? Or was Miquella two aspects of Marika she broke off into one being? Were they two separate beings Marika broke off and then joined together and then broke again? I get the theory but it’s puts a lot of question marks on Miquella and St Trina. Then again… she is called SAINT Trina?
Perhaps each of Maria's children are curses she obtained through defeating others in her conquest of the lands between that she then shot off, or perhaps Radigon himself is another of these off shoot curses from the giants.
What if radagon is the nox’s lord of night and slaying godwyn was to make sure he did not supplant marika.
Love this theory, I think it’s very plausible given the amount of information we are given in game. I also think the Cersei-Marika angle is a good one.
Sorry man but you had me til you mentioned the Jar Saint theory at the end. There is zero indication that the being shoved into the jar was ever supposed to make a god or be anything more than a punishment for heathens and heretics so I will never be able to take seriously an idea that Marika was "THE Jar Saint". And theres a much more rational reason for why marika's children wouldnt have to be traditionally born, that is brought up so many times in game, and it's the fact that the Shaman bloodline is essentially Tree People. The demigods prove this even more. Miquella was becoming a tree and even growing a new body in it, malenia bloomed flowers and her children come from those flowers, Godrick "grafts" which is a plant term for fusing two plants together, marika and radagon are "petrified" more like wood than stone, theres 2 shaman women turned into wood with branches growing from them, and there are womens bodies in the trees in Enir Elim. Many plants are able to self-fertilize and have male and female organs for reproduction, like Marika/Radagon, and Miquella/Trina. Therefore, why not just self-fertilize your children if your husband is just gonna give you children that look like your horned torturers?
Yessssss finally some vindication/affirmation! Been thinking this for awhile now, but nobody seemed to like my idea. I honestly thought he was Radagon's son, or someone Marika had an affair with.
After all, why would his brothers both be Omen, but Godwyn not? Although there is a golden haired Lion Dancer mask in the same room as the Grandam, I don't know if that would have any connection to, well, anything.
Godwyn being filled with the same maggots we see in the putrid corpse enemies, and the liquid seeping from his eyes appearing to be putrescence. So Godwyn is very probably linked to the corrupted dead that drift to the lands between in the stone coffins, slowly being sucked down into the great fissure Miquella discarded St. Trina down.
Gold itself seems to pervade the lore, beyond the confines of the Golden Order. In other words, Gold has had a lasting impact on the Lands Between, beginning long before Marika ever sought Godhood. It clearly pervades the Hornsent, as we see in the upper reaches of their spiral tower, with golden trees with human forms appearing in their trunks. Interestingly there are dark-colored trees all over the base game that resemble one tree wrapped around another like the Scadutree, with a split in their bark that looks gold. They also grow pretty much exclusively where bodies are piled up or buried (albunauric village is a prime example of these trees, they're in the poison swamp and up in the village itself.)
Then there's the gold of Grace, which seems like some kind of parasite or mind-control, spread through the brief period of Marika gifting the sap of the Erdtree to her people as a blessing. The old sigil of the Erdtree is identical to the small golden tree in the Shaman village.
I realize that's all just a scattershot of schizo-posting, but I share these thoughts in the hopes that someone can make some sense of it, find some connections I can work with, because right now I know I'm missing some key piece of info to tie these things together. Everytime I think I'm onto a good theory, I realize it contradicts itself somewhere.
What I am sure of is that certain aspects of the lore that get taken for granted as being "solved" or confirmed are not, the subject of this video being a prime example. I know George's writing well enough to have a decent feel for what kinds of twists this story has, but in typical Miyazaki fashion it's hard to nail down any of the specifics.
@@Coast2CoastFlyin My brother in arms!
I had a similar theory that I didn't delve too deep into but it stemmed with Godwin's father being that of a dragon. As we see a statue of possibly marika in farum azula it could be thought that she was the fled god that abandoned him. Either she's very old or time doesn't work the same in farum azula. Beast men who are products of the greater will could link her shadow maliketh to faurm azula this her maybe.
The grandam calling her a strumpet could be because of her relationships with the dragon lord, Godfrey(the one they probably chose for her) and radagon.
Hair color it does seem important but the golden lineage having white hair seems possibly connected to the shaman as they also have white hair. I wonder if marika had white hair before claiming the power of gold.
Not all children of radagon have red hair: sweet cheeks miquella is blonde.
So assuming godwyn is not a child of godfrey can't be supported by this.
Felt incomplete without acknowledging the hair. Im aware miquella is a blondie. However he would fall under the same scope of “offshoots” i refer to. Unlike renalla’s children, which i consider to be legitimate because of rennalla. And radagon. Radagon and Marika is sort of….just marika
@livingjarcletus yeah I get that and I appreciate it, but it's kind of a factoid that shouldn't be pointed at as "proof", a curious detail at most.
Either all of Radagon's descendants have red hair or they don't. Either all of Godfrey's children have silver hair or they don't. Isn't it more likely that it's a simple genetic thing and some children/offshoots have the hair of either parent? or a diluted combination like blonde + red = rosegold / strawberry blonde, like in real life (and with Melina).
I also had another bone to pick XD
You later speak of other cursed omen. But you also speak of it like a curse placed by Omen Babushka on Marika's lineage specifically. Then, why would a curse upon Marika's children also affect the children of other people? And why not the children of all people? Or why not ALL the children of SOME people?
Nobles and plebs alike had A FEW children with the omen curse, and other children didn't. For example, why MUST all of marika's children be cursed if not every noble children was cursed too and sent to the sewers?
@@livingjarcletus idk why but my response doesn't appear on my screen 😭
@@livingjarcletus Rykard is also blonde as seen in his portrait and in the intro cutscene to the game, so the hair theory doesn’t quite fit. It did have me thinking on it though, until I remembered that detail
The Immaculate Conception of Godwyn the Golden. That would make Godwyn a Christ figure, and Marika a Mary figure. But whereas Mary accepts her sons sacrifice to save the world, Marika would sacrifice the world to protect her son. A false Madonna.
I'm wondering, what if Messmer and Melina are the children of Radagon and the Gloam Eyed Queen?
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say something absolutely nuts.
Godwyn is the child of Marika and Radagon, and Radagon Pre-dates Marika and likely melded Marika as the Crucible's inheritance as a Fell God. Godwyn basically looks like a perfectly blond Radagon and Radagon is specified in game of being of giants blood. What do we know about Giants? That's right, they predate humans.
This ultimately means something even more insane:
Messmer is Radagon and the Gloam Eyed Queen's son. And it's why Marika took out BOTH of his eyes and replaced one with an Iris of Grace, because Messmer had one Red storm eye like the Fire Giant and one Purple eye like Melina does too.
Now this leaves left the reason why she even did this in the first place, i'm under the belief that the Hornsent were previously led by the Gloam Eyed Queen and this is who you see depicted all throughout Enir Ilim with the statue holding a child.
Now onto my next insane take 💀
Melina is the daughter to the Gloam Eyed Queen and Marika, via fleshmelding of some sort as a seed into a tree. It explains why she has one Gloam Eye and one Gold Eye.
This, would explain so much. The Betrayal, why Marika was even in good standings with the Hornsent at all instead of being stuffed into jars like all the other bloodflesh monstrosities with pretty female faces and long blonde hair.
The Gloam Eyed Queen was in love with Marika...
Even more so, Radagon was the Gloam Eyed Queen's Lord and the events of Marika's betrayal versus the Gloam Eyed Queen made him switch sides, probably unwillingly, hence why Marika treats him so non existant and calls him the Leelhound of the Golden Order.
Now here's the kicker, Marika probably found out what the Gloam Eyed Queen's next step was for the gate of divinity and it probably wasn't good, i'm betting she was gonna sacrifice her firstborn AKA Messmer.
Marika then steals Messmer and forces Radagon to work for her if she ever wants to see him again. (It would explain the virgin abductor and why rykard who made them was so obsessed with them)
Now, ????? (I have no suggestions what actually happened in this war yet), Marika successfully overthrows and forces Maliketh to eat her (yes, I know almost factually this is what happened) causing his addiction to Deathroot (Marika is Rune of Life, Gloam Eyed Queen is literally the Rune of Death) and started spreading FROM Farum Azula.
She then forces Radagon to become her lord, and makes it so that Radagon's body gets inhabited by the Fell God and melds with him to truly become a God.
When she stepped through the gate of Divinity, she essentially Melded with the Crucible and it's why Miquella needed an Omen body for his Lord's Soul to do the same and it's why he previously chose Malenia because she could just make her bloom to a full possessed rot goddess to fulfil the Secret Rite Scroll
The SECRET RITE SCROLL SPECIFIES THAT A LORDS SOUL WILL NEED A VESSEL SO THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE MIQUELLA DID HIS THING, THE LITERAL DIVINE GATEWAY ACTIVATION PROCESS SPECIFIES MIQUELLA DID NOT DO SOMETHING NEW.
I have solved Marika and Radagon, this is it. Nobody can contradict a single thing i said.
Now.... the only question remains. The Gloam Eyed Queen, Melina and THE RUNE OF DEATH IS UNBOUND! THE ECLIPSE IS STILL COMING AND THATS WHY MIQUELLA FAILED AT CASTLE SOL.
I love your insane take. We. Need. Answers
I opened this video expecting some crackhead theory, but instead got a pretty believable and actually possible one, color me positively surprised
Perhaps it could be why Godwyn was Marika's most beloved, as all of her true children were each and all rejected due to the omen curse, killed and forever interred within the wandering Malsoleums. Maybe this DLC gave us more than we think as it gave us an answer to why the ghost outside the church of Pilgrimage said they are the rejected children of Marika
And with how Ranni's plot went, this may explain why Marika grieved as much as she did, because the Black Knife assassins could have never secured the fragments of Destined Death with Maliketh guarding it, not without someone of her status to set him up to fail. So not only Godwyn was her only normal child without a curse, she was the one who allowed his death to happen. All to be part of her plan to topple the Golden Order
Ive been thinking the same thing as well, I think Marika had relations with a dragon
The idea that marika was put in a jar to become a god or something is based on a translation error.
The word saint there refers to a good person not a divine being. Being put in a jar was meant to cleanse criminsls of their sins and make them into good people. They succeeded but the result wasn't a god marika but living jars like Alexander who are at their heart good people.
Further I believe that godwyn was created not born. Marika's children were cursed so she turned to other methods.
Methods of the numen, the nox, her people.
Godwyn the golden is a golden tear. A mimic. A shapeshifter.
....holy SHIT my guy I think you tangentially cracked *why* Radagon married Rennala--to give Marika the opportunity to sire more non-Omen children 😮 I'm suddenly thinking that the Great Rune that was left with Rennala could have been a hint towards that answer.
Another point in favor of Godfrey as definitely being the Omen Twins' father and Godwyn being such an outlier: Godfrey is *deeply* tied to the Crucible's primal, feral energies--the very same that cause the manifestation of horns and other bestial features to manifest in the Omen (and the Hornsent, AND the Misbegotten)--which makes him a prime connection point for the energies behind the curse to trace through. The DLC also makes it clear that the parentage sets or generations of Demigod children are *not* as distinct and seaparated by time as we may have initially thought. With Messmer and Melina seemingly being from the Radika pairing but also the first of Marika's children, and Messmer still being active in the Lands Between late enough to have been battle buddies with *Radahn*, things are clearly WAY messier than the base game made it seem.
You 100% got me, man: either Godwyn was secretly afflicted and it was hidden, or he is NOT Godfrey's son.
IMO Marika at one point was betrothed to the son that the Hornsent Grandam mentions having. Betrothals in ancient/medieval times were serious business and breaking one could result in decades of enmity between powerful houses. I think she broke that betrothal for Godfrey, who had a lot more to offer towards her goals.
I'm also really not a fan of the theory that Marika is the product of the Hornsent butchering Shamans and putting the pieces into jars, I think she was just a clever and powerful Shaman that outsmarted the ruling powers at the time. Basically, I resent the notion that the Hornsent's hideous butchery was successful even one time out of a million.
You onto something for sure, I agree with maybe 85% of this video outright, and feel like the remaining 15% is off or can't be known.
Such is the way of FromSoft Lore I suppose.
Marika’s body count is insane atp
This was my theory. Godwyn was of virgin birth. Marika was Mary and Godwyn analogous to Jesus. Godwyn was conceived through divine intervention (greater will). He was later killed (crucified) by his own people (Black knives = Numen = same people of Marika). Godwyn is the prince of death or a "dead" god while Jesus was known to be the "dead god" in some cultures and religion (He died and He has risen).
Ok so just my thoughts but hair color CAN indicate someone heritage but it clearly isn't an end all be all considering Miquella and Rykard. So I feel that isnt super strong evidence to suggest Godwyn ISNT Godfrey's son. With the omen curse I feel like it's just completely backwards maybe the vengeful spirits part makes sense but the omen curse causing Morgott and Mohg to be omens doesn't to me. If the hornsent see divinity in horns, why would the old hornsent then curse Marika to have what she and her people would view to be Divine like offspring? Like would it just be to make Marika feel the constant presence of the hornsent through her own children? I mean I suppose I could somewhat see that but if I was to curse someone's children Id rather they DIDNT come out looking super divine.. but besides that did the hornsent even use the term "Omen" to describe those with horns? I thought that was something the was coined in the lands between due to the context we learn that Marika despises them and pretty much got everyone else to shun them? I could be wrong and I'm not crazy knowledgeable just throwing my 2 cents in because I do enjoy lore stuffs. Correct me if Im wrong of course.
I started doubting Godwyn's parentage as soon as I realized his name doesn't fit the naming scheme.
Mogh, Morgott, Messmer, Melina, Malenia, Miquella - Mothered by Marika, given M names
Rykard, Radahn, Ranni - mothered by Rennala, given R names
Godwyn - huh?
Even if you argue that the R names from from Radagon, that doesn't explain why Godwyn would have a name that starts with G if he had the same parents as the Omen twins. It also doesn't explain why some children would be named after the letter in the father's name, but others would be named after the mother. I tend to think they're all named after the mother, given how important and revered mothers have been shown to be in this culture. In that case, is Godwyn the stolen baby that the game has been hinting about via abductor virgins and cuckoos? Who would mother G be?
he has the G because of Godfrey and the G is for the Golden lineage
That's actually a really good point! That seems more likely to me than the theory in this video. If he was abducted then they may have just named him after his new father at the time of taking where as all other children were named after their mother at birth. But that begs the question of how he became a demigod which all seem to be progeny of Marika?
@@ReactRapTuga But why he is he the only child named as such when every single other child is named for their mother?
@@Aleaf_Inwind because the other children that came from Godfrey and Marika were the Omen twins... so they didnt continue to name the children with the G for the Golden lineage as they were not wanted due to the omen curse
@@Aleaf_Inwind in some way, now that makes me think why was not Godwyn afflicted with the omen curse... i think maybe Godwyn was born still in the lands of shadow, before Marika betrayed the hornsent people, and thats why maybe he was celebrated as being from a Golden lineage, or Marika just wanted all of her children to be from the Golden lineage since Gold is very important to her order, but once the Omen twins were born she changed her mind, and deposited all her cards and efforts on Godwyn, thus when he died, she had nothing... and thus the shattering took place... he was mommas favourite son
Wait, if the hornscent’s beast is a lion then it explains why Merika seals her shadow beast and sent Godfrey away with Serosh. They could have been omens for the curse laid on her by the hornscent grandmother.
Now its a little easier for me to believe that he was his son between merika and godfrey. Her children were cursed.... she fought for a godhood that couldnt or wouldnt heal her cursed blood....... thus merika spilt by either her own will or the will of the elden beast to have children with someone else to have less cursed children........ to raise to godhood.....then merika feeling as if everything was slipping away from her because she could never love her children under the elden tree...... so she shattered it, hoping her children would force a change or destroy the tree......
I would mostly like to know what made merika feel like she had to create a child from within herself by herself or if the process is much darker....... when did radagon become or were they always a twin soul one body?
Since they are born like Athena and spawning from things what is godwyn is the connection to the Elden beast and that’s why godwyn is part eldritch beast
What I want to know is why do Godrick and Morgott turn into less beefy versions of themselves after you beat them? Seems like a glaring thing that hasn't been explored in any depth, so far as I know.
Morgots horns disappear when you beat him for whatever reason and godrick loses all of his grafted parts I assume
The problem with Elden Ring is that one tends to see the game as if hundreds of years have passed, when in reality eons have passed between one era and another; That is why Marika is known as the Eternal. Regarding Godwyn and the curse of the Omen, and why his hair is gold and not white it may be time. It may be that Godwyn was already born when the hornset cursed her. Or he can simply inherit the Queen's golden hair and that's why she considered him her favorite. Like an echo of its people.
Just look at how they are all cursed and what the ire would be
Seems Marika passed down the curses or rather the outer gods through her children or offshoots.
Damn youre cookin
Based grandma.
I HAVE TO SHARE THIS, my friends were calling me crazy to think Godwyn wasn’t Godfrey/Marika son
I can’t thank you enough
Miyazaki likes leaving stuff like this up to interpretation. All we know is that Godwyn the Golden was a demigod and the first to fall, coinciding with the rune of death being stolen. What's not up for interpretation is the pronunciation of "Grandam." She's not a car.
That's just his American accent, he's not deliberately mispronouncing
@@kassjazzy It's an American/English surname.
Grandam is not a surname, it is a title that means Grandmother.
Also he basically pronounces it right, with just a little funky emphasis equalization.
@@swyjix The surname Grandam has a family crest and coat of arms. It is Anglo-Saxon in origin, originating from Lincolnshire.
I know in the past people give theories like this a lot of crap because there isn't a ton of evidence and they are definitely not very likely, but so much of the souls series is about giving off strong vibes, there is a lot of metaphor mixed with the literal. So while I don't agree that this reading is definitely 100% super true facts, it does however have immaculate vibes and is a perfectly acceptable personal reading or head canon. Its also important to know that even a lot of widely accepted theories are often head canon as well because these games very rarely give hard and unbiased answers in their text.
I feel theres too little info to doubt who Godwyns father was.
I'm actually wondering if he's even Marika's. He's the ONLY child not born cursed
I don't know who his father is but I know (maybe just me) Godfrey isn't his father, it I had to take a guess, he was created by Marika, how and why don't know why, but the how maybe the jar saints might have the answer for that one
elden beast is the godwyn biological father then
Godwyn just never fit in the puzzle just right to me. Definetly something unique about him.
Just because Godwyn is called a demigod doesn't necessarily mean he's a child of Marika either since Godfrey was called a demigod aswell. It seems pure might may also grant one the title of demigod. He is called a scion of the golden bow though so perhaps a child of the royal line of the golden tree aka the Erdtree.
Funny you made this video with that title while I've been looking into Godfrey more the last couple of days and had the same idea of him not being Godfrey's son.
So who's the father ? 😢
Interresting theory,but i'm not sold on it. You said hair color have meaning,and it is true,but also naming conventions have meaning. Rennala+ Radagon = all children with the letter R. Marika + Radagon = names starting with M. Marika + Godfrey = Godwyn (and you can find a bit of it in Mohg and Morgott too,but it is not as obvious because they were cast away as not part of the Golden Lineage).
Another thing is the Gandam's curse: The curse of the Omen shall strike thee down...In the form of the sacred beast's ire.
His curse can be something intangible,it doesnt need to be a curse right from the start,but we can safely say that he is hella cursed in his current state. Maybe the curse was his unfortunate death ,the literall purest posterchild the Golden Order can imagine,loved by everyone,just to die a horrible death and spread his deathblight CURSE. His death hurt Marika way more than any other curse,so much that she shattered the Elden Ring because of it. His curse was that he has to die,no matter how much Marika tries to hide Destined Death,fate gonna catch up on him. How ironic is it that Marika tries to hide Destined Death so hard,just so his very own perfect child will become The Prince of Death itself?
We also know that the first demigods were The Elden Lord Godfrey and his offspring, the golden lineage. So he is a firstborn,and Messmer's crusade started later on. So the Grandam's curse might not work retroactively (but the timeline is quite hard to understand properly)
That whole jar offshot makes 0 sense. If they were all born during the alleged jarring of marika, which is already suspect to begin with, then they would all have to be the same age, yet malenia and miquella was always described as born after radagon divorcing renalla.
Besides we never met prime godwyn, all we got were a few lines of texts about how he is. I mean we dont even know what he looked like pre deathprincebomination. Only that he had golden hair and a normal looking eye.
They wouldnt have to be the same age. If its video game magic occuring in the first place im not sure why you draw the line at them coming about at different times…you should check out my last video. Genuinely, i think you may enjoy it. I strongly believe theres evidence for this but THIS video is not about that. My last one is though and i explain it much more thoroughly
@livingjarcletus eh? Like how they popped out but only arrived hundreds of years in the future....? I feel thats way too convinient even for fromsoft games lol.
Godwyn is the child of Queen Marika and Patches. I have a source!
The source is that I made it the f up!
Bro the video was about Godwin you trailed off to everyone else except him
NUH UH
i disagree. i like your video a lot, but there is one thing that has explained the particular line you see importance in with the Grandam, that led me to understanding how Godwyn could've been cursed
So basically Mohg is bald
Utterly
Why everything you show in the video is blurred
Probably the video capture device i use to record. Im cheap dog
Giving birth to twin horned babies might be an experience.
I mean, damn. It must hurts.
That would be a good excuse to Marikas/Radagon/mastubation relationship.
Oh man, is that why you find healing spells on Marika’s bed? 😳
Dear god...@@darkmoon1892
not even a good headcanon, such need for attention, such desinterest in lore
So, incest. Godwyn is daddy to miquella and malenia. Because George RR Martin. Lol (but wait...)
The reason Godrick, Godfrey, and Morgott have white bright hair and not blonde hair is because they don’t have golden status.
Godfrey was a Highlander. He is one of them bear wrestlers. His moves are near identical to the red bear bosses. His white hair is most likely a link to his beast like divinity (the dancing lions white mane).
@@beniron5807 he definetly is connected to the red bear wrestling rituals those highlanders did but he has white hair simply because hes a regular old guy. morgott and godfrey because they arent really blessed with grace so they also regular old people
"Godfrey, i am leaving you for mineself
I was already sleeping with mineself"
"Excuse me wtf did thee do?"
Doesn't really matter in tha context of tha video but I would call what Melina and Miquella are "emanations" of Marika/Radagon. If you look at old monotheistic writings they speak about God's emanations which are like 'pieces' of God that are distinct beings. I believe Marika's story is very much tha story of Yahweh (or more El, but I don't wanna get lost in tha weeds here lol)/Monotheism but personified.
I'd highly recommend watching a few videos on tha channel Esoterica about tha development of Yahweh and monotheism more generally and I promise you will start seeing connections almost immediately lol. Tha old world map from Babylon is just straight up in tha game designating tha Hornsent city as Babylon.
Thanks for the comment and interesting information. I will certainly check it out
I like the concept but the evidence you gave dwindled off. Interesting video though.
No
This video could’ve been two minutes, and you’re clearly coming at this with a ton of confirmation bias, I felt my time was wasted waiting for something clever to be brought up and it just wasn’t