Zillie you should do a video on the breakdown of each ending and what that means for the lands in between. I’m still of the opinion that Fia’s ending is pretty crappy, not as bad as Chaos, but comparable to Dung Eaters, and it’d be great if someone like you could do a nice lore dump on all of the endings.
From the Gravel Stone Seal item description: " *Sacred seal made from Gravel Stone thought to be an ancient dragon scale. Enhances Dragon Cult incantations of the Royal Capital.* *The worship of the ancient dragons does not conflict with belief in the Erdtree. After all, this seal, and lightning itself, are both imbued with gold.* " So, it seems Ancient Dragons always had a link with gold, since this seal is made of a dragon scale. It wouldn't be too far fetched to think that Fortissax, being as important as he is, and as close as Godwyn the Golden, had more golden tones than others. Plassidussax too, possesses some golden/amber-like scales and other assets, (and also golden flames akin to the Elden Beast's) and given it's Elden Lord title, it would also be plausible for Plassidussax to have been fully golden at some point.
@@runningbeaner1 the endings are pretty self-explanitory and easy to read into, example being with basic endings such as Goldmasks ending "brings order" while Dung Eaters brings "plague/defilement", Chaos Flame ending ushers in control for the Frenzied Flame god while Ranni's ending blocks Greater Will's influence and allows everyone trapped by them/the Erdtree to finally move on from their unending torment
It’s interesting how Fortissax has been able to fend off the death blight for so long even if he’s failing. A single ancient dragon fighting off an unstoppable infection that has spread all over The Lands Between at its heart
@@gmanGman12007 Fortissax is one of dragons that attack Lyndell alongside Gransax. He was defeated ans spared his life by Godwyn. After that they became good friends. When Godwyn died, Fort tried to defend his friend from Death blight in his dream. But those death blight is eating him, still he remains side by side with his friend until he dies.
@@gmanGman12007 it's a bit much for anyone to catch you up with it in TH-cam replies, but hopefully it'll suffice to say this is a lore video on a particular boss fight in Elden Ring, and examines possible implications of the enemy, map, and other design elements on the world and on other game elements.
@@gmanGman12007 fortissax was beaten and spared by godwyn, they became companions, and when godwyns soul died, fortissax entered his dream to try and prevent the death blight from completely taking over. As you can see from the mutilated corpse of godwyn, it didn't work out so well.
After this disturbing revelation, I feel sorry for Fortissax now. He must have been a magnificent dragon in his prime, now suffering from death blight. What a pair he and Goldwyn must’ve been. Another excellent video Zullie.
The fact that he has fended off the deatblight at its core in spite of how it has seeped into almost every part of the Land Between is a testament to how powerful and loyal he is
Now that I think about it, it's interesting how most of the relevant dragons in Elden Ring are basically anti-villains, wrapped up in some sort of tragedy. Often doing something relatively upstanding, and paying for it. Fortissax is giving his all to help his friend, and has been trapped in a complete nightmare for it, slowly rotting away. Lansseax, having lost Vyke and being forced to watch all she helped build with the dragon cult fall apart, is still guarding the capital, and unknowingly picks a fight with the one person who has the power to fix things. Placidusax is seemingly trapped in time - Torn apart and a shell of his former lordly self, yet still dutifully waiting for his outer god's command. Agheel, the first "common" dragon you meet, is knowingly or unknowingly acting as a means of euthanasia/"proper burial" for the agonized wandering nobles in Limgrave. Ekzykes set out to avenge other dragons eaten by the communion practitioners, and his reward was to decay alive from scarlet rot. Borealis is seemingly the last of the ice dragons after they were ousted by the fire giants, and has likely lived in utter solitude for ages. Adula serves Ranni, and you seemingly only have to fight due to a misunderstanding (Or because From wanted a dragon boss in Ranni's questline but didn't have time to flesh out the lore around them in a way that makes sense, but I digress). Greyoll, legendary mother of all dragons, has been reduced to laying in place, wasting away, dependent on her last children for protection. The dragonkin soldiers were a failed design, seemingly through no fault of their own. The only lot they had in life is to lay malformed and discarded in the underground ruins of their home, like trash. Although they're now said to be cursed, even the named magma wyrms were all once great heroes. (I guess their situation is actually pretty ambiguous, since we don't 100% know what the deal is with dragon communion, how it came about, who advocated for/against it, how the supposed curse works, etc. The item descriptions are sometimes reverential of it, and at other times judgmental.)
@@revvv1221 It kind of makes sense that you would, given that the actual gameplay only ever portrays them as mindless beasts. The stories and individual motivations of the ones you meet - And the fact that they're intelligent beings who even had their own lord and civilization - are only brought up in item descriptions. It's even a bit weird how little the main story acknowledges them, now that I think about it. The ancient dragons interacted with many of the main characters and left massive marks on the world, and yet their presence is so rarely acknowledged by the NPCs. I wonder if it's intentional, as a way of making them seem more alien and inscrutable, or if it's just an artifact of how FromSoft revised the story as they were building the game.
@@revvv1221 The dragons once ruled over the Lands Between long before the Age of The Erdtree, long before Godfrey, became the “first” Elden Lord. The capital that once shone through the sky was a place to live of both Beasts and Dragons was called Farum Azula, Capital of Dragons. The Greater Will elected Dragonlord Placidusax, to become The Elden Lord to serve The Greater Will. But as time passed, The Greater Will abandoned the dragons, leaving Placidusax and his Capital crumbling in the sky, dimmed by time. And yet he is still there, await The Greater Will’s to call upon them once more. Some time later on. The era of The Erdtree begins. Death, sealed away into Maliketh, The age of Golden, and order, eternal. Godfrey became The Elden Lord, and Lyndell, Royal Capital was formed. More time passed, Gransax and dragons assaulted Lyndell, there was a retaliation lead by a Demi-god named Godwyn The Golden, but later ended up befriending with Ancient Golden Dragon Fortissax and his dragon sister, Lansseax, both creates alliance between human and the dragons, formed The Dragoncult within Lyndell, teaching knights many of lightning incantations (the holy golden lightning in-game was a modified version of Ancient Dragon red lightning.)
But there is never a happy ending in Fromsoft’s souls game. The Night of The Black Knives occurred, the fragment of Rune of Death, stolen, Godwyn..died, his soul twisted in Death and as a result, Death roots exist, Fortissax tried to prevent Death and to save Godwyn, but there is no hope. Fortissax was soon corrupted from inhaling the Deathblight, turned into Lichdragon, trapped in an endless nightmare of Death, inescapable, suffering for eternity. Lansseax fled, to watch everything they’ve started fall into ashes. She’s still guarding Lyndell, protecting what’s left of it, the fading memories. But then, one day, someone recalled ”Us” back. Guided by grace of gold. The Tarnished.
@@BackwardsPancake I don’t think that’s even to make them seem alien, I personally think that maliketh in Farum Azula and the statue of the child with the three wolves behind him is telling us Marika is connected to Farum prior to its destruction. She betrayed the dragons and stole the elden ring for herself imo, possibly even burning the great tree and creating the time of the crucible. I think the dragons are seldom mentioned because Marika wanted it that way.
Placidusax served the Greater Will, the God that fled was a God like Marika, I.E. a representative of the Greater Will. I really don't understand why this is so hard for people to understand
Interesting to note is that Maliketh's Black Blade looks like Fortissax's skin, black with hints of gold. And Placidusax's scales (the Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones) are said to be capable of creating godslaying weapons. So perhaps Maliketh created his weapon with ancient dragon scales, and it turned black because it houses the rune of death.
Learning little bits about the lore here and there, and seeing the remnants of it spread thoroughly around the open world, really makes my excited for DLC. And almost all my favorite franchises have let me down when it comes to DLC, so it takes a lot to get me excited.
The story of Fortissax was one of the saddest in the game to me. Knowing that he basically had to watch his best friend be twisted into a horrific abomination that was corrupting the entire world, and desperately doing whatever he could to stop it, however fruitless, just felt so utterly melancholy. Trademark From Soft storytelling.
From what I understand, Ranni did this to Godwyn, right? She turned him into this abomination? If so, that makes her suddenly way less of a good guy in my eyes, that's pretty damn evil to do to someone.
@@Borr77 She had to choose a kind-hearted hero to fuck over. Not the other siblings and step-siblings she had. Not the one that let a snake eat him, not the one that is currently rotting away. Oh wait, there are two of them who are rotting that are her siblings and step-siblings. She just had to choose Godwyn, whom everyone likes.
God, it felt so viscerally wrong to see the dream's skybox brought up into the overworld. Like a vision of what would happen were Godwyn's vile influence to spread through everything
I mean, in most endings we've done nothing to prevent this. Might've even spurred it on by killing Forty Snacks. Living-in-death Godwyn is easily the most threatening being in all the lands between, and we do almost nothing to keep his influence from expanding as time passes.
@@1umbreon4lifeno joke, the only hope of stopping this I see is using the proper rune of Destined Death on this living corpse, or at least the body killing part. He seems to be an uncurable disease on Elden Tree roots, and as long as it stands, the corruption will spread into every piece of the world Tree has access to.
@@1umbreon4life I don't like when games have things like this without some sort of resolution, or at least option for one, because it kind of makes your efforts feel a bit pointless. Or at least, diminishes the value of your success, because you know with absolute certainty that things are still gigafucked and you can't really do anything about it.
The gold underneath the dragons wings reminds me of various mollusk shells which have shiny colorful insides contrasting with the stone-like outside. Yet another connection to sea life
@@CodaBlair I'm pretty sure, since the Elden Beast is the Elden Ring and the Elden Ring colonized the lands between with life, that the life would be related to it. Just my guess though.
it's also a fun nod to the fact that back in the time of knights many would go out and crush mollusk shells and bring back the biggest pieces as "dragon scales" to show proof of mighty deeds.
Ever since I first beat Mohg, it felt like his arena is supposed to serve as the entrance to a DLC location. I really hope we get to enter Miquella's dream in some way.
I was certain you'd have to jump off that balcony behind Miquella like how you left the painted world in DS1, or like entering the rom fight in bloodborne
The dream is drop-dead gorgeous. I was a little disappointed we couldn't see more of Deeproot Depths in this new light, as it's already the most underused and unimpressive part of the underground in my opinion; having it be almost fully corrupted by Godwyn and Deathblight could have been super eerie and give impending implications.
I agree, it's creepy and gross looking, but the weird sense of intimidation it gives is great atmosphere. I'm hoping when we eventually get DLC that's almost certainly going to be related to Miquella, that the inside of his dream looks similar. I'd love to explore a world with this atmosphere.
It's really cool how much of Elden Ring has the same kind of eldritch horror as bloodborne if you care to look into it, that skybox is straight out of the hunters nightmare! It's neat to see the same ideas explored in a more "typical" fantasy setting where you wouldn't expect to see it
Elden ring takes inspiration from all the soulsborne games its like an amalgamation of idea and concepts mashed together. if you look for it you can see inspiration from demon souls darksouls 1,2 and 3 bloodborne and even sekiro.
It never ceases to amaze how detailed enemies are in these games especially the ones that are purposely in dark areas where its almost impossible to notice
It feels like fromsoft knows there will be people like Zulli. In one of Sekiro’s endings you see Owl walking up to you with a mortal blade after you defeat Isshin but he sets something down right next to Isshin. In free cam you get to see what exactly he is carrying.
@@ohshit635 I believe the plan was to include that in the cutscenes but they had to remove it due to gore elements, similar case with the baby ocelotte in ds3
Fortissax had one of if not the coolest looking fights in the game, everything felt like a movies climax it was so cool even though the boss was rather easy.
The guy died for me way to quick it took until I was vastly underleveled and with a friend to have a real fight against the guy even than it didn't last long.
Godwyn definitely is one of the most disturbing elements they've created out of all their games. It seemed so unfair and brutal how he was murdered, but the fact that his body continues on in such a horrific state is horror fuel. Our body is often considered the vessel of our souls, and part of me wonders if all this grotesque business with Godwyn's corpse comes from perhaps one of the developer's feelings of death. I thought about this when I saw the mounds of mulched up looking dead bodies in the underground tunnels with the ants. Each corpse rotting among the heap was a person; a newborn at one point that was loved and held, and had complex feelings, desires and ambitions. How awful it would be if one knew a person they loved so much in this world died in such a horrific way; their physical remains rotting and being feasted upon so indignantly by such disgusting creatures. No comfort of a proper burial or cremation. It's a tragedy all too real that Godwyn represents at least to me.
Honestly when you enter godwyn’s dream, it feels like the entire world is slowly rotting and creating something in its landscape. Since it makes sense Godwyn is spiritually dead so both the body and mind will continue to expand and to create without knowing why.🐱
@@AlriikRidesAgain Give him a break there are alot of new players that are interested in the lore but have no idea what's going on because it's so subtle
@@AlriikRidesAgain His soul died. I interpreted that to mean it passed on to the spirit world, like was normal before the Age of the Erdtree. Meaning Godwyn gets to chill out in whatever paradise he earned as a warrior, while his body stuck around to fuck shit up.
Every new thing I learn about Godwyn just makes me want to cry harder. I keep waiting to figure out he was secretly evil somehow, but no, it seems he was the one truly good soul in this world and he got what is perhaps one of the most upsetting deaths I've literally ever seen in fiction.
Reminded of story where i lived in iraq when USA started killen nuclear scientists they left one alive to scare others from becoming nuclear scientist by kidnapping him and inject him with such a fucked up chemicals that he became in bane and screaming everyday every min and going into the streets crying until he ko himself . Its such horrific story and i just said the tip . Because all his family got killed and only he lived 💔 .
Man, the more I keep finding out about the Deeproot Depths, the more I feel sorry for Godwyn and his companion, they really suffered a fate worse than death and worse off they were one of the few godly beings that don't deserve it
@@alfalldoot6715 Basically. Rogier is full of dookie. Everything he tells us is a lie to get us on Godwyn/Fias side. But nothing he tells us has any evidence. Theres no evidence Marika prefered Godwyn over any of her other children (in fact his lack of any monuments indicates he was DISLIKED by her)
Not gonna lie, these videos brighten my day way more than almost anything on youtube. I love the dedication to digging up anything and everything about what we know and even what we don't. the level of detail paired with the banging OSTs used just makes for serotonin in a video.
Gold is known for being 'uncorrputable' or 'permanent' because it can't tarnish. I suspect that's why Fortissax's flesh hasn't turned completely. It also shows how the player needs to dismantle anything gold for the natural order of death to return. Another small addition that connects this fight to the everpresent tree theme: some species of tree are known to collect gold at their roots or transport it into their leaves. Fortissax's fight against the rot of the Erd Tree taking place at the roots seems intentional. I wonder how much blight the dragon has held back? The death of Fortissax points to the theme above as well; by killing the gold dragon the blight can continue on it's natural course. I am no lore expert, though, so feel free to correct me.
This kinda makes me hope that Godwyn’s Story will act as both the final DLC and finale for Elden Ring. His corruption slowly corrupting the entire Lands Between would be a horrifying sight, and maybe Miquella could be the key to curing Godwyn’s plague.
It'd be pretty cool if the eclipse plan that was created by Miquella to save Godwyn was put into action in a future DLC and then you get a duo fight of the two or something like that. A gank demi-god fight may be a bit too much but it would certainly be a spectacle
The entire concept of a living body with no soul is terrifying to me. Can it still think? If it can, are its thoughts those of an intelligent yet sub-lucid being, or merely abstract and instinctual like that of an animal? It seems to possess no recollection or care for its previous life as Godwyn the Golden, no longer capable of doing anything but spread and corrupt its surroundings like a tumorous growth. Discovering Godwyn's current state was what ultimately turned me away from Ranni as a force for "good;" no matter how lofty her ambitions, how benevolent of a goddess can she be when she was capable of inflicting such an unimaginably cruel fate, and what's to stop her from such callous acts in the future?
It's probably more like a brain dead state, your body exists and is still "alive" but what makes you, "you" no longer exists. It's likely the Erdtree is trying and failing to recreate Godwyn due to his missing soul, essentially malforming him, like damaged DNA.
It also kinda turns me off about those who live in death and essentially the whole duskborn ending. If they are the same as godwyn, being infected by deathroot and having been shown to be nothing but mindless zombies really doesnt sell the whole moral dilemma of whether they should be considered ‘human’ like all the other races in the lands between
@@S_F_Brew Yeah, I agree. I feel like there should have been some sort of questline or maybe a friendly undead NPC to show us that Those Who Live In Death are sentient lifeforms capable of coexisting with humanity/the Tarnished, otherwise the whole "wE cAn'T PeRsEcUtE TheM, tHeY'Re JuSt LiKe uS!!!!" argument feels pretty nonsensical. I _guess_ Fia might technically be one of them since she uses the word "we" to refer to the undead when addressing the Roundtable Hold, but she could've just meant that they were kindred to her due to her loyalty to Godwyn. Hopefully the upcoming DLC will provide more context on the situation - Miquella is pretty closely tied to Godwyn, after all.
I really hope the dreams get used in DLC, it's such a cool and unique concept and I can only imagine the horrors fromsoft could make in a larger dream world...
Everyday I'm amazed at what FromSoftware has created, I like to forget the whole game and start again. I only felt like this after finishing 'Breaking Bad'. Simply put, 'Masterpiece'.
The Golden Flesh can be explained by physics. Gold is the metal with highest electroconductivity. As Ancient Dragons use lightning as weapon, it can help them to cast those lightning weapons.
Doubtful that's the reason - they're magic, it's better as metaphor. The Erdtree is also golden and infects things with its goldenness such as animals, plants, etc, like the rot, or frenzy. The outer powers are infesting the lands between, including the gold of marika's order. Even Glintstone seems to grow as a part of sorcerers.
Gold is not the best conductor of electricity. Silver is the best and copper is second best. Gold is third as far as we know. Gold is just more useful in certain applications.
The whole death and godwyn part of elden ring has always given me shivers somehow knowing he is there watching the entire time. I remember entering his arena not knowing what i was looking at when i was approaching him when i suddenly caught a glimpse of his eyes staring at me my mind went like"Nooooooo you do not go there "
I'm not sure he's even capable of consciously watching or staring at anything; he's just a cancerous half-living body with no soul in it now. I think the whole Deathblight curse was born from the absolute perversion of nature that is a "living" thing with no soul - in other words, hollow life that exists only to propagate itself by devouring everything it touches. Such an aberrant existence would be anathema to the world of Order and Grace, where the concept of life itself is predicated on the soul. Sorry for the tangent. I agree that he looks absolutely horrific. His cloudy eyes, deprived of blood and oxygen, bring up a lot of repressed trauma from my past; seeing corpses of loved ones and things of that nature. It's an uncomfortably realistic depiction of how morbid putrefaction can be.
Wow great video as always! The skybox reminded me of the Dungeater’s armor and the ending you get when you do his quest the sky looks a similar grotesque pattern.
If we do get a Godwyn fight, 90% his current form is superficial. Within, his perception of himself is probably much more warped than the reality of it. When we fight him, his consciousness will be up and running again, and a powerful being such as he would have a tough time not unconsciously warping his body to how it "should" be, within.
The first time I entered Godwyn's dream I thought "Oh, cool dragon", without considering _why_ I was suddenly battling this dragon in a random dream. But since Fortissax is the only one holding back the death blight at its source, I assume that it's actually Fia who manipulates you into killing him and letting death consume the Lands Between in the Age of Duskborn ending. But since you can kill Fortissax, get any ending, and the spread of death isn't mentioned again, does this mean that Ranni can destroy the Death Prince in Age of Stars, or the fully restored Erdtree can resist the infection in Age of Order?
I was thinking the same thing. It seems like we’re the villain in this case if we’re killing the last thing keeping the death blight at bay. Huge implications for all of the endings; perhaps the DLC will be a deathblighted Lands Between?
@@xZOOMARx actions that affect endings aren’t real unless we choose that ending. We are never told that fortissax is the only thing stopping the world from being consumed, but he was definitely in the way of Fia influencing the player to allow the world to be consumed.
You reset the anchor of the world's basis and reform it to an outer power. You must free the deathblight to get the ability to instate that ending to make it the new anchor. The outer powers themself can't take over even if they continue infecting the world, only Fated can do that. But Fia is one of the few with a fate so arguably her plan is getting the player to open the deathblight gate and do the reset herself if the player doesn't play along.
I figured the Ring being restored by any of the other endings would make the natural order strong enough to resist the implications of Deathblight, and Ranni probably has what she needs at her point in the ending to either permanently kill Godwyn or just ditch the Lands Between entirely
By far my favorite setting in Elden Ring, I've done playthroughs just to see it person again, the music, the boss design, that hellishly amazing skybox, all with Godwyn staring down at you with those lifeless eyes. I remember the first time doing that boss fight and just looking up as Fortissax jumped up and I paused to see Godwyn's inverted head looking right at me with that sky behind it and it struck me almost as hard as Fortissax did when he landed.
1:44 I don't understand why they didn't make the end game just like that, AFTER YOU choose Fia's ending. Or the whole sky burning with frenzied flame after choosing the frenzied flame ending and so on...enemies can inflict death blight or frenzy flame depending on what you picked.
God, imagine if you could play in the Age of Duskborn... Every enemy is permanently undead and refuses to die. Would be a nightmare. Frenzy Flame ending would be an eerie experience. Literally everything is dead, the world is empty and reduced to a barren wasteland.
The dream state reminds me of the Omen ending sky. Which seems fitting considering that while Godwyn is dead, he did not die a proper death. Which would perhaps also explain why the sky in the mended rune of death ending we don't have such a nightmarish sky? Either way it's wonderful to see Fortissax in some proper lighting. Love the work
At this point all these "revelations" almost feel like just a different way to play the game, if you get what I mean. The level of detail and information that you dont really appreciate during a normal playthrough is just amazing and truly deserves to be unearthed and shared. Great videos.
It really is a different way to play the game. Some would say that Elden Ring's huge world hurts it, but I'd just have to disagree. I've come back to this game countless times to venture under Caelid for Maliketh's dagger, or to visit Malenia's isolated divine tower, or to find the golem that fell deeper than its siblings, or just to see jellyfish sisters reunited. There's replayability hidden all over the place because of videos like these.
Yes. Proof that Godwyn was the one doing this. And look at that. Godwyn has a hero's grave. Awful hard to build a Masoleum when you're at war. What is the headless knights mission? To stave off Death. Who do they serve? Godwyn. Therefore who is preventing Godwyn's death? Godwyn is.
@@alfalldoot6715 corrupting the Erdtree. Creating Those Who Live In Death. He's not a victim. He is the victimizer. Rogier is the source of the info on Godwyn. But he gets his info from Fia. And Fia is actually Godwyns lieutenant. His right hand. His #2. She is also the Dragon Fortissax in Human form.
I always thought the unique skybox in the Fortissax fight was really something amazing, especially after Radahn's fight didn't change the sky at all. What an amazing boss
The one thing that I've never liked about Ranni was how she arranged for the murder of Godwyn, who was, by all accounts, a great person. That the murder effectively took Fortissax with him in particularly agonizing fashion just makes it worse.
By exactly 1 account. And its a person who never met Godwyn... Its pure BS. Rogier is literally corrupted by TWLiD. He is lying too you. This idea that Godwyn was this perfect being is SO STUPID. Where the hell did it come from? Not from anything in Elden Ring. Its just comments like this that spread a straight up fabricatoon.
Reminds me of a moon knight comic, Moon Knight (2014) Issue #4 "Sleep". A friend of a friend asks Moon Knight for his help. he studies abnormal sleep disorders, and his patients are becoming violent. They get trapped in a sleep state and when you finally manage to wake them up they are violent, and hysterical, all begging to go back to sleep. All accounts of the dream they manage to wrestle out of them seems to be describing the same dream among the dozen or so patients - which shouldn't be possible. Moon Knight arrives on the scene and goes to an unused damp part of the research clinic. He sleeps. He says he wants to face the enemy, to know him. He enters into the dream realm to confront whatever it is that's tormenting the patients. In this dream realm, it is full of mesmerizing, impossible landscapes, all with a recurring colourful mushroom motif. Very reminiscent of 60s psychedelica. He starts being tossed and thrown about this world, as it becomes hostile toward him. While he tries to get his footing, a lone ghost in patient robes begins to narrate his experiences. He asks, to nobody in particular if hes dead, or if hes dreaming that hes dead, and if he is dead, is he dead from dreaming? Mushrooms seem to spill out of empty eye sockets in his head. He is gaunt, and seemingly trapped, disorientated in this dream world. Moon knight wakes with a start and bee-lines straight to the scientist who brought him here. He grabs him by the back of his head and slams his face into the desk. The scientist protests, as Moon Knight drags him, insisting that whatever is affecting his patients is affecting him too and he needs to snap out of it. Moon Knight drags him into the unused closet, where he slept to enter the dream realm, and rips up the slightly damp floorboards. Out spills an enormous swarm of rats, to the scientist's horror. "Oh God no, how could you know?". The scientist, when beginning his research, was not receiving funds from the university, and so he solicited a homeless man to agree to take part in the trial while he waited on approval for his grant from the university. Unbeknownst to either the researcher, or the patient himself, he was suffering from a fungal infection in his brain. The patient died in the sleep state, and the researcher buried him under the floorboards so nobody would find him, and take his now approved funding. Moon Knight says that whatever he was pumping into him caused the fungus to aggravate and spread. His brain sporulated. He leaves, disgusted not by the dreadful sight but the actions of the scientist. "You've been breathing in his dreams". Highly recommended.
Zullie your vids bring me so much joy, thank you so much for putting out so much content. I love the souls series and you go above and beyond to share your love and hard work with everyone. Every day I see a new Zullie vid it turns my frown upside down.
this was one of the most informative and interesting videos yet! the gold flesh of ancient dragons is an awesome theory, the close look at all the concepts of death curse is very neat and repulsive at the same time too, i do hope to see dreams be a concept in the dlc
giving fortissax more health would be a hellish fight. he's one of the hardest gimmick fights I've ever encountered, and boy he's very very hard to deal with.
I absolutely loved the surprise of meeting this boss, because I initially entered the arena and saw a disappointing fight with Fia's simps and went, "wow what wasted potential for such a cool arena". Boy was I pleasantly surprised!
Thank you for briefly mentioning Miquella, that’s been my theory since I finished my second playthrough and I’m glad to know I’m not the only one that thinks that
@@LanguidWyvern No, it's never stated anywhere that Fortissax belonged to Godwyn in any way. That's just the fandom projecting "looks like animal, therefore must be unintelligent and property" onto fantasy creatures. The Ancient Dragons are sapient, and could even take human form to interact with humans. They were vastly intelligent and even smithed their own weapons (Bolt of Gransax).
Aight. "A dead god slumbers, and in his slumber there is a dream of twisted, alien lands." Definitely Lovecraftian vibes. The whole scenery... Unfathomable, incredibly alien, sickening, maddening sight. I'm in awe from how well it's done. A first-grade eldritch horror. Yeah, from what I've said so far, it's not hard to understand that Lovecraftian aesthetics of unfathomable are one of my passions
about the "pockmarks" in the sky. the first thought that came to my mind are about holes in the skin, created by the violently errupting dearhblight thorns. now with how the deathblight thorns are infested with insects, maybe deathblight errupted in the sky/dream itself at the beginning (maybe even the exact moment of godwyns death), releasing the insects all over the dream and infesting this horrible reality with the spawn of impurity that a rotting corpse would bring with it. after all this time, the roots of the initial erruption rotted away, leaving only these gaping wounds in the sky.
great video Zullie! but man a feel sorry for Godwyn and his buddy Fortissax, they never deserved any of this. almo the fact that he is still fighting the corruption at its source kinda makes me think Fia manipulated us into killing him so the corruption can spread in her ending.
I mean. yeah. they created another questline from Varre to reach the Mohgwyn Palace immediately after Godrick without using the online mode and reaching the consecrated snowfield before unlocking the area. they definitely going for that Miquella's dream for DLC. I hope it deliver.
I had such a visceral reaction to seeing the death blighted sky in the overworld Seeing it in that context really highlights it’s disturbing composition
There is also the possibility that Fortissax was always golden, making him a good counterpart to Godwyn, but it's never stated anywhere.
Lansseax has very distinct golden coloring as well, it may be a familial trait between them.
Zillie you should do a video on the breakdown of each ending and what that means for the lands in between. I’m still of the opinion that Fia’s ending is pretty crappy, not as bad as Chaos, but comparable to Dung Eaters, and it’d be great if someone like you could do a nice lore dump on all of the endings.
Godwyn the "Golden" seems logical!
From the Gravel Stone Seal item description:
" *Sacred seal made from Gravel Stone thought to be an ancient dragon scale. Enhances Dragon Cult incantations of the Royal Capital.*
*The worship of the ancient dragons does not conflict with belief in the Erdtree. After all, this seal, and lightning itself, are both imbued with gold.* "
So, it seems Ancient Dragons always had a link with gold, since this seal is made of a dragon scale. It wouldn't be too far fetched to think that Fortissax, being as important as he is, and as close as Godwyn the Golden, had more golden tones than others.
Plassidussax too, possesses some golden/amber-like scales and other assets, (and also golden flames akin to the Elden Beast's) and given it's Elden Lord title, it would also be plausible for Plassidussax to have been fully golden at some point.
@@runningbeaner1 the endings are pretty self-explanitory and easy to read into, example being with basic endings such as Goldmasks ending "brings order" while Dung Eaters brings "plague/defilement", Chaos Flame ending ushers in control for the Frenzied Flame god while Ranni's ending blocks Greater Will's influence and allows everyone trapped by them/the Erdtree to finally move on from their unending torment
Godwyn is like the most despairing character in the souls series. Just so depressing to see someone so “perfect” turned to a cancerous nightmare
Straight out of hell..
Reminds me of artorias 😭
In essence, the Death of Godwyn has cemented the necessity for misogyny in order to keep the evil tall women from screwing over society.
@@solidsnakeshugecake at least you can put artorias out of his misery.
@@solidsnakeshugecake honestly more horrible to me than what happened to Artorias. At least Artorias was allowed to die
It’s interesting how Fortissax has been able to fend off the death blight for so long even if he’s failing. A single ancient dragon fighting off an unstoppable infection that has spread all over The Lands Between at its heart
I have no idea what this video is about but you lot seem passionate, would you mind filling me in to whats up with what I Just watched?
Replace Lands Between with The Ringed City and you've basically got the description of Midir vs The Abyss.
@@gmanGman12007 Fortissax is one of dragons that attack Lyndell alongside Gransax. He was defeated ans spared his life by Godwyn. After that they became good friends. When Godwyn died, Fort tried to defend his friend from Death blight in his dream. But those death blight is eating him, still he remains side by side with his friend until he dies.
@@gmanGman12007 it's a bit much for anyone to catch you up with it in TH-cam replies, but hopefully it'll suffice to say this is a lore video on a particular boss fight in Elden Ring, and examines possible implications of the enemy, map, and other design elements on the world and on other game elements.
@@gmanGman12007 fortissax was beaten and spared by godwyn, they became companions, and when godwyns soul died, fortissax entered his dream to try and prevent the death blight from completely taking over. As you can see from the mutilated corpse of godwyn, it didn't work out so well.
After this disturbing revelation, I feel sorry for Fortissax now. He must have been a magnificent dragon in his prime, now suffering from death blight. What a pair he and Goldwyn must’ve been. Another excellent video Zullie.
The fact that he has fended off the deatblight at its core in spite of how it has seeped into almost every part of the Land Between is a testament to how powerful and loyal he is
Kinda makes me want to see a game with everyone at their prime..
@@aleisshiki3649 People already complain about bosses now, they'd lose their minds if they had to fight prime Demigods.
you should try listening to the translated lyrics of his song
He was a dragon, they all deserve it.
Now that I think about it, it's interesting how most of the relevant dragons in Elden Ring are basically anti-villains, wrapped up in some sort of tragedy. Often doing something relatively upstanding, and paying for it.
Fortissax is giving his all to help his friend, and has been trapped in a complete nightmare for it, slowly rotting away.
Lansseax, having lost Vyke and being forced to watch all she helped build with the dragon cult fall apart, is still guarding the capital, and unknowingly picks a fight with the one person who has the power to fix things.
Placidusax is seemingly trapped in time - Torn apart and a shell of his former lordly self, yet still dutifully waiting for his outer god's command.
Agheel, the first "common" dragon you meet, is knowingly or unknowingly acting as a means of euthanasia/"proper burial" for the agonized wandering nobles in Limgrave.
Ekzykes set out to avenge other dragons eaten by the communion practitioners, and his reward was to decay alive from scarlet rot.
Borealis is seemingly the last of the ice dragons after they were ousted by the fire giants, and has likely lived in utter solitude for ages.
Adula serves Ranni, and you seemingly only have to fight due to a misunderstanding (Or because From wanted a dragon boss in Ranni's questline but didn't have time to flesh out the lore around them in a way that makes sense, but I digress).
Greyoll, legendary mother of all dragons, has been reduced to laying in place, wasting away, dependent on her last children for protection.
The dragonkin soldiers were a failed design, seemingly through no fault of their own. The only lot they had in life is to lay malformed and discarded in the underground ruins of their home, like trash.
Although they're now said to be cursed, even the named magma wyrms were all once great heroes. (I guess their situation is actually pretty ambiguous, since we don't 100% know what the deal is with dragon communion, how it came about, who advocated for/against it, how the supposed curse works, etc. The item descriptions are sometimes reverential of it, and at other times judgmental.)
That's really interesting I never thought of the dragons of actual thinking beings other than just being mindless beasts 👍
@@revvv1221 It kind of makes sense that you would, given that the actual gameplay only ever portrays them as mindless beasts.
The stories and individual motivations of the ones you meet - And the fact that they're intelligent beings who even had their own lord and civilization - are only brought up in item descriptions.
It's even a bit weird how little the main story acknowledges them, now that I think about it. The ancient dragons interacted with many of the main characters and left massive marks on the world, and yet their presence is so rarely acknowledged by the NPCs. I wonder if it's intentional, as a way of making them seem more alien and inscrutable, or if it's just an artifact of how FromSoft revised the story as they were building the game.
@@revvv1221 The dragons once ruled over the Lands Between long before the Age of The Erdtree, long before Godfrey, became the “first” Elden Lord. The capital that once shone through the sky was a place to live of both Beasts and Dragons was called Farum Azula, Capital of Dragons.
The Greater Will elected Dragonlord Placidusax, to become The Elden Lord to serve The Greater Will. But as time passed, The Greater Will abandoned the dragons, leaving Placidusax and his Capital crumbling in the sky, dimmed by time.
And yet he is still there, await The Greater Will’s to call upon them once more.
Some time later on. The era of The Erdtree begins. Death, sealed away into Maliketh, The age of Golden, and order, eternal. Godfrey became The Elden Lord, and Lyndell, Royal Capital was formed. More time passed, Gransax and dragons assaulted Lyndell, there was a retaliation lead by a Demi-god named Godwyn The Golden, but later ended up befriending with Ancient Golden Dragon Fortissax and his dragon sister, Lansseax, both creates alliance between human and the dragons, formed The Dragoncult within Lyndell, teaching knights many of lightning incantations (the holy golden lightning in-game was a modified version of Ancient Dragon red lightning.)
But there is never a happy ending in Fromsoft’s souls game. The Night of The Black Knives occurred, the fragment of Rune of Death, stolen, Godwyn..died, his soul twisted in Death and as a result, Death roots exist, Fortissax tried to prevent Death and to save Godwyn, but there is no hope. Fortissax was soon corrupted from inhaling the Deathblight, turned into Lichdragon, trapped in an endless nightmare of Death, inescapable, suffering for eternity.
Lansseax fled, to watch everything they’ve started fall into ashes. She’s still guarding Lyndell, protecting what’s left of it, the fading memories.
But then, one day, someone recalled ”Us” back.
Guided by grace of gold. The Tarnished.
@@BackwardsPancake I don’t think that’s even to make them seem alien, I personally think that maliketh in Farum Azula and the statue of the child with the three wolves behind him is telling us Marika is connected to Farum prior to its destruction. She betrayed the dragons and stole the elden ring for herself imo, possibly even burning the great tree and creating the time of the crucible. I think the dragons are seldom mentioned because Marika wanted it that way.
Placidusax served the Greater Will, the God that fled was a God like Marika, I.E. a representative of the Greater Will. I really don't understand why this is so hard for people to understand
Interesting to note is that Maliketh's Black Blade looks like Fortissax's skin, black with hints of gold. And Placidusax's scales (the Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones) are said to be capable of creating godslaying weapons. So perhaps Maliketh created his weapon with ancient dragon scales, and it turned black because it houses the rune of death.
I had this same idea about Maliketh's sword.
And wouldn’t you know, ancient dragons are found in the same place
pretty ⛹️♂️
Learning little bits about the lore here and there, and seeing the remnants of it spread thoroughly around the open world, really makes my excited for DLC. And almost all my favorite franchises have let me down when it comes to DLC, so it takes a lot to get me excited.
@@sabastianleisek396 fromsoft has a magnificent track record when it comes to dlc so I have high hopes.
The story of Fortissax was one of the saddest in the game to me. Knowing that he basically had to watch his best friend be twisted into a horrific abomination that was corrupting the entire world, and desperately doing whatever he could to stop it, however fruitless, just felt so utterly melancholy. Trademark From Soft storytelling.
Except its actually Fortissax corrupting the world to stop Godwyn from True Death
From what I understand, Ranni did this to Godwyn, right? She turned him into this abomination? If so, that makes her suddenly way less of a good guy in my eyes, that's pretty damn evil to do to someone.
@@gavo7911 Yeah. Honestly most of the problems in the game stem from Ranni's divine fuckery.
@@gavo7911 There was no other choice, in order to free the Lands Between from the presence of the gods and the greater will, she had to do that
@@Borr77 She had to choose a kind-hearted hero to fuck over. Not the other siblings and step-siblings she had. Not the one that let a snake eat him, not the one that is currently rotting away. Oh wait, there are two of them who are rotting that are her siblings and step-siblings. She just had to choose Godwyn, whom everyone likes.
God, it felt so viscerally wrong to see the dream's skybox brought up into the overworld. Like a vision of what would happen were Godwyn's vile influence to spread through everything
If you get the Dung Eaters ending, the sky looks like that.
alright who gave Gideon a behelit?
I mean, in most endings we've done nothing to prevent this. Might've even spurred it on by killing Forty Snacks. Living-in-death Godwyn is easily the most threatening being in all the lands between, and we do almost nothing to keep his influence from expanding as time passes.
@@1umbreon4lifeno joke, the only hope of stopping this I see is using the proper rune of Destined Death on this living corpse, or at least the body killing part. He seems to be an uncurable disease on Elden Tree roots, and as long as it stands, the corruption will spread into every piece of the world Tree has access to.
@@1umbreon4life I don't like when games have things like this without some sort of resolution, or at least option for one, because it kind of makes your efforts feel a bit pointless. Or at least, diminishes the value of your success, because you know with absolute certainty that things are still gigafucked and you can't really do anything about it.
The gold underneath the dragons wings reminds me of various mollusk shells which have shiny colorful insides contrasting with the stone-like outside. Yet another connection to sea life
There's a few environmental details that suggest life in the Land's Between originated from an aquatic common ancestor.
@@glowie5811 Would definitely make sense, as the Elden Beast certainly seems aquatic to me.
@@enderdefender7406 Isn't the Elden Beast not really related to the natural life in the Land's Between due to its connection to the Greater Will?
@@CodaBlair I'm pretty sure, since the Elden Beast is the Elden Ring and the Elden Ring colonized the lands between with life, that the life would be related to it. Just my guess though.
it's also a fun nod to the fact that back in the time of knights many would go out and crush mollusk shells and bring back the biggest pieces as "dragon scales" to show proof of mighty deeds.
The end of this video aged like good wine.
I was hoping someone caught this around now
TAKE THE WITHERED ARM
What?
@@clamzy7 the dlc has you step into Miquella's dream
@@kek848but it’s not a dream it’s a physical plain of existence
Called out the DLC spot on, a year ahead. Incredible
This : )
This is all she does 😂😊
Except the land of shadows doesnt seem to be a dream, rather a disconnected area
Ever since I first beat Mohg, it felt like his arena is supposed to serve as the entrance to a DLC location. I really hope we get to enter Miquella's dream in some way.
Go in armed.
I was certain you'd have to jump off that balcony behind Miquella like how you left the painted world in DS1, or like entering the rom fight in bloodborne
I’m sure we’ll be able to interact with Miquella’s elongated hand and enter through that.
Well your hope became truth
Well, that was kind of spot on, based on the new trailer…
The dream is drop-dead gorgeous. I was a little disappointed we couldn't see more of Deeproot Depths in this new light, as it's already the most underused and unimpressive part of the underground in my opinion; having it be almost fully corrupted by Godwyn and Deathblight could have been super eerie and give impending implications.
You can actually glitch out of the boss fight to look around and let me tell you it looks gorgeous
I agree, it's creepy and gross looking, but the weird sense of intimidation it gives is great atmosphere. I'm hoping when we eventually get DLC that's almost certainly going to be related to Miquella, that the inside of his dream looks similar. I'd love to explore a world with this atmosphere.
“Drop-DEAD Gorgeous”
Pro tip bro: ‘impending implications’ doesn’t mean anything lol
I thought Deeproot Depths was a tiny bit underwhelming too until I did all of Ranni's quest and saw how much I missed there the first time haha
It's really cool how much of Elden Ring has the same kind of eldritch horror as bloodborne if you care to look into it, that skybox is straight out of the hunters nightmare! It's neat to see the same ideas explored in a more "typical" fantasy setting where you wouldn't expect to see it
Agreed. A very The One Reborn kind of feel inside there.
Tbf all FromSoft games have the same recurring themes 🤷♂️
Elden ring takes inspiration from all the soulsborne games its like an amalgamation of idea and concepts mashed together. if you look for it you can see inspiration from demon souls darksouls 1,2 and 3 bloodborne and even sekiro.
Miquella's dream is going to make the Hunter's Nightmare look like a pleasant spring afternoon at the park.
Tends to happen when you reuse everything
It never ceases to amaze how detailed enemies are in these games especially the ones that are purposely in dark areas where its almost impossible to notice
It feels like fromsoft knows there will be people like Zulli. In one of Sekiro’s endings you see Owl walking up to you with a mortal blade after you defeat Isshin but he sets something down right next to Isshin. In free cam you get to see what exactly he is carrying.
@@ohshit635 I believe the plan was to include that in the cutscenes but they had to remove it due to gore elements, similar case with the baby ocelotte in ds3
@@hoang2312 This is a reasonable explanation given Japans distaste for dismemberment/beheading imagery in video games.
Fortissax had one of if not the coolest looking fights in the game, everything felt like a movies climax it was so cool even though the boss was rather easy.
The music slapped.
It was like someone doing dubstep on a church organ
Poor guy was half dead already
The guy died for me way to quick it took until I was vastly underleveled and with a friend to have a real fight against the guy even than it didn't last long.
He was easy because you skipped that zone and discovered him (too)lately
@@ronron5998 no even if you go early he is pretty easy I had +7 weapon and heated him handedly his cool factor is the only thing he has going for him.
Godwyn definitely is one of the most disturbing elements they've created out of all their games. It seemed so unfair and brutal how he was murdered, but the fact that his body continues on in such a horrific state is horror fuel.
Our body is often considered the vessel of our souls, and part of me wonders if all this grotesque business with Godwyn's corpse comes from perhaps one of the developer's feelings of death. I thought about this when I saw the mounds of mulched up looking dead bodies in the underground tunnels with the ants.
Each corpse rotting among the heap was a person; a newborn at one point that was loved and held, and had complex feelings, desires and ambitions. How awful it would be if one knew a person they loved so much in this world died in such a horrific way; their physical remains rotting and being feasted upon so indignantly by such disgusting creatures. No comfort of a proper burial or cremation. It's a tragedy all too real that Godwyn represents at least to me.
Honestly when you enter godwyn’s dream, it feels like the entire world is slowly rotting and creating something in its landscape. Since it makes sense Godwyn is spiritually dead so both the body and mind will continue to expand and to create without knowing why.🐱
Not like *world* is rotting. More like your *mind* itself rots slowly, unable to fathom what it sees
Spiritually dead how
@@AlriikRidesAgain Give him a break there are alot of new players that are interested in the lore but have no idea what's going on because it's so subtle
@@JustinL614 yeah damn lol. Guess it’s against the law to ask questions about some of the most purposefully obfuscated lore in video games
@@AlriikRidesAgain His soul died. I interpreted that to mean it passed on to the spirit world, like was normal before the Age of the Erdtree. Meaning Godwyn gets to chill out in whatever paradise he earned as a warrior, while his body stuck around to fuck shit up.
Poor Fortissax. ☹️ I just wanna give him a hug for holding out as long as he has.
instead we just straight-up murder him, like everything else we encounter ;__;
She*
No were mentioned that Fortissax is he or she, but i prefer he too, cause Lansseax is his sister and brother and sister dragon seems wholesome to me.
Why do we even kill him to begin with
Cuz he tried his best, but still lost to the death blight, and we're just putting him out of his misery now
Man you nailed the DLC entry point!
You predicted shadow of the erdtrees plot. It is indeed another god dreaming and it is is his dlc
Every new thing I learn about Godwyn just makes me want to cry harder. I keep waiting to figure out he was secretly evil somehow, but no, it seems he was the one truly good soul in this world and he got what is perhaps one of the most upsetting deaths I've literally ever seen in fiction.
If he wasn't evil, he sure will be if he returns.
@@QrozOne Or just utterly indifferent.
And worst of all, Ranni did this to him, his own step-sister. For a character who's supposed to be a good guy, that's remarkably selfish of her.
Reminded of story where i lived in iraq when USA started killen nuclear scientists they left one alive to scare others from becoming nuclear scientist by kidnapping him and inject him with such a fucked up chemicals that he became in bane and screaming everyday every min and going into the streets crying until he ko himself . Its such horrific story and i just said the tip . Because all his family got killed and only he lived 💔 .
@@zointisarenazi who the heck are you taking about?
Man, the more I keep finding out about the Deeproot Depths, the more I feel sorry for Godwyn and his companion, they really suffered a fate worse than death and worse off they were one of the few godly beings that don't deserve it
Almost like its too obvious and there is more to it than just "believe whatever Rogier says is happening" huh?
Nah. Dont think about it.
@@darkhobo What?
@@alfalldoot6715 Basically. Rogier is full of dookie. Everything he tells us is a lie to get us on Godwyn/Fias side. But nothing he tells us has any evidence. Theres no evidence Marika prefered Godwyn over any of her other children (in fact his lack of any monuments indicates he was DISLIKED by her)
Not gonna lie, these videos brighten my day way more than almost anything on youtube. I love the dedication to digging up anything and everything about what we know and even what we don't. the level of detail paired with the banging OSTs used just makes for serotonin in a video.
Couldn't have said it better!
Indeed. Zullie’s vids keep affirming to me that ER is just as deep as it is massively wide. So much detail to absorb!
Gold is known for being 'uncorrputable' or 'permanent' because it can't tarnish. I suspect that's why Fortissax's flesh hasn't turned completely. It also shows how the player needs to dismantle anything gold for the natural order of death to return.
Another small addition that connects this fight to the everpresent tree theme: some species of tree are known to collect gold at their roots or transport it into their leaves. Fortissax's fight against the rot of the Erd Tree taking place at the roots seems intentional. I wonder how much blight the dragon has held back? The death of Fortissax points to the theme above as well; by killing the gold dragon the blight can continue on it's natural course.
I am no lore expert, though, so feel free to correct me.
Just wanted to say its crazy you predicted the DLC being in Miquella's dream. Down to the location we enter the DLC from. Well done.
I came back from the future to say that you were right and in a few months we'll probably enter Miquella's Dream. What a great prediction!
This kinda makes me hope that Godwyn’s Story will act as both the final DLC and finale for Elden Ring. His corruption slowly corrupting the entire Lands Between would be a horrifying sight, and maybe Miquella could be the key to curing Godwyn’s plague.
Or he could have been. Looking at his arm in the cocoon, he looks pretty corrupted too.
i wanted to say that you expect too much from FS, but.... hm, their track record, yeah why not
Fuck it, both of them need a hug.
It'd be pretty cool if the eclipse plan that was created by Miquella to save Godwyn was put into action in a future DLC and then you get a duo fight of the two or something like that. A gank demi-god fight may be a bit too much but it would certainly be a spectacle
Imagine the cutscene before Gael but it's rot.
The entire concept of a living body with no soul is terrifying to me. Can it still think? If it can, are its thoughts those of an intelligent yet sub-lucid being, or merely abstract and instinctual like that of an animal? It seems to possess no recollection or care for its previous life as Godwyn the Golden, no longer capable of doing anything but spread and corrupt its surroundings like a tumorous growth. Discovering Godwyn's current state was what ultimately turned me away from Ranni as a force for "good;" no matter how lofty her ambitions, how benevolent of a goddess can she be when she was capable of inflicting such an unimaginably cruel fate, and what's to stop her from such callous acts in the future?
It's probably more like a brain dead state, your body exists and is still "alive" but what makes you, "you" no longer exists.
It's likely the Erdtree is trying and failing to recreate Godwyn due to his missing soul, essentially malforming him, like damaged DNA.
It also kinda turns me off about those who live in death and essentially the whole duskborn ending. If they are the same as godwyn, being infected by deathroot and having been shown to be nothing but mindless zombies really doesnt sell the whole moral dilemma of whether they should be considered ‘human’ like all the other races in the lands between
@@S_F_Brew Yeah, I agree. I feel like there should have been some sort of questline or maybe a friendly undead NPC to show us that Those Who Live In Death are sentient lifeforms capable of coexisting with humanity/the Tarnished, otherwise the whole "wE cAn'T PeRsEcUtE TheM, tHeY'Re JuSt LiKe uS!!!!" argument feels pretty nonsensical. I _guess_ Fia might technically be one of them since she uses the word "we" to refer to the undead when addressing the Roundtable Hold, but she could've just meant that they were kindred to her due to her loyalty to Godwyn. Hopefully the upcoming DLC will provide more context on the situation - Miquella is pretty closely tied to Godwyn, after all.
@@Ember2168if you attack fia, then godwyn will shoot blackflame skulls at you, proving he is alive
The concept of entering someone's dreams is so cool and I'd love to see it explored more in the future.
Yeah i wish fromsoft made a game about dreams, nightmares and sleeping eldritch gods
@@SophiaLilithUwU Nah they'll never make this one, especially on ps4. If they did, it would definitely get a pc version :p
@@SophiaLilithUwU Bloodbourne, youre literally talking about BB
@@thegk-verse4216 yeah that would be silly!
@@aliekexie8467 I don't know what you're talking about.
Bro, if that is his "dream", I dare not to imagine how his nightmares look like then.
I really hope the dreams get used in DLC, it's such a cool and unique concept and I can only imagine the horrors fromsoft could make in a larger dream world...
Have you ever heard of Bloodborne or are you being sarcastic?
Unique concept? We had already see something like this on Dark souls 2
Fillianoire dark souls 3
YOOO DID YOU WATCH THE DLC TRAILER????? 🤯🤯🤯
Everyday I'm amazed at what FromSoftware has created, I like to forget the whole game and start again. I only felt like this after finishing 'Breaking Bad'. Simply put, 'Masterpiece'.
Usually I don't replay a game and I don't rewatch film or series, but fromsoftware games are the only games that i finished over and over
The Golden Flesh can be explained by physics. Gold is the metal with highest electroconductivity. As Ancient Dragons use lightning as weapon, it can help them to cast those lightning weapons.
On that point, there are actually golden goats outside of Leyndell that summon lightning when they flee
They are near the Sainted Hero’s Grave
Chemistry
Y'all are nerds lmao
Doubtful that's the reason - they're magic, it's better as metaphor. The Erdtree is also golden and infects things with its goldenness such as animals, plants, etc, like the rot, or frenzy. The outer powers are infesting the lands between, including the gold of marika's order. Even Glintstone seems to grow as a part of sorcerers.
Gold is not the best conductor of electricity. Silver is the best and copper is second best. Gold is third as far as we know. Gold is just more useful in certain applications.
The whole death and godwyn part of elden ring has always given me shivers somehow knowing he is there watching the entire time. I remember entering his arena not knowing what i was looking at when i was approaching him when i suddenly caught a glimpse of his eyes staring at me my mind went like"Nooooooo you do not go there "
I'm not sure he's even capable of consciously watching or staring at anything; he's just a cancerous half-living body with no soul in it now. I think the whole Deathblight curse was born from the absolute perversion of nature that is a "living" thing with no soul - in other words, hollow life that exists only to propagate itself by devouring everything it touches. Such an aberrant existence would be anathema to the world of Order and Grace, where the concept of life itself is predicated on the soul.
Sorry for the tangent. I agree that he looks absolutely horrific. His cloudy eyes, deprived of blood and oxygen, bring up a lot of repressed trauma from my past; seeing corpses of loved ones and things of that nature. It's an uncomfortably realistic depiction of how morbid putrefaction can be.
Wow great video as always! The skybox reminded me of the Dungeater’s armor and the ending you get when you do his quest the sky looks a similar grotesque pattern.
In his house in the Nameless City, dead Godwyn waits dreaming
If we do get a Godwyn fight, 90% his current form is superficial. Within, his perception of himself is probably much more warped than the reality of it. When we fight him, his consciousness will be up and running again, and a powerful being such as he would have a tough time not unconsciously warping his body to how it "should" be, within.
The first time I entered Godwyn's dream I thought "Oh, cool dragon", without considering _why_ I was suddenly battling this dragon in a random dream. But since Fortissax is the only one holding back the death blight at its source, I assume that it's actually Fia who manipulates you into killing him and letting death consume the Lands Between in the Age of Duskborn ending. But since you can kill Fortissax, get any ending, and the spread of death isn't mentioned again, does this mean that Ranni can destroy the Death Prince in Age of Stars, or the fully restored Erdtree can resist the infection in Age of Order?
I was thinking the same thing. It seems like we’re the villain in this case if we’re killing the last thing keeping the death blight at bay. Huge implications for all of the endings; perhaps the DLC will be a deathblighted Lands Between?
Eh, side quest, go finish the job, carve the other half, world saved.
@@xZOOMARx actions that affect endings aren’t real unless we choose that ending. We are never told that fortissax is the only thing stopping the world from being consumed, but he was definitely in the way of Fia influencing the player to allow the world to be consumed.
You reset the anchor of the world's basis and reform it to an outer power. You must free the deathblight to get the ability to instate that ending to make it the new anchor. The outer powers themself can't take over even if they continue infecting the world, only Fated can do that. But Fia is one of the few with a fate so arguably her plan is getting the player to open the deathblight gate and do the reset herself if the player doesn't play along.
I figured the Ring being restored by any of the other endings would make the natural order strong enough to resist the implications of Deathblight, and Ranni probably has what she needs at her point in the ending to either permanently kill Godwyn or just ditch the Lands Between entirely
Well, bro might of been right at the end
"That is not dead, which can eternal lie
And in strange aeons, even skies grow eyes.
And you are still maidenless" - Godwyn, probably
By far my favorite setting in Elden Ring, I've done playthroughs just to see it person again, the music, the boss design, that hellishly amazing skybox, all with Godwyn staring down at you with those lifeless eyes. I remember the first time doing that boss fight and just looking up as Fortissax jumped up and I paused to see Godwyn's inverted head looking right at me with that sky behind it and it struck me almost as hard as Fortissax did when he landed.
"hey fortissax have you ever tried one of these rejuvenating boluses?"
"wow scrumptious tysm rawr"
1:44 I don't understand why they didn't make the end game just like that, AFTER YOU choose Fia's ending. Or the whole sky burning with frenzied flame after choosing the frenzied flame ending and so on...enemies can inflict death blight or frenzy flame depending on what you picked.
If you sides with Goldmask, everyone aggressively T-poses
@@davidhong1934 they better add that in the dlc
God, imagine if you could play in the Age of Duskborn... Every enemy is permanently undead and refuses to die. Would be a nightmare. Frenzy Flame ending would be an eerie experience. Literally everything is dead, the world is empty and reduced to a barren wasteland.
@@TheSuperRatt so Fia's ending is Dark Souls? Lol
@@TheSuperRatt yep, the decision you make as an ELDEN LORD ACTUALLY has an impact on the world. Would be cool.
Fortissax: A once magnificent dragon trying desperately to stem the tide of darkness, yet failing and corrupted.
Darkeater Midir: First time?
2:54 well well well. Aren't you a prophet?
The dream state reminds me of the Omen ending sky. Which seems fitting considering that while Godwyn is dead, he did not die a proper death. Which would perhaps also explain why the sky in the mended rune of death ending we don't have such a nightmarish sky? Either way it's wonderful to see Fortissax in some proper lighting. Love the work
It's possible that the sky is still messed up a la Fortissax's arena in that ending, it's just that the fog is obscuring it.
Zullie, when Shadow of The Erdtree is released be like:
- "Somebody better pick up that phone, CUZ I F#$KIN' CALLED IT!"
This video's speculation has aged very well.
At this point all these "revelations" almost feel like just a different way to play the game, if you get what I mean. The level of detail and information that you dont really appreciate during a normal playthrough is just amazing and truly deserves to be unearthed and shared. Great videos.
It really is a different way to play the game. Some would say that Elden Ring's huge world hurts it, but I'd just have to disagree. I've come back to this game countless times to venture under Caelid for Maliketh's dagger, or to visit Malenia's isolated divine tower, or to find the golem that fell deeper than its siblings, or just to see jellyfish sisters reunited. There's replayability hidden all over the place because of videos like these.
I've never gotten a close look at Fortissax before so to see clearly how much his body has decayed I can honestly say I feel bad for the poor dragon.
She* don’t ever assume gender, you butt pirate clown 🤡
"O brother, lord brother, please die a true death."
-Golden Epitaph
Yes. Proof that Godwyn was the one doing this.
And look at that. Godwyn has a hero's grave. Awful hard to build a Masoleum when you're at war.
What is the headless knights mission? To stave off Death. Who do they serve? Godwyn. Therefore who is preventing Godwyn's death? Godwyn is.
@@darkhobo Doing what?
@@alfalldoot6715 corrupting the Erdtree. Creating Those Who Live In Death. He's not a victim. He is the victimizer.
Rogier is the source of the info on Godwyn. But he gets his info from Fia. And Fia is actually Godwyns lieutenant. His right hand. His #2.
She is also the Dragon Fortissax in Human form.
@@darkhobohe is like this because he died only in soul the item reference miquella praying for his brother
What a fucking chad among chads. With his friend till the bitter fucking end, fighting literal death itself.
Fortissax is a fucking homie.
I always thought the unique skybox in the Fortissax fight was really something amazing, especially after Radahn's fight didn't change the sky at all. What an amazing boss
I’m actually really glad the sky can’t appear that way in the lands between that s*** looks crazy
The one thing that I've never liked about Ranni was how she arranged for the murder of Godwyn, who was, by all accounts, a great person. That the murder effectively took Fortissax with him in particularly agonizing fashion just makes it worse.
By exactly 1 account. And its a person who never met Godwyn... Its pure BS. Rogier is literally corrupted by TWLiD. He is lying too you.
This idea that Godwyn was this perfect being is SO STUPID. Where the hell did it come from? Not from anything in Elden Ring. Its just comments like this that spread a straight up fabricatoon.
zullie always with the best content
Bro predicted shadow of the erdtree that’s incredible 😂
i must say, excellent timing on the video discussing dead royalty
In the house of r’leyh, dead Cthulhu lays dreaming
Therapist: It was just a dream, this "Godwyn" can't hurt you.
Me: It was his nightmare and he was starring at me.
Reminds me of a moon knight comic, Moon Knight (2014) Issue #4 "Sleep".
A friend of a friend asks Moon Knight for his help. he studies abnormal sleep disorders, and his patients are becoming violent. They get trapped in a sleep state and when you finally manage to wake them up they are violent, and hysterical, all begging to go back to sleep. All accounts of the dream they manage to wrestle out of them seems to be describing the same dream among the dozen or so patients - which shouldn't be possible.
Moon Knight arrives on the scene and goes to an unused damp part of the research clinic. He sleeps. He says he wants to face the enemy, to know him. He enters into the dream realm to confront whatever it is that's tormenting the patients.
In this dream realm, it is full of mesmerizing, impossible landscapes, all with a recurring colourful mushroom motif. Very reminiscent of 60s psychedelica. He starts being tossed and thrown about this world, as it becomes hostile toward him. While he tries to get his footing, a lone ghost in patient robes begins to narrate his experiences. He asks, to nobody in particular if hes dead, or if hes dreaming that hes dead, and if he is dead, is he dead from dreaming? Mushrooms seem to spill out of empty eye sockets in his head. He is gaunt, and seemingly trapped, disorientated in this dream world.
Moon knight wakes with a start and bee-lines straight to the scientist who brought him here. He grabs him by the back of his head and slams his face into the desk. The scientist protests, as Moon Knight drags him, insisting that whatever is affecting his patients is affecting him too and he needs to snap out of it.
Moon Knight drags him into the unused closet, where he slept to enter the dream realm, and rips up the slightly damp floorboards.
Out spills an enormous swarm of rats, to the scientist's horror. "Oh God no, how could you know?".
The scientist, when beginning his research, was not receiving funds from the university, and so he solicited a homeless man to agree to take part in the trial while he waited on approval for his grant from the university. Unbeknownst to either the researcher, or the patient himself, he was suffering from a fungal infection in his brain. The patient died in the sleep state, and the researcher buried him under the floorboards so nobody would find him, and take his now approved funding.
Moon Knight says that whatever he was pumping into him caused the fungus to aggravate and spread. His brain sporulated.
He leaves, disgusted not by the dreadful sight but the actions of the scientist. "You've been breathing in his dreams".
Highly recommended.
Reminds me of the Junji Ito Manga: "Nagai Yume"
Recommend? You just told us the entire plot start to finish 😂
@@Barryschitpeas42069 theres still the art, and the writing to appreciate lol its like a 18 page comic book
Zullie your vids bring me so much joy, thank you so much for putting out so much content. I love the souls series and you go above and beyond to share your love and hard work with everyone. Every day I see a new Zullie vid it turns my frown upside down.
A year later watching this and after the Elden Ring DLC trailer. Zullie was right 🔥
Zullie you have some of the best videos on this website. Thank you so much for all you do
This game keeps getting better and better
Wow nostradamus over here predicted the dlc back in 2022. Respect
So happy to see Holy forest getting some love!! One of my favorite game songs!
Yet another exciting episode of "Things You Didn't Notice Because You Were Too Busy Trying Not To Die!"
Wtf you just guessed the new DLC 1 year ago
Bro predicted the dlc
this was one of the most informative and interesting videos yet! the gold flesh of ancient dragons is an awesome theory, the close look at all the concepts of death curse is very neat and repulsive at the same time too, i do hope to see dreams be a concept in the dlc
I live and breathe for your videos. Only a few minutes long each, but I always get excited when I see new ones. You always find something new.
2:54
hey, nice prediction
2:53 lol did Zullie call it?
She did, but it's very common in the Souls saga to enter dream maps this way.
2:51 Called it! Good work Zullie!
But I am a GOD, how can you kill a GOD? What a grand and intoxicating innocence. - Some fellow False Dreamer
Oh, oh, oh, oh!
Fortissax's design and music are some of the best in the game, I wish he had more health
giving fortissax more health would be a hellish fight. he's one of the hardest gimmick fights I've ever encountered, and boy he's very very hard to deal with.
Damn, called the beginning of the DLC even before it was announced
Came to say that same thing.
Great job! Your name will live on in the history books. By the way you're inspire me to created video on my channel like you do.
2:52 spot on prediction for the DLC
I absolutely loved the surprise of meeting this boss, because I initially entered the arena and saw a disappointing fight with Fia's simps and went, "wow what wasted potential for such a cool arena". Boy was I pleasantly surprised!
Godwyns dream reminds me of the eclipse
Feb 24. Zullie called it!
Thank you for briefly mentioning Miquella, that’s been my theory since I finished my second playthrough and I’m glad to know I’m not the only one that thinks that
When Zullie uses the King's Field ost, you know the video is gonna be good
I didn’t even notice the sky during the fight, I was too busy getting my ass handed to me.
I feel so sorry for him. He's trying so hard to save his master's dream, but maybe he doesn't know his master is dead...
His master is dead in the same way those skeletons covered in grimy dark vines are. They "live in death".
@@ghoulishgoober3122 except those skeletons don’t cancerously infect the entire land.
Was Godwyn his master? I thought they were just bros who came to an understanding after the war
They were companions. Friends. Not master and slave/servant.
@@LanguidWyvern No, it's never stated anywhere that Fortissax belonged to Godwyn in any way. That's just the fandom projecting "looks like animal, therefore must be unintelligent and property" onto fantasy creatures. The Ancient Dragons are sapient, and could even take human form to interact with humans. They were vastly intelligent and even smithed their own weapons (Bolt of Gransax).
Tonight, Miquella joins the hunt.
Aight. "A dead god slumbers, and in his slumber there is a dream of twisted, alien lands." Definitely Lovecraftian vibes. The whole scenery... Unfathomable, incredibly alien, sickening, maddening sight. I'm in awe from how well it's done. A first-grade eldritch horror.
Yeah, from what I've said so far, it's not hard to understand that Lovecraftian aesthetics of unfathomable are one of my passions
You're not alone!
That is not dead which can eternal lie...
in awe
@@Zombiewithabowtie And with strange aeons, even death may die.
just came back to reassure you called the dlc theme. hope you are fine and recovering. all the best
about the "pockmarks" in the sky.
the first thought that came to my mind are about holes in the skin, created by the violently errupting dearhblight thorns.
now with how the deathblight thorns are infested with insects, maybe deathblight errupted in the sky/dream itself at the beginning (maybe even the exact moment of godwyns death), releasing the insects all over the dream and infesting this horrible reality with the spawn of impurity that a rotting corpse would bring with it.
after all this time, the roots of the initial erruption rotted away, leaving only these gaping wounds in the sky.
The eyes in the skybox actually look very much like storms on gas Giants like Jupiter. Particularly with their streaming tails
1:42 suddenly we are playing Bloodborn again
great video Zullie! but man a feel sorry for Godwyn and his buddy Fortissax, they never deserved any of this. almo the fact that he is still fighting the corruption at its source kinda makes me think Fia manipulated us into killing him so the corruption can spread in her ending.
Poor Fortissax fought till the end trying to fend off the deathblight :(
This is one of your best ones yet. That skybox relocated to the overworld is some real nightmare fuel
man I bet the DLC is gonna include a boss fight by interacting with Miquella's cocoon to enter their dream maybe.
I mean. yeah. they created another questline from Varre to reach the Mohgwyn Palace immediately after Godrick without using the online mode and reaching the consecrated snowfield before unlocking the area. they definitely going for that Miquella's dream for DLC. I hope it deliver.
The sky in Goldwyn dream almost as same as the sky in dung eater ending...
I had such a visceral reaction to seeing the death blighted sky in the overworld
Seeing it in that context really highlights it’s disturbing composition
Your videos kept my love for elden ring lore ever growing. Keep it up man