Elden Ring - Wretched pests
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ค. 2022
- Many players were probably deeply traumatized by the Kindred of Rot in their first playthrough thanks to an innocent little chest in Limgrave.
Song used: Great Underground Rivers - Elden Ring OST - เกม
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I spent an hour and a half playing King's Field for 9 seconds of footage of the Termite Queen.
worth?
Thank you for your service
Holy Jesus. That's some devotion to craft. Thank you.
that just means you care a lot about what you do and the videos you make
That's some dedication over there
I love the idea that Malenia basically coughed up some rot, they crawled out and said "mom?", she was just like "nah I'm good"
Malenia went out to get milk but never came back.
@@maybemablemaples2144 the good ole abandonment procedure and it works out perfectly even in a fantasy game.
@@maybemablemaples2144 she went out to get miquella
I'd do the same if I cough out those things
Melania is the Storm that is Escaping.
The Kindred of Rot’s projectiles are top 5 most annoying things in Elden Ring
Nah, they shoot way more than 5 at a time. /s
@@vigil2249 he never said they only shoot five projectiles?
@@patrickforbes2456 /s means it’s sarcasm
@@patrickforbes2456 Is joke.
/s is a reddit thing. It means sarcasm or he was just joking
My first impression of these guys was getting one shot by them in Selia not 45 minutes after the game came out lmao
They played a great joke on everyone, especially players who were in the Network Test and thought there'd be a cool weapon in that chest.
@@ZullietheWitch It was the best place they could have placed that trap, IMO.
@@ZullietheWitch I hated that trap so much. And I hated that mine so much, easily the worst dungeon in the game. I don't know if it was in the network test, but there actually is another chest in the same ruins with a good weapon inside, one of the first dual blades you get in the game.
@@trevorweisberg8470 When I watched someone play the network test, the Twinblade was in the wolf den.
@@en-men-lu-ana6870 The moment the game could be played I beelined there so I could show my friends this cool weapon that I knew would be there because of the NT, only to end up running for my life during the next 10 hours of gameplay or so while my friends were chilling in the academy lol
I like to imagine Elden Ring to just be a story for botanists
That, and entomology.
It's gardening lore all along
there's one TH-camr suggested that Elden Ring is about mushrooms and after watching it, I'm buying that theory of him lol.
@@ShatteredGlass916 Perfect for a greenhouse worker like myself
@@eetfuk3571 is this why you solve the most convoluted rooftop jump puzzle, and find out the secret item is just a mushroom all the time
I noticed their resemblance to termites, too! And there are some termites that farm fungi just like some ants do! I also discovered recently while puzzling over their snail shell hats that there is a species of snail that uses fungi to break down reeds before they eat them! They're called Marsh Periwinkles, and while their shells don't look like the ones worn by Pests, there are other kinds of Periwinkle snails that have that exact cone-shaped style!
Nah. These things are overgrown silverfish. I'm 100% positive about it.
@@chrisprescott2273 oh they're definitely that, too. Their many arms also remind me of house centipedes. They've got the elements of several species to them, like a lot of the critters in this game.
@@elleofmusic agreed. They are a combination of similar gross bugs.
House centipedes and silverfish are definitely both in there. And termite mandibles for good measure.
That's quite the esoteric connection, but it makes sense.
Ironic considering it seems the mushroom-heads "farm" (or rather, breed,) the kindreds.
I love how their glaive description states that they are intelligent, but humans will never understand them.
In Sekiro centipedes were a motif of corruption and stagnation, where some of enemies were infested by centipedes to gain immortality, but here they are heralds of even worse things (a whole god of decay).
Wait... you can get their glave?!
@@Aryanma1545qtrt yes but it's difficult
Using centipedes to gain immortality in Sekiro is also a possible nod to the manga Blade of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura, where the main character is essentially cursed with immortality via "blood worms".
Seeing the near endless Berserk references in all of the FromSoft games it wouldn't surprise me if that was another homage
Centipedes as symbols of rot and corruption is actually an old Japanese cultural relic so it's not surprising that it shows up again and again. Also the Curse Mark of Death resembles a centipede.
@@AP-qu2li weren't centipedes already symbols of immortality in a lot of folklore and legends in Japan? The manga you're talking about may have taken similar inspiration from folklore.
"I am Malenia, Blade of Miquella"
"And we are the Children of Rot, Blades of Malenia"
"Ugh, y'know what. I'd rather not. I was just kidding. I'mma go buy some cigarettes... my.... children..."
And that's how Malenia went to Mexico and became "Malenia la espada de Miguella".
"de miguella" 💀💀💀
I'm the ceased
Malenia's final words to Finley:
"Are those... shrimp...? You know... I fucking hate... Seafood..."
Is she friends with El Donte 😏
she also changed her the name of her rot to "Huitlacoche Rojo"
Here, you deserve this 👑
I always called them "shrimp wizards" they give me nightmares. Ill never forget getting trapped in the crystal tunnel and seeing them for the first time.
"Shrimp Wizards" thanks, that's my band name now.
That sounds amazing. Shrimp wizards lmfao
I love that name, lol. It reminds me of how John Wolfe calls them "Centipriests".
@@AndiiZupper His name for them is great.
I had a thought about this. People afflicted with the rot missing limbs is a reoccurring thing. Malenia'a limbs, Milicent's arm, Radahn's missing his feet. And yet these rot pests are almost the opposite. they have a multitude of limbs. Im not sure what it could mean but it does seem odd that there's this duality.
radahn was always missing his feet, that's why he had the horse. i think the arm thing with malenia and milicent is just supposed to be a disturbing way of expressing how long-term rot affects people that aren't immortal like tarnished.
Maybe the extra limbs represent growth, and the loss of limbs signifying maturity, at least in terms of strength. Like how tadpoles lose their ability to breathe underwater as well as their tail after growing up.
Maybe it could express the difference between embracing the scarlet rot and trying to fight it.
@@gremlinman9724 what do you mean Radahn was always without his feet? That makes no sense
C'mon man, name all Elden Ring mobs with multiple human arms, or other limbs. This will take a while, because it is clearly FromSoftwares fetish :)
The Dagger you find under the lake of Rot is said to be part of the Rotting Outer God, so that leaves me to believe that it's some kind of Scorpion or some other arthropod
Never heard of that dagger. Could you please elaborate? What's it's name?
@@arcanaobscura3519 theres a chest in the temple right before Astel. You get it from that
@@arcanaobscura3519 Its called Scorpion's Stinger
@@arcanaobscura3519 The name of the dagger is "Scorpion's Stinger" and its description reads: 'Dagger fashioned from a great scorpion's tail, glistening with scarlet rot. A ceremonial tool used by heretics, crafted from the relic of a sealed outer god.'
And Astel is one of very few scorpion-like enemies in game, despite there being a whole slew of talismans that look more like straightforward scorpions
Rushing through a dungeon and having a ton of these behind you is one form of horror
But not the true horror. I've witnessed the true horror a couple of (hundred) times.
@@mikkoleinonen9846 "True horror" didn't have jack on Mariketh for me.
"Meat" is the single most ominous mesh on any of the NPCs so far. Seems simple but wtf is it and why is it called meat? I assumed it was just some mushroom type growth until I saw it close up.
I have a running theory that the rot works much like cordyceps - basically it takes a host, feeds on the host and then sprouts from the host. So the meat on the children of rot is just left over "shelling" of the corpse it used to grow in.
they rise from the ground in caelid or wherever theres a ton of rot. it seems to be chunks of infected biomaterial that grows over them when theyre in the ground
@@lurksmcgee thanks for the info I hate that 🙃
I thought they stitched or stapled meat on to their bodies as a ceremonial thing or something. I have no evidence just my initial thoughts.
"Meat" is what your mother calls my massive creamy favour pole
I've never actually managed to get a good look at the Pest's glaives. It's actually quite gorgeous when I don't have a hundred pest threads **aggressively homing at me**
My first playthrough I opened that chest and got sent to the hell that is Caelid before I even got the pop-up that tells you what the map button is and that you can teleport to Sites of Graces, so I thought I was just stuck in hell forever
Honestly, the design of Caelid is pretty hellish looking, especially for the first time.
it just hit me that you can get trapped in Caelid before you even get Torrent, which sounds incredibly evil
@@samfivedot Melina will appear to give you torrent (and then invite you to Round Table) pretty quick once you find a grace or two. So, given you're inside a cave and find a grace on the way out, you're not that much worse off without torrent.
@@samfivedot That's what happened to me. I only got Torrent once I was told I could go between Sites of Grace and got back to Limgrave
@@CheshireSwift Funny enough because i already play all other souls i just got used to run past most things on hard areas to look for the site, but i missed it, so i went for a good 50 minutes running around scared sh***less of everything trying to find a way out of the Eclipse Area.
Honestly, it was quite fun to feel like a survivor scraping by.
(but fuck the dogs at low level holy fuk)
The pest threads are the spiky hairs that grow from their backs. Flinging hair as a projectile is actually a behavior found in real life Tarantula spiders.
I give you a thumbs up, but thats terrifying!
Nah, that's fucked, why do real life tarantulas have a dnd move
@Sammie considering bombardier beetles special ability, flinging hairs in the air to cause irritation isn't so bad.
With each time I playthrough the game, I get more disturbed by the more I learn about the nature of Scarlet Rot. Biggest reveal for me was when I tried killing Gowry fairly early on to witness a bit of his true nature. Put into perspective how much these "children of rot" had been haunting Millicent and Malenia.
I put it in it's own comment but i think you and I have a lot of the same questions here.
"...so What does Gowry have to do with all of this? he sells the spell pest threads which the kindred use, if you kill him at the wrong time a kindred of rot's corpse appears from his body.
At the end of Millicent's quest he says "Millicent, my daughter. Why would you take out the needle? You were so close. So very close. To becoming the fairest of all flowers. Would you disown us too? As your Mother did? We children of the scarlet rot?"
This implies that the kindred of rot were more humanoid maybe before??? I have soooo many questions from that questline and the kindred of rot are only one piece of the puzzle."
From's games have lots of places that make you feel like you're not supposed to be there, but The Grand Cloister and the Lake of Rot take the cake.
Their glaive's description mentioning their "keen intellect" made me assume the Pests were former humans transformed by the rot, in the manner that the giant dogs and crows in Caelid were probably also once normal fauna before Malenia's bloom. There are ruins of a human settlement in Aeonia (as well a mass of corpses in O'Neil's arena), so the idea that the 'survivors' of the bloom eventually crawled out of the swamp twisted into new, inhuman shapes feels plausible.
Caelid fauna also shows up in the Mountaintops and the Crows in Moghwyn's Palace too.
It's easier to explain them as just endemic of the Lands Between.
@@c.l.a.u.d.e keep in mind that the mountaintops aren't too far from the Haligtree which is pretty thouroghly rotting
my assumption is that pools of rot (like the swamp of aonia) are just what's left after something has fully decayed and the pests form by rearranging the muck to form their bodies.
@@Eclipsed_Embers This I could concede, if there was any other sign of the Rot spreading to the Mountaintops.
Plus the Giant Dogs have collars and are found before the Fire Monks' settlement.
@@c.l.a.u.d.e fair enough, I've never spotted the giant dogs there (I must've rushed past them) so I thought you were just talking about the raven things.
Hello Zullie the name of the insect, that this enemy-design is based of, is Archaeognatha or jumping bristletail. Good day everyone. :-)
That definitely does look like a strong inspiration for the design.
@@ZullietheWitch also it's type of silverfish, and they hide in dark, damp places and feast upon cellulose and what is made of it.
oh shit that’s cool
Someone needs to give them a tiny glaive
Did they ever explicitly state that or are you just saying they look really similar?
I thought these were pretty cute when I found out about them and hoof'd it to Caelid early to get their ashes. While I don't blame Malenia for disowning them, I did feel bad to hear them described as orphaned/abandoned. I named mine Pope Fransico the First.
that's lovely! i named my marionette archers clank and rusty
I think they’re cute too! Especially since they seem to be Sapient, but just… too “alien” to fully understand Humans? I feel bad for them, honestly, it’s not their fault that they give us diseases and/or most people seem to find them scary… they’re just trying to live their lives 😔
With their six members plus little arm-like extensions and tails that end in long bristles, the kindred are more similar and probably inspired by Zygentoma (silverfishes) than in thermites. Zygentoma are also cave-dwelling insects that feed of decaying matter and plants that they can find, some are so poorly studied that we still have no idea what some eat
their six what now
I think it’s a mixture of both.
I wonder if they really were abandoned. Malenia fell unconscious from her battle with Radahn. While it is difficult to say how long she was out, it is implied she 'slumbered' for a very long time. It certainly could have felt like she left them.
personally I was always under the impression that she was carried off by Finlay after the Radahn battle and then slept all the way until the player turns up.
They were abandoned in the sense that she doesn't recognise them as her followers. Despite what it may seem like Malenia was against the rot, she used it against Radhan for the first time and after that she still didn't care about it, she just cared about her brother
@@davidalonsosariego2618 so a clear cheating ?
nice details mizo zaki
They are abanoned because Malenia rejects her nature as a rot Goddess,thats why Gowry plans in using Millicent given how similar she is to her mother she could maybe the Goddess they wanted.
She was carried off and slumbered until we woke her. "I dreamt for so long..."
These prawn-centipede-whatever dudes are so unnerving, love them.
Do you think Boggart could make them taste good?
@@Pancakewagon26 I firmly believe he may serve them up when the giant crayfish start to avoid his shack.
As someone who is spooked by IRL centipedes.. these monsters really gave me the heeby-jeebies.. even more so than the DS3 sewer centipedes. To think they might be able to eat a house while the person inside is sleeping is naturally even more unsettling.
And the fact they intended to introduce these guys with that *infamous trap..*
@@apophisstr6719 what infamous trap?
@@TheGirlInFandomWorld Well, that chest in Limgrave.
There are also the smaller kindreds of rot that only appear in a few areas in Elphael, and I wonder if their design is any different aside from being smaller and having different animations
The smaller ones seem to be immature specimens, they're actually in that hatchery area as well. They crawl around because they don't have the larger developed limbs to walk around on and hold things with.
I think those are baby versions
they could possibly share animations with the crawling snail women from Bloodborne, though im not sure
@@ZullietheWitch are the cocoons in the haligtree connected to them? if Millicent turns into a flower then maybe followers of rot turn into those bugs, almost all sorts of miracles and even magic seem to turn you into something whether its a ball of heads , magma wyrms, undead, misbegotten, omen or whatever the godskin apostles are turning into, even the giants have their god's face in their chest
Don't you also find them in the crypt where you get the Meteoric Ore Blade? The lesser kindreds I mean.
I imagine the Kindred are more or less an incidental byproduct of the rot itself that Malenia doesn't care about. Most likely existing as servants to the Outer God that caused the rot in the first place that cursed Malenia, and now the kindred worship her without fully knowing the situation. After all, she's deific in her own right anyway, makes sense they'd further see her as their goddess. Even when she's more or less just a pawn and unwilling avatar of the Outer God.
Their appearance also seems more aquatic, like shellfish than insect. It could be connected to the themes of water that the game has, though that's more associated with Death. Considering Scarlet Rot has some connection to leprosy, it being a rot and the people suffering from it missing limbs, I could see Fromsoft wanted an insect-like monster but didn't want to go with a standard fly design. Even Malenia has her rot-butterflies, perhaps to add beauty to something so horrific.
Well butterflies actually do eat rotting things and even drink blood so it still fits with the insect motif with everything having to do with Scarlet Rot.
They’re probably supposed to be silverfish I think.
While they do bear similarities I think Death is more associated with water/aquatic themes, while Rot is more associated with fungi/insects (pests, giant ants, Scorpion’s Stinger weapon, etc.)
With all the outer being and entities from space found in Elden Ring, I would not be surprised if a space ship is found.
"Those who dwell within poison know rot all too well. The death that begets life, that comes to all equally. That is to say: it is the cycle of rebirth put into practice." -poison mist and poison armament descriptions
Considering the above quote I believe that pests are the results of people that got rotted down to nothing and then converted into a kind of rot lifeform. This is further reinforced by comparing them to other things in this game that have way too many arms, Rykard (who eats people and absorbs their spirit) and the ulcerated tree spirits (which are probably amalgamations of spirits returned to the Erdtree).
What about godrick?
When I first met them they gave me the impression of prawns wearing pope hats. Turns out there is a prawn sometimes called the Cardinal Prawn, which does not have a cardinal's hat, but it is bright scarlet... Hmmm...
Probably the coolest enemies imo, the lore, the spine-chilling design, how the game states they are intelligent, but in a way that is too alien for us to understand, it’s so cool.
The Kindred Of Rot spirit summon also greatly helped me in pretty much every boss fight before Godfrey in my first playthrough, which makes them even cooler.
You know, with the way you describe everything in these games, it's clear you're an excellent writer. I'd love to read a story written by you one day.
Malenia is one of the best written characters in the whole game, mogh is a follower of the blood, which miquella is part of, so he’s completely obsessed with him, but malenia, suffered so much, and caused so much trouble to everyone because of her outer god and she’s still treated like a villain of this gamr
"Meat"
I will not eat the giant dozen-armed bugs
I love that despite the way that many other souls lore creators seem to really be reaching with their theories, yours seem to be very grounded and plausible. I'm usually pretty good at catching details and symbolism, but the termite symbolism flew right over my head in all my playthroughs. Good stuff.
I absolutely love your content!!! Straight to the point and you bring new cool and interesting aspects of the game. The lore is so already deep and rich and some parts you’d have to literally go in game files and investigate just to get another lil bit of it. Not everyone is willing or capable of doing that so thank you for diving in and showing us just how deep this game goes with its lore and awesome secrets! This is one of my favorite series (elden ring stuff ) :)
To add to Malenia abandoning or being uncaring towards the Kindred of Rot, one must remember she never chose the rot infecting her. She never chose their form, she wanted to be cured of rot alongside Miquella being cured.
She also kind of passed out after nuking Radahn... so it's not like she walked away from them.
@@Nerazmus yep. Guess we can blame Finlay for the motherless Kindred of Rot!
Here's my advice to make pests less pesky (copied from a reply):
1. The noise they make before they fire is the "rot incantation" noise, so you can know it's coming even if they're off-screen. The threads move + accelerate at a constant pace, so dodge timing is generally always the same.
2. 100% phys block shields work wonders, as Kindred of Rot deal only physical damage (even Pest Threads). Greatshields are even better because their glaives bounce off!
3. They're slippery bastards with little poise. If they're crawling sideways, don't bother attacking -- just prepare to dodge/block their attack as soon as they stop (or just back up lol).
4. Their best attack (for you) is when they arch backwards, walk forward a bit, then slam down. Easy to walk around them and backstab then, but only then.
5. If fighting more than one at a time, either become Neo or use a greatshield. In most cases you can avoid this, though (even in the Grand Cloister, as their eyesight is horrible there for whatever reason).
Bonus: The Pest Threads incantation is one of my favorites. It's actually incredible. It's one of the few incants that deal physical damage, it's homing, it doesn't cost much FP, and most importantly: it DESTROYS big targets because the threads pierce infinitely. Seriously, they melt dragons and the final boss (cast closer so they fly inside the enemy for longer). Try it out!
I use cruicible tail, pest threads, bestial sling and beast claw so often because they're all physical and handy spells. debating working on boulder of gurranq so I have a beefy poisebreaker projectile
your videos are so amazing and insightful. it literally makes my day when i see there is a new one!
When I first entered the Lake of Rot, I was gobsmacked. Felt like it was going to be a hell of a place to get through, and the fact that it was so far from Caelid made me feel like it was a sign that the rot ran so much deeper than anyone realized. I really thought that something monumental and terrible was bound to happen here. Shame that there really wasn't a whole lot to it.
The termite connection is genius!
In the Lake of Rot, right above the kindred there's a unique statue covered by fog and very difficult to observe. There's any chance to have close screenshot of it? It's a woman, covered in vines holding something in the hand.
The architecture in the lake of rot is the same as the Eternal cities. I don't know about the specific statue you are talking about but in the area there is a bunch of the long beard guys statues covered in rot so maybe it's one of these
@@davidalonsosariego2618 the one I'm talking about is the one in front of the kindred praying in its direction
@@COSODELIRANTE Probably meant to be Malenia, if the Kindred of Rot are praying to it.
It’s always nice to see one of your videos that show some interesting detail to parts of the game I don’t give enough attention to.
Thinking about it, the outer god of rot is almost certainly somewhere behind that sealed up passage you see the Pests gathered around praying
I think that the _Outer_ God of Rot is somewhere in Cosmos, like the other Outer Gods. The kindred are IMO praying to the relic that they have in the altar there.
the coolest and most annoying enemy. i love insectoid designs and theyre such a cool mashup of human and insect
Imagine waking up from your thousand years coma and learning that they made a religion around you?
How dare you make me feel sorry for these things. Really enjoying all of your Elden Ring dives. Thank you.
The grave yard at the Helig Tree where there is a bunch of them is the best farming spot.
Thinking of how the kindred come from Scarlet Rot, and therefore Malenia itself, I wonder what would happen if the Scarlet Flower were to bloom once more even after when it does during our battle with Malenia. If she went from being pretty much humanoid to growing flower-like wings, I can't help but think what would Malenia become if she fully gave into the Rot. Would she become some insect like goddess, like the kindred?
Well, the Scorpion Dagger states that it is supposedly part of the Outer God of Rot, so I would stand to reason that the Outer God of Rot is some sort of amalgamation of insects, which represents the decomposition Scarlet Rot causes.
@@dogmat8733 Yeah, that's fair. But then again, the Golden Lineage does seem to take on some of the characteristics of the deities they are envoys to, right? Radagon/Marika literally have the Elden Ring inside of them, Godwyn's body, as the First of the Dead, takes on a horrendous merman clam-like appearance and all. So it'd make sense if Malenia were to evolve into something more closely resembling the Outer God of Rot as well, at least to me.
Malenia is more like a avatar for the scarlet rot than it actually coming from her. Pretty much everything revolves around the theme of outer gods. Gods so cosmic in scale that we humans are less than ants. So the scarlet rot is a by product of one of these gods who according to the game is sealed away.
@@joshwhite557 yep, marika/radagon and malenia are pretty much just puppets to the outer gods
@@despinhabarda IMO the Outer Gods have their champions, augurs and followers, but they don't necessarily even have a physical form. Only outer god who'se physical form is mentioned is the Fell God, who was defeated by Marika. Then again, it could have been a some sort of vassal like the Elden Beast, or just a metaphor used to emphasize Marika's victory.
Also, the Rot doesn't necessarily turn everything into insects, but it's effect seems to be that of corruption. I think that Malenia wouldn't turn into a insect or anything, but the Rot would just keep corrupting her, turning her into a thing that could represent the Rot and help it spread across the world.
Ah yes, the Crawdaddy, a terrible beast indeed.
kind of remind me of some crustacean races from other fantasy games... tend to be the sort which have a strong adherence to natural order as well as greatly valuing the strength/resilience required for survival. one thing I noticed about this game is the many examples of various niches being filled wherever the will for such exists. in that sense I find their worship of rot fitting.
really enjoy your videos zullie. You bring great depth and insight to From Software’s games!
Just waiting for the DLC filled with those things and a greater Kindred of rot as new enemies oO
Me on my 5th year of living in my parents house without paying rent:
Thanks for all the content Zullie!
This guys really are scary, physically and of course because the homing lasers.
Patiently waiting for Lautrec.
Wait, what reference is there for the outer god represented by scarlet rot being sealed away? I just thought the Goddess of Rot was the outer god essentially possessing/cohabiting Malenia?
The Blue Dancer Charm and the map for the Lake of Rot.
"A great lake of standing water downstream of the Ainsel River. It is said that the divine essence of an outer god is sealed away in this land."
@@ZullietheWitch That's so interesting, I wonder if we will learn more about the outer gods in the future...
Thanks btw you rock 👍
@@leviklopfenstein8158 Also worth mentioning it's the blind swordsman that defeated the Outer God of Rot who also mentored Malenia per the Prosthesis-wearing talisman, flowing curved sword and blue garb set item descriptions. The Blue Dancer Charm describes how he was granted a flowing sword to defeat the Outer God, and he became known for his flowing style.
There’s basically a whole mini-story about a blind swordsman garbed in blue and wielding a flowing sword who sealed away the Outer God associated with Scarlet Rot deep underground and then went on to become Malenia’s mentor, and it’s told exclusively through item descriptions. I would check out the Flowing Curved Sword, the Blue Cloth armor set, the Blue Dancer Charm, the Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom, the Scorpion Stinger, and the Lake of Rot map fragment for more context.
Well, not the outer god itself, but its vassal. As the Greater Will has the Elden Beast, Rot had a giant fek off scorpion.
Its cool to learn about obscure enemies in Elden ring like this. Thanks for the content!
These bastards gave me armored core flashbacks. I even tried to boost dodge out of the way on reflex when those threads came at me for the first time
Centipedes, Ants, Termites, Stag beetles, Antlions, Dung beetles… I’m starting to think it should be called Elden Bug. Also, I suggest you look more into similarities between Astel and the dobsonfly, which tend to live near water, a common theme in both Astel fights and the link between water and the dark/deep, where Astel is arguably the only Elden Ring enemy that uses magic similar to Dark/Deep sorceries in past souls games
*Some other interesting details potentially worth noting on Pests and their insectoid design:*
• The Pests all wear snails on their heads, which appear to still be alive as the shells grow as they age. The conical shape of the snail's shell also the shape of heretical wizards' hats. This is likely aiding in allowing Gowry to assume the guise of a human while he actually occupies a Pest's body.
• The younger Pest variants have no legs, only forearms arms which makes the fact that the "fully grown" versions appear to be two different bodies attached to one another especially disturbing, as those are the sections that wiggle independently when they're laying prostrate in worship. This two-sectioned body does give them another familiar insect of inspiration.
• Like the Wraith-Callers, the adult Pests have four primary arms and two legs. The Malformed Stars also have six humanoid limbs, and their Gravity attack uses the same sort of arcing projectile paths as Pest Threads. This body shape and the dragonfly wings makes a potential inspiration for them being the nymph forms of Dragonfly or Caddisfly larva - especially as they use silk threads to form their cocoons.
• The silk from their cocoons adhere to the stones from the river bottoms, giving the transition stage a very similar appearance to Astel and the other Malformed Stars. Astel being below the Grand Cloister is also matching the themes of Rebirth from the Children of Rot as Astel's body is formed of shards of other stars.
• After defeating the Ravenmount Assassin in Liurnia, if you wait when approaching him, Yura speaks a line before you talk to him which is, _"Wretched worms, leave me be."_ In Japanese this line is, _「ざざ虫めが、苛みよるわ… うっ…、ううっ…」_ where the word ざざ虫 refers to larval dragonflies and not earthworms. The most common form is a Stenopsychidae caddisfly commonly called a Blackworm and they're taken from rivers and eaten in some regions of Japan.
• These are the larval forms of the Snake Dragonfly 蛇蜻蛉 also known as a River Centipedes 川ムカデ because of how ravenously they attack all other types of aquatic larvae. The fully grown versions look identical to the large black & gold dragonflies all around _Elden Ring,_ and they're easily identifiable by the enormous mandibles on their heads that they drop when killed. This also shows how it helps to relate that underlying theme of living on in another form to the Centipedes symbolizing Death, as well as the Snakes representing Blasphemy.
• This is one of those types of subtle differentiations and cultural-specific references that is impossible to translate 1:1 which is why designs mix and match several elements together to help a global audience pick up general themes. The Children of Rot focus on Decay leading to necessary death & rebirth, so Gowry is able to continually be reborn into new Pest bodies. With Yura's overtly Japanese design, this is subtly foreshadowing how Shabriri is going to be reborn in Yura's body, and helps give context to why Astel, Stars of Darkness is surrounded by individuals afflicted by Madness at the location of his impact under Yelough Annex Ruins.
Hopefully that makes for some interesting insight in looking at other designs and details of these things. Most of this came from me cross-checking references to the terminology used for "worms" in the game when researching Wormfaces, and making sure I wasn't conflating connections that weren't intended. This is one of the reasons why looking at multiple languages can help suddenly make certain terms stand out that are identical in others, and why Zullie's knowledge of miscellaneous Japanese mythology often aids that significantly, so hopefully this can do a bit in return.
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@@jackkendall6420 I do hope to have a better way to share this collected information at some point, haha.
It feels like Malenia dosen't want to be their godess, she dosen't even like the rot
love your work Zullie ❤
Just beat Malenia the other day, took me 82 deaths. Pretty sure that's the most of any from boss ever, including Orphan and the Glock Saint.
did you not use mimic?
@@fpejanovic I did, I just suck lol
I beat her in like 5 tries my first play through not because of skill but because I discovered the Godslayer's Greatsword ash of war could topple her even in phase 2 so I just started stunlocking her with my mimic lol
Godskin peeler ash of war eats her alive, provided if you can time it right but using summons will basically negate needing to use timing.
@@Saiuchi what a baller move lmao
This is the type of creature design that makes me feel "I wish this had been the player character, instead of a boring human."
We need a Rot ending
Babe, over here. Zullie dropped another video. I always love to see your breakdown of the visual lore of FS games. I keep up with almost every single one I can find-- and I've never even played Dark Souls yet.
I’ve been excited for this exact video!!
Beautifully presented, as always.
a pest is simply a form of life that one finds troublesome. they have a keen intellect, but it may never be understood by man. I wonder if they've ever really tried.
Been waiting for a pests video for a while now, hell ya
Imagine if Blackguard got a hold of these rotten Prawns!
The way they crawl around making chittering noises is really unnerving, but ateast they look kind of adorable when you see them curled up, sleeping or something.
The circles with lines connecting them on the weapons look like constellations/celestial bodies to me, based on the asymmetry
Imagine the smell of both the lake and the swamp
and the smell of the pests
"Eeaagghhh" -shrimp man when taking damage; best sound bite in history
These guys instantly reminded me of silverfish when I first saw them; a pretty common pest here in Norway. They even kinda move the same way when they skitter on the ground 😰
Wow, this is an incredible deep dive. I mean, you even looked back at Kings Field!
Looking over some of the comments likening it to Silverfish, I do see the connection more than centipedes now that I've looked them up. Silverfish also have a kind of cone shaped tail like the Kindred's head, but also the general shape of them and having only six fully functioning limbs yet the illusion of more depending on what picture you look at on google, it's very interesting indeed. I also didn't realise the Kindred have loads of smaller arms and hands, I thought it was like the wiggling teeth-ribs of the Gaping Dragon as it was a very similarly unsettling feeling.
They look like human mantis shrimps with a funny snail shell hat.
Their body and the many limbs remind me of the giant isopod. Great video!
You read my mind. I was just thinking the other day about how I'd like a video about these buggos.
my back is also covered by a mesh labelled "meat"
He's like "need a hand?"
FINALLY SEEING KINGS FIELD FOOTAGE IN A ZULLIE VID. WE MADE IT.
As usual awesome video Thanks!!!!!!
Oh oh god.. I didn’t notice all the tiny baby hands
shudders violently
I would really love it if you could do these types of videos for locations, like the architecture of Raya Lucaria, Ephael or even the Lands themselves. Elden Ring is so beautiful.
Cheeky little buggers, they are. Spent a whole night exploring their cave at a snails pace only to realize the exit was in fact down, not up.
When the video started , I first expected the usual "This used to be a human"-reveal.
But the origin of this one is also interesting.
I call the kindred shrimp, and recite the forrest gump shrimp speech whenever my brother goes through their zones
They're shrimp. They eat the dead stuff and keep the area clean, kinda like how they guard the places of rot
Uses its hand a lot, shoots out sticky substance, simps for Malenia (even though she abandoned them). Damn Miyazaki really hitting us maidenless gamers where it hurts...
I absolutely fucking love seeing King's Field footage.
poor Malenia and Millicent, imagine you have Malaria and then the mosquitoes start worshipping you
Seeing their faces up close it almost looks like they’re wearing conical shells on their heads
Them being termites who might be eating the remains of the previous great tree makes a lot of sense
Getting teleported by the trick chest to that cave and these guys being the first thing I saw in there freaked me out.
Zullie the witch is the kind of person who can find the meaning of life
Instead of “Kindred Of Rot,” I like to call the “silverfish,” like the insect