Elden Ring Lore: All Outer Gods Explained | What is the Greater Will? The Frenzied Flame? And More

from the demigod shard bearers that make up most of the main bosses to the god queen america to the ever-reaching urgery worship deities and gods make up a significant theme of elden rings world but beyond and above all of these simple gods and demigods of the lands between lie the outer gods ominous figures that we never see in game but whose actions pull the strings and set the stage for the world we play in as these beings are only ever referenced and not actually seen their entire existence can be missed by a casual player and even a lore sleuth may be left grasping for anything concrete to say about them so in this video i'll be explaining what we know about the outer gods of eldon ring each and every one of them briefly stated they are the greater will the frenzied flame the formless mother the scarlet right god the god of the death birds the fel god the god of the dragons and the moon i'll have something to say about that last one first is the greater will this is the most well-known obvious and directly influencing outer god it's even explicitly mentioned by npcs like enya the greater will is the entity behind the elden ring the deification of america and the message and authority of the two fingers any references the greater will quite a few times in her dialogue and this is likely why most players will know of it in interpreting the two fingers she says that the greater will has not abandoned the world despite its state of disarray she says it is pleased when you acquire two great runes of the elden ring though the erd tree's rejection of the player and the subsequent consulting that the two fingers does with the greater will may hint at a sinister truth that the greater will is not communicating with the two fingers and that it may actually have abandoned the world see according to the elden star's incantation the greater will spawned the elden ring and the order that came up around it it sent a golden star burying a beast into the lands between which would later become the elden ring the greater will installed the order that came to dominate the lands between indirectly through this order and directly through its own power the greater will defeated the dragons destroyed the giants enslaved the misbegotten reviled the omen banished the knocks cursed the eternal cities and buried the entire clan of merchants alive but it did make life pretty good for everyone else at least at the start of the order during the time of the urgery blessings the greater will seems to have originally blessed its chosen people or faction with strength and other sorts of blessings but it also demanded complete subjugation and then let the world fall into disarray now it seems to have abandoned the lands between at least in terms of actively helping out or not it still holds control over the age as the age is one defined by the elden ring and urgery but that may be coming to an end for it seems that queen merica the one the greater will made a vessel for the elden ring had some form of falling out with this outer god and despite all those grave crimes i mentioned earlier i just can't fathom why in spite of being ordained by the greater will it is merica who is connected with the black knife assassins and it is she who shattered the elden ring there was much speculation to be had concerning the greater will enough to fill many separate videos but now we have somewhat of a clearer picture of what it is the main being behind the setup of the world as we see it but not something so pure and righteous as its golden light might suggest when your appointed god turns on you not to mention a host of others that we'll talk about soon and most of the world hates your representative it might be time to reconsider whether you are the good party from our eyes as the tarnished the greater will is the outer god we know the most about and despite its appearances it seems to be a dark and controlling one one that inspires rebellion from its so-called greater will even the name implies its design to override the will and choice of the people under it the people of the lands between whereas the greater will has the two fingers the frenzied flame has the three fingers while not called out as explicitly as the greater will it seems clear that an outer god of frenzy flame is represented by the frenzy based three fingers fortunately for us there is a little bit clearer information about the flame firstly we know that its incantations produce frenzy turning people mad in this way it is quite like the lovecraftian great old ones which seem to be direct inspiration for this game's outer gods both lovecraft's monsters and the frenzied flame are too much for a human or tarnished mind to comprehend and we go insane when confronted with them just like the characters from lovecraft's stories secondly the frenzy flame has a dedicated ending and some dialogue that clearly lays out its aspirations the lord of frenzy flame ending shows the world being melted away into a single being burned by the yellow chaos flame but before this we can talk to hayeta to hear her speak for the three fingers and about the desire of the frenzied flame speaking to her after acquiring the mark of the fingers she says all that there is came from the one great then came fractures and births and souls but the greater will made a mistake torment despair affliction every sin every curse every one born of the mistake and so what was borrowed must be returned melt it all away with the yellow chaos flame until all is won again so originally the greater will and the frenzied flame were one bean the so-called one great makes sense that they have the two fingers and the three fingers as representatives then two plus three equals five fingers or one whole hand and the frenzy flame sees all the pain of the world the curses and sin and torment as a result of the greater will introducing divisions and individuality it wants to melt everything back into one where there will be no individuals and no pain basically it's end of evangelion so we do learn that the greater will does have some positives it let there be individuals life and real thought but it's also worth noting that the frenzied flame may have only been able to contest the greater will due to the greater will's own wrongdoing remember when i said the greater will and its order buried the clan of merchants alive while the rest of the merchant armor set reads that after they were buried they chanted a curse of despair and summoned the flame a frenzy so even if the aim of the flame is contestable it might only be around because of the greater will and its cruelty though if we do succumb to short-sightedness and hatred for the greater will we are reminded of the mistaken path of this specific alternative for if we consider a return to the lifeless singularity the frenzy flame wishes melano argues the other side saying if you intend to claim the frenzied flame i ask that you cease it is not to be meddled with it is chaos devouring life and thought unending however ruined this world has become however mired in torment and despair life endures births continue there is beauty in that is there not if you would become lord do not deny this notion please leave the frenzied flame alone now we begin the outer gods confirmed and potential that we don't know that much about first is the formless mother or mother of truth this is a being who craves wounds and probably blood if i had to guess and she was served by moog lord of blood in front of her moog's accursed blood that is his omen blood erupted with fire from his sacred spear we learn more of this connection it describes itself as an instrument of communion with an outer god who bestows power upon accursed blood it concludes the mother of truth desires a wound if we look closely at moog's boss fight we can see that many of his attacks especially his spear nihil attack involve creating portals when we read his spear's skill we learn what he is doing raise the sacred spear and pierce the body of the formless mother so moog is able to pierce this outer god and create explosions of blood maybe she offers her power in return for moog service and continual creation of more blood but beyond this we don't know much moog had his ambitions of creating a dynasty through mykola but for whatever reason that didn't work out it probably didn't help that mikala had an aversion to the meddling of the outer gods we don't know what the formless mother wants other than blood and wounds formless could mean she has no real body and mother of truth could denote some aspect of true insight into the way of the world but we just don't have anything else to go off of or draw conclusions from another clearly stated but lacking info outer god is the god of scarlet rot or simply rot itself the story begins with the blue dancer charm which states the dancer in blue represents a fairy who in legend bestowed a flowing sword upon a blind swordsman blade in hand the swordsman sealed away an ancient god a god that was rot itself the scorpion's stinger dagger confirms a scarlet rot bean which is a sealed outer god maybe it was sealed in a cavern that later became the lake of rot it lay sealed but its power still oozes out so here we have an outer god present in the lands between that was sealed away by a swordsman it evidently still has influence in that it was able to somehow curse melania blade amyla to be born afflicted of rot so much so that she became known as a goddess of rot but the connection doesn't end there the prosthesis where heirloom tells melania's story though born into the accursed rot when the young girl encountered her mentor and his flowing blade she gained wings of unparalleled strength so the blind swordsman and his flowing blade sealed away the rot and taught melania how to grow strong despite or maybe because of its curse again we don't learn much about the rock god itself it was sealed and cursed melania but we don't know its ambitions or machinations we can see that it finds something of an adversary in flowing water the blind swordsman is described as using a flowing sword and there's even a weapon called the flowing curved sword whose description reads legends speak of a master of the sword garbed in blue and his curved blade that was patterned after flowing water whereas rot is stagnation flowing water is continual changing and progression the game even says as much the blue cloth set likely the clothing of the swordsman reads the blue color of its fabric symbolizes brisk waters as fluid and flowing as the sword in the hand of its wearer just as still waters turn foul stagnation leads to decay whatever more there is to be said of the rot god may be lost to the flow of time and a fun fact before we leave this god melania's weapon the hand of melania has a unique weapon art called the waterfowl dance waterfowl like water bird and its move set is similar to the flowing curved swords moveset so if the blue cloth set is the set of her blind swordmaster there's a nice poetry between her water fowl dance and the set talking about still water turning foul as in bad stagnant or unhealthy i thought that was a really nice piece of poetry last among our explicitly named outer gods is the god of the death birds only one item references this being the twin bird kite shield which reads the twin bird is said to be the envoy of an outer god and mother of the death birds there are plenty of death bird items that talk about their rite of death and ashen remains and whatnot but no other mention or reference to their god interesting that it's a mother but this one seems to like death whereas the previous mother was pretty exclusively loving blood so probably not the same being and otherwise crow god is a mystery finally we fall upon a set of gods that are not necessarily referred to as outer gods or even gods but have some significant presence to be in the conversation first is the fel god clearly named by the incantation flame of the fel god the fel god is one associated with fire and the fire giants the incantation says that it releases a ball of raging fire said to be inhabited by a fel god it also says that the fel god still lurks within the fire giants the giants were deeply associated with flames and that's why the order employed the help of the frozen zamor warriors to combat them the mountaintop of giants is littered with their frozen bodies their flame power is expounded on in the burn of flame incantation it reads the fire giants borrowed from the power of a fell god and still they were defeated yet their failure released them from their solitary curse to serve as keepers of the flame for eternity we might be able to find the identity of this fel god if we connect the note about how the fel god still lurks within the fire giants to the one-eyed shield which reads a tricksome shield made from white stone depicting a malformed one-eyed god the barrel of a firearm pokes through the open mouth once worshipped by the giants this evil deity is believed to have been slain by queen america with this in mind the cutscene from the fight with the fire giant may reveal the fel god to be residing within the last fire giant who we slay perhaps this was simply an ancient patron god of the giants after all we see the greater will favor the people of the order the frenzied flame has an affinity for the merchant clan the death bird mother must like the death birds and we'll see with the next entry in our list that the dragons had their own god too one final note while on the giants the other item from the fire giant's remembrance is the giant's red braid which reads every giant is red of hair and radagon was said to have despised his own red locks perhaps that was a curse of their kind between this and his son radon's great size it seems likely that ratagan could have been at least part giant moving on i mentioned that the dragons had their own god another deity referenced in exactly one item the remembrance of the dragon lord it reads the dragonlord whose seat lies at the heart of the storm beyond time is said to have been elden lord in the age before the earth tree once his god was fled the lord continued to await its return there is nothing else that references this god so it's a god that was around before the greater will made its move but fled once the order of the elden ring began to throw its weight around the time of the dragons is referenced by each drake talisman they ruled the prehistoric era of the erd tree protecting their lord as a wall of living rock but we don't learn more about their god placidus the dragonlord was waiting for the god's return but it seemed to never come another casualty of the machinations of the greater will but with so little information about it or the time of the dragons it's hard to make any proper judgment finally we arrive at our last possible outer god likely the most contentious one too it is the supposed god of the moon or darkmoon or full moon or black moon or moon and stars or just night the community can't really decide on a name this is an entity that i think exists in some way may be like the primeval current of the mages but i'll be upfront that i do not think it is an outer god this supposed god of the moon would be involved in the age of stars ending the end of ronnie's quest the connections of ronnie's line and the moon are clear to be fair both her and her mother have moon spells which discuss their experience with the moon entity ronald encountered the enchanting full moon when she was young and later it would bewitch the academy a young ronnie encountered the dark moon left by the hand of her mother and beheld something cold dark and veiled in a cult mystery rey lucaria is referenced as the house of the full moon ronnie is referred to as lunar princess ronnie in the darkmoon ring but even with all of this the moon is never described with the agency or identity of the other outer gods both the greater will and the frenzied flame have motives and take specific action or try to have you take such action to achieve certain ends the formless mother is explicitly called an outer god and stated to have desires for wounds the god of scarlet rot does not have much opportunity for desire or action but it is explicitly called an outer god and we see its impact in the lake of rot and in melania the death word god is explicitly referred to as is the dragon god and the fel god the first as an outer god the latter two as deities worshiped in their own right but none of this is true of the moon whichever version you choose it is never referred to as really doing anything or exhibiting certain desires or simply having an identity yeah it was enchantingly encountered by ranala and bewitched the academy but these words work just as well for an alluring natural wonder or source of power or insight similar to the primeval current that various mages peered into and developed spells in inspiration of the moon and its themes and connection with ronnie and the age of stars ending is worthy of its own video but from what i've presented here and from everything that i've seen it seems clear to me that it is not an outer god if it is it is of a different kind to every other outer god that we know of and at that point calling it the same kind of thing and outer god doesn't really make much sense to me the outer gods are interfering beasts perhaps we have them to thank for the existence of life in the lands between but their meddling has also brought domination and disarray some of the most sympathetic characters at least to me like ronnie and mikala are dedicated to warding off their influence and living freely outside their control living so that they and we can enact our own will not subject to some greater will in light of that i like the concepts of these gods and think they present a nice backdrop for our tarnished to struggle through the world and against demigods gods and that thing even beyond god's outer gods in this game in this struggle we can find and maybe even make our own path if you want to learn more about each of these outer gods then i would recommend subscribing i plan to talk about not only the moon and ronnie but more of these gods as we piece together more information on each one and especially if any dlc brings new info with that i hope you enjoyed the video and that i will see you in the next one thanks for watching bye you

Channel: MadLuigi

Views: 1,271,005

Keywords: elden, ring, elden ring, elden ring lore, endings, ending explained, endings explained, lore, lore explanation, age of fracture, duskborn, fia, tarnished, age of stars, ranni, grace, marika, lands between

Id: EmcbJp_gjbY

Length: 18min 49sec (1129 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 31 2022