Elden Ring Lore | Gloam-Eyed Queen and The Godskins

on my first playthrough of Elden ring nothing captured my attention more than the godskin apostles terrifying Bringers of death adorned and Grim Robes of Flesh whose very purpose is audacious yet captivating to bring death to the gods the way of the god-skin threat is punctuated by the power of their leader the glomide queen an emperion tied to the power of death and death and a direct challenge to marker and her God Ken the glomide queen would channel the power of death and death taking the form of the black flame and beneath her she would raise up a Creed of terrifying apostles who had wield this flame in her name wearing the tan skin of their enemies enacting a terrifying God hunt yet ultimately America would have Victory given to her by her Shadow bound Beast and the glomide Queen's Legacy would be hammered into the timeline yet for an event of such cataclysmic proportions we know very little about the details who was the glomide queen what actually are the godskin apostles and when did it happen these are questions I will seek greater Clarity on in this lore video and so I ask you to join me this week as we explore the lore of the mysterious glomide Queen and her godskin Apostles at this stage I would also like to offer my thanks to Eugenia Eliza an incredible artist and content creator who was commissioned to do 3D renders of theoretical locations and characters from the godskin movement and so please check out their content which I will link below and remember guys if you like Elden ring lore then consider subscribing to the channel and liking this video I think a good starting point for this subject is talking about the glomide queen and her nature specifically the fact that she is an emperion and let's discuss what it means to be emperion I'd like to start with the item description of the black flame ritual which reads the glomide queen led the apostles it is said that she was an emperion chosen by the fingers for me this is one of the most important pieces of lore when we're talking about the glomide queen and so we know the glomide queen was an emperion a state of being that is best described by Rani who says the following about emperion status I was once an imperial of the demigods only I mikola and Melania could claim that title each of us was chosen by our own two fingers as a candidate to succeed Queen America to become the new god of the coming age which is when I received Blythe in the form of a vassal tailored for an imperial so lots of information there pertinent to the glomide queen firstly there is something there that some people might mess and that is rani's omission of the glomide queen entirely only I mikola and Millennia could claim that title meaning that this generation of emperions has clearly come about a significant time period after the glomide queen was active and that's a point we will revisit in the next chapter when we look about placing this in the timeline returning to imperian status Rani talks of how she and the twins were selected to be an emperion by their own two fingers and so the Occam's razor assumption to be made is that at some point the glomide queen was also selected by two fingers to be an emperion when looking at the role of the two fingers specifically errors at Roundtable hold we can very much see that they are instruments of the greater well meant to guide us towards a single goal to ascend the Elden throne and Usher in a new age fine work Brave tarnished the greater will is pleased you have earned the right to become Elden Lord now seek the Earth tree and an audience with Queen America to become Olden Lord and restore the golden order and indeed Rani says that she was chosen by two fingers and she was meant to usher in a new age and so we can assume that anything chosen by the two fingers is done so at the behest of the greater well as part of its plan to Institute a new type of order an emperion's role in the coming of a new order is to be a candidate for godhood taking America's place at the head of a new order so the glomide queen was chosen to potentially be a god a god whose order would no doubt be defined by the Rune of death as the centerpiece of her power this is where a crucial part of an understanding of the lore is required that being that the greater well considers those for godhood that generally represent something outside of the current order for example we learned from Gary that Millennia was born with the Scarlet raw inside of her and was an emperion for a potential new order an order of rot Queen America and her King consort Radigan were blessed with twin demigods and Millennia was one of them she was born an imperian carrying the Scarlet wrought an empirion is no mere demigod in the age of the Eldon ring and queen Manuka the precious empyrion was born a new God to forge a new order and so likewise we can assume that the glomide queen was chosen by her two fingers to be a new God to forge a new order of death a video I often reference on this channel is rather Task Force video on how the greater will does not care about the golden order in particular that it just wants an order of some kind in this video ratatasker talks on the relevance of procedure sax being named as Eldon Lord which of course suggests that at one stage there was a different Elden Lord a different God which ruled over a different order defined by a differently configured Elden ring perhaps the very Elden ring Illustrated in fire Mozilla a far more wild and Primal looking Elden ring than the more refined and cut down version we see in the age of the golden order I discussed the ramifications of this idea in my outer Gods lore video which I will link below but in short melania's remembrance makes it clear that she was born with her afflictions and yet she was still selected as an emperion a potential replacement for Marika Gary talks about the order of raw and so it makes it clear that the greater World considered a new order of rot led by Melania as the replacement for America's order and while the Scarlet wrought may seem horrific to us to the greater well it is just another form of order and indeed Gary lays out the principles of this suggested order of wrought since Melania fought Redan and the great Scarlet flower blossomed in aeonia I have dedicated myself to her and to the resplendance of the order of rot the cycle of Decay and rebirth when considering the notion of unusual orders that are seen as acceptable by the greater well we could look at two very different characters too tarnished the dung eater and gold mask both of these characters have iconic bits of gear gold mask's mask and dung ether's son medallion both of the item descriptions for each have very similar language and in essence both of them describe how their Sun designs they both carry are visual representations of a guiding force and the vision of a ring their mending runes that await them at the end of their Journey this suggests that both of these extremely diverse characters were directed and guided towards such a goal the tarnished have been called back as part of the greater Wells plans so the dung eater and the gold mask have a role to play here and if we think about the guidance that Shone upon them both this outer force that directed them to take the actions that they did we have to assume that it was the greater will and this therefore shows that dungieter is as equal a proposition to gold mask when it comes to repairing the Eldon ring ultimately they both produce a mending Rune that will help repair the Eldon ring and thus play a role in bringing about a new order and so no matter what you think about dung eater and while we may think it's a horrendous fact for the world to be cursed in his ending it shows that the greater world doesn't really care as long as order is restored and the ring is repaired and if you'd like a more in-depth look at both dungator and gold mask and the role they play in the greater world's plans I do have a lore video on each of those so with all of that said it isn't really a surprise to learn that there was an emperion elected by the greater well on the two fingers that was associated with deaths and death the glomide queen was considered and elected by the two fingers to be the potential God of a new age to overthrow and replace Marca it was part of the greater Wells plan ultimately the power behind the glomide queen is a rune of the Elden ring the Rune of death and this is why the black flame incantations require Faith much like Crucible and archery incantations do as well but if the glomide queen was meant to bring in a new Epoch we do have to ask the question of when this happened and what necessitated the need for a new emperion and so with that said let us now discuss where where the glomide queen and her godskins set in the timeline when it comes to a general placement of these events we do have two pillars of lore that cap either end of its potential timeline firstly we know it must have come after the war of the Giants and the ceiling of the flame of ruin this is because of the black monks traitors to the fire monks who began to wield the black flame and we now see them operating alongside godskins in various locations suggesting that these traitors joined the godskin movement and of course the order that they defected from the fire monks only was established upon the ceiling of the flame of Ruin giving us some level of confidence that the godskin apostasy happened after the war of the Giants on the other end of the timeline we know that the godskin event must have happened before the night of the black knaves as this was the event that would lead malekith to seal the Rune of death within his flesh thus robbing the black flame of its power as is told To Us by the scaring black flame and of course their true power the godsling power of the black flame must have been active during this event so a pretty white knit but it does give us some framework to work within our understanding of the timeline has evolved much over the past year since the game's release to the point where we are starting to get an understanding of the ancient civilizations that came before the golden order one of the vanguards of lore discussion is tarnished archaeologist who has presented incredibly valuable theories regarding the history of the lands between and if you haven't watched any of their content then please check it out because in this chapter we're going to be presenting a timeline theory that was developed by tarnished archaeologist and saw credit to them we know that America was once in Perry and herself thanks to the description of malakith's remembrance before she ascended to godhood America now rules over the age of the archery the age symbolized by the golden tree and now currently is anchored by the golden order yet Marca has seemingly ruled over at least two ages best current age of the golden order and a prior age known as the age of Plenty in the past I had never put a hard border between these two ages seeing the age of plenty more as a sub-era the early portion of the age of the Earth tree however in tarnished archaeologists video Creeds of the artery they more heavily separate the division between the age of Plenty and what comes after tarnished archaeologist combines the lore of what we know of the age of The Crucible and the age of Plenty into one era called the ancient archery era and he believes that this age was different from the one that came after because in this time the Earth tree was an actual arboreal tree a real tree and by the way the term ancient archery is actually a Canon one as the term is used in the description of blessing of the earth tree blessings Boone and archery heal you'll notice these are all incantations regarding Rejuvenation and vitality very fitting for the age of plenty and the end game fails seem to name the sigil the sigil used on these spells as the ancient Earth tree and given The Crucible incantations used the same sigil I do think tarnished archaeologist is Justified in gripping the age of Plenty and age of The Crucible together under this umbrella term ancient archery the age of Plenty as described in multiple sources such as the Blessed Dew Talisman and the icon Shield this was an edge in which Bounty he blessed you dripped from the bows of the tree itself an age where Godfrey was the Elden Lord going by the description of the Amber medallions which emphasize such Amber as an important Treasure of his reign tarnished archaeologist argues that the archery has already been burned before we even reach lindel the main archaeological evidence that they look to is the blanket of Ash that already covers Lane Dell when we first arrive here even reaching the heights of America's bed chamber the most obvious source of this ash is undoubtedly the Earth tree not only because laying Dale lies in the shadow of the earth tree but because we can see this process being repeated when we ourselves burn the Earth tree and bury Olive Lane Dale in a fresh blanket of Ash and therefore it does seem hard to argue that the Ash and Lyndale is from the earth tree meaning that the Earth tree has been burnt before Cycles flow and stagnation all Concepts familiar to fans of the Soul series and a concept tarnished archaeologist suggests are still relevant to Eldon ring in regards to the art tree and its regeneration to this end let us look more closely at the wording of the Blessed due Talisman which reads it was once thought that the Blessed sap of the earth tree would drip from its bows Forever by that age of Plenty swiftly came to a close and with time the archery became more an object of faith to this tarnished archaeologists asked the insightful question how did the tree change from a functional tree with real bounty to nothing more than a symbol an idol of worship how do we reconcile the more arboreal depictions of The Crucible with the golden tree that we see before us how do we compare the more natural looking Tree in some depictions with the Celtic knot version of the earth tree depicted on archery incantations and Knights of the earth tree two tarnished archaeologists the answer is this there was an original art tree a real tree in this age of Plenty that actually had a bounty but it was burned to the ground and ultimately was replaced by a phantom tree that we see before us and indeed there is further evidence that the artery was once a wooden real arboreal tree for example there is the gray club which is said to be made from a herd tree branch yet it is wooden it is not like the golden Phantom that exists before us there is also the Helm of the tree Sentinel The Defenders of the archery and yet their helmet Bears a horsehair Crest in the shape of a tree that is very natural looking and looks nothing absolutely nothing like the phantom tree that now stands before us there's also the staff of the Eritrea avatars the description of which says that it represents the Earth Tree in its former Radiance again the tree shown here is very natural looking very different from the current golden archery the examples go on such as the reliefs of a natural tree found in the shields of the statues of tree Sentinels at the Grand lifts and reliefs found on the basis of statues and at the entrance to the Queen's bed chamber and the grand lift of dectus long have people argued about the nature of the inner wooden tree and the outer golden Phantom of the earth tree trying to discern if these are two separate trees in tarnish archaeologist's mind these are both the Earth tree the wooden stump of the original Bountiful archery and its Phantom replacement grafted onto it through the power of the Eldon ring and indeed we too replace the golden archery that we burn to the ground should we choose the Elden Lord endings when we repair the Elden ring and we use one of three mending runes the destroyed Phantom archery is replaced with a brand spanking new one and its color is reflective of The Mending Rune that we have put into the Eldon ring showing that this phantom tree really is a reflection of the Elden ring and so tarnished archaeologists suggests that this has at least happened once and maybe more that the original wooden oak tree that grew as a result of The Crucible era was burned to the ground and that is why the age of Plenty came swiftly to a close and why they blessed at you and the Bounty that came from the earth tree came to an end because it isn't a real tree anymore and thus the Bounty can only now be found at its Offspring the minor are trees this is a pretty incredible Theory and I highly recommend you check out tarnished archaeologist's video Creeds of the archery for more and depth look at what I've just talked about but with these Concepts in mind the rise of a new emperion could make sense a candidate intended for godhood to lead the world into a new era and perhaps we can tie it in to the end of this age of Plenty or even if you don't believe it was then maybe now we can acknowledge there were other times within the archery era where the age could have and should have come to a close with Marca being replaced by a new God there are some pieces of evidence that could point to the godskin apostasy taking place at the End of the Age of Plenty and this ancient archery era firstly many believe that melanor is the glomide queen and should you summon her in the fight with more God her Casting sigil is this Sigil of the ancient artery or Crucible era suggesting she could be dated back to this time period there is also the reference to The Crucible in the godskin Nobles robe item description and while it may be a thematic parallel it could be hinting at the fact that The Crucible had some effect on the Noble's inhuman aspects possibly suggesting they are products of this time as well but most notably the Black Blade incantation malekith's signature incantation has the same ancient archery sigil on its item icon while all of this is circumstantial and speculation it still makes sense from common sense as we have already acknowledged Rani doesn't mention the glomide queen is one of the emperions in her generation the fact she doesn't even mention the glomide queen suggests that the glomide queen was an emperion and was active a long time ago also there are too many other events that happen later on in the timeline such as the night of the black knaves and it would therefore make sense that the godskin apostasy something that definitely preceded the night of the black knives would come early on in Queen Mark as Reign and given the Ash and Lain Dell we know there are other burnings of the earth tree but what events were these linked to could it possibly be the rise of a new empyrion who wielded the power of death and death in the form of a flame we will talk more about these ideas later on in the video but to conclude I think there's enough circumstantial evidence that shows a the Earth tree was burned before B there have been multiple eras under America's Rule and C it most likely meant that the glomide queen came early on in the timeline and was likely a challenge at the Twilight of the age of Plenty but of course I leave it to you to decide where you think this event sat in the timeline and I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below but with that said let us now examine the glow made Queen and her potential identity before we jump into this next chapter I want to acknowledge a great video by content creator last protagonist as their video on the glomide queen has been instrumental in my fundamental ideas on the subject and so while I well referenced them directly at certain points I wanted to acknowledge their influence in a general sense the identity of the glomide queen has always been somewhat of a mystery and so with that said let us unpack some of these possibilities I'd like to start by examining the very nature of the glomide queen herself and what she perhaps represents glomer is defined as the following according to Collins Dictionary Twilight or the darker part of Twilight and it is ultimately synonymous with dusk until the removal of the one instance of a dust guide Queen in one of the patches doesn't really hold a huge significance however what does hold significance is the already existing connection between Dusk and death for example in the ending that relates to those who live in death and Godwin is called the age of the duskborne this of course makes sense having a symbolic tie to the glomide queen given that she was once connected and channeled the power of the Rune of death which is ultimately the artifact responsible for the creation of the prince of death and those who live in death the connection between dusk or gloom and death in a metaphorical sense it's pretty easy to understand dusk is the end of the day and death is the end of one's life they are both the Twilight of something indeed at the time at glom eyed could just be a reference to her purpose to bring death to America and her God kin heralding the Twilight of the age of the Gods and in a way if we consider the time in which we are suggesting her rise took place the age of Plenty the glomide Queen's domain is very much an inversion of this the age of Plenty the age of Crucible is essentially an age of Vitality and abundance an age of Life unrestrained whereas the glomide Queen the representative of the black flame and destined death brought death the complete mirror of the age of life and abundance a great observation about this thematic inversion was made by content creator quelag on Twitter who said The Following Ania refers to the Rune of Destin death as the shadow of the golden order the Rune of death goes by two names the other is death and death The Forbidden Shadow plucked from the golden order upon its creation which makes sense as it's inverted from barca's crucifix I think this is a really powerful observation by quill like here that the glomide Queen's Rune very much represented him in version 2 America the literal Shadow to her rule and as quelight points out it does look like an inversion of America's Rune indeed it is possible that marca's original Rune is a rune of life and therefore the Rune of death would be the literal Shadow to Mark as Rune the reasoning for this potential speculation comes from a tweet by content creator sekiro doobie who tweeted about an item description found in version 1 of the game and this version of the game the icon Shield a shield that depicts the age of Plenty mentions a rune of Life whilst of course this is cut content and shouldn't necessarily be considered Canon it does for me make more sense to Quail egg's idea of the Rune of death literally being an inversion or Shadow to Queen marica's rule potentially the Rune of life and the Run of life would make sense for America given that the Earth tree is the Nexus of life in the lands between especially in the age of Plenty whoever the glomide queen was it is clear that her power the power of the black flame that is used by her and her Apostles was channeled by her signature weapon the god Slayer Greatsword the description of which reads the following the black Flames wielded by the apostles are channeled from their sword this suggests that the Flames themselves even the ones wielded by the apostles and the Nobles are directly channeled from the Rune of death by their sword it is a medium between the two really highlighting the importance of this weapon to the godskin movement last protagonist makes some very interesting observation in regards to the sword highlighting its double helix structure that is not dissimilar from the sacred Relic sword a weapon made from the body of a god perhaps their sword itself was made by a similar process and we know the knocks have experience in making weapons from corpses like the Finger Slayer blade despite the nightmarish concept of making a person into a sword we know that such swords do hold important power for example the Finger Slayer blade seems to be the only blade capable of harming a two fingers therefore it is fairly logical to assume that given its double helix dna-esque shape that the godslayer blade could also be one that was made from a corpse for a spatial purpose the purpose of channeling the power of the Rune of death in his glow-mite Queen video last protagonist does even suggest a theory but it could be possible that the sword is the glomide queen herself that she was the one who is able to channel the black flame and thus the sword is able to and following her defeat she was turned into a sword suffering a similar fate to Marca and Radigan as a punishment upon her defeat another fascinating detail about the God Slayer Greatsword is that it exactly matches the shape of the Rune of death if you turn it Point facing down you can see with its downward facing Health that it perhaps takes the shape of the Rune of death and this could be used as an argument to say that the sword was indeed once the glomide queen that it takes the shape of the Rune of death because of her relation to this rune however I am more of a mind that this is a purpose-built sword for the glomite queen due to the fact it is a highly detailed sword both the sacred Relic Sword and the Finger Slayer blade are more Primal in their aspect whereas the entire design of the god Slayer Greatsword does seem to suggest that it was purpose made hence why its design is so highly detailed the sword is being designed to evoke the idea of the Rune of death itself the pivotal artifact to the glomide Queen's power and the movement of the godskins and I think the idea that it represents the Rune of death is better captured by this fan made footage by Eugenia that portrays the glomide queen standing Victorious over a fallen God bringing its Point down on her foe the Rune of death hanging over the heads of the Gods not only does it seem to have been forged in the very shape of the Rune of death but it also seems to display a swirling flame it's not really a double helix to me it looks like a flame going upwards no doubt evoking the very black flame it is used to channel and to me it also seems designed specifically to channel the flame again human made due to the Gap in its center from which the black flame will emerge however I do leave the matter of the sword up to you to decide whether it is a sword made from a corpse if it's the glomide queen herself or if it was designed with the specifics of The Gourmet Queens requirements in mind with that said let us return to the matter of the glomide Queen's identity now I have heard many people make the argument that they have to be related to America and if we consider the other existing imperians that we know of this does make some sort of sense Melania and mikola are direct offsprings of America and depending on your Viewpoint Rani is the daughter of marca's other personality or at the very least is America's stepdaughter however we have to remember that a one stage marker herself was chosen as an emperion and so we aren't sure 100 on the situation surrounding her election to godhood and so we can't be starting in nailing down the prerequisites of impairing status yeah if I was to go out on a limb I would say that emperion status can be a combination of both blood relation and or potential with that said I can't help but thank the glomide queen with thematically fit within the Eternal cities being related to the Newman Mark as kin whether she is directly related to the queen or not of course we will look at that potential later the connections between the Norks the Newman and the queen marker herself are well known to the community at their stage with the black knife assassin armor telling us the Assassins are Newman and Ken to America whilst rogier also refers to them as Scions of the Eternal City and in general for a history of the Knox I would recommend both my video on the Eternal cities and tarnished archaeologists video on the Eternal Empire for two different accounts on the history of the Eternal cities and the norcs but whatever you believe about the Eternal cities and the nox it is clear that this is a Divergent Newman society that very much opposed the greater well as the armor set for the Knox reads the following long ago the knocks invoked the ire of the greater well and were banished deep underground now they live under a false Sky an eternal anticipation of their liege of the coming age of stars and their lord of night so it is clear that these are people who have acted directly against the greater well leading to their banishment underground however as I have already argued the godskin apostasy isn't really an attack against the greater well and is more against Marca herself and it falls within the natural cycles overseen by the greater well however this is not to say that the glomide queen could not have come from these people either before or after their banishment and if it did come after when they were known as the nox one cannot help but think they would still get a great joy with laying Mark a low and bringing an end to her age of Plenty so when looking at the possible connections to the Eternal City I'd like to look at one of my favorite lore items in the game the godskin swaddling cloth and this item reads the following sacred cloth of the godskin Apostles made from Supple skin sewn together the glomide queen cradles newborn Apostles swaddled in this cloth soon they will grow to become the death of the Gods this has always been a striking image to me of the glomide queen cradling newborn Apostles a sin that Eugenia has incredibly brought to life for this video from the moment they are born they are cradled by the glomite queen and this makes it abundantly clear that the godskins are not regular humans nor are they recruited not only that but it says that soon they will grow to become the death of the Gods and to me this has always suggested some kind of accelerated growth and combined that they are Apostles from their very birth leads me to conclude that they are artificial life forms raised up by the glomide queen herself there is of course a people who are very familiar with creating an artificial life form the Eternal cities and we've discussed this many times in the channel before but for the sake of this video let us again look at the creations of the norcs when we're trying to discuss the connections to the godskins one of the most obvious examples of the Eternal seti tampering with life is the dragon Ken soldiers who we can learn of via the frozen lightning incantation which reads the dragon Ken were born in the Eternal City where the new nurture sky nor true lightning and via the dragon skill blade which reads alas the Dragon Kin soldiers never attained immortality and perished as decrepit pale imitations of their skyborne kin while crude these tortured failures are evidence of the eternal's proclivity for tampering with life and if we consider the nazian interests in alchemy then the sky is the limit when we talk of alchemy we can of course refer to the celestial Dew a fate altering tonic and the puppet draft again a tonic which manipulates fate to leverage control over living beings this alchemical manipulation could have potentially ended up in the creation of the silver tiers any cut quest which has been recreated by Nolan there was a silver tier by the name of asimi who we could dialogue with we'd essentially take this asimi into our body so she could begin to copy our form whilst apparently granting us power if we came to the Eternal cities asimi would name this her home then while at the Eternal cities she would mention that there is a chalice nearby the Cradle of her kind the silver tears are liquid in nature and of course a chalice contains liquid and to me it suggests that the silver tears were born of alchemical manipulation by the norcs and given their purpose they can mimic the form of other creatures we could speculate that these beings were created so they could mimic the form of a lord of night and although this is cut content the presence of the silver tears all over the Eternal cities for me implies that this is still the implication that the silver tears were created by the Eternal cities and this is why we actually see silver tears fighting alongside the Knox the albanorics are also potentially tied as creations of the nox via a cut dialogue from tops who would have directly named them as creations of the Eternal cities and given the noxes pre-election for manipulating life again the albinarcs could well have been a creation of theirs to try and create an artificial Lord of night although again that is just speculation but in general there's a lot of evidence pointing to the nox and the Eternal cities as the birthplace of many forms of artificial life so with that in mind let us look at the actual physiology of the godskins themselves they are pale skinned like malleable clay much like the albanorics and silver tears and all of the godskins look identical in appearance like clones also like the silver tears and the silver weapons of the Knox the godskin apostles are malleable able to stretch out and contort in unusual manners again just reinforcing the fact that these are not natural beings there's of course the lore of the swaddling cloth that we have already looked at suggesting that the glomide queen rears every single one from birth and I hope that even if you don't agree with the Eternal City Connection that we can all agree that these are not natural beings these are not just humans who have been recruited into a movement there's also another potential connection between the godskin apostles and the Eternal cities and this is the death of EG and this is something I've talked about in other videos but upon the completion of ranny's questline her vassals are assaulted by black knife assassins both ishi and blive have the corpses of black knife assassins surrending them and yet curiously EG is also burning in the black flame not the red flame of deaths and death but the black godslaying flame of the godskins now some have argued that this may be a mistake and it was meant to be the red flame yeah I feel this would have been corrected in a patch if it was like the duskai queen being removed from the god Slayer Greatsword in a patch so what does this actually mean well if they are both connected to the Eternal cities then perhaps it is a hit squad organized by the Eternal cities reasonings for this assault is something I've gone over in more detail in my night of the black news video but in short I feel like Ranny left the black knife assassins high and dry and we even find Electro the leader imprisoned in Ronnie's ever jail upon Moonlight altar so ichi's death is a curious one but if the godskins are creations of the Eternal cities then this hit a combined force of black knife assassins and the godskins could well make sense aside from the creation of the godskins potentially being linked to the Eternal City there are some other possible loose illusions that could be used to connect the glomide queen herself to the Eternal City culture one of these is the fact that I have long believed that the Eternal City race is a matriarchal one firstly Among The Knocks there are the night maidens who appear to occupy a preeminent possession in society with their set making it clear they are important enough to have sword stress bodyguards there is also the fact that Queen Marca herself Who Rose to become the god of the current ERA came from their society and her preeminence could suggest a matriarchal nature to the Newman people but aside from that there is also the idea that the moon an important facet of Knox Society is more associated with the feminine Rani and Ronaldo the two most important lunar figures in the game are women as well and it is a long-standing concept within seoul's games that women are associated with the moon again if we consider gwyndolin from Dark Souls who was raised as a woman because of his strong Affinity to the Moon as we discussed in my Rani lore video this concept could be tied into the philosophy of Yin and Yang where Yen can mean the moon and represents the feminine forming one half of a system of balance so it isn't hard to conclude that knocks in society is most likely matriarchal because of the preeminence of the Moon and if the moon is more connected to the feminine this is why it's matriarchal so isn't hard to believe that the glomide queen could have once been a queen of Newman or noxian tradition a once Queen of the Eternal cities this is all speculation ultimately but I do find it fairly compelling especially when we consider the artificial nature of the godskins themselves and so to conclude I do speculate that the glow my queen comes from the same stock as America whether she be directly related to her or not and whether that means she was a nox in Newman or another distant relation or offshoot there is one other interesting concept I would like to talk about before we begin naming a specific candidate and that is the potential tie of serpents to the glomide queen this was an idea first brought to my attention by a viewer who commented on one of my community posts the Epic h88 stated that they believe the glomide queen was a serpent this set my mind racing and shout out to Epic h88 for getting me to pick up this connection and also credit to tarnished archaeologist Serpent and the archery video which only further compounded my own ideas on this subject so when talking about the Serpent's place within the Elden ring Mythos a good place to start is the dualist set which reads the following the snake is viewed as a traitor to the Earth tree and the audience delighted in seeing those bronze Effigies beaten and battered the snake was very much the focus of gladiatorial combat and in essence the crowd wanted to see these snakes beaten down into the dirt and not only did it feature on the limited armor of the jillists these gladiators but there is also the coil Shield a snake Shield that was designed for gladiatorial combat again a medium through which the people of the earth tree Society could see the serpent getting what it deserved now we do need to ask the question why is the snake so hated even at this time because we know that gladiatorial combat is a practice dating back to the time of Godfrey given his Warrior aesthetic his line Rampart been present and the entrances to the Colosseum and the fact that this practice had died out by the time of Radigan As Told To Us by the ritual sword talisman so surely this is far before reichardt would become the serpent of blasphemy and bring his Blasphemous war against the Earth tree in the time of the shattering and Beyond indeed if we look at the serpent Hunter spear it gives us some interesting considerations as it reads thought to have been used to hunt an immortal Great Serpent in The Descent past it manifests a Long Blade of light when facing such a creature used to hunt in a mortal Great Serpent in the distant past meaning that there was a serpent crisis in the past before reichardt became the serpent of blasphemy and this event would be so dire and so impactful upon society that the people of the archery realm would make it a nemesis in gladiatorial combat and we take Delight in it being defeated in these mock battles I'd always just assume that the serpent was viewed as an enemy because he glay must have always been in opposition to the Earth tree and for those unaware the reason I referred to iglee as the Great Serpent is because of the Temple of a Glee at volcano Manor which is a Temple dedicated to the serpent and thus we must assume that the name of this serpent is iglee now returning to that original comment by the Epic h88 while I don't necessarily agree that the glomide queen herself is a serpent it has always been interesting to me that the godskin Nobles have Serpentine tales and perhaps this suggests a sort of alliance between the glomide queen and the Great Serpent to me the description of the gladiatorial set gives me biblical Vibes the serpent thematically has always been seen as the enemy to the archery much as the serpent is always seen as metaphorical for evil and the Bible in the Garden of Eden is the snake that tempted Eve to take the forbidden fruit of knowledge and in this case was the literal mouthpiece for Satan himself thus through the serpent the original sin is committed and God's perfect creation is Tainted indeed as highlighted by tarnish archaeologists tremendous video the image of the serpent in the tree in the Garden of Eden is too similar to the imagery on the drawing room key of volcano manner which for those unaware shows a serpent coils round a tree in this case representative of the Serpent's desire to consume and destroy the Earth tree could it be that like in the Bible it was a serpent that first whispered in the ear of The Gourmet Queen and set her on her path could it have then aligned itself with her in her cause helping her imbue the power of the serpent within her god-skinned children which is why the godskin Nobles have a serpentine tail and why the godskin apostles are able to stretch and contort like a serpent does this also explain why a godskin noble has now aligned itself with reichardt and the serpent of blasphemy as this and all the lions rekindled so it can assist in creating a new Serpentine warrior class so that reichardt and his serpent children can succeed where the godskins failed perhaps this is all speculation of course but I have always wondered what this ancient enmity against the serpent is and at the very least we have the tales of the godskin Nobles to consider these are ultimately Serpentine tales and we find that God's can Noble in the hotbed of a serpentine Revolution and perhaps the reason the serpent is so hated is because it assisted the glomide queen and her Apostles and its Union with reichord is just the latest in its attempts to overthrow and hurt the Earth tree and if you want a deeper look at the serpent and its potential history of opposing the archery I would thoroughly recommend tarnish archaeologists video Serpent and the Earth tree so what am I saying about the glomide queen up to this point well let me surmise I believe that she was a queen of the same people as Queen Marco potentially related to her and I believe that she was chosen as an emperion the emperion's Rune was an inversion of Maracas and she was the shadow of death to America's world of life to channel her power the glomide Queen had her signature sword forged and would create an artificial life form specifically designed not only to wield this flame but to bring death to the Gods in addition it is possible that there was an alliance between the glomide queen and the Great Serpent cementing the serpents as an immortal enemy of the earth tree there is one other matter regarding the glomide Queen's allies that we should talk about and that is the issue of her Shadow as Rani States each emperion is granted a shadow Taylor Made to serve them Rani had blive and Marca had malakith and given the glomite queen was eventually defeated by the shadow of her opponent it certainly would have been useful to have one we know from vargram's raging wolf set the he seeks to become such a shadow and given his possession of the godsley and great sword it is clear that he seeks to become the shadow of the glomide queen however given he is seeking to become one it suggests that he failed in his quest meaning he wasn't her actual Shadow the most obvious explanation is that we simply don't know who her Shadow was that the shadow was killed in the conflict of The godskins or met some unknown fate that we don't know about when it comes to the actual identity of the glomide queen who do I believe it is I have already presented some interesting theories that she was a serpent that she was The Godly and Greatsword herself or merely an unnamed member of Newman or nox Society however if I was to put money on it now I'm going to be rather boring and say that I do believe that melanor is the most likely candidate for the glomide queen Occam's razor after all and when we do see her at the end of the frenzied flame ending with her glom eye it is very compelling but let's go into another few connections as to why Melina might well be the glomite queen firstly as we have stressed throughout this chapter we do think it thematically fits that the glomide queen would be tied to Newman Knox and Eternal City society and Melina would also seem to take these boxes of being related to this Newman people first of all the black knife assassins who themselves are described as Newman and Kent America use a technique that is also shared by melanor we see this bleed craft when we Summoner in our fight with more God and if Melina was trained in the same combat techniques as other numbing women it would suggest that Melina is also of this culture Melina also refers to her mother within the Earth tree me I'm searching for my purpose given to me by my mother by the Earth tree long ago and what is inside the earth tree it's of course America and again the glomide queen an emperion being the daughter of Marca would fit in with everything else we know about other emperians who are also of Royal Blood for me one of the stronger arguments from Melina being the glomide queen is how familiar she is with deaths and death which would certainly make sense if she had been The Gourmet Queen at one point a being who literally represented the Rune of death indeed we well returned to this subject in the later chapters on the godskins but the fact that Milner is so familiar and understands such a nebulous concept as deaths and death and knows that it is required to burn the art tree is very compelling evidence for me that she was once the wielder of death and death and then as mentioned the real nail in the coffin for many people is the finale of the frenzied flame ending when melaner appears with her Gloom eye an eye that was previously sealed and she once again talks about destined death and again the color of the eye is so particular to me it does seem to be a wink to the camera a wink to the audience that melanot was actually the glomide queen and she kept this part of her identity secret from us so let me present my speculative analysis of melanous past identities the glomide queen she first of all claims that she is burned and bodyless and is ultimately a bit confused as to why she is still here me I'm searching for my purpose given to me by my mother inside the earth tree long ago for the reason that I yet live burned and bodyless indeed we do see burn scars all over melona's hands suggesting that in her corporeal life she was burned and we know that the Rune of death manifests its power as a flame whether that be the Black and White Flame of the godskins or the red and black flame wielded by malakith would it not be a fitting punishment for the glomide queen to be burned in the Flames of death by malekith and given that malekith wields the power of death and death within his blade it isn't a stretch to believe that the glomide queen burned to death in addition melanous eye is sealed and is only unsealed at the ending of the frenzied flame why well consider the chain of events that happened up to that point and other playthroughs melona dies before deaths and death or at the Rune of death is unsealed by the tarnished she sacrifices herself in the flame of Ruin and then we later defeat malakiv an unbind the Rune of death however in the frenzied flame ending mail under does survive right to the end so she survives to the point where the Rune of death has been once again unsealed and is Unleashed in the world and now Melina's eye is open I believe it is sealed and unsealed much like the Rune of death that it is literally connected to the power of death and death this is the manifestation of the Rune of death within her body and so when it was seal her eye was sealed when it is Unleashed her eyes open as an aside as for the tattoo on Melina's sealed eye I don't have any more specific Insight that anyone else has not already said I do believe that these are Talons and they are representative of death an allusion to the crow or raven-like deathbards no doubt but talking about Milena's eye there is another tie that could suggest that again could make her out to be the glomide queen garank is the alter ego or secret identity of malakith but this is after he is sealed destined death the Rune of death within his actual body in time it becomes part of him and so he hungers for death row this is a yearning from the Rune of death itself who wants its forgotten fragments to be returned to it as the death row item description does make it clear that the death row is the form that the Rune of death takes spreading throughout the lands between following Godwin's murder and so garank gives us a tool to be able to track down these fragments the Beast eye this Stone Talisman that takes the form of the eye has a violet Iris that looks almost identical to the Hue of melanor at the end of the frenzied flame ending I have no doubt that this particular eye with its purple Hue is meant to invoke the image of the glom-eyed queen and thus is somehow able to connect with the power of the Rune of death and given it looks so starkly like Mel in his eye this is another solid bit of evidence that melanor is the glomide queen returning to the concept of her being burned in bodyless there is one other character who is in a similar position Rani who no longer has her body both Melina and Rani are able to disappear any puff of blue Sparkles an observation made by Zio storm in his video on millinar this suggests that they are in a similar State and indeed we know that Rani slew her own body an event we know of thanks to her own speeches and the description of the curse mark of death rani's bodyless State came about through the manipulation of the Rune of death and indeed her True Body also looks burned if I am right about Melina being burned in malachith's flame after her defeat then perhaps she too was only killed in body as a punishment or so Marca could later burn her erstworld daughter to her will or perhaps Marca simply couldn't bring herself to have Milena killed fully and thus take a half measure by having her rendered bodyless this is all my speculation of course but this is how I see Melania the once glomide Queen was defeated by malekith and burned in his red flames of death but denied true death being killed in body only now Marca is in a dire situation imprisoned within the archery unable to take actions herself so she calls upon her last resort resurrecting the spirit of milinar the disembodied Spirit of her old enemy and daughter a marker directs milliner to help the tarnished to help bring this age to a close Perhaps it is America who even encourages Milner to once again unleash death and death though Melina makes it clear that no matter her mother's plan Melania has decided that once again the world needs death me I'm searching for my purpose given to me by my mother inside the earth tree long ago for the reason that I yet live burned and bodyless there is something for which I must apologize I've acted the finger Maiden yet can offer no guidance I am no Maiden my purpose was long ago lost I think this is thematically very neat marker once denied death and death and the glomide queen yet no she is relying on them both to free her from her Eternal imprisonment we will return to Melina and her views on life and her actions near the end of the game in the final chapter of this video as I do also think they fit neatly within the narrative that I'm presenting with that said and the Glo my queen somewhat covered let us move on to her followers the godskin apostles we've already discussed the artificial potential origins of the godskins but the artificial nature of the godskins is important for the Thematic opposition to the archery and we know about this thematic opposition thanks to the greatest lore item in the game the albinart blood clot which says the following albinarix are life forms made by human hands thus many believe them to live in pure lives Untouched by the Ard tree's Grace there is an important thematic Point made here that being an artificial life form is seen to be impure by those of the world of Grace because they are not connected to the Earth tree which is essentially a Nexus of life potentially recycling life through it via our tree burials and archery births and I would recommend tarnish archaeologists video on the life cycles in the Elden ring if you are interested on that subject aside from this potential cycle of life we have already discussed how The Crucible and the age of Plenty was a time of unrelenting vital life energies is it therefore not quite fitting that an emperion in distinct opposition to this system an emperion of death would wield artificial beings a thematic parallel to the system of Life which they oppose regardless it is a fascinating image to imagine these infant beings being swaddled in godskin cloth by the glomide queen herself and indeed this concept as the focus of eugenia's work that they did for this video these beings are raised for a single purpose and we do see that when we fight them in game they are ferocious opponents and arguably one of the most powerful life forms that we will face in the lands between and so it's hard not to see that this is an army raised for a single purpose to destroy the world of men I mean to destroy the world of the Gods yeah they aren't just physically impressive combatants it also seems as though the queen herself imbused them with the power of the black flame for the black flame protection incantation reads the following the apostles were all embraced by the gloom-eyed queen and the black flame was their armor Within to me this suggests that is part of the Queen's raising of these children was to imbue them with the power of her black Flame literally embracing them and putting its power within them it would become part of their very being their armor from within this of course all makes more sense if they are artificial beings raised for a singular purpose to wield the black flame and be its vessel and we can literally see these beings wreath in its flame in their second stages of their fight indeed suggesting that the black flame is made to be part of them from a very early age there is of course further evidence that could suggest that the godskins are literally one with the black Flame firstly most of the godskins we face in game seem to appear out of thin air their arrival is heralded by the godslayer sigil as if it is an incantation and then they appear wreathed in Black Flame this becomes even more apparent when we Face the godskin duo when we fail one of them the other is able to bring back their fallen comrade using some kind of incantation that again is marked by the godslayer schedule the implication is clear to me the godskins are more than flesh they are intrinsically linked to the black flame and again it makes me think back to the description of black Flame's protection and how the black flame became part of the godskins when they are embraced by their gloom-eyed Queen all of this together the fact that they are braised from birth by the glow my queen herself that they are able to stretch and contort that they are incredible Fighters and the fact they wield the black flame of death as if it is part of their own being all suggests that they are tailor-made for the glomide Queen's purposes with that said these beings do seem to possess some culture dare I say that and Views in regards to their own hierarchy and role within the world firstly let us consider the fact that they are referred to as the godskin apostles they are ruled almost religious looking figures Apostle is a religious word a follower and advocate for a certain religious Doctrine such as the Twelve Apostles of Jesus the religious nature of this movement is reinforced by the fact there is a godskin prayer book and the fact that their powers the black flame incantations are faith-based this is not a political movement nor an Army in the traditional sense this is a religious Crusade with the glomide queen as their Messiah figure their central figure to their beliefs this of course makes their scanning of the Gods far more terrifying isn't just psychological warfare it is a zealous religious practice a religion that worships death and Views the deaths of the Gods as their holy purpose the noble presence incantation describes their actions as a god hunt and for me this is their religious Crusade no doubt such a movement would have struck absolute Terror into the hearts of the Gods this is a religious Doctrine and as such they couldn't be Bartered with or reasoned with these are beings raised to believe in one single Doctrine and it fascinates me to imagine how the godskins would have been at the height would they have had temples would they have had shrains all we see if the godskins know are survivors scattered to the winds pursuing their own agendas and so again this idea of a religious movement is something I think that Eugenia has captured well in her renders with that said even within this movement there was a hierarchy and of course I am referring to the godskin Nobles who we learn of via the godskin noble set which reads Nobles are the most ancient apostles who are said to have assimilated inhuman physiology not unlike The Crucible the archery and its primordial form so these beings are the most ancient of their kind and thus are nobles among their kind and what is interesting is that there does seem to be a sort of classist superiority among these Nobles as the description of the godskin stature their signature weapon reads the following the Nobles possess skill with the sword unmatched by any lowborn despite its size successive attacks from this weapon are swifter then the eye can follow the term lowborn to me suggests that they see regular Apostles as lowborn and combined with them being the most ancient of their kind perhaps these nobles were born as the first wave or via a different process indeed they do have inhuman aspects to them and indeed it does leave us to question whether a special process went into creating these Nobles that involve The Crucible somehow but again that is all just speculation however admittedly this sword could be referring to humans when it says lowborn and that the apostles in general see themselves as something better something purer but regardless these godskin Nobles clearly have a high opinion of themselves and in fact the Nobles robust size could also be interpreted as a noble aesthetic choice for in days past in the real world a large size was often seen as an indicator of wealth and possession as such a privileged lifestyle would manifest in a richer diet and in general it could be seen as a sign of prosperity success and nobility overall the picture we get of this sect is that they aren't just Mindless automatons despite being raised for a single purpose they are singular people with a single purpose but they do themselves have their own beliefs and are certainly not above preyed with that said let us now look at their adornments weapons jewelry and Associated symbolism I want to start with one of the most important part of the godskin aesthetic and that's the symbol that is cast when God's skins appear when they use the black flame incantations and the sigil that forms the god slayer's seal it's obviously important that we look at this as this is obviously the emblem of their movement I have long pondered what this image is given that the other skills of magic or incantations have a symbol important to their Associated themes and beliefs so I went back to basics and asked myself what is most important to the godskin apostles and of course the answer to that is the glom eyed Queen if he were to turn this symbol on its side it could well look like a very stylized eye like the Eye of Horus or the protective eyes found on the loser boats of Malta a practice which dates back to Greek and Phoenician times when warships and boats had protective eyes painted upon them likewise I believe they're sigil to be the eye of the glomide queen a very holy object for the godskins No Doubt one further interesting consideration when we are talking about this sigil is the description of the godslayer seal which of course has the sigil on it and the item description reads sacred seal of the godskin Apostles inlaid with obsidian said to represent the manipulation of black flame this Catalyst enhances God's Slayer incantations now the language here is a little confusing does it mean that the seal represents the manipulation of black flame in its function I.E by using this seal you can manipulate black Flame or doesn't mean the obsidian enlade represents the manipulation of black Flame or does the sigil itself represent the manipulation of black flame if it is the latter You could argue that the Sigil of the godskins isn't an eye at all but instead some abstract shape that represents the black flame being controlled and manipulated however even then you could argue that the glom-eyed queen is the one who is able to manipulate black flame and channel it and thus her eye does represent control over the black Flame either explanation satisfies me to be honest and so make of it what you will with that said I would also say that the massive purple gems found on both the godskin noble and Apostle sets are also representing the globe eye as well protective or empowering talismans that have a religious significance to the godskins with that covered let us look more closely at the robes and weapons of the godskins firstly when looking at the circular pattern in the center of the godskin noble robe I would suggest that this is also meant to evoke the black flame as I find this knotted symbol to be very reminiscent of those found on the god slaying Greatsword which I also see as representing the swirling black flame as for the other symbolism found on the apostles robes I would suggest that these are also stylistic representations of death and the godsline black Flames these are religious robes after all or Apostles and so it makes sense that it would be inscribed with the image most important to their movement the Noble's robes also have another interesting design Choice as a description for the chess piece for Noble set reads worn by godskin Nobles known for their seven face aprons myself and others have pondered upon their symbolism of how the number seven is relevant to the movement and there are no solid answers based on in-game lore so take the following speculation with a pinch of soul however in the real world the number seven is an important one in terms of symbolism a point well made by Reddit user quercus 23 who commented on a Reddit post about the godskin noble set which I will link below in this comment the user highlights that there are seven days in the week seven days of creation in the Bible and seven illuminaries with these Connections in mind quercus suggests that seven could be seen as transformative a change-breaking number much like the seventh day of the week Heralds its end I'm unsure how I set on the seven faces but this was the most compelling explanation I could find so take it as you will and let me know your thoughts Below on the seven faces found on the godskin noble set so the descriptions of both the Apostle and Noble robe make it clear they are indeed made from skin and their very name the godskin apostles would suggest that this is God's skin and my original godskin lore video I did doubt the veracity of this given it would take the hell of a lot of God's skin to make this amount of robes for all the apostles and all the nobles with at least seven gods dying for each Noble's robe however since then I have been more willing to consider that these could well be made of God's skin firstly the text dump of the game describes these as robes made from tanned godhead secondly my view on how many gods there have been has dramatically changed since that first video a year ago and my knight of the black naves video we highlighted an article from Bandai Namco that they released in December 2021 and it launched alongside the game's story trailer in this article they expanded upon some of the lore explained in the story trailer and regarding the night of the black naves they said this one grenade in the depths of winter a flock of unknown assassins stole across the lands between in a cortaneous attack this foul Covenant snuffed out the lives of many of the god Queens Ken throughout the Empire too numerous and two scattered for her Godly protection to save the article is really interesting and I will link it below and recommend you give it a read in particular I find this passage to be of real interest because it changed my perception on how many of Marcus can there are and expanded the scope of the Gods for me this quote illustrates a Mass Slaughter of many of Marcus kin suggesting that there are far more gods for more blood relations to the royal family than the main cast of characters in the game a point reinforced by The Soulless demigods found in the mausoleums more demigods that have been killed whose name we don't know oh and by the way there are seven of these nameless demigods so do with that as you will in regards to the seven faces found on the godskin noble set returning to the concept of gods perhaps the gods could Encompass a wide-reaching family tree offshoots and everyone else that are distantly related to America forming a Godly royal family that spread throughout different generations and different branches so if the black knife assassins killed many gods aside from Godwin himself who is to say that the godskins did not hunt down countless demigods who'd be skinned and used as material for their iconic robes however I do want to caveat this discussion by acknowledging there is at least one instance where a godskin appears to gather human skin and this is at the Village of domanilla an observation that I made in my first video about a year ago Domino is a village in Altus Plateau where it seems as though the members of said Village are having a Merry Old Time celebrating a festival we hear of said Festival via the set that they wear the festive set which reads Hood warned by dancers at the festivities in Domino the village of the windmills and at first glance while this may appear to be a Merry Old Time a quick Vibe check will tell us that something isn't quite right here firstly there are no men only women and they all seem to have a slightly manic aspect to them something is a little off here they're also very well armed for people that are celebrating a festival and there is one over there lacking a bitcher's bleed while standing over the corpse of someone the answer of course comes via a ghost NPC at the entrance to the Village and its dialogue implies that skinning is a constituent part of this Festival and given it is only women left I presume that it is the men who play the unfortunate victims in this celebration and lo and behold right to the top of the village overseeing this celebration is a godskin apostle ready to take his tithe of skin my take now is the same as it was in March last year that this godskin Apostle has manipulated the people of this town to create a skinning Festival that is essentially manufactured so it can be a source of fresh skin whether that be for the godskin's own religious Doctrine or whether they actually need skin human skin to make new robes or fix their current ones ultimately one could see this Festival as evidence that the skin is human skin that the godskins actually use for their robes although like I say the godskin apostles could just see the scanning of someone as a holy rate and that is why they're implementing it at this Village rather than for a supply eye of skins but take it or leave it I will leave it up to you to decide what's happening at Domino and why it's happening whether it is human skin or God skin that makes their robes the effect is quite clear this movement would have struck fear into the hearts of the Gods who no doubt would have imagined their own face adorning the apron of a godskin noble yet there is more to it than this the skinning of your enemy and keeping them as a trophy or using them as a material for the mundane is the ultimate domination and humiliation of your opponent for example there is the account of the Roman Emperor Valerian who According to some accounts was captured by a Persian king called shapper following the Battle of Odessa in 2060 A.D according to a later account given by a writer called like tantius Valerian would eventually be flayed alive with his skin then being stuffed to keep as a trophy the ultimate humiliation for a once powerful Roman Emperor of course we can't speak to the veracity of these ancient sources but the message is clear the skinning of one's enemy like one would skin an animal is the ultimate degrading act you see your opponent as no more than a beast you would usually use animals for your leather for your shoes for your trousers but instead you're using this person's very identity as your leather for the mundane this is of course quite significant when we consider the targets of the godskins the gods to me their purpose of wearing God's skin is to send a message we do not respect your Authority we do not respect your Divinity you are nothing to us we will tear down your Empire and skin you like beasts and we will wear you like clothing in mockery of your former status and a testament to our Mastery over the gods they are both trophies part of their Creed but they ultimately serve as a warding and a lesson to the gods as such their weapons are essentially both weapons but function as skinning and sawing implements the godskin pillar wielded by the apostles by its look and description is clearly a skinning Implement meant to peel the skin clean off and the godskin stature the weapon of the Nobles is more like a sewing needle meant to tailor and pull clothes together in a way you could see this division of labor as another division between the two classes the apostles have to get their hands dirty doing the actual skinning whereas the Nobles get a more refined tool meant for stitching and sewing with that said let us look at the godskin godhunt itself its ultimate conclusion and its Legacy the term godhunt coined by the noble presence incantation is fitting when we consider the power that the glomite queen and her Apostles wielded let us revisit the description of the scaring black flame which reads the black flame could once slay Gods but when malakith sealed deaths and death the true power of the black flame was lost at this stage when the scarring flame was first utilized it could literally slay the gods and clearly possess a metaphysical connection to the Rune of death that it no longer does this flame literally channeled the power of the Rune of death but the threat of this flame could have been even more dire I could have threatened more than just the Gods and a very astute observation in their flames of the Gods video they hypothesized that the black flame May well been the one that was meant to burn the Earth tree V limit highlights a cut dialogue from an air during the burning of the archery cutscene that happens in Game however at one point there would have been a cut dialogue that mentioned the black Flame and I quote that cut dialogue now the Rune of death is Unbound black Flames have devoured the Earth tree and the lands between are shrouded by death's dark fate tarnished archaeologist builds upon vlimit's premise by highlighting what we do in game to burn down the Earth tree we first of all Unleash the Power of the flame of Ruin but it is tempered by Destin death only together can they burn the Earth tree and to quote tarnished archaeologists directly what is the black flame but a combination of fire and the power of death and death and if our combination of the flame of Ruin and death and death burns the Earth tree then it makes sense that the black flame of the godskins would have been able to do the same and with this understanding of the black flame in mind it is easy to see why the fire monks of the mountaintops would abandon their charge to worship the black Flame monks who had already been Bewitched by the power of flame would no doubt have seen the black flame as something greater a fire touched by the power of the Rune of death so they hastily dyed their robes and beards and lend their power to the glomite queen and the godskin apostasy it isn't possible to say how successful they're supposed to say actually was but given the sheer amount of tortured faces found in the Robes of the godskins I would Hazard that they killed at least a few and struck fear Into the Heart of the Gods mark would fear the threat of the glomide queen enough to the point that she would entrust malakith to deal with this particular threat it was at this stage I believe that malekith imbued his sword with the power of death and death which we learn of via his armor set and the Black Blade incantation the latter of which has the symbol of tarnished archaeologists ancient archery era again suggesting that the events of the godskin apostasy and malkith's response to it took place in this era now we know from the description of the scaring black flame that the true power of the black flame would eventually be lost with the ceiling of death and death and we know from malachith's remembrance that he would eventually be the vessel for it in the past I had thought that malekith imbuing his sword was the so-called confinement of the Rune of death but the very action of imbuing his sword with deaths and death was the act of sealing it and that sealing it within his flesh after fragments were stolen on the night of the black knaves was just a further precaution however thanks to the timelines presented by tarnished archaeologist I do now acknowledge that malachith imbuing his sword with death and death is not the same thing as him sealing it becoming a vessel for it and in fact the murder of Godwin and the slaughter of many of Marcus kin is a far more catastrophic event involving death that could have been the motive for sealing deaths and death ask a rank malekith really does have a sole purpose confining the Rune of death hence why he not only hides it within his own flesh but also hides his true identity and form however at the time of the godskin apostasy and his battle with the glomide queen he was a different being he was malekith he was death made manifest he didn't hide or confine death he wielded it openly and this is what really defines malachath not confinement like garank but the open wielding of death becoming death itself and this is why when he unseals it during his fight with us he reverts to his malekith form once more so just to tidy up the timeline a bit at the time of the godskin apostasy he was deaf incarnate malikith but following the slaughter during the night of the black knaves he became grank and this is when deaths and death was truly sealed and the power of the black flame was sapped this only makes malachith's achievements against the gold my queen more impressive because he fought them at the full height of their power he didn't confine the Rune of death before he had defeated them and he fought fire with fire with his death imbued blade against the black flame of the godskins the item descriptions of both the godskin Apostle robe and the god Slayer Greatsword implied that it was malachyth who personally defeated the godskin movement Queen and all this implies that he decimated their ranks and personally defeated the glomide queen ending this rival's claim on behalf of his God his Total Domination over the godskins and Mastery over death really is well emphasized by the description of garank's Beast claw incantation which reads long ago garank was a beast of such terrifying ferocity that his former name meant death of the demigods looking back on it this incantation and its item description is a hint to the player before they've met malikith that garank is malikith with malachith's Victory no longer did the glomide queen hold the threat of death over the demigods it was malacheth who became known as such Marcus henchman who wielded this power a not so Veiled Threat for any of those who would try to defy her rule in such a manner again and given the power of the godskins that we have discussed this is no mean achievement indeed his ferocity is backed up by his armor set item description which reads malachith Queen Mark as loyal half-brother or a blade imbued with deaths and death and there was not one demigod who did not fear Him malekith's reputation is clearly the result of this Victory and his wielding of the Rune of death the godskin Apostle said tells us that the black Flame's power was drained and as we have said this comes much later after malkith would become gerank and see old deaths and death and at that point these scattered remains of the godskin movement were truly robbed of their last vestiges of power and yet they haven't given up as we see they are active in the lands between and with that said it's no time to talk about the legacy of the godskin movement and their gloom-eyed Queen so what is the legacy of the godskins well their low numbers attest to their destruction at the hands of malkith and as we have already said when malkith would seal deaths and death within his flesh the power of the black flame would be sapped and while it is still a dangerous flame attack that we can see when we fight them it is no more than that it has lost its connection to death and death as such the prospects for the godskin movement seems dire and yet they remain formidable purpose-built killing machines that they are the placement of the godskin NPCs throughout the world is a masterful example of environmental storytelling in my opinion as each of their locations appears to have a story purpose hinting that the godskins have not quite given up and still relentlessly pursue their initial aims there's a God skin at the base of Caleb Divine Tower defending their Most Holy of relics with a black Monk the god Slayer Greatsword itself perhaps at the defeat of the glomide queen this godskin Apostle saw as his duty to take this sacred Relic and protect it at all costs there's of course the godskin Apostle founded Domino who we have already discussed a figure who is manipulated an entire Community to provide his Creed with fresh skin then there's the godskin Noble at Leonia Divine Tower acting as a barrier between us and rani's curse mark of death perhaps this godskin is here to claim this fragment of the Rune of death so they can once again try and imbue their Flames with its God slaying properties likewise we can find the menacing godskin duo in fire Mozilla shockingly close to the Rune of death and malakith their purpose here is quite clear they are here for the Rune of Dave perhaps they can sense it and had they reached malekith and killed him before us who knows what may have transpired then of course we have the godskin noble found in volcano Manor and whether or not you agree with the potential deep ties to the godskins and serpents the presence of the noble here also makes sense in a general sense as clearly they are allies of convenience both reichardt and the godskins want the same thing the destruction of the earth tree thus both benefit reichardt gets a powerful Ally Who potentially has knowledge of forming artificial life in return the godskin could help reichardt potentially complete what it wanted to do whilst also having access to plenty of fresh skin there are plenty of prisoners within volcano manners present town and the description of the albanuric Mask found nearby as well as detica's wall also found nearby could imply that the godskin gets to practice his skinning ways and the legacy of the godskins goes beyond the surviving godskins themselves as we interestingly find the godskin prayer book within stormvale Castle godric is desperate to destroy his demigod Rivals and return to the land of his blood it should therefore come as no shock that he would look to the rituals of those who once made God killing their Creed yet Perhaps the godskin's greatest Legacy is the one found lettering the streets of lindel the ash that blankets the capital we discussed tarnished archaeologists Theory regarding the first burning of the earth tree a traumatic event that brought a bountiful Edge to a close the arboreal physical archery is reduced to a weathered stump through the act of burning that we can later recreate on our path to become Elden Lord yet who was responsible for this first burning a burning which contained the Earth tree to exist only as a phantom in the eyes of the faithful as tarnished archaeologists suggest in their Serpent and archery video the vitriolic hate for The Serpent and why it became the focus of gladiatorial games is a mystery and a fascinating one at that but perhaps it is well earned Perhaps it is the alliance of Serpent and Gloom that is responsible for the archery's greatest Calamity and perhaps the black Flames a combination of fire and death and death once stripped the archery of its former glory and should mail or not be the glomite queen she has a pale shadow of her former self her true destructive power sealed behind her eye as the Rune of death itself is sealed beneath malekith's skin her final purpose is fitting however yet the context is different from the godskin movement instead of leading occur against a God she has been tasked by that same God to bring an end to suffering an end to stagnation and so she does what she knows she Burns she Burns herself and she burns the archery so that you may bring death and death back into the world yet Melina isn't a person of unbridled destruction and her attitudes towards life to me serve as one final piece of evidence that she may have been the glomide queen a purveyor of death not destruction only bringing death and so it may balance out the abundance of life and so should we choose a different path the path of the frenzied Flame should Melina abandon us and not sacrifice herself in the flame of Ruin then perhaps the glomide queen will once again be unlocked alongside the Rune of death that we free from malachith's flesh Melina's opposition to the Lord of chaos shows the true nature to me of the glomide queen she is not a force of evil or destruction rather she is the natural death that all systems need a balancing force in a world that has fallen far out of sync yet a cog in the machine of order she remains despite representing death she does not wish for life to be universally extinguished rather that the deaths and death of each individual is administered properly at the end of their life indeed Melina begs the tarnish to stay away from the path of chaos from the path of true destruction 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 and should we choose such obliteration such chaos then perhaps it is the Gourmet Queen the wielder of death and death who will stand as life's final Champion Lord or frenzied flame I will seek you as far as you may to deliver you what is yours destined death thank you so much for watching this video my coverage of Elden ring began almost a year ago to the day and my coverage began with the godskins they were the first metaphor that truly grabbed me and so I was excited to revisit this subject a year later while I am immensely proud of that first video a lot has changed since then not only with my style but also my understanding and in general the lore landscape within this community and so no effing myself with a new perspective on the glomide queen and the godskins whilst I also remain true to a lot of the ideas I had when I first did that godskins video I'd like to once again thank the lore Community who have helped push forward our understanding of the lore creators who I often reference throughout my videos because their ideas are so fundamental in shaping some of my own ideas and so I'd like to offer my thanks to content creators like Loki tarnished archaeologist cue lag lore Hunter crunchy fatty V limit mad Luigi ratataskar erdin Zio storm and many many more our understanding of the lore is in such a different place from when it was when I first did that video I'd also like to thank Eugenia for bringing this imagining of godskin culture to life with 3D renders that were commissioned for this video I've always loved the implication of the description of the godsquin swaddling cloth and so to have it reimagined by Eugenia is an absolute joy as well as the other depictions of their Creed that we don't see in game so I hope you liked this video please leave a comment with your thoughts below and let me know what you'd like me to cover next but until next time tarnished I will see you in the godskin Tannery take care and have a wonderful night

Channel: SmoughTown

Views: 452,756

Keywords: elden ring lore, elden ring, elden ring story, elden ring gameplay, lore, explained, elden ring lore explained, elden ring endings explained, golden order, erdtree, marika, those who live in death, maliketh, elden ring story explained, elden ring explained, night of the black knives, black knife assassin, leyndell, godwyn, godwyn prince of death, dark moon, melina, gloam eyed queen, god skins, god skin, god slayer greatsword, vargram, empyrean, outer god, rune of death

Id: lKqR4WXMa7Y

Length: 100min 18sec (6018 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 14 2023