Elden Ring Lore | Godfrey and the Tarnished

the shattering War left the lands between broken and led to the greater well abandoning the demigods as none among their number had truly risen to become Lord the war concluded with the two greatest among their number incapacitating one another in the climactic Battle of Ionia with the golden order failed and with no obvious successor Grace would be extended elsewhere in an attempt to forge a new Lord beyond the borders of the lands between were the tarnished a warrior people of an age long past driven from the lands between and divested of their Grace one man stands far taller among the tarnished a man of legendary status Hora Lou Chieftain of the Badlands once known as Godfrey first Elden Lord Godfrey is the Pinnacle of what it means to be tarnished a mighty warrior raised to incredible Heights only to be strapped of everything and banished being tempered and death before finally being called back at the lands between Darkest Hour Godfrey and his tarnished have a critical role in the story of Eldon Reign and in many ways Godfrey is one of the most influential and legendary figures an archery Society in understanding him and his tarnished Kinfolk we get a greater understanding of the story at large so join me this week as we unpack the story of the first Elden Lord and ourselves the tarnished people and before we get started guys remember that if you like Elden ring lore then consider subscribing to the channel and liking the video before we talk about the Lord of beasts I want to talk about a beast of a deal by introducing today's sponsor today's video is brought to you by displate who have just introduced an official Eldon ring collection meaning I am now able to decorate my office space with one-of-a-kind metal posters these official Elden ring designs really take it to the next level the detail and quality is so impressive bright and vibrant and they are easy to mount with their magnetic system as a godskin fan I am delighted to have this Apostle watching over me but my favorite is actually the map of the lands between as I have been waiting to make a copy of the map on my wall for a while now so no excuse getting lost now deskplate has collections from many famous Brands and individual artists like Mariska Baker who does great sci-fi pieces or Dominic mayor who does incredible fantasy ones this plate has always actually been part of my decor with this alien poster resting above my desk display has a great alien collection as well as other brands like Diablo that will let you celebrate the return of Lilith in style so if you are interested please consider using my code in the description below which will give you up to 33 off your order and help the channel out thanks again to display and now back to the lore to understand the tarnished we need to understand Godfrey for he is the one who would eventually lead the tarnished out of the lands between and it is from them that they would Define themselves I like that the story of our player the tarnished has a rich history and we get a rare shot of kinship with a Godly character that we rarely get in other from software games but not only is Godfrey important for the tarnished but in some ways he is one of the most important figures in archery mythology treated with a reverence and respect far above other characters like Radigan for example and there is good reason for this as in some ways he is the founding and uniting figure of the earth tree era alongside Marika of course he has garnered this respect because he is the one who won all the victories for the art Tree in its early period uniting the lands under its bows so let's talk about the earliest era of horrorlu's History so we can understand the age that tempered the man who would become first Elden Lord the remembrance of horalu reads the following after the long march of the tarnish came to an end Godfrey divested himself off kingship becoming a simple Warrior once more now while this refers to the Long March of the tarnished an event nearer the end of Godfrey's timeline it uses the term becoming a simple Warrior once more which tells us that Not only was horalu his Persona after he became tarnished but also that he was horrible before he became Godfrey Eldon Lord as we see from our fight with this Persona is a vastly different person than the stately Godfrey this of course partly communicated by horror Lewis behavior and mentality of strength warrants a crone I.E might makes right a classic Trope to display a more Barbarian culture Godfrey is a symbol a symbol of a new era of civilization order and of Godfrey's controlled lordly manner even Godfrey's name means Godly or Heavenly peace a real indicator of what Godfrey represents and Stark opposition to the Godfrey personality is his original personage horrorlu Warrior whose nature we of course get a hint of via the Godfrey icon description which reads as follows Godfrey was a ferocious Warrior when he vowed to become a lord he took the best region upon his back to suppress the ceaseless lust for battle that raged Within meaning of course that before Godfrey was Godfrey and before he took sarosh on his back Hora Liu was possessed of an unceasing bloodlust a warrior of unmatched rage power and with a distinct lack of restraint and this very much as the man that we see in the second stage of Godfrey's fight when he has wrapped sarosh off his back and he fights with his bare hands we get further evidence of what this Barbarian warlord stood for via the champion headband which describes Badland culture a tribe he established after becoming horrorlu once more after his tarnishing but could definitely be used to analyze the horrorlu of yesteryear the item reads as follows headband reserved for the Badlands bravest proof that the wearer has slaughtered countless foes following the example of their Chieftain horrorlu the Brave Warriors of the Badlands Sean excess adornment strength and Warrior austerity where strength is valued Above All Else and excess adornment and Showmanship is not part of the culture this the strongest survives and the strongest rules is almost Animal Kingdom and its construction this all grounds horror Lou and the era that he is most associated with that of The Crucible a period of War bestial vitality and competition a far cry from the Civilized archery and golden order eras we know that the age of The Crucible is one of Vitality and primordial life thanks to the many descriptions of it for example the scale feather and not talismans read the following a Vestige of The Crucible of primordial Life Born partially of devolution it was once considered a signifier of the Divine in ancient times but is now increasingly disdained as an impurity as civilization has advanced so where the golden order and archery eras represent civilization The Crucible era stands for the opposite these items also Tie The Crucible to the mess begotten and The Omen given that the not Talisman is dropped by an omen Keller and Visually represents the knotted horns that cover their bodies and the scale and feather talismans could be used to describe the mess begotten who are both scaled and have vestigial wings both the most begotten and Omen are examples of overflowing almost cancerous life both beings having wild fastidual growths that aren't the result of careful evolutionary design rather they are examples of uncontrollable and chaotic life this is further emphasized by the description of the aspects of The Crucible incantations the descriptions of all of these describe The Crucible as a power where all life was Blended together again an era of excessive chaotic life the Stark opposite of controlled civilization thus chaos extends to the artistic representations of The Crucible itself seen enceleria Spear and solarius Helm and in what tarnished archaeologist terms The Gardener statues finally the term Crucible itself not only signifies that The Crucible itself was a vessel that contained Blended together life as is suggested by the description of the aspects of The Crucible incantations but the term Crucible can also mean an era of survival of the fittest now we don't know precisely what the era prior to The Crucible era was called but we know from placidus access remembrance that he ruled as Elden Lord in the age before the Earth tree so in this age before the archery possibly an age that intersected with that of The Crucible Placentia sax had been abled and Lord and he was consort to a now fled God the dragon civilization is one built by dragons Hawks and beastmain and so while it is impossible to know if the dragon civilization was in full swing just before or during the age of The Crucible we do have evidence that Hora Lou or Godfrey interacted with beasts of this civilization or at least we have good evidence to suggest that he did and so whether horalu operated just in the age of The Crucible or this age prior it is clear that he was immersed in an era that valued strength over everything else an era of violence Life Energy chaos and beasts and in many ways this has encapsulated perfectly by a simple piece of iconography that would come to be part of Godfrey's Library the lion rampant the Beast or specifically the line rampant is of course part of Godfrey's coat of arms and we still see it upon the golden lineage armor of godric's men his descendant we see the line rampant at Stormville and of course at the Fortified manner as well as at the arena which has line iconography engraved into the stone and lion banners all locations that are associated with Godfrey's early Rule and in order to understand Godfrey's early era we have to try and understand the Beast who inspired this imagery we know the identity of this Beast thanks to the tree and Beast circuit which is worn by godric's men in the current ERA it reads as follows the circle depicts the distant Earth tree and the Beast region an emblem of the golden lineage both are symbols of Glory now passed the Beast region is also known as sarosh a fact confirmed to us via the Godfrey icon which we have already read but it directly references sarosh as this Beast region we now know him as the Beast region a title that denotes his submissive and advisory possession to Godfrey however once sarosh was a lord in its own right something we learn of via the Beast claw great hammer which reads the black nails protruding from Golden fur are said to represent sarosh Lord of beasts who went on to become king Godfrey's region this is a fascinating piece of lore because it suggests that sarosh was once a lord of his own people the beasts we know from Godfrey's Declaration of strength befitting a crown as well as his list of victories in his armor set that Godfrey was a great conqueror who rules from an age of violence as a Victor over many Clans and Drillers it would make sense that sarosh's transition from Lord to Godfrey's region was also the result of Godfrey defeating sarosh and his Beast civilization and binding him to his will and so now I would like to take the time to analyze sarosh and his Beast people for I think it is vital in understanding the early days of horalu and who he would become and because understanding one of Godfrey's oldest advisors helps inform us of where horalu came from the base civilization is an interesting and unique challenge to analyze and I think it is something I will look at in more depth in a separate video but when it comes to a timeline there is plenty of evidence that points to the fact that fire Mozilla their beast and dragon civilization developed over a long period of time and is quite ancient this is a subject we have assessed in our timeline and Dragons video where thanks to the excellent work of tarnished archaeologists we can compare the development of human prehistory to the development of beastman Society showing how old this civilization really is firstly we have reference to the beastmen beginning to use stone tools and thus a parallel to the real-life Stone Age and this is something we learn of by the beastial sling incantation which reads it is said that in the time before the archery Stones were the first weapons of the beasts who had gained intelligence so not only does this refer to stone tools and weapons but it makes it clear that this bestial civilization took place in the time before the archery clearly setting it before the more modern Langdale civilization and the archery faith we can backtrack the prehistory development further from the Stone Age through to the Copper age thanks to tarnished archaeologists identification of the basement burials being a reference to the Copper age Varna burials and then finally into the Iron Age thanks to the description of the beastman cleaver that makes it clear that these weapons are of iron construction and so while I have often assumed that all of this history took place a long time ago and evidently some of it did like the Stone Age and the copperage parts of beastman society I am now of the opinion that the beastman civilization May well have been more around when Godfrey or horalu was rising to prominence such as the similarities of Godfrey's acts and the beastman cleaver as well as the semantics of placidious acts as remembrance that suggests that he was still the Elden Lord in the age just prior to that of the earth tree and we will go over some other connections but people may be wondering why I'm even talking about beastman society and that's of course because we are talking about sarosh Lord of beasts and we can find lion visitors throughout fire Missoula and the beastial sanctum which to me heavily suggests that lions like sarosh were very much part of this beastman and dragon civilization it is clear that the beastman civilization was subservient to the dragons as we can see via the clear statue in fire Mozilla that show the beastmen being sort of religious or clerical attendance to the dragons it is likely that the best men existed under the Aegis of placidusacks who was there Elden Lord in this age before the Earth tree their ruler essentially placed your Sax's remembrance mentions a God and pharamazilla has an engraving of a differently configured Elden ring so basically we have all the components of an order a God the one mentioned in placentusax's remembrance an Elden Lord placed your sax himself and the Eldon ring much like we had Godfrey Marca and the Eldon ring later in totality I would speculate that their society would be made up of beastmen wolves lions like sarosh and the guardian Lions dragons and Hawks all of which can be tied back to fire Mozilla either by statuary or by physical presence I would also argue that humans played a role in this Society due to the statues of humans we find around pharmaceuto as well as the lore of the Draconian appearance preset for our players which talks about a race of humans that were of the ancient dragons and the banished Knights who I believe started off as Warriors that served the dragons and placidus acts but we will revisit that soon so we could just write this subject off as a very ancient civilization distinct from the modern culture of the earth tree and that Godfrey horalu had some kind of clash with him in the past that resulted in sarosh's submission however there is more to sarosh that we could potentially mine as I've already said there is line iconography throughout fire Mozilla and the bestial sanctum and to me this suggests some sort of importance to saroj which makes sense if he was the Lord of beasts so Russia's importance to bestial Society could be tied to their idea of intelligence we have already looked at the item description of bestial sling which speaks of the beastman first gaining intelligence evolving from feral beasts to a society that begins to use tools and of course using tools is often seen as the first step for an intelligent Society the Advent of their intelligence is for further expounded upon via the Cinque dear which reads the following short sword given to high-ranking clergyman of firearm Azula the design celebrates a BEAST's five fingers symbolic of the intelligence once granted upon their kind the five fingers is symbolic of their intelligence in my mind no doubt a reference to opposable thumbs a hand setup that has allowed humans and our primate cousins to utilize tools which as we've said is often the first signs of intelligence now this is important because there's another reference to five fingers and it is from something we've already looked at the Beast claw great hammer which I will read again great hammer with a striking end modeled to resemble five beastly claws the black nails protruding from Golden fur are said to represent sarosh Lord of beasts so does this mean that the five claws that represent sarosh also represent intelligence as if he is tied to their idea of intelligence was he one of the first beasts to gain intelligence or the first or is it that he is considered the wisest and most intelligent among them the golden Beast crash Shield describes sarosh as an aged counselor who guides the golden lineage to me this gives the picture of an old and wise being so at the very least I would speculate that sarosh is a wise and respected Elder of beastman society who would go on to give Sage advice to Godfrey as in every depection that we get of sarosh the main thing that is mentioned is his intelligence and advice not his bestial power or martial prowess it's always focused in on his intelligence where his presence in turn makes horrorlu less of a beast and more like a lord he really is the aspect of Godfrey that makes him more lordly ultimately what is clear to me is that sarosh was once an important character in this prior Society a Lord among his people even if they were subservient to the dragons ultimately he does still wear a crown which is either representative of his position as a regent for Godfrey or he was allowed to retain his crown as a lord of the beasts but subservient to Godfrey ultimately and my reason for supposing that horalu or Godfrey defeated sarosh and made him his region is because of course they were both Lords in their own way and they were both beasts in their own way we could hardly see sarosh throwing down his weapons and kneeling before Godfrey without a fight and indeed we do see scars on sarosh's face suggesting he was injured in a fight long ago it would be simple enough to leave it there that sarosh was a Lord among beasts and horrolu defeated him in one of his many conquests and evidently Godfrey did respect sarosh because he didn't just defeat him and kill him he obviously became an important part to Godfrey's identity however there are more considerations when we speak of the culture of the Beast and horror lose early history and that is the rather interesting connections between storm feel the Fortified Manner and fire Mozilla one of the most interesting connections is of course the banished Knights which are not only present in fire Mozilla and Stormville but also Stormville and the Fortified manner hold the armaments and weapons of the banished naves so what is the connection here these Knights clearly have a connection to the dragon civilization for not only are they present in Far Mozilla but they also use Dragon communion incantations and bear the dragon upon their Helms in lorehunter's stormfail lore video lorehunter makes the suggestion that stormfield was originally a fortification built by a stormlord That Was Then captured by Godfrey co-opted and altered over time by Godfrey and his descendants and in last protagonist's lore video they suggest that the banished Knights dead once serve the stormlord it for reasons we'll get into soon but after the defeat of the storm Lord these banished Knights would be pressed into Godfrey's service and I believe the truth is a medley of these two ideas by well link both of those videos below if you want their explanations of their theories but let's start with the banished nades in last protagonist video on the stormlord they make a lot of interesting observations regarding the banished nice firstly they point out that in the original Japanese the description for banished Engvall and banished Oleg are a little bit more to the point in English they say one of the two knights known as the wings of the storm yet according to last protagonist translation they are referred to in the Japanese as the wings of the stormlord cementing the connection that these banished Knights once had to the storm Lord that is mentioned in Godfrey's armor as I well discuss in the next chapter I do believe that the stormlord was most likely placiduous acts but later Godfrey would bend these Warriors to his will after defeating their lord placidusacks thus these Banished nates with their dragon top telm an association with fire Mozilla is it possible that these banished Knights are formed from the Draconian humans a race of humans available as an appearance preset in character creator the description of this preset reads as follows the Stony face of the people of the ancient dragons among whom life is typically short of course this very much hints to a race of people who lived alongside and served the ancient dragons and it would explain the many humanoid statues and reliefs that we see in fire Mozilla and of course this is just speculation but I've just tried to zoom in on the faces beneath the banished Knights and it does look like the skin tone of the Draconian human preset though I'm sure someone more skilled than I could fully unmask these NPCs and find out the truth for sure leave your comments below if you believe this is the Draconian preset underneath the banished Nate's armor set indeed the dragon depictions on the flame cannons found in Stormville could be further evidence of storm veil's proud ancient heritage regardless that is a lot of speculation but it would help explain the rather hodgepodge imagery in Stormville and on the banished Nays but of course Stormville and the banished Knights to degree are also associated with Hawks and the storm Hawk King who could well have ruled the wrist here before Godfrey conquered it for example the importance of the hawk to storm Veil and its ancient Heritage is made clear via the hawk Crest wooden Shield which reads the following a door into a long forgotten crest of stormvale ancient InDesign and of course that icon is the hawk in fact it's more or less stated that the storm Hawk King the ruler of the Hawks once ruled over this perch at Stormville over other Hawks as its item description reads the following ashes of a hawk revered by all others as Sovereign back in the days when storm veils wins still raged like no other this ancient monarch is proud however refusing to answer anyone's summons this would of course explain the presence of hawks throughout Stormville and how the banished Knights utilize the power of the storm as well as the hawk iconography throughout the castle it makes it clear that Hawks are important to the history of this location I would speculate that after Godfrey defeated the storm Hawk King that he would make this region one of his bastions and even indenture the surviving Hawks in this area as the Warhawk ashes the ash of the type of hawks we see around Stormville have the grafted claws says the following Spirit of a stormvale Warhawk the talent of which have been sliced off so that Razer fine swords can be grafted in their place with its Lord vanquished and its wings winded the hawk perished as it solemnly gazed at its former home and this tells us a lot about the Hawks that are at Stormville it suggests to me that the Hawks so broken by the loss of their King the storm hot Monarch submitted to Godfrey and his men having blades forcibly grafted onto them and serving Stormville as guard dogs almost indeed their enslavement is more or less confirmed by the fact that their wings have been wounded and we see chains upon their bags a stark contrast to the free and natural Hawks found in farm Azula and so given there are hawks and banished Knights here as there are in fire Missoula I would suggest that storm Vale was just an extension of fire mozilla's society and that the storm hot monarch ruled over Hawks in this location as a part of the greater Farm Missoula civilization but much like his other defeated enemy sarosh Hawks would continue to be an important symbol to Godfrey for a long time showing how much he respected their power for not only does the hawk symbol feature heavily in Stormville fortified Manor and Castle mourn but dialogue with nepheli Liu shows that Godfrey's later Badlands Clan far into the future after the conquest of Stormville would continue having a relationship with Hawks for when we give the storm Hawk Monarch to nephili Lou she talks about having a hawk in her Homeland as she says is that Ash I can smell the ancient storm in it this ash it reminds me of my first Hawk best connection with the Badlands Clan is further reinforced by new fairly loose weapon of choice these storm Hawk acts which of course recalls the power of the Hawks of Stormville but this could be because the Badlands are actually like Stormville and as we discussed later in this video this could be why horrorlu chose the Badlands to settle in because nepheli Lewis says the following when she becomes the Lord of Stormville this land is much like the one from which I hail I will call upon the storm to drive away the foulness that has settled on the winds but we are getting slightly ahead of ourselves here and we will talk about his battle with the storm Lord when we talk about Godfrey's later victories but I just wanted to make it clear my ideas behind the connections of Stormville with fire Mozilla ultimately I see it as a bit of a melting point and a crossover of horrorlu's ideas as a warrior as well as a previous civilization a civilization of beasts Hawks and Dragons all which would be incorporated by the rising horrorlu the banished Knight serving under him the Hawks brought to heal and sarosh becoming one of his most trusted advisors and part of his iconography if I was to come down on whether I think Godfrey belt Stormville Castle from scratch or whether it was something he later took and built upon our goal with the latter but I would say that Godfrey certainly had a hand and his later descendants in developing it to the state that we see it in today there are too many ties to the Hawks to discount them completely as having an influence on this place but of course there are signs of Godfrey's influence for example what I call The Crucible Church the area you pass through after the rampart site of Grace this must have been built in Godfrey's time as it has Crucible iconography for example there's the turquoise statue on the roof of a lady with an amphora very similar to the depiction of Marika with the amphora found on the archery favorite Talisman a Talisman which describes the early era of the art tree and inside there are two variations of the Gardner statue which we believe represent The Crucible and to me is also implied that godric Godfrey's descendant also had a hand in further expanding the castle namely with the golden ornamentation grafted on top Godfrey seems like a more austere Warrior whereas godric seems like someone who wants to show off his golden lineage and thus it would make sense for godric to be the one who further grafted on the gold onto Stormville Stormville is definitely a layered illustration in history of Stormville and lemgrave itself and if you'd like to learn more about its design and potential architectural layers then I would highly recommend lorehunter's excellent video on that very subject but for me the best illustration of stormvale's Heritage is the concluding part of nefeli Lewis Quest nefeli's Ascension to the throne as the lady of Stormville only happens after she accepts the ashes of the storm Hawk King very symbolic of Stormville itself Liu being the blood of Godfrey and in possession of the ash of the old storm Hawk Monarch gev's nephili the legitimacy she needs to rule over Stormville as lay this large tangent is served to explain Godfrey or horror lose early interaction with the age and civilization of beasts Hawk beastman and dragon and again for me it makes the timeline a little bit more blurry between Placentia Sax's age of dragons that came before and the beginning of the age of The Crucible and horalu is important because he is a man of both eras Hora Lou the man of the age of base and Godfrey first Elden lord of the time of the earth tree but ultimately someone who very much respected those who came before him and his most trusted advisor is a lord from that previous era the submission of sarosh May well be symbolically represented by Godfrey's acts itself an excellent observation made by tarnished archaeologist via Reddit user kernai Jack the Reddit user points out the design similarities between Godfrey's acts and the beastman cleaver in regards to the designs found upon the blades of both if this is true if Godfrey's iconic acts was a gift from the defeated beastman then it becomes even more symbolic than it already is a final construction from that previous civilization gifted to the Lord the recarious forth into a new age and so with that said the Lord of beasts and the bestial civilization covered let us now talk about Godfrey's early culture and his eventual Ascension to Eldon Lord tarnished archaeologists and their Godfrey lore video Likens the man to King Arthur the legendary and mythological unifying British king and aside from the obvious Roundtable parallels there are even more connections to be made here but with that imagery in mind let us look at the round table hold itself the Fortified manner is of course the original and physical iteration of the Roundtable hold that we as the tarnished now utilize in our pursuit of lordship and this is a fitting setting for the Gathering of the tarnished as there is a good chance that the ancestors of the tarnished most likely made up the Warriors that once stood around the Round Table in fortified manner with Godfrey in years past we of course know that the Fortified manner was associated with Godfrey thanks to the line rampant banners and the line rampant that sets above the door itself and in general it is very similarly outfitted to Stormville and in general the concept of a round table very much lines up of what we know of Godfrey or horalu a man who used to believe in strength and martial prowess and having a council of Warriors which were all considered equal in terms of their voice would be very fitting for his earlier days this is a concept taken from Arthurian Legend where Arthur's Council was made up of his trusted and legendary nades when they stood at that table there was no head of the table no voice was valued more than the other despite the fact they're King stood amongst them and by proving your Valor in battle you had earned the right to speak freely and equally at the Council of the Round Table Godfrey's early focus on Warrior culture is of course reflected in the design of fortified manner itself it stands in stark contrast to the opulent design of higher Lane Dale that surrounds it the Fortified manner is very Spartan in design clearly a functional defensive Outpost and I agree with tarnished archaeologists take in their Godfrey lore video that this manner definitely precedes hylindale culture inside the manner is a very functional space with rooms dedicated to storage blacksmithing armor and a council chamber as well as a kitchen and eating spaces you can very much imagine this as a true Warrior's hold it's not just for sure and that it could actually withstand a Siege if necessary we have already discussed the history of sarosh but what's interesting to me is that when we consider the later library of the golden lineage represented by godric's men the library is balanced between what is now considered to be the two symbols of Godfrey's rule the lion of sarosh and the Earth tree the very fact both Stormville and the Fortified Manor only have the lion Banner implies to me that the sarosh symbol was the earlier part of Godfrey's symbolism before he became the Elden lord of the archery order as well as the fact that these constructions are specifically Godfrey's Holdings rather than a greater part of the lane Dale and archery order again the prevalence of banished night armor in both stormvale and the Fortified manner two locations connected to Godfrey again makes that connection that the banished Knights were eventually pressed into service under Godfrey whether you believe them to originally be Warriors of the stormlord or not and to me when we look at the early history of fortified Manner and Godfrey we're not only looking at the heritage of horalu but of the tarnish themselves of our own character as we will get into later the tarnished or the warrior people who stood alongside Godfrey and we know this from America's speech where she divests Godfrey and his Warriors of their Grace and by the description of Godfrey's acts which shows that he led his kinsfolk out of the lands between when they were tarnished and in an interview via the gamer Miyazaki himself said that Godfrey is the embodiment of the tarnished's long history and struggle so just keep that in mind while we look at Godfrey and his earlier history that we are looking at the history of the tarnish themselves before they were named such but we will go into more detail in the tarnish chapter and while these story of fortified manner isn't said directly I think it is a great example of environmental storytelling we can see here a warrior culture that becomes outdated by the later culture of Lane Dell much as the Fortified manner itself sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the buildings of Highland Dill as I said in the prior chapter something that is really difficult to nail down is when the age of The Crucible truly began and while I speculate that horror lose early conquests were a product of the time an aggressive era of survival of the fetus in time he would codify his beliefs and become more associated with the new emergent power The Crucible the earliest sign of this is of course his Crucible Knights who we learn are associated with the warrior king via their Gauntlet set which reads gauntlets of The Crucible nates who served Godfrey the first ilden Lord and we can only speculate as to when horalu became associated with this new Rising power and when he became Godfrey when he took the vow to become a Lord but at some point he would become joined to another emerging power the imperian Marika who would become the god of the new archery era and as such he would become her consort an Elden Lord and no doubt he gained this possession through his formidable reputation as a warrior Marika and her archery adherent would need a warrior the protection of the earth tree incantation makes it clear that at the beginning the Earth tree had many enemies to overcome and thus a warrior like horrorlu was the Elden Lord that America needed and yet to become Elden Lord he needed to be more than a barbarian Warrior he had to conduct himself as a lord and as we know from his acts as item description Godfrey dead though to conduct himself as a lord and at this moment he transitioned from horalu to Godfrey from a warrior king with a Roundtable Council to a more traditional Monarch figure tarnished archaeologist points out that this is a Nuance that is illustrated by Roundtable hold itself for in one room we see the Level Playing Field of the round table which stands in stark contrast to the small chamber found off the round table which essentially is a throne room for a lord one represents a warrior culture of equal voice and the other represents a traditional monarchy the complete opposite of a round table philosophy where one voice stands far above the others so we can assume that after his Ascension to Eldon Lord Godfrey's old holds still continued to be used and given there is an Elden throne in both Stormville and fortified manner this is very much implied given the more basic and Spartan design of the Norman fortified manner I would suggest that Landell was built sometime after this building due to the more Grand Design and clearer purposeful ties to the archery in its iconography and given Godfrey's Origins I would like to imagine him as a man who would still have preferred to use his more functional holds like Stormville and fortified manner even after more opulent buildings were built in Lane Dale there is one final symbol of this transition of the moment that horalu became Godfrey and again credit to tarnished archaeologists for pointing out this detail in fortified Manner and the detail I am talking about is the weapons that are plunged into the round table itself standing starkly among these swords is a single ax and we know that Godfrey took his iconic double-headed ax at the moment he vowed to conduct himself as a lord we know what is expected of a lord thanks to the description of the riller's Mask item description which reads such a mask illustrates the qualities of an ideal Lord chiefly wise and possessing a certain defined geniality one at the center of society often finds these qualities most expedient horalu and his Warriors very much are the opposite of these ideals yet God through the Lord a man who speaks with poise and respect very much Cleaves closer to the ideals described by The riller's Mask Godfrey is certainly more defined than Hora Lou Warrior so perhaps these swords been embedded in the table is a further defanging a symbolic moment of laying down the sword Godfrey and his Warriors giving up their old ways giving up the warrior culture and taking up the symbols of lordship Could This truly be Godfrey's old functional battle ax a permanent reminder of the man he used to be marking the end of his days as horalu before picking up his more symbolic acts and taking sarosh upon his back Rising as Godfrey first Eldon Lord things of course dramatically changed for Godfrey and the world when marker looked to Herald in the Primacy of the archery we know from malachith's remembrance that America was once an emperion and thus must have been elected as such during an earlier era possibly during the same era as horaluz rise to prominence from Ronnie's dialogue about emperions we know that emperions are a potential candidate Gods chosen to usher in a new era in America's case it was no doubt the emergence of the primordial form of the earth tree The Crucible that heralded the dawn of a new age that necessitated a new God of course America faced a lot of challenges as a young emperion and she in her archery would face an uphill battle to become the dominant power in the lands between the protection of the archery incantation reads in the beginning everything was in opposition to the Earth tree but through countless victories in war it became the embodiment of order the artery is so obviously the center of power in our current ERA and it is so hard to imagine that it was anything else yet as this description so clearly states the archery earned its Primacy through Bloodshed to further drive this point home the description of the Elden Lord armor set Godfrey said says the following the age of the archery began amongst conflict when Godfrey was Lord of the battlefield this does seem to be one of the bloodiest periods in all of lands between history but it would be the one in which Godfrey would cement his legacy as the lord of the battlefield and it is no doubt in no small part thanks to Godfrey's Marshall prowess that the archery would be Victorious and become the primary power in the lands between so let's talk about this period no doubt as a newly minted God Marca would also have had significant power granted to her however given Godfrey's title of Lord of the battlefield and the many battles attributed to him I think we can safely say that Godfrey was the biggest factor in unifying the lands between under the Earth tree Marika and Grace were no doubt aware of horalu's reputation and thus this is why horalu was elevated to possession of Elden Lord with Marca probably being fully aware that everything was in opposition to her new order and again again this is where a tarnished archaeologist's analogy of Godfrey being late King Arthur comes into place again King Arthur is credited with creating the blueprint for modern United Kingdom by uniting the desperate United Kingdoms any post-roman Breton and again we can see Godfrey as that great unifier in the beginning of the age of the Earth tree and the semantics of the description of protection of the earth tree really makes it clear that this was a period of lots of Bloodshed because it says through countless victories the air tree would become the symbol of order and so we can only imagine how much Godfrey and his Warriors had to fight in my own head I call this era the Earth tree unification Wars and no doubt there were countless tribes minor societies that were crushed and brought to heal by Godfrey and his Warriors the siege of Morin gives us some insight into what these battles could have been like so let us look at the grafted great sword which reads the following the storied sword of Castle Moran a Revengers weapon it has burdened with oceans of anger and regret a lone surviving champion from a country no vanished was so determined to continue fighting that he claimed the swords of an entire clan of Warriors this is an interesting description as it suggests the original wielder of the sword was a sole survivor of a lost country and that Revenge was their purpose and on their mind symbolically forging a single sword out of all the swords of a lost Clan to bring Vengeance collectively to the one that perpetrated the loss of this clan and when we look at this in line with the sword Monument found at castlemorne we do get the full picture of who this revenge is directed at the siege of Castle morne a lone hero fights for his Vengeance only to fall at the hand of Lord Godfrey this of course interesting for a number of reasons firstly it mentions Godfrey not horalu meaning this event took place when Godfrey was Eldon Lord secondly it of course shows that the Revenge of this lone Revenger was directed against Godfrey implicitly suggesting that Godfrey is responsible for the destruction of the country and clan that is mentioned in said sword's description and I would suggest that this country and Clan was just one of the many that Godfrey would have destroyed in these archery unification Wars and it would eventually result in this final climactic battle between the Lone Survivor of said country and Lord Godfrey now we don't know if the Revenger was the one that was in possession of Castle mourn or whether they were besieging But ultimately it doesn't matter it's just another one of Godfrey's many victories another potential enemy destroyed and obviously in time this would become one of Godfrey's holding whether he hailed it before this Revenger or took it from him as it does contain the similar kind of imagery that we find in Stormville and Round Table hold and it is still held by one of Godfrey's descendants godric and his vassals what is also interesting is that Godfrey didn't actually discard the revenger's weapon as we can see from the fact it becomes the storied weapon of Castle [ __ ] and indeed godric's vassal Edgar is determined to recover the weapon before he thinks about abandoning Castle Warren which has been overrun by Miss begotten slaves suggesting that this sword is of Great Value now to the golden lineage a relic of this bloodline and indeed at the hill you can see it now Bears the crest of Godfrey that line rampant we've gone into detail about so many times now despite all these more minor victories two of his greatest factories are detailed in his armor set the victories against the stormlord and the Giants now in days past I'd always assumed that the storm Lord was one in the same with the storm Hawk King who we've already spoken about in the prior chapters and I had denied the common theory that the stormlord was actually placidus Acts however as I always do I've reconsidered my possession on this bet of lore and I believe that there is a good chance that Godfrey defeated placiduous acts and this as the storm Lord mentioned and thematically this was the final nail in the coffin of the prior order one Elden Lord being defeated by the next Elder Lord let's start with placidus access remembrance which reads the dragon lord who see lies at the heart of the storm Beyond time is said to have been the Elden Lord in the age before the archery once his God was fled the Lord continued to await its return now there are already a number of hints here as to placidusacks being the stormlord that Godfrey faced down first is the obvious association with storms Placentia sacks exist Beyond a storm a storm that is seemingly able to manipulate time somehow there's also the fact that Placentia sacks really is a master or Lord of storms being able to transform himself into a storm cloud and wield what the Crag blade describes as primeval lightning this of course brings us back to the Hawks themselves and their ability to wield storms Hawks are also present in fire Mozilla Hawks are ultimately Raptors and Raptors are distant relations of the dinosaurs so perhaps the Hawks of Elden ring are descendants of the Dragons an analogy to real world dinosaurs and birds and thus carried the dragon's affinity for the storm down the genetic line and that really the true masters of the storm are the dragons and the Hawks or their manipulation of the storm to the dragons and ultimately placidus eggs one of the strongest pieces of evidence for placidusacks being their stormlord that was defeated by Godfrey is of course his wounds he seems to have lost three heads and has had his wings and body damaged by very deep scars all wounds that very much could have been caused by an ax and as we discussed in a prior chapter the age of beasts that was ruled over by placidusacks may have more closely overlapped with the age of The Crucible and thus the age of the archery more closely than I had previously considered and so if Marika and Godfrey were seeking to establish a new order it would make perfect sense for Godfrey to Target the Elden lord of the prior one and really if Godfrey's already defeated the storm Hawk Monarch sarosh it would have thematically make sense if he also defeated placidus ax his orders Primacy would really be confirmed and legitimized with three Lords of this prior order being defeated by the new Elden Lord this is near what I believe when the armor says that Godfrey faced the storm Lord alone Elden Lord versus Elden Lord with Godfrey coming out on top of this conflict and Placentia sacks retreating to beyond the storm awaiting his God to return and essentially licking his wounds and as we already discussed if placiduous ax was the storm Lord that meant that the banished Knights including Oleg and Engvall the wings of the stormlord would have previously served placidus acts but upon placidus ax's defeat their locations throughout Godfrey's holds suggest that they now serve a different Master with the storm Lord and the former order finally defeated Godfrey and Marika would have one final set of Rivals to overthrow the Giants that were mentioned in Godfrey's armor the fire Giants who controlled the mountaintops and the forge of flame obviously this is one of the most Titanic and pivotal battles in this early archery era it was the battle that marked the dawn of the age of the Earth tree the importance of which is impressed upon her men by America herself in the speech that Melina recreates for us on the mountaintops of the Giants Hawk brave warriors hark my Lord Godfrey we commend your Deeds guidance hath delivered ye through each ordeal to the place ye stand put the Giants to the sword and confine the flame Atop The Mount let a new Epoch begin an Epoch glistening with life brandish the Eldon ring for the age of the Earth tree this is a pretty epic and momentous speech and it is important because it does Mark the dawn of a new age the dawn of the age of the archery another thing that is interesting about this speech is where it takes place Melina recreates it at the first church of America again suggesting that the end of this battle would Mark the beginning of the earth tree era and Marcus dominance as the God and no doubt this first church was built in honor of that final victory America makes it very clear that this is the final battle in the way of archery dominance and that all the many countless battles that came before it have led to this singular moment of course the reason why the Giants needs to be destroyed is perfectly clear not only are they powerful but they also possess the flame of ruin as we see from our own Journey the flame of Ruin does pose a direct physical threat towards the Earth tree the need for Action could well have been further spurred by the prophecy of flame which we hear of via Fire's deadly sin which reads they profit despaired looking up at the archery for soon the kindling would burst into flame bringing ruin the burning of the earth tree is the first cardinal sin that is not the domain of Mere Men Ania confirms that this is the first cardinal sin and given it as the first of the cardinal sins of the earth tree order I assume this sin must have been established early on in archery history a fear brought about by a prophecy that ultimately pushed America and her people to assault the mounted tops and seal the Giants Marcus speech of course mentions Lord Godfrey placing Godfrey at her side during this conflict and we can only imagine the great feats that he and his Knights would achieve during this battle with the trolls betraying them and their ancient zamor enemies joining the archery Alliance the fire Giants really stood no chance and were conclusively defeated however as we know Victory here was not complete for the remembrance of the fire giant reads the following the fire giant is a survivor of the war against the Giants upon realizing the Flames of their Forge would never die Queen Marca marked him with a curse America and her forces realized that the flame could never truly be extinguished and thus it must be confined and controlled instead as we discussed in my fire Giants lore video which I will link below the fire Giants are bound to serve the flame for eternity and as a result Marca used this against the last giant alive she would let the fire giant tend the fire by itself acting as a final barrier and guardian against anyone who would try and utilize the flame of ruin alongside the giant the order of fire monks was established and the rest is history thus would begin the age of the Earth tree as we learned via the Mountaintop sword Monument which reads the war against the Giants Champions battle trolls betray fire vanquished the era of the earth tree begins we know that the early age of the archery era was marked by Bounty and blessings dropping directly as Dew from the tree itself we discussed this ancient artery era and my glomide queen lorevideo in which I heavily reference tarnished archaeologists Creed of the archery video and I would highly recommend that video if you'd like to learn more about this potential ancient archery era but we learn of this Bountiful time via archery's favor description which reads the following it is said that when the age of the archery began such blessings were personally bestowed upon their recipients by Queen Marica herself so indeed we know that this is the earliest part of the age of the archery a period which is also known as the age of Plenty via items like the icon shield and the Blessed do Talisman the latter of which reads it was once thought that the Blessed sap of the earth tree would drip from its bios forever but that age of Plenty swiftly came to a close and with time the air tree would become more an object of faith we know that Godfrey was present in these times as the Amber medallions read the art tree's old sap becomes Amber treasured as the most precious jewels in the age of Godfrey the first Elden Lord so Godfrey was the Elden Lord at this time of the age of Plenty Godfrey would now become to be regarded as a demigod at this time and he and marker would begin the lauded golden lineage something we learn of via godric's great Rune which reads the first demigods where the Elden Lord Godfrey and his offspring the golden lineage Godfrey and his offspring are still well regarded even in the current ERA we see godric clinging so dearly to this Golden Heritage and Kenneth hate expresses shock that such a weakling like godric could be the blood of the venerable Godfrey and golden lineage and to think is the blood of Godfrey last of the golden though you almost wouldn't know it to look at him the very term golden of golden lineage tells us how important this bloodline is to the people of the golden tree to Grace it is the original royal family branch and from this Branch would come the likes of Godwin the golden a family member who would rise to prominence in the war with the dragons and would also include members like morgot the last king of Lyndale of course we can assume that lane Dale as we know it today would began to be built in this early age and Godfrey would make his mark on early archery Society via his arenas we know that this was a practice of godfreys for multiple reasons firstly It lines up of what we know of Godfrey a man who values martial prayer ways where better to practice such ideals than in The Crucible of an arena secondly the archaeological evidence as we've discussed also points to Godfrey's hand as it contains the classic line symbolism we have so extensively examined finally there is in-game lore that confirms that these Arenas were a Godfrey era practice that were then shuttered by the time of Radigan when he was Elden Lord as the ritual sword Talisman reads A Talisman patterned after swords used in ritual combat held to honor the Earth tree the practice had died out by the age of King consort Radigan but remains of the Arenas were retro combat took place can still be found in every land it is interesting to see that Godfrey a warrior at heart who developed his own ideals about strength applies his beliefs and practices to honor his new Patron the archery aside from this we don't know a huge amount about Godfrey's reign as Elden Lord aside from the fact he must have been around for the late ernian Wars we know from Marielle that Radigan would only become Eldon Lord after Godfrey was driven from the lines between and he did this while he was married to Ronaldo who he would abandon and this Union between Ronaldo and Radigan was the union that ended the second liernian war meaning that Godfrey was still Elden Lord at the time of both leonian Wars now thematically it probably makes sense that the leonian wars took place during the archery unification Wars that we detailed in the earlier chapter because of course the region of Leonia with the carrians and railakaria could have been a massive potential rival to the archery Society however the reason I haven't placed it in that chapter previously is because I am ultimately unsure where it says mainly because of a dialogue by Roger in which he talks about the golden order incorporating the people of Leonia they were conceived at the great Academy of Raya lucaria to the north of this castle in the past they obeyed laws which contravened the golden order also Untold fascinating isn't it that the golden order was pliable enough to absorb practices that contradicted itself in the past with the order broken twisted and in need of repair such adaptability is more important now than ever implicitly this suggests that the leonian wars took place when the golden order was a thing so later on in the timeline When Death was confined however I do concede that rajier may just be talking about the golden order in a general sense and talking about their ancient history prior to actually being the golden order so I leave it up to you to decide whether these leonian wars took place in the early conquests of the earth tree or if they took place during the reign of Godfrey after the age of the Earth tree began however there is a war that certainly took place later on after the initial Wars of the archery when leandale was built and that is the war of the ancient dragons and I would speculate that this did take place under Godfrey's Reign this event is described to us in many in-game sources such as golden lightning fortification and the relevant sword Memorial found in Lane Dell of course there is speculation about when this war actually took place but my reasoning for it taking place under Godfrey's reign as multi-fold reason one Godfrey is thematically discarded by Grace after all his worthy enemies are failed and for me implies that radigan's era is the era of Peace when main conflicts are mainly done and reason number two as we have already discussed there's a good chance that Godfrey defeated placidusacks and thus it would make sense that the remaining dragons underground sacks and fortisacs would try to take revenge against Godfrey and his people sooner rather than later but again I leave it up to you to decide where you think this event stands in the timeline if it took place in Godfrey's Reign or later of course we all know where Godfrey's lordship is going Godfrey and his tribe were martial people a wartime Lord that was necessary during the initial archery unification Wars but now that Victory had been achieved and the last bits of combat were dying out a different Lord was needed it seems as though after Godfrey and his men had lost their purpose they lost their usefulness to the art tree and Grace fell from their eyes this is of course described by Godfrey's armor set which reads when his last worthy enemy fell it was then as the story is told that the Hue of Lord Godfrey's eyes faded so we can see that Godfrey's loss of Grace was a result of a loss of purpose after the defeat of the last real threat to the Earth tree then of course we see that it is Marca herself who passes this judgment on Godfrey and his Warriors as she says my Lord and thy Warriors I divest each of thee of thy Grace With Thine Eyes dimmed ye will be driven from the lands between ye will wage war in a land afar where you will live and die then after thy death I will give back what I once claimed return to the lands between wage war and brandish the Eldon ring grow strong in the face of death Warriors of my Lord Lord Godfrey in this speech marker more or less describes the exact chain of events that happened to the tarnished as if she and Grace or the greater well could foresee the greater role intended for the tarnished and what Marcus says here right at the moment of their Exile does come to pass they are chased from the lands between they do die and one day they do have Grace returned to them and they come back to the lands between it seems to be a purposeful decision by the forces that be by the greater will America and this plan does bear fruit as it is the tarnish to become the main players in the current ERA after the demigods failed to live up to expectations so with that said let us now talk about the tarnished their Exile an eventual return as I've already touched on a couple of times they tarnished are descended from these Warriors who served beside Godfrey who were tarnished and exiled at the same time as him a fact that is confirmed by Miyazaki himself via an interview with IGN where he said the following about the tarnished so the tarnished you could call them tarnished individuals who have lost Grace and this is a long time preceding the setting of The Game a long time before the ancestors of the characters that are present in the world were banished and exiled from the lands between these tarnished so these original tarnished who were banished alongside Godfrey who we are descended from are literally Godfrey's Warriors referred to as his Kinfolk in horalu's remembrance so with that said let us talk about their Exile something we know was not a pretty event thanks to Marielle who says the following however when Godfrey first Eldon Lord was hounded from the lands between Radigan left renala to return to the Earth tree capital becoming Queen marica's second husband and King consort taking the title of second Elden Lord so they were hounded or chased out because of the way in which the people of Grace view those who are tarnished something we can see in the disgusted way in which morgot or marget refers to us and in the way which Kenneth height initially reacts to us in regards to us being tarnished and wanting to help him ah you've come to lend me your Aid have you well that's that's very kind but um no no but the help is very much appreciated even from a tarnished despite appearances nobility is no prerequisite to serving the true order and of course there would have been the cut NPC by count Shanghai someone we've discussed before in the channel a noble of laying Dell who would have made it clear that the tarnish do not belong in the world of Grace and indeed that he believes we are lesser for having lost Grace this is how we make sense of the term itself the word tarnished tarnished as defined in the following Way by Oxford languages lose or cause to lose luster especially as a result of exposure to air or moisture or make or become less valuable or respected both of these are relevant to the tarnished not only have they lost the luster of gold from their eyes indeed gold can become tarnished in real life but also the tarnished have lost value in the eyes of those in the world of Grace of course one of the only characters to speak to us with respect in terms of us being a tarnished is Godfrey which of course makes sense given that he was one of us to not be touched by Grace really is to make you a second class citizen something we can see when we look at other beings who haven't been touched by Grace such as the urban oryx and the greatest lore item in the game Albion blood clot makes it clear how people with Grace view things that don't have Grace as it reads all menorics are life forms made by human hands thus many believe them to live impure lives Untouched by the art tree's Grace a Prejudice that could certainly be applied to the tarnished as well and so the tarnish were chased out of the lands between for being a lesser being and we know they eventually left for new lands via boat of course this obviously makes sense given the lands between isn't connected to any other source of land and is surrounded in all sides by water but we get more detail about their leaving via the Rusted anchor weapon item description which reads the following a Rusty Anchor wielded as a weapon each of its four flukes is thick and sharp when the tarnish left the lands between with their lord one both alone was said to have been left behind and so the tarnished left with their lord Godfrey via bull as pointed out by Eridan and his golden lineage lore video there is a good chance that they left from the southern tip of the lands between from castlemorne one of Godfrey's strongholds as there are many wrecked ships here it is also interesting to note that one of the churches in this region the Weeping Peninsula is called The Church of pilgrimage perhaps a reference to the pilgrimage of the tarnished as they left on the Long March it is also where melaner recreates part of America's tarnishing speech so yeah make of that what you will what is also interesting from this item description is that apparently one boat was left behind and we can only imagine what horrible fate awaited those tarnished who didn't leave with the rest in fact we may not need to imagine and vati vedia's latest Secrets video he highlights the crucified people found throughout limgrave vati notes that these crucified people are wearing the guilty Hood which had a cut item description which would be far more interesting than the one we find in-game now best cut description would have read Garb of spurn tarnished who were forced into slavery in the lands between this is pretty much what we'd expect to happen to Left Behind tarnished enslaved and brutalized another interesting Nuance to consider is that Godfrey alone was tarnished from his family not his offspring as the golden lineage very much still exists in the lands between so the tarnish people left by boat and would established societies that existed beyond the boundaries of the lands between and this is why there is such a diverse choice of background for our tarnished in both the classes that we can choose as well as the appearance presets all of these choices show that the tarnish lived in different lands and cultures that developed over time an idea that I explored in my starting class lore video which I would highly recommend but of course before the tarnish could settle in these lands they had to undergo what is known as the Long March referred to in Godfrey's acts which reads the following weapon of Godfrey Elden Lord it was broken in a battle fought as leader of the tarnished during the Long March so we actually get a lot of lore from a small line firstly it obviously tells us that Godfrey LED his people the tarnished on a long march no doubt through land or knowing to find a home for his people and number two it tells us that the tarnished and Godfrey saw combat in this March and this combat was ferocious enough that it would end up in the breaking of Godfrey's legendary ax obviously we can't know for sure who Godfrey and his tarnished fought against but my speculation is that Godfrey and the tarnished were simply battling against peoples whose land they were essentially invading or marching across Godfrey would eventually settle in an area or region we know as the Badlands as the introductory slides call him horalu Chieftain of the Badlands indeed when the Long March of the tarnished came to an end he divested himself of lordship and became horalu once more and this is told To Us by his remembrance which reads after the long march of the tarnished came to an end Godfrey divested himself of kingship becoming a simple Warrior once more this meant that he was still Godfrey as he led the tarnished on their Long March and enter their Exile but eventually when he settled he took off his Godfrey Persona he wasn't a lord anymore he had done his duty for his people and he just wanted to become a simple Chieftain once more despite this horrorlu still had sarosh on his back meaning that while he was simple horalu again he didn't suffer from the same bloodlust that he did before and it looks like sarosh would have still been his advisor at this time as indeed we do see sarosh on horalu's shoulder in the introductory slide as we have already stated horelu imported some of his ideals from the lands between especially the hawk with his bad lined kensfolk wielding storm Hawk axes and as we discussed earlier nephili Lou let slip that she once had a hawk suggesting that the Badlands people potentially had Hawks as companions and hunting beasts and as we have said already the Badlands May well have been like Stormville due to a line from the valley this could be why horrorlu settled here in the first place a little reminder of home and something familiar and if Stormville is like the Badlands we can get an idea of its potential geography and weather conditions and did Badland culture is a return to horrorlu's more simple Barbarian days as is evident by the description of the champion set where again strength and martial prowess is valued over all things clearly some tarnish settled with horrorly here as when creating our tarnished Avatar we can make them the hero class suggesting that our character is descended or from this Badlands Clan horelu evidently went on to have more children after he settled in the Badlands as we meet one of his tarnished descendants nephili Lou whose lineage is evidenced by Kenneth hate supporting her valid claim to the Sea of Stormville but now I must begin my search post haste for a true and stalwart lord of the proper lineage to take the Reigns of lim grave ah quite I have indeed selected a new ruler lady in afelli is strong and just worthy of the burden of limb Grace lineage but the Badlands were not the only resting place of the tarnished the starting classes tell us much in this regard there are tarnished Warriors from the land of reeds if you would choose the samurai class and or the lands of read appearance preset there are tarnished who are once of the Newman people Marcus people if you choose the Newman appearance in my mind if you choose the Newman appearance that means that your ancestors were once Marcus people in the lands between before being tarnished and exiled alongside Godfrey a pretty interesting bit of lore if you consider it there is also a nomadic clan of Warriors of which tarnished also seem to be members of a nomadic tribe which uphold the water flowing techniques of the blind swordsman not only in their combat style but also in their nomadic way of life even in the way they live their teachings demand that they move like flowing water such as the lore of the tarnish to choose the warrior starting class with this Rich lore being detailed in their armor set what is also interesting is that there are tarnished who seem to be part of a church that worships the two fingers even outside of the lands between something we learn of via the Confessor set which reads black herd for blending in with the darkness worn by Church confessors the churches outside the lands between dedicated to the teachings of the two fingers send confessors out to follow the guidance of Grace the confessors are loyal servants to the two fingers ready to hunt down and quietly dispose of their enemies now it is unclear whether people outside of the lands between already worshiped Greece and the two fingers or whether it was an export brought by the tarnished after their Long March I am more inclined to believe the latter not only because it's more interesting but also because the tarnished have very strong ties to the two fingers as we will discuss shortly the point being that the tarnished evidently dispersed far and wide throughout the world having different classes different religion and different nations that they come from the interview quote from Miyazaki that we looked at at the start of this chapter definitely means that makes sense he describes that the initial Exile took place long long ago and that we are actually the ancestors of those original tarnished meaning that there's been a long passage of time since the tarnish were originally exiled giving there a lot of time for the tarnish people to spread far and wide to become embedded in different societies and in essence it gives us a wide blank canvas when we create our role-playing characters in Eldon ring and so while the tarnished were living their new lives beyond the lines between we know that major things were going down in the lands between as we know from America's speech her prediction the tarnish would one day be required to return to the lands between far from tarnished lands the lands between would go through tumultuous periods especially the shattering the Elden ring was shattered and Marcus demigod offspring would battle for Supremacy in a war so brittle that no one would truly be victorious their failure to Herald in a new order would lead to their abandonment by the greater well as told to us in the introductory segment with the demigods abandoned the greater well and the two fingers would once again extend Grace to their last hope the tarnished she who is vessel of the old thing tainted by the strengths of their wounds her children Ward but none could become Elden Lord and so Grace was extended to your kind the tarnished listen the fingers speak the greater will has long renounced the demigods Unleashed show no mercy at their heads take all they have left this in a nutshell is why the tarnished are a given back their Grace and B called back to the lands between they are the last chance for a new order to be restored and one of them to become Eldon Lord not only are they called back but it seems as though most of the tarnish are resurrected from death in the opening cinematic we see that horalu Gideon uthnir dung eater and gold mask were all dead but in each image we see the light of Grace next to them as if in the following scene they would be resurrected from death even ourselves the tarnished of little Renown seemed to be dead at the beginning of the game with Grace returning to us and we come back to life this brings us to a question a lot of people have about the tarnished why do we not die and why do other tarnished seem to die well the opening cinematic of our character being resurrected is really the answer it is Grace consider what Grace says apart from a magical Force it is purpose as long as the order has a purpose for us we will be needed we know that it was when Godfrey's purpose ended that the light faded from his eyes when we have Grace and have purpose that is granted to us remember it isn't about just internal purpose it is about the system of order having a purpose for you we cannot die and this force is so powerful that not only does it stop us from dying but actually resurrects us and others back from the dead and if you don't believe me this idea is actually confirmed by Miyazaki himself in an interview from Overture of Elden ring Miyazaki says the following about immortality the immortality of the tarnished stems from the power of guidance of Grace tarnish that die outside the lines between are given new life through the guidance of Grace and beckoned to the lands between this is basically the start of the game I guess the guidance doesn't want the player character to be freed from their cycle so that's it pretty simply put we have a role to play in the current order and as such we will not be allowed to die until we have fulfilled that purpose or we are no longer of use this does raise questions for me about Godfrey we know that he lost Grace when his purpose faded but does this mean that when he was Eldon Lord and needed by the current order was he actually Immortal did that play a role in his victories not to take anything away from him of course it just adds another interesting Dynamic that maybe the forces of Grace were literally Unstoppable for all those that opposed them if their main Champions were literally immortal and let's swing around to another question I get a lot which is why are we Immortal as the player character but other tarnished seem to die while it's pretty simple we get lots of instances where tarnish tell us that they've lost the guidance of Grace they've lost the grace that they were given again when they returned to the lands between you can see it then I take it the guidance of Grace well enjoy it while you can I'm tarnished like you but unlike you I've seen neither hide nor hair of this guidance for the longest time still I won't forget how it felt when I first came here to the lens between gains of Greece has once again abandoned them they have no more purpose and they are allowed to die what is also interesting is that quote from Miyazaki implies that Grace literally brings us here to the lines between as well and this does line up to our arrival where we seem to be resurrected and literally pulled towards a golden life before appearing in the lands between although this does conflict a little bit with rodorika's dialogue where she suggests she came here directly with a cohort of people that wanted to support her but make of it what you will ultimately it is clear that the guidance of Grace is responsible both for the resurrection and immortality of chosen tarnished and for their arrival in the lands between however it does seem that the tarnished are resurrected and chosen by grace and drebs and drabs rather than all at once because the tarnish seemed to have a long history in the lands between not just outside of it for example we know that we are far from the first to arrive Gideon not only makes it clear that we are a newcomer but that has actually been a long time since they saw a newcomer we also get a history of some of the first members to reach Roundtable hold such as varagram and Wilhelm both of their armor sets stating this is the case there are also old tarnished such as isfan whose Scaled Armor Set reads the following armor worn by oldnay esfan esfan is one of the few Western tarnished who survived to this day the language used here really does Hammer home the passage of time in my opinion anyway s fan is an old wizard tarnished who has survived after all this time again suggesting that many many years of tarnish coming to the lands between has taken place and we are just the latest of it there are also hints that the two fingers have been in Roundtable hold for some time as the coded sword reads head and sword once granted to the tarnished of the round table by the two fingers a formless cipher comprises its blade Champions would gather at the Roundtable hold in days long past when the two fingers were Masters operation their flesh Yet full of vigor first a side note while we find this item in the Fortified manner it is clear that it is the Ethereal Roundtable hold that is the Gathering Place of the mentioned champions not only because this is clearly the two fingers a base of operation the Roundtable hold but also because fortified Manner and Roundtable hold are two distinct things and here we are getting reference to Round Table hold and before we go any further we should talk about Round Table hold itself now I don't find this to be a massive Revelation as I've played a lot of from soft games and this Trope has been used twice and their games are ready but yes Round Table horde is a recreation of an original building it is an exact replica of the Fortified Manner and this is fitting for a place that should be a gathering for the tarnished as we discussed already the tarnished or their history to the Warriors that once stood at Godfrey's side and the original fortified manner will have been their base of operations we know that our Roundtable hold isn't a real place and is sustained by grace the end game note about Roundtable hold that's for tutorial notes describes it as existing outside the lands between and for me that means that it's almost like a pocket Dimension and indeed right in the center of the room we see a massive fragment of Grace and finally when the archery itself Burns Round Table hold bones as well suggesting it is connected and sustained by Grace much like the Hunter's dream in bloodborne the round table hold is a manifested base of operations by the powers that be in the case of bloodborne the powers that be where the moon presence and in this game it is the two fingers and Grace it is meant to give the tarnished everything they need to complete their mission but returning to the idea of the passage of time and to the description of the coded sword the coded sword describes the two fingers as once been full of vigor and they would give this sword to the tarnished and deliver rousing oration indeed I would Hazard a guess that this rousing oration is something that has been shown on the two fingers heirloom talisman a very different picture from the rather Faded Glory that we see in Roundtable hall now an observation made by vary as well who states but how did you find the round table oh you don't have to say it before the round table was chock full of venerated Warriors but now it's home to Puff chests and has beans I fear you've been terribly disappointed I don't blame you indeed not only is Round Table not exactly a rousing place of Mighty Champions but the two fingers seem far from their Glory Days no rousing speeches and they are actually in seclusion for all but the mightiest tarnished indeed Lords Divine fortification seems to tell us that the two fingers are ancient and long past their best as it reads Gideon gained true knowledge after his long exchange with the two fingers discovering all had been broken long ago that the trembling fingers bent with age and the archery itself were no exception who knows how long their cycle of calling tarnished has gone on for but if the trembling fingers are now bent with age it does suggest it's been a long time but despite this there seems to have once been an exceptionally strong bond between the fingers and the tarnished in general for example when we first arrived in the lands between and speak to Bernal he expects us to act like a normal loyal tarnished and serve Grace and the two fingers let me ask you something are you here in the lands between to take up the fight does your faith in the guidance of Grace Hold firm despite the collapse of the golden order yes you're a tarnished through and through we have already discussed how they were tarnished Beyond the Lines between who acted as confessors loyal enforcers to the message of the two fingers these confessors also operate on behalf of the status quo of the round table where they seem to be serving as the Assassins of the two fingers we know that the confessors are the Assassins of the two fingers as well via the two items associated with creepers creepus crossbow states that he is the head Confessor but creeper says vile named after said head Confessor talks about its usage by the Roundtable assassins showing us that confessors and Roundtable assassins are one in the same these Roundtable assassins were basically tarnished enforcers meant to stop any tarnished from straying from the two fingers Direction and purpose something we learn of via assassin's approach and the Darkness incantations they would literally eliminate Rogue tarnished on behalf of the two fingers this again speaks to the passage of time for no such organization exists now and Riley the idol dress and Confessor Garb one of the targets of volcano Manor May well be the last of these for an hour time many tarnished have strayed from the path some joining morgue Lord of blood and some joining the requisons of volcano Manor and nothing happens to them but again it speaks to a long and Rich history of the tarnished and the lands between again adding to the scale of this massive game that even after the shattering and in this time where the tarnished had been called back a lot of time has passed and a lot of history has happened and for us exploring these lands The Legend and Legacy of our once leader is everywhere the mighty statue of Godfrey found in Stormville for example speaks of his earlier Glory Days and of course we have to face against a golden Phantom of Godfrey before we get to face down morgot one of his lineage as I discussed in my mortgage video I believe this golden Phantom of Godfrey to be conjured by morgot as it uses a similar casting sigil that has Market projections do when we fight them throughout the game to me this image of Godfrey is the idealized memory of Godfrey that is held by morgot we can see that Godfrey's acts is unshattered again suggesting that this projection is conjured from wargot's memory of Godfrey when he was Eldon Lord more Gods Rune tells us that he is of Godfrey's golden lineage and Godfrey acknowledges more God when he puts him to rest suggesting that morgot was his direct Offspring it's been a long while more God and we do face Godfrey at the foot of the archery near the end of our journey evidently Godfrey has also been called back and given Grace again this is where tarnished archaeologist King Arthur analogy comes full circle Arthur was once described as The Once and Future King a term repeatedly carved in Latin on his grave meaning that one day Arthur May return even from his death and the United Kingdom's most dire hour to defeat evil and deliver Justice in this way Godfrey is The Once and Future King a sentiment that is basically shared and repeated by a ghost NPC that is found outside the archery Sanctuary upon Godfrey's return we do indeed see in the Cinematic if you look closely that Godfrey is being Guided by grace when he puts more God to rest we can see the guidance of Grace projecting from more God's corpse towards us the tarnished and this does make sense in any ending if we are a vessel for the flame of chaos then Grace is probably directing Godfrey to stop us if we are here to claim the Elden Throne then Godfrey is one final Crucible a crown is warranted by strength after all and the vector of this battle will prove themselves the most worthy Elden Lord even in his death Godfrey remains a man of Honor a man who adheres to a certain code should we defeat him Godfrey acknowledges that our strength befits a crown to Godfrey we have more than proven ourselves as the rightful successor and ultimately that is the legacy of Godfrey we are the tarnished are a product of Godfrey's time a noble if brittle Warrior ideal and while Godfrey's resume is chock full of incredible achievements arguably his greatest achievement is Oz the tarnished for he is the man who tempered those who had become the next Eldon Lord and I for one find it a great honor to fight our progenitor in one final showdown that will decide the rightful Lord after all this time and to when horror lose respect is one of the greatest achievements that we can attain so thanks guys that is my take on Godfrey and his tarnished Warriors part of the reasons that I enjoy Elden ring so much is because of the strong foundations that we as a character have yes there is plenty of scope for a blank canvas but the tarnished have such a rich history tied to this legendary figure Godfrey both Godfrey and the tarnished returned to the lands between in its time of need and no matter what we choose we do end the stagnation and I don't know about you I would absolutely have loved to stand around that round table at the height of its power when Godfrey and his Warriors debated matters of state but what do you think guys what do you think about the Legacy and history of Godfrey and the tarnished let me know your thoughts below as well as what you'd like me to cover for my next lore video but until next time guys I will see you at your seat around the round table hold take care and have a wonderful night

Channel: SmoughTown

Views: 394,751

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, elden ring story explained, elden ring explained, night of the black knives, leyndell, vargram, outer god, godfrey, what are the tarnished, horah loux, hoarah loux, roundtable hold, fortified manor, serosh, who is serosh, storm lord, stormlord, badlands

Id: idYNzvzp9gU

Length: 103min 47sec (6227 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 06 2023