Elden Ring Lore | Goldmask and the Golden Order

the most dominant power in the lands between in the modern era is a body known as the golden order this is not only a philosophy but a state of the physical elden ring itself and for all intents and purposes is the governing order of the erd tree championed by the likes of radigan the second elden lord the golden order enjoyed an unchallenged rule for years with its adherence being both scholarly and fanatical yet it still collapsed the elden ring was shattered and the lands between were plunged into a period of calamity and conflict if this ideology was so perfect then how did this even come to pass this was the question pondered by a scholar of unmatched renown and intelligence gold mask the ever brilliant gold mask would pose a simple yet powerful question why did the golden order fail if the golden order was as holistic as its adherence claimed how did it fail to prevent this great calamity these questions go to the very core of what caused the shattering and how the world reached this pressure point in the first place through close attention to detail and a strong understanding of fundamentalism we can learn how gold mask through his intense deliberations identified glaring flaws within the order viewing the golden order as a mathematical equation gold mask would seek to bring balance to this formula much to the chargren of golden order fanatics this will be an extremely expansive video covering the creation of the golden order the rise of radigan the fundamentalists as well as taking a look at those unfortunate enough to fall outside the bounds established by the golden order so join me this week as we examine the golden order its many flaws and the scholar who sought to perfect it before we get started guys if you like eldon ring lore consider subscribing to the channel as i almost exclusively produce long-form lore content and therefore there is plenty for you to sink your teeth into so first of all let us establish what do we mean by the golden order and what does the term order mean in this context going by oxford language's definition order is the arrangement or disposition of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence pattern or method it is critical to understand this right at the offset because one of the main objectives gold mask is trying to achieve is perfect order and that is in fact the name of the age that we achieve if we use gold masks mending roon to a degree the golden order is actually a term that can refer to a couple of concepts the first and most important is that it represents the current form the physical form of the elden ring and it is from this version of the elden ring that the ideology golden order flows from indeed the two fingers themselves confirmed that the elden ring is the basis for the golden order as well as offering us a commentary on the corruption of the golden order and why the land is in the state it is for when we first claim a great rune they say the following great elden ring root of the golden order anchor of all lands giver of grace wellspring of all joy until it was shattered the tragic corruption of the order has taken its toll across the realm life lies in ruin fall into pieces foul curses and miseries spread unabating so two interesting points here first of all is what i said before the quote that indeed the elden ring in this form is the foundation of the golden order and number two it shows that even the greater will is aware of our corruption within the golden order that has led to this state of calamity as we will see in the concluding chapter of this video i believe it is the actions of the vassal gods i.e marika and radigan that gold mask wants to have removed rather than the greater will itself as we can see here even the greater well seems frustrated by the actions of its carrier of vassals vision a god in truth but after the elton rings shattering she was imprisoned in the earth tree a grim punishment for shattering the order despite her godhood the fingers speak america's trespass demanded a heavy sentence but even in shackles she remains a god and a vision's vessel regardless it backs up our understanding of the golden order it is a grouping of fundamental rules and principles that fit within the concept of the golden order a concept based on this current form of the elden ring before we go any further into this chapter i would like to credit last protagonist and his excellent video on the great tree crucible and the golden order for this video has greatly influenced some of the foundational ideas in this coming chapter especially the ideas of death and later on the idea of aggression so rather than referencing him at specific points i wanted to make it clear from the outset that his video has had influence on some of these foundational ideas so do me a favor and go and watch that video and give them some love the rule of the archery was not always synonymous with the golden order the crucible as the primordial form of the archery was once the representative age of the archery and was a period that celebrated diverse blended together life in fact we learned that any vestiges of the crucible were once linked to what is divine something we learn from the crucible not talisman which reads as follows a vestige of the crucible of primordial life partially born of devolution it was considered a signifier of the divine in ancient times but it is now increasingly disdained as an impurity as civilization has advanced so this is interesting because it seems to imply that the golden order is a more advanced sophisticated era of the archery where chaotic life is no longer venerated but in the earlier more formative years of the rule of the archery when godfrey was elden lord those of the crucible were not as distinct as they are now and in fact the crucible knights were even the renowned champions of lord godfrey himself something that we learned from the crucible axe helm which reads helm of the crucible knights who served godfrey the first elden lord yet the ideals and perceptions of those who followed the archery would change form alongside the elden ring's form changing itself at some point the elden ring had the rune of death removed from it resulting in the new deathless framework that we would come to know as the golden order we learn of this event through anea the finger reader who says the following on the golden order's creation the rune of death goes by two names the other is destined death the forbidden shadow plucked from the golden order upon its creation so we therefore learn that the golden order was created when the rune of death was plucked from it the rune been removed from the elden ring now i'm sure many understand this but as a foundational point to cover all bases the term rune in regards to the rune of death tells us that this was once part of the greater elton ring which is made up of runes during our quest to become elden lord we learned that fragments of the elden ring have been claimed by the demi gods these fragments are great runes and when we choose to repair the elden ring we can use one of three mending runes runes that then become part of the elden ring and understanding that the creation of the golden order is linked to the removal of the rune of death is absolutely key in understanding the flawed foundations that the golden order is built upon we get this further clarified by the mending rune of the death prince which reads as follows the golden order was created by confining death and death so death has been completely confined meaning it is no longer part of the elden ring and given the elden ring is what governs the forces of this world death becomes absent from the world so that is fine and well yet if the elden ring was once a power that included death when exactly was the rune of death removed from the elden ring and why well it seems to track back to an event we discuss a lot on this channel the godskin apostasy prior to this death and discriminate was still a power in the world people lived and people died and we can see this by the fact that death is wielded freely by the god skin apostles a fact that we learn from the scouring black flame incantation which reads as follows the black flame could once slay gods but when malakath sealed destined death the true power of the black flame was lost so at this stage the world was not deathless as it is now and the godskins had the power to slay the gods by channeling death the rune of death through the black flame and so as an answer for this threat marca turned to malakith as we learned from malakith's remembrance marica's sole use of her shadow bound was to confined death and death and so malketh sealed the rune of death specifically we learn that malakith sealed death and death after the defeat of the godskin apostles something we learn from the godskin apostle set which reads the following the apostles once said to serve death and death are wielders of the godslaying black flame but after their defeat by malekith the black blade the source of their power was sealed away meaning that malakath defeated the godskins and their queen and it was after this defeat that he sealed the rune of death however the power of death was now absent in the lands between and this is why malekith is so feared because he is the only one that can now bring true death through his black blade and of course this earns him a very fearsome reputation something we learn from the description of his armor which reads malekith queen marika's loyal half-brother bore a blade imbued with death and death and there was not one demigod who did not fear him malakath has kept death out of the world at large since this godskin event and is only reintroduced or unbound via the actions of the player character the motivations of creating this new elden ring and therefore this new order in mark as respect for me is quite straightforward i believe that she does it out of fear of the godskin movement however i believe it is radigan her second husband who goes on to further codify and cement the power of this new age through fundamentalism a subject we will tackle shortly so the world would enter a deathless state of endless life where life was bound and recycled through the artery the endless nature of life is best illustrated by the pathetic wandering nobles who wear the old aristocrat set which reads as follows abandoning their birthplace after the shattering these undead wanderers are the pitiful product of unending life the fact that nobody ever dies and in fact they all live long lives explains why most people that we meet in game are shriveled zombie-like shells with grey skin they have lived far too long without death forced to wander and never die no wonder melano thinks this world needs some death i speculate this is why death quote unquote in this world is tied to an archery burial where one doesn't die in the traditional sense but is instead absorbed by the archery to rejoin the cycle of endless life consider rena's first dialogue with us regarding spirit ashes she says there's a bell for calling forth spirits summon them with it from ash and return to the earth the spirits will obey thine command but briefly as they recall battles past even in these burnt ashes are the remains of a restless spirit that can't truly die the deathless version of the elden ring is the foundation of the golden order as we know it today marica's decision to have malakath seal the rune of death being the pivotal event that led to the golden order's creation i wanted to cover this in detail because i believe it is a foundational concept for one of the flaws identified by gold mask as a factor in the order's collapse and if you consider that it means that the very foundations the very creations of the golden order meant that it was always destined to fall it was just a matter of time before the inherent flaw behind its creation led to its own destruction so with that established let us review the belief system and behavior of those of the golden order and how it contributed to the system's downfall we learned that in the formative years of the golden order the order was not so intolerant of new ideas as it was developing itself roger tells us of one of the events in the earlier days of the golden order the battle art you've learned is of the glintstone family they were conceived at the great academy of rhea lucario to the north of this castle in the past they obeyed laws which contravened the golden order or so i'm told 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 so it's fascinating that we can see that there was an acknowledgment of the fact that the practices and laws of the glintstone sorcerers fell outside the golden order at that stage however they were able to bring this end to their order and philosophies and made it a part of it prior to this absorption however the archery and leonian forces would of course go to war and this is no surprise given a we know the early years of the archery were marked by conflict where the forces of the archery tried to enforce dominance by force over the lands between and b they were clearly different ideologies which made them at odds with one another it is from these conflicts that a champion radigan a future leading member of the golden order would arise this is something we learn about from the barrier of gold incantation which reads the following this incantation was used by the champions of the archery in the first and second leonian wars during which the red-haired ratigan joined the heroes ranks yet despite the heroic feats of radigan the carrion knights were more than a match for the forces of the archery despite their very few numbers with lord ratagan's forces being unable to break them over two conflicts it resulted in a stalemate and eventually instead of going to conflict a third time the houses of the moon and the tree were joined in matrimony it is here at the church of vows that the great houses of the earth tree and the moon were joined by the matrimonial bond between red-haired radican and rinala of the full moon and so our church holds in view the monuments of both houses the earth tree of the capital and the academy of rhea lucaria as roger says instead of the carrions and the sorcerers being kept out of the golden order and being enemies forever lord radigan repented his aggression and in fact brought them in to an alliance with the archery i do think this is an important moment to consider because it is clear that radigan is a central figure when it came to codifying a set of tenants of the golden order and establishing the ideas that would become fundamentalism this is something told to us by the description of the golden order greatsword which reads greatsword made of light modelled after the eldon ring itself forged by king consort radigan to proudly symbolize the tenets of the golden order so roger speaks of the fluidity of the golden order in its formative days were accepted new ideas and new groupings of people into its order but i believe it is this event that led rarigan to lay down the foundations of what would become the basis for the golden order tenants based on the experiences he learned while still married to rinala before godfrey was hounded from the lands between as we will learn in a moment a lot of golden fundamentalism scholarship is based around holism a term coined by brother corin a fundamentalist the rhythms and calculus of the master's finger betray a suspicion of the holism of the golden order used in this context it means that golden order strives to be a order that defines confines and explains the entirety of life within one ideology such a deep and multi-layered concept is why the golden order seal refers to fundamentalism as scholarship in all but name fundamentalism by definition again from oxford languages is a form of religion that holds a belief in the strict and literal interpretation of scripture i think this is where a lot of people get confused at what they perceive to be a contradiction between scholarship and fundamentalism as many see the latter to be fanatical religious hardliners that are as far removed from intellectualism as possible when in fact fundamentalists see themselves as scholars who analyze and scrutinize the very foundational texts of their religion far more than any other group and thus they become more flexible unwilling to bend from the words of what they see to be the strict outlines of their orders part of the development of this modern golden order would be the acceptance and integration of intelligence-based practices a movement spearheaded by radigan himself based on his own life experience we learned this from his talisman which reads as the husband of hernan of carrier the red-haired ratigan studied sorcery and as the husband of queen america he studied incantations thus did the hero aspire to be complete so lord radigan was the pioneer of the fundamentalists that saw that sorcery and incantations should converge converge into one practice that would become the golden order fundamentalist incantations this is quite strictly linked to the golden order law of regression in which outliers are pulled together to meet together in the mean or converge as eldon lord he clearly had time to ruminate on how the deathless golden order should be governed and defined and he blended his knowledge of the moon and the tree to make a new converged hole this is the cornerstone of fundamentalism as we learn from the golden order seal that scales with both intelligence and faith a fact shared by the golden order incantations all incantations developed directly by radigan or his son mikala as we learn from the descriptions of radigan's rings of light and the discus of light yet what are the tenets of these fundamentalists the modern proprietors of the golden order and what explains their tendency to favor incantations that draw both on intelligence and faith rather than dividing the two it has to do with the two underpinning laws of fundamentalism that form the backbone of their ideologies the law of regression and the law of causality now as a principle these are based on mathematical real-world concepts which i find interesting because maths is referenced in game in another place in respect of the golden order and specifically i'm referring to the pilly bow and the pulley crossbow and for example the pulley bow reads longbow which utilizes a series of pulleys and strings the complex mechanism which required advanced mathematical and mechanical understanding to craft was likely made by a certain genius who learned golden order fundamentalism now i believe the genius mentioned in this description is gold mask though admittedly it could be any golden order scholar given the golden order's connection to maths but i think the fact that it's referred to a certain genius makes it gold mask i have no further proof of this other than it is what i believe as we will see later these oblique references to maths are not insignificant because while we perceive the problems of the golden order as philosophical or moral gold mask views the golden order as an equation needing to be solved but more on this later let us return to the fundamentalists underpinning laws by examining the two description of the relevant incantations which i will read side by side for simplicity the fundamentalists describe the golden order through the powers of regression and causality regression is the pool of meaning that all things yearn to eternally converge causality is the pool between meanings that which links all things any chain of relation both miracles make sense in the way that they physically operate in the game the law of regression regresses beings to their prior state i someone who has been poisoned is referring to a prior state where they did not have poison and the law of causality incantation is simply an illustration of cause and effect the aggression of your enemy is the cause of the damage that they receive in totality both of these laws posit that all things are connected and affect one another and that they should seek to regress and converge to become the one through those connections as we discussed earlier when corrine mentions holism the golden order as an ideology seeks to be holistic that explains everything through the connections they're in and therefore these laws fit quite neatly into holism the law of aggression in particular is important in understanding why fundamentalists are intolerant of large diversity and instead see their order as one that is converging simple and clean like twins who are in essence one person sharing one soul or a ruling couple that share one body chaos and diversity is disdained whereas uniformity is applauded and returning to our discussion on incantations it explains why fundamentalist incantations are balanced between faith and intelligence they should not be different they should be linked through causality and be regressing to one radigan incorporated their beliefs and practices into the rule of the artery he created a causal link between the two to surmise everything within the defined order of the golden order must be interlinked connected and everything within this order must be converging to become part of the greater whole just as incantations and sorcery are pulled together to become one everything else in the world must become uniform through uniformity and causality there will be no disorder there is only order and in all honesty it reminds me of convergence from dead space just as the quote-unquote dead are buried at the roots of the great tree to become one with the artery again returned to the whole regressed to the archery just as the twins known as d have converged to become two beings of one soul and just as radigan and america have converged to become one being this is golden order totality this is order but these laws only apply to those which fall within the boundaries of the golden order those that have broken the cycle of a deathless world that have broken the cycle of convergence are those known to us as those that live in death and these are imperfections that cannot be allowed to exist at all i serve the golden order that i might put this crooked land to rights following only the guidance of the great elden ring those who live in death fall outside the principles of the golden order their mere existence sullies the guidance of gold tainting its truth and so it is the vermin must be exterminated down to the very last as we hear quite plainly from d here the entire reason that the hunters of the golden order exist and why they are poor those who live in death is because those who live in death are a problematic inconsistency that starkly reflect the flaws of the system to the hunters they also believe it is a problem to be fixed that by weeding out death route collecting it all and returning it to malakith the source of the rune of death the golden order can be repaired when in reality the only role that they play is one of distraction by stalking hatred against those who live in death the hunters only managed to help deflect blame from the order and its leaders when rani and her co-conspirators stole a fragment of the rune of death and murdered godwin death route spread throughout the world this was not meant to happen in the eyes of the golden order which was designed specifically as an order that had contained death but here was death leaking out into a world that was unprepared for death we have just learned in the previous chapter that golden order fundamentalists see their world as something interconnected that can be pulled together to become one to become uniform and thus we have order yet those who live in death exist outside of such rules they just continue to exist despite having died the purity of the golden order's claim to holism is therefore challenged and this is where the fanatical hunters come in they are here to fix that problem permanently indeed we know that the hunters are tied directly to fundamentalism from orders blade item description which reads one of the incantations of the golden order fundamentalists used by hunters of those who live in death the role of the hunters is to stamp out defiled reason all for the perfection of the golden order this item description is really interesting in describing what the purpose of hunters is and how we view those who live in death defiled reason what an interesting term as we explore this chapter you will soon realize that the reason those who live in death are so hated by those like d as they are seen as the only reason that there isn't perfect order for the golden order they are the reason it is being defiled they are a tangible inconsistency with golden order tenants they literally defile the reason the golden order seeks to purport and thus they really call into question of the truth of golden order fundamentalism something that cannot stand instead of some self-introspection we must of course destroy these flaws this is an idea well explained by the holy water grace item description which reads there is no place in the golden order for those who have exceeded life's bounds these blemishes must be hunted down by the virtuous so this is obviously interesting for a lot of reasons we know that the golden orders boundaries are defined by a world that's deathless and here we are having an item description talking about beings that have exceeded life's bounds and therefore exceeded life as described by the holism of the golden order these beings literally cannot exist by the definition of the golden order thus they are blemishes of the golden order's truth this is why the hunters like dee are quite funny to me because they're quite paradoxical they're talking about truth and purity yet at the same time admit there is impurity and untruth within the golden order the hunters incorrectly believe that the golden order's truth can be restored by weeding out death root that is they believe that by returning all the fragments of the stolen rune of death and returning it to malakith the bearer of the ruin of death death will once more be confined an order will be restored however this is a fallacy as released by garank when he has collected all of the death rate he realizes the damage has still been done there are some bells you cannot unring the quarantine of death has been broken and it will never be undone and as long as the golden order remains in place this glitch in the system will continue to exist and indeed on malikith's dead he laments that the golden order cannot be restored a truth he has come to realize it is it is all consumed still i am not sated not merely sated is this what it is to sing will things never be the same again this eternal flaw at the foundational level is understood by the aloof gold mask but cannot be fathomed by the spittle flecked hunters of the golden order who only see the target in front of them and indeed gold mask would see this reasoning as a simplistic tribalistic interpretation of order a futile attempt to enforce a broken order by creating more disorder to distract them from the truth what is it you intend to deny us and our ways like the dogmatic brutes of the golden order this is an opinion of gold masks that we learned from the order healing incantation where details that gold mask found their us versus them mentality of the hunters to be little more than a simplistic distillations of the foundations of order and it cannot exist within a true order and in fact all the hunters seem to do is keep the flawed broken order in power by setting up a right versus wrong pardon this does not actually seek to solve the problems faced by the order though i have no doubt the hunters believe they are fixing the problem the hunters do also highlight another issue with fundamentalism as a whole the inability to recognize or even consider there are any flaws and this is the problem when you establish your tenants and order as holistic and perfect because then at that point to accept there are problems is to accept the order doesn't work as a concept but we see this fanatical adherence to the golden order's flawed principles in a couple of characters marika who herself clearly became a cynic by the end calls radigan a leel hound as if to mock him for his blind adherence to the tenants of a clearly broken system corrin despite his deep respect for gold mask as an intellectual eventually goes insane and snaps rather than accepting gold masks truth surrounded by such blind sycophanty is it any surprise that marika felt as trapped as she did for whatever motivation queen marika shattered the elden ring following the chaos of the knight of the black knives and it brought an epoch to a close the golden order has failed but how is it even possible if it was so perfect and holistic how did the golden order fail to stop the world collapsing these are exactly the questions that would be examined by the learned scholar gold mask who came to the lands between not as a warrior with a sword but as a philosopher with a brilliant mind we have already discussed the fact that those who ascribe to fundamentalism are in part scholars scholars who have heavily philosophized about the nature of their order and the elden ring in order to create strict outlines and boundaries we know that gold mask was such a scholar as brother coren refers to him as such there's something i should mention to you as well i'm thinking of leaving the round table hold do you know of the noble gold mask though he was but a tarnished living outside the lands between he was a great scholar who foresaw the coming guidance of grace and now i hear he has come to the lands between alone to contemplate the golden order i wish nothing more than to seek his instruction and perhaps even help him in his research to augment this we learn from his gold mask the item itself that he is a staunch pursuer of fundamentalism meaning he is a scholar dedicated to fundamentalism very loyally and as we learn later unlike his fellow conceited scholars he is truly loyal and that he would seek to perfect it rather than pretend it was perfect the way it was gold mask is referred to in a number of ways the ever brilliant noble and lord gold mask and it shows that he was held in great esteem for his brilliant mind and keen understanding of the inner workings of the golden order and eldon ring that being said i think it is clear we aren't meant to fully comprehend the intimate way in which gold mask understands the form of the elden ring as he perceives its formation in a more mathematical way than in a philosophical or practical way that we do as i have already mentioned the golden order has links to mathematics and this is clearly the way in which gold mask sees it in my opinion he sees the golden order through its shape structure and form the mathematical nature of gold masks works is again reinforced by corin who refers to gold masks movements as a calculus the master's reflections had heightened as we neared the earth tree while still a precise calculus the rhythms grew increasingly wild even in the introductory cinematic of the game gold mask isn't writing a philosophical treatise he is instead painting the form of the elden ring as it should be in order to represent an equation of order indeed the very reason for gold mass questioning of the golden order and his reasoning for coming to the lands between is because he has foreseen the perfect form of the elden ring he has seen this in a vision and that vision is his mask's design itself and we learn of this through the mask's description which reads as follows a mass designed to resemble a blazing golden halo created and left behind by lord gold mask a staunch pursuer of golden order fundamentalism its striking design represents both the brilliant inspiration that once shown upon him and the vision of a ring that he will surely find at the end of his pursuit this vision of a perfect order would obviously lead him to ponder on why the current form of the golden order failed what went wrong in the equation and of course when he figures out the problem he is able to produce this perfected equation that he saw in his vision gold mask's reputation is reinforced by the fact that he was so revered that he once had disciples something we learned from his rags which read bracelets made in the image of archery branches minimal adornments made by gold masks disciples what should be clear to the player is that gold mask obviously does not operate on the same plane of intelligence that we do goldmast does not speak instead his mind is so focused elsewhere on the unpacking of the golden orders formula in a way we can never comprehend we see this throughout corin's questline he utters not a word and only gestures in reference to his calculations it is quite likely that this inhuman and frustrating behavior is what led to his disciples to abandon him not being able to communicate with him nor understand his bizarre behavior either that or it could be like corin that these disciples realized that gold mask did not agree with the perfection of the golden order an idea that must be the same as blasphemy to the hardliners of the golden order and yet this simply isn't true his mask describes him as a staunch pursuer of golden order fundamentalism it's just the gold mask is so true to the idea of perfected order that he is willing to challenge the idea that the current order is not perfect what we will see through the scope of this following chapter is something i heavily hinted at in the opening segment of this video gold mask would identify flaws in the perfection of the golden order and i believe it is a recognition of such flaws that sets him head and shoulders above other delusional members of the golden order d is a walking contradiction calling the golden order perfect yet at the same time acknowledging imperfection exists and goldmast doesn't seek to bring these flaws into the light to destroy the golden order as a concept in fact for the opposite gold mask seeks to truly have the perfect golden order a golden order that represents the ideals behind it and so with that in mind i want us to analyze what gold mask clearly saw as the flaws in the golden order to be loyal to an idea is not to be enslaved to a dramatic set of rules no it is to use your own life experience and wisdom to try and perfect and challenge the foundations of something you truly believe in to make sure that its ideals are actually upheld as korea from star wars knights of the old republic 2 says to believe in an ideal is to be willing to betray it it is something no sith or jedi has ever truly learned so with that said let us revisit the fundamental piece of evidence in this regard the order healing incantation which reads as follows the noble gold mask lamented what had become of the hunters how easy is it for learning and learnedness to be reduced to the ravings of fanatics all the good and the great wanted in their foolishness was an absolute evil to contend with does such a notion exist in the fundamentals of order so this is flaw number one a flaw that goes back to the very concepts we discussed in the opening of this video order order as we determined is the unity of people ideas and variables that together create an order yet by its very definition an order defines itself by setting itself against another group that is not accepted to illustrate what is accepted in order to define itself and in order to sustain its own power base this is how gold mask sees the golden order and using gold masks mending rune at the end of the game will bring about a new age called the age of order and given that it's created by gold mask i think it's clear that one of his motivations is to create a true order order that is based on stability not order that props itself up by fabricating an absolute evil one of the things that clearly unsettles gold mask about the current order is that there is actually no order this golden order is a realm of chaos and disorder and how can such a thing even exist within something that calls itself order yet this is merely a symptom observed by gold mask and when he comes to the lands between we see that he begins operating on that higher plane and he starts to unwind the mathematical structure of the golden order his thoughts and calculus expressed by his rhythms and gesturing that we see him doing in the process of working through his formula he gets to the core of the equation but is frozen when he is presented with a variable he had not expected the name radigan the master's reflections had heightened as we neared the earth tree while still a precise calculus the rhythms grew increasingly wild until he simply ceased now the master is facing quite the puzzle the golden order is founded on the principle that marika is the one true god however the name of marika's second husband king consort radican also appeared who exactly was radican the master is stumped his finger has remained still ever since radigan's name was discovered gold mask is missing part of the formula because the formula he has been given is based on a lie and this is why we can see his right hand is frozen while his left is outstretched he is missing half of the equation it isn't until he is presented with the missing variable that he understands the formula completely and adopts the pose of golden order totality with both arms in equal balance in my speculation golden order totality is representative of the truth that we bear witness to by casting the law of regression on radicand statue the truth being that america is rarican that notion in itself is almost mathematical marika is equal to radigan but this is a revelation to gold mask as we hear him audibly gasp when we present him with this variable as corin has said the golden order is founded on the principle that marca is the one true god that is the entire founding equation of this entire formula and yet it is not true so in a way this entire institution and therefore the form of the elden ring is all built upon a lie this understanding of golden order totality will govern the rest of goldman's journey we see him in this pose in every subsequent meaning in this pose that represents america and ragan rebus being the core of the golden order and in time he realizes that this core must be extracted to reform the elden ring and reform the perfect order so where does gold mass go to next upon this revelation he of course goes to the mountains of giants to the peak of flame at this stage corn has begun to become very concerned given a the possession of where they are and the way in which he is reading the master's calculations i've been gripped by a terrifying thought the rhythms and calculus of the master's finger betray a suspicion of the holism of the golden order a conceit i am afraid that cannot be overlooked but how could this be i dread to even entertain the possibility but somehow i cannot cast aside my doubts about the master tell me have i simply lost my head only if the master were true to the golden order why would he think to breach this forbidden mount of fire he thinks there's something in this calculation that portrays a suspicion about the holism of the golden order as we have already discussed holism is the idea that the golden order explains and confines and controls everything to him the golden order when viewed as the totality of its constituent parts is fundamentally flawed as the baseline equations of it are based on a lie and part of his solution is implied by his journey to the flame or ruin why would the master come here to the forbidden flame the only purpose of which surely is to have the archery burnt down well it is because he's come to the conclusion that the current gods must be destroyed for there to be true order the urge tree must be destroyed it is the vassal gods that are the flawed foundation of the current golden order and with them excised there can be true order this is explained by the mending rune of the perfect order which reads as follows a rune of transcendental ideology which will attempt to perfect the golden order the current imperfection of the golden order or instability of ideology can be blamed upon the fickleness of gods no better than men that is the fly in the ointment so understanding what is actually said here is the critical moment in our assessment of gold masks actions and conclusion and ultimately what went wrong with the golden order the rune states that gold masks final conclusion is that there was a fickleness of the gods that has led to the instability of this ideology this implies that the imperfections that we have reviewed and the ones identified by gold mask can be traced back to the fickleness of the gods it is hard to unpack but ultimately it leads us to believe that gold mask is blaming the problems of the order at the feet of marika and radigan and that the instability has come about through their own actions driven by human motivation gold mask seems to strike upon the truth when he realizes marca is equal to radigan meaning that this must be one of the reasons that he concludes the gods are fickle while this is an example of the fickle nature of gods as corin says the golden order is founded on the principle that america is the one true god so the entire foundation of the golden order is built upon the truth that they have always known that marca is the one true god and yet the fickleness of the gods led them to completely usurp this truth through a union of marika and rarigan this is why goldmas gets stuck on the calculations as he is basing his formula of what they have always known to be the truth only to later learn the gods have changed the rules and indeed one cannot help seeing rarigan's abandonment of his first wife and so quickly marrying marika as nothing but fickle with such foundational principles being appended it is easy to see marika radigan as fickle and he is right mark are the one true god meant to uphold the will of the elden ring and the ur tree was in fact the one who destroyed it and this is a remarkable transformation from queen marika who led the battle against the giants who said the following in america's own words hark 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 elden ring for the age of the earth tree and then we have a transformation of someone who is clearly a champion and fervent believer in the archery to the cynic who mocks radigan for his blind faith in america's own words o ratican hound of the golden order dart yet to become me thou art yet to become a god let us be shattered both mine other self we can see a real transformation of character here from stalwart believer to jaded queen from someone who waged war on behalf of the archery to someone who struck at its very heart and while this might be an understandable transformation for a human gods are meant to transcend the personal and are meant to immutably represent their domains they are meant to be better than us in this regard for whatever reason post night of the black knives queen marika is pushed to the brink and ultimately makes the decision to shatter the elden ring driven by her own motivations whatever they may be like a human and indeed the rebus of marika radigan is itself a walking paradox by their very actions on one hand marika drives the faith towards total oblivion seeing its flaws in the orders and destroys the center piece of the order itself meanwhile rarigan's fundamentalists are out denying that there's any flaws and hunting down those who live in death this is not even to mention the fact that it was marca whose decision to remove the rune of death was what would lead to the loophole that would spawn those who live in death and indeed their final actions are fickleness made manifest one marika destroying the elden ring while ranagan tries to repair it it is these inconsistent actions and the cosmic consequences of such fickleness that goldman sees as the fly in the ointment so with that said let us look at the mending rune his solution to perfect order when we use any of the other two mending runes they are incorporated into the elden ring meaning the power of that rune becomes part of the new world order i.e the omen curse or those who live in death however with gold masks rune it is slightly different and it is more like a halo that surrounds and encompasses the entirety of the elden ring with the description of the mending rune in hand the purpose of this should be made abundantly clear it is a protective ring shielding the elden ring from the influence of the gods this is the vision that gold mask saw long ago yet he only really understood what it was for when he found out the truth of the vassal gods of the golden order now beyond this it is speculation and up to you and me to interpret this how we see fit for me i see the fact that the elden ring must still draw its power from the greater well but it is now contained by gold mass halo so it cannot be interfered by any vassal gods this is why he comes to the peak of ruin he too wishes to see its power unleashed as the current vassal gods marika ranigan and the elden beast must be cleansed for his perfected order to take its place as i mentioned earlier in the video i perceived the greater will to be something more than a basic god and indeed the greater well also shows frustration at maraca for going off paste and not following the plan gold masks rune is called the mending rune of the perfect order and the age we can bring about is the age of order gold masks motivations have been clearly laid out to us the entire course of this video he believes the golden order should mean order order and stability no creaking and shifting foundations and no personal motivations that can have cosmic consequences humans are humans at the end of the day there will always be conflict and war to a degree but when gods act the same way there are cosmic consequences when these gods harness the entire foundations of our existence to meet their own agendas or if they destroy them in a moment of despair then order is simply a lie and this is the truth that goldmast discovered so thanks guys that is my take on gold mask and his attempts to repair the golden order if you like this video please remember to subscribe and give it a like as it helps the channel out immensely if you want to support the channel other ways i have a patreon and i also have channel memberships but apart from that guys leave me your comments below let me know what you thought of the video and if you think i missed anything as well as giving me hints as to what you want me to cover next but until next time guys i will see you in the heart of the art tree take care [Music] you

Channel: SmoughTown

Views: 608,504

Keywords: elden ring lore, elden ring, elden ring story, elden ring gameplay, lore, explained, elden ring lore explained, great runes elden ring, elden ring endings explained, mending rune of the perfect order, age of order, goldmask, gold mask, gold, mask, fundamentalism, golden order, goldenorder, erdtree, elden beast, marika, radagon, the ever brilliant, brother corhyn, brother corhyn quest, goldmask quest, those who live in death, roundtable hold, maliketh, godskin, gloam eyed queen

Id: ju45riNZfog

Length: 58min 38sec (3518 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 22 2022