Elden Ring Lore | Mapping the World

the world of elden ring is quite a sight to behold ranging from snow-capped peaks to giant underground caverns it is full of wildlife and rich history and while we can learn about this history through people and the written word what if we instead widened our gaze to see what the land itself can tell us what stories can be found within the frozen mountains how many mysteries are held by the winding underground rivers or towering trees above welcome to mapping the world of eldon ring delving into everything on this topic would take many hours so instead this video seeks to provide an interesting and helpful baseline of information to help springboard future discussions if you have observations to add or want us to dive into any specific topics let us know down below let's begin with the overall structure of the lands between what stands out to us in the map structure is how the player is passively designed to progress through the game on the whole one naturally begins in areas whose environments generally highlight more recent history such as limgrave or leonia and then steadily progress into areas that provide a clearer window into the past like the mountaintops of the giants or farrah missoula and so for the most part this is the order we will be diving into the world starting in limgrave we have a lush green region that seems relatively normal at first glance there is little evidence of war and it generally features little culture enemies wander in a seeming limbo they pray to a raging dragon [Music] and are generally stuck in a sort of stasis but what does stand out is that limgray features a number of huge ruins that leave a strong impression of awe for any new player they sit in orientations that seem unnatural and their architecture strongly suggests they originate from somewhere else entirely indeed they are covered in ruined fragments which state they are found near places where ruins have fallen from the sky they are believed to have once been part of a temple in the sky the only city of the sky that is presently known is farrah missoula which is now in a perpetually crumbling state beyond time in the far east of the map there are a couple of complications that feel important here that the room pieces are very far from the current location of the flying city and that while the architecture is highly similar both in style and scale between these ruined pieces and the crumbling city they do differ one of the key details throughout the dragon city is the presence of beasts not only is chosen guards but they are also literally embedded into the buildings themselves however according to the azula beast men ashes the ruins of pharah missoula are said to be the remains of a giant mausoleum enshrining an ancient dragon thus it may be the case that not all dragon city architecture would feature beasts in this crypt-like style there could therefore have been other areas of the city that dropped these ruins or even other flying cities which did not have the same beast incorporation within the brickwork we will look at this idea more closely later limgrave as a whole provides a fantastic learning ground for a new player as it manages to have the highest density of mini dungeons like caves catacombs or mines while still staying relatively calm and open we think this highlights that while currently the place features little culture at all long ago the region must have thrived as a hive of activity and that at some point this prosperity was lost given the lack of evidence of war here other than the rebellion at castle mourn this was likely lost a long time ago could the gigantic pillars we see hint at some previous civilization that existed here perhaps the desolation of culture is from the storm lord's defeat at the hands of godfrey or maybe it's a natural result due to being the farthest area from the earth tree during its reign and receiving the least of its bounty after all the people of the altars plateau believe that those born at the foot of the urgery are blast whatever the case may be limgrave highlights the lack of recent large-scale activity and this is very important when we take into account the fact that we a tarnished who has only recently been returned their grace and beckoned to the lands between arises here of all places something we will come back to in future videos moving on to leonia we notice the region has a much more extreme landscape a huge lake on which rye lucaria is managing to remain tall flanked either side by high-rise cliffs the name leonia of the lakes seems to be misleading initially as the area features only one lake that encompasses the entire valley but the map helps here the majority of leonia is sinking into a lake thus perhaps the region used to be made up of many much smaller lakes that have expanded and conjoined into what we see today this would explain how the academy gate town was set up beneath raja lucaria and how the various ruins found in the lake would have been established that is they were originally on dry land if the name for the region is a misfit it implies that what is causing leonia to sink down must be a relatively recent event and the landscape of the academy gate term can attest to that the angles of its buildings almost seem as extreme as the ruins we found in limgrave which it must be noted are also found throughout leonia given the east side of lyania features the high road and rya lucaria itself said they wouldn't interfere with the shattering we can assume the change to the marshland is a more natural influence as opposed to some result of armies marching through or warring in the area though it does seem that the eastern high road does not currently lead all the way to northern lyonia there is still little evidence of the activity of armies in the lake area so either the ground itself is losing stability or there has been an influx of water the lake of rot does lie below this region but we don't know just how much lower this is and the ancient architecture would suggest that its influence on the stability of the region is by no means a new one the crystals above the lake are interesting though perhaps they provide some sort of protection that keeps ray lucaria standing strong and may even be one of the reasons for the academy's location we don't think the flooding could be caused by weather changes the region was already known for its ever-present fog and if we look to the weeping peninsula known for its endlessly rainy climate we find no flooding of note if we look instead for a source of water that could be flooding the lakes we are led to the ruin strewn precipice which interestingly features for the second time the archaic architecture that we saw in the pillars in limgrave these structures do in fact seem to be built for the water flow so the water source surely isn't a recent development however being so inlaid into the cliff could indicate that it was at some point hidden from the outside and was actually within the cliff leading the water somewhere underground as such it is possible that they were only unearthed in recent times indeed if we look to the exit at the top we can see the site of many destroyed caravans and a number of omen one of which is even crying evidently a sight of a lot of recent activity furthermore it may have been the case that the grand lift of dectus was not in action during the shattering as we find the medallion halves far away in limb grave and caled so the scaffolding up the precipice may have therefore only been carved out during that time the pathway does seem very haphazardly crafted as if it was only intended as a temporary solution if so it is possible that this waterfall was only released recently by uncovering the structure and is what is causing leonia to sink so quickly the altus plateau home to mount gelmere leondale even the old tree itself is the first region the shattering has left clear scars across there are barricades and soldier camps throughout and various impact wounds in the ground mount gelmere the site of the most appalling battle in the entirety of the shattering also has countless dead bodies piled up reichard became the lord of blasphemy marking the urgery as the enemy which in turn brought the armies of the capital to his doorstep what is interesting is that despite the numerous campsites of these soldiers and the various battlegrounds some of which are still populated even now there is no evidence of the fight reaching the manor which is in pristine condition however the prison town hidden behind is definitely not on our arrival we can see this town is in bad shape it is unclear if the lava has risen as the architecture seems to fit the height the lava is at but the buildings are nonetheless broken and sinking this discrepancy between the town and the manor indicates the temporal distance between their construction and implies that the town and perhaps its serpent men were around long before reichard set up here it's fair to assume that prisoners would have been from war but the serpent men are said to have arisen long ago and the fact that the town seems to be crumbling amidst the lava is certainly interesting has the lava control of the god devouring serpent changed in some way over the years or was the town never fit to last in such a brutal environment outside of the manor at one of the bleeker battlegrounds is a dead or at least broken minor urgery trees are of course a huge part of the law of elden ring and as such will require a more focused video to dive into but for now there are a couple observations that are worth noting within this video and we'd love to hear what your thoughts are on them and on the game's trees as a whole first is the size variety of the minor herb trees throughout the world or rather the lack of variety for all the different locations and their climates for all the history associated with each area and for all their differing distances to the earth tree they are all of the same scale and the second pertains to the archery at this battleground that it is broken and seemingly dead and is the first that we have seen in such shape what exactly caused this to happen and when we will come back to this later before we continue let's take a moment to step back and look at the roads of the world leonel is the capital of the age of the urgery the most recent superpower across the lands between and looking at the transport links that lead out from it can tell us some of the most common and useful journeys of the age if we follow the main road out of the capital we are led through the outer's plateau and down the grand lift of dectus towards lyarnia there is also a secondary path that hugs the northern coast reaching the windmill villages which suggests some importance interestingly despite the east side of leonia being home to a highway road running north and south when we arrive at the scene this is only really the case for the southern half [Music] one would more naturally go via raya lucaria to head down into limgrave and it is clear that there are few branching paths in leonia unlike the altars plateau or limgrave this region seems to be something people passed through rather than travelled within further reinforcing the sense of a closed society that managed to keep what was theirs the caring west coast seems even more cut off with little to no links to outside it must be noted of course that the newly formed lake is occluding roads that may have been more prevalent many years ago on reaching limgrave the main path splits to either head towards caillid or the weeping peninsula for the path to caled it is certainly interesting that it seems to reach no further than halfway through the region perhaps not all of caled was accessible to those of outside regions and as we shall see this may be due to its ties with pharah missoula now it is difficult to say what such roads were used for the most simply for efficient army travel or for more complex transfer of goods between regions the roads do seem to have been built with access to the arenas in mind so perhaps there was even some tourism the only times we see such paths being used are by convoys where we see trolls pulling a caravan along or perhaps being patrolled by the night cavalry either way the paths or lack thereof certainly illustrate what warranted investment by the higher powers in the age so the challenge going forward will be to work out why now caleb [Music] this region is the anomaly of the formula thus far other than perhaps limgrave with godric's crafting activity this is actually the site of the most recent large-scale events that of radar and melania's battle in the shattering the battle of aeonia and when we arrive we are struck by the scene of a region that has been completely engulfed with scarlet rot praise america that these chest-high walls were already established near the border to limb grave else who knows how much it may have spread the scarlet rot however instead of simply erasing the history of the land seems to have given an amazing insight into ancient history to us it seems as though the entire region has been dissolved and many layers of the land have been cleared away the roots of the trees that once stood here that were assumedly underground before are now towering high above us and we are now met with the terrifying view of some huge ancient skeletons [Music] they are so colossal that few of us would even realize what they were if not for seeing them from a distance they seem humanoid in structure though it's difficult to make out much detail below the chest if we assume they are related to the giants in some manner the vizag shield having an instructional function further reinforces that their unveiling in caled is recent either way their depth in the earth is surely a testament to how long ago they must have died just like in the real world where you can cut down into the earth and see the different ages in the stacked layers so too might this shine a light on what may have existed prehistorically the only other location we see such skeletons is in the mountaintops of the giants the most well-preserved region from the past which we will look at later there is a theme throughout eldon ring surrounding the size of life and how it has changed over time be them these hidden behemoths that are now no longer seen the giants becoming trolls or the dragons being compared to their ancient counterparts there is always a decrease of size this is not just a correlation but something the law actively draws attention to the present day dragons are mocked and the state of the trolls is described with melancholy even humans are derided by the giant crusher description man has grown feeble in comparison to his forebears the vulgar militia ashes say that in the lands between the small was scorned and so they formed their vulgar militia as a means to make a living given the tale the land is weaving in front of us this makes a lot of sense if we move to the cliffside and radan's beach arena we see for the third time this archaic giant arched pillar architecture its stone finish seems just as intact as in previous locations which shows a resilience to scarlet rot that may help to date it to add to the mix we have the golem enemies and the divine towers which both seem to feature very similar designs as well as the same slightly softened stone that feels as though it has stood the test of time and natural erosion however going into such law we'll have to wait for another episode so stay tuned for that in the centre of caled is the swamp of aeonia a very important location that will require its own deep dive for now though note that it appears to be a rot water source that continually bubbles up something that we will come back to in a bit in the far east of caled we have the bestial sanctum which also links to faram azuba not only is accessed by the pharam great bridge but it too has highly similar architecture and unlike the ruins in limgrave or leonia beasts are featured within the stone itself what is worth noting about the bridge and the structure below the beastial sanctum is that these are built specifically for these locations they fit the coastline geography so was farham always a flying city or was it grounded at some point or is farham in fact the name of the culture and thus every location might simply have the pharam prefix after all there is another great bridge in the crumbling city if this was the naming culture it may mean there were multiple such farim cities that in descriptions get grouped in a similar way to the eternal cities thus would the civilization have exerted a wide control over both land and sky and perhaps is how they reached lim grave and lyonia either way it is a fearsome power to be sure moving to the capital there are a few geographical details that jump out in particular are the urgery which we'll have to wait for another time the moat and the capital's location which say a lot about the archery's history without needing to read the various descriptions in the game leondale is in a highly defensive position enemies can only really come from one side given all the other sides are protected by high mountains or giant cliffs down to the water it has high ground and can see for miles around and features a large moat in addition to two outer walls coupled with its source of water leondelle can withstand a siege with ease this design and location of landau and of course the artery is one of defensive tactics and indicates the expectation of retaliation against them which is exactly what happened in the beginning everything was in opposition to the urgery but through countless victories in war it became the embodiment of order even their army's fighting style mirrors this the soldiers of leondell fight their battles defensively the mountaintops is where america and godfrey fought the giants and subsequently made the lands forbidden as such when the tarnished arrives the region is in an almost unchanged state and provides a great window to the past there are two details that seem contradictory at first we use the grand lift of roll to reach the mountain tops a mark of high levels of investment in order to make the journey more pragmatic but we must then cross a very dangerous and seemingly improvised bridge to reach the main land mass now perhaps the lift was only made to help america's large armies and they were then under attack when building the bridge and thus couldn't manage anything more substantial but it may instead indicate a time in history that is hidden from our view a time where those of the capital and those of the mountaintops were not officially enemies a time perhaps where america would have been able to safely reach the trolls and persuade them to side with her indeed this region again features some of the enormous skeletons so like caleb could this imply some damage to the earth to uproot these long buried ancient beings perhaps the war against the giants was so brutal that the region itself suffered a large degree of damage and the landscape was broken and stripped away this would explain why there is no longer a well-established path to lead to the mountaintops and thus perhaps the grand lift instead hints to the time before the war after all we know that the astrologers and giants lived peacefully as neighbours at some point most of what we see in the region is the wake of war ramparts forts graveyards and dead giants on first glance these giants seem afflicted with death blight but in fact this appears to be weapons that utilize briars of sin just like those outside the guardian's garrison but if we look to the land itself it may speak of the time that came before the war such as with the frozen river and lake we can see there must be a water source in the eastern side of the map that forms the lake the river then runs westwards falling down into the consecrated snow fields until it makes its way to the ocean running water can freeze even a waterfall can freeze over long periods of time one should still see slight movement so a waterfall would still be present whether frozen or not given the power of the giant's god was fire based and is represented as a sun it is likely that the time of the fire giants featured a much warmer climate and that the lake and river was not originally frozen the name freezing lake could be a use of the present continuous it is still freezing and thus implies it only began the process relatively recently though this is not necessarily what the name means the name castle's soul which likely functioned as a fort for america's army during the war implies it was warmer even then or at least that the region featured a more prominent sun and thus the new climate is most likely a consequence of the defeat of the giants now if this region was at some point warmer it must have been a more plentiful location than we'd at first have thought and there are the odd hints of this rhymed roar are thought to be the original strain of roha and are the most powerful of the rare subspecies for healing torrent the giants were established enough to be able to make technological advancements as perhaps with the forge the art of smithing is said to have originated among the giants this is also the fourth location where we see the huge arched stone architecture and there are more here than anywhere else that may suggest a more built up area though it could just be that elsewhere has suffered more damage in the time since and as if to draw comparison to the plentiful times of old it is here that the only other broken minor urgeries are found this time in a region that has seen little activity since the war with the giants which certainly suggests the extremity of the mountaintops especially when compared to even caled where the minor arteries stand tall we will definitely be focusing on the minor arteries as well as the helic tree and the urgery itself at some point in the future they deserve their own deep dive if we follow the urgery to its roots however we find the nameless eternal city one of three known eternal cities all of which are deep underground this area the deep root depths features the source of both the angel and sio4 rivers around which the other two eternal cities are based there are certainly many questions regarding the eternal cities questions surrounding noxtella's moon their actions towards the greater will their subsequent banishment and destruction and even their potential involvement with the black knives to name a few so let's see if the world itself can shed some light first of all is the state each city is in knox stella and nocron are certainly in a sort of limbo and there is rubble and dead ends throughout but for the most part they are in surprisingly decent condition especially considering the state of other places we have seen all the ruins in the overworld the academy gate town farah missoula and a number of other places show much worse signs of wear than these eternal cities this is strange given astil leveled the eternal city after the knox invoked the ire of the greater will however here as well as in almost all items that make reference to the eternal city they reference them as just that the eternal city which is strange given we know there are at least three separate eternal cities furthermore the only eternal city we see that has any level of destruction that would warrant such a description is the nameless eternal city its buildings are sparse and broken nameless is certainly telling that it is not forgotten or ancient like the ul ruins it is nameless this is deliberate a wiping of records like the firstborn sun in dark souls 1 later called the nameless king this is also the only eternal city that lacks its starry sky which we can see is present in both the other eternal cities as well as in astol's arena after all astol destroyed an eternal city and took away their sky if we do assume that only one eternal city was destroyed by astor what exactly happened with the other two we know the lost black moon of noxtella was the guide of countless stars additionally the knocks were banished deep underground by the greater will these would certainly suggest that they were banished from the surface to the underground which severed their ties to the moon and stars and as such they live under a false night sky but when we visit nokron or noxtella in addition to the surprising condition of what remains it is clear that the cities are in fact suited for these underground river regions they have channels that control the water flow including an aqueduct [Music] and the buildings seem to fit the shape of the earth around them which begs the question how is a full city even banished especially to locations which are otherwise impossible to reach save for a highly secret path through the capital certainly an interesting topic for the future but we'd love to hear your theories down below the nameless eternal city though destroyed is still surrounded by water features we have a large waterfall that floods the city itself followed by a huge curved waterfall that produces the angel river and on the other side is another large waterfall that makes the seofa river however if we track the angel's water movement to its source it seems to originate from this very shallow and calm pool above the city even if there is some gap the water is coming up through the rate of flow is certainly strange it's almost as if the water is expanding as it travels and we see the same with the sofa source to add to the oddities is the white cloudiness of the water here this can be seen while at an angle indicating the white particles are suspended in the water not that the ground beneath is white water is in many places in the game but we only ever see three types of coloration poisoned water scarlet rot water and this white water and whatever the cause is of the white color by the time the angel and siophera are established it is gone finally let's talk about the size of the world of eldon ring big as it is and it is definitely huge it is still far smaller than we should consider it within the law this has been the case for all the souls games but especially so in eldon ring if we are to believe that for example zamor had a full history and culture that they could have refined and honed a fighting style of such finesse we are going to have to assume that their ruins are many orders of magnitude bigger than what we find and this goes for every settlement every region and the whole world otherwise scenes such as this siege in the story trailer simply couldn't make sense the world needs to be large enough to support such a population to allow for the development of so many independent cultures and so on and we think this is important to remember going forwards as we go deeper and deeper into the law

Channel: Hawkshaw

Views: 403,342

Keywords: Elden Ring, Lore, Fromsoft, Demigod, Story, World, Lands Between

Id: Kh0TcNNXYYk

Length: 30min 31sec (1831 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 01 2022