Elden Ring Lore | Night of the Black Knives Dissected

Elden ring has a few pivotal events in its story that punctuate its fascinating timeline key events that have all helped shape the world as it is now the fracturing of the one great the war of the Giants and the shattering of the Elden ring to name but a few but arguably no event casts as larger Shadow as the infamous Knight of the black naives on a native wintry Fork a grip of conspirators stole a fragment of the Rune of death from malakith with their knives imbued by its power these assassins murdered the demigod Godwin the golden and the rest is history yet despite these well-knowing facts very little is known about these smaller details of this fateful night when exactly did it happen did Randy portray her co-conspirators was America actually involved were other demigods murdered on the same night in this video we are going to unpack this event from the formation of the conspiracy itself to the follow and review some fascinating and largely forgotten material from Bandai namco's website in an attempt to have a deeper understanding of this Monumental event in the lore who was involved and what the true outcome actually was at this point I would also like to offer my thanks to Mirko translator for sebaka no Mako and Loki author of the Abyssal archive both translators who offered me a lot of help in understanding some of the finer points in this video and before we get started remember to subscribe to the channel and like the video if you like Elden ring lore content before we talk about the event itself and the build up of the conspiracy we need to talk about where this event sits in the general Elden ring timeline this event of course must have taken place after the godskin apostasy because it is the aforementioned event that led to malekith sealing deaths and death within his Black Blade and of course it is from malakith that the conspirators of the night of the black knives would steal the Rune of death from thus the events of this night must come after the godskin apostasy we also have the story trailer in which Rani narrates the events that led up to the shattering war and I quote Randy's narration from that trailer now the Rune of death was stolen and the demigods began to fall starting with Godwin the Golden Queen America was driven to the brink the shattering War ensured a war that wrought only Darkness the way in which this is delivered seems to imply a direct chain of causality the night of the black knaves happened and as a result it pushed Queen America to the brink leading to the shattering of the Eldon ring this is always the way I've interpreted the story trailer and indeed an article from Bandai Namco themselves released alongside this story trailer to help explain what we're seeing in the story trailer in December of 21 also seems to imply a direct causal link it is important when looking at outside sources as is the case for the story trailer and of course the Bandai Namco article that we make it clear that these are not canonical sources so you are free to disregard them as you so choose so we do need to be careful when using these types of evidence firstly thanks to the work of those like circular Dube Lance McDonald and Zoe the witch we know that a lot actually changed between December of 2021 which is when this article and story trailer came out and the release in February of 2022 the story trailer isn't an in-game cinematic and it is more like a thematic appetizer for fans a couple of months ahead of release that being said there is no evidence that the overarching lower surrounding the night of the black knives has changed substantially with what we have in game and so I am more willing to lean into this idea that the intentions of the developer and publisher behind the story of the night of the black knaves is still relevant to what we are seeing in the game that this was what they conceived of the story at least of December 2021 but it would be intellectually dishonest of me if I didn't make it clear that of course this article and the story trailer to a degree are non-canonical sources and as you can see from the parts I'm showing on the screen there are many interesting details included in this article especially in regards to Marca that we will return to later but for now let's just stick with the timeline aspect of it the heavy emphasis in both the story trailer and the article on a causal link seems to suggest to me that this event took place closer to the end of Marcus Reign where rather than closer to the earlier Crucible and age of Plenty Heroes there's of course another similar retailing of events by an in-game NPC that lines up pretty well with the story trailer I am referring to sorcerer Roger who is someone who has dedicated his life to researching this event and its Fallout when describing the importance of this event and when it came to pass he says the following the misshapen corpse under stormvale that is a sacred relic of the black knives Club as that famed night of assassination is known it happened during the golden age of the Earth tree long before the shattering of the Elden ring someone stole a fragment of the Rune of Death From malacath the Black Blade and on a bitter night murdered Godwin the golden that was the first recorded death of a demigod in all history and it became the Catalyst soon the Eldon ring was smashed and thus sprang forth the war known as the shattering so again Roger reiterates the fact that this event the night of the black knaves was specifically the Catalyst that would lead to the shattering again a chain of causality between this event and the shattering this is a sentiment backed up by Loki who believes that the kanji that was translated as Catalyst could be more closely translated as trigger and in short believes that linguistically the language is trying to imply that the Knight of the black knaves is directly connected to the outcome of America shattering the Eldon ring when talking about when this event took place Roger specifically mentions a golden age as well and again Loki was kind enough to offer their perspective as it is written in the original Japanese specifically what their interpretation of what Roger means when he says a golden age and I quote Loki now prosperous age is its own term and basically refers to what we would call a golden age Roger is talking about the period before things fell apart so of course that would be deemed a prosperous era of peace so in essence Loki believes that Roger is simply referring to a time in general when things were good and before the piece was broken and in general during America's Reign we do seem to have long periods of peace from the godskin apostasy really to the night of the black knaves when everything fell apart and in general if you want a greater view of the things that happened during America's Reign I would recommend my Eldon ring timeline video which I will link below there are also some other tangential pieces of evidence that may help to give us a general idea of when this took place for example we know that Godwin took place in the war of the ancient dragons and so again the Knight of the black knaves has to have taken place after this event but not only that there is some evidence potentially that Godwin met mikola for example there is a golden Epitaph sword which reads the following a sword made to commemorate the death of Godwin the golden first of the demigods to die infused with the humble prayer of a young boy oh brother Lord Brother please die a true death their sword is made to commemorate Godwin's death so after it and is infused with the prayer of a young boy he most likely must be mikola not only because of his youthful appearance but because of mikla's other potential associations with Godwin and trying to Grant him a true death if you're unsure what connection I'm referring to I am talking about castle soul and the NPC that can be found at the top of its battlements after defeating Commander Nile [Music] foreign the dialogue of this ghost NPC suggests that the denizens of the castles were looking for ways to restore the soul of soulless demigods and in particular meccola's comrade but if you want a more in-depth look at this then I would recommend my Michela lore video which I will link below now these are of course important things to look at when talking about a timeline because surely if mikla cares so deeply about his dear brother about Godwin's fate then surely they must have had a relationship and knowing each other for such love to exist and if we assume that to be a given then surely the Knight of the black knaves has to have happened after mikla was born and thus later on into America's rule after she had married Radigan so with all the context we've looked at in all the linguistic Nuance I do think it is most likely fair to say that this event the night of the black knaves comes later on in marca's rule the end of a long period of peace and prosperity Miracle did offer a different perspective on the translation of rozier's Golden Era and I will quote Miracle on screen now and essentially Miracle suggests that linguistically the Japanese could be translated to mean the age of prosperity the age of Plenty therefore putting it closer to the beginning of America's Reign and earlier on in the timeline than many may assume however I do leave it for you to decide which fits more carefully with your understanding of the timeline regardless all we can see definitively is that this attack must have occurred during a period of relative peace growth and prosperity under Queen America's rule between the godskin Apostle godhunt but before the shattering of the Eldon ring and with that said let us go on to assess who actually took part in this conspiracy who they are and how they came to become known as the black knife assassins so now we have a general idea of when we now need to talk about the conspirators and how this conspiracy was formed the heavy hand and muscle of this operation were of course the black knife assassins themselves these Nimble and deadly Warriors are described to be science of the Eternal seti by Roger who says the following they say the Assassins who carried out the deed were signs of the Eternal City a group entirely of women arrayed in armor of silver under cloaks which fooled the eye the knives they wielded though were imparted with the power of the Rune of death through Sinister right but are also simultaneously described as Newman by the black knives armor set which reads the Assassins that carried out the Deeds of the night of the black knaves were all women and rumored to be Newman who had close ties with Marca herself I think there's little value me in going over this in depth once again but here are the main General ties to why the knocks are essentially an offshoot Newman tribe [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign if you'd like to hear a more in-depth explanation of that then I would recommend my video on the Eternal settings which I will link below what is more interesting is that I believe we can specifically track the development of these assassins and how they tie into the Eternal cities and the Newman themselves the armor set describes the Assassins as all women they are also extremely Nimble Warriors and fittingly there is also an all-female Nimble warrior class found within the Eternal City the sword stress in Prior videos I have suggested that maybe the black knife assassins or swordstresses themselves I think there is more Nuance to be had here as we will dig in deeper and I've refined my own opinions on it as I've dug deeper into this very topic but it is still fitting that culturally the Knox have a president for nimble female warriors this is where I want to return to the term Scions of the Eternal cities as mentioned by Roger Scion means a descendant usually used in reference to a notable bloodline Loki was able to provide further insight into who these women may be and he translated Roger's dialogue in the following manner I told you before about the night of the black knees conspiracy the perpetrators are said to be assassins who are descendants of the Eternal capital then Loki would go and to tie this to a dialogue that we've looked at on the channel before gallery's one regarding salius ties to the Eternal cities and I again quote Loki now which ties into this as promised I shall teach you about the Lost sorceries of Celia descendant of the Eternal and this is the same term for descendant used in both dialogues and both in regards to descending from the Eternal cities this is also a subject we have talked about in my eternal cities lore video and others that the salience are indeed descendants of the nox as well and it's therefore fascinating to me that Loki has linguistically tied these two references of two different groups together the black knife assassins and the salience referred to in the exact same manner however the potential link between Celia and the Assassins is also found within the lore one of the other defining features of the Assassins themselves are of course their cloaks that fool the eye a fact that is reflected in gameplay by the Assassins who are essentially invisible to US unless we are using the Sentry torch and even when we can see them their cloaks seem to warp the light around them so what is this technology or magic and how are the Eternal cities able to craft these extraordinary pieces of armor well again I think if we look at the culture and sorcery of Celia we can get the answer as we have already mentioned Gary directly ties Celia as an offshoot colony of noxian descent calling them descendants of the Eternal as thanks I vow to impart to you my knowledge of the Lost sorceries of the salience descendants of the Eternal but even without Gary the player would be able to tell these ties through Visual and implicit storytelling the most obvious of course is the crept chair found in the rear of Celia guarded by none other than anoxian Monk and swordstress indeed the Salient Throne is integrated into the sailing Court of arms and given how iconic the chairs are to noxin society it really shows how important the ties to the Eternal cities are to this small town now the architecture of Sally itself is different from the architecture of the Eternal cities but they are close enough that you could imagine them being built by noxian offshoot indeed the architecture of the lower regions of Langdale matches out of Celia and ordina as well and credit to tarnished archaeologists who makes this connection in his video only in Dale and given that Celia is connected to the Knox and therefore the Newman is a logical conclusion that this loreline Dell is also connected to the same tribe Maracas tribe in Market City tarnished archaeologist also brings attention to the main gate of Lindale and how it essentially leads to Nowhere suggesting that it must have been built with this Newman settlement Laura Lane Dell in mind I leave it to tarnished archaeologist to explain the implication this has for the Eternal cities underground some directly below where this gap between the wall and the Lower Lane Dale settlement is as that's not the subject of this video I'm just highlighting it because it shows the Deep connections between the Newman and the nox and their history with marker and the lands between that even in the heart of Lane Dell we can see traces of the knox's Heritage and how important they are to Marca and the royal family a fact that is even more Stark when you consider that the signature floral patterns on the lead and windows of Celia are the same patterns on the very Gates of leandale itself yet to be clear the sailings are certainly descended from the nox as is said by Gary explicitly and the fact they are called Scions by Roger which again means descendants and so while Laura Lane more slightly precedes the Eternal cities and shares an architectural style with Celia Celia most clearly comes after the establishment of the Eternal cities and the nooks but the point in highlighting the connections of architecture between Celia and Lower Lane Dell is not necessarily to put it in the same day as Laura Lane Dale but to highlight the connection and Heritage that Celia and the nox and the Newman share in turn this raises questions about ordinal liturgical town that also shares the same architectural design but we will get there near the end of the video then of course there is the Salient spell night maintenance Mist one of the night sorceries of Celia and the description of this spell reads as follows one of the night sorceries of Celia town of sorcery below Celia the Eternal City of nocron sleeps their sorcery originates from the maiden of that place this is of course one of the greatest ties between the two firstly is a Salient night sorcery and yet it originates from one of the night maidens of nocron Knight maidens of course being the highest ranking members in Nazi in society that we are aware of indeed when we fight night maidens and nocron and knock Stella they quite often use this technique and spell against us again stressing the connection between cellular and its sorceries to the Knox we can get a feel for what these night sorceries are all about and why they were developed by reading the description of Ambush Shard which reads the following one of the night sorceries of Celia town of sorcery the Salient Sorcerers were assassins and it is said that they often hunted their fellows so this is a school of sorcery dedicated to assassination it is about obfuscation and killing which is reflected in the fact that when you use these spells they fool the eyes of opponents who will not try to react or Dodge as they may well do for regular spells however what is more important to this current discussion when talking about the Assassins of the black knaves as the spell known as unseen form which reads as follows one of the night sorceries of Celia town of sorcery makes the caster semi-invisible while in horseback effect extends to cover the mount their sorcery can be cast while in motion the sailing assassins considered every option that aided their dirty work so here we have specifically a sorcery that makes one invisible developed by a town that specializes in assassination the description of the black knife armor makes it clear that there is a power in the veils that fool the eye and I think it is more than likely that these night sorceries will have been employed to empower these specialized veils so that they could fill the eye much like the Unseen form spell I want to briefly speak on the design of the armor itself according to the description of the black knife armor set it was forced to make no sound and again we could attribute that to the Night Magic of the salience or perhaps the Titan sophisticated scale design however what I'm more interested in is the iconography there seems to be a large focus on feathers both on the lower part of the QRS and the teal feathers found on the shoulder joints when trying to explain this fortunately for us there is another group of Assassins who employ similar iconography The Raven Mount assassins the armor set of these read as follows a retro Implement for transforming into a death bird if only by imitation we are birds of prey Bringers of death as I discussed at length in my death Bird's lore video deaf birds in the lands between our literal symbols of death much as crows or Ravens are to us in the real world The Raven Mount imitated the death burst to show that they are Bringers of death given that the black knife assassins are also assassins my presumption is that the design of this armor is meant to employ the same sort of symbolism so I think it's clear that the work developed in Celia both in regards to training assassins and in developing spells that help obscure the assassins from their targets were used to help equip and train the Assassins they were going to be known as the black knife assassins really cementing this Salient link so with those deep connections to Celia in mind let us once again return to specifically the women who would become the black knife assassins straight up the most obvious answer to me give him all we've looked at is that these assassins are from Celia themselves they are assassins who are trained by the town and are from there this would quite easily tick all the boxes we know about the Assassins they are related to the Newman they are Salient trained in assassination it's a town that developed invisibility sorcery and it is a town of descendants of the Eternal City much as the Assassins themselves are described I'd be certainly happy with this and we can move on however we could potentially go deeper if we examine another signature element of the Assassins the black knife weapons themselves because they have another tie in game Rani states that she forced the blade through fearsome right I stole a fragment of the Rune of death and used it to forge the god slaying black knives through fearsome right I did it all and shortly we well discuss where Rani may have got this occult Knowledge from however despite Rani using the term forged the actual description of the black knife reads slightly differently it reads as follows a ritual performed on the oddly misshapen blade imbued it with the power of the stolen Rune of death so the ritual was performed on the blade meaning presumably this Rachel was performed on a mundane knife that was forged the traditional way and if we are looking at a base template for what type of knife may have been used in this ritual we should look no further than the blade of calling for those who don't know the blade of calling is a very similar size and shape to the black knife one except for the protruding aspects and it isn't black but more importantly the weapon art for the blade of calling blade of gold is basically a golden version of the blade of death weapon art that the black knife uses this is also the blade the blade of calling wielded by melaner when we summon her for the more gold fight and she uses the exact same move set as a black knife assassin so this begs the question who is Melina and how can she inform us on who these assassins may be so this is heavy speculation but I want to try and tie together everything we know about Celia and melanor and her moveset and the blade of calling it is heavily implied that Melina is a child of America and yet she shares a combat Style with these Newman Ken who have descended from the noxian split of the Newman tribe taking Celia as an example despite the place retaining heavy ties to the Knox these are kind of hidden such as the noxian throne being hidden right at the back of Celia and I'm sure many don't actually know in the world of Elden ring that the knocks are related to the salience and in a lot of ways the salients have reintegrated with surface Society lusat is a great example of this a Salient native who was once Grand Master of Ria Lucario's Academy and founder of the 11us conspectives and thus if lusat is able to integrate into normal society despite being of noxian descent is it possible that we can explain the closeness of the Blackness assassins in a similar manner that these are saline women who are reintegrated into Marcus Court bound through ties of kinship I'm saying all this because of the implications of what is said in the black knife assassin armor set in regards to closeness of these women to America and in turn how that can help us explain the Curious links between melaner and the black knife assassins and the blade of calling with the black knife and does US mean close in blood relation or close as in familial or friendship and for now I'm disregard the idea that it means close that they were hardcore conspirators as I will deal with that later but for now I wanted to get to the truth of what has been said here when it says close and so once again I turned to Loki who was able to provide this appraisal of the original Japanese and I know quote his translation of the black knife armor set and Appraisal it is said that the Assassins who were the perpetrators of the night of the conspiracy are all women and according to one Theory were visitors close to America van Loki goes on to explain close in the psychological sense not in terms of dealings so what Loki is trying to get across here is that the original Japanese and his opinion is only trying to convey that these women were close psychologically to Marca close in terms of psychology so friendship kinship or companionship and nothing else and again this all makes sense without going any deeper if you consider their Blood Ties that they all come from the Newman trade ultimately so in general if these new men were close to Marca and close to the court perhaps it would have been trained in the same manner as Milano another woman of the court and armed with the same blades in European courts Royal women often surrender themselves with Noble women who would serve as their advisors confidants and companions known as ladies and waiting and perhaps this explains their proximity to Melania and why they would share a combat style and Armament that these Newman women possibly from Celia acted as women of the court and will have interacted and been around at the same time as millennar there's of course wild speculation but it's something that could explain the proximity of Melina to these women and why they share similar combat Styles and so my final word or my speculation on who the black knife assassins were specifically is that they were probably salience and they were new men that were probably known to Marca in some capacity and that is all we are able to say with any certainty and again we will return to the idea that Maraca was involved later and why do not believe that it is the case when it comes to the Assassins as characters and named people we do have two named members of the leadership elector and her daughter taiki both have ancient Greek Origins electoral meaning unceasing anger who is one of the furies in Greek mythology which indeed feels fitting for an assassin who brings Vengeance for her people the Knox Against The Gods and we will talk more about the knox's motivation in the next chapter taiki is a letter swap spelling of an ancient Greek word that represents the Greek deity of Fortune which is why I'm pronouncing it that way by the way and I find this somewhat ironic given her ultimate fate however when we look at the way Greeks viewed Fortune there is a little more here Fortune could sometimes be seen as a force of uncaring reversals of fate and arbitrary violence which is fitting giving the fate of the knocks and Godwin himself what is interesting is that the Bandai Namco site that I've cited frequently already names the black knife assassins as a foul Covenant and given rani's connection to the occult in the Dark Moon perhaps Rani corrupted them with her beliefs and thus they made a covenant between them this of course brings us to the main conspirator Rani herself wherever you think about the timeline we have discussed it is an immutable fact that Ranny was involved I see quite the sleuth aren't we indeed I am the witch Ronnie I stole a fragment of the Rune of death and used it to forge the god slaying black knives through fearsome right I did it all now I have a fairly good idea who performed the ride upon the blade the person who orchestrated the night of the black knives Luna princess Ronnie one of the children born to King consort Radigan and his first wife ranala demigod and sister to General radon and pray to Reichard hers was the name I discovered in the imprint these dialogues both suggest that Rani was not only a conspirator but in fact the orchestrator of the entire conspiracy and that certainly makes sense given that Rani wanted something very specific out of this event and we will look at that in the following chapters at this stage Rani would still have her original emperion body with red hair as we can see from its remains she would have been a princess with some privilege and thus unsurprising she would have had the resources and influence to organize such an operation it also seems that rani's magic was necessary as she claims it was she who imparted the power of death upon the knaves through fearsome right this also seems backed up by the knife print that we gave to rajier who can detect her hand in their ritual which imbued the knives with their power the knives they wielded though were imparted with the power of the Rune of death through Sinister ripe please I beg of you lend me the knife print for a time I'd love nothing more than to tease out its Secrets though only a fragment a very specific ritual had to be performed to impart the power of the Rune of death traces of the one who performed the right are sure to remain in the imprint the term used by Rani fearsome right smacks of occultism and it makes sense that Rani would have this type of knowledge due to her association with the Dark Moon Ronnie's Dark Moon spell reads as follows this moon was encountered by a young Rani laid by the hand of her mother rinala what she beheld was called dark and veiled an occult mystery surrani's Dark Moon specifically is tied to a cult mystery and there is no doubt via the Dark Moon that Rani will have learned or gained the skills necessary to imbue the black knaves with death but there is another player in the story of the Dark Moon the snowy Crone rani's Secret Mentor we learn of the croon Via certain spells such as freezing Mist which reads as follows the snowy croon taught the young Rani to fear the Dark Moon as Shane parted her cold sorcery and via the snow wedge set which reads once worn by the snowy Crone who the young sorcery encountered deep in the woods she was a witch and well-versed in cold sorceries the old witch was rani's Secret Mentor which is the term that is used to describe this woman here are generally associated with dark occult or blood magic and Rani in turn would become known as Rani the witch so while it is probable that a lot of rani's powers are tied to the power of the dark moon I believe that it was the Crone the snow witch who told her how to wield them and taught her occult magic as such it is most likely from the Crone that Rani learned of the Fearsome right that would allow her to forge the black knives Ronnie's brother reichardt also seems to have been tangently involved as we learn via the Blasphemous claw which reads on the night of the dire plot Rani rewarded Prater reichardt with these traces should the coming trespass one day transpire they would serve as a last resort foil allowing reichardt to challenge malekith the Black Blade so the English here is a little confusing as to why Ronnie is actually giving these items to Reichard so again Loki has been kind enough to provide a clearer translation of what has been conveyed here and I quote their translation of the Blasphemous claw now Rock fragment engraved with a scale of the Rune of death can divert the power of the black sword on the night of the conspiracy krita Riker received a skill as a reward from Rani as the trump card to challenge malekith the black sword the bat Beast who is destined death when blasphemy someday comes now blasphemy is a subject we talked about in great detail in my Reichard lore video in essence blasphemy means that turning against the ERD tree reichardt turning against his own Ken and to take their power for his own it is his Rebellion that is what the day of blasphemy is so from Loki's translation it seems as though Rani was giving reichardt this fragment so that he can challenge the Gods in his time of blasphemy he must have already shared his Blasphemous ideals with his sister that is why she trusts him enough to let him know about the conspiracy and her involvement in it by handing him these shards she's just causing more trouble for the archery order she is just armed a future enemy of the earth tree with a great weapon against their most powerful member so in essence reichardt is not really involved rather he and his sister have both shared their ideals and they both share a hatred for the archery and its order and thus she is given a weapon to her brother just in the hopes that he can one day cause some trouble but now that we've discussed ranny's involvement her involvement with making the blades and organizing the conspiracy in general we now have to talk about the big elephant in the room Marika and why I believe she was not involved so this brings us to the mark equation early on in the game's life cycle many believed that Barca had a hand in the night of the black knaves and many familiar with the channel or people who follow me on Twitter will know I'm very cynical of that theory as it has never felt right to me and have included it for completeness in certain videos but it's never been the one that I've held to be the truth however again for completeness let's just go over why this is such a popular Theory it is mainly anchored by one Central item the black knife armor set which states that the Assassins had close ties to Marika people have taken this to mean that Marco was tied to the conspiracy that she had closed ties to them through the planning of this conspiracy and they believe it is reinforced by her perceived callousness towards her children America's own words hear me demigods my children beloved make of thy selves that which he desire be it the Lord be it a God but should he fail to become ought at all you will be forsaken a mounting only to sacrifices if you'd want to see a video in more detail that discusses this Theory I'd recommend my good friend Ash and hollow's lore video on this very subject according to reportance of this Theory Mark is motivation for doing this for killing her own son is a way of rebelling against the greater well by killing her own child yeah it's never really came true to me and it just feels a little contrived like they believe she's playing some kind of 4D chess and really the main person that gets something out of the night of the black knives is Ranny who specifically has it planned in a certain particular precise way for her benefit as we will look at in the next chapter so to jam America's ego and motives and 4D chess on top of rani's plans doesn't feel quite right emotionally I also think a lot of people view Marca as some kind of Machiavellian schemer and therefore readily accept this Theory despite its flaws now at the beginning of this video I quoted an article from Bandai Namco themselves an article from December which explains the intent of what is being conveyed to us in the story trailer that also was released in December of course we do need to bear in mind that the article is pre-release it's December of 21. and some details did change thanks to the work of Securo Dube and Lance McDonald but it is only two months and I reckon the broad details of the story trailer are generally correct so I well quote the relevant passage from the article now one Grim night in the depths of winter a flock of unknown assassins stole across the lands between in a quotaneous attack this foul Covenant snuffed out the lives of many of the god Queens kin throughout the Empire too numerous and two scattered for our Godly protection to save the Assassin's targets were multi-fold but none was as devastating a loss to the Eternal queen as that of Godwin the golden after his death the Elden ring was somehow shattered and the Order of the world broke with it so Bandai painted a picture of a God who wanted to protect her children from this attack not involved and that godswin's death caused her a great deal of grief so to those that believe that Marca did have a hand in the assassination at the very least need to acknowledge this as a major flaw in their argument a article from the publisher themselves that isn't in game so can't be subject to the usual unreliable narrator arguments that we can sometimes get when discussing the finer points of the lore Bandai Namco will have no doubt consulted with from software before releasing this article and no doubt got the finer details of what has been conveyed here from from software and I think it's fair to say that fromsoft will certainly have greenlit the article especially given how much they care about their lore and worlds the reality of the black knife assassin armored description to me is just a case of slightly awkward English that can be read in different ways because while many people have read it as definitive proof of America's involvement I simply have never read it that way because of the language used and indeed this also does seem to be the opinion of Loki who tweeted the following any Twitter debate regarding this exact subject to clarify Marcus close ties with the Assassins isn't in terms of dealings but with familiarity slash emotional Affinity kinship you could say which makes sense given their Blood Ties whether that is alluding to more than just coming from the same tribe no comment at this time and that is exactly how I reviewed it that there is a blood kinship tie and in fact this makes the tragedy all the more because Marca and her children are betrayed by those of their blood those closest to them so to me and is directly stated by Bandai Namco markers in fact a secondary victim of the event someone who loses her son rather than some Machiavellian Mastermind who is playing 4D chess and kills her son in some bizarre convoluted plan to hit back at the Eldon ring but then she shatters the Elden ring anyway rendering this scheme moot for if marker really was wanting to hit back against the greater well all this time in some clever plot why not just shatter the Eldon ring straight away as this is the real blow to the greater Wells Authority the event is still important to America even though she she isn't involved as the story trailer says this event pushed Queen Marca to the brink and as we've looked at in the previous chapters in regards to the Linguistics involved thanks to Loki it is the trigger for the shattering of the Elden ring so it is still important it's just that it causes someone who's lost her son to break the foundations of the world that she rules so in summary the causal link between the Knight of the black knaves and the shattering of the Elden ring most makes sense if the tragedy of the night of the black knaves caused Marca in her grief to shatter the Elden ring combined with the Linguistics shown by Loki and the Bandai Namco page that straight up exonerates her I think we can safely put Mark as involvement to rest with that being said and the conspirators to find it is time we discuss the motivations of those involved and why they were motivated to take part in such a dangerous conspiracy let's look at the motivations of the black knife assassins themselves why they were part of this conspiracy and what they expected to achieve from it the first could be pretty simple that they are simply rani's co-conspirators and they believed initially in her mission to become the Lord of Nate and bring about the age of stars there's of course another more General explanation is that they are kin to the Knox and there's an underlying resentment for the greater will and its Representatives held by Knox Society the armor sets of the knocks of course make it clear though the knocks are where they are banished underground because of past grudges against the greater well and its proponents and we get evidence via the Finger Slayer blade that they have acted against the greater well before so I think the motivation for this group could be fairly straightforward Revenge Revenge for their Ken's banishment and a chance to overthrow the gods put them to the sword and bring about the age of stars either of those two FIT however either way I believe that Rani later betrayed the black knife assassins following the Knight of the black knaves and there are two possible reasons for this as far as I see it explanation a is that Randy deceived them as to the true purpose of the attack and use them to achieve her real goal while the Assassins believed that this was a strike to bring down the gods to kill them all Rani uses it as an opportunity to perform a ritual and free herself from her flesh and she kept the truth of this purpose from the assassins and used them as tools explanation B is that the Assassins were fully aware and on board with the true purpose but Rani still turned on them following the attack and imprisoned their leader to cover up her involvement and left the rest of the Assassins hung out to dry at the mercy of Lane Dale guards and forces and so at this point I should probably explain why I think Rani deceived and betrayed the black knife assassins and mainly I think my evidence comes from environmental storytelling first of all near the conclusion of rani's quest there seems to be a coordinated attack against her people and while I once thought that Ronnie was still in control of the black knaves and she ordered this attack to cover her tracks I don't think this quite fits given she does seem to show a lot of care for EG and Blythe even telling the player to tell easy and life that she loves them when she departs after we defeat the last baleful Shadow so no even though she has ruthless I don't think she had blithe and EG killed so what happens here EGS killed and surrender him are the bodies of black knife assassins and he is burning in the black flame of the godskins the potential connection between the godskin apostles and the black knife assassins is something I've ruminated on before in my eternal City's lore video so I shank over again in huge detail [Music] [Music] but regardless the main takeaway here is that black knife assassins attacked EG and killed him continuing with this little narrative when we three blind from the evergel he expresses fear for rani's safety and races to be by her side when we next see him he has indeed where Rani should be but he is in a bad way maddened and surrounded by the corpses of black knife assassins and to me it is implied that these assassins were here for Rani given their location right outside her Tower unfortunately for them Rani has already departed through Reyna's rise and they ended up meeting Blythe's blade and stayed it shouldn't be too far of a stretch to believe that Ranny may have people out for her blood as we do have definitive confirmation that there has already been an attempt on her life we learn of this via the black wolf mask a mask that perfectly mimics Blythe's appearance and its description reads as follows relic of an assassin who assumed the guys of Rani The Witch's loyal Shadow the likeness is striking now the implication here is that someone took on the guise of Blythe in order to get close to many and essentially kill her in Prior videos I have speculated that this assassin may have been Daryl will this is of course the Bloodhound Knight that you can kill in the evergel and Lim grave and Blythe is looking for But ultimately whether or not it's Darwell is irrelevant because either way it would certainly fit the narrative we were talking about of the black knife assassins attacking Rani perhaps this was the black knave's more subtle first attempt at seeking retribution hiring an assassin or having one of their own to try and get close to Rani through subterfuge but when it failed they instead resorted to this Strike Team of black knaves that Blythe ultimately kills there's also the fact that Rani asks us to retrieve the Finger Slayer blade from nocron but the knots clearly aren't willing to give her the knife hence why we have to break into the city Kill The Knocks that are there and steal the treasure from them if the two factions were Allied and both ultimately wanting to bring about an age of stars why wouldn't the nox readily give Ranny the tool that she needs and why are the black knife assassins Scions of the Norks themselves and apparently rani's allies attacking rani's people well again I think all of these things can be explained if Rani had betrayed them either by deceiving them to the true purpose of the mission and using them as disposable tools or she betrayed them in the aftermath either way we will talk about this more in the aftermath chapter but consider why electo ringleader of the black knaves themselves isn't present in an evergel in rani's territory in Moonlight alter itself to me the little narrative is clearer the black Nave assassins and Rani are no longer allies the Blackness assassins have a grudge against Rani and Rani has imprisoned electoral but with that said let us now go into rani's motives a bit more and what she wanted exactly to get out of the night of the black knaves and why she wanted it rani's true end goal is more than simple assassination as we can hear it from her directly I was once an imperial of the demigods only I mikola and Melania could claim that title each of us was chosen by our own two fingers as a candidate to succeed Queen America to become the new god of the coming age which is when I received Blythe in the form of a vassal tailored for an imperial but I would not acquiesce to the two fingers I stole the Rune of death slew mine own Imperium flesh casting it away I would not be controlled by that thing rani's death and body was not an unwanted consequence of the attack rather it was the purpose of the attack in rani's mind she wanted red of her emperian flesh she resented being controlled and tied to the greater well through her own body tied to a fate she did not choose a disposable Pawn for the greater well these are very understandable motives and a personal level for Rani but we also have to remember that Rani will have fallen under the influence of the snowy croon and the Dark Moon and no doubt they would have been encouraging her to take steps towards an age of stars and Ascend as the Lord of Nate but it would do her plan no good if she was destroyed totally obliterated in both Body and Soul just to savor her connection to the greater will and so she needed a plan to rid herself of her body but remain in spirit and soul what she needed was a totem to take the soul death consequence of death and death while she was freed from her flesh prison we will look at the specifics as to how this ritual worked in the next chapter but it is important to understand Ronnie's true reason for being involved in this conspiracy not to overthrow the gods not yet at least but specifically to begin to sever the bonds between herself her two fingers and the greater will by being an emparion she is Tied by her body to the two fingers and the greater will unable to make her own fate and again we will later see her complete this plan by killing the baleful shadows and then finally slaying her two fingers finally severing that connection and confirming that this has been rani's long-held intention to all of her schemes so with the stage set the motives of both main parties clear let us talk about the specifics of the Nate itself that night of wintry fog the innate of the black knaves as the story trailer tells us it was on a night of wintry fog that the Rune of death was stolen and this was the first part of the scheme and so the first question may be how are they able to achieve this how did they steal a fragment of the Rune of death given that malekith is such a powerful being well the truth is pretty simple malekith was far more careless in the past than he is now when we meet malikith an error story he is very reticent to even reveal his real identity pretending to be someone known as garank and he has the Black Blade the sword that is imbued with deaths and death hidden within his very flesh however this a precaution that essentially came too late as we learn the following from the Black Blade item description after a fragment of death was stolen on that fateful night malekith bound the blade within his own flesh such that none might ever rob death again Rob death again and after that fateful night meaning that prior to this malachith did not hide his black blade within his flesh and indeed there is evidence that he wielded it quite openly and publicly for example malachith's armor set reads the following malakith Queen Marcus a loyal half-brother bore a blade imbued with deaths and death and there was not one demigod who did not fear Him Champions knew what was at stake indeed that is what made them champions the fact that malkith is widely feared and everyone knew what was stake if they stood against him suggests that malekith was just openly wielding the Black Blade imbued with death he was Mark as Grim Reaper a symbol of her power and a subtle reminder that in a world where death is confined mark As Black Blade was the only one capable of slaying a demigod yet it was this arrogance that evidently gave the conspirators their opportunity and Rani seems to claim that she specifically stole the Rune of death personally as she says in Her speech I stole a fragment of the Rune of death and used it to forge the god slaying black knives through fearsome right I did it all I stole a fragment of the Rune of death I did it all meaning she dead all apart she just confessed to stole the Rune and forged the black sling knaves In fairness this does also make quite a bit of sense when you think about it Rani would be in the best position to get close to malakith and steal a fragment of the Rune of death she was royalty and given the fact her involvement seems hidden for a long time at this stage she would have just been part of the royal family Beyond suspicion with a lot of access then using the knowledge learned from the snowy croon or the Dark Moon Rani imparted the power of death through a fearsome occult rate now we spoke earlier on the knives themselves and howrani no doubt used the blade of calling weapon as a template and imbued these blades with the power of death and in essence this is why the black knife acts as like a corrupted version of the blade of calling and it brings us to an aspect of the blades we haven't yet mentioned they are unusual shape in the description of the blade itself it is described as oddly misshapen and indeed I believe it was the ritual itself that morphed the blade to take on this form because despite it being misshapen it is not random all the blades are uniform and I believe it is taking the form of either the Rune of death itself or the half wound wheel of the centipede you see the actual form and shape of the Rune of death appears to hold some power because of the shape itself as we will see when we discuss how Rani and Godwin had the runes literally carved into them and I believe that the blades have been warped by the power of death and death to take on the form of the Rune of death once the blades were forged the Assassins headed out to attack their victims and thanks to their special Garb that we've already discussed they would have been able to reach their victims undetected and unseen the Century's torch May shine a light pun intended on how effective this was and how defenseless the demigods were it reads as follows torch given to Protectors of the earth tree its Flames are bestowed with a special incantation which allows the bear to see assassins cloaked in veils furnished on behalf of the earth tree and the grace Gavin Lord such that a Nate of the black knaves will never come again so this implies that on the actual night of the black knees the authorities and guards had no defense and no answer to these hidden veils how could they if they'd never experienced them before and they really had no idea of numerous assassins simply slipping past them and reaching their targets unacosted now at this juncture I want to return to the Bandai Namco article that describes the event as it does give some details as to how the event might have played out end game we are only directly referenced to one victim of the night of the black knaves and that is Godwin yet this article suggests that more than one was killed during this attack and again I will read the relevant passage in a quotaneous attack this foul Covenant snuffed out the lives of many of the god Queens Ken throughout the Empire too numerous too scattered for her Godly protection to save the Assassin's targets were multi-fold but none was as devastating a loss to the Eternal queen as that of Godwin the golden this of course ties up with the story trailer as you'd expect given this article accompanied it and the trailer Ronnie narrates the events of the night of the black knaves and again I will quote her narration now and the demigods began to fall starting with Godwin the golden the fact she says starting with God when the golden suggests that many demigods were to die in this event and that Godwin was just the first now this does tie up with some interesting mentions in the game that could give the claim some validity firstly in the intro to the game itself it says something of a similar nature night of the black knives Godwin the golden was first to perish the first to perish again meaning that more than one demigod was killed in that night and that Godwin was just the first so we can imagine all the assassins spreading out the lands between as Bandai Namco describes it a cortaneous attack to strike at different targets simultaneously this also supports the idea that the aim of the Assassins could have been to generally strike against the gods to cause as much damage to the regime as possible and that Rani obscured the real truth of the operation to them now how does this help explain the other soulless demigods that we find in the mausoleums throughout the lands between I think it is meant to explain them that these are the soulless demigods that the other Ken of America that died in this attack were the soulless demigods that we now see in the mausoleums there are some difficulties when it comes to the specific of soullessness but we will talk about that at the end of the chapter but in general let's just accept that more than one demigod was slain during the attack and these May well be the demigods found in the wandering mausoleums let us talk about the killing of Godwin now as it is the pivotal moment of this whole event and whole subject firstly when it comes to the location of where it took place it almost certainly took place in laying Dale given that taiki's ashes describe a flight from the Royal Capital after she slew Godwin the golden showing not only that Electro and taiki were directly involved in Godwin's murder but this murder took place in the Royal capital of Liam Bell given how this scene is almost tragedying in nature it would make sense thematically if this happened at the heart of the earth tree Empire right in Lindale that the Assassin slipped past the guard right into Godwin's personal Chambers in the heart of Lindale given that we see Godwin partially dressed in the intro slides and in the story trailer as he's being murdered I imagine that they caught God when unawares and unprepared and given that he is mighty enough for God to have defeated Fortis ax this would certainly be The Prudent way to kill him yet the Assassins did not merely stab him to death his death was Far More ritualistic in nature and we can already get hints of this in the opening cinematic you can see he's been held in place by two assassins while a third is carving a very specific shape into their back we can learn more about this carving via the curse mark of death an item pill from rani's original body which also has a carving in it this item reads as follows curse mark carved into the discarded flesh of Rani the witch also known as the half-wheel wound of the centipede The Curse Mark was carved at the moment of death of the first demigod and should have taken the shape of a circle however two demigods perished at the same time breaking the curse mark into two half wheels Rani was the first of the demigods whose flesh perished while the prince of death perished in Saul alone so this gives us an insight into the specifics of rani's plan and how it worked and what happened to Godwin firstly it does mention that the two curse marks the one on Ronnie's back which we can still physically see and the one carved onto Godwin were physically carved the carving of this Mark upon flesh apparently gives power to the Rune itself this brings death to the bearer of the rune the person whose flesh this is carved upon in this case however Rani used this ritual for her own means to split the effects of death to only take half and put the other half on Godwin she used Godwin as a totem to take the death of Soul part while she merely took the death of body part and this is what is meant by the part that says this curse mark was carved at the moment of the death of the first demigod and should have taken the shape of a circle however two demigods perished at the same time breaking the curse mark into two half wheels this suggests that at the exact moment Godwin was having the half wind carved into his Rani was also having the other half carved into her back the effect of this was that it made a full wheel of death splitting the effects between the two this paints a pretty dramatic picture of Rania Atop The Lee ernian Terror that wintry Nate having a half wound carved into her back while Electro and her cohorts did the same to Godwin at the exact same moment in Lindale this was Ronnie's plan the purpose for her involvement in the conspiracy it freed her soul from her and Perry and flesh the fact that the curse mark item description describes her flesh as discarded shows that this was a purposeful design she wanted rid of this flesh yet the price was high and even Rani probably didn't see the extent of the consequences of her actions for not only did it condemn a being to a soulless living death which must be a hellish state of existence given what we see of Godwin and his new body but it also resulted in the spread of the death route and the rise of those who live in death starting a brand new cycle of suffering all over again these are points I would like to remind people of when they see Rani as some kind of hero she isn't a villain but she ruthlessly condemns Godwin for her own aims to an eternity of suffering and her recklessness gives rise to the pitiful beings known as those who live in death and through no fault of their own these beings will just be hounded and hunted by those of the golden order this also brings us back to the issue of the soulless demigods I mentioned earlier Godwin was the first to die and he was killed in Seoul only to benefit rani's plan so why were these other demigods if we're presuming the ones in the mausoleum were the ones killed in the night of the black knaves alongside Godwin be described as Solace if it was only Godwin who was killed in this ritualistic manner well there are a few ways to explain this the first one is a bit of a case of Occam's razor the simplest explanation being that the other soulless demigods are dead in Seoul but also in body The Curse Mark of Death says that the Rune should have taken the form of a wheel should have meaning perhaps the other assassination attempts went ahead as normal and the whole Rune of death was carved into the back of the targets killing them both in body and in spirit rather than just Saul I think this does make sense there is a distinction between being dead and being dead and soulless and it would still give a reason that their fate would be mourned by the likes of those at Castle Soul it's because they are without Souls unable to pass on properly not that they are just dead there are a few other alternative explanations for this but I don't want to get into a rabbit hole about this as this is probably a subject for another video but I think it's fair to say that the soulless demigods found in the mausoleums are meant to represent probably the others that were killed that night and now with the devastating effects of the night itself discussed let us move on to the aftermath of what happened follow following this event and the immediate aftermath of Godwin's death we learn of the Assassins fleeing from the scene of the crime and we learned this via taiki's ashes which read as follows taiki was one of the Assassins who on the night of the plot imbued her Black Blade with the Rune of death and slew Godwin the golden she was the daughter of the black knife ringleader alekto and was killed protecting her mother during their flight from the Royal Capital so a flight from the capital suggests that despite slipping into the capital undetected that their escape was far more eventful indeed I get the general impression that Ranny basically hung the assassins out to dry after the attack we find them scattered throughout the lands between hiding in caves Dungeons and the capital itself given the impression of a panic flight from Lindale as they were hunted and killed by the authorities indeed if one looks carefully at the Assassin found in the death touched catacombs we can see that they are greatly wounded armor rent and blood Aid elsewhere the Assassins are hiding and their resting demeanor gives off the impression of a fugitive exhausted and hounded to the fringes of the lands between and no doubt many were hunted and killed in the hours days and months following the assassination later on we learned via the Sentry torch that the grace given Lord morgoth would equip his forces with Sanctuary torches meaning that the black knife assassins would never have the power over the lanedale capital that they once did and perhaps these tools were even used by laying down forces to hunt down the remaining black knives in years to come and while I have no doubt that the Langdale forces fell upon the Assassins I suspect that Rania is responsible for electo and taiki's final fate weather carrying forces killed taiki and arrested electoral or whether a light will fled Torani with her daughter in her arms being killed by Langdale forces it is clear to me that either way Rani imprisoned electoral following the assassination and conveniently her involvement in the conspiracy would be hidden for years until Roger uncovered the truth finally Rani was probably content to let people believe she too was a victim of the slaughter and I would guess that she did not return in her new form until sometime later perhaps when she returned to claim a great Rune after the shattering but that's just speculation of course meanwhile we learned that Godwin was of course buried at the roots of the great tree and from him would spread the death route throughout the lands between bringing those who live in death this event is something I look at in great detail in my Godwin lore video but in short this is the biggest consequence of this fateful night it exposed the flaws in the deathless golden order and began a cycle of persecution that would lead to gold mask examining the nature of the golden order and what went wrong here the wrongness of this act the slaughter ran his own kin and to deny him a true death is reflected in the corruption of the world Godwin's growths and tendrils reach even to fire Mozilla and the deepest Caverns it is a rot born of a terrible crime and the breaking of Fate it is then of course came the shattering of the Eldon ring and the great suffering of the shattering war that followed I think we have shown fairly conclusive evidence that it was the trauma of this night and the loss of her child that drove Marca to shatter the Eldon ring beref and disenchanted with the golden order she once served an order that couldn't even save her son from a horrific endless fate and so she brought a hammer down in a fateful blow that would change the world as a sort of epilogue there's something else I want to touch upon ordina liturgical town and the black knife assassins found here I feel it is no coincidence that ordina has the exact same architecture as Celia and we have strong evidence that the Assassins themselves are salian and we hear find an ordina plenty of black knife assassins one of the most concentrated locations for them in the entire game to me it's very possible that a group of Assassins fled here and have built a new Township following the architecture of where they are probably from perhaps they built this under the Aegis of a new forgiving Lord one they still serve in their Exile by protecting access to his lands for any who would want to access the healing tree small here I would just like to wish you all a wonderful holiday period for those who celebrated Christmas will have already passed by the time this video goes out but I would still like to take a moment to thank you all for watching this video and supporting me throughout 2022 and with that said we now look to a new year tarnished and I wish you all a wonderful new year no matter what you celebrate it or when you celebrate it and that 2023 is fantastic to you all and your families take care and have a wonderful night and I will see you in the death touch catacombs happy holidays everyone

Channel: SmoughTown

Views: 273,777

Keywords: elden ring lore, elden ring, elden ring story, elden ring gameplay, lore, explained, elden ring lore explained, elden ring endings explained, fundamentalism, golden order, erdtree, marika, radagon, those who live in death, maliketh, great tree, elden ring story explained, elden ring explained, night of the black knives, carian, ranni, nox, eternal cities, natural born of the void, black knife assassin, sellia, ordina, leyndell, godwyn, did marika kill godwyn, godwyn prince of death

Id: oCIIUv59Bj8

Length: 75min 28sec (4528 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 27 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Razhork]

Being someone who leans heavily into the "Marika helped orchestrate the night", I obviously I disagree with the "Marika is innocent" section.

For one, he is right that Black Knife Armor's description is foundational to that theory, but addressing only that is missing the bigger picture in my opinion.

The bigger reason which makes me lean into the theory is the notion that "Marika broke the Elden Ring because of Godwyn's death", which is something I believe we come to learn is explicitly a false premise laid out to the public.

Because we learn through Melina that Marika had plans to shatter the Elden Ring looooong before the Night of Black Knives happened, in the two most important pieces of dialogue across the whole game if you want to understand the plot.

Third Church of Marika - Part 1

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 ye will live, and die.

Church of Pilgrimage - Part 2

Then, after thy death, I will give back what I once claimed.

Return to the Lands Between, wage war, and brandish the Elden Ring.

Grow strong in the face of death. Warriors of my lord. Lord Godfrey.

Particularly part 2 reveals that the banishment was part of a plan she set in motion long ago, and we're a key part to said plan.

That aside, the important part to note is when this dialogue happens, and that's her last words to Godfrey and his warriors by the Weeping Pinnensula.

And then everything she foretold long ago happens. She shatters the Elden Ring, the Tarnished returns to the Lands Between seeking the Elden Ring and become Elden Lord.

To then say she shattered the ring out of grief for Godwyn falls completely flat to me.

---

The section about the Bandai Namco article which was released alongside the Story Trailer back in Dec 2021, I also disagree a lot with.

To say that the content of the article can't be refuted, because it's not subject to unreliable narrator is missing the point. What it explains is the same thing which is suggested in-game by NPCs like Rogier.

But similarly, I've already written about how the public understands her reasoning as being related to Godwyn, while we factually also know she had a scheme of her own related to the Tarnished going on.

I also want to confer to another NPC, who I think shares similar sentiment about Marika's supposed "driven to the brink by sorrow", Gideon Ofnir.

He has a peculiar line which is spoken when you tell him about the state of the Haligtree after defeating Malenia.

I heard speculation Miquella embedded himself in the Haligtree, but before he could finish, someone cut the tree open and absconded with his infant form.

Indeed, it seems those words held weight. How vexing. That the All-knowing didn't have the full story...

Perhaps the Queen's sorrow was justified... Ah, my apologies. Lost myself, for a moment there.

Now, obviously this dialogue is triggered when told about Miquella being kidnapped, but the phrasing on his latter line is especially interesting.

He's well aware of the "Queen's sorrow", which likely is related to what people believe led her to shatter the Elden Ring, but Gideon doesn't state it as a fact.

In fact, he makes it clear that he didn't believe it was justified, but upon learning about Miquella, he had to question his own previous stance. "Perhaps it was justified"

And to be clear, I don't think this is the smoking gun of evidence, but it's all these major and minor things combined that has me leaning opposite of Smoughtown on this exact subject.

And I don't think much will change until we get more clarficiation whether it'll be DLC or interviews with Miyazaki pops up (2nd volume of the Strategy guide is supposed to feature some interviews by March 2023).

[u/tremorofforgery]

Here's the link to the Bandai Namco article SmoughTown is referencing here:

https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/elden-ring/news/look-the-history-of-elden-rings-lands-between-the-age-of-gods

[u/M00n_Slippers]

Ugh, can't stand Smoughtown videos. I watched 20 minutes and he was still talking about how the Numen and the Nox are the same. He talks so slow, goes off on unnecessary tangents and details, and takes forever to deliver the information. I can't even watch him anymore. Most of the translations he features are completely useless, too. He said 'Catalyst' in one description could be translated as 'trigger'. Uh yeah duh! They are synonyms, they mean the same thing! That was completely pointless to the video!

[u/Ghost_comics]

I could write a long rebuttal to the Marika is innocent part but the most obvious evidence against this is that the Black Knives are hunting Ranni afterward. They'd have no reason to want to execute her if things went according to plan, the very fact they're after her at all shows they're working for someone else and the person with close-ties to them is of course Marika.

[u/needveggies]

Little late to the party, but regarding the back knife assassins and their armour.

I don't think those are feathers. I think they look more like leaves. Maybe symbolising the fall of the Erdtree.

After all, the fallen leaves tell a story.

IMO of course.