Elden Ring Lore | Queen Marika and the Erdtree

foreign beloved make of thy selves that which ye desire be it a lord be it a God but should he fail to become altar tall ye will be forsaken a mounting only to sacrifices the art tree governs all the choice is thine become one with the order or divest thyself of it to wallow the fringes and Powerless upstart let her knew it park begin an Epoch glistening with life brandish the Elden ring for the age of the urge tree the lands between Ari realm that is home to many a legendary and powerful figure and as the tarnished we get to rub shoulders with these Giants even if they have seen better days yet at the center of it all is Queen Marco the eternal the god of the world and the vessel for the Elden ring for the mystery of the game starts with the opening cinematic that declares that Queen Marco is missing it is she who ushered in the age of the Earth tree through Bloodshed and battle and symbolize an era of bounty under its bows America's hand is felt everywhere in the lands between through her children and through an entire culture that has been built around her image and god-given Authority yet the Grandeur of the earth tree and the realm of Marca would not last forever despite that being the intention Marcus Judy was an immense burden and to understand Marca is to understand the incredible stress that she must have faced over hundreds if not thousands of years the flaws of the golden order and the machinations of others had chipped at the foundations of the world and the final blow would be delivered by America herself with a swing of her Hammer Market destroyed herself and the Elden ring leaving the world crooked broken and without leadership yet despite these immutable facts and spending hundreds of hours surrounded by her statues marker remains one of the most enigmatic characters in the entire game and multiple questions will always remain so join me this week as we examine the Earth tree and America the god of an epoch and I'm really excited to bring you this video as I find both of these subjects some of the more difficult to comprehend in the entire game and to that end I've referenced the work of other great content creators throughout this video such as Eridan Zio storm Ashen Hollow Quail like and last protagonist the latter even being kind enough to provide me with some translations for a certain pivotal items I think for subjects like this we are enriched by drawing upon each other's work much like traditional scholarship especially since the lore of Eldon ring encompasses such a large breadth of themes and ideas so consider checking out these creators below as they're all fantastic members of this community and their views and perspectives on these subjects has helped round out my perception of their subject matter and before we carry on guys remember that if you enjoy Elden ring lore then please like the video and subscribe to the channel I now have hours of lore content for you to dig into and plenty more to come I've decided to structure this video by first of all exploring the origins of the archery before then tying it together for the history and Analysis of America in the latter part of the video the origins of the Eldon Rings influence upon the world began with the coming of the Eldon Beast something we learned via the Elden Stars incantation which reads as follows it is said that long ago the greater will sent a golden star bearing a beast into the lands between which would later become the Eldon ring the Eldon Beast would then become the Elden ring and thus would begin the primordial age of the Dragons where the ancient dragons would rule on behalf of the greater well the setup of this rule is very similar to what we see in America's era a God and an Elden Lord this is something we learn from the remembrance of the dragonlord which shows that placiduous acts was the Elden Lord to a god that we don't know much about indeed we can even see what appears to be a more primordial version of the Elden ring engraved in pharmazilla the capital of the Dragon civilization and this engraving of the Elden ring in a different form just reinforces what we really know already and what we'll explore in this video that the Eldon rang's power has changed form over time and the modern era it is represented by the Earth tree and the Earth tree of course has its origins in The Crucible now whether this engraving of the Elden ring found in fire Mozilla is representative of The Crucible or of an earlier version of the Elden ring is unknown and not really that particularly relevant for this video the main important takeaways of course that the Eldon ring has changed over time and now let us go back to The Crucible so we can understand the origins of the earth tree it has a basic piece of lore but The Crucible as an earlier form of the art tree I'm sure most people understand that by this stage in the game's history but let's cover it anyway so it's something we learn of via the godskin noble set and it reads the following not unlike The Crucible the archery in its primordial form this means that to understand the archery we must first of all look at The Crucible as they are essentially two evolutionary stages of the same Force the timeline in Elden ring is not extremely clear but I believe the era of The Crucible overlaps with both the prehistoric era of the dragons and the early era of the art tree I think this idea can be supported by some imagery we find in Far Mozilla and shout out to Quail like who made this connection in one of her videos and I will link the relevant video Below in farm Azula there are reliefs in certain parts of the area they have some interesting implications these reliefs seem to show a tree flanked by two unusual looking creatures who to me must either be some kind of dragonkin or as Quail like suggests Miss begotten as shown by the description of celeria's spear as well as the actual imagery of the weapon itself and her helmet appears to depict The Crucible as a sort of wild and natural looking tree and given The Crucible as the primordial form of the art tree this makes perfect sense the crystal is distinctly linked to the greater will and the power of the Eldon ring a period of Red Gold rather than pale gold of the earth tree and golden order the idea of Red Gold being used as an indicator of the crucible's influence is an idea that we can learn from the Gilded great Shield which reads the following metal great Shield coated with gold carried by Nate loyal to godric the red tenge and the gold coat meristy primordial matter that became the art tree the color of Homeward yearning the nature of this gold is interesting because the two different colors of gold type back to an allegiance with the greater will but the different shading of red and peel symbolize two different eras of Golden Rule a point well made by ordovus's great sword which reads the following their sword is imbued with an ancient holy Essence its red tint exemplifies the nature of primordial gold said to be close in nature to life itself The Red Tent of the gold seems to be symbolic of the themes of primeval life though we often see associated with The Crucible hence why we see this gold adorning the crystal Knight's armor and weapons and thematically the Red Gold ties in here with the idea of life life being closely associated with the age of The Crucible something we will again examine when we come to the age of abundance chapter an overlapping period between The Crucible era and the Earth tree era the evolution from Crucible to Earth tree from Wildlife to refined life explains the differences between earlier greater will beliefs versus those of the golden order and in turn leads us to understand why the golden order views the worship of The Crucible as a more primitive worship of life and the greater will the item description of the Gilded Shield of course calls into question godric's beliefs given that it is a shield wielded by his soldiers that he is linked to Godfrey a lord more in tune with The Crucible and he also venerates dragons and the fact he Blends together life in an artificial sense by a grafting but this of course is an analysis and a story for another video as we already discussed gold was a signifier of the greater Will's power in this time and while it was red gold it is nonetheless kin to the paler gold of later Eros and later golden order incantations and indeed we learn of the kinship and ties between the red gold or ancient dragon lightning and the pale God of modern Earth tree worship via the gravel storm seal which reads as follows the worship of the ancient dragons does not conflict with belief in the archery after all this seal and lightning itself are both imbued with gold creating a bridge between these more primeval eras and the age of the archery one is an evolution of the other for all intents and purposes they are both tools of the greater will the very fact ancient dragons wield the red goal and their lightning powers just reinforces that they were the chosen of the greater well at this earlier stage and again to me it could imply that The Crucible may have existed in the time of the ancient dragons although the timeline is not very clear however we do have to remember that The Crucible is a force where all life was once Blended together it is therefore possible that primeval life emerged from this churn including the dragons very possible though it is not without its problems and it's something I will analyze in my upcoming Crucible video the main point of understanding to take from this chapter is that the Elden ring is the force which governs the rules of this world's domain and has done so since the prehistoric year of the Dragons the age of The Crucible and thus the Earth tree these ages are all defined and linked by one single power the power of the Eldon ring and thus as we get into the Earth tree proper we must understand that the Earth tree is just the latest extension of the Elden ring a way for the greater well to exert their power over the lands between just as The Crucible before that so time has always been tricky in seoul's games so how long ago are these past events how long does the timeline stretch well it isn't necessary to bog yourself down in these specifics I do find it an interesting and rewarding idea to ponder we've already seen that the Empire of the ancient dragons is referred to as the prehistoric era and just for reference the term prehistoric is coming from the Dragon shield talismans that you can find different varieties of and that can give us some ideas in regards to time skills if we relate it to our real world as an allegorical comparison for us prehistory is the time of human history before Humanity began writing began documenting history and that documentation can take any form from writing inscriptions paintings or symbolism any type of creative medium or tool meant to commemorate past events and effectively in our world this is a huge period that starts about three million years ago but only ended about 5 000 years ago and so for me the most reasonable view of this time span is to view the reign of the Dragons as several Millennia go probably even more the Earth tree had not been born from The Crucible its primordial form and the dragons wielded the power of the Elden ring as we can see from their Red Gold lightning and the fact that they had the Elden Lord and God of this era regardless it is clear that this was a far different era of Elden ring rule with the form of the Elden ring being far different from what we're used to in the modern era quote unquote yet much like Marcus Rin the rule of the Dragons would come to close and I do think it is within the scope of this video to at least touch upon this subject we know from Placentia Sax's remembrance that the God of this era disappeared and is no doubt this that played a key factor in their society's collapse and originally this chapter on the dragons was much more robust but given the size of this video as you will see I really had to tone it down as there was a lot of bloat in this video but suffice it to say I will cover the history of the dragons in a later video but for whatever reason the dragon God fled and placidus ax would hide Beyond tame and between that Reign and Marcus Reign we don't know of any other Elden Lords or any other gods in that period and it is my belief that between these two Reigns there was a little bit of a power vacuum which explains why we see a multitude of different civilizations clearly at different times having risen and fallen in this period and with that said we'll move on to the next chapter where we try and assess this pre-artree era as mentioned in the previous chapter it's unclear whether the dragons ruled all the way up to the period known as the age of the Earth tree but my suspicion is that they fizzled out quite a bit before the emergence of the earth tree leaving a period without a god an Elden Lord where The Crucible was the main force in the world this is of course my speculation but I based off the fact there's plenty of evidence of Plenty different communities arising in the Years prior to the Earth trees rule I believe there's a good bit of carbon dating and held in ring if we look at certain events and this is one that I've referenced before in my videos and that is the war of the ice dragons and the fire Giants as explained by borealis's mist and I believe this is a good bit of supporting evidence that there was a good length of time between the fall of the age of the dragons and the rise of the age of the Earth tree the reason I believe this is because the war was fought by the ice dragons who are a species of what we know as modern dragons we learn of the differences between modern and ancient dragons from items such as the lightning strike and dragon wound Greece in short modern dragons are the bipedal more wyvern like dragons like a gill Borealis and smarag these are dragons who have descended from the stone-like quadrupedic ancient dragons and have lost their immortality due to the loss of the gravel Stone skills the fact that these derivative and modern species of dragons were the ones to war with the fire Giants who themselves would overlap with the early age of the archery as an interesting point of history for me I see the modern dragons as a degenerate Devolution that must have come about through the collapse of their empire and their association with the Eldon ring this is my speculation of course but the very fact the fire Giants were able to carve out their own territory and defeat an entire branch of dragon kind without any retaliation from the Elden dragon lord to me simply suggests that the dragon Empire was a thing long since passed by this stage and as a great indicator of a sort of timeline given we know that the fire Giants would be at the Zenith of their power at the beginning of the age of the Earth tree and I do think it makes sense given how long we are talking about we are talking about moving from a primeval prehistoric era of a world moving into an era that is more aligned with the Medieval Era and I'm of course referring to the Lindale civilization of the archery and to me there are clear indicators that there have been many the other early civilizations that have risen and Fallen within the timeline and they would only really fit in the gap between the age of the dragons and the gap between the age of the Earth tree we of course have the ancient civilization who built the UL and old palaces and the mausoleum that would then become the Morgan Palace given the architectural similarities to real world Sumerian and ancient Greek civilizations the implication of these architectural choices and influence to me is meant to imply that this is a civilization well in the past before the rise of Lane Dale which again reflects a more modern Medieval Era this is not to mention the fact that it is actually referred to as an ancient civilization in the mogwin palace map again we've had two different terminologies used for different time periods the Prehistoric Age of the dragons and the ancient era of the old and Earl palaces however you look at the Timeline it becomes undeniable that there were cultures that grew up and developed separate from the influence of the earth tree as such they developed their own ideas practices and worship their own Gods and conceive their beliefs outside what we know to be as the norm during the reign of America a good example of this idea is written in an actual bit of endgame lore and not my own waffle and this is found in the sorcery explosive ghost flame item description which reads as follows in the time when there was no artery death was burnt in ghost flame death birds were the keeper of that flame so the death Birds and the twin bird deserve their own video and Analysis of course but they and their Associated beliefs are a great illustration of a world without an art tree when death was completely divorced from it and building upon this for a further example of a community and culture that has clearly developed their own beliefs and practices surrounding death we can of course look to the ancestral follower Community this culture has a wholly different burial and funerary practice free from the Dominion and domination of the archery and these are more than just beliefs as their beliefs on death and rebirth are made manifest in the form of their ancestor spirits the remembrance of the Regal ancestor reads as follows ancestral Spirits exist as a phenomenon beyond the purview of the earth tree life Sprouts from Death as it does from birth such as the way of the living indeed even in the corpses of these ancestral beings that we find in the areas of the ancestral followers we can see new life forming from their remains Flora butting and a perfect display of the cycle of life and death a cycle that is free from the archery burial of America's era and I think we have hit here on an important Point As We Now understand why the arrival of the archery was not welcome with open arms these are practices of death and life that have nothing to do with the archery and are completely separate by it and the archery would be a threat to that way of life and with that understanding let us look at the protection of the archery incantation which reads the following in the beginning everything was in opposition to the archery but through countless victories in war it became the embodiment of order everything was in opposition to the archery and now we can start to understand why entire societies communities and cultures had risen up with their own practices God's religion and their own ways of understanding death so the arrival of the archery would be a massive tyrannical force in respect of your own beliefs and practices instead of being allowed to burn your dead and ghost flames or bury them or honor your ancestral Spirits archery burial would replace that and be seen as the only true way of honoring death or a tree burial which is essentially becoming one with the great tree being absorbed by its roots in a horrible convergence of life and rebirth that would remove any reverence or individuality from the burial process and indeed when Marca is the representative of the earth tree it is made extremely clear that the Earth tree is the only way of governing life and if you do not get with the proof program you will be excluded to the ends of the Earth in America's own words with the order or divest thyself of it to wallow at the fringes a powerless upstart I really like this quote because it illustrates the fact that the Earth tree and America really became to represent a dominant world power with no contenders and no flexibility it is worth bearing in mind that the worship of Marco the Earth tree and the fingers exist beyond the lands between and this is something we learned from the church Confessor armor set which reads the churches outside the lands between dedicated to the teachings of the two fingers same confessors out to follow the guidance of Grace the churches outside the lands between so being no doubt about America's intention at this early stage the archery will govern all or your existence will be that of an outcast and this does line up nicely with what we actually see in game for those who do not fit within the established order do actually exist in the fringes we have the ancestor followers that Miss begotten those of the helic tree The Omen and the urban orix all of these people are pushed to the fringes of the lands between unwelcome and oppressed struggling to preserve their own ways of life and for a large group of the outcasts one of the main unifying themes is The Crucible But to answer the question as to why the reason behind the people of The Crucible being ostracized we must go to the heart of what the archery represents in comparison to The Crucible so with that said let us move on to the next chapter where we attempt to answer the question what actually is the earth tree [Music] backtrack slightly new and discuss the evolution of The Crucible into the Earth tree that would trigger the events leading up to what we know as the age of the Earth tree at the conclusion of the war with the Giants in the first chapter we have already examined that in the godskin noble set that The Crucible is defined as the primordial form of the ERD tree and so it's time to address what this actually means and how it can inform our understanding of the arteries Form and Function let us examine what is meant by primordial from Oxford languages their definition in regards to biology is the earliest stage of development and so this just reinforces what we've already said a number of times that The Crucible is the earth tree just an earlier stage in its life cycle and revisiting the Gilded great Shield item description we then understand that the energies found within The Crucible would coalesce and eventually form the Earth tree a new form that would replace what we knew as The Crucible my belief is that the power of the Eldon ring funneled into the chaotic matter of The Crucible would grow and solidify into the Earth tree that would then rise from its primordial form to dominate the skyline of the lands between and as already discussed in the prior chapters as evidenced by siluria's weapons and her armored dormants The Crucible did actually take the form of a sort of tree prior to being named the Earth tree and so I find this interesting because of the recent debates and ideas that have come up in the community regarding the two halves of the earth tree and if you aren't sure of what I mean by this I'm referring to the fact that there's like a golden magical outer layer to the Earth tree and then there's the inner more traditional wooden tree including the great tree roots that go below the catacombs creators like Zio storm sakuro dibi and quelig have highlighted there are clear differences in the air tree where it appears to be split between two different forms a clearly more organic tree in the middle and a bright gold encasement which quelag equates to being more like the gravel Stone hide of ancient dragons we know there are lots of references to an archery and a great tree with the great tree being more associated with the roots and more natural looking part of the tree and this is something we can learn via the root resin item description which reads resin secreted from the roots of the great tree can also be found near trees on the surface the roots of the great tree were once linked to those of the earth tree or so they say and it is for this reason catacombs are built around great tree roots I think it's clear that the great treat facet of the archery is certainly more associated with death whereas the aspect of the art tree the more ethereal part is the source of all life as described by atoms like the albanoric blood clot together they are the metaphysical form of the Elden Ring's power though I'd met the game does not make it easy to understand the relationship between the great tree and the Earth tree and what this maybe has to do with The Crucible this chaotic traditional organic tree growing into what we know as the Earth tree yeah is it possible the answer is right in front of us right in front of the earth tree in the form of the giant plaque that hangs over the entrance to the inner sanctum of the earth tree now what I see on this engraving is the Elden ring at the roots in the middle we have another tree which could be the great tree or interchangeably The Crucible and then growing out of that at the top of the plaque is the earth tree now again I refer you to the last protagonist video on the great tree and golden order where they identified that contrary to what some believe great tree does actually exist in the Japanese but that it is actually synonymous with the archery to me they are parts of the one whole and the engraving gives us all the answers that we need in my opinion we spoke of how the crystal of life was clearly connected to the Elden ring and that influenced the growth of the earth tree from The Crucible and to me what we're seeing here is the earth tree growing from that original organic tree of The Crucible that's now known as the great tree but in totality this is just one form that we know as the Earth tree and going further with the idea that the archery is both the underlying organic tree and the glowing outer case we can look at the symbolism associated with the Earth tree it always includes these roots they are a part of the art tree but I encourage you to go and watch last protagonists video where he aptly describes how the great tree and Earth tree are both separate yet synonymous and it will hopefully help you close the book on this conundrum but despite having grown from The Crucible the archery differs quite starkly from the rule of The Crucible and this is something stumbled upon by the golden order fundamentalist and as ideas I discuss in more detail in my golden order video so I recommend that you go and watch that one of the main laws of the golden order is regression an idea that is well explained by last protagonist in his great tree video but in summary regression towards the Min is a real world statistical analysis that posits that over time and generations statistical outliers will pull towards the mean the example last protagonist uses to describe this phenomena is when two above average height parents have a child that child is more likely to pull towards the men and be shorter than their parents and closer to the average height in the world of Elden ring this idea can be used to explain the philosophical difference between those of the archery and those of The Crucible and why it would result in the persecution and expulsion of the latter The Crucible is symbolic of a primeval era of wild diverse life but when the earth tree emerges life is coalesced into a single immutable symbol as the incantation of the law of regression States regression is the pool of meaning that all things yearn eternally to converge to me this is what the archery represents life converged into a single source and as such we begin to see why those of The Crucible would be persecuted the modern golden order represents life refined converged and more order as the archery is itself a singular source of life rather than the uncouth primordial diverse Life Of The Crucible and veering The Crucible as a more primitive era is best described by The Crucible not Talisman which reads as follows a Vestige of The Crucible of primordial life born partially of devolution it was considered a signifier of the Divine and ancient times but is now increasingly disdained as an impurity as civilization has advanced this advancement is the refinement of life in the form of the artery and therefore the unrefined chaotic vestiges of the archery era have no place in the modern order and are thus pushed to the fringes the archery therefore takes the place of The Crucible as the focal point of life in the lands between as well as acting as a pylon for the Elden Ring's power it is the central Nexus of the Elden Rings governing power and this is why Corin refers to the Earth tree as the source of the golden order the Earth tree heart of the golden order lies before our very eyes the archery is a powerful manifestation of Elden ring energy a focal point for its power and I think this becomes clear when you look at the evidence that suggests that the Eldon ring Elden Beast Marika and the Earth tree are all intrinsically connected consider for example the archery avatars who can actually wield the same Powers as the Eldon Beast the avatars are part of the earth tree and the fact they are manifesting the same Powers as the Elton Beast is something to consider but the most obvious bit of evidence that these are all connected is the fact that when the Elden ring is shattered so too are the Elden Beast the Earth tree and marker herself I think the design of the Elton base itself is also meant to allude to the connection between the two and that the herd tree is a manifestation of its well for f the eldenbeast jumps above the waters you can see it has root like tendrils attached to its tail and indeed this idea of connections and links is something backed up by the incantation the law of causality and I feel like the more we examine the golden order and the archery we begin to understand why these are laws of the golden order for example the law of causality incantation reads the following causality is the pull between meanings that which links all things in a chain of relation and we begin to see that the Earth tree is a Nexus for the laws of regression and the laws of causality it is our convergence Nexus as well as something that is connected to the other aspects and vessels of the Eldon ring and we can tentatively extend this idea of connections when we look at the two fingers xylestorm has made some interesting revelations in his video discussing the themes of mushrooms found within Elden ring and while I'm not fully in on the entire game being about mushrooms I find this analysis of the two fingers and a mycelial network very interesting and compelling in the video xiaostor makes the comparison of trees being connected to mushrooms through our mycelial Network and that the two fingers might be connected to the Earth Tree in this manner to convey and communicate The Well of the greater well and the Earth tree and again this reinforces the idea that the Earth tree is some sort of cosmic Nexus or pylon and the two fingers are the connected vessels through which the Earth tree communicates it's a really thought-provoking video and I will link the full video below and I recommend you go watch it regardless I think this explanation of the two fingers being connected to the Earth tree directly fit especially given that we have evidence that their deterioration is linked to that of the earth trees and this is something suggested by a dialogue from vary I believe that when the Elden ring was shattered the two fingers were corrupted their guidance skewed and the description of the Lord's Divine fortification now the nature of the earth tree and the way that it operates and the way its internal space operates is clearly not normal being connected to the Elden Beast and the Elden ring obviously has brought some Cosmic elements to this tree quote unquote for example we have the ring table hold which exists outside this world according to the tutorial notes in the game indeed this place appears to be a copy of a real world space the physical Round Table hold found in layondale now I'm going to create a really great spot to my friend Eridan that he made in his in-depth lore playthrough of Elden ring where he spotted that in some tapestries of the earth Tree in Lane Dale you can see this kind of building entwined within the upper branches of the earth tree and I agree with eridan's speculation that this could well be a representation of Our Round Table hold a manifested space created by the Earth tree which has an unusual relationship when it comes to time and space this was a really great find and I highly recommend that you check out erden's lore through if you enjoy an in-depth analysis of lore and environmental details and this makes sense that the space Burns at the same time that we burn the air tree as it is a space that is created and generated by the power of the archery and so when the tree burns this created space Also burns the Earth trees Cosmic nature is of course taken to the next level when we actually get to see its interior quote unquote and it may be that we see the interior of the artery sooner than you might realize the introductory cinematic appears to show are tarnished waking up within an erdry Dimension as it looks exactly the same as the Earth tree interior that we see later before being transported into the lands between after grace resurrects us from our death suggesting the art tree is a Confluence of time and space a dimensional Rift that we don't fully understand but makes perfect sense given the cosmic origins of the Elden Beast and the greater will which actually gave the Earth tree its form I think this is further backed up by the way in which we enter the central cortex of the earth tree at the end of the game we don't just walk in we appear to be cooled in by a golden Rift before materializing in the central space of the tree again emphasizing its Cosmic Origins and the way it deals with time and space further to this is of course the final battle between ourselves and the Elden Beast where it seems to transport us to some kind of different dimension where we can see multiple artery like forms in the distance I won't pretend to fully comprehend what this means exactly nor are we supposed to but clearly the intention of this space is to make us understand that the world of Elden ring is far greater than the physical world that we perceive in the lands between and that to understand that the Earth tree acts as a Nexus to the cosmic realm from which the Elden beast and probably the greater will heal in addition it is to let you know there is a cosmic element to the story considering players may have missed the likes of Estelle and rani's storyline in general it makes us feel small in the face of the greater Wells true nature and perhaps it is meant to imply a mini worlds theory that this is just one dimension one parallel world all connected by Earth trees and all dominated by the greater will of course this is just speculation and really the purpose of this is to make us realize that we are at the mercy of cosmic Powers far beyond our comprehension and that the Earth tree is a Nexus for that power the final subject I'd like to touch on in this chapter is the earth tree as we see it today as it will become clear as we discuss America's Reign but the archery was once a more complete and perfect form indeed as observed by my friend last protagonist and his excellent video on the great tree which I've referenced about three times now the archery of today is different than what we see in the idealized depictions of it in paintings and in the symbolism of leandale forces in these idealized depictions such as the paintings in Round Table hold or again the iconography of lingdale forces the Earth tree seems to have been straight up and unblemished whereas the tree now is quite tilted off its base and riddled with cracks and scars so it seems as though the archery was once a more perfect complete and upright vision and the archery of today while stunning to us is far past its prime and I think the idea of the earth tree being way past its prime is reinforced by the Crimson seed Talisman item description which reads as follows the Earth tree was once perfect and eternal and thus was it believed that archery seeds could not exist and earlier in the video I mentioned that the shattering of the Elden ring was what damaged the Earth tree alongside America and the Elden beast and pray for that comes from the golden seed item description which reads as follows when the Eldon ring was shattered these seats flew from the earth tree scattering across the various lands as if life itself knew that its end had come and previously I spoke of how when America shattered the Elden ring she appeared to shatter herself as well as the Elden beast and indeed these cracks also seemed to line up with what we see on the earth trees bark now seeing that it has been irreparably damaged by America's actions no longer in its perfect upright and immutable form so while we can definitely attribute some of the damage to the archery to the shattering of the Elden ring there is of course another massive event regarding the Eldon ring that may have contributed to the earthrise Tilt and that is the confinement and removal of the Rune of death from the Elden ring I find this to be important because the role in which the roots of the archery play in the cycle of life that the Earth tree governs we know from various sources that death is associated with the roots of the great tree that were once attached to the Earth tree now it's key to look at the root resin where it says the roots of the great tree were once linked to those of the earth tree meaning that they are no longer linked to those of the earth tree and clearly being disconnected from its very Roots the things that rooted to the Earth could cause it to tilt or lean but why is this linked to the removal of the Rune of death well as we've already said the archery and the Elden ring are intrinsically linked when Marca shatters the Eldon ring she damages herself and the Earth tree and the Elden Beast does a knot therefore make sense that if a part of the Elden ring was removed the Rune of Death part of the earth tree would be removed to reflect the change in this new form of the Eldon ring and what is the part of the earth tree that governs death the roots and so is it possible that when the Rune of death was removed from the Eldon ring saw two where the roots removed from the earth tree and now we have an age of endless death where eritre burials do not work anymore and no one is absorbed up into the Earth tree it's just stagnated and that's why we see these half absorbed corpses in the archery catacombs this is just my speculation based on what we know between the connection of the Eldon ring and the Earth tree but the term once connected to the roots of the great tree has always fascinated me and has always led me to ponder why was the archery disconnected from the roots of the great tree and given they are involved with death it makes sense to link it to the removal of the Rune of death so to conclude about the archery what are we really saying that it is well I believe it's a metaphysical manifestation of the Elden Ring's power it is a Nexus and focal point of the power of the Eldon ring it governs life and death as well as being connected to Marca the Eldon Beast and the Eldon ring and is therefore no wonder that it becomes the focal point of Greater will Authority and that being said we now need to look at the other component part of the age of the art tree and that is the greater Wells vassal God Queen America the Eternal The Vessel for the Elden ring as with every new age the greater well nominates certain individuals for potential godhood by marking them as emperion this is a process we hear about via Rani herself Once In This Very possession 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 following this pattern then Marca received malekith when she too was elected as emperion and this is something we learned via malekith's remembrance which reads malakith was a shadow-bound beast given to his emperion Marcus will need of her Shadow was a vessel to lock away Destin death Marco was elected as emperion from among a people known as the Newman a connection we make via Marcus hammer the black knife assassin armor but most directly via the Newman Rune which outright says she is from Newman stock the Newman are a fascinating race and according to their appearance preset on the character creation they are supposed descendants of denizens of another world long lived but seldom born so once again I turned to my friend last protagonist for a translation to help us better understand the nature of this race that marker hails from they provided a translation for the black knife assassin armor and noted that in the original Japanese the word Newman is not used instead these people are referred to as maribito according to the ever-reliable Wikipedia maribito are as follows an ancient Japanese word referring to a supernatural being who comes from afar bringing Gifts of wisdom spiritual knowledge and happiness the term refers to any one of a number of divine beings who were believed to visit villages in Japan either from Beyond the Horizon or from Beyond distant mountain ranges bringing gifts so there's additional context from last protagonist reinforces the idea that the Newman are not normal beings from this world that we inhabit now they live supernaturally long and are overall alien to this world that we live in now and indeed this alien nature can be reinforced by a further translation provided by last protagonist of the night maiden and swordstress puppets which reads in his words they are a cold-blooded alien race now I talk about the relationship between the Newman and the Knox in a lot more detail in my eternal City's lore video but in short I posit The Knocks or the Newman but now their identity is defined by their allegiance to the age of stars hence the knocks Latin for night rogier refers to the black knife assassins as Scions of the Eternal City while the black knife armor refers to them as Newman but really as the briefest of summations and if you want the fool Deep dive into it I again refer you to my eternal cities lore video regardless this is already making America a really interesting character she comes from an otherworldly race who clearly have a different biology given they are otherworldly long-lived and cold-blooded especially of interest is the long lasting life given we have two Newman connections that now use the term eternal the Eternal cities and queen Marca the Eternal in my eternal settings video I had suggested that the term Eternal was something different possibly linked to their curse or the fact they are supposed to live eternally under a false sky is punishment but as often happens with Elden ring lore I have since shifted my possession and cannot deny the fact that the term Eternal is used in two instances of long-lived beings now we don't know why Mark was chosen to be impairing from among her people perhaps she is called Queen Marca because she was already queen of these Newmans or maybe she was a powerful leader or Warrior but I do tend to lean towards the fact that she was already Queen America of these people but regardless we know the Newman are a remarkable otherworldly race and therefore one among their number would make a very powerful God being raised to godhood is far more than just a title when Marca became God she became the vessel for the Elden ring itself carrier of its vision a God In Truth Queen Marco does literally carry the Elden ring within her as we see by it appearing in Radigan America's shared body at the end of the game it clearly became part of her as when she shatters the Elden ring in the announcement trailer we can see that she shatters herself at the same time the greater well will have needed marker to operate as its proxy and aligns between for the archery would face great opposition to its Ascension and it required a god of unshakable power to cement its dominion over the world and saw Marika would brandish the power of the Alden ring and to assist in this matter she would take her consort horror Lou henceforth known as Godfrey the first Elden Lord this is evidently a calculated move and a necessary one given the times that marker lived in she was aware that Tessa meant her godhood and the age of the archery she would need Marshall mate and who better to help her secure this than the mighty horalu lord of the battlefield as we discussed in detail in Prior chapters the arrival of the archery will not have been viewed positively for many people it was a threat to people's ways of life and many will not have taken kindly to the implication of the earth trees arrival as such Godfrey was an excellent choice for Lord and I believe both Elden Lords ranigan and Godfrey are a sign of the times Godfrey is the world's matthiest Warrior at a time of great conflict and Radigan is a man strong of belief in a time of waning faith of course we will discuss Radigan shortly joining Godfrey would be The Crucible Knights and we learn of these Warriors from The Crucible ax Helm which reads Helm of The Crucible Knight who served Godfrey the first Elden Lord holds the power of The Crucible of Life the primordial form of the earth tree as we have already discussed the age of The Crucible will have overlapped with the age of the Earth tree and at this stage the power of The Crucible will still have been seen as Divinity and as such The Crucible Knights will have been the foremost Warriors for the archery in this early era so with such might at her command Marca would look to secure her new Holdings as a God and brandish the very power of the Eldon ring against the most dangerous threat that existed the fire Giants so again this is a subject that I have covered in detail in my legacy of fire lore video and I don't want to make this long video longer than it needs to be so I won't go into detail about the actual battles and details of the war against the Giants but it is important to analyze from Marcus perspective what happened in this war because a lot of what would happen would shape the culture of the earth tree and America's rule itself we know that the decision to make war upon the fire Giants was a logical one not only were they a powerful race that worshiped a God that fell outside the purview of the greater well but they actually posed a danger to the emerging Earth tree we learned this via the search of flame incantation which tells us that the flame of Rune was capable of burning the Earth tree therefore making it one of the few direct physical threats to the archery we know that people of archery Faith prophets would have visions of the flame of Rune Burning Down the air tree throughout history for example we hear of this dire prophecy via the catch flame incantation which reads incantation originating from a Sinister prophecy the flame of Rune is anathema to the Earth tree but profits sometimes Glimpse it within the faith all the same sadly when this occurs their sole reward is banishment so this of course is the background story to the prophet's starting class one of the many bits of lore that I discuss in my starting class lore video which I will link below what is interesting is that the incantation describes the flame of Rune as anathema which as a term when used in a religious or organizational context means something denounced or deemed an abhorrence to said faith its very existence therefore was in opposition to the archery just by its existence and its allegiance to another God that fell God meant it was something that could never be incorporated by the rising order and indeed the raw Medallion Talisman describes the giant as mortal enemies of the artery and so it seems they were always destined to do battle for supremacy of the lands between it is unclear whether prophets existed at this time and it was Visions like this that informed the decision of Queen Marica to wage war or whether it was just a logical conclusion based of what she already knew of their people at this stage the conviction of Marco is pretty clear that she fully believed in the mission of the archery and was strong in her faith and utterly without Mercy for her enemies and we can gather this from the speech that Melina recreates for us at the first church of Marco on the mountain tops of the giant in America's own words Hawk brave warriors hark my Lord Godfrey we commend your Deeds guidance hath delivered ye through each ordeal to the place ye stand put the Giants to the sword and confine the flame Atop The Mount let a new Epoch begin an Epoch glistening with life brandish the Eldon ring for the age of the Earth tree one thing of particular interest in their speech to me is the use of the term brandish that Marca uses in regards to the Eldon ring the word brandish is usually used in reference to a weapon being wielded therefore suggesting that the Eldon ring its power was actually wielded as a weapon in this battle and given the way that Radigan uses the power of the Eldon ring in the final battle we can only imagine Marca at the height of her power and I do think this is one of the most incredible and interesting things about America as we hear so much about her but we never see her at the height of her domain or the height of her powers and we can only imagine what a terrible Force she would have been to meet on the battlefield while brandishing the power of the Eldon ring combining this immense power with Godfrey the crystal Knights the Betrayal of the trolls and the zamor Marca had tipped the skills so far in the urdry's favor that the Giants really had no chance the way in which she deals with the last surviving member of the fire giant race once again tells us a great deal about marca's ruthlessness when it came to her enemies at this early stage I of course refer to the information found within the fire Giant's remembrance which reads as follows the fire giant is a survivor of the war against the Giants upon realizing the Flames of their Forge would never die Queen America marked him with a curse or trifling giant mace thou tend thy flame for eternity now before anyone says I'm not judging America for being ruthless war is war at the end of the day and Generals need to make a lot of difficult decisions I'm only making this disclaimer because in my golden order and gold mask video I had a couple of comments where people believed I was passing judgment when I described how gold Mass perceived the fickleness of the Gods I admire Market greatly and have a great deal of empathy for the position she is in as the god of a difficult era regardless objectively her treatment of the last giant is a calculated one realizing there was no way to smother the flame of Ruin completely there was no benefit in killing the last Giant in fact as we learned from burn or Flame killing him would have actually been a mercy as death is the only way to break the curse the curse of being destined to tend the flame forever instead Marca uses this curse to her benefit condemning him to a life of solitary Duty he is the last of his kind and he has to endure this period by himself knowing that the rest of his race has been extinguished his duty his curse is tending to the flame and him being there having to tame this flame in a practical sense serves as a last obstacle for anyone who wants to access the flame of Ruin and in that way Mark is very smart and keeping him alive just in case someone tries to access the flame of ruin the war of the Giants would have an everlasting and indelible effect on archery culture especially as it pertains to their perception of fire fire would remain reviled and feared something we learn about via the spark aromatic which reads art of the perfumers who fought in the shattering though fire was prohibited to those who served the Earth tree this rule was forgotten as the war Drew ever on the fear of the flame conjured by the conflict with the Giants and the fear of their flame of Rune would integrate itself into archery culture being a forbidden tool and the burning of the archery would of course become the first cardinal sin of the earth tree faith and those that had the Prophecies of the burning of the earth tree and would begin to brandish fire incantations were of course banished from its Society regardlessly charismatic and Powerful Queen marker had defeated the Giants and is Told By The Sword Memorial found on the mountaintops this is what marked the beginning of the age of the Earth tree proper the age of The Crucible was over through America the greater well had established a powerful foothold on the Mortal plain anchored by the power of the earth tree the first church of America would be established at the site of the earth tree's greatest Victory on the mountaintops of the Giants and in time many churches to the new God would be erected and in general the faith would spread beyond the lands between as a god with a human Lord as her husband mark would have the first of her children and these would be the children born of Godfrey known as the golden lineage to which we can tie Godwin the golden morgue more goat and eventually godric though the latter of several Generations separated from the rest and Marca and her golden lineage would become emblematic of these heady days of the archery and Central to the pantheon of the archery royal family what we'd follow would be the Golden Age of abundance which must have been an incredible period to witness and an age that reinforced Mark as unbelief in the ardrey's grace and so with that said let us examine these good old days the age of plenty the greatest lore item in the game the albinart blood clot says the following albanarix are life forms made by human hands thus many believe them to live impure lives Untouched by the art tree's Grace now the implication of this is that the Earth tree would become the center the focal point for all natural life and in no time was this better Illustrated than the so-called age of abundance we can learn of this interesting period of archery history from the encantation archery Hill which reads as follows the Earth tree Once flourish with abundance yet it was only for a fleeting moment such as the course of all life this period of abundance seems to be the heady early days of the age of the Earth tree when the bounty of the artery spelled from it like apples from a fruit tree as keenly observed by my fellow tarnished Eridan speculatively we can see Engravings commemorating this period of Plenty at the chapel of anticipation and above the door of the real Round Table hold the reliefs identified by Eridan show people carrying vessels that are similar in appearance to ancient Greek and foray and these were traditionally used to store wine oil milk or grain and it was symbolic of Plenty or abundance to me this lines up with the symbolism shown on the icon shield and the Blessed due talisman both the item descriptions of these items describe this age of Plenty for example the blessed new Talisman reads as follows Talisman depicting a drop of the earth tree's sap a blessed bin it was once thought that the Blessed sap of the archery would drip from its bows forever but that age of Plenty swiftly came to a close and with time the archery became more an object of faith again we are getting direct reference to this age of Plenty but that it only lasted a brief time clearly in the opening years of the earth trees emergence from The Crucible to me this early period of abundance makes sense logically as the archery emerged from The Crucible of all life a focus of chaotic Life Energy and this blessed you is almost a remnant of the life from which the Earth tree has emerged however this was clearly finite which makes sense as the archery is more representative and symbolic of a period of regression an edge where the chaotic uncontrollable life found within The Crucible made way for an age where life is to settle and pull towards the mean we get further evidence of the bounty or Dew being tied to the residual energies of The Crucible from the Amber medallions they all read the following the art tree's old sap becomes Amber treasured as the most precious jewels in the age of Godfrey the first Elden Lord a primordial Life Energy resides inside and indeed these were not just aesthetically pleasing relics the sap or Amber has some real power as we can see by the fact that these Talisman boost our Vitality in varying ways imbuing us with the power of Life contained within the primordial life force once found within The Crucible the word choice of primordial is clearly linking this to The Crucible the primordial source of life and thus I think this period this age of abundance or age of Plenty is an overlap period between the age of The Crucible and the age of the Earth tree where the energies of The Crucible are still flowing bursting forth from the earth tree before it settles into the age of the archery proper the power and strength of the Vitality that bled from the earth Tree in this early era of its emergence not only took the form of sap but seemingly the tree itself exuded an aura as we learned from the warming Stone item which reads as follows it's said that the Earth tree was once as warm as the gentle sun and would gradually heal all who bathed in its rays in paintings of the archery from what we presume to be the early days we see it bursting with rays of light and the use of the word sun is also interesting because there's evidence to suggest that the energy of the earth tree was so potent that Langdale was once referred to as the seat of the Sun this is something we gleam from the sudden realm shield and we can find these shields on these skeletons found outside linkdale itself and I think what's immense that it is talking about Landell and their Sun realm Shield is that the description is in line with all descriptions of the age of Plenty I.E it was fleeting and this age of sun has long since passed and while the archery does still go off a massive ray of light it is nothing compared to the luster that we see in some of these paintings of the archery of old in general and in totality the vision we have of this age of Plenty is one of positivity vitality and Bounty clearly Faith wasn't much of a challenge at this point because the rewards and benefits were so plentiful and obvious to see and indeed an early archery Society it appears that Queen Marca herself would come down and present blessings to her people in person something we learn of from the archery's favorite Talisman which reads it is said that when the age of the archery began such blessings were personally bestowed upon their recipients by Queen America herself I just find this to be another positive scene that depicts the heady days of the early archery rule where Marca herself interacted with her people and blessed them and as said I think that the reason this period is so fleeting is because it is a transitional period between The Crucible and archery and you could either see it as the late era of The Crucible or the early era of the archery and I see it as a combination of both and once a residual energy of the faded Crucible had gone that is when the blessings stopped much like with Anor Londo in Dark Souls it is nice to think of Lindale and the Earth tree as the shattered remains of something truly beautiful in both cases we are blown away by the beauty of these Fallen civilizations even at their lowest points and it is almost beyond our comprehension the Splendor of Lane Dale and the Earth tree and these days of pure Bliss and wonder and we can only look at paintings old paintings and wonder what once was but with those heady days behind us we need to now get to the core of who America is and of course we cannot do this without analyzing the big twist of Elden ring that marker is equal to Radigan and so now let us examine the immortal Rebus the golden order is founded on the principle that Marika is the one true God however the name of America's second husband King consort radican also appeared who exactly was radican so let's just get to it the big Revelation for us all on our first playthrough marker is equal to Radigan there are two individual beings in one body yet of course they are two distinctly different personalities both with their own ideals and their own actions I think a lot of people struggle with this concept and what the point of it is because it is fairly unceremoniously dumped on You Without Really explaining the how or the why while a lot of questions will continue to be unanswered then you fight Elden best and the game's over so I'll do my best to share my understanding of it and what I perceive to be the truth of the marker Radigan question to understand it truly is to understand both the laws of regression revered by the golden order and to understand the ideal of the Rebus the ultimate end goal of alchemy I talk and miss my golden order video but one of the tenants of the golden order fundamentalism is the idea of regression a type of convergence we have already discussed how the principles of regression illustrate how The fundamentalists Envision a more refined tighter concept of life where the outliers are pooled closer towards the norm however the law of regression actually goes further than this as it says regression is the pool of meaning that all things yearn eternally to converge this idea of convergent is actually one really well explored by the Dead Space Trilogy and if for some bizarre reason you haven't played those games please drop everything right now and go and play them but in essence it seems as though the underlying concepts of the golden order is that life should be getting closer to convergence that they should be pulling together and there should be less disparity in all forms of life and this is why the idea of an archery burial of life being absorbed and returned to the Earth tree is very critical to the law of regression as it is life returning to the Earth tree becoming one with the art tree and removing that disparity and once we comprehend this idea we start to see the pill of things in many things related to the Earth tree and the golden order intelligence and Faith pulling together to create the golden order incantations Radigan studying faith and incantations to become complete twins Dee and his brother who have converged to share one soul and of course the two beings who share one body the ultimate representation of convergence the god of the golden order this idea of two beings sharing one body one male and one female is an alchemical Theory said to be the great work of the field the Rebus the magnum opus of any Alchemist it is a metaphor for the alchemical process as a whole the bringing together and purification of two things to create something better I believe the golden order is alchemical in its ideals the blending of things together to make something better and thus this Immortal ribbous of America and Radigan is the very Pinnacle of life as described by the laws of regression and causality represented by the soul archery itself and the convergence of all life to the Earth tree through Earth tree burial as a result radican and Marcus combined form is fitting as they represent the Pinnacle of the laws espoused by those who study the Earth tree and the golden order meaning this form must be somehow connected to the underlying mathematics and form of the Eldon ring it also makes sense that radican would be pushing the ideals of fundamentalism given he knows the true end result of the law of regression so I now need to speak on what I believe to be the truth behind their Origins as a Rebus and when it happened as there are a lot of ideas as to when it happened I used to think it happened when they were married and some people believe it happened when the shattering actually occurred but I'm going to give my View and what I believe happened these are all valid ideas as it all is just speculation but I'm gonna give what I think makes the most sense to the surrounding lore upon studying this subject and looking at all the surrounding lore I believe that Marca became a Rebus upon the moment of her Ascension to godhood that Radigan has always been part of her history as a God I don't believe that they were two individuals that later merged at some point and I believe that Radigan has always existed as a part of America but not vice versa as marker in my opinion was not born a Rebus we know that she wasn't always a God that she was once a Newman and I believe aside from the unusual nature of Newman she was just a Newman woman or queen called Marca she was then selected to become an emparion and then became a god of a new era upon defeating the Giants I've always pondered on the relevance of radigan's hair as we learned from the Giant's Red Bread Radigan Associated his hair with the red hair of the Giant and I've always found this item description curious because it implies he is somehow linked to the fire Giants and now a Ponder could it be that this was an imprint of this conflict between Mark and the fire Giants that upon her Ascension to godhood and the creation of her other half Radigan that they somehow leave an imprint on Radigan or should I say her radic in half that's of course just colorful speculation so let's get into the real reasons why I believe that Radigan and Marca were always a rapist from the moment she became a god firstly there are the ideals of regression and convergence that we've already discussed when we talked about the archery we talked about how it's intrinsically linked to the Eldon ring and how its changes to the Elden ring affected the Earth tree so when Marca became the vessel for the Eldon ring and became intrinsically linked to the Elden ring does it not make sense that the Eldon ring could affect who America was down to her DNA we know the ideals of law of regression and law of causality are underpinned by the golden orders interpretation of the Eldon ring if the Eldon Rings form is a metaphysical representation of regression and convergence does this mean it could have transformed Maraca to also represent the ideal given they are now linked I certainly think so secondly in history radican just seems to appear at the time of the leonian wars and made massive decisions such as making peace with the carrians through marriage decisions really only marker should be making given she's the leader of the archery forces how is he able to make these massive decisions returning to the carrion betrothal I think this is also a stage that gives us a lot of evidence that Radigan was already marked at this stage and it wasn't something that happened later either at the time of America ranigan's marriage or at the time of the shattering because first of all we have the mask of confidence the mask of the preceptors who served ranala The Mask reads as follows when Radigan married Ronaldo he ordered the carrion magic preceptors to Don these masks to make it clear that all of their matters were to be kept strictly private that seems to give off the vibe that Radigan had something massive to hide a big deep secret and what else could it really be when we're talking about Radigan meaning that he was already Mark at this time and the preceptors were to keep that fact hidden this also seems to be the same secret that Mariel describes him hiding when talking about the statue that was created by a sculptor in Lane Dale you know it's said that Lord Radigan harbored a secret a famed sculptor of the earth tree Capital was once summoned to render Lord radican's likeness in Giant stature when he glimpsed the skeleton in radican's closet and as such it said the great statue Harbors his secret too Antics meant that Radigan was always marker even at the stage of his marriage to Ronaldo there's the fact he leaves rinala a fragment of the Eldon ring the Amber egg that is what the Amber egg is again how would Radigan a mere Champion have access to such a powerful artifact in addition Muriel makes some interesting and pointed claims about the bizarre nature of radigan's Ascension his abandonment of Ronaldo and his marriage to Marika however when Godfrey first Eldon Lord was hounded from the lands between Radigan left renala to return to the Earth tree capital becoming Queen marika's second husband and King consort taking the title of second Elden Lord the mystery endures to this day as to why Lord Radigan would cast lady Ronaldo aside and moreover why a mere Champion would be chosen for the seat of golden Lord and if you think about it he is right it is totally bizarre that Radigan basically upsticks abandons his family simulate on a whim it is also strange that it would be a mere Champion for that is what Radigan is chosen out of nowhere to be elevated to Elden Lord after Godfrey left the lands between yet all of this would then make sense if radicand America were always one and radigan's Ascension is him essentially supporting his other half when a new Eldon Lord was needed course one of the other aspects of the Rebus is that it is two different elements coming together and so just because Mark and Radigan share one body and radigan's actions can be explained by him also being part of America doesn't mean they aren't also individual so I think when people have a problem comprehending that they were always a Rebus it's due to the fact that we have actions attributed to Radigan and America so to make it clear they aren't the same person they are two different personalities inhabiting one body and as we can see from the final fight they could clearly switch between different personalities meaning that Radigan would go and do things that would be attributed to him and marker would go and do things that were attributed to her and if no one saw the transformation no one would know they were the same person I think what also causes some confusion is Mark as line in the Queen's bed chamber that Melina can recreate for us so let's listen to that now and we'll break it down in America's own words oh radican Lil Hound of the golden order Thou Art yet to become me the art yet to become a God let us be shattered both mine Other Self so in this dialogue Marca says there are not yet me and people take this to mean that they aren't yet conjoined when again I think this is our critical misunderstanding of what a Rebus is because they are too holy individual people they just share one body and so when Marcus says there are not yet me I think she is implying the fact that she is still the true God not Radigan Radigan is merely her Eldon Lord and then she goes on to say my other self which to me again cements the fact that Radigan is already part of America at this stage and this is why in the introductory cinematic we see it flashing between America and Radigan it's both halves vying for control of their shared body and we can learn of this fight from Marcus Hammer description which reads as follows stonehammer made in the lands of the Newman outside the lands between the two with which Queen marker shattered the Elden ring and Radigan attempted to repair it so they both wrestled for control of their body as Marca tried to shatter the ring and Radigan tried to undo her damage yeah obviously we know what happens America went out she shattered the Elden ring and then they were both imprisoned by the Elden beast but to prevent his golden order from being usurped Radigan would then put these spiny Briars and his Sail on the entrance to the archery his loyalty to the golden order so blind that he'd rather keep a shattered world than allow someone to repair it something not even the greater well expects as they are stunned into silence after we are denied entrance to the Eldon ring the battle between the two halves of the ribis is what sets into motion the events of the game as we see from the introductory cinematic of the game Queen marker has not been seen since the shattering of the Elden ring and no one in the outside world knows her involvement in Breaking the Elden ring she has just vanished and the lands between are plunged into chaos so I think that's a sufficient explanation of what my understanding of what America is and what she did but why did she do it to try and understand this let us move on to the final portion of this video essay where we actually analyze who Marco was as a human as a person and how far her discontent goes one of the things I find interesting when we're looking at Marca is the statues we see of her throughout the world including the one at the first church of America showing her in a crucified possession this means one of two things and firstly the most obvious yet I believe incorrect answer is that these statues were sculpted after Mark was crucified however this doesn't make sense as how would people know she's crucified given she has disappeared and no one has seen her now Queen America the eternal is nowhere to be found I would instead let you to consider another idea these statues are symbolic of her burden as a God to support this idea let us look at Marcus sorcile which reads as follows solemn Duty weighs upon the one beholden not unlike annoying curse from which there is no Deliverance it is easy to forget that Marco while a mighty God in her time was ultimately once a human or close enough at least he inherited an incredible burden as described by their sorcio I think that one of the main underlying factors of America's decisions is due to the incredible burden that weighs her down over time as perfectly represented by her statuary and at the same time A Series of Unfortunate Events begin to occur that will have broken her down over time some accuse America of being this kind of Machiavellian bad guy who always planned to bring down the greater will but I never really got that impression and without them really knowing America I'm not sure how they can rush to that conclusion I think it's a bit of a Machiavellian stereotype and I always saw marker as a more human character I believe her early speeches where she is clearly supporting the Earth tree in the greater will are very Earnest and very impassioned instead I see her as a fairly tragic character Bound by her gitty who experiences tragedy after tragedy difficulty after difficulty that eventually would lead her to question her own Duty that she is bound to and being bound to the urge tree there was the war of the Dragons when the ancient dragons themselves attacked Lane Dell headed by the mighty Dragon Grand sax while Lindale was ultimately successful in repelling this attack the bull of grand sax describes how the dragons brought great destruction to the capital and the scars of this conflict still remain there is also the godskin apostasy a subject I have tackled in numerous videos so again I won't let this video go on longer than need be but suffice it to say this was a real challenge to her Authority and I truly believe it will have shaken her to the Core here is a force that intended to kill her and her kin after no doubt centuries of her being certain in her power and immortality and the same for her golden lineage and family to compound her pain the glomide Queen the leader of the Apostles was an emperion chosen by the fingers as stated by the black flame ritual incantation which reads as follows it is said that she was an emperion chosen by the fingers this is a confusing bit of lore and it means that the glomide queen was set up to be a God to take Mark as place and we have to ask was it a greater Wells fingers that chose her well we know that other forces can command fingers like the three fingers of the frenzied Flame the most numerous fingers that we know about are the two fingers of the greater will does this mean it was a greater will that chose the glomide queen to replace marker and if so how would this make America feel that she's disposable replaceable Not only was she meant to be usurped by this glomide queen she was meant to be killed by her either way market did come out on top of this engagement by using malekith to seal away deaths and death but one of the major results of it was the isolation of death by malekith and the creation of the golden order a world without death this deathless world would set the stage for a massive flaw in the golden order and it would be revealed by the next earth-shaking event in America's reign the Knight of the black knives now there are plenty of theories on America's involvement in this event and no matter where you fall in the debate the result is always really the same it helped further fracture a flawed golden order and it helped push Marca over the edge and shatter the Eldon ring for those unfamiliar with the debate surrounding the Knight of the black knives there is a prevailing theory that Marca had a hand in it and for a more in-depth look at that theory I would refer you to my good friend Ashen hollow's video on that very subject the item in question that is Central to this theory is the black knife armor which reads the following 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 Marika herself so of course understandably many people read this as the close ties to Marca meaning that they are marca's servants or Marcus people who carried out the assassination of Godwin at Harbor haste I've come to the conclusion that the language used here is purposefully ambiguous and therefore it's unclear what we are meant to definitively know as the truth to try and better understand the intention behind the item description I did ask last protagonist to translate it and they provided the following translation the Assassins who perpetrated the night of their conspiracy were all female and one Theory says that they were Newman close to America so I find this version of the translation to be more useful in making it clear that this connection is not clear but it is rimmer as it uses the term one Theory and then looking at the English translation in tandem with this translation the English one uses rumored to be Newman who had close ties with Marca herself so while it does make it more clear that this is just a rumor and not definitive fact it also does nothing to disprove the theory that marker was involved and I totally accept that I have to take this Theory as a serious one given the language used here it's also kind of backed up by marca's perceived attitude towards her demigod children as there are two bits of dialogue that reveal that Marca really sees her children as tools one from purportedly marker herself recreated by Melanie America's own words hear me demigods my children beloved make of thy selves that which he desire be it a lord be it a God but should he fail to become old at all you will be forsaken a mounting only to sacrifices and then we have one given to us by a ghost witness in the Weeping peninsula and thus many feel that she wouldn't think twice about sacrificing her own son to strike back against the greater well and expose the flaw of those that live in death my personal opinion on it is it doesn't matter because I think that Mark has real reason for shattering the Eldon ring is because she became aware of the golden order's flaw that was revealed by the night of the black knaves whether she's behind the event or not I still believe it is the final event that pushes her to shatter the Elden ring as it lays bare the flaws at the heart of the golden order there is another dialogue of Marca where she vows to search the depths of the golden order as if to better understand it and allay the doubts and fears that we're beginning to plague the lands between America's own words I declare mine intent to search the depths of the golden order through understanding of the proper way our faith our Grace is increased those Blissful early days of blind belief are long past my comrades why must you falter it is easy to understand what these doubts may very well be and as I discussed in my golden order video the biggest mistake marker makes is having the Rune of death confined because at this stage the world became a deathless nightmare every human we see in this world is gray Hollow desiccated and generally pretty miserable looking this is the result of no death and this is something we learned from the aristocrats set worn by the zombie like wandering Nobles and its description reads as follows abandoning their birthplace after the shattering these Undead Wanderers are the pitiful product of unending life given the miserable state of the zombie-like inhabitants of the world no wonder America begins to notice that this isn't right and intends to search the depths of the golden order for an answer much like gold mask later would there's a really great post by ha that goes into the connections between North mythology and Marca but what's of interest to me is the fact they point out the different tablets in marca's room in the Queen's chamber area and I have always wondered what these tablets are ha links the aforementioned dialogue of marker to these tablets saying that this is evidence of her study of the golden order and ultimately she came to a conclusion that she did not like that pushed her to the end result of shattering the Eldon ring this is a really thoughtful Reddit post with some good connections to North mythology as well that I just didn't cover in this video so if you like a look at that I will link the entire Reddit post in the description below so thanks to half for that information so in summer memory the godskin apostasy pushes America to confined death and death the world becomes a miserable deathless Hill Marca noticed the declining faith of her comrades and she herself has doubts and so she plums the depths of the golden order to find an answer and yet in there she finds no good answer and she either organizes the night of the black knaves or she does not by the way the death of Godwin and the spread of death route throughout the land reveals the critical flaw in the Eldon ring and thus she shatters it and this Brave decision even fighting against her Leal other half would cost her dearly and so it's with a heavy heart I must discuss the final tragic fee of Queen America I find Marcus martyring and her treatment by the greater will to be one of the more brutal aspects of the game and the only thing that makes it a little better for me is that she's not completely perilous and seems to still have some skin in the game so to speak that said to complete maraca's story you do need to consider the brutality of her final fate when you're asking Nia about America's treatment the fingers say the following on America's trespass demanded a heavy sentence but even in shackles she remains a God and a vision's vessel confer greater ruins to become Elden Lord and join Queen America as her consort the fingers have willed it so now consider what the greater well is actually seeing and asking of us here marker despite being a broken shattered shell is still to remain The Vessel of the Elden ring and her corpse-like shattered form additionally we're to marry this form and rule on as a proxy condemning her to an eternity of being nothing more than a container what tortured and Bleak existence this punishment does not fit the crime and you could think that the greater well could find a new vessel a new God for their Eldon ring yet as mentioned it does seem as though America has taken some steps and isn't completely perilous it appears Marca placed huge in Round Table hold to kill a God to kill her to put her out of her misery as it seems that huge has made some kind of promise to Queen America so with that context let us consider the endings of Eldon ring that you can choose as with this analysis in hand it does now seem that the four Elden Lord endings are really the worst for America I personally like the dustbourne ending the best but after thinking about it I can't help but feel great sorrow for America's ultimate fate for even if I'm giving relief to those who live in death by bringing them in to the New Order Marca would be condemned to exist solely as a husk for the Eldon ring and therefore you can't think but the frenzied flame mending would be better because at least in that circumstance she would melt away one final puzzle piece remains in regards to America for me and this is Gideon's purported relationship with Queen Marca as we learn the following from his armor say knowledge begins with the recognition of one's ignorance the realization that the search for knowledge is unending but when Gideon glimpsed into the will of Queen Marca he shuddered in fear at the end it should not be so we know that Gideon has much closer contact with the two fingers and greater will as is told To Us by the Divine fortification incantation his armor set appears to imply that he has somehow communed with Marca and her will as shown by him confronting Us near the end of the game despite him claiming throughout the game that he also wishes to ascend to the Elden Throne he bars your way at the end because he believes Marca does not want this that she in fact wants us to struggle for eternity ah I knew you'd come to stand before the Elden ring to become held in Lord What a Sad State of Affairs I commend your spirit but alas None Shall take the throne Queen Marcus High Hopes for us that we continue to struggle onto eternity while this may be confusing I see this as getting being part right in America's objectives But ultimately he has peered into something he doesn't truly understand knowledge begins with the recognition of one's ignorance Mark as a God and a god who's essentially imprisoned and basically for all intense purposes dead I Believe by touching her well he is interpreting something so Eldritch and Cosmic that he's only pulled certain emotions from it I think he is part right and that he has interpreted that Marca doesn't want anyone to become the new Eldon Lord as we've just discussed there's a pretty horrible fate for Marca so why on Earth would you want that but other actions of hers do seem to belay the fact that she does want us to reach her in the archery and bring it in to her suffering she places Jurgen Roundtable hold so that we may slay a goal God she also seems to have repurposed Melina her possible daughter to assist the tarnished in making it to the Earth tree bear in mind that Gideon has reached into a being that is actually comprised of two individual halves Perhaps it is actually radigan's will that he has interpreted incorrectly Radigan doesn't want anyone to ascend to the Elden throne and in fact wants nothing to change he does want us to struggle for eternity and to have everyone barred from entering the center of the earth tree I think that Gideon has peered into the will of churning emotions of a conflicted God of two halves and misinterpreted the true message yes Marca doesn't want anyone to become Elden Lord but she does want us to come and put an end to her suffering and so I plead with you tarnished For the Love of All that is good take a sword from huge and put an end to Queen Marcus Eternal suffering so thanks guys that is my take on Queen maricon my goodness swara what a long video that was actually probably about a half an hour longer until I cut out some fat so if you think there's a lot of bits that are missing there probably is and I probably did have it but it's on The Cutting Room floor at the end of the day this video is getting absurdly large and I am very tired if you like this video please consider giving it a subscribe and a like as I do primarily cover Elden ring long form content if you'd like to support the channel otherwise I do have a patreon and channel memberships and I'll hopefully be doing extra content for members and patrons soon probably starting with a review of vati videos Soul Arts but until next time guys leave your comments below what are your thoughts on Queen marker this was one of the most challenging subjects for me and I struggled a while with this it really is a challenging and thought-provoking subject and I came to the conclusion we're not meant to fully understand it but I've done my best to give you my all and trying to get a little bit of comprehension of what the Earth tree is and what marca's role was and who she was as a person and I think I definitely know more about her after doing this video but yeah let me know what you want me to cover next guys I'm planning to do the prince of death next followed by The Omen but if there's anything else you'd want to make me pick up then please leave a comment but until next time guys I'm gonna get some sleep so I will see you at the foot of the archery take care and have a lovely night foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: SmoughTown

Views: 615,040

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

Id: A0rcH_H3Y7c

Length: 100min 27sec (6027 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 12 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/ObviousSinger6217]

Marikas tits...

[u/Electronic_Weird]

Probably the most controversial insight here is that Radagon was never a separate body/person, that it's a part of Marika that emerged when she became a god.

[u/woodforbrains]

he's so insightful, and so good at giving credit to others.