Elden Ring Lore | Ranni The Witch

the demigods have been forsaken by the greater well a result of the prolonged and bloody shattering war from which no Lord would arise yet there is one emperion who themselves chose to forsake the greater well and took no part in the shattering War Ani was one of the few chosen by the greater will and the two fingers to be in Parian a potential successor to Queen Marco marked for potential the potential to become the new God that would usher in a new age but Ronnie would come to present the fact that her self-determination had been robbed from her repulsed by the idea of being a pawn of the two fingers in time Ronnie would carve out a new identity as Ronnie The Witch adherent of the Dark Moon master of occultism Guided by a mysterious crone by the time that the tarnish arrived in the lines between most of the great Deeds of the demigods are history and yet rani's greatest achievements are yet to come for as impressive as characters like malaria and Rodan are their Feats pale when we consider rani's Grand plans to upend the order of the world ushering in an age of stars to achieve this Rani travels down the dark path of the emperion a path of Bloodshed murder and mysticism frankly one of the greatest stories told in Eldon ring so join me this week as we examine the story of Rani the lunar princess at this stage I would just like to acknowledge my thanks to Loki author of Abyssal archive for providing their translations and insights throughout this video and before we get started guys remember that if you like Elden ring lore then consider liking the video and subscribing to the channel there are as few in the lines between that have such an aghast Heritage as lunar princess Rani firstly Rani reichardt andradan are born of carrion royalty the powerful Royal House of Leonia that was able to stand Toe to Toe with the forces of Langdale in two separate Wars they are the children of Ronaldo the great lunar champion of Ria Lucario and their father is the legendary archery Champion Radigan in time these children would also become the stepchildren of America through radigan's second marriage making them both carrion royalty and archery royalty like me if you believe that radicand and America have been sharing a body since America became a God then in a way Marca is their parent as well as she would have been radigan's other half during his marriage to Ronaldo if that wasn't enough to establish Rani as having an esteemed Heritage Rani is one of the three existing imperians alongside the twin prodigies mekalo and millennia this is more impressive when you consider that mikola and Millennia appear to have been chosen due to their auspicious birth being born by the single-bodied Marika Radigan Union Rodney shares no such special birth and thus her selection as an emperion must be due to her potential or power I would like to address a theory that has been held by many that Rani couldn't be the biological child of Nala because emperians are only born from a single God citing millennia's remembrance as a source as a result such theories believe that Ronaldo was instead born from the rebirthing of the Amber egg thus born solely from radigan's meddling it could therefore be seen that the sweetings that surround Ronaldo are defective versions of such a process now I don't think this theory is necessarily impossible rather I disagree with the logic that it is predicated upon the emperions can only be born of a single God in my mind emperions are chosen and it just so happens that mikola and Melania were chosen because of their birth rather than that being a necessary precursor I think that the process of emperions being chosen is better reinforced by low-case translation of rani's dialogue where she talks about when she became an emperorian and I quote that translation now I was once an emperion for among the demigods only Melania Nikola and I were discovered by our respective two fingers and became candidates for the next generation of God to succeed Queen Marika it is up to you what you believe Bible go with Occam's razor in this one and I believe that Rani is another child of Ronaldo and Radigan and we know how children's names work in this world they usually have the same first letter as their parents like Godfrey's lineage being Godwin godric and godifry and in this case all the children of Radigan and Ronaldo have ours as their first letter ultimately I'll leave it up to you to decide your truth but the result is the same Rani no matter her birth was raised as a carrion princess and was granted emperion status we get scant details about ranny's early life but we do get some thanks to EG and some other lore items and environmental details much like her sibling radon it seems that in her original body Rani shared the iconic red hair of her father Radigan as we do see hints of red hair on her original petrified body found at the top of leonia's divine Tower it seems as though there was one benefit to her being an emperion in her Youth and that was the relationship she developed with her Shadow bound Beast blive we know from malakith's remembrance and the Raging wolf armor the emperions are granted a shadow and for America it was malachith and for Rani it is blive and Rani does explicitly confirm that Blythe was tailor made as a vassal for her by the two fingers as a result of her emperion status as she says the following 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 I discussed the shadow bone beasts and their nature in a separate lore video and so if you're interested in learning more about that then I will link it below but while Blythe appears to be a tailor-made creation of the two fingers and in a way a reminder of what Rani would come to hear it is clear that blive had his own mind he made his own decisions regarding Rani and it is clear that the two developed a very special bond that went beyond Shadow and emperion as Ichi gives us an insight into rani's childhood Blaise is Lydia dani's step-brother rani's mother Queen urinala approved of him and they played like siblings from childhood they were always happy to have me tag along as well so it seems as though despite rinala being associated with the moon and blive being a product of the two fingers she approved of him as a companion to Rani and it seemed as though they played together as many other children would being almost brother and sister this explains why she holds both Ichi and Blythe so dearly to her and in a way it is nice to imagine Rani having a normal and innocent childhood as stories like this are far and few between in the land between yet Rani as mentioned was also born to the carrion Royal household founded by Queen Ronaldo whose power was centered around the Moon we learn of The house's Origins via Ronaldo's remembrance which reads and her youth Ronaldo was a prominent champion who Charmed The Academy with her lunar magic becoming its Master she also led the glints donates and established the house of carrier as royalty so ranella is not only the last queen of carrier as Ranny calls her during Ronaldo's boss fight but she is also the first having been the one who established her household as a royal one ronella appears to have been an attendant of real Lucario but one who Rose to extreme prominence due to her affiliation with lunar Magic lunar magic seems to have been its own branch and we can assume that it was special to those at the Academy because up until that point they mainly focused on glenstone's sorceries we can see there are certainly differences between the magic of the Moon and magic of the Stars due to the fact a different shade of glintstone seems to align more closely to the Moon something we learn of via renalice scepter which reads magic scepter over Nala Queen of the full moon the glintstone is known as carrion blue enhancing full moon sorceries the description of carrion retaliation also makes it clear that while carrier is associated with the Moon railakaria is mainly infatuated with the Stars a clear delineation between two different schools of magic we can even see the heterodox nature of this new school of magic via the lazuli conspectus Crown which reads Scholars of the lazuli conspectives study carrying sorceries a heterodox Pursuit that views the moon as equal to the Stars it is clear that Ronaldo was the founding figure of this school of thought and her Mastery over this novel form of magic is what catapulted her to Champion status and subsequently later to form the carrion Royal house and rulership over Rhea Lucario even being honored in paintings throughout Ria lucaria alongside other notable sorcerers thus being raised in the carrion household and by such a preeminent sorcerer such as Ronaldo it is no surprise that Rani herself would become such a powerful being after all Rani is powerful enough to bend a dragon a jeweler to her well who respected her so much that it took a nightly oath to serve her Dark Moon as well the Moon is of course the defining partner to both Rani and Ronaldo and we learned that Ronaldo met her Moon as a young astrologer via the Stargazer heirloom which reads a Talisman engraved with the legend of a queen the young astrologer gazed at the night sky as she walked she had always chased the Stars every step of her journey then she met the full moon and in time the astrologer became a queen this is very interesting to me as it seems to be very similar to rani's inauguration with Herman which we learn of via rani's Dark Moon spell which reads the moon was encountered by a young Rani laid by the hand of her mother renala what she beheld was called Dark unveiled an occult mystery it's almost as if Ronaldo takes Ranny on a journey so she can encounter her own Moon much as Ronaldo did in her youth a recreation of that first fateful meeting if you will this does of course make sense given carrier's power is tied to the moon and if Rani was to one day be Queen She Too would need to rely on the power of the Moon I do want to briefly comment on the carrion lineage and some strangeness that I personally find with the way in which it is described firstly I do find it a little odd that Ronaldo is referred to as both the founder of the carrion line and yet is also referred to as the last of the carrion Queens this makes it seem like a new royal family and an old one at the same time as if they are some ancient and August Royal house and yet they only have had one Queen the family also feels small to us consisting only of Ronaldo and her three children and yet we get plenty of evidence that talks about their traditions and lineage that make it seem that Rani is only the latest any long line of princesses take the carrion filigreed crest for example which reads as follows an honor said to have once been awarded to Carrie and nates who served as direct retainers to the Kingdom's princesses now there is only one princess Rani daughter of Ronaldo now there is only one princess this leads us to conclude that there had been other princesses of carrier and given renala as the one and only Queen of the House of carrier then this would mean ronala must have had other daughters in all honesty I'm unsure what to make of this and there's of course the possibility that Ronaldo was married prior to meeting Radigan and had a number of other children with an other unnamed consort what interests me though is how this law interacts with the hell of the three sisters they exists behind carrier manner on this hill there are three Terrors rani's rise syllabus's rise and Rena's rise my presumption is that syllabus's rise is an adopted name to reflect its new master and this was once named after a sister could it be that Rana Rani and the unnamed sister were all Daughters of carrier and thus does the kalian fellow Greek Crest refer to these sisters when it talks about princesses plural Rana is a name that is essentially a derivation of Ronaldo and given the way names work in Eldon ring it would be logical to assume that Reyna is the daughter or was the daughter of renala of course a spanner is thrown into the works here when Rani first introduces herself as Rena a false identity to hide the fact that she is actually one of the most influential players in the lines between however to me it doesn't really discount the idea that Rena was once a separate person and Rani has just taken on her name to hide her true identity the location of the three sisters to me heavily implies that there were at least three princesses of carrier however that is just my own speculation there's of course the possibility that Rena is the name of the snowy croon rani's Secret Mentor Especially since one can find the snow set in Reyna's rise this would also make sense of Ronnie's fake identity she is literally pretending to be her mentor of old when she introduces herself as Reyna the witch there's of course the possibility that this item description is poorly worded but the impression we're supposed to get I believe is that the carrion Royal house is an old one with many Traditions despite the fact that it's only had one Queen thus by the time Rani came around the conventions and traditions of carrying royalty would have been established and Rani had the benefit of growing up in the household of a powerful family no doubt receiving a top-class education and no doubt inheriting her mother's impressive sorceress Powers a very logical candidate for emperion status if there ever was one what is most unfortunate about Ronnie's story is we are missing so much from her early days and her relationship with the golden order what her opinions on being an emperion was and whether she was happy to go along with it at any stage the facts are this Ronnie grew up in the carrion household she was once more humanoid with red hair who is granted emparion status early on in her life growing up closely with eg and blive before being introduced to the Dark Moon by her mother now obviously this introduction to the Dark Moon is one of three in my opinion pivotal moments that set Ranny on her course to becoming who she is by the time we meet her the other two being Radigan abandoning her mother and her meeting of the snowy croon and her mentorship so with that said let us now discuss the nature of the Dark Moon the occult and her mysterious Mentor the snowy crone one thing that I'm sure most are aware of at this stage is that rani's Moon and ronala's full moon are separate bodies and in fact you can see them both at the same time at the top of moonlight altar you of course can see the clear differences here in appearance rani's Moon the Dark Moon is a lot darker Ronaldo's moon is the full moon as we know via her epithet and of course via her signature spell Ronaldo's full moon when you consider how impressive this magic is and the fact it draws its power from a completely different Source from that of Glenstone sorcery it is little wonder that real accaria would have fallen under this way of Ronaldo and indeed the description of the sorcery and its function is that it actually dispels other sorceries suggesting that Moon sorcery May well be Superior or more powerful than regular sorceries as a direct result from The Prestige earned via her lunar sorcery she would turn her family into a royal one and as we have already discussed at length carrier's power results from the Moon and thus it makes sense that Ronaldo would want to introduce her successor Rani to her own Moon another interesting aspect about this tradition is we need to consider the matriarchal nature of the carrion family and their relationship to the moon for Israel who rules as Queen and it seems to be that lunar princess Rani would be the next in line as the fellow greed Crest gives more important to princesses and their role within carrying Society we don't really hear much about the role of princes within the carrion royal family in our prior video I spoke on what I saw was another matriarchal society the Knox Society the reason that I see this society as matriarchal is due to the night maidens a female only class that appears to have been given spatial prominence in their society to the point where they are appointed personal guards in the form of swordstresses but why is this the case why do the Norks and the carrians both seem to be matriarchal there are many crossovers between Knox in society and carrier including literal pieces of archaeological evidence that show noxin statues within carrying structures like in the Church of vows however the main connection is their association with the celestial with the Moon Ronaldo and the carrions have the full moon Rani has the Darkman and the knocks were once in contact with the black moon as we learn of via the moon of noxtaila Talisman and the memory Stone item descriptions in symbology there is a common interpretation that the Moon is associated with the feminine and the Sun is associated with the masculine for example the philosophical concept of Yin and Yang reflects this very idea Yen means moon or female Yang means sun or male there's obviously far more to the philosophy than that but ultimately it is a philosophy of balance of opposing forces existing in a system of Harmony there is of course the fact that the menstrual cycle used to be associated with the lunar cycles in earlier cultures before science fully explained the process and the idea that the Moon is more associated with the feminine isn't a new idea in from software games we of course have dark Sun Gwendolyn from Dark Souls 1. Gwendolyn was the child of the god Gwen Lord of sunlight and by the time of Dark Souls 1 Gwendolyn is the last remaining deity in Anor Londo city of the Gods the description of his robes read as follows the power of the moon was strong in Gwendolyn and thus he was raised as a daughter then we of course have the school of Menses in bloodborne a word associated with the menstrual cycle which is especially relevant given the game's focus on childbirth and the moon my point being is that when it comes to Dark Souls especially we have a precedent set where the Moon is connected to not only feminine energy but magic in Dark Souls 1 the Moon is very firmly tied to Gwendolyn Seath and Magic thus Yen of intelligent-based sorceries is balanced by the Yang of the Sun and sunlight Miracles and faith so going into this game I along with other Souls veterans can see similar tropes being used in Eldon ring so perhaps the reason the Knox and the carrions are matriarchal is to do with the greater Affinity that women have to the Moon that they are more in tune to its power as such Ronaldo LED Rani by the hand to meet a moon not record nor Rodan because it was Rani who was meant to carry on her mother's Legacy and evidently next in line for the carrion throne this is why a particular mention is made of carrion princesses not princes yet there is something different about ranny's Moon that separates it from her mothers each of the moons that we encounter in Elden ring are specifically given a certain title where ranala is the full moon Queen and her moon is the full moon the bright white one that we see in the sky ranis is specifically the Dark Moon so let us read the second part of the item description for rani's Dark Moon incantation which reads what she beheld was cold dark and veiled in a cult mystery cold dark and occult all facets of its nature that appear to separate it from the full moon and all three are aspects that Rani in time appears to have embraced and no doubt was a factor in the rather dark path that she takes of course her Mastery over the occult and cold would not have been possible if not for her mysterious Mentor who we know only as the snowy crone but way in which you have fallen under the influence of this Crone at what stage in her life well to me it makes perfect sense that it would have happened at another pivotal moment in her life the moment when Radigan abandoned her mother renala Pastor Muriel speaks of this perplexing event and he says the following however when Godfrey first Eldon Lord was hounded from the lands between Radigan left renala to return to the Earth tree capital becoming Queen 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 there came a moment when Godfrey and the tarnished were driven from the lands between and Radigan would abandon Ronaldo and marry his other half Marika in order to fill the vacancy of Eldon Lord thus then made Rani reichardt and radan stepchildren of America but it would also break renala we learn of this via ranalis say which reads Wayne ronala head of both the Academy of real lucaria and the carrion royal family lost her husband Radigan her heart went along with him and then those at the Academy realized that Ronaldo was no champion after all radigan's importance to Ronaldo can of course be seen by the fact that a statue of Radigan remains in the grand library of Rio Lucario close to where she herself remains manala does appear completely broken in a dreamlike state obsessing over the Amber egg rebirths and her sweetings this egg itself was given to her as a parting gift from Radigan again explained to us by Marielle in the end lady Ronaldo was left alone cradling the Amber egg Lord radican bequeathed her now she devotes herself to it through forbidden right the Grim art of reincarnation you would do well to remember severing a vow strongest of bonds has consequences ever more dire radicand leaving has some weight-reaching consequences for the carrion royal family as we see in Ronaldo's set renal's reaction to losing her husband is essentially seen as a sign of weakness by the realicarians a moment when they apparently saw that she was no champion at all as if Champions are only people who have no emotional reactions the idea of a Revolt by the relicarians being triggered by radical abandoning grinnella its outright confirmed by Marielle who says the following the great and beautiful full moon witch sadly her heart was broken when Lord Radigan left her and then when the academy rebelled against the Royals she was locked away in the grand Library so there is the trigger of the real accarian Rebellion they saw Ronaldo's grief over the loss of her husband as a moment of weakness and struck at the carrions locking ranala in the grand Library where she remains to this day until we meet her no doubt the real occurrence May well have been planning this for a while this was just the opportun Mormon and we do learn that the carrions were preparing for the Academy's Revolt via the carrion retaliation weapon art so perhaps tensions had been boiling over for a while perhaps Ronaldo marrying someone of the archery order was seen as a gross portrayal of everything that Ria lucaria and Leonia stood for we know then that following this Revolt the real akarian and carrion's would do battle culminating in the siege of carrier Manor an event we learn of via the sword Monument just outside the manor itself which reads the resting place of the contemptible Cuckoos lost in the siege of carrier Manor we do also get some more details from EG himself a blacksmith to the carrions who may well have witnessed these events himself when the real Lucario Academy turned on The Cardigans the Knights of the cuckoo descended on this tract after leveling it They carried on to the manor the Guardians were taken off guard but their strengths had not waned and they repelled the knights onslaught by Conjuring an enchanted snare that remains potent to this day so we can only imagine how Rani a princess of the carrions would have viewed this chain of events not only did she effectively lose her mother to grief and then imprisonment but she watched her family lose Prestige control of the academy and ultimately come under attack from those once considered carrion vassals I also have to remind you that the cuckoo forces are renowned as ruthless and cruel as we learn via the real lucarian ashes and no doubt they would have waged a brittle war against the carrions before finally being driven to a stalemate outside the gates of carrier Manor so all this all the tragedy that rani's family suffers in the wake of radigan's departure is because he essentially chooses loyalty to the Earth tree over his own family to Rani and her family it would look like he was just choosing the ilden throne over their family bond a choice that brought ruin to their house and grief to their mother no wonder reichardt and Rani two out of three of the children of this marriage would become two of the most antagonistic figures to the Earth tree order so for me this moment when Rani effectively loses her mother this would be the ideal moment for her to meet a new Mentor the snowy crone we learn of this character via the snow witch set which reads as follows once worn by this snowy Crone who the young Ranny encountered deep in the woods she was a wedge and well-versed in cold sorceries it is said the doll that houses rani's Soul was modeled after her that old witch was rani's Secret Mentor I've always found the description of this Crone truly fascinating especially the term Crone itself and her placement Within the Woods clearly the writers are playing up the classic Witch of the woodstrope with the term Crone conveying the image of an old gnarled witch these are the classic tropes when one writes about the darker side of Witchcraft and the Occult especially when we consider that the snow witch hat considers this type of magic as heretical for me this is where Ronnie learned the darker aspects of magic from that she would later wield to devastating effect in the night of the black knives clearly This Witch of the woods was an adherent of the Dark Moon and in my mind there is no doubt that she helped form rani's worldview and inform her of the dark path that she would need to take to bring about the age of stars in an immediate sense the snowy Crone clearly embodied the cold aspects of the Dark Moon Not only because of her name but because of the frost incantations that she taught Rani and we learn of this via spells like glintstone icecrag and freezing Mist what is clear is that the cold is intrinsic to the form of the Dark Moon as it seems if Rani herself exudes some kind of cold for when she inhabits the miniature doll the item description for the doll reads off that it gives off a pleasant cool and after she departs this vessel the chillness as described as being gone there's also the fact that Blythe appears to be affected by Ronnie's cold as his armor set States the Pelt serves as a cape protecting from cold Blythe was the blade of Rani but the cold bothered him anyway again to me suggesting that the reason why there's no cold is because Rani now an adherent of the Dark Moon exudes a type of cold Rani also mentions the cold in the age of stars ending she refers to the chelnate and to me the cold and the chill of her Dark Moon is meant to represent the cold of the cosmos of the abyss of space however what interests me more is the occult nature of the Dark Moon and what it means for Granny's stories there are a few other mentions of occult an Eldon ring and it is essentially a weapon Affinity strongly associated with death and the manipulation of vital Energies for example it is associated with the weapon art lifestyle Fest spectral Lance assassins Gambit and of course the black wet blade which applies the occult Affinity to weapons we can get an idea of what the occult is all about by reading the description of Life steal first which states skill that demonstrates Mastery over the art of controlling vital energies so this is a life manipulation focused practice which I guess isn't a surprise for those who are familiar with the term cult or occult witchcraft that is about life and death quite often the short being that you require a blood sacrifice or a death for those powers we see this idea of a blood sacrifice in the webinar assassin's Gambit which is an occult weapon art where one is literally required to offer some of their blood through a self-inflicted wound to take advantage of this occult power as I suggested in my black knives lore video Rani speaks of how she used a fearsome right to imbue the black knife assassin blades with the power of the Rune of death I have no doubt in my mind that this is an occult practice an occult rate learned via the snowy Crone and an aspect of the dark Moon's power after all the murder of Godwin's soul and reading herself of her Emporium flesh very much as a manipulation of life and death and to me it firmly earns the occult title the heretical snowy Crone playing up to the Wicked Witch of the woods really does tie into the darker side of Witchcraft and the Occult much like the 2015 film The Witch which I highly recommend by the way if you like a slow burning horror I therefore think that the occult aspect of the Dark Moon was the aspect that provided Rani the knowledge and rights necessary to manipulate the Rune of death and the ways that she did when it comes to the dark aspect of the Moon as mentioned by ranee and Iji when they talk of the dark path of the emperion that Rani is taking I think it is a general representation of what rani's moon represents it represents the cold abyss of space it represents the Ying to the arteries Yang the dark to its gold it is not necessarily evil but it is fundamentally opposed to the path laid out by the two fingers and thus it is the dark path of the emperion to make a long tangent short I think Rani was first introduced to the Moon by her mother but it was the croon who taught her the deeper Mysteries of the Dark Moon of the cold of the dark and its occult aspects the very fact that Rani makes her new body and the image of the snowy Crone shows how much of an impact this character had on her she was a mentor to Rani meaning that everything that Rani is owes a lot to the teachings of the snowy Crone and ultimately I believe it was the snowy Crone who put her on her path that she is in game and told her what she needed to do to bring about the age of stars so with that said let us talk about ranny's designs and the Knight of the black knaves itself I'll obviously start this chapter by making it clear that I've already done an in-depth look at the night of the black knaves in its own video so if you are interested in any comprehensive look on that subject I will link it below in this video we will mainly be looking at the effects that this event had on Ranny having grown a personal hatred for the golden order and resenting the two fingers for stifling her self-determination rani's Mentor would have given her the teachings necessary to realize her true destiny as an instrument of the Dark Moon and bring about an age of stars and as such the conspiracy known as the Knight of the black knaves would have began to be formulated in my night of the black knees video I discussed the black knife assassins were women that were close to America in terms of blood given that Roger describes them as Scions of the Eternal City and that their armor set describes them as being close to America and as Loki says in this tweet here I've always believed that this means that these are women close to America in terms of society and terms of blood however tarnished archaeologists in one of their lore videos has a fascinating and more refined interpretation than mine in a way that may explain why these women were close to America in a series of videos tarnished archaeologists lays out a theory a theory that the Eternal Empire those of the Eternal cities preceded America's civilization and that it was from this eternal Empire that Marcus archery Society evolved tarnished archaeologist Likens this to the evolution of the Roman Empire from a pagan Empire to a Christian one and in this case it was the Eternal Empire evolving from a paganistic star worshiping Empire from which a monotheistic tree cult emerged resulting in the dominant archery religion that we see today and that these three Eternal cities that we find in game actually once sat on the surface and dominated the lands between connected by the highway that runs from Lim grave all the way to the Altus plateau and according to tarnished archaeologist's Theory the black knife assassin Knight was the result of a counter-revolution of those who still believed in the old way of the Eternal Empire and they revolted against the emergence of America's new monotheistic religion that is the long and the short of it tarnished archaeologist has an excellent series on this very subject backed up by environmental details and in-game law and if you want to learn more about this Theory then I will link it below and props to tarnished archaeologists for bringing out new ideas and theories this long after the game's launch this would explain why the women of the black Nave assassins were close to America they were the same people as her regardless whatever you think about the origins of the black knife assassins it is clear that Rani was able to find a group of co-conspirators who shared her animosity for the Earth tree order my impression and speculation is that both sides brought something to the table in this Grand plot firstly the black knife assassins of course brought the martial skill and physical participants who were willing and able to actually do The Killing I also believe that it was the night sorceries of Celia assassin focused skills that included Magics of obfuscation that formed the building blocks for what would become the Assassin's iconic cloaks that filled the eye invisibility cloaks if you will however I believe it was Rani who brought her Mastery of the occult to the conspiracy and it was Rani who is responsible for the black knaves themselves and for that I mean the actual weapons as we already discussed Rani was initiated in occult practices and then she speaks of a fearsome right in which she formed these knives 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 so clearly Ronnie was able to bring her knowledge to Bear to give the weapons needed to kill the gods and of course again what's a well-known fact at this point in the game's history is that the ritual performed on Godwin and Rani simultaneously was specifically done in a way that would benefit Rani that would read her of her emperion flesh cheating the system so to speak by taking one half of death the body death without being obliterated entirely having her soul killed alongside it the curse mark of death reads the following Car Smart carved in to the discarded flesh of Ronnie the witch also known as the half-wheel wound of the centipede this 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 Seoul alone specifically the root of death appears to have been carved at the same time into the Flesh of Rani and Godwin both so that the effects of the Rune of death would split killing rani's body only and Godwin was forced to Bear the death of Saul on her behalf the clear and specific nature of this ritual shows that Rani planned this night primarily to rid herself of her emperion flesh an intent that is made clear by several of her dialogues I stole the Rune of death slew mine own Imperium flesh casting it away I believe this is Ronnie's main aim in organizing and masterminding the night of the black knaves and that she essentially misled and betrayed the black knife assassins by obscuring the true purpose and leaving them out to dry following the night itself this is why we find Electro imprisoned by Ronnie and why the black knaves appear to attack her vassals in retribution but for more detail on why I believe this I would again refer you to my knight of the black knives video and in general it seems like the black knife assassins take the full weight of the blame as Ranny does not seem to be known as the true Mastermind in the modern era it takes rogier some investigation to find out this is the case and aside from that she has never mentioned as The Mastermind behind this plot yet while rani's objectives in organizing the night are clear there are other General political goals that night that were achieved in my black names video I believe I did a good job in bringing some attention to an article from Bandai Namco that was published alongside the December 2021 story trailer this article was essentially a flavor piece that introduced players to the world of Elden ring and what they could expect from the story complementing the story trailer that released at the same time and it said the following on the night of the black knaves one gram Knight and the depths of winter a flock of unknown assassins stole across the lands between in a cortaneous attack this foul Covenant snuffed out the lives of many of the god Queens kin throughout the Empire two numerous and two scattered for her Godly protection to save the Assassin's targets were multi-fold but none was devastating a lost 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 the Assassin's targets were multi-fold and this foul Covenant snuffed out the lives of many of America's kin so while Rani clearly had an ulterior motive in enacting this plan it's clear the conspiracy also achieved other aims that resulted in a devastating blow for the royal family of the archery order so in a way Rani kills two birds with one stone she harnesses the frustrations of those who resent the Eritrea order to create a counter-revolutionary strike which not only achieves her primary goal of shedding her emperion skin but it also destabilizes a rival branch of the royal family and it strikes a blow that essentially the golden order never truly recovers from following this Rani clearly exists in some kind of spirit or Soul form before anchoring her spirit within a new dull body now at this point I would like to take a moment to discuss rani's new form and assess how we see her in game to see what bits of lore that we can mine from it so firstly there's the blue Spirit form of Rani that sticks out the side of her dull body and I've always presumed that this is the true Rani their spirit this is her in Soul form and how she exists now that she has no flesh which of course makes sense when you consider that rani's mouths her spirit form and her doll form move at the same time meaning this is just rani's Spirit it just kind of overlaps slightly with the doll that she know possesses however despite this people have also often tried to tie Ranny and Melina together and there are certainly legitimate reasons to do so for example when Ronnie first gives you this Spirit calling Bill she says she has been asked to do so by torrent's former Master clearly melanor melanor is clearly in spirit form much like Rani describing herself as burned and bodyless as pointed out by Zio storm in his recent video on Melina which I will link below all three of melon art Rani and tauren fade away any burst of blue particles and given that tauren is described in the spectral Steed whistle as a specter it's fair to assume that all three are in some sort of spirit form so for me the first and most obvious connection between these two characters is that they both exist in spirit form they don't have corporeal bodies and we could go a little bit further than the rabbit hole if we consider that Melina could be the glomide queen I am in the camp that believed that melon is most likely identity is that of the glomide queen who has now been rebirthed as Marika as an agent Rani was killed embodied by the Rune of death and the glomide Queen Once wielded this power before being defeated by malekith perhaps Milano the glomide queen being burned and bodyless could be a hint at her ultimate fate at the hands of malkith who know the wielder of deaths and death in the Rune of death burned her in the red black Flames this is all whale's speculation of course but in summary I believe that if there is any connection between Rani and melaner it is because they are both spirits who have come to be due to similar circumstances I don't believe that they are the same person nor do I believe that they are sisters and while there are similarities in the two I believe they are two clearly distinct characters on their own Journey that being said Melina is a video in of itself and I will eventually explore the possibility that they are one and the same person in a separate video so look out for that but tangent aside in short I believe that ranny's overlapping ghostly form is literally just that it's rany's Spirit now when it comes to the form that Rani has chosen her puppet as we already mentioned it is modeled after the most influential person in her life the snowy crone I believe that the Crone more or less wore this type of outfit and that's why her appearance in general is said to be modeled after the snowy Crone yet I don't think this is a complete one-to-one Recreation of what the snowy Crone looked like the fact that Crone is referred to as such Doesn't chime too well with the actual appearance as the term Crone literally means an old woman yet ranny's puppet is clearly far more youthful given that it looks very similar to Ronnie's Spirit form my conclusion is that the youthful aspects of this appearance are based on Ranny herself and that she's modified these snowy Crohn's appearance slightly to more reflect her own spirit yet the most fascinating aspect of her appearance in my opinion are her forearms possibly one of the most iconic parts of her whole get up many will of course recognize the obvious connections that this has to Hinduism many Hindu deities like Brahma and Vishnu have more than two arms but why well firstly it helps illustrate that these beings these gods are not human that by looking at an image you realize straight away this is a God but to go a bit further these are symbols of their divine power my understanding is that multiple arms are used to show that these gods are able to perform multiple actions throughout the Universe at the same time by using all their different arms a Divine multitasker if you will the arms can also be used to illustrate the different items of significance relatable to that God for example take this image of Ganesha or Ganesh who has four arms his bottom right hand is positioned in a flat Palm symbol for a blessing representing ganesha's blessings the he bestows upon people in the top right hand he holds an ax meant to represent Detachment or the severing of ties you get the picture so let's apply this logic to Rani in our first and last meetings with Rani her hands are in a normal relaxed position and so there isn't much that we can mind from this however what interests me more is the positioning of her hands when we speak to her in ranny's Tower and the iconic hand gesture she makes in the story trailer I'm of course referring to the pose where one of the Pair of Hands is distinctly steepled and we have to ask what is this trying to convey well usually this hand position is used to depict thinking or planning or scheming Rani is a schemer the braining of the age of stars ultimately is the combination of centuries worth of planning there's nothing wrong with a well-laid scheme to me her two sets of hands represent this she is a multitasker one who is capable of active immediate action symbolized by her free set of hands but one that is always planning ahead looking to the Future No Matter what's happening in the present symbolized by her steepled hands it symbolizes Rani as a master planner and it makes me think of methala from the Elder Scrolls who also are shown with multiple arms and mephala is a god of scheming and plans that is of course my speculation and I look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments below what you think rani's forearms are meant to represent with that all said we now know what happens after the night of the black knaves Godwin becomes the prince of death and gives rise to those who live in death possibly the greatest instance of collateral damage in any Souls game as I have said in multiple videos I see the crime against Godwin his death of soul and the Fate he is forced to suffer just so Rani can achieve her aims as a terrible crime never mind the condemnation of other innocent people who are forced to live in death as a result of death route spreading from Godwin the source of this terrible crime and so no matter what you think about ranny's ending I always bear that in mind that the steps she has taken to get here are extremely ruthless I'm not saying that she is a bad guy but in my eyes she is far from a hero but what happens to Ranny after this firstly we know that it is after Ronnie has disposed of her flesh that she divulges her plans to EG in Blythe thanks to a dialogue from EG when lady Irani renounced her flesh and chose the dark Paths of the Imperium lies and I swore Allegiance as vassals so this makes egm Blyth rather innocent of any involvement in the night of the black knaves as it seems like they didn't know her plans until this moment yet Ronnie and her vassals appear to have been in hiding for quite a while as we do get a rather interesting piece of dialogue regarding ranny's whereabout from Roger who says the following I have some idea of Ronnie's potential whereabouts there's a manner to the north of the Academy of Raya lucaria it is the familial home of the Korean Royals from whom Rani descends there's been Talk of the old Royals vassals Gathering there in recent years rani's whereabouts since the shattering are a well-kept secret she hasn't been seen even once but I suspect she might have returned to the Manor in which she was born the shattering came after the night of the black knaves however from Roger's dialogue it's clear that Rani really hasn't been much of a player ever since the night of the black knaves and the shattering War began we of course learned via Gideon orphanir that Rani then set aside her great Rune and now this is interesting for a number of reasons first it means that she did claim a great Rune at some point as we know that this is an act of action taken by the demigods from the introduction to Eldon ring America's Offspring demigods or [Music] claimed the shards of the Eldon ring my speculation is that she did initially claim a great rune for the reasons that everyone else did power then upon the outbreak of the war she set hers aside and vanished leaving her siblings to destroy one another while she waited patiently to enact her plans following the end of the war at a time when many of her potential Rivals would have been eliminated and in general providing a more quiet landscape for her to enact her plans the setting aside of her great Rune is very symbolic to me to me it really does represent that Rani sees her path the dark path of the emperion as separate from that of the Elden ring While others may be hoping to claim the Elden ring for their own and harness its power through the great room that they hold rani's path is detached entirely from the existing order of this world and as such great runes remnants of an order that she seeks to supplant entirely really is detached from her concerns as such her dark path of the emperion does not require a great Rune nor would it benefit from taking part in the shattering returning to Roger's dialogue he also talks about rani's vassals gathering at carrier Manor the implication being is that this is a recent activity after years of the manner being abandoned and Randy being missing the overall impression is that Rani essentially skipped town while the shattering War played out and only recently following the end of the war has there been activity at carrier Manor this brings us to the here and now and rani's next step in her plans severing the bonds between her and the fingers for good and then finally at the defeat of the Eldon Beast she'll be able to Herald in the age of stars yet despite Ronnie's return and the Fairly exhausted state of all other demigods her plans are locked in stasis thanks to the actions of her own brother General Rodan at this stage in the lore we all know the story of Rodan a great warrior who learned gravity magic so he could continue to ride his beleaguered horse yet he became so powerful in its usage that he imposed as well on the Stars themselves during the star Scourge conflict according to a sword Monument found in caled this was to keep Celia safe from something either from its fate or a direct threat from the Stars however with the movement of the Stars arrested fate is Tethered along with it and as we learn from Selen and EG this means that rani's Destiny is also held in stasis indeed whether Rodan intentionally want to prevent ranny's plan or not is not clear however it is clear that he is currently the greatest impediment to rani's plans the dartmen itself appears in the sky is overkilled upon rodan's defeat as effort as an omen that rani's Destiny can resume this brings us back to a rather tricky subject that's a fate a subject I've dealt with in some detail in my primeval current Allure video which I will link below but let us start by understanding the fundamentals about fate before we apply it to rani's Destiny a good place to start is with the celestial due item description which reads as follows Once Upon a Time the stars of the night sky guided fate and this is a recollection of those times there are four in the world of Elden ring fate is literally attached to the Stars fit itself is defined by Oxford languages in the following way the development of events outside a person's control regarded as predetermined by a supernatural power ensure fear is the way a person's life unfolds and that the events of their lives happen outside of their control and is instead Guided by an outside force and in this case that outside force is the Stars this is more simply put by the Amber Starlight Shard which says that the Stars command people's fate and the carrying seem to have had a special relationship with fate the currents descend from astrologers with ranela herself being described as an astrologer and the Stargazer heirloom the astrologer armor set tells us that astrologers are able to read Fate In The Stars when Ronaldo established carrion royalty it looked as though she preserved such practices via the preceptors for the preceptor Hood reads large hat with the movement of stars drawn on the inside of the brim worn by Magic preceptors who served the carrion Royals Glenstone Sorcerers are the descendants of astrologers a fact that the carrians remain aware of even if their fate has long been severed from the Stars this heavily implies that the preceptors very much are stargazers given their hats have the movements of the Stars drawn on the inside and given one of the only preceptors we meet in game syllabus is obsessed with fate and manipulating it through his puppet drafts I think it's a fair bit to say that these preceptors acted as personal fate readers for the carrying royal family and continue to observe the practice of astrology that was linked to the reading of fate so this in turn implies that some carrions were well aware of their phase because they are able to read them in the stars and it seems as though fate is fundamentally important to the carrions as it seems to literally dictate their lives and we learn of how much an influence Fate has on the carrions Via Selen who says the following regarding fate the Stars alter the fate of the Korean royal family and the fate of your mistress Rani but long ago General radon challenged the swirling constellations and in a crushing Victory arrested their Cycles now he is the force that repulses the Stars if General radon were to Die the Stars would resume their movement and so too would rani's Destiny the Stars alter the fate of the carrion royal family and the fate of your mistress Rani but long ago General radanne challenged the swirling constellations and end a crushing Victory arrested their Cycles now he is the force that repulses the Stars if General Rodan were to Die the Stars would resume their movement and so too with ranny's Destiny so Selen specifically states that rani's fate her life is unable to really move forward until the movement of the stars is resumed it is hard for us to truly understand what is happening here but here are the main takeaways the carrions are able to read and therefore predict their fate and destiny in the stars in a way it is preordained to them for example Rani seems to know exactly the way her fate will play out second fate is tied to the movement of the stars and if the stars do not move then there is no fate and the way in which fate plays out in the stars that has been read by the astrologers cannot come to pass until movement is resumed there seems to be some sort of metaphysical power that we don't fully understand when fate resumes everything plays out as Rani would like it to with the moment the radon is dead a meteorite hits the ground opening up the way for nocron now we could just say that Redan was actually just holding back a [ __ ] star that was going to hit here anyway and there wasn't really any fate involved however there is more to this as if we try to open the chest containing the Finger Slayer blade but we are not serving granny and we're not therefore retrieving it for her then we get a message saying that we are not destined to open it and we are unable to open it furthermore the Finger Slayer blade item description itself states that it cannot be wielded by those without fear and if fate is arrested that means that Rani wouldn't be able to wield this blade so fate and destiny appears to be a power exerted by the Stars onto the Mortal plane a power that is weaved into being through their movements and ultimately I believe fate to be a tool of the Stars It ultimately seems like a way that they can guide their adherence this of course my speculation as we know the power of Fate can be used to control the actions of other people as syllabus uses the Fate latent within the Stars to create puppet drafts from Starlight shards meaning that fate is an actual power of some kind that can exert control over people yet things still happen while Rodan has frozen the stars for example we are still able to ascend the Elden Throne without killing Redan and therefore without the Stars resuming their movement this is why I believe fear is less of a wide-reaching nebulous concept that affects everyone and rather it is a force of control of guidance that is from the Stars themselves regardless Ronnie's plans are in essence Frozen until we come along Rani is unable to wield the Finger Slayer blade to finally sever her connection but when we resume her fate her Destiny she is able to wield the blade we destroy the baleful shadows for her and she Slaughters her own two fingers she is completely cut off detached from the influence of the two fingers and the greater will she is able now to adhere herself to a new order the order of the Dark Moon so All That Remains for us to do at this stage is to defeat Radigan and the Elden Beast so now let us talk about what actually happened with ranny's ending and what the age of the Stars actually means there has been a lot of debate about what the ending of Rady's Quest actually means what happens when we choose the age of stars and I think there's a lot of confusion that is very quickly cleared up when you speak to Rani back at ranny's rise when you've become her consort but before you've triggered the end of the game if you return to rani's rise and you still have the miniature around it in your items you can speak to her once more at which stage she will explain more about what her new order will actually entail mine will be in order not of gold at the stars and moon of the chill night I would keep them far from the earth beneath our feet as it is now life and souls and Order are bound tightly together but I would have them at a great remove have the certainties of sight emotion faith and touch all become impossibilities which is why I would abandon this soil with mine order what's Thou come to me even now my one and only Lord so I think Ranny clears up a lot here rany's new order will not be one that is situated on Earth and what she means by this is that she herself and the controlling artifact of this new order the Dark Moon will not be on the earth much as America and the archery would be instead Ronnie would be at a far removed from the earth in the cosmos and as such it wouldn't be subject to the same weaknesses and flaws that Marcus order would be the same corruption that it opened itself up to as iosworm did a good video on this month's back clearing up this confusion and citing an article from Frontline JP which I will link below alongside Zio's video in this article the author not only re-translated the ending of the game but also the dialogue we just spoke of and while I don't think this dialogue is nearly as cryptic as the ending I do think the author's translations do make the point I'm making slightly more clear for example for the dialogue we have just discussed in the line where Rani says as it is now life and souls and Order are bound tightly together but I would have them at a great remove the author of the Frontline JP article offers a slightly clearer translation which I will quote now even if life and souls are one with the order it the order could be kept far away Rani would have ordered physically separated from the world that it governs and have these certainties of sight faith and touch all become impossibilities if she as a God as the New Order is far removed from Earth then people wouldn't be able to worship her wouldn't be able to interact with her nor even see her order would just function it would just govern the world without all the emotion without all the faith meaning that Rania is unlikely to be swayed by emotions of what she sees and feels around her it would be an order of logic to quote the author of said article they say Ronnie believes that while the order may have to exist as it is entwined with life and souls it causes problems for the people our solution is thus to take it and leave keeping it far away where people cannot see feel touch and believe in it embarking on a journey into fear doubt Solitude and darkness to do so in a way this also lines up with the problems that gold mask himself identifies with the golden order if we look at The Mending Rin of perfect order the culmination of gold mask's work he believed that it was the fickleness of the gods that caused the issues and Rani would essentially eliminate that problem by removing herself from the earth she and the order would exist far away from the earth meaning there would be no politics no emotions and no faith that would pollute the Perfection of order this implies an order of logic a Nuance that is easier to see with Loki's translation of rani's final dialogue which I quote now to all life and All Souls from here on is the era of the Stars the logic of the Moon a Thousand-Year Journey a logical order of the Moon I do think this is a Nuance that is really missed from the final dialogue of the age of stars ending and admittedly the English is a little confusing many people thought that Rani was taking everyone with her on a voyage into the Stars however with these translations it is clear that Rani means that she as the New Order will travel far away from the plane of existence that she herself governs now let's listen to that dialogue now come at the age of the Stars a Thousand-Year Voyage under the wisdom of the Moon here begin it's a chill night that encompasses all reaching the great beyond into fear doubt and loneliness the path stretches Into Darkness well then shall we my fair consort Eternal with this new understanding in place we know what has really been said here despite the cryptic language Rani is ushering in the age of stars that will be governed by her and her Dark Moon yet she will depart into the cosmos no doubt to join her Dark Moon beginning her journey into the chilney a path of fear doubt and loneliness for Rani she will rule from afar out of sight and thus the problems of the prior order will fade again I will quote the translation from the Frontline JP article which makes this all more abundantly clear I shall swear to all lives and souls from here on is the age of stars the laws of the Moon a Thousand-Year Journey to all you may think of the chilney as infinitely far away and now let us go on our path of fear doubt and loneliness into the darkness so with that made abundantly clear let us talk about the greater picture what does this mean for the greater well and the Eldon ring firstly I think it's clear that the Elden ring is no more in this ending symbolized by Rani picking up the head of Marco The Vessel for the Elden ring who then Fades away and the various Elden ring endings we defeat the Elden beast but then we take the time to repair the Eldon ring inside of marakar and Implement a new order that is imposed through the power of the new Elden ring and any modifications that we added to it however in Ronnie's ending marker Fades away and presumably the Elden ring Fades with it I think the Erasure of the Elden ring is necessary after all Rani doesn't Implement her plan until after we have defeated Radigan and the Elden Beast this to me implies that ranny's order could not be implemented until the power of the Elden ring was neutralized until then the Elden Beast a powerful vessel for the current order had been in existence clearly its presence and the power of the Eldon ring kept the power of the dark moon at Bay but with the Elden ring and Beast no more the Dark Moon lays claim to the Mortal plane in the announcement trailer for Eldon ring the narrator refers to the Elden ring as that which commanded the stars and so is it possible that the Elder ring has been such a power that it bent even the Stars to its well that it is the preeminent force in the universe and even the stars must obey its laws I believe so but I also believe that the moon and the stars have their own agenda as we spoke of earlier they are a Yen to the Eldon Rings Yang they are opposite and while the Elden ring was present it was ultimately the preeminent force in the universe that commanded the Stars themselves so through agents like Ronaldo the nox and noorani celestial bodies have tried to free themselves from such an order and impose their own with the Elden Ring's defeat and Rani freed from her two fingers she is able to wipe away the last vestiges of the Elden Ring's power and back in the moon implementing an age of Stars free from the Elden ring and free from the direct intervention of Gods and while I've always seen rani's act against Godwin as a terrible crime is this a case of the ends justifying the means now that we have a God that will act like a god rather than a human warlord for Rani will have no family have no castles and be involved in no politics is this the right way for a new order to be implemented I leave such judgments to yourself my fellow tarnished and so ends my assessment of Rani the lunar princess so thanks for joining me guys on my take on Rani a fascinating character that was glad to finally dive into on the channel after about a year of doing Elden ring content remember if you like Elder ring content please like and maybe subscribe to the channel as I have plenty of Elder Marine content and more to come let me know your thoughts in the comments below and until next time I will see you in the chill night take care and have a wonderful evening

Channel: SmoughTown

Views: 259,401

Keywords: elden ring lore, elden ring, elden ring story, elden ring gameplay, lore, explained, elden ring lore explained, elden ring endings explained, golden order, erdtree, marika, radagon, those who live in death, maliketh, elden ring story explained, elden ring explained, night of the black knives, carian, ranni, nox, eternal cities, black knife assassin, sellia, ordina, leyndell, godwyn, godwyn prince of death, is melina ranni, Age of stars explained, dark moon, rennala, renna the witch, renna

Id: yUJRjE-Ufz8

Length: 75min 23sec (4523 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 23 2023