Elden Ring Lore | The Deathbirds and Ghostflame

[Music] [Music] the lands between are a perplexing and magical place a world that feels far distinct from the grounded reality of our own world and this is no more evident than in eldon ring's presentation of death indeed death has always been a central focus to from software games but eldon ring really takes it to the next level by having death represented by multiple different areas of lore death is one of the great philosophical and existential questions to ponder as it is in our world and the denizens of the lands between have varying beliefs and practices when it came to dealing with the end in the modern archery era the systems of death have been hijacked by the archery and golden order fundamentalism with archery burial being the nominal idea of ideal death and yet there exist far older symbols of death relics of different funerary rights whose very image still elicits a tie to the other side there are those who cling on to their own practices beliefs and divinity separate from the dominion of the art tree the death need guidance and corralling and in these different systems as we will see there is always a shepherd or an usher figure a psychopomp a spirit who helps guide the dead according to their factions beliefs and desires in this video i'm wanting to sift through the ashes to structure and understand the concepts of death and how it functions in the lands between so join me this week as we analyze the lore of death itself before we go any further guys remember that if you like elden ring lore content then please consider subscribing to the channel as i have hours worth of lore content for you to sift through now at the outset of this video i also want to shout out a few creators whose work has been instrumental for me researching this video this includes vati v limit crunch and last protagonist a special big thanks to last protagonist for providing translations and vati in general for sharing his own lore notes with me which helped me visualize the section on ghost flame immensely a perfect place to start when analyzing the concept of death is with ourselves the tarnished we who are dead and yet live oh rise now he tarnished he dead who yet live the call of long-lost grace speaks to us all death is one of the first aspects of the lore that the player will stumble across even if they don't think too deeply about it in an interview with weekly famitsu in march 2022 miyazaki describes that the tarnished the player are descendants of those who are originally exiled alongside godfrey and now i'm going to quote that passage from wheatley famitsu the people who live in the lands between have a golden glow in their eye from the grace of the archery some people however have lost that glow and they were called the tarnished and exiled from the lands between the player character and the other tarnish to appear in game are descendants of such people after the elden ring was shattered the guidance of grace appeared to the tarnished and others who could not die telling them to return to the lands between gain audience with the elden ring and become elden lord and that is how the game begins so we are descended from those who are originally exiled by america and the greater well alongside godfrey when grace left his eyes in america's own words my lord and thy warriors i divest each of thee of thy grace with thine eyes dimmed ye will be driven from the lands between ye will wage war in a land afar where ye will live and die well perhaps that might serve you in you of a maiden's guidance even at this stage it's clear that america expects the tarnished to go outside the lands between battle and die before being brought back by grace in due course and from what we see of godfrey we know this to be true godfrey is shown to have died at some point as a tarnished in the introductory cinematic before being brought back once more as godfrey the first elden lord so right at the offset of the game we are immediately introduced to the idea that there is some degree of fluidity in regards to death and it is a necessary building block of any from software game in every single game death and the respawn mechanic has been built into the lore itself in dark souls the very nature of our curse is more directly addressed right from the onset and while it has a lot of depth and nuance notably explored in dark souls 2 the idea of the curse of the undepth is more head-on tackled in dark souls whereas an elden ring the idea of being tarnished is a little bit more obscure in the lore and isn't as essential as the curse of the undead is to dark souls and while that is true another facet of the lore is thrown on our face early on and that is the idea of the guidance of grace which exists to guide us tarnished and indeed the archery and the two fingers need us and so will not let us die and thus grace keeps us alive and while this is greatly implied in the game it is directly stated by miyazaki himself in an interview with miyazaki in the overture of eldon ring book miyazaki says the following on the immortality of the tarnished the immortality of the tarnished stems from the power of the guidance of grace tarnish that die outside the lands between are given new life through the guidance of grace and are beckoned to the lands between this is basically the start of the game i guess the guidance doesn't want the player character to be freed so this now mechanically makes sense as when we die we do resurrect at the last sight of grace but what is grace how does it have the power to literally prevent us from dying grace seems to be an extension of the elden ring of its power and influence as the golden rune item description suggests that having grace is the same as holding these runes it reads as follows grace that dwells within the inhabitants of the lands between the lingering trace of gold runes are the nourishment for the development of any tarnished provided a finger maiden can be found runes are fragments of the elden ring and if runes are grace then it means that grace is an extension of the elden ring hence why those without grace are seen as tarnished as dirty as without grace the tutorial notes the fact that grace is essentially a tool to transmit the art tree's directions for the tarnished in short grace is just another extension of the archery and eldon ring and through it the tarnished are bound to its power shackled beyond even death until their task is completed or their usefulness is outlived the point of highlighting this example is that it is the first example of the many mechanisms through which death is manipulated and corralled by the archery and other forces it also shows this idea of being guided throughout this video i'm going to talk about the idea of cycle pumps and we'll get on it soon but in short cycle pumps are spirits that guide the dead and the tarnished are the dead that yet live and so in a way the tarnished are kin to the other dead that are manipulated and corralled by these psycho-pomp forces throughout this video we will see many examples of how the dead are seemingly lost and will only act according to the guidance they are given is this any different from ourselves when we first picked up the controller and played the game would we even know what to do had it not been for the guidance of grace i want you just to bear that in mind when we talk about all the other dead that are shepherd throughout this video that we the tarnished may be no different and with that being said i now want to pick up one of the oldest symbols of death in the lands between the death rates and the death birds the only thing that really bothers me about the death rate birds is how unhealthy they look and that's where today's sponsor comes in hello fresh will keep you as healthy as a dragon by helping you eat more conveniently healthily and sustainably and delivered right to your doorstep get pre-measured ingredients in tandem with a tremendous variety of tasty 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hellofresh for sponsoring this video and now back to the lore to me the most interesting facet of the practices associated with these sinister birds is that they were developed in a world absent the artery before the earth tree was around and for the player this should immediately be intriguing as the lands between we actually get to explore is so dominated by the erd tree both physically and culturally and we learn that these death rates were developed outside the archery's purview before its arrival from the explosive ghost flame spell which reads his following sorcery of the servants of death in the time when there was no archery death was burned in ghost flame death birds were the keepers of that flame as i discussed in my archery lore video clearly there was a period of time when cultures and society developed and existed outside of the dominion of the archery and given its function in regards to the processes of death it makes sense that prior mechanisms and funerary rights needed to exist i argue in that same video that there was a period of history between the reign of the ancient dragons and queen america's reign in which there is no elden lords that we know of and there must have been some sort of power vacuum unlike what we see in the current archery era where everything is culturally dominated by the our tree itself as such in this period it seems as though there was an outer god that was able to spread and its rights its death rights would become the dominant funerary right of the world at this era i'm of course referring to the outer god that is linked to what we know as the twin bird a being we learn of via the twin bird kite shield which reads as follows shield featuring a vividly painted twin bird the twin bird is said to be the envoy of an outer god and mother of the death birds this is the only direct mention we get of this twin bird and it's associated outer god yet that being said this small piece of evidence actually gives us a lot to work with and chew over first of all it directly links the death birds and their rights to an outer god as well as placing the creation of these death birds at the feet of this twin bird an envoy to that greater god now this twin bird is described as an envoy and an envoy is of course a messenger meaning this bird was a messenger or representative of this outer god as vati says in his great video on the death related bosses the image we get of this twin bird is indeed very reminiscent of the mythological phoenix the phoenix is of course a bird heavily associated with death through its endless cycle of death and rebirth however i think we can also learn a little bit more from the appearance of this bird as it is known as the twin bird and we can see from the shield that this title is reflective of their actual or presented appearance two heads and two halves of a body both represented with different colours if i was to guess what this is representing i would hazard that one half is meant to represent life and one half is meant to represent death symbolizing its remit over the cycle of life and death in crunchy's health and lore video in his pinned comment he makes an interesting supplementary point to the video content he states the following in that comment the twin bird kite shield depicts a black bird against a red background and a red bird against a blue background if the blackbird is somehow represented or manifested by the death birds it begs the question what the red bird is in alchemical symbolism this would represent the raven and the phoenix symbolizing kind of physical death and release into the spiritual world whether literal or metaphorical with country that these halves are different facets of the one whole and that the death half is most certainly manifested by her raven death bird children though this does leave us curious about the potential children of her other half or whether it is actually also represented by the death birds and we are just missing some of the greater picture we don't know much about the earth god that's connected to this twin bird but as with all outer gods that we know of quote unquote in the game we have to assume that their actions of their followers and their servants in this case the death birds must be representative of their ideals and their remit so to speak and at this point i'd like to shout out another great lore video and it's mr hulthan in his lore video on the outer god of the death birds which i will link below mr hulthan suggests that the outer god of the death birds is one of death and of battle the reason he does this is he thinks that there is a link between certain items that suggest that this outer god rewards those who die in battle the first item that he points to in order to prove this theory is the blue feathered branch sword an item that we'll see later is closely associated with the death birds and is an item that is dropped by them in fact and its description reads as follows the heart sings when one draws close to death and thus does one cling so tenaciously to life to render up a death worth offering and this similar idea is also reflected in the red feathered branch sword which reads as follows the heart sings when one draws close to death and a glorious end awaits those who cling so tenaciously to life as mr hulthan states it suggests that those who cling so desperately onto their life who fight for their life are to be rewarded in death and indeed this idea of people being rewarded for being great heroes is something that's also reflected in archery traditions for we find many uh great hero ashes who seem to have been granted an archery burial as an honor for their actions in life and this repeated theme and this repeated idea seems to give water to what mr hulthan is suggesting here that this outer god is possibly one of death and of battle that rewards warriors after life mr hulthan then also links it to the health and steeple sword something i will cover later in this video for other reasons but in short mr hulfen repeats the idea that is said on the health and staple item description that shows that those who have died a warrior's death will be guided by the hellfin in the spirit world ie be rewarded for their heroics and battle prowess it's a really great video and actually one of the best explanations or theories on what the outer god of the death birds could represent so i'll link that video below and highly recommend you check mr hulton out and give them a sub but moving on from the outer god and back to the death birds themselves i want to talk about their symbolism their appearance as ravens or crows as is always the case with from software nothing is really done or selected by chance and neither is choosing to make this branch of death custodians to have a crow or raven form as birds crop up throughout history and cultures as a symbol or messenger of death and no birds are more associated with death than the crow or the raven to many people internally they already associate ravens and crows with death and the reason this is the case is because they are carrying eaters no doubt on the battlefields throughout history these birds would have been a common sight among the dead and thus where there was death there would be crows i will soon discuss the idea of psycho pumps spirits who guide and shepherd the dead a common theme in eldon ring as far as i see it and birds and crows are quite often seen as psycho pumps which is why many believed they gathered near where the dead were that these birds were getting ready to guide them and ultimately this is what the death birds actually do in game they gather the dead and do guide them to the other side and they fall into the category for me of death shepherds or ushers they are just one of many and we will discuss the rest soon and while the crow or the raven might be closely associated for death with us in the real world for those in the lands between it was the death birds that were closely associated with death synonymous with it indeed indeed we will see that the association of death and these birds is so deeply ingrained within the culture of lands between society leading to people taking the form of the bird to represent death in many instances and to me that death is so synonymous with these birds suggest that maybe they were one of the first representations or first manifestations of death in the lands between indeed the fact that we can face so many in the game spread throughout the map shows how important the spread of this cult really was one great bit of lore that helps exemplify how important they are to archery society in regards to death comes from the hidden plumage item description a cut content crafting material from the game which reads as follows death's bearers were once said to have taken the form of birds symbolized by these black feathers but this does indeed carry over into their lore and to what their role actually is they were the shepherds of death overseers of an ancient funerary practice who presided over the burning of the dead within ghost flames and so now let's take a look at these funerary practices themselves the ghost flame and necromancy we learn of these practices by the instruments that they wield the death's poker the description of which reads as follows the birds are graveyard fire keepers it is said they rake out the ashen remains of the dead from their kilns these birds are the overseers as something known as the graveyard fires now being someone who pays close attention to semantics in these games this sentence is of great interest to me first of all graveyards now graveyards are not necessary in archery society for we have the catacombs as burial is not done in the ground as we would traditionally see it in the real world for example but in fact the dead are taken to the catacombs to have an archery burial to be reabsorbed by the great tree roots so what are the graveyards that we see everywhere in game well given what we've just heard in this item description i would suggest that most of the graveyards we see in game such as in lyarnia limgrave and the mountaintops of the giants are leftovers from this deathrate practice that was once overseen by the death birds and it wouldn't be the first example of us seeing the remains of other ancient civilizations and cultures strewn about the lands between built around by the new archery society this item description also suggests that in these graveyards there were great fires or kilns in which the dead were burned before their ashen remains were scraped out by these pokers fire pokers of course are actual instruments used for clearing out ash and moving around coals etc in a fire now the burning of the dead is of course a very common practice throughout real world history such as an ancient greek society ancient rome and hinduism just to name a few however to my own experiences and cultural background it specifically reminds me of western protestant crematorium funerals of which i have personally attended one for those unfamiliar with these practices the deceased are placed into a coffin the coffin is then placed into a kiln before the ashes are then retrieved and typically placed into an urn and then optionally those ashes can be buried or kept by the family so quite clearly that is the role in which these death birds play overseeing the funerary rites of a sort of crematorium practice and specifically the dead are burned within something known as the ghost flames and this is told to us by the rancor pot item description which reads as follows in times of old the dead were burned with ghost flame and from those cinders arose vengeful spirits the ghost flame is a curious phenomena because while the death birds did use it to burn the dead it also seems to have been produced from the dead themselves this is something we learn from the story of the fallen hawks the zombie lake expedition that found themselves trapped underground and desperate and in their desperation they took to burning the bones of their fellows and produced the ghost flame and this is something we can learn of by the ghost flame torch which reads as follows metal torch that burns with cold ghost flame two of the fallen hawks who prowl the underground rivers when the band's last embers were used up in their long search they began to burn the bones of their fellows acquiring the cold ghost flame but sealing their fate as dwellers of the underground for all eternity so it appears as though burning bones produces this ghost flame but it isn't as simple as that it seems as though burning the bones of the dead produces the ghost flame because it is intrinsically linked to the dead and the spirits within and i say this of course because we also see the ghost flame in another circumstance when those who live in death are resurrecting something pointed out by crunchy in his health in lore video now we do have a fairly tentative way of explaining why the ghost flame appears at this point of resurrection because it seems that ghost flames are also tied to vengeful or strong spirits as seen in ancient death rancor where it is implied that from these ashes can be found vengeful spirits and i would suggest that the ghost flame appearing around the bones of a resurrecting undead is symbolic of their vengeful spirit once again inhabiting their form and refusing to dissipate entirely this idea of those who live in death being a life form that is in essence a spirit that refuses to die is something that can be backed up with a translation and once again i turn to fellow content creator last protagonist who has provided a fascinating translation of one of rogier's dialogues in english rajie says the following you may find this peculiar but i've discovered something in my examination of the knight of the black knives these souls have committed no offence they have every right to life only they happened to touch upon a flaw in the order however according to the last protagonist's own translation of the japanese he reads it in a slightly different way you probably think i'm strange but i'm in the middle of researching the knight of the plot they haven't made any transgressions just living determinedly and because of that they've run into a flaw of the order living determinedly i.e wanting to live so much to keep themselves alive so much that they in essence refuse to die and thematically this ties into something i've looked at already the blue and red feathered branch sword talismans which introduced the idea of people holding on so tenaciously to life and again the repeated thematics seems to give some weight to this translation by last protagonist and this determination to live to me well explains the manifestation of the ghost flame and the resurrection of those who live in death they simply refuse to die they are living determinedly the point being is that the ghost flame is a little bit more complex than it first appears to be it isn't just a flame from the bones of the dead it is intrinsically linked to the dead and their spirits i think this idea is further backed up by the curious grave violet item description which had me perplexed for a long time before i had pondered these very questions its description reads as follows a purple flower that blooms in graveyards material used for crafting items the hue of ghost flame it's believed to be useful in calling forth spirits now the grave violet is of course used in one recipe the rancor pot and so is a material that produces spirit fire or ghost flame now what follows is of course my own speculation but i believe the fact that this plant specifically grows in graveyards means that its growth must be connected to the dead and or their spirits the fact the flower itself can be used to summon ghost flame and the associated rancor spirits to me suggests a sort of cycle that these flowers are directly connected to the dead they have grown from the dead whose spirits are in turn connected to the ghost flame and thus these flowers these grave violets are infused with the same power the ghost flame isn't just born from burning the bones it is an element a metaphysical element intrinsically linked to the dead and their bodies which is why we can get the ghost flame from the bones of the dead or this flower which has grown from those areas in which the dead are also located the understanding that the ghost flame is an intrinsic part of the spirit and the dead rather than just a practice or magic of the death birds is essential in understanding how it is also associated with other death practices and i find the grave violet to be a cornerstone in that understanding but more on those other connections later just bear in mind for now now returning to the idea that the death birds are able to summon vengeful spirits through the rancor this does seem to fit into the logic of the world given that we know the dead can be controlled and summoned via ash in the case of the death birds these vengeful spirits these rancor can be summoned or found within the ash raked from the fires of the death birds and this is something we learn from ancient death rancor which reads as follows summons a horde of vengeful spirits that chase down foes they are cinders of the ancient death hex raped from the fires of ghost flame by death birds now this is very similar to our ability to use the spirit calling bell to summon forth spirit from the ash and yet the rancor spell suggests that the death right birds were able to manipulate spirits in a more primitive degree recreating a vengeful facet of the deceased rather than a one-to-one creation of the spirit like the spirit calling belkan they draw upon this exact aspect of the dead the vengeful aspect and they fire forth a one-tone version of the spirits within the ash is it possible the more sophisticated version of spirit calling via the spirit calling bell was developed by building off the practices of these death rape birds the practice of summoning vengeful spirits i certainly think this is plausible as both practices do directly drop on an aspect of the spirit from the ashes of the dead the idea of death birds harnessing the power of spirits is further augmented by our understanding of the augmented wings that we see on upgraded death birds known as death rape birds in the game these versions of the death birds have huge magical wings in which set a number of ghostly people it turns out that death birds would have been supported in their death rates by certain priests and this is something we learn via the death rate spear which reads as follows the priests became guardians of the birds through the rite of death which also serves as an oath sworn to their distant resurrection now this is a really interesting idea of dying so you can be revived in the future and it's something we will come back to when we visit the mausoleum and the soulless demigods but in general it seems as though collectively the practice overseen by the birds and their priests were known as the right of death the death rates hence the death rate birds i find it interesting that there were clearly humans involved priests that served the manifestation of an outer god the death birds and perhaps these priests were priests to that outer god itself the outer god that we discussed earlier in this video and no doubt the priests venerated the death birds and their twin bird mother as well these priests wielded these staffs and made an oath to become the guardians of these death right birds in exchange for future resurrection being dead now and being brought to life in the future and as most will be aware these are the priests that are visible in the wings of the deathrate birds the upgraded versions of the death birds and it appears as though this is how they act as guardians as the presence of these wings and the presence of these priests do grant the death birds the deathrate birds far more power than their lesser kin to me the deathrate priests present as ghostly visages in the wings of the deathrate birds are channeling their powers granting the death birds their enhanced powers and this is evidenced by the ghostly glow present on these models that is not present on the regular death birds and for those who ask me to explain why these death birds are so difficult to kill there's your answer the death rate priests and the wings of these powered up death birds are granting them all those horrendous powers so these priests are the reason why the death birds are so traumatic to fight now the death right priests are interesting to me because i've suggested that they channel the power of the death birds and now i want to segue into a subject that deals with another human trying to resurrect and channel these powers for their own ends i'm now going to talk about the subject of necromancy and the necromancer garris that we meet in game let's try and unpack this lore by first of all looking at garrus himself he is wearing these sages set tying up with the name of the cave the sages cave that we find him in this set reads as follows thick burgundy robe a tire of the wise sages who were deemed heretical evidence that the wearer was driven from town i discussed this in my millennial lore video but we do meet another sage-wearing person in game sage gary in that video i argued that the town that gary was driven from as is mentioned in the sage set was in fact celia not only was he located near celia but is also very intimate with the secrets of the town and its sorceries which themselves are secret however gary has become an adherent of rot and its incantations which he can teach to you and i conclude that it is these interests and veneration of the rot in general that have had him driven from his former town now i don't necessarily conclude that garrus is also from celia however i would suggest that he has suffered a similar and parallel fate that he was once a sage of some order only to be expelled for his heretical magics yet for garrus these heretical magics were necromancy not wrought and this no doubt led to his expulsion from whatever town an order he was a part of before his motivations for doing so for studying a heretical sorcery is quite clear to us as we can learn his motivations via the weapon he wields the family heads flail and that item reads as follows three bludgeoning copper heads attached to a handle by chains signature weapon of necromancer garrus the heretical sage the heads were made to resemble those of his wife and two children so for those familiar with dark souls 1 and its story may find this story extremely familiar to that of the pinwheel a necromancer who stole some of the power of nito the gravelord in order to resurrect his wife and child here garrus's aims can definitely be interpreted as similar for what else could a man who is already mourning his wife and two children want with necromancy clearly he only has one goal in mind the resurrection of his lost family now as to why i have included necromancy in this particular section it's because the branch of necromancy we encounter in eldon ring appears to be an offshoot of the sorceries of the death rate of the death birds for example we can tie the idea of rancor and controlling and guiding these vengeful spirits as something linked to the death rates and the death birds and in fact is the ancient death rancor which helps ties us together and i know i've already read it but i will read it again just for the purposes of this section summons a horde of vengeful spirits that chase down foes they are the senders of the ancient death hex raped from the fires of ghost flame by death birds this now appears to be an ancient art that has been resurrected and revived by the necromancer garrus for the rankorole spell reads as follows sorcery of the servants of death summons vengeful spirits that chase down foes once thought lost this ancient death hex was rediscovered by the necromancer garrus so this is an interesting bit of lore for a number of reasons firstly it appeals to my obsessive need to understand and place the elden right timeline it uses the term ancient indicating to us that the time of the death birds and their associated practices happened a long time ago as well as the fact that it was a long time ago when the world was absent the art tree secondly it also links this branch of necromancy to the death rays but unlike the death rates the necromancer garris is not as interested in the whole race as a whole as a religious practice but is instead interested in the ability to control the spirits from the ash of the long dead and his need to somehow control and recreate the spirits of his lost family and this motivation and objective seems to have been achieved to some degree and this is backed up by the skill found on garris's weapon called familial rancor and the description of that skill reads as follows gently rattle the copperheads to summon vengeful spirits that chase down foes the anguish of a spouse and children invites a cursed wrath given the description of this skill and the description of the rank roll spell i conclude that garrus has looked in and researched the spells of the death rate to harness the spirits of his long dead family and in a way he has succeeded but as we have already discussed the death rates and their control of rancor only provides a primitive aspect of the deceased spirit it isn't a one-to-one recreation it only draws upon their vengeance and while garus has managed to resurrect his family in a sense i can hardly believe this pale and tortured imitation was his end goal and thus i see garros's story as another one of tragedy something far too common an elden ring so while what we learn of the death rate birds may be threadbare their legacy is far more prominent as these birds essentially become symbolic and synonymous with death we see this on the attire of the raven mount assassins including their cloak which reads as follows a ritual implement for transforming into a death bird if only by imitation we are the birds of prey bringers of death these assassins want to represent themselves as the bringers of death to strike fear into those who would cross them and to give weight to their promise as assassins and thus they have taken the raven appearance of the death birds but not only that they attempt to mimic their movements by diving on their opponents from above as we learn via their raptor talon weapons this is all because the assassins want to appear as death themselves and to this world there's no clearer indication of death than the death birds it becomes clear that in the world of elton ring the most recognizable symbol of death is the death bird as it might be the skull froze in real life and this really speaks to the cultural importance that these death birds once held they were death in a world before the artery and even now people take their symbol as the symbol of death but ultimately the death birds aren't just death themselves they were shepherds shepherds of the dead guiding the deathrate priests and burning of the dead and controlling and shepherding the vengeful spirits found within the ash throughout elden ring many of the beings associated with death play this role as guide or shepherds and so in the next chapter i do want to have a look at the idea of psychopalms and analyze the different shepherds and ushers of death that we find throughout the lands between i've mentioned the word psychopomp numerous times throughout the video and now it's time to really get into it the word psychopomp is derived from an ancient greek word that is used to describe a being or spirit whose purpose is to help guide the dead to the afterlife this idea is very much a repeated theme in elgin ring as the dead are frequently described as lost and or needing guidance and leadership for example the roses acts reads the following usher of death roses who shows the path to the catacombs throughout the lands between is depicted on this ritual axe the death easily lose their way and have always been in sore need of a guiding hand the usher of death roses is quite obviously the most clear example of a psychopomp in the entire game and is actually one of the first characters that we will probably come across in our exploration of the lands between he is of course the statues that provide the blue guiding light that lead us to catacombs what's interesting is the idea that there are those who become lost in death and this is an idea that we will see repeated when we examine the tibia mariners shortly to me it gives the impression that the dead are a sort of resource that each system belief can gather and guide in order to dominate the world's life cycles unlike the death birds however it's clear that roses is a being or cycle pump that is aligned with the status quo to be a guide to our tree burial hence the blue lights that rose's statues produce that guide us to catacombs the sites of great root burial rosa seems to guide and protect the dead in other ways not only does he shepherd the dead to the roots of the great tree but he also seems to overlook and protect the catacombs in varying ways he very much is the psychopomp of the earth tree order an urgery burial converse to the golden order we of course have those who live in death and for an in-depth look into this area of the lore i recently completed a very long video on the subject and i highly recommend it and will link below however in regards to the subject of guides of the dead i think most of you will know when i'm going when i speak of those who live in death where of course speaking of the tibia mariners a good place to start with the tibia mariners is of course with the tibias summons item description which reads as follows summons a grip of those lost in death the dead have long been left to wander what they need is leadership as i mentioned earlier we repeatedly see this idea of the dead becoming lost or that they require guidance but tibia summons actually takes it further by capitalizing a title those lost in death which i take to be a state of being comparable to those who live in death again it gives me the idea that the dead are in this wayward state and it's up to the varying factions to gather this resource to their cause whether that be through psycho pumps like roses or the tibia mariners the tibia mariners while not mentioned much in in-game lore are actually dripping with lore if you excuse the pun especially when it comes to their appearance they are once again linked to the aquatic themes of the prince of death stagnation kigari and centipedes again all subjects i dive deeply into in my godwin lore video however in short the aquatic facet of the tibia mariner makes sense especially in relation to the relevance of stagnant water to those who live in death however to most their appearance is most likely more evocative of a famous character of myth the most famous psychopomp of them all i of course refer to haron the boatman of the river styx when sending their dead to the afterlife the ancient greeks would often place a coin on their dead and this was so they could pay the fee demanded by haron when they reached hades upon receiving the fee haron would ferry the dead across the river styx that divided the land of the living and the land of the dead no clear a psychopomp could there be and i think there would be very little argument that the tibia mariners are not meant to evoke this same image and in concert with the tibia summons we clearly see the tibia mariners are guides to bring those who are lost in death into living death to join those who live in death indeed we see them use another tool of theirs to this very end their long trumpet which doubles as both a paddle and instrument given the greek themes behind psychopomps and the tibia mariners i liken this trumpet to the cell pinks a trumpet-like instrument of the ancient greeks and you can see the long design of this instrument is very close in appearance to the same one that the mariners use historians have speculated that this instrument the cell pinks was a military instrument meant to give commands before a battle started and in eldon ring i speculate that tibia marina uses it any similar fashion they use the trumpet to guide and direct the dead those who are lost to our world those who are lost in death and upon hearing the trumpet they are guided to the tibia mariner's side being pulled into our world and becoming those who live in death and we do see this throughout our fights with the tibia mariners that those they summon are those who live in death new warriors for these mysterious boatmen as vati quite rightly points out in his death boss lore video the tibia mariners can also be related to another talking point in regards to the psychopalms helping's steeple as the tibia mariner in the mountaintops of the giants drops this item and as we will see it really will continue on these themes of guiding the dead so let us start to unpack the ideas found in this item by reading its item description greatsword patterned after the black staple of the hellfin the lampwood which guides the dead of the spirit world the lamplight is similar to grace in appearance only is said that it can only be seen by those who met their death in battle again we quite clearly see the reoccurring themes of the guidance of the dead and i believe the choice of the name also illustrates this the spelling of hellfin may not necessarily mean anything spelled out but phonetically it is the same as the german word helfin meaning help or assistance in english and this makes sense given its role in helping the lost spirits of the dead and finding their way to the spirit world now the idea of a spirit world is a fascinating concept for the lands between especially when we get visual hints that there may be a spiritual realm in eldon ring and it's made even more tantalizing than we get nothing else mentioned on it apart from this health and steeple item description and it is at this point i'm going to recommend another excellent video by the creator crunchy who did a deep dive on the concept of a spirit world in eldon ring and he covers this in his health and lore video which i've already mentioned a few times throughout this video i cannot recommend it enough and please go and give crunchy your support that being said let us break down what we know of the hellfin according to the description of the sword is modeled after a lampwood or as vati's translation in his video states a lamplight tree and again thanks to vati for sharing these translations so in short the sword seems to mimic a black fort tree that appears in the spirit realm as a lamp light to guide them with a sort of grace the fact that this is a tree that is also giving off a sort of grace suggests it may be some kind of mirror of the archery in the shadow realm and again this is something that crunchy touches upon in his video vati theorizes that this sort of grace mimicking light could be read due to the red gem found in the sword itself now the red is interesting because when the tibia mariners summon those who are lost in death to become those who live in death a red light can be seen as they are summoned as if the tibia mariners are harnessing or mimicking the power of the hellfin and i do think this red light helps lend credence to vati's ideas that this is a red light rather than a golden light as it is for grace and ultimately this idea of a light guiding the dead to where they need to be is also a theme that is backed up by the fact it's what roses does as well he uses a blue light to get the dead to his intended destination another facet of this sword that's interesting in regards to the greater themes of death is the weapon art attached to it which is called ruinous steeple which reads the sword in ghost flame ghost flame is something we have discussed at length in this video and it ties us back to the death rate and the death bird as crunchy points out in his video the steeple of the health and sword is very similar to the death rate staffs and also the red feathered branch sword talismans they were once used in ancient death rituals doubtless the death rates given these items drop from the death birds is it possible that the hellfin tree was the model for these ritual implements as used by the death rates and if so does the ghost flame on the sword and the possession of the sword by the tibia mariner tie these two practices together in my opinion the answer is both yes and no i think that dee's initial dialogue makes it clear that the tibia mariners are essentially manifestations of the death root and shepherds for those who live in death they are spawn of the mark of the centipede heed my warning the village here has been touched by death and worse yet it is home to a mariner so they are something separate from the deathrate birds and this is of course reinforced by the fact that the tibia mariners are the main holders of the death root and this ties them very firmly to godwin yet those who live in death do seem to burn in the ghost flame after they die before resurrecting the ghost flame is wielded by the death birds as reeved on the health and blade which is in turn borne by the tibia mariner the ghost flame even appears tied to the mausoleums as when we clear these skull barnacles from their feet a burst of ghost flame is seen and i would speculate this suggests that the mausoleum attracts these souls or gathers them and this is because of the soulless demigod entombed within a nexus of death if you will there are a lot of connections here and going even deeper we can find further connections between all of these subjects which can make it confusing as crunchy states in his health and video the ghost flame could easily be described as fire drained of colour a white flame the eclipse tightly associated with the soulless demigods is also described as the sun drained of its colour and as described in my prior godwin lore video last protagonist's comment on a v limit eclipse video makes it clear that the japanese or kanji for eclipse means worm eaten corroded and the word roses is a latin word which means not eaten away so what is the connection between all these subjects well first of all i wouldn't make it too literal and think that all of these practices are linked i think it's just a thematic connection for death as english speakers there's lots of things we're not understanding that thematically these are all death subjects and thus they will repeat a lot of the same imagery and themes and language to evoke a certain feeling from their audience it's just that culturally we are not up to the same speed as some of the japanese players will be but if you do want to try and tie it together in the lore as to why there's so many overlaps between these ideas we all have to bear in mind that all of these practices all these funerary rights all these agents of different outer gods and the greater well all draw from the same place the spirit realm or the realm of the dead i have already discussed how the ghost flame while often associated with the death birds is actually more an intrinsic part of all dead and all spirits hence why it can be summoned via grave violet which has grown from carrion as well as why the ghost flame is associated with those who live in death necromancy and the health and sword as in the real world funerary rights cross over with one another they take ideas from one another and ultimately they deal with the same grand questions that we do in the real world and this is why traditions in the real world and a nailed it ring when it comes to death often deal with similar subjects just in slightly different ways my point is is that we have highlighted several different systems and different masters behind these different funerary rates and the different cycle pumps that have their different motivations for guiding the dead to their own ends but you will see similar forces at play in each of the rights because they deal with the same subject and that is the dead and their spirits so with that subject fairly well covered there's some other connected subjects that i want to cover before we wrap up the video and all things death and i move on from seeing death for the thousandth time the last subject i want to tackle is the mausoleum and the soulless demigods i'd like to start this section off by first of all acknowledging that i have previously discussed this subject matter in regards to its connection to godwin in my last video and in mikala in a far previous video so there will be a degree of repetition but i will be covering it in more depth and more holistically and you will see some thematic illusions and conclusions that i come to that you won't have seen in my prior videos so let us start with what i see to be the introduction to this faction so to speak the dialogue of the ghost from the weeping peninsula who says the following so this dialogue presupposes that the mausoleum appears to hold a relation of marika a demigod this is then something we can attribute to all mausoleums when we consider the mausoleum circle which reads the circle depicts the mausoleum bell which rings in constant mourning for the soulless demigods so these structures and their soldiers are entirely formulated around deceased and soulless demigods that are contained within this is of course in some way linked to godwin's fate given he too is soulless and is referred to as the first of the demigods to die as mentioned by the likes of roger and as described on the golden epitaph item description so we do need to consider how these demigods within the mausoleums became soulless of course it would have been after godwin's death to me it doesn't make sense that they too were killed on the night of the black knives we looked at the mechanics of this event during my godwin lore video but in a nutshell the assassins actually physically carved the curse mark into godwin's flesh not only that but it was due to rani's machinations in having the curse mark broken in half that would cause godwin to die only in seoul and therefore this exact scenario would need to be repeated for each of the soulless demigods thus unlikely however that being said i am not gideon all knowing and if you want a well-reasoned and contrasting view i would recommend a reddit post by gorsexi who makes some excellent and well-researched arguments in favor of the demigods intentionally being killed during the nights of the black knives and so i'll link that below and highly recommend you read that after this video however in my opinion what is more likely is that these demigods instead came into contact with the death root that was spread from godwin's corpse from the roots of the great tree and upon death they became the soulless and given the connections found between the mausoleum and the revival of soulless demigods at castle saul it does seem to me to firmly link them to godwin's condition i.e the soullessness brought about by his own undeath so why are they where they are now in the mausoleums in the way that they are well firstly it seems as though they are preserved in this manner because of the loyalty of their liege followers who seem to want to preserve their fallen lords until they are able to be revived a good source of evidence for this is a description of the mausoleum knight armor which reads as follows armor worn by headless knights who endlessly watch the wandering mausoleum a self-inflicted curse that ties the spirits of these loyal knights to the land having willingly beheaded themselves so that they may serve their masters in death so the fact this says their masters suggests that these warriors were the forces of the demigod when the demigod was alive they are their soldiers in life and in death and this can explain why the mausoleum soldiers and knights have armor in keeping with the rest of the forces of the demigods of the living world this piece of lore also indicates that they then became headless on purpose through some sort of ritual that bangs these warriors as undead immortal guardians tied to their purpose indeed we do see every single mausoleum warrior and nate is without a head and in fact this also matches up with their masters each of the soulless demigods found within the mausoleum are also without a head but why the warriors seem to do this as some sort of ritual to become immortal guardians but why are the demigods themselves beheaded while this is a fairly threadbare area of the lore there are some interesting connections that we can make we have already commented on the fact that the funerary practices of the world sometimes overlap when it comes to ideas beliefs and symbolism and in this case there's a most notable overlap with the mausoleum knights integrating death bird imagery of course looking at the mausoleum knight armor set we can see the wings of the death bird have been taken upon their backs symbolizing death now this is of interest to me because the decapitations associated with the muslim knights could also be tied to death bird imagery one-eyed dragon powell made a comment on v limits eclipse video suggesting that the sacrificial acts may have had some connection to the process behind the mausoleum soldiers decapitation firstly axes are often used historically in the process of decapitation and secondly this axe is also symbolically tied to the death birds for its description reads hatchet used an ancient sacrificial right a death bird is depicted as a malevolent deity the power of the right yet lingers given the mausoleum knights have already incorporated death birds into their symbolism it isn't a stretch to imagine they also could have built this ancient sacrificial right into their practices while i would like to stress that this is speculation it does tie in very neatly the beheadings and the acts obviously tie in together nicely and it ties together with the death bird imagery that the mausoleum knights already use furthermore the axe mentions an ancient right and that the power of this right still lingers as if there is a real power to the sacrificial right being performed is it possible that this ancient rite mentioned in the hatchet is also the right mentioned in the mausoleum knight armor i will leave that thought with you but for me it is definitely possible and i thank one-eyed dragon powell for that insightful comment the only other question remaining about this burial practice about having the solas demigod in the mausoleum is why the demigods themselves are beheaded before being interred so to that end i do have a pretty speculative theory that i'm basing on my own knowledge of real world burial practices and decapitations so just bear with me a moment so decapitation is obviously something that has happened in real life throughout history for varying reasons most often for banal punishment or execution and you wouldn't think there's much here to relate it to the burial of a soulless demigod however in some cases there are symbolic purposes behind decapitations for example some are done to prevent a soul from reaching the afterlife or it was often used to prevent the unquiet dead from reanimating i.e zombaes fear of revenants or the dead rising is a fear that's reported all the way back in the roman era and dismemberment was hoped to be a cure for such reanimation and relating this back to the soulless demigods i do not believe these are random or just a artistic choice but are instead a measure to make sure that the bodies of the solas demigods are able to remain as they are until their resurrection comes consider godwin's fate his body has grown grotesque and monstrous due to his lack of a soul and as we learn from luteal's ashes as well as the events at castle seoul the eventual goal of the mausoleums and their knights is to protect their soulless demigod until they are able to be revived and in comparison to godwin's corpse the corpses of the solas demigods seem pretty secure pretty nice and pretty uncorrupted they are preserved i may obviously not be right here and i am stretching credulity a little bit but i do believe the idea of decapitations putting the unquiet dead to rest feels right to me these are corrupted soulless demigods at the end of the day and bear in mind that this practice of the mausoleum knight seems to be supported by the archery society given that luteal earns an archery burial through her actions as a mausoleum guardian meaning that the practices of the mausoleum must not be contrary to the beliefs and ideals of the archery and i think therefore by decapitating a soulless demigod and preventing them from joining those who live in death not only do they preserve their lord until their revival but they also prevent the spread of those who live in death and therefore it makes sense why a hero like luteal giving her life to defend such an ideal would be given an archery burial but that is just my speculation on the matter and for me that wraps up my understanding of death and burial practices and psychopomps in the lands between i've already discussed the significance of the eclipse and the greater ideals of castle saul in my godwin lore video and myklalore video and i can also recommend v limits excellent eclipse video for now that is me done with the subject of death however and in a way it acted as an appendix or part two to my godwin videos but in many ways it went far further than i thought it would and so i do believe it warranted his own video i think between these two videos and the american archery video i have a good concept of life and death in the lore so i will be moving on from it for the time being and i think the next video on my list is the dragons if you like this video please give it a like and subscribe as i do do long form elden ring lore content completely primarily at the moment so if you like lore i'm the place to go please let me know your thoughts in the comments below if you think i missed anything pertinent regarding death and burial that wasn't included in this video or any of my other videos and i'll happily have a look at it i'd like to thank my members and patreons for supporting the channel and if you too would like to become a patron of the channel please consider becoming a channel member or looking up my patreon until next time guys let me know what you'd like me to cover next and i will see you on the slopes of the mountain tops of the giants take care and have a wonderful night [Music] you

Channel: SmoughTown

Views: 380,155

Keywords: elden ring lore, elden ring, elden ring story, elden ring gameplay, lore, explained, elden ring lore explained, elden ring endings explained, fundamentalism, golden order, erdtree, marika, radagon, those who live in death, great tree, elden ring story explained, elden ring explained, elden ring godwyn, elden ring fia ending, night of the black knives, fortissax elden ring, deathbirds, deathrite birds, death rites, ghostflame, ghost flame, necromancy, rosus, the helphen, tibia mariner

Id: N0fBLJYQ1Dc

Length: 65min 53sec (3953 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 10 2022