Elden Ring Lore | The Outer Gods

oh the outer Gods nebulous influential and utterly intriguing very few topics in Eldon ring are of more interest to the community than the outer Gods no doubt as a result of their enigmatic presentation and permeation through different aspects of the lore bloodborne presented the idea of cosmic gods to the soulsborne community and as a result it is easy to view the outer Gods through a similar lens and this is entirely reasonable given the massive Cosmic elements present throughout the game and the fact that the term outer God is a term used in the expanded lovecraftian Mythos but is this the correct understanding of these beings or are we as a western audience missing something is there something deeper that the outer gods are meant to convey for whether you ascribe to the theory that the greater well is a Supreme Being or not some of the interactions between the greater Will's order and the outer Gods makes our understanding of the latter confused instances where we see these apparently opposing forces playing a role within the Elden Ring's domain or instances of contradictory information regarding two fingers and imperians do these ether gods in fact present something different concepts of fundamental laws made manifest brought about through the power of the Elden ring itself only to find themselves excluded by the current order in this video we will do our best to answer the question of the outer Gods by looking at it more carefully from a Japanese cultural perspective so join me this week guys as we try and answer the question what are the outer gods but before we start guys remember that if you like Elden ring lore then please subscribe to the channel as I have hours of Elden ring lore content for you to enjoy I was wrong that is how I want to start this video and it isn't the first time that I've admitted such a thing and I do think it is important for me as a lore theorist and for us as a lore Community to continually change and evolve our perspectives on certain subjects in my last lore video on the greater well I posited the theory that the greater well as the god with a capital G and I stand by my premise that the greater well is something distinct from the outer gods however something that I acknowledge that didn't quite fit right was my characterization of the outer Gods themselves I posited that the greater well was a supreme Creator God and the outer gods were a rival Cosmic beings akin to bloodborne's old ones viewers were right in pointing out holes in this argument that I did not address properly such as describing the hatred Gods as Cosmic deities trying to corrupt the creation of the greater well as pointed out by commenters the outer god of the death birds for example is not a corrupting Force rather all we see of the deathbirds is that they are gods of the dead and overseers of the funery raids I acknowledge that these types of questions did hinder my characterization of the outer Gods as lesser Cosmic deities to the greater will and ultimately it has led me to try and understand the outer gods and what they are really to that end I do think that we of the western lower community have a lot to gain by tapping into the ideas being discussed in the Japanese lore community and that is in part what I aim to do in this video is at this point I need to make it clear that some of these ideas are not my original ones rather they came to my attention via the great Cosmic Axolotl a viewer who commented these ideas on one of my community posts and in turn they cite the famous Italian YouTuber tobacco no Mako is their original Source in episode 38 of their Eldon ring quote playthrough so I will link that video below and again feel credit to create Cosmic Axolotl for making me aware of such ideas and nuances I am going to paraphrase the relevant comment while showing the original on screen the term used in Japanese for the outer Gods is sultanaru and this term is used to define beings outside of a group or system and in this case the golden order and thus it is what makes them external or outer gods the idea that they are cosmic beings is largely a western understanding and again the greater well is never referred to as an outer God and linguistically in the Japanese it is more likened to the biblical God and indeed this was the main thesis of my greater well lore video and I will link that Below in case you haven't watched it carrying on with a comment great Cosmic Axolotl suggests that the outer gods are more closely aligned with the Kami of Shintoism the vain manifestations of nature which came into existence via the Eldon ring as they are all connected to Earthly Concepts such as blood disease and death to have this idea elaborated on and explain to me in more detail I actually reached out to subaku's translator called Mirko a source of these exact ideas and a respected member of the lower community and work with sabaku to provide translations for their videos and so I am very grateful for their support in helping me with this video they were able to confirm that this is indeed the prevailing opinion in the Japanese lore community and I will quote them now and show the quotes on screen as the commenter said it is more than an idea of mine it is one of the most popular interpretations in the Japanese community and I having played the game in Japanese have found this interpretation more logical and concrete for some evidences in game the general idea we have in the Western Community is that the outer gods are a group of cosmic deities that fight against each other for control over the lands between but the more you delve into the lore more you see that this theory is pretty weak the key detail to understand is that even with a western aesthetic Elden ring and other Souls games are Japanese games therefore they mainly and heavily refer to Japanese cultural Concepts and Kami is a concept not so akin to one we have in the western world Kami are more akin to Natural Forces part of nature itself they are water plants trees Sun Moon snow Etc better gods in my opinion and in the opinion of the greater part of the Japanese Community just as that power's energies that flow through the world and that creatures can Channel these energies with prayers and rituals so thanks again Merkel for providing that information this idea immediately clicked with me as it answers a lot of the issues that I have with my own conceptualizations of the outer Gods it makes them fit more neatly into some of the situations we see in Elden ring but what are the Kami Wikipedia defines them as the following enchantel Kami are not separate from nature bar of nature possessing positive and negative and good and evil characteristics they are manifestations of Musubi the interconnecting energy of the universe these are interconnected Spirits or entities that are of nature part of the interconnected energy of the fabric of the world and they are not gods in the traditional Western sense rather they take form of Concepts fundamental concepts important to life and more importantly they are not necessarily external to the greater will or the Elden Rings World they are in fact part of its creation but only external due to their exclusion from the current order's agenda and indeed later we will look at other spirits in the world that may also be Kami but are not described as outer or external such as the Blue Fairy of shifra river so where did the county of this world come from if they are part of the Elden Ring's order as Mirko suggests when did they come to be in many videos I've discussed the idea that the arrival of the Eldon Beast and the greater well is the beginning of all ordered life on this Mortal plane for those who need reminding of this event I am of course referring to the description found in the Eldon Stars incantation which reads as follows it is said that long ago the greater well sent a golden star bearing a beast into the lines between which would later become the Eldon ring I believe that it was thus arrival of the Eldon ring the ordered Life as We Know It that it was its presence and influence that fractured the one great and stimulated diverse life miracle was also helpful enough to give their opinion and the opinion from the Japanese lore community on this subject as well and again I quote them no for this interpretation about the outer Gods being Natural Forces more than Cosmic Gods it is implied they were born the instant the greater well sent the golden star into the lands between being the Elden ring with this interpretation it has implied the natural forces are born with it I.E the outer gods therefore this theory proposes that these outer gods are in fact manifestations of the fundamentals of life and are a result of the Elden Ring's ordering of Life they are the fundamentals of Life made manifest of course something that is very fundamental to our lives is making time to eat healthy and that's where 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back to the lore I referred the subject of God to last protagonist a friend of the channel and respected Authority on the Japanese translation of Elden ring on the subject of outer gods they said the following it's kind of difficult to broach linguistically the word for outer Gods can be taken more along the line of being external but it is also used to mean outer gods in lovecraft's work the issue is in English when we hear outer we tend to think of outer space but those connotations aren't as strong in Japanese these ideas from last protagonists line up with axelotel's comments and mirko's information in which they claim the common idea that in the Japanese lore Community the outer gods are only outer or external because they are external to the current order only and that the connotations of outer space are less prominent in the Japanese itself so to break down this Theory the idea posits that instead of the outer Gods being rival Cosmic beings competing for control of the lands between and the Mortal plain that they are instead a consequence of the Eldon ring spirits that govern certain facets and elements of the world that was ordered by the ilden ring spirits of nature entities that represent certain fundamental concepts and they're as much a part of this world as anything else but they're only external because they fall out with the current ruling order their exclusion is essentially political or ideological from those who exist within the lands between this sort of idea helps me reconcile some of the difficulties I've had with perceiving the outer Gods as rival Cosmic beings and the main example of this is related to millennia's story we learn the following from Rani on the subject of empyrians 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 Rani McLeod and Millennia are the emperions of the current ERA and we learned that this was opposition once held by America as well via malachith's remembrance this implies that all empariants are chosen by the greater will as potential candidates to godhood that all gods were once imperians a sort of nominee system and that these are the three nominees to take over America's Reign that is of course until the events of the shattering where the greater will will ultimately abandon the demigods but that is of course Another Story and Another tangent But ultimately what this means is that at one point Millennia was a successor candidate to take over from goddess Marika and that's initially seems to mesh well with the information found in melania's remembrance for it reads meccola and Millennia are both the children of a single God as such they are both emperians but both suffer deflections from birth one was cursed with eternal childhood the other Harbor dropped Within this is a detail that I have discussed previously in my Millennial lore video in which I had last protagonist verify with their own translation that is likely the auspicious nature of Millennia and mikla's birth that led to their election as an emperion I.E that they are born of the single-bodied god of America slash Radigan this again is reinforced by melania's great Rune which reads Millennia is daughter to Queen America and Radigan and her great Rune should have been the most sacred of all again this reinforces the idea that because Millennia is born of Marca Radigan The Immortal Rebus ruling partnership that she and her twin are special and thus they were chosen to be an emperion alongside their twin Mercola yet this has made a little bit more confusing via a dialogue from Gary an adherent of the order of rot who wishes Molina to ascend to goddess of Wrath they say the following she was born an imperian carrying the Scarlet wrought an empirion is no mere demigod in the age of the Elden ring and queen Manuka the precious empyrion was born a new God to forge a new order I've always found the terms and language used here by Gary very interesting I've always explained it away in my head that Millennia was born and elected an emperion but later was infested with the Scarlet Raw but that isn't really the truth because in the remembrance of Molina it says that she was born with this affliction so she must have been elected as an emperion despite the Scarlet wrought within her and in fact Gary even seems to suggest here that she was chosen to be emperion because she could be a potential goddess of raw and so if that is true then it really does contradict the kind of prevailing idea that the outer gods are rival Gods because if the god of raw is a rival God to the greater well that is seeking to usurp the greater will Molina was born with the Scarlet wrought why was she chosen as an emperion to succeed Lord America and one of my favorite Rattata score Elden ring lore videos he covers a concept called the greater will doesn't care about the golden order they are thesis being that the greater well is only concerned with a form of order being imposed no matter what form that order takes I will link that video below but in essence what ratatask or uses to illustrate this point is the engraving of the Eldon ring found within fire Mozilla which clearly has a different more chaotic and more fool ruin makeup than the more stripped back one of the golden order and they suggest that the dragons and they are Elden Lord placidusacks brandish the Elden ring in a more early time and imposed a different type of order far removed from what we would see in the later golden order I too ascribed to this idea for the golden order has now faltered and failed and as the tarnished we are elected by the two fingers and thus the greater will to replace it with a new order and we can rebuild the Hilton ring as we see fit and establish a number of new orders depending on our beliefs the order of fracture the perfect order order of Despair or the order of the dusk born whatever order we choose we will still be Elden Lord because order is being imposed and it doesn't really matter what form that order takes what if the greater world's intention on electing Millennia as emperion was that Molina could be the goddess of the new age in age of raw sanctioned by the greater will until now most of us including myself assumed that the outer God of rot was a rival Cosmic deity but as I've just explained this doesn't really make sense given her election as emperion Gary even describes this new order which could be brought about by Melania ascending to godhood replacing America I have dedicated myself to her and to the resplendance of the order of rot the cycle of Decay and rebirth if this theory is correct that the utter God of rot is not a rival God rather an entity that represents an element of Life disease or rot or decomposition and is only out here because it falls out with the current established order and indeed Merkel has an excellent point to make on this idea of it being external to the current order and again I quote them these Gods these Kami are considered outer because they are opposite to the golden order founded by America if you notice most of these outer gods are tied to the concept of death rot is decomposition flame of frenzy is chaos and absence of order and the formless mother is blood and loss of blood Etc this is a very accurate and astute observation by Mirko as the golden order is very much founded upon the removal of the Rune of death and the confinement of deaths and death as we learned via The Mending Rune of the deaf Prince which reads as follows the golden order was created by confining death and death thus this new order will be one of death restored but now the golden order has failed Queen Marika has disappointed the greater will and now the time has come for a new order altogether and thus Millennia and her potential order of rot was considered and she was elected as an emperion by the two fingers because the outer God of rot and its Scarlet rot was not a rival Cosmic entity to the greater well merely a fragment or an element of the world that had found itself outside the current order and with Melania the potential to reverse that position had come again the idea of Millennia being elected as an emperion a successor chosen by the two fingers has always been an uncomfortable point for the lore for me but instead should we see the outer God of rot as an element of the world that was created by the Elden ring then these interactions and confusions began to make sense so while this helps us to understand some of the difficult and uncomfortable areas of the lore involved with the outer gods and their interactions with the greater well we can't just ignore the fact that the outer Gods is a term that is used in the lovecraftian Mythos for even as I pointed out in my greater well lore video YouTube Creator Doug mangai any deleted translation video points out that the outer Gods can linguistically be tied to the idea of lovecraftian beings the old great ones and even in English the term outer God is used in the expanded Lovecraft Mythos specifically in the Call of Cthulhu RPG game so if I am claiming that the Arctic gods are more akin to Kami manifestations of natural forces then how do we reconcile it with the clear Illusions to Cosmic beings well in my greater well lore video I highlighted the dialogue given to us by hayeta who via the three fingers gives us an account of how diverse life on this world came to be thank you thank you I have touched them the words of the three fingers as your maiden allow me to Divine them or that there is came from the one great then came fractures and births and so for the greater will made a mistake torment spare Affliction every sin Every curse everyone born of the mistake and so what was borrowed must be returned melt it all away with the yellow chaos flame until all is won again the fracturing of the one great is of course a very Cosmic event in of itself it is an event that is meant to be Beyond human comprehension so straight away this fracturing event which would eventually lead to the formation of these Kami is in of itself a cosmic event and thus as suggested by Cosmic Axolotl these gods or Spirits are a consequence of the fracturing itself of the Elden ring itself and that in a way does indeed make them Cosmic and yet despite these Kami being more like manifestations of natural Concepts instead of the traditional lovecraftian Cosmic Gods this doesn't mean that they cannot be worshiped or take form for example enchanto the kame known as suratahiko or kame the leader of the Earthly Kami is depicted as a large man with a beard and each of the Kami can be communed with and worshiped in their own ways likewise we can see the outer gods have their own adherence despite being manifestations of elements there are mentions of the Servants of rot Lords of rot and the faithful of rot led by the likes of Gary there are mentions of the Servants of death and the death rate press and of course when it comes to the formless mother we have the mogwin Dynasty and the bloody fingers and in addition we get an example of the outer God of rot being able to manifest some kind of form via the Scorpion Stinger item description which suggests that it was able to take the form of a scorpion so I do want you to bear in mind that while I am proposing that these outer gods are manifestations of natural Concepts that doesn't mean that they don't still share commonalities with gods of other pantheons but that being said the way in which they manifest is what helps set them apart from cosmic beings the way in which their elements are ever present in the world of Elden ring and again there's a point made by Mirko and again I quote them the outer gods in my opinion and the opinion of the greater part of the Japanese Community are powers energies that flow through the world that creatures can Channel with prayers and rituals that would explain why despite the Scarlet Rock being sealed inside a lake by the blind swordsman it still manifested in Molina when she was born it is a power an element in the Elden ring universe and again this is another astute observation by Mirko it's always been a bit of a mystery how the outer gods are able to interact so freely with this world or why they interact in which the way they do instead if you just see them as a component part of this world everything does begin to make sense and the more their worshipers and adherents spread their element or helped to cultivate that element in the world the more that that outer God that came has a foothold in this world and so with that being said I do know what to analyze some of the main outer Gods through this lens of the Kami I think a good place to start would be with the outer God of raw as we have already discussed this in a decent amount of detail so if we assess this outer God in this new light what is this cami's domain well as we have already discussed Gary describes it as a cycle of decay in rebirth indeed we get further elaboration on this order via the poison Mast incantation which reads those who dwell within poison no rot All Too Well the death that begets life that comes to all equally that is to say it is the cycle of rebirth put into practice this is a cycle of life being born from death and of course this is best represented by the Scarlet wrought the medium of the outer God of rot a corroding force of death and a medium through which this outer God can enforce the idea of Life coming from death and disease for fans of the Warhammer Universe this idea probably isn't that hard to grasp as this is essentially also the idea behind nurgle the chaos God of disease and pestilence who doesn't really see himself as a god of death but rather one of life life that comes from death and disease a God that sees viruses and bacteria as much a life as anything else like nergal's various diseases I see this Scarlet rot as something maybe more than a natural disease it is a manifestation of the god itself and this explains why it cannot be cured as a normal disease could be the rotting sickness that afflicts Millicent has no cure when the earth tree flourished even the demigods could not Stave off its effects despite their nigh godhood the Scarlet wrought is not like the other poisons we find in the world it is truly an Unstoppable Force because it is the purest expression of this kami's domain and indeed we see the cycle of life from Death anywhere we find the Scarlet wrought while the Scarlet wrought eviscerates all other forms of life it touches from this death comes New Life the Kindred of rot the silverfish slash cockroach looking enemies in the game this type of life from Death is of course reflective of our real world where plenty of Life bacteria and other insects and carrion eaters flourish due to the carcasses of other life forms we see the Kindred of rot rising from Death like maggots and we see the carrion eaters in the forms of the dogs and crows throughout Caleb Khalid isn't as simple as a field of death it is in fact a new ecosystem where new life forms flourish and others die as it is in our world wrote the key death and disease are just natural parts of life and we should see this order of rot in the same way that ex-kami is just a manifestation of these natural Concepts and with that said I now want to look at another natural force that I believe is a good example of a Kami that plays in to the Scarlet rot's history and story we had previously discussed the idea of shifra river and my Scarlet wrought video we highlighted a Reddit post by the user nameless singer who confirmed that the word shifra is Gaelic for Fairy and thus posited that the Blue Fairy from the blue dancer Talisman was a manifestation of the river itself and that they provided the tools necessary to The Blind Swordsman to defeat and seal away the outer God of rot looking back on this now the shifra river and the Blue Fairy should have been our first hint for the natural forces of this world manifest themselves like god-like beings or spirits and that this Kami of the shifra river is probably similar to the other outer Gods but instead does not find Itself externalized by the current order we of course learned that these two Spirits came into conflict via the blue dancer charm which reads as follows the dancer in blue represents a fairy who in Legend bestowed a flowing sword upon a blind swordsman blade in hand The Swordsman sealed away an ancient god a God that was wrought itself so the spirit or Kami of shifra river was in opposition to the Scarlet wrought and this makes sense given the Shinto concept of flowing water and stagnation I have discussed this concept in a number of videos but in essence flowing water in Shinto is representative of life and stagnant Waters which in real life Harbor disease and parasites are representative of death and this idea is actually further alluded to in the blue cloth set of the warrior starting class and the description reads as follows the blue color of its fabric symbolizes brisk Waters as fluid and flowing as the sword in the hand of its wearer just as Still Waters turn foul stagnation leads to decay Warriors must remain ever drifting this warrior class is described as being part of a nomadic tribe in the class selection screen so not only do they represent the flowing Waters and thus life through their combat style but also in their actual lifestyle as Nomads are always on the move if you want a great exploration of these Shinto themes then I would highly recommend Acer Aesthetics video on the Eastern themes found in Silent Hill as they are similar to the ones found in Elden ring regardless given that both the rot and the shifa river represent these two important Concepts in Shintoism really does lend Credence to the idea that Kami are present in this game and I'm sure this would be immediately apparent to the Japanese audience but it's something that maybe just goes over our heads as a western player Miracle suggested that the outer God of raw is an outer or external God because it is linked to the concept of death and death of course has been very much confined by the golden order and thus anything connected to it would find itself external would find itself being an outer God but the golden order hasn't always existed so does that presuppose that the outer God of rot was not always the outer God of rot and indeed it is referred to in a different manner in one of the item descriptions in the blue dancer Talisman where it is referred to as the ancient god of rot an interesting semantic point to consider but speaking of death let us move on to the next of the outer Gods on our list and that is of course the outer god of the death Birds now this subject certainly highlighted one of the flaws in my original understanding of the outer gods in my greater well lore video in that video as I have said I was trying to argue the case that the greater World differs from the outer gods and clearly as you see from the premise of this video I still believe that to be the case however where that video was the weakest in my opinion was in the actual description or depiction of the outer Gods which at that point I understood to be Cosmic beings that essentially competed with the greater well to that end I characterized outer Gods as rival Cosmic gods they were attempting to spread their influence in the lands between by corrupting or altering the world with the element that is specifically associated with each outer God I.E the Scarlet wrought for the god of rot or blood for the formless mother however that obviously doesn't really work with the death birds and so I really appreciate everyone's input on that video as it does help me learn and investigate things in new angles so if you have any comments about this video please leave them below so with that said let us re-examine this God through the lens of Cami and how we can reconcile its role within Elden Ring's World firstly we know the death birds are connected to an outer God via the twin bird Kate 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 deathbirds this firmly links the death birds and their death rites to this outer God and thus are relevant for the content of this video we learned that the death rates were funero rights that existed before the Earth tree and thus before the Earth tree burial would usurp their position we learned this via the explosive ghost flame sorcery which reads as follows and the time where there was no artery death was burned in ghost flame death birds were the keeper of that flame with the idea of Cami now firmly explained this now makes sense this outer God is representative of death and guiding spirits to the other side in my video on the death Birds I likened them to the concept of a psychopomp Spirits whose purpose is to guide the dead to the afterlife the explosive ghost flame description describes them as the keeper of these ghost flame pyres and we learned that these pyres burned in graveyards via the death poker and furthermore we learned that priests assisted these death birds in these raids via the death ritual spear death parts are symbolic of death in the world of Elden ring as much as the skull may be for us in our world this is something we see in the Raven Mount assassins who take on the appearance of the death birds as though to represent death itself the reason they are symbols of death isn't just because of the death Bird's prominent role and administering death at one stage it is because they are our Spirits born of the Cami of death itself manifestations of the fundamental elements of death again the theory that the outer gods are Kami just makes more sense because it makes everything fit more neatly the reason death parts are symbolic of death is because they are of death and while the deaf birds and their outer God once highlighted a weakness in my argument I think they also highlight a flaw or at least fit uncomfortably in the theory that the outer gods are merely Cosmic beings why would the outer god of the deathbirds come to a rival outer God I.E the greater Wells World merely just to play a role in that world to assist in the shepherding of the dead of that world and some may see it just as a clumsy attempt to shoehorn some cool ideas about death and Cooley designed bosses into the game no again I think the idea of outer Gods being Kami spirits and manifestation of fundamental laws of this world again makes more sense the outer god of death fits into this world before the Earth tree administering death as part of the Elden Ring's creation and for many within Elden Ring's lore and World they understand that the deaf bird is the truest symbol of death itself with the golden order having confined death and subsume the processes of death via archery burial and removing death all together it is no wonder that the deathbirds have found themselves perched to the fringes of this world and indeed one can't help but notice their shattered forms perhaps connected to their irrelevance and externalization with the confinement of death their form reflects their lack of purpose or their confinement from the order of the world and now with that said I want to move on to the most visceral of the outer Gods the formless mother I think that the two prior outer gods were more important for the discussion and that to a degree the formless mother fits more easily into the template of Kami however that doesn't mean that there aren't some opinions of mine that I will be reforming from my lord of blood Lord video based on this new Kami Theory in that video I painted the outer God as most do a cosmic deity beyond our comprehension that chooses blood as its medium to communicate and interact with the Mortal plane and ultimately usurp it with a God and Lord of blood however with the introduction of the ideas of Kami we can begin to formulate an understanding of this being as well there is an obvious connection to blood I feel Mirko is on to something when they have tied all of the outer gods that we know of to a form of death and in this case winding as to cause bleeding a more different aspect a more visceral aspect of death for example the incantation blood burn highlights the formless mother's relationship not only to blood but specifically to winding as it reads as follows the mother of Truth craves wounds when morgue stood before her deep underground his accuracy blood erupted with fire and he was besotted with the defilement that he was born into blood is of course one of the most important fundamentals of Life a potent fluid that is essential for any living thing and thus the spelling of it is indeed tied to death but blood is also an important facet of life and thus the formless mother appears to be the Kami of blood and blood shedding but this is why Omen like morgue are such powerful tools for the formless mother as the accursed blood of the omen is far more potent as blood than regular blood and thus is a more powerful instrument for this Kami however there is another entity that is closely tied to some of these ideas that will need to be addressed here before I move on and I refer to the Blood star now I have essentially tied the mother of Truth to blood and the shedding of blood and there is one particular region of this world that really feels defined by shedding of blood and this is the land of reeds this is the region from which the samurai starting class owes their lineage and we learn a fair bit about this land from the armored description of the Samurai which reads as follows the land of reeds has long been locked in a miserable Civil War during which time it has remained alienated from the cultures of its neighbors Little Wonder that the entire nation has succumbed to the blood soap Madness or so it has said I discussed these ideas in my starting class lore video but I find the description of this conflict to be truly fascinating while the idea of a Civil War in a region clearly based on medieval Japan is most likely a reference to the real world sengoku era the era in which sekiro is based I think there is something else here the term blood salt Madness suggests that the Warfare may not be entirely mundane or normal and that another Force may be encouraging this constant shedding of blood indeed the land of reeds is almost entirely characterized by Blood for the read Lander appearance default in the Character Creator tells us that this is a land in which blood is a common sight and we know from all of their weapons that they are designed specifically to emphasize blood loss on their opponents this Blood sort Madness is best personified by one of the most infamous among their number okina we learn of this Legend via his mask which reads the more he sharpened his mind the more the absurdities of the world came into Stark relief and so akina renounced it all and Rose to a higher plane there was only himself his Katana and its mastery before long okina became a demon of a Swordsman okina really highlights what I am getting at here the shedding of blood for some was embraced with a sort of zeal that is almost religious in nature this item description describes okina as ascending to a higher plane as if he is an instrument of a higher Force in a way this is true for through okina's bloodsheding he is indirectly honoring and empowering the Cami of Bloodshed the formless mother thus it makes sense that he would come to the attention of her greatest servant Moog the Lord of blood and we learn of this meeting via the rivers of blood item description which reads as follows when morgue the Lord of blood first fell okina's sword and Madness upon his flesh he had a proposal to offer okina the life of a demon whose thirst would never go unseated it makes sense that the Lord of blood would raise okina up and harness his prowess for a bloodshed the more blood that is shed the more his agenda is progressed and having the Cami of blood at the centerpiece of the next order that is all well and good but there is a connection between the blood salt lands of the land of reeds and the Blood star we hear of this mysterious Force The Blood star via the thorn sorceries the Briars of sin and the Briars of punishment and they both read the following the guilty their eyes gouged out by Thorns lived in Eternal Darkness there they discovered the Blood star these guilty are of course the thorn Sorcerers that accompany the order of the fire monks and according to the item description we just read they were able to command these Thorn sorceries after they themselves were blinded with thorns and in their Eternal darkness and their blindness were able to commune with this entity known as The Blood star in a way this star is connected in a similar fashion to the way in which primeval Sorcerers commune with the Stars though in a more bloody and visceral way I discussed this in my primeval current lore video but in essence I discussed how the Primeval Sorcerers are able to view the abyss of space in which stars are born through connection with the Primeval current this Blood star also seems to exist any sort of Abyss the abyss of blindness but specifically connected to the blindness that is caused through violent means through eyes being pierced by thorns and this may make us Wonder does this Blood star have a tie to the mother of truth but why does it connect to the land of reeds well the starting Samurai class wields the red thorn Shield and these red Thorns can only symbolize one thing the Briars of sin and by extension The Blood star is it a coincidence that both the mother of truth and the Blood star are connected to this bloody region are they the same thing or do they just draw from the same well I leave it to you to decide but one thing that I would suggest is that some Kami appear in different forms so it could be that this is the mother of Truth in a different form however there's also the idea that there are different Cami for the same fundamental elements I.E there are multiple Kami of Earthly elements so both the formless mother and the Blood star could be seen as connected to blood and that they are simply Kami that share a similar class I highlight the similarities and I leave it to you to decide whether these two are linked or distinct entities a question that people keep asking me in comments or in my community posts or do I think they fail God or the moon or the stars or the Blood star or outer gods and quite frankly my answer had been I am not sure my previous understanding of the outer Gods as Cosmic beings made it fairly unclear what would fall within this definition and what did not however with this new understanding of Kami as Spirits or manifestation of natural forces I am more free to give my opinion yes I most likely believe that these forces such as the fail God and or the moon could be akin to Kami manifestations of certain fundamentals the announcement trailer for Eldon ring many years ago now stated that the Elden ring commanded the stars and so while we may view them the stars as Cosmic Powers they too are part of the Elden Rings world and so should they too not have a spirit that guides and binds them we learned via the hammer item description that smithing originated amongst the Giants and the vessel for the flame of ruin that the fire Giant's guard is of course known as the forge perhaps the failed God is the Cami of metal work industry blacksmith or simply fire not evil just a force that was painted as Evil by America's ruling order because it had posed a threat the fail God vs the Earth tree order the shifa river versus The Scarlet wrought the golden order versus death we have seen these as struggles between great Cosmic beings but I believe we are wrong these conflicts are just political based on the desires and Ambitions of those who pose their order upon the Mortal plane they are just opposing forces but opposing forces of the same system all the forces behind them all of these outer Gods fairies ancient gods and Spirits are all part of the same system they are Kami of a world commanded and forged by the Eldon ring they are the manifestations of the building blocks and elements of this world but this of course leaves one massive elephant in the room the frenzied flame if it too is an outer God of this world then how does it fit in these questions my friends are the subject for its own video and indeed this will be the subject of my next video so thanks guys that is my take on the outer gods and how we can maybe finally explain their place within the lore and world of Elden ring please let me know your comments below as they did really help me last time in changing my opinion on certain things and if you like this video please consider giving it a like as it helps out the channel immensely and obviously subscribe if you like Elden ring lore as I cover Elden ring almost exclusively at the moment in long form Elden ring Laura Essie's if you'd like to support the channel in other ways I do have a patreon and memberships if there are any particular subjects you want me to cover that you haven't seen covered anywhere else or covered on this channel please let me know in the comments below but until next time guys I will see you in the steps of the Morgan Palace take care and have a nice day [Music]

Channel: SmoughTown

Views: 308,279

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, roundtable hold, maliketh, gloam eyed queen, golden lineage, great tree, elden ring story explained, elden ring explained, night of the black knives, mohg, outer gods, frenzied flame, greater will, the lands between, malenia, formless mother, mohgwyn

Id: meK9BQGB6Ps

Length: 51min 23sec (3083 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 14 2022