One of the most difficult aspects of translating
a large project over a period of time is trying to use terminology in a way that
consistently matches the source material. Generally, as long as the intended meaning comes
across, inconsistency isn’t that big an issue, but in a game like Elden Ring,
where every word carries weight, very minor differences can have large impacts on
interpreting its lore. In this episode of Fear the Old Lore, we’ll take a closer look at Astel,
Naturalborn of the Void, glintstone sorceries, and the primeval current comparing the English
and Japanese for more insight into their lore. I’d like to give a special thank you to all my
Patrons and Channel Members, as your support helps make it possible for me to continue working
on these kinds of videos. If you enjoy this kind of content, please consider liking, commenting,
and subscribing. And if you enjoy talking lore, feel free to join the Discord server. The
link is in the video description. Let’s begin. I’m not sure why exactly Astel is
called the “Naturalborn of the Void” since its Japanese name is closer
to “Bastard” or “Spawn of Darkness,” which is reflected in the way Astel’s flail is
called the “Bastard’s Stars.” It’s unfortunate the localizers chose things this way since it
may have inadvertently erased some of Astel’s connection to darkness by focusing on the void.
Fortunately, the version of Astel we can find in the Yelough Annix Tunnel “Stars of Darkness,”
preserves some of Astel’s ties to the dark. The reason this is relevant is because of how
Astel ties into the spell Eternal Darkness, which says it’s “a lost sorcery of the Eternal
City; the despair that brought about its ruin made manifest.” I know there’s a little
bit of confusion surrounding the spell, in that some read it as though Eternal
Darkness was manifested out of despair after the Eternal Cities were destroyed, but
the Japanese for it is a little clearer in that despair in the form of Eternal Darkness is
what brought destruction to the Eternal City. At first, this sounds at odds with the
Meteorite of Astel and the Remembrance of the Naturalborn which say that Astel
leveled the Eternal City and took away their sky. However, once it’s put into context
that Astel was born from darkness instead of the lightless void, then it becomes
easier to tie Astel to Eternal Darkness. One issue with this interpretation is that it
may require a recontextualization of what’s understood about the Nox. It’s often thought
that Astel may have been sent by the Greater Will to steal the night skies away from the
Nox, but this doesn’t have to be the case. According to the Japanese dialogue for the Finger
Reader Crone at the East Raya Lucarian Gate, the Raya Lucarian “glintstone eventide” is
a form of night created through glintstone. If Glintstone can artificially produce the night
sky all on its own, it most likely coincides with the way the Nox live under a “false night sky”
in the Eternal Cities. Thus, when Astel attacked, it didn’t need to steal the true night sky away
from the Nox, just the false one underground, and the Nox could have already been banished
by the Greater Will long before it happened. Of the Eternal Cities, the nameless one in
Deeproot Depths is the only one to lack the false night sky found in Nokron and Nokstella, making it
the most likely target Astel struck. Additionally, compared to the other cities, the nameless Eternal
City’s buildings are more clearly destroyed. It’s unclear why Astel is found beyond the
Lake of Rot instead of Deeproot Depths though, so there may still be more
to the story we don’t know. One aspect of Astel’s lore
that tripped me up for a while was trying to reconcile the idea that Astel
was a shooting star that fell from the sky and happened to wind up in the Lake of Rot and
Yelough Anix Tunnel. If Astel came from the sky, I would have expected more visible impact craters;
however, things started to make more sense to me once I realized meteors don’t necessarily
have to come from the sky in Elden Ring. According to spells like Founding Rain of
Stars, the stars can be summoned directly into the Lands Between, and meteors
fall readily from spells like Meteorite. With this in mind, it’s entirely possible
that the Nox were already banished underground by the Greater Will, and their despair
manifested itself into Eternal Darkness, allowing Astel to enter the Lands
Between and level the Eternal Cities. This doesn’t help explain the presence of
the Astel in the Yelough Anix Tunnel though. I’ve wondered whether the existence of Astel and
the Fallingstar Beasts are tied to meteorites that can be found near them like in Sellia
Crystal Tunnel, Altus Plateau, Mt. Gelmir, and the Yelough Anix Tunnel, but since the Astel
in the Lake of Rot and the Malformed Stars in the Uhl Palace Ruins, Ainsel River, and Perfumer’s
Grotto don’t have any signs of meteorites nearby, it’s a bit more difficult
trying to make that claim. This is pretty heavy speculation, but with
glintstone’s ability to create a “false night sky” and harbor souls within it like
in Sellen’s Primal Glintstone, there may be a chance they can create a
direct channel into the primeval current and allow the souls of the
cosmos into the Lands Between. Our art draws upon the powers
embedded in glintstone. But what is the nature of such power?
Glintstone is the amber of the cosmos. Golden amber contains the remnants of
ancient life, and houses its vitality, while glintstone contains residual life,
and thus the vitality of the stars. It should not be forgotten,
that glintstone sorcery is the study of the stars, and the life therein.
A fact lost on most sorcerers, these days... With Graven-School Talismans saying they’re
created from masses of sorcerers who are grafted together to become the “seeds of stars,” the
stars may be amalgamations of souls themselves. Depending on how literally we should take the
idea that “glintstone is the amber of the cosmos,” it could mean that glintstone comes from the
sap of the Erdtree. With the souls of the dead returning to the Erdtree through Erdtree Burials
and the Erdtree governing the order of the world it might be possible the Erdtree could influence
the stars, but there’s reason to doubt this. Multiple item descriptions mention a time before
the Erdtree, and the Founding Rain of Stars sorcery says it’s “thought to be the founding
glintstone sorcery. The glimpse of the primeval current that the astrologer saw became real,
and the stars' amber rained down on this land.” Compared to Starlight Shards which glow
blue, Amber Starlight shines with gold, and may coincide with the way Elden Stars says
“it is said that long ago, the Greater Will sent a golden star bearing a beast into the Lands
Between, which would later become the Elden Ring.” It’s possible to take Founding Rain of
Stars to mean it was what led to the Elden Ring and Elden Beast entering the Lands
Between, especially since the Telescope says, “the fate once writ in the night skies
had been fettered by the Golden Order,” meaning the stars’ fate wasn’t always guided by
the Elden Ring. However, both Amber Starlight and Elden Stars’ description are written as
hearsay, so they can’t be taken blindly as facts. Oddly enough, this kind of leads
into a chicken vs. egg situation. Which came first? The amber of the
stars, or the amber of the Erdtree? With Founding Rain of Stars saying it’s
considered the “founding glintstone sorcery,” it may have been what led to the creation of
glintstone through the Elden Ring and the Erdtree. While I really like “primeval
current” as a localization choice, one aspect of it that gets a little lost in
translation is that it has connotations of being the “origin” or “source” of something rather
than just being incredibly ancient or primitive. Of course it’s unclear what the primeval
current is the “source” or “origin” of, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if it
was related to life or the Outer Gods. Sellen’s Primal Glintstone and the Primal
Glintstone Blade make it clear one’s soul can be transmuted into Glintstone,
and the Crystalians that cleave close to the ideals of the primeval current are alive,
yet inorganic. If the lifeforms created through the primeval current are inorganic, it may
explain why Astel and the Fallingstar Beasts are presented as having skeletal faces, or
why its knowledge seems beyond human ken. Those who do come into contact with the primeval
current often end up going mad under the crushing weight of its knowledge. “When Azur glimpsed
into the primeval current, he saw darkness.” The same darkness Astel spawned from. Azur “was
left both bewitched and fearful of the abyss,” and both his and Lusat’s crowns
replaced their brains and skulls, transforming them into near-inorganic beings.
Just like Azur, “When Lusat glimpsed into the primeval current, he beheld the final moments
of a great star cluster, and upon seeing it, he too was broken.” While he may not
have beheld the same darkness as Azur, Lusat’s skull was transformed into
something resembling the eye of Astel. The only sorcerer who touched the primeval current
but didn’t seem to lose their mind completely is the Errant Sorcerer Wilhelm. Wilhelm in particular
is fascinating to me because his guidance of grace caused him to be confronted by the Raging Wolf
Vargram, who was cosplaying as an Empyrean’s shadowbound beast. Of course Vargram may not have
been acting at the behest of the Two Fingers, but the possibility that Wilhelm’s guidance
of grace would lead him down a path which opposed the Roundtable Hold, or one that led
him to the primeval current could imply that everyone’s guidance of grace is different,
or that not all paths lead to the Elden Ring. And with Vargram wielding the Godslayer’s
Greatsword, the weapon of the Gloam-Eyed Queen, an Empyrean chosen by the Two Fingers, it’s
really easy for speculation to run wild. By and large, the primeval current and celestial
magic are associated with an inert or inorganic form of life, and attempts to harness its power
resulted in the creation of things akin to puppets and golems. Since Seluvis uses Starlight
Shards in his potions to create puppets, and the Starlight Shard’s description says they were used
in the intoxicating draughts of the Eternal City, we can infer the Nox may have been the
most knowledgeable about its application. With their Swordstresses and Night Maidens being
willing participants to become puppets, they may have experimented with trying to let alien
lifeforms enter their bodies, or they may have tried to attain immortality through body-swapping,
perhaps with Silver Mimic Tears, similar to the way Sellen utilizes her Primal Glintstone since
Mimics are said to lack the will of the original. What we can learn about the production
of puppets is that the blue life within the stars seems to be
able to overwrite consciousness. Amber Starlight on the other hand seems to be a
mystery. If I were to guess and make an analogy, it may be that blue starlight provides form,
and amber starlight provides substance. In other words, the stars and primal
glintstones may be vessels for life, and amber might be akin to the
soul that can fill such a vessel. If this is true, it may help contextualize how
Graven-School Masses can become the “seeds of stars,” or why a “malformed” star might lead to
the creation of Astel or a Fallingstar Beast. After the Founding Rain of Stars’ amber starlight
fell to the land, could the Nox have taken it and put it into a vessel of their own? Would that
be how Marika came to possess the Elden Ring? There’s nothing to say for sure, but I do like
toying with the idea that Radagon could have been an external manifestation of the Greater Will that
could have taken over Marika’s body, perhaps in a way that’s similar to how the silver tear Asimi
would confront the player in its cut questline, but it might not fit into the final version of the game since the Nox seemingly failed to
artificially create their own Elden Lord. For what it’s worth, there are a few surprising
similarities between Astel and the Elden Beast in that they both use nebulas in their
attacks, but not quite enough for me to say there’s a definitive connection. Aside from
that though, there may also be some conflicts in the timeline with when the Nox would have
created mimics and puppets particularly since it would have presumably happened after
the Age of the Erdtree had already begun. Nonetheless, with Founding Rain of Stars
bringing the stars’ amber to the Lands Between, and the possibility that the amber was the
Elden Ring, Elden Beast, or Elden Stars, there may be more of a connection to the
primeval current and the Elden Beast after all. This may have also been what angered the Greater
Will if it never intended for the Elden Ring to be sent into the Lands Between, so there’s
plenty of room left open for interpretation. If the Nox being banished underground is what
led to their despair, and their despair was made manifest through Eternal Darkness, inadvertently
summoning Astel, the “Spawn of Darkness,” it makes me wonder if despair or strong emotions in general
can be far-reaching and have disastrous effects. The Nomadic Merchants who were buried under
Leyndell summoned the Frenzied Flame by chanting a “curse of despair.” I don’t know if this means the
Nomadic Merchants also summoned the Three Fingers, or if they’re just summoning the power of its
flames through some connection they’ve made. The connection to the blood star may
have happened the same way since it was said to be discovered through
eternal darkness, but unfortunately, it does use a different set of kanji than
what’s used in the Eternal Darkness sorcery. They have very similar meanings, but there’s no
way of telling if they’re meant to be the same, kind of like with Ranni’s “dark moon”
and the “black moon” of Nokstella. Nonetheless, being able to discover something
like an entire star after having one’s eyes gouged out and going blind is the kind of
storytelling I really enjoy and reminds me of the way something like the cosmos in
Bloodborne is metaphysically omnipresent, and I hope more is expanded upon the
concept in future updates or DLC. I realize much of what I shared can
still be inferred from the text, but with there already being so many red herrings
throughout Elden Ring, I hope these revelations can help advance future discussions about
the game. Thanks for watching. And remember: Fear the Old Lore
