Reacting to The Lore of Elden Ring's Bosses by VaatiVidya

hey guys welcome back to emulation I'm Emma this is emulation today we're going to continue watching some of vati's Elden ring lore videos you guys have been enjoying these and so have I so I'm going to continue Party video produces some of the most high quality well for our research lore videos on Eldon ring and I wanted to share my experience with you guys so that's what I'm doing I'm just going through varti's Eldon ring lore playlist at the moment so the next one on the list is the law of Elden Ring's bosses that served the golden order and hopefully we'll get round to the law of Alden Ring's Eternal cities today as well we shall see I'm excited to learn some things today sit back enjoy have a fun time with me many of Elden Rings bosses serve America's golden order in some shape or form whether they're loyal to it or enslaved by it so let's discuss all of these bosses starting at a time before order had even come to the lands between [Music] mountain tops of the Giants a name that makes it abundantly clear just okay we're 20 seconds into the video but I just wanted to say mountain tops the Giants my least favorite place in the Hall of Eldon ring not one thing is redeemable about that place for me who dominated this is my opinion of the world however it was not always this way according to the borealis's Mist incantation the ice dragons were once Lords of the mountaintops long ago until they were defeated by the fire Giants and chased from the peak and perched upon this peak stands an enormous Forge interestingly the chain rings of this Forge depict dragons which might be a reference to the dragons that once dwelled here that's cool for sure who built this Forge the art of smithing is said to have originated among the Giants and the craft was even once considered Divine so seems likely that at the very least they made good use of this fire very cool Sparks from this Forge would fall down and fertilize the smoldering flowers that bloomed upon the mountaintops and it seems like it was a pretty crucial part of life in this region the most ancient Giants here were called fire Giants and according to the burn o flame incantation they have long held a solitary curse to serve as keepers of the flame for eternity now traditionally in from software games curses are the domain of the Gods and indeed the fire Giants are cited to have borrowed power from one such God who is represented here by a single large red eye this God is called a god of the flame and it's believed to be able to inhabit fire itself as well as the bodies of the fire Giants who worshiped it the Giants shared borders with the astrologers who according to their this path sorry I'm not about to say anything particularly intelligent or astute but this path here was this not terrifying to anyone else like genuinely when you had to run across this and you were getting things launched at you like scary very scary also I just have to say that it immediately crossed my mind when it spoke about the God of flame being able to inhabit fire itself I started thinking wow like that's so conceptual so abstract and then I remembered that the last video was when I learned about the concept of deities not being tangible things and I decided not to say anything so um we shall continue nonetheless I will stop myself establish themselves in the mountaintops and and considered the fire Giants their neighbors the relationship here is implied to be friendly even collaborative maybe as the sword does combine the power of both flame and the power of the Primeval current that's glimpsed within the night sky the sword would go on to become a treasure of the carrion royal family and the carrians themselves are likely descendants of the astrologers generations later these carrion Royals would call upon their old giant allies for aid but we'll get to that in a moment the fire Giants also had another neighbor with whom relations were not so amicable further down the mountains just past the Forbidden lands roamed the Knights of zamor according to their armor these long-lived Warriors clad in biting freezing winds are said to have been the mortal enemies of the fire Giants since time immemorial according to their Weaponry these beings were devoted to Winter itself and had weapons styled after icy winds and bodies that were cloaked in swirling ice storms it makes good sense that such cold beings would be natural mortal enemies of the fire Giants yeah they commonly did challenge their larger Rivals but it seems like their true chance came when Queen America waged war against the fire Giants again America is the the problem here and she waged war against the fire Giants but why to take control of the lands between right but it seems like she created Civil War as a result of of being power hungry and greedy which is a shame really because she's A Bad Seed she's A Bad Seed the Knights of zamor gladly joined her offensive they earned great Renown amongst the order of the earth tree and many ancient Heroes of zamor became hailed as Heroes as the fire Giants were largely wiped from the face of the Earth after this war now up until now I've resisted calling the Giants evil but the reality is that in pretty much every item description their God is described as a fell God and the Giant's flame is a flame of Ruin and to be fair that God doesn't seem like a super nice guy I mean it only really opens its eye when the fire giant boss sacrifices a leg which is pretty metal but I'm sort of giving them the benefit of the doubt because I think it's pretty clear who's writing the history about this fell God here yeah many mentions of this God as evil clearly come about because fire itself was just this extremely taboo topic during America's age of the Earth tree and it's not just Giant's flame items that mention this fire in general was prohibited to those who served the Earth tree which was a pretty smart defensive measure especially considering that many rival outer Gods also have a flame of their own the formless mother has blood Flame the three fingers have frenzied Flame the outer god of death has ghost flame a Giant's flame in particular was capable of burning the Earth tree and that is a fact that clearly inspired the inevitable war with the Giants so I do get that to be fair if America knows that there is this Giant's flame that has a guaranteed ability to destroy the egg tree which obviously we see in Eldon ring then I get why she would want to wage war on them but I don't know it's kind of sad isn't it when you're climbing them out on tops of the Giants and there's like all of the like frozen corpses of giants just sort of left out to die I don't know it's a little bit depressing I think the whole thing is depressing that anyone who remotely threatened or opposed America's order was shunned or killed but yeah this is interesting I hadn't actually given much thought to the fire Giants really so this is quite cool um intrigued to see where this goes the Giants were deemed mortal enemies of the earth tree and they allegedly desolated nature triggered avalanches and whipped up storms of flame with their Roars clearly those who serve the Earth tree were afraid and perhaps rightfully so yeah I guess so led by Lord Godfrey the forces of the oak tree went to war the fire Giants borrowed from the power of the felgod to fight against the Earth tree but were defeated nonetheless according to the burn of flame incantation this released the fire Giants from their curse to serve as keepers of the flame all except one who the fell God still hides within and upon realizing that the Giant's flame would never die Marika left this last giant alive knowing it was bound to protect the flame for all eternity that's cruel leaving it cursed to protect the flame from someone like us in addition to the Knights of Samoa many lesser Giants were also roped into the war against the fire Giants these lesser Giants are called trolls and are confirmed to be a race that is descended from the Giants this relationship is clearer at the mountaintops where the trolls here still cast Giants flame incantations troll hammers were even once used as ancient ceremonial smithing thus it seems evident that the trolls and the fire Giants coexisted for a time and then fell further and further apart because while some trolls are assumedly still fire Giants at heart many now are not in fact at the heart of most trolls is nothing there's this suspicious Hollow here almost as if something has been ripped out of their torso and when you consider what's upon the Torso of the last remaining fire giant the truth becomes a oh my god I've been thinking when you face these trolls because you faced them really early on right like they're haul over limb grave why are there goddamn intestines on show are they meant to have eyes in there that's kind of disgusting that's that's vile actually ew pretty clear right every single troll is now missing that giant eye of the outer God whoa and if you manage to look really close Patrol we realized that in its place is this strange Stone tablet that is that before look like Roots what as pointed out by quelug these rooted tablets are very reminiscent of the rooted shackles that were created to bind The Omen twins Moog and morgot which might suggest that the trolls are also being Shackled or suppressed by America in some way this is just speculation of course but America does have this suspicious set of stone tablets in her Chambers and I think it's a good theory for sure a sword gravestone in the mountaintops elaborates further on the Troll's role in the war of the Giants here Champions battled and allegedly the trolls betrayed what was the nature of this betrayal did these lesser Giants resent their larger kin ordered America Force this betrayal in some way with the stone shackles probably AF but whatever the case nowadays the trolls are said to have lost their minds and are inseparable from the weight of their Rusty swords which have long since lost any trace of gold so whether they carry coffins or mine down I don't know if varti is going to get into this um it seems like maybe he's just about to but one thing that I wondered from the start of playing album ring like I'm talking right from the network test is why or the circumstances around the trolls that pull along these um carts that are on screen now um like they've been enslaved by P people in Lem grave um so it made me wonder how that happened because they're very imposing and large enemies so it just made me wonder how people managed to Wrangle them and get them to essentially become slaves to their labor um and the mining Endeavors it seems um I don't know if he's going to touch on that but maybe he will I don't know that just intrigued me I think as a bit of environmental storytelling down at the Bedrock of the Earth this ad State brings to mind enslavement now more than anything else that's it some trolls do seem to have a little bit more dignity and these are the ones that fought against the old tree later on these were the enchanted troll Knights deemed comrades of the young ranallah they were called into service when the queen invoked an oath that they swore long ago as mentioned earlier the trolls go way back to when the fire Giants and the astrologers were still neighbors and back then it seems for whatever reason they swore an oath to the astrologers and later when the carrions went to war against the Earth tree I assume the trolls were finally called into that service to be treated as true Knights wow wielding swords embedded with blue Glenstone and summoning enormous glint blades they fought Amina with their long-lost human comrades that's quite nice is another such example of that relationship he became the carrion family's Royal blacksmith and unlike the stone trolls he actually uses that weapon for its intended purpose as a blacksmith's hammer and now he's saved lady Ronnie who he's known ever since her childhood next I want to talk about the knights Cavalry these recurring bosses wander the dim roads at night and were once led by the fell Omen now this description specifically references Margaret's title as the fell Omen not morgot's title as The Omen King and I think this is important because Margaret represents this undercover extension of morgot who Scouts further out in the world and takes out Champions who approach all the way from stormvale Castle Morgan's big role in the story is that he's a stout defender of the earth tree who wouldn't dare betray the golden order because all the other demigods willful traitors all simply for fighting over the great Runes of the Elden ring I still find it interesting like that morga is like so ride or die for the air tree when he represents everything the golden order disdain because he's an omen that still an interesting even who has a lot of signs of being quite loyal to the golden order is called a traitor simply because he fights at one stage another character who has a great Rune you can even see mogot in one of these opening cutscene cinematics leaping onto what looks like radon oh yeah managing to even get an attack off on one of the mightiest of the demigods actually a channel named smotown has a really good little video discussing whether this is indeed radon go and check that out anyway my point is the knights Cavalry seemed to fulfill a similar role to Margaret according to their armor they were deliverers of death for great warriors Knights and champions simple as that no motive is listed except that they have a reputation for taking out the greatest warriors of the world and that makes sense that that would be their aim because only the strongest can acquire two great runes and approach the Earth tree so it's almost as if strength itself must be stifled so that morgot's failing order might be maintained as for why Margaret defends stormvale I like to think that he's fighting here because he recognizes that godric is the weakest of the demigods who yet remains so he's bolstering his strength in that sense and trying to maintain this unsteady stalemate having a strong defense is essentially the guiding principle of those who serve the Earth tree especially as you get closer to the capital there are numerous examples of this the soldiers of lindel fight their battles defensively the Knights of Langdale always put their Shield before the sword and Langdale itself the city is built to withstand Siege with layers and layers of defensive measures built in and the protective standard to which all Defenders of the earth tree Aspire is that of the tree Sentinels whose order became the living Rampart these are some of the coolest enemies for me because I think law wise they're so interesting but like look look how cool they look like that just absolutely golden adorned armor on the horse on them the um the halberd the shield it's so cool and I think for me I just love them so much because it's the first boss you come across right in Lim grave and then it there's this very like Souls thing that it does where you overcome the tree Sentinel you think awesome great you're down and then there's so many more of them in the game what have you got two leading two Langdale and then the draconic tree Sentinel as well then one right before malachith um and it's that very typical Souls thing like I said of of giving you what feels like the hardest enemy you've ever fought really early on in the game for example um the Capra demon in Dark Souls 1 you think what the hell that was the most janky fight Horrible Boss I've ever fought and then boom there's like 20 Capper demons later on in the game very similar with tree Sentinels and I just think that's a really nice thing that Souls games do anyway um but I think tree Sentinels are just so cool so I don't know what my point was I just wanted to say that I like them and I'm excited to find out more about um what they're doing at that time embellished with golden tree crested armor and shields that can retaliate with bolts of light they turn defense into offense and that's the idea in Lane Dell defense is the best offense and the way this idea is presented is just such beautiful storytelling so many characters in other areas of the lands between long to return to the Blessed land of the earth tree and even for you it's this goal that looms over you the entire game so the path is designed to repel everyone getting close know the highway through Leonia has fallen apart so you need to take this secret waterlogged route up through the mountain this was my favorite part of the game by the way finding this secret path through the mountains and infiltrating the Altus plateau and then when you finally get there there are countless ballista and Gollum archers and they're all positioned facing outwards and finally you even find a side entrance to Lane Dell and that is even guarded by a tree Sentinel it's not just any tree Sentinel this one is actually a draconic tree Central which is kind of different this variant of Sentinels arose after the ancient dragons attacked Langdale in its history and we talk more about this event in the video about the demigods but in the end the ancient Dragons Were befriended and worship of the ancient dragons was deemed acceptable another unlikely friendship in Alden ring Dragons Were conjoined with the golden order so to speak as the dragon cultists took after them in a physical fashion also instrumental to the rise of the earth tree were The Crucible Knights they were eventually scorned for their strength for their appearance and for their close resemblance to chaos and how that inspired who they originally were 16 of these nights served Godfrey the first Elden Lord and all 16 of them yet remain across the lands between one is imprisoned in the never jail two appear to be dead and are summoned to fight you as Spirits a number of Crucible Knights still Patrol Lane Dell some protect great tree roots though most just stand dejected in Lost corners of the earth and one of them has even found a new Blasphemous master so the next time you fight these think carefully about where they are and who they're fighting with because each night is a distinct character with purpose or lack thereof even though they were all once United by it's really interesting to me how like The Crucible Knights will still defend the golden order and will still defend the erdry um even though they're dejected because of their appearance and their resemblance to chaos and their connections to the great tree it's not unlike Morgan in that sense feels like a bit of Stockholm syndrome bit of proving yourself I don't know it's sad it's sad actually um a common purpose and a single Lord many of these Knights fight with different aspects of The Crucible some fight with wings some with horns fire and tail but they also have one in um is their Mastery of their lord Godfrey's signature stomach which breaks up the Earth beneath their feet this is such a cool homage to Godfrey you know knowing the law is great it definitely makes dying to it feel a little bit better right anyway I think it's important to remember that Godfrey and his Crucible Knights existed in an age before the oak trees an age with the great tree and its primordial form back when there was this red tinted Crucible of life and these were warriors who drew power from its chaos eventually however they were brought on board with order which is better I'm really glad that we've watched all of these lore videos in order so we can understand and all of these references so like the um the great tree and the red uh Grace light and things so if you haven't watched any of those please go back because I want you to learn with me because I understand what vati is saying I feel like if you don't this is going to be very confusing so definitely go back if you don't know what I'm talking about best exemplified by Godfrey being tamed by the Beast Regent upon his back there are two types of ornamentation that The Crucible Knights can have there's ax ornamentation which is worn by a crucible Knight or dovis and his men and I think the ax is a bit of a homage to Godfrey again and then there are some nights that have great tree ornamentation and these are displayed by the Knight soluria and her men which is of course a reference to the great tree yeah inside and I'd like to quickly talk about the great Tree in one of my first videos I proposed that there was a great tree that must have existed before the herd tree and that the urge tree might have even replaced this great tree this was based on the English root resin item description which has the word great tree capitalized and as one word which certainly makes you think that it's a distinct tree right the line is the roots of the great tree Once linked to to those of the earth tree which is a line that seems to clearly set up that these are two separate trees a except the Japanese translation doesn't say that the Japanese translation says these roots are said to have once been connected to the golden tree no it does mention the great tree earlier but it seems to just be referencing the old tree as that great tree because it is a really big tree some people have taken this to mean that there was no great tree before the Earth tree and you know while that's certainly possible I do think it's still fair to argue that a great tree existed before yeah I don't know I'm wondering if there's like an uh a misinterpretation with the translation of what the Japanese text says there because I feel like from software aren't dumb right and I feel that they would understand that capitalizing great tree as one phrase multiple times in a description would in heavily implied to an English reader that that is a thing and an object not a slang term for just generic tree roots so I think I think I heavily believe in the great tree Theory but maybe maybe I just really want to believe in the great tree I don't know for the old tree for one many of The Crucible night items reference a primordial form of the earth tree and they have ornamentation and history that is based on this primordial Holiness that is not the Holiness of the earth tree so calling it a great tree might just be referencing that tree and secondly celeria defends a giant tree in the deeper depths it's one that has this hollowed-out entrance that is reminiscence of the entrance at the Earth tree as well remember that so maybe there's something here I just kind of wanted to set that straight for now but the reality is that we don't really know for sure and hopefully DLC will shed a light on yes some of these past ages of the world it seems to be a common Trend with from software DLC and they just really are so many remnants of previous ages in this game and I'd love to see a a little bit more about what their cultures really were like it kind of makes you resent just how all-encompassing the Earth tree became so many of these cultures have been lost and I guess that's how a lot of characters in game feel as well they feel upset by that and knowing this fact helps you understand why so many of these characters are okay with burning down the Earth tree yeah in the act of burning down the Earth tree you release a slew of ulcerated tree Spirits look at these guys these Spirits lie suffering beneath the ash until you come along but of course you fight many of these tree Spirits across the lands between even before the end game there's an also rated tree Spirit at the husk of this minor herd tree there's a bunch in catacomb dungeons the the worst ulcerated tree spirit for me was the one um just before Millennia I can't remember what it's called like the rock swamp area um inside what the hell is it called you know just before millennia's boss room right there's a ulcerated tourist Spirit where you take the Millicent quest line that was the worst one because it was like you got rotted or you got knocked off the cliff um the only way I was able to be him was through like a series of gray arrows it was embarrassing okay I'm not proud of it oh God this is gonna make me feel sad now it's like great tree roots there's even one at the husk of the helic tree that's it a lot of these some might even say there's too many of these bosses I think they're the worst boss in Olden ring but anyway thank you understanding their law might make it a bit more palatable so while these creatures fight near the trees I don't think they're defending them rather I kind of think they're this corrupted byproduct of dead or dying trees we know that one of the new purposes of the earth tree is to accept spirits and allow them to live on and it's almost like these ulcerated Spirits are this horrific failure of that process oh that's sad one of miyazaki's favorite themes in these games is the idea that life is not supposed to be Eternal and I think these Spirits are a physical manifestation of stagnation and Decay they're this product of an age of an earth tree that really should have ended are also found at the base of smaller illusory trees and they read when the olden ring was shattered these seeds flew from the old tree scattering across the various lands as if life itself knew that its end had come a Talisman also goes on to say the oak tree was once perfect and eternal and thus it was believed that Earth tree seeds could not exist that's interesting this was back when there was an age of Plenty when blessings literally dripped from the bowels of the old tree like sap and the Earth trees warm light healed those who bathed in its Rays the Earth tree flourished with abundance yet it was only for a fleeting moment such as the course of all life God then the leaves began to fall and as you know from the introduction and the endings the fallen leaves tell a story the story is that the Earth tree was withering scattered across the lands between our minor Earth trees where you go to collect Crystal tears basins were placed at the feet of minor Earth trees in order to collect these tears though in some cases these tears are dropped by odd tree avatars instead when the Elden ring was shattered the avatars emerged wielding ceremonial staffs that depict the old tree in its historic Radiance these creatures are the will of the dying Earth tree made manifest I think they are literally part tree after all and they fight desperately to protect the minor Earth trees which are The Offspring of the withering Earth tree itself some avatars placed in caled and mikula's halik tree are rotten avatars and they even have this uniquely designed staff that festers with rot just as they do remember the Haley tree is also an emulation of the earth tree so it makes sense that it has its own avatars as well they fight on because to many of these creatures any Earth tree whether it's minor or a copy or doomed is something worth protecting I mean absolutely right if you've made it all the way to the end of this video then chances are you love this kind of long-form content I do an audible subscription might also be just right for you right well I'm going to stop his ad read Because audible aren't paying me but thank you vati that was awesome um I think I had less to say in that because um I don't know it just felt like a lot to digest maybe that I hadn't necessarily thought about like I think I've had a lot to say in the last few videos because it's things I've thought about a lot and characters I've thought about a lot such as Millennia um and I've had a couple of ideas relating to some of the topics whereas that was all kind of new to me and I do like how vati touched on um characters and and bosses that I haven't thought about really like um the knights cavalry I gotta say I killed a couple but I mostly just ran away from all of the night's Cavalry um similar to the deaf Birds I just couldn't be bothered to fight them at the time so it was really really interesting to find out a bit more about um some things I hadn't necessarily thought about um a whole lot so that was really really cool I don't feel like I have a lot to add in terms of my thoughts if I'm honest with you I think it's just raised more points about the the great tree and like the history of the world again I think I found the the fire giant part the most interesting and I feel a little bit sad about the fire Giants because I think they've been demonized in all of the flavor text of the items and descriptions but I can't seem to find a very good reason why there's not really any proof that they're evil other than that they kind of wield fire in a skillful way um it seems again like America's way of of demonizing people that go against her or threaten her will um I think this is going to become an anti-america Channel very soon I also really want to check out the law of Eldon Rings Eternal cities so let's do that now I think everyone at this moment in Elden ring you find a building hidden in the forest of Lim Graves Mistwood and the door mysteriously opens of its own volition and elevator yeah interested going and going on and on until you forget that you're so sorry to pause literally like 15 seconds into this video but yes this I assume is a universally held feeling when you first happen upon soy sofa see for a river um but I feel really grateful to have made a let's play of autumn ring because I was able to capture my reaction on camera and I'll remember it forever which is really nice like it's a nice thing to have but yeah I'm sure vati is about to go into it but that feeling of just wanderment and pure or an overwhelming joy and this feeling of the sublime and the purple sky and the stars and you just ah it's just incredible like I don't think I'll ever feel that again about anything I genuinely even Underground cavernous roof is now so far above that it might as well be a false night sky and the world below has life light and a culture of its own incredible moment what's interesting about the environment down here is that it's actually a fusion of cultures there are the dynastic remains infested with claymen and then there's the ancestral grounds brimming with wildlife but built amidst it all between the ruins Beyond The ancestral grounds and even hanging from the ceilings are the incredible Eternal cities inhabited for now think of the knocks as just these enemies the monks swordstresses and night maidens of the Eternal cities put the titles the word Knox means night in Latin some of you might remember this from the phrase various knocks in Dark Souls which was commonly held to mean fear the night has carried over to Eldon ring where fear and respect for the night is conveyed by characters like Rani who seek to usher in an age of stars nice here begin it's a chill night that encompasses all the best preaching the great beyond interfere doubt doubt and loneliness and just like the age of dark in Dark Souls the coming age of stars is presented as a bit of an inevitability in Eldon ring or at least it might have been were it not for starskirt radan who locked the stars out of motion it's written in the night sky on behalf of the golden order again this is just like in Dark Souls where the coming age of dark was stolen from mankind by a greater power yet even now the age of stars continues to be championed by a people called the Knox except now the knocks have been banished to the underground and here they live in this state of Eternal I don't know yet and I'm sure we'll find out but I wonder if there's any correlation between the knocks and the like being banished underground and um the Omens being banished underground to like the Subterranean shunning grounds like I wonder if we're going to find any parallels or similarities there between people who were yeah shunned away from the order so to speak well anticipation just endlessly waiting for a fate that has been taken away from them whenever explicitly told which act it was that led to the nox's banishment but my best guess is that it has to do with this the Finger Slayer Blade the Giant's throat that makes sense a part of its description reads this blood-drenched fetish is proof of the high treason committed by the Eternal City and symbolizes its downfall so what was the nature of the nox's high treason then well this is a Finger Slayer blade one that is able to harm the greater will and its vassals this blade is drenched in Blood and proof of high treason so it seems like the weapon was successfully used but we can only really speculate on which pair of two fingers this blade might have been used on of course it might have just been high treason to create this blade in the first place and this weapon is said to be born of a corpse so let's take a closer look at its icon doing so reveals a spine running up the blade and two arms that form the hilt so clearly this weapon is born of a corpse but it's not the only weapon in game that's like this remember that moment at the end of the game where the Elden Beast reaches into the ground and pulls a sword from radigan's Corpse that is the sacred Relic sword and it too is a spined spiral Blade with a human forming the hilt so to sum in this items what is it is born of a course sorry but what it's not the only weapon in game that's like this moment at the end of the game where the Elden Beast reaches into the ground and pulls a sword from radigan's Corpse that is the sacred Relic sword and it too is a spined spiral Blade with a human forming the hilt so to sum in this item's description this weapon represents the end of an age and to others the beginning oh heck I kind of doubt that the Finger Slayer blade is made from a corpse that's as powerful as Radigan just because it seems so much smaller broken and Limp but regardless I think the Finger Slayer blade like there's probably absolutely nothing to this but it kind of reminds me of Reichard like the whole aesthetic of it just reminds me of Reichard like I can't explain it bring about the end of one age and the beginning of another just so the Finger Slayer blade can only be wielded by Ronnie who needs the weapon to claim her fate and achieve her ending nice this can only happen when your defeat we're done and unlock the Fate in the night sky because doing so sets free a star from the cosmos which crashes into Lim grave revealing the path to nocron the Eternal City where the Finger Slayer blade lies hidden there are multiple Eternal cities that are spread widely across the lands between and located deep beneath the Earth first we have the city of nokron that Lies Beneath lingrave the entrance to this city is torn open by redan's meteorite when we explore it so all of the foremost buildings are ruined but they form the path leading to this undisturbed multi-layered city that's sort of tucked behind the dynastic remains and the ancestral environs that were built here long before then there's no Cron's twin the city of noxtela which is located beneath Leonia I think most people would have got their first hint of this city when they wound up in the Ansel River Fighting the Dragon Kin Soldier I sorry I feel like this video is going to be more me um talking about my personal experience with Adam ring rather than giving any sort of philosophical or interesting input but um when you first enter this boss room were you not so convinced that the said skeletal Giant on the chair was going to be the boss and then when the dragon came down I've never been so surprised I was like oh okay okay then but the true city is further up from here stretching out between long sections of ant infested tunnels here the Knox have actually learned how to ride these ants will have to return on them if given the chance but there's a third City a completely devastated nameless City located beneath Lane Dell which is a place we'll have to talk about a little bit later in this video these three cities just have incredible architecture I love knockrun's massive inverted towers and it's cool How nostellar's Shining city is built right into this low-hanging false night sky and now the game isn't really clear on whether these cities existed before the nox's banishment underground or if they were built afterwards however I'm inclined to think that they actually existed before their banishment take the Finger Slayer blades description for instance this weapon is the most likely reason for the nox's banishment and it lays the high treason at the feet of the Eternal City it doesn't blame them would have existed above ground at some point it blames the Eternal City but regardless while they at least might have already had these well-developed cities down here their banishment was still a brutal punishment because the knocks would have been cut off from the true night sky which was a core part of their culture as some small Comfort I speculate that they so I don't know if varti again is going to get into this but they were cut off from the true night sky so what they're looking at is the false night sky but does that mean that um somehow the world caved in on them and cities were built over them to stop them seeing the real Sky do you kind of get where I'm coming from or because I don't see how that's possible actually um I don't know what point I'm making let's carry on for now created these false night skies which are made of suspended white fragments they accept as they wait for the age of star but if they existed at the same time as Lane doll then surely Lane doll would have been on top of them so how could they have ever seen the real night sky if they always existed below um the cities above ground that we all know of hmm I'm not sure on that one I'm a little I'm a wee bit confused just a wee bit just a tiny little bit to begin in order to learn more about these cities though I'd like to look at some data mind information of course you have to take this with a grain of salt data in version 1.0 a velden ring the Eternal City buildings are frequently listed as America's ruins oh to the Eternal City Pavilions are America's Pavilions what's more the nox themselves are actually called America's descendants this obviously has pretty huge implications yeah this changes things let's try to break down America's ancestry and what see if we can arrive at the Knox so America herself is of the Newman Race who yes according to the character Creations screen are supposed descendants of denizens of another world the only other supposed Newman in game are the black knife assassins who according to their silver armor were all women and rumored to be Newman who had close ties with America herself and we have proof that these Newman black knives were tied to the Eternal cities they say the Assassins who carried out the deed were signs of the Eternal City so if we take Roger at his word yeah it seems like Newman are indeed tied up with the genealogy of the Eternal City and that America herself is likely one of the knox's ancestors what you could go as far as to say that America is actually from an eternal City too she is called the Eternal after all but again remember this is data mined information that we're not really supposed to know but at any rate while the Knox might be descended from the Newman I think enough time has passed that most knocks aren't really considered anymore if anything they're now more akin to the night folk which is actually another descendancy you can choose for your tarnished in the Character Creator night folk and Knox share similarly huge skin and night folk are a race that was said to bleed silver long ago bleeds over that's kind of like um the mimics right the mimics are like silver let's finally actually talk about the Knox monks the priestesses um sorry that they wheeled just to warn you if I don't say a word for the next 25 minutes I'm sorry it's just because I'm so fascinated and I'm really enjoying this because again I haven't got a clue about any of this like the Knox would have never even crossed my mind I think as an elder ring fan and as someone who tries to be active in the community I only ever really think about the main bosses and the main characters I I would never dive into this much depth on the noxes and the Eternal City this is like a full education for me I feel like I need to graduate or something from like Eldon ring School amongst the internal cities are all men and they fight with flowing weapons of liquid metal so too do the swordstresses a female cast are agile Warriors and serve as the personal guards of the night maidens the night maidens themselves are said to be of the highest clerical Rank and wow it's definitely interesting that a group of Maidens would be of the highest clerical rank it's almost as if the night maidens exist as a sort of parallel to the kindling maidens of the two fingers who serve the tarnished so that they might become old because remember a core part of the Knox culture is also about searching for a lord to serve except unlike the title Elden Lord The Knocks are waiting for a lord of night in a way this Lord of night is almost an imitation of the Elden Lord which would make sense because the knocks are extremely well versed in the art of imitation so let's talk about that I think I speak for a lot of us here when I say that a core part of so many of our late game playthroughs were the mimic tier Spirit matches which copied yeah of their Summoner and from a law point of view the whole point of this mimic tier is actually to mimic the tarnished who might become the Elden Lord its description reads mimic tears are a result of an attempt by the Eternal City to forge a lord however the description also says that their mimicry does not extend to imitating the summoner's will this makes it seem like mimic tears are this tool right they're something to be used to achieve the Eternal cities ends so it's important to point out here that mimic tears are actually more accurately silver tears and so the tears literally are tools because they're wielded by The Knocks As Weapons The Knocks flowing hammer and the knocks flowing sword are forged from the liquid metal of silver tears and tempered to hardness this gives them the ability to Extended by The Knocks to drastically change their form into spiked Shields and even giant hands and what's kind of chilling to realize is that these weapons are actually living beings this is all quite clearly inspired by ancient alchemical conceptions of mercury or Quicksilver which was this compound that was believed to be able to shift between liquid and solid States as well as life and death in game silver tears are called formless life able to be reborn again and again into imitation they are as much as substance as they are a living organism and we see this in their latitude and forms silver spheres trolls and even night folk to name but a few there's even this entire cut quest line that would have had you bond with a silver mimic tear called asimi In The Cut dialogue files this mimic tear claims to have grown a desire for life and knowledge and lordship and she desires to share the throne with you you could have become Elden Lord and I could have become sovereign eternal I think and I know a lot of you guys didn't mentioned this last time I think this would have gone a really long way towards making players relate to the story of the Knox and it would have made I do agree with what vati is saying here I feel like they kind of skim over the The Knocks a fair bit which is is fine like it's not necessarily in integral like Cornerstone of the game but I mean like he rightly said we we all relied on the mimic tear so much it might have been nice to just have a little more Exposition I think that side quest would have been really interesting actually um it's kind of messed up that the you know these silver tears the silver Mata is uh is life born and born again but is made into commodity and tools uh like the weapons like that uh kind of threaded cane looking thing and the the sickle that is so so messed up um and it's kind of I guess reminiscent of the way they treat the trolls as well as kind of commodity um to move their things around Lim grave so yeah definitely a little bit sad again everything in these games just makes you feel a bit sad when you learn more about it doesn't it then question the order of the earth tree even more and after learning about this questline I can definitely see why mimic tears and artificial life might have been this enormous threat to the Earth trees Authority The Knocks were after all messing with these crucial things that the old tree had come to govern they were messing with the powers of Life death and I told you of course we know that death was sacrosanct to the Earth in my video on death many ancient methods of death came to be abandoned or shunned in favor of returning to the Earth trees Roots instead through the process of a tree burial all the old ways of death were abandoned and as for rebirth while the Earth trees never really explicitly said to be able to rebirth beings I think a lot of people just assume that it's implied yeah but there is a bit of evidence many depictions of the old tree actually show human forms growing along its branches just as they show human forms being absorbed in death by its roots and you can't forget that an entire great Rune of the Eldon ring explicitly governs rebirth this is Ronaldo's Amber egg and inside it is the great Rune of The Unborn very good point in the end lady Ronaldo was left alone can we just talk about how the subtitle said lady Ronaldo very different game Lord radican bequeathed her now she devotes herself to it through forbidden right the Grim art of reincarnation I think Muriel calls Ronaldo's reincarnation a grim act here because reincarnation already has a bit of a history with the Knox in the lands between and ranala isn't the Earth tree so I can see how what she's doing might be a bit sacrilegious she's even capable of using larval tears I guess if she is directly opposing the um the order of life and death as governed by the golden order and America and the the runes her ability to control reincarnation and kind of yeah control a part of life and death would be seen as sacrilegious right and again a threat which makes me wonder if that's why America and then eventually Radigan sought to destroy bernala emotionally tear apart her her whole carrion Society because again she was a direct threat to the order if they want to be the ones that control life and death and have a say on how people are transported to the other side her ability to just [ __ ] reincarnate people as she pleases that's a problem isn't it it's from the Eternal City so Muriel speaking as any follower of the earth tree would understandably decries Ronaldo's rebirths as forbidden rights and when I searched for this phrase forbidden rights in my dialogue spreadsheet I stumbled upon cut dialogue from thops who confirms that forbidden rights like this did indeed originate in the Eternal City I don't think it's a coincidence that forbidden rights is the same phrase used for ranala and by thoughts as well oh yeah one more thing beware the albinorex a cursed Souls born of a forbidden right of the Eternal City [Music] oh the album oryx albanorics seem to be a reference to the ancient Notions of artificial life and that's something that's supported by the albinoric blood clot description which calls them life forms made by human hands Shield albanorex is said to have been created from a primordial drop of dew which to me evokes the Earth tree's own imagery of Jew where drops of Life dripped from the earth trees branches a sort of imitation in that way to me the Ripple blade that is wielded by Young albanorics Echoes this stating that ripples are thought to be at the origin of their species obviously these are all references to liquid and it suggests that albinorex are born of the same liquid silver that we just discussed an older description of I feel like visually that checks out right they kind of look like big silver blobs with like big weird black eyes so like visually that makes sense um it'd be interesting to see blue silverset also confirms falling albionics children of silver and there are a few different types of albinoric that can be a little belly game they're a first generation albanorics who have withered legs and are called The albinorex Vault and then they're a second generation albanorics who resemble frogs and yeah these little wobbly guys let's discuss these first generation Albion oryx first as far as enemy models go there are the men who are commonly the subject of torture and genocide and then there are the women who seem to have learned to defend themselves as albanoric wolf back archers this is probably the time to mention this isn't the only example in this video where the women of the culture are far more dexterous than the men all of the black knives defend the night Maiden it's um this isn't this isn't relevant At All by the way I just had a fleeting thought and I thought why not interrupt the enjoyment of my lovely viewers and pause in the middle of the video but um is this not also reminiscent of um so I'm playing zakiro at the moment if you didn't know um if you want to watch the playthrough please do but um I just got to the gun for insecuro which is basically a uh Fortress of badass women wielding shotguns uh fending for themselves in like the Deep Sunken Valley of the world and it just seems to be um reminiscent of this maybe a slight Trope that Miyazaki leans on uh groups of women that have learned fun for themselves I find that quite intriguing um who are of the highest rank and if we're talking about rank then karya and its princesses as well are a prime example very fast very speaking of Korea actually pedia is an example of an albinoric man that serves karia and other albanoric men in Korea have clearly learned not to mention Loretta but maybe that's the story for another time moving on to the second generation albanorics as Nua albanorics and alliance between the formula for these artificial humans seems to have been improved as they now have legs which they put comically good use although thops in his cut dialogue does say that they've lost the use of their tongues so they really haven't got the formula quite right there's something also going on with their heads which from software themselves call Dumpy I don't know I think they look good they can even loot The albanoric Mask which is literally just their own face skinned in an active malicious mockery and I really shouldn't laugh but it is kind of funny admittedly that even Elden ring players are also guilty of genociding helpless albanorics there's this site in Morgan Palace where it's just Far and Away the best way to farm runes and thousands of players just kill these albanorics yeah that's um that's the place where you can shoot the um I can't remember what it's called cool it's like that ugly rotting death bird thing in the middle of the Crimson swamp right you can shoot it from up on the cliff and then you can turn around and like yeah genocide all of these albinaries while they're just napping which makes me feel really bad about myself it's just the perfect example of gameplay matching lore anyway yeah terrible [ __ ] happening to album oryx frankly just for the sheer audacity of them simply existing it's no surprise that they see mikola's halik tree as a Haven but in talking about that we're getting far away from the Eternal cities so let's get back to there so it appears the Eternal cities weren't content with just birthing silver tears and albanorics because the dragonkin too were born in the Eternal City there are a tragic view that you can fight down there and unlike the real stone dragons up above they knew no true sky nor true lightning it seems these dragonkin were created I think with the intent of achieving a sort of immortality wow something that is suggested by the dragon scale blade which is an ice lightning weapon that reads a weapon made by sharpening a gravel Stone scale thought to be the source of ancient Dragon immortality into an unclouded blade it seems like any attempt at immortality or gaining immortality in Elder ring will only be met with some kind of punishment whether it be immediate or something that warps you into some Twisted version of yourself yeah like these these dragons that live below ground they don't look great and if they are meant to be representative of things that create even mortality then that's probably probably why um it also puts me in mind of Old King Allen in Demon Souls and how he basically just ends up being a slug I can't remember the law behind that or if I ever even read about it but I'm now wondering if he ended up like that because he chose to try and become immortal and then ended up being a little sloppy slug boy wouldn't actually surprise me knowing what I know now about Elden ring so alas The Dragon King soldiers never attained immortality and perished as decrepit pale imitations of their skyborn kid that is sad there's the word imitation again and interestingly just like the Finger Slayer blade is this Hidden Treasure of the Eternal City that is capable of harming the greater will ancient dragons smithing Stones too are a hidden treasure of faram Azula capable of creating weapons that can slay a God so like so many other things in this video The dragonkin Almost seem like they are imitations that were born with a malign purpose but just like Ronaldo's children and the first gen albanorics these imperfect births only led to withered legs and a pitiful existence oh man that sucks and now we finally arrive at the third City the nameless Eternal City which is located deep beneath the Earth tree at the deep root depths and it's lost its sky its name and even all traces of the Knox exactly what is to blame for all of this Estelle bastard of the Void is responsible according to astel's remembrance it is a malformed star born in the lightless void far away and with all the force of a falling meteor it seems Estelle destroyed an eternal City and took away their Sky logically this nameless Eternal City is that Eternal City he destroyed since it's absolutely devastated and it is missing its false night sky and when the description says Estelle took away their sky I believe that's really literal I think Estelle really did take it away far away because we don't fight Estelle anywhere near the aimless Eternal City we fight it way further south almost as if astel ruined the nameless City then flowed all the way down the ancel river to the South past noxtella and into an enormous Cavern where it set up a suspiciously familiar night sky the Eternal Darkness spell tells us that it's this manifestation of the despair around the ruin of the Eternal City and the spell in question is essentially this black hole with a powerful gravitational force drawing everything into it the Estelle don't seem like these super sentient beings to me so what if they were mere animals just drawn towards a sort of black hole or maybe towards another powerful gravitational force like a moon which brings us back to the city of Knox Stella exploring nokstellar's tallest Towers rewards you with the legendary Moon of noxtella Talisman a treasure of theirs that represents the Lost Black Moon this Moon apparently was once the guide of countless stars and might have served as a sort of artificial Moon below ground but tragically it seems this black moon was shattered into pieces because fragments of this Moon can be found in memory stones which have a really similar gameplay function to the Talisman granting you additional memory slots these stones are rightfully treasured by Sorcerers and above-ground Towers evoking those of the Eternal City would be built to protect these precious side effects I've never noticed these fragments were stolen City though over in nocron there are examples of foreign forces making incursions into the city these beings are members of the company of the Fallen Hawk a company of slaves that were ordered to explore the Eternal City logically these soldiers are slaves of the golden order but who were the fallen Hawks before their enslavement well there's this one little theory that I quite like by user no contribution 15 on Reddit that suggests that these Fallen Hawks could have once been common soldiers of stormvale Castle because these soldiers once had Hawk Crest Shields and even a storm Hawk King dating back to ancient times back when there was a true storm that would explain why stormvale is literally Laden with Hawks by the way like I never quite put two and two together between the um Hawk insignias and the fact that those birds are everywhere in Stormville so as the theory goes the crest for this company became that of an inverted Hawk symbolizing their fall and perhaps referencing the inverted towers of the Eternal City that they were doomed to explore as for why they explore the city the first thing that comes to mind is that they might have been sent here to look for the fingus layer blade which is the hidden treasure of nokron where the Fallen Hawks were sent although this is mostly all just speculation whatever the case it really helps to characterize these enemies for you otherwise the only other observation we can make is that many of the Fallen Hawks can be found digging hopelessly in the ground hands bloodied by their that's not unlike the slaves above ground right in like limb grave the little minor guys that look quite similar to these guys who are always digging into the sides of cliffs and mounters and stuff near um like the trolls that are pulling along the trucks and stuff it seems to be a very common theme is the powerful overlords kind of ordering around the little guys to do their bidding um not unlike the world we live in I suppose long efforts to this day torches are an important part of their design and this reinforces the idea that they're here looking for something to the point where the band's last Embers were used up in their long search and then they began to burn the bones of their fellows acquiring the cold ghost flame and with this new flame in hand they became dwellers of the underground for all eternity sad that's really like with the Fallen Hawks there are some really open-ended parts to the stories of the Eternal cities some things that are Curiosities to me and I welcome you to try and answer them for example the giant Thrones with the giant knock skeletons on them they're almost a complete mystery I think yeah the only place the game references these three I would have lost to find out more about the symbols for night sorceries as well beyond that they're clearly a central part of Knox culture though we don't know what purpose these beings had below each one though you can loot Great Ghost glove Ward which were given in tribute to those who died the most glorious of deaths in the hope of their stories would become Legend so it seems the Knox not only venerated these beings with giant Thrones but that their Spirits as well were considered to be heroic for their deaths were glorious another curiosity is the distorted bodies that are found in the Eternal cities these erupt from the ground and many buildings as well of the Knox this is another great example of just the I said it in the last video so I won't go in it too much but the attention to detail in the environment making you second guess everything you're like where did these bodies come from and are they going to come to life and try and kill me are these are the inhabitants of the city are there deaths related to the Giants what are these and finally there are the Gargoyles that are found in the nameless Eternal cities with misshapen ruined bodies none of these gargoyles have been mended but those that are mended are mended with black corpse wax and they serve malacath the Black Blade many of you will remember two Valiant gargoyles defend the path from nokron to the deeper depths where the nameless Eternal City is and interestingly it's a coffin that takes you up there suspended on a golden script this golden script reminds me of the description of the cipherpata which reads the photo of inscription appears to hang in the air the language of light spoken by the two fingers it makes sense that the two fingers would be aligned with these gargoyles that serve malacath and maybe some power of the two fingers is what takes you up to the nameless Eternal City in this coffin speaking of coffins there's another coffin that you ride down from the ground Cloister to astel's Lair and there are a ton of Confluence internal cities in general Beyond being some absurd method of Transport perhaps sending remains along the river was some sort of burial right at any rate many of these coffins have been way laid along the ainsel river tunnels where ants faced upon the remains and there's something fascinating going on with the ants as well a lot of these have these enormous Honeypot ants which essentially function in nature as these living sources of food storage for the colony oh the Elden ring variant dropped one of the most valuable runes in the lands between they drop a Newman's Rune which makes a lot of sense because these ants are feasting upon corpses and we did speculate earlier that Newman are indelibly tied to the Eternal cities I could speculate further but again I'd welcome your thoughts on these Curiosities farty I don't have any thoughts not a single thought under this bleach blonde hair I'm Blown Away exploring the lands between in the modern era it's clear that the Eternal cities have had this significant cultural impact upon many things that we find above ground you can take the walking mausoleums for example these have really explicit Eternal City architecture which is something that you can't help but notice when you see one of them wandering down in the nameless Eternal City these mausoleums it seems were appropriated from the Eternal cities to house the remains of soulless demigods of the golden order something that suddenly became very necessary to do after Godwin's death and this tracks because the Eternal cities do have a bit of a history with Spirits we mentioned earlier that they entomb their heroic Spirits with legendary glove Ward but even the rebirth monuments above ground that you need to summon Spirits look kind of like Eternal City constructs so I speculate that these might have been pioneered by The Knocks who even if they didn't use these to summon Spirits they definitely might have used them to summon puppets because puppetry is an invention of the Eternal cities to create a puppet of someone you need them to drink a potion made of Starlight shows which are a prized item that was once used in the Eternal City as an ingredient in intoxicating drafts Starlight shards are used for this because the Stars command people's Fates and even the fates of the demigods and so they can be used in potions given to create puppets with commanded Fates we know of two such puppets from the Eternal City the Knight maiden and swordstress puppets who became puppets of their own volition so Keen were they it seems to serve the Eternal cities wow but when you look at all the puppet summons that you can get in Eldon ring these two the night maiden and the swordstress of the Knox these two are a bit of a special case because most puppets we find are actually controlled against their will and are extremely unwilling to serve their masters an excellent example of this are the puppets that are controlled by salivus who turn on him immediately when they're given the chance a faction that are explicitly aligned against carrier and yet these Knights are forced to fight on karia's behalf here in Korea all the same Koreans also seem to have appropriated a lot of the tools of the Eternal cities like a puppetry and inverted towers as well which is only natural considering how much they actually have in common with the Eternal cities Koreans are descended from astrologers who also venerated the night sky another example of an invention of the Eternal cities that the Koreans use is found at the church of vows which features a Knox statue taken straight out of the Eternal cities here at the church Radigan famously repented his Territorial aggressions and cleansed himself with Celestial Dew Celestial Dew is another draft of the Eternal cities it's called a night tier which reverses all antagonization I think what's mad to me is how much comes from these Eternal cities and how like miscible they are am I right thinking you don't have to go down into any of them I can't think I don't know if you do to a time or a feeling before those antagonizations took place and eventually far away descendants of the Eternal would finally be found above ground as well this is in Celia within caled gowri calls celian's descendants of the Eternal and in addition to having one of those signature Thrones at the center of the city there's also a couple of Knox bosses here and finally salience were famed for their night class of sorceries which their assassins made good use of and assalians were also really proficient at turning invisible which is an art that the black knives used since they are also Scions of the Eternal cities and it's just amazing how it all overlaps in the end and in the end another group would seek inroads to knockron this is when we play the game these were EG Blythe and Ronnie Ronnie is a character that inherits a lot of the nox's Legacy group she becomes the final chapter in a story that they started to tell so so long ago prepare to cry because I can't wait to cover her story properly as it deserves but before I go I want to share a quick word about audible speaking of people I'm not ready to cry um at Ronnie's story I'm really not because I'm a real crier and that's what I'll do okay wow I feel like I just learned a hell of a lot about a lot of things that I've never thought about which was quite overwhelming I don't know how you guys feel I know that watching this this time wasn't as chatty as the last couple of album ring law reacts we've done but I think it's because the first few I kind of knew what vati was talking about and it was a lot more thematic and conceptual so I kind of could draw my own conclusions and and make points of my own whereas this does feel a lot like trying to unpick history and trying to piece things together and diving into a whole races and societies that I've never thought of like the Knox I don't think I gave them a second thought um which is absolutely mad I didn't realize how much like the Eternal sissies played into the history of Eldon Ring's law and how important they were so I feel like I've really learned something there and now I'm really hoping that you know in the DLC maybe we'll get an underground area with another another Eternal City that would be so awesome I'd love to know what you guys thought of those two lore videos if you have any input let me know anything that particularly interests or excites you out of that thank you guys so much for watching I'm glad that you're enjoying these videos as well it's nice to do my Elder Marine research with you guys it's just fun and I'm enjoying it so um until next time take care I'll see you very soon

Channel: Emmalition

Views: 60,807

Keywords: elden ring, vaatividya, emmalition

Id: gJammuG381s

Length: 77min 12sec (4632 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 14 2023