Starscourge Radahn - Elden Ring Boss Lore Explained

the supposed mightiest demigod of eldon ring is one of the most imposing characters and boss fights in the game but surprisingly a lot of his background and lore are actually pretty easily accessible and explained so in this video i want to look at the lore and background of the mighty red mained warrior but also present an explanation of his actions that i think has yet to receive much attention today we enter the great festival to fight overcome and understand the demigod general starscourge radan because radon has some lore that is more well known such as his doting over his horse leonard i won't necessarily be exploring every single in-game reference as meticulously in this video though i will still be doing my best to present the lion's share of his lore and background i'll supplement the more relaxed lore dive by spending more time speculating on his motivations and where we find him in the events of the game this will be informed by the lore but it's one of the areas where no conclusive answer is given so it leaves room for speaking on what seems likely as opposed to what is certain starting at the beginning radon is the son of ratagan and ranala brother to ronnie and reichard he attained the status of demigod's stepchild when radagon left ranala and became the second elden lord through his union with queen america we learn that radon took pride in his father from his redmayne helms description which reads radon inherited the furious flaming red hair of his father ratagon and is fond of its heroic implications i was born a champion's cub now i am the lord of the battlefields lion the last line references radon's other source of inspiration the warrior king godfrey first elden lord being the first elden lord and the one who fought in the wars of the erd tree godfrey was a warrior through and through so much so that his eyes dulled when he had vanquished his last worthy enemy the warrior lord even had to take the beast regent sirosh on his back to quell his lust for battle ratagon and his championship may have found fondness in radon but it is the first elden lord who truly enthralled him as we learn from the rest of radon's armor which sports a golden lion the golden lion is said to symbolize godfrey the first elden lord and his beast regent sirosh from his youngest years radon was naturally captivated by the lord of the battlefield we see the drives of battle and war that make up much of the character of godfrey to be very present in radon as well he is known as the mightiest of the demigods from such sources as jiren and the star scourge heirloom one of his most prolific titles found in a variety of places is that of general and he led a host of mighty and extremely dedicated soldiers in the red mains they were all reputed to be masterful warriors and it was popularly said that the red mains knew no weakness these themes of war and pride and combat are central to understanding radon and we will see them again later but first i must note that they are not all that make him up he is after all also son to ranala the carrion queen so it's unsurprising that he also developed an affinity for sorceries namely those related to space we learn from his remembrance what is at this point one of the most famous tidbits of eldon ring lore the red lion general wielded gravitational powers which he learned in celia during his younger days also he would never have to abandon his beloved but scrawny steed these powers of gravitation are on full display in radon's boss fight both to attack the player but also to move around his scrawny steed who we know from zuli the witch to be named leonard pradhan is obviously quite large so without the gravitational magic he would have to have left the horse he probably grew up with more on radon's large size can be found in my ratagon video so here we get a bit of personal character development for radon in his love for his horse helping to flesh him out a bit as a real person these powers also gave an opportunity for radon to learn under one more master an alabaster lord we learn from sorceries like roxling and gravity well that described themselves as a gravitational technique studied by the young radon his master was an alabaster lord with skin of stone this connection to an alabaster lord lines up with what we will see as one of radon's greatest feats but to understand the connection we must first learn what the alabaster lords are from their sword we read that they are a race of ancients with skin of stone who are said to have risen to life when a meteor struck long ago the alabaster are a race that either came from or are associated with the stars and these stars are where we turn to see the next chapter of regan's story the gravitational powers might have started as a way to stay with his horse but they soon became something much greater for radon a way to prove his might and earn renown throughout the lands between it is because of these that he gained the moniker starscourge and the heirloom of the same name tells the story the mightiest hero of the demigods confronted the falling stars alone and thus did he crush them his conquest sealing the very fate of the stars we also see the tale relayed in a swords monument in caled which states the star scourge conflict where don alone holds celia secure and stands tall to shatter the stars this phrases radon as being somewhat of a defender of celia perhaps the stars spelled doomed to the town where radon studied maybe they carried with them a threat such as more beans like the alabaster lords or estelle and the falling star beasts would these supposed beings bring some form of danger it's hard to say or maybe there was some other reason entirely to halt the stars we will look at some of these more potential options later in any case this is a pivotal moment in radon's story and in situating the world of the lands between as we find them in-game there is more to the lore of radon his connection with minor npcs his actions during and after the shattering and his fight with melania but the rest of these seem much more contingent to me and not as essential to radon's story to briefly cover them they first show how radon may have laid siege to the capital and yes i think it's reasonable to read the cinematics opening slide as morgot and radon as every other slide features prominent demigods or other prominent characters associated with them so why would this slide just have morgot be attacking a complete random or a soldier that looks so much like pradhan later we see radon and melania the often talked about fight where radon waits for melania to equip her prosthetic before picking up his own weapons obviously displaying his desire for a fair honorable fight his theme of gallantry in battle is once again apparent wanting proper combat itself more than any end that that combat could serve as a means to this is the fight which left caled festering in rot and radon mindless and infected all sense having left him which is the state we find him in game with that covered i don't think any of this is as important as the conquest of the stars which is saying something because we don't know that much about what this key moment even means there is very little explanation of the conflict and we as players are left to guess why radon did this and what doing this meant we do know that this is an important event because one it is what gave radon his most impactful title star scourge two it is something he continued to do even through the loss of his mind the stars remained held until his death and three because it held effect for the fates of other characters in the lands between we can learn about this connection from the witch selen who explains that the stars alter the fate of the karyan royal family and the fate of your mistress rani but long ago general radhan challenged the swirling constellations and in a crushing victory arrested their cycles now he is the force that repulses the stars if general radan were to die the stars would resume their movement and so too would rani's destiny when we defeat radon the stars are set free to move again and with them the fate of those tied to them the blacksmith eg has some explanatory dialogue you've defeated general radan unlocking the stars the general was blighted by scarlet rot and driven to madness but not long ago he was hailed as the mightiest demigod of them all there is no parallel to your achievement no to lady rani's acute judgment of character thanks to you lady rani's fate once again stirs and the path to nokron has opened descend underground where the fallen star struck klimgrave and make it yours the precious treasure of nokron so radon was holding not only the stars but the fate of his sister ronnie in stasis here is where i wish to offer my own theory we don't know for certain why radon holds the stars back so we are left to speculate with the little information we have it seems reasonable to me to think that radon could be interpreted as acting on ronnie's side here to make the case we know ronnie employed the help of her other brother reichard in her plotting we read from the blasphemous claw the item that lets us parry malakath and deflect the power of the black blade that on the night of the dire plot ronnie rewarded preda reichard with these traces should the coming trespass one day transpire they would serve as a last resort foil allowing riker to challenge malaketh the black blade the black beast of destined death so maybe ronnie also employed the help of her other brother radon as ronnie was an emperian she was slaughtered to be a potential successor to queen america we know the other two empirians melania and mikala were both cursed from birth so maybe the greater will saw ronnie as the favorite empyrean if radon's actions of holding back the stars halted the progression of ronnie's fate maybe that also meant that she couldn't progress to godhood and succeed america as long as the stars were in stasis this stalling could let ronnie prepare her plan in peace we learn from radon's star scourge greatsword that he earned considerable renown as the star scourge in his youth so this would mean that either ronnie had this plan in place from when radon was young or it was an unintentional byproduct that radon didn't explicitly intend to help ronnie in her plan but it ended up that way we could also look at the holding back the stars from the point of view of radon himself obviously it earned him renown but it also should have stalled his own fate radon was a carrion too so his fate was subject to the stars maybe holding them back would mean he could gain renown and fight in battle without having to worry about death or an undesirable progression of his own fate before he felt he was ready or had proven his battle-worthiness both of these theories could tie into the radon we see in game because he has lost his mind he is unable to choose to release the stars for ronnie this means that he has to die for her plan to progress if he hadn't been infected with rot perhaps ronnie would have been able to tell or ask radon to release the stars to allow her to move forward with her plan no sibling murder needed the rot also prevents radon from moving forward with his own fate and plans his armies are scattered and plagued radon has no wit to reassemble them or to continue to wage battle but it seems he cannot die either by stalling the stars and losing his ability to choose to free them radon has put himself in a feedback loop that seems impossible to break the stars prevent his fate from progressing and the rot prevents him from releasing the stars so he is forever cursed to sit in the sands gorging on the bodies of friend and foe alike perhaps the stalling of the stars even takes away his ability to progress to death until of course someone even mightier comes along like the tarnished would the rot have killed radon if not for the stars being held up would his great rune burning with fire have resisted the rot and kept him alive in any case or is all of this metaphorical holding of fate not really applicable was the halted fate of ronnie really just because the physical star that radon held back would open up the path to nokron and if he let it go it would allow rani's plan to progress because nokron would simply now be physically accessible unfortunately we can't say for certain i think some blend of these themes presented makes sense as does the idea that radon could have been helping ronnie since such help did not seem to get in the way of his own yearning for battle or glory but either way we are left in this sea of speculation ronnie doesn't seem malicious to her siblings and radon seemed to have war-minded but fair intentions the shattering after all did offer new opportunities for war as all the great wars had already been ended well except for the war with the stars apparently radon would have had a good deal of motivation to go along with his sister's plans since it offered him a pristine opportunity for war that he wouldn't have gotten otherwise but this is speculation what we can say for certain is that despite the mindless curse of rot radon did hold onto one ideal something which was with him since childhood that guided his life of battle learning and combat something that i will say i think supports my theory after we defeat radon in glorious spectacle fighting amongst a host of champions as the game clearly begs us to do we can hear a concluding remark from jaren the guest commander who served the star scourge in combat and war he sums it all up saying at last the war festival has ended brave champion you have our gratitude the celebration was spectacular general radar is surely pleased festering with rot and crippled by madness all he wanted was an honorable death i hope you have all enjoyed the video radon is a hot topic in eldon ring discussions making it to the top of many lists of favorite boss fights and characters there is more to discuss surrounding him but i wanted to cover some of what i thought were the really core aspects of his story that didn't get as much focus in the discussions i've seen if you did enjoy then subscribe and stick around as i will be continuing to make more elden ring videos lore and otherwise though i will be on hiatus next month so videos might be a bit more sporadic i plan to make a few in advance so there isn't a total content drought but the standard lore vids will have some more space in between them for just a bit well thanks for watching follow me on twitter if you haven't and peace

Channel: MadLuigi

Views: 52,527

Keywords: elden, ring, elden ring, elden ring lore, lore, lore explanation, tarnished, ranni, grace, marika, lands between, godrick, godrick the grafted, grafted, lore explained, lore explain, godwyn, godfrey, elden lord, morgott, margit, omen, fell omen, grace given, mohg, boss, leyndell, radagon, final boss, radagon is marika, miquella, golden order, radagon lore, radahn, starscourge, radahn lore, general radahn

Id: aXxoMH6tiPE

Length: 15min 42sec (942 seconds)

Published: Sat May 21 2022