The ENTIRE Lore of Elden Ring | Part 2

Elden Ring's story is one that is so diverse in its themes and individual stories that it is certainly harder to group a lot of its topics together however in this lore video compilation we will be discussing what I call the darker themes of Elden ring the nox rany the KN of the black knives Godwin those who live in death the persecution of the Alban orics as well as the omen their curse and the Sinister dunger these are some of my favorite topics in the entire game as it's in the downtrodden and the rebels that the true nature of the golden order is revealed the noxs in particular are a fascinating Shadow and Mirror to America's Newman civilization and her ties to them and the black knife assassins is always a tantalizing subject in particular my section on the Glide Queen is probably my proudest video to date as the subject of the godkin apostasy is still one of the most interesting to me personally given the importance it has in shaping the golden order and queen marica's actions so in this compilation lore video I will be pulling together all of my work on Elden ring from the past 2 years into cohesive Mega videos ideal for a long watch while you sleep or work and perhaps in my ramblings you will find the answers you seek in part one of this compilation series we laid the groundwork by looking at the Timeline the early history of the lands between as well as the cosmic and primordial powers of the lands between this will be part two of three and given the sheer size of this video I think you can appreciate why we have split these compilations into three you don't need to have watched the first one as each of the original videos were written to stand alone however I will link the first one down below regardless but before we get started guys if you like Elden ring and Souls Lore then consider liking this video and subscribing to the channel but before we dive into the errors and erors of lore I'm pleased to let you know that smalltown has partnered with gamer STS 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becoming collector's items that sell out quick to celebrate the launch of this partnership my code will give you completely free shipping an ideal opportunity to fill up your cart with free samples allowing you to try the Great Taste of gamer Subs completely free delivered to your door this will last 24 hours and after that my code will still give you 10% off the entire range so use my code small town or follow the link below to get completely free shipping and fill up on those free samples thanks to gamerss for sponsoring this video and now back to Elden ring the light filled lands of Grace sit proudly and gloriously upon the surface of the lands between bathed in the Eternal Light of the earth tree yet in the depths below these lands exists a society as sophisticated as anything on the surface above in the ruins of an ancient civilization lie the lands of the noxs and their cities Eternal a race banished here for an act of treason long ago yet rather than let such Exile defeat them or reduce them to cave dwellers the NOS have developed a high culture to rival even Lindell itself from the caverns the noxs have proven themselves to be one of the most Innovative peoples in the world of Elden ring developing incredible and sometimes horrifying Feats of Science and genetic engineering indeed as we take our greater look at this Society one comes to realize that there are few people as influential as the nox operating from their Subterranean prison they have had an irreversible effect on the lands between during their constant Feud with the greater will and its vassals if we look even closer we can feel the hand of the nox in different communities among the lands between showing their fortitude and tenacity in this video we will dive deeper than ever before looking at the science the culture and the history of one of the greatest peoples in the lands between so join me as we venture into the night and look at the nox and their Eternal cities so at the onset of this discussion I would like to address what I see to be a common Miss conception that I see on Reddit and various lore videos I do not believe the nox are the same as the night folk and I have studied their models extensively to make sure I'm right on this as you can see the night for are very distinct with silver eyes silver hair and light gray silvery skin they are clearly linked to the silver mimics a relationship that we will examine later point being is the night folk are distinctly their own race from those that we know to be the noxs as you you can see the noxs have even darker Ash colored skin and yellow eyes almost like the Sith from Star Wars and I believe them to be a group of corrupted Newen so while of course a lot of this is my own speculation I do believe there is plenty of evidence to confirm this let's firstly start with the black knife armor of the black knife assassins which reads as follows the Assassins that carried out the Deeds of the night of the black knives were all women and rumored to be who had close ties to Mar herself so straight off the back we have the fact the Assassins are Newman and are most likly kin of mar who is also Newman so this makes sense however we also learned that the black knife assassins are referred to as nox from a dialogue as Ro who says this about the black knives this is a black knife print I can scarcely believe you managed to get your hands on this you recall our conversation about the night of the black knives yes they say the Assassins who carried out the deed were SS of the Eternal City a group entirely of women arrayed in armor of silver under cloaks which fooled the eye so Ro says that these women were from the Eternal City and therefore it is almost certain that the noxs are a Numan civilization these assassins are very reminiscent of the female only sword mistresses that we find in the Eternal City their armor describes them outright as Newman but Ro names them as Scions of the Eternal City I.E children or people of the Eternal cities which means they are nox also nox and Numan being used interchangeably to describe this group of women if that isn't enough to convince you that the nox are Fallen Newman then I feel there is some environmental storytelling that can help link the Newman Society to the nox and the Eternal City and specifically we're going to look at the habits of the ants the ants are interesting because of their eating habits the ants of course the ones we find in the underground sections of the game I believe that their eating habits can actually confirm that the third destroyed Eternal City found in the Deep rot depths was once inhabited by Newman thus confirming the nox and Newman are one in the same people let's start by looking at the ants habitat in the enel river so the river surrounding Noella specifically near the anel river depths site of Grace there appears to be some kind of Dumping Ground a Dumping Ground for corpses as evidenced by the coffins and sarcophagy that we see lying around these corpses appear to land in the river after being dumped here through a hole in the roof and then are carried Downstream to a Gathering Place of ants a laay of ants who all Feast upon the corpses of the dead and we can see this at numerous points in the anol river then further in we find a queen or pregnant ant that if we kill gives us a rune now this leaves me to speculate that the ants Devour the runes from the corpses of the dead and these runes are eventually used in their process of gestation which is why when we kill these ants and burst their pregnancy sacks they give us the runes that they have gathered in order to just State a new ant so let us apply these to the ants that we find in the deep root depths next to the potentially destroyed Eternal City there are a lot of pregnant ants in this den and when we kill them they release numen runes specifically given the destroyed City next door it suggests that the ants have been feeding on the corpses of people here and the Rune suggests that these are numen and given that this is a fallen nox City it once again cements what I have always believed that the nox and numen are one and the same so this brings us to the question who are the Newen and what do we know of them well we do get a piece of evidence from the character creation screen when we choose this preset its description reads the following supposed descendants of denisons of another world long lived but seldom born so these people are long- lived people from another world and have the same type of fair hair as America herself as we can see from the preset that is suggested to us when we choose the Newman preset the information is also backed up by two in-game items that relate to these people marus hammer and the Numan run both of the aforementioned items more or less say the same thing that they are people from outside the lands between and are of the same stock as Queen Marica so what picture can we construct with this information I would therefore speculate that before they were called the nox they were originally Newman who as we can see from these descriptions were not from the lands between and obviously came here established a new civilization America herself would be among this new Society of Newman settlers from this society America would eventually be selected Ed to be the vessel for the greater well and we know that this society would then live for a time under Mar and the greater well and we know this because it would be the greater will that would banish them underground implying they have not always lived underground we learn this from the armor set of any nox character and I will look at the nox monk armor set which reads the following long ago the nox invoked the IR of the greater well and were banished deep underground so by implication they once were surface dwellers and their transition from Newman to nox is an interesting concept to ponder given what we see of the Eternal cities in our timeline they must have developed their own culture architecture and beliefs that would distinguish them from their former identity and it would be their commitment to their beliefs that would mark their transition fully into the nox and would lead to their First Act of treason against the greater well the very name nox hint at their core belief system as of course most of you will be aware nox is Latin for night or Darkness given that nox Society is focused on bringing about the age of Stars One assumes that their name followed the development of such beliefs let us examine the most core piece of lore regarding nox Society this is the info of course that's found within the armor sets of the monks night maiden and sword stress and it reads as follows long ago the nox invoked the ey of the greater well and were banished deep underground now they live under a false sky in internal anticipation of their Lee of the coming age of stars and their lord of night this piece of Lord tells us a number of things and is one of the richest bits of lore in the game firstly as I've already discussed it proves that their civilization was once an overground one it also secondly shows us the nature of their Exile that they have to live under false Sky eternally as a punish punishment and finally also shows us their commitment to the age of stars and bringing about a lord of night to usurp the current order of Grace yet before we tackle their societal structure culture and goals let us first tackle the act that would result in their banishment I would posit that this action was the slaughter of a two finger for the item description of the Finger Slayer Blade The Treasure of nocon reads as follows the hidden treasure of the Eternal City of notron a blade said to have been born of a corpse this Blood drench fetish is proof of the high treason committed by the Eternal City and symbolizes its downfall cannot be wielded by those without fate but it is said to be able to harm the greater will and its vassals this very item symbolizes the downfall of the Eternal City and thus implying the event linked with this item is the reason for their banishment rannie needs this blade during the course of her quest in order to slay her own two fingers however it is heavily implied that nox Society has already achieved this feat as the description of this knife reads blood drenched therefore presumably drenched in the blood of a different two fingers before rannie even gets her hands on it another interesting facet of this item description is the ACT is named here as high treason again reminding us of the fact that these people once lived under the opes of the greater will on the surface given that treason is something you can only commit against an authority to which you owe fty yet how are they able to develop such an extraordinary and Powerful vassal slay weapon themselves as we will discuss later on in this video in numerous points it becomes very clear to me that the nox are true innovators and their science beliefs and developments in some way act as a precursor to a lot of the surface factions indeed I see Mar's Hammer itself as a symbol that the Newman were already Craftsmen and this is something that combines with nox's Alchemy to explain their General inventiveness with that in mind let us now consider the Finger Slayer blade itself so we can see the blade was born of a corpse both in its Unholy appearance in our item descriptions and by the description itself now there is another weapon in game that shares such grave materials and that is of course The sacr Relic sword that is wielded by the Elden beast in the final fight of the game the Elden Beast of course forms this sword from Mara rigan's body and the description of the sword reads as follows sword wrought from the remains of a God who should have lived a life eternal thoughts on what the weapon portends are many and varied some consider it the mark of great sin or a sign of great Devastation some think of it as the end of an age While others the beginning so there are a lot of incredible implications here that we can try and Link back to the Finger Slayer blade as clearly the Finger Slayer blade is a perversion of the same practice that made the Relic sword the secret Relic sword is clearly meant to be symbolic as well as to actually perform a certain purpose when it is wielded by the Elden Beast to the some the sword is clearly negative a mark of a great sin the destruction of a God but is also meant to bring about the end of an age or the beginning of a new one indeed does Elden Beast not wield this sword right at the edge of a new dawn of a new age as a new age will directly follow our Clash with it no matter what choice we choose we can see that these facts also apply to the Finger Slayer blade as it too is a tool meant to bring about great Devastation the the death of the two fingers in addition it also was meant to bring about the end of one age and the beginning of another for both the nox and Ranny clearly wish to use this tool to start a new age the age of stars so we have established that they perform similar functions but why is this important and what does it mean well it means to me and I would speculate on this of course the noxs have inverted or perverted this existing practice practice of smithing a corpse something used by the Elden beast at the conclusion of a game to me it is clear that the level of craftsmanship shown by the Elden Beast is of course on another level one need only look at the level of Elegance in the sacred Relic sword and compare it to the crude and disgusting Finger Slayer blade to understand that the former is the work of the Gods and yet it also speaks to the Ingenuity and the craftsmanship of the nox that they were able to reverse engineer this practice the description of the Relic sword seems to suggest that people are aware of this practice as they do speculate on what it means my speculation therefore is that the nox stole and inverted this process from the greater will itself built the Finger Slayer blade from a corpse and occult practices in order to force their new age clearly there's a lot of symbolism involved in these weapons and the Finger Slayer Blaze description seems to imply a certain link to fate so there obviously Cosmic Powers involved with these swords that we aren't meant to fully understand but suffice it to say it seems to have the power to change the current age and the nox turned this fate against the two fingers in their Finger Slayer blade but which two fingers did they slay does it really matter the blood upon the blade is proof enough that it was used against an intended target perhaps it was one of the broken fingers that exist in the Divine terrors perhaps all of them or perhaps it was the fingers of the Glide Queen given that she was also an imperion perhaps she would s her fingers much as rannie does before she acts against the greater will and once free from her two fingers she was able to lead the god-skin apostasy against Mara and her kin this is of course speculation but regardless of the reasons behind it this act this betrayal the slaughter of a fingers was the reason why no society would be banned from the surface and confined to the lands below as we see them in the game so let us now tackle one of the big questions and the most obvious questions which is why are these cities called The Eternal cities and what is the deal with the false sky above their heads well again I think we should return to the core piece of lore the armor sets of the nox which reads as follows now they live under a false sky in internal anticipation of their Le so I think it's very clear that the greater will is the very force behind the nox's current living conditions the word now follows on from the description of their treasonous acts suggesting a causal link between the two to me it's a sort of ironic and cruel punishment and to me explains the very name Eternal cities Noella and noon both exist underground and we can see indeed they do have a fake Starry Sky above them in my mind this is a creation of the greater will to taunt them about their age of stars that they are never destined to see in addition to ensure this punishment was as harsh as possible they are made to wait in Eternal anticipation it is my opinion then that the greater will is the one that has made their cities Eternal so that they can look up at their false Sky forever given theen are already a long lived race it makes sense that the greater will just simply makes their lives Eternal so they will always eternally wish and look up at their fake age of stars it is a curse an eternal punishment and it really shows the cruelty of the greater will in this respect we know of three Eternal cities of the nox and this is noon Noella and an unnamed destroyed City that we find in the deep root depths and supplementary to this and very interestingly e describes nocon and Noella as Twin Cities I take it you've heard of the Eternal City of Noella well it has a twin known as nocon the other Eternal City after years of expeditions we've determined the location of nocon this is interesting because twin things are consistently repeated in Elden ring and again showing that even the Eternal cities fall within the twined rules of the lands between most likely twins having something to do with balance and opposites of one another and perhaps it leads us to believe that the Third Wheel the third city was always destined to fall but more on that later we now have to also consider if the Eternal cities were built underground by the KNX or whether some force that banished them underground also teleported existing cities underground many of you will know from watching my videos that I usually always go with a more mundane explanation and in this case I do follow it as well as I do think it actually has greater implications for the nox the cities are intelligently built around the unusual topography that one would find in an underground cave system this includes inverted spires and buildings that allow the nox to use the cramp space more intelligently and efficiently by building on the roofs of the caverns it's especially clear that they built these after being banished Underground given that some of the constructions we find in the cities are clearly done after the relocation such as the dam at the entrance of each City and the bridge of Noella this again leads us to conclude that the noxs were banished here with nothing and yet built these incredible cities that fit so well in the cramped and unusual space of a cavern the noxs also chose to build their new cities in the bones of an even more ancient civilization and logistically this makes sense as there will be foundations flat and cleared land space for them to build upon the noock seem to have adapted well in general to the new habitat building dams were necessary and somehow training the local giant ants as mounts but let's return to the much older civilization this civilization is the one that built the O and old palaces that we find within the game as well as the renamed mwin Palace which seems to have been a mum for this community at some point as the palace map description reads in the lightless depths lies the grave of an ancient civilization we can indeed see that the ruins of these palaces are vastly different in time when compared to the noxian architecture the old civilization runs are clearly modeled on the more classical architecture of Greeks and Romans as we can see from the composite Romanesque columns and the Parthenon inspired MN Palace also as pointed out by content creator quag on Twitter some elements of the ancient Sumerians have also been used as a point of inspiration and I will link that Twitter thread below if you want to read more about her explanation and references used the more classical stonework and illusion to ancient real world civilizations firmly evokes the age of this Fallen civilization it is ancient in STK contrast one can see the noxian architecture is far more modern looking with sharp Gothic edges pointed arches and windows and it's at this stage in the video that I do owe a retraction on a older video in my earlier Mo lore video I conflated the two civilizations that we found in these depths and stated that moin's Palace was a noxian rune and of course this simply isn't true as the two types of architecture are quite starkly different and so I apologize and offer my retraction on that statement returning to the subject matter at hand is there any relevance to the Eternal cities being situated amongst these ruins well perhaps there is for the beings that are most clearly linked with this ancient civilization are the clay men the annoying zombie-like enemies that we encounter in great numbers below the surface the claymen are The Originators of the bubble spells and the item description of these spells can tell us something about these peculiar creatures for example the great oro's bubble spell reads the following sorcery of the claymen who served as priests in the ancient Dynasty the clay men search for lost oracles within their bubbles so these clay men served the ancient Dynasty they are not in fact the ancient Dynasty themselves and I interpret this as the fact that they were created by the race that once formed this dynasty the Clayman Harpoon even describes their occupation of the ancient ruins and infestation suggesting they are almost beastial and feral without their masters to guide them for if they were the fallen Empire themselves surely they would not act as much as zombies as they do in game furthermore the Clayman ashes reads as follows the Warped remained of priests who search for Revelation in service of the ancient Dynasty all of this together leads me to conclude that these are artificial life forms that in absence of their Master have essentially turned into mindless automatons and their probably melted features are the fact that they have degraded over time and they probably had a more firm clay look to them before and now with no direction or no civilization to serve they just seek out the old civilization ruins without any real purpose in mind acting as an infestation and essentially zombies their presence however is significant to me because they are a form of artificial life form clearly created from some form of alchemy and Magic the noxs are masters of alchemy and the manipulation of artificial life therefore I find the clay men's proximity to the nox extremely intriguing is it possible that the nox derive some of their science and technology or inspiration from the drags of this ancient Society I believe that it's certainly possible as we see lots of examples of noxian attempts to manipulate life and soon we will return to that subject of Science and life manipulation at the hands of the nox however before that I would like us to examine the structure and nuances of noxian society itself so despite being exiled from the surface to live underground the noxs have managed to develop a robust riched and advanced community that is a testament to the strength and intelligence of these people we can say from the way in which their towns are built that these were real communities with churches houses and Open Spaces as we will see in the next section of the video we have already discussed the fact that they are Innovative inventive people and they would use this inventiveness to better their life underground and in some way outstrip the Technologies of the lands above such Innovations include the use of ghost flame for Street lamps and extremely Advanced elevators that are far more advanced than anything we see on the surface including that in Le Andale around these solid foundations was a society religious in construction a dark reflection of the golden order venerating the black moon of Noella as I think we can see in the black circular reliefs on their buildings we can also see other references to it in the black marble backs of their chairs which has the same black marbling as the Black Moon fragments we see in the memory stones suggesting to me that of course these marble back chairs are meant to represent their black moon I believe the black moon to have been Central to the early nox society and we will touch on it again but the moon of Noella Talisman describes the moon as a guide for stars and no doubt the would hope that their black moon would guide stars to them bringing about the age of stars and therefore it clearly will have been an important part of early nox Society the clergy of this KN religion is headed up by the KN maidens A fitting opposite number to the finger maidens of the greater will we learn of these women from their attire for example their twin Crown which reads as follows twin crowns worn by the night Maiden of the Eternal cities indicates the highest clerical Rank and hides the eyes with silk so an interesting piece of lore that first of all confirms the fact that these maidens are the top of the pile when it comes to nox Society clearly held in a position of great religious Authority the reverence in which they are held is further indicated by the silk that hides their eyes as in real world religious practices shielding High religious figures from the SES of the Common People is of course a pretty common practice another interesting aspect is the crown which we have to consider the twin Crown the twin points that protrude from their headpieces we've already discussed and in general it should be fairly obvious that the idea of twins is an important cosmological constant in the world of Elden ring and so it is therefore not a huge surprise that we see it here represented on a piece of religious iconography unfortunately we don't get a huge huge amount of information on what the twin concept means here on this Crown though it could likely be representing the Twin Cities of nocr on Noella or the Counterpoint between the order of grace and the age of stars or the Counterpoint between the earth tree and the moon let me know your thoughts on this in the comments below this hierarchy is then supported by a warrior female cast known as the sorceresses and their armor description reads as follows armor War by sorceresses of the Eternal City these women are the personal guards of the night maidens and wear silk capes so the night maidens are important enough to Warrant personal guards and these personal guards are extraordinary and Nimble Warriors in my opinion the way in which these Nimble Warriors move is reminiscent of the equally Nimble black knife assassins who were most likely drawn from their ranks but we'll touch on that more directly later finally we have the only male cast that we are aware of and that is of course the noxian monks given what we know about the nox maidens being at the top of the pile and the sorceresses being their personal guards we can assume that monks fall further down the hierarchy of course still playing some religious clerical role but with less Authority than the night maidens this in turn leads me to an interesting consideration about noxin society and its Dynamics It ultimately leads me to believe that it is a matriarchy I.E a society where women F the most important and prestigious positions of power of course the most obvious piece of evidence for this is the night Maids themselves a female only position which encompasses the most important religious and political power in nox Society their personal guards too are an order of female only Warriors again reinforcing the idea that the main possessions of Power are filled by women indeed you will notice that the statues within nox Stella and noon are all of female figures showing their importance to nox society and if you look even closer the specific nox style chests that we find within the Eternal City these are unique chests that we find only here have women on them as well indeed one must also consider that the other characters of importance that are linked to the Eternal City are all women as well these being Mar once a member of Newman Society the Proto nox Society was once one of theirs as well Queen Mara now the god of the current order we also have the Glide Queen again we'll touch on her later but there is some connection to the Eternal City to a degree at least and again she is also female and finally we have ranie who in some ways is the heir of the noxian As and again she too is female the relationship to the Moon in general does seem to be female dominated the two beings we see connected to the Moon directly rala and rany are again female suggesting that there is some connection between the female and the moon a theme that has also been explored to a surface degree in Prior Soul games but this connection is made all the more probable here so with a basic understanding of the makeup of this Society let us now examine some of the more extensive and impressive scientific Innovations of the nox in a lot of ways noxian beliefs were regarding astrology fate and the stars are very much a precursor to the practices we see adopted by the preceptors of the caran royal family for example it was the nox that first developed the Fate manipulation technique known to us as puppetry and this would later be revived by the caran Royals who we clearly see using puppets to compensate for their lack of numbers during their confict with the ri luaran cucko knights we have already commented on the fact that nox were clearly skilled scientists Craftsman and Alchemists and this practice is one of the clearest examples of this we learned that this is a oxine practice from the item description Starlight shards which reads A prized item that was once used in the Eternal City as an ingredient in intoxicating drafts this intoxicating draft is of course the draft that civis would later Brew to insave people as his puppets we can extrapolate that the Fate latent within the stars is being man iated to achieve this by reading the Amber Starlight Shard item which reads if the stars command Our Fate then Amber hu stars must command the fates of the Gods such is the belief that inspired the use of these shs to prepare a most special draft so by simple deduction regular Starlight shards must command the fate of ordinary beings and through some unknown Alchemy the drinker's Fate becomes tied to those who prepared the draft making them puppets on a string the string being made of their fate despite being puppets it does appear that each puppet retains some individuality something of themselves inside that according to celus feels different person to person the soul of every puppet has its own Ambience you'll soon come to know once you possess a few and once each's predilections are known to you the better you will be able to love them yet while Elis prays on unsuspecting or easily manipulated individuals for his source of Puppets in nox's culture they didn't really have an issue when it came to sourcing fresh puppets as a description of the night maiden and sword mistress puppets reads the following these sisters members of a cold-blooded race who wield flowing weapons became puppets of their own valtion so here we can see that nox Society is so fervent in their beliefs that they will willingly sacrifice their own flesh and Independence for the greater good of their goals but why would they even develop this practice what does it achieve well if you think about it in the way the puppets function it essentially creates a pair of reusable soldiers that can be remotely operated puppets work by having a body sequestered somewhere and then being able to summon a blue Phantom of them at any given time a phantom that when defeated can simply be resummoned over and over and over again noxian skill at alchemically altering fate within the stars is also highlighted by another creation of theirs the celestial du a concoction that seems to be able to turn back fate effectively curing any sort of antagonistic relationship and you can imagine how useful that would be if one didn't want to carry on a certain conflict yet there are Innovations when it comes to Alchemy and other experimental processes do not end with puppetry and the celestial due indeed it seems as though the kn developed all sorts of procedures no doubt is an attempt to gain power over the greater will and finally bring about their age of stars another example of this is the dragonkin soldiers the three that we encounter in game are situated in and about the Eternal cities and are therefore related to them this is in fact confirmed by the frozen lightning spear incantation which reads incantation that channels the power of the dragonkin soldiers the Dragon Kin were born in the etal City where they knew no true sky nor true lightning instead ice lightning was their weapon so this confirms that not only they were a product of the Eternal cities but that their skills and abilities are also a product of their natural environment within the underground systems instead of being able to draw upon the power of lightning within the Open Sky as the ancient dragons did they instead need to form an artificial version made from Ice we also learn more about the creation of these Frankenstein esque beings from the dragon skill blade which reads as follows a weapon made by sharpening a gravel Stone scale thought to be the source of ancient dragon immortality into an unclouded blade alas the Dragon Kin soldiers never attained immortality and perished as decrepit pale imitations of their skyborn kin again the Innovative if grotesque science of the nox never ceases to amaze me much like past Souls games we see here a group of people like aldia or the dragon skill cultist of Dark Souls have tried to recreate the powers of the dragons in an artificial sense much like in Dark Souls the immortality of the Dragons seems to be linked to Stone scales and to get a better understanding of this relationship I would like to read you the description of the lightning strike incantation which reads as follows ancestors of the modern dragons the ancient dragons had scales of gravel Stone and wielded lightning as their weapon it is said that they once attacked lell the Royal Capital so therefore this creates for us two classes of dragons in the world of Elden ring first there's the immortal ancient dragons with stone scales gravel Stone scales such as the ones we see at far maula that exist Beyond time and can wield lightning with L Dragon 4 to sa one among their number then there are modern dragons which are of the type that we Face numerous times across the lands between such as aula and a Gil which of course look less stone-like more beastial and lack the ability to wield lightning so specifically the kns are looking to wield the power of the ancient Dragons by essentially creating their own hybrid dragon Warriors but why well obviously the dragons are powerful once even serving as the greater Wells chos vessels ruling over the lands between and it's most likely that those early Newman settlers who predated the KN will have witnessed the dragon's Reign before one of their own America would take up the mantle of God but that's a little bit of artistic speculation for you there yet it is more than this and I believe we can get the answer really why the knocks are after the power of the dragons from the description of the ancient dragon smithing Stone which reads as follows smithing Stone made by polishing a golden gravel Stone a scale of the ancient dragon lord and hidden treasure of fire maula this Stone lightly twists time allowing the creation of a weapon capable of slaying a God so in the power of gravel scales which are able to lightly twist time is literally the power to destroy a god Mara and therefore given the aim of the nox this would be a useful tool for them to have despite their failure the dragon Canin remained powerful weapons as we can see when we fight them ultimately though they are freakish failures slightly pathetic and unusual looking powerful for sure but crippled Abominations they remain unable to obtain true immortality and are failed replicas of the ancient dragons of old yet these Dragon Kin are not the only life forms that we find Among The Knocks of the Eternal cities we must of course discuss the phenomen known as the Silver te most will be well aware that the silver teers seem to inhabit the Eternal cities and fight alongside the nox and in my opinion if we look at a combination of in-game lore environmental details and cut content we can clearly see that the implication is that these are again creations of the nox so let's talk about them I've already mentioned the malleable claymen of the ancient Fallen Empire the nox find them M themselves inhabiting is it not possible that they took inspiration from these creatures and began to cultivate their own forms of life we've already seen one example of the nox trying to create life The Dragon King soldiers and over the course of the rest of this video you will see that this is just one of many attempts that being said I do not believe the silver teers are 100% artificial like the aloric a subject to which we will return to momentarily so let us start at the most logical starting point for the silver teers and that is looking at their larval cores their item description reads as follows core of a creature of mimicry known as a silver tiar as much a substance as it is a living organism material required by the Amber egg cradled bar rinala Queen of the full moon to birth people a new so lots of interesting information there let us start with the look of the core itself which of course is meant to be reminiscent of a human organ showing in some way that they are a living being and we will come back to the function of this organ in a moment yet they are not only living organisms but a substance as well a substance that the knocks use in the smithing of their weapons yet how did this living substance come to be well I believe that the answer can come from the character creation screen for the silver tear when they transform into human form take on the appearance of the so-called Nightfall the night folk are one of the preset character models that we can choose for our tarnished and the description of this preset reads the following few in number they were said to bleed silver long ago so given that the tarnished can be a night folk I believe that they are of course separate beings from the silver teers we face in the Eternal City a silver tier cannot be tarnished by itself but the fact that they bled silver and the default human appearance that silver tear choose are our night folk it leads me to conclude that the blood of the night folk the silver blood that they bled long ago was somehow used in the process for creating this life form the cut aimi quest line is a very interesting resource for this as she says the following line great Lord host may I ask something of you a chalice is close by the Cradle of my kind now as I always say take cut content with a pinch of and I won't already retrade content that has already been covered much better than I could ever do so if you are interested in learning more about this cut content I will link Nan's video on the assumi as they do a great job at recreating this entire quest line regardless this line that we've just listened to is interesting because it does indeed show that the race was created AI describes the cradle and source of her kind as a chalice once again making us think of the alch chemical processes and inventions of the nox it is just speculation on what we know about the night folk and this aimi cut dialogue but I believe the nox certainly at least had a hand in altering these beings through the use of silver Blood Of The Night folk similar to the process of their puppet drafts and that these sacred chales are essentially the original test tubes in which this formula was created whether you believe they are natural or genetically altered what is clear that the knocks have managed to harness not only a sophisticated and dangerous life form but a versatile subject from which they can create their unusual weapons for example the description of the nox flowing sword States a grim weapon wielded by Swordsmen of Eternal City this chotel has a blade as fine as a needle forged from the liquid metal of a silver tier it was thoroughly tempered until hardened so the materials that form their weapons are so unique having been formed by this signature living substance simultaneously hard but also flexible we as the tarnished are able to see how unique and versatile these weapons are if we are unfortunate enough to find ourselves on the other end of a nox weapon not only are they as hard as steel but they can also Move Like Water transforming into whip-like substances in the case of the Sorceress and the nox monk are able to transform their hammers into two buckler like Shields right at the onset of this video and numerous po since I've made it clear that I think the NOS are exceptional Craftsmen and Alchemists and even now they are using a living substance to form a very versatile and unique weapon that is solid and supple simultaneously yet this is small potatoes compared to what these beings are actually capable of we know that the sentient balls that guard the Eternal cities are in fact a form of silver tier given that they drop laral cores when killed their forms are malleable and they can mimic any any life form or any shape they can twist their shapes into offensive and defensive weapons or they can completely transform their being into new forms becoming humanoids or even trolls really they can take any form that suits their particular purpose at that time and for me the silver tier is really two component parts there's the malleable and silver fluid on the outside of them which allows them to shift and change their form and then there's the organ the laral core at the center of this substance which is responsible for molding the living fluid into the form most suited to its purposes the reason I believe this to be the case is the way in which rala uses the laral cores she uses them as an agent or medium for change to rebirth beings this organ has the power of change and transmutation for example Bok is actually able to change his form from a demium into a human form if we give him a larval core to use with rala he actually changes his fullon species there are even silver teers that exist out in the lands between pretending to be other beings before transforming into something more dangerous and attacking you when you break their disguise it's almost as if these mimics are taking on the role of an infiltrator their utility is therefore very clear they could be Warriors weapons monsters or spies no matter the manner of the their creation whether they are naturally born of the night folk blood or a descendant of them or whether the nox had some hand in genetically altering the blood to form these beings as I believe it is clear that these beings work with and serve the NOS of the Eternal cities yet there are even greater implications for the role that these teers can play Within nox Society whilst they are useful Warriors and spies remember the true objectives of the noxs they wish to place a lord of KN upon a throne and with that in mind let us read the description of the husk of a silver tiar which reads the silver tier makes a mockery of Life reborn again and again into imitation perhaps one day it will be reborn a lord is it possible that the nox hoped one silver tier would one day be able to mimic over and over and over again until it took the form of a lord their lord of night I believe that this is the most likely explanation for their creation and their purpose this seems more likely when we consider the ASI cut content again where she seems to try and become the Lord Eternal opposite to your Elden Lord through a process of becoming a clone of the tarnished host I do believe that the no hope that this might be an Avenue to obtain their lord of night and bring about the age of stars that these tears might one day take the form of a lord of night now before we move on to the next chapter one cannot help not notice one final question that these beings leave us with is there a connection between the silver teers and the Alban orics having ruminated on the matter I do believe that the creation of the Alan Orcs is linked somehow to the silver teers and at the very least they are both created by the nox potential connection Rises between them for a number of reasons number one both are the only beings I know of to bleed white blood two a laral core can randomly be found amongst the corpses of the Alban arcs and their Village and three of course being that they are both creations of the Eternal cities so this subject is of course to degre speculation but one I believe is extremely logical so let's explore how they nox created the Alban orics and how they are potentially linked to their previous Creations these silver tiers so let us again start by once again returning to the greatest lore item in the game that I'm sure fans of the channel will be delighted about the aloric blood clot and this incredible item reads the following Alban orics are life forms made by human hands thus many believe them to live impure lives Untouched by the AR tre's Grace so the Alan orics are out andout artificial beings fashioned by human hands and having examined the nox no Society fits the bill better for the albinar creators than they do indeed these suspicions can be directly confirmed by cut content showing at the very least the intended origins of the Alban orics before it was cut what I'm referring to is a line that is cut by the NPC known as tops and again thanks to the L Hunter Who provided me with a text on for the game where I was able to find this line in the dialogue tops would have stated oh one more thing beware the Albin orics a cursed Souls born of a forbidden right of the Eternal City the curse withered the legs of the old and silenced the tongues of the frogs and now they hold deep grudges for anyone left untouched even without this really direct bit of cut content it is obvious to me that the knocks are responsible for the Alban ORS creation so if you do choose to ignore this cut content and you're of course free to do so as it is cut I still believe the conclusion is the same although this dialogue makes it all the more clear so let us look and theorize about the Alban or's actual creation and the best source of this can be taken from the alinor shield which reads as follows the ornamentation represents the primordial drop of Jew from which they are said to have been created immediately this brings us back to the achemical Press of the nox suggesting once again the nox have created a new race from some kind of compound indeed the term due makes me think of the celestial due another concoction of the Eternal City further closed to an alchemical process being the Genesis of their existence is hinted at in the description of the Ripple blade which reads the following unique weapon wielded by Young aloric this sword is modeled after the ripples that are thought to be the origin of their species the Ripple of course is meant to evoke thoughts of a liquid or chemical process taking place that would then birth this entire race all of this adds up to what I believe to be quite clear the Albin Orcs are born from a synthetic liquid which is related to the silver tier concocted by the nox to me there are enough links between the silver teers and the aloric the implication to me being that the fluid of the former was used in the creation of the latter even the alinor blood clot does seem to be silver blood much like the silver tier firstly of course we have the fact they are both of the Eternal City both have a pale poor and both have white blood and also the Intriguing lore that we find in the item description of the armor that the Archer Alban orics wear the description of this blue silver set reads as follows blue silver is a metal born from the same mother as The Archers themselves so this blue silver is born from the same mother as these aloric archers the silver and the Alban oric being one now we really could get carried away and get dragged down to a fool Lord discussion about the Alban Orcs but suffice it to say whatever or whoever this mother is it has a connection to Silver an element that creates the aloric and also makes this silver material a coincidence I think not while this connection is of course my speculation and you can choose to ignore it at the very least it should be clear that the KNX created the Alban orics no other people are as reviled hunted or persecuted as the Alban orics are and we get evidence of this deep seated racial hatred towards them illustrated by the Alban or pot the description of which reads the Knights of the cucko do declare Behold thy defiled blood unlike any humor that flows in our grand realm examples of their persecution includes being hunted by cucko Knights being casually massacred by Gideon and his men the experimentation of them by Reichard and the massacre at the Sage's cave the persecution of the Alban orics and the land between takes on a more symbolic note now here is a being created artificially a mockery of what is seen as quote unquote normal under the order of the UR tree indeed the fact they are fully artificial seems to rile up a deep seated hatred or at least a coldness towards the Albin orics as if they are a lesser form of life or not even life at all unnatural blood is apparently the cause for such hatred and we can see with the golden order's treatment of Crucible touched beings that this idea of Purity is definitely one that is constant throughout the golden orders ideals and simply put this might be the very reason that the KNX created the obon Orcs because they are contrary to the current order's way of thinking and by flooding the lands between with this artificial life form they throw a spanner in the works or could a more Sinister explanation be that they were a precursor or a failed attempt at creating a greater weapon against the greater well a precursor to another ped skin race that would rise up and shake the foundations of the order of the UR Trey to its very core perhaps but we'll look at that more later in the video for now let us speak on another product of the nox that I'm sure you're all waiting to talk about and this is the chair Crypts so at the onset of this chapter I want to make it clear that there is no direct lore in the game which really acknowledges the purpose of these structures the only thing we clearly understand is they are massive importance to the KNX so please bear in mind the scarcity of in-game lore on these objects and let's go and speculate together so let's look at what we can actually see from these Thrones there is one in notron and one in nostell that is actually occupied and they're occupied by giant skeletons there are also a couple of empty ones one in Noella at the church at the top and significantly there is one in Celia town of sorcery which is guarded by by a nox Monk and a sorceress but let us return to Celia in the next chapter and keep focused on the Thrones in particular for now interestingly each of the big Thrones that has the big skeletons on them also have a chest underneath them which contains a ghost glove wart which according to the item description for this flower is used to comfort heroic Spirits a tribute to those who died heroic deaths we knows that these Thrones are called chair Crypts thanks to a site of Grace at Celia and this is fitting giving that the dual purpose of these structures is having a chair up top and having a crypt below so how do we explain these Thrones and the giant corpses upon them what follows will of course be my own speculation but I believe it all comes back to the society-wide aim of the nox and the description that we found within their armor pieces remember it reads that theox are essentially banished here and have nothing more to hope for than the age of stars and their lord of night we have seen the nox has already attempted several experiments to bring this about could it be that these Giants were attempts at creating an artificial Lord of Knight an artificial God the fact they are sat upon a throne makes me think that this was supposed to be a being of great importance with the limited information that we have this is what I ultimately believe to be the case the throws are symbolic of lordship of course and the glove wart is left underneath to Tribute the failed experiment who'll have died a Hero trying to free their people I think the importance of these giant beings is also highlighted by the fact that they are female characters and we've already touched on the fact that the potential Lord of knights all do seem to be female surrounding the throne in Noella in the kind of water area we also find another quandre and I just want to take the chance now since we're speculating anyway to address this and this is the Petrified people that we see in both notron and Noella to me these people have always been reminiscent of a cross between the messengers from bloodborne with the Petrified people of Pompei in real life however there's another from software reference I think that is related to these people and that is the event that we see in yarar Gul specifically the second time we visit the area after the moon has been beckoned at this point in bloodborne we see that the school of mentis are performing their ritual to summon the one reborn and in general the town has transformed quite dramatically from the first time you visit it in the opening act of bloodborne we see that there are people added to the environment petrified people all climbing up the walls stuck in the walls becoming part of the walls as if they've been caught in the waves of some Cosmic cataclysm some kind of ritual as a result of the school of mens's meddling this is very reminiscent of what we see in the Eternal cities to me the nox are trying with all their power to beckon the age of stars through rituals through religion and through experimentation and in a way they do remind me of the school of mensis to me it seems as though these petrified remains are the result of one of many unknown nox practices some of the ones we have examined and some that we probably don't know about the fact they are almost growing out of the ground walls and roofs suggest that they aren't human life forms indeed they are some kind of cosmic life that has started to be summoned while this unknown process began this is of course 100% speculation there is no in-game lore supporting this or any other reason why these petrified people exists but to me they are not statues they are all in different positions some look like they're praying some look like they're crying but to me it reminds me of bloodborne and the beckoning rituals in Yar Ghul and so my instinct is that these are the result of a failed ritual of the nox so we've covered the Thrones and yet there is one anomaly among them one that exists not below but above on the surface why is there a throne in Celia what is Celia's connection to the Eternal cities let us now explore the noxian links outside of the Eternal cities outside of Ria lucaria there is only really one other center of learning for magic and that is of course Celia the town of sorcery in kalid Celia is of course the most well-known for its association with Redan and gravity magic we are told by redan's remembrance that he learned such powers in Celia in order to be able to continue to ride his scrawny horse Leonard we also learn from Rock sling and other spells that he was in fact taught by an alabaster Lord beings that are suggested to not be of this world but are masters of gravity magic indeed he would use such techniques learned from this Alabaster Lord to Halt the movement of the stars during the star SC conflict in which he would save the town from a coming catastrophe while this may be a laudable achievement of the turn of sorcery contributing to its own Survival there is certainly a darker Association hidden just beneath the surface this darkness is aply described by the item descriptions of these so-called night sorceries and just by the name you may already see where this is going it quickly becomes quite clear that Celia is the center for developing these Sinister night sorceries and again we quickly learn the purpose of such stitious practices for example the night Shard sorcery tells us the selling Sorcerers were assassins and it is said they often hunted their fellows a more prominent and important example of these night sorcery is probably the Unseen form as it will relate to the black knives that we look at later as the description of this spell reads makes the camera semi invisible while on Horseback effect extends to cover the mount the Salin assassins considered every option that AED their dirty work so these sellin assassins used the power of the night sorceries to obscure and hide their form before assassinating their targets their forms are only revealed when up close does this sound familiar to any other enemies that we see in the game indeed the clues to the origin of this magic and Celia itself can be seen in the symbol the town is taken the Throne of Celia the Throne of the nox indeed the link between Celia and the nox is confirmed by the Eternal Darkness spell and more importantly the night maiden's Mist which reads as follows one of the night sorceries of Celia town of sorcery below Celia the Eternal City of notron sleeps this sorcery originates from the maiden of that place so we can clearly see that the town of Celia is tied to the nox in some way we have the Throne of the nox here the Throne of the nox in their symbol and these night sorceries seem to originate from the Eternal cities another NPC G suggests that the selens are actually no's descendants themselves after you provide millison with the needle as per his directions he States the following as thanks I vow to impart to you my knowledge of the lost Sorcerers of the selan descendants of the Eternal in a straightforward sense this tells us that Celia is an offshoot colony of the nox and it makes sense given its proximity to the Eternal City itself essentially sitting right at top noon and so we do have to wonder what is the aim of the nox here why influence Celia and go as far to have a presence on the surface at all clearly this town is important to the noxx as evidenced by their heavy presence here we can find silver tier balls we can find a monk and a sword mistress guarding the throne well first and foremost and in the most straightforward manner it seems the nox use this Overworld Colony as a research station for new types of Magic the night sorceries and gravitational magic the nox clearly had some sort of relationship with an alabaster Lord who helped them develop gravitational Magics even more fascinating is when we consider the presence of the selan crystal tunner nearby where gravity stones are mined by the kilo and a falling star Beast has made his layer here meaning that Celia is literally well placed to help the nox develop further Magics related to the cosmos another consideration is this town is important because the no have essentially used it to train a type of Mage assassin with types of magic that will be used later in the night of the black knives then there's of course the throne and something that is interesting May relate to us is a note To Us by G titled Celia's secret which reads the town of Celia hides The Source light three Flames at top the candle Towers to break the seil so the town itself is hiding something known as the source and given the fact the nox and their Throne are very much tucked away behind one of these seals that we need to break I would suggest that the source is most likely this noxian throne and therefore their relationship with the nox the source of the Town itself is the secret that Celia keeps if we follow my theory regarding these Thrones it seems as though the KN are wanting to attempt to use Celia as another testing ground for building their artificial Lords and given that Celia have taken the throne as their own symbol it seems the town is fully on board interestingly this chair Crypt holds the staff of lcat a powerful selling native and this item is essentially guarded by the two kns who keeps the item in their chest this begs the question were they intending that lcat would take this throne and become the next giant skeleton in an attempt to raise a lord of Knight it's possible lat is clearly an influential and Powerful sorcerer with strong ties to the Primeval current itself and therefore strong ties to the Stars this is just speculation of course from finding lat's staff in this chest underneath the Crypt but of course it is important to note that lat is an important member of selling Society so at the very least it doesn't make sense that they would guard a sacred relic of his lat himself is a good example of the bridge that Celia has created between the Eternal City and The Wider World At Large and it is to the subject of further external influence that we turn to next I don't believe we can truly appreciate the influence that the kns have had on the lands between without touching on the influence they clearly have had on the Academy of R lucaria indeed some of this influence comes from the relationship that the academy has had with the town of sorcery a noxian colony we learned this from the glint Stone star spell for its description reads A sorcery of the 11us cectus which attracts Sorcerers from Celia town of sorcery so I've spoken at length on the conspectus before in my prival current lore video but put simply the conspectus are different schools of magic scholarship that focus on different practices of sorceries what is interesting is that this school was founded by lucat the Primeval sorcerer for the olous conspectus crown reads as follows the lineage of the olous conspectus began with the Sorcerer lcat And Its adherance continue his study of meteors as we mentioned lat is of course himself a native of Celia and we learned this from selin in the course of her Quest when she is looking for lcat so despite the fact that lat would turn studies towards the Primeval current it would seem as though he was initially a sorcerer focus on the more gravitational side of things when he first came to re lucaria and he would find a school in that name and this makes sense given he comes from the town which focused on gravitational Magics of course a school focused on gravitational magic and founded by a Celia native would then attract Scholars from Celia thus subtly increasing nox's influence within the academy and the lands between as a whole the connection between the two centers of learning is further cemented by the presence of R luaran Sorcerers at Celia who seem to be mastering the obscuring techniques of Celia as well as the avenet and marionet tools of the academy used as soldiers and guards so as you can already see the influence of the nox runs much deeper and more insidiously than we may first assume through this bridge between Celia and R lucaria of course one of the main connections between the academy and the nox is with the obsession with the stars and the cosmos one that is also quite clearly shared by the caran royal family and the link between the moon the nox and these Royals is also extremely strong rala and rany are Heirs of this belief and in our way are Heirs of the noxs themselves we know from the Stargazer heirloom that the Fate latent within the stars is what led a young astrologer rala to her Destiny be full moon and it it was this Moon that would then form the basis of ral's rule and founding of her caran royal family the academy is mainly focused on the study of Glenstone and yet ral's encounter with the moon would in turn lead her bringing its influence to the academy itself balancing the study of glint Stone and the stars with that of the Moon in turn this Reliance upon the moon was something that would be passed down to Rani as we learn from the description of the drawstring freezing Greece which reads the women of the Karan royal family took to the Moon to guide their Fates ranes is a moon dark and blanketed with Ryme I find this interesting because it seems to me that Ran's Moon the Dark Moon is more an aspect or version of the Moon which is concerned with the ult and overthrowing the golden order of the AR Trey much like the black moon of the noox and this returns us to the black moon of Noella and as I said right at the onset of this video I believe this moon to be an important aspect of no Society until it was destroyed we learn of it from the Talisman of the same name which reads as follows this Talisman represents the Lost Black Moon the Moon of Noella was the guide of countless Stars I believe the moons encountered by rany and her mother are different moons and the black moon is a different Moon even then thus their respective moons LED them down different paths all three of these moons are referred to by different titles rales is the full moon ranes is the Dark Moon and the one of the nox is the black moon and indeed if we look at ral's Full Moon Ran's Dark Moon spells and compare that to the black moon Talisman we can see that all three are depicted in very different ways rales is bright and white rannie is dark and blue and you don't need to take my word for it that these are different moons as we see these different moons in the game if we look at the Moon in Laria it is bright and full it is the full moon of rala then compare it to this Keen observation by YouTuber and twitch streamer St Riot who noted that you can see briefly only before you rest or leave the area you can see ranny's Dark Moon present over redan's Arena after you defeat him this is a great observation and I highly recommend you check out St Riot's Channel and their twitch streams as he's a very entertaining pvper and lore playthrough and I will leave links to his channel in the description below however the most obvious presence of both Two Moons is when we visit the area called Moonlight altar where we see both ral's full moon and R's Dark Moon plainly in the sky for us both to see at the same time this for me reinforces the fact that these are not normal celestial bodies they are a force a being of some kind and most likely outer Gods themselves as the moon of noxell Talisman describes the black moon was a guide for stars and indeed the moons do seem to be guides towards their chosen people unfortunately for the nox their guide their black moon is no longer around and we can learn that it was essentially destroyed when we read the memory Stone item description which reads as follows said to be a fragment of the black moon that once hung above the Eternal City and as I noted earlier this is the same black marbling effect we see on the chairs in the Eternal City themselves and whether they are actual ments of the moon or just replicas is for us to decide the Talisman said the moon once hung above the Eternal City again reinforcing the fact it is no longer there and given the fact that fragments are used for other items now we can assume that the Moon is not just gone but shattered and destroyed thus the nox will have lost the guidance rany now enjoys and no doubt this is what leads them down the desperate paths that we see them take by experimenting on different life forms so the knocks are no Str danger to disasters that befall their own kind so now let us look at the most obvious example of this and this is the coming of a steel evidently the NOS have suffered not only have they been cursed for eternity under a mocking false sky but even in their imprisonment they have not gone untouched as evidenced by the coming of a steel we have numerous pieces of in-game law evidence that directly tells us that this being assaulted the eternals for example the wing of a steel reads crafted from a relic of the Natural Born of the Void who is said to have assailed the Eternal City so when trying to understand this event I believe it is best to start with the most logical talking point and that is the remembrance of a steel which reads as follows a malformed star born in the lightless void far away once destroyed an eternal City and took away their Sky a fall fall in star of L Omen so straight away we can see that AEL is credited with not only attacking the nox but actually laying low one of their cities clearly this is where we return to the destroyed City found in the deep root depths and specifically we learn of how a steel destroyed this city from the meteorite of a steel spell which reads as follows a manifestation of the power with which a steel leveled the Eternal City this of course being the meteorite ability which he uses in his fight with us where he brings a storm of meteorites from the void from when he hails using this spell he obviously destroyed the Eternal City additionally as we learned from his remembrance AEL reportedly took away their sky and indeed the destroyed city is no longer shrouded in the false sky that covers the sister cities of notron and Noella I think it is therefore patently obvious that this is the city that was subjected to the wrath of a steel the city destroyed and its sky taken its inhabitants being left as nothing but corpse food for the ants that live in this area of the deep root depths yet why did a steel come here and why are there copies of him in various places throughout the lands between so I discussed a steel in quite a bit of detail in my primeval current lore video which I would recommend you watch in that we discussed the fact that stars even malformed ones like a steel are born in the lightless void of space and therefore initially it would seem that a steel is far removed from the very much grounded KNX but I'm once again going to speculate because I do believe there is a satisfying explanation for ael's coming and why he came here and targeted the Eternal cities specifically we have already discussed the black moon that it was a guide for countless Stars no doubt the noxs were using this as I hope to bring stars to them that the black moon would guide to this world and therefore bring about the age of St stars and yet what if something happened that neither the nox or the black moon expected that a star was indeed guided here but that star was malformed Rogue and anarchic an ill Omen to even the nox and the black moon a creature of malevolence and Chaos a steel came Guided by the black moon and destroyed the third city of the eternals and shattered the black moon before making itself a layer in a cave near Noella this is why we find him resting here Beyond Noella and his duplicates are also present throughout the underground realm AEL is capable of duplication as we see during his fight with us in the consecrated snowfield with the destruction of the city covered we have one major final topic to cover the Eternal City's involvement in the night of the black knives a subject that we've already covered at the beginning of the video but let's come full circle for the last couple of minutes of this video as I've have already mentioned rannie walks a very similar path to the nox before her Guided by her Dark Moon and clearly she has come into contact with them by walking this path one of the most in yourface examples of this is the fact that one of Ran's counselors EG wears a mirror Helm which is a piece of technology crafted by the nox themselves and we learn this from the nox mirror Helm which reads Helm fashioned from Crystal Looking Glass one among the Eternal cities ritual implements warned by those committed to high treason it Wards off the intervention of the greater will and its vassel fingers so once again the skill of noxian craftsmanship comes to the for with Ran's own people imitating nox craft to act against their greater will rather than developing new technologies themselves these mirror Helms seeming to act as a sort of tinf foil hat to protect the internal schemes of those who oppose the greater will from being read by the greater will or its vassals it would make sense that the Dark Moon would guide rannie down the path towards the nox given they have already paved this path for her with the loss of the black moon the nox most certainly took a huge hit to their aspirations of bringing about the age of stars and most likely the first Contact between rnie and these people will have seen like a new opportunity for the KNX who will most likely at the first instance wanted to help her achieve the age of stars yet if this was to be achieved between the two parties there was an issue rannie had already been selected by the greater will to be an imperion Tethered to their will by her imperian flesh this was something of course she must Rectify to bring about her age of nights and follow her Dark Moon to her conclusion and this is her true motivation in organizing the night of the black knives as we learn from the mouth of rannie herself but I would not acques to the two fingers I stole the Rune of death slew mine own Imperium flesh casting it away I would not be controlled by that thing rany plots the Knight of the black knives and utilizes what we know to be the black knife assassins and as we have discussed at length these were women of the Eternal City or numen women and in the black knife assassins we see everything we know about nox lore coming together the cloaks that fool the eyes described by roier is clearly some type of magic that was researched in Celia that obscures their form the all female makeup of the Assassins makes us think of the all Female warrior class the sword maidens and of course the fact that they are helping rannie is because they want to bring about the age of night which they have so desperately tried different ways to obtain most likely it was Noella that she came into contact with and recruited her allies from given she has a teleporter to their very City in Rena's Tower and the fact that when we come into the picture in the future past the night of the black knives she and her followers had still not yet discovered notron leaving Noella to be the only logical City that rany allied with at the time of the night of the black knives the rest of what we know about the night of the black knives is as they say already history the video is long enough without doing a full analysis of the assassination attempt itself but suffice it to say that at this time rannie conspired with the people of Noella to bring down the gods of the ER tree given the kns have long awaited their lord of night it would make sense to support rany in this their best hope for a new age yet this is what she will have sold them on yet rany's true aim was to slay her own flesh so she could follow her own path to become the Lord of KN in the shadow Beast lore video I suggested that rany was still in command of the black knife assassins and that it was she who ordered the execution of her own counselors EEG and blle who both have the corpse of Assassins surrounded them at the end of her Quest as a way of tying up Loose Ends however people challenged me on this in this video with comments arguing against it and I've reconsidered and I do acknowledge there is a different angle especially when we look at rany's motivations for this night these comments argued that in fact the black knives are now acting against Ranny and they slay ranny's counselors out of Revenge rather than doing it at her command and again like I just said I've considered this to be a real plausible explanation having ruminated on the purposes behind Ran's Knight of the black knives consider this is it possible that the Assassins believed that this was the start of a glorious and bloody Revolution Against The Gods that would raise the KNX up and their lord of night but instead rannie misled them and used them to slay her own flesh given we see the black knife assassins are now scattered in prison and in hiding it does seem like they have taken the fall and ran has abandoned them while she pursues her own design and also consider if she is Allied to the Eternal cities why do they not simply give her the Finger Slayer blade why do we have to rob it from them with blly and ultimately the black knife assassin's attempt on EG and bl's life does seem to happen after the notron Finger Slayer blade is stolen as if it is an act of Revenge or attempt to stop rannie having stolen the blade from them regardless of the now existing relationship between the Eternal cities and rannie she did successfully use her alleys to achieve her aim which was shed her own imperian skin and by doing so they did inadvertently play a role in bringing about the age of stars should we choose to help rany achieve its final ends and in a way this is the Eternal City's greatest Legacy they lay the foundations and build the tools that someone else will use to bring about the age of stars namely the Finger Slayer blade and of course the role they have in freeing rannie from her imperian Flame FL and this is where I originally wanted to conclude the video but as I've developed this video something's been gwing at the back of my mind a question and it's something I'm going to put to yourselves now did the KNX have anything to do with the godkin apostasy so before doing this video I'd always treated the godkin movement and the night of the black knives is two very separate events and yet The more I've researched for this video you the more that things have gwed away at me firstly there's the nature of EG's death much like blly there are black knife assassin surrounding him and we've already talked about that and it again suggests that they are the hand behind his murder for whatever reason and for whatever Master but there is another detail of course EEG is burning in the black flame and this is very clearly different from the red flame of death and death that the Assassins use and clearly from software could have put him burning in this red flame if they wanted to but they chose the black Flame the black flame is clearly indicative of the God skins heavily implying the two groups were working in conert to kill ich here in the course of researching this video and writing the script I've come to the conclusion that there is enough implications about the God skins that involve or suggest the nox are involved and we have to talk about it even in my God skin lore video that I did months ago I suggested the fact that the God skins must be a form of artificial or created life even saying there's something akin to the Alban orics and now upon the research and looking back at that video how right I clearly was given everything we have discussed regarding artificial life I think these links to the God skins becomes even stronger let's look at a low item the godkin swaddling cloth which reads the following the glowy queen cradles newborn Apostles swaddled in this cloth soon they will grow to become the death of the Gods this is the item that is has always led me to believe that the God skins are not a natural form of life given that they don't seem to be people who become Apostles rather they are born Apostles and nurtured by their glom Queen the phrase soon they will grow to become the death of the Gods to me implies a sort of accelerated growth again a sign of artificiality the God skins have a very unnatural inhuman look to them pale white skinned reminiscent of the aloric with yellow corrupted eyes similar to the nox their bodies can contort and move in unnatural ways and the Nobles even incorporate inhuman elements into their bodies is it possible that they are the final product in a long line of genetic experimentation with silver teers and especially the aloric being earlier and less successful incarnations of this type of work given the aims of the nox are clearly to usurp Mara and her golden order the God skins would be an incredible success for weapon given the danger they posed to America and her kin and the lengths they had to go to to defeat them well I do want to emphasize that this is my speculation but given all we have learned about the nox and their works with artificiality the aloric and the inhuman manner in which the God skins are born and the way in which their bodies behave I do believe that the God skins are one other form of artificial life developed by the nox their most successful product to dat this of course raises questions about the glomi queen suggesting she was one of the noxs or perhaps related to them perhaps related through her mother on my first playthrough of Elden ring nothing captured my attention more than the godkin apostles terrifying Bringers of death adorned in Grim Robes of Flesh whose very purpose is audacious yet captivating to bring death to the gods the weight of the godkin threat is is punctuated by the power of their leader the Glide Queen an imperion tied to the power of death and death and a direct challenge to Mar and her God kin the Glide Queen would channel the power of death and death taking the form of the black flame and beneath her she would raise up a Creed of terrifying apostles who would wield this flame in her name wearing the tanned skin of their enemies enacting a terrifying God hunt yet ultimately America would have Victory given to her by her shadowbound Beast and the glow Queen's Legacy would be hammered into the timeline yet for an event of such cataclysmic proportions we know very little about the details who was the Glide Queen what actually are the god-skin apostles and when did it happen these are questions I will seek greater Clarity on in this L video and so I ask you to join me this this week as we explore the lore of the mysterious glowy Queen and her god-skin Apostles at this stage I would also like to offer my thanks to Eugenia Liza an incredible artist and content creator who was commissioned to do 3D renders of theoretical locations and characters from the godkin movement and so please check out their content which I will link below I think a good starting point for this subject is talking about the Glide Queen and her nature specifically the fact that she is an imperian and let's discuss what it means to be imperian I'd like to start with the item description of the black flame ritual which reads the Glide Queen led the apostles it is said that she was an emperion chosen by the fingers for me this is one of the most important pieces of lore when we're talking about the Glide Queen and so we know the Glide Queen was an emperion a state of being that is best described by rany who says the following about imperian status I was once an imperian of the demigods only I Mika and Melania could claim that title each of us was chosen by our own two fingers as a candidate to succeed Queen Mar to become the new god of the coming age which is when I received BL in the form of a vassel tailored for an imperion so lots of information there pertinent to the Glide Queen firstly there is something there that some people might miss and that is rany's omission of the Glide Queen entirely only I mea and melenia could claim that title meaning that this generation of imperian has clearly come about a significant time period after the Glide Queen was active and that's a point we will revisit in the next chapter when we look about placing this in the timeline returning to imperian status rannie talks of how she and the twins were selected to be an imperion by their own two fingers and so the aams razor assumption to be made is that at some point the Glide Queen was also selected by two fingers to be an imperion when looking at the role of the two fingers specifically errors at Round Table hold we can very much see that they are instruments of the greater well meant to guide us towards a single goal to ascend the Elden throne and Usher and a new age fine work Brave tarnished the greater will is pleased you have earned the right to become Elden Lord now seek the ER tree and an audience with Queen Marica to become Elden Lord and restore the golden order and indeed rannie says that she was chosen by two fingers and she was meant to us user in a new age and so we can assume that anything chosen by the two fingers is done so at the behest of the greater will as part of its plan to Institute a new type of order and imperium's role in the coming of a new order is to be a candidate for godhood taking Mar's place at the head of a new order so the Glide Queen was chosen to potentially be a god a god whose order would no doubt be defined by the Rune of death as the centerpiece of her power this is where a crucial part of an understanding of the lore is required that being that the greater will considers those for godhood that generally represent something outside of the current order for example we learned from Gary that melenia was born with the Scarlet root inside of her and was an imperion for a potential new order an order of rot Queen Marica and her King consort Radigan were blessed with twin demigods and melenia was one of them she was born an imperion carrying the Scarlet rot an imperion is no mere demigod in the age of the Elden ring and queen manica the precious emperion was born a new God to forge a new order and so so likewise we can assume that the Glide Queen was chosen by her two fingers to be a new God to forge a new order of death a video I often reference on this channel is ratas or's video on how the greater will does not care about the golden order in particular that it just wants an order of some kind in this video ratat Tasker talks on the relevance of placu sax being named as Elden Lord which of course suggests that at one stage there was a different Elden Lord a different God which ruled over a different order defined by a differently configured Elden ring perhaps the very Elden ring Illustrated in Far Milla a far more wild and Primal looking Elden ring than the more refined and cut down version we see in the age of the golden order I discussed the ramifications of this idea in my Gods lore video which I will link below but in short melania's remembrance makes it clear that she was born with her afflictions and yet she was still selected as an imperion a potential replacement for Mar g talks about the order of rot and so it makes it clear that the greater will considered a new order of rot led by melenia as the replacement for America's order and while the Scarlet rot may seem horrific to us to the greater well it is just another form of order and indeed G lays out the principles of this suggested order of rot since Melania fought radan and the great Scarlet flower blossomed in aonia I have dedicated myself to her and to the resplendence of the order of rot the cycle of Decay and rebirth when considering the notion of unus ual orders that are seen as acceptable by the greater will we could look at two very different characters two tarnished the dung eater and gold mask both of these characters have iconic bits of gear gold mask's mask and dung eater's Sun Medallion both of the item descriptions for each have very similar language and in essence both of them describe how their Sun designs they both carry are visual representations of a guiding force and the vision of a ring their mending runes that await them at the end of their Journey this suggests that both of these extremely diverse characters were directed and guided toward such a goal the tarnished have been called back as part of the greater Well's plans so the dung eater and the gold mask have a role to play here and if we think about the guidance that Shone upon them both this outer force that directed them to take the actions that they did we have to assume that it was the greater will and this therefore shows that dunger is as equal a proposition to gold mask when it comes to repairing the Elden ring ultimately they both produce a mending Rune that will help repair the Elden ring and thus play a role in bringing about a new order and so no matter what you think about dung eater and while we may think it's a horrendous fate for the world to to be cursed in his ending it shows that the greater world doesn't really care as long as order is restored and the ring is repaired and if you'd like a more in-depth look at both dung eater and gold mask and the role they play in the greater Well's plans I do have a lore video on each of those so with all of that said it isn't really a surprise to learn that there was an imperion elected by the greater will in the two fingers that was associated with death and death the Glide Queen was considered and elected by the twoof fingers to be the potential God of a new age to overthrow and replace Mara it was part of the greater Well's plan ultimately the power behind the Glide Queen is a runin of the Elden ring the Rune of death and this is why the black flame incantations require Faith much like Crucible and Ury incantations do as well but if the Glide Queen was meant to bring in a new Epoch we do have to ask the question of when this happened and what necessitated the need for a new imperion and so with that said let us now discuss where where the Glide Queen and her God skins sit in the timeline when it comes to a general placement of these events we do have two pillars of lore that cap either end of its potential timeline firstly we know it must have come after the war of the Giants and the cealing of the flame of ruin this is because of the black monks traitors to the fire monks who began to wield the black flame and we now see them operating alongside God skins in various locations suggesting that these traitors joined the godkin movement and of course the order that they defected from the fire monks only was established upon the ceiling of the flame of Ruin giving us some level of confidence that the godkin apostasy happened after the war of the Giants on the other end of the timeline we know that the god-skin event must have happened before the night of the black knives as this was the event that would lead malakith to seal the Rune of death within his flesh thus robbing the black flame of its power as is told To Us by the scaring black flame and of course their true power the godling power of the black flame must have been active during this event so a pretty widen net but it does give us some framework to work within our understanding of the timeline has evolved much over the past year since the game's release to the point where we are starting to get an understanding of the ancient civilizations that came before the golden order one of the vanguards of Lord discussion is tarnished archaeologist who has presented incredibly valuable theories regarding the history of the lands between and if you if you haven't watched any of their content then please check it out because in this chapter we're going to be presenting a timeline theory that was developed by tarnished archaeologist and so credit to them we know that Marica was once in perryan herself thanks to the description of maliki's remembrance before she ascended to godhood Mar now rules over the age of the AR Trey the age symbolized by the golden tree and now currently is anchored by the golden order yet Amica has seemingly ruled over at least two ages this current age of the golden order and a prior age known as the age of Plenty in the past I had never put a hard border between these two ages seeing the age of plenty more as a sub era the early portion of the age of the Earth tree however in tarnished archaeologist video Creeds of the earth tree they more heavily separate the division between the age of Plenty and what comes after after tarnished archaeologist combines the lore of what we know of the age of The Crucible and the age of Plenty into one era called the ancient Ur tree era and he believes that this age was different from the one that came after because in this time the Earth tree was an actual arboreal tree a real tree and by the way the term ancient her tree is actually a Canon one as the term is used in the description of blessing of the AR Trey blessings Boon and Ur Trey heel you'll notice these are all incantations regarding Rejuvenation and vitality very fitting for the age of Plenty and the in-game files seem to name this sigil the sigil used on these spells as the ancient her tree and given The Crucible incantations use the same sigil I do think tarnished archaeologist is Justified in grouping the age of Plenty and age of The Crucible together under this umbrella term ancient her tree the age of Plenty is described in multiple sources such as the Blessed du Talisman and the icon Shield this was an age in which Bounty a blessed du dripped from the bows of the tree itself an age where Godfrey was the Elden Lord going by the description of the Amber medallions which emphasize such Amber as an important Treasure of his reign tarnished archaeologist argues that the arery has already been burnt before we even reach Lindale the main archaeological evidence that they look to is the blanket of Ash that already covers Lanell when we first arrive here even reaching the heights of marica's bed chamber the most obvious source of this ash is undoubtedly the Earth tree not only because lell lies in the shadow of the earth tree but because we can see them this process being repeated when we ourselves burn the Earth tree and bury Olive Lane Dell in a fresh blanket of Ash and therefore it does seem hard to argue that the Ash and LEL is from the earth tree meaning that the Earth tree has been burnt before Cycles flow and stagnation all Concepts familiar to fans of the Soul series and a concept tarnished archaeologist suggests is still relevant to Elden ring in regards to the Earth tree and its regeneration to this end let us look more closely at the wording of the Blessed du Talisman which reads it was once thought that the Blessed sap of the earth tree would drip from its bows forever but that age of Plenty swiftly came to a close and with time the Earth tree became more an object of Faith to this tarnished archaeologists asked the insightful question how did the tree change from a functional tree with real bounty to nothing more than a symbol an idol of worship how do we reconcile the more arboreal depictions of The Crucible with the golden tree that we see before us how do we compare the more natural looking Tree in some depictions with the Celtic KN version of the earth tree depicted on Earth tree incantations and kns of the her tree to tarnished archaeologist the answer is is this there was an original Earth tree a real tree in this age of Plenty that actually had a bounty but it was burned to the ground and ultimately was replaced by a phantom tree that we see before us and indeed there is further evidence that the Earth tree was once a wooden real arboreal tree for example there is the Great Club which is said to be made from a earth tree branch yet it is wooden it is not like the golden Phantom that exists before us there's also the Helm of the tree Sentinel The Defenders of the earth tree and yet their helmet Bears a horsehair Crest in the shape of a tree that is very natural looking and looks nothing absolutely nothing like the phantom tree that now stands before us there's also the staff of the earth tree avatars the description of which says that it represents the Earth Tree in its former radiance again the tree shown here is very natural looking very different from the current golden her tree the examples go on such as the reliefs of a natural tree found in the shields of the statues of tree Sentinels at the Grand lifs and reliefs found on the bases of statues and at the entrance to the Queen's bed chamber and the grand lift of dectis long have people argued about the nature of the inner wooden tree and the outer golden Phantom of the earth tree trying to discern if these are two separate trees in tarnish archaeologist mind these are both the Earth tree the wooden stump of the original Bountiful Earth tree and its Phantom replacement grafted onto it through the power of the Elden ring and indeed we too replace the golden AR Trey that we burn to the ground should we choose the Elden Lord endings when we repair the Elden ring when we use one of three mending runes the destroyed Phantom Ur tree is replaced with a brand spanking new one and its color is reflective of The Mending Rune that we have put into the Elden ring showing that this phantom tree really is a reflection of the Elden ring and so tarnished archaeologists suggest that this has at least happened once and maybe more that the original wooden Ur tree that grew as a result of The Crucible era was burned to the ground and that is why the age of Plenty came swiftly to a close and why they blessed you and the Bounty that came from the earth tree came to an end because it isn't a real tree anymore and thus the Bounty can only now be found at its Offspring the minor Earth trees this is a pretty incredible Theory and I highly recommend you check out tarnished archaeologist video Creeds of the earth tree for more indepth look at what I've just talked about but but with these Concepts in mind the rise of a new imperion could make sense a candidate intended for godhood to lead the world into a new era and perhaps we can tie it in to the end of this age of Plenty or even if you don't believe it was then maybe now we can acknowledge there were other times within the Ary era where the age could have and should have come to a close with Mar being replaced by a new God there are some pieces of evidence that could point to the godkin apostasy taking place at the End of the Age of Plenty at this ancient earthree era firstly many believe that melano is the Glide Queen and should you summon her in the fight with morot her Casting sigil is this Sigil of the ancient ER tree or Crucible era suggesting she could be dated back to this time period there is also the reference to The Crucible in the godkin Nobles robe item description and while it may be a thematic parallel it could be hinting at the fact that the CRS had some effect on the Nobles inhuman aspects possibly suggesting they are products of this time as well but most notably the Black Blade incantation Malik's signature incantation has the same ancient Erry sigil on its item icon while all of this is circumstantial and speculation it still makes sense from common sense as we have already acknowledged rannie doesn't mention the Glide Queen is one of the imperion in her generation the fact she doesn't even mention the Glide Queen suggests that the Glide Queen was an imperion and was active a long time ago also there are too many other events that happen later on in the timeline such as the night of the black knives and it would therefore make sense that the gods can apostasy something that definitely preceded the night of the black knives would come early on in Queen Mar's rain and given the Ash and lell we know there are other burnings of the UR Trey but what events were these linked to could it possibly be the rise of a new imperion who wielded the power of Des anded death in the form of a flame we will talk more about these ideas later on in the video but to conclude I think there's enough circumstantial evidence that that shows a the Earth Trey was burned before B there have been multiple eras under amica's rule and C it most likely meant that the Glide Queen came early on in the timeline and was likely a challenge at the Twilight of the age of Plenty but of course I leave it to you to decide where you think this event at in the timeline and I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below but with that said let us now examine the Glide Queen and her potential identity before we jump in to this next chapter I want to acknowledge a great video by content creator last protagonist as their video on the Glide Queen has been instrumental in my fundamental ideas on the subject and so while I will reference them directly at certain points I wanted to acknowledge their influence in a general sense the identity of the Glide Queen has always been somewhat of a mystery and so so with that said let us unpack some of these possibilities I'd like to start by examining the very nature of the Glide Queen herself and what she perhaps represents Glo is defined as the following according to Colin's dictionary Twilight or the darker part of Twilight and it is ultimately synonymous with Dusk and so the removal of the one instance of a DUS eyed Queen in one of the patches doesn't really hold a huge significance however what does hold significance is the already existing connection between Dusk and death for example in the ending that relates to those who live in death and Godwin is called the age of the duskborn this of course makes sense having a symbolic tie to the glomi queen given that she was once connected and channeled the power of the Rune of death which is ultimately the artifact responsible for the creation of the prince of death and those who live in and death the connection between dusk or Glo and death in a metaphorical sense is pretty easy to understand dusk is the end of the day and death is the end of one's life they are both the Twilight of something indeed the term glom ey could just be a reference to her purpose to bring death to America and her God kin heralding the Twilight of the age of the Gods and in a way if we consider the in which we are suggesting her rise took place the age of Plenty the Glide Queen's domain is very much an inversion of this the age of Plenty the age of Crucible is essentially an age of Vitality an abundance an age of Life unrestrained whereas the Glide Queen the representative of the black flame and destined death brought death the complete mirror of the age of life and abundance a great observ ation about this thematic inversion was made by content creator quag on Twitter who said the following an refers to the Rune of death and death as the shadow of the golden order the Rune of death goes by two names the other is des and death The Forbidden Shadow plucked from the golden order upon its creation which makes sense as it's inverted from marica's crucifix I think this is a really powerful observation by quag here that the glow Queen's Rune very much represented an inversion to America the literal Shadow to her Rule and as quag points out it does look like an inversion of Mar's Rune indeed it is possible that marica's original Rune is a rune of life and therefore the Rune of death would be the literal Shadow to Mar's runin the reasoning for this potential speculation comes from a tweet by content creator Ator Securo duby who tweeted about an item description found in version one of the game in this version of the game the icon Shield a shield that depicts the age of Plenty mentions a rune of Life whilst of course this is cut content and shouldn't necessarily be considered Cannon it does for me make more sense to quail's idea of the Rune of death literally being an inversion or Shadow to Queen Mar's rule potentially the Rune of life and the Rune of life would make sense for America given that the Earth tree is the Nexus of life in the lands between especially in the age of Plenty whoever the Glide Queen was it is clear that her power the power of the black flame that is used by her and her Apostles was channeled by her signature weapon the godslayer Greatsword the description of which reads the following the black Flame wielded by the apostles are channeled from this sword this suggests that the Flames themselves even the ones wielded by the apostles and the Nobles are directly channeled from the Rune of Death By The Sword it is a medium between the two really highlighting the importance of this weapon to the godkin movement last protagonist makes some very interesting observation in regards to the sword highlighting its double helix structure that is not dissimilar from the sacred Relic sword a weapon made from the body of a god perhaps this sword itself was made via a similar process and we know the noxs have experience in making weapons from corpses like the Finger Slayer blade despite the nightmarish concept of making a person into a sword we know that such swords do hold important power for example the Finger Slayer blade seems to be the only blade capable of harming a two fingers therefore it's fairly logical to assume that given its double helix DNA esque shape that the godslayer blade could also be one that was made from a corpse for a special purpose the purpose of channeling the power of the Rune of death in his Glide Queen video last protagonist does even suggest a theory that it could be possible that the sword is the Glide Queen herself that she was the one who is able to channel the black flame and thus the sword is able to and following her defeat she was turned into a sword suffering a similar fate to Mara and Radigan as a punishment upon her defeat another fascinating detail about the godslayer great sword is that it exactly matches the shape of the Rune of death if you turn it Point facing down you can see with its downward facing HT that it perhaps takes the shape of the Rune of death and this could be used as an argument to to say that the sword was indeed once the Glide queen that it takes the shape of the Rune of death because of her relation to this Rune however I am more of a mind that this is a purpose-built sword for the Glide Queen due to the fact that is a highly detailed sword both the sacred Relic Sword and the Finger Slayer blade are more Primal in their aspect whereas the entire design of the godslayer Greatsword does seem to suggest that it was purpose made hence why its design is so highly detailed the sword is being designed to evoke the idea of the Rune of death itself the pivotal artifact to the Glide Queen's power and the movement of the God skins and I think the idea that it represents the Rune of death is better captured by this fan-made footage by Eugenia that portrays the Glide Queen standing Victorious over a fallen God bringing its Point down on her foe the Rune of death hanging over the heads of the Gods Not only does it seem to have been forced in the very shape of the Rune of death but it also seems to display a swirling flame it's not really a double helix to me it looks like a flame going upwards no doubt evoking the very black flame it is used to channel and to me it also seems designed specifically to channel the flame again human made due to the Gap in its center from which the black flame will emerge however I do leave the matter of the sword up to you to decide whether it is a sword made from a corpse if it's the Glide Queen herself or if it was designed with the specifics of the Glide Queen's requirements in mind with that said let us return to the matter of the Glide Queen's identity now I have heard many people make the argument that they have to be related to Marica and if we consider the other existing imperion that we know of this does make some sort of sense Millennia and Micha are direct offsprings of America and depending on your Viewpoint rannie is the daughter of marica's other personality or at the very least is marica's stepdaughter however we have to remember that a one stage America herself was chosen as an imperion and so we aren't sure 100% on the situation surrounding her election to godhood and so we can't be certain in nailing down the prerequisites of imperian status yeah if I was to go out on a limb I would say that imperian status can be a combination of both blood relation and or potential with that said I can't help but think the Glide Queen would thematically fit within the Eternal cities being related to the Newman Mar's kin whether she is directly related to the queen or not of course we will look at that potential later the connections between the nox the num and queen Mar herself are well known to the community at this stage with the black knife assassin armor telling us the Assassins are Newman and King to America whilst roier also refers to them as Scions of the Eternal City and in general for a history of the nox I would recommend both my video on the Eternal cities and tarnished archeologist video on the Eternal Empire for two different accounts on the history of the Eternal City and the nox but whatever you believe about the Eternal cities and the nox it is clear that this is a Divergent num society that very much oppos the greater will as the armor set for the nox reads the following long ago the noxs invoked the eye of the greater well and were banished deep underground now they live under a false Sky an eternal anticipation of their Lee of the coming age of stars and their lord of night so it is clear that these are a people who have acted directly against the greater will leading to their banishment underground however as I have already argued the godkin apostasy isn't really an attack against the greater will and is more against America herself and it falls within the natural cycles overseen by the greater well however this is not to say that the Glide Queen could not have come from these people either before before or after their banishment and if it did come after when they were known as the nox one canot help but think they would still get a great joy with laying America low and bringing an end to her age of Plenty so when looking at the possible connections to the Eternal City I'd like to look at one of my favorite lore items in the game the godkin swaddling cloth and this item reads the following sacred cloth of the godkin Apostles made from Supple skin sewing together the glite queen cradles newborn Apostles swaddled in this cloth soon they will grow to become the death of the Gods this has always been a striking image to me of the Glide Queen cradling newborn Apostles a scene that Eugenia has incredibly brought to life for this video from the moment they are born they are cradled by the Glide Queen and this makes it a abundantly clear that the God skins are not regular humans nor are they recruited not only that but it says that soon they will grow to become the death of the Gods and to me this has always suggested some kind of accelerated growth and combined that they are Apostles from their very birth leads me to conclude that they are artificial life forms raised up by the Glide Queen herself there is of of course a people who are very familiar with creating an artificial life form the Eternal cities and we' have discussed this many times in the channel before but for the sake of this video let us again look at the creations of the nox when we're trying to discuss the connections to the God skins one of the most obvious examples of the Eternal City tampering with life is the dragon K soldiers who we can learn of via the frozen lightning incantation which reads the Dragon King were born in the Eternal City where they knew no true sky nor true lightning and via the dragon skill blade which reads alas The Dragon King soldiers never attained immortality and perished as decrepit pale imitations of their skyborn kin while crude these tortured failures are evidence of the eternal's proclivity for tampering with life and if we consider the noxian interest in alchemy then the sky is the limit when we talk of alchemy we can of course prer to the celestial du a fate altering tonic and the puppet draft again a tonic which manipulates fate to leverage control over living beings this alchemical manipulation could have potentially ended up in the creation of the silver tear any a cut quest which has been recreated by nullin there was a silver tier by the name of a who we could dialogue with we' essentially take this AI into our body so she could begin to copy our form whilst apparently granting us power if we came to the Eternal cities aimi would name this her home then while at the Eternal cities she would mention that there is a chalice nearby the Cradle of her kind the silver tear are liquid in nature and of course a chalice contains liquid and to me it suggests that the silver tears were born of alchemical manipulation by the nox and given their purpose they can mimic the form of other creatures we could speculate that these beings were created so they could mimic the form of a lord of night and although this is cut content the presence of the silver teers all over the Eternal cities for me implies that this is still the implication that the silver teers were created by the Eternal City and this is why we actually see silver teers fighting alongside the no the Alan ORS are also potentially tied as creations of the nox via a cut dialogue from tops who would have directly named them as creations of the Eternal cities and given the nox's predilection for manipulating life again the Alban Orcs could well have been a creation of theirs to try and create an artificial Lord of KN although again that is just speculation but in general there's a lot of evidence pointing to the nox and the Eternal cities as the birthplace of many forms of artificial life so with that in mind let us look at the actual physiology of the God skins themselves they are pale skinned like malleable clay much like the Albin orics and silver tears and all of the God skins look identical in appearance like clones also like the silver tears and the silver weapons of the nox the godkin apostles are malleable able to stretch out and contort in unusual manners again just reinforcing the fact that these are not natural beings there's of course the lore of the swadling cloth that we've already looked at suggesting that the Glide Queen rears every single one from birth and I hope that even if you don't agree with the Eternal City Connection that we can all agree that these are not not natural beings these are not just humans who have been recruited into a movement there's also another potential connection between the godkin apostles and the Eternal cities and this is the death of e and this is something I've talked about in other videos but upon the completion of rany's quest line her vassals are assaulted by black knife assassins both isi and blly have the corpses of black knife assassins surrounding them and yet curiously EEG is also burning in the black flame not the red flame of death and death but the black Gods slaying flame of the God skins now some have argued that this may be a mistake and it was meant to be the red flame yeah I feel this would have been corrected in a patch if it was like the DUS eyy Queen being removed from the godslayer great sword in a patch so what does this actually mean well if they are both connected to the eternal cities then perhaps it is a hit squad organized by the Eternal cities reasonings for this assault is something I've gone over in more detail in my night of the black knives video but in short I feel like Ranny left the black knife assassins high and dry and we even find electo the leader imprisoned in Ran's ever jail up on Moonlight altar so 's death is a curious one but if the God skins are creations of the Eternal cities then this hit a combined force of black knife assassins and the God skins could well make sense aside from the creation of the God skins potentially being linked to the Eternal City there are some other possible loose illusions that could be used to connect the glom queen herself to the Eternal City culture one of these is the fact that I have long believed that the Eternal City race is a matriarchal one firstly among the kns there are the night maidens who appear to occupy a preeminent position in society with their set making it clear they are important enough to have sword stress bodyguards there's also the fact that Queen Mara herself Who Rose to become the god of the current ERA came from this society and her preeminence could suggest a matriarchal nature to the Newman people but aside from that there's also the idea that the moon an important facet of nox's Society is more associated with the feminine rannie and rala the two most important lunar figures in the game are women as well and it is a long-standing concept within Souls games that women are associated with the moon again if we consider gwendolin from Dark Souls who was raised as a woman because of his strong Affinity to the Moon as we discussed in my Ranny lore video this concept could be tied in to the philosophy of Yin and Yang where Yin Can mean the moon and represents the feminine forming one half of a system of balance so it isn't hard to conclude that noxian Society is most likely matriarchal because of the preeminence of the Moon and if the moon is more connected to the feminine this is why it's matriarchal so it isn't hard to believe that the Glide Queen could have once been a queen of numin or noxian tradition a once Queen of the Eternal cities this is all speculation ultimately but I do find it fairly compelling especially when we consider the artificial nature of the God skins themselves and so to conclude I do speculate that the Glide Queen comes from the same stock as Marica whether she be directly related to her or not and whether that means she was a nox a Newman or another distant relation or offshoot there's one other interesting concept I would like to talk about before we begin naming a specific candidate and that is the potential tie of serpents to the Glide Queen this was an idea first brought to my attention by a viewer who commented on one of my community posts the Epic h88 stated that they believe the Glide Queen was a serpent this set my mind racing and shout out to Epic h88 for getting me to pick up this connection and also credit to tarnished archaeologist Serpent and the earthree video which only further compounded my own ideas on this subject so when talking about the Serpent's place within the Elden ring Mythos a good place to start is the julus set which reads the following the snake is viewed as a traitor to the Earth tree and the audience delighted in seeing those bronze Effigies beaten and battered the snake was very much the focus of gladiatorial combat and in essence the crowd wanted to see these snakes beaten down into the dirt and not only did it feature on the limited armor of the dualists these gladiators but there is also the coil Shield a snake Shield that was designed for gladiatorial combat again a medium through which the people of the earth tree Society could see the serpent getting what it deserved now we do need to ask the question why is the snake so hated even at this time cuz we know that gladiatorial combat is a practice dating back to the time of Godfrey given his Warrior aesthetic his lion Rampart being present in the entrances to the Coliseum and the fact that this practice had died out by the time of Radigan As Told To Us by the ritual sword Talisman so surely this is far before Reichard would become the serpent of blasphemy and bring his Blasphemous war against the Earth tree tree in the time of the shattering and Beyond indeed if we look at the serpent Hunter spear it gives us some interesting considerations as it reads thought to have been used to hunt an immortal Great Serpent in the distant past it manifests a Long Blade of light when facing such a creature used to hunt an immortal Great Serpent in the distant past meaning that there was a serpent crisis in the past before rikar became the serpent of blasphemy and this event would be so dire and so impactful upon society that the people of the Erry realm would make it a nemesis in gladiatorial combat and we take Delight in it being defeated in these mock battles I'd always just assume that the serpent was viewed as an enemy because eay must have always been in opposition to the Earth tree and for those unaware the the reason I refer to igay as the Great Serpent is because of the Temple of igay at volcano Manor which is a Temple dedicated to the serpent and thus we must assume that the name of this serpent is igay now returning to that original comment by the Epic h88 while I don't necessarily agree that the Glide Queen herself is a serpent it has always been interesting to me that the godkin Nobles have Serpentine Tales and perhaps this suggests a sort of alliance between the glomi queen and the Great Serpent to me the description of the gladiatorial set gives me biblical Vibes the serpent thematically has always been seen as the enemy to the Earth tree much as the serpent is always seen as metaphorical for evil in the Bible in the Garden of Eden it is the snake that tempted Eve to take the forbidden fruit of knowledge and in this case face was the literal mouthpiece for Satan himself thus through the serpent the original sin is committed and God's perfect creation is Tainted indeed as highlighted by tarnish archaeologist's tremendous video the image of the serpent in the tree in the Garden of Eden is too similar to the imagery on the drawing room key of volcano manner which for those unaware shows a serpent coiled around a tree in this case represented of the Serpent's desire to consume and destroy the Earth tree could it be that like in the Bible it was a serpent that first whispered in the ear of the Glide Queen and set her on her path could it have then aligned itself with her in her cause helping her imbue the power of the serpent within her god-skin children which is why the god-skin Nobles have a serpen te tail and why the god-skin apostles are able to stretch and contort like a serpent does this also explain why a god-skin noble has now aligned itself with Reichard and the serpent of blasphemy is this an old Alliance rekindled so it can assist in creating a new Serpentine warrior class so that Reichard and his serpent children can succeed where the God skins failed perhaps this is all speculation of course but I have always wondered what this ancient emnity against the serpent is and at the very least we have the tales of the godkin Nobles to consider these are ultimately Serpentine tales and we find a godkin Noble in the hot bed of a serpentine Revolution and perhaps the reason the serpent is so hated is because it assisted the Glide Queen and her Apostles and its Union with Reichard is just the latest in its attempts to overthrow and hurt the Earth tree and if you want a deeper look at the serpent and it's potential history of opposing the Earth tree I would thoroughly recommend tarnish archaeologist video Serpent and the ER tree so what am I saying about the Glide Queen up to this point well let me surmise I believe that she was a queen of the same people as Queen Mar potentially related to her and I believe that she was chosen as an imperion the imperian Rune was an inversion of maras and she was the shadow of death to marica's world of life to channel her power the Glide Queen had her signature sword forged and would create an artificial life form specifically designed not only to wield this flame but to bring death to the Gods in addition it is possible that there was an alliance between the Glide queen and the Great Serpent cementing the serpents as an immortal enemy of the her tree there is one other matter regarding the Glide Queen's allies that we should talk about and that is the issue of her Shadow as rany States each imperion is granted a shadow Taylor Made to serve them rany had BL and Mara had malakith and given the Glide Queen was eventually defeated by the shadow of her opponent it certainly would have been useful to have one we know from varg Gram's raging wolf set that he seeks to become such a shadow and given his possession of the Gods slaying great sword it is clear that he seeks to become the shadow of the Glide Queen however given he is seeking to become one it suggests that he failed in his quest meaning he wasn't her actual Shadow the most obvious explanation is that we simply don't know who her Shadow was that the shadow was killed in the conflict of The God skins or met some unknown fate that we don't know about when it comes to the actual identity of the glomi queen who do I believe it is I have already presented some interesting theories that she was a serpent that she was the godain great sword herself or merely an unnamed member of Newman or nox Society however if I was to put money on it now I'm going to be rather boring and say that I do believe that Mel is the most likely candidate for the glomi queen aam's Razer after all and when we do see her at the end of the frenzied flame ending with her Glo eye it is very compelling but let's go into another few connections as to why melan might well be the Glide Queen firstly as we have stressed throughout this chapter we do think it thematically fits that the Glide Queen would be tied to Newman nox and Eternal City society and melan would also seem to take these boxes of being related to this numen people first of all the black knife assassins who themselves are described as Newman and kin toar America use a technique that is also shared by melan we see this bladecraft when we summon her in our fight with more God and if Melina was trained in the same combat techniques as other numen women it would suggest that melan is also of this culture Melina also refers to her mother within the Earth tree me I'm searching for my purpose given to me by my mother inside the UR tree long ago and what is inside the earth tree it's of course America and again the glomi queen an imperion being the daughter of America would fit in with everything else we know about other imperion who are also of Royal Blood for me one of the stronger Arguments for Melina being the Glide Queen is how familiar she is with death and death which would certainly make sense if she had been the glomi queen at one point a being who literally represented the Rune of death indeed we will return to this subject in the later chapters on the God skins but the fact that melan is so familiar and understands such a nebulous concept as death and death and knows that it is required to burn the Earth tree is very compelling evidence for me that she was once the wielder of Des and death and then as mentioned the real nail in the coffin for many people is the finale of the frenzied flame ending when Melina appears with her Gloom eye an eye that was previously sealed and she once again talks about destined death and again the color of the eye is so particular to me it does seem to be a wink to the camera a wink to the audience that melan was actually the Glide Queen and she kept this part of her identity secret from us so let me present my speculative analysis of melan's past identity as the Glide Queen she first of all claims that she is burned and bodyless and is ultimately a bit confused as to why she is still here me I'm searching for my purpose given to me by my mother inside the earth tree long ago for the reason that I yet live burned and bodyless indeed we do see burn scars all over melan's hands suggesting that in her corporeal life she was burned and we know that the Rune of death manifests its power as a flame whether that be the Black and White Flame of the God skins or the red and black flame wielded by malakith would it not be a fitting punishment for the Glide Queen to be burned in the Flames of death by malakith and given that malakith wields the power of death and death within his blade it isn't a stretch to believe that the glomi queen burned to death in addition melan's eye is sealed and is only unsealed at the ending of the frenzied flame why well consider the chain of events that happens up to that point in other playthroughs melan dies before death and death or the Rune of death is unsealed by the tarnished she sacrifices herself in the flame of Ruin and then we later defeat malakith and unbind the Rune of death however in the the frenzied flame ending melan does survive right to the end so she survives to the point where the Rune of death has been once again unsealed and is Unleashed in the world and now melan's eye is open I believe it is sealed and unsealed much like the Rune of death that it is literally connected to the power of death and death this is the manifestation of the Rune of death within her body and so when it was sealed her eye was sealed when it is Unleashed her ey is open as an aside as for the tattoo on melan's sealed eye I don't have any more specific Insight that anyone else has not already said I do believe that these are Talons and they are representative of death an illusion to the crow or raven like death Birds no doubt but talking about Milan's eye there is another tie that could suggest that again could make her out to be the Glide Queen gank is the alter eagle or secret identity of malakith but this is after he has sealed destined death the Rune of death within his actual body in time it becomes part of him and so he hungers for death route this is a yearning from the Rune of death itself who wants its forgotten fragments to be returned to it as the death rot item description does make it clear that the death rout is the form that the Rune of death takes spreading throughout the lands between following Godwin's murderer and so gank gives us a tool to be able to track down these fragments the Beast eye this Stone Talisman that takes the form of the eye has a violet Iris that looks almost identical to the Hue of melan at the end of the frenzy flame ending I have no doubt that this particular eye with its purple Hue is meant to invoke the image of the glowey queen and thus is somehow able to connect with the power of the Rune of death and given it looks so starkly like Melina's eye this is another solid bit of evidence that melan is the Glide Queen returning to the concept of her being burned and bodyless there is one other character who is in a similar position rannie who no longer has her body both Melina and rannie are able to disappear in a puff of blue Sparkles an observation made by zorm in his video on melan this suggests that they are in a similar State and indeed we know that rannie slew her own body an event we know of thanks to her own speeches and the description of the curse mark of death rany's bodes State came about through the manipulation of the Rune of death and indeed her True Body also looks burned if I am right about Melina being burned in Malik's flame after her defeat that perhaps she too was only killed in body as a punishment or so Amica could later burn her Earth World daughter to her will or perhaps Amica simply couldn't bring herself to have Melina killed fully and thus took a half measure by having her rendered bodes this is all my speculation of course but this is how I see melanina the once glomi Queen was defeated by malakith and burned in his red flames of death but denied true death being killed in body only now Mar is in a dire situation imprisoned within the UR Trey unable to take actions herself so she calls upon her last resort resurrecting the spirit of Melina the disembodied Spirit of her old enemy and daughter and am directs Melina to help the tarnished to help bring this age to a close Perhaps it is mar who even encourages Melina to once again unleash destined death though Melina makes it clear that no matter her mother's plan Melina has decided that once again the world needs death me I'm searching for my purpose given to me by my mother inside the earth tree long ago for the reason that I yet live burned and Bess there is something for which I must apologize I've acted the finger Maiden yet can offer no guidance I am no Maiden my purpose was long ago lost I think this is thematically very neat Marica once denied des and death and the Glide Queen yet now she is relying on them both to free her from her Eternal imprisonment we will return to Melina and her views on life and her actions near the end of the game in the final chapter of this video as I do also think they neatly within the narrative that I'm presenting with that said and the glomi queen somewhat covered let us move on to her followers the god-skin apostles we've already discussed the artificial potential origins of the God skins but the artificial nature of the God skins is important for the Thematic opposition to the AR tree and we know about this thematic opposition thanks to the greatest lore item in the game the albor blood clot which says the following Alban orics are life forms made by human hands thus many believe them to live impure lives Untouched by the Earth tree's Grace there is an important thematic Point made here that being an artificial life form is SE to be impure by those of the world of Grace because they are not connected to the Earth tree which is essentially a Nexus of life potten recycling life through it via Ur Trey burials and Ur Trey births and I would recommend tarnish archaeologist video on the life cycles in Elden ring if you are interested on that subject aside from this potential cycle of life we have already discussed how The Crucible in the age of Plenty was a time of unrelenting vital life energies is it therefore not quite fitting that an imperion in distinct opposition to this system an imperion of death would wield artificial beings a thematic parallel to the system of Life which they oppose regardless it is a fascinating image to imagine these infant beings being swaddled in God skinned cloth by the Glide Queen herself and indeed this concept is the focus of eugenia's work that they did for this video These beings are raised for a single purpose and we do see that when we fight them in game they are ferocious opponents and arguably one of the most powerful life forms that we will face in the lands between and so it's hard not to see that this is an army raised for a single purpose to destroy the world of men I mean to destroy the world of the Gods yet they aren't just physically impressive combatants it also seems as though the queen herself imbus them with the power of the black flame for the black flame protection incantation reads the following the apostles were all embraced by the Glo queen and the black flame was their armor within to me this suggests that as part of the Queen's raising of these children was to imbue them with the power of her black flame literally embracing them and putting its power within them it would become part of their very being their armor from within this of course all makes more sense if they are artificial beings raised for a singular purpose to wield the black flame and be its vessel and we can literally see these beings wreathed in its flame in their second stages of their fight indeed suggesting that the black flame is made to be part of them from a very early age there is of course further evidence that could suggest that the God skins are literally one with the black flame firstly most of the God skins we face in game seem to appear out of thin air their arrival is heralded by the godslayer sigil as if it is an incantation and then they appear wreathed in Black flame this becomes even more apparent when we Face the godkin duo when we fail one of them the other is able to bring back their fallen comrade using some kind of incantation that again is marked by the godslayer sigil the implication is clear to me the God skins are more than flesh they are intrinsically linked to the black flame and again it makes me think back to the description of black Flames protection and how the black flame became part of the God skins when they are embraced by their Glo eyed Queen all of this together the fact that they are braised from birth by the gloi queen herself that they are able to stretch and contort that they are incredible Fighters and the fact they wield the black flame of death as if it is part of their own being all suggest that they are tailor made for the Glide Queen's purposes with that said these beings do seem to possess some culture dare I say that and Views in regards to their own hierarchy and role within the world firstly let us consider the fact that they are referred to as the god-skin apostles they are robed almost religious looking figures Apostle is a religious word a follower and advocate for a certain religious Doctrine such as the 12 Apostles of Jesus the religious nature of this movement is reinfor fored by the fact there's a godkin prayer book and the fact that their powers the black flame incantations are faith-based this is not a political movement nor an Army in the traditional sense this is a religious Crusade with the Glide queen as their Messiah figure their central figure to their beliefs this of course makes their skinning of the Gods far more terrifying it isn't just psychological warfare it is a zealous religious practice a religion that worships death and Views the deaths of the Gods as their holy purpose the noble presence incantation describes their actions as a god hunt and for me this is their religious Crusade no doubt such a movement would have struck absolute Terror into the hearts of the Gods this is a religious Doctrine and as such they couldn't be Bartered with or reasoned with these are beings raised to believe in one single doct and it fascinates me to imagine how the God skins would have been at the height would they have had temples would they have had shrines all we see of the God skins now are survivors scattered to the winds pursuing their own agendas and so again this idea of a religious movement is something I think that Eugenia has captured well in her renders with that said even within this movement there was a hierarchy and of course I'm referring to the god-skin Nobles who we they learn of via the god-skin noble set which reads Nobles are the most ancient apostles who are said to have assimilated inum physiology not unlike The Crucible the AR Trey in its primordial form so these beings are the most ancient of their kind and thus are nobles among their kind and what is interesting is that there does seem to be a sort of classist superiority among these Nobles as the description of the godkin stitcher their signature weapon reads the following the Nobles possess skill with the sword unmatched by any lowborn despite its size successive attacks from this weapon are swifter than the ey can follow they term lowborn to me suggests that they see regular Apostles as lowborn and combined with them being the most ancient of their kind perhaps these nobles were born as the first wave or via a different process indeed they do have inhuman aspects to them and indeed it does leave us to question whether a special process went into creating these Nobles that involve The Crucible somehow but again that is all just speculation however admittedly this sword could be referring to humans when it says a lowborn and that the apostles in general see themselves as something better something purer but regardless these god-skin Nobles clearly have a high opinion of themselves and in fact the Noble's robust size could also be interpreted as a noble aesthetic choice for in days past in the real world a large size was often seen as an indicator of wealth and position as such a privileged lifestyle would manifested in a richer diet and in general it could be seen as a sign of prosperity success and nobility overall the picture we get of this sect is that they aren't just Mindless automatons despite might being raised for a single purpose they are singular people with a single purpose but they do themselves have their own beliefs and are certainly not above Pride with that said let us now look at their adornments weapons jewelry and Associated symbolism I want to start with one of the most important part of the godkin aesthetic and that is the symbol that is cast when God skins appear when they use the black flame incantations and the sigil that forms the god Slayers seal it's obviously important that we look at this as this is obviously the emblem of their movement I have long pondered what this image is given that the other skills of magic or incantations have a symbol important to their Associated themes and beliefs so I went back to basics and asked myself what is most important to the godkin apostles and of course the answer to that is the Glo eyed Queen if you were to turn this symbol on its side it could well look like a very stylized eye like the Eye of Horus or the protective eyes find on the lzu boats of Malta a practice which dates back to Greek and Phoenician times when warships and boats had protective eyes painted upon them likewise I believe this sigil to be the eye of the Glide Queen a very holy object for the God skins no doubt one further interesting consideration when we are talking about this sigil is the description of the godslayer seal which of course has the sigil on it and the item description reads sacred seal of the godkin Apostles inlaid with obsidian said to represent the manipulation of black flame this Catalyst enhances godslayer incantations now the language here is a little confusing does it mean that the seal represents the manipulation of black flame in its function I.E by using this seal you can manipulate black Flame or does it mean the obsidian inlaid represents the manipulation of black Flame or does the sigil itself represent the manipulation of black flame if it is the latter You could argue that the Sigil of the God skins isn't an eye at all but instead some abstract shape that represents the black flame being controlled and manipulated however even then you could argue that the Glo eyed Queen is the one who is able to manipulate black flame and channel it and thus her eye does represent control over the black flame either explanation satisfies me to be honest and so make of it what you will with that said I would also say that the massive purple gems found on both the godkin noble and Apostle sets are also representing the Glo eye as well protective or empowering talismans that have a religious significance to the God skins with that covered let us look more closely at the robes and weapons of the God skins firstly when looking at the circular pattern in the center of the godkin noble robe I would suggest that this is also meant to evoke the black flame as I find this knoted symbol to be very reminiscent of those found on the gods slain Greatsword which I also see as representing the swirling black flame as for the other symbolism found on the apostles robes I would suggest that these are also stylistic representations of death and the godling black Flames these are religious robes after all for Apostles and so it makes sense that it would be inscribed with the image most important to their movement the Nobles robes also have another interesting design Choice as the description for the chest piece for the noble set reads worn by godkin Nobles known for their seven face aprons myself and others have pondered upon this symbolism of how the number seven is is relevant to the movement and there are no solid answers based on in-game lore so take the following speculation with a pinch of salt however in the real world the number seven is an important one in terms of symbolism a point well made by Reddit user quarcus 23 who commented on a Reddit post about the godkin noble set which I will link below in this comment the user highlights that there are seven days in the week seven days of cre in the Bible and seven luminaries with these Connections in mind corus suggests that seven could be seen as transformative a change bringing number much like the seventh day of the week Heralds its end I'm unsure how I sat on the seven faces but this was the most compelling explanation I could find so take it as you will and let me know your thoughts Below on the seven faces found on the godkin noble set so the descriptions of both the Apostle and Noble robe make it clear they are indeed made from skin and their very name the god-skin apostles would suggest that this is God skin in my original God skin lore video I did doubt the veracity of this given it would take the hell of a lot of God's skin to make this amount of robes for all the apostles and all the nobles with at least seven gods dying for each Noble's robe however since then I have been more willing to consider that these could well be made of God skin firstly the text dump of the game describes these as robes made from tanned God heide secondly my view on how many gods there have been has dramatically changed since that first video a year ago in my night of the black knives video we highlighted an article from Bandai Namco that they released in December 2021 and it launched alongside the games story trailer in this article they expanded upon some of the lore explained in the story trailer and regarding the night of the black knives they said this one Grim night in the depths of winter a flock of unknown assassins stole across the lands between in a cutaneous attack this foul Covenant snuffed out the lives of many of the god Queen's kin throughout the Empire too numerous and too scattered for her Godly protection to see the article is really interesting and I will link it below and recommend you give it a read in particular I find this passage to be of real interest because it changed my perception on how many of marus kin there are and expanded the scope of the Gods for me this quote illustrates a Mass Slaughter of many of Mar's kin suggesting that there are far more Gods far more blood relations to the royal family than the main cast of of characters in the game a point reinforced by the soless demigods found in the mums more demigods that have been killed whose name we don't know oh and by the way there are seven of these nameless demigods so do with that as you will in regards to the seven faces found on the godkin noble set returning to the concept of gods perhaps the gods could Encompass a wide reaching family tree offshoots and everyone else that are distantly related to America forming a Godly royal family that spread throughout different generations and different branches so if the black knife assassins killed many gods aside from Godwin himself who is to say that the God skins did not hunt down countless demigods who would be skinned and used as material for their iconic robes however I do want to caveat this discussion by acknowledging there is at least one instance where a godkin appears to gather human skin and this is at the Village of dominula an observation that I made in my first video about a year ago dominula is a village in Altus Plateau where it seems as though the members of said Village are having a Merry Old Time celebrating a festival we hear of said Festival via the set that they wear the festive set which reads who Dorn by dancers at the festivities in dominula the village of the windmills and at first glance while this may appear to be a Merry Old Time a quick Vibe check will tell us that something isn't quite right here firstly there are no men only women and they all seem to have a slightly manic aspect to them something is a little off here they're also very well armed for people that are celebrating a festival and there is one over there looking a butcher blade while standing over the corpse of someone the answer of course comes via a ghost NPC at the entrance to the village and its dialogue implies that skinning is a constituent part of this festival and given it is only women left I presume that it is the men who play the unfortunate victims in this celebration and lo and behold right at the top of the village overseeing this celebration is a god-skin apostle ready to take his tithe of skin my take now is the same as it was in March last year that this godkin Apostle has manipulated the people of this town to create a skinning Festival that is essentially manufactured so it can be a source of fresh skin whether that be for the god Skin's own religious Doctrine or whether they actually need skin human skin to make new robes or fix their current ones ultimately one could see this Festival as evidence that this skin is human skin that the God skins actually use for their robes although like I say the godkin apostles could just see the skinning of someone as a holy right and that is why they're implementing it at this Village rather than for a supply of skins but take it or leave it I will leave it up to you to decide what's happening at dominula and why it's happening whether it is human skin or God skin that makes their robes the effect is quite clear this movement would have struck fear into the hearts of the Gods who no doubt would have imagined their own face adorning the apron of a god skin Noble yet there is more to it than this the skinning of your enemy and keeping them as a trophy or using them as a material for the mundane is the ultimate domination and humiliation of your opponent for example there's the account of the Roman Emperor Valyrian who According to some accounts was captured by a Persian king called shapper following the Battle of adessa in 2060 ad according to a later account given by a writer called lactantius Valyrian would eventually be flayed alive with his skin then being stuffed to keep as a trophy the ultimate humiliation for a once powerful Roman Emperor of of course we can't speak to the veracity of these ancient sources but the message is clear the skinning of one's enemy like one would skin an animal is the ultimate degrading act you see your opponent as no more than a beast you would usually use animals for your leather for your shoes for your trousers but instead you're using this person's very identity as your leather for the mundane this is of course quite significant when we consider the targets of the God skins the Gods to me their purpose of wearing God skin is to send a message we do not respect your Authority we do not respect your Divinity you are nothing to us we will tear down your Empire and skin you like beasts and we will wear you like clothing in mockery of your former status and a testament to our Mastery over the gods they are both trophies part of their Creed but they ultimately serve as a warning and a lesson to the god as such their weapons are essentially both weapons but function as skinning and sewing implements the god skin peeler wielded by the apostles by its look and description is clearly a skinning Implement meant to peel the skin clean off and the godkin stitcher the weapon of the Nobles is more like a sewing needle meant to tailor and pull clothes together in a way you could see this division of labor as another division between the two classes classes the apostles have to get their hands dirty doing the actual skinning whereas the Nobles get a more refined tool meant for stitching and sewing with that said let us look at the godkin god hunt itself its ultimate conclusion and its Legacy the term God hunt coined by the noble presence incantation is fitting when we consider the power that the glomi queen and her Apostles wielded let us revisit the description of the scouring black flame which reads the black flame could once slay Gods but when malakith sealed death and death the true power of the black flame was lost at this stage when the scaring flame was first utilized it could literally slay the gods and clearly possessed a metaphysical connection to the Rune of death that it no longer does this flame literally channeled the power of the rune of death but the threat of this flame could have been even more dire and could have threatened more than just the Gods in a very astute observation in their flames of the Gods video they hypothesized that the black flame may have well being the one that was meant to burn the AR Trey V limit highlights a cut dialogue from ANA during the burning of the arery cut scene that happens in Game however at one point there would have been a cut dialogue that mentioned the black flame and I quote that cut dialogue now the Rune of death is Unbound black Flames have devoured the Earth tree and the lands between are shrouded by death's dark fate tarnished archaeologist builds upon vmit premise by highlighting what we do in game to burn down the Earth tree we first of all Unleash the Power of the flame of Ruin but it is tempered by Des and death only together can they burn the Earth tree and to quote tarnished archaeologist directly what is the black flame but a combination of fire and the power of death and death and if our combination of the flame of Ruin and death and death burns the Earth tree then it makes sense that the black flame of the God skins would have been able to do the same and with this understanding of the black flaming mind it is easy to see why the fire monks of the mountaintops would abandon their charge to worship the black flame monks who had already been Bewitched by the power of flame would no doubt have seen the black flame as something greater a fire touched by the power of the Rune of death so they hastily dyed their robes and beards and lend their power to the Glide queen and the godkin apostasy it is impossible to say how successful this apostasy actually was but given the sheer amount of tortured faces found in the the Robes of the God skins I would Hazard that they killed at least a few and struck fear Into the Heart of the Gods Amica would fear the threat of the Glide Queen enough to the point that she would entrust malakith to deal with this particular threat it was at this stage I believe that malakith imbued his sword with the power of death and death which we learn of via his armor set and the Black Blade incantation the latter of which has the symbol of tarnished archology ancient Earth tree era again suggesting that the events of the godkin apostasy and Malik's response to it took place in this era now we know from the description of the scouring black flame that the true power of the black flame would eventually be lost with the ceiling of death and death and we know from malak's remembrance that he would eventually be the vessel for it in the past I had thought that malakith imbu his sword was the so-called confinement of the Rune of death that the very action of imbuing his sword with death and death was the act of sealing it and that sealing it within his flesh after fragments were stolen on the night of the black knives was just a further precaution however thanks to the timelines presented by tarnished archaeologist I do now acknowledge that malakith imbuing his sword with Des anded death is not the same thing as him sealing it becoming a vessel for it and in in fact the murder of Godwin and the slaughter of many of Mar's kin is a far more catastrophic event involving death that could have been the motive for sealing death and death as gank malakith really does have a sole purpose confining the Rune of death hence why he not only hides it within his own flesh but also hides his true identity and form however at the time of the godkin apostasy and his battle with the glomi queen he was a different being he was malakith he was death made manifest he didn't hide or confine death he wielded it openly and this is what really defines malakith not confinement like gank but the open wielding of death becoming death itself and this is why when he unseals it during his fight with us he reverts to his malakith form once more so just to tidy up the timeline a bit at the time of the godkin apostasy he was death incarnate malakith but following the slaughter during the night of the black knives he became gank and this is when death and death was truly sealed and the power of the black flame was sapped this only makes Malik's achievements against the Glide Queen more impressive because he fought them at the full height of their power he didn't confine the Rune of death before he had defeated them and he fought fire with with fire with his death imbued blade against the black flame of the God skins the item descriptions of both the godkin Apostle robe and the godslayer great sword imply that it was malakith who personally defeated the godkin movement Queen and all this implies that he decimated their ranks and personally defeated the Glide Queen ending this rival's claim on behalf of his God his Total Domination over the God skins and mastery over death really is well emphasized by the description of ganks beastclaw incantation which reads long ago gank was a beast of such terrifying ferocity that his former name meant death of the demigods looking back on it this incantation and its item description is a hint to the player before they've met malakith that gank is malakith with Malik's Victory no longer did the Glide Queen hold the threat of death over the demigods it was malakith who became known as such Marcus henchmen who wielded this power a not so Veiled Threat for any of those who would try to defy her rule in such a manner again and given the power of the God skins that we have discussed this is no mean achievement indeed his ferocity is backed up by his armor set item description which reads malakith queed Mar's loyal half brother b e bade in bued with death and death and there was not one demigod who did not fear Him malak's reputation is clearly the result of this Victory and his wielding of the Rune of death the godkin Apostle set tells us that the black flam's power was drained and as we have said this comes much later after malth would become gank and seal death and death and at that point these scattered remains of the godkin movement were truly robbed of of their last vestages of power and yet they haven't given up as we see they are active in the lands between and with that said it's now time to talk about the legacy of the godkin movement and their Glo eyed Queen so what is the legacy of the God skins well their low numbers attest to their destruction at the hands of malth and as we have already said when malth would seal des and death within his flesh the power of the black flame would be sapped and while it is still a dangerous flame attack that we can see when we fight them it is no more than that it has lost its connection to Destin death as such the prospects for the godkin movement seems dire and yet they remain formidable purpose-built killing machines that they are the placement of the godkin NPCs throughout the world is a masterful example of environmental storytelling in my opinion as each of their locations appears to have a story purpose hinting that the God skins have not quite given up and still relentlessly pursue their initial aims there's a God skin at the base of kaleid divine Tower defending their Most Holy of relics with a black monk the godslayer Greatsword itself perhaps at the defeat of the Glide Queen this godkin Apostle saw it as his duty to take this sacred Relic and protect it at all costs there's of course the godkin Apostle found at dominula who we have already discussed a figure who has manipulated an entire Community to provide his Creed with fresh skin then there's the godkin Noble at learia Divine Tower acting as a barrier between us and rany's curs Mark of Death perhaps this godkin is here to claim this fragment of the Rune of death so they can once again try and imbue their Flames with its Gods slaying properties likewise we can find the menacing godkin dual in Far Mazula shockingly close to the Rune of death and malakith their purpose here is quite clear they are here for the Rune of death perhaps they can sense it and had they reached malakith and killed him before us who knows what may have transpired then of course we have the godkin noble found in volcano Manor and whether or not you agree with the potential deep ties to the God skins and serpents the presence of the noble here also makes sense in a general sense as clearly they are allies of convenience both Reichard and the God skins want the same thing the destruction of the earth tree thus both benefit Reichard gets a powerful Ally Who potentially has knowledge of forming artificial life in return the godkin could help Reichard potentially complete what it wanted to do whilst also having access to plenty of fresh skin there are plenty of prisoners within volcano maners pris town and the description of the alinor Mask found nearby as well as D's wo also found nearby could imply that the godkin gets to practice his skinning ways and the legacy of the God skins goes beyond the surviving God skins themselves as we interestingly find the godkin pray book within Stormville Castle godric is desperate to destroy his demigod Rivals and return to the land of his blood it should therefore come as no shock that he would look to the rituals of those who once made God killing their Creed yet Perhaps the god Skin's greatest Legacy is the one found littering the streets of lell the ash that blankets the capital we discussed tarnished archaeologist Theory regarding the first bird burning of the AR Trey a traumatic event that brought a bountiful age to a close the arboreal physical Ur tree is reduced to a withered stump through the act of burning that we can later recreate on our path to become Elden Lord yet who was responsible for this first burning a burning which condemned the arery to exist only as a phantom in the eyes of the faithful as tarnished archaeologists suggests in their serpent an ER Tree video the vitriolic hate for The Serpent and why it became the focus of gladiatorial games is a mystery and a fascinating one at that but perhaps it is well earned Perhaps it is the alliance of Serpent and Glo that is responsible for the ary's greatest Calamity and perhaps the black Flames a combination of fire and death and death once stripped the Earth tree of its former glory and should Melina be the Glide Queen she is a pale shadow of her former self her true destructive power sealed behind her eye as the Rune of death itself is sealed beneath Malik's skin her final purpose is fitting however yet the context is different from the godkin movement instead of leading a coup against a God she has been tasked by that same God to bring an end to suffering an end to stagnation and so she does what she knows she Burns she Burns herself and she burns the Earth tree so that you may bring death and death back into the world yet melan isn't a person of unbridled destruction and her attitudes towards life to me serve as one final piece of evidence that she may have been the Glide Queen a purveyor of death not destruction only bringing death and so that it may balance balance out the abundance of life and so should we choose a different path the path of the frenzied flame should melan abandon us and not sacrifice herself in the flame of Ruin then perhaps the gomide queen will once again be unlocked alongside the Rune of death that we free from Malik's flesh melan's opposition to the Lord of chaos shows the true nature to me of the Glide Queen she's not a force of evil or destru ruction rather she is the natural death that all systems need a balancing force in a world that has fallen far out of sink yet a cog in the machine of order she remains despite representing death she does not wish for life to be universally extinguished rather that the destined death of each individual is administered properly at the end of their life indeed melan begs the tarnish to stay away from the path of Chaos from the path of true destruction however ruined this world has become however mired in torment and despair life endures births continue There is Beauty in that is there not if you would become Lord do not deny this notion please leave the frenzied flame alone and should we choose such obliteration such chaos then perhaps it is the Glide Queen the wielder of Des and death who will stand as life's final Champion Lord of frenzied flame I will seek you as far as you may travel to deliver you what is yours destined death the demig gods have been forsaken by the greater well a result of the prolonged and bloody shattering war from which no Lord would arise yet there is one imperion who themselves chose to forsake the greater will and took no part in the shattering war rany was one of the few chosen by the greater will and the two fingers to be imperion a potential successor to Queen Mara marked for potential the potential to become the new God that would usher in a new age but rannie would come to present the fact that her self-determination had been robbed from her repulsed by the idea of being upon of the two fingers in time rannie would carve out a new identity as rannie The Witch adherent of the Dark Moon master of occultism Guided by a mysterious Crone by the time that the tarnished arrive in the lands between most of the great Deeds of the demig gods are history and yet rany's greatest achievements are yet to come for as impressive as characters like melenia and radan are their feets pale when we consider ranny's Grand plans to upend the order of the world ushering in an age of stars to achieve this rannie travels down the dark path of the imperion a path of Bloodshed murder and mysticism frankly one of the greatest stories told in Elden ring so Jo me this week as we examine the story of rannie the lunar princess at this stage I would just like to acknowledge my thanks to Loki author of Abyssal archive for providing their translations and insights throughout this video there are as few in the lands between that have such an August Heritage as lunar princess ranie firstly rany Reichard and ran are born of caran royalty the powerful Royal House of learia that was able to stand toe to- Toe with the forces of lale in two separate Wars they are the children of ralo the great lunar champion of RI Laria and their father is the legendary AR tree champion rigan in time these children would also become the stepchildren of America through rigan's second marriage making them both carrying royalty and Ury royalty like me if you believe that Radigan and America have been sharing a body since Mar became a God then in a way Mara is their parent as well as she would have been radigan's other half during his marriage to rala if that wasn't enough to establish rany as having an esteemed Heritage ranie is one of the three existing imperion alongside the twin prodigies Micha and melenia this is more impressive when you consider that mola and melenia appear to have been chosen due to their auspicious birth being born borned by the single bodied Mar Radigan Union rannie shares no such special birth and thus her selection as an imperion must be due to her potential or power I would like to address a theory that has been held by many that rannie couldn't be the biological child of rala because imperion are only born from a single God citing millenia's remembrance as a source as a result such theories believe that rala was instead born from the rebirthing of the Amber egg thus born solely from rigan's meddling it could therefore be seen that the sweetings that surround rala are defective versions of such a process now I don't think this theory is necessarily impossible rather I disagree with the logic that it is predicated upon that imperion can only be born of a single God in my mind imperion are chosen and it just so happens that Micha and melenia were were chosen because of their birth rather than that being a necessary precursor I think that the process of imperion being chosen is better reinforced by Loki's translation of rany's dialogue where she talks about when she became an imperian and I quote that translation now I was once an emperion for among the demig gods only melenia Micha and I were discovered by our respective two fingers and became candidates for the Next Generation of God to succeed Queen America it is up to you what you believe but I will go with aam's razor on this one and I believe that rannie is another child of rala and rigan and we know how children's names work in this world they usually have the same first letter as their parents like Godfrey's lineage being Godwin godric and godfroy and in this case all the children of Radigan and rala have ours as their first letter ultim Ely I leave it up to you to decide your truth but the result is the same rannie no matter her birth was raised as a caran princess and was granted imperian status we get scant details about rany's early life but we do get some thanks to EEG and some other lore items and environmental details much like her sibling Redan it seems that in her original body rannie shared the iconic red hair of her father Radigan as we do hints of red hair on her original petrified body found at the top of Leia's Divine Tower it seems as though there was one benefit to her being an imperion in her Youth and that was the relationship she developed with her shadowbound Beast BL we know from Malik's remembrance and the Raging wolf armor that imperion are granted a shadow and for America it was malakith and for rannie it is BL and rannie does explicitly confirm that blly was Taylor Made as a vassal for her by the two fingers as a result of her imperian status as she says the following I was once an imperion of the demigods only I Mika and Melania could claim that title each of us was chosen by our own two fingers as a candidate to succeed Queen Mar to become the new god of the coming age which is when I received BL in the form of a vassel tailored for an imperion I discussed these shadowbound beasts and their nature in a separate lore video and so if you're interested learning more about that then I will link it below but while blly appears to be a tailor made creation of the two fingers and in a way a reminder of what rany would come to hate it is clear that BL had his own mind he made his own decisions regarding rany and it is clear that the two developed a very special bond that went beyond Shadow and imperion as ich gives us an insight into Ran's childhood blly is Lady rani's step brother rani's Mother Queen renala approved of him and they played like siblings from childhood they were always happy to have me tag along as well so it seems as though despite renala being associated with the moon and blly being a product of the two fingers she approved of him as a companion to rany and it seemed as though they played together as many other children would being almost brother and sister this explains why she holds both EG and bl so dearly to her and in a way it is nice to imagine rannie having a normal and innocent childhood as stories like this are far and few between in the lands between yet rannie as mentioned was also born to the caran Royal household found Ed by Queen renala whose power was centered around the Moon we learn of The house's Origins via ral's remembrance which reads in her youth renala was a prominent champion who Charmed The Academy with her lunar magic becoming its Master she also led the glint Stone kns and established the house of carrier as royalty so renala is not only the last queen of krier as rannie calls her during ral's boss fight but she is also the first having been the one who established her household as a royal one rala appears to have been an attendant of RI lucaria but one who Rose to extreme prominence due to her affiliation with lunar magic lunar magic seems to have been its own branch and we can assume that it was special to those at the Academy because up until that point they mainly focused on glint Stone sorceries we can see there are certainly differences between the magic of the Moon and magic of the Stars due to the fact a different shade of glint Stone seems to align more closely to the Moon something we learn of via rala septer which reads magic scepter of renala Queen of the full moon the glint stone is known as caran blue enhancing full moon sorceries the description of caran retaliation also makes it clear that while Kara is associated with the moon real Laria is mainly infatuated with the Stars a clear delineation between two different schools of magic we can even see the heterodox nature of this new school of magic via the lazuli conspectus Crown which reads Scholars of the lazuli conspectus study carrying sorceries a heterodox Pursuit that views the moon as equal to the Stars it is clear that rala was the founding figure of this school of thought and her Mastery over this novel form of magic is what catapulted her to Champion status and subsequently led her to form the caran Royal house and rulership over real Laria even being honored in paintings throughout real Laria alongside other notable Sorcerers thus being raised in the caran household and by such a preeminent sorcerer such as rala it is no surprise that rannie herself would become such a powerful being after all rannie is powerful enough to bend a dragon aula to her well who respected her so much that it took a nightly oath to serve her Dark Moon as well the Moon is of course the defining partner to both rannie and renala and we learn that renala met her Moon as a young astrologer fire the Stargazer heirloom which reads A Talisman engraved with the legend of a queen the young astrologer gazed at the night sky as she walked she had always chased the Stars every step of her journey then she met the full moon and in time the astrologer became a queen this is very interesting to me as it seems to be very similar to Ran's inauguration with her Moon which we learn of via rany's Dark Moon spell which reads the moon was encountered by a Young rannie led by the hand of her mother rala what she beheld was cold dark and veiled an a cult mystery it's almost as if rala takes rany on a Journey so she can encounter her own Moon much as rala did in her youth a recreation of that first fateful meeting if you will this does of course make sense given carer's power is tied to the moon and if rannie was to one day be Queen She Too would need to rely on the power of the Moon I do want to briefly comment on the caran lineage and some strangeness that I personally find with the way in which it is described firstly I do find it a little odd that rala is referred to as both the founder of the caran line and yet is also referred to as the last of the caran Queens this makes it seem like a new royal family and an old one at the same time as if they are some ancient an August Royal house and yet they only have had one Queen the family also feels small to us consisting only of rala and her three children and yet we get plenty of evidence that talks about their traditions and lineage that make it seem that rany is only the latest any long line of princesses take the caran filigreed crest for example which reads as follows an honor said to have once been awarded to caran Knights who served as direct retainers to the Kingdom's princesses now there's only one princess ranie daughter of rala now there is only one princess this leads us to conclude that there had been other princesses of Kara and given rala is the one and only Queen of the House of Kara then this would mean rala must have had other daughters in all honesty I'm unsure what to make of this and there's of course the possibility that rala was married prior to meeting rigan and had a number of other children with another unnamed consort what interest me though is how this L interacts with the hell of the three sisters that exists behind Carri a Manor on this hill there are three towers rany's rise cis's rise and Rena's rise my presumption is that cis's rise is an adopted name to reflect its new master and this was once named after a sister could it be that Rena Rani and the unnamed sister were all Daughters of Kara and thus does the C in F GRE Crest refer to these sisters when it talks about princess's plural Rena is a name that is essentially a derivation of renala and given the way names work in Elden ring it would be logical to assume that Rena is the daughter or was the daughter of renala of course a spanner is thrown into the works here when rannie first introduces herself as Rena a false identity to hide the fact that she is actually one of the most influential players in the lands between however to me it doesn't really discount the idea that Rena was once a separate person and rannie has just taken on her name to hide her true identity the location of the three sisters to me heavily implies that there were at least three princesses of Kara however that is just my own speculation there's of course the possibility that Rena is the name of the snowy Crone rany's Secret Mentor Especially since one can find the snow set in Rena's rise this would also make s sense of ranny's fake identity she is literally pretending to be her mentor of old when she introduces herself as Rena the witch there's of course the possibility that this item description is purely worded but the impression we're supposed to get I believe is that the caran Royal house is an old one with many Traditions despite the fact that it only had one Queen thus by the time rannie came around the conventions and traditions of caran royalty would have been established and rannie had the benefit of growing up in the household of a powerful family no doubt receiving a top class education and no doubt inheriting her mother's impressive sorceress Powers a very logical candidate for imperian status if there ever was one what is most unfortunate about ranny's story is we are missing so much from her early days and her relationship with the golden order what her opinions on being an imperion was and whether she was happy to go go along with it at any stage the facts are this rannie grew up in the Karan household she was once more humanoid with red hair who has granted imperian status early on in her life growing up closely with eyi and bl before being introduced to the Dark Moon by her mother now obviously this introduction to the Dark Moon is one of three in my opinion pivotal moments that set rany on her course to becoming who she is by the time we meet her the other two being Radigan abandoning her mother and her meeting of the snowy Crone and her mentorship so with that said let us now discuss the nature of the Dark Moon the occult and her mysterious Mentor the snowy Crone one thing that I'm sure most are aware of at this stage is that rany's Moon and ral's full moon are separate bodies and in fact you can see them both at the same time at the top of moonlight altar you of course can see the clear differences here in appearance rany's Moon the Dark Moon is a lot darker ral's moon is the full moon as we know via her epithet and of course via her signature spell ral's full moon when you consider how impressive this magic is and the fact it draws its power from a completely different Source from that of Glenstone sorcery it is little wonder that real Laria would have fallen under the sway of rala and indeed the description of the sorcery and its function is that it actually dispels other sorceries suggesting that Moon sorcery May well be Superior or more powerful than regular sorceries as a direct result from The Prestige earned via her lunar sorcery she would turn her family into a royal one and as we have already discussed at length Ker's power results from the Moon and thus it makes sense that renala would want to introduce her successor rany to her own Moon another interesting aspect about this tradition is we need to consider the matriarchal nature of the Karan family and their relationship to the moon for it is ranala who rules as Queen and it seems to be that lunar princess ranie would be the next in line as the Fig greed Crest gives more important to princesses and their role within Karan Society we don't really hear much about the role of princes within the Karan royal family in a prior video I spoke on what I saw was another matriarchal society the nox Society the reason that I see this society as matriarchal is due to the night maidens a female only class that appears to have been given special prominence in their society to the point where they are appointed personal guards in in the form of Sword stresses but why is this the case why do the nox and the carens both seem to be matriarchal there are many crossovers between noxian society and ker including literal pieces of archaeological evidence that show noxian statues within caran structures like in the Church of vow however the main connection is their association with the celestial with the moon renala and the caran have the full moon rany has the Dark Moon and the nox were once in contact with the black moon as we learn of via the moon of noxell Talisman and the memory Stone item descriptions in symbology there is a common interpretation that the Moon is associated with the feminine and the Sun is associated with the masculine for example the philosophical concept of Yin and Yang reflects this very idea Yin means moon or female Yang means sun or male there's obviously far more to the philosophy than that but ultimately it is a philosophy of balance of opposing forces existing in a system of Harmony there's of course the fact that the menstral cycle used to be associated with the lunar cycles in earlier cultures before science fully explained the process and the idea that the Moon is more associated with the feminine isn't a new idea in from software games we of course have dark Sun gwendolin from Dark Souls 1 gwendolin was the child of the God gwy lord of sunlight and by the time of Dark Souls 1 gwindel is the last remaining deity in an orlandoo city of the Gods the description of his robes read as follows the power of the moon was strong in gwendolin and thus he was raised as a daughter then we of course have the school of mensis in bloodborne a word associated with the menstrual cycle which is especially relevant given the game's focus on childbirth and the moon my point being is that when it comes to Dark Souls especially we have a precedent set where the Moon is connected to not only feminine energy but magic in Dark Souls 1 the Moon is very firmly tied to gwendolin se and Magic this Yen of intelligence based sorceries is balanced by the Yang of the Sun and sunlight Miracles and Faith so going into this game I along with other Souls veterans can see similar tropes being used in Elden ring so perhaps the reason the nox and the carens are matriarchal is to do with the greater Affinity that women have to the Moon that they are more in tune to its power as such rala led rany by the hand to meet a moon not rord nor Redan because it was rany who was meant to carry on her mother's Legacy and evidently next in line for the caran throne this is why a particular mention is made of caran princesses not princes yet there is something different about rany's Moon that separates it from her mothers each of the moons that we encounter in Elden ring are specifically given a certain title where rala is the full moon Queen and her moon is the full moon the bright white one that we see in the sky Ran's is specifically the Dark Moon so let us read the second part of the item description for ranny's Dark Moon incantation which reads what she beheld was C dark and veiled in a cult mystery cold dark and Ault all facets of its nature that appear to separate it from the full moon and all three are aspects that ranie in time appears to have embraced and no doubt was a factor in the rather dark path that she takes of course her Mastery over the occult and cold would not have been possible if not for her mysterious Mentor who we know only as the snowy Crone but when would she have fallen under the influence of this Crone at what stage in her life well to me it makes perfect sense that it would have happened at another pivotal moment in her life the moment when rigan abandoned her mother renala Pastor Mariel speaks of this perplexing event and he says the following however when Godfrey first Elden Lord was hounded from the lands between Radigan left renala to return to the earthree capital becoming Queen marica's second husband and King consort taking the title of second Elden Lord the mystery endures to this day as to why Lord rigan would cast lady ranala aside and moreover why a mere Champion would be chosen for the seat of Elden Lord there came a moment when Godfrey and the tarnished were driven from the lands between and Radigan would abandon ranala and marry his other half Mara in order to fill the vacant seat of Elden Lord this then made rany r card and Redan stepchildren of America but it would also break renala we learn of this via renala set which reads when renala head of both the Academy of RI Laria and the caran royal family lost her husband Radigan her heart went along with him and then those at the Academy realized that rala was no champion after all rigan's importance to renala can of course be seen by the fact that a stat of Radigan remains in the grand library of riia Laria close to where she herself remains rala does appear completely broken in a dreamlike state obsessing over the Amber egg rebirths and her sweetings this egg itself was given to her as a parting gift from Radigan again explained to us by Mariel in the end lady ranala was left alone cradling the Amber egg Lord rad bequeathed her now she devotes herself to it through forbidden right the Grim art of reincarnation you would do well to remember severing a vow strongest of bonds has consequences ever more dire rigan leaving has some wide reading consequences for the caran royal family as we see in ral's set ral's reaction to losing her husband is essentially seen as a sign of weak weakness by the real aarans a moment when they apparently saw that she was no champion at all as if Champions are only people who have no emotional reactions the idea of a Revolt by the real aarans being triggered by Radigan abandoning renala is outright confirmed by Mariel who says the following the great and beautiful full moon witch sadly her heart was broken when Lord rigan left her and then when the academy rebelled against the Royals she was locked away in the grand Library so there is the trigger of the real larian Rebellion they saw ral's grief over the loss of her husband as a moment of weakness and struck at the carians locking rala in the grand Library where she remains to this day until we meet her no doubt the real aarans May well have been planning this for a while this was just the opportune moment and we do learn that the carens were prepar preparing for the Academy's Revolt via the Karan retaliation weapon art so perhaps tensions had been boiling over for a while perhaps rala marrying someone of the earthree order was seen as a gross betrayal of everything that raria and leria stood for we know then that following this Revolt the raran and carians would do battle culminating in the siege of Kara Manor an event we learn of via the sword Monument just outside the manor itself which reads the resting place of the contemptible cucko lost in the siege of Karam Manor we do also get some more details from E himself a blacksmith to the Carion who may well have witnessed these events himself when the r lucari Academy turned on the carians the Knights of the Kuku descended on this tract after leveling it They carried on to the manor the carians were taken off guard but their strength had not twed and they repelled the knights Onslaught by Conjuring an enchanted snare that remains poent to this day so we can only imagine how rany a princess of the carens would have viewed this chain of events not only did she effectively lose her mother to grief and then imprisonment but she watched her family lose Prestige control of the academy and ultimately come under attack from those once considered caran vassals I also have to remind you that the cuckoo forces are renowned as ruthless and cruel as we learn via the real aarian ashes and no doubt they would have waged a brutal war against the Carion before finally being driven to a stalemate outside the gates of Cara Manor so all this all the tragedy that rany's family suffers in the wake of rigan's departure is because he essentially chooses loyalty to the UR tree over his own family to rany and her family it would look like he was just choosing the Elden Throne over their family bond a choice that brought Ru to their house and grief to their mother no wonder Reichard and rannie two out of three of the children of this marriage would become two of the most antagonistic figures to the AR tree order so for me this moment when rannie effectively loses her mother this would be the ideal moment for her to meet a new Mentor the snowy crone we learn of this character via the snow witch set which reads as follows once warned by the snowy Crone who the young Ranny encountered deep in the woods she was a witch and well-versed in cold sorceries it is said the doll that houses ranny's Soul was modeled after her that old witch was ranny's Secret Mentor I've always found the description of this Crone truly fascinating especially the term crone itself and her placement Within the Woods clearly the writers are playing up the classic Witch of the wood strope with the term cron conveying the image of an old gnarled witch these are the classic tropes when one writes about the darker side of Witchcraft and the Occult especially when we consider that the snow witch hat considers this type of magic as heretical for me this is where rannie learned the darker aspects of magic from that she would later wield to devastating effect in the night of the black knives clearly This Witch of the woods was an adherent of the Dark Moon and in my mind there is no doubt that she helped form Ran's worldview and inform her of the dark path that she would need to take to bring about the age of stars in an immediate scense the snowy Crone clearly embodied the cold aspects of the Dark Moon Not only because of her name but because of the frost incantations that she taught rannie and we learn of this via spells like glint Stone ice crck and freezing Mist what is clear is that the cold is intrinsic to the form of the Dark Moon as it seems if rannie herself exudes some kind of cold for when she inhabits the miniature doll the item description for the doll reads off that it gives off a pleasant cool and after she departs this vessel the chillness is described as being gone there's also the fact that blly appears to be affect by ranny's cold as his armor set States the Pelt serves as a cape protecting from cold blly was the blade of rany but the cold bothered him anyway again to me suggesting that the reason blly is now cold is because rany now an adherent of the Dark Moon exudes a type of cold rany also mentions the cold in the age of stars ending she refers to the chill KN and to me the cold and the chill of her Dark Moon is meant to represent the cold of the cosmos of the abyss of space however what interests me more is the occult nature of the Dark Moon and what it means for Ran's stories there are a few other mentions of Ault in Elden ring and it is essentially a weapon Affinity strongly associated with death and the manipulation of vital energies for example it is associated with the weapon art lifestle fist spectral Lance assassin's Gambit and of course the black wet blade which applies the occult Affinity to weapons we can get an idea of what the occult is all about by reading the description of Life steal first which states skill that demonstrates Mastery over the art of controlling vital energies so this is a life manipulation Focus practice which I guess isn't a surprise for those who are familiar with the term cult or a cult witchcraft that is about life and death quite often the Trope being that you require a blood sacrifice or a death for those Powers we see this idea of a blood sacrifice in the weapon art assassins Gambit which is an occult weapon art where one is literally required to offer some of their blood through a self-inflicted wound to take advantage of this occult power as I suggested in my black knives lore video rannie speaks of how she used a fearsome right to imbue the black knife assassin blades with the power of the Rune of death I have no doubt in my mind that this is an occult practice an occult right learned via the snowy Crone and an aspect of the dark Moon's power after all the murder of Godwin soul and ridding herself of her imperian flesh very much as a manipulation of life and death and to me it firmly earns the occult title the heretical snowy Crone playing up to the Wicked Witch of the woods really does tie into the darker side of Witchcraft and the Occult much like the 2015 film The Witch which I highly recommend by the way if you like a slow burning horror I therefore think that the occult aspect of the Dark Moon was the aspect that provided ran the knowledge and rights necessary to manipulate the Rune of death in the ways that she did when it comes to the dark aspect of the Moon as mentioned by ranii and E when they talk of the dark path of the imperion that ranie is taking I think it is a general representation of what Ran's Moon represents it represents the cold abyss of space it represents the Ying to the Earth trees Yang the dark to its gold it is not necessarily evil but it is fundamentally opposed to the path laid out by the two fingers and thus it is the dark path of the emperion to make a long tangent short I think rannie was first introduced to the Moon by her mother but it was the Crone who taught her the deeper Mysteries of the Dark Moon of the cold of the dark and its occult aspects the very fact that rannie makes her new body in the image of the snowy Crone shows how much of an impact this character had on her she was a mentor to rannie meaning that everything that rannie is owes a lot to the teachings of the snowy Crone and ultimately I believe it was the snowy Crone who put her on her path that she is in game and told her what she needed to do to bring about the age of stars so with that said let us talk about ranny's designs and the night of the black knes itself I'll obviously start this chapter by making it clear that I've already done an in-depth look at the night of the black knives in its own video so if you are interested in a comprehensive look on that subject I will link it below in this video we will mainly be looking at the effects that this event had on rany having grown a personal hatred for the golden order and resenting the two fingers for stifling her self-determination rany's Mentor would have given her the teachings necessary to realize her true destiny as an instrument of the Dark Moon and bring about an age of stars and as such the conspiracy known as the KN of the black knives would have began to be formulated in my night of the black knives video I discussed that the black knif assassins were women that were close to America in terms of blood given that roier describes them as Scions of the Eternal City and that their armor set describes them as being close to Marica and as Loki says in this tweet here I've always believed that this means that these are women close to America in terms of society and in terms of blood however tarnished archaeologist in one of their lower videos has a fascinating and more refined interpretation than mine in a way that may explain why these women were close to America in a series of videos tarnished archaeologist lays out a theory a theory that the Eternal Empire those of the Eternal cities preceded Mar's civilization and that it was from this eternal Empire that Mar's Ary Society evolved tarnished archaeologist Likens this to the evolution of the Roman Empire from a pagan Empire to a Christian one and in this case it was the Eternal Empire evolving from a paganistic star worshipping Empire from which a monotheistic tree cult emerged resulting in the dominant Earth tree religion that we see today and that these three Eternal cities that we find in game actually once sat on the surface and dominated the lands between connected by the highway that runs from Lim grave all the way to the Altus plateau and according to tarnished archaeologist Theory the black knife assassin Knight was the result of a counterrevolution of those who still believed in the old way of the Eternal Empire and they revolted against the emergence of America's new monotheistic religion that is the long and the short of it tarnished archaeologist has an excellent series on this very subject backed up by environmental details and in-game lore and if you want to learn more about this Theory then I will link it below and props to tarnished archaeologist for bringing out new ideas and theories this long after the game's launch this would explain why the women of the black knife assassins were Clos to America they were the same people as her regardless whatever you think about the origins of the black knife assassins it is clear that rannie was able to find a group of co-conspirators who shared her animosity for the UR Trey order my impression and speculation is that both sides brought something to the table in this Grand plot firstly the black knife assassins of course brought the Marshall skill and physical participants who were willing and able to actually do the killing I also believe that it was the night sorceries of Celia assassin Focus skills that included Magics of obfuscation that formed the building blocks for what would become the Assassin's iconic cloaks that fooled the eye invisibility cloaks if you will however I believe it was rannie who brought her Mastery of the occult to the conspiracy and it was rannie who is responsible for the black knes themselves and for that I mean the actual weapons as we have already discussed rannie was initiated in occult practices and then she speaks of a fearsome right in which she formed these knives I stole a fragment of the Rune of death and used it to forge the gods slaying black I through fearsome right I did it all so clearly rannie was able to bring her knowledge to Bear to give the weapons needed to kill the gods and of course again what's a well-known fact at this point in the game's history is that the ritual performed on Godwin and rannie simultaneously was specifically done in a way that would benefit Ranny that would rid her of her imperian flesh cheating the system so to speak by taking one half of death the body death without being obliterated entirely having her soul killed alongside it the curse mark of death reads the following curs Mar carved in to the discarded flesh of rannie the witch also known as the halfwheel wound of the centipede this curse mark was carved at the moment of death of the first demigod and should have taken the shape of a circle however two demigods perished at the same time breaking the curse mark into two half of Wheels rany was the first of the demig Gods whose flesh perished while the prince of death perished in Soul alone specifically the root of death appears to have been carved at the same time into the Flesh of rannie and Godwin both so that the effects of the Rune of death would split killing rany's body only and Godwin was forced to Bear the death of soul on her behalf the clear and specific nature of this ritual shows that rannie planned this night primarily to R herself of her imperian flesh an intent that is made clear by several of her dialogues I stole the Rune of death slew mine own Imperium flesh cast in its way I believe this is rany's main aim in organizing and masterminding the night of the black knives and that she essentially misled and betrayed the black knife assassins by obscuring the true purpose and leaving them out to drive following the night itself this is why we find electo imprisoned by ranie and why the black knives appear to attack her vassals in retribution but for more detail on why I believe this I would again refer you to my night of the black knives video and in general it seems like the black knife assassins take the full weight of the blame as rany does not seem to be known as the true Mastermind in the modern era it takes rier some investigation to find out this is the case and aside from that she is never mentioned as The Mastermind behind this plot yet while ranny's objectives in organizing the night are clear there are other General political goals that night that were achieved in my black knives video I believe I did a good job in bringing some attention to an article from Bandai Namco that was published alongside the December 2021 story trailer this article was essentially a flavor piece that introduced players to the world of Elden ring and what they could expect from the story complimenting the story trailer that released at the same time and it said the following on the night of the black knives one Grim night in the depths of winter a flock of unknown assassins stole across the lands between in a cutaneous attack this foul Covenant snuffed out the lives of many of the god Queens kin throughout the Empire too numerous and too scattered for her Godly protection to save the Assassin's targets were multifold but none were as devastating a loss to the Eternal queen as that of Godwin the golden after his death the Elden ring was somehow shattered and the Order of the world broke with it the Assassins targets were multifold and this foul Covenant snuffed out the lives of many of Mar's kin so while rany clearly had an ulterior motive in enacting this plan it's clear the conspiracy also achieved other aims that resulted in a devastating blow for the royal family of the UR Trey order so in a way rannie kills two birds with one stone she harnesses the frustrations of those who resent the herry order to create a counter revolutionary strike which not only achieves her primary goal of shedding her imperian skin but it also destabilizes a rival branch of the royal family and it strikes a blow that essentially the golden order never truly recovers from following this rannie clearly exists in some kind of spirit or Soul form before anchoring her spirit within a new dull body now at this point I would like to take a moment to discuss ranny's new form and assess how we see her in game to see what bits of lore that we can M from it so firstly there's the blue Spirit form of rannie that sticks out the side of her dull body and I've always presumed that this is the true rannie this spirit this is her in Soul form and how she exists now that she has no flesh which of course makes sense when you consider that rany's mouths her spirit form and her doll form move at the same time meaning this is just rany's Spirit it just kind of overlaps slightly with the doll that she now possesses however despite this people have also often tried to tie rannie and Melina together and there are certainly legitimate reasons to do so for example when rannie first gives you the spirit calling Bell she says she has been asked to do so by torrance's former Master clearly Melina Melina is clearly in spirit form much like Ranny describing herself as burned and bodes as pointed out by zorm in his recent video on melan which I will link below all three of melan ran and torrent Fade Away in a burst of blue particles and given that torrent is describ in the spectral Steed whistle as a spectre it's fair to assume that all three are in some sort of spirit form so for me the first and most obvious connection between these two characters is that they both exist in spirit form they don't have corporeal bodies and we could go a little bit further down the rabbit hole if we consider that melan could be the Glide queen I am in the camp that believe that melan's most likely identity is that of the Glide Queen who has now been birthed as Marica as an agent rannie was killed in Body by the Rune of death and the Glide Queen Once wielded this power before being defeated by malakith perhaps melan the Glide Queen being burned and bodyless could be a hint at her ultimate fate at the hands of malakith who now the wielder of Des and death and the Rune of death burned her in the red black Flames this is all wild speculation of course but in summary I believe that if there is any connection between rannie and melan it is because they are both spirits who have come to be due to similar circumstances I don't believe that they are the same person nor do I believe that they are sisters and while there are similarities in the two I believe they are two clearly distinct characters on their own Journey that being said Melina is a video in of itself and I will eventually explore the possibility that they are one and the same person in a separate video so look out for that but tangent aside in short I believe that rany's overlapping ghostly form is literally just that it's rany Spirit now when it comes to the form that rannie has chosen her puppet as we have already mentioned it is modeled after the most influential person in her life the snowy Crone I believe that the Crone more or less wore this type of outfit and that's why her appearance in general is said to be modeled after the snowy crone yet I don't think this is a complete one toone Recreation of what this snowy Crone looked like the fact the Crone is referred to as such Doesn't chime too well with the actual appearance as the term Crone literally means an old woman yet rany's puppet is clearly far more youthful given that it looks very similar to rany's Spirit form my conclusion is that the youthful aspects of this appearance are based on rannie herself and that she's modified snowy Cron's appearance slightly to more affect her own spirit yet the most fascinating aspect of her appearance in my opinion are her forearms possibly one of the most iconic parts of her whole get up many will of course recognize the obvious connections that this has to Hinduism many Hindu deities like Brahma and Vishnu have more than two arms but why well firstly it helps illustrate that these beings these gods are not human that by looking at an image you realize straight away this is a God but to go a bit further these are symbols of their divine power my understanding is that multiple arms are used to show that these gods are able to perform multiple actions throughout the Universe at the same time by using all their different arms a Divine multitasker if you will the arms can also be used to illustrate the different items of significance relatable to that God for example take this image of Ganesha or Ganesh who has four arms his bottom right hand is positioned in a flat Pam symbol for a blessing representing ganesha's blessings that he bestows upon people in the top right hand he holds an axe meant to represent Detachment or the sing of ties you get the picture so let's apply this logic to rannie in our first and last meetings with rany her hands are in a normal relaxed position and so there isn't much that we can M from this however what interests me more is the positioning of her hands when we speak to her in ranny's Tower and the iconic hand gesture she makes in the story trailer I'm of course referring to the pose where one of the Pair of Hands is distinctly steepled and we have to ask what is this trying to convey well usually this hand position is used to depict thinking or or planning or scheming rannie is a schemer the bringing of the age of stars ultimately is the culmination of centuries worth of planning there's nothing wrong with a well late scheme to me her two sets of hands represent this she is a multitasker one who is capable of active immediate action symbolized by her free set of hands but one that is always planning ahead looking to the Future No Matter what's happening in the present symbolized by her steepled hands it symbolizes rany as a master planner and it makes me think of mafala from the Elder Scrolls who also is shown with multiple arms and mafala is a god of scheming and plans that is of course my speculation and I look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments below what you think Ran's forearms are meant to represent with that all said we now know what happens after the night of the black knives Godwin becomes the prince of death and gives rise to those who live in death possibly the greatest instance of collateral damage in any Souls game as I have said in multiple videos I see the crime against Godwin his death of soul and the Fate he is forced to suffer just so rany can achieve her aims as a terrible crime never mind the condemnation of other innocent people who are forced to live in death as a result of death rout spreading from Godwin the source of this terrible crime and so no matter what you think about rany's ending I always bear that in mind that the steps she has taken to get here are extremely ruthless I'm not saying that she is a bad guy but in my eyes she is far from a hero but what happens to ranie after this firstly we know that it is after rannie has disposed of her flesh that she divulges her plans to EEG and blly thanks to a dialogue from EEG when lady Rani renounced her FL and chose the dark path of the imperion BL and I swore Allegiance as vassels so this makes a and bl rather innocent of any involvement in the night of the black knives as it seems like they didn't know her plans until this moment yet rannie and her vassals appear to have been in hiding for quite a while as we do get a rather interesting piece of dialogue regarding ranny's whereabout from roier who says the following I have some idea of Ron's potential whereabouts there's a Manor to the north of the Academy of rehea lucaria it is the familial home of the Kian Royals from whom Rani descends there's been Talk of the old Royals vassals Gathering there in recent years Ron's whereabouts since the shattering are a well kept secret she hasn't been seen even once but I suspect she might have returned to the manner in which she was born the shattering came after the night of the black knives however from R's dialogue it's clear that rannie really hasn't been much of a player ever since the night of the black knives and the shattering War Began we of course learned via Gideon ofir that rany then set aside her great Rune and now this is interesting for a number of reasons firstly it means that she did claim a great Rune at some point as we know that this is an active action taken by the demig gods from the introduction to elen ring soon maracus Offspring Dem Gods all claimed the shards of the Elden ring my speculation is that she did initially claim a great rune for the reasons that everyone else did power then upon the outbreak of the war she set hers aside and vanished leaving her siblings to destroy one another while she waited patiently to enact her plans following the end of the war at a time when many of her potential rivals would have been eliminated and in general providing a more quiet landscape for her to enact her plans the setting aside of her great Rune is very symbolic to me to me it really does represent that rannie sees her path the dark path of the imperian as separate from that of the Elden ring While others may be hoping to claim the Elden ring for their own and harness its power through the great Rune that they hold Ran's path is detached entirely from the existing order of this world and as such great runes remnants of an order that she seeks to supplant entirely really is detached from her concerns as such her dark path of the imperion does not require a great Rune nor would it benefit from taking part in the shattering returning to roer's dialogue he also talks about rany's vassals gathering at Carri a Manor the implication being is that this is a recent activity after years of the man being abandoned and rany being missing the overall impression is that rany essentially skipped town while the shattering War played out and only recently following the end of the war has there been activity at Kara Manor this brings us to the here and now and ranny's next step in her plans severing the bonds between her and the fingers for good and then finally at the defeat of the Elden Beast she would be able to Herald in the age of stars yet despite ranny's return and the fairly exhausted state of all other demigods her plans are locked in stasis thanks to the actions of her own brother General Redan at this stage in the lore we all know the story of Redan a great warrior who learned gravity magic so he could continue to ride his beleaguered horse yet he became so powerful in its usage that he imposed his will on the Stars themselves during the star Scourge conflict according to a sword Monument found in Kor this was to keep Celia safe from something either from its fate or a direct threat from the Stars however with the movement of the Stars arrested fate is Tethered along with it and as we learned from selin and E this means that rany's Destiny is also held in stasis indeed whether Redan intentionally wanted to prevent rany's plan or not is not clear however it is clear that he is currently the greatest impediment to Ran's plan land the Dark Moon itself appears in the Skies over kid upon redan's defeat as if it is an omen that Ran's Destiny can resume this brings us back to a rather tricky subject that of Fate a subject I've dealt with in some detail in my primeval current lore video which I will link below but let us start by understanding the fundamentals about fate before we apply it to rany's Destiny a good place to start is with the celestial due item description which reads as follows Once Upon a Time the stars of the night sky guided fate and this is a recollection of those times therefore in the world of Elden ring fate is literally attached to the Stars fate itself is defined by Oxford languages in the following way the development of events outside a person's control regarded as predetermined by a supernat natural power in short fate is the way a person's life unfolds and that the events of their lives happen outside of their control and is instead Guided by an outside force and in this case that outside force is the Stars this is more simply put by the Amber Starlight Shard which says that these Stars command people's fate and the Karan seem to have had a special relationship with fate the caran descend from astrologers with rala herself being described as an astrologer in the Stargazer heirloom the astrologer armor set tells us that astrologers are able to read Fate In The Stars when rala established caran royalty it looked as though she preserved such practices via the preceptors for the preceptor Hood reads large hat with the movement of stars drawn on the inside of the brim worn by magic preceptors who served the caran Royals Glenstone Sorcerers are the descendants of astrologers a fact that the Carion remain aware of even if their fate has long been severed from the Stars this heavily implies that the preceptors very much are stargazers given their hats have the movements of the Stars drawn on the inside and given one of the only preceptors we meet in game civis is obsessed with fate and manipulating it through his puppet drafts I think it's a fair bet to say that these preceptors acted as personal fate readers for the caran royal family and continued to observe the practice of astrology that was linked to the reading of Fate so this in turn implies that some carens were well aware of their Fates because they are able to read them in the stars and it seems as though fate is fundamentally important to the Kens as it seems to literally dictate their lives and we learn of how much an influence Fate has on the Carion via sellin who says the following regarding fate the Stars alter the fate of the Karan royal family and the fate of your mistress Rani but long ago General radan 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 the Stars alter the fate of the caran royal family and the fate of your mistress rany but long ago General radan 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 and so too would rany's Destiny so Salin specifically states that rany's fate her life is unable to really move forward until the movement of the stars is resumed it is hard for us to truly understand what is happening here but here are the main takeaways the carians are able to read and therefore predict their fate and destiny in the stars in a way it is pre-ordained to them for example rannie seems to know exactly the way her fate will play out second fate is tied to the movement of the stars and if the stars do not move then there is no fate and the way in which fate plays out in the stars that has been read by the astrologers cannot come to pass until movement is resumed this seems to be some sort of metaphysical power that we don't fully understand when fate resumes everything plays out as rannie would like it to with the moment the Redan is dead a meteorite hits the ground opening up the way for notron now we could just say that Redan was actually just holding back a star that was going to hit here anyway and there wasn't really any fate involved however there is more to this as if we try to open the chest containing the Finger Slayer blade but we are not serving rannie and we're not therefore retrieving it for her then we get a message saying that we are not destined to open it and we are unable to open it furthermore the Finger Slayer blade item description itself states that it cannot be wielded by those without fate and if fate is arrested that means that rany wouldn't be able to wield this blade so fate and destiny appears to be a power exerted by the Stars onto the Mortal plane a power that is weaved into being through their movements and ultimately I believe fate to be a tool of the Stars It ultimately seems like a way that they can guide their adherence this of course my speculation as we know the power of Fate can be used to control the actions of other people as civis uses the Fate latent within the Stars to create puppet drafts from Starlight shards meaning that fate is an actual power of some kind that can exert control over people yet things still happen while wean has frozen the stars for example we are still able to ascend the Elden Throne without killing Redan and therefore without the Stars resuming their movement this is why I believe fate is less of a wide reaching nebulous concept that affects everyone and rather it is a force of control of guidance that is from the Stars themselves regardless Ran's plans are in essence Frozen until we come along rannie is unable to wield the Finger Slayer blade to finally sever her connection but when we resume her fate her Destiny she is able to wield the blade we destroy the baleful Shadows for her and she Slaughters her own two fingers she is completely cut off detached from the influence of the two fingers and the greater will she's able now to adhere herself to a new order the order of the Dark Moon so All That Remains for us to do at this stage is to defeat Radigan in the Elden Beast so now let us talk about what actually happens with Ran's ending and what the age of the Stars actually means there has been a lot of debate about what the ending of R's Quest actually means what happens when we choose the age of stars and I think there's a lot of confusion that is very quickly cleared up when you speak to rannie back at ranny's rise when you've become her consort but before you've triggered the end of the game if you return to ranny's rise and you still have the miniature Ranny in your items you can speak to her once more at which stage she will explain more about what her new order will actually entail mine will be an order not of gold but the stars and moon of the chill night I would keep them far from the earth beneath our feet as it is now life and souls and Order abound tightly together but I would have them at a great remove and have the certainties of sight emotion faith and touch all all become impossibilities which is why I would abandon this soil with mine order would Thou come to me even now my one and only Lord so I think rany clears up a lot here ranny's new order will not be one that is situated on Earth and what she means by this is that she herself and the controlling artifact of this new order the Dark Moon will not be on the earth much as Mar and the Earth Tre would be instead rannie would be at a far removed from the earth in the cosmos and as such it wouldn't be subject to the same weaknesses and flaws that Mara's order would be the same corruption that it opened itself up to zorm did a good video on this months back clearing up this confusion and citing an article from Frontline JP which I will link below alongside Z's video in this article the author not only retranslated the ending of the game but also the dialogue we just spoke of and while I don't think this dialogue is nearly as cryptic as the ending I do think the author's translations do make the point I'm making slightly more clear for example for the dialogue we have just discussed in the line where rannie says as it is now life and souls and Order are bound tightly together but I would have them at a great remove the author of the Frontline JP article offers a slightly clearer translation which I will quote next now even if life and souls are one with the order it the order could be kept far away Ranny would have order physically separated from the world that it governs and have these certainties of sight faith and touch all become impossibilities if she as a God as the New Order is far removed from Earth then people wouldn't be able to worship her wouldn't be able to interact with her nor even see her order would just function it would just govern the world without all the emotion without all the faith meaning that rannie is unlikely to be swayed by emotions of what she sees and feels around her it would be an order of logic to quote the author of said article they say rannie believes that while the order may have to exist as it is entwined with life and souls it causes problems for the people her solution is thus to take it and leave keeping it far away where people cannot see feel touch and believe in it embarking on a journey into fear doubt Solitude and darkness to do so in a way this also lines up with the problems that gold mask himself identifies with the golden order if we look at The Mending Rune of perfect order the culmination of gold mask's work he believed that it was the fickleness of the gods that caused the issues and rannie would essentially eliminate that problem by removing herself from the earth she and the order would exist far away from the earth meaning there would be no politics no emotions and no faith that would pollute the Perfection of order this implies an order of logic a Nuance that is easier to see with Loki's translation of rany's final dialogue which I quote now to all life and All Souls from here on is the era of the star St s the logic of the Moon a Thousand-Year Journey a logical order of the Moon I do think this is a Nuance that is really missed from the final dialogue of the age of stars ending and admittedly the English is a little confusing many people thought that rannie was taking everyone with her on a voyage into the Stars however with these translations it is clear that rannie means that she as the New Order will travel far away from the place of existence that she herself governs now let's listen to that dialogue now the battle is over I see I do solemnly swear to every living being and every living Soul now cometh the age of the Stars a Thousand-Year Voyage under the wisdom of the Moon here Beth the chill night that encompass pures all reaching the great beyond into fear doubt and loneliness as the path stretcheth Into Darkness well then shall we my fair consort Eternal with this new understanding in place we know what is really been said said here despite the cryptic language rannie is ushering in the age of stars that will be governed by her and her Dark Moon yet she will depart into the cosmos no doubt to join her Dark Moon beginning her journey into the chilate a path of fear doubt and loneliness for rannie she will rule from afar out of sight and thus the problems of the prior order will fade again I will quote the translation from the front line JP article which makes this all more abundantly clear I shall swear to all lives and souls from here on is the age of stars the laws of the Moon a Thousand-Year journey to all you may think of the chill night is infinitely far away and now let us go on our path of fear doubt and loneliness into the darkness so with that made abundantly clear let us talk about the greater picture what does this mean for the greater will and the Elden ring firstly I think it's clear that the Elden ring is no more in this ending symbolized by rany picking up the head of mar The Vessel for the Elden ring who then Fades away in the various Elden ring endings we defeat the Elden beast but then we take the time to repair the Elden ring inside of America and Implement a new order that is imposed through the power of the new Elden ring and any modifications that we added to it however in Ran's ending Amica Fades away and presumably the Elden ring Fades with it I think the Erasure of the Elden ring is necessary after all rannie doesn't Implement her plan until after we have defeated Radigan and the Elden Beast this to me implies that rany's order could not be implemented until the power of the Elden ring was neutralized until then the Elden be least a powerful vessel for the current order had been in existence clearly its presence and the power of the Elden ring kept the power of the dark moon at Bay but with the Elden ring and Beast no more the Dark Moon lays claim to the Mortal plane in the announcement trailer for Elden ring the narrator refers to the Elden ring as that which commanded the stars and so is it possible that the Elder ring has been such a power that it bent even the Stars to its will that it is the preeminent force in the universe and even the stars must obey its laws I believe so but I also believe that the moon and the stars have their own agenda as we spoke of earlier they are a yin to the Elden Ring's Yang they are opposite and while the Elden ring was present it was ultimately the preeminent force in the universe that commanded the Stars themselves so through agents like rala the nox and now Rani celestial bodies have tried to free themselves from such an order and impose their own with the Elden Ring's defeat and rannie freed from her two fingers she is able to wipe away the last vestages of the Elden Ring's power and beckon the moon implementing an age of Stars free from the Elden ring and free from the direct intervention of gods and while I've always seen ranny's act against Godwin as a terrible crime is this a case of the ends justifying the means now that we have a God that will act like a god rather than a human warlord for rannie will have no family have no castles and be involved in no politics is this the right way for a new order to be implemented I leave such judgments to yourself my fellow tarnished Elden ring has a few pivotal events in its story that punctuate its fascinating timeline key events that have all helped shape the world as it is now the fracturing of the one great the war of the Giant and the shattering of the Elden ring to name but a few but arguably no event casts as large as Shadow as the infamous night of the black Naes on a night of winry fog a group of conspirators stole a fragment of the Rune of death from malakith with their knives imbued by its power these assassins murdered the demig god Godwin the golden and the rest is history yet despite these well-known facts very little is known about these smaller details of this fateful night when exactly did it happen did rany betray her conspirators was Marica actually involved were other demigods murdered on the same night in this video we are going to unpack this event from the formation of the conspiracy itself to the Fallout and review some fascinating and largely forgotten material from Bandai namco's website in an attempt to have a deeper understanding of this Monumental event in the lore who was involved and what the true outcome actually was at this point I would also like to offer my thanks to Miro translator for saaca noo and Loki author of the abysal archive both translators who offered me a lot of help in understanding some of the finer points in this video before we talk about the event itself and the buildup of the conspiracy we need to talk about where this event sets in the general Elden ring timeline this event of course must have taken place after the godkin apostasy because it is the aforementioned event that led to malakith sealing death and death within his Black Blade and of course it is from malakith that the conspirators of the Knight of the black knives would steal the Run of death from thus the events of this night must come after the godkin apostasy we also have the story trailer in which rannie narrates the events that led up to the shattering war and I quote rany's narration from that trailer now the ruin of death was stolen and the demigods began to fall starting with Godwin the Golden Queen Mara was driven to the brink the shattering War ensued a war that wrought only Darkness the way in which this is delivered seems to imply a direct chain of causality the night of the black knives happened and as a result it pushed Queen Marica to the brink leading to the shattering of the Elden ring this is always the way I've interpreted the story trailer and indeed an article from Bandai Namco themselves released alongside this story trailer to help explain what we're seeing in the story trailer in December of 21 also seems to imply a direct causal link it is important when looking at outside sources as is the case for the story trailer and of course the Bandai Namco article that we make it clear that these are not canon IAL sources so you are free to disregard them as you so choose so we do need to be careful when using these types of evidence firstly thanks to the work of those like SECU duby Lance McDonald and zilly the witch we know that a lot actually changed between December of 2021 which is when this article and story trailer came out and the release in February of 2022 the story trailer isn't an in-game cinematic and it's is more like a thematic appetizer for fans a couple of months ahead of release that being said there is no evidence that the overarching lore surrounding the night of the black knives has changed substantially with what we have in game and so I am more willing to lean into this idea that the intentions of the developer and publisher behind the story of the KN of the black knives is still relevant to what we are seeing in the game that this was what they conceived of the story at least of December 2021 but it would be intellectually dishonest of me if I didn't make it clear that of course this article and the story trailer to a degree are non-canonical sources and as you can see from the parts I'm showing on the screen there are many interesting details included in this article especially in regards to America that we will return to later but for now let's just stick with the timeline aspect of it the heavy emphasis in both the story trailer and the article on a causal link seems to suggest to me that this event took place closer to the end of marica's Reign rather than closer to the earlier Crucible and age of Plenty eras there's of course another similar retelling of events by an ingame NPC that lines up pretty well with the story trailer I am referring to sorcerer roier who is someone who has dedicated his life to researching this event and its follow when describing the importance of this event and when it came to pass he says the following the misshapen corpse under storm Vil that is a sacred relic of the black knives plot as that famed night of assassination is known it happened during the Golden Age of the ER tree long before the shattering of the Elden ring someone stole a fragment of the Rune of Death From malth the Black Blade and on a bitter night murdered Godwin the golden that was the first recorded death of a demigod in all history and it became the cat soon the Elden ring was smashed and thus sprang forth the war known as the shattering so again roier reiterates the fact that this event the night of the black knives was specifically the Catalyst that would lead to the shattering again a chain of causality between this event and the shattering this is a sentiment backed up by Loki who believes that the Kani that was translated as Catalyst could be more closely translated as trigger and in short believes that linguistically the language is trying to imply that the night of the black knives is directly connected to the outcome of Marica shattering the Elden ring when talking about when this event took place roier specifically mentions a golden age as well and again Loki was kind enough to offer their perspective as it is written in the original Japanese specifically what their interpretation of ro roier means when he says a golden age and I quote Loki now prosperous age is its own term and basically refers to what we would call a golden age roer is talking about the period before things fell apart so of course that would be deemed a prosperous era of Peace So in essence Loki believes that roier is simply referring to a time in general when things were good and before the peace was broken and in General during amica's Reign we do seem to have long periods of peace from the godkin apostasy really to the night of the black knives when everything fell apart and in general if you want a greater view of the things that happened during amica's Reign I would recommend my Elden ring timeline video which I will link below there are also some other tangental pieces of evidence that may help to give us a general idea of when this took place for example we know that Godwin took place in the war of the ancient dragons and so again the night of the black knives has to have taken place after this event but not only that there is some evidence potentially that Godwin met mola for example there's the golden Epitaph sword which reads the following a sword made to commemorate the death of Godwin the golden first of the demig Gods to die infused with the humble prayer of a young boy oh brother Lord Brother please die a true death the sword is made to commemorate Godwin's death so after it and is infused with the prayer of a young boy who most likely must be mola not only because of his youthful appearance but because of mola's other potential associations with Godwin and trying to Grant him a true death if you're unsure what connection I'm referring to I am talking about castle Saul and the NPC that can be found at the top of its battlements after defeating Commander [Music] the dialogue of this ghost NPC suggests that the dentist of the castles were looking for ways to restore the soul of soulless demigods and in particular micha's comrade but if you want a more in-depth look at this then I would recommend my mola lore video which I will link below now these are of course important things to look at when talking about a timeline because surely if Micha cares so deeply about his dear brother about Godwin's fate then surely they must have had a relationship and knowing each other for such love to exist and if we assume that to be a given then surely the night of the black knaves has to have happened after Michela was born and thus later on into marica's rule after she had married rigan so with all the contexts we've looked at and all the linguistic Nuance I do think it is most likely fair to say that this event the night of the black knives comes later on in Mar's rule the end of a long period of peace and prosperity mirle did offer a different perspective on the translation of roer's Golden Era and I will quote Miracle on screen now and essentially Miracle suggests that linguistically the Japanese could be translated to mean the age of prosperity the age of Plenty therefore putting it closer to the beginning of America's Reign and earlier on in the timeline than many may assume however I do leave it for you to decide which fits more carefully with your understanding of the timeline regardless all we can say definitively is that this attack must have occurred during a period of relative peace growth and prosperity under Queen marica's rule between the godkin Apostle God hunt but before the shattering of the Elden ring and with that said let us go on to assess who actually took part in this conspiracy who they are and how they came to become known as the black knife assassins so now we have a general idea of when we now need to talk about the conspirators and how this conspiracy was formed the heavy hand and muscle of this operation were of course the black knife assassins themselves these Nimble and deadly Warriors are described to be Sans of the Eternal cesi by roier who says the following they say the Assassins who carried out the deed were SS of the Eternal City a group entirely of women arrayed in armor of silver under cloaks which fooled the eye the knives they wielded though were imparted with the power of the Rune of death through Sinister right but are also simultaneously described as numen by the black knives armor set which reads the Assassins that carried out the Deeds of the night of the black naves were all women and rumored to be Newman who had close ties with America herself I think there's little value me in going over this in depth once again but here here are the main General ties to why the KNX are essentially an offshoot Newman [Music] [Music] [Music] tribe and if you'd like to hear a more in-depth explanation of that then I would recommend my video on the Eternal cities which I will link below what is more interesting is that I believe we can specifically track the development of these assassins and how they tie in to the Eternal cities and the Newen themselves the armor set describes the Assassins as all women they are also extremely Nimble Warriors and fittingly there is also an all female Nimble warrior class found within the Eternal City the sword stress in Prior videos I have suggested that maybe the black knife assassins were sordes themselves I think there is more Nuance to be had here as we will dig in deeper and I've refined my own opinions on it as I've dug deeper into this very topic but it is still fitting that culturally the noxs have a precedent for Nimble female warriors this is where I want to return to the term Scions of the Eternal cities as mentioned by roier c means a descendant usually used in reference to a notable bloodline Loki was able to provide further insight into who these women may be and he translated R's dialogue in the following manner I told you before about the night of the black knives conspiracy the perpetrators are said to be assassins who are descendants of the Eternal Capital then Loki would go on to tie this to a dialogue that we've looked at on the channel before G's one regarding Celia's ties to the Eternal cities and I again quote Loki now which ties into this as promised I shall teach you about the Lost sorceries of Celia descendant of the Eternal and this is the same term for descendant used in both dialogues and both in regards to descending from the Eternal cities this is also a subject we've talked about in my eternal cities L video and others that the selens are indeed descendants of the nox as well and it's therefore fascinating to me that Loki has linguistically tied these two references of two different groups together the black knife assassins and the Sans referred to in the exact same manner however the potential link between Celia and the Assassins is also found within the lore one of the other defining features of the Assassins themselves are of course their cloaks that fool the eye a fact that is reflected in gameplay by the Assassins who are essentially invisible to US unless we are using the Sentry torch and even when we can see them their cloaks seem to warp the light around them so what is this technology or magic and how are the Eternal cities able to craft these extraordinary pieces of armor well again I think if we look at the culture and sorcery of Celia we can get the answer as we have already mentioned G directly ties Celia as an offshoot colony of noxian descent calling them descendants of the Eternal as thanks I vow to impart to you my knowledge of the Lost sorceries of the selion descendants of the Eternal but even without G the player would be able to tell these ties through Visual and implicit storytelling the most obvious of course is the cryp chair found in the rear of Celia guarded by none other than a noxian monk and sword indeed the selian throne is integrated into the selan court of arms and given how iconic the cryptar are to noxin society it really shows how important the ties to the Eternal cities are to this small town now the architecture of Celia itself is different from the architecture of the Eternal cities but they are close enough that you could imagine then being built by noxian offshoot indeed the architecture of the lower regions of lell matches that of Celia and ordina as well and credit to tarnished archaeologist who makes this connection in his video on lell and given that Celia is connected to the nox and therefore the numen is a logical conclusion that this Lower Lane Dell is also connected to the same tribe Mar's tribe in Mara City tarnished archaeologist also brings attention to the main gate of LEL and how it essentially leads to Nowhere suggesting that it must have been built with this Newman settlement low Lane Dell in mind I leave it to tarnished archaeologists to explain the implication this has for the Eternal cities underground some directly below where this gap between the wall and the Lower Lane Dale settlement is as that is not the subject of this video I'm just highlighting it because it shows the Deep connections between the Newman and the nox and their history with Amica and the lands between that even in the heart of Lanell we can see traces of the nox's Heritage and how important they are to am and the royal family a fact that is even more Stark when you consider that the signature floral patterns on the leaden Windows of Celia are the same patterns on the very Gates of Lanell itself yet to be clear the cians are certainly descended from the nox as is said by Gary explicitly and the fact they are called Scions by roier which again means descendants and so while lower lale most likely precedes the Eternal cities and shares an architectural style with Celia Celia most clearly comes after the establishment of the Eternal cities and the nox but the point in highlighting the connections of architecture between Celia and Lower Lane Dell is not necessarily to put it in the same date as lur Lane Dell but to highlight the connection Heritage that Celia and the nox and the Newman share in turn this raises questions about ordina lurgical town that also shares the same architectural design but we will get there near the end of the video then of course there is the selian spell night Maiden Mist one of the night sorceries of Celia and the description of this spell reads us follows one of the night sorceries of Celia town of sorcery below Celia the Eternal City of notron sleeps this sorcery originates from the maiden of that place this is of course one of the greatest ties between the two firstly it is a selian night sorcery and yet it originates from one of the night maidens of nron night maidens of course being the highest ranking members in noxin society that we are aware of indeed when we fight night maidens in notron and Noella they quite often used this technique and spell against us again stressing the connection between Celia and its sorceries to the nox we can get a feel for what these night sorceries are all about and why they were developed by reading the description of Ambush Shard which reads the following one of the night sorceries of Celia town of sorcery the selan sorcerers were assassins and it is said that they often hunted their fellows so so this is a school of sorcery dedicated to assassination it is about obfuscation and killing which is reflected in the fact that when you use these spells they fool the eyes of opponents who will not try to react or Dodge as they may well do for regular spells however what is more important to this current discussion when talking about the Assassins of the black knives is the spell known as unseen form which reads us follows one of the night sorceries of Celia town of sorcery makes the Caster semi invisible while on Horseback effect extends to cover the mount this sorcery can be cast while in motion the San assassins considered every option that aided their dirty work so here we have specifically a sorcery that makes one invisible developed by a town that specializes and assassination the description of the black knife armor makes it clear that there is a power in the veils that fool the eye and I think it's more than likely that these night sorceries will have been employed to empower these specialized veils so that they could foill the eye much like the Unseen form spell I want to briefly speak on the design of the armor itself according to the description of the black knife armor set it was for to make no sound and again we could attribute that to the Night Magic of the Sans or perhaps the tight and sophisticated scale design however what I'm more interested in is the iconography there seems to be a large focus on feathers both on the lower part of the Qs and the teal feathers found on the shoulder joints when trying to explain this fortunately for us there is another group of Assassins who employ similar iconography The Raven Mount assassin the armor set of these read as follows a ritual Implement for transforming into a death bird if only by imitation we are birds of prey Bringers of death as I discussed at length in my death Birds L video death birds in the lands between are literal symbols of death much as crows or Ravens are to us in the real world the Raven Mount imitated the death Birds to show that they are Bringers of death given that the black knife assassins are also assassins my presumption is that the design of this armor is meant to employ the same sort of symbolism so I think it's clear that the work developed in Celia both in regards to training assassins and in developing spells that help obscure the assassins from their targets were used to help equip and train the Assassins they were going to be known as the black knife assassins really cementing this selan link so with those deep connections to Celia in mind let us once again return to specifically the women who would become the black knife assassins straight up the most obvious answer to me given all we've looked at is that these assassins are from Celia themselves they are assassins who were trained by the town and are from there this would quite easily tick all the boxes we know about the Assassins they are related to the numon they are sing trained in assassination it's a town that developed invisibility sorcery and it is a town of descendants of the Eternal City much as the Assassins themselves are described I'd be certainly happy with this and we can move on however we could potentially go deeper if we examine another signature element of the Assassins the black knife weapons themselves because they have another Titan game rannie states that she forced the blade through fearsome right I stole a fragment of the Rune of death and used it to forge the gods slaying black kniv through fearsome right I did it all and shortly we will discuss where rannie may have got this occult Knowledge from however despite rannie using the term forged the actual description of the black knife reads slightly differently it reads as follows a ritual performed on the oddly misshapen blade imbued it with the power of the stolen Rune of death so the ritual was performed on the blade meaning presumably this ritual was performed on a mundane knife that was forged the traditional way and if we are looking at a base template for what type of knife may have been used in this ritual we should look no further than the blade of calling for those who don't know the blade of calling is a very similar size and shape to the black knife one except for the protruding aspects and it isn't black but more importantly the weapon art for the blade of calling blade of gold is basically a golden version of the blade of death weapon art that the black knife uses this is also the blade the blade of calling wielded by melan when we summon her for the more goat fight and she uses the exact same move set as a black knife assassin so this begs the question who is Melina and how can she inform us on who these assassins may be so this is heavy speculation but I want to try and tie together everything we know about Celia and melan and her move set in the blade of calling it is heavily implied that melan is a child of Marica and yet she shares a combat Style with these num kin who have descended from the noxian split of the Numan tribe taking Celia as an example despite the place retaining heavy TI the nox these are kind of hidden such as the noxian throne being hidden right at the back of Celia and I'm sure many don't actually know in the world of Elden ring that the noxs are related to the selan and in a lot of ways the selens have reintegrated with surface Society lat is a great example of this a selan native who was once Grandmaster of RI lucaria Academy and founder of the 11is conspectus and thus if lat is able to integrate into normal society despite being of noxian descent is it possible that we can explain the closeness of the black knife assassins in a similar manner that these are San women who are reintegrated into Mar's Court bound through ties of kinship I'm saying all this because of the implications of what is said in the black knife assassin armor set in regards to closeness of these women to America and in turn how that can help us explain the Curious links between melanina and the black knife assassins and the blade of calling with the black knife and does this mean close in blood relation or close as in familial or friendship and for now I'm disregarding the idea that it means close that they were her co-conspirators as I will deal with that later but for now I wanted to get to the truth of what has been said here when it says close and so once again I turned to Loki who was able to provide this appraisal of the original Japanese and I now quote his translation of the black knife armor set and Appraisal it is said that the Assassins who were the perpetrators of the KN of the conspiracy are all women and according to one Theory were visitors close to America then Loki goes on to explain close in the psychological sense not in terms of dealings so what Loki is trying to get across here is that the original Japanese in his opinion is only try to convey that these women were close psychologically to America close in terms of psychology so friendship kinship or companionship and nothing else and again this all makes sense without going any deeper if you consider their Blood Ties that they all come from the Newman tribe ultimately so in general if these Newen were close to am and close to the court perhaps they would have been trained in the same manner as Melina another women of the court and armed with the same blades in European courts Royal women often surrounded themselves with Noble women who would serve as their advisers confidants and companions known as ladies in waiting and perhaps this explains their proximity to melan and why they would share a combat style and Armament that these Newman women possibly from Celia acted as women of the court and will have interacted and been around at the same time as Mela that's of course wild speculation but it's something that could explain the proximity of melan to these women and why they share similar combat Styles and so my final word on my speculation on who the black knife assassins were specifically is that they were probably saliens and they were Newen that were probably known to America in some capacity and that is all we are able to see with any certainty and again we will return to the idea that America was involved later and why I do not believe that it is the case when it comes to the Assassins as characters and named people we do have two named members of of the leadership electo and her daughter taii both have ancient Greek Origins electo meaning unceasing anger who was one of the furies in Greek mythology which indeed feels fitting for an assassin who brings Vengeance for her people the noox Against The Gods and we will talk more about the nox's motivation in the next chapter taii is a letter swapped spelling of an ancient Greek word that represents the Greek deity of Fortune which is why I'm pronouncing it that way by the way and I find this somewhat ironic given her ultimate fate however when we look at the way Greeks viewed Fortune there is a little more here Fortune could sometimes be seen as a force of uncaring reversals of fate and arbitrary violence which is fitting giving the fate of the nox and Godwin himself what is interesting is that the Bandai Namco site that I've cited frequently already names the black knife assassins as a foul Covenant and given Ran's connection to the ult in the Dark Moon perhaps rany corrupted them with her beliefs and thus they made a covenant between them this of course brings us to the main conspirator rannie herself wherever you think about the timeline we have discussed it is an immutable fact that rannie was involved I see quite the sleuth aren't we indeed I am the witch Ronnie I stole a fragment of the Rune of death and used it to forge the gods slaying black KN through fearsome right I did it all now I have a fairly good idea who performed the ride upon the blade the person who orchestrated the Knight of the black knives Luna princess Ronnie one of the children born to King consult Radigan and his first wife ranala demigod and sister to General radan and pray to reard hers was the name I discovered in the imprint the dialogues both suggest that rannie was not only a conspirator but in fact the orchestrator of the entire conspiracy and this certainly makes sense given that rannie wanted something very specific out of this event and we will look at that in the following Chapters at this stage rannie would still have her original imperian body with red hair as we can see from its remains she would have been a princess with some privilege and thus unsurprising she would have had the resources and influence to organize such an operation it also seems that Ran's magic was necessary as she claims it was she who imparted the power of death upon the knives through fearsome right this also seems backed up by the knife print that we give to roier who can detect her hand in the ritual which imbued the knives with their power the knives they wielded though were imparted with the power of the Rune of death through Sinister right please I beg of you lend me the knife print for a time I'd love nothing more than to tease out its Secrets though only a fragment a very specific ritual had to be performed to impart the power of the Rune of death traces of the one who performed the right are sure to remain in the imprint the term used by rany fearsome right smacks of occultism and it makes sense that rany would have this type of knowledge due to her association with the Dark Moon r Annie's Dark Moon spell reads as follows this moon was encountered by a Young rannie led by the hand of her mother rala what she beheld was cold dark and veiled an occult mystery so rany's dark moon specifically is tied to a cult mystery and it is no doubt via the Dark Moon that ran will have learned or gained the skills necessary to imbue the black knives with death but there is another player in the story of the Dark Moon the snowy Crone ranny's Secret Mentor we learn of the Crone via certain spells such as freezing Mist which reads as follows the snowy Crone taught the young rany to fear the Dark Moon as she imparted her cold sorcery and via the snow witchet which reads once worn by the snowy Crone who the young sorcery encountered deep in the woods she was a witch and and well versed in cold sorceries the old witch was Ran's Secret Mentor witches the term that is used to describe this woman here are generally associated with dark occult or blood magic and rannie in turn would become known as rannie the witch so while it is probable that a lot of rany's powers are tied to the power of the dark moon I believe that it was the Crone the snow witch who told her how to wield them and taught her a cult man magic as such it is most likely from the Crone that rannie learned of the Fearsome right that would allow her to forge the black knives rany's brother Reichard also seems to have been tangentially involved as we learn via the Blasphemous claw which reads on the night of the dire plot rannie rewarded prer Reichard with these traces should the coming trespass one day transpire they would serve as a last resort foil allowing rard to challenge malakith the Black Blade so the English here is a little confusing as to why rannie is actually giving these items to Reichard so again Loki has been kind enough to provide a clearer translation of what is being conveyed here and I quote their translation of the Blasphemous claw now Rock fragment engraved with a scale of the Rune of death can divert the power of the black sword on the night of the conspiracy Prater rar received a scale as a reward from rannie as the Trump C to challenge malakith the black sword the black beast who is destined death when blasphemy someday comes now blasphemy is a subject we talked about in great detail in my Reichard lore video in essence blasphemy means the Turning against the Earth tree reichards turning against his own King and to take their power for his own so in essence it is his Reb Rebellion that is what the day of blasphemy is so from Loki's translation it seems as though rany was giving Reichard this fragment so that he can challenge the Gods in his time of blasphemy he must have already shared his Blasphemous ideals with his sister that is why she trusts him enough to let him know about the conspiracy and her involvement in it by handing him these shards and in essence she's just causing more trouble for the Earth tree order she has just armed a future enemy of the earth tree with a great weapon against their most powerful member so in essence Reichard is not really involved rather he and his sister have both shared their ideals and they both share a hatred for the her tree and its order and thus she's given a weapon to her brother just in the hopes that he can one day cause some trouble but now that we've discussed rany's involvement her involvement with making the blades and organizing the conspiracy in general we now have to talk about the big elephant in the room Mara and why I believe she was not involved so this brings us to the Marica question early on in the game's life cycle many believed that bar had a hand in the night of the black knives and many familiar with the channel or people who follow me on Twitter will know I'm very cynical of that theory as it has never felt right to me and have included it for completeness in certain videos but it's never been the one that I've held to be the truth however again for completeness let's just go over why this is such a popular Theory it is mainly anchored by one Central item the black knife armor set which states that the Assassins had close ties to Mar people have taken this to mean that Mar was tied to the conspiracy that she had close ties to them through the planning of this conspiracy and they believe it is reinforced by her perceived callousness towards her children in America's own words hear me demigods my children beloved make of thyselves that which he desire be it a lord be it a God but should he fail to become ought at all ye will be forsaken amounting only to sacrifices if you'd want to see a video in more detail that discusses this Theory I'd recommend my good friend Ash and hollow's L video on this very subject according to proponents of this Theory Mar's motivation for doing this for killing her own son is a way of rebelling against the greater will by killing her own child yeah it's never really chimed true to me and it just feels a little contrived like they believe she's playing some kind of 4D Chase and really the main person that gets something out of the night of the black knives is ranie who specifically has it planned in a certain particular precise way for her benefit as we will look at in the next chapter so to jam America's ego and motives and 4D chess on top of rany's plans doesn't feel quite right emotionally I also think a lot of people view Marica as some kind of mavan schemer and therefore readly accept this Theory despite its flaws now at the beginning of this video I quoted an article from Bandai Namco themselves an article from desember which explains the intent of what is being conveyed to us in the story trailer that also was released in December of course we do need to bear in mind that the article is pre-release it's December of 21 and some details did change thanks to the work of Securo duby and Lance McDonald but it is only two months and I reckon the broad details of the story trailer are generally correct so I well quote the relevant passage from the article now one Grim night in the depths of winter a flock of unknown assassins stole across the lands between in a quane attack this foul Covenant snuffed out the lives of many of the god Queens King throughout the Empire too numerous and too scattered for her Godly protection to save the assassin's targets were multifold but none was as devastating a loss to the Eternal queen as that of Godwin the golden after his death the Elden ring was somehow shattered and the Order of the world broke with it so Bandai painted a picture of a God who wanted to protect her children from this attack not involved and that Godwin's death caused her a great deal of grief so to those that believe that Mar did have a hand in the assassination at the very least need to acknowledge this as a major flaw in their argument a article from the publisher themselves that isn't in game so can't be subject to the usual unreliable narrator arguments that we can sometimes get when discussing the finer points of the lore Bandai Namco will have no doubt consulted with from software before releasing this article and no doubt got the finer details of what has being ConEd fade here from from software and I think it's fair to say that from soft will certainly have green lit the article especially given how much they care about their lore and Worlds the reality of the black knife assassin armor description to me is just a case of slightly awkward English that can be read in different ways because while many people have read it as definitive proof of amica's involvement I simply have never read it that way because of the language used and indeed this also does seem to be the opinion of Loki who tweeted the following in a Twitter debate regarding this exact subject to clarify Mar's close ties with the Assassins isn't in terms of dealings but with familiarity SL emotional Affinity kinship you could say which makes sense given their Blood Ties whether that is alluding to more than just coming from the same tribe no comment at this time and that is exactly how I reviewed it that there is a blood kinship tie and in fact this makes the tragedy all the more because Mar and her children are betrayed by those of their blood those closest to them so to me and as directly stated by Bandai Namco Mara is in fact a secondary victim of the event someone who loses her son rather than some mellian Mastermind who's playing 4D chess and kills her son in some bizarre convoluted plan to hit back at the Elden ring but then she shatters the Elden ring anyway rendering this scheme mot for if Amica really was wanting to hit back against the greater well all this time in some clever plot why not just shatter the Elder ring straight away as this is the real blow to the greater Wells Authority the event is still important to America even though she isn't involved as the story trailer says this event pushed Queen Mar to the brain and as we have looked at in the previous chapters in regards to the Linguistics involved thanks to Loki it is the trigger for the shattering of the Elden ring so it is still important it's just that it causes someone who has lost her son to break the foundations of the world that she rules so in summary the causal link between the KN of the black knives and the shattering of the Elden ring most makes sense if the tragedy of the night of the black knives caused Mara in her grief to shatter the Elden ring combined with the Linguistics shown by Loki and the Bandai Namco page that straight up exonerates her I think we can safely put marica's involvement to rest with that being said and the conspirators defined it is time we discuss the motivations of those involved and why they were motivated to take part in such a dangerous conspiracy let's look at the motivations of the black knife assassins themselves why were part of this conspiracy and what they expected to achieve from it the first could be pretty simple that they are simply Ran's co- conspirators and they believed initially in her mission to become the Lord of night and bring about the age of stars there's of course another more General explanation is that they are kin to the nox and there's an underlying resentment for the greater will and its Representatives held by nox Society the armor sets of the nox of course make it clear that the kns are where they are banished underground because of past grudges against the greater will and its proponents and we get evidence via the Finger Slayer blade that they have acted against the greater will before so I think the motivation for this group could be fairly straightforward Revenge Revenge for their kin's banishment and a chance to overthrow the gods put them to the sword and bring about the age of stars either of those two FIT however either way I believe that rannie later betrayed the black knife assassins following the night of the black knives and there are two possible reasons for this as far as I see it explanation a is that rany deceived them as to the true purpose of the attack and used them to achieve her real goal while the Assassins believed that this was a strike to bring down the gods to kill them all rannie uses it as an opportunity to perform a ritual and free herself from her flesh and and she kept the truth of this purpose from the assassins and used them as tools explanation B is that the Assassins were fully aware and on board with the true purpose but ran still turned on them following the attack and imprisoned their leader to cover up her involvement and left the rest of the Assassins hung out to dry at the mercy of Lindale guards and forces and so at this point I should probably explain why I think rany deceived and betrayed the black assassins and mainly I think my evidence comes from environmental storytelling first of all near the conclusion of rany's quest there seems to be a coordinated attack against her people and while I once thought that rannie was still in control of the black knives and she ordered this attack to cover her tracks I don't think this quite fits given she does seem to show a lot of care for ey and bl even telling the player to tell ey and bl that she loves them when she departs after we defeat the last baleful Shadow so no even though she is ruthless I don't think she had blly and EEG killed so what happens here EEG is killed and surrounding him are the bodies of black knife assassins and he is burning in the black flame of the God skins the potential connection between the godkin apostles and the black knife assassins is something I've ruminated on before in my eternal cities video so I sh go over it again in huge [Music] [Music] detail [Music] but regardless the main takeaway here is that black knife assassins attacked e and killed him continuing with this Ludo narrative when we three blide from the ever jail he expresses fear for ranny's safety and races to be by her side when we next see him he is indeed where rannie should be but he is in a bad way maddened and surrounded by the corpses of black knif assassins and to me is implied that these assassins were here for rany given their location right outside her Tower unfortunately for them rannie has already departed through Rena's rise and they ended up meeting blight's blade instead it shouldn't be too far of a stretch to believe that rannie may have people out for her blood as we do have definitive confirmation that there has already been an attempt on her life we learn of this fire the black wolf mask a mask that perfectly mimics bl's appearance and its description reads as follows relic of an assassin who assumed the guys of rany the witch's loyal Shadow the lightness is striking now the implication here is that someone took on the GU of B in order to get close to rny and essentially kill her in Prior videos I have speculated that this assassin may have been darell this is of course the blood hone Knight that you can kill in the ever jail in limb grave and blly is looking for but timely whether or not it Darwell is irrelevant because either way it would certainly fit the narrative we were talking about of the black knife assassins attacking rany perhaps this was the black knife's more subtle first attempt at seeking retribution hiring an assassin or having one of their own to try and get close to rany through subterfuge but when it failed they instead resorted to this Strike Team of black knives that blly ultimately kills there's also the fact that ran asks us to retrieve the finger slay blade from nron but the knots clearly aren't willing to give her the knife hence why we have to break into the city kill the kns that are there and steal the treasure from them if the two factions were Allied and both ultimately wanting to bring about an age of stars why wouldn't the KNX readily give rannie the tool that she needs and why are the black knife assassins Scions of the KNX themselves and apparently Ran's allies attacking Ran's people well again I think all of these things can be explained if rany had betrayed them either by deceiving them to the true purpose of the mission and using them as disposable tools or she betrayed them in the aftermath either way we will talk about this more in the aftermath chapter but consider why electo ring leader of the black knives themselves is imprisoned in an Ever jail in Ran's territory in Moonlight alter itself to me the lud narrative is clear the black knife assassins and ran are no longer allies the black knife assassins have a grudge against ranie and rany has imprisoned electo but with that said let us now go into rany's motives a bit more and what she wanted exactly to get out of the night of the black knives and why she wanted it Ronnie's true end goal is more than simple assassination as we can hear it from her directly I was once an imperian of the demigods only I Mika and Melania could claim that title each of us was chosen by our own two fingers as a candidate to succeed Queen Mara to become the new god of the coming age which is when I received blly in the form of a vassel tailored for an imperion but I would not acquas to the two fingers I stole the Rune of death slew mine own imperian flesh casting it away way I would not be controlled by that thing rany's death in body was not an unwanted consequence of the attack rather it was the purpose of the attack in rany's mind she wanted rid of her imperian flesh she resented being controlled and tied to the greater will through her own body tied to a fate she did not choose a disposable Pawn for the greater will these are very understandable motives and a personal level for rannie but we also have to remember that rannie will have fallen under the influence of the snowy Crone and the Dark Moon and no doubt they would have been encouraging her to take steps towards an age of stars and Ascend as the Lord of night but it would do her plan no good if she was destroyed totally obliterated in both Body and Soul just to sever her connection to the greater will and so she she needed a plan to read herself of her body but remain in spirit and soul what she needed was a totem to take the so death consequence of destined death while she was freed from her flesh prison we will look at the specifics as to how this ritual worked in the next chapter but it is important to understand Ronnie's true reason for being involved in this conspiracy not to overthrow the gods not yet at least but specifically to begin to sever the bonds between herself her two fingers and the greater will by being an imperion she is Tied by her body to the two fingers and the greater will unable to make her own fate and again we will later see her complete this plan by killing the baleful shadows and then finally slaying her two fingers finally severing that connection and confirming that this has been running long-held intention to all of her schemes so with the stage set the motives of both main parties clear let us talk about the specifics of the night itself that night of wintry fog the night of the black knives as the story trailer tells us it was on a night of wintry fog that the Rune of death was stolen and this was the first part of the scheme and so the first question may be how are they able to achieve this how did they steal a fragment of the Rune of death given that malakith is such a powerful being well the truth is pretty simple malakith was far more careless in the past than he is now when we meet malakith in error story he is very reticent to even reveal his real identity pretending to be someone known as gank and he has the Black Blade the sword that is imbued with death and death hidden within his very flesh however this is a precaution that essentially came too late as we learn the following from the Black Blade item description after a fragment of death was stolen on that fateful night malakith bound the blade within his own flesh such that none might ever rob death again robed death again and after that fateful night meaning that prior to this Malachi did not hide his black blade within his flesh and indeed there is evidence that he wielded it quite openly and publicly for example Malik's armor set reads the following malakith Queen Mar's loyal half brother b a blade imbued with des and death and there was not one demigod who did not fear Him Champions knew what was at stake indeed that is what made them Champions the fact that malakith is widely feared and everyone knew what was stake if they stood against him suggests that malakith was just openly wielding the Black Blade imbued with death he was marica's Grim Reaper a symbol of her power and a subtle reminder that in a world where death is confined Mar's Black Blade was the only one capable of slaying a demigod yet it was this arrogance that evidently gave the conspirators their opport and rannie seems to claim that she specifically stole the Rune of death personally as she says in Her speech I stole a fragment of the Rune of death and used it to forge the gods slaying black knives through fearsome right I did it all I stole a fragment of the Rune of death I did it all meaning she did all the part she just confessed to stole the Rune and forged the black sling knives In fairness this does also make quite a bit of sense when you think about it rany would be in the best position to get close to malakith and steal a fragment of the Rune of death she was royalty and given the fact her involvement seems hidden for a long time at this stage she would have just been part of the royal family Beyond suspicion with a lot of access then using the knowledge learned from the snowy Crone or the Dark Moon rannie imparted the power of death through a fearsome occult rate now we spoke earlier on the knives themselves and how rany no doubt used the blade of calling weapon as a template and imbued these blades with the power of death and in essence this is why the black knife acts as like a corrupted version of the blade of calling and it brings us to an aspect of the blades we haven't yet mentioned their unusual shape in the description of the blade itself it is described as oddly misshapen and indeed I believe it was the ritual itself that morph the blade to take on this form because despite it being misshapen it is not random all the blades are uniform and I believe it has taking the form of either the Rune of death itself or the half wound wheel of the centipede you see the actual form and shape of the Rune of death appears to hold some power because of the shape itself as we will see when we discuss how rany and Godwin had the runes literally carved into them and I believe that the blades have been warped by the power of Des and death to take on the form of the Rune of death once the blades were forged the Assassins headed out to attack their victims and thanks to their special guard that we've already discussed they would have been able to reach their victims undetected and unseened the Cent's torch May shine a light pun intended on how effective this was and how defenseless the demig gods were it reads as follows torch given to Protectors of the earth tree its Flames are restored with a special incantation which allows the bear to see assassins cloaked in veils furnished on behalf of the earth tree and the grace given Lord such that a KN of the black knives will never come again so this implies that on the actual night of the black knes the authorities and guards had no defense and no answer to these hidden veils how could they if they'd never experienced them before and they really had no idea of numerous assassins simply slipping past them and reaching their targets unac costed now at this juncture I want to return to the Bandai Namco article that describes the event as it does give some details as to how the event might have played out in game we are only directly referenced to one victim of the KN of the black knives and that is Godwin yet this article suggests that more than one was killed during this attack and again I will read the relevant passage in a coetaneous attack this foul Covenant snuffed out the lives of many of the god Queens kin throughout the Empire too numerous too scattered for her Godly protection to save the Assassin's targets were multifold but none was as devastating a loss to the Eternal Queen is that of Godwin the golden this of course ties up with the story trailer as you'd expect given this article accompanied it in the trailer rannie narrates the events of the night of the black knives and again I will quote her narration now and the demigods began to fall starting with Godwin the golden the fact she says starting with Godwin the golden suggests that many demigods were to die in this event and that Godwin was just the first now this does tie up with some interesting mentions in the game that could give the claim some validity firstly in the intro to the game itself it says something of a similar nature and in the night of the black knives Godwin the golden was first to perish the first to perish again meaning that more than one demig God was killed in that night and that Godwin was just the first so we can imagine all the assassins spreading out the lands between as Bandy Namco describes it a coetaneous attack to strike at different targets simultaneously this also supports the idea that the aim of the Assassins could have been to generally strike against the gods to cause as much damage to the regime as possible and that rany obscured the real truth of the operation to them now how does this help explain the other soulless demigods that we find in the mums throughout the lands between I think it is meant to explain them that that these are the soless demigods that the other kin of America that died in this attack were the soless demigods that we now see in the Moos Liams there are some difficulties when it comes to the specific of soullessness but we will talk about that at the end of the chapter but in general let's just accept that more than one demigod was slain during the attack and these May well be the demigods found in the wandering mums let us talk about the killing of Godwin now as it is the pivotal moment of this whole event and whole subject firstly when it comes to the location of where it took place it almost certainly took place in Lane Dell given that ta's ashes describe a flight from the Royal Capital after she slew Godwin the golden showing not only that electo and taii were directly involved in Godwin's murder but this murder took place in the Royal capital of lell given how this scene is almost tragedy in in nature it would make makes sense thetically if this happened at the heart of the earthree Empire right in Lanell that the Assassins slip past the guard right into Godwin's personal Chambers in the heart of lell given that we see Godwin partially dressed in the intro slides and in the story trailer as he's being murdered I imagine that they caught Godwin unawares and unprepared and given that he is mighty enough a God to have defeated fortox this would certainly be The Prudent way to kill him yet the Assassins did not merely stab him to death his death was Far More ritualistic in nature and we can already get hints of this in the opening cinematic you can see he's being held in place by two assassins while a third is carving a very specific shape into their back we can learn more about this carving via the curse mark of death an item pulled from rany's original body which also has a carving in it this item reads as follows s curs Mark carved into the discarded flesh of rany the witch also known as the half wheel wound of the centipede The Curse Mark was carved at the moment of death of the first demigod and should have taken the shape of a circle however two demigods perished at the same time breaking the curs mark into two half wheels rannie was the first of the demigods whose flesh perished while the prince of death perished in Soul alone so this gives us an insight into the specifics of Ran's plan and how it worked and what happened to Godwin firstly it does mention that the two curse marks the one on rany's back which we can still physically see and the one carved onto Godwin were physically carved the carving of this Mark upon flesh apparently gives power to the Rune itself this brings death to the bearer of the Rune the person whose flesh this is carved upon in this case however rannie used this ritual for her own means to split the effects of death to only take half and put the other half on Godwin she used Godwin as a totem to take the death of Soul part while she merely took the death of body part and this is what is meant by the part that says this curse mark was carved at the moment of the death of the first demigod and should have taken the shape of a circle however two demigods perished at the same time breaking the curse mark into two half wheels this suggests that at the exact moment Godwin was having the half wind carved into his rannie was also having the other half carved into her back the effect of this was that it made a full wheel of death splitting the effects between the two this paints a pretty dramatic picture of ran ATP the L erian tower that wintry night having having a half wound carved into her back while electo and her cohorts did the same to Godwin at the exact same moment in lale this was rany's plan the purpose for her involvement in the conspiracy it freed her soul from her imperian flesh the fact that the curs mark item description describes her flesh as discarded shows that this was a purposeful design she wanted rid of this flesh yet the price was high and even rannie probably didn't see the extent of the consequences of her actions for not only did it condemn a being to a soulless living death which must be a hellish state of existence given what we see of Godwin and his new body but it also resulted in the spread of the death route and the rise of those who live in death starting a brand new cycle of suffering all over again again these are points I would like to remind people of when they see rany as some kind of hero she isn't a villain but she ruthlessly condemns Godwin for her own aims to an eternity of suffering and her recklessness gives rise to the pitiful beings known as those who live in death and through no fault of their own these beings will just be hounded and hunted by those of the golden order this also brings us back to the issue of the soulless demig Gods I mentioned earlier Godwin was the first to die and he was killed in Soul only to benefit rany's plan so why would these other demig gods if we're presuming the ones in the mosum were the ones killed in the night of the black knives alongside Godwin be described as soulless if it was only Godwin who was killed in this ritualistic manner well there are a few ways to explain this the first one is a bit of a case of aam's Razer the simplest explanation being that the other soulless demigods are dead in Soul but also in body The Curse Mark of Death says that the Rune should have taken the form of a wheel should have meaning perhaps the other assassination attempts went ahead as normal and the whole Rune of death was carved into the back of the targets killing them both in body and in spirit rather than just soul I think this does make sense there is a distinction between being dead and being dead and soulless and it would still give a reason that their fate would be mourned by the likes of those at Castle Saul it is because they are without Souls unable to pass on properly not that they are just dead there are a few other alternative explanations for this but I don't want to get into a rabbit hole about this as this is probably a subject for another video but I think it's fair to say that the soulless demigods found in the mums are meant to represent probably the others that were killed that night and now with the devastating effects of the night itself discussed let us move on to the aftermath of what happened following this event in the immediate aftermath of Godwin's death we learn of the Assassins fleeing from the scene of the crime and we learn this via ta's ashes which read as follows taii was one of the Assassins who on the night of the plot imbued her Black Blade with the Rune of death and slew Godwin the golden she was the daughter of the black knife ring leader electo and was killed protecting her mother during their flight from the Royal capital so a flight from the capital suggests that despite slipping into the capital undetected that their escape was far more eventful indeed I get the general impression that rany basically hung the assassins out to dry after the attack we find them scattered throughout the lands between hiding in caves Dungeons and the capital itself giving the impression of a panicked flight from Lindell as they were hunted and killed by the authorities indeed if one looks carefully at the Assassin found in the death touched catacombs we can see that they are greatly wounded armor rent and blooded elsewhere the Assassins are hiding and their resting demeanor gives off the impression of a fugitive exhausted and hounded to the fringes of the lands between and no doubt many were hunted and killed in the hours days and months following the assassination later on we learned via the Sentry torch that the grace given Lord morot would equip his forces with Sentry torches meaning that the black knife assassins would never have the power over the Lindale Capital that they once did and perhaps these tools were even used by Lindale forces to hunt down the remaining black knives in years to come and while I have no doubt that the lale forces fell upon the Assassins I suspect that rany is responsible for electo and Taki's final fate whether carrying forces killed taii and arrested ELO or whether elect will fled to rannie with her daughter in her arms being killed by lale forces it is clear to me that either way rannie imprison elal following the assassination and conveniently her involvement in the conspiracy would be hidden for years until roier uncovered the truth finally rannie was probably content to let people believe she too was a victim of the slaughter and I would guess that she did not return in her new form until sometime later perhaps when she returned to claim a great Rune after the shattering but that's just speculation of course meanwhile we learned that Godwin was of course buried at the roots of the great tree and from him would spread the death route throughout the lands between bringing those who live in death this event is something I look at in great detail in my Godwin lore video but in short this is the biggest consequence of this fateful night it exposed the flaws in the deathless golden or order and began a cycle of persecution that would lead to gold mask examining the nature of the golden order and what went wrong here the wrongness of this act the slaughter of Ran's own kin and to deny him a true death is reflected in the corruption of the world Godwin's growths and tendrils reach even to far maula and the deepest Caverns it is a rot born of a terrible crime and the breaking of Fate it is kagar then of course came the shattering of the Elden ring and the great suffering of the shattering war that followed I think we have shown fairly conclusive evidence that it was the trauma of this night and the loss of her child that drove Marica to shatter the Elden ring bereth and disenchanted with the golden order she once served an order that couldn't even save her son from a horrific endless fate and so she brought a hammer down in a fateful blow that would change change the world as a sort of epilogue there's something else I want to touch upon ordina lurgical town and the black knife assassins found here I feel it is no coincidence that ordina has the exact same architecture as Celia and we have strong evidence that the Assassins themselves are selan and we here find in ordina plenty of black knife assassins one of the most concentrated locations for them in the entire game to me it is very possible that a group of Assassins fled here and have built a new Township following the architecture of where they are probably from perhaps they built this under the egis of a new forgiving Lord one they still serve in their Exile by protecting access to his lands for any who would want to access the halig tree the misshapen cour under storm Veil that is a sacred relic of the black knives plot as that famed night of assassination is known it happened during the Golden Age of the ER tree long before the shattering of the Elden ring someone stole a fragment of the Rune of Death From malth the Black Blade and on a bitter night murdered Godwin the golden that was the first recorded death of a demigod in all history and it became the Catalyst soon the Elden ring was smashed and thus sprang forth the war known as the shattering the world has grown crooked and if you intend to put it to rights you'd better understand what happened to make it this way the lands between have suffered in many ways most recently the shattering has upended the order of the world plunging the world into utter chaos yet before that a slower corruption was Unleashed upon the world on a dark night of treason the demigod Godwin the golden was struck down in an event that would shake the foundations of the world Not only was Godwin the first of the demigods to die but it also set into motion a series of events that would erode to the very foundations of the golden order for Godwin did not die in the normative sent instead it was his soul that was slain and his body left a rot without it and Godwin's body would live on as the Prince of death from Godwin's living corpse would spread the death route and from its loins a whole host of life within death would spring these beings exist outside the boundaries of the established golden order the order of the world they pollute and taint its truth and the signs of this corruption can be seen everywhere from learia even to farum aula the result is some of the most tragic stories in Elden ring of of a prince and a people who through no fault of their own have been left to rot outside of the bounds of order and yet conversely we also get some of the greatest heroes arising from this tragedy individuals ready to sacrifice everything to undo the wrongs that have been done so join me this week as we assess the history and on death of Godwin the prince of death what we know of Godwin the golden for his murder is sparse but we can build a somewhat semi-coherent impression of a fairly gallant and heroic figure of course Godwin is one of the most famous early members of the golden lineage The Offspring of Mara and Godfrey for example the finger reader in the deep root depths says the following of Godwin a s of the golden bow sentenced to live in death how could such a thing come to be of course the term Sion of the golden bow meaning that he is a branch or offshoot of the golden bow the golden lineage and while it's never directly mentioned that he is the son of Mara and Godfrey and he could just be an offshoot it is implied that he is through the golden Epitaph sword in which we quite often associate the prayer from a young boy being of mola and we will certainly go into that in more detail later in this video but mea refers to Godwin as a brother and of course being his brother would makes sense if they are both the children of Amica and giving Godwin is heavily involved in the early events of the golden lineage's history I think it is a fair assumption to make that he is Marica and Godfrey son rather than just a relative or offshoot a couple of generations removed from Godfrey in America however I do just bring this all up because it is worth remembering it isn't n directly stated that Godwin is Mara and Godfrey's son however his Clear Connection to the early golden lineage means that he was one of the first demigods for example godric's great Rune reads the following the first demigods were the Elden Lord Godfrey and his offspring the golden lineage and while godri specifically admires Godfrey Godwin in his early years is essentially everything that godric wishes to be powerful respect and a member of the golden lineage who wears the title golden with pride we know that one of the greatest exploits attributed to Godwin's life is his role in defeating the dragons who invaded Le andell in the war against the dragons we learn of this war via Grand Sax's bolt which reads the following a great ancient dragon grandx once reigned Calamity upon the Royal Capital the only time in historical record that lale's walls have fallen this marked the dawn of the war against the ancient dragons this Mighty dragon grx is the gigantic corpse that we can still witness in lale today alongside his mighty bolt spear this war appears to have been a massive challenge to the Earth tree forces as it is noted that this was the only time that the Falls of lale would fall this is significant for we know that even in the Waring tribes of the demigods during the shattering that no one could Pierce The Mighty barriers I mean know of two instances specifically where the forces of lale repelled all invading demig Gods the first and second defenses of Lan Dell this helps emphasize the power and brutality of this assault for even eclipses what the demigods would be able to muster another dragon that took part in this assault would be forto saxs a dragon who is one of the mightiest amongst his Brethren and we learn of forto Sax's Renown fire forto Sax's Lightning Spear which reads as follows during the war of the ancient dragons these twin red lightning Stakes were the Hallmark of one ancient dragon who was called the mightiest Boulder Stone Fortis a was one of the most dangerous dragons in this conflict and yet Godwin the golden would step up in this war and earn the respect of this adversary something we learned via the relevant sword Memorial which reads as follows the RO of the ancient dragons Godwin the golden fought to the last earning the Friendship of dread forac so this sword Memorial tells us quite a lot about Godwin as a person and a warrior he was clearly a great fighter and a Courageous one at that the term fought to the last suggests a real brutal conflict in which Godwin was one of the last fighting one of the last standing and given forto Sax's reputation it makes Godwin's Renown as a warrior even more when we learned that Godwin was actually able to defeat the mighty fortox and we learned this from the Lightning Spear incantation which reads as follows long ago Godwin the golden defeated the ancient dragon fortox and befriended his Fallen foe an event that would give rise to the Ancient Dragon Cult in the capital so Godwin is evidently a respected and Powerful Warrior but is also minous in Victory for not only does he spare the mighty fortox a dangerous foe but is so honorable that he beend him a loyalty that will be repaid in kind tfold later down the line as we will see later on in this video so while we don't get many pieces of information about Godwin in his early life what we do learn about him is pretty interesting he was evidently a powerful Warrior a powerful demigod powerful enough to contend with with the dragons but he was also a man of mercy and foresight his friendship with fortox inspires both sides of the conflict and turns a devastating War into an alliance between the capital and dragon kind as the Lightning Spear States this friendship would result in the rise of a Dragon Cult and even Lance sax forto Sax's sister would become the Priestess to this cult and we learn of this specifically from Land Sax's glaive which reads as follows Lance sax was the sister of fortox it is said she took the form of a human to commune with the Knights as a priestess of the Dragon Cult therefore the worship of dragon and the incorporation of their powers would become highly popular among the Lindale knights we can even see them wielding these powers in the game and as is said by the gravel Stone seal the worship of ancient dragons does not conflict with belief in the earth tree after all this seal and lightning itself are both imbued with gold one of the most famous of these Dragon cultists would be Dragon Knight Kristoff who' be Mighty enough to capture godfroy one of the golden lineage yet another famous adherent of this cult would be none other than vik himself who we learned from vik's Dragon Bolt was Lance Sax's favorite and it is clear that before pursuing the frenzied flame he was a distinguished Dragon Knight all of this is a part of Godwin's Legacy a tribute to his actions prior to his murder and as I said at the beginning of the video it paints a fairly positive picture of this Fallen Lord everything thus far attributed to him is positive a powerful Warrior and yet a gracious one and there's one other interaction that we can attribute to Godwin tentatively and this is some sort of relationship developed with his half brother mola and he himself one of the greatest among their number so to earn mola's respect is a good thing indeed we get the evidence that mola appears to have developed a fondness for his half brother from the golden Epitaph sword that I mentioned earlier that item reads as follows a sword made to commemorate the death of Godwin the golden first of the demigods to die infused with a humble prayer of a young boy oh brother Lord Brother please die a true death so the reason that we attribute this prayer to mola as the most likely candidate is because later we find another connection between mola and Godwin at Castle sa that implies micha's enduring empathy for Godwin's Poss but we will return to that in a later chapter the point of highlighting this relationship is just to humanize Godwin the golden further who wasn't always the lifeless Prince of death it shows that he was a figure of such stature and personality that he even gained the love and respect of Micha himself a beloved wise and respected figure in totality this has always given me a very positive image and view of Godwin a pretty colossal figure in the early years of erre royal family history and a proud representative of the golden order so with that being said let us now return to the night of the black knives the event that would transform Godwin and the world forever so I'm really interested to analyze this event from a Godwin Centric perspective so we can get into the real Nitty Gritty of what actually happened and try and understand the origins of Godwin's current situation so with that said let us start of what we know from R's description of the event itself it happened during the golden age of the ER tree long before the shattering of the Elden ring someone stole a fragment of the Rune of Death From malth the Black Blade and on a bitter night murdered Godwin the golden that was the first recorded death of a demigod in all history so this happened during the height of the earth tre's rule however it obviously happened after the Rune of death was confined and sealed by malakith following the godkin apostasy as the Rune needed to be with Mal MTH for it to be stolen by the Knight of the black knives conspirators Malik's ceiling of death and death following the godkin apostasy is an event well evidenced by the godkin Apostle set which reads the following the apostles once said to serve death and death are wielders of the Gods slain black flame but after their defeat by malakith the Black Blade the source of their power was sealed away the the source of that power that malakith would seal is of course the Rune of death or des and death as we learn via malak's remembrance we learned from malak's Black Blade that it was only after the night of the black knives that fateful night that he would seal the Rune within his own flesh and when we come for death and death this is where it yet remains as we see when he draws it out of himself in the second stage of his fight prior to this however he wielded it rather flamboyantly within his Black Blade as we learn via the description of Malik's armor which reads as follows malth Queen Mar's loyal half brother bought a blade imbued with des and death and there was not one demig God who did not fear Him and while it is not easy for us to steal death and death in fact we need to kill the Black Blade himself at this stage if it is just within his sword it would certainly set the stage for the ultimate height on a night of wintry fog the r of death was stolen and the demigods began to fall starting with Godwin the golden Queen Mar was driven to the brink from malak's blade a fragment of the Rune of death was stolen and it would remain the greatest failure of malakith for which he would attempt to atone for the coming years to little success before we go any further we need to understand what the Rune of death is so that we can better understand what the Assassins were trying to achieve in this attack the Rune of death goes by two names the other is destined death The Forbidden Shadow plucked from the golden order upon its creation destined death also known as the Rune of death was confined upon the creation of the golden order something we learn about by The Mending Rune of the death Prince so the Rune of death was clearly a part of the greater Elden ring prior to this confinement given the term Rune is used here the same term used to describe these shattered fragments of the Elden ring found throughout the world and in the possession of the demig Gods further cementing this idea when we use a mending Rune at the end of the game we are incorporating a new Rune into the Elden ring which is built up of different runes that govern the lands between for that is what the Elden ring is a source of power that influen es the world and governs its laws the best illustration of how the Elden ring and its Incorporated runes work is the confinement of the Rune of death itself for when it is removed we very much see the effect of death being removed from the laws of the land the removal of the Rune of death from the Elden ring has made the world a deathless hell hence why everyone in the world is a pathetic dried out husk a zombie and this is best described by the aristocratic set worn by The wering Nobles who are very zombie like and so it was literally the power of death a rune of death that the Assassins wish to imbue their weapons with so that they may once again bring death to the Gods in a world absent death these knives their iconic knives that they Forge were made using the power of this stolen fragment of the Rune of death a process described by rany one of the Ring leaders of the event indeed I am the witch Ronnie I stole a fragment of the Rune of death and used it to forge the gods slaying black knives through fearsome right so with a fragment and only a fragment bear in mind rannie and her co-conspirators forged these knives using the power of Des and death meaning each blade was literally forged from Death itself this is not the only time that a fearsome right was used to Forge a Gods slaying blade and it is one of those nice instances of coherent lore that establishes president what I'm referring to of course is the Finger Slayer blade forged by the nox as well the nox of course being ranny's allies in the night of the black knives and so therefore for me at least it makes it a lot more easy to understand where the ability to forge such dangerous blades had come from in my opinion it is the method of creation that also influenced the very shape of the blades their spiky iconic form not too dissimilar from the half wheel of the centipede the form of the Rune of death the result is obviously a blade drenched in the power of Des and death as is most easily seen when the Assassins use the power of the red flame much like malakith can in my eternal City's lore video which I highly recommend watching for a more in-depth look at the nox I spoke on how the nox were a community of Newman defined by their allegiance to the stars and that they are evidently excellent Craftsmen and Alchemists we can see their craft in the many Creations attributed to them like the Dragon Kin the Finger Slayer blade puppetry and now tentatively these black knives which no doubt combined nox's knowledge with ranny's power and sorcery I mention this because I believe noxian Ingenuity is no doubt what provided the science or magic behind the iconic assassin cloak and armors and we learn of the potency of these relics from Ro who says the following you recall our conversation about the night of the black knives yes they say the Assassins who carried out the deed were SS of the Eternal City a group entirely of women arrayed in armor of silver under cloaks which fooled the eye indeed when we meet some of the Assassins ourselves we know this to be true given they can strike it us entirely unseen until it is too late again this is a well written bit of lore for me because we actually have precedent of the noxians having developed sorcery that revolves around fing the eye I of course refer to the sorceries developed in Celia town of sorcery a town descended from the Knox and the Eternal cities I vow to impart to you my knowledge of the Lost sorceries of the selion descendants of the Eternal aside from this statement from gy we get other bits of proof tying the town to the Eternal cities of course most notably the Crypt chair which is also incorporated into Celia's coat of arms not to mention the presence of a nox Monk and sord guarding the chair finally the selan sorceries themselves are called night sorceries tying it closely to the nox the Latin word for KN and if that still doesn't convince you for some reason reason one of these selan night sorceries night maiden's Mist taught by G is explicitly a noxian practice not only is it a spell utilized by the night maidens of nocon and named after them but it also says the following one of the night sorceries of Celia town of sorcery below Celia the Eternal City of nron sleeps this sorcery originates from the maiden of that place so now that we have firmly tied Celia and its night sorceries to the Eternal cities let us now consider the practices actually developed within this town well having a look at it we quickly come to realize that these sorceries are developed with the intent of aiding assassinations for example the night Shard reads as follows one of the night sorceries of Celia town of sorcery the selan sorcerers were assassins and it is said that they often hunted their fellows and so we began to get an idea of how the black knife assassins could have been developed as a concept especially when we look at the most pertinent sorcery unseen form which to me is no doubt linked to the Assassin's hidden form I think that this is again one of the most satisfying and wellth thought out pieces of lore in the entire game because everything that makes up a black knife assassin has a tie to existing background lore and is a holistic combin ation of noxian scientific and magical developments we have the Finger Slayer blade which explains the nox and human pensent for forging these weapons we have the night sorceries of Celia that can help explain the development of invisibility and finally the black knife assassins themselves are all Nimble female warriors extremely reminiscent of the all female Bodyguards of the night maidens the sword it all makes it feel real the black knife assassins aren't just a plot point shoehorned in they are a culmination of a culture's development and practices and I really appreciate this detail it's also a pretty cool thought that the KN of the black knives was partially gestated from the town of sorcery that seems pretty good at hiding its deeper Secrets Let Us return to the assassination itself the way in which these blazes were brought to bear against Godwin is unusual the Assassins did not merely stab Godwin but seem to have carved his flesh instead indeed we see this taking place in the intro cinematic where Godwin is been restrained so that the Rune of death can be carved into his flesh this carving of the hall brand is actually well described by fear who says the following have you ever seen a hall brand when the first of the demigods died his flesh was marked with the half whe wound of the centipede so it seems for the this fragment of the Rune of death to actually work the curse mark must be carved in fool upon the intended victim and this is further illustrated by the other victim of the KN of the black knives rannie she herself has another half of this H brand carved into her original flesh found at top the tower in learia the curse mark pulled from her body gives us more details as it reads the following curs Mark carved into the discarded flesh of rannie the witch also known as the half whe wound of the centipede this curse mark was carved at the moment of death of the first demigod and should have taken the shape of a circle however two demigods perished at the same time breaking the curse mark into two half wheels rany was the first of the demigod whose flesh perished while the prince of death perished in Soul alone so we can physically see the curse mark wounded into Ran's flesh again reinforcing the fact that not only are these blades imbued with death but to take the intended effect the curse mark of death needed to actually be carved onto the victim's flesh as it is both carved onto Godwin's flesh and ranes however we learned some specifics to the outcome of the night of the black knives the wounds on both godwins and ranny's bodies are halves of the one whole that have put together with would form the circular hole of a curse of death now the fact that this item description says should have may lead one to believe that the intent behind the attack was to fully kill Godwin with both half of the wheel so he died in Soul and in flesh that it was an accident that led to Ranny dying in body when the wheel fractured yet this doesn't appear to be the case and it appears the breaking of the wheel was actually intended by rannie as she says the following but I would not acquas to the two fingers I stole the Rune of death slew my own Imperium flesh casting it away I would not be controlled by that thing so I'm quite sure this Nuance is clear to most people at this point in the game's life cycle but this dialogue heavily implies that rany planned for the night of the black knives to go the way it did her real objective was actually to slay her own imperian flesh her flesh is even described as discarded flesh in the curs mark item description suggesting that she got rid of this flesh how she actually achieved this result and broke the wheel is an interesting process to consider as she too seems to have the half wound the other half carved into her back physically it's hard to get your head around but my belief is that while the Assassins were carving the Rune into Godwin rany was committing similar act upon herself and the fact it happened at the same time broke the hall brand between them condemning Godwin to shoulder the burden of the so death half while rany benefited from the death in body in the curs mark description it describes the breaking of the wheel in the following way however two demig Gods perished at the same time breaking the curse mark into two wheels the use of that word creates a chain of of causality with what comes next in that sentence I.E it was because two demigods died simultaneously that the wheel was broken splitting the totality of death into two halves one dying of Flesh and one dying in Soul rany only wanted to have the effects of one side of the wheel and so used Godwin as a totem for the other half to achieve her aims this does tie up with what we know of rannie and we see in her actions she is trying to sever all ties with the two fingers as it appears that when she was chosen as imperion she was in some metaphysical way bound to them and unable to follow a path of her own choosing but by doing this by cruy forcing Godwin into her bed for Freedom she condemns a man to horrific fate and would inadvertedly cause the spread of the death route however is the first step in her ultimate goal of severing her connection to her fingers and we do see her carry on this path in her questline she has first slay her own flesh she then kills the pursuing baleful shadows and then finally slays her own two fingers allowing her to pursue her own objectives and cast off her predetermined fate as an imperion for the greater will if this is the case then Godwin's death is even more tragic as it makes him seem as mere collateral damage to Ran's plans and the fact she has essentially condemned a man to live forever and on death as a soulless ghoul is something people should consider if they view rannie as a hero and while I think this is true From rany's perspective as in this was the objective of the KN of the black knives I don't think it is as simple as this for the rest of the conspirators involved I believe they had different ideas as to what would happen let's try and analyze the aftermath of the night of the black knives and what the other motivations may have been for the other conspirators though I do want to make it clear what follows is my own speculation based on environmental storytelling and in-game lore so the first co-conspirators are of course the black knife assassins themselves were they aware of rany's full intentions it would certainly make sense if they did given both parties want to bring about an age of night and yet despite this I do believe there's evidence that the assass assass and rany are now at loggerheads firstly rany asks us to retrieve the Finger Slayer blade from the city of notron consider why we would actually need to do this if rannie was still allies with the KNX surely they would give her this tool that would help her achieve the age of night furthermore rany doesn't even know where the city of notron is again a curious State of Affairs for someone supposedly allied with the nox and then there of course is the biz series of events that involve ranny's counselors and their attempted and actual deaths at the hand of the black knife assassins as blly seems to be surrounded by black knife assassins as if they have tried to kill him and ichi's body is similarly surrounded by the corpses of black knife assassins so I had once considered that this was rany cleaning house that she had commanded the Assassins to take out blly and EEG and while I am more or less certain that she turned civis into a puppet as an ironic punishment for his plans for her I don't think this makes sense that she would just kill the others given she says this near the end of her Quest now I can finally stand before them this is Farewell My Dear tell BL and EG I love them they are her childhood friends and as ruthless as I see rannie to be how very much she could bring herself to slaughter for these two In Cold Blood directly at least leaving them to their f is another matter entirely of course so what do these attacks mean well I speculate that rannie misled the black knife assassins and these attack on rany's people is an attempt at retribution remember the curs mark item description it says should have taken the form of a wheel as if that was the intention behind those who were carving it I believe that the black if assassins believed they were truly planning to slay the gods to overthrow the Erry order and to pick up with the godkin apostasy and the Glide Queen had failed Godwin as a leading member of the royal family would have been a juicy Target for them in their plans to overthrow the greater will a great Act of Revenge for their punishment at the hands of the greater will in my Eternal City video I spoke on the potential connections between the Eternal cities and the glomi Queen's apostles and while EG burning in the black God Slayer flame could be a mistake I am of the belief that the God skins were an eternal City creation I won't go into it as much detail as I did on that video and again I recommend it but essentially the fascination of the nox with creating artificial life is very much a facet of their society most notably the Alban orics which we learn were creation of the Eternal City from some cut tops dialogue artificially created life ties in with the description of the God skins found in the swaddling cloth which to me implies accelerated growth and hand rearing by the glomi queen herself suggesting they aren't people that become God skins rather they are created then there's of course the implied connection between the black knife assassins and God skins working together this is at 's murder scene of course scattered around his body are the corpses of black knife assassins who Ichi evidently killed defending himself however he is not burning in the red flame of death and death the weapon used by the Assassins rather he is burning in the black flame of the god-skin Apostles suggesting it was one of their number who got the final blow on the troll I think this suggested connection between the godkin movement and the black knives leaves bear their intentions to bring about the deaths of the Gods and overthrow them not help rany further her own agenda and while the nox armor set tell us that they too want to bring about the age of stars I imagine they wouldn't take kindly by being used by another usurper wanting to take the throne for herself whatever the motivation or reason behind it I think it is clear now that the Eternal cities and rany are at loggerheads and it's further backed up by electo the leader of the black knives assassins being imprisoned in the Moonlight altar a carrying every jail I speculate that post night of the black knives having used them to achieve her goal rannie imprisoned electo and the Assassins take the heat which is why we see them scattered throughout the land hiding in the fringes and deep places of the world no wonder we need a star to break into noon quite a tangent but now let us look at another co-conspirator and what they aim to get out of this prayor Reichard we learn of reichard's involvement via the Blasphemous claw item description which reads as follows on the night of the dire plot rany rewarded prer Reichard with these traces should the coming trespass one day transpire they would serve as a last resort foil allowing Reichard to challenge malakith the Black Blade the black beast of destined death so it looks like rany brought rikard into this plot and given what we know about him in his later more overtly Blasphemous years it is easy to see him as an obvious fit much like the Eternal City cohort I believe that Reichard will have just wanted to strike against the gods and America he doesn't have any connection or care for the age of stars rany's motive in bringing her brother in is pretty clear he is just a last minute defense against malakith and then of course we need to discuss the possible involvement of Queen Mar in the plot itself now I do discuss this possibility in my mar lore video in Far More depth so please go and watch that if you are interested in a more detailed analysis but in short as I'm sure most of you are aware the main evidence for Amica being involved comes from the black knife assassin armor set that describes the women as Newman closely associated with America as well as certain dialogues that imply a sort of utilitarian view of her own children as I said in my America video I'm not someone who personally believes this to be 100% true yet I do also acknowledge the legitimacy of the theory especially given the language used in the black knife assassin armor set and so with that said if she was involved what do I believe to be her motivations well as said in my previous Mar video a thoughtful Reddit post by the user ha links these Scrolls and tablets found in amica's Chambers to the Declaration she makes regarding studying the depths of the golden order for an answer America's own words I declare mine intent to search the depths of the golden order through understanding of the proper way our faith our Grace is increased those Blissful early days of blind belief are long past my comrades why must you falter in my mind if we are to entertain the idea that Mar murdered her own son I believe it is a reaction to her study and identification of the flaw in the golden order and that it was a calculated move to expose this flaw that she had identified through her studies this flaw of course was the absence of death a glitch in the system that could not Rectify itself when the Rune of death was reintroduced through Godwin's murder and so with that said let us actually examine the resulting effects of Godwin's murder the spread of the death route and the rise of the prince of death after his murder the corpse of the Fallen demigod was buried in the deep root depths something we can pick up from the prince of death pusle in your first playthrough most likely the first sight you get of Godwin is the intro cinematic that shows him being murdered by the black knife assassins yet despite this gruesome scene we get the picture of a beautiful Godlike figure a muscular physique and flowing golden logs this is also in line with what we see in the story trailer which again could have been many people's first sight of the golden Prince so this later becomes very unsettling when players get their first look at what we learn to be a Visage of Godwin hidden at the bottom of storm Veil Castle I genuinely find the look of this face subconsciously disturbing and repulsive something deep within me does not like this face it feels wrong and when we look at the thematics in a later part of this chapter you will see this is exactly the intent it reminds me of an oyster with its multiple folds of skin and it is distinctly unnatural and Incredibly well done and indeed the oyster does seem to be spoton because we will see the full aquatic form of Godwin later as well as tying it in with the relevance of water to Godwin and those who live in death it is roier who later confirms that this haunting face is a relic of the night of the black knives a Visage of Godwin indeed Ro warns us away from this face because it does indeed possess the death plate of Godwin the power of the prince of death something roier himself has fallen a foul of an event we can witness through his blood stain and now the death plate Rises through his body he is saturated by the power of death when we finally do find Godwin the true Godwin in the depths of the lands between in the deep root depths it is made all the clearer that the VIS we see under Stormville is a spot on replica more or less of Godwin's true face and indeed this Visage is actually just one of many faces of Godwin these aren't just relics or bits of skin these are considered to be true copies of Godwin's face for example the face under Stormville is actually referred to as a Visage of the prince of death something we can see from the prince of death's pulle that we pull from this very face it reads as follows a feted pulle taken from facial flesh it is said that this posture came from the Visage of the prince of death he who used to be called Godwin so this is actual facial flesh it's real it's a real replica of Godwin it initially appears to be a confusing contradiction given we find the true face later but Godwin's appearance is superbly analyzed and explained in two videos from zulie the witch their Godwin Prince of death and the terrible truth about Godwin videos I also just want to let you know at this stage that zuli's work will be heavily referenced in this section as a lot of the details we learn of the prince of death's influence and matter comes from the environmental storytelling and zulie has by far been the most prolific in these subjects in regards to Godwin let us first deal with the replica Visage that we've just been discussing in the video the terrible truth about Godwin zil identifies that Godwin's image is spreading throughout the lands between as we can see from the deathly pale eye growths in areas where the death route has spread even spreading as far as far maula suggesting this isn't a growth in the normative sense it is more like a curse spreading in the lands between but we'll discuss that thematic in a moment these eyes are clearly reminiscent of the prince of death's true eyes but we can also see these eyes on the growths surrounding him in the deep root depths giving us the true nature of these strange ey growths found spreading with the death route zulie therefore suggests that the Godwin Visage in Stormville could very well be a more advanced type of this growth that has grown from Beyond just being eyes but has become an almost full replica of the death Prince and I agree that this is the most satisfying explanation to me as I'd long considered this to be some kind of vestage of the true Godwin and given that this is actually made of facial flesh it seems to be that these eye growths or the growths spreading throughout the lands between May well all turn into true copies of the prince of death this does also seem to be backed up by the fact we see his Vis duplicated elsewhere firstly in the cysts and pules you can see the outlines of Godwin's face but of course there's also the crab that we find in Altus plateau and Leia and again you will note that these are all water logged areas and we will deal with that soon these crabs straight up have the Visage face of Godwin upon their backs eyes included again reinforcing the fact that Godwin can literally spread his face his body far and wide through the death rout and through the spling blight of those who live in death does he see through all of these eyes does he feel all of these faces the implications of this are pretty huge and given enough time could Godwin sweep through the entire world turning it into Godwin it is definitely suggested that this is the case it is an unending spread and the spread of the death route has already transformed patches of the world before we go further we do need to talk about Godwin's appearance in general given we are going to be talking about the Thematic overlays in the next part of the chapter and a very surface level analysis we of course get the immediate Illusions to the themes of water both in the Oyster esque head and the fishlike tail that has replaced his legs and just as a quick personal note I absolutely love this design Godwin is one of the best design parts of the entire game I find it so abhor and so shocking compared to his original description in the introduction it reminds me of the shock I felt when I first faced true king alant in the original Demon Souls the cherry on the top of course is the blonde hair still present in this wretched form a mockery of his original form and a reminder that this was Godwin the golden yet there are deeper connection to Godwin's appearance that we can mine not just at being an aquatic theme and again zulie has delivered on this front in their Godwin Prince of death video in this video zulie makes a possible suggestion of Godwin's appearance being linked to the Japanese myth of the ningo and that it may be seen as a part of a recurring theme in fromsoft games such as the Divine Dragon which is referred to as a Nino in the game files and of course cost from bloodborne that share very similar facets to the ningo the ningu are essentially mermaids whose flesh if consumed confers immortality but catching one is meant to bring Calamity and this does tie in with the cursed immortality of those who live in death and so this satisfies me on the aesthetic level however there is more thematically and at this point I'm going to reference another content creator Acer Aesthetics and specifically I'm referencing their Stellar video on the ideas of pollution and taboo found within Silent Hill a video called the horror Lost in Translation a video that looks at the Eastern cultural influences found in Silent Hill that the Western audience may miss and in general Acer's channel is filled with these amazing video essays on some of your favorite games so please go and check out their Channel The Silent Hill video is extremely useful to me however not only because Silent Hill is one of my favorite games of all time but Acer analyzes themes that are also very useful in analyzing the themes tied to Godwin in this video Acer uses a certain Japanese term to discuss defilement pollution and tabos kagari kagari is described by Wikipedia as a state of defilement caused by varying events including contact with any form of death or corpse but aser goes further describing kagari as the crossing of boundaries the transitions between life and death for example and when these boundaries are crossed you get impurity you get kagari in Silent Hill the boundaries being crossed vary from game to game but in each game kagari is represented by the horrible nightmares that each protagonist must face in the first Silent Hill for example we witness the horrendous birth of the Cults God child birth is the crossing of a boundary and thus can fall under kagari and in Silent Hill one some of the enemies we Face are representative of that corruption caused by the kagari of the birth of a god such as maggot grub and moth enemies to me this can be specifically applied to Godwin's appearance and his corruption throughout the land to straight up quote Acer when he is talking about a corpse relation to kagari he said says and I quote kagari can also mean corruption and defilement for example the presence of a corpse corrupts the environment around it because a corpse is a seeded for maggots and other impurities real and spiritual if you touch it you will also get kagari and you will spread it until you clean yourself end quote does this sound familiar the presence of a corpse causing corruption that spreads to others who then spr read it further this is why Godwin's appearance is so deeply corrupted he is a living corpse who has been buried and his corruption has spread he has crossed the boundaries of Natural Life the moment his soul was obliterated and his corpse was left behind he became a seeded for the corruption that pollutes the lands between Godwin through no fault of his own has cross these sacred bounds not only between life and death but outside the boundary iies set by the golden order and he will continue to be a source of impurity a source of kagari until he is destroyed or is brought back within the bounds of what is accepted and as zulie points out there aren't just those who live in death but there appears to be new life forms that are created by contact with the death Prince himself spreading this corruption even further the examples really gives are of course the basilisks that clearly had their eyes modified from prior Souls games to be more in line with Godwin's eyes in this game and addition their connection to Godwin is made all the clearer by their location in areas connected to death such as in the Deep group depths the realm of the prince of death they wield the death plate of the death Prince again spreading that corruption and they also have amphibian features tying them to the water themes which we'll look at in the next chapter and the pene features of Godwin himself you'll see his arms are very similar to the arms of these basilisks they of course aren't the only life forms capable of inflicting death plate there are of course the mysterious and confusing worm faces these are the tree looking humanoids with worms burrowed into their faces the connection to Godwin is of course clear from their appearance the maggots or meal worms in their face very heavily connected to death and decay they also spread the death PL in zuli's video on them she interestingly identifies the fact that the file name for these enemies in the game is Der which is a French term referring to the uprooting of trees now this does line up nicely with the appearance of worm faces the worms look like the roots of upturn trees and I would suggest that their locations are also significant the two main areas that we find them in are a affected with death blight and B have trees this is the location in far mailla and Altus Plateau respectively so my most lightly explanation for their appearance is that they are somehow connected to the areas that are affected with death plate that also have trees phula does have the infection of Godwin so this area we find them in is also Afflicted with the death plate is it possible they are actually trees that have been corrupted they are very tree and wooden looking other wise of course they could have just taken their appearance from their surrounding environments and are pure creatures of corruption this is of course my speculation on zuli's video and what we see of the environmental details but it is one that satisfies my understanding of these beings to a degree now while I'm sympathetic to Godwin in his plate this does all paint a terrifying picture about his reach and the transformative corrupting nature of his power so with that said let us look at the spread of his corruption in more detail in the next chapter the spread of the death route was facilitated by the manner in which his body was handled and buried we know from the prince of Des pul that he was buried at the roots of the great tree as it reads as follows it is said that this pastu came from the Visage of the prince of death he who used to be called Godwin as first of the demigods it is said he is buried deep under the capital at the Earth tre's Roots indeed this obviously marries up with what we see in game Godwin's corpse slumped against its very roots in the deep root depths while this may seem like a pretty silly idea in retrospect it does make sense with the lore of the world given we know from numerous sources that the Earth Tre burial was the idealized form of honoring the dead where the dead were returned to the roots of the great tree yet it was this connection of his body against these roots that facilitated the spread something that we have confirmed by the description of death R itself which reads as follows on the night of the dire plot the stolen Rune of death enabled the first death of a demigod later the Rune of death spread across the lands between through the underground roots of the great tree sprouting in the form of death route and as expected from from software's masterful environmental storytelling this too is reflected by what we see in game at Godwin's Throne we see the death blate spreading from his shattered form in infecting the roots of the great tree to spread throughout the world and of course it is important to comprehend what this death rout really is the item description says it all the Death rout is the fragments of the Rune of death that was stolen on that faithful night these are the fragments of the fragment that was stolen from Malak and as such it explains his motivation in working with the hunters to retrieve this death route he is trying to undo his mistake to restore the Rune of death proper and thus restore the golden order gank actually hungers for the Rune of death for the death route because he feels the Rune of death since it is bound within his own flesh and we learn from Malik's Black Blade that it was actually bound within his flesh after the night of the black knives and as such he hungers for it to be complete because it is part of him as well tragically for malakith some Bells cannot be unrung and while we return all of the death route malakith realizes that the Affliction of the wheel of the centipede has spread too far and is seeped Into The Very soil of the lands between the Rune of death can no longer be restored it is it is all consumed still I am not sated not nearly sat so this is where we returned to what happened to Godwin on the night of the black knives Godwin only received half of the wound of the centipede half of the Rune of death this half concerns the death of the Soul only and said death route obviously contains the same half hence why those afflicted by death route are dead only in Soul but still exist in a Caporal sense they literally live within death the reference to this as the mark of the centipede is obviously quite fitting for a couple of reasons firstly and most obviously this half of the Rune does indeed resemble a centipede but the more relevant connotation and to why it's probably shaped like a centipede in the first place from a design perspective is to more do with the ideas of rot and stagnation a cultural understanding from Japanese Shino where flowing water is seen as good pure and representative of life where stagnation is seen as corruption death and decay in short the idea of Purity and the everflowinglife in stagnant water and thus they are often used to depict corruption and rot and again this is something prominently seen in the first Silent Hill in the form of moths cockroaches and grubs again as aply described by Acer stagnant water is another thematic indicator of kagari and to quote Acer directly once more they say the following flowing water is life and so it is good conversely Still Waters or death now in Western culture we are of course familiar with flies insects and maggots being a symbol of death and rot and Decay and indeed this is represented by the Flies swarming around Godwin's decaying corpse however it is important to remember that a Japanese team made this and so it's great to understand the cultural context Behind These thematic designs and so with the understanding that flies insects and other types of pests are representative of gari and stagnant Waters we again move to the centipedes centipedes fall within this category as a life form that thrives in Decay and stagnant Waters and thus in Japanese culture centipedes are often used to symbolically represent stagnation or rot or pollution of course the best representation of this is in from software's media in Seco where the presence of centipede parasites are meant to denote the stagnation and pollution of the Divine Waters best illustrated by the monks of sen po Temple who are literally overtaken by parasitic centipedes the association with centipedes is made even more interesting then when we consider the golden centipede which reads as follows the golden desiccated remains of a centipede material used for crafting items kept as a fetish by the golden order fundamentalists especially the hunters of the who live in death as such they're found near churches or similar now a fetish is usually a Talisman or some other object used for Spiritual protection and given it is a golden centipede the mark of those who live in death it makes sense that the golden order fundamentalists would use this when hunting those who live in death given it's a golden inversion of their enemy symbol this is why the half wound of the centipede is rep representative of those who live in death because they are literally stagnant forms of life they are stuck living in Death stuck at one part of the cycle of Life they are existing outside the boundaries of the established laws they are an extension of the pollution spelling from Godwin's corpse they are kagari and so the associated imagery of centipedes and insects make sense the idea of kagari and Crossing sacred bounds is why so often those who live in death are described to be out with the golden order such as in the description of the holy water pots which reads as follows highly effective against those who live in death even preventing them from rising again the golden order has no mercy for those who trespassed Beyond life's bounds it's again the idea of trespassing beyond the boundaries leading to pollution and stagnation and the idea of their existence existence outside the bounds of order leading to a pollution of the order is reflected in the language of the hunters such as D who states the following following only the guidance of the great Elden ring those who live in death fall outside the principles of the golden order their mere existence solies the guidance of gold tainting its truth and so it is the Vermin must be exterminated down to the very lust and the ideas of stagnation Mak sense why the areas we find those who live in death are in stagnant Waters and it also maybe helps explains the Aquatic tibia marinas who seem to be an infection Vector for the death route it's just another thematic manifestation of the themes of stagnation and kagari now while the half wind of the centipede being death only in Soul helps explain the undeath of those who live in death I feel feel it is only part of the equation when it comes to explaining their existence as we have just discussed those who live in death are essentially a glitch in the system and for this to occur for a glitch to occur there has to be a fall in the golden order you may find this peculiar but I discovered something in my examination of the Knight of the black knives these Souls have committed no offense they have every right to life only they happen to touch upon a floor in the order like roer I actually have a lot of sympathy for those who live in death and the dust born ending was the first one I chose despite also having ranny's ending ready to go roier correctly states that those who live in death have happened upon a flaw within the golden order it is not perfect as the fundamentalists would have you believe and this flaw will be one that those familiar with my channel will of course heard me mention many times as in my gold mask and Mar videos that flaw being the removal of death and confinement of it and this is fittingly described by The Mending Rune of the death Prince which reads as follows formed of the two H brand half wheels combined it will embed the principle of life within death into order the golden order was created by confining death and death so the very foundations of the golden order are built upon an order absent death and we see this effect on the Denis and of the world a world where nobody dies it really is a pitiful State of Affairs unending life sounds great in theory but in usual from soft fashion we are quickly disabused of that notion and when you peel away the surface layer and Grandeur of the golden order you can see it as fundamentally broken for while it is true that those who live in death are stagnant so are those within the order no one ever dies within the order how is that any less stagnant than those who live in death the removal of death and then the murder of Godwin are the two main events that broke the world as much as the shattering of the Elden ring dead and indeed rier seems to agree with that statement that these were the pivotal events that led to the world becoming crooked I once wished to become a scholar you see I've spent many an hour scouring the archives for knowledge of that faithful plot the world has grown crooked and if you intend to put it to rights you'd better understand what happened to make it this way and yet there are those looking for a workaround a way to undo and reverse the corruption rather than simply purging those who are afflicted and so it time to look at those who would undo the corruption and restore Godwin to his former glory we have already covered the fact that fortox and Godwin developed a close Bond due to their mutual respect in the war of the dragons and Godwin sparing of the former's life but the depths of this bond isn't really Illustrated until we get to the latter parts of the game and we find fortox for ourselves who to me is one of the most heroic characters in the entire story forto Sax's remembrance reads as follows after Godwin the golden became the prince of death the ancient dragon fought long and hard against the death within its companion alas victory was never achieved and its only reward was corruption and this is indeed how we find fortox renamed the L Dragon due to the fact the ancient dragon himself has been suffused with death even the ancient dragons are not free from its pollution this is Apparent from his appearance all other ancient dragons have a sort of golden beige Hue to them including his own sister however fortox is now stained with black and you can see how well the design team have done here he isn't just a black dragon he still actually has his gold scales underneath if you look carefully but it is more like he is stained with a black suit over the top The Mark of Death much like when roier becomes aused with death fortox also seems to be sprouting the blight the blight even bursting from his eye socket and through his skin and it no wonder fortox is now called the L Dragon he is a dragon living within death what is interesting is that it again shows the real corrupting power of the death this pollution caused by the crossing of boundaries the extent to which fortox is Afflicted is pretty eye opening and it is elaborated on by the death lightning incantation which reads as follows incantation that channels the power of the ancient dragon fortox now corrupted by death it is said that this golden lightning was wielded by Godwin and so this lightning in was actually once Godwin's power that fortox now channels and the corruption of death is so powerful that even this lightning is afflicted by it showing it is a true metaphysical curse and this is all well and good but when you fight fortox you may have some burning questions why is he so corrupted and where the hell do we fight him well forto Sax's remembrance implies that fortox is within Godwin's mind within his soul battling within the death and his old comp companion's body now this is a confusing concept to wrap your head around but it does appear to be that there is a realm within Godwin that represents being within his corrupted body we can enter this realm ourselves at the end of fia's quest when we are invited to enter the deathbed dream now given f is a deathbed companion this must be fia's dream bridging her mind to godwins and so we use her as a medium to connect with Godwin's mind and that is how we end up fighting for forx or something along those lines we'll discuss it more in the later chapters regarding FIA where I will also talk about why we have to fight four to six if this does represent a realm or pocket Dimension within Godwin it does let us know the true extent of death saturation the sky itself seems to be covered in a death plight and it is in here in this hellish realm of death that forac has spent a long time fighting against the death trying to push it back trying to cleanse his good friend from the inside out yet I should be obvious from the spread of death in the World At Large and the aused nature of Godwin's mind represented by the Skybox this was a doomed Endeavor and fortox has paid the price for his bravery yet it is one of the most heartwarming stories in the game and I see fortox as a true hero it wasn't just fortox who felt great sorrow at Godwin's fate we of course now returned to the golden epap as promised at the beginning of this video which is most likely tied to Micha more specifically we can make this tie in via the specific ghost dialogue from Castle [Music] Saul so that does bring us to the location of this Ghost Castle Saul a Bastion that appears to hold a cult dedicated to the resurrection of the soless so let's discuss this Castle Saul as seen by its banners is a castle containing a group that seem to venerate the eclipse in some capacity and this is further supported by the great treasure of this this Castle the eclipse schotel the eclipse is of course used elsewhere in Elden ring and is closely associated with the mums and their Knights and the soulless demig Gods housed within the eclipse Crest Great Shield wielded by the mosum knights reads the following the eclipse Sun drained of color is the protective star of The Soulless demigods it aids the MOs of nights by keeping des and death at Bay so the eclipse is obviously a symbol associated with the soless and it is seen as a ward that will keep death and death at Bay obviously something to avoid for these soulless demigods so they don't die permanently before they are restored a really great video on the subject of the eclipse is one by vmit and I highly recommend you check that out and I will link below the protective nature of the eclipse as a type of Ward therefore explains why it appears on the shields of the Defenders of these soulless de Gods the eclipse also thematically neatly fits in not only is the eclipse extremely similar to the two sides of the hall brand but again there are some cultural connotations to the Eclipse which are relevant to death and we will shortly deal with those but I want to first ask what is the point of Castle Saul what are they actually trying to achieve here well let us try and uncover the purpose behind these people the people who existed in Castle Saul those who see to venerate the eclipse we've already looked at one ghost dialogue which implies the eclipse could restore the soless demigods and so now let us turn to the other ghost dialogue found within the castle one in the main Chapel who Echoes the veneration of the eclipse oh great son frigid son of Saul surrender yourself to the eclipse Grant life to the soulless bones so the connecting Factor here seems to be the the belief that the eclipse swallowing the sun can restore the soulless demig Gods to full life yet what is the basis for this Theory fortunately for me I am friends with a Creator far more familiar with Japanese cultural implications as well as the language itself of course people familiar with the channel will know I'm referring to last protagonist who has once again provided some excellent information in regards to the eclipse in a comment on V limits video regarding the eclipse last protagonist said the following and he's given me permission to share this comment the term for Eclipse comes from shoko which is the same Ki for mashi bamu which means worm eaten corroded deteriorated Etc this comes up a lot in Dark Souls to describe the way curses and the dark eat away through things like in naw dark fog wal's holy sword Etc in Elden ring the term also comes up in items at associated with Godwin the weathered dagger the corruption of fortox Etc this all ties into the eclipse Shoto which is described as a sun being drained of color it might imply that there is or was a connection between the Sun and the grace of gold and might coincide with the sun realm Shield or how warming Stone say the Earth tree was as warm and gentle as the sun end quote so again brilliant Insight from last protagonist and if you're new to the channel please check out their Channel as they often help me out with Japanese translations and cultural connotations and again thanks to last protagonist now the part I want to focus in on is how last protagonist says this worm eaten description ties into the eclipse Shoto which is described as a son being drained of color being worm eaten of color perhaps I find this interesting because it's inline with the idea of the sun being eaten like the ghost at Castle Saul mentions the eclipse swallowing the sun is it then possible that the cultists of Saul are beckoning for the eclipse to swallow the sun to steal its Vitality to restore the soulless demigod I do believe that this is their belief that they wish the eclipse to eat the Vitality of the Sun and take this Vitality to restore the demigod at least that's their belief even if there isn't any weight to it specifically it appears that the castle Saul is a joint venture between the group itself and Micha given the ghost dialogue that we reviewed at the beginning of this chapter and this is unsurprising given micha's great empathy for the outcast and forgotten as well as his implied sympathy for his half brother as suggested by the golden epth and I now want to make an editorial note here I had far more planned in this chapter for the soulless demig gods for neck Romany but as with with my last video the video's already becoming far too long so I have decided to cut certain elements from the story however don't worry I am already planning the next video that we'll pick up these pieces and I'm going to do a combined video on death including the death Birds necromancy the soulless demigods and perhaps roses so something to look forward to more time talking about death woohoo with that said I want to turn to an important figure who Champions Godwin's cause in an attempt to stand up for those without a voice I am of course referring to fear and the conclusion of Godwin's story FIA is a fascinating character whose story is presented to us right at the beginning of the game during the introductory cinematic where we quickly learn that FIA is a deathbed companion and also a tarnished when trying to understand what a deathbed companion is a good place to start is probably from FIA herself who says the following I was known as a deathbed companion where I come from after I received the warmth and lifely vigor from a number of Champions I lay with the remains of an exalted Noble to Grant him another chance at life Sophia pretty much gives us the Bare Bones of what her possession entails they absorb the Vitality of Champions they Embrace such as us and they use that stored Vigor to Breathe new life into those who have already passed past in this dialogue FIA also seems to describe exactly what is depicted on her introductory slide art she was lying with a noble to Bear him into new life I find the term bear him into New Life interesting it has connotations of child birth and as you'll see later in this video and in her Quest she does seem to birth New Life from the absorbed Vitality of other Champions it isn't just a transference of energy it is almost a recycling or reincarnation of the original Vitality taken from the Embraced Champion there is actually a lot of surrounding lore that can help explain the deathbed companions for example we get an allegorical description of their Origins as a profession via the perfumer Trisha ashes which read the following Trisha was once known as a Healer who dedicated her efforts to treating Mis begotten Omen and all those seen as impure when her efforts failed she was a companion as they died watching over them to ensure that they could pass on peacefully free of pain a tail akin to the origins of the deathbed companions so by using tra's story as a comparison the description seems to suggest that the deathbed companions were once that an order of people who would be deathbed companions companions to people on their deathbeds to watch over and help them pass peacefully however in time it clearly evolved to where it was more about restoring people from their deathbeds and I do find it interesting to consider the origins of the deathbed companions mainly because the only one we meet is out of their context but we can gleam a little of that context firstly let us look at the Balin blessing it seems to show a temple covered in curtains or canopy like fixtures and the description of this item describ these as being temples in the guise of a bed chamber and obviously with beds Death Beds being an important part of this order this makes sense this also matches up with the term Balin for a Balin according to Miriam Webster is a cloth covered canopy fixed or carried over an important person or sacred object so this matches the canopies we see on the temple showing in the Baldin blessing and the Very cloak that fear wears over her deathbed dress for traveling these black robes look very much like curtains or canopies most likely then the term Balin blessing most likely means a blessing from these baldachin covered temples I could be wrong and Balin could be the name from where fear is from or the name of a god associated with these temples but either way it does tie in to what we see as the kind of aesthetic overlay of this culture however the darkest part of this role is the fact that deathbed companions never choose who they lie with this is directly told To Us by feia herself who says the following when she chooses to lie with Godwin this is goodbye my dear but I am satisfied I choose to lie with Godwin of my own will not the remains of one chosen for me therefore F and her kind are directed to lie with the remains chosen for them them and given F tells us that it was a noble she was last told to lie with I would assume the implication is that the upper classes benefit from this particular brand of resurrection and the radiant Balin blessing also suggests that the deathbed companions don't even get to choose who they Embrace to get the Vigor to resurrect the Nobles as it reads as follows it is said a deathbed companion will only produce a blessing of this kind for a champion but once in her entire life the sole blessing which she imbus of her own valtion meaning that any other goldage and blessing that is bestowed by a deathbed companion is not of their own valtion it is just a part of their duty this lack of choice is quite key in fia's motivations so when FIA becomes tarnished and is exiled from this land that she heals she chooses A New Path and chooses to use her skills and powers for another purpose her own purpose she says the following I see then you must kill me for I am the companion of Godwin Prince of death I wish to be a mother to those who live in death so it is that any loathing any hatred that overshadows them I must bear as a matter of Duty with my own flesh fear chooses to defend those who through no fault of their own are hunted persecuted and have no voice have no choice given fia's life of being told what to do as a deathbed companion and being chased from her Homeland and now being bound by grace through no choice of her own we can easily see why she would have great sympathy and empathy for these people I feel her ideals must be similar to her allies Roes who quite right states that their existence those who live in death is no fault of their own Sophia takes it upon herself to try and write this wrong and finally make some choices for herself and the first way she does this is via her Embraces not only is she using this energy in a buildup for gestating her new child but she also uses it in a more creative defensive way viia appears to take a portion of the Vitality of Champions that she Embraces and can summon them as Champions to defend the prince of death akin to the practice of carrying puppetry this makes sense since we do see roier and lonel in the fight against FIA Champions both tarnished we know she has embraced as she mentions rier in that context and we later find her belongings alongside lels in a bed in Lan Dale to be clear these are aint puppets these Blue Man manifestations are the same color as the caran puppets they are not the actual champion themselves being summoned like a blue Phantom rather an imprint of them especially since roier will be dead by this stage that we face him as a FIA champion this is actually a rather impressive feat and it really emphasizes how much power FIA gains from absorbing the power of Champions and it will play a key role in her gestation of The Mending Rune and yet to make this mending room she needed the two sides of what brought the curse of unlife to the lands between the two sides of the H brand and so she sets ourselves and roier in motion to retrieve it though she makes great efforts to hide her true motivations and interests only portraying herself as someone who is interested in helping roier a friend while mysteriously handing us a pivotal map that she got from a friend of a friend of a friend meanwhile rier also seems to let a secret slip to her FIA has already mentioned how rier says things while AB bed and he appears to hold another secret that would be of much interest to FIA it is the same secret he divulges to us in the form of a note after his death written in a trembling hand it says the following I forgot to tell you but it seems de has a younger brother I heard he lies in a deep sleep in the aqueduct besides the Eternal City of notron and it is said he stood before the prince of death not far beyond that spot now with this note everything that transpires between FIA and D makes complete sense FIA knew that de's brother had stood before the prince of death and this no doubt explains why we find the twin huddled and broken not far from where Godwin lies and now with that in mind let us look at the weather dagger that FIA asks us to return to D it reads as follows dagger received from fia the deathbed companion she wishes for it to be returned to its rightful owner it was once a special weapon of gold and silver entwined but is now worn down and marred by a black gash a Knife marred by a black gash and worn down evidently a weapon of D or his brother and surely given those two bits of lore we can assumed that this blade was turned against Godwin given the black gash on the blade but to what end well the answer I believe comes from FIA herself when we reach her in the deep root depths she says the following have you ever seen a hall brand when the first of the demigods died his flesh was marked with the half whe wound of the centipede Godwin's Hall brand has since been recovered at the round table hold but there is another Hall brand out there somewhere and I must find it Godwin's Hall brand has since been recovered at Roundtable hold meaning it wasn't on Godwin's person meaning someone had it at Round Table hold and thus to me anyway it is explained why FIA actually kills D it isn't because he is a golden order Hunter no he has Godwin's Hall brand and she takes it from his cold dead hands this is my speculation again but what I see to be the chain of events given the lore we've examined just now the brother stood before Godwin and carved out his H brand from Godwin's very flesh the act that Mars his blade and drives him to Slumber and given his State the brand will come to be possessed by D his twin brother for safekeeping Fiel learns of this via roier the secret he will tell to us later and knowing she will come into conflict with a tarnished she develops fear has missed an incantation only effective against the undying tarnished for all his martial strength D is no match for the death plate and FIA lures him into a trap by passing The Knife to D that all but says I know and revealing her true loyalties FIA then kills him with the death plight reclaims the H brand and disappears into the night to be by Godwin's side it's actually a brilliant bit of Storytelling a master plan that happens in front of our very eyes but is so subtle because neither FIA nor D show their hands to us and if we choose to return the other half of the hbr to feia which of course was the intended result of stoking roer's interest in finding the other half of the hall brand then the end game of her plan can come into effect she can bind these two together through a gestation ritual she says the following of this I will soon lay with Godwin and it will surely stir within me the new life of the golden Prince and first Dead of the demigods as the Rune of those who live in death please do one thing for me brandish this child my run and take for yourself the throne stay the persecution of those who live in death and so it seems as though F's position as a deathbed companion is absolutely key in the formation of this Rune long as she channeled the power of Champions Vitality to resurrect the dead as I noted earlier this process through semantics is indicated to be akin to childbirth and now again she refers to this as her child this Rune not a child in the traditional sense but a recycling of life that is akin to the natural process of giving birth in the real world and not only is this a child of Godwin and feia but fear also implies that is partially our child for she is using the warmth of our Vigor from our last Embrace to breathe life to gate this new child of course unfortunately this is where he must face and kill one of the truest Heroes of Elden ring fortox fortox has spent unknowable years within Godwin's mind fighting and resisting the death within his friend and yet that now means he is an obstacle to the birth of The Mending room this mending room is death and forto A's influence in pushing back death will no doubt mean he is halting the birth of the death Rune and so it is with great sorrow that we must put the blighted Beast down so God went in fear's child make come forth so what does this mending Rune represent for the future for those who live in death and for the World At Large well let us first of all read the description of the Rune itself and try to understand it reads the following formed of the two hrand half wheels combined it will embed the principle of life within death into order the golden order was created by confining deaths and death thus this new order will be one of death restored so first of all it makes it clear that it is both sides of the H brand this is not the original Rune of death and given its both sides of the hall brand you may assume that it restores original death and death and makes death normal again given that both halves represent the two sides of death however I think it's clear this isn't the case as the Rune specifically mentions that life within death those who live in death are brought into the order it will not be removed or reversed or made full death they are being brought in to the order this is also backed up by the fact that Fier states with this Godwin can take his rightful place as first of the dead and claim a second illustrious life this implies that Godwin will continue to be the source of those who live in death but will take a new kind of position of power within the new order as first of the Dead this literally seems to just be bringing everything that's outside the order in regards to those who live in death including Godwin into it without actually changing them in my opinion Now The Mending room does suggest that death will be restored maybe implying that normal death will be restored but bear in mind this isn't the original Rune of death and so if we consider the science if you want to call it of runes this isn't the Rune of death this is the Rune of the death Prince meaning that the prince of death as he is is still going to exist in this order it is his order that is being incorporated into the golden order this is the age of the dusk board born and given dust's inherent connection to death we could literally translate this to the age of the deathborn and while this sounds utterly repellent consider this might just be the right thing to do those who live in death did not choose to be what they are and it was the urrent order that led to them existing at all through their poor choices perhaps in New Era of life within death death overseen by Godwin will have a new just era of Life Omen is defined by Oxford languages as an event that is seen as important of good or evil and in the lands between it's not hard to see that the birth of an omen is seen as an ill one translator Loki states that the Ki used for Omen could be translated as a board or t boo to those of the golden order they are a stain on the world of Grace they are cursed blood polluting the Earth trees Purity part of the reason they are so hated in the modern Earth tree era is born of the fact that they are relics of an earlier era an uncomfortable and inconvenient reminder of a more primitive period of worship with their gnarled horns British forms and accursed blood it may be easy to see why such beings are treat Tre with such disdain on a surface level yet the truth is far more complex than that as The Omen are not simply British monsters needing to be called there is a complexity to their condition there is a Humanity to them indeed one of the most intelligent and arguably admirable characters we meet in game is an omen more goat who's not allowed the curse to define or control him conversely there are those who wallow in the darker as aspects of the omen curse M Lord of blood who Delights in his corruption these two twins perfectly encapsulate The Duality of the omen condition then there's of course the dung eater who despite not being Omen himself Delights in The Omen curse curses the golden order and wishes to spread this blessing throughout the lands between the omen subject is a challenging one to dissect because the truth of their blood and their curse is Warped by pre UD and eroded by time so in this lore video we will examine the omen The Crucible they owe their Heritage to and the dung eater and finally whether there is some reality to Fear The Omen and their condition as I quite often do I would like to acknowledge some creators who ideas have been highly influential on my own this time it is Hawkshaw and quag both of whose work has been fundamental in fine-tuning and informing my own opinions finally I would also like to thank Loki translator and author of Abyssal archive for providing their translations throughout the very fact that the omen are called The Omen is in a way a distraction when we are trying to discern the history and truth behind these beings what I mean is that the title Omen is mainly a derogatory term that reflects their reviled position in the current age of the golden order and the Earth tree but the origin of the omen does not lie within this era and instead they are tied more closely to The Crucible we learn this of course from the not Talisman the item description of course tying these vestigial growths to The Crucible as well as the fact this is dropped by an omen killer as well as perfume atricia which bungs in Omen and misbegotten alike all beings seen as impure all beings tied to The Crucible so with that said let us unpack the age of The Crucible as it is crucial in understanding the origins of these beings The Crucible is both a state a precursor of the AR Trey as well as an agent of itself there are some Stark differences and ideals that permeate both of these eras despite the ties between The Crucible and the Earth tree obviously it's a well-known fact at this stage that The Crucible the form of the crysal itself was the primordial form of what would become known as the Earth tree and we learn this from various sources but one of the best is the god-skin noble set which reads as follows Nobles are the most ancient apostles who are said to have assimilated in human physiology not unlike The Crucible the Earth Tree in its primordial form and of course there are the aspects of Crucible incantations which read as follows this is a manifestation of the AR's Primal vital energies an aspect of the primordial Crucible where all life was once Blended together the fact that The Crucible is closely associated with Godfrey's Crucible nights a man who would go on to become the first Elden Lord in the early age of the UR Trey of course implies that the era immediately preceding the age of the Earth tree was the age of The Crucible a time when hu and his Knights would have made a name for themselves in this more Primal and wild era as for the form of The Crucible it's self it is often portrayed as a sort of collection of wild branches or Roots as we see from salura Helm and Cura spear that is said to take the form of The Crucible the most satisfying explanation of this form to me is the one offered by tarnished archaeologist a fellow Elden ring lore Creator and this explanation is also the one that informed our discussion of The Crucible in our timeline lore video in their Godfrey lore series The tarnished archaeologist Theory starts by looking at what they term as the gardener statues these are the statues found within Roundtable hold storm Veil castle and other areas found throughout the game there are two variations of this statue one of a character holding a single Branch or Sprout and the other version is surrounded by many the latter of which is very reminiscent of salua Spear and helmet it tarnished archaeologist believes that the process being Illustrated here between the two statues is known as root sprouting a process which is when a tree is damaged or cut and then multiple competing Sprouts begin to grow from the stump in order to regenerate the tree it then follows that the other version of this statue the one with the singular sprout in its hands represents the successful Sprout that would in time grow into the her tree and that the time of competing Sprouts was the time of The Crucible and if you'd like to hear more about that theory in depth I'd recommend tarnished archaeologists videos which I will link below the idea that the age of The Crucible was a period of competition between varying Sprouts fits very well for me firstly because it thematically fits with an area of chaotic uncontrollable life and in addition it also works with the word crucible itself which can mean a trial through which something new is forged in this case the trial or competition between the Sprouts resulting in the emergence of a strong new singular tree the Earth tree regardless of whether you agree with this specific interpretation of the form of The Crucible or not what is clear is that this was an age of primeval unrestrained and violent life and that becomes more apparent when we look at the specific life forms that are associated with this era firstly there are what is referred to as the lion Guardians wild ferocious animals that really Define the term beast and beastial life form we know these creatures are associated with The Crucible firstly due to their visual design as they share some of the same blacken skin as The Omen as well as the signature Omen horns secondly we also see they are tied to The Crucible via an item they drop the old Fang which reads as follows these multiple overlapping fangs grow from a single route perhaps they're a vestage of the primordial Crucible I think this item is a really important one not only because it ties these creatures directly to The Crucible but it also gets to the core of what I see The Crucible to be to me it is a time of unrestrained chaotic and primeval life represented by too much growth exaggerated life form and vestigial limbs this old Fang item talks about multiple overlapping fangs there are too many fangs here overlapping and growing over each other Beyond purpose or Reason life for the sake of life and growth for the sake of growth whereas a refined form of life would have an ordered row of teeth evolv specifically for what is needed for its diet these chaotic primeval beings have growths and appendages that are a result of the cble overflowing life energies where life is expressed in an extreme form where is all Blended together and unnecessary growths happen this idea of vestigial Limbs and vestigial growths is also represented by the budding horn item description a very similar item to the old Fang and its description reads as follows this horn began to sprout on a beast that typically Bears no horn Perhaps it is a vestage of primordial Crucible this is a horn that grows on a life form that doesn't usually grow it it is an unnecessary growth an expression of The Crucible chaotic life energies and it is these types of vestigial growths that we might call the aspects of The Crucible as represented by The Crucible incantations of the same name of course a great example of these vestigial growths is the misbegotten themselves chimeric beings that have malformed small Wings incomplete scale hides and Tails none of which have grown through Evolution and set to perform a set purpose but rather have sprouted from their forms in an almost cancerous manner due to their relation of The Crucible again an expression of its chaotic overflowing vital energies interestingly Moran morot themselves also possess similar vestigial growths Moro of course has his massive club tail a mass of Flesh and horns that obviously serves no real purpose tails are usually for balance and in this case morot merely uses it like a club Mo even has these small and unusable wings that some of the Miss begotten have as you can see on his model before he is powered and they grow to a size that is actually usable this is why I relate The Omen the misbegotten in this type of chaotic life to the idea of chaos and demons that is explored in Dark Souls 1 for those unaware demons and dark souls are not the traditional demonic beings of hell that you may see in abrahamic mythology instead they are products of uncontrollable life born from the Bed of Chaos literally a bed or source of chaotic life a concept well illustrated by the uneven and wild growth of the bed itself an image that is indeed very reminiscent of the depictions of The Crucible the Lord's Soul we get from the Bed of Chaos describes it as a bed of life and likewise The Crucible is a bed of primeval life and is repeatedly associated with the terms primeval primordial and and life the point of comparing The Crucible to the Bed of Chaos is not to say they are one for one as that certainly is not true rather I am trying to highlight that the type of life that is associated with The Crucible and that the similarities and appearance between the Bed of Chaos and The Crucible to me is no coincidence they are both representing underst strained and uncontrollable vital energies this type of life and idea differ so wildly from the ideas of regression and refinement found in the age of the golden order a sophisticated era of refined principles in STK contrast to this earlier era of crude chaotic and primitive life this is a distinction illustrated by the evolution in the symbolism of the ruling religion if One Compares the wild designs of The Crucible era and early ER tree period symbol ically branching out like a wild tree against the more subtle Celtic knot of the Golden Era a far more tidy and refined symbol this is a point well made by quag and their Elden ring keeps me up at night lower video and if you'd like a deeper explanation of these symbols and what they could mean please check out qu's video which I will link below but yes I do see the emblems themselves of each era as a way of illustrating the distinction between the golden order and The Crucible era that came before and why the golden order sees themselves as a more sophisticated era the fundamental concept of regression regression towards the mean one of the golden order fundamentals is that life should be pulling towards the mean becoming more normalized tidier and less diverse this of course clashes wildly with the early era of The Crucible in which life was unrefined distinct from one another and Blended together together however at the time of The Crucible these expressions of life these malformations were not seen as cancerous growths or evidence of a primeval time rather it was seen as Divine and of course we learn this via the cible growth talismans not scale and feather each of them read a vestage of The Crucible of primordial Life Born partially of devolution it was considered a signifier of of the Divine in ancient times but is now increasingly disdained as an impurity as civilization has advanced it of course makes sense that anything Touched By The Crucible in this time would be considered Divine there was no Earth Trey there was only The Crucible The Crucible was the expression of divinity and so anything touched by these aspects of The Crucible would have been seen as special much as later being touched by grace seen as Divine in the current ERA this also makes sense when we consider that The Crucible itself was representative of chaotic Blended life and as such wild appendages would beautifully mirror the rampant growth of The Crucible itself which at this time was the idealized form of life of course one of the other defining factors of The Crucible era is aggression Warfare and martial PR best encapsulated by horu his Arenas his roundt Warrior culture and his Crucible nights if you'd like a keen insight into the warrior culture of Godfrey and his Roundtable Warriors I would recommend tarnished archaeologist video on the subject which I will link below strength aggression violence competition and beastial vitality these are the pillars that Define The Crucible era and it is to this era to these pillars that The Omen owe their Heritage I think it is safe to say that having fully contextualized The Crucible era that it is far more understandable that these British creatures would have been accepted within the era they owe their Heritage to they would not have been the way they are now reviled and confined and haunted so with that said let us move on to an analysis of the omen themselves who they are what they are and where they come from the first thing to note is that I'm sure most people are aware of this is that the omen aren't their own species rather they do seem to be regular humans who have been afflicted by this Omen condition we get hints of this firstly via the scale feather and not talismans and given the features of each we can almost certainly assign the not Talisman to The Omen especially given it is dropped by an omen killer and the fact that these knots look like the base of cut horns now again let us read the item description of the not Talisman which reads as follows a Talisman fashioned from a bony knot that embodies aspects of various creatures said to have grown on the human body long ago growing on the human body long ago and indeed we get further proof that the omen are born through normal reproduction like regular humans from The Omen bar item firstly the regular Omen bar reads as follows Doll ofi curse born bar uses FP to unleash wraiths that chase down foes Omen babies have their horns excised causing most to perish these fetishes are made to memorialize them please don't hate me or curse me please so first thing to note about these items themselves these fetishes that are carved to memorialize these children who are cursed this was pointed out to me by Loki who identified the fact that this is akin to the process of mizuko CUO a water child memorial service which is a Japanese Buddhist ceremony for children who have died through the birthing process in various means and in this process a little fetish is carved of the deceased child and the reason for these rights is to firstly assuage the guilt of the parents but also to comfort the soul of the past child now this is interesting given that most Omen children will die when they have their horns excised but also the fact that they are cursed so perhaps when an omen child is born they are considered dead or miscarried anyway and thus these fetishes are carved to memorialize them and comfort their spirits and their parents and it really is a STK reminder of how bad it is to be born with this Omen curse in the time of the UR Trey as you are already considered dead even when born as we will see in the examples of the Regal Omen Baron which is still carved despite the fact they will not undergo the operation and thus must be considered dead despite actually being alive and so again props to Loki for pointing out that cultural connection for me and as we noted at the beginning of this video with Loki's translation these are Omen children people that are discarded or taboo reinforcing the fact that these are humans who are afflicted and then discarded so these are children born cursed as any other regular human or demigod in some cases not something that is a distinct species in of itself this is of course reflected in the two most famous Omen in the Mythos M Lord of blood and the grace given Lord morot this shows that M and morot were born of the golden lineage both demigods and were still able to be born Afflicted with this condition while it is not stated directly I do believe that these two are born directly from Godfrey and America because of the way in which Godfrey interacts with more got in an almost gentl likee Manner and as someone who is clearly familiar with morot it's been a long while morot and of course we do know that more go is at least descended from Godfrey if not directly as he is part of the golden lineage as stated by his Rune but M and morgot are not the only examples of royalty who are afflicted with the omen curse only that they are the most significant for we learn that there are plenty of other Royal Omen via the Regal Omen be and its item description reads as follows doll of a curse born be from the 's Royal Lane Omen babies born of royalty do not have their horns excised but instead are kept underground unbeknownst to anyone imprisoned for eternity these Memorial fetishes are fashioned in secret we will return to the social ramifications that are highlighted in this when we later view the persecution faced by The Omen but returning to the omen condition itself it is clear that Omen can come about by any birth whether they be demig gods of marus bloodline or a more normal bloodline and the not Talisman implies that this condition is the result of The Crucible or a connection to it this curse or Affliction is something that can affect any humanoid and I will get to the specifics of what I believe the curse actually is momentarily but when it comes to the physical form that the omen take after they are afflicted I believe the answer is fairly straightforward as we know from various sources mainly the incantations of the aspects of The Crucible that The Crucible was a cauldron of life where life was Blended together the elements of different animals all coming together as one additionally we have already linked the KN Talisman to the features found upon the omen to their knotted horns and the Talisman itself describes these features as bones that are embodiments of various species so in essence I see the omen as The Crucible themselves humans that have taken on the elements of various other species in a way that makes them look inelegant and chaotic when compared to regular humans and that their distinct features the blacken skin and the horns are taking elements from many different life for Blended together one of the many interesting points that Haw sha makes in their colors lore video is the relevance of an item description found in version 1.0 of the game the turtle neck meat in the current version of the game it has a very uninteresting description however in version one it read the following Turtle meat is said to boost fality but none in the lands between seem to have much appetite for it these days in the lands between the urge to reproduce has waned long ago so this is of course referring to reproduction and the appetite for it and my surface level takeaway from this is that it may be a combination of the golden order's views on refinement seeing traditional mating is a more bastial activity in regards to Aesthetics the golden order clearly takes after the Medieval era Catholic church and this is also in the way that they view the more Pagan tree worshipping era of The Crucible and this waning interest in traditional mating could also be seen as a mirror on the medieval eras Church views on sex and conservatism a view shared by fellow content creator crunchy in a Twitter thread on this very subject however what if it was in part also a practical solution to The Omen problem not just a view of conservatism for if the omen can only come about by natural births then cutting out that process traditional reproduction could easily solve that issue indeed the births of the omen could have served to reinforce the conservative ideas on reproduction that the golden order has the omen standing is proof that reproduction is a backwards practice it isn't hard to see that a recycling of life through her tree and her tree burial may feel more pure for those of the golden order as this would not only connect all life through the AR Trey where the dead are buried and recycled as new life through the AR Trey all life being controlled and connected to its Grace we have discussed this on the channel before but in tarnished archaeologist life series they discuss the possibility that people are born from the UR tree as a result of this recycling process we know that arery burial does take place it is mentioned several times and in the catacombs we see bodies being absorbed by these roots and in these very catacombs there are doors on these doors are depictions of arery burial and at the top of these same depictions in the branches of the arery there seems to be pods or people being born from its branches and if you want a more in-depth look at that life cycle I would recommend tarnish archaeologist look at life cycles in the land between the puritanical view that life should be connected through the AR tree and touched by it is of course something we see in the greatest lore item in the game the albor blood clot which reads Alban ORS are life forms made by human hands thus many believe them to live impure lives untouched by the Earth tre's Grace now of course Albin Orcs are very different from the omen no one is claiming that the omen are artificial life forms far from it as we've already seen however what this does highlight is a particular type of hatred a racial Prejudice if you will for beings Untouched by the Earth tre's Grace disconnected from its systems that we've just discussed I believe that this is at the core of what causes a hatred for The Omen yes they are hated for other reasons for their beastial nature and their connections to an earlier more primitive era but what makes them Omen why are they so feared well I do think this is connected to the idea of not being touched by the UR tre's Grace and in fact being very much disconnected from it there is something darker to The Omen that we get glimpses of through small pieces of lore they explore the ideas of soul and a lack thereof of the M begotten and Crucible Knights also receive less than Stellar treatment in the current ERA The Crucible kns once the foremost champions of the ruling order are forgotten and reviled found at the fringes even alongside Miss begotten in some cases the Mis begotten are also treated like dirt a slave class to the point where Edgar castillan of Castle mourn cannot even fathom why his abused slaves would want to rebel against him yet despite these bad treatments of those who are connected to The Crucible there is a special fear reserved for the omen as is suggested by their very name it is Sinister and ominous compared to the title of Miss begotten Which is less about fear and more about othering what the conventional society would see as an odd chaotic and unreformed form of life that is lesser and so I think Hawkshaw put this across very aptly in their video on the perfumers while we may focus on the brutal and unjust way in which the omen are treated which is no doubt horrific we still need to stop and pause to ask a simple question is there something dangerous about the omen and is there some validity to the fear surrounding them that goes beyond this racial Prejudice and I think the answer is yes and is best explored through a certain despicable character so let us now explore the dung eater and the nature of the omen curse the dung eater is a curious fellow so let us break him down because I do believe he is the best vessel through which we can understand the omen condition and the nature of their curse firstly he is one of the tarnished like us and he is listed in the roster of Heroes alongside FIA Gideon ofir and hu and like the others he has granted Grace as we do see an aspect of Grace the little golden light next to each of these Champions most of them have been killed and seem to be resurrected when Grace is granted to them and the fact he has granted Grace is an important point that we will get back to shortly now what is Apparent from his introductory slide is that he is not a very well-liked individual since he is introduced as the loathsome dung eater and In His Image he is hanging from his neck being killed by Society for some crime and Via information that we get from Bogart he seems to have been locked up in a jail at some point and just a side note I believe that he himself has locked himself in his current jail and this is not the one that Boger is referring to but we will get back to that shortly and the more we learn about this in individual it becomes clear why he would be imprisoned and why he would be hanged by a society Boger a criminal himself is absolutely terrified of this man does all sorts of to the corpses to keep him cursed forever I ain't seen nothing more disgusting in all my years I ever been more scared neither rooted to the bloody Spot while he did that to my friend so what does he do to people why is he called the dung eater what her his aims and why is he so feared well the first question why does he do this to people we can get an understanding of some kind of motive from his distinctive armor set which happens to be one of my favorite in any Souls game it is fittingly named The Omen set and has two key bits of lore one from the unique chest piece and one from the rest so first of all let us look at the description of the helmet which reads malformed Helm resembling an omen with its horns cut off worn by the dung eater its form is a vision of the landscape of his mind and of his appearance as he wished to see it the heart of an omen without the body to match could there be any crer existence what does it matter then if the curse claims all and now let us read the chest piece item description so we can unpack all this lore together worn by the dung eater the heavy sun-shaped Medallion represents both the guidance he once saw and the ring to which it will one day lead so in very basic terms it seems as though the dung eater is someone who sees himself as an omen the heart of an omen and that the armor represents his appearance as he wished to see it that he wants to have the appearance of an omen however he is not actually an omen and thus he has fashioned this armor to mimic their form an omen with its horns trimmed to be prise the final sentence of the regular armor item description what does it matter then if the curse claims all seems to be his motivation he is driven mad by the fact that he himself is not an omen despite the fact he feels he is and thus as if to compensate for the fact he is not himself cursed he wishes to spread the curse to all indeed he even curses the golden order the order responsible for the punishment the hunting and imprisonment of omen his people C you golden order one day you'll get what's coming to him the omen curse in The Omen form is a blessing in and passing it to everyone in the world seems to be a singular purpose for the dung eater for when his corporeal form is locked in his jail it is so frustrated that it can't get out and curse people that he repeatedly headbutts the wall letting it knowing his desires to carry on killing and cursing must eat more defile more everything that matters to you for generations to come I am the dong Gator a Scourge upon the living the desire to curse is so much part of his being that it will head but the wall to relieve the frustration of not being able to do it what is interesting is there does seem to be some degree of separation between dung eaters Caporal form and his Phantom form the latter of which being the main way we communicate at with dung eater for One The Phantom form seems more in control and at peace able to sit quietly in Round Table hold and reflect on his plans secondly his Caporal form doesn't even recognize you when you release him despite the fact you have already met his Phantom if I was to speculate on the specifics of what is happening here I would suggest that he can separate himself into a red phantom and in this form he is far more collected and clear of Mind than his more singular minded counterpart and when there is the need for a moment of Peace for time to think on his plans then he locks away his corporeal form while he becomes his Phantom form for it is the Phantom form of the dunger that gives us his own key dunger hates the living and loves the omen curse the helmet is said to reflect the vision of the landscape of his mind and this marries well with the lore found in the chess piece as we have already read The sun-shaped Medallion is supposed to represent both guidance that he has received and the ring to which it will one day lead his ultimate goal now firstly Souls fans will recognize that this sun Medallion is evidently a homage to Dark Souls 1 and Solair of aora where the exact same Sun symbol was used to represent soler's search for his very own son in a way the sun symbol on dung eater's armor represents the same his quest except his son that he will find is actually a mending Rune which will curse order itself specifically the sun is said to represent the ring he saw in some Vision or guidance and funnily enough this isn't the only time this sort of a vision is expressed by a sunlike image indeed someone who has very different names altogether together from dung eater experiences a similar Vision that will also lead to a mending Rune gold mask the enigmatic scholar who is seeking to perfect the golden order experienced a similar Vision as gold mask's mask reads the following a mask designed to resemble a blazing golden Halo it striking design represents both the brilliant inspiration that once Shone upon him and the vision of a ring that he will surely find at the end of his Pursuit these are both individuals that despite being very different in character and aims walk a very similar path both receive a vision of a ring from an outside Source both use a son to represent both that vision and their ultimate aim a mending Rune this of course does lead us to the question why why do both of these vision receive a vision of a mending Rune where does it come from and what connects these two characters so understanding that the sun is meant to represent the Rune The Mending Rune that they both find is fairly easy to understand they are circular and do sort of look like a son but it's also meant to represent the source of this inspiration the guidance that Shone on them this must be from an outside Source something that connected to both these characters to help guide them to their final goals and the only outside source to me that fits the Bell is the greater well it is clear that the greater well does not care which form order takes only that the Elden ring is repaired and again I would recommend ratas or's video on the concept that the greater will doesn't care about what form order takes the greater will has many irons in the fire to repair the world first it put its faith in the demigod s and now that they have failed it puts its faith in the tarnished of all Stripes granting them Grace including dunger as we mentioned before dunger appears to have been given Grace in the opening cinematics this means that the two fingers and the greater will have chosen dung eater for a purpose perhaps in both dung eater and gold mask the greater well saw an opportunity for the Elden ring to be repaired and in New Order to take hold Through The Mending runes that they would create and no matter what we feel about the crimes that the dung eater commits it doesn't really matter to the greater will at the end of the day the dung eater is another tool he will provide a rune that could be used to repair the Elden ring and bring about a new order an order of Despair and while that may seem bad to us at the end of the day the Elden ring is repaired and the greater Wills of Authority is reintroduced and thus I think the greater well chose both gold mask and dung eater in the same way as potential tools to repair the Elden ring just in their own individual ways much like gold mask donger is personally invested in bringing about the future he glimpses in his vision that the greater will gives him a world where the curse is spread everywhere everyone's children and their children's children the order itself is cursed and the fact that this vision is granted to him means that the greater will considers this as a viable possibility for the future and so there's more to the dung eater that meets the eye he is actually a specialist much like gold mask an expert in his area and this of course brings us back to his methodology and why he's so loed and why he is called the dung eater when we find the corpses of those defiled by the dung eater we can already tell that this is a fairly gruesome crime they are usually tied to a chair with blood over their lower half of the body suggesting a sort of torturous process this process is repeatedly referred to as defilement by the dung eater himself I can kill you and defile your corpse then the pox will truly be your own and the term defile is also present in the item description of the seeded curve defile is one of those really powerful words that is excellent in conveying something truly wrong truly perverse in regards to a body which is in this case it is often used in cases of particularly heinous crimes where a body is mutilated after the person's death but the method is so vile and graphic that details are replaced with that singular word that is so effective in conveying a gruesome fate defiled so we get the impression that what dung eater does to the body is so vile so gruesome that the game simply refuses to give us any specific details the horror in bog Art's testimony that we listened to previously really does a fantastic job at hammering home the trauma he is but even witnessing the dunger in action but it is important to remember that dunger gives us the order of how he does things he kills you first and then defiles you so you will be born curse so you die you're murdered your body is defiled and then you are reborn cursed and this is unfortunately the fate of poor Bogart himself I will kill again and defile each corpse with care just to be sure that when they're reborn they'll be cursed but the details of the defilement is something that we are missing and we can get some information on it by looking at the seedbed curse the description of which reads as follows curse groan on a corpse killed and defiled by the dung eater a tender pox Afflicted with Omen horns the dung eater cultivates the seed bed curse on corpses by doing so he prevents dead Souls returning to the Earth tree leaving them cursed forever one of the most loome things found in the lands between so again this has to be one of the most low significant items in the game there's just so much here firstly it links the condition of defilement to The Omen curse due to the omen horns that Sprout from the seed bed and we will return to this later but aside from that it tells us something else dramatic the process by which the dung eer achieves these growths to cultivate these seed beds is by preventing Souls from returning to the ER Trey again relating back to that disconnect between the omen and the UR Trey that they are Untouched by the AR's Grace that I alluded to in the earlier chapter The Taking of a victim's Soul combined with his name dung eater has led to some in the community coming up with a fairly satisfying answer as to exactly what his process is what this defilement is the source for my information on the subject comes from Reddit and unfortunately the original Reddit user has deleted their account so I can't credit them but in an excellent post they tie the dung eater's name and process to Japanese folklore they explained that in some Japanese folklore there is a concept known as the sherco D this is a hard ball found within the back side that contains one soul in this same folklore there are the Kappa a mythical Goblin creature that seek to steal this ball and devour it and so essentially steal the soul this hard ball from the victim's rear end and I don't want to explain it in any more graphic terms in case I get demonetized but to me this is the most satisfying tieing to what we know about the dung eater he takes the soul via the rear end and then devours them hence the dung eater the Soul Eater it would explain his unfortunate title if he is deing eating this soul from the victim's rear end it would be dung eating and it would explain the word defilement and the sheer horror expressed by Bogart this is a pretty horrific sounding process and no wonder it would lead to a society hanging a Madman who was stealing people's souls in this way indeed this would also explain why the blood of the Vic victims that have the seed bed curses on them seem to have their wounds on the lower half of the body to those skeptical about this connection I would also point out that this is not the first time that from software has alluded to this concept and in fact it's actually been done more directly in seiro in seiro there are certain type of spirit enemies known as The Headless and one of their grab attacks involves extracting a hardened Stone from seco's rear and there can be no doubt that this is a soul eating grab attack where the soul is found and pull from SEO behind so it's as if dunger is stealing people's Souls after they are dead and consuming them denying a connection to the Earth tree indeed rodica seems to imply that these Souls the souls that he has devoured are still connected to the dung eater tortured spirits that are denied rest that follow donger around in a Maelstrom the howling and wailing of spirits in fear of the curse I can even hear the repulsive Twisted malice in itself now all of this is interesting especially the mention of souls in the seed bed curse item description because the concept of a soul isn't mentioned much at all in Elden ring compared to Dark Souls or demon souls and yet it is used repeatedly in the story of the dung eater the resulting removal of a soul from a human in this manner results in these seed beds seed beds that have Omen horns growing from it a seed bed literally means a bed from which things grow or germinate so from a soulless corpse the dung eater literally cultivates a little bit of the omen curse directly tying The Omen condition to the idea of soullessness and this process done by the dung eater yet this is a drop in the ocean ultimately dung eater is one man in his labor would take Generations if he was to spread it manually to everyone in the world upon his defeat at our hands he eventually realizes that the guidance he received is the ultimate answer to his quest and that he is not just to do the dung eating anymore but in fact his flesh is to become the vessel for these seed bed curses that will eventually germinate something that will curse order itself there you are you warded off my blessing despite the curse stirring within you no one has succeeded in that before how I thought then it hit me that you are in fact me and I I'm the dong eator it is My Flesh that must receive the blessing Give Me Your Blessing defile my flesh with the Sade bed curse again and again until it is done until a cursed ring Coes the May one day def fall order itself countless I have killed and countless I have defiled and soon the fruits will be borne hundreds will be reborn cursed and they'll bear thousands of cursed children who bear tens of thousands more a few of those will be born just like me and they'll kill and defile and bless in my stead the rotten fools my fight was the grandest most brilliant of them all he will no longer be an instrument of the defilement rather The Vessel for it his body is now to be defiled and the result will be a more Cosmic and wide reaching curse that will be just stated within him that will spread his curse throughout all of order however we will return to the dung eater and his mending Rune at the conclusion of this video but for now I want to return to the omen and the matter of their soul or a lack of it now we spoke about the omen and their physical form before but we didn't speak about their power for there is a power to the omen and their confinement isn't just one of prejudice though that certainly does play A Part as we have already discussed both moreo and Moog have power within their blood moog's power seems to have been intensified by his contact with the formless mother and his blood being ignited and the power of more goats cursed blood is on Unleashed when we push him to the brink during the battle for the Elden throne in Haw Shaw's perfumer lore video they make the great point that there seems to be a relation between the omen horns and the power of the omen specifically Omen horns grow in the seeded curse implying that these horns are directly tied to the curse itself and more importantly it is only horned Omens that can utilize the more advanced powers those with trended horns are reliant on their Brute Force only when I talk about Powers I'm referring to the Regal Omens the horned Omens ability to breathe curse Fire release their curse in a bombardment and wreath their swords in this brown black Omen flame this is an ability not used by the trimmed Omen suggesting the power of the curse itself is connected to the omen horns that they are are a manifestation and a Nexus of this curse and its power hence the presence of these horns on the seed bed curses now the color of these Powers is fairly unique and it shares a similar Hue with the death hex Magics with a black core only it has a golden brown glow to it rather than the white blue of death hexes the Black core of it does suggest a connection to the element of death which makes sense if we consider that the omen may be soulless and there is certainly more to suggest a connection here when you enter Godwin's dream you see a unique Sky Box that is not seen anywhere else that is obviously meant to reflect the lifeless curse eating away at the inside of him the life within death within him however there is somewhere else we see a similar Skybox and this is in the age of Despair ending The Omen curse ending perhaps this is just a re of assets and I am looking too closely into this however it could be a reflection of the similarities between these two states of being both our beings are unable to die properly and return to the Earth tree but that is just speculation and the connection is up to you to decide what is more interesting however is that the color of the omen flame is identical in color to the powers used by The Wraith callers and the revenants as well as the same color as their portals that both The Wraith callers and revenants Spawn from The Wraith callers are the hunched over beings who ring the bells that fire cursed projectiles at us and their Bell The Wraith colar Bell reads the following bell used by worshippers of revenant wraiths are said to be the vengeful spirits of those who died when cursed interesting isn't it we've talked about beings that die when they're cursed and that they are disconnected from the UR tree that their souls are prevented from returning to the UR Trey and these brown black projectiles summoned by The Wraith callers seem to be wraiths the spirits of those who have died cursed and are unable to move on and are now manipulated by these wraith cerss and these same Powers produced by The Wraith collar bells that are fired at us as well as the effect when revenants are summoned are the same Powers produced by The Omen Bears and the Omens The Omen Bears also describe these projectiles as wraiths and when you use the spirit Color Bell to summon these wraiths it is the same black brown projectiles that the omen use and this leads us to conclude that the powers that the omen themselves tap into is similar to these wraith colar Bells I.E they are manipulating Wraith these lost cursed Souls they somehow have a connection and are able to manipulate cursed Souls the Royal revenants the most annoying enemies in the game are also described as cursed by their Associated note and while we may speculate on how their grafted form came to be it is clear that the Royal revenants are cursed soulless beings and it is fascinating to tie The Wraith callers the revenants and The Omen together not only by the color of the magic associated with them but also with the term cursed so I do think it's clear that the omen and those cursed exist in a state of unrest Souls UNR returned to the Earth tree that are denied a proper afterlife a proper death and this horrible state of cursed life is no doubt what awaits those who meet the dung eater and his defilement and perhaps it is this intrinsic link between the The Omen and the cursed spirits that allow them to tap in and summon these cursed wraiths perhaps they are able to call on the Restless Souls that have been touched by their curse and unleash them in an aggressive fashion rodor Rica senses a melstrom of restless Spirits surrounding the dungar perhaps The Omen too are connected in a way to those that are cursed that they are all connected together somehow indeed we do get an inkling that the omen are in fact haunted by these Restless cursed Spirits The Omen smirk mask reads the following Bears the smirking face of an elder Twisted in Wicked Delight this Visage is carved in the image of the evil spirits that haunt The Omen in their nightmares indeed whenever we see Omen sleeping we do see that it is a fitess Restless sleep and I have long pondered what the spirits mentioned in the omen smart mask are but having now realized the connection of the spirits to the wraiths of The Wraith callers and the dialogues of rodor Rica describing a melstrom of restless Souls I believe that the spirits that haunt The Omen are very much the same as the spirits of those who died when cursed these wraiths that can be manipulated as the brown black energy via the omen themselves I would suggest that the omen being cursed beings are connected to to these cursed Spirits there is an intrinsic link that is why they are able to manipulate their powers but it is also why they are haunted by these same Spirits I have always found it interesting that when we fight The Omen du on the outskirts of Le Andale that we are pulled into an abyss like Arena after reaching the corpse of a lale soldier perhaps this is the corpse of a cursed person who died and thus is a sort of trap set up by these Omen dual and that they spread the curse to his body on purpose and we are pulled into this trap into this in between space this Abyss where the cursed live we are of course veering dangerously into wild speculation territory but I do believe that the omen intrinsic link to this curs realm could be the explanation for this Abyss Arena the curse of the omen is real it is a state of soullessness and we learn this via the dung eater who seeks to recreate the curse by disconnecting people and their souls from the earth tree the cursed are those that are restless denied a final death and the cursed will never rest and they are angry and vengeful they can either be used as Weapons by The Omen who can redirect the eye of their cursed Brethren towards their enemies or they will haunt The Omen themselves angry that they are denied their rest one needs only look at the revenants to see that a cursed existence is one that does not bear thinking about never mind the poor spirits that follow the horrendous dunger around like a melstrom tied to this monstrous murderer denied proper sleep this is of course pretty terrifying and I had long assumed that the treatment of the omen was mainly born of prejudice of the golden order and this certainly will still play a role but there is a real danger and threat to their curse no one wants to be soulless no one wants to end up like a royal Revenant so Props the Haw Shaw for stimulating the discussion on the omen and making me reassess their position and their curse itself but this will of course leave us with a massive question We Now understand that being cursed is having your soul taken and being denied returning to the UR tree that you exist in an inet State as an angry Spirit denied a true death and a true afterlife but how and what has it got to do with The Crucible well I would like to suggest a pretty simple answer an aam's razor if you will if the omen are touched by The Crucible connected to it then they simply aren't connected to the her tree and an era where the UR tree is the Nexus of life and death The Omen find themselves outside this order connected to a power that has long passed it is a very similar position to those who live in death beings who simply fall outside the current order of the earth tree the life cycle of UR Tre burial and death and simply cannot find Death The Omen are from an era where death was very different before death was confined by the golden order there was normal death and perhaps The Omen being connected to the age of the crisal just don't fit within the urry ideas of life and death like those who live in death they simply fall between the cracks of the golden ord's refined logic unable to die and unable to return to the arery as they are not connected to it they are cursed and thus The Omen state of being is Simply Having a soul that isn't connected to the systems of the UR tree and this is the process and state of being that the dung eater seems to want to recreate artificially by deving The Souls of those he slays so they too don't return into the a tree and in a way become Omen become cursed and with that said I now want to talk about the treatment of the omen at the hand of the golden order before finally returning to the dung eater and the conclusion of his story as I have just mentioned my re-examination of the omen curse was spurred on by hawk Shaw's accent video on the perfumers in which they present a fascinating theory on how the persecution and hunting of the The Omen began and how it relates to the history and development of the perfumers and The Omen Killers this theory is generally anchored by two key items perfumer Trisha's ashes and The Omen smirk mask I of course want to reiterate that what follows is just a theory but it is one that I found extremely compelling in perfumer Tricia we find at least one perfumer who was trying to help the omen not hunt them and Hawkshaw suggests that this should not be seen as an isolated case but instead illustrates what might have been the initial response by the apothecaries of the capital viewing the omen condition as a sickness to be cured and initially The Omen as their patients Hawkshaw suggests that perhaps the knowledge about spirits that haunt The Omen described by The Omen smirk mask was discovered as part of ongoing treatment that the omen may have conveyed this as a symptom a discussion between patient and doctor after all the first of the omen Killers was a perfumer Rolo and how else would he have the knowledge to craft the omen smirk mask how would he know about these Spirits unless he or some of his Brethren had dialogued with the omen and while we may initially view the omen Killers as psychotic fiends the details of Rolo himself paint a rather different picture Rolo's ashes read as follow Spirit of Rolo known as the first Omen killer once a famous perfumer Rolo emed a physic to rid himself of emotion thus enabling him to enact his nightmarish labor hunting The Omen so actually quite far removed from a coldblooded killer Rolo actually needed to take an emotion removing potion so he could do what needed to be done the description even refers to it as a nightmarish lady nebor far from what we'd expect for a merciless killer who takes a joy in his work Hawkshaw even suggests that their appearance the appearance of the omen Killers with an apron and massive Cleavers is akin to a butcher with the killing of these Omen not a pleasure but rather a labor undertaken by a professional indeed the word butcher is used in the description of the omen killer robe and this also does seem to be an accurate assessment by Hawkshaw because Loki translates the Ki for killer in the name Omen killer as butcher or slaughterer the impression that this all gives to me is one of a doctor seeing a disease that cannot be cured and must be excised doing what needs to be done despite how horrific the task may be so I think this suggestion of a doctor patient relationship existing prior to the emergence of omen killers between perfumers and Omen is a pretty solid one as it would explain a few other things as we've discussed it would explain how the omen Killers know about the spirits that haunt The Omen secondly The Cutting of omen horns perhaps this is a surgical procedure as we have already discussed this does actually seem to have a practical effect as it curtails the powers of the omen a determination that may well have been discovered during during the course of treatment and the works of the perfumers to try and cure The Omen however as trius ashes suggest there is no cure and the best that she and others of her kind can do is help the omen pass peacefully with this and everything else we' have seen about the omen Killers The Narrative suggested would be this the perfumers started to treat the omen they cut their horns to try and reduce the effects of the omen curse and they learned about the spirits but eventually it was determined that this was not just a illness it was in fact a permanent condition and so the answer to the omen question was divided as The Omen are actually dangerous as we have looked at throughout this video no one wants to die soulless no one wants to become cursed and so those who had the stomach for it followed en rollo's footsteps enacting a great Slaughter seeing it as the only permanent and true solution to this condition it seems that the establishment took a Less Direct but no less cruel route those who were born Omen of common blood would have their horns excise in a brutal surgery and this would either curb their powers or kill them completely either way it was a good outcome for the establishment those lucky enough to survive would be indentured and collored and used to shot troops with even their swords being Charmed to disintegrate another method of control so that once the omen were used up in battle they would disarm themselves yet this of course presented somewhat of a dilemma for the Royal household as they had their own children that would begin to be born with the omen curse and of course the royal family couldn't risk their progeny being killed in the brutal excising of their horns and so they would be imprisoned a half measure that would preserve the guilt of killing their own Royal progeny but would also keep the woman out of Harm's Way We Know from the Regal Omen bars that this was a process done unbeknownst to anyone and the memorial fetishes were carved in secret these imprisonments were done in secret to hide the hypocrisy of the royal family that their children wouldn't be subject to the same brutal treatment of regular Omen that they got special treatment and were allowed to live and ultimately while this may assuage the guilt of the Royal Family that their kin's blood was not in their hand this was cold comfort for those who were actually imprisoned they were forced to live in sewers like beasts more goat and MOG were given shackles as if Extra Care was made that these two would not Escape I think it is barly clear that the hatred for the omen will certainly have happened in the age of the Earth treat the scale not and feather talsman make it clear that the omen were in fact Divine back in the time of The Crucible and if my about their condition is correct I believe that their curse a curse which prevents true Soul death would not have been a thing back in The Crucible era an era where death was not yet confined and people could die normally indeed Godfrey's reverential treatment of morot stands out aside from trissia there's no one else we see give such kind treatment to an noren but it again fits with everything we know about these characters because Godfrey is a Man Of The Crucible he thrived with his Warriors in that more beastial era and thus certainly wouldn't have seen the omen in the same way that the modern adherence of the golden order do and as a result we see a touching scene of a man putting his son to rest despite his condition but is there hope for the omen this brings us back to the ultimate fate of the omen The Mending Rune and the dun eer while very different in presentation I see dung eater's Quest as analogous to fears and what fear does for those who live in death dung eater can do for the omen people both of these characters represent groups that fall outside the current orders both are groups of restless Spirits disconnected from the UR Trey denied proper rest both of these groups are unrepresented by the current order and both are hunted by the golden order and thus both of The Mending runes seem to want to incorporate these Outsider groups into a new order a new order that will put them at the Forefront in both cases I do not believe that this mending Rune will cure their condition it will not cure those who live in death With The Mending Rune of the death Prince nor will The Omen be cured with The Mending Rune of the fail curse rather it will make their conditions the new order for example in the case of The Mending Rune of the death Prince it reads as follows formed of the two Hall brand half wheels combined it will embed the principle of life within death into order it will embed the principle of life within death not that it will restore mortality or death as it was before rather this age of the dustborne is the age of life within death and the Prince of death the concept of life within death is embedded into the new order as it is now with that said let us look at The Mending Rune of the fail Omen and how this ring comes to be we had discussed previously the dong eater realized that he was to be the vessel for a new blessing of Despair that this was the vision that was granted to him and so he urges the player to feed him the seedbed curses that have grown upon his victims to inflict his body with defilement what is interesting is that when the dung eater decides upon this path and begins to formulate the birth of his mending Rune the birth of a new order the spirits around him the cursed Spirits seem to conform to this new order as rodor Rica comments on the melstrom that she had sensed previously and specifically this dialogue does not come about until the dung eater has formulated his plan to become the vessel for The Mending Rune of the fell Omen she says the following I can hear them the spirits as they howl and lament in fear of the curse and worse than ever the reverberations of the Twisted malison itself but after all this time I've started to grasp it now I can hear in the malison another fearsome order after we fed him five seed bed curses the Dy seems to reach a critical point where the cursed material inside of him like a formula within a test tube reaches a saturation point the dong eater is killed and from his body is formed The Mending Rune of the fail curse only sit upon them a curs blessings to war this is a new Rune literally made of the curse itself formed from the cursed Souls that the dung eater has spread throughout his life it is Curse distilled the Rune itself so saturated that even this eldrich object has horns protruding from it Omen horns in the form of a rune the item itself reads the following the reveiled curse will last eternally and the world's children grandchildren and every generation hence will be its pules if order is defiled entirely defilement is defilement no more and for Every curse a cursed blessing so I think the effect is quite clear order itself will be cursed when the Elden ring is repaired with this Rune the Rune itself will corrupt the the Elden ring and the curse will spread out into the world the Elden ring governs the rules and laws of this universe and so if it itself is defiled by the curse it makes a sort of sense that the curse will permeate all life and every generation hence everyone will be born cursed up until this point the dunger has been spreading the curse the good oldfashioned way one murder at a time hoping he could spread it far enough that more and more children would be born cursed and it would become exponential however the realization that he came to the epiphany of how he could achieve this Vision set out to him was why not tackle the issue at the source if order itself is defiled then defilement will become order itself spreading to every life form uniformly we looked at the Dong's armor description before he was guided to this conclusion to this final goal the greater will considers this to be a victory and while we may consider this to be a vile outcome all the greater will sees is a new order established and its Elden ring restored through the hard work of the dung eater to us the donger may be a murderer but to The Omen people he is a hero he cares about their condition he wants to be one of them even as he's tied to the chair taking the curse himself going through unimaginable pain he utters a curse to the golden order it will get what's coming to it no doubt this is Vengeance Vengeance for the omen people and in a way it is a satisfying conclusion the golden order mercilessly treated these people and here we have the dung eater sacrificing himself so that they may be ascended and while we've pointed out the dangers of the omen curse and what it represents does it really matter if everyone is cursed if the omen becomes order itself the shattering war broke any hope that one of the demig Gods could rise to Elden Lord and repair the order of the world those few that do survive the shattering War are broken malformed or simply unfit pursuing mad schemes that will never come to fruition the greater will has disowned the squabbling half gods and bids us to take their heads in arquest to become Elden Lord yet there is one demig God who stands Above the Rest one demig God Who Rose from the sewers to become the king of Lindell itself morot the veiled Monarch rules from the Shadows but when necessary will take to the field as his violent Alter Ego marget alongside his Knight's Cavalry marget the fail has gained notoriety on the the battlefield hunting those who would seek the throne hunting down Champions with an almost demonic ferocity there is no doubt that the only reason lell still stands is because of the veiled Monarch a fascinating and complex character who has absolutely no reason to love lell and its people and yet has emerged as its greatest Defender but why did morgot not become Elden Lord why is he Grace given and why does he appear to be empowered by the formless mother in our final battle I will attempt to answer such questions and so in this lore video we will be doing a full exploration of morot his Origins his rise to power his incredible abilities his Omen blood and what the formless mother has to do with the omen in general at this stage I would like to thank Miro translator for saac noo and Loki author of abysal archive for providing their translations and insights throughout this video as I discussed in my Omen curse video which I will link below the omen are not their own species rather they are humans Afflicted with the omen curse and Loki has been kind enough to provide translations and insights on this particular subject on the original Japanese used for Omen they had the following to say most Omen are an omen child which would typically refer to an unwanted kid adjective meaning unlucky aboard taboo Etc these are unwanted and discarded children children of both regular human variety and those who belong to the royal family a fact illustrated by The Omen and Regal Omen bar this curse afflicts all no matter if they are royal or common and the fate of being born in Omen is a tragedy and in a way you are already considered dead especially when you consider that these model Bears these Stone carvings of omen children are based on the real life jizu These are stone statues that play a role in the practice of mizuko kuyu or water child memorial service in which jizu are carved to memorialize a child who died as a result of miscarriage or other means the implication of carving this for the omen is pretty telling being born an omen you are already considered dead and indeed this does make sense when you consider the fate of an omen if you are a commoner you will likely die in the brutal force surgery of having your horns cut and even if you do survive you will be Chained and sent to the front lines of War if you are of Royal Blood then you're treat treatment is not much better as we learn via the Regal Omen bar as a royal Omen you are spared the brutal horn surgery but instead you are sent to the shunning grounds in secret so no one even knows that you exist and you may as well be dead and so it is that the omen of Royal lineage populate the Subterranean shunning grounds this would be the fate of the twin brothers MOG and morgot who we know are twins thanks to M's great Rune while the other Royal Omen found in the sewers may be connected to royalty as distant descendants or minor nobility mgan morgot are specifically of the golden order of the royal family as morgot great Rune reads this great Rune is the anchor ring that houses the base and proves two things that the omen King was born of the golden lineage and that he was indeed the Lord of L Dell and indeed it is heavily implied that they aren't just distant descendants of Godfrey America rather they are direct offspring of Amica and Godfrey given the recognition that Godfrey has for morot who he hasn't seen for a long time it's been a long while morot perhaps it was their importance that potential embarrassment that they could cause to the Royal Family itself that led to both morgot and Moog to be Shackled as an extra measure by magical fetishes as we learn from the items themselves these are special precautions for marget and Moog in particular however there is a Nuance about Moog and mor Go's early life that I have always wondered and that is were they immediately placed here the moment they were born in the shunning grounds or did they want once live amongst Godfrey and the other Royals before they were persecuted the fact that more God's remembrance can be used to create the Regal Omen bar suggests that this was a bar carved for him in particular implying that he was a child when he was placed below ground as this child statue is meant to memorialize him however let me offer an alternative more nuanced Theory and a theory it is nonetheless so bear that in mind that morgot spent some of his early childhood in the capital before being placed below ground when the persecution of the omen began for example I find it interesting that Godfrey has a reverential treatment of his son that there is some kind of relationship there a bond that wouldn't feel as meaningful if they hadn't had time to build up a relationship without more God having once existed above ground as a normal Royal child there's also the Godfree Phantom that we fight on our way to meet more God this Phantom uses the same Crucible emblem when it is summoned as the market projections in Altus Plateau they both share the same symbol for Crucible Miracles and given more Gods clear use of golden Miracles such as his weapons and the marget manifestations I think it is easy for us to conclude that morot summoned this Godfree Phantom as one final barrier between us and the Elden throne and so if we accept that this Phantom is something conjured by more got how is he able to do so if he had no memories of his father if he was placed in the sewers immediately upon being born he wouldn't even know his father's phase do you remember anything from your early infancy I reckon it would be hard for for him to form a Godfrey Spectre that moves and fights exactly like his father had he not spent some time with Godfrey a fate that would have been very difficult for someone placed in the sewers upon his infancy aside from this morgot and MOG are extremely intelligent and well spoken something I would imagine would be hard to develop had they Liv their entire lives underground in a sewer indeed the other Regal Omen we find in the shunning grounds seem far more beastial than M and more go and I would have expected the twins to be similar had they lived their entire lives in this sewer and so if the omen are so hated and reviled how would my speculative Theory be possible well we have to remember that while the omen are the omen now despised and reviled at one stage their forms were seen as the opposite as Divine we learn of the divine nature of their forms via the not Talisman an item dropped by an omen killer no less and is no doubt a reference to the Bony knots that form the base of omen horns in the time of The Crucible such fidal growths like those seen on The Omen and the Mis begotten were seen as Divine which makes sense given they were Touched By The Crucible which at that stage was the center of worship not the Earth tree it was only as civilization advanced in the time of the UR tree that the omen would become disdained as the ideas of refinement and geniality became the ideal St contrast to the forms of the omen if the omen were accepted in the crisal era the era that immediately preceded the time of the ER tree there must have been a period of overlap where they were still accepted in the early age of Le andell I think think we see this transformation through Godfrey himself who vowed to conduct himself as a lord in keeping with the new ideas of civilization a transition from a bloodthirsty Warrior of The Crucible to a noble and defined lord of the age of the Earth tree such ideas do not happen overnight we are talking about the evolution of a society's morals and ideals after all the cible kns themselves May well help indicate how long it took for these new ideals to emerge The Crucible Knights were once the greatest heroes of the ruling orders armies however as the urry ideas of civilization and geniality advanced their time would come too as The Crucible gauntlets read in time the strength shown by these Knights and even their appearance was seen as chaotic and deserving of scorn in Time s suggesting that over time there was an overlap where ideals of The Crucible were still held but in time these were pushed to the fringes to the extreme point where Crucible Knights themselves were actually deserving of scorn and the reason that The Crucible Knights are hated is mainly the reason that the omen are hated as well if you replace the word knights with Omen in The Crucible gauntlets it could definitely apply to the omen and the changing ideals around them my point is is that surely The Omen were not immediately slapped in Chains the moment the UR tree emerged Rome was not built in a day and we can assume that the ideals of The Crucible will have overlapped into the Early times of the UR Trey and certainly in the early reign of Godfrey in am when morgot and MOG were likely born and if morgot lived as a child in the early age of the arery it would provide him with an opportunity for him to gain a love for it his remembrance makes it clear that his love for the Earth tree is one of his defining features and I think it's more likely that he would have developed a love for the Ury had he lived in early erery Society amongst people who worshiped its Glory aside from all this speculation we can look at the archaeological evidence so to speak of the shunning grounds themselves the shunning grounds are basically the sewers of lell rather than a purpose-made prison this suggests that the sewers and thus the city of lell must have been in existence when the omen were first imprisoned that Lanell precedes the subjugation of the omen because surely if the omen had been hated while lale was being built or before it was built there would have been a purpose made prison for them instead the picture that is painted in my opinion is that this city and culture developed without the hatred for the omen and it was something that came about later and thus the Regal Omen were hastily thrown into the sewers a makeshift prison for a city that had long been built years ago with all that speculation said morgot is the veiled Monarch in Feud with his and M's true identity ofir describes Moog as the one only known as the Lord of blood and so if my theory is correct then they wouldn't have lived long on the surface otherwise everyone would know who they are ultimately this is all just speculation on my part and Moran morot may very well been placed in the underground as a child much like the rest of the Regal Omen and the Very fact few know their identities would certainly support this View and I do leave it up to you to decide your own narrative whether they were placed in here as newborn or if they live some kind of life on the surface before their imprisonment the greatest lore item in the game the aloric blood clot tells us that any life form that was not touched by the ary's grace is seen as impure and The Omen would certainly fall under that category the remembrance of the omen King reinforces the om's disconnect from the world of Grace by calling the omen graceless and one only needs see the treatment of the alinor and the tarnished to see what being graceless will earn you in the earth tree era I've already covered in depth the nature of the omen curse in my Omen curse lore video and this video is more a profile piece on more got himself so if you are interested on the omen condition and its nuances I would recommend that video which I will link below but in that video we highlighted the actions of the dung eater who spreads the curse that is connected to the omen condition and his quest and his actions are great at illustrating why the omen are seen as graceless the seedbed that is cultivated on the corpses of those he defiles tells us that to be cursed to be connected to the fail curse of the omen is to be denied returning to the UR Trey upon death again reinforcing the om's graceless nature and how they fall outside the current system this of course gives G significance to the title Grace given that morot would earn in time through his defense of the earth tree and the world of Grace despite his graceless Birthright with no cure The Omen were either hunted forced into a brutal life-threatening surgery or throwing away into the shunning grounds out of sight out of mind and never to be remembered and it is to the dark damp depths of the shunning grounds that we turn to next so it is in these dark dank tunnels that morot and MOG would spend a good portion of their life despite their Regal Heritage their jailers would even go as far to Shackle these to and this makes sense given their power and intelligence it would be easy for them to escape there are a couple of interesting lore nuggets found in these shackles so let us read the description of margot's shackle now which which reads a fetish bathed in golden magic shackles were used to bind the our csed people called The Omen and these ones were made to keep a particular Omen under the strictest confinement though faint the shackle still retain vestages of power enough to trap the once bound marget on Earth if only for a short time so these shackles aren't made of metal or chains rather it is a magical fetish imbued with golden magic which makes sense given it is the order of Grace who has imprisoned them what I also find interesting is that the emblem manifested when we activate the shackle ourselves takes the form of a tree symbol that is something between The Crucible symbol and the Earth tree symbol and as far as I can see it this could mean two different things one it is a crucible esque symbol that is meant to denote The Omen specifically number two The Omen were imprisoned in the early era of the earth tree and the magic dates from this period and this symbol is representative of that period predating both the her tree and golden order magical emblems what's interesting is that the way the emblem appears when we use the shackle is very similar to the projections that happen when marget and the Godfrey Phantom appear at certain locations throughout the lands between as I've already discussed in the previous chapter this suggests to me that the source of more God's power and his ability to project his marget Persona and to summon this Godfree Phantom is also a form of golden magic as this is what's described in maret's shackle and so it's a very useful lore item as it simultaneously provides an insight into what more God's Powers actually are returning to the subject at hand it is brutal to think of these two Brothers scratching out a living here these shunning GRS themselves clearly aren't a purpose-made crash for the omen these are the sewers of lendell a real sign of how little regard is given to the omen people they are considered no better than waste than the rats that share the tunnels with them and compounded with the ishes that the omen condition brings this is a horrifying existence for anyone we could get further insight into how little regard the world of Grace have for the omen through a cut NPC known as VI count Shan heit this VI count would have been a Noble in alter's plateau and would have given us Quest that related to the extermination of the omen so he could get an audience with the veiled Monarch who he doesn't know to be an omen VI count shenhai represents all the hotess of the world of Grace and how they look down on those who are without Grace like the tarnished and The Omen before we discuss the relevant dialogue the usual warning for cut content applies here cut content is not to be considered Cannon rather it can be used to see the intention behind certain areas of lore throughout development especially where it doesn't clash with what's currently in the game in this case I feel the cut content does fit nicely with what we know in the lore as it is in game and so I think we can safely consider it in our analysis of the omen however do take it with a pinch of salt and this warning does apply for all the times I will mention the vi count throughout this video so he would have said the following on the Regal Omen found in the shunning grounds the under capital is a repository of waste for ages it's teamed with repulsive Omen fings even who have never lost a horn and what's worse they've taken to bellowing in a most blood curdling manner you can hear it all the way up here a vile ceaseless AR front to the Earth Tre sanctity so even before we got this dialogue it is heavily implied that those of Grace see the omen as lesser and even vile beings but here it is from the horse's mouth so to speak interestingly he also mentions how The Omen Bellow and while this is an irritation to the hotty Viking is of course a testament to the horrendous conditions that the omen find themselves in these Bellows are one of pain and suffering we can get an Insight on how the omen condition itself and the afflictions associated with it would have compounded how horrendous these years would have been for the twins via the cursed blood pot which reads as follows throw at enemies to dowe them in a cursed blood causing someon spirit to assale them with rabid fervor a childhood memory of the Lord of blood now the accursed blood contained within this pot is obviously Omen blood as Omen blood is referred to interchangeably with the term a cursed such as in Mor God's sword now if you've never used one of these cursed blood pots what it actually does in game is essentially paint a target for your Ash Spirit summons so if you hit a target with this pot all of your summon eyes will go red and they will all aggressively attack that particular enemy so we can see that the omen blood the accursed blood in the pot sends Restless Spirits into a frenzy and this reminds us of the description of the omen smirk Mask two item descriptions relating to the omen and two mentions of spirits it is obviously connected clearly these Spirits never let the Omen rest even for a minute MOG has memories of being pursued by said Spirits because of his Omen blood and The Omen smirk mask tells us that the omen are haunted in their dreams by these very spirits and indeed we do see the omen having fitful sleeps in the few occasions that they are asleep in the lands between and given M and morgot or of the omen condition we can safely assume that the twins suffered these same afflictions and that more God will have experienced what M did in his childhood memories in my Omen curse L video I suggested that these Spirits mentioned by The Omen smk mask are those that have died while Afflicted with the fail curse we have already seen through the seedbed curse and the actions of the dung eater that those who are touched by the curse are unable to return to the ER tree suggesting a state of restlessness but more importantly there is the evidence provided by The Wraith cers who use a brown black projectile that is identical to the brown black projectiles used by The Omen including by morot himself in the final stages of his battle the item that these wraith callers use to manipulate these projectiles is The Wraith CER Bell and The Wraith collar Bell describes these projectiles as wraiths of those who have died cursed and given the omen can also manipulate these same powers powers that are also Unleashed by The Omen bars it is a fair conclusion that these wraiths are those who die from The Omen curse and they are connected to the omen who can manipulate them freely without the use of a wraith collar Bell the connection between these cursed spirits and The Omen condition is reinforced by the description of this cursed blood pot it works specifically by spilling a cursed blood Omen Blood on the victim and then the spirits are drawn to the victim like a moth to a flame as if they believe the victim is of omen blood this tells us so much about the relationship between the cursed spirits and The Omen though admittedly the cursed blood pop manipulates different Spirits from the wraiths of The Wraith colar Bell and The Omen type Magic in this case the accursed blood affects those spirits that still dwell in Ash but in a way these Ash and Spirits are in the same position as the wraiths described by The Wraith collar Bell anyway they are restless Spirits UNR returned to the Earth tree and so the cursed blood pot suggests the omen and The Omen blood has a connection to all Restless spirits that it angers them as if the omen are to blame for their Restless condition but that is just my speculation of course and it reinforces the idea that the omen are connected intrinsically to the spirits of the curs down to their very blood and that those of omen blood must be surrounded by these spirits and haunted by them every waking minute and every sleeping minute as well this paints a pretty Grim picture of the tormented existence of being an omen and the Regal Omen that we find in the sewers are little more than than rabid beasts having known no better than this rancid Meer and being driven mad by the spirits this traumatizing experience years of being locked in a sewer by your own kind and then being haunted by the spirits every moment of every day is what made the twins what they are in this current age and it is more understandable therefore the Hang-Ups that both of these extreme characters have the incredible resolve and strength it would have to overcome these burdens the burdens of being cursed while simultaneously being Shackled In a sewer is absolutely incredible and it is therefore no surprise that both of them cling to pretty extreme ideals but it is no doubt clinging to these ideals that have allowed them to rise above their pre-ordained fate and become something much more real forces to be reckoned with that stand High amongst the other Demi gods and it is clear that Mo and morot are two of the most powerful demig gods in existence and while the omen curse may have affected them psychologically it is clear that the omen form does come with a lot of powers both physical and otherwise we learn via the blood bone incantation that Moog would eventually accept his Omen condition and in fact Revel in it after communion with the formless mother spitting at the gold order by learning to love his accursed blood and turning away from their teachings in fact he would go on and build a dynasty connected by his accursed blood I do have a complete video on M Lord of blood and so if you're interested in a deep analysis of his story I would recommend that video however the reason for me highlighting M's ultimate Revelation here in this video is to highlight the dichotomy of their characters because it is no surprise as we have discussed that both characters became extremists to deal with their condition and their upbringing it's just that they both went in completely opposite directions two extreme ends of the same spectrum and as far as I could see it there are three ways that the twins could have gone one they could have been completely broken becoming a gibbering beast broken by their condition and by their stract confinement then there was was the second reaction which is what M had essentially a rebellion of everything they had been taught where he rejected the condemnation of his jailers accepted what he was and made it his strength and built a dynasty upon it admittedly while being helped Along by a powerful outer God then there was the third option and this is the option that morot chose where he embraced the ideals of his abusers that the world of Grace was divine and he was graceless and instead of hating them for it he accepted it and made it his priority to defend what he believed to be divine even if that meant accepting that he was lesser yet in more God's mind upon accepting that he evidently didn't believe that he should be imprisoned forever that in fact he had a lot to give to the world of Grace and that by proving his value Valor and strength to the world of Grace he could become Grace given despite his very nature and this is the confusing and fascinating dichotomy of more God that while he sees his flesh his blood as lesser he is still very proud and does clearly see himself as the most worthy to lead the world of Grace and those of L Dell following the shattering proudly calling himself last of all Kings so while this may seem seem like a sort of Stockholm syndrome at first and there is certainly an element of that to it there is a Nuance to his character physically morot hated himself and shared the utter disgust for his blood that the world of Grace did and this is evidence in the second stage of his fight with us when the pressures of the fight lead him to release his Omen blood all over the Thrones of the demigods the Thrones stained by my curse such shame I cannot bear thy part in this shall not be forgiven we have already seen how Omen blood seems to be core of Who The Omen are they are intrinsically linked to the spirits that haunt them through their blood they are linked to the curse through their blood and if morot kills Us in the second stage of his fight he spitefully hopes that his Omen blood will seep into our body again reinforcing its connection to the curse and these ideas will only be reinforced when we look at the formless mother in the Final Chapter and so it makes a bit more sense the actions that morot took in regards to his blood and we learn of this via his cursed sword item description which reads warped blade of Shifting Hue used by morot The Omen King the our csed blood that more got recanted and sailed away reformed into this blade so not only does the blade make a deadly weapon that he can use an extremist but it's almost as if it makes more got feel better that less of his Omen blood is in his body that by draining it out of his body and into this blade he is lessening the curse within him he is lessening his despised form and just a quick side note on the shifting Hue of the blade Hawkshaw did a really great video on the colors found in Elden ring and I highly recommend you check that out in that video he describes how each color within Elden ring is assigned to a different theme and as such the shifting Hue of Mor God's blade to me is a reflection of the om's connection to The Crucible the Earth tree era the age of Grace is an age of refinement and regression whereas the Crucible was an age of chaotic vital energies that were all Blended together and in more God's blade we see all colors Blended together that's just my two cents in short morot has learned to accept the odor of Gold's view on his condition that he is impure that he is graceless and rather rebelling against such notion like Moog he instead sees it as an obstacle to be overcome and it doesn't stop him from from being as prideful as any other king and he clearly sees himself as the right man to lead the world of Grace despite his condition he is the most worthy and he certainly isn't Paralyzed by his self-hate and so with that said it's time to move the narrative forward and let's talk about Mor God's rise to power from sewers to kingship there is of course no direct mention of when Mo or Mor God were able to escape their confinement of the shunning grounds but clearly they did as they are no longer there and in fact are pursuing their own agendas on the surface but I think we can make a fairly obvious educated guess that it most likely happened following the destruction of the archery and the subsequent collapse of the golden order with the destruction of this powerful artifact both Mara and Radigan are gravely wounded as we see from the story trailer their body actually shatters as the Elden ring is shattered and we see the proof of this when we finally meet Mara Radigan in the finale when their bodies are completely ravaged then as we hear from the two fingers themselves Mar was imprisoned following this rebellious act the act of shattering the Elden ring against the greater Well's wishes Queen Marica is the vessel of the Elden ring carrier of it Vision a God in truth but after the Elon Rings shattering she was imprisoned in the earth tree a grim punishment for shattering the order despite her godhood the fingers speak marica's trespass demanded a heavy sentence but even in Shak Les she remains a God and the vision's vessel and given rigan shares a body with America he too is obviously left to languish within the AR Tree in a single stroke the Elden ring root of the golden order was shattered and the Elden Lord and God vanished at the beginning of the game in the introduction it is specifically mentioned that Queen Marica has not been seen since the Elden ring was shattered nobody in the World At Large knows that she's been imprisoned to them in their eyes she has just simply vanished alongside the Elden Ring's destruction and this of course would leave chaos and confusion in the wake of this event the golden order has been destroyed and the command structure failed in one Fell Swoop and so I think it is most likely that this is the time that MOG and morot would have escaped their captivity though admittedly M may have done so earlier with the help of the formless mother but for morot at least the chaos afforded by the collapse of the political structure that kept him confined is obviously the most likely opportunity that he would have to escape the narrative that I suggest is this with the collapse of any sort of command structure morgot Rose from the shunning grounds and claimed kingship over lay Dell after all he does have a legitimate claim to the throne as I'll remind you his great ruin states that he is all the golden lineage he is of Royal Blood and therefore has a claim to the throne the fact that morot claims that he is the last of all Kings have it WR upon th Meer grave F by King morot last of all Kings really emphasizes that he is using his Royal lineage as a legitimacy for his claim to the throne and by implication is implying his authority over the other demigods as well which would certainly no doubt play a factor in how he sees them all as willful traitors later on in my own speculation I imagine morot taking command of Le andell in a time of great Calamity and confusion and his position as king as well as his legitimate claim will no doubt have steadied the nerves of those who lived in the lands of lendell indeed morot clearly had a keen mind and sought to prevent any further calamities and is responsible for these Sentry torches these read torch given to Protectors of the earth tree its Flames are bestowed with a special incantation which allows the bear to see assassins cloaked in veils furnished on behalf of the earth tree and and the grace given Lord such that a knight of the black knives will never come again clearly morot identified the massive role that the Knight of the black knives played in the golden order's eventual fall as well as the damage it did to the lands between and now that he is King he would not want to fall victim to such an assassination and already he is proving himself to Be an Effective defender of the lands of lell and the ER tree when it comes to the shattering itself the general narrative that we get from the intro cinematics NPCs and the story trailer is that the Elden ring was shattered and then there was the shattering War however I believe this glosses over the buildup to said war and we do get some minor evidence that a new order briefly rose up to maintain a some kind of Peace in the wake of the golden ord's collapse The Sovereign Alliance we learn of this body via the sword Monument found in Altus plateau and it reads as follows the first offense of Le andell a sovereign Alliance rots from within traces yet remain of a bloody conspiracy what of course follows will be my own speculation but I take the statement to mean that there was an alliance an alliance that kept the peace until some of its members betrayed what it stood for and it led to the first offense of lell and the the shattering that followed who could have had the will to bring together such a tenuous Alliance who would care enough to try for peace and who do we know to be a sovereign a king I believe the Mastermind behind this Alliance to be morot as Mor got's actions throughout the game show us he is interested in one thing the preservation in the UR tree and the lands of lell and thus preserving peace between the demigods which certainly be in line with this aim and really none of the other demigods have such a motive for setting up an alliance like this like the other demigods morgot would claim A Shard of the shattered Elden ring claim the throne and according to my own fevered speculation would' form this Sovereign Alliance to oversee a period of shaky peace and while we don't get any direct mention of who the members of this Alliance could be I feel it lines up nicely with the Thrones that we find before morg God's fight and the demigods that he assigns to each Throne what is thy business with these Thrones ah godri the golden the twin prodiges Micha and melenia General radan prer Reichard Luna princess Ronnie willful traitors all what else could this arrangement of Thrones be other than a council that once stood between all of the demig Gods before the shattering it could be The Sovereign Alliance I do believe that the members named here those who sat on the Thrones once compris the Sovereign Alliance beside morot to compound this idea morot calls them traitors and pillagers and if they are traitors surely that means they betrayed some sort of oath or agreement or loyalty to pursue their own quest of power perhaps they are traitors because they broke from their Sovereign Alliance to pursue their own selfish bid for power that resulted in the shattering War VI count shanit would have had a dialogue that would really have reinforced this exact narrative that I'm suggesting as he would have said the following regarding the shattering War the shattering caused a great many fools to overstep their bounds their impudence led to Insurgency against more God lord of Grace they raised an army and sought to lay Siege to this sacred ground the language used here is very revealing and very much in line with Mor God's traitor speech there is talk of an Insurgency if the Insurgency was against morot then that surely means that the perpetrators owed him some sort of Allegiance and again I believe the Sovereign Alliance was convened by more go after he claimed kingship and this brings new meaning to his traitor's dialogue they aren't just traitors to the Earth tree in the world of Grace they are traitors to morgot himself as in regards to lineage more God is the rightful heir to the throne there is also evidence that godric once lived in lell which would obviously suggest that he was aligned with morot godric is named to have one of the thrones meaning as godrick the golden he once sat in this Council and at the end of his fight with us he says the following I am the Lord of all that is golden and one day we'll return together to our home bathed in race of gold godric wants to return to lell and while this could be a general statement about his golden lineage it's clear he was once here as we learned that he was actually driven from lell thanks to a dialogue from the great Kenneth height who says the following honestly godric's nothing more than a jumped up Country Bumpkin Lord don't make me laugh first he hid himself amongst the women folk to flee the capital then hid from Redan in that castle the First Defense of lell also involved godric's Kinsman specifically godfroy G fry is now in an Ever jail and we learn that he was captured during this First Defense as Dragon Knight Kristoff's ashes read after the first defense of lale Kristoff earned the hero's honor of Erry burial for the feat of capturing godfroy the grafted as such I feel that godri and his family was driven from the capital as a result of him and his relatives betraying The Pact of The Sovereign Alliance and laying Siege to L Dell in the First Defense of L Dell we clearly see from godric's dialogues that he believes he is the true heir to Le andell that he is the last of the golden lineage and as such he'll have certainly taken umbrage at The Omen King seizing what he saw to be his rightful Throne whatever way it played out the crumbling of The Sovereign Alliance led to the shattering and any hope for peace was diminished and in the ensuing years morot would become one of the most important figures in the entire War success y defending lell from all besur but why does morot take it upon himself to defend the arery why doesn't he take the Elden throne and repair the Elden ring as the greater well clearly desires I think that we get a little bit of an insight into his viewpoint on things when we speak to him as he dies T the but a fool the her tree Wards off all all who D approach we are we are all forsaken none may claim the title of Elder Lord thy Deeds shall be met with failure just as I he says that the Earth tree Wards off all who D approach and I suggest that he has interpreted the ceiling of the earth tree as The Well of the earth tree or The Well of the greater well this is why he sees those who are trying to claim the Elden Throne is nothing more than pillagers he believes that this is against what the greater will and the urry want he uses the term we are all Forsaken and this suggests that he believes that the Great well and the Earth tree have forsaken everyone in the world there is no plan to repair the Elden ring and in more God's remembrance it is said he loves the Earth tree and thus the only thing left for him to do is to protect the thing he loves in a world where he believes that we are Forsaken and there's no way forward there is no one more loyal to the her tree or the greater well the more God but surely if he was truly loyal he would be encouraging someone to take the Elden Throne much as the two fingers are or he would take it himself as the dialogue from ANA suggests following our own failure to enter the UR Trey we know that the cealing of the UR Trey is not the will of the greater will as the two fingers are confused as to what to do next this wasn't the plan you know what this means the Earth tree has burned you the fingers remains still shaken by this turn of events they are busy Consulting the cral with the confusion over the ceiling of the her tree is of course answered by the Visual Evidence as we know it is Radigan who is responsible for the barrier of thorns as it is rigan's Mark that seals the barrier of thorns Radigan has sealed the AR Trey to prevent his shattered order from being supplanted and he is the only one that benefits from us being denied access to the Elden ring in my opinion this is not the first time that rigan has tricked a major player into defending his plans and his schemes at the end of Gideon ofer's Quest He suggests that Amica doesn't want anyone to take the throne and that we are to struggle for eternity in her mind and as a result he risks his life by standing between us was and our ultimate aim according to ofir's armor he appears to have had some contact with what he believes to be the will of Amica which is of course where his opinion on what queen Amica wants comes from yet we get direct contradictory evidence that this is not what America wants she wants it to end she wants someone to ascend the Elden throne and kill the Elden Beast and the main source of evidence for this is hug we know from hu's dialogue that you can hear when he is praying to himself that it was Queen Mar that placed him here and it was she that commanded him to forge a weapon capable of killing a god oh your Divinity have mercy and Grant me forgiveness the road is yet long a God is not easily failed but one day without fail you will have your wish so please grant me forgiveness quen America no no no no I need to do better than this this will never kill a God I can do better than this it needs to slay a bloody God why would she do this if what ofor claims is true well the obvious answer to that is it's not who is the only person that benefits from people eternally struggling and no one reaching the Elden ring it's rigan and it ties up with his actions in putting up the barrier of thorns he doesn't want his shattered order to be supplanted no matter how broken things are and so he puts the barrier of thorns and when Radigan connects to ofir he convinces ofir that he is his God Queen Mara and given that rigan is the other persona of Queen Mara it isn't hard to see that ofir wouldn't know the difference and so I likewise believe that more God has unwittingly become a pawn in rigan's aims more God has mistaken rigan's barring of the earth tree as The Well of the arery itself and this is why he so fervently defends it and while claiming to be an adherent of the arery and the world of Grace he actually stands in the way of order being repaired there is of course the other idea that he is being Guided by the greater Will and Grace and that his role is a part of the greater plan that he is a crucible or a test for a worthy Lord but we will touch on that at the end of this video regardless of his reasons morgot stands directly in the way of anyone who would want to stand before the Elden ring and infuriated by the Betrayal of the other demigods who he sees as nothing more than opportunistic pillagers he takes actions that will ensure the safety and defense of Lindell and the UR Trey but these violent times demanded more than his incredible intelligence he would need to bring his ferocious power to bear and as such morgot would take on a new persona marget the fil and so in this next chapter let us examine the two aspects of morot the veiled Monarch and the fail Omen some may question why marget as her Persona even needs to exist and at the time of Elden Ring's release there was a lot of confusion about marget and morot and whether or not they are the same character of course in time this would be proven to be the case due to margate's Shackle working on Moro and marget and the fact that the marget projection at Stormville would disappear if he defeated morgot first however as I'm sure many are aware VI count Shan height who we've mentioned a couple of times before would have added more flavor to this dichotomy and would have explained more directly why the marget Alias needed to exist as I mentioned earlier F count shainheit represents the worst of the world of Grace really emphasizing all their prejudices and hatred seeing himself as a person of Grace far above the tarnished and The Omen for example in his dialogue with us he would have said the following all things have their proper place we having been chosen by grace we're given this golden Capital you on the other hand have your own home which is a far cry from here so far in fact that it cannot be further marred by your touch we of course see this type of disdain to a lesser degree with Kenneth height but at least he is able to see past his prejudices and work with the tarnished and in time warms to them conversely VI count Shane height seems to be very sure of his superiority as we have already seen his greatest hatred is reserved for the omen and he basically sees the omen is no better than filth the offend the purity of his world of Grace and as a result he would have commissioned us the tarnished to clear out the omen found in the shunning grounds his motivation for doing so is not only because he hates the omen and sees them as Vermin but because he thinks it will please who he sees as the Pinnacle of the world of Grace King Mor God and Upon Us completing this mission for him he would have requested an audience with King morgot so he could share his great victory over the omen with the Lord of Grace and receive his favor as a result of course the entire irony of this Quest is that shanit would not have realized that his King who he holds up as the Pinnacle of Grace was an omen himself at the end of his quest after his much sought audience Shane's world is turned up upside down when he realizes that morot is an omen and he asks us to kill him unable to see past his Lord's Omen form despite all more got has done for lell Feats that Shan height himself bragged to us about in earlier dialogues but all that morot has done for lell doesn't matter to people like Shan height because morot is a graceless Omen he is only deserving of scorn and while this Quest isn't the game it again gives intention to the title that ofir gives more God the veiled Monarch nobody knows who morot actually is physically they know he is the legitimate king of lell and that he acts in their defense but they do not know he is an omen because he knows that the world of Grace would not accept him as the rightful Le and this is why marget is necessary when the sh ring broke out and more God's vision of unity fell apart he only had one goal in mind protect the Elder ring and the her tree from these pillagers marget offered morgot the ability to wield his considerable Marshal press and powers without revealing that morot was an omen King to his subjects but morgot doesn't just take to the field and call himself marget there's actually quite a lot of interesting character to the fail omen he takes the opportunity to channnel his hatred into this role and Embraces his Omen strength openly referring to himself as the fail Omen this is his chance to embrace his more Omen side and use its considerable physical advantages for his aims it appears as though he first introduced his Persona to the world during the second defense of Le andell which we learn about via a sword Monument found in the battlefield of lell it reads as follows the second defense of lell the F Omen Stacks High the corpses of Heroes yet the her tree Remains unshaken the second defense of lell where the city was evidently successfully defended from one of the demigods and marget personally took to the field and reaped a bloody toll playing a significant part in the successful defense of the city who get battled in this fight is Up For Debate but I do believe that the second defense of Lanell is the one that's shown in the opening cinematic and I specifically analyzed this slide in a previous lower video which I will link below I personally believe that marget clashed with Redan in this battle and I think that is what is shown here in this opening slide as it is clearly very close to redan's armor and I'm not saying he physically overpowered ran before anyone gets mad but rather it is just an illustrative piece that shows that he clashed with ran and that the second defense of Lindell was of course a victory for marget indeed I could be wrong saying that this is Redan rather it could be one of redan's knights or perhaps even rard pre snake transformation but regardless if it was one or multiple of the demigods who invaded lell it's clear that marget made a mark and made a name for himself personally slaying a lot of enemy soldiers and his forces won the day as of course lell still stands the picture painted of marget in the sword Monument is pretty bloody stacking High the corpses of Heroes it makes him seem like a true horror the fear and horror that marget inspired cannot be overstated and is reinforced by the fa Omen cloak which reads as follows having slaughtered countless Champions during the shattering the fail Omen has become a hor horror to those who Harbor Ambitions for the UR Trey or for lordship the Fel Omen isn't just a warrior he has become a nightmare a spectre for those who Harbor ambition for those who want lordship or the UR Trey and the fail Omen will mercilessly hunt those who Harbor such ambition and he will do so at well appearing wherever he needs to be and hunt them again and again what is interesting is that the original Japanese reflects this almost mythological reputation Loki was kind enough to offer a translation and their perspective on how marget is presented in the Ki and I quote them now most Omen are an omen child which would typically refer to an unwanted child marget is referred instead as an omen on a Japanese Spirit often translated as ogre or demon and with this perspective in mind they then provided a translation of the sword Monument for the second defense of lell and it reads in the second LEL defense The Omen demon piled up the corpses of Heroes The Omen demon the Oni so in the Japanese it is clearer that the Fel Omen is seen as something more than a regular Omen that his vengeful nature and power is almost demonic perhaps his name the fail Omen isn't just a reference to him being an omen but the fact that his appearance is a fail Omen as Loki said Onis are evil demonic beings in Japanese folklore the in appearance are generally like The Omen hulking ogres with horns indeed we see his ability to appear throughout the lands between at a moment's notice when he appears outside Stormville and then later appears outside lell stalking us every step of the way whilst not physically being there I think it is clear that morot is able to manifest himself at well throughout the lands between as I mentioned in passing earlier this is clearly a sort of golden magic as it is very similar to the golden magic found on the omen shackles and it is an extremely impressive display of magic at that using his magic in this way being able to appear multiple times and reappear after he is defeated really would give the impression of marget being a vengeful Spirit rather than a Caporal being a karmic response to those who Harbor ambition and no doubt this is the type of idea and fear that morot is trying to instill with his Persona I really like this detail as we already know from the fail Omen cloak that marget is feared but the linguistic Insight from Loki really makes it clear the mythological fear that marget inspired to help in his labor and in a move that would surely have increased margot's myth he would employ a unit of hunters the hands of the fail the knight's Cavalry when we defeat marget for the first time at Stormville he vaguely references the hands of the fail I shall remember thee tarnished smoldering with thy meager flame coward in fear of the night the hands of the fell Omen shall broke thee no quar then of course we get confirmation that marget is indeed referring to the Knight Cavalry when we finally get their armor set which reads pitch black Helm with flowing black hair warned by the knight's Cavalry who ride funeral steeds the knight's Cavalry who now wander the dim roads of knights were once led by the fail Omen and were deliverers of death for great warriors Knights and champions this obviously paints a rather interesting picture that they were once led directly by the fail Omen trained to kill Champions Knights anyone who harbored ambition for the throne and the UR tree and their Warren bloodstained armor is surely a testament to how many lives they have claimed I think a T Jake makes a really interesting observation in his more got lore video which I will link below that there are 10 members of the knights Cavalry that we face in game 10 members for 10 fingers thus making up the hands of the fail again another bit of beautiful symbolism that really further LS to their mythological Legend and the superstitious fear they and marget would Inspire and perhaps their very existence would dissuade champions from even trying to claim the Elden Throne these deadly kns would have only compounded margate's terrifying Legend their very appearance is custom designed to invoke an image of death almost as if they are the Grim Reaper themselves and again thanks to Loki we know this to be the intent of their design due to the original Ki used and they translated the night Cavalry armor in the following way the Cavalry wandering the highway at night once were led by The Omen demon they are Reapers of every Warrior Knight and hero and when referring to the specific Ki used for the term Reaper here Loki said the following Reaper equals Death God originally referring to a specific Shino Kami escorting the dead to the afterlife in modern times this is equated with the Western death Grim Reaper the image of the night Cavalry as mythological Bringers of death is helped Along by the very STS that they ride in their armor description they are described as ferary steeds when we kill the night Cavalry horses they eventually are resurrected by the night Cavalry Knight in which they appear out of a purple portal and this can happen endlessly throughout the fight until we kill the knights themselves who are the ones that are able to summon their funerary steeds these steeds are unlike most creatures in Elden ring they aren't like those who live in death who are resurrected from the ghost flame whereas these horses are resurrected from a purplish portal perhaps these are spirits connected to the spirit world described in the Hing steeple sword but that is just speculation of course but perhaps this is why they ride only at night perhaps these stes have a relation to the dark and can only exist in ER World during the hours of night either way the psychological impact is the same these are dangerous warriors on the back of what seem to be Undead horses that appear only at night they are the Reapers of man again a karmic response to those who would have the ambition to claim lordship or so marget wants people to believe when in reality they are just another part of more God's many layered plan to keep the flame of ambition firmly dowed and until we arrive the Elden Throne does remain unac costed whether through fear or Brawn or both and More's true identity remains veiled up to this point his plan has been a success but when we do reach the Elden Throne he does have to throw down with us once and for all and the surprises don't end when it's revealed to us that the king of lell is the Spectre that's been hunting us since storm Vil as in his fight with us more got displays some unusual and incredible Powers especially in the second phase of his fight at the end of his fight he unleashes some powers that are firmly associated with the formless mother and so in this next chapter I want to discuss more God's powers and also his relationship to the formless mother and why he appears to be wielding blood flame more got is an exceptionally powerful being no doubt one of the most powerful in terms of lore probably only behind radan and milenia and even then not by much as we touched on earlier the Godfree projection that we battle with in the arre sanctuary also has the same golden magic emblem as the market projections suggesting that more got is responsible for both the Godfree projection and his marget manifestations in past videos I had also suggested that the mo projection in the sewer before the frenzi flame prescription was also the work of Mor got mainly because it fades away in Sparkles of gold much like the marget projections do leading me to initially believe that this was just another one of more God's projections alongside Godfrey and his marget manifestations that it was just another form of his golden magic there is also the fact that this projection of M appears before Mor God golden seal that blocks the entrance to the frenzied flame prescription and thus I assumed it was just another barrier another Safeguard however I was quite wrong on this and I am glad to be as I think the evidence clearly highlights that this is a projection done by MOG himself firstly this Phantom doesn't appear with the same Crucible seal that we see with the marget and Godfree projections I've put a lot of focus on that in this video and thus it is a stark difference when we see the Godfree or marget projections appear compared with this Mo projection Instead This projection appears with a Sinister Red Cloud of blood much more like the Magics of the Lord of blood next we need to consider that this Moog still appears and still challenges us even if you've killed morot already and given that the seal behind Moog has disappeared when you kill morot you'd assume that the mo projection would would also fade after the defeat of morot finally in what I believe to be the most compelling bit of evidence the mo shackle works on this projection the magical shackle is tuned to Mo specifically so surely it would only work here if this is actually Mo if it's an aspect of him this is an interesting Revelation because it means that in a way MO is assisting his brother in sealing the frenzied flame but this does make sense because despite their mirrored views and ases the frenzied flame would be as damaging to M's plant as it would be for more Gods everyone is United against the frenzied flame aside from those impressive powers of projections morgot is also able to manifest weapons at well including swords Hammers and throwing daggers that he can use to devastating effect catching his enemies off guard with their sudden manifestation the fact he is able to use these Powers even when he is projecting himself as tget across great distances is truly impressive but his real power is obviously revealed when we face him in person when he unleashes entire storms of these golden weapons and given all we've said about more Gods golden magic when it comes to projections it's clear that these weapon projections are an extension or derivation of those same Powers instead of manifesting a copy of himself or a phantom of Godfrey he's manifesting a copy of a sword a hammer or dagger truly more got is the grace given as we do not see a greater display of Grace aligned Magics anywhere else in the game but his use of these Magics all makes sense morgot is aligned to the Earth tree and Grace hence he uses golden magic he also has innate power as a demig God and combined with his great Rune it is easy to see her more got wields such incredible Powers however these are all very clean abilities he doesn't really utilize his Omen Powers as his brother does or the recal Omens do in the sewers that is until we push him to the very edge and his Omen blood is released and his Omen poers with it and as we see from Mor God's dialogue at this moment he's utterly shocked and ashamed at this turn of events the Thrones stained by my curse such shame I cannot bear thy part in this shall not be forgiven the unleashing of his Omen blood that he has been conditioned to hate and yet this doesn't stop him from trying to use the powers Unleashed with his Omen blood to try and stop us he has nothing to lose at this stage and hates us even more in our part in forcing his cursed blood out and staining the sanctity of the thrones we see that he has similar powers to that of other Omen such as wreathing his sword in the wraith flame and his Omen blood becoming pretty volatile and this can all be explained as his Omen related Powers however the more interesting aspect of his second phase fight is the certain moves of his that are wathed in a red flame what's known as the blood flame and these powers are identical to the blood flame incantations those Powers associated with the formless mother and utilized more frequently by Mo Lord of blood for example some of Mor God's red slashes in stage two wreath his sword in the red blood flame identical to some of moog's attacks where we see him spilling the blood flame all over the floor or throwing at us to try and Zone us and more Gods SL attacks while empowered with the blood flame leaves the same lingering red lines that mogg's blood flame Talons attacks do as well really firmly confirming that the attacks that morgot is using in stage two that wreath his sword any red Hue are tied to the formless mother so how and why is morgot using the power here morgot has never had anything to do with the formless mother and he is strongly staunch in his support of the earth tree and would never betray it to serve the formless mother so to answer this question we need to look at the formless mother itself what it is and how it interacts with with the world the formless mother is one of the beings known as an outer God as we learn via mn's sacred spear which reads as well as serving as a weapon it is an instrument of communion with an outer God who bestows power Upon A cursed blood the mother of Truth desires a wound I did a full video on the nature of the outer gods and I would highly recommend that but to summarize I brought in noted translator Miro translator for the Italian Souls Channel zaco niku and they were kind enough to give their perspectives from the Japanese lore community on what the outer gods are Miro shared that in the Japanese lore Community they believe the outer gods are more akin to Kam a concept from Shintoism and to quote Wikipedia they can be elements of the landscape forces of nature or beings and the qualities that these beings Express CI are not separate from nature but are of nature possessing positive and negative and good and evil characteristics so according to this Theory the outer gods are manifestations of elements nature and emotions that would have risen out of the disparity emerging in the aftermath of the fracturing of the one great in the same way that chaos Gods manifest in the warp in Warhammer lore I'm very proud of that video and the perspective that it brought to Western audience but one mistake I made I think upon reflection was trying to say that because the outer God were likely to be CI I.E Reflections and manifestations of different elements and emotions that they couldn't be what the West perceived them as as Cosmic beings when in reality I think both can be true and this was a Nuance pointed out by various viewers much like the chaos gods of Warhammer such a being whether or not they are manifestations of an emotion or nature are also clearly Cosmic in level and so that is my final word on the outer God they are came manifestations of certain elements within the world but they are cosmic level beings and they are Outer Outer Gods because each of the outer gods represent an element that is currently outside the established order and if you'd like a more indepth discussion on these finer points I would recommend my outer God lore video regardless what what is clear is that the outer God is a Consciousness that is tied to blood viscera and wounding we learn via the blood Bon incantation and the mowan spear that this being craves wounds and this makes sense when we consider the medium that the outer God interacts with is blood and thus more wounds spreads more blood and thus the influence of this outer God spreads this is why the areas in which the formless mother's influence is greatest are areas that are flooded with blood such as the Rose Church and the MN Palace grounds this is the formless mother's chosen medium of power and communication so it makes sense that when Moog first interacted or communed with the formless mother she communicated with him through his own blood for the bloodb item description reads the mother of Truth craves wounds when M stood before her deep underground his accursed blood erupted with fire and he was borted with the defilement he was born into again we see how the mother of Truth can interact with blood and specifically is able to ignite M's blood and this is why he easily wields the blood flame his own accursed blood is ignited this distinction of M's blood literally being ignited and that this fuels his greater Omen Powers is an idea explored by by crunchy in their Crucible video which I highly recommend and I will link below indeed Mo's blood incantations that he wields with great ferocity are described as blood flame and unmistakably morgot uses blood flame in his second stage with us so this brings us back to the original question how and why is morot a stalwart defender of Grace the mirror opposite of his brother wielding the same Powers as his brother who is a servant of the formless mother well firstly I think it thematically fits in with another demigod who has tried to resist their nature but in a moment of stress during combat no longer has the will to resist it and unleashes it in the heat of battle I am of course referring to melenia the chosen vessel for the Scarlet Rock another medium of a different outer God and melenia has spent her life alongside her brother Micha trying to control and suppress this element within her and there is definitely a parallel here to be made between morgot and melenia morgot has also tried to control his Omen nature decanting his own blood into his sword to lessen the curse within him yet despite millenia's courageous efforts to resist her nature and the Scarlet rot within her during her conflict with Redan and later o she unleashes the Scarlet RW and blooms and I think something similar is happening here to moral we are pushing him right to the edge in a ferocious combat and in a moment of stress whatever will he is using to keep his Omen blood within him keep his curse within him is completely Unleashed to an extent that we don't actually see any other Omen displaying aside from M of course who is more in touch with his Omen abilities and uses them in a far more controlled but no less destructive manner M's usage of his Omen powers and his blood powers are that of a Master someone who has taken years to master the power within him more God's usage is far more raw we see a swampy layer of omen blood fill the arena exploding in geysers and M's transformation in his second stage is a deliberate act where he saps our energy our blood to embolden himself and give himself massive impressive Wings compare this to more God's transformation which seems more like someone losing control breaking down under the stress of a superior opponent and as such his use of his Omen powers of his blood are more raw and uncontrolled it's clear from what we know about more got as a character that he wouldn't choose to connect or make a covenant with the formless mother on purpose rather I see it as a reaction the formless mother is the god of blood and here we have a massive Deluge of accursed blood blood the most powerful blood in the lands between no wonder the outer God manages to get a slight foothold here and in more God's desperation to defeat us he is clearly drawing on a power he doesn't fully understand but he doesn't care his shame is too much to bear and he must destroy us to regain some sort of Honor I do think there is some finer Nuance here to be had however as the formless mother goes by another name the mother of Truth what truth though well I think crunchy in his Crucible lore video tackles the question in a really interesting way and I would highly recommend that video which I will link below in this video crunchy having consulted with translators last protagonist and caseative examined the Japanese version of the text in regards to the references to the word truth the Ki used for the word truth found in the blood booon incantation and mn's sacred spear crunchy points out that there are many words for truth in Japanese and in this particular case the Ki used for the mother of Truth is the one for the truth of a situation or a narrative I find this interesting when we consider that the mother of truth's main source of power is blood and what is more evidential of the truth of who you are than your own blood upon the release of more God's blood the truth of who he is is of his form is revealed to him in a visceral manner there is no trer material than blood blood is part of our form and cannot be denied morgot is very aware that he is an omen he has never tried to deny that or suppress that truth however he has tried to suppress his Omen aspects his Omen powers and his Omen nature and yet that counts for very little in this moment when his Omen blood is spelled out across the arena and in this moment of desperation in the moment where his shame could go no further he finally Embraces his Omen Powers breathing his sword in Omen flame a far cry from his golden swords that he has been using up to this point perhaps this is what is meant by the mother of truth that is of course my well speculation and what It ultimately all comes down to whether you believe me or not is that in this moment morgot loses all of his reserve any boundaries he had left because of the incredible shame we pile upon him he is embarrassed by the turn of events and we must be killed in order to regain his honor to a degree but this isn't true of course this is just a view he has had foed upon him by the golden order terms used to describe the omen like vile or despicable or despised or all just terms from a certain Viewpoint all that really matters is that the woman are powerful beings with Incredible strength within their blood that is really the truth but it isn't the truth that morot died for morot had been conditioned to protect those who would see him imprisoned or worse and he has been conditioned to hate his very own flesh on top of this if I am right he did it all for a false Mission another Pawn in rigan's game who is increasingly shown that he will do anything even deny the greater will just to hold on to the crumbling remnants of his precious golden order and that isn't to say that morot is a fool who knows what you would believe if you in his situation and while it may seem baffling to us that he would accept the word of his oppressors his position on his own Omen form actually does very little to disparage his incredible achievements he defended Le Dell and its mainly innocent victims from years of war and in a world gone mad morgot is one of the only beings who seems to have it together and no matter what you think about his beliefs and misplaced Allegiance he is stalwart in his ideals and he stands in defense of them to The Bitter End as such he is respected in a rare way for a from software game getting an almost funeral like scene as the mightiest man in the lands between the greatest Legend have walked the lands between gently cradles him and puts his son to a well-deserved rest and ultimately perhaps I am wrong about more got being tricked by rigan there does seem to be some Visual Evidence that the greater will is pitting players against one another to make sure that the strongest and most worthy succeed as pointed out to me by a commenter when Godfrey puts more God to rest and he Fades into gold dust a guidance of Grace line seems to appear to Godfrey and points to us the tarnished God his intent is clear he wishes to become Elden Lord again and stand before the Elden ring and it seems as though in this scene that the greater will is encouraging him to try and defeat us that his guidance of Grace guides us into a conflict with us yet at the same time the guidance of Grace has also delivered us to this point as well so it clearly wants us to battle to determine who is the most fit Elden Lord perhaps more God is great was given because he was Guided by Grace rather than it being a bestowed title perhaps he knew all along that it wasn't the greater will who barred the entrance to the UR tree but instead he was still guided to act the way he did that he was to act as the last defender of the arery to be a crucible a test in the greater Well's great game to determine who should become Elden Lord and if that is the case then morgot mission was a success and as there is no greater barrier on our journey and if we cannot overcome more God then we simply are not worthy to lead the next age the Earth tree is seen as the Nexus for the vast majority of life in the lands between the focal point through which we can observe the cycle of natural life there are however some exceptions Outcast to the current order there are those who live in death the those Touched By The Crucible and then there are those beings made by the hand of humankind in the depths of the Eternal cities we find the pable Abominations known as the Dragon Kin soldiers an unnatural attempt by the nox to recreate the power of the Dragons there are the silver tier mimics a result of nox alchemy that exists to mimic natural life but of course the most iconic example of artificial life in the lands between is the AL orics a people of two different Generations found all throughout the lands between the aloric are a fascinating case in the lore not only because of their artificial nature but because of the widespread persecution that they face from a myriad of different factions and aside from these story beats the Albin ORS are a case study in the themes of alchemy life and Destiny all in one at their core they all orics are an alchemical Trope an attempt to create the perfect form of life and yet in so doing a new flawed race has been born a race full of hopes and desires yet are mercilessly persecuted for their disconnect from the UR Trey and its cycle of Life by studying these Fascinating People we can not only learn more about the nature of life within the lands between but also about the beliefs and prejudices of those found within it it is one of the greatest stories told in Elden ring anchored by The Game's greatest lore item that not only enriches our understanding of life within this world but simultaneously manages to be a genuinely emotional story of a people who deserve so much more so join me this week as we explore the plight of the Alban orics I think it is fitting that we start this discussion with the greatest lore item in the game an item that holds a special place in this channel if you are new to the channel the aloric blood clot which reads as follows the thick coagulated blood of the Alban oric material used for crafting items Alban orics are life forms made by human hands thus many believe them to live impure lives Untouched by the AR tre's Grace so the core of the identity of the Alban orics is defined by two key components one one they are artificial and two they are not connected to the world or cycle of the earth tree the latter is something we will look at later in the video but it is the former their artificial nature that is tied to their Origins and is thus what we will begin with besides being artificially created the Albin Orcs May initially appear like a mystery in terms of where they actually come from but we can start to understand when we unpack the related lower items a good example of where to start is of course the Ripple blade a weapon wielded by the Alban orics themselves which reads the following unique weapon wielded by Young Alban oric this sword is modeled after the reppel that are thought to be the origin of their species some may see this as a somewhat abstract description of their origin story but the idea of ripples is of course to make us think of a liquid origin indeed we may get further evidence of said liquid via the blue silver armor this is the armor set worn by the aloric wolf archers this set reads as follows chain mail Hood crafted with blue silver worn by the wolf riding aloric archers blue silver is a metal born from the same mother as The Archers themselves and provides protection from Magic and frost so according to this piece of lore the Alban Orcs are born from the same source of Metallurgy as the blue silver armor and with the Ripple description in hand we can conclude that they are born from some kind of liquid silver this also seems to match up with the actual look of the albor blood clo and the silver liquid that they bleed when you hit them and it can lead us to a fairly surface level conclusion already at this stage they are man-made and they are born of a liquid silver thus they are a human-made experiment born of some kind of alchemy however we can dig a little deeper and find the origins of this Alchemy if we dare look at some cut content and related life forms with that said let us start with the cut content I'm referring to as I always say when we look at cut content it is a double-edged sword in some cases it can be used to look at the intention behind some lure in other areas it was obviously completely scrapped and no longer has any bearing so take it with a pinch of salt but what I'm bringing your attention to is a cut dialogue from tops who at one stage would have said the following additional line after telling us about the glint Stone Key before we entered learia proper he said oh one more thing beware the aloric a cursed Souls born of a forbidden right of the Eternal City the curse withered the legs of the old and silenced the tongues of the frogs and now they hold deep grudges for anyone left untouched so it appears it would have been made extremely clear as to where the Alban orics originated from at one point the Eternal cities now this does make a lot of sense given what we know of the Eternal cities and the nox and their experimentation and so it is to the nox that we turn to next even before we find this cut dialogue the KNX have always been a really solid fit for the creators of the Alban orics given the nox's proven aptitude for experimentation Alchemy and life manipulation so let's go over the noxs and their history briefly but if you want a more intense take on the nox I have done in Eternal cities lore video which I will link below we know from the nox armor sets that they were banished underground for conspiring against the greater will and now they are in EN Eternal anticipation of their Le of the coming of the age of stars and a lord of night and therefore it is logical to conclude that most of the nox efforts and experimentations are part of their effort to overthrow the greater well and bring up a lord of night the first example of this is the object that I assume led to their banishment in the first place the Finger Slayer blade this blade is a bizarre product but it is evidently needed to kill A2 fingers as rannie seems unable to do it without this tool suggesting its form and Origins are special and necessary indeed it is a blade that is formed from a corpse something that should immediately make the player think of the Sacred Relic Blade the blade wielded by the Elden beast at the end of the game the secret Relic blade seems to be a more refined and divine process done almost instantaneously by the Elden Beast to create a well-formed and sophisticated weapon this is of course in stark contrast to the appearance of the gross and malformed Finger Slayer blade which leads me to conclude that this is a perversion of the same process utilized by the Elden Beast the noxian pension for experimentation science and Alchemy is further expressed through the Dragon King soldiers an attempt to manufacture and hybridize the power of the dragons that has ultimately led to a pitiful failure so it is clear that the noxs are no strangers to life manipulation via science and this can be further explored via their work on puppetry that introduces us to their alchemical work we learned that puppetry can be traced back to the nox via the night maiden and sorceress puppet description which reads an old puppet crafted in the Eternal City these sisters members of a cold-blooded race who wielded flowing weapons became puppets of their own valtion preceptor civis will of course continue the work of the Eternal cities in this regard and it is by working with civis that we learn that puppetry is essentially a process of alchemy as civis distills new puppet potions for us when we bring him Starlight shards even attempting to bind a demigod like rany via Amber stars and the description of Amber Starlight shards makes it clear that puppetry must be linked to fate manipulation the distillation of Fate latent within the Stars to control or puppet someone else's Destiny the fact that the nox developed a process to distill the Fate latent within the Stars to bind people really is an indicator of their alchemical Brilliance this Brilliance is also reflected in a similar work the celestial du the description of which reads as follows aead and tear found in the eternal City also known as a night tier allows one to carry out an Absolution at the church of vows reversing all antagonization Once Upon a Time the stars of the night sky guided fate and this is a recollection of those times again this is an incredible product again somehow distilling the Fate latent within the Stars manipulating it and allowing one to reverse the actions that they have taken all through a ocean the point of going over these facts so carefully is because it gives a really great idea that these people are capable Alchemists and thus the perfect candidates for the creation of the Alban orics who as we have already discussed are seemingly born from a liquid silver a alchemical formula to further reinforce the connections to the nox there's another potential form of artificial life which we must consider the silver tears the silver tear are a fairly mysterious life form but ones that also appear to be both a substance and a living creature a substance that is remarkably similar to the blood of the Alban oric so in this next chapter we'll examine the potential motive behind the creation of these silver tear and what it can potentially tell us about the origin of the aloric by reverse engineering the details of the silver tear creation when it comes to consider the nature of these creatures the silver tear there is nothing in game that explicitly mentions they are artificial lives however as we will look at in a moment there's extensive content regarding a silver tier that makes it pretty clear that this is the intention however their alchemical substance form their presence within the Eternal cities should be enough for us to consider that possibility after all as we already examined the nox are master experimenters and Masters at manipulating life and fate aside from that the silver tier husk an item related to the silver tear gives us a lot of insight into the potential purpose of these beings and their relation to life the item reads as follows a hardened husk shed by a formless life form known as the Silver tiar found in and around the Eternal City the silver tier makes a mockery of Life reborn again and again into imitation perhaps one day it will be reborn a lord the end of the statement is a very pointed statement as it refers to the mimicry ability of the silver tears as we witness in our fight with the mimic tier in the hope that it will one day take the form of a lord again this hearkens back to the overarching goals of the nox to remind you the monk armor set States now they live under a false sky in Eternal anticipation of their Le of the coming age of stars and their lord of night this to me mares up well with the silver tier husk which talks about mimic tear being reborn a Lord and again is one of the connections in the in game lore that makes us think that the silver teers are man-made by the noxs they are an alchemical attempt to create a life form that will one day mimic the form of a lord their lord of night however if these implications were not enough for you and you wanted a more explicit reasoning as to how the silver teers are man-made by the nox to achieve this aim there was a cut content Quest that went over this entire subject far more explicitly and I referring to the cut Quest ofi the mimic who would be Lord there is a great reimagining of this Quest that has been done by nullen and I will link that video below as it even includes these lost dialogues in short you would meet a sentient mimic called aimi who would latch onto you in a sort of symbiotic relationship she would provide you power while she would slowly copy your form the finale of The Quest would see aimi leaving you after fully mimicking your form with the intention of her being that you would become Elden lore and you would allow her to become the sovereign Eternal but instead you seek them out and defeat them this again lines up with what we already know of the silver tear from the silver husk description that the ultimate aim of these experiments of these tear were to mimic the form of a lord their Sovereign Eternal their lord of night and because it lines up with the existing lore and doesn't seem to contradict it I have no reason to doubt the lore found in this Quest and if I was to guess why it was caught I would say it's because it actually provided just too much of a lord dump and possibly provided an alternative ending that they just didn't have time to implement properly in part of this Quest aimi would ask the player to visit the Eternal cities to find the source of her people the dialogue would go as follows my Lord host great host may I ask something of you a chalice is close by the Cradle of my kind would you mind finding it for me the Chalice will quench my first rejuvenate My Flesh and allow me to Grant you further strength my Lord host great Lord host a tear chalice lies in these lands too or mother chalice please search out this most sacred chalice it is suffused with the Blessed wonders of the Stars it will allow us to become a perfect whole so obviously this dialogue is really revealing and it talks about a mother chalice the source of self Sil tears and this really sums up what I been implying that the silver tears were an alchemical creation of the NOS an attempt to mimic and artificially create their lord of night a sovereign Eternal the talk of a mother chalice suffused with the Stars obviously makes us think of a liquid a formula we have already seen how the nox can manipulate and distill the Fate latent within the stars and not use this to create a new life form with this understanding we can now turn our attention back to the subjects of this video the aloric themselves who are an artificial being that bleed a silver formula the aim of the nox is to bring about an age of stars and a lord of night and to me this is the driving force behind all of their creation one way or another the dragonkin soldiers and the puppets give them new weapons to wield against the greater will and their enemies and the manipulation of Fate gives them an edge and of course a new life form in the hope of artificially creating a lord of KN is an attempt to bring their ultimate goal into fruition via their own hands and knowledge it is clear that the Alban orics are beings of magical origin meaning that the Arcane was used to create them we learn of this innate arcanes via the aloric STA which reads as follows the Alban orics Harbor a secret they cast sorcery using their innate arcan to me their innate arcanes is no doubt linked to the alchemical magical and fate manipulation techniques we've already seen the nox employ to create artificial life and manipulate life in essence it is not hard to see that the Albin Orcs may be a connected line of work that resulted in the silver tears and the Alban orics especially given their silver blood and artificial nature indeed even item placement may suggest a kinship between the two beings as we can find the larval core of a silver tier in amongst some corpses at the aloric Village Zully also makes this connection as well between the silver tears and the albor people and highlights a previous item description of the silver blue armor the armor worn by the Archer Alban oric in this older item description the Alban orics had a much different name as it refers to them as the children of silver and this is of course tying us back to what we looked at at the beginning of the video where there's plenty of evidence that the Alban orics are born from a silver liquid alchemical formula with the blue silver armor even now directly seeing they are born from the same source as The Silver and their armor in conclusion the alinor are most likely Inox hamuli an alchemical experiment to create the perfect being to create the Sovereign Eternal and much like the silver tear they are born of a liquid formula hence they're silver blood one of the theories of alchemy is the notion of the three primes a theory developed by an alchemist called paracelis in the 16th century the three primes are salt sulfur and notably for our video Mercury but there's also a spiritual element to each of these materials as there always is with Alchemy salt represented the body and anything solid Mercury represented the mind and anything fluid and sulfur represented the soul anything that combusted so in our case it is clear that we would assign the silver working material behind the the alinor as a fluid Mercury material a bridge between body and soul and yet neither and it now makes sense when you think about this alchemical background why the associations with silver a liquid silver or Mercury are used so heavily in the game when we look at the nox's alchemical Creations under this idea this Theory every being had an aspect of all three the Mind Body and Soul salt Mercury and sulfur however these Mercurial beings these silver teers and the Alban orics do they have a soul are they missing one of the three primes this would lend us a greater understanding in why the Alban orics are seen as impure with that said there's one other aspect of the alinor alchemical formula that we must touch on the primordial du mentioned in the aloric shield item description now realistically this could be just a flury way of descri describing the formula from which the alinor were formed but it doesn't do us any favors to willfully ignore the other references to Due we find throughout the game I'm of course referring to the due that is heavily associated with the age of Plenty mentioned in the sacred du Talisman and the icon Shield this due was literally the life energy that dripped from the bows of the earth tree as sap and it was literal Life Energy and given the word due is used in regards to the creation of the Alban orics there's a good chance that this primordial due was used in their formation especially since the word primordial is used the word primordial is also used when describing the due that fell from the earth Tree in this age of Plenty specifically in regards to the Amber medallions which are formed of the hardened Amber the hardened Dew that fell from the UR tree in the age of Godfrey first Elden Lord and this is not to mention the many references to primordial life when talking about The Crucible the primordial form of the earth tree itself so to me it is almost certain that this primordial due that is mentioned in the alinor shield was probably a droplet of sap taken from the earth tree used to bring life to these Mercurial beings and we will return to this subject at the end of the video when we talk about latena Loretta and the tering sister and how this may thematically come full circle by the end of the aloric story so why were the aloric created in the first place well given all we have said on the silver tear and their probable connection to the aloric the likely explanation is the aloric were created for the same reason an attempt to create an artificial Lord of knights so far we have made particular focus on noxin Alchemy and this is just speci ified given the nox products such as the celestial duw puppet formula and the silver tear Alchemy is particularly important to understanding what the alinor symbolize and why they would be created in the first place it is no great Revelation at this stage to say that the ideas of alchemy thematically influence some of the parts of Elden ring of course the most prominent example would be the idea of the Rebus the perfect maild of male and female in a single body as represented by the mara Radigan reibus there's a concept in alchemy called the homunculus which was the alchemical pursuit of creating the perfectly formed miniature human being as pointed out by zilly there's actually a magic the Gathering card called homunculus that very much looks like a second generation aloric this is relevant because in one of zor's Discovery videos he makes the observation that magic the Gathering is very much an inspiration for various Elden ring motifs and so this connection seems all the more probable if this homunculus card was used as the artistic inspiration for the second generation Alban oric the alchemical process of creating a perfectly formed human being seems like the perfect solution for a society who wants to find their lord of night by any means necessary and so it was that the NOS tried to create their own perfect being their lord of night and instead they created a flawed yet sentient creation the aloric at least that is my most logical speculation the very nature of the aloric is an interesting thing to consider as well as it brings us back to the Holy Grail of L items the aloric blood claw the item description of the blood clot makes it clear that the main reason that the Alban orics are treated like dirt is because because they are not natural and specifically they are not touched by the grace of the earth tree the very existence of the albor is antithetical to the Earth tree A fitting creation for a civilization directly opposed to the greater will everything about the albor origins thematically fits within being a nox creation and an attempt at creating a lord of KN to oppose the order of Grace now while I consider the nox to be the most logical progenitors of the alinor society I do of course acknowledge that there is another connection that we have to consider in regards to their development and so it is time to address the various real larian connections I want to preface this chapter by saying that personally I'm in no doubt that the knocks are a better fit for the creators of the aloric thematically and of what we know of the nox however there are some undenied able and interesting connections to the leonian people that we do need to discuss for three main reasons the connections between the carens and the Alban orics the prominence of Alban orics in learia and finally an old item description for the silver armor let us start with the latter the silver armor so thanks to zuli's video on the AL orics we have access to the previous version of the silver armor item description that I'd mentioned before but let's read that in F now these Maids constructed in Ria lucaria headed to the paling Tower to enter michela's service so obviously a lot has changed in the lore there is no paling Tower and these life forms are no longer known as the children of silver they are the aloric so we could just straight away discount this item description and move on however I do think cut content can sometimes still be useful in trying to understand the intentions behind the lore even if the details have changed especially since there are still connections to Ria lucaria Leia and the carens in regards to the Alban orics much as I use the location of the silver tiers within the Eternal cities to justify their Origins being attributed to the nox many would use the location of the vast majority of Alban or population in Leia to link their creation to the real aarans or the carians and this is totally Fair especially given we don't find any Alban orics in the Eternal cities indeed the description of the aloric shield even outright states that the main enemies of the aloric are Sorcerers perhaps because they were created in Leia and have essentially been oblate on the lands ever since and in conflict with their previous creators I.E the real larian or caran Sorcerers there is further evidence that the Alban Orcs could have been created by by Sorcerers rather than by nox Alchemy and as such I refers to an item description I cited earlier the description of the alinor staff which talks about their innate arcanes and while I linked this to the Fate manipulation and Alchemy of the nox it could quite easily be tied to the Arcane practices of R lucaria in a lot of ways the real larians and carians overlap with the practices and beliefs of the nox both study the power latent with within the stars both are concerned with the Fate found within the stars and both have factions that are interested in bringing about an age of stars we even get evidence of the impact of noxian culture upon leonian culture this is irrefutable in regards to the Church of vow which is a church lined with noxian statues and this is also a structure meant to utilize enoan creation the celestial du once again used to alter fate and restore bonds once thought completely broken and indeed Radigan once used this noxian practice before his marriage to renala Radigan once cleansed himself with Celestial due repented his Territorial aggressions and swore his love to renala the order of the ER tree and the fate of the moon were conjoined and all the wounds of War forgiven this miracle blesses the church to this day and so you need only follow Ragan's example to restore any bond however strained or severed to its rightful state of Harmony in addition civis preceptor to the caran royal family continues Research into puppetry and even seeks to take the teachings further by snaring a demigod themselves ral's son ran would go to Celia to learn gravity sorcery Celia essentially being an offshoot colony of the Eternal cities as thanks I vow to impart to you my knowledge of the Lost sorceries of the selion descendants of the [Music] Eternal finally rany of course has some contact with the Eternal City when she can inspires with them to commit the night of the black knives the point being is that there are plenty of opportunities for a crossover culture and ideas between nox and Leonia and so it is therefore not Unthinkable to believe that a faction of leeran sorcerers replicated or built upon the works of the nox in regards to artificial life forms indeed we do see a number of first generation aloric specifically serving the Karan family such as pedia and and other members found throughout the caran manor we also have Loretta herself possibly an aloric who serves as a caran knight who may well be the most successful attempt at harnessing the potential of the Alban Orcs a mounted B wielding KN no less that could just be a more successful variant of the mounted bu wielding Albin Orcs we see in the consecrated snowfields so what is the truth behind their creation did the KN create them or was it a real luaran or caran creation well the balance of Truth is for you to decide but I believe both could be true I do believe that they do originate from the work of the nox the evidence we looked at previously is too strong and the thematics fit very well however it could have been expanded upon by real larians and carians my belief is that the work did originate with the nox as an experiment to create a lord of Knight but that the real larians and caran May well piggy backed off it in an attempt to create Warriors and servants and this would explain why there are so many Alban Orcs in learia specifically some serving the caran royal family like I say the balance of Truth or where you decide they come from is for you to decide I believe it falls between the two either way the results are the same human hands created these flawed beings and whatever purpose they hope to harness these beings for it has clearly failed and the Alban Orcs now are in direct conflict with the forces of RI Laria and are persecuted by many others so let us now examine the current state of the Alban orics themselves and their PL in the lands between however it happened the Alban Orcs were created but they are no mere tools as probably intended instead they have developed into their very own people with their own desires and beliefs there's of course the main distinguishing feature of the alinor peoples the two very distinct generation the first more humanoid variation which comes in two different variants the older male version and the younger female version then there is the second generation which are the more Frog Light and dumpy ones we learned that there are two different generations of the same people via the aloric ashes which reads a strapping Duo of cartwheeling spirits who wield ripples swords and spew freezing breath both are second generation Alban orics with dumpy heads that resemble those of frogs so the fact that there are a second generation could mean one of two things firstly it could be that the first generation of Alban orics are able to reproduce but their offspring are radically different from them or devolve and then there's of course explanation number two which is much like how iPhones have different Generations the second generation of Alban Orcs could be a second line of Alban ORS that they are a second attempt by their creators to improve upon the first generation given what we know about the alinor at the end of Latina's Quest it appears they cannot reproduce and so it must be option two we know that one of the main faults of the first generation is of course their failing and fading legs this is a process described To Us by old alus himself My legs will soon fade and with them my life alas this is the immovable fit of all aloric so why do their legs fade and fail well given the alchemical and magical origin of the aloric it would make sense that this is an alchemical failing the legs don't only fail they literally fade as we can see from the shadowy remnants we can see attached to the older Alban orics so it makes sense now that there is a second generation of Alban orics the first generation are quote unquote faulty and the second generation do improve in this regard they are able to walk but they have their own feelings uh we will look at momentarily there are other aspects of the first generation I'd like to analyze first one point of interest is of course the first generation's unbelievable skill with magical bows lenna's ashes do confirm that they are magical archers which explains why their arrows literally track moving opponents their ability to do this must be a result of their innate magical arcanes and I do see this as evidence that Loretta is one of their number as she too is able to summon magical homing arrows but without a bow possibly showing she is more potent in this regard more successful not even needing the physical medium for this ability there's one other aspect of the first generation I want want to talk about and that is their appearance I have already spoken on the fact that there are two variants to the first generation as most people will notice there is the older variant which has male features and then there is the younger variant which has female features now the simplest explanation and probably the most likely is that this is just the design Choice made by the team that they had younger models and they're female and the ad older models that are male however there is something else to consider given the alchemical roots and connotations to the Alban orics and the question I posed to you is this are the first generation aloric some kind of ribus what I am suggesting here is is it possible that they are female when they are young but become male when they age and that they are some sort of alchemical hemaphrodite now I know this is a bit out there but I can't help but notice that the female alars are always mentioned to be young latena refer refers to filia the giant towering alinor as their young but towering sister Albus also refers to latena as young and yet all the male appearance characters in The albinar Society are older bearded and decrepit and their legs are literally fading while the legs of the younger Alban orics are of course also not working they aren't fading yet which suggests there is an age Gap now the reason that this is important to something connected to Alchemy is because of the concept of the Rebus if you aren't aware of the Rebus or you haven't heard my earlier videos where I've spoken about it the Rebus is said to be the ultimate goal of alchemy it is the perfect mild between man and female in a single body and of course this is represented in game by Mara and rigan so being beings of alchemical creation what if they are created to follow the same ideals to be the perfect creation of alchemy to mirror the God of this age this is of course wild speculation and it's not something I certainly consider to be Cannon but it is a nice idea especially since it would tie in with the alchemical themes of the Alan orics as well as nicely explaining why there are only young female Alin orics and older male Alban orics if that is too wild for you I do have another possible explanation for you and it does again return us to that older description of the silver armor which specifically describes the maidens as being built in real lucaria perhaps the first generation female Alban Orcs are the creations of real lucaria and the older male ones are the creations of the no and this would also make sense and tie in to the fact that Loretta serves the caran royal family and is most likely following the design of the female Archer Alban orics again all speculation and the most likly explanation is that is just the design choices for the male and female models of the albinar first gener Generations however the other final point about the alinor and their form I want to discuss before moving on to the second generation specifically is the general connection the Alin Orcs have to frost so one of the major indicators to this connection is of course found in the alinor ashes which tells us the fact they can spew freezing breath we also find it connected to the Archer Alban oric for the blue silver armor tells us that it is made from the same material as the Archer itself and it provides a protection to frost so what is the connection to frost well in general there seems to be a connection to frost and the celestial bodies the main source for this information of course comes via rany and her story about meeting the snow witch for example if we read the item description of the Frozen Armament which reads as follows sorcery said to have been used by the old snow WI the snowy Crone taught the young rannie to fear the Dark Moon as she imparted her cold sorcery and so when rannie attempts to bring about the age of stars the Dark Moon Becomes Her sigil and her guide however equally the cold seems to be part of her makeup part of her identity this is reinforced by the description of the royal great sword which reads in defiance of the Fate he was born into blly swore to serve no man Master but Ranny as proof the sword was imbued with cold magic at the moment the oath was sworn and so the cold is as equal to the moon when it comes to ranie and her ideals and to me this is just because the cold or Frost is associated with the moon and other celestial bodies in this world and this is in contrast to the Earth tree which once used to represent warmth as we learned from the warming Stone item description and and so to me the association with cold that we find with the Alban orics has to do with their Origins once again we know that the knocks are of course associated with the celestial and most likely use the distillation or Essence of the Stars to create the aloric in the first place and that in essence explains their affinity for the cold with that said let us now move on to the second generation and examine these peculiar creatures well without the weaknesses of the first generation regarding their legs they have obviously come with their own flaws aside from being more monstrous and malformed than their more human first generation they also apparently cannot speak this is again according to the cut tops dialogue that we referred to earlier that states that the frogs have been silenced in regards to their tongues I have no doubt to believe that this is still true in the in-game Canon despite it not being mentioned explicitly anywhere else in Canon I think this is also reflected in the way they behave especially if you compare them to the first generation there is a huge difference in the culture whereas the first generation seem more human or are willing to set up their own societies much like a human society would the second generation seem to move around in roving gangs or bands much like an animal pack and if these beings lack the ability to intelligently communicate like the first generation can this indeed does make sense even the armor and clothing that they wear pales in comparison if you compare it to the silver armor of the Archer Alban oric the second generation Alban Orcs were dirty Sachs and dirty chain mail but this doesn't mean that there isn't any connection or interaction between the two generations indeed in the consecrated snowfields it seems as though they exist peacefully side by side with the aloric archers and the second generation alars guarding ordina lurgical town indeed I commented on the apparel of the second generation aloric how it's dirty and crude and it reflects the more beastial and basic nature of the second generation and while this meshes well with the huge clubs of some of the larger second generation Alban orics it clashes quite harshly with some of the other weapons wielded by the second generation the Silver Shield the Ripple blade and the Ripple Crescent halir which seems so finely crafted to a degree Beyond even some human capabilities indeed not only the form of these weapons are sophisticated but also the lore bended within its design as you can see from all of the descriptions for these weapons they are meant to be artistic representations of the alinor origins the Ripple of their alchemical formula given what we see of the second generation aloric the way in which they behave the clothes that they wear and the club that they wield it seems very unlikely that they are the ones that crafted these weapons I would instead suggest that these weapons are supplied to them by the first generation Alban orics who would be more familiar with their mythology and Origins and more likely to be able to forge impressive weapons given what we see of their craftsmanship and their silver armor this is my own speculation of course but I believe it to be a sensible conclusion to surmise the first generation appear to be closer what we'd consider to be a normal human society we can see this in the way in which they act speak interact and build communities the second generation alinor while still sentient do seem to be more simplistic in nature moving in Roman gangs more aggressive and Territorial and more likely to be manipulated as we will see in later chapters despite this the second generation clearly really have caused a lot of issues for the real larians and the cuckoo Warriors their location around the crumbled ruins of the academy town is interesting for a number of reasons not the least that the real larians and the cites seem to have had to barricade themselves in at the real larian Academy essentially seeding the ground outside of it to these Alan orics were the Alban ORS responsible for the downfall for the destruction of the academy town probably not as it does seem that some kind of natural disaster has befallen this region an erosion that has led to a collapse of the land that once surrounded the real larian Academy we can see this in the bridges as well despite this the Alban ORS now seem to have taken control of these ruins and this is a fair payment as we will learn in the next chapter when we talk about the persecution that the alinor people have faced in the lands between one of the best written sources to understand the type of hatred the alinor face is the alinor pot a weapon that can be made from the blood of the Alin Orcs themselves the item description reads as follows the kns of the cucko do declare Behold thy defiled blood unlike any humor that flows in our grand realm this basis for cucko Force's hatred of the Alban orics of course ties in with what was said in the alinor blood claw that people hate the Alban Orcs because they are not natural beings and in essence this seems to be the basis for a lot of their mistreatment as they aren't even seen as living beings worthy of consideration while quite late on in the video it is worth analyzing the atmology of the name Albin oric to see how it is an appropriate name Albin most directly means white but can also mean without color or pigment and oric means gold so the most slightly meaning for the Alban orics as intended is without Gold without the gold color these are pale beings absent the gold absent the touch of the earth tree again tying back to what's said in the aloric blood claw it is this lack of gold the lack of a connection to the Earth tree that makes them so hated and again it ties back to what we talked about when we talked about the prime materials they are missing that third aspect the soul or the T of the earth tree the Knights of the cucko are of course the knights that are contracted on behalf of RI Laria and these forces have a pretty Sinister reputation we learn of this reputation via the real lucaria Soldier ashes which reads the soldiers of RI Laria were also known as the cucus they were given free reign by the academy to wage war as they pleased and they were Infamous for their rapacious ways the cruelty of these soldiers LM well to the narrative described by the Alban orc pot they hunt the Alban Orcs because of their defiled blood and yet given their reputation it wouldn't be hard to imagine cuckoo forces not needing much encouragement to visit atrocities upon these people and taking some kind of pleasure in it it also ties into the description of the alinor shield which describes the fact that sourcers were their main enemies and it is obviously the conflict with riaria that this Shield is noting the clashes with r lucaria are most likely driven by hate and territory as we have already commented on the fact that the Alban orics occupy a lot of real larian territory yet aside from the conflicts between the second generation and the forces of real Laria the first generation found in Leonia seem to have made a life for themselves in the village of the Alban orics they do seem to have built a community and even have their own myths and goals as we can later see when alus described us their promised land yet unfortunately this life has been destroyed and the village that we see now is the sight of an atrocity the most obvious and Stark example of how poorly the Alban ORS are treated in the lands between when we first arrive in the village we are greeted by the corpses of Alban oric hanging and piles of corpses being burned in a harrowing scene of genocide and cruelty nef's haunting words as we enter the village only add to the Grizzly atmosphere that awaits us within the oppression of the weak murder and pillage unchecked a waking Nightmare made by men the goons that we find in this Village Fallen perfumers are Gan ofer's men who in his Pursuit for knowledge has destroyed this entire Village and his callous disregard for the lives here even shocks nefi when she realizes it's her adoptive father that's behind this attack and I can no longer trust him father to think he'd order his men to enact such tragedy where is the Justice he departs in that he once told me that if he became Elden Lord he would never allow the downtrodden to be cheated ever again was he simply lying to me of course we later find out that Gideon has done this for a Pretty Petty reason he is obsessed with knowledge with his own Legend of being the all knowing in essence he wants to have information he doesn't have the location of the missing demigods not just to find their great runes but just so he can carry on being the all knowing and indeed later on he directs us to find information on the missing demigods and even notes his frustration in not knowing all of the information I heard speculation Micha embedded himself in the helic tree but before he could finish someone cut the tree open and absconded with an infant form indeed it seems those words held weight how vexing that they all know didn't have the full story yet before employing our services he obviously used his own men his own goons to try and find the information from the Alban Orcs himself in regards to the halic tree and obviously Micha and melenia he has lutena interrogated and her wolf killed and he burns the entire Village to the ground just so he can find the path to the halic tree and have the answers to the questions that he seeks a pretty casual disregard for life and it just shows how lowly some people consider Albin orics that Gideon weighs their lives worth less than just knowing A simple piece of information how little regard is given to the lives of these people is also echoed in pror rayar's treatment of the Alban orics I discussed pror reichard's experimentation in full in my rard lore video which I will link below but in essence the prison town at volcano Manor is a testament to reichard's insanity and his cruelty Reichard uses the abductor virgins to bring people to the prison Town found at the back of volcano Manor where he is evidently experimented with life forms as part of his greater aim in overthrowing the earth tree to create the man serpents soldiers for his vision in prison town we find a large population of Alban orics in terrible circumstances as they fill the halls of the ironically named guest house in various torture devices including the really cruel black dumpling which makes the wearer go insane and The Wretched tortured black dumpling wearing Alban orics are some of the most wretched and pitiful enemies you face in the entire game these poor Albin orics have been pushed to the limits of pain and mental torture also interestingly this is where we find the aloric mask located on another torture device the description of the Mask is interesting as it makes a very clear implication that this is the mask made from the skin of an albor oric the final description of the aloric Mask reads as follows a far cry from godkin this Alan oric hide mask is the product of malicious mockery the implication being is that this alinor was skinned by a godkin and this makes sense given that there is a godkin present at prison town the godkin noble found an igly Temple now while to some this Godin Noble boss may feel random I discussed in my R card video why it makes sense firstly they are both allies of convenience they both wish to overthrow the gods but secondly they also both get something out of the arrangement as already shown by the skin dlan oric the godkin noble gets access to plenty subjects for skinning and for skin much as the godkin Apostle of dominula manipulates their festivities to get access to fresh skin rard gains the godkin Nobles knowledge of blame ing life bearing in mind the godkin noble set reads the following Nobles are the most ancient apostles who are said to have assimilated inhuman physiology indeed it is important to note that the godkin Nobles have assimilated Serpentine features namely A Tale To mostly human physiology so now we understand why the Godin Noble is here but why are they Al BoRics here why are they tortured well because they too are artificial beings and for someone like Reichard looking to craft weapons to overthrow the UR Trey and eventually create his own life forms the man serpents Why not start with the creations of the nox a society who has long been seeking to overthrow the her tree and create life forms to that end as beings made from an alchemical formula refers engineering the alinor could be key for Reichard to understand how he can make his own life forms this is of course my specul ation but I believe it is the story that prison town is trying to tell us what is important is the further illustration of the senseless harm that is inflicted upon the Alban Orcs seemingly without care nor thought human upon human conflicts are memorialized in Sword monuments at the very least but Alban Orcs seem to be beneath notice at all treated as though they aren't really living thinking sentient beings just another material or animal to be harvested or an annoyance to be exterminated the dehumanization of the Alban Orcs is one of the most brutal stories of the land between and the core of it is once again found in the alinor blood clot it is because they are seen out with the Ary order they aren't even seen as real life the examples we have gone through here are only scratching the surface of the barbarism that the Alban Orcs face and it always seems done in such a casual senseless fashion for for example we also find strung up Alban orics in The Hideout of necromancer GIS and we can only assume that he too has used them as a subject for his experimentation into necromancy cast out and brutalized it is little wonder that the Alan Orcs are Outsiders who must eek out a living in a cruel and unforgiving World they are outcasts and in the next chapter we will find out where this brutalization has pushed them to and where they Tred to find sanctuary while learia is the main Hub of aloric activity in the lands between we do find them in a couple of different locations one of the more interesting locations is of course in mwin Palace where they appear to be in service to the Lord of blood and I find the story of these Wayward Alban ORS particularly interesting because it can tell us a lot of the Alban oric people both in a physical sense and of their desperation the MN Dynasty presents itself as one of love and acceptance a safe haven for those who have no place in the world of Grace luminary Moog has strength vision and of course love this is of course given legitimacy by the fact that Mo himself is an omen a people unwelcome in the world of Grace he is the king of the outcasts in a sense it is no wonder that A persecuted people may feel drawn to such a community and indeed the placement of of the enemies within Leia and the consecrated snowfield hint at this draw that the mwin dynasty has to the Alban orics the center of the formless mother's influence in Leonia is of course Rose Church and if you want more detailed look at all things MN Dynasty I would direct you to my Mo Lord of blood video near Rose Church you can find a group of Alban orics staring at the Rose Church almost curiously as if they are being drawn to this church church and are considering joining the mwin dynasty we also see this in the consecrated snowfield when you find an aloric standing very close to the bloody portal that leads to the Moog Palace when we form our own Covenant with the formless mother and mwin Dynasty we give our finger over to VAR who then seems to inject us with something and we then receive the bloody finger item in return oh good Heavens clench your teeth or something the description for this bloody finger item reads as follows glistening blood has been siphoned into the nail of this finger its sickly pale skin feels nothing now but the nail still aches with sweetest pain this isn't an item this is our finger we have been afflicted by the blood that varies siphoned into our fingernail and we can see the effect of this transfusion in our eyes which go a cloudy red after this process this is a covenant in its purest form an exchange of blood that forms a binding pack between ourselves and mo indeed as I suggested months ago in my Mo lore video I believe that the blood being siphoned into US is the accursed omen blood of the Lord of blood himself indeed various says this following the ceremony never forget that feeling of Agony for it is what binds you to luminary Moog to all of us it binds us to MOG because it is his blood it binds us to the dynasty as we all know share the blood The Omen blood that runs through our veins and I believe we can see the effect of the omen Blood on the dynasty Nobles who have Omen horns and pale skin like Mo like The Omen with this in mind let us turn our attention back to the Alban orics as it seems some of them have taken up the offer of love and acceptance by the mwin dynasty a lot of Alban orics end up in the consecrated snowfields promised lands that we will discuss in a moment and while most seem to seek the ages of Micha others seem to find another path here a certain blood covered portal that lead to the lands of mog at the area where the portal spits us out on the cliff overlooking the blood blighted lands of mog we get a really interesting scene we see a group of blood Alban orics patrolling a group of regular Alin orics and to me this scene couldn't be clearer these are new inductees that are being guarded before they too are accepted and inducted when filming these shots up close it genuinely brought my heart a little the exhausted L of the regular Alban orics of a people who have been persecuted and hunted their whole lives finally feeling they have some kind of sanctuary and while MOG does preach love it is clear he cares as little for the Alin orics as the rest of the lands between for if one looks carefully at the environmental details in MN Palace we are confronted by a horrific scene aloric corpses strewn carelessly left to rot and soak in the bloody bogs with no care for dignity or burial so the storytelling here is pretty clear not all Alban orics who make it here Will Survive whatever induction process they must Undertake and the callous treatment of their dead speaks volumes about moog's real feelings towards his alinor soldiers MOG only cares for them as shock Trippers and I think this really highlights the sad reality of the second generation Alban orics they are simple trusting beings and while we cannot blame them for seeking Refuge here it is clear that MOG abuses that trust but tragedy aside let us look at the blood Alban oric and what it can tell us about the Alban oric in general looking at this original scene again the two groups are contrasted quite clearly not only do the blood Alban Orcs have bright red skin but as I note in my Mo video like the sanguine Nobles these blood Alban orics also have Omen horns poking through their skin at the top of their heads this again suggests that those Alban orics that become bound to the dynasty go through the the same joining process that we do they have m's Omen blood injected the radical nature of their transformation is really interesting however as we can see the effects on humans are a little bit more subtle and more like a corruption or infection whereas it seems more akin to a pallet change entirely for the Alban orics this does make sense however when we consider the alchemical origins of the Alban oric that we discussed previously I see it as the Alban oric being Mal valuable though they are still formulaic in a way and by adding a new element to the formula it drastically Alters the Alin Orcs as it would a potion we have also to consider the words of the albor staff aloric are innately Arcane and as such their bodies may be affected differently by The Omen curse than a more mundane creature like a human this is not the only instance of this formula change in certain parts of the consecrated snowfield we can find the golden eyed OB Orcs who can wield the golden dis incantations of Micha The unalo of course we don't know for certain what material could have affected them in this way these golden eyed ones but a good educated guess could be that it's unalloyed gold given that they are in the lands of mea and the promised lands of their people with that said it is to these promised lands that we turn to next to discuss the future of the albinar peoples and their Heroes latena and Loretta in the face of so much persecution within the lands between it is very little wonder that the Alban Orcs have come up with a classic Promised Land Story one that we can hear from the mouth of old alus himself a chosen land awaits us aloric The Medallion is the key that leads to the city it's only a quaint treasure for we who cannot make the journey but for dear latena it is needed to fulfill her purpose yet this isn't a mere meth as it seems as though the village has already placed their hopes with latena a young female aloric who always pleads with us to give The Medallion to and take to the promised lands this is the young woman that ofir has already beaten and interrogated in his quest to find Micha upon meeting lutena once we sure that we have The Medallion and ear albus's trust she opens up and asks for her help in reaching micha's halic tree the promised land the old alus mentions to us this of course brings us to Loretta one of the fabled nights of the kryan Dynasty and apparently the only person moved by the plate of the Alban orics Not only was Loretta one of the legendary caran kns but she was a personal guard to the caran royalty and we learn of this via her armor set which reads as follow Loretta once a royal caran Knight went on a journey in search of a Haven for the Alban orics and determined that the Halo tree was their best chance for eventual salvation the rest is as they say history Loretta replaces her glint stone for unalloyed gold in her ccle and becomes a defender of the halic tree rather than Carri a Manor word reaches the Albin oric of Loretta's discovery of this promised land and many Al orics make the pilgrimage here such as the golden Alban orics we previously discussed found in and around ordina we then also have the Alban ORS of the first generation the wolf archers who protect passage to the haly tree Itself by defending ordina lurgical town for all intents and purposes this is a sort of happy ending Loretta has found somewhere for the aloric to hide out safely to build a new future under the agis of Micha in his land an emperion well known to extend his protection to the outcasts of AR tree Society such as we see many Mis begotten in halic Tree Town itself and as we learn through the description of the Sacred Crown Helm which reads as follows who is it that mola shall bless if not the low and the meek indeed we have to assume that like Loretta the Alban orics found in the consecrated snowfield owe some loyalty to Mola guarding passage to the halic tree in exchange for being allowed to settle here as well as being evidenced by the golden Al Orcs that we spoke of earlier Alban Orcs that seem to have taken on the Miracles and appearance of the unalo himself and in fact the aloric people are the main obstacle preventing us from accessing the halic tree itself but did Loretta find this Safe Haven because she is a human who has greater empathy than her fellow lonians or does she have a deeper more personal reason for helping the Alban orics this is of course hinted at Via her Shield description which reads the shape is said to imitate that of a sacred drop of Dee which inspired the Absurd rumor that Loretta herself was an Albin oric the implication here is that the sacred drop of due that's imitated by her Shield is the one that's also displayed on the general aloric Shield the source of all aloric life but is this an absurd rumor or is it actually real we never see beneath Loretta's visor and she is always mounted and therefore could be in a similar situation to the first generation aloric in that she has lost use of her legs and always has to be mounted we also have to consider that Loretta's magic is extremely reminiscent of the magic wielded by the Alban oric archers she summons a bow that fires homing arrows much like The aloric Archers can use magical homing arrows as well this could be a more important form of that particular archery magic at the end of the day we don't know for certain and this bit of lore is worded in a way as to cause us some confusion but if I was to give my opinion I would say she is meant to be an Alban oric given the way she uses magic and the fact that she's always mounted never mind the fact that she went to such lengths to find a home for the Alban orics but again I leave you to your own [Music] conclusions either way it was Loretta who finally paided the way for a better chance at life for the Alban orics but perhaps there's more for them here than just a safe haven perhaps there is a future for the aloric people Albus impressed upon us the importance of latena making it to the proed lands and if we do so if we help latena reach the promised land of the consecrated snowfields we can witness one of the happiest moments in any Souls game a future for the alinor people that they so sorely deserve oh young yet towering sister of ours let the birthing drop l in and create life for us for all the Alban orics when we first enter the consecrated snowfields there is a a dialogue where lutena States the following we have reached the lands of micholas Hal tree where Lobo and I began our travels it is entirely thanks to you that I am so close to home these great snow Laden lands stretch far to the North and Beyond the ancient Bowers in the lurgical town of ordino Lies the place to which I must return latena has been here before this is where she began her journey and where she is to return and given that she is of the Archer archetype and this is the only place we find them it makes sense that this is her home this means that lutena traveled from here to Leonia to collect something and then return it to the terring sister this makes sense of why Gideon specifically targets Lenna he knows that she has come from the Halo tree area and thus must have a way back or at least have knowledge of how to get back there but what has latena come for she evidently came for the item that she passes on to the Towering sister what she calls the birthing droplet an item or a substance that will allow the tering sister to provide new life for the aloric people the broad Strokes of what is happening here is quite straightforward to everyone this birthing droplet will allow the Alan Orcs to give birth to reproduce or create their own new life as an independent race is a quiet moment but to me is as powerful as the a future for the Krogan scene in Mass Effect 3 we have just witnessed the future of a people being granted but what is the nitty-gritty of what's Happening Here what's the science why is the giant sister giant what is the birthing droplet and where did it come from first of all why the giant sister is important and why she is giant well first of all we do have a name for this character as if you are horrendous enough to kill latena she cries out in name filia with one less L filia is the Greek word for Love filia Is the Love of her people she is the hope of her people and evidently the vessel through which they hope to bring about a new generation of Alban orics but why is she large and why is she special so we don't really know this for sure but to try and provide some kind of satisfactory answer I would again refers to the origins of of the alinor and specifically looking at the blue silver armor this time paying special attention to the semantics it says blue silver is a metal born from the same mother as The Archers themselves and provides protection from Magic and frost when talking about the origins of the Alban orics I skipped over the mother aspect of it to focus on the Alchemy but it is curious to note that the term mother is is actually used here does this imply that there was a mother aloric an original creation a progenitor to their race that was used to spawn or clone the rest perhaps a mother aloric figure like filia was used as a template or queen that gave birth to the blue silver as described by the silver blue armor set now I don't necessarily claim that this is filia herself especially given that lutena calls her young implying that she is newly born or created but perhaps she is a recreation of this mother perhaps she has been created by the Alban Orcs themselves as a host for a new generation of Alban orics recreating that original experiment this is of course my own speculation but she is obviously very different she is meant to be a special host for a new generation and it does really make me think of this mother mentioned in the blue silver armor set another theory that I've seen is that people suggest that she is Loretta given Loretta's Shield position here however I don't think this is true given that we fight Loretta in her corporeal form in Halo tree town now in regards to the birthing droplet that Lena passes to the Towering sister we have already spoken of how the Alban orics are alchemical in nature and that by adding or introducing something foreign into their forms it can radically alter their makeup such as Omen blood and the blood Alban oric or possibly unalo gold in the gold ey Alban orics this brings us around to our early discussion of the original aloric formula and the three primes where I posited that the Albin Orcs were created from a combined formula of mercury suffused with Celestial Essence and a primordial due from the ER tree here it seems the Albin Orcs are repeating the same process but on their own terms they control their future again like when I was talking about the primordial du I think there's only one sensible place to look when talking about this birthing droplet and that is the earth tree the her tree is synonymous with life and thus it makes sense when Lena talks about bringing new life to the alinor people the sap of the earth tree a life bringing substance would make sense here and thus we come full circle with the alinor blood clot the alinor people are persecuted because of their disconnect from the earth tree and its rigidly defined and controlled cycle of life how fitting would it be then if it was the sap of that very her tree that gives the Alban Orcs a new chance at life to bring about their own births and their own future and how fitting is it that we come full circle with the item description we started this video with the greatest lore item in the game the albor blood clo a people that are not touched by the AR tre's Grace finally are given a new chance with the Earth tre's own sap I found myself increasingly fascinated with the notion of balance and Duality at the end of Elden ring we are presented with the Dual nature of a god two beings of contrasting temperament yet housed within a single body Mara and rigan the Moon and the Earth tree life and death silver and gold Mo and mor God Micha and Millennia what is the relevance of these themes today I will you with my interpretation of these Duality has long been a focus of from software games most obviously in Dark Souls light and dark chaos and death and so I'm not pretending it is something new to from software games rather I've always had this subject in the back of my mind nagging me is something I want to discuss because it is so prevalent with Elden ring in particular so many elements or forces in Elden ring have an opposite or an inversion whether whether it be the greater well and the frenzied Flame or more got and mes contrasting ideologies about their Omen condition each of these dualities have something interesting to share whether it be a simple contrasting narrative device or whether it be a deeper reference to lunar and solar archetypes and balance as a whole we will be unpacking some of these subjects today as well as reconciling it with the ideologies of the golden order fundamentalists whose aims seem to revolve around reconciliation of all matter ultimately by the end of this video I hope to have explored the meaning behind some of these examples and why Duality is so important to Elden ring as a whole and the main conflicts found within its story in Dark Souls 1 in the very first cinematic we are introduced to the ideas of Duality light and dark heat and cold life and death yet it only came with disparity and before this there was just neutrality a gray world of unloving stone dragons likewise we hear a similar story in Elden ring a time of when there was only one form of life the one great all that there is came from the one great then came fractures and births and souls but the greater will made a mistake torment despair affliction every sin Every curse I think it's fair to assume that in this time when life was just one there were no dualities and so this is our inciting cosmological event that laid the foundations for disparity and my speculation is that because we see so much examples of Duality and balance within the world of Elden ring is that with this disparity came a system of balance that this world exists in a state of balance and opposing Force forces an aversion of each element or a Newtonian response naturally being a system of opposing forces this can sometimes generate conflict however at the end of this video I will present what I believe to be the perfect harmonious balance between two twins that we find in the game the concept of two opposing elements making a whole is such a fundamental basic to life science and philosophy from the double helix strands of DNA the Sun and the Moon mothers and fathers life and death and yin and yang so it is no surprise that these ideas permeate mythologies across numerous cultures in the mythology of many cultures the moon and the sun has always been the most fundamental of dualities both sources of light the symbols of Night and Day personified in certain mythologies to be opposing and yet symbiotic and so with that said I'd like to start with what what I see as the most fundamental duality in Elden ring the Moon and the Earth tree like in Dark Souls the moon plays an important role within Elden Ring's mythology however unlike Dark Souls where the Moon is the Counterpoint to the Sun instead the opposite to the Moon in Elden ring is the earth tree SL the Elden ring as many have observed the sun actually plays a very minor role within Elden ring to the point that it's almost not even visible within the sky it is clear that the Earth tree plays the role of a sun symbolically in this world not only does it illuminate the lands but it also once gave off heat a fact we can learn of via the warming Stone one of the most well-known philosophies of balance is that of Yin and Yang a Chinese philosophical concept that presents the world as a system of balance between opposing yet interconnected forces yen is the receptive or passive ele element but is also represented by the moon and generally is associated with the feminine conversely Yang is the active masculine aspect represented by the sun they are two halves of the fundamentals of the world one even brings the KN and the other the day the light and the shadow these elements of Yen really help explain the foundation of the moon's depiction within Souls games as a whole the moon has very much always been associated with the feminine in dark Souls the Dark Moon gwindel is raised as a girl because he was born with a strong Affinity to the Moon likewise in Elden ring it seems to be the women of the Karan family specifically who are the inheritors of the moon's Legacy rala makes contact with the full moon then leads her daughter rany by the hand who is introduced to her Moon the Dark Moon the Moon and the Sun being associated with the feminine and masculine respectively isn't just an Eastern concept however in Roman mythology Luna is a female whereas Saul is a masculine figure as for why the moon seems to be associated with sorcery in both souls and Elden ring I believe it simply comes down to the fact that culturally magic is more associated with women and feminine energies however that being said the Moon is also associated with magic itself Moon magic is a thing and often occult practices revolve around lunar cycles finally Yin is also the passive element of the yin and yang balance this connection is made in the game Warframe as well in warframe's Choice system you can either make sun decisions or Moon decisions Sun decisions are the passionate ones whether that be acting in anger or in violence or on the flip side showing empathy whereas the moon decisions in Warframe are shown as the detached emotionless decisions where logic dictates the action of the player likewise in Elden ring the order of the moon seems to be a detached order of logic this is reflected in Ran's speech if you choose the age of stars now cometh the age of the Stars a Thousand-Year Voyage under the wisdom of the Moon here Beth the chill night that encompasses all reaching the great beyond into fear doubt and loneliness as the path stretches Into Darkness this is a subject we have discussed previously in my Ranny l video the translation is a little odd and I would recommend that video if you'd like to see some better translations but in essence what rany is saying here is that her order will be at a great remove from Earth it will be present in the cosmos Untouched by emotion faith and close contact her order being far away from the people that she governs in the cold abyss of space sounds like a very cold logical and passive order if I ever heard one a Yen order contrasted with the active order of the earth tree that is very direct very present and active it very much directly moves to impose its order upon the world even beginning a series of violent conquests to achieve such an end a very Yang order but this analogy also does somewhat spell into the alchemical realm from the black moon worshiping nox we can find out that the Moon is also associated with silver from the silver tiar to the Silver Mist that their night maidens spray from their mouths all of which I see as analogous to Mercury one of the three prime elements in alchemy and at a stretch we could see the gold of the her tree as analogous to sulfur or the soul in alchemy there are three prime materials the neutral base matter salt and then the two opposing materials we have just mentioned sulfur and Mercury sulfur and Mercury follow some of these similar dichotomies that we've just discussed about yin and yang sulfur like Yang is the active aggressive element that is meant to represent the soul the greatest lore item in the game the aloric blood clot shows that the Alban orics themselves have a silver blood and its item description highlights the fact that they are reviled by most living things in the lands between because they are artificial reinforcing the fact that these Mercury blooded creatures are merely the material aspect of the world and they are without Soul or sulfur because they are disconnected from The Source or Nexus of souls the Earth tree the magnum opus of alchemy is to reconcile and combine these materials into the perfect substance one of the allegorical depictions of such a union is known as the reibus an immortal being the combination of the White Queen Mercury and the Red King of the male and female into one hole the the relevance of this to Elden ring should be quite obvious as it makes us think of Radigan being the Red King and Mara the White Queen again these two are meant to be opposing forces and yet in Elden ring we find them forced into a single body and so this alchemical analogy gives us two states of being you can have two opposing matters in a system of balance or you have convergence and we will return to this Topic near the end of the video when we talk about Golden order fundamentalism but I want to move on to the subject of twins as we do find quite a lot of twins in Elden ring and twins in mythologies are often the personification of the themes of Duality shadows and contrasts which is why religion and mythology quite often contain stories of twins Romulus and Remis and cter and pox just to name a few one of the most clear and obvious examples of twins is the omen twins M and morgot both Omen yet both represent radically different philosophies about their condition The Omen are a fascinating subset of beings they are aesthetically associated with the age of The Crucible grotesque and beastial strong in violence and with physical forms as chaotic as The Crucible itself yet the real Crux of the omen condition is their souls which have become disconnected from the earth tree the Nexus of life in this world the seedbed curse is a good tool to understand the omen condition with as these are the poxes that the dung eater spreads The Omen curse with it reads the following by doing so he prevents dead Souls returning to the Earth tree leaving them forever cursed one of the most loathsome things found in the lands between these beings are cursed in so much that their souls die but are unable to return to the Earth tree this is why for me some of the powers of the omen are comparable visually to those who live in death and for clarity I'm talking about the brown black Flames that Royal Omen are able to produce which is very visually similar to the white black flame of ghost flame a flame which Sprouts from those who live in death when they begin to respawn remember that those who live in death are born from Godwin a being who died in Soul only and so in that way the omen are very similar both a set of beings who have dead souls and we are beginning to see a pattern here of who the fundamentalists hate those who live in death The Omen and the aloric all groups that are disconnected from the earth tree recycling system ultimately more God accepts the Judgment of the golden order believing that his Omen form to be a cursed that Mars the purity of the thrones and of the earth tree the Thrones stain by my curse such shame I cannot bear thy part in this shall not be forgiven yet his twin Moog is the opposite in the depths of the sewers he rejected the condemnation of the urry order and not only accepted his accursed blood but learned to love it and wear it on his sleeve let it become his own standard for his par base so what is the Thematic role of mog and mor God in their contrasting ideologies well there are several facets to it firstly I believe it is just a simple relationship of contrasts two opposing brothers that highlight the damaging effects of the golden order Dogma both are afflicted by it in different ways one is gaslit into hating themselves and the other is radicalized forced to become exactly what the golden order labels them to be but mainly these two are just thematically harmonious with the rest of Elder ring by bringing another set of dualities into a story that is filled with them already reinforcing the notion that everything in this world has a shadow everything exists in Balance but with that said I think we talk about the elephant in the room now when we're talking about Duality and that is the golden order fundamentalists the fundamentalist sko of the golden order seems to tout convergence and regression a focus on completeness rather than balance this of course can be traced back to Radigan himself whose Talisman tells us that he aspires to be complete to me the idea of completeness again goes back to the alchemical idea of the rez the reconciliation and combination of all matter indeed under Radigan the fundamentalists reject a system of balance between Miracles and spells rigan's fundamentalist prayers are a result of both intelligence and and Faith neither spell nor Miracle but both the foundational laws of the golden order fundamentalist further espouse these ideas that all things are in fact linked not in opposition and to quote the law of aggression regression is the pool of meaning that all things yearn eternally to converge I hadn't realized the full significance of these words until I began to consider Elden Ring's systems of Duality as as it stands now the world is one of opposing forces acting upon each other creating a Newtonian system of balance and yet sometime the balance slips the removal of the Rune of death for example which leads the world in a deathless state but ultimately things eventually do rebalance we later have the KN of the black knives and the birth of those who live in death as if to correct the imbalance that had been caused by the removal of the Run of death but balance between opposing forces can be destructive sometimes and perhaps Radigan witnessing these events around death seeks now to completely eliminate balance alt together instead of it being a yin and yang Circle two halves acting against each other it is just a circle Devon and Daran D and his brother represent a culmination of golden order ideals two beings yet One Soul convergence their armor and weapon are gold and silver combined reminding us that their condition is symbolic of the greater themes of Duality found within Elden ring we've already talked about gold and silver and its relevance to Yin and Yang to Mercury and sulfur and yet here we have two beings with one soul and their armor sets showing these two materials these two halves as one their weapon the Inseparable sword reads the following sword forged by comp founding silver and gold the Inseparable twins found solace in the golden order the only institution not to revil them as accursed beings to the golden order these twins are a step towards greater convergence the removal of balance and Oneness within the world I have seen people try to liken the fundamentalist ideology to be similar to the frenzied flame and the return to the one great and I would argue that the real difference between these two is that the golden order fundamentalists don't necessarily want all life to be bundled into one form rather that there is a uniformity amongst life and that everything is linked together in a chain of causality as we've discussed numerous times in different videos the law of regression makes one think of the statistical phenomena known as regression towards the mean in essence this refers to the idea where a sampling of variables where there are extreme outliers if you repeat that same sampling the results will regress closely her towards the mean towards the average last protagonist describes this very aptly in his great Tree video in which he uses the example of two parents who are above average height if they have a child together that child is likely to be shorter than them and closer to the average height so the law of regression in the context of Elden ring most likely means that life in general that eternally yearns to converge will over time regress closer and closer to an Aver again implying some sort of uniformity of form combining this understanding with the great themes of Duality and balance within Elden ring we can see the golden order fundamentalist ideas as a Transcendence to something Beyond opposing forces something that is complete much like Radigan strive to be and much like the true magnum opus of alchemy the combination and Reconciliation of all matter the striving towards wholeness or or completeness is also Union in which a person attains wholeness by reconciling the different aspects of themselves the ego with Shadow the Ana and the Animus except in rigan's case this reconciliation of both of his halves is more literal as he does indeed share his body with his other half with his shadow and perhaps this gives new meaning to amica's last words to her other half oh radan Le Hound of the golden order Thou Art yet to become me thou art yet to become a God let us be shattered both mine Other Self perhaps rigan wanted Mar and Radigan to become one being despite the fact they share a body they are still distinct personalities they are still the two materials of alchemy as ultimately he is just one half of a whole yet radigan's fun fundamentalist ideology his desire for convergence is flawed there are things that exist outside the holistic golden order such as those who live in death and The Omen and the aloric these cannot be reconciled they can only be expunged D even acknowledges that these beings those who live in death tarnish the truth of the golden order just by their mere existence as they fall outside the principles and causality of gold Olden order fundamentalism they are like the remainder in a mathematic equation that doesn't quite balance so at a very base level this philosophy is flawed if everything is not connected in a chain of causality then all things do not yearn to converge it's that simple those who live in death and The Omen curse will continue to exist outside those chains of causality however they do work in a system of balance as they act as opposing forces to the Earth tree and those who are connected to it the world of Elden ring either needs to exist in a state of balance or it needs to be completely melted away to become one material once again and I want to move on to the final pair of twins who I believe are the best example of harmonious balance that we can find in Elden ring the twin prodigies Micha and melenia are born of the single bodied God and as we learned from millenia's remembrance this fact was supposed to make their birth the most special of all and perhaps rigan had hoped that they would not be born as twins for in a lot of way the white-haired Micha and the red-haired melenia together are the greatest force of all and yet they were born as twins reflecting that parity and Duality that exists throughout Elden ring again one lunar and one solar one with white hair one with red hair one physical aggressive and Powerful the other passive reflective and intelligent I have always believed that srina is an aspect or part of Micha and perhaps that is reflective of the fact that he aligns more closely with the feminine aspect of Yin and Yang as we learn from the triple rings of light rigan hoped to utilize his son's intelligence for his golden order fundamentalism as Micha is obviously a great thinker yet Micha rejects the teachings of convergence as he only cares about one thing his sister and to cure her to make her life better in fact most of what we know about micha's life is dedicated to curing his sister in return melenia rewards her brother's love with undying loyalty despite herself being an imperian and one of the most powerful beings in all the lands between she resigns herself to be her brother's blade while he sought a way to eliminate her curse melenia would Shield her brother from his Mela the ever youthful was no doubt physically feeble and yet he now had his sister s's strong arm to defend him M and morat's relationship was one of contrasting and opposing forces an antagonistic relationship at least in an ideological sense rather than a physical sense and it was meant to better emphasize the omen condition and the flaws of the golden order yet Micha and melenia actually represent the Pinnacle of opposing forces inbalance because they aren't really opposing they are symbiotic and harmonious yet individually in fact the statues of Micha and melenia highlight their powerful Bond but not only this it shows two beings two halves making up one whole contradictory yet Cooperative they are together a singular cosmic power that could bring balance and together their strength this proves the need for convergence that the golden order fundamentalists strive for they value the individuality of two opposing halves and and are the poster children for disparity and individuality it is just a shame that micha's order was never given a chance to grow snuffed out by Moog indeed it is the fickleness of gods no better than man that is the fly in the ointment but regardless of the actions of God and man there will always be a shadow and in the world of Elden ring I think it holds true that for every action there's an opposite and equal reaction and that is why the world of Elden ring is one of dualities Reflections and shadows Elden ring is a game that is jam-packed with grand narratives powerful themes and Larger than Life characters many of which we have tackled in long form content on this channel yet the lands between aren't just a stage for these events to play out on they are a lived in place and beneath the notice of gods and heroes there are smaller stories hidden Tales of murder crime schemes and heroism that are told through environmental and indirect storytelling this is something that from software has always done well in their games not only telling us the story through item descriptions but showing us it through scenes and enemy placement and Elden ring is no different in that regard in this lore video we are going to take a closer look at the lands between and analyze some of these micro stories as I feel it adds some breadth and realism to the lore of the greater macro narratives zorm recently did an interesting video on the Mana celes the cathedral found in Moonlight altar where he tries to uncover the potential answers as to what this Cathedral is all about it is an interesting discussion and it really got me interested in the Moon Moonlight altar in general so Props to Z for starting this conversation because it is easy to just ignore this as another area with random ruins across it in this region there are four main sites of Interest the Cathedral of Mana celest the moonfolk ruins the lunar estate ruins and the three sister statues so let us try and uncover this Mystery by trying to determine who once lived here and what happened here as zorm points out the Cathedral of manises is itself in the same style as the Church of vow a building constructed by the carens and thus I do not think it is revolutionary to say that this cathedral was also built by the carians as in aside we will return to the connections to the Eternal City statues later on let us talk about the carians then and why this whole region Moonlight altar has some strong connections and Illusions to them them firstly as zorm States in his video this part of Leonia is situated on the western side which the map says has strong connections to the carens which makes sense given that Cara Manor is also on the western side so it just plays in to the western side being associated with the carens the history of the carens is really interesting and is something I have discussed to a degree in my rany lore video already so first of all we know that in general the Glenstone Sorcerers of learia and real Laria are descended from astrologers as is mentioned in the description of the caran preceptor set which reads large hat with the movements of the Stars drawn on the inside of the brim worn by the magic preceptors who served the caran Royals glint Stone Sorcerers are the descendants of astrologers a fact that the Kion remain aware of even if their fate has long been severed from the stars and we know that the astrologers Were Once a community that lived on the Mountaintop of the Giants alongside the Giants in peace thanks to the description of the sword of night and Flame hence the star Gaz are ruins that we can find up on the mountain top of the Giants which presumably were the settlements of these astrologers it makes sense that a more primitive astrologer culture would want to live as high as possible in the mountaintops as if being higher makes them closer to the sky and as close as possible to the stars that they are studying and given these item descriptions I've always assumed and speculated that the Sorcerers of real Laria and the carens themselves are all descended from these Mountain dwelling astrologers who eventually must have come down to the lowland of Leia which of course makes sense given the abundance of glint Stone in this region Glenstone becoming the main medium for studying the Stars replacing the old style astrology and if you'd like a video that looks more in depth at Glenstone and the connections to the Stars I'd recommend my Cosmos video and my primeval current lore videos the connection of the caran to these astrologers becomes very clear when you look at the Stargazer heirloom in which rala herself is described as an astrologer it reads the following the young astrologer gazed at the night sky as she walked she had always chased the Stars every step of her journey then she met the full moon and in time the astrologer became a queen so prior to this ranala was also an astrologer and we do find the Hallmarks of astrology at Moonlight altar such as the same astrological basins that we see in the mountaintops of the Giants and at Carri a Manor however it was her Association with the Moon that transformed her into the full moon Queen and raised the prominence of her family the full extent of this rise is something we learn of via her remembrance which reads in her youth rala was a prominent champion who Charmed The Academy with her lunar magic becoming its Master she also led the glint Stone kns and establish the house of Kara as royalty the Moon is responsible for ral's ascendant and it is suggested that this was a really new form of magic with of course the glint Stone Sorcerers of R Laria being focused on glint Stone magic and its connection to the Stars indeed lunar magic is described as heterodox in the description of the lazuli conspectus crown and no doubt rala was able to charm the academy and establish her family as royalty due to this new found and unique power I would therefore say it is pretty fair to assume that the lunar estate and the moon folk settlement has to be associated with renala and her family for me that is the very basics of what Moonlight altar is the place in which ranala first met her Moon and then where she established her power base initially of course that is complete conjecture but given how clearly we can see the full moon and ranny's Dark Moon here it isn't a stretch to say that the Moonlight altar is the place in which renala first met her full moon and probably where rala took rannie to meet her Moon something we learn of via Ran's Dark Moon item description there is clearly a strong connection to the cosmic here the moons are closer and brighter despite Moonlight alter not being that much higher than other places in the world indeed blue streaks Mark the sky as if the stars themselves are so close that they can't constantly fall and Scar the sky here and yet we cannot see these marks from below the altar or the area surrounding it meaning there is some special significance to the Moonlight altar in particular this all leaves me with no doubt that this is where ranala and rannie met their moons both of which we can still see clearly in the sky at the same time but only from this location so this brings us to the lunar estate and the moonfolk ruins both locations found on Moonlight altar the former lunar estate I would suggest the estate of the carens for those unaware the term estate is usually used to describe a large property owned by usually a noble or aristocratic family indeed I myself grew up near the estate of a local Scottish lard and likewise I would assume the term estate in lunar estate has been chosen precisely to indicate that a noble lunar family once lived here and owned the land clearly the caran perhaps this was the original estate of the carens when rala was first rising to prominence or perhaps this is their old estate as a caran family that were Nobles but not yet royalty and became known as the lunar estate when ralo became associated with the moon and perhaps later they would establish Cara Manor caram Manor commands a better location to rule over leera as it is lowered down and commands a better view over R Laria and the rest of Leia and perhaps it even coincided with the collapse of the central lands the map of learia West makes it clear that the lands in Leonia are collapsing or Sinking and indeed the Visual Evidence of for example Academy town and in general the land surrounding the real Laria Academy so suggests that there was once land that stood higher maybe at level with r laria's Academy but it has all Fallen away into a lake such a collapse and making the general region much lower would have left the Moonlight altar fairly isolated and thus Carri a Manor would be a more logistically sound location for the new royal family of this land and thus we already have one potential explanation as to why these lands are now abandoned and in ruin whereas Carri manner is more well-maintained aside from this rala would later become more closely tied to the earthree royal family and people via her marriage to Radigan and thus she may have over time began to distance herself from her Moon and original lunar estate with Cara Manor again commanding a more notable position closer to the gate of the Altus Plateau but this is all just my conjecture and speculation I would also suggest that the moon folk ruin ruins are the ruins of a people who lived within Kara's former estate and sphere of influence seeing the Kens as their Le Lord overall I see this Moonlight altar as a former par base of the Karan family that was later abandoned for multiple reasons including War the collapse of the land and changing priorities amongst the royal family let us now talk about the Cathedral of manes and what its function was and why it was built obviously as we have said it carries the same caran architectural style that the Church of vows does and given it is also found in a caran power base it was clearly built by the carens that ruled from this region as for the name many people have long debated this manes is Latin and people have translated it different ways in short it either means Heavenly hand hand of God or The Hidden Hand and of course this could could be a reference to the two fingers found directly below the cathedral or it could be referenced to the Moon that lies directly above the cathedral the cathedral itself is shattered and spread throughout these ruined fragments are Starlight shards and this is led many to conclude two different things one that some kind of Starfall shattered the cathedral two that the fingers themselves came from the Stars crashing into the Earth like a meteor and causing the whole in the floor of the church while I agree that the cathedral was most likely damaged by Starfall given we've already suggested that this place Moonlight altar is somehow closer to the cosmos I'm not entirely convinced that the fingers have come from space though there is some Merit to the argument firstly as zorm points out in his video the hole that is supposedly the comet crater that the fingers came down on isn't a straight shot down to the cave where we find the fingers in fact it is quite a winding passage that runs quite far horizontally before we come to the cave where the fingers are located and unfortunately we just don't know much about the fingers to determine how they come to be in the first place do they just manifest when they are needed do they grow out of the ground or do they have different ways they can come about these fingers do look slightly different from the others that we see and I do admit that the blue coloring could be hinting to some Cosmic source for the particular fingers however they came to be I would argue that the fingers of rival into this cave predates the cathedral itself and that their coming didn't smash the cathedral roof instead I suggest that the term and name of the cathedral manises is indicating that the cathedral was built on top of the two fingers the hand of God rannie would later come to despise her connection to the fingers but perhaps at the time when she first became imperian it was a cause of celebration for her and her family after all one of their own had just been chosen for imperian status a potential God for the next era would this not be worthy of celebration in building a huge Cathedral honoring the hand of God that had passed this judgment and I think there's plenty of evidence that rannie was alive while the carians were still inhabiting this region of moonlight altar the first and most obvious one being that rannie is obvious familiar with this region as she travels here to S her connection with her own two fingers and given they are her two fingers would it not make sense that they would manifest in the region that she lived but there is further evidence that she was around when this area was occupied by the Carion and their followers and that brings us to the three sister statues found on Moonlight altar as I had discussed in my rore video I had speculated that there were once three three daughters of rala ranii and Rena represented by their respective rises in the three sisters area of Karam Manor and a third unnamed sister whose teror would later be claimed and renamed by civis so if we have the three sisters represented at Karam Manor it is fitting therefore that we find three statues of female figures at Moonlight altar as well as a red wolf of Radigan rannie father that guards these statues it does suggest that rany and the Three Sisters in general were born at a time when Moonlight altar was still relevant and thus these statues were built to honor them this is of course speculation on my part but the fact there are three female statues here and we have the three sisters mentioned at K Manor I don't think it's a coincidence and for me the red Ruf of Radigan could suggest that these statues are contemporary with ral's marriage to rigan and there is further evidence of that that this region was inhabited at the time that Radigan was married to rala and thus the age that Ranny could have been born to the two of them we've already discussed that the Cathedral of manises was built in the same architectural style as the Church of vow a building that was meant to memorialize and house the marriage of rala and Radigan we know it was specifically built for this because Mariel says that it is built to hold the view of both of the centers of power the ER tree and R lucaria which you can see from the church of V so it's built specifically for this ceremony in a specific spot where both of these monuments can be seen the joining of two houses and thus if the cathedral shares this same architectural style we can date it to renala and radigan's marriage and therefore ranny's Birth by extension and thus ultimately I rest my case on Mana CES being built to honor ranny's imperian status and honor the two fingers that sits below it and potentially this gives another reason that it could have been abandoned if rannie grew sick of her two fingers and disillusioned with them she'd obviously want to be as far away as possible from them with that said let us talk about one final other point of interest regarding the moonlight alar and that is the way in which it illustrates the connection between the carens and the Eternal cities and credit to tarnished archaeologist who was the first person who made me aware of the significance of these statues with the sword that can be found in carrying structures in Noella and on the Saints Bridge in Lim grave it is hard to confirm whether the Eternal cities were literally moved from the surface to below or if they were built from scratch after the nox people were banished Underground and ultimately that discussion is kind of irrelevant for this discussion but if you do want to see a good video that dissects the possibility that all these cities literally sat on the surface and were pushed below then I would recommend tarnished archaeologists video on the Eternal Empire regardless of what you believe in that respect what is clear is that the kns have existed underground for a long time and lo and behold there is a connecting path from Moonlight altar to Noella the Eternal City indeed this is how we access the Moonlight altar in the first place by passing through Noella and past Estelle's Den so we do need to ask why does this passage all the way to an eternal City exist from Moonlight Altar for me speculatively it is proof that there is a link between these two cultures the carens and the nox exchanging ideas and their cultures and this would explain why we see nox statues in both the Cathedral of of mana celes and the Church of vow it goes even further in the Church of Vow where Celestial due is used at its main font a font which played a role in Radigan and ral's wedding so when noxian import playing a role in a marriage between the earth tree and the moon and given the ideals between the nox and the carens having certain overlaps and ranny's extensive knowledge of their hidden treasure the Finger Slayer blade it isn't hard to imagine the Kens and the nox having a connection to one another so let us wrap up what I have to say about the Moonlight altar in general I think this was once the center of caran power consisting of the lunar estate of the caran family and the moonfolk people who served rala and the moon rannie and her sisters were born during this period and they were celebrated with the three sister statues that we see on Moonlight altar this place also had a special connection to the moon it's where rala first communed with the moon and it is where she led rannie by the hand to meet her Dark Moon and this is why both moons simultaneously appear in the sky the Cathedral of Mana CES would then be built when rany was chosen as imperion it is a building that celebrates the hand of God that elevated the caran to new heights I would also argue that the caring and noox had a rapport building a pathway between the two cultures this area would eventually follow of relevance however being supplanted by the ker Manor for a number of reasons there's the two Wars of Leonia that could have damaged this region there's the falling away of the Landscapes which would have isolated this region and there is the fact that rannie may not have wanted to be next to her two fingers anymore ultimately it is all speculation but I would love to hear your thoughts on the Moonlight altar in the comments below when we come to learia we are met with one of the most breathtaking Vistas in the entire game and of course the star of that Vista is the Academy of real Laria making it clear to us that this is our ultimate destination in the region just by visuals alone luckily for us a former member of the academy is nearby to give us the intel on how to gain access to the academy and of course I'm referring two tops after they declared they wouldn't interfere with the shattering The Academy cast repelling seals on the East Gate leading to the capital and the south gate leading here as you might have guessed the seals are still active making entry to the academy impossible without a glint Stone Key why not find yourself a glint Stone Key without one you can't pass through the academy and you'll never reach the her tree Capital real aaria is sealed and only those with the glint Stone Key are able to pierce the seals that barrier its entrances with that in mind let us read the item description for the glint Stone Key itself it reads the following key to the seals binding both gates to the academy of real Laria a Glenstone key will remember its user meaning once used it can never be passed on to another the academy does not welcome the indin obviously there's some pretty fascinating lore found here firstly the key will only function for its original user everyone has to have their own key meaning you can't give a used key to your pal the key also says that the academy does not welcome the ellin and this is where the elitist mindset of the academy comes into play indolent essentially means lazy and we know that the academy had very exacting standards for those who are allowed to study there a system that is illustr ated through their glint Stone Crown system the item description for the glint Stone Crown reads the following one of the Glenstone crowns bestowed upon real Laria Scholars whose Pursuits were deemed worthy so the crown is a symbol a symbol of a sorcerer who is deemed worthy enough to stand in the halls of theems and of course the different versions of these crowns designate The Chosen School of study a subject and of itself for another video those that are deemed not talented enough not worthy or denied a crown and denied a place at the Academy as a result tops doesn't seem to have been kicked out the academy per se however rather he claims to have popped out of the academy only to find himself locked out after the academy went into lockdown and sealed its entrances nonetheless if we examine his treatment at the Academy it is a great illustration of the elitism and intellectual snobbery present at the Academy however tops describes himself as a blunt Stone I.E someone too dim to study there the tops barrier spell the culmination of tops his study does imply that he was basically laughed out of the academy for being too stupid as it reads the following the lifelong pursuit of tops the blunt Stone future Generations will learn they will know the foolishness of the sneering Sorcerers who ridiculed this Theory little realizing that it was in fact a discovery worthy of a new conspectus of the academy so they were ultimately wrong but because they thought he was too dimmed to study there because of his heterodox study he was essentially kicked out denied a crown of his own when in fact it should have been worthy of a new Crown altogether but we do get further examples of dropouts via the the Swift glint Stone Shard item description which reads those Unworthy of the stone Crown typically end their brief journey into sorcery here so those Unworthy of the stone Crown those that are only capable of the most basic Magics aren't seen as worth the time or worthy of a stone crown and further study only the best and those above average will do at this Academy and indeed we do meet these dropouts throughout the game these are the noble wandering sorcerer enemies that we Face throughout the lands between in the various mobs the noble sorcerer ashes read the following Spirit of a nobleman who once asked to be given a place at R Laria to learn glint Stone sorceries his talents were insufficient to be worthy of dawning the stone crown and he is only capable of using the most rudimentary sorcery again confirming that these dropouts are those capable of only using lower level spells Unworthy of the stone Crown any place at R lucaria the hierarchy is so prominent and so affecting that those who fail as Sorcerers may even be relegated to a life in the minds as the shatter Earth spell reads the following a stone Digger sorcery used by the Glenstone miners of the crystal tunnel at the Academy use of this sorcery was a stigma that marked out failed Scholars and indeed we see these miners all throughout the lands between these minors who are condemned to a pretty horrible life of being affected by the glint stone that they M the term stigma and the sneering described in tops his barrier really give us this idea of this real culture of snobbery and intellectualism that those who are not worthy who don't meet the high bar of sorcery just simply aren't worth it at all and their only use is to either be kicked out or to be used as Miners and this ties back to the idea of the glint Stone Keys access to real Laria is closely guarded an elitist establishment that not just anyone can get access to and thus it makes sense that an unused glint Stone Key would be worth a fortune thus we come to the point in the game where we must receive eror key the natural course for most firsttime players is that they will come to the entrance of the academy via the sunken Academy town and at that stage they will find tops his word to be true the gates are barred there is a seal and we have no key meaning we cannot enter the academy yet right in front of this gate there is a body and on this body we find a map called meeting place map which reads the following the man it came from surely desired one the sole means of gaining in entry into the academy a glint ststone key so we can see what we have found here is directions to a meeting spot a meeting spot where a deal for a valuable glint Stone key is going to go down the owner of this map clearly had not gained access to real lucaria legitimately and thus wanted to buy their way in however when we make our way to the point on the map we are met with quite the scene smag the Devourer and a collection of corpses in his den one of these corpses has the item that we seek and in a great attention to detail this specific corpse the one with a glint Stone key is one of a glint Stone sorcerer in the Robes of R lucaria and A glint Stone crown of an accepted Sorcerer of R lucaria to me the picture is clear this was a black market back alley deal set up between the man we find outside real laria's Gates and this glint Stone sorcerer clearly the latter is the supplier an accepted Sorcerer of real Laria an Insider who is able to procure a glint Stone key as we have clearly established each key is one use and so a blank key would be worth a pretty penny for those who cannot gain access legitimately for those who aren't worthy of the stone or for those who are simply wanting to rob the place and aren't a sorcerer their only chance to gain entry would to be purchasing it from an Insider from an accepted real aarian Sorcerer And this is why I appreciate that the corpse holding the glint Stone Key isn't just a placeholder corpse like we see in some areas this is specifically a real luaran sorcerer the only person who could have possibly procured a glint Stone Key from the inside again from sof's attention to detail is just next level obviously this deal ends in disaster we know from sm's glint Stone breath that he was a Devourer of sorcerers and thus it is clear that when the sorcerer went to the meeting point to sell the key smag descended upon them and killed them meaning there is a shiny new key for us if we defeat the dragon sadly for the original owner of the map they died outside the gates of RI Laria denied entrance by smag and they do nothing but stare wistfully at its sealed Gates the forces of lell are probably lorewise and aesthetically my favorite fighting force in the game the lale soldier ashes tell us that they are a force known for their defensive fighting actions a fact exemplified by their Knights and their High Shields not only are they well armed and well trained but there are certain Knights like Dragon kn KN Kristoff who are further bolstered by the power of Dragon Cult incantations with their Knights Dragon Cult tree Sentinels and marget the fil they are a force to be reckoned with the force of lell that we see today must be an evolution or descendant of those who face down gr Sachs and the dragons two of the greatest victories of the shattering are attributed to Lanell the first and second defenses of Lanell in which successfully defended the capital from Waring demig gods and Dragon Knight Kristoff himself defeated godfroy a demigod no mean fate yet despite my passion for lale's Fighting Force they aren't infallible like Game of Thrones no faction is all powerful and lell certainly suffered their fair share of setbacks they were held to a stalemate by the caran knights in the first and second leonian Wars despite the caran Knights being greatly outnumbered a fact we learn of from the caran knights sword it also seems that lale forces assaulted Mount gmir and volcano Manor as we can see Siege towers and lale flags and broken Lindale forces resorting to cannibalism and falling victim to frenzy on the fractured slopes of Mount gmir it is plain to see that this battle did not go the way for the lale forces but the sword Memorial on the mountain makes the toll of this battle and its depravity even clearer as it reads the assault on volcano Manor the squalled the sick the Blasphemous a wretched unending war with no glory a brutal war in which both sides of the conflict died in the mud with lell survivors left completely broken and dying in the mud of Mount gilir and this brings us to another disaster that the lale forces faced and the subject of this segment of the video sewater cave which is found along sewater river a superheated river that runs along one of the lower reaches of Mount gmir sewater cave is just one of many caves found in Elden ring but it is a cave that tells a fascinating story that begins right outside its entrance the first thing you will notice is that there is a lookout a soldier and when we kill them and get inside we can see why there is a lookout here there is a unit of lale soldiers hiding out in this cave complete with campfire and supplies the lookout outside now makes a bit more sense this guard this Sentry is making sure no one finds their hiding spot and in particular is no doubt looking out for the forces that left them in this broken State another detail that I like here is that the soldiers are only only sitting in the porch of this cave because Beyond this point and deeper into seawater cave there is a dangerous location filled with Miranda flowers poison bogs Servants of rot and the Kindred and thus they are merely Sheltering in the only safe part of the cave and I find the extreme contrast between these two sections of the cave to be truly fascinating each tell their own story but why are these soldiers hiding and what is the Sentry looking out for well this is why I really like seawater cave in particular because it plays into the greater Narrative of this region if we follow the river further up we reach seawater Terminus and there is a narrative unfolding here here is Fort laade a fort that was once a stronghold of Lane Dell as we can tell from the liary of the dead soldiers here but it has now been completely overrun by the forces of of the fire monks of all people the lale soldiery has been slaughtered to a man and a fire monk prelate has taken command of the fort many question why this has happened surely Le andell and the fire monks are allies given the fire monks were established by the former queen of lale mar yet I would argue that it makes perfect sense given what we know of the fire monks and their purpose the fire monks have left their Mountaintop bases and have essentially invaded the low lands of leel and Leia for a specific purpose this is something we learn of via the monks flame blade which reads the monks came to the land of Leia in pursuit of a fugitive who stole their fire the fire monks were constituted to keep the flame of Ruin confined and protect its fire from outside elements Edan is the thief that they are searching ing for who has now been imprisoned in an Ever jail of all places and we learn it is a Dan that they are looking for thanks to the item that he drops the flame of the fail God which reads aranan the chief guardian of the flame had kept this incantation a well-kept secret until it was stolen by Adan the fail God still lurks within the fire Giants one side note before we go any further I like how Adan has a hodg podge of fire monk prelate armor as if he was disguising himself as one so that he could Nick this spell from aranan this is why there's such a strong presence of monks in Leonia they are hot on the trail of this thief indeed a dance ever jail is in Leonia so they're on the right track to them their mission is far more important than such basic ideas like territory and allies the flame needs to be confined and the fire monks see themselves as the only ones Worthy and capable of guarding and using its secrets so to me what happens at Fort leade is an extension of this the fir monks have come down with a heavy hand nothing is more important than the recovery of this spell and they have clearly sacked this fort in their fervor to recover this stolen spell perhaps they believed Adan was once held here or passed through here or perhaps the fort merely stopped their advance or perhaps they just needed a base of operations for the commander of this recovery Mission the prelate Either Way Fort lad and its Garrison were just unfortunately caught on the wrong end of the fire monks a and just down the river from this massacre of lale forces is a hold out of lale forces within a random cave to me this explains the presence of lale soldiers in an otherwise rot filled cave these are survivors from the slaughter of Fort leade that just lies around the river bend clearly these soldiers fled and are now hiding out this is why there is a Sentry here and no wonder the scene at Fort leade is pretty hellish and having witnessed the massacre of their comrades by Fire Thorn and blade I too would be hiding out in a cave one enemy that really terrified me on my first playthrough were the giant dogs of kid from the moment you see them and the crows I just turned around and nped out of there and didn't return until I was way too overleveled I know that many others have an experience that is very much like this and this is a testment to their incredible visual design there's something so intimidating but also so wrong in the way that they are disproportioned and it makes you want to stay away from them the lore in these Beast is pretty threadbear and when I say thread bear I mean non-existent but that hasn't stopped us from speculating on it the most obvious theory of course relates to them being creatures that have been afflicted by the Scarlet rot that has flooded the environment of kalid since the Battle of aonia as I've said their bodies and shape look a little bit wrong as if it is a symptom of rot that over time has led to gism hence their disproportionate head size this could also explain the crows that are found in kid as well and despite their Mal forms both of these beings thrive in this region despite it being a region of death they are clearly Scavenging and eating as if they have been afflicted by and become part of this very ecosystem indeed some suggest that the dogs are actually related to the crows devolved versions of them or that they have evolved into the crows one way or the other I'm not really sure where I set on this type of lore Theory but it is worth mention mentioning because I think it's quite a prominent one but I think what is clear is that the dogs and crows are essentially scavengers now and a point that is well made by the honored madman in their deep dive on the crows is that the crows are found in three areas three areas associated with death again reinforcing the fact that these are scavenger creatures and if you're looking for a more detailed look on the crows I will link honored mad man's video below the dogs are also found in two of these same are the mountain tops of the Giants and kalid it makes sense for the crows to be on the mountain tops as they can fly and they simply could have migrated from the kalid region for new carrying as there are plenty of corpses in this region given that this is where the battle of the fire Giants took place but how and why are the dogs here well I believe the answer specifically lies around their necks because while this area may seem like a random hodg podge of late game enemies and indeed I thought the same from software still doesn't stop with the details because there is one specific model of dog that is used here and that is the variant with the collars around their neck every single one of these large dog enemies that you found on the mountain tops of the Giants do have the collars around their neck and go ahead and check if you don't believe me whereas in kalid where they are marauding killing everything and cl ING with the red Mees they are the ones without the collars except there is one dog in kaleid that has a collar the one by G Shack it in fact does not attack him and stands there like a guard dog which leads us to conclude that this particular dog has been trained and colored by gy which shouldn't be a surprise given G is so in tune with the rot and Associated life forms again from software are telling us a story with the placement of these dogs most of the dogs in kid are running wild and don't have collars but this particular dog is sitting like a good boy with a collar around its neck and if we return to the mountain tops of the Giants like I said every single dog in this region isn't the colorless version it is the colored ones and so to me the story being told here is clear these are dogs that have been captured and trained by the fire monks and exported here to act as guard beasts ultimately the fire monks are to contain the flame of Ruin would it not make sense to have some worthy guard dogs to protect the flame of ruin this would also explain the lava slugs that we find following around the camps of the fire monks in Mount gmir and Leonia they too must have been taken from their natural habitat of Mount gmir and put to work work is trained beasts alongside the dogs that we found in the mountaintops of the Giants all this just makes me wish that we could somehow train our own good boy when you first encounter the demihumans in Elden ring you'd be forgiven for thinking they are just another enemy that you couldn't possibly reason with that is until you meet B and there are other hints that people humans can actually work alongside their demium cousins in past videos I have touted that one of the best areas in the game for environmental storytelling is Mount gmir from the shattered battlefields and the cannibalism to the implicit cruelty of volcano Manor town and one of the stories in this particular segment is no different if you pass through sewater Terminus and over a lava runoff you will find an alternate slope that can take you up the mountain as an alternate route from the bridge from Altus plateau and on these very slopes an interesting narrative is playing out and it is up to us to work out what happened here as it is not directly mentioned anywhere at the top of this slope is a small Hamlet called hermit Village and as you can clearly see things are not going well here the original human inhabitants have been slaughtered and the place is overrun with demihumans no doubt the perpetrators of said Slaughter and it's quite a large Clan at that with Chieftain and a demi human Queen but why is this just a very surface level enemy placement in a basic story of demihumans killing humans well there is a very interesting story here as I'm sure many are aware as there seems to be a specific reason why the demihumans are here and most notably and most interestingly there are real aarian Sorcerers who seem to be assisting and fighting alongside these Demi humans so what is going on well for now let us segue into one of the best sources for demium lore the great Kenneth height when we first enter limra an interesting scene that many players will see on their first journey is a pitched battle between godric men and demihumans and yet we get a very different perspective on demihumans when we undertake one of our first quests and that is helping Kenneth height Kenneth height tasks us with taking back his fort Kenneth height rejects the authority of godric Oh indeed it is a foul fate for a land to be without a ruler one must be found with haste and not that awful godric but a true and stalwart lord of the proper lineage to take the Reigns of of lim grave and this seems to be why a godric knight leading a force of godrick soldiers have captured Fort height once we take back the fort by killing godric's men and his Knight Kenneth says the following right then time for me to head to the Fort I've have much to do first I'll have to reestablish communication with the demihumans what's that look you don't believe me well under the Earth Tree CO mingling with the demihumans is made possible even the vulgar shall not be left behind under the rule of true order which is why I Kenneth height next in line as the rightful ruler of limra have sworn to uphold it just you watch my friend just you watch so right here from Kenneth we get hints that demihumans are more than beasts and cooperation with them is entirely possible indeed it's seems as though Kenneth height actually uses them as his soldiers and they were the ones actually Manning his fort when we approach Fort height a ghost outside laments the scattering of the demihumans and their loss of leadership indeed demihumans are all over the region surrounding the fort and they are attacking anyone at well maybe even attacking carts as some of the environmental details seems to suggest the Ghost says they wax wroth seeming that they have lost control and gone into a rage since the loss of their mother as the Ghost says we know from the demium hint that we can get from one of the nomadic Merchants that demihumans essentially scatter when they lose their leadership and L and behold inside of Fort height there is a dead demium Queen no doubt the mother that the ghost was referring to and the body's position inside suggests that it was once stationed here and that the godric Knight came here and slaughtered it leading the demium Defenders to scatter to the winds and if there were any doubts that it was demihumans that were Manning this on behalf of Kenneth those doubts should be washed away when we return to the Fort later and find it manned by Demi humans who do not attack us and they are under Kenneth's command who is now at the top of the fort now with this relationship in mind let us return to the hermit Village on Mount gmir that we were discussing before among the demihumans there are Sorcerers of Ria Laria there's even one scene that is so placed that it looks as though one of these Sorcerers is teaching or reading to the Demi humans but the main concentration of these Sorcerers are the ones that are found around the demium queen Maggie these Sorcerers are clearly aligned to Maggie they don't attack her and indeed they attack us when we start the battle with Maggie it's clear that these Sorcerers are the ones that have taught Queen Maggie in sorceries because the sorceries that she use have the Sigil of real Laria when she casts this isn't just random enemy placement this is a full-blown alliance between these Sorcerers and queen Maggie but why why have these Sorcerers aligned themselves with a whole demium clan and their Queen well I would argue that they are looking for something or someone and need some muscle as nearby is the powerful primeval sorcerer azur right next to the boss fight in fact and clearly these Sorcerers wanted azur and his power and thus I would suggest they have recruited Maggi and her tribe as muscle and in exchange they have been teaching ing Maggie and her people sorcery however despite slaughtering an entire Village for their prize they still remain here as we know azur isn't forthcoming to just anyone with his power and he is far beyond hurting or reasoning with and so we smash Maggie and her allies and take his power for ourself but nonetheless this remains another fascinating example of demium and human cooperation an alliance for Mutual benefit there are so many parts of the lore to love and Elden ring and one of the regions I really love for lower implications is the consecrated snowfield and what it represents it is the entrance to micha's realm being called the consecrated snowfields gives it a holy feeling in essence this is an asylum for the unwelcome for those who do not fit within the realm of Grace but it's also a path of pilgrimage for those who want to make it to michela's halig tree this is why we find Alban orics Mis begotten and even black knife assassins hiding out in these lands one of the best illustrations of the Asylum that can be found in these lands is in the cave of the forlorn one of my favorite dungeons in the entire game especially from an aesthetic point of view from the dragon corpse in the entrance to the icy and see-through floor that shows the jellyfish in the levels below but this cave does also tell a story and isn't just a hodg podge of random fellerer enemies starting with the name itself the forlorn forlorn according to Oxford languages means pitifully sad abandoned or lonely and for further context I reached out to translator Loki author of the abysal archive they had the following to say on forlorn and its translation in Japanese the Cave of the forlorn is more accurately a place to go cave now the term place to go is a bit loaded and basically means for luren in the negative you have no place to go no people to rely on no connections alone a drift Etc so the idea seems to be that this cave is the one place the M begotten can rely on for shelter they are alone in this cold cruel world so thanks to Loki for adding that additional context as to what this cave represents and the pretty pitiful state of the M begotten in the greater lands between the M begotten current place in Golden order Society is essentially encapsulated by the scale and feather talismans aspects of their bodies of course and these talismans read the following a vestage of the cble of primordial Life Born partially of devolution it was considered a signifier of the Divine in ancient times but is now increasingly disdained as an impurity as civilization has advanced the M begotten are relics of an age long past life gone wild illustrated by their various growths vestigial taals and wings compared to the ideals of regression and convergence espoused by the golden order that idealizes an idea of regression towards the mean I.E a uniformity of Life hence the misbegotten are enslaved they are seen as lesser we see them enslaved at Castle mourn although they do eventually Rebel thus it is no surprise that large quantities of Mis begotten have found themselves a home in the lands of Micha who is described by the sacred Crown helmet as a protector of the meek indeed within the Cave of the foror there is a collection of micholas Lies throughout it which does seem to imply that the influence of Micha is very much present in this cave and thus they can find sanctury here this is all fairly self-explanatory and surface level but what isn't self-explanatory is the leader of this particular group of Miss begotten the Miss begotten Crusader who is a unique variant of the Miss begotten Warrior that wields the legendary weapon the golden order Greatsword now this is a very odd situation and is one that has been often discussed and written off in the community how did this particular Mis begotten get their hands on rigan's legendary weapon is this just a lazy placeholder for this weapon well let us discuss the possibilities here as I find the discussion an interesting one and the fact that this Miss begotten has been animated with unique animations for the sword suggests to me that it isn't maybe as lazy as many people think let us start by looking at the sword description itself which reads great sword made of light modeled after the Elden ring itself forged by King consort rigan to proudly symbolize the tenants of the golden order telltale signs betray that this was once a great sword bequeathed to him by his first wife renala it is a well agreed upon fact in the community that this sword was most likely the full moon great sword as the Dark Moon great sword the one we received when we are engaged to rany describes the fact that these swords are a long-held tradition by the carens where they give their spouse a version of a moon sword and so when we compare the description of the Dark Moon great sword to that of the golden order great sword we can assume that this sword was originally a full moon sword that rala gave to her consort yet in time when rigan developed his ideas and then became Elden Lord he would modify this sword to represent the golden order and all this just reinforces how unlikely it is for a simple Mis begotten to get their hands on this legendary and prized weapon well firstly the M begotten have a history of stealing legendary swords like magpies almost there are three legendary swords that are claimed from one of these Mis begotten Warriors at the Slaughter of mour Castle the leader of this particular Revolution claims the stored sword of mour the grafted great sword and no doubt this was a symbol of their Authority as the strongest amongst the Mis begotten here and it seems as though the Mis begotten of Redman is the one that's in possession of the ruined great sword so we can imagine the M begotten having more primitive culture where the biggest and strongest among them are granted the greatest prizes and weapons like in more in Lanell we likewise witness Mis begotten killing humans on the outskirts of the city so perhaps at the fall of the golden order the Mis begotten of Le Del also revolted and one among their number looted the golden order great sword this is probably the easiest and most comfortable answer but let us go a little deeper most of these lion Miss begotten the big ones are referred to as Mis begotten Warriors when we fight them in other boss fights like the one with the crisal knight at Red main castle and the one with perfumer tresia in both of these boss battles their name appears on the bar as Miss begotten Warrior specifically and yet in this case the one that we find in the cave of the forlorn it is specifically referred to as a misbegotten crusader the term Crusader means the following according to Oxford languages a person who campaigns vigorously for political social or religious change a campaigner so perhaps there's more to this particular Mis begotten that this particular Mis begotten has led a group of his people to safety perhaps upon looting this sword the Mis begotten found a purpose and this became his crusade to lead his people out of the Mainland and into the safety of the consecrated snowfield that could be its Crusade however there is a more slightly out there possibility was this mis begotten a crusader of the golden order what I find interesting is that in the other two instances of Miss begotten that hold legendary swords the one that has the ruined Great Sword and the one that has the mourn sword the Mis begotten is not modeled wielding it nor do they have any unique moves but the M begotten Crusader is actually wielding The Sword in its fight with us does and has unique animations where activates the established order weapon art essentially a golden order incantation by performing the signature gestures of the golden order this is a specialist weapon that requires faith for it to use so is it possible that this Miss begotten was actually trained to wield this weapon and that it had the faith and belief to do so could it be that this misbegotten Crusader was one used and employed by Radigan essentially a slave Knight that rigan would sick on his enemies and it was only upon the collapse of the golden order that this Crusader abandoned lell and led its people to a safer land I again referred this element of the translation to Loki who translates Miss begotten Crusader as something closer to a paladin or holy KN and if it was once a paladin for the golden order this would explain how the Mis begotten wields the sword so deafly even being able to use Golden order incantations and gestures at the end of the day the established order weapon art is just a function in a game to us but in lore in game surely your character has to have the faith and understanding of incantations to wield this weapon art ultimately it's all just speculation but I do think there is more to this m begotten Crusader let me know your thoughts in the comments below and what you believe the story to be here so thanks again guys for joining me on this epic lore journey through Elden Ring's darker subjects I'd love to know your thoughts on the omen the nox and the God skins in the comments below as these are still subjects that I Ponder to this day producing these compilations from my videos of the past 2 years has been extremely eye openening as to the sheer volume of lore found in this game the very fact I've had to split these into three different parts even with this hours and hours of content that I've created there are still subjects that I need to tackle as I said in my last video I've been lucky enough to have been inspired corrected and influenced by some incredible content creators as well as other members of the Elden ring Community I have referenced many throughout this video and my content would not be the same without these collaborative efforts of this community all videos and creators referenced will will be found in the relevant original videos found in the playlist that is linked below but again a massive thank you and acknowledgement to all the creators and other people in the community that I've referenced throughout this video If you like this video then consider leaving a like a comment and subscribe to the channel as we will have plenty more Elden ring content coming in 2024 especially when the DLC drops but that's all for now folks I just want to wish you a happy New Year and thank you so much for watching this incredibly long video take care and I will see you in the next one

Channel: SmoughTown

Views: 188,217

Keywords: elden ring, elden ring lore, elden ring story, elden ring explained, elden ring lore explained, elden ring story explained, marika, erdtree, godfrey, the lands between, fromsoftware, from software, radagon, maliketh, ranni, the nox, godskins, greater will, carians, rennala, liurnia, altus plateau, the tarnished, morgott, mohg, miquella, malenia, godrick, golden lineage, elden beast, elden lord, limgrave, placidusax, fortissax

Id: NEU9WtBpcq0

Length: 751min 16sec (45076 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 02 2024