Astel, Naturalborn of the Void. Spawned from a malformed star, Astel is an
alien creature from Elden Ring that seems like they could be straight out of the pages
of a Lovecraftian novel. As the one who brought an end to what was
known as the Eternal City, they are as powerful as they are cryptic. The details of Astel’s origins and story
are intentionally obscured, and a lot of it is left to the player’s interpretation. However, you may be surprised at the connections
that can be made between this monster and other entities in the Lands Between. Spoilers ahead… If you’ve played Bloodborne, you can probably
imagine that Astel would fit right into the setting. An alien, eldritch abomination that we have
to pick up any scraps of information about them that we can find to even begin to piece
together their story. Astel pushes players to fill in the gaps of
their origins and story with their own best reasoning. I’ll try to present all of the relevant
information available in-game and draw sensible conclusions from it, but remember that your
interpretation can be just as valid as mine, and I encourage you to draw your own conclusions
where you may see fit. Let’s first cover where we meet Astel. The NPC Ranni the Witch guides us through
a series of tasks in order to bring about the Age of Stars rather than become the Elden
Lord at the end of the game. Ranni and her supporters help guide us through
Nokron, the Eternal City found in the Eastern underground beneath a false sky, and Nokstella,
the twin city to Nokron found to the West. Making our way through Nokstella, the Lake
of Rot, and the Grand Cloister, we find a coffin that takes us deeper underground to
a sealed cave in the South. Behind the boss gate lies Astel, Naturalborn
of the Void. This thing is really freaky. Their general anatomy is that of a giant scorpion
covered in star debris, but their head and hands resemble something eerily human-like. Astel uses the destructive power of stars
and gravity in our fight against them, and after taking them to around half-health, they
summon a wave of meteorites to bombard us from a distance. If we come out on top, we receive the Remembrance
of the Naturalborn. A malformed star born in the lightless void
far away. Once destroyed an Eternal City and took away
their sky. An falling star of ill omen. An initial assumption that we can make here
is that Astel is the direct cause of the moderate ruin of Nokron and Nokstella. While the Eternal Cities are partially destroyed,
they are still occupied by a race called the Nox. The armor that they wear reads: Long ago, the Nox invoked the ire of the Greater
Will, and were banished deep underground. Now they live under a false night sky, in
eternal anticipation of their liege. Of the coming age of the stars. And their Lord of Night. Another fact about Ranni’s questline that
we have to emphasize is that she wants you to retrieve the Finger Slayer Blade from the
Nox. The hidden treasure of the Eternal City of
Nokron; a blade said to have been born of a corpse. This blood-drenched fetish is proof of the
high treason committed by the Eternal City and symbolizes its downfall. Cannot be wielded by those without a fate,
but is said to be able to harm the Greater Will and its vassals. At face-value, here’s one of the simpler
interpretations that one can make from all of this. The Eternal Cities Nokron and Nokstella were
originally above-ground and housed those known as the Nox, who worshiped the stars and the
night. The Greater Will and its ambassadors, known
as the Two Fingers, restricted their freedom to worship the stars, and in retaliation,
the Nox created the Finger Slayer Blade to kill the Two Fingers. This treason against the Greater Will invokes
its wrath, and Astel is formed and dropped into the Eternal cities, plunging them underground
and forcing the Nox to live under a false sky. Seems simple enough, but if you pick apart
this explanation, more questions begin to arise. How did plunging a civilization underground
bring two great rivers along with it? Why is Astel’s wrath necessary if the Nox
have already been banished for eternity? Why does Astel have human-like physical qualities
if they were a naturally born star sent by the Greater Will? With this perspective, I don’t know how
to answer these questions. We can either leave these questions unexplained
or we can reconstruct our interpretation of these events. Let’s look at some other clues as to what
really happened here. In addition to the Nox, a prevalent enemy
found in the Eternal Cities are the mimic tears and silver tears. Mimic tears are described as an attempt by
the Eternal City to forge their own lord, and may have been crafted from the blood of
the Nox. Albinaurics, these gray, frog-like humanoids,
are also suggested to be created through a similar process . Another type of enemy encountered across the
underground is the Dragonkin Soldiers, one of which is found by this giant skeleton that
wears similar attire to the Nox. The Dragonkin were imitations of the ancient
dragons, who held the title of Elden Lord before the age of the Golden Order’s Erdtree. The Dragonkin Soldiers were likely created
as a weapon that would reclaim the title of Lord with the ancient power of the dragons. They never knew a true sky nor had true dragon
heritage, and would instead imitate the night’s ice and the dragon’s lighting with their
own ice lightning. With the knowledge that these enemies present,
we can guess that the Nox were actively plotting against the Greater Will and continued to
do so while living underground. The Nox were banished underground but not
destroyed. They then build the Eternal cities, and their
schemes went mostly unnoticed beyond this point. But there’s still a few missing pieces. Where did Astel come from? How did they steal the Eternal City’s sky
if it never had a true sky due to always being underground? And most importantly… Why is there another Astel? In the Yelough Anix tunnel in the Consecrated
Snowfield, we can find Astel, Stars of Darkness. Not only can this boss do everything that
the original Astel can do, but they have the ability to project illusions of themself to
confuse the player. If two Astels isn’t baffling enough, another
type of enemy called the Malformed Stars are scattered throughout the underground and appear
to be less developed versions of Astel. Whatever Astel’s origin is, it must somehow
explain the existence of multiple versions of themself. Another enemy type that helps clarify the
nature of Astel is the Fallingstar Beasts. These creatures can be found in meteorite
impact sites throughout the Lands Between. Notice the mandibles, tails, and gravity magic
that the beasts can use. However, the most important thing to know
is that the Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast found in Mt. Gelmir distinguishes itself from the other
beasts with an odd growth around its mandibles that strongly resembles the top of Astel’s
face. We have to remember that Astel is described
as a “falling star” of ill omen. We could interpret the beasts as a larval
form of Astel, but the usage of the term “Full-Grown” for one Fallingstar Beast suggests that their
resemblance is a bit more nuanced than that. Astel is described as a malformed star born
from a lightless void. Since nothing indicates that the Fallingstar
Beasts are malformed, we’re gonna take a bit of a risky assumption to propose a possible
relation. Fallingstar Beasts are born in the void and
manifest as meteorites. Somehow, these meteorites can be malformed,
becoming massively powerful and exhibiting human-like physical traits in the form of
Astel. If we rule out the influence of the Greater
Will as Astel’s origin, since that would otherwise leave Astel’s human-like features
a mystery, we are brought to the next most likely culprit: The Nox themselves. Of course, this wasn’t intentional on their
part. To explain why and how the Nox created Astel,
there’s one final piece of evidence that we must examine: a third eternal city. Past the Valiant Gargoyles boss in Nokron,
a coffin can transport the player to Deeproot Depths, a ruined city by the roots of the
Greattree where Godwyn, the half-dead demigod, is buried. This area’s ruined architecture is shockingly
familiar, and the name of a grace you can find here explains why. The Nameless Eternal City; the city lying
at the source of the rivers that flow through the other Eternal Cities and can truly be
described as leveled and robbed of its sky. All forms of Astel are likely spawned from
the Nameless Eternal City or its influence across the underground, and we can probably
guess why. The mimic tears, the Albinaurics, the Dragonkin
that we can find under an enormous Nox skeleton, the Finger Slayer Blade found under another
Nox skeleton; all of which are meant to be weapons against the Greater Will. The endless struggle of silver against gold. As the only Eternal City without a Nox skeleton,
the evidence of the Nameless Eternal City’s plot has been erased, but it’s plausible
that Astel was intended to be yet another tool used against the Greater Will. Stars are known to be sources of great power. Students of Raya Lucaria have been known to
fashion stars of their own creation, and what better way to combat the star sent to the
Lands Between in the form of the Elden Beast than with a star of your own? The Nox, using the template of the Fallingstar
Beasts, malformed these stars into ill omened creatures that somewhat resemble themselves
or whatever these giant skeletons used to look like. Obviously, things didn’t go as smoothly
as they planned. The Astel project proceeded until the Naturalborn
of the Void turned on its creators. Raining meteorites from above, Astel levels
the Eternal City and robs them of their sky, which is present in the “Astel, Naturalborn
of the Void” fight’s arena, but not for the “Astel, Stars of Darkness” fight’s
arena. Now, our final iteration of Astel’s story
is as follows: When the Greater Will begins exerting its
authority over the Lands Between, the Nox were banished underground for preferring the
power of the night. The Nox would create three Eternal Cities
across the great underground rivers and manifest a false sky to remain in communion with the
stars. Several plots were devised against the Greater
Will, including the mimic tears, Nokstella’s Dragonkin soldiers, Nokron’s Finger Slayer
Blade (likely forged from the corpse of Godwyn), and the Nameless Eternal City’s work to
weaponize a star. While Fallingstar Beasts seemed like the perfect
template to build a weapon, the malformed creatures known as Astel would turn against
the Nox and destroy the surrounding city. Astel spreads across the underground, and
the Naturalborn of the Void takes the city’s false sky with them, severing any remaining
connection to the night. Nokron and Nokstella, while not entirely destroyed,
experience a downfall of their own. The Greater Will remains in power, and the
rise of the Age of Stars seems unattainable once more. The town of Sellia’s forbidden sorcery of
Eternal Darkness, manifests the despair that brought about the ruin of the Eternal City
in the form of Astel’s true eye. However, we can choose to usher in this new
age ourselves, as Astel guards what acts as the final part of Ranni’s quest. There’s even more speculation to be had
when considering the nature of the Age of Stars, but whatever it may entail, it concludes
the vengeful, yet tragic story of the Eternal Cities. A few questions still remain unanswered. Why is one version of Astel hidden behind
a land afflicted by rot, while another is behind a frenzy-afflicted zone? Could Astel be opposing, or maybe even cooperating
with the Outer Gods? Of course, in true Lovecraftian nature, maybe
Astel is impossible to fully understand. A lot of what we assume in this video involves
jumping to specific answers from very unspecific information. While I’d love to hear your thoughts and
input, I think it’s fitting that in almost any interpretation of Astel’s relation to
the Eternal Cities, it’s the quest for unreachable truths that spells the end for a once-flourishing
civilization. That’s all from me. Thank you so much for watching, and I’ll
see you next time.
