Elden Ring's Hidden Story
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- čas přidán 20. 07. 2024
- Can you feel it? The secrets of Elden Ring calling to you? The nagging question of why was Godwyn killed? Or who Melina really is? I can answer all of these questions and Much much more. Maybe you want to know why was Godfrey Banished, or the Cold Witches true identity? Then this is the video for you. I will be talking about Elden Ring Lore, and some hidden secrets that are going to blow your mind.
00:00 - Opening
01:22 - Chapter 1: FirmSoft's SoulsBourne Games
08:23 - Chapter 2: A Hidden History
22:59 - Chapter 3: A Witch, A Queen, And The Night Of The Black Knives
33:43 - Chapter 4: A Maiden For The Maidenless
39:36 - Chapter 5: The True Hero
Follow me on Twitter - / angelofthepast_
Support me on Patreon - / angelofthepast
#EldenRing - Hry
Counterpoint: if miquella is so smart, how come it took him a full hour to realize you could teleport to grace sights?
🤣🤣🤣
No memories, remember? I don't think he even knows how to talk. Gotta blow through stones instead.
This put me on my ass.
Honestly this could become an Elden Ring In-Joke.
"If Miquella is so smart, how come he fought Margit 40 times at level 12 instead of going and leveling first?"
I hope this comes true. We are gonna see some amazing quotes if so.
Miquela absolutely destroyed lmao.
Bro chill 😆 🤣
Malenia has cut dialogue where she addresses the Tarnished by "My Sweet". This makes *ZERO* sense unless you take into account your theory. That's really amazing actually
Only thing is cut content is cut for various reasons so you can’t really consider it fact, just speculate on it
another note about Ranni's mentor being Torrent's previous owner: On your first meeting with her, Ranni states that "Torrent's former master" owned the Spirit Calling Bell before Ranni gifts it to you. During one of your first talks with Hewg about Roderika, he talks about how Roderkia 's natural talent reminds him of a spirit tuner he knew long ago, and that their eyes share the same "hue." Both Roderika's eyes and the eye of Ranni's doll are bright blue.
EDIT: Okay guys I just developed a crackpot theory relating to this. We know that Hewg was imprisoned in the Roundtable Hold by Marika due to committing some sort of sin. Based on my earlier observation relating to Angel's theory that the Snow Witch is the Dusk-Eyed Queen, we can also theorize that Hewg knew her at some point, and knew her well. WHAT IF Hewg's "sin" was forging the Godslayer's Greatsword for the Dusk-Eyed Queen to ensure Marika's demise, hence putting an end to the Golden Order and granting himself and his fellow misbegotten freedom from their current slavery?? Maybe he himself was a slave blacksmith to the royal family? And upon recognizing his true talents through his creation of the Greatsword, Marika's "punishment" was in fact to put him to work creating another god-slaying weapon, this one with the explicit purpose to kill the Elden Beast. Hell, maybe she even convinced him to do so partially out of self-interest, considering that the Elden Beast's death can also lead to the end of the Golden Order and the mistreatment of the misbegotten.
Also, thank you for all the likes :)
Holy. This comment is underrated
@Jack Hague ranni does not gift you the spirit calling bell renna does..that is not ranni at the church
@@joshuawiseman5629 yea it is bro when you meet her at the manor in northern Liurnia later she says “sorry I lied about my name dude gotta stay safe ya feel me” paraphrased of course
@@Ntwolf1220 lmao “ya feel me”
Oh goddamn. This is making sense. Nice!
Shadow Of Erdtree image with Miquella on Torrent has me thinking all of this is correct.
“.. the haligtree stopped growing. Not because it died, but because now it houses his curse”
MY GOODNESS
No... it's because he has been cut out. That's all
@@darksh1ne1 but remember he is full grown adult in the moth sack
There is a precedent for this in DS3 with the tree that the population uses to house it's curses. Remember in DS you cannot cure a curse, only transfer it according to the curse stones.
@@Texas41411 curse rotted greatwood?
Also, with Malenia there, her scarlet rot most likely kept seeping out either while she slept or her presence alone, causing the haligtree to not only stop growing, but the scarlet rot growing on the tree as well.
Ranni: "I have nobody to trust, I can't even reveal my plan to my siblings, they might be sided with the golden order"
Rykard: "I am literally staging a rebellion against the golden order and have one of your master's followers skinning prisoners in my manor."
Radahn: "Uh I was just holding the stars because it was the coolest shit ever, not because of any fate stuff"
Holds back stars, refuses to elaborate.
Who is skinning prisoners? Someone connected to the snow witch?
@@jonkorpi The Godskin Noble in Volcano manor is heavily implied to be the one torturing Albinauric prisoners, and skinned a young Albinauric (That's the Albinauric headpiece). The Godskin apostles followed the Gloam eyed queen who cc's theorised to be Ranni's mentor
She gave rykard the claw you get from renard in Darin azula so rykard knew the plan from the begining. And rykard didn’t become the snake until after his battle with morgot during the shattering since his soldiers fought during it and they didn’t leave him until afterwards, then he gave to claw to Bernard who went to kill malekath in his stead
I think Radahn found out about creatures like Astel natural-born of the void during his training in gravity magic or some such...anyways he was holding back spooky space creatures and or trying to usurp Carian astrology by taking away their means to read the stars since they no longer moved- which was a huge blow to their power.
Even if everything in the video turns out to be wrong it was still such an exciting ride. The last third was crazy yet brilliant, like watching a naked guy challange a dragon to a fight then realising halfway through 'wait, the madman is actually winning this'
It makes the most sense that Melina is Marika and Radagon's daughter and the full sister of Malenia and Miquella, given the family naming conventions of the game and the fact that there are 3 butterflies in the game, 2 of which are clearly tied to Malenia and Miquella and the third being a firey variety with no explicit counterpart. Plus Melina displays an odd ability to recall Marika's thoughts and words at various places around the world which seems to directly tie her to Marika.
It's Mesmer's.
@@ceejayl371@ceejayl371 That's right, because Melina's hair is neither red nor golden. She's the daughter of the multiple-eyes queen... the father? ... maybe Miquella :P
That "the player is Miquella" theory got me out of nowhere and blew my ass out. Idc if its true or not, I love interesting and crazy ideas
Are you sure you didn't just fart? 🤷♂️
@@DeadEnd4991 *taps on nose* I won't tell ya, princess ;)
@@michaeleller6555 hey now! No need to insult me by calling me princess. It was just a joke 🤷♂️🤣
In the internal files of the game melina is named マリかの娘 (Marika no musume) - Marika's Daughter.
isn't there dialogue in the game where she heavily implies that she's her daughter as well?
(After reading her dialogue from the wiki, it's implied 2-3 times that she's probably Marika's daughter)
The game also records that Godrick attempted to challenge Malenia, was woefully outclassed and licked her boots before fleeing to Stormveil
People would pay good money for that opportunity you know
@@Spahki Yet Godrick was there, doing it for free.
De feet
Technically that was also the time Melania was going to fight radahn. Which is why she didn’t kill godrick because for one he was weak and he wasn’t her target
A couple of contentious points:
- the omen twins were likely Godfrey's children. Why? Because Godfrey is a force of nature, a wild barbarian - and that is very much in line with the old power, the crucible. Omens are only shunned by the Golden Order fundamentalists, the current faction in power, because omens are THE signature expression of the crucible. We know that the ancestral followers (barbarians clearly) venerate horns and antlers in all their forms and wear fake horns on their heads. Omens are demigods to them, blessed by the crucible.
- there's no evidence that Ranni had planned it all, the way things ended up happening. Morgott called all of the demigods traitors, so why would Radahn stop Ranni on her quest, if he even knew about it in the first place. It would seem that all the other demigod's two fingers were dead, releasing them from control by the Greater Will. Morgott was the only one still loyal, although being despised by the GW.
- the Sword Monuments everywhere tell us about the wars fought and even the intro shows Morgott fighting Rykard. So it wasn't just Malenia Vs. Radahn, but a widespread power struggle.
- the Haligtree is dying, because Miquella was removed, kidnapped by Mohgwyn. Malenia's rot is what is now slowly killing the tree. That is shown by the funghi and lichen growing all over it, mirroring the situation in Caelid. Also, the oracle envoys are at the Haligtree to witness the birth of a god. Rebirth as a lowly tarnished doesn't seem to justify their presence.
The Albinaurics were likely created by the Nox people underground, who are all about silver. We can see that in their weapons and the silver tears and mimic tears.
On your first point, I would hold that if Godfrey could create omen children, so could Godwyn seeing as he is his son and then why wasn't Godwyn an Omen if it's because, Godfrey embodies the Crucible? Obviously it could be a thing that doesn't happen every time and that Marika breaking it off after they were born is why we don't have a larger sample size to make a more educated guess. Radahn, Rykard, Ranni born from Rennala and Guy Marika = not cursed , Godwyn definitely the child of Godfrey and Marika = not cursed, Miquella, Malenia born of Guy Marika and FeMarika (kinda seems like giga incest right?) = Cursed, so, I could see why he would think that the omen children could have been between another actually slightly less incestuous relationship than the one FeMarika had with himself when that incestuous counterpart would hold the same Crucible-esque quality as Godfrey. Also, Radahn would likely want to stop Ranni as he was very taken by Godfrey and wanted to emulate the lands greatest warrior which, led to him paying true fealty to the golden order (I didn't find that myself that was something Vatti said in a video I watched recently). And, in Angel's video he did say he doesn't know if Miquella created the Albinaurics or not but, he does believe that Miquella perfected them.
@@ChiodosBlowsDogs - I would argue, that in Godwyn Godfrey's blood would already be deluted significantly, so it's not the same chance. Godwyn did not have his father's wild nature either. He was the perfect golden boy (akin to Baldur in northic mythology, whose death started Ragnarok). Anyway, the incest hypothesis is pure speculation and goes against the lore bits that are established.
- There's no evidence, that Radahn was hostile to Ranni. She didn't even partake in the shattering. Radahn was himself considered a traitor by Morgott and could very well have stopped the stars to impede the arrival of more "falling star beasts"/ Astels who had ravaged the lands before and would certainly punish any Rebels (as Astel had done with the Nox).
- There's also no evidence that the Albinaurics have been perfected by Miquella or anyone for that matter. We don't encounter any perfect ones.
@@youtubevoice1050 no evidence that Miquella perfected Albinaurics? What did you make of this videos points about the best Albinaurics being at the Haligtree?
@@FunkyDeleriousPriest There are no Albinaurics at the haligtree. The only ones close are those in the consecrated snowfield. They are probably headed to the haligtree because Loretta was searching for a safe haven for them. None of the soldiers and knights in Elphael are Albinaurics. All of them bleed red and look the same as all the other soldiers in the game (not healthy). The only mysterious character is Loretta, mainly due to her shield. We know she was a former Carian knight and she bleeds red too.
Even if we assume that she's an Albinauric, then there's still no evidence for any improvement, because she exclusively fights from horseback.
@@Faint366 The strength heirloom talisman states that Radahn faced the falling stars alone, which suggests a battle of sorts. And the falling stars obviously brought a lot of monsters to the lands between, from falling star beasts to alabaster lords. He stopped that.
Love the idea that I am Miquella. His soul, no memories, but tarnished. Makes roleplaying the story so much better.
Also, this might be selective memory, there are a few times when the main character really looks at something, and one of them I always found interesting is how much he stares down the Miquella formation in the roots of the Haligtree when he enters the Melina Boss fight, and the start of phase 2 of that boss fight.
Makes no sense tho miquella is alive
@@AngelOfThePast Mohg's intro has some weird connotations where he welcomes you heartily, even though Varre states that he ought to be left completely alone. His death line is also very strange, as if his defeat has ensured the rise of his dynasty. Why would he think that unless he knew that there was nothing that was within the player's right of harming or impeding Miquella?
I think Mogh, as liquid blood was inhabiting Miquellas "dead" body, trying to make it full grown. But was fooling himself with his ambition.
Yeah, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but its still interesting and I love it.
Holy crap! These theories are nuts and they honestly make a lot of sense. If your theories don’t end up becoming true, you certainly have a knack for story telling and writing them. Don’t stop making these videos no matter the outcome. You’re very talented! Keep up the good work
Thank you very much! That is the goal, and even if I'm wrong because of dlc releasing, as long as people were able to enjoy the game even a little bit more I'm happy.
Ik from soft puts a crazy amount of thought into the lore of the games but if they put this much thought into it to think ahead this far an deep i honestly believe elden ring lore will nvr b found evn thru dlc because with each ? Answered 100 more will pop up
I didn't understand why Miquella's needle was particularly used to prevent the frenzy flame ending. That was until you established the connection between Miquella and the Dusk Eye Queen. Moreover, if Miquella is infact the player, then the needle was a fail-safe in the event the frenzied flame gain influence over the vessel.
Didnt vyke get overcome by the frenzy flame? Might have something to do with miquella understanding the failsafe?
@@RonFk Whilst Vyke got touched by the Frenzied Flame, he wasn't overcome by it. At least, not to the point of madness; I suspect he realised what choosing the Frenzied Flame entailed, and chose not to fight on despite how close he was to the seat of Elden Lord. Furthermore, to ensure he didn't change his mind and doomed the world, he may have sealed himself in his Evergoal to contain his curse.
@@e.v4892 yeah I've heard that theory before, pretty common. I think fromsoft is a bit deeper than that though. Miquella is about to rock our worlds come dlc time
It’s cuz miquella’s needle (unalloyed gold) prevents the meddling of the outer gods and the frenzied flame is an outer god.
@@Faint366 wouldn't that mean it would get rid of your red eyes as well? That is also caused by the influence of an outer god, but I don't think using the needle gets rid of the red eyes.
I have a slight twist on Malenia: one of the previous battles of the Erd Tree (or at least a fight) was the imprisonment of the god of rot, feat performed by Malenia's sword master, now Marika did two things that may have upset the natural order of things: Stealing Destined Death and banishing Rot, both forces needed for renewal. That provoked an imbalance in nature itself, and while rot may have been imprisoned, it would still ooze and claim vengeance, same for death, thus one of marika's children would never age and the other would be perpetually rotting. At the fight with Malenia, the outer god of rot sets free in Malenia, the god of rot has used her much in the way the formless mother uses Mohg.
BTW i do agree about the gloam eyed queen, in this game dualities are common: Ranni/Renna, Marika/Radagon, Morgot/Margit, Miquella/St Trina
About the gloam eye and dusk eye queen, its interesting you mentioned the cold and fire stuff because deathrite birds have cold black flame spells. Curious as to what thats about
Remnants of an old order. At different times, different beings held different great runes. When a Birdlike being holds the Great Rune that controls Fire (like the giants do in game) the Great Rune that controls Frost (at large) and the Great Rune of Death (with Maliketh odviously), the result is the Deathbirds that fight with the frozen fire of death.
Marikas order is defined by the Great Runes we pick up. But there are still other primal sources of power out there. Darkmoon for one. Comets for 2. Destined Death, Which isn't part of the Order. And Fire. All forces Marika doesn't control.
@@darkhobo That's actually a cool idea. We know through the dragon lord that there was a previous Elden Lord, but does that imply that there are multiply Elden Rings? Or rather, similar symbols of these older laws.
@@darkhobo Perhaps, but remember. There is a deathbird god. Some of the lore descriptions even says it so on some items, most particularly the Twinbird Kite and Explosive Ghost Flame sorcery among others. Respectively,
"The twinbird is said to be the envoy of an outer god, and mother of the Deathbirds."
"In the time when there was no Erdtree, death was burned in ghostflame. Deathbirds were the keepers of that fire."
So even though they have powers similar to the godslayers, the deathbirds were the main death dealers before the Greater Will came to the Lands Between. Their powers purer in form compared to the godslaying flames which was a corruption of the Giants' flames. So two somewhat different sources of power there. No Great Runes as those were made by the Greater Will, but simply already existing powers before.
@@AMoistEggroll great runes were not made by the greater will or Placidussax couldnt be an Elden Lord. So Elden Ring existed before the Greater will. Elden Beast just re-ordered it. Taking out the bits it didnt like (creating the frenzied flame)
As for Deathbirds. I think they are servants of the god of Death that existed in the Lands Between before Marika took over. But Marika couldnt incorporate the Deathbirds. They use Fire magic and she is banned from incorporating fire magic into the Elden Ring by the Greater Will.
In fact I think the former god of death is hugely important. Marika killed it, and founded the Erdtree order. But a God of Death was still necessary. Godwyn was chosen by Destiny to fulfil that role. Prince of Death. Marika protested, Godwyn was meant to be her heir, not Deaths heir. The storyline is essentially Marika fighting Destiny's efforts to force her son to become the Death god.
@@darkhobo that last part about needing a God of death is good.
I always felt Godwyn was targetted because Ranni wanted to hurt Marika as much as possible.
"Then, after thy death, I will give back what I once claimed.
Return to the Lands Between, wage war, and brandish the Elden Ring.
Grow strong in the face of death. Warriors of my lord. Lord Godfrey." Doesnt this imply Godfrey was sent away as part of a plan?
It can be taken that way, but I believe the reason this was said is different than what is meant. (I believe all of the church scenes have a subversion in them actually) but I have a video I want to do on Marika so I'll explain it more then.
@@AngelOfThePast yoo put that video out lol I NEED that marika video from you G
@@AngelOfThePast Did I miss that video? Genuinely curious on an explanation.
It turns out that the player is connected to Miquella… you might be on the ball here given the dlc visual.
I never thought that about Marika, there are some dialogues in churches were Melina will tell you what she said. And apparently she had planned to take the grace from both Godfrey and his soldiers, but she also had planned for them to return and take the elden ring, so there is some sort of plan she got that apparently went wrong, there is even a dialogue here that kinda says how she doesnt want to blindly believe in the greater will. But your video is a really really interesting take on it.
There’s also evidence that Marika knew Godwyn was supposed to die as a “martyr”, but he was never supposed to become one of those who “live in death”.
I think she planned everything with the purpose of overthrowing the Greater Will, and Godwyn was a necessary sacrifice that was meant to unleash Destined Death. Godfrey & Ranni were in on the plan because Ranni didn’t want to be enslaved to the Greater Will either. I suspect Ranni also had her own motives, and she betrayed Marika by splitting the Rune of Death, shedding her body while keeping her soul, and causing Godwyn to suffer his terrible fate.
Where things get a little hazy is with the shattering of the Elden Ring. Whether it was out of grief, fear, anger, or strategy, I think Marika shattered the Elden Ring in an act of self-sacrifice to weaken the Greater Will. She knew that in its desperation, the Greater Will would summon the tarnished and set them with the task of reuniting the Elden Ring with the offer of becoming Elden Lord. She relied on her demigod children to scatter the Great Runes and either “make something of themselves or perish”. In the event that an unlikely tarnished were to succeed, I suspect the Greater Will was always going to betray that person because “a tarnished can never be Elden Lord”. But Marika had a backup plan in the form of Melina, the kindling maiden. By burning the Erdtree, she made the Greater Will more vulnerable than ever. This enabled the tarnished to overthrow it and set the world towards their own purpose.
I’m not completely convinced this is the story they’re trying to tell, but that’s what I’m getting from it.
Marika took away their grace so they'd take it back. She shattered the ring, so someone would come to restore it.
@@Imehiel More precisely, she took their grace away with the promise to one day restore it.
Personally, I think Radagon is more of an aspect of the Greater Will, able to take control of Marika's body. That could explain why Marika's and Radagon's actions seem contradictory. Marika shattered the Elden Ring, Radagon tried to mend it. Marika was imprisoned by the Elden Beast, Radagon is the one fighting us etc.
@@Imehiel she shattered the ring so someone would bring it back to her to without the greater will interfering. Precisely why grace was removed from the tarnished. “Marika is Radagon” that’s why we have to fight Radagon. What happens with when you kill a shardbearer? You get their runes. Marikas plan all along was to take the ring herself as both queen and elden lord (Radagon) she was like a double agent type character. So the greater will wouldn’t suspect her. Her plan failed when we beat her (Radagon)
She would have reached godhood had she mended the ring with no greater will or golden order or Demigods or outer gods. Which is what she wanted. Remember she had war all across the lands in order to have full control.
I love lore videos for from software games. Actually, the lore videos made me want to play from software video games in the first place. And honestly, this is one of my absolute favorite lore videos and I keep coming back to re-watch and re-listen to it. Thank you for making it!
Edit: 5 months later and this is /still/ one of my fav lore videos that I still come back to. The connections & analysis you make here are insane in the best way and I love it.
I adore the latter parts of theories, however specifically the history portion doesn't make as much sense to me. You can talk to Melina at sights of grace, and if we are operating under the (very likely) assumption that her mother is the gloam/dusk eyed queen, or that she is at least related to the queen, she doesn't have much of a reason to lie to us. In churches she will give quotes that Marika (allegedly) said, and these quotes paint a very different picture of Marika.
Now onto my own theories about said history;
It's my belief that Radagon and Marika may have originally been the same being, but were split apart somewhere along the way, this is somewhat evidenced by the red hair Radagon possess. In the description of the Giant's Red Braid it is noted that Radagon despised his hair color, perhaps this is because Radagon was split off from Marika to house the Giant's curse and to further extend the Greater Will's will.
Radagon most likely fell in love with Rennala all on his own, without intervention from Marika or the Greater Will, however it worked in their favor for the time being to have Rennala, a queen of a rival faction, fall in love with what is essentially a piece of Marika housing the curse of the giants. What the Marika and possibly the Greater Will didn't account for was Radagon essentially developing his own separate will from the Golden Order he was meant to embody. (Hence the title of Radagon of the Golden Order, it could also stand to reason that the Golden Order was cursed rather than Marika and have the same results)
Next is the Marika and Godwyn relationship thing, simply put that incest seems a little too much and despite your theory I just really don't buy into it. I feel as though Marika has a grand plan to get rid of the Greater Will's influence on the lands between, and has tried to in many ways. Rather than an Empyrean being the go-to for the position under the Greater Will, it seems as though it's more of a classification of enemies who know the Greater Will's secret(s?) and thus are granted shadows to watch over them, seemingly as a failsafe, to use the emotions of the Empyrean into conforming to the will. (Hence why the gloam eyed queen is considered one)
Because Marika had this plan to subvert the Greater Will, she did it's bidding in birthing and raising a child who would follow the Greater Will, or at least conform to it (Godwyn), and did so through her first Elden Lord, Godfrey. She most likely didn't love Godfrey, but saw him as a useful tool she could use against the Greater Will. The twins Morgott and Mohg were most likely also influenced by the Greater Will's wishes for heirs, but Marika didn't want more than one unknown variable so she found some way to subvert the Greater Will and curse them to become omens. (this is seen to be somewhat possible in-game through the seedbed curse and the dung eater) Or perhaps they were just randomly omens or smth idk, but the result remains the same, the Greater Will dislikes omens due to them being special in the lands between before the arrival of the Greater Will.
Another possibility is that the Greater Will simply didn't see any merit in them and cursed the two, and because of the thoughts about omens, the royal family needed to dispose of them, with most likely pushes from the greater will.
This most likely led to a rift between Godfrey (who is shown to care about Morgott in his opening cutscene) and Marika (who saw this as an oppurtunity). Marika then used this rift and the birth of omens as an excuse to the Greater Will to have Godfrey and eventually many others stripped of grace and forced to wage war in far off lands. This of course was apart of her plan to eventually shatter the Elden Ring and kick out the Greater Will's influence by way of the tarnished eventually claiming their lost grace.
The Greater Will then forced Radagon to go to Marika (most likely against his will, hence his parting gift of a great rune and leaving his wolf behind possibly as a defense for Rennala, knowing she would be broken up) and marry her. This gave the Greater Will more heirs to fall back on, with the Rennala-Radagon children, and the soon Marika-Radagon children as well. Radahn wasn't seen as a threat due to him not knowing much of the Greater Will, Rykard only became a threat on the Knight of Black Knives or after (evidenced by the Blasphemous Claw item) and due to the strained control the Greater Will had over the lands(or the serpent thing), was unable to find someway to reign him in. As for Ranni, I believe your theory with her teacher being the dusk eyed queen is correct and was thought of an Empyrean by association.
The Marika-Radagon marriage probably wasn't as functional as the previous marriages which led to their children (marika having so many sets of twins, is she lucky, or in this case unlucky?) basically knowing about the Golden Order and thus the Greater Will more than their siblings, between that and their curse of course. The curse most likely came into being via the Radagon curse which may have been the main reason they were separated in the first place. Basically the curse from the Giant's god made it easier for other Outer Gods to interact with the twins or something. It also may be because Radagon/Marika are the same, but not.
Also note that I'm finally bringing back the Melina quotes again, with a direct quote from Melina which is apparently a direct quote from Marika to Radagon "O Radagon, leal hound of the Golden Order. Thou'rt yet to become me, thou'rt yet to become a god. Let us both be shattered, mine other half."
It's likely this was either just before the shattering or in reference to something else, but essentially the way I interpret this line is that Marika and Radagon were once the same, however grew into two different people (with Radagon meant to be the Golden Order) but Marika is a god while Radagon shared no such godhood.
Next about the Knight of Black Knives. I also believe that Marika was directly related to this as she made sure that her children were all cursed or unfit for the throne in someway except for one, Godwyn. I think your theory on Miquella also being involved has a high possibility on being true (along with tarnished business) and that Ranni was the test subject. Ranni wished to shed her Empyrean flesh, but didn't wish to die, and to make Godwyn unfit as all others he was to be used as the other half. (also side not real quick, you said something about the 'sweetings' being the real appearance of Ranni, but if you look at the top of the divine tower connected to the study hall, Ranni's dead body has red hair so I don't know about that, however it could also be Rennala projecting her own features onto what would otherwise be Ranni to try and ignore the Radagon factor) In the end the entirety of the plot was to kill the last remaining heir that the Greater Will could chose when Marika would betray it, along with testing out the Empyrean trick with Ranni and finally giving Marika an excuse to shatter the Elden Ring.
Knowing that Marika and Radagon didn't exactly like each other (as seen in Marika essentially taunting Radagon for not being a god and being a hound to the Golden Order) the Greater Will saw it fit to combine the two once more, however the changes they had made led to the whole transformation back and forth type thing. This also kinda explains why Marika would essentially give Maliketh the rune of death and discard him far out of reach, to make the hunger for when she had Ranni steal part of it overwrite his ability to hunt her down.
Let me know if you find some parts that are incorrect, I really do want to understand the storyline, I just feel as though the impression of Radagon and Marika in particular was a little inaccurate and wished to provide my own insight into what I believe the story may be about to further understand said story. Sorry for the essay though.
Good Ideas but I think you confused some of the motivations of the characters, especially Radagon and Marika.
@@alelliot3869 I was thinking that Marika probably wasn't as heartless as I portrayed her, though may I ask for further explanation on Radagon? Is there something I may have missed? Because it's very likely I have.
Few things: Marika states in an Item description that Radagon is not yet one with her or something of the sort, so I believe they used to be seperate beings that merged.
Also the main character is no albinauric, as we bleed red and albinauric blood is silver-ish. Also: why would we as Miquella a) kill malenia who he loves and does basically everything for and b) why does everyone try and fight us when we are a god whose power is to charm the living hell out of everone and everything?
Also there is a lot of evidence that the albinaurics flee towards the haligtree where they are safe as we see them ride across the snowfields towards it. I dont believe Miquella to have created them, he just houses all that are shunned by the golden order.
Anyways: really interesting food for thought and for sure a well crafted video and theory!
As miquella you would kill Melania for her betrayal, she betrays miquella while fighting radahn by allowing the rot god to fester the one thing miquella had been trying to avoid all his life. And during your fight her third bloom marked her finality she was no longer blade of miquella she turned into the rot goddess. A similar change was made with godrick morgot calls him the golden and he calls himself the golden but when you fight him he is the grafted because he lost his title and himself.
And for the albunarics it’s caria who made them homonculi are alchemical creatures and they are way to close to albunarics for it to be a coincidence. Now think the albunarics worship miquella why? They live short lives and they age quickly, who’s the opposite?
And as for the boss battles everyone lost their mind from being unable to die for thousands of years you can see it in the frenzy bois the Demi humans and the soldiers they can also friendly fire themselves.
And yes your right on radagon I think him and marika became a rebus after the shattering
@@silentknight9356 It were likely the Nox who created the Albinaurics, considering the mimics and all the silver weaponry.
@@youtubevoice1050 but we don’t see any albunarics underground we only see them above ground and from soft is notorious for putting things where they belong in the map before they do it in the story
You give him too much credit. He just faceplanted is a pile of shit with this video
Need a few rewatches? Start again at 9:46 - I know i needed to.
Awesome work! ❤
I really love the theory of how the black knives assassined the wrong person, and how Dusk Eyed Queen have two powers but showed only one to the certain group. Very cool video! Thanks for your effort!!
I feel like the ten minute ramble at the start was completely unneeded. It put me off watching the rest of the video, which was actually well made and interesting. I think the theory is completely crack-pot, but very interesting to discuss and well researched.
From the DLC image it seems you are very right about the link between Miquella and torent !!!
Incredible! Your dedication to the lore of Elden Ring is just incredible. You dont just read and believe which present to you in the game but go beyond by analyze the motive of each character. And I have to say, your theory are very convincing and fit so well with the each charater action in this game. I’m truly impressed.
It also makes sense when u think about why the gloom eyed queen is so piss in the frenzied flame ending, almost as if she felt betrayed
I wonder why she doesnt complain if you go for the dungeater questline.
@@nostalji75 I'm not sure i haven't seen that one yet
@@nostalji75 I made the Dungeater my puppet (a summon). Now we defile "TOGETHA!!!"
New DLC concept art dropped. Miquella is indeed likely to be Torrent's previous owner.
I wonder what its story would be, if the player is actually Miquella like you theorized.
I've been thinking about this, and pretty much all of the endings work. Not only does Miquella eliminate his memory, pretty much all of the endings work to overturn the Golden Order. If we choose to restore it then, whoops, he forgot. It still overturns it as is.
Noteworthy fact about the statement made at 35:33 :
In cut content, there is a cut line from the finger reader in the Round Table stating the Erdtree was being burned by black flames rather than the fire giant’s red flame. Meaning Melina was originally going to use the black flame of the Godskins to burn the Erdtree.
The fact that this was originally the direction the story was supposed to go in does lend some credence to the link between Melina and the Gloam-Eyed Queen.
This does not however solve the question of whether Melina actually is the Gloam-Eyed Queen or not. I’d argue that if Melina was in fact meant to be the Gloam-Eyed Queen in the flesh, then Fromsoft would have definitely stuck with burning the Erdtree with black flame.
That was one hell of a lore drop if it turns out to be true, holy shit. It clicks into place too well. I didnt except this level of scrutiny and lore diving less than a month after the game dropped, amazing work.
@@Faint366 its was speculation at the time of what the lore could be as the game was still fairly new, of course 6 months on the souls community would have a better picture of what the lore actually is through combing the games lore and data.
When you talked about how George R. R. Martin had wrote the story, it was like my fire giant third eye opened 😂 everything makes so much more sense now! I can’t help but think you’re right since everything in these types of games is intentional. Amazing video!!!
One point of discontentment, Radahn did *not* draw with Malenia, he straight up beat her, to the point that she had to taint her own honor by using the rot, while Radahn not only waited for her to fight him with her sword/arm attached (yes he he's that cool of a guy) he was occupied making himself light to spare his beloved but frail horse, Leonard but also was still holding the stars in place, in the endshe couldn't even defeat him completely, his body was alive even his mind wasn't completely there, but even if not completely there, there was a fragment of his old self, he was still holding the stars and loving poor Leonard.
I'd argue he did draw with Malenia. Although he was holding back everything as you say, Malenia is also holding back the rot, the decay of her own body, the power of an outer god trying to influence and control her. Oh yeah, and she's also likely gone blind at that point. Deciding she needs to win and fighting at that point to a standstill, she gives in and unleashes the power she's spent her whole life working to rid herself of and suppress, resulting in her being knocked unconscious and him being infected.
At that point, he's helping a horse and holding back what is likely the influence of an outer god. She's holding back the influence of an outer god while it is causing her to decay and she is likely more harmed by this outer god due to differences in intent by said outer gods. I'd call the result a tie, or more honestly, a loss for both sides.
This my fav lore video. Well done sir
Eyy man. I like the way youre thinking, but youre making propositions that arent backed up by in game information. Like, I like idea of the Omen twins being the result of incest. But what does that have to do with Dung-Eater? He is sexually assaulting people, not forcing them to commit incest. It makes more sense if Marika raped someone and that caused the Omen curse. That's what the evidence suggests causes the seedbed curse, which causes Omens. Ya follow?
Youre also doing this thing where you ignore item descriptions that contradict your narrative as deliberate red herrings, but reference other ones as facts later. You have to provide evidence of the contradiction.
Just because its GRRM doesnt mean you need to imagine incest everywhere. A better angle with GRRM is to look at things from a perspective of comparative mythology. Ive been researching the intersections of Norse and Slavic mythology and have found a treasure trove.
And in fact Elden Ring can be seen from a perspective of one religion displacing an older religion or older religions. Incorporating and disregarding older ideas as necessary. Even Marikas religion switches in the story. First the people worship the order of the Urdtree, later they worship the Golden Order.
I just stumbled upon this video and your comment was so refreshing to see, exactly what i was thinking
"Youre also doing this thing where you ignore item descriptions that contradict your narrative as deliberate red herrings, but reference other ones as facts later." this was specially annoying, but yeah, basically all the major propositions he puts out are based on "i thinks" and GRRM being a co-writter of the lore lol
Loved the vid, lots of cool ideas that I haven't seen elsewhere. One idea though that I was not convinced of is that Marika conceived with Godwyn and exiled Godfrey for possibly discovering that. When Melina gives you the Marika echoes, at the Third Church of Marika, Marika says, "My lord and thy warriors, I divest each of thee of thy grace. With thine eyes dimmed, ye will be driven from the Lands Between. Ye will wage war in a land afar, where ye will live, and die." Then, at the Church of Pilgrimage, Marika says, "Then, after thy death, I will give back what I once claimed. Return to the Lands Between, wage war, and brandish the Elden Ring. Grow strong in the face of death. Warriors of my lord. Lord Godfrey." These two echoes clearly seem to be part of the same monologue from Marika. In other words, it looks like the whole Shattering was pre-meditated - she planned to have all the tarnished return and for Godfrey to possibly retake his throne as Elden Lord. As if she sent them to something like a bootcamp where death is possible for them to come back stronger. Along with this, the description I think in Maliketh's Remembrance states that Marika betrayed him in some way, and specifically betraying his duty to protect the Death Rune. Like she helped orchestrate the Night of Black Knives in some way? Not to mention the Black Knives from that night were all specifically stated to be Numen with ties to Marika. Additionally, Hewg is imprisoned in the Roundtable Hold by a "her" implied to be Marika by various parts of his and Rodericka's dialogues, and he is specifically tasked to smith a god-slaying weapon for some tarnished, except there is only one god: Marika herself. It seems that evidence points more to the theory that all that's happened in-game is pretty much according to Marika's plan. A plan for the Lands Between to break away from the Greater Will, even sacrificing herself in the process. I'm wondering if you had counterpoints in favor of your take?
Man, I miss early elden ring days with cool lore speculation videos like these 🤌🏿🤌🏿
Your script writing must be insane. I’m jealous of how well you structure your videos. You make some of the most interesting points that I never see other people talk about
Like has been said, the storytelling in this video alone is so very good. I was thoroughly entertained and at least convinced to elevate this up alongside my personal Elden Ring story theory x) Thank you for making this video! I can tell you put in so much work into piecing things together theory-wise, and video-wise.
The idea that Marika and Radagon were always one body doesn't really work because Melina tells us Marika's words. "Oh Radagon thou are yet to become me. Thou are yet to become a god." Implying they were two different entities for a time.
This fact that they were two different bodied before Marika was imprisoned discounts the idea of Malenia and Miquella being Godwyn's kids. The game is actually telling the truth
I always find this argument interesting. Because in the same vein, it is shown in the game that they are the same person more than once. Her talking to radagon isn’t a direct contradiction to the theory that they never split, just helps give credence to the theory that they did. Also it is generally thought that they were forced back together by the Greater will after the shattering, and not because Marika wanted it to happen, and that would also be contradicted in that church. Again I’m not saying that they were definitely never separated, I just didn’t see that conversation as a direct contradiction of my theory.
@@AngelOfThePast I'm not a believer of them being forced back together AFTER the shattering. Why? Well because in the story cinematic from 2019, the opening of the game, along with Marika's hammer description saying Marika shattered the ring while Radagon tried to fix it. So the reunion of the two must have happened before the shatter but after Marika's statement saying they have yet to become one. Probably after they made Malenia and Miquella did the two fuse back together.
Alright, so I plan on doing a video about Marika, and based on most of the comments I receive I definitely need to, and I don't want to say to much. I will say this though, I am almost positive the line from the church doesn't mean what people think it does. I need the Japanese translation to be sure, but I believe Marika is the most vain person to exist with there being plenty of evidence of this in game.
In the discussion we overhear at the church, I don't think she's talking about Radagon literally becoming a god, I think she's saying Radagon isn't good enough for her yet. So I think the word "become" is meant as it's second definition, "To look good on or to suit someone". So before she could take him on as Elden Lord, he needed to gain renown so he wouldn't make her look bad, otherwise it would seem like Marika was just taking on some nobody as Elden Lord. He couldn't do this before the war, because Marika was needed against the Fire Giants. Once they were dead though she could be absent from the capitol while Radagon Gained a reputation during his crusade through Liurnia. This is the last thing I'll say about it though, so if you still think I'm off my rocker with this then that's that.
Ok the "haligtree stopped growing because it got the curse" theory is amazing.
Compared to most of the other elden ring lore things i've watched, this is an enjoyable, believable hot take on it all, and i thank you for presenting with this different side of things. was a good watch.
I am for the most part speechless after this video. You have showed a different perspective from the rest of the videos out there and I love your approach by understanding the creators a bit better.
It’s to bad that almost everything he said turned out to be wrong
@@Horsthunder True but it was a really good theory.
Just want to add that Ranni tries to stop you when you beat Rennala’s 1st phase and says “you won’t disturb mother’s sleep”. You get this line if you reach Rennala without accepting the maiden’s offer
I did get that my second playthrough lol. I completely forgot it wasn't in the original fight and have it recorded. That's cool that was the reward for doing it. My second playthrough I got every rune I could before Melina trying to get some kind of extras that weren't obvious from the first, maybe a hidden npc or something.
@@abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz4839 I just checked and you're right, both recordings have the same dialog. So maybe the interesting thing is there's a way NOT to get the dialog?
That always happens...
The game is VERY heavy handed in implying that Melina is the Gloam-Eyed Queen in the frenzied flame ending but it also spells it out within the lore. The Gloam-Eyed Queen was an Empyrean, and as such a daughter of Marika, and as an Empyrean she was a runebearer, her rune was the Rune of Death. The Gloam-Eyed Queen's mother is in the Erdtree and that is where she bestowed her purpose on her, to bear the Rune of Death. Melina tells you explicitly when she meets you that she wants to go to the Erdtree to fulfill the purpose her mother bestowed upon her within the Erdtree, she wants to reclaim the Rune of Death, which you're repeatedly told is also known as Destined Death, and deliver the death destined to Marika that she had tried to avoid when she used Maliketh to slay her and steal the rune.
Yeah but maliketh did kill her so I don’t think it’s melina it is heavily implied tho I will agree with that
Also his point about torrent is very good showing that they are not the sams
@@Faint366 No, empyreans are candidates for godhood, potential successors to Marika; not all demigods are empyreans but all empyreans are demigods. To be an empyrean, according to the game you need to be the pureblood offspring a single god, for example: Maquila and Melania, who are the children of Marika and Radagon, or a child of one of them and chosen as a candidate for godhood by a Two Fingers, such as Ranni who was a child of Radagon and Rennala and chosen as an empyrean by her Two Fingers. The Gloam-Eyed Queen was also an empyrean chosen by their Two Fingers, which means that she was either Radagon or Marika's child.
The Rune of Death was removed at the beginning of Marika's reign. This is explicitly told you by the game. The rune being out of Marika's direct control plays a significant role in the Shattering, because a shard of the rune was stolen from Maliketh and imbued into daggers that would be used to murder Marika's son Godwyn, an event known as The Night of Black Knives, that is considered the catalyst that drove Marika to turn against the Greater Will and shatter her covenant with them: the Elden Ring.
We also know that The Gloam-Eyed Queen had the rune of death prior to Maliketh and used it to imbue the black flame of the Godskin Apostles. We also know that Marika sent Maliketh to wage war on The Gloam-Eyed Queen to retrieve it and seal it away. We don't know how The Gloam-Eyed Queen got the rune in the first place, which is where my theory comes in.
Up until this point this is all detailed in the game, as well as the first sentence in the theory I'm going to re-explain. You clearly haven't read the lore text on the ingame items so why don't you go over to fandom and fextralife and read the various wiki pages about The Gloam Eyed Queen, Marika, Empyereans, the Night of the Black Knives and The Shattering, The Rune of Death/Destined Death...all of that is laid out there, derived from the in-game lore text. Wouldn't hurt if you also hit up youtube to watch a compilation of all of your interactions with Melina as well as the Frenzied Flame ending so you can understand how I came to this theory.
My theory: Melina was a daughter of Marika, was bestowed a purpose by Marika within the Erdtree, and she wishes to return to fulfill that purpose...we're literally told as much directly from Melina (and though she stops short of saying that Marika is her mother there are a ton of context clues and hinting at the duality of Ranni and Melina, and the duality between Radagon and Marika is explicitly laid out, Ranni being the Empyrean daughter of Radagon and Melina being the Empyrean daughter of Marika gives the lore a nice symmetry.) That purpose, I surmise, was to bear the rune of death after Marika removed it from The Elden Ring shortly after receiving it as a covenant between her and The Greater Will upon her ascension to godhood. It was sometime after that Melina's Two Fingers chose her as an Empyrean, which marked her as a potential successor to the throne. Being the bearer of the rune of death made her the only person with the ability to kill a god, which Marika took as a frightening conflict of interest, she had removed the rune of death to secure her immortality afterall. She then sent Maliketh to kill Melina and retrieve it then scrubbed Melina from the history of the lands between (this also provides some ironic lore symmetry, as Marika killed her daughter to protect immortality in the lands between, it was Radagon's daughter Ranni who organized the Night of the Black Knives: the theft of a shard of the rune of death to be used to kill Marika's son.) With Melina scrubbed from the history of the lands between she's only remembered as the mysterious Gloam-Eyed Queen in the lore text on Godskin related items.
Personally, I think it ties up a lot of loose ends(why is Melina a central character in the game but has NO lore floating around the lands between and why is there ALMOST no lore about The Gloam-Eyed Queen--she's Marika's shame remembered only by her followers, why Ranni and Melina look so similar--they're half-sisters, why she's specifically given what can only be described as a "gloam eye" in the frenzied flame ending, the shattering seeming like an extreme reaction to the death of her son put into better context as that event is precipitated by the death of her daughter) It also plays into a lot of the lore tropes GRRM loves using (symmetries, familial betrayal, karmic feedback loops,) and he was instrumental in crafting the lore to the game. Most of all, it provides a piece of the puzzle that gets us from Marika's ascension to the shattering in a coherent story of Game of Thrones-esque royal drama.
Well I certainly appreciate your going all-in with it. Though I think some are beyond stretches, like Ranni not meaning to kill Godwyn.
I think Ranni, and possibly Marika, meant for Godwyn to die, but Marika did not intend for Ranni to usurp (half) the process.
It's really hard to put together theories without actual timelines though. Like we don't know necessarily know when Godfrey was exiled, when Godwyn was killed, when Radagon went back to Marika, and so on. Things that could change everything.
I think the theory that Godwyn was pretending to be Marika, and Ranni / Melina / Godskin didnt know that. So they hatched a plan to kill a god but ended up just killing Godwyn. This answers 2 unanswered questions. Why anyone wanted to kill Godwyn and why Marika was so upset at his death.
@@snowi8650 I'm not sure how/why that theory came to be.
Godwyn likely encompassed the anchor rune we find on Godrick later. So he was the main first step to breaking the Elden Ring. But like I said before, he most likely wasn't supposed to have his death tampered with in the way that it was, which leads to Marika's being driven to the brink.
@@EdwardViaTomato that theory came because there is no real reason given why Godwyn was killed. There is reasons why Ranni needed demigod to die, reasons why Black knive assasins would kill people and support for a lot of theories, but no reason why GODWYN should be the target. Story makes a lot more sense if the target was Marika.
@@snowi8650 I honestly don't believe it makes more sense if the target was Marika. Ranni just needed *A* demigod to die simultaneously to her, and the whole implication Marika is the one who directed the assassination to Godwyn. All the Black Knife assassins were Numen women with close ties to her, so the most logical reading is that they were her minions, and thus carrying out her will. Perhaps Godwyn the *Golden* was slain because he was Elden Lord, and completely loyal to the Golden Order? An Order she intended to break since exiling Godfrey and those who would become Tarnished.
I havent seen anyone take into account the Great Rune of the Unborn as the source of Radagon and others. It can obviously not just alter a person but create copies of a person, as it had to have been used to make Millicent and her "sisters". If it can alter a person and copy a person then it can make an altered copy of a person. This also would answer why Radagon had it to give to Rennala: because it was used to make him. This is how Radagon and Merika can be the same person while also being two distinct people. It could also account for Melina. Ranni could have used it to make Melina before killing her body.
The sword of night and flame might be the weapon of the dusk eyed queen who you also suggested to have dawn (fire) powers and dusk (“night”). And its location near ranni’s tower might be confirming her connection with ranni because it ranni uses moon spells and the sword is a sword ofc and doesnt use moon powers.
I like this little piece of lore speculation it fits perfectly into his theory
The gloam-eye Queen being the Snow Witch and the Queen being Malania's mother is our connection to Ranni and Malania being so similar and having opposing eyes. The reason we think they look the same is simple, Ranni constructed her puppet after the Witch (the Gloam eyed Queen) and Malania looks like her mother (the gloam eyed Queen).
I don't completely believe this theory but there is something to be said about the duality of their powers, their opposing eye scars, and "Malania" showing up at the end
@@phoenixpills you mean Melina?
@@Faint366 someone coming with the receipts 🫰🏽🫰🏽
This was absolutely fantastic man, so many things clicked, i'm a really big fan of the guy you mentioned in the end, and i sometimes get lost in his way of story telling this is the first time in 2 years i've watched a video about Elden ring and kept thinking....This makes so much sense...and that makes so much sense...and that makes so much sense, stop making so much sense. It's mind blowing i found this video so late...You my friend deserve a prize...From Software should really have a prize for the best lore theories...really. This is by far the most interesting, compelling and comprehensive video i've watched.
You are brilliant, cheers.
You know… your theories maybe more right than we thought.
The Goldwyn and Marika situation, Ranni and Miquela’s theories… just damn fine work dude!
Black knife assassin: *stabs Godwyn 37 times in the chest* "oops"
This is something I've wondered from the beginning: Why does no one ask what Torrent's angle in all of this is? Torrent seems to be the character we know least about in spite of spending the most time with him. Maybe I'm crazy, but it seems odd to pin so much on a beast of burden's decision. There's gotta be more to this steed, and I'm hoping the DLC will shed some light on the character. He just seems like a massive blind spot.
EDIT: While I like your theory on the main character being Miquella, and believe you've provided some good backing for it, I have a slight problem with it. Thematically, it's WILDLY different from what FromSoft typically does with Souls games. In most Souls games, the player character is a nobody. The player navigates the world they're unfamiliar with, grabbing bits and pieces of lore that may or may not be knowledge that the player character possesses, all the while using their own determination to fell the legends of that world. The fact that we're just a determined nobody makes it super satisfying when we beat these larger-than-life figures, and connect with the few-but-varied weirdoes who don't try to kill you on sight. We fail or succeed not by being some all-important chosen one or celebrity, but by our own merits and grit. If the player character is Miquella, a known demigod with limitless intellect whom everybody liked... I dunno. It throws a bit of a wrench into what makes these games enjoyable to play.
His theory still goes along with that though, you are still kind of a nobody since you have no memory. It’s also worth bringing up that the story was written by a different person on this game, so it would be expected to be at least a little different.
Not to mention its not so far fetched for fromsoft to deviate from their usual methods I mean sekiro had non customizable established named protagonist who wasn't exactly a nobody
@@brokeeboii7879 also in Dark Souls 3 you are Ashen, the culmination of countless failed attempts to rekindle the First Flame. You are “nobody” yet also filled with past potential.
You could argue that Wolf isn't a nobody in Sekiro. Miquella and Melania also mirror Kuro and Wolf, with Kuro being the divine heir and Wolf having a prosthetic
5:02 This armor belongs to Recusant Henricus. He invades you in Limgrave as you approach the colosseum east of Stormveil Castle.
This was SO good! (And I know a lot of work went into this) - probably the best I’ve seen thus far, thanks!
You can fit most humanoid heads inside Ranni's "phantom face" yet, the differences lie in the depth of the facial features, not in the siluette. That's why a lot of those features like mouth size, eyes, cheekbones, frown, are all completely different between Melina and Ranni's puppet.
I write these notes when I was watching the video:
- Giant against the Dragon is totally new to me and it makes sense. I wonder which consequence does it had on the landbetween?
- Nokron, though was leveled by Astel, was banished because of the Greater Will.
- There is an theory Farum Azula seem to crumbled because of Meteor (Ruin Greatsword), and the gravity caused time there to be weird.
- Queen Marika affair though not really convinced me, does offer an explanation on cursed children.
- Your theory about who the snow witch is really interesting and quite convincing. I think it combined well both theories about Melina. The Gloam/Dusk Eye Queen have two power idea opens way for a lot of interesting stuffs.
+ There is an invade where you fight Vagram. He has the Godslayer greatsword, he took liking to Wolf, aspired to be Empyrean Shadow. Which maybe is a important clue to Gloam/Dusk Eye Queen case.
- Reason behind Malenia fight against Radahn is spot on. I also believe it must be because of Miquella, maybe he wanted something from the star (Eclipse, Moon stuff). But after the fight, Malenia just wait for Miquella beside the tree kind of contradict with it.
+ Mohgwyn Dysnasty is direct under Selia Gateway, which is in Caelid. I don't know if it has something to do with the reason why Malenia and Radahn fight.
+ Rot outer god is sealed by a blue sword man in Lake of Rot, which is near where Astel fell. Rot, Malenia, Blue Swordman, Nokstella stuffs, maybe it's all connected somehow. I still trying to find more clues about it.
Anyways, great video, offer fresh new good theory. I really like it, though I found the length and the massive content of the video make writing short comment quite hard.
If I’m being honest, While I’m very sure Malenia fought Radahn under Miquellas orders, I don’t think she was told to kill him, I think she was told to infect him with rot. I can’t remember the item, but it’s said once Malenias flower blooms 3 times, she will become a goddess.
So I didn’t have any concrete evidence to back this up, but I think Miquella told Melanie to rot Radahn, but Melanie took it as beat Radahn, and that’s why they fought. The evidence I DO have for this is the needle. I think she lost the needle when she used her rot powers, but still had a needle inside of her. So Miquella prepared for her to lose her initial needle, and Miquella DEFINITELY gave her two needles, because after her fight with Radahn she never saw him again.
@@AngelOfThePast I don't think Miquella wanted Malenia to infect rot on Radahn, since it contradict with him wanting to help Malenia get rid of the scarlet rot. I still think the reason of the battle got something to do with Radahn holding back the stars. If Miquella want to swallow the sun with eclipse, he gonna need the moon right?
@@Trau0409 Oh for sure, I don't know definitivly one wya or the other. That being said, the reason I think Miquella wanted his sister to rot Radahn was for 3 reasons.
The first is because he wanted he knew Radahn and Melania wouldn't be able to best one another. That while she would be able to weaken Radahn, she couldn't best him.
The Second Is because Radahn needed to be taken out, so he, through you, could kill radahn and free the stars, helping Ranni and letting the stars move fate.
Finally, because he knew Melania would need to bloom her flower 3 times to become a goddess. The item is called Scarlet Aeonia, the spell from the remembrance of melania.
Now I could be misinterpreting this, but again I'm going on the assumption the Miquella was 8 moves ahead levels of genius. So Basically, my reasoning stems from the fact that if it happened, Miquella predicted it would happen. My last reason for thinking it went as planned is because miquella was already inside the Haligtree by the time melania returned, so he didn't even wait to find out if Melania beat radahn. That feeds into my understanding that he believed wholeheartedly that his plans had progressed beyond the need of his own intervention. I'm still doing playthroughs though So I'll keep your theory in mind as well.
This is still the most amazing lore theory I've seen, me and everyone I know who plays elden ring accepts this video as the actual lore.
After countless Elden Ring Lore videos and spending 300+ hrs in game, this is by far the BEST explaination i've heard so far. There are some holes to be filled and there are some leaps of logic, but all-in-all, it makes a lot of sense and is actually more incredible and wonderous as you promised.
Some points:
1: Plasidusax was considered the first Elden Lord, but of a different deity. Godfrey was the first modem Elden Lord; those who were consorts to Queen Marika.
2: Marika didn’t start a Shattering by plucking the tune of death from the Elden ring. The Shattering is the name of the War between the Demigods
3: Ranni entirely meant to kill Godwyn. Her ritual to free herself from the will of the Two Fingers required the death of a soul and the death of a body. She killed her body and freed her soul, and killed Godwyn’s body.
4: the Black Knife Assassins couldn’t kill Ranni’s fingers. Only the Fingerslaying Blade could. Plus, she couldn’t end up on top without the Shattering. She needed Radahn dead, who stopped the stars from continuing Ranni’s destiny as heir to the throne.
Counterpoint to 3: Ranni needed "a" soul to die. She didn't need Godwyn's soul to die. The point he's making is that Marika would have been a much more likely target.
So I come back here because a thought has been nagging me but first , Marika and Godwyn being in an incestuous relationship and Godfrey being the Ned Stark of the situation truly sounds like reaching , even more so considering that his banishment , while harsh treatment, doesn't sound like it's punishment. Marika promises Godfrey and the tarnished that they would return to the lands between and they do indeed return , moreover there is not indication as to how the Marika/Radagon thing works ( I do agree that they share the same body tho) let alone that her son can do the same ( I'm inclined to believe that Marika creates Radagon and at some point he assumes consciousness but that's just more speculation I guess) . However your interpretation of the night of the black knives does make sense , if it's indeed a coup then Marika herself would be the target but Godwyn is attacked instead. So here's the thought that's been nagging me : when I started my second playthrough while the slides were scrolling I remember thinking " Why is Godwyn wearing his mother's clothes?' , after watching this video I was reminded of that thought and looking the slide he not only wears a skirt similar to Marika/Radagon 's dress/skirt but his hair cast to the side are strongly reminiscent of Marika's golden braid. Now the incestuous relationship between Marika and her son can't be correct , but on Godwyn roleplaying as his mother for whatever reason you might be onto something.
To me it seemed that Ranni didn't really make a specific plan. What she understood was that she needed to cast aside her physical body so that the Gods had no way of controlling her and thats as far as she planned. It feels to me as though she defers all of her plans to the stars and assumes that the progression of events will naturally follow the fate that is written in them. So whether the victim would be Marika or Godwyn disguised as Marika is of no real concern to her as she believes whatever occurs is what is supposed to happen. If she did indeed have a plan i feel she logically would have targetted Radahn, i think she would be smart enough to put together that he was a likely culprit for stopping the stars. She has complete faith in the path that she walks and it's inevitability. That's why even though she suspects ulterior motives from you she isn't phased as she believes its all a part of how it's supposed to unfold.
@@Werumo Ranni's role in the ploy is in itself unclear beyond what she tells us about her "stealing the rune of death" , the video seems to give credit to the notion that she's the mastermind behind it but it might also not be the case , your assessment of her character might perhaps be correct to some degree but you're referring to events that are contemporary to the player but far into the future of the "night of the black knives"
I won't lie, there's a lot of points I disagree with, but it's obvious you put a lot of effort and thought into this and I respect that
That’s probably the most wild and intriguing theory I’ve heard so far. I’ll be coming back to this
I very much like your take on the story. One thing I would say about the dusk eyed queen being the snow witch. The black fire is cold fire. If anything that gives more validation to your theory.
18:40 it is explicitly stated that the bloodiest battles of the shattering are fought on Mount Gelmir, of the shattering being the thing that contradicts you saying this was before that event.
Dude... This was so good. I listened while adventuring in game and I'm starting it back over again... I'm sure I missed something along the way!
i hope you continue making videos like this, looks like a lot of hard work but it really pays off
Everyone who has played Elden Ring should watch this video.
If it turns out to be false, you’ve set an ungodly bar on from soft to come up with an even better backstory than this.
Also, if proven false, this is an amazing premise for a game either way.
What a fascinating take you have cooked up, bravo!
Thank you for watching! I while I'm confident in most of my theories, I can't say for sure if they're all correct. Even if everything I said in this video is 100% wrong though, I hope you still loved watching it! If you're reading this and you liked my video, please leave me a like and a comment. I love reading them (even though I don't always answer I will almost always thumbs them up) and thumbs up my video! Any interactions help me grow, and I love you all.
Edit: Responses take me a very long time to write, especially when I have to reference things like video data and item descriptions. So if you have a question about some of the fundamental points of my video, try checking the comments first. It saves me a lot of time if I've already answered it.
Theories aside, I just have 1 question... Is mispronouncing names a part of the SoulsBorne shtick?
Lol, I'm pretty sure that comes from the fact that everyone in soulsborne games names feel like they are an anagram of one another.
@@Asriel_Cypher yeah I mean the voice actors pronounce them in game so there's really no reason for it, especially if they're so learnt abt the lore
Ok I haven't watched the entire video but I got to the End of Melina's part and I think you need to know somrthing. Melina IS the woman at the end of the Lord of Frenzy ending 100%. It isn't debatable. If you burn Melina at the Cauldron and then go for the LoF ending That scene never plays because Melina is dead and therefore can't be shown because her soul can't return to her body.
There is more I want to speculate over that but if you are still reading these I want your thoughts on that first, please.
@@justindailey84 I’ve discussed this with others in the comments, so if you’re curious on my full explanation I invite you to check those out. However the short version is that if you watch that part of the video again I use VERY specific wording when talking about who shows up at the end, and I never say the person at the end is explicitly not Melina. I will also say I was aware that if you burn melina, you don’t get that last part of the frenzied fire ending when I made the video.
Sorry if this came up before, but could your theory also explain what drove Marika to commit the Shattering? Even why Melina and Marika wants to bring back destined death?
Marika sees the suffering of her true love, Godwyn and knows that he will never know peace while the Erdtree stands. The Greater Will sees her treachery and emprisons her in self-interest.
Knowing that her fate is sealed, she enlists her daughter (and maybe the daughter of Godwyn?), Melina to seek another to carry out the destruction of the erdtree.
This could also just be total nonsense. I love this game.
While he didn’t bring it up in this video(maybe he did and I missed it, and also it would only further be evidence on his dusk eyed queen being Melina’s mother theory) Melina does mention in game her mother is in the erd tree(through this we are often led to believe she’s pointing at Marika) and that’s where she’s getting her motivation/orders from to do what she’s doing. In the video he mentions that the dusk eyed queen at this point was killed already and her soul is trapped in the erd tree. It oddly all adds up.
Also explains why your being guided the the map with hints through gracepoints almost like someone was looking over you.
Hot take:
Marika is not one single entity.
Much like how she and Radagon became one after marriage, Marika herself is initially a junction of two entities - the dusk and gloam eyed queen.
She finds of Godwin's intention to betray her, taking Miquella for consort and replacing her as vessal for the Elden Ring.
Evidence of Miquella's relationship with Godwin is found in a dialogue atop Castle Sol.
She then exiles Godfrey, fearing he would not stand for her plan to kill Godwin, and seeks for a new partner who she could count on.
She then sneaks her way into Ranni's life, and uses her influence as Ranni's teacher, the dusk eyed queen, to plant the seed of what would later become the night of black knives.
Then, resolved to further sever the connection of the lands between and the greater will, she shatters the Elden ring itself.
She then sets off as the gloam eyed queen to offer help to one tarnished who would agree to burn down the Erdtree, that's how we meet her "gloam eyed queen" form, Melina.
Yes, the story is really hidden. It's sad that the story is not really told in the game.
Great video! Only thing I’d say is that for Melina’s mom to NOT be Marika, it doesn’t explain when she says she was given a mission by her mother at the base of the erdtree. She’s definitely a spirit so maybe she’s one of the unwanted demigods in the mausoleums
Damnnnnnnn. I’ve watched so many lore videos and played through the game 4 times so far. This lore video makes me want to start from scratch and play it again. Definitely the most fascinating lore video I’ve seen so far. Very cool and so well done. I feel like this is what Miyazaki is talking about when he says leaving certain connections open for the player to elaborate the plot. So fucking cool man, I hope you make more
Honestly it makes even more sense if godwyn was radagon. The damage on radagons body resembles the back of godwyn in his murder picture. Godwyns body is absorbed and corrupting the erd tree as if marika is trying to pull him close.
Radagon is said to be ashamed of the color of his hair, potentially being used to cover up his identity.
Godfrey being sent away and replaced makes sense, but with her son would be frowned upon, so a new identity was forged for him, considered an extention of markia not because they are one person but of one blood.
Would give ranni more incentive for killing godwyn as he broke her mothers heart and abadoned, well all of his children, and giving her and her siblings all natural acess to some degree of his powers over death making her scheme more plausible.
If death rune affiliations are what gave ranni the ability to place her body within a doll it would reason so could godwyn, which is how radagon would be born.
Note it says all demi gods were siblings, as in sharing a parent, but it only refers to (i believe) the living demi gods.
The curse born demi gods are born as twins. Mogh and Morgott, malenia and miquella. Firstborn godwyn was born alone.
I love to find out new awesome creators… this was just amazing… from start to finish. New subscriber looking forward for more
This is probably the most accurate description of the story with all the available info.
This is the best theory. A year later and no Smoughtown or Vati Vidya has talked about these connections and I just want to comment to boost this things reach. I'll be pleasently surprised to see you vindicated by the Elden Ring DLC centering around Miquella. I'm going to scream when it begings by touching his body in the egg - which switches his spirit from the tarnished back to his old vessel and he tells you How thankful he is for your compliance in making his plan a reality - And after he resurrects Melenia and we have to fight them both in their reborn perfect states. God, that'd be a dream.
This was super interesting as a concept, I disagree with some stuff, but find the identity of the player to be fascinating and the most interesting theory I’ve heard about this game.
Your beliefs about the dusk/gloam-eyed queen, how do you square ghost flame, the death rite birds, and death sorcery stuff with her? Because I think they are connected to her as well somehow, maybe the gloam eyed queen was in charge of the lands between before Merika showed up, with placiduvax as her consort which is why godskin apostles have draconic traits to their forms.
The godskins have tails due to the crucible. I think the dusk eyed queen Melina/the snow witch (there is no way that's not true it makes too much sense that they look the same) had the dragon as it's consort/lord could make sense. I think more so that the dusk eyed queen was basically the death rune, even for God's. Cycling in New ones each age. Removing the rune of death and defeating the dusk eyed queen are the same event. Also ghost flame and black flame are two different powers so the death birds have nothing to do with the black flame.
@@jonkorpi Something just popped into my mind. The Crucible expresses itself onto beings via wings, scales, horns, and tails. That is ... pretty draconic. Really don't know what to do with it.
While everyone has their own theories about the family drama and relations, some of which make a lot of sense, I still love yours the most. The hermaphroditism and incest incorporates themes from both Dark Souls and Game of Thrones. Even if it’s not right, it’s the most fun theory I’ve heard on the matter
To add to that, maybe Miquella could literally birth the Mohgwyn dynasty if he made Miquella female since he’s trying to possess him with the Formless *Mother*
I saw a lot of Elden Ring lore vids, they were interesting but confusing.
This vid made so much sense that I won't accept any other theories as true that don't add to this.
Thanks for putting in the detective work and solving allot of mysteries.
This video is incredible quality, and the fact that this channel has 850 something subscribers (as I write this, I'm sure it will be more soon) blows me away.
This channel deserves hugely more subscribers.
I believe this is going to be one of those SoulsTube channels that explodes out of nowhere and rises from >1000 subs into the millions.
The quality of this is just incredible.
The point of Ranni looking like Rennala's failed sweetings seems pretty wrong to me, as you can see in her corpse in the divine tower of liurnia that Ranni was clearly redhead like her father.
So I just looked into this because I really liked the idea that her hair was red, but the corpse doesn't actually have hair (that I saw.) The picture I saw had her scalp kind of orange where her hair was, but it was definitely orange flesh and not hair. I do like the idea of her having red hair like her father, but I'll have to look in game later to verify. I was able to see it by looking for "corpse top of divine tower" there was a couple where you could see her scalp.
This was so good. At the end I teared up a little because I'm a pretty emotional person but also because I could hear the care for your work, in your voice. This was an exceptional experience and I found it very informative, entertaining, and even fulfilling. Thank you.
I think Vatividya should be hitting you up and giving you credit on this lore explanation... This was absolutely wonderful to watch and thoroughly explained, very good job. Loved it
Besides the silliness at the end I think this is the best theory so far.
Whoops there is one more thing....Godrey came back because he wanted to be Elden Lord again
That was something really fresh and eyes opening for more hidden stories - Godwyn the golden being a secret lover of Marika just blew me away. I hope you are going to continue making videos about Elden Ring
Thanks mate. With all those speculation I could finally put a nail in the coffin that is Godrick. If we assume that Malenia and Miquella are children of Godwyn and I think that fits my own theory.
I'm pretty sure that Malenia once "owned" the shaded castle and had the Marais family as her executioners. Maybe she and one of the Marai guys liked each other enough to get a few kids themselves. If you have a look at the Marais mask it kinda resembles how godrick looks and it would explain that he sees himself as a successor to godwyn. Milicent and her sisters could be Malenia/Marais kids too. The weapon that Maleigh Marais wields has an antler from an ant from the halligtree as well.
It was a blast watching you craft the story and laid out the evidence
What a great video. I hope all of these theories are true because I felt like this was an adventure! Keep up the good work, I hope your channel gets the attention it deserves.
I rarely comment, but I had to bump this. This theory is so thorough, and so clever, it makes me happier with Elden Ring as a whole. Everyone ignored those gaps in the story about Miquella, Godwyn, and The Dusk/Gloam eyed Queen, except for you. It's funny because I did think Marika and Radagon were separate bodies even after beating the game and seeing Marika turn into Radagon before the last fight. So it only makes sense that she went out as Radagon and had to trust the Elden Ring with her Numen/Empyrian son. It makes sense Ranni would plan an assassination believing Marika was defenseless, still holding the elden ring while Radagon was moving from Liurnia to Lyndell to be her 2nd Elden Lord, hearing Renala's anguish in his sudden departure. It makes sense Miquella first push Ranni to separate her soul with this plan, before doing it himself so he leave the golden order and his curse, and that we play that Tarnished body because he knew Melania would not truly die herself if he had to return to the haligtree as an invader ( but keep in mind she is completely optional, and not necessary to fight to become Elden Lord.) I would not be surprised if Rykard was somehow involved with the other demigods ideas of rebirth too, assuming he was the first demigod to shed his body. Fantastic video. Gotta watch it again.
This is insanely disturbing and also insanely accurate... if I had doubts about Godwyn's theory at first, you thoroughly convinced me with the explanation of Godwyn's assassination, you can even see the assassin holding a torch against Godwyn's face, as if to look at his face better to realise it is not Marika, I do believe though that they could have stopped, it was just too late... everything was dark and they stabbed nonstop, only when they lit up the torch they realised it wasn't Marika. The only thing that disproves all this is that there is just no reference of a possible female Godwyn (A secret Fortissax would have known). There are two candidates however, the 'humanoid' Lansseax or Fia herself. Nevertheless, this is the best video I have seen in a long time, kept me entertained until the end.
easily one of the best lore explanations ive seen. Your entire video makes sense. What an awesome idea... playing as Miquella.
Okay. You got me, you got a knack for this theories. Subscribed. More power to you and please make more of this content about Elden Ring!
Only halfway through the video so you might bring this up, but Kenneth Haight talks about Godrick (last of Godwyns descendants) disguising himself with the ladyfolk to escape the capital. Creates a possible link to Godwyn 'cross-dressing' as Marika while she's in Radagon form.
Holy shit. That may be true as well. When I take a look into godwyns design, he look kinda like Marika and Radigon. Same dress, long golden hair. His may possess the same ability as Marika to switch gender at will or something like that.
@@gennuy_t_9478 Well godrick probably used the mimic veil item...
I thought that was a great video, and I found the theories really interesting. There was just a little too much conjecture to convince me re: your Miquella theory and the Marika/Godwyn relations; would love to see something a bit more in-depth on those subjects but i understand firm information is hard to come by in FromSoftware games. Great video all the same, thanks for the unique insight
Revan isn't dead. You ARE Revan! So if you're right, if, then this would be as big a twist as the first Knights of the Old Republic game. Fascinating. I'm gonna hope you're right, the logic is sound. Nice catch.
I don't even play this game, but I could listen to hours more of you explain it. Great stuff man!