(I Know This Isn't About Comparing Character Morality But I Really Wanna Write My Thoughts Down On This

Thinking about how Farum Azula is about the only place in the lands between a body can be put to rest without it being "returned to the erdtree" via its roots.

Thinking about how the society of Farum Azula seem to hold the dead in incredibly high regards, the entire city being a mass mausoleum in which the dead can be seen weaved into the very foundation.

Thinking about how Dragonlord Placidusax is said to have been elden lord long before the erdtree even existed and that he's waiting for his missing god to return even to this very day.

Thinking about Farum Azula having an ancient, more whole depiction of the elden ring designed into one of its major buildings.

Thinking about how the Godskins have reptilian, almost dragon like features and are fought in Farum Azula's prayer room.

Thinking about how the dragons and the golden order warred fairly early on in the Golden order's history, and that unlike many other of its documented conquests, the dragons were the aggressors in the situation, as stated in bolt of Gransax' item description. However what caused the dragons to attack seems to be conveniently forgotten in modern history.

Thinking about the sheer magnitude of history that's seemingly been buried from before the golden order, including an entire age that existed before it that had its own elden lord and god.

Thinking about how Marika had to defeat the gloam eyed queen before she was able to alter the elden ring and remove the rune of death to begin her own order.

Thinking about how the GEQ was an empyrean queen who had ties to death.

Thinking about how Placidusax has a missing god who used to host the elden ring before the age of the erdtree and ruled from within a mausoleum city that worships and honours the dead.

I remember in a bloodborne 2 concepts video I watched a while ago (it was a collaboration/contest between a bunch of different creators) my absolute favorite ideas were the ones set in and around a fishing village/costal area.

It seems like fromsoft's aesthetic would seamlessly go hand in hand with a dark and dingy coastal setting and I'm shocked that they haven't really touched on the idea much. I'm desperate for them to try it one day.

Of all the esoteric details in Elden Ring (and that’s not a low bar), the one that itches my brain the most is the fish tail on Godwyn’s corpse. For the same reason that Aldrich’s vision of the Deep Sea from DS3 bugs me. Maybe Kos points at it too, depending on your persuasion. But like, there’s some kind of goth water-world lurking in FromSoft’s storytelling consciousness and I WANT IT.

Queen Marika the eternal and the power of bewitching

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Y'know, it's interesting that Marika also seemed to have a similar "mind control" power that Miquella is often sited as having.

"The Empyrean Miquella is loved by many people. Indeed, he has learned very well how to compel such affection."

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While it's something that isn't heavily explored in game (to the point where I don't see anyone discussing it) Roderika theorizes that Marika cursed Hewg to eternally craft weapons for the remainder of his life. And it's straight up stated that this "cursing power" was used on the fire giant to force it into protecting the giants forge in the name of the erdtree.

"The Fire Giant is a survivor of the War against the Giants. Upon realizing the flames of their forge would never die, Queen Marika marked him with a curse. "O trifling giant, mayest thou tend thy flame for eternity.""

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So Marika definitely seems to have a similar power, possibly even being the person Miquella inherited his off of in the first place.

But could this go even further than just Hewg and the fire giant? How many others could she have cursed over the years? What are the chances that Radagon suddenly up and leaving his family to become second elden lord wasn't actually his decision at all? Miriel himself states that it's a ongoing mystery as to why Radagon would do it.(alongside why he was chosen to become elden lord at all)

"The mystery endures, to this day... As to why Lord Radagon would cast Lady Rennala aside... and moreover...why a mere champion would be chosen for the seat of Elden Lord"."

The thing I find really important is that the question isn't just about why he'd be chosen as elden lord, but also why he'd cast Rennala aside at all. To me, this implies that Radagon did indeed care for Rennala, to the point where even with the temptation of becoming the second lord of the order he loved so much, it still seemed strangely out of character for him to take that opportunity over his family. As if he would never do that.

That is unless, he didn't take that opportunity by choice.

Afterall, even after leaving Rennala, he still clings to the only thing he has left of her, the golden order greatsword. And on top of that, he left his red wolf to protect her from harm, and even gifted her the amber egg before his departure. (Though I'd argue that that did far more bad than good for her mental state.)

"Telltale signs betray that this was once the greatsword bequeathed to him by his first wife, Rennala."

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Ok so Radagon could have been cursed by Marika, and much like Hewg with his smithing and the fire giant with the forge, Radagon might have been cursed to protect the golden order as its elden lord, which would eventually backfire horrendously when Marika decided to turn against that very same order.

Admittedly I am kind of stretching here but everyone she cursed seems to be "cursed" with a specific goal in mind. Forge a god slaying weapon, Protect the giants forge. So it's not totally out of the question that she also cursed Radagon with the goal of "be the elden lord."

It would certainly explain why even after years trapped in the tree and barely even being alive anymore, he still fought tooth and nail to protect his order. He cannot give up because he's no longer physically capable of giving up. Much like Hewg and the giant. That is unless they die of course.

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But it could go even further than that. What about Maliketh? It appears he's just loyally following the orders of Marika but that's what it always looks like! It looks like that with Hewg. It looks like that with the fire giant and it looks like that with Maliketh aswell. Despite seeming utterly miserable both as Maliketh and Gurranq, he carries on following her orders for years.

We have no idea how long he spent in the Farum Azula. Time doesn't work properly there. For all we know, he could be the oldest being in the game by the time we get to him. And yet after all that time his resolve never wavers. Even after being "betrayed" by Marika.

"Maliketh was a shadowbound beast given to his Empyrean. Marika's sole need of her shadow was a vessel to lock away Destined Death. Even then, she betrayed him."

And much Like Hewg, Fire Giant and Radagon, Maliketh is also ordered to carry out a specific goal. Which is protecting destined death.

Forge the god slaying weapon.

Protect the Giants Forge.

Be elden lord.

Guard Destined death.

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Many people, including myself have sited Miquella's connection to the bewitching branch and power to "compel affection" as evidence that he might not be as benevolent as he seemed. But what if we've got it all wrong? What if we shouldn't be being suspicious of Miquella for having this power, but instead the person he inherited it off of?

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Now there is someone else that Marika may have cursed. Well, a group of someone's actually. I saved this till the end because it's the most "out there" part of this theory but...

Spoken echoes of Queen Marika linger here as well.

Shall I share them with you?

In Marika's own words.

Hear me, Demigods. My children beloved. Make of thyselves that which ye desire. Be it a Lord. Be it a God. But should ye fail to become aught at all, ye will be forsaken. Amounting only to sacrifices...

...What if it wasn't the power from shards of the elden ring that corrupted the Demi-gods and led to the shattering wars?

What if it was the power of suggestion? The power of bewitchment?

What if it was Marika?

Personnal storyboard based on my favorite scene of @eldenring shadow of the erdtree, the tragic confrontation with former comrades… The music of the fight (Those United In Common Cause - Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree OST) is so beautiful I had to do something with it. It was a totally different exercise than the previous storyboard, with one simple arena but many different characters.

Idk i just love that in SOTE, the ones you manage to keep with you to help for the last battle against A God and his Demigod brother/consort are the self proclaimed "good for nothing wet kitten" and "i am too old for this"

It’s such a shame honestly. She’s travelling with us for the entirety of the game, across this massive world with so much to discover and talk about (barring farum azula and onward) and I’m pretty sure she has less unique dialogue (not counting Marika’s spoken echos as actual interactions with her as a character) than Ranni, who only really interacts with us within her specific questline.

Hell, Even Latenna has some pretty good travelling dialogue when we’re doing the Haligtree quest.

I felt more connected to both of these characters as travelling companions than I ever did with Melina, which is really sad because I also really like Melina but I just tend to forget she’s there most of the time. It feels like the biggest contribution she makes to the story is being a talking piece for other characters, explaining Torrent's motivations to us and being a scribe for Marika but like… I want to know about you Meli!

I am glad we’re of one mind that Melina is a character whose potential was sorely wasted in Elden Ring. I mean, it’s probably why I can’t get too invested in her.

Monster hunter wilds spoilers

The way I screamed when I saw that Olivia was going to be joining me while fighting the fish apex. Story hunts with other characters was something I really wanted out of wilds but wasn't confident we'd actually get, so when I saw that she was still there after the cutscene transition I was so excited!

That sort of thing was one of the big things I thought was missing with world's story. Especially when it came to Nergigante and Teostra, where it felt like there were very prominent characters tied to the monsters/missions, but it really stands out with just about any hunt where there's another well established and more experienced hunter around and they just turn to you like "ok you can handle this right? I'm gonna go back to camp and have a cuppa" So seeing the fellow hunters in wilds actually do something alongside you was so incredibly exciting and makes it feel much more like you're part of a team.

Soooo that DLC announcement huh? Pretty cool. Very excited but oh my god that promotional image has so many implications.

Mainly, if that person riding torrent is in fact Miquella, which seems to be the running theory at the moment then it suggests that Miquella himself was very likely torrent's former master, which in turn implies a lot about certain character relations we didn’t know about until now.

The big one being that on top of Malenia, he was possibly also working closely with Melina and Ranni as well considering the two of them both have ties to torrents former master. Melina travelling with his old steed and Ranni being tasked with finding the steed’s new master and giving them the spirit calling bell.

It makes sense for Melina since she’s very very likely the secret, missing third child of Marika and Radagon, which could be a post all on its own, so her working with her two siblings isn’t that strange. (though I still wonder to what extent they’re related and possibly working together).

But the craziest thing to me is that this also implies that not only could Miquella and Ranni have been on good terms at some point in the past but also that they are still currently on good terms (even after what she did in the night of the black knives). At least good enough terms to trust her with the spirit calling bell.

Melina's possible connections to the black knives also makes this theory even stronger. If she was a part of the assassin squad then that means that Ranni stole the rune and Melina would have been one of the assassins that used it to kill Godwyn (and possibly other Demigods since he was only said to be the first to fall during that night). 

Hell if you wanna get real crazy we could say that Miquella helped to forge the black knife weapons, since he’d already done a lot of research into “anti god tools” with stuff like the golden needles. Who’s to say he couldn’t figure out a way to do it? But why would he do that? He’s about the only demigod who wouldn’t be ok with killing Godwyn but it’d explain why he was still on good terms with Ranni after the assassination. Could have been St. Trina for all I know.

'Whetfish'?

Uhhhh yeah? They live in the water?

Honestly when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense that the lands between and land of shadow don't connect perfectly when you try to overlay the maps, even though they were once part of the same landmass.

The two have been separated for many years by the time the game takes place, and have both developed independently through untold years of turmoil, war, natural disasters and weathering.

I'd be more surprised if they did connect properly after all of that.