ok first major thought about the trailer
If my theory that Melina and Ranni's closed eye/eye marking being the mark of an empyrean is correct then that means Messmer the Impaler could also be one as well due to his closed eye (he could also have a marking that's being obscured by the helmet in the trailer)
But the red hair also catches my eye, something that is extremely prevalent in Radagon's family, to the point where almost every descendant of his shares the same hair color. Except for Miquella, who's twisted form modelled by Mohg looks strikingly similar to Messmer's body.
It's really hard to get good shots of Messmer's body but I hope my observations are at least somewhat coming through. Now I'm not saying that Messmer is Miquella, but I do think he could be related in some way, possibly even being the personification of all the corruption from Mohg and the formless mother. We don't really know how Empyreans create offshoots of themselves but this sort of thing has happened before, mainly with Malenia and her daughters seemingly inheriting shards of her personality.
Anyway I definitely think Messmer is an Empyrean and possibly related to Radagon, but everything else is just a hypothesis at this point.
Just to add onto this, Messmer's name follow's the same naming conventions of the children of Marika (Mohg, Morgott, Malenia, Miquella, Melina and now Messmer)
This is an idea I've been thinking about for a while now. I find it really suspect that despite the fact Godwyn is presumably the only demigod who has canonically reproduced the "usual way", meaning that he must have had a partner at some point there's absolutely zero details about any sort of consort to Godwyn anywhere in the game. It's as if there's been a conscious effort by the Golden order to cover up any sort of information on that part of his life.
Take that and combine it with Godwyn and Fortissax's very close yet very vague companionship and Godrick's thing with the dragon and I think there's a real case to be made for those two having been together at some point.
Like who else could realistically have been the secret companion to Godwyn which has seemingly been entirely erased from history if not a past enemy of the golden order, Fortissax themselves.
Godrick is 100% Godwyn’s son with Fortissax. And his frail body is due to the dragon blood attempting to change him like it does when you do dragon communion, but his demigod blood prevents a natural evolution. It is also why he can easily graft the young dragon onto him and make full command of it.
I actually kind of like how gen 1 pokemon handled the elite 4. Having a team roughly based around the trainers’ type alongside their personality, but not having it revolve entirely around 1 type allows for a lot more variety in team composition, which naturally lends itself to needing more complicated strategies.
It makes me think about how far an elite 4 with teams solely based around the trainer's personality can go. For example an astronomer trainer who uses a team of space related pokemon like Clefable, Minior, Starmie and Beheeyem.
Or a historian trainer with a team of Golerk, Spiritomb, Relicanth and Sigilyph. Pokemon with significant and also mysterious historical value.
I just think it’d be pretty neat. I’m interested in what could be possible if most major trainers weren’t relegated to using 1 type each.
Radagon and Rennala’s marriage is so fucking funny to me and I am shocked people don’t bring up the absolute absurdity of it more often.
I mean, this man strolls into Liurnia looking to invade it with presumably an entire army, gets his ass absolutely handed to him by Rennala and like 10 dudes, proceeds to propose to her (possibly on the spot)! And she says yes!
And then they get married by a turtle!
Something neat I just discovered while researching a different topic is that the icerind hatchet is known as the "freezing fog" and was crafted using a scale from a dragon. This dragon is almost certainly borealis, a boss who is found up in the mountain tops close to Castle Sol, and who also has the title of "Freezing fog"
It's a very small detail but I thought it was neat enough to talk about since I'd never read the axe's description before!
Looking back at all the depictions of Marika in the game and realising that she's missing the braid on her right side in every single one.
She never grew it back out. Never had herself depicted with both braids. Never even restyled her hair in a way that didn't exacerbate the missing half.
It was always there. It was always right there.
okie dokie
The erdtree is both the religious centre of the lands between (being the biggest symbol of the golden order/greater will) and the literal centre of the lands between.
There’s an argument to be made that it changes its appearance depending on which age is currently in effect (for example it’s the age of the golden order during the time the game takes place which is why it’s glowing golden) but we never actually get to see first hand what it could have looked like in the past, nor do any characters who could have exsisted at the time comment on it.
There’s also a good amount of evidence that the erdtree itself is actually not a natural part of the world since it seems to be directly growing out of what could be argued to be a massive crater that gives the land itself its peculiar shape. This along with the common themes of things falling from the sky from space and the “stars” being an antagonistic force leads me to believe that this is indeed the case.
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When the elden ring was shattered the erdtree, for the first time in history produced seeds that spread across the lands between. These seeds would eventually become the smaller, "minor erdtrees" that are visable around the lands aswell as the little golden sprouts that you can get golden seeds from.
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The most peculiar thing about the tree itself though is actually how it interacts with the cycle of life and death. Even though natural death isn’t a part of the lands anymore, when it was a part of it people actually had to ‘return themselves to the erdtree’ through the roots of the tree. This is why there are so many catacombs around the lands. The more prestige you had in life the lower you were buried into the roots.
Returning oneself to the erdtree seemingly supplied the tree with the sustenance that it needed, much like normal trees absorb water through their roots. The tree was very likely feeding off the souls of the dead. (which could also be what causes its glowing golden appearance.)
That's about it for the erdtree. I think there's a couple more minor things that I didn't explain but that's most of the important stuff.
Elden Ring lore, huh?
I mean I can just say a bunch random words with 'the' in front of them, too.
A lot of games get accused of having world building that really doesn't matter to gameplay. Elden Ring feels like a dare to see how far you can take that.
I still don't know why you can summon an antelope to ride on that can't die but just disappears if someone hits it, and then there is a cool-down period before you can bring it back. And what does that have to do with the giant LED tree?
Who made all of these barrels and boxes? Because this world seems to only have monsters and guys who kill monsters in it.
Please reblog this explaining everything to me. I'm sure it will suddenly be not a bunch of whatever nonsense when YOU type it.
totk endgame spoilers
Y'know, I've always wondered if this line represents that a small piece of Demise was beginning to seep through the cracks of Ganondorf.
Ganondorf is a lot of things in this game, but he isn't above "mortals." He's very much one himself, even if he has survived for thousands of years, so the line "I will not be defeated by a mere mortal..." Feels kinda strange.
That is unless the power of the secret stone started to awaken that side of him. After all, Demon king Ganon looks shockingly similar to Demise, to an almost frightening degree. And the power of the secret stones themselves, which are only supposed to be able to boost ones own power ended up turning Ganondorf into a borderline god. Giving him abilities that base Ganon straight up didn't have. Giving him control over literal celestial entities, allowing him to create life out of thin air and granting him the power to defeat 6 other fully fledged sages in battle single handedly. It turned him into a god. It awoke something within him. Something that had been dormant for so, so very long.
Words cannot actually describe how much I am interested in this whole scene of Marika doing....something important.
Is she ascending to godhood? Sealing the Land of Shadow? Creating the Golden Order? Fucking summoning the Elden Beast? I don't know, but it seems like a greatly significant moment.
The way she walks through that massive pile of bodies, and then stands there looking all gold and holy and powerful in front of that portal of flesh and blood. Her divinity being born of such vileness, created in a scene that Rykard would find appalling.
Also how the trailer says that the war happened after this. It feels like whatever she is doing here is so horrible that a war was bound to start from it. Is that why this war was completely hidden? Because there is no angle where Marika is not 100% at fault?
Monster hunter wilds spoilers
Thinking about how there’s a possibility that Guardian Arkveld had Deviljho DNA in it.
It’d explain why it had this inherent, powerful desire to eat that other guardians lacked, to the point that it was able to teach itself how to with no outside influence and why when it did learn how to, it just couldn’t control itself.
And even if Guardian Arkveld lacked a digestive system like the other Guardians (which is unlikely because that food has to go somewhere and also unlike the other guardians it has/or grew reproductive organs), there’s a very real possibility that it would still suffer that same ravenous, environment destroying hunger that Deviljho possess.
There's also the fact that Guardian Arkvelds battle theme literally contains segments from Deviljho's own theme. This may just be hinting towards the thematic similarities between the two, but personally I think it could be read either way.
If this is true then... Holy fuck Wyveria really created the most aggressively violent and angry creature they could. Giving a monster Deviljho's aggression and ceaseless hunger with the ability to fly, tussle with every other apex predator in the area and with no way to satiate that hunger due to not physically being able to eat. They basically created a monster that's only goal is to kill everything it sees without need for rest or even stopping to eat.
Zoh Shia is their equal dragon weapon, but Arkveld strikes me as their attempt to create something that will kill as much stuff as quickly as possible.
Honestly I think my general opinions over the ATLA netflix show can be summed up as "In an attempt to make the show appeal more to older audiences they made it much more violent, dark, serious and gritty instead of actually making it more mature."
They removed a lot of the humour and charm and doubled down on the darker parts of the story, which imo just made it incredibly dull and boring.