This Quote Makes Me Think A Lot Of Things...

It's not really implied very heavily in lore but I've always subscribed to the theory that the greatrunes negatively affect their demi-gods, since most greatrune holders have been trapped into never ending cycles of trying to amass power/accomplish a specific goal.

Rykard, Mohg and Godrick are all similarly running in circles trying to gain power without actually doing anything with it and Rennala is endlessly trying to birth something before we take her greatrune off of her.

The only real exceptions to this are Radahn, because he's lost his mind, Malenia, because she's only just woken up for the first time since the shattering wars and Morgott because... IDK, I've got nothing for Morgott, he's just built different I guess. (Though you could argue that him hunting tarnished and perpetuating the status quo is his endless cycle)

All active people who own a greatrune shard, demi-god or not, have fallen into some sort of self destructive, never ending cycle.

fuck, if you really wanna push this theory Maliketh is holding a greatrune in the form of the rune of death and he's litterelly been stuck in a timeless structure for the entire shattering.

I feel like this is also implied because Ranni decided to cast aside her greatrune, this being significant because she’s the only demi-god who can actually accomplish their end goal by the finale of the game and isn't just running in circles.

There’s some sort of comedic irony to how many people have latched onto Miquella as this sort of ‘holier than thou’ good guy of the elden ring story, especially considering how little we actually know of him.

I’m not saying that he isn’t this pure, uncorrupted pillar of righteousness that people present him as, there’s obviously no way for me to know that, but the absolute certainty that people talk with when discussing his character that he only had everyone's best intentions at heart is kind of funny when you realise that one of the only things we know about him for certain is that he learnt how to compel the affection of others.

Out of every unknown character in this game the community could unanimously decide is a great person it's just funny how it ended up being the character with the cannon ability to make people like him unconditionally.

As far as I've seen recently, I've noticed a pretty big shift in public opinion regarding the DLC's final boss. I can't speak for everyone, but I think it's starting to make more sense to people after being given a bit more time to think it over.

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Interestingly enough, I think Messmer is the only one of her children that we know her interactions with. No one else has any mention of times spent with her. Most demigods don't seem to have anything to say about her at all. The only outlier being Melina who also doesn't seem to really know much either.

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Kind of, but it's not a very clear picture. We know he upheld the golden order's ideals but we also know that he was not as battle hungry as his father or as dedicated to the horrors of the order as his mother, due to his diplomatic approach to ending the war with the dragons. Instead of forcing them into the order (or out of existence) they managed to come to an understanding and live harmoniously alongside each other, in stark contrast to the outcomes of every other war the order has waged. (despite the fact that they still kept Lansaxx's corpse in their city as a war trophy)

Unfortunately most of Godwyn's past, even including the golden order's proper gander has been lost to time, but from what we know, he seemed to have been a pretty upstanding guy.

While this is more headcannon territory, it's known that Godwyn at some point did have children of his own (due to the golden lineage going all the way down to Godrick, who is a distant ancestor to the rest of the royal family) and I believe that his consort was actually the dragon "Fortisaxx" who he met during the war against the dragons and became good friends and "companions" with, which directly led to the end of the war and peaceful integration of the dragons into the golden order. I have a whole post going over the topic if you're interested in seeing they deeper thought process behind this.

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unfortunately I don't know much about the albinuriac woman, but she seems to be an incredibly important figure in the albinuriac society.

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Sadly, where the land of shadow fits into the timeline is a little bit muddy. All we know is that it used to be a part of the lands between, being the centre that is missing in modern day, but was at some point separated and isolated from the rest of the world, probably in order to hide Marika and the Golden Order's deepest darkest secrets.

I don’t think I ‘hate’ a single Elden Ring character. Each and every one is designed so compellingly, their stories are so varied, their interactions while sparse are the type to carry magnitudes of meaning.

Example:

For the longest time I did not realize that the scene we stroll into at Castle Morne is a slave rebellion. The misbegotten are treated as chattel. My first go around I assumed “ah yes, monster attack castle, understand”

It wasn’t until I watched a random lore video that only referenced it that I got it. I went back and read the descriptions of stuff and I’ll be damned.

There’s a lot of little tidbits hidden here and there that flip entire perspectives on their heads. Preaching to the choir on this point.

Even the characters that I generally dislike/disregard (dung-eater, (hot take) Varre, selvus) I still find fascinating. One of the cool parts about the game is you can just kill the character you don’t like. If you’re doing a run and you want to get a little roleplay in, sometimes murder freak be murdering.

Personally, I’m not on twitter, instagram (used to be), deviant art (do people still use that), or anywhere else ((I Do have a blue sky but I think I’m too dim to use it just yet)) . I’d love to be in a space where people talk more about lore or art things! I haven’t the foggiest clue where to go though. When I hear people say “everyone hates on xyz character” or “this fandom is so nuts” or whatever I am genuinely confused. I’m only seeing a portion of the stuff here, and so far it’s been more than pleasant! Big ups to the people on here, so far you’ve all been very kind 😊

So I guess, could I ask anybody to fill me in? Or where to go to get filled in?

In the meantime I want you to know I’ve started working on a pair of drawings centered around Malenia and Miquella - ooooo be so tragic oooooo

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.

It just hit me that this mass bewitchment ability we see in the trailer is almost definitely an incantation, judging by what looks to be a golden seal in the tarnished's hand.

Which has got me thinking. Miquella has ties to both the bewitching branches ability and incantations, which means this is very likely an incantation connected to Miquella in someway, even possibly being a reward for his remembrance.

I'm not sure I like the implications that Miquella has a bewitchment spell that works on summons/spirit ashes that he could use against us in a possible fight.

You might wanna check yourself first as I could totally be overlooking something, but if you're interested in getting into a soulsborn game, I've played elden ring a few times over and I can't think of anything that comes to mind when thinking of spiders.

Though there is an enemy called the fingercreeper (large disembodied hands that use their fingers to move around) which could still set off that same fear, but it depends on how close something can be to looking like a spider before it makes you uncomfortable.

God it makes me so upset that there's so many amazing games I'll never be able to play because I have insane arachnophobia to the point where I'll physically recoil and nearly faint/cry/or have a Panic attack at the mere site of a big spider.

Like I wanted to get into Resident Evil a little while back and bought the first game on switch. I decided to look up if this horror game from the 90s had spiders. Sure enough it did so that's 12 dollars gone and a game I'll never play. Still wanted to get into the series so I looked up what games did and didn't have spiders so I could filter them and play some, and just watch a let's play of others.

Every. Single. Fucking. Game. Has giant Tarantulas. Except for re2 remake and MAYBE re8 (heard conflicting sources). So I guess I'll just go fuck myself

Something curious I noticed recently while exploring Farum Azula is that some of the curtains draped around the area share a passing resemblance to the fabrics seen in Marika's bed chamber, and of the ones seen in the depiction of Marika from the opening cutscene.

I'm sure this isn't a particularly new discovery, and the designs aren't exactly the same, but they're just similar enough that it got me thinking.

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Funnily enough Maliketh also shares a very similar veil to Marika's (the thing connected to his elbows and looping around his back.) His even seems to have the same golden edges as the ones from Farum azula.

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To me it seems like black fabric with golden plant detailing's are a bit of a motif with Marika. Which is nice to know, considering how little we actually know about her. (It's also pretty sweet that she has matching outfits with Maliketh)

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But if this design is a running theme with Marika specifically and not just a mistake I'm making then it begs the question. Why does this ancient, timeless, crumbling city in the sky that's presumably much older than every other area in the game have Marika's favourite design decorating its walls?

Is Marika from the time of Farum Azula? The time of Placidusax? Is Marika his missing god who he's been waiting for? That should be impossible, and maybe it still is, but she seems to have some sort of connection to this place. If not for her design adorning its walls then certainly for her godly appointed body guard living here.

Her body guard who, by the way, uses a weapon that has cultural significance to the society of Farum Azula.

You know, the society that was blasted off the map by a meteor long before the age of the erdtree even began.

This was just supposed to be a nice little post about a small detail I noticed, and now it's turned into this. I don't even know if any of this actually makes sense but I've tried my best to put it together in an understandable way.

There's still so much to go into regarding this theory (why did Marika wage war against the dragons if they have a history like this? could the meteor that destroyed Farum be one of the ones the GW sent down to bury the eternal cities? If so then could that event possibly be one of the first things that shook Marika's resolve in the GW?)

But for now I think I need to just post this and let it simmer for a while. If you got this far then thank you for coming down this rabbit hole with me. I'd love to hear your thoughts because I am thoroughly lost in just what this could mean.

Probably the mildest head cannon I'll ever share on here, but I like to think that Miquella grew his hair out so long because it was literally the only way he could show his actual age with his appearance. He may have been cursed to never grow, but his hair would always be a clear signifier to his peers that he was much more than he appeared.

Something I'd also like to add that didn't fit well into the initial post is that whatever it was that he discovered while looking into Marika, didn't just scare him beyond his breaking point. Whatever it was it also got him absolutely convinced that

a tarnished cannot become a lord

2. and a man cannot kill a god

which is rather odd, considering that no matter what ending we choose, we prove him wrong on both accounts.

There’s something so terrifying about Gideon’s downfall. At the end of his near-constant research he discovered something about Marika and her will that made him shudder in fear.

Gideon Ofnir. The man that ordered the full destruction of an entire village for a key fragment and then abandoned his adopted daughter for daring to question him. The man who’s henchmen died trying to take that very key from us, only to shrug it off like it was nothing.

The man who lives in a world of monsters and suffering eternal. The man who’s so dedicated to learning everything there is to know about The lands between’s blood soaked history that it’s literally part of his name. The man who probably knows of, witnessed or directly contributed to some of the most horrific atrocities in the lands between.

Gideon Ofnir, the all knowing. The man who took one look into Marika’s will and was rendered so terrified at his discovery that he almost immediately gave up on the goal he had worked so hard for, instead choosing to confront, and eventually fall to our tarnished character.

Gideon is one of the most unempathetic and uncaring characters I’ve seen in media. He’s largely unshaken by the state of the world around him, seems to lack any semblance of morals or values and his interactions with just about anything begin and end with trying to figure out how he can personally benefit. No matter what he'd have to do.

What could he have possibly figured out to make him of all people horrified to such an extent?

(I know this isn't about comparing character morality but I really wanna write my thoughts down on this real quick, sorry) Honestly Ranni’s acts are significantly more justifiable than Godfreys. Ranni only did the bare minimum she needed to separate herself from the greater will and eventually overthrow it. She was desperate, and I can’t blame her because from the way she describes the GW it sounds like it’s hardly more than a controlling parasite. Bottom line is that Ranni wouldn’t have had to resort to doing the things she did if she was allowed even a slither of autonomy over her own flesh, and wasn’t predestined to become the GW’s puppet.

It's also important to note that the shattering and everything that came from it was mostly Marika’s doing. I’m not entirely comfortable with blaming her for every atrocity her children committed but she definitely has to shoulder a significant amount of the blame for the whole “ordering her insanely powerful family to fight over the titles they desire all the while giving them a massive power boost via the shards” thing.

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Godfrey on the other hand is absolutely batshit. I love him but the dude really needed to chill the fuck out. Even before he became Marika’s lord he was presumably a bloodthirsty warrior who would fight and kill anyone and anything he could. And after becoming Marika’s lord he played a pivotal role in the destruction of pretty much any society who fell outside of the GW’s very strict circle. And after leaving Marika with the tarnished they presumably went back to fighting anything and anyone they could find. He was the aggressor in every single conflict he ever fought that we know of. I'd argue that purely from a moral standpoint he's probably worse Radagon, who atleast attempted to find peaceful solutions to the wars he was waging. Which is odd because Radagon seems to be the more disliked out of the two.

“it’s fine and actually heroic to violently conquer nations and kill thousands just because their existence threatens your empire as long as it makes your empire prosperous and benevolent and benefitting everyone’s well-being! wait what do you mean the empire is slaughtering albinaurics and omen and making misbegotten into slaves”