Oh... The Butterfly That Kinger's Trying To Catch On The Tote Bag Is Brown And Red Huh?

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.

There's something painfully funny that Avatar Aang, master of all 4 elements and protector of the world doesn't even attempt to nudge a single fucking drop of water for the entirety of the season dedicated to him learning how to bend water!!!

Like fuck. By the end of season 1 in the OG Aang was a master at airbending, was decent at water bending and had even attempted some fire bending a few times. But this time I don't think he did any water bending at all (The ending of the season doesn't count imo since it was the ocean spirit bending the water, not Aang himself.)

I'm pretty sure even the movie dedicated some time to showing Aang practicing water bending but this time he just doesn't fucking bother I suppose (despite the fact that everyone keeps telling him how important it is that he becomes stronger.)

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.

Oh boy here comes a long one.

My least favourite part about the elden ring fandom is probably how readily everyone blamed Ranni for everything horrible that happens in the game, completely stripping away any agency Marika or anyone else had in the whole ordeal. 

Through a grief stricken rage over Godwyns death or not it was Marika’s decision to shatter the elden ring, bringing her age to a bloody end. It was her choice to put all the Demigods against each other in a big bloodbath of a war and it was Radagons decision to seal the erdtree so nobody could enter and fix the whole mess, condemning the world to stagnation. And on top of all of this it was the Demigod’s themselves who followed through with Marika’s wishes tenfold and tore the lands between to shreds in their war path.

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This isn’t even going into the fact that overtime, more and more evidence has cropped up that Marika was planning to revolt against the greater will for a long while before Godwyns death, so the shattering might have not even been caused by it in the first place. There’s breadcrumbs of this secret plot leading all the way back to the end of her first marriage with Godfrey, where she banished him and his tarnished warriors specifically to wage war in distant lands and grow stronger in death, to eventually be called back when she deems it time (which just so happened to be through the shattering itself).

If any one soul person is to be responsible for the shattering (which I don’t believe to be the case) and all the lives it ruined, it would be Marika. Ranni might have been the person to light the spark, but it was Marika who decided to throw that spark into the forest, and tell everyone else to follow suit until it was nothing but a blazing, chaotic mess.

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Don’t get me wrong. Ranni isn’t an innocent little snowflake in this whole ordeal either. She did still plot the assassination of Godwyn, armed and set loose the black knives upon the world (who seemingly went rouge at some point considering they’re leader’s trapped on the moonlight alter and they went after Ranni’s lot after she attacked her fingers), royally pissed off Maliketh by stealing from him and inadvertently spread the second most annoying, deadly plant across the lands between. She’s not innocent by any means, but she’s also not more guilty than any other character in the game.

Like, you really gonna look at the shit characters like Rykard, Shabiri and Mohg pulled and still tell me that Ranni is the most evil, selfish, heartless character in the game?

Moving Gransax's corpse in the convergence mod to the other side of Leyndell's inner wall is such an odd choice. It’s such a visually striking feature of the city and it almost looks bare without it.

I can’t even really figure out why the decision was made. There hasn’t been any major changes to the design of that segment of Leyndell from what I can tell and he and his spear don’t connect with their new environments very well at all. Overall a very weird choice from what is usually a very consistently high quality mod.

They're dating!? Oh my god that's fantastic! I really need to get around to playing Celeste 64 properly soon. Wasn't expecting there to be such major lore drops!

Some Maddy X Alex art i did for valentines day after hearing the news that shes dating Alex in CELESTE64

thinking long and hard about Godwyn and Fortissax's friendship like

>the dragons begin a war with the golden order

>Godwyn and Fortissax become “good friends” which brings an era of peace between the golden order and the dragons

>Godwyn goes on to begin the golden lineage with a completely unmentioned partner

>dragons are known to take the form of humans and even have relations with them, as seen with Vyke and Fortissax's sister Lanssax

>One of Godwyn’s many descendants is Godrick, who refers to the dragon in his arena as “kindred one”

>While Godwyn was the first demigod to fall during the night of the black knives, it’s implied that many others followed at the hands of the assassins. Due to the rest of the known descendants of Marika being alive, and no one else having a child pre-shattering it can be inferred that Godwyn's bloodline was specifically targeted for some reason. Since those are the only other demigods that existed at the time.

>Godwyn is assassinated and because him and Fortissax are such “Good friends” Fortissax proceeds to enter godwyns mind and spends decades, possibly centuries attempting to fight off the deathblight from within him, eventually succumbing to it themselves but still unwilling to abandon their “good friend” regardless.

true, but there's nothing stopping the writers from making the rival/best friend a woman if that were an issue for them. Though I guess an even easier fix would be to do what you say. Just write fleshed out and dynamic female characters who aren't just there because the protagonist needs a partner at the end of the story.

Anime/Manga Writers: Why don’t the fans like the canon straight couple instead of the non-canon gay ships?

MC looking at their canon love interest: So pretty and fights good.

MC looking at their rival/best friend/partner: They’re like the sun, brilliantly blinding and all-consumingly powerful. There’s a deadly beauty and grace to every action they take. They’re the other half of me that I never thought could exist, the one person who pushes me to be my best self, and life without them would not be worth living. There’s nothing in this world that they could not accomplish and I am but a fool chasing after them in hopes of reaching their level. Even then, having them in front of me/by my side has pushed me to heights I never thought imaginable.

y'know, it only just hit me recently but like... Marika would definitely have fucking hated modern Godrick right?

Forcing weaker and more vulnerable individuals into horrific experiments of fusing flesh is basically exactly the sort of thing she dealt with growing up under the Hornsent. The practice of grafting would have been a really sore spot for Marika, which is probably why it seems like it only came into practice during the shattering.

Godrick is lucky he started experimenting with grafting after Marika was imprisoned because if she was still around she probably would have come crashing through his roof with her hammer and make Radagon's grab attack look soft.

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.