Відео

just found your podcast! started with ‘Marika’s true heritage’ and have to say your insights on the more specific areas of the lore, while you disclaim that we’re discussing speculation, this has to be the most in depth consideration. also love every reference, and as a newbie to fromsoft, i especially appreciate the real life historical connections you provide since that’s been the main vector through which i have come to understand the hidden history of the lands between. hope you keep going. my new favorite source of elden ring lore just as i began to think there was no more nuance to explore. ❤ seriously loving the solo episodes; you’re great.

I'm happy that there's more trans people showing their love for these amazing games ❤️

I will say, with regard to the usage of lord, in the Japanese script there’s generally almost no distinction (save maybe for implicit hereditary titles). You can translate lord as king if you wanted to. Storm Lord to Storm King (Stormveil’s storm is tied directly to the hawks, Banished Knight’s dragon aesthetics are admittedly leftovers of an omitted concept), Dragonlord to Dragon King, Elden Lord to Elden King, and what not. That isn’t to say it’s the same across the board as Lord Kennith for example is a specifically a feudal lord. I just thought it was a neat detail that seems to cause a lot of hiccups in discussion sometimes. At any rate, this was a really lovely video. Was waiting for someone to comprehensively tie it all together. Was binge listening while studying 🥂

100% on board with this. If Marika was somehow successful in surviving the jar ritual, becoming a saint in the Hornsent's eyes, then her immediate family would most likely receive some exclusive privileges, like not being flayed and stuffed into jars, and given how enormous his library is: he was widely respected for his profound knowledge, even by the Hornsent. But of course, a "hatred that would not be confined" still dwelled within Midra, Nanaya, and their unborn child. (Marika could be the child Nanaya is pregnant with in her portrait) But the fact that Midra has no horns is incredibly suspect to me, and Nanaya just looks like a shaman. Nanaya's use of the word "Endure" reminds me of Melina's entreaty to us if we get too close to the three fingers. "Life endures." Plus, Midra's name starts with "M." We kill midra's crazy dad after he tried to understand the madness infecting his land, but since the Hornsent Inquisitors, who probably had a pre-existing prejudice against the Numens living here, finds them playing with fire. They executed a damnation like no other on the master of the manse, and everyone who followed him became victims of a butcherous bloodbath, hunted down as heretics by their own brethren.

The concepts you discussed are quite interesting. I disagree that Midra and Lanaya might be Marika parents. Only because it is not concretely supported in textual evidence not because I have a counter argument. But is a fascinating idea to discuss and quite novel in the greater community. I haven’t heard anyone else make this argument and I enjoyed your musings on the subject. I loved the reference to Dune Messiah and the interaction between Paul and Bijaz it was an apt comparison. I think few people even read that book.

Melina is missing an eye, and it was replaced...

I love these long form lore videos. Thank you.

If the idea that Marika was a creation made by the hornsent's experimenting with the flesh of Numen/shamans is true, and if the theory that you present that Marika was born to Midra and Nanaya is true, (this next part is just wild speculation, but) maybe Marika somehow existed prior to her birth, and somehow was conscious and aware of her birth. In this manner, she was physically born to madness, which may be a cause lending to her apparent revulsion towards both the natural birthing process (taking notes from Tarnished Archaeologist's Erdtree birthing process theory), and her revulsion towards madness.

The Erdtree is basically Goku's Spirit Bomb, in big tree form. The Crucible is all that chaotic life-energy before Goku's inspirational monologue.

I love the fonts you use for the item descriptions!

Marika apologiest unite!!!

Great talk! When I saw a long time ago that Miquella's soldiers and knights wore helms that enhanced their faith, combined with the existence of bewitching branches, I started ranting that I thought he was literally compelling loyalty and affection from everyone and that it seemed really insidious to me. Most people told me I was reading it wrong, but I feel super vindicated now lol.

It was such a pleasure to chat with you! Thank you so much for having me on (:

Thank you for all the work you do! It’s so satisfying seeing all the connections, and how many ideas just keep flowing. I haven’t quite finished listening to the video, but I wanted to comment some ideas before the ADHD train derails into the abyss. I think it’s worth leaning more into Miquella both charming people on purpose and on accident. Obviously, this perspective adds more nuance which is more interesting and therefore attractive, but I also believe there are parallels with St. Trina and Miquella's later actions we can draw on this path. If we look at the item description of St. Trina’s Torch: “Candlestand torch that burns with a light-purple flame. The carvings depict St. Trina, but in adult form, somewhat unnervingly. The light-purple flame induces sleep” The depiction of St. Trina in an adult form as unnerving was always confusing to me. However, when you all talked about St. Trina possibly being the first foray of Miquella utilizing his power, it gave me some pointers. First, I believe this thought you all shared has merit. You can manipulate people against their consent when they are sleeping. Obviously the more powerful form or the upgraded version would be just direct mind-control. For one, this is a more tangible manifestation of Miquella power, rather than the vague “abundance” or “potential”. Next, Miquella (early on) chooses to use this power in benevolence to aid those suffering from the madness of the Flame of Frenzy. However, have you ever spent time around a young child who has some sort of unique talent? Can that unique talent be used for both amazing things and harmful things to the world? A child's innocence can prevent them from seeing the potential for their exceptional abilities to be misused or cause harm.That makes me think why an adult St. Trina could be unnerving. Also, a child helping you sleep probably has innocent angelic connotations opposed to a grown adult chloroforming you lol. Back to Miquella both charming people around him on purpose and accident, if it can be done on accident, it obviously makes the story more tragic. With a bit of serendipity, I found myself relating to Miquella in some irl life path issues I am contending with. I was wanting to (still am, but in a healthier way) pursue a path in public service; one that required a lot of education/work/time. I was finding myself throwing away and sacrificing a lot of things I enjoyed (various avenues of creative expression), because I thought them unnecessary for the greater good. However, as time went on, I was finding myself losing touch with friends, becoming boring and empty, and losing empathy due to my impatience. Imagine if I exuded charisma unintentionally and surrounded myself with yes-man (regarding the path I am choosing). The end result would a bitter and hollow version of myself with an eventual mid-life crisis lol. So, this makes Miquella tragic. I believe he knew about the unintentional side of his charming ability too, because the only major blocker was himself. He becomes the only rational person when he is among others, due to this curse of compelling affection. As a result, he started to discard the self to clear a path. There is also the idea that those who actively seek out leadership are not always the ones best suited for it. The story of the tarnished person chosen by Torrent is canon. That tarnished was not born with unique power from the gods (aka related to royalty). We instead have leadership thrust upon us in a way. This leads me to think that divinity or godhood is not inherently bad or flawed. It’s just that many who seek it do so for poor reasons or with a flawed approach. Anyways those are my random thoughts. Thanks again for your vids!

1:26:26 I've fealt for a while that she also started to have this mindset towards radagon's age. Also radagon and marika seem to have the opposite situation to Trina and miquella. Miquella wants to become a god but Trina wants to spare him from that prison. While marika wants out of that prison but radagon keeps her in. I personally feel like tension between marika and radagon was a bigger deal in the lore than some give it credit for because she set Godfrey and the tarnished returning up before even marrying radagon. She also says to the demigods "make of thyselves that which ye desire. Be it a lord, be it a God." Before shattering the ring. She seems to want her age to end and for her and/or radagon to be replaced at this point.

Thank you so much for your long form content. I'm a professional lurker so I don't comment much but I just wanted to show my support.

I really like the idea that the Elden Ring was an active thing before it was brought to TLB. This helps explain my thoughts that Metyr came long before the Elden Beast. Perhaps the Elden Beast arrived and granted the intelligence via the fifth finger hinted at by the cinquedea (as Metyr only has four fingers). I'm thinking of the ER falling to TLB as some cosmic freak occurrence that allowed living beings to play around with the rule set of life itself. Then worship of the Elden Ring began, as the beast men developed intelligence which leads to the Elden Ring relief in Maliketh's boss room.

Feel asleep to this 🙏 you are amazing

It's interesting you bring up Chinese Mythology, cuz Metyr's phase 1 boss music sounds very Chinese and especially Chinese music that use to depict emperor or gods' palace in media (or the Japanese composer's idea of it), plus the dancing lion is definitely reference to Chinese culture, so I think there must be a lot of influence from Chinese culture to the culture in the Shadow Lands

Why does the thumb nail reference the tower of Babylon. The video was awesome never knew about the Confucius and Dao references. That being said . Kinda click baity . This video is so informative, I don't think that was necessary.

The way you connect and contextualize aspects of the lore is so clear, compelling, and natural... You're breaking new ground, which is saying a lot in the saturated field of Elden Ring lore videos. And your ideas are refreshingly uncontrived by comparison. Great job! Earned a sub!

50:00 if you alter Ymir's set you get fingers

6:35 is my favorite dance to greet coop-ers with

Amazing video, finally someone connected all the dots and you did it brilliantly!

The whole theory was deeply unsound, and had no backing proof other than cherry picked examples. The first 5 minutes disproved itself, "Marika was a numen", followed by "Marika's parents were Midra and Nanaya".

The way y'all talk about Metyr and abandonment, I can't help but also think of Ebrietas

Nayaya corpse is found in the manse with the torch

Enlightenment vs beastiality 💀

This is so interesting. I see a lot of influence from the Book of Enoch and many other Biblical scriptures in Elden Ring. In the base game there are so many things that connect to the book of Revelation too as influence or inspiration

Wow, what a Fascinating look into the lore! Many things I’ve never thought about 🤔. Also yay! You’re friends with the Snack Covenant:))

29:16 someone probably commented this already, but that note is teaching you to parry the “winter lantern” enemies, those are the “aged untouchables”as their grab attack is nearly always fatal, they take 0 damage until they are parried and they drop the “aged one’s exultation” talisman, meaning that the creature is the aged one or “old one” likely to reference lovecraft as the design clearly does, untouchables both being literal, and a social caste which delineates you, in some cultures, lower than a slave

I want to add that Marika has a lot in common with Danaerys Targaryen, whose father is widely known as THE MAD KING

just found this channel can't wait to watch through it all messmer spends all day in his goon cave he calls the dark chamber hohohohoho

I think that the fire god was Mesmer's father.

I kind of took it from her torch that Nayana was experimenting with the outer gods not medra

The similarity of the putrescence and the mimic tears makes for an interesting connection to the nox who are related to Numen. The coffins can be seen as ancient seed ships holding genetic data, and after a long time crashing into a planet they are filled with rotten stuff. I don't know how other life emerged from it but if the Numen managed to emerge from it it would make sense how them and the shaman and Marika have such pliable flesh because their proto form was some grey genetic ooze. Another thing that makes for a crucible connection, being a mix of all life would be the putrescence being genetic goo, like a bunch of DNA. And the crucible is connected to spiral forms, kinda like the double helix of dna.

Elden Ring confirmed to be a cultivation simulator

'Messmer spends all day in a goon cave he calls the "Dark Chamber"' 💀

This channel is criminally under watched!

This is exactly the sort of anthropological deep dive I look for. You're my new favorite lore youtuber.

🎉🎉🎉

Nice vid ! I want that in my closet forever ! ❤

I like your voice :)

Found out about the channel at the last solo video and... wow... Dont even care if the lore is right, the references are on point. Good shit as ever.

Hey I just want to say your videos have been some of the most insightful and interesting listens I've had in two years of deep diving into the lore of this game we all love. Thanks so much for sharing. If I had the means right now I would do my best to try and support your work. Until then you've got my thanks and my eager ears for what you have to say in the future. It may seem like a simple thing but sometimes just diving into another world with people who are passionate is the escape you need to feel yourself again or to get over a hump in life. I'm really grateful and wishing you success.

Miquella could not choose Malenia as a consort because of the god of rots influence, or that she was also empyrean, or both.

What’s the birds name!?

Maidens must be shaman and why their are so few...maidens seem to have some connection to grace I assume they are the shaman of new

Beastiality means something else

Very interesting theories. Regarding Nanaya and Midra, i think this is a pretty straight forward rendition of the king in yellow. Midra was a sage, a man of learning. He enjoyed gathering knowledge. Then he met Nanaya and he was seduced by her. Nanaya was a worshipper of the frenzied flame. Midra and Nanaya had a child and this is the failed lord of frenzy. After or before he could become a full fledged lord the hornsent sent their inqusition to contain the threat. They executed all the servants in a way similar to what they did to midra. But there's a catch. I don't know why most people interpret Nanaya's words to Midra " endure " to mean against the frenzied flame when the text says it was a curse. Her words begged him to endure so that he may nurture the madness within him and so one day his embers may be hot enough to light the flame of yellough frenzy and become the lord of frenzied flame. Regarding the connection between Midra and Marika i'd say it is way too loose. The flowers being the only thing that connects them. If he was her father then the text that says that there was no one left to heal would be a complete lie. By the time Marika ascended to godhood Midra would surely be impaled and aching by the things the hornsent did to him and his people yet not corrupted enough by frenzy to not try to heal. The hornsent venerate evolution. The spiral is imo a refference to DNA which is also a double helix shape. The tower of babel is a nice catch i defenatley got babel vibes when i saw it the first time.