Elden Ring - The risks of Blood magic
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- Опубліковано 20 січ 2024
- Alberich has a brief but likely memorable presence in the game, threatening the player in an otherwise safe area. But despite the relatively small part he plays, his design and story touch on a few strange and significant elements.
Song used: Twilight Realm - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess OST - Ігри
Although Astel is a "malformed" star, it's interesting that parts of its own body somewhat resemble glintstone as well. What a "correctly" formed star might look like is open for speculation, but glintstone may be actual remnants of their physical forms.
I have a question that has to do with the Formless Mother mention. Could Outer Gods origin may come from the starts themselves, becoming it more into "aliens" in a similar way to Bloodborne?
This left me greatly confused.
Just like the previous comment said. Maybe fully formed stars are the outer gods themselves. After all the elden beast is said to have arrived from a golden star. Fromsoft really likes to do parallels with sorcery and the gods with them being 2 halfs of the same coin.
That's why I belive that the formless mother is the blood star. They are similar with that.
My best guess is a correctly formed star is a giant sphere, as seen in actual stars and that one guy's round head gem. Perhaps the malformed are simply the broken, jagged rocks instead of a single, smooth whole. But that's speculation.
Elden Beast
@@supersmily5811 There are also the graven masses, spherical amalgamations of sorcerers said to be able to be fashioned into seeds of stars.
how tf they expect me to pay attention to these details when invaders are all solid red 😭
I figure FromSoft adds these things in either thinking they're going to do something else with them and ending up using them for less prominent things, like this invader guy, *or* they know their fans will dig deep into the game like Zullie and Vaati and figure these things won't be missed even if they're subtle, so they're worth including in the game even if they're small details.
Look at Alberich’s hat when you pick it up in the Fortified Manor, that’s how
I much prefer the more subtle phantom colors in previous From titles even though they're still too bright and saturated ftmp
well, you get his armor and staff, thats why
@@saturnianlotus8343 Yeah same, the phantom shader effects in Elden Ring are deffinitely WAY to strong and turn other players into color coded silhouetes, which is a shame since elden drip is fun as hell.
It's not the first time this happens though, Dark souls 2 has this problem too i think.
*sigh* they could've just given them a slight red/yellow/blue edge around the character and leave the inside unchanged and it would've been fine
I have some "good" memories of Alberich reminding me why leveling vigor is a good idea
Imagine getting hit
- Light roll gang
@@eglewether5523even light rolling his fight is annoying, icy mist spam is lowkey bullshit.
Any weapon with "wild strikes" AoW and a bit of stamina and you can stunlock him til death. just a tip
He's also very weak to Night Comet and Walking Backwards XD @@eglewether5523
@weskintime4177 Really? The ice was the easiest part of his arsenal to avoid for me.
I really like the idea of Mohg only finding the Formless Mother because his eye was torn out accidentally. It always struck me as strange that he just 'found' an outer god, with no further explanation given, when they otherwise only seem interested in Empyreans. I'd never thought to connect his missing eye to the guilty being blinded.
The formless mother doesn't seem to share anything with the blood star though
@@xaitat who knows, maybe they're one and the same? Just seen from different points, with different understandings?
@@NickAsNickName there is no reason to believe so as of now
@@NickAsNickName Bloodstar is faith while Formless Mother is arcane to show their powers com from fundamentally different places and the ability to use one doesn't mean you can use the other.
This is also reflected by their spell mechanics: Bloodstar's briar spells cost hp to cast meanwhile Formless Mother's do not and their spells are casted from different catalysts(Staff for Bloodstar and Seal for Formless Mother).
@@Warcrafter4 best analogy for what i'm thinking is... ink pens and chalk both allow you to write things, right? But they do so in different ways, right? So could it be that it's two different ways to commune with and gain power from it?
A red star you can only see if burdened with guilt is such a cool Fantasy concept. Almost Lovecraftien outright, considering that it seems to grant insight into blood and its power, too.
It also seems you have to be at least partially blinded to even see it, which connects to prophets covering their eyes to see visions of flame, something that ties back to dark souls 3. There seems to be a very heavy connection between eyes, guilt, and blindness, with how the golden order loves to punish the guilty by removing their grace laden eyes
It's almost like sites of grace which can be seen only by chosen tarnisheds.
Well yeah. It is a fairly common horror trope. Just because only you can see it, doesn’t mean it won’t kill you in some horrifying fashion.
There’s a more esoteric idea related to madness tropes. Just because you are mad, doesn’t mean your hallucinations can’t kill you.
It tends to make your skin crawl to consider. Very much The Grudge.
Pretty sure there was a lovecraftian tale about a man who is haunted by star in the sky only he can see (Either by Lovecraft himself or other author who wrote about lovecraftian universe). But can't find it now and book reader with this story is long gone.
@@Azarel06damn that sounds cool. Wonder what the name is?
Mohg really just watched that horn grow into his own eye.
Based on this video, one could argue that he watched this happen while stewing in the Shunning Grounds, and only once the process finished did he "find" the Formless Mother.
That’s really sad
"this is going to sting like a motherfucker but it'll look rad as hell"
Happens to a lot of horned animals irl. Some species of ram often suffer their coiling horns growing right into their skulls and killing them.
One neat thing about Alberich is that while you can absolutely take your build in Elden Ring in any direction you think of, he shows you a very strong combination in ice + bleed potentially as early as reaching Roundtable Hold.
yeah he basically lays out the blueprint for what a good PvP build should have.
A star... only visible to the guilty? That's absolutely horrifying.
I think the guilt just happens to coincide with being blinded by blood.
@@NickCombs It was probably obvious to everyone else but I just realized that they probably see the star due to the gory nature of their blinding, the thorns gauging into their skin and eyes likely filling the wounds with blood.
@@6spinoza This should totally happen after you get the Bloody Finger from Varre that gives you red eyes. Actually, if there _is_ a connection between the Formless Mother and the Blood Star, then this would make even more sense. If there is no connection, then it probably shouldn't happen.
@@6spinozaI like the idea!
Hellstar Remina. Although I'm not sure how they could fit remina into the gameplay loop. Terrifyingly evil concept. Great nightmare fuel.
One thing I'm always struck by with Elden Ring's lore specifically is how every element is linked to something else you initially think is conceptually a thousand miles away. I've always found the Blood Star and the briar sorceries interesting, if undeveloped, but somehow never thought to connect them to Mohg. It's like how the Misbegotten, who you might initially think are bit players in the world and the lore, actually serve as crucial links between Radagon and the Crucible. It's hard to think of any 'islands' in ER's lore, things that don't connect to anything else.
Church of Dragon Communion in Limgrave. How’s that for an island
@@soundandfury9641 by island they don't mean a literal island, but a part of the lore or worldbuilding that's not thematically tied to anything outside of it
@@stephenkrahling1634it's a joke
ya got me! @@soundandfury9641
Radagon being "connected" to the misbegotten is cut content and/or just file names- which is also not canon
Thats why magic is op, its balanced by turning yourself into a pebble
The crystal growth on their bodies is caused by drinking the American tap water with fluoride.
Generally, the magic in Elden Ring usually comes with heavy risks and downsides, be it the contagious/cancerous nature of glintstone, or bloody blindness as a path to power.
Meanwhile incantations: i can do this all day😂
@@LATAM_EQUINOX The Elden Beast and the Two Fingers ✌️: _"Yesssss... There are NO consequences for using incantations. Keep using them. You'll be fine."_
@@leyrua uses giantflame incantations
Elden Beast: Guess i'll die😐
Holy shit the framing of mentioning that maybe only the blinded can “see” while having Mohg in the background is incredible. Literally gave me a “oh shit” moment before you mentioned his horn piercing his own eye.
Mohg is also more specific half blind. Ergo he is in reality on one aspect of himself, but also completely enraptured by whatever delusions the blood star tells him. Which is likely why he even talks to player character in the first place. To try and reason you into leaving. The blood star screams to kill the heretic, but the scorned mutant sees only a pawn involved in schemes bigger than both of them. Which is my head canon for why so few blood worshippers ever bother talking. Blood momma says go and kill. The medics are emissaries that mohg the man deems necessary... but the beast demands blood, not man power.
The part about characters losing their sight in order to gain some forbidden insight/ knowledge might be in reference to Odin, who has sacrificed one of his eyes in order to gain great wisdom. The whole concept of losing one of your senses/ becoming physically crippled and in return expanding your mental capabilities or seeing hidden thruths is prevelent in many mythologies, and Fromsoft surely do tend to make use of this fact, although in their own twisted, malformed way.
On the topic of the potential overlap of blindness between the Blood Star and the Formless Mother, it’s interesting to note that blindness also plays a role in the Frenzied Flame with Irina/Hyetta, (and also maybe Yura, as his eyes are also quite cloudy which could be seen as early signs of blindness that enables him to be possessed by Shabriri in a manner that mirrors Hyetta “possessing” Irina’s corpse). I like the idea that since The Lands Between are primarily influenced by the Greater Will, one has to lose the ability to perceive the reality it has crafted in order to see beyond the bounds of its creation. Almost a direct contradiction to how the greater beings of Bloodborne function, where a lack of eyes grants insight as opposed to an excess of them.
Brother Corhyn as well. He wears a blindfold and was exiled for heretical flame prophecy. Look at all the Prophet Set items, and the starting abilities of the prophet class.
I like that pet theory. I wonder if Ranni and Melina having one eye closed could be related. What other blinded or vision impaired characters do we have that are unrelated to the blood star / formless mother / frenzied flame?
I like the theory that the three fingers are somehow related to the formless mother since it has Mohg projecting himself to protect it in the sewers of Leyndell
And also how the three fingers itself resembles his trident
The fact that you are able to connect details from glintstone sorcery to Mogh and his cult is just amazing.
The most I'd thought of the glintstone skulls is like it was turning humans into imperfect Astels, with eyes in their skulls. But human heads literally can't contain what they've grown, they can't become a higher state of being. Very eldritch.
Astels themselves remind me of glowworms, groups of larvae hanging in caves from sticky silken threads that form star-like patterns to confuse and trap night insects to devour (Deep Look has a great video that shows it clearly). So maybe Astels are also fake stars and misled humans become their meals.
Holy sh*t you might be onto something
The connection with Mohg is forced at best. They really only share the blood. Thorn sorcery is tied to sin, sacrifice, punishment, and is indeed a sorcery based on glinstone and a peculiar star. Formless mother's powers don't share anything with that, it's blood that mohgs extracts by "piercing the formless mother's body". Mohg's items use arcane, thorn sorcery uses faith
this may be why radahn felt it appropriate to hold back the stars, to prevent those glow worms descending on the world
@@xaitat mohg is a demi god though, that may change his relation to the formless mother due to him possessing a shard
edit: a further link is the requirement of being "guilty" and mohgs status as a "condemned" omen (which itself is often associated with blood) being blinded by the very thing he is guilty of may be relevant; after all mohg embraces his omen status which may be why his horns are so much larger than morgotts. the formless mother may also refer to the star itself being formless (and hence invisible) since stars are possibly living creatures as we see with astel
@@luckerowl8990 mohg isn't really being blinded by the omen curse though, he still has one eye. If they wanted to suggest that connection they would have made him entirely blind, but since he lost only one eye, I think it's pretty clear his design is only showing how gross and painful is the omen curse
Glintstone. Not even once.
This has been approved by bonk and faith users everywhere.
Well maybe just this once it can't be as bad as everyone says (he was last seen 5 years ago as a red crystal mass
The alien kudzu will eat you for sure. Such is the price of (temporary) power.
Come on, mom, all my friends are doing it, it's fine, really, Dave says so and he's like really smart
I LEARNED IT FROM YOU, GIANT DAD
I always got the sense that Alberich's hidden red glintstone brain implied that he had begun to achieve sorcerous mastery on a level equivalent to Lusat and Azur, just in the school of heretical Blood Sorcery, implying that there's a Primeval Current of blood (Guilty Star?) running a sort of parallel to the one glimpsed by Lusat and Azur.
That parallel would just be the blood star.
Alberich became a master of thorn sorcery by being intelligent enough to realize thorn sorcery is dogshit and to learn ice sorcery instead
@@UseZapCannon thorn sorceries are actually quite fun playing Coop, as scarce as they are
I kinda felt like the formless mother and the blood star were similar, this kinda gives credibilty to my hunches.
If you think about how Mohg describes it as "formless" could be due to him being half blind, meaning he is only aware of the blood star's presence but unable to actually see it, whereas those who lost their sight completely studying blood sorceries can see it.
Also I believe since Mohg is a child of Marika he uses faith to communicate with the Blood star, hence why he refer to it as "Formless Mother", whereas those who study sorceries refer to it as the blood star.
It's as if two different point of views coming to the same conclusion under diffe rent beliefs and names.
Ramblings, the two don't have anything in common
"One invader can attack the player within it, Mad Tonque Alberich"
This is Ensha erasure and I will not stand for it
On a serious note, great video as always, Zullie! Blood magic is one of the more underutilized yet cool concepts in Elden Ring and I hope From expands on it both lorewise and gameplay-wise in the DLC
To be fair here, the aftermath of your fight with Ensha literally is Ensha erasure
@@liamzakhaevOh yeah he got erased alright.
You actually get teleported to the actual roundtable Hold in Lyndell when ensha invades you. Notice the change in lighting and other details when he invades.
its a shame that aberrant sorceries are so limited in Elden Ring. Feels like a missed opportunity to, since they modeled a whole outfit for the school of magic, and it has all of 2 spells to use lol
the only spells that can benefit from arcane, man i really wanted a arcane int build with blood sorcery and albinauric staff but there is so little support
@@colorpg152hopefully we get more stuff related to it in the dlc
@@fisherfoster6032 We most likely will. From Soft might make some oopsies like these, but they correct it most of the time with the DLCs.
@@colorpg152 Honestly; after several playthroughs, with all sorts of builds, and tons of experimenting both in pve and pvp. . . I hate that they simplified things down to INT/FTH schools with the occasional ARC thing to both lol
Like; I already hated what they did to hexes in DkS3 after the glow up they got in DkS2, but ER really just made it so much worse for some spell categories and weapon scaling for those stats.
Imagine if ARC had its own school of magic; and it was where all the underutilized or neglected spell/incantation categories could actually shine. Instead; we have a million glintstone spells clogging up one school, and the other being a weird hodgepodge of incantations that are hard to fit into most builds.
They look so awesome but they're so bad
Personally, I take this as more evidence that Sorceries and Incantations are one and the same, as proven by Thops. The stars in the sky, the primeval current, all of it is just Outer Gods like the Formless Mother, taking shape in different ways. Some see stars. Some see a current. But the true nature of them remains the same. What really matters is how humanity perceives them, and how they utilize their blessings.
Considering the greatest incantations of the Golden Order are powered by intelligence rather than Faith (Law of Regression and Law of Causality), this is sort of what I concluded too. They are predicated on understanding the divine and its place in the world, not merely blindly trusting it.
Incantations are believing that a god or some force's power is true, it is "knowing" in a way. Sorceries are an understanding, a knowing, of a different kind. Whether it is incantations that are sorcery, if sorceries are just incantations of a different perception, or if the distinction really isn't important is an interesting thought though
Primal Glintstone Blade and Eternal Darkness also attest to that.
Elden Ring’s physics are a soft nod to past alchemical beliefs, but it can also be interpreted as a soft nod to present day physics. We all come from stardust (glintstone), and we all return to the earth (the Crucible/Erd). Everything meets in the end. The sap of the Erdtree is possibly another form of glintstone, brought back out through its branches, as seen with the amber medallions and even the Prince of Death staff. Similar to how red glintstone is derived from blood sacrifice. Blood turning back to stuff of stars. The Laws of Causality and Regression.
Themes of interchangeability, along with themes of blindness as a path to truth, or themes of fire and blood going hand-in-hand, are also shared/seen in A Song of ice and Fire (George).
"A wave is a particle."
- Thops, probably
I believe the Milky Way in the night sky has been described as a river or a road, but it's just our perspective on the rest of our galaxy, which is of course made up of individual stars.
I still find the fact that he bows to you before attacking interesting
Such is the nature of the dualist invader, they politely inform you they've invaded your world to carve you up for no good reason
I'd also note another connection with the Formless mother - the Exiles are only ever seen accompanying fire monks and prelates, and the incantations of the Formless Mother are Bloodflame. Mogh's boss arena is also constantly smouldering, like the Roundtable Hold eventually does, but before you even light the flame of ruin.
The Exiles are accompanying fire monks, exactly. That's the flame of the fell god, not bloodflame.
@@xaitatMaybe in their vision they saw the Formless Mother, connecting blood and flame - they adapted blood into their sorceries and sought the only flame they knew, the fire monks. What they didn't know is that the flame and blood they were looking for is the Bloodflame of the Omen
@@anathema2526mental gymnastics
@@xaitat "mental gymnastics" i mean ... thats kind of what theory crafting is to begin with
@@xaitat well we see that different schools of magic can and have been combine to make unique sorceries and incantations. Ancient dragon magic is red and combined with holy magic it turn yellow and requires faith but with sorceries it is turned blue and it has ice attributes.
Mohg having an eye pierced by his own horn is metal as fuck
Real thing that happens to rams.
Fun fact, it's implied that Alberitch originally found his home in the Mountaintops of the Giants because the Heretical Rise was probably his tower. Heretical Rise is filled with red glinstone, Alberitch uses cold sorceries, and it is also the home to the Founding Rain of Stars. This could mean that Alberitch might have been one of the FIRST glintstone sorcerers ever, but his study into the blood star drove him mad and he may have lost much of his knowledge as the red glintstone consumed him.
That gives *another* connection between the blood star and the giants!
i think astels are an "empty" creature of the same type as the Elden Beast (which is also described as a star). My guess is that they're a sort of "blank slate" that an outer god can take as a host.
The blood star, then, is probably the Formless Mother's counterpart to the Elden beast.
The rot god may have once had something similar as well. the "scorpion's stinger" dagger seems to have come from the prior incarnation of the rot god that was defeated by the blind swordsman. Astel already has a scorpion-like tail, so it's not much of a stretch to think that an astel touched by the rot god could have been described as a scorpion.
Finally, the the astel in the concecrated snowfield is surrounded by the influence of the flame of frenzy, suggesting that the flame may have been attempting to claim a star of it's own
Zullie: One invader can attack you in roundtable hold.
Ensha: Am I a joke to you?
The red glintstone has another powerful purpose. Fashion.
The Great Hood worn by Esgar priest of blood has a quote in the item description that implies while trying to find Rennala's full moon, he found the Blood Star instead. So I think the Blood Star is the Formless Mother
Bruh i just realized that the armor set in that spot in the 'real' roundtable hold is his... I'm so slow with these things lol
I wonder if Albrecht is already inert, and that the invader in the round table is just a phantom projection like the Vyke in liurnia. It makes me wonder if we might be invaded or have to rescue npc versions of Lustadt and Azur in the dlc.
Lustat and Azur better not dissapoint then
And Sellen is a projection too!
@@lordbalthosadinferni4384 Super wide comet azur and constant stars of ruin
@@doctorhealsgood5456 idk if I wanna deal with that, PvP has enough of that nonsense.
@@sekira4516lusat and azur are dead.
Damn the level of specificity within elden ring is insane! Great video yet agian!
Concept art seems to relate red glintstone to Carian royalty, oddly. The Carian Glintstone Staff is depicted with a red crystal at its tip, and the Academy of Raya Lucaria itself glows red from within.
Rennala was originally an astrologer native to the Mountaintops of the Giants. Long ago, the astrologers cohabitated with the Fire Giants, but their paths have since diverged. It's interesting then that red glintstone now symbolizes the blood star, in turn relating to the Formless Mother and bloodflame...
Furthermore, the spears of briars found throughout the Mountaintops of the Giants are often found pierced through the dead Fire Giants-more precisely, through the eye of the Fell God embedded in their chest.
I wonder if the Formless Mother is actually interested in Miquella, though, and Mohg is simply using him to facilitate contact? Bloodflame is a sort of reaction between the Formless Mother and "impure blood," but Miquella is commonly hailed for his purity...
What concept art are you referring to?
@@fourdayz1414 ...The Carian Glintstone staff and Raya Lucaria? In the official art book?
...Oh crap, did no one ever upload those anywhere? I just realized I can't find them on Google, lmao.
Well, anyway, there are quite a few odd discrepencies like that in the concept art. For example, Melina's left eye is still sealed, but her right eye is violet instead of gold.
The use of red glintstone likely dates back to the ancient past. Besides the thorn sorcerers, who seem to have stumbled upon the powers of the blood star by accident, there’s another faction that also utilizes red Glintstone in the serpent-men of Mt. Gelmir. However, they use a different kind of magic in the form of magma hex magic, drawing power from both intelligence and faith. The Serpent-God Curved Sword reinforces this connection, as it was used as a sacrificial tool, likely to extract red glintstone
its important to note that the gelmir lava sorceries was pretty much made by rykard who improved the old hexes of the land
This DLC is gonna be lit. Can’t wait for them to expand upon all these smaller details set up throughout the game.
OH my sweet summer child....
I can't wait for it to introduce more questions than answers
ER devs taking notes rn
First time, eh?
Miyazaki: "ahahahaha no"
Thank you, for once again reminding me what I love about this game's setting. Sorcery and it's divergent forms will always be one of my favorite aspects of Elden Ring, with incantations and sorceries alike all having ties to the cosmos. It's incredible.
Alright so we have alberich for red glintstone,azur for green glintstone and lusat for blue glintstone,we don't have a guy with purple glintstone in his head
This may be a joke, but there may be a reason. Gravity magic's teaching in the Lands Between seems to originate from celestial beings (the Onyx/Alabaster Lords), which could explain why it doesn't corrupt people the same way. Instead of peering into "forbidden knowledge", it was just learned. Hence why simple sorcerers who don't create their own spells don't seem to have the crystalization effect.
Gravity is heavy shit though brah
im just imagine someone trying to do the same thing azur and lusat did with gravity magic, only to end up throwing themselves into space by accident
One interesting theory is that there is no difference between gods and stars; The growth of the glintstones, and the growth of the erdtree, both just serving as catalysts of influence from beings very remote. Just materializing in different forms, more symbolic than pragmatic.
The idea of a celestial body only seen by sorcerers of ill omen isn't unique to Elden Ring, or even Bloodborne. It's a key feature of the Dragonlance setting, where each of the three moons is patron to a different branch of magic use, generally corellating with good/neutral/evil
The black moon can only be seen by those who are evil, other magic users outright cannot tell it apart from the rest of the black void between stars. Raistlin is one such wizard, and his connection to it is stronger than most due to the spite created by his physical condition
The other example of this I like is the Red Star, of WoD fame.
But it is cool, so aren’t you glad they borrowed the idea?
@Led4130 Yeah, I think its neat!
@@led9296 nobody said it was a bad thing that elden ring used it, most of the stuff in the game is taken from folklore / other fantasy settings, it's just good to know where different concepts originated from.
I was reading the TVtropes page for elden ring and I found the "Alien Kudzu" trope entry for Elden Ring quite interesting. It essentially mentions how Glintstone acts much like a magical grey goo that slowly subsumes all else into it as more glintstone. That was cool, but already known.
What I found fascinating was how the writer dubs ALL sorcery as blood magic. Let me explain.
Amber, one could say, is the residual life of a tree. It is the "blood" of a tree, solidified and hardened. In the world of Elden Ring, Amber, particularly Erdtree amber, has potent magical powers. Pieces of amber are not signs of the Erdtree's blessings, they are blessings themselves.
Glintstones, the anonymous tropes writer contributes, are not "stones". They are hardened pieces of ALIEN BLOOD. This is the true source of magical power in Elden Ring - channeling the innate magical power of other creatures - whether you are channeling the cold alien magic of blue glintstones, or the red hot vivacious magic of humanity's self-destructive and sinful nature.
Just look at all the severed alien body part weapons. The Wing of Astel, Bastard Stars, and the Fallingstar Beast Jaw. All of these weapons allow the wielder to channel the magical power of the creature that these parts were taken from. But the game never explains the actual mechanics of how you do this. Naturally, it is simply by invoking the power contained with a chunk of a living creature. Important to note - you cannot use the Nebula skill or the Fallingstar Beast Jaw skill on any other weapon. I just checked the Ash of War list on Fextralife, and these skills are not there - they are listed on a separate page, called "Skills" which lists all innate weapon skills.
That is what Sellen means when she says "Glintstones contain the residual life of stars". Remember, Astels are known as "Stars" at some point in their growth. Perhaps all the stars above in the sky are not stars as we know them to be...
Very interesting comment. I'll add that this magic system was probably designed by Miyazaki and George Martin working together. GRRM has mentioned in the past that when he decided to have "actual" magic in ASOIAF (instead of just having cool tricks and weird technology, like he considered in early stages of writing), he didn't want it be easy or cheap, he wanted it to have a hefty cost. So the way it works in the books (and to a fair extent in the show) is that, yes, literally all magic is blood magic. Whenever you want something magical to happen, you need to offer the right ammount (and type) of blood and perform the correct ritual.
My guess is that GRRM and Miyazaki wanted something like that for the magic system in Elden Ring, but since they didn't want to ask the player to sacrifice a king every time they wanted to cast elden stars, they settled on making the catalysts for magic be literal crystalized blood of different kinds.
Red crystals are just pure blood from people or animals.
Blue/green/purple crystals are blood from cosmic beings.
Amber is Erdtree blood, which at first could be interpreted as being the blood of The Greater Will, or blood of the Elden Beast. But I think it would be more accurate to say it's also human blood. The erdtree's roots feed on human corpses after all, not on soil nutrients like a normal tree. So amber would be processed human blood with special properties.
I also wanna mention the ties between these and Frenzy. The Briar Shield is of a maiden whose eyes were gouged out by thorns as punishment. Sharbriri's Woe specifically states he was a noble whose _eyes were gouged out as punishment_ for his slander. Shabriri, after being _blinded from guilt,_ discovered the Flame of Frenzy. *ALSO* the illusion of Mohg in the sewers is at an altar that is a secret passageway leading _directly to the buried nomads and Three Fingers._ Somehow, the Formless Mother/Bloodflame, Abherrant Sorceries/The Red Star/Red Glintstone, and the Three Fingers are _all_ connected to one another. Which _also_ connects it all to _Omens_ in general, because Morgott's blood _also_ becomes bloodflame! Which means bloodflame is an _Omen_ thing, not just a _Mohg/Formless Mother Worshipping_ thing. So much in this game is interconnected. I just wish FromSoft gave us a few more concrete answers.
Morgott having bloodflame too doesn't necessarily suggest its an Omen thing. He is Mohg's twin, it makes sense that whatever is special about Mohg would apply to Morgott as well.
@@saulgoneman if that is the case, then their parents would also require scrutiny since what makes them special originates there
@@sekira4516 true.
@@sekira4516 interesting point. The Fire Giants in the mountaintops are impaled by thorn sorceries, and it is Morgott and Mohgs parents who killed then 🤔
@@saulgoneman The albinaurics in Mohg's domain also have omen horns, which is certainly suggestive of the the Formless Mother being the source of omens.
Oh wow, there were some really interesting little tidbits in this one. And since eyes is such a big theme (with how runes look like eyes and so many characters have golden patterns on their eyes) it makes sense blindness would also be significant...
(And now I'm wondering if the name "Astel" is just "Stella" with the A moved around, as a parallel to how they are not quite put together right to be real stars...)
Its more likely a combination of Aster and Stella, or even just a corruption (in the linguistic sense) of Aster
You aren't too off base. In bloodborne, Kos (or some say kosm) is just a play on words of cosmos. From software very much enjoys word play. Both fictional and nonfiction. My favorite example being umbasa. There's a fictional and nonfiction example for both. In reality it was used by African Christians missionaries to convey good blessings in one simple word: umbasa. It's also lord of the rings Tolkien elvish for I believe daily bread which is similar to reality but is meant to have more of a mystical air to it.
I am so glad you're spacing out / continuing to explore lore till today, and really enjoy the short(ish-sometimes length is necessary) videos - also really LOVE the freaking subtitles it's a nice change of pace and not many people like, religiously do that. A lot of us like silence and brain thought - not voice then brain thought.
I’ve never even played Elden ring but I love these videos. Big ups for these! Keep them coming!
Love your content so much Zulie. Definitely linking this in my video on the thorn sorcerers from earlier this month as supplemental confirmation of our thoughts on Alberich.
Makes me want more blood sorcery
I love that you highlight these these pieces of lore because they are among my favourite.
Always an absolute pleasure watching your work Zullie!
Great stuff, Zullie. Thank you for your incredible content!
I really love this content btw. Your hard work is appreciated!
Oh wow, I just picked up his armor last night for my blood/madness build and altered the hat for the first time and was wondering about this!
Thank you Zullie for this important PSA about the dangers of overusing glintstone sorcery.
I never played Elden Ring before finding your channel Zullie. I started to play just after finding your channel. You are the best😊
I do wonder if we'll learn more about this in the DLC, since we know it's gonna be Miquella focused, and of course that ties in Mohg really nicely.
I gotta say, this is some of the most Lovecraftian it feels FS have ever been (outside of, like, all of Bloodborne I mean); imagine glimpsing an evil star, and just looking at it causes your brain to begin to crystallise and your body begin to petrify, as forbidden knowledge floods your mind
"I could share the secrets of the universe with you... Oooor I could carve you up like Thanksgiving Turkey. What do you think, Scythey?"
- Alberich
I like how immersive your videos are
I love all your videos, but these micro-lore vids are especially amazing
This particular section of lore is among my favourites I'd say. Connects to so much.
It is so, as far as I can remember, that sorcerers seek to make themselves into stars, correct? And if glintstone contain the residual life of stars, and stars are sorcerers (people), then glintstone contains the residual life of people. Blood glintstone is formed from the blood of sacrifices pierced by it, though I didn't notice it was a small animal until now. Ancestors are also connected to magic damage, through the use of the spirits of, you guessed it, small animals.
There are even several sorceries cast without glintstones. Glintstone Pebble ash of war, Red Wolf of Radagon, Radahn and Alabaster/Onyx Lords all cast sorceries without glintstone. Considering all this magic, disconnected from stars, I would even argue that the staff of loss actually has no glintstone, as it indeed says, rather than an invisible one as theorized. Both blood and spirits can give rise to magic after all, and what is an act of asceticism of not a show of spirit?
This Star of the Guilty that only the seemingly blinded can see... I would propose that it's a sort of introspection. People discovering the magic in their own blood/spirit, or just blood in general. Rather than something that actually exists, I view it more of a metaphysical manifestation of the magic of blood. I would here also make a distinction between the Formles Mother and the Blood Star. Though they share some similarities, to draw upon the power of the Formless Mother, you need arcane as well as faith, while Briar is faith only, as well as the dissimilarity of casting tool, on top of the obvious aesthetic differences between the two schools of magic. Blood Sorcery also makes an explicit connection to hex magic, making it, in terms of lore at least, more similar to death and lava magic than blood incants.
Well now I need to go see if the modified hat reacts to the gesture
I dunno if Ensha counts as a Roundtable Hold invasion because he kinda pulls you into a seemingly alternate version of the Hold as soon as you try to go back while in possession of the first half of the secret medallion, but that was my immediate thought when you referred to Alberich as the only NPC who violates the nonaggression pact. Otherwise, excellent observation, the idea of a star that can only be seen by those burdened with guilt and bloodied hands is crazy awesome. Also, with regards to the part about Mohg's partial blindness giving him potential insight into the Formless Mother and the Blood Star, it seems to parallel Odin's sacrifice of his eye for greater wisdom in Norse mythology, which wouldn't surprise me as an inspiration since a lot of Elden Ring draws heavily from certain mythologies (I'm looking at you, Yggdrasil- I mean Erdtree)
It's true Ensha attacks you in the roundtable hold, I think that was a oversight in the video. But i'm pretty sure Fromsoft handled Ensha's attack that way simply so that you could fight in the Roundtable Hold without letting you potentially attack and kill NPCs like the blacksmith. Mostly a gameplay thing, not really an in universe different version of the Roundtable hold
Despite the roundtable's pact of non-aggression:
There's a guy just chained to the wall.
Another guy is on the balcony slowly dying from corpse rot
Fia just casually murders a guy
You get invaded twice (by ensha and albauric)
You can dose your friend so bad she cant remember who she is.
There's a dude hanging out IN a pile of corpsss
Anddd there's a roasted corpse on the lower floor
Not s very good pact if you ask me.
One of my favorite characters in the game even though we know so little about him. I'm excited to see if we get more aberrant sorceries in the dlc.
The!Bravo-you uploaded great -
The Elden Beast as well looked like a Golden Star
amazing vid as always
"There's risk to blood magic"
Rivers of blood users: Im not here for a long time, but im here for a good time *spams corpse piler*
I've always thought that glintstone was like a milder, more "benign" version of Red Lyrium from the Dragon Age games----its a powerful magic crystal that is a source of power for mages and magical warriors, it grows like a plant in areas where those who use it gather, it slowly grows on and inside of its host/user under certain conditions. Oh, and its alive and part of another lifeform alien to the world of the game.
It would seem Albreich's red glintstone takes even more after Red Lyrium in terms of negative effects and voracious growth, not to mention its color.
Thanks to those staves, I will now be referring to it as Gopher Magic and you can't convince me otherwise
Love these vids, theres way too much lore hidden in elden ring and I remember being really interested in lusat / azure in my first playthrough.
i have a playlist of your videos that i put on in the background just for the musical choices.
Your insights are unparalleled.
I never noticed the horn growing into Mhog’s eye. If that keeps going, it’ll kill him.
Like those animals in real life!
Although if the sages can have their brains replaced with a huge crystal and they're "fine" and "alive" I'm guessing Mohg can probably let that horn give him a bit of a lobotomy and he'll just keep going.
I love your content Zullie, keep at it. c:
Love your quality over quantity approach in videos
The way you positioned the two masters makes it look like Lusat's going "Oh, Azur, we're really in it now"
Grant us eyes, grant us eyes indeed
Such a cool character. Love the blood sorcery
Great content and insight
love your content.
I'm subscribing, alright. Not because I played the games - I haven't - but because the I enjoy reading aloud the well-written and tightly time-spaced text. Not so tight that I have to hurry, with leeway for intonation but not too loose, so that I never have to fast forward or rewind the video just to finish voicing a given sentence.
Thank you.
Very interesting, as always.
Every time I learn more about glintstone I keep expecting Joseph Kucan to show up in the background of a scene just to smirk at the camera.
It completely fucks my head that they would add such a detail as his mind being eaten by the red glintstone under his freaking hat which no one might ever see. Also, if missing eyes might be a sign of having gained some vast, forbidden knowledge, maybe Melina has seen some cosmic shit too. Or have we already figured out what's up with her eye? I haven't kept up on all the lore, I'm a filthy casual.
It's literally just the Altered form of his hat
Look at the frenzied flame ending.
I don’t know why but that completely stiff impaled squirrel is so funny
in the network beta the thorn sorceries (although only Briars of Sin was available in it) had a sigil that appeared when you cast it like many other spells, but in the actual game they took it out. That change boggles me. The sigil was similar to the flame incantations, but similarity should not be an issue if the sigil of night sorceries, clayman sorceries and carian sorceries look almost identical to one another.
I think the removal is due to its dangerously heretical origins. Like, the blood sorceries derive directly from your blood and arcane, as opposed to a study of magic, or a practice of faith.
Almost as if, there is no school/groups of studies for Thorn sorceries
I do like how these game put so much weird background stuff in them.
Stars and gods that can only be seen if you're guilty and blinded. I can't believe there are still interesting patterns and related stories being found for this game.
'Oh, you can alter Alberich's hat, maybe you can take the stupid blindfold off, let's see -'
'Oh'
Every time I think "this can't get more messed up," it does. I don't even notice most of these little things, and even though it's gross I'm like kinda stoked you point them all out!
I find this whole concept of glintstone gradually replacing one's brain incredibly creepy.
At least he gives us a polite gesture before dissecting us.
But perhaps we could still have a LITTLE blood magic? As a treat? 👉👈🥺
I notice a recurring theme of horrendous gods or monsters being "born" or at least able to manifest in the lands between due unspeakable cruelty being done to people. The frenzied flame and these blood glintsones and red star being 2 of the biggest ones.
the weird sound in the background at 0:10 made me think my computers fans were freaking out
Never noticed that Mohg had one of his eyes pierced.
Neat little detail.
I saw Blood and got really excited for a sec
I already knew about Red Glintstone but it had never occurred to me that there might be similarity between the sacrifice of life for it and the sacrifice of vision for sight of it. Especially with those red lights in the empty eye-sockets of those with sacrificed eyes. It makes a lot of sense given that those who sacrificed their minds were given Glintstone replacements.
FINALLY some clearer context to the link between Mohg's force of blood and the sorcerers'
This is pretty cool! I didn't think much about this guy, but red glintstone really isn't common.
All of these details and more about Blood Magic in general is making me itch for this all to get expanded and pop off in a DLC to bring it as a main presence to the Lands Between rather than the oversight it is to most players and the overall experience of vanilla Elden Ring so far. Possibly even expanding the lore on some other threats that exist in space in that world
An interesting thing to add is his name is a reference to The Ring Opera
Im not too familiar on the lore of the Opera itself but in it Alberich is a Dwarf who steals gold from Odin and forges a Ring from it which grans him immeasurable power, the Giants who built Valhalla demand the Ring from Odin as payment and take Freya hostage until Odin makes good on his deal. Odin sends Loki to retrieve the ring, who manages to outwit the Dwarf King and the Giants in turn release Freya back to Odin.
Theres some parallels to be drawn between the 2 and its pretty cool how much effort FromSoft put into these kindsa things.