For the Tower of Babel interpretation: There are many interpretations as to why it is built. But some theologists have settled on was that Nimrod was avoiding the will of God, as well as ignoring God's promise he would not flood them **again**. God was angry that humans were settling in cities and not spreading out to nature. To continue to exist together in one city was to ignore the will of God, to avoid a potential second flood Nimrod forced people to build this tower. The tower allowed them to circumvent another natural disaster, allowed them to ignore the will of god, and allowed them to reach heaven all the same. The reason I dont understand this story is why God would resort to punishment in the first place when it causes distrust between you and your children. Coogan, Michael D. (2009). A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: the Hebrew Bible in its Context. Oxford University Press.
Aside from the moral question of the flood and the destruction of Babel, Here's a few tidbits from a Bible enthusiast: The description of Nimrod as a "mighty hunter" doesn't mean he was good at catching rabbits and deer; he was a hunter of men. The implication is that Nimrod, a slaughtering tyrant, put all of mankind under his thumb and created a unified government of mankind. God's destruction of the tower isn't a punishment for people's fear of flood. It's a punishment for pride. People built the tower thinking "Oh yeah, we can get one over on the creator of the universe. He won't be able to tell us what to do once we build a tower that makes us as tall as Him." 🙄 Finally, it is funny to note that despite the "incredible height" (/s) of the Tower, God has to "come down" to look at it.
It's important to note that the god of the old testament is NOT the one in the new testament. Also, even god's punishments are gifts, it's impossible to know how something is going to affect the big picture down the line (what with god being outside time, and experiencing everything at the same time), even if it feels like evil at the time. To claim to understand the will of god would be akin to thinking yourself above of god. Tolkien puts it as such, in the context of a group of people doing great things (immortalized in song) that were considered to go against the will of god: "So shall it be! Dear-bought those songs shall be accounted, and yet shall be well-bought. For the price could be no other. Thus even as God spoke to us shall beauty not before conceived be brought into the World, and evil yet be good to have been. And yet remain evil." In the end, none can go against the will of god, and every evil action will in the end bring about more good into the world that if that evil would never have been committed, and yet remain evil. I also wanted to put this one here, from god himself: "And thou shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined."
I'm sure I don't exactly speak for everyone, but I personally have gotten almost completely acclimated to internet people not always being consistent and really just, not getting used to any schedule, if they have one. Every video is a pleasant surprise, and if there's a large gap from one to the other, or they do different content than usual for a while, I'm not usually too bothered. Doubly so if they have a good reason, and both mental and physical health are extremely good reasons; don't feel like you have to burn yourself out on account of the internet people. Is what *I* say, anyway. 🙂👍
I think most people feel this way, but the nature of online engagement leads the most entitled people to be the noisiest. To be clear, I'm glad you're saying this, because it needs to be said and to be reinforced.
I think FromSoft put ALL the clues of what happened before/during the shattering right into a literal architectural/geological record right in the game itself to help supplement the item descriptions. It's wild stuff. Also, I think that's why the map/world has been changing ever so slightly. During rewrites they probably didn't have a chance to go through every little statue/map item to adjust them. They're probably fixing some of these things as they notice them.
Honestly, I believe they've been doing this as far back as Dark Souls 1, at the very least. They are masters of environmental storytelling and I love them for it.
I would repeat the very first words spoken in the game. "The fallen leaves tell a story" With the first words we are told of the importance of environmental storytelling.
@@darkhobo fuck me...that's brilliant. Lol it's such a unique thing in gaming, let alone any medium, when the creators are so self aware of what they are good at but also what their most diehard fans live them for. Why these dudes are my favorite game creators ever. The subtle bit ever-present dialogue they convey to players with each game they release.
It's always been my thought that Farum Azula was destroyed in some way before the Golden Order, because of this quote from Placidusax's Remembrance: "The Dragonlord whose seat lies at the heart of the storm beyond time is said to have been Elden Lord in the age before the Erdtree. Once his god was fled, the lord continued to await its return." Considering his injuries as well as the usage of "fled" to describe his god leaving, makes me think something fearsome came through Farum Azula while Placidusax was Elden Lord with his god, destroyed the place, made the god flee, and defeating Placidusax in his original form and is what caused the loss of his other heads. That it says "in the age before the Erdtree" says to me that these events, at the very least happened before, Marika had fully established the Golden Order. So either there was a time between the Placidusax's age as Elden Lord and the Golden Order, or Marika in establishing the Golden Order brought ruin to Farum Azula. I also have always wondered if the true "Lord of the Storm" that is brought up quite a bit in reference to Stormveil Castle is connected in some way to Farum Azula. I don't recall where but I remember references to the storms around the castle previously being much stronger, and this could relate to Farum Azula being in its previous location in the large flooded area north east of Stormveil. Perhaps even the Lord of the Storm could be a descendent of the human king shown in Farum Azula or perphaps that very king himself. Also "I might just stream 12 hours of Chao Gardens" - I already knew your content was worth subbing for, but now you have my trust as well.
@@quelaag I don't know, but the Game Awards are Dec 8, and that feels like the most likely time and place for a DLC reveal, and both DSIII DLCs and Bloodborne DLC came out two months after their reveal trailers... so I'm copiumed out of my mind, but that's not that long to wait!!
I think so too, though I also think "before the Golden Order" is kinda flexible here. Are we talking about before its existence? Or are we talking about before its dominance in the ordering of the world? My personal theory involves Marika being forced into marriage with Placidusax and making some pledge to the Greater Will to be its envoy in order to gain the power to overthrow Placidusax and gain power for herself. What if Marika, in conjunction with the Greater Will, pulled the Elden Beast down from the stars? Destroying Farum Azula in the process. Her whole story seems to be one of loss of agency. Forced into servitude and trying to achieve some level of independence. I'd really like to know when Godfrey did all of his exploits. That's what I'm not clear on and I think knowing that, even just knowing when he first came into contact with Marika, would really solidify a number of things for me.
Thinking about it, the blue dancer is who beats the rot god, was it the God of rot that did such damage to the dragon? Death feels too final for it to have been the gloom eyed queen, so it feels closer to something the would do a ton of irreversible damage, as far as the destruction of farum azula, I think it was the elden star that did it, as far as to why it took so "long" for them to attack back, time must be very convoluted for these being who's God controlled the flow of it or because of a distortion in time (placidusax can be seen amongst the rubble before we go to fight him) so I wonder if the dragons attack right away but found themselves in a world years after when it happened in relation
There is no reference to a Lord of the Storm anywhere in any item description actually. There is the Storm King, ashes of a hawk, that references a former master of Stormveil that is not given a name. Then there is Godfreys set which mentions a Stormlord, but with no connection to Stormveil. To me this is just people confusing the name of the hawk, "storm king", with an actual king and thinking that the storm lord mentioned in Godfreys item description is that guy, who is actually the hawk and not the former master of Stormveil.
Weird note….a lot of the heart motifs in the Giant’s Forge are based on (or basically identical to) Adinkra symbols from African ironwork and sacred blacksmithing-the single upright heart with curves means sankofa “return to that you’ve forgotten”, the double hearts are “the earth has weight”, and the repeated double curl motif up and down the Sword of Night and Flame is hye won hye, or “that which cannot be burned”. Really impressed by this catch, they really incorporated a lot of sacred African ironwork symbolism into the decoration of assets related to the Fire Giants.
My theory on why the dragons attacked Leyndell was because they saw what the greater will did to the giants and feared the golden order would have attacked them too (since they can spit fire, absorb powers and might be connected to another outer god). Something the Golden Order would have eventually done if it wasn't for Godwyn. The way I see it, Farum Azula is basically the Ringed City or the Painted World of Elden Ring. It's a place removed from space and time to hide anything that would have made the greater will appear less powerful, less divine, or more malevolent. The fact that it was built out of a pre or early erdtree era capital city isn't random. The Greater Will wanted to erase even the fact that any society before its arrival in the Lands Between was prosperous or advanced.
I just noticed the giant waterfall earlier today. It would be extremely fitting and funny if the world map was also a giant ring that got shattered. Maybe farum azula was ripped physically out of the world the same way destined death was cast out of the elden ring
I think thats a central theme of the game (and Fromsoft games in general): Cycles of hubris and destruction repeating themselves. The Crucible civilization build its "Tower of Babel" and gets smited. The Greater Will orders the cessation of Death with the forging of the Elden Ring, but is betrayed when Marika shatters it later on.
@DC Wow, I like that theory. I think it could give some credence to the idea that Farum Azula ascended before the Elden Beast made the crater and shattered the ring. Because if Farum Azula was still there when the impact occurred, the shattering wouldn't have shattered the ring, it would have shattered... an uninterestingly shaped mass of land lol. I prefer the idea that FA was already in the sky when the Elden Beast hit because it just makes no sense to me that it would survive in any capacity if it was hit directly by a meteor. But this is how a lot of people seem to describe it. If this were so it wouldn't be crumbling, it would be dust. I think it's much more likely that it was struck by the meteor in the sky. Though, perhaps it had to relocate to the sky precisely to avoid total destruction from the meteor. Maybe there was a prophecy or something that showed the star approaching, or maybe they could see it in the sky before it hit and recognize it as a threat.
I remember reading some thread where someone had marked all the farum azula ruins throughout the lands between and it looked kind if like a path. The idea was that farum azula has been moving along this path. I thought it was interesting
Farum great bridge also leads to a black-blade kindred and the bestial sanctum where the beast clergyman lies. Similar (or same) being as maliketh who resides in farum Azula.
Holy shit, I remember watching one of your videos when dark souls was still hot off the press and I was just a kid too thick headed to put the pieces of the lore together. I’m glad to see you are still going strong and uploading content. All these years later and you’re still doing great analysis and I’m still headed as thick headed as I was back then. You’ve got to applaud the community surrounding these games for managing to reconcile those two extremes so that we can all partake in the communion together.
Damn, Illusory Wall goes over map layout and design in detail, but you going over the art and architecture brings new information and a new perspective to these games. Happily subscribed
there is an architectural feature in the ancient Sri Lankan Ruins called a Moonstone which bear resemblance to many of the artistic touches in nokron and nokstella. like the lift down to nokron and those dew kissed herba designs bears resemblance to sculpted designs in some buddhist temples.
There is a repeating pattern on Farum Azula chunks and architecture that I swear looks like a depiction of different creatures, one of which is a worm face and one of which is the creature Godwyn’s body is turning into. Clearest place to see it is on the floating chunks you get to in Farum Azula via the 4 Bellfries. The pieces you stand on directly over the 2 beastmen you can fight.
My headcanon used to be, because of all of the ruins, especially in the northern Caelid desert where the structures seem to be protruding out of the strata, is that The Lands Between has been building on top of itself for countless generations. So long, that geological cycles and tectonic movement seem slower by comparison. The Erdtree (modern time) was planted on The Greatree (ancient time) which was planted on the Crucible (prehistoric time). Before that who knows? I'm sure there's many holes in it.
I think the Golems are made out of meteorites. If you look closesly at the destroyed ones scattered around stormhill you can see the dark hue of their stone bodies covered in little holes just like the meteorites we can see in the divine Towers and mines except without the glow. Another thing worth to note is that these old ruins that seem to carry the lands between are also often connected to flowing waters in the sense that they are either dams or aqueducts.
The meteorites in the golems seem to me like their engine or energy core. And they are like an artificial army for an ancient war to defend the divine towers. Their material and design resembles that of the towers. The large stone pillars are actually often where water leaks out, but to me it seems to be there more for ground support reasons. What we do not know is whether these pillars do not support the whole Lands Between underground like a church roof framework - or like a reservoir. Another 'theory' would be whether these supports serve as a substitute for the huge petrified tree trunks to house the former halls.
Great content, I agree a lot of the stuffs you guys speculate in this video, like how the cliffsides in TLB look unnatural and traces of landmass disappearing can be spot here and there, especially in Caelid Dragon Barrow. I think connecting the black stone civilization (who made golems) to divine towers and other civilizations is also not a 'conspiracy theory', it is on the right track. The ruins of black stone civilization which hold the TLB together are deliberately put there by the environment artists, you can spot many well-pieced sceneries in the game like how the ruins get buried into the cliffsides throughout TLB, how they stuck into the water in lower altitude areas, Highroad Cave is also a great location for observations. All suggest that TLB were once one great holy land and suffered catastrophic events, such as meteorites bombardment, volcanic eruptions (judging by the columnar rocks structures all over TLB), which make the great civilization either get buried underground or sunken into the sea. I want to quickly elaborate a bit on my takes of the Elden Star, the elden star bears a beast which is a living incarnation of the concept of order. Here, the keyword I think is the "concept of order". It suggests that before the Elden Star, lifes in TLB are in chaotic and disorder forms, a crucible of competition. Creatures are fused with numerous aspects of the crucible, similar to a animal features randomizer, creatures are made of every imaginable combination of traits and lives are under such primal competitive state. I think the looks of misbegotten and Dragonlord Placidusax could be good indications of that era. So the Elden Star bringing the "concept of order", which potentially takes inspiration from the real world Chicxulub crater in Mexico that the impact of the asteroid wipes out 75% of plant and animal species on earth, ending the Cretaceous era of dinosaurs, laid foundation for intelligent human ancestors to appear on earth. As more and more studies show that chemicals form the human DNA and RNA likely come from space rocks. In Elden Ring, the Elden Star could also wipe out majority of the prehistoric "chaotic" lifeforms, installing "concept of order" into the life's crucible (where the modern Erdtree draws its vital energy from) and making newborns from there. I also think Ancient Dragons survived the impact of the Elden Star, their general appearance slowly become in-line with the "concept of order" except the Dragonlord Placidusax maintaining its primal and chaotic appearance, being the strongest creature at the time, granted intelligence and Elden Lord. And we know the beastmen of Farum Azula were also granted intelligence, language is one of the key factors to differentiate intelligent and non-intelligent beings, I think that's why in this game, the life energy is called "runes". Another sign of intelligence is being able to use simple tools, like rocks. So the Greater Will is likely to be the one who granted ancient dragons and beasts intelligence since the Elden Beast has five fingers which is the symbol of the intelligence, and Elden Star brought the "concept of order" which transformed beasts from this primal "chaotic" beasthood state into a civilized "order" state. And slowly, tribes occurs, religion occurs, concept of "divine right of kings" occurs, tribes start to become civilizations and the civilizations assimilate other surrounding smaller ones, eventually form into one massive scale civilization. However, with Elden Star bringing the "concept of order", at the same time it also introduces the concept of 'differences' aka "inside/outside the order" into TLB, which I think eventually leads to "Torment, despair, affliction. Every sin, every curse". Let me explain this concept a bit, so the life's crucible at prehistoric era grants life blessings at equal, to all of its creations without a purpose. The crucible is tolerant to all and none is discriminated. After the "concept of order" striking into TLB, crucible's life essence now become runes/blessings, which especially become a predominant thing in the age of the Erdtree, as we see how blessings are presented in the game, as benefits granted to those who are inside and serve the order. In other words, "the concept of order" slowly makes the blessings from the life's crucible purposeful and selective, it exchanges blessings for faith and loyalty in the Erdtree era; it gives the most blessings to those who serve the order first and stay close distance to the order (people live near royal capital of Leyndell); it starts to discriminate against those beings who choose to stay outside of the order, which eventually lead to all sorts of conflicts and disasters in TLB. I went too far and will stop at here lol, this is turning into an essay, sry about that hopefully it's not too off topic.
You made so many great points in this comment. I especially liked what you said about language and runes, and how the "division and distinctions" enforced by the Greater Will are the same as its **discriminations**, and hence its curses and torments to those outside the order. I think I might have missed the connection between distinctions and curses because my automatic interpretation of the Frenzied Flame's goals was influenced by Evangelion, the Instrumentality Project, etc. By which I mean, I was thinking that the reason the Frenzied Flame dislikes distinction is that being isolated and separate from other people, and not understanding each other, is part of the pain of the human condition. And that by coming together and converging, this pain might go away.
You mentioned early in the video the reuse of assets. I'm still trying to figure out why there's so many important storylines and elements in the consecrated snowfield. I find it interesting that almost every faction shows up in an optional area of the game. Why is Radagon's sword here? Why is there another Astel crash land site? Not to mention the Alabaster Lord in the same area. The Albinauric's presence make sense, and by extension so does Mohg but the night calvary? What does Margot want here? There are also black knife assassins and death rite birds and a wyrm. I lose sleep over this! P.S. WHAT DOES PEPE SILVIA HAVE TO DO WITH LEYNDELL?
there are also Ancestral Followers, Ice Lightning Balls and Dragonkin Soldiers, as well as the big petrified stone pillars, all of which are distinctly associated with the Eternal Cities. why are they above ground here?
@@avillahanya The way I see it, an Eternal City might have been there and that's that EC wich Astel leveled. People generally assume the Nameless EC was the one wich was assailed by Astel, wich is a fair take, but the city doesn't look like it was attacked by a giant space monster with meteorite summoning powers, but rather just fallen into disrepair given that it is abandoned, flooded and giant tree roots growing there. Now, Astel took away their sky can mean that it destoroyed the roof of the cave in wich they've resided. In Astel 2.0's boss room there is meteorite and in the tunnel there is an Alabaster and Onyx lord, so there was some meteoric actity in the area. And then tere is Ordina, with the Sellian architecture. It's possible that town was built by the survivors of Astel's attack. And who do we find there? A buch of Black Knives who are scions of the ECs, so they might originate from Ordina. Some minor evidence for this: the EC's are always built near to a river and there is that frozen one. The Dragonkin ghost is there, whose supposedly have never seen the true sky, so I guess it died while it got outside. Aaand maybe each EC had a dragonkin? There is the 3 living one and one ghost. So maybe 4 ECs. And there is a stray mimic tear in one of the dungeons.
@@aldousboal4920 Right! Those circles/runes could symbolize the ECs. But it could also just mean the 4 crypt chairs. 1 in Nokron, 2 in Nokstella, 1 in Sellia. Edit: now looking at it the carian crest has the same 4 runes on it just mirrored...Hmm I guess the chair crypts idea might not be the right one.
ZullietheWitch did a video showing from game code that there was an alternate Snowfield/related storyline that was scrapped but they repurposed the assets.
I have been on a similar train of thought. I’m creeping towards the idea that the lands between were once ruled as the Sun Realm by the King depicted in Farum Azula, and that the Sun is the dragon god that “fled”, Farum Azula being the seat of the sun that has long since faded.
I always imagined the dragons invading in the very brief time when Godfrey had been exiled, but before Radagon was recalled to the capital. I always pictured Godwyn sort of serving as Elden Lord at this time, which is why he was so central to the city's defense, as well as it's resolution, with establishing the Dragon Cults with his new bestie
25:25 Wormfaces are the first enemy in a very long time that I actually felt Intimidated the first few times I saw them. other enemies in the game are supposed to look scarier, but there is something about the wormface's design that is near enough to human while still being unrecognizable as having any humanity. The noises they make are also unsettling, like they're speech is muffled by the grotesque worms. I think I agree that these 'wormfaces' probably weren't always like that.
I came up with this unalloyed gold foil hat theory that Marika was raised IN Farum Azula and she along with one or two other got chosen by some entity ( Greater Will or the Five Fingers ) to be Empyrean to replace Placidusax's God in the coming Age. My other speculation is that the Two fingers comes from the Nox trying to usurp the current order by "slaying" the FIve fingers with the finger slayer blade but split the fingers into two entity Order & Chaos, the Fingerslayer blade may have been made with the body of an Empyrean rival to Marika
Babel was more about ego. The story as I was taught in my many years of Catholic school was that society was doing really great. They were doing so well, they thought themselves on the level of God. So they decided to build a tower to be in heaven. God disapproves and strikes the tower down leaving all of them unable to communicate. Not even not speak the same language, unable to understand each other. In tarot, the tower card is a rendition of this story. A shakeup. Defenestration. The feeling of falling. The only constant in life change. To live is to suffer. Loved this video ❤
I dont have anything to add to the ideas in the video, but just wanted to give you and St Trina credit for actually trying to come up with a timeline. One of my biggest stumpling blocks when it comes to discussing lore in this having even the most basic timeline of events. In the previous games there was general timeline that most people could work off of, but with Elden Ring there is not only so much more stuff going on, but it all happens over a much longer timescale than seems plausible.
The map is probably my favorite character in Eldin Ring. i don't have much to add to the subject at hand, besides the fact that i totally believe there is some Pangea-esqe stuff going on. But one of my favorite aspects of the map is how the Village of the Albinaurics is essentially erased from it. As well as there not being any map for the Shunning Grounds, it seems whoever drew the map didn't know about the areas or intentionally did not want them recorded (assuming all maps come from one source). It reminds me of the whole "history is written by the victors" type thing. Why would the Moonlight Plateau be on the map, considering the fact that the path there seems to have been restricted long ago? It's a place that is currently only important to Ranni (i believe), so why would someone decide it was more important than the village, which is more readily searchable and cartographable? I used to think Ensha attacks you in the Roundtable to steal the half of medallion you get from old Albus, but he does that after you visit the village regardless of you picking it up (i believe). I don't know anything about drawing maps, especially of multilayered areas, or if importance of the place factors into what's shown. So i can totally be thinking too hard about this. But idk, they could have included a map layer between the two we have in game, if they wanted to show you more of the Shunning Grounds and Village. i think they are making a point not to. And considering that everyone- from Gideon, to Volcano Manor, to the maybe the Carians -exploited the heck out of the Ablinaurics, any of them could disdain them enough to want them completely erased. Or at least be okay with it. I could very well be nothing, but knowing who made the maps would help me decide for sure, i feel.
@@ReneAensland I do, that’s why I’m confused. What makes something Pangea-esque? Are they saying the mapped world is a supercontinent? If so, why bother making such a pointless observation
@@themostdiabolicalhater5986 Pangea is known to have split into current continental masses in our world. So his comment meant that there was probably a similar tectonic displacement, either natural or forced, causing connected areas of the game to become separated and/or fall into disrepair
Some fascinating ideas here - really love the connection of where the worm faces hang out, what they were staring at in Farum, and the potential broken shapes matching up. Noting that the worm faces are probably puking on trees for a reason (makes sense in farum, less sense in Leyndell where they're kinda lost) is a brilliant observation that I feel dumb for not even thinking about. Zullie's got some interesting wormface vids that I'm assuming you've seen? - Also, props for shooting a video with full explanations instead of the standard overly-jump-cut style that so many youtubers do, mad refreshing. Look forward to any story vids you come up with.
That waterfall up by northern Caelid is super mysterious. I saw that just like a month ago and now I feel like a lot of people are starting to bring it up
the dragon talisman world theory seems more sensible to me. One of the reasons is the idea suggested by others that the Beast Sanctum could have been the entrance with its bridges to Farum Azula. Because the white dot on the talisman map would correspond to the location of Farum Azula then. Then just the many connections between Caelid and the giants that there must have been once land and just signs scattered on the entire map because the lands Between must have been once larger.
I love the way you look at games. Why would a company spends years making a game with incredible landscapes and detail, just to reuse assets for no reason? Does it happen? Probably in Ubisoft titles, but there is an obvious level of care and detail to Elden Ring that makes it what it is. And if they did reuse assets for no reason, interpretations of art is solely in the heart and mind of the consumer of it, regardless of author's intent, at the end of the day. Finding meaning in the meaningless is critical skill for survival beyond physical necessities. I just really love this kind of content.
Just a note, the tower of Babel wasn't built to escape a flood. You've combined the story of the tower with the story of Noah. Chronologically speaking, the Tower of Babel happened after the flood. The tower was built in an effort to gain notoriety, the goal was to have this glorious tower that showed how awesome their civilization was. The thing that they felt would put it over the top, which happens to be the reason they get punished, is because they wanted it to go so high up that the top would rest in heaven with God. God wasn't infuriated at the vanity and the presumption that they were glorious enough to decide they could just build into heaven. And so, that the people might not gather and try such things again, God smote them. Destroyed their tower and afflicted them with "different tongues" (languages) to divide them. I think the dragons attacked because Farum's power and influence had greatly waned and Leyndell's was on the rise, in part but mostly about pride. The "wait" as you call it was not a wait. Their civilization was hit with a meteor that seemingly destroyed it, causing dragons to flee to Caelid and the mountain tops, they were pre-occupied. Those who stayed in the city were likely looking to their Elden Lord to comeback with advise from God. I think the inciting moment was probably when they learned the ruler of Leyndell was calling himself Elden Lord. I figure since the game makes a big deal of telling us how Godfrey is the first Elden Lord and we learn that he really wasn't, there has to be a reason. I choose that reason to be that it incited the dragons' pride and caused them to attack (I'm not saying this is why in-verse he is called Elden Lord but rather why the writers wrote it this way). But also, the game makes a point of showing how dragon faith was folded into the Erdtree faith. That bit of narrative would have been offered to us to illustrate the matter was also cultural issues because peace was attained when the House of Gold joined with the Dragons. I'm of the school of thought that Fortissax and Godwyn were more than friends. From that we see a union of lightning and gold play out. The benefits of this union likely inspired Radagon's second approach to Liurnia.
All well said. In regards to Fortissax and Godwyn- it is known that the ancient dragons can inhabit human forms, so perhaps Fortissax and Godwyn were smashing.
I mean the actual story in the Bible is just that humanity is told to spread all over but they decide to not do that butstay in oneplace and build a big tower that will be seen from any place so they could always come together and not be split.
Just reading the first half of this post, I'm realizing all over again that there are millions and millions and millions of people that believe the stories in the Bible are actually true. That it's not a book full of fictional tales, but a historically accurate play by play.
@@Tcrror What about his comment implied he believed the myth was literal? Sounds like you really just wanted to tell everyone how smart you think you are while trying to dunk on Christians. Embarrassing...
one thing that kind of stuck with me was when you referenced what seemed like tides going out, cause it seems that the Lands Between kind of are having something going on in the tidal front: there are derelict of ships that are stuck out of the coastline, and what seems like sea creatures stranded on beaches (the land octopi) but almost kind of opposite of Liurnia, which is sinking, it's making me think that the water level is lowering (?) and unearthing things(?) like, could the DLC area just be that, that central bit with the cloud(?)
Just got suggested this by my YT algo. Absolutely fantastic. Subscribed almost immediately! Will be looking forward to more trips down the rabbit hole when you have time, cheers!
Tangential, but I really dislike how players complained that the map falsely represented a bridge to jarburg and they went and updated the map. To me it gave this great quality of timeyness, like whoever made the map was slightly behind the times and made it before the bridge collapsed. Why should it be perfectly up to date? Cartography is an iterative process and we're a few iterations ahead of whenever cartography was a major concern.
The Farum Azula "Misbegotten" looks also like it could be a burial watchdog or the creature that they're based on. And that cloud in the center of the map looks totally suspicious, probably marking Farum Azula's previous location pre-tornado. As for how it was separated from the Lands Between, likely Placidusax tried to reverse the flow of time to erase the age of the Erdtree and it ended up shattering the continent, reminiscent of how Marika/Radagon shattered the Elden Ring, we know how this game loves it's duality and repetition as much as George Lucas.
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That is all so surreal, the amount of lore in this game is so sick! I don't know if there is some type of reference to that but! Em theory the whole map of the lands between is a finger right? with calied being the point of the finger and the mountaintop being part of the hand, if the pangea theory holds true, the lands between are "almost" literally being an unfurling fingerm which I have no idea if it means something AHAHAHHA
I’m mostly confident azula was originally where the royal capital is before the golden order and given the encroachment of godwin’s deathroot at the bottom reaches of azula (godwin lies beneath the capital) had to flee and go airborne in retreat. Its the same circumference of the royal capital and you’ll notice on the actual map layout of the capital there are hidden rubbled features completely flooded with water that are obscured by high walls preventing you from seeing it when you’re there. Also partially explains the presence of the coloring of the trees and the wormfaces from altus being present in azula as well. There was evidently a big dispute with dragons at the capital thats now a main feature of the city as you mentioned.
If there is a siofra deep river well looking elevator in Farum Azula it may once upon a time ago have gone down to the deeproot depths. It obviously wouldn't be usable but there might be something that looks the same and gives a clue. I struggle with the timing of Farum flying, it almost has to be after deathroot happened in order for deathroot to be present there. I sort of want to go check out the bridge to the mountaintops of the giants and see if at any point the architecture changes and matches Farum more than Leyndell. I have seen people talk about Farum coming from Caelid due to the dragons, the elder dragon and similar architecture, there is also a gaping hole in the ground there too. I feel like its all happening up around the Erd tree though, you have the tree obviously, the frenzied flame, center of the landmass which is pretty typical of capital cities. It would make sense for the old seat of power to be there too.
Sorry to hear about your headache troubles this time of year (sounds like referring to them as such is a bit of an understatement). Hoping you get all the relief you can and have access to the space and resources you need to deal with it! I really appreciate you content and recognize the work you put in. You've really helped me appreciate this game on a deeper level and I was already astonished on my first playthrough. I think you're my favorite lore channel because of how your engagement with the chronology serves the higher purpose of understanding the symbolic and historical parallels. Of course all the other lore people are great too, and I love how all the lore channels are keeping up with each other and chatting about stuff. I don't think I've ever been this hyped for Fromsoft DLC, and that's saying quite a bit because I practically drooled over DS3's DLCs. Cheers, and may your headaches be shortlived this season.
I like this idea of Farum Azula ripped through the Lands Between. I remember when I played through the first time and ended up by Gurranq and wondered about that area of Caelid. When I went through Belfry portal to Farum, I assumed that Farum used to be by Caelid. The worm faced guys I barely went through my first time there either, just trying to get to the end and overlooked the area. I like the idea that Farum was closer to Lendyll. I wonder about the Pangea theory now too. And matching wildlife of Caelid and Snowtops. It would make more sense that the original capital and incredibly illustrious Maliketh boss room was the center of the Lands Between with the old Elden Ring. Perhaps when the Elden Beast was sent down, it impacted Farum Azula with such force that it threw the lands apart and sent the city outward. This shatters that Elden Ring and all Placidusax can do is slow down the destruction of the city as it spirals through the lands and pushes it's way outward. Divine towers house shards to hold lands together until Marika/Godfrey restore Elden Ring. Your videos are always great, really get me thinking. The asset reuse and architectural storetelling is so fun. Going to go stare at those pillars until the DLC comes out!
I can’t believe I’m only just now discovering your videos. I’ve been obsessed with Elden Ring Lore for the past 2 years and with Fromsoft Lore in general for almost a decade. I’m excited to have found another lore channel I can sink my teeth into. Your videos and analysis are both fantastic! I love it
omg I'm so glad about the FMA reference on the thumbnail, I've been rewatching FMAB and oh my god the amount of stuff that I started realising overlaps with ER somehow, it's been driving me nuts
I'm about 90% confident that Farum Azula was in the wailing dunes. It was sent skyward (maybe) by a meteor and we fight the starscourage in the desert who triggers a meteor fall when defeated. Not saying rhadan brought down farum azula but it seems symbolically linked. Also the farum great bridge points to the desert.
30:48 this dragon theory makes sense to me. The whirlpools might be a place where there was once land and it lifted up or sank down, leaving a space and the water is flooding back into the space causing the whirlpool. Also, there is a whirlpool up above leindell which is where the dragon’s head would be…
When GRRM said that he was specifically hired to write what happened “5000 years ago” I was extremely surprised. Honestly nothing about the actual world of Elden Eing made me think that it had been THAT long since the shattering. For example the amount of decay and overgrowth from any part of the game just does not look like what you would expect after 5000 years. I have always assumed the Shattering was like maybe 100 years ago or a bit more? I know thats what GRRM said but i personally don’t see why that would be the case.
actually farum azula does seem possibly thousands of uears old but other areas like stormveil or the battlegrounds around Leyndell really look decades old not centuries.
How insane would it be if the reason the DLC was taking so long is that we time travel and explore a modified version of the whole overworld again but in the past. We start on the West side, re-uncovering the map a bit at a time and when we make it around to the East, the missing land mass is a new zone. Probably not the case but it would be very appropriate for a game where the open world is so fundamental to the experience, and not impossible to do if all they were doing is making edits to the existing landscape and inserting some new encounters along the way. It would even be a good fit for the arenas that are pretty obviously going to be DLC content. It's not that the arenas are just functional now because you downloaded a file off of steam, you're travelling back to a time when they were in use.
I only get aura migraines (just recently started catching on to the auras and triggers), and I just wanted to say your description of your experience with cluster headaches was really reassuring. Speaking about it with confidence and just asking for understanding about this unavoidable aspect of your life reminded me of the respect we all deserve for our medical situation. It's really hard to explain to people who don't get them, what a migraine (despite the specific severity a person gets them at) feels like. Hearing you be plain and confident about your situation was inspiring. I'm gonna try to be like that a little more.
Farum azula being in the middle somehow also puts it next to dragonbarrow getting the dragons all in the same area again as well. I definitely think the Pangea theory is correct.
I like your videos SO MUCH! There are other channels investigating this game's lore and others from FromSoftware, but yours is just unreal. The same level of care and analysis that I have playing, looking at photos and reading theories is what you get and that's really cool!
I'm starting to think that with all the pillars and support structures jutting out of the mountains and cliffsides of the lands between, the giant skulls and heads in Caelid, the mountaintops of the giants (and the ones that were supposed to be in Limgrave I think? but were cut from the game) and the weird waterfall edge in the sea that like maybe the entire lands between is just built on top of a super giant civilization
Learning about the lore through small item, placements, and architecture and piecing it together with respect to the map is super interesting. When playing its so easy to miss these small details.
Really enjoyed this style of video. I feel like a lot of lore videos and deep dives take a lot of time to not say a lot. But with this there’s nonstop concepts and details I wouldn’t have thought of or noticed! Great content, subbed!
This is so sick, I love your videos! Best of luck with the sudoku headaches ❤ hang in there pal, sounds like you’re pretty good at taking care of yourself
What I do love to see is I’m not the only one that looks in-depth into the design of a games world, someone spends a lot of time and passion building a game and the effort deserves to be appreciated.
What if the dragons attacked the capital after Maliketh defeated Melina when she was the Gloam Eyed Queen? I think Melina was originally the daughter of Placidusax, and had her base of operations in Farum Azula. Maybe Maliketh infiltrated Farum and defeated Melina, and that sent the dragons on a revenge attack against Leyndell.
When I first started the game, it struck me how there were these huge chunks of an unseen castle lying all over the terrain. Not just the random pillars but the enormous ruins fragments.
The detail about the storm symbol at the centre of the clock inside a circular depiction of the land blew my mind. That has me totally convinced now that Farum Azula used to be in the middle of the map and not above Caelid. The evidence was right there the whole time, not in some obscure corner of a dungeon but hiding in plain sight in the UI.
i think farum azula was where radhans boss fight is at bc on the cliff next to it there’s these ruins and pillars and stuff that match perfectly with the rest of farum azulas architecture and the boss arena just looks like a aftermath of a huge piece of land just getting ripped up and away
Can’t believe i haven’t found ur channel yet. Love the deep dives into these games and BOY can u dive deep lol. Love fantastic game design despite the age of battle-passes and gatcha games
The premise of the lore seems for me to be: “What if God, once whole, split into two persons at odds with each other?” (The two fingers vs. the three fingers/ the greater will be the frenzied flame) One divine person seeking to put humanity above all, and the other divine person trying to amend their separation and correct the other ones perversion of order but subsuming everything and starting over.
As a game dev (concept artist) I love the time and effort you put into looking at all the details in the game. Elden Ring has got to be one of my favorite games that I've played in a long while, and I do love the repeating theme of ruins built on ruins built on ruins. Very realistic and interesting. :)
This is my first video I have ever watched of you due to you showing up in my recommended, and we are literally wearing the same NEFF Beanie. Instant fan for life.
Holy crap it even looks like the Siofra river below mirrors the (now flooded) Liurnia of the Lakes above on the dragon talisman ??? World map= dragon talisman, I'm sold
Woah the connection in Farum Azula with the rest of the map seems so plausible! Really intrigued to know more if the DLC goes indeed back in time. So interesting how you find all the lore in the architecture and art while Vaati is the hidden narrative. Would see a collab for sure!
When I saw this in my recommended I thought it was just another video gushing about Elden rings map design (which does deserve all the gushing don’t get me wrong) but a video about the structural art about it is very fitting. There have been multiple times where I’ve just zoomed into buildings with the telescope to see what’s been carved into it.
We love your content, whenever it comes, however it comes! Try not to stress too much about it (I know that's much easier said than done). The people who will get upset about you taking care of yourself aren't worth worrying about anyway
A problem I have with the Farum Azula Pangea Theory is that St Trina seems to have drastically enlarged the scale of that Farum Azula map. It's way too big. The actual city in-game and on the normal map is no bigger in area than Leyndell. It's way too small to fit in the cliffs that St Trina was trying to line it up with.
In connection to the six major sections of the overland map, I consider them to represent stages of life, and the land itself is the *also* the Elden Ring. Four of them are represented by seasons - spring in Limgrave, Summer in Liurnia, Autumn in Leyndell and Winter in the mountains. Caelid is corrupted but is life pre birth - uncontrolled growth and primordial essences. Farum Azula is death. Together they form a cycle of life, but removing the rune of death also literally, physically, removes Farum Azula from the lands between, thus corrupting the cycle of life, which corrupts Caelid’s purpose too (outside of the rot issues), as erdtree burial diverts where souls end up, and how they are returned. Anyhow, yeah; wild speculation ahoy!
Probably a bit late for anyone to see this, but what fascinates me about Elden Ring's map is that so many characters and locations are deliberately aligned in striking syzygy. For example, Rennala in her bedchamber is aligned with the Church of Vows, the Erdtree (where Radagon resides, of course), the Forge of the Giants, and the moon. In fact, looking toward the Erdtree from Raya Lucaria or the Church of Vows, you may notice that it eclipses the moon, and their conjunction even resembles Radahn and Rykard's Great Runes. This was just the first alignment I noticed. The second was at the Cathedral of Manus Celes, when it caught my eye that the large astrolabe at its north entrance points directly toward the moon, which again aligns with Rennala in her bedchamber (or perhaps the Ring of Oath?), but also with the Royal Moongazing Grounds at Caria Manor. Naturally it was then that I noticed I could still see another moon to the northeast past the Erdtree, indicating there are simultaneously two moons in the Lands Between, yet the northern moon is only visible from the Altar of the Moon. (Thus, I've started referring to the northeastern moon as Rennala's moon, and the northern one as Ranni's moon.) But... if that astrolabe was so perfectly situated as to create such a perfect narrative cohesion... what about the other astrolabes dotting the map? And it turns out, most of them do point either directly toward or directly away from relevant locations, sometimes both. If you stand atop the astrolabe at the edge of the crater where you fight Fallingstar Beast on Mt. Gelmir, it turns out that it aligns the Black Knife Catacombs, where the Black Knifeprint that reveals Ranni's culpability is found, as well as Ranni's corpse atop the Divine Tower of Liurnia. There are about ten others I've deciphered, though you catch my drift. Some aren't that interesting, but still make surprising sense, like the astrolabe outside Bestial Sanctum pointing directly toward Maliketh's arena. That's not all, though. The two I actually find most impressive are both tied to Rennala's moon: first, Castle Sol is aligned with Rennala's moon, Godwyn's corpse in Deeproot Depths, and again with the Black Knife Catacombs; the second is an alignment between Rennala's moon, Radahn's starting position at Wailing Dunes, and the epicenter of the impact crater where the falling star reveals the path to Nokron. How insane is that?? Radahn truly was holding back Ranni's fate, and with an extremely observant eye, one could have conceivably predicted where the entrance to Nokron was just by looking to the moon. From went above and beyond with designing this map, not just with lore-friendly cultural cohesion, but by painstakingly coordinating the geographical locations of numerous characters and items with the fuckin MOON(s) even though practically no one will ever pick up on them. I'll keep hunting for more. Like a proper astrologer, haha.
Wonderful video and glad I stumbled onto your channel. Im hoping we get to see the Dark Moon Castle in the Sky.the ruins of the castle is scattered everywhere and hopefully it will explain more about who prayed for the cataclysm.
Funny how in order to understand the map and how the Lands Between used to look, you have to furl the furled-finger-shaped map even more than it already is. But in order to use this particular info as a hint in figuring out the pangaea thing, you would have to know already that the map resembles the furled finger, which is far from obvious if you ask me. I do think it looks like the bestial sanctum connected near to where the Erdtree is; that map outline looks the most accurate to me. But I think this sort of leaves unexplained why Caelid and the Mountaintops have all those similarities. You can also kind of fit the Farum region of Caelid to the Mountaintops, which would take care of this question but the fit is not as nice as the one you showed in this video. I haven't watched your flower videos yet but I think it's cool how you have both red and golden trees in the Altus Plateau. (Your comment on the red trees in Farum Azula made me think of this.) It seems to represent the transition from the age of the crucible to the age of the Erdtree, using a transitional season (autumn) as a metaphor.
ok but interesting video aside, this software looks rly useful! been looking for something like this for souls related stuff for a while so thanks for including the link in the description lol
Just discovered your channel. This is amazing. I’d love to see any first play throughs you do and just how you take in the information. Like, watching someone take their time and use binoculars to inspect minute details and hearing their speculation is always so much fun. Of course if that’s not your style that’s cool, these videos themselves are brilliant. It’s great inspiration for world building in general, and it’s awesome how these games have fostered such a community of detective work.
Thank you for another insightful delve into your thinking and connections. I really love getting to experience your flow of consciousness because it's engaging and energising. Since you mentioned the Alabaster/Onyx Lords and Divine Towers in the same video, do you think there's any connection if I may ask? To me, the towers have always seemed as if they're channelling beams/motes of light and dark into their depths. I guess it might just be a graphical flourish to make their interiors feel more mysterious, but could it indicate a more meaningful process? I'd never considered that there might be a specific connection to the white-blue and gold-black meteoric ores of the Lords and any fundamental forces until now. Above all, I hope the horrid headache season passes as quickly as can be, with as few episodes as possible. 💜
The repeated tree motif shared between the fire giants, farum azula and the palace, especially in pre erdtree society's is likely a result of depicting the crucible. Both the erdtree an the crucible were places where life came from and to which it returned, the imagery of them was no doubt associated with both power, life and death. The motif's found on the grave stones could be a representation that even with their distance they had returned to the crucible, while those found on the towers represented the power of the crucible overcoming the fallen stars, which are known to be heavily tied to creatures from beyond. Then again, its been a year since this went out, so I'm sure someone has beaten me to the punch.
For the Tower of Babel interpretation: There are many interpretations as to why it is built. But some theologists have settled on was that Nimrod was avoiding the will of God, as well as ignoring God's promise he would not flood them **again**. God was angry that humans were settling in cities and not spreading out to nature. To continue to exist together in one city was to ignore the will of God, to avoid a potential second flood Nimrod forced people to build this tower.
The tower allowed them to circumvent another natural disaster, allowed them to ignore the will of god, and allowed them to reach heaven all the same. The reason I dont understand this story is why God would resort to punishment in the first place when it causes distrust between you and your children.
Coogan, Michael D. (2009). A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: the Hebrew Bible in its Context. Oxford University Press.
If you have issue with this interpretation, chalk it up to different belief systems and move on. Thanks.
lol tbh my answer to that is have u seen Jeff Bezo & the blue ball project bc if I was in charge of the forces of nature I'd flood his bs too
@@rivers4153 xD yeah sometimes you see some real dumb shit and you re like, “you know what? I think a flood might be in order”
Aside from the moral question of the flood and the destruction of Babel, Here's a few tidbits from a Bible enthusiast:
The description of Nimrod as a "mighty hunter" doesn't mean he was good at catching rabbits and deer; he was a hunter of men. The implication is that Nimrod, a slaughtering tyrant, put all of mankind under his thumb and created a unified government of mankind.
God's destruction of the tower isn't a punishment for people's fear of flood. It's a punishment for pride.
People built the tower thinking "Oh yeah, we can get one over on the creator of the universe. He won't be able to tell us what to do once we build a tower that makes us as tall as Him." 🙄
Finally, it is funny to note that despite the "incredible height" (/s) of the Tower, God has to "come down" to look at it.
It's important to note that the god of the old testament is NOT the one in the new testament. Also, even god's punishments are gifts, it's impossible to know how something is going to affect the big picture down the line (what with god being outside time, and experiencing everything at the same time), even if it feels like evil at the time. To claim to understand the will of god would be akin to thinking yourself above of god.
Tolkien puts it as such, in the context of a group of people doing great things (immortalized in song) that were considered to go against the will of god:
"So shall it be! Dear-bought those songs shall be accounted, and yet shall be well-bought. For the price could be no other. Thus even as God spoke to us shall beauty not before conceived be brought into the World, and evil yet be good to have been. And yet remain evil."
In the end, none can go against the will of god, and every evil action will in the end bring about more good into the world that if that evil would never have been committed, and yet remain evil.
I also wanted to put this one here, from god himself:
"And thou shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined."
I'm sure I don't exactly speak for everyone, but I personally have gotten almost completely acclimated to internet people not always being consistent and really just, not getting used to any schedule, if they have one. Every video is a pleasant surprise, and if there's a large gap from one to the other, or they do different content than usual for a while, I'm not usually too bothered. Doubly so if they have a good reason, and both mental and physical health are extremely good reasons; don't feel like you have to burn yourself out on account of the internet people. Is what *I* say, anyway. 🙂👍
Absolutely agree. I actually find it nicer in some ways than consistent uploads. That way, when you see a video, you know it's gonna be something big
I think most people feel this way, but the nature of online engagement leads the most entitled people to be the noisiest. To be clear, I'm glad you're saying this, because it needs to be said and to be reinforced.
There’s always more creators to watch to tide people over
This also applies to video game releases too - just take your time, and make a quality product. :)
Not picking you apart I love your video just want to say the sword is "Sword of Night and Flame". Not ice and flame my friend 😁
I think FromSoft put ALL the clues of what happened before/during the shattering right into a literal architectural/geological record right in the game itself to help supplement the item descriptions. It's wild stuff.
Also, I think that's why the map/world has been changing ever so slightly. During rewrites they probably didn't have a chance to go through every little statue/map item to adjust them. They're probably fixing some of these things as they notice them.
Sounds like Fromsoft. They did similarly with Bloodborne.
Honestly, I believe they've been doing this as far back as Dark Souls 1, at the very least. They are masters of environmental storytelling and I love them for it.
I would repeat the very first words spoken in the game. "The fallen leaves tell a story" With the first words we are told of the importance of environmental storytelling.
@@darkhobo fuck me...that's brilliant. Lol it's such a unique thing in gaming, let alone any medium, when the creators are so self aware of what they are good at but also what their most diehard fans live them for. Why these dudes are my favorite game creators ever. The subtle bit ever-present dialogue they convey to players with each game they release.
@@darkhobo holy shit.
It's always been my thought that Farum Azula was destroyed in some way before the Golden Order, because of this quote from Placidusax's Remembrance: "The Dragonlord whose seat lies at the heart of the storm beyond time is said to have been Elden Lord in the age before the Erdtree. Once his god was fled, the lord continued to await its return." Considering his injuries as well as the usage of "fled" to describe his god leaving, makes me think something fearsome came through Farum Azula while Placidusax was Elden Lord with his god, destroyed the place, made the god flee, and defeating Placidusax in his original form and is what caused the loss of his other heads. That it says "in the age before the Erdtree" says to me that these events, at the very least happened before, Marika had fully established the Golden Order. So either there was a time between the Placidusax's age as Elden Lord and the Golden Order, or Marika in establishing the Golden Order brought ruin to Farum Azula.
I also have always wondered if the true "Lord of the Storm" that is brought up quite a bit in reference to Stormveil Castle is connected in some way to Farum Azula. I don't recall where but I remember references to the storms around the castle previously being much stronger, and this could relate to Farum Azula being in its previous location in the large flooded area north east of Stormveil. Perhaps even the Lord of the Storm could be a descendent of the human king shown in Farum Azula or perphaps that very king himself.
Also "I might just stream 12 hours of Chao Gardens" - I already knew your content was worth subbing for, but now you have my trust as well.
That’s a good point tbh!!! I wonder if the routing was caused by something else. I wonder what happened 😮
@@quelaag I don't know, but the Game Awards are Dec 8, and that feels like the most likely time and place for a DLC reveal, and both DSIII DLCs and Bloodborne DLC came out two months after their reveal trailers... so I'm copiumed out of my mind, but that's not that long to wait!!
I think so too, though I also think "before the Golden Order" is kinda flexible here.
Are we talking about before its existence? Or are we talking about before its dominance in the ordering of the world?
My personal theory involves Marika being forced into marriage with Placidusax and making some pledge to the Greater Will to be its envoy in order to gain the power to overthrow Placidusax and gain power for herself. What if Marika, in conjunction with the Greater Will, pulled the Elden Beast down from the stars? Destroying Farum Azula in the process.
Her whole story seems to be one of loss of agency. Forced into servitude and trying to achieve some level of independence.
I'd really like to know when Godfrey did all of his exploits. That's what I'm not clear on and I think knowing that, even just knowing when he first came into contact with Marika, would really solidify a number of things for me.
Thinking about it, the blue dancer is who beats the rot god, was it the God of rot that did such damage to the dragon? Death feels too final for it to have been the gloom eyed queen, so it feels closer to something the would do a ton of irreversible damage, as far as the destruction of farum azula, I think it was the elden star that did it, as far as to why it took so "long" for them to attack back, time must be very convoluted for these being who's God controlled the flow of it or because of a distortion in time (placidusax can be seen amongst the rubble before we go to fight him) so I wonder if the dragons attack right away but found themselves in a world years after when it happened in relation
There is no reference to a Lord of the Storm anywhere in any item description actually. There is the Storm King, ashes of a hawk, that references a former master of Stormveil that is not given a name. Then there is Godfreys set which mentions a Stormlord, but with no connection to Stormveil. To me this is just people confusing the name of the hawk, "storm king", with an actual king and thinking that the storm lord mentioned in Godfreys item description is that guy, who is actually the hawk and not the former master of Stormveil.
Weird note….a lot of the heart motifs in the Giant’s Forge are based on (or basically identical to) Adinkra symbols from African ironwork and sacred blacksmithing-the single upright heart with curves means sankofa “return to that you’ve forgotten”, the double hearts are “the earth has weight”, and the repeated double curl motif up and down the Sword of Night and Flame is hye won hye, or “that which cannot be burned”. Really impressed by this catch, they really incorporated a lot of sacred African ironwork symbolism into the decoration of assets related to the Fire Giants.
Wow thats interesting!
My theory on why the dragons attacked Leyndell was because they saw what the greater will did to the giants and feared the golden order would have attacked them too (since they can spit fire, absorb powers and might be connected to another outer god). Something the Golden Order would have eventually done if it wasn't for Godwyn.
The way I see it, Farum Azula is basically the Ringed City or the Painted World of Elden Ring. It's a place removed from space and time to hide anything that would have made the greater will appear less powerful, less divine, or more malevolent.
The fact that it was built out of a pre or early erdtree era capital city isn't random. The Greater Will wanted to erase even the fact that any society before its arrival in the Lands Between was prosperous or advanced.
10/10 going to bedtime story listening to Elden Ring Rambles
I just noticed the giant waterfall earlier today. It would be extremely fitting and funny if the world map was also a giant ring that got shattered. Maybe farum azula was ripped physically out of the world the same way destined death was cast out of the elden ring
That’s what I have always thought, it would be so cool symbolically.
I think thats a central theme of the game (and Fromsoft games in general): Cycles of hubris and destruction repeating themselves. The Crucible civilization build its "Tower of Babel" and gets smited. The Greater Will orders the cessation of Death with the forging of the Elden Ring, but is betrayed when Marika shatters it later on.
@DC Wow, I like that theory. I think it could give some credence to the idea that Farum Azula ascended before the Elden Beast made the crater and shattered the ring. Because if Farum Azula was still there when the impact occurred, the shattering wouldn't have shattered the ring, it would have shattered... an uninterestingly shaped mass of land lol.
I prefer the idea that FA was already in the sky when the Elden Beast hit because it just makes no sense to me that it would survive in any capacity if it was hit directly by a meteor. But this is how a lot of people seem to describe it. If this were so it wouldn't be crumbling, it would be dust. I think it's much more likely that it was struck by the meteor in the sky. Though, perhaps it had to relocate to the sky precisely to avoid total destruction from the meteor. Maybe there was a prophecy or something that showed the star approaching, or maybe they could see it in the sky before it hit and recognize it as a threat.
I saw someone talking about how the world map looks like a furled finger, with Caelid as the tip. I can see it being that or a ring.
@@bigmeatswangin5837 good point, Fromsoft games really are like Ozymandias: The Game
It's crazy how GRRM wrote the backstory and now his daughter is explaining it.
huh?????
What?????????
People really just lying on the internet
@@peridusk6128 and people don't getting an obvious joke
@@AdminAbuse Aren't jokes supposed to be funny?
Hope they keep makinh cool references to real life architecture in the dlc , would be cool to see some mesopotamia stuff in a dreamscape world
Seeing Göbeklitepe or the like would be really cool, as well imo.
I remember reading some thread where someone had marked all the farum azula ruins throughout the lands between and it looked kind if like a path. The idea was that farum azula has been moving along this path. I thought it was interesting
And where farum azula was supposed to be?
@@EvandroLBL pretty clear to me on multiple levels that it was right by the Farum Greatbridge
Farum great bridge also leads to a black-blade kindred and the bestial sanctum where the beast clergyman lies. Similar (or same) being as maliketh who resides in farum Azula.
As someone suffering from chronic headaches myself... I wish you all the best. Love your content.
Holy shit, I remember watching one of your videos when dark souls was still hot off the press and I was just a kid too thick headed to put the pieces of the lore together. I’m glad to see you are still going strong and uploading content. All these years later and you’re still doing great analysis and I’m still headed as thick headed as I was back then. You’ve got to applaud the community surrounding these games for managing to reconcile those two extremes so that we can all partake in the communion together.
Damn, Illusory Wall goes over map layout and design in detail, but you going over the art and architecture brings new information and a new perspective to these games. Happily subscribed
there is an architectural feature in the ancient Sri Lankan Ruins called a Moonstone which bear resemblance to many of the artistic touches in nokron and nokstella. like the lift down to nokron and those dew kissed herba designs bears resemblance to sculpted designs in some buddhist temples.
There is a repeating pattern on Farum Azula chunks and architecture that I swear looks like a depiction of different creatures, one of which is a worm face and one of which is the creature Godwyn’s body is turning into. Clearest place to see it is on the floating chunks you get to in Farum Azula via the 4 Bellfries. The pieces you stand on directly over the 2 beastmen you can fight.
My headcanon used to be, because of all of the ruins, especially in the northern Caelid desert where the structures seem to be protruding out of the strata, is that The Lands Between has been building on top of itself for countless generations. So long, that geological cycles and tectonic movement seem slower by comparison. The Erdtree (modern time) was planted on The Greatree (ancient time) which was planted on the Crucible (prehistoric time). Before that who knows? I'm sure there's many holes in it.
I think the Golems are made out of meteorites. If you look closesly at the destroyed ones scattered around stormhill you can see the dark hue of their stone bodies covered in little holes just like the meteorites we can see in the divine Towers and mines except without the glow. Another thing worth to note is that these old ruins that seem to carry the lands between are also often connected to flowing waters in the sense that they are either dams or aqueducts.
The meteorites in the golems seem to me like their engine or energy core. And they are like an artificial army for an ancient war to defend the divine towers.
Their material and design resembles that of the towers.
The large stone pillars are actually often where water leaks out, but to me it seems to be there more for ground support reasons. What we do not know is whether these pillars do not support the whole Lands Between underground like a church roof framework - or like a reservoir.
Another 'theory' would be whether these supports serve as a substitute for the huge petrified tree trunks to house the former halls.
Great content, I agree a lot of the stuffs you guys speculate in this video, like how the cliffsides in TLB look unnatural and traces of landmass disappearing can be spot here and there, especially in Caelid Dragon Barrow. I think connecting the black stone civilization (who made golems) to divine towers and other civilizations is also not a 'conspiracy theory', it is on the right track. The ruins of black stone civilization which hold the TLB together are deliberately put there by the environment artists, you can spot many well-pieced sceneries in the game like how the ruins get buried into the cliffsides throughout TLB, how they stuck into the water in lower altitude areas, Highroad Cave is also a great location for observations. All suggest that TLB were once one great holy land and suffered catastrophic events, such as meteorites bombardment, volcanic eruptions (judging by the columnar rocks structures all over TLB), which make the great civilization either get buried underground or sunken into the sea.
I want to quickly elaborate a bit on my takes of the Elden Star, the elden star bears a beast which is a living incarnation of the concept of order. Here, the keyword I think is the "concept of order". It suggests that before the Elden Star, lifes in TLB are in chaotic and disorder forms, a crucible of competition. Creatures are fused with numerous aspects of the crucible, similar to a animal features randomizer, creatures are made of every imaginable combination of traits and lives are under such primal competitive state. I think the looks of misbegotten and Dragonlord Placidusax could be good indications of that era.
So the Elden Star bringing the "concept of order", which potentially takes inspiration from the real world Chicxulub crater in Mexico that the impact of the asteroid wipes out 75% of plant and animal species on earth, ending the Cretaceous era of dinosaurs, laid foundation for intelligent human ancestors to appear on earth. As more and more studies show that chemicals form the human DNA and RNA likely come from space rocks. In Elden Ring, the Elden Star could also wipe out majority of the prehistoric "chaotic" lifeforms, installing "concept of order" into the life's crucible (where the modern Erdtree draws its vital energy from) and making newborns from there. I also think Ancient Dragons survived the impact of the Elden Star, their general appearance slowly become in-line with the "concept of order" except the Dragonlord Placidusax maintaining its primal and chaotic appearance, being the strongest creature at the time, granted intelligence and Elden Lord.
And we know the beastmen of Farum Azula were also granted intelligence, language is one of the key factors to differentiate intelligent and non-intelligent beings, I think that's why in this game, the life energy is called "runes". Another sign of intelligence is being able to use simple tools, like rocks. So the Greater Will is likely to be the one who granted ancient dragons and beasts intelligence since the Elden Beast has five fingers which is the symbol of the intelligence, and Elden Star brought the "concept of order" which transformed beasts from this primal "chaotic" beasthood state into a civilized "order" state. And slowly, tribes occurs, religion occurs, concept of "divine right of kings" occurs, tribes start to become civilizations and the civilizations assimilate other surrounding smaller ones, eventually form into one massive scale civilization.
However, with Elden Star bringing the "concept of order", at the same time it also introduces the concept of 'differences' aka "inside/outside the order" into TLB, which I think eventually leads to "Torment, despair, affliction. Every sin, every curse". Let me explain this concept a bit, so the life's crucible at prehistoric era grants life blessings at equal, to all of its creations without a purpose. The crucible is tolerant to all and none is discriminated. After the "concept of order" striking into TLB, crucible's life essence now become runes/blessings, which especially become a predominant thing in the age of the Erdtree, as we see how blessings are presented in the game, as benefits granted to those who are inside and serve the order. In other words, "the concept of order" slowly makes the blessings from the life's crucible purposeful and selective, it exchanges blessings for faith and loyalty in the Erdtree era; it gives the most blessings to those who serve the order first and stay close distance to the order (people live near royal capital of Leyndell); it starts to discriminate against those beings who choose to stay outside of the order, which eventually lead to all sorts of conflicts and disasters in TLB.
I went too far and will stop at here lol, this is turning into an essay, sry about that hopefully it's not too off topic.
You made so many great points in this comment. I especially liked what you said about language and runes, and how the "division and distinctions" enforced by the Greater Will are the same as its **discriminations**, and hence its curses and torments to those outside the order.
I think I might have missed the connection between distinctions and curses because my automatic interpretation of the Frenzied Flame's goals was influenced by Evangelion, the Instrumentality Project, etc. By which I mean, I was thinking that the reason the Frenzied Flame dislikes distinction is that being isolated and separate from other people, and not understanding each other, is part of the pain of the human condition. And that by coming together and converging, this pain might go away.
You mentioned early in the video the reuse of assets. I'm still trying to figure out why there's so many important storylines and elements in the consecrated snowfield. I find it interesting that almost every faction shows up in an optional area of the game.
Why is Radagon's sword here? Why is there another Astel crash land site? Not to mention the Alabaster Lord in the same area. The Albinauric's presence make sense, and by extension so does Mohg but the night calvary? What does Margot want here? There are also black knife assassins and death rite birds and a wyrm. I lose sleep over this!
P.S. WHAT DOES PEPE SILVIA HAVE TO DO WITH LEYNDELL?
there are also Ancestral Followers, Ice Lightning Balls and Dragonkin Soldiers, as well as the big petrified stone pillars, all of which are distinctly associated with the Eternal Cities. why are they above ground here?
@@avillahanya The way I see it, an Eternal City might have been there and that's that EC wich Astel leveled.
People generally assume the Nameless EC was the one wich was assailed by Astel, wich is a fair take, but the city doesn't look like it was attacked by a giant space monster with meteorite summoning powers, but rather just fallen into disrepair given that it is abandoned, flooded and giant tree roots growing there.
Now, Astel took away their sky can mean that it destoroyed the roof of the cave in wich they've resided.
In Astel 2.0's boss room there is meteorite and in the tunnel there is an Alabaster and Onyx lord, so there was some meteoric actity in the area.
And then tere is Ordina, with the Sellian architecture. It's possible that town was built by the survivors of Astel's attack. And who do we find there? A buch of Black Knives who are scions of the ECs, so they might originate from Ordina.
Some minor evidence for this: the EC's are always built near to a river and there is that frozen one.
The Dragonkin ghost is there, whose supposedly have never seen the true sky, so I guess it died while it got outside. Aaand maybe each EC had a dragonkin? There is the 3 living one and one ghost. So maybe 4 ECs.
And there is a stray mimic tear in one of the dungeons.
@@dantoki6371 you know that actually explains the seal in sellia having four bumps around it
@@aldousboal4920 Right! Those circles/runes could symbolize the ECs.
But it could also just mean the 4 crypt chairs. 1 in Nokron, 2 in Nokstella, 1 in Sellia.
Edit: now looking at it the carian crest has the same 4 runes on it just mirrored...Hmm I guess the chair crypts idea might not be the right one.
ZullietheWitch did a video showing from game code that there was an alternate Snowfield/related storyline that was scrapped but they repurposed the assets.
I have been on a similar train of thought. I’m creeping towards the idea that the lands between were once ruled as the Sun Realm by the King depicted in Farum Azula, and that the Sun is the dragon god that “fled”, Farum Azula being the seat of the sun that has long since faded.
I always imagined the dragons invading in the very brief time when Godfrey had been exiled, but before Radagon was recalled to the capital. I always pictured Godwyn sort of serving as Elden Lord at this time, which is why he was so central to the city's defense, as well as it's resolution, with establishing the Dragon Cults with his new bestie
Icky. Elden Lord is Marika's consort.
I mean, royalty gonna royalty, if you get me meaning. But still...
@@rainbowkrampus Not like that bud. I meant more serving in the capacity of the role, in terms of like administrative decisions
@@Justin-M Like Morgott yeah? Godwyn was probably the lord of leyndell, but not elden lord.
@@Akrilloth that's a way better way to say it. Yes, I believe big G was lord of leyndell
25:25 Wormfaces are the first enemy in a very long time that I actually felt Intimidated the first few times I saw them. other enemies in the game are supposed to look scarier, but there is something about the wormface's design that is near enough to human while still being unrecognizable as having any humanity. The noises they make are also unsettling, like they're speech is muffled by the grotesque worms. I think I agree that these 'wormfaces' probably weren't always like that.
Their* speech
I came up with this unalloyed gold foil hat theory that Marika was raised IN Farum Azula and she along with one or two other got chosen by some entity ( Greater Will or the Five Fingers ) to be Empyrean to replace Placidusax's God in the coming Age. My other speculation is that the Two fingers comes from the Nox trying to usurp the current order by "slaying" the FIve fingers with the finger slayer blade but split the fingers into two entity Order & Chaos, the Fingerslayer blade may have been made with the body of an Empyrean rival to Marika
Babel was more about ego. The story as I was taught in my many years of Catholic school was that society was doing really great. They were doing so well, they thought themselves on the level of God. So they decided to build a tower to be in heaven. God disapproves and strikes the tower down leaving all of them unable to communicate. Not even not speak the same language, unable to understand each other.
In tarot, the tower card is a rendition of this story. A shakeup. Defenestration. The feeling of falling. The only constant in life change. To live is to suffer.
Loved this video ❤
I dont have anything to add to the ideas in the video, but just wanted to give you and St Trina credit for actually trying to come up with a timeline. One of my biggest stumpling blocks when it comes to discussing lore in this having even the most basic timeline of events. In the previous games there was general timeline that most people could work off of, but with Elden Ring there is not only so much more stuff going on, but it all happens over a much longer timescale than seems plausible.
Thank you so much for making these videos. They're such a joy to watch
The map is probably my favorite character in Eldin Ring. i don't have much to add to the subject at hand, besides the fact that i totally believe there is some Pangea-esqe stuff going on.
But one of my favorite aspects of the map is how the Village of the Albinaurics is essentially erased from it. As well as there not being any map for the Shunning Grounds, it seems whoever drew the map didn't know about the areas or intentionally did not want them recorded (assuming all maps come from one source). It reminds me of the whole "history is written by the victors" type thing. Why would the Moonlight Plateau be on the map, considering the fact that the path there seems to have been restricted long ago? It's a place that is currently only important to Ranni (i believe), so why would someone decide it was more important than the village, which is more readily searchable and cartographable? I used to think Ensha attacks you in the Roundtable to steal the half of medallion you get from old Albus, but he does that after you visit the village regardless of you picking it up (i believe).
I don't know anything about drawing maps, especially of multilayered areas, or if importance of the place factors into what's shown. So i can totally be thinking too hard about this. But idk, they could have included a map layer between the two we have in game, if they wanted to show you more of the Shunning Grounds and Village. i think they are making a point not to. And considering that everyone- from Gideon, to Volcano Manor, to the maybe the Carians -exploited the heck out of the Ablinaurics, any of them could disdain them enough to want them completely erased. Or at least be okay with it. I could very well be nothing, but knowing who made the maps would help me decide for sure, i feel.
Ensha visits the village and razes it before you get the medallion. It's why Albus is hiding.
“Pangea-esque stuff” what does this even mean lol
@@themostdiabolicalhater5986 Do you know what Pangea was?
@@ReneAensland I do, that’s why I’m confused. What makes something Pangea-esque? Are they saying the mapped world is a supercontinent? If so, why bother making such a pointless observation
@@themostdiabolicalhater5986 Pangea is known to have split into current continental masses in our world. So his comment meant that there was probably a similar tectonic displacement, either natural or forced, causing connected areas of the game to become separated and/or fall into disrepair
I love how crazy you get, Quelaag. I could listen to you all day 😍
Some fascinating ideas here - really love the connection of where the worm faces hang out, what they were staring at in Farum, and the potential broken shapes matching up. Noting that the worm faces are probably puking on trees for a reason (makes sense in farum, less sense in Leyndell where they're kinda lost) is a brilliant observation that I feel dumb for not even thinking about. Zullie's got some interesting wormface vids that I'm assuming you've seen? - Also, props for shooting a video with full explanations instead of the standard overly-jump-cut style that so many youtubers do, mad refreshing. Look forward to any story vids you come up with.
That waterfall up by northern Caelid is super mysterious. I saw that just like a month ago and now I feel like a lot of people are starting to bring it up
the dragon talisman world theory seems more sensible to me. One of the reasons is the idea suggested by others that the Beast Sanctum could have been the entrance with its bridges to Farum Azula. Because the white dot on the talisman map would correspond to the location of Farum Azula then.
Then just the many connections between Caelid and the giants that there must have been once land and just signs scattered on the entire map because the lands Between must have been once larger.
Came home from work yesterday and this was very interesing to watch/relax to. Thank you.
I love the way you look at games. Why would a company spends years making a game with incredible landscapes and detail, just to reuse assets for no reason? Does it happen? Probably in Ubisoft titles, but there is an obvious level of care and detail to Elden Ring that makes it what it is. And if they did reuse assets for no reason, interpretations of art is solely in the heart and mind of the consumer of it, regardless of author's intent, at the end of the day. Finding meaning in the meaningless is critical skill for survival beyond physical necessities. I just really love this kind of content.
Just a note, the tower of Babel wasn't built to escape a flood. You've combined the story of the tower with the story of Noah. Chronologically speaking, the Tower of Babel happened after the flood. The tower was built in an effort to gain notoriety, the goal was to have this glorious tower that showed how awesome their civilization was. The thing that they felt would put it over the top, which happens to be the reason they get punished, is because they wanted it to go so high up that the top would rest in heaven with God. God wasn't infuriated at the vanity and the presumption that they were glorious enough to decide they could just build into heaven. And so, that the people might not gather and try such things again, God smote them. Destroyed their tower and afflicted them with "different tongues" (languages) to divide them.
I think the dragons attacked because Farum's power and influence had greatly waned and Leyndell's was on the rise, in part but mostly about pride. The "wait" as you call it was not a wait. Their civilization was hit with a meteor that seemingly destroyed it, causing dragons to flee to Caelid and the mountain tops, they were pre-occupied. Those who stayed in the city were likely looking to their Elden Lord to comeback with advise from God.
I think the inciting moment was probably when they learned the ruler of Leyndell was calling himself Elden Lord. I figure since the game makes a big deal of telling us how Godfrey is the first Elden Lord and we learn that he really wasn't, there has to be a reason. I choose that reason to be that it incited the dragons' pride and caused them to attack (I'm not saying this is why in-verse he is called Elden Lord but rather why the writers wrote it this way). But also, the game makes a point of showing how dragon faith was folded into the Erdtree faith. That bit of narrative would have been offered to us to illustrate the matter was also cultural issues because peace was attained when the House of Gold joined with the Dragons. I'm of the school of thought that Fortissax and Godwyn were more than friends. From that we see a union of lightning and gold play out. The benefits of this union likely inspired Radagon's second approach to Liurnia.
All well said. In regards to Fortissax and Godwyn- it is known that the ancient dragons can inhabit human forms, so perhaps Fortissax and Godwyn were smashing.
I mean the actual story in the Bible is just that humanity is told to spread all over but they decide to not do that butstay in oneplace and build a big tower that will be seen from any place so they could always come together and not be split.
Um actually
Just reading the first half of this post, I'm realizing all over again that there are millions and millions and millions of people that believe the stories in the Bible are actually true. That it's not a book full of fictional tales, but a historically accurate play by play.
@@Tcrror What about his comment implied he believed the myth was literal? Sounds like you really just wanted to tell everyone how smart you think you are while trying to dunk on Christians.
Embarrassing...
one thing that kind of stuck with me was when you referenced what seemed like tides going out,
cause it seems that the Lands Between kind of are having something going on in the tidal front:
there are derelict of ships that are stuck out of the coastline, and what seems like sea creatures stranded on beaches (the land octopi)
but almost kind of opposite of Liurnia, which is sinking, it's making me think that the water level is lowering (?) and unearthing things(?) like, could the DLC area just be that, that central bit with the cloud(?)
Yep, I definitely get the impression the landmass is leveling out from the geography of the map.
THANK YOU
I thought I was crazy other than you there's like, zero videos actually covering the ruins themselves.
Just got suggested this by my YT algo. Absolutely fantastic. Subscribed almost immediately! Will be looking forward to more trips down the rabbit hole when you have time, cheers!
Tangential, but I really dislike how players complained that the map falsely represented a bridge to jarburg and they went and updated the map. To me it gave this great quality of timeyness, like whoever made the map was slightly behind the times and made it before the bridge collapsed. Why should it be perfectly up to date? Cartography is an iterative process and we're a few iterations ahead of whenever cartography was a major concern.
Next FromSoft game, you can't read the map pieces unless you start as the cartography class or sink upgrade points into it.
The Farum Azula "Misbegotten" looks also like it could be a burial watchdog or the creature that they're based on. And that cloud in the center of the map looks totally suspicious, probably marking Farum Azula's previous location pre-tornado. As for how it was separated from the Lands Between, likely Placidusax tried to reverse the flow of time to erase the age of the Erdtree and it ended up shattering the continent, reminiscent of how Marika/Radagon shattered the Elden Ring, we know how this game loves it's duality and repetition as much as George Lucas.
That is all so surreal, the amount of lore in this game is so sick! I don't know if there is some type of reference to that but! Em theory the whole map of the lands between is a finger right? with calied being the point of the finger and the mountaintop being part of the hand, if the pangea theory holds true, the lands between are "almost" literally being an unfurling fingerm which I have no idea if it means something AHAHAHHA
I’m mostly confident azula was originally where the royal capital is before the golden order and given the encroachment of godwin’s deathroot at the bottom reaches of azula (godwin lies beneath the capital) had to flee and go airborne in retreat. Its the same circumference of the royal capital and you’ll notice on the actual map layout of the capital there are hidden rubbled features completely flooded with water that are obscured by high walls preventing you from seeing it when you’re there. Also partially explains the presence of the coloring of the trees and the wormfaces from altus being present in azula as well. There was evidently a big dispute with dragons at the capital thats now a main feature of the city as you mentioned.
If there is a siofra deep river well looking elevator in Farum Azula it may once upon a time ago have gone down to the deeproot depths. It obviously wouldn't be usable but there might be something that looks the same and gives a clue.
I struggle with the timing of Farum flying, it almost has to be after deathroot happened in order for deathroot to be present there.
I sort of want to go check out the bridge to the mountaintops of the giants and see if at any point the architecture changes and matches Farum more than Leyndell.
I have seen people talk about Farum coming from Caelid due to the dragons, the elder dragon and similar architecture, there is also a gaping hole in the ground there too.
I feel like its all happening up around the Erd tree though, you have the tree obviously, the frenzied flame, center of the landmass which is pretty typical of capital cities. It would make sense for the old seat of power to be there too.
Sorry to hear about your headache troubles this time of year (sounds like referring to them as such is a bit of an understatement). Hoping you get all the relief you can and have access to the space and resources you need to deal with it! I really appreciate you content and recognize the work you put in. You've really helped me appreciate this game on a deeper level and I was already astonished on my first playthrough. I think you're my favorite lore channel because of how your engagement with the chronology serves the higher purpose of understanding the symbolic and historical parallels. Of course all the other lore people are great too, and I love how all the lore channels are keeping up with each other and chatting about stuff. I don't think I've ever been this hyped for Fromsoft DLC, and that's saying quite a bit because I practically drooled over DS3's DLCs. Cheers, and may your headaches be shortlived this season.
I like this idea of Farum Azula ripped through the Lands Between. I remember when I played through the first time and ended up by Gurranq and wondered about that area of Caelid. When I went through Belfry portal to Farum, I assumed that Farum used to be by Caelid. The worm faced guys I barely went through my first time there either, just trying to get to the end and overlooked the area. I like the idea that Farum was closer to Lendyll. I wonder about the Pangea theory now too. And matching wildlife of Caelid and Snowtops.
It would make more sense that the original capital and incredibly illustrious Maliketh boss room was the center of the Lands Between with the old Elden Ring. Perhaps when the Elden Beast was sent down, it impacted Farum Azula with such force that it threw the lands apart and sent the city outward. This shatters that Elden Ring and all Placidusax can do is slow down the destruction of the city as it spirals through the lands and pushes it's way outward. Divine towers house shards to hold lands together until Marika/Godfrey restore Elden Ring.
Your videos are always great, really get me thinking. The asset reuse and architectural storetelling is so fun. Going to go stare at those pillars until the DLC comes out!
I can’t believe I’m only just now discovering your videos. I’ve been obsessed with Elden Ring Lore for the past 2 years and with Fromsoft Lore in general for almost a decade. I’m excited to have found another lore channel I can sink my teeth into. Your videos and analysis are both fantastic! I love it
omg I'm so glad about the FMA reference on the thumbnail, I've been rewatching FMAB and oh my god the amount of stuff that I started realising overlaps with ER somehow, it's been driving me nuts
It’s all alchemy babes
I'm about 90% confident that Farum Azula was in the wailing dunes. It was sent skyward (maybe) by a meteor and we fight the starscourage in the desert who triggers a meteor fall when defeated. Not saying rhadan brought down farum azula but it seems symbolically linked. Also the farum great bridge points to the desert.
30:48 this dragon theory makes sense to me. The whirlpools might be a place where there was once land and it lifted up or sank down, leaving a space and the water is flooding back into the space causing the whirlpool. Also, there is a whirlpool up above leindell which is where the dragon’s head would be…
When GRRM said that he was specifically hired to write what happened “5000 years ago” I was extremely surprised. Honestly nothing about the actual world of Elden Eing made me think that it had been THAT long since the shattering. For example the amount of decay and overgrowth from any part of the game just does not look like what you would expect after 5000 years. I have always assumed the Shattering was like maybe 100 years ago or a bit more? I know thats what GRRM said but i personally don’t see why that would be the case.
actually farum azula does seem possibly thousands of uears old but other areas like stormveil or the battlegrounds around Leyndell really look decades old not centuries.
How insane would it be if the reason the DLC was taking so long is that we time travel and explore a modified version of the whole overworld again but in the past. We start on the West side, re-uncovering the map a bit at a time and when we make it around to the East, the missing land mass is a new zone. Probably not the case but it would be very appropriate for a game where the open world is so fundamental to the experience, and not impossible to do if all they were doing is making edits to the existing landscape and inserting some new encounters along the way. It would even be a good fit for the arenas that are pretty obviously going to be DLC content. It's not that the arenas are just functional now because you downloaded a file off of steam, you're travelling back to a time when they were in use.
I don't know you and randomly got auto played this vid after passing out but I'm loving it.
The tower of babel was built to challenge the gods/God. That's why God destroyed it.
This video is neat! Makes me think the plant motif is the Erd Tree growing through depictions of past cultures.
I only get aura migraines (just recently started catching on to the auras and triggers), and I just wanted to say your description of your experience with cluster headaches was really reassuring. Speaking about it with confidence and just asking for understanding about this unavoidable aspect of your life reminded me of the respect we all deserve for our medical situation.
It's really hard to explain to people who don't get them, what a migraine (despite the specific severity a person gets them at) feels like. Hearing you be plain and confident about your situation was inspiring. I'm gonna try to be like that a little more.
Love this. Your enthusiasm is contagious! You pointed out a lot of details I had never noticed!
Since we are discussing architecture, let's please not forget about the "catacomb pillar #6" incident
Farum azula being in the middle somehow also puts it next to dragonbarrow getting the dragons all in the same area again as well. I definitely think the Pangea theory is correct.
I like your videos SO MUCH! There are other channels investigating this game's lore and others from FromSoftware, but yours is just unreal. The same level of care and analysis that I have playing, looking at photos and reading theories is what you get and that's really cool!
I'm starting to think that with all the pillars and support structures jutting out of the mountains and cliffsides of the lands between, the giant skulls and heads in Caelid, the mountaintops of the giants (and the ones that were supposed to be in Limgrave I think? but were cut from the game) and the weird waterfall edge in the sea that like maybe the entire lands between is just built on top of a super giant civilization
like multiple atlas holding the world, good theory
i just realised the big chairs have a similar design to the candle tree thing that seems to be in the dlc
I really loved the video! I’ve never really thought about looking at the architecture for more lore stuff so I rly appreciated the look on it
Glad you enjoyed it!
Learning about the lore through small item, placements, and architecture and piecing it together with respect to the map is super interesting. When playing its so easy to miss these small details.
Really enjoyed this style of video. I feel like a lot of lore videos and deep dives take a lot of time to not say a lot. But with this there’s nonstop concepts and details I wouldn’t have thought of or noticed! Great content, subbed!
Absolutely stellar. I've never put those stone motifs together in my mind.
This is so sick, I love your videos! Best of luck with the sudoku headaches ❤ hang in there pal, sounds like you’re pretty good at taking care of yourself
What I do love to see is I’m not the only one that looks in-depth into the design of a games world, someone spends a lot of time and passion building a game and the effort deserves to be appreciated.
i love that someone is talking about this... a lot of my time in elden ring i couldnt stop taking screenshots every few moments.
What if the dragons attacked the capital after Maliketh defeated Melina when she was the Gloam Eyed Queen? I think Melina was originally the daughter of Placidusax, and had her base of operations in Farum Azula. Maybe Maliketh infiltrated Farum and defeated Melina, and that sent the dragons on a revenge attack against Leyndell.
I can’t believe it took me this long to find this channel!
The tower of Babylon parallel reminds me of old cultures building pyramids.
I hear the word Nox and my eyes go 👀! Awesome video. I’m always impressed how detailed this game is and how big the role of architecture plays.
Love your channel. Reminds me a lot of older souls lore videos. Deeper dives into the small details.
When I first started the game, it struck me how there were these huge chunks of an unseen castle lying all over the terrain. Not just the random pillars but the enormous ruins fragments.
The detail about the storm symbol at the centre of the clock inside a circular depiction of the land blew my mind. That has me totally convinced now that Farum Azula used to be in the middle of the map and not above Caelid. The evidence was right there the whole time, not in some obscure corner of a dungeon but hiding in plain sight in the UI.
i think farum azula was where radhans boss fight is at bc on the cliff next to it there’s these ruins and pillars and stuff that match perfectly with the rest of farum azulas architecture and the boss arena just looks like a aftermath of a huge piece of land just getting ripped up and away
Can’t believe i haven’t found ur channel yet. Love the deep dives into these games and BOY can u dive deep lol. Love fantastic game design despite the age of battle-passes and gatcha games
The premise of the lore seems for me to be: “What if God, once whole, split into two persons at odds with each other?” (The two fingers vs. the three fingers/ the greater will be the frenzied flame) One divine person seeking to put humanity above all, and the other divine person trying to amend their separation and correct the other ones perversion of order but subsuming everything and starting over.
As a game dev (concept artist) I love the time and effort you put into looking at all the details in the game. Elden Ring has got to be one of my favorite games that I've played in a long while, and I do love the repeating theme of ruins built on ruins built on ruins. Very realistic and interesting. :)
This is my first video I have ever watched of you due to you showing up in my recommended, and we are literally wearing the same NEFF Beanie. Instant fan for life.
Holy crap it even looks like the Siofra river below mirrors the (now flooded) Liurnia of the Lakes above on the dragon talisman ???
World map= dragon talisman, I'm sold
I just got recommended this, and I live for this type of content, lets go!
Dang, subbed instantly with this vid. Like an archeological survey finding new cultural ties that science forgot, almost!
Woah the connection in Farum Azula with the rest of the map seems so plausible! Really intrigued to know more if the DLC goes indeed back in time. So interesting how you find all the lore in the architecture and art while Vaati is the hidden narrative. Would see a collab for sure!
You are such a treasure. I’m always immediately engrossed with whatever you choose to explore each time.
just under 40 minutes, you love to see it.
What utter quality did i stubble on here? Thanks for the video!
So cool to see hints from the DLC trailer kind of shed some light.
When I saw this in my recommended I thought it was just another video gushing about Elden rings map design (which does deserve all the gushing don’t get me wrong) but a video about the structural art about it is very fitting. There have been multiple times where I’ve just zoomed into buildings with the telescope to see what’s been carved into it.
Oh snap, didn’t realize you started producing again. Thanks for being 6 months late, UA-cam algos.
It’s great to see you back!!
We love your content, whenever it comes, however it comes! Try not to stress too much about it (I know that's much easier said than done).
The people who will get upset about you taking care of yourself aren't worth worrying about anyway
A problem I have with the Farum Azula Pangea Theory is that St Trina seems to have drastically enlarged the scale of that Farum Azula map. It's way too big. The actual city in-game and on the normal map is no bigger in area than Leyndell. It's way too small to fit in the cliffs that St Trina was trying to line it up with.
In connection to the six major sections of the overland map, I consider them to represent stages of life, and the land itself is the *also* the Elden Ring.
Four of them are represented by seasons - spring in Limgrave, Summer in Liurnia, Autumn in Leyndell and Winter in the mountains. Caelid is corrupted but is life pre birth - uncontrolled growth and primordial essences. Farum Azula is death.
Together they form a cycle of life, but removing the rune of death also literally, physically, removes Farum Azula from the lands between, thus corrupting the cycle of life, which corrupts Caelid’s purpose too (outside of the rot issues), as erdtree burial diverts where souls end up, and how they are returned.
Anyhow, yeah; wild speculation ahoy!
It makes me so happy to come back to your videos and see you are getting more and more views. You deserve this and more.
✌🏻
Probably a bit late for anyone to see this, but what fascinates me about Elden Ring's map is that so many characters and locations are deliberately aligned in striking syzygy. For example, Rennala in her bedchamber is aligned with the Church of Vows, the Erdtree (where Radagon resides, of course), the Forge of the Giants, and the moon. In fact, looking toward the Erdtree from Raya Lucaria or the Church of Vows, you may notice that it eclipses the moon, and their conjunction even resembles Radahn and Rykard's Great Runes.
This was just the first alignment I noticed. The second was at the Cathedral of Manus Celes, when it caught my eye that the large astrolabe at its north entrance points directly toward the moon, which again aligns with Rennala in her bedchamber (or perhaps the Ring of Oath?), but also with the Royal Moongazing Grounds at Caria Manor. Naturally it was then that I noticed I could still see another moon to the northeast past the Erdtree, indicating there are simultaneously two moons in the Lands Between, yet the northern moon is only visible from the Altar of the Moon. (Thus, I've started referring to the northeastern moon as Rennala's moon, and the northern one as Ranni's moon.)
But... if that astrolabe was so perfectly situated as to create such a perfect narrative cohesion... what about the other astrolabes dotting the map? And it turns out, most of them do point either directly toward or directly away from relevant locations, sometimes both. If you stand atop the astrolabe at the edge of the crater where you fight Fallingstar Beast on Mt. Gelmir, it turns out that it aligns the Black Knife Catacombs, where the Black Knifeprint that reveals Ranni's culpability is found, as well as Ranni's corpse atop the Divine Tower of Liurnia. There are about ten others I've deciphered, though you catch my drift. Some aren't that interesting, but still make surprising sense, like the astrolabe outside Bestial Sanctum pointing directly toward Maliketh's arena.
That's not all, though. The two I actually find most impressive are both tied to Rennala's moon: first, Castle Sol is aligned with Rennala's moon, Godwyn's corpse in Deeproot Depths, and again with the Black Knife Catacombs; the second is an alignment between Rennala's moon, Radahn's starting position at Wailing Dunes, and the epicenter of the impact crater where the falling star reveals the path to Nokron. How insane is that?? Radahn truly was holding back Ranni's fate, and with an extremely observant eye, one could have conceivably predicted where the entrance to Nokron was just by looking to the moon.
From went above and beyond with designing this map, not just with lore-friendly cultural cohesion, but by painstakingly coordinating the geographical locations of numerous characters and items with the fuckin MOON(s) even though practically no one will ever pick up on them.
I'll keep hunting for more. Like a proper astrologer, haha.
Wonderful video and glad I stumbled onto your channel. Im hoping we get to see the Dark Moon Castle in the Sky.the ruins of the castle is scattered everywhere and hopefully it will explain more about who prayed for the cataclysm.
Funny how in order to understand the map and how the Lands Between used to look, you have to furl the furled-finger-shaped map even more than it already is. But in order to use this particular info as a hint in figuring out the pangaea thing, you would have to know already that the map resembles the furled finger, which is far from obvious if you ask me.
I do think it looks like the bestial sanctum connected near to where the Erdtree is; that map outline looks the most accurate to me. But I think this sort of leaves unexplained why Caelid and the Mountaintops have all those similarities. You can also kind of fit the Farum region of Caelid to the Mountaintops, which would take care of this question but the fit is not as nice as the one you showed in this video.
I haven't watched your flower videos yet but I think it's cool how you have both red and golden trees in the Altus Plateau. (Your comment on the red trees in Farum Azula made me think of this.) It seems to represent the transition from the age of the crucible to the age of the Erdtree, using a transitional season (autumn) as a metaphor.
ok but interesting video aside, this software looks rly useful! been looking for something like this for souls related stuff for a while so thanks for including the link in the description lol
Just discovered your channel. This is amazing. I’d love to see any first play throughs you do and just how you take in the information. Like, watching someone take their time and use binoculars to inspect minute details and hearing their speculation is always so much fun. Of course if that’s not your style that’s cool, these videos themselves are brilliant. It’s great inspiration for world building in general, and it’s awesome how these games have fostered such a community of detective work.
Thank you for another insightful delve into your thinking and connections. I really love getting to experience your flow of consciousness because it's engaging and energising.
Since you mentioned the Alabaster/Onyx Lords and Divine Towers in the same video, do you think there's any connection if I may ask? To me, the towers have always seemed as if they're channelling beams/motes of light and dark into their depths. I guess it might just be a graphical flourish to make their interiors feel more mysterious, but could it indicate a more meaningful process?
I'd never considered that there might be a specific connection to the white-blue and gold-black meteoric ores of the Lords and any fundamental forces until now.
Above all, I hope the horrid headache season passes as quickly as can be, with as few episodes as possible. 💜
Your doing the work of an Archeologist and enjoying it. Elden Ring is full of rich beautiful stories written into every statue and wall the game has.
The repeated tree motif shared between the fire giants, farum azula and the palace, especially in pre erdtree society's is likely a result of depicting the crucible. Both the erdtree an the crucible were places where life came from and to which it returned, the imagery of them was no doubt associated with both power, life and death. The motif's found on the grave stones could be a representation that even with their distance they had returned to the crucible, while those found on the towers represented the power of the crucible overcoming the fallen stars, which are known to be heavily tied to creatures from beyond.
Then again, its been a year since this went out, so I'm sure someone has beaten me to the punch.