Thank you so much everyone for all the support & feedback! It really means a lot. If you still have questions and/or would like to go even deeper into the lore after watching this video, I'd suggest you check out my channel - I have a mini-series in progress that focuses on specific parts of the lore in much more detail. Also, feel free to ask me any questions you might have! I may have a video addressing it already or will have one in the future :)
I haven't watched your other stuff yet but I think some ancients had wings and that Siegrid and Silva were remnants of the ancients. Some of the text implied there were small remnants of them left, right?
And it hurts you even more emotionally as you learn about how absorbing and containing the Blight in their bodies is immensely painful for White Priestesses, because you know that every major boss Lily purifies only adds to her pain as it takes away theirs. For me it did a really good job at making me angry because Lily's just a child. A baby, even, being thrust into a terrifying world of Blighted monsters and told she's the only one left who can fix it. She didn't deserve any of this. None of the people of Land's End did, but the first king's decision to go to war with and commit genocide on the Ancients ultimately resulted in the events of Ender Lilies. I just hope that Lily's managed to find some semblance of peace after Ending C, because goodness knows she deserves it.
@@katiemckinney9456 I mean, we don't even know why he did what he did/ They might've facing starvation in their old lands or some other unspeakable monstrosities.
If you obtain true ending her corruption will be purified along with the land, at least up to non threatening level, because in final image of the ending it only show one strand of her hair still black.
Shout-outs to Siegrid for being an absolute Champ of a Guardian, official or otherwise. I'm a sucker for details in overworld storytelling, and finishing her boss fight just to take notice of the absolute truck-load of spears and fallen foes that litter the cathedral show that she didn't just get taken down by the Blight, but fought tooth and nail against assailants as long as her sanity held out. That was the moment that really hooked me, and it's the level of detail that kept me captivated through the whole game. Thanks for showing love to the world of Ender Lilies. There's some rough parts, there's some contradictions, and there's some parts we just won't ever know, but I adore this game and its storytelling. Truly worthy of being a classic.
God dangit. Even months after 100% it ( something I almost never do ), I still cry like a newborn when I see the story of this game. As an aspiring game dev, my hope is to one day, be able to convey the same emotions that took over me during this game and make others feels as much.
Finally, A CHANNEL that gives enough credit to Ender Lilies' lore, this magnificent hidden gem of 2021. And finally, A PERSON passionate about this game enough to produce so many content about its world. May you have 1kk views under each Ender Lilies video, my dude.
I don't think that Hoenir's 2 diary entries necessarily contradict each other. It's important to note how he doesn't say that she "did" hate him, but rather "must have" hated him. It's entirely possible that she didn't hate him at all, and if anything, her entrusting Julius to him shows she did still trust him very deeply. The Executioner's vow reveals that the Dark Executioners will swear to devote their whole lives to serve the Kingdom, forsaking land, glory and family to do so, yet despite that diary 2 talks about how he wanted her to live a normal life and in entry 1 he openly admits what he's doing completely goes against the vow. He should be devoting himself fully to the king and the kingdom, giving up his family to do so, yet he couldn't abandon his sister like that, and then couldn't do it again for his nephew either, meaning he cared VERY deeply about his family. It's only natural that he'd be excessively paranoid about "How might she view me, if she learned what I do on a daily basis?". I think that she loved him very dearly, and the fact she wished for Julius to have the exact thing Hoenir wished for her, a normal life, suggests she might have been fully aware of what Hoenir was trying to keep from her. Yet as yet another tragedy among many in this game, he was so consumed by his assumption that "She MUST hate me, it's the only possibility" that he completely failed to see she didn't, and what limited time they could have spent together as a loving family was wasted because of his foolishness. Regardless, thank you for making this video. Playing the game myself, I had gotten a solid grasp on the overall lore but it still felt rather... jumbled. Your laying it out in a fairly clear timeline was really helpful in letting me finally have certain things click in my mind that made the story so much more potent, sad, and enjoyable all at once. And I especially love that you've highlighted the critical lines when you show off a Finding note. Being able to quickly see exactly which lines are leading you are say something, rather than scan the entire finding to find the line is such a wonderful detail. So thank you very much for doing that here.
Echoing this second part. This video helped me organize a lot of my thoughts on the game, and seeing the notes onscreen while observations were made really helped solidify the story within the game's framework.
Just a fun little observation I had while playing the game. If you’ve been into the Vertoben domain, you can see a lot of brightly colored non-blighted fungi and plants, not so different to the ones found in the Witches Thicket. Another thing I noticed is that (almost) every single respite and entrance area in the Vertoben Domain has these mushrooms and plants around them in great quantities. It’s already been shown that witches like Elaine did have the power to protect against the blight with non-priest/ancient magic, so perhaps the numerous enchanted plants in the Vertoben were created/placed by the mages of the coven to stave off the blight, either before or after the earthquake. Perhaps that’s why the Witches thicket remains untouched as well, due to it being covered in these same magic plants, probably enchanted by Elaine’s final spell.
@@indiexplorergames Isn't it implied that the red and white flowers that restore Lily's healing prayers and Spirit attacks respectively are capable of absorbing Blight, and the red flowers are just white flowers that have absorbed enough Blight to change the color of their petals? Sort of like hydrangea blooms changing color depending on the soil acidity. There's actually a real world process called phytoremediation, where plants can be used to clean up contaminated environments. They absorb the pollutants from the soil, either then break them down into less harmful kinds of chemicals that are stored inside the plant, or convert them into a gaseous form and release them as vapors. This could also help explain the presence of the poisonous smog in the Domain! The coven's magical plants and the white flowers are able to perform phytoremediation, safely absorbing any Blight within the soil or that is introduced to the soil via the Rain of Death. In the Witches's Thicket, the plants can successfully absorb and store the Blight, since the contamination rate is relatively slow. But down in the Verboten Domain, the Blight concentration is much stronger. The plants can't store all the Blight they absorb, so some of that is released into the air as the smog.
@@katiemckinney9456 Absolutely! I touched on this idea later in my video "The Lily Theory," though I focused more on the mycorrhiza aspect & didn't mention photoremediation specifically. I would recommend checking that one out if you're interested!
What a great video! I never noticed the giant monstrous body of Miriel in Faden's room in my two gameplays. I got goosebumps seeing how grotesque it was. You made almost every note connected and cohesive. You deserve more subscribers!
Amazing, absolutely amazing. Thank you for this video. The idea that the spirits fighting alongside you are not actually their real selves is really sad, but also nice since they get to finally rest. It makes so much sense and yet I have a hard time accepting it lol.
I found your video while working on filling out the Ender Lilies wiki, and thank you so SO much for your breakdown! It's helped me so much to put the lore together and even showed me how much I had missed in my own research. Like others I'd missed Miriel in the background of the Laboratory and when you mentioned it, it was haunting. Thank you again!
My pleasure! Glad to hear that the wiki is getting more love & that my research is making its way there 😊It's super nice to have the lore all condensed into one place.
I 100%'d the game today, and had saved this video to watch after I did so. The fungal spore rain explanation around 29:30 took this vid to the next level, absolutely mind-blowing, I haven't actually dropped my jaw at a youtube video like this in a while. Really great work, this made me appreciate the game so much more, as if I hadn't already been amazed by its content.
Hollow knightish more so, an ancient moth civilization is overruled by new king but ancient infection escapes and makes king's people zombies so he makes many clones to sustain the infection. The clone/priestess tries to contain the infection but is unable to. In the end a lone non speaking person lily/knight comes to try and fix the infection. Makes his way to the previous priestess/pure vessel, fights them and joins/replaces them in their suffering. Alternatively lily/knight collect void heart/aegis relic to fight the infection for real this time in a two phase boss fight where lily/knight is helped by their siblings as they fight it.
Just finished the game and was really excited to understand what on earth was going on in the world. Thank you so much for putting together such a detailed and helpful explaination! One thing I noticed, you mentioned how Hoenir's Diary 2 and 3 seem to contridict each other, about Hoenir's relationship with his sister. I'd argue it doesn't as I believe in Diary 2, he believes she disapproves of his role as Dark Executioner, but as Diary 3 shows us, she either did not disapprove as he thought, or she was able to come to terms with it by the time she passes.
That's a great point! The reason I see them as contradicting is because both notes are reflective, being written some time AFTER his sister's passing; why would Hoenir write that there was "no way for [him] to know" whether she hated him if he had been right there with her on the day she gave birth? The plot thickens when we consider that the King was unaware Julius had been entrusted to Hoenir at all...hard to make sense of what exactly was going on without more info haha. I'm all for making things make sense though, so I will certainly keep this in mind!
@@indiexplorergames There isn't necessarily a contradiction, it could be interpreted as him just believing his sister hated him during that moment, finding out that he had kept it from her for all her life, but they never got to talk about it, since she died shortly after giving birth, so he couldn't learn her thoughts about that. Not necessarily in the sense of her 'permanently' hating him, just being greatly upset in that moment, perhaps. The part regarding the king seems more contradictory, in my opinion. The king couldn't be allowed to be aware of Julius, since that would have gone against the dying wish of Hoenir's sister for him to have a normal life, a wish Hoenir tried to grant by raising him without letting the king or him know about his heritage (he mentioned doing all in his power to make it so while the king raged about having his child stolen). How this was possible is pretty unclear, however, seeing how the king knew he had a child with Hoenir's sister and would have most likely kept an eye out for Hoenir as her relative. He was even aware that the person who 'stole' his son was in his castle, so I really don't get how he could not know while Hoenir allegedly raised him. Hoenir even wrote it down in a diary to tell Julius later, after all. He could have run away with Julius, I suppose, but then it's unclear how Julius became a knight while Hoenir kept his position. Did he somehow frame someone else for it and just keep an eye on Julius while someone else raised him, did he claim to have adopted Julius from some other family? Why would the king have believed any of that? Julius also seems to have believed his father abandoned him, but how did he reach that conclusion? Was it in regards to the elixir he had the knights take or did he never learn the full truth from Hoenir, only learning that his father was the king? Ulv's picture being with dark hair could have been in reference to the darkening of the hair due to purification, as we can see with Lily later in the game and Fretia in certain cutscenes (only partially, though), if we assumed it was indeed a self-portrait. Or perhaps it was a picture of someone else, the hair looks a bit like Silva, for instance, though her hair colour is also lighter. Eleine had a different hairstyle, but that also applies to Fretia, so I'm not sure about it one way or another. It could actually be one of Ulv himself without his helmet, it vaguely looks like his scarf and armour. That's probably the theory I'd go with, after comparing the picture with various characters, since it resembles his clothing the most and the person seems to have relatively short dark hair, unlike all the female characters Fretia had close contact with. It's quite pixelated, but you can even make out the shoulder plates a bit to the side (with some imagination, at least on his right shoulder). All of these would point to Ulv being the subject of the picture, I'd say, especially since it resembles none of the other likely candidates. Or it could be some other random person, though this explanation is comparatively
This is the video I needed, thank you. I just finished Ender Lillies and was looking for some answer and then I found this video. Even if it doesn't have all the answers that I needed it still hooked me from beginning to end thanks to the excelent narration and editing.
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! I would love to hear what questions you still have, and I'm still making videos so there's a good chance I'll be able to answer some of them :)
I feel like I've been purified watching this video lol been trying to piece together the lore for a while now but it's really confusing. Also wtf I NEVER noticed the full monster behind Faden. Only the belly, which I thought was a cocoon....yikes this s*it is wild! Good job :D
There really are rooms for DLCs content or an sequel (or prequel) where you can take the role of the original war time priestess, or Lily's journey to the land untainted by the blight (as you explained there are more kingdom along the way as you describe the Land's End location implies that its on the far back edge. I feel a subtle sadness as I complete this game, I want to feel more of it :((
Mannn you're so underrated. You explained the lore so well, and I love how you filled up the missing pieces that weren't explained in the actual game. I hope your channel grows because wow this is quality content
You know these types of videos always have this "play the game before you watch this video because spoilers" but this time I actually finished the game beforehand xD opened this video in the morning, finished Ending B and C by noon and now I can watch this without feeling guilty
thought i had known 80% lore about this game. Until i saw you channel, the analyze blown away my mind. Glad to have you in this community, keep up the good work!
This game captivated me. Saw this video floating around while I was looking up guides to get the last of the collectibles and came straight here to watch it immediately after getting the final ending myself. Very well put together and helped me sort out a lot of my thoughts on the story. Also never noticed Miriel in the background of the lab; that's one shocking piece of imagery, geeze!
This is a great video! It was a joy to watch from start to finish. This is one of my favorite games ever, so it was really fun to hear someone else's take on the story! I have to say, the "Miriel was pregnant" bit made my jaw drop. I would've never noticed that! I knew her corpse was behind Faden, but I thought she was only the top butterfly part, I didn't "connect the dots" that the whole thing was her body. Really haunting! Makes me love this game even more haha
Excellent video! I just finished the game today and was looking for an in-depth explanation of the lore, and this was exactly it! I'm excited to see more!
I did the exact same thing haha, I had so many questions after finishing the game but couldn't find answers anywhere. I'm glad you found this analysis enlightening!
Beautiful video. Extremely well researched. I learned a lot from this. (Still flabbergasted that the Miriel we fight isn't the same being as the Miriel Faden knew)
Such a good an incredible video, thank you very much for it Ender Lilies is one of my favourite video games ever made and this video perfectly portrays why I think that
The story of Ender Lilies gets me close to crying in a way many similar games haven't managed. There's just something so utterly tragironic and hopeless about it, with how Fretia's desire to protect her daughters damned the entire kingdom, reducing everyone's struggles up to that point to nothingness; with how things get so fucked up that the only thing you can do is put them out of their misery; with how Lily might just be the only mortal left on the entire continent. Although your actions bring relief, they come too late to save, yet early enough that the suffering and negativity of the setting feels fresh and close instead of distanced history. I wish it wasn't such a massive downer but in a way, the fact that it hits so hard shows what an amazing job the devs did, and it's a shame the game didn't hit it bigger than it did.
what a great video, thanks so much for taking the time to make this. you explained everything perfectly, i dont think i ever would've understood the lore so well anywhere else :)
Amazing video, I had a rough idea of the events by the time I completed my first playthrough today, but this is so well put together and well explained. This game is so captivating, beautiful, and tragic that it makes me crave for more than 12 hours worth of gameplay. So here I am, diving into lore and theories as I pray for dlc or a sequel. Subscription more than earned
Love your explanation videos for Ender Lilies!! Thanks so much for making it easier to understand the lore behind this game. I hope to see more videos released of this content!! Your channel is super underrated and definitely deserves a lot more likes and subscriptions with the great quality of content you put out! Keep it up!!!
You could probably make 2 prequels and a sequel just base on what we know of the Lore. Prequel 1 is where you play as the Umbral Knight himself during the war with the ancients and his last struggles protecting the last white priestess till he dies, Prequel 2 is at the start and during the blighted siege of the kingdom, this would be great if we get multiple POVs of the key characters defending their respective Priestesses, Julius on his way to kill his father, battle of the twin spires etc. and then the sequel of Lily and Ferin venturing outside the Kingdom to see if there's anything left standing.
coming late but after playing the game 100%, before my playthrough, knowing literal nothing about the game or its content, that was an amazing experience. Especially after watching this video if felt quite satisfying. Thank you.
This was an excellent explanation of the game. I think that the real life spores that affects insects inspired it too. The Last of Us was inspired by it too so I would not be surprised if Ender Lilies was. The game surprised me on my first playthrough. It was aesthetically pleasing and left you with emotions at times. It gave me a lot of jump scares and Lily, for being so young, was so brave to go through this and stop the source of the blighted. She may have hid behind her spirits (like she does in battle) she still pushed on even as she became more blighted. Must not have been easy for her. I'm on my second playthrough and enjoying the game again.
My copy of Resident Evil 4 remake got delayed in the post, so I decided to play Ender Lilies for the first time; and I can say that I'm super happy my RE4 came late.
I know I'm late, but I've just finished the game and thank you so much for putting everything together. I've read every piece of information available in game and kinda generated a subconscious idea of everything that happened, but hardly came up with a cohesive timeline of events. I bought the game in steam about a week and a half ago, and knowing that there's a sequel I'm gonna definitely play it soon as well.
Thanks so much for this video, I watched it 5 times to help me write a 6 thousand word report for my assignment, couldn't have done it without your help!
this is my second favourite game of all time (behind xenoblade lol), so to not only see more people talking about it, but producing really well made content on it as well is always a pleasure. cheers Xplorer, you've got my sub
16:45 Hoenir's diary entries don't really contradict each other. 2 is written from Hoenir's perspective full of assumptions, while 3 is written in terms of actions that happened. Both are valid entries that can coexist with each other. The conclusion one can make from this is that Hoenir's sister probably does not hate her brother, while Hoenir assumes otherwise.
I guess I either glossed over the notes that mention blights coming from other lands after the initial purification of Land's End, or had just forgotten about them. My understanding until watching this video was that the Fount Priestess was holding off the blight stemming from Land's End from reaching the rest of the land (which I assumed was pure because of this), shown by the last group of pure lilies in the first ending and the fact that Ferin was willing to let her leave Land's End without any guardian (unless the other spirits would follow her, I guess?). But, this does open paths to future content/games following Lily as she purifies the rest of the land, which would be very interesting. I'd love to see the devs do something with that, as I love the atmosphere of this game. I'd only hope that they make an OST as great as Mili's, the music was definitely 50% of what I love most about the game. Great video, keep up the good work! You've really helped my appreciation for the game grow even more!
Man I just played with my brain off, mostly annoyed by the level design and missed SO many plot details. Stuff like Elaine and Miriel's plots completely went over my head, thanks for spelling it out for me. Damn this story is beautiful. If their next game (Redemption Reapers) is anywhere near this interesting, I'll try it for sure, even as someone who usually dislikes strategy RPGs.
Thank you for this detail video! Really loved it. Reminded me of the time I played Dark Souls for the first time, not having a clue of why I was there or why was I even fighting the boss. But that's the charm of it
Just beat the game and got all the achievements, bittersweet feeling, I wish there was more! Bought it in 2021, but kept in my backlog for a long time. Such a great game.
I love Metroidvanias and over a year ago I looked for a lore vid and there was nothing... Super happy I searched again and this now exists! I love the world and story and wish for a sequel or prequel lol or some dlc
i platinum this game yesterday 17/8/2024 took me 7 days so i not fan of looking for lore secrets but if they ever make a dlc or ender lilies 2 i be down for it 100%
I can only say wow, I just finished the third ending of the game and I understood very little part of the story that you told in the video. And I guessed part of the story from myself, I think it was wrong. This video helped me a lot to understand the story better. I saw a game on Steam where the events of the game happen decades later. And this game is still in the early access stage. Game name is ender magnolia im waiting for complete release
Just found this video after completing the whole game, the only trophy im missing is to get lvl 100 lol but I wonder now with magnolia out, tho in early access. If the creation of rock “formations” was a precursor to the future where homunculi exist! I haven’t played magnolia yet, and I haven’t check out your channel for more stuff, but if you do have anything new. I’m sure I’ll find it! Thank you for making this, I was confused on some things and this helped sooooo much!
since all 6 kindoms were ruined by the blight, I wonder if there is any unaffected human left out there apart from Lily herself. If there will ever be an "Ender Lilies 2" game releases in the future and if the timeline moves forward what is the story gonna be? If there are still some normal human left, either the blight dones't reach that far OR these people have some kind of methods to stop the blight to spread. Who are these people? Ancients, other white priestess? Will Llli ever find a way to truly purify the blight (not just contain the blight inside her) on her journey to other lands? "Everything in the world mutually reinforce and neutralize each other", if there is an origin of the blight, there must be an origin of something to nentralize/trully purify the blight. If there is no way to neutralize the blight, just to contain it, the blight will spread to every coner of the world eventually no matter what to do, that won't make much sense if this is how the story goes. My best hope is that Lily finally find a way to truly purify the blight and re-establish the white parish to help the remaining people to fight against the blight and move on....
IMO the thing that was guarded by Hoenir is not the entrace to the abyss, but Hitherlands. It was directly behind him and as you can see, Hitherlands are completely protected from the Blight.
For those who don't know, the words "verboten" and "ersatz" are both german words. "Verboten" translates to "forbidden", while "ersatz" would be trandlated as "replacement"
just fnished the game today (my fault for thinking its just one of the many cause its really damn good) i hope you get more subs for your hardwork man keep it up!
thank you for the video. I 100% the game and got the gist of the lore, but I feel like I understand it much better now that I've heard it chronologically
The final fight where the lilies appear gave major hollow knight radiance vibes. Now I'm not sure if ender lilies devs are gonna make a blightmaster update where they remove the floor and you fight the blight lord fretia tried to purify. As in he can move
I had just beaten this today. Damn have I missed out on a great game. One thing that would have been good to note is that during the second fight with the Blighted Lord, you see parts of her disappear at about 1/4 health left. Not only that, when she tries to summon her minions to assist with the fight, she fails to do so, she also and if you look closely, the Blighted Lord has started to cry (the crying is seen throughout the second fight, but I didn't notice it until this particular part.) No other boss that we have encountered has done this, they have all become stronger as the fight progressed. Sure The Blighted Lord did that too in the first part of the fight, but the second part felt rather easy. You could say that she is in a weakened state, but I think Fretia has taken more control of her current body and has made it give up the fight and surrender to the inevitable. When I saw this, I had to pause the game for a good while and collect myself.
I just finished this game couple days ago on my Nintendo switch , i enjoy it that much I really recommended others to give it try , plus it challenging game overall i love it , and ty for this video
Thank you so much everyone for all the support & feedback! It really means a lot. If you still have questions and/or would like to go even deeper into the lore after watching this video, I'd suggest you check out my channel - I have a mini-series in progress that focuses on specific parts of the lore in much more detail. Also, feel free to ask me any questions you might have! I may have a video addressing it already or will have one in the future :)
I wonder if redemption reapers takes place in the same world as ender lilies
I haven't watched your other stuff yet but I think some ancients had wings and that Siegrid and Silva were remnants of the ancients. Some of the text implied there were small remnants of them left, right?
One character design detail I love is Lily's appearance slowly staining darker and more Blighted.
And it hurts you even more emotionally as you learn about how absorbing and containing the Blight in their bodies is immensely painful for White Priestesses, because you know that every major boss Lily purifies only adds to her pain as it takes away theirs. For me it did a really good job at making me angry because Lily's just a child. A baby, even, being thrust into a terrifying world of Blighted monsters and told she's the only one left who can fix it. She didn't deserve any of this. None of the people of Land's End did, but the first king's decision to go to war with and commit genocide on the Ancients ultimately resulted in the events of Ender Lilies. I just hope that Lily's managed to find some semblance of peace after Ending C, because goodness knows she deserves it.
when i first saw the corruptions tentacles sprouting from her body i lost it a little bit
@@katiemckinney9456 I mean, we don't even know why he did what he did/ They might've facing starvation in their old lands or some other unspeakable monstrosities.
She is becoming a spider lily slowly. That is the way I like to describe it
If you obtain true ending her corruption will be purified along with the land, at least up to non threatening level, because in final image of the ending it only show one strand of her hair still black.
I never noticed that creature behind Faden and the details of the butterflies on her head. Very clever.
As a ps+ monthly game this is peak
Omg this is the most real comment I have ever seen
Shout-outs to Siegrid for being an absolute Champ of a Guardian, official or otherwise. I'm a sucker for details in overworld storytelling, and finishing her boss fight just to take notice of the absolute truck-load of spears and fallen foes that litter the cathedral show that she didn't just get taken down by the Blight, but fought tooth and nail against assailants as long as her sanity held out. That was the moment that really hooked me, and it's the level of detail that kept me captivated through the whole game.
Thanks for showing love to the world of Ender Lilies. There's some rough parts, there's some contradictions, and there's some parts we just won't ever know, but I adore this game and its storytelling. Truly worthy of being a classic.
God dangit. Even months after 100% it ( something I almost never do ), I still cry like a newborn when I see the story of this game. As an aspiring game dev, my hope is to one day, be able to convey the same emotions that took over me during this game and make others feels as much.
me too.
Finally, A CHANNEL that gives enough credit to Ender Lilies' lore, this magnificent hidden gem of 2021.
And finally, A PERSON passionate about this game enough to produce so many content about its world.
May you have 1kk views under each Ender Lilies video, my dude.
Hidden gem alright. I wish more knew about it. It's an amazing game!
I don't think that Hoenir's 2 diary entries necessarily contradict each other. It's important to note how he doesn't say that she "did" hate him, but rather "must have" hated him. It's entirely possible that she didn't hate him at all, and if anything, her entrusting Julius to him shows she did still trust him very deeply. The Executioner's vow reveals that the Dark Executioners will swear to devote their whole lives to serve the Kingdom, forsaking land, glory and family to do so, yet despite that diary 2 talks about how he wanted her to live a normal life and in entry 1 he openly admits what he's doing completely goes against the vow. He should be devoting himself fully to the king and the kingdom, giving up his family to do so, yet he couldn't abandon his sister like that, and then couldn't do it again for his nephew either, meaning he cared VERY deeply about his family. It's only natural that he'd be excessively paranoid about "How might she view me, if she learned what I do on a daily basis?".
I think that she loved him very dearly, and the fact she wished for Julius to have the exact thing Hoenir wished for her, a normal life, suggests she might have been fully aware of what Hoenir was trying to keep from her. Yet as yet another tragedy among many in this game, he was so consumed by his assumption that "She MUST hate me, it's the only possibility" that he completely failed to see she didn't, and what limited time they could have spent together as a loving family was wasted because of his foolishness.
Regardless, thank you for making this video. Playing the game myself, I had gotten a solid grasp on the overall lore but it still felt rather... jumbled. Your laying it out in a fairly clear timeline was really helpful in letting me finally have certain things click in my mind that made the story so much more potent, sad, and enjoyable all at once.
And I especially love that you've highlighted the critical lines when you show off a Finding note. Being able to quickly see exactly which lines are leading you are say something, rather than scan the entire finding to find the line is such a wonderful detail. So thank you very much for doing that here.
Echoing this second part. This video helped me organize a lot of my thoughts on the game, and seeing the notes onscreen while observations were made really helped solidify the story within the game's framework.
Just a fun little observation I had while playing the game. If you’ve been into the Vertoben domain, you can see a lot of brightly colored non-blighted fungi and plants, not so different to the ones found in the Witches Thicket. Another thing I noticed is that (almost) every single respite and entrance area in the Vertoben Domain has these mushrooms and plants around them in great quantities. It’s already been shown that witches like Elaine did have the power to protect against the blight with non-priest/ancient magic, so perhaps the numerous enchanted plants in the Vertoben were created/placed by the mages of the coven to stave off the blight, either before or after the earthquake. Perhaps that’s why the Witches thicket remains untouched as well, due to it being covered in these same magic plants, probably enchanted by Elaine’s final spell.
I hadn't thought of Eleine's spell affecting the plants specifically, but that makes sense!
@@indiexplorergames Isn't it implied that the red and white flowers that restore Lily's healing prayers and Spirit attacks respectively are capable of absorbing Blight, and the red flowers are just white flowers that have absorbed enough Blight to change the color of their petals? Sort of like hydrangea blooms changing color depending on the soil acidity.
There's actually a real world process called phytoremediation, where plants can be used to clean up contaminated environments. They absorb the pollutants from the soil, either then break them down into less harmful kinds of chemicals that are stored inside the plant, or convert them into a gaseous form and release them as vapors. This could also help explain the presence of the poisonous smog in the Domain!
The coven's magical plants and the white flowers are able to perform phytoremediation, safely absorbing any Blight within the soil or that is introduced to the soil via the Rain of Death. In the Witches's Thicket, the plants can successfully absorb and store the Blight, since the contamination rate is relatively slow. But down in the Verboten Domain, the Blight concentration is much stronger. The plants can't store all the Blight they absorb, so some of that is released into the air as the smog.
@@katiemckinney9456 Absolutely! I touched on this idea later in my video "The Lily Theory," though I focused more on the mycorrhiza aspect & didn't mention photoremediation specifically. I would recommend checking that one out if you're interested!
What a great video! I never noticed the giant monstrous body of Miriel in Faden's room in my two gameplays. I got goosebumps seeing how grotesque it was. You made almost every note connected and cohesive. You deserve more subscribers!
Amazing, absolutely amazing. Thank you for this video.
The idea that the spirits fighting alongside you are not actually their real selves is really sad, but also nice since they get to finally rest. It makes so much sense and yet I have a hard time accepting it lol.
I found your video while working on filling out the Ender Lilies wiki, and thank you so SO much for your breakdown! It's helped me so much to put the lore together and even showed me how much I had missed in my own research. Like others I'd missed Miriel in the background of the Laboratory and when you mentioned it, it was haunting.
Thank you again!
My pleasure! Glad to hear that the wiki is getting more love & that my research is making its way there 😊It's super nice to have the lore all condensed into one place.
I 100%'d the game today, and had saved this video to watch after I did so. The fungal spore rain explanation around 29:30 took this vid to the next level, absolutely mind-blowing, I haven't actually dropped my jaw at a youtube video like this in a while. Really great work, this made me appreciate the game so much more, as if I hadn't already been amazed by its content.
The whole game can be summarized to:
"Little girl with stands travels a dark souls-styled world and beats the shit out of everything in her way"
Not even dark-souls
EL's setting have way more connections to Bloodborne setting than DS's
@@indifferentone8991 yes this was 100% the spiritual pc indie port of bloodborne
Hollow knightish more so, an ancient moth civilization is overruled by new king but ancient infection escapes and makes king's people zombies so he makes many clones to sustain the infection.
The clone/priestess tries to contain the infection but is unable to. In the end a lone non speaking person lily/knight comes to try and fix the infection. Makes his way to the previous priestess/pure vessel, fights them and joins/replaces them in their suffering. Alternatively lily/knight collect void heart/aegis relic to fight the infection for real this time in a two phase boss fight where lily/knight is helped by their siblings as they fight it.
@@itsame7491yup, straight up BloodBorn and Hollowknight child is EL
Just finished the game and was really excited to understand what on earth was going on in the world. Thank you so much for putting together such a detailed and helpful explaination!
One thing I noticed, you mentioned how Hoenir's Diary 2 and 3 seem to contridict each other, about Hoenir's relationship with his sister. I'd argue it doesn't as I believe in Diary 2, he believes she disapproves of his role as Dark Executioner, but as Diary 3 shows us, she either did not disapprove as he thought, or she was able to come to terms with it by the time she passes.
That's a great point! The reason I see them as contradicting is because both notes are reflective, being written some time AFTER his sister's passing; why would Hoenir write that there was "no way for [him] to know" whether she hated him if he had been right there with her on the day she gave birth? The plot thickens when we consider that the King was unaware Julius had been entrusted to Hoenir at all...hard to make sense of what exactly was going on without more info haha. I'm all for making things make sense though, so I will certainly keep this in mind!
@@indiexplorergames Ooo that's a good point, I was under the impression the diaries were written at the moment at not after.
@@indiexplorergames There isn't necessarily a contradiction, it could be interpreted as him just believing his sister hated him during that moment, finding out that he had kept it from her for all her life, but they never got to talk about it, since she died shortly after giving birth, so he couldn't learn her thoughts about that. Not necessarily in the sense of her 'permanently' hating him, just being greatly upset in that moment, perhaps.
The part regarding the king seems more contradictory, in my opinion. The king couldn't be allowed to be aware of Julius, since that would have gone against the dying wish of Hoenir's sister for him to have a normal life, a wish Hoenir tried to grant by raising him without letting the king or him know about his heritage (he mentioned doing all in his power to make it so while the king raged about having his child stolen). How this was possible is pretty unclear, however, seeing how the king knew he had a child with Hoenir's sister and would have most likely kept an eye out for Hoenir as her relative. He was even aware that the person who 'stole' his son was in his castle, so I really don't get how he could not know while Hoenir allegedly raised him. Hoenir even wrote it down in a diary to tell Julius later, after all. He could have run away with Julius, I suppose, but then it's unclear how Julius became a knight while Hoenir kept his position. Did he somehow frame someone else for it and just keep an eye on Julius while someone else raised him, did he claim to have adopted Julius from some other family? Why would the king have believed any of that? Julius also seems to have believed his father abandoned him, but how did he reach that conclusion? Was it in regards to the elixir he had the knights take or did he never learn the full truth from Hoenir, only learning that his father was the king?
Ulv's picture being with dark hair could have been in reference to the darkening of the hair due to purification, as we can see with Lily later in the game and Fretia in certain cutscenes (only partially, though), if we assumed it was indeed a self-portrait. Or perhaps it was a picture of someone else, the hair looks a bit like Silva, for instance, though her hair colour is also lighter. Eleine had a different hairstyle, but that also applies to Fretia, so I'm not sure about it one way or another. It could actually be one of Ulv himself without his helmet, it vaguely looks like his scarf and armour. That's probably the theory I'd go with, after comparing the picture with various characters, since it resembles his clothing the most and the person seems to have relatively short dark hair, unlike all the female characters Fretia had close contact with. It's quite pixelated, but you can even make out the shoulder plates a bit to the side (with some imagination, at least on his right shoulder). All of these would point to Ulv being the subject of the picture, I'd say, especially since it resembles none of the other likely candidates. Or it could be some other random person, though this explanation is comparatively
This is the video I needed, thank you. I just finished Ender Lillies and was looking for some answer and then I found this video. Even if it doesn't have all the answers that I needed it still hooked me from beginning to end thanks to the excelent narration and editing.
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! I would love to hear what questions you still have, and I'm still making videos so there's a good chance I'll be able to answer some of them :)
This is not a game it's a piece of art
I feel like I've been purified watching this video lol been trying to piece together the lore for a while now but it's really confusing. Also wtf I NEVER noticed the full monster behind Faden. Only the belly, which I thought was a cocoon....yikes this s*it is wild!
Good job :D
I'm glad this helped! And yeah some of the stuff in this game is pretty messed up haha
There really are rooms for DLCs content or an sequel (or prequel) where you can take the role of the original war time priestess, or Lily's journey to the land untainted by the blight (as you explained there are more kingdom along the way as you describe the Land's End location implies that its on the far back edge. I feel a subtle sadness as I complete this game, I want to feel more of it :((
This is such a great game. A hidden gem I found. When I read the ratings I was hoping it wouldn’t be a bad buy and it surely wasn’t. Great video!
Mannn you're so underrated. You explained the lore so well, and I love how you filled up the missing pieces that weren't explained in the actual game. I hope your channel grows because wow this is quality content
We have a discord with a lot of Ender Lilies players/fans/speedrunners and everyone really like your videos ! Thanks for the hard work
You know these types of videos always have this "play the game before you watch this video because spoilers" but this time I actually finished the game beforehand xD opened this video in the morning, finished Ending B and C by noon and now I can watch this without feeling guilty
thought i had known 80% lore about this game. Until i saw you channel, the analyze blown away my mind. Glad to have you in this community, keep up the good work!
This game captivated me. Saw this video floating around while I was looking up guides to get the last of the collectibles and came straight here to watch it immediately after getting the final ending myself. Very well put together and helped me sort out a lot of my thoughts on the story. Also never noticed Miriel in the background of the lab; that's one shocking piece of imagery, geeze!
This is a great video! It was a joy to watch from start to finish. This is one of my favorite games ever, so it was really fun to hear someone else's take on the story! I have to say, the "Miriel was pregnant" bit made my jaw drop. I would've never noticed that! I knew her corpse was behind Faden, but I thought she was only the top butterfly part, I didn't "connect the dots" that the whole thing was her body. Really haunting! Makes me love this game even more haha
I love a good hour-ish lore deep dive, and now I finally understand what was happening in this game. Very good video
Excellent video! I just finished the game today and was looking for an in-depth explanation of the lore, and this was exactly it! I'm excited to see more!
I did the exact same thing haha, I had so many questions after finishing the game but couldn't find answers anywhere. I'm glad you found this analysis enlightening!
The video, as the game itself, was utterly beautiful. Thanks for doing it.
Beautiful video. Extremely well researched. I learned a lot from this.
(Still flabbergasted that the Miriel we fight isn't the same being as the Miriel Faden knew)
Such a good an incredible video, thank you very much for it Ender Lilies is one of my favourite video games ever made and this video perfectly portrays why I think that
Amazing work!
The story of Ender Lilies gets me close to crying in a way many similar games haven't managed. There's just something so utterly tragironic and hopeless about it, with how Fretia's desire to protect her daughters damned the entire kingdom, reducing everyone's struggles up to that point to nothingness; with how things get so fucked up that the only thing you can do is put them out of their misery; with how Lily might just be the only mortal left on the entire continent. Although your actions bring relief, they come too late to save, yet early enough that the suffering and negativity of the setting feels fresh and close instead of distanced history. I wish it wasn't such a massive downer but in a way, the fact that it hits so hard shows what an amazing job the devs did, and it's a shame the game didn't hit it bigger than it did.
what a great video, thanks so much for taking the time to make this. you explained everything perfectly, i dont think i ever would've understood the lore so well anywhere else :)
I absolutely loved this game and the design for all the spirits
Incredible video, your storytelling skills are really on point. I just completed the game 100% and actually hearing the entire story was fantastic.
Amazing video, I had a rough idea of the events by the time I completed my first playthrough today, but this is so well put together and well explained.
This game is so captivating, beautiful, and tragic that it makes me crave for more than 12 hours worth of gameplay. So here I am, diving into lore and theories as I pray for dlc or a sequel.
Subscription more than earned
Incredible work, glad to have you in this community
Thank you! I've never joined a reddit community before so that's been cool :)
This was Awesome! You're clear explanations and storytelling helped the entirety of the realm seem to come alive!
Love your explanation videos for Ender Lilies!! Thanks so much for making it easier to understand the lore behind this game. I hope to see more videos released of this content!! Your channel is super underrated and definitely deserves a lot more likes and subscriptions with the great quality of content you put out! Keep it up!!!
You could probably make 2 prequels and a sequel just base on what we know of the Lore.
Prequel 1 is where you play as the Umbral Knight himself during the war with the ancients and his last struggles protecting the last white priestess till he dies, Prequel 2 is at the start and during the blighted siege of the kingdom, this would be great if we get multiple POVs of the key characters defending their respective Priestesses, Julius on his way to kill his father, battle of the twin spires etc. and then the sequel of Lily and Ferin venturing outside the Kingdom to see if there's anything left standing.
This was an absolutely fantastic explanation, thank you for making this video. You showed me many small details I missed during my play through.
coming late but after playing the game 100%, before my playthrough, knowing literal nothing about the game or its content, that was an amazing experience. Especially after watching this video if felt quite satisfying. Thank you.
Man, this was such a good watch. Thanks for this!
This was an excellent explanation of the game. I think that the real life spores that affects insects inspired it too. The Last of Us was inspired by it too so I would not be surprised if Ender Lilies was. The game surprised me on my first playthrough. It was aesthetically pleasing and left you with emotions at times. It gave me a lot of jump scares and Lily, for being so young, was so brave to go through this and stop the source of the blighted. She may have hid behind her spirits (like she does in battle) she still pushed on even as she became more blighted. Must not have been easy for her. I'm on my second playthrough and enjoying the game again.
My copy of Resident Evil 4 remake got delayed in the post, so I decided to play Ender Lilies for the first time; and I can say that I'm super happy my RE4 came late.
I know I'm late, but I've just finished the game and thank you so much for putting everything together. I've read every piece of information available in game and kinda generated a subconscious idea of everything that happened, but hardly came up with a cohesive timeline of events. I bought the game in steam about a week and a half ago, and knowing that there's a sequel I'm gonna definitely play it soon as well.
Thanks so much for this video, I watched it 5 times to help me write a 6 thousand word report for my assignment, couldn't have done it without your help!
Such a very detailed and well structured explaination!! Well done my dude!
this is my second favourite game of all time (behind xenoblade lol), so to not only see more people talking about it, but producing really well made content on it as well is always a pleasure. cheers Xplorer, you've got my sub
Sigh, i've been meaning to get around to Xenoblade but there are so many games on my backlog
@Ax Andelon It's a beautiful game, a sleeper for sure! I'm honestly surprised more people haven't been talking about it.
mannnnnnn you only have 280 subs? youre doing a really good job, and the vid looks very professional. keep it up, ull make it big :)
16:45 Hoenir's diary entries don't really contradict each other. 2 is written from Hoenir's perspective full of assumptions, while 3 is written in terms of actions that happened. Both are valid entries that can coexist with each other. The conclusion one can make from this is that Hoenir's sister probably does not hate her brother, while Hoenir assumes otherwise.
Happy for us the sequel have been announced release this year 🤭
I guess I either glossed over the notes that mention blights coming from other lands after the initial purification of Land's End, or had just forgotten about them. My understanding until watching this video was that the Fount Priestess was holding off the blight stemming from Land's End from reaching the rest of the land (which I assumed was pure because of this), shown by the last group of pure lilies in the first ending and the fact that Ferin was willing to let her leave Land's End without any guardian (unless the other spirits would follow her, I guess?).
But, this does open paths to future content/games following Lily as she purifies the rest of the land, which would be very interesting. I'd love to see the devs do something with that, as I love the atmosphere of this game. I'd only hope that they make an OST as great as Mili's, the music was definitely 50% of what I love most about the game.
Great video, keep up the good work! You've really helped my appreciation for the game grow even more!
Man I just played with my brain off, mostly annoyed by the level design and missed SO many plot details. Stuff like Elaine and Miriel's plots completely went over my head, thanks for spelling it out for me. Damn this story is beautiful.
If their next game (Redemption Reapers) is anywhere near this interesting, I'll try it for sure, even as someone who usually dislikes strategy RPGs.
Thank you for this detail video! Really loved it. Reminded me of the time I played Dark Souls for the first time, not having a clue of why I was there or why was I even fighting the boss. But that's the charm of it
I just recently finished that game, this video helped me understand and appreciate the story even more, thank you!
Great video. Ender lilies is a truly beutiful game and its nice too learn the lore
Glad I found this video. I was looking for lore on this amazing game. Didn't think it all took place over 70 years though.
Just beat the game and got all the achievements, bittersweet feeling, I wish there was more! Bought it in 2021, but kept in my backlog for a long time. Such a great game.
All the pieces now fit together pretty much thanks to this analysis
I love how sad and tragic the story is. Every person's background is heartbreakingly sad
I love Metroidvanias and over a year ago I looked for a lore vid and there was nothing... Super happy I searched again and this now exists! I love the world and story and wish for a sequel or prequel lol or some dlc
just finished the game and this video did an amazing job of piecing everything together.
insane beaturiful video. came to this game for the gameplay, sticcked to it cause of the story
Fantastic Work !! You'll goes big as a UA-camr for sure.
Haha thanks, we'll see I guess!
Amazing video! Was waiting for someone to make a video detailing piece by piece the lore of this truly amazing game! Keep up with the great work 👍
holy cow that was mind blowing you are truly a legend
very nicely done
Fantastic video! So great to see the lore explained like this. Looking forward to more
Thanks for the video. I'm terrible at connecting the dots, so a lot of this went right over my head as I was playing.
i platinum this game yesterday 17/8/2024 took me 7 days so i not fan of looking for lore secrets but if they ever make a dlc or ender lilies 2 i be down for it 100%
It’s called Ender magnolia and it’s still in beta stage.
@@jperry4201 sweet but can play it on ps4/5? and the full version is out ?
Amazing analysis ❤ one of the best games I’ve played ❤
I can only say wow, I just finished the third ending of the game and I understood very little part of the story that you told in the video. And I guessed part of the story from myself, I think it was wrong. This video helped me a lot to understand the story better. I saw a game on Steam where the events of the game happen decades later. And this game is still in the early access stage. Game name is ender magnolia im waiting for complete release
Just found this video after completing the whole game, the only trophy im missing is to get lvl 100 lol but I wonder now with magnolia out, tho in early access. If the creation of rock “formations” was a precursor to the future where homunculi exist! I haven’t played magnolia yet, and I haven’t check out your channel for more stuff, but if you do have anything new. I’m sure I’ll find it! Thank you for making this, I was confused on some things and this helped sooooo much!
phenomenal video, thank you for your hard work
since all 6 kindoms were ruined by the blight, I wonder if there is any unaffected human left out there apart from Lily herself. If there will ever be an "Ender Lilies 2" game releases in the future and if the timeline moves forward what is the story gonna be?
If there are still some normal human left, either the blight dones't reach that far OR these people have some kind of methods to stop the blight to spread. Who are these people? Ancients, other white priestess? Will Llli ever find a way to truly purify the blight (not just contain the blight inside her) on her journey to other lands?
"Everything in the world mutually reinforce and neutralize each other", if there is an origin of the blight, there must be an origin of something to nentralize/trully purify the blight. If there is no way to neutralize the blight, just to contain it, the blight will spread to every coner of the world eventually no matter what to do, that won't make much sense if this is how the story goes.
My best hope is that Lily finally find a way to truly purify the blight and re-establish the white parish to help the remaining people to fight against the blight and move on....
what a incredible summary! Thanks!
just beat this last night, and needed to know what i was playing lol. thank for the video!
IMO the thing that was guarded by Hoenir is not the entrace to the abyss, but Hitherlands. It was directly behind him and as you can see, Hitherlands are completely protected from the Blight.
For those who don't know, the words "verboten" and "ersatz" are both german words.
"Verboten" translates to "forbidden", while "ersatz" would be trandlated as "replacement"
Thank you for such an amazing lore I hope to see more from you about each character in the game and other things
just fnished the game today (my fault for thinking its just one of the many cause its really damn good) i hope you get more subs for your hardwork man keep it up!
Thank you a lot. This was very informative and put together informations I had not really understood playing. Very interesting.
thank you for the video. I 100% the game and got the gist of the lore, but I feel like I understand it much better now that I've heard it chronologically
The final fight where the lilies appear gave major hollow knight radiance vibes. Now I'm not sure if ender lilies devs are gonna make a blightmaster update where they remove the floor and you fight the blight lord fretia tried to purify. As in he can move
I had just beaten this today. Damn have I missed out on a great game. One thing that would have been good to note is that during the second fight with the Blighted Lord, you see parts of her disappear at about 1/4 health left. Not only that, when she tries to summon her minions to assist with the fight, she fails to do so, she also and if you look closely, the Blighted Lord has started to cry (the crying is seen throughout the second fight, but I didn't notice it until this particular part.) No other boss that we have encountered has done this, they have all become stronger as the fight progressed. Sure The Blighted Lord did that too in the first part of the fight, but the second part felt rather easy. You could say that she is in a weakened state, but I think Fretia has taken more control of her current body and has made it give up the fight and surrender to the inevitable. When I saw this, I had to pause the game for a good while and collect myself.
I just finished this game couple days ago on my Nintendo switch , i enjoy it that much I really recommended others to give it try , plus it challenging game overall i love it , and ty for this video
Love this video, well done!
Those ear pearcing transitions you put in at 10x your voice volume are brutal.
Thanks for this! I just got the platinum trophy for the game and wanted some story clarification.
I just finish playing this game man, I love how beautiful and depressing this game, I can't wait to play Ender Magnolia
"Mother, Father, and Lover" without context is crazy actually
just finish the games today, even if i read note i not fully understand the story so much. thank you
Thank you for your explanation now it all make sense.
Ender Magnolia is coming out in five days... I can barely wait.
Same! 😁
Great video, really enhanced my enjoyment of the game!
Great game. Would love to see a 3D Souls like RPG game with this story telling and design
I love this game, want more of it.
ty for this content bro
great job! thanks for explaining it realy helped