UPDATES REGARDING PRONUNCIATION AND THE SWORD OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS: HOW TO PRONOUNCE RAUH: "@zeppie_ For the pronunciation of "Rauh", the japanese might give some hints since it's all phonetic. It's written as "ラウフ", or ra-u-fu. I'm not a native Japanese speaker but I do know some, so I can at least say that if it were to be pronounced as 'Raah' with a silent U, then it would have likely been written as "ラアフ", or ra-a-fu. I think that "Raa-ooh" as two separate syllables is the correct pronunciation..." "@Akuryoutaisan21 20 hours ago In Japanese it's Raufu so we're all saying it wrong either way. I think it's meant to be rauch as in German for smoke. Japanese cant pronounce the german ch sound though so it gets shifted to fu. The localisers probably only speak japanese and english and so didnt notice it was supposed to be German. Just a guess." RAUCH SWORD OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS: "@SomeGuyNamedLex The interesting part is that there is a bit of a set order to it. If you got the Sword somewhere else, the Rauh altar will always give the Sword of Light, and the Catacombs altar will always give the Sword of Darkness, with the Ruins of Unte altar filling the role of whatever is left. In other words, the Rauh altar can never be Darkness, and the Catacombs altar can never be Light, even though either could give the Stone-Sheated Sword if you visit them first. So, even though the Rauh altar isn't necessarily the altar that gives the Sword of Light, Rauh is still the one most associated with Light out of the three locations. It very much seems like an intentional connection. "
@@quelaag first playthrough I got stone sheathed sword at Rauh. 2nd playthrough I went to ruins of unte first and to my surprise got the stone sheathed sword there. I thought that altar was just for sword of light like it was in my first playthrough 😅
@@quelaag ラウフ is pronounced "rowf" in Japanese. ア is "ah" and ウ is "oo" but when put together, "au"s make the "ow" sound. Basically, you slur vowels together when they're next to each other and aren't duplicates... Duplicate vowels are stressed. A common example would be レイ re•i but you say "ray" and not "reh•ee". And of course, free standing "u"s are always "silent". EDIT: it's also possible that the フ ending is trying to be -th. So the "proper romanization" may be Rauth.
Sorry to hijack this comment, but I think something that’s getting overlooked a lot is the fact the crucible is not just animalistic life but also plant life, and who are the magical tree people of the land between? The Shamans. What energy did Marika use to create the Erdtree? The Crucibles. What does the Scadutree resemble? A spiral. I think they would have been subjugated by the hornsent due to the fact they’re born directly from the plant aspect of the crucible which goes against their strict worship practices. It’s giving Pagans vs Druids kind of vibe. Also plant life would have manifested long before any bestial life so the tree or plant like aspects of the crucible would be even older in nature.
For what it's worth, i'm currently watching a Japanese Let's Play of the DLC (by Araki Misuzu) and she pronounces it "rau-fu". I wouldn't interpret too much into that, though - you wouldn't pronounce "Belurat" as "be-ru-ra-to" in English, either. Katakana is a phonetic alphabet, but foreign words are still adopted in a way that makes it easier for Japanese people to pronounce.
It's like the sunken city of Atlantis or something. Which in and of itself is probably an allegory of man's evolution as fish things into mamals. Idk maybe this is closer to the nox? Either way, it's all about the evolution of divinity and how it effects the collective unconscious mind (Karl jung)
@@curtisfarley6558 I do think the references to internal alchemy and jungian psychology (shadows) that pop up in this game emphasize the western pursuit of purity (unalloyed gold) and how it leads to suffering. Suffering is caused by clinging, fear of mortality, fear of suffering, and desire in Miyazaki games. He's pretty critical of certain philsophers and artists in the west (and in the east with some stuff being referenced in sekiro). Armored Core 6 really hammered that home.
@@quelaag Would you say that Miyazaki is more of a Buddhist? Althought his depiction of buddhists in Sekiro would be evedence that he isn't, he seems to be very obsessed with cycles and the breaking of those cycles. Also at this point I'm kinda don't even know what Elden Ring really is about since you can approach it from sooo many different angles. Just look at SmoughTown and Ratatoskr's views on Rauh and more specifically the crucible where belive it to be more of a function of the world and more specifically the force of evolution, you have a new ER content creator called Nameless Singer who did some speculation using almost purely in-game text with some incorporations from TA's observations. She made me came to a conclusion that TA's theories (for me at least) were hinting at, that there are intrinsic, immutable forces in the world of ER specifically concerning the concepts of death/darkness and life/light, and that when we look at each culture we can discover that in some way all of their belief systems share similar concepts with each other with the primary difference between them being which concept do they favour. For an example we can clearly see the Golden Order as one which explicitly favours life/light while some people like the Nox favour death/darkness/silver. What I've written was very surface level, and I recommend watching Nameless Singers video on Rauh, since she touches on how spirits and souls and such works in ER's world and more specifically, how the concepts of darkness/death and life/light are more intertwined and less adverse than one might think from a surface level viewing. But yet again since ER is very massive yet vague it is just one way of looking at it. Wow this just turned into rambling from my part lol. Edit: I'm also baginning tp o wander what sort of education do the artist at Fromsoft have, since some of the references to ancient art are really obscure to the general public, yet the resemblances are uncanny and I wonder if they were primarily inspired by the histories and myths directly or were they inspired by modern fantasy media and then they researched the inspirations for those. From what I remember we know that ER is heavily inspired by norse myths, but from what I remember in an early interview most of the inspirations that Miyazaki cited were modern fantasy works like LoTR or other fantasy RPG's (looking at the 12 hour Making of Elden Ring video).
@@phillidaadamus4349 Its difficult to say, because Buddhism has had many manifestations and the story of sekiro seems to examine a faith that came in contact with wartime and also the pursuit of immortality which inherently is not "truly" Buddhist. This is why the monks of Senpou are "corrupted" and have vermin / bugs infesting them. Demon of hatred also shows how difficult it is to walk the path of the Buddha when you've experienced trauma caused by war, as the sculptor is trying to reconcile his wartime trauma with spirituality and fails (becoming the demon of hatred). A lot of the Buddha/monk statues in sekiro are often depicted screaming in anguish. I don't think the message of the game is anti-faith but is anti-war.
I'm reminded of the show Book of Bantorra where after death the soul turns into a stone tablet that holds the memory and experience of a person's life. Remembrances and ashea of war follow similar ideas of sharing a being's insight that others can capture and access... Since gravestones act as a marker and a memorial, perhaps the tablets aren't simply old writings but the past lives of the dead given accessible form. Marika isn't reading fanfic, she's got the good stuff, braindance fun times.
Beneath the Tower, in the Belurat Gaol, you can see the same structures that build up the Tower, extended much *much* further down. If you really think of the DNA Helix, the Tower both reaches up towards the heavens, and also reaches down to the depths of the world, probably where the Primordial Crucible is.
Fake hair is on a lot more helmets actually. Rellana's pony tail isnt hers, i know theres a few other examples that arent jumping to mind. Kind of hard to tell between "fake hair" and real hair when talking about PC wearing the helmets in particular
@@slamindorf5478 i think it's weird that the only helmet we can alter to remove the hair is messmer's. malenia's hair isn't attached to her helmet, why can't we get rid of it??
I don't think we'll ever get an answer on what the Crucible is, but with the heavy ties to Mesopotamia with artifacts in the game, the name "the lands between", the two rivers, etc. I can't help but think of "The Crucible" as the cradle of life. Sort of the place where life first came into being or evolved in the lands between, but maybe that process of generation never stopped there and everyone tapping into the power of the crucible is tapping into the raw materials of "life". Especially if the spirals of the crucible weren't spiraling out from a center, but inward, combining disparate elements to create life. This would line up with the spirit calculus and circular stones, combining spirit and matter together, like the two arms of the spiral converging.
I think of it as life unalienated from itself and the world it's connected to. Everybody was like, "You're a tree knight, I'm a beast man, she's a dragon, we all end up as jellyfish. It's all good, just doing our stuff." What turns sour is repeatedly: Placi and Metyr literally wait for a call that isn't coming until they're crazy and basically dead, factions influenced by outer gods limit and persecute others and it results in less evolution and more stagnation, militant bureaucracies slowly choke themselves on their own farts, the more resistant to change or the more a demigod tries to recreate their past, the more everything turns worse. Team Turtle Pope!
From what I can tell thinking of the crucible as one thing is contradicting the crucible talisman. To me it seems like this is Froms attempt at satirising the view we have of how societies existed before our modern perspectives. It's like anything before the Golden Order was "the crucible" and even though there's evidence of centuries of history spanning millennias it doesn't matter because it was before our time. Just my take though.
@@Brokentwobutton I definitely vibe with this take. Heresy is but a contrivance; All things can be conjoined really is the thematic synopsis for this game.
I been thinking it's the fell god, who was once a "sun", falling to earth. This is just made up, It's crater contained a lot of spiritual energy and it affected the animals and people eventually it became contained in a great tree. It's roots spread the energy out throughout the lands between.
I'm behind this belief as well. I wouldn't be surprised if the Rot God has a play in this Verdegris material, considering that Moore is bros with some Kindreds of Rot
@@zsDUGGZ not only that, the entire verdigris material lore is found mainly in the Ancient Ruins of Rauh, coincidently exactly where Rot is the strongest and most prominent
@@HeevaEgo MMm -- but Rot is not native to there. The flower item says "There was a time when these buds were not touched by the scarlet rot's blight-when they were the symbol of the small church deep in the ancient ruins of Rauh." it seems like the flowers and some of the godly influence there used to not be rot-associated!
The planet is a big spritestone, possibly! The “stone” is the world, and the crucible is the “sprite” that lives inside it, maybe? The soul of the world, so to speak, with Rauh spritestones a small-scale microcosm of the crucible at large… Maybe. I’m just babbling now lmao
Rauh felt so weird the first time i went there and i couldnt figure out why, until i realized. Its green. Its the only place in the Lands Between with such vibrant green grass, it felt so alien. Theres another weird connection between the Hornsent, Crucible, and Fell God. The Lamenter has the fell giant's face on its back, and theres bits of red hair between the horns. I dont know how to phrase it more elegantly, but the Lamenter like integer underflowed, it was pumped full of the fell god's influence or abyssal darkness, it wrapped back around to achieving apotheosis.
Yes! I am going to do an entire video on the fell god and the lamenters! But yes the key difference is that the lamenter's face and the fell god visage in the shadow lands seem to manifest with two eyes! Its interesting that he manifests differently
I know what you mean about the green. I love Elden Ring and its 'base' world but I really loved how the land of Shadow generally is more vibrant and colourful, to contrast, despite its shroud. In truth I prefer it, I've always had this one internal sadness about ER where it is (fittingly perhaps) autumnal, fading in tone, or overpowered in degrees by the light of the Erdtree. Not so strange maybe when I feel like a major theme of the Shadow realm was birth/rebirth, to contrast with it.
Not only does the green vegetation seem alien, but the vibrant blue sky is weird too. For a world setting with so many diverse scenery, seeing a region that vaguely rembles our irl blue sky and green grass is very weird, but it helps me realize how much more beautiful it is.
I personnally didn't mind you not looking into the camera, I found that the absence of eye contact gave the video another mood altogether (reminded me of how i often also stare blankly when infodumping lol) but I'm not complaining about the coming change, very glad you are able to invest in the production quality of these !
I haven't heard or seen anyone make this connection yet but in some early latin translations of the hebrew bible Moses is described as "horned" after encountering God on the top of Mt. Sinai. At the time being "horned" was synonymous with being holy. Some early depictions of moses show him with horns. It could be inspiration for the hornsent and why they view the crucible and their own horns as blessings.
ITS 👏 TIME 👏 , my favorite lecture-theory-podcast-video series has returned, to be granted audience once more. Thanks for another banger, Que and wwaves!
When I was going through the DLC for the first time, the Rauh Ruins were probably the most confusing area for me (mostly in layout if I'm being honest!), but at the same time the most striking. I'm really glad you're covering the ruins now, and this video definitely helped me to understand some of Elden Ring's most ancient history! Your focus on architecture and art history is appreciated as always, because otherwise I might not have made the connection between the Rauh Ruins in DLC and the structures you mentioned in the base game.
Amazing work Quelaag!!! You always make such amazing stuff. One thing I want to put out is that “Fell” Omen isn’t something that all Omens are called; it’s a name that Morgott in particular used for intimidation. “The Hands of the Fell Omen (my hands, the night’s cavalry) shall brook thee no quarter” etc. It seems that the others were just called Omens, or Cursed, etc. It’s a minor thing, but I think it adds to Morgott’s character; he hated and was ashamed of his Omen-ness, but he was willing to use it to his advantage in order to defend Leyndell. It shows us how pragmatic he was willing to be I think. It’s also really interesting that the only times we see the word “Fell” used are Morgott naming himself the “Fell Omen,” the Dung Eater’s Mending Rune of the Fell Curse, and the Fell God of the Fire Giants. Your connection there with the Celtic fire god is so interesting. I wonder if Morgott’s “flame of ambition” has something to do with it…
According to "mending rune of the fell curse" given to us by Dung Eater -- the entire curse (and horns) is referencing the fell god. While Margit gets a fancier title than most omen -- Fell Omen is likely just "fell curse" that the Grandam wished upon Marika's lineage. Though I think its manifestation may be due to genetics~
@@quelaag Oh yeah, because of the Dung Eater's sun medallion!! So, maybe the Hornsent feared the Fell God because of its association with the omen curse? Or, since they did clearly call it down on Marika's people, they had some hand in shaping it after a god whom they perceived to be an enemy? Either way, I'm thinking that the omen curse is meant to be a sort of metaphorical representation of the sort of despair that shows up in a society built on awful things. It's the "blessing of despair" after all. I think the omen represent the people society doesn't want to see out in the open. The oppressed, disenfranchised, downtrodden, maybe even those who call out the society's flaws (the omen do this literally, with their horns reminding everyone of the hornsent). a bit like how certain awful people treat the homeless in the real world. I also thing the reason they are suppressed isn't necessarily because of residual hatred of the hornsent; i think it might be pity. no one wants to see them, because they're a reminder that marika's empire isn't so shiny and gold. that's why even royal omens are kept out of sight in the sewers, and why omenkiller rollo used perfumes to numb his emotions, not for hatred, but for pity and despair. And also, that makes the Dung Eater's ending a more philosophical/ideological ending, fitting with the others. His philosophy is that everyone should be afflicted with the curse, i.e. that everyone should essentially wallow in the despair of a broken system instead of trying to fix it. that's why that ending in particular focuses so much on "our seed," future generations. It's the idea that things won't (or shouldn't) ever get better, that justice is everyone suffering together. messed up!! lol with the dlc being out and stuff, i think the main theme of elden ring's narrative has really come together. I think it's about how we respond, individually and politically, to a society and a world built on horrible violence, cruelty, oppression, genocide... all of these things that our real societies are built on. aaaaa sorry for the long comment, im just thinking out loud lol
I love your theory that the land is split between light and darkness. It makes a lot of sense! It also mirrors Dark Souls. Long ago, everything was the same (The One Great) then fire appeared, and with fire came disparity (the Greater Will shattering the one great and creating heat, cold, life, death, and light and dark).
Fun video, I always appreciate lore vids that draw connections to real life history. One major point I'd like to make here, because this video reminded me, is that Elden Ring lore-ists would do well to remember that unlike previous games, the backstory here was prominently co-authored by an external writer, a writer with their own previous and extensive body of work. I know a lot of people here probably think the extent of GRRM's contributions were to the game's marketing, but any GRRM fan can immediately see huge parallels between Elden Ring lore and the lore of his own works. Anyone trying to decipher the history of the Lands Between would benefit massively from referencing previous GRRM works. Martin is also a huge fan of using European history as inspiration for his work, which would go a long way towards explaining why you can draw so many more real world parallels in Elden Ring than previous fromsoft games. I don't know why everyone acts like Miyazaki came up with everything by himself.
Probably because of GRRMs influence, but the black stone described in the Golem Greatbow and the ruins of Rauh closely resembles the oily black stone that's mentioned in A Song of Ice and Fire - oily black stone that drinks in light and whose origins can't be explained: a statue of a toad, a cursed jungle city, the Seastone Chair, and Asshai, for example. Probably doesn't mean much, but it tickles that asoiaf part of my brain.
I'm sorry if this comes up at all, but I always want to mention it, but one of the interesting (possible) connections to Ruah is to "Rahu" from hindu cosmology. Rahu is known as the "king of meteors" and is responsible for solar eclipses, two things ER is already quite familiar with. I also felt like there is some ancient Indian influence in parts of the divine bird warriors and worship, as well as a heavy presence of snakes as foes. The Ore blade being described as an arrowhead is also conspicuous to me, reminds me of the story of Shiva (iirc) destroying three cities with divine power and shooting a single arrow. The three eternal cities come to mind there as well.
The moment I saw Rauh I was like… wtf kinda game am I playing right now this is GORGEOUS. (And wtf is the lore of this place so thanks for explaining 🙏)
Something I only realized last time I played is that the Secret Rite Scroll specifies that the lord mentioned will require a vessel. That indicates that Radahn dying was actually a necessary step in Miquella's plan all along as it's part of the apotheosis ritual somehow, rather than some sort of workaround because Radahn didn't go along with it. This also makes me wonder if Miquella chose Mohg as the vessel because there's some deeper significance to using an Omen, what with it being a hornsent ritual and everything.
I also loved the revelations found in the DLC of a larger light vs dark theme at play here. But a light vs dark theme playing with larger theoreitcal physics ideas, like light being a photonic energy particles moving through space in a quantum wave-particle pattern. And Dark being a blackhole; an unfathomably dense ball of mass that absorbs light using accretionary disks, bends space and acts as entropy sinks for the Universe. I love metaphorically it isn't light as good or dark as evil. Instead I think light represents infinite potential and dark represents rigid, nearly uninterpretable final fate or destiny. With death being more about potential and eternal life being more about a final fate. And the many characters stuck in between trying to shape both forces for their own ends.
I really appreciate Scum Mage Infa's idea on the Crucible. It's may not be a place, but a magical "technology". Specifically, the technique of drawing magical power from death. This would qualify the Erdtree, Scadutree, and even the jars as Crucibles. It's a very interesting idea, with a lot more facets of support than I described here.
I have a video on that from 2 years ago! Namely because the Kanji/language for Crucible refers to a pot. But the lore of Rauh has shifted my perspective -- it seems to be light and Rauh that is causing these evolutionary gifts.
This ties beautifully into the alchemical themes of Elden Ring! In alchemy, the melting pot for metals during the purification process are also called Crucibles.
I've seen so many silly theories on what the Crucible is. Look up the definition of a crucible, then think about what it means for all kinds of ecological facets. The Crucible is the state of the cosmic order before any of them obtained a hierarchical monopoly (age of erdtree)
@@StellarElite1Elden Ring has more references to biblical verses than Alchemy books. And yet most lore channels seem completely oblivious to this layer of the games meaning
@@Crocalu Ah, but that's the thing! They're intrinsically linked if you've ever studied Hermeticism, which had a big impact on early Christian thought. There are SO many references in this game to the core principles and symbols that are present in the Magnum Opus-- from the metallurgy theming of silver and gold, tarnished as in tarnished metal, gold representing divinity and godliness, with lead (a tarnished metal) being the "beginning state", the savage, the untamed, and by being a Tarnished and going on the journey to becoming Elden Lord, you are engaging in the purification process, turning your lead to gold. The final boss is even a reference to the end result of the Great Work-- the Rebis, the divine hermaphrodite. An entity that is both man and woman. The early Hermetics and Christians found their beliefs cross-compatible due to the shared idea of a God that was an ineffable, transcendant being who created the universe with his radiance. By engaging in this alchemical purification, detaching one's self from material and base concepts, you would become closer to God.
Another thing that's interesting to me is how the Ruins of Rauh in the Shadow Lands seems to be a funerary complex. As well as the giant woman spread throughout this complex (but only this complex as I don't believe she's in the base game) who bears a striking resemblance to Queen Theodora.
@@quelaag yeah. As well as the general supplication of the NPCs in the area. The Kindred are worshiping the giant woman statues as proxies for Malenia or even Romina, obviously. But that doesn't explain why the Hornsent shades in the area seem to do the same. With all the jars and burrows in the area and their placements around the giant woman, it reads as necropolis to me.
I really like the idea that the people of Rauh, the fire giants, and the astrologers were all active at the same time. Rauh is associated with green (it’s green. But also the verdigris stuff), the giants are red, and the astrologers are blue. So much of this game’s stuff is either red or blue so it’s fun to see a context where all three are represented beyond hp fp and stamina
Also given that Rauh is the location of the crucible, which generates life, and virility/growth is specifically the thing that is missing in the lands between because of the erdtree (see pickled turtle neck).
[14:50] The _「Stone-Sheathed Sword」_ can be retrieved from three potential locations; which includes the octagonal tower in between the plateaus of Rauh。 The other two: *「Ruins of Unte」& 「Fog Rift Catacombs」* If the _「Stone-Sheathed Sword」_ is gained at the octagonal tower, you cannot utilize that pedestal to unsheathe the blade to gain _「Sword of Light」;_ you must go to *「Ruins of Unte」。* And to gain _「Sword of Darkness」,_ you must then go to *「Fog Rift Catacombs」。* Likewise, if the _「Stone-Sheathed Sword」_ is gained at *「Fog Rift Catacombs」,* *「Ruins of Unte」* is utilized to unsheathe _「Sword of Darkness」;_ with the octagonal tower granting _「Sword of Light」。_ *In all cases,* the blade can be transformed from _「Sword of Light」_ to _「Sword of Darkness」,_ and reversed, at their respective pedestals, for that play-through,... indefinitely。 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ *One other note:* Do not assume that Darkness = Evil。 Some of the most heinous of acts, ever perpetrated in human history, were done in broad daylight。
I pinned a note that explains the sword mechanic! also nobody assumed darkness was evil here! I said that darkness and light play into the cosmic storytelling of the game. ie; the way light travels through space
I really like this era of Elden ring lore since it seems to be devoid of the Greater Will’s influence after the whole dragon order fell apart, and Marika hadn’t been two fingered into making her golden order yet.
@@HeevaEgo it works though lol. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if the fingers wormed their way into making the rauh civilization fall. No matter how you slice it with metyr or the Elden beast, an order devoid of the greater will’s mandatory glazing rituals is no order at all.
Love this format Quelaag, I don't always have time for your excellent long form, and my schedule keeps me from seeing them live, so these medium sized bites are perfect. Have the best week!
I LOVE this, and the Ruins of Rauh. Best tourist spot for strolling around! I think that the crucible was the Scadutrew but, after Messmer, it has become a burnt and clinging thing, tenacioualy hanging on to what life it has left (hence the avatar fight). It blesses with horns and life whithersoever its roots may flow, like a river of life coursing beneath the soil. Wherever there are trees, so too is the network of the Crucible.
its weird though because spirit calculus dont form near or around the shadowtree. Even though the crucible is said to be the primordial form of the erdtree -- I wonder if the shadowtree was supposed to represent the balance of "light/rauh" and "dark/abyssal forest"??? But even then that's tenuous.
I have a pet theory regarding Rauh that I've been thinking on pretty much since I first got to the ruins. Basically, I think when the Numen first arrived in the lands between they were a single society divided into three castes: one of light, one of dark, and one of balance, or twilight. At some point the light caste allied themselves with the fire giants, creating the Rauh civilization, along with the giant forges, and the beginnings of hornsent culture. Meanwhile the dark caste allied itself with the Carian family of astrologers, founding Sellia and the church of Manus Metyr, eventually becoming the Nox. As for the twilight caste, I think they remained neutral, acting as go betweens and shamans for the Nox and Rauh, both sides allowing them to remain out of either respect for their wisdom and knowledge, or fear of what they are capable of when roused. They lived like this more or less in peace, until something happened that resulted in the disappearance of the Rauh Numen, save for the two in Enir Ilim. There's way more to my theory, but that's the relevant bits for this video I think!
Using art history in conjunction with our real-world historical eras to try and figure out Elden Ring's temporal structure is really compelling, I must say. I love the speculation that comes with this kind of approach, even if I do believe some of these points are stretches to some extent, it's still so thoughtful and impressively presented. As a lover of history, it really is a treat to see your work and appreciate the connotations and links to our historical record (bringing in Ancient Egypt is wonderful, by the way, I adore that period of history along with Greece and Rome...okay, I just adore ancient history, period). I genuinely wonder what you think the entire timeline would look like, if we had to label it or express it on a graph of some sort! Obviously the prehistoric "stone age" you mention would include Farum Azula and the beasts and dragons, as you said, along with the Jagged Peak and Finger Ruins with the Neolithic emphasis. Then the "bronze age" contemplations with the Rauh civilization, the Uld polities and likely the Giants and Astrologers (the Astrologers have been connected to Rauh by others, I've seen, so I wonder what you'd think of that conjecture too). I guess Belurat/the Hornsent empire likely comes next as part of a likely "iron age" in conjunction with the Eternal Cities, perhaps the Numen (Stone Coffin connections, perchance?), since there do seem to be shared elements with these societies (Enir Ilim and the bodies that grow from its stonework has been compared with the Nox underground bodies we see in stone, inferring similar rituals), and this could also be when other relevant cultures began arising. Then came Marika of course, and the Age of the Erdtree eventually, the Golden Order etc., where I think the timeline does become a bit clearer as her imperial hegemony blossoms and her political dominance conquers many of these previous powers, from the dragons to the giants to the hornsent and so on. Even more nuance in mapping the timeline of events proliferates from this, but that would almost be another topic entirely, a kind of BC and AD of the before and after revolving around Marika's apotheosis at the Gate of Divinity, perhaps! I'd love to know your thoughts on this, and well done for a fantastic video as usual, it's a treat watching your unique methodology and insight into the lore of Soulsborne works!
Verdigris is a tied to the rot god im sure of it, The set item description says it is covered in rust which links to decay, and it says it was given by an outer god as you said in the video. Moore is linked with verdigris as you said and he is linked with the forager brood who are creatures born of rot and very closely associated with it.
hey, just a point about the sword of light/sword of darkness: wherever you find the original sword cannot be the place where you take the sheathe off, but the second pillar will always be the one which turns it into the sword of light, and the third will always turn it into the sword of darkness. for me, i found it in the ruins you say can be turned into the sword of darkness, then i turned it into the sword of light in rauh, but the place i had to go to turn it into the sword of darkness was within the catacombs accessible from the gravesite plain, across the great bridge and just off to the left before castle ensis. from what i've seen, the order is not pre-determined at all, and so you can physically acquire the sheathed sword in rauh, turn it into the sword of light at the ruins, and turn it into the sword of darkness in the catacombs, so trying to tie the specific locations into the sword of light and sword of dark based purely on where you get them is actually something that doesn't work.
As I said in another comment, there is actually a bit of a set order to it. If you got the Sword somewhere else, the Rauh altar will always give the Sword of Light, and the Catacombs altar will always give the Sword of Darkness, with the Ruins of Unte altar filling the role of whatever is left. In other words, the Rauh altar can never be Darkness, and the Catacombs altar can never be Light, even though either could give the Stone-Sheated Sword if you visit them first. So, even though the Rauh altar isn't necessarily the altar that gives the Sword of Light, Rauh is still the one most associated with Light out of the three locations. It very much seems like an intentional connection.
saving this for later because i trust you with this lore lol. i played an alchemist with forgotten ties to the old world and my questions basically drew me straight to the rauh ruins once the DLC came out. this knowledge of stone has me baffled and all i could glean from it is the concept of how energy is released when a bond is split, like nuclear fission. it wohld make sense that the sun became a symbol of the arcane as the great tree took all of its glory and worship shifted away from the sun
my head now gripes against how to fit both Metyr and the ancient dragons and their own Elden Ring into the theory that the crucible is a "foundamental force of nature" and the Elden Ring a way to harness that power. Did the ancient dragons come first and Marika simply "rediscovered" whatever was taught to the dragons by Metyr? Did the elden beast fully grow only after Marika fleshed out her version of the Elden Ring or was it contemporary with the ancient dragons? And what about the Twinbird? Or was it Rauh that came first and not the dragons given how we do see human statue in Farum Azula? When, why and who sent the giant ship-like sarcophaguses crashing specifically only into the Cerulean Coast and into its inland-chasm?
i am so glad to hear you bring up the accents towards the end! godfrey having a cornish accent is also significant because devonia, siluria, and ordovis are not just named after the silurian, devonian, and ordovician periods but also after 3 pre-roman brythonic tribes, the silures, dumnonii, and ordovices - not sure if that's already obvious but i thought it was interesting:)
and- because i went to look this up afterwards. you may be interested to learn that silures comes from the word for seed, ordovices comes from the word for hammer, and dumnonii comes from the word for deep:)
In my game, i got the stone sheathed sword in the Rauh Ruins, because that's the first altar I found. After that, i found the Unte ruins, giving me the sword of light, and then the fog rift catacombs giving me the sword of darkness. I think it's dependent on which you interact with in what order. I'd also like to think that there's lore to it though, the whole "sword quest" is really strange to me.
This!! It's entirely dependent on which altar you visit first. Loved this video but this bugged me when the altars were used as evidence. The first altar you visit will always have the stone sheathed sword. I got my sword in unte.
The interesting part is that there is a bit of a set order to it. If you got the Sword somewhere else, the Rauh altar will always give the Sword of Light, and the Catacombs altar will always give the Sword of Darkness, with the Ruins of Unte altar filling the role of whatever is left. In other words, the Rauh altar can never be Darkness, and the Catacombs altar can never be Light, even though either could give the Stone-Sheated Sword if you visit them first. So, even though the Rauh altar isn't necessarily the altar that gives the Sword of Light, Rauh is still the one most associated with Light out of the three locations. It very much seems like an intentional connection.
I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere, but speaking of the Crucible, the three named Crucible Knights are named after periods of the Paleozoic Era (Ordovician, Silurian and now Devonian). This era is (or was) considered the time when life first appeared on Earth, the same way the Crucible is the source of life in Elden Ring.
Love the video! It's so informative hearing you piece together the lore and using art history to breakdown the meaning behind the art assets in the world. My thought is that the Crucible is the fantasy/magical force of evolution in the world, clearly strongest here around Rauh (for whatever reason). It would also be interesting as the primordial form of the erdtree might be a reference to the evolutionary tree of life.
there are a lot of reference in elden ring from Zoroastrianism like tower of silence and serosh which was cool for me when i was playing the game .since you mentioned It in this video: *design of the Placidusax and bayle's arena is like tower of silence . to give context, tower of silence was designed to prevent harming the nature and let the volture's and scavenger birds feed on the dead to help passing of the souls (there are dragons , drakes , and birds and uddead in those locations in game) *serosh is an angle/demigod (yazata/Yazdan) of Conscience and is depicted as a lion , he is also referred to as a protector and is direct opposite of daeva (kind of like demon) of anger and rage. and that's what exactly he is doing to godfrey in game too which Is cool *there is also a celebration in serosh's name in Zoroastrianism in which people wash themself in mind and body and kinda accept him in prayer (that's still happening in some parts) , I think that's what hoarah loux did scadutree chalice and accepted serosh to tame the rage and anger and became godfrey *and messmer's design similarity to Zahhak * thousand year promise of fight between dark and light and changing of the ages (Angra Mainyu VS Ahura Mazda) there are a few more that I seen in game , love to see Zoroastrianism influence in my favorite game genre :)
I think the the reason Messmer’s ember works in the burrows is is reference in Wego’s death mask he became fixated on the spirituality of Messmer’s flame and used it to resurrect the dead. Maybe the spirituality of the his flame is in some way similar to the calculus.
I've thought ever since I heard about the frenzy flame lore that the lands between is literally a big corpse, I feel like some of this lore supports that idea
Just more fuel to my bonfire that the Loathsome Dung Eater was actually a knight of the Sun, like Solaire, but twisted and evil because his true Sun (Godwyn the Golden) had his light eclipsed and became a god of undeath.
Coming back to this video, as Ziostorm just pointed out that the arrow/blade that pierced the great drake, seen in the shadowlands, has a green tint on the inside. I wonder if this weapon is a relic of the ancient gods, particularly the one of verdigris. That may just be able to reveal the time at which these ancient beings roamed the land of shadow. I wonder what exactly the forager brood & Moore may bring to our current lore understanding
I think of the crucible as a period of time where nature was sentient and not separated from society, like animism, and the golden order is a new form of understanding that is rigid, axiomatic and alien, that tries to supress the other forms of thought but historically sublates it's aspects the golden order it's not just politically like christianism, but philosophycally too, its like the baconian method while the crucible can be viewed as perspectivism like, the specimen storehouse is literally the cabinet of curiosities that bacon saw as a first step from gathering knowledge of nature to data collection
Something that the sun talk reminded me off is the Sun Realm Shield with the description of "Shield of honor depicting a city crowned by the sun. It has seen better days. Much like the wear upon the shield, the Seat of the Sun is long faded away." Would that mean the Rauh was related to the city crowned by the sun? or was it or like connected to it in some way? Though I dont think theres anything in Rauh that could be a Seat of the Sun cause that sounds like a throne almost. Another thing to is when you mentioned the Celtic sun god of fire and how his fire is about healing it reminded me of the Sunwarmth Stone and Warming Stone both being described as incantations one of the Erdtree and the one of the two fingers but despite these descriptions they are both mention the sun Sunwarmth: "Sunlight feels all the warmer in darkened lands." Warming: "It's said that the Erdtree was once as warm as the gentle sun, and would gradually heal all who bathed in its rays." Both either being compared to the sun or mentioning how comforting the sun is. It could also imply that the ErdTree replaced the Sun or i guess the Sun God's role in this case. So I wonder if the Fell God used to be the Sun God and was more diverse in its capabilities even being able to heal and after said Sun God fell became what we know it as now, only capable of burning. Also I find it kind of funny when you mentioned the Sun God fighting a serpent, the first thing that came to mind is Messmer having both a curse of fire and the abyssal snake in him I wonder if they're like competing with one another for hosts xD Tho when Messmer lets the serpent take him he still uses fire so maybe its more them working together now to take down a common enemy? One final thing I'll mention if the Fell God is connected to the Sun and the Astrologers had alliance with them, the same Astrologers who would lead to the Carians being form. So basically the Moon and the Sun were basically allies in a way?
Very interesting. I'm not a gigantic fan of ER's story (compared to Dark Souls), but you treat it like an archaeological comparative-religions tour, and it's very well presented! I think it's a great idea to see "the one true god of this world", Marika, as symbolic of the christian (or broader monotheist/axial) revolution overtaking the old roman/egyptian/greek order of the Golden Empire. With respect to that, and the older "pagan" divinities being associated with horns, I'd like to point out: when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, he declared himself Son of Ammon. This lead to him being depicted with horns almost identical to Mohg's. Wiki's "Horns of Alexander" page shows a particularly stark example of coinage. The association of ancient gods with horns is present in Semitic cultures (Egyptian influence being strong there) too, and the spiral columns in the horn-worshiping Belurat culture seem clearly to mirror the pillars in Solomon's Temple, as well as horns generally. This makes Marika's shunning of Mohg & Morgott particularly tragic, because they were actually closer to a more primal, perhaps more legitimate/natural divinity than her artificial, conquered one. It's all very cerebral but at least it's fascinating.
Im probably being dumb and repeating what you already said lol, but at 17:22 the boat sculpture looks incredibly similar to one in Enir Ilim, specifically right at the first opening after you get teleported. Probably just more evidence of the hornsent inspiration from whatever culture was in rauh.
Tower of silence looks like it could match Bayle's boss arena too. It also has that similar vibe as Placidusax's, but I can't tell if there is anything in those. It's just jagged and rough, but it looks similar, even has 'towers' with places for corpses as well. If there are corpses in there they would be ash or mangled, I just can't tell and don't have no-clip. lol
My half-baked theory is that the Crucible is related to Chaos, and therefore the Three Fingers, or perhaps pre-frenzy Three Fingers. Wall of text incoming: The Crucible is known for being a blending of all types of life, and chimeric features are revered in its worship. It is also meant to be a primordial form of life from which the Erdtree eventually took shape. Rauh shows adherence to all forms of life together, and the Hornsent take this worship to monstrous lengths by flaying and melding people within pots, thus rendering them "saintly" once they "meld harmoniously". When Metyr fell to the world, she was broken, damaged and unhinged, and never again heard from the Greater Will, but reached out to Marika to form the Golden Order with the Erdtree as its symbol, making it so through conquest and carnage. The Golden Order is instead focused on separation and categorization, viewing aspects of the Elden ring such as Life and Death as distinct runes, thus sealing away the rune of Death, and eventually shattering the Elden Ring itself. The Golden Order fundamentally shuns any Chimeric features, such as the Omen and Misbegotten as symbols of melding. They also cast out much of the diversity of Crucible worship, by exterminating the Hornsent, the Giants, and eventually sending the Tarnished out across the sea, along with Godfrey. Godfrey and his knights which seemed to worship or at least revere the Crucible. Eventually they would lie and say that the Erdtree, now shaped by the Golden Order, was eternal and unchanging, a lie mentioned in the Crimson Seed Talisman. I think the Three Fingers were the Crucible itself or a manifestation of it before the Golden Order purged its followers and suppressed it, locking away the last of it underneath Leyndell. Perhaps this indignity made it transform from the Crucible to the Frenzied Flame, where it would reach out to the forsaken merchants and potential Lords such as Vyke and Midra. Shabriri takes over the bodies of the dead, blurring the line between life and death as they seek their Lord. Chaos wants to burn and melt the entire world, returning all life, souls and difference to a single entity, incinerating all that divides and distinguishes, which could be seen as a return to the Crucible. Perhaps Metyr is broken because she is incomplete: the Three Fingers could have been part of her that was lost or born from a part of her that was lost, and we never encounter. Perhaps the Greater Will is made of Chaos and Order, and when Metyr became broken, she was abandoned by it, since it knew this balance was forever lost.
the way the crucible is described feels a lot like the effects of radiation and the various mutations that occur. Something that always disturbed me about the Hornsent stuff is the Horned Bairn item which bluntly says that most infants born with these horns die, meaning very few actually survive being touched by the crucible to this degree" Adds to the general imperial vibe the Hornsent have Rauh being this incredibly lush area full of life and diversity of forms reminds me a ton of The Zone seen in works like Stalker or even in variations of the idea like in Annihilation, these all heavily being inspired by the area around Chernobyl essentially being a nature refuge. It's just this is a medieval setting trying to make sense of these mutations. I don't doubt that Annihilation in particular was one of several visual inspiration for the art team for mobs like the Mimic Tears.
I finally have an answer RE: Patreon subscriptions, glad you're okay with that route because I want to keep my support spending centralized if at all possible. Thanks for the content!
Verdigris is attributed to the Rot Outer God, as both rot and rust processes are oxidizing reaction.. slow burning. And most probably because devs wanted to include something positive attributed to the Outer God of Rot, since we only saw negatives in the base game. Connection to Moore supports this and verdigris armor allows him to work with scarlet rot (rot pots).
@@quelaag Riding into the Finger Ruins of Rhea made me feel like part of a fractal, honestly. Looking down at my hands and then thinking about layers and layers of fingers unfurling... 😅
Finally lore hunters are talking about Rauh! I swear the first time I rode through these ruins I had this weird gut feeling of knowing this place was extremely significant, but being unable to articulate why 🙃
Just before the DLC came out, I noted of certain similarities of possible inspiration of Messmer with Greek mythology of King Minos who was often represented as a cruel tyrant and a judge of the dead in his afterlife with a snake that was part of his body. Supposedly, Minos was the most ancient man to build a navy. Minos would be in contact of Zeus every 9 years for education purposes as son of Zeus and Europa, but also be caught up with laws of the time from Zeus. His son Androgeus won every contest hosted by Aegeas of Athens, resorting to jealous contestants murdering him, invoking Minos on a war path to those of Athens, starting with the death of King Nisus who was invincible so long as he had his crimson lock of hair that was cut in betrayal of his daughter Scylla who fell in love with Minos, but Minos was disgusted by her betrayal of her own father and had her punished be being bound to his ship until she drowned. He spared Athens for a yearly sacrifice of 7 young men and 7 young virgin maidens to be fed to his minotaur in a labyrinth built by Daedalus. Daedalus was genius architect whom knew all of Minos' secrets which he'd rather nobody knew, including the curse on Minos' wife that she would go to Daedalus for her newfound love for the white bull that Minos was supposed to sacrifice to Poseidon and switched out. Minos would die by being boiled alive in a bath once reaching to where Daedalus had fled in protection of a king, but later Daedalus would soon enough die by being bitten by a snake. Consistently in mentions of Minos is the mentioning of snakes including one slithering up to Polyidus which he killed and the snake's mate finding the body and bringing back an herb that brought it back to life, and Polyidus would go grab the same herb and use it on Minos' recently dead son to be released from entombment.
Interesting thing I noticed over time is that the periodic table of elements figures prominently in names and place names in deeply symbolic ways. Rauh is no exception. It is Au (gold) inside Rh (rhodium). Gold at the heart of a silvery transition noble element that cannot tarnish, and when heated turns a rosy color. It is also used to process various corrosive acids, including formic. There are many many other examples that act as clues to the nature of the item/NPC.
I think the scadutree is the flower crucible, represented by the shadow sunflower avatar. The ruins of rauh look like they could have sank from eastern liurnia, where the ancestral followers are by a minor erdtree and walking mausoleums. They consider horns buds, that can blossom like flowers
Elden John is also holding up a tree, with a sun near his feet. The crucible might have something to do with the fallen sun becoming a sunflower, with the erdtree now above it
One thing I should mention is that the hornsent grandam has dialogue if you hurt her explicitly saying that the omen is a curse that was placed on Marika, seemingly separate from the horns of the hornsent
They’re separate, yet the same in a sense. The idea of horns in Elden Ring is intrinsically universal across every faction/religion in Elden Ring, this includes Hornsent and Omen, even the Ancestral followers and Spirits. The difference is that, unlike the Hornsent who cursed Marika’s children as Omen, Omen are more disordered chaotic sprouting of horns compared to the Hornsents more calculated, concentrated horn growth. They’re not the same people, they’re not the same bloodline…but the same principles of Horngrowth applies to the Omen as they do with the Hornsent. The reason why the Hornsent, and Marika, refer to it as the “Omen curse” is because the chaotic sprouting of horns of the Omen is closest in nature to the Crucible itself, more than even the Hornsent. This means that the Hornsent summoning the “curse” of the Omen will, in the future, conflict with Marika’s ideals - as being an Order that attempts to stray away from the Crucible of life - marking it as a “curse.” Fast forward later, we see two Horned children of Marika being born with more chaotic energy than those that even came before Marika. This being referred to as a “Curse of the Omen” in the context of the Golden Order, the Omen Twins’ chaotic horngrowth were a sign of the forgotten crucible of Past. This should give you an idea of how strong Hornsent are, and what their motives are. If Hornsent are able to so easily summon a more powerful and dangerous form of Horngrowth - in the Omen curse - it begs the question, why dont they do it for themselves? Well, the new Horned Bairn item in the DLC reiterates that most children born of the Chaotic Horngrowth, similar to the Omens, will die at a young age. Hence why, with the Hornsent, they “Ordered” the horns, cultivated the horns, concentrated the horns. If they wanted to, they could easily ignore the Order of their Horngrowth and opt for chaotic Horngrowth of the Omen, but they know that it’d kill them. This is important because it tells us that the Hornsent not only would curse the Erdtree’s lineage, but they knew that cursing them with the Omen curse would end with the inevitable death of their babies almost immediately after birth. Only few would survive. Cursing the Erdtree’s lineage out of revenge, killing their babies out of spite
I definitely see the whole thing as a play on wishing for genetic purity (unalloyed gold) since a lot of later golden order stuff deems red haired, horned, crucible related beings to be heresy. I think there is disdain for a group that came before her (because of the belurat inquisitors) and so then she subjects others to that very same hatred. The story is about the cycle of suffering. I dont know if the details of the curse matter at the end of the day - what matters is Marika trying to outrun this previous era that she's scared of.
I went down a bit of a rabbit hole last week and I'm pretty sure the spirit calculus is also referencing shirikodama. Both are hard stones suffused with spiritual power and a bad smell. The biggest difference is that it seems from my bit of research that only humans have shirikodama and the calculi are only obtained from animals. I also think I figured out why horns are the only aspect of the crucible that calls and houses spirits. As the Rauh burrows show us there needs to be a physical void for the spirits to inhabit, and horns are hollow! I believe that the horns call spirits because they have room to house them, and when the space is filled more growths sprout to accomodate more spirits. After all, spirits need guidance to find their way to where they belong. If they lack that guidance, it makes sense they would just chill in the nearest available space.
yeah it seems more apparent than ever now with the connection between the dung eater, the fire giants, the fell god, the fell omen, the fell curse. And the furnace visage depicting the fell god having a sun-horn-head. its fell all the way down.
Are the Harpies and Harpy Mothers (I can't remember their names), being punished (or treated as criminals) since they were thorns. And does the minor connection to the ruins explain why the Mothers (or Elders, I guess) can use the ghost pots?
![Elden Ring History [And How It Broke Me]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Kut_oMJ5N2I/mqdefault.jpg)
![Elden Ring History [And How It Broke Me]](/img/tr.png)
UPDATES REGARDING PRONUNCIATION AND THE SWORD OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS:
HOW TO PRONOUNCE RAUH:
"@zeppie_
For the pronunciation of "Rauh", the japanese might give some hints since it's all phonetic. It's written as "ラウフ", or ra-u-fu. I'm not a native Japanese speaker but I do know some, so I can at least say that if it were to be pronounced as 'Raah' with a silent U, then it would have likely been written as "ラアフ", or ra-a-fu. I think that "Raa-ooh" as two separate syllables is the correct pronunciation..."
"@Akuryoutaisan21
20 hours ago
In Japanese it's Raufu so we're all saying it wrong either way. I think it's meant to be rauch as in German for smoke. Japanese cant pronounce the german ch sound though so it gets shifted to fu. The localisers probably only speak japanese and english and so didnt notice it was supposed to be German. Just a guess."
RAUCH
SWORD OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS:
"@SomeGuyNamedLex
The interesting part is that there is a bit of a set order to it.
If you got the Sword somewhere else, the Rauh altar will always give the Sword of Light, and the Catacombs altar will always give the Sword of Darkness, with the Ruins of Unte altar filling the role of whatever is left. In other words, the Rauh altar can never be Darkness, and the Catacombs altar can never be Light, even though either could give the Stone-Sheated Sword if you visit them first.
So, even though the Rauh altar isn't necessarily the altar that gives the Sword of Light, Rauh is still the one most associated with Light out of the three locations. It very much seems like an intentional connection. "
@@quelaag first playthrough I got stone sheathed sword at Rauh. 2nd playthrough I went to ruins of unte first and to my surprise got the stone sheathed sword there. I thought that altar was just for sword of light like it was in my first playthrough 😅
@@quelaag ラウフ is pronounced "rowf" in Japanese.
ア is "ah" and ウ is "oo" but when put together, "au"s make the "ow" sound. Basically, you slur vowels together when they're next to each other and aren't duplicates... Duplicate vowels are stressed.
A common example would be レイ re•i but you say "ray" and not "reh•ee".
And of course, free standing "u"s are always "silent".
EDIT: it's also possible that the フ ending is trying to be -th. So the "proper romanization" may be Rauth.
Sorry to hijack this comment, but I think something that’s getting overlooked a lot is the fact the crucible is not just animalistic life but also plant life, and who are the magical tree people of the land between? The Shamans. What energy did Marika use to create the Erdtree? The Crucibles. What does the Scadutree resemble? A spiral.
I think they would have been subjugated by the hornsent due to the fact they’re born directly from the plant aspect of the crucible which goes against their strict worship practices. It’s giving Pagans vs Druids kind of vibe. Also plant life would have manifested long before any bestial life so the tree or plant like aspects of the crucible would be even older in nature.
I just pronounce it "Raa-uuh," because there's a U in it.
For what it's worth, i'm currently watching a Japanese Let's Play of the DLC (by Araki Misuzu) and she pronounces it "rau-fu". I wouldn't interpret too much into that, though - you wouldn't pronounce "Belurat" as "be-ru-ra-to" in English, either. Katakana is a phonetic alphabet, but foreign words are still adopted in a way that makes it easier for Japanese people to pronounce.
Rauh went: "Hey, how unfathomably you want your old ruins? As far as it goes? Cool."
EXACTLY This video was so stressful
It's like the sunken city of Atlantis or something. Which in and of itself is probably an allegory of man's evolution as fish things into mamals. Idk maybe this is closer to the nox? Either way, it's all about the evolution of divinity and how it effects the collective unconscious mind (Karl jung)
@@curtisfarley6558 I do think the references to internal alchemy and jungian psychology (shadows) that pop up in this game emphasize the western pursuit of purity (unalloyed gold) and how it leads to suffering. Suffering is caused by clinging, fear of mortality, fear of suffering, and desire in Miyazaki games. He's pretty critical of certain philsophers and artists in the west (and in the east with some stuff being referenced in sekiro).
Armored Core 6 really hammered that home.
@@quelaag Would you say that Miyazaki is more of a Buddhist? Althought his depiction of buddhists in Sekiro would be evedence that he isn't, he seems to be very obsessed with cycles and the breaking of those cycles.
Also at this point I'm kinda don't even know what Elden Ring really is about since you can approach it from sooo many different angles. Just look at SmoughTown and Ratatoskr's views on Rauh and more specifically the crucible where belive it to be more of a function of the world and more specifically the force of evolution, you have a new ER content creator called Nameless Singer who did some speculation using almost purely in-game text with some incorporations from TA's observations. She made me came to a conclusion that TA's theories (for me at least) were hinting at, that there are intrinsic, immutable forces in the world of ER specifically concerning the concepts of death/darkness and life/light, and that when we look at each culture we can discover that in some way all of their belief systems share similar concepts with each other with the primary difference between them being which concept do they favour.
For an example we can clearly see the Golden Order as one which explicitly favours life/light while some people like the Nox favour death/darkness/silver. What I've written was very surface level, and I recommend watching Nameless Singers video on Rauh, since she touches on how spirits and souls and such works in ER's world and more specifically, how the concepts of darkness/death and life/light are more intertwined and less adverse than one might think from a surface level viewing. But yet again since ER is very massive yet vague it is just one way of looking at it.
Wow this just turned into rambling from my part lol.
Edit: I'm also baginning tp o wander what sort of education do the artist at Fromsoft have, since some of the references to ancient art are really obscure to the general public, yet the resemblances are uncanny and I wonder if they were primarily inspired by the histories and myths directly or were they inspired by modern fantasy media and then they researched the inspirations for those. From what I remember we know that ER is heavily inspired by norse myths, but from what I remember in an early interview most of the inspirations that Miyazaki cited were modern fantasy works like LoTR or other fantasy RPG's (looking at the 12 hour Making of Elden Ring video).
@@phillidaadamus4349 Its difficult to say, because Buddhism has had many manifestations and the story of sekiro seems to examine a faith that came in contact with wartime and also the pursuit of immortality which inherently is not "truly" Buddhist. This is why the monks of Senpou are "corrupted" and have vermin / bugs infesting them.
Demon of hatred also shows how difficult it is to walk the path of the Buddha when you've experienced trauma caused by war, as the sculptor is trying to reconcile his wartime trauma with spirituality and fails (becoming the demon of hatred).
A lot of the Buddha/monk statues in sekiro are often depicted screaming in anguish.
I don't think the message of the game is anti-faith but is anti-war.
6:58 it would be hilarious if all the mountains of tablets in marika’s bedchamber was just smut the whole time
I mean, she has been through a divorce and a half, she's probably going through a pretty rough time
Marika is just reading the Elden Ring version of Acotar
50 shades of gold
Mountains of fanfiction to read before sleep
I'm reminded of the show Book of Bantorra where after death the soul turns into a stone tablet that holds the memory and experience of a person's life. Remembrances and ashea of war follow similar ideas of sharing a being's insight that others can capture and access...
Since gravestones act as a marker and a memorial, perhaps the tablets aren't simply old writings but the past lives of the dead given accessible form.
Marika isn't reading fanfic, she's got the good stuff, braindance fun times.
Beneath the Tower, in the Belurat Gaol, you can see the same structures that build up the Tower, extended much *much* further down.
If you really think of the DNA Helix, the Tower both reaches up towards the heavens, and also reaches down to the depths of the world, probably where the Primordial Crucible is.
Why do Ansbach and Witch-Hunter Jerren wear metal masks with fake beards? If I had a nickel I'd have two.
They’re just self conscious
"if i had a nickel id have two"
-einstein
Fake hair is on a lot more helmets actually. Rellana's pony tail isnt hers, i know theres a few other examples that arent jumping to mind. Kind of hard to tell between "fake hair" and real hair when talking about PC wearing the helmets in particular
@@slamindorf5478 i think it's weird that the only helmet we can alter to remove the hair is messmer's. malenia's hair isn't attached to her helmet, why can't we get rid of it??
@@spicymeatandseafoodfry6648why would want to? Her hair looks amazing. (Not a simp, I just like long flowing hair.)
Quelaag, are you rebranding as The Fair Lady now? I'll send humanity
But you have no EGGS!?
I don't think we'll ever get an answer on what the Crucible is, but with the heavy ties to Mesopotamia with artifacts in the game, the name "the lands between", the two rivers, etc. I can't help but think of "The Crucible" as the cradle of life. Sort of the place where life first came into being or evolved in the lands between, but maybe that process of generation never stopped there and everyone tapping into the power of the crucible is tapping into the raw materials of "life".
Especially if the spirals of the crucible weren't spiraling out from a center, but inward, combining disparate elements to create life. This would line up with the spirit calculus and circular stones, combining spirit and matter together, like the two arms of the spiral converging.
The crucible knights make me feel like its something like the holy grail or something!
I think of it as life unalienated from itself and the world it's connected to. Everybody was like, "You're a tree knight, I'm a beast man, she's a dragon, we all end up as jellyfish. It's all good, just doing our stuff."
What turns sour is repeatedly: Placi and Metyr literally wait for a call that isn't coming until they're crazy and basically dead, factions influenced by outer gods limit and persecute others and it results in less evolution and more stagnation, militant bureaucracies slowly choke themselves on their own farts, the more resistant to change or the more a demigod tries to recreate their past, the more everything turns worse.
Team Turtle Pope!
From what I can tell thinking of the crucible as one thing is contradicting the crucible talisman. To me it seems like this is Froms attempt at satirising the view we have of how societies existed before our modern perspectives. It's like anything before the Golden Order was "the crucible" and even though there's evidence of centuries of history spanning millennias it doesn't matter because it was before our time. Just my take though.
@@Brokentwobutton I definitely vibe with this take. Heresy is but a contrivance; All things can be conjoined really is the thematic synopsis for this game.
I been thinking it's the fell god, who was once a "sun", falling to earth.
This is just made up, It's crater contained a lot of spiritual energy and it affected the animals and people eventually it became contained in a great tree. It's roots spread the energy out throughout the lands between.
See I saw the God of Verdigris as just an aspect of the God of Rot, given that metal rusting is a kind of decay
I'm behind this belief as well. I wouldn't be surprised if the Rot God has a play in this Verdegris material, considering that Moore is bros with some Kindreds of Rot
@@zsDUGGZ not only that, the entire verdigris material lore is found mainly in the Ancient Ruins of Rauh, coincidently exactly where Rot is the strongest and most prominent
@@HeevaEgo MMm -- but Rot is not native to there. The flower item says "There was a time when these buds were not touched by the scarlet rot's blight-when they were the symbol of the small church deep in the ancient ruins of Rauh." it seems like the flowers and some of the godly influence there used to not be rot-associated!
Re: crucible knights. The crucible energy lives within the "rauh burrow" on their chest piece.
The crucible is a really big rauh burrow
Gdi another genius take
The planet is a big spritestone, possibly! The “stone” is the world, and the crucible is the “sprite” that lives inside it, maybe? The soul of the world, so to speak, with Rauh spritestones a small-scale microcosm of the crucible at large…
Maybe. I’m just babbling now lmao
Rauh felt so weird the first time i went there and i couldnt figure out why, until i realized. Its green. Its the only place in the Lands Between with such vibrant green grass, it felt so alien.
Theres another weird connection between the Hornsent, Crucible, and Fell God. The Lamenter has the fell giant's face on its back, and theres bits of red hair between the horns. I dont know how to phrase it more elegantly, but the Lamenter like integer underflowed, it was pumped full of the fell god's influence or abyssal darkness, it wrapped back around to achieving apotheosis.
Yes! I am going to do an entire video on the fell god and the lamenters! But yes the key difference is that the lamenter's face and the fell god visage in the shadow lands seem to manifest with two eyes! Its interesting that he manifests differently
I know what you mean about the green. I love Elden Ring and its 'base' world but I really loved how the land of Shadow generally is more vibrant and colourful, to contrast, despite its shroud. In truth I prefer it, I've always had this one internal sadness about ER where it is (fittingly perhaps) autumnal, fading in tone, or overpowered in degrees by the light of the Erdtree. Not so strange maybe when I feel like a major theme of the Shadow realm was birth/rebirth, to contrast with it.
Not only does the green vegetation seem alien, but the vibrant blue sky is weird too.
For a world setting with so many diverse scenery, seeing a region that vaguely rembles our irl blue sky and green grass is very weird, but it helps me realize how much more beautiful it is.
I personnally didn't mind you not looking into the camera, I found that the absence of eye contact gave the video another mood altogether (reminded me of how i often also stare blankly when infodumping lol) but I'm not complaining about the coming change, very glad you are able to invest in the production quality of these !
I haven't heard or seen anyone make this connection yet but in some early latin translations of the hebrew bible Moses is described as "horned" after encountering God on the top of Mt. Sinai. At the time being "horned" was synonymous with being holy. Some early depictions of moses show him with horns. It could be inspiration for the hornsent and why they view the crucible and their own horns as blessings.
ITS 👏 TIME 👏 , my favorite lecture-theory-podcast-video series has returned, to be granted audience once more. Thanks for another banger, Que and wwaves!
At this point, the entire DLC keeps me up at night.
When I was going through the DLC for the first time, the Rauh Ruins were probably the most confusing area for me (mostly in layout if I'm being honest!), but at the same time the most striking. I'm really glad you're covering the ruins now, and this video definitely helped me to understand some of Elden Ring's most ancient history! Your focus on architecture and art history is appreciated as always, because otherwise I might not have made the connection between the Rauh Ruins in DLC and the structures you mentioned in the base game.
I kinda feel like theyre the starting point of Marika's background so its the best place to start for this lore series!
The new hair looks awesome!! Behold, lovely sort!
Amazing work Quelaag!!! You always make such amazing stuff.
One thing I want to put out is that “Fell” Omen isn’t something that all Omens are called; it’s a name that Morgott in particular used for intimidation. “The Hands of the Fell Omen (my hands, the night’s cavalry) shall brook thee no quarter” etc. It seems that the others were just called Omens, or Cursed, etc. It’s a minor thing, but I think it adds to Morgott’s character; he hated and was ashamed of his Omen-ness, but he was willing to use it to his advantage in order to defend Leyndell. It shows us how pragmatic he was willing to be I think.
It’s also really interesting that the only times we see the word “Fell” used are Morgott naming himself the “Fell Omen,” the Dung Eater’s Mending Rune of the Fell Curse, and the Fell God of the Fire Giants. Your connection there with the Celtic fire god is so interesting. I wonder if Morgott’s “flame of ambition” has something to do with it…
According to "mending rune of the fell curse" given to us by Dung Eater -- the entire curse (and horns) is referencing the fell god. While Margit gets a fancier title than most omen -- Fell Omen is likely just "fell curse" that the Grandam wished upon Marika's lineage. Though I think its manifestation may be due to genetics~
@@quelaag Oh yeah, because of the Dung Eater's sun medallion!! So, maybe the Hornsent feared the Fell God because of its association with the omen curse? Or, since they did clearly call it down on Marika's people, they had some hand in shaping it after a god whom they perceived to be an enemy?
Either way, I'm thinking that the omen curse is meant to be a sort of metaphorical representation of the sort of despair that shows up in a society built on awful things. It's the "blessing of despair" after all. I think the omen represent the people society doesn't want to see out in the open. The oppressed, disenfranchised, downtrodden, maybe even those who call out the society's flaws (the omen do this literally, with their horns reminding everyone of the hornsent). a bit like how certain awful people treat the homeless in the real world. I also thing the reason they are suppressed isn't necessarily because of residual hatred of the hornsent; i think it might be pity. no one wants to see them, because they're a reminder that marika's empire isn't so shiny and gold. that's why even royal omens are kept out of sight in the sewers, and why omenkiller rollo used perfumes to numb his emotions, not for hatred, but for pity and despair. And also, that makes the Dung Eater's ending a more philosophical/ideological ending, fitting with the others. His philosophy is that everyone should be afflicted with the curse, i.e. that everyone should essentially wallow in the despair of a broken system instead of trying to fix it. that's why that ending in particular focuses so much on "our seed," future generations. It's the idea that things won't (or shouldn't) ever get better, that justice is everyone suffering together. messed up!! lol
with the dlc being out and stuff, i think the main theme of elden ring's narrative has really come together. I think it's about how we respond, individually and politically, to a society and a world built on horrible violence, cruelty, oppression, genocide... all of these things that our real societies are built on. aaaaa sorry for the long comment, im just thinking out loud lol
I love your theory that the land is split between light and darkness. It makes a lot of sense! It also mirrors Dark Souls.
Long ago, everything was the same (The One Great) then fire appeared, and with fire came disparity (the Greater Will shattering the one great and creating heat, cold, life, death, and light and dark).
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
ELDEN RING DARK SOULS PREQUEL CONFIRMED 2024 GONE WRONG GONE SEXUAL?!? (COPS CALLED!)
Fun video, I always appreciate lore vids that draw connections to real life history.
One major point I'd like to make here, because this video reminded me, is that Elden Ring lore-ists
would do well to remember that unlike previous games, the backstory here was prominently co-authored by an external writer, a writer with their own previous and extensive body of work. I know a lot of people here probably think the extent of GRRM's contributions were to the game's marketing, but any GRRM fan can immediately see huge parallels between Elden Ring lore and the lore of his own works. Anyone trying to decipher the history of the Lands Between would benefit massively from referencing previous GRRM works. Martin is also a huge fan of using European history as inspiration for his work, which would go a long way towards explaining why you can draw so many more real world parallels in Elden Ring than previous fromsoft games. I don't know why everyone acts like Miyazaki came up with everything by himself.
Flower of Light? Like a SUNflower?
new quelaag video yippee :D
Probably because of GRRMs influence, but the black stone described in the Golem Greatbow and the ruins of Rauh closely resembles the oily black stone that's mentioned in A Song of Ice and Fire - oily black stone that drinks in light and whose origins can't be explained: a statue of a toad, a cursed jungle city, the Seastone Chair, and Asshai, for example.
Probably doesn't mean much, but it tickles that asoiaf part of my brain.
I'm sorry if this comes up at all, but I always want to mention it, but one of the interesting (possible) connections to Ruah is to "Rahu" from hindu cosmology. Rahu is known as the "king of meteors" and is responsible for solar eclipses, two things ER is already quite familiar with. I also felt like there is some ancient Indian influence in parts of the divine bird warriors and worship, as well as a heavy presence of snakes as foes. The Ore blade being described as an arrowhead is also conspicuous to me, reminds me of the story of Shiva (iirc) destroying three cities with divine power and shooting a single arrow. The three eternal cities come to mind there as well.
Custom Robo
The moment I saw Rauh I was like… wtf kinda game am I playing right now this is GORGEOUS. (And wtf is the lore of this place so thanks for explaining 🙏)
fr the overall vibe just… stole my heart, one could say. i just be running around that place and staring at the sky
Something I only realized last time I played is that the Secret Rite Scroll specifies that the lord mentioned will require a vessel. That indicates that Radahn dying was actually a necessary step in Miquella's plan all along as it's part of the apotheosis ritual somehow, rather than some sort of workaround because Radahn didn't go along with it. This also makes me wonder if Miquella chose Mohg as the vessel because there's some deeper significance to using an Omen, what with it being a hornsent ritual and everything.
I also loved the revelations found in the DLC of a larger light vs dark theme at play here. But a light vs dark theme playing with larger theoreitcal physics ideas, like light being a photonic energy particles moving through space in a quantum wave-particle pattern. And Dark being a blackhole; an unfathomably dense ball of mass that absorbs light using accretionary disks, bends space and acts as entropy sinks for the Universe. I love metaphorically it isn't light as good or dark as evil. Instead I think light represents infinite potential and dark represents rigid, nearly uninterpretable final fate or destiny. With death being more about potential and eternal life being more about a final fate. And the many characters stuck in between trying to shape both forces for their own ends.
I love crazy observations like this, it makes everything so outwordly
You're looking like Fia now, love to see it.
You say: this video is long
I say: I could have listened to you for a few more hours
I really appreciate Scum Mage Infa's idea on the Crucible. It's may not be a place, but a magical "technology". Specifically, the technique of drawing magical power from death. This would qualify the Erdtree, Scadutree, and even the jars as Crucibles. It's a very interesting idea, with a lot more facets of support than I described here.
I have a video on that from 2 years ago! Namely because the Kanji/language for Crucible refers to a pot. But the lore of Rauh has shifted my perspective -- it seems to be light and Rauh that is causing these evolutionary gifts.
This ties beautifully into the alchemical themes of Elden Ring! In alchemy, the melting pot for metals during the purification process are also called Crucibles.
I've seen so many silly theories on what the Crucible is. Look up the definition of a crucible, then think about what it means for all kinds of ecological facets. The Crucible is the state of the cosmic order before any of them obtained a hierarchical monopoly (age of erdtree)
@@StellarElite1Elden Ring has more references to biblical verses than Alchemy books. And yet most lore channels seem completely oblivious to this layer of the games meaning
@@Crocalu Ah, but that's the thing! They're intrinsically linked if you've ever studied Hermeticism, which had a big impact on early Christian thought. There are SO many references in this game to the core principles and symbols that are present in the Magnum Opus-- from the metallurgy theming of silver and gold, tarnished as in tarnished metal, gold representing divinity and godliness, with lead (a tarnished metal) being the "beginning state", the savage, the untamed, and by being a Tarnished and going on the journey to becoming Elden Lord, you are engaging in the purification process, turning your lead to gold. The final boss is even a reference to the end result of the Great Work-- the Rebis, the divine hermaphrodite. An entity that is both man and woman.
The early Hermetics and Christians found their beliefs cross-compatible due to the shared idea of a God that was an ineffable, transcendant being who created the universe with his radiance. By engaging in this alchemical purification, detaching one's self from material and base concepts, you would become closer to God.
Another thing that's interesting to me is how the Ruins of Rauh in the Shadow Lands seems to be a funerary complex.
As well as the giant woman spread throughout this complex (but only this complex as I don't believe she's in the base game) who bears a striking resemblance to Queen Theodora.
Do you feel this way due to the jars and spirit burrow placement?
@@quelaag yeah. As well as the general supplication of the NPCs in the area.
The Kindred are worshiping the giant woman statues as proxies for Malenia or even Romina, obviously.
But that doesn't explain why the Hornsent shades in the area seem to do the same.
With all the jars and burrows in the area and their placements around the giant woman, it reads as necropolis to me.
I really like the idea that the people of Rauh, the fire giants, and the astrologers were all active at the same time. Rauh is associated with green (it’s green. But also the verdigris stuff), the giants are red, and the astrologers are blue. So much of this game’s stuff is either red or blue so it’s fun to see a context where all three are represented beyond hp fp and stamina
Also given that Rauh is the location of the crucible, which generates life, and virility/growth is specifically the thing that is missing in the lands between because of the erdtree (see pickled turtle neck).
I think it's more than that I believe that they were originally all one people in the sense of a combined civilization.
[14:50]
The _「Stone-Sheathed Sword」_ can be retrieved from three potential locations;
which includes the octagonal tower in between the plateaus of Rauh。
The other two: *「Ruins of Unte」& 「Fog Rift Catacombs」*
If the _「Stone-Sheathed Sword」_ is gained at the octagonal tower, you cannot utilize that pedestal to unsheathe the blade to gain _「Sword of Light」;_
you must go to *「Ruins of Unte」。*
And to gain _「Sword of Darkness」,_ you must then go to *「Fog Rift Catacombs」。*
Likewise, if the _「Stone-Sheathed Sword」_ is gained at *「Fog Rift Catacombs」,*
*「Ruins of Unte」* is utilized to unsheathe _「Sword of Darkness」;_
with the octagonal tower granting _「Sword of Light」。_
*In all cases,* the blade can be transformed from _「Sword of Light」_ to _「Sword of Darkness」,_ and reversed, at their respective pedestals, for that play-through,... indefinitely。
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
*One other note:*
Do not assume that Darkness = Evil。
Some of the most heinous of acts, ever perpetrated in human history, were done in broad daylight。
I pinned a note that explains the sword mechanic!
also nobody assumed darkness was evil here! I said that darkness and light play into the cosmic storytelling of the game. ie; the way light travels through space
Quelaag this was a delight to listen to! It's wonderful that fellow lore hounds can make videos essays and share their ideas/findings/theories.
I really like this era of Elden ring lore since it seems to be devoid of the Greater Will’s influence after the whole dragon order fell apart, and Marika hadn’t been two fingered into making her golden order yet.
Two fingered is crazy phrasing
@@HeevaEgo it works though lol. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if the fingers wormed their way into making the rauh civilization fall. No matter how you slice it with metyr or the Elden beast, an order devoid of the greater will’s mandatory glazing rituals is no order at all.
Super helpful video thank you! It’s also interesting how Radahn’s second phase seems to utilize the same pillars of light as the miranda flowers!
He's like the military industrial complex. A litteral nuclear threat. Compassion or else...
Song is by the game called "Ape Escape" from the plays station game, you're welcome everyone.
I’ve been stuck on Godfrey/Sarosh and Radahn/Miquella since I began the consort fight. They look so similar it cannot be accidental.
21:20 OHHHH MY GODDDD ---- AND HIS MEDALLION IS A SUN ---- MIND BLOWN
Love this format Quelaag, I don't always have time for your excellent long form, and my schedule keeps me from seeing them live, so these medium sized bites are perfect. Have the best week!
Monday Night RAUH
I LOVE this, and the Ruins of Rauh.
Best tourist spot for strolling around!
I think that the crucible was the Scadutrew but, after Messmer, it has become a burnt and clinging thing, tenacioualy hanging on to what life it has left (hence the avatar fight). It blesses with horns and life whithersoever its roots may flow, like a river of life coursing beneath the soil. Wherever there are trees, so too is the network of the Crucible.
its weird though because spirit calculus dont form near or around the shadowtree. Even though the crucible is said to be the primordial form of the erdtree -- I wonder if the shadowtree was supposed to represent the balance of "light/rauh" and "dark/abyssal forest"??? But even then that's tenuous.
the burrows are probably an alchemical reference since it's white and red
I have a pet theory regarding Rauh that I've been thinking on pretty much since I first got to the ruins. Basically, I think when the Numen first arrived in the lands between they were a single society divided into three castes: one of light, one of dark, and one of balance, or twilight. At some point the light caste allied themselves with the fire giants, creating the Rauh civilization, along with the giant forges, and the beginnings of hornsent culture. Meanwhile the dark caste allied itself with the Carian family of astrologers, founding Sellia and the church of Manus Metyr, eventually becoming the Nox. As for the twilight caste, I think they remained neutral, acting as go betweens and shamans for the Nox and Rauh, both sides allowing them to remain out of either respect for their wisdom and knowledge, or fear of what they are capable of when roused. They lived like this more or less in peace, until something happened that resulted in the disappearance of the Rauh Numen, save for the two in Enir Ilim.
There's way more to my theory, but that's the relevant bits for this video I think!
I had no idea there existed either a sword of light and dark. play through 2 begins tonight
It's crazy how much clearer the timeline is for me with the DLC. Sure it didn't clear up everything but I think it cleaned up a lot.
Using art history in conjunction with our real-world historical eras to try and figure out Elden Ring's temporal structure is really compelling, I must say. I love the speculation that comes with this kind of approach, even if I do believe some of these points are stretches to some extent, it's still so thoughtful and impressively presented. As a lover of history, it really is a treat to see your work and appreciate the connotations and links to our historical record (bringing in Ancient Egypt is wonderful, by the way, I adore that period of history along with Greece and Rome...okay, I just adore ancient history, period).
I genuinely wonder what you think the entire timeline would look like, if we had to label it or express it on a graph of some sort! Obviously the prehistoric "stone age" you mention would include Farum Azula and the beasts and dragons, as you said, along with the Jagged Peak and Finger Ruins with the Neolithic emphasis. Then the "bronze age" contemplations with the Rauh civilization, the Uld polities and likely the Giants and Astrologers (the Astrologers have been connected to Rauh by others, I've seen, so I wonder what you'd think of that conjecture too). I guess Belurat/the Hornsent empire likely comes next as part of a likely "iron age" in conjunction with the Eternal Cities, perhaps the Numen (Stone Coffin connections, perchance?), since there do seem to be shared elements with these societies (Enir Ilim and the bodies that grow from its stonework has been compared with the Nox underground bodies we see in stone, inferring similar rituals), and this could also be when other relevant cultures began arising. Then came Marika of course, and the Age of the Erdtree eventually, the Golden Order etc., where I think the timeline does become a bit clearer as her imperial hegemony blossoms and her political dominance conquers many of these previous powers, from the dragons to the giants to the hornsent and so on. Even more nuance in mapping the timeline of events proliferates from this, but that would almost be another topic entirely, a kind of BC and AD of the before and after revolving around Marika's apotheosis at the Gate of Divinity, perhaps!
I'd love to know your thoughts on this, and well done for a fantastic video as usual, it's a treat watching your unique methodology and insight into the lore of Soulsborne works!
Yeah! I have a history video you can check out! But you pretty much summed up my feelings.
@@quelaag I'll definitely check out the history video, I've been a fan for a long time but must have missed it! Keep up the wonderful work!
Verdigris is a tied to the rot god im sure of it,
The set item description says it is covered in rust which links to decay, and it says it was given by an outer god as you said in the video.
Moore is linked with verdigris as you said and he is linked with the forager brood who are creatures born of rot and very closely associated with it.
hey, just a point about the sword of light/sword of darkness: wherever you find the original sword cannot be the place where you take the sheathe off, but the second pillar will always be the one which turns it into the sword of light, and the third will always turn it into the sword of darkness. for me, i found it in the ruins you say can be turned into the sword of darkness, then i turned it into the sword of light in rauh, but the place i had to go to turn it into the sword of darkness was within the catacombs accessible from the gravesite plain, across the great bridge and just off to the left before castle ensis. from what i've seen, the order is not pre-determined at all, and so you can physically acquire the sheathed sword in rauh, turn it into the sword of light at the ruins, and turn it into the sword of darkness in the catacombs, so trying to tie the specific locations into the sword of light and sword of dark based purely on where you get them is actually something that doesn't work.
Someone else made a point to say this!! I had no clue but its good to know !
As I said in another comment, there is actually a bit of a set order to it.
If you got the Sword somewhere else, the Rauh altar will always give the Sword of Light, and the Catacombs altar will always give the Sword of Darkness, with the Ruins of Unte altar filling the role of whatever is left. In other words, the Rauh altar can never be Darkness, and the Catacombs altar can never be Light, even though either could give the Stone-Sheated Sword if you visit them first.
So, even though the Rauh altar isn't necessarily the altar that gives the Sword of Light, Rauh is still the one most associated with Light out of the three locations. It very much seems like an intentional connection.
saving this for later because i trust you with this lore lol. i played an alchemist with forgotten ties to the old world and my questions basically drew me straight to the rauh ruins once the DLC came out. this knowledge of stone has me baffled and all i could glean from it is the concept of how energy is released when a bond is split, like nuclear fission.
it wohld make sense that the sun became a symbol of the arcane as the great tree took all of its glory and worship shifted away from the sun
my head now gripes against how to fit both Metyr and the ancient dragons and their own Elden Ring into the theory that the crucible is a "foundamental force of nature" and the Elden Ring a way to harness that power. Did the ancient dragons come first and Marika simply "rediscovered" whatever was taught to the dragons by Metyr? Did the elden beast fully grow only after Marika fleshed out her version of the Elden Ring or was it contemporary with the ancient dragons? And what about the Twinbird? Or was it Rauh that came first and not the dragons given how we do see human statue in Farum Azula? When, why and who sent the giant ship-like sarcophaguses crashing specifically only into the Cerulean Coast and into its inland-chasm?
i am so glad to hear you bring up the accents towards the end! godfrey having a cornish accent is also significant because devonia, siluria, and ordovis are not just named after the silurian, devonian, and ordovician periods but also after 3 pre-roman brythonic tribes, the silures, dumnonii, and ordovices - not sure if that's already obvious but i thought it was interesting:)
and- because i went to look this up afterwards. you may be interested to learn that silures comes from the word for seed, ordovices comes from the word for hammer, and dumnonii comes from the word for deep:)
I think the erdtree is the crucible but bound and controlled by the Elden ring. That’s why we see radagon “smithing” the ring.
In my game, i got the stone sheathed sword in the Rauh Ruins, because that's the first altar I found. After that, i found the Unte ruins, giving me the sword of light, and then the fog rift catacombs giving me the sword of darkness. I think it's dependent on which you interact with in what order. I'd also like to think that there's lore to it though, the whole "sword quest" is really strange to me.
Hmmm! Thats so weird!
@@quelaag I’ll definitely test it again on my ng+ run
This!! It's entirely dependent on which altar you visit first. Loved this video but this bugged me when the altars were used as evidence. The first altar you visit will always have the stone sheathed sword. I got my sword in unte.
The interesting part is that there is a bit of a set order to it.
If you got the Sword somewhere else, the Rauh altar will always give the Sword of Light, and the Catacombs altar will always give the Sword of Darkness, with the Ruins of Unte altar filling the role of whatever is left. In other words, the Rauh altar can never be Darkness, and the Catacombs altar can never be Light, even though either could give the Stone-Sheated Sword if you visit them first.
So, even though the Rauh altar isn't necessarily the altar that gives the Sword of Light, Rauh is still the one most associated with Light out of the three locations. It very much seems like an intentional connection.
Great video! Insightful extra details. I look forward to seeing how people expand using your work here. Brava 👏
I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere, but speaking of the Crucible, the three named Crucible Knights are named after periods of the Paleozoic Era (Ordovician, Silurian and now Devonian). This era is (or was) considered the time when life first appeared on Earth, the same way the Crucible is the source of life in Elden Ring.
Yes! I wanna make a Godfrey video soon talking about all of that and the storm king
Love the video! It's so informative hearing you piece together the lore and using art history to breakdown the meaning behind the art assets in the world.
My thought is that the Crucible is the fantasy/magical force of evolution in the world, clearly strongest here around Rauh (for whatever reason). It would also be interesting as the primordial form of the erdtree might be a reference to the evolutionary tree of life.
there are a lot of reference in elden ring from Zoroastrianism like tower of silence and serosh which was cool for me when i was playing the game .since you mentioned It in this video:
*design of the Placidusax and bayle's arena is like tower of silence . to give context, tower of silence was designed to prevent harming the nature and let the volture's and scavenger birds feed on the dead to help passing of the souls (there are dragons , drakes , and birds and uddead in those locations in game)
*serosh is an angle/demigod (yazata/Yazdan) of Conscience and is depicted as a lion , he is also referred to as a protector and is direct opposite of daeva (kind of like demon) of anger and rage. and that's what exactly he is doing to godfrey in game too which Is cool
*there is also a celebration in serosh's name in Zoroastrianism in which people wash themself in mind and body and kinda accept him in prayer (that's still happening in some parts) , I think that's what hoarah loux did scadutree chalice and accepted serosh to tame the rage and anger and became godfrey
*and messmer's design similarity to Zahhak
* thousand year promise of fight between dark and light and changing of the ages (Angra Mainyu VS Ahura Mazda)
there are a few more that I seen in game , love to see Zoroastrianism influence in my favorite game genre :)
I think the the reason Messmer’s ember works in the burrows is is reference in Wego’s death mask he became fixated on the spirituality of Messmer’s flame and used it to resurrect the dead. Maybe the spirituality of the his flame is in some way similar to the calculus.
Yeah I think it seems to be inverted abyss-death-essence to the spirit calculus' light-life-essence
I've thought ever since I heard about the frenzy flame lore that the lands between is literally a big corpse, I feel like some of this lore supports that idea
Just more fuel to my bonfire that the Loathsome Dung Eater was actually a knight of the Sun, like Solaire, but twisted and evil because his true Sun (Godwyn the Golden) had his light eclipsed and became a god of undeath.
Your hair!!
It looks cool
Please note: The protagonist's hair colour has no actual Lore reasons. It is merely an aspect of Fashion Souls
7:07 Goddamned Freya, read a book or something
I’m literally just putting together now that the black stone ruins in the base game are part of Rauh. How tf did I not see that before. Great vid
Coming back to this video, as Ziostorm just pointed out that the arrow/blade that pierced the great drake, seen in the shadowlands, has a green tint on the inside. I wonder if this weapon is a relic of the ancient gods, particularly the one of verdigris. That may just be able to reveal the time at which these ancient beings roamed the land of shadow. I wonder what exactly the forager brood & Moore may bring to our current lore understanding
I think of the crucible as a period of time where nature was sentient and not separated from society, like animism, and the golden order is a new form of understanding that is rigid, axiomatic and alien, that tries to supress the other forms of thought but historically sublates it's aspects
the golden order it's not just politically like christianism, but philosophycally too, its like the baconian method while the crucible can be viewed as perspectivism
like, the specimen storehouse is literally the cabinet of curiosities that bacon saw as a first step from gathering knowledge of nature to data collection
I loved this video so much! I know how much you worried over this video; it came out amazing! And I love the way your editor edited the video!
Something that the sun talk reminded me off is the Sun Realm Shield with the description of "Shield of honor depicting a city crowned by the sun. It has seen better days. Much like the wear upon the shield, the Seat of the Sun is long faded away." Would that mean the Rauh was related to the city crowned by the sun? or was it or like connected to it in some way? Though I dont think theres anything in Rauh that could be a Seat of the Sun cause that sounds like a throne almost.
Another thing to is when you mentioned the Celtic sun god of fire and how his fire is about healing it reminded me of the Sunwarmth Stone and Warming Stone both being described as incantations one of the Erdtree and the one of the two fingers but despite these descriptions they are both mention the sun Sunwarmth: "Sunlight feels all the warmer in darkened lands." Warming: "It's said that the Erdtree was once as warm as the gentle sun, and would gradually heal all who bathed in its rays." Both either being compared to the sun or mentioning how comforting the sun is. It could also imply that the ErdTree replaced the Sun or i guess the Sun God's role in this case. So I wonder if the Fell God used to be the Sun God and was more diverse in its capabilities even being able to heal and after said Sun God fell became what we know it as now, only capable of burning.
Also I find it kind of funny when you mentioned the Sun God fighting a serpent, the first thing that came to mind is Messmer having both a curse of fire and the abyssal snake in him I wonder if they're like competing with one another for hosts xD Tho when Messmer lets the serpent take him he still uses fire so maybe its more them working together now to take down a common enemy?
One final thing I'll mention if the Fell God is connected to the Sun and the Astrologers had alliance with them, the same Astrologers who would lead to the Carians being form. So basically the Moon and the Sun were basically allies in a way?
Yes! Sword of night and flame struck me as the original union of the sun and moon
@@quelaag Its makes me curious just what their relationship was like, was it a simple alliance or something more intimate?
Sick video
Also sick hair! Looks awesome!
May we usher in an age of eternal quelaag lore videos. It is canonically the best ending we can get.
Very interesting. I'm not a gigantic fan of ER's story (compared to Dark Souls), but you treat it like an archaeological comparative-religions tour, and it's very well presented!
I think it's a great idea to see "the one true god of this world", Marika, as symbolic of the christian (or broader monotheist/axial) revolution overtaking the old roman/egyptian/greek order of the Golden Empire. With respect to that, and the older "pagan" divinities being associated with horns, I'd like to point out: when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, he declared himself Son of Ammon. This lead to him being depicted with horns almost identical to Mohg's. Wiki's "Horns of Alexander" page shows a particularly stark example of coinage.
The association of ancient gods with horns is present in Semitic cultures (Egyptian influence being strong there) too, and the spiral columns in the horn-worshiping Belurat culture seem clearly to mirror the pillars in Solomon's Temple, as well as horns generally. This makes Marika's shunning of Mohg & Morgott particularly tragic, because they were actually closer to a more primal, perhaps more legitimate/natural divinity than her artificial, conquered one.
It's all very cerebral but at least it's fascinating.
Im probably being dumb and repeating what you already said lol, but at 17:22 the boat sculpture looks incredibly similar to one in Enir Ilim, specifically right at the first opening after you get teleported. Probably just more evidence of the hornsent inspiration from whatever culture was in rauh.
check out 4:32 !
Tower of silence looks like it could match Bayle's boss arena too. It also has that similar vibe as Placidusax's, but I can't tell if there is anything in those. It's just jagged and rough, but it looks similar, even has 'towers' with places for corpses as well.
If there are corpses in there they would be ash or mangled, I just can't tell and don't have no-clip. lol
My half-baked theory is that the Crucible is related to Chaos, and therefore the Three Fingers, or perhaps pre-frenzy Three Fingers. Wall of text incoming:
The Crucible is known for being a blending of all types of life, and chimeric features are revered in its worship. It is also meant to be a primordial form of life from which the Erdtree eventually took shape. Rauh shows adherence to all forms of life together, and the Hornsent take this worship to monstrous lengths by flaying and melding people within pots, thus rendering them "saintly" once they "meld harmoniously".
When Metyr fell to the world, she was broken, damaged and unhinged, and never again heard from the Greater Will, but reached out to Marika to form the Golden Order with the Erdtree as its symbol, making it so through conquest and carnage. The Golden Order is instead focused on separation and categorization, viewing aspects of the Elden ring such as Life and Death as distinct runes, thus sealing away the rune of Death, and eventually shattering the Elden Ring itself.
The Golden Order fundamentally shuns any Chimeric features, such as the Omen and Misbegotten as symbols of melding. They also cast out much of the diversity of Crucible worship, by exterminating the Hornsent, the Giants, and eventually sending the Tarnished out across the sea, along with Godfrey. Godfrey and his knights which seemed to worship or at least revere the Crucible. Eventually they would lie and say that the Erdtree, now shaped by the Golden Order, was eternal and unchanging, a lie mentioned in the Crimson Seed Talisman.
I think the Three Fingers were the Crucible itself or a manifestation of it before the Golden Order purged its followers and suppressed it, locking away the last of it underneath Leyndell. Perhaps this indignity made it transform from the Crucible to the Frenzied Flame, where it would reach out to the forsaken merchants and potential Lords such as Vyke and Midra. Shabriri takes over the bodies of the dead, blurring the line between life and death as they seek their Lord.
Chaos wants to burn and melt the entire world, returning all life, souls and difference to a single entity, incinerating all that divides and distinguishes, which could be seen as a return to the Crucible.
Perhaps Metyr is broken because she is incomplete: the Three Fingers could have been part of her that was lost or born from a part of her that was lost, and we never encounter. Perhaps the Greater Will is made of Chaos and Order, and when Metyr became broken, she was abandoned by it, since it knew this balance was forever lost.
the way the crucible is described feels a lot like the effects of radiation and the various mutations that occur. Something that always disturbed me about the Hornsent stuff is the Horned Bairn item which bluntly says that most infants born with these horns die, meaning very few actually survive being touched by the crucible to this degree" Adds to the general imperial vibe the Hornsent have
Rauh being this incredibly lush area full of life and diversity of forms reminds me a ton of The Zone seen in works like Stalker or even in variations of the idea like in Annihilation, these all heavily being inspired by the area around Chernobyl essentially being a nature refuge. It's just this is a medieval setting trying to make sense of these mutations. I don't doubt that Annihilation in particular was one of several visual inspiration for the art team for mobs like the Mimic Tears.
I think it's specifically talking about tangled horns
I finally have an answer RE: Patreon subscriptions, glad you're okay with that route because I want to keep my support spending centralized if at all possible. Thanks for the content!
The music that hits around 9:30 was so peak, youre doing the lords word
Verdigris is attributed to the Rot Outer God, as both rot and rust processes are oxidizing reaction.. slow burning. And most probably because devs wanted to include something positive attributed to the Outer God of Rot, since we only saw negatives in the base game. Connection to Moore supports this and verdigris armor allows him to work with scarlet rot (rot pots).
SO HAPPY someone mentioned Fibonacci/fractals in an Elden lore video finally!! It's been on my mind for WEEKS!
I felt insane saying it but I do think thats been a point of visual inspiration for them
@@quelaag Riding into the Finger Ruins of Rhea made me feel like part of a fractal, honestly. Looking down at my hands and then thinking about layers and layers of fingers unfurling... 😅
I was not expecting to see Alpha, Master of Beasts in this video lol. Loved the video!
Finally lore hunters are talking about Rauh! I swear the first time I rode through these ruins I had this weird gut feeling of knowing this place was extremely significant, but being unable to articulate why 🙃
Just before the DLC came out, I noted of certain similarities of possible inspiration of Messmer with Greek mythology of King Minos who was often represented as a cruel tyrant and a judge of the dead in his afterlife with a snake that was part of his body. Supposedly, Minos was the most ancient man to build a navy. Minos would be in contact of Zeus every 9 years for education purposes as son of Zeus and Europa, but also be caught up with laws of the time from Zeus. His son Androgeus won every contest hosted by Aegeas of Athens, resorting to jealous contestants murdering him, invoking Minos on a war path to those of Athens, starting with the death of King Nisus who was invincible so long as he had his crimson lock of hair that was cut in betrayal of his daughter Scylla who fell in love with Minos, but Minos was disgusted by her betrayal of her own father and had her punished be being bound to his ship until she drowned. He spared Athens for a yearly sacrifice of 7 young men and 7 young virgin maidens to be fed to his minotaur in a labyrinth built by Daedalus. Daedalus was genius architect whom knew all of Minos' secrets which he'd rather nobody knew, including the curse on Minos' wife that she would go to Daedalus for her newfound love for the white bull that Minos was supposed to sacrifice to Poseidon and switched out. Minos would die by being boiled alive in a bath once reaching to where Daedalus had fled in protection of a king, but later Daedalus would soon enough die by being bitten by a snake. Consistently in mentions of Minos is the mentioning of snakes including one slithering up to Polyidus which he killed and the snake's mate finding the body and bringing back an herb that brought it back to life, and Polyidus would go grab the same herb and use it on Minos' recently dead son to be released from entombment.
Interesting thing I noticed over time is that the periodic table of elements figures prominently in names and place names in deeply symbolic ways. Rauh is no exception. It is Au (gold) inside Rh (rhodium). Gold at the heart of a silvery transition noble element that cannot tarnish, and when heated turns a rosy color. It is also used to process various corrosive acids, including formic. There are many many other examples that act as clues to the nature of the item/NPC.
I think the scadutree is the flower crucible, represented by the shadow sunflower avatar. The ruins of rauh look like they could have sank from eastern liurnia, where the ancestral followers are by a minor erdtree and walking mausoleums. They consider horns buds, that can blossom like flowers
Elden John is also holding up a tree, with a sun near his feet. The crucible might have something to do with the fallen sun becoming a sunflower, with the erdtree now above it
How tf I’m supposed to pronounce “Rauh” keeps me up at night
I've always said "Ra-Ooh". Felt right to me.
Just pronounce it like scooby doo saying "ruh-oh"
@@Endemoniada I’ve been thinking it was ra-uh. I like yours better.
Cooking
Eating good
One thing I should mention is that the hornsent grandam has dialogue if you hurt her explicitly saying that the omen is a curse that was placed on Marika, seemingly separate from the horns of the hornsent
They’re separate, yet the same in a sense. The idea of horns in Elden Ring is intrinsically universal across every faction/religion in Elden Ring, this includes Hornsent and Omen, even the Ancestral followers and Spirits. The difference is that, unlike the Hornsent who cursed Marika’s children as Omen, Omen are more disordered chaotic sprouting of horns compared to the Hornsents more calculated, concentrated horn growth.
They’re not the same people, they’re not the same bloodline…but the same principles of Horngrowth applies to the Omen as they do with the Hornsent. The reason why the Hornsent, and Marika, refer to it as the “Omen curse” is because the chaotic sprouting of horns of the Omen is closest in nature to the Crucible itself, more than even the Hornsent. This means that the Hornsent summoning the “curse” of the Omen will, in the future, conflict with Marika’s ideals - as being an Order that attempts to stray away from the Crucible of life - marking it as a “curse.” Fast forward later, we see two Horned children of Marika being born with more chaotic energy than those that even came before Marika. This being referred to as a “Curse of the Omen” in the context of the Golden Order, the Omen Twins’ chaotic horngrowth were a sign of the forgotten crucible of Past.
This should give you an idea of how strong Hornsent are, and what their motives are. If Hornsent are able to so easily summon a more powerful and dangerous form of Horngrowth - in the Omen curse - it begs the question, why dont they do it for themselves? Well, the new Horned Bairn item in the DLC reiterates that most children born of the Chaotic Horngrowth, similar to the Omens, will die at a young age. Hence why, with the Hornsent, they “Ordered” the horns, cultivated the horns, concentrated the horns. If they wanted to, they could easily ignore the Order of their Horngrowth and opt for chaotic Horngrowth of the Omen, but they know that it’d kill them. This is important because it tells us that the Hornsent not only would curse the Erdtree’s lineage, but they knew that cursing them with the Omen curse would end with the inevitable death of their babies almost immediately after birth. Only few would survive.
Cursing the Erdtree’s lineage out of revenge, killing their babies out of spite
I definitely see the whole thing as a play on wishing for genetic purity (unalloyed gold) since a lot of later golden order stuff deems red haired, horned, crucible related beings to be heresy. I think there is disdain for a group that came before her (because of the belurat inquisitors) and so then she subjects others to that very same hatred.
The story is about the cycle of suffering. I dont know if the details of the curse matter at the end of the day - what matters is Marika trying to outrun this previous era that she's scared of.
I went down a bit of a rabbit hole last week and I'm pretty sure the spirit calculus is also referencing shirikodama. Both are hard stones suffused with spiritual power and a bad smell. The biggest difference is that it seems from my bit of research that only humans have shirikodama and the calculi are only obtained from animals.
I also think I figured out why horns are the only aspect of the crucible that calls and houses spirits. As the Rauh burrows show us there needs to be a physical void for the spirits to inhabit, and horns are hollow! I believe that the horns call spirits because they have room to house them, and when the space is filled more growths sprout to accomodate more spirits. After all, spirits need guidance to find their way to where they belong. If they lack that guidance, it makes sense they would just chill in the nearest available space.
Ape escape music and elden ring lore 🥹
That's the where the music is from! I knew ps1 bu4 couldn't remember where thank you!
@@talusslope ua-cam.com/video/_UIdbQcBX_g/v-deo.html
The Ape Escape Dark Ruins song playing in the background is a genius touch.
Ahh!! I know you said you were super nervous for this video but WOW really good stuff!! it came out incredible! 👍🏾👍🏾
Got jumpscared by the jojo reference
I’ve been waiting all month for this WOOHOOO!!!!!
Wow you're the first person I've heard talk about the fell god being the sun god, I've been wondering about that forever
yeah it seems more apparent than ever now with the connection between the dung eater, the fire giants, the fell god, the fell omen, the fell curse. And the furnace visage depicting the fell god having a sun-horn-head. its fell all the way down.
I NEEDED THIS VIDEO
It reminds me of the animals all bowing on the main ship in the fissure. As if the Master of Beasts was what became the putrescent knight.
Great video, love the editing
I came so quick, the long awated video!
Quelaag been severely underrated for a while
You changed your hair! It looks excellent!
Are the Harpies and Harpy Mothers (I can't remember their names), being punished (or treated as criminals) since they were thorns. And does the minor connection to the ruins explain why the Mothers (or Elders, I guess) can use the ghost pots?