@@SmoughTown yup, I feel like the theme of self-determination or “free will” is relatively under-unexplored by the lore community despite being a major part of the game. To me it’s the predominant theme in humanity’s relationship with the Gods.
It's an interesting touch, but I wonder if the fact her soul is colored light blue, like the victims of the Starlight Shards potions and Fia's necromancy, means that the stars have accounted for even this and ensured they control her.
@@nightscout9979 correct me if I'm wrong because i haven't played in a few months but didn't Selivus create her doll body? I can't remember where I'm getting that from but it could definitely pose even more interesting questions on why her skin and soul color is blue like you mentioned. We do already know how into fate and the control of fate Selivus is after all.
@@robot1ger298 It's not confirmed who created Ranni's doll body, but it's likely that she got a Preceptor or Albinauric servant (such as Pidia) to create it using one of the puppet soldiers as a base.
This video is about Ranni, but it opens my mind to Rykard's obsession with family and the union. It seems to be that Radagon departure hits these two siblings the hardest.
@@LordKazake443 Radahn reminds me of a young boy aspiring to be like his father. Loved his hair because it was the same as his fathers, loved and looked up to Godfrey and his strength and loved his horse so much he learnt gravity magic to keep him around
Tbh Rykard seems to be close with the golden order BEFORE or at least work for it since he was the head inquisition, huh he seemed to be pretty close with Marika/Radagon or Radagon actually took all of the kids when he left Rennala
About Ranni's parentage. I have to say I'm very pleased with how you handled it. You acknowledged the competing theories, noted your opinion and why you thought that, but didn't insult anyone who thought differently. I think the reason I found this so enjoyable was because I recently watched a lore video that the person stated would only talk about proven canon and make no leaps in logic. They then declared that Ranni absolutely came from the egg and that anyone who thought differently must have less then a 2nd grade level of reading comprehension. It really soured me on the entire video, so I really wanted you to know how appreciative I am that you were respectful of other people's viewpoints.
Hey I really appreciate this comment - I really do try to be as even handed as I can and at all times acknowledge my own preconceptions when handling competing theories. Thank you so much, and so glad you enjoyed the content.
I want to tell you that you are absolutely right. The first time I read your comment I did not get it, but since then I have seen the beginning of the video you're talking about, before coming back to watch this one again. I must say that I was absolutely triggered by the "2nd grade" thing. This came across as arrogant, and wasn't justified, as the guy really did not understand the sentences he mentioned. The text is : " Miquella and Malenia are both the children of a single god. As such they are both Empyreans, but suffered afflictions from birth. " I think you understood, like me, that it means that children of a single god are all empyreans. NOT that all empyreans are children of a single god, which is what that person then stated (multiple times), while insulting those who DID stick to the original meaning of the text without extrapolating. I found it so, so rude and dumb, especially while presenting it as "unambiguous". The worst part is how he frequently says that he doesn't understand why so many people discuss that. He is not even capable of imagining any point of view different from his own. I can understand why you would sit through the entire video, but as biased as it is I don't think it's worth anybody's time. Your comment made me feel a lot better about my reaction to that video, so thank you so very much for that.
@@Elbadilloo When someone so deeply insists on only their interpretation being correct, they're tripping themselves over their own ego. It's really poisonous to discussion, as they marry their own self-worth with being right, and any alternative view is now turned into a personal attack regardless if the people disagreeing do so with the utmost charity. It's doubly sad when it happens to games where the creator's intent is to figure it out for themselves. If FromSoft wanted you to have canon, they would've given one. Instead, they create vivid and evocative imagery, create as many loose ends, contradictions and ambiguities as possible and just sit back and let you have fun with it. Their direct design goal is to create an ambiguous text that can be interpreted and reinterpreted.
@@ElbadillooI am really glad I don't know who you are talking about. That's such a shit take on a fictional universe, especially one as open to interpretation as this.
A little side note from my perspective. I feel like Rennala wasn’t as heart broken over Radagon as the story tries to make you believe. It feels more likely to me that the rune of the unborn was Rannis great rune, and the only thing that was left of her on top of the divine tower. Rennala clutches the rune to this day trying to rebirth Ranni. However since Rannis soul is not present she is only able to create failed clones of herself. My evidence for this is pretty in your face honestly. When you fight Rennala the shadow that leaks from the rune is Ranni herself defending her mother. Also none of Rennalas mannerisms tend toward a heart broken lover, rather a heart broken mother. In conclusion I think that Rennala is actually broken from Rannis death and not Radagon leaving, although perhaps both of these things could be contributing factors.
You make a good point but it's easily explainable. When a man shuns a women who they had kids with the women seeks out the unconditional love of her children. She bore them in a time when their father still loved all of them and they certainly didn't leave her (yet) and if they do they won't do it of their own free will (or for another more beautiful and powerful woman). The fact that she thinks Ranni got killed and Radagon is safe shacked up with another woman is why she's so desperate to rebirth Ranni and probably pretty over Radagon at this point.
While a really interesting theory Rannis rune is most likely the one we can see on the moon. Since Gideon tells us that Ranni cast aside her rune and we can see a Rune on the moon.
I mean rennala basically lost her entire family. Her husband abandoned her, one of her son's basically has brain rot, and the other is a man eating snake junkee and her youngest is dead (from her perspective). Her madness and obsession in rebirth is a bit understandable after that.
@@jankieek8218 If you could highlight it for those of us that can't see it at all I'd appreciate it. I'm not saying I doubt you. Just I literally just don't see it.
@@strisk2388 well youtube won't (imgbb) allow me (com) to post a link so that's the best I can do (/Cv9MVXS) if it won't be clear just tell me and I will try to find a better pic of it.
Ranni is a fascinating character. As with most characters in Fromsoft titles, she doesn't fit neatly into a category. She isn't what most would consider evil, but she definitely wasn't a "good guy". She has loyal and sympathetic followers(mostly) and she may have had very good reasons to do what she did, but she is also responsible for the assassination of Godwyn and the subsequent corruption of the Lands Between via Deathroot. She is a charismatic and violent revolutionary who is willing to kill any and all who stand in her way of bringing about her "Age of the Stars".
Yeah, Rennala uplifted them to royalty meaning that the house existed but only as a noble one. I think of it like house targaryen, a noble house which became royalty after the actions of its leader, in this case Aegon I
Ranni's hands stacked on top of each other are symbolic of stillness, calm, and reflection. Ranni's dark moon and her dark path of the Empyrean emphasize coldness, loneliness, and introspection. The peaceful repose of her hands signify the deep reflection of self and her situation that led to her grand scheme.
She locks away Her ring and inscribes it with her conviction and vow to never be married and walk the dark path alone... Yet that changes when she meets you. Truly our tsun blue wife
She could also be the first queen, and the last regent, of the family if she was preceded only by kings, and was granted her title due to her remarkable abilities.
i thought this too, and also considered that while caria as a family had been matriarchal with women as heads of household, rennala is the first true queen of caria because her prowess with magic and full moon powers took caria from a noble house to a royal one
The language is a bit vague as there is a line of queens being mentioned, but with no clarification if these were ruling queens or consorts. Rennala's role and the matriarchal nature of her family would suggest any other queen being mentioned would be a ruling monarch, not just a partner, since a "line of queens" suggests the succession is clearly on the female side.
Ranni's questline is by far the best in the game and the most fleshed out and important one as well in my opinion. You learn so much about her character and her followers, which really made it such a joy to work through.
Dude thank you so much for using the Japanese translation in your analysis. So many interpretations of Ranni’s motives made her seem like she was intentionally trying to drive the Lands Between into this desolate existence when the original clearly shows she’s speaking of herself and absolutely not interested in gods -including herself - interfering in human affairs. I wish the localization wasn’t so drastically off because it makes the ending much more ominous than it’s supposed to be. I think the crime of Godwyn’s murder honestly speaks to just how depraved her existence was bound in that she literally has to essentially “kill” her sibling to begin the process to freeing herself. The path to Elden Lord is a ruthless one in all irony shaped by the “flames of ambition” that every actor, including the Tarnished, has to engage in to claim the throne.
Thank you my friend and it's my pleasure - I think the translation will really help people understand what is actually going on. That is absolutely true and given her ties via being an 'empyrean' a great sacrifice was always going to be required.
Not gonna lie, as someone who completely understood Ranni's character before ever reading the translation, that whole "controversy" convinced me of nothing but the sad state of literacy amongst the vast majority of people.
While i admittedly have a hard time of understanding old English, I didn't think it was ominous at all. It was clearly meant to be hopeful but it just wasn't worded properly. Like what was mentioned in the video, it seemed like Ranni would take everyone on a journey through space lol. Which admittedly had me scratching my head. I didn't view it as a bad thing though. So, basically the world will be bathe in the darkness of night but with the light of the moon. Sounds beautiful.
I've always loved Ranni's characterization, and the whole of her questline and those surrounding it, but I've found the Age of Stars ending a sore spot, being so cryptic and hard to understand the outcome of it from the dialogue Ranni offers. However that last segment really shone the light I needed to get what's going on. Also I love the idea that the Three Sisters area was a place dedicated to the Carian heiresses, (assuming there were ever more beyond Ranni) it's like a massive, sprawling backyard Rennala gave her daughters to play in, with their own personal wizard towers for independent sorcery-study time
I had the same issue when I finished her quest line. After some research, the ambiguity of her ending seems to stem from bad translation (a particular sore spot in ER in general). The Japanese version is pretty explicit that the ending results in Ranni and her consort leaving the lands between and, most importantly, taking the gods with them. As someone who was personally affected negatively by the gods, and as someone who has kept her sanity through the shattering and seen the hardship that the gods have wrought, Ranni just wants a world where people are free to do as they please without the gods interfering. It’s rather beautiful, as it’s a macrocosm of her decision to kill her real body (a puppet of the gods) and make her own body (a puppet for herself alone). She just wants everyone else to have the independence that she has made for herself. Sad that Godwynn had to die to accomplish this tho…
@@jackweaver1846 My atheist ass had cottoned to the independence angle from several (sub) angles, but the puppet thing is now obvious thanks to your pointing of it. From one internet stranger to another, thanks
Thanks for the effort man. As someone who loves the game and wants to learn the lore, but works/goes to school full time, your videos have been the main way I bridge the gap because of my time constraints. You’re a huge asset to the elden ring community.
One thing I noted playing the game that I haven't seen anyone else comment on is that there's two competing ways to read one's fate in the lands between. There's the stars of the astrologer's and the Carian royal family, and also the palmistry of the Finger reader crones, which seems connected to Erdtree worship and the Golden Order. The two as such seem at least potentially to be at odds with one another, perhaps even predicting different fates. No idea what such a thing could mean, but it's a thing I noticed.
I have a theory that Radahn, Rykard, Ranni were actually working together. The reason why Radahn halted the stars was for her preparation of Ranni's Age Of Stars, however after he got rotted by Malenia so he couldn't complete his task, which meant he sadly needed to be put out of his misery. In the Volcano Manor, Rykard has a picture of Radahn. Iji made all of the weapons the Redmane Army used. Jerren knew about Ranni's whole plan already, and was completely fine who btw was loyal to all the Carian Family. This would mean that Radahn knew about Ranni's plan. If Radahn was part of the Golden Order he would have been targeted by the Black Knife Assassins by Ranni. Rykard was gifted the Blasphemous Claw by Ranni to defend himself against Maliketh. And we can see plenty of Abducator Virgins in Caria, and even a special Abducator Virgin in Radahn's Castle, and in Caria Manor who is defending the Nox Bladewhip. Rykard's Finger Creepers are all over Caria Manor defending it.
I agree that Rykard was probably working with Ranni, but Radahn was definitely working against her. Sellen says that "the stars alter the fate of the Carian royal family," and "if general Radahn were to die, the stars would resume their movement and so too would Ranni's destiny." Radahn stopping the stars wasn't to prepare for the age of stars it actively prevented it, proven by the fact that you need to kill Radahn to get the age of the stars ending. I am interested to know about Jerren's knowledge of Ranni's plan though that would certainly bring some interest to this.
I agree about Rykard though there is no way she trusted him after he lost his mind and given enough time he would likely have became a problem for her as he just wants to consume. Regardless of what ever their initial loyalty’s to her it is sad that both brothers became more animal then man by the time of their deaths.
You make it sound like everyone put their weight behind Ranni, this snow witch that I do not think gets much admiration throughout the lands really. What I think more than likely happened is that everyone in the Carian family pushed their muscle behind Radahn. To me it makes narrative and intuitive sense. Radahn is an incredibly practiced and powerful magic user even if he uses perhaps a less respected style of magic. He obviously has a cult of charisma around himself considering how loyal his army is to him. He's also a respected general, so it makes sense you would trust him with your forces. He also probably has connections with the golden lineage considering his appreciation of Godfrey. During a time of crisis a lot of people imagine someone like him. He is the perfect, powerful, strong-man type leader who was probably very charming before the Shattering War, and that if you saw him you'd think he could bring the gavel down and get people working together again, stop all this factionalism. Judging from one of the sword monuments, Radahn stopped the stars in order to halt the fate that would befall Sellia. Ironically of course Sellia is still destroyed by the Scarlet Rot, with at most a fraction of the town being populated by spirits and mannequins. It seems like the stars get their way no matter what. Quite fatalistic. Ranni likely just took advantage of the situation, realizing her brother was essentially dead which meant she didn't have to argue a case to release the stars to him, just have someone kill his insane corpse. I doubt Jerren had much knowledge of Ranni's plan, he isn't present during the ghost Skype meeting and is probably just a reliable on the ground type guy loyal to the Carian family in general.
@@jatgreen2995 Radahn halting the stars was to give them time to prepare. And the reason the stars are still halted is because Radahn is insane now, and can't let the stars go.
@@gummybearchewy5444 Yeah, Rykard became actually crazy with his whole wanting to devour everything. I imagine the plan was for Rykard to simply get more powerful, not insane. Rykard went crazier as time went on.
I always thought "fear, doubt, and loneliness" was also referring to what will happen without a tangible order. While every other ending leads to another society where people are governed by divine force (or eradicated by the Frenzied Flame), Ranni's leaves a hypothetical world where people have to govern themselves because they have no god to lead them.
This is exactly how I read it! When she says that she will make the things which were previously certainties into impossibilities, I took that also to mean that all of these things that people used to tangibly associate with the order would now be forced into intangibility. It's basically like God leaving the world, and about what that entails for the people who used to worship it.
Exactly, literally from the Greater Will ie the collective unconscious towards individualistic self determination for all. True freedom, and the lonely burden that entails.
Her words make a lot of sense when you pay close enough attention to understand that people living under the Golden Order had their entire lives literally pre-written (and readable by the finger-readers).
Kinda late to this, but one of the best things I liked about Ranni's quest is how our player character's relationship with her develops. Remember that we only either stumble upon her by coincidence or through Rogier and yet as we do her quest you can feel a bond between Ranni and the Tarnished. Some of the evidence to this being that Ranni says that she will add our name along Blaidd and Iji. This not only shows how much she trusts us but also that she sees us as equals to her childhood friends and even a stepbrother in Blaidd's case. Also that she trusts us to relay her farewell to them both. After that she disappears, and Iji states that everything from now is something that she alone must journey through. However, Our character refuses to let her be alone, grabs the ring from the academy(the key to which btw, is given to us by Ranni even though in the description of the key, it said that she discarded it along with her flesh), and puts it on her finger, therefore becoming her consort and vowing to spend the thousand year voyage to the stars with her. Clearly she is pleased and touched(I don't know if she gave us the key so that we do marry her or if it is just a decision by the tarnished, the description of the key somewhat implies that she wanted us to do it or maybe she just gave us the fancy looking ring as a reward for our services). She shows her acceptance of us as her consort by giving us our shining moonlight, to remain by our side forever AND if we go back to her rise and talk to her, she will call us her one and only Lord and also changes the line "My fair consort, eternal" to "My dear consort, eternal" in the ending I know I might be reaching a bit here but this is how I interpreted the questline. I just really like we go from just doing errands to getting so devoted to her that we willingly leave everything behind to accompany her in the void of space, it gets better if we meet her through Rogier's quest because we initially think of her as a suspicious character. Finally I would like thank you for reading this gargantuan essay. Forgive any reading grammatical mistakes English isn't my first language and I hope you had fun reading this.
This probably sums up why i like her quest so much. though I didn't find her through rogier, i did already have the goal of betraying the two fingers, defying the greater will, and killing *all* the demigods. (and being someone who played blind on launch i had no idea it was something we'd get to do) So when i met her in the tower i decided to use her to further my goal but as the quest went on i grew fairly attached to all the characters related to the quest (except seluvis naturally). Honestly i thought the quest was over after giving her the finger slaying blade, so i decided to explore around and then found the portal in renna's rise. I went through it and was happy i finally found the way to explore the rest of the ansel river, but i also found a minature ranni. When i rested at the grace i found it funny we had the option to talk to it, so i did about once per grace as i explored. Then, at the grace just before the fight with the wolf of the two fingers, i clicked talk to the minature ranni once more... And it spoke back. I was immediately called crazy for incessantly talking to a doll, probably the funniest thing that happened in the game to me. then i did the rest of the quest, as well as die a ton because I didn't level vigor and i was fighting astel. I guess i never did reach my goal of killing all the demigods, or maybe she doesn't count since she became a full god?
Well stated and supported, we really do grow more intimate with her along her questline, in some ways it feels like a much more fleshed out version of what they wanted to do with Annalise the Vileblood queen in Bloodborne.
@@azure4622 same I thought I was going crazy while playing it blind I didn’t like the fingers at all and as I got closer to her doll I was thinking… this quest feels a lot like corpse bride and I looked it up was right 😂 Got her ending and literally have no desire to do the other quest lines
I think an alternative explanation as to how Renalla is both the first and last queen of the House of Caria is that it's exactly as it says. Renalla swept in, astounded sorcierers everywhere with her incredible magic-negating powers of the Full Moon, and set up "The Carian House" to be a massive and influential force going forward. She is the first queen because she made this awe-inspiring House out of practically nothing at all. But, before they could even get a generation into the bloodline, the Rune of Death was separated, death stopped working right, and now she has carried on as the only queen of Caria since ita founding. Eventually when Radagon left her, she became how she is now, the last queen of a basically dead family. Saying she is the first queen, and the last queen highlughts how she built a grand and powerful legacy due to her achievements, only for it all to collapse around her within her own life. The House of Caria was so short lived, that she was both the first and the last queen.
Iji says Ranni is the first heir in the carian royal line. And when we suggest that Renalla may be a Numen, than she could just be long lived. I think that when ranni refers to Renalla as the last queen in the cutscene is also her way of stating, that she is not going to be a queen of carian herself.
@@leohirtsche8341 True, she already went to such extreme lengths to rid herself of her "destiny" as an Empyrean. Renalla's dying wish for Ranni to "weave thy night into being" sounds like she had accepted Ranni's decision to not carry on as an heiress, and that she'd rather Ranni start a new "House of the Dark Moon" rather than carry on her own "House of the Full Moon".
18:46 Iji also says that "The fate of the Carian royal family is guided by the stars. As is the fate of Lady Ranni, first heir in the Carian royal line"
I always thought that the Lucarians didn't exactly get disappointed in Renalla's reaction to Radagon leaving, more like they realised that they can be rid of her without her retalliating and took the opportunity. Hence "Not a champion at all" = "Oh, she won't actually crush us into a fine paste". Perhaps the sorcerers did not want to abandon their astrology in favour of moon magic?
One theory I heard on Tumblr ties the revolt of the Cuckoos to, of all things, the Albinauric Pot. A heavily abridged version of the theory: the Albinauric Pot makes it clear that the Cuckoos utterly despise those that live out of the normal cycle of life and death. So what if the reason the Cuckoos revolted was not because of Rennala’s grie (or at least, not only because of that), but because Radagon gave her the Egg, which she became obsessed with? It allows people to be reborn, thus circumventing the normal cycle. This, in turn, implies that leaving behind the Egg was not out of sentiment, but an intentional act of sabotage-neutralizing Rennala so that she could not become a threat to the Erdtree once again, as she once had been in the past.
I’m not quite sure this has been mentioned before, but I think Radagon breaking the vow he made to Rennala directly lead to Malenia and Miquella’s curses Miriel mentioned how Rennala and Radagon’s fates were linked by the vow, and that by breaking it, there would be consequences So in a similar way to how karma works, Miquella and Malenia’s fates were twisted as a result
It's very much possible , especially since the curse was seemingly caused by outer gods which have relation with stars and the cosmos , and the stars command fate of the carians
Either that or "inbreeding" leading to flaws in birth. Would Self-cest be inbreeding? cloning? I wonder how that would end up working out, as hermaphroditic animals exist, and seem to get along just fine. lol
@freedomofspeechenjoyer5443 it's true sorcery is the study of the stars but that doesn't mean the opposite is true and stars are limited to just sorcery , hell it might be the classic demon souls thing where you find out miracles and sorceries have the same origin being the stars if we could consider the greater will as an outer god , so even though yes they don't necessarily have to do with the stars , the outer gods still have relations with it , for example the elden beast is described as being sent as " a golden star bearing a beast " , astel is a " bastard of the void " and was sent down by some entity , even with radahn halting the stars it seemed like an active battle of some sort rather than just stopping some rocks floating in space , also outer gods are very much lovecraftian creatures , so it's safe to assume some space stuff And the outer gods have to exist in space somewhere , so whether they are stars or live on stars or the void they're there somewhere . Now i admit we don't have a lot of info to go on and we only know like 3 or 4 outer gods but i think there's a link there
@@etherflask6380 there are arguments to be made against inbreeding being the reason of the curse. Martin is a very repetitive writer and for example the Targaryen incest in ASOIAF doesn't have the same genetic issues that it has in our world. Some Targaryen go mad or appear sickly but that can be more easily explained with the death of dragons as incest was practiced for centuries and their madness is almost exclusively dragons related. And in ASOIAF Targaryens are often compared to gods, just like Marika/Radagon. There are also Morgott and Mogh who are also "cursed", while Male is curse is connected to the interference of another god. The incest seems the more likely reason but there may be more to it
Well, Marika was literally the chosen one. Theoretically there wasn't supposed to be a "finality" Marika was the eternal queen. Ironically enough when things went to hell the 'God' that was suppose to govern everything fled.
Interesting tidbit I heard last night while playing actually. If you've met Iji and entered Rannis service then talk to Jirren before the festival has started there's a dialogue option "about Iji" where Jirren tells you to relay a msg back to Iji, something along the lines of "when the festival begins Rannis fate will begin to move again". This ties into Ranni being held in Stasis until Radahn is defeated
Been waiting for this!! Ranni is one of my favourite fictional characters in any medium, ever. Powerful, extremely clever, determined, no nonsense character who commands respect. She is a sight to behold.
Regarding multiple Carian princesses - it’s probably referring to Rennala having sisters, instead of more daughters. Sisters to the Queen could very well have been bestowed the title of Princess upon Rennala’s accession. Tangentially related to that, the House of Caria was probably a noble family before it became the royal house, meaning it likely had more members beyond Rennala’s immediate family (see: the many chairs in the moongazing grounds area of Caria Manor). Sadly, however, it seems all the other Carians are gone by the time our Tarnished enters the story. This is mostly speculation on my part though. Still not done with the video but enjoying it thus far (:
Yes! It would make the most sense imo for the previous princesses to have been Rennala's sisters or other close kin, since there's no mention of her having other children than the three we know of. I actually think Sellen was one of the "three sisters", so maybe Renna was the third one.
Yes, thats a very good point. Another one was that Rennala might have had more daughters with Radagon but those daughters were killed. We know that there are several unamed demigods that were killed in the night of the black knives besides Godwyn, and other Carian princesses could be among them.
I like to think that becoming Ranni’s consort, the tarnished becomes her family as her spouse. With everyone in her close circle gone, you only have each other and set off on a 1000 year journey into the stars. The closest thing to a fairy tale happily ever after. Also, talking to Iji, as her warden (closest thing to a farther to Ranni), entrusts her to you, almost like giving you his blessing. 🥰
Ehhhh, I dun know, especially playing as a woman, and to the fact that she is very cold. Even as her 'lord' she looks at you more as a pet than anything. Divorcing her as soon as the age of stars finishes before she can do it to me first.
@@TheAnimaAnimal we are talking about the same Ranni that by mistake said that you (the player) might join the people she cares about and after that was telling player to forget they ever heard that ? "Blaidd, and Iji both... Art willing to give too much to me. Yet they both understand. What lieth beyond the dark path... That I must betray everything, and rid the world of what came before. Ah, should I add thee to the list? Another one, kind of heart. As kind of heart as they. Ach, this form hath loosened my tongue. I've let slip too much. Forget what thou'st heard. Forget." Plus if Seluvis observations are correct Rannis icy personality is a persona she took on as necessary for everything she has to do (before the player shows up she thinks she will have to go on her 1000 years journey alone so she is distancing herself from everyone) "The dead-eyed doll lets down her guard in your presence, rather remarkably. Though she might dip her hands in the dirt, and feign that icy persona...she's a frail, gentle girl at heart." And how did you come into a interpretation that she sees her lord as a "pet" ? After you betray(attack her) after giving her the ring she talks about how perhaps she does deserve that because she surrended herself to a delusion with the context that it is right after players marriage with Ranni she obviously means the marriage as the delusion that she surrender to. "What hopest thou to profit? Hmph. So, this is the measure of my Lord? Perhaps it is precisely what I deserve. ...For surrendering myself to delusion." Also I might be biased but I don't think Ranni calling the player her "one and only Lord" and her "Dear Consort Eternal" is her being cold and seeing them as a pet.
I love the theory that Ranni's four arms are part of the homage to her mentor who may have been a spirit caller. They have four arms, blue skin, and her spirit caller bell may have been passed down to Ranni and that's why she has one.
Hey Smough, don’t think I’ve ever commented in 6/7 years of watching your lore videos (ds1/2 and the hype building to 3s release date, then all the videos you made following it) spanning from me graduating high school, going into college, starting a family, serving in the military and now transitioning back to civilian life. Just wanted to say it’s been a treat consistently having your lore videos for half a decade to enjoy. Makes me proud of you, oddly enough, to have viewed your journey as a creator and the refinement of your work. Wholeheartedly, you succeeded in establishing yourself as the top lore master over Elden Ring and even compared to the original lore gurus of soulsborne games in the past; the quality, interconnected lore, and the quantity+depth of lore you provide is superior to the old lore videos of years back. Thank you for giving something to spend my free time on dude, you kick ass and hope life is going well! Peace oot ✌🏻
Hey James, this is an incredible post. I am so grateful to have had you as a subscriber all that time - it's been some time eh. At the stage when I started the channel, I had just left College and was really finding my feet in the world. Incredible that you've done so much with your life in that time. Thank you so much for sharing that James, I am grateful and I really wish you and your family all the best
The ending makes so much sense when explained like that, how Ranni herself would go alone into the chill night into fear and loneliness to govern the world in the Age of Stars. This could also be supported by the description of the Dark Moon Ring, which says: "A warning is engraved within; 'Whoever thou mayest be, take not the ring from this place, the solitude beyond the night is better mine alone.'" Ranni knows what lies ahead and thinks it better for her to go alone, but we become her consort anyways, and she "is pleased, however. Thou'rt a fitting choice." At least she won't be completely alone in her Order.
I only can imagine the dynamic between Ranni and the Tarnished because she is this deep, smart, philosophical, and calculating woman who essentially caused the Shattering while our Tarnished is this nonchalant, carefree, and gullible brute who only cares about his weapons, his armors, and his horse. Like, the typical scenario in the household would be Ranni rabbling for hours about the meaning of the universe just to turn around to see that the Tarnished didn’t get any of that and was playing wrestling with his mimic tear.
Smough, your interpretation of Ranni's ending cleared up so much. Thank you so much, I now feel I actual grasp electing 4 armed blue doll to be the queen of the universe.
Really liked your reasoning when it comes to Rennala and Ranni's relation, it makes a lot of sense. That said, regardless of whether they are blood related or not, I always interpreted their relationship as the closest out of all of Rennala's with her children. The fact that she taught Ranni about moon magic, the fact that Ranni keeps an illusion of Rennala at her most powerful, but most importantly the way Rennala seems to try and use her egg to revive Ranni (who cannot be revived, as she is not dead) all speak to the close bond they had. At least that's how I see Rennala's obsession with the egg. It's definitely important because it was given to her by Radagon, but it seems more like a vessel for their combined magical or biological essence. And what do you get when you combine these two people? A very powerful child. Hell, the game literally has another character who is supposed to be reborn from an egg, though that one also ended disastrously.
Excellent video! I especially think you nailed it about her ending. As for her four arms, it definitely indicates her incredible ability to have set so much of everything into action, while I've also read that the use of blue for the skin of gods in ancient Indian art is bc they somehow understood that the blue of the sky and water is an illusion of light, and thus is symbolic of "the incomprehensible." Simultaneously, it also ties the crone at least to the Wraith Callers, who primarily live in Liurnia, have blue skin, and four arms. The presence of Revenants in the ruins there and on the Moonlight Plateau have me thinking that perhaps they were the "Moonfolk," which would explain how Ranni encountered one of them who happened to be a master of cold sorcery, and connected to the Dark Moon. Whatever happened to all of them that turned their royalty into cursed monstrosities, and the rest of them into bizarre beings with tools that can summon the same wraiths as Omens, is anyone's guess...
Also interesting given that Ranni gives us the spirit calling bell and Wraith Callers wield bells. Could just be coincidence, but I found it interesting
@@jackweaver1846 Yeah that too! There's a whole "spirit" underbelly of the Lands Between that's never directly addressed, and I find that so interesting. The bells, the wraiths, the blue spirits, the snails, the Helphen Steeple... Add that to the long list of dlcs we need lol
I think one thing that's missed here is that tanni may have four arms because she is a composite of two beings, ie 2+2 arms = 4 arms...pretty simple explanation tbh
@@SmoughTown It's also possible that Ranni's teacher was the spirit tuner that Master Hewg was indebted to long ago. One of his dialogue lines mentions a detail about them having the same eye color as Roderika. I used Zullie the Witches videos examining the NPC models in Elden Ring to compare each character's eyes and found that Ranni’s and Roderika’s eyes were similarly greenish blue. This may support the theory that Ranni’s teacher was a Wraith Caller as it isn’t a huge leap in logic to think that one would eventually learn to become a spirit tuner. Ranni close-up: ua-cam.com/video/c2yYt42u_eo/v-deo.html Roderika close-up: ua-cam.com/video/hu_Q9TwF5Xc/v-deo.html The snowy crone being a spirit tuner and wraith caller would also tie into your point regarding Ranni’s relation to the occult. Also, if we assume that the snowy crone was the one that gave Ranni the Spirit Calling Bell, that would make her Torrent's former master, which could start to explain why Melina is in possession of Torrent if the Snowy Crone is related to Master Hewg and by relation to Queen Marika. Additionally, there seems to be a connection between ice/cold to ghosts/spirits. The Consecrated Snow Fields having those spirit animals, the ghost flame being described as cold, Death’s Poker applying frost, and the frozen variants of Jellyfish all seem to hint at the connection. This could further support the theory. Finally, the Godskin Swaddling Cloth is interestingly found in the Spirit Caller Cave located on the Mountaintops of the Giants, somehow connecting spirit callers with the Gloam Eyed Queen. This could start to explain Ranni's knowledge of the rite to creating god-slaying weapons as the only other weapon we know of that has that adjective is the Godslayers Greatsword.
I always felt that the Giant's flame was the counterpart to the Moon in my experience playing Elden ring. Throughout the story I never felt as if the Erdtree really had a counterpart, per-se, only a bunch of rivals. It was really like Christianity in that regard, as historically, Christianity faced a large amount of resistance from the many and varied native cultures that it eventually steamrolled over through sheer holy military power. Anyways, the Giantsflame most certainly somewhat fits the bill of a counterpart to the power of the moon, especially as it's sigil very much has a lot of sun iconography and even imagery in it's spells, such as with the Flame of the Fell God. From what we know, the Flame of the Giants and the Moon have both existed since before the Erdtree, and very likely had their own roles in shaping the landscape of the lands between before the rise of the Erdtree as a power in the world. Below I will describe several interesting dichotomies between the deep blue Moon and the bright orange Sun that I noticed during my time playing and looking through some item descriptions and lore that I had read up on. Most of these observations seemed to click in my mind at SmoughTown's mention of the concept of Yin and Yang, and I began attaching some of those concepts to these two different worldly powers. 1- While the Moon seems to be very Matriarchal, the service of Flame seems to be predominantly male-dominated, with the Fire Monks and Prelates all being these big and somewhat beefy (And/or chonky) dudes, all wearing armor that displays masculine features, whether that be the big ugly mug of the Fell God, or the big bearded face of the Prelate's Helms. An interesting duality, methinks. 2- The more obvious stuff. The Flame of the Fell God looks like a Sun. The sigil for Fire Monk and Fire Giant spells has imagery associated with the Sun. Whereas the Moon is fully based in intelligence, or, relating back to the concept of Yin and Yang, understanding (A trait associated with Yin), the incantations of the Fire Giant are based entirely on Faith, or raw belief, which aligns with the concept of Yang. This connection comes from the states of being that are associated with the two sides of the coin. Yin is often linked with physical substance or matter, while Yang is linked with the metaphysical, or spiritual. Intelligence is, of course, about concrete understanding of things, whereas Faith is the raw belief in the metaphysical, at least in Elden Ring. 3- A point is made that both the Fire Giants and Astrologers coexisted relatively peacefully, enough so that a weapon could be created that wilds both the power of the Night Sky and the Flame of the Giants. They didn't actively fight and struggle against eachother, like in the short-lived unity between the Erdtree and the Moon, the Fire Giants and Sorcerers actually had no beef with one another whatsoever. Of course, they might be categorically opposed to the Dark Moon of Ranni, as their Fell God would likely not like anything to do with the Cold, but it has been seen that the Flame does not oppose sorcery or the reverence of the stars itself, despite being rather opposite to one another, what with one being focused on what is above coming down to them (Astrologers), and those focusing on what is below, reaching upwards (The Fire Giants). There is a balance there, as there is meant to be. Overall, the Erdtree doesn't seem to actually complement the Moon in those times that they interact, and it shows in the tenets of the Golden Order overall. The Erdtree doesn't seek to exist in Balance with the Moon. It seeks to bring the moon into its fold, to control it, to become one and converge to a single point. It does not wish for the moon to be distinct from the tree, and if it cannot absorb it, it would at least seek to control it, as shown in the marriage between Radagon and Rennala, which, in the end, resulted in a certain Red-haired Demigod whose life's purpose was to restrain the stars and fate itself. The Academy no longer continued its research into the Primeval Current, the Moon guiding the stars in a different direction. All outliers must converge towards the mean, whether they wish it or not. In summary, I see the Flame of the Fell God/The Fell God itself as a respresentation of the equal and opposite to the Moons, in the varied forms that they take, while the Erdtree and Golden Order seem more like an outside force that crushed one side and leashed the other, in its quest for dominion and Order. They wouldn't be the only forces that had gotten this treatment, after all. Just look at the Deathbirds, the Nox, heck, even the Crucible knights, who worshipped the Crucible, were not considered pure enough to exist in the world of Grace. The Distant Moon, which opposes the Erdtree in its capacity as a guide to fate, stands against the Erdtree as the forces of Gold attempt to gain a monopoly over the lives and deaths of everyone with the lands between, and the Fell Sun, which opposes the Erdtree on the principle of it being, firstly, a big pile of kindling, but also on the premise of the Tree seeking to end death itself- something that a destructive God would most certainly see as a breach of its domain. What's the point of being a deity of fate if everyone's destinies are sealed? What will be left for flame to consume in an eternal world? If neither can be unified, then neither can be tolerated. Edit: Just to Note, this is like, 90% Headcanon, and 10% actual Lore. But in a game based around a big ol tree, it's fair to say when all roots reach towards the same point, that point probably holds at least a little water. Anyways, none of you are going to read all of this, so, have a good evening, remember to like SmoughTown's video, and don't you dare go Hollow.
This was well worth the read! I haven't gotten really far in the game, but I have seen plenty of playthroughs, and watched plenty of videos. This is a sound theory!
I honestly did not think that the order of stars could be explained in practice as it was to vague but you did an excellent job. Now I see that this new order is an ingenues idea on Ronnie’s part.
Awesome, I've been looking forward to this video. I get to work from home due to a massive winter storm, so I can listen to this while I work. Thanks for putting out these longer in-depth videos, you always make some of the best quality lore videos on UA-cam.
The video and article discussing the mistranslation of Ranni's ending really did a lot to clarify things. Ultimately, it is hard to deny that her ending is the most "good" ending, as it establishes a world that would look and behave as ours does. We live, we die, making our own decisions; this is a luxury that has been denied the Lands Between essentially from the beginning, and we see how that has caused so much turmoil and suffering. Ranni's self-determination becomes a gift to the world so that free will can truly thrive without the interference of the Greater Will or the Elden Ring. This also lines up perfectly with George R.R. Martin's philosophy which is very apparent in the Jaime story from ASOIAF, where Jaime ponders his blank page in the White Book, knowing he can fill it with anything he wants. His life is his, his decisions are his, for good or for ill. Classic Martin.
Let's gooo! Been waiting for it. Gonna love this one for sure! Thank you for the in-depth lore and character analyses. Always love watching them and they are so well made!
Awesome video as always! One idea about the Carians though, maybe "Carian" is a royal family title in Liurnia, kind of like "Caesar" was in Rome? Rennala is the first of *her house* of Carians, but there had been others before her? That would explain the idea of other princesses before Ranni, although it would contradict some other pieces of lore too. Also, the Melina connection to Ranni has so many interesting facets so I can't wait to see your take on it! My personal theory is that Melina is another daughter of Marika and Radagon. She talks a lot about her mother setting her on her path and destiny, and also quotes Marika many times when you speak to her, so perhaps those two are one and the same? Children's names in Elden Ring also seem to follow the first letter of a parent's name, so the idea of the three siblings of Malenia, Miquella *and Melina* has a lot of symmetry with the siblings, Radahn, Rykard, and Ranni. This is made all the more potent by the theory that Melina may also have been the Gloam Eyed Queen as you said here, perhaps explaining why she was erased from the Erdtree Royal family history so completely that nobody remembers who she is, including her own spirit. That would make Melina and Ranni sisters, and thus explain why they have such a resemblance to each other. This also adds another layer of rich symmetry too, perhaps tying back into those ideas of Yin and Yang, Sun and Moon, and the Radagon/Marika Rebis itself. Both sisters' fates were to dedicate their lives to heresy and rebellion against the Golden Order, with one using the fire of Black Flame (and later the Flame of Ruin) and the other using the cold of the Dark Moon. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on this though, so hopefully your video on it isn't too far away!
The topic of fate is particularly fascinating in regards to Ranni because her path stands to create a perception of freedom for the people living under her Order. The Golden Order is, as discussed in the video, a Yang order, ever visible and omnipresent, bathing the land in its light. The sight of the Erdtree is a universal reminder of the governing gods of the land. Meanwhile, the Order of the Stars is Yin, so obscured as to make a certainty of faith impossible. This means that people living under this order cannot perceive it to command anything and thus have to act as if it's not there. As if they're free. Yet fate has real power in Elden Ring, and it's governed by the motion of the stars that are now freed from the Elden Ring's yoke. The Order is imperceptible, and this likely means that fate can't be read from the stars, yet if it still exists at all it's now stronger than ever. So it's now a question whether the people living in the Age of Stars are the most free they've ever been or chained to a reigning fate that can only be observed from a cosmic vantage point. Fitting for a Yin ending to contain such great uncertainty.
Well Done, Smoughtown! Your channel has evolved to legendary story/lore telling and a masterclass of sleuthing, above and beyond most. Watching her mothers' heart being broken seems to me the perfect time for Ranni to go Dark. Subscription added and a wish for MANY more!!
@@SmoughTown Yes, words lead very quickly to sentiment, for me. Thinking back to maybe 2012 was about a year after Dark Souls 1 released and I believe Quelaag, Marcus and The German Spy started mapping out the basic fundamental 'the Gwynn storylines" making this one-year anniversary of Elden Ring still very early into the understanding, of the Lore. Now add in George RRR Martin to the equation, these theories are in their infant stages. You all are doing fine work!
Thank you Geoff, my friend. That was quite the under taking. I never saw Ranni as a heroic figure, just as self appointed, as Offner thee no Goode. But I adore the fact that she's driven, & as luminous & confounded as the Stars themselves. In complete amenity she is bound to no one, & she & her Chosen Consort can finally uncover that which is new & exciting. She alone dares to be so much more then anyone. For that I adore her. Thank you, for this perspective. It's both illuminating & presents us with so much more then before about a mysteriously enchanting Character who regardless of our assistance, I think she would have made it to the stars without us. A individual On a path, of interstellar proportions. Our fresh eyes are open to possibilities we didn't know were ours, till Ranni gave us the keys to have no obligation to a cruller fate, then we have, had we decided not to complete Stars ending. Sad that Blidde is just a device for Ranni to abandon. & in her ending there's no Torrent as well as Iggy But at least we have Ranni still not abandon us. & The feeling we are the Renegade Tarnished, who is still able to change things for better, or worse, to be one with her & her Mystic Moon... As before, yes, let's see it happen, milord Geoff. The blinding, the freedom, the infinite Journeying... Thank Ranni for the opportunity to Be more then Tarnished, & cast aside. ✨🧙🏼♀️🧝🏻♀️🐴✨🌕✨ Ranni still is by far the best, choice, & hope for a better beginning. ✨🌕✨🐶👩🏻🚀✨❤️
Yeah Brothers Code, Smough Town, and Hawkshaw are just straight up incredible. I wish they’d all crank out videos constantly but I know there’s only so much lore to cover. I’d like to see Brothers Code do some more in-depth videos like Smough too.
Great video as usual, a few notes that came to mind during the listen: - There's a pagan trinity concept of 'maiden, mother, crone' that I think provided some influence to Ranni's story, especially since these 3 archetypes of femininity are also symbolically tied to the crescent, full and 'dark moon'. - Ofnir mentions Ranni casting aside her great rune, but have you noticed the strange symbol present on ranni's moon, which is absent on Rennalas? I've seen some reddit threads that theorise Ranni placed her rune on the Dark Moon itself, and the strange pattern does seem to align with the central inverse arches of the elden ring.
Your thoughts on the state of the Carina royals are interesting. Perhaps the conflict between the new state of the Carian Royalty and their lineage is one of a knightly house ascending to royalty due to some politicking, political marriage, or a simple coup. Could help to explain the existence of the Carian knights and their household, and also the reference to “princesses” if there was some distant relation to non-Erdtree nobility.
The Carians may have also ruled in an earlier Liurnian civilization, perhaps explaining stuff like the ruins atop the Moonlight Altar, and Rennala would have basically rediscovered ancient powers up there. Granted, nothing in the game implies that the Carians recently returned to being the monarchs controlling Liurnia, but I figured it was a possibility worth mentioning.
I really enjoyed the video, as well as playing through rannis quest line in game, personally one of my favourite endings to a souls game. It feels very hopeful compared to most endings and I’m intrigued by what our characters role in this future would entail.
Just needed to say; I'm a latecomer to your channel, and am enjoying all the videos I have seen immensely. Half of the enjoyment is from the substance of the content, and the other half is the presentation (narration, citation of sources, and well planned formatting).
Ranni’s puppet also has four arms that resembles the other puppets throughout the lands between, I think this is why the puppets are so infatuated with glint stone and sorceries. Maybe they are looking for a soul or something. Idk but I feel like there is a connection there.
I'm pretty sure the puppets themselves are creations of the glintstone mages, to use as unites to fight an enemy while they cast spells, like many players that play spell builds do with spirit ashes
I've been eagerly awaiting this video. Ranni was my favorite character from the game, and a 75-minute introspection is exactly what I needed today. I just recently found your channel and have watched all of your ER videos multiple times. Your channel is fantastic! Thanks so much, and keep them coming, please!
Always found Ranni to be one of the most interesting and fascinating character in lore and motivations,Incredible Ranni lore video Smough have a great day
Nice video indeed! I really liked Ranni's quest, piecing things together. We can't even be sure that it is actually Ranni we're dealing with, since we're dealing with a spirit and advanced magic. It could be a dark deity of the moons; I think whether or not that's true there's a high chance that Ranni is being manipulated by one in a cruel twist. It could be the snow witch, who in turn also could be connected such or this is her agenda. It could - although least likely to me - also be Marika in spirit form, since you could make an argument that she wants to free herself from the gold, given how the Radagon side of her seems to be in opposition, but needs to cause plots through others to affect this, just like Ranni actually does. I feel like in these cases there's ground that they would know Ranni well enough to fool those around her. One personal anecdote - I think it was Radagon that broke a vow, and thus is the target of the warning, not Rennala. So I kind of assumed that Miriel was talking about Radagon's fate. This is a giant reach but I guess you could see Radahn's act a response to this. Maybe he believed in the power of fate as well, given he was Carian, and wanted to spare his idol Radagon such misfortunes. Probably not likely but it's a fun spin :P
Finishing this video after watching it in chunks. I'm almost jealous of Japanese speakers who played this game. I've know translation quirks have changed meaning in fromsoft games before. But this is truly beautiful, Ranni was my first ending I got and the partly because of that, it's my favorite ending. Now I like it even more with this great translation
@@SmoughTown Well you introduced both fact as well as a multitude of theories, which was helpful cuz, well - it brings up multiple possibilities, which is thought provoking.
@@SmoughTown I listen to your vids on repeat man, having a snow storm rn and this vid is very fitting lol. Have a great day, and thank you for all your hard work.
Ah yes, everyone's favourite four-armed Witch waifu. While you do spend a fair amount of time doing things to help Ranni out, the fact that she defeated a Glintstone Dragon - Adula - at one stage and then retained their service as a knight shows that Ranni was a lot more powerful than other people gave her credit for. Also have to love the fact that she was made an Empyrean and basically said 'Nah, I'm good, thanks' and went on to forge her own fate. And Ranni learning cold/ice magics seems appropriate, since she comes across as fairly cold and distant in most of your interactions with her. You can confront her about the Night of Black Knives and she just says 'Yes, I did it. So what?' Far as she's concerned that's all beneath her, but she does come around eventually when you finally prove you are fated to be her Lord. But I'm gonna do Ranni's questline on every character I make, because Blaidd is the bestest boy, and some of the areas you can access are worth the visit, especially the Eternal Cities.
I dunno man, I'm not sure she "comes around" on anything. I think she just realizes that she needs the tarnished in order to enact her plans. She strikes me as calculating to the very end. There's something about the position of Elden Lord that goes beyond mere title, I think. I couldn't say what. But it seems to be integral to the whole passing on the Elden Ring ritual. We're her champion. But only in so far as the rules of the world require it. If she could have done her thing without us or only needed us for part of the adventure, I'm pretty sure she'd easily leave us to rot.
@@rainbowkrampus Nah, she has some fondness towards our Tarnished. As Seluvius says: "The dead-eyed doll lets down her guard in your presence, rather remarkably. Though she might dip her hands in the dirt, and feign that icy persona...she's a frail, gentle girl at heart." Also, after we give her the blade, She pretty much just thanks us and bids farewell. She didn't needed us after that, so from that point onwards it's 100% our decision to help her out.
I got the impression that the cold/distant thing was a front. That what she really thinks she wants is to take on her fate alone, as a sort of personal burden but is ACTUALLY pretty happy that she won't be alone in the end. She seemed relieved when you show up with the ring, rather than expectant. Also, the way she sort of tries to go it alone once she has the blade felt like she was trying to spare her friends that lonely fate rather than a calculated, cold move to seize power for herself. I know it's ambiguous but that's just how I read it.
I once read a theory that Rannis mentor (the crone) could have been a Wraith Caller, since they also possess 4 arms. Good video, Geoff, looking forward to your upcoming projects! Take care
The idea that the dark moon is the opposite to the erdtree reminds me of destiny 2 how light and dark are opposed but not antagonistic and that it is the wielders of these paracausal powers who cause the cataclismic effects within the universe
I was thinking the whole "dark path" thing was just Ranni being an edge queen but I really appreciate the way you characterize it here. The yin to the yang, which fits with past fromsoft games also having good and evil depend on perspective.
I think it literally is a dark path, not in that it's Evil but in that it's unlit by Grace or by a god that the denizens of the Lands Between can see and touch.
I like how this dude just straight out explains with facts and gets straight to the point. Unlike, say Vattividya that just starts to stall with fancy speak
Haven't finished the video yet, but regarding Ranna the snow witch. Somewhere i read a theory that the three sisters were Renna(Snow Witch), Queen Rannala, and Sellen. So Ranni's mentor was really her aunt. Sellen, even though her name starts with an S, I can't remember but they still made it all make sense.
Thank you Geoff, great work as usual. It's my go to when I need some references without having to dig deep into the game once again, and the way you present the topics always helps me put some things in order in my head. That said, if you or anyone else is interested, I think I have a nice set of answers to the "Carian question", for lack of a better term. Of course, in order to connect these dots, we need to be a bit more speculative than usual. - When reflecting on the info the game provides and on my familiarity with Martin's world-builing style, I've come to the conclusion that the House of Caria might have once been a royal house, then lost its royal status for a time, only to regain it in a new context under Rennala. Their rich traditions are always called "royal" and not "noble" because of historical conflation of these periods, caused by the passage of time. - Given that there's an Onyx Lord (or "King", or "Champion") imprisoned behind Caria Manor, in an evergaol called "Royal Grave", withing the family's graveyard, I think it's fair to assume that the Carian line has some Onyx Lord ancestry. I'll leave it to you to consider how this assumption neatly fits into Radahn's character arc and his preternatural affinity to gravity magic. - The "Divine-tower-civilisation", probably the oldest in the LB after Farum Azula, seem to have deeply honoured the Onyx and Alabaster Lords, afraid of their destructive power. They called them Lords because they saw themselves as inferior to them. It's likely that this civilisation is the precursor to the astrologers', given that it's epicentre is located right behind the Stargazers' ruins. This leads me to believe that the House of Caria was an ancient line of astrolger-kings, due to their onyx lord blood. - The village surrounding Caria Manor is called "Kingsrealm Ruins", not "Queensrealm" or something like this. Probably this village was estabilished by the last Carian kings when the astrologers migrated southwards. Given that the astrologers seem to have been a rather quitable society, where everyone was able to gover their own fate, I'd also suggest that the Carian lost their kingly status when the ancient stargazers turned to Glintstone sorcerers, thus not needing a kingly figure anymore. - The Moons' main ability seems to be that of guiding the stars, and thus the fate commanded by them. This is especially interesting given that the Nox seem to have been the only ones that developed methods to alter another person's fate, instead of only one's own, and that the Nox worshipped the Black Moon "that once was the guide of countless stars". I think that Rennala gained the ability to alter the stars' fate thanks to her Moon magic and this led her to literally "bewitch" the Academy into making her Queen, thus restoring the ancient royal status of the House of Caria. - At the light of these considerations, the Preceptors were probably a more ancient institution than Rennala herself. Their role simply changed with time, to fit any given circumstance. - Which event led Rennala to become Queen in the first place? I speculate that Rennala explored Nokstella and there found the lore needed to find her Full Moon to better defend her Country against the House of the Erdtree. If Marika's conquests were a long and arduous process as our current understanding of the timeline implies, I think it's possible that neither Rennala nor Ragadon were in a position of command during the First Liurnian War, but that both of them distinguished themselves in that war, gaining the status of "Champions" (Ragadon is never said to have led the first invasion, only that "His glory burned as red as his hair" in that occasion, which is an odd thing to point out, since he seems to have been as much as glorious, if not more, during the Second War). Of course, given Rennala's crushing victory against the Golden Order and her ability to literally "unite" all the disparate sorcerers' fate under a single guidance must have led the Academy to name her Queen for protection, although never fully trusting her power (a common theme with Yhorm the Giant from DS3, I think). - This is why Rennala gradually lost power after marrying Radagon: the stars' fate was fettered by the Golden Order, thus diminishing her magic and rendering her vow of protecting the Academy moot. Rennala must have felt compelled to follow the Order ever more closely, for no other reason that she gradually lost more and more clout. A truly sad case of snake that eats its own tail. Thus: Rennala approving Blaidd's companionship to Ranni; the building of Manus Celes to honour the Two Fingers (I presume) and Ranni's need to turn to an outsider mentor in order to fulfil a fate that her mother hoped she would achieve, but in secret, far from prying eyes and ears. I've been long-winded as usual, but I hope someone will give me feedback on this train of thought. Thanks again Smough for the good work!
I absolutely love the theory that the Carians are descended from Onyx lord ancestors - that’s brilliant. Yeah re their royal status, my speculation would also be that they are an old family but no necessarily ‘royal’ the whole time! Thanks again for the great thoughts and the support as always
I always thought, that "princesses" implied there being queens and princesses before Rennala and Ranni. Or, perhaps, Rennala is the first "queen", previous Carian leaders being kings. I also feel like Carians and Raya Lucaria existed parallel to each other and Rennala was a queen already when she proved herself a champion.
Ranni is one of the best characters in all FromSoft!! Thanks for this video! Also, I find it strange that it was not mentioned that Ranni’s rune casted aside could be that very visible pattern on her mother’s moon, it even matches perfectly with the Elden Ring’s middle intersection, but it might be that it is too vague to imply.
Regarding the three sisters, Renna may be Ranni's twin. Martin loves to play with twins in ASOIAF and even in Elden Ring there are many sets of them. Besides the obviously similar names, something that Martin often uses when inventing twins, whoever Renna was Ranni seems to be very close to her. Not only does she use her name as cover, she also keeps her tower sealed from others. Also, her double face, which as you say may be her spirit inhabiting the doll, may be Renna's spirit instead. What makes me believe so is that her spirit face is symmetrical to hers, the closed eye in particular. This could explain why this spirit face is exposed from the doll: while Ranni's spirit perfectly fits in it, Renna's spirit, being her opposite twin, is somehow exposed
After picking Ranni's ending and even now at the end of this thorough analysis, I can't tell if I've chosen the path of true freewill or if I've been screwed over by an yet an other mad god. But I'm cool with it.
I like the idea of forging our own paths and self determination so Ranni was one of my favorite parts of Elden Ring, plus all the stuff around her like her moon imagery and loyal followers were just really cool to me.
Amazing work again Geoff, thank you for the time and dedication you put on your vids, Ranni is a amazing character, she is my favorite character not only for her design but bc she stood against the very order who ruled the land and against the god that was above marika herself that wanted to dictate what she would be or not, she faced a enemy way bigger than her and won using her own intelligence and resources, Something that i still wander about is the dialog about her don’t wanting to be controlled by the fingers, what sort of “control” you think it is ? (Anyone who read this, feel free to give your answer as well).
Cheers Lucas, really appreciate that. Yeh I agree - after researching her more and understanding her journey etc...she is a tremendous character tbh. I feel like when she refers to 'control' perhaps she believes that her being nominated by the Two fingers has utterly bound her to them, and there is some connection between the Two Fingers and their Empyreans that we dont quite get to see.
Getting off a 12 hour shift to new content from you is a damn blessing. Cant wait for what's in store. Keep up the immaculate work brother, you're the GOAT!
One thing, I dont think Ranni actually creates a new order or something like that. She becomes the new Vessel of the Elden Ring (that has death in it again now) and leaves to the void/dark moon with you so noone can reach it and temper with the order. The dark moon is just this new object of faith/devine just like the erdtree was for Marika. Also what seems weird to me is that Ranni "rejects her empyrian flesh" and all that, but then she suddenly "walks the dark oath of an Empyrian" I think the reason is that the two fingers are seperate from the greater will and she had to get rid of the two fingers so she could go about her actual Empyrian journey (basically the idea that the fingers claim to be this symbol and "support" her but actually work against the greater will since she clearly has to get rid of them to fullfill her destiny as an Empyrian) We cant get rid of the Elden Ring because the Elden Ring is what makes the world work. The runes of the elden ring is what makes the conceot of death and life etc. Possible in the first place. Thats why the only ending were we actually destroy the elden ring is the Chaos Ending where we go on to burn all of life into a single whole again
I disagree. It’s pretty explicit that the Elden ring can only be taken in by empyrean flesh. The whole point of her slaying her body was so that under no circumstances could she become a vessel. It would be a bit odd for her to go to the effort of the whole black knives plot just to become the vessel anyway. In all endings where the Ring is repaired, it is done so by putting Marika back together (as she and the Elden Ring are one and the same). In Ranni’s ending, Marika’s body (and thus the Ring itself) fades to mist as the Dark Moon appears, symbolizing a full replacement of order separate from the Elden ring. In truth, we don’t know enough about the Elden Ring to say with certainty that it cannot be destroyed. In fact, we know that the lands between existed before the Elden Ring (given that it came to the lands as a falling star), thus we can say with some certainty that the Lands Between is not dependent on the Elden Ring.
@@jackweaver1846 the reason why we put mariks back together is because we become elden lord aka her consort. In all those endings the goal isnt to become god or smth. We know the Lands between existet before but rhe wholr past is so foggy and unknown we xant really draw conclusions. And we know for a fact that when Marika seals the rune of death, the people in the lands between stop dying. That suggests there was no death before the elden ring.
@@filthycasual8517 1. I never said that WE become the Elden ring. We repair it by putting Marika’s head back on her body, as she and the Elden Ring are the same being. Ranni does not put the Elden ring back together, but rather let’s it fade to nothing. I suppose you could theorize that she is absorbing it, but as I said before, that would go against all of her motives, actions, etc. prior to that point. 2. We actually don’t know for a fact what exactly Destined Death does. Many people die after destined death is sealed by Maliketh (everything we kill in game, all those great warriors killed by the Night’s Cavalry, Lionel the Lionhearted, omens hunted by omenkillers, the giants, the dragons, the list goes on). Hell, sealing destined death didn’t even prevent the Demigods from dying, as we kill the majority of them before unsealing it. It appears more so that destined death is just a powerful rune that makes things that are typically protected by the Elden Ring vulnerable to death. The only real change we see after releasing DD is the Erdtree burning and the thorn seal being broken. Beyond that, everything else just works as normal. Now, as for why Ranni needed DD to kill Godwynn, I actually don’t think she did, and that she only needed it for her ritual to kill just her body and his soul. Anyway, my point is that there is no confirmation (or even hint) that the Elden Ring is necessary for the lands between to exist, as you had stated before.
@@jackweaver1846 What i ment to say with my point is that we repair Marika because we dont have the option to create a new vessel. And since Empyrians exist it is clearly possible to transfer the ring. My point is that the point of Rannis ending is her bringing the order far away so noone can temper with it. "The order" to seems to be the elden ring since, Ranni somehow takes the order with her so she is at least the vessel for something and second the nature of the Elden ring literally is the order of things, like life, death, abundance, decay etc. Also the rune of death being gone is the reason why enemys respawn in the game. As for the demigods there are 2 explanations: 1. The spread of deathroot allows demigods to die kind of as a passive effect. 2. They dont really die. Their remembrances are hewn into the Erdtree. And Erdtree burial and rebirth happens because the rune of death (aka a true death) is sealed so when they die their souls just return to the ertree and are then reborne. (Its a big thing but The Tarnished Archeologist has a video explaing it in detail)
@@filthycasual8517 I get your point, but that still doesn't answer why Ranni would go through the effort to explicitely NOT be an empyrean, if she would decide to be one anyway. As I said before, Ranni does not have empyrean flesh, so she cannot become a vessel for the ER. Also, you have said twice now that the ER is necessary for the lands between, which is not confirmed, and is actually refuted by much of what I have said. The "order" that Ranni refers to is textually not the same order as Marika. Ranni refers to it as "her" order, and says that she would have her order be at a far remove. What this is likely saying is that her order (of the dark moon) will not meddle in the dealings of people's lives as the orders in the past have. She is aware of what the gods do to the lands, and would prefer if they were cut off entirely from direct contact. The Japanese version of the cutscene makes this much more clear than the English translation. Your point of "the rune of death being gone is the reason why enemys respawn" is pretty flawed. Many of the enemies don't respawn, so how would you explain that? What about the enemies that still respawn after DD is freed? I hate shooing things away as game mechanics, but the issue of respawning enemies has always been a thorn in the side of FromSoft lore theorizers, and it is usually just accepted to be a game mechanic. We accept that the character can carry an entire armory in their back pocket without lore explanations, so I think we can do the same for respawning enemies. I for one do think that souls are absorbed and reborn by the Erdtree, as I am a fan of TA myself. However, I don't think that this is relevent to this discussion, as this moreso reflects on how the current order works, not how the lands between works on its own. Even TA aknowledges this in his videos. Your whole point is that DD being sealed has made death impossible, which is false, given the examples I have shown. Remembrances don't help your case, as you can still get remembrances after freeing DD (Godfrey, Elden Beast). If sealing DD made death impossible (in terms of souls) then why are souls still returning to the Erdtree after DD has been freed? The rebirth of souls is likely seperate from DD altogether, given the points I have made. Like I said before, we don't know much definitive information about DD, what it does, how it works, etc., and much of whay we do know directly contradicts itself. I would avoid using DD as an explanation for anything until we know more about how it works. All in all, you should stop claiming that things are "confirmed" when they either speculative or outright disproven.
I've been so excited about this I legit leaned over to my boyfriend yesterday and was like 'i can't wait to learn about ranni after work' like that was a normal and universal human experience.
At around 14:00 you were talking obout how Rennala couldve had other daughters, for having other pricesses and she to be the only queen; maybe Rennala herself was once a princess, she may had have sisters, mother, and other girls predecessing her, she may be a kind of unifier, somebody who "won" an internal conflict for the crown (she did have a "troupe" of 20 knights), and the other women were princesses as much as her; maybe back in the day, when Marika wasn't queen yet, and the world still had death going on.
It's a good theory only thrown off by the fact the game states that she is both the first and last queen of the Carian royals and that she her self established the royalty. It all is a bit odd in its telling though.
@@danielboyd7810 I could argue that this statement dont break the idea yet; not that I have any fact to support it. But a Queen/King, a Lord, is a lord by having a great amount of land that is in control of vassals, under oath to him; let us think about the elden ring world as ours: we have a prehistoric era until a beggining of history, with the first cities, with the dragons and the beastman. An "acension" of humanity, with a more developed group, that is remembered as pursuers of logic and reason, philosophers (for us in the western world, something like greeks/romans, in Elden Ring, the Eternal Cities and their people.). After the fall of those empires, the land is shattered and the power is decentralized (i dont know if this is even a word, im brazilian and in potuguese it is); with lots of lords battling for the power (maybe calling themselves princesses of something, maybe Caria was already a name for the location, or as the people of those lands called themselves, something like England, that was once divided in four kingdoms, but became one unified land (kind of)) and when one is finally able to overcome the others and centralize the power, she/he is called a lord (Renalla becoming Queen). Well, I will not pursue answers, and i dont really think that this have any truth in it, but a lot about those open narratives is about the idea of your imagination filling in the gaps; and thats whats great about this kind of narrative, aint it? I dont think that would be any close to that many people interested if it wasnt like this
Simply amazing, Smough. Ranni is one of the most intriguing characters ever produced in a FromSoft game (plus she looks cool) so it's always great getting her story.
Best video so far. (Not me being completely bias cause I love Ranni) I know you don't consider her a hero cause of the suffering she caused to many by her actions, but I simply love the fact that she knows what she's doing and is doing it anyway, cause she wants a world it's order will not cause any more trouble to it's inhabitants. I truly see her on pair with Miquella, but both wanted to archive something by different means. Ranni's quest and ending resonated so much with me, more than anything DS could ever hope to archive. I love the abyss lore and stuff, but at the same time that the abyss is humanity true destiny in DS, it's also a terrible thing capable of turning even the greatest of heros into bloodlusted beasts, and I hated that about DS. The Dark Lord ending from DS1 was weird cause it means we would eventually become something like Artorias or Manus, and that's terrible. In DS2 the Aldia ending was really cool, but it only worked for us, while in DS3 the world and humanity will finally dive into the age of dark, but the age of dark has been tampered with by Gwyn, which means eventually, all of humanity will return to the hollow state. Now in ER, Ranni's ending is what I always wished we had in DS. An ending where we would TRULY say fuck it to the current world order and stablish a new one completely severed from what came before. How they developed this ending, the actions she had to take to undo many of the golden order rules set in stone for the world and how it was not simple, how by doing so it brought suffering to many, just like Gwyn did to humanity, but this time around it's being done to destroy the current order and bring a better one, and not out of fear of loosing power and accepting the natural course of nature. To add to my love for Ranni, I got the "secret" ending of Age of Stars right from the get go. She was not only going alone, she placed her trust in me and wanted her consort to be by her side in this thousand years voyage into darkness, fear, and the unknown. For me it was like she was asking me several times "will you be by my side even after all of the bad shit I've done? Will you go with me in this journey I'm scared off?"
With how Ranni might never cure the Death Blight, and how the Dark Moon she praises could be Nokron's black moon, it's still ambiguous, but I get what you mean nonetheless. Also, if you like lore that has at least one path that doesn't seem to feature a lose/lose situation for the world, you might enjoy Demon's Souls and Sekiro.
@@nightscout9979 what's the problem with the possibility of the dark moon being the black moon? (I don't agree with the premise cause their names are different and the amulet clearly depicts an truly black moon) About the death Bligh, I think that with the ER and greater will gone, Ranni's order don't necessarily excludes the other things, her order doesn't say anything about death and how it should be, so I believe that the death birds may get back to action and figure a way to deal with the death blight, perhaps not extinguish it, but keep it at bay. Unfortunately undoing it completely would require that Goldwyn either get back to life, which will be impossible, or that he died completely. With the rune of death gone altogether, I honestly believe that death birds have the greatest power over death, and they'll still exist and be active in Ranni's order. She herself might not have cured it, but when getting read of the ER she opened a path that would allow for it to be done somehow.
I think the clearest reason for her 4 arms is that in the ending of her questline, you see the full uncovered body of the puppet, appearing extremely similar to the basic 4 armed Raya Lucarian marionettes. My thinking is she either possessed one of these constructs at the start and modified some parts like the face and hands, or was custom built but using the same familiar blueprints
In the three playthroughs I’ve done to 100% the game, i always do this quest line because of the characters that I encounter in it. Between her retinue of Blaidd, Iji, and Preceptor Seluvis, her relationship with her mother, her relationships with the other demigods and the fact that it feels like a magical journey going through her quest line, there is just so much to unpack with her. Even her ending, while considered the best ending, has subtle undertones of seeming “too good to be true”. I would even go as far to say she’s one of the better female characters I’ve seen in modern media lately. Ranni has her own agency and is clearly powerful, at no point would I call her a “girl boss” who has to put anybody in their place. If anything she embodies some of the greater strengths of the feminine side of humanity by being attractive, manipulative, getting people to do stuff for her “as a favor”, and recognizing and embracing strength as we see at the end of the quest when she selects you “as her lord”. Even a full year after release, I say she deserves a lot of the love she gets from the community.
@@SmoughTown Eh, I would disagree to a point in that I liked the arc of Slave Knight Gael and the Lord of Hollows quest in Dark Souls 3. But I would agree Ranni feels the most complete in that the gaps between steps in her quest aren’t so infrequent.
I feel like rannis ending is the canonical ending. There’s no way you could miss her quest with the grace points pointing you forward to her in lurina and also you meet bladidd super early and rogier will help you find her to it’s like the devs want you to find her so badly. There’s also the eternal cities which are super closely linked to her quest to I know it’s not directly related to her quest but you have to travel there and could easily miss those areas without her quest
Maybe the royal revenants and wrath callers are servants of Rani, because most of them are in Liurnia, and they have four hands like her doll, and ride spirit horses like Torrent, and they hate the greater will like her
I mean... Ranni had four hands because of her spirit im pretty sure, but the royal revenants are a bunch of torsos and bodies being horrifically put together. The person behind them is most likely Godrick the grafted imo, rather than being Ranni's servants.
Great take on Ranni. Another thing I would add, is that the Snow Crone mentioned to Ranni to fear the dark moon. Since she is born of the golden order and is utilizing a power foreign to her, I think that comment really resonates with the evil theory, at least in regards to the dark moon.
Ranni is definitely one of the favorite characters in the game. Clearly they put good effort into her. Her ending for sure piques the imagination the most.
I never thought she was going to the dark moon, i always just assumed she had planned to travel the cosmos on a whole rather than with a particular destination
While in english Rememberance of Rot Godess say: "Miquella and Malenia are both the children of a single god. As such they are both Empyreans, but suffered afflictions from birth. One was cursed with eternal childhood, and the other harbored rot within." I think in japanese it says: "Miquella and Millenia are both the children of single god. Even though they are both Empyrian, their life is fragile(vulnerable), one is forever young, the other harbors rot." I think it comes to "Sono sei wa" being translated "As such they are". But it can also be translated as "Their/That life is". I think "their life is" is right one, because in japanse "Sei" uses kanji for life. Since if it was pronoun, it should use hiragana.
Haven’t seen the entire video yet but I’m sure it’ll be great. There is one thing I’ve always wondered though. Do you think that there’s a possibility that Rennala has some giant heritage herself? She is descended from the astronomers that lived with them and we know from that one character preset that such children exist. It would also go to explain her height since she’s just a “ordinary” human and not even one closely toed to grace or anything like Godfrey or anything.
Ranni's presence causes a cold, dark fog around the area where she appears to give the player the spirit calling bell at the beginning of the game. It's very obvious and dissipates the moment she leaves. It was the 1st thing I noticed when I 1st met her.
I think something that isn't touched upon enough in the circumstances of Ranni's ending is the self-sacrificing aspect of it. Ranni's plan is to set up the order of the world, and then leave to never interact with anyone ever again. Ever. Because if she did then she would no longer be able to be objective and would influence the people on the world, which she does not want to do. The description on the ring makes this clear: *A warning is engraved within; "Whoever thou mayest be, take not the ring from this place, the solitude beyond the night is better mine alone."* If you think about this from a real life perspective, this is obviously a pretty horrific fate, and it's not meant to be seen as some mystical journey of enlightenment, or something that Ranni is doing because she'll enjoy it. The significance of her giving the Tarnished the key to her ring is meant to show that she is trusting someone enough to show a desire for company, trusting that her consort will be willing to make the sacrifice alongside her, making the voyage less lonely and more bearable, as shown in the very final shot of her ending, with her outstretched hand towards the Tarnished.
This alone keeps Ranni from ever being objectively evil in my eyes. The intention of her actions is (from my eyes) to free the lands between from outside influence at the expense of herself. I don’t believe it’s possible for a morally evil person to commit to self sacrifice the way Ranni was going to
Thank you everyone for checking out my latest video on Ranni the Witch!
Let me know your thoughts below!
Gonna beat my meat thanks To u and Ranni
Let’s gooo I’m excited to watch
About time you made a video on this!
😀
Your content literally helps me get my day started. Love this shit man💯
I find it intriguing how the theme of self-determination is conveyed by the fact her body is a "puppet", controlled by Ranni herself
Trueee!!!
@@SmoughTown yup, I feel like the theme of self-determination or “free will” is relatively under-unexplored by the lore community despite being a major part of the game. To me it’s the predominant theme in humanity’s relationship with the Gods.
It's an interesting touch, but I wonder if the fact her soul is colored light blue, like the victims of the Starlight Shards potions and Fia's necromancy, means that the stars have accounted for even this and ensured they control her.
@@nightscout9979 correct me if I'm wrong because i haven't played in a few months but didn't Selivus create her doll body? I can't remember where I'm getting that from but it could definitely pose even more interesting questions on why her skin and soul color is blue like you mentioned. We do already know how into fate and the control of fate Selivus is after all.
@@robot1ger298 It's not confirmed who created Ranni's doll body, but it's likely that she got a Preceptor or Albinauric servant (such as Pidia) to create it using one of the puppet soldiers as a base.
This video is about Ranni, but it opens my mind to Rykard's obsession with family and the union. It seems to be that Radagon departure hits these two siblings the hardest.
true, and radahn was the sibling who couldn’t handle his mom’s depression and dipped to be daddy’s boy 😭
@@LordKazake443 Radahn reminds me of a young boy aspiring to be like his father. Loved his hair because it was the same as his fathers, loved and looked up to Godfrey and his strength and loved his horse so much he learnt gravity magic to keep him around
Then there’s Radahn bro said “fuck fate” 🗿
Tbh Rykard seems to be close with the golden order BEFORE or at least work for it since he was the head inquisition, huh he seemed to be pretty close with Marika/Radagon or Radagon actually took all of the kids when he left Rennala
@@Tarnished5Leafwhat Radahn did actually hurting Liurnia and his own family, stagnating their fates
About Ranni's parentage.
I have to say I'm very pleased with how you handled it. You acknowledged the competing theories, noted your opinion and why you thought that, but didn't insult anyone who thought differently.
I think the reason I found this so enjoyable was because I recently watched a lore video that the person stated would only talk about proven canon and make no leaps in logic. They then declared that Ranni absolutely came from the egg and that anyone who thought differently must have less then a 2nd grade level of reading comprehension.
It really soured me on the entire video, so I really wanted you to know how appreciative I am that you were respectful of other people's viewpoints.
Hey I really appreciate this comment - I really do try to be as even handed as I can and at all times acknowledge my own preconceptions when handling competing theories. Thank you so much, and so glad you enjoyed the content.
I want to tell you that you are absolutely right.
The first time I read your comment I did not get it, but since then I have seen the beginning of the video you're talking about, before coming back to watch this one again. I must say that I was absolutely triggered by the "2nd grade" thing. This came across as arrogant, and wasn't justified, as the guy really did not understand the sentences he mentioned.
The text is : " Miquella and Malenia are both the children of a single god. As such they are both Empyreans, but suffered afflictions from birth. "
I think you understood, like me, that it means that children of a single god are all empyreans. NOT that all empyreans are children of a single god, which is what that person then stated (multiple times), while insulting those who DID stick to the original meaning of the text without extrapolating. I found it so, so rude and dumb, especially while presenting it as "unambiguous".
The worst part is how he frequently says that he doesn't understand why so many people discuss that. He is not even capable of imagining any point of view different from his own.
I can understand why you would sit through the entire video, but as biased as it is I don't think it's worth anybody's time.
Your comment made me feel a lot better about my reaction to that video, so thank you so very much for that.
@@Elbadilloo When someone so deeply insists on only their interpretation being correct, they're tripping themselves over their own ego. It's really poisonous to discussion, as they marry their own self-worth with being right, and any alternative view is now turned into a personal attack regardless if the people disagreeing do so with the utmost charity.
It's doubly sad when it happens to games where the creator's intent is to figure it out for themselves. If FromSoft wanted you to have canon, they would've given one. Instead, they create vivid and evocative imagery, create as many loose ends, contradictions and ambiguities as possible and just sit back and let you have fun with it. Their direct design goal is to create an ambiguous text that can be interpreted and reinterpreted.
@@ElbadillooI am really glad I don't know who you are talking about. That's such a shit take on a fictional universe, especially one as open to interpretation as this.
A little side note from my perspective. I feel like Rennala wasn’t as heart broken over Radagon as the story tries to make you believe. It feels more likely to me that the rune of the unborn was Rannis great rune, and the only thing that was left of her on top of the divine tower. Rennala clutches the rune to this day trying to rebirth Ranni. However since Rannis soul is not present she is only able to create failed clones of herself. My evidence for this is pretty in your face honestly. When you fight Rennala the shadow that leaks from the rune is Ranni herself defending her mother. Also none of Rennalas mannerisms tend toward a heart broken lover, rather a heart broken mother. In conclusion I think that Rennala is actually broken from Rannis death and not Radagon leaving, although perhaps both of these things could be contributing factors.
You make a good point but it's easily explainable. When a man shuns a women who they had kids with the women seeks out the unconditional love of her children. She bore them in a time when their father still loved all of them and they certainly didn't leave her (yet) and if they do they won't do it of their own free will (or for another more beautiful and powerful woman). The fact that she thinks Ranni got killed and Radagon is safe shacked up with another woman is why she's so desperate to rebirth Ranni and probably pretty over Radagon at this point.
While a really interesting theory Rannis rune is most likely the one we can see on the moon. Since Gideon tells us that Ranni cast aside her rune and we can see a Rune on the moon.
I mean rennala basically lost her entire family. Her husband abandoned her, one of her son's basically has brain rot, and the other is a man eating snake junkee and her youngest is dead (from her perspective). Her madness and obsession in rebirth is a bit understandable after that.
@@jankieek8218 If you could highlight it for those of us that can't see it at all I'd appreciate it. I'm not saying I doubt you. Just I literally just don't see it.
@@strisk2388 well youtube won't (imgbb) allow me (com) to post a link so that's the best I can do (/Cv9MVXS) if it won't be clear just tell me and I will try to find a better pic of it.
Ranni is a fascinating character. As with most characters in Fromsoft titles, she doesn't fit neatly into a category. She isn't what most would consider evil, but she definitely wasn't a "good guy". She has loyal and sympathetic followers(mostly) and she may have had very good reasons to do what she did, but she is also responsible for the assassination of Godwyn and the subsequent corruption of the Lands Between via Deathroot. She is a charismatic and violent revolutionary who is willing to kill any and all who stand in her way of bringing about her "Age of the Stars".
100% agree with that take - ruthless but also isn't evil per se
+she turned small
All revolutions are ruthless or did you not know that?
@@dominicp9296 nah, she did that cause it was her own personal wish.
@@yopoxikeweapescai9066 I'm not denying that all I was was all revolutions are ruthless which is a fact.
the description of Ranni's moon always made me think about Gael's painted world. a cold, dark, and gentle place
I always had the impression that the Carian house existed before Renala, she was just he one who uplifted it to royalty.
That's literally what Rennala's Remembrance says
Yeah, Rennala uplifted them to royalty meaning that the house existed but only as a noble one. I think of it like house targaryen, a noble house which became royalty after the actions of its leader, in this case Aegon I
I watched this whole video in 49 seconds I was so hyped
HHAHA - Best way to watch it!
Teach me
real
48.6 seconds here, guess I was more hyped 😎
The Usain Bolt of watching videos 👍🏼🤣
Ranni's hands stacked on top of each other are symbolic of stillness, calm, and reflection. Ranni's dark moon and her dark path of the Empyrean emphasize coldness, loneliness, and introspection. The peaceful repose of her hands signify the deep reflection of self and her situation that led to her grand scheme.
She locks away Her ring and inscribes it with her conviction and vow to never be married and walk the dark path alone... Yet that changes when she meets you.
Truly our tsun blue wife
She could also be the first queen, and the last regent, of the family if she was preceded only by kings, and was granted her title due to her remarkable abilities.
Great point Tom
i thought this too, and also considered that while caria as a family had been matriarchal with women as heads of household, rennala is the first true queen of caria because her prowess with magic and full moon powers took caria from a noble house to a royal one
The language is a bit vague as there is a line of queens being mentioned, but with no clarification if these were ruling queens or consorts. Rennala's role and the matriarchal nature of her family would suggest any other queen being mentioned would be a ruling monarch, not just a partner, since a "line of queens" suggests the succession is clearly on the female side.
Ranni's questline is by far the best in the game and the most fleshed out and important one as well in my opinion.
You learn so much about her character and her followers, which really made it such a joy to work through.
Dude thank you so much for using the Japanese translation in your analysis. So many interpretations of Ranni’s motives made her seem like she was intentionally trying to drive the Lands Between into this desolate existence when the original clearly shows she’s speaking of herself and absolutely not interested in gods -including herself - interfering in human affairs. I wish the localization wasn’t so drastically off because it makes the ending much more ominous than it’s supposed to be.
I think the crime of Godwyn’s murder honestly speaks to just how depraved her existence was bound in that she literally has to essentially “kill” her sibling to begin the process to freeing herself. The path to Elden Lord is a ruthless one in all irony shaped by the “flames of ambition” that every actor, including the Tarnished, has to engage in to claim the throne.
Thank you my friend and it's my pleasure - I think the translation will really help people understand what is actually going on.
That is absolutely true and given her ties via being an 'empyrean' a great sacrifice was always going to be required.
Not gonna lie, as someone who completely understood Ranni's character before ever reading the translation, that whole "controversy" convinced me of nothing but the sad state of literacy amongst the vast majority of people.
@@SirGiff it's kind of sad to be honest (how people are).
While i admittedly have a hard time of understanding old English, I didn't think it was ominous at all. It was clearly meant to be hopeful but it just wasn't worded properly. Like what was mentioned in the video, it seemed like Ranni would take everyone on a journey through space lol. Which admittedly had me scratching my head. I didn't view it as a bad thing though. So, basically the world will be bathe in the darkness of night but with the light of the moon. Sounds beautiful.
I've always loved Ranni's characterization, and the whole of her questline and those surrounding it, but I've found the Age of Stars ending a sore spot, being so cryptic and hard to understand the outcome of it from the dialogue Ranni offers. However that last segment really shone the light I needed to get what's going on. Also I love the idea that the Three Sisters area was a place dedicated to the Carian heiresses, (assuming there were ever more beyond Ranni) it's like a massive, sprawling backyard Rennala gave her daughters to play in, with their own personal wizard towers for independent sorcery-study time
I had the same issue when I finished her quest line. After some research, the ambiguity of her ending seems to stem from bad translation (a particular sore spot in ER in general). The Japanese version is pretty explicit that the ending results in Ranni and her consort leaving the lands between and, most importantly, taking the gods with them. As someone who was personally affected negatively by the gods, and as someone who has kept her sanity through the shattering and seen the hardship that the gods have wrought, Ranni just wants a world where people are free to do as they please without the gods interfering.
It’s rather beautiful, as it’s a macrocosm of her decision to kill her real body (a puppet of the gods) and make her own body (a puppet for herself alone). She just wants everyone else to have the independence that she has made for herself.
Sad that Godwynn had to die to accomplish this tho…
@@jackweaver1846 My atheist ass had cottoned to the independence angle from several (sub) angles, but the puppet thing is now obvious thanks to your pointing of it. From one internet stranger to another, thanks
@@alainpiera7139 my pleasure 😁
Thanks for the effort man. As someone who loves the game and wants to learn the lore, but works/goes to school full time, your videos have been the main way I bridge the gap because of my time constraints. You’re a huge asset to the elden ring community.
My pleasure and thank you so much for the kind words. The support is much appreciated
Big baller
One thing I noted playing the game that I haven't seen anyone else comment on is that there's two competing ways to read one's fate in the lands between. There's the stars of the astrologer's and the Carian royal family, and also the palmistry of the Finger reader crones, which seems connected to Erdtree worship and the Golden Order. The two as such seem at least potentially to be at odds with one another, perhaps even predicting different fates. No idea what such a thing could mean, but it's a thing I noticed.
I have a theory that Radahn, Rykard, Ranni were actually working together.
The reason why Radahn halted the stars was for her preparation of Ranni's Age Of Stars, however after he got rotted by Malenia so he couldn't complete his task, which meant he sadly needed to be put out of his misery.
In the Volcano Manor, Rykard has a picture of Radahn.
Iji made all of the weapons the Redmane Army used.
Jerren knew about Ranni's whole plan already, and was completely fine who btw was loyal to all the Carian Family. This would mean that Radahn knew about Ranni's plan.
If Radahn was part of the Golden Order he would have been targeted by the Black Knife Assassins by Ranni.
Rykard was gifted the Blasphemous Claw by Ranni to defend himself against Maliketh. And we can see plenty of Abducator Virgins in Caria, and even a special Abducator Virgin in Radahn's Castle, and in Caria Manor who is defending the Nox Bladewhip.
Rykard's Finger Creepers are all over Caria Manor defending it.
I agree that Rykard was probably working with Ranni, but Radahn was definitely working against her. Sellen says that "the stars alter the fate of the Carian royal family," and "if general Radahn were to die, the stars would resume their movement and so too would Ranni's destiny." Radahn stopping the stars wasn't to prepare for the age of stars it actively prevented it, proven by the fact that you need to kill Radahn to get the age of the stars ending.
I am interested to know about Jerren's knowledge of Ranni's plan though that would certainly bring some interest to this.
I agree about Rykard though there is no way she trusted him after he lost his mind and given enough time he would likely have became a problem for her as he just wants to consume. Regardless of what ever their initial loyalty’s to her it is sad that both brothers became more animal then man by the time of their deaths.
You make it sound like everyone put their weight behind Ranni, this snow witch that I do not think gets much admiration throughout the lands really. What I think more than likely happened is that everyone in the Carian family pushed their muscle behind Radahn. To me it makes narrative and intuitive sense. Radahn is an incredibly practiced and powerful magic user even if he uses perhaps a less respected style of magic. He obviously has a cult of charisma around himself considering how loyal his army is to him. He's also a respected general, so it makes sense you would trust him with your forces. He also probably has connections with the golden lineage considering his appreciation of Godfrey.
During a time of crisis a lot of people imagine someone like him. He is the perfect, powerful, strong-man type leader who was probably very charming before the Shattering War, and that if you saw him you'd think he could bring the gavel down and get people working together again, stop all this factionalism. Judging from one of the sword monuments, Radahn stopped the stars in order to halt the fate that would befall Sellia. Ironically of course Sellia is still destroyed by the Scarlet Rot, with at most a fraction of the town being populated by spirits and mannequins. It seems like the stars get their way no matter what. Quite fatalistic.
Ranni likely just took advantage of the situation, realizing her brother was essentially dead which meant she didn't have to argue a case to release the stars to him, just have someone kill his insane corpse. I doubt Jerren had much knowledge of Ranni's plan, he isn't present during the ghost Skype meeting and is probably just a reliable on the ground type guy loyal to the Carian family in general.
@@jatgreen2995 Radahn halting the stars was to give them time to prepare.
And the reason the stars are still halted is because Radahn is insane now, and can't let the stars go.
@@gummybearchewy5444 Yeah, Rykard became actually crazy with his whole wanting to devour everything.
I imagine the plan was for Rykard to simply get more powerful, not insane.
Rykard went crazier as time went on.
I always thought "fear, doubt, and loneliness" was also referring to what will happen without a tangible order. While every other ending leads to another society where people are governed by divine force (or eradicated by the Frenzied Flame), Ranni's leaves a hypothetical world where people have to govern themselves because they have no god to lead them.
This is exactly how I read it! When she says that she will make the things which were previously certainties into impossibilities, I took that also to mean that all of these things that people used to tangibly associate with the order would now be forced into intangibility. It's basically like God leaving the world, and about what that entails for the people who used to worship it.
Exactly, literally from the Greater Will ie the collective unconscious towards individualistic self determination for all. True freedom, and the lonely burden that entails.
Her words make a lot of sense when you pay close enough attention to understand that people living under the Golden Order had their entire lives literally pre-written (and readable by the finger-readers).
@@r_bear Cause society is doing so great without God.
From needs to get these translations in order ASAP. They botched this one big time!
Kinda late to this, but one of the best things I liked about Ranni's quest is how our player character's relationship with her develops. Remember that we only either stumble upon her by coincidence or through Rogier and yet as we do her quest you can feel a bond between Ranni and the Tarnished. Some of the evidence to this being that Ranni says that she will add our name along Blaidd and Iji. This not only shows how much she trusts us but also that she sees us as equals to her childhood friends and even a stepbrother in Blaidd's case. Also that she trusts us to relay her farewell to them both. After that she disappears, and Iji states that everything from now is something that she alone must journey through. However, Our character refuses to let her be alone, grabs the ring from the academy(the key to which btw, is given to us by Ranni even though in the description of the key, it said that she discarded it along with her flesh), and puts it on her finger, therefore becoming her consort and vowing to spend the thousand year voyage to the stars with her. Clearly she is pleased and touched(I don't know if she gave us the key so that we do marry her or if it is just a decision by the tarnished, the description of the key somewhat implies that she wanted us to do it or maybe she just gave us the fancy looking ring as a reward for our services). She shows her acceptance of us as her consort by giving us our shining moonlight, to remain by our side forever AND if we go back to her rise and talk to her, she will call us her one and only Lord and also changes the line "My fair consort, eternal" to "My dear consort, eternal" in the ending
I know I might be reaching a bit here but this is how I interpreted the questline. I just really like we go from just doing errands to getting so devoted to her that we willingly leave everything behind to accompany her in the void of space, it gets better if we meet her through Rogier's quest because we initially think of her as a suspicious character.
Finally I would like thank you for reading this gargantuan essay. Forgive any reading grammatical mistakes English isn't my first language and I hope you had fun reading this.
I'd have had no idea that English wasn't your first language, for what it's worth!
This probably sums up why i like her quest so much.
though I didn't find her through rogier, i did already have the goal of betraying the two fingers, defying the greater will, and killing *all* the demigods. (and being someone who played blind on launch i had no idea it was something we'd get to do)
So when i met her in the tower i decided to use her to further my goal but as the quest went on i grew fairly attached to all the characters related to the quest (except seluvis naturally).
Honestly i thought the quest was over after giving her the finger slaying blade, so i decided to explore around and then found the portal in renna's rise.
I went through it and was happy i finally found the way to explore the rest of the ansel river, but i also found a minature ranni. When i rested at the grace i found it funny we had the option to talk to it, so i did about once per grace as i explored. Then, at the grace just before the fight with the wolf of the two fingers, i clicked talk to the minature ranni once more... And it spoke back.
I was immediately called crazy for incessantly talking to a doll, probably the funniest thing that happened in the game to me.
then i did the rest of the quest, as well as die a ton because I didn't level vigor and i was fighting astel.
I guess i never did reach my goal of killing all the demigods, or maybe she doesn't count since she became a full god?
Well stated and supported, we really do grow more intimate with her along her questline, in some ways it feels like a much more fleshed out version of what they wanted to do with Annalise the Vileblood queen in Bloodborne.
"Eternal consort" part has more emotional weight when one knows how hard it might be to Ranni to see her mother being left by Radagon.
@@azure4622 same I thought I was going crazy while playing it blind I didn’t like the fingers at all and as I got closer to her doll I was thinking… this quest feels a lot like corpse bride and I looked it up was right 😂 Got her ending and literally have no desire to do the other quest lines
I think an alternative explanation as to how Renalla is both the first and last queen of the House of Caria is that it's exactly as it says. Renalla swept in, astounded sorcierers everywhere with her incredible magic-negating powers of the Full Moon, and set up "The Carian House" to be a massive and influential force going forward. She is the first queen because she made this awe-inspiring House out of practically nothing at all.
But, before they could even get a generation into the bloodline, the Rune of Death was separated, death stopped working right, and now she has carried on as the only queen of Caria since ita founding. Eventually when Radagon left her, she became how she is now, the last queen of a basically dead family.
Saying she is the first queen, and the last queen highlughts how she built a grand and powerful legacy due to her achievements, only for it all to collapse around her within her own life. The House of Caria was so short lived, that she was both the first and the last queen.
Iji says Ranni is the first heir in the carian royal line.
And when we suggest that Renalla may be a Numen, than she could just be long lived.
I think that when ranni refers to Renalla as the last queen in the cutscene is also her way of stating, that she is not going to be a queen of carian herself.
@@leohirtsche8341 True, she already went to such extreme lengths to rid herself of her "destiny" as an Empyrean. Renalla's dying wish for Ranni to "weave thy night into being" sounds like she had accepted Ranni's decision to not carry on as an heiress, and that she'd rather Ranni start a new "House of the Dark Moon" rather than carry on her own "House of the Full Moon".
18:46 Iji also says that "The fate of the Carian royal family is guided by the stars. As is the fate of Lady Ranni, first heir in the Carian royal line"
I always thought that the Lucarians didn't exactly get disappointed in Renalla's reaction to Radagon leaving, more like they realised that they can be rid of her without her retalliating and took the opportunity. Hence "Not a champion at all" = "Oh, she won't actually crush us into a fine paste". Perhaps the sorcerers did not want to abandon their astrology in favour of moon magic?
One theory I heard on Tumblr ties the revolt of the Cuckoos to, of all things, the Albinauric Pot. A heavily abridged version of the theory: the Albinauric Pot makes it clear that the Cuckoos utterly despise those that live out of the normal cycle of life and death. So what if the reason the Cuckoos revolted was not because of Rennala’s grie (or at least, not only because of that), but because Radagon gave her the Egg, which she became obsessed with? It allows people to be reborn, thus circumventing the normal cycle. This, in turn, implies that leaving behind the Egg was not out of sentiment, but an intentional act of sabotage-neutralizing Rennala so that she could not become a threat to the Erdtree once again, as she once had been in the past.
Her entire questline is one of the best. Ever.
100%!
I’m not quite sure this has been mentioned before, but I think Radagon breaking the vow he made to Rennala directly lead to Malenia and Miquella’s curses
Miriel mentioned how Rennala and Radagon’s fates were linked by the vow, and that by breaking it, there would be consequences
So in a similar way to how karma works, Miquella and Malenia’s fates were twisted as a result
It's very much possible , especially since the curse was seemingly caused by outer gods which have relation with stars and the cosmos , and the stars command fate of the carians
Either that or "inbreeding" leading to flaws in birth.
Would Self-cest be inbreeding? cloning? I wonder how
that would end up working out, as hermaphroditic animals exist, and seem to get along just fine. lol
@@etherflask6380 self-cest would be inbreeding probably with even worse results than normal inbreeding
@freedomofspeechenjoyer5443 it's true sorcery is the study of the stars but that doesn't mean the opposite is true and stars are limited to just sorcery , hell it might be the classic demon souls thing where you find out miracles and sorceries have the same origin being the stars if we could consider the greater will as an outer god , so even though yes they don't necessarily have to do with the stars , the outer gods still have relations with it , for example the elden beast is described as being sent as " a golden star bearing a beast " , astel is a " bastard of the void " and was sent down by some entity , even with radahn halting the stars it seemed like an active battle of some sort rather than just stopping some rocks floating in space , also outer gods are very much lovecraftian creatures , so it's safe to assume some space stuff
And the outer gods have to exist in space somewhere , so whether they are stars or live on stars or the void they're there somewhere .
Now i admit we don't have a lot of info to go on and we only know like 3 or 4 outer gods but i think there's a link there
@@etherflask6380 there are arguments to be made against inbreeding being the reason of the curse.
Martin is a very repetitive writer and for example the Targaryen incest in ASOIAF doesn't have the same genetic issues that it has in our world. Some Targaryen go mad or appear sickly but that can be more easily explained with the death of dragons as incest was practiced for centuries and their madness is almost exclusively dragons related.
And in ASOIAF Targaryens are often compared to gods, just like Marika/Radagon.
There are also Morgott and Mogh who are also "cursed", while Male is curse is connected to the interference of another god.
The incest seems the more likely reason but there may be more to it
ranni bringing up the "1000 year journey" tells me that she accepts the finality of her order/cycles of life and death- something marika couldn't do
I think giving a finality to it really ties the whole ending together, taking away this cocky idea that the GO had of " it WILL last forever"
Well, Marika was literally the chosen one. Theoretically there wasn't supposed to be a "finality" Marika was the eternal queen. Ironically enough when things went to hell the 'God' that was suppose to govern everything fled.
Interesting tidbit I heard last night while playing actually. If you've met Iji and entered Rannis service then talk to Jirren before the festival has started there's a dialogue option "about Iji" where Jirren tells you to relay a msg back to Iji, something along the lines of "when the festival begins Rannis fate will begin to move again". This ties into Ranni being held in Stasis until Radahn is defeated
Nothing better than an hour long SmoughTown video to relax to after a busy day! Been looking forward to this😁
Hope you enjoy it Ross!
Been waiting for this!! Ranni is one of my favourite fictional characters in any medium, ever. Powerful, extremely clever, determined, no nonsense character who commands respect. She is a sight to behold.
Just an incredibly well written character!
That's facts, I simp for ranni. Her voice is fuckin dope being paired with her personality
@@Imslowasfboi yall creepy AF
Great character villain yes.
Regarding multiple Carian princesses - it’s probably referring to Rennala having sisters, instead of more daughters. Sisters to the Queen could very well have been bestowed the title of Princess upon Rennala’s accession.
Tangentially related to that, the House of Caria was probably a noble family before it became the royal house, meaning it likely had more members beyond Rennala’s immediate family (see: the many chairs in the moongazing grounds area of Caria Manor). Sadly, however, it seems all the other Carians are gone by the time our Tarnished enters the story.
This is mostly speculation on my part though. Still not done with the video but enjoying it thus far (:
Yes! It would make the most sense imo for the previous princesses to have been Rennala's sisters or other close kin, since there's no mention of her having other children than the three we know of. I actually think Sellen was one of the "three sisters", so maybe Renna was the third one.
Yes, thats a very good point. Another one was that Rennala might have had more daughters with Radagon but those daughters were killed. We know that there are several unamed demigods that were killed in the night of the black knives besides Godwyn, and other Carian princesses could be among them.
You one right, Rellana is a thing now lol
I like to think that becoming Ranni’s consort, the tarnished becomes her family as her spouse. With everyone in her close circle gone, you only have each other and set off on a 1000 year journey into the stars. The closest thing to a fairy tale happily ever after.
Also, talking to Iji, as her warden (closest thing to a farther to Ranni), entrusts her to you, almost like giving you his blessing. 🥰
Then a few thousand years later their rebellious children bring the elden ring back restarting the cycle.
Ehhhh, I dun know, especially playing as a woman, and to the fact that she is very cold. Even as her 'lord' she looks at you more as a pet than anything.
Divorcing her as soon as the age of stars finishes before she can do it to me first.
@@TheAnimaAnimal we are talking about the same Ranni that by mistake said that you (the player) might join the people she cares about and after that was telling player to forget they ever heard that ?
"Blaidd, and Iji both... Art willing to give too much to me.
Yet they both understand. What lieth beyond the dark path...
That I must betray everything, and rid the world of what came before.
Ah, should I add thee to the list?
Another one, kind of heart. As kind of heart as they.
Ach, this form hath loosened my tongue.
I've let slip too much.
Forget what thou'st heard. Forget."
Plus if Seluvis observations are correct Rannis icy personality is a persona she took on as necessary for everything she has to do (before the player shows up she thinks she will have to go on her 1000 years journey alone so she is distancing herself from everyone)
"The dead-eyed doll lets down her guard in your presence, rather remarkably.
Though she might dip her hands in the dirt, and feign that icy persona...she's a frail, gentle girl at heart."
And how did you come into a interpretation that she sees her lord as a "pet" ?
After you betray(attack her) after giving her the ring she talks about how perhaps she does deserve that because she surrended herself to a delusion with the context that it is right after players marriage with Ranni she obviously means the marriage as the delusion that she surrender to.
"What hopest thou to profit?
Hmph. So, this is the measure of my Lord? Perhaps it is precisely what I deserve. ...For surrendering myself to delusion."
Also I might be biased but I don't think Ranni calling the player her "one and only Lord" and her "Dear Consort Eternal" is her being cold and seeing them as a pet.
I love the theory that Ranni's four arms are part of the homage to her mentor who may have been a spirit caller. They have four arms, blue skin, and her spirit caller bell may have been passed down to Ranni and that's why she has one.
Hey Smough, don’t think I’ve ever commented in 6/7 years of watching your lore videos (ds1/2 and the hype building to 3s release date, then all the videos you made following it) spanning from me graduating high school, going into college, starting a family, serving in the military and now transitioning back to civilian life.
Just wanted to say it’s been a treat consistently having your lore videos for half a decade to enjoy. Makes me proud of you, oddly enough, to have viewed your journey as a creator and the refinement of your work.
Wholeheartedly, you succeeded in establishing yourself as the top lore master over Elden Ring and even compared to the original lore gurus of soulsborne games in the past; the quality, interconnected lore, and the quantity+depth of lore you provide is superior to the old lore videos of years back. Thank you for giving something to spend my free time on dude, you kick ass and hope life is going well! Peace oot ✌🏻
Hey James, this is an incredible post. I am so grateful to have had you as a subscriber all that time - it's been some time eh. At the stage when I started the channel, I had just left College and was really finding my feet in the world.
Incredible that you've done so much with your life in that time. Thank you so much for sharing that James, I am grateful and I really wish you and your family all the best
The ending makes so much sense when explained like that, how Ranni herself would go alone into the chill night into fear and loneliness to govern the world in the Age of Stars. This could also be supported by the description of the Dark Moon Ring, which says: "A warning is engraved within; 'Whoever thou mayest be, take not the ring from this place, the solitude beyond the night is better mine alone.'"
Ranni knows what lies ahead and thinks it better for her to go alone, but we become her consort anyways, and she "is pleased, however. Thou'rt a fitting choice." At least she won't be completely alone in her Order.
Damn thank you. This guy couldn't answer if we died or not after taking her hand.
I only can imagine the dynamic between Ranni and the Tarnished because she is this deep, smart, philosophical, and calculating woman who essentially caused the Shattering while our Tarnished is this nonchalant, carefree, and gullible brute who only cares about his weapons, his armors, and his horse. Like, the typical scenario in the household would be Ranni rabbling for hours about the meaning of the universe just to turn around to see that the Tarnished didn’t get any of that and was playing wrestling with his mimic tear.
Smough, your interpretation of Ranni's ending cleared up so much. Thank you so much, I now feel I actual grasp electing 4 armed blue doll to be the queen of the universe.
Really liked your reasoning when it comes to Rennala and Ranni's relation, it makes a lot of sense. That said, regardless of whether they are blood related or not, I always interpreted their relationship as the closest out of all of Rennala's with her children. The fact that she taught Ranni about moon magic, the fact that Ranni keeps an illusion of Rennala at her most powerful, but most importantly the way Rennala seems to try and use her egg to revive Ranni (who cannot be revived, as she is not dead) all speak to the close bond they had. At least that's how I see Rennala's obsession with the egg. It's definitely important because it was given to her by Radagon, but it seems more like a vessel for their combined magical or biological essence. And what do you get when you combine these two people? A very powerful child. Hell, the game literally has another character who is supposed to be reborn from an egg, though that one also ended disastrously.
Excellent video! I especially think you nailed it about her ending.
As for her four arms, it definitely indicates her incredible ability to have set so much of everything into action, while I've also read that the use of blue for the skin of gods in ancient Indian art is bc they somehow understood that the blue of the sky and water is an illusion of light, and thus is symbolic of "the incomprehensible." Simultaneously, it also ties the crone at least to the Wraith Callers, who primarily live in Liurnia, have blue skin, and four arms. The presence of Revenants in the ruins there and on the Moonlight Plateau have me thinking that perhaps they were the "Moonfolk," which would explain how Ranni encountered one of them who happened to be a master of cold sorcery, and connected to the Dark Moon. Whatever happened to all of them that turned their royalty into cursed monstrosities, and the rest of them into bizarre beings with tools that can summon the same wraiths as Omens, is anyone's guess...
Thank you so much! And that's a great point regarding the Wraith Callers - may need to revisit them in a future video!
Also interesting given that Ranni gives us the spirit calling bell and Wraith Callers wield bells. Could just be coincidence, but I found it interesting
@@jackweaver1846 Yeah that too! There's a whole "spirit" underbelly of the Lands Between that's never directly addressed, and I find that so interesting. The bells, the wraiths, the blue spirits, the snails, the Helphen Steeple... Add that to the long list of dlcs we need lol
I think one thing that's missed here is that tanni may have four arms because she is a composite of two beings, ie 2+2 arms = 4 arms...pretty simple explanation tbh
@@SmoughTown It's also possible that Ranni's teacher was the spirit tuner that Master Hewg was indebted to long ago. One of his dialogue lines mentions a detail about them having the same eye color as Roderika. I used Zullie the Witches videos examining the NPC models in Elden Ring to compare each character's eyes and found that Ranni’s and Roderika’s eyes were similarly greenish blue. This may support the theory that Ranni’s teacher was a Wraith Caller as it isn’t a huge leap in logic to think that one would eventually learn to become a spirit tuner.
Ranni close-up: ua-cam.com/video/c2yYt42u_eo/v-deo.html
Roderika close-up: ua-cam.com/video/hu_Q9TwF5Xc/v-deo.html
The snowy crone being a spirit tuner and wraith caller would also tie into your point regarding Ranni’s relation to the occult.
Also, if we assume that the snowy crone was the one that gave Ranni the Spirit Calling Bell, that would make her Torrent's former master, which could start to explain why Melina is in possession of Torrent if the Snowy Crone is related to Master Hewg and by relation to Queen Marika.
Additionally, there seems to be a connection between ice/cold to ghosts/spirits. The Consecrated Snow Fields having those spirit animals, the ghost flame being described as cold, Death’s Poker applying frost, and the frozen variants of Jellyfish all seem to hint at the connection. This could further support the theory.
Finally, the Godskin Swaddling Cloth is interestingly found in the Spirit Caller Cave located on the Mountaintops of the Giants, somehow connecting spirit callers with the Gloam Eyed Queen. This could start to explain Ranni's knowledge of the rite to creating god-slaying weapons as the only other weapon we know of that has that adjective is the Godslayers Greatsword.
I always felt that the Giant's flame was the counterpart to the Moon in my experience playing Elden ring. Throughout the story I never felt as if the Erdtree really had a counterpart, per-se, only a bunch of rivals. It was really like Christianity in that regard, as historically, Christianity faced a large amount of resistance from the many and varied native cultures that it eventually steamrolled over through sheer holy military power.
Anyways, the Giantsflame most certainly somewhat fits the bill of a counterpart to the power of the moon, especially as it's sigil very much has a lot of sun iconography and even imagery in it's spells, such as with the Flame of the Fell God. From what we know, the Flame of the Giants and the Moon have both existed since before the Erdtree, and very likely had their own roles in shaping the landscape of the lands between before the rise of the Erdtree as a power in the world.
Below I will describe several interesting dichotomies between the deep blue Moon and the bright orange Sun that I noticed during my time playing and looking through some item descriptions and lore that I had read up on. Most of these observations seemed to click in my mind at SmoughTown's mention of the concept of Yin and Yang, and I began attaching some of those concepts to these two different worldly powers.
1- While the Moon seems to be very Matriarchal, the service of Flame seems to be predominantly male-dominated, with the Fire Monks and Prelates all being these big and somewhat beefy (And/or chonky) dudes, all wearing armor that displays masculine features, whether that be the big ugly mug of the Fell God, or the big bearded face of the Prelate's Helms. An interesting duality, methinks.
2- The more obvious stuff. The Flame of the Fell God looks like a Sun. The sigil for Fire Monk and Fire Giant spells has imagery associated with the Sun. Whereas the Moon is fully based in intelligence, or, relating back to the concept of Yin and Yang, understanding (A trait associated with Yin), the incantations of the Fire Giant are based entirely on Faith, or raw belief, which aligns with the concept of Yang. This connection comes from the states of being that are associated with the two sides of the coin. Yin is often linked with physical substance or matter, while Yang is linked with the metaphysical, or spiritual. Intelligence is, of course, about concrete understanding of things, whereas Faith is the raw belief in the metaphysical, at least in Elden Ring.
3- A point is made that both the Fire Giants and Astrologers coexisted relatively peacefully, enough so that a weapon could be created that wilds both the power of the Night Sky and the Flame of the Giants. They didn't actively fight and struggle against eachother, like in the short-lived unity between the Erdtree and the Moon, the Fire Giants and Sorcerers actually had no beef with one another whatsoever. Of course, they might be categorically opposed to the Dark Moon of Ranni, as their Fell God would likely not like anything to do with the Cold, but it has been seen that the Flame does not oppose sorcery or the reverence of the stars itself, despite being rather opposite to one another, what with one being focused on what is above coming down to them (Astrologers), and those focusing on what is below, reaching upwards (The Fire Giants). There is a balance there, as there is meant to be.
Overall, the Erdtree doesn't seem to actually complement the Moon in those times that they interact, and it shows in the tenets of the Golden Order overall. The Erdtree doesn't seek to exist in Balance with the Moon. It seeks to bring the moon into its fold, to control it, to become one and converge to a single point. It does not wish for the moon to be distinct from the tree, and if it cannot absorb it, it would at least seek to control it, as shown in the marriage between Radagon and Rennala, which, in the end, resulted in a certain Red-haired Demigod whose life's purpose was to restrain the stars and fate itself. The Academy no longer continued its research into the Primeval Current, the Moon guiding the stars in a different direction. All outliers must converge towards the mean, whether they wish it or not.
In summary, I see the Flame of the Fell God/The Fell God itself as a respresentation of the equal and opposite to the Moons, in the varied forms that they take, while the Erdtree and Golden Order seem more like an outside force that crushed one side and leashed the other, in its quest for dominion and Order. They wouldn't be the only forces that had gotten this treatment, after all. Just look at the Deathbirds, the Nox, heck, even the Crucible knights, who worshipped the Crucible, were not considered pure enough to exist in the world of Grace.
The Distant Moon, which opposes the Erdtree in its capacity as a guide to fate, stands against the Erdtree as the forces of Gold attempt to gain a monopoly over the lives and deaths of everyone with the lands between, and the Fell Sun, which opposes the Erdtree on the principle of it being, firstly, a big pile of kindling, but also on the premise of the Tree seeking to end death itself- something that a destructive God would most certainly see as a breach of its domain. What's the point of being a deity of fate if everyone's destinies are sealed? What will be left for flame to consume in an eternal world? If neither can be unified, then neither can be tolerated.
Edit: Just to Note, this is like, 90% Headcanon, and 10% actual Lore. But in a game based around a big ol tree, it's fair to say when all roots reach towards the same point, that point probably holds at least a little water.
Anyways, none of you are going to read all of this, so, have a good evening, remember to like SmoughTown's video, and don't you dare go Hollow.
This was well worth the read! I haven't gotten really far in the game, but I have seen plenty of playthroughs, and watched plenty of videos. This is a sound theory!
Beautiful
Thank you sir.
I just ran out of work to do, I will now watch this on company time.
🤣 I love it! Enjoy
I honestly did not think that the order of stars could be explained in practice as it was to vague but you did an excellent job. Now I see that this new order is an ingenues idea on Ronnie’s part.
Thank you so much, I was very nervous about this video and so these comments are most welcome!
Awesome, I've been looking forward to this video. I get to work from home due to a massive winter storm, so I can listen to this while I work. Thanks for putting out these longer in-depth videos, you always make some of the best quality lore videos on UA-cam.
Wow thank you so much, honestly so nice to hear that you enjoy the long form content! Thanks so much for the support
The video and article discussing the mistranslation of Ranni's ending really did a lot to clarify things. Ultimately, it is hard to deny that her ending is the most "good" ending, as it establishes a world that would look and behave as ours does. We live, we die, making our own decisions; this is a luxury that has been denied the Lands Between essentially from the beginning, and we see how that has caused so much turmoil and suffering. Ranni's self-determination becomes a gift to the world so that free will can truly thrive without the interference of the Greater Will or the Elden Ring.
This also lines up perfectly with George R.R. Martin's philosophy which is very apparent in the Jaime story from ASOIAF, where Jaime ponders his blank page in the White Book, knowing he can fill it with anything he wants. His life is his, his decisions are his, for good or for ill. Classic Martin.
beat the game months ago, but these videos are always so entertaining and insightful. So many things that I missed. Can't wait to replay this game.
Really appreciate the support, even after beating the game! Means the world to me
Let's gooo!
Been waiting for it.
Gonna love this one for sure!
Thank you for the in-depth lore and character analyses. Always love watching them and they are so well made!
My pleasure Adnan, and as always I appreciate your kind words and support.
Awesome video as always! One idea about the Carians though, maybe "Carian" is a royal family title in Liurnia, kind of like "Caesar" was in Rome? Rennala is the first of *her house* of Carians, but there had been others before her? That would explain the idea of other princesses before Ranni, although it would contradict some other pieces of lore too. Also, the Melina connection to Ranni has so many interesting facets so I can't wait to see your take on it! My personal theory is that Melina is another daughter of Marika and Radagon. She talks a lot about her mother setting her on her path and destiny, and also quotes Marika many times when you speak to her, so perhaps those two are one and the same? Children's names in Elden Ring also seem to follow the first letter of a parent's name, so the idea of the three siblings of Malenia, Miquella *and Melina* has a lot of symmetry with the siblings, Radahn, Rykard, and Ranni. This is made all the more potent by the theory that Melina may also have been the Gloam Eyed Queen as you said here, perhaps explaining why she was erased from the Erdtree Royal family history so completely that nobody remembers who she is, including her own spirit. That would make Melina and Ranni sisters, and thus explain why they have such a resemblance to each other. This also adds another layer of rich symmetry too, perhaps tying back into those ideas of Yin and Yang, Sun and Moon, and the Radagon/Marika Rebis itself. Both sisters' fates were to dedicate their lives to heresy and rebellion against the Golden Order, with one using the fire of Black Flame (and later the Flame of Ruin) and the other using the cold of the Dark Moon. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on this though, so hopefully your video on it isn't too far away!
Nothing gives me more serotonin than seeing your update on more lore on a Friday after work. Bless.
Awesome! Hope you enjoy
The topic of fate is particularly fascinating in regards to Ranni because her path stands to create a perception of freedom for the people living under her Order. The Golden Order is, as discussed in the video, a Yang order, ever visible and omnipresent, bathing the land in its light. The sight of the Erdtree is a universal reminder of the governing gods of the land. Meanwhile, the Order of the Stars is Yin, so obscured as to make a certainty of faith impossible. This means that people living under this order cannot perceive it to command anything and thus have to act as if it's not there. As if they're free.
Yet fate has real power in Elden Ring, and it's governed by the motion of the stars that are now freed from the Elden Ring's yoke. The Order is imperceptible, and this likely means that fate can't be read from the stars, yet if it still exists at all it's now stronger than ever. So it's now a question whether the people living in the Age of Stars are the most free they've ever been or chained to a reigning fate that can only be observed from a cosmic vantage point. Fitting for a Yin ending to contain such great uncertainty.
Well Done, Smoughtown! Your channel has evolved to legendary story/lore telling and a masterclass of sleuthing, above and beyond most. Watching her mothers' heart being broken seems to me the perfect time for Ranni to go Dark. Subscription added and a wish for MANY more!!
Thank you so much for the kind words, it's honestly humbling. More to come, thank you for the sub!
@@SmoughTown Yes, words lead very quickly to sentiment, for me. Thinking back to maybe 2012 was about a year after Dark Souls 1 released and I believe Quelaag, Marcus and The German Spy started mapping out the basic fundamental 'the Gwynn storylines" making this one-year anniversary of Elden Ring still very early into the understanding, of the Lore. Now add in George RRR Martin to the equation, these theories are in their infant stages. You all are doing fine work!
Thank you Geoff, my friend. That was quite the under taking. I never saw Ranni as a heroic figure, just as self appointed, as Offner thee no Goode.
But I adore the fact that she's driven, & as luminous & confounded as the Stars themselves.
In complete amenity she is bound to no one, & she & her Chosen Consort can finally uncover that which is new & exciting.
She alone dares to be so much more then anyone. For that I adore her.
Thank you, for this perspective. It's both illuminating & presents us with so much more then before about a mysteriously enchanting Character who regardless of our assistance, I think she would have made it to the stars without us. A individual On a path, of interstellar proportions. Our fresh eyes are open to possibilities we didn't know were ours, till Ranni gave us the keys to have no obligation to a cruller fate, then we have, had we decided not to complete Stars ending. Sad that Blidde is just a device for Ranni to abandon. & in her ending there's no Torrent as well as Iggy But at least we have Ranni still not abandon us. & The feeling we are the Renegade Tarnished, who is still able to change things for better, or worse, to be one with her & her Mystic Moon...
As before, yes, let's see it happen, milord Geoff.
The blinding, the freedom, the infinite Journeying... Thank Ranni for the opportunity to Be more then Tarnished, & cast aside.
✨🧙🏼♀️🧝🏻♀️🐴✨🌕✨
Ranni still is by far the best, choice, & hope for a better beginning. ✨🌕✨🐶👩🏻🚀✨❤️
This channel and Brothers Code do an amazing job with lore videos. I know these videos aren't easy to put together so thank you for your hard work.
Thank you my friend, that means so much and I appreciate the support.
Yeah Brothers Code, Smough Town, and Hawkshaw are just straight up incredible. I wish they’d all crank out videos constantly but I know there’s only so much lore to cover.
I’d like to see Brothers Code do some more in-depth videos like Smough too.
Great video as usual, a few notes that came to mind during the listen:
- There's a pagan trinity concept of 'maiden, mother, crone' that I think provided some influence to Ranni's story, especially since these 3 archetypes of femininity are also symbolically tied to the crescent, full and 'dark moon'.
- Ofnir mentions Ranni casting aside her great rune, but have you noticed the strange symbol present on ranni's moon, which is absent on Rennalas? I've seen some reddit threads that theorise Ranni placed her rune on the Dark Moon itself, and the strange pattern does seem to align with the central inverse arches of the elden ring.
Great point Thomas re the Lunar trinity - could certainly be something there if we consider the Black Moon as well!
Your thoughts on the state of the Carina royals are interesting. Perhaps the conflict between the new state of the Carian Royalty and their lineage is one of a knightly house ascending to royalty due to some politicking, political marriage, or a simple coup. Could help to explain the existence of the Carian knights and their household, and also the reference to “princesses” if there was some distant relation to non-Erdtree nobility.
The Carians may have also ruled in an earlier Liurnian civilization, perhaps explaining stuff like the ruins atop the Moonlight Altar, and Rennala would have basically rediscovered ancient powers up there. Granted, nothing in the game implies that the Carians recently returned to being the monarchs controlling Liurnia, but I figured it was a possibility worth mentioning.
I really enjoyed the video, as well as playing through rannis quest line in game, personally one of my favourite endings to a souls game.
It feels very hopeful compared to most endings and I’m intrigued by what our characters role in this future would entail.
Glad you enjoyed it! And totally agree, I try to imagine our ‘journey’ into the chill night
Just needed to say; I'm a latecomer to your channel, and am enjoying all the videos I have seen immensely. Half of the enjoyment is from the substance of the content, and the other half is the presentation (narration, citation of sources, and well planned formatting).
Ranni’s puppet also has four arms that resembles the other puppets throughout the lands between, I think this is why the puppets are so infatuated with glint stone and sorceries. Maybe they are looking for a soul or something. Idk but I feel like there is a connection there.
I'm pretty sure the puppets themselves are creations of the glintstone mages, to use as unites to fight an enemy while they cast spells, like many players that play spell builds do with spirit ashes
I've been eagerly awaiting this video. Ranni was my favorite character from the game, and a 75-minute introspection is exactly what I needed today. I just recently found your channel and have watched all of your ER videos multiple times. Your channel is fantastic! Thanks so much, and keep them coming, please!
Always found Ranni to be one of the most interesting and fascinating character in lore and motivations,Incredible Ranni lore video Smough have a great day
thanks my friend, hope you have a great day too
@@SmoughTown you’re welcome thanks
Nice video indeed! I really liked Ranni's quest, piecing things together. We can't even be sure that it is actually Ranni we're dealing with, since we're dealing with a spirit and advanced magic. It could be a dark deity of the moons; I think whether or not that's true there's a high chance that Ranni is being manipulated by one in a cruel twist. It could be the snow witch, who in turn also could be connected such or this is her agenda. It could - although least likely to me - also be Marika in spirit form, since you could make an argument that she wants to free herself from the gold, given how the Radagon side of her seems to be in opposition, but needs to cause plots through others to affect this, just like Ranni actually does. I feel like in these cases there's ground that they would know Ranni well enough to fool those around her.
One personal anecdote - I think it was Radagon that broke a vow, and thus is the target of the warning, not Rennala. So I kind of assumed that Miriel was talking about Radagon's fate. This is a giant reach but I guess you could see Radahn's act a response to this. Maybe he believed in the power of fate as well, given he was Carian, and wanted to spare his idol Radagon such misfortunes. Probably not likely but it's a fun spin :P
Finishing this video after watching it in chunks. I'm almost jealous of Japanese speakers who played this game. I've know translation quirks have changed meaning in fromsoft games before. But this is truly beautiful, Ranni was my first ending I got and the partly because of that, it's my favorite ending. Now I like it even more with this great translation
This was really good. It had plenty of fact, speculation, and some back tracking. Again, high quality.
Thanks, as always. Was nervous about this one, so appreciate that
@@SmoughTown Well you introduced both fact as well as a multitude of theories, which was helpful cuz, well - it brings up multiple possibilities, which is thought provoking.
I think Renala's Full Moon absorbs other sorceries because as the moon passes through the night sky it literally blocks out the stars
Oh how I’ve been waiting for this day, my favorite lore-tuber posting a video while I’m at work. Thank you.
My pleasure my friend, enjoy and I hope work goes ok!
@@SmoughTown I listen to your vids on repeat man, having a snow storm rn and this vid is very fitting lol. Have a great day, and thank you for all your hard work.
@@hewhowatchesvideos8457 Thank you so much, I hope you have a nice weekend
Can't wait to watch this and give more input as soon as I'm done with work!
Thanks Bretton, hope your shift goes well!
YEEESSSS FINALLY, I've been checking the channel over and over again for the past few days now hahaha
Ah yes, everyone's favourite four-armed Witch waifu.
While you do spend a fair amount of time doing things to help Ranni out, the fact that she defeated a Glintstone Dragon - Adula - at one stage and then retained their service as a knight shows that Ranni was a lot more powerful than other people gave her credit for. Also have to love the fact that she was made an Empyrean and basically said 'Nah, I'm good, thanks' and went on to forge her own fate.
And Ranni learning cold/ice magics seems appropriate, since she comes across as fairly cold and distant in most of your interactions with her. You can confront her about the Night of Black Knives and she just says 'Yes, I did it. So what?' Far as she's concerned that's all beneath her, but she does come around eventually when you finally prove you are fated to be her Lord.
But I'm gonna do Ranni's questline on every character I make, because Blaidd is the bestest boy, and some of the areas you can access are worth the visit, especially the Eternal Cities.
I dunno man, I'm not sure she "comes around" on anything. I think she just realizes that she needs the tarnished in order to enact her plans.
She strikes me as calculating to the very end.
There's something about the position of Elden Lord that goes beyond mere title, I think.
I couldn't say what. But it seems to be integral to the whole passing on the Elden Ring ritual.
We're her champion. But only in so far as the rules of the world require it. If she could have done her thing without us or only needed us for part of the adventure, I'm pretty sure she'd easily leave us to rot.
she literally says "your breath stinks" and you die, im not sure why anyone would doubt her power
@@rainbowkrampus Nah, she has some fondness towards our Tarnished.
As Seluvius says: "The dead-eyed doll lets down her guard in your presence, rather remarkably.
Though she might dip her hands in the dirt, and feign that icy persona...she's a frail, gentle girl at heart."
Also, after we give her the blade, She pretty much just thanks us and bids farewell. She didn't needed us after that, so from that point onwards it's 100% our decision to help her out.
@Dantoki She's also quite distraught if you work with Seluvis, before killing the both of you with ease
I got the impression that the cold/distant thing was a front. That what she really thinks she wants is to take on her fate alone, as a sort of personal burden but is ACTUALLY pretty happy that she won't be alone in the end. She seemed relieved when you show up with the ring, rather than expectant. Also, the way she sort of tries to go it alone once she has the blade felt like she was trying to spare her friends that lonely fate rather than a calculated, cold move to seize power for herself. I know it's ambiguous but that's just how I read it.
I once read a theory that Rannis mentor (the crone) could have been a Wraith Caller, since they also possess 4 arms.
Good video, Geoff, looking forward to your upcoming projects!
Take care
Thanks so much! More to come!
The idea that the dark moon is the opposite to the erdtree reminds me of destiny 2 how light and dark are opposed but not antagonistic and that it is the wielders of these paracausal powers who cause the cataclismic effects within the universe
This put so much into perspective for me on exactly what Ranni's motivations were. Thank you for this and keep up the great work.
I was thinking the whole "dark path" thing was just Ranni being an edge queen but I really appreciate the way you characterize it here. The yin to the yang, which fits with past fromsoft games also having good and evil depend on perspective.
Cheers Thommy - yeh that's certainly how I see it!
I think it literally is a dark path, not in that it's Evil but in that it's unlit by Grace or by a god that the denizens of the Lands Between can see and touch.
@@r_bear yeah dark like night, i always assumed it was a journey through space.
I like how this dude just straight out explains with facts and gets straight to the point. Unlike, say Vattividya that just starts to stall with fancy speak
Haven't finished the video yet, but regarding Ranna the snow witch. Somewhere i read a theory that the three sisters were Renna(Snow Witch), Queen Rannala, and Sellen. So Ranni's mentor was really her aunt. Sellen, even though her name starts with an S, I can't remember but they still made it all make sense.
I'm also a fan of this theory, though Sellen's inclusion I could take or leave. But yeah, sisters of the queen could have been the other princesses.
Thank you Geoff, great work as usual. It's my go to when I need some references without having to dig deep into the game once again, and the way you present the topics always helps me put some things in order in my head.
That said, if you or anyone else is interested, I think I have a nice set of answers to the "Carian question", for lack of a better term. Of course, in order to connect these dots, we need to be a bit more speculative than usual.
- When reflecting on the info the game provides and on my familiarity with Martin's world-builing style, I've come to the conclusion that the House of Caria might have once been a royal house, then lost its royal status for a time, only to regain it in a new context under Rennala. Their rich traditions are always called "royal" and not "noble" because of historical conflation of these periods, caused by the passage of time.
- Given that there's an Onyx Lord (or "King", or "Champion") imprisoned behind Caria Manor, in an evergaol called "Royal Grave", withing the family's graveyard, I think it's fair to assume that the Carian line has some Onyx Lord ancestry. I'll leave it to you to consider how this assumption neatly fits into Radahn's character arc and his preternatural affinity to gravity magic.
- The "Divine-tower-civilisation", probably the oldest in the LB after Farum Azula, seem to have deeply honoured the Onyx and Alabaster Lords, afraid of their destructive power. They called them Lords because they saw themselves as inferior to them. It's likely that this civilisation is the precursor to the astrologers', given that it's epicentre is located right behind the Stargazers' ruins. This leads me to believe that the House of Caria was an ancient line of astrolger-kings, due to their onyx lord blood.
- The village surrounding Caria Manor is called "Kingsrealm Ruins", not "Queensrealm" or something like this. Probably this village was estabilished by the last Carian kings when the astrologers migrated southwards. Given that the astrologers seem to have been a rather quitable society, where everyone was able to gover their own fate, I'd also suggest that the Carian lost their kingly status when the ancient stargazers turned to Glintstone sorcerers, thus not needing a kingly figure anymore.
- The Moons' main ability seems to be that of guiding the stars, and thus the fate commanded by them. This is especially interesting given that the Nox seem to have been the only ones that developed methods to alter another person's fate, instead of only one's own, and that the Nox worshipped the Black Moon "that once was the guide of countless stars". I think that Rennala gained the ability to alter the stars' fate thanks to her Moon magic and this led her to literally "bewitch" the Academy into making her Queen, thus restoring the ancient royal status of the House of Caria.
- At the light of these considerations, the Preceptors were probably a more ancient institution than Rennala herself. Their role simply changed with time, to fit any given circumstance.
- Which event led Rennala to become Queen in the first place? I speculate that Rennala explored Nokstella and there found the lore needed to find her Full Moon to better defend her Country against the House of the Erdtree. If Marika's conquests were a long and arduous process as our current understanding of the timeline implies, I think it's possible that neither Rennala nor Ragadon were in a position of command during the First Liurnian War, but that both of them distinguished themselves in that war, gaining the status of "Champions" (Ragadon is never said to have led the first invasion, only that "His glory burned as red as his hair" in that occasion, which is an odd thing to point out, since he seems to have been as much as glorious, if not more, during the Second War). Of course, given Rennala's crushing victory against the Golden Order and her ability to literally "unite" all the disparate sorcerers' fate under a single guidance must have led the Academy to name her Queen for protection, although never fully trusting her power (a common theme with Yhorm the Giant from DS3, I think).
- This is why Rennala gradually lost power after marrying Radagon: the stars' fate was fettered by the Golden Order, thus diminishing her magic and rendering her vow of protecting the Academy moot. Rennala must have felt compelled to follow the Order ever more closely, for no other reason that she gradually lost more and more clout. A truly sad case of snake that eats its own tail. Thus: Rennala approving Blaidd's companionship to Ranni; the building of Manus Celes to honour the Two Fingers (I presume) and Ranni's need to turn to an outsider mentor in order to fulfil a fate that her mother hoped she would achieve, but in secret, far from prying eyes and ears.
I've been long-winded as usual, but I hope someone will give me feedback on this train of thought. Thanks again Smough for the good work!
I absolutely love the theory that the Carians are descended from Onyx lord ancestors - that’s brilliant. Yeah re their royal status, my speculation would also be that they are an old family but no necessarily ‘royal’ the whole time!
Thanks again for the great thoughts and the support as always
I always thought, that "princesses" implied there being queens and princesses before Rennala and Ranni. Or, perhaps, Rennala is the first "queen", previous Carian leaders being kings. I also feel like Carians and Raya Lucaria existed parallel to each other and Rennala was a queen already when she proved herself a champion.
Ranni is one of the best characters in all FromSoft!!
Thanks for this video!
Also, I find it strange that it was not mentioned that Ranni’s rune casted aside could be that very visible pattern on her mother’s moon, it even matches perfectly with the Elden Ring’s middle intersection, but it might be that it is too vague to imply.
Regarding the three sisters, Renna may be Ranni's twin. Martin loves to play with twins in ASOIAF and even in Elden Ring there are many sets of them.
Besides the obviously similar names, something that Martin often uses when inventing twins, whoever Renna was Ranni seems to be very close to her. Not only does she use her name as cover, she also keeps her tower sealed from others. Also, her double face, which as you say may be her spirit inhabiting the doll, may be Renna's spirit instead. What makes me believe so is that her spirit face is symmetrical to hers, the closed eye in particular. This could explain why this spirit face is exposed from the doll: while Ranni's spirit perfectly fits in it, Renna's spirit, being her opposite twin, is somehow exposed
After picking Ranni's ending and even now at the end of this thorough analysis, I can't tell if I've chosen the path of true freewill or if I've been screwed over by an yet an other mad god.
But I'm cool with it.
I like the idea of forging our own paths and self determination so Ranni was one of my favorite parts of Elden Ring, plus all the stuff around her like her moon imagery and loyal followers were just really cool to me.
You have kept us waiting longer than a whole ancient age in the game!
Longer wait than Rennala's Reign!
Amazing work again Geoff, thank you for the time and dedication you put on your vids,
Ranni is a amazing character, she is my favorite character not only for her design but bc she stood against the very order who ruled the land and against the god that was above marika herself that wanted to dictate what she would be or not, she faced a enemy way bigger than her and won using her own intelligence and resources,
Something that i still wander about is the dialog about her don’t wanting to be controlled by the fingers, what sort of “control” you think it is ?
(Anyone who read this, feel free to give your answer as well).
Cheers Lucas, really appreciate that. Yeh I agree - after researching her more and understanding her journey etc...she is a tremendous character tbh. I feel like when she refers to 'control' perhaps she believes that her being nominated by the Two fingers has utterly bound her to them, and there is some connection between the Two Fingers and their Empyreans that we dont quite get to see.
Getting off a 12 hour shift to new content from you is a damn blessing. Cant wait for what's in store. Keep up the immaculate work brother, you're the GOAT!
That's so awesome to hear, I hope your shift was ok and that you enjoy the content!
@SmoughTown it was glorious. Grind don't stop, hustle til you drop.
Nice too see Gwyndolin brought up, one of my favorite characters from Dark Souls
Same here!
Easily my fav UA-cam content creator. Another masterpiece.
Thank you so much Jarik, honestly humbling.
One thing, I dont think Ranni actually creates a new order or something like that. She becomes the new Vessel of the Elden Ring (that has death in it again now) and leaves to the void/dark moon with you so noone can reach it and temper with the order. The dark moon is just this new object of faith/devine just like the erdtree was for Marika.
Also what seems weird to me is that Ranni "rejects her empyrian flesh" and all that, but then she suddenly "walks the dark oath of an Empyrian" I think the reason is that the two fingers are seperate from the greater will and she had to get rid of the two fingers so she could go about her actual Empyrian journey (basically the idea that the fingers claim to be this symbol and "support" her but actually work against the greater will since she clearly has to get rid of them to fullfill her destiny as an Empyrian)
We cant get rid of the Elden Ring because the Elden Ring is what makes the world work. The runes of the elden ring is what makes the conceot of death and life etc. Possible in the first place. Thats why the only ending were we actually destroy the elden ring is the Chaos Ending where we go on to burn all of life into a single whole again
I disagree. It’s pretty explicit that the Elden ring can only be taken in by empyrean flesh. The whole point of her slaying her body was so that under no circumstances could she become a vessel. It would be a bit odd for her to go to the effort of the whole black knives plot just to become the vessel anyway.
In all endings where the Ring is repaired, it is done so by putting Marika back together (as she and the Elden Ring are one and the same). In Ranni’s ending, Marika’s body (and thus the Ring itself) fades to mist as the Dark Moon appears, symbolizing a full replacement of order separate from the Elden ring.
In truth, we don’t know enough about the Elden Ring to say with certainty that it cannot be destroyed. In fact, we know that the lands between existed before the Elden Ring (given that it came to the lands as a falling star), thus we can say with some certainty that the Lands Between is not dependent on the Elden Ring.
@@jackweaver1846 the reason why we put mariks back together is because we become elden lord aka her consort. In all those endings the goal isnt to become god or smth. We know the Lands between existet before but rhe wholr past is so foggy and unknown we xant really draw conclusions. And we know for a fact that when Marika seals the rune of death, the people in the lands between stop dying. That suggests there was no death before the elden ring.
@@filthycasual8517
1. I never said that WE become the Elden ring. We repair it by putting Marika’s head back on her body, as she and the Elden Ring are the same being. Ranni does not put the Elden ring back together, but rather let’s it fade to nothing. I suppose you could theorize that she is absorbing it, but as I said before, that would go against all of her motives, actions, etc. prior to that point.
2. We actually don’t know for a fact what exactly Destined Death does. Many people die after destined death is sealed by Maliketh (everything we kill in game, all those great warriors killed by the Night’s Cavalry, Lionel the Lionhearted, omens hunted by omenkillers, the giants, the dragons, the list goes on). Hell, sealing destined death didn’t even prevent the Demigods from dying, as we kill the majority of them before unsealing it. It appears more so that destined death is just a powerful rune that makes things that are typically protected by the Elden Ring vulnerable to death. The only real change we see after releasing DD is the Erdtree burning and the thorn seal being broken. Beyond that, everything else just works as normal. Now, as for why Ranni needed DD to kill Godwynn, I actually don’t think she did, and that she only needed it for her ritual to kill just her body and his soul. Anyway, my point is that there is no confirmation (or even hint) that the Elden Ring is necessary for the lands between to exist, as you had stated before.
@@jackweaver1846 What i ment to say with my point is that we repair Marika because we dont have the option to create a new vessel. And since Empyrians exist it is clearly possible to transfer the ring. My point is that the point of Rannis ending is her bringing the order far away so noone can temper with it. "The order" to seems to be the elden ring since, Ranni somehow takes the order with her so she is at least the vessel for something and second the nature of the Elden ring literally is the order of things, like life, death, abundance, decay etc. Also the rune of death being gone is the reason why enemys respawn in the game. As for the demigods there are 2 explanations:
1. The spread of deathroot allows demigods to die kind of as a passive effect.
2. They dont really die. Their remembrances are hewn into the Erdtree. And Erdtree burial and rebirth happens because the rune of death (aka a true death) is sealed so when they die their souls just return to the ertree and are then reborne. (Its a big thing but The Tarnished Archeologist has a video explaing it in detail)
@@filthycasual8517 I get your point, but that still doesn't answer why Ranni would go through the effort to explicitely NOT be an empyrean, if she would decide to be one anyway. As I said before, Ranni does not have empyrean flesh, so she cannot become a vessel for the ER. Also, you have said twice now that the ER is necessary for the lands between, which is not confirmed, and is actually refuted by much of what I have said.
The "order" that Ranni refers to is textually not the same order as Marika. Ranni refers to it as "her" order, and says that she would have her order be at a far remove. What this is likely saying is that her order (of the dark moon) will not meddle in the dealings of people's lives as the orders in the past have. She is aware of what the gods do to the lands, and would prefer if they were cut off entirely from direct contact. The Japanese version of the cutscene makes this much more clear than the English translation.
Your point of "the rune of death being gone is the reason why enemys respawn" is pretty flawed. Many of the enemies don't respawn, so how would you explain that? What about the enemies that still respawn after DD is freed? I hate shooing things away as game mechanics, but the issue of respawning enemies has always been a thorn in the side of FromSoft lore theorizers, and it is usually just accepted to be a game mechanic. We accept that the character can carry an entire armory in their back pocket without lore explanations, so I think we can do the same for respawning enemies.
I for one do think that souls are absorbed and reborn by the Erdtree, as I am a fan of TA myself. However, I don't think that this is relevent to this discussion, as this moreso reflects on how the current order works, not how the lands between works on its own. Even TA aknowledges this in his videos. Your whole point is that DD being sealed has made death impossible, which is false, given the examples I have shown. Remembrances don't help your case, as you can still get remembrances after freeing DD (Godfrey, Elden Beast). If sealing DD made death impossible (in terms of souls) then why are souls still returning to the Erdtree after DD has been freed? The rebirth of souls is likely seperate from DD altogether, given the points I have made.
Like I said before, we don't know much definitive information about DD, what it does, how it works, etc., and much of whay we do know directly contradicts itself. I would avoid using DD as an explanation for anything until we know more about how it works.
All in all, you should stop claiming that things are "confirmed" when they either speculative or outright disproven.
I've been so excited about this I legit leaned over to my boyfriend yesterday and was like 'i can't wait to learn about ranni after work' like that was a normal and universal human experience.
Hahah that’s so awesome! Hope you enjoy!
@@SmoughTown it's fantastic thanks for your work!!
At around 14:00 you were talking obout how Rennala couldve had other daughters, for having other pricesses and she to be the only queen; maybe Rennala herself was once a princess, she may had have sisters, mother, and other girls predecessing her, she may be a kind of unifier, somebody who "won" an internal conflict for the crown (she did have a "troupe" of 20 knights), and the other women were princesses as much as her; maybe back in the day, when Marika wasn't queen yet, and the world still had death going on.
Excellent point Gabriel
It's a good theory only thrown off by the fact the game states that she is both the first and last queen of the Carian royals and that she her self established the royalty. It all is a bit odd in its telling though.
@@danielboyd7810 I could argue that this statement dont break the idea yet; not that I have any fact to support it. But a Queen/King, a Lord, is a lord by having a great amount of land that is in control of vassals, under oath to him; let us think about the elden ring world as ours: we have a prehistoric era until a beggining of history, with the first cities, with the dragons and the beastman. An "acension" of humanity, with a more developed group, that is remembered as pursuers of logic and reason, philosophers (for us in the western world, something like greeks/romans, in Elden Ring, the Eternal Cities and their people.). After the fall of those empires, the land is shattered and the power is decentralized (i dont know if this is even a word, im brazilian and in potuguese it is); with lots of lords battling for the power (maybe calling themselves princesses of something, maybe Caria was already a name for the location, or as the people of those lands called themselves, something like England, that was once divided in four kingdoms, but became one unified land (kind of)) and when one is finally able to overcome the others and centralize the power, she/he is called a lord (Renalla becoming Queen). Well, I will not pursue answers, and i dont really think that this have any truth in it, but a lot about those open narratives is about the idea of your imagination filling in the gaps; and thats whats great about this kind of narrative, aint it? I dont think that would be any close to that many people interested if it wasnt like this
Simply amazing, Smough. Ranni is one of the most intriguing characters ever produced in a FromSoft game (plus she looks cool) so it's always great getting her story.
Couldn't agree more and thank you so much
@@SmoughTown You're so welcome bro
Best video so far. (Not me being completely bias cause I love Ranni)
I know you don't consider her a hero cause of the suffering she caused to many by her actions, but I simply love the fact that she knows what she's doing and is doing it anyway, cause she wants a world it's order will not cause any more trouble to it's inhabitants.
I truly see her on pair with Miquella, but both wanted to archive something by different means.
Ranni's quest and ending resonated so much with me, more than anything DS could ever hope to archive. I love the abyss lore and stuff, but at the same time that the abyss is humanity true destiny in DS, it's also a terrible thing capable of turning even the greatest of heros into bloodlusted beasts, and I hated that about DS.
The Dark Lord ending from DS1 was weird cause it means we would eventually become something like Artorias or Manus, and that's terrible. In DS2 the Aldia ending was really cool, but it only worked for us, while in DS3 the world and humanity will finally dive into the age of dark, but the age of dark has been tampered with by Gwyn, which means eventually, all of humanity will return to the hollow state.
Now in ER, Ranni's ending is what I always wished we had in DS. An ending where we would TRULY say fuck it to the current world order and stablish a new one completely severed from what came before.
How they developed this ending, the actions she had to take to undo many of the golden order rules set in stone for the world and how it was not simple, how by doing so it brought suffering to many, just like Gwyn did to humanity, but this time around it's being done to destroy the current order and bring a better one, and not out of fear of loosing power and accepting the natural course of nature.
To add to my love for Ranni, I got the "secret" ending of Age of Stars right from the get go. She was not only going alone, she placed her trust in me and wanted her consort to be by her side in this thousand years voyage into darkness, fear, and the unknown. For me it was like she was asking me several times "will you be by my side even after all of the bad shit I've done? Will you go with me in this journey I'm scared off?"
hahahaa
@@SmoughTown I edited and added a ton more of stuff if you want to check it out ^^
@@nox_caditYou summarized everything I love about Ranni, well put! Couldn't have said it better myself
With how Ranni might never cure the Death Blight, and how the Dark Moon she praises could be Nokron's black moon, it's still ambiguous, but I get what you mean nonetheless. Also, if you like lore that has at least one path that doesn't seem to feature a lose/lose situation for the world, you might enjoy Demon's Souls and Sekiro.
@@nightscout9979 what's the problem with the possibility of the dark moon being the black moon? (I don't agree with the premise cause their names are different and the amulet clearly depicts an truly black moon)
About the death Bligh, I think that with the ER and greater will gone, Ranni's order don't necessarily excludes the other things, her order doesn't say anything about death and how it should be, so I believe that the death birds may get back to action and figure a way to deal with the death blight, perhaps not extinguish it, but keep it at bay.
Unfortunately undoing it completely would require that Goldwyn either get back to life, which will be impossible, or that he died completely. With the rune of death gone altogether, I honestly believe that death birds have the greatest power over death, and they'll still exist and be active in Ranni's order.
She herself might not have cured it, but when getting read of the ER she opened a path that would allow for it to be done somehow.
The one UA-cam channel I actually have notifications on for.
I really appreciate that! Thank you so much
I think the clearest reason for her 4 arms is that in the ending of her questline, you see the full uncovered body of the puppet, appearing extremely similar to the basic 4 armed Raya Lucarian marionettes. My thinking is she either possessed one of these constructs at the start and modified some parts like the face and hands, or was custom built but using the same familiar blueprints
Absolutely brilliant video, mate. Excellent work.
Definitely going through ALL.. of your other videos!
In the three playthroughs I’ve done to 100% the game, i always do this quest line because of the characters that I encounter in it.
Between her retinue of Blaidd, Iji, and Preceptor Seluvis, her relationship with her mother, her relationships with the other demigods and the fact that it feels like a magical journey going through her quest line, there is just so much to unpack with her. Even her ending, while considered the best ending, has subtle undertones of seeming “too good to be true”.
I would even go as far to say she’s one of the better female characters I’ve seen in modern media lately. Ranni has her own agency and is clearly powerful, at no point would I call her a “girl boss” who has to put anybody in their place. If anything she embodies some of the greater strengths of the feminine side of humanity by being attractive, manipulative, getting people to do stuff for her “as a favor”, and recognizing and embracing strength as we see at the end of the quest when she selects you “as her lord”.
Even a full year after release, I say she deserves a lot of the love she gets from the community.
Agree - I absolutely love all the characters involved. Defo feels like the most complete 'quest' in any souls game
@@SmoughTown
Eh, I would disagree to a point in that I liked the arc of Slave Knight Gael and the Lord of Hollows quest in Dark Souls 3.
But I would agree Ranni feels the most complete in that the gaps between steps in her quest aren’t so infrequent.
I always do this quest line because it is the only way to get a lot of starlight shards 🤣
@@NathanCassidy721 Very true!
@@Hoarahchadtheallgrabbing hahaha very true!
I feel like rannis ending is the canonical ending. There’s no way you could miss her quest with the grace points pointing you forward to her in lurina and also you meet bladidd super early and rogier will help you find her to it’s like the devs want you to find her so badly. There’s also the eternal cities which are super closely linked to her quest to I know it’s not directly related to her quest but you have to travel there and could easily miss those areas without her quest
Maybe the royal revenants and wrath callers are servants of Rani, because most of them are in Liurnia, and they have four hands like her doll, and ride spirit horses like Torrent, and they hate the greater will like her
I mean... Ranni had four hands because of her spirit im pretty sure, but the royal revenants are a bunch of torsos and bodies being horrifically put together.
The person behind them is most likely Godrick the grafted imo, rather than being Ranni's servants.
@@Ardeleus then why do not we find them in Limgrave or Stormveil castle ?
Great take on Ranni. Another thing I would add, is that the Snow Crone mentioned to Ranni to fear the dark moon. Since she is born of the golden order and is utilizing a power foreign to her, I think that comment really resonates with the evil theory, at least in regards to the dark moon.
I always took it moreso to mean respect it, like a bunch of religions say about even their most merciful gods
Ranni is definitely one of the favorite characters in the game. Clearly they put good effort into her. Her ending for sure piques the imagination the most.
I never thought she was going to the dark moon, i always just assumed she had planned to travel the cosmos on a whole rather than with a particular destination
While in english Rememberance of Rot Godess say:
"Miquella and Malenia are both the children of a single god. As such they are both Empyreans, but suffered afflictions from birth. One was cursed with eternal childhood, and the other harbored rot within."
I think in japanese it says:
"Miquella and Millenia are both the children of single god. Even though they are both Empyrian, their life is fragile(vulnerable), one is forever young, the other harbors rot."
I think it comes to "Sono sei wa" being translated "As such they are". But it can also be translated as "Their/That life is". I think "their life is" is right one, because in japanse "Sei" uses kanji for life. Since if it was pronoun, it should use hiragana.
Wow I did not know there were actually two moons in the sky that's awesome
Haven’t seen the entire video yet but I’m sure it’ll be great.
There is one thing I’ve always wondered though. Do you think that there’s a possibility that Rennala has some giant heritage herself? She is descended from the astronomers that lived with them and we know from that one character preset that such children exist.
It would also go to explain her height since she’s just a “ordinary” human and not even one closely toed to grace or anything like Godfrey or anything.
Defo possible! But I do think they are distinct from the giants - as per the sword of night and flame.
The Ranni ending was to satisfying for my first Souls game
I'm going to go ahead and point out that 'tailored' also means ALTERED for the wearer, not explicitly CREATED for.
great point!
Ranni's presence causes a cold, dark fog around the area where she appears to give the player the spirit calling bell at the beginning of the game. It's very obvious and dissipates the moment she leaves. It was the 1st thing I noticed when I 1st met her.
I think something that isn't touched upon enough in the circumstances of Ranni's ending is the self-sacrificing aspect of it.
Ranni's plan is to set up the order of the world, and then leave to never interact with anyone ever again. Ever. Because if she did then she would no longer be able to be objective and would influence the people on the world, which she does not want to do. The description on the ring makes this clear:
*A warning is engraved within; "Whoever thou mayest be, take not the ring from this place, the solitude beyond the night is better mine alone."*
If you think about this from a real life perspective, this is obviously a pretty horrific fate, and it's not meant to be seen as some mystical journey of enlightenment, or something that Ranni is doing because she'll enjoy it. The significance of her giving the Tarnished the key to her ring is meant to show that she is trusting someone enough to show a desire for company, trusting that her consort will be willing to make the sacrifice alongside her, making the voyage less lonely and more bearable, as shown in the very final shot of her ending, with her outstretched hand towards the Tarnished.
This alone keeps Ranni from ever being objectively evil in my eyes. The intention of her actions is (from my eyes) to free the lands between from outside influence at the expense of herself. I don’t believe it’s possible for a morally evil person to commit to self sacrifice the way Ranni was going to