Corpse Wax also appears as an item in Sekiro under another common name, "Grave Wax", where it's used as an occult upgrade material for certain prosthetics. There's a really interesting intersection between the themes of stagnation and water common across the series, where exposure to water in very certain circumstances can transform a body into a bizarre, self-preserving substance.
a largely unknown side effect of corpse wax is that the corpses from which it is formed tend to do the following things: -make alligator noises -leak poison from their mouths -team up in pairs and become very annoying
The valiant gargoyle also has 2 different weapons and it switch its weapon randomly during the fight, almost feel like 2 different personas trying to take control of the shared body in order to kill you.
Hmmm, what if the Golden Order chose specific twin warriors with different fighting styles to merge them together in death as corpses and call them to fight again? And that combined with the hint that the Devin twin is just outside the Gargoyle Duo fight, could it possibly mean that they might had been candidates for merging into Gargoyles when they die? It's also kinda ironic by how fanatically they hunt those who live in death, D and D. Just some daily dose of ER lore theories.
There's actually a lot of them scattered about in one of the few intact buildings in the Deeproot Depths, where you find one of the "broken" Gargoyles. A multitude of their corpses can be seen strewn about inside, each of them indeed having two merged faces. It's a fascinating bit of detail that lets you take in quite a few more of their specifics without having to fear for your life. ...the obscenely bulky Basilisks right outside the building not being taken into account, of course.
There is also those doors in Leyndell that have what seems to be corpse wax (although it could be gold too I guess) in the crevices and until now I thought it was used to glue them, but seeing this video made me realise that maybe those rooms are supposed to be full of corpses and the wax on the doors is overflowing from the inside Edit: another note. Corpse wax is produced when the corpse is underwater and there seems to be a lot of sea symbolism regarding death in Elden Ring, the mariners and most notably Godwin, so maybe there is some relation with him
I never thought of that interpretation before! I just assumed that people were being sealed in, not that corpses were being packed in so tightly that they turned to wax.
Even more interesting is that the lower residential section of Leyndell where the wax-sealed houses lie in ruins, hence releasing what were inside, is populated with shambling rotting corpses.
This makes sense because of the proximity to the Lake/ocean. What do you propose the abundance of sand (which occurs at nearly the same rate as the wax) indicates? I believe it could be caused by the proximity to the ocean, being carried up the cliffs by wind and such. Maybe ash from burning bodies in an attempt to stop the overflowing corpse wax? It's obvious after the burning of the erdtree, but why is there so much before?
@@MOX-ch2 I think the cause was not the giants' fire; rather, it was the fire of Gransax, whose body is still strewn over the city. Strange that they left the corpse and weapon there, isn't it? Almost as if the death toll was so high that they couldn't organize an effort to clean up -- that, and the war with the dragons was probably closely followed by the Shattering, but we don't know for sure how much time was between the two.
It’s so crazy to me that little details like the faces linked together (which may have big lore implications when you realise Ranni has the same aspect about her character) are so hidden away. I for one had no idea of that detail, and if you hadn’t removed the helmet then I probably would never have clocked it.
Fromsoft games be like: "that's got a tragic backstory, and thats got a tragic backstory, and that's got a backstory and thhhhats got a tragic backstory" 💀
I think corpse wax is more abundant in Lyndell. You can see it seeping from the closed doors of the sealed rooms in the capital. Implying that the rooms are full of dead bodies.
At first I thought they had sealed their houses with gold, and then I saw the perfumers and all their patients and it dawned on me that it was Corpse Wax, that realization mortified me 🤣🤣🤣
@a proverbial lemon The real reason is to avoid having to model, texture, and create collision data for the room interiors - something not limited to Leyndell but just super obvious there because of how many buildings are sealed off. As far as I know no in game lore reason is given for them to be sealed up so it all comes down to speculation.
@@ladyabaxa We visit other cities/towns like Sellia and the devs had no problem just giving us locked doors that can't open to avoid making houses enterable. The wax/sap/honey/whatever clearly has a significance in Leyndell.
You know, I'd LOVE to see what normal life in some of these places were like. Did kids sometimes go out and and look at these gargoyles? were the giants sometimes used like shade for a picnic? did peddlers from across the lands between and beyond go to leyndall to sell their wares? I know the questions really aren't important, but I'd still like to see what the day to day for most people was like before everything turned to hell.
I agree, seeing Marika's golden age would be awesome. I always try to image what the ruins used too look like. What Leyndell and Caelid and the others look liked before the Shattering. Raya Lucaria covered in cities and towns of sorcerers and students would be such a sight to behold
This is a recurring thing with FromSoft games and honestly Elden Ring suffers a bit for it. I think FromSoft could do with moving away from the whole "all the important stuff already happened and everyone is dead" for a bit.
@@aswangmonkey361 Yeah, but there's no moment of 'here's what normal life for these people looks like'. It's in the middle of a coup and an invasion at the same time.
Honestly I would have never even seen that Gargoyles had a gigantic flesh scar on their side without this video, most battles in this are too "all over the place" to try and see the details, the gargoyles particularly, they jump everywhere. Your content is always so interesting. I love the lore and design choices of all the From Soft games and your videos are always little golden nuggets of awesome details and stories of game design that I would have never knew without you, Zullie. Thanks a lot for your content and I hope that you'll continue as long as there is something to say about these games, and as long as there are games!
the only reason i noticed was because i used the arrows reach and arrows sting talismans to snipe one in the deep root depths before Fia’s boss fight and saw the animation for them spewing spark perfume...
It always felt strange to me that Godrick's grafting was almost entirely confined to Stormvale castle, I thought it would've been a more prominent motif throughout the game.
I remember when the first trailer came out people predicted that limbs and grafting would be a big part of the game, due to both Godrick and Malenia both having unique limb-centric design motifs.
The motif of many organisms joining together and unifying is present everywhere, just not called "grafting" - The Frenzied Flame, corpses being absorbed by the erdtree, the crucible, Rykard's devouring of champions, the creation of the Graven Schools at Raya Lucaria, the Warrior Jars and Gargoyles presented here, the Rot as a singular representation of its Outer God, etc.
"Truly a patchwork of champions" is the line in the description of their weapon. What if this statement is more literal than we thought? We know Grafting is a practice that predates Godrick and has been used as far back as Godfrey since he grafted Serrosh to himself to act as a power limiter What if they Gargoyles are a literal patchwork of champions? As in skilled warriors, not exemplary enough to be granted Erdtree Burial, partially melted and molded together as wax, and turned into powerful guardians to serve the Golden Order even after death? This would explain why they fight with two different weapons each, each weapon is one that one of the champions was skilled in using in life. And now that the Elden Ring is broken and most of the people in the Land Between have gone crazy, there's no one left to keep them in good repair anymore. Still they perform their function though to keep serving in death.
Are we actually sure they serve the golden order though? Leyndell is one thing but how do we know they don't predate it and for instance where incorporated after the erdtree took over? Also they reek of perfumers to me
So that's why the gargoyles always carry two different weapons. The switching weapons could be one of the halves taking control which would explain why the way the gargoyles move and fight are significantly different based on what weapon theyre using.
It seems that a lot of Golden Order culture and technology is centered around many becoming one. When you die you become one with the Erdtree, Marika and Radagon become one, Valiant Gargoyles are made out of individuals, D and his twin are one. Yet the Golden Order despises the Flame of Frenzy even though it is everyone becoming one, and hates the omens even though they are combinations of aspects of multiple creatures in one being. Not to mention there opposition to grafting and Rykard’s blasphemy even though that’s kind of what the Erdtree does. Perhaps the Golden Order hates these similar meetings of beings into one because it is not “voluntary”. The Greater Will wants or perhaps can only get people to merge if they agree to it? The Greater Will can bribe people with rewards of Erdtree rebirth or other powers but they must want to join with another for their merging to be acceptable. All the other types of merging in Elden Ring are forced upon people and so they are in direct opposition to the Golden Order.
The Greater Will probably hates the other forms of merging, because it doesn't have control over them. There seems to be a theme surrounding anything that can't be controlled by the Two Fingers/Blessing of the Erdtree gets shunned by the Golden Order. It's likely not a coincidence.
GRRM is obsessed with hiveminds and people joining them/being assimilated by the hivmind through suggestion. So I'd say it makes sense to see how often it pops up in Elden Ring.
It is because the current Golden Order, Marika's Order, is not the original Golden Order. It is imitation, made after the fact when the original Five Fingers were severed into Two and Three by the rebellious Numen of the Nameless Eternal City using the Fingerslaying Blade. Placidusax's Order that preceded Marika, when dragons were in charge, was dedicated to the Greater Will and had the benefit of Five Fingers interpreting Greater Will more thoroughly. It was then when Beasts became intelligent and became servants to dragons, numen started moving in, etc. With just the Two Fingers, Golden Order can merely preserve the world, not innovate. And Marika herself is a bastard child; half-numen, half giant, so she operated for the longest of time with just blind faith. Gideon's exchange with Two Fingers implies the world was broken long ago, and that Two Fingers merely tried to maintain some semblance of the former glory days.
In the end, Marika probably would rather not be one with Radagon, given they're at cross purposes. I like your observation but i see it as just another indication of the Golden Order's hypocrisy - in OUR hands, this weapon is natural and just, in the hands of our enemies, it's an abomination.
I wonder if D and his twin being 2 bodies sharing one soul and being loyal servants of the Golden Order have anything to do with the process the gargoyles went through
Perhaps D and twin's condition is a prerequisite to becoming a gargoyle? If you go to where you find D's twin before progressing to a certain point in D's questline, I think you find the twin asleep, as if the shared soul they have is only able to make one body move at a time. I'd wager the gargoyles, then, might be a way to bypass this restriction.
And further D was a servant of true death/maliketh just like two of the gargoyles, and the rest presumably are still loyal to the Golden Order. So he aligns in ideology and in twins. Maybe he was fated to become a gargoyle, or other people with split souls were made into gargoyles.
From games will make the most horrifying creature designs you've ever seen and then make them impossible to look at because they're too busy killing you
1:53 these stationary, broken gargoyles happen to occasionally drop Erdsteel daggers. Those daggers are supposedly given to Nobles, so I took it to mean that gargoyles are Leyndell nobles who were transformed via some process
I always assumed they were like an honorary gift of sorts, given by the nobility in recognition of helpful/honorable deeds-the way Kenneth Haight does for us. Or maybe they were “elevated” to noble status post-conjoining, which just occurred to me as I type this. Or perhaps like you said, this is just nobles doing weird stuff-in which case I wonder how much Godrick was inspired by them. With him being of golden-lineage status, and that he was said to have fled Lleyndell at one point, so he must of been present there for a time (idk much abt Godrick lore tho) maybe his grafting uses similar techniques/is a “bastardization” of this? So many possible interpretations with this game I love it
The hero rune also points to the fact that many champions would die after being blessed by grace. Another thing I speculate is that the bodies left behind would likely serve as material for the jars. The innards were removed and put in the jars while the bodies were used in the gargoyles. Most likely some nobles were used aswell and it might explain why they are smaller and more broken. We see this with nobles shambling around the lands between but the soldiers are relatively fine.
Imagine how amazing would have it been to fight the Valiant Gargoyle and, instead of just spawning another one in, you had to lower one to half HP and then their waxed parts "separated" in a cinematic and creating two entierly new, different-looking Gargoyles to fight.
It would make more sense for the reverse to happen. You're fighting a weird mishappen Gargoyle that has an easy first phase, only to eventually meld with its other half and now fight it at the Gargoyle's intended strength. The setting would probably be in some chamber where the Gargoyles are made, but it wasn't completed before the facility shut down for whatever reason or was abandoned mid-construction of the Gargoyle.
Very cool! Adds a new meaning to their attacks and such too. Gargoyles like that one typically switch from one weapon-type to another, and are often seen with Twinblades. Maybe this is to illustrate the two beings that were fused.
I always thought gargoyle faces were more bestial, after seeing them from afar and in the presence of Guranq. This paints them in a new terrifying way for me. Could’ve gone my whole life without needing to know what their face looked like.
Seems worth noting that the stone caskets at the back of the twins arena seem to be stored purposefully at the bottom of the waterfall, like they’re not used for transportation but for cultivating corpse wax. The bottom of a waterfall is indeed a very moisture-rich environment
For a long time I didn’t even realize the Gargoyles had human faces. I was seeing their helmet almost like a beak, like they were reminiscent of birds or something. This is a great video Zullie thank you (:
That's why channels like this one are so valuable. They give us a glimpse at the world of subtlety in the visual designs of the fromsoft games. It's not only interesting from an aesthetic standpoint but often it reveals crucial details which disclose a lot of lore. Thanks Zullie and keep up the great work!
I love how you have designed and orchestrated your videos into delightful little morsels that expand our love and appreciation of the games we all play and enjoy together. I pray you are rich in love, happiness, and contentment Zullie!! Thank you for making my day better. 😄
Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that the two skin colours of the gargoyle are red and white, the colours of Radagon and Marika, the Red King and the White Queen which make up the Rebis.
Honestly I really love the Gargoyles. They’re literally a pile of corpses of dead champion sowed together to make a powerful champion, utilizing all the varies of fight styles and moves of previous Warriors that once walk the lands. I would say a lot more nice things about them but i really hate certain versions of them and how they’re utilize. Like the duo fight with them was horrible. Never seem fair to me since they literally gank you And you never have time to breathe in that fight and don’t give me started on that stupid poison.🐱
The gargoyles have to be one of my favorite designs in ER. The two faces add so much character to them, alongside the lore of them being reinforced with corpse wax. An incredibly original take on the creature.
I wonder how D is related to these (if it all). The brothers both wear the Twinned Armor set, depicting two people fused together as one. Maybe D and his twin brother were once fused into a gargoyle and maybe seperated? Or maybe they were intended to become one at one point? You find D's brother near the Valiant Gargoyles fight as well
I think he is likely a foreshadow to point to the dual nature of radagon /Marika. Due to how loyal and dedicated D is towards the Golden order while his brother is unhinged like Marika.
I appreciate the pun in the episode title. For those unaware; the scary monsters on the corners of buildings commonly called Gargoyles are only actually Gargoyles if they are also used to channel water off the building, the ones you can see typically with open mouths that drool water off the edge when it rains. If they're just there for aesthetic purposes they're actually called Grotesques.
Funny when we first play elden ring we are so busy fighting and looking for items that at first we didn’t stop to see just how truly messed up the elden world is. It’s crazy
@@noonyabeezniss4911 bring them up in other comment sections or on reddit where these topics are being discussed. Again, you're only bringing these up in the face of someone else enjoying the game, to tear the other person down from enjoying themselves and said game. Stop it.
I think the jars being created and used by the golden order to create corpse wax makes a lot of sense, as you find them in seemingly random locations, but I think after the shattering they were free and didn't know what to do so most of them left and were killed. It also explains why we find some in stormveil, as godrick probably used, or at least tried to ue, corpse wax in his grafting. The reason we find so many in catacombs and in sewers could be because they were sent out into areas with lots of bodies and were left there to find corpses to turn into wax. It could also explain why they are hunted, as corpse wax is a very rare and precious substance, so poachers hunt them down for their wax
I think Elden Ring, better than other games in FromSoft's catalogue, really conveys the sheer scale of the tragedies that occurred in the world. And the corpse wax of the gargoyles is a good example. The player learns about the corpse wax used to manufacture the gargoyles and their weapons. And then they see the countless mausoleums in Leyndell, stuffed so full of corpses that the wax is bursting through the doors. And several gargoyles remain, scattered through the capital and other areas connected to the crown. Compare that to the mere handfuls of corpses you find as remnants of Godrick's grafting, and the whole TWO grafted scions you fight in the game. The Golden Order is a machine that feeds on its own people, sending them to fight and die on long, arduous campaigns of conquest. And even in death the subjects cannot rest, for their very corpses are turned into materials to build machines of war.
@@Erick-tv8oq It's called imperialism or colonialism when it's directed outwards at other countries and peoples, and fascism when it's directed inwards. But it all revolves around mythologising, justifying, and expanding the power of the dominant class by exploiting and oppressing the lower classes.
“They’ve been left to whether away, unattended by those who made them” This is so sad but it’s pretty much the whole world in souls games and Elden ring. Love the vid as always Zullie!
My lord, I would kill for a Zullie the Witch Spotify playlist. Beyond the great and incredibly interesting video content, your track selections are amazing and exactly the kind of vibe I want when working my office job.
One of the first things I noticed after getting into Leyndell, is how the majority of the windows and doors are sealed with what is seemingly corpse wax. Heard that maybe Morg was sealing them up as some attempt to keep control, but that doesn’t really make sense to me. There’s a lot of interesting stuff about corpse wax and it’s usage, seeing how it was used even in Godfrey’s rule, and just how many broken gargoyles are laying around in the Erdtree Depths. Maybe there’s a connection between that and all of the water and the caskets we have to climb into?
These are fantastic, thank you and don't stop! ^^ It took me a while to work out what the fractured Gargoyles in Leyndell actually were. Mostly because of trying to kill them before they killed me, but stilL!
The Black Blade Kindred are probably some of my favorite enemies in the game, design wise. Getting transported in front of the Bestial Sanctum only to turn around and see this huge intimidating creature standing completely still, unlike anything else I'd seen in the game, freaked me out. I remembering calling them Anubis before I saw the names. Also reminds me of all the broken gargoyles in Deeproot Depths (though the whole area still confuses me a bit). The few in Leyndell feel like a sign of the city's disrepair and fall from grace, along with the ashy areas and the few skeletons in the slums. Little hints of Death creeping in from below.
It's also possible the Gargoyles were prototypes to what ends up happening with Marika and Radagon. If the merger is seen as 'one taking on the sins of another' (or perhaps even 'the sins of the fallen') becoming a Gargoyle could easily be seen as a valiant sacrifice. In fact, given the use of Corpse wax, it seems even more likely that one of the two gargoyle components was likely already dead upon creation.
I'm so glad you did this. The gargoyle black blade was my primary weapon till I got Malikeths. Fighting that Kindred at such a low level reminded me of mastering the Dragonslayer armor in DS3, only I haven't mastered the gargoyles yet, regardless I always thought their design was amazing. Godrick's almost similar build makes me think he did aspire after them.
I absolutely adore the tiny little tidbits that can come together like this for a bigger lore implication. Mining through the code to see the inspiration behind enemy designs is fun, but damn if I don’t love a good minuscule lore aspect being dug up from the trenches of item descriptions like this
One time, a diver died at the bottom and another diver died trying to get him. His body had turned to wax and was unexpectedly buoyant. The other diver had trouble collecting it and died on the way up. There's a video about it somewhere on RUclips if you search for scuba body recovery videos.
I just want to say that you're excelling at towing the line between appealing to the algorithm and the yt video culture without ever being irritating or patronizing towards the viewer. For example, you make really alluring thumbnails in a way that's similar to the rampant clickbait trend but yet it never feels cheap or misleading. You keep your videos short and bite sized so that they're easy to share and trend well, but it always feels genuine and packed with meaning and intention. Maybe this seems over-analytical but I just wanted to say that I appreciate how you're doing the youtuber thing but in such a classy way- you deserve all of your success and 10x more. Go Zullie!
Its very interesting how a lot of the enemies are so connected to each other and to the lore, it makes me thankful how dedicated fromsoft is to Elden Ring
Even when it seems some enemies are simple in appearance, a video shows them from a closer perspective and reveal a hidden, original and complex design.
i really like these little "lore detective" kinda videos learning of so many details that you cant just look at in the design of a character while fighting them almost feels like they expect you to hack into the game just to see the character models and unveil all the effort and detail they put into it
Also cool to note how they fight with two different weapons each. Likely due to the two original beings having specialized in one weapon type. So many dual characters in elden ring. Gurranq/maliketh, Godfrey/Hoarah Loux, Radagon/Marika, Margit/Morgott, heck, even that D. guy has an armor set depicting himself and his weaker brother who ends up wearing it in his stead. Really cool thematic idea with a lot of fun stories.
I really love these kind of videos even if i don't play Elden Ring or know what's going on, i don't have the requirements at my pc to play it or even have money to purchase the game but either way this kind of videos still gives me joy watching and looking at these abomination of bodies fused into one that seem to look like the bosses of the game i would really love it if i could play this in the future
I really appreciate these videos simply because you never really get a good look at the enemies in this game. Unless you stop to examine their corpses with your telescope, you can't ever really see them too well. I thought the gargoyles had some kind of bird head, and the chin on these faces was the end of their beak. It's not like you see much besides their ankles and then they don't leave corpses behind.
THAT'S where the statue is! I remember trying to keep an eye out for it after reading the description mentioning the statue hiding Radagon's secret, but without knowing what he looked like at the time I guess I missed it.
Genuinely, I never even knew they were mostly organic and had human features (ie the face) until watching this video, and I’ve played elden ring for 277 hours. Good job.
Corpse Wax also appears as an item in Sekiro under another common name, "Grave Wax", where it's used as an occult upgrade material for certain prosthetics. There's a really interesting intersection between the themes of stagnation and water common across the series, where exposure to water in very certain circumstances can transform a body into a bizarre, self-preserving substance.
bodies found in peat bogs do this. they dont decay and are insanely well preserved. iirc it has to do with a lack of oxygen.
the doors of many buildings in Leyndell are also blocked with what looks like corpse wax, although i'm not sure if it is that
Possibility that they have 2 faces and seem like 2 beings in 1 that they're based on marika and radagon being one?
Extremely spooky. Thank you for this fresh batch of nightmare fuel.
probably has to do with Kegare, a shintoism term
a largely unknown side effect of corpse wax is that the corpses from which it is formed tend to do the following things:
-make alligator noises
-leak poison from their mouths
-team up in pairs and become very annoying
Happened to my uncle once. Darek had to kill him :/
@@tridonstrident6785 damn. Thoughts and prayers 🙏
@@In_aw3 Thanks. It hit especially hard after what Gerald did
@@tridonstrident6785 wha- what did Gerald do?
@@calix7217 You do *not* wanna know.
The valiant gargoyle also has 2 different weapons and it switch its weapon randomly during the fight, almost feel like 2 different personas trying to take control of the shared body in order to kill you.
Or switching which style they use to try to confuse and overwhelm their opponent.
This would explain why they are pretty much the only creatures who have two different main weapons for each.
Reminds me of Eyedol
Hmmm, what if the Golden Order chose specific twin warriors with different fighting styles to merge them together in death as corpses and call them to fight again? And that combined with the hint that the Devin twin is just outside the Gargoyle Duo fight, could it possibly mean that they might had been candidates for merging into Gargoyles when they die? It's also kinda ironic by how fanatically they hunt those who live in death, D and D. Just some daily dose of ER lore theories.
I like to think of it as a one-man Tag-team.
Never really had time to look them in the face because I was busy running, dodging, swinging wildly as they were flying around the map.
Gotta git gud at your telescope between attack and dodge game!
There is one not hostile in front of Gurrang.
Tsk tsk. So fixated on staying alive that you don't take the time to appreciate the vivid character textures. Shame on you!
There's actually a lot of them scattered about in one of the few intact buildings in the Deeproot Depths, where you find one of the "broken" Gargoyles. A multitude of their corpses can be seen strewn about inside, each of them indeed having two merged faces. It's a fascinating bit of detail that lets you take in quite a few more of their specifics without having to fear for your life.
...the obscenely bulky Basilisks right outside the building not being taken into account, of course.
There is also those doors in Leyndell that have what seems to be corpse wax (although it could be gold too I guess) in the crevices and until now I thought it was used to glue them, but seeing this video made me realise that maybe those rooms are supposed to be full of corpses and the wax on the doors is overflowing from the inside
Edit: another note. Corpse wax is produced when the corpse is underwater and there seems to be a lot of sea symbolism regarding death in Elden Ring, the mariners and most notably Godwin, so maybe there is some relation with him
I never thought of that interpretation before! I just assumed that people were being sealed in, not that corpses were being packed in so tightly that they turned to wax.
Thats actually a good idea! Would be nice to break open a door and more and more of those Zombie like enemies just keep emerging.
Even more interesting is that the lower residential section of Leyndell where the wax-sealed houses lie in ruins, hence releasing what were inside, is populated with shambling rotting corpses.
This makes sense because of the proximity to the Lake/ocean.
What do you propose the abundance of sand (which occurs at nearly the same rate as the wax) indicates? I believe it could be caused by the proximity to the ocean, being carried up the cliffs by wind and such. Maybe ash from burning bodies in an attempt to stop the overflowing corpse wax?
It's obvious after the burning of the erdtree, but why is there so much before?
@@MOX-ch2 I think the cause was not the giants' fire; rather, it was the fire of Gransax, whose body is still strewn over the city.
Strange that they left the corpse and weapon there, isn't it? Almost as if the death toll was so high that they couldn't organize an effort to clean up -- that, and the war with the dragons was probably closely followed by the Shattering, but we don't know for sure how much time was between the two.
It’s so crazy to me that little details like the faces linked together (which may have big lore implications when you realise Ranni has the same aspect about her character) are so hidden away. I for one had no idea of that detail, and if you hadn’t removed the helmet then I probably would never have clocked it.
That's fromsoft for you
FromSoft is well aware that people will take every character and rip them apart and observe its details.
It's kinda hard to see these things when the thing they're stuck to is trying to murder you.
Fromsoft games be like: "that's got a tragic backstory, and thats got a tragic backstory, and that's got a backstory and thhhhats got a tragic backstory" 💀
That’s not a “little” detail
That’s their most obvious feature apart from maybe their wings
I think corpse wax is more abundant in Lyndell. You can see it seeping from the closed doors of the sealed rooms in the capital. Implying that the rooms are full of dead bodies.
At first I thought they had sealed their houses with gold, and then I saw the perfumers and all their patients and it dawned on me that it was Corpse Wax, that realization mortified me 🤣🤣🤣
personally I always thought of that as tree sap
@a proverbial lemon The real reason is to avoid having to model, texture, and create collision data for the room interiors - something not limited to Leyndell but just super obvious there because of how many buildings are sealed off. As far as I know no in game lore reason is given for them to be sealed up so it all comes down to speculation.
@@ladyabaxa We visit other cities/towns like Sellia and the devs had no problem just giving us locked doors that can't open to avoid making houses enterable. The wax/sap/honey/whatever clearly has a significance in Leyndell.
They probably are full of corpses but I got the impression they were intentionally sealed doors because there is plague going on.
You know, I'd LOVE to see what normal life in some of these places were like. Did kids sometimes go out and and look at these gargoyles? were the giants sometimes used like shade for a picnic? did peddlers from across the lands between and beyond go to leyndall to sell their wares? I know the questions really aren't important, but I'd still like to see what the day to day for most people was like before everything turned to hell.
I agree, seeing Marika's golden age would be awesome. I always try to image what the ruins used too look like. What Leyndell and Caelid and the others look liked before the Shattering. Raya Lucaria covered in cities and towns of sorcerers and students would be such a sight to behold
This is a recurring thing with FromSoft games and honestly Elden Ring suffers a bit for it. I think FromSoft could do with moving away from the whole "all the important stuff already happened and everyone is dead" for a bit.
@@GARGANTUANMASKEDFISH I very much agree. the only fromsoft game I can think of that differs is Ninja Blade, and that is NOT their normal formula.
@@DBfan106I’d say Sekiro is like that too. You pretty much watch the whole story unfold and the fall of the Ashina Empire as you progress.
@@aswangmonkey361 Yeah, but there's no moment of 'here's what normal life for these people looks like'. It's in the middle of a coup and an invasion at the same time.
Honestly I would have never even seen that Gargoyles had a gigantic flesh scar on their side without this video, most battles in this are too "all over the place" to try and see the details, the gargoyles particularly, they jump everywhere. Your content is always so interesting. I love the lore and design choices of all the From Soft games and your videos are always little golden nuggets of awesome details and stories of game design that I would have never knew without you, Zullie. Thanks a lot for your content and I hope that you'll continue as long as there is something to say about these games, and as long as there are games!
i honestly thought they were bird-like with beaks.
the only reason i noticed was because i used the arrows reach and arrows sting talismans to snipe one in the deep root depths before Fia’s boss fight and saw the animation for them spewing spark perfume...
Yeah, I thought they were 100% stone.
It always felt strange to me that Godrick's grafting was almost entirely confined to Stormvale castle, I thought it would've been a more prominent motif throughout the game.
Yeah, they could’ve made the entire game revolve around grafting if they wanted to, probably the coolest concept from software has ever came up with
I remember when the first trailer came out people predicted that limbs and grafting would be a big part of the game, due to both Godrick and Malenia both having unique limb-centric design motifs.
I really think Stormvale should have been one of the later "dungeons", it has some of the most solid designs and "themes"
The motif of many organisms joining together and unifying is present everywhere, just not called "grafting" - The Frenzied Flame, corpses being absorbed by the erdtree, the crucible, Rykard's devouring of champions, the creation of the Graven Schools at Raya Lucaria, the Warrior Jars and Gargoyles presented here, the Rot as a singular representation of its Outer God, etc.
@@orion3237 Yeah, it really seems like the theme is more present than people give it credit, it's just subtle.
"Truly a patchwork of champions" is the line in the description of their weapon. What if this statement is more literal than we thought?
We know Grafting is a practice that predates Godrick and has been used as far back as Godfrey since he grafted Serrosh to himself to act as a power limiter
What if they Gargoyles are a literal patchwork of champions? As in skilled warriors, not exemplary enough to be granted Erdtree Burial, partially melted and molded together as wax, and turned into powerful guardians to serve the Golden Order even after death? This would explain why they fight with two different weapons each, each weapon is one that one of the champions was skilled in using in life.
And now that the Elden Ring is broken and most of the people in the Land Between have gone crazy, there's no one left to keep them in good repair anymore. Still they perform their function though to keep serving in death.
Are we actually sure they serve the golden order though? Leyndell is one thing but how do we know they don't predate it and for instance where incorporated after the erdtree took over? Also they reek of perfumers to me
@@buyersremorse7106 the gargoyles and perfumers certainly serve it now
I love this theory
Considering that half of the Gargoyle seems to be a tree, what if this IS Erdtree Burial?
@@MrFelblood the thing at the end of catacomb dungeons with the bodies being absorbed by tree root is Erdtree burial
So that's why the gargoyles always carry two different weapons. The switching weapons could be one of the halves taking control which would explain why the way the gargoyles move and fight are significantly different based on what weapon theyre using.
Corpse wax. It’s got what gargoyles crave.
It seems that a lot of Golden Order culture and technology is centered around many becoming one.
When you die you become one with the Erdtree, Marika and Radagon become one, Valiant Gargoyles are made out of individuals, D and his twin are one.
Yet the Golden Order despises the Flame of Frenzy even though it is everyone becoming one, and hates the omens even though they are combinations of aspects of multiple creatures in one being. Not to mention there opposition to grafting and Rykard’s blasphemy even though that’s kind of what the Erdtree does.
Perhaps the Golden Order hates these similar meetings of beings into one because it is not “voluntary”. The Greater Will wants or perhaps can only get people to merge if they agree to it? The Greater Will can bribe people with rewards of Erdtree rebirth or other powers but they must want to join with another for their merging to be acceptable.
All the other types of merging in Elden Ring are forced upon people and so they are in direct opposition to the Golden Order.
The Greater Will probably hates the other forms of merging, because it doesn't have control over them.
There seems to be a theme surrounding anything that can't be controlled by the Two Fingers/Blessing of the Erdtree gets shunned by the Golden Order. It's likely not a coincidence.
GRRM is obsessed with hiveminds and people joining them/being assimilated by the hivmind through suggestion. So I'd say it makes sense to see how often it pops up in Elden Ring.
It is because the current Golden Order, Marika's Order, is not the original Golden Order. It is imitation, made after the fact when the original Five Fingers were severed into Two and Three by the rebellious Numen of the Nameless Eternal City using the Fingerslaying Blade.
Placidusax's Order that preceded Marika, when dragons were in charge, was dedicated to the Greater Will and had the benefit of Five Fingers interpreting Greater Will more thoroughly.
It was then when Beasts became intelligent and became servants to dragons, numen started moving in, etc.
With just the Two Fingers, Golden Order can merely preserve the world, not innovate. And Marika herself is a bastard child; half-numen, half giant, so she operated for the longest of time with just blind faith.
Gideon's exchange with Two Fingers implies the world was broken long ago, and that Two Fingers merely tried to maintain some semblance of the former glory days.
In the end, Marika probably would rather not be one with Radagon, given they're at cross purposes. I like your observation but i see it as just another indication of the Golden Order's hypocrisy - in OUR hands, this weapon is natural and just, in the hands of our enemies, it's an abomination.
I think it's that they are released afterwards. There are two key tenets to the Golden Order, after all...
I wonder if D and his twin being 2 bodies sharing one soul and being loyal servants of the Golden Order have anything to do with the process the gargoyles went through
You do find D's brother right before the duo Valiant Gargoyle fight and he is summonable for it, so that sounds pretty intentional.
Perhaps D and twin's condition is a prerequisite to becoming a gargoyle? If you go to where you find D's twin before progressing to a certain point in D's questline, I think you find the twin asleep, as if the shared soul they have is only able to make one body move at a time. I'd wager the gargoyles, then, might be a way to bypass this restriction.
And further D was a servant of true death/maliketh just like two of the gargoyles, and the rest presumably are still loyal to the Golden Order. So he aligns in ideology and in twins. Maybe he was fated to become a gargoyle, or other people with split souls were made into gargoyles.
@@SillyMegalodon That would help to explain a line from their armour "Not once do they stand together; not one word do they speak to one another".
From games will make the most horrifying creature designs you've ever seen and then make them impossible to look at because they're too busy killing you
1:53 these stationary, broken gargoyles happen to occasionally drop Erdsteel daggers. Those daggers are supposedly given to Nobles, so I took it to mean that gargoyles are Leyndell nobles who were transformed via some process
I always assumed they were like an honorary gift of sorts, given by the nobility in recognition of helpful/honorable deeds-the way Kenneth Haight does for us.
Or maybe they were “elevated” to noble status post-conjoining, which just occurred to me as I type this.
Or perhaps like you said, this is just nobles doing weird stuff-in which case I wonder how much Godrick was inspired by them. With him being of golden-lineage status, and that he was said to have fled Lleyndell at one point, so he must of been present there for a time (idk much abt Godrick lore tho) maybe his grafting uses similar techniques/is a “bastardization” of this?
So many possible interpretations with this game I love it
The hero rune also points to the fact that many champions would die after being blessed by grace.
Another thing I speculate is that the bodies left behind would likely serve as material for the jars. The innards were removed and put in the jars while the bodies were used in the gargoyles. Most likely some nobles were used aswell and it might explain why they are smaller and more broken. We see this with nobles shambling around the lands between but the soldiers are relatively fine.
Imagine how amazing would have it been to fight the Valiant Gargoyle and, instead of just spawning another one in, you had to lower one to half HP and then their waxed parts "separated" in a cinematic and creating two entierly new, different-looking Gargoyles to fight.
i feel like that kinda destroys the entire purpose of these kinds of gargolyes
It would make more sense for the reverse to happen. You're fighting a weird mishappen Gargoyle that has an easy first phase, only to eventually meld with its other half and now fight it at the Gargoyle's intended strength.
The setting would probably be in some chamber where the Gargoyles are made, but it wasn't completed before the facility shut down for whatever reason or was abandoned mid-construction of the Gargoyle.
Very cool! Adds a new meaning to their attacks and such too. Gargoyles like that one typically switch from one weapon-type to another, and are often seen with Twinblades. Maybe this is to illustrate the two beings that were fused.
Exactly
Gargoyles always come in pairs is a rule of souls games... it seems here, this was even more literal
I always thought gargoyle faces were more bestial, after seeing them from afar and in the presence of Guranq. This paints them in a new terrifying way for me. Could’ve gone my whole life without needing to know what their face looked like.
I love these little nuggets of lore hidden in character/ enemy design
Seems worth noting that the stone caskets at the back of the twins arena seem to be stored purposefully at the bottom of the waterfall, like they’re not used for transportation but for cultivating corpse wax. The bottom of a waterfall is indeed a very moisture-rich environment
For a long time I didn’t even realize the Gargoyles had human faces. I was seeing their helmet almost like a beak, like they were reminiscent of birds or something. This is a great video Zullie thank you (:
That's why channels like this one are so valuable. They give us a glimpse at the world of subtlety in the visual designs of the fromsoft games. It's not only interesting from an aesthetic standpoint but often it reveals crucial details which disclose a lot of lore. Thanks Zullie and keep up the great work!
I love how you have designed and orchestrated your videos into delightful little morsels that expand our love and appreciation of the games we all play and enjoy together. I pray you are rich in love, happiness, and contentment Zullie!! Thank you for making my day better. 😄
Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that the two skin colours of the gargoyle are red and white, the colours of Radagon and Marika, the Red King and the White Queen which make up the Rebis.
Honestly I really love the Gargoyles. They’re literally a pile of corpses of dead champion sowed together to make a powerful champion, utilizing all the varies of fight styles and moves of previous Warriors that once walk the lands. I would say a lot more nice things about them but i really hate certain versions of them and how they’re utilize. Like the duo fight with them was horrible. Never seem fair to me since they literally gank you And you never have time to breathe in that fight and don’t give me started on that stupid poison.🐱
The duo fight literally made a friend of mine quit the game lol
My mimic hard carried. Soloed one while I killed the other. Felt magical after dying like 6 times.
i summoned mimic or tiche whenever i met a dual bosses , hell i can't even beat 2 omens under the sew at the same time and they are just mob
@@Zades145 They can take a little solace in the fact it's technically at least a quartet fight, so the numbers just really weren't in their favor.
@@noonyabeezniss4911 demon prince was good though
My first time knowing Zullie for Elden ring is my 1st soul game, thanks alot for the digging!
The gargoyles have to be one of my favorite designs in ER. The two faces add so much character to them, alongside the lore of them being reinforced with corpse wax. An incredibly original take on the creature.
also one of the worst boss fights in elden ring
Yet another fascinating detail that I definitely missed in the flurry of "OH GOD OH SHIT OH FUCK."
I wonder how D is related to these (if it all). The brothers both wear the Twinned Armor set, depicting two people fused together as one. Maybe D and his twin brother were once fused into a gargoyle and maybe seperated? Or maybe they were intended to become one at one point? You find D's brother near the Valiant Gargoyles fight as well
I think he is likely a foreshadow to point to the dual nature of radagon /Marika. Due to how loyal and dedicated D is towards the Golden order while his brother is unhinged like Marika.
I appreciate the pun in the episode title.
For those unaware; the scary monsters on the corners of buildings commonly called Gargoyles are only actually Gargoyles if they are also used to channel water off the building, the ones you can see typically with open mouths that drool water off the edge when it rains. If they're just there for aesthetic purposes they're actually called Grotesques.
Funny when we first play elden ring we are so busy fighting and looking for items that at first we didn’t stop to see just how truly messed up the elden world is. It’s crazy
you are doing amazing work with this series, keep it up. it really shows how great elden ring truly is
@@noonyabeezniss4911 ur fun at parties 🎉
@@noonyabeezniss4911 I've seen you being negative in multiple replies on this video, take a walk or something.
@@noonyabeezniss4911 you're only bringing these issues up in face of someone else enjoying themselves and the game.
@@noonyabeezniss4911 you probably have never felt a warmth of a girl.
@@noonyabeezniss4911 bring them up in other comment sections or on reddit where these topics are being discussed. Again, you're only bringing these up in the face of someone else enjoying the game, to tear the other person down from enjoying themselves and said game.
Stop it.
The Elden Ring is a real thing? What are we waiting for? Let's get it.
Damn, I dropped it
It’s in Arizona
That’s why no one will go claim it
Sorry I broke it
Who needs the Elden Ring when you have a Soldering Iron?
@@terriblecompany1588 let's repair it, I'm sure nothing bad will happen!!
Your videos are so good. Quick, informative, very interesting and no annoying commentary but very soothing music.
I think the jars being created and used by the golden order to create corpse wax makes a lot of sense, as you find them in seemingly random locations, but I think after the shattering they were free and didn't know what to do so most of them left and were killed. It also explains why we find some in stormveil, as godrick probably used, or at least tried to ue, corpse wax in his grafting. The reason we find so many in catacombs and in sewers could be because they were sent out into areas with lots of bodies and were left there to find corpses to turn into wax. It could also explain why they are hunted, as corpse wax is a very rare and precious substance, so poachers hunt them down for their wax
These videos are always fantastic, keep up the good work
Wow. So much insight gathered from this exceptionally great video. Thank you.
I think Elden Ring, better than other games in FromSoft's catalogue, really conveys the sheer scale of the tragedies that occurred in the world. And the corpse wax of the gargoyles is a good example. The player learns about the corpse wax used to manufacture the gargoyles and their weapons. And then they see the countless mausoleums in Leyndell, stuffed so full of corpses that the wax is bursting through the doors. And several gargoyles remain, scattered through the capital and other areas connected to the crown.
Compare that to the mere handfuls of corpses you find as remnants of Godrick's grafting, and the whole TWO grafted scions you fight in the game.
The Golden Order is a machine that feeds on its own people, sending them to fight and die on long, arduous campaigns of conquest. And even in death the subjects cannot rest, for their very corpses are turned into materials to build machines of war.
That last paragraph sounds eerily close to how imperialist nationalism operates
@@Erick-tv8oq It's called imperialism or colonialism when it's directed outwards at other countries and peoples, and fascism when it's directed inwards. But it all revolves around mythologising, justifying, and expanding the power of the dominant class by exploiting and oppressing the lower classes.
Very insightful as usual, thanks Zullie!
“They’ve been left to whether away, unattended by those who made them”
This is so sad but it’s pretty much the whole world in souls games and Elden ring. Love the vid as always Zullie!
So much lore in one short video, one of your best ER vids so far :)
With every video you plunge knowledge into my brain, and show me visions of horrors unbound. Thanks, Zullie!
My lord, I would kill for a Zullie the Witch Spotify playlist. Beyond the great and incredibly interesting video content, your track selections are amazing and exactly the kind of vibe I want when working my office job.
This is the best video you’ve made. It answered questions about the living jars that I didn’t realize were even relevant to this topic
YEEES!! Ever since I noticed their faces I wanted to see you cover these!
Wonder if they've got a connection to Ranni, or if the shared third eye is just a recurring theme.
i love when u put kings field music in your videos keep it up
Your videos legit make Me want to go hop on right now🤙🏽 starting my first new game+
Awesome, thanks for covering this!
I appreciate this kind of content. Makes me appreciate individual enemies more.
One of the first things I noticed after getting into Leyndell, is how the majority of the windows and doors are sealed with what is seemingly corpse wax. Heard that maybe Morg was sealing them up as some attempt to keep control, but that doesn’t really make sense to me. There’s a lot of interesting stuff about corpse wax and it’s usage, seeing how it was used even in Godfrey’s rule, and just how many broken gargoyles are laying around in the Erdtree Depths. Maybe there’s a connection between that and all of the water and the caskets we have to climb into?
Those sealed buildings are basically storage units
@@Herr_Brechmann For people? They are all houses.
@@Herr_Brechmann
Nah, that's just for insulation. You'd think that an all-powerful deity would be keep out drafts, and you'd be wrong.
These are fantastic, thank you and don't stop! ^^
It took me a while to work out what the fractured Gargoyles in Leyndell actually were.
Mostly because of trying to kill them before they killed me, but stilL!
Great video, excellent music choice!
Your videos are so awesome dude
Exquisite cameras work here. You are constantly raising the bar.
this is real interesting, great work zullie
Thank you, those videos are pretty interesting!
love ur channel Zullie !!
I never get the oppurtunity to really look into enemies' shapes. Thank you for these videos.
I mean I'm just blown away by the fact that zullie manages to keep these videos pumping out, with great quality at that. great job and thank you.
I love these videos. It's hard for me to notice these kinds of details on things that are actively trying to kill me.
at this point i think its going to be more shocking if you reveal that an enemy in the game is not made of people.
The Black Blade Kindred are probably some of my favorite enemies in the game, design wise. Getting transported in front of the Bestial Sanctum only to turn around and see this huge intimidating creature standing completely still, unlike anything else I'd seen in the game, freaked me out. I remembering calling them Anubis before I saw the names.
Also reminds me of all the broken gargoyles in Deeproot Depths (though the whole area still confuses me a bit). The few in Leyndell feel like a sign of the city's disrepair and fall from grace, along with the ashy areas and the few skeletons in the slums. Little hints of Death creeping in from below.
I always assumed the ones in the depths were put there to guard the remains of Godwyn’s body, and fell into disrepair eventually
Thank you for this! The gargoyles are the things I wanted to look at the most. So much going on in their designs, but too busy just staying alive.
It's also possible the Gargoyles were prototypes to what ends up happening with Marika and Radagon. If the merger is seen as 'one taking on the sins of another' (or perhaps even 'the sins of the fallen') becoming a Gargoyle could easily be seen as a valiant sacrifice. In fact, given the use of Corpse wax, it seems even more likely that one of the two gargoyle components was likely already dead upon creation.
Thank you Zullie, very cool.
Little pockets of lore from environment, character design, and equipment description is amazing detail From Software is able to create
Text and images: horrifying informations about and depictions of body horror
Song: they're groovin :)
There's so much detail in this game easily overlooked by the simply fact that you generally cannot get close enough to appreciate them properly.
I'm so glad you did this. The gargoyle black blade was my primary weapon till I got Malikeths. Fighting that Kindred at such a low level reminded me of mastering the Dragonslayer armor in DS3, only I haven't mastered the gargoyles yet, regardless I always thought their design was amazing. Godrick's almost similar build makes me think he did aspire after them.
Ye. Though normally corpse wax is called "animal wax" and normally made from hunting catches.
FROMSOFT: Here is a being that has only known suffering and pain.
Me:…
FROMSOFT: Now make it suffer more
Beautiful vid per the usual
I absolutely adore the tiny little tidbits that can come together like this for a bigger lore implication. Mining through the code to see the inspiration behind enemy designs is fun, but damn if I don’t love a good minuscule lore aspect being dug up from the trenches of item descriptions like this
everytime one of your videos starts i say "i know this song!!!" hahah. Major league content, great channel.
One time, a diver died at the bottom and another diver died trying to get him. His body had turned to wax and was unexpectedly buoyant. The other diver had trouble collecting it and died on the way up. There's a video about it somewhere on RUclips if you search for scuba body recovery videos.
"Law of Regression: Regression is the pull of meaning; that all things yearn eternally to converge."
I just want to say that you're excelling at towing the line between appealing to the algorithm and the yt video culture without ever being irritating or patronizing towards the viewer.
For example, you make really alluring thumbnails in a way that's similar to the rampant clickbait trend but yet it never feels cheap or misleading. You keep your videos short and bite sized so that they're easy to share and trend well, but it always feels genuine and packed with meaning and intention.
Maybe this seems over-analytical but I just wanted to say that I appreciate how you're doing the youtuber thing but in such a classy way- you deserve all of your success and 10x more. Go Zullie!
I don't even play this game, but those analises are pretty cool, nice job fren ☺️
Thank you for continuing to make this game even more horrifying with facts I didn't know.
I've never actually gotten a good look at their face, I always thought they were beaked/bird like. This certainly puts them in a more ominous light
Its very interesting how a lot of the enemies are so connected to each other and to the lore, it makes me thankful how dedicated fromsoft is to Elden Ring
I never knew they had two faces, I was always too busy trying to not die.
Even when it seems some enemies are simple in appearance, a video shows them from a closer perspective and reveal a hidden, original and complex design.
The song as always, perfectly good.
i really like these little "lore detective" kinda videos
learning of so many details that you cant just look at in the design of a character while fighting them almost feels like they expect you to hack into the game just to see the character models and unveil all the effort and detail they put into it
Also cool to note how they fight with two different weapons each. Likely due to the two original beings having specialized in one weapon type. So many dual characters in elden ring. Gurranq/maliketh, Godfrey/Hoarah Loux, Radagon/Marika, Margit/Morgott, heck, even that D. guy has an armor set depicting himself and his weaker brother who ends up wearing it in his stead. Really cool thematic idea with a lot of fun stories.
I really love these kind of videos even if i don't play Elden Ring or know what's going on, i don't have the requirements at my pc to play it or even have money to purchase the game but either way this kind of videos still gives me joy watching and looking at these abomination of bodies fused into one that seem to look like the bosses of the game
i would really love it if i could play this in the future
Keep up the good work zullie🙏🏾👍🏾👍🏾
This is so interesting! 😁 thank you
When fighting them for the first times I just focused on the sound design, it's just so well made
I really appreciate these videos simply because you never really get a good look at the enemies in this game. Unless you stop to examine their corpses with your telescope, you can't ever really see them too well. I thought the gargoyles had some kind of bird head, and the chin on these faces was the end of their beak. It's not like you see much besides their ankles and then they don't leave corpses behind.
THAT'S where the statue is! I remember trying to keep an eye out for it after reading the description mentioning the statue hiding Radagon's secret, but without knowing what he looked like at the time I guess I missed it.
"Elden rings theme of duel identities" HOW TF DID I NOT NOTICE BEFORE
I FIGHT YOU AS HORAH LOUX, WARRIOR
Loving the theory vids
Genuinely, I never even knew they were mostly organic and had human features (ie the face) until watching this video, and I’ve played elden ring for 277 hours. Good job.
Great video