@@Jermcicle It is all just an excuse for Miyazaki to show feet, and for George RR Martin to not finish a story. If he just gives up halfway through its "open for interpretation".
There was actually another fragment of Destined Death stolen, which was then given to the lobsters in Liurnia, to prepare them for the ineviteable age of the crabs.
"The big twist in Elden ring". When I played I did not realise there was a twist, in fact I basically didn't even understand who I was fighting or why I was fighting them 99% of the time!
@@karmine3640 and who is Trying to go hours upon hours out of their searching for a half of paragraph of information when it could simply give us a 30 second cutscene. It's not cost effective. It's not immersive. It's the games only real flaw. If I go running around for a hours in a huge ass game to figure anything out. It's not immersive. Not fully.
I know it's a lot to take in, but this video will be the foundation for all the lore videos to come. So bookmark it, come back later, take your time, and try your best to remember the main characters names... Godwyn and Godrick and Godfrey and Godefroy and Malenia and Melina and Miquella and Marika and Radahn and Ranni and Rykard and Rennala..and Radagon. See! Easy!
Finally, now i can understand the lore Behind soldier of godrick. After 100 hours of gameplay, my current theory is that he was a soldier who fought for godrick, but i may have missed some kind of twist.
One interesting thing to note about the fight with Godfrey in the arena where he's holding Morgott's corpse, since he was stricken from his grace when he kiled his final great opponent and became Tarnished, when we, years later, come back to that arena to find him there holding Morgott, you can see Morgott's body dissipating into golden dust just like our grace points us towards our goal, but Godfrey's grace is pointing at us, his next great enemy, finally giving him purpose again. You can see this better if you fight him at night tho.
Regarding the Marika/Radagon connection, I think that Radagon was Marika from the start. You mentioned that Marika had to go to war against many different forces that threatened the Erd Tree. Godfrey was a skilled leader and warrior, but in order to wage war more effectively, she needed another champion that was an extension of her own will to lead her forces, so she created Radagon. Later on, when it came time to take over Liurnia, Marika found herself at an impasse due to Rennalas forces matching hers in power. Instead of continuing to fight Rennala directly and risk losing more forces, she sent Radagon with the intent of having him seduce Rennala from the beginning. Their marriage would put Rennala directly under Marika's thumb without Rennala ever really knowing. But, there was a consequence to creating Radagon. I don't think that Marika was powerful enough to just will a sentient being into reality. I think that Radagon is a PART of Marika that she separated from herself. Specifically, he is the part of Marika that had blind faith in The Greater Will. He is after all supposed to embody the Golden Order. That absence of faith is what caused her to begin doubting The Greater Will. Radagon on the other hand instinctually desires to keep the Order intact, which put him in direct conflict with this new faithless Marika who wanted to test the limits of what she could get away with. When Marika banished Godfrey, Radagon went back to her so there could still be an Elden Lord. When Marika shattered the Elden Ring, Radagon tried to fix it. Marika wanted a tarnished to take the title of Elden Lord, but Radagon doesn't, which is why when you find Marika, Radagon suddenly appears to stop you. This of course is just my interpretation though. There are likely some details that I'm missing that disproves it completely.
Feels very cool when you realize that the branches of the Erdtree probably represent the law of causality with its branching effects and the trunk and roots represent the law of regression
Wow... I felt like I understood the story and world of Elden Ring better than the other games, likely because I've come to look at these stories through your eyes. You still manage to blow my mind, however! Thank you once again for your beautiful interpretation of the masterpiece that this game turned out to be.
I found my first lobster when I was around level 20, and after about 30 minutes of trying and dying I decided he was tougher than Margit whom I had killed 5 levels earlier. When I reached level 90 I returned to the site of that lobster and had my revenge. No longer would he haunt my dreams with his BS.
I was thinking that I was the only one who struggle with big ass bear, oversized lobster, chaotic spirit tree shit, and stupid crab slam in this game more than the boss in this game.
I just realize how many people are involved in the production of one video. We really appreciate all of your work guys, this is quite a large community.
It’s always fascinating to discover the difference between how you initially envisioned a games narrative before it’s release, to how it actually unfolds
I have fewer than 1 friend in the World. That's right. Everybody disses me for making bad videos. I think they are perfect though. Who is right? My dissers or me? Which side are you on, dear di
@@AxxLAfriku The truth is that people hate others who self promote on other people's channels, maybe you should fix that before you start advertising yourself elsewhere.
Well the other popular lore explanations say that Marika and Radagon were like two halves of the same being and that Marika shattered the ring out of grief and disillusionment. This video says that all of these events were planned by her which makes no sense since Ranni did all of the shenanigans to become a Star God in her ending.
@@zerohero5753 I’m wondering this as well, and Vaati did explicitly state there is evidence for this and that’s going to be another video, I’m powerfully curious.
I know this video is over a year old, but I bought and played Elden Ring on release, and I finally got around to beating the game today on a character with over 142 hours. Speedrun world record, no big deal. First thing I did (I'm not even in Limgrave yet on Journey 2) was come here so I could understand even a part of what the hell was actually going on. I was not disappointed. I plan to watch all the lore videos you've made over the last year, because your writing, editing and pacing are all just so, so good.
17:50 So I am pretty sure that I can fill in Marikas motivation here. The important Item descriptions for this are the Scarseal/Soreseals: "These seals represent the lifelong duty of those chosen by the gods." "Solemn duty weighs upon the one beholden; not unlike a gnawing curse from which there is no deliverance." In the very beginning when Marika became the chosen champion of the Greater Will and therefore became the God of the Lands Between she was completely onboard with the Situation, after all she would be the God of this world and spread the Golden Order that she fully believed in. But as time went on she realized that this Situation isnt nearly as perfect as she thought it would be. So she began to ask herself Questions: Is the golden order really perfect? Am I really a god or rather just a puppet of the Greater Will, being cursed to do its biddings for all time to come? It was these questions that made her try to find a way out of this situation, which will basically be the start of pretty much everything that we than experience in the game. She "creates" the Tarnished by taking the grace away from Godfrey and his people. Sending them to fight in wars where they will die and later be reborn to become stronger. All with the goal that someday someone strong enough would appear to be able to fight a God. Shattering the Elden Ring to create even more chaos and hardships, once again basically as training for this Warrior who would hopefully one day appear. Binding Master Hewg to the Roundtable Hold, so that once that strong Warrior arrives, they would have a Smith good enough to make them a weapon powerful enough to slay a God. Creating/Reviving Melina and giving her the purpose of being able to burn down the Thorns of the Tree so that the chosen Warrior would be able to get inside. So to come to a conclusion: Marika did all of these things so that someday someone would arrive who is able to kill her and the Elden Beast, so that she would finally be free from being the greater Will's puppet for all eternity.
My theory is that Marika and Radagon are sort of an Adam & Eve character. Where they were originally the same person, and then Radagon was created from a piece of Marika to go do his own separate work. And then eventually he was called back to her to become one again, just like the law of regression.
This is what I believe as well. So they're considered as one person, only because Radagon is an actual piece of Marika. Which leads me to think that Empyreans are likely beings that are able to break off pieces of themselves and those pieces are given a life of their own.
Random thing: But when looking at the Giant’s Fire Whip, it says the Radagon hated his red locks, implying some connection to the Giants themselves. So like, how can Radagon be both part giant and wholly Marika who killed the Giants?
@@theobvu I mean, a single Runebear could 100% take Godfrey, Radagon and the Elden Beast at the same time. Those things are actual abominations. So why not lobsters too
Damn, it’s awesome revisiting these videos in preparation for the upcoming DLC. I’ve been dying to do another playthrough but I’ve already completed ER like 10 times so I want to wait until the DLC drops and do one full playthrough.
I spent hours trying to kill it, in the end I stealth past it left it alive, its so dam different from the other bears, strong and have more vigor I think
12:07 I really love that bit of lore. It's just fantastic to have him behave himself through trapping his fighting spirit inside of a giant beast on his shoulder
Yea when I fought him I was just like… “what the actual fuck? It’s an alien, right? But why does it have a human skull head?” Interesting creature for sure and I love how it seems to be made out of mini stars and planets.
Those ones are pretty easy actually. When the stars fall, they take on various forms depending on where they fall. For example, the fallingstar beasts fall in mines, or near mines, so look like rocks etc. Astel fell near where a load of bones were, so took on aspects of that, and the Onyx lords etc. seem to have taken on that form due to close proximity with humans.
@@GoldenSunAlex What about the fallingstar beast that fell outside the capital walls? It fell closer to a major human population but didn't take the form of an onyx lord.
I really want Elden Ring lore to become a book. Just a big ass book that covers ALL the information and stories from start, when the elden beast arrival, to end when your gameplay starts.
@@TmasIZgay that would be cool, I still don't quite understand a lot of lore points but the game felt so cinematic, some other media adaptation would be awesome
@user-bg9fw1hh5t I think there is far too much foor them to make a show a studio would have to sign a deal for like 200 episodes and they wouldn't take a gamble that big its a shame because it would be fire
@@Wooldrog lmao. You seriously think Elden ring lore has more to it than GOT? it isn't even close. There's far more people,places and plots in GOT, and they made a show about that.
Dude imagine having a big ass 10 inch thick book just for Elden ring lore lmao Imagine someone seeing it and asking you about it and having to tell them it’s a book of Elden ring lore I need this to exist The book should also be bound in leather and look worn and burned to really fit the vibe
If you watch the full video he later says Ranni stole only a fragment of death from the black blade. She stole a piece from the black blade not from the elden ring.
It could also be symbolic because she was born a demi-god and casted her ruin away and killed her physical body. "Stealing death" could also mean that she took death for herself and thus, committed suicide.
Something I thought was interesting was the fact that the greater will seems to despise the Tarnished for one reason or another, so the Tarnished even being allowed a fleeting chance of becoming Elden Lord had to be a scheme of Marika. The Erdtree refused to bless the Tarnished beforehand, you actively have to burn the Erdtree to access the Elden Ring because it will not allow you in, and the Elden Beast itself, the Elden Ring incarnate, fights against you in order to prevent you from becoming Elden Lord. To that end, I think that the Tarnished becoming Elden Lord is a separation from the greater will, as you wrest control of the governing power acting on behalf of the greater will against it's, well, will. This is further supported by the fact that in 3 of the 4 Elden Lord endings, you actively change the logic of the world previously established by greater will. Considering Marika already had doubts about the Golden Order, I'm positive stopping the influence of the greater will through the Tarnished was her ultimate goal.
The erdtree rejection is probably an act of retaliation from radagon. Which he presents the true golden order and it's rules and want to prevent us from changing it by becoming new elden Lord or any of the ending
Marika's true purpose is likely wanting living beings and life in the lands between to continue to evolve in any form without interference from greater will (which let it's up to us to decides with it with golden order other than frenzy flame total destruction of life). Tarnished is her tool to do that.
@@bigballofpaint4407 Perhaps it's a split personality thing, a part of Marika that fears change. Another possibility could be that Radagon was a part of Marika created by the greater will to keep her in check. After all, the two seem to be in opposition to one another, so either seems at least somewhat possible unless I'm missing something
Interesting how both the Law of Causality and the Law of Regression can both be represented as rings, as well. Causality is essentially the ripple effect and Regression is everything eventually comes full circle.
I think Radagon is an alter-ego implanted in Marika by the Greater Will to control her. An unfaltering guard of the order, as opposed to doubtful and inconstant Marika. That's why he's trying to stop you from facing the Elden Beast, when Marika logically would not. It's probably also what she means by him no "being her" yet, saying that he hasn't overtaken her will at that time.
I think her race(numens) have certain quirks like longer lives,......and longer lives can often lead to extreme differences in the way sex/reproduction occurs. I think her race by default is like a yin/yang themed race and each single entity has 2 halves. i think its the reason malenia and miquella came out the way they did. radagon would become marika or vice versa when they come to this realization themselves.
YES, that's what I think too. Also, I think queen Marika still controls the grace and thats why you have guidance to go fight Radagon and the Elden Beast (which they obviously wouldn't like) and are guided even helping Ranni, which objective is to kill the fingers and change the rule of the Greater Will. In fact, one of my favourite moments in the game was when Ranni disappears from her tower and a new site of grace faintly appears telling you where did she go.
I love that after watching this video, I realized that the opening cutscene of the game with the hammer shattering images, the person transitions between Marika and Radagon
What makes her more interesting is her transformation at the end of the game if you choose to become the lord of frenzy her hair turns dark grey/black and her good eye turns grey and her eye that's always closed opens revealing a blue eye which I'm kinda curious what her transformation is all about.
@@christopherh4891 I hope this isn't it. It just seems lazy making different parts of the original god. Elden Ring has a strong theme on 'twins' so 2 parts - Radagon and Marika are more than enough.
@@nimazsheik5152 i agree with this. My theory is that she is Ranni or a part of her. I was talking with a friend a few weeks ago about who sent the Black Knives to kill Warmaster Iji. You find his body and the body of several black knives around him. So here is my theory: When Godfrey lost the guidence of the Grace, and with it his connection to the Golden Order, The Two Fingers forced Malika to either kill him or exile him. We know that at some point Malika stopped trusting the Golden Order and the Greater Will, which this could very well be the catalyst. For the first time Malika and the greater order were at odds with each other. With Godfrey gone and the Elden Lord position open, the Two Fingers turned to Radagon, another one of the Golden Order follower. They forced him (either through Faith or mental control) to abandon Renala, the woman he loved, and to marry Malika in an effort to control her. When that even failed they then forced the two of them to merge, (this is even more valid if they actually have a way to control Radagon.) My theory is, when the Two Fingers realized that Malika was conspiring against them, they started raising the Empyrians with the goal of succeeding Malika as the new vessel of the Elden Ring. One who would actually follow the commands of the Greater Will. Now Ranni however, was raised as Carian Royalty. She studied the power of the stars (or cosmo). She wanted nothing to do with the Golden Order. So she went to Malika. But Malika couldn't openly help her, after all, to do so would directly go against the golden order. So she allowed Ranni to use the Black Knives to steal a fragment of the Rune of Death (We know that the black Knives were loyal to Malika or at the very least very close to her), which would allow Ranni to create the dagger that would allow her to rid of her Empyrian flesh through a magic ritual. When she does this, her soul is split. Which is why she needs to "slumber" as she puts it. She only has half a soul. Her other half is Melina. However, when the Two Fingers realized this (probably through Radagon), they are the ones who ordered the assasenation of Godwyn the Golden, as a message/threat to Malika "Stop resisting us. Stop meddling with our plan or we will start killing your children." However, this backfired on them. When Malika realized what had happened, she went mad with grief and shattered the Elden Ring. We know that Radagon tried to repair it (and failed), which could be further ilustrate that the 2 of them are different people merged in one body and that the Greater Will has a way to control Radagon. With the Elden Ring shattered the Two Fingers had no choice but to incarcerate Malika in the Erdtree and pin the death of Godwyn on Ranni with the goal of unifying the Empyrians against the traitor. This theory then shifts the blame of the Black Knives assassin to Malika/Radagon. This is further seen to by the fact that Seluvis tried to make Ranni his doll. If you notice, Seluvis wears the mask with the symbol of Radagon. The Two Fingers know that in order for the "Ranni Ending" to occur, the Tarnished must defeat the Elden Beast. This would destroy the Golden Order in the Lands Between. So when Seluvis attempt failed, the Two Fingers once again forced Radagon to sent the Black Knives after his daughter, using Malika's body, but by that time it was too late. Ranni was already beyond their reach. This theory of course, depends completely in the Loyalty of the Black Knives to Malika. Otherwise her shattering the Elden Ring makes no sense. But if you assume that, that is indeed the case, then it would explain everything. Malika's grief. The rage that made her destroy the Elden Ring. The fact that Radagon abandoned Renala despite being in love with her, etc.
A lot of people seem to miss Ranni sitting on a dead two fingers when they talk about her I'm glad you caught it. In fact it looks as though it was mangled not just killed which suggest there was hatred in its killing.
From my understanding Ranni stole a Fragment of Destined Death to kill herself and escape from her Empyrien Body that is bound to the greater Will, since she is drawn to other outer Gods. The Black Knifes who serve the two Fingers (Assassins Incantations) used this to kill Godwyn. Maybe for the same Reason the nameless King was exciled, he befriended the ancient Dragons they fought War for so long. If the Greater Will was involved in Godwyns Death it would explain why Marika shattered the Elden Ring after learning the Truth about the Death of her Firstborne. Or Ranni was just pissed at the greater Will because her Father left her Family to go and impregnant himself.
I think Radagon is the part of Marika that is loyal to the erdtree and the greater will, and that she seperated herself from it when she bagan looking into the greater will more closely
I’m new to the Souls franchise and had a hard time putting the pieces together… This is the best content I’ve watched in a long time on YT. The research, the quality of the video, the editing, the voicing, the naming of all sources, this is so much work and it’s so fantastically done. Thank you a thousand times…
@@NobleVagabond2552 I just beat the Elden Beast. My first playthrough took me 190 hours and event though I platinum the game, there is still so much side content I have to do. This is by far the best game I've ever played
If you enjoyed Elden Ring, i would highly encourage you to try out all the other games in the franchise. Each one is a masterpiece in its own right, and then also check out Vaati's video on that matter. His videos are just a beautiful gift.
@@thomaskopv2366 i actually bought DS3 and Sekiro on PC and Demon’s souls on PS5… not sure where to start, probably DS3, it’s probably the closest to Elden Ring…
I really like how this game tells you that these bosses are capable of leveling cities and are technically Gods. Then you kill them on your first try while you die multiple times because of a crab. I really love this game💀
a bit late to that, but then the last reply was also today. there is this wyrm you find near the entrance to the catacombs in consecrated snowfield and along the path to the cave there are land octopi. well, i found the entrance, marked the site of grace and decided that i'll go back to this matter later, so i mounted torrent and rode back. the wyrm followed, encountering several octopi on the way. the octopi won.
@@SillyRiz Definitely Not all of them. Although I one tried Margit and Godrick maybe because I got over leveled due to farming so that I could get back at that spear guy near the gate Lol. Malenia had me 5 tries, and Maliketh almost 7.
Fun fact! The Numen in Elden Ring are a pretty overt reference to "the men of Numenor" from Tolkien's lore. They, too, were powerful, long-lived men who came from somewhere other than Middle Earth (which is kind of another way of saying "land between" isn't it?)
Glad I’m not the only one to have thought that when I heard “Numen” and that they were from a different land haha. Glad that seems to be the case. Love when other literature inspires concepts in games. Cheers!
That would give the numen who were banished to the eternal city for worshipping the moon and rising as black knives to assasinate godfrey a more solid motive, they aren't from here. They don't want to worship the elden beast, they want their old god the moon back
I’ve been waiting to deep dive your elden ring content till I beat the game and I finally got to playing it and I’m almost done - I’m literally so excited to have so many videos of yours to watch
I personally think that Marika fragmented her soul, similar to how you can fragment the elden ring into runes, and the fragment of her soul was Radagon, the aspect of herself who was loyal to the Greater Will. My reasoning being that at some point Marika began acting in opposition to the Greater Will, this point is around the same time that Radagon began to appear. Then when Marika stepped too far over the line, Radagon was called back from Liuria and was made to marry Marika in an effort to contain her, and in an act of rebelion Marika shattered the Elden Ring to keep Radagon busy in order to buy Horah Loux and the tarnished more time to finish the plan.
i know this was a while ago but I wanted to say this makes a hell of a lot of sense. But there is one thing I think I missed tho and its about Godwyn. Why was he chosen to be killed and who wanted him dead? to prove a point or something?
@@tj2themaxit was Ranni that commissioned his death, why exactly I don't remember but she probably wanted to start the war of the demigods for her own plan of destroying the Greater Will.
My theory for the Greater Will's inability to interact with us in the lands between comes not from an actual incapability, but the idea that it's fighting this same battle on infinite worlds just like the Lands Between. That's why when you fight the Elden Beast you see an infinite forest of Erdtrees before you. It shows that you are not special in this cosmic game, and that you are just another pawn, a "bit player." As Varre would say. There are likely countless Elden Beasts, countless Lands Between, and countless envoys of the Greater Will, who's values of Order are primordial and absolute. Edit: To clarify, I'm not proposing multiverse, I'm saying there could be an infinite amount of "worlds" in this universe that are being imperialized by the greater will. Places completely different from the Lands Between.
I like this, but it doesn’t explain the significance in the outer gods interference in the specific lands between. As stated a single human was able to seal away the outer god of Rot all by himself, this to me ties into the description for the mending tune of perfect order stating that the gods are no better than men and make mistakes such as the outer god of rot so I agree your position is likely… extremely likely but the significance of the lands between seems to have some significance so idk if I’d say it’s one of many happening at the same time but again that is plausible especially whenyu consider previous* lores. Great job !
@@samuraioftheeclipse4954 Not necessarily multiverse, which is just another way of saying "alternate world" with "alternate" versions of each character but even some completely different world with different actors and rules
I think the fact that Marika and Radagon’s children were cursed with Rot and eternal childhood shows that Marika and Radagon were most likely one, hence producing faulty children
The dungeons at the end of catacombs was always so freaky to me. Dozens of bodies all merging into the strange bed of chaos looking gnarled mess of roots in the back. I knew something had to be involved there.
To back up the fact of Radagon and Marika as one being, I just read the "Remembrance of the Rot Goddess": "Miquella and Malenia are both the children of a single god. As such, they are both Empyreans, but suffered afflictions from birth. One was afflicted with eternal childhood, and the other harbored rot within." So they're both the offspring of a single god, either by some sort of parthenogenesis or selfcest, both of which would be highly likely to produce some form of birth defects, as we see is the case here.
But at the same time it could imply that Radagon is not Marika if you read "children of a single God" as in implying that Marika was the only one of the progenitors that was a god. Like Loki in the Nordic mythology, he is the son of a god and a giant. Therefore child of a single god. I don't know if I explained myself right.
I think it is strange that both Radagon and Marika have separate back stories; she's of a race outside the lands between, and Radagon is implied to be a descendant of giants (also Radahn's size could be explained that way). I don't think they were always the same and it lends toward the plot for a big reason: there is a theme that, by denying the principle of regression, causality is also denied (causality is the greater will dictating the outcome of events, kind of different than causality as we know). This is explained in detail with Ranni's questline and ending. So conversely, I think the golden order was trying to expand its influence by merging Marika with a giant, Radagon, extending the greater will's influence to its conquered foe, and the same was done when Radagon married Rennala and begot children. It was a way of expanding the Greater Will's influence to other areas with great power: the Giants' Forge and Astrology.
@@0zb4lack If you perform a certain spell in Leyndell, I think it was "Law of Causality", before the Radagon statue it changes into a statue of Marika and a message before it tells you "Radagon is Marika". I don't think it can get any more obvious than this. Also the fact that in the final boss cutscene Marika literally transforms into Radagon. They are the same being.
I believe one of the most critical characters, that break open some of the stories most vital secrets, is the Goldmask. Even though Corhyn eventually calls Goldmask a Blasphemer due to Corhyn's loyalty to the teachings of the golden order, Goldmask was on a quest to discover the true nature of order and discovered that the order, inherently, was full of deceptions and secrets. Secrets that make the golden order seem more "Chaotic" and deceitful
Wait, I have yet to do Corhyn's questline in my 3 playthroughs so far, but if the golden order is inherently "chaotic", does that mean the Greater Will and the Lord of Chaos are at war with each other? And that the Lord of Chaos has somehow influenced the Greater Will? However slight that influence may be
I think it's more likely the absence of "Chaos" wich causes to seem deceitful. The gods know only power and they are the embodiment of the rules of the universe, true power, yet, still, they too are not in any way perfect, following the greater will will only lead to shattering.
@@diversityhour6336 The golden order is a kind of order because before everything was melded in teh crucible. Like dark souls 1, the change of creating order created disparity, you will have those most elevated by grace and those spurned by grace. In short, they created order but they also created unfairness and probably a lot of suffering.
For real I was thinking "let's watch some old dark souls lore videos before I go sleep in expectation of elden ring lore vids coming out soon" and then this shows up aaaaa
@@josetomascamposrobledano4618 maybe I'm not interested in spending half of my gameplay reading shit, when I can find it all out in a 30 minute video that is actually entertaining.
I always thought that Marika's motive was less about understanding the Golden Order that she created and more about seizing full control of it and escaping the Greater Wills influence. I know that GRRM's influence has been a bit of a meme in some parts of Reddit, but I do think that Marika is Elden Ring's Cersei. She's behind the whole thing and has contingency after contingency to help bring about her freedom and true reign over the Lands Between. Unfortunately for her, that changed when the Greater Wills figured out what she was up to and forced Radagon, who was a loyal follower of the Golden Order and, by extension the Greater Wills, to become the new Elden Lord to keep Marika in check. I think that she was able to continue scheming in spite of this however, but had to resort to using and aiding others in their scheming, such as helping Ranni to steal part of the Rune of Death. I think Marika did this because she knew that Ranni also opposed the Greater Wills, so their interests were aligned. She didn't realise that, however, that in order for Ranni to see her goals to fruition, it would require the death of another demigod, namely Godwyn, Marika's firstborn. This was the point that threw her over the edge and, in her grief she did something mad and drastic. I believe that her shattering the Elden Ring was akin to hitting a fire alarm or a panic button. She knew it would cause a great deal of chaos, which would be the perfect environment for her secret army of Tarnished to thrive in and help get rid of Radagon and the Greater Wills. However the Greater Wills, I believe, also had a trick up it's sleeve and intended on making use of the Tarnished. By using the erdtree to seal of Marika's "Throne Room", it encouraged the Tarnished to gather the shards of the Elden Ring together, but stops you from entering. That way, once the Tarnished is gone, the Elden Ring can be repaired and everything can go back to the way it was before the Shattering, which the Greater Wills would love. Meanwhile, from her prison, Marika uses her power over Grace and the Guidance of Grace to usher you towards the ultimate goal of breaking through that seal (which is why the golden light continues to guide you towards the giants flame, even though that would be committing a cardinal sin, which is something the Greater Wills would never allow) Anyway, all of this is nothing more than speculation and educated guesswork on my part, so take it with a heavy handful of salt. TLDR: Marika is playing 5d chess against the Greater Wills
Also it seems that Marika was imprisoned possibly with the aid of maliketh the black blade, her shadow. The greater will probably employed him to damage and subdue her which explains what looks like a piece of the death rune stuck into her as well as maliketh's own mention of his "sin" while masquerading as guranq.
Marika is absolutely playing 5d chess against the Greater Will, and I would argue that it goes one step deeper. I think that Marika split herself into the Radagon personality, a loyal champion of the Golden Order, knowing that the Greater Will would eventually see him as an ally and force him to become the new Elden Lord to keep her in check. She rigged the system so that her watchdog was actually herself, that way she could have continued access to the power of the Elden Ring through Radagon even if the Greater Will cut her off from its power. But then Ranni killed Godwyn and Marika knew she was out of time. Whatever she needed that fragment of the Rune of Death for, it was too late. Marika entered the Erdtree as Radagon and smashed the Elden ring, imprisoning herself but crippling the Greater Will's influence. Then she did her best to help and guide the tarnished towards burning the Erdtree.
I love this theory, and it makes sense that Marika who was granted godhood by the greater will has a part of her (Radagon) that interrupts her scheming to escape its control, much like some internal conflict one would have. it paints Marika in a more “human” light, she knew she had to release the rune of death, but could not handle her son dying. Ranni who in a sense desired not only to see herself but her mother free, executed the plan that would lead to the shattering and consequently potential freedom from the Greater Will.
@@apeture_explorer4810 this makes sense as if an empyrean works against the two fingers and the golden order their shadow turns on them. Blaidd loses his mind when he figures out what Ranni is actually trying to do. Iji has to put him in Evergaol because of it and he invades you down in Ainsel River when youre carrying Mini Ranni. If you let him out of Evergaol you find him outside Ranni’s tower, hostile and mad.
if we get a dlc, I really hope its almost like a 'Old Hunters" type dlc where we might get to see the the more powerful outer gods or even fight the greater will
I liked this series I stumbled on. The more I listen, the more I get pulled in. His voice, stories, and even the sponsors are interesting. Really love it.
The use of "become" in saying that Radagon is "yet to become marika", may be in the sense of something being unbecoming. Marika may be saying that Radagon is yet to be fit to be a part of her once more, having been a separate distinct entity from her which has diverged too far from Marika, despite originating from her.
I just looked up divine twins and this is a block that seems to run in line with what radagon and marikas situation could be. "Divine twins in twin mythology are identical to either one or both place of a god. The Feri gods are not separated entities but are unified into one center. These divine twins can function alone in one body, either functioning as a male or as male and female as they desire. Divine twins represent a polarity in the world. This polarity may be great or small and at times can be opposition. Twins are often seen to be rivals or adversaries."
I had always thought that was her way of pitying and mocking Radagon. She calls him a "leal hound". Basically called him a loyal dog and mocks him by saying that he'll never truly become her. As she is still the god of the Golden Order and vessel of the Elden Ring. Seemingly mocking his efforts and pitying his blind loyalty towards the Golden Order and greater will, when in the end he'll never be more than her.
@@calmdownbruh8518 Here is your answer: The mimic veil description mentions it is also known as “marika’s mischief”. Radagon is like a mimic, a being created from Marika. Mimic summon description tells us that mimics were attempts to make a “lord”. An item also mentions giants cursing Marika with red hair when she defeated the giant lord. But guess what? It was the mimic that got cursed, Radagon. This also explains why she broke the elden ring but radagon tried to repair it as mimic’s have a will of their own(mimic ashes description)
I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this, but it's really interesting how most of the debuff in the game is associated with Outer Gods. Scarlet Rot -> God of Scarlet Rot Madness -> Frenzied Flame Bleed -> Formless Mother Frost -> The Moon Death-Blighted -> Greater Will The only two debuffs not directly associated with any debuff is poison and sleep, though with DLC, who knows.
You can really see the influence George had with helping the story along. He has a lot of experience with simplifying crazy family dramatics and old times/fantasy lore. Great video, too btw. also noticed malikeths blades hand guards broken and snapped off, a part of the death rune that Ranni stole. lots of really cool visual details there to take from. starting new game 5 today!.
I like how the elden beast is also represented in the beginning as a star , and he also has galaxy like attacks, kinda like other massive beasts like Astel who also seemingly come from the stars.
from what I've read it's only through a star beast or Empyrean that the outer gods can even greatly influence the lands between, a star beast seems to be the first thing they require to fall to the lands to spread their influence.
Something I found really curious was that the Elden Beast and Astel have the same style of attack - a swing that leaves a lot of colored dust behind, which explodes after a short time. The VFX are almost if not exactly the same, and the way the attack works is identical. So even more evidence that the two are more alike than meets the eye.
@@sharpfang unfortunately no, there's nothing directly stating it from what I've read, but from the information around Astel and the other similar star creatures, there would either have to be multiple random other creators not connected to outer gods that live in the stars /& or void that can fall to the earth or the multitude of these creatures are all attempts at creating a star beast. If you go to the fextralife wiki and type "void" into the search bar you should see a whole bunch of stuff connected to Astel and the void which is where these things come from, the "fallingstar beast" boss enemies also seem to be connected.
@@sharpfang interesting way of looking at them, it actually helps support this idea I had whilst looking up things to reply to you, that maby if they are not connect to any god, that the power they use of gravity, is potentially the most basic and natural form of magic there is in the universe and world, hence why some of them use it. Plus would explain why Radahn would end up learning it not only to use against the stars but would use it despite being extremely devoted to the golden order, as I'd assume if gravity magic was a power of a outer god, he wouldn't use it even if it helped him achieve his goals.
You know this is the first time it occurred to me that Radagon was specifically intended to seduce Rennala and ultimately break her heart as a twisted strategy to defeat Liurnia through an alternative means. If that's actually the case...damn that's cold.
Its the only logical reason there are two entities at all in this game honestly, the whole story of everything makes perfect sense kinda until you see they are the same being and then you think why did they do that it makes so many plot points convoluted, but having the motive of seducing and the returning to marika as a coop makes perfect sense, besides the while shattering and trying to mend unless that in itself was a plan of it's own.
What I love about this game in particular is how interconnected everything is (especially NPC questlines), to the point of 'you can't make a video about this thing without mentioning the other thing'. It's a really good game we all will have fun with coming years
Radagon/Marika's design seems to draw pretty heavily from the alchemical concept of the rebis, which involves separating the male and female aspects of a unisex being through putefaction and purification, then reuniting them in the magnum opus. So I think they were once one person, then they got split apart, then reunited.
@@halcyon6098 Factoids by definition are actually incorrect things stated as facts. Radagon is, in fact, Marika. Meaning that’s not a factoid, it’s just a fact.
@@Yomom12388 While that is true, it is also true that "factoid" is a synonym for trivia or minor facts. This secondary definition is how OP is using the word.
To build on that, it seems to me Radagon has some clear connection to the giants (everything about his red hair and all). One of the main stages of Alchemy's Great Work is the separation phase, where matter is burnt and its male and female parts separated. Since the giants and their god controlled the flame it can be theorized that in retaliation for her action against them they used this power to separate Marika into male and female halves (whether the were truly separate of simple a body swap situation is up in the air). Radagon seemed to be motivated by a desire to become whole again, as the symbolic Red King (representing the sun) he was instinctively attracted to Renalla, the symbolic White Queen (representing the moon). This union of opposites in alchemy is supposed to be what creates the Rebis, the perfect being, and this could been indicated by how Ranni was the only Empyrean without any sort of "curse", unlike Miquella or Melania, the product of Marika and Radagon's somewhat incestuous union.
The Frenzied Flame is never stated to be an Outer God. It is also never suggested to be one actually. It is obviously immensly powerful but I believe it is the betrayed world's desire to cleanse and go back to when all life was one.
@Charles Hastings I'm arriving at somewhat the same conclusion. It would make sense why the frenzied flame is so close to the base of the Erdtree and almost like it is an aspect of the primordial essence that "infected" the order, a rememberance of the power that governed the world before the Greater Will. maybe that is why the three fingers were "cut" off, to stop it from spreading. It is still part of the order though as it represents the law of regression in its purest form, to get rid of the order (which metaphysically means the seperations of the whole into distinct parts), let chaos take hold, and for the world to converge into what it once was.
The outer gods are, pun intended, so far outside of the Lands Between, it will be hard to truly get our *_fingers_* on something firm. Lord Vaati was very interested ( like me ) in what might have been the structure that was responsible for all the big ruin shards that we can find all over the lands. The flying temple that was once in the sky. I wonder if it was part of Farum Azula for example. But I doubt it. Farum Azula is littered with Beast-folk and Dragons. But around the ruins we find those gigantic Golems very often. And no regular inhabitants of Farum Azula seem interested in building those constructs. Were the Golems invaders? Two of them guard the Elevator of the Altus Plateau after all. The one that leads to Liurnia. Are they obeying the will of Margit? Or Queen Marika? They seem to help the forces favoured by the Grace of Gold. So are they the troops of Marika? Did she used them to invade Farum Azula? But this would not match her style. She has more elegant, golden shining means in general. The Golems remain a great mystery still. We find them all over the lands between. And often nearby a Demigods residence, if not around a ruin. As if they might have been part of their troops. Coincidence? Ah~ I fear we might never get a true answer to all of this. I'm such a sucker for lost high-culture stuff and discovering the post-apocalyptic remains of their great civilization.
@@tinminator8905 stated? No. suggested? Absolutely, the fingerprint shield describes the cathedral of the forsaken area as a “tomb of an ancient God”, and , as you know, that’s where you find the three fingers. The merchant attire you also find there tells us that they summoned the flame of frenzy. I believe that it is most definitely a God of some kind, the question is wether it’s an outer God or not, the fact that it was summoned could suggest it’s an outer God, but I don’t believe it is. We know it’s an ancient God, meaning it’s very old, it’s also considered blasphemous, and we definitely know it’s a threat to the erdtree, but many things were shunned upon and considered blasphemous after the arrival and establishment of the golden order, the flame of frenzy included, we also know of the natural order that existed before the erdtree, there was a tree before it. The most interesting thing is where we find the fingers, at the very roots of the tree, we can also assume that all life was ‘one’ in a way, well, the flame frenzy seems to kind of work that way, making all kinds of creatures live as one, as we see both rats and humans afflicted by it. It’s by belief that the flame of frenzy was the natural order (or at least a part of it) before the golden order. Just speculation of course, and I could’ve missed something. Edit: I also want to mention what happens to your eyes when you let the fingers hold you, this wouldn’t be a big deal , but we know that grace also affects your eyes, and when you lose your grace, your eyes are dimmed. The incantation, ‘The flame of frenzy’ explicitly says, “only effective against tarnished” and to be tarnished is to be absent of grace, I reckon Grace is a way to shield you from the influence of the fingers, and was a further measure to protect the golden order. Edit no2: Plasidusax, another ancient being, is said to be waiting for the return of his god, his area is the only place where you can use the needle to cure yourself of the flame. Just another interesting thought.
The Frenzied Flame is probably a tool of another Outer God. Perhaps less powerful than the one who sent the Erdtree, as the frenzied flame is hidden deep enough to escape the roots of the Erdtree and only has Shabriri as its envoy. Or it comes from the Great Tree and had something to do with its lifeforce. A desperate attempt to "blend life together" again? Who knows. It was barely expanded upon and had a lot of cut content involving the Frenzied Flame and the Merchants. All the other endings are easily attained while you only get vague tips from Shabriri, Hyetta (if you somehow managed to do her quest blindly) and the Fingerprint armor set. And also the secret passage at Mohg's sewer which is frankly impossible to guess by yourself.
I finished the game for a second time today and I'm looking forward to Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. Thanks to you I now get some sense about the lore.
Oh my Good LORD! 😳 It's hard to picture but... yeah... I bet Vatti would be good at all KINDS of stuff! 🤯 With a voice of pure chocolate velvet fancy British like that.. Jeez. Sky's the limit. 🤔 Definitely I'd pigeonhole him into sleepytime asmr stuff where he reads ye olde books. Not that his voice is sophoristic or overly maudlin, more 'soothing.' 😌
Just started Elden Ring two weeks ago. Totally obsessed. What a beautiful game. The world building, the nightmare fuel characters, the gameplay being unforgiving. So much fun. I try not to spoil too much because its so much fun to round a corner and say WTF. Your channel is amazing. Very smoothing voice and so well curated.
one of my interpretations from reading one of the lore timelines that have been put on reddit, it mentions the fire giant god cursing Marika during her slaughter of them, and Radagon hates his red hair being a lot like the giants, its got me thinking maybe the giants curse split Marika into 2 people i mean the timeline stuff was vague so i dont know if Radagon was about before that or not but the giants themselves possess 2 faces and so it feels potentially very thematic
I keep thinking there's a link between Radagon and Marika's war with the giants. It's a conflict Radagon is not mentioned in at all, but some of the symbolism seems too striking. Radagon's red hair, his penchant for smithing (which was seen as a divine act and seems to have been something of a ritual among the giants). My theory would be this: Marika created Radagon as an extension of herself, using perhaps the dead body, or some essence of the giants and/or their god, to be the container for the curse, much like how Maliketh was to be the one to seal Destined Death away. Related to this I can't help but feel that the Flame of Frenzy is also somehow related to the fell god of the giants. Perhaps being the curse the god cast on Marika, or perhaps being some kind of surviving essence of the god, now directionless or perhaps single-mindedly vengeful against the golden order and the erdtree. And this is why knowledge of the giants and their fire had to be sealed away, since the Flame of Frenzy was now another possible threat to the Erdtree.
Radagon must surely be connected with the giants. It's stated that all giants have red hair and how Radagon despises his red hair. It would be such a weird detail to just randomly throw in there. From the timeline it would also fit. When the giants were defeated and the fire giant cursed to protect the flame, Godfrey was still around, meaning that Radagon wasn't Marikas husband yet, and it's only said that he fought against Rennala, a war that happened after the war with the giants. It wouldn't be too far stretched that either the giants or the god of the giants cursed in some way Marika, who is responsible for their death.
It's also telling that one of Radagon's children, Radahn, who shares his red hair, is also well known to have grown to a massive size seemingly without any outside force.
FInally someone said it. Something wrong in this world. The lobsters, dogs, and crows are evolving. Humans and Demi Gods about to go the way of the Dino's
25:39 Right after she says Radagon has yet to become her, she calls him 'my other self.' It is not at all uncommon in myth for deity figures to appear in different guises, or other aspects, of themselves. When she says he has yet to become her, I think what she is saying is that he, as an aspect of her, has not graduated from that position into the totality of her being. That is actually an extremely common motif in myth, lesser aspects of deities that are the deity, but, cast off, separated, or otherwise disconnected and haven't yet returned to what spawned them. I think we should also be careful about saying how open-ended they are about this, because if we look at all the evidence, we have to ask, which hypothesis better explains what we're seeing? Radagon can't have previously been a separate being from Marika if all the demigods are her direct offspring. Furthermore, law of regression destroys _illusion_ , as well as artificially wrought changes. Judging from what the law of regression says, changing Radagon back into Marika is just that, a _return_ . If you look at Radagon and Marika both, it is clear that they are literally broken, fractured beings. They're literally missing chunks of themselves. Radagon is both a piece and embodiment of Marika, though she had to leave a portion of herself behind. Radagon's origin is in Marika, and the way law of regression interacts with the statue, as well as what is said about the statue's origins, is the closest we're ever going to get to proof of anything in a From Software game. Radagon would only 'become Marika' once they had reunited, once the law of regression, as a cosmic law not a spell, had worked itself out in Radagon and Marika.
I am starting to think perhaps Radagon was created as an attempt by Marika to remove those parts of herself loyal to The Greater Will so that she herself could rebel against it; that might explain why she shattered the ring, but Radagon tried to repair it; Radagon is the physical embodiment of the loyalty to The Golden Order which once resided within Marika.
Well said. Radagon and Marika clearly were in a sort of conflict. I think the reason the Greater Will split away Radagon from Marika was because it wanted to spread its influence on the Lands Between more efficiently. However, it made a miscalculation. I think Radagon represents a stern loyalty to the Golden Order, and when Radagon was split away from Marika, she started to question the true nature of the Golden Order as her loyalty to it waned. This was the catalyst to her enacting her master plan, beginning with divesting Godfrey of his grace and leading to the creation of the tarnished.
@@DriftSpaceZero This actually makes the most sense out of anything I’ve heard. We know that going against or blaspheming the greater will takes a huge toll. Look at Blaidd he literally went insane because he had to go against the greater will in order to stay loyal to Ranni. Creating a disassociated persona in order to blaspheme tracks with the worlds lore.
@@spinyslasher6586 We must have been typing simultaneously. I think Radagon was specifically created by Marika to physically remove that loyalty to The Golden Order so that she could act against it. I agree he represents loyalty to The Golden Order, and I think he was split from her specifically because of her doubts about The Greater Will and The Erdtree.
I am starting up Elden Ring and at 2:57 in video, the loud string instrument played when first opening elden ring. It sent a chill down my spine, the reveal of the twist and high string note held
I've always interpreted Radagon as having been split from Marika by the Greater Will for the purpose of fighting the wars Godfrey no longer could. He got his red hair as a curse from the Giants (who all have red hair) for his almost genocide of their race. I believe there are hints that he hates his hair colour in fact. Then once called upon by White Queen, she and the Red King Radagon united (together forming the Rebis, or perfect alchemical being) thus he regressed and returned. He had "perfect" children born of the union of the same being. I'm not sure if them being inbred caused the curses or something else cursed them as there are items that lead to think someone expressly cursed them. Either way, Radagon is fairly tragic in that he came into this world as a half of someone else, was sent to war and fell in love, only to have to abandon his love and children, to bear cursed children and then be forced to imprisonment in his other half after she decided to go rogue and destroy the Elden Ring.
The way the rot itself works makes me think it was the influence of another Outer God. Or... with all the Two Fingers entities dying off...? Maybe something's wrong with the Greater Will itself, and Malenia and Miquella were sortof a... symptom of that?
@@JetBalrog The rot is definitely from another outer god, the Scorpion's Stinger description says it glistens from rot and was made from a relic of a sealed outer god.
I also think that the Greater Will made a mistake in it's plans when it did this. By splitting off a piece of Marika that embodied loyalty to the order to make the "perfect" Elden Lord it left Marika herself without those traits, which is what led to her eventual betrayal of the Greater Will's purpose.
I think empyreans are inherent not chosen. Mohg wanted to make miquella a god using the mother of blood or w/e her name is. Doesn't matter if the greater will chose him or not. I think a curse is inherent then. Miquella growth would make him a god, malenias third blossom of rot. I'm curious what rannis life was like
I have a question guys, when the factions like Carions, Giants, Nox, Dragons etc rejected the Golden Order, were they still influenced by the logic of the golden order where their souls would return to the erdtree as destined death was removed despite them being opposed to the golden order? Werent they influenced by their own outer gods who governed the logic they followed instead of following greater will's logic? However, since all life in the lands between came from the primordial crucible of the great tree, shouldn't all life be forced to follow what the great tree (later erdtree) had set as logic? What I am thinking is, before the greater will came to the lands, the great tree gave life and there was proper death and there was also free will. The great tree didn't control anything other than birthing life and the basic logic of the lands. Great tree was not an outer god but a very powerful primordial life giving force that various outer gods wanted to influence. The fate of the lives in the lands between was then influenced by different outer gods depending upon the factions. The fate of the Carions and Nox was influenced by the moon and the stars. Giants and Dragons had their own lords and outer gods. But one of the outer gods instead of just influencing the living beings, infected the life giving great tree itself to not only control the fates but also to change the logic of the world itself. So when the great tree got infected by the parasite from the greater will and became erdtree it not only changed the logic of the land where there was no destined death (thanks to Marika) but also controlled the fates of all that followed the golden order. The ones who rejected the new order had no choice but to submit to the new logic where there was no death as it came from the life giving erdtree but they refused to let their fates be controlled by the golden order. As a result there were wars and the Nox were banished, Dragons outer god left them and they were defeated. Giant's fell lord was defeated by marika but what happened to their outer god? Maybe he too left. There was a truce between the Carions and the golden order where they both followed the logic of the erdtree with no destined death like every other living being in the lands between but their fates were governed by different outer gods, moon and stars for the carions and greater will for those who followed the golden order (until Radahn stopped the movement of the stars with his gravity magic). Is this something Greater will despised where the Carions were not mind controlled by it and their outer god still had influence? Maybe Rennala going mad and the civil war in Liurnia had something to do with Radagon and Greater will's sinister plan to destroy them from the inside.
25:41 the theory that i’ve heard that makes the most sense to me is that Radagon was made from Marika using a piece of the elden ring, specifically the criss crossing diagonal lines behind it on the cover and at his statue She made him so she could fight a war on two fronts with Radagon handling the carian family, but when Radagon fell for Rannalla and had kids that also became demigods, Marika now without a consort realized that she could use Radagon instead thus birthing Miquella and Melania. So when she shattered the Elden ring Radagon attempted to repair it by merging with Marika to hold themselves together and precent the complete collapse of order
Your first part sounds like how it is stated in the Bible how Eva was made from one of Adam's ribcage bones. The roles are reversed here, not sure if it has a correlation but I find it interesting since the Elden Ring seems to be the ribcage of their being.
This is an incredibly well written video. I already knew most of this information but I always had it jumbled up , so for you to clear it up is amazing. Well done ❤ (Also , it isn’t overwhelming at all)
I think Radagon always had a connection with Marika. Because, he left Rennala he seems to actually love, also unlike Hoarah Loux, he became one with Marika and if Radagon hadn't have a connection with Marika beforehandedly, neither Rennala nor Radagon descents from Marika's lineage, so why would their all children would became shard bearers and Empyrians. Radahn even went toe to toe with Malenia.
15:07…it was entirely because of those damn lobsters…Each alone could become the Elden Lord if they had the mind to do so and there wouldn’t be a damn thing anyone could do to stop them…
Being a souls fan from the beginning, I've watched a great many of your videos. It's been a while though, and after having stumbled across this one I was reminded that yours are the greatest of user-generated content for this, my most favored series of games. I find that your videos are a complete package of quality video editing, thoroughly researched content and a soothing narration with a perfect tone, tenor and cadence for the subject mater. Please accept this humble contribution, for I can imagine myself continuing to follow your content for the foreseeable future. I'll be sure to shop your Displate wares as well.
I'm definitely in the "Marika and Radagon were always the same person" camp. I think it's the only way "all the demigods were descended from Marika" makes sense. It could be a situation like D where originally they had two bodies and two minds, but one soul?
This also helps to explain why Ranni is an Empyrean while Radahn and Rykard are not. Something Vaati didn't touch on was another requirement for being an Empyrean is being born from a single god, something both Miquella and Malenia are. Radagon could've claimed Rennala was Ranni's mother when in reality he birth her himself (themself, themselves, itself? It's confusing knowing who to refer to Marika and Radagon)
For some reason i never made the connection to D, but you bringing it up only adds more credibility to the theory that Marika and Radagon were always the same. To me, while the theory made sense, it just seemed like a kind of random and contrived idea, but with D and Darian basically being another example of this sort of thing happening in the Lands Between it feels less out of place and I'm more willing to subscribe to the idea.
@@blueshadowdx It's something that Vaati didn't touch on because it's obviously a localization error. It's been incredibly hard to take any lore discussion seriously when so much of it uses that one obviously badly translated, awkward sentence as the foundation of something that important, and if Vaati *did* mention it, it would be like his Ancient Dark Souls videos that take "lost the annals of history" to mean that The Nameless King lost a book.
Incredible video! I can't believe how large that line map was, you zoomed out and I thought "oh yeah that's big" ...and then you zoomed out more. Can't wait for the lore video over why the lobsters are so powerful!
Marika is a representation of the alchemical substance known as Rebis. The sun and moon correspond to the male and female halves, just as the Red King and White Queen are similarly associated
@@ekroizm It was a give and take. Yes the story and lore are told more directly compared to previous games. But the open world made things a lots more difficult to find stuff haha.
So I'm way late, but have a theory about Marika and Radagon. What if this is an example of the Law of Causality no longer being in effect because the Elden Ring was shattered? Basically if the Lands Between are no longer strictly bound by that great rune, effect can come before cause. So the effect - all demigods are the offspring of Marika - is what inspired the cause - Radagon and Marika fuse into one being to resolve this contradiction. This would explain how Marika could be the parent of all the demigods while also only fusing with Radagon after the shattering, because after the shattering cause does not need to preceed effect.
Finally, I can find out what the game I played for 100+ hours is about
Fax
It’s about getting maidens 🙌🏼
It’s about worshiping giant fingers and a poop guys curse and astrologists fighting a giant gold tree or something along those lines.
@@Jermcicle It is all just an excuse for Miyazaki to show feet, and for George RR Martin to not finish a story. If he just gives up halfway through its "open for interpretation".
yeaus
These crucible knights were also bestowed by the Erdtree the ability to input read your healing
😂😂😂😂😂
yep, and immediately launch themselves intercontinental ballistic missile style to hit you for same amount you just healed
Lmfaoo I didn’t get this at first but I realized now 😂
right???
He's gonna attack to ASAP you're using healing
There was actually another fragment of Destined Death stolen, which was then given to the lobsters in Liurnia, to prepare them for the ineviteable age of the crabs.
Age of the Crustaceans
In the end.. Everything becomes crabs.
Crustaceous cheapskates that had the potential to rule the lands between and become Elden Lord
@@con-0-tron294 ha ha, no
@@con-0-tron294 Just as the Law of Regression demands.
"The big twist in Elden ring".
When I played I did not realise there was a twist, in fact I basically didn't even understand who I was fighting or why I was fighting them 99% of the time!
You won’t understand anything in Elden Ring unless you go out of your way to try.
@@karmine3640 and who is Trying to go hours upon hours out of their searching for a half of paragraph of information when it could simply give us a 30 second cutscene. It's not cost effective. It's not immersive. It's the games only real flaw. If I go running around for a hours in a huge ass game to figure anything out. It's not immersive. Not fully.
@@mrlionsfan1135 Id argue its the most immersive part
@@mrlionsfan1135all souls game are like this lol, youre not onto something unique. Egghead
@@YourSweatyUncle how does a valid critique make them an egghead, go touch grass nerd
I know it's a lot to take in, but this video will be the foundation for all the lore videos to come. So bookmark it, come back later, take your time, and try your best to remember the main characters names...
Godwyn and Godrick and Godfrey and Godefroy and Malenia and Melina and Miquella and Marika and Radahn and Ranni and Rykard and Rennala..and Radagon. See! Easy!
bruh
Ok so godefroy wasn't a typo, good. This game man...
Always mistook melina and melenia name.
YT gonna have to write a fat check with all the views this is gonna get
Hi
Finally, now i can understand the lore Behind soldier of godrick.
After 100 hours of gameplay, my current theory is that he was a soldier who fought for godrick, but i may have missed some kind of twist.
Best boss in the game!
@@jarrarwinks8470 Don't forget Patches!
@@YourPhysicsSimulator Or the Spirit caller snail
He's a direct descendant of pinwheel
Underrated comment.
One interesting thing to note about the fight with Godfrey in the arena where he's holding Morgott's corpse, since he was stricken from his grace when he kiled his final great opponent and became Tarnished, when we, years later, come back to that arena to find him there holding Morgott, you can see Morgott's body dissipating into golden dust just like our grace points us towards our goal, but Godfrey's grace is pointing at us, his next great enemy, finally giving him purpose again.
You can see this better if you fight him at night tho.
Damn that’s interesting
I saw it was like wtf!....ooooh.
Damn! I will pay attention to that on my NG+ run
Oh my god. That is serious attention to detail in game design.
@@yukiokami8380 That's my favorite fight in the entire game after Radahn, so goddamn epic
I honestly just want to read a book set in this game's universe, the lore is enticing and the aesthetic of it all is so satisfying.
its martins work he is lazy as fuc* he havent completed his previous work i highly doubt he will make a video on elden ring
There's a manga I was told! The art is great, but I doubt it goes any deeper than the game reveals (have not read it)
@@maxien101i’ve heard the manga is more comedic then a story
The manga is fun! But it's definitely comedy but still did have some lore in it. Haven't read it in a while now tho, I should catch up
read lord of the mysteries tbh its even more terrifying and bizzare then elden ring lore.
i checked his channel every day, ITS FINALLY HERE!
AHAHAHAHHA LITERALLY ME TOO!!!!!!!!
"It is finally time" Gamer jail prisoner
Mf same. Ive been seeing lore videos posted but anxiously waiting for vati's
Ah
Same
I want an updated lore video after the DLC comes out and reveals that The Greater Will serves the Lobsters because of their sheer, overwhelming power.
Godrick was a fool, he grafted a dragon's head when he should have grafted one of those fucking lobsters if he wished to kill us.
CRAAB PEOPLE CRAAB PEOPLE WALK LIIKE CRAAB TALK LIKE PEEOPLEE
@@RoyalMudcrab you're suggesting Godrick would be capable of killing a Lobster
If the dlc isn’t the lobster army invading the island with the god of all lobsters I’m not buying it
Jesus I finally stopped having the nightmares! Why did I read this comment!?
Regarding the Marika/Radagon connection, I think that Radagon was Marika from the start. You mentioned that Marika had to go to war against many different forces that threatened the Erd Tree. Godfrey was a skilled leader and warrior, but in order to wage war more effectively, she needed another champion that was an extension of her own will to lead her forces, so she created Radagon. Later on, when it came time to take over Liurnia, Marika found herself at an impasse due to Rennalas forces matching hers in power. Instead of continuing to fight Rennala directly and risk losing more forces, she sent Radagon with the intent of having him seduce Rennala from the beginning. Their marriage would put Rennala directly under Marika's thumb without Rennala ever really knowing.
But, there was a consequence to creating Radagon. I don't think that Marika was powerful enough to just will a sentient being into reality. I think that Radagon is a PART of Marika that she separated from herself. Specifically, he is the part of Marika that had blind faith in The Greater Will. He is after all supposed to embody the Golden Order. That absence of faith is what caused her to begin doubting The Greater Will. Radagon on the other hand instinctually desires to keep the Order intact, which put him in direct conflict with this new faithless Marika who wanted to test the limits of what she could get away with. When Marika banished Godfrey, Radagon went back to her so there could still be an Elden Lord. When Marika shattered the Elden Ring, Radagon tried to fix it. Marika wanted a tarnished to take the title of Elden Lord, but Radagon doesn't, which is why when you find Marika, Radagon suddenly appears to stop you.
This of course is just my interpretation though. There are likely some details that I'm missing that disproves it completely.
Makes perfect sense to me!
Amazing comment !
i like this theory
This theory is amazing!
this is now part of my headcanon, thanks
Feels very cool when you realize that the branches of the Erdtree probably represent the law of causality with its branching effects and the trunk and roots represent the law of regression
Wow, I can't even imagine how many lore there are hidden in the world of the Elden Ring. Incredible Vaati !
28:38
looking at this makes you appreciate that stuff even more
When the God of War visit the God of Wisdom abode :)
My respect to you all, Lord ONGBAL and Lord Vaati.
Compared to you it's like I'm playing these games with wet soggy noodles instead controller. Hate your videos ♥️ (not really, just jelly)
Yeah bruh, you go back to deleting and humiliating these gods with sticks
Wow... I felt like I understood the story and world of Elden Ring better than the other games, likely because I've come to look at these stories through your eyes. You still manage to blow my mind, however! Thank you once again for your beautiful interpretation of the masterpiece that this game turned out to be.
Avi, you're an amazing artist... Now where's our elden ring song 😳
@@sunbrobellemont8526 You should check their channel! Hehe
@@sunbrobellemont8526 It's out now!
cringe
YOO Avi! love your music!
I found my first lobster when I was around level 20, and after about 30 minutes of trying and dying I decided he was tougher than Margit whom I had killed 5 levels earlier. When I reached level 90 I returned to the site of that lobster and had my revenge. No longer would he haunt my dreams with his BS.
I was thinking that I was the only one who struggle with big ass bear, oversized lobster, chaotic spirit tree shit, and stupid crab slam in this game more than the boss in this game.
@TheNecroAlchemist - the Rune bears are the worst
@TheNecroAlchemist awaiting vaati's lobster outer god lore video with great anticipation
That's why I never took a fight against any lobster and I shall never try
Fight them while riding the horse, makes a bit easier.
6:56 vaati shows an enormous "mind map" of all the elden ring lore, is this viewable anywhere? I'd really like to see this whole mao
sameee! Just scrolling down looking for more info regarding that map! A link, anyone??
I'm assuming that's his own mind map he made for himself.
does anyone know which mind map he is using?
You guys can also check out Queelag, she's a souls youtuber as well and uses mind maps a lot
@@diegomiy9383 I'm more curious about what program is he using.
Now cometh the Age of the Lore, a thousand year voyage under the wisdom of Vaati
Nice one
Through the guidance of Vaati, I shall become the true Elden Lore...d bu dum tish...
@@federicoolmo8689 nice one indeed
Sir Vaati Vidya, the alllllll knowing!
@@filurenerik1643 He reached godhood with his infinite knowledge
I just realize how many people are involved in the production of one video.
We really appreciate all of your work guys, this is quite a large community.
how many people?
It’s always fascinating to discover the difference between how you initially envisioned a games narrative before it’s release, to how it actually unfolds
Before: Radahn bad. Melania yas queen.
After: I will f'ing murder the Blade of Miquella and avenge my best friend and his horse, Leonard.
I have fewer than 1 friend in the World. That's right. Everybody disses me for making bad videos. I think they are perfect though. Who is right? My dissers or me? Which side are you on, dear di
@@AxxLAfriku The truth is that people hate others who self promote on other people's channels, maybe you should fix that before you start advertising yourself elsewhere.
Well the other popular lore explanations say that Marika and Radagon were like two halves of the same being and that Marika shattered the ring out of grief and disillusionment. This video says that all of these events were planned by her which makes no sense since Ranni did all of the shenanigans to become a Star God in her ending.
@@zerohero5753 I’m wondering this as well, and Vaati did explicitly state there is evidence for this and that’s going to be another video, I’m powerfully curious.
I know this video is over a year old, but I bought and played Elden Ring on release, and I finally got around to beating the game today on a character with over 142 hours. Speedrun world record, no big deal. First thing I did (I'm not even in Limgrave yet on Journey 2) was come here so I could understand even a part of what the hell was actually going on. I was not disappointed. I plan to watch all the lore videos you've made over the last year, because your writing, editing and pacing are all just so, so good.
17:50
So I am pretty sure that I can fill in Marikas motivation here.
The important Item descriptions for this are the Scarseal/Soreseals:
"These seals represent the lifelong duty of those chosen by the gods."
"Solemn duty weighs upon the one beholden; not unlike a gnawing curse from which there is no deliverance."
In the very beginning when Marika became the chosen champion of the Greater Will and therefore became the God of the Lands Between she was completely onboard with the Situation, after all she would be the God of this world and spread the Golden Order that she fully believed in. But as time went on she realized that this Situation isnt nearly as perfect as she thought it would be.
So she began to ask herself Questions:
Is the golden order really perfect?
Am I really a god or rather just a puppet of the Greater Will, being cursed to do its biddings for all time to come?
It was these questions that made her try to find a way out of this situation, which will basically be the start of pretty much everything that we than experience in the game.
She "creates" the Tarnished by taking the grace away from Godfrey and his people. Sending them to fight in wars where they will die and later be reborn to become stronger. All with the goal that someday someone strong enough would appear to be able to fight a God.
Shattering the Elden Ring to create even more chaos and hardships, once again basically as training for this Warrior who would hopefully one day appear.
Binding Master Hewg to the Roundtable Hold, so that once that strong Warrior arrives, they would have a Smith good enough to make them a weapon powerful enough to slay a God.
Creating/Reviving Melina and giving her the purpose of being able to burn down the Thorns of the Tree so that the chosen Warrior would be able to get inside.
So to come to a conclusion: Marika did all of these things so that someday someone would arrive who is able to kill her and the Elden Beast, so that she would finally be free from being the greater Will's puppet for all eternity.
All that work just to have your only reply be a bot lmao rip
Makes some sense, though. Could be.
I think this is vary accurate, at least from the item descriptions that I have read.
Best theory I've encontered so far, gj.
I’m totally down with this theory
My theory is that Marika and Radagon are sort of an Adam & Eve character. Where they were originally the same person, and then Radagon was created from a piece of Marika to go do his own separate work. And then eventually he was called back to her to become one again, just like the law of regression.
I like that touch!
This is what I believe as well. So they're considered as one person, only because Radagon is an actual piece of Marika. Which leads me to think that Empyreans are likely beings that are able to break off pieces of themselves and those pieces are given a life of their own.
The Red King and White Queen of the Rebis, but essentially this!
@@memonomoto7419 Just like Malenia with Millicent. Just perfect!
Random thing: But when looking at the Giant’s Fire Whip, it says the Radagon hated his red locks, implying some connection to the Giants themselves. So like, how can Radagon be both part giant and wholly Marika who killed the Giants?
“And I suspect it was probably because of these lobsters….”
That was quality humor right there 😂
I lolled so hard there
Those fucking railgun lobsters...
imagine thinking Godfrey and the Crucible Knights lost to the lobster. I mean its possible u know 😂🤣
@@theobvu I mean, a single Runebear could 100% take Godfrey, Radagon and the Elden Beast at the same time. Those things are actual abominations. So why not lobsters too
@@DeusIzanagi What about a Runebear riding a lobster? Sounds like something they would do lol
Damn, it’s awesome revisiting these videos in preparation for the upcoming DLC. I’ve been dying to do another playthrough but I’ve already completed ER like 10 times so I want to wait until the DLC drops and do one full playthrough.
I'm still a firm believer that everything that happened was a plan to be able to kill that one bear in Dragonbarrow Cave
Alas, the beast still persists
You should win an Oscar for this comment
😂
I spent hours trying to kill it, in the end I stealth past it left it alive, its so dam different from the other bears, strong and have more vigor I think
I used nightmaiden's mist to kill him. I swear he had at least 13k hp
12:07 I really love that bit of lore. It's just fantastic to have him behave himself through trapping his fighting spirit inside of a giant beast on his shoulder
Dudes will literally manifest a stand to seal away their own bloodlust instead of going to therapy
@@jimshotfirst4887 🤣🤣
JoJo reference????
@@jimshotfirst4887😭😭
Tortoise being forever “dog” and being simply excepted by the community is still my favorite piece of lore from Elden Ring
What tortoise? That's a dog
Hahaha yeah try fingers but hole ahahaha fort night lol try rolling
Liar ahead but praise the message!!
@@varsoonhks3211 And let's not forget about the classic of you got no right you got no right.
I love just how quickly it happened more than anything haha. Just like, a matter of days and we've all agreed to not kill them and to call them Dog.
" is this a dog? "
The game is a lot more engaging now that I understand the basic lore. Thank you for this!
I love that quick switch in tone at 15:05! He'd been in completely serious lore telling mode and then broke it for a second with that!
It's probably true though, those lobsters are no joke.
lobstner
I too believe that those lobsters could and would wreck both factions
I've beat Malenia... I run away from the lobsters.
Love all the dialogue that’s used here, makes it seem like we’re watching a documentary about the Lands Between
nothing new for vaati souls videos lmao
@@MrInuhanyou123 true, but there’s so many more NPCs in Elden Ring and so much more dialogue to use from more people
Explaining the "void" creatures like Astel is going to be interesting. Can't wait for that!
Yea when I fought him I was just like… “what the actual fuck? It’s an alien, right? But why does it have a human skull head?” Interesting creature for sure and I love how it seems to be made out of mini stars and planets.
Theres a bunch of other ones at look similar underground
They're aliens. You're welcome.
Those ones are pretty easy actually. When the stars fall, they take on various forms depending on where they fall. For example, the fallingstar beasts fall in mines, or near mines, so look like rocks etc.
Astel fell near where a load of bones were, so took on aspects of that, and the Onyx lords etc. seem to have taken on that form due to close proximity with humans.
@@GoldenSunAlex What about the fallingstar beast that fell outside the capital walls? It fell closer to a major human population but didn't take the form of an onyx lord.
Great video, great voice, well done. The lobsters part is funny.
I really want Elden Ring lore to become a book. Just a big ass book that covers ALL the information and stories from start, when the elden beast arrival, to end when your gameplay starts.
We might even get a show one day, George R Martin did write the lore after all right?
@@TmasIZgay that would be cool, I still don't quite understand a lot of lore points but the game felt so cinematic, some other media adaptation would be awesome
@user-bg9fw1hh5t I think there is far too much foor them to make a show a studio would have to sign a deal for like 200 episodes and they wouldn't take a gamble that big its a shame because it would be fire
@@Wooldrog lmao. You seriously think Elden ring lore has more to it than GOT? it isn't even close. There's far more people,places and plots in GOT, and they made a show about that.
Dude imagine having a big ass 10 inch thick book just for Elden ring lore lmao
Imagine someone seeing it and asking you about it and having to tell them it’s a book of Elden ring lore
I need this to exist
The book should also be bound in leather and look worn and burned to really fit the vibe
8:42 When starting Ranni's questline, she introduces herself as "the one who stole death"
If you watch the full video he later says Ranni stole only a fragment of death from the black blade. She stole a piece from the black blade not from the elden ring.
It could also be symbolic because she was born a demi-god and casted her ruin away and killed her physical body. "Stealing death" could also mean that she took death for herself and thus, committed suicide.
@@thepenismightier8120no. It's referring to the shard of death she stole
@@thepenismightier8120that’s an English teacher level stretch
But she had a shadow and killed a great finger. Being a child from them don't make sense
Something I thought was interesting was the fact that the greater will seems to despise the Tarnished for one reason or another, so the Tarnished even being allowed a fleeting chance of becoming Elden Lord had to be a scheme of Marika. The Erdtree refused to bless the Tarnished beforehand, you actively have to burn the Erdtree to access the Elden Ring because it will not allow you in, and the Elden Beast itself, the Elden Ring incarnate, fights against you in order to prevent you from becoming Elden Lord. To that end, I think that the Tarnished becoming Elden Lord is a separation from the greater will, as you wrest control of the governing power acting on behalf of the greater will against it's, well, will. This is further supported by the fact that in 3 of the 4 Elden Lord endings, you actively change the logic of the world previously established by greater will. Considering Marika already had doubts about the Golden Order, I'm positive stopping the influence of the greater will through the Tarnished was her ultimate goal.
wow this theory actually makes sense and very interesting, thanks for sharing it!
The erdtree rejection is probably an act of retaliation from radagon. Which he presents the true golden order and it's rules and want to prevent us from changing it by becoming new elden Lord or any of the ending
Marika's true purpose is likely wanting living beings and life in the lands between to continue to evolve in any form without interference from greater will (which let it's up to us to decides with it with golden order other than frenzy flame total destruction of life). Tarnished is her tool to do that.
But isn’t marika radagon? Why would she/he try to stop us then
@@bigballofpaint4407 Perhaps it's a split personality thing, a part of Marika that fears change. Another possibility could be that Radagon was a part of Marika created by the greater will to keep her in check. After all, the two seem to be in opposition to one another, so either seems at least somewhat possible unless I'm missing something
Interesting how both the Law of Causality and the Law of Regression can both be represented as rings, as well. Causality is essentially the ripple effect and Regression is everything eventually comes full circle.
I think Radagon is an alter-ego implanted in Marika by the Greater Will to control her. An unfaltering guard of the order, as opposed to doubtful and inconstant Marika.
That's why he's trying to stop you from facing the Elden Beast, when Marika logically would not.
It's probably also what she means by him no "being her" yet, saying that he hasn't overtaken her will at that time.
This does make perfect sense. I will keep this in mind. Thank you
I think her race(numens) have certain quirks like longer lives,......and longer lives can often lead to extreme differences in the way sex/reproduction occurs. I think her race by default is like a yin/yang themed race and each single entity has 2 halves. i think its the reason malenia and miquella came out the way they did. radagon would become marika or vice versa when they come to this realization themselves.
YES, that's what I think too. Also, I think queen Marika still controls the grace and thats why you have guidance to go fight Radagon and the Elden Beast (which they obviously wouldn't like) and are guided even helping Ranni, which objective is to kill the fingers and change the rule of the Greater Will. In fact, one of my favourite moments in the game was when Ranni disappears from her tower and a new site of grace faintly appears telling you where did she go.
There's a lot of weird yin yang stuff in this game, D is also a weird twin person, maybe he's Numan too?
Radagan was a leal hound
I love that after watching this video, I realized that the opening cutscene of the game with the hammer shattering images, the person transitions between Marika and Radagon
Damn, somehow the thought of Rennala sitting on a giant Lobster leading her army seems just so perfect and hilarious
best nap ever, thank you!
War, pandemics… the only thing constant in this world is Vaatividya delivering 10/10 content.
yesssss 👽
Well, it's been constant pandemics and war as well
For me, Melina is the biggest mystery. I really hope the DLC gives more info on her and the Gloam Eyed Queen.
What makes her more interesting is her transformation at the end of the game if you choose to become the lord of frenzy her hair turns dark grey/black and her good eye turns grey and her eye that's always closed opens revealing a blue eye which I'm kinda curious what her transformation is all about.
My theory is, what if she is also queen Merika a 3rd part of the original god when they split.
@@christopherh4891 I hope this isn't it. It just seems lazy making different parts of the original god. Elden Ring has a strong theme on 'twins' so 2 parts - Radagon and Marika are more than enough.
@@nimazsheik5152 i agree with this. My theory is that she is Ranni or a part of her. I was talking with a friend a few weeks ago about who sent the Black Knives to kill Warmaster Iji. You find his body and the body of several black knives around him.
So here is my theory:
When Godfrey lost the guidence of the Grace, and with it his connection to the Golden Order, The Two Fingers forced Malika to either kill him or exile him. We know that at some point Malika stopped trusting the Golden Order and the Greater Will, which this could very well be the catalyst. For the first time Malika and the greater order were at odds with each other. With Godfrey gone and the Elden Lord position open, the Two Fingers turned to Radagon, another one of the Golden Order follower. They forced him (either through Faith or mental control) to abandon Renala, the woman he loved, and to marry Malika in an effort to control her. When that even failed they then forced the two of them to merge, (this is even more valid if they actually have a way to control Radagon.)
My theory is, when the Two Fingers realized that Malika was conspiring against them, they started raising the Empyrians with the goal of succeeding Malika as the new vessel of the Elden Ring. One who would actually follow the commands of the Greater Will. Now Ranni however, was raised as Carian Royalty. She studied the power of the stars (or cosmo). She wanted nothing to do with the Golden Order. So she went to Malika. But Malika couldn't openly help her, after all, to do so would directly go against the golden order. So she allowed Ranni to use the Black Knives to steal a fragment of the Rune of Death (We know that the black Knives were loyal to Malika or at the very least very close to her), which would allow Ranni to create the dagger that would allow her to rid of her Empyrian flesh through a magic ritual. When she does this, her soul is split. Which is why she needs to "slumber" as she puts it. She only has half a soul. Her other half is Melina. However, when the Two Fingers realized this (probably through Radagon), they are the ones who ordered the assasenation of Godwyn the Golden, as a message/threat to Malika "Stop resisting us. Stop meddling with our plan or we will start killing your children."
However, this backfired on them. When Malika realized what had happened, she went mad with grief and shattered the Elden Ring. We know that Radagon tried to repair it (and failed), which could be further ilustrate that the 2 of them are different people merged in one body and that the Greater Will has a way to control Radagon. With the Elden Ring shattered the Two Fingers had no choice but to incarcerate Malika in the Erdtree and pin the death of Godwyn on Ranni with the goal of unifying the Empyrians against the traitor.
This theory then shifts the blame of the Black Knives assassin to Malika/Radagon. This is further seen to by the fact that Seluvis tried to make Ranni his doll. If you notice, Seluvis wears the mask with the symbol of Radagon. The Two Fingers know that in order for the "Ranni Ending" to occur, the Tarnished must defeat the Elden Beast. This would destroy the Golden Order in the Lands Between. So when Seluvis attempt failed, the Two Fingers once again forced Radagon to sent the Black Knives after his daughter, using Malika's body, but by that time it was too late. Ranni was already beyond their reach.
This theory of course, depends completely in the Loyalty of the Black Knives to Malika. Otherwise her shattering the Elden Ring makes no sense. But if you assume that, that is indeed the case, then it would explain everything. Malika's grief. The rage that made her destroy the Elden Ring. The fact that Radagon abandoned Renala despite being in love with her, etc.
@@dennismarquez7354 Great theory, but it is MARIKA, MARIKA. Not Malika.
A lot of people seem to miss Ranni sitting on a dead two fingers when they talk about her I'm glad you caught it. In fact it looks as though it was mangled not just killed which suggest there was hatred in its killing.
Which I honestly don't get cuz the scene focuses on the mangled corpse for a little bit.
Crazy to me that they don't, it was the first thing I noticed
From my understanding Ranni stole a Fragment of Destined Death to kill herself and escape from her Empyrien Body that is bound to the greater Will, since she is drawn to other outer Gods. The Black Knifes who serve the two Fingers (Assassins Incantations) used this to kill Godwyn. Maybe for the same Reason the nameless King was exciled, he befriended the ancient Dragons they fought War for so long. If the Greater Will was involved in Godwyns Death it would explain why Marika shattered the Elden Ring after learning the Truth about the Death of her Firstborne.
Or Ranni was just pissed at the greater Will because her Father left her Family to go and impregnant himself.
LOL that last line is so strange and its truth makes it hilarious.
I definitely think she tortured it before ultimately killing it, maybe even watched as it bled out. Broke every Bo e in those two fingers lol
I think Radagon is the part of Marika that is loyal to the erdtree and the greater will, and that she seperated herself from it when she bagan looking into the greater will more closely
yes, i like that. and now with the dlc, where characters separate parts of themselves all the time, this seems even more likelly.
I’m new to the Souls franchise and had a hard time putting the pieces together… This is the best content I’ve watched in a long time on YT. The research, the quality of the video, the editing, the voicing, the naming of all sources, this is so much work and it’s so fantastically done. Thank you a thousand times…
Welcome to the rabbit hole
@@NobleVagabond2552 I just beat the Elden Beast. My first playthrough took me 190 hours and event though I platinum the game, there is still so much side content I have to do. This is by far the best game I've ever played
@@lausch5854 agree!
If you enjoyed Elden Ring, i would highly encourage you to try out all the other games in the franchise. Each one is a masterpiece in its own right, and then also check out Vaati's video on that matter. His videos are just a beautiful gift.
@@thomaskopv2366 i actually bought DS3 and Sekiro on PC and Demon’s souls on PS5… not sure where to start, probably DS3, it’s probably the closest to Elden Ring…
I really like how this game tells you that these bosses are capable of leveling cities and are technically Gods. Then you kill them on your first try while you die multiple times because of a crab. I really love this game💀
🤣🤣 r u being disrespectful to de game?
YOU KILLED THEM ON YOUR FIRST TRY????? you're a god
a bit late to that, but then the last reply was also today. there is this wyrm you find near the entrance to the catacombs in consecrated snowfield and along the path to the cave there are land octopi. well, i found the entrance, marked the site of grace and decided that i'll go back to this matter later, so i mounted torrent and rode back. the wyrm followed, encountering several octopi on the way. the octopi won.
Beats literal god Elden Beast in two tries but non stop gets clapped by a RuneBear
@@SillyRiz Definitely Not all of them. Although I one tried Margit and Godrick maybe because I got over leveled due to farming so that I could get back at that spear guy near the gate Lol. Malenia had me 5 tries, and Maliketh almost 7.
Fun fact! The Numen in Elden Ring are a pretty overt reference to "the men of Numenor" from Tolkien's lore. They, too, were powerful, long-lived men who came from somewhere other than Middle Earth (which is kind of another way of saying "land between" isn't it?)
Glad I’m not the only one to have thought that when I heard “Numen” and that they were from a different land haha. Glad that seems to be the case. Love when other literature inspires concepts in games. Cheers!
So much of Elden ring appears "inspired" by LOTR, I have to wonder if George RR Martin wrote anything at all.
The Erdtree is similar to a twisted version of the trees of Valinor.
Also, numen literally just means divinity in Latin.
That would give the numen who were banished to the eternal city for worshipping the moon and rising as black knives to assasinate godfrey a more solid motive, they aren't from here. They don't want to worship the elden beast, they want their old god the moon back
I’ve been waiting to deep dive your elden ring content till I beat the game and I finally got to playing it and I’m almost done - I’m literally so excited to have so many videos of yours to watch
I personally think that Marika fragmented her soul, similar to how you can fragment the elden ring into runes, and the fragment of her soul was Radagon, the aspect of herself who was loyal to the Greater Will. My reasoning being that at some point Marika began acting in opposition to the Greater Will, this point is around the same time that Radagon began to appear. Then when Marika stepped too far over the line, Radagon was called back from Liuria and was made to marry Marika in an effort to contain her, and in an act of rebelion Marika shattered the Elden Ring to keep Radagon busy in order to buy Horah Loux and the tarnished more time to finish the plan.
Hm this theory actually makes alot of sense.
Its the only thing that makes sense of all these events in another convoluded RR Martin story.
finally i now understand the story of a game i spent 100 hours playing
i know this was a while ago but I wanted to say this makes a hell of a lot of sense. But there is one thing I think I missed tho and its about Godwyn. Why was he chosen to be killed and who wanted him dead? to prove a point or something?
@@tj2themaxit was Ranni that commissioned his death, why exactly I don't remember but she probably wanted to start the war of the demigods for her own plan of destroying the Greater Will.
My theory for the Greater Will's inability to interact with us in the lands between comes not from an actual incapability, but the idea that it's fighting this same battle on infinite worlds just like the Lands Between. That's why when you fight the Elden Beast you see an infinite forest of Erdtrees before you. It shows that you are not special in this cosmic game, and that you are just another pawn, a "bit player." As Varre would say. There are likely countless Elden Beasts, countless Lands Between, and countless envoys of the Greater Will, who's values of Order are primordial and absolute.
Edit: To clarify, I'm not proposing multiverse, I'm saying there could be an infinite amount of "worlds" in this universe that are being imperialized by the greater will. Places completely different from the Lands Between.
I really like this idea
So multiverse
I like this, but it doesn’t explain the significance in the outer gods interference in the specific lands between. As stated a single human was able to seal away the outer god of Rot all by himself, this to me ties into the description for the mending tune of perfect order stating that the gods are no better than men and make mistakes such as the outer god of rot so I agree your position is likely… extremely likely but the significance of the lands between seems to have some significance so idk if I’d say it’s one of many happening at the same time but again that is plausible especially whenyu consider previous* lores. Great job !
I hope they dont do multiverses for the main lore, such a waste of creativity when all the answer end up as, "its just another universe🤪🤪🤪🤪
@@samuraioftheeclipse4954 Not necessarily multiverse, which is just another way of saying "alternate world" with "alternate" versions of each character but even some completely different world with different actors and rules
I think the fact that Marika and Radagon’s children were cursed with Rot and eternal childhood shows that Marika and Radagon were most likely one, hence producing faulty children
Marika also came from one god but she doesn’t tween to have any issues, that we know of anyway
Or maybe they were cousins
Selfcest??
they were the only twins right?
@@caliginousmoira8565 I believe so but may be wrong
This us peak gaming, everyone needs to watch and play this game at least once
The dungeons at the end of catacombs was always so freaky to me. Dozens of bodies all merging into the strange bed of chaos looking gnarled mess of roots in the back. I knew something had to be involved there.
Whatever it is,
Rump ahead. Therefore offer pickle
I always was worried something would come out of them after killing a shade or duelist
To back up the fact of Radagon and Marika as one being, I just read the "Remembrance of the Rot Goddess":
"Miquella and Malenia are both the children of a single god. As such, they are both Empyreans, but suffered afflictions from birth. One was afflicted with eternal childhood, and the other harbored rot within."
So they're both the offspring of a single god, either by some sort of parthenogenesis or selfcest, both of which would be highly likely to produce some form of birth defects, as we see is the case here.
But at the same time it could imply that Radagon is not Marika if you read "children of a single God" as in implying that Marika was the only one of the progenitors that was a god.
Like Loki in the Nordic mythology, he is the son of a god and a giant. Therefore child of a single god.
I don't know if I explained myself right.
Maybe, when "Radagon" become "Marika", "Children of Radagon and Marika" become "Children of Marika and Marika", that is, children of a single god.
I think it is strange that both Radagon and Marika have separate back stories; she's of a race outside the lands between, and Radagon is implied to be a descendant of giants (also Radahn's size could be explained that way). I don't think they were always the same and it lends toward the plot for a big reason: there is a theme that, by denying the principle of regression, causality is also denied (causality is the greater will dictating the outcome of events, kind of different than causality as we know). This is explained in detail with Ranni's questline and ending. So conversely, I think the golden order was trying to expand its influence by merging Marika with a giant, Radagon, extending the greater will's influence to its conquered foe, and the same was done when Radagon married Rennala and begot children. It was a way of expanding the Greater Will's influence to other areas with great power: the Giants' Forge and Astrology.
@@0zb4lack If you perform a certain spell in Leyndell, I think it was "Law of Causality", before the Radagon statue it changes into a statue of Marika and a message before it tells you "Radagon is Marika". I don't think it can get any more obvious than this. Also the fact that in the final boss cutscene Marika literally transforms into Radagon. They are the same being.
@@Ribsi that's a possibility, I'm not not saying my word it's the one and only truth. But it could refer to after they merged together.
I believe one of the most critical characters, that break open some of the stories most vital secrets, is the Goldmask. Even though Corhyn eventually calls Goldmask a Blasphemer due to Corhyn's loyalty to the teachings of the golden order, Goldmask was on a quest to discover the true nature of order and discovered that the order, inherently, was full of deceptions and secrets. Secrets that make the golden order seem more "Chaotic" and deceitful
Damn really? Seems about right
Wait, I have yet to do Corhyn's questline in my 3 playthroughs so far, but if the golden order is inherently "chaotic", does that mean the Greater Will and the Lord of Chaos are at war with each other? And that the Lord of Chaos has somehow influenced the Greater Will? However slight that influence may be
I think it's more likely the absence of "Chaos" wich causes to seem deceitful. The gods know only power and they are the embodiment of the rules of the universe, true power, yet, still, they too are not in any way perfect, following the greater will will only lead to shattering.
Literally elden budda
@@diversityhour6336 The golden order is a kind of order because before everything was melded in teh crucible. Like dark souls 1, the change of creating order created disparity, you will have those most elevated by grace and those spurned by grace. In short, they created order but they also created unfairness and probably a lot of suffering.
Leaving a comment here to remind myself of the day I finally managed to beat the game - 197 hours in.
By the way, this video is a work of art.
fantastic timing, literally just beat it last night and I still have NO IDEA WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH THE STORY
For real I was thinking "let's watch some old dark souls lore videos before I go sleep in expectation of elden ring lore vids coming out soon" and then this shows up aaaaa
Dumbf
Learn to read item descriptions
@@josetomascamposrobledano4618 maybe I'm not interested in spending half of my gameplay reading shit, when I can find it all out in a 30 minute video that is actually entertaining.
@@josetomascamposrobledano4618 That's not good story telling at all.
I always thought that Marika's motive was less about understanding the Golden Order that she created and more about seizing full control of it and escaping the Greater Wills influence. I know that GRRM's influence has been a bit of a meme in some parts of Reddit, but I do think that Marika is Elden Ring's Cersei. She's behind the whole thing and has contingency after contingency to help bring about her freedom and true reign over the Lands Between.
Unfortunately for her, that changed when the Greater Wills figured out what she was up to and forced Radagon, who was a loyal follower of the Golden Order and, by extension the Greater Wills, to become the new Elden Lord to keep Marika in check. I think that she was able to continue scheming in spite of this however, but had to resort to using and aiding others in their scheming, such as helping Ranni to steal part of the Rune of Death. I think Marika did this because she knew that Ranni also opposed the Greater Wills, so their interests were aligned. She didn't realise that, however, that in order for Ranni to see her goals to fruition, it would require the death of another demigod, namely Godwyn, Marika's firstborn.
This was the point that threw her over the edge and, in her grief she did something mad and drastic. I believe that her shattering the Elden Ring was akin to hitting a fire alarm or a panic button. She knew it would cause a great deal of chaos, which would be the perfect environment for her secret army of Tarnished to thrive in and help get rid of Radagon and the Greater Wills. However the Greater Wills, I believe, also had a trick up it's sleeve and intended on making use of the Tarnished. By using the erdtree to seal of Marika's "Throne Room", it encouraged the Tarnished to gather the shards of the Elden Ring together, but stops you from entering. That way, once the Tarnished is gone, the Elden Ring can be repaired and everything can go back to the way it was before the Shattering, which the Greater Wills would love. Meanwhile, from her prison, Marika uses her power over Grace and the Guidance of Grace to usher you towards the ultimate goal of breaking through that seal (which is why the golden light continues to guide you towards the giants flame, even though that would be committing a cardinal sin, which is something the Greater Wills would never allow)
Anyway, all of this is nothing more than speculation and educated guesswork on my part, so take it with a heavy handful of salt.
TLDR: Marika is playing 5d chess against the Greater Wills
Also it seems that Marika was imprisoned possibly with the aid of maliketh the black blade, her shadow. The greater will probably employed him to damage and subdue her which explains what looks like a piece of the death rune stuck into her as well as maliketh's own mention of his "sin" while masquerading as guranq.
Marika is absolutely playing 5d chess against the Greater Will, and I would argue that it goes one step deeper. I think that Marika split herself into the Radagon personality, a loyal champion of the Golden Order, knowing that the Greater Will would eventually see him as an ally and force him to become the new Elden Lord to keep her in check. She rigged the system so that her watchdog was actually herself, that way she could have continued access to the power of the Elden Ring through Radagon even if the Greater Will cut her off from its power.
But then Ranni killed Godwyn and Marika knew she was out of time. Whatever she needed that fragment of the Rune of Death for, it was too late. Marika entered the Erdtree as Radagon and smashed the Elden ring, imprisoning herself but crippling the Greater Will's influence. Then she did her best to help and guide the tarnished towards burning the Erdtree.
I love this theory, and it makes sense that Marika who was granted godhood by the greater will has a part of her (Radagon) that interrupts her scheming to escape its control, much like some internal conflict one would have. it paints Marika in a more “human” light, she knew she had to release the rune of death, but could not handle her son dying. Ranni who in a sense desired not only to see herself but her mother free, executed the plan that would lead to the shattering and consequently potential freedom from the Greater Will.
This fight against the greater will would also help me understand why she cursed Hewg to forge a godslaying weapon.
@@apeture_explorer4810 this makes sense as if an empyrean works against the two fingers and the golden order their shadow turns on them. Blaidd loses his mind when he figures out what Ranni is actually trying to do. Iji has to put him in Evergaol because of it and he invades you down in Ainsel River when youre carrying Mini Ranni. If you let him out of Evergaol you find him outside Ranni’s tower, hostile and mad.
if we get a dlc, I really hope its almost like a 'Old Hunters" type dlc where we might get to see the the more powerful outer gods or even fight the greater will
I want to see the Formless mother so bad
@@bobbob-cd9yl well she is formless.
I believe it will expand upon Miquella’s story or The Dusked Eye Queen.
@@bobbob-cd9yl turns out the formless mother is just a giant slime blob. It's made out of liquid so Mohg can easily take and pour blood from it.
True love = the love of God!
*God himself went to the cross for you out of love for you as a human being*
Philippians 2:5-8
I liked this series I stumbled on. The more I listen, the more I get pulled in. His voice, stories, and even the sponsors are interesting. Really love it.
The use of "become" in saying that Radagon is "yet to become marika", may be in the sense of something being unbecoming. Marika may be saying that Radagon is yet to be fit to be a part of her once more, having been a separate distinct entity from her which has diverged too far from Marika, despite originating from her.
I think the exact Japanese used would be useful here- is it closer to 似合う
or 成る?
I just looked up divine twins and this is a block that seems to run in line with what radagon and marikas situation could be.
"Divine twins in twin mythology are identical to either one or both place of a god. The Feri gods are not separated entities but are unified into one center. These divine twins can function alone in one body, either functioning as a male or as male and female as they desire. Divine twins represent a polarity in the world. This polarity may be great or small and at times can be opposition. Twins are often seen to be rivals or adversaries."
I'd be curious about the original japanese in this instance...
I had always thought that was her way of pitying and mocking Radagon. She calls him a "leal hound". Basically called him a loyal dog and mocks him by saying that he'll never truly become her. As she is still the god of the Golden Order and vessel of the Elden Ring. Seemingly mocking his efforts and pitying his blind loyalty towards the Golden Order and greater will, when in the end he'll never be more than her.
@@calmdownbruh8518 Here is your answer: The mimic veil description mentions it is also known as “marika’s mischief”. Radagon is like a mimic, a being created from Marika. Mimic summon description tells us that mimics were attempts to make a “lord”. An item also mentions giants cursing Marika with red hair when she defeated the giant lord. But guess what? It was the mimic that got cursed, Radagon. This also explains why she broke the elden ring but radagon tried to repair it as mimic’s have a will of their own(mimic ashes description)
I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this, but it's really interesting how most of the debuff in the game is associated with Outer Gods.
Scarlet Rot -> God of Scarlet Rot
Madness -> Frenzied Flame
Bleed -> Formless Mother
Frost -> The Moon
Death-Blighted -> Greater Will
The only two debuffs not directly associated with any debuff is poison and sleep, though with DLC, who knows.
Sleep is associated with St trina
And what about craziness??
St Trina is associated with sleep. And Miquella is saint Trina
@@micheledushi698 that’s… madness..
@@LandBoundFish how did u figure this out? That Miquella is Trina?
You can really see the influence George had with helping the story along. He has a lot of experience with simplifying crazy family dramatics and old times/fantasy lore. Great video, too btw. also noticed malikeths blades hand guards broken and snapped off, a part of the death rune that Ranni stole. lots of really cool visual details there to take from. starting new game 5 today!.
good luck I hope u enjoy again
Also that Marika was numen, which is extremely similar to the numenorean from lord of the rings which George is a huge fan of
@@primemachine146 that's a great point. the most noble of men!. would have been cool to see a reference to nùmenor next to the frenzied flame town.
There also lots of themes in his books of new ideas, religions, and/or peoples replacing older pre-existing ones.
@@primemachine146 frenzied flame is the eye of Sauron and there is a character named morgot to name a few
Obsessed with this videos! You have an incredible voice for this type of content a great pace for it too. 10/10 work
I like how the elden beast is also represented in the beginning as a star , and he also has galaxy like attacks, kinda like other massive beasts like Astel who also seemingly come from the stars.
from what I've read it's only through a star beast or Empyrean that the outer gods can even greatly influence the lands between, a star beast seems to be the first thing they require to fall to the lands to spread their influence.
Something I found really curious was that the Elden Beast and Astel have the same style of attack - a swing that leaves a lot of colored dust behind, which explodes after a short time. The VFX are almost if not exactly the same, and the way the attack works is identical. So even more evidence that the two are more alike than meets the eye.
@@kaptinskorge5728 Astel appears to be a star beast of a different outer god, so them being similar is completely understandable.
@@sharpfang unfortunately no, there's nothing directly stating it from what I've read, but from the information around Astel and the other similar star creatures, there would either have to be multiple random other creators not connected to outer gods that live in the stars /& or void that can fall to the earth or the multitude of these creatures are all attempts at creating a star beast. If you go to the fextralife wiki and type "void" into the search bar you should see a whole bunch of stuff connected to Astel and the void which is where these things come from, the "fallingstar beast" boss enemies also seem to be connected.
@@sharpfang interesting way of looking at them, it actually helps support this idea I had whilst looking up things to reply to you, that maby if they are not connect to any god, that the power they use of gravity, is potentially the most basic and natural form of magic there is in the universe and world, hence why some of them use it.
Plus would explain why Radahn would end up learning it not only to use against the stars but would use it despite being extremely devoted to the golden order, as I'd assume if gravity magic was a power of a outer god, he wouldn't use it even if it helped him achieve his goals.
I can't believe this video was 30 minutes long. It flew by in 5 minutes - this was incredible. Thank you
30 of em to be exact
damn time dilation
You know this is the first time it occurred to me that Radagon was specifically intended to seduce Rennala and ultimately break her heart as a twisted strategy to defeat Liurnia through an alternative means. If that's actually the case...damn that's cold.
yeah i was wondering the same thing , if it truly was a strategy to win against the last standing enemy it is brutal
…war is brutal. Broken hearts or mass graves. Wait it’s From.. let’s have both!
This has GRRM written all over it
Its the only logical reason there are two entities at all in this game honestly, the whole story of everything makes perfect sense kinda until you see they are the same being and then you think why did they do that it makes so many plot points convoluted, but having the motive of seducing and the returning to marika as a coop makes perfect sense, besides the while shattering and trying to mend unless that in itself was a plan of it's own.
@@petercottantail7850 could you proof read your paragraph please. Thank you.
15:50 That cut is so misleading at first. I thought Turtle Pope was lead an army XD
FINALLY we can find out what the hell is going on.
Incredible as always Vaati.
you was funny on the rdc stream rage 🤣
And yet it’s still completely convoluted and confusing.
You could've just understood it yourself by browsing sites that talk about it like vaati does to get his theories
Oh Josh, Cotton, Hollow my brother in arms! So rad to see you guys here as well keep up the banger work! Been watching since gen ultimate!
Yes, I said entertainment twice
Thank you for all the hard work. I'm enjoying soaking up all the Elden lore into my spongey brain. I hope we get even more with future DLC!
Please make a loathesome dung eater animation. I want to see the lord himself in your amazing style
Finally, Sir Vaati-The All Knowing has come to shed light on the lore!
Sir Vaati Vidya, The ALL KNOWING!!!
Sir Gideon will remember that
The loathsome lore reader!
Auughh! 😩😩 Rise up, all ye viewers!
9:11 the long argument is over. It is a dog, not a turtle.
What I love about this game in particular is how interconnected everything is (especially NPC questlines), to the point of 'you can't make a video about this thing without mentioning the other thing'. It's a really good game we all will have fun with coming years
Radagon/Marika's design seems to draw pretty heavily from the alchemical concept of the rebis, which involves separating the male and female aspects of a unisex being through putefaction and purification, then reuniting them in the magnum opus. So I think they were once one person, then they got split apart, then reunited.
Yummy factoid.
Radagon is Marika
@@halcyon6098 Factoids by definition are actually incorrect things stated as facts. Radagon is, in fact, Marika. Meaning that’s not a factoid, it’s just a fact.
@@Yomom12388 While that is true, it is also true that "factoid" is a synonym for trivia or minor facts. This secondary definition is how OP is using the word.
To build on that, it seems to me Radagon has some clear connection to the giants (everything about his red hair and all). One of the main stages of Alchemy's Great Work is the separation phase, where matter is burnt and its male and female parts separated. Since the giants and their god controlled the flame it can be theorized that in retaliation for her action against them they used this power to separate Marika into male and female halves (whether the were truly separate of simple a body swap situation is up in the air). Radagon seemed to be motivated by a desire to become whole again, as the symbolic Red King (representing the sun) he was instinctively attracted to Renalla, the symbolic White Queen (representing the moon). This union of opposites in alchemy is supposed to be what creates the Rebis, the perfect being, and this could been indicated by how Ranni was the only Empyrean without any sort of "curse", unlike Miquella or Melania, the product of Marika and Radagon's somewhat incestuous union.
@@Yomom12388 ur a factoid
Can’t wait for him to cover the outer gods more, really curious about his take on the Frenzied Flame
The Frenzied Flame is never stated to be an Outer God. It is also never suggested to be one actually. It is obviously immensly powerful but I believe it is the betrayed world's desire to cleanse and go back to when all life was one.
@Charles Hastings I'm arriving at somewhat the same conclusion. It would make sense why the frenzied flame is so close to the base of the Erdtree and almost like it is an aspect of the primordial essence that "infected" the order, a rememberance of the power that governed the world before the Greater Will. maybe that is why the three fingers were "cut" off, to stop it from spreading.
It is still part of the order though as it represents the law of regression in its purest form, to get rid of the order (which metaphysically means the seperations of the whole into distinct parts), let chaos take hold, and for the world to converge into what it once was.
The outer gods are, pun intended, so far outside of the Lands Between, it will be hard to truly get our *_fingers_* on something firm.
Lord Vaati was very interested ( like me ) in what might have been the structure that was responsible for all the big ruin shards that we can find all over the lands. The flying temple that was once in the sky. I wonder if it was part of Farum Azula for example.
But I doubt it. Farum Azula is littered with Beast-folk and Dragons. But around the ruins we find those gigantic Golems very often. And no regular inhabitants of Farum Azula seem interested in building those constructs.
Were the Golems invaders? Two of them guard the Elevator of the Altus Plateau after all. The one that leads to Liurnia.
Are they obeying the will of Margit? Or Queen Marika? They seem to help the forces favoured by the Grace of Gold. So are they the troops of Marika?
Did she used them to invade Farum Azula?
But this would not match her style. She has more elegant, golden shining means in general.
The Golems remain a great mystery still.
We find them all over the lands between. And often nearby a Demigods residence, if not around a ruin.
As if they might have been part of their troops. Coincidence?
Ah~ I fear we might never get a true answer to all of this.
I'm such a sucker for lost high-culture stuff and discovering the post-apocalyptic remains of their great civilization.
@@tinminator8905 stated? No. suggested? Absolutely, the fingerprint shield describes the cathedral of the forsaken area as a “tomb of an ancient God”, and , as you know, that’s where you find the three fingers. The merchant attire you also find there tells us that they summoned the flame of frenzy. I believe that it is most definitely a God of some kind, the question is wether it’s an outer God or not, the fact that it was summoned could suggest it’s an outer God, but I don’t believe it is. We know it’s an ancient God, meaning it’s very old, it’s also considered blasphemous, and we definitely know it’s a threat to the erdtree, but many things were shunned upon and considered blasphemous after the arrival and establishment of the golden order, the flame of frenzy included, we also know of the natural order that existed before the erdtree, there was a tree before it. The most interesting thing is where we find the fingers, at the very roots of the tree, we can also assume that all life was ‘one’ in a way, well, the flame frenzy seems to kind of work that way, making all kinds of creatures live as one, as we see both rats and humans afflicted by it. It’s by belief that the flame of frenzy was the natural order (or at least a part of it) before the golden order. Just speculation of course, and I could’ve missed something.
Edit: I also want to mention what happens to your eyes when you let the fingers hold you, this wouldn’t be a big deal , but we know that grace also affects your eyes, and when you lose your grace, your eyes are dimmed. The incantation, ‘The flame of frenzy’ explicitly says, “only effective against tarnished” and to be tarnished is to be absent of grace, I reckon Grace is a way to shield you from the influence of the fingers, and was a further measure to protect the golden order.
Edit no2: Plasidusax, another ancient being, is said to be waiting for the return of his god, his area is the only place where you can use the needle to cure yourself of the flame. Just another interesting thought.
The Frenzied Flame is probably a tool of another Outer God. Perhaps less powerful than the one who sent the Erdtree, as the frenzied flame is hidden deep enough to escape the roots of the Erdtree and only has Shabriri as its envoy. Or it comes from the Great Tree and had something to do with its lifeforce. A desperate attempt to "blend life together" again? Who knows.
It was barely expanded upon and had a lot of cut content involving the Frenzied Flame and the Merchants. All the other endings are easily attained while you only get vague tips from Shabriri, Hyetta (if you somehow managed to do her quest blindly) and the Fingerprint armor set. And also the secret passage at Mohg's sewer which is frankly impossible to guess by yourself.
I finished the game for a second time today and I'm looking forward to Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. Thanks to you I now get some sense about the lore.
As another Lord once said: "I've been looking forward to this."
Dooku?
Vaati's powers have doubled since he last posted, Count!
15:00 that really caught me off guard. I love when Vaati temporarily becomes a comedian. Laughed way harder than I care to admit
Holy shit it got me good
I had to pause the video cause I was laughing too hard to pay attention xD
Oh my Good LORD! 😳
It's hard to picture but... yeah... I bet Vatti would be good at all KINDS of stuff! 🤯
With a voice of pure chocolate velvet fancy British like that..
Jeez. Sky's the limit. 🤔
Definitely I'd pigeonhole him into sleepytime asmr stuff where he reads ye olde books.
Not that his voice is sophoristic or overly maudlin, more 'soothing.' 😌
Imao was amazing, F those lobsters. I fight them as little as possible lol
Just started Elden Ring two weeks ago. Totally obsessed. What a beautiful game. The world building, the nightmare fuel characters, the gameplay being unforgiving. So much fun. I try not to spoil too much because its so much fun to round a corner and say WTF. Your channel is amazing. Very smoothing voice and so well curated.
Welcome to the Souls community!
Yeahhh, I started 4 days ago and I’m already level 104. This game is so much fun
@@adamantsteel634 me too. great game
Did you finished it and which starting class did you end up with?
have you played DArk Souls
Rewatching this to be ready for Shadow of the Erdtree!
one of my interpretations from reading one of the lore timelines that have been put on reddit, it mentions the fire giant god cursing Marika during her slaughter of them, and Radagon hates his red hair being a lot like the giants, its got me thinking maybe the giants curse split Marika into 2 people i mean the timeline stuff was vague so i dont know if Radagon was about before that or not but the giants themselves possess 2 faces and so it feels potentially very thematic
I was wondering bout that whip description when I got it!!! Dope point dude, I could see that fo sure👏👏👀
Or maybe their curse reflected on Radagon instead of Marika.
I keep thinking there's a link between Radagon and Marika's war with the giants. It's a conflict Radagon is not mentioned in at all, but some of the symbolism seems too striking. Radagon's red hair, his penchant for smithing (which was seen as a divine act and seems to have been something of a ritual among the giants). My theory would be this:
Marika created Radagon as an extension of herself, using perhaps the dead body, or some essence of the giants and/or their god, to be the container for the curse, much like how Maliketh was to be the one to seal Destined Death away.
Related to this I can't help but feel that the Flame of Frenzy is also somehow related to the fell god of the giants. Perhaps being the curse the god cast on Marika, or perhaps being some kind of surviving essence of the god, now directionless or perhaps single-mindedly vengeful against the golden order and the erdtree. And this is why knowledge of the giants and their fire had to be sealed away, since the Flame of Frenzy was now another possible threat to the Erdtree.
Radagon must surely be connected with the giants. It's stated that all giants have red hair and how Radagon despises his red hair. It would be such a weird detail to just randomly throw in there.
From the timeline it would also fit. When the giants were defeated and the fire giant cursed to protect the flame, Godfrey was still around, meaning that Radagon wasn't Marikas husband yet, and it's only said that he fought against Rennala, a war that happened after the war with the giants.
It wouldn't be too far stretched that either the giants or the god of the giants cursed in some way Marika, who is responsible for their death.
It's also telling that one of Radagon's children, Radahn, who shares his red hair, is also well known to have grown to a massive size seemingly without any outside force.
I think we know the real reason why the Shattering happened:
Lobsters, dogs and crows.
literally
We need a crocodile hunter to conquer the wildlife in the lands between because shit be unacceptable.
someone needs to make a crocodile dundee character build 😄
I was shook whenever a literal lobster rose from the ground the murder me.
FInally someone said it. Something wrong in this world. The lobsters, dogs, and crows are evolving. Humans and Demi Gods about to go the way of the Dino's
25:39 Right after she says Radagon has yet to become her, she calls him 'my other self.' It is not at all uncommon in myth for deity figures to appear in different guises, or other aspects, of themselves. When she says he has yet to become her, I think what she is saying is that he, as an aspect of her, has not graduated from that position into the totality of her being. That is actually an extremely common motif in myth, lesser aspects of deities that are the deity, but, cast off, separated, or otherwise disconnected and haven't yet returned to what spawned them. I think we should also be careful about saying how open-ended they are about this, because if we look at all the evidence, we have to ask, which hypothesis better explains what we're seeing? Radagon can't have previously been a separate being from Marika if all the demigods are her direct offspring. Furthermore, law of regression destroys _illusion_ , as well as artificially wrought changes. Judging from what the law of regression says, changing Radagon back into Marika is just that, a _return_ . If you look at Radagon and Marika both, it is clear that they are literally broken, fractured beings. They're literally missing chunks of themselves. Radagon is both a piece and embodiment of Marika, though she had to leave a portion of herself behind. Radagon's origin is in Marika, and the way law of regression interacts with the statue, as well as what is said about the statue's origins, is the closest we're ever going to get to proof of anything in a From Software game.
Radagon would only 'become Marika' once they had reunited, once the law of regression, as a cosmic law not a spell, had worked itself out in Radagon and Marika.
So Radagon is a shard Marika that was broken off and gained sentience that was slightly different than Marika.
I am starting to think perhaps Radagon was created as an attempt by Marika to remove those parts of herself loyal to The Greater Will so that she herself could rebel against it; that might explain why she shattered the ring, but Radagon tried to repair it; Radagon is the physical embodiment of the loyalty to The Golden Order which once resided within Marika.
Well said. Radagon and Marika clearly were in a sort of conflict. I think the reason the Greater Will split away Radagon from Marika was because it wanted to spread its influence on the Lands Between more efficiently. However, it made a miscalculation. I think Radagon represents a stern loyalty to the Golden Order, and when Radagon was split away from Marika, she started to question the true nature of the Golden Order as her loyalty to it waned. This was the catalyst to her enacting her master plan, beginning with divesting Godfrey of his grace and leading to the creation of the tarnished.
@@DriftSpaceZero This actually makes the most sense out of anything I’ve heard. We know that going against or blaspheming the greater will takes a huge toll. Look at Blaidd he literally went insane because he had to go against the greater will in order to stay loyal to Ranni. Creating a disassociated persona in order to blaspheme tracks with the worlds lore.
@@spinyslasher6586
We must have been typing simultaneously. I think Radagon was specifically created by Marika to physically remove that loyalty to The Golden Order so that she could act against it. I agree he represents loyalty to The Golden Order, and I think he was split from her specifically because of her doubts about The Greater Will and The Erdtree.
I am starting up Elden Ring and at 2:57 in video, the loud string instrument played when first opening elden ring. It sent a chill down my spine, the reveal of the twist and high string note held
So glad Vaati took his time with releasing this
Its rare to have this much anticipation for a RUclips video
I've always interpreted Radagon as having been split from Marika by the Greater Will for the purpose of fighting the wars Godfrey no longer could.
He got his red hair as a curse from the Giants (who all have red hair) for his almost genocide of their race. I believe there are hints that he hates his hair colour in fact.
Then once called upon by White Queen, she and the Red King Radagon united (together forming the Rebis, or perfect alchemical being) thus he regressed and returned. He had "perfect" children born of the union of the same being.
I'm not sure if them being inbred caused the curses or something else cursed them as there are items that lead to think someone expressly cursed them.
Either way, Radagon is fairly tragic in that he came into this world as a half of someone else, was sent to war and fell in love, only to have to abandon his love and children, to bear cursed children and then be forced to imprisonment in his other half after she decided to go rogue and destroy the Elden Ring.
The way the rot itself works makes me think it was the influence of another Outer God. Or... with all the Two Fingers entities dying off...? Maybe something's wrong with the Greater Will itself, and Malenia and Miquella were sortof a... symptom of that?
@@JetBalrog The rot is definitely from another outer god, the Scorpion's Stinger description says it glistens from rot and was made from a relic of a sealed outer god.
I also think that the Greater Will made a mistake in it's plans when it did this. By splitting off a piece of Marika that embodied loyalty to the order to make the "perfect" Elden Lord it left Marika herself without those traits, which is what led to her eventual betrayal of the Greater Will's purpose.
I think empyreans are inherent not chosen. Mohg wanted to make miquella a god using the mother of blood or w/e her name is. Doesn't matter if the greater will chose him or not. I think a curse is inherent then. Miquella growth would make him a god, malenias third blossom of rot. I'm curious what rannis life was like
I have a question guys, when the factions like Carions, Giants, Nox, Dragons etc rejected the Golden Order, were they still influenced by the logic of the golden order where their souls would return to the erdtree as destined death was removed despite them being opposed to the golden order? Werent they influenced by their own outer gods who governed the logic they followed instead of following greater will's logic? However, since all life in the lands between came from the primordial crucible of the great tree, shouldn't all life be forced to follow what the great tree (later erdtree) had set as logic?
What I am thinking is, before the greater will came to the lands, the great tree gave life and there was proper death and there was also free will. The great tree didn't control anything other than birthing life and the basic logic of the lands. Great tree was not an outer god but a very powerful primordial life giving force that various outer gods wanted to influence. The fate of the lives in the lands between was then influenced by different outer gods depending upon the factions. The fate of the Carions and Nox was influenced by the moon and the stars. Giants and Dragons had their own lords and outer gods.
But one of the outer gods instead of just influencing the living beings, infected the life giving great tree itself to not only control the fates but also to change the logic of the world itself. So when the great tree got infected by the parasite from the greater will and became erdtree it not only changed the logic of the land where there was no destined death (thanks to Marika) but also controlled the fates of all that followed the golden order.
The ones who rejected the new order had no choice but to submit to the new logic where there was no death as it came from the life giving erdtree but they refused to let their fates be controlled by the golden order. As a result there were wars and the Nox were banished, Dragons outer god left them and they were defeated. Giant's fell lord was defeated by marika but what happened to their outer god? Maybe he too left. There was a truce between the Carions and the golden order where they both followed the logic of the erdtree with no destined death like every other living being in the lands between but their fates were governed by different outer gods, moon and stars for the carions and greater will for those who followed the golden order (until Radahn stopped the movement of the stars with his gravity magic). Is this something Greater will despised where the Carions were not mind controlled by it and their outer god still had influence? Maybe Rennala going mad and the civil war in Liurnia had something to do with Radagon and Greater will's sinister plan to destroy them from the inside.
25:41 the theory that i’ve heard that makes the most sense to me is that Radagon was made from Marika using a piece of the elden ring, specifically the criss crossing diagonal lines behind it on the cover and at his statue
She made him so she could fight a war on two fronts with Radagon handling the carian family, but when Radagon fell for Rannalla and had kids that also became demigods, Marika now without a consort realized that she could use Radagon instead thus birthing Miquella and Melania.
So when she shattered the Elden ring Radagon attempted to repair it by merging with Marika to hold themselves together and precent the complete collapse of order
Your first part sounds like how it is stated in the Bible how Eva was made from one of Adam's ribcage bones. The roles are reversed here, not sure if it has a correlation but I find it interesting since the Elden Ring seems to be the ribcage of their being.
that's what I thought as well
But they had the statue made before the shattering. They would have had to be the same person before the events of the shattering.
Marika Numen race
Radagon Giant race
Also the seal preventing access to Raya Lucaria has the same criss crossing pattern that is on Radagon's Soreseal, as well as in his statues
This is an incredibly well written video. I already knew most of this information but I always had it jumbled up , so for you to clear it up is amazing. Well done ❤ (Also , it isn’t overwhelming at all)
Stop lying for no reason boy
@@8streetbaby705lmao Fr what a weird thing to cap about
What a beautiful video. Just finished it and am 5 minutes into watching it a second time, incredible content!
The Lore King has returned ! Eagerly been waiting on this Vaati
That bit with the Lobsters was perfect and hilarious. Also Patches is the ultimate God of this world. No question about it lol 😂
indeed, higher power of FromSoft Multiverses!
I think Radagon always had a connection with Marika. Because, he left Rennala he seems to actually love, also unlike Hoarah Loux, he became one with Marika and if Radagon hadn't have a connection with Marika beforehandedly, neither Rennala nor Radagon descents from Marika's lineage, so why would their all children would became shard bearers and Empyrians. Radahn even went toe to toe with Malenia.
15:07…it was entirely because of those damn lobsters…Each alone could become the Elden Lord if they had the mind to do so and there wouldn’t be a damn thing anyone could do to stop them…
With my track record, I doubt I’d even GET TO the lobsters.
Being a souls fan from the beginning, I've watched a great many of your videos. It's been a while though, and after having stumbled across this one I was reminded that yours are the greatest of user-generated content for this, my most favored series of games.
I find that your videos are a complete package of quality video editing, thoroughly researched content and a soothing narration with a perfect tone, tenor and cadence for the subject mater.
Please accept this humble contribution, for I can imagine myself continuing to follow your content for the foreseeable future. I'll be sure to shop your Displate wares as well.
Thank you sir! You've summed up the goal of my channel, for sure.
The fuck is this? Can you pay money to make your comment stand out more?
@@VaatiVidya wholesome
@@whiteknight1414 darn right she is
Self dono lmaoooo
I'm definitely in the "Marika and Radagon were always the same person" camp. I think it's the only way "all the demigods were descended from Marika" makes sense. It could be a situation like D where originally they had two bodies and two minds, but one soul?
I think what happened was marika sent radagon but they had been apart for so long radagon developed a will of his own
This also helps to explain why Ranni is an Empyrean while Radahn and Rykard are not. Something Vaati didn't touch on was another requirement for being an Empyrean is being born from a single god, something both Miquella and Malenia are. Radagon could've claimed Rennala was Ranni's mother when in reality he birth her himself (themself, themselves, itself? It's confusing knowing who to refer to Marika and Radagon)
For some reason i never made the connection to D, but you bringing it up only adds more credibility to the theory that Marika and Radagon were always the same. To me, while the theory made sense, it just seemed like a kind of random and contrived idea, but with D and Darian basically being another example of this sort of thing happening in the Lands Between it feels less out of place and I'm more willing to subscribe to the idea.
Two bodies, two personalities, yet a split soul.
@@blueshadowdx It's something that Vaati didn't touch on because it's obviously a localization error. It's been incredibly hard to take any lore discussion seriously when so much of it uses that one obviously badly translated, awkward sentence as the foundation of something that important, and if Vaati *did* mention it, it would be like his Ancient Dark Souls videos that take "lost the annals of history" to mean that The Nameless King lost a book.
This is fantastic. I enjoyed the game play but really scratched my head at the ending! Thanks for this
Incredible video! I can't believe how large that line map was, you zoomed out and I thought "oh yeah that's big" ...and then you zoomed out more.
Can't wait for the lore video over why the lobsters are so powerful!
Marika is a representation of the alchemical substance known as Rebis. The sun and moon correspond to the male and female halves, just as the Red King and White Queen are similarly associated
Then that would make Marika the Albedo and Radagon the Rubedo.
The time has finally come for everyone to understand what the hell happened in Elden Ring, thanks Vaati!
Honestly probably the only souls game were plot was actually told. If you dont skip shit.
Finally, now we can hear him speak about all the lore theories he saw to make this video from
The lore is actually much simpler than Dark Souls'
@@alvarofs131 it also just started and isn’t nearly as fleshed out.
@@ekroizm
It was a give and take. Yes the story and lore are told more directly compared to previous games. But the open world made things a lots more difficult to find stuff haha.
So I'm way late, but have a theory about Marika and Radagon. What if this is an example of the Law of Causality no longer being in effect because the Elden Ring was shattered? Basically if the Lands Between are no longer strictly bound by that great rune, effect can come before cause. So the effect - all demigods are the offspring of Marika - is what inspired the cause - Radagon and Marika fuse into one being to resolve this contradiction. This would explain how Marika could be the parent of all the demigods while also only fusing with Radagon after the shattering, because after the shattering cause does not need to preceed effect.