The footage of the Rune Bear from the Network Test is actually mine, I clipped out of the barrier and went hunting back when the Network Test was live. You can see my fight against it here, although it's probably a lot more boring a video now that everyone's personally acquainted with the Rune Bears: ruclips.net/video/svfw2QlOPQ0/видео.html
If that one OOB Rune Bear was the only one that dropped it, it's possible that it was meant to be a unique case. It looked sort of like it was eating something - maybe that Runebear only drops a Dragon Heart because it's still, well, "fresh"?
What about the eyes of the smaller ones ? 🤔 The eyes remind me of those of a cat. If Im not mistaken you only encounter bears in dark areas/forrests, so it would make sense to give them cat like eyes. The dragon heart drop is weird, but it still seems like a long stretch to me. And since it was only in the network test, I would say it was just a place holder.
@@Miriam_J_ spelling mistake = probably an amateur video = we aren't boosting this in the algorithm best this way because at least she up 1st in my recommended this way or maybe that's because I binge Zullie lol
It's funny to think that in order for runes to make the giant lobster get bigger and stronger -- there's a lobster maiden out there turning those runes into strength.
1:41 You can also see those spikes where the Rune Bears' hearts would realistically be, which look very similar to dragon scales. Especially those on the dragon hearts' icon.
It's amazing how I just assumed those were soil particles from an attack. Looking now, yeah, it's basically gravel stone on their chests. It solidifies the connection even further.
My theory for the Runes bears was that they had been scratching at minor erdtrees, allowing them to scrape some of the holy runes from its bark that overtime increased their strength but the idea that it could be dragon related is really interesting.
He idea that Rune Bears became so powerful by simply doing Bear Things is amazing and adorable. It's also kinda supported by the fact that the minor tree without a guardian is also the place absolutely SWARMING with Rune Bears.
Wow that would have been a great detail if they put it in an item description or something! I can totally see “erdtree bark” being a consumable or crafting item.
I like this. Ive read a lot of comments so far and-(even though i haven't played elden ring I do keep up with zulies content for some reason🤣) and this is probably the most logical *to me* of the theories ive read👉😎👉
You might not be wrong with your first guess. We don't know where dragons come from or why the younger descendents are growing gradually more pathetic. Could be that dragons are made and maintained by some power of the Erd tree. After all stoniness seems to be a trait of those whom have direct connection to the Elden Ring. So dragons are doing the same as golden lineage. Getting slowly more decrepit with each generation removed from first contact. And this could work in reverse. With consumming bits of the Erd tree and other elden ring connected things giving you both power and a stony appearance. There is even lore to support ancient dragons polymorphing into humans so perhaps this polymorph trait is one of the powers of being of a golden lineage. And each lineage just tends to favor the prefered appearance of their sire.
Things getting larger through power is a constant theme in the Souls series. Souls, runes, and blood echoes have always made things grown as they give power. All the way back in demon souls this was a thing.
If you meant the souls gotten from his soul, I always assumed it was gameplay only. We can "lore it" by assuming that his souls is dropped by the first flame on the ground instead.
The Rune Bear in Earthbore Cave has grey fur instead of brown fur and while the reason for it being different could be much less deep, grey is the color of most dragons found in the game.
Was there a dragon enemy in the network test? Because if it not its just as likely if not more that they wanted to let players try the dragon incantations.
I kind of got the feeling that a dragon heart is the best bit of a dragon, but getting at other meat would do if you got enough of it. Given that normal bears don’t seem to mind hanging around together, it’s not impossible that a group fought a dragon and ate it between them, causing runification. But this is writing fanfic at some point I guess. Great video.
the group of sixty or so bears that bumrushed the dragon of the weeping peninsula then became monsters and spread about the world invites an interesting origin and a hilarious fight if a dlc exploring the past ever accurs for instance an event in the weeping peninsula like all the open world enemies that fight each other with a bunch of bears fighting a dragon with an injured wing that cannot get away
@@colorpg152 That's what I was thinking. With all the chaos of the Shattering plus those who deliberately hunted dragons for their hearts I'd be surprised if there weren't animals who scavenged dragon corpses and were affected by eating that meat. Bears and wolves will scavenge corpses while plants might feed on the tasty nutrients being released by rotting flesh.
With this in mind I'd like to see a boss fight with a rune bear where phase two is them shedding their bearness and taking a more draconic visage. I'd also like to see a dragon turtle fight.
I love how huggable they remain, even as half-dragons. They just want to be left alone, so they can get back to doing standard bear things, like scratching their backs on trees and snoozing.
Runebear: just leave me alone man, I'm harmless. Runebear in the rearview mirror an hour after catching your scent riding by: I have a very special set of skills my friend!
There is a cave in Caelid called Dragonbarrow Cave. Inside is a giant lesser Runebear with a very beefy healthbar. Given the name of the cave and its HP, I always wondered if it was a Dragon disguised as a lesser Runebear. Zullie's explanation would make sense.
Sadly it doesn’t really mean much. A lot of caves are just *location name* cave. For example Murkwater cave near Murkwater river, Altus tunnel on Altus plateau, Minor Erdtree catacombs next to the Minor Erdtree, Morne tunnel near castle Morne etc. and they don’t share the theme with the associated location. Of course I can’t say for sure but to me it seems like a false lead
@@A_Black_Sheep94 Aren't there lots of lesser dragons at the barrow? it make sense is the rune bear was hunting them for food as they seem pretty plenty in the area. Infact it could be theorized that its nature taking its course. You could say that any time you see a rune bear would mean that that area used to have some sort of dragon population and the reason you don't see them there is because the rune bear pretty much hunted all of them.
I mean, going off real life, baboons hunt flamingos by just sneaking up and rushing them when they land. Cats do the same to birds. I don't imagine why the runebears couldn't do the same to younger dragons.
The fact there's such a deep web of details, code and other intricate connections to be made throughout these videos also shows just how much love and attention to detail flows into these games that they even take care to consider minute details which logically shouldn't possibly be seen (examples include the Night's Cavalry having Grace in their eyes, or Varre having Mohg's tattoo), which honestly awes me. You can tell these aren't just games, they're FROMSoft and Miyazaki's blood, sweat, tears and passion.
The biggest part beeing, there are so many like SO MANY hidden details in fromsoft games its insane and clearly telling you that they make their game out of passion, because who the fuck today as devs would put so many effort weither its big stuff or details for things that will be hardly discovered ! I mean you can rush straight to the elden beast in like 3-4hours more or less, by just killing the main stuff, you dont even have to go see radahn or ranni or whatever, you just rush the main bosses and end the game and skip like 80+% of the game lol. And even if you explore you wont see much, like who the fuck will think and will have the opportunity in game so see the eyes of this shit rune bears enemies as they madly rush you and are one of the most anooying stuf in the game ! Thats why fromsoft deserve every bit of praise they got
Thanks for making a video about this! The runebears' eyes were always interesting to me, along with the mystery of why modern dragons and Placidusax have round pupils while ancient dragons have vertical slits for pupils. I think that, if the rocks Raloris noted in his comment are indeed part of the runebears' character model and not just debris clipping through them, then that's a great sign that their hearts are also changing. I wonder if the pattern on the runebears' chest fur matches some kind of design in Farum Azula? Anyway, thanks again for this cool look at one of the most memorable animals in the Lands Between!
This is a complete shot in the dark, and requires some leaps, but hear me out - Maybe the eye differences have some implications about the outer gods, namely the one that the ancient dragons served? We have quite a lot of precedent for outer gods having theming around eyes, and specifically messing with people's eyes - Several allusions are made to those being favored by the grace of gold/the Greater Will literally having gold in their eyes (and the tarnished including Lord Godfrey losing it, specifically, as in "...the hue of Lord Godfrey's eyes faded"), the flame of frenzy is focused in people's eyes, those who serve the formless mother gain bloodshot eyes, the god of scarlet rot is associated with the blind, while the god of the fire giants is one-eyed. Also, adjacently, there's the "Gloam-Eyed" Queen and the power of Destined Death. So, with that in mind, what if the reptilian dragon eyes are a sign of the dragon-god's favor? If so, we might assume that the dragons with normal, round pupils have lost this favor - For Placidusax, probably because he failed the dragon god during the war; and for the modern dragons, probably because they are too far removed and do not follow his teachings/image. And, conversely, perhaps the other ancient dragons are still favored because they were not individually held responsible for the failure, and creatures who eat dragons are favored because they follow the dragon god's teachings - Maybe he's a "You kill me - you're better" sort of guy? There is little solid evidence to go on, but the lore blurb for the "Draconian" character race preset does say that life among them was "usually short", and it would seem to add up with some of the stuff going on around dragon communion (That those who practice it become dragons, and that a modern dragon - Ekzykes - is the only one specifically mentioned as being opposed to it).
@@A_Black_Sheep94 My point is that Placidusax has round pupils, unlike all of the ancient dragons. The modern dragons, in the style of Greyoll, also have round pupils, but the ancient dragons like Lansseax do not. Also, for whatever reason, the items that inflict bonus damage on all dragons don't inflict any bonus damage on Placidusax. In the story itself, Placidusax appears to be an ancient dragon, but he doesn't have vertical slit pupils, instead featuring round pupils a la the modern dragons.
@Night Scout It might just come down to genealogy and lineage and the pupils are simply dependent on who sired them and who the progenitor is but who knows.
Considering the runes you find are the remnants of the Grace of Gold lingering within the eyes of the dead, and that the Dragons used to be the Greater Will's chosen people before Marika, it's possible the Rune Bears are becoming this way by consuming dead Tarnished.
Its almost like a call back to rats in the dark souls trilogy. In DS1, they often drop Humanity presumably due to their consumption of humans. In DS2, some of them evolved either gaining increased intelligence or different bodies, and seem to be willing to work with humans.
I really like the bears and other wildlife of this game. Not just normal enemies but genuine animals that just minding their own business. The giant head dogs and birds I wouldn’t count as wild life since they are more monster like and attack you relentlessly like a regular enemy. Bears kinda vibe when you get a little far and they have a long animation when they start to attack so it’s kinda like a warning to get away.
Bears IRL are anatomically fairly similar to humans so that makes sense. In anthropology it’s pretty common to confuse skeletal remains of bears with human remains.
@@Jormyyy When I saw them I wondered if they shared any animations with the apes (Guardian, Headless, the companion that helps out in the second headless fight) in Sekiro. They aren't one to one in movement of course but some attacks and animations looked similar, which ones exactly I couldn't say for certain actually.
This is interesting. Looking at all the different Miranda Sprouts(Toxin, Magic, Frenzied, and Rotten) and Red Wolves, they seem to be influenced by outer gods. If you remember from Placidusax's Remembrance of the Dragonlord, it mentions an outer god that he served as the previous Elden Lord and awaits the god's return. Maybe the bears are a sign that the dragon outer god is making an attempt to return to the world.
Dragons served Greater Will. Greater Will is all about gold, and Farum Azula is inspired by Varna Necropolis excavation site in Bulgaria (oldest gold items and most extensive gold burials in the world) and wings of dragons hide golden streaks in them. Placidusax the Elden Lord breathes golden flames. Farum Azula is adorned with Elden Ring imagery. Furthermore, Marika and Golden Order saw no harm to allow their populace to revere and emulate dragons, because both dragons and men worship in the end the same entity, as told by the Gravelstone Seal. "The worship of the ancient dragons does not conflict with belief in the Erdtree. After all, this seal, and lightning itself, are both imbued with gold." It seems that dragons were previous supplicants of the Greater Will, but something happened that caused the Five-Fingers to split into Two and Three, and Marika equivalent of the dragons left, leaving her/his Elden Lord behind. It does not seem that Outer Gods would leave the world even when thwarted. Rot God and Formless Mother are still very much active. Greater Will then made a new attempt and sent Elden Beast to Lands Between and this time chose Marika and humans as its new envoys. This was the beef that dragons had with humans/gods/Marika. They did not like they had been supplanted in the grand scheme of things as the Greater Will´s chosen people. But in the end, both sides worked a compromise.
@@nightscout9979 The thing with this is Placidusax is said to be awaiting the return of this god, who fled him. When we first see Placi, he is in a near identical pose to that of the Two Fingers communing with the GW. We know that such communion takes place with Outer Gods, implying that Placi's god is an Outer one and not just a Marika type, but then, who would he be consort to as Elden Lord? Perhaps, did the god he served ascend to the status of an outer power? Theres a lot of mystery about the topic.
Knowing this link between dragons and rune bears, I feel much better to have died numerous times to these fiends. Together with those damn giant crows, rune bears have always been my Achilles' heel in all my different playthroughs.
@@leyrua that's the strategy I used too. However, they are way too much effort, and what you get for defeating them isn't really that much worth it. So, after my first playthrough, I always run past them à la Forrest Gump
It used to be this way for me too. The strategy i use to make them really easy to fight is just hugging their butt and attacking out of rolls. Rinse and repeat till dead.
@@RealElequist That sounds like a good strategy. I never understood why they made them so strong (I always found them way more difficult than most bosses), but at least, knowing they're allegedly turning into dragon-bears, I can put up with their viciousness.
the simplest explanation would be that the dragon hearts they drop are their own hearts, obviously having undergone the beginning stages of transformation, it makes sense that a runebear's heart could be classified and used as a dragon heart for communion.
As far as "Plants grew in size and power through the strength of runes" there's a quote somewhere about "Miranda, maiden of the Flower Crucible is said to have been the very first of this breed" which also explains why these flowers are called Miranda. This quote does raise questions, such as the "Flower Crucible", implying there is more than one Crucible. How this "Maiden" became this weird poisonous plant thing (And also could reproduce enough to create a fair number of them) In regards to other large creatures... It's possible that Rune Bears attacked and ate Dragons, they're certainly ferocious enough to be able to best the smaller dragons, especially given that cave of bears right next to Greyoll. Though, the lobsters are strange, as they're the only such creature we see, there's no smol lobsters at all just these big annoying guys being all big and annoying in the lake.
In the lore discussion Ratatoskr and SmoughTown had they discussed how they both think "the crucible" isn't a thing but a process: struggle and evolution; this means all the separate factions and entities that interact with "the crucible of life" didn't necessarily have anything to do with each other. For example the erdtree was "connected" to the crucible not physically but because it and the vassals of the elden beast were struggling all other powers in the lands between. In this instance Miranda was struggling (in some fashion, not sure how plants would do that) and transformed in the process. This is a bit of a jump but the crucible is usually associated with draconic features: the crucible knights use the "aspect of the crucible" incantations of breath, horns and tail; omens have horns, omen twins Margit/Morgott and Mohg have a tail and wings respectively. My interpretation of this is that in the world of Elden Ring there is a hierarchy of lifeforms: the more things struggle the the more powerful they become, at the end of this process you become the most powerful form of life i.e. a dragon. The runebears fit this pattern by becoming more draconic, though other "rune" creatures only become larger, maybe because bears start off stronger they are closer to dragonhood.
What an insane detail. I remember during the network test when people managed to get out of bounds and they were showing the runebear fight, it was insane lol
This might also explain why that one cavern at the bottom of the magic boulder slope near the bridge patrolled by the Dragon that connects the eastern rotten tree plateau with the landmass housing the beast clergyman has a rune bear as it’s first enemy despite being called something like Dragon Hovel/Barrow.
Having the Rune Bears drop dragon hearts makes waaaay more sense considering how difficult they are to kill in regular combat as well. Having them drop Dragon hearts instead of some pesky beast bones and a liver would make them actually worth killing. Also don't know if you realized this but the runebears also seem to have scales poking out of their fur in some spots, further strengthening the dragon connection.
They probably dont drop Dragon Hearts because you can get enough for all of the Dragon Communion spells by killing all of the named Dragons (Greyoll included) and Magma Wyrms.
@@liastaob Unironically though, runebears are harder to fight consistently than dragons. Because sure, dragons may have lots of health and hard-hitting AoE attacks, but everything they do is straightforward and telegraphed with a lot of visible wind-up, and their AI patterns usually give you openings very consistently. Unlike the runebears, which hit just as hard, but also spam attacks non-stop, move so fast that it's hard to make distance even on horseback, have several attacks that come out instantly (plus some variation attacks with different timings, to mess up your dodges), and have some attack hitboxes which are so exaggerated that they might as well be the same size as dragons.
@@MetalCaffeine56 What likely happened is that they originally intended to include Rune Bears in the Dragon Communion progression in some way (either by dropping a full heart or an heart "fragment"?) but decided to discard the idea because they realized how less interesting and frustrating to fight they are compared to actual dragons, changing the amounts of Dragon Hearts required for Dragon Communion accordingly, which is a very quick fix. This would explain how hard they are to defeat and why they feel so special compared to other enemies, you can often find them in hard-to-reach places with little to no reward that never requires them to be killed (besides that one Rune Bear that drops a Talisman). Kinda stupid to not have included a big rune drop for killing them at this point if you ask me. Might have been a late fix and they didn't want to risk affecting too much of the whole Rune progression with these big rune drops maybe?
Bears scavenge when they find a corpse. Could be that rune bears simply are the bears who happened upon a dragon heart or two. Enough to become more powerful but affecting them slightly different because they don't hunt the hearts down. I'm pretty sure magma wyrms became that way from continuously eating hearts for a while probably years. Trying to be like the dragons. Bear just found a heart and ate it he didn't know better or why it made him a rune bear.
I feel that the closeness between Mistwood and Caelid might have explained where they found the hearts. maybe they were bears in Caelid before the rot happened. when the rot spread on the region, they fed on the dragon hearts and slowly moved to Mistwood.
I think there actually was a bear-centric cave in caelid around a minor erdtree. Maybe that means there used to be a natural overlap of territory between most dragons and bears.
This is an awesome detail, I only wish they had leant into it further. As cool as the rune bears are, I always felt their design was a bit bland - with them basically just being big bears. After this new found knowledge, I wonder why they didn’t lean into it more with maybe a patch of scales down their back or the beginnings of wings sprouting from their shoulder-blades. They could have even given them a dragon’s breath attack or simply just given their hide a more stony complexion - like the dragons have. Maybe it was simply because they wanted to keep this little tidbit of lore hidden.
I dunno if they were intended to be draconic. The eyes are a pretty good connection but I wouldn't say it's out of the realm of a coincidence just yet. Dragon Heart could be a placeholder as Zullie suggests and the eyes really aren't all that especially distinct.
The insane RuneBear in lower Calid (coming out the other side of Siofra River Well) would have worked well to be the only RuneBear to drop the DragonHeart. This would have given players an idea that Bears this mighty were feeding on dragon hearts, which would explain their insane size and aggression. However, seeing the runes on the chest made me believe some sort of sorcery had taken place to alter them. Both work, but eating a dragon heart is waaaaay cooler.
I like this idea. It would also incentivize people to engage with "normal" enemies instead of running past them, if they could sometimes drop unexpected and precious items, just as they do sometimes in Liurnia. It would also make sense that some sick dragon in Dragonbarrow could have tumbled down the chasm and be scavenged by a hungry bear.
Yeah, I always found it strange how the Rune Bear in earlier versions would drop a dragon heart; when I saw footage from Boss Fight Database about their playthrough of the network test, upon seeing the dragon heart drop, it was kinda strange how a bear would drop an item belonging specifically to dragons, but seeing this now, it makes more sense.
Zullie, you're the reason I force myself to put a lot of efforts into the (microscopic) games I make, and raise the bar of quality as much as possible (despite my amateur skills) Because I'm always both mortified and hopeful to get such a dedicated and meticulous player, one day, and don't want to spoil the chance of getting him/her intrigued and rewarded if he/she starts digging deep into my creation. You're an inspiration, and I thank you for that!
Wow I've been away from souls content for a while but this is amazing. We've reached a point where a established member of the community is influencing starting out game devs. I can still remember 2011 when ringing the bells of awakening still looked like a lengthy adventure and it's heartwarming how much these games are still changing a whole generation. Good luck with your games, your comment made my day.
pretty cool how you can see scales forming above where the heart would be, or maybe those are the spiky protrusions on the heart piercing through its skin?
So long as the scales, wings, etc. can stay an adjustable cosmetic detail. I'm mainly happy that the dragon communion abilities give a drastically better, more versatile form of the dragon abilities from Dark Souls 1-3, in particular the super breath and dragon hands from 3.
It's not often you see a channel do this well with no voice over and relying on people to read for information, but in your case it just seems to work. 👍👍
I can't believe you people aren't getting it... There's TWO extremely important things here. First, look at where *and what* all these massive creatures eat. Consider the giant lobsters in Leyndell. What are they beneath? A giant decaying dragon. What are the giant crabs feasting on? The feces of dragons. Second, and more importantly you'll notice there's precisely *one* Giant Turtle and he didn't merely grow in size he grew in WISDOM. Just like the bears grew in ferocity, and the wolves grew in loyalty. Dragon Flesh amplifies what's already there.
I honestly would love to see a mutated rune bear that starts to grow scales and wings. On the other hand its a rune bear... Ill take an entire game based around the lake of rot than to encounter one in the wild
Ever since the network test I thought that the runebear would have something to do with the dragon covenant in the game, but was disappointed when I played it and found no connection. Glad there is something to it. I loved the idea of the wilderness getting in on the magic and powers in game.
You know the idea of other creatures using Runes/Souls to get stronger never occured to me, it always felt so especial and unique to the player but yeah i guess there are ways one could still use them since its never implied everyone NEEDS a finger maiden, WE do but who knows if others do
there are many ways to do it eating like rykard, taking the skin like the godskin, taking their horns like the ancestral followers, taking their blood like mogh, taking their inwards like warrior pots, taking their ashes like the deathbirds, taking their primal glintstones like sellen, generally taking body parts or spirits etc...
With RuneFlower and RuneWolf it seems like the Runes were the initial concept for explaining why the Shardbearers are all larger than human, and why the corpses of Godrick & Morgott return to normal human size when you defeat them and take their Great Rune from them. Additionally, Godrick's boss fight also shows that the Ancestral bloodline has a connection to Draconic lineage, and that was likely meant to have been something described with the Rune Bears, Wolves, & Flowers at early stages before the lore was expanded out a bit more. It's cool that these little fragmented details still exist to piece those bits back together.
I'm interested to hear this theory of the golden lineage (or Marika's lineage) having a connection to the dragons. I interpreted Godrick's words as him merely thinking the dragon was true among dragons, while also projecting his own insecurities.
@@nightscout9979 Fortissax lives inside Godwyn's dream attempting to keep him alive, but becoming corrupted in the process. There's a clear link between them for that to happen, and Placidusax was the Elden Lord in the era before the Erdtree. There are plenty of small nods to those themes as early concepts, including Godrick having six fingers on one of his grafted hands, as that's a feature specific to the Ancient Dragons, with the extra digits growing from their wrists. Much like this, those themes seem to have shifted quite a bit through development.
@@PierceArner I don't see a link for the Fortissax thing beyond Fortissax just being a close friend of Godwyn and wanting to save said friend. I know that Placidusax was the earliest recorded Elden Lord, and he has gold eyes and gold fire, but there seems to have been a break in the civilizations. The dragons hearing of the Golden Order and attacking is treated like a surprise to Leyndell in that the ancient dragons exist and they're waging war. The rise of the Golden Order, Marika getting the Elden Ring, etc. all seem as if they occurred without any connection to or input from Farum Azula. For Godrick's extra digit, I thought that was a product of his nefarious grafting, effectively trying to create a "super" hand. An extra digit isn't exclusive to him and the ancient dragons either, as Rykard has seven digits on his hands after being eaten by the God-Devouring Serpent, and Mohg has a stiff, bladed spike jutting out of his left hand like a finger.
The overgrown forelimbs could point to the transformation as well. They lend themselves to a sprawling gait unlike that of a mammal (more upright, with the legs underneath the body rather than out to the side) but similar to the belly-dragging crawl of the Wyrms.
I love this channel so much but I've barely played any FromSoftware games myself. (Most I've ever done is lose against that giant monster in Dark Souls 1 which falls out of the sky in like the first 5 min of the game). Still, the videos are cool and they show interesting parts of games I've never played!
Kinda missing the most important detail there. If Runebears are getting strong because of some dragon connection, fine whatever. But if the lobsters got that way due to turning runes into strength then that means somewhere out there, there's a little Lobster Maiden with a tiny hood. My search begins.
This explains a lot with Runebears are so strong: they are either part dragon in that they, like the beastfolk of Farum Azula, draw strength from the primal power of the Ancient Dragons... Or are got strong enough through runes that they were able to kill a dragon and in eating it, consumed it's heart.
Most people probably noticed this but when placidusax goes into it’s second phase the sky clears up from all the clouds and lighting. The dragonlord basically absorbs or concentrates everything into its attack itself.
My theory is the dragons are purposefully giving these bears power. Perhaps in some sort of play to offset the many killed dragons, they have turned to creating new ones via animals. The rune bears seem non-grotesque in nature which, in my mind, lends to their transformation not being triggered by forceful consumption of hearts. Plus, how are so many bears going to kill dragons?
Too bad they didn't work on balancing the game and working out the bugs that have been present since fucking demon souls 🙄 this litteraly could have been the best game ever and not a 6.5.
They could have kept the heart drop for rune bears, but just made it either a one-time encounter with a special rune bear that doesn't respawn, or make the drop extremely rare from the bears.
It could be interesting if a single Rune Bear dropped a single Dragon heart, even a "malformed dragon heart", one that doesn't have any effect, or maybe when consumed, replenishes FP (only one use, it's more a clue item than a usable item).
I'd also like to point out- the rune bears' arms being longer might be a sign of them extending into the magma wyrm style forearms, and then their chest is shaped similarly to dragons' chests. Could be that they're being warped into dragons
They could have made it that just a few selected Runebears drop hearts because those were extremly close to the transformation, would have been cool i think. And also a very nice "What the actual ..." Moment
As others have mentioned, this makes sense given the sheer difficulty of fighting them making what they drop not worth the trouble. When I first started playing and started exploring Mistwood, I easily killed a bear and was wondering what all the fuss about the bears was. I stupidly picked a fight with a bear scratching on a tree. I've never had a more panicked ride away from an area/enemy than the moment I realized 1) just how massive the bear was, 2) just how little damage I was dealing, and 3) how it very nearly killed me in one hit. Later on in Liurnia I was riding around the edge of the lake and I ran into one of the rune bears. I didn't expect to see it there, so I rode away as fast as I could. I still managed to aggro it and it chased me for far longer than I thought it would before it killed me. The longer aggro ranges on enemies really starts to annoy me after a while.
Now i wish they would add Giant Snapping Turtles lashing on you from the swamp if you've hit the regular, innocent turtle, proceeding to, ugm, snap you apart with their tremendous beak-maw
The footage of the Rune Bear from the Network Test is actually mine, I clipped out of the barrier and went hunting back when the Network Test was live. You can see my fight against it here, although it's probably a lot more boring a video now that everyone's personally acquainted with the Rune Bears: ruclips.net/video/svfw2QlOPQ0/видео.html
the dragons used to worship the greater will so it makes sense runes make you dragon like
Did you make this video just to flex your escape again?
If that one OOB Rune Bear was the only one that dropped it, it's possible that it was meant to be a unique case. It looked sort of like it was eating something - maybe that Runebear only drops a Dragon Heart because it's still, well, "fresh"?
yeah, fuck rune bears though
What about the eyes of the smaller ones ? 🤔
The eyes remind me of those of a cat. If Im not mistaken you only encounter bears in dark areas/forrests, so it would make sense to give them cat like eyes.
The dragon heart drop is weird, but it still seems like a long stretch to me. And since it was only in the network test, I would say it was just a place holder.
Come on, you could've at least titled it 'You can bearly see this'
Pretty sure that's the joke, probably would have fucked with the algorithm if she actually put "bearly"
Zullie, cmon, what were you thinking not doing this?
@@Miriam_J_ spelling mistake = probably an amateur video = we aren't boosting this in the algorithm
best this way because at least she up 1st in my recommended this way
or maybe that's because I binge Zullie lol
inb4 she changes it
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It's funny to think that in order for runes to make the giant lobster get bigger and stronger -- there's a lobster maiden out there turning those runes into strength.
Hear me out ☠️
Where is my age of the lobster ending, Miyazaki?
"You are maidenless"
"I don't care, I have lobster"
LIVIN LIKE LARRY
@@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149splatoon ending
1:41 You can also see those spikes where the Rune Bears' hearts would realistically be, which look very similar to dragon scales. Especially those on the dragon hearts' icon.
It's amazing how I just assumed those were soil particles from an attack. Looking now, yeah, it's basically gravel stone on their chests. It solidifies the connection even further.
Holy shit, good catch!
And iirc there's also one Runebear in the Weeping Peninsula that drops a Spelldrake Talisman.
Came here to say this
@@Dinoman972 correct!
After the DLC trailer with some kind of dragon communion bear incantation, this theory is looking to be true
It aged like wine that's for sure
Bear communion? lmao what a joke
@@HeyGuy4321the in game description quite literally says it’s a joke lmao
My theory for the Runes bears was that they had been scratching at minor erdtrees, allowing them to scrape some of the holy runes from its bark that overtime increased their strength but the idea that it could be dragon related is really interesting.
He idea that Rune Bears became so powerful by simply doing Bear Things is amazing and adorable. It's also kinda supported by the fact that the minor tree without a guardian is also the place absolutely SWARMING with Rune Bears.
Wow that would have been a great detail if they put it in an item description or something! I can totally see “erdtree bark” being a consumable or crafting item.
I like this. Ive read a lot of comments so far and-(even though i haven't played elden ring I do keep up with zulies content for some reason🤣) and this is probably the most logical *to me* of the theories ive read👉😎👉
Maybe it's a mix of both, along with eating some dragon remains after dragon "communion" practitioners killed a dragon.
You might not be wrong with your first guess. We don't know where dragons come from or why the younger descendents are growing gradually more pathetic. Could be that dragons are made and maintained by some power of the Erd tree. After all stoniness seems to be a trait of those whom have direct connection to the Elden Ring. So dragons are doing the same as golden lineage. Getting slowly more decrepit with each generation removed from first contact. And this could work in reverse. With consumming bits of the Erd tree and other elden ring connected things giving you both power and a stony appearance. There is even lore to support ancient dragons polymorphing into humans so perhaps this polymorph trait is one of the powers of being of a golden lineage. And each lineage just tends to favor the prefered appearance of their sire.
Wow, the transition between Souls Dog and Elden Ring Dog at 0:17 is so well edited!
this is the top comment in my book
You're so funny
Lol, I wonder if it was intentional
I literally went back to see the transition, thinking I missed it.. I was really expecting a wolf or something, and then..😂
That got me good XD
Things getting larger through power is a constant theme in the Souls series. Souls, runes, and blood echoes have always made things grown as they give power. All the way back in demon souls this was a thing.
But Gwyn for example would be humongous, considering he drops the most souls in base game ?!
He burned them all. That's why Frampt sends you to him, as a souls container for replacement.
@@martinsonneborn6820 he old
If you meant the souls gotten from his soul, I always assumed it was gameplay only. We can "lore it" by assuming that his souls is dropped by the first flame on the ground instead.
@@cromulom2223 lol
The Rune Bear in Earthbore Cave has grey fur instead of brown fur and while the reason for it being different could be much less deep, grey is the color of most dragons found in the game.
Fuck that bear. Maybe his increased health and power supports your idea?
Closest one to transforming or something 🤷♂️
Was there a dragon enemy in the network test? Because if it not its just as likely if not more that they wanted to let players try the dragon incantations.
@@A_Black_Sheep94 no, Agheel was in the network test
Perhaps the Rune Bears are descendants of bears who feasted on the corpses of dragons from the War of the Dragons
I kind of got the feeling that a dragon heart is the best bit of a dragon, but getting at other meat would do if you got enough of it. Given that normal bears don’t seem to mind hanging around together, it’s not impossible that a group fought a dragon and ate it between them, causing runification. But this is writing fanfic at some point I guess. Great video.
or maybe they just found one dead
the group of sixty or so bears that bumrushed the dragon of the weeping peninsula then became monsters and spread about the world invites an interesting origin and a hilarious fight if a dlc exploring the past ever accurs for instance an event in the weeping peninsula like all the open world enemies that fight each other with a bunch of bears fighting a dragon with an injured wing that cannot get away
@@shawmiserix404 which dragon of the weeping peninsula are you referring to? :o
@@HyperionVT The bears ate it, so there's no longer one there. Duh.
@@colorpg152 That's what I was thinking. With all the chaos of the Shattering plus those who deliberately hunted dragons for their hearts I'd be surprised if there weren't animals who scavenged dragon corpses and were affected by eating that meat. Bears and wolves will scavenge corpses while plants might feed on the tasty nutrients being released by rotting flesh.
With this in mind I'd like to see a boss fight with a rune bear where phase two is them shedding their bearness and taking a more draconic visage. I'd also like to see a dragon turtle fight.
I'm pretty sure someone killed Malenia with a rune bear from the consecrated snowfield.
No, please no. Not this damn ugly thing.
I love how huggable they remain, even as half-dragons. They just want to be left alone, so they can get back to doing standard bear things, like scratching their backs on trees and snoozing.
Well if they just want to be left alone, then they probably shouldn't bushwhack any traveller unfortunate enough to get within a half mile of one
Runebear: just leave me alone man, I'm harmless.
Runebear in the rearview mirror an hour after catching your scent riding by: I have a very special set of skills my friend!
No. No no no, those mfs are terrifying. Only hugging that'll be happening is them grounding your spine.
huggable? sounds like you take your kid movies seriously
Oh yeah, that one who's literally invisible and surprise ganks your ass at low level definitely just wanted to be left alone lol
There is a cave in Caelid called Dragonbarrow Cave. Inside is a giant lesser Runebear with a very beefy healthbar. Given the name of the cave and its HP, I always wondered if it was a Dragon disguised as a lesser Runebear. Zullie's explanation would make sense.
Sadly it doesn’t really mean much. A lot of caves are just *location name* cave. For example Murkwater cave near Murkwater river, Altus tunnel on Altus plateau, Minor Erdtree catacombs next to the Minor Erdtree, Morne tunnel near castle Morne etc. and they don’t share the theme with the associated location. Of course I can’t say for sure but to me it seems like a false lead
Dragonbarrow is just the region. However I believe that is the strongest bear in the game, even more so than the ones in the consecrated snowfield.
@@A_Black_Sheep94 Aren't there lots of lesser dragons at the barrow?
it make sense is the rune bear was hunting them for food as they seem pretty plenty in the area.
Infact it could be theorized that its nature taking its course.
You could say that any time you see a rune bear would mean that that area used to have some sort of dragon population and the reason you don't see them there is because the rune bear pretty much hunted all of them.
I'm not sure how a runebear is gonna consistently hunt something that can fly
I mean, going off real life, baboons hunt flamingos by just sneaking up and rushing them when they land. Cats do the same to birds. I don't imagine why the runebears couldn't do the same to younger dragons.
The age of dragons…
The age of giants…
The age of gods…
O, may bears take the world…
MAY BEARS TAKE THE WORLD!!
the return of the mammalians… /ref
*Soviet Union anthem plays*
bear witness!!!
Kamchatka Age
The age of dogs comes next
amazing how one person can pull so much detail and info out of these great games. Thank you for this content and for the many insightful videos.
The fact there's such a deep web of details, code and other intricate connections to be made throughout these videos also shows just how much love and attention to detail flows into these games that they even take care to consider minute details which logically shouldn't possibly be seen (examples include the Night's Cavalry having Grace in their eyes, or Varre having Mohg's tattoo), which honestly awes me. You can tell these aren't just games, they're FROMSoft and Miyazaki's blood, sweat, tears and passion.
It's not one person though. These findings have been discussed for months, Zullie doesn't find all this stuff on his lonesome.
Yeah no. Zullie presents information found by the entire community. Sure he finds stuff on his own sometimes, but not often.
The biggest part beeing, there are so many like SO MANY hidden details in fromsoft games its insane and clearly telling you that they make their game out of passion, because who the fuck today as devs would put so many effort weither its big stuff or details for things that will be hardly discovered !
I mean you can rush straight to the elden beast in like 3-4hours more or less, by just killing the main stuff, you dont even have to go see radahn or ranni or whatever, you just rush the main bosses and end the game and skip like 80+% of the game lol.
And even if you explore you wont see much, like who the fuck will think and will have the opportunity in game so see the eyes of this shit rune bears enemies as they madly rush you and are one of the most anooying stuf in the game !
Thats why fromsoft deserve every bit of praise they got
@@embargovenom9948 Zullie confirmed that she's a woman
Thanks for making a video about this! The runebears' eyes were always interesting to me, along with the mystery of why modern dragons and Placidusax have round pupils while ancient dragons have vertical slits for pupils. I think that, if the rocks Raloris noted in his comment are indeed part of the runebears' character model and not just debris clipping through them, then that's a great sign that their hearts are also changing. I wonder if the pattern on the runebears' chest fur matches some kind of design in Farum Azula? Anyway, thanks again for this cool look at one of the most memorable animals in the Lands Between!
This is a complete shot in the dark, and requires some leaps, but hear me out - Maybe the eye differences have some implications about the outer gods, namely the one that the ancient dragons served?
We have quite a lot of precedent for outer gods having theming around eyes, and specifically messing with people's eyes - Several allusions are made to those being favored by the grace of gold/the Greater Will literally having gold in their eyes (and the tarnished including Lord Godfrey losing it, specifically, as in "...the hue of Lord Godfrey's eyes faded"), the flame of frenzy is focused in people's eyes, those who serve the formless mother gain bloodshot eyes, the god of scarlet rot is associated with the blind, while the god of the fire giants is one-eyed. Also, adjacently, there's the "Gloam-Eyed" Queen and the power of Destined Death.
So, with that in mind, what if the reptilian dragon eyes are a sign of the dragon-god's favor? If so, we might assume that the dragons with normal, round pupils have lost this favor - For Placidusax, probably because he failed the dragon god during the war; and for the modern dragons, probably because they are too far removed and do not follow his teachings/image.
And, conversely, perhaps the other ancient dragons are still favored because they were not individually held responsible for the failure, and creatures who eat dragons are favored because they follow the dragon god's teachings - Maybe he's a "You kill me - you're better" sort of guy? There is little solid evidence to go on, but the lore blurb for the "Draconian" character race preset does say that life among them was "usually short", and it would seem to add up with some of the stuff going on around dragon communion (That those who practice it become dragons, and that a modern dragon - Ekzykes - is the only one specifically mentioned as being opposed to it).
Placidusax is an ancient dragon, he's the first dragon and the first Elden Lord.
@@A_Black_Sheep94 My point is that Placidusax has round pupils, unlike all of the ancient dragons. The modern dragons, in the style of Greyoll, also have round pupils, but the ancient dragons like Lansseax do not. Also, for whatever reason, the items that inflict bonus damage on all dragons don't inflict any bonus damage on Placidusax. In the story itself, Placidusax appears to be an ancient dragon, but he doesn't have vertical slit pupils, instead featuring round pupils a la the modern dragons.
@Night Scout It might just come down to genealogy and lineage and the pupils are simply dependent on who sired them and who the progenitor is but who knows.
Considering the runes you find are the remnants of the Grace of Gold lingering within the eyes of the dead, and that the Dragons used to be the Greater Will's chosen people before Marika, it's possible the Rune Bears are becoming this way by consuming dead Tarnished.
Deepest Lore: Rune Bears are slowly becoming Greater Will´s new chosen people and will eventually supplant men, just as men supplanted dragons.
@@matiasluukkanen7718 We will replace fingers and hands with claws and paws!
Wow that’s very impressive.
Its almost like a call back to rats in the dark souls trilogy. In DS1, they often drop Humanity presumably due to their consumption of humans. In DS2, some of them evolved either gaining increased intelligence or different bodies, and seem to be willing to work with humans.
@@matiasluukkanen7718| I for one welcome our new ursine overlords.
I really like the bears and other wildlife of this game. Not just normal enemies but genuine animals that just minding their own business. The giant head dogs and birds I wouldn’t count as wild life since they are more monster like and attack you relentlessly like a regular enemy. Bears kinda vibe when you get a little far and they have a long animation when they start to attack so it’s kinda like a warning to get away.
Has anyone noticed how humanlike rune bear's animations are compared to normal bears
I noticed too. They are significantly more ape-like in their stature than regular bears.
@@Jormyyy yeah they don't feel animalistic compared to other creatures in the game
Reminds me a little bit of the Dragonkin, actually. Minus the magic, of course.
Bears IRL are anatomically fairly similar to humans so that makes sense. In anthropology it’s pretty common to confuse skeletal remains of bears with human remains.
@@Jormyyy When I saw them I wondered if they shared any animations with the apes (Guardian, Headless, the companion that helps out in the second headless fight) in Sekiro. They aren't one to one in movement of course but some attacks and animations looked similar, which ones exactly I couldn't say for certain actually.
This is interesting. Looking at all the different Miranda Sprouts(Toxin, Magic, Frenzied, and Rotten) and Red Wolves, they seem to be influenced by outer gods. If you remember from Placidusax's Remembrance of the Dragonlord, it mentions an outer god that he served as the previous Elden Lord and awaits the god's return. Maybe the bears are a sign that the dragon outer god is making an attempt to return to the world.
Placidusax is said to only be waiting for a god, not an outer god, so that could be the Marika figure of his civilization.
Dragons served Greater Will. Greater Will is all about gold, and Farum Azula is inspired by Varna Necropolis excavation site in Bulgaria (oldest gold items and most extensive gold burials in the world) and wings of dragons hide golden streaks in them. Placidusax the Elden Lord breathes golden flames. Farum Azula is adorned with Elden Ring imagery. Furthermore, Marika and Golden Order saw no harm to allow their populace to revere and emulate dragons, because both dragons and men worship in the end the same entity, as told by the Gravelstone Seal.
"The worship of the ancient dragons does not conflict with belief in the Erdtree. After all, this seal, and lightning itself, are both imbued with gold."
It seems that dragons were previous supplicants of the Greater Will, but something happened that caused the Five-Fingers to split into Two and Three, and Marika equivalent of the dragons left, leaving her/his Elden Lord behind. It does not seem that Outer Gods would leave the world even when thwarted. Rot God and Formless Mother are still very much active.
Greater Will then made a new attempt and sent Elden Beast to Lands Between and this time chose Marika and humans as its new envoys. This was the beef that dragons had with humans/gods/Marika. They did not like they had been supplanted in the grand scheme of things as the Greater Will´s chosen people. But in the end, both sides worked a compromise.
@@nightscout9979 The thing with this is Placidusax is said to be awaiting the return of this god, who fled him. When we first see Placi, he is in a near identical pose to that of the Two Fingers communing with the GW. We know that such communion takes place with Outer Gods, implying that Placi's god is an Outer one and not just a Marika type, but then, who would he be consort to as Elden Lord? Perhaps, did the god he served ascend to the status of an outer power? Theres a lot of mystery about the topic.
Knowing this link between dragons and rune bears, I feel much better to have died numerous times to these fiends. Together with those damn giant crows, rune bears have always been my Achilles' heel in all my different playthroughs.
No kidding. The only way I can even try to fight them is on horseback, but half the time they manage to knock Torrent out from under me anyway.
@@leyrua that's the strategy I used too. However, they are way too much effort, and what you get for defeating them isn't really that much worth it. So, after my first playthrough, I always run past them à la Forrest Gump
It used to be this way for me too. The strategy i use to make them really easy to fight is just hugging their butt and attacking out of rolls. Rinse and repeat till dead.
@@RealElequist That sounds like a good strategy. I never understood why they made them so strong (I always found them way more difficult than most bosses), but at least, knowing they're allegedly turning into dragon-bears, I can put up with their viciousness.
Sleep pots, my friend.
They work exceptionally well on both of those.
Anybody else came back to this after the DLC clip of the Dragonroar/runebear type incantation reveal?
Man.
I want to see a bear dragon now. That would be both amazing and terrifying.
pause.
Don't get your hopes up. We saw Donkey Dragons in the Shrek franchise and it wasn't pretty.
bear dragons? are you insane? rune bears are dangerous enough, don't tell them to make them even stronger!
Elden Ring 2, Bear Dragons let's go. Chop chop Fromsoft.
Goss Harag
Zulie figuring out the connection that the “bear communion” basically confirms. Gg on this video.
the simplest explanation would be that the dragon hearts they drop are their own hearts, obviously having undergone the beginning stages of transformation, it makes sense that a runebear's heart could be classified and used as a dragon heart for communion.
As far as "Plants grew in size and power through the strength of runes" there's a quote somewhere about "Miranda, maiden of the Flower Crucible is said to have been the very first of this breed" which also explains why these flowers are called Miranda.
This quote does raise questions, such as the "Flower Crucible", implying there is more than one Crucible. How this "Maiden" became this weird poisonous plant thing (And also could reproduce enough to create a fair number of them)
In regards to other large creatures... It's possible that Rune Bears attacked and ate Dragons, they're certainly ferocious enough to be able to best the smaller dragons, especially given that cave of bears right next to Greyoll. Though, the lobsters are strange, as they're the only such creature we see, there's no smol lobsters at all just these big annoying guys being all big and annoying in the lake.
Regular lobsters might be regular lobster sized, like... tiny lobby boys
In the lore discussion Ratatoskr and SmoughTown had they discussed how they both think "the crucible" isn't a thing but a process: struggle and evolution; this means all the separate factions and entities that interact with "the crucible of life" didn't necessarily have anything to do with each other. For example the erdtree was "connected" to the crucible not physically but because it and the vassals of the elden beast were struggling all other powers in the lands between. In this instance Miranda was struggling (in some fashion, not sure how plants would do that) and transformed in the process.
This is a bit of a jump but the crucible is usually associated with draconic features: the crucible knights use the "aspect of the crucible" incantations of breath, horns and tail; omens have horns, omen twins Margit/Morgott and Mohg have a tail and wings respectively. My interpretation of this is that in the world of Elden Ring there is a hierarchy of lifeforms: the more things struggle the the more powerful they become, at the end of this process you become the most powerful form of life i.e. a dragon. The runebears fit this pattern by becoming more draconic, though other "rune" creatures only become larger, maybe because bears start off stronger they are closer to dragonhood.
What an insane detail. I remember during the network test when people managed to get out of bounds and they were showing the runebear fight, it was insane lol
This might also explain why that one cavern at the bottom of the magic boulder slope near the bridge patrolled by the Dragon that connects the eastern rotten tree plateau with the landmass housing the beast clergyman has a rune bear as it’s first enemy despite being called something like Dragon Hovel/Barrow.
Having the Rune Bears drop dragon hearts makes waaaay more sense considering how difficult they are to kill in regular combat as well.
Having them drop Dragon hearts instead of some pesky beast bones and a liver would make them actually worth killing.
Also don't know if you realized this but the runebears also seem to have scales poking out of their fur in some spots, further strengthening the dragon connection.
They'd have to increase the cost of getting dragon incantations if dragon hearts were that plentiful ig
Honestly I have more trouble with them than actual dragons...
They probably dont drop Dragon Hearts because you can get enough for all of the Dragon Communion spells by killing all of the named Dragons (Greyoll included) and Magma Wyrms.
@@liastaob Unironically though, runebears are harder to fight consistently than dragons.
Because sure, dragons may have lots of health and hard-hitting AoE attacks, but everything they do is straightforward and telegraphed with a lot of visible wind-up, and their AI patterns usually give you openings very consistently. Unlike the runebears, which hit just as hard, but also spam attacks non-stop, move so fast that it's hard to make distance even on horseback, have several attacks that come out instantly (plus some variation attacks with different timings, to mess up your dodges), and have some attack hitboxes which are so exaggerated that they might as well be the same size as dragons.
@@MetalCaffeine56 What likely happened is that they originally intended to include Rune Bears in the Dragon Communion progression in some way (either by dropping a full heart or an heart "fragment"?) but decided to discard the idea because they realized how less interesting and frustrating to fight they are compared to actual dragons, changing the amounts of Dragon Hearts required for Dragon Communion accordingly, which is a very quick fix.
This would explain how hard they are to defeat and why they feel so special compared to other enemies, you can often find them in hard-to-reach places with little to no reward that never requires them to be killed (besides that one Rune Bear that drops a Talisman).
Kinda stupid to not have included a big rune drop for killing them at this point if you ask me. Might have been a late fix and they didn't want to risk affecting too much of the whole Rune progression with these big rune drops maybe?
These details make the “Bear communion” stuff from the DLC much more interesting lore-wise
imagine rune bears might actually turn into a magma wyrm... actually that would probably just make them easier to deal with than their default state.
Imagine a runebear that leaves magma everywhere then starts fighting on its hind legs without creating major weak spots.
@@nightscout9979 and then the legs break and it is actually just laurence
Theodorix on steroids
Bigger than Fire Giant
Fr tho
The bulk of a runebear's body -- large chest, narrow waist, wider hips -- also matches the shape of the dragon's body
Bears scavenge when they find a corpse. Could be that rune bears simply are the bears who happened upon a dragon heart or two. Enough to become more powerful but affecting them slightly different because they don't hunt the hearts down. I'm pretty sure magma wyrms became that way from continuously eating hearts for a while probably years. Trying to be like the dragons. Bear just found a heart and ate it he didn't know better or why it made him a rune bear.
Alternatively, could be from eating the corpse of someone who underwent dragon communion.
I feel that the closeness between Mistwood and Caelid might have explained where they found the hearts. maybe they were bears in Caelid before the rot happened. when the rot spread on the region, they fed on the dragon hearts and slowly moved to Mistwood.
I think there actually was a bear-centric cave in caelid around a minor erdtree. Maybe that means there used to be a natural overlap of territory between most dragons and bears.
@@CapraDaAlbaRegia Probably
2:37 Devalue the hearts? In my experience those freaking bears often posed the same, if not a bigger challange than the dragons.
This is an awesome detail, I only wish they had leant into it further. As cool as the rune bears are, I always felt their design was a bit bland - with them basically just being big bears. After this new found knowledge, I wonder why they didn’t lean into it more with maybe a patch of scales down their back or the beginnings of wings sprouting from their shoulder-blades. They could have even given them a dragon’s breath attack or simply just given their hide a more stony complexion - like the dragons have. Maybe it was simply because they wanted to keep this little tidbit of lore hidden.
They might also add it in the dlc
I think it's funnier for them to be just giant fucking bears.
their chest looks somewhat akin to a breath pouch, so i wouldn't put fire breathing out of the question as something that might've been intended
is the projectile roar not their breath attack? also you can see bits of gravel stone growing through their chest in some parts of the video
I dunno if they were intended to be draconic. The eyes are a pretty good connection but I wouldn't say it's out of the realm of a coincidence just yet. Dragon Heart could be a placeholder as Zullie suggests and the eyes really aren't all that especially distinct.
Zullie, I love your content. Super chill, informative, straight to the point and overall a great experience. Thanks for your hard work and dedication!
That transition from dragon&bear eye to the tarnished ayes was great!
The insane RuneBear in lower Calid (coming out the other side of Siofra River Well) would have worked well to be the only RuneBear to drop the DragonHeart.
This would have given players an idea that Bears this mighty were feeding on dragon hearts, which would explain their insane size and aggression.
However, seeing the runes on the chest made me believe some sort of sorcery had taken place to alter them. Both work, but eating a dragon heart is waaaaay cooler.
I like this idea. It would also incentivize people to engage with "normal" enemies instead of running past them, if they could sometimes drop unexpected and precious items, just as they do sometimes in Liurnia. It would also make sense that some sick dragon in Dragonbarrow could have tumbled down the chasm and be scavenged by a hungry bear.
or maybe the bigger one in dragonbarrow cave
Yeah, I always found it strange how the Rune Bear in earlier versions would drop a dragon heart; when I saw footage from Boss Fight Database about their playthrough of the network test, upon seeing the dragon heart drop, it was kinda strange how a bear would drop an item belonging specifically to dragons, but seeing this now, it makes more sense.
It's like that article that came out a while ago about how many creatures end up evolving into crabs
Those bears are scarier than any of the dragons lol. So damn fast
I love how concerned the runebear at 1:53 looks. Like you threw its cake on the floor or something.
LOL
Babe wake up new Zullie the Witch video dropped
Who's here after DLC trailer? The bears are actually realted to Dragons!!!
Whats worse than a rune bear?
A rune bear with wings and fire breath
Dragon?
@@meh8726 nah
dragons were ez
That would be an awesome boss idea
Whats worse than a rune bear with wings and fire breath?
One in a tiny cave
Zullie, you're the reason I force myself to put a lot of efforts into the (microscopic) games I make, and raise the bar of quality as much as possible (despite my amateur skills)
Because I'm always both mortified and hopeful to get such a dedicated and meticulous player, one day, and don't want to spoil the chance of getting him/her intrigued and rewarded if he/she starts digging deep into my creation.
You're an inspiration, and I thank you for that!
Wow I've been away from souls content for a while but this is amazing. We've reached a point where a established member of the community is influencing starting out game devs. I can still remember 2011 when ringing the bells of awakening still looked like a lengthy adventure and it's heartwarming how much these games are still changing a whole generation. Good luck with your games, your comment made my day.
pretty cool how you can see scales forming above where the heart would be, or maybe those are the spiky protrusions on the heart piercing through its skin?
I really wish there was more to the Dragon Communion. Maybe in the DLC we can grow scales.^^
just use the cosmetics and add them like the draconian preset
No please I hated past implementation
@@janogabor7697 bring back the emaciated goat
@@tinycervid7679 but even thinner this time
So long as the scales, wings, etc. can stay an adjustable cosmetic detail. I'm mainly happy that the dragon communion abilities give a drastically better, more versatile form of the dragon abilities from Dark Souls 1-3, in particular the super breath and dragon hands from 3.
Completely separate from the content of this video...
"The Bears are Turning into Dragons." is a weirdly poetic sentence
Lore! Keep up the good work. You're a gem.
Of course in a world where both the dragons and bears exist the bears would be strong enough to consume the dragons
Incredible stuff, seeing that the eye is exactly the same was legitimately jaw-dropping. Thank you for your hard work!
It's not often you see a channel do this well with no voice over and relying on people to read for information, but in your case it just seems to work.
👍👍
The dlc trailer confirmed this theory
I can't believe you people aren't getting it... There's TWO extremely important things here. First, look at where *and what* all these massive creatures eat. Consider the giant lobsters in Leyndell. What are they beneath? A giant decaying dragon. What are the giant crabs feasting on? The feces of dragons. Second, and more importantly you'll notice there's precisely *one* Giant Turtle and he didn't merely grow in size he grew in WISDOM. Just like the bears grew in ferocity, and the wolves grew in loyalty. Dragon Flesh amplifies what's already there.
It's crazy how they made the regional variant for Ursaring a dragon type.
I thought he was ground type
They may not drop dragon hearts anymore, but they sure as hell drop dragon farts, I tells ya.
Imagine fighting a rune bear and he simply starts breathing fire
Manbearpig? Are you cereal?!? There’s actual dragonturtlebears out there somewhere!!??!
I feel like we miss a lot of content because most creatures move at lightning speed and can do more moves in 1 second than I can in 10.
I honestly would love to see a mutated rune bear that starts to grow scales and wings. On the other hand its a rune bear... Ill take an entire game based around the lake of rot than to encounter one in the wild
Latest trailer for the dlc kinda confirms this???
Ever since the network test I thought that the runebear would have something to do with the dragon covenant in the game, but was disappointed when I played it and found no connection. Glad there is something to it. I loved the idea of the wilderness getting in on the magic and powers in game.
A magma wyrm with a rune bears moveset would be terrifying to stumble upon in the overworld
if that mofo started his quest as an Elden Lord, he'll easily get that shit.
I will never EVER turn into a dragon. Will you?
You know the idea of other creatures using Runes/Souls to get stronger never occured to me, it always felt so especial and unique to the player but yeah i guess there are ways one could still use them since its never implied everyone NEEDS a finger maiden, WE do but who knows if others do
there are many ways to do it eating like rykard, taking the skin like the godskin, taking their horns like the ancestral followers, taking their blood like mogh, taking their inwards like warrior pots, taking their ashes like the deathbirds, taking their primal glintstones like sellen, generally taking body parts or spirits etc...
I mean there goats that call lightning.
@@arcanask oh i see all this time they were trying to create the lord of goats how could i be so blind
With RuneFlower and RuneWolf it seems like the Runes were the initial concept for explaining why the Shardbearers are all larger than human, and why the corpses of Godrick & Morgott return to normal human size when you defeat them and take their Great Rune from them.
Additionally, Godrick's boss fight also shows that the Ancestral bloodline has a connection to Draconic lineage, and that was likely meant to have been something described with the Rune Bears, Wolves, & Flowers at early stages before the lore was expanded out a bit more.
It's cool that these little fragmented details still exist to piece those bits back together.
I'm interested to hear this theory of the golden lineage (or Marika's lineage) having a connection to the dragons. I interpreted Godrick's words as him merely thinking the dragon was true among dragons, while also projecting his own insecurities.
@@nightscout9979 Fortissax lives inside Godwyn's dream attempting to keep him alive, but becoming corrupted in the process. There's a clear link between them for that to happen, and Placidusax was the Elden Lord in the era before the Erdtree. There are plenty of small nods to those themes as early concepts, including Godrick having six fingers on one of his grafted hands, as that's a feature specific to the Ancient Dragons, with the extra digits growing from their wrists. Much like this, those themes seem to have shifted quite a bit through development.
@@PierceArner I don't see a link for the Fortissax thing beyond Fortissax just being a close friend of Godwyn and wanting to save said friend. I know that Placidusax was the earliest recorded Elden Lord, and he has gold eyes and gold fire, but there seems to have been a break in the civilizations. The dragons hearing of the Golden Order and attacking is treated like a surprise to Leyndell in that the ancient dragons exist and they're waging war. The rise of the Golden Order, Marika getting the Elden Ring, etc. all seem as if they occurred without any connection to or input from Farum Azula.
For Godrick's extra digit, I thought that was a product of his nefarious grafting, effectively trying to create a "super" hand. An extra digit isn't exclusive to him and the ancient dragons either, as Rykard has seven digits on his hands after being eaten by the God-Devouring Serpent, and Mohg has a stiff, bladed spike jutting out of his left hand like a finger.
The overgrown forelimbs could point to the transformation as well. They lend themselves to a sprawling gait unlike that of a mammal (more upright, with the legs underneath the body rather than out to the side) but similar to the belly-dragging crawl of the Wyrms.
The youtubers fighting the rune bears, and guys who make the rune bears fight, they don't know this.
Some.
I love this channel so much but I've barely played any FromSoftware games myself. (Most I've ever done is lose against that giant monster in Dark Souls 1 which falls out of the sky in like the first 5 min of the game).
Still, the videos are cool and they show interesting parts of games I've never played!
You missed the opportunity to say "You can Bearly see this"
This aged well with the DLC
Coming back to this after playing the DLC. You were dead-on, Zullie.
So they can become a dragon but we can't
But we can't
I guess that's the fate of a tarnished
double standards
If course this gets recommended after the Balder's Gate 3 debacle
ZULLIE, SURELY YOU HAVE NOTICED IN THE DLC TRAILER THE RUNE BEAR INCANTATION RIGHT?
Kinda missing the most important detail there. If Runebears are getting strong because of some dragon connection, fine whatever. But if the lobsters got that way due to turning runes into strength then that means somewhere out there, there's a little Lobster Maiden with a tiny hood.
My search begins.
You were right all along xd
This explains a lot with Runebears are so strong: they are either part dragon in that they, like the beastfolk of Farum Azula, draw strength from the primal power of the Ancient Dragons... Or are got strong enough through runes that they were able to kill a dragon and in eating it, consumed it's heart.
Most people probably noticed this but when placidusax goes into it’s second phase the sky clears up from all the clouds and lighting. The dragonlord basically absorbs or concentrates everything into its attack itself.
My theory is the dragons are purposefully giving these bears power. Perhaps in some sort of play to offset the many killed dragons, they have turned to creating new ones via animals. The rune bears seem non-grotesque in nature which, in my mind, lends to their transformation not being triggered by forceful consumption of hearts.
Plus, how are so many bears going to kill dragons?
The amount of detail put into this game is honestly just inspiring.
Oooor it was just a bug that has been patched and the eyes are a reused assed 🤷🏼♂️
@@PhilGerb93 Even if that were the case, the rest of the game speaks for itself.
Too bad they didn't work on balancing the game and working out the bugs that have been present since fucking demon souls 🙄 this litteraly could have been the best game ever and not a 6.5.
I barely play anymore but still keep up to date with everyone of your videos
runebear greyolls roar incantion
Great. Another nightmare fuel after Elden Ring... Now its not just Rune bears, but FLYING RUNE BEARS!
They could have kept the heart drop for rune bears, but just made it either a one-time encounter with a special rune bear that doesn't respawn, or make the drop extremely rare from the bears.
It could be interesting if a single Rune Bear dropped a single Dragon heart, even a "malformed dragon heart", one that doesn't have any effect, or maybe when consumed, replenishes FP (only one use, it's more a clue item than a usable item).
I'd also like to point out- the rune bears' arms being longer might be a sign of them extending into the magma wyrm style forearms, and then their chest is shaped similarly to dragons' chests. Could be that they're being warped into dragons
In the ever growing list of things I never would have noticed if not for this channel: Dragon Bears
Isn’t the symbol on their chest a dragon head with two wings on each side? You can clearly see the triangular head and two horns/ears on top at 1:46
They could have made it that just a few selected Runebears drop hearts because those were extremly close to the transformation, would have been cool i think. And also a very nice "What the actual ..." Moment
Its kinda like how everything attempts to evolve into a crab.
Exactly.
Your content is lovely, someday youll be bigger than Vati
This would also help explain the wonky proportions, as their legs are fairly short while their arms are long, similar to Elden Ring's dragons.
As others have mentioned, this makes sense given the sheer difficulty of fighting them making what they drop not worth the trouble. When I first started playing and started exploring Mistwood, I easily killed a bear and was wondering what all the fuss about the bears was. I stupidly picked a fight with a bear scratching on a tree. I've never had a more panicked ride away from an area/enemy than the moment I realized 1) just how massive the bear was, 2) just how little damage I was dealing, and 3) how it very nearly killed me in one hit.
Later on in Liurnia I was riding around the edge of the lake and I ran into one of the rune bears. I didn't expect to see it there, so I rode away as fast as I could. I still managed to aggro it and it chased me for far longer than I thought it would before it killed me. The longer aggro ranges on enemies really starts to annoy me after a while.
Love the peaceful tortoises. Something lovely that doesn't want to annhiliate you is always nice to find.
Now i wish they would add Giant Snapping Turtles lashing on you from the swamp if you've hit the regular, innocent turtle, proceeding to, ugm, snap you apart with their tremendous beak-maw
I'd rather fight a dragon than a rune bear.
I don't play Elden Ring and don't play videos games at all, but these videos are deeply soothing and captivating.
A+!
these things killed me more then anything else in elden ring , except maybe double pumpkinheads
ah yes, runebears, the real final bosses of elden ring