Cool little detail I just noticed on my latest playthrough: outside Seethewater Cave in Mount Gelmir is a single sentry with a torchpole. When you first find them they are sitting staring at a Miquella's Lily. When you pick the lily (and it doesn't respawn) the enemy now stands and stares off into the distance. It actually made me feel a little bad for taking it away from the sentry.
It was so wild to see Melina use that Erdtree incantation when I finally summoned her for that fight. Such a cool little detail that not many will witness.
I agree with you that the animators are not lazy at all. For example here's a little detail I noticed in my first playthrough. When I fight Blaidd after he turned hostile outside Ranni's Rise, his movesets are different from usual (like when fighting Radahn) because he was losing his sanity. His attacks are turning into more beast-like. They even give him a grab attack that he push you to the ground and bites your head like a starving beast. I always love these little details and unique animations from the developers.
Like Maliketh he is a shadow serving the will of the two finger, but Blaid felt like a brother to Rann, it's when the will of the two fingers crossed that of Ranni that his shadow like being takes over and we see it with his moveset being similar to that of Maliketh a d the fact that it does true death damage
We know since blaidd apeared at the launch trailer about his similarities with Guts, but also, i found so similar the way he fights, when he's sane, he fights like sane Guts and when he's mad, he fights like Guts at his beserk state
I remember hearing that in the very final hours of the night, the wandering mausoleums will “Fall asleep” it would have been such a good use for more of the sleep animations if more enemies could be found dozing off at this extremely late time
Why is it ppl bitch and say, "they re used enemy types" or "they re used animations", but u go play halo or call of duty or god of war and there's a few enemies and animations and NO ONE SAYS ANYTHING.
@@dont-touch-mepg1392 While I agree that reused enemies isn’t a big deal, I do need to point out that many people complained about Halo’s and GoW’s lack of enemy variation and how often they were reused
Ain't that the truth. Also has he mentioned the red piece of Radagon's hair in the Amber? Oh shit, maybe we will get a Raptor Radagon mutant child in the DLC, bc u know, OG Jurassic Park... Amber dinosaur DNA... maybe not, lol. He didn't seem too on this video, but im not too into Vaati for anything but production quality by the ppl he hires.
About hussars wings - Those feathers were usually from metal parts, so when they were attacking by thousands of soldiers - sound would be terrifying for their enemies
The thing about hussars' wings is actually a myth. They didn't wear those wings in battle, at least not until very late years of the formation's existence, but even then they were used very rarely by hussars, as the wings were too fragile and didn't give any advantage in battle (the sound created by them scaring enemies is also a myth - if seemingly unkillable elite horses were charging at you at full speed, you wouldn't even notice a sound made by a few feathers, especially when there were guns and cannons shooting right next to you). The wings were only a decorative element that hussars used during parades. At first they used only one black wing attached to the horse, not two white wings on the back of the horseman, as those most likely appeared in late XVII century or even in XVIII century, when the formation was basically obsolete and was only seen in parades. On the painting "Battle of Kircholm" by Peter Snayers you can see a very detailed depiction of hussars who have no wings at all. And it's unlikely it was a mistake, as all the other equipment is depicted properly, as it was. The myth of two-winged hussars was created by Polish poets and painters in XIX century who had no idea how the formation actually looked like in battle.
I've heard that they wore them, but with no feathers. Those "rails" were designed to counter one of the turkish weapon which was aimed at raiders neck. Don't know if it was 100% true thou
Having "Someone is always moving on the surface" from Armored Core For Answer playing in the background in the opening of the video sends me so many good nostalgic memories. This is great. Thanks, Vaati!
@@mikeshogunlee he should to read it in his usuall serious voice, as if hes explaining the lore of Jan Sobieski, Scourge of The Ottomans, and not reading off Sabaton lytics.
Honestly, the history of Poland might as well be Fromsoft lore due to how much backstabbing, colossal falls from grace and generally inexplicable bullshit has happened in it.
The Armored Core music fits Elden Ring surprisingly well. I'm so happy to hear it again. I think I hear a little bit of AC Nexus' "Shining" in the beginning of Malenia's fight as well.
I bought a Godfrey discplate (my very first discplate!) for my admiration of his character In a world where people can fly about, shoot lasers, throw moons at you, etc., the fact that Godfrey became Elden Lord by being “dude with axe” is REALLY impressive Like Radahn uses magic to amplify his strength but Godfrey is LITERALLY just “Dude with axe"
And considering "Dude with axe" literally had a spirit on his back containing his full power, it becomes even more impressive that he was still so strong with that imposed limit.
That's sch a good point, and if you think about it Godfrey is really uniquely terrifying to face given that not only is he just "dude with axe," but we know he's really "dude with axe who's really, really trying hard to hold back his strength," because when he realizes this "lowly tarnished" is actually giving him some trouble, his reaction is to ditch the axe, kill his empyrean, Serosh, the lion, and he becomes "just dude," fighting you with minimal armor and his bare hands, and his bare hands are a step up from "massive axe." That's a genuinely frightening level of power. Some other folks beat me to the proverbial punch (no pun intended,) but this was quite a realization for me lol. Godfrey is truly a madlad.
Your mention of the spirit bell and bell bearings reminds me of the necromancer Sabriel from the eponymous 1995 novel by Garth Nix. In the book, Sabriel has seven bells she uses to control spiritkind. For example, the tiniest bell, named Ranna, is used to send spirits to sleep and bind them, including one named Mogget. The largest bell is named Astarael, whose power sends everyone who hears it - including the user - to death. Is it just me or do many of these names ring familiar? The Old Kingdom series that Sabriel is from is fairly well known. I wouldn't be surprised if inspiration was drawn from it.
Might be worth noting, regarding how the player ends up in the Stranded Graveyard, that if you manage to beat Grafted Scion and instead get killed by the crumbling cliff past its boss room, you actually *keep* the runes you gained from killing the Scion. It might imply you don't actually "die", even if it does play the You Died prompt on the screen. I think it lends credence to the "washed up on shore at high tide" interpretation; you end up falling into the ocean one way or another, and you wash up in the cave on the shore, alive but unconscious.
The entrance to the cave (where one of the dragon amulets is) you awake in is a bit too far from the coast, but it could have been high tide or the alabaster lord camping there could have tossed you in.
@@devoidofvoltz2562 guess it didn't want to deal with an annoying tarnished waking up. He's got no time to be a tutorial NPC. So he just yeets you in there
That’s just a gameplay thing because you can’t get back there for a long time. Demon’s souls does the same thing where beating the vanguard boss lets you keep its souls, but you’re immediately punched to death by the skyscraper sized dragon god and become a spirit.
If you want a history class Check out smoughtown his videos are alot more in depth and honestly where alot of this information comes from with proper citing to the original sources of these theories. Hawkshaw and eredin are very good as well
@@chance_hollow don't forget Tarnished Archeologist! He actually literally lays out elden rings history through the buildings, roads and statues. It's insane how thought out this world is
@@k1xnt Unbelievable that they only have 25k subs, their research and elucidations are by far the most insightful content on the Lands Between. Thesis level scholarship.
@k1xnt_ Broo yess that dude is sickly. So much to learn about the real world from this game as well. I just didn't see it as definite lore speculation and more environmental story telling
The needle in the eye makes so much sense when you connect it to the Marika/radagon sore seal after all they are the eyes of an empyrean/gods . Same goes for the stone eye of death given by maliketh
Also it is symbolic in that if you are a vessel of an outer god then presumably that god is aware of you and your surroundings - seeing through you as it were. Therefore sticking a needle in your own eye is a means of blinding that god, at least in so far as its ability to use you as a camera (and now I'm picturing the outer gods sightjacking people in the Lands Between as if this were a Siren game, oh goody).
Thanks so much for the shout out Vaati! Really unexpected!
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History enthusiast from Poland here. Unfortunately it’s just the urban legend. The “wings” in this form weren’t used in the combat, only (rarely) during the parades. It’s difficult to fight and to mount a horse with a “backpack” like this. However, a single “wing” or feathers were often attached to the saddle on a horse. Why? Firstly, they sounds like a massive hoofbeat when riding (you may think that there are more raiders) and secondly, it protects the raider from being attacked from the back side or lassoed.
I always thought the Nights of the Cuckoo took that symbol because they were secretly working against the golden order despite living in their lands. Their friendship with the giants makes sense in this context, and with the aforementioned treasure from Nokron sharing the same symbol it might even be possible that Caria as a school and province were created by refugees from the destruction of Nokron. This is further reinforced by the giant corpses seen underground AND in Sellia, and there's even a mimic tear near the finger slayer blade in Nokron that turns into a troll, likely meaning trolls visited that city at some point in the past. Crystallians might have even been created by the giants for Caria, and if the previous things are also true it seems more and more probable as we learn more.
The Crystallians being created for the sorcerers, or perhaps more accurately for the old astrologers, by the giants is actually genius. Hell Iji probably made his own crystal mask
There's an entire conspectus dedicated to studying crystalians. It wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for the Carians not to know of their origins, since they canonically do not know where the Crystalians came from. They even believe that the Crystalians are silently waiting for a Crystal god to come in and make more of them. It never specifies giants as their makers despite the fact that the trolls (distant relatives of the Giants) and the Carian royals are allies.
@@darthskele I always got the sense that the Carians were lying to the common sorcerer in their ranks about where the Crystalians come from, just like the golden order has many secrets it would make sense for Caria to withhold many things about their past as well if they truly were refugees from Nokron.
@@kaden1991 We would need more evidence to suggest that this is the case. The Golden Order kept secrets for the sake of public image, while Raya Lucaria kept secrets in order to keep students from gaining knowledge that would damage them physically. The graven heads, the sorcerers Azur and Lusat. They don't care about public image as much as they do damage control. And the Crystalians don't seem to be dangerous to study, because otherwise they'd be cast out as well. And I don't see why they'd feel the need to keep their creators a secret if said creators have all been wiped out already and are no longer a threat to the public at large.
Vaati makes the waiting time for the DLC sweet again 💜 Melina's death animation is so beautiful and sad but i also love how leaves a ray of hope behind as her final action
Why is it ppl bitch and say, "they re used enemy types" or "they re used animations", but u go play halo or call of duty or god of war and there's a few enemies and animations and NO ONE SAYS ANYTHING.
@@dont-touch-mepg1392 don’t go away , there is reused things in sekiro and bloodborn but these guys are jealous from elden ring that they can’t see the whole pic
Dude, thank you for giving props to FromSoft animators. They are absolutely industry leaders at this point, they came a long way and now are there with the most awesome animation teams, alongside nintendo, capcom, santa monica sony, etc.
Smooth and fluid animations are hard and tedious work that doesnt get appreciated enough! For how huge and varied their enemies/NPCs are FromSoft does an amazing job. Only studio above them would be the Monster Hunter team, those guys are insane
2:07 fun fact: The Winged Hussars actually never wore those wings in battle. It is a myth that many people think is true. They were ceremonial decorations for parades or such. I think they did have some form of wings but not the ones sticking out their backs.
To me, the noise you hear before you end up in the stranded graveyard sounds like the flapping of wings. My headcannon is that the spirit of the Stormhawk King carries you from the graveyard just before you're completely dead, and drops you in the hole to the cave, to await the moment you will reunite his ashes with the rightful heir to the Stormhill.
I was in the comments to say the same thing, i wonder if that means someone summoned the spirits using the ashes and then left? Melina? Ranni? The dead finger maiden? Maybe he just acted on his own? It would also make sense as giant birds carrying the player out of the tutorial “nest” is a dark souls motif.
That Bell-bearing theme is present in other Souls games In Dark Souls you ring 2 bells, 1 well above Undead Burg and one at the bottom of the world in order to summon the 2 serpents. Dark Souls 3 on ArchDragon peak. There are summoners who use bells to summon champion spirits like Havel to attack you at the beginning of the area, and at the very end you ring a giant bell which summons The Nameless King
This is Belfry Sol/Belfry Luna erasure, the hidden bells have great story significance in Dark Souls 2 through telling us about Venn and Alken, and their respective prince and princess. Curious to think who might be the mysterious male from the place named Venn, were it not for our great king Vendrick. The Bells are the foundation upon which our understanding of Dark Souls 2 lore stands!
@Ozsun Vendrick is 100% not from Venn, it was the princess of Venn and the prince of Alken who made the bells. The prince of Alken most likely becoming the Old Iron King who conquered Venn later on.
I always thought it was so weird there was that random hole in Limgrave that was basically a random kill plane in the terrain. Perhaps there were plans to have more of them throughout the world, and maybe even incorporate them into dungeon designs (perhaps some caves could only be entered via these holes), it's interesting to think about.
Little fact that may have been gone over already at some point: the named crucible knights, Ordovis and Siluria, are both named after periods in the Paleozoic era, the Ordovician and Silurian. Both of these periods take place next to each other from 485 mya to 419 mya combined; A testament to the primeval nature of the knights.
If you remember the network test, the sleep effect was originally going to be much more powerful, so I'm not surprised they all have sleep animations. I was under the impression they just nerfed it into oblivion after watching people exploiting it.
A cool detail I noticed recently while playing, the Cleanrot Knight at the shaded castle (not the one near the elevator) will randomly start attacking things and the air while patrolling. I think this is because they're lost their mind due to the rot. I'm not sure if any other Cleanrot knight does this.
thank you for putting respect on these animators. the animations in these games are awesome, and reusing assets is not fundamentally lazy. as you said, it allows them to put more time in where it's really needed and they clearly put in the work. it's no joke creating and organizing all of these different animations.
The Cuckoo theme being its own thing, not associated with Radagon, Renala, and the egg, but seeming like it is, might be the most meta design detail in the whole game. ;)
Glad you acknowledged the translators/writers. The writing throughout the items and their descriptions has this familiar yet mysterious poetic nature that must require incredibly talented translators to maintain across languages.
Sidenote, and im not sure if you mentioned this before but I think most people will overlook this small detail... SPOILER If you fight Alexander in Farum Azula at the end of his questline, you may or may not have noticed that fire attacks have next to no effect against him. This is due to the fact that Alexander, as a precursor to your inevitable duel and an attempt to strengthen his body, bathed in the lava pools of Mt. Gelmir, in effect strengthened his body to the point of becoming imperviose to all lava and flame attacks.
Funnily enough I was using the sword of night and flame against him and wondered why the fire wasn't hurting him. Then after I beat him I was like "Oh yeah.....he was just tempering himself in lava."
By far the best sleep animation is Rykard's Get falls asleep, smasheshis face on the lava immediately waking up then puts his hand over his nose while grunting in pain
#11 is called LOD or Level of Detail (if it applies to models) or Mipmap (if it applies to textures. Basically, this is an optimization feature. It doesn't make sense to render all those details or high-res texture when the object is far away and the details take less than a pixel. So games actually store several different "levels" of textures and objects that are controlled by the proximity to the camera. Those trees far in the distance are usually just a couple (or sometimes even 1) flat planes with a blurry texture on them. But because they're so far you can't see it.
I find it so interesting that we learn the reason melina is called what she is, is because she most likely was messmer's sister, and had been with him for a long time. And after witnessing what he was forced to do, left the realm of shadow and came to the lands between, searching for one who could lead her to the erdtree. Upon finding the impenetrable thorns, she leads us to the mountaintops, to burn the erdtree to reveal a secret kept away from all except Marika. That a god had been residing inside, commanding these atrocities. You slay this god, and bring about a new age. One of stars, One of curses, One of death, One of rebirth, Or you burn it all away and cleanse the world of everything its become. But, you also find your way to the shadow of the erdtree, the land that the god you slayed hated, for it had the only other being that communicated with its creator and a gate that leads to godhood. So it waged war, destroying the land and imprisoning and shackling the people there. And sealing it from all outside intruders. But it couldn't seal it from everything, the formless mother and goddess of rot had gotten inside. Turning parts of the land into their domain, with the ruins being taken over, and the wildlife becoming infected. The formless mother granted this power to mohg, who became enchanted by miquella, and brought him into the realm of shadow. Where he called out for those who would serve him to the realm of shadow. And abandoned everything he was. Even saint trina, his alter ego. But not all he called was there for miquella, the tarnished had not been called there by miquella. They had slain lord mohg and radahn, and were not there for him. And is the one who would come to slay both miquella and messmer, the two leading forces that had dominance over the realm of shadow. Melina and Messmer, both could use the power of flame to burn sealing tree's. This is all my theory, the other stuff like how bayle and placi could annihilate the gods when working together are other examples of why the erdtree only came to power when the dragons faded away, their god having left them. Even though they lost their god, their lord had been searching for him. And could've found him had we not arrived to slay him.
Vaati: There's a way to parry like Sekiro Me: great, how this could be useful to me on my next rerun. How do I do it? Vaati: Requires frame perfect timing and skill Me: ... I think I'll just stick to panick rolling
The bell bearing one was amazing! I always wandered why that name and why Elemer of the Briar seeks them. I'm very curious about further discoveries. Great job for finding this detail.
VaatiVidya, You don't know me but I have been going through some very rough times recently. But your video's really helped me calm down and relax in times where i was very anxious and stresses. You were always here when I had no one else. I just want to thank you with my whole heart. You are an amazing RUclipsr. Thank you for changing my life and probably many more. We love you.
The beauty in the first two mins of this video is astonishing, melina casting one last incantation, the burning of the tree, millicent in despair. the music. the way you edit these videos is on another level!
I was always wondering why we couldn't knock those Tree Sentinel people off their horses. There is always a reason for almost every detail in a From Software game. Very cool
The quality of those shots! The breathtaking scenery added to the brilliant content and commentary is just something we should never take for granted as viewers who enjoy it for free. Thank you so much Vaati.
I was literally binge watching your videos on Bloodborne thinking it's been some time since you uploaded the Miquela lore video. Imagine my excitement to see this notification pop up of a new video exactly as I think that
I remember hearing that in the very final hours of the night, the wandering mausoleums will “Fall asleep” it would have been such a good use for more of the sleep animations if more enemies could be found dozing off at this extremely late time🙃
The red and blue twinned cuckoo seems similar in appearance to the Twinbird kite shield, which describes the entity as the envoy of an outer god of death, from where the deathbirds, and the ghostflame, originate. Presumably that same symbol is the one we see in the eternal city iconography. "Insignificance of physical bodies" also implies a relation to death. We also see this twinbird icon (quite similar to the one on the Nokstella Moon) outside Maliketh's boss room in Farum Azula. Not entirely sure what this means but thought I'd mention this apparent connection.
As a Pole I appreciate mentioning the husars. The husars were actually nobles from the most influential noble houses who attended battles in 16th and 17th century, no mere commoner could be a part of the husars.
My god, that point about the statues turning heads on to you - such an AMAZING way to both perform a LOD switch and at the same time scare the shit out of the players!! LOVE IT! 🖤
You’ve become my favorite channel! Thank you so much for making all of your Elden Ring videos. I’m new to the game and your videos have taught me so much lore and have allowed me to be even more obsessed with the game! Thanks again :)
Was wondering when you'd talk about what "bell bearings" are. I was surprised you didn't mention it in your other videos that discussed death, spirits, etc. We use items such as bell bearings and a spirit calling bell to summon aspects of those that have died (spirit ashes, merchant items, etc.). Pretty cool
About Mikella's needle: this is a reference to a traditional Japanese childhood promise, for breaking which a person promises to eat a thousand needles / stick a thousand needles in the eye. By breaking our "promise" with the Frenzy Flame, we are fulfilling our own punishment, so that the Frenzy Flame cannot break the rules we set: the promise is broken, the violator is punished, which means no more interference.
I wonder if that's where "cross my heart and hope to die,stick a needle in my eye" comes from..... I bet it does. You may have just taught a stranger something. Thanks!
@@angbald cross my heart hope to die stick a needle in my eye, is a old Christian saying, cross my heart being the original, and children later adding the stick a needle in my eye for added painful promise. (Children are psycho lol) I think what @konteenu is referring to is the Japanese ‘pinky promise’ where if you break it, you’ll drink a 1000 needles (or have your pinky cut off).
In french, the bell bearings are called "perles cinéraires". Perle is pearl, but cinéraire mean "who's function is to hold a defunct person ashes". Following the french translation, Bell bearings contain ashes.
2:52 actually, the wings on the Polish Hussar’s backs would flap in the wind as they charged, and the furious noise would spook the enemy’s horses! Their own horses were trained to ignore the noise. It’s a rare example of warfare against the enemy cavalry’s horses, not the men themselves.
I wonder, if we take the idea that Radagon was "made" as a fighter against Renalla and the plan was to destroy her from within as true, the reason Radagon and Marika are in conflict is due to Radagon being a "copy" of Marika at that point in time and Marika in the capital was undergoing a change in heart about the Elden Ring and the Golden Order. Kind of like in the game SOMA where a person had their conciousness copied into a computer and so two versions of the same person could exist but after that moment, due to different experiences, became different people despite originating as copies. So when Radagon was "copied" from Marika they had the same ideas and goals but after that moment they both experienced different things and had completely different lives and so trying to merge back together was extremely destructive and basically impossible for a true merging to happen. A side note I find very odd and somewhat disturbing is, how of all the major bosses and their iconic and quotable lines exist but Radagon and the Elden Beast never say anything. Marika as well never speaks. I wonder if they are even alive at that point, meaning Marika and Radagon. I can understand the Elden Beast not having lines but the silence of Radagon and Marika bothers me a lot. It has an eery similarity to what happened with Godwyn. Their bodies are alive and doing what they do but there is no spirit or conciousness in them. It feels very odd and way too important to be like "fromsoft forgot to give them lines." Its clearly intentional that neither Radagon or Marika ever speak. They don't even have voice actors.
Glad it wasn't just me who thought that. Yeah considering how important and lore-filled Radagon's history is, and how he's this crazy other side to the goddess we've been hearing so much about, you'd think when we come to kill him, after burning his precious tree, he'd have something, anything, to say. His predecessor Godfrey has a nice little repartee with us. But Radagon is just....silent. He barely even makes any noises of effort or yells or anything at all other than the noise of his attacks.
The Primal Glintstone, and usable rune items are also wrapped around a bell bearing. If no one can really die and pass on, the soul's gotta go somewhere. So it solidifies. And then you are literally putting their soul back into their ashes when you summon them.
Yea, I get the feeling this doubles as the Shinto (Dao or Buddhist too?) soul ball that reside in the anus, and that has been mentioned in connection with THE LOATHSOME DUNGEATER. It heavily implied that is what he defiles in order to spread the curse.
6:01 _" And you could argue that it was almost Radagons sole purpose to get close to Rennala and undo her _*_from within._*_ "_ I see what you did there. 😏
there's people the world are better off for having them in it and this guy is one of them. watching his vids and playing elden ring always makes me want to write a fantasy novel, so inspiring
Its also worth noting that because of their wings and reputation, the Hussars were referred to as "The Angels of death". Also there's a few references which states that when enough speed was generated, the wings would "buzz" and vibrated, this sound caused the opposition's horses to panic.
Not sure if you know but the wings on the back of the Hussars where made in a way to catch the wind as they rode it made a sound that struck fear into the hearts of those they charged
I thought I would share historical information from my homeland about a battle in which the Polish hussars won the battle despite the disadvantage. ---------------------- As a fun fact, I'll add that these hussar wings were used mainly in ceremonies and only in the 18th century. Normally the wings were straight, not curved and were attached to the saddle and were made of vulture and eagle feathers. They were practically never used in battles. Hussar wings did not come from nowhere. The truth is a little different and is scarier. Wings are flying pennants divided into two parts attached under the spearhead of 6-meter hussar lances, and every hussar had such a lance. When a horse is speeding at full speed of more than 50 km/h, thousands of pennants begin to flutter in the wind and cause a huge noise. A large number of pennants flying in the wind on lances gives an optical illusion as if a lot of wings are attacking us and, by the way, it lowers the morale of soldiers and scares the enemy cavalry. The speeding horse would pound the enemy army whether they were spearmen or not, and it was noted in records that the record was 6 musketeers impaled on one lance. Hussar wings are like winged lances causing terror on the battlefield. We had the best sabers that easily won against the Japanese katana in every respect, we had the best cavalry in the world for many centuries until the 18th century came and the nobility squandered everything and the cavalry ceased to exist. The greatest victories of the Polish hussars: - The Battle of Khotyn or Battle of Chocim or Hotin War | year 1621: 600 hussars charge and destroy in a bloody massacre a 10,000-strong army of Turks, professional and well-equipped soldiers and thus professional army and Janissaries prepared for battle, about 50-60 hussars fell. - The Battle of Kircholm | year 1605: The Swedes' threefold superiority over the hussars. The battle lasts 20 minutes. Ends with a slaughter of the Swedes. The hussars strike directly at the infantry quadrupeds equipped with two long spears blowing them to smithereens. - The Battle of Klushino, or the Battle of Klushino | year 1610: Opening the road to Moscow. 2,700 hussars, after a 25-kilometer fast march, strike at the fortified Swedish-Russian camps, where 25,000 professional troops are stationed plus a host of infantry and volunteers to the tune of 35,000, the hussars destroy the fences with their horse chests and leap over the sharpened stakes, destroy 18,000 troops, and destroy all the rest to pieces to the tune of 8,000 to 15,000 dead with the loss of 120 Polish hussars. I ask myself: Why does no one create games where the action takes place in Poland? In Slavic countries? So many amazing battles, such an interesting mythology. Thank you Vaati for drawing attention to the hussar wings. Polish rarely appears in games unless it's about The Witcher, so it's a nice touch in these great games from FromSoftware.
Melina is not the one who walks alongside flame, we are. That sentence is a prophecy (maybe even "the" prophecy that is referred by several of the flame incantations). We're the one who meets the road of Destined Death eventually, and it's even one of the best explanations we have at the moment as to why we're suddenly teleported to Farum Azula after lighting the forge.
I think bell bearing is wordplay on the ball bearings for Pachinko games. You win the balls in the game, then you need to go to another store to get your prize items. This is reflected in the game where you can bring the balls to the husks to get more items. This would be something very familiar to the dev team.
I had an interesting idea about Marika/Radagon and a connection to nokstella/nokron. The society of the underground citys apparently are the creators of silvertears and Albinaurics, both artificial life forms meant to mimic humans. What if it didn't end there. Numen are human like creatures, that somehow never seem to age (and apparently can swap gender?) What if the evolution of their artificial lifeforms went: silver tears > Albinaurics > Numan Numan also sounds an awful lot like Newmen. It would explain Marikas godlike lifespan and her connection to the cuckoo. I remember getting inspired to this idea by your video about the eternal citys, but don't recall all the sources right now. I hope someone can make the connection with this little idea in mind tho. I might try to put it all together and put it on redit, but I don't have mutch time atm... I hope you guys read this, cause I think I might really be on to something here 😅
Fun fact, the Polish Winged Hussar armor wasn't just for visual intimidation. Apparently, during a charge, the wings would make a terrifying "hissing" or "buzzing" noise in the wind that could be heard even over the charging horses.
Actually another more practical reason for the wings of the polish hussars was to prevent the riders being dragged down their horses by ropes. The wings made it really difficult to throw ropes around them from the ground. Great video!
@VaatiVidya if you go to that spot 14:32 at night you can actually hear the crucified guys on the top so I'll say it solves the thing hih. Much love < 3
Actually, I never understood why would you criticize devs for 'reusing' the animation, when, if you watch direct comparison between ER and DS3, you can see, just how much smoother ER's animations are. They're not just reused, they're the same movements, but executed better. Improved upon, or recreated - doesn't matter at that point.
I have wondered if Rennala actually birthed their children, or if it was through the Golden Egg they were born. This would explain her obsession with it - to either rebirth Ranni, or to convince Radagon to return when she could make more children for them. However, without him, nothing will truly come of the egg, and Ranni's soul cannot be retrieved by it since she has bound it elsewhere. This would further cement the idea that the current Empyreans are demi-god children of one god. Marika and Radagon are the same, so Melania and Miquella are of course of one... but the three children of Radagon are also just of them in that sense, born of this egg. Truly laying eggs in another's nest, and having the nest owner raise them as her own.
5:40 Marika is Numen. Same as the people of the ancient underground cities. It's likely their culture was known to Marika as a lot of Leyndell architecture seems to take inspiration from them.
I've been playing with the reforged mod and the timed blocking/deflecting in it feels amazing, can't believe it's not in vanilla not to mention the camera fixes adds too.
There is a lot of misconceptions about the hussar wings, because later reproductions erroneously put two wings attached to the back of their armour, but this is just the rule of cool. In reality there was one "wing" and it was attached to the saddle. It's job was to prevent anyone unhorsing the hussar using a lasso and it was directly inspired by the mongols. The terrifying wing sound is likely a mistranslation from old polish and is believed to refer to the sound made by long tails of the flags they had on their lances. Lets be real - how much noise would anything have to make to be heard over the thunder of galloping heavy cavalry? Twin wings on hussar's armour look amazing but aren't any more real than contemporary fantasy armour.
Fromsoft never seizes to amaze me with their attention to detail. Thanks @Vaatividya for yet again again again and again bringing these to us. Your videos always makes me want to play it again for the 6th time now. Keep on keeping on being so though rough Hope St. Trina DLC will be an amazing one, I have no doubt that it will be. I hope it's as good or better than BB's DLC was , cause that was nothing short of the best DLC ever made by any studio.
The blade of calling doesn't call Melina "the one who walks alongside flame", it alludes to the fact that if the Tarnished serves the frenzied flame, they'll be met with Destined Death. This alludes to the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending, where Melina says something similar
I'll have to disagree on the animators bit. It makes sense to reuse animations for things like weapon attacks, common enemies etc but for what are supposed to be "set piece" encounters, it sucks to see them repeated throughout the game and also be reskinned versions of enemies found in previous From games. Like the massively overused Erdtree Avatar is literally just a reskinned Asylum Demon. It's basically the equivalent of some games having a red or blue color version of an enemy that is the same enemy but tougher.
My man, you're beginning to stretch the definition of secret. I'm interested in everything you presented here but maybe the video could have a different title? Like that angel statue loading in and looking like it's facing you - that's not a secret, it's just an interesting tidbit about something that happened to a member in the community and your explanation.
Renalas scholars falling or throwing themselves out the cradles could be a way of mimicking the cuckoo lore as well. Them falling and then dying become reborn could be a metaphor for the way a cuckoo bird gets thrown out of the nest only to die and become born again. Love the videos
I believe that the Warrior Jars were inspired by the imagery of Takeda Shingen dead in a jar in Akira Kurosawa's film "Kagemusha". When the theif-double of the emperor guy carefully cracks the jar apart about 30 mins into the movie, the first shard he places on the ground looks very much like Alexander's shard talisman. I just watched this movie and I've been looking around online to see if anyone is talking about it. The most I can find is people noticed in Sekrio, the red Interior Ministry samurai which invade Ashina near the end of the game are probably Takeda's, which you see all throughout Kagemusha. FromSoft have referenced Kurosawa films before so I'm thinking it might be a real connection
14:22 ShieldScuff is right. I'm 16 hours into my 5th character build and I went back to the Stranded Graveyard cave and can hear the hanging body's screaming. From where you awake. Funny though, I checked on my other 4 characters and I don't hear this audio. Weird..This just happen and I thought of this video.
My friend showed me your channel last night and I must request you make a 12 hour video because your voice is so soothing, I know nothing about elden ring or the dark souls series but I am now invested because you make it very enjoyable and interesting. Sorry for the run on sentence 😅 but I truly think it would be an appreciated video
I love the fact that FromSoft reuses old animation assets. Like you said it allows them to put that effort they otherwise would have spent into new things. Especially when you consider how many new animations there are in ER.
Prepare to Cry next week!
WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
They aren't prepared👀
Can’t wait!
AAAAHH finally yes, I've been waiting since you put the trailer out. Really excited for it
Lady Maria finally getting her time.
Cool little detail I just noticed on my latest playthrough: outside Seethewater Cave in Mount Gelmir is a single sentry with a torchpole. When you first find them they are sitting staring at a Miquella's Lily. When you pick the lily (and it doesn't respawn) the enemy now stands and stares off into the distance. It actually made me feel a little bad for taking it away from the sentry.
You monster!
so is it a single one or many of them?
@@Seekeroftruth806 just one sentry and a single lily.
The mine diggers also reacts aggressively when you pick up the object that they are mining
@@iank472 ohh gotcha
It was so wild to see Melina use that Erdtree incantation when I finally summoned her for that fight. Such a cool little detail that not many will witness.
How you post a comment 12 hours before the vid is posted🤨
@@glitchy3428 membership
@@glitchy3428 membership or patreon
How tf can you summon her for morgott thats so cool
@@MrBBLADES You just walk up to the fog and summon her
I agree with you that the animators are not lazy at all. For example here's a little detail I noticed in my first playthrough. When I fight Blaidd after he turned hostile outside Ranni's Rise, his movesets are different from usual (like when fighting Radahn) because he was losing his sanity. His attacks are turning into more beast-like. They even give him a grab attack that he push you to the ground and bites your head like a starving beast. I always love these little details and unique animations from the developers.
same moveset as the shade you fight after talking to mini ranni aswell
Like Maliketh he is a shadow serving the will of the two finger, but Blaid felt like a brother to Rann, it's when the will of the two fingers crossed that of Ranni that his shadow like being takes over and we see it with his moveset being similar to that of Maliketh a d the fact that it does true death damage
We know since blaidd apeared at the launch trailer about his similarities with Guts, but also, i found so similar the way he fights, when he's sane, he fights like sane Guts and when he's mad, he fights like Guts at his beserk state
@@lionidas4902 and his eyes are red the the berserk armour. He does that overhead attack.
How cool are would it have been if a boss healthbar popped up and had his name as: Berserk Blaidd, Beast of Darkness
Your videos are always wonderfully made and narrated
Nice
Wonderfuly videó
Nice
Good
Nice
I remember hearing that in the very final hours of the night, the wandering mausoleums will “Fall asleep” it would have been such a good use for more of the sleep animations if more enemies could be found dozing off at this extremely late time
There is one kaiden warrior who is seemingly asleep in their camp in limgrave. I remember approaching him and he would not aggro until attacked.
@@nenadmilovanovic5271 yeah, but his lazy ass is sleeping all the time, not in a certain hour of the day unfortunately lol
I'm sure that mechanic will be explored in the eventual Miquella DLC
Why is it ppl bitch and say, "they re used enemy types" or "they re used animations", but u go play halo or call of duty or god of war and there's a few enemies and animations and NO ONE SAYS ANYTHING.
@@dont-touch-mepg1392 While I agree that reused enemies isn’t a big deal, I do need to point out that many people complained about Halo’s and GoW’s lack of enemy variation and how often they were reused
Vaati simply can't stop finding 15 marvelous secrets.
Ain't that the truth. Also has he mentioned the red piece of Radagon's hair in the Amber? Oh shit, maybe we will get a Raptor Radagon mutant child in the DLC, bc u know, OG Jurassic Park... Amber dinosaur DNA... maybe not, lol. He didn't seem too on this video, but im not too into Vaati for anything but production quality by the ppl he hires.
About hussars wings - Those feathers were usually from metal parts, so when they were attacking by thousands of soldiers - sound would be terrifying for their enemies
What's your source for that I have never seen an armor with metal feathers?
@@okage6219look up polish hussars there are literally so many types
Also it’s literally in the video lol I just got to it
@Jack Slaughter it's never said that those feathers are made from metal and I've seen those armors in museums I never seen metal feathers
That just sounds like it would have annoyed everyone on the battlefield
The thing about hussars' wings is actually a myth. They didn't wear those wings in battle, at least not until very late years of the formation's existence, but even then they were used very rarely by hussars, as the wings were too fragile and didn't give any advantage in battle (the sound created by them scaring enemies is also a myth - if seemingly unkillable elite horses were charging at you at full speed, you wouldn't even notice a sound made by a few feathers, especially when there were guns and cannons shooting right next to you). The wings were only a decorative element that hussars used during parades. At first they used only one black wing attached to the horse, not two white wings on the back of the horseman, as those most likely appeared in late XVII century or even in XVIII century, when the formation was basically obsolete and was only seen in parades.
On the painting "Battle of Kircholm" by Peter Snayers you can see a very detailed depiction of hussars who have no wings at all. And it's unlikely it was a mistake, as all the other equipment is depicted properly, as it was.
The myth of two-winged hussars was created by Polish poets and painters in XIX century who had no idea how the formation actually looked like in battle.
It's still cool we have myth like this ^^
I've heard that they wore them, but with no feathers. Those "rails" were designed to counter one of the turkish weapon which was aimed at raiders neck. Don't know if it was 100% true thou
It's generally the Polish, still seething at the loss of their commonwealth, making up stories to try and rekindle some of their lost glory.
11:04 In Dark Souls 2, ringing the bells inside the Undead Crypt summons Ghosts as well.
oh and the snails in ER as well
Yes but Dark souls 2 ist not an actual souls game
@@TheTrueThompson then why elden ring copies it so faithfully?
@@TheTrueThompson ah stfu with your "hurr durr ds2 so bad it doesnt count" trashtalk.
@@TheTrueThompson what are you talking about
Having "Someone is always moving on the surface" from Armored Core For Answer playing in the background in the opening of the video sends me so many good nostalgic memories.
This is great.
Thanks, Vaati!
Vaati's description of the Polish makes it sound like a fantasy kingdom. I'd love to hear him read history as if it were Fromsoft lore.
Vaati:
"and then the Winged Hussars arrived. Coming down the mouton side, coming down they turned the tide."
@@mikeshogunlee he should to read it in his usuall serious voice, as if hes explaining the lore of Jan Sobieski, Scourge of The Ottomans, and not reading off Sabaton lytics.
@@mikeshogunlee wait.. sabaton reference?
Honestly, the history of Poland might as well be Fromsoft lore due to how much backstabbing, colossal falls from grace and generally inexplicable bullshit has happened in it.
"I love Poland. I wish it was real." - Vaati probably
The Armored Core music fits Elden Ring surprisingly well. I'm so happy to hear it again. I think I hear a little bit of AC Nexus' "Shining" in the beginning of Malenia's fight as well.
Glad I wasn't the only one to notice the fires of Rubicon hype.
You noticed the "someone is always moving at the surface" as well?
@@jamalisujang2712 goated song
@@jamalisujang2712 a classic
Here's to hoping Hoshino/FreQuency return for Fires of Rubicon!
I bought a Godfrey discplate (my very first discplate!) for my admiration of his character
In a world where people can fly about, shoot lasers, throw moons at you, etc., the fact that Godfrey became Elden Lord by being “dude with axe” is REALLY impressive
Like Radahn uses magic to amplify his strength but Godfrey is LITERALLY just “Dude with axe"
And considering "Dude with axe" literally had a spirit on his back containing his full power, it becomes even more impressive that he was still so strong with that imposed limit.
@@selenagamya1612 he's in fact more of a dude with bare hands and a powerhouse of anger, rage and fury.
@@doombringer3498 "Dude with axe" was just his lesser form, in his full power he is simply "Dude"
That's sch a good point, and if you think about it Godfrey is really uniquely terrifying to face given that not only is he just "dude with axe," but we know he's really "dude with axe who's really, really trying hard to hold back his strength," because when he realizes this "lowly tarnished" is actually giving him some trouble, his reaction is to ditch the axe, kill his empyrean, Serosh, the lion, and he becomes "just dude," fighting you with minimal armor and his bare hands, and his bare hands are a step up from "massive axe." That's a genuinely frightening level of power.
Some other folks beat me to the proverbial punch (no pun intended,) but this was quite a realization for me lol. Godfrey is truly a madlad.
this whole thread just made me realize how badass godfrey is. no wonder marika chose him to be her consort.
Your mention of the spirit bell and bell bearings reminds me of the necromancer Sabriel from the eponymous 1995 novel by Garth Nix. In the book, Sabriel has seven bells she uses to control spiritkind. For example, the tiniest bell, named Ranna, is used to send spirits to sleep and bind them, including one named Mogget. The largest bell is named Astarael, whose power sends everyone who hears it - including the user - to death.
Is it just me or do many of these names ring familiar? The Old Kingdom series that Sabriel is from is fairly well known. I wouldn't be surprised if inspiration was drawn from it.
What I wouldn’t give for a game adaptation of Sabriel
Ahhh Old Kingdom geek. Love it!
Given that GRRM contributed and he loves sci-fi/fantasy, it wouldn’t surprise me!
OH MY GOD IM SO HAPPY TO SEE PEOPLE TALK ABOUT THESE BOOKS AHHHHH
Holy shit these books were a huge part of my start to fantasy, good to see them talked about
Might be worth noting, regarding how the player ends up in the Stranded Graveyard, that if you manage to beat Grafted Scion and instead get killed by the crumbling cliff past its boss room, you actually *keep* the runes you gained from killing the Scion. It might imply you don't actually "die", even if it does play the You Died prompt on the screen. I think it lends credence to the "washed up on shore at high tide" interpretation; you end up falling into the ocean one way or another, and you wash up in the cave on the shore, alive but unconscious.
The entrance to the cave (where one of the dragon amulets is) you awake in is a bit too far from the coast, but it could have been high tide or the alabaster lord camping there could have tossed you in.
@@devoidofvoltz2562 guess it didn't want to deal with an annoying tarnished waking up. He's got no time to be a tutorial NPC. So he just yeets you in there
That’s just a gameplay thing because you can’t get back there for a long time. Demon’s souls does the same thing where beating the vanguard boss lets you keep its souls, but you’re immediately punched to death by the skyscraper sized dragon god and become a spirit.
These videos always feel like a history class, but for Elden Ring lore. Thank you Professor VaatiVidya I shall ace your final.
It blows my mind how much lore is hidden in this game!
If you want a history class Check out smoughtown his videos are alot more in depth and honestly where alot of this information comes from with proper citing to the original sources of these theories. Hawkshaw and eredin are very good as well
@@chance_hollow don't forget Tarnished Archeologist! He actually literally lays out elden rings history through the buildings, roads and statues. It's insane how thought out this world is
@@k1xnt Unbelievable that they only have 25k subs, their research and elucidations are by far the most insightful content on the Lands Between. Thesis level scholarship.
@k1xnt_ Broo yess that dude is sickly. So much to learn about the real world from this game as well. I just didn't see it as definite lore speculation and more environmental story telling
The needle in the eye makes so much sense when you connect it to the Marika/radagon sore seal after all they are the eyes of an empyrean/gods . Same goes for the stone eye of death given by maliketh
Also it is symbolic in that if you are a vessel of an outer god then presumably that god is aware of you and your surroundings - seeing through you as it were. Therefore sticking a needle in your own eye is a means of blinding that god, at least in so far as its ability to use you as a camera (and now I'm picturing the outer gods sightjacking people in the Lands Between as if this were a Siren game, oh goody).
Thanks so much for the shout out Vaati! Really unexpected!
History enthusiast from Poland here. Unfortunately it’s just the urban legend. The “wings” in this form weren’t used in the combat, only (rarely) during the parades. It’s difficult to fight and to mount a horse with a “backpack” like this. However, a single “wing” or feathers were often attached to the saddle on a horse. Why? Firstly, they sounds like a massive hoofbeat when riding (you may think that there are more raiders) and secondly, it protects the raider from being attacked from the back side or lassoed.
Saddle work ~ an artform deserving of more appreciation if I ever saw one
Eh, theres contradicting accounts
I always thought the Nights of the Cuckoo took that symbol because they were secretly working against the golden order despite living in their lands. Their friendship with the giants makes sense in this context, and with the aforementioned treasure from Nokron sharing the same symbol it might even be possible that Caria as a school and province were created by refugees from the destruction of Nokron. This is further reinforced by the giant corpses seen underground AND in Sellia, and there's even a mimic tear near the finger slayer blade in Nokron that turns into a troll, likely meaning trolls visited that city at some point in the past. Crystallians might have even been created by the giants for Caria, and if the previous things are also true it seems more and more probable as we learn more.
The Crystallians being created for the sorcerers, or perhaps more accurately for the old astrologers, by the giants is actually genius.
Hell Iji probably made his own crystal mask
There's an entire conspectus dedicated to studying crystalians. It wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for the Carians not to know of their origins, since they canonically do not know where the Crystalians came from. They even believe that the Crystalians are silently waiting for a Crystal god to come in and make more of them. It never specifies giants as their makers despite the fact that the trolls (distant relatives of the Giants) and the Carian royals are allies.
Great theory, would make sense given Iji's mask is from Nokron
@@darthskele I always got the sense that the Carians were lying to the common sorcerer in their ranks about where the Crystalians come from, just like the golden order has many secrets it would make sense for Caria to withhold many things about their past as well if they truly were refugees from Nokron.
@@kaden1991 We would need more evidence to suggest that this is the case. The Golden Order kept secrets for the sake of public image, while Raya Lucaria kept secrets in order to keep students from gaining knowledge that would damage them physically. The graven heads, the sorcerers Azur and Lusat. They don't care about public image as much as they do damage control. And the Crystalians don't seem to be dangerous to study, because otherwise they'd be cast out as well. And I don't see why they'd feel the need to keep their creators a secret if said creators have all been wiped out already and are no longer a threat to the public at large.
Vaati makes the waiting time for the DLC sweet again 💜
Melina's death animation is so beautiful and sad but i also love how leaves a ray of hope behind as her final action
Why is it ppl bitch and say, "they re used enemy types" or "they re used animations", but u go play halo or call of duty or god of war and there's a few enemies and animations and NO ONE SAYS ANYTHING.
@@dont-touch-mepg1392 don’t go away , there is reused things in sekiro and bloodborn but these guys are jealous from elden ring that they can’t see the whole pic
Dude, thank you for giving props to FromSoft animators. They are absolutely industry leaders at this point, they came a long way and now are there with the most awesome animation teams, alongside nintendo, capcom, santa monica sony, etc.
this!
Smooth and fluid animations are hard and tedious work that doesnt get appreciated enough! For how huge and varied their enemies/NPCs are FromSoft does an amazing job.
Only studio above them would be the Monster Hunter team, those guys are insane
Yeah let’s give props to the guys that reused every asset……🤡
@@ItsJustCartier ok lets hear it then, how many unique animation sets/Models does your favorite gane have?
@@IplayTeemoasaWard lmao why? just so I can hear you defend this games use of reused assets by saying my “favorite” game does same although far less.
2:07 fun fact: The Winged Hussars actually never wore those wings in battle. It is a myth that many people think is true. They were ceremonial decorations for parades or such. I think they did have some form of wings but not the ones sticking out their backs.
That incantation Melina casts when she gets killed is the same one you find in the Shaman village in the DLC 👀
To me, the noise you hear before you end up in the stranded graveyard sounds like the flapping of wings. My headcannon is that the spirit of the Stormhawk King carries you from the graveyard just before you're completely dead, and drops you in the hole to the cave, to await the moment you will reunite his ashes with the rightful heir to the Stormhill.
I was in the comments to say the same thing, i wonder if that means someone summoned the spirits using the ashes and then left? Melina? Ranni? The dead finger maiden? Maybe he just acted on his own?
It would also make sense as giant birds carrying the player out of the tutorial “nest” is a dark souls motif.
@@joshrahn1417 The Stormhawk king "heeds no summons" according to his description. He would have acted alone.
9:26 only when you've already used the elevator, if you go up the side path and check by the golems without using the elevators, they'll attack you
Well that seems obvious
@@bobobsen He incorrectly stated that holding the Dectus medallion kept them docile, when it is using the elevator that triggers it.
I was wondering why that part suddenly got a lot more annoying. I used the Hogworts torture dungeon port key to find slytherin volcano
That Bell-bearing theme is present in other Souls games
In Dark Souls you ring 2 bells, 1 well above Undead Burg and one at the bottom of the world in order to summon the 2 serpents.
Dark Souls 3 on ArchDragon peak. There are summoners who use bells to summon champion spirits like Havel to attack you at the beginning of the area, and at the very end you ring a giant bell which summons The Nameless King
In Dark Souls 2 there are bells you have to avoid ringing, because it summons spirits.
This is Belfry Sol/Belfry Luna erasure, the hidden bells have great story significance in Dark Souls 2 through telling us about Venn and Alken, and their respective prince and princess. Curious to think who might be the mysterious male from the place named Venn, were it not for our great king Vendrick.
The Bells are the foundation upon which our understanding of Dark Souls 2 lore stands!
@Ozsun Vendrick is 100% not from Venn, it was the princess of Venn and the prince of Alken who made the bells. The prince of Alken most likely becoming the Old Iron King who conquered Venn later on.
There's also the wraith calling bell item in elden ring that's also used by the enemies in liurnia
I always thought it was so weird there was that random hole in Limgrave that was basically a random kill plane in the terrain. Perhaps there were plans to have more of them throughout the world, and maybe even incorporate them into dungeon designs (perhaps some caves could only be entered via these holes), it's interesting to think about.
That’s certainly the most simple way to have a dungeon with a one-way entrance.
Little fact that may have been gone over already at some point: the named crucible knights, Ordovis and Siluria, are both named after periods in the Paleozoic era, the Ordovician and Silurian. Both of these periods take place next to each other from 485 mya to 419 mya combined; A testament to the primeval nature of the knights.
damn that is a cool fact
If you remember the network test, the sleep effect was originally going to be much more powerful, so I'm not surprised they all have sleep animations. I was under the impression they just nerfed it into oblivion after watching people exploiting it.
Think they did the same thing with summons being available everywhere or I might be misremembering
@@SprikSprak you are misremembering
A cool detail I noticed recently while playing, the Cleanrot Knight at the shaded castle (not the one near the elevator) will randomly start attacking things and the air while patrolling. I think this is because they're lost their mind due to the rot. I'm not sure if any other Cleanrot knight does this.
Is it the one by the prosthesis?
thank you for putting respect on these animators. the animations in these games are awesome, and reusing assets is not fundamentally lazy. as you said, it allows them to put more time in where it's really needed and they clearly put in the work. it's no joke creating and organizing all of these different animations.
Thanks for the shoutout! Glad you enjoyed our video!
The Cuckoo theme being its own thing, not associated with Radagon, Renala, and the egg, but seeming like it is, might be the most meta design detail in the whole game. ;)
Glad you acknowledged the translators/writers. The writing throughout the items and their descriptions has this familiar yet mysterious poetic nature that must require incredibly talented translators to maintain across languages.
Sidenote, and im not sure if you mentioned this before but I think most people will overlook this small detail...
SPOILER
If you fight Alexander in Farum Azula at the end of his questline, you may or may not have noticed that fire attacks have next to no effect against him. This is due to the fact that Alexander, as a precursor to your inevitable duel and an attempt to strengthen his body, bathed in the lava pools of Mt. Gelmir, in effect strengthened his body to the point of becoming imperviose to all lava and flame attacks.
Funnily enough I was using the sword of night and flame against him and wondered why the fire wasn't hurting him. Then after I beat him I was like "Oh yeah.....he was just tempering himself in lava."
By far the best sleep animation is Rykard's
Get falls asleep, smasheshis face on the lava immediately waking up then puts his hand over his nose while grunting in pain
#11 is called LOD or Level of Detail (if it applies to models) or Mipmap (if it applies to textures.
Basically, this is an optimization feature. It doesn't make sense to render all those details or high-res texture when the object is far away and the details take less than a pixel. So games actually store several different "levels" of textures and objects that are controlled by the proximity to the camera. Those trees far in the distance are usually just a couple (or sometimes even 1) flat planes with a blurry texture on them. But because they're so far you can't see it.
I find it so interesting that we learn the reason melina is called what she is, is because she most likely was messmer's sister, and had been with him for a long time. And after witnessing what he was forced to do, left the realm of shadow and came to the lands between, searching for one who could lead her to the erdtree. Upon finding the impenetrable thorns, she leads us to the mountaintops, to burn the erdtree to reveal a secret kept away from all except Marika. That a god had been residing inside, commanding these atrocities. You slay this god, and bring about a new age. One of stars, One of curses, One of death, One of rebirth, Or you burn it all away and cleanse the world of everything its become.
But, you also find your way to the shadow of the erdtree, the land that the god you slayed hated, for it had the only other being that communicated with its creator and a gate that leads to godhood. So it waged war, destroying the land and imprisoning and shackling the people there. And sealing it from all outside intruders.
But it couldn't seal it from everything, the formless mother and goddess of rot had gotten inside. Turning parts of the land into their domain, with the ruins being taken over, and the wildlife becoming infected.
The formless mother granted this power to mohg, who became enchanted by miquella, and brought him into the realm of shadow. Where he called out for those who would serve him to the realm of shadow. And abandoned everything he was. Even saint trina, his alter ego.
But not all he called was there for miquella, the tarnished had not been called there by miquella. They had slain lord mohg and radahn, and were not there for him. And is the one who would come to slay both miquella and messmer, the two leading forces that had dominance over the realm of shadow.
Melina and Messmer, both could use the power of flame to burn sealing tree's.
This is all my theory, the other stuff like how bayle and placi could annihilate the gods when working together are other examples of why the erdtree only came to power when the dragons faded away, their god having left them. Even though they lost their god, their lord had been searching for him. And could've found him had we not arrived to slay him.
Vaati: There's a way to parry like Sekiro
Me: great, how this could be useful to me on my next rerun. How do I do it?
Vaati: Requires frame perfect timing and skill
Me: ... I think I'll just stick to panick rolling
The bell bearing one was amazing! I always wandered why that name and why Elemer of the Briar seeks them. I'm very curious about further discoveries. Great job for finding this detail.
VaatiVidya,
You don't know me but I have been going through some very rough times recently. But your video's really helped me calm down and relax in times where i was very anxious and stresses. You were always here when I had no one else.
I just want to thank you with my whole heart.
You are an amazing RUclipsr.
Thank you for changing my life and probably many more.
We love you.
The beauty in the first two mins of this video is astonishing, melina casting one last incantation, the burning of the tree, millicent in despair. the music. the way you edit these videos is on another level!
I was always wondering why we couldn't knock those Tree Sentinel people off their horses. There is always a reason for almost every detail in a From Software game. Very cool
For anyone wondering, the song at the start of the video is "Someone is always moving on the surface" by Kota Hoshino and features in Armored Core 4
Close it's Armored Core for Answer.
>Boot video
>Armored Core music
Very nice.
Wow, I wasn't originally going to watch this video, but since you say these are specifically MARVELLOUS secrets, I am immediately hooked.
The quality of those shots! The breathtaking scenery added to the brilliant content and commentary is just something we should never take for granted as viewers who enjoy it for free.
Thank you so much Vaati.
12:34 yes Vaati it's clearly because of textures, HOWEVER, call the doctor. Just to be safe.
I was literally binge watching your videos on Bloodborne thinking it's been some time since you uploaded the Miquela lore video. Imagine my excitement to see this notification pop up of a new video exactly as I think that
I remember hearing that in the very final hours of the night, the wandering mausoleums will “Fall asleep” it would have been such a good use for more of the sleep animations if more enemies could be found dozing off at this extremely late time🙃
The red and blue twinned cuckoo seems similar in appearance to the Twinbird kite shield, which describes the entity as the envoy of an outer god of death, from where the deathbirds, and the ghostflame, originate. Presumably that same symbol is the one we see in the eternal city iconography. "Insignificance of physical bodies" also implies a relation to death. We also see this twinbird icon (quite similar to the one on the Nokstella Moon) outside Maliketh's boss room in Farum Azula. Not entirely sure what this means but thought I'd mention this apparent connection.
Ghostflame and blackflame aren't the same thing
@@Mare_Man Of course, that was a silly mistake on my part. Thanks for the correction.
As a Pole I appreciate mentioning the husars. The husars were actually nobles from the most influential noble houses who attended battles in 16th and 17th century, no mere commoner could be a part of the husars.
My god, that point about the statues turning heads on to you - such an AMAZING way to both perform a LOD switch and at the same time scare the shit out of the players!! LOVE IT! 🖤
You’ve become my favorite channel! Thank you so much for making all of your Elden Ring videos. I’m new to the game and your videos have taught me so much lore and have allowed me to be even more obsessed with the game! Thanks again :)
Was wondering when you'd talk about what "bell bearings" are. I was surprised you didn't mention it in your other videos that discussed death, spirits, etc. We use items such as bell bearings and a spirit calling bell to summon aspects of those that have died (spirit ashes, merchant items, etc.). Pretty cool
About Mikella's needle: this is a reference to a traditional Japanese childhood promise, for breaking which a person promises to eat a thousand needles / stick a thousand needles in the eye. By breaking our "promise" with the Frenzy Flame, we are fulfilling our own punishment, so that the Frenzy Flame cannot break the rules we set: the promise is broken, the violator is punished, which means no more interference.
I wonder if that's where "cross my heart and hope to die,stick a needle in my eye" comes from..... I bet it does. You may have just taught a stranger something. Thanks!
@@angbald cross my heart hope to die stick a needle in my eye, is a old Christian saying, cross my heart being the original, and children later adding the stick a needle in my eye for added painful promise. (Children are psycho lol)
I think what @konteenu is referring to is the Japanese ‘pinky promise’ where if you break it, you’ll drink a 1000 needles (or have your pinky cut off).
In french, the bell bearings are called "perles cinéraires". Perle is pearl, but cinéraire mean "who's function is to hold a defunct person ashes".
Following the french translation, Bell bearings contain ashes.
The italian translation is similar, it's "globo cinereo" globo means globe and cinereo is ashen
@@aifos5171 I'd be quite interested to see what's the Japanese translation !
2:52 actually, the wings on the Polish Hussar’s backs would flap in the wind as they charged, and the furious noise would spook the enemy’s horses! Their own horses were trained to ignore the noise. It’s a rare example of warfare against the enemy cavalry’s horses, not the men themselves.
I wonder, if we take the idea that Radagon was "made" as a fighter against Renalla and the plan was to destroy her from within as true, the reason Radagon and Marika are in conflict is due to Radagon being a "copy" of Marika at that point in time and Marika in the capital was undergoing a change in heart about the Elden Ring and the Golden Order. Kind of like in the game SOMA where a person had their conciousness copied into a computer and so two versions of the same person could exist but after that moment, due to different experiences, became different people despite originating as copies. So when Radagon was "copied" from Marika they had the same ideas and goals but after that moment they both experienced different things and had completely different lives and so trying to merge back together was extremely destructive and basically impossible for a true merging to happen.
A side note I find very odd and somewhat disturbing is, how of all the major bosses and their iconic and quotable lines exist but Radagon and the Elden Beast never say anything. Marika as well never speaks. I wonder if they are even alive at that point, meaning Marika and Radagon. I can understand the Elden Beast not having lines but the silence of Radagon and Marika bothers me a lot. It has an eery similarity to what happened with Godwyn. Their bodies are alive and doing what they do but there is no spirit or conciousness in them. It feels very odd and way too important to be like "fromsoft forgot to give them lines." Its clearly intentional that neither Radagon or Marika ever speak. They don't even have voice actors.
Glad it wasn't just me who thought that. Yeah considering how important and lore-filled Radagon's history is, and how he's this crazy other side to the goddess we've been hearing so much about, you'd think when we come to kill him, after burning his precious tree, he'd have something, anything, to say. His predecessor Godfrey has a nice little repartee with us. But Radagon is just....silent. He barely even makes any noises of effort or yells or anything at all other than the noise of his attacks.
The Primal Glintstone, and usable rune items are also wrapped around a bell bearing.
If no one can really die and pass on, the soul's gotta go somewhere. So it solidifies. And then you are literally putting their soul back into their ashes when you summon them.
Yea, I get the feeling this doubles as the Shinto (Dao or Buddhist too?) soul ball that reside in the anus, and that has been mentioned in connection with THE LOATHSOME DUNGEATER. It heavily implied that is what he defiles in order to spread the curse.
So what your saying is calling runes souls might be correct
6:01 _" And you could argue that it was almost Radagons sole purpose to get close to Rennala and undo her _*_from within._*_ "_
I see what you did there. 😏
I love how you do a great of sourcing the people who find some of these secrets out in your videos really giving them a chance to shine
Melina casts Minor Eritrea which can be found in the Shaman Village in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC
there's people the world are better off for having them in it and this guy is one of them. watching his vids and playing elden ring always makes me want to write a fantasy novel, so inspiring
Its also worth noting that because of their wings and reputation, the Hussars were referred to as "The Angels of death". Also there's a few references which states that when enough speed was generated, the wings would "buzz" and vibrated, this sound caused the opposition's horses to panic.
Not sure if you know but the wings on the back of the Hussars where made in a way to catch the wind as they rode it made a sound that struck fear into the hearts of those they charged
I believe it was also to scare the horses with these wind noises being produced from the wings of the calvary.
Winged hussars are so cool looking! It's nice to see a little inspiration taken from my country 😂
I thought I would share historical information from my homeland about a battle in which the Polish hussars won the battle despite the disadvantage.
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As a fun fact, I'll add that these hussar wings were used mainly in ceremonies and only in the 18th century. Normally the wings were straight, not curved and were attached to the saddle and were made of vulture and eagle feathers. They were practically never used in battles. Hussar wings did not come from nowhere. The truth is a little different and is scarier. Wings are flying pennants divided into two parts attached under the spearhead of 6-meter hussar lances, and every hussar had such a lance. When a horse is speeding at full speed of more than 50 km/h, thousands of pennants begin to flutter in the wind and cause a huge noise. A large number of pennants flying in the wind on lances gives an optical illusion as if a lot of wings are attacking us and, by the way, it lowers the morale of soldiers and scares the enemy cavalry. The speeding horse would pound the enemy army whether they were spearmen or not, and it was noted in records that the record was 6 musketeers impaled on one lance. Hussar wings are like winged lances causing terror on the battlefield. We had the best sabers that easily won against the Japanese katana in every respect, we had the best cavalry in the world for many centuries until the 18th century came and the nobility squandered everything and the cavalry ceased to exist.
The greatest victories of the Polish hussars:
- The Battle of Khotyn or Battle of Chocim or Hotin War | year 1621:
600 hussars charge and destroy in a bloody massacre a 10,000-strong army of Turks, professional and well-equipped soldiers and thus professional army and Janissaries prepared for battle, about 50-60 hussars fell.
- The Battle of Kircholm | year 1605:
The Swedes' threefold superiority over the hussars. The battle lasts 20 minutes. Ends with a slaughter of the Swedes. The hussars strike directly at the infantry quadrupeds equipped with two long spears blowing them to smithereens.
- The Battle of Klushino, or the Battle of Klushino | year 1610:
Opening the road to Moscow. 2,700 hussars, after a 25-kilometer fast march, strike at the fortified Swedish-Russian camps, where 25,000 professional troops are stationed plus a host of infantry and volunteers to the tune of 35,000, the hussars destroy the fences with their horse chests and leap over the sharpened stakes, destroy 18,000 troops, and destroy all the rest to pieces to the tune of 8,000 to 15,000 dead with the loss of 120 Polish hussars.
I ask myself: Why does no one create games where the action takes place in Poland? In Slavic countries? So many amazing battles, such an interesting mythology.
Thank you Vaati for drawing attention to the hussar wings. Polish rarely appears in games unless it's about The Witcher, so it's a nice touch in these great games from FromSoftware.
Melina is not the one who walks alongside flame, we are. That sentence is a prophecy (maybe even "the" prophecy that is referred by several of the flame incantations). We're the one who meets the road of Destined Death eventually, and it's even one of the best explanations we have at the moment as to why we're suddenly teleported to Farum Azula after lighting the forge.
But my character isn't a maiden, they're a manden
I think bell bearing is wordplay on the ball bearings for Pachinko games. You win the balls in the game, then you need to go to another store to get your prize items. This is reflected in the game where you can bring the balls to the husks to get more items. This would be something very familiar to the dev team.
Your videos are always wonderfully made and narrated, makes me appreciate even more all the love and care that's being put into the game(s)
I like the Armoured Core 4 Answer music at the start, very nice.
12:22 nope, not a texture issue….it’s a weeping angel
I had an interesting idea about Marika/Radagon and a connection to nokstella/nokron.
The society of the underground citys apparently are the creators of silvertears and Albinaurics, both artificial life forms meant to mimic humans.
What if it didn't end there.
Numen are human like creatures, that somehow never seem to age (and apparently can swap gender?)
What if the evolution of their artificial lifeforms went: silver tears > Albinaurics > Numan
Numan also sounds an awful lot like Newmen. It would explain Marikas godlike lifespan and her connection to the cuckoo.
I remember getting inspired to this idea by your video about the eternal citys, but don't recall all the sources right now. I hope someone can make the connection with this little idea in mind tho. I might try to put it all together and put it on redit, but I don't have mutch time atm...
I hope you guys read this, cause I think I might really be on to something here 😅
Fun fact, the Polish Winged Hussar armor wasn't just for visual intimidation. Apparently, during a charge, the wings would make a terrifying "hissing" or "buzzing" noise in the wind that could be heard even over the charging horses.
I'm very proud to be Polish
That's a pop culture myth. They didn't even use the ornamental wings during actual combat.
@@LetMeGetAUhhhthen what where they for? Also wtf your name lol.
Actually another more practical reason for the wings of the polish hussars was to prevent the riders being dragged down their horses by ropes. The wings made it really difficult to throw ropes around them from the ground.
Great video!
@VaatiVidya if you go to that spot 14:32 at night you can actually hear the crucified guys on the top so I'll say it solves the thing hih. Much love < 3
Actually, I never understood why would you criticize devs for 'reusing' the animation, when, if you watch direct comparison between ER and DS3, you can see, just how much smoother ER's animations are. They're not just reused, they're the same movements, but executed better. Improved upon, or recreated - doesn't matter at that point.
I have wondered if Rennala actually birthed their children, or if it was through the Golden Egg they were born. This would explain her obsession with it - to either rebirth Ranni, or to convince Radagon to return when she could make more children for them. However, without him, nothing will truly come of the egg, and Ranni's soul cannot be retrieved by it since she has bound it elsewhere.
This would further cement the idea that the current Empyreans are demi-god children of one god. Marika and Radagon are the same, so Melania and Miquella are of course of one... but the three children of Radagon are also just of them in that sense, born of this egg. Truly laying eggs in another's nest, and having the nest owner raise them as her own.
5:40 Marika is Numen. Same as the people of the ancient underground cities. It's likely their culture was known to Marika as a lot of Leyndell architecture seems to take inspiration from them.
I've been playing with the reforged mod and the timed blocking/deflecting in it feels amazing, can't believe it's not in vanilla not to mention the camera fixes adds too.
The armoured core music made me happy
There is a lot of misconceptions about the hussar wings, because later reproductions erroneously put two wings attached to the back of their armour, but this is just the rule of cool. In reality there was one "wing" and it was attached to the saddle. It's job was to prevent anyone unhorsing the hussar using a lasso and it was directly inspired by the mongols.
The terrifying wing sound is likely a mistranslation from old polish and is believed to refer to the sound made by long tails of the flags they had on their lances. Lets be real - how much noise would anything have to make to be heard over the thunder of galloping heavy cavalry? Twin wings on hussar's armour look amazing but aren't any more real than contemporary fantasy armour.
Fromsoft never seizes to amaze me with their attention to detail. Thanks @Vaatividya for yet again again again and again bringing these to us.
Your videos always makes me want to play it again for the 6th time now.
Keep on keeping on being so though rough
Hope St. Trina DLC will be an amazing one, I have no doubt that it will be. I hope it's as good or better than BB's DLC was , cause that was nothing short of the best DLC ever made by any studio.
The blade of calling doesn't call Melina "the one who walks alongside flame", it alludes to the fact that if the Tarnished serves the frenzied flame, they'll be met with Destined Death. This alludes to the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending, where Melina says something similar
PL GUROM
I'll have to disagree on the animators bit. It makes sense to reuse animations for things like weapon attacks, common enemies etc but for what are supposed to be "set piece" encounters, it sucks to see them repeated throughout the game and also be reskinned versions of enemies found in previous From games. Like the massively overused Erdtree Avatar is literally just a reskinned Asylum Demon. It's basically the equivalent of some games having a red or blue color version of an enemy that is the same enemy but tougher.
I can't get enough of these! Hands down best videos to watch before bed! This video will take me a week to finish!
My man, you're beginning to stretch the definition of secret. I'm interested in everything you presented here but maybe the video could have a different title? Like that angel statue loading in and looking like it's facing you - that's not a secret, it's just an interesting tidbit about something that happened to a member in the community and your explanation.
Renalas scholars falling or throwing themselves out the cradles could be a way of mimicking the cuckoo lore as well. Them falling and then dying become reborn could be a metaphor for the way a cuckoo bird gets thrown out of the nest only to die and become born again. Love the videos
I believe that the Warrior Jars were inspired by the imagery of Takeda Shingen dead in a jar in Akira Kurosawa's film "Kagemusha".
When the theif-double of the emperor guy carefully cracks the jar apart about 30 mins into the movie, the first shard he places on the ground looks very much like Alexander's shard talisman. I just watched this movie and I've been looking around online to see if anyone is talking about it.
The most I can find is people noticed in Sekrio, the red Interior Ministry samurai which invade Ashina near the end of the game are probably Takeda's, which you see all throughout Kagemusha. FromSoft have referenced Kurosawa films before so I'm thinking it might be a real connection
a "ball bearing" is actually the whole mechanism with the balls in it. The ball in a pen is just a ball
1:41 I didn't expect to see Joshua Graham (The Burned Man) in Elden Ring.
14:22 ShieldScuff is right. I'm 16 hours into my 5th character build and I went back to the Stranded Graveyard cave and can hear the hanging body's screaming. From where you awake. Funny though, I checked on my other 4 characters and I don't hear this audio. Weird..This just happen and I thought of this video.
My friend showed me your channel last night and I must request you make a 12 hour video because your voice is so soothing, I know nothing about elden ring or the dark souls series but I am now invested because you make it very enjoyable and interesting. Sorry for the run on sentence 😅 but I truly think it would be an appreciated video
Amazing video, some juicy secrets you've put together!
I've been gifted a Displate of Godrick the Garfted for my bday and it's so cool
I love the fact that FromSoft reuses old animation assets. Like you said it allows them to put that effort they otherwise would have spent into new things. Especially when you consider how many new animations there are in ER.
So for the Cuckoo theory the nox of nokstella are said to be descended from the numen from which is said is the race Marika is part of.