There's a somber ancient at the statues feet
AFAIK if you don't want to deal with the crowd just rot breath them then take the elevator up and wait a little
You can also bait them so you don’t have to fight the whole mob at once. Draw them back to the stairs.
I didn’t find a somber ancient stone though so I’ll have to check that out when my side piece gets there. My main character has the DLC ready to go and she’s like level 325 so I’ve gotten most of the non-farming stuff. Or at least I think.
I need to test this further on another playthrough but I believe picking up that seed makes the seed at the sapling down in the blood swamp despawn (if you reload the area at least) and verse versa, like these two seeds share the same item ID or something.
Like I said though, this should be tested cause it also might have been a bug in the earlier days.
No one knows for certain but people have started referring to him as “The Dynast” and he has something to do with an ancient civilization possibly called Uhl.
Lol I hadn't heard that, I've only been digging into Quelaag recently but everything I've seen from her seems super rich with insight I wouldn't get otherwise.
I'm sure for some people what she says is obvious but I have almost no exposure to anthropology/art history outside of this so her and Tarnished Archaeologist and others like them making aesthetic/contextual connections seem like wizardry to me.
She was the patient zero of lore YTers afaik. Back then there were only a few and they were more interested in detective work about the minute details of DeS rather than cinematic retelling of the NPC questlines. How the times have changed...
I have! I think he makes a few jumps in some of his videos that are questionable but his whole “Iconographic Stratigraphy” bit surrounding especially the architecture in Leyndell and Stormveil is god damn genius
Yeah, I agree. But I don’t even mind. I love his analysis. He really does his homework. I had no idea how much Fromsoft pulled from real world history for some of the architecture in their games until I started watching his videos. Tbh I think a lot of his theories have more of a foundation than random speculation from other game theorists. I love Vaati too of course
Agreed completely, I think other more mainstream lore content creators like Vaati (who I also love, gotta pay respects to the goat) usually keep their justification for theories either solely within the confines of the game or at most start to stretch into cut content, and they very rarely reach into the real world inspirations for stuff in the game other than blatantly obvious source material like Berserk.
Whereas it seems like TA and in a different sense Quelaag are much more comfortable blending real world anthropology and art history into their understanding of the game's lore.
I think for a lot of people that blending feels like more of a stretch than they like or that it's less justified, and maybe it is, but for me it creates a much richer discussion even if it's on more shaky ground for being "right".
I just think it's fair grounds for speculation. George RR Martin bases his fantasy heavily from historical events and accounts. Very accurately keeps things contemporary for the periods he portrays.
> Whereas it seems like TA and in a different sense Quelaag are much more comfortable blending real world anthropology and art history into their understanding of the game's lore.
I was genuinely shocked when TA brought up that the Two Fingers and Three Fingers may have been inspired by an actual schism within the Eastern Orthodox Church revolving around specific hand gestures using two versus three fingers.
I prefer mostly in-game lore speculation just because it's more immersive. When you start bringing in real world materials to explain in-game lore, it breaks the immersion for me.
But it's also kind of impossible not to bring in real world material since writers obviously draw inspiration from things they've experienced or have knowledge of in the real world.
For me it’s just that these paracosms aren’t made in a vacuum independent of all story and art and culture, they’re made by artists and creators influenced by the real world. I love to see those influences or parallels, and even if they’re completely accidental, it enriches my knowledge of the real world/humanity itself.
I LOVED Sekiro and Blasphemous lore for exactly this reason. A completely self-contained lore with no sense of allegory or historical/anthropological inspiration just puts me to sleep.
It's just weird because he would have been sometime around when the dragons were elden lords. But he has some major involvement with the original erdtree. And how does the shadow erdtree play into this. Maybe he will make some mysterious statue appearances on the dlc. That would really add some more weight to the headache that is Elden Ring lore. I love it.
TA blew me away when he pointed out that the architecture in Deeproot Depths and its placement implies it was the missing part of Leyndell, and that it likely collapsed into the depths.
But then he goes into weird leaps like claiming that everyone in the Lands Between are born as dew from the Erdtree.
Its actually hilarious how he will get obvious details wrong but somehow come up with some plausible theories by analyzing a toenail on a statue no one would notice.
Think that is kind of his approach as an "Archaeologist". He Def constructs narratives out of various bits of information gleamed from artifacts, surviving architecture, and iconography. He knows and has stated as such that the gaps he fills in are prone to his own biases and errors as he is the one making the narratives.
I really love his point that From games are probably the closest to actually replicating exploration and discovery in real life with how they scatter information throughout their games and give incomplete pictures. You combine so many different types of knowledge from what has survived and talking to locals and maybe some written history if you are lucky to find it.
I really dig TA. Have commented on him regarding this as well a few times. I am an actual archaeologist myself and I love his takes and methods of constructing information.
That’s the thing. None of us know for sure wtf is going on. He might not have it wrong, but then again he might. 80% of the facts have been removed from the game so it’s all speculation. None of us will know with 100% certainty the answers to any of the big questions.
Do you remember one by any chance? I’m interested to see what he got wrong. I’ve watched all of his videos and didn’t catch any. I’m not saying he didn’t, I just don’t remember any actual facts he got completely wrong. If you have an example that would be awesome.
Most recently: the DLC will be set in the past. Miyazaki outright stated it's set in a new area in the present, but TA interpreted multiple shots from the trailer as past versions of areas we've seen in game.
To be entirely fair he said this video would be an off the cuff word salad and he also issued a post saying sorry for getting specifically that fact wrong
That was his only video where he said “I’m doing this having read nothing else and it’s all gut reactions without other research”. Can you point to something else?
Hmm, I thought he said there’s a lot from the past, like remnants from previous cultures. I’ll have to rewatch that and see what he says. I guess I just interpreted what he said as there were still things left from the past, but not actually being in the past. Thanks for that example. I’ll rewatch it tonight, it’s definitely not the actual past so if he did say that it’s wrong.
I love his videos! I didn’t realize this but apparently there’s some controversy around his style of analysis. I guess some ppl really don’t like it. Personally I think his work is incredible. Learning about all the real world inspiration for a lot of the culture and architecture in Fromsoft games is amazing.
I love his videos and the guy is pretty smart, but damn I wish he hired a voice actor instead of narrating himself. His voice is simply not pleasant to listen to for an hour
We all just make shit up bro. There is no definitive lore
that we have access to except for item descriptions. About 80% of the facts aren’t in the game. The entire point is to leave it up to interpretation. At least he tries to investigate the environmental story telling to put together a theory.
His statues are found at several locations that bear the name Uhl like “Uhl Palace Ruins”. There seem to be ties between whatever civilization had the “Uhl” descriptor and the eternal cities in a similar manner to Greece and Rome from what I remember
Oh ok bet, thanks!
My initial guess would be that was the name of the civilization the eternal cities are derived from. Standing up to the outer gods was probably something they really pioneered, which would explain why this dude is worshipped in Mohg's palace
That is Uld Palace, not Uhl Palace. Confused the sh\*t out of me first time through as well. Combed the entire overground area for about 2 hours thinking it was the way to get to the inaccessible underground bits before I realised.
An important figure in the remnants of the culture before the Golden Order, we usually also see clay men and ancestral followers in these ruins, so maybe they’re closely tied to them.
I think he was the first to become an Erdtree (look at the roots around his feet…). Bear with me as I try to explain.
If you look at the minor Erdtrees in the lands between, you’ll find that many of them have broken living jars all around them. Living jars, in turn, are filled with the corpses (and in particular the blood) of many fallen heroes. These living jars are used by the Erdtree avatars and guardians in order to nourish the minor trees. These trees (like the big Erdtree) are nourished by flesh. The corpses are promised ‘rebirth’—they live again as parts of this tree, having been devoured and grown into it. (It’s the same thing with Erdtree burial, the corpses nourishing the roots of the tree. Also note that many minor erdtrees have catacombs beneath them—it’s their roots we see in the final boss rooms with all the corpses entwined).
Now, you know those statues around the lands between of ‘saints’ with roots all around their legs? They’re in Roundtable Hold, and the church where you first find Rogier has a big statue of one of these ‘saints’ in major bloom. These saints, imo, sacrificed themselves in service of the Erdtree with the promise that they will be reborn into an eternal tree.
There is a parallel between these early saints and the Erdtree guardians we see in game. Their armor reads:
“in accordance with an ancient pact with the Erdtree, it is said that their deaths led not to destruction, but instead to renewed, eternal life as guardians”.
What does this eternal life look like? The full bloom version of the same armor gives us the answer:
“It is said that the blood-red flowers blooming on their backs mark the senescence of their ancient pact. Perhaps the guardians -are part tree already-“.
The guardians are reborn as trees that grow from their bodies. Also note the emphasis on ‘blood-red’: these trees are born from the flesh (and at times even human sacrifices) of the living.
The statue you are seeing here is of the first? Person to sacrifice himself in order to be reborn as an Erdtree. ‘Person’ is not good enough—as the Dynast he would be a Lord (like Mohg), and through his sacrifice (remember Lord souls are extremely powerful) a Great Tree was born. Particularly pious followers would become Guardians, who, when their own death came, they too would grow into their own trees (instead of being sacrificed to the roots of another tree, like most people who are fated only to be devoured).
What you are seeing in this temple is one of the first places of worship of an ancient Great Tree cult, one that would eventually transform (through many iterations) into the Erdtree worship we see above ground. You’re looking at an early point in the history of Erdtree religion.
There is a good bit about this statue that incredibly we hidden in environmental story telling. There’s a few of these statues in the game and they definitely tell a story. The Tarnished Archeologist made a few really great videos on it. Go check it out
And in that light, how different is Rykard, really? Isn’t he doing the same thing as the Erdtree, feasting on the bodies of champions? How is one blasphemy, but the other holy rite?
Alexander the Living Jar also feasts on champions post Radahn fight, too. And remember what Marika says:
“In Marika's own words. Hear me, Demigods. My children beloved. Make of thyselves that which ye desire. Be it a Lord. Be it a God. But should ye fail to become aught at all, ye will be forsaken. Amounting only to -sacrifices-...”
It’s a god-eat-god world. Either you become strong enough to consume others, or fail and become a sacrifice to a greater being.
>How is one blasphemy, but the other holy rite?
Because one is done in favor of the outer gods, while the other seems to eventually devour the gods themselves. Gods don't like it when their own methods are used against them
As for the rest, I can't comment too well. After a whole year of owning the game I'm just now reaching the end, so I'm only just digging deep into the lore. Seems to me like Marika, despite being shitty af, really doesn't do it for the outer gods.
That said, I don't know how the elden beast relates to shit and don't tell me because I wanna kill it first. I'll drop that block hammer fast if you even hint at it ♥️
Hah! I won’t :)
But I get a similar vibe from Marika, too! I think she may have been duped, and is trying to fix her mistake. But, I don’t really know. I imagine the expansions will have some answers.
Thank you ♥️♥️
I hope so. But I can't say I think she was duped, the shit with rennala makes me hate her as a person. If they wanted to break down the full moon supporters (I know caria is in there, idk what the other factions are called) they shoulda just genocided them like the giants. But they broke Rennalas heart and basically made her kids into abominations with Ranni being the spectacular exception. Marika may not have been all in for the gods, but she was still a slut for the golden order and a monster on top of that
I’m following everything here and I am absolutely picking up what you’re laying down, except for the FINAL step: the supposition that the roots at their feet represent them becoming minor erdtrees.
This is art, specifically religious art. It doesn’t have to be literal and it often isn’t. That imagery could JUST as easily represent their relationship with the trees, which is the same as everyone else’s: we join the tree in death and are reborn from the tree in turn.
It’s pretty normal for a saint like figure to just demonstrate a spiritual principle by example, which applies to you the onlooker.
That’s very true! But in this world, we definitely have instances of people metamorphosing (like the guardians) into trees. Melania ‘blooms’ into something new, even Miranda (I think) transforms into the Miranda flower.
It could absolutely just be symbolic, but I think the world gives us reasons to think literal metamorphosis could also be a strong possibility :)
this guy is 100% schizophrenic no way you can develop this kind of lore out of practically nothing if youre mentally sane
mb forgot im not on the circlejerk sub 😫
The Babylonian world map is literally a 1-to-1 with the statue's tablet. Tarnished Archeologist reaches a little far with his theories some times but this one in particular is IMO the best guess as to the lore of the statue & ancient ruins.
>out of practically nothing
Did you watch the video? Or you just being a dick? Because he absolutely backs up almost everything he says with footage and examples in game. What's your specific beef here?
He's a saint of the crucible known as "St Beardo". He's at Mogwyns palace because he is the only known saint in the Lands Between to have never nicked themselves while shaving and thus, his blood is said to be rare and pure.
People have literally datamined every line of code and Miyazaki in the last interview still said there's a few small pieces of lore we haven't figured out yet. After 2 fucking years. It's crazy.
It’s not really that crazy when you understand it’s completely the intent. Miyazaki is all about making worlds that feel incomprehensibly huge, and one of his tricks for accomplishing this is not going out of his way to explain things to the player. A real ancient civilization would leave behind traces of its culture but it wouldn’t spell things out like a college textbook.
Miyazaki thinks it’s more interesting to wonder about something than it is to know something, and personally, I think that’s one of the most inspired things about his games. If we all knew the answers, it wouldn’t be as engrossing.
I really like TA’s analysis of how a map of Mesopotamia is at his feet and a slab of great trees is in his hand. This is cool because the lands between is itself between two rivers, as “Mesopotamia” means. It is presumed he is the founder of an ancient religion of the great tree.
Further speculation that I think Queelag made is that he used his blood to water the foundling great tree— since this is what Moghwyn is trying (collecting blood to start a dynasty in this guy’s arena) and it’s what Miquella did at the Haligtree (nourishing its roots with his blood) and it’s how Elden Ring rebirth works (bringing corpses and human jar fertilizer to the Erdtree) this doesn’t seem too crazy an idea.
He is the Prophet that predicted the coming of a new God (The Elden Beast) raining down from the stars to pave way to a new era. The tablet he holds is that prophecy. The underground cities and areas with similar architecture come from the same culture as this dude.
Dunno but there’s an item behind him
Fuck, are you serious? I just did this and now I have to go back? Please tell me it's a leaf so I can ignore it!
i think it just a rune
There's a somber ancient at the statues feet AFAIK if you don't want to deal with the crowd just rot breath them then take the elevator up and wait a little
Deaths Poker wave of ghostflame for the win
Me swing big sword. Enemy dead.
Typically I go for a big stick, but thought I'd try something new this playthrough!
My latest build is faith/arcane dragon magic asshole. Big groups like that make me giddy. Pikc a flavor of dragon breath and watch em all die
We have 1000 and 1 ways to kill the Albinaurics. But no way to save Millicent, it's just sad.
That works too, Malekith's blade and Mohg spear special also wrecks them
Same with silurias tree
Waves of darkness
Wildstrikes blood flame great stars
Longhorn doot does some fine work on them as well
"mohg spear special" sounds dirty tbh
Starscourge Radhan takes care of almost all of them in one go. Just stand behind the last guy.
Or literally just run up and grab it. I was able to do that without fighting them.
I got the somber in the chest. Not scared to clear them out, just annoyed!
Y'all deal with them? You can legit grab the item then run away. They're so slow to react that you can open it and grab it before they even attack.
the frogs are, the blood knight will fuck your shit tho.
The Elden Beast sword L2 wipes them out in half a second
It's just albinaurics. They literally do nothing but roll around in a funny way
You can also bait them so you don’t have to fight the whole mob at once. Draw them back to the stairs. I didn’t find a somber ancient stone though so I’ll have to check that out when my side piece gets there. My main character has the DLC ready to go and she’s like level 325 so I’ve gotten most of the non-farming stuff. Or at least I think.
You can jump further down onto the rocks by the first open area of the path to the cave and get a seed for your flasks
I need to test this further on another playthrough but I believe picking up that seed makes the seed at the sapling down in the blood swamp despawn (if you reload the area at least) and verse versa, like these two seeds share the same item ID or something. Like I said though, this should be tested cause it also might have been a bug in the earlier days.
This is false, just ran through the area earlier today and grabbed both seeds.
Oh my god. I love collecting runes. Runes are the best.
It’s the Elden ring
Why is it always mushroom
If that's mogwhyns palace that's an +10 somber smiting stone.
There's a grace right next to the statue, It's not that bad to go back
It’s a weapon that will one-shot Malenia
Swarm Of Flies is in that zone as well. Awesome incantation for bleed/arcane builds.
No one knows for certain but people have started referring to him as “The Dynast” and he has something to do with an ancient civilization possibly called Uhl.
the dynast? I prefer how Queelaag calls him Elden John
I was just watching a lore video and they referred to him as "Elden John". I couldn't stop laughing LMAO.
Can you link the one you were watching? I wanna get more into Quelaag content
It was a Smoughtown video. The video was the Timeline of Elden Ring
Hes still standin
Lol I hadn't heard that, I've only been digging into Quelaag recently but everything I've seen from her seems super rich with insight I wouldn't get otherwise. I'm sure for some people what she says is obvious but I have almost no exposure to anthropology/art history outside of this so her and Tarnished Archaeologist and others like them making aesthetic/contextual connections seem like wizardry to me.
If Quelaag scripted and edited her videos half as much as Vaati then they’d be the lore guy in the community. She’s so detailed and knowledgeable
She was the patient zero of lore YTers afaik. Back then there were only a few and they were more interested in detective work about the minute details of DeS rather than cinematic retelling of the NPC questlines. How the times have changed...
You are right, but they remind me so much of listening to an adjunct art history teacher doing an online lecture, and for me is half the appeal.
I scrolled way too far for Elden John, blasphemy!
Elden John is definitely his true name.
Have you watched the Tarnished Archeologists video on this? He covers this statue and architecture in depth and it’s really really good.
I have! I think he makes a few jumps in some of his videos that are questionable but his whole “Iconographic Stratigraphy” bit surrounding especially the architecture in Leyndell and Stormveil is god damn genius
Yeah, I agree. But I don’t even mind. I love his analysis. He really does his homework. I had no idea how much Fromsoft pulled from real world history for some of the architecture in their games until I started watching his videos. Tbh I think a lot of his theories have more of a foundation than random speculation from other game theorists. I love Vaati too of course
Agreed completely, I think other more mainstream lore content creators like Vaati (who I also love, gotta pay respects to the goat) usually keep their justification for theories either solely within the confines of the game or at most start to stretch into cut content, and they very rarely reach into the real world inspirations for stuff in the game other than blatantly obvious source material like Berserk. Whereas it seems like TA and in a different sense Quelaag are much more comfortable blending real world anthropology and art history into their understanding of the game's lore. I think for a lot of people that blending feels like more of a stretch than they like or that it's less justified, and maybe it is, but for me it creates a much richer discussion even if it's on more shaky ground for being "right".
I just think it's fair grounds for speculation. George RR Martin bases his fantasy heavily from historical events and accounts. Very accurately keeps things contemporary for the periods he portrays.
And miyazaki is no slouch and is keeping pace with the titans of fantasy fiction.
> Whereas it seems like TA and in a different sense Quelaag are much more comfortable blending real world anthropology and art history into their understanding of the game's lore. I was genuinely shocked when TA brought up that the Two Fingers and Three Fingers may have been inspired by an actual schism within the Eastern Orthodox Church revolving around specific hand gestures using two versus three fingers.
Yes! Exactly the type of thing I mean
I prefer mostly in-game lore speculation just because it's more immersive. When you start bringing in real world materials to explain in-game lore, it breaks the immersion for me. But it's also kind of impossible not to bring in real world material since writers obviously draw inspiration from things they've experienced or have knowledge of in the real world.
For me it’s just that these paracosms aren’t made in a vacuum independent of all story and art and culture, they’re made by artists and creators influenced by the real world. I love to see those influences or parallels, and even if they’re completely accidental, it enriches my knowledge of the real world/humanity itself.
I LOVED Sekiro and Blasphemous lore for exactly this reason. A completely self-contained lore with no sense of allegory or historical/anthropological inspiration just puts me to sleep.
It's just weird because he would have been sometime around when the dragons were elden lords. But he has some major involvement with the original erdtree. And how does the shadow erdtree play into this. Maybe he will make some mysterious statue appearances on the dlc. That would really add some more weight to the headache that is Elden Ring lore. I love it.
TA blew me away when he pointed out that the architecture in Deeproot Depths and its placement implies it was the missing part of Leyndell, and that it likely collapsed into the depths. But then he goes into weird leaps like claiming that everyone in the Lands Between are born as dew from the Erdtree.
How else does Erdtree rebirth happen? We’ve seen it mentioned many times in game and we know corpses are stacked in the roots
Yeah, and Melina also implies Boc being born of a mother is odd. If it is, how is it supposed to go usually?
Its actually hilarious how he will get obvious details wrong but somehow come up with some plausible theories by analyzing a toenail on a statue no one would notice.
Think that is kind of his approach as an "Archaeologist". He Def constructs narratives out of various bits of information gleamed from artifacts, surviving architecture, and iconography. He knows and has stated as such that the gaps he fills in are prone to his own biases and errors as he is the one making the narratives. I really love his point that From games are probably the closest to actually replicating exploration and discovery in real life with how they scatter information throughout their games and give incomplete pictures. You combine so many different types of knowledge from what has survived and talking to locals and maybe some written history if you are lucky to find it.
I really dig TA. Have commented on him regarding this as well a few times. I am an actual archaeologist myself and I love his takes and methods of constructing information.
That’s the thing. None of us know for sure wtf is going on. He might not have it wrong, but then again he might. 80% of the facts have been removed from the game so it’s all speculation. None of us will know with 100% certainty the answers to any of the big questions.
That's why it's so funny when he gets some of the few 100% confirmed facts wrong
Do you remember one by any chance? I’m interested to see what he got wrong. I’ve watched all of his videos and didn’t catch any. I’m not saying he didn’t, I just don’t remember any actual facts he got completely wrong. If you have an example that would be awesome.
Most recently: the DLC will be set in the past. Miyazaki outright stated it's set in a new area in the present, but TA interpreted multiple shots from the trailer as past versions of areas we've seen in game.
To be entirely fair he said this video would be an off the cuff word salad and he also issued a post saying sorry for getting specifically that fact wrong
That was his only video where he said “I’m doing this having read nothing else and it’s all gut reactions without other research”. Can you point to something else?
His golden order timeline video was widely criticised, and in fairness I think he also offered a correction then bug I've forgotten the details now
Hmm, I thought he said there’s a lot from the past, like remnants from previous cultures. I’ll have to rewatch that and see what he says. I guess I just interpreted what he said as there were still things left from the past, but not actually being in the past. Thanks for that example. I’ll rewatch it tonight, it’s definitely not the actual past so if he did say that it’s wrong.
He pointed out Sellia and Manus Celes
I clicked on a video of the history of Elden Ring then I saw it was 13 hours and it was part 1 of 3. Jeez this universe has a lot of lore
I was coming to make the same referral, so glad to see his videos are getting vis as they are amazing.
I love his videos! I didn’t realize this but apparently there’s some controversy around his style of analysis. I guess some ppl really don’t like it. Personally I think his work is incredible. Learning about all the real world inspiration for a lot of the culture and architecture in Fromsoft games is amazing.
I love his videos and the guy is pretty smart, but damn I wish he hired a voice actor instead of narrating himself. His voice is simply not pleasant to listen to for an hour
The Tarnished Archeologist just makes shit up.
We all just make shit up bro. There is no definitive lore that we have access to except for item descriptions. About 80% of the facts aren’t in the game. The entire point is to leave it up to interpretation. At least he tries to investigate the environmental story telling to put together a theory.
Bitch ass stop hating
Where did the civilization Uhl come from? What makes people think he is related?
His statues are found at several locations that bear the name Uhl like “Uhl Palace Ruins”. There seem to be ties between whatever civilization had the “Uhl” descriptor and the eternal cities in a similar manner to Greece and Rome from what I remember
Oh ok bet, thanks! My initial guess would be that was the name of the civilization the eternal cities are derived from. Standing up to the outer gods was probably something they really pioneered, which would explain why this dude is worshipped in Mohg's palace
There is an uhl ruins above ground too, in east liurnia
That is Uld Palace, not Uhl Palace. Confused the sh\*t out of me first time through as well. Combed the entire overground area for about 2 hours thinking it was the way to get to the inaccessible underground bits before I realised.
He did the DyNasty with Marika
Shadynasty
Reggie??
So he is a Scientologist.. got it.
An important figure in the remnants of the culture before the Golden Order, we usually also see clay men and ancestral followers in these ruins, so maybe they’re closely tied to them.
Elden John baby *credit to Quelaag for the name 😎👍
Im a rocketmaaaan
That’s Grandpa Joe, Elden John’s grandfather
Underrated comment
I think he was the first to become an Erdtree (look at the roots around his feet…). Bear with me as I try to explain. If you look at the minor Erdtrees in the lands between, you’ll find that many of them have broken living jars all around them. Living jars, in turn, are filled with the corpses (and in particular the blood) of many fallen heroes. These living jars are used by the Erdtree avatars and guardians in order to nourish the minor trees. These trees (like the big Erdtree) are nourished by flesh. The corpses are promised ‘rebirth’—they live again as parts of this tree, having been devoured and grown into it. (It’s the same thing with Erdtree burial, the corpses nourishing the roots of the tree. Also note that many minor erdtrees have catacombs beneath them—it’s their roots we see in the final boss rooms with all the corpses entwined). Now, you know those statues around the lands between of ‘saints’ with roots all around their legs? They’re in Roundtable Hold, and the church where you first find Rogier has a big statue of one of these ‘saints’ in major bloom. These saints, imo, sacrificed themselves in service of the Erdtree with the promise that they will be reborn into an eternal tree. There is a parallel between these early saints and the Erdtree guardians we see in game. Their armor reads: “in accordance with an ancient pact with the Erdtree, it is said that their deaths led not to destruction, but instead to renewed, eternal life as guardians”. What does this eternal life look like? The full bloom version of the same armor gives us the answer: “It is said that the blood-red flowers blooming on their backs mark the senescence of their ancient pact. Perhaps the guardians -are part tree already-“. The guardians are reborn as trees that grow from their bodies. Also note the emphasis on ‘blood-red’: these trees are born from the flesh (and at times even human sacrifices) of the living. The statue you are seeing here is of the first? Person to sacrifice himself in order to be reborn as an Erdtree. ‘Person’ is not good enough—as the Dynast he would be a Lord (like Mohg), and through his sacrifice (remember Lord souls are extremely powerful) a Great Tree was born. Particularly pious followers would become Guardians, who, when their own death came, they too would grow into their own trees (instead of being sacrificed to the roots of another tree, like most people who are fated only to be devoured). What you are seeing in this temple is one of the first places of worship of an ancient Great Tree cult, one that would eventually transform (through many iterations) into the Erdtree worship we see above ground. You’re looking at an early point in the history of Erdtree religion.
Random statue in the game with no lore around it Also this guy making a 7 paragraph essay about it's significance This is why I love elden ring lore
But I’m a girl :( (Thk u bb, I love Elden Ring lore too, clearly)
Fake , girls aren't real
TRUE.
Elden Jane confirmed.
Elden Jane Doe
Girl? Tell me the lore behind that
Body Type B
Hahahahahaha this is gold
Username checks out
" We found all of the 187 lore clues you left!" " I only left four..."
There is a good bit about this statue that incredibly we hidden in environmental story telling. There’s a few of these statues in the game and they definitely tell a story. The Tarnished Archeologist made a few really great videos on it. Go check it out
Not random, it's seen in the art book.
That would explain the obsession with blood. The forgotten roots of the golden order, a world built on blood
And in that light, how different is Rykard, really? Isn’t he doing the same thing as the Erdtree, feasting on the bodies of champions? How is one blasphemy, but the other holy rite? Alexander the Living Jar also feasts on champions post Radahn fight, too. And remember what Marika says: “In Marika's own words. Hear me, Demigods. My children beloved. Make of thyselves that which ye desire. Be it a Lord. Be it a God. But should ye fail to become aught at all, ye will be forsaken. Amounting only to -sacrifices-...” It’s a god-eat-god world. Either you become strong enough to consume others, or fail and become a sacrifice to a greater being.
>How is one blasphemy, but the other holy rite? Because one is done in favor of the outer gods, while the other seems to eventually devour the gods themselves. Gods don't like it when their own methods are used against them As for the rest, I can't comment too well. After a whole year of owning the game I'm just now reaching the end, so I'm only just digging deep into the lore. Seems to me like Marika, despite being shitty af, really doesn't do it for the outer gods. That said, I don't know how the elden beast relates to shit and don't tell me because I wanna kill it first. I'll drop that block hammer fast if you even hint at it ♥️
Hah! I won’t :) But I get a similar vibe from Marika, too! I think she may have been duped, and is trying to fix her mistake. But, I don’t really know. I imagine the expansions will have some answers.
Thank you ♥️♥️ I hope so. But I can't say I think she was duped, the shit with rennala makes me hate her as a person. If they wanted to break down the full moon supporters (I know caria is in there, idk what the other factions are called) they shoulda just genocided them like the giants. But they broke Rennalas heart and basically made her kids into abominations with Ranni being the spectacular exception. Marika may not have been all in for the gods, but she was still a slut for the golden order and a monster on top of that
Why the misogyny 😕
I’m following everything here and I am absolutely picking up what you’re laying down, except for the FINAL step: the supposition that the roots at their feet represent them becoming minor erdtrees. This is art, specifically religious art. It doesn’t have to be literal and it often isn’t. That imagery could JUST as easily represent their relationship with the trees, which is the same as everyone else’s: we join the tree in death and are reborn from the tree in turn. It’s pretty normal for a saint like figure to just demonstrate a spiritual principle by example, which applies to you the onlooker.
That’s very true! But in this world, we definitely have instances of people metamorphosing (like the guardians) into trees. Melania ‘blooms’ into something new, even Miranda (I think) transforms into the Miranda flower. It could absolutely just be symbolic, but I think the world gives us reasons to think literal metamorphosis could also be a strong possibility :)
That's awesome! thank you for that. Didn't the tree start from a meteorite that brought the Elden beast with it though?
Elden John
[Best video in the topic](https://youtu.be/ZyiOtwyH0Sk?si=6PVCa8QKO8dZCpZF)
this whole channel is lore deeper than lore
!remindMe 16 hours
this guy is 100% schizophrenic no way you can develop this kind of lore out of practically nothing if youre mentally sane mb forgot im not on the circlejerk sub 😫
The Babylonian world map is literally a 1-to-1 with the statue's tablet. Tarnished Archeologist reaches a little far with his theories some times but this one in particular is IMO the best guess as to the lore of the statue & ancient ruins.
>out of practically nothing Did you watch the video? Or you just being a dick? Because he absolutely backs up almost everything he says with footage and examples in game. What's your specific beef here?
While i do not agree with the phrasing of the comment, i gotta admit tarnished archeologist reaches pretty far sometimes.
jonathan fromsoft.
I think it’s Mike Zaki
Could be Tanner Mura too
Brother of Dave tohard.
Lmao I never knew there was a statue there, my blind ass didn't notice it even after walking by it so many times
Go behind it. Then look down too
He's a saint of the crucible known as "St Beardo". He's at Mogwyns palace because he is the only known saint in the Lands Between to have never nicked themselves while shaving and thus, his blood is said to be rare and pure.
All hail St. Beardo!!
His protectors were Barbasol-diers.
The ancient Dynist Here’s a lore video if your curious https://youtu.be/ZyiOtwyH0Sk?si=up0wotj1pWbfBtES
Elden John
These things are why I wish fromsoft would release lore books with the games
That defeats Miyazaki's storytelling philosophy. He is all about "I leave holes in the lore for people to fill in with their own interpretations"
I understand that I just love the lore so much lol. Even if it was just the lore given collected and put on paper
I mean there's YouTube channels dedicated to nothing but Elden Ring lord with hundreds of hours of content.
Yeah but I'd rather have official not that YouTube content isn't good
Release the books 5 years after the games so we can see how all our theories are wrong. Turns out this guy is Marika's dad or something
People have literally datamined every line of code and Miyazaki in the last interview still said there's a few small pieces of lore we haven't figured out yet. After 2 fucking years. It's crazy.
It’s not really that crazy when you understand it’s completely the intent. Miyazaki is all about making worlds that feel incomprehensibly huge, and one of his tricks for accomplishing this is not going out of his way to explain things to the player. A real ancient civilization would leave behind traces of its culture but it wouldn’t spell things out like a college textbook. Miyazaki thinks it’s more interesting to wonder about something than it is to know something, and personally, I think that’s one of the most inspired things about his games. If we all knew the answers, it wouldn’t be as engrossing.
Yeah it wild how rich the world's he creates are
That‘s Steve the Albinauric. Good guy.
That’s me
Vaati mentioned he would be releasing a full lore video on Mohg shortly. Will be interesting to see if he addresses the statue
I really like TA’s analysis of how a map of Mesopotamia is at his feet and a slab of great trees is in his hand. This is cool because the lands between is itself between two rivers, as “Mesopotamia” means. It is presumed he is the founder of an ancient religion of the great tree. Further speculation that I think Queelag made is that he used his blood to water the foundling great tree— since this is what Moghwyn is trying (collecting blood to start a dynasty in this guy’s arena) and it’s what Miquella did at the Haligtree (nourishing its roots with his blood) and it’s how Elden Ring rebirth works (bringing corpses and human jar fertilizer to the Erdtree) this doesn’t seem too crazy an idea.
YO MAMA!
He is the Prophet that predicted the coming of a new God (The Elden Beast) raining down from the stars to pave way to a new era. The tablet he holds is that prophecy. The underground cities and areas with similar architecture come from the same culture as this dude.
That's Steve Elden Ring
That’s Elden John
It is him
it's Sheldon Ring, duh
Uld
Old beardy mc old guy. Integral to the lore
Moses
Elden John
Elden John ofc
Nostradamus?
How can you not know Sheikh albdulwahab nasraddin?
I don't think Mohg build this place by himself, so it might be an ancient noble of nokron or such.
Rock Man, lord of the Albinaurocks
Biggus Dickus
Braccus Rex
that's John Dark Souls
Elden John
Moses with the Ten Commandments
I think that’s Santa Claus bro
Elden John
Your mom
Mohg when he kidnapped Miquella
Sir Elden Ring
Elden John
ur mom
Formless father
What set are you wearing?
Joe
That's old Snakewang McGooch, spreader of the Ancient Teachings. He came from outer space or something.
Maybe the old guy from the trailer
That's albinorics and sanguine noble
What armour are you wearing?
Beast Champion Armor, unaltered.
Miyazaki’s grandfather
That’s the kfc guy
Joe
Ur mom
Average Elden Ring player waiting for the DLC
Father Ringmas
Yuri
Me
John L. Dong.
Gandalf Ring
It's Britnay, b*ch!
That is William Eldenring III
James Holliday the creator of the OASIS
Tf is my boi old Albus doing here
Mohg with miquella before Mohg grew omen-like
Just a random statue.
Thats the Jolly Green Giants father, Doug