drenched-in-sunlight - Tumblr blog

drenched-in-sunlight · 6 days ago

Text

A young girl abandoned and brutalized by those she was born to, her life forfeit at the whims of an indifferent preternatural force, leaving her bereft of all but her yearning for revenge, a duty that defines her very being. A nascent sprout who should have epitomized the potential of life, reduced to naught but a cold, ashen phantom.

*falling to my knees* wow.... WOW!!!!!!!!!!!

One Face, Two Names: The Thematic Connections and Foils of Revenant

With how coy FromSoft was about sharing any details regarding them, right up until release, Revenant and Executor stood as the most anticipated and intriguing Nightfarers for a great many people, myself included. In addition to their sheer mystique, this was also largely thanks to their designs appearing to imply some relation to various critical lore elements. Of course, we now understand these characters to have fairly minimal ties to the greater narrative and lore of Elden Ring, which may be surprising and disappointing for some. However, their thematic connections both to each other and to Elden Ring's central concepts run deep, and in keeping with the theme of synthesis, by reading them in conjunction, the individual components are elevated into something greater than the sum of their parts.

This focuses on analyzing the story and themes of Revenant. You can find the follow-up, focusing on Executor, here.

(I know Nightreign has been out for over a month, but still, a spoiler warning that I'm going to discuss the entirety of Revenant's Journal/Remembrance storyline. I do highly recommend experiencing at least the final scene for yourself first, if only because it’s one of the most stand-out parts of Nightreign's narrative. You can view the full questline here. Additionally, you can read her Journal entries here.)

From our first glimpse of Revenant, I was incredibly excited about how overtly her design elements alluded to some of the game’s most deeply significant lore. Her hair being styled in narrow, parallel braids in front and a single larger braid behind clearly evokes Marika and, by extension, the Dominula Celebrants who wear their hair in imitation of her. Similarly, the figure on the back of her lyre also strongly resembles many depictions of Marika. That her hair is white brings to mind the jarred shamans, as well as Rakshasa, commonly speculated to have been a shaman, in part due to her hair and eye colors. In addition to this, Revenant's bridal veil, flower crown, blue shawl/cape with gold embroidery, and general silhouette all very strongly echo the Celebrants, whose festival revolves around a sacrificial blue-garbed maiden, and is overtly inspired by real-life fertility festivals. Dominula is also lush with flowers in a myriad of colors, of a kind only otherwise seen in the Shaman Village, save for the jasmine-like flowers at the roots of the Haligtree; blue, however, is consistently associated in Elden Ring with matters of spirits, death, magic, and night, making Revenant’s particular flower crown, and general color scheme, even more conspicuous.

Then, there is the matter of Revenant being covered in medallions bearing the “nine-pupil” motif, the ring of circles around a central circle; I refer to it as such here because folks most commonly associate it with the eye of the Fell God of Fire, and indeed it is seen prominently all across the Rauh-style architecture of the Giants’ Forge and the Divine Towers, but it is also present, with varying numbers of “pupils,” in many other places, including the Verdigris Discus, the Miquellan Knight's Sword, the trim of Godrick’s mantle, and, as it happens, the accessories of the Celebrants. Given the clear significance of this symbol, as well as Dominula's relationship to Marika, the shamans, and the Godskins, and in light of Revenant's spirit-calling abilities, I was sure she would tie into the deep lore of the Lands Between. As it happens, she does not.

As with all the Nightfarers, Chloe Northerncroft seems to have hailed from outside the Lands Between. The prestigious House Northerncroft are known for their mastery of puppetry, and their patron is the esteemed, elderly Edgar Northerncroft, who doted on his young granddaughter, Chloe, wishing for her to seek the happiness she deserves; he expressed this in a message described as “hurriedly scrawled,” likely implying that it was written just before passing away. Chloe owns a life-size doll, crafted by Edgar himself; it is modeled after herself, and wears the same dress and basic medallions as her, but is otherwise adorned in a manner highly evocative of the Lands Between. She has named it Daphne. When the storm of the Night falls upon the Northerncroft estate, its power induces violent madness in at least one member of the house, a man of unspecified identity, but presumably Chloe’s father. He brutally bludgeons to death a woman, then Chloe herself, the girl's blood spattering on the doll Daphne, who awakens afterwards, not truly possessed by Chloe's spirit, but imbued with her lingering will and vengeful resentment, animated in part by the power of the Night. Thus, the Revenant is born, the cursed, composite echo of a sacrificed innocent and a cold vessel, driven to “avenge her disgraced lineage.”

Now, while the presentation of Daphne/Chloe's story is superb, the gruesome final cutscene in particular, it isn't quite the lore insight many expected. Really, Revenant's story seems to have absolutely no relation to Elden Ring at large; at least, at first glance. But the themes of her story ring out clear. A young girl abandoned and brutalized by those she was born to, her life forfeit at the whims of an indifferent preternatural force, leaving her bereft of all but her yearning for revenge, a duty that defines her very being. A nascent sprout who should have epitomized the potential of life, reduced to naught but a cold, ashen phantom. Whether Marika, Melina, Millicent, Anri, Shanalotte, the Forlorn, the Milfanito, Anastacia, Maria, Yharnam, or any number of other characters, variations of this refrain have played out time and again throughout FromSoft’s stories. The indignities and acts of violence inflicted upon women, falsely justified in the name of order and systems of power, is one of their most enduring themes. However, Revenant's tale bears yet further, more specific connections to the themes of Elden Ring.

First, it is worth acknowledging that, in the Lands Between, the art of crafting puppets and dolls is almost exclusively associated with Liurnia; Ranni’s own doll bodies were an immediate point of comparison when Revenant was revealed, and the same manner of Marionettes as the Iron Menial originate in this land. It is, incidentally, the very same land most associated with magic and spirits, and even hosts a number of the notorious, wraith-infested enemies known as Royal Revenants. One such enemy serves as the boss of Daphne’s final Remembrance, a representative manifestation labeled as “Contaminant.” Though it cannot be definitively stated what royalty these revenants originally belonged to, be it that of Leyndell or Liurnia or even Eochaid, their nature as former aristocracy cursed by vengeful souls paints a clear parallel. As in the mythologies of real-world cultures, particularly the very same Celtic and Nordic regions which hold noteworthy prominence among Elden Ring’s inspirations, these revenants present as those condemned to death, yet returned to life for the purpose of wrathful, even feral, retribution.

Returning to our Revenant, she is often found sitting on the balcony overlooking the entry hall, poised beneath the looming portraits of Godfrey and Radagon, king consorts to Marika. Even the girl's posture is notably similar to Marika's in her own portrait, found on the balcony's other side. I previously made mention of Dark Souls II's Milfanito, and even well prior to the game's release, at least one keen-eyed individual observed comparisons between Revenant and the Shrine of Amana's ethereal singers; the use of music to quell or call the dead, the nearly-identical injuries, and the Milfanito's own overt parallels to the shamans all position Revenant within a deeply significant metatextual legacy. This persists into her Journal Questline, where she must retrieve a “Blade of Night Fragment” from one of two Nightlords; its description notes how its “dark substance slowly spreads, as if to restore the lost portion of the blade, or to sharpen the existing blade beyond its natural properties.” Put another way, it seeks to either complete itself, or to ascend to a greater state. Quite reminiscent of a certain hero who became lord, and a shaman who became god. As it happens, it can be obtained from defeating either Gladius, a fiery wolf, born with three heads due to a mutative aspect, once loyal to a fearless warrior, or Fulghor, a bestial champion of storm-clad gods, whose attire and aesthetics are highly reminiscent of certain factions known to worship divine beasts and sacred light. Regardless of whether or not either Nightlord is truly connected to Radagon or the hornsent, the thematic allusion being drawn is clear: Revenant's character is intended to be read within the context of Marika. And there is no aspect of Revenant and Marika's stories that overlaps more clearly than their shared thirst for revenge.

Edgar Northerncroft is described as the “patron” of House Northerncroft, though given he bears the name, it's likely he is indeed also the patriarch; I would suspect the terms may have simply been conflated, but the word used in the Japanese text is obviously relevant here, and I cannot speak to that. However, what is particularly of note is that he shares his name with Elden Ring’s own Edgar. That Edgar is a Banished Knight, and castellan of Castle Morne, having explicitly been granted stewardship of the location by Godrick. He resides there with his daughter, Irina, who possesses some unclear connection to Hyetta, prospective Finger Maiden to the Three Fingers and the Flame of Frenzy; notably, a Frenzied Flame village sits very close to Castle Morne, and in the 1.00 text, Shabriri himself was stated to have been exiled to the Weeping Peninsula.

In spite of these ties to Frenzy, Edgar is the steadfast keeper and protector of his castle's legacy, which heavily revolves around the Grafted Blade Greatsword, the weapon of an unnamed “revenger” who, in the wake of his country’s ruin, slew an entire clan of warriors; there is ample reason to suspect this was Elemer, but that is its own tangent. This unique term comes up several times in the game; the Grafted Blade revenger, the Revenger's Shack in Liurnia where the Frenzy-addled Edgar himself ends up, the rot-afflicted dragon Ekzykes being a “Dragon Communion Revenger,” and the hornsent revenger among Miquella's followers. In every case, these are individuals whose kin and clans have been slaughtered, who have been left with nothing but despair and hatred, or so they believe, and have subsequently become consumed by a vengeance that eclipses even their own self-inflicted demises. In this way, they thus serve as foils to Marika, herself a “revenger” in essence. The genocidal crusade she sends Messmer on is long-delayed recompense for the potentates’ butchering of her shaman kin. And, as with the other revengers, her hatred consumes her, blinds her to that which she still has, and drives her to seek retribution even against those merely kindred to the true transgressors, fomenting prejudice and perpetuating the violent cycle of sin and causality.

Revenant herself is yet another “revenger,” but hers is the story that, at last, deviates from self-destruction. She does not abandon her purpose; as she reminds the Duchess with her gifted Crown Medal, “with strength comes the burden of duty,” and as we are reminded by Marika and Radagon’s Scarseals, “solemn duty weighs upon the one beholden; not unlike a gnawing curse from which there is no deliverance.” And indeed, within Nightreign’s OST, the track that plays as the blood-spattered Daphne steps out into the night, clutching Chloe’s portrait, is titled “A Girl’s Solemn Wish.” Rather, Revenant faces her true nature, purges the Night’s corrupting hold on her, and finds new resolve to fulfill this duty, to honor this wish, all through the aid of her newfound family; in particular, the Recluse, whose own narrative heavily emphasizes her theme of motherhood, and indeed, this is what she acts as to young Daphne. This is what the Nightfarers come to all be to one another, and what comes to form the core theme of Nightreign’s narrative: family. Through these bonds, closure and healing is to be found, the likes of which eluded Revenant’s fellow revengers, save one. Though never referred to with that term, Diallos, youngest of the esteemed House Hoslow, seeks revenge for the death of his dear companion, but ultimately finds true solace in tending to the Living Jars of Jarburg, themselves the vestigial legacy of Marika’s own butchered people, the spirit-attuned shamans. A familiar tale to that of Daphne, no doubt, and one amplified now in parallel to her own journey. One must walk the path of vengeance with a clear mind, conscientious that such is but a righteous mission, and that only in embracing new bonds can the wounds of sorrow heal.

This use of the same central theme, or the same design or name or motif, across different stories, such that the stories come to inform and recontextualize one another, is perhaps the most recurring and crucial aspect of From’s storytelling. Another example lies with Irina herself, a blind young woman from Castle Morne, who seeks to become a Finger Maiden; Dark Souls III features its own Irina, all but identical in nature, save that “Morne” here refers to a renowned apostle of the church she serves. In this same vein, Bloodborne features its own Edgar, an agent of the highest echelon of that world’s own dominant church, fought within the depths of a nightmare realm steeped in Bloodborne’s version of Frenzy. And, of course, Bloodborne also has its own Doll, a sentient echo of the iconic Lady Maria, shamed by the foul legacy she was complicit in, sacrificing herself to bury the sin. Revenant’s story, of a patriarch unable to save his brutalized family, of a man lost to violent frenzy, of a girl who takes the form of a doll to remedy the wrongs of the past, threads neatly into these precursors, and indeed, it evokes the story of Elden Ring even more clearly. Though the reason for her Lands Between-esque attire yet remains unexplained, in truth, the reason matters little, for the real answer is that Revenant is a mirror, cracked such that her story reflects a myriad of scenes at once.

Just as at Castle Morne, a girl is brutally bludgeoned to death, and the patriarch Edgar is not there to protect her from one driven mad by a cosmic force, naught surviving the night but a will of pure resentment and revenge. Just as in Liurnia, a doll is possessed by a girl's spirit, driven by her desire to right a deep-rooted injustice, marked by a curse. Just as in Enir-Ilim, a girl survives her slaughtered kin, even as she herself dies and is reborn in their blood, walking away with a heart set only to wax wroth and wreak revenge, and the girl's vengeance will require a vessel. But, just as in humble Jarburg, one who was once a vengeance-seeking scion confronts the nature of their self, discovers the strength and purpose of a new family, and escapes the tainted and bloody cycle they so easily could have fallen prey to. “On that night, the doll understood – the young girl wished to live. And with that understanding, the doll found her purpose.”

#er brainrot #nightreign revenant #queen marika the eternal #GREAT POST OP IM IN TEARS #beautiful analysis and the point about the nine-pupil really got me blinking my eyes like wait-----------------

69 notes · View notes