#anastasia tarnished-eater

[bri-the-nautilus]

The Potentate Complex

Lately, the wonderful @catcas22 and I have been discussing the Hornsent, the Omens, and the Living Jars. Cat has two excellent posts on the subject up, one on the nature of the Lamenters and another on a potential link between the Omen's nightmares and the crimes of their progenitors. I highly recommend you read those posts first and then come back to this one, as they'll make it much easier to understand some of the concepts I'll be bringing up.

Anyhow, there's something that fell by the wayside in all this: the word "potentate." It's curiously exclusive to the context of jars in Elden Ring.

In the base game, Jar-Bairn and the other residents of Jarburg are searching for a Potentate to serve as a leader/protector of their village. The criteria for which are... odd. Jar-Bairn first attempts to enlist the player as Potentate, only to reject us on the grounds that our callused warrior hands are unsuited to the position. He finds what he believes to be a better candidate in Diallos Hoslow, but can later be found remarking that while he rather likes Diallos's soft, supple hands, he finds the younger Hoslow uninspiring as far as protectors go, going so far as to wish that they could have a Potentate who's "big and strong, like you."

In SOTE, we learn that "Potentate" was also the title given to the Hornsent clerics who butchered human/Numen villages to fill the Living Jars.

Interesting.

Assuming Cat's theory about the throughline between the Hornsent Potentates, the Living Jars, and the Omensmirk nightmares is correct, I think I have an idea of what's happening here.

We've established that when a human consigned to a jar reincarnates as an Omen, they retain some subconscious mnemonic impression from their previous life, potentially establishing the terror and torture endured at the Hornsent's hands as the source for the shared nightmares about horned beings that plague all Omen. We also know that "rancorous spirits" cling to the flesh inside the jars.

I don't think it's unreasonable to suppose that if the Omen retain memories of their previous deaths, the jars created by the Hornsent do the same. However, I'd also suppose that the mindscape of a Living Jar is all kinds of confusing. Every jar we talk to seems to have one unified voice/personality, despite their innards being composed of an every-growing multitude of beings who each have discrete spirits. Add that the same souls clinging to scraps of jar meat are also the ones being reincarnated as Omen, and a picture starts to emerge.

I think that the process of being eviscerated and stuffed into a jar, along with whatever ritual allows for their reincarnation, seems to "split" the soul of the victim, and this may be by design. One fragment is allowed to return the Erdtree to be reincarnated, but the other is trapped, sealed in the jar to prevent it from escaping. The free half comes back as an Omen, while the sealed half remains locked away from the Erdtree and its other half, ensuring that pure reincarnation is impossible.

This also has a confounding effect on the memory impressions of the soul. The Omen have vague nightmares about horned beings torturing them. Meanwhile, the Jars also have the memories of their component people, perhaps clearer as a result of not having passed through the Erdtree but confused in other ways as a result of being part of this single-voiced mass of flesh and spirits.

Jar-Bairn and the others simultaneously associate the word "Potentate" with warrior strength and the gentle, ritualistic touch of a cleric. They vacillate between thinking a Potentate should be a strong protector (the Hornsent's sacking and butchering of villages) and a soft-handed, studious artificer (the same Hornsent going on to craft and fill the Living Jars in clandestine underground laboratories). The word is divorced from the terror its origin inflicted in the minds of the jars, who know only that their existence is inextricably linked to strong yet careful beings called Potentates.

There are two interesting addendums to our tale, one being the Potentate's Cookbook.

A record of crafting techniques of the greater potentate who roamed lands near and far. Haunted by the grotesque practice of his village of birth, he stuffed great pots with all manner of things.

Apparently, at least one Potentate was disgusted by the actions of his peers and left to travel the world, but continued to experiment with ritual pots in other ways that involved considerably less occult sacrifice.

The other afterthought I'd like to mention is the weapon of the Potentates, the Bonny Butchering Knife (which is actually a greataxe that looks like a curved greatsword, but that's besides the point):

Weapon of the greater potentates of Bonny Village. An outsize butcher's cleaver used to dismember human bodies in the making of the great jars stored in the gaols.

Restores a very small amount of HP when it squarely strikes an enemy.

I'll now direct your attention to the Butchering Knife found in the base game, used by the Tarnished-Eater Anastasia:

Huge carving knife made to cleanly butcher the human body. Signature weapon of the Ogress Anastasia, known to have eaten countless Tarnished while disguised as a Finger Maiden.

Restores a very small amount of HP when it squarely strikes an enemy.

Again, still not a knife, or a greataxe, but I digress.

These weapons are IDENTICAL in many respects. They use the same model, have the same heal-on-hit passive, and even their attack/guard ratings, weights, stat requirements, and FP costs are the same. The only difference is their names, descriptions, and default Ashes of War, and even the former two are only negligibly distinct. I feel quite comfortable in stating these to be the same weapon.

So here we have a massive cleaver expressly designed to butcher the human body, wielded historically by the Hornsent Potentates who terrorized the settlements of other races to build "saints" out of their corpses, and one instance having fallen into the hands of a psychotic serial killer in a far-off land.

Tying this back to the cookbook, I propose that after wandering for some time, the rueful Potentate left the Land of Shadow altogether, journeying to the Lands Between, where he beheld the fruits of his peers' labor in the form of the Omen and Living Jars dwelling there. At this point, he cast off the tool of his trade and settled somewhere to live out his days in morose solitude.

Some amount of time later, his former weapon fell into the hands of God's bloodthirstiest soldier, who immediately noticed that it was perfect for her preferred pastime of killing and eating people. So perfect, in fact, that it could only have been designed with such a purpose in mind.

And another thing: isn't it funny that the Omenkillers, whose attire draws inspiration from the Omen's nightmares, also use cleavers? Cleavers made from Omen horns, but cleavers nonetheless.

[tarnished-brainrot]

Tarnished Eater

[katyspersonal]

LRB I am actually perplexed by how MUCH sense it makes and I was just not really thinking about it ;-;

Like... I just didn't THINK about it before. Thank you @val-of-the-north lol

[katanadragonking]

[nishihii]

annual fromsoft maneater. hear the incredible lore of anastasia, tarnished-eater: she tricks tarnished so she can eat them

i wanted to render the other sketch too but my ass is so exhausted i'll leave it for another day (maybe)

[thistoowillpasss]

[candyborsch]

Drawing anything Elden Ring related everyday ‘til the dlc comes out / day 19

Yeah, the “vibe check, *hits you with butchering knife*” is a @huggingtentacles reference. I’m still not feeling too well, but at least I had fun drawing this piece!!! Love insane women with big ass knives.

[lorianbladeoflothric]

Eleonora and Anastasia should be friends. Or gfs. They’d on little cannibal lunch dates together and offer each other tarnished as gifts like when a cat brings you a dead mouse as a present.

[bri-the-nautilus]

help i'm catching feelings for the cannibal murderess

look at this. i want need her to dominate me

[tarnished-brainrot]

More Tarnished Eater

[catcas22]

Prince of Death ch120

Prince of Death - Chapter 120 - catcas22 - Elden Ring (Video Game) [Archive of Our Own]

[katyspersonal]

Hey so, i kinda am a little confused at how things make more sense now, (referring to the post with tigers) how does it makes sense now?

Okay, this is a reference to this post:

I am cracking up at this meme format every time hdfshsdg I assume you both are referring to the last part and not just anon, since the first one is kinda simple: Marika's reactionary paranoia towards any subspecies that believes they are divine has backstory, former deifying of Crucible was part of her clever plan to screw Hornsent over as soon as she can since they mention her "betrayal" and snakes are seen as traitor of the Erdtree as Messmer and his simps were thrown under the bus blablabla we heard all this

As for Ensha: My friend @val-of-the-north made a better post on the topic here ( x )! I recommend simply reading it, but I will summarise anyway!

So, the gold of the Erdtree and Scadutree are connected as they're two sides of each other, for starters! Ensha's bones are strangely golden too, and they even share the same passive power of slowly healing the wearer as gold of the Erdtree with their stones of tailsmans depicting the Erdtree sap! It is now very likely to suggest that he was a warrior blessed in a similar way, but brought back since he was a king, a very important figure!

The term 'soulless' is otherwise used exclusively for the Demigods that died in the Night of the Black Knives; Godwyn and those who are now buried in Mausoleums and guarded by their headless knights! Ensha is not only called that, but also his "weapon" is a literal skeletal arm latching onto him 🤔 Him having been one of the warriors blessed upon death, but having his death somehow disturbed after Shattering works naturally! Maybe other corpses instinctively crawled towards him because the healing power still lives in him. I also like to think that this golden energy was what deceived D's radar x) Besides, Roundtable Hold welcomes not only Tarnished because Dolores, stated to once have been a part of the Roundtable Hold, wasn't one for example:

Radiant golden eyes are not the thing that happens with Tarnished, with the exception of Anastasia who became monstrous upon eating many people ( x ) Hers are closer to the effect of eating Dragons' hearts on the eyes than grace

(P.S. Mentioned already, but Ensha can't talk and Alberich, who was driven mad by people talking shit about him, coincidentally drops a Tainter's Tongue which is also golden! Alberich was heretical from the Golden Order standpoint, so Ensha's backstory being linked with it would explain speaking not kindly of him.. and paying I guess 💀 )

As for Dung Eater: Apparently, sun-face is connected with the Fell God!

I need a button on my keyboard that just says 'sorry I forgot to copy a screenshot' fdshdfhsd Okay so, I did kinda think that 'the guidance he once saw' was supposed to refer to being called by Grace, especially since Gold has subtle connection with the sunlight. But even back then it didn't make much sense because all Tarnished depicted in the intro were shown to be raised from their deaths by Grace (except for maybe Fia but overall it is complicated how deathbed mechanics works)! And so he already had the sun symbol before:

Besides, according to Boggart, who shared jail with him (weird flex to put a thief together with a serial killer but sure), he was already doing.. whatever he was doing. So I decided I didn't have enough braincells to understand and left it for later, and I was right I guess fhhdfsd

Apparently, Fell God has connection with the horns, so, Crucible! It is like a missing link in why two of Marika's children were born Omens and why Leonine Misbegotten, the ones with red manes, are internally known as 'children of radagon' ( x )! Also, one of the Leonine has Radagon's sword!

Omens also are haunted by Wraiths, who are both fire creatures and have horns:

^ a kind of 'fire' Omens with uncut horns can summon, fire Morgott explodes into upon stage transition, and also Dung Eater can summon wraiths too! The wraiths do respond to the bells of wraith-callers as well!

The nature of these spirits is for another tangent (and yes I do have a guess fdhfds), but yes it seems like that the "guidance" he envisioned was actually about Fell God, and not Grace! His goal is and already was to curse everyone with Omen stuff, whatever is the reason. He might have came in contact with a weird power and decide it was a good goal to pursue, much like Gowry and Shabriri (Flame of the Fell God states that Fell God still lurks even after death). Or maybe he was strangely in contact with the wraiths despite not being an Omen himself, and their own yearning for curse upon everyone descending from Marika rubbed onto him? (could also explain why he feels like he should have been born an Omen) Or maybe he himself just researched a lot, in simple terms, he is Just Like That xD In any case there is finally some extra context to it!

[katanadragonking]

[beesmygod]

hmmm still getting whipped by magrit. i slapped tree sentinel's bald head and cleared a few catacombs, but those bosses are really easy. i found a walking cathedral, a really long elevator underground, and a treasure chest that teleported me to god knows where. i met a wolfman lol. i helped some dope clear out his castle but i think he died or smth. there was a huge dead dog guy in his front yard. i met iron arms alexander. i beat the shit of anastasia tarnished-eater. i went back to the wheat thesher and it got me a few more times

[nishihii]

Out of your friends, which are you? DRAGON FREAK, CRAZY ASS, CANNIBAL, THE FIGHTER

this eleonora is very much based on how @thebrightestlodge draws her. more women with fuzz please