#and Rykard is NOT beloved to him!!!

[slavonicrhapsody]

Like I do genuinely think they maybe should have replaced Radahn’s appearance with Godwyn’s instead? I know his soul has been slain, but I just like the idea that even the kindly Miquella is still on this naïve journey to become a god and bring back his dead brother to become his lord who honestly wouldn’t really be the same and would probably just be a husk of Death incarnate itself, but he wouldn’t care because he’s still grieving for him.

With that being said, the whole Metyr lore was super good, the whole reveal that the two fingers actually don’t really know what’s going on and they’re kinda just pulling shit out of their ass just adds a whole layer to the tragedy of the game, like all of these events were really for nothing and it just makes the Frenzy Flame ending and Ranni’s ending more understandable

ehhhh I absolutely see where the “it should’ve been Godwyn” mindset comes from and I agree with a lot of the arguments to an extent, but I’m not sure bringing back Godwyn’s soul entirely works for me?

I think Miquella’s attempts to return Godwyn’s soul were always going to fail, because his soul was completely and permanently destroyed by Destined Death. The ending to Gurranq/Maliketh’s quest is basically that things can never be the same again, so I don’t think there’s really a way to bring back Godwyn’s soul without it feeling like a contrivance? I really like the fact that he’s a character who can’t ever be brought back; his death was the catalyst for everything, a point of no return. Godwyn not being able to come back gives Ranni’s actions a special weight, that she was willing to permanently destroy his soul if it meant being free from the Two Fingers.

But with that being said, I absolutely see the sense in saying that Godwyn should’ve been Miquella’s lord. What’s strange to me is that Godwyn was set up in the base game to be a beloved older brother figure to Miquella — there’s the statue of him with Miquella and Malenia at the Haligtree, there’s the Golden Epitaph with Miquella’s prayer that he might die a true death, and there’s the spirit at Castle Sol, implying it was Miquella’s intention to return Godwyn’s soul through the eclipse. And now the DLC says that Miquella always looked up to Radahn as an older brother, when this relationship was never even hinted at in the base game, so it ends up feeling out of nowhere. If Radahn was always the one Miquella envisioned as his consort, then why is Godwyn the only brother he’s ever shown to have had a significant relationship with?

And, it’s also true that Godwyn ending the war against the dragons with diplomacy and bringing about peace really embodies what Miquella would consider admirable, since his quest in the DLC is in part to heal the hurts caused by Marika’s war of vengeance long ago. Radahn, on the other hand, is known for idealizing Godfrey, who helped Marika enact her wars of conquest, and for loving conflict so much that he literally fought the stars themselves. Miquella was said to have admired Radahn for his strength and kindness, but there aren’t really any instances showing Radahn being renowned for his kindness, except for his love for his horse? (the loyalty of his soldiers doesn’t count. Rykard had die-hard soldiers too and we know what he’s like)

On the other hand, I feel like Radahn as Miquella’s consort works thematically as a concept because Miquella’s journey in the Shadow Lands mirror’s Marika’s own ascent to godhood, and Radahn is like Godfrey’s spiritual heir. I’m also compelled by the idea of Miquella idealizing a young Radahn for his strength and kindness, only for Radahn to become corrupt during the Shattering, warring for the sake of war… which is why Miquella brings back specifically the young version of Radahn whom he idealized. It’s like a vision of Radahn colored by a child’s naïveté, and it belies the irony of beginning an “Age of Compassion” with the demigod who idealized war the most at his side. I think all of this makes for a more interesting story than Miquella somehow bringing back Godwyn’s soul.

BUT I still believe that this story was not developed enough. Again, we don’t SEE enough of Radahn’s relationship to Miquella hinted at beforehand, so this FEELS like a cheap plot twist. Godwyn was the one with the established relationship to Miquella in the base game, so it being revealed that Radahn was actually the one he always wanted to be his lord is like… huh? since when???

anyway I also really loved Count Ymir’s quest and the revelations about the Fingers… the Two Fingers say that the Greater Will hasn’t abandoned this realm, but I think it’s clear now that they’ve been without the Greater Will’s guidance for a long, long time. Since we know Count Ymir was Rellana’s teacher, I wonder if his distrust in the guidance of the Fingers somehow came to influence Ranni?

[eldenringslut]

I like how the ‘Mad taint’ of the Great runes power doesn’t just make the demigods murderous, but instead affects them by enhancing their existing qualities in excess.

Godrick’s inferiority complex is enhanced to the point of him turning to grafting for power, calling himself ‘the lord of all that is golden’ to affirm his strength to himself.

Rennala had great love for her family and children, and this is ironically turned against her as she repeatedly births and rebirths the scholars, believing the Amber egg to be her ‘beloved’.

We have to speculate a bit for Radahn, but I think it’s likely that the rune enhanced his aggression and willingness to go into battle. I believe this because I think it would likely be a contributing factor into his battle with Malenia, and his earlier battle with Leyndell (that we see in the opening cinematic with him fighting Margit).

Morgott is a deeply loving and protective individual, even when those he loves do not deserve it. So he defends Leyndell, a city full if people that would hate him if they knew he was an omen, under an order that shuns his kind. He even goes so far as to defend the weakest demigod Godrick in spite of his disgusting grafting (which I believe he does particularly out of love for his family, perhaps subconsciously).

Rykard has a multitude of different traits that could be made excessive by the Great Rune. His innate cruelty (evidenced by the inquisition he controlled even before the shattering), his anger at the Golden Order (likely him projecting his hatred of Radagon for abandoning Rennala) and his desperation to gain enough power to fight back against the Erdtree (which eventually leads to him becoming impatient enough to feed himself to the God-Devouring Serpent).

Malenia takes immense pride in her skill with a blade, as this is what allows her to stand alongside her brother as his blade. It also gives her something to focus on besides the rot, even helping stave it off through the waterfowl dance. Additionally she is absolutely devoted to her brother Miquella and will do anything for him. It is a combination of these factors that I believe led to her conflict with Radahn and her unleashing of the scarlet rot. It is also why the dreaded phrase ‘I am Malenia, Blade of Miquella’ is the sentence she chooses to fixate on to help retain her mind from the rot.

Miquella is similar to Malenia in that he is absolutely devoted to his sister and finding a cure for her rot, going so far as to try and establish a replacement erdtree and embed himself in it to overcome both his and her respective curses.

Mohg is interesting because aside from his rejection of the Golden Order we know little of his characterisation before being enthralled by Miquella’s power and becoming obsessed. Although I speculate that he, much like Morgott, is a deeply loving person who unlike his brother chose to abandon those who clearly did not love him and give himself to the Formless Mother (I don’t think it is a coincidence that his mother Marika cast him aside and he chooses to serve a different, surrogate mother).

Ranni is a slightly ironic figure in this regard as her obsession is with freeing herself and the Lands Batween from the outer gods (as well as fulfilling her fate). But this obsession leads her to ironically abandon her Great Rune, which I believe allows her to play the long game and not get caught up in the shattering like the rest of the demigods.

[miquella-everywhere]

this dlc did women and femmes so wrong omfg. no cutscene or dialogue for rellana or romina (their designs look cool but rellana doesn't even have a face lmao they gave her a chainmail textured ball under the helm 😭.) literally all the ladies and femmes are like, all about men except romina whose lore is totally lacking. why aren't there paintings of rellana in raya lucaria thooo! rennala was cool with her sister going to simp for messmer it's not like she was mad at her? freyja felt like a plot device more than anything, leda's kind of iconic but her whole thing is being obsessed with a man, miquella throws out his female half (who is a representation of his love??? cause he had none without her???) i dunno it just feels like such a far cry from the base game. even with women whose relationships with men were a big focus in their quest like nepheli, they stood on their own and had things going on outside of them? but like sellen? ranni? rya and tanith? latenna? so much more interesting than their relationships with men. but then freyja and leda are mostly characterized by the lords they serve? even miquella literally clings to the archetypal man 🙄 and hornsent grandam calls marika a strumpet which is like? idk maybe call her a genocidal fascist? not a slut?

idk this dlc felt weirdly anti-woman to me any thoughts??

Yeah it definitely feels like several steps back compared to the base game.

But the things that I hate the most is what they did with Malenia. Like God. There was already so much annoying discourse surrounding the Battle of Aeonia, but now with the DLC garbage Malenia is turned into an absolute joke where as r*d*hn is hailed and praised as kind and the most important beloved person ever, when he is a warmonger godfrey simp and it makes me so fucking mad.

Like ngl Malenia is my third favorite character, with second being Rykard and first being ✨Miquella✨ but still her whole dynamic with her twin was so amazing to me, both being cursed at birth and suffering due to their afflictions but having eachothers back through think and thin with Miquella doing everything to cure her and Malenia dedicating herself as his blade and protecting him. Their relationship was love at its purest and add Godwyn into the mix and you have one of the most heartbreaking sibling dynamics I had even gotten invested in 😭

BUT NOPE MIQUELLA LOVED RADAHN MORE AND MALENIA WAS JUST THERE TO BE HIS WINGMAN TRIVIALIZING HER OWN MOTIVES AND WITH MIQS BEWITCHING STUFF ITS NOW BROUGHT INTO QUESTION IF SHE WAS EVER EVEN HER OWN PERSON TO BEGIN WITH HAHAHAHAHA

Just...

How do you fuck up this badly?

This treatment of Malenia is even more fucking mind boggling when you consider that she is quite literally the goddamn poster woman of Elden Ring. She was on all the marketing material, she got a statue of herself, her helmet is iconic at this point and also got a replica, and she even has a live sized model of her prosthetic arm.

She was literally one of the coolest female characters made by Fromsoft and they turned her into a goddamn joke.

I will die mad.

[newwillinium]

Elden Ring Musings: Rykard, Ranni, Radahn; the Children of Sentiment

So Pat has just finished streaming Shadows of the Erdtree, Woolie and Reggie are actively going through it, and I finally gone through my Vaati backlog.

And I have some thoughts, thoughts that should not touch on anything in the DLC at all, but just some idle musings regarding the children of Radagon and Renalla and what ties them all together.

The value of Love and Sentiment. Inherited from both of their parents.

I want to kind of start this with some backstory as a bit of a refresher.

-][-

Long ago before the arrival of the Erd Tree, before the Shattering and the Coming of the Greater Will, there existed many peoples spread out across what would become known as the Lands Between. One group in particular is important to this tale, The Astrologers.

Sword of Night and Flame: Astrologers, who preceded the sorcerers, established themselves in mountaintops that nearly touched the sky, and considered the Fire Giants their neighbors.

One such Astrologer was the young girl, Rennala, who had forever explored and followed the stars until finding the majesty of the Full Moon.

The young astrologer gazed at the night sky as she walked. She had always chased the stars every step of her journey. Then she met the full moon — and, in time, the astrologer became a queen.

This girl, Rennala, on her travels would be accompanied by Trolls. Descendants of the Fire Giants whom the Astrologers called Neighbors, these Trolls were bound by Oath to the girl who would be Queen. And yet, these Trolls, looked down upon by so many and enslaved by the Golden Order, were treated as true oathsman and knights of the House of Caria.

Carian Phalanx and Troll Knight Sword: They were the comrades of the young Rennala, bound by oath. Called into service when the Queen invoked an oath they swore, the trolls are treated as true knights of Caria, and fight arm in arm with their human comrades.

In time she went to the Acadamy of Reya Lucaria and enraptured them with the might of the Full Moon, becoming their Eternal Queen and establishing the House of Caria as Royal.

She, her Glintstone Knights, The Knights of Caria, and the Academy would serve as the truest rivals to Queen Marika and her Golden Order.

Twice they warred, and twice neither side could gain victory, and so the Champion of Queen Marika, the Red Haired Radagon, cleansed himself in Celestial Dew (I mention this because of something important later) and declared his love for the Queen of Caria, and so they wed.

Celestial Dew: Once upon a time, the stars of the night sky guided fate, and this is a recollection of those times.

In long standing tradition, Rennala would grant her new betroathed a Sword (which he would later keep and reforge into a symbol of the Golden Order).

Together they had three children. Rykard, Radahn, and Ranni. The Praetor, The Lion-Warrior, and the Carian Princess turned Empyrean.

We honestly don't know much about the childhoods of the trio, but we do know a couple of things.

Radahn held in him a worship of the tales and stories he heard of Godfrey, the first Elden Lord, and took great pride in the Red Hair of his father. Ranni found a favored mentor, who existed outside the bounds of the Academy or the Golden Order, and was accompanied by a companion Blaidd, a shadow sent forth by the Two Fingers to guard the Empyrean Princess, and an old family vassal Iiji the Troll.

Of these companions, Blaidd was looked upon kindly by the Queen and was adopted as a step-brother to her three children. Otherwise Radagon had brought with him a Great Red Wolf.

One day, Rennala would lead Ranni and Ranni alone to greet the Full Moon as she once did. This is where Ranni found The Dark Moon.

Then one day Godfrey was banished from the Golden Order, and Radagon made the decision to abandon his family to become Queen Marika's Lord Husband and Second Elden Lord. Though before he left, he left his beloved Rennala a gift, a great Amber Egg containing the Great Rune of the Unborn, and left the family dog with her.

He kept his marriage-sword, and reforged it to show his new dedication to the Golden Order, and in a show of graciousness Queen Marika adopted the three children of Radagon as her own step-children.

Rykard would become her Lord Inquisitor, Praetor, and punisher of her enemies. Radahn would earn the title of "Starscourge" for his rapacious victories over the Star-Beasts, and learned Gravity magic at the feet of a Alabaster Lord, and Ranni would come to know her fate.

Rennala was shattered by Radagon's betrayel, and when the Academy turned against her, reclused herself within the Great Library clutching the last sentimental gift of her husband.

This is where the timeline gets. . kind of murky.

Rykard stations himself at Mt Gelmir, rediscovers old Death Hexes and creates Magma Sorceries, learning of ancient lore and forgotten gods. He meets a Dancer, a commoner and possible prostitute, and marries her out of love.

Radahn finishes his tutelage under the foot of his Alabastor Lord teacher in Sellia.

Collapsing Stars: A gravitational technique mastered by the young Radahn. "I thank you for your tutelage, for now I can challenge the stars." Remembrance of the Starscourge: "The Red Lion General wielded gravitational powers which he learned in Sellia during his younger days." All so he would never have to abandon his beloved but scrawny steed. Starscourge Talisman: The mightiest hero of the demigods confronted the falling stars alone—and thus did he crush them, his conquest sealing the very fate of the stars.

Here is where he earned his title, as the Stars rained down, his mastery of Gravitational magic allowed him to crush them all, and arrest the movement of the Stars.

-][-

The Shattering

I'm going to be speeding up a bit here.

Ranni, bitter and hateful at her fate as a Empyrean, conspires to remove herself from the contention and does so through the partial theft of the Great Rune of Death.

Using the Rune she creates the Black Knives, disperses them to Assassins, who proceed to carry out the Murder and Assassination of the Demi-God Godwyn, just as Ranni kills herself.

Godwyn's body lives on. Ranni's spirit lives on, and the Stars are halted, and the Fingers are blind.

Astrologer's Robes: Robe fashioned from supple cloth. Worn by those who look to the cosmos above. They read fate in the stars, and are said to be heirs of the glintstone sorcerers. But alas, the night sky no longer cradles fate. Varre:"The words of the Two Fingers cannot be trusted. Truly, naught but rambling, senile delusions. I believe, that when the Elden Ring was shattered, the Two Fingers were corrupted, their guidance; skewed. Even worse, the Fingers harbor no love for our kind. That's the part that irks the most." Finger Reader Enia: "… But here we are… The Fingers, dormant, severing our link to the Greater Will. The realm, and all life, in ruins. Impossible events transpire, beyond the ken of the Fingers. Who is to say that the cardinal sin must be cardinal forever? Go on. Finish the job. Take the course you deem most worthy." Finger-slayer Blade: "The hidden treasure of the Eternal City of Nokron; a blade said to have been born of a corpse. This blood-drenched fetish is proof of the high treason committed by the Eternal City and symbolizes its downfall. Cannot be wielded by those without a fate, but is said to be able to harm the Greater Will and its vassals. "

I am going somewhere with this, just you wait I swear.

So Ranni fashions for herself a new body, a doll, made in the image of her Mentor the Snow Witch, and keeps a watchful and protective eye on her shattered mother.

Rykard, and Radahn, siege Leyndell only to be pushed back by the Fell King Morgott/Margitt, Radahn ultimately meeting a cursed fate at the hands of Melania, Blade of Miquella, and Rykard and his forces fighting a apocalyptic battle with the Armies of the Golden Order that shattered the landscape, before ultimately ending with their armies destroyed.

Gelmir Manor, still proudly displaying pictures of the Praetor Rykard and General Radahn.

Rykard trusted by his little sister, to be her backup plan should her plan fail.

And Radahn, who held back the Stars and Fate itself, so that his Sister would have a chance to break free of the fate forced upon her.

-][-

So this is a rather important part I feel that gets kind of overlooked in the base game.

Rykard, Ranni, and Radahn are siblings.

"General Radahn, Praetor Rykard, Lunar Princess Ranni. Willful traitors all!"

It's evident in the game itself that the siblings held fondness for one another, and most importantly trusted one another.

They may not be kind, but they are each and every one of them sentimental to a fault.

Tonic of Forgetfullness: A gift bestowed by Rykard, sworn to blasphemy, to Lady Tanith, who unfortunately had no use for it. "My Lord, there could be no greater distress than to forget you." Blasphemous Claw: On the night of the dire plot, Ranni rewarded Praetor Rykard with these traces. Should the coming trespass one day transpire, they would serve as a last-resort foil, allowing Rykard to challenge Maliketh the Black Blade, the black beast of Destined Death.

When Radahn halted the Stars, he blinded the Two-Fingers from the reach of the Greater Will, he freed her from her fate and in doing so freed the Shadows from falling into madness.

Which is why, I think, everything falls apart after the Radahn Festival.

When the Stars begin moving again, Ranni once more has a fate and can wield the Finger-Slayer Blade.

But she no longer has the body of an Empyrean. Her Fate is that of the Stars.

She abandons her vassals and followers, to walk that "Dark Path alone", in order to try and keep them safe from what she has to do to ultimately free herself and all the lands of the influences of the Outer Gods.

Radahn, I think, played a major role in that.

That Starscourge Radahn holds Ranni's fate in stasis. But once he's out of the way, it will spring back into motion. So now, we stand against the demigod once known as the strongest of them all.

Note: The Radahn Festival happens usually when Ranni is slumbering, due to the limitations of her doll body, and Blaidd and Iiji consider the Radahn festival to be the best way of accessing Nokron to grab the Finger-Slayer Blade that Ranni requires to save herself.

-][-

So I. . .ultimately don't have too much of a point to my musings.

Other then that, I think that the "R" Family is ruled by their Senitments and Sentimentality towards those they care for like Family.

And that Radahn might not have been Ranni's enemy as is so often suggested by those who interpete the lore, but perhaps yet another ally who had been lost to madness and decay.

Those are just my musings at least. What do the rest of y'all think?

[majorasnightmare]

making my own post about sote so i can stop clogging replies lmao

like. im not going to say anyone who reads miquella as a villain or as cruel or anything is wrong. that IS textually canon! its explicitly textually canon

but MAN. i REALLY wish it wasnt. theres a fair amount of material in vanilla elden ring that can be interpreted against it, and its a fairly solid case! using his own blood to water the haligtree, the creation of fundamentalism to cure his sister, his abandonment of it when it couldnt help malenia (despite the fact that radagon used it as a source of bonding between them, thus implicitly abandoning the ideals of his father as well), creating a safe haven for the outcasts of the golden order, otherwise completely staying out of the shattering except for the final battle, st trina offering the relief of sleep in a world without death where one must continue forevermore regardless if you want to or not, the creation of unalloyed gold that wards away outer gods, the MAIN power supply in the lands between!!! to be a god, to have POWER, you MUST invite an outer god into your life, the greater will the formless mother the frenzied flame the rot god the full and dark moons, and miquella is directly responsible for a substance that chases those entities away which in practice WEAKENS you. malenia is weaker without her rot. she isnt a goddess. YOU are weaker without the frenzied flame, you can no longer spread ruination across the whole of the lands between. unalloyed gold ONLY helps in that it allows one to maintain their self, their autonomy, and its explicitly miquellas own effort and work, not anyone elses.

furthermore, the light this casts on everyone connected to miquella...

the battle between malenia and radahn is incredibly fascinating. its a battle without a clear goal, between two overwhelmingly strong combatants. the framing of it, pre dlc, is incredibly ambigious, on both parties. Malenia had never relied on the scarlet rot before, fighting against its power tooth and nail. So the effects of the bloom are entirely unknown, beyond the explicit promise of power it makes.

Radahn has no explicit motive for participating in the Shattering, yet participate he did, being seen attacking Leydendell and being chased away by Morgott, who calls him a "willful traitor". Given his adoration of Godfrey, one can assume that Radahn participated, not for the chance to overthrow the tyranny of the Golden Order (which was Rykards motivation for seizing power, though that doesnt make him " good") or to reclaim his lineage (Godricks M.O.) but for just the glory of it. A war for wars sake. And he was a beloved general, well loved by many. But that doesnt make him a nice or good person. Malenia was also deeply loved by her soldiers, but she sets out on a march to Radahn for unknown purposes, stopping for no one, and not even responding to the insult Godrick visits upon her by challenging her as she passes through his lands. She isnt seeking glory or accolades here, is the thing.

Which brings me to the final fight. Two overwhelmingly powerful demigods, beloved by their soldiers, go to fight. Malenia, in desperation, sacrifices her self, her sense of identity, and everything she feels is important, for the promised power of Scarlet Rot, and falls unconscious, overwhelmed by its might. Finlay then carries the unconscious Malenia home on her back.

Lets stop and look at that. In the middle of a war, Radahns opponent detonates a nuke neither combatant were aware would go off, and then falls unconscious. One of Malenias own soldiers, Radahns enemy, then hefts Malenia onto her back and retreats. Radahn isnt a slouch. Weve all gotten our asses kicked at the festival. How does a single cleanrot knight grab a demigod that had thrown herself on top of her enemy manage to get all 8ft of her away from Radahn? Obviously theres room for all sorts of explanations but one stands out as the easiest and most obvious: Radahn lets her. This is consistent with Radahns sense of honor, and the event of Malenias bloom is cited as the end of both the battle AND the war. The battle, now clearly over with the fatal infection of one general and the other falling into a coma, has no point in being continued. And thus Radahn, who didnt immediately go insane, allowed Malenia the dignity of retreat, as the battle was done. Over. They both were finished. Scarlet Rot had no cure, and it was going to kill him even as his Great Rune burned to stave it off. So Finlay takes Malenia away, retreating without being meteor-ed to death. Radahn himself asks Jerren to grant him a warriors death, and the Festival is established, while Radahns redman knights set out to begin burning away the spreading rot. Radahn is cursed ever to wander, and Malenia lies sleeping under the Haligtree. No winners, but, and this is important, no clear moral highground. A battle with no victor, no high ground, a battle between equals, equally loved, framed as such in their fight. Whatever Malenia was fighting for, it mustve been important for her to sacrifice her dignity and sense of self. Whatever Radahn was fighting for... probably wasnt that, given his attack on Leydendell. Malenia and Miquella are traitors to the Erdtree for seeking to supplant it with the Haligtree, but Radahn might be a traitor simply for treating the most brutal war in the lands between as an oppurtunity to flex just like his war hero. Its what makes the idea of Radahns mercy so compelling, the fact that despite not being a good person, he isnt cruel either. He has honor, and respect, for his opponents. Malenia has ruined him, but in the aftermath he STILL doesnt degrade her or seek to one up her or take a final potshot in however long he retains sanity.

THATS A LOT DIFFERENT POST DLC THO

Now instead of an ambigious fight with no clear motive, Radahn is defending himself from an invading force whos goal is to make him the consort of a god he hasnt consented to marry. THATS A PRETTY CLEAR MORAL HIGHGROUND? Malenia goes from a powerful equal to someone with less agency AND less ground to stand on wrt radahn! Radahns attack of leydendell seems almost inconsequential to his character in the face of being invaded by an army with BIOHAZARDOUS MAGICAL AGENTS. Now Radahns mercy isnt a nuanced act by a complicated moral actor but instead just another goodguy point for everyones favorite bestest boy who hasnt done anything wrong by anyone (who even cares about a single image in the opening cutscene that lasts for a few frames?).

It cheapens Radahn, it cheapens Malenia, it cheapens Malenias sacrifice to the rot, it cheapens the Festival of Radahn, it cheapens Finlays retreat with Malenia, it makes Malenia look WORSE as a character, it makes Radahn look SIMPLE, and the fact that Mohgs palace where he has Miquella is directly under caelid is essentially just a weird coincidence, nevermind that the cocoon of the empyrean grace is extremely close to the heart of aeonia grace (where the fight between radahn and malenia actually happened), like thats just a funny lil map coincidence!

it is intensely aggravating and disappointing and this is ALREADY incredibly long and i havent even TOUCHED on MOHG

[swallowtail-ageha]

Hey! Name 10 of your favourite Soulsborne characters! Doesn't have to be in any particular order, unless you want it to be!

SORRY FOR DELETING THE FIRST ONE AND MAKING YOU SEND THIS AGAIN

Also putting it under the cut because goood i love to get verbose and this shit is almost infinite for how long it got

Ok so *cracks knuckles*

1- Shanalotte

My precious girl!! My beloved!!! I have actually found most fromsoft level up maidens (bar her and melina) to be actually  pretty lacking in both relevance and story so she was a nice breath of fresh air! Her lore intrigues me very much like. She was created *specifically* with the purpose of being kindling (or that's what the "created to break the curse" implies to me).

She's one of the most normal looking dragon-human hybrids but it's ALSO implied that she's internally way more fucked up and unstable than them because she was pretty much left to rot alone by aldia in the dragon aerie. She can teleport propelled by the power of a funky feather. She has an emo haircut. Her intentions might not be the kindest as they might seem as instead of lettingherself burn she cultivated SEVERAL undeads to reach the throne instead of taking the throne for herself and she ALWAYS knows what is really going but refuses to tell the Bearer of the Curse anything that aren't the barest informations.

Forever will be salty that due to executive meddling we lost the time travel plot and didn't manage to see her as a child

2-Ranni

I think one of the biggest improvements overall of elden ring's ending questlines compared to the ones in other soulsborne is that they gave us a quest from a scheming character that ACTUALLY explains you what your schemes entrail and lets you through bosses and additional questlines forge a deeper connection to the npcs and Ranni (and her questline) are the epitome of that.

Like i have soo much to say about the fact that her ending is basically the classical courtly love story with the maiden in the tower rescued by the brave knight where the tower guarded by the dragon can both be her rise who is guarded by Adula (whom fights you to death before you can go to Manus Celes and marry her) and the cave in the lake of rot which is guarded by Astel.

AND WHILE PEOPLE MISCHARACTERIZE HER AS COLD AND UNLOVING SHE IS SO FULL OF LOVE. She's yes scheming and willing to do evil acts to reach her goals but she LOVES Iji and Blaidd THEY WERE HER FAMILY BLAIDD WAS HER BROTHER EVEN IF HE WAS ENGINEERED TO BETRAY HER IF SHE WENT ASTRAY AND THEY BOTH KNEW IT BUT THEY LOVED EACH OTHER SO MUCH THAT BLAIDD OVERCAME FOR A WHILE HIS SHADOW'S INSTINCTS. She didn't want you to continue your services for her because she knew that iji and blaidd were doomed and didn't want you to end like them AND YET. AND YET. YOU TRAVERSED THE LAKE OF ROT FOR HER. YOU KILLED ALIENS AND GOD TO SAVE HER. SHE FIRST INTENDED TO GO AWAY WITH NO ONE FOLLOWING HER BUT YOU DECIDE TO DEPART WITH HER. NEVER LEAVING HER ALONE IN THE COLD AND EMPTY SPACE.

I am sorry for the all caps and incoherent rambling but i genuinely love ranni so much. Elden ring in general is very dear to me and her questline was one of the first ones i've ever done in a soulsborne game :3

3-Rykard

Ok i admit that while at first i only liked him for "funny snake" stuff the more i learned about him the more i liked him.

He's like Ranni in the sense that where he did commit many atrocities one of his most overlooked characteristics is how he loved.

He loved radahn so much that he had paintings of him all over his home. He loved tanith so much because he knew what he would become once fused with the snake and offered her a way out of the suffering that it might have caused her (but we know tanith didn't mind) and trusted her so much to let her lead volcano manor in his stead. He loved rennala so much that he left his own Special Torture Device around the academy to hurt whoever wanted to kill her. He loved ranni so much that he helped prepare her great plan and was willing to take the blame and challenge MALIKETH HIMSELF in order to protect her if the plan went wrong. And he loved radagon so much that him abandoning them to follow the GW literally caused him to react so badly that he decided to infiltrate it's ranks as a loyal inquisitor to destroy it from the inside in the way it would hurt the most (like burning the minor erdtree). Also he's bisexual. Miyazaki you might have removed the daedicar's woe item description but he remains bi in the heart of us rykardpilled

4-Tanith

Aside from being the canonically freakiest person in bed in the lands between the whole rykard-tanith-rya storyline makes me go RAAAAH "my greatest distress would be forgetting you" and then she goes on to ask you to unconsensually do to rya the same thing that rykard consensually asked her to do!! Because for her it's better to live a lie than to know the truth!! And the fact that this is likely caused by her feeling inadequate to be a mother (as cut dialogue shows)!!!

Also undying loyalty literally wanting to have someone live on through you by ingesting them... her obsession with rykard and what he represented preventing her to actually move on after he gets killed by the tarnished but also her love for him is one of the reasons WHY volcano manor still stands + the fact that rykard married her not out of pure lust but because he sawnin her a dignity befitting of a ruler AND HE WAS RIGHT.... Miyazaki. Martin. I love you.

5-Nashandra

Ok i might not have papers upon papers to write about her but she's one of my favourites in the sense that she hits the extremely specific archetype of extremely cunty woman who exploits manipulates others but that's because she's an eldritch abomination whose existance is extremely fragile and literally just wants To Live (the other character who fits this is Ma evilliouschronicles and she's like my fave character 5eva).

The concept of the daughters of manus is very cool and i feel like there's some significance in her sharing the "shan" in her name with shanalotte but only miyazaki knows.

I really want to know what her and vendrick's marriage looked like i KNOW they were freaky

6-Maria

MARIA MY BELOVED MARIA... I HAVE MANY THOUGHTS (TM) ABOUT HER and the main one is that to me she is like one of those protagonist from those late 19th/early 20th decadent novels but if they were a girl.

The thing that appeals to me the most about her is how much of an utter failure she was in both life and death like her arc is such a downwards spiral. I am not okay with cainhurst's hunting thecniques? Ok! Let's join the victorian equivalent of the scalp hunters from blood meridian! Oh shit oh no oh fuck i ended up committing genocide and eviscerating a pregnant god and now i am extremely traumatized well i'll try to redeem myself by joining the blood murdercult and by committing experiments based on the evisceration of said pregnant god to help advance humanity. All the experiments i led are for naught and only led to more suffering? At this point i can't handle it anymore every single good thing i did led to death and misery i'm gonna kill myself AT LEAST IN DEATH I CAN'T HARM ANYONE :) RIGHT? :) [cue her upholding the nightmare and its inhabitants suffering and then dying against the good hunter causing them to rampage through the hamlet again]

I think her biggest flaw in the end was to keep denying the fact that her actions slowly got more brutal because she wanted to think of herself as a good person until things snowballed so much that they got out of her control and couldnt do anything to prevent damage from happening. Rip my sweet angel corrado silla and alfonso nitti wouldve seen you as their long lost sister

7-Sulyvahn

HE LIVED HE SERVED CUNT HE DIED. There is something oddly poetic and horrifying about someone who came from a place designed to keep away those rejected by the gods being the responsible of the fall of the gods himself. AND YET none of this came from rightful vengeance or a sense of duty towards his fellow inhabitants of the painter. No. He didn't give a single shit about it and hated the place. He only did that because he was power hungry and skilled and had the possibility to do that.

I am also OBSESSED OBSESSED OBSESSED with the fact that it's implied that he has more than a few grievances with women and i like to think of him as a huge misogynistic creep in the way fanon gehrman is. He is so insidiously manipulative and backstabbing and needlessly cruel he is up there in the alley of my favourite nasty old men. He might or might not have had beef in the past with aldrich which led to aldrich kicking his ass earlier and weakening him enough to permit the ashen one to kill him. We love a villain whose downfall is caused by his constant backstabbing

8- Fauxefka

I know that she's very barebone as npcs go but i am soo fond of her she's my canon oc. There is soo much implied about her aside from the fact that miyazaki considers her one of the only heroic people in game like. She is from the choir (and might have stolen the umbilical cord from willem) while Iosefka who looks exactly like her is implied to have been a defector from mensis so academic beef might be one of the motives for turning her into an alien i have SO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT and if you send the suspicious beggar to her house he STILL turns into a celestial emissary which means she alone was strong enough to overpower him.

Also her voice gets me sooo <3333 and add that with the fact that she was brave enough to gobble down an umbilical cord without a single thought she's a lunatic but also probably the sanest person in yharnam and i'm here for it

9- Friede

Friede is another one in the halley of pathetic women like yass girl... doom a world where you found comfort in to ruin because you are so traumatized by your first death by burning that you refuse to let it happen again despite it being a good thing so she parallels nicely with gwyn.

Another thing that i found interesting is that aside from that she is ALSO motivated by love for the inhabitants of the painting but is willingly blind to the love wilhelm and yuria had for her

Side note but i found a really good wilhelm/friede fic where mid fuck she removes his ring that prevents him from looking like a beef jerky and muses that he'd never do that because he's too loyal for her and is happy of the power she has over him and that is sooo good i'll just incorporate it in my headcanons for her

10- Gwyndolin

I already joked about him being the joker for trans men but like. The tragedy of his story makes me go insane <3 Imagine being reviled by your father for literally every single part of your being. You have your older siblings. They are your father's favourites, THE golden children. And yet one by one they leave you all alone, one being kicked out and erased from history for siding with the enemy and the other flees as she always does whenever she encounters trouble. Your father who hates you throws himself into the first flame and leaves you alone with massive abandonment and gender issues and you spend literally every single moment of your life trying to continue his legacy even to the point of living in your father's tomb. You revile him and how he treated you especially regarding your gender so you try to be independent. To throw away your old identity he forced on you and finally live as a man and a king of your own right BUT you'll always be desperate for his love and will never separate from his shadow down to the bitter end. You raise what is your sibling or niece but also instead of actually making her independent you keep her naive and sheltered, every single place of power is purely symbolic.

And then the tree guy who works as your knight and whom you might or might not be fucking fucking overthrows you imprisons you and your sisterniece in the cathedral and feeds you alive to a guy whom you sent to his death by burning ages ago to continue the cycle your father started. Life really be like that sometimes.

So... here it is! I am sorry for how long it got lmaoo

[zcrayas]

Lord Rykard: Cruel, devilishly intelligent... with a fearsome reputation. Commissions Manor on top of the meanest looking volcano - Practices killing and torturing. Sets up bodies as a warning. As a last trick makes a pact with a Great Serpent and feeds himself for a power union Lady Tanith: Cunning, graceful and intelligent - also okay with torture and feeding people to her beloved, now a serpent, husband to grow him stronger, keeps running the death cult in disguise of joining forces & leaves out details to her daughter. Rya: Total cinnamon roll - bit naive, loves her mother, kind to champions she brings, thinks they are there to help to fight against enemies who threaten them, never gets hostile, always finds light in the end.

[whatdoyoumeanitsnotcanon]

Your Favorite Elden Ring Characters and Their Tarnished Harem-Army-Faction-Fanbase... thing.

Godrick - Loves to talk shit about him to his face while pampering and loving on him. Equally hates and pities Gostoc. Someone's always in the doghouse for talking shit. Godrick will get pissed if Rick, Soldier of God is mentioned.

Gideon - Snark fest all around. Is constantly on the hunt for something that will stump Gideon intellectually. Doing so results in haughty laughter and the middle finger.

Godfrey - Dunking on bitches. Collective balls are bigger than yours. Probably (read: Very much so) prefers Radagon to Marika. Stares politely and disrespectfully when he becomes Hoarah Loux, Warrior™. Serosh is the official mascot.

Godwyn - Is the goodest of bois. Golden Retriever army. The peaceful faction who encourages his himbo nature. Fortissax has been made the official mascot against his will.

Rogier - Too busy trying to save him from dying.

Devin/Darian - It's Fack You, Fia 25/8. Composed of shippers. Are convinced Rogier just needs a good helping of Double D and he'll calm down and not die.

Diallos - Their cutie patootie submissive princess.

Corrhyn - Has been condemned to Golden Order hell for their blasphemy.

Morgott - They're down heavy in this bitch. The Abyss Watchers of the Lands Between. If they're not on him like the Abyss Watchers are on... the Abyss, then they're the on the poor bastard who was brave enough to insult their beloved Skrunklegott. Has resigned himself to his beloved status. There's always someone hugging and biting his tail or sitting on his shoulders. Mohg thinks it's hilarious. It's also on-sight with the Night Cavalry. Also has a huge ass portrait of him naked somewhere. His thighs are the official mascot.

Mohg - Always absconding with his fancy robes and tridents. Loves to nihil everything, including themselves. In a passive-aggressive (emphasis on aggressive) war with Varré's army-harem-faction... thing.

Juno Hoslow - Has two whips. Daddy Dom status, bitches! ♥️

Malenia - Doesn't care who won between her and Radahn, just wants their goddess to boss them around. uwu

Ranni - Half of them are busy holding her while she half-heartedly protests. The other half are either climbing on Iji, trolling Seluvis, or forcing Blaidd to get teh boops and scritches.

Blaidd - Speaking of Blaidd, they're all on his shoulders. Or under his cloak. Or trying to make him mlem. Makes Darriwil the mascot just to troll lmao.

Radahn - Chaotic as tf. Staring politely and disrespectfully at his boobies. Spoiling Leonard. Insists that he won the duel between him and Malenia. Leonard is the official mascot.

Rykard - Um... they talk just like him? Nice rings, beautiful rings. Rya is their official mascot.

Boggart - Titties. That is all. They're the official mascot.

Radagon - Ass and titties. Loves to piss Marika off. He quietly encourages it. Has no mascot because SHE TOOK THE FUCKING DOGS.

Rennala - Has hugs and love to give. Her hugs are much better than Fia's. Wins because SHE HAS THE FOOKING DOGS, RADAGON.

Vyke - They're too busy fighting Lansseax for his attention.

Dung Eater - BUH-LESSSSSSSS YOOUUUU Delete.

Roderika - Is best girl. Cute and uwu just like her.

Varré - Snarkfest 2.0. Verse Yandere Daddy Dom culture. Please lie down in a ditch somewhere, lambkin. He bitch, they bitch, we ALL BITCH FOR VARRÉ.

[blaiddfailcam]

Yeah honestly I can understand why Blaidd and Maliketh were abandoned by Ranni and Marika

They had no choice,they both wanted to revolt against the Greater Will so keeping their Shadows mean keeping someone who's sure to kill them on any given day should they even have a thought of rebellion,so there was no choice to abandon them

What's more hurtful is that Blaidd and Maliketh are painfully aware of it,the mistresses they were born to serve have to give up on them bcuz they're literally the biggest adversities to who they seen as their most beloveds

(I still wonder if Ranni is still an Empyrean since she already killed off her original physical vessel, I think she's tied to the Two Fingers/Greater Will by flesh,not soul)

I like to think that Marika used to cuddle with Maliketh a lot cuz he was fluffy

In Blaidd's case, he doesn't appear to have been informed of his nature as a "bringer of bale," at least not until Iji trapped him in the evergaol. Speaking to him there, he expresses disbelief, insisting Iji must have simply gone senile. Even worse, if you attack him after setting him free, he whimpers and begs you to stop, before growling, "Fine. I am the blade of Ranni, whatever any of you might call me." As much as he hates to admit, he seems convinced that his friends have betrayed him. If you kill him there (though he'll simply resurrect), he laments, "Why... why am I bale to Ranni?" :(

Maliketh's history is a bit more, ahem, fuzzy. He was created for a more specialized purpose, to defeat the Gloam-Eyed Queen and seal Destined Death, thus establishing the Golden Order and allowing Marika to become an avatar for Eternity. Ever since, it's implied that Maliketh remained in Farum Azula alone with the Rune of Death in order to prevent it from sullying Order.

Although it's a very sad, lonely role to fill, he served Marika from a distance with his unshakeable faith. That is, until Ranni and Rykard managed to steal a fragment of the Rune of Death, leading to Marika's madness and her attempt to shatter the Elden Ring—a direct violation of the Greater Will. From what I gather, the red shard impaling Marika is a fragment of the Rune of Death as well, suggesting that Maliketh was forced to kill her as punishment for her transgression, much like Blaidd is designed to do. Whether this was Marika's intention or not is unclear, but she is said to have "betrayed" him. (I explore more on this plot in my analysis of Radagon and Marika as two wills.)

Of course... that isn't to say Marika and Maliketh weren't pals prior to their grand destiny to slay the Gloam-Eyed Queen. I'm sure Maliketh's adoration for her wasn't entirely preconceived by the Two Fingers. Ain't no way she didn't snuggle up in his mane at some point, or maybe even ride on his back across the lands of Numen. :)

While Ranni's flesh is the Empyrean body she discarded, I guess that doesn't entirely liberate her from the Two Fingers' decree, but it does keep them from "controlling" her any longer. Ever since her betrayal, she was hunted by the Baleful Shadows. She even expresses a bit of surprise that Blaidd remained loyal to her, perhaps indicating that he wasn't included or informed of her plot to begin with. It's fun to ponder just how much she really trusted him, even if she loved him.

The sad thing is, while I agree Ranni had no real choice but to turn on Blaidd, her ambition seems less so fueled by any desire to bring harmony to the world, but more so out of vanity. Clearly, she isn't opposed to sacrificing her family or loved ones so long as she can eventually realize her dream. That's... largely why I never complete her quest anymore, lol. I just feel so bad for Blaidd and Iji, even if they were foolish to follow Ranni down this path.

They're a neat cast of characters that resonate with the overarching theme in Miyazaki's stories that love and friendship are often destructive, but only so far as power casts a shadow over good intentions. It's all the more fitting that Ranni chooses to embody despair and darkness.

[fantomette22]

*Knock knock*

FANTOMETTTTEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Since your Elden Ring adventure's nearing an end (I think?? idk) Tell me about your favourite characters!

And have some cookies too cos you deserve them!: 🍪

*OPEN DOOR* BIMBOM !!

My first adventure in the lands between is indeed toward its end (I'm 135h in I think) ! (I forgot to answered you last time sorry too XD) I just need to finished some catacombs and stuff at the mountain tops, the fire giant, Farum Azula, Mohg & Malenia (+ I reach the frenzied flame too! so I might do that too but I need to be sure to have the needle) and I think I did almost everything else ? I think ?? maybe I forgot 1-2 catacombs or a few optional bosses (oh yeah I need to do the bell bearing hunters...) but I think I might have done almost everything else ?? (don't don't ask me for all the items & papers lol XD )

I have the week in vacation so I might try to finished it this week. (Gonna try to stream my attempts at Malenia too...omg...)

So, besides it would probably take hours to talked about all the characters + I don't know everything yet but let's go with the few I liked the most I think.

Ranni my beloved ❤️ I really like her ! (wow what a surprise. But somehow I feel her quest would be more impactful + have more meaning after doing the game a first time)

I really like Iji & Blaidd too T_T

Torrent my dear companion! idk what I would have done without him XD we live quite crazy adventures !

A shame we didn't see Melina too much too... but towards the end I found the little bit of dialogue & hidden bit of lore about her super interesting ?! I know she won't take it well but Melina I just wanna help you...

Rya and Boc my beloved !!! I love them so much they need to be protected ! Miriel too :D (and Kale is cool)

Millicent !! oh dear... I was like : oh yes she's cooI ! It's sad how we first found her. But now I finished her quest and it's the first time I cried in this game ! "Come on Milli Malenia is just around the corner ! What are you even talking about ??" I feel smt is weirdly missing... I thought se wanted to see malenia... she was in the prayer room and then... (I need to post the beautiful pic I took. I wanna draw it ;-;)

I understand now why you all love her so much. I need to catch up with your fic and re read Stolen soon ! (now I will actually get all the ref and understand everything XD)

Latenna goat summon too (with Mimic, Rollo & the wolves lol) ! Can't wait to fight alongside Finlay too ! She seems to be the ultimate mvp

Oh Sellen too... maybe she's not a nice person (idk what she really done but it may be bad?) but she always was nice to me.

About the roundtable now! (I mean I like everyone except Gideon and the dung eater lmao) ! Aka Roderika (one of the best clearly! idk what I would have done without her), Rogier (he deserved better ;-;), Fia (what a really interesting character! D and his bro too), I didn't finished Hewg storyline but interesting so far...

Goldmask is fun but poor Coryhn... Hyetta too man ;-; (girl you're blind how-)

Big Boggart really start as annoying as Patches to ended up as a true bro

Nepheli is incredible ! (+ Gostoc & Kenneth amazing storm veil squad i think they're funny together XD)

Hello I love Fortissax so much too ! (one of the best boss fight for now) I need to know more about Forti and Godwyn !!! omg I have some thoughts!!!

And omg don't get me started and Vyke & Lansseax + Vyke's maiden T_T what went wrong hm ?!?!?!

I finished Gurranq quest too! Well a bit crazy but who isn't but really interesting willing to help

Oh like Alexander too ! And his newphew ! I think he's still chilling in the lava XD (I mean the other tarnished helping us are cool) and wow Diallos... I found he was a bit dumb at first... but damned

Oh Morgott !!! i understand better why people simp on him so much XD he's really cool! and deserved better too

speaking of the demigod poor Rennala ;-; and Rykard is cool but I can't take him seriously with his dumb voice XD

Yura was nice... Thops too...

Oh and Miquella really seems to be the ultimate goat too... can't wait to learn more ;-; ( Myself having a lil bro I feel this siblings might end me)

Anyway they all deserve better!!!!

And I'm gonna stop here XD Thanks for the cookies too ! :D 🍪

[slavonicrhapsody]

Pardon my brain worms for wriggling, but man! In regards to Rykard and Mohg!

I forget what item it was - it was one of those serpent weapons that mentioned a "Formless Serpent." And then you've got Mohg's "Formless Mother."

They both have an affinity toward fire, though Mohg also incorporates blood.

Like you said, they've both taken a path that is, by all accounts, blasphemous.

The sad thing is, Mohg didn't really have a choice -- I mean, he chose to align with the Formless Mother. Alright. But with being an omen. He had no control over that, and was condemned for it.

Rykard chose to allow himself to merge with the god-devouring serpent. He ultimately chose to follow that road of blasphemy.

I DO feel like Mohg is largely motivated by love. Even if it's a twisted sense of it.

No one loves him. So he will MAKE them love him.

And then there's Rykard. Rykard who didn't even have to try(that we know of).

Rykard, who had offered his beloved a tonic of forgetfulness.

"But my lord, there could be no greater distress than to forget you."

So you've got Mohg, fighting to establish his dynasty -- seeking love through force.

And then Rykard, looking to tear down the Golden Order, but has that special someone who stays by his side.

It's sad... For both of them.

yeah you’re totally right that not only do they have a ton of of thematic similarities, but their character arcs are kind of perfect opposites?

Like Rykard comes from a place of enormous privilege, born royalty, with a family he loved, and power handed to him. Mohg was cast out by his family, denied his royal inheritance, and chained in a sewer.

Rykard became the very person who enforced the Golden Order’s justice. Mohg was one of those despised by the Golden Order and persecuted.

Rykard very publicly turned traitor, deliberately making himself the most hated person in the Lands Between, and chose to turn himself into a monstrosity so horrific that only one person in the world stayed loyal to him... and he even specifically tried to turn her away! Mohg does not want to be hated, he craves the love that he was denied because he was born a “monstrosity” so much so that he makes love a core tenant of his dynasty, and he has to kidnap others in order to MAKE them love him.

It’s so interesting that they both ended up at the center of a cult meant to replace the Greater Will but got there in basically opposite ways and are acting with opposite motivations. idk if any of this was explicitly intended but it sure is cool right

[crypt119]

What if?

Radahn never went mad?

Rykard is the son of his father, a zealot who walked the path of faith. Though he path may have led to other, darker places, the stone and woodwork are of the same make.

Ranni is her mother’s daughter. Moon sorcery runs in her veins and her own Dark Moon shone upon her during her Ascension ceremony

Radahn is the middle child, and takes equally from both.

From his mother, a knack for magic, albeit combat magics tailored to supplement his swordsmanship and footwork.

From his father, sheer martial might, and an appreciation for the powers that be, though his path is not so narrow as his brother.

Radahn is 7 when he meets his father’s subordinate, a young man with ears on his helm and eyes on his breast plate. A short lecture on the oneness of incantation and magicks makes all the difference.

At 17 , Radahn is an accomplished fighter and a skilled commander, but his heart yearns to see his fathers realms, to walk his father footsteps and learn the secrets of the world.

He rides first with the albinurics of liurnia, then his Carian cousins along the shore. Then he rides further apace, and for a time, studies under a wise tortoise, who again teaches how spells and incantations are 2 sides of the same power .

He journeys to the capital, studying under the commanders of leyndell, training and honing his skill with his dual greatswords against Leyndell’s finest. It is here he hears rumours in the soldier’s taverns , of an underground network beneath the capital sewers, when omens, born of the Crucible, roam free. 2 omens in particular of the royal line. Within a week,the sewers are filled with slaughtered vermin, but Radahn finds no kin among the horned denizens of the deep.

Finally, he makes the pilgrimage to the consecrated snowfields, and amidst the ruins of his father great victory, he finds what he is looking for.

For 2 years he lives among the Firemonks, trying vainly to dissect their secrets. However it is in vain, and all he has to show for his efforts are a single incantation, meagre, yet perhaps useful in it own right.

Flame, Cleanse me

It is at this point that Radahn feels it time to return home, but as he shrugs on his old armor , something is wrong.

His armor, once snug and fitted, is too short and tight, almost built for a smaller man. With dawning horror, Radahn strips to his breechs and finds a mirror. There , he realises the truth.

While he had been studying the flame, the Fell flame had been reaching within in, twisting, changing him, to what end he cannot tell, but he is already 2 feet a taller and just and much wider as before, and perhaps more horrifying, a faint tattoo has emerged on his chest

A tattoo of a single closed eye

Dressed in the loose tunics of the monks, he never noticed the size change, and noted how he has to stoop under doors am just that little more. It’s obvious now, and with his new strength he Carries his beloved horse down the mountain , not daring to risk his mount under his new weight.

A few harried weeks of travel and some days of gaping mouth aside, Radahn takes residence in the archives of the Academy, searching for a solution. Not his size mind you, he saw no detriment other than the unsolicited meddling of a half dead god, but his beloved Leonard. when mounted on his return, He almost died under his weight, would have had his fathers retainers not stepped in, and fate a little crueler.

His research led nowhere except for the chance encounter with a pale traveller seeking scholarship and shelter. He bore a new magic so unlike the glintstone arts , one that bent the very stars to his will. When Radahn is first held in the air with a flick of a finger, his next act is to beg to be taught these arts. With a laugh, the traveller claims only to be a dabbler, unfit to be called master.

The traveller sends him far to the east, through the lush fields of limgrave to the arid lands of Caelid. There, an old master awaits, skin like stone, and under his tutelage Radahn masters the gravity arts as if born to them. His dual swords slowly change as his magic flows through them day in and out, and his quests to hunt the beast from beyond the stars only grows their power. He also finds love, love for the lands around him, and in time Caelid becomes known as the Land of Radahn, the Starscourge. The Land is arid and difficult to farm, but good roads and frequent patrols make Caelid a boon for traders , merchants and clients, for the sister city of Sellen , masters of the Night sorceries, sells their skills to the highest bidder. Minor assasinations aside, the peace is kept and the people are happy

This peace could not last long.

Radagon abandons his wife to be with Marika, a union that bears cursed twins, not unlike another birth all those years ago. Radahn bears their existence with measured grace. While He may not hate them, they are an eternal reminder of what happened to his mother, now reduced to a gibberish shade of her former self

The Shattering only worsens their ties, a shard falling to Radahn’s hands as he faces his older half brother in single combat. Satisfied with his rune, he returns to Caelid and seals their borders, confidants in their safety while the northern lands rage.

Nothing prepares him for Malenia’s March

The Haligtree had no quarrel with the Caelid Wilds, yet the cursed swordswoman marches 3 months to challenge his forces, demanding the return of Miquella, or bring war upon their heads. He obliged them, his forces hardened and battle tested against the monsters of the waste, giant dogs and birds that respect only strength and feed on weakness.

The battle is a blood bath with Radahn barely winning, his Redmans perhaps a tad more skilled than the Haligtrees Cleabrot knights, yet it all comes down to the clash of demigods.

The battle ends much the same. Her swords peircing his back, the Aeonia blooming on her back. Yet as the Scarlet rot rushes through his veins, Something else awakens

And Burns

Flames of the Fell God, Master of the Flame Eternal, deliver me from this plague

Thy prayers be answered, and my price simple. Journey as an man, with but the swords in your back and your magicks, and claims the elden throne in the name of the Fell Flame

Just as the rot burst on throughout caelid, scouring renewing flames explodes from radahns chest, his Great Rune pulsing from the raw energy.

When Radahn awakes, his forces are near decimated, and malenia is nowhere to be found. Not dead, for her sword and helm are missing.

The land is scoured but no trace of rot lingers in its waters, though the Fell god has made a shrine upon the land , with an Eternal flame burning within the old swamps

The story is told to his forces, he stays for a a week to restore his citadel and cleanse the wilds of the rot. Then he packs his armor, readies his bow and sword, and saddles his trusted Leonard

Godrick awaits

[littlegoldfinchh]

for the Soulsborne ask: 2, 11, 13

2. Do you have a favourite NPC?

This bastard:) I'm obsessed with him, i want to gnaw on his leather gloves like a rabid dog until he gets tired of me and puts me down. He's a bitch with the best voice in the whole series and No You Can't Convince Me Otherwise. He's my beloved, he's my mortal enemy, he's the sluttiest mf in the world and i want him to do Things to me. Leonhard my beloved. I'm tearing him apart with my teeth as we speak

11. What’s your favourite bit of lore?

I think my favorite one is from dark souls 3, i always loved the fact that Lorian sacrificed his legs and voice to ease Lothric's curse. Idk there's something about devotion and unconditional love that does it for me

13. Do you have any weird head-canons about the games/npcs?

Okay so. Listen, Rykard, Rya and Tanith are actually a very wholesome and happy family. They remind me of the addams family? Tanith's crucible knight could be Lurch i guess. But yeah uhm. They love eachother and they're actually the most functional family in all the lands between.

[goji-pilled]

MK-S: I just had a thought about Ranni and why she chose to kill Godwyn the Golden on the Night of the Black Knives. Pure speculation, but I’m looking for a little conversation, and I’m curious about your thoughts on this interpretation, given your attachment to Ranni’s character. (Plus, you may enlighten me to something I didn’t know, or an interpretation I had not considered.):

To cut her bond to the Two Fingers, Ranni needed to sever the bond between her soul and her flesh, and thus stole a fragment of the Rune of Death. However, Death likes to have things complete, so if she wanted to kill her body and keep her soul alive, she needed to also offer Death a soul to kill with a body that would be left alive. Now, the thought I just had may just be a part of why she chose him and not some random noble; Assuming she didn’t know Radagon and Marika were the same person, and if she was unaware of Marika’s Omen Twins, then Godwyn was the only powerful person, a demigod spawn of Marika, and thus the only possible equal to her that (as far as she knew in the conditions described) wasn’t related to her by blood. If she harbored no love for the Golden Order, she could have viewed this as a blow against Marika, while sparing her brothers and her half-siblings. (This would be a tragedy in its own right; thinking she wasn’t harming her blood family.)

(Side-idea; I wonder if Ranni thought that killing Godwyn in Soul Alone would have just been the equivalent of him being brain dead? I recall some blamed her for Those Who Live In Death, but I wonder if their formation was just as much a surprise to her as to everyone else…Oh, there’s an interesting question: Did those skeletons show up before, during, or after the Shattering?)

Come to think of it, a LOT of conflict in Elden Ring tends to be the way each “batch” of kids fight against each other. At least two thirds of Carian kids rebelling against the Golden Order, Miquella and Malenia against that last third, Morgott against all listed so far, and then Mogh against Miquella, brief though it may have been before more blatant spoilers.

Probably drove Marika mad; she wanted a world in which her loved ones could not be harmed, only for her beloved children to start killing each other if not somehow finding worse fates for one another.

Anyways, that’s all for my ramblings. Curious what you think of these ideas, or if they made you come up with anything else while thinking things over. Good day to you.

i mean thats pretty much how i had assumed things were. im not sure if there is anything i game that sheds light on that, but way i see it the night of black knives was a ritual first and foremost, the kind that's like "an eye for an eye", something for another thing of equal value.

and i also always assumed godwyn was the target most likely because he is a demigod just like ranni, and a powerful one at that if he was capable of defeating fortissax. and, this is a bit less important but adds to the equal for equal thing, ranni most definitely was powerful back then if her being able to oneshot the tarnished no matter what, in a seemingly weaker state than her original body is anything to go by.

so like. one powerful demigod child of a queen for another powerful demigod child of a queen.

+on one hand rykard couldn't have been a canidate because he was in on it and the literal failsafe meant to challenge the maliketh if things go wrong.

but i also think he nor radahn could have been canidates for the night of black knives regardless simply because ranni loves them too much. like it's easy to figure out those three deeply cared for another. and ranni, regardless of how frosty she may appear, is a sentimental person that loves hard and so much and it's obvious by the way she talks about iji and blaidd, by the way she speaks with us, the way she protects rennala, the way she trusted rykard to, again, challenge maliketh, etc. etc.

(silly silly carians and their big hearts so full of love... i love them and i will not shut up about this)

also. i doubt ranni could've predicted godwyn's death (in soul) to have this kind of consequences with the death root that reaches all the way to the land of shadow... like im sure she thought something will happen but this? yeah i dont think so.

that all being said... with the dlc its clear marika had actually good intentions with the golden order to a certain degree (which means the genocide of the hornsent is not part of the good intention) as we know for certain marika loved and adored messmer, her precious firstborn son to the point she only ever made blessings just for him, tried to soothe his curse just for him.

AND with her braid found in the shaman village its easy to piece together that part of the original intention was to protect her family, to give them a life graced by gold... unfortunatly no matter what marika had intended, it clearly didn't come to fruition as she hoped.

marika in general is so fascinating though because she sort of feels like a mix of ranni and miquella's paths for godhood, or perhaps it'd be more accurate to say that her children both represent different parts of her? idk its soon 4am and explaining this would be too rambly and this is most likely already not coherrent but dukadywks yeah.

[bentrollio]

Some more Elden memes. I want to study this family in a lab

[yournextflame]

Lost echoes of English translation

So here I want to discuss what was lost in translation of Marika’s echoes. English is not my native language and my grammar is quite terrible, but I hope result will be comprehensible enough to understand.

Let's start with the echoes from the Church of Pilgrimage and Third Church of Marika. They are extremely important to the narrative as they are explaining the origin of Tarnished, a reason behind Godfrey’s banishment, how the grace works and Marika’s goals. Sadly, they are often overlooked and English translation did them no favor.

My Lord, and thy warriors. I divest each of thee of thy grace. With thine eyes dimmed, ye will be driven from the Lands Between. Ye will wage war in a land afar, where ye will live, and die. Well? Perhaps that might serve you in lieu of a maiden's guidance.

Then, after thy death, I will give back what I once claimed. Return to the Lands Between, wage war, and brandish the Elden Ring. Grow strong in the face of death. Warriors of my lord. Lord Godfrey.

The choice of pronounce is interesting. Marika referers to Godfrey as お前 “omae” ( 我が王よ、王の戦士たちよ。お前たちから、祝福を奪う), a derogatory form of “you” in Japanese, this pronoun is widely considered rude and usually used for inferiors or enemies (”omae wa mou shindeiru” meme). In some cases it’s used by teenagers or family members (by the head of the household), however, in pre-Edo Japan “omae” was actually a polite form of you. Notably, she calls Tarnished omaetachi, plural and a bit more polite form of omae.

But both Radagon and Godfrey are “omae”. She doesn’t value one over another, she uses for Godfrey the same prounonce as she uses for Radagon when she calls him a dog instead of leal hound in JP. In the end they are her tools and treated as such.

A bit of offtopic, but I noticed the raise of “poor Marika was forced by the Greater Will to banish her beloved Godfrey for his ties with the Crucible Knights” and I just can’t.

Not only Godfrey’s banishment is temporary, but Godfrey couldn’t be exiled for his close relations with Crucible Knights because Crucible Knights themselves weren’t exiled in the first place. They are still in Leyndell, no one of them was sent away with Tarnished. Some of them abandoned their duty after the Shattering, but nothing in lore suggests that they were ostracized by the higher ups. Various decriptions are mentioning that Gelmir soldiers rebelled against Rykard, Cuckoo’s Knights turned their backs against Rennala, Carian Knights followed Miquella, but nowhere it is mentioned that Crucible Knights were banished from Leyndell forces.

Back on the rails.

Really didn't like the choice of translation here.  赴くままにエルデンリングを掲げるがよい was translated as “brandish the Elden Ring”, not only EN misses  赴くままに “following this way” part, which is quite important since we are talking about Elden Ring, an object which shape dictates laws of reality, and 掲げる is nowhere as offensive as “brandish”, it’s “to raise up” or “to put up”. The same verb is used for the description of Dectus Medallion (２つの割符を合わせ、掲げること) and what are we doing with it? We are raising halves of the Medallion and mending them together. 

 - Marika never wanted to give up on the Elden Ring, a creation of the Greater Will (Elden Stars: It is said that long ago, the Greater Will sent a golden star bearing a beast into the Lands Between, which would later become the Elden Ring)

 - she expected that Elden Ring will be repaired in the end and in a certain manner (if you look at the grace before Godfrey’s bossfight the grace claims Tarnished as a target. I assume she wouldn't want Tarnished to win because Tarnished has a freedom of choice in the end - 3 different mending runes, Age of Stars, Frenzied Flame, unlike Godfrey who will do exactly what she wants)

 - she lowkey hints that she is going to shatter the Elden Ring by saying that it should be mended for some reason in the future

I guess that “with thine eyes dimmed, ye will be driven from the Lands Between” is what make some people think that Godfrey and Tarnished were exiled by the third party because EN uses passive verb “will be driven”, while in JP it’s clear that Marika herself dimmed the eyes of Godfey and Tarnished and sent them away そして、その瞳が色褪せたとき、狭間の地を追放する. Marika never speaks about her actions in passive form, she is always in charge and controls the situation. “I will banish you from the Lands Between” instead of vague “will be driven” (presumably by someone else).

tl;dr: Godfrey’s exile isn’t a punishment, it’s a part of Marika’s machinations. She wants to create an army of the strong, immortal warriors for her future plans.

Just to be clear, in this post I’m talking about goals that are mentioned/estabilished in dialogues or descriptions. I’ll try to keep at bay theories and headcanons.

What Marika wanted before she got locked in the Erdtree:

 - to create Tarnished

 - to shatter Elden Ring/repair it again

 - Tarnished were supposed to slaughter demigods and a god. (Your kind are meant to challenge them. To slay them. The demigods. And their a god/ Use my masterpiece to slay a god.That is all that I have lived for. And my promise to Q-queen Marika. - master Hewg) It’s never specified, who is a god in question - Marika/Radagon, Elden Beast or any of ascended Empyreans. It’s worth noting that Tarnished mission doesn’t revolve about killing only a god, demigods, Marika’s children and faravaway descendants, should be killed too. 

What Marika wanted after she got locked in the Erdtree (questionable):

 -  set the Erdtree aflame and burn the impenetrable thorns

I put this one in questionable category because there is no direct confirmation that Melina is Marika’s daughter/collaborator, even though eveything screams about it. However, I believe that Melina was created in response of Radagon blocking the Erdtree with his rune:

(while browsing Melina’s dialogues I’ve found something interesting, Melina refers a person, who blocked the Erdtree (Radagon) as a “husk of a self” in JP or “husk of Erdtree’s being” in EN, which almost confirms my old theory that “Radagon of the Golden Order” we are fighting is animated corpses, this is why he doesn’t speak, use magic or drop the remembrance)

The consequences of the placement of this rune on the Erdtree are outstanding to at least and deserves their own post, here I want to mention the most basic one: it leads to the destruction of the Golden Order.

The Golden Order was created by confining Destined Death. Thus, this new Order will be one of Death restored (Mending rune of Death Prince)

I also can’t get over the comedy of Morgott religiously protecting Erdtree for centuries because he naively believes that Erdtree blocked itself (The Erdtree wards off all who deign approach) without knowledge that Erdtree is blocked by Radagon.

And this rune sends Two Fingers into “404: The Greater Will not found” mode until the end of the game. Also, the sealing of the Erdtree is contradicting with Radagon’s attempt to mend the Elden Ring, but it’s an offtopic.

Let’s talk about echoes again, here is a line from “leal hound” speech in Queen’s bedchamber. 

O Radagon, leal hound of the Golden Order. Thou'rt yet to become me. Thou'rt yet to become a god. Let us be shattered, both. Mine other self

さあ、共に砕けようぞ！我が半身よ！

Come, let’s shatter together. My half-body!*

Direct translation is half-body, but 半身” used by native Japanese speakers talking about the D twins, “other half” or “other self” still works. But the most notorious change is that it’s another example when Marika uses passive “let us be shattered in EN”, while in JP she invites Radagon to join her. I’m genuinely fed up with “Radagon was sent to control Marika” plague of headcanons, there is nothing that suggests his control over her at least from Marika’s POV. It’s the opposite, he is “omae”, Marika’s subordinate, he is  黄金律の犬よ, a dog of the Golden Order, her dog, considering that she is a god of the Golden Order. She doesn’t hide from him that she is going to shatter 砕けよ the Elden Ring, even more so, she approaches him about her plans and expects that he will participate or more like obey her order.

(”dog” in a major insult in many Eastern countries, for example in Genshin Impact it’s censored in chat)

お前はまだ、私ではない。まだ、神ではない。

This quote (you’re not yet me, you're not yet a god) is pretty much the same in JP, but I’ve found it’s interesting that Marika calls Radagon half-body, but doesn’t consider him as a god. “Gods” in Elden Ring are vessels of the outer gods or the Elden Ring, in the end we can see Elden Ring in Radagon’s body, he became a god, but prior to it he was a half-body and not yet a god. It’s confuding, yes. Him not being a vessel of the Elden Ring implies that he had physical autonomy and was separate from Marika, however, she calls him a half-body.

Hear me, demigods. My children beloved. Make of thyselves that which you 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…

I was surprised to find out how many people in Western fandom view this quote as a motivational speech. In Chinese and Japanese there is no way to read this quote as something positive, Marika doesn’t aspire her children to become something (ie “follow your dreams”) like a caring mother or gives them a freedom of choice, she limits their options to “Elden a lord” and “a god” 王であれ、神であれ, very specific positions in Elden Ring verse. Even then she has an army of Tarnished with a task to wage war on the Lands Between and a smith, who was cursed to forge a weapon against demigods and gods. Makes me wonder if she encourages her children to fight each other on purpose, following good old “divide and conquer” rule.

(However, she doesn’t reinforce them to become Elden lord)

To be fair, EN ignored もう “soon”, so maybe she expected that the strongest demigods are going to succeed her as a god/elden lord, but they failed and she decided to become a god once again. (Remember that before the Shattering Two Fingers began to pick new Empyreans to replace her?)

Wait, didn’t Marika discovered dark secrets of the Golden Order? Isn’t Erdtree is a parasite that syphons souls to the alien invader the Greater Will? Isn’t Marika  a savior from an evil cosmic horror?

Greattree doesn’t exist. 

The Greater Will... granted souls.

…すべては、大きなひとつから、分かたれた 分かたれ、産まれ、心を持った

けれどそれは、大いなる意志の過ちだった だから、戻さなくてはならない

All that there was divided from the One Great. Divided, born and given heart. But it was a mistake of the Greater Will (Hyetta)

(Seriously, what’s up with EN constantly describing something without involvement of the subject of sentence? EN sounds like “fractures and births” happened without the Greater Will, it completely misses the point of the conflict between the Greater Will and the Frenzied Flame, the followers of the latter believe that creation of individuality, disparity and kokoro was a mistake because it’s the root of the suffering. It’s a a reference to Gnosticism)

Okay, here is a famous echo from Minor Erdtree Church:

I declare mine intent, to search the depths of the Golden Order. Through understanding of the proper way, our faith, our grace, is increased. Those blissful early days of blind belief are long past. My comrades; why must ye falter?

“depth of the Golden Order” isn’t a thing as well,  黄金律の探究を、ここに宣言する Marika does a research of the Golden Order, but in a less formal way. 

JP: あるべき正しさを知ることが、我らの信仰を、祝福を強くする

Marikas promises that she will increase the grace of the people, who will follow the right way, while in EN “the grace will be increased” (by whom?) English translation and removal of Marika’s agency, name more iconic duo. She basically encourages her comrades to follow her teachings, she is a religious leader, a god after all. While without a context this quote may sound like something motivational (see: “children beloved”), you should remember that the Golden Order founding rule is “there is no god but Marika” and her religion was becoming more and more fanatical over the course of history to the point when incantation book of Two Fingers became a heresy. The blissful early days weren’t half as bad. 

I’m not going deny that in way this quote sounds like Marika has certain doubts about the Golden Order, but the thing is that the Golden Order is her creation and in the end it’s just one many Orders that can be created with the power of the Elden Ring. The Greater Will isn’t representative of the Golden Order, it’s about Order in a more broad sense. 

Even Marika understands the difference:

The Erdtree governs all. The choice is thine. Become one with the Order. Or divest thyself of it. To wallow at the fringes; a powerless upstart

我らの律の一部となるか？それとも律の外にあり・・・

Genuinely speaking, I have no idea, who she refers in that quote from Grand Lift of Dectus, but maybe it doesn’t matter. She tries to estabilish(?) political alliance, if you can call it one, considering that she is talking from a position of power. EN creates an illusion of freedom (”The choice is thine”), while in JP this quote reads more like: “Join our Order or die in the ditch”, where she views Order as the source of her power.

And the last one, the echo from the First Church of Marika:

Hark, brave warriors. Hark, my lord Godfrey. We commend your deeds. Guidance has delivered ye through ordeal to the place ye stand. Put the giants to the sword and confine the flame atop the mount. Let a new epoch begin. An epoch glistening with life. Brandish the Elden Ring, for the Age of the Erdtree!

導きに従い、よくここまで戦ってくれた

EN is at it again, “you followed my guidance” instead of someone else’s guidance. Marika leads her army by her own volition, EN makes it sounds like she was ordered to do it.

エルデンリングを掲げ、我ら黄金樹の時代を！

The first echo in chronological order mirrors the echo from the Church of Pilgrimage, Marika uses “raise Elden Ring” when she leads her army to fight the Fire Giants and eventually estabilish the age of the Erdtree; she uses the same wording when she sends Tarnished far away with a goal to return them back, fight and raise Elden Ring (again). 

In this one and a previous echo the Golden Order isn’t mentioned, I assume that it wasn’t estabilished during war on Giants.

Here are my final observations:

The overall tone is very different, in JP Marika speaks like warlord from medieval Japan, she is a military dictator, who bosses everyone around her. EN refined her speech pattern like a lot, it added flowery old English, which is not bad in terms of autentic fantasy atmosphere, but often portrays her like a passive bystander or a subject of someone else’s actions. Is this the reason behind fandom’s obsession of turning Marika into innocent damsel in distress, who was oppressed in fifty different ways? I mean, I can’t say that EN translation is bad, it has a different purpose than 1:1 accuracy, but in terms of lore and characters portrayal it’s quite questionable. 

Well, it’s over, if you read this, thank you and sorry for my grammar again. I hope it was helpful.

P.S. Thank you @subterranean-subalternsmall for pointing that “半身” used by native japanese speakers talking about the D twins, “other half” or “other self” is still a way to call Radagon