thekaelfarron

[thekaelfarron]

Warrior true. Picture yourself. Feasting upon a dragon's essence.

Godwyn and Fortissax for @sillyschmussy !!!

[thekaelfarron]

I did it!! ✌️

[thekaelfarron]

Speaking of different Hornsent cultures, do you also think Midra is a part of that culture as well? The ghost in his manse dies suggest they're both Hornsent

I do think Midra is meant to be a part of the hornsent culture, yeah! Not only do the manse spirits and the inquisition storyline suggest that he's hornsent, but his manse is FULL of architectural details that you can find across all hornsent settlements!

We have to mention first though that Midra doesn’t have horns (and it doesn’t seem like Nanaya has horns either under her headscarf?), but it does seem that there were hornsent in Belurat who did not have horns... technically, “tower folk” might be a more accurate way of describing them in that regard, though the game seems to refer to the culture and those who lived in the Lands of the Tower collectively as both “hornsent” and “tower folk”: “Long ago, Queen Marika commanded Sir Messmer to purge the tower folk” (Leda). “Scorpion simmered in a black soup. Traditional meal of the hornsent” (Scorpion Stew). I'd guess that it was just less common, and not as well regarded, to be hornless, so the culture is still pretty defined by having horns even if it's not a universal trait (again, the hornsent aren't a species, they're just people who are very strongly affected by the Crucible's influence, just like how the animals of the Shadow Lands can often be found with horns too).

Anyway back to Midra – because he doesn't have horns, it is possible that he wasn't born hornsent and simply adopted the culture. Nanaya though has an extra cultural detail that makes me feel like she might have been born into hornsent culture... “Nanaya” was the name of an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love! The hornsent civilization is extremely heavily inspired by ancient Mesopotamia, especially Babylon: the name Enir-Ilim comes from the Akkadian name for Babylon, Bāb-ilim — “the gate of the gods,” and the Tower with its Divine Gate is pretty obviously a reference to the Tower of Babel… so the fact that Nanaya has a Mesopotamian name, when we know the game used other words from ancient Mesopotamia for the hornsent, makes it VERY likely to me that she is a native of the tower lands! But even if Midra and/or Nanaya aren’t tower folk and originally came from a different culture (some have theorized that they’re numen), it’s pretty clear to me that they’ve at least adopted the tower culture due to all the visual and story details associated with them and their manse.

Architecturally, the Manse very obviously uses a lot of the same stylistic details as structures in Belurat and other hornsent settlements. The front door to the Manse has the same metal relief design as the doors in Belurat:

(Midra’s Manse front door; Belurat front door)

the Manse is also decorated with the same spiraled columns that are a staple in all hornsent settlements, as well as the same spiral tree motif that can be found on walls and stone tablets in Belurat: 

(Midra's Manse library)

(Midra's boss room; Manse front room)

(Theatre of the Divine Beast, Belurat)

(Small Private Altar, Belurat)

Midra's robes are pretty nondescript, but Nanaya's outfit absolutely screams hornsent; there are so many details in her outfit evoking the hornsent culture. The decorative trim on her robes have a spiral design, which is a motif found in a lot of hornsent art and architecture:

(Enir-Ilim)

and the twisted fabric framing Nanaya’s face reminds me of the twisted drapes found in the Theatre of the Divine Beast and Enir-Ilim:

(Theatre of the Divine Beast, Belurat)

(Enir-Ilim)

Midra and Nanaya had a lot of hornsent followers who lived in their manse who you can still find as spirits and shades. The dialogue and item descriptions related to Midra and his followers make it very clear that when the inquisition stepped in, the violence they were committing was against their own people:

"I beg you stop. Haven't I taken enough? Are we not brethren, common in our line? And yet, you offer only cruelty... I ask; what crime did great Midra commit?" (Manse spirit NPC)

"A glove stitched together from the flayed skin of the victims of a butcherous bloodbath. [...] Forged of an unyielding, black impulse toward revenge fostered in those who were hunted down as heretics by their own brethren, these are the weapons of the utterly downtrodden." (Madding Hand)

and yes, I think Midra and Nanaya are included in this! There’s kind of a pattern in the hornsent civilization of the elites (represented by the inquisition) suppressing different subgroups within their own culture for not adhering to the status-quo: this includes the Curseblades, the Lamenter, and Midra and his followers. I wonder if Midra held some independent beliefs that had nothing to do with the frenzied flame that made him suspicious in the eyes of the inquisition? He was known as "Sage Midra," and had a great library in his manse... it makes me think that he was some revolutionary scholar and thinker who inspired a lot of hornsent to follow him at his manse. I wonder if him not having horns and still having so much influence over other hornsent could have been seen as a threat to the inquisition’s image of (horned) supremacy??

[thekaelfarron]

Elden Ring: Official Artbook  Vol. III  

[thekaelfarron]

Elden Ring: Official Artbook  Vol. III  

[thekaelfarron]

Elden Ring: Official Artbook  Vol. III  

[thekaelfarron]

カーリアの食卓

[thekaelfarron]

Rennala & Radagon

[thekaelfarron]

Ladies and gentlemen, my mom

[thekaelfarron]

my hyperfixation is just drawing different body types... and it has been years...

[thekaelfarron]

the twin moon knight prints ✦ full process on patreon

[thekaelfarron]

I need to share this information with someone because its a huge revelation and it drives me insane that this fanbase is still peddling the lie that there was a cut ending for SOTE. Okay, here goes - demoncorejr on Bluesky, I am not affiliated, made an interesting post about the original design of the Divine Gate which includes a possible answer for the lost cutscene of Miquella at the end of the first SOTE trailer. I implore you to read their full post, it is some excellent datamining.

This, combined with the cut Miquella dialogue where he is still addressing Radhan, leads me to fully believe that this cutscene was just an early draft of the phase 2 cutscene of him stepping out of the gate - not an ending where he was going to 'unveil' the Land of Shadow, which would have been impossible to implement into the base game technically anyway, given how huge the Land of Shadow is!

Would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

ENDING WHERE MIQUELLA WOULD "UNVEIL" THE LAND OF SHADOW WAS NEVER MEANT TO EXIST AS REVEALED BY A DATAMINER!!!

Lol sorry I NEEDED a header to pique the interest of all 6 of you who are reading fdsjfhsd Anon, thank you for bringing this to my attention, because I already did have a thought that maybe the scene with Miquella reaching for the Scadutree was just one of the angles of him stepping out of the gate!!! I did not address it because I wondered if it was overthinking, but seems like I should have trusted my hunch? XD

Okay so, here is the thread in question:

This was an interesting read, so here are some core points I want to reshare as thread is a bit long:

1) The original draft of the Divine Gate was appearing to look very bloody and rotting, just like it looked in the SOTE promo trailer where Marika pulled some golden strings out from it:

Here images themselves, for closer look:

2) The arena was ALSO going to be rather "liquid", full of blood/rotted waters/whatever!

3) The initial intent is also still there in some ways; according to KERA, the initial textures were tweaked to have that pale, petrified, "sandy" look to them, to fit the surroundings. Including two screenshots because it is a video file on Bluesky of moving a slider and idk how to reshare it:

The second, very brown one, is correct colors of this texture, and the first screenshot is a tweak, not actual way this texture is intended to be!

I needed to reshare the key points from the thread and paraphrase, but yeah guys, read the whole thing, it is very insightful! So yeah, you can really see how initially they intended to keep the Divine Gates the same as it was shown in the trailer:

4) There is still effect for the corpses attached to the gate to bleed:

So that brings us to the question: how does it prove that a different Miquella's ending was never a thing?

5) The Miquella's cutscene seen in the trailer was cropped due to artistic changes of what the DIVINE GATE looked like, not plot changes!

They could not show him stepping into a bloody and decaying arena anymore, because.... it was no longer bloody and decaying! THIS was the change!

ok sorry I will stop with the Big Text lol

But yes, I am absolutely convinced that they've removed it over this reason! As for why the Divine Gate changed, I am not sure? I think maybe it would thematically fit more that Marika "killed" it when she pulled the golden strings from it? Or artistically it would not feel right if Miquella came out of a very "dirty" and bloody spot all perfectly clean and devoid of all "filth", so the gate had to look very polished and clean for the lack of better term?

I've also mentioned that I thought so myself, and after your ask, I finally remembered why:

(Start from 2:20) In this video, the creator does point out it simply looks like the essentially same cutscene, but from another angle and, well, with different arena!

You also can see the map further changed, like this tower appearing!

So, yeah, when I saw that video it felt legit, but not convincing enough, yet the thread you shared was a life-savior!!

I also do agree that it was obvious from the start that an extra ending with Miquella would never happen, unveiling Shadow Land or not! Miyazaki said RIGHT after the trailer dropped in the interview, that SOTE would not have an impact on the base game!

(From this ( x ) page)

The effects of "unveiling" the Land of Shadow would be so drastic that there would be no way to preserve the base game map with the changes. It would straight up jump into a new ending... that was confirmed to not happen!

[thekaelfarron]

I promise you, a thousand year voyage... ;_;

[thekaelfarron]

How Queen Marika Attained Eternity

[thekaelfarron]

Ranni & the gang

[thekaelfarron]

Blaidd the Half-Wolf sketch

[thekaelfarron]

HERE ARE THE KOOPA BROODALS

YEP,these designs were on the book art of Mario odyssey, i would have loved it to see them in the final game !

so here's a version of the koopa broodals, These 4 sisters are wedding planners of the koopa kingdom !

Art is mine dont copy/repost