From Software Lyric Suite's Shadow of the Derptree Blog

[Lyric Suite]

~ Part 31 ~​

Spoiler

So, for the time being i better avoid Bayle. Plus, i'm determined to get this bloody map since i can't explore efficiently without it.

I port to where the forlorn ghost was, and it is good that i took screens of his dialog as it is going to be useful up ahead.

There's a small section with a Furnace Golem, who drops a tear that basically gives you infinite stamina for a short while. Not bad depending on how "short" we are talking about.

There's a bunch of golden giant sheeps all over the place, including one that is just rolling around on its own. I manage to catch the bastard with dragon breath and he was basically guarding a lighting perfume bottle. I like the concept of those things but i'm just not compelled to use them. Those kind of items are generally too weak for PvE. Why use something like this when you can just obliterate everything with dragon breath. They might be useful for PvP though i don't know.

Anyway, eventually i reach the place:

Pretty if anything. There's graves everywhere and ghost guys that drop purple lilies. Every cluster of graves has this strange stone in the middle of it though:

Is that a fingerprint or something? In some cases, those stones are covered with regular grave stones:

I assume this means those large gravestones with the finger hole or whatever that is are much older, and that those other graves came later. There's a few messages about a boss fight so i just decide to get it over with before i begin to explore around and it's a ghostflame dragon. I was disappointed at first as this DLC has been pretty consistent in at least adding some kind of gimmick to make reused bosses not be exactly the same thing. The first ghostflame dragon is by himself and the only point of interest aside for the fact this is a new dragon is that there's a dead samurai next to it. The second ghostflame dragons is in the middle of a battle with Messmer's army, which offered a cool spectacle. This one felt like he was just a plain ghostflame dragon which was boring, until around 20% health he raises a bunch of skeletons from the ground. I guess that was the gimmick, i just did so much damage to him with holy i barely got to see it lol. Oh well, at least they tried.

Anyway, i finally get to see those things upclose:

But more importantly, i finally get my hands on the map. At last!

Spoiler

"Map of the southern shore of the Gravesite Plain. A captivating vista of brilliant blue flowers, intermingled with colossal stone coffins of unknown origin that seemingly drifted to this place. To the east, the jagged peak thrusts upward into the clouds."

"Drifted" hey?

This one warrants pictures from every possible angle, but i'm gonna look for one that is more exposed this is partially sunk into the ground and i can't get the sun to shine on the roof of it.

I check my right and in the distance i spot one those horrifying shades that are mind controlled by bugs. Time to switch to an holy get up, and also time for cheap tactics because fuck those things:

Sacred Order works with the twinblades but for some reason you get no holy effect on them like you get on the big hammer, which is very disappointing, as it completely destroys the drip of it. In the distance i spot another one standing next to a withered tree facing an island with a mausoleum. This time out of curiosity i decide to trade blows with it, which was a terrible idea. We both have hyperarmor which means we basically slugged at each other, face tanking every hit and i only came out on top by an hair. Anyway, pretty, isn't it?

Next to the tree i now find a new kind of book, a Grave Keeper's Cookbook. The book allows me to craft a bunch of "Piquebone" ammunition, arrows or bolts. No idea what the hell a piquebone is, but i'm reading the description now and i think those might have come in handy for something that happens later. Ho well, heh:

Spoiler

"Arrow whittled from animal bones. The tip is soaked in putrescence. Releases a white smoke at the point of impact, luring in foes of human build who are not in combat, and drawing their aggression. Effective on demi-humans even if they are already in a combat state. Craftable item."

That's what i get for being lazy. Still very specific use though.

Anyway, i jump down to see if there's a way to reach that island and near damn felt into a hole, which ironally happens to be the way to the island. Dropping down there's a cave with two paths. One of them leads on the roof of one of those "coffins" where there's a Great Grave Wort (they all have a wort of some kind). Still not a good candidate for taking pictures. The other side of course leads to the small island. There's lobsters, there's crabs i'm honestly non-plussed by those things at this point. Fought so many finger memory dealth with all with zero effort. On top of the island, i find this thing:

Spoiler

"A small bottle wrapped in a bright-red cloth. Filled with flammable perfume oil. Uses FP to spout flames forward. The dancers of Ranah keep these concealed as they dance, marking their height of their passion with an explosion of searing flame and sweet, enticing scents."

Sure enough, Ranah is the boss of this mausoleum:

Another unique boss that drops of all its gear. I'm impressed. Sure she wasn't super hard but i honestly wish the base game had done with something like this for all the caves, catacombs etc. Not bad not bad, let's go on:

Spoiler

All of the gear pieces have the following description:

Spoiler

"Bright-red hood of the Ranah dancers. Enhances the power of dancing attacks. The dance of Ranah is one of burning passion, and the most passionate dancers never allow their fiery dance to end, losing even their names as they dance on. To see the passion fade is to see the dancer's flame extinguished."

Meanwhile this is the sword, which she also drops:

Spoiler

"Decorative swords ablaze with impassioned red. A pair of weapons made to be wielded in both hands. Used by the dancers of Ranah. Strikes enemies with a dancing assault when executing a strong attack."

Hey, it's something better than a reused field enemy that drops an ash of war or something. This boss is so easily staggered which makes it trivial to kill in co-op, meaning this is an excellent spot to farm rune arcs.

Moving on, i now come across another of those monkeys:

All the messages seem to suggest this is the "master". This actually hyped me up a bit and decided to use a set up i had in mind for the original fight before i ended up going for parry instead. He goes down incredibly easy which means he cannot be the master, right?



Not that i expected the fight to be any different even if he were.

Spoiler

After some thought, and after reading the spirit ashes of Yosh again, i think i may have got it:

Spoiler

"Onze, once a master swordsman who devoted himself to the star lined sword, realised that only ruin awaited at the end of the procession of stars, and imprisoned himself in order to forestall it. However, Yosh, his apprentice and fellow study of the starry blade, stubbornly refused to heed his masters' words, and remained with him in defiance of his self-imposed seclusion for the rest of his life."

After you kill Yosh there's a body around in there which obviously has to be Onze. The description in the ashes give no indication there's anything unique about either Onze or Yosh. It's a fair assumption that the star lined sword is one of a kind but there's nothing specifically saying that it is. Yosh is not only the apprentice of Onze but also his "fellow study" of the "starry blade". The procession of stars, btw, is something mentioned by that wierd pope mage in the cathedral near the Shadow Keep. Given how creepy he was, his relation to the finger creepers (possibly their creator?), the finger creepers as alternative to the two-fingers or the various fingers related to the Greater Will in the original game (there's the Two-Fingers, the Three-Fingers but also a bunch of dead ones you see throughout the game), and given those gigantic pillars in the shape of fingers, including that massive structure that looks like a giant finger creeper, how old they may be etc shows there's a great deal going on with this "procession of stars" and there might be a great deal going on with Onze if he thought he could actually stop it.

This all sounds like a lot of leaps of logic, right? But wait, there's more! There's a whole bunch of demi-humans here, and some new items, both likely related to those mysterius Grave Keepers, a Polter Stone:

Spoiler

"Contrivance of the grave keepers made from spiritgrave stone.
Craftable item.

Creates noises imitative of human presence where it lands when
thrown.

Said to have been used by the solitary grave keepers to distract
themselves from their longing for company."

And a Spirit Sword:

Spoiler

"Sharp blade sculpted into a twisted shape. A sword that has seen many years of use in the gravesite. Said to serve as a medium for communion with spirits."

But eventually, i reach an open area with a giant coffin "marooned" on a beach and a demi-human queen boss fight which might have gone slighly easier if i had known about those arrows which i could have used to peel the demi-humans off her, but it wasn't that bad even without it:

At last, we get the Star-Lined Sword!

Spoiler

Description runs thus:

Spoiler

"Sword encrusted with a line of stars fashioned from small pieces of crude glintstone. Weapon of the demi-human swordsmen. When bestowed with this weapon by their queen, the swordsmen swear to find the truth that lies at the end of the procession of stars."

This all seems random but hold on a second. First, the line of stars is fashioned with pieces of "crude" glintstone. This suggests this is a primitive weapon, crafted by a primitive people, like the demi-humans themselves. The text also indicates there are more than one swordsmen, who upon being bestowed this sword by their queen, devote their lives to discovering what lies at the end of the procession of stars (with Onze being the one who succeded and ended up not liking what he found out). I assume this is the pinnacle of the demi-human relationship with magic. Crude that their society may be, they succeed in reaching the very pinnacle of all those who follow magic and study the stars.

Meanwhile, the demi-human queen happens to be called "Marigga". A bit close to Marika to just be a coincidence wouldn't you say? Lastly, there's the question of why the demi-humans are even here, which finally brings us to those boats:

Or arks i should say because that's what they look like. The forlorn ghost guy outright says that he was once told that "a coffin could convery its passangers upon a gentle cruise", to "the velvet garden of deepest purple".

Indeed, there's one where you can actually see the bottom which shows they are essentially boats (don't forget all my pictures were taken at 1440p so by all means zoom in as you like):

Which also doesn't mean they aren't coffins as well. They are covered in reliefs, and i'm sure the community is having a field day trying to figure them all out. There's that very prominent bull, which has a symbol in its chest i can barely make out:

The arch in the frontal facade seem to rapresent. There are trees and what apears to be large creatures, a giant winged lion and a bird, while the top rim there are what appears to be snakes, also seen elsewhere. Not sure if this is meant to rapresent some kind of chronological hiearchy (first snakes or dragons, then crucible, then men etc):

There are two symbols underneath the bull:

The one at an angle kinda looks like the one from Radagon Soresereal. The one in the front appears to be two winged lions holding a chalice, with two birds of prey underneath, and i swear i must have seen it somewhere.

There's also a row of strange guys with their arms held high, also seen better elsewhere on the boat.

Going down there's a series of alcoves all rapresenting the same picture of what looks like a woman with child, and something else again, posibly a bird?

A the bottom there is a row of bearded figures, likely priests:

Further down still, but also on the side where i was able to get a very clear shot, there is a carving of two figures, male and female:

Also this dude, whatever this is:

Lastly, among the more abstract carvings, which look animalistic though it is hard to tell, there are also clear humanoid figures, that of a saint, a man with bird wings that looks like an angel and a sainted bird:

Finally, in case anybody was under the assumption that because those coffins are giant they hold giants inside them, the roof has stairs that appear to be regular human size all leading to an altar with the bull again:

All around those things btw there's some kind of bug with this description, which may or may not mean anything:

Spoiler

"Cricket that produces a raspy cry. Material used for crafting items. Mainly found near stone coffins. The sound of these crickets are often taken to be the rustling of the restless dead, or sometimes the sound of their calling voices."

In either case, those coffins seem to hold the secret of an entire civilization! And they must contain scores upon scores of the deads of whatever this culture was.

Anyway i gotta stop here there's still quite a bit to explore of this zone i wonder how much of this will be explained, if anything.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Shit, forgot to post the most important picture!

Spoiler

Decided to clean up the format a bit, now it looks like you guys are brofisting dicks!

 

[Lyric Suite]

Well, i have shit to do all day today so no progress update yet but i'll just post the boss now:



Not bad. This was easier than the others to be honest. Was able to "burst" him (I.E., skip the second phase) only because for some reason he wanted to keep sparring instead of disengaging. Silly guy. Second phase was easy too though. Didn't even have to try different weapon types or infusions on this one i had the holy hammer because i was killing skellies before getting to him and i went in as i were just to get a sense of what he was about before trying to figure out a strategy. Turns out the strategy was just holy damage.

 

[Lyric Suite]

~ Part 32 ~
​

Alright, some crazy shit ahead yo:

Spoiler

First off, we finish up exploring the Cerulean Coast. After that in-depth look to those giant Noah Arks or coffins, it seems i'm getting closer to the trail left by St. Trina:

Spoiler

"Nectarblood Burgeon:

A young shoot, heavy with velvety purple nectar. Material used for crafting items. Exceedingly rare to find. Said to burgeon forth where the nectar-like blood of abandoned Trina pooled."

It's still somewhat vague to me what St. Trina actually is. All i remember from the base game is that basically Miquella and St. Trina are the same person. Further ahead, i find another Miquella cross, which says that here he abandons his "doubts and valillations", which in hindsight after knowing what happens up ahead i suppose it means here had to make an hard decision reguarding St. Trina.

I now beging to find several items related to "eternal sleep", pots or greases you can craft all of which seem to indicate St. Trina's sleep has reached a more profound state of "velvet". The descriptions of those items claim those affected by this velvety sleep will never be around again. So it puts certain enemies to sleep forever. At least i hope it does if it's just a stronger sleep build up all this lore is for nothing.

This section of the coast is vast but mostly empty. I find several ghosts crying while looking onto that island i visited earlier. Probably just a little thing to direct the player's attention to that place which has no relation to the general lore here. On the furtherst extremity of this area i find an open coast with a bunch of fingercreepers and not much else of interest, not even an interesting drop unless i missed something like a teleporting dung beatle i'll have to check later. I guess the presence of the fingercreepers is the point of interesting in itself.

Now the area ends with a wide open sunk hole in the ground. All around it there's silvery slimy things which dropped a thing called Congelead Putrescence:

Spoiler

"Bruise-colored putrescence that oozes from stone coffins, congealed into a large viscous lump. Material used for crafting items. Found underground in the land to where stone coffins drift. The putrescence is what remains of the impure lives kept within the stone coffins."

The thing reminds me of the Nox, Nokstella and that entire area but that has to be seen. It's just that this "bruise-colored" putrescence reminds me of all that melted silver stuff you find in that place, but there could be no relation. Sure looks silver though. Anyway i make it down and oh mama:

Full blown dungeon it seems. There's a bunch of Bloodfiends here and one of them drops that fork that appears to be a primitive version of Mohg's trident:

Spoiler

"Weapon used by the bloodfiends. Three tines of carved bone spear the victim to provoke blood loss. A ritual implement for blood offerings to the Formless Mother. At times, the bloodfiends will spill even their own blood using these forks."

Wonder why they would be here though? At this point i started reading all the descriptions of the Nox stuff, the fact they were banished by the Greater Will, their awaiting of the "Lord of Night", which appears to be a kind of parody of the Elden Lord the Nox were trying to create artificially (as suggested by the Mimic Tear description). This could mean they were in the service of one of the Outher Gods, but there's zero indication this would be the Formless Mother so i'm not sure what to make of the Bloodfiends presence here, unless this is related to St. Trina and them being here is a more recent thing. Eventually, i find some who use sleep magic so i guess that confirms why they are here.

There's a ghost guy who chastizes Miquella for having "thrown away" something he shouldn't have, and then he asks how could Miquella's "salvation" be offered to those "who cannot be saved" (was that the role of St. Trina, to save those who couldn't be saved?), if he himself couldn't save his "other self".

Further ahead i find another cross, and this one says that here Miquella has abandoned "his love".

So St. Trina was a real thing, part of Miquella but another entity entirely, one whom he "loved". Was this something like that Radagon/Marika thing? At this point i had to rewatch the story trailer:



So let's look at this in detail. Miquella spoke of the "beginning", and of the "seduction" and then "betrayal". Betrayal i assume relates to the Hornsent. This appears to be the origin story of Marika, which i assume is where the "seduction" part comes in. There's blood everywhere, melted flesh (!) and massive towers of dead bodies. Marika's bloodied hand pulls out of a sagged cloth, probably a melted body, holding some kind of golden strings in her hand, and from this "Gold" arose, the strands apparently being what ends up forming the Elden Ring as she rose to godhood and formed a new age, but shadow was also born, i assume as a consequence of the gruesome events that led to Marika's ascension. We then see Messmer's crusade, a purge with no "grace" or honor etc. The camera pans up to the Scadutree where i think we can see Miquella's cross. So was Miquella actually a result of the ascension of Marika, or is this him injecting his grace into the realm of shadow, which is thus seeping out of the shadow tree? We then get to him discarding everything he was, his golden lineages etc, up to a shot of what i presume is St. Trina, which is referred to as his "fate".

Ok, ok, but the one thing i can't take off my mind is the melted flesh. Whose flesh is that? Is this related to the Shamans? Are those Marika's people, whom the Hornsent butchered, chopped up and "melted" toghether, and upon her reaching godhood she just turned on them in revenge and set them all on fire? I mean betrayal my ass if this is actually what's going on here (just remembering the whipping hut shit).

Anyway, for now all those questions must be pushed aside as this is all about St. Trina. Charming place innit?

Eventually i found some of those coffins have their opening revealed, which got me exited for a bit:

Sadly, the best i could find was this:

Around here i also find a sword that inflicts velvet sleep:

Spoiler

"Silver sword of St. Trina, now stained the color of velvet. Inflicts eternal sleep. When St. Trina was abandoned, the faint, light-purple mists coalesced into an intoxicating deep-purple cloud."

It seems after being separated from Miquella, St. Trina entered an even deeper sleep, almost as if he was her conscious or waking mind.

BTW, whoever designed the next section deserves to be shot lol:

You know what i'm talking about if you've been through this part. Eventually i make it through without breaking my controller in a fit of anger. Around here i find this sorcery:

Spoiler

"Sorcery originating from the putrid liquor of the stone coffins. Flings a great mass of putrescence that explodes shortly after impact, raining ghostflame upon the area. In an age long past, Death was burned by ghostflame. Even the remains of tainted flesh were given equal treatment in death."

So, "Death" (why always with a capital letter?) is related to whatever is inside those coffins? Also again with this notion of taint or impurity in the flesh of those who undertook their journey here on those "coffins". I have half a mind of assuming those ships contain people who were "banished" from their original land because of their "impurity".

Now confusingly the path is blocked by the ghost of a golden misbegotten. Not gonna bother make a video you know the drill:

If you want to see me kill this thing just refer to my fight with the other golden misbegotten found in the original game:



He drops this thing, which i guess explains why this guy is here. Maybe:

Spoiler

"Incantation of those who served Miquella. Produces a multilayered ring of golden light and fires it forwards, inflicting continuous damage on those struck by it. Charging increases potency. This light-ring incantation was cultivated by a tradition separate from Golden Order fundamentalism."

So this was left here by Miquella, got it. Notice how his version of the golden lineage has no intelligence requirement (no relation to magic). A purer form of gold?

I finally get close to the boss and, what in the holy hell is going on here:

Too much shit for one sitting lmao wtf is this.

Before dropping down to the boss, there's a ghost guy who has this line:

"O please, grant me the courage...
To fly to your feet, my dearest...
St. Trina..."

Who or what this is about, i have zero clue (besides being a clue to the player that he has to jump in). Maybe the boss has some more info let's see. This is the text in his remembrance:

Spoiler

"Remembrance of the Putrescent Knight, hewn into the Scadutree. The power of its namesake can be unlocked by the Finger Reader. Alternatively, it can be used to gain a great bounty of runes. All tainted flesh eventually becomes putrescence, and this clump of it imbibed St. Trina's nectar, which granted it eternal rest. And so it was that putrescence became her knight."

Ok then, i see. I'm a bit disappointed though as i was starting to get the idea her sleep became an instrument of death after being infected by those putrescent things, but i guess it was the other way around.

You can get a spell which has the same description as the other i found earlier and a weapon made out of "hardnened" putrescence affixed to an arch "fashioned from human bones". The cleaver scales with arcane. The Nox stuff did too. Their magic had nothing to do with death though.

Now after the boss comes some truly wild shit. As soon as i approach the tunnel, i hear someone imploring St. Trina to let her voice be heard. The voice also wonders about this "velvety ambrosia" (which i assume he did not expect). Following the tunnel i then emerge on this strange scene:

So this is St. Trina, wow:

BTW, i guess this time it's literally true lol:

Also what the hell is going on here:

Those are blood stains left by players. A few of them have an animation like they are eating something. Am i supposed to chug that concoction here? Around here i find more stuff made by the St. Trina Disciple who is leaving around those cookbooks, i assume Thiollier? More stuff related to the more powerful "velvet" sleep, including this thing, a Lulling Branch:

Spoiler

"Tree branch blessed with a velvety purple incantation.
Craftable item.

Pierce oneself, causing a gentle buildup of sleep.
FP gradually recovers during this time.

When this sleep reaches the threshold of causing temporary
fogginess, no FP loss is incurred.

In the midst of drowsiness, there is the will to awaken.
Feelings that rise from the depths of one's heart."

All the consumables have the same line, how the "weak" are powerless to resist the velvety sleep, and will never be roused again etc. This comes into play on my first interaction with Thiollier. He claims to be "drifting off" into the "sea" of her poison, awating to hear her voice, but then he warns me i shouldn't follow his example, that St. Trina's poison would plunge me into an "eternal" slumber, and that it must be he and only him.

That to me sounds he just wants St. Trina to himself. I guess we should see how "weak" i am. I approach St. Trina. She doesn't speak, but i'm given the choice to imbibe my nectar into her..., i mean, yeah. Anyway i take it, and i guess i was weak after all as i just kneel over and die. Shit.

I resurrect and Thiollier has the same line. Maybe i'm supposed to "fortify" myself with the concoction? I don't know, probably just reaching here. Well, time for spoilage i suppose. I'd love to try to figure out this stuff for myself but because of the open world stuff Elden Ring is just too large and time consuming to bother:

Spoiler

So i tried again, same result. Guess i was being trolled. Let's try another:

Spoiler

I look for clues but sadly i don't find shit. I now start reading all the messages and it's the same shit:

Spoiler

Surely this has to go somewhere. Maybe i need to use the concoction, but i have only one as i never bought any when Thiollier's shop was still available, so i'm afraid to fuck this up now. On a whim, i decide to try a third time. Same result, but this time on my way back i hear Thiollier asking St. Trina why she won't share her voice with him, and asks her to grand him "more" of her poison, that he might drift further into sleep. Why isn't he dying though lol.

Ok one more then following his example and if that doesn't work i'll try the concoction. Fuck it. And lo, this time it worked, as i finally hear her voice! Hot damn, praise the message. Apparently, she wants me to make Miquella stop, not to turn the "poor thing" into a god (i just now remembered that he was supposed to be a child). I talk to Thiollier but he doesn't believe she spoke to me and not to him. I try again and it seems he is now mad at me. I assumed this was going to lead to an invasion, but i didn't expect it to happen so soon. I drink St. Trina's poison again to see if she has anything else to say, which she does. She claims godhood would be Miquella's prison. That a caged divinity is "beyond saving".

As soon as i respawn i get of course invaded by Thiollier. He gets a load of hyperarmor while throwing his poison around, so i switch to Mohg's trident and it appears the range is long enough that i can just poke/stagger him before he gets to cast anything, so i was just able to cheese him like that. He drops this knewl talisman:

Spoiler

"A talisman depicting a smiling St. Trina, a vision conjured deep within a certain man's heart. Raises attack power when sleep is triggered in the vicinity. "Only I am allowed to know. Of your velvety sleep. Its sweetly gentle embrace. So please, smile—for me, and only me.""

It seems my "strengh" convinces him i'm telling the truth. I'm feeling kinda of sad for him now lol. Too weak to accomplish anything, he at least thought he could reach St. Trina, and yet even that was beyond him. I now try St. Trina again, who she now tells me outright i must kill Miquella, which apparently is to "grant him forgiveness".

Needless to say, Thiollier is not happy about this at all when i report her final words. I tried again and she basically says the same thing. Also, Thiollier doesn't die. I guess there's going to be more but not for now. I'm just going out of a limb here and assume the reason she spoke to me and not to him is that he was too weak to do what she is now asking me to do, or wouldn't have accepted it one way or another. His "faith" to her literally made sure she would never have a reason to speak to him.

Anyway, lot's of shit to think about, too much to sort out in one sitting.

 

[Lyric Suite]

~ Part 33 ~
​

Alright, finally found the time to continue this:

Spoiler

First off, i went to check the dragon lady at night and sure enough she is having a special kind of communion with Placidusax. She is giving him her "solace", that it may grant him "sleep" in his place beyond time. Now i'm given the option to give her the concoction, while she sleeps, to do something i guess no clue what exactly. Basically this whole time Thiollier gave me this so i could date rape the dragon woman. I mean, even if i wanted to i'm pretty sure i'd need a gravel dick or something. Anyway, passing on this for now. Now that i have the map i can explore this section more fully!

I thought i was essentially done with the place, but it turns out there was quite a bit i still had to do. I take some time to check out this dragon here, but unlike the one in Leyndell i'm given no info whatsoever as to who this is. I mean for all this shit about Placidusax, Bayle etc, how ancient they are, how terrible they are, nobody has shit to say about those dragons that are like way bigger than they are. On its carcass i find some Dragon Communion "harpoons", a tool of the "old" Dragon Communion warriors, who were "agents" of the ancient dragons' hatred for their lowborn descendants (the drakes?). I mean, cool, but that doesn't explain the giant one that's stuck in the big dragon's mouth. That said, on some ruins nearby i find another cookbook by Igon that allows you to make them. I'm going to assume the Dragon Communion warriors made those in imitation of the big one.

Now it turns out i can actually go down where those stone finger pillars are:

Place looks ominous as shit though so for now i ain't going there.

Rather, i decide to check that field with those red flowers i had seen earlier in the distance but i had completely forgotten about:

Because of the association with the dead the red flowers made me think of chrysanthemums, which we use in funerals here in Italy (they are usually white or red). So i google it and apparently those are called red spider lilies and are used in Japan, also for funerals. Who this Charo is (Charon? Wouldn't surprise me if that's all it is), and how his grave is supposed to be "hidden" when this whole area is visible for miles away, i have no idea.

A bit of trolling from the Tibia there. Those guys are routine now except this one actually summoned a fucking Revenant lmao. What a funny guy this Miyazaki dude. All around here there's stuff related to those Grave Keeper guys. You can find their skulls around here, where we are told the Grave Keepers are boatsmen who continue to summon the dead even "after" withering away, whatever that means (turns out it's a reference to the thing you can craft with those skulls). There's also more Grave Keeper cookbooks and even a Tibia cookbook, which allows you to craft a thing that "calls" one "lost" in death. We are told in its description that the dead have "long been left to wander", and that what they need is "leadership".

I'm marking all this down in case i have to come back to it. I'm assuming there's a relation here with what i dealt with last time because of ghostflame more than those dead guys. There's ghostflame flowers around the graves, which has a rather suggestive line in its description:

Spoiler

"Ghostflame flower that grows in gravesites. Material used for crafting items. Blossoms in the hidden grave of Charo. Of a pair with another gravesite flower, the grave violet. All but incorporeal, it burns without so much as a sound."

So velvet sleep and ghostflame are somehow related? We definitely know there's a connection with putrescence and ghostflame, as in that spell the Putrescent Knight uses:

Spoiler

"Sorcery originating from the putrid liquor of the stone coffins. Flings a great mass of putrescence that explodes shortly after impact, raining ghostflame upon the area. In an age long past, Death was burned by ghostflame. Even the remains of tainted flesh were given equal treatment in death."

We also know that ghostflame is associated with the Death Birds, who predate the Erdtree. We actually meet one here but i just cheesed it with holy 'cause fuck fighting those things:

You can kill the grave bird on the right and lure the stupid birb there where it became a routine fight with those things. There's a little bit of foreboding that those death birds and the grave birds are related:

Of course it's not like it was hard to figure out, but the game then just outright tells us in some ashes you find later on:

Spoiler

"Ashen remains in which spirits yet dwell. Use to summon the spirit of a Gravebird. The spirit of an old golem and spiritgrave keeper, who flies with stone wings and spouts ghostflame. According to legend, the Gravebirds were crafted to be kindred to the Deathbirds."

The death birb drops some ghostflame ash of war. More interesting it's a spell i find nearby which i think is trying to make some connection with light and ghostflame:

Spoiler

"Sorcery practiced by the keepers of the spiritgraves, where all death ultimately drifts. Creates rings of spectral light that fire in unison. Charging enhances potency. The rings of light have the same qualities as ghostflame, and deal magic damage while also causing frost buildup."

The rings of light have the same "qualities" as ghostflame. Odd detail. It's light but it acts like ghostflame. Why not just make it ghostflame outright unless the game is trying to tell us something? There's another potentate cookbook, and another weapon used as a medium for "communion" with spirits, like the one i found near the demi-humans (which may have been a clue to tell people there was this other area above).

BTW, speaking of the death birbs, i found this description in a ghostflame spell from the base game:

Spoiler

"In the time when there was no Erdtree, death was burned in ghostflame. Deathbirds were the keepers of that fire."

There's a Furnace Golem at the end of this that drops a "glovewort crystal tear" but it doesn't offer any extra lore.

At one point i found this wierd congregation of ghost owls:

I'm assuming they put those guys here to allow people to farm Slumbering Eggs a little easier. Anyway, it made me think of all those animals kneeling to the Putrescent Knight, which is still confusing me.

BTW, one thing i think may be important is this notion of "melting". The Putrescent Knight was of course melting with the horse and gaining and losing shape. There's also that whole deal with the Hornsent trying to melt the flesh of the Shamans using those nasty tooth whips, and then there's the Nox. I only thought of the latter because those putrescent things reminded me of the melted silver things you find in Nokstella. The Nox stuff was indeed silver though, and the connection was kinda of tenous, so out of impatience i ended up googling it and oh boy:

https://www.reddit.com/r/EldenRingL...a_closer_look_at_the_stone_coffins_and_their/

Well then. Here's what i'm thinking. I don't think the Nox have any connection to any of this, not directly. I assume the coffins are related to the Shamans, and if those are related to Marika then it means they ought to be Numens, which the Nox were not. But perhaps those ruins were there before the Nox populated them. Now putrescence, shamans, melting, and Nox maybe picking this up too also with the melted silver stuff. Sounds all rather tenous and yet that reddit post shows some pretty big similarities.

Oh yeah i also found that hippo thing. I've seen this thing as a boss fight i'm assuming this is a neutered version since it went down pretty easy:

Broke his stance but he has no critical hit point? At least i couldn't see one.

No matter. Eventually i come across another Gaol, where i thought i was gonna get more clarifications relating to all this ghostflame stuff but apparently it has nothing to do with anything i found so far in this area, and it's just another continuation of the jar sub-plot. The lumping Shaman guys now have ghost faces on their flesh:

They also scream and i assumed the name of this place was related to their anger, but apparently it's about the Hornsent and their lamentations for the betrayal and the crusade.

So many corpses:

There's a cracked pot where those little guys are and just now i figured out why the Shamans are being shoved into jars of all things in this grotesque parody of rebirth. It's because the jars remake themselves every time lmao. I'm fucking retarded. This would also suggest that perhaps the jars are not related to this Shamans stuff at all. That the jar are an existing thing the Hornsent merely utilized to try to turn the Shamans into their "saints". This would leave the lore of the jars in the original game intact, as it's kinda of hard to think of Alexander and the little child jar etc being a product of whatever horror is happening here.

There's a knewl frost perfume bottle and another tangled horn charm, usual stuff. I then find a ghost guy who claims he needs no "salvation", and that he no longer wishes to hear this wretched lamentation somebody is inflicting on him. There's a goofy lamentation prattling pate which henceforth i'm going to use as a co-op greeting from now on. The voice resounds, seeping into the brain, weeping, weeping, ever weeping. At least that's what it says. I then find this thing which is kinda of a major find if you ask me:

Spoiler

"A stone lantern carved to resemble a lamenting human head, the eyes vacantly beaming out light. Can be raised up when equipped in the left hand, illuminating more of the surrounding area. The unusual expression somehow imparts a sense of contentment. The languid ease of one who needs not sight."

I don't know about the weapon art. I guess you can just turn invisible and then go scare people in PvP and go "hooooooo" to their faces, maybe rattling chains while you are at it. No, the major part is the fucking light. This game is always too damn dark for me, and this thing is better than a torch, basically equal to the Starlight spell.

This place is smaller than the other Gaols and eventually i find our resident inmate, and i can see why this guy was locked away by the Hornsent holy shit wtf is this lol:

Once i figured out the gimmick i just cheesed him with Mohg's spear. Hey, at least it's a new boss, goofy that it may be. Onwards:

Spoiler

He drops his wierd mask which reveals a bit of what this is about:

Spoiler

"A stone mask twisted into an expression of rapturous grief.
Use while disrobed to transform into a lamenter.

The change cannot be undone except by death.
Using this mask while already transformed causes the head to
swell in size.

This transformation tallies with the state of a denizen of paradise,
but the people of the tower denied and hid it from the world. In
their foolishness, they viewed true bliss with deep fear."

I'm assuming the tangled horn charms were related to this guy since he was tanky as fuck and is also covered in horns form head to toe.

I'm a little confused about the lore here. At first i assumed the Hornsent took their lamenting to an excessive and grotesque degree, but what is this about paradise? And why would the people of the tower deny and hide it form the world? I mean this seems to suggest all the lamentations of the Hornsent are not a result of their genocide under the crusade but it's part of their culture?

This guy is covered in horns from head to toe as i said, surely a sign of the utmost holiness for the Hornsent, and has horns piercing through his eyes. "To those who seek happiness, blindness is a bliss". Grandma Hornsent also has her eyes covered with horns. Might be related possibly. Also those lumpy guys have their eyes covered, i've seen some have their eyes glow, and here they scream. And they are also supposed to be "saints".

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, forgot to add the connection between those Lamenters and the lumpy Shamans, who have their eyes covered, have light coming out of them like the lamp here, and here they also scream. And those lumpy guys were meant to be "saints", which i'm assuming is what those Lamenters actually are.

 

[Stoned Ape]

The living jars in The Lands Between have different lid seal designs and I think they have different roles, too. You often find big groups of Jars at the foot of minor Erdtrees and I think their role is to do with taking body parts of dead warriors to return to the roots of minor Erdtrees and then eventually getting their insides returned to the tree when they break.

 

[Lyric Suite]

The living jars in The Lands Between have different lid seal designs and I think they have different roles, too. You often find big groups of Jars at the foot of minor Erdtrees and I think their role is to do with taking body parts of dead warriors to return to the roots of minor Erdtrees and then eventually getting their insides returned to the tree when they break.

This is why i wished i had played this DLC right after the base game so this stuff was fresher in my memory.

In either case, it seems the jars are related to the Erdtree, and by extension Marika and thus the Shamans, and there's also a connection with them reguarding rebirth, the fact they collect body parts to return them to the Erdtree as you say, and the fact the pots reconstitute themselves when used etc.

Anyway, it's now time to get into this fingers shit:

~ Part 34 ~
​

Spoiler

So, first off, gotta find a way to get down there:

Exploring around the carcass of the titanic dragon, i notice there's a whole canyon here with roots. Are those the roots of the Scadutree?

If i pan the camera up from this spot i see the Scadutree straight up:

Still, there's quite a distance from here to there so who knows.

Behind me, i see a spike protruding from the wing of the dragon and looks like *maybe* i can make the jump down. I was sure i was gonna die but instead i actually land safetly. I'm already starting to meet fingercreepers and there's also some strange face sucking worms that shoot light spells at you (turns out it's not light but fingernails. Light would have been significant given the lore of his area). One of them drops a glintstoner nail which means i finally meet the lamprey. Can't say i'm a fan.

In either case, at the center of this section there's an isolated shack where i meet the ghost of a Finger Weaver. He claims to have proven his theories, that the fingercreepers "hail" from the ruins (you think?), and that he must sound the "bell" (oh right, i had forgotten about that), and that then he shall finally be "sweetly cradled" at the bosom of the exalted mother. I don't know if this is the Formless Mother specifically but it's clear we are dealing here with one of those creepy Outer Gods.

He left a cookbook next to him which claims in true Lovecraftian fashion that guy's "brush with the sublime" shattered his mind and left him mad. The book allows you to craft that glintstone nails where i learned about the Lampreys who are said to guard the ruins. Around here i also find a mushroom with a rather significant description:

Spoiler

"Light-pink mushroom resembling a wizened finger. Material used for crafting items. Exceedingly rare to find. Used to by those who wish to become fingers to induce hallucinations. They call these mushrooms the stillborn of the Two Fingers."

Is the implication that the Two Fingers rose from here?

Anyway behold, the ruins of Rhia!

Is this the name of the civilization mentioned in the description of that Stone-Sheathed sword? That's because up i head i see those pillars did indeed have the exact same designs as the altar:

I thought those were like whirlwinds or something turns out they more like digits or fingerprints. I mean i would assume. Scattered all over this place there are those strange stone spheres:

At first i thought they were the eggs of the lampreys or something (they are not hollow though, the core is stone on the broken ones), but the more i think about it, the more it just seems they were inside those finger pillars after the outer part crumbled all around them, maybe bone? You can find some that have been broken off and the section inside looks like it may have been fleshy originally, although i can't see any bone inside or something like that:

What if the fingers were alive originally, and when once they died fossilized into stone. You can see some of the lampreys are latching onto the pillars, and i can only assume they are either feeding on them or attempting to do so. The description of the glintstone nail says they resemble fingers more than they resemble humans. Is the idea that they WERE humans at one point?

Around here i find clumbs of nail stone who as an interesting line in their description:

Spoiler

"Flake-like stone shard with a faint fingerprint engraving. Material used for crafting items. Found at finger ruins. A piece that came loose from the tip of one of the column-like stone fingers that grow at finger ruins."

Oh those column stone fingers "grow", do they?

Inside that clumb of finger pillars that resemble the Italian hand sign, i finally find the bell:

I'm actually afraid to use it what if i summon some Yog-Sothoth kinda of shit the mage pope doesn't look like someone i should be thrusting. I do it anyway and i get a talisman which indicates this place is indeed the origin of the Two-Fingers and eventually the Erdtree. I'm going to put the original description and then this new one side by side:

Spoiler

"The Erdtree was once perfect and eternal, and thus was it believed that Erdtree seeds could not exist...

...The Erdtree seed of this talisman was presumed to be an object of myth. This age-old artifact also depicts the Two Fingers, perhaps harkening back to the birth of the Erdtree."

Around here i also find one of those fingerprint stone coffins that duplicate Remembrances. It's a human body in the coffin and yet this must be incredibly old. I also eventually reach the site of grace which apparently could have been easily accessed from that coast where i found those finger creepers, right up a stone coffin. I guess i wasn't as attentive as i thought when i explored this place the first time.

Anyway, time to report to the lunatic pope. He is pleased i rang the bell (i'm still sure i'm gonna doom the world by following this quest), and gives me a second map and this knewl talisman:

Spoiler

"A talisman depicting a wizened hand gently gripping a glintstone. Shortens casting speed for sorcery and incantations by the utmost, but increases damage taken. Count Ymir was known for his recitations. "One need only envision the romance of the stars above with adoration for stardust in one's heart to become a great sorcerer. Do so, and you will know love.""

I'm now given the option to ask him about the "nature of the world". I thought this was going to delve into the mystery of the origins of things but instead he starts ranting about the world of the Erdtree and how shit it is. Apparently, all the struggles we made, all the wars and conflcit that have arosen since the rise of the Golden era, have all been for naught, since the foundation itself of the Erdtree is rotten, and there is no salvation there at all. He then mentions Miquella, how tragic it is that the latter thought it was necessary to renounce his "tainted" lineage, when the blame lied "squarely on the mother". I'm now thinking of the "impurity" that led to the creation of putrescence.

I can now buy those light/nail magic things, and the drescription mentions how this is just child's play, an "echo of a greater truth". So more powerful spells of this kind might reveal more.

The dark knight now claims we are allies, although she still wants to be a bitch about it. She introduces herself, and claims "The Night" is now mine to wield. What is the Count really up to here, associating himself with the dark?

Anyway, i go rest and then i come back here to make sure i exhausted all the steps and wouldn't you know, the Count is gone. Examining his throne leads to a secret staircase which drops me in this strange place:

I can't make a single step forward that i even invaded by another of those dark nights, her name being Anna (the sister of the one above?). I fail to beat her, and upon respawing it now seems the Count is back and is there to stay. Talking to him he asks if i've been looking into things i shouldn't have. Shit he is on to me.

I'm going to assume i'm getting another chance later, but i still left 900000 runes down there i can't get back now. Not a big deal but shit man. In either case, it seems this primordial civilization which seems to be the origin place of the Two Fingers had some kind of conflict going on between light and dark, and this Count is clearly on the side of dark which means he is bad news (meanwhile the Hornsent are on the side of light? Is that in one of their prisons they were torturing one of those "night" knights?). This could also be related to the "scadu" tree. The other bell is past the Shadow Keep so it's gonna be a while before i know more.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, this talk of a "mother". Is that related to that "O, Mother" gesture i found on the corpse of that decapidated Shaman statue?

 

[Child of Malkav]

BTW, this talk of a "mother". Is that related to that "O, Mother" gesture i found on the corpse of that decapidated Shaman statue?

Eh, you'll find out soon enough. Do the Ymir quest and the motherly stuff will be revealed.
It's a different mother than Marika.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, this talk of a "mother". Is that related to that "O, Mother" gesture i found on the corpse of that decapidated Shaman statue?

Eh, you'll find out soon enough. Do the Ymir quest and the motherly stuff will be revealed.
It's a different mother than Marika.

The question is, is she the Formless Mother? Or another Outer God (i mean what else can she be, those finger ruins are creepy as shit). The question then did the Shamans worship her? Did Marika before she begun to serve the Greater Will?

Actually, there's another question about Marika i'm currently thinking about, and it's related to an item i just found in my next area. Let's just get to the progress update:

~ Part 35 ~
​

Spoiler

Alright, next up, is the Ruins of Rauh. This is the last area left before the Shadow Keep, and i think after this i can just go straight there, unless i feel like killing Bayle first we'll see.

I expected this to be the bottom part of the Rauh complex, which i was right but there was more to it than i expected, which always appears to be the case with this game. I make a beeline to the map first thing and we get a description of what those ruins are:

Spoiler

"Map of the ancient Rauh Ruins. These giant ruins are flooded, overgrown, and split into two by a chasm. To the southwest is the Church of the Bud, overlooking the tower of shadow."

Wonder what kind of cataclysm might have caused this chasm. All over around here there are misbegottens, bloodfiends and soldiers of Messmer fighting the latter. I was kinda of thinking the bloodfiends were related to the demi-humans but i take this means they are related to the misbegottens instead? I guess it would make sense. Misbegottens were normal humans who became cursed after delving with the crucible, and the bloodfiends might have been normal humans also who became what they are when they abandoned themselved to the Formless Mother. Demi-humans by contrast were never human, but were in fact proto-human. There's a bloodfiend in a cave who is continously hitting something, a body or whatever it is (spoiler, the body has shit loot. Maybe what the guy is beating is the dead horse of disappointing loot that appears to be the main refrain of this game):

Oh yeah btw, i was compelled to try this stupid mask lmao. Turns out i can't take it off unless i die, and since i popped a rune arc there's fat chance of that happening, so for now i'm stuck with this goofy thing. This transformation is kinda of stupid. You get zero defences and your focus drops to shit, but other immunities get a boost (though not a super large one). If you click on the mask you do that stupid attack where your face balloons which does basically no damage. The only thing of interest is that it gives you 8 points in arcane with no damage penalty like the Silver Mask, which is not bad actually. Even though i have 50 arcane already i still get a decent boost in AR on occult infused weapons, and this transformation has no weight so you can get some boost out of the blue dancer talisman too.

Anyway, back to the bloodfiend guy here. Funnily enough, from a distance i just assumed it was one of the regular guys but it's a bloodfiend chief. Interesting how i couldn't tell the size from a distance. Anyway, point i wanted to make is that the larger misbegottens like to do this too, just cleave constantly on whatever it is they killed. Just thinking maybe this was supposed to be a connection.

No matter i guess, the real question is what's the relation between the bloodfiends and the misbegottens with those smithscript forges? Becase there's another one here, and unless i missed it i don't think there's any explanation for why whenever there's a forge there's either misbegottens or bloodfiends (or both i guess). This place was probably the hardest so far though the puzzle at the end was simple enough. This one is actually loaded with gear. There's an axe, a greathammer, a small shield which i guess is cool for anyone who wants to cosplay as Captain America, and the very fists of those golems. Speaking of which, i mentioned i actually found those guys kinda of cute earlier but now i see them as just adorable. Look, he is petting one of those fire jellies, awwww:

I don't care if later he beat the shit out of me with long rage rock fists he is still my cute apron buddy.

Once you find the forge, what you get this time is some Spirit Ashes of a named golem:

Spoiler

"Ashen remains in which spirits yet dwell. Use to summon the spirit of Taylew the golem smith. The spirit of the stalwart stone golem who launches his own fists as projectiles. Taylew was said to be the runt of the litter and the first to stop moving, but it was he who became the guardian deity of smithery."

That's cool but it doesn't tell me what those places are exactly.

Back outside, i get the trident which is supposed to be the ancestral version of Mohg's spear. I'm pretty sure this dropped before, or maybe it was that smalled forked knife i can't remember:

Spoiler

"Greatspear of the bloodfiend hexers. One of the most significant implements used in their blood rituals. Sacred spears of blood are the instruments of communion with an outer god. The mother of truth desires a wound."

The mother of truth desires a "wound". I need try to remember this as it feels relevant. BTW, what's this shit they are laying in?

Why does it look like rot (turns out this question wasn't as dumb as i thought considering what i discover later).

And then i find this in a chest in the soldier camp:

Spoiler

"Talisman depicting a knight bearing a pearlescent greatshield. Boosts all non-physical damage negation while guarding. The nature and the potential of impurity surpassed the understanding of the knights, and so they were forced to prepare for all threats known or unknown."

The interesting part to me is the mentioning of "impurity". Now putrescense came from those bodies inside the coffins who were "impure". If those coffins are related to the Shamans, say, they were Numen, and given what Count Ymir just told me in the last update i posted, what if the reason the age of the Erdtree went to shit is that Marika was impure? And what if the goal of Miquella in shedding his Golden lineage, his body and everything to try to rid himself of this "impure" heritage he inherited from his mother, so that when he reaches Godhood he can create a new era without the impurity of the order created by Marika? And what if this is why Marika shattered the Elden Ring in the first place? Doesn't it look in the original game that Marika is expecting one of her children to just do it better?

Well, anyway, why i get the feeling my fan fiction is gonna be better than the reality once again lol.

BTW, there's also some nascent butterflies here. First i've found since i started the DLC. Can't be a coincidence, can it?

We'll see i guess, moving on then. There's a couple of giants once i move towards the ruins. I checked some of the gear i had of those guys just because their presence here is suspicious and this is what the halbert says:

Spoiler

"A great halberd of black stone crafted by a civilization now gone to ruin. Wielded by the Guardian Golem."

Well shit, there we go then. Scattered around here there's a bunch of Rauh burrows which i wonder if they are connected to the Shattered Stone Talisman. They are round, flat, both connected to spirits. Kinda of vague, but hey, i have to leave no stone left unturned here (hurr durr). Eventually, i reach another Hornsent complex, a fairly important one by the looks of it:

Apparently there's supposed to be a "puzzle" of some kind here, even though there isn't. On one side of the wall at the bottom of this structure i find this goofy message:

The way the message is written makes me think the implication is that an actual character in the game is leaving those around? The way it's written is damn wierd, feels "in charater" rather than impersonal if this was just a dev message. Of course, the message is talking about a hole in the wall on the other side, which is supposed to be hard to find somehow? It's right there were people really struggling that they had to put this message here?

Anyway, up in the first church i find a very cool tasliman that boosts AR when wielding a weapon two-handed:

Spoiler

"A talisman depicting a warrior two-handing a sword. Enhances attacks with two-handed weapons. The horned warriors were fitting figureheads for the military might of the tower they kept watch over, their deft attacks slashing through any and all foes."

This is actually pretty damn good hot damn. To get to the church nestled in that alcove in the cliff you see in the distance, all i had to do is find a springsprint nearby. Inside i just find some ashes adding a bit of lore about those bird warriors:

Spoiler

"Ashen remains in which spirits yet dwell. Use to summon the spirit of Ornis the divine bird warrior. Spirit of the divine bird warrior from whom the horned warriors claim descent. Clad in golden armor, and granted wings and feathers by divine invocation. Ornis succeeded in taming the divine bird and made its wings his own as he soared through the sky. When he finally fell to earth, he lived on as the guardian deity of the temple quarter."

I'm going out of a limb and assume the "divine bird" this warrior tamed is somehow related to the death birds that govern over the spirits. The description doesn't say this it's just a gut feeling i'm having.

On this side i now come across an entire squadron of what appears to be "blood" Kindreds of Rot. Great, and just when i was starting to find those things cute on account of the forager brood guys:

Also what are those red blood artichokes looking things?

But the plot begins to thicken ones i find a pool of actual rot:

There's nothing else around here that points to anything more, but perhaps i may find more stuff in the upper section of the ruins complex. Are we dealing with the origin of rot here? Around here i also find an ash of war called "The Poison Flower Blooms Twice" that deals rot damage and from the description feels kinda of broken, will have to try it at some point. In either case, i think the name itself is giving some further clues here.

Also around here there's another Gravebird piece of armor, one "featuring" a cape of Deathbird feathers that enhances jump attacks (same damage bonus as the other feather armor. So basically it just adds an alterative with a different kind of fashion, meh), but more interesting is this new cookbook i found:

Spoiler

"A record of crafting techniques left by the hornsent academics who studied the ancient ruins of Rauh. Details techniques for working with sprites thought lost to antiquity. Acquire the knowledge to craft the following: - Fire Spritestone"

That's fashinating. So the Hornsent have no actual connection to this Ruah civilization, they just found the place, studied it and possibly incorporated what they found in their own culture.

I'm now coming close to the end of this whole area, and holy shit, wtf is that:

Oh God, just, why? I ended up cheesing them all with spells 'cause fuck that shit. That fog behind them even made me remember of The Mist, the Spephen King movie:

Turns out the fog is coming out of another Fog Rift Catacomb. There's a ghost guy in there who is begging someone to "avert their gaze" and to "look away" (i find out what this means once i get to the catacombs later).

On the right side, there's wide wooden area which appears to be the end of this section. For a second i almost thought i could actually get to the ruins above from here but this ends in a cliff wall. I decide to clear this place before the catacombs and come across a literal pile of shit, containing this shit:

Spoiler

"Excrement of a large carnivorous beast containing fragments of horns. Material used for crafting items. Found underfoot in places like forests where beasts dwell. It is said that the deadliest of the horned predators enjoy the sport of hunting and devouring other horned creatures."

Shit, bears. In fact, i guess we gotta deal with this whole bear thing. Earlier i found a mausoleum with the ghost of a the Red Bear:

Never take claws to a... sword fish fight? There's a message outside that said to try parry. Fuck that i had to give this guy a taste of his own medicine. The timing to stop him from going into hyperarmor was some next gen shit i had to pull i don't even know how i managed to do it. Also getting the timing to roll out of his crouching combo, like fuck. I'm pretty sure i lucked out at the last second as i procced the last bleed right as he was about to wiggle himself out of the stunlocking i subjected him to.

This seems to be a common theme tonight with those bears as seen in the next fight. For this i decided to test this Lamenter drip lmao:



In case you are wondering whether i lucked the fuck out again by killing him right as he was about to tear me to shreds with his roar, yes, yes i did.

Spoiler

Now, there's more lore about those highland warriors. First, i found a version of their armor with a red stripe instead of a blue one. The description for both says just "bears" though. I'm going out of a limb and assume blue is for regular bears and red is for red bears. Otherwise what's the difference? There has to be some kind of translator error here, not the least because the piece with the red stripe is called "gloried" arrite where as the blue one is just highland attire.

The bear drops a spell which has this interesting description:

Spoiler

"An incantation of what is jokingly called "the bear communion." Channels the power of Rugalea, the great red bear. Transform oneself into a great red bear and emit a mighty roar. Charging increases potency. An incantation that is more akin to the divine invocation of the hornsent than it is to the Dragon Communion. Only through desperate battle with the feral wild can one discover a god unique to oneself."

It's interesting how those beast or bear guys just have this association with the Hornsent, right from the wolverine guy you meet at the start of the DLC.

But then of course the biggest lore clue is dropped in the description of the armor of the Red Bear ghost:

Spoiler

"Helm of Red Bear, whose name is lost to madness. The cheek guards are shaped after lion fangs. Perhaps his fascination with the untamed strength of the wild stemmed from his past as a Redmane...

...Chest armor of Red Bear, whose name is lost to madness. A vest reinforced with iron rivets. After killing the great red bear in a blood-soaked bout, he became fascinated by the untainted glory of its naked strength. "I wish to be a bear, no more, and no less...

...Claw of a great red bear wielded without modification by Red Bear, whose name is lost to madness. After killing the great red bear in a blood-soaked bout, he became fascinated by the untainted glory of its naked strength. "I wish to be a bear, no more, and no less"

Wow, this came out of nowhere. I'm talking about the fact the Red Bear was a Redmane. Are the highlander warriors also related to the Redmane? They have white stripes in their headgear that is supposed to rapresent their home "settlement", but nothing comes to mind here. I'm going to assume there is no connection. I think the Highlander guys just set this lore surrouding the bears, and the Redmane who became the Red Bear merely became involved in this whole thing due to the his admiration for the bears but is not necessarely related to the highlander warriors.

What a strange way to just drop a Radahn connection like this. So far the game has been incredibly quiet about this. Even the Redmane valkyre woman didn't have much to say about anything although now i wonder if she had something to say about all this had i explored this area before breaking the Great Rune.

It's now time to clear the catacoms so i can call it a day. Turns out what the ghost outside was talking about is statues of death frogs that just inflict constant deathblight just by looking at you:

Just phenomenal. Still, between Maliketh armor, the Prince of Death's Cyst and the Dragonbolt Blessing i get quite a bit of death blight defence, plus i can just clear any build up with Order Healing all of which made this gimmick area relatively easy to go through, or would have if it wasn't for those annoying imps, espeically the cannoneer ones. You can get their mask here which is that of a lion. Radhan? Nah, probably not, but hey, gotta think about shit like this. Like, why a lion specifically, right?

Here i find another Black Knight who i totally do not cheese with the spike trap. He was standing on front of a grave containing the ashes of a certain Captain Huwu:

Spoiler

"Ashen remains in which spirits yet dwell. Use to summon the spirit of Huw, Knight-Captain of the Black Knights. The Black Knights were the primary force of Messmer's army. Second to their first Knight-Commander was Huw, a man with agile command of both twinblade techniques and the powers of the Crucible, and whose spirit in these ashes dwells. Though a champion of the divine beast hunt, he followed his father, Andreas, into rebellion against Messmer, and like his father, he too was imprisoned in an underground tomb. Messmer mourned the loss of a brother-in-arms."

Interesting tibit about Messmer actually mourning the loss of this guy, the son of Andreas. First time we get to hear anything about Messmer that doesn't paint him as a monster.

While the puzzles in this place are simpler than those of the other catacomb area (or at least i now know the gimmick), this is considerably harder. It's longer and there's a sense of mounting tension even accounting for the extra stake of marika the game throws at you out of mercy. The most difficult section is probably this:

Or was until i find out that skull lanter shit actually works, and you can sneap up to the sorcerer and snipe him out with the laser beam shotgun unseen.

Funny how the spell those guys use aren't available in the game, unless you can actually find them later. The game won't tell you what they are, so i just googled it. Apparently they are called Putrescence Sorcerers, which is pretty significant if you ask me.

Lastly, there's a bunch of lighting plants around here and then i find too:

Spoiler

"One of the incantations of the capital's ancient dragon cult. Summons a lightning spear while also manifesting ancient dragon crests. On throwing the spear, the crests will launch additional spears. Charge to increase the number of crests. An incantation that was taught only to the most accomplished knights, and now a lost art in the Lands Between."

There's also another one of those dragon cult cookbooks. Not that i needed to know who the boss of this area is. He drops his axe and another medallion, same lore as before, though there's a line about a "decayed golden ring" which i didn't pay attention before. Anyway, apparently those guys are easier to cheese than i originally thought:

So the plan with this guy was to use the Sekiro hardtear, but i didn't expected him to wield a different weapon, one with slow, lumbering attacks. Plus, i'm just not feeling this tear. You don't feel it when you make a perfect block and it's just unsatisfying to use, especially in this dark area where you can't even see the visual cue all that much, and the sound is certainly no help either. So i defaulted to bonking, which unexpectetly trivalized him. All that work to learn to parry the other one and i could have just done this.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Oh btw i forgot to mention. In case you are wondering if velvet sleep can put the regular runebears to sleep permanently, or at least for a very long time, no, it can't. So much for that. Also for some reason i felt the runebears had more health than the literal red bear boss fight. Like, how does that even work.

 

[Child of Malkav]

The question is, is she the Formless Mother? Or another Outer God

No. I don't think we meet any outer gods in this game. Except maybe Malenia when she goes to her second phase, but even so she's an avatar not the actual god.
Edit: It has a connection with the 2 fingers, the big ones. And all the other, smaller ones. Whatever, you'll see what the item descriptions say.

 

[Child of Malkav]

statues of death frogs that just inflict constant deathblight just by looking at you

Yeah, about those, I used assassin's gambit (and I think that unseen form spell works too) to move past them easily. They are affected by it just like any other mob.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Ok, maybe i should have toned down the damage a bit lol:



I was under the assumption eventually the lack of Scadutree upgrades would catch up but nope, still obliterating bosses with a mere couple of buffs. Oh well, i'll continue like this i'll do the try hard stuff on future runs.

Messmer really doesn't like Marika, does he:

Spoiler

Also why would a monster of the crucible be here? An insult to Marika?

 

[Lyric Suite]

~ Part 36 ~
​

I took sometime to clean up the format of this let's play a bit, and while i was doing this i decided to revisit some notes i took earlier as i had some thoughts in the interim:

Spoiler

First of all, i remember early on making a bit fuss about those strands coming out of the Scadutree:

The thing is i hadn't seen the story trailer when i started this since i didn't know that thing existed. I saw "a" trailer and i thought that was it. In hindsight, it's clear this stuff is connected to the strings of hair Marika picks up in the story video which she then fashions into the Elden Ring. At present, i'm going to assume those strands rapresent the hair of the Shamans, whom must have been murdered by the thousand given all the melted flesh you see in the cinematic.

Something was also bothering me about the Shamans, so i went to look at the description of the jar you find in the first Gaol, next to the big jar altar:

Spoiler

"A greatjar which fits comfortably over the head when upturned. Attire of the shamans who perform their worship at gaols. Increases the power of thrown pots of all sizes. They offer their prayers to the innards of the greatjars, such that they might be reborn one day into sainthood. This is the cycle of death and rebirth, taken into the hands of mortal men."

So the whole process of reaching sainthood by means of becoming a jar is something the Shamans did on their own? Everything points to the Hornsent compelling them in the most grueseome ways but why would this "attire" exist then? Unless this is part of the forced process as well, the Shamans forced to "worship" at the altar of the giant jar as part of the whole ordeal.

Then, as you recall, in Belurat i was gong on this theory that the waters in the city were poisoned, and even traced the source:

Everywhere i see this brown shit. The bloodfiends bathe in it, and then there's that pool of actual rot i found at the base of the Ruah ruins. You ain't gonna tell me this is just a big coincidence now and that the artist just liked to make the water everywhere the color of poop because he liked it.

Lastly, this idea of "impurity" i found in the Crusade Insigna has a different meaning now:

Spoiler

"A talisman depicting a raised spear on a backdrop of flames, in remembrance of the lives lost in the sacred crusade led by Messmer. Raises attack power after defeating an enemy. The warriors who fought in the crusade set aside both honor and mercy to wantonly impale and scorch those deemed impure. Those who felt invigorated by each cry of death were the same men who were certain of the sanctity of the campaign."

At this point i assumed that by "those deemed impure" meant those who delved in the Crucible, which might still be the cas, but now i'm not so sure that's the end of it.

Anyway, i'm finally in the Shadow Keep!

Spoiler

And boy, look at those damn spears!

Also, what the heck is this at the base of the decapitated Marika statue?

Making my way in, i now come across a ghost of a black knight who lies prostrate, in disbelief that Messmer, the son of Marika, was abandoned by her grace. Is this why those guys started to turn to the Crucible, starting with Andreas? Messmer didn't take it well that's for sure.

BTW, i forgot to talk about the incantation you get after killing the gold hippo, which has this line at the end of it's description:

Spoiler

"This is a manifestation of the Erdtree's primal vital energies - an aspect of the primordial crucible, where all life was once blended together."

Given the top side of the Ruah ruins are linked to the Shadow Keep i'm going to assume that's where the black knights learned the magic of the Crucible. BTW, isn't is strange how crucible incantations are "gold"? Why was the hippo gold? What's the game trying to tell us here?

Moving on and hey, didn't expect Erdtree:

But i expected this even less, a talisman of "Lord's Bestowal":

Spoiler

"A talisman depicting Godfrey, first Elden lord, receiving the precious sap. Increases poise after using a flask of tears. The Lord accepted the sap stoically, without any sign of wavering. No wonder Lord of the Erdtree casts a long shadow over the lands."

What in the shit Godfrey was here now? And he is casting a long "shadow" over what lands now? This lands? I'm totally confused lol.

There's a skewering dagger with cool hard guard, keeping on the "impaling" theme of all the arsenal found in the premises of Messmer's army. I also found what i think is the highest shadow realm rune i've seen so far. First we learn that the Scadutree is the "shadow" of the Erdtree. Then we are told the soldiers who joined the crusade were rewarded with grace "aplenty". This now has this description:

Spoiler

"In a long-forgotten place where none would tread, the light of grace quietly grew ever more brilliant."

Wonder what place would that be. Anyway, take at look at this bad ass gothic shit:

I turn around and, erm, what is that?

What the heck is that?

I get close only to get ganged by the vulgar midgets, who may or may not be a clue of what all this is (armor claims those guys are found in "battlegrounds effusing with the stench of the dead" and "forbidden lands what will be excised from the memory of history", if any of this means anything):

First off, what is this fire? Second, what's with these viking boats or whatever they are?

I now come across a Fire Knight. The description of the helm runs thus:

Spoiler

"Pointed helm of the Fire Knights under Messmer the Impaler's personal command. Slightly increases maximum HP, stamina, and maximum equip load. Each and every knight hailed from a renowned family of the Erdtree's upper echelons, but were shunned and chased from their homes after pledging allegiance to Messmer as their master."

While the armor adds further lore:

Spoiler

"Armor of the Fire Knights under Messmer the Impaler's personal command. Distinguished by its red cape and twin golden snakes which adorn the neck, enhancing incantations of Messmer's flame. These were the only ones who truly knew Messmer. His flames, like serpents. The painful fate that accompanied his accursed form."

Ok, ok. First of all, i'm now thinking of that serpent's skin i saw near the "O, Mother" corpse. Surely it has to be related to this, right? But also, what snakes are we talking about here? The only snakes i've seen so far in this DLC were those carved on those stone coffins but surely it can't be that, right? There were also snakes on the emblem at the entrance of the "Suppressing Pillar".

Unfortunatly the sword adds no further lore, so for now that's all i have to go on. I'm assuming the way past the knight is where Messmer is, but i wanna keep that for last. There's a bunch of stairs that drop down to an hidden room, where i find a "Domain of Dragons" painting (dragons too now?). There's a wall with like half a dozen messages laying in front and sure enough it's an hidden path. This opens to a stone coffin which at last allows me to reach this place:

I'm actually contemplating going this way first. Might reveal a few more things as what i found in the castle so far is confusing the hell out of me. There's also a side entrance which leads to the church district. I think i'll follow this path here, then once i'm done i'll enter the keep from the backside and check what's in there.

 

[Stoned Ape]

So the whole process of reaching sainthood by means of becoming a jar is something the Shamans did on their own? Everything points to the Hornsent compelling them in the most grueseome ways but why would this "attire" exist then? Unless this is part of the forced process as well, the Shamans forced to "worship" at the altar of the giant jar as part of the whole ordeal.

My take on this is that the Hornsent were taking the Shamans (or Miko* in the Japanese vesrion) into the gaols, whipping them and interring them into jars (or crucibles?) with bits of 'unworthy' Hornsent and then forcing others of their kind to pray for the jarred to be resurrected as Saints.

*Shrine Maidens

 

[Crayll]

One thing to note with shamans, they fucked up the translation for the Greatjar helmet.

'Shaman' as written in the Greatjar description is originally 祈祷師, 'Kitoushi'.
'Shaman' used everywhere else (to my knowledge) is written 巫女, 'Miko' in the Japanese.

Miko typically refers to Shinto shrine maidens. Shaman isn't the worst translation, but it is definitely not meant to be the same as 祈祷師. Those are two separate groups in the world of ER. '祈祷師-Shamans' worshipping at the gaols are not the same '巫女-Shamans' being put into the jars.

 

[Stoned Ape]

One thing to note with shamans, they fucked up the translation for the Greatjar helmet.

'Shaman' as written in the Greatjar description is originally 祈祷師, 'Kitoushi'.
'Shaman' used everywhere else (to my knowledge) is written 巫女, 'Miko' in the Japanese.

Miko typically refers to Shinto shrine maidens. Shaman isn't the worst translation, but it is definitely not meant to be the same as 祈祷師. Those are two separate groups in the world of ER. '祈祷師-Shamans' worshipping at the gaols are not the same '巫女-Shamans' being put into the jars.

That's incredibly interesting, I didn't know about the Kitoushi translation. It does make far more sense now!

 

[Lyric Suite]

One thing to note with shamans, they fucked up the translation for the Greatjar helmet.

'Shaman' as written in the Greatjar description is originally 祈祷師, 'Kitoushi'.
'Shaman' used everywhere else (to my knowledge) is written 巫女, 'Miko' in the Japanese.

Miko typically refers to Shinto shrine maidens. Shaman isn't the worst translation, but it is definitely not meant to be the same as 祈祷師. Those are two separate groups in the world of ER. '祈祷師-Shamans' worshipping at the gaols are not the same '巫女-Shamans' being put into the jars.

Wow, that certainly clears shit up.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Alright, had a trillion things to do this several days, so i had to put this let's play on hold, but i got some free time today so let's get down to it:

~ Part 37 ~​

Spoiler

So still mulling over those strange boats in the Shadow Keep. The fire is strange it doesn't hurt you but it's definitely burning here:

I went to look at the design and suddenly it clicked:

It's the bloody Tibia Marriner boat:

What the hell is going on here.

Perhaps i can find some answers on this secret path i just unlocked. Those boats are funeral boats obviously, and it seems they are throwing bodies into the river using those stone coffins. Possibly related?

I didn't want to get side tracked from the Shadow Keep just yet as i just started but this shit demands answers.

Now, there's a whole lot of destroyed Furnace Golems strewn across the place, and as i'm looting all the furnace visage things of course i come across one that is still alive:

No surprises there i basically expected it. Except i'm bored of those things and i don't feel like spending another five minutes killing one, so this time i just go check out the wiki to see if there is a better strategy than just hammering at his legs for half an hour. Turns out there is. Apparently Pest Threads can knock him down super fast if you hit the legs at point blank range. I had no idea this spell did so much poise damage i'm literally able to kill the golem in less than two minutes. No point doing it any other way from this point on. He drops some oil tear of dubious utiliy but what do i know maybe it's great for certain builds.

So now, the Hornent town:

After looting the space around it i can't seem able to find a way in, and no messages to spoil the secret. Eventually, i figure out the entrance is blocked by the corpse of a dead Furnace Golem:

If you go under his dick you can see the way in but there's no room to squeeze through. That's when a light bulb went over my head, not the least because i noticed on the dead one those guys aren't there anymore:

Of course, i try with the regular Hefty Fire Pot first because i'm a dirty jew but clearly you have to use the furnace version to wake him up.

I'm glad i read up on this Pest Threads strategy otherwise i'd have gone nuts having to fight two of those things back to back. He drops a Bloodsucking Cracked Tear, which i thought was going to give some HP stealing effect or something lame like that, but oh boy, here we come now:

Spoiler

"A crystal tear formed slowly over the ages, where the scattered sap of the Scadutree pools deep within the furnace golems. Can be mixed in the Flask of Wondrous Physick. The resulting concoction temporarily increases attack power but drains HP over time."

Power Withing is BACK baby, hahaha. Finally something good. I'm already itching to try this thing on something, but i guess for now i need to keep my bloodlust in check.

I now step in the Hornsent town and wow:

I assume the implication is that this is what the Hornsent towns looked like originally and this was merely kept in a pristine state due to the golem blocking the entrance. I wonder about those golems, why do their faces have a crown of horns? Was that done to mock or haunt the Hornsent? Using their holiest symbol on the very machines used to massacre them?

Inside the church i find another inquisitor spell, a larger version of that same arc based spell, the arc "resembling" a barb, a known symbol of "coercive questioning" etc. More interesting is what i find on the side, an altar of that ancient civilization associated with the finger pillars:

Now amazingly this thing allows me to convert the stone-cased sword into a "Sword of Darkness":

Spoiler

"Sword of darkness, pulled from its stone scabbard at an altar. From the quick of the root, wandering coils of darkness coalesce and release, their eddies and vortices giving form to the dark blade."

Wow, this is pretty cool. Earlier, we learned the Hornsent were studying the ancient ruins of Rauh, and i made an assumption they focused on studying the "light" aspect of this civilization based on the fact many of their spells are based on light, like those spira spells, while the "dark" side (so to speak) was related to the finger pillars, as evidenced by Jolan and those other "night" sword women who are protecting the creepy pope guy. It seems however the Hornsent either studied both, or i was completely off and those spells had nothing to do with light at all, or it's just a coincidence they happen to be white. The weapon art of this sword is impressive visually but i have zero clue what it does. I'll look into it later.

BTW, yes, i was compelled to check the wall. I made it all the way to end, all around and found no loot. All the jumping for nothing what's wrong with FromSoft. Pretty though:

Anyway, time to go down the river (and into another rabbit hole i'm sure). I remember seeing a path following this river all the way to a large area with a bunch of hippos roaming around underneath the jar village. Might as well check out this area for more clues before returning to the keep.

I follow the river when i come across an area with a bunch of those gravebirds, but no loot, which i thought was suspicious. Sure enough, on the edge there's the following message:

Looking down and there a bunch of jumping points where i can reach the base of the waterfall. On the first ledge i find a Dryleaf Seal:

Spoiler

"Sacred seal of the spiritual seekers known as the Dryleaf Sect.
Enhances incantations which conjure golden rings of light.

Those who saw the decline of the Erdtree in the fallen leaves long ago braced themselves for the weakening of Order, and embraced a strict faith. And then, they made to serve a new god."

I assume the new god is Miquella? At the bottom, i find an open stone coffin with a Scadutree fragment in it, a clue about who those dead people may be that somebody is "secretly" disposing of in the Shadow Keep. And sure enough, at the center of the waterfall there's a corpse with the rest of the Dryleaf set, to complement Dane's hat i obtained earlier:

Spoiler

"Sun-faded and lightly soiled travel attire worn by clergymen. The gold necklace found under the breast belongs to a group of spiritual seekers known as the Dryleaf Sect. This sect rejects dependence on others in all matters of faith, seeking self-discipline and self-sufficiency above all else."

So are they self-sufficient or are they serving a new god? Which is it?

Anyway, i'll think about that later. Before coming down here is spotted a new mausoleum from above:

Oh boy oh boy, i can finally try my new tear. Time for beating to a pulp (turns out more literally than i expected):

Ok this was kinda of retarded:



Basically if i had infinite stamina i could have just stun lock her to death? She has a very simple weapon art with some tricky timing to roll through it, and the rest is attacks that would be super easy to parry. She does a ton of damage and has quite a bit of health (plus a ton of posture couldn't break her stance despite all the beating, and no bleed either), but still. Very strange boss fight to be honest. Her being so tanky also made my debut of the Power Within cracked tear a bit underwhelming, though i assume it must have helped. I used both Blessing of the Erdtree plus the natural health on hit gain from the Great Stars and i was basically able to counteract the HP drain completely.

Well, let's see who bitch this is:

Spoiler

The loot is kinda of hilarious given the actual fight. This is the katana:

Spoiler

"A great katana with the tempering pattern of its blade forever stained red with blood. Weapon of Rakshasa, who cuts down and devours.

A berserker's weapon used to endure enemy attacks and reply with one's full fury. When attacking, the wielder is less likely to stagger from counterattacks, but will also take increased damage."

Oh yeah, you could tell how much she couldn't be staggered lol. The big one is the armor though, each piece of which increases damage by 2%. How much damage boost can one man have? All of it is the right answer of course. The armor is supposed to increase damage taken (didn't see that when fighting her that's for sure) but meh, who cares if you are not getting hit, right? The whole lore about her is centered at how ruthless she is:

Spoiler

"Armor of Rakshasa, soaked in the spurting blood of her victims. Tatters of ragged cloth jut out haphazardly, as if her lust for carnage threatens to break free.

Increases damage dealt to foes, but greatly increases damage taken by the wearer.

Cut down and devour. Only those who repeat the cycle without rest can truly subvert the self and become Rakshasa."

But the more interesting thing is that this is basically the same kind of armor Vyke had. I'm going to assume this is his wife and that's why he went mad.

More wierd shit to come but i gotta go for now.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Alright then, to continue from the above:

~ Part 38 ~
​

Spoiler

Alright, on to the next side of the river. There's a whole bunch of those Brundlefly bitches on this side. They even try some dumb ambushes those things are just useless:

There's several nascent butterflies here witch you ain't gonna tell me is just a coincidence.

Eventually i end up on a narrow path which opens up to a group of Brundleflies and... another Curseblade ambush. I'm so over this shit it's not even funny. Luckily, if you snipe one of the flies the Curseblade bastard moves out of his hiding spot so you can just cheese him too.

This path leads me to a "Village of Flies". Here, we find what i think is what was being mentioned in that talisman i found in the Ailing Village close to Belurat:

Spoiler

"A talisman depicting a soul taken by sickness. When certain ailments are triggered, this talisman grants resistance to the same ailment. When the weak were infected with the dreaded fly sickness, they perished well before the metamorphosis could take hold. Oddly, those who cared for the infected and made certain they were given a proper burial were never afflicted themselves."

Essentially there's shadowy Hornsent figures who can cast Swarm of Flies. Couldn't take a clear picture of them they basically have the entire attire of the Hornsent NPC, head and body. Are they ones who cared for the infected but were never afflicted themselves? Did they cause this? Bloodloss in the vicinity of all the fly people gives them a power boost. So now we have established a link between the flies and blood.

Still unclear what this is yet:

I could only assume the flies eventually hatched into the scorpions, but there's no way to tell yet. There are spirit ashes of flies here but the description adds little in terms of an explanation:

Spoiler

"Ashen remains in which spirits yet dwell. Use to summon the spirits of three man-flies. Two of the man-flies attack foes from the air, while the third spits poison from the rear. Afflicted hornsent eventually metamorphosed into a fly-like form. It was believed that the moment the transformation took place, they were relieved from their suffering."

Anywho, i finally reach that large wooden opening with the hippos, but i should have known it wasn't gonna end here, since this leads to another Fog Rift catacomb (and as i soon find out, a whole area after it, like how long is this blood DLC lmao). The hippos are interesting. They drop Scadutree fragments. I also found one in the stone coffin on the way here, down the waterfall. The golden hippo used Crucible magic. I'm thinking the people being send away in those coffins may be knights who defected to the Crucible, and somehow their "grace" ended up affecting those hippos, one of which even became "golden" as a result. A stretch, but my gut feelings tell me there's likely something to this. Also, how come the Crucible is "golden" at all? But then, why is the Goden Order related to a tree if said Golden Order sees itself as an enemy of the Crucible? What if the Erdtree is just an offshoot of the latter?

Now, this particular catacomb appears to be a poor man's Tomb of Giants. Everything is dark and you have to find light switches but the dark isn't too much of an issue, and can be easily countered with simple light sources:

Early on i found a chest with a Viridian Amber Medallion +3. So no Death Knight here? The imp here also drops this:

Spoiler

"A peculiar weapon wielded by imps.
Hatchet smithed in the shape of a fork-tongued dragon.

The gently undulating forked blade is known as an "imp's tongue" and causes blood loss."

Wonder if those imps are connected to dragons?

Soon enough i find the answer. I mean reguarding the Death Knight. There's a room with one of those Putrescence Sorcerers just staring at the wall, while an imp who was supposed to lay in ambush is just up there doing nothing:

Sure enough, i find the body of the Death Knight here. I guess he failed in his mission to follow after Godwyn this time, and those two, who must have killed him, were just saddened by the whole thing.

The armor has some cool drip and boosts dragon cult incantations. Helm has this description:

Spoiler

"Golden helm of the Death Knights, whose own death masks served as the visards of their armor. Enhances skills and incantations of the capital's ancient dragon cult. The decayed golden wheel that adorns it represents their unbroken loyalty to Godwyn, he who became Prince of Death."

While the rest of the pieces have this line at the end of their description: "These knights, once Godwyn's personal guard, quested to find their transfigured master's cadaver surrogate—for the coming age of the Duskborn.".
So those knights served Godwyn even after he became the Prince of Death.

Of course, if the knight is dead, who is the boss of this area then? Moving on, i find this cowardly message:

Pathethic scrub who couldn't git g...

Ok then, maybe i should go back.

This section was truly cancer, and all i get for my troubles was some ashes that end the grand imp-dragon arc:

Spoiler

"Ashen remains in which spirits yet dwell. Use to summon the spirit of a large-mouthed imp. The spirit of this old imp, said to be fashioned after a dragon, has a big mouth that serves as a cannon and allows it to fire shells from the rear of the battlefield."

Ok so this is all this was. Meh, not that the lore about those things matters.

BTW, some fairly detailed statues which i keep seeing only in those catacombs:

There's also that statue i saw in Castle Ensis which i assumed was of Marika but now i don't think it actually was as it's unlike any other depiction of her. I decide to check on google if anybody was talking about those statues and there's a thread that has them all catalogued, which ought to be handy for future reference:

https://www.reddit.com/r/EldenRingL...hed_museum_depictions_of_maidens_priestesses/

Finally, i get to the boss room. Let's see who it this shall we:

Ok, this guy was definitely NOT Pinwheel:



I expected him to fold in two hits, but he is actually surpringly tanky. So tanky (especially given the boss type) that i think i may finally have met the point where lack of Scadutree upgrades is starting to be felt. Expecting him to be weak at first, i wanted to try a fun challenge of using the Bloodsucking Tear without any kind of healing, but it turns out that was a bad idea. In his second phase in particular he just summons tons of those ghost inquisitors and while it is not super difficult if you are patient it's definitely impossible to do with a big ticking clock over your head. His magic attacks are actually tricky to roll through but fairly fun once you get the timing right. I mastered them all but that one series of arcs he throws at the start of the second phase, where he basically summons all the inquisitors at once. You need some room for that and more than half the time i ended up backing into graves and die, which is when i just decided to use the graves as shield instead.

Eventually, i figured out a way to "cheese" him, which was to stagger him out of his teleporting trick with bleed procs. This allowed me to pull off at least a part of my original challenge (no Blessing of Erdtree, though i still got some healing from the Great Star), but i still had to stack a ton of damage buffs to be able to take him down fast enough and he still lasted longer than i expected. I was planning to lock him like that all the way to the end, but he managed to wiggle himself out eventually. Still made it though. For a mage boss type he had a fairly fast attack that was quite tricky to parry, almost like the one Rellana had, that's why i'm a bit trigger happy with my parries in the fight.

Personally i liked him. His ghost summoning phase has a lot of RNG to it but you just gotta keep it cool and not get greedy. I had half a mind of toning down the damage and do it the hard way but i doubt people would have stood for a five minutes video or how long it would have taken me. Anyway, let's see what we got from this guy:

Spoiler

So this is the staff:

Spoiler

"Greatstaff of Jori, elder inquisitor. The tip bristles with golden barbs symbolic of the inquisition's torture, allowing one to wield the staff as a greatspear. Attacks deal holy damage, and potency increases with faith."

The whole theme with the Hornsent appears to be that they are those big victims on one hand, but then they keeping revealing an ugly side to them at every turn. I don't know what the big pay off to all this is going to be at the end when the main plot gets reveleaed, but i wonder how many people are picking this up, especially people who don't read item descriptions or follow quests confusedly.

The big shocker at this point of course is to realize there's a whole other area after this:

I can only assume this is where the Umbra tree is. The Hornsent NPC asked me to find this, maybe it's good that i got here before meeting him again (assuming he didn't get his ass handed to him by Messmer).

Alright, time to stop here for now, but i had to deal with one last thing, which is to go check out the spot depitched in that painting i found in the Shadow Keep. I had a fairly good idea of the exact spot, the one at the very peak where everything suddenly goes quiet:

I wanted to check this out to see if whatever you got offered more clues as to what is going on in the Shadow Keep. No clues about that, but oh man:

Spoiler

"Heart consumed in the ancient, original form of Dragon
Communion.
Use while disrobed to turn one's human flesh into an ancient
dragon.

The change cannot be undone except by death.
Using this heart while already transformed temporarily boosts
Dragon Communion incantations.

The last thing the partaker saw with human eyes was a sunset, its
colors faded and tarnished—a remote thing from eternity."

Wow, so this is this game's dragon form. The transforming animation is super cool:

But the aspect itself is a bit goofy. What's really disappointing though is that the buff isn't permanent. You have to click on the thing where he does that pose for a brief second, and the buff lasts 60 seconds, after which you have to do it again. Not that great to be honest, but the fact the form is weightless is cool because spells like the claw and the dragonmaw do physical damage so you can actually boost them with the Blue Dancer Charm.

Anyway, as you can see in the back there it's now time to kill that damn dragon. I can't have him there when i come for Bayle since i don't want to fight two dragons back to back. Just go away already:

Heh, i was just talking about how tanky the Inquisitor was but this one really took the cake:



The original could be stance broken in two hits on his snout. On this one i unleashed everything i had, using every cheap tactic i could muster but nothing managed to knock him down. Eventually my heart sank at the realization of the kind of fight i had in front of me, just long, drawned out, and annoying. This was the first time since i started the DLC where i started wishing i had some Scadutree upgrades. I mean i was fairly tired at this point and this guy isn't a major boss so i didn't think it was worth the burn out, not with so much game left ahead of me. Also, unlike Fortissax i couldn't dodge his paw swipes reliably. I think it's because this place is kinda of cramped and the terrain is often uneven which makes it harder to gouge the distance of the static charge that follows after his attacks.

So i resorted to cheese him with Pest Threads, testing the dragon form in the process. It's relatively sloppy but i managed. I could have perfected him better with a bit more practice, but i figured what the hell, i can get rid of him and just post a screenshot of me doing some bad ass shit and call it a day. In my haste i make a classic rookie mistake and get greedy at the very last second, so we both die. I heard about this many times but i never actually experienced it myself. I thought i had to redo him, which i wasn't that bummed about since i think i was developing a good strategy to take him down relatively fast and more cleanly, but alas, he was gone. Upon resurrecting i got his loot and when i retrieved my runes i got his payload as well. I was contemplating whether even uploading this but i figured some people may find it interesting.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Been busy as fuck this past few days, so i didn't have a whole lot of time to play, but i'm determined to finish this before summer ends lmao. Onward then!

~ Part 39 ~
​

Spoiler

Anyway, off to a great start with this place lol:

Oh shit what now. Further ahead i get another warning:

But i still can't see nothing. I try to hop on torrent and i get this shit:

Ok i get the message i think, i'll be back later lmao. I don't know what's up ahead, a boss or another legacy dungeon but it feels i shouldn't be getting here yet. Really cool looking area though, getting some DS1 vibes from this:

Back to the Scadu Keep then!

This time i try the church side from the back entrance, and it seems this whole area was at the recieving end of some sorched earth policy. Messmer's rage against Marika must have been great indeed. Not only was this place demolished but was then flooded for good measure.

As i hop around, trying not to fall to my death, i hear splashing sounds and i even see some sinewy shape swimming underneath the water. I couldn't take a good picture of the thing, but i got a bit excited thinking it was going to be some cool new boss. Eventually, sadly, i manage to see it pop up from the surface, and it's just another Ulcerated Tree Spirit. Shit lol.

I get past some annoying Fire Knight mage who actually makes good use of those Messmer spells, sort of selling on the concept. Managed to trick me a few times but ultimately they aren't too hard. Eventually, i spot what i assume is the thing i need to turn to drain the water from this area:

Dropping down the roof beams on the main cathedral (where i find some Stormhawk feathers, don't tell me this is another lore clue now) i finally get to meet that queer guy. Pathetic sort ahead indeed:

Marika abandoning this people seems to have done a number on them. Their committment to the crusade was bourne entirely out of their faith for her, and when she abandoned them (was this actually when she broke the Elden Ring?), not only they ceased to recieve her grace, but couldn't even understand why. All they could do is continue to follow what they believed was her wish, to "quell" all those who would threaten or distress her, as he says here. Talking to him gives me the option to give him the Iris of Occultation. So this is what this thing was for:

Spoiler

"An iris that is as dark as night.

Place on the eye of another to deny them light in all its forms.
Can also be used to receive the blessing of an equipped Great
Rune, at the cost of all runes currently held.

In the realm of shadow, this artifice was employed by the priests of
the Erdtree to intensify the fears of their flock to magnificent
effect."

Seems kinda of cruel to be honest, even if this guy was pretty annoying. I'll hold on for now, gotta think about this surely this can't be the only option for this quest.

BTW, could this be grace?

Nope, whatever it is the guy wants ain't here.

I get some cool shots of the place during the draining cinematic:

Spoiler

With everything cleared out, it's time to kill the Ulcerated whatever which yelds this knewl sorcery:

Spoiler

"Sorcery of those who abandoned the practice of incantations after devout faith rewarded them with only despair.

The caster wounds their own flesh using impenetrable thorns grown from the Scadutree, which then cover the body entirely.
Once covered, dodge rolls will damage enemies.

The image of the misshapen Scadutree is an edict:
Spurn all that exists. Wound all that exists.
For we have been abandoned."

The lore of it is pretty cool but the spell itself seems kinda of useless.

Lots of those boats around here as well:

I can only assume those Tibia guys originated from this, whatever this is.

On the main cathedral, i get into a gunslinger duel with a fire mage and his fire zombie possie:

I was faster on the draw and managed to pull some Clint Eastwood shit on this bastard, who gets his stance broken on the third lighting strike after which is game over for him. This spell is pretty bad ass.

Turns out those fire zombies are his creation, and he made them because he felt so lonely. Poor guy:

Spoiler

"Helm of Wego, elder among the Fire Knights. Two warped death masks stacked one atop the other. Reduces FP used to summon spirits. Gnawed at by loneliness, the old man turned his attention to the spirituality of Messmer's flame, using it in a rite of resurrection. Yet the soulless bodies he brought to life were no comfort to poor Wego."

Is this also related to those Tibia guys, whose job appears to raise the dead?

There seems to be some intricate lore connections going on here. You have the suppressing pillar which tells us that all manners of "death" washes up in here. You have those funeral rites in the Shadow Keep that use those Tibia boats. The flame is also strange, ethereal and spiritual, not at all like Messmer's fire. Given the soldiers here have grace right to their very bones, is this fire just grace burning off the bodies of dead knights? And then you have this guy here who wears a "death mark" who also raises the dead.

I decided to google if anybody was speculating about those boats, and i found this thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/EldenRingL...abia_mariner_boats_in_the_blackkeep/#lightbox

Someone there pointed out a possible connection between Helphen's Steeple and the Shadow Keep itself, which, maybe?

The sword definitely has the design of a gothic cathedral but whether it's really meant to resemble those spires i don't know. It IS significant though that you find it after killing a Tibia. The sword description definitely fits with the general theme of what's going on here:

Spoiler

"Greatsword patterned after the black steeple of the Helphen, the lampwood which guides the dead of the spirit world.

The lamplight is similar to grace in appearance, only it is said that it can only be seen by those who met their death in battle."

There's also the Death Ritual Spear, which speaks of "resurrection" and may be related to all this as well:

Spoiler

"Ritual spear used by priests of old who were permitted to come among the Deathbirds.

The priests became guardians of the birds through the rite of Death, which also serves as an oath sworn to their distant resurrection."

If you ever looked at those Death Birds up close, you can see there's a bunch of little ghost guys wielding this spear in his wings. This is likely a stretch but maybe it's not accidental that Messmer's army is associated with spears?

Lastly, there's also those pitch black weapons i found earlier, all of which allow one to "commute" with spirits, which may be related to the Shadow Keep and those weapons from the original game.

Anyway, those questions will have to wait for now. I decide to explore around to see more signs or clues and i find another Ulcerated guy who drops a second Iris of Occultation. Ok, well, now that i got two i might as well try it lol. He..., didn't take it well. With his light "stolen" from him (you know, the ye oldie English in this DLC is getting out of hand a bit. The Hornsent grandma too), he abandons all hope and just kneels over and die. Why do i get the feeling i fucked this up? I get his sword though which is cool i suppose:

Spoiler

"Greatsword of the Fire Knight Queelign. A weighty piercing sword with a blade that undulates like fire. Queelign devoted his all to the crusade, and remade his greatsword in the shape of the lance wielded by his liege—aspiring to become a second Impaler."

Oh Marika, what did you do?

BTW i found a seal before which basically confirms the ring in Messmer's emblem is indeed the Elden Ring:

Spoiler

"Sacred seal of the Fire Knights, who answer directly to Messmer the Impaler. Enhances fire incantations of Messmer. The emblem of Messmer's army depicts a golden ring and the fire of his sacred seal."

Eventually, i come across a kind of chapel or library:

There's another Battlefield Priest cookbook here and i also find the rune of an "Unsung Hero":

Spoiler

"Golden remnants of the grace bestowed upon heroes who fell in the realm of shadow. Use to gain 50000 runes. The great heroes of the war were richly blessed by the grace of the Erdtree, but were not honored in death."

So possibly those boats have the bodies of those heroes, and the rite is meant to burn the grace inside them, or maybe simply extract it from them? I also just noticed that the grace is "bestowed" upon them after they fell. Those stone coffins may be another relation as well, given that just throwing away bodies like that doesn't feel like anybody is "honoring" their passing.

The chapel ends with a door with a tree design etched in its surface:

There's an elevator that goes WAY deep, which eventually leads to another secret chapel, where i find this lol, an "Iris of Grace":

Spoiler

"An iris blessed with an incantation of the Erdtree.

Place on the eye of another to grant them the light of grace as a
fleeing blessing.
Can also be used to receive the blessing of an equipped Great Rune.

In the realm of shadow, this artifice was employed by the priests of the Erdtree to quell the fears of their flock to magnificent effect."

Oh shit was i supposed to give this to the queer guy? Of course, it's basically fake grace, isn't it? I decide to just check the wiki and apparently giving him this gives you his ashes instead of the sword:

Spoiler

"Ashen remains in which spirits yet dwell.
Use to summon the spirit of Fire Knight Queelign.
Attacks immediately after being summoned.

Spirit of a knight granted relief by the Iris of Grace.
Wields a spear-like greatsword that impales foes upon fire, keeping the taint of impurity away from fair mother Marika.

That grace was his salvation, though it was but a fleeting blessing. And having been saved, all that was left to him was to wage war."

So the "bad" option may not have been bad after all. The sword is definitely better than this and it looks like giving him this "fleeting" grace just sets off this guy on the world. Also, honestly he deserves to wallow in shadows for that haircut alone.

There's another Marika's Rune here and then what appears to be boss fight, and oh boy, turns out it's another major boss!

Oh God this poor thing:



Leave it to FromSoft to make me feel sad for a plant. He tries so damn hard and eventually the way he gives off all that grace at the end feels like desperation. Made me feel just as bad about killing it as i felt about killing Sif after you see him limp around towards the end.

It's a good fight though. Initially i walked in with a flame art infusion and all the usual buffs and basically nearly one shot him in his first phase, so i decided to tone it down a bit to give him a fighting chance, but not so much as to make it feel i was try harding him. Do you guys like my use of Vow of the Indomitable at the end? I've been waiting forever to find a good opportunity to showcase this thing and i finally got it.

Anyway, i liked him. I'll definitely enjoy try hard him in future runs. Let's see what lore we get from his drops:

Spoiler

So close, and yet so far:

Let's look at the lore of this thing. First of all, the Remembrance:

Spoiler

"Remembrance of the Scadutree Avatar, hewn into the Scadutree.

The power of its namesake can be unlocked by the Finger Reader. Alternatively, it can be used to gain a great bounty of runes.

The Scadutree is the shadow of the Erdtree. Born of dark notions that bear no sense of Order, that twist and bend its stock, rendering it brittle."

Interesting, wonder what those "dark" notions are? So far we haven't gotten much explanation of what the Shadow Tree is exactly. He also drops Miquella's Great Rune:

Spoiler

"A Great Rune relinquished by Miquella. Broken and bereft of its bounty, it retains naught but the power to resist charms. Miquella set off for the tower enshrouded by shadow, abandoning everything—his golden flesh, his blinding strength, even his fate. All in an effort to bury the original sin. To embrace the whole of it, and be reborn as a new god."

So as i suspected the whole purpose of Miquella is to basically do it over. Somehow "impurity" was still affecting Marika when she ascended to godhood, or the impurity lied in this "original sin" committed during her ascension. The impurity of course is the soruce for the corruption of the Golden Order. This is why he is relinquishing his body, his heritage, everything that is connected to Marika and thus tainted by said impurity, or the stain of this original sin, in the hopes of creating an Order that is not fundamentally corrupt from within itself.

Not sure what the function of this rune is, or what this power to "resist charms" is. If i hadn't known the final boss is Radahn i would have assumed you get to fight Miquella at the end and this thing would then be used to stop his "charms", since as we have seen that's his main power and what makes him so terrifying. Might still be the case as even if you don't fight him i'm not sure you don't get to meet him at all.

From the remembrance, you get this weapon:

Spoiler

"The head of a monstrous shadow sunflower manifestation of the Scadutree. Then again, it might be just a flower, wielded as a weapon. Much like the Scadutree itself in appearance, a second stalk winds tightly around the first, almost as if in a tender embrace."

Oh, the Shadow Tree is a twin tree. Now ain't that interesting, given twin trees are found everywhere, including in those carvings found around the Hornsent cities and towns. I'm now curious to find this "Umbra" tree which might be related here.

The spell meanwhile furthers shows there is a "shadow" following the gold:

Spoiler

"Incantation originating from Scadutree avatars.

Creates a hail of golden projectiles which are fired toward foes
after a brief delay.

This incantation channels the force of the Scadutree's power, and
its gold is accompanied by shadow."

Before moving on i went back to the area near the main entrance to see if i missed something, a design on a wall or anything that gives me further clues. Nothing much, but i do find these:

WTF were this here before as well? Ye no imma come back later for this. I also found this snake guy, first i think:

 

[Lyric Suite]

Holy shit i got to the Storehouse part of the keep, sooooo much shit happening i'm gonna have to do this in parts. I was so curious i ended up playing for quite a bit and now i got a ton of material to sift through, let's see if i can make some sense of what i learned so far:

~ Part 40 ~
​

Spoiler

Alright, the "specimen" storehouse. We begin from the backside, since it seems i can foil an ambush if i start from here. Let's see what kind of "specimen" we are talking about:

Wow, so they are conducting an archeological study, presumably, of what they found in the ancient ruins of Rauh. I didn't even know the half of it though, as in the main hall of this area, there are specimen of what i can only assume are Crucible divinities:

Including it seems Hornsent Jesus:

I gotta say the sensation is quite disturbing. Even in a game where you fight literal gods and monsters of various kinds this feels like coming across the body of a real life Nephilim or something like that. Everything about this ancient civilization, the Hornsent etc is the best part of this DLC so far. Miquella is barely present and doesn't actually feel that important even though he is supposed to be the focus of the story.

Everywhere in this storehouse, you find ghosts of old codgers studying those remains and the writings of those stone tablets:

Now this is curious (and a bit confusing). They are dead, but are not Hornsent. If attacked or alerted, they use Messmer incantations. Who are they? Why are they dead? Not sure i get what's going on.

Up here a find a spell called "Fire Serpent" which this curious description:

Spoiler

"Incantation of the Fire Knights under Messmer the Impaler's personal command.

Launches a flame with a serpentine coil.
Charging enhances potency.

When the flame they received from Messmer would not find purchase within them, the Fire Knights relied on fire incantations to honor their bond."

So we are now starting to see references to things of a "serpentine" nature, but it's interesting that the spell implies this is something the Fire Knights developed on their own, after Messmer's flame "failed" to find purchase with them.

I decide to scout up above and there's another snake:

I'm not entirely convinced this keep was here before Messmer, but we'll see if we get more hints going forward. BTW, is this the way to Messmer? Wonder if those snake statues are intended to be a clue:

At this point i'm not entirely sure where i should go next. Usually i'm quite systematic when exploring those legacy dungeons, but i'm so curious about this place that i decide to just go back and forth between spawn points and dip a bit into each sections to see what i can gather before doing a full sweep of the place. So first thing i decide to drop down to check those Crucible divinies up close. On the way i manage to find this shield, which adds a bit of extra world building for Rellana:

Spoiler

"Silver thrusting shield embedded with glintstones.
Enables the wielder to attack and guard simultaneously.

Once wielded by Rellana, the Twin Moon Knight, during her sole entry into ritual combat—a demonstration of fidelity to the Erdtree."

Anyway, behold, a Crucible god:

I did a subsequent sweep of the place wearing a different set up so ignore the change of armor in between those shots. Exploring this whole area was a bit of a jumble i'm just gonna arrange things to make it seem more coherent than it was:

There are revered spirit ashes you can loot from those bodies, but so far i haven't been able to loot the one up there hanging in front of his forehead.

Up in a corner here i find an hidden study area somebody was using, with a lighting spell drake talisman found in a body there:

Wonder why this area was hidden. Was somebody trying to keep some of the discoveries for themselves?

Exploring further around the ground area here, i find a lift that goes down to some kind of basement and holy shit wtf is going on here:

Are they... are they trying to cure those Shamans? Some kind of hospital perhaps? There are clues something different may be happening here though. On the body, i find an ash of war for perfumer bottles called "Wall of Sparks".

If you go down there, you see one of those perfumer breweries from the original game, which is clearly part of the process of producing perfumer bottles:

There's also several perfumer bottles haging from the ceiling as well:

Rather than an hospital, i'm going to assume they were just using the jarred Shamans to extract something they needed to make perfumes. I don't even know who is more fucked up, the Hornsent for doing this to the Shamans or Messmer for being this callous (assuming he even knew this was happening. After all, he enlisted the perfumers as mercenaries). I mean, even if one were to assume they were trying to help the Shamans, and that those bottles were just being used as medicine (really doubtful), wtf kind of help you gonna give this?

This whole thing is incredibly sad (and the little jars, are they of Shaman children? Has to be, right?). There's one of those lump jar guys who raises his arms as in an act of imploration which leads to blood splattering everywhere:

This shit is just beyond gruesome. On the altar behind him there's another Iris of Grace which makes this even more sad. But this also begs the question: are the priests involved in this? Are the Shamans given this before their eyes are bound? How the hell does this fit with the Hornsent?

Going down this way eventually i find myself right on the bridge that leads to the ruins of Rauh:

Getting too far ahead though. I decide to make a second sweep of this basement area, where this time i find an hidden wall with a battlefield priest cookbook on a corpse. The book allows you to craft a new kind of warming stone:

Spoiler

"Spiritgrave stone blessed with an Erdtree incantation.
Craftable item.

Uses FP to generate sunwarmth, continuously restoring the HP of those nearby.
Has a more potent effect than a Warming Stone.

Sunlight feels all the warmer in darkened lands. "

I assume the priest being present here implies whatever the perfumers were doing had the tacit support of Messmer, but then again it's curious that the priest was hiding. How this item relates to what is going on here, i'm not sure.

Curious to see where the path leads if you follow the way on the roof, i decide to make my way up there again. As i'm climbing up i spot the ring design found in Messmer's emblem but by itself, without the Messmer's fire sign or his impaling spear:

Not sure what's up with this those bat statues:

I mean there's a bunch of bats here but why would they make statues of them. I hope this isn't saying something about the "origin" of those bats:

Now, up here i find an interesting incantation, the counterpart to the heal from afar spell:

Spoiler

"An Erdtree incantation discovered in the realm of shadow.

Fires a golden shockwave that knocks back nearby foes.
Charging increases the size of the shockwave.

When the Elden Ring was shattered, the people of the realm of shadow felt it too—and feared it as a sign of the Erdtree's wrath."

So we get confirmation that Marika's desertion of the soldiers of the crusade was a result of her shattering the Elden Ring.

There'a a Fire Knight up here who uses this shit to whom i died more times than i'd like to admit. The fucking asshole. Apparently, he was guarding the ashes of a named Fire Knight called Hilde:

Spoiler

"Ashen remains in which spirits yet dwell. Use to summon the spirit of Fire Knight Hilde. A spirit who belonged to the Fire Knights; an order which answers directly to Messmer. Hilde swings a slender greatsword and casts fire incantations. Hilde was a dear friend to Salza the sage, and joined those who urged that the specimens be preserved. Hilde's ashes were enshrined as a charm to protect the storehouse."

Curiosity got the better of me and i had to go look who Salza the sage is. Apparently it's from an hat you find later:

Spoiler

"Hood of Salza, sage of the Fire Knights.

A prodigious amount of cloth wound around it, giving the impression of a greatly swollen head, and wearing it increases intelligence.

A disciple of the elder Wego, he refused to burn down an old ruin, at the risk of his own life."

So it seems there was an effort to destroy all the remains here as well as burn down the ruins of Rauh, but some of the knights objected, for "reasons" that may not be entirely as honorable as the description here suggests. I'm saying this because around the Storehouse you find Fire Knights facing corpses (they also have super hearing so you can't sneak up on them. Thanks, FromSoft). On some of those corpses, you can find horns, which are also dropped occationally by the old codgers studying the tablets etc. Did the Knights kill defectors? People who became affected by what they were studying? I can only assume it was here that the black knights learned the magic of the Crucible. I mean where else?

Eventually, this path leads to an elevator facing this strange structure:

The elevator takes me right up to it:

On the side, there's an altar of Marika with the following message, which is very interesting, not the least because the path here had that ring emblem all by itself. I guess this is the way to the Shamans:

Before trying to figure out the puzzle here, i went to check that structure first, and of course, i make one step in and suddenly it's a boss fight, a major one at that lol. Fucking hell too soon. I tried him a couple of times, testing a few damage types and it seems he is weak to holy. He also uses gravity magic which is interesting. For now though i just don't feel getting stuck with this as i gotta finish clearing the Storehouse first.

Next to the statue of Marika there's this nice spoilage on the ground:

Well, so much for this puzzle. So the O Mother gesture was related to Marika after all. Doing this reveals a path towards a new area. There's a bunch of flowers on the ground that look very similar to those found in the sealed town of Unte:

In the distance i spot a Tree Sentinel so yeah, i'm getting out here for now. I think i'll likely do this and Commander Gaius before heading to Messmer (i may even do the ruins of Ruah before that as well), but i gotta finish up the Storehouse, not the least because i already spotted Sir Ansbach and Freja and i gotta entangle all that mess before doing anything else, which i'll deal with in my next uptade. Very impressive area so far though.

 

[Stoned Ape]

(i may even do the ruins of Ruah before that as well).

I think the game feels like its designed so that you should fight Messmer before heading to the Ruins.

Spoiler

There's an area in Rauh where you have to use an item drop from Messmer to unlock the endgame