From Software Lyric Suite's Shadow of the Derptree Blog

[Lyric Suite]

(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

I see. I still can't find the bastard to begin with, but i guess i'll make sure to make a final sweep of the Storehouse to see if i missed something. Before doing that though i think i'm going to get rid of Commander Gaius and explore that area which i can only assume is gonna give me a good deal of lore about the Shamans.

In either case, the first order of business was to deal with all the quests:

~ Part 41 ~
​

Spoiler

Alright, so, first off, we meet Sir Ansbach again, just chilling reading some book like he isn't surrounded by Fire Knights and those annoying vulgar midgets:

He claims that after "unburdening" his soul to me (by revealing he tried to kill Miquella), he had hoped to make a fresh start, but there is one thing that is still in his mind which prevents him from moving on.

It seems after i killed Mohg, somebody did away with his body, which was then taken to Miquella.

I like how he doesn't make a big deal out of the fact i was the one that murdered his lord. In fact, his whole personality is the complete opposite of what would expect of the Pureblood Knights after meeting the Bloody Fingers in the original game (or the Sanguine Nobles for that matter).

Anyway, while ignoring the fact i was the one that killed his lord, he claims to have "failed" him somehow, by which i can only assume he means he failed him by not freeing Mohg from the "charm" Miquella put on him (by killing Miquella). Because of this, he feels he has a responsibility to safeguard the honor of his lord's remains, not the least because who knows what "they" (who?) may have in mind with his body?

So, next is Freyja. Before you get to her you can hear her literally waging battle with the books. She even has a line where she wishes she could wipe those "fickle, fidgety little letters" clean off the page. Can definitely sympathize, since reading is indeed teh hard. BTW, is it me or all the female voice actors kinda of suck? They all have the same monotone voice, Freyja, Leda and even the dragon lady.

In either case, she doesn't say much if you talk to her, only that she wished Ansbach had just told her what he found so she didn't have to read the books herself. I guess that means they are looking for the same thing?

So back to Anshbach again then. I look around to see if i can just drop down as i killed a bunch of Fire Knights and i don't want to do it again. It's easier to look under all the nooks and crannies if you don't have bastards trying to murder you every step of the way. From up here i see another of those Crucible gods:

Wonder what kind of crazy shit i'm going to see in the ruins of Ruah.

I try to make my way down to go ask Ansbach about this, but i end up discovering a new section with some interesting stuff. First off, an ancient secret rite scroll:

Spoiler

"A scroll made of white tree bark.

Few can decipher the scroll, which describes the secret rite of the divine gateway said to be found at the tower enshrouded by shadow.

"A lord will usher in a god's return,
and the lord's soul will require a vessel.""

Shit i think i know where is going lmao. I also found this thing, whatever it is, a spirit calculus (what the hell is a calculus? Isn't that a mathematical discipline):

Spoiler

"An exceedingly rare to find calculus, suffused with spirituality.
Material used for crafting items.

Found by hunting horned beasts in the ancient ruins of Rauh.

Has a distinctive acrid odor, which some claim to be a sign of particular spiritual potency."

BTW there was a bunch of guys here staring at what appears to be nothing:

If attacked, they use healing spells. There's a group like this near the base as well, and those guys absolutely fucking hate tables:

They'll literally fuck up any table or chair they come across. I guess this is what happens when you spend years studying stone tablets. You can tell those guys are tired of that shit.

Anyway, i think the point of those guys is to heal Fire Knights. In fact, there was one above the spaced out trio, near more of those mysterious funerary boats:

I'm going to assume the purpose of the three down here was to heal the one up there form a "secret" location, except i ended up killing them before i killed him. Eventually, i discover another Miquella's cross (after walking over Hornsent Jesus lmao), the final one i presume:

So the left arm was left in Belurat and the right arm in the Shadow Keep? Might that mean something?

Near the cross i find a letter written by Sir Ansbach:

Spoiler

"Message left by Sir Ansbach, addressed to kindred spirits who also pursue Miquella's trail. "It would seem that the people of the keep have flooded the holy quarter that leads onward to the Scadutree, barring access. However, there is no route that leads there from this storehouse. Perhaps there is another way to reach the holy quarter, from somewhere else in this keep...""

So basically i missed something, but i'll look for that later. I can only assume this is an hint on how to find Messmer, but it's curious how this implies Messmer's room was "flooded". Did the residents of the keep turn against him? Is this why the flame of Messmer "failed" to find "purcahse" with the Fire Knights?

Finally, before dropping down to the floor level, i manage to get my hands on yet another thrusting shield:

Spoiler

"A "thrusting shield," or combined weapon and shield.
Enables the wielder to attack and guard simultaneously.

An armament once used in ritual combat performed to honor the Erdtree—a custom that had somehow remained within the realm of shadow."

Interesting, so this is part of a ritual and Rellana, who partook in the same ritual, just happened to have her own version of it.

So i talk to Sir Ansbach, and i'm given two options, one to hand him over the Secret Rite Scroll, and the other to tell him about Freyja's decision, which, what decision? Did i miss something? Should i have taken this stuff to her first i'm kinda of confused. I click on the decision thing, and he comments that she must be feeling the "need" to reaffirm her allegiance before she heads to war. I "think" this is about what she told me last time i saw her, that she is striking out on her own, the whole thing about the vow Radahn had etc, but if that's the case, why wasn't i given this line the first time i met Sir Ansbach here? Also, i got the impression they knew they are both here and were alreading sharing things with each other.

Oh, he also adds that she appears to be "hardly troubled by the rot". So all the Redmane people are rotted, not just Radahn. Maybe that's why she was literally fighting with the books her brain is already addled lul. He then wonders if their concerns may not just be two sides of the same coin, which in hindsight after what gets reveleaed next he is correct except i have no clue how he made this leap here at present.

Now, the scroll thing. Like, whoa. So this is how Radahn fits into this. Miquella wants to use Mohg's corpse as a "vessel" for the soul of his "king consort" (can you say lord's vessel?), essentially making Radahn the "Elden Lord" of his new divine order, or something to that effect. Of course, Ansbach doesn't take kindly to this, and considers it the greatest insult to his lord. Miquella didn't care about Mohg at all, he just wanted his dead corpse. His thoughs now move towards revenge. At first he claims he is too old now to follow through with what his mind is clearly telling him, but then he scoffs and admits he could never defeat Miquella even were he to spend a lifetime honing his "craft". Whether this is enough to stay his blade is to be seen.

I now go talk to Freyja but she has nothing to say. I go back to Ansbach and sure enough resting unlocked his next line. Why does FromSoft still do this? We know this is how it works they might as well save us the time. Anyway, apparently, after reasoning out he is too old to fight Miquella, he just wants Freyja to do the work for him since she is still young. This crafty bastard lol. He gives me a letter which is "neatly folded" to keep "prying eyes" (obviously my own since i'm the one carrying it) from reading it. I like this. The letter isn't sealed or anything. Sir Ansbach just trusts me enough that he knows i wouldn't open it. I mean i totally would if the game would let me, but hey, let's pretend we have an honorable relationship.

Anyway, Freyja actually likes the idea. She thinks being resurrected to wage battle again is a more fitting fate for Radahn than an "honorable death". "Endeless" war she says. So the Redmane are basically Neocons. She askes me to tell Ansbach it would be an honor to face "his bow", even more so to face his "blade". Yeah well all that shit will belong to me soon enough. Ansbach finds her message amusing. Unlike him, i guess she has no conception of fear (could also be because she is dumb as bricks owning to the rot).

She gave me this knewl shield btw:

Spoiler

"Shield made to resemble a fierce golden lion with a luxuriant mane.

Awarded to especially valorous members of Radahn's personal guard on the occasion of its formation."

There's a kind of synergy here that Radahn is a lion, given that Marika's Elden Lord was also a lion (Godfrey/Serosh). Godfrey was also Marika's first "consort". I'm getting the sense the relationship here has little to do with anything sexual and this whole homo shit with Miquella as well as the whole pedo shit with Mohg is just a huge overintepretation of vague aspects of what appear to be esoteric beings.

Anyway it's now time to deal with this Leda shit once and for all. Because i can't make up my mind whether i want to help this crazy woman or the angry Hornsent, i decided to make a manual save and test both outcomes. Turns out there was quite a bit of lore involved in those fights (which Leda can win on her own so i could easily sit back and take notes of their prattle while she just killed everybody). I'm gonna separate both events:

Second, we deal with the invations:

~ Invasions ~​

So Leda is a psycopathic bitch:

Spoiler

Alright, so i pick the red sign and the first thing we get is Leda and the Hornsent just throw their mutual prejudices in their faces. Leda (who tries to act all noble by calling the Hornsent "worthy", like we don't know she is out for blood for the sake of killing) claiming the Hornsent is bound to betray them, and the Hornsent just taking her invasion as a sign he was always right about the tarnished. Basically this is a fight between a violent psycopath and a racist. The Hornsent also calls her a zealot, which, aren't you a potentate? Look who's talking. Leda aknowledges my arrival in the most flat and monotone way possible. They should have gotten a better actress like i said this one kinda of sucks.

Hitting the Hornsent prompts more racist remarks about my "mongrel's blood", but it's interesting that he claims he expected more from me. Did he really trust me?

Now, as soon as the Hornsent dies, he has this amazing line:

"Apologies… O Mother, wife, and… chil…"

Wow. First, who is this "O Mother" exactly? I had to use this gesture to open the statue of Marika earlier, but it's literally impossible that the Hornsent would be invoking her. Only thing i can think of is that the Hornsent and the Shaman worshipped the same entity whoever this mother is. I had this thought for a while that the Hornsent and the Shamans are related, possibly even the same people. After all, what would have distinguished Marika and her tribe from everybody else before the age of Erdtree?

And then we get the line about his wife and child, which shows his revenge is personal, but not just that, as Leda then claims that Miquella never "betrays a vow", and tells the Hornsent to go join his family. Was the Hornsent promised the resurrection of his family?

After the fight, i get the Hornsent set and his sword. Let's see what we have here. First, the mask confirms that the Hornsent is a potentate, and also confirms those are actually maggots:

Spoiler

"Grotesque mask constructed from countless solidified caterpillars. A ritual implement of the greater potentates of Bonny Village. Used to ward off thoughts of impurity, doubt, temptation, and other wickednesses one is vulnerable to while absorbed in divine ritual."

So much shit to unpack here. Are the maggots the same as the frozen maggots? Why would they ward off impure thoughts? Are they actually fly maggots? Also what divine ritual? Are the manflies potentates who failed to pass this ritual? Gives us more FromSoft i wanna know wtf is going on lol.

Now the chest piece says this:

Spoiler

"Ragged black cloth overlaid with braided cord. Attire of a vengeance-seeking hornsent. The braided cord ties together the vow of the revenger with the victims' grudges. It must never come undone. Enhances both watchful spirits and the vengeful spirits summoned by horned bairns."

The sword and wrists also have to do with vengeance. And then we get this crap:

Spoiler

"This lightly soiled loincloth of ragged cloth does little more than conceal one's nether regions."

So the Hornsent likes to soil himself and had his balls hanging out this whole time. Not sure we needed to know this.

Reporting to Leda yields this talisman, which i'm not entirely sure how useful it can be:

Spoiler

"Handicraft depicting a golden crossed-tree. One of the items conferred to the Needle Knights. Enhances dash attacks. Long ago, the Needle Knights were in service of Miquella, but now they are no more. Save for one."

Let me guess, she killed all the Needle Knights because she was paranoid about them too.

Now talking to her again has her feint guilt for what she did for like five seconds before declaring she must weed out the next threat. I'm forced to rest at the site of grace before i can hear who she chose as her next victim: Sir Ansbach. Apparently, she doesn't believe Sir Ansbach's claims that he now a worn-down soldier, and she now reveals that no only was he the leader of the Pureblood Knights, but that it was they who cut open Miquella (i assumed she was talking about Miquella's cocoon but she also mentions "cascading sheets of blood". Was Miquella actually cleaved open?). So basically she doesn't believe that he is too old and feeble, and thus cannot be allowed to "fester". It's like she thinks those people are a desease, the sociopath.

Before leaving she flats out claims that without Miquella's influence she simply cannot trust others. So basically there's really no point in her pretending. Anybody who isn't under the influence of Miquella's charm is gonna be on her hit list by default.

Well, i have a backup so why not, let's go kill Sir Ansbach. While getting there i get stuck on a stone tablet on the ground like come now:

Anyway, sure enough Sir Ansbach isn't there and in his place i get two summoning signs. Now as soon as the fight stars, she basically tells him the reason she is doing this is because of his "ambivalence". Basically she doesn't really know if he can trust him or not, she just figures might as well kill him just to be on the safe side. Like damn. He does claim he has his doubts though. No dishonesty from this guy, he is just this much of a class act. As soon as i hit him he doesn't even get mad, he is just glad i'm helping Leda so that she can stand with an ally, given that she tends to "overestimate" (at first i assumed he was talking about her own skill, or lack of thereof, which would have been a sick burn) the "burden" she might carry.

As he dies, he bemoans that he failed them "both", both Miquella and Mohg, which shows that despite his thoughts about killing Miquella, he still harbored a sense of duty for the latter, with or without the spell that was holding them all toghether. This guy is great.

He drops a bow with a crazy dexterity requirement that is basically a great bow that's however as fast as a shortbow, which is pretty impressive. I also get his armor, which let's see. First off, the helm:

Spoiler

"The iron mask of Sir Ansbach, giving the appearance of a quiet, wise, old bearded man. But an old fear lurks beneath, together with the cold, unflinching discipline that once honed his blade, now employed to enhance Blood Oath and dynastic skills."

Nice. Not much that we didn't know but very poetic rendering.

Now the the chest piece tells us more but what it says is a bit cryptic:

Spoiler

"Attire of Sir Ansbach. The embroidered crest of the Pureblood Knights has now all but faded away. Slightly enhances Blood Oath and dynastic skills. Ansbach understood that keeping his oath to his old master was not an act of logic, nor would it bear any justice, but it was for these very reasons he was unable to let go."

So there was no logic in him serving Mohg, and he also knew no justice was going to come out of it, but he still followed him, precisely because of those reasons? Not sure what this means. Maybe it's just some awkward way to stress how great of a sense of duty this knight had, but it could also point to a darker aspect of his personality, given that apparently his allegiance to Mohg was both illogical and immoral when it comes down to it.

Talking to Leda once more yields her usual spiel about honor, after which she hands me another talisman similar to the first, but quite a bit more useful, though still not super great (it's half the bonus you get from other talismans, though of course the attacks this boosts are much easier to land on a boss).

Anyway, so now apparently i'm next:

Holy crap this crazy bitch lol. Of course, in my case she is actually right since i AM going to kill Miquella (or would if he was in the game, but killing Radahn is basically the same thing for all intended purpose) but still. She correctly wonders why i was never under the influence of Miquella. I'd say she should have wondered that from the start. In fact, it's unclear why she even assumed i was one of them when i first showed up.

Now i restored my save so let's see what we get if we help the Hornsent instead:

You try to help someone, and this are the thanks you get:

Spoiler

So i go in to help the Hornsent and the guy gives me shit, telling me he basically never asked for my help. Even after i kill Leda he basically tells me to stay out of his way and his path for revenge. Meanwhile, Leda asks whether my decision to help the Hornsent is due to my "compassion" for his plight. I guess compassion doesn't enter her vocabulary.

Killing her (but not really, since she vows to come back, which, is this how it works? Invasions are supposed to be final for NPCs last i checked) yields the Hornsent ash of war and her rune, which seems to suggest without Miquella's influence there's no much light or grace in her:

Spoiler

"Blessing of Needle Knight Leda. An unalloyed light that has never dwelled in an eye. Use to gain 40000 runes. Miquella gifted Leda with gentle gold to bring a soft hue to her faded eyes."

Her "faded" eyes. As she said herself earlier on, there's a dark side to her nature.

She doesn't invade Ansbach if you help the Hornsent, so to see what happens if you help him instead of her i had to do a third run. Ansbach thinks i'm crazy for helping him, but he is glad i'm on his side. After beating Leda, she asks her to continue to keep Miquella in her care. This guy is just great. The rewards for doing this are just his bow and Leda's rune again.

So, after testing all those alternatives, i decided to help the Hornsent, which automatically also saves Ansbach. You get a lot of stuff by helping Leda, but honestly, she just sucks and is such a boring character. The Hornsent may act like a bastard but he is a far more compelling character and Sir Ansbach is just too much of a bro to kill. Plus i already checked if you get his stuff in the end lol. As an arcane build it's basically the only thing i care about any of this anyway, but it's nice that the roleplaying option coincides with the rewards i actually want.

Anyway, next couple of days i'm not gonna have much time to play but i think i dealt with enough lore to keep you guys busy for a bit. Until next time dudes.

 

[Stoned Ape]

I see. I still can't find the bastard to begin with, but i guess i'll make sure to make a final sweep of the Storehouse to see if i missed something.

Which Storehouse Sites of Grace have you unlocked?

Storehouse Grace Clues...

There is one on the 7th floor that you need to get to. To reach it there's a lever you can pull if you explore around the beam sections near the top of the climbable area. It moves some of the exhibits around and lets you climb higher up the keep.

 

[Child of Malkav]

I like your lore through Lyric-y man.
Btw the whole consort thing.... it may have other esoteric meanings on top of the usual one but according to the dictionary definition, means husband/wife. Including other activities implied by such status. So the Miquella/Radahn stuff is straight up homo (2 dudes), pedo (one's a kid), incest (they're brothers), necro (corpse of Mohg) shit. At least Mohg was mind controlled by Miquella so those allegations are beaten.

 

[Stoned Ape]

I like your lore through Lyric-y man.
Btw the whole consort thing.... it may have other esoteric meanings on top of the usual one but according to the dictionary definition, means husband/wife. Including other activities implied by such status. So the Miquella/Radahn stuff is straight up homo (2 dudes), pedo (one's a kid), incest (they're brothers), necro (corpse of Mohg) shit. At least Mohg was mind controlled by Miquella so those allegations are beaten.

The following link is actually quite interesting and suggests the whole Promised Consort thing is one big fuck up caused by Miquella when he was very, very young and had no idea what he was asking, and that Radahn's promise was in effect the sort of thing an older (adult) brother says to a very young sibling when they don't think they are being serious.

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

I'd recommend Lyric not reading the link until after finishing the DLC because of heavy spoilers, but after seeing the end movie it's interesting to understand the implication of the Japanese which is somewhat lost in translation. If the above link is correct it makes the whole (Miquella/Malenia/Radahn) storyline feel tragic in a similar way to examples in Greek mythology.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I like your lore through Lyric-y man.
Btw the whole consort thing.... it may have other esoteric meanings on top of the usual one but according to the dictionary definition, means husband/wife. Including other activities implied by such status. So the Miquella/Radahn stuff is straight up homo (2 dudes), pedo (one's a kid), incest (they're brothers), necro (corpse of Mohg) shit. At least Mohg was mind controlled by Miquella so those allegations are beaten.

I remember reading a reddit post where the word "consort" in Japanese is actually closer to "king", or something like that. It just seems strange to me because i don't see Myiazaki having that much of a pulse for "modern" shit. He seems to be stuck in his world world of Berserk, managa or whatever else he uses for inspiration.

 

[Strange Fellow]

I'm just impressed you got all the NPC storylines. When I played, I met them all once, then all of a sudden the enchantment broke and they all fucked off never to be seen again. And I thought I explored pretty thoroughly.

 

[Lyric Suite]

One of the reasons i'm doing this is precisely that coming back to notes i made, revisit everything so i can post it here makes it much easier to understand what's going on and keep track of things. I noticed that when i was doing my Sekiro playthrough. While i'm playing, i take steam screeshots of everything, points of interest, item descriptions etc, and sporadically i even take notes of ideas i had while reading something and put them on a txt file, just in case i forget after. I also make recordings of conversations with OBS.

So when i come here to make my write up i just go through everything i did, read every description again, upload a few choice shots and then erase the rest once i've done doing my write up here. After doing that i've basically committed to memory a lot more than i would have if i was just playing the game normally, and even if i forget something i can only come back to this thread and read what i wrote previously.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Oh almost forgot i killed this dude this morning. Can't play right now but i can post the fight at least:



He has a five hit combo that it's actually a lot easier to avoid than you'd think. Wanted to included it in the video but he didn't do it, and hey, victory is victory. In case you are struggling it's basically delayed, delayed, and then fast, fast, fast with the direction of your choice of where to roll (it can change depending on the angle of when it starts). I may actually redo the fight later with a more try hard setup so i can show it. He stops for quite a bit after the combo and you can land some serious hits (like sacred blade at point blank rage, which is like an extra critical hit).

I shouldn't have tried Vow of the Indominable btw, i'm now addicted to this shit lmao. This thing seems to have more i-frames than rolling. You can avoid his initial charge by rolling straight up into him, but i found i could only do that like 70% of the time, where as Vow of the Indominable was a sure thing every time. Also, when he lands that flying attack while i was able to survive the impact after rolling he still got me with either the spikes or the shockwave not sure which, but this shield weapon art did it no problem. I'm surprised it isn't used more often if it's this good.

 

[Child of Malkav]

I remember reading a reddit post where the word "consort" in Japanese is actually closer to "king", or something like that.

They're coping. When you reach that point pay attention to the cinematic and you can deduce it's more than just a hierarchy.

It just seems strange to me because i don't see Myiazaki having that much of a pulse for "modern" shit.

Well, he makes games for western audience now and he knows what they want. So he obliges.

 

[Cheesedragon117]

Finally, someone else discovers the power of Vow of the Indomitable! I can't believe how overlooked that AoW is... I mean, it lets you completely nullify  any attack in the game, no matter how powerful. It's better than rolling, blocking, or parrying, and has a rock-bottom FP cost that can be brought even lower with the talisman Iji sells you.

I guess since it doesn't totally destroy your enemies in one strike like some (most) attack-based Ashes of War, your average DPS and optimization addict won't give it a second look. Even though it's very good for avoiding those same attacks in PvP...

 

[Lyric Suite]

I see. I still can't find the bastard to begin with, but i guess i'll make sure to make a final sweep of the Storehouse to see if i missed something.

Which Storehouse Sites of Grace have you unlocked?

Storehouse Grace Clues...

There is one on the 7th floor that you need to get to. To reach it there's a lever you can pull if you explore around the beam sections near the top of the climbable area. It moves some of the exhibits around and lets you climb higher up the keep.

Eventually i found it on my own. I think i was running away from a Fire Knight trying to get to Ansbach and missed the lever in the process lmao.

Interesting that you get the final Pearldrake Talisman from the Hornsent Jesus. Guess this signifies the highest degree of elemental mastery coming from a Crucible deity.

The Crucible in this game seems to be quite a bit inspired by Shinto. Now it often feels Japanese developers have a kinda of latent bias towards Shinto over Christianity (for obvious reasons) but even Buddism at times. I know this is a FromSoft game and everything has to be grimdark and everybody is a piece of shit but my sympathies when i started playing this game have always been towards Marika and her Golden Order, since my bias is for religion, not against it. In this respect, i gotta admit i didn't expect the turn around about what the Hornsent did to the Shamans, as at first i was sure they were going to paint the Hornsent as innocent victims but instead FromSoft subverted our expectations. Well played i suppose.

Yesterday i had to work ALL day (got out at six in the morning and came back at six in the afternoon, shit fuck man) didn't even touch the game at all, so i had to put this let's play on pause. I'll see if i can make an update today.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Man those poor Shamans, but let's deal with one thing at the time here:

~ Part 42: Commander Gaius ~
​

Spoiler

So yeah, finally got to Messmer, but still not going there for now lol. I don't know why i'm avoiding this as much as i can i think it's because i made an assumption Messmer was going to be the final boss when i saw the trailer and even though i know this is not the case that initial impression got stuck in my head and just won't leave.

On my way there we get to meet the captain of the Fire Knights, from whom we get another skewering ash of war and an helmet which gives a name to the "serpent" Messmer appears to have gotten himself involved with, which apparently is a "winged serpent" (so that's what those statues were):

Spoiler

"Helm of Kood, captain of the Fire Knights. A winged serpent perches atop it. Enhances Fire Knight skills. The winged serpent is the token creature of Messmer's military forces. It is a wise friend which keeps the base serpent at bay and holds its power in check."

So there is a "wise" winged serpent that is keeping a "base" serpent in check. Don't tell me the base serpent is related to Rykard.

As soon as i learned that Messmer had a "serpentine" nature and as soon as i saw the snake next to he beheaded O, Mother statue i instantly started thinking of a connection with Rykard. Rykard was an inquisitor and loved to hang people and i'm also pretty sure there were a few in front of Volcano Manor that were actually impaled. Messmer is a crusader who likes to impale his enemies. Not the same but there's a similarity in terms of their roles. And of course we get stuff like the Fort of Reprimand which seemed to have an "inquisitorial" function (and you get to see a couple of Abductor Virgins to boot while in there).

Anyway, Messmer still has to wait as i'm too curious about what i unlocked with the O, Mother gesture. First of course i had to get rid of Gaius, as you saw. Now the Remembrance has this line:

Spoiler

"Both were as elder brothers to the lion, and both were cursed from birth. In spite of, or perhaps because of this very reason, Gaius was both Messmer's friend and the leader of his men."

Ok then. So Messmer and Gaius were friends with Radahn and as "elder" brothers to him. But both Messmer and Gaius were cursed at birth, so Gaius chose to remain at Messmer's side and serve as the leader of his men. At least that's how i'm reading this since Gaius's gravitational magic seems to put him closer to Radahn than Messmer, but it is the curse that made him stay with the latter.

Now, as i get my bearings around here, it is time for pretty pictures:

Spoiler

I expected this area to be basically empty but lo, there was a post-boss ambush:

Like, wtf is this thing doing here. Doesn't take long for the mystery to get solved though. She drops an armor made of metal "born from the same mother as the archers themselves". I don't feel going back on the lore of the Albinaurics for now, but this might be the same blue silver material you find in Nosktella, and i wonder if this is meant to reveal there was a connection between the Nox and the Albinaurics or if this is something the base game already made plain. But the relevant part is that she drops Gaiu's graves:

Spoiler

"Black iron greaves made for Commander Gaius.
A cruel joke, for he could not wear them.

Riding atop the boar he called his other half, Gaius was in fact a warrior of albinauric extraction."

Lmao. So because they didn't feel making a walking animation for those Albinauric archers, we now get a whole lore about them having no legs is this what's happening here? In either case, we learn that Gaius was himself an Albinauric. So this is how he was "cursed", by virtue of being an Albinauric that is. This also implies Messmer had a "serpentine" nature from birth, aslo has part of his "curse". Now Marika's Golden Order was quite prejudiced with all those cursed characters, the Omens, the Albinaurics etc. At this point we need to bring the ashes of Commander Andreas back into this:

Spoiler

"The black knights were the primary force of Messmer's army. Their first leader was Andreas, a man endowed with great strength and command over the powers of the crucible, and whose spirit in these ashes dwells. Though he remained a devout follower of Messmer after his flight from the Erdtree, he would rebel after learning of his liege's serpentine nature. His righteous stand was rewarded with imprisonment in an underground tomb."

When i read that he remained a devout follower of Messmer after "his" flight from the Erdtree, i assumed this was about Andreas, his "flight" from the Erdtree being a reference to him turning to the powers of the Crucible. I'm now going to assume it was Messmer who fled from the Erdtree, possibly, after having had his "curse" being discovered. Now we learned earlier the reason Marika stopped from extending her grace to Messmer and his soldiers was due to her shattering the Elden Ring, but i think Messmer's anger against Marika might have been a result of this, of him being banished after his cursed birth was exposed. His friendship with Gaius, an Albinauric and also somebody who would have been shunned by the Erdtree seems to suggest he created a kind of fellowship of outcasts. Lastly, this may also explain why his "holy quarter" was flooed, possibly on the orders of Marika, or by the initiative of the Black Knights who were still faithful to her and wouldn't have tolerated his curse, just like Andreas (who maybe was the one who learned about Messmer's curse and exposed it in the first place).

BTW, the fact the greaves were made as a "joke". Could it implied that was part of the shunning of Gaius? Deriding him because of his cursed nature?

There's an Albinaruc Archer Talisman here, but the next point of interest is beyond that strange archgate with the "horned" roof, where i find a large "chalice" apparently devoted in gathering Scadutree fragments:

There's also some golden bones around here so there's a bit more to it than that as well. I can't remember if this was mentioned anywhere before. Perhaps it might later. The fact there's blessed bones around here implies some kind of human sacrifice. I'm now reminded about what the Hornsent said about finding the tree of "Umbra" where your "kind" (the tarnished) are to be "sacrified". Was he talking about this shit lol? Is the tree of Umbra just the Scadutree? Umbra just means dark (and is almost identical to the Italian word for shadow, "ombra"), like scadu. Was the point of him telling me this to show me how rotten "my" kind is (willing to sacrifice our own for some unspecified purpose)?

Before moving to the next area, let's look at what we get at the Roundtable Hold. First, from his lance we are told that the origin of at least one of his magic attacks comes from an "Alabaster Lord". But it's the Blade of Stone sorcery that gives the more interesting lore:

Spoiler

"Gaius and Radahn were good rivals in their youth, and this
sorcery is a product of their friendly competition."

Meanwhile, this is what we are told from his armor (all the pieces haver the same lore):

Spoiler

"The black iron helm of Commander Gaius. Part of an armor set patterned after fallen seeds.

Gaius was the most senior disciple of the same Alabaster Lord who taught Radahn and Gaea gravitational technique."

So the whole armor is patterned after "fallen seeds" (well, the helm looks like the Scadutree Avatar and that's about it), and we also get a more explicit reference to the Alabaster Lord who is the one who taught gravity magic to Gaius, Radahn and "Gaea", whoever the hell Gaea is.

Ok, i'll stop here for now. Sadness ahead in the next update.

 

[Cheesedragon117]

Spoiler

"Black iron greaves made for Commander Gaius.
A cruel joke, for he could not wear them.

Riding atop the boar he called his other half, Gaius was in fact a warrior of albinauric extraction."

Lmao. So because they didn't feel making a walking animation for those Albinauric archers, we now get a whole lore about them having no legs is this what's happening here? In either case, we learn that Gaius was himself an Albinauric. So this is how he was "cursed", by virtue of being an Albinauric that is. This also implies Messmer had a "serpentine" nature from birth, aslo has part of his "curse". Now Marika's Golden Order was quite prejudiced with all those cursed characters, the Omens, the Albinaurics etc. At this point we need to bring the ashes of Commander Andreas back into this:

I think you're getting the generations of Albinaurics confused. Gaius was a first (but technically second) generation Albinauric, since he's male, short, and has the vanishing legs. The female archer you fought up there is from the hidden earlier generation of Albinaurics that you find out about from Latenna's questline in the Consecrated Snowfield.

The procession is as follows: Original (all-female, paraplegic, ride wolves), first (all-male, no legs), second (have legs, can walk, but look like frogs).

 

[Lyric Suite]

Spoiler

"Black iron greaves made for Commander Gaius.
A cruel joke, for he could not wear them.

Riding atop the boar he called his other half, Gaius was in fact a warrior of albinauric extraction."

Lmao. So because they didn't feel making a walking animation for those Albinauric archers, we now get a whole lore about them having no legs is this what's happening here? In either case, we learn that Gaius was himself an Albinauric. So this is how he was "cursed", by virtue of being an Albinauric that is. This also implies Messmer had a "serpentine" nature from birth, aslo has part of his "curse". Now Marika's Golden Order was quite prejudiced with all those cursed characters, the Omens, the Albinaurics etc. At this point we need to bring the ashes of Commander Andreas back into this:

I think you're getting the generations of Albinaurics confused. Gaius was a first (but technically second) generation Albinauric, since he's male, short, and has the vanishing legs. The female archer you fought up there is from the hidden earlier generation of Albinaurics that you find out about from Latenna's questline in the Consecrated Snowfield.

The procession is as follows: Original (all-female, paraplegic, ride wolves), first (all-male, no legs), second (have legs, can walk, but look like frogs).

I don't know, that seems a bit suspicious to me.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Man, can't get a single moment of respite getting way too much real life aggro, and i'm so damn close to finishing this up. Let's talk about the Shamans now, we'll deal with "order" next:

~ Part 43: Shamans (Gold) ~
​

Spoiler

Alright, so the Hinterlands are next:

From here i can get a nice view of the Shadow Keep, that strange archgate and the Scadutree:

Been trying to get all three in a single shot but the camera wouldn't allow it from the side of the archgate, heh.

Before going forward we need to get rid of the silly Tree Sentinel ambush (aren't they clever):

Wow, behold the power of finger memory:



This was literally the third try and the last time i fought those guys was over a year ago. Aside for some slight hesitation i felt right at home, as if i had just killed them yesterday.

Spoiler

So this whole area is radiant and brimming with life, and as i said, the vegetation is the same as that found in the town of Unte. At first i thought that was a remnant of what the Hornsent were like before the crusade, but apparently, this has nothing to do with them, for we finally arrive at the village of the Shamans and what i presume is the birth place of Marika, and, wow, this is so incredibly sad:

The music, and those doves flying in the sky. And hey, what's this little tree doing here?

In the description of the Minor Erdtree spell i find next to it, i discover even more sadness:

Spoiler

"Secret incantation of Queen Marika.
Only the kindness of gold, without Order.

Creates a small, illusory Erdtree that continuously restores the HP of nearby allies.

Marika bathed the village of her home in gold, knowing full well that there was no one to heal."

So those bastard Hornsent killed them all, all of the Shamans. The village is indeed deserted, not even a body (for obvious reasons). At the summit, i eventually find this withered tree, with a complete female figure nestled inside. Not a twinned tree, btw:

At the base of this statue (or corpse), we find Marika's own golden braid:

Spoiler

"A braid of golden hair, cut loose. Queen Marika's offering to the Grandmother. Boosts holy damage negation by the utmost. What was her prayer? Her wish, her confession? There is no one left to answer, and Marika never returned home again."

There's probably a billion speculations about who this "Grandmother" is out there, but for the moment i'm keeping it simple and assume this is her, the Grandmother:

So after "betraying" the Hornsent and achieving godhood, Marika paid one last visit on her home village, now deserted, and offered one last prayer to the Grandmother here, before leaving forever to lead the age of the Erdtree (she also must have left those Tree Sentinels to guard the place).

I'm going out of a limb and assume this here is a statue, and if it isn't, Marika put it here because i'm pretty sure the body out of which she pulls the hair from which the Elden Ring is fashioned must have been that of this Grandmother.

The question of course is, who is this "O, Mother"? We find the gesture on a statue that looks just like this one. But even the Hornsent NPC invoked this mother when i killed him during the Leda invasion.

The other question of course which i didn't miss is this idea of "gold" without order. What is order then (i have a pretty good idea at this point)?

Nice shot of Yimir's cathedral from here:

Which of course reminds me, i can finally get that secret area in that balcomy on top of Rabbath's Rise i spotted way back:

Inside, we see that the plot thickens here:

Seems like Yimir is keeping a few secrets from Jolan. Dropping down from here we find a bell bearing for some kind of magic greatbolt.

All of this of course leads us to the next section, which i'll try to post tonight if i can lmao.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Warning, biggus update ahead:

~ Part 44: Fingers (Order) ~
​

Spoiler

Now, the fingers area.

The first thing i notice is a great deal of those furry crucible turtles. I don't think this is random or accidental either (turtles, wisdom, order etc).

Riding down the trail towards the second finger ruins, i come across a whole bunch of lampreys, all coiled up and apparently sleeping:

At first this had me totally confused but it doesn't take long to figure out what is happening here.

First of course we need to deal with another blast from the past:

Well, can't say i didn't expect to meet another of those things eventually (lawl):



Decided to get old school on this thing by whipping out my trusty old broadsword, which is still one of the most bad ass weapons in the game as you can see.

Moving on to more interesting things:

Spoiler

Killing this thing gives us a new spell with some added lore i presume. I don't remember much about the Fallingstar Beasts, only that they are related to that Astel creature. Here we are told that they originate from a "lightless dark far beyond", clearly the same "void" Astel comes from.

On the oppose side from here, i discover a little encampent, where, among other things, we find this consumable which gives us some very interesting bit of lore, a "Fingerprint Nostrum":

Spoiler

"Bolus engraved with whorl-like lines.
Craftable item.

Boosts mind, intelligence, faith, and arcane at the cost of gradual
HP loss.

A secret medicine of those who attempt to turn their human
bodies into fingers. Ingesting causes something to wriggle within."

I get the feeling this is where either the lampreys or the fingercreepers (or both) come from. Further down we see what was up with those coiled up lampreys earlier. Scattered everywhere, sucking off those stone pillars we meet smaller lampreys, all white as if they had just hatched out of something. They also vomit at the player which means whatever it is that they are sucking out of those finger pillars isn't entirely to their liking.

Either way, i guess they are born here and then move out in adulthood.

Coming down this way also has this funny scene, a bunch of large fingercreepers all leading a group of smaller ones, like teachers leading around a classroom of children:

Cute but i still set them all on fire, 'cause fuck those things.

Eventually we discover the origin of the cult of the Two Fingers:

Honestly, this whole area feels like some kind of unimaginably vast lovecraftian horror trying to "manifest" itself into this world, reaching out into our dimension with its finger but being unable to reveal his full form. It's obvious if you look at those finger pillars that they all came out from the ground (in hindsight i was wrong but possibly not so wrong):

Eventually, after dealing with an even more annoying version of those lamprey snipers (this time, if you get caught by their spell, a lamprey young materializes over your head instantly trying to suck up on you. Yikes), we finally reach the second bell (which is not actually a bell, although you do hear constant faint ringing sounds when you get close to this thing):

Once again, from the talisman we are told this is the origin of the Two Fingers.

There's a strange area next to this which at first appeared to be completely empty, devoid even of the smallest loot. In it, you find a whole group of those ghost inflatable tube thingies, all gathered around a collapsed finger pillar:

Is there a relation here? The connection with death, and the similarity with the jellyfysh guys in the original game is obvious:



I don't know if the implication here is that those have something to do with the fingers (maybe dead lampreys, or something to that effect), or if they are just here to signify those finger pillars were once alive and are now dead.

In either case, as i make my way out, scratching my head trying to understand what the point of this little area was, i find a bunch of messages that all point "up", and eventually i see it:

So there was something here afterall. From up i can see this spot better:

I gotta admit i'd probably have missed this whole thing, and would have likely spend quite a long time trying to figure out how to get there, if it wasn't again for a bunch of messages pointing out the way. A hole in the ground nearby, which drops you down a cave with a not at all suspicious bit of loot just standing like that in the middle of nothing. I buff up before getting close and sure enough a colossal fingercreeper pops out of the ground:

Having fought one of those in the base game, it's not really as hard as you would think. Just gotta watch for the janky hitbox.

All this to protect the ashes of a tiny fingercreeper:

Spoiler

"Ashen remains in which spirits yet dwell.
Use to summon the spirit of a Fingercreeper.

Devoted to its summoner, this young, diminutive Fingercreeper eagerly restores HP. They are ever so fond of their mothers at this tender age."

Mmmmh, who could this summoner be now? Why don't we go talk to him.

Before that though i decide to have a little chat with Jolan. She is now open to friendship (i guess this means she'll be available as a summon somewhere). I'm not given any option to talk about the puppet of her sister, which is a bit disappointing. She claims Count Ymir is the only star that is shining in the "back canvas of the night" which is their entire existence. Whatever those Nazgul knights are (and they don't actually appear to be related to the Night's Cavarly, unless i missed something), all they can see is darkness, as indicated by the description in their armor:

Spoiler

"Bottomless black helm, cool to the touch.
Flowing lines in the seeming shape of a fingerprint adorn the surface. Imprisons the wearer in utterly lightless dark.

Bestowed upon those born deep underground, ordaining them as Swordhands of Night."

The fingerprint decoration and the fact those armors "imprison" their wearer in utter darkness implies this is something that was done to them, possibly by the same ancient culture that created that Sword of Darkness (i think). Who were those born "deep underground", i don't know. Jolan also implies that at one point they had lost their way in the night, and it is only thanks to Ymir that they can now see the brilliance of the "star-draped" sky. It could be that in very ancient times, those underground people were inprisoned in those dark armors, and that Ymir managed to enlist them in his service by presenting himself as a shining star, the only one they had ever seen.

Now Ymir gets increasingly creepy, and tells me that even though the stars are dark tonight, this is not a bad sign and that on the contrary this portends a "magnificient starry cascade". Why do i get the feeling the darkness is actually the point of all this. Indeed, when talking to him he outright says that "this evening is a sign of a greater night to come". Like dude, you just spilled the beans. He now asks me if i remember what he said earlier, how Marika, and the fingers that "guided her", were unsound from the start, but now he claims that it was their "mother" (!) who is damaged and unhinged, and then goes on a creepy spiel about the need to have a new mother, a "true" mother, who will not give birth to "further malady". Not sure i like where this is going (what kind of horror does he want to "summon" now?).

I can buy another spell from him called Fleeting Microcosm:

Spoiler

"A finger sorcery of Count Ymir, High Priest.
One of the secret hallowed rites.

Conjures an image of a microcosm at a foe's feet that pulses with a single wave before disappearing in a burst.
Charging enhances potency.

The broken and discarded are fully willing to cling to fleeting simulacra, earning them some modicum of sympathy."

Is the last line about Jolan and her people? Or maybe this has more broader implications, involving the Shamans or whoever else latched on to the fingers?

The map he gives me is clearly of that very place i had discovered earlier, the one under his throne. This time of course i came prepared:

I get her claws which apparenlty have been engraved with "smithscript". A relation to those forges?

Down here i also find another Finger-Weaver cookbook, one that allows me to make those Fingerprint Nostrums. Wonder if the Finger-Weaver is Ymir himself? It says in the description that this Finger-Weaver has had his mind destroyed after his brush with the "sublime", and even though Ymir is coherent he doesn't exactly seem all there.

Eventually i get to a third "bell". Shit let's see what useless talisman we get now oh wait is that a stake of Marika? Shiiiet:

Hey Cheesedragon117, how do you like my use of Vow of the Indomitable this time? Lol:



This frikking thing has some really annoying moves. She can summon fingercreepers, and some of her magic attacks are definitely wierd and some i haven't entirely been able to figure out yet. Oh, and that thing at the end scared the shit out of me i thought she was coming back but i guess she got sucked back into the void. Let's look at her lore then:

Spoiler

First off, is this what those finger pillars are?

So this is the "mother" of all the fingers, including the Two Fingers and all the rest. Can this possibly be the O, Mother? I'm going to assume that cosmic sphere she summons in her second phase is the way the Greater Will communicates with this thing, who apparently according to the remembrance happens to be a child of the latter, and the first "shooting star" to ever fall in the lands between:

Spoiler

"Remembrance of Metyr, the Mother of Fingers, 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 mother of all Two Fingers and Fingercreepers was in turn a magnificently gleaming daughter of the Greater Will, and the first shooting star to fall upon the Lands Between."

From the remembrance, you get a catalyst which basically confirms what i suspected about that microcosm she summons between her "tail" fingers:

Spoiler

"Staff fashioned from the tail-fingers of Metyr, the Mother of Fingers, and the microcosm raised aloft over the crux they form.
Catalyst for casting both sorceries and incantations.

The Mother received signs from the Greater Will from the beyond of the microcosm. Despite being broken and abandoned, she kept waiting for another message to come."

You also can literally use her head to bludgeon people with lmao:

Spoiler

"The head of Metyr, the finger-mother, wielded as a weapon without modification.

From within the center of the fingerprint that wrinkles the creature's foremost protrusion, a tiny wart-like eye gazes vacantly into the beyond."

The catalyst is interesting. It can cast both sorceries and incantations, and clearly indicates where the "order" of the Erdtree actually comes from. It seems Marika was bourne out of pure gold, while order came from the Greater Will, and was seemingly more closely adopted by Radagon, who, we may remember, married Rennala (marriage ceremony conducted by the turtle pope), the mother of Ranni, who just so happened to preside over a manor littered with... fingercreepers (when i googled Carian Manor to refresh my memory about the place i discovered there's actually a connection with Rykard which... kinda complicates things i'll have to think about it).

The part about Metyr being "broken" (is this why the fingers are all broken too?) and abandoned is pretty interesting. Why was she abandoned by the Greater Will? Did "he" abandon her after he send the Elden Beast, possibly to replace her? And who were the Two Fingers as well as the other fingers actually communicating with?

I mean, the possibilities are numerous here. For all we know the Two Fingers were recieving instructions from Metyr and the whole thing was a sham. Or maybe the Greater Will ditched Metyr on account of her being "broken" and so he send the Elden Beast instead, as i said. Maybe the Greater Will never ever talks to anyone. The spell Ymir sells you, the one about the false microcosm may be related to all this as well.

Nothing to do but talk to Ymir now and see what we get. Of course, as i approach his throne, i get invaded by Jolan, which leads to some pretty fucked up shit lol:

After i killed Metyr i was in no mood to deal with this bullshit, so i just cheesed the whole thing. Fuck it lmao:



All that loot from Ymir let's see if we can make some sense of it:

Spoiler

Man so Ymir wanted to be the Mother of Fingers this whole time, possibly just out of his love for this "Yuri"?. Look at this fucking asshole all the same:

I'm also going to assume he was the Finger-Weaver the whole time as well.

Let's look at his crap. First, the staff:

Spoiler

"Staff of Count Ymir, who made himself a Mother of Fingers.
Carried for want of tail-fingers of his own.
Enhances finger sorceries.

The crystal ball, though representative of a microcosm, would not receive any sign."

So he was basically LARPing. This also could mean the Fleeting Microcosm spell was an indication that Ymir's microcosm was just a counterfeit of the real one used by Metyr.

From the hat, we also learn that Ymir actually instructed Rellana:

Spoiler

"The hat of Count Ymir, High Priest. The circular design at the top represents the Greater Will and its lightless abyss, imparting increased intelligence and arcane to the wearer. Though Count Ymir instructed Rellana in the sorcerous arts, he abandoned his allegiance to the moon. "It was merely the closest of the celestial bodies. Nothing more.""

This is a bit strange because why would Rellana need instructions? She was the sister of Rennala and a Carian Knight. From this description it seems Ymir followed the moon originally, but didn't seem to hold it in high reguard, just a stepping stone towards his true goal.

From the hat, we also get no learn that the Greater Will IS the void. I'm not gonna deal about the metaphysical implications of this concept. The association with Buddhism, the Greater Will being more of a power rather than an entity etc as there's enough shit about that out there.

Lastly, there's the robes:

Spoiler

"Robe of Count Ymir, High Priest. Conceals the abundance of squirming beneath. Gold embroidery decorates the purple cloth, with a jewelled ruff that sparkles like a flower wet with dew."

While i was reading the comments on the wiki somebody says you can alter this to have the fingers exposed, which is kinda of amazing, heh. Of course, does this means him giving "birth" was fake too? The Finger Nostrum suggests otherwise but it's possible even this part was contrived (after all, how are the fingers part of the dress, and not his body?).

Finally, we have to deal with Jolan, and i'm pretty sure you guys already know what option i picked:

Sad, hey, fuck ashes lmao. Besides, it's a matter of opinion whether the above is the "bad" outcome. The sword speaks of incorporeality and darkness which is "all consuming and devours all light". Are those traits inherent in the Greater Will? But the Ruah civilization devoted itself to both light and dark. If dark is the Greater Will, what is light?

BTW, the ashes reveal where those sisters actually came from:

Spoiler

"Ashen remains in which spirits yet dwell.
Use to summon the spirits of Jolán and Anna.

Spirits of two Swordhands of Night, one of them being possessed by Count Ymir's doll Anna. Together, Jolán's sword and Anna's claws are as bottomless black, and penetrate the enemy's guard.

Jolán and Anna were born in a cold, dark gaol, where they were raised, deprived of light, to be Swordhands of Night. Thus were they cultivated to become the most terrifying masters of their blades, though the burden of the deed left their hearts frail and pliant."

Which gaols? The only ones around here are the ones created by the Hornsent, where the Shamans are forced to become "saints". Were those sisters Shamans? And who turned them into Swordhands of Night? And how come after writing dozens of paragraphs about lore i still feel like i have no clue?

 

[Lyric Suite]

I just had one thought about the Greater Will. I wonder if the only reason it appears to be a "lightless" void is that it no longer speaks. I.E., it was Ymir's assumption that the Greater Will is a void based on the fact he never actrually had any contact with it. This void could be another outer god entirely, usurping the place of the Greater Will after the latter abandoned Metyr in favor of the Elden Beast.

Those cosmic spheres Metyr created were encased in grace, btw, much like the Elden Beast was a cosmos animated by grace. I don't get the feeling the Greater Will is a "lightless" void if it is the source of grace. I wonder if this void is a competitor to the Greater Will and the Greater Will is actually light.

BTW, this line about the Nox adds a bit more about the Greater Will, and possibly this mystery about Jolan and her sister:

Spoiler

"Long ago, the Nox invoked the ire of the Greater Will, and were banished deep underground. Now they live under a false night sky, in eternal anticipation of their liege. Of the coming age of the stars. And their Lord of Night.""

Maybe it was this "Lord of Night" that Ymir is actually serving, having mistaken him for the Greater Will. He may have believed he discarded the "moon", but in reality he never did, even if he didn't realize it.

I just can't see how do you go from "gold" to "lightless void".

 

[Child of Malkav]

The catalyst is interesting. It can cast both sorceries and incantations

I think it speaks about how they both have the same source, ultimately. Possibly the GW. And that no matter the distinction, the classification of magic in ER universe, it comes from the same place.
Oh and the fingerslayer blade you get from nokron is what was probably used by the nox to hurt Metyr which in turn caused her to malfunction and the GW to punish the nox by sending Astel to destroy them.
I also saw a video where it's speculated that the arena you fight Metyr in is underneath the arena you fight Elden Beast in. And those giant pumps that leave through Metyr's ceiling become the golden tree trunks you see in EB arena. Just a fun little thought since just about anything seems to go.
And yeah I don't get the association of gold (light) and void (dark, nothingness).

 

[Lyric Suite]

~ Part 45: Curse You Bayle! ~
​

Ok, so first off, it finally happened, i finally got burned out. Despite being smaller than the base game this DLC is still freakishly long and i just had to take a few days off. I guess the fact i'm working all the time lately and that i got little time to play probably made it worse since it's forcing me to drag this thing way too long.
So, just to gouge how much of the game i really got left, after taking a break for several days, i decided to go pick a fight with Bayle, since i heard he is next to Radahn in terms of "lateness", and oh boy lmao. It's an amazing fight and a great spectacle, plus summoning Igon was amazing for a while (before his banter got on my nerves lul. Plus actually activating his sign was super annoying too, got one shot many times while trying to do that. And of course assholes put messages right on top of it which means i had to play offline as well), but there's some annoying jank that is forcing me to detract a few points from him sadly.

First, he has that attack where he shoots fire and lighting in a straight beam. It's super easy to avoid 99% of the time, EXCEPT if he does it as soon as you step out of the fog. This shit drove me crazy for a while. Not matter what i did i could not avoid it. After a while i managed to get the timing to roll out of it but then he still got me with some extra spurt of flame and at that point i just lost it and quit for an extra day again lol.

Eventually i figured it out. The lighting is bouncing off those skeletons near the entrance, which means that extra split wasn't even intended. Like, wtf. Eventually i devised a system where if you run forward a little bit then make a sharp left turn (not right, only works left) you can basically dodge it consistently but he can still get you if you don't travel the right distance to clear the first skeletons. Just amazing.

The next jank wasn't so bad but it's still annoying. Basically whenever he goes out flying sometimes you can lose the lock on. Eventually i adjusted to it but it's still stupid. The landing isn't hard to roll through normally but it becomes trickier if that shit happens as you have to roll through the balls of fire with the camera unlocked so you can't always be ready for the landing. Luckily, Vow of the Indomitable takes care of that problem. It also helps since sometimes he lands right on top of you, which actually happens in the video. If i had rolled i would have died right there on the stop.

The last bit of jank is that he sometimes loses the lock on of you, and goes on performing attacks against an enemy that isn't there. I don't think i've ever seen a boss that does this. When he does it you can even cheese him a bit i even managed to land two charged lighting bolts once before he finally managed to find me again.

With that said, they had the presence of mind of coding him to jump away if you got too close to the end of the arena which means the times he cornered you against the wall and you couldn't see anything besides his dick were actually pretty few. Wonder why they don't just always do that with colossal enemies.

Now, as far as his attacks go, there's nothing that was too troublesome and eventually i managed to master all of his movies, but that orbital laser strike he does gave me a ton of trouble. I was determined to do it without a guide as i didn't like how i was forced to look up how to dodge Malenia's Waterfowl (first time i had to do that in a FromSoft game and it still bothers me). Took me around the next day before i finally understood it. At first i unlocked the camera to look at the ground and see what exactly was going on and then it hit me that the attack was easier to avoid like this. I got to a point where i was able to dodge the second dive fairly consistently but it was still super tricky and would have likely taken me quite a bit longer to get it perfect. Vow of the Idnomitable saved me some time and not only helps you clear the second explosion after the beam hits the ground with perfect success rate but it even allows you to face Bayle straight up after. This actually allowed me to pelt a lighting bolt at him more than a few times, but this time i didn't get a chance because the stupid bastard didn't even want to do this attack. I had to intentionally avoid what was likely going to be a kill shot just because i wanted to include it in the video.

All in all i'd say this was the hardest boss i thought so far in this DLC. He also has an ungodly amount of health, and if you can't break his stance a second time in his second phase the fight just goes on and on forever. There was one fight where i had to go through three of his orbital strikes and he also flew around shooting those fire balls FOUR times. The fight went so long i ran out of the physick buff at which point it felt like i was barely scratching him. I managed to get him down where he was likely three or four hits from dying and then he gets me with that stupid roar and i just caved after that and i added a few more buffs, namely the rune arc and the Bloodboil Aromatic, just so i could at least get him past 50% health before the second phase kicks in (without it, he still had like 60% health or more even after all that beating with wild strikes, bleed and lighting bolt which made his second phase interminable, especially if he started doing that annoying move where he jumps across the arena to shoot fire at you after every combo. In one fight he that SIX times in a row and i threw out the fight in a rage, heh).

So, here's the fight btw i'm talking so much i almost forgot to post it:



Now let's look at the lore of this thing:

Spoiler

So there wasn't much left of the Jagged Peak from where i left off last time. As you move up, there's several more bodies of dead Dragon Communion Warriors, including a couple with Ancient Dragon stones. When i killed that ancient dragon earlier (where we both died), after respawing i noticed that in his place there now were a bunch of those lighting rock slimes. Now on the bodies where you find the Ancient Dragon stones, there were also rock slimes which means those dragon warriors either died taking down more ancient dragons or Bayle came after them afterwards, which is a pretty cool detail.

In either case time to face this fucker, and holy shit:

I now understand what the dragon lady meant when she said Igon reminder her of Bayle. So this fucking thing just got maimed and mutilated in his fight with Placidusax, too stubborn to give up even as he was literally getting butchered, his wings and leg left in "ruin".

It's kinda of sad i had to leave Igon out of the fight as his banter is amazing, but i just can't do it. I can't fight bosses with summons even if they do no damage just the fact they distract the AI feels like a cheat to me. Turns out you don't need to summon him after all to get his stuff at the end BTW. Whoever said that was lying apparently.

If you kill Bayle with him you get to hear a few extra lines i'm just going to copy and paste his whole banter for future reference:

Spoiler

When summoned

• Curse you, Bayle!
• I hereby vow! You will rue this day!
• Behold, a true drake warrior! And I, Igon!
• Your fears made flesh!
• Solid of scale you might be, foul dragon...
• But I will riddle with holes your rotten hide!
• With a hail of harpoons!
• With every last drop of my being!
• (On defeat) A-Ahhhhhh… B...Bayle… You shall know...fear yet...

After Bayle is defeated

• Graaaaaargh!
• Bayle the Dread!
• You shall haunt me no longer!

I like how he calls me a "true" drake warrior. This guy is definitely one of the best NPCs in the DLC. In fact, so far he is my favored alongside Sir Ansbach.

Bayle too has one cool final moment as he dies, where he raises his maimed wing in the sky in one last act of defiance. This whole arc was great, the characterization, the build up etc. Even Jagged Peak, despite how small it was just oozed atmosphere, with the tempest and storms getting stronger as you approach Bayle it was all pretty great.

Let's look at Bayle's heart:

Spoiler

"The biatrial heart of Bayle the Dread. Dotted with horn-like gravel stones and glistening with deep-red liquor. Gorge upon this at the Grand Altar of Dragon Communion to absorb Bayle's power. The purest form of Communion, in the words of its priestess."

Wait, what priestess? I go check her out and sure enough she is dead. So she was actually devoted to Bayle this whole time?

She drops her weapon, which is a better alternative to the gravel katana since i like biggus hammers better than swords and hers scales with arcane, while the katana was a quality weapon. Not that it matters at this poing but it's good to have this option.

She also drops her heart:

Spoiler

"The stone heart of a Dragon Communion priestess. 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 incantations of the capital's ancient dragon cult. The priestess was once an ancient dragon herself, but sacrificed that form for feeble flesh to aid in the destruction of Bayle the Dread."

Oh, ok, i read it wrong she was not serving Bayle she just died because her quest was finished once i killed him, much like Igon. So this is basically just a dragon cult variant of the rock heart i got earlier.

So i decided to check the wiki to see what you would have gotten if i had used the date rape drug Thiollier gave me way back, and apparently it's a dragon cult defensive bufff with this added line at the end of its description:

Spoiler

"There was a time when the priestess never knew love, and thus never used this incantation herself."

And then her very ashes where she actually cast the buff above:

Spoiler

"Ashen remains in which spirits yet dwell. Use to summon the spirit of Ancient Dragon Florissax. Florissax assumed this spirit form to offer her service to a new lord. Uses her own dragonbolt to increase all damage negation (including physical) for herself and nearby allies. Strikes foes with the Flowerstone Gavel's dragonbolt to reduce enemy lightning damage negation. Long ago, Florissax assumed human form to share Dragon Communion with the world. Now, she has acquired a human heart."

That's very interesting so the priestess was actually an Ancient Dragon who took human form, rather than the other way around. And she did so in order to share Dragon Communion with the world. Basically this is like the dragon version of Orthodox Christianity, where God became man so that man may become God. In this case, where dragon became man so that man could become dragon lol.

From Bayle's dragon heart you get two spells, both of which share the same description:

Spoiler

Even after being consumed, the throbbing heart of Bayle continues to resist its subjugation, never weakening. One day, the fire within will consume the very body and soul of its Communion devourer. One day."

So eventually am i gonna turn into Bayle is that it?

Finally, we get to Igon's stuff. Some interesting lore here, like his bow:

Spoiler

"Weapon of Igon, the broken drake warrior. A greatbow fashioned from two dragon bones bound with coarse rope. Covered in gashes left by claws. Imbued with Igon's obsession, enhancing the power of Igon's Harpoon."

The rest of his set is apparently composed of tatters he has scavenged from the remains of dead warriors, including a loincloth which smells "utterly foul". What is with this shit first the Hornsent with his balls hanging out then this. This line on his hat seems to suggest something more with Igon:

Spoiler

"The poor scavenger of battlefields found honor through Dragon Communion."

Does this mean he was always a broken warrior even before his quest to kill Bayle? I think the implication is that Igon was simply a failed warrior, someone who always struggled with battle, and he joined the Dragon Communion after he became obsessed with killing Bayle which in itself must have simply been a way for him to finally obtain real honor. The fact he calls me a Drake warrior implies he never considered himself to be one. Finally, i wonder if this applies to Bayle as well. That he challenged Placidusax out of an inferiority complex?

I had half a mind of redoing the fight with Igon in the battle just to honor this poor guy, but i'm sort of broken and tattered myself lmao. Maybe next time buddy.

 

[Stoned Ape]

I had half a mind of redoing the fight with Igon in the battle just to honor this poor guy, but i'm sort of broken and tattered myself lmao. Maybe next time buddy.

If you want a (relatively) easy time of it next time you could use the Dargonwound Great Katana you get from the Ancient Dragon Man. It has a base +30% damage buff against dragons and the art of war also does an extra +20% on top.

 

[notpl]

I like your lore through Lyric-y man.
Btw the whole consort thing.... it may have other esoteric meanings on top of the usual one but according to the dictionary definition, means husband/wife. Including other activities implied by such status. So the Miquella/Radahn stuff is straight up homo (2 dudes), pedo (one's a kid), incest (they're brothers), necro (corpse of Mohg) shit. At least Mohg was mind controlled by Miquella so those allegations are beaten.

I remember reading a reddit post where the word "consort" in Japanese is actually closer to "king", or something like that. It just seems strange to me because i don't see Myiazaki having that much of a pulse for "modern" shit. He seems to be stuck in his world world of Berserk, managa or whatever else he uses for inspiration.

Berserk has a significant amount of rape, a fair amount of homoeroticism, and a not that gratuitous - but still greater than zero - amount of pederasty. There really is no other way to interpret the miquella/radahn thing, it's exactly what it looks like. Elden Ring's pantheon is meant to be evocative of real life mythology and monarchies, which are full of incest, rapes, and child marriages. It is what it is.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I think the central question is whether this stuff is meant to be an "endorsement" on modern politics or not.

A movie like Sleepway Camp would cause a complete uproar if it was released today. The general idea of the homo or trans movement is that are supposed to accept those things as beautiful and normal. Degenerate gods doing degenerate god things isn't exactly a positive take on the homo stuff, much like the aformentioned movie was a positive take trans shit (to say the least lol).

 

[notpl]

The fact that you're even mentioning "homo stuff" suggests you're missing the point, to me. Miquella is a god. He doesn't even have a physical body, let alone a gender/sex, but when he did, he possessed both male and female forms. He's an avatar of beauty/love that by his nature every other being yearns for. He's Baldur, or a dozen other figures from mythology. Hardly "modern."

 

[Lyric Suite]

Anyway, time to continue forward. I think i should have two or three updates left at the most. Unfortunate that i had to drag this thing so much. That's why i didn't want to buy the DLC just yet because i knew my current working hours were going to be brutal but hey, it's almost done and it came out better than i expected (though it's still a far cry from my Sekiro let's play). We now gotta talk about the most disappointing (but also most visually impressive) area in this game before moving to the Ancient Ruins and what i presume is the end:

~ Part 46 (I): Abysmal Woods ~
​

Spoiler

Actually, first off, i wanna mention a couple of things i left out earlier. First, a little bit of extra lore i didn't notice was there, about Igon, from his Harpoon:

Spoiler

"Great arrow that bristles with sharp gravel stone pieces. Has an anti-dragon effect. The broken drake warrior Igon made these one by one in the midst of his agony—so that Bayle the Dread himself would know fear."

Just added flavor to an already cool character arc. The fact he didn't want to just defeat Bayle, he wanted him to actually feel fear is damn awesome.

The other is that apparently i almost managed to miss this spell from the Yimir quest, which spawns at the grave of Yuri:

Spoiler

"A finger sorcery of Count Ymir, aspiring mother of fingers.

Surrounds the caster with a mesh of hefty fingers that wards all manner of projectiles, whether magical or physical in nature, away from the caster.
Charging enhances potency.

The dear fingers look after their mother, or perhaps that is merely what the mother wishes to believe."

After killing Bayle i just started porting around not sure where to go next when somehow my brain remembered to go check out the little grave outside the cathedral.

Wonder if this has a double meaning, about whether the actual fingers were answering to a "mother" who is something other than the Greater Will.

Anyway, time to deal with one of the bigger disappointments of this DLC so far (not because it's so terrible but because of the missed opportunity). Last time i was here, i was warned about moving forward, and Torrent refused to come out because he was too terrified of this place. Further down, the build up continues with more threatening messages:

Spoiler

At this point i was fairly spooked, though in hindsight i should have known (after all those messages only serve the function to spoil puzzles). I carefully scout ahead and all i manage to see is this dude:

Is that it? I decide to just get it over with and see what we got here, and somehow i manage to kill him on my first try, which is like, what? That's it? Apparently i'm not the only one lol:

Spoiler

He drops his "madding hand", which is cool i guess:

Spoiler

"A glove stitched together from the flayed skin of the victims of a butcherous bloodbath. Afflicts target with madness. Raises attack power when madness is triggered in the vicinity.
Forged of an unyielding, black impulse toward revenge fostered in those who were hunted down as heretics by their own brethren, these are the weapons of the utterly downtrodden."

It seems this area is some kind of containment reserved for Hornsent who were deemed to be "heretics" and thus tortured by the inquisitors and banished here. Curiously, this guy is wearing the Grave Bird set, but later on i discover there may be an actual reason for it.

Meanwhile, this is what the map of this place has to say:

Spoiler

"Map of the abyss at the east of the Gravesite Plain. A thick forest sprawls at the depths of the ravine that is untouched even by sunlight. Known as the sanctum of Sage Midra, and is a region forbidden by the hornsent."

So there we go. As i start to explore this area, it slowly dawns on me there is a major issue with this place. You are forced to go on foot, but the area itself is designed like any other open area in the game, which is completely baffling. And it's not even that they increased the density of enemies or points of interests. You have to go on those exessively long walks only to find rats, sheeps (who are also mad lol) or some fluff loot. All that build up for some stupid humanoid enemy and this?

Around the trees there's a kind of latern fly that gives some extra lore about this frenzy stuff:

Spoiler

"Winged insect carrying a dangling frenzied flame grape. Material used for crafting items. Flies lazily around the abyssal forest. Said to be heralds of the aging untouchable. On seeing these, the wise know to stay well clear of that place."

Who is this "aging untouchable", that Sage Midra guy?

Going down the road i eventually reach an abandoned church. No statue of Marika at all, not even a beheaded one:

There's some scat tree fragments and also a frenzied perfumer bottle here. Guess those guys made it even here. There's an high level shadow realm rune too, with the same description mentioning that "long-forgotten place", where "none would tread", in which the light of grace quitely grew "ever more brilliant".

Is this the place? No grace here though, just this yellow stuff oozing from the rocks or coloring the water which i assume is the effect of frenzy:

I now come across some wondering inquisitors, who among their usual "barbed" spells now actually shoot that frenzy bursts spell at me. Did they defect to this Sage Midra dude, or is it just this place that is driving them mad? No clue about what they are doing here. Possibly they just wondered off where they shouldn't have.

I then make it to a shallow stream and again with this shit lmao:

Spoiler

Oh but wait, what's that i see now?

Is this the final evolution of those inquisitors if they are left roaming around here too much? As soon i took that shot the thing saw me, teleported to where i was and instantly killed me. Upon respawing i sneak up on it but apparently they can't be hurt. I guess this is what all those messages were about.

So basically from here on now i'm going to have to rely on stealth to cross this whole area, as further down i see more of those guys, which i couldn't take a closer shot so i just decided to grab one from google:

So this is the origin of the grapes. I suppose those must be the heretics.

Now, a forced stealth section in a Souls game is not something i was expecting. I like stealth, but i can't think of a worse area than this, given you are forced to trek through this immense wooden space on foot. Luckily for me, and unfortunatly for the game, there's like constant messages around those guys all saying the same thing, which is to try parry. So i did, and turns out you can just kill them like that lmao. Wow, so much for stealth. The first guy even drops a talisman, which means the whole stealth thing was the "unintended" way and kind of a trap:

Spoiler

"A talisman depicting the exultation of the aging untouchable, whose head resembles a sprig of ripe grapes. Raises attack power when madness is triggered in the vicinity. "Gift your madness to our Lord. Bless our brethren with grapes. Take care that they fully ripen.""

So the lantern flies are the "heralds" of those guys. I honestly don't know about this it feels i just missed out on some unique experience i could have had. First time messages may have spoiled something actually major. Then again, i probably would have hated it, especially since just to make it even more annoying they added alarm "plants":

Looking ahead, it now looks i have quite a bit more to trek. The atmosphere of this place is great:

But man why am i forced to walk through the whole thing. I mean i get it it's because of this stealth gimmick but they could have made you step off Torrent here for this stealth section, not the whole forest.

No more talismans from those guys, just some rare crafting mat:

Spoiler

"An eyeball of the frenzied flame that has swollen from within. Material used for crafting items. Exceedingly rare to find. Marked with fingerprint burns, proof of having being touched directly by the Three Fingers' embrace."

As i continue to move forward, i'm now actually glad i was spoiled on how to kill those guys. Apparently, there's some hidden place around here according to a few mesages i found but at first i can't find anything and i'm forced to go up and down this stream until i see it:

I cannot imagine how frustrating this would have been if i had to sneak past those guys over and over.

But it seems i'm not even close to being done. Getting past those inquisitors i emerge in an even wider area with a shallow lake of sort and some waterfalls:

This whole place is CLEARLY designed with Torrent in mind it's just incomprehensible. The thing of it though is that the scale actually adds to the ambiance. It's hard to describe it's both frustrating but also really immersive. At this point they started adding some extensive verticality which considering how much space you have to cross literally dropped my jaw but i think at this point i just developed Stockholm syndrome from this whole place. I guess i've been walking so much i actually got used to it at this point.

There's a mad crafsman cookmook which has some actual notable information:

Spoiler

"A record of crafting techniques left by a craftsman who served Midra, master of the manse, and Nanaya, its lady. His eyes were burned by the Flame of Frenzy."

Ok but where the hell is this "manse". Contemplating my next step i decide to chill for a bit next to this cool ghost owl, who turns around and looks at me as if saying "who bitch is this now":

I decide to backtrack where i discover i almost missed a scat tree fragment, but i still have no clue of where to go. Just those bloody trees, everywhere. Somebody help lol:

Eventually i end up seeing it:

Spoiler

Those cheeky bastards. I have to climb a whole hill to get there showing just how massive this place is. From there, i see what at first i thought was some kind of village in the distance. Turns out i'm finally here:

Man, this was really something i can say that much at least. I gotta go eat now i'll continue this in a sec.

 

[Lyric Suite]

The fact that you're even mentioning "homo stuff" suggests you're missing the point, to me. Miquella is a god. He doesn't even have a physical body, let alone a gender/sex, but when he did, he possessed both male and female forms. He's an avatar of beauty/love that by his nature every other being yearns for. He's Baldur, or a dozen other figures from mythology. Hardly "modern."

Right, but that was the point i was making. If the game had gone "woke" the homo relationship would have been portrayed as something positive and normal. But there's nothing normal anywhere in this game.