From Software Lyric Suite's Shadow of the Derptree Blog

[Lyric Suite]

~ Part 46 (II): The depths of your fool... *boink* ~
​

Spoiler

So we finally discovered this "manse", but what in the nine hells is this:

A whole row of what appears to be prisoners, a strange luminescent peg sticking out of their decapidated necks (considering what you discover later, i guess those are those barbed spears the inquisitors use, shoved into their bodies).

Nothing on the side of this place, except another of those cool ghost owls. Love the atmosphere they give this place:

Anyway, i step into the manse and i get warned to get the fuck off by some voice. Apparently the maddness "wells" here. Like, no shit.

Inside i find this painting which shows what this place looked like at one point:

So this whole forest was just vibrant and full of life like in the Hinterlands earlier, or the town of Unte. There's a ghost guy who appears to be greeting visitors form an earlier time. He welcomes guests whom apparently are "uninvited", and warns them to heed the words of the great master of the house, Midra, the words in question consisting in a warning not to approach the "madness", lest they may succumb.

Now this is interesting because i assumed Midra was the one who fell to the madness, so why is he warning others? And who are those guests? Upon further reflection though i think Midra was actually open about his dealing with this "madness" and was just telling those guests to be careful not to get too close to it, while himself was attempting to master it. This means he was unaware of the kind of reaction he was going to get from the other Hornsent because of this.

In either case, the painting hides an hidden wall which opens up this whole place:

This mansion isn't merely dilapidated, but has been actively ransaked and destroyed. Everywhere there's books and scrolls that have been confined to the fire, i guess containing writings deemed heretic. The amount of books is immense which shows Midra must have been a major scholar. There's also scenes of violence of Hornsent against Hornsent:

On the shelves btw there are what appears to be alchemical containers of some sort:

Is the implication that madness was first discovered here?

On the body here i found this funny note btw:

Spoiler

"A discarded page ripped from a diary, bearing a passage written in a tremulous hand. "I touched him, but only once. When he thrust his staff in my face, I brushed it aside. It was then that I touched him. The aging untouchable.""

Well, so much for this "secret". I now move back to the main corridor and oh shit:

Damn lol. This whole section is kinda cancer. You have to go through this guy, then in the next room there's some mage who drops this fire ball that bounces around for like an hour. To get to him, you have to face ANOTHER Hornsent warrior, though once you unlock the way you can just run past him, but then, why do that when you can just use cheese?

Up above i find they were actually attempting to hide books in those barrels:

There's a ghost guy here who laments the "cruelty" being inflicted on him, asking his torturer if they are not "brethren", of a "common line" which implies Midra and his house is a separate lineage of the Hornsent but still the same. He also demands to know what great crime did Midra commit to deserve this.

It's now obvious the "uninvited" guests were inquisitors, and they came here to destroy the place, burn of all traces of this "heresy", and torture all the people in the service of this Midra, while executing some and line them up outside as an example or a warning.

I now discover that thing dropped by the annoying mage, a spiritgrave stone burned by the flame of frenzy:

Spoiler

"Spiritgrave stone burned by frenzied flame. Craftable item. Uses FP to place a stone on the ground, where it spews frenzied flames. Spirits are eternal, and yet frenzied flame melts them away regardless. No wonder the hornsent forbid the flame's use."

Wow, so the frenzied flame can actually destroy spirits? Given that's one of the major elements of Hornsent culture i can see why they went scortched earth on this place.

Moving forward i'm forced to cross over some roof beams. On the side there's a dark room with a whole bunch of rats inside. Well, since they are rats, they should like cheese right?

There's another frenzy cookbook here. I found three total so far, and they all have the same description, but the frenzy pot you can make out of one of them has this funny line:

Spoiler

"The flame of frenzy burns the eyes, but tranquility follows in its wake. May this pot bring salvation to those it strikes."

Is that why Midra fell to the flame, to find "salvation"? Also, i'm going to guess he is the author of those cookbooks, which would explain those alchemical bottles and stuff.

Now after crossing this section i start hearing screams of pain. I look around and i think they are coming out of this guy?

There's a message that says "boss". Like, really, that thing? If they say so lol.

I finally make it to the main library, and this time i discover there's still inquisitors going around, including one of the big fat ones. If you kill him you get a Revered Spirit Ash which ties up this whole thing (there's also another one around here). I guess that guy wearing the Gravebird set is tied to this as well, to spirits and so forth.

BTW i think this fat guy was the one summoning those Horned warriors but i didn't care to go check, heh.

Finally, i come across this damn painting:

So that's what this was this whole time. It was Midra and that nyan cat woman whatever her name is. Of course, it's another hidden wall. This opens up a path where we eventually emerge onto this scene:

I guess the inquisitors got to her too. On her body we find a torch with some revealing lore:

Spoiler

"A torch made by attaching a dying flame of frenzy to a small spinal column. In a distant land, in an age long past, was born a man who failed to become the Lord of Frenzied Flame. All that remains of him is cradled gently by Nanaya."

Is the man in question Midra? Or someone else? Is this supposed to reveal she brought the frenzied flame to this place?

This area was pretty good with some killer ambiance but it is alas very short as right after this we actually get to the boss, who was that pathetic old guy after all. Of course, after beating the shit out of him, something else entirely emerges and the reveal is damn cool:

Before linking to the video let me just deal with the lore here. First the Remembrance:

Spoiler

"Remembrance of Midra, Lord of Frenzied Flame, 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.

As the golden barbs inflicted eternal agony upon him, Midra held fast to Nanaya's entreaty:

"Endure."

The word was a curse."

From the ashes, you get this sword:

Spoiler

"Golden greatsword that once pierced the body of Midra, master of the manse. Used by the hornsent in the execution of a damnation like no other.

The barbs that pierce the victim from within wind gently around the blade."

As well as this spell:

Spoiler

"Incantation in praise of Midra, Lord of Frenzied Flame.

Summons an apparition of the Lord's head to spew frenzied flame.
This incantation can be used while in motion. The apparition will
remain for as long as the input is held.

The Lord of Frenzied Flame shall take their torment, despair.
Their affliction. Every sin, every curse. All melted away.
Yet Midra, like others before him, was too weak to become a Lord."

Ok, so we have several things going on here. First, Midra failed to become a Lord, which implies the torch is talking about him? Nanaya could be a maiden of the Three Fingers who came to corrupt Midra. The spine that makes up the stem of the torch could be his, since when you find him he is being held toghether by this sword of "damnation" (which now tells us there's a connection of some kind between the Hornsent inquisitors and the Golden Order, or at least the weapon art claims "there is something of the Golden Order in the sight of those fixed upon this crux". This could just be a reference to the fact the Golden Order is equally as brutal), though the way the text is written implies the torch is all that's left of this failed Lord, yet Midra is right there in the next room?

And then there's the fact the Sword of Damnation is what's actually preventing him from becoming Lord of Frenzied Flame. Does that mean Nanaya was trying to stop him from getting there? Her telling him to "endure" implies this is supposed to be part of some kind of process though. It really gives the impression she is directing him towards something, presumably to become a Lord of the Frenzy, though he only does so once he pulls the sword out of him. I'm thinking he IS enduring for the sake of becoming Lord of the Flame because of what he says when you walk in, "the depths of your foolishness", which feels like the response he would give if he warned you not to the close "to the madness" and you still did.

Lastly, the spell seems to suggest that if Midra did indeed turn to the frenziend flame on his own volition, he did so to take away all the torment, despair and affliction, as well as every sin and every curse, wiping away the legacy of whatever was inflicted on the Hornsent as well as whatever they may have committed as well, apparently, in this world as well as the next, given the frenzied flame can destroy even spirits. So even the ghosts of the Hornsent would be destroyed, as well as all the ones that ascended etc.

There's a lot to think about here, i may add a few ideas later if they come to mind for now i gotta go to bed, so let's just link to the video:

Since this old dude is here just lamenting and yelling i figured it was appropriate to show up with my own lamenter drip lol:



The design was great, but the boss was a bit on the easy side for me, especially after Bayle. I will say this boss is definitive proof FromSoft intended some bosses to be dealt with parry. Even if the boss itself didn't make it obvious, there's that whole set up with the untouachables and the fact they can only be killed with parry, which sets your mind there already before you even fight the boss.

 

[Strange Fellow]

The manse was the biggest disappointment of the DLC for me. It's located in a very cool area which actually tries to do something different for once, and the approach with the decapitated bodies is brilliantly atmospheric, but then the actual dungeon is a bog standard design, with enemies we've seen before, and extremely short to boot. The one shortcut you can open is as uninspired as they come, and to add insult to injury it has a site of grace on both sides, making it completely pointless. The boss is cool, but there was so much they could have done with this dungeon and it's just boring. Like, do something with the frenzy torch or something. What a waste.

 

[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."

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.

Ah, I get you. To be honest I don't get the impression the writers feel one way about it or the other; it's a trifling setting detail, not meant to be either titillating or shocking.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Favorite boss of the DLC for me. The way he moves, the music, the fact he's not doing a kajilion attacks per second, feels a lot like the old style of souls games.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, a couple of interesting things i've missed. First, the room Midra is in is called the "Discussion Chamber". In the room there are alcoves with four statues in them. One of them is Hornsent, with the scepter and everything, i assume the others are too but i'm not sure i've actually seen them before, i would have to go back to my old posts:

Spoiler

I wonder if Midra's residence was used as a hub of diplomacy among ALL the groups in the shadow land. Sure the people serving Midra were Hornsent but it's interesting how the ghost said we come from a "common line" as if to imply there was still a distinction between them. One could go further and theorize all of the groups here are related, the Hornsent, the Shamans and perhaps Messmer's people as well, though logic would dictate those come from the Lands Between. The implication here would be that Midra turned to the flame not merely to atone for the sins of the Hornsent but also everybody else. His final "diplomatic" solution was to just wipe out everything.

I also managed to look under the woman's eyes, and it definitely seems they were hollowed out:

Spoiler

This means that she was in fact a maiden of the Three Fingers.

 

[Lyric Suite]

~ Part 47: Why is it always bursting? ~
​

Ok, i'll admit it, this was definitely cheese but i had to post it since it's kinda of funny lol:



I went all out on damage only because i wanted to get to the second phase faster to practice it better, but ended up just bypassing it altoghether. He is surpringly frail for a boss that gives you 400k runes and i think it's because they predicted a lot of people were going to find it difficult to even hit him so they made hits count a bit more than usual. I may tone it down with the damage later tonight so i can at least spar with him a bit, depending if i feel like it.

First phase was very interesting. He has some very tight timings and a lot of his combos can only be punished with roll attacks, or at least it's easier that way, which makes me think he was designed specifically around the talisman you get from Leda. Seems a bit too much of a coincidence otherwise. If you can do it right, the flow of the first phase is great btw. It really feels like a dance. My only caveat is that he has an annoying double swipe attack that 50% of the time always got me depending on the angle. It's the one where he swipes with his spear then swipes out as he jumps away. It's either super easy to avoid or impossible depending on the direction your are facing. I'm pretty sure though i'm just doing it wrong as a few times i got the sense there is a correct timing you have to pay attention to, it's not as simple as roll then roll again as fast as possible (literally mashing constantly my roll button sometimes after rolling through the first swipe and he still gets me).

The delayed attack was also trickier than usual just because everything he does looks the same, so it took a bit to train my brain to spot the wind up. Once you do that you can actually punish him during the "slow" part of the attack. Meanwhile all the fancy flying around isn't that hard at all. There's an attack where he just jumps all over the place and then summons a bunch of spears and the only hard dodge is the delay when he is up in the hair in the final attack of the combo, but even that didn't take me long to get used to.

I barely got to see the second phase. He morphs into the snake and his standard combos have an extra step where he annoyiningly leaps out of the way right where normally you would get to hit him in the first phase but other than that he seems the same. If i feel like giving it another go it shouldn't take long to figure out.

Alright, let's take a look at what appears to be a completely convoluted lore:

Spoiler

So first thing i went for a parry holy set up since he is weak to holy but i wasn't feeling it, so i reverted back to my Great Stars set up. On those earlier attempts though i noticed a strange thing. There's a snake on the brass shield:

Clearly a coincidence. Or is it? Imma forward this to those lore guys so they can spend an extra hour speculating about this lul.

So anyway fire boy:

The wings on the snakes are clearly those of gargoyles, which would explain those statutes i saw in the top of the Specimen Storehouse. Why the snakes have gargoyle wings, i don't know.

As soon as i step in he thinks i'm just another "mongrel" but soon realizes i'm tarnished, which makes him even more angry at his mother, that she would grant lordship to someone like me. It's interesting of course that despite his resentment at his mother, he is still following her orders.

The lore of this guy is really convoluted and in his wiki it seems even items form the original game are relevant. Let's begin with the Remembrance:

Spoiler

"Remembrance of Messmer the Impaler, 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.

A malevolent snake writhed within Messmer, and so his very mother plucked out his eye and put in its place a seal of grace. Yet, having done so, her fear compelled her to secret away her child within the realm of shadow. Hidden away—keeping company with the original sin, and a hatred that would not be confined."

He calls the snake "abyssal serpent" and as far as i can see there's no actual references to this anywhere else besides the second cinematic, at least that i could see. The serpent is "shorn of light", but that could mean anything (another outer god perhaps?). So despite his resentment to Marika, he was indeed still trying to serve her until the very end, but the thought of suffering the existence of a lord "devoid of light" was too much for him, so he breaks the "seal of grace" and i presume from this point on Messmer is no more and the abyssal serpent is in control. Indeed, if you die in his second phase, he has this line:

"O lightless creature…

Embrace thine oblivion, as shall I."

Now the second item he drops is really something:

Spoiler

"The kindling that burned inside Messmer the Impaler.
A dark thing, eaten away at by a wicked serpent.

Burns the sealing tree said to be found at the old Rauh ruins.

Messmer, much like his younger sister, bore a vision of fire."

Wait what? He is the sister of Melina? Well, ok then. In hindsight though i could have realized this if i knew killing him was the way to melt away the roots of the Scadutree blocking the path to the Shadow Tower, since there's an obvious synergy there.

I would assume both Messmer and Melina are related to Radagon btw. At the least the wiki brings back the description from the Giant's Red Braid:

Spoiler

"Hefty whip woven from the flame-red hair of a Fire Giant.

Every giant is red of hair, and Radagon was said to have despised his own red locks. Perhaps that was a curse of their kind."

So those related to the giants are cursed but how does the abyssal snake figure into this?

There's also something connecting Melina's flame (and by extension Messmer's?) to Destined Death? At least there's a line indicating this in the Blade of Calling:

Spoiler

"Dagger given to one who set out on a journey to fulfill her duty long ago. The power of its former owner, the kindling maiden, is still apparent.

The one who walks alongside flame, Shall one day meet the road of Destined Death."

BTW the Radagon connection is further emphasized by Rellana chasing after Messmer. Rennala was married to Radagon, so her sister went after the closest thing to him, which was Messmer. Jelously, wanting to emulate her sister? But also, how did she meet Messmer? Was Messmer following Radagon at any point? I remember Rellana had even to go so far as give away her "birth right" to follow Messmer. I still say Rellana was also "cursed" in some way, like Gaius and everybody else who chose to remain loyal to Messmer. Maybe that's why Rennala had to gift her that lock of hair, since Rellana could also be mishapen in someway under that armor.

Now let's look at the gear. First the spear:

Spoiler

"Weapon of Messmer the Impaler.
A greatspear with a warped blade in the shape of undulating flame.

Remade by the forging arts of the realm of shadow, this weapon can be thrown by executing a strong attack, dashing strong attack, or mounted strong attack. Charge the attack to produce flame on impact."

Forging arts of the realm of shadow. I see no smithscript etching but i assume this means this is an actual throwing weapon like the others? No extra lore here, but Messmer's Orb gives us an interesting line, about how Messmer "despised" his own fire (probably because it was the reason for Marika abandoning him), and that "time and time again he hoped to rid himself of it".

Now, the helm goes a little deeper here:

Spoiler

"Black helm of Messmer the Impaler, crowned with two intertwined winged serpents.
Slightly enhances incantations of Messmer's flame as well as Fire Knight skills.

The winged snakes were Messmer's constant companions.

They were there when the base serpent was sealed away behind his eye. They were there through his eternity of suffering. They will accompany him yet, in his hideous new form, born when he destroyed the grace granted by his mother. They have accepted his fate as much as he."

I was gonna say if the abyssal serpent was hidden away in his eye what about the other snakes? Actually, what about them? Who are they?

The armor meanwhile has a line which gives a slightly different implication to the crusade:

Spoiler

"Black armor of Messmer the Impaler. Draped with a red cloak bearing his crest embroidered. On his mother's wishes, Messmer made himself a symbol of fear, undertaking the cleansing crusade she desired. "Direct thy maledictions, thine ire, and thy grief towards me alone.""

Does this mean the crusade had something to do with the nature of Messmer's birth? I'm reminded now of the statue in the Bonny Village where we find the "O Mother" gesture, which also had a discarded snake skin nearby. This is probably the most confusing part of this. After killing Messmer, i find the Hornsent actually praying to the statue of Marika with child, and this is what the Hornsent must have been talking this whole time! But what exactly?

So the child is Messmer? But whose wife? Was Marika married to... the Hornsent (presumably before achieving goodhood)? I mean the potentates are nobility so why not? Would also explain why Hornsent Grandma hates Marika specifically for being a whore lol. But then does it mean the crusade was partially in revenge of the curse brought upon some of her children? Was Marika given in marriage to the Hornsent as part of the general abuse inflicted on the Shamans? Are the cursed children a result of this?

BTW, according to someone in the comments the serpent skin actually resembles Eaiglay, the serpent Rykard was involved with:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/uoqp2r/eiglay_the_serpent_the_godskins_and_the_plan_to/

Can't confirm as i don't recall exactly what the thing looked like (or whether you can actually make anything out of the snake skin).

Oh at this point i thought that maybe the Brass Shield actually DOES figure into this. I don't feel like googling it now but maybe Godrick had some relation to Rykard and that's why there's a snake on the shield, hahaha.

Anyway this shit with the Hornsent is really baffling. I'm just gonna copy and paste all the lines related to the Messmer fight for future reference:

Spoiler

"When summoned to fight Messmer, the Impaler

• Messmer! Foe of my beloved people! In vengeance for the flames, my blade I wield!
• (On victory) Have I made it known accursed Messmer? My clan’s suffering? Their pain? All that they felt? Do you understand now, your ugliness? Aaaaaargh!

After defeating Messmer, the Impaler, if Hornsent was summoned during the fight

• We meet again I see, comrade-in-arms. Upon his end, did you see Messmer's face? Twas sublime - a very tangle of snakes! To think he dared to call us savages. When he himself was most base of all. Ha ha ha ha!
• To say the least, I am to you indebted. Yet unquenched remains my thirst for revenge. The death of Messmer was merely the start. Now comes the piper to collect from Marika, her offspring, and all the Erdtree's denizens... In vengeance for the flames, my blade I wield... If Miquella's redemption soothes the ache...that throbs within, demanding blessed vengeance... Then I wish not to be by him redeemed.

After defeating Messmer, the Impaler, if Hornsent was not summoned during the fight

• What cruelty's this… who would rob me of my one vital purpose? Am I so feeble, witless,, dull of blade… That vengeance was never to have been mine?
• O mother, O most cherished wife and child. It seems vengeance was not mine to enact. Where now should I point my tired blade..."

The fact he is so strangely concerned by how Messmer looked may be significant too. I think i'm gonna have to redo the fight with him included if i want to see the invasion later.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Actually, i just had another thought. Maybe Marika isn't the Hornsent wife. Maybe she is ALSO his mother? Is the curse of the Hornsent that turned them into flies and all the other shit just a part of the curse of Marika's children in general? Ayy what the hell is going on here.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

You still haven't beat it yet? Pfft. I only stopped playing because my ps5 broke. I'll let you finish it first.

 

[Lyric Suite]

You still haven't beat it yet? Pfft. I only stopped playing because my ps5 broke. I'll let you finish it first.

I'm working full time all summer, sometimes doing overtime. I often barely got an hour of playtime a day. Main reason i didn't want to buy the DLC at first, but caved because everybody was talking about it. Almost done anyway, only got the Ruins of Ruah left and then the end game whatever that is.

 

[Lyric Suite]

~ Part 48: Beginning of the end? ~
​

Spoiler

So, we are finally here:

Shouldn't be long now until this DLC is over with. Of course, it's always something with this game. I'm trying to cross the bridge and suddenly i die for seemingly no reason. On my second attempt i notice there's a coud over my head and for a second i thought i was cursed by the Fantozzi Cloud (only Italians will get this). Turns out it's this asshole:

Cheeky bitch. So this is the guy from that was referenced on those Waldo spirit ashes, where it says he refused to burn down "an old ruin", at the risk of his own "life". I presume he is guarding further incursions from the Shadow Keep?

You get the cloud spell but sadly it is a neutered version, with only a very short range so you can't shower fire on people from five miles away like he does. Damage is ok but feels a bit low, though i didn't try to truly build for it. In the description we get this:

Spoiler

"Incantation of Salza, sage of the Fire Knights.

Summons a cloud of flame overhead that pelts foe with rain of fire from above. Charging increases potency.

Salza's disdain for barbarism never waned, even as he burned more villages and scorched more land than any other."

This could be interpreted in different ways. That he considered the acts he committed to be barbaric (hence why he defected?), or maybe he was so dedicated to burning villages because he saw the Hornsent as barbaric. I assume it's the first but you never know. Translations from the Japanese are often wonky enough that could be either way.

Anyway, behold, the last area in the game!

Now i remember somebody mentioning this place was kinda of empty but to me it actually seems fairly good. I'm reminded a bit of how the open world was designed in the base game except there's quite a bit of verticality here as well, with a kind of temple complex serving as a nestled inferior within the open parts.

First thing though there's a lift on the left which brings me down in an area with a bunch of those blood guys:

If you look at the map it's interesting how this spot is right above that cave where you first find the bloodfiend boss. They must have sort of climbed up from there.

Out here i find another of those lesser golden hippos, and i'm just going to assume they actually come from here. There doesn't seem to be much else this way, so it's time for beauty pics. I try to get this stupid bird into the shot but i didn't catch the swings right, meh:

From up here of course i also end up spotting this guy:

Is that a Crucible Knight? Looks like a new kind as well not bad. Was wondering if those guys were going to show up eventually, given the whole thing with the Crucible etc.

I take a quick peek into the temple structure on the left, and let me guess, Curseblade ambush right?

How could i possibly have known this? Lmao:

There's also some mage faggot hiding up those roots using that spiral spell on me. This place appears to have different levels so for now i decide to backtrack a bit and see if there's some more useless goodies on the back here. Nice view once again:

Turns out there was a bit more than i expected. I find some corpse with a Golden Horn Tender, which may mean there's going to be inquisitors here, but then there's a strange duo of items, another Antiquity Scholar cookbook, which allows me to craft a thing called "Spritestone":

Spoiler

"A Rauh Burrow inhabited by a sprite.
Craftable item.

Uses FP to release a sprite that slowly homes in on enemies. After a short time, the sprite fades away into glittering lights, causing a spiritual explosion on its passing.

According to the records left by hornsent scholars, there were also contrivances known as "bondstones" that could manipulate the moment that the sprite vanishes."

And then the "Bondstone" in question from the description above:

Spoiler

"A large burrowstone studded with a perfectly white gem, said to be the polished form of a special kind of crystal.

A ritual implement made to control explosions of spiritual power. Use to cause a spiritual explosion, consuming the sprite dwelling within spritestone.

Bonds with the sprites were made to be broken."

All i can gleam from this is that the Hornsent connection with spirits comes from those ruins. I guess this is another Shinto inspired aspect of this Crucible thing.

Now further down from here there's a drop off point where you can jump down from this statue, and i wonder if we are ever going to learn who she is:

I mean, no horns, isn't that curious?

Behind me there's an hidden wall which leads me back into the temple complex or whatever it is. It seems there was a backdoor here that can only be opened from this side, which means my habit to explore every nook allowed me to discover the solution to a puzzle before even seeing the puzzle.

This area is crawling with Hornsent ghosts, with a few worshipping either those imposing female figures or something like this fire:

Next to this i find one of those Fire Spritstone things so even this fire is connected to spirits.

Eventually i come across another door with a bunch of snails sleeping (oh, we gonna explain even the snails now? Lol), but this only leads to a drop off point with a "spirit" spring at the bottom. I *think* you can survive if you drop on top of it but i'm not sure so for now i'll seek another way to get down there.

On the way back i spot what appears to be a "secret" entrance:

There's a bunch of stone tablets next it and the hole you have to cross doesn't seem was actually part of the original design of this place. Seems like someone just removed a panel and then dug a tunnel to the other side, either the Hornsent or Messmer's people when they were ransaking this place.

Inside there's a whole bunch of biggus scorpions which can now roll around, making them dangerous to fight on horse and just annoying on foot. There's a large room next to this with yet another motherfucking Curseblade ambush:

Can they please just stop with this lol. The funny thing you find a bunch of throwing knives on an altar here which i guess was supposed to tip you off another one of those guys was somewhere in here (worshipping at the altar too it seems), but what's the point if it's like, right here.

Between the two altars on the left here there's an extra area with a bunch of giant scorpions and finally another of those ugly black ones:

Those things are so damn disgusting. In this room i find some scorpion ahes, the description implying we may actually get to the bottom of this:

Spoiler

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

This scorpion is larger than a human, and attacks with pincers and a poisonous tail.
Appears some distance from the summoner.

This breed of scorpion was native to the realm of shadow, but was far smaller in size. Recent giant scorpions are said to trace back to the Church of the Bud."

Ok then, all i need now is to find this Church of the Bud. There's an exit here which leads to an open spot but this is just a way to circle back as it just connects to the area with the lesser hippo.

Now, past the Curseblade there's a wide opening with some interesting things, what appears to be a temple which is probably some boss area and behold, another one of those Miquella crosses, the final one i presume:

It seems i finally got to the end of this temple area, and now there's a drop off point with a spirit spring but also some alcoves sticking out from which i can make it down safely, a bunch of Brundleflies waiting for me at the bottom:

As i drop down, there's of course Brundleflies everywhere (i meet several guarding corpses holding Shadow Realm Runes. An attempt to hold on their humanity or grace?) but a lot of them are just upside down waving their arms up in the hair for some reason. Are they sleeping or something? It was took dark to take a good shot of the first batch you see but i was able to get those guys here:

Now looking at this i instantly remembered you find the forager dude in this position as well (what happened to that guy and his merchant friend? I assume i messed up their quest as i haven't seen them in for a LONG time). Like, are those guys the origin of the Kindred of Rot? I mean we know that they evolve into something. My first assumption is that they were turning into those giant scorpions, but the ashes dispel that notion so what else is left? Surely it can't be a coincidence that they just sleep like this and those cocoons you find must have hatched into something. And the hatched chrysalis were quite a bit larger than the man flies here too, large enough to be able to spawn a Kindred.

In this room we find another Crucible Talisman that gives further insight into the Hornsent:

Spoiler

"A talisman fashioned from thin feathers that embody the aspects of various creatures. Said to have grown on the human body long ago. Improves backsteps but increases damage taken at all times. Hornsent view the Crucible as sacred for the refinement wrought through its evolutionary gifts. Most prominently, their tangled horns."

Seems like those talismans are "evolving" too, heh. This whole deal with the Crucible and the "evolutionist" aspect of the world of this game is pretty fascinating. The fact you can find primordial or ancestral origins to so many things. It's a strange thing to have those Darwinistic "origins of the spieces" in a game that is basically high fantasy and could have just explained things in a more supernatural or mystical way.

BTW, the implication of the talisman here may be that those Brundleflies are a result of the Hornsent getting involved a bit too much with this evolutionist aspect of the Crucible, leading to consequences they didn't forsee.

We finally get to the Crucible Knight, and sadly, it appears it's not a boss fight, but just a field enemy:

Gotta say, why didn't they make this into an actual boss fight:



This was the third attempt and didn't expect him to go down so fast. The first time he started hopping with centaur legs or something and instant killed me. The second time he killed me with that spinning thing with the hammer. So on the third try i figured i could punish that with the ancient lighting bolt and turns out it worked far better than i expected. I wasn't even planning the final lighting strike i just knew it was going to be a kill shot purely by instinct. Oh well, let's see what the deal is here:

Spoiler

First, the hammer:

Spoiler

"Great hammer wielded by Devonia, longest-serving of the Crucible Knights. Weapon forged of primordial gold, marked by its reddish hue and inhabited by ancient holiness. A torrent of life is engraved upon the striking face."

That's a pretty flowery description i gotta say. Interesting bit about the "reddish hue" being a form of "primordial" gold.

The helm goes a bit deeper:

Spoiler

"Helm worn by Devonia, longest-serving of the Crucible Knights. Holds the power of the crucible of life, the primordial form of the Erdtree. Strengthens Aspects of the Crucible incantations. It is said Devonia quested in search of the Crucible's origin, and departed from the lands of the Erdtree alone."

I'm pretty sure we had already established in the base game that the Erdtree had its origin in the Crucible. So this is just some elder knight, the eldest of them all it seems, going on a quest to discover the origins of the Crucible and made it all the way here.

BTW, now that i think of it, Crucible spells are of a slightly "darker" shade of gold, aren't they? So i guess the gold of the Erdtree has its origin here.

So finally we get to what definitely appers to be the final cross of Miquella:

We also get a few notes, the first one by Dryleaf Dane (we also get his final ash of war here as well), where it says he finally found the "sealing" tree (le what), and basically spells it out that in order to burn it away the kindling of Messmer is needed. The next note is from Leda:

Spoiler

"Message left by Needle Knight Leda, addressed to kindred spirits who also pursue Miquella's trail. "Dane passed on a message... The sealing tree is in the ancient ruins of Rauh. It lies beyond the high bridge leading from the first floor of the storehouse. I will join you there, once I have finished the task at hand.""

Ok then. Not sure i wanna meet this bitch again. I got the feeling she has a little surprise in store for me.

Anyway, i was gonna stop here but i was compelled to scout ahead a little bit and lo, the final Furnace Golem:

As you approach the bridge this thing shoots a "spiral" flame. Either this is an indication those golems were originally employed by the Hornsent (the one blocking the entrance to the town of Unte is still on my mind), or more likely that Salza guy left this thing here. In fact, what if the "old ruin" he spared was the town of Unte?

In either case, i was compelled to make a video since i wanted to showcase how Pest Threads work with this thing:

I actually just recorded this because somebody asked in a steam thread what the best way to kill those things is, so i just wanted to showcase the Pest Threads method. Had to immortilize it at least once i guess:

 

[Lyric Suite]

~ Part 49: Rotten Affair ~
​

Spoiler

Alright, let's finish this!

First off, wtf is going on here. Why are those Hornsent mages using those bouncy fire spells as if they were a slinky?

Spoiler

100% there's probably going to be YET another Curseblade up there too. I think i'll find another way to get in.

On the other side of this i find an enclosed little pool area with a spirit spring puzzle in the middle, the first one that actually makes sense:

The little pile of ghost rocks you need to knock down to unlock this is way up. Not really a puzzle but at least it makes sense why this one would be locked, where all the others felt pointless since the thing to unlock them was like two meters away.

Anyway, nowhere to go from here. There is however a path parallel to this. Under a shady spot beneath one of those ruin platforms there's a whole bunch of ghost howls that give off a pretty knewl atmosphere:

Perfect spot to farm those slumber eggs too for anyone that cares to do so. They even drop Best Horn and Spirit Calculus.

Now further down here there is a pretty long jump you have to make which lands you right at the bottom of a dilapidated tower, only the outer frame surviving. There's a miranda flower here and pretty much it's obvious this area is the way to the Church of Bud or near to it at any rate. There's a spell here which indicades those miranda flowers are remnant of the Crucible as well:

Spoiler

"Aspect of the Crucible discovered in the ancient ruins.

Creates a miranda flower on one's chest before calling down a rain of light.
Charging increases potency.

In an age long past, before this land was enshrouded in shadow, the vitality of the Crucible flourished."

There's enough Crucible spells now that one could LARP as a full blown Crucible knight using nothing but these.

Also around here we find one of those "buds", confirming this is the way:

Spoiler

"A large, rotten bud that will never come into bloom. Material used for crafting items. Grows in lands blighted by the scarlet rot. There was a time when these buds were not touched by the scarlet rot's blight—when they were the symbol of the small church deep in the ancient ruins of Rauh."

So something happend in this church that spawned the scarlet rot and everything associated with it. There's a bunch of those disgusting flying scorpions, and i see the little ones like to hang around the big ones too:

BTW, i assume there's a way to actually get up there, right?

Looking at the map it seems i'm now right on top of the Scorpion River Cave too. Everything in DLC has a logical place it seems.

From this point on there's a rather tough section with a lot of strong enemies. A bloodfiend boss (which i cheesed with spells), two Horned Warriors (which i cheesed with spells) and as predicted, a third Curseblade ambush (which i cheesed with spells. Mmmh, i like cheese). There's also this dude in the distance which never took a shot at me while i was doing all that, which i'm not sure if bug or something:

Behind me i think there's the way to the Church of the Bud:

But something caught my eye when i was killing the Curseblade, which is that there's a whole bunch of those mages just playing balls with each other:

Spoiler

I know this is supposed to be a trap of some kind but it looks pretty comical.

On this floor we find Hornsent worshipping yet another kind of idol, this time an altar with a Scadutree fragment next to it:

The very faded design of the figure at the base appears to be of two trees, touching but not intertwining:

Possibly what the Scadutree was originally, two different trees?

Nothing else here but a bridge that leads further up. From here i emerge onto an open space with one of those divine bird warriors:

Boy, i can only image what this would look like if i could turn Ray Tracing on (probably like total shit lmao).

We finally get our hands on his spell, the Divine Bird Feathers (oh is that what they were? Feathers?):

Spoiler

"A technique of the divine bird warriors, the very first of all horned warriors, wielded as an incantation.

Spread the arms wide like wings to release a flurry of feathers. This incantation can be cast while in motion. Hold to continue releasing feathers.

The divine bird warriors, and indeed this technique, are said to bear resemblance to the golden Crucible."

I thought the primordial gold of the Crucible was reddish in color? This is straight up gold. In either case, it's clear this is the same gold of the Erdtree, just antecedent to it.

From here there's an entrance to what i presume was that rot cave with all those Kindreds, but for some reason i'm still not eager to get in there (heh).

Rather, there's an inviting "secret" pathway off a cliff nearby:

After dropping down there's a corpse with a bunch of Four-Toed Fowl Foot thingies. They liked this joke so much they had to do it twice.

Following this i find a lift in the middle, but the path keeps going where i end up meeting those guys:

I can only presume what they are supplicating to is either Belurat or the Shadow Tower:

Why do i get the sense those guys aren't welcome in the Hornsent city?

I tried my best to get a close shot of their face and i still can't understand what it is i'm looking at:

From here there's a passage in the wall that leads to a chest containing the one Crucible Talisman to rule them all:

Spoiler

"A giant mass of intermingling Crucible attributes. Reduces damage taken from critical hits and head shots and improves the effectiveness of rolling and backstepping, but also increases damage taken at all times. Rumored to have sprouted upon giants and is known as the "mother of Crucibles" in ancient tower lore."

Would those "giants" be the ones i saw in the Specimen Storehouse? From here i can make it back to that lift, and from up there i get a full view of the Shadow Tower. Just how big is this place?

I hope it's some bad ass legacy dungeon to top this DLC off. From up here i can also see what i presume is the Church of the Bud Spencer:

Now riding down a long staircase, and killing that giant archer who finally decided to wake up, i reach that temple structure where i find a bunch of Hornsent praying at its feet. I reach the place and shit, here we go again:

Well, let's get down to it:

Nice gimmick there with the death frogs, would be a shame if someone were to just use cheese:



I wonder if he was ever going to start his elemental phases or whether the death frogs was the only phase he had. It's a bit sad to see this boss repeated here like this considering just how grand the first one was. In my head canon, i'm just going to assume this is a lesser version of it, screw it.

Let's see what that shit he dropped is:

Spoiler

Knewl, we get what is basically his weakest elemental attack lmao:

Spoiler

"The tempest of the Dancing Lion, wielded as an incantation.

A whirlwind-like twist of the body summons a storm, launching a tornado forward.
Charging enhances potency.

The majority of divine beasts were gored and hung upon Messmer's spears, then burned in his flame. Those who witnessed the deed likened it to a funeral pyre for the tower itself."

Just how many of those beasts were there?

It seems i actually reached the end of the line here, time to go check out this Church of the Bud once and for all.

On the first level of this rot area, i end up in a room with a bunch of Kindreds of Rot, some loot and at the end one of them worshipping that mysterious statue:

And on one of the corpses here i actually find a bunch of Fly Mold, which all but confirms those Kindreds of Rot are actually the final evolution of the Brundlefly Hornsent. It has to be.

Going further down this way, i end up outside and i don't know why they keep bothering with this when there's gonna be so much spoilage about it lol:

And lo and behold, i just found the light version of that dark altar from the ruins of Unte:

Now this turns the sword into a light version, but what's amazing is that you can turn it back to the dark version by going back to Unte. And not only that but it even keeps the upgrades. I had to check the wiki to see what the opinion on those swords is and it seems the real effect is that this one gives a buff to your holy damage, where as the dark version applies a debuff on enemies.

I'm going to assume this whole deal with light and dark is some kind of primordial antecedent to the contrast between gold and shadow, now intertwined in the Scadutree. Before gold, there was just light, in some incredibly distant age given the sword is literally fossilized when you find it. There's a whole thread dedicated to this with a some real good close up of the swords:

https://www.reddit.com/r/EldenRingL...9/ancient_civilization_of_light_and_darkness/

If you look close to the swords, you can see there are "roots" at the... well, root of the sword, out of which either the light or that dark spiral comes out. On the light sword, the roots are actually gold.

The lore around this is pretty cool, and i wish we were given a bit more info. At anyrate, time to move on. I guess this is the way to the Church:

On the base level here, i find two interesting things. First, a more powerful version of an already powerful spell:

Spoiler

"Skill of the pests known as the Kindred of Rot, now wielded as an incantation.

Secrete numerous sticky threads, then twist them into two spears launched frontwards. Charge to enhance potency.

The pests are abandoned servants, and it is for this reason that they found a mother in the Saint of the Bud."

"Abandoned servants". Don't try to instill doubts on my theory those guys are born out of the Brundleflies. It's too cool of a theory to let it go! So anyway, i went to check google and apparently the Kindred of Rot are the children of Malenia. So i guess the theory is busted lmao. But then, when in the hell are those Brundleflies giving birth to?

In either case, do we have an actual name for that female figure? Saint of the Bud?

Down here we also i find what i presume is the final Greater Potentate Cookbook, one that allows to craft something useful for a change, Hefty Rot Pots. I mean i don't mind crafting in this game and there are many useful things you can make it's just that crafting feels more like something that would be useful early on, not at such a late stage. But i
guess in this DLC they had to follow the same template as the base game so they just gave us a whole new series of cookbooks. At any rate the Rot Pot gives us a new bit of info:

Spoiler

"Rot is one of the divine elements of the outer gods, and eats away at life like a vicious plague."

So it is then, the origin of rot is the influence of yet another outer god, one whose purpose apparently is to eat away at life. Given that the Greater Will has created life, this appears to be in direct opposition to that.

BTW, as soon as i step on those stairs we finally get confirmation those potentate cookbooks are the work of the Hornsent NPC, since the stupid bastard tries to invade me and kill me as soon as i step on the stairs. I don't know why though, all NPC invasions in this DLC are super weak. All i had to is beat him over the head with the Great Stars until he died, literally killed him first try. There was some tough NPCs in the base game so i'm not sure what's up with this. He doesn't say a word sadly and after killing him we just get his stuff, which i already dealt with earlier.

Finally, we reach this church and what would you know, it's an actual boss fight!

Man, what is it with this poor thing? She was surprisingly easy considering how late you meet her:



To make it a bit more of a challenge, i decided to scale it down with the buffs and tried to see if it was possible to kill her before the bloockstucking tear tick got me instead. But even with this ticking bomb over my head it still wasn't super hard. Beautiful boss though, and the moveset was fairly fun all the same.

BTW, do you guys like that trick of getting caught in her body so that you can get dragged along with her when she scurries out of the way? It happened by accident the first time but then i figured out how to do it every time lol.

So, let's see what her deal is:

Spoiler

Now the remembrance tells us this:

Spoiler

"Remembrance of Romina, Saint of the Bud, 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.

After the church was burned to the ground, Romina discovered a twisted divine element, which she weaved into the baleful scarlet rot.

Perhaps then, the buds might find somewhere to gain purchase once more, within the scorched remains."

So the rot came into being as a consequence of the crusade. What was Romina's role before? Why were those buds so important, that she had to go to this extend to try to make them grow again, even on scorched ground?

The spear makes it clear just how much those buds meant to her:

Spoiler

"Once, in the crumbling, burning church, Romina held the bud in speechless silence.
That bud would become her blade."

Where as the spell now gives us some contradicting info:

Spoiler

"The scarlet butterflies are as the Goddess of Rot's wings. Bereft of a master, they were soothed by Romina, who reached out to them."

So who is this Goddess of Rot now, Malenia? If that's the case how can Romina be the origin of the rot? I mean the way i'm reading this is that after Malenia was killed by yours truly, both the Kindred of Rot and the butterflies were taken in by Romina. It's possible that for them this was just a return to the origin.

Another explanation though is that the Goddes of Rot is this outer god, and that Malenia was trying to turn into that. On Romina's wiki entry, there's a whole slew of items from the base game that relate to the rot. There's so much info it's easier to just take a screenshot of it:

Spoiler

Making sense of all this is gonna take quite a bit of time and it's already kinda of late here, so i'll leave that for later. I got all the info here anyway.

Before moving forward i decided to check whether there were some signs of what this place and Romina's functions were before the Crusade, but there's not much here, just the usual Romanesque reliefs:

And there are those curious guys sticking out of this tower. Rapresentation of spirits perhaps?

At any rate, i guess it's finally time!

So this was the thing sealing away the Shadow Tower this whole time?

But wait! Before setting it off there's more stuff here that may be of significance. First, this curious design on the floor, which is rather floral in character:

Including this one here in the center:

Also, i'm pretty sure this is a bud:

And those guys next to me, i recognize them as the ones that filled up those staircases at the entrance of Belurat. Upon closer inspection, they appear to be draped with those carpets you find on top of roofs both in Belurat as well as those Hornsent ruins, not to mention the armor of those Horned Warriors:

Are those guys the actual Sculpted Keepers?

BTW while i was here looking at shit i actually decided to take the opportunity to look at the face of that biggus hammer you get from the Crucible Knight:

So you can literally slam the root of the Crucible tree right in the face of people. Kinda of bad ass if you ask me.

It's now finally time to actually set this thing off. Burn baby burn:

After some cool animation where the shadows finally fall off as the roots melt away we get to this what this thing actually looked like this whole time!

That's bloody impressive. And of course it turns out it is after all a legacy dungeon. Nice, at least this DLC won't go out in a whimper.

Need to go to bed now. Exscuse any spelling errors i'm too tired to proof read this i'll do that tomorrow lol.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So this past couple of days i had zero time to play, and will likely won't be able to resume until tomorrow so for now i decided to take care of a few left overs before embarking in the last dungeon (i took a quick peek and wow, looks amazing as always. Say what you will about FromSoft but their art departement is still incredible).

~ Part 50: Leftovers ~​

Spoiler

So the thing has finally been revealed:

Can't wait to see what's inside.

But first, there's two paintings i had left but it seems i wasn't able to solve them, so i just decided to google it and get it over with. The first apparently could only be solved AFTER revealing the Shadow Tower. I tried my best to find the right angle that looked like the picture but eventually i gave up. With the limited time i have to play this it's not worth fessing over this. so this is the place:

What you find is pretty cool though, a seal for spiral spells adds a bit of "secret" lore as well:

Spoiler

"The majesty of the white tower, stretching to reach the gods, even inspired a secret faith in the invaders, the people of the Erdtree."

The next painting i should probably have been able to figure out on my own but come on, can't even see the damn thing:

Good thing google exists because you get sone really cool looking shield, which i guess if you had figured this out earlier would reveal that Messmer was the son of Marika but we know that now:

Spoiler

"A finely-made "redshield" featuring an engraving of a winged serpent. Excels at guarding against fire. Said to have been made to commemorate the beginnings of the crusade started by Messmer, son of Marika."

Oh well, it be what it be.

Lastly, i decided to see if there was any NPC left. Thiollier is still there but he has nothing to say. Moore and his forager buddy are nowhere to be seen. The only one left is Grandma Hornsent:

And ho my does she have a few things to say. She is fairly ecstatic about my "deed", of administering just recompense to "our" foes, and i can only assume this line is about Messmer. I guess i should have come here right after killing him. It seems she wants me to celebrate by "partaking" in her disgusting cooking (no wonder Messmer called those people savages):

Spoiler

"Scorpion simmered in a black soup.
An exquisite dish chock-full of mouth-watering scorpion claws.

Boosts physical damage negation temporarily and gradually
restores a great amount of HP.

The thoughts and feelings of the cook melt and blend into the
stew, but those who can distinguish the taste of love are few and
far between.

"Partake, partake, until thou art sated.""

Kinda of hilarious how i made a joke earlier about Grandma making these with love and the game now makes the same joke. Of course, Grandma may be loveable and all but i haven't forgotten about the Shamans. Still, i cannot help but like her. The next line she has is really cute:

Spoiler

• Sculpted Keeper, O great and gallant Sculpted Keeper...
• Wert thou by this old maid unduly push'd? Into facing such labours as thou didst?
• Has our grave resentment fettered thee?
• With such bounteous fury didst thou dance...
• I cannot presume thou didst not suffer...
• Please, I ask thee, allow thyself some rest.
• None of the tower would dare interfere.
• And if one should, I'll see to them myself!
• Ha ha ha...

She now begins to fade away, and has a line about being unable to tell dream from reality, after which she falls asleep. Could it be St. Trina is interferring here?

Anyway, i gotta go to work lmao next up is Enir-Ilim!

 

[Lyric Suite]

~ Part 51: Enir-Ilim (I) ~
​

Well, to my eternal chagrin i was forced to leave town for over a week and had to put this let's play on hold right as i was about to finish it. It wasn't even work related like fucking relatives lmao. Anyway, let's get this over with once and for all been dragging this shit longer than the base game:

Spoiler

So, we finally made it to this damn place, and already we start to find new additions to the lore, like this viking style funeral boat thing:

As well as this enigmatic sculpture:

Is this actually the "wife and child" the Hornsent was talking about? I mean it's logical to assume he was talking about his own wife and child, but at the same time it's strange that he invokes the "mother" first, and i wonder if there wasn't more to it to the wife and child as well. In fact, i wonder if those two figures were the twin trees all along. The horn growth wounds like a spiral, as does everything here, including Enir-Ilim itself. Even those incence burners are spiral shaped, with the smoke flowing upwards like spirits, while those candelabras are boat shaped.

And of course we also find those guys again:

I'm not sure if there's a hierarchy here since there's no consistency in which ones are shown to be larger or smaller, though it appears the one with the medieval haircut is shown to be largest more often, where as the one with the small scepter figured more commonly in the Hornsent towns (so i guess there was consistency after all shiiieet).

BTW, there was a Messmer grease up the stairs here which is interesting. Did he make it all the way up here?

Finally, we emerge onto the base of the tower and wow, let there be beautiful:

In the distance i spot YET another Curseblade bitch. Like, look at this fucking asshole can they stop with this:

But more interesting are what appears to be souls hanging off the base of those pillars:

The trees here are also made out of souls it seems:

Are those souls at the base of those pillars supposed to be real?

Either way, at the entrance of this place there was one of those bird Hornsent warriors, and i was wondering what kind of enemies i might find here. Turns out it's those damn inquisitors:

I see. Most of them appear to be beholding parts of this tower, while some are worshipping those trees with those souls woven into them:

At the bottom of this level we find a bunch of Brundleflies, some worshipping one of those Crucible idols which is at the base of this very tree here:

I think ultimately those fly people are just the failed outcome of whatever evolutionary effect the worship of the Crucible is having on the Hornsent, probably Hornsent who attempted to rise to the station of inquisitor and contracted this sickness instead, otherwise why would they be here. There's a corpse with a budding horn here, again underscoring the evolutionary effects of the Crucible, but more curiously still there's a tree surrounded by worship implements that has an actual rune arc at the base:

How did it even get here?

Eventually, we find the first challenging section of this area. There's yet another version of those Hornsent warriors, one that is wearing a smaller version of the lion head and i think it's the last rank a sculpted keeper can achieve before he can actually become a cavorting lion dancer. This guy is a pain in the ass to kill, but then the game adds insult to injury by putting some kind of trap right next to him with some fucker casting a beefed up spira spell that at first seemed impossible to get past, and every attempt required me to kill the lion guy. After dying half a dozen times i finally figured it out:

Of course, being the scrub i am i tried to just make a run for it but the lion dude came after my ass and beat the shit out of me. Just look at this smug fucker:

Eventually i figured out a method though. I turns out if you get close during their spazzy elemental power up animation you don't actually get hurt, and they always seem to default to one or two attacks as their opening strike after that. So being able to prepare for it, i was able to find a way to kill them easily:



Finally i get to kill the damn bastard, only to notice there's another one waiting for me up there lol. That wasn't hard though, just use arrows to cheese him. Still not sure what those guys are, but they remind me of those horned people down in the underground areas in the original game:

The fact all the Hornsent people use drapes as clothing, and like to drape even their buildings is so strange yet it's a fascinating aesthetic touch. All the statues of the sculpted keepers are also draped like this, and Grandma Hornsent as well.

BTW, the Spira spell those guys use was nearby, and it has this to say:

Spoiler

Superior sorcery of the tower priests, wielded as an incantation of the spiral.

Wrap one's arms together and hold them up to the heavens to summon a spiral of light that erupts at the enemy's feet.
Column of light persists for as long as the button is pressed.

The spiral is a normalized Crucible current that, one day, will form a column that stretches to the gods.

Am i to get from this description that this whole damn tower was formed by a "current" of the Crucible? Does it mean those souls i saw pending off the pillars were actually real, and not some bizzare sculpture?

I also found some ashes of a pair of inquisitors, which has this wierd line at the end of their description: "Inquisitions often perplexed the minds of the uninitiated, and so seniority was viewed as an asset.". Well, ok then, whatever that means?

Before going further i spotted a distant ledge near where i found those inquisitor ashes, and this leads to a long stretch across perilous ledges and a window you need to jump through which finally takes you to a "secret" section of Belurat. There's some cool atmosphere on the way down:

Spoiler

But the most interesting part is another of those statues of woman and child, this time covered with ceremonial drapes with a Scadutree fragment underneath:

Wonder what the implication is here? Are those figures related to the Scadutree?

From here, past a group of inquisitors i encounter yet another lion warrior, using a different kind of elemental spell. This was pretty tense since dying meant having to come down here all over again, but luckily the tactic i came up with earlier actually worked again. I did get smacked in the face once but i managed to kill him in the end. Opening the doors i find myself in front of this elaborate altar which definitely shows there's some kind of hierarchy going on here with those statues:

The reward for this entire detour apparently is some legendary twinblade:

Spoiler

I decided to google it to see what exactly it is this thing does and i discovered this comes form some cut content from the original game which explains quite the shit ton:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/..._else_think_the_old_euphoria_lore_was_better/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/17qpqqa/i_hope_this_weapon_makes_it_into_the_dlc/

So wait does it mean those statues i saw all over the place here are of Miquella and Malenia? How? How could they be related to Enir-Ilim? Unless the lore of the cut content no longer applies. Apparently Euporia means "abudance" in Greek so that part was at least kept, but no reference to the "decay" portion though.

I don't know how it would be possible that those statues are of Malenia and Miquella given this tower is how Marika ascended to godhood in the first place. The theme of abudance and decay is of course pretty significant here, with the Crucible in general and then that whole part with Romina etc.

Anyway, i'm gonna cut this in two parts and finish up the second after dinner while my fight with Leda and her fuckers uploads. Stay tuned, Radahn is coming shortly as well.

 

[Lyric Suite]

~ Part 52: Enir-Ilim (II) ~
​

Spoiler

So, the next section is away!

Past that door we find what has to be the LAST Miquella cross (right? RIGHT?). Here, it seems, he has abandoned all his fears.

From here on it seems i'm literally on the roof of the tower, and there's like sand all over the tiles, and it seems it is dripping down from above:

Is this supposed to mean the tower is crumbling or something?

Now we meet a bunch of grave birbs that shoot discs of light at me, and to avoid them i managed to fall onto this ledge but no way to get back up from here:

While i was contemplating what to do i actually started sinking down and fell to my death. Well shit, thanks Obama. I mean, look at this nosense lol:

BTW again with those guys:

I'm sure the lore people are having a field day with this.

Past the birbs we find this small chapel with one of those Crucible idols but why is this one defaced?

Speaking of those wretched souls again, it seems at some point they give onto what appears to be angelic figures. Is this supposed to rapresent some kind of ascension?

There's a couple more lion warriors here and it's interesting how each has a different elemental mode. I guess only those who master them all get to be cavorting dancers.

We find the spirit ashes of one, the regular Horned warrior with the large sword:

Spoiler

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

This heavily-armored guardian spirit of the tower attained inhuman strength through divine invocation, and wields a curved greatsword that brings horns to bear on its foes.

In the tower, these warriors and their weapons both are spiritual vessels."

But we also get our hands on the head, which functionally is basically just a smaller, less powerful but more fashionable version of the big one:

Spoiler

"A helm of tangled horn attached to a divine beast mask, allowing the wearer to invoke divinity. Worn by divine beast warriors; the chosen of the horned warriors. Divine invocation heightens intensity of the storm alongside strength and dexterity, but reduces the restorative effect of drinking from a flask of sacred tears. Focus is also troubled by wearing this helm."

The armor meanwhile pretty much says what i suspected, that among the "beast" warriors (as they appear to be called), only those who excel at "divine invocation" become sculpted keepers, and are "granted" the honor of the dance. There was what appeared to be a library of sort close to where i found the ashes, i assume this is where the beast warriors study to become sculpted keepers:

Around here i also find what is probably the last new consumable in the game, a Sunwarmth Stone, where we are told that sunlight "feels all the warmer in darkened lands".

Inside the next tower i come across an altar which this time puts all three figures as equals:

On top of this thing we find the final piece of the gravebird set, the helm, which however adds no extra lore on those things.

At last we emerge onto a wide open area, in the distance an entire row of pillars ending in those struggling souls:

There was one final beast warrior here which drops the large sword and i'm pretty sure this is the first time it dropped. I'm so glad i didn't try to farm it before i guess it was just a guaranteed drop from this one here specifically. I also get to where the Curseblade was but there's nothing of note there, just an Ancient Dragon Stone.

Anyway, here's a cool shot of the spiral tower juxtaposed to the scat tree:

And here's an overview of the next area, some kind of large temple complex:

Now, at the entrance i noticed this time there's only one of those figures, and it just so happens to be the one that is always shown to be smallest, and is often doubled:

Inside there's an altar with the same:

Can't be just a coincidence that the least of those mysterious factions happens to be singled out right at the apex of the tower, right?

At anyrate, as suspected, it has finally come to this:

Of course, i can't really blame her since she was kinda of right about everybody, the Hornsent, Ansbach and of course myself since i did come to kill Miquella. I kinda of chuckled when she asks why did i even come to this lands, since i have no actual idea myself. She ends up referring to Miquella as her "Eminence" and thinks this whole thing, even my coming onto the Shadow Lands, was what either him or the Erdree desired all along, a kinda of clashing of lords to see who would prevail (there can be only one!).

No matter, time for the bitch to die!

Ok, can't say i really enjoyed this one, not with zero Scadutree blessings. The damage output without blessings is too small to kill one before the next one shows up, and the AI has infinite aggression so once there's two in the arena is game over since they just won't stop chasing you and without blessings i got instant gibbed by even the lightest touch. I tried my hardest and succeeded in killing Freyja before she healed (she is really fun to kill with parry but i couldn't use that set up since it's useless for all the others, especially Moore and Dane), but while doing that i noticed Moore is scripted to come out once her health reaches a certain point meaning this whole fight cannot possibly be intended to be done solo, blessings or no blessings.

Moore btw was also quite problematic. He took forever to kill and any hope i had of getting rid of him before Dane and Leda showed up just died with him. Luckily, Ansbach is timed to come up right then and he is a huge help (not so for Thiollier i gotta say lol).

After that, all i had to do is manage to split Dane and Leda, preferably Dane since he seemed to be easier. Sadly, by that point all the buffs expired which means it took me forever to put him down. At some point he got aggroed by Thiollier and i tried to see if rot could be used to cut down on their health at least but it was pointless they move around too much for that.

I will say probably the most frustrating thing is that they all have infinite posture. If you could break their stance it would just be less of a chore to kill them but apparently cannot be done. Only fight in the game so far where i think doing it without Scadutree blessings just made it unfun and frustrating.

Moving on then:

Spoiler

So this large hall is where the lion must have danced, while all the sculpted keepers observed. There's a few of those boat shaped candelabra:

And the ceiling has a certain "Roman" appearance, heh:

Also, is this the first time the twinned tree carving appeared on an actual wall instead of a stone tablet laying on the ground?

Scattered around the arena i now find all the corpses of the NPC i just killed each with their respective gear.

From Moore's armor, we learn this "vedrigris" metal is said to be the gift of an outer god, and that this metal possesses an enourmously hefty yet "supple" strength thanks to its "rusted" nature. I can only presume this is the same outer god which Romina discovered. The shield meanwhile has this bizzare description:

Spoiler

"Greatshield made of the unusual metal known as verdigris. Boasts greater guard capacity than damage negation. To the extent that the shield will continue to protect its target even if its bearer should die."

I think it is just a convoluted way to explain why the guard boost of this shield is so high (highest in the game i believe).

Now, next up is Freyja. First, her helm gives an interesting bit of lore:

Spoiler

"Golden helm of Redmane Freyja, member of General Radahn's most distinguished knights. A hideous scarlet wound was once hewn into the center of her face. Later, Miquella gently put his lips to it and the unfading scar became the compass that Freyja would thereafter follow."

I'm guessing she stood up in front of the path of Malenia to defend her lord and was seriously wounded and may have either been saved or spared the faith of Radahn from the base game by Miquella. The rest of the armor just explains why Radahn chose her as one of her most distinguished knights not much of interest there. The sword is apparently made in imitation of Radahn and is decorated with a "mane" like his, which i never noticed before.

Honestly aside for the design of the armor this whole character was sort of boring.

From Dane we get a final martial art which focuses on kicks, with this description:

Spoiler

"A technique for hand-to-hand combat without the aid of a weapon. This martial art focuses on kicking techniques. This kick-based martial art is unique to Dane, a Dryleaf and sworn ally of Leda. He acquired these skills by training with the aid of a waterfall; letting the water beat his body, and throwing himself into its basin."

A bit too animu for my tastes lmao.

Now, Leda's sword confirms what i suggested way back:

Spoiler

"Light greatsword with gold inlaid. Weapon of Leda, the Needle Knight. Deals holy damage. Though polished to a mirror sheen, this blade still reeks with the stench of crusted blood that lingers from the cull of her knightly comrades."

So this paranoid psycho really did murder all the needle knights. I also wonder if the last line in the description of her armor is something she made up:

Spoiler

"Chest armor of Needle Knight Leda. Slightly strengthens attacks following a dodge roll or backstep, as well as dash attacks. Embroidered with a golden crossed-tree motif, the chalk white cloak and surcoat symbolize the honor of the Needle Knights. "Kindly Miquella fashioned us as his needles to quell all, to ward away all.""

Given all we know of Miquella, i have an hard time believing he would fashion nights to "quell" anyone, as that doesn't seem to be his thing. The armor is also unique and different from the one you find in the Oathkeeper set so i get the sense this was a delusion of Leda.

So, time to move towards the end, but first, couple of more beauty shots i took which i don't want to just erase like that:

Spoiler

So, Ansbach is there, and he is ready to join the fray against Miquella, though he admits he cannot calm his quevering at the prospect of challenging a god. He expresses admiration for how Thiollier has conducted himself in battle (he sucked but hey, at least he did show up), and then surpringly reveals he knew i was the one who killed Mogh all the time, but he assures me he bears no grudges. A bro to the end!

Well, time to face the femboy child and his zombie husband! Well, not now later anyway lul (i actually did kill him but wasn't as clean a fight as i wanted so i'm giving it another go for the next coupe of days to see if i can do better). Oh, as a final piece to the Hornsent faction mystery, it's interesting how at the threshold of the divine gate they are all ranked as equal isn't it?

 

[Child of Malkav]

Enir Ilim is one of their best looking cities they've made. The architectural design and details are insane.

 

[Vorark]

Good posts! And agree with you, Ansbach is a true bro.

Looking forward to your analysis of the final boss, both lore and mechanics-wise. You'll even be able to compare it to the nerfed version.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Good posts! And agree with you, Ansbach is a true bro.

Looking forward to your analysis of the final boss, both lore and mechanics-wise. You'll even be able to compare it to the nerfed version.

Heh, the nerf sort of deflated my resolve, so i took a couple of days off so i could settle my rustled jimmies. Decided to give it a go this morning (well it was morning when i was typing this yersterday) and got a couple of no-hit videos, but he didn't do most of his special moves (not that they are that hard anymore) so i'm not too sure about it, may try for another before i settle for my "official" fight with Radahn. I even saw there's a mod to revert to the previous version, no need to start mucking around with that complicated method to roll back patches through steam id and any of that stuff, so i might even try that. For now i'm done with this game, can't take this shit anymore lmao:




Meanwhile this is the only 1.13.2 fight i have right now, guess it'll have to do:



To be honest i'm on the fence about this. The pre-nerf version did have a few issues. The criss-cross slash definitely didn't feel right. I was able to dodge it on occasion:



But for the most part it was instant death if i tried to roll it. Now sure, you could use a shield to block it, but with a mixed approach of rolling with medium shield as a safety net for the criss-cross slash, there were still issues. Specifically, blocking it in the second phase meant invariably you were gonna get struck by the light after effect, which often almost meant getting stunlocked for the whole combo. This applies for both the criss-cross attack and that five (sometimes six) attack combo which begins with that super fast swipe with his right arm. I didn't watch any of the follow up videos by Ongbal, i only saw the first where he uses the deflection hardtear so i have no clue if he found a solution (besides the hardtear). Maybe he just used his supernatural abilities to dodge it consistently i don't know. I doubt i could ever do that, it was too reliant on positioning if i could dodge it or not, and in the second phase the uneven terrain made it even more inconsistent (sometimes i dodged it without the slightest effort, just because i was at the right angle).

The other problem maybe is that it was indeed a bit boring that you couldn't punish some of his attacks. The bloodflame swipe, the simultanous double-cross, all you could do is dodge them and then wait for the next attack, unable to punsh those moves unless you had a really fast weapon. Those attacks weren't hard to avoid so it almost felt like a waste of time. Now you can punish both with a Square Off R1, which is an hefty amount of damage that definitely makes the fight easier.

Aside for that, i don't get all the other changes. I don't get why they had to drop his damage. Out of curiosity i did a max blessings try:



And whenever i got hit i didn't feel like the damage was that excessive, and keep in mind i had both the Sacred Scorption Charm and Marika's Soreseal! Why was it necessary to nerf the damage?

Also, i'm not sure i had a problem with the hitboxes that they allegedly fixed. Apparently there was some problems at long distance? Never noticed because i just hugged his ass at all times, like you are supposed to.

Lastly, i don't get why they had to drop the visual effects. I mean, in some cases, the fact you couldn't "see" was pretty much the point (like the bloodflame swipe, that's the whole idea with that attack), and i thought all the light show at the end was supposed to convey the fact you are fighting a literal God. Supposedly, people were experiencing massive FPS drops. With my 5700xt the fight was smooth as silk so i don't understand what the problem was. Ray tracing perhaps? Why wouldn't you turn that shit off if it was giving you issues?

In general, i still think i preferred the pre-nerf version just because of how epic it felt, but i think i'll concede it did have issues. I just sort of liked just how crazy spazzy he was, how everything hanged on literal microseconds. Made the fight incredibly intense. Now, he tarries after several attacks, some of his attacks have a slower start up (like the one where he throws his gravity balls at you), and just doesn't feel that tight of a fight anymore. Even the fact every time you dodged one of his attacks with those after images, i sort of liked your last roll would end up facing another combo right off the bat.

I think a compromise between the new version and the old version would be best. They might even go that way. Oh there's also one last bit of RNG which if they are so concerned about fixing things should probably take care of. On the attack where he throws those rocks and then follows up with all those after images, sometimes the rocks decide not to travel the distance sufficient for you to be able to outrun the follow up. Now that you don't have to jump to avoid the rock makes the attack easier most of the times, but occationally you still get screwed, either because the rocks decide to cut their travel time short or if you run into a wall. I just wish there was a way to avoid the images up close to be honest, i hate having to run away it's such a waste of momentum.

I would say in terms of my approach, i think i enjoyed the way i was able to cheese both the Light of Miquella and the big nuke at the end. One pet peeve i have with bosses is attacks that have me waste time doing nothing (like running away). First, i discovered that if you don't hit him with a critical hit in the first phase, you'll spawn right in front of him instead of fifty miles away. Now this may be common knolwede but i actually didn't know and when i noticed this i just used it to my advantage. The Light of Miquella is actually super easy to avoid up close, all you need is Raptor of the Mists. The timing isn't even hard you just need to do it when you hear that high pitched noise fading out. The Light of Miquella opening occurs around 80% of the time, and moving closer to him seems to trigger it more often, so it's a good way to mess him up with some free hits at the start of the second phase. At full scadu the damage from the explotion is not even that high you can just decide to face tank it if you don't feel like using those esoteric ashes of war.

The second is the big gravity nuke, which as you can see in the video is also easy to cheese and gives you the opportunity to slam him twice, one before he flies off and then after he lands, which is a massive amount of damage basically for free. All you need to do is swallow your pride that you need to rely on an ash of war like Vow of the Indomitable. Supposedly it's even possible to roll through it normally, which i wish i had mastered since it would have looked even better but i gotta get this done enough of this.

Now let's get to the lore:

~ Part 53: Conclusion ~​

Spoiler

So ok, Radahn. To be honest i don't think i really like how they just reused him. I actually had no interest in fighting Radahn "in his prime", as that's not how FromSoft does things. Radahn in the base game was great precisely because of that whole aspect of him having gone mad due to the rot and the whole thing with the horse. The introduction for the consort version kinda of flies against FromSoft conventions, with the camera giving us several shots of Radahn's massive frame, him pulling the swords out of their sheaths with gravity magic etc as if the game was trying to sell us how cool this guy is which is completely out of character for this company (they already did that with Godfrey when he rips out Serosh off his back and i liked that better).

And then, how much in his prime is he really? Because in the second phase you also fight Miquella so can we really say this is Radahn? Looked at that way, his "prime" looks less grand than the supposedly "declining" version you fight in the base game. Unless that is supposed to be the point. While i'm typing this i have not read the lore in the Remembrance yet so perhaps there's more to this than what we are led to believe. One thing of note is that in the second phase you see Radahn golowing up in this red flame at which point Miquella emerges from the portal and claims he has "finally returned" (Radahn i mean). Does it mean it was only at this point that Radahn's soul entered his resurrected body? Even so, clearly the light magic in the second phase is from Miquella so one way or another this is not the "real" Radahn.

In either case, i already touched upon the parallels between Radahn and Godfrey, how they are both associated with lions, and how they are both "consorts" of their respective deities (Marika in the case of Godfrey). I'm still on the fence whether the whole homo angle is really there. Miquella is a child first of all, which implies he may not have an actual conception of what this "consort" deal is, he is just imitating his mother. He also refers to Radahn as "Lord Brother". Wonder if the word in the Japanese is aniki? I know, i'm coping hard here but it's just so damn disturbing (if this was Martin's idea i hope they tell the degenerate westoid fucker to stay away for good).

It's also unclear to me why exaclty i'm killing him lol. I guessing the game just assumes the player is faithful to the Erdtree in some way. How do we know Miquella wasn't gonna do better than his mother? St. Trina didn't seem to think so but then the fuck would she know she isn't even awake.

I gotta admit, despite my refusal to just admit the game has now teh faggotry, i literally flinched at this lmao:

Like ewww, he is actually trying to kiss me get the fuck away from me dude.

Now, let's see what the deal is here. First, the Remembrance:

Spoiler

"Remembrance of Radahn, consort of Miquella, 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.

In their childhood, Miquella saw in Radahn a lord. His strength, and his kindness, that stood in stark contrast with their afflicted selves.

And so Miquella made his heartfelt wish. That Radahn would one day be his king consort."

Again, i may just be coping but i get the sense from this that Miquella just wants to be like his mother, that's why he also wanted a "king consort", the way she had one. After killing Radahn, we get to see a brief cinematic of Miquella declaring he is going to be a god and wants Radahn to be his consort, but curiously Radahn isn't shown. Not much of an "ending", but then again the real ending of the game is still the one from the original this DLC is supposed to be a side quest that you can even do before you finish the base game so i guess there wasn't going to be much of a resolution even if they put more effort into it than this.

At the ending of the cinematic you get a Circlet of Light, with the following description:

Spoiler

"The circlet of light which adorned Miquella's head as he returned in divine aspect. It has begun to fade into nothingness.

Slightly boosts intelligence, faith, and arcane, while also boosting the power of Miquella's light.

This circle was to be the very foundation upon which Miquella's age of compassion would be built, should it have ever come to pass."

So it is already fading. Like everything about Miquella, even the symbol of his coming divine age appears to be still born.

In the arena we FINALLY get our hands on Ansbach shit, to be used for a NG+ run i'll likely never make since if i i'm ever going to replay this game i'll definitely start fresh. Let's see what we get all the same. Now i'm actually not sure but i think i already checked out his armor set when i was trying those alternative resultions to the NPC quests a while back. No matter, let's just post it again. First his mask:

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."

Such a cool guy i was half-hoping he wouldn't die, even if i did want his shit lmao. Meanwhile the armor gives us this:

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."

I think we definitely went over this one now that i remember. What is definitely new is this bad ass weapon, as well as this cool ash of war:

Spoiler

"Signature weapon of the Pureblood Knight Ansbach. A viciously keen and slender scythe made for combat.

The obsidian edge relies not upon trickery to fulfil its violent purpose—only well-honed skill is required to rip and rend through foes, sowing blossoms of red upon the battlefield."

Spoiler

"Incantation of Ansbach, Pureblood Knight.

Produces a bloodflame blade from the side of the hand, then lunges at enemies to cleave through them.
Charge to increase the number of slashes.

Markedly different from the finessed swordplay of the dynast, this is an aggressive last resort of an incantation that gave rise to Ansbach's fearsome reputation."

Oh boy, can't wait never to use those (i'll likely just find a way to transfer it all to a new character, if possible).

Let's turn to Thiollier now. First, apparently he actually had a weapon on him (game even makes it a point to call it a "concealed" weapon. The cheeky bastard where was he hiding this):

Spoiler

"Concealed weapon used by Thiollier, of a design generally favored by poison-wielders for dark and subtle purposes.

Like St. Trina, who blossomed in the deep-purple garden, a rich poison is secreted from within which sends its victims into an eternal sleep."

Meanwhile his mask gives us this:

Spoiler

"A mask upon which is carved a tranquil sleeping face. The silver hair is arranged in the same style as St. Trina's, increasing arcane. Just once, Thiollier was granted the sweet repose of velvety sleep. The remainder of his days would be spent attempting to recapture it."

Wait a second though, the mask looks like Miquella, not St. Trina. I get they were supposed to be the same entity, but i wonder if there's more to this than meets the eye. In the scene where Miquella is asking Radahn to be his consort (which i take is a vision from the past), you can't really see St. Trina, not as the way she appears when you meet her. My spider senses are now coming up with wild theories about Miquella not being actually Miquella and this whole DLC being just a dream St. Trina cooked up lmao. The fact you don't see Radahn while this "promise" is supposed to have been made. What if it was all a dream? Also, St. Trina claimed that Miquella shouldn't become a god because it would be like a "prison" to him. What if the "prison" is this dream precisely? The cinematic at the end with Miquella asking Radahn to be his consort while he surrounded by darkness, what if his faith is to be locked away in this delusion for eternity?

In either case, now that he is dead (Thiollier i mean), i hope he has found his eternal sleep after all. Meanwhile, i'm not sure what the deal is with the "thousand needles" mentioned in the armor:

Spoiler

"The dark attire of those who wield poison in secret. The silver hair is arranged in the same style as St. Trina's, increasing arcane. Additionally, countless needles are sewn onto the exterior, apparently for talismanic effect."

The rest of the set tells us those who wield poison in "secret" are ever scorned and loathed. It's funny how this game threats poison and rot as two different things, with rot having to do with undoing physical substances as part of that outer's god desire to undo reality itself, where as poison is related to slumber and oblivion. Interesting conceptual distinction.

At this point i decided to visit St. Trina and shit, she is dead:

Guess it wasn't a dream after all. She drops this thing, a blossom you can put in your head so you can complete your fem appearance:

Spoiler

"St. Trina's life withered and fell, as fleeting as the seasons. At her last, she left a single water lily. Slightly boosts max FP. Despite the velvety-purple hue, the flower is in no way poisonous—it merely blooms in quietude."

Finally, let's look what we get from Radahn's memory. First his weapons:

Spoiler

"Greatswords of black steel wielded by Radahn in his youth.
A pair of weapons decorated with a lion mane motif.

These were in his possession immediately before his triumph over the stars—the swords of a lord who does not rely on physical strength and gravity alone."

Apparently you can get two versions of these, a "lord" and "light" version. Same weapon, same description, different weapon arts. Kinda cool i guess.

You also get the Light of Miquella spell which has a frikking 72 faith requirement lmao. I assume it's likely total shit as this is how this game seems to roll when it comes to high level faith spells:

Spoiler

"The strength of Miquella upon his deific return, wielded as an incantation.

Annihilates foes with a pillar of light.

Miquella sought to accept all that was and would be, but found one that refused to be embraced.

No wonder, as one god, and one king consort, is all the world needs."

I don't like what this description is implying. I guess this means anyone who didn't want to conform to Miquella's new age was going to be obliterated. In fact, this description also seems to suggest Miquella was going to annihilate everything. After all, all the world needs is one god and one king consort, right? Miquella's new age was going to be one where all that existed was him and his "promised", which implies the "let us go toghether" cinematic at the end was supposed to be a glimpse of what his divine age would have been like.

Let's see if the "young" Radahn set has more to say about all this. First the helm:

Spoiler

"The golden helm worn by Radahn in his younger years. Proudly displaying his heroic red hair, it is fitting attire for a lion. When Malenia, Blade of Miquella, let the rotflower blossom in Aeonia, Radahn heard a murmur in his ear— "Miquella awaits thee, O promised consort.""

Now interesting how Freyja too recieved a visit by Miquella after being injured by Malenia. Is the implication here that Malenia was actually doing Miquella's bidding when she challenged Radahn? That this was all part of his plan, that he needed Radahn (the real one) to die so he could raise him in his "image", as one who had made a promise the real Radahn never actually made? Probably reading too much into it but speculating is fun.

The rest of the armor says pretty much the same thing, but i noticed one strange detail. In the sleeves of the armor, as well as the calves, there appears to be what looks like horns? I'm guessing those are just lion claws but my paranoid brain started thinking of the Hornsent etc. At first i thought i was probably seeing things, but if you actually look at them they are definitely horns:

Now this opens up a nice segway, because we gotta deal with the real interesting part of this whole epilogue, the fucking pillars of dead, melted shaman bodies forming the divince gate:

Like holy shit is this whole tower complex made out of shaman bodies too? Is that what those "souls" hanging off those spires really were all along? Like holy fuck man, no wonder Marika sent out Messmer to incinerate those fuckers. They don't have the golden flower hair of the shamans (which i now realize is what those rune arcs are made of), but the bodies are definitely melted:

BTW if you look around you also see a bunch of Hornsent corpses:

At first i was confused but if you look at them it feels they were trying to reach the divine gate but failed in the effort, so those bodies have nothing to do with the melted shamans:

The way they are positions definitely looks like they were stretching themselves towards the divine gate, and perished on their way up:

And if i had to take a guess, whatever process the Hornsent used to melt the bodies of the shamans, is probably what drew in that outer god and led to the irruption of the rot into this world.

I gotta be honest i think this is the real ending here the stuff with the Hornsent is so much more interesting than this homo Miquella shit.

So i guess this let's play is over with, whether i decide to give another go with Radahn or not, try to perfect his pre-nerf form.

All in all i think i'm going to rate this DLC around 7/10, this rating based on FromSoft standards (compared to the slop out there the DLC is still 10/10 but that's neither here nor there, we all know modern slop is shit), with bosses being around 8/10 or 9/10 for the most part. I honestly enjoyed most of it, but i had to pet peeves about first. First i didn't like how they gave up on the open world aspect. I know people hated it and claimed to be "glad" it's must more reduced here, but i think if you gotta do open world you need to go all the way or not bother. Limegrave in the base game remains the standard and i honestly wished they had been able to maintain that level through the whole thing. Clearly, they just didn't have the resourced to pull it off and had to start cornenrs, which affected the DLC as well as some areas are definitely somewhat rushed and some parts are likey more reduced than they would otherwise have been if they didn't have to spend so much time doing the open world stuff (Midra's Manse comes to mind).

It's still a great game, but i so wish they'd drop this open world stuff (and we all know they won't).

 

[Child of Malkav]

You see those horns on some armor parts because Miquella used Mohg's body to remake Radahn. During the fight be also uses a slash that leaves a trail of fiery blood, like most of Mohg's attacks and spells. Furthering the connection.
It's all sorts of fucked up.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Haaa that's right i had totally forgotten about that. The fact he uses that bloodflame attack even seems to suggest something of Mohg's soul is still there which opens up all sorts of possibilities (when Radahn glows in red at the start of the second cinematic, what does that mean?).

 

[Vorark]

I think the point is that we never get to fight a self-aware Radahn. It's either the rotted version, his mind and reasoning long lost, or him at his prime yet likely stripped of a will of his own, a puppet to Miquella.

 

[notpl]

Why would you assume Radahn is not in control of his faculties? I rather thought the entire point of the ending cutscene was to suggest the opposite. Miquella and Radahn were always promised to one another, Malenia just got in the way the first time. That might even be why she got in the way.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Well, Miquella is supposed to have this effect on others, including gods. It's what made Ansbach so scared of him.

 

[Vorark]

^ This. Also take into account that Miquella's great rune is the only way to counter the charm effect when you get grabbed by Promised Consort.

According to Ansbach:

Kindly Miquella has discarded his Great Rune. The fog that vexed my aging faculties has been lifted. And follies better left forgotten haunt me once again. Once, in an attempt to free Lord Mohg from his enchantment, I challenged Tender Miquella, only to have my own heart rather artfully stolen. I knew not how weak I was. I believed that with sufficient mastery, even an Empyrean would be within reach of my blade. I could not have been more mistaken… Miquella the Kind...is a monster. Pure and radiant, he wields love to shrive clean the hearts of men. There is nothing more terrifying.

Righteous Tarnished. Miquella the Kind makes my blood run cold. I am loath to admit it, but even at this very instant I wish to run very far away indeed.

It's just one possible interpretation though.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

Lyric Suite There is a new soulslike called "Enotria: The Last Song", which Mortismal says incorporates stuff from Italian folklore and music. Might be your kinda thing.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Yeah i heard about it but word is it's not that good sadly.

Then again, people told me Hell Point was utter shit but i actually ended up liking the game so i don't know. People are very harsh on those ghetto Souls-clones, possibly more than they deserve.