Wow excellent Most theories don't make sense But is it possible that the black knives were protecting iji As there were protecting ranni against blaidd And it's very clear that Blaidd is going mad. Here's the rub 1. Ijis helmet is off - same helmet that kept his location secret from their enemies - the golden order - the godslayer skin assassins Iji didn't fight back , nor did he kill himself The black knives were protecting him He simply removed his helmet making himself the enemies intent on killing ranni aware of his presence A godskin assassin after ranni came to the carian manor and killed iji The flame didn't need to change It was always the lesser version
@@Chessheromusici never thought of that, after all the Black assassins worked with Ranni. The only hole in this theory is that their ringleader is imprisoned in the Moon Altar, so it doesn't make sense why the Black assassins would still work for her.
Just a note, I don’t think Iji lied about Blaidd being Ranni’s half-brother, as that might be a title or some sort of category given to empyrean shadows, because Maliketh is also referred to as Marika’s half-brother on an item description
Blaidd seems like he was raised as Ranni’s adoptive brother since Iji also tells us that the two grew up together, played together, and were basically inseparable ever since Blaidd met her
A shadow is quite literal in Elden Ring. It's basically their real shadow but given life. And referring to it as a sibling wouldn't be an insane thing to do. But not a sibling literally.
i never actually knew iji could die, every time i found him he was one of the few surviving characters in the series at the end of my game, i had no idea blaidd was trapped
I never knew Blaidd was even trapped. But I went to Ranni's tower and he was there and I rushed to Iji to tell him about Blaidd death and after progressing the story a bit more I went to him and he was dead. I was shocked to see his body engulfed in black flames.
@@stevin707 What do you mean bro having to go all around the map after specific triggers without indication to progress npc quests isnt bullshit at all
This was an interesting theory but I wanna put forth another idea related to Iji's weapon's being resistant to the Scarlet Rot. What if instead of Destined Death, these weapons are imbued with the Flame of the Fell God? After all Trolls all have massive gaping holes in their chest where the face is on the fire giant and the Troll hammer talks about them being descended from the Giants. It also mentions that Smithing was once a Divine Craft practiced by the Trolls and guess who still smiths? Iji. But the relation to Destined Death is still interesting to think about as we don't know if the Knives were just normal knives before being imbued with Destined Death or if they were crafted specifically in the moment to contain it. Hard to say, but the shape of the knives does look as if the flame was trying to escape from the shell.
In fact there is a holy knife that looks very, very similar to the black knifes. So my guess is that those where used to create the black knifes and maybe to kill godwin?
@@DotTiuri The Blade of Calling is all but confirmed to be the original state of the black knives before they were altered. Melina even uses it if you summon her to fight Morgott with you. In that fight she has the fighting style of the black knife assassins. Not to mention both of their ashes of war are the same animation but with a color swap and different elemental damage types
The blackflame is probably a phenomena that comes into existence when the rune of death and the all burning flame of ruin get combined. A flame that can burn the immortal. So if the rune is used on a troll like Iji, who arguably is close to the fell god because he loves smithing, he could combine both the rune and flame within himself to go out in a blaze of blackflame.
I don't think protected is the word. I think the godskins were looking for the cursemark of death in order to remake the rune of death. They might not have known where Godwyn's was, but they could have pieced together where Ranni's is. The noble fights us so we don't get it first.
@@ChocolateBadnessI mean the noble only spawns in if you approach the tower, it’s not like the other godskin in the windmill village who’s just walking around doing nothing
@dontpreorder2783 I get that, but I just interpreted that as we get there at the same time. Same way they port in at farum azula. There, the conclusion I came to was they were going to double team Malekith and just take the rune of death back in its entirety since you foiled them getting the cursemark from Ranni's body.
@@ChocolateBadnesssomething else to consider is that the tower isn't accessible until you have the necessary item to go through the library. Maybe the godskin couldn't access the tower and is waiting to ambush someone who might be able to.
Blaids dialogue during final encounter definitely insinuates that he's acting against his will, doesn't he even apologize for attacking? Also why can't u just leave blaidd and let that progress the story
because Blaidd is being controlled by the Two fingers to go against Ranni, even though his literal existence is tied to his loyalty to Ranni. This makes him insane, and thus similar to Dark souls, he's hollowed.
Let's be honest, it's pretty damn obvious the black knives killed him. You can find the leader of the black knives at an evergaol insinuating that Ranni betrayed them after the fateful night. They cane to kill ranni for revenge, killed Iji, got killed by Blaidd.
I thought this was more obvious. I could be missing something but I thought this was one of the more straightforward things presented to us in the game lol
@@cmdrpsychostickz6666 it could be interpreted as that the black flame is death and the redness is the hp sapping part. Once you're dead only the black part of destined death remains
Speaking of unsolved mysteries I think the *Lone Hero/ Surviving champion of Castle Morne* actually might be related to the Shadow Lands of the DLC based on its deacription of the Grafted Blade Greatsword. The DLC has a voice mentioning people on the losing side of the war, miyazaki says the shadow lands have been separated The grafted sword says the champion came from a vanished country and fought against the golden order May be loose threads here but i think its plausible
Iji betrays Blaidd & sends the black knives after him. Driving Blaidd mad. After you tell him about Blaidd's death he kills himself. I've tested this: if you don't kill Blaidd Iji never dies, if you kill Blaidd but don't tell Iji then he never dies. If you free Blaidd Iji will never confront you about it. Also the ice magic that Blaidd wields is a gift from Ranni, if he wasn't faithful to her then he couldn't call upon the enchantment. It's very clearly implied that the dark moon is a manifestation of Ranni's power. I believe that Iji choose to suffer until death fighting a unit of black knives until they slowly tore him apart as you alone could make him suffer sufficiently to match what he did to Blaidd. But wishing to spare Ranni & you from further pain and protect her from further incompetence on his part. He ordered the black knives to butcher him, after all did he not slowly trick & betray Blaidd. Most importantly how could a peaceful death regardless of how painful it might be ever make things right in Iji's eyes. he set all of his oldest friends allies against him & drove him mad from isolation & paranoia. What else could Iji do to make things right
@@edwardconner3335 If Iji only dies when you tell him about Blaid. It means that Iji only dies when he tells the knives that Blaidd is alive. They definitively know each other and share information. But the outcome is still a mistery.,
@@alexandreporter705 the knives attack Blaidd regardless of Iji. Plus since a number of knives attack you regardless of affiliation and at three are directly loyal to Miquila the knives actual motivation is sadly anyone's guess.
I’m curious as well. Personally I believe the Gloam-eyed Queen to be Ranni’s mentor Renna the snowy crone who was secretly her teacher….which I also believe is secretly Melina. Or atleast who she was before she lost all her memories and became burned and bodiless. It explains why the doll Ranni’s soul lives in who she tells us is modeled after her former teacher looks exactly like Melina as well. Because they are the same person.
I always thought the Gloam-eyed Queen became the witch who taught Ranni. This would fit with Iji being first the smith of the Gloam-eyed Queen, when he made the Godslayer Sword, then going into service to the Carian Royal Family as smith and Ranni's warden. He could have then introduced Ranni to the "witch".
@@probablyfacetious2895 she has her own titles and their sorceries dont line up. Ranni learned of the "Dark Moon" which requires incredible intelligence. All the gloam-eyed queen stuff is related to faith. these things are important details.
Melina is the gloam eyed queen, there is SO much stuff to support this but I think it's as simple as looking at what the Gloam eyed queen was known for and exactly what Melina wants you to do through the entire game.... Kill a god.
@@izackmorales4420 Melina can't be gloam-eyed queen either because of the same reason I described previously. Gloamy was a rival to Marika before the Erdtree age. It doesn't make sense for Melina to be Gloamy. Gloamy also has ties to godskins and Melina doesn't do anything remotely Godskin.
@@VultureXVHey there! First off within the Frenzied Flame Ending we see that Melina’s closed eye was actually a gloom colored eye. The eye we usually saw open is now dulled in color. Mind you that Maliketh has a single gloom eye known as the beast eye given to you to find deathroot. Deathroot is basically related to the destined death/Rune of Death which was previously held by the Gloom Eye Queen. Why would Melina have only one eye that’s gloom colored and Maliketh has another gloom colored eye but also just a single eye. Remember how Maliketh had essentially taken the Rune of Death from the Gloom Eyed Queen. We can assume the eye was another relic taken from the Queen. This would explain why Melina, likely the Gloom Eyed Queen, only has a single Gloom eye while her other eye is completely void of color and gray almost like it’s gone or taken. I mean I thought that was pretty solid proof of Melina’s connections to the Gloom Eye Queen or rather her identity.
I remember literally having to put down the controller and take a minute when I arrived at his grace and saw him aflame in black, assassin bodies strewn about, his anvil abandoned.
There’s one very important detail you’re overlooking Iji removed his helmet before his death. His Helmet is apparently able to ward off the influence of the greater will due to its material. After learning of Blaidd, he removes it, and by doing so, the Greater Will can now “see” him and send the Black Knives after him. It’s only after the two fingers are killed that the Black Knives pursue Ranni’s companions and the fact Alecto is apparently imprisoned by Ranni, suggests that they aren’t in good terms. It should also be mentioned that due to Tiche’s description, this imprisonment must’ve happened AFTER the Night of Black Knives, as she protected Alecto on that day, so despite Ranni granting them the means to their Black Knife daggers having Destined Death, something happened and they aren’t on the good terms they seemed to have been before that day.
Iji never removed his helmet, his corpse still has it on. The Night's Cavalry pursued Alecto and Tiche, they are responsible for Alecto's imprisonment, not Ranni. Alternatively, Alecto could have sealed herself in the Moonlight Evergaol to hide from the pursuing Night's Cavalry, patiently awaiting Ranni's return. Plus, Ranni was busy transferring her soul into a puppet and going into hiding, unlikely she'd just reappear solely to betray Alecto for no discernable reason. We know that the Night's Cavalry pursued the Black Knives through Liurnia after Godwyn's death because we are literally showed the Cavalry in pursuit during the he story trailer. The literal only thing that the Greater Will has power to do in our current age of the Shattering is bypass the Grace system Marika established. The Greater Will removed the demigods' means of resurrection and gave it to the Tarnished. That's it, that's all it can do now. Why would you assume that the Greater Will would trust the ones who brought it to heel in the first place? And why would the Black Knives trust the Greater Will? How would they even communicate? They don't seem to have Grace or Fingers, and they're clearly not prospects like the Tarnished are. There is literally no evidence that the Black Knives somehow have this deep connection to the Greater Will that not even the Tarnished have. And what of Blackflame on Iji's corpse? So the Godskins got their grace back too? The very same Godskins who work alongside Rykard, and directly delivered the fragment of Destined Death to Ranni. The Noble on Ranni's divine bridge, surrounded by Sanctuary Stones, who is literally guarding her tower, her corpse, and her secret, is all the proof needed to directly tie Ranni to the Godskins. And when you combine all the evidence the game provides, Ranni is literally the only viable culprit
Ranni and the Black Knife Assassins had separate motives for the night of the black knives so it would probably be safe to assume that after the events their goals no longer aligned. Killing off Ranni would be tying up loose ends for the Black Knives.
@@Ixxlostinaboxwhatvwere the Black knives motives? As assassins, I would assume their motive was payment. They are from Nokstella IIRC, so may have that grudge against Leyndell, but they are also Numen, like Marika.
You are one of the first content creators who I have found that have this similar theory! My difference is that the Flame of Death was originally the red flame we see wielded by Maliketh until Marika plucked it to make the Golden Order, making it the black/white flame of God slaying. My thoughts behind this is because the Order of the world used to be considered an unalloyed gold, which would be a reddish gold in hue. Though when Marika plucked destined death from the elden ring and gave it to Maliketh it turned into alloyed gold which takes on a pure goldish hue, like is mentioned in a lot of lore dialogue.
Bruh I didn't know I could feel worse about Blaidd's death, but you managed to give me a new perspective that does. Very well done, but also I'm sad now lol.
I think Ranni saying "Blaidd, and Iji both... Art willing to give too much to me. Yet they both understand. What lieth beyond the dark path... That I must betray everything, and rid the world of what came before." Seems pretty straightforward.
@@Zach-qo1on Who do we know for a fact uses the Black Knives, only one person. I'm sorry if your waifu Ranni senpai isn't who you want her to be. Literally anything else is speculation and here she is saying it. Iji knew he was going to die soon. It all fits without adding speculation.
I know right? This is such a stupid video to make. It's not even a theory. It's straight up implied that she's the one who kills Iji. She's literally the only one with a connection to the Black Knife Assassin's and that line straight up sells the point. Blaidd goes mad because she strayed from the path destined to her, and Iji has to die because he knows too much of her plan. Iji himself is content with this.
@@DioBrandoZaWarudoMudaMudaMuda I don't mind speculation and alternative theories. The video is fine to me but the guy who refuses to acknowledge what's obvious in the comments is pretty irritating.
The motives and even allegiances of the assassins are still a mystery, but many cues suggest they work as a independent group. Like, why should they become so active when Ranni slays her fingers? I think we'd understand more if we knew how the baleful shadow factors in, who is clearly not Blaidd.
There's an *absurd* amount of people who think the flame is just a mistake that FromSoft apparently doesn't seem to care to fix. As for Blaidd... no, he was being subsumed by the madness. Go back to that scene when he attacks you and look at his eyes. They were red. That was the giveaway.
To be fair, they never fixed the Black Flame effect on the Gargoyle Black Blade's unique skill despite it being a Destined Death weapon. I think the flame on Iji is 100% intentional, but there is a precedent for the two being mixed up.
@@KG-jd6ok Yes they did. I used that sword for basically the entirety of my first playthrough (which I did not too long ago) and the Weapon Art releases a red slash.
But doesn’t Blaidd still have dialogue that he was sorry? Or maybe I’m confused about that. It could be that his body was being puppeted, or he was fighting with himself, making him go mad. His loyalty was strong, but so was the GW’s influence, being forced to fight but not wanting to.
@@monroerobbins7551 Yes. Basically, Blaidd was fighting the madness. That's what we saw. We walked up to him basically at the end of that fight, and Blaidd lost it.
ITS THE BLACK KNIFE ASSASINS!!!! You find him covered in their flame- surrounded by their bodies! Ranni betrayed the 2 fingers so the assasins came! 17 minutes saved you are WELCOME.
Ranni being the gloam eyed queen seems like a bad theory, especially since the gloam eyed queen was around before Marika ascended to godhood, and only after she ascended was destined death sealed and started marikas golden order. All the before having children. And choosing the frenzied flame ending kinda hints at Melina being the gloam eyed queen, she also carried torrent who Ranni knows about so they could be connected, also gloam and dusk doesn't represent Ranni, Ranni represents the night sky, which is totally different.
Lots of great stuff in here! One thing I'll point out is that in the 1.00 disc version of the game, Iji’s body wasn't covered in black flames, but that was added in a patch (and it has been kept that way ever since). So the color palette choice is absolutely intentional! I also love the idea that Iji may have forged the Godslayer’s Greatsword! There are a lot of surprising connections between the Godskins and the Carians, so Iji unaliving himself with the black flame and being the Gloam-Eyed Queen’s master blacksmith fits right in. Personally, I think Rennala was a Gloam-Eyed Queen (GEQ could be a title and refer to more than one person, like Elden Lord), so I'm definitely interested in hearing your thoughts on Ranni and the GEQ!
I think the most interesting part of Iji is his helmet which reveals a lot about him (albeit more questions than answers) "Worn by those committed to high treason, it wards off the intervention of the Greater Will and its vassal Fingers. Iji was afraid. Terrified of his own treachery." so did he commit high treason or is he wearing it from someone who was and just wants to be granted protection from the greater will and the fingers? It also sheds light into why he wears it, out of fear. But what treachery, against Blaidd? well no, that is a very recent event, but the fact that he would betray someone so close to him almost casually it's almost like treachery is second nature to him.
I read it as him being afraid that the greater will may take over his mind and force him to act against Ranni. Blaidd would have done well to wear one too if one might fit.
Well, as stated in the video, he most likely orchestrated Godwyns death with/for Ranni, so I imagine the helmet is how he stayed hidden from them, and was completely uncontested by any of their devout. The possibility that he may have aided the gloam-eyed queen would only strengthen that. I doubt that the Greater Will would overtake him, as that isn't really what they do. They can be fought against by mortals, just not their puppets.
adding to the reply above, shadows are programmed to kill their empyreans should they betray the greater will. Iji likely always knew blaidd would turn on Ranni as soon as she approached her two fingers with the knife so him locking Blaidd in the evergaol was for his own sake. What he didn’t realize was that Blaidd would maintain his loyalty, even in his madness So its less that betrayal is second nature to Iji but more like, he always knew it would come to this and he’s had a lot of time to come to terms with it
12:30 It actually isn’t deliberate. It’s a known glitch when it comes to the Destined Death effect not working on troll enemies models. It will show up as black flame due to originally DD used to Black flame specifically but was then differentiated from the godskin Black flame.
@@wolfiemuse Well yes but are FromSoft really so incompetent that they can't change one fire effect for another? Unless they programmed it in a very strange way then I don't see why they wouldn't be able to change it.
@@Solibrae not incompetent - a result of complicated coding shit that when you have a bunch of team members working on the same project, everyone takes different shortcuts and sometimes shit like that can happen where a small inconsequential bug happens, but because it doesn’t affect the overall game experience, it’s not on the priority list of things to fix. Like… I dunno… the Arcane stat being broken for like 6 months? 🤣 but yeah I wouldn’t call that incompetent I would call that an unfortunate oversight that FS doesnt need to pay someone to go figure out why that’s happening and fix it, only to end up causing another problem by fixing that one. It’s harmless.
Great analysis! I don't think I'd heard the theory of Iji's connection with the godslayer's greatsword and the idea that fire imbued swords are the trick to staving off the rot. Fascinating to ponder!!!
Could it just be since we stole the treasure of the night cities (the fingerslayer blade) that they saw that as an act of treachery so they sent the black knives who are scions of the night cities
Nah, Patches hates followers of whatever is the current accepted God system, if it weren't for him getting all mushy for Tanith, he probably would have alighned with Iji.
I just met him after 10 hours of looking for dark forge (3) things, it's my favorite npc now, so cool when the angry grr grr enemy race has friendly individuals.
One thing to note is Rani used the black knives in order to perform her ritual. It was also stated that Carian Manor was abandoned for quite some time only for Rani to recently return. It could have been simply the assassins still have bad blood regarding how events turned out between them and they picked up on the same rumors we did and went after Rani, Blaidd and Iji to settle the score.
I've always seen it as a synthesis of your two theories in that I think Ranni may have ordered Iji's death via the black knives. Not out of hostility, but rather that this contingency was always baked into the plan. With no loose ends, and nobody able to locate Ranni but the future lord, it would be the one way to secure her victory. We know that Ranni can compel the black knives, and Iji's dialogue suggests, even without finding Blaidd in gaol, that he knows his time is at an end, though not necessarily how. Ranni knew Blaidd and Iji would both give their lives for her, but couldn't clue them in on how it would inevitably happen, so that nothing could get in the way. It's ruthless and bittersweet, but ultimately necessary for what they would have wanted, her safety and ascension.
Actually I'm fairly certain that after the Night of Black Knives Ranni and her crew were at odds with the Black Knife Assassins and far from being in her service they were in open conflict with her ever since. Consider the placement of Alecto, the Leader of the Black Knife Assassins Evergoal on the Moonlight Altar and Tiche's ashes description and the implications that Ranni imprisoned the Leader of the Black Knife Assassins right after She fled the capital after slaying Godwyn. So if the Black Knife Assassins truly were in her service why would Ranni do that especially since they hale from the Eternal cities where the Finger Slayer Blade Ranni needs to slay her 2 fingers in located? Indeed with the Black Knife Assassins being Allies it would make no sense that she ever had issues laying her hands on the finger Slayer blade at all. No Ranni and the Black Knife Assassins were immediately on bad terms in the aftermath of Night of Black Knives. Why? I think it comes down to who the Black Knife Assassins did not slay that Night, namely Radahn. I think Ranni knew the whole time that Radahn holding back the Star suspended her fate, I mean Jerrin knew it, Selen knew it, Iji cursed himself for not realizing it, why wouldn't Ranni know her own fate's connection to the Stars? I think the Black Knife Assassins betrayed Ranni over that point and that's why Ranni locked Alecto up. As to why the Black Knife Assassins would betray Ranni over Radahn I think there are 2 possibilities: 1.The Black Knife Assassins did so because Radahn holding back the Stars was protecting Sellia which secretly an above ground outpost for the Eternal cities from which the Black Knife Assassins haled from (Also likely where their concealing armor was made note how all the night spells are all about concealment) 2. The Black Knife Assassins had already secretly entered into the service of the lone Empyrean in opposition to Ranni, Miquella and sabotaged Ranni's plans by sparing Radahn on the one hand while using her talents to forge the Black Knives necessary to slay Godwyn toppling the Golden order in favor of Miquella's Order of Unalloyed Gold. After all the location where the most living Black Knife Assassins are to be found along with their Armor set guarding the secret seal to the Haligtree in Ordinia Also the ant riders in Nokstella are seemingly using Miquella's bewitching magic to control the ants (who humorously will attack their riders if the spell is broken) More over I don't see why Ranni would bother having Iji and Blaidd killed by assassins in the 1st place, she knew them to be fully loyal to the death they'd slay themselves if she but asked them to do so. Hell Ranni had more faith in Blaidd than Iji did calling him a complete failure on the part of the 2 fingers and she's proven right on that count as Blaidd chooses suicide at the hands of the Tarnished precisely because he knows 1st hand the Tarnished is strong enough to do and have thus far proven themselves loyal to Ranni. Also like you said Iji knew his death was imminent and accepted it, so why kill some of the Assassins his mistress sent to slay him? It would be pointless. No those Assassins were not sent by Ranni or Iji as far as I can gather.
@@Terminalsanity Ranni was busy transferring her soul, and in hiding, in no position to seal anyone. The Night's Cavalry, sent by Morgott and allied with the Golden Order, pursued Alecto and Tiche, killed Tiche, and sealed Alecto. Tiche's ashes do not imply Ranni did anything. Yet we see the Night's Cavalry in pursuit in Liurnia in the story trailer while Ranni is speaking of the Black Knives plot. They are chasing Alecto and Tiche. There is little to no evidence in the game that the Black Knives are allied with Miquella (the ones in Ordina are just as likely to be prisoners as they are allies, they're in an evergaol afterall). And unlike Ranni, Miquella has a valid reason to imprison the Black Knives (he was closest to Godwyn afterall) The point I'm trying to make is that the presence of Black Knives in evergaols in both Ranni and Miquella's territory isn't enough evidence in and of itself to prove anything either way. We need more evidence to base a solid theory on. So I came to a different conclusion. There is no proof that Ranni sealed Alecto, only minor circumstancial evidence. There is no proof that Miquella is allied with the Black Knives, only minor circumstancial evidence (and there's definitely no proof that Miquella is allied with the Godskins). There is, however, strong evidence that the Night's Cavalry pursued and sealed Alecto. And there is direct proof that Ranni works with both the Godskins and the Black Knives, who we know were working together during Iji' assassination due to the Blackflame on his corpse. The Godskins are directly connected to Ranni through the presence of a Noble, surrounded by Sanctuary Stones, on her divine bridge, guarding both her corpse and her secret (this is the very same Noble who delivered the stolen Fragment of Destined Death to Ranni). Ranni is the primary suspect of Blaidd and Iji's death, and nothing can convince me otherwise
@@jeffjefferson2853 No the Golden Order absolutely did not imprison Alecto in evergoal on the Moonlight Altar only Carian royals (or at the least someone with a Carian royal ring) like Ranni can access the Moonlight Alter and Tiche's ashes definitely imply Alecto was imprisoned that shortly after the Night of Black Knives. All signs point to Ranni locking Alecto up. Even if the Golder order had locked Alecto up which is all but certainly not the case why wouldn't have Ranni freed such a useful ally? No the Golden order locking up Alecto angle of yours does not work or make sense. The Night's Calvary have nothing to do with the Night of Black Knives they're were initially Morgott's personal shock troops used in the defense of Lyndell who later became his anti-tarnished hit squad tasked with by Morgott with eliminating any Tarnished trying to become Elden Lord throughout the lands between. Its literally why his parting words in his as Margitt the Fell Omen guise is "Fear the Night". I'd say the 4 living Black knife assassins guarding the seal to Miquella's Haligtree is pretty strong evidence that Black Knife Assassins were aligned with Miquella as you know its direct proof that at 4 of them were in his service. Now the ant riders in Nokstella using bewitching magic on their mounts that's indirect but intriguing evidence. There only link between Ranni and the Godskins is the Godskin Noble on the Bridge to the divine tower where her original body with the curse mark containing a fragment of destined death and its presence there probably has more to do with the fragment of destined death/the Death rune contained in the curse mark on the Ranni's body than Ranni Herself as every location the Godskins appears have a connection to destined death/the Death rune (Yes even volcano manor as Rykard too possessed fragments of Destined death/the Death rune) as far I can tell the Godskins are trying to restore the power of their Black Flame by recovering fragments destined death/the Death rune so they can resume their God hunt. Like I said before its seems pretty redundant for Ranni to send Assassins to kill Blaidd and Iji as they both made it very clear they were both perfectly will to Die for Rani Blaidd literally chooses to die by the Tarnished hand Iji recognizes and accepts his impending death without complaint so why would Iji waste his time fighting the Assassins and killing several of them? No if Ranni wanted them dead all she had to do was ask them to die for her and they would both do it without complaint or question. Sending assassins makes no sense on her part. Also if the Black Knives were in Ranni's service why would getting to Nokron an Eternal city from which the Black Knife Assassins haled from and obtaining the fingerslayer blade there be such a challenge for Ranni? No for all the reasons I've outlined at length that post the Night of Black Knives the Black Knife Assassins were at odds with Ranni not working with her. You can debate the particulars of why that might be that much is very clear.
@@Terminalsanity It literally shows the Night's Cavalry in Liurnia when Ranni speaks of the Black Knives. The Black Knives did not have access to Nokron either, they were based in the Leyndell Eternal City now located in Deeproot Depths. The 4 Black Knives in the evergaol were likely sent to kill Miquella, and subsequently trapped in the Evergaol trying to reach the Haligtree. As for the Moonlight Altar, the Carians themselves sealed it off after everything went down. The ring is found with Rennala, not Ranni's Rise, Divine Tower, or Renna's rise, the places you'd expect if Ranni herself placed the Moonlight Altar seal. How can you interpret a Godskin, surrounded by fragments of Faram Azula (home to Destined Death), on Ranni's Divine Bridge (only accessible with an object given by Ranni), as anything other than what it obviously is? This Godskin came directly from Faram Azula to deliver the fragment of Destined Death to Ranni. How else did she get it? Why is he surrounded by Sanctuary Stones if not because he rode a chunk of Faram Azula down onto Ranni's bridge? Again, we can debate for ages, but I believe my evidence is more sound But assuming you're correct about Ranni herself sealing Alecto. So what? The Black Knives were scattered, and Tiche was the only one with Alecto. The Black Knives likely assume their leader is dead. They have no reason to assume otherwise. And we are specifically told that the two were pursued after slaying Godwyn, and we are shown the Night's Cavalry in that very pursuit, and we know that the Cavalry works for Morgott who is loyal to the Golden Order.
@@jeffjefferson2853 Dude look at the story trailer clip again 1st it not actually clear those are Night's Calvary in the trailer The riders are hooded which the Night's Calvary never are and given the line they are shown over is in reference to the night a fragment of destined death was stolen I'd say those were mostly likely Black Knife Assassins fleeing the theft scene of the rune of death or heading to assassinate Godwyn with it because you know the next thing in the clip is the sound of Godwyn being stabbed. their location is unclear given the lack of swamps its not definitively Liurnia, hell since its pre-shattering it could be Caelid for all we know more to the point there's 0 indication they're chasing anyone or anything all that's clear is they are in a hurry. The Eternal Cites have one shared culture I have no idea how or why you would assume the Black Knife Assassins could only access one of them when they haled from all of them. Seriously the denizens there even share some their moveset the the connection is literally overtly stated by Rogier. The 4 Black Knives in the Seal in Ordinia are plainly guarding it along side the Albanuric archers there otherwise they would be shot by the archers when they appear when they attacks player or would have escaped long ago as with their invisibility would have made breaking the seal themselves absurdly easy. Seriously the archers plainly aren't prisoners there why would you assume the Black Knife Assassins were?More over there's spirit Black Knife Assassin calmly walking the street outside of the seal not to mention Ordinia shares the exactly same architecture as Sellia the implication being they were among the original inhabitants of Ordinia and helped build it. The inaccessibility of the Moonight alter largely refutes your interpretation full stop there's no indication anyone aside from the carian royals even could access it. Sorry you need to concede that point you literally have no evidence you support your claim that the Night's Calvary imprisoned Alecto there but baseless conjecture. All tangible evidence points to Ranni being the one who imprisoned Alecto there, there' not even a suggestion that anyone else but her could have done it. Same way I interpret the Godskin's forcing their way into Faram Azula which is way harder to get than the Divine Tower in Liurnia: They powerful/desperate enough to get that far to try reclaim their former Godslaying power. Makes more sense and is more consistent than your take of they were powerful enough to force their way into Faram Azula but had to have a connection to Ranni to get to the Bridge to the Divine Tower or fall from above the towers were sealed not the bridge at any rate nothing you said there refutes any aspect of my own take. That's the thing though you have cited way less actual evidence than I have and frankly have made much more conjecture some of is literally you grasping at straws like that whole bit with the night's cavalry chasing the black knife assassins through liurnia Its not clear those were night's cavalry indeed the context would suggest they were mounted black knife assassins on their way to slay Godwyn not the night's cavalry chasing them down after the fact. Also there's 0 indication they they were chasing anything. The Significance being if Ranni did lock up Alecto there would be a reason for her to do it and a pretty compelling reason at that given Alecto's status as Leader of the black knife Assassins. We know Ranni is fully capable & willing of getting rid of former allies the fate of Seluvis/Pidia makes that clear but she didn't do that for no reason, Seluvis/Pidia betrayed her. One would presume something similar happened with Alecto or Ranni got something significant from imprisonin Alecto . At any rate I think imprisoning their leader strongly indicates that the Black Knife Assassins and Ranni were not good terms post Night of Black Knives. No we are not shown any such pursuit, its not even clear that was the Night's Calvary since all the riders are hooded unlike the Night's Calvary indeed the context of the scene strongly indicates those were the Black Knife Assassins on the their way to slay Godwyn since you know that what follows that scene not what precedes it. Also if that was supposed to be the Night's Calvary chasing down the Black Knife Assassins wouldn't they need to be carrying Sentry torches?
Dude, when u hit enemies with destined death spells or black knives you literally see blackflame animation on the target… they all do blackflame animation when u land a hit lol. The assassins killed him
Iji's death pose looks almost like he's finally at peace compared to the death poses of the BKA around him like who dies on their knees while looking up at the sky? someone who was murdered deliberately? or someone who chose death just some food for thought
The black corpse wax weapon skill will also animate the black flames instead of the flames of the rune of death upon hitting a target. I think that, just as with the black wax sword, the black flames on Iji were an oversight and theyre meant to be the black/red flames of the rune of death on him, since the Black Knife Assassins dont use black flame incantations
I’m playing this game for the first time, and I did Ranni’s story line and I felt sick having to kill Blaidd, watching Ranni disappear after giving her the ring. Then talking to Iji after killing Blaidd, going off to do more of the game and then coming back to see him burning. I was so bummed
Melina is Radagon's half of the Ranni/Melina duo. Ranni being Rennala's half. That duo of spirits both existed inside the girl who burned, and is the Gloam-Eyed Queen, Swaddler of Apostles.
Are we sure he died fighting with them, or could he have died with them? As in he was working with them for another contract or plot and someone killed them all? Apologies if I missed something covering that. My guess would be the Godskins killed them all in an attack on Ranni, but this is based only on vague notions.
No Ranni ordered the assassination on Igi. Why, you ask, become somewhere in Nokron theres a rest area where you can speak to Ranni's doll and she literary talks about betraying Igi and Bladid. She even says "maybe ill betray you"
the alchemy cosmology inspirations the lore comes from, is from metaphysics and is one heck of a rabbit hole. Its in Kingdom Hearts, Zelda and many others. Persona. Erd Tree is the same concept as the Lifestream in ff7 and same with kingdom hearts which is called "the anima mundi" or world soul. Ive been doing research on metaphysics and i do occasional KH and Zelda lore stuff but only as a hobby really. Def recommend you look into Metaphysics! its a cool rabbit hole to go into for sure. Cuz the Moon, sun light and dark with the DLC Shadow of the Erd Tree fits in with all what i explained before too. Blaidd would be "a shadow" darkness Ranni is the moonlight which is still light in a way. a new light, different from the golden order light of gold. Ijis weapon has 7 circles which if we look into alchemy there are 7 planets that are tied to different elements. and Elden Ring is heavy in the Alchemy like we all know. 7 sages in Zelda and 7 princess of light in kingdom hearts. Godwyn is a body with no soul... a "nobody" in kingdom hearts terminolgy. same concepts. If light is life, then darkness aka shadow would be... which is tied closely to sleep and side note the fact when we get to Ranni's temple feels VERY Forest Temple like and so great choice of music! so what do i think? The fire makes sense losing its power if its sealed, it could alter the color, but him MAKING it? thats interesting too. man i cannot wait for the DLC and watch some of your lore videos after it drops! Its gonna be like when the game came out all over again! im so excited! lol
Ranni's quest line and ending sound like the realm of darkness and end of the world in KH1 when you put it that way. The moon symbolism too. huh. Wonder if Godwyns soul is somewhere in the Shadow Lands.
Let's say, Melina is the gloam eyed queen. Ranni works with bka, Melina the godslayers. Is there a reason Melina would want to try and stop ranni or have it out for bladd(sp?) Or iji but not ranni herself since you are not attacked by the bka directly?
His calm lotus posture immediately brought to my mind the buddhist monk who set himself in flames in protest. This and his last comment aboud joining Blaidd soon makes me believe he did it himself.
This is actually a cool theory. I appreciate the transparency with speculation and tying the story both to characterization and environmental storytelling.
I cant wait to see what you cook up with the DLC lore theories! Ngl if this didnt come out before ToTk i think TotK would have felt better. This is what I was hoping Tears was gonna be. Finally glad i picked this game back up after beating ToTk, i never beat it when it came out, got to radan and got filtered.
Another idea to consider, is that he did kill himself but he decided to take out the rest of the black knives. The reason why he took out the rest of the black knives was to protect Ranni. Removing the only tool that could threaten her once she ascended
One theory that most people talked about is that Ranni is the one that sended the assassins. Iji may have said that, because he adviced her to clean up of before she takes her place as a goddess, Including Iji himself, to both make sure he isnt a threat and to give him a peaceful death, since we don't know what scuff could be happening after the ending. Also some people just think that black knife assassins felt like saying ''f you'' to Ranni because now Destined Death is back, meaning they are in danger of using their dagger.
Iji's helm also explained that he was afraid of turning on Mistress Ranni due to the greater will's influence. That the helm blocks its influence. Yet he was assasinated but by who?
Great video, awesome reflections on one of my favourite enigmas. Tl;dr: Iji was a puppet. To best draw conclusions, I think it's important to note his posture upon death is that of an inanimate puppet. The same position of the idle puppet corpses in Seluvis' hidden chamber. In fact, after Ranni's departure, both Seluvis & Iji revert to this position upon their deaths. This does not happen to Pidia. The alleged Albinauric is found dead, crumpled on the floor.. bleeding red. Albinauric blood is silver. This is also not a mistake There are some literal puppet master, string pulling charades involved that we're only barely indirectly privy to at best. It's my best determination that Iji was a puppet. The Black Flame was used to sever him from slavery upon death, either by himself if known, or arranged bittersweetly by someone who did.
What about his ‘puppet pose’? Maybe Iiji was a puppet. Maybe the black knives were actually seeking the puppet master for crimes against humanity. And blithe got in the way
Nice video! Cool to see you cover both my favourite universes! I really like the idea that he offed himself. Though I have a more darker thought. Iji dies in flames, but he also dies in the pose of a puppet. If we could answer who puppeteered him we might have an answer to how he got so much misinformation and had inside information. 1. There was once an assassin under the guise of Blaidd and there is a real Baleful shadow that looks like him. Iji may be an imposter these days. 2. He wears a mirror helm which is of the Nox. Nox would willingly become puppets (just like Ranni aswell). So Iji might be a puppet of Ranni that was ended willingly after his service was finished and he felt shame for his actions as War councillor. A title that most likely was a front to have access to his smithing. Would be interesting to see your thoughts on Marika and her schemes. I believe that she is Ranni in a sense, and rune of the unborn is how she's been eternal. Plus the wordplay for Nox and the eternal cities. A clever way to get rid of the influence of the two fingers and not get her rune impaled (by Messmer?) so that she can be born anew.
I don’t think iji put the blackknife assassins up to killing Blaide. I think they wanted revenge against ranni for betraying them and throwing them to the wolves after the night of the black knives. She even has one of their leaders sealed away.
I'm confident it was by a Baleful Shadow from the Two Fingers. Ranni is very specific in detailing how Blaidd and Iji both knew what her path would mean for them, however, they remained loyal with Blaidd be the most loyal and Iji maybe not taking her seriously as he raised her. She says "She MUST betray everything" and this included Blaidd and Iji. She asks you if she "should add thee to the list." Also, Ranni explains that Blaidd was "considered a failure" by the Two Fingers and despite her turning her back on the Two Fingers control, Blaidd remain loyal to her as a reject. It could be argued that Iji and Blaidd had split feelings and Iji wanted to put her down thinking she was in total madness but only warned Blaidd to prepare for that day, however, Iji and the Sorcerer had established different but shared intent on stopping her while Blaidd was away. Iji had trapped Blaidd, I think, because either he didn't think Blaidd would betray her OR thought he was a traitor still loyal to the Two Fingers as part driving her to madness. Iji then admits to Blaidd the idea and this is the struggle Blaidd is dealing with telling himself he won't betray her. It could be argued that Iji, being a war expert, made a deal with the Two Fingers to have her knocked off but it was stopped by Blaidd and upon hearing that he gave his life put Iji in remorse however Iji knew the penalty of a botched gift wrapped hit and knew they would come for him with their Baleful Shadow men, that I don't believe Blaidd encountered because Iji was under the impression the Blaidd would not stop it and the smaller ranked went there for her thinking Blaidd would not help. iji knew the war consequences, felt remorse, and accepted his fate.
Blaidd being Ranni's half-brother seems to me like how the shadows are. Take Maliketh for instance, who is referred to in a similar way. As for who killed Iji my first thought when running into his body in game was that Merika killed him. This is due to her own connections to the Black Knives. I can't place an exact motive, maybe its because Merika is trying to find and\or kill Ranni.
Option 3: Iji was killed by Godskins and the Black Knives died defending him. The only person powerful enough to defeat the Godskins is Maliketh and ourselves. I do still think Iji sent the BKs to neutralize Blaidd, but it wouldn't make sense for them to turn on him for helping Ranni slay her Two Fingers. That outcome aligns with all of their actions so far. Ranni wants to bring the age of stars and dark moon, which is chill with the Nox. The only part I'm iffy on is why the Godskins specifically target Iji. I do think Melina is more closely associated with the Gloam Eyed Queen than Ranni, who is instead closer to Renna the Snowy Crone/Witch. Iji would have been frozen instead of burned or we would have had some linking evidence if she was responsible. That said, Godskins appear all over the place. Perhaps some are being employed by the Two Fingers after their defeat to Maliketh, while others are scattered much like the Crucible Knights.
You know what is a crazy mystery for me, I completed Rannis questline and got that ending, however Iji is very much alive in my game. I am not sure how that happened.
Iji was my favorite character in the game. I even counted on him sutvivng through the game. And then i talk to him one last time to say goodbye, reload the area to buy some somber stones, and there he is, dead and on fire by destined death...
There are multiple assassin corpses lying around him. Blaidd killed several assassins who clearly were attacking the tower. It also seems pretty clear that Ranni somehow imprisoned Alecto in the evergaol atop the Moonlight Altar, and the rest of the unnamed Black Knives somehow discovered this had happened and attempted to kill Ranni. This one seems, uh, pretty simple?
I think Iji was killed by a Valiant Gargoyle, one of the black gargoyle variants. They could be in the employ of the Black Knives or Maliketh directly. What makes me think that is there's one other weapon that kills enemies with black fire effects, but isn't godslaying blackflame specifically. The Corpsewax Cutter skill from the Black Gargoyle weapons, greatsword tested most recently on 1.13, enemies killed with it burn with black fire particle effects despite having a red projectile. It also makes sense on why the assailant wasn't found, they could fly away to some degree as they're seen flying or gliding down to the Tarnish in various parts of the game and with Iji being a larger foe, it'd make sense to send out a larger assassin or contingency plan.
Iji hasn't stopped being my favorite character in the game. I stopped playing the main storyline to make sure that he stayed alive and happy out where you first meet him. Seeing my brother play with no Iji was just too sad.
personally i think that the godskin faction became concerned with how close to the age of stars ranni had gotten and ordered the hit on ranni. and since the godskins ordered the hit they adjusted the knives so that they would contain the perfected version of the black flame to boost the assassins chances but when blaidd forced them back they had to wait for the player to come along to slay the maddened wolf for them but it was for not since they found nothing and had to retreat, where they stumbled upon iji who cleared out the remaining assassin survivors but ultimately succumbed to his wounds
Blaidd being a step/half brother makes sense if you consider marika as a part of the two fingers Radagon and therefore marika and therefore the two fingers would be his parentage
One, we pretty much know that she wasn't the Gloam-eyed queen, especially since the DLC came out. The Gloam-Eyed queen is suspected to be the mother of Melina and Messmer by Radagan(red hair). She may even be the corpse we see Marika pulling out the runes and holding up in DLC trailer. Two, as you cross the bridge to the tower with Ranni's corpse, what do you run into? A Godskin Apostle guarding the bridge. I think the Assassins were guarding Iji, and were killed by Godskins, along with Iji, as a way for Ranni to tie up loose ends.
The timing of the deaths could be the crucial part. As others said, Ranni seems to have betrayed the Black Knife Assassins, with their chief thrown in an Evergaol. It might be that Iji had nothing to do with the assassins attacking him or Blaidd, and that the assassins got a window of opportunity to get revenge on Ranni when she disappeared after killing her fingers. Without her protection, her followers became viable targets, so they took the opportunity.
Option 3: Ranni ends Iji after his utility is over similarly to Alecto, through a Godskin noble, who have been shown to work under Rykard, an ally of Ranni. Which is why the Godskin noble in the inverted Liurnia tower was able to approach you, as you need a Carian artifact to access that place in the first
Rani put the mark of death into the daggers the black knives use. Iji is her war councilor and blacksmith. ergo he made the daggers and must have knowledge of the flames. Hell, considering his giant connect it could be the rune of death flames are red and black because he harnessed the power of two flames that failed to kill the gods into one that might.
I always thought the black knife assassin’s attacked them on they’re own will to get back at Ranni for betraying them in the night of the black knifes.
