We hope you enjoyed the first episode of our Timeline - there is plenty yet to come. Of course, everything is only our opinion! We just didn’t want to slow down the video by saying that as a constant preface. This has been a LOT of work. It is well known how difficult it is to cleanly piece the complete history Elden Ring together but we have tried our best to provide a compelling sequence of events, while still keeping the flow of the video and not labouring any specific points. Additionally, if some conclusions may feel confusing, note that we have reached them not by thinking about each event in isolation, but by balancing the overall impact on the entire timeline. So while the odd event may appear more complicated when they happen, hopefully in the context of the entire timeline you can see why we thought it made the most sense in the end. As always, thank you for your support, and see you in the next video!
Something that has occurred to me regarding the Draconian people is that "short lived" may be relative to the dragons and beasts around them. So they may even live longer than traditional humans but much shorter than what surrounded them in society. Love the channel
This garbage has no story no character development or anything…here let me make a quick from soft character “hey tarnished we are exactly the same” 2 minutes later he diead and you’re supposed to feel sorry for him…no fromsoft that not how you make interesting characters
@@_CrimsonBlade but you know fromsoft games are not supposed to have character development, right? It's a genre of its own, experiencing the vague story from 3 lines of dialogue each. Trying to find a traditional story without lore videos is like looking sci fi blasters in a victorian costume romance.
@@_CrimsonBlade you went so far out of your way to leave this incorrect and whiny comment. Not only did you come to an Elden Ring story video despite your dislike of its story, you replied to my comment about the nature of the video with a completely unrelated complaint. The characters in Elden Ring absolutely have development, but yes their plot points are told with much brevity much more like a poem than a novel. Much of their history or motivations are obscured as well. If you care to find it, you can learn of a characters ambitions, motivations, betrayals and downfalls. Characters not only have development but true intrigue and mystery. No one would hold it against you if you just said you don’t prefer this style of story telling and prefer a linear narrative rich with every detail of the cast. That’s fine man, basically everyone who likes stories also like the most obvious and traditional method of story telling. But you don’t need to come so far out of your way to IGNORANTLY and INCORRECTLY bitch about one of the few games that breaks the mold in its story telling. Fucking loser.
Bruh, literally not even half an hour since the new Shadow of the Erdtree story trailer and Hawkshaw uploads a 1+ hour ER lore vid. To say that we're eating well would be the understatement to end all understatements 🔥
my new headcanon is that the ginormous skeletons are the ones who made the golem type enemies for fun like how we make little dnd or warhammer figurines. Like they basically made their own little armies and made them fight for fun.
I imagine that the consumable/throwable items are highly useful for new and lower leveled players, then you start either rune farming or naturally hitting the peak of your NG power curve and most of the items don't factor in due to your weapon and/or magic skills being more than enough to take care of damn near everything the game throws at you. But I bet by NG+2 or 3 is when the enemies begin scaling past the soft caps of many players attributes and combat skills to the point where every little bit of extra breathing room, offensive and defensive buffing, and general combat utility offered by the consumables really comes back into play since it's the only way to meaningfully boost your character past the practical limits of the leveling system
I do not think the imps or the watchdogs were created by the "titans" they are clearly newer creations given how consistently they are employed in Catacombs, which were created during the time of the Erdtree, used for Erdtree burial. The hero's grave are also a modern creation, which commonly employs them. They are even used as decorative protection in the rooftops of Leyndell houses. While there are some moments where we see the giant golems, which I believe are indeed ancient creations of "Titans," are protecting modern structures, they are more commonly seen in a ruinous state catatonic state scattered all over the place, or straight up in random areas. We do not see this attribute on the Imps or Watchdogs at all, every single time we find them they are there with clear intention to protect Erdtree creations. Not to mention their creation and detailing looks completely different from the architectural and design style of the "Titans."
I don't disagree with everything, except the catacombs are far older than the golden order/urd tree. The catacombs are filled with coffins/coffin cutouts and urns and urn cutouts. Why would the golden order build in death ritual features not aligned with tree burial? I think the catacombs being under ground naturally led to the giant root system being exposed in them. They got repurposed.
why do you think they would just stay where they came from for thousands of years and not disperse/ find new habitats after order fell? most of the time you just find them away from sunlight or as protectors. If you look into the actual lore of golems and gargoyles i think this provides more clear answers towards their nature than your tangent
I’m only theee minutes in and I had to say: that opening was epically written and delivered. I thought you were quoting an Ancient Greek natural philosopher about the cosmogenesis of creation. Can’t wait to watch the rest.
Came to say this same thing; I've been studying and reading into a lot of mysticism and religious traditions, and the beginning sounds like something I might read out of a trandlation of one of the Vedas (ancient proto-Hindu scriptures).
With the divine towers sitting perfectly around the impact crater, it almost looks like some ritual was performed to summon a meteorote to wipe out those titans.
"This is not a bite sized piece of lore sentimentalism." This is a glorious return of the True Hawkshaw. Been waiting for this video since the very first hawkshaw lore drop 8 years ago. The recent content has a sort of pomp and goofiness to it that I just don't really vibe with but this.... This hardcore lore shit just hits too hard, I want it directly in the veins.
1:03:27 That links to grafting, like from Stormveil Castle. I think it’s apples that you must cut the sapling, and graft onto it a branch from a mature apple tree, in order to get the sapling to make the same fruit as the donor’s tree. So, the erdtree’s roots connecting to the greattree would make sense if Marika grafted the erdtree onto the stump of the greattree.
41:30 I don't quite understand why the different factions associated with Glintstone had to be around during the Titan age. Couldn't they have made contact with the Crystalians way later? Also, I've figured that the dragon imagery on the Forge might be akin to a trophy of the Giants succesfully routing the Ice Dragons, and not a mark of cooperation.
I also think that the thinner symbolic depiction of a tree could easily be explained as a younger Erdtree, and the plumper one as a more recent image of a more developed Erdtree.
Boy, From Software were already masters of world building. Throw in George R. R. Martin, and we end up with quite possibly one of the best fantasy worlds ever imagined. It’s just staggering.
Amazing video! I love timeline videos, this deserves a lot more views! Personally, I think the Gloam Eyed Queen can be placed further into the timeline, but can't be sure about it. If she was active during the Ancient Dragon era and was an empyrean, how come she never ascended into Godhood? I think she's more related to Marika in way or another, and her Godskin Hunt killed so many Demigods that forced Marika to remove the rune of death from the Elden Ring. Enia says Demigods are all Marika's offspring, so the Gloam Eyed Queen very unlikely was killing demigos left and right unpunished since the Anciet Era.
Definitely not ideal, but we wanted to realise the work rather than have it on hold just because of uncertainty around the DLC. In this way, it can serve as a history of our own understanding too! And we'll definitely return to the project somehow in the future
The beast part got me thinking about Boc. Is Boc our shadow as a tarnished? Is he older than he seems? His mum was a seamstress and my mind wanders to the godskins, especially with his dialogue concerning the golden needle... Dunno if there are any actual connections, but it might be interesting to take a closer look.
Marika is the one who likes to hit it and quit it (see: Rennala, the dlc trailer that talks of affsir and seduction), so I'm inclined to believe she's the one who is the dragon's missing god. It would explain why one of them just casually decided to storm Leyndell one day.
The hidden but apparent lore surrounding Mesmer is so cool, like it was right under our noses. All of the giants are impaled by the same shaped spear, it's the shape of Mesmers spear. The capital is already covered in ash, signifying that at some point the erdtree was burnt prior to the main narrative. Snakes are associated with traitors (gladiator helm). Mesmer wields a very powerful looking flame with his red hair, very reminiscent of the fire giants, and he also has those snakes that very much so characterize him. I think we're gonna get some really cool lore that connects these dots. maybe radagon was once the leader of the fire giants/vassal for their fire god, and Mesmer was his son with marika either before or after their merging.
I really think the giant skeletons are almost entirely metaphorical, a physical representation of history itself. Immense, forgotten beings embedded into land. And so, everything we do, we do standing atop the shoulders of giants. Their bones and their great works a skeleton supporting The Lands Between itself.
Glad you were dedicated some time to Melina/Blaidd's eyes being so similar. Melina has been to most interesting character to me since release, and lately I've tried work through the idea of Melina being a kind of Shadowbound Beast for tarnished. I think the talon mark across her eye is maybe alluding to Yatagarasu, a crow of divine intervention that guided Emperor Jimmu to success in unifying Japan. This fits with Melina being a spiritual guide, and having something like a divine mandate to see you become Elden Lord. This doesn't answer everything of course, but I think something along these lines has more explanatory power while being far less contrived than "Melina is the GEQ" theories.
Absolutely adore this video, extremely well put together, love the blending of prose and detailed lore explanation. You're one of the only channels that considers not only facts such as item descriptions, but also literary themes, metaphors, and symbolism. Think this will be a fantastic summary of the timeline as we understand it pre-DLC. The one thing I will say I disagree on is the portrayal of the ancient dynasty as a "rot civilization". I'm just nitpicking but nowhere besides the grand cloister is there any link at all between the ancient dynasty and rot. Personally, the grand cloister is symbolic of their civilization as a whole - once it covered the full lands between but now it's hard to tell they even existed - who they were and what they believed is fully up for debate. Their civilization has rotted away, leaving almost no remains.
bit unrelated but i wonder is the serpent hunter weapon gonna get the buff against messmer, the new trailer looked nuts, the thing that looked like a tree made of bodys reminds me of rykards boss arena
The Great tree IS the Erdtree. Remember the Erdtree has already been burned down. So that Golden giant skyscraper tree seen in the beginning of the game is it's phantom/non-physical form. The Great tree is the previous name of the Erd tree 🤯🤯🤯
No, the Erdtree has never been burned down, it's literally impossible to do so since the rune of death was sealed and the Flame of Ruin confined. The "ethereal" fake tree is also nonsense. More Tarnished Archaeology junk. God, his stuff is so terrible.
@@Rags2Roses It can be, because there were these things called the Fire Giants who controlled the one flame capable of burning the sacred tree that the Golden Order has based their entire religion on, and the Golden Order waged a war and defeated them just so no one could ever burn the tree. The mere concept and memory of the Giants is enough to establish the cardinal sin, but it is no proof that the tree ever burned. It couldn't as long as the Flame of Ruin was guarded and Destined Death being bound, by the very laws of physics of the world.
The ancestral spirit's have, from what I can discern, megalithic type construction. Thought it was the oldest or one of the oldest. The divine tower section is genius!
I dunno, it’s gonna take some convincing for me to believe the Crystalians were created by the first stone-age beings. Descriptions in the game make it seem like they came from the primeval current & they’re always protecting glintstone wherever it’s landed.
Fair enough! We felt that the wording "hewn" from crystal was more active and distinct compared to the other lifeforms that arose from the stars, but there's very little to pin them down in the end
One thing the Story trailer revealed, is that we have collectively underestimated the influence of Marika prior to her becoming a god. I can’t wait to see what genderbending shenanigans she was up to back then
30:45 "the Empyrean" is also plural. And the raw JP uses the same 神人の影 as everywhere else. It is very unlikely it implies a shared Empyrean for all shadows.
There's something inside the divine towers that doesn't get much play, if at all, because I never see anyone mention it. While in the divine tower of Caelid, I noticed a relief carving tucked away on the walls overhanging the spiral stair. There is the one and only depiction of a fish and not just one of them. They are encircling what looks to be a beastman corpse or what I interpret to be a fetus due to its positioning. There's only one fish in the game, and two, if you count the Elden Beast as one despite it looking like a plesiasaur. What age would have built carvings representing the bestowance of blessings on the beastmen? Seems totally unrelated to titans, golems, or crystals. Check it out.
I like the video but it makes a lot of assumptions about the titans, we have little to no hard evidence for what they are or anything they did. I don't really see a clear connection between ancient architecture and the titans simply by the stone blocks used being big.(especially considering magic is a thing) I also don't really see anything suggesting that the titans were responsible for creating the golems or crystalians. Really I think the alabaster and onyx lords, or rather their ilk, seem much more likely to be responsible for what's being attributed to the titans here. It's an interesting idea but this seems to state these theories as if fact. Still though who knows, and again the video and really all your work is great :)
Considering the western religious inspirations here and there, maybe the titans are akin to the nephilim and got a giant meteor to wipe them out. It could make sense considering their size and the fact they all seem very old and very dead. Just a theory and food for thought.
I find the conclusion that the ancient dynasty worshipped rot quite stretched. If you look at their ruins all around the map you'll notice tree iconography. Look at the dynast statue itself.
We first talked about it more in our Snake Iceberg video, but there is no text reference in game. It's a concept fans of George R R Martin's work will be familiar with though
The Crystals above the Lake of Rot, could they be Glintstones? Lake of Rot is beneath the Academy/Lake of that area. Also I think the Nox in Leyndell were banished below ground and some went down the Siofra and some went down the Ainsel and built their civilisations there, this explains why those two cities have lifts to exit and the Nameless eternal city doesnt, but it doesnt really explain everything. Uhl/Uld palace ruins are always found near Nox architecture so I originally thought that society became the Nox and the Claymen became the Envoys.
There’s a theory that when godwyn was killed by the black knife assassins the lands between started to mold around the shape of his corpse, look up a picture and compare it to the map. So around ghe 15:00 area when he’s talking about the titans and how they shaped the lands between and the distortion in the land since , it kind of makes sense that these structures the titans have made have stayed in place as the land around it moved and started to mold into the shape of godwyns corpse. Let me know what you guys think of this theory 😊
