Elden Ring DLC Story Trailer FULL BREAKDOWN! | LORE, SETTING, And MORE! 

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I’m 30 and I’m more excited for this DLC than I ever was for Christmas growing up

Michael Zaki just be dropping GOD-tier visuals every goddamn time

Ok, here's my ball-to-the-wall theory. Marika obtained power through a variety of shady means, one of them being a union with the Gloam-Eyed-Queen, a one-time leader of the Land of Shadow. ("an affair from which gold arose".) From this, Marika had 2 children, maybe twins. Melina and Messmer. Melina learned various magic and who-knows-what from the GEQ, while Messmer was ruthlessly devoted to Marika. Then when Marika inevitably betrayed the GEQ, Messmer sided with her and helped burn the Land of Shadow, a fire that left Melina "burned and bodiless". Marika then did her usual fare, and abandoned Messmer in the Land of Shadow. Then, Marika began her conquest and ascension in the Lands Between, using Maliketh to mop up the remnants of the GEQ, all except one. Melina helps the Tarnished while wrestling with allegiances, and eventually decides her own fate, one in which she can convince the Tarnished to eventually supplant Marika entirely, allowing Melina to orchestrate a final poetic victory against Marika by those she set aside: the resurrected Tarnished, and her long-burned daughter. EDIT: Someone pointed out that this could be a contradiction with the canon, as Maliketh is said to have killed the GEQ, but if she was already in a decline after Marika's betrayal, it would have been insanely easy for him to simply finish her off in the war against the Godskins. We hear tell of a bunch of unnamed demigods in things luike the Godskins and the Mausoleums, so chances are Marika was simply one of many aspiring Empyreans, but she alone had the sheer brutality to realize her vision. A crown is warranted with strength, after all.

Seems to me that pile of bodies surrounding Marika IS the Erdtree. The gap is the same shape as the one in the final Erdtree we see in the game.

Much like the Night of the Black Knives, this will probably be a cutscene we look back on with horrifying context.

The part where Marika uses the corpses as a stair is very similar to Griffiths vision in Berserk of him using his friends corpses to reach his own kingdom.

That crouching woman seems to be slowly burning (her cape is on on fire). Maybe it's Melina during her first burning? Or Gloam-Eyed Queen who was later reborn as Melina.

Notice how in the beginning when marika pulls those strings out of that womb or whatever it is, and when she holds it up, the elden beast music plays. That's gotta be connected. Maybe what she pulls is the elden beast, which then uses to create the erdtree

fuckin ell that was fast it was like 2 hours ago

I'm almost certain that this "affair" cited in the beginning was a relationship between Marika and the Snake commune. From this affair came Messmer, the first born son of Marika, witch she left behind as she walked towards the lands between, as the "golden arose". Leaving the "shadow that was born" behind. The pile of corpses that make that "portal" is very similar to the aesthetic we find at volcano manor and the remains of Rykard that Tanis consume. And all of this should explain the symbols and lore behind Messmer...

An important detail that I immediately noticed is that at 2:21 where the tree is shown, there isn't any veil. That means that Messmer assault on the Lion dance city took place before the Land of Shadow was veiled by Marika. Also the City Messmer attacks bares many similarities to Leyndell, and the Eternal cities, so does that mean Messmer is attacking a Numen city? (Perhaps some of the Numen worshipped the crucible.)

1:57 in the next clip you can see that Mesmer impaled all 3 people in the lion dancer, which also confirms that its multiple people controlling the lion machine thing

This trailer makes it look like a movie. I would definitely watch a movie if it was shadow of the erdtree.

7:43 my theory is that thoses runes will be the bonfires of the dlc instead of the graces

I know it's a nitpick i've said before, but "gloam" is a verb refering to a time of day. It is the act of the sky dimly shining at twilight/dusk. Not the color of pale or dark purple. Gloaming can take on a lot of different colors. Not a gloam, nor gloamly, but "to gloam." Lore wise, for all we know, the purple hue of the gloam-eyed queen is due to the influence of sleep and the relatedness of sleep to nighttime. As sleep is also consistently a pale purple color.

"If you have seen it, go ahead and skip to the breakdown" You're telling me to give up the opportunity to see this beautiful masterpiece for the 15th time today? No way

What if the scene where Marika is “crafting a rune” is when she veils the shadow world. To me it looks like a gateway or doorway, from the land of shadow to the world that we are in. Maybe her crafting a rune would make her a goddess?

My initial thoughts are as follows: Marika was known as the Gloam eyed queen, who set forth the God hunt through the apostle’s to do her bidding(this is why there’s no evidence of the good hunt in the lands between) She had skinned an entire race of people (probably kin of gods, hence the gold strands) to gain her power and create the lands between(hence the shot of her holding the strands looking forward to a golden sky scape while leaving a gloam sky scape behind). The corpses were used to create the erdtree. Messmer was Marika’s first born child who lead a siege on her behalf to aid in wiping out the initial Shadow realm race. Left behind to rot when she gained her power and created a new realm. All of Marika’s future children were unaware of the events that had occurred and took the golden order as gospel for the most part. Omen born children are fragments of the shadow realm that marika does not want in her realm. Miquella’s intelligence and cunning would eventually drive him to uncover some of this mystery, which he decides to stop practicing the golden order. His haligtree failed as a result of not having a mountain of bodies at the base (he has been portrayed as a loving figure). He vested himself of his flesh in order to travel to the shadow realm to learn the truth. In the realm of shadow he has adapted the St. Trina alter ego which can let him extend his fingers into the lands between through the use of sleep (that’s why there is way more St. Trina symbolism in these trailers, as this is the realm where St. Trina resides) he has potentially made contact with the godskins who looks to travel to the lands between to slay Marika who has abandoned them. I suspect that there is a relationship between the godskins and St. Trina due to the purple jewelry the godskins wear, which resemble the colors and vibe of the St. Trina items. It is possible that the only way to travel from the realm of shadow to the lands between is through the aid of St. Trina and potentially sleep. This would explain why there a few references to both parties in the lands between, but almost zero reference to Messmer, as St Trina and the godskins have worked together to reach the lands between.

Bro this whole trailer was PEAK😩😭got goosebumps and hyped the whole time watching it

One of the people in the group of Miquella's loyalists is definitely wearing one of Castle Marais masks. Also, I believe the narrator of the first trailer is Miquella, while the second one is narrated by St Trina. The first voce sounds more masculine.

Miquella about to form the Band of the Hawk.

This might be a hilarious re-contextualization of the crucible, where "all life was once blended together". Not in some metaphysical sense, but literally, the skinned remains of all sorts of life were blended together in a flesh, tree-like amalgamate that somehow had properties reminiscent of the lives offered to it. ...kinda similar to the erdtree's rememberances maybe?

That music towards the end is fantastic. I look forward to listening to the full track.

So Marika was a culture vulture who used her son's battle prowess to usurp, and oppress an entire Land while she fled and he held them down. With the Dancing Dragon type thing, it got me thinking... Tanith was a dancer from a far away land. Maybe she came to the Lands Between knowing what Marika had done to her home, and she wanted to create an uprising of Recusant Fingers to take back what Marika stole from the Land of Shadow. When you look at Rykard with all the hands poking out (also the Blasphemous Blade), it looks like all the arms and hands we see poking out of the split tree in this trailer right?

The thing at the start, it has a CLEAR trim with stitches, this is definitely clothing, perhaps made of skin, as Godskin do. And i believe it is a hood, and inside lies a head, where the hair is pulled out of.

In that scene, Marika was stepping into the Erdtree. The opening looks the same. The Erdtree has a lining of gold around it. The Ertree roots always have bodies embedded in them. The Erdtree is made up of bodies, possibly from the war in the land of shadows. The bodies are concealed with Marika's gold.

Quelaag made a good observation, that the "flesh" Marika reaches into looks godskin-esque, maybe there's a tie in here with the Gloam Eyed Queen??

Is it me, or does the image of St. Trina falling look like a sideways rotation of the nascent butterfly?

So what I am guessing is that Marika was not exactly chosen by the Greater Will, but summonned him. She is probably Summoning the Elden Beast, hence the Elden Beast Music. Then we have Miquella. We know his thing was expelling the Outer Gods, so I'd imagine Miquella was searching for the lore on creation of the Erdtree, and found the Land of Shadow as its origin, where he discovered Marika's act. So by following in her footsteps ig he can find some elixir or item, that was related to the Summoning of the Greater Will, that when combined with his needle can finally eject the Outer Gods. Idk heavy speculation.

What if Mesmer is the child of Radagon and the Gloam-Eyed Queen? Just a thought, but it sure as hell would be an interesting reveal.

2:53 St. Trina looks nearly identical to the nascent butterfly in this shot

In the first SOTE trailer where we see Miquella at the end, we can also see that he is standing in a field riddled with old corpses, similar to the one Marika walks through in this trailer. When Miquella raises his hand to (presumably) cleanse the trees, we can see strands of light from his hands reminiscent of the strands Marika used to create Gold.

I've been thinking the voice is Marika, the part about "they were never saints, they just happened to be on the losing side of a war" pretty mean, but it seems like something a leader of an army with a goal of conquest would say

3:10 Miquellas Band of Hawk

That thing in the beginning looks like the swaddling cloth thing that the godskins are born in.

The runes of Miquella could be the new power-up mechanic introduced in the DLC. Maybe we find them and absorb them to get stronger in the realm of shadow.

The story trailer at the beginning is absolutely telling the birth of Radagon in my opinion. I do believe that is Marika reaching into whatever she's reaching into and pulling out grace, however the person holding the strands at the end doesn't look like Marika. The silhouette is masculine, which could be the first shift from Marika to Radagon. If I really wanted to reach I'd say Marika used the Gloam-Eye'd Queen's grace (which she would've had as an empyrean) to create Radagon and remove death from herself and her bloodline. (Altering Fate/Removing death is explicitly what she did when she "plucked the rune of death from the elden ring")

IMO, I dont think they are referring to an extramarital relationship when they say affair....an affair is also just a sequence of events (a seduction and betrayal that led to the creation of gold) It could actually mean both tho, so who knows.

Now i am convinced that Marika is Gloameyed Qeeun, and Melina and Messmer are her children from Swadowlands

Im so incredibly hopeful the score at 2:04 is Messmer's boss theme. Down right bliss to hear.

One thing I noticed is the narrator's speech when the war led by Messmer is shown : they say "What followed was a war unseen, one that could never be put to SONG". It hit me first as a possible implication being that St Trina [of the Cradlesong] / Miquella is the one speaking, and that voice is very similar to the one in the end of the gameplay trailer

I’ve only been waiting since the livestream for this breakdown…

I caught the beginning of your stream but I had to bounce, but I knew you would come through with this video! But this was fast bro!

2:50 Definitely St. Trina >Trina's Lilies are there >Everything is purple >Sleep is purple >Weapons associated with sleep: St. Trina's Sword/Arrow

I finished watching the trailer, and literally 2 seconds after, I get the notification for this 😂

Maybe the skin Hunt was to create the first tree, It would explain the skined corpses in the trailer

Thanks so much for these vids bro can't wait for the dlc!

Thank you for not putting the high pitched background music in this one. I was able to actually watch the whole video this time

1. what if the pregnant woman is Marika holding Mesmer? 2. what if the wall of corpses is an entrance to the Lands Between separated from the Land of Shadow, thus the skies being different? Maybe the first thing Marika did as a goddess was separate the two in order to rid of her past or put it far away from her future in the Lands Between. This still could involve the godskin hunt theory too as it's part of the old world Marika came from

Close, but no cigar. The woman speaking of Miquella WAS in the first trailer, voicing, but it's the part where someone said "they were never saints. Just on a losing side of the war." The lady burning looks like a Black Knife Assassin.

Congrats my Zios! First referenced video for Rataroskr's analysis

Wow, working quickly man. Thanks for the analysis!

This DLC trailer has Dark Souls 3 vibes. Even the music echoed themes to the Dark Souls 3 opening cinema. I wished the core Elden Ring game had a trailer with this feeling. It was good, but was different.

My favourite part was when Messmer said "It's impalin' time" and then treated everyone to 18 inches of the impaler.

I love your clear and straight ways to the point in your videos, good job dude.

Dayumn you whipped this up quick! Nice work!

If Mesmer impaled Marika (and her womb), could he be the reason that the Twins were inflicted with their conditions (for exampled the goddess of rot could have used that as a pathway of some sorts)? And if so, did Miquella travel to the Shadow Lands to understand the origin of their conditions and to get rid of them, besides growing his own tree?

Let's not forget the person who wrote all this background lore was George R. R. Martin, so here is some dark shit I truly hope the DLC is going to reveal or at least imply: 1. Melina and Mesmer are twins and the very fist children of Marika. 2. Their father is likely a dragon (Placidusax maybe? Since it's the oldest Dragon we know and all those elder Dragons can take human form). 2.1 - Melina's eye sealed by a claw mark (I know some people theorized it's a crow's feet, but there is no crow symbolism in this game, and tons of Dragons - the deathbirds are not crows) and she manipulate both fire and sleep. 2.2 - Mesmer is clearly Snake/Dragon themed. 3. Melina's purpose given to her by her mother, now long lost as she says, was to marry the old dude on the painting for some strategic alliance (Marika love those). 4. Melina was pregnant, but not of the old dude, because you see... Melina and Mesmer's brotherly love was a little too deep, Cersei and Jamie style. Somehow making their child a candidate for godhood (I can't shake the feeling that maybe all of this is prophesied by the omen natives and their tales - the way they were show on the trailer show they performing some kind of storytelling ritual with the dragon/lion dance). 5. The lady on the new trailer on her knees holding a coiled spear shaped object similar to how one holds a child is Melina, later becoming mad with rage and following Marika to the lands between for her revenge - becoming the Gloam Eyed Queen (the ending where Melina open her other eye is too much to ignore). She got burned on Mesmer's war siege and it also explains her revenge motif and why she went on killing a bunch of babies later on. 6. Melina WAS St. Trina (again, the torch with the marked eye is too much to ignore) before all that, probably using her power to do some of Marika's biddings (another part of her purpose, perhaps). 7. Miquella in his slumber began to dream about St. Trina, and that's why he was drawn to the land of shadows, manipulated Mogh into kidnapping him, and convinced Malenia to just sit and do nothing while he was taken. I also think somehow Miquella and St. Trina began to merge, similar to Aldrich in DS3. Here is some interesting Aldrich lore that show some similarities between them both: "Aldrich dreamt as he slowly devoured the God of the Darkmoon. In this dream, he perceived the form of a young, pale girl in hiding" - description of Lifehunt Scythe. And that's why St. Trina's description are all over the place between an adult female, much rarer/older and "unnerving to look at" (because she is the Gloam Eyed Queen) and a young boy. 8. Marika was having none of that bullshit and punished them both... probably sent Mesmer away first to fight some pointless battle (similar to a more modern day tale of Dracula - he is the impaler after all) only to return and discover their secret was revealed. So he waged war against the shadowlands capital once he found out that Marika not only punished Melina, but also killed their baby and stole those golden threads from it to ascend to godhood herself. 9. Marika was defeated by Mesmer on the land of shadows, and he burned too much including the crucible tree making it impossible for her to reign there. So she cast her vail on the land, erased all that and set sail with a tree sapling to somewhere else... then she destroyed pretty much every pre-existing culture on the lands between as well in favor of her order. I know, I know... a bunch of plot holes and to everything I said there is a counter argument and something that invalidates it. But that can be said about every lore theory ever made with these games. I hope I'm right - not for the sake of being right and feeling good about myself, but I want this dark and gritty past history shit to be true for this game since I love that kind of stuff.

Thank you for these videos, Ziostorm! You truly are a master at your craft!! 👊🏻

The elden beast ost in the beginning of the trailer was a nice touch! I can't wait to see what they do next/ what interactions between Miquella and Malenia will bring in the dlc, especially if you have his needle! If St. Trina was indeed corrupted, Millicent and her quest may become much more important.

21st June is my birthday..... And this is the best birthday gift ever😊😊😊 thanks Miyazaki San

3:45 That isn't a pregnant belly. It's a (very suggestive) giant eye. The two folds are eyelids and round shape you see as the hand is withdrawn is the eyeball. Remember that grace and runes appear to be related to, if not stored directly in, eyes.

hey Ziostorm, love your video´s

To me the area in the beginning looks like Rykards arena, before it was burnt. It has the pillers of dead bodies,the purple smoke/clouds and the Blasphemous blade has a similar look to it. Seems like a lot of similarites with the snakes, the fire, etc.

OK I definitely get the impression Messmer is evil. They describe his attack on the Shadow Lands as "Without Grace or Honor" and he's was called a Tyrant. Definitely not a fallen hero like some people theorized

Here are some of my thoughts about the trailer. 1. When the narrator states " and so to was shadow born" could allude to not only the creation of the golden order but also the creation of maliketh as it was stated before in the main game that the plucking of desitned death brought about the golden order and marika needed a vessel to place destined death. Maliketh is also her shadow. 2. It could also mean the weaving together of the elden ring from the strands of grace and runes that marika joined together. 3. The betrayal could be a coup d etat that marika instigated to brought forth a war that will lead to alot of death and bloodshed needed to offer up to the formation of the erde tree or its creation. She may have had to isolate true death to propagate the cycle of rebirth via the erde tree. 4. The lion dancer seems to be a symbol of the crucible because of its physical traits. Marika like she did before orchestrated a genocide to put forth the necessary ingridients to put her plan into fruition.

I was curious to hear what you made of the trailer! Good video bro!😮😊

Missed detail: at 2:20, Marika seems to be hanging from the golden arc above the ruined city. Same pose as in the Erdtree, where she hangs - her womb impaled 😮

Anyone else getting birth canal imagery from the opening (no pun intended) scene?

Maybe the beginning is the act of veiling itself, the portal shows a sky that is similar to that of Altus Plateau. The rune is most likely the so called footsteps we have to follow (maybe a new form of grace?)

@ziostorm At 2:20 we see the top of the building crumble to the the top. This reminds of when we beat radahn and the meteor crashes and causes antigravity to some boulders near the crater impact site. Perhaps a star is is somewhat connected to the veil? Also to me the two trees look like one is choking the other to death. The sap is flowing out of one of them like blood. 2:54 sounds to me like Miquella completely separated from his alter ego, Str. Trina to "escape his fate". This sounds very similar to Rannis quest. He needed a way out of the system and thats how he did it. How? Hard to tell. Perhaps Mohg has something to do with it? Furthermore at 1:18 I think we see the end of the war that mesmer and Marika/Radagon fought against the gloam eyed queen. This scene looks quite familiar to berserk manga readers no? MArika/Radagon sacrifices all these corpses to become a god just like what griffith did to Guts and she marks her "beloved GEQ" which in my book leaves Melina bodyless and burned. She lost everything that day and was betrayed by her most beloved and their child (Mesmer?). The corpses turn into the first erdtree, marika becomes a god. THE GEQ stops the tree from becoming complete out of spite. At this point I think Marika decides to leave that place and start somewhere new with a erdree seed. She seals the entrance to the shadow lands together with her way too powerful child and starts anew in the lands between. Just my 2 cents tho.

So I’m thinking Messmer is Marika’s firstborn

What if the hair string that marika pulled out from is the womb of Kos.... or some say Kosm

Crazy theory time, St. Trina will be a TERRIFYING octopus boss fight, her face on the torch looks like tentacles and a beak, octopus are said to be able to dream which would explain why there are octopus surrounding Miquella's statue in altus, St. Trina was shown in water as well, think of sleep plus octopus command grabs, I don't know I just have always wondered about the statue in Altus, I believe it was originally supposed to be called Trina's hideaway, but instead it's surrounded by octopus and a statue of Miquella

Have enyone else noticed that Melina does use the same clothes as Millicent, and her sisters? Not only that but she also look alike Malenia, and have similar names, and in this game, Lineage takes names very seriously, for example: Godfrey, Godwyn, Godrick. I think you guys get the point, and if you compare, the closest name we have in game to Melina, is indeed Malenia, not only that, the place where you find Melina’s travelling clothes, is in front of an Scarlet Aeonia Flower wich are said to be the source of Malenia’s buds (daughters) and not only that, if you translate bud, one word that appears as suggestion is eye, and if we take a closer look we can almost certainly describe Malenia as eyeless, her eyes have been gone from the scars of the scarlet rot, wich kinda make me belive that her daughters travel the world to see for her, almost as if they were her eyes outside, may she see trough her daughters while she is asleep? I dunno but its a hell of a theory, even more when we remember that Melina has a shut eye, what make me think that both Malenia and her buds were black knifes at some point, that last part could be exagerated but since Malenia is Marika’s descendant, that make her Numen does it not? What if the black knifes that killed Godwyn were Malenia and her daughters back when the haligtree were the erdtree in the land of shadows wich is the past of the lands between?

Fell in love with darksouls when i 11 years old now im turning 25 . This ..... is something divine and holy

When she walks up the stairs and the wind / roar comes through, I think that came from the Elden Beast itself. I honestly believe we are witnessing her giving herself to the Elden Beast.

The opening that marika is holding to golden strings at reminds me of the part of the erdtree that isnt covered in gold (the entrance). her positioning is also somewhat similar to the position she is stuck in for the duration of the game. not sure what it would mean but it what my first thought when watching

Nice and succinct well put together video. 👍🏻

That shot of Messmers soldiers walking up the stairs is so epic. They look badass & I'm sure will be formidable

Bro got to work

I am taking a week off work to play this thang. I have never been more excited about the game in my adulthood, feels like I am a kid. That’s big.

had the same understanding from the trailer. love this

My guess is that Miquella found out about the Land of Shadows and the tyrannical rule of Messmer and chose to put a stop to him, but in order to get to the Lands of Shadows he had to give up everything.

St Trina really reminded me of the blue dancer charm when I first saw her

Nice video as always and epic Trailer. Cheers

It doesn’t matter if they are followers of miquella by choice or by force… I will be taking their armor and weapons 🙂

That opening scene looks so much like the eclipse from Berserk.

Watching every one of your new videos in its entirity and liking to compensate for the lack of notice from FromSoft. Keep up the great work, we appriciate you.

One of the most interesting things I’ve noticed is as you can see at 2:22, the way the Shadow Erdtree is partially cut at the top parallels the shape of Miquella’s rune, which is shown immediately in the next scene. I wonder what this means

That hand of Marika seems to be reaching something similar to the cloth of the godskins. Maybe the GEQ? Also, "Seduction and the Betrayal.". Marika betrays us and through this, "an affair through which gold rose " (golden order). Another "also", maybe Marika allied with Messmer at the beginning because she needed his manpower/military might? A deal with the devil?

Who's ready for 18 inches of Messmer?

At 1:38 as the Soldiers are going up the flaming steps, you see in the middle something impaled with spears at its back, is it me or is that thing that most recent creature Fromsoft showed us? The one with the Gold mask and white hair coming out from its eye

my guess is that the power system is actually similar to DS2 Ivory king fight, based on the final shot at the end. we go and recruit homies to help us and make it easier. Miyizaki said it would be similar to Sekiro probably as one of his typical diversion tactics. If he said it was like DS2 then people would a) get upset because its DS2 and b) it would be very easy to figure it out. ❤

6:55 the impaled have omen horns too

Also in the latter half of the trailer, we get this 'playful' kinda music around 2:26, almost reminiscent of a children's music which turns sinister suddenly and then continues to plateau around that. My guess is that this is Miquella's bossfight music and that means, we do have Miquella as a boss

It’s INSANE how much this game is actually about Miquella, more so than Marika! Especially if the new theories about Melina being Miquella are true!! Do you all remember collecting the AMBER STARLIGHT!?! Is that possible proof that Miquella has changed his fate? Perhaps that’s how Melina is how she is, separate and forgetting her purpose! 🧐🤔

Kind of neat how the narrator talks about Miquella’s fate and then cuts to a shot of St Trina almost as if its trying to say Miquella’s fate is becoming St Trina

There's a very strong imagery of golden hair throughout Elden Ring. I think the beginning of the video is actually a baby wrapped in cloths and she's taking strings of golden hair out of it. given Miquella is an eternal child, maybe his infant/baby phase was longer. long enough to grow hair. This trailer made me think that Marika became a god because she gave birth to Miquella. She the mother of a god, like Mary in christianity.