A scion is a descendant of a noble or reputable family, but it's also a term in gardening for a cutting of a plant intended for grafting. Considering the importance of trees in Elden Ring, I wouldn't be surprised if the process of grafting branches from one tree to another inspired the grotesque art of grafting we see employed by Godrick.
Could it be that these are Godrick's children forces to undergo grafting? They have somewhat similiar crowns and mantles resembling that of godrick's and they also have white hair like he does
The problem with detailed, horrifying enemies in Souls games is that I'd never get the chance to see one up close myself, in-game normally. It's hard to notice all the disturbing details when they're currently trying to play fruit ninja with my intestines
From all the times I've fought the scions. The only detail I could make our here was the face. Thought it was the face of a lady, which made it more disturbing since I thought it implied some kind of experimentation on young noble women. Either that, or possibly indoctrination, cult style, towards grafting of oneself for some reason.
But isnt this the Charm of Fromsoft? That they put so much Work in stuff that we in Normal means cant look at properly? I love stuff like that. Yes People like Zullie can look at it better and show it. But Fromsoft could also be lazy and dont go into detail like that at all. Cause as you said, we wont normally notice that stuff, cause we cant look at it properly. (Sorry for all the errors in spelling. Im not a native English speaker + the ' doesnt work lol. Needed to copy it from your text :,D)
@@Meyphold I personally really like that. Makes for more and more things to learn as we get invested into the series. I'd even go so far as to say the same for the fake walls. Putting so much work into places like ash lake in DS1 and then hiding it behind a fake wall. It sounds a little dumb from a work perspective but it makes finding it as the player so much more awesome.
it's very interesting how grafted beings don't seem to have any ultimate design or goal. It seems to be almost random what is grafted where, without any thought about if it'd be useful or not. It adds such a tragedy to it.
makes sense, considering that they're children. they probably just thought "oh that'd be cool" with things like the wing that wound up going nowhere, like when a kid asks for something like a guitar and never bothers to learn to play it. its a shame, because i can totally see a kid deciding that they're gonna graft wings to themself and fly, only to keep adding parts, never considering that the extra weight would crush that dream of flight they had.
@@quanariin1290 Godrick the grafted is as slapdash as well, so either their vision is beyond what we could possibly imagine or there's just a madness to it.
@@quanariin1290 I'm not sure the children would have much choice. They're probably just manipulated into this to try and get more power for their families
i think my favorite detail is that the arm holding the sword has two arms resembling the bone in a forearm. Like how two grafted arms form a complete one. Idk if I explained it clearly but it’s awesome to see that planning went into these creatures and not just the work of a madman with glue
The details in the boss and enemy models is INSANE when viewed up close like this. It's too bad when you are playing normally you have zero chance to appreciate it as they try to murder you.
Just wanted to point out that Grafting didn't start with Godrick or even his ancestor Godefroy. Grafting appears to be a tradition and important ritual the Golden Lineage practices indicated by Godfrey and his beast regent Serosh and their unification. Their union was not grotesque and is more symbiotic due to Serosh satiating Godfrey's lust for battle. When their union is displayed its more noble and godly. It is terrifying that Godfrey separates himself from Serosh when he needs to unleash his unbridled strength; indicating that Serosh is more noble or symbolic of Godfrey's rule and that without Serosh, Godfrey would be consumed by Bloodlust a fault only we tarnished ever witness. The Golden lineage and all who come from it revere Godfrey, and its not a stretch to think Godric would presume Godfrey's strength comes from his grafting of Serosh. Godrick and Godefroy are just a corruption of a possibly more noble process twisted over time.The unity possibly represented the pact between man and beast, or two natures being joined in a marriage for the greater realm. Godrick has twisted it for power, and foolishly thinks he can ascend from it hence his hasty grafting of a dragon. It would have been interesting to see what would happen if a demi-god was grafted to another demi-god!
I wish they took the grafting power to the extent godrick did. That ability is so underutilized in elden ring. Give me some abomination with a crab claw. Graft some bear arms and a dragon tail on someone. Seriously just being able to attatch other creatures together is such a cool ability
Maybe the smaller parts are there because were needed when it was smaller and other like the feather wing was needed because that type of birds resist grafting so they add that to it get mixed with the flesh
You know, Godrick and the Scion's looks like a picture perfect representation of people playing city builder games but has no structural planning skills or is too lazy to plan properly. "We put this here and these here would be great. Looking good and functions great" A couple of hours later: "Oh damn, shouldn't have placed these here since I can place this thing now. Oh well found some space here, then I can squeeze this here. Looks bad but atleast it works well Enough..."
JESUS KNOCKS ON YOUR HEART AND LONGS FOR YOU TO ANSWER! HE DOESN'T WANT TO SEE ANYONE PERISH INTO HELL. GOD LOVES YOU SO HE GIVES YOU FREE WILL AND A CHOICE TO ACCEPT HIM OR REJECT HIM. TO LOVE HIM OR TO LOVE SIN/THIS WORLD. CALL UPON JESUS & ASK HIM TO FORGIVE YOUR SINS! SURRENDER YOUR WILL & YOUR LIFE TO HIM & HE WILL GIVE YOU ETERNAL LIFE IN HEAVEN! PICTURE YOUR BEST DAY ON EARTH TIMES A BILLION FOR ETERNITY, THAT'S HEAVEN! NOW PICTURE YOUR WORST DAY ON EARTH TIMES A BILLION FOR ETERNITY, THAT'S HELL! HE WILL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANT SO IF YOU REJECT HIM YOU WILL BE SEPARATED FROM HIM & HIS BLESSINGS (LOVE, PEACE, JOY, HOPE, REST, ETC). IN HELL YOU WILL BE ALONE WITHOUT GOD OR PEOPLE... YOU WILL BE HOPELESS, IN DESPAIR & AGONY FOREVER! GOD'S STANDARD FOR HEAVEN IS PERFECTION AND ONLY JESUS (THE SON OF GOD/GOD IN THE FLESH) LIVED THAT PERFECT LIFE! HE LAID DOWN HIS LIFE & TOOK THE WRATH OF THE FATHER ON THE CROSS FOR YOUR SINS! GOD IS JUST SO HE MUST PUNISH SIN & HE IS HOLY SO NO SIN CAN ENTER HIS KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. IF YOU ARE IN CHRIST ON JUDGEMENT DAY GOD WILL SEE YOU AS HIS PERFECT SON (SINLESS SINCE YOUR SINS ARE COVERED BY JESUS' OFFERING). YOU CAN ALSO CHOOSE TO REJECT JESUS' GIFT/SACRIFICE & PAY FOR YOUR OWN SIN WITH DEATH (HELL) BUT THAT SEEMS PRETTY FOOLISH! GOD SEES & HEARS EVERYTHING YOU HAVE SAID & DONE. YOU WONT WIN AN ARGUMENT WITH HIM & YOU CANT DEFEND ANY OF YOUR SINS TO HIM. YOU'RE NOT A GOOD PERSON, I'M NOT A GOOD PERSON... ONLY GOD IS GOOD! WE'RE ALL GUILTY WITHOUT ACCEPTING JESUS' SACRIFICE FOR OUR SINS! MUHAMMAD DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, BUDDHA DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, NO PASTOR/NO PRIEST/NO SAINT/NO ANCESTOR DIED FOR YOUR SINS, MARY DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, NO IDOLS OR FALSE gods DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO MUSICIAN OR CELEBRITY DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO INFLUENCER OR RU-vid STAR DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO SCIENTIST OR POLITICIAN DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO ATHLETE OR ACTOR DIED FOR YOUR SINS! STOP WORSHIPING THESE PEOPLE! JESUS CHRIST ALONE DIED FOR YOUR SINS & WAS RESURRECTED FROM THE GRAVE! HE IS ALIVE & COMING BACK VERY SOON WITH JUDGEMENT (THESE ARE END TIMES)! PREPARE YOURSELVES, TURN FROM SIN & RUN TO JESUS! HE KNOWS YOUR PAIN & TROUBLES, HE WANTS TO HEAL & RESTORE YOU! TALK TO HIM LIKE A BEST FRIEND! ASK HIM TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO YOU & HELP YOU TO BELIEVE IF YOU DOUBT! DON'T WAIT TO CRY OUT! NO ONE IS PROMISED TOMORROW! HE LONGS FOR YOU TO INVITE HIM IN, HE LOVES YOU MORE THAN ANY PERSON EVER COULD, HE CREATED YOU! Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."-John 14:6 "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."-Matthew 10:33 “For the wages of sin is death (hell), but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”-Romans 6:23
Grafted scion is an excellent dnd miniboss. Necromancer or... I forgot their names. They make intellect devourers. The squid people who are actually worms (yeah, that probably didn't help)
JESUS KNOCKS ON YOUR HEART AND LONGS FOR YOU TO ANSWER! HE DOESN'T WANT TO SEE ANYONE PERISH INTO HELL. GOD LOVES YOU SO HE GIVES YOU FREE WILL AND A CHOICE TO ACCEPT HIM OR REJECT HIM. TO LOVE HIM OR TO LOVE SIN/THIS WORLD. CALL UPON JESUS & ASK HIM TO FORGIVE YOUR SINS! SURRENDER YOUR WILL & YOUR LIFE TO HIM & HE WILL GIVE YOU ETERNAL LIFE IN HEAVEN! PICTURE YOUR BEST DAY ON EARTH TIMES A BILLION FOR ETERNITY, THAT'S HEAVEN! NOW PICTURE YOUR WORST DAY ON EARTH TIMES A BILLION FOR ETERNITY, THAT'S HELL! HE WILL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANT SO IF YOU REJECT HIM YOU WILL BE SEPARATED FROM HIM & HIS BLESSINGS (LOVE, PEACE, JOY, HOPE, REST, ETC). IN HELL YOU WILL BE ALONE WITHOUT GOD OR PEOPLE... YOU WILL BE HOPELESS, IN DESPAIR & AGONY FOREVER! GOD'S STANDARD FOR HEAVEN IS PERFECTION AND ONLY JESUS (THE SON OF GOD/GOD IN THE FLESH) LIVED THAT PERFECT LIFE! HE LAID DOWN HIS LIFE & TOOK THE WRATH OF THE FATHER ON THE CROSS FOR YOUR SINS! GOD IS JUST SO HE MUST PUNISH SIN & HE IS HOLY SO NO SIN CAN ENTER HIS KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. IF YOU ARE IN CHRIST ON JUDGEMENT DAY GOD WILL SEE YOU AS HIS PERFECT SON (SINLESS SINCE YOUR SINS ARE COVERED BY JESUS' OFFERING). YOU CAN ALSO CHOOSE TO REJECT JESUS' GIFT/SACRIFICE & PAY FOR YOUR OWN SIN WITH DEATH (HELL) BUT THAT SEEMS PRETTY FOOLISH! GOD SEES & HEARS EVERYTHING YOU HAVE SAID & DONE. YOU WONT WIN AN ARGUMENT WITH HIM & YOU CANT DEFEND ANY OF YOUR SINS TO HIM. YOU'RE NOT A GOOD PERSON, I'M NOT A GOOD PERSON... ONLY GOD IS GOOD! WE'RE ALL GUILTY WITHOUT ACCEPTING JESUS' SACRIFICE FOR OUR SINS! MUHAMMAD DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, BUDDHA DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, NO PASTOR/NO PRIEST/NO SAINT/NO ANCESTOR DIED FOR YOUR SINS, MARY DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, NO IDOLS OR FALSE gods DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO MUSICIAN OR CELEBRITY DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO INFLUENCER OR RU-vid STAR DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO SCIENTIST OR POLITICIAN DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO ATHLETE OR ACTOR DIED FOR YOUR SINS! STOP WORSHIPING THESE PEOPLE! JESUS CHRIST ALONE DIED FOR YOUR SINS & WAS RESURRECTED FROM THE GRAVE! HE IS ALIVE & COMING BACK VERY SOON WITH JUDGEMENT (THESE ARE END TIMES)! PREPARE YOURSELVES, TURN FROM SIN & RUN TO JESUS! HE KNOWS YOUR PAIN & TROUBLES, HE WANTS TO HEAL & RESTORE YOU! TALK TO HIM LIKE A BEST FRIEND! ASK HIM TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO YOU & HELP YOU TO BELIEVE IF YOU DOUBT! DON'T WAIT TO CRY OUT! NO ONE IS PROMISED TOMORROW! HE LONGS FOR YOU TO INVITE HIM IN, HE LOVES YOU MORE THAN ANY PERSON EVER COULD, HE CREATED YOU! Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."-John 14:6 "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."-Matthew 10:33 “For the wages of sin is death (hell), but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”-Romans 6:23
one of my biggest elden ring gripes is the lack of other grafted enemies in stormveil!! feels like they set up this whole grafted thing and they barely go into it :
Surgeon: "My lord, why would they need arms dangling in the crotch area?" Godrick: "To make the other arms stonger, of course!" Surgeon: "Yes, and what about the single chicken wing?" Godrick: "AERODYNAMICS! God, it's like you weren't even paying attention at the body-mutilation conference!"
The implication that haphazardly sticking a wing on something improves its aerodynamics no matter where the wing is is fucking hilarious to me for some reason
I saw grafted house IRL, it had wooden walls, brick walls, and some metal walls and parts and a small balcony from whatever it was. Sadly I cant post image here. That thing look terrible🤣
Such a shame we didn't get more grafted enemies, i was fully expecting things to go mental the closer i got to godrick. Though maybe there are so few as its a particularly difficult and magical process that often fails. That or godrick is greedy and these guys only get the limbs he doesn't want.
I'm inclined to think it's something closer to the latter. Particularly since it sounds like they only use the Tarnished for grafting, so there's probably not that much to go around.
Yes but it does fit the lore, this is a process reserved for the nobility as an alternate strategy to family trees where the spider monster lives for a really long time.
What fascinates me the most is that the Scion's cloak is clearly tailor-made for its inhuman shape. Not only this, but the elegant garb was fashioned with a great deal of skill, as well. This implies that before Stormveil fully went to ruin, there was a point where it was still fully staffed, and these horrible creatures were being tended to like nobility.
Godfrey and Godrick wear a very similar 'draped' cloak, so you're absolutely right-in addition to many of the bosses, such as Mohg and Radahn. Even Morgott/Margitt has one, though his is simple and has no patterns. The 'nobility of the golden lineage all seem to wear these capes-though in their present state, they all seem to be made of fairly poor materials.
What an excellent detail, it really adds to the existential horror. No wonder the ghosts and the few common folk left alive all are mourning- look what they were forced to serve for so, so long
The feathers make sense, too! Stormhawk Deenh’s item description tells us about it being a mighty, noble hawk familiar that only obeyed the true rulers of Stormveil back when the winds blew the strongest. So hawks would likely been seen as sources of power, meaning graft some feathers on!
God, fromsoft's designs are so elaborate. Pity I miss like 80% of those amazing details, because the object of that design is hurdling towards me at mach speeds, usually spinning at something like 9000 rpm
On one hand they have brilliant elaborate designs, on other the world of ER is filled to the brim with slightly recolored soldiers and knights. Makes you wish they could set their priorities and spend human resources better.
JESUS KNOCKS ON YOUR HEART AND LONGS FOR YOU TO ANSWER! HE DOESN'T WANT TO SEE ANYONE PERISH INTO HELL. GOD LOVES YOU SO HE GIVES YOU FREE WILL AND A CHOICE TO ACCEPT HIM OR REJECT HIM. TO LOVE HIM OR TO LOVE SIN/THIS WORLD. CALL UPON JESUS & ASK HIM TO FORGIVE YOUR SINS! SURRENDER YOUR WILL & YOUR LIFE TO HIM & HE WILL GIVE YOU ETERNAL LIFE IN HEAVEN! PICTURE YOUR BEST DAY ON EARTH TIMES A BILLION FOR ETERNITY, THAT'S HEAVEN! NOW PICTURE YOUR WORST DAY ON EARTH TIMES A BILLION FOR ETERNITY, THAT'S HELL! HE WILL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANT SO IF YOU REJECT HIM YOU WILL BE SEPARATED FROM HIM & HIS BLESSINGS (LOVE, PEACE, JOY, HOPE, REST, ETC). IN HELL YOU WILL BE ALONE WITHOUT GOD OR PEOPLE... YOU WILL BE HOPELESS, IN DESPAIR & AGONY FOREVER! GOD'S STANDARD FOR HEAVEN IS PERFECTION AND ONLY JESUS (THE SON OF GOD/GOD IN THE FLESH) LIVED THAT PERFECT LIFE! HE LAID DOWN HIS LIFE & TOOK THE WRATH OF THE FATHER ON THE CROSS FOR YOUR SINS! GOD IS JUST SO HE MUST PUNISH SIN & HE IS HOLY SO NO SIN CAN ENTER HIS KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. IF YOU ARE IN CHRIST ON JUDGEMENT DAY GOD WILL SEE YOU AS HIS PERFECT SON (SINLESS SINCE YOUR SINS ARE COVERED BY JESUS' OFFERING). YOU CAN ALSO CHOOSE TO REJECT JESUS' GIFT/SACRIFICE & PAY FOR YOUR OWN SIN WITH DEATH (HELL) BUT THAT SEEMS PRETTY FOOLISH! GOD SEES & HEARS EVERYTHING YOU HAVE SAID & DONE. YOU WONT WIN AN ARGUMENT WITH HIM & YOU CANT DEFEND ANY OF YOUR SINS TO HIM. YOU'RE NOT A GOOD PERSON, I'M NOT A GOOD PERSON... ONLY GOD IS GOOD! WE'RE ALL GUILTY WITHOUT ACCEPTING JESUS' SACRIFICE FOR OUR SINS! MUHAMMAD DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, BUDDHA DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, NO PASTOR/NO PRIEST/NO SAINT/NO ANCESTOR DIED FOR YOUR SINS, MARY DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, NO IDOLS OR FALSE gods DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO MUSICIAN OR CELEBRITY DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO INFLUENCER OR RU-vid STAR DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO SCIENTIST OR POLITICIAN DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO ATHLETE OR ACTOR DIED FOR YOUR SINS! STOP WORSHIPING THESE PEOPLE! JESUS CHRIST ALONE DIED FOR YOUR SINS & WAS RESURRECTED FROM THE GRAVE! HE IS ALIVE & COMING BACK VERY SOON WITH JUDGEMENT (THESE ARE END TIMES)! PREPARE YOURSELVES, TURN FROM SIN & RUN TO JESUS! HE KNOWS YOUR PAIN & TROUBLES, HE WANTS TO HEAL & RESTORE YOU! TALK TO HIM LIKE A BEST FRIEND! ASK HIM TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO YOU & HELP YOU TO BELIEVE IF YOU DOUBT! DON'T WAIT TO CRY OUT! NO ONE IS PROMISED TOMORROW! HE LONGS FOR YOU TO INVITE HIM IN, HE LOVES YOU MORE THAN ANY PERSON EVER COULD, HE CREATED YOU! Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."-John 14:6 "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."-Matthew 10:33 “For the wages of sin is death (hell), but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”-Romans 6:23
I'm so glad that more folks these days know what goes behind the development of a game and not just a programmer dude coding shit in front of 8 monitors.
This made me think of something my dad told me once as a kids when talking about dinosaur bones. He said all the dinosaur bones ever found belonged to only one creature that had spread itself across the world. Really messed up 7 yr old me 🤯
Oh God what if that was legitimately what happened. Just one huge out of this realm monster that separated itself and is what we now call dinosaurs.. That thing vs the meteorite that wiped them out.
It's likely the wing mentioned (and subsequent feathers) may have come from the Misbegotten, the race of lizard-bird-lion hybrids who you can find all over. The wing in particular looks like the ones the smaller flightless misbegotten enemies have. Which would make sense as to why the Misbegotten of Castle Morne flipped their shit and rebelled, if they found out their people where being grafted into something like that, likely against their will considering Revenger-Boy calls them servents/the help during his dialogue. The monster designs in Elden Ring really go that extra half-mile in storytelling as well as visual design!
Wonder if that’s related to why Kenneth is siding with the primitive people Ie, he’s still rems days when all worked in unison before shattering while misbegotten given the chance all like “f that noise, our show now”
"Grafting" as a concept in ER is definitely odd. At first it seems like a physical process of just sewing dudes together human centipede style, but Roderika's dialogue about crysalids and Godrick just absorbing the dragon in the boss fight make it seem like a spiritual or magical process.
I think that by grafting you take a portion of the power of the person whose limbs you're grafting, not just the physical limb for you to control. Grafting steals some sort of petaphysical power. After all, Godrick began grafting Tarnished into his body to become more powerful. So there's definitely some magical thing involved.
I'm starting to think it's for a Philosophers Stone from FMA vibe going on where as you combine the bodies and souls together you are able to produce greater energy outputs.... Or something.
I always kinda imagined that the grafted scions are just Godricks own children. They are quite few, and grafting seems like it’s reserved for the elite. The scions have the same golden crown that Godrick does, so maybe they were little lordlings of Stormveil at one point.
Grafting could have been a time-honored tradition of the nobles, a way to pass down their power as well as their inheritance to their descendants and honor the Erdtree by emulating it while doing so.
Add in the fact that the Erdtree’s primordial form, the Crucible, is said to have expressed aspects of all forms of life, and it makes sense that its power could be used to perform the rite of grafting.
After all, “All things can be conjoined,” as Miriel said. Furthermore, the game’s focus on the laws of regression being a metaphysical concept as well as a theological one, well…
They also use Ornamental Straight Swords, which mention "the dregs of the Golden Lineage" in their description, implying they are part of said lineage just like Godrick. Dunno about the children part, though, it's hard to imagine Godrick getting laid.
Something to note about grafting trees in real life is that the soft tissues inside need to be exposed in order for a graft to take. Similarly, as seen in the Godrick fight, it seems like open wounds are needed in order for a graft to take. I find this little detail to be really interesting, and it's that kind of thing that makes me love this game so much.
What’s even more interesting is that after the fight, we see only godricks torso is left, but only his collarbones and up were visible. Considering what you said about open wounds being needed, dude literally SKINNED HIMSELF COLLORBONE DOWN in order to graft himself onto the troll, which is insane. That, or maybe burned his flesh or something, but considering that open wounds are needed makes it a lot more disturbing when we realize that his torso is still intact
@@vaclavsoukup7302 yeah exactly, and I feel that really shows his state of mind and how truly desperate he was to be strong. He was in agony from chopping off just one of his arms in the fight, let alone all of his limbs and skinning what was left
without the cloak its interesting to see how all of the models line up, the hump makes a lot more sense when looked at as a troll torso, really adds to the design.
As someone who lives on a farm, and has grafted branches onto trees, it is a really cool and creepy concept. Very creative, as is most soulsborne body horror
Yep, it's a creative and gruesome twist. I'm honestly morbidly curious about the limits. The grafted dragon head. It's been dead for a while. It's certainly not tarnished. Plus the troll and bird arm. Lowkey would not be opposed to a grafting based dlc. Imagine if he had grafted the arms and legs. Or the wings! (In proper place). Dragon cult taken to a whole new level...
@@KaseyC. most normal fruit frees (such as the ones you find in the wild) do not produce edible fruit. But by grafting on branches from specially bred trees, we can produce what ever breed of fruit we want. For example, an apple tree must have apple branches, but one tree can make red, green, and yellow apples. If we didn’t graft branches onto the tree, it would make these tiny apples that are neither tasty or good looking. Our lemon trees don’t even naturally make lemons, yet we can grow these lovely large lemons every year.
@@KaseyC. to expand a bit on whay JN said, branches from closely related, but different, species of fruit trees can be grafted together. Stone fruits with other stone fruits, citrus, etc. I believe apples and pears are close enough related, but I learned this years ago. There's actually several trees at a university that are called "trees of 40 fruit," since each has 40 varieties of stone fruit grafted onto them; Over the course of about five years the tree accumulated branches from forty different "donor" trees, each with a different fruit, including almond, apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach and plum varieties.[3]
You know it's kinda hard to appreciate the details when every enemy is aggressive and has multi hit combos. Glad this channel exists or I would never have got a detailed look at the scion or other enemies for that matter.
The monocular is the tool of the curious, my friend. That and a good, healthy helping of stealth on the side. Can get a real good look at the most freakish of foes that way.
@@Zombied77 One of the most striking enemy designs in the whole series to me was the Monstrosity of Sin in Dark Souls 3. That game had some of the wackiest enemy designs imo.
It’s really cool they put so much detail into portions that are covered by the cloak. Reminds me of the quote about real craftspeople caring about the back of the cabinet even if other people never see it… they know it’s there…
Designing most or all of the body in a painted or drawn concept art also helps with visualizing the shape of the cloak or placement of other details over it, but I imagine it becomes a bit more redundant in a 3D model - guess From's 3D artists think a lot like regular concept artists though and don't skip out on the detail.
@@sofija1996 Also modeling the covered portions also allows for more flexibility since they might decide to reuse the model without the cloak or with the cloak positioned differently (for example as a corpse asset, or boss variant), which wouldn’t be possible if there’s a gaping hole at the top. It’s pretty good practice to make as many game assets as reusable as possible since it’ll save you time in the long run.
@@sofija1996 from soft is known to stay very true to concept art, to almost every detail, even the poses of the concept art sometimes gets translated into the animations
Godrick's twisted fascination with arms is seriously underrated. While a person with no arms would be absolutely feeble and pathetic, he drives the exact opposite of this sentiment up the fucking walls, where according to him, your might is a direct proportion to how many limbs you have. His perspective of power is so perverted that he views arms and legs like it's some sort of metric for power level like some bland shounen enthusiast and it somehow just works out for him. All of these perfectly functioning limbs being grafted and rooted to a singular psychopath really drives the theme of corrupted roots all the way home.
Also he was defeated by Malenia, and she has almost no real limbs. But she didn't kill him and that led to so much tragedy. Or she would have challenged Radahn anyway
@@metalslug97When he fought her, he was normal form and not grafted at all, as the sword plaque says “Godrick the Golden” instead of grafted. He has 10 arms also
Now it makes sense why there are one or two beheaded Troll bodies in Stormveil. They didn't just kill them for no reason, they were going to use them for grafting. It's also very close to where you find the Grafted Scion in Stormveil as well
Yeah that room of horrors. They say things are better when you turn the lights on... but they lied. Drop a glowstone in there but close your eyes first.
Also some of the decapitated were Mausoleum Knights that willingly beheaded themselves to serve their dead lord. Some of the Fire Prelate stuff talks about a dude mad the other monks didn't take their jobs seriously so he cut off his own head to put them into zealotry Shits crazy. Everyone in the Lands Between has weird ideas and connections to Death. Or the lack of it.
The key part that makes these monster designs work is that the heads are still normal sized. Making the heads proportionally sized would be the obvious instinct for any designer, but not doing so is what makes this so good. Particularly in the case of Godrick, seeing a regular human-sized head on such a grotesquely enlarged body makes it very clear that this isn’t some giant creature, it’s just one body with countless others stapled to it. Genius.
It's not soo much that his body is enlarged, it's just that he literally grafted his own tiny head and torso into the torso of a troll to give himself a big tough body. it's also why only his head and torso are lying on the ground in the mud after you reset the area after the fight, because those are the only bodyparts that were actually his own in all that mess.
Why do you think the 'obvious instinct for any designer' would be to make human heads larger? It sounds like you didn't even understand the concept behind the creature bud...
After seeing this video, I have to say this may be one of From's best enemies in terms of art direction and design. It's actually crazy how much detail there is on the enemy and the story that is told by it
the gold circlet the child has on their body is exactly the same kind as Godrick's, along with the grafting itself there is a very clear motif and parallel between the two. Scion means a descendant or relative of a notable lineage -- if this creature was not Godrick's Child out-right he was certainly grooming it to succeed him through grafting.
I know this comment is 2 years old, but I want to clarify a misconception here. The crown of Godrick, the crown of the grafted Scions and the crown of the wandering nobles all have a different, albeit similar model. It's not the same per se. I think saying that they're all the same is just unfair to that team at from soft that modeled all these things by hand. It kind of invalidates their work, if that makes sense.
I'm pretty sure "Spider" is more poetic than literal. Roderika, when you first meet her, refers to her companions having their limbs cut off to be grafted to "the spider", by which she likely means one of the Scions. Let's also take a moment to appreciate the horror of the "Chrysalids", as she calls them: the corpses you find piled in Stormveil, their arms and legs removed, then wrapped in rope and canvas like a butterfly's chrysalis and discarded.
@@combativeThinker It's probably not great, but it's kind of hard to know how terrible it is in contrast to how things normally work. From what we know, Death just works really strangely to begin with in the world of Elden Ring - It's not fully explained, but the overall implication is that beings need to be processed in order to die correctly/permanently (such as by erdtree burials in the current age, or being burned in ghostflame in the time before the erdtree). If they ever do DLC, I really hope they explore the metaphysics of it all a bit more clearly.
Right next to the room where you find the "Chrysalids"- and I agree, really crazy to go back to what she says and look at the room again - there was originally a "spider" or "crab"-like mini-boss that doesn't respawn after the first time you kill it. I'm pretty sure that's what/who she meant by the spider
@@BackwardsPancake Marika deleted the Rune of Death that's why those who have Grace of the golden order cannot die, those who don't just die and cannot be reborn.
This is horrifyingly beautiful, I was expecting more of these grotesque, nightmare fuel enemies like in Bloodborne but Fromsoft seemingly went for a high fantasy theme in Elden Ring. Great content as always!
I'd like to see a close up on Godrick, he's basically the most detailed boss with all his grafting. Every other boss either could be easily observed and understood with their human appearance or the small details in them are just their reoccurring motif (Astel's entire body is just orbs or Placidusax is just a meatball), but Godrick is just filled with so many little details like the amalgamation of legs on his leg.
@@combastion5227 Five headed, then one was cut off, then a talisman was made in his image, then the war where two heads were cut off. He has three stumps, one of which is different than the other two.
Yeah, I think it could have easily been expanded upon a fair bit. But currently I think the lore doesn't go that much further than grafting being sort of a ceremonial practice that some nobles partake in, to become stronger.
I really thought they would make a bigger deal out of it. I originally thought we would pull up to Rykard, and he would be grafted with several demigods or something (which would be his blasphemy), but nope, snakeman.
I think this was one of the most interesting enemies in the game. The combination of having a rather child like face with such a horrendous body was a cool idea. Definitely great as the first main boss(ish) enemy of the game
What's interesting to me is that before they do their aoe scream attack, they grab their head like they're having a headache which, I, at least, think is them regaining some semblance of their consciousness and remembering what they actually are which gives them a momentary glimpse of absolute hopelessness and desperation which is why they scream and then obviously they immediately forget their own vile nature and return to being mindless monsters
I really wish Stormveil wasn’t so early on and that the legacy areas were more fleshed out. Stormveil is one the most interesting concepts in awhile and the whole idea of grafting is brilliant, but it doesn’t feel fully realized.
I don't know if it's intended, but the bird motif makes me think of how birds in general have a much higher heartrate than humans. For example geese have a resting heartrate of around 110, which is usually elevated human heartrate, chicken have heartrates of around 300 beats per minute and hummingbirds can have whopping *1200 beats per minute* heartrates. Though sure, the larger the bird, the slower the heartrate, but still, they seem to have faster heartrates in general, so maybe in this lore the larger birds would have stronger, faster beating hearts as well. Whatever heart is "fueling" this abomination would certainly need to have a very active heart to pump all the blood making it work.
Your reasoning is very good, however, a very big heart would do the job better for that purpose. But anyways, we are talking about a grafted being with a troll torso and many others with their respective hearts i assume. The outside is body horror, but i just gag at the thought of how the thing pooped.
That's just size related though. The larger you get, the greater your volume in relation to surface area, according to square cube law. Meaning you retain heat better, meaning you can get away with a lower heart rate. So if you're small, you bleed heat much quicker and your heart needs to pump faster. The scions however have more surface area than anything really should and their structure is so screwed up, that they probably need several hearts in several torsos anyway.
The Japanese for this one is 接ぎ木の貴公子. 接ぎ木 = Grafting (explicitly horticultural; literally joined-wood or joined-tree), 貴公子 = Scion/Noble Child. The translator may have been quite happy that while the English term "grafting" is less specific, they were able to squeeze more nuance into the "scion" instead.
@@steirqwe7956 I believe they outsource to other studio, that's how the ranni's ending is mistranslated (English sub and Japan sub has completely different meaning), some of the enemies also has different name like malenia blade of (whatever is I forgot) is malenia, daughter of marika
@@steirqwe7956 As far as I know it's a separate (small) translation agency that's been working with From Soft for a long time and they have a lot of back and forth during development, but not actually in-house.
@@pandemoniousivy4651 it is that obvious? XD i am malenia, blade of miquella i am malenia, blade of miquella i am malenia, blade of miquella i am malenia, blade of miquella i am malenia, blade of miquella NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Grafting is what they call joining multiple plants into one, typically trees. With that in mind I'd say there's significance in making one like a human tree essentially, possibly an act to bring the Nobles closer to the Gods. The Elden Tree is an extension of the Great Will afterall and how they made contact with the world in the first place. Very interesting to think about!
@@Mitsu852 nah they're just outer gods, several exist, namely the formless mother, the frenzied flame and possibly the moon aswell as the greater will, these are all separate deities
@@Mitsu852 actually the Elden Beast came from the stars, and there are other entities up there like Mohg's blood-gifting source (Blood Mother or something; e: Formless Mother, thanks friend)
Grafting is also what you do when you have to replace lost skin, so no, this has literally nothing to do with trees, since they are grafting live animal tissues to live animal tissues. This is just a regular medical practice that takes place in the real world. From just took it to the body horror conclusion. Why would they be trying to make themselves more tree like? Just because you didn't know that skin grafts are also a thing? 🤣🤣🤣
Yeah, her idea of grafting seems to be a lot different than Godfreys version. She willingly came to be grafted-and all her men seemingly died defending her from what they realized was an abomination. It seems 'true' grafting produces spirit ashes, like what she gives you-the jellyfish spirit-which are essentially holy relics that allows you to summon someones soul back, which is still alive and sentient. It is essentially a benign form of necromancy between two willing people (The spirit jellyfish is named 'Aurelia'-she was perhaps 'grafted' to Rodericka, and is nothing but kind to her). I don't know if normal grafting involves 'organ donation' but I suspect it does, it is merely by choice and not forced. Like a father might donate a hand (and the sword skill in the hand) to his young son to help him on the battlefield, or a vital organ if they're injured/sick. And they in turn are allowed to take the form of a spirit ash, when summoned to help, for their ancestors. The result isn't supposed to be monstrous. Though it still might have been outlawed under the Golden Order.
A friendly reminder that what the Loathesome Dungeater does to his victims is apparently much much worse according to Roderika. Also, can you have a look at the holes in the chest of various trolls? The Carian trolls, (which include Iji) seem to have some kind of Tombstone in there
Cursed observation The corpses you find seedbed curses on have blood in their laps between their legs.... and theyre always tied to a chair And its called SEEDbed curse. 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
@@tarille1043 He basically causes a bootleg version of destined death. By cutting them off from the Erdtree, they can no longer return from death and die permanently.
Regarding the resemblance to birds, the description for the Crucible Feather Talisman reads: "A talisman fashioned from feathers that embody the aspects of various creatures. Said to have grown on the human body long ago... A vestige of the crucible of primordial life. Born partially of devolution, it was considered a signifier of the divine in ancient times, but is now increasingly disdained as an impurity as civilization has advanced." So maybe that wing wasn't grafted, or maybe it was grafted at a time when it was considered as a divine attribute.
It mostly reminds me of the misbegotten. They have these strange features like wings and a tail for making contact with some primordial crucible. The Erdtree is a crucible, which makes me think these creatures came before, birthed by the crucible of an older great power, like the dragons. To solidify the connection they drop the old fang, which reads "These multiple, overlapping fangs grow from a single root. Perhaps they're a vestige of the primordial crucible."
The wing talisman sounds like it's saying the misbegotten are devolved humans. I wouldn't be surprised if the idea was that the elden star hit and made a big pool of cosmic radiation/crucible that mutated anyone who came near it. Probably how the demigods got their powers originally, as well.
@@Ravenicus Nah, you don't need radiation to explain the demigod's powers. We are told that Rahdan and Ranni studied sorceries since they were young, Godrick was a weakling who had to graft limbs onto himself to get stronger, Malenia and Miquella were afflicted with their curses since birth, and Rykard just let a snake eat him... Add to that their great runes and there is nothing more to explain really.
@@kendlerkendler2667 There's clearly more than "It was just magic" going on in Elden Ring. They made a point of separating the sorceries up into different catalysts to show the origin of where those spells powers come from. They were even originally going to use different states, until they were consolidated for gameplay purposes. Not only that, the golden eyes thing is very similar to GRRM's earlier scifi stories with alien cosmos magic stuff. Besides the elder gods, there are also a lot of scifi things like the fact that devolution is even mentioned at all in a medieval game, an incredibly anachronist branch of philosophy, which serves no purpose in being mentioned other than to hint at some kind of mutation and evolution in the same description as the Crucible.
Flavour text also describes Stormhawks (the birds atop Stormveil) as having their claws removed so blades could be grafted on. So maybe the feathers on Grafted Scions are simply from discarded Stormhawks.
I kind of want it as a figurine with a removable cloak; I love how this game went "Yeah Bloodborne was just the start of the body horror, kids" right off the bat and you don't even really notice as you struggle to figure out whats going on.
Bloodborne wasn't even close at body horror than this game and Souls series, the enemies are mostly wolf-like beast and alien-like kins which are still bearable to look at
@@DC1lowerslaveofkys yes, one of the most horrifying design in the game, still pretty normal compared to Grafted Scion, wretch, or some enemies in Dark Souls 3
@@ant3910 I think I feel like the Amygdala, The One Reborn and Ludwig were big influences at the very least. The Winter Lantern has a similar grotesque fusion design and Mergo's Wetnurse's skeleton + moveset may have also given them ideas. From DS3 I think the Deep Accursed and Corpse Grubs might have followed their evolution path until Elden Ring's Grafting finally resulted.
Honestly, after replaying Souls games and watching their intro cutscenes again... A FromSoft film would be dope. I imagine something like Clash of the Titans, only darker and more monstrous.
Spoilers for people who haven't played the DLC yet . . . . . . . . There is a good chance these are Godrick's kids, or at least other members of the Golden Lineage. Knowing what we know about how the Shamans, and therefore Marika, are able to easily meld with other organic parts would suggest this aspect would be able to be passed down to her decedents, which Godrick is, even if he's distant.
Baby born with funky horns: Golden Order: What an abomination! Kill it with fire! People getting dissected and fused together to become unholy beings: Golden Order: Lol Godrick is so silly
@@aswifte5743 tbh pretty sure they hated Godrick too considering Malenia publicly humiliated him, and he fled when hearing Radahn was coming, Eina even said he was the runt of the litter.
The trailer showing a king in the act of grafting a limb onto his body and then revealing he had several more attached to him already, and then also showing a one-armed valkyrie attaching her prosthetic made me think, before we knew anything else about those characters, that the king probably stole the valkyrie's arm. Turns out I was way off the mark.
@@ZullietheWitch Saw a lot of people who made the same assumptions, thinking that Godrick overpowered Maleina and took her arm Maleina in the actual game: lol I don't even need both arms to beat that fool.
Godrick’s entire deal is so perfectly placed at the start of the game. It almost comes off as some weird unrelated zone that has very little to do with the rest of the main lore events of the game, but the themes of desperately clawing at lost glory and trying to regain a romanticized image of the past is a HUGE through-line for the entire game and is epitomized by Godrick attempting to manually increase his grace by just adding more Tarnished parts - plus the idea that other nobles are doing it to their children to give them grace at the cost of countless lives. Social inequality and abuse of power is another big topic in the game. This enemy is a perfect visual metaphor for like 80% of elden ring’s main themes.
There's a lot of things that just kind of feel like dead ends or aren't quite explained, even in the lore. For example, is Godrick the spider? Is the Scion? I always found it kind of weird that the NPCs you talk to never really comment on any of the events that happen in the game, so any little bit of potential lore or dialogue is just kind of missing or void. I do love the designs and concepts in the game, but man... sometimes I wish there were lorebooks throughout the game where you could learn a bit more about what's going on, because there's so much interesting going on but not near enough answers.
@@Murasadramon Nah, the game is very consistent and clear about what’s going on, it just splits it all up among item descriptions because the idea is to convey the world from the perspective of someone already living in it. No one living in Washington DC would say “ah visiting DC are you? Well, the president (that’s the leader of the country we’re in!) lives in the big white house over there! He was elected when everyone in the country voted about it!” Just like how no one in Limgrave feels the need to exposit about Godrick and his grafting.
Details that can't be seen in normal gameplay are a Fromsoft staple. For example: every single NPC in the game has a unique face, despite the fact that most of them never remove their helmets/masks.
The cloak makes it look cool and mysterious so. Besides, they even modeled a pair of slutty panties for Fia, that you can only see with a very finicky camera angle
I did not expect "a mismatched anatomical tapestry in no particular arrangement". That is beautiful, it sounds like a Lovecraft quote. Edit: Wow this got away from me. As has been pointed out, H. P. Lovecraft was a really racist dude. His xenophobic ideas crept into all his work, and while I do not think that means his writings should be thrown out, it is important to acknowledge how it influenced his writing. He is an unfortunate pioneer of a genre a lot of us have really come to enjoy. Cosmic horror can exist without racism. Thankfully a number of talented authors have taken the reigns and are able to evoke similar visceral reactions, like Zulie did for me in this video
@Joy it literally does, especially when his racism pervades his work lol have you read the shit? It's awful, it's not even good writing, and it's plainly an avenue he used to articulate his wypipo insecurities
@@zerkalo2861 oml it's almost like I knew things about him and have read almost all of his work (WHEREIN HE MENTIONS N WORD CAT) and that's why I formed this opinion about him :o
Those feathers and wings are really significant finds. I always thought the feathers were part of what it was wearing. It might indicate a connection to the crucible - maybe that’s how they’re getting the ability to perform these anatomically nonsensical surgeries. Also the troll torso is a good find, it tracks with the giant hanging troll corpse found among the other grafting refuse in stormveil.
What unsettles me most of all is that the head looks "normal". Making it seem like the grafted scion can somehow talk or at least be sentient enough to still act human. But when you fight it- it SCREECHES like the monstrosity it is. Betraying any form of any humanity left in that thing.
I think they still have some form of broken sentience. Which arguably makes it worse. One Scion is using a Larval Tear to disguise themselves as a Giant Lobster-it was 'reborn' by Rennala, presumably by choice. Two Scions are also defending a Holy Talisman in the Fringefolk Grave that was said to be provide blessings. They have no reason to be there unless they remember their past lives and want to protect it.
I came here to say the same thing. I never noticed the kids face at the front of this monstrosity. No one has a happy healthy life in the lands between but damn, even the noble children were turned into monsters and I doubt they had much say in it.
The main body seems like the one of a large demi-human, like the one that lies in castle Haight. This also explains why the two long arms on the left and right are so skinny, whilst still being ungrafted parts of the torso.
I always thought that the face looked more like a young adult than a child. Its facial features are very developed. I'd say the face looks more like a prince, which is fitting of the name.
I wonder. The Crucible Feather Talisman says the following: "A talisman fashioned from feathers that embody the aspects of various creatures. Said to have grown on the human body long ago." And the Grafted Scion had feathers on it's side...
No offense, but have you read the full description? It clearly says it came from the primordial crucible, "where all life was blended together" according to the Aspect of the Crucible incantations, so it's probably unrelated to Godrick and the scions.
@@jooot_6850 Huh, fair point, especially since the Crucible Knights that wielded its power served Godfrey and Godrick seems obsessed with living up to Godfrey's legacy.
