Elden Ring Lore | Mapping the World 

If you had to buy a flat in the Lands Between, where would you choose?

Have you guys noticed the accents? I’m sure you have but no one seems to be talking about it. At first I thought almost everyone in the game had Welsh accents. But after putting an embarrassing amount of time into the game I think it’s specifically the people of Liurnia that have Welsh accents. Which further suggests they are supposed to be a distinct and separate culture from the rest of the lands between. So Ranni, her mother, Blaidd, Iji, Thops, Selen etc. all have Welsh accents. But peoples from other places have a variety of accents. Also - during Godfrey’s fight, his accent changes after he becomes Hoarah Loux again, from a more RP accent (as Godfrey, trying to be all posh) to a sort of West Country burr. The attention to details like this is just amazing.

Pretty sure the burning walls that block the road into Caelid were erected by the Redmane faction still operating and fighting against the Rot in Caelid. You see more of the same kinds of ramshackle construction near their forts and they clearly fight with fire with moderate success against the rot engorged beasts.

What is interesting about the Mountain tops of the giants, is the fact that the FIRST church of Marika can be found there. That in of itself has interesting lore implications. Like why would her first church be there instead of in the capital?

Praise Marika for the chest high wall! "No one can get over a chest high wall. No one!" "I picture a man trying to scale our chest high wall and I think: 'No, it couldn't be done!'" "There is no way!!"

Finally someone who gets that the city Astel destroyed is the nameless one! It seems so obvious, it's the only truly "ruined" one of them. One thing you didn't touch on and i so wish you'll cover is the completely different civilization that is underground besides the Eternal cities. The ancestral grounds and their hunting fields. The Uhl palace ruins which are both above and beneath.

The top layer of “The Lands Between” that we start seems very artificial in places. Particularly at the edges of Limgrave, you can see blocks of overhanging stone, covered with dirt and grass. It reminds me of Halo a bit. There’s a phenomenon in regions like the eastern Mediterranean where civilizations end up layered on top of one another. The Phoenicians conquered the natives of the region and built cities over the ruins, then the Greeks came through and did the same, followed by the Romans, etc… up until the present day. I think that’s what we see in Elden Ring. As the various outer gods have come to the Lands Between, their followers have conquered and built over the people before them. As the Greater Will is the most recent, their civilization is on top.

Placidusax is said to have been the elden lord of a previous age, so maybe farum azula (or a similar long-gone city) was his leyndell and inspired ancient architecture throughout the lands between

The King is back

I have a theory: the lands between are not natural, but artificial. The earth was built by these giant skeletons, and these big pillars are a kind of inner supporting structure. I also think that the lands between used to be a giant ring, with a huge hole in the middle, which means that the lands between could have been the crucible itself!

The conclusion that I came to regarding the eternal cities is that their “banishment” underground by the greater will is most likely a bit of retroactive adjusting of the history on the part of Marika. I find it more probable that the Nox and Numen of the eternal cities were directed to live underground, by the greater will, until they rebelled. Then, later, when Marika, a Numen herself, became an evangelist of the greater will on the surface, she said that they were banished below ground, so as to dissuade others from seeking them out and discovering that they successfully rebelled against the greater will. My evidence? 1) The giant skeleton chair crypts in Nokstella and Nokron. They wear robes with gold embroidery, Gold being heavily associated with the followers and agents of the greater will, and are notably dead, with the one in Nokron not only being guarded by Silver tears (which seem to be the primary defense force of the Eternal Cities) but also containing the finger slayer blade below it which is: A- Said to be born of a corpse. B- proof of high treason committed by the eternal city. And C- is said to be able to harm the Greater will and it’s Vassals. 2) I can’t find the exact description but there is an item that discusses how the eternal city rejected the Golden Order, meaning that they had to have been introduced to it at some point. 3) The eternal cities are, as noted in the video, mostly in good condition and seem well adapted to their surroundings, with unique and beautiful architecture that is, while not impossible, certainly not what one would expect from a bunch of exiles banished underground.

Its worth noting that originally there should’ve been a broken minor erdtree in radahns arena which was removed. Probably to not cheese the boss. So there would be one more dead tree inside of a big former battlefield.

The many stone pillars drive me crazy. Aside from the divine towers, they dont seem to be from any structure. Theyre just support beams almost buried into the walls. And who the hell is building these? The scale of the pillars suggests a Giant civilization but the divine towers have elevators for humans. Its almosg as if the lands between arent a natural landscape, but a superstructure that was buried over time. It would explain why the geography is so bizarre and why there are such massive caverns below it.

Is the water white? Or is it silver? Consider the liquid blood looks like red water and it's more believable. They tried hard with the liquids but there's something off about the blood, it's too transparent. That wouldn't surprise me if the white water was meant to be silver. Hence Silver Fireflies being found only near silvertouched waters? I guess I'm a Perfumer now. Everything seems so very hardwired to alchemy in this game.

Just when you thought they were out of the game, FromSoft pulls them RIGHT BACK IN AGAIN! Glad to see you guys excited to make more stuff. Can't wait to see what you find. 👍

I love the last bit about the scale of the map. In a video game context, Elden Ring's map is massive and would probably easily take half an hour to get from the weeping peninsula to the mountaintops of the giants by torrent. But once you take away the suspense of disbelief, it becomes much smaller in a "real world" scale. This had always bothered me even though I know nothing can be done about it, since vast fields of grass would make up 80% of a scaled Lands Between, but it feels extremely gratifying hearing someone else ackowledge it.

I was elated by your last point! I've been thinking a lot about the size of the Lands Between, and as you say, the lore seems to imply a land as large and as populous as a real-life continent. I think an important clue to take into account here is what you see at the borders of some regions: tectonic plates smashed together. Some geological event shrunk the world down to an extreme degree. I'm not sure how to connect it to the rest of the lore yet, but it may have implications with gravitational sorcery.

I have 2 main thoughts on the Eternal City. My first is that the Nox might have lived underground already, but that they were Forbidden from going above ground and perhaps sealed away. Secondly, with the Nameless Eternal City having the same architecture as the other 2 and located between Nokron and Nokstella, there is the possibility that the Nameless City was the midpoint of one, massive city until Astel crash landed and essentially bisected the city. That's my thought at least

I like the point you make at 29:30. I always thought of the world in Fromsoftware games as Theater Sets compared to Movie Sets. Movies try to get as close to the real world as possible, whereas Theater Sets just show you whats important to understand the scene and story.

The tales of the underground rivers!! Nobody credible has covered them at all really and I find them fascinating

Dude what an awesome video. I’ve watched so many lore videos on this game and no one has dove into the the environmental storytelling. Please keep making these

Consider the concept of the Diminishing Erdtree. It is dying. It used to rain blessings, and likely covered the whole of the continent with it's power. The Limgrave ruins could be from during the time of bounty. The College's spell Terra Magika description echoes a similar tale of a blessing reducing in scale over time.

Can't overstate how hyped I am for this. Having been with the series for so long and thinking I knew everything about Dark Souls lore and how to interpret it, I found your channel and it completely blew the gates wide open. It was like rediscovering it all again, absolutely astounding. I'll go get my coffee and just sit back and relax to this video, so hyped.

Thank you SO MUCH in referencing the metaphor of size! I think a lot of people lose that kind of practice when thinking/talking about lore. Obviously, the mountaintops of the giants weren't just some tiny plateaus and a bowl, furthermore, the academy probably wasn't just a hop, skip and a jump from the main gates of the city - these things have been condensed for the sake of gameplay which is unfortunate. but sometimes necessary - really, it's the same thing that happens in all the dark souls games (one of the most egregious examples being the elevator between the poison windmills and magma keep in DS2) I think it would be really cool if you had a resized version of the map in your later videos in order to better help people with the scope of the stories told in the world!

Tbh the topography of the lands between as a whole seems indicative of recent extreme geological activity, at first I thought the shattering would have involved the kind of fighting that could have that effect on the land and maybe it still did, but I wonder if the shattering itself maybe caused a period of sort of apocolyptic earthquakes and weather conditions and that's why there's so much in the way of mad cliffs, and how Mt Gelmir started erupting - since presumably the manor was originally built on more solid foundations - also why Sellia is sinking - is this maybe also why there are chains between the cliffs in MOTG? Maybe they're literally holding the cliffs together. Problem with this theory though is there's literally no notes on it beyond acknowledgements of things sinking.

Farum Azula does have tiny statues of humans embedded in certain walls, implying that they were around during Placidusax's rule and may have had some standing in the order of the time

I maintain the Souls games are exercises in archaeology with hostile unburied bodies to deal with. I've been stuck into the Alchemical aspects lately, so thank you so very much for the trowel and spade you've brought along!

Been waiting for the #1 roadmandem of the lore lands to return

Farum Azula could have once been the size of a continent and actually traversed the sky like an air ship.

Great video and analysis! I especially like the last part. We must also not forget that our tarnished is forever loaded with crack and adderall to be able to run/sprint/ride endlessly through the open world that it almost makes it comically smaller than it actually is.

One interesting thing about the consecrated snowfield is that it migth have been a similar place to the underground parts of the Lands Between. It has the same stone pillars as Siofra/Nokron and have the lightning spheres that are only can be found in Siofra river. On top of these there is that spectral/ghost dragonkin soldier, who are heavily tied to the ECs. Plus Astel is also right there in a dungeon.

this is actually groundbreaking, never had i though of the roots in Caelid to have been revealed by the rot, i assumed that all of them were what bloomed in the wake of Malenia

This video is amazing. Following the main highway from the capitol was actually really fascinating. I had a few thoughts on Liurnia. If extra water was the issue in Liurnia we wouldn't see building sinking into the ground the water level would be higher on them. I think the improvised path restricted the water in the region and that the levels were actually originally higher. So Liurnia is actually drained at this point, down to being a marsh, which wouldn't cause things to sink into the ground not until they started mining the lake bed. Raya Lucaria itself is a giant mining scoop they have caves that are being mined around the lake. If you combine that with a soft mushy marsh that would cause the buildings and even some islands/land formations to crumble. Also, talk about disrespect, even after forming an alliance with the Carian Royals they didn't bother to make a bridge or anything connecting them to the main highway. They can see it from their ramparts but it is very out of the way. Or maybe they demanded such a path not be built. I believe the northern highlands of Caelid were neglected due to it being dragon territory. Can't wait for the next video!!!

The true Lore Master is here. Hawkshaw is the most credible historian in the Souls community.

the first dungeon you can come across in Limgrave has the boss Beastman of farum azula. I think this connects the ruins from Limgrave to farun azula

Another interesting thing of note to the layout of the Lands Between is the sun. Rather than simply east to west, it actually travels from northeast (beyond castle Sol) to southwest (past the Lunar Ruins) Love the video! A very unique way of looking at the story being told. Keep it up! Also, a good theory for the sinking of Liurnia might be overmining of those crystals beneath the academy, causing instability and shifts in the landscape. At this rate, perhaps eventually, the whole thing might someday fall through into the lake of rot And my personal guess for the carts above the ruin-strewn precipice is that some people were fleeing one of the many wars that took place on the Altus Plateau, but finding the Lift of Dectus inoperable, fled here to find the hidden path down

On the overall size - I feel the game is just kind of a truncated version of it so you stay busy. If expanded to proper scale it would be a mile or two between each camp to the next ruin or graveyard, making it huge. It’s just so you don’t waste time going from place to place in game.

29:20 I believe the white-coloured water is linked to Deathblight and Godwyn. You can find one instance of the pale water above ground at Liurnia of the Lakes. A bunch of skeletons and a skeletal mariner arise from it and inside the lake there's a big ol' pustule of deathroot which grows from Godwyn.

I love FromSoft's use of and the community's ability to interpret the world itself, the geometry, the layout, and the architecture, as part of the history of the world. When I first realized the significance of flowing water to the world (from the lore around the fairy, the swordsman, and the god of rot) and followed the flow of water up through the eternal cities and to the base of the roots beneath the Erdtree I was amazed. And that's just what I noticed on my own. So many cool revelations in this video, I can't wait for more!

BROOOOO OUR BOY HAWKSHAW DOING ELDEN RING VIDS NOW YESSSSS

Hawkshaw on Elden Ring? Let's go!

LET'S GODDAMN GO !!! Hawkshaw you are Amazing

I believe all landscapes were damaged to varying degrees in a whiplash of reality's breaking. A sonic-boom caused by the actual shattering of the Elden Ring, as opposed to the Shattering Wars. Castle Sol's Sun is an Eclipsed Sun, I think a ghost mentioned it. We find that symbol elsewhere too.

Limgrave is the site of multiple devastating events. The sealing of the Eternal City, the destruction of Farum Azula (there's too much evidence saying it was there to really argue against this), whatever the war against Stormveil was (probably related to one or both of the former mentions) and it's the place where the Tarnished both left on their exile and where they seem to have returned (it's never a good thing to have an army march through your lands, especially not twice). I think the "lakes" part is worth considering more when it come to Liurnia. Raya Lucaria is built on a massive precipice. But what if it wasn't always like that? What if there was once a barrier around it that formed a lake? What if it was built out on that lake. Perhaps at some point this barrier was destroyed and this is why the whole region is now flooded and damaged while the school appears to have been built on a mountain? The large, very tall in one case and fallen down in the other bridge ruins around the school suggest to me that there could have been much deeper water around the school at one point. It's also possible that water was being held there by magic and that the magic barrier is what collapsed. That might explain where there don't appear to be any good candidates for structures suggesting a natural barrier? The milky water in Deeproot depths suggests a heavy concentration of silt. Silt doesn't tend to collect that densely in flowing water though. Personally, I think that this silt is the spirit ash collected by the Erdtree. Or at least, excess spirit ash. There are signs that whatever the Erdtree's purpose is, its function is breaking down. Perhaps the Erdtree's enormous size gives us a hint at this malfunction? Perhaps it is absorbing too much spirit ash, more than it can even process, so it is purging the ash out through the roots of the Great Tree to which it was grafted? Hard to say for sure. Anyway, great video, Been meaning to spend some time looking at the lay of the Lands Between and just haven't really gotten around to it. It's so cool to see Miyazaki's environmental story telling blown up to such large proportions. We're going to be picking at these threads for years.

I knew it, I just knew you were going to make Elden Ring videos

I've been waiting to watch lore for you :) any Idea when some more might come out? If it'll be a while thats still okay.

I love that you used the Bonfire of Dreams song in the beginning 👊🏻

Good to see you covering elden ring my man

Babe, wake up, new hakshaw vid dropped

This is hands down one of the best lore videos I have ever seen. The lore of the world itself, and to think Miyazaki and the bois at FromSoft put this much thought into the world building, and its literal topography/geography is incredible. Fantastic stuff man!

It would be crazy if the giant bridge at the start of the mountaintops was actually a giant wall, one of many the giants build and got destroyed/sunken down. Because It looks too stupid for being a bridge, the giants wouldnt need It. It could be a structure from older civilizations O.O

Its always a blessing seeing hawkshaw uploads

13:12 - 13:18 Actually makes sense since the Fight Between Radahn and Melania started in the Swamp of Aeonia. The nearby finger crone also calls this a flower of the scarlet rot indicating the swamp or where you fight the boss for the Golden Needle as Ground Zero. The Ghost near the swamp also mentions wanting to see Malenia again. Lastly Aeonia is also the Name of "Scarlet Aeonia" Melanias special move that creates a gigantic flower. Another note worth thing is the design choice of the swamp of aeonia "Tree" is similar looking to the Haligtree.

Been waiting a while for this

I've been waiting for this video, Hawkshaw! Praise the lore!!

Interesting video. I look forward to future installments. As for scale, it's an issue almost every game has to deal with. Who wants to spend several hours of real time just to get to the next town? Who wants to cross the miles of farmland necessary to keep a city fed? Though I do wish we saw *some* farmland, and more variety of animals in Elden Ring. How big would the Lands Between actually be? That is difficult to say. Perhaps something that really doesn't have an answer, just suffice to say "big enough."

Something to note is that farum in Gaelic, where a lot of elden ring borrows language from, means "Tower." So Farum Azula, just means The Tower of Azula, and Farum Greatbridge is the Tower Greatbrisge. Bigger qustion is how did Farum Greatbridge get its name? Either it's referring to the Bestial Sanctum as a tower, or possibly, considering how quickly or Beast Clergyman can get between the Sanctum and Farum Azula, the Beatial Sanctum might house a way to teleport between the two, and the Beast Clergyman may be protecting it.

The white water reminds me of melt from glaciers. They often have a large amount of very small suspended particles (silt). Could be implying it's melt run off from the mountains?

The first time I got where you get Cinquedea, It looked like a Pier, where a boat or another vehicle would transport. And the Beast Sanctum being a church it makes sense for it to have a back exit for transport.

I just wanna know where all the food comes with the zero farms in the lands between.

Liurnia must of flooded because of all that mining for glinstone was taking place

I guess that whole size decrease thing explains why a lot of humanoid bosses are so much bigger than us.

Important to note, the word farum derrives from the dativ casus of pharus(latin) meaning lighthouse, forming crumbling lighthouse of azula. Which would suggest that there is either a city/ landmass called azula or it simply points at the name of the lighthouse being azula. Also this suggests that it was once connected to caelid as lighthouses are tipically on the shore.

he started spitting bars at 19:32 onwards. A lyrical genius as well as a lore master

Been waiting for this

Finaly some Quality

So glad you starting posting about elden ring lore. Your DS lore vids are so masterful I was hoping you'd do just this

Let’s gooooo!!!!!

Probably the Nameless Eternal City was the one on the surface that got banished underground and erased from records by advocates of the Greater Will (therefor became nameless as nobody remembers or knows its name anymore), then the survivors (the Nox and maybe some Numen as well) went on to build Nokstella and Nokron using the same architecture of their original city, but taking into account they are underground cities as well as taking the rivers into account. It's very clear from the good condition of the two cities and the water gates that they weren't banished underground, they were BUILT underground, IMO that's the most plausaible scenario.

The first I've seen to attempt the mystery of Farum Azula's previous location! I believe this is also related to Hoorah Loux's sweeping the old away with the storm. I believe this to be deeper lore having to do with the Greater Will severing ties with the first dominant organisms on this planet it chose to manifest its order. Interesting to me on top of this is what this entails for Nephali Loux and her promise to sweep everything away in the storm. Tarnished will embody the beast and nephali will be lord consort? 🙏 Fav elden ring lore vid of all time so far! 👍🔥 *Regarding the Minor Erd Trees* i noticed an interesting correlation. There are 5 healthy saplings and exactly 5 Lord Runes. I think the Greater Will was/is on the cusp of propagating its order when marika/ranni won a most decisive battle at a critical moment in the grand scheme. It seems to me the game takes place after all the juicy parts of the story. The Tarnished cosmic role is equivalent to a bed-side rag. Oh no i dnt 🤭 (Lastly, minor note i'd love to see an extension of this video focusing strictly on architecture. I believe the cities underground still have extant buildings above ground for example)

I love these

Ah it’s so nice to see actual hard work going into a lore video. The editing, the length, sound. It’s great, especially when YT is over saturated with lazy top 10s and dramatic quest line summaries.

I think the color of the water in the Deeproot Depths couls be related to the Prince of Death and Deathbligh as a whole, since Summonwater Village and Wyndham Ruins (both overworld areas with water bodies with a very similar tone) house Tibia Mariners and Deathroot.

when dad comes back from buying milk

It’s about time!

14:34 He's heading for the chest-high wall!

I love how you can take one road from Redmane Castle right past Stormveil, through Raya Lucaria and Leyndell, and to Mt. Gelmir, basically connecting all of the pre mountaintops demigods

The Music, the pauses, the precise wording, i love you guys and i miss listening to your 1h+ long videos for the first times and getting baffled by the complexity and possibilities of these worlds.

We all respect the time you take to make your videos, but im so glad to finally see them again Ive been putting together everything I can waiting to hear your takes Hawkshaw sets the bar for loremasters

Gotta say, love the selection of background music in this vid :D And thank you so much for listing it all in the description! Keep up the great work :)

The brickwork of the large broken bridge north of Raya Lucaria reaches all the way down to the lake, implying that liurnia was in that state when it was build The Siofra river is probably pronounced Sheefra, meaning fairy, which opens a big connection to the Blue Dancer of Malenia fame

this is like a lesson in archaeology ^^

More than some lore videos (again), THIS is exactly the kind of video I was looking for ! So, thank you, this was fascinating to watch !

The Subnautica ost was a decision I was seriously skeptical about. Turned out an A+ in practice

Finally! Elden Ring's success brought a lot of click bait seekers acting like they can lore craft

Don't forget: in Limgrave, we see just one golem, heavily damaged and lying near some of the fallen ruins, along with other more decayed golems. Whatever that city in the sky was, it had golems that fell to earth with it.

Love the video, and the age of mythology music that snuck its way in there! Etimos!

Very excited to see you making content for elden ring. your DS1 lore videos are some of the most interesting and insightful takes on the lore i've seen and i'm stoked for more

This was such an interesting deep dive. Love how the video was structured and everything you looked at. The architecture does indeed let on more then I thought when exploring the world. Looking foward for more videos on Elden Ring lore and it's history

I would be interested in possible video about Liurnia/Caria and its internal strife and politics. And most of all, the unassuming nameless woman Governess that is portrayed in painting at the Debate Parlour. In debate parlour, we see chronological portraits of former Academy headmasters/governors. And there is single woman that comes after Rennala here, bearing striking resemblance with Sellen and most of all, Witch's Glintstone Crown. Sellen's mask is called Witch's Glintstone Crown. And all Glintstone masks are named in honour of the worthe scholars who became Academy Governors/Conspectus founders. This mysterious Witch governess is not referred anywhere else, as far as I know. And only Raya Lucarian with nickname "Witch" is Sellen herself. Furthermore, Sellen wrily refers herself as an apostate. Word comes from Ancient Greek ἀποστάτης (apostátēs, “rebel"). So Sellen is rebel towards whom? My guess is towards Carian Royal Family. Neither Miriel nor Thops mention Sellen by name. Miriel has vested interest as Caria loyalist, Thops is thrown out of the loop. Therefore, perhaps this mysterious Witch Woman was governess only very briefly, only so long that a new painting was commissioned and made? Or at least, this governor was very unpopular/embarrassing to the ruling elite at the current moment. So much so that even Turtle does not mention her. If chronology is to be maintained, then this nameless Witch of the Primeval Current block came to be governor after Rennala was supplanted due to her mental breakdown. Which coincides with Raya Lucaria seeking independence from Caria royals at that time, taking advantage of Ranni becoming known traitor to the Golden Order. My belief is this. Sellen, a rising prodigy, becomes next headmistress/governess hailing from the block dissatisfied with Carian "pedantry". They are interested in furthering the study of the primeval current. Cuckoo forces are defeated and enslaved at Caria Manor. Ranni's striketeam of Moongrum, WoR, royal pages and dragons retaliate and teleport/flie to Raya Lucaria to safeguard Rennala and cut off the serpent's head. Other two members of the block, Sellen's former masters, Lusat and Azur, escape Ranni's wrath to secure locations. Seluvis, two-faced opportunist as he is, either procures a new body for the governess or helps her escape in her true body. Former is more likely, considering Sellen is supposedly expert in body swapping. Sellen, true governess of Raya Lucaria, is then relentlessly pursued by Carian Witchunters and finally hauled to "black-ops" site, furthest nook of the Lands Between, Weeping Peninsula. I also doubt claims that Sellen hunted sorcerers. Mainly because there is evidence only that Carian loyals hunted sorcerers and practitioners of Primeval Current. I very much feel Sellen was slandered to discredit her claim as a governess. However, Sellen manages to astral project illusion outside while her body is shackled, setting up a shop in Limgrave proper. Her being this missing governess would also explain why Sellen so readily travels back to the Academy with such entitled bravado. Simply because she is no ordinary sorceress, but the lawful, Academy chosen successor to Rennala as the governess in the first place. At any case, Carian/Raya Lucarian conflict, the all parties involved and this mystery Witch would make an interesting video.

This is my first video from this channel. I’ve been watching for 2 minutes and am already enthralled. Will definitely binge all your videos

Can't wait to see you analyze Elden ring from watching your videos about dark souls you bring a very refreshing and unique take to the lore. Also love the berserk music

The underground cities were built post-banishment. Their societies were scrubbed from the surface, so which are their original ruins? Where are they?

the fire walls were very definitely constructed by the redmanes to restrict the spread of rot, and all the current manserpents were made by rykards expirements with the help of the godskins so the time dating of the manserpents in that description could likely be a reference to the crucible instead or just a mistranslation, as its not even clear if thats what it means in the english version

Hey guys, so happy to see you back at it. Your work on dark souls changed how I saw the game and my role as a player in it--it can feel like you're the only ones really paying attention to the ludo-archaeology possible in these worlds. Excited to see what you find here. Thanks for including us on your journey!

14:35 AHH, THE CHEST-HIGH WALL!

Thinking about the giant skeletons in the eternal cities, could it be possible that the Nox are connected to the stone arch ruins mentioned several times throughout this video? It feels like the scale fits. Maybe the Nox previously also had overground settlements but were then banished to their underground cities. Also when talking about Caelid you forgot Sellia, which is the endpoint of the road winding through the region. It's probably safe to assume that it was some sort of regional capital in times of peace (Radahn went there to study magic after all).

Hawkshaw how the he'll have ya been?

Thank the Lord Hawkshaw has come to give us sensible and well researched takes on various lore elements, don’t have to rely on these armatures anymore

Just wanted to say this video was wonderful! It was very well thought out. I am over 100 hours in to Elden Ring and this still has me seeing the lands between in a new light. You’ve definitely got a new subscriber :)