Elden Ring Lore - The Claymen: Relics of the Ancient Dynasty 

Historically, the Chinchorro mummies of South America are not only among the oldest known human remains to undergo mummification, but the bodies were prepared, in part, by replacing the corpse's skin and flesh with clay. In addition, the discovery of these mummies is credited to an archaeologist by the name of Max Uhle.

The claymen, Uhl Palace, Grand Cloister... Such interesting relics of a bygone civilization.

I always assumed the Claymen were an early attempt at creating Albinaurics before they really knew how to do it.

Pro-tip. Cold infusion on a Clayman's Harpoon is a great weapon for a Strength/Intelligence build. I'm having a great time with it on my current run!

FINALLY THE CLAYMEN GET SOME LORE LOVE

You, Vaati, Tarnished Arch, and Honored MM got me deeper into Elden Ring. I am an absolute simp for lore 😂

What's interesting to note is that is Uld Palace ruins, where you can also find the status of the mysterious man, is populated with ancestral followers. I feel like there might be some connotation there. Both have a sort of shamanic lifestyle, both worship/study an aspect of life or nature (horns and budding vs bubbles), and both are highly involved with magic. The way I always saw it was that the claymen may have been the predecessors or even ancestors of the followers? The followers are grey skinned after all, which kind of matches the colour of the claymen. On a side note, claymen in gameplay can be scary, damn things are nearly impossible to poise break and every encounter with them involves at least 20 of them slowly and menacingly creeping their way towards you xD

i think it’s interesting that they drop silver fireflies. they are the color of their spear. they are always around water clustered together, same with the clayman. “the light of fireflies is said to have an alluring magic”. it’s a silvery light and found where light doesn’t reach. this could indicate many things but i’m not exactly sure. could be that their society was always underground, have been their for so long that they produce these fireflies sometimes, or that there was a silver age before this age of gold and they were part of that, and more. these are the only enemies that drop silver fireflies. gold fireflies are found near water close to an erdtree… so this could indicate some other power that is ancient to this age.

You guys should do a video on the ancestral followers

I really hope we can one day get more information on the ancient civilizations.

I'm delighted that there are still quality Elden Ring lore videos like this one being made.

i believe the statues can also be found in the walking mausoleum compound in liurnia of the lakes, where some groups of those like viking looking dudes can be found

Now I had a strange thought hear due to your comment about these enemies predating even Astel. I have also watched Tarnished Archaeologists' video about that statue, and I think that statue is a representation of a paradigm shift in people's faith, a shift in faith toward the great tree. I never thought about the clay men a lot because I sort of assumed they were the same as the smithing stone miners we encounter a lot near the surface. Perhaps the claymen were there before any of the outer gods were even slightly interested in the Lands between. Similar to what is told in the intro of Dark Souls 1. "The world was unformed, shrouded in fog, grey crags, everlasting dragons, and ancient archtrees, a land of grey crags, archtrees, and everlasting dragons." And of course, when the great souls were found, this brought this age to an end and brought about the age of the gods. Which, would be quite similar to the tree attracting the outer gods to the lands between. I don't know, just a thought. But, another thought I had while writing this, has... Inner gods ever been mentioned within the lands between? Gods specific to the land, and not ones from outside of it or its reality? Unless that would be their vassals, but I'm not sure if that can be called similar

Hey STG. I played and beat Elden Ring for the first time ever just this past month and i have been addicted to your lore videos. Safe to say you help to explain a lot of story elements i ether miss or understand properly. Apparently this is a common thing among Fromsoft games where gameplay is front and center while story and lore you have to look for. Great for lore nerds but a little rough for newbies like myself but i really enjoy the lore of ER overall.

So, just a random thought, the claymen are capable of using bubble magic without the use of the envoys horns, what if the claymen were the envoys and the horns enhanced their magic?

It’s a good day when stg uploads another lore video

Honestly thank you for doing all this it’s really nice to have lore so well covered a lot of what I see in elden ring makes me want to know more and I begin feeling like there’s more to everything I see in game

Always a good day when stg puts a lore video out. Thanks guys

awesome, i asked for this last video and get it next, probably not from my request alone but super excited

On 2023-06-14 Tarnished Archaeologist released a video about the construction of the Divine Towers which is highly relevant here. He argues convincingly that the Fell God descended to Tha Lands Between as a meteor impact which created the Inner Sea. I think he's mistaken in an assertion that a later impact caused massive damage and liquefied large amounts of the crust, and I believe the Fell God impact did that as well. TA's video does not mention it, but Oracle Envoys would have preceded the Fell God's arrival, since they appear ahead of the coming of a god. The ancient dynasty would have noticed these envoys and their oracles, and perhaps learned to emulate the oracular bubbles. It seems likely based on the earlier TA video linked here by STG that the Ancient Dynasty was once a surface civilization. Their burial surely could only have been caused by an event such as this massive meteor impact. As far as how and why they became clay, that I cannot answer. However, the change seems to have been advantageous toward surviving the calamity, as no flesh members of the culture appear to have survived.

One of the coolest thumbnails

The claymen and the figure holding the tablets both have weird tentacle beards too!

It seems to me that maybe the statue of the long armed man with the tablet could have been a prophet, or leader, for the previous civilization, perhaps with the ability to foretell the future. Were the Claymen created and molded to mimic his ability after their leader's death?

Something I havent mange to find in ER, compared to DS. Is how Fath works in-world, rather then as game stat. In DS faith was long lost storys, if I recall right. The better & longer version of the story you had. The better & stronger version of the merical you could produce. Aka "Lighning spear - Sunlight spear and so on. Does anyone knows this? Is there any item text that cover this? There is a good chance I might just misst it. Tho my favorit lore base is Demon souls, where magic & faith spells comes from the same core in the lore.

Honestly, the Ancient Dynasty is such a fascinating thing. Two locations heavily influenced by two Outer Gods (Formless Mother and God of Scarlet Rot), and more interestingly, God of Scarlet Rot is sealed in one of these ruins. I really hope we get to find more about the Ancient Dynasty in the DLC

I also have a wild theory about the stone golems, what if theyre the reason Farum Azula is how it is. What if they were made to replace/contend with the dragons (ie. They breath fire, made of stone, shoot lasers). The idea came to me from Placidusax's Ruin, what if the attack was his ruin and not ours. Weve all see Patagana videos where the laser golem steam rolls bosses. If all of the golems were that functional then they might be the reason Placidusax only has two heads left and had to retreat to the storm before time. They could be connected to his god abandoning him if thats the case. Imagine, thousands of these things crawling over Farum, blasting at the dragons and wiping out beasts, then Placi in desperation summons all of his strength to tear the whole city into the sky, flinging them across the lands between

Keep up the great work man! Your videos always entertain me who is both a history major and a big Elden Ring player

I think in v1.00, the haligtree envoys use the blue bubbles instead of the standard gold bubbles!

Perhaps the meteors that gave rise to onyx lords and alabaster lords also had some impact on the inhabitants of these older areas. Mohgwyn mosoleum looks like it was built ontop a meteor, lake of rot looks like it has a similar pillar surrounded by blast zone, and imo the center of the lands between looks like it got hit by a big daddy meteor

From the footage you showed, it seems like the color of the dark moon greatsword is pretty similar to the clayman harpoon. Maybe both were made from dark moon material. On earth, a decent fraction of meteorites are lunar meteorites, so it could make sense.

I want that spear, clayman

Looking forward to seeing this channel continue to grow! Keep up the good work y’all.

Imagine you just turn around to a man wearing an albernauric head who just casually tanks your spell and sips some oj before smacking you around

It is nice to play the underground areas to explore the remains of the past civilizations such as: Ainceint Dynasty of the Numens, Eternal Cities of the Nox, Ancestral Followers civilization ❤

Is it me or does the old man statue have the roots of a tree under him?

A comet that strikes the earth is just as much a meteorite as any rocky object. If the Ancient Dynasty recognized comets as meteorites it could signify a deeper understanding of nature than the modern glintstone mages.

The first thing that came to mind when I first encountered them were the enemies of the Fishing Hamlet. They use harpoons as well and other primitive hunting methods like the enemies from Bloodborne do.

The statues remind me of first generation albinaurics who still have legs.

The only long limbed people we see today in the lands between are the nightfolk, like kalé. Maybe theyre the remnants of the ancient civilization that evolved and moved on

Did you have a cold when you recorded this? I’ve watched every video you have ever put out and you sound a little congested. I commend your dedications to voicing this lovely show

This might be a strange observation to make, but I do not see much of a practical use for the Claymen's harpoons outside of spearing the occasional intruder (and given how remote the locales the Claymen haunt are, that probably wasn't the original reason they were made). I don't think an undead man made of clay needs to eat, and there do not appear to be any natural predators of the Claymen. This leaves me to wonder what these things were meant for, and whether or not they were created before or after the dynasty began to fall apart. Anyway, cool video. I didn't notice the white tip of the spear before. I thought it was blue, and I was evidently mistaken. If I may be so bold, there is an intriguing aspect of Elden Ring that never seems to get brought up in lore, outside of the Perfumers. Could there be any extended lore to the plants we find and make use of, such as the Arteria Leaf? That could make for an interesting one-off topic.

Corrections 😁 Placidusex his God fled and he is waiting for his return. That Statue holds something in his Arms and Placidusex makes the same pose. As if he is holding something. If Dragons could turn into Humans maybe the Statue of the Dynast is Placidusex himself in his Human Form or his God that Fled. Marikas Body is Crumbling and becomes a Clay Statue in the End but we can still put the Elden Ring inside her. I really want to know if the Old Dynasty predates Farum Azula or is it the other way Around.

rock man lore, very nice

The dlc gave us a white meteorite Ultra Greatsword, i wonder if thats connected to them somehow.

I wonder, since we see many astel, what if by some odd chance, that connection to the meteore is right, but isnt of Astel himself, but of the one who came in the meteore, the one who created the many astel

I like the fact these claymen turn into mud after you kill them. Also liked how they are typically slow and plodding, and then, bam, they get in your face all of a sudden. Annoying in numbers, yet as usual, pretty tragic when you try to piece their story together.

This brings a smile to my face ☺️

A+ thumbnail work

The question I ask myself is about the Grand Cloister and the Lake of Rot. The Lake of Rot is said to be the prison of an Outer God, a God of Rot itself. Which was put there by the blue dancer who met Malenia and teached her his way of fighting. But the Lake of Rot sits on top of ruins clearly of the same civilization like the clayman. So was the blue dancer one of them and is really that old or was that prison just choose because it was a ghost town anyway? And then there is the Grand Cloister, were we can find kindred of rot clearly woreshiping something. Did they emigrate there because they wanted to be near there god? Then whey they are not above in the lake itself? Why they took over this one building that looks like a palace or a temple of some sort? Or mabey are they also something that remains of the same civilization like the clayman?

Certified Elden Ring Classic

Great video, outstanding thumbnail now those dudes also drop silver firefly Its a crafting material doesn't say much but still something to consider and I also noticed a strange voice are you sick mate if so get well soon. Keep up the good work 👍

Have you watched Tarnished Archeologist? He comes up the theory that they were forseeing the coning age of the Greatree and that they used to worship the stars only for their belief to change with the Moses statue having two tablets an old "map" of space now covered by a tree symbol. This furthur ties them to the oracles as he theorizes they were not just trying to foresee the future but the coming age specifically. As to whether or not they are the Oracles I have no idea.

Claymen look super similar with the worshipping blood dudes at Mausoleum of Blood when making your way to Mohg. Both speak about dynasties and have same figures presented as statues and where Claymen were looking for "Oracle" Mohg can be interpreted as such. I want to see connection here, maybe these Claymen found their oracle from Mohg or thought the search was for Mohg and the others deteriorated in their search seeing past him.

also a thought, there is a few of the astel like monsters found in 2 of the ruins where the claymen are, maybe they did come from the meteorite and wiped them out

assuming marika has biblical inspiration, maybe the claymen dynasty is inspired by sodom and gomorrah, there is version that said the cities was turned upside down, oh wait the upside down city is nokron

Excited to hear this

Thats insane! I never knew that the claymen are priests! But why would they change into clay and like did they learn gravity magic or something from the alabaster lord? Edit: i love ur videos a lot man i hooe you're doing well

What if the clayman were made by the meteorite covering them in debris and harding their skin like the alabaster lords and Starfall beats so they became slow and sluggish because of the weight and made their weapons from the meteorite just like The alabaster lord because the description of the alabaster lord greatsword is similar

I think there's a connection between the claymen and the Oracle Envoys that goes beyond them just making up bubbles to read prophecies. Envoys are likely artificial humans, probably Albinaurics, built for specific purposes that might encompass the very action of "announcing the message" (through bubbles). The reason may be that, for some reason, they needed artificial humans to do this job. Or, that the Albinaurics used as Oracles were derived from the technology used to create the Claymen themselves. In any case, my idea is that the Claymen are not the original population of these ancient cities, but rather, just constructs (golems) made for a specific purpose that was long forgotten. In time, these constructs (that are possibly much more durable than modern Albinaurics), became old, and ragged, and lost their stability, becoming slow-walking lumps of clay that are only barely recognizable now - pale shadows of their former selves. Maybe their primitive construction techniques were later made obsolete by the discovery of the Silver Tear, a material which vastly surpassed clay to create artificial creatures (just like bronze was made obsolete by iron during human history).

7:40 don’t know about you guys, but I always assumed that Astel, did not have a sex or gender.

What of those who failed to become priests? Perhaps they regressed from their complex society, becoming more tuned to natural spirit energies. Say, those ancestral followers occupy a lot of Uld ruins…

I always like Mud creatires and mud men i jsut wish they had actual mud spells and not just bubbles

Can u do a sellen video?

It's possible they were a sister civilization to that of the Nox

Greetings from the Carrot-Man 👋🥕

Elden W

My man has no idea on how to parry lmao

Not 100% sure but isn’t siofra river pronounced like Siobhan so it is SheFra river

John eldenring was a clayman?

Got to be the 420th like 🤙🏼

First lol