Elden Ring Ramble - Metal, Magnets, God 

Holy crap, my brain almost exploded when you were talking about conduits and FEET popped up!. You might already know this but in some eastern religions, (I think in Taoism and some forms of Hinduism) feet are considered to be an energy conduit to the earth, and are sometimes compared to the roots on the Tree of Life. To quote Alan Watts, "If I am my foot, I am the Sun"

I love to imagine Miyazaki reacting to this kind of content thinking something like "ohh so that's what that means"

few mistakes i wanted to correct + other related thoughts which i don't know how much it affects your conclusions but since i have a physics degree, never thought it would apply to elden ring lore lol. I suck at applying and interpreting stuff but maybe you can run with some of this stuff: none of gold, silver or copper are magnetic in the regular sense. They can be made into electromagnets but so can anything that conducts electricity. magnetic materials are typically iron, nickel, cobalt and alloys that include those. copper, silver and gold are all amazing conductors of electricity. Silver is the best pure metal for conducting electricity it seems, followed by copper and gold is third. Most electrical wires are copper because it's cheaper. A lot of electrical components have gold in them because it's both very conductive and doesn't tarnish so it lasts a long time. Regarding tarnishing, you can look at the reactivity series but gold is the second least reactive metal ( platinum is least reactive), silver is third least and copper is 6th least, so they're all pretty low in terms of how reactive they are. when you were talking about convection currents etc., convection currents happen in any fluid and it's to do with hot things becoming less dense and rising (when there's gravity) and colder things becoming more dense and falling, they're not necessarily to do with magnets. If the source of heat is at the bottom/ center as in the earth then the hot things that rise get further away from the heat source and cool down and then fall again where they get hot again and so on. For a visible example of this is how lava lamps work where the blobs heat up then rise then cool down as they get further from the heater in the base. With the earth specifically how it applies is that it's hot enough for there to be liquid iron and nickel which are conductive since they're metals, which leads to electrical currents which are kind of a different thing but linked in this situation (electrical current is about moving charged objects (usually electrons but can be ions as well), convection currents are about moving fluids due to heat). electric currents (or you can also think of it as changing electric fields) produce magnetic fields, and changing magnetic fields create electric fields. Other stuff that might be relevant maybe? copper, silver and gold all have antibacterial properties. the earth's magnetic field protects it from a lot of stuff from space and is part of what makes earth habitable where other planets aren't. It basically 'catches' and redirects charged particles that come towards earth where without the magnetic field it would just go all over the place. This is what the aurora borealis is. gravity is always attractive, so you can't really make stuff float with gravity, but magnetism can be used to make things float (magnetic levitation) so i wonder if a lot of the 'gravity magic' is actually based on magnetism?

"If something has greater mass more objects are attracted to it" ohhhh that's why Radahn's so huge

Wow, never made the connection about Marika/Grace given races being conduits. The progression of sin -> tarnishing metal blew my mind. The alchemical parallels make so much more sense now.

A thought about The Formless Mother and planetary metals, I would place a high likelihood that The Formless Mother is representative of a Mars analogue. Mars is a "red star," and its planetary metal is iron. Iron is vital to blood in hemoglobin. Additionally, the beginning of Mohg, Lord of Blood bears some strong resemblance to the middle section of Mars, Bringer of War by Holst.

Really good video. One thing about gravity you may have missed though. Your explanation of how gravity would be depicted (objects being pulled to the center) is correct for a Newtonian description of gravity, but gravity under General Relativity (Einstein) is a distortion of space that looks a bit more similar to the gravity sigil. Imo it is still closer to a magnetic field though

4:40 I interpret the symbolism here, with the exaggerated oversized hands, as representing humanity's overwhelming desire for things to be in their control. That greed, the need to HAVE something, or to CHANGE something, or to be in CHARGE of others, is greater than is necessary. Humanity is capable of unnatural/irrational greed (animals may make nests and migrate, but humans dismantle parts of the world to build something that better suits them, which makes us different), and these enemies/characters have larger hands to represent humanity's metaphorical desire to grasp more than we should (because you can grasp more with larger hands lol). Hopefully I explained that well enough, but this simple concept was a lot harder to put into words than I expected...

i know this is much later; and might already be stated to you, but i thought you might like to know, that copper is actually often used in electro magnets. if you take a ferrous metal like a nail, and wrap it in copper wire in a coil like pattern you can MAKE the nail magnetic if you pass a charge through the wire (easiest way is to connect the 2 ends of the copper wire to a d battery) interestingly enough, this coiling is kind of reminiscent of the thorn like weaving around elmers armor. (edit: spelling)

May have stumbled on something from watching this? Miquella’s needle, Godslayer’s Greatsword, and the Fingerslayer Blade ALL share two things in common: - They can all harm gods - They all have a design that’s two halves spiraling with each other, a lot like DNA (The Inseparable Sword distinctively does NOT look like this despite playing with a similar design, so I think it was intentionally different) This probably represents something, but I don’t know that DNA is the answer - maybe you’d know from your research!

Great work Quelaag. Been a fan since ENB mentioned you, back in the DS1 days.

Such an amazing video. One thing I noticed after watching this is that design you talked about in the fire giants god eye is also atop the divine towers, I noticed after activating Malenia’s great rune in the isolated tower one of the glowing orange orbs is missing, and I wonder if that relates to the tower being isolated. I also completely agree about Melina being the gloam eyed queen, but something I’ve been thinking about non stop lately is the godskin nobles and apostles having the same purple broach as Rennalla. You also get the godskin swaddling cloth from snails that summon spirits like Rennalla did, and there’s this whole idea that Rennalla wasn’t a true champion but rather a summoner of champions, idk, and the godskin swaddling cloths item description seems to heavily invoke the image of Rennalla as a mother cradling her egg. I’m not saying I think she’s the gloam eyed queen but there are some serious unexplored connections here, there is also one protecting the divine tower of liurnia. I messaged Zullie the witch about this and they mentioned that the godskins are in the load list for raya lucaria for some reason. The godskin weapons also seem to pierce Rennalla’s protective shield in the first phase of her fight.

The whole stability concept explored at 15:00 fits very well with Marika and the Gloam-Eyed Queen but even further it is a reflection of the mistake made by the Greater Will in the creation of the Lands Between. Marika sealing away the Gloam-Eyed Queen is practically the exact same thing that the Greater Will did by removing the Three Fingers/Chaos. The initial mistake made by the Greater Will lives on in it's creations and vessels, Miyazaki is too good.

nothing of substance to add just that this is really fucking cool????

F E E T Addendum: this is one of my favorite channels now for ER lore and art discussion.

5:00 The scepter is really another way for him to tell the world "I AM the All-Knowing" while he... he not. He not be all knowing.

Your channel is an utter Unalloyed Goldmine for lore theories and worldbuilding. For real, I’m going through all of these and it’s super eye opening that all these things are tied together

Hello, I study material science and I specialise in magnetism. This video was really interesting and I think it's wicked to see someone looking into metallurgy for elden ring lore (especially a 3 element phase diagram). I think the interesting point for me was that you were talking about electricity being conducted through the metals which is like a metaphor for like religious believe and how silver tarnishes easily compared to that of gold and copper. This in a way I think could relate to how the alburnics could become tainted by forces like mohg as when metals like silver have an electric current running through them they are more susceptible to corrosion or tarnishing as corrosion itself is just a current forming in a metal which forms biproducts such as rust. So potentially this meant that while the alburnics were searching for miquella to come home (effectively having that electric current of worship through there silver bodies) coming into contact with mohg caused them to be corroded or corrupted. Just food for thought but it was a really good video and there would be loads more I would like to delve through from this video in time. Great job 👍

Ya know, after all these months and so many more videos dissecting the full scope of the lore, the one thing that I think a new DLC should focus on more than anything in order to wrap up major loose ends in the story would definitely be Marika’s feet.

Return of the Queen

Glad to see one of the OG lore masters back 🙌 Honestly though interesting stuff on the metals, magnetism and the primordial current link is some good thinking there. Can't wait to see what other pieces you put together! 🌠

This was impressive & I really enjoyed the editing! Thank you! The "Primal Stars" are something of a mimicry for their world & seem to function in a similar way to the Living Jars, themselves representing early human society. I'd bet the intention is for these Gestal Stars to travel through, & learn about, outer space!

This is one of my favorite RU-vid videos. I can’t stop coming back, it’s just packed with interesting information presented, in turn, in a fascinating way.

Hello

Holy Crap, Quelaag, LOVE your format/storyboard/outline of the lore!! Need to catch up on your interpretations! Thanks for your hard work, here!

Makes me wish there was "Age of Copper" ending for the game. Great video! Really blows my mind the thoughts Miyazaki is able to form and present as a beautiful dark mystery for us to enjoy.

Just wanted to say the way you deliver it is so lovely to listen to! Very interesting video, thanks so much for all the effort you've put into the research

Holy shit, this is the kind of stuff I've been dying to see about the game. so good. thanks alot! more maybe? perhaps?

This is helping make a lot of sense out of elden ring’s lore - thank you ☺️

Crazy how its been over 10 years since I watched your Dark Souls videos, and you're still blowing my mind about the lore for these games. Love your unique insights.

There were so many amazing revelations here and I love your process! Though I'd like to know if you wanted to tackle Marika's eventual betrayal of the Greater Will since you mostly characterise her as the Greater Will's agent even when she goes against it with the shattering + other acts leading up to that. It's ok if not, I just wanted to get your thoughts :D

Absolutely stellar work Queelag! I like how your brain worked to develop all of this! Definitely gonna check out some more of many concepts you spoke of :)

Great to have you back with lore shenanigans :) I really love these insights into the symbolism with the metals and magnetism. You did really great research. I'm really looking forward to your thoughts on Melina and the Gloom-Eyed Queen. I think that is a really fascinating aspect of the Lore

I’m 10 mins away from the end of the video and idk if you make this point until the end or not, but the three metals (copper, silver, gold) also got me thinking about the three new empyreans we know (ranni being silver, miquella being gold, and malenia being copper). I think it ties up nicely with your video and even with the part about Elemer being associated with copper and worshiping Malenia. Miquella being (unalloyed) gold and Ranni being associated with the eternal cities and silver is kind of straight-forward, but now Malenia fits in as well. What does it mean? Well, I have no idea, but I’ll sure explore this. Maybe Ranni was meant to defy the golden order, as silver is meant to tarnish sooner or later (in the sense of getting dirty, not being good conductor for the greater will’s energy)

I really enjoyed your Dark Souls lore back in the day. Glad to see your back at it all these years later.

Killing it as usual. So glad I watched a video where someone brought your name up since I don’t think I’ve been on your channel since the original ds1 days. Glad to see you’re still killing the lore game.

An interesting thing to add is that the translation for the Crucible into the Japanese text becomes "pot," as in the ceramic. This would bring the jar warriors into the conversation, along with how giant jars are seen around minor erdtrees. This would be connected as well with scarabs and how materials and energies are often collected into a singular vessel to continue harnessing power. And while the system of death was interrupted, there is also the problem with the themes of water and un-death emanating from Godwyn. And one more theme to go into would be that, based on Zullie the Witch's data-mining, there could be a negative to the erdtree's protectors, and they could have turned into putrid spirits or wormfaces.

Miyazaki "I sell hyper fixations, and hyper fixation accessories."

Realizing why I love these games so much, Miyazaki is like a kindred spirit. I also wasn’t allowed to have video games and stuff like that for a long time, and I also loved reading books about mythology and fantasy that were way above my level of reading. Seems like me and Miyazaki hit the same nerve when we were kids! And of course awesome video!

To add to this, the Shaman minotaur people are all about living free from the Erdtree. Their object of worship is the life that sprouts from death, different from Those Who Live in Death. It also says in an item description that they eschew metalwork.

dang that timeline is alot of work! but its been nearly a decade since i regularly tuned to this channel ! im excite.

Really enjoyed your thoughts. Thanks for prepping the lecture.

This is very interesting theory crafting! Thanks for sharing! I'm still processing my understanding of the game but it is cool to keep those concepts in mind!

I thought thicc ivory lord would be the peak of cursed in this video but then you seared Rahadn Hill into my mind. lol

When you were talking about being conduits for God(s), my mind immediately went to Mohg and his Formless Mother. Maybe something about the iron in hemoglobin? Unsure what it means that the blood gets set on fire though

Thanks I will never get the picture of Marika telling Godfrey to put some pants on off my head

This incredibly clear, concise, eloquent information just radiates chaos and I do not know how to explain it.

I've been waiting for a video like this. Only right that it came from one of the original lore goats

Don't be a simp. Don't be a simp. Don't be a simp. Don't be a si- "In Dante's Paradis-" SUBSCRIBED!!!! 🤯

i love that you used the scepter of the all knowing as an introductory example! There’s so much depth to go into there, but one note i had was that the “World, Heavens, and Eye” mentioned in the item description really seems like the Tria Prima

I have literally never been so excited to see an upload notification on my phone. So excited you're making videos again! EDIT: Okay, I've actually watched the video now! Honestly, the concepts of these metals and magnetic fields and their relation to the lore... the way you explained it and pointed it out, it seems so obvious in hindsight, but at the time I was just like "oh we're called tarnished because we're undesirable or something" and "unalloyed sure is a cool name for something" and never once made any of the connections you did! Such insight, such eyes on the inside. Your musings on mercury and how it actually turns out to be silver reminds me of how mercury was called quicksilver back in ye olden times, a fact referenced by Bloodborne. Is there anything there? It could at least be an intention comparison of silver having mercurial (get it? get it?) qualities in this universe. The subject that interests me the most has gotta be the Gods, though. Like you said, they're very different from the Bloodborne gods; the beings in Bloodborne were very physical, and while unknowable in nature and thought, could be chopped up and killed and such, so they seemed more just like powerful alien creatures rather than Gods in a literal sense. The beings we hear about in Elden Ring seem to be flat out incapable of co-existing in our physical realm, like you said, needing physical conduits to express any measure of power or influence. On one hand, it seems that they compete for power (with whatever the Golden Order represents coming out on top at the moment) but at the same time seem almost... contradictory in nature? The Formless Mother for instance represents violence and destruction (blood and fire) but is also known as the Mother of Truth? And Marika devoutly serves and seeks to increase the influence of the Golden Order, yet seems responsible for the shattering of the Elden Ring at the same time, something she's implied to be punished for (sealed away, crucified, etc). Those are just some of my own rambling thoughts and interpretations! Your videos are so incredibly insightful and never fail to approach what may seem like straightforward lore from new and interesting angles. P.S. your eyeliner looked great, whenever I wear it I end up looking like Alice Cooper it's so smeared, lmao. Your version of smeared is still on fleek, queen.

2:24 Sorcery! is a series of game books, and a sub-series of Fighting Fantasy. It's basically a choose your own adventure book with RPG elements.

Great video Vaatividya brought me to your channel. Your awesome at this. I also like the Start of Story, Hometown Village, Monkeys and birds and shit type RPG music lol

These lore videos are great!

"The greater will told him [Godfrey] to put some pants on. So they gave him Serosh [a lion]." This sounds like some old testament lore.

Love your videos! IDK much about metal (or if this is significant) but remember how Gwyndolin had a “tin” catalyst 🤔

Currently going through Elden Ring now, I'll be back to consume all the videos!

Eochaid weapons are probably bound to their users with lost blood magic -- bronze age hero motif to them

Anyone else think about Mettle and Metal in this context? Marika increasing her faith, her resolve, her metal, her mettle.

This video adds context to the dlc given our current speculation .

I think Miyazaki's dark hands grasping at power obsession comes directly from Berserk. Like the quote "In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the hand of God hovering above?" with Elden Ring's fingers representing the hand of God or the Greater Will. The Idea of Evil is represented by the God Hand, who are executors of its will. Also the law of causality in Berserk is shown with the hand holding the Behelit, similar to the Scepter of the All Knowing and the incantation, Law of Causality, is in the game. Hands grabbing for power can be seen throughout the Souls series. False King Allant's grab attack that steals your soul levels. The Dark Hand in Dark Souls 1 that steals humanity and Manus like you said. The Coal Tars aka Darksuckers in Dark Souls 2, they just suck and are found in the Black Gulch. The Monstrosities of Sin that steal souls and the Dark Hand steals HP in Dark Souls 3. The Snatchers in Bloodborne that steal your freedom and throw you in a dark Gaol. The boss Lone Shadow Vilehand in Sekiro who tries to steal your life and has a name that is similar to Dark Hand. The last ones were a bit of a stretch but Miyazaki sure has a thing for dark hands.

the Crucible, (associated with the age of the Greattree; before the golden erdtree) is the vessel for Marika's Golden Order, just as the Greattree has been sort of taken over by gold.

omg absolute QUEEEN you make my smooth brain hurt, but I love it

Video opens with dk jams, what more can one ask

Lot of interesting connections here, especially the whole magnetic conductor metaphor with the metal symbolism in the game and with what the Eochaid’s deal is. Marika’s conquests and crimes being “alloys” that tarnish her and Miquella (who welcomes those she persecuted) being “unalloyed” is a great idea. I’m pretty sure if the GEQ and the Outer God of death associated with Deathbirds, Ghostflame, the Rune of Death etc. are not the same thing. The GEQ is called an Empyrean chosen by the Two Fingers (IE Greater Will) so even if she is associated with that Outer God of death, she’s definitely a human or demigod and not an Outer God herself.

Wow, this is mind blowing

A shield shows a twinheaded pheonix and states that this great bird governed death in an age long ago. Maybe its the god that fled farum azula, maybe its the og death god that Marika defeated to rule over death

Ohhhhh nonononono. This was to much. Now I have to go back to the drawing board. This felt like I'm taking a class and half way through I find out it's physics 2002 and not physics 1001.

15:30 you might say this, but I haven’t finished the video yet - the structure you’re talking about is not too dissimilar to the structure of the Divine Towers. I’ve often thought that Crumbling Farum Azula being where it is makes NO SENSE to have a bunch of fallen architecture in places like Weeping Peninsula and West Limgrave. Also none of it in the ground has any of the beast markings/skeletons (that I’ve ever seen). What if there were mutliple floating temples/structures and (at least) one of them being destroyed led to Farum Azula to ‘drift’ out into the sea? Just a thought that popped into my head! Great video 👏

Great vid!

I find it funny that I watched this video after I made a comment on another video about the potential presence of a fourth group 11 element.

Love the Donkey Kong track in the background

Excellent video. So much I hadn't noticed before. For anyone wondering, Eochaid is pronounced 'oh-KEE'.

18:09 "She wants to have God's whole thing moving through her" LMAO

Why did it take so long for me to find your channel? This is my jam! Copper is also antifungal. Pure copper is also far less malleable/deformable than unalloyed gold. If you see this comment and still need someone to look through the higher level magnetism stuff, I can give it a shot. I'm a biology/chemistry nerd, but I might be able to get a grasp of it.

22:50 Mercury is also known as quicksilver and was formerly named hydrargyrum from the Greek words hydor (water) and argyros (silver). So he could just be lumping anything mercury in with silver.

GOD the feet caught me off guard XD

I screen captured it on my console, but the entrance to the erdtree has a motif of two mirrored trees, the second reaching downwards like roots. But the scorched area (designed in shape much like a flame) is blotting out the bottom tree. I wonder if it represents somehow the tree in the shadow realm, and how Mesmer may act as a sort of… hades of that realm? “Those without the grace of gold shall die in the embrace of Mesmers flame”. Also the world is full of exiled characters

My brain hurts and I love it

I'm always blown away by how much history and symbolism and everything there is in the Souls games, and I just have to remember that they have a team of writers working on it and all the artists and other developers to talk to about these ideas and worldbuilding too, so like of course they could have allusions to SO MANY different things.

I'm loving this Donkey Kong 🎶

dope dope dope. class in session!

The Empyrean Heaven is the highest heaven, made of fire, and stars are thought to be holes in the firmament through which this fire can be glimpsed...

If Marika and the Gloam Queen represent the 2 poles of the magnetic field (or life & death that together form the cycle of life & death) , then that makes me think the Wizards of Lucaria want to become "stars" so that they themselves gain their own "magnetic field", aka. closed system of life & death. So within those "wizard head balls" I imagine a seperate, closed cycle that does no longer need the power of the runes life & death. And as a result, the wizards gain eternal life, basicly. BUT even though i think those balls have the potential to never "die", i think the wizards neglect the aspect of mind. Since multiple of them fuse together to form a new body, they basicly lose their individuality in the process.

Is brass at all relative? Brass acts as a poor conductor for electricity and there's an item in the game called the 'Brass Shield' which all of the Raya Lucaria Soldiers hold (some Godrick soldiers as well). There's also no stake of Marika in Raya Lucaria - suspected because Renalla, head of the academy lost her lover, Radagon to Marika. Her soldiers holding brass shields is appropriate since Renalla seems to oppose anything related to Marika, and therefore the golden order. Perhaps why Ranni also did not wish to pursue the golden order; Ranni being Renalla's daughter. The brass shield's item description mentions "commonly employed in the shattering" and I have no idea what that's about.

You make fantastic analyses! Very fascinating and well thought out! Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but I wanted to add my thoughts anyhoo. A thing to note is that copper, although not directly magnetic, is the basis for electromagnets when coiled up. So there may be a stronger connection between copper and magnetism as first thought. For example, if the briar or someone else related to copper, were to be twisted (I guess?) they may form an even stronger force of attraction. Or perhaps the interpretation is that ones own will, if uninfluenced or unalloyed, is as strong as the will of the gods. Or maybe even stronger. Also, electricity and magnetisms are one and the same. All currents create magnetic fields and vice versa. Do you think that has anything to do with your interpretation of the relationships between factions and gods?

Great video!

Random thought here, which maybe not useful but who knows. Albinauric is both albino (white) and auric (Latin for gold, a glow). Unsure if any metals are known as white gold, but I have a vague thought that might have been Platinum? Hard to say if there's more to work with there.

Who are you so smart in the ways of science

It is funny, a RU-vidr called David Lightbringer does all these analyses of A Song of Fire and Ice and GRRM writing style for over ten years. GRRM uses a lot of bread crumbs and repeating symbols and doing exactly what you say Miyazaki does, and so many of the theories, metaphor and symbolism he talks about with GRRM writing in ASOFAI is throughout Elden Ring. It is worth a chat with him honestly but keep telling him to check out Elden Ring Lore because loads of his stuff echoes and actually in Elden Ring.

That skeleton do be moving tho

I think when they succeed in entering the primordial current it's more of a metaphysical thing rather than physical it seems like lusat and azure have their bodies here but don't speak and just seem to meditate barely moving. I think they're in the primordial current

I think you should look into that Mercury thing a bit more because its symbol, Hg, comes from it's former name in greek hydrargyrum (hydor-argyros), which translates into water silver. Mercury is also has the other less used name of quicksilver which appears to be another name for living-silver. Also, along with gold, silver, copper, iron, lead & tin, were associated with the seven known planets in alchemy, the fastest planet being Mercury so was assigned to quicksilver.

Something interesting about the staff of the all knowing looks like the elemental clutch rings, and also have a similar effect. It seems like Miyazaki sees desperate greed as a transaction, you trade your resistances for more damage.

Marika, the emperean, and the tarnished are conduits for gods? When you think about it, that’s pretty *metal*

Miyazaki: Includes super secret ending that reveals Melina as the gloam eyed queen in a really cool twist Fanbase: But she didn't literally look at the camera and say "Hello my name is Gloam Eyed Queen" so it can't possibly be canon, we all know that the story in FromSoft games is always very clearly spelled out and straightforward.

The many forms of knowledge could represent the outer gods. Great Beast and its world or the lands between, Ranni and her Moon in the heavens, and Shabiri and the eye of chaos. ?

ive only now just connected tarnished to tarnishing metal omfg

I found your videos today and they are very interesting but so far they all feel like they are starting from the middle and I'm missing part of the context. Is there a good video to start with to get some of the ground work on the lore and your thoughts on it?

I truly don't mean this in a condescending way even though it certainly will come across that way. Of all the people I've watched cover Elden Ring, Quelaag has it right. People getting confused over the great tree vs the erdtree vs the crucible vs the vestigial roots are mixing their metaphors when it's really pretty simple. He's using flowery language that sounds confusing if you aren't grasping the core concepts and instead are taking everything he says as literal fact the way that wiki lovers like to, but it's all prose surrounding one concept. It's abstract poetry with a central theme, not a list of literal physical objects. There was a crucible, a literal crucible, a bowl-like kiln in the earth that things could be created with/from. It was involved in the creation of all things, including things that were necessary for the establishment of the erdtree. For this reason, you can draw ties between the erdtree and this crucible, but because it was involved in raw unfiltered creation, it created blasphemous things along with the blessed things that became part of the greater will's order, it's swept under the rug and looked back on with some contempt despite it's usefulness. It's like using drug money to fund a childrens hospital. Yeah you could say that the childrens hospital has some history with the cartel but we don't want fully armed gangsters walking up and down it's halls. The hospital will always share that connection, you could even say it maybe owes the boss a few favours, but it's got a whole other thing going now and wants to forget all of that ever happened. A couple times a year a guy who looks pretty cartel-y might show up at the front desk and walk into the staff only area and we all go "what was that about?" but hey kids are getting cured.