c4000 are the Wraith Callers, and c4010 was likely set aside for their horse before they just merged them into a single character. Their AI is "HorriblenessVarlet", lending to the idea there may have been another, more threatening Horribleness that we were spared from seeing.
@@gamemeister2905 there are definitely enough things to make a DLC from; Miquella, the Arenas, maybe deeper things for Prince of Death (which could involve revenants)
I've always had a theory as to why anything undead is hurt by healing, it's not actually physical harm, it's because healing is literally bringing the things closer to life, a life that can't be sustained by such a twisted or mutated form
Rune Bears and Revenants. Perhaps only Malenia is more difficult and that is just because it has more health. Replace Radahgon with a Revenant and the Elden Beast with a Rune Bear and who knows how many people could finish the game. No hit runs probably impossible.
@@bygoneegowaitingremoval man after the surprise bear trap in Limgrave and the boss Bear in weeping peninsula I've done as much as possible to either avoid these bears or cheese tf out of them 😂 somehow revenants weren't that bad... That is until I've arrived in Elphael... 😱
The hollow torsos in this game are starting to remind me of how trees sometimes rot or burn from the inside out, through a gap in the bark, leaving big hollow cavities in the trunk. It's all trees!
The hollow torsos of this and other creatures just reminds me of the concept of "Hollow" in previous soul games. When a character went hollow, it was usually withered and crazy. Empty of humanity. I guess these creatures represent that concept very well.
Most players: I wanna figure a good way to fight or get away from this thing. Witch: I wanna see it naked and figure a good angle to display its *gaping hole*
@@danielsilva9502 this isn't the result of grafting, didn't you watch this video? It's all natural. So this mf isn't trans. godrick the grafted however you could probably call trans
@@danielsilva9502 Spamming shit like that will only spread hate. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY wants to see unwarranted and irrelevant woke shit on an Elden Ring video.
@@GygasDistruttore So thats why Silksong is not out yet XD. But seriously I dont want any of Hollow knight to be 3D modelled by From Soft. No amount of therapy would solve that.
“As painful as it is to have to fight a Royal Revenant, they’re likely just as pained to be alive in the first place.” Don’t make me sympathetic towards those monsters. Hours of frustration came from fighting them.
Me : Im an INT based mage ! Ive barely died this playthrough. (gets to Haligtree deathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeath). Ouch. A little Mogwhyn bird hunting a few levels of Faith later, AH HAH!!!!
When these guys started cropping up, it made my faith build feel validated. For the ones in the haligtree brace area, you can hide in the bushes when they appear and cast Blessing of the Erdtree without breaking stealth. If you have the Old Lord's Talisman on, the healing will completely kill them. If you don't have the talisman, they will be left with very little health and you can follow up with any other attack.
They stagger long enough for you to cast again before they get up too, if you can spare the FP. That area is grind central aside from Bloodfart Swamp(ass)
In the haligtree area, you can summon, so just mimic and spam whatever hard hitting ash of war you got. I have Blade of blasphemy, and if it so much as looks at me sooner, I swap to my sword that has bloodhound step and dare it to keep up
“Imagine crying like a bitch whenever someone casts heal incants and no cool weapons for those many limbs” -this post was made by the grafted scion gang
I wish we could have seen more grafted type enemies in the game. It's a uniquely grotesque concept and I think it has a lot of opportunity for unique enemy types that all share the same theme. Godrick grafts a whole dragon onto his body so there's likely few limits as to what horrid mismatch of parts could result from grafting
@@Robot_Eva prepare for Spore-like dlc where you can graft yourself some extra limbs or other body parts, and a new ending where you graft yourself into a pickle
Tinfoil hat theory time. The way they crawl up out of the erd-goo, the way bodies are seen merging together as the erdtree roots absorb them, their royal clothing, and proximity location to wraith callers made me think they were made by being summoned back out of the tree mid "digestion" from royal catacombs. Still trying to figure the implication of there being so many in that lowesr area of elapheal.
There's those "nobles" walking the Lands Between that are very suspicious. I recall a "reunion" of them under Caelid Divine Tower, which is tied to a big rot of the Greatree.
Maybe these things are a result of bodies being tossed into mass-graves, where individual bodies accidentally got fused to one another during their rebirthing
As Elden Ring is heavily inspired by nordic mythology, I believe the hollow torso motif can be traced back to creatures like the Huldra. In some legends, the Huldra appears to be a beautiful woman, but is identifiable by their cow and/or fox-like tails and the large hole on their back, chest or abdomen reminiscent of a hollowed out tree. This is a recurring theme that identifies some monsters and supernatural creatures in nordic mythologies, and thus may be used in Elden Ring to identify some creatures as "wrong" or unnatural, as opposed to say, grafted enemies which, while freaky and grotesque, are not actually monsters; just horribly mangled and misshapen. Idk that's my theory anyway.
There’s the same element in the character designs in Bloodborne! A lot of the beasts (cleric beast, bloodstarved beast) have these hollowed out chest cavities/missing stomaches. I think it might allude to a loss of who you once were, messing with things you shouldnt be messing with/medical malpractice!
Hopefully the fromsoft team was able to travel to Nordic countries to be inspired when they were developing this game... Like what they did for bloodborne
This is why I love From Software's enemy design so much. They have so many interesting ideas from elegant, beautiful (Malenia, Friede) to morbid, creepy & disturbing (Orphan of Kos, Ludwig).
Try rolling towards the revenants instead of away from them, it makes them a lot more bearable to deal with. Still one of the worst regular enemies in Soulsborne though.
Kinda applys to most of the hard enemies I think. Say, Nameless, he can deal constant damage if you keep away but you can sort of punish if you keep being aggressive
Symbolism Theory: The gaping chest reoccurrence is another idea towards the whole immortality theme. (Those Who Live in Death.) With there being a gaping chest, there is no place for the heart to reside (by standard humanoid biology.) Even if they are not in horrible pain constantly, they are still devoid of something that would make them living. The heart is used symbolically as the center of emotions, empathy, and sympathy in many literary works. Each enemy type with a gaping chest may represent a lack of something that makes us human. Reason and free will. Trolls always seem to be guarding something or pulling something along. These horrific things always seem to be in ruined places and attack anything that moves, as if in an eternal rage, devoid of reason. Those are the only two with gaping chests that I know of, but I'd bet any others would follow similar logic.
Yeah I think this is probably the intention, dark souls is big on the idea of losing your humanity/mind while immortal leads to an empty husk acting purely on impulse or routine, really I think all or most of fromsofts modern games are about the agony of immortality at the heart of it
The Trolls are at least explainable. They are lesser giants whom sided with Marika in the War Against the Giants, and in order to sever their connection with the Fell God Marika literally scooped the Fell God's face out of them.
They are not TWLiD/Undead. They're not classed as those enemy types, and they don't actually take extra damage from holy. In fact, holy damage is the *only* type they have any resistance to at 40, all other resistances being 0, except slash damage which is -10.
that makes a lot of sense! also think there's a more sinister implication to the trolls given the stone tablets/ giant nails being that this was done TO THEM. probably by marika going off all the stone tablets in her room. I can't remeber where i got this from but somone else said it. though it's curious theres so many of these tablets literally IN cliff faces for reasons i cant discern
The hollowed chests remind me of how trees can succumb to a comparable type of undeath; heart rot disease. The fungus slowly rots away the tree from the inside out. When the tree is cut, a hollowed cavity of varying "growth" is seen. Some trees even split open at certain parts along their trunk and continue to rot out from that point outward too, resulting in a visage quite similar to the gaping abdomens seen on enemies such as this. Inspiring stuff!
I initially thought they were Grafted of some kind, but the whole “heal kills undead” trope you see in fantasy then made me think they might be some variety of Those Who Live in Death. However, they’re resistant to Holy, so I don’t think they’re that either…the suggestion that they're transforming into some other monster is interesting
Even more bizarre, the wraith calling bell and both omen bairns which summon spirits related to the revenants both deal holy damage and scale with faith
@@dumbsterdives There seems to be an inversion of the typical concept of holiness in some places. However, Omen are like the “original” holy ones and I believe the more horns they have, the more intense their “holiness.” In other words, a new religion or belief came in (Golden Order), convinced everyone the Omen were, well, bad omens, and subjugated them. It’s happened a lot in actual real life history, as well. Just my take on it
Maybe the heals do work like normal, they just heal the individual body parts closed so there's no graft point anymore. The whole thing just becomes degrafted and falls apart.
I'm glad that FromSoft doesn't always take the easy way out of leaving a blank space under the robes and cloaks of abominations like this even though most of us will never see it. Good work ethics lead to fun videos like this.
Yes but by hollowing the bottom part, you move their center of gravity up, which makes skidding and therefore cornering harder. I opine that the hole is there for increased ground clearance, which enhances their off road characteristics. You can likely strap cargo onto the holes which is also very practical for day to day usage.
You mentioned that their torsos branching out could be inspired by the way trees branch out, there could be a connection to it with their hollow insides, as they resemble a hollow tree trunk.
The cleric beasts, Moon Presence, and Sulyvahn's Beast do the expose ribs with hollow torsos as well. (For reference, Manus and the Demon of Hatred don’t have exposed ribs with a hollow chest despite those two and the cleric beast sharing a common design).
It's understandable with the unnatural creatures like Revenants, but what's up with the trolls? They may be enslaved, but still one of the sentient races.
@@Miraihi I think the hollow torsos is in reference to the idea of rotting from the inside out. Hollow trees happen when it is diseased or straight up dead, but the trunk is still strong enough to support the weight of the tree. It would make a lot of sense considering how the Golden Order basically imprisoned the concept of death in order to make everything everlasting, but that doesn't stop everything from crumbling.
@@Miraihi I see two possibilities for the trolls : 1 : this is an hole left by the third eye of the fire Giants 2 : trolls have been created in the uhl palace. we have almost no lore about uhl (I've never found anything about it), but theses statues of a tall man holding a stone tablet and having sorts of roots on his limbs makes me think about the roots holding a stone tablet inside trolls's chests
What if the grub is a reference to a parasite that does this to creatures in elden ring? The "hollow trunk" nature of enemies "empty chest cavities" is similar to a burl in trees, usually caused by parasites or the plant version of cancer, either way, could this imply a parasite is hosting in enemies related to the erd tree? Like. Elden ring is all about trees right? Grubs kill trees.
One of the theories is that the greater will is a cosmic parasite that's feeding off the erdtree. All life in this world is cyclical and technically eternal, so a cosmic parasite would love to find a host to feed off that can't die. Food forever. The roots of the tree burrow into every catacomb and grave, leeching off the remnants of the dead. When divine grace bestows power onto champions and heroes, they generally die afterwards, becoming tools of the tree. Or something like that. I haven't read the whole theory. One other theory is that the real erdtree was destroyed, and grafted on was the one we see, which is fake. The trunk of the one underground doesn't line up with the tree above, and the diameter is off, as well as many if the roots underground being torn and dead.
Their designs are my favorite of the enemies in the game, and I have I feel like they're strongly implied to be undead, which is why healing harms them. The name itself - Renevant - is a type of animated undead that's incredibly driven by a goal, usually vengeance. They're clearly in some kind of hierarchy with the wraith callers, who are seen worshipping them. It might not be as direct as Godrick's grafting, but it could be that they're a possessed mass of conjoined/segmented corpseflesh; so healing their wounds puts them in extreme pain since it's like breathing life to them and closing the wounds they need to remain animated.
They are not TWLiD/Undead. They're not classed as those enemy types, and they don't actually take extra damage from holy. In fact, holy damage is the *only* type they have any resistance to at 40, all other resistances being 0, except slash damage which is -10. Idk if you can find my comment in this sea of them, but I tried to explain that they might be closer to "possessed corpses" of those who were buried in catacombs/returning to the Erdtree, hence why by healing, all the cursed wraiths inside of them are pushed out and the spirit of the body's original owner is drawn back in, "fixed".
I hate fighting these things, unfortunately I think you're right about the possibility of an upgraded version of this thing considering the name "grub" implies an evolution. If they end up putting a "Revenant King" or something like that in the dlc I'll be so pissed lol.
That black/brown/green aura around them is interesting. It's the same color as the death blight, but also the projectiles that the wraithcallers summon, and the ones that omen enemies can produce from their guts. Maybe they're byproducts of the same curse?
It’s the flame corresponding to the great tree after being corrupted by godwyn’s corpse and the cursemark of death. The Omen are all directly connected to the great tree and they were seen as holy figures by the great tree worshipping people before the arrival of the erdtree. Originally it was just off colored golden fire similar to the holy fire used by melina, radagon, and the elden beast, but probably got its blackened portion after the great tree was corrupted and split off from the erdtree.
@@entroponetics Yes, but they were persecuted as cursed beings shortly after the founding of the Golden Order, possibly to establish themselves as the predominant religion in the Lands Between. Same thing happened to the Great Caravan of merchants that we find in game, and their cruel fate at the very bottom of Leyndell. They were ruthless.
@@LongClawzHidden In Wraith Calling Bell's description, it said that Wraiths are vengeful spirits of those who died when Cursed. I believe it's a curse instead of some normal thing. This Black part in the cursed vengeful flame also appears in Black Flame, Destined Death, Ghostflame, Death Flare and in the end it's the core of Frenzy Flame (Lord of Frenzy Flame ending scene).
this is honestly the only elden ring monster that really scares me. When I found the Shaded Castle, I was doing great until one of these things popped out of the ground. The speed of their attacks, and how they can pursue you even on ledges is terrifying
That one actually made me jump and swear. It had been a while since I last fought one (I think the one underground near where Iji is), so I might have panicked a bit. I'm extremely glad I jumped over the hole in the pipe in the Subterranean Shunning Ground and avoided the one that's there. These and the damn giant fingercreepers are among my least favorite enemies. Well, the basilisks are high up there, because I swear that the deathblight meter fills faster than the curse meter ever filled in the Souls games. Basilisks never freaked me out much in the Souls games, but I really dread them in Elden Ring.
A very concerning observation: in roderika's beta dialogue, she refers to the victims of grafting as "Grubs" (as opposed to "Chrysalid" in the final game). This might suggest that these enemies actually *are* related to grafting, potentially the living bodies of those who have been grafted.
@@justdrop No not really, the way things are named in the files are rarely changed unless they absolutely need to be - and a change in lore terminology isn’t enough to warrant that. Now of course if they changed the term for grafting victims, they could also have changed the lore around the revenants’ origin - but it’s still more likely that they have a relation to grafting than not.
@@williaml840 ..Their reference was changed in the dialogue, the actual visible and audible parts of the game. Digging through game files to find a reference to something that's no longer applicable does not make it still applicable.
@@williaml840 Yes, because you've been so effective at refuting my point with "not uh". I'll reiterate your argument in simpler terms: Person A was initially named 'purple_person' and in the dialogue of another NPC, they mention something about the characteristics of a purple person. That dialogue has since been changed to green person, but surely it must still mean they're purple person! The chrysalids referenced in the game are not Revenants, and if you don't know what I'm talking about I won't spoil it. Your argument is nonsense. Stop it.
#1 reason to faith build. I love seeing these guys. Erdtrees Blessing is especially helpful for groups as it does chip damage like Scarlet Rot, but with an insane range. Faith bros where u at.
These enemies are one hundred percent awful to fight. Seriously, a huge WALL of a shield and these guys MELT through it with ease. Not to mention all the other ridiculous stuff they have.. And the fact their damage is borderline boss levels anyways…
the worst is the one in the ruins next to Iji, fighting them on that tight spot with their endless combo stunlocking you if it connects is raw, unfiltered pain
100% agree, you can't imagine how happy I was when I found out AoE heals knock them prone, completely on accident I might add. Blessings boon vs these is actually kind of hilarious.
So, just a thought on the open chest cavity of many enemies, they remind me of something I learned about sequoyah trees in Yosemite national park. All the older trees have large scars running up their trunk, indicating they survived a fire. Apparently park staff tried to reduce the number of fires in the forest, but found that the younger trees were getting sick. The takeaway was that being burnt was part of the natural life cycle of sequoyahs. Perhaps this is also true of the tree-like inhabitants of The Lands Between. The entrance into the erdtree certainly looks similar.
I wonder if the hollow cavities we see in the game is a reference to heart rot you can get in trees. On the outside, the tree can appear to be healthy, but inside the heartwood has rotted away; this being a dangerous situation since anything can cause the tree to give way and it could be unsuspected. Edit: I apologize if this has been mentioned before, not trying to beat a dead horse.
I remember being caught off guard by a revenant at the shaded castle and even though I had pre-patched barricade on my shield I was still in absolute fear withstanding one of their long attack combo’s in my face
In my case, I was already running from my life as is due to being low on health, poisoned and chased by several enemies so when I stumbled into the revenant, I knew I was basically done for lol.
Knowing this I like to think the revenant is what happens to humans after dying too many times, unable to experience true death due to the rune being stolen and broken. Mutating not unlike Godwyn himself over time. The Royal Revenants being the oldest, the wandering nobles showcasing the newest, and the wraith callers as an inbetween. Such is the fate of all men in the wake of the Shattering to eventually become those or worse.
Godwyn didnt mutate, he literally grafted pieces of other bodies to himself. Everything in your comment is completely wrong and can be proven so easily. Should actually do a little research, instead of pulling bullshit out of your ass on pure speculation based off ignorance.
Not crazy hard. Runebears can deal friendly-fire damage, so if you play evasively, the bears will thin the crowd until you eventually just have to finish off one runebear
An interesting thing with these guys I noticed, is that Warming Stones don't seem to do anything. Neither heal nor harm. Not sure if it's an oversight, or if I just got mangled too quick when I tried it, but given the Warming Stone's description, it could point to some interesting lore for the Erdtree. "It's said that the Erdtree was once as warm as the gentle sun, and would gradually heal all who bathed in its rays."
When I tried using a warming stone against the boss version, I think I noticed it's health slowly going up. That was a while ago though, so I may be mistaken.
They work for me, but it just does slow ticking damage, rather than a full stagger. There are quite a few of these guys with pretty terrible perception, so you can actually just walk behind them as they spawn and they won't see you.
I think I hated the sewer one more than the endgame group that everyone hates. The environment already put me on edge, and the thing spawning in had me groaning. The whole experience was deeply unpleasant.
God my anxiety always gets bad when I have to fight one of these guys, it's like I hold my breath the entire time cause the mixture of it flailing around. the damage it does and the endless shrieking all coalesces into a terrifying encounter.
I can’t get over how fucking amazing the designs in Elden ring are, and I love your videos cause we can take a more in-depth look at them. I’m taking notes-
@@Phoenix547II yeah sorry, I consider them more butterflies than angels. Just because it's what the pellegrines become in the base game and the Ringed City's enemy it's just a different "evolution" of them.
YOU USED THAT SICKK SONG AGAIN! I love it, you also used it im the video in which you peeked under the Pontiff's robes. it's amazing. also this video is great! thanks for your work Zullie!
At this point elden ring is a book of Life explaining why it's best to stay human. "Want to be a dragon?" "Here's why that sucks" "Want more arms?" "After this you won't!" Like damn fromsoftware, way to crush each and every single one of my fantasies
@@Awful.Productions like who am I gonna ask about the health benefits of human grafting? This already sounds crazy, and I'm pretty sure I'm on a watchlist now
This is one of the hardest enemies I ever fought, I swear they must have nerfed them because the first time I found one in Liurnia of the lakes it wouldn't stop charging at me attacking mindlessly.
"likely just as pained to be alive in the first place" I thought these guys were one of the undead creatures, especially since they seem to appear alongside other undead
It's always amazing how much details are modeled into enemies considering it practically won't ever be seen in-game, only in analysis videos like this.
Zullie: "As painful as it is to have to fight a Royal Revenant, they're likely just as pained to be alive in the first place." Me: Playing the world's smallest violin: "Aww, that sucks champ. Real shame about that. Hate to hear it."
The Royals were often gifted Erdtree Burial and as healing magic injures them, their ability to spawn from the ground is likely a result of the Deathroot growing from Godwyn's undying, soulless corpse making them unable to remain dead as well, but warping their bodies like it's doing to Godwyn's. Given the prominence of these enemies around the Brace of the Haligtree, it's likely that this is also meant to be linked to what you see with the myriad of natural human arms growing from the Kindred of Rot - as rot symbolizes Death & Rebirth, the exact fate of a Revenant. Adding to that is the detail of the Ulcerated Tree Spirits, whose rotting bodies also suddenly emerge from the ground or from Minor Erdtrees without Avatars. The Avatars are designed like the headless Mausoleum Knights or bodies in the Walking Mausoleums where that physical form can house another's soul. The Serpentine Trees Spirit's bodies also have arm-like protrusions growing from them. However, their snake-like bodies are much closer to a mirror of the swarm of limbs growing out of the corpse of the Serpent-God fused with Rykard's remains… Especially notably is that the Serpent God's corpse has a myriad of arms …but only two legs sprouting from it - just like we see in these Royal Revenants. The Serpent God was likely once the soul of the Erdtree itself, until like the Crucible Knights & Omens, it was shunned as an impure enemy of the Golden Order. Tearing out and attacking the soul of the Erdtree to build an order from the husk that remains is also the fate of Miquella's removal from his Haligtree by Mohg, as well as the fate that befalls Godwyn, leading to the Deathroot that spawns these Revenants of Royal lineage. It's awesome seeing these consistently placed minor details creeping out into the designs of everything else, especially when they're not a factor of artificial grafting or live consumption of great warriors. It helps to give more insight into why Godrick took the approach he did, given what's found in the deathroot thorn-entangled depths of Stormvale Castle's crypt.
I'm imagining them being the body of multiple nobles who fused together upon waking to undeath. As though the process of becoming one within the Erdtree was interrupted and so all of these partially fused spirits were re-corporealized into the twisted monsters we know and loathe.
@@rainbowkrampus I've been thinking of it more like how in the absence of the Rune of Death, their bodies aren't decaying…but growing. Their flesh locked amongst the Root Resin has formed into a physical structure like the branches of a tree - all emerging from the trunk of their torso. The royals are now misshapen into an abomination as their heart is hollowed out of their body - just like Godwyn's missing soul, and the Erdtree's missing spirit. The Revenants are a reflection of the true horror of the Golden Order that is long been buried underground & hidden from sight. It's the shunned truth slowly becoming too much to contain and emerging onto the surface. These Royal Revenants find themselves back in their own bodies… but now they're shaped into the living flesh of that wretched mutation because _it is simply what they grew into._ There's no turning back into who they were before, they're now a poison-vomiting larval abomination. On top of that, as the Royals & Golden Lineage were supporters of the Golden Order, they violently shunned Those Who Live in Death. The Revenants furiously enraged flailing is their blinded anger at THIS being their experience of an afterlife rather than having their remembrance hewn into the Erdtree. They're brought back experiencing the very suffering they hid from the world, and like the Three Fingers - it is a violent, destructive, frenzied madness.
Now that I've seen this video, it makes me wonder if the healing spells harm them precisely because that would undo whatever is holding the separate parts together, resulting in a ghastly mound of incomplete bodies incapable of living on their own as separate entities.
It seems to be a recurring theme in Elden Ring that creatures whose innards have been removed become zombified and/or mindless. The Royal Revenants, Dragonkin Soldiers, and Trolls all have hollow chests/stomachs and the Trolls in particular become docile and mostly harmless when the stone in their chest is pierced by the giant stakes of the caravan carts, and many of the Troll corpses we see have the stones removed entirely. This detail plus the fact the Fire Giant has the manifestation of the Fell God in its stomach. There's tons of stuff pointing to the idea that the soul or otherwise essence of life is in the stomach
you know what, I am actually thinking that Miyazaki might remove their healing incantation weakness so you'll be forced to fight these horrible creatures, and force you to touch grass in real life.
Something interesting and also terrifying that I only just noticed thanks to the still model is that the feet aren't the only limbs that seem to be facing the opposite direction of the rest of the body. There seems to be at least one arm that's also facing the same direction as the legs, and it's especially noticeable because the upper arm of it is horribly twisted so that it faces the same way as the other limbs. This implies to me that this and the two legs were the original limbs of the revenants, which raises the question, what caused all these other limbs to grow in, and why are they all facing the other way? What kind of horrible curse turned people into these?
I feel like the recurring chest cavity thing may be something inspired by tree hollows which are cavities formed in a tree as a result of some sort of injury
For any faith builds out there, just use lord's heal, this should easily take out half their hp bars (in this case I'm referring to the revenants before Marika's soreseal), and poise break them
Knowing these things are hurt by healing magic now makes me hate my lack of variety tactics on enemy types. Miyazaki has a knack for the unconventional, as does George R.R. Martin. Should have known something like that would be in here.
I wonder if the hollow abdomens are related to their tree inspiration - it's not uncommon for trees to rot from the inside, while seeming perfectly healthy from the outside. So for the royal revenants, it might be reflecting their cursed nature?
I don't really remember where I heard this so I can't give credit, but I do think someone mentioned that they're somewhat similar to the bodies that merge together at the Erdtree's roots. Given that they're found in Ephael prominently, I feel like they may be a result of the Haligtree trying to accomplish what the Erdtree does and failing. Maybe it's a thing both trees do, but the Erdtree does it less. Maybe it's only a thing created by the Haligtree. I can't really say. I've also seen some people mention that they're probably undead, as a result of healing magic damaging them. I also feels like this ties into that idea, since the bodies themselves have failed to properly reincarnate after death. My only other guess as to what these could be would be something relating to deathroot, which I doubt, since none of them drop anything deathroot related.
One idea that pops to mind whenever an enemy has a hollow chest cavity in Elden Ring is that it shows the "Hollowness" of Marika's Golden Order. As you state, it's a reoccurring theme in Elden Ring, and it's shown in not just the enemies, but in the Haligtree that Miquella was creating. Though he was pulled out from the great tree, it was said it would have rivaled the Erdtree itself. But the most important fact of the Haligtree is that it's hollow, and I think that represents how the Golden Order was and how Marika herself was. After all, she was an Empyrean, which generally suggests a lack of self. We see it in Ranni, who was willing to sacrifice not only her body but the soul of her brother Godwyn, and she is a candidate to be an Empyrean. So is Malenia, who is currently so focused on her duty that she cares about little else, along with her body being afflicted by the Scarlet Rot. So I genuinely think that this empty Chest Cavity shows off the hollowness of the entirety of the Golden Order.
I love these guys designs, they are like one of the only enemies (haven’t played BB and Demons Souls) that I find more difficult to learn than any other enemy out there in the series. Come to think of it, they are sorta on par with the Headless in terms of “I want you to die as soon as possible”.
if you ever pick up bloodborne, there are some scary fucking shark dudes that will fuck you up on par with these guys, and there aren't any bullshit tactics like healing incantations to cheese them lol. the only consolation is that they appear at the very end game in the last bit of the dlc.
I remember on my first ever, and blind playthrough of this game. I told my friends about the monster in the swamp I couldn't beat, and it was the epitome of horrifying. Sure enough I was doing my playthrough solo, so I needed to try and help them kill it to show them, but sadly, without a map I couldn't remember right where it was, and they went on not knowing till way later. *sigh* Their first reaction to the creature lost forever to me. Nice breakdown on it. Interesting on the hollow body and healing magic.
I'm working on something about the wraith callers. But yo after 300 hours into the game and killing everything several times these things are still my most despised enemy. Top tier work as always
I always love your vids, they actually give me a chance to see the details that i have to consciously ignore so that i don't die to the very interesting enemies
There's been a LOT of cursed or undead enemies over the years in From games, so why is it these guys specifically harmed by healing magic? And the smaller bell-ringing ones too I guess.
the chest wound conundrum has me wondering so many things, I'd love to see some more lore insight on this, as it's so common. love seeing these assets with the removed robes and stuff, the amount of work put into these character designs and models is so impressive.
The part from the trailers I was most looking forward to in the game was this guy peaking out from around the corner of a dark hallway. I was pretty disappointed to see him just appear in the overworld as a normal enemy
I also can’t help but relate these back to the Deep Accursed, with the same kind of backwards leg into contorted torso setup. As well as the many limbs and cursed nature of their existence
A funny piece of lore I read on Royal Revenant's Wiki page: "A friend of mine was an Elden Ring developer and he said there is an interesting story behind this enemy: Revenant is one of the few creatures that Mr. Miyazki himself designed from start to finish. But given its poor reception in the focus group play-test sessions it was set to be either completely scrapped or overhauled. Upon realizing this, Miyazaki-san took this reaction as a personal attack and vetoed all the changes, stating: "If I were in the business of caving every time people objected to my designs, Demon's Souls wouldn't exist!" In response, he decided that not only will this enemy remain unchanged but he should personally determine the locations it will appear in the game and furthermore it must appear as a mini-boss too. Pretty soon, this became a running gag in the office and people were jokingly referring to this enemy as "The Miyazaki" and were putting framed photos of it on their desks. Also a subgroup of devs decided to sneak in a mechanic where casting healing incantations significantly damages these beasts making the fight trivial, just to get back at Miyazaki-san. The whole thing was quite funny." I don't know if this is true or not, but it's hard to imagine it isn't 😄
hey Zullie, not sure if you already have/had the idea to make a video about all the reused enemies? I know you touched on the tree spirit/ asylum demon but I can definitely recognize a few more, namely the imps being thralls and a lot of the skeletons being hollow soldiers, as well as most knights sharing some lothric knight animations
I wonder if the reason why a hollow body is such a recurring theme is because trees become hollowed out in a similar way when they're dead. So because the Rune of Death has been stolen and the Ring shattered, nothing can die and instead they hollow out like ancient trees, as they've been dead for so long. Or it's just that Miyazaki likes that "hollowed" look/theme.
