Elden Ring - The risks of Blood magic 

Although Astel is a "malformed" star, it's interesting that parts of its own body somewhat resemble glintstone as well. What a "correctly" formed star might look like is open for speculation, but glintstone may be actual remnants of their physical forms.

how tf they expect me to pay attention to these details when invaders are all solid red 😭

A red star you can only see if burdened with guilt is such a cool Fantasy concept. Almost Lovecraftien outright, considering that it seems to grant insight into blood and its power, too.

I have some "good" memories of Alberich reminding me why leveling vigor is a good idea

I really like the idea of Mohg only finding the Formless Mother because his eye was torn out accidentally. It always struck me as strange that he just 'found' an outer god, with no further explanation given, when they otherwise only seem interested in Empyreans. I'd never thought to connect his missing eye to the guilty being blinded.

A star... only visible to the guilty? That's absolutely horrifying.

Mohg really just watched that horn grow into his own eye.

Thats why magic is op, its balanced by turning yourself into a pebble

One neat thing about Alberich is that while you can absolutely take your build in Elden Ring in any direction you think of, he shows you a very strong combination in ice + bleed potentially as early as reaching Roundtable Hold.

One thing I'm always struck by with Elden Ring's lore specifically is how every element is linked to something else you initially think is conceptually a thousand miles away. I've always found the Blood Star and the briar sorceries interesting, if undeveloped, but somehow never thought to connect them to Mohg. It's like how the Misbegotten, who you might initially think are bit players in the world and the lore, actually serve as crucial links between Radagon and the Crucible. It's hard to think of any 'islands' in ER's lore, things that don't connect to anything else.

Holy shit the framing of mentioning that maybe only the blinded can “see” while having Mohg in the background is incredible. Literally gave me a “oh shit” moment before you mentioned his horn piercing his own eye.

On the topic of the potential overlap of blindness between the Blood Star and the Formless Mother, it’s interesting to note that blindness also plays a role in the Frenzied Flame with Irina/Hyetta, (and also maybe Yura, as his eyes are also quite cloudy which could be seen as early signs of blindness that enables him to be possessed by Shabriri in a manner that mirrors Hyetta “possessing” Irina’s corpse). I like the idea that since The Lands Between are primarily influenced by the Greater Will, one has to lose the ability to perceive the reality it has crafted in order to see beyond the bounds of its creation. Almost a direct contradiction to how the greater beings of Bloodborne function, where a lack of eyes grants insight as opposed to an excess of them.

Fun fact, it's implied that Alberitch originally found his home in the Mountaintops of the Giants because the Heretical Rise was probably his tower. Heretical Rise is filled with red glinstone, Alberitch uses cold sorceries, and it is also the home to the Founding Rain of Stars. This could mean that Alberitch might have been one of the FIRST glintstone sorcerers ever, but his study into the blood star drove him mad and he may have lost much of his knowledge as the red glintstone consumed him.

The part about characters losing their sight in order to gain some forbidden insight/ knowledge might be in reference to Odin, who has sacrificed one of his eyes in order to gain great wisdom. The whole concept of losing one of your senses/ becoming physically crippled and in return expanding your mental capabilities or seeing hidden thruths is prevelent in many mythologies, and Fromsoft surely do tend to make use of this fact, although in their own twisted, malformed way.

Glintstone. Not even once.

The fact that you are able to connect details from glintstone sorcery to Mogh and his cult is just amazing. The most I'd thought of the glintstone skulls is like it was turning humans into imperfect Astels, with eyes in their skulls. But human heads literally can't contain what they've grown, they can't become a higher state of being. Very eldritch. Astels themselves remind me of glowworms, groups of larvae hanging in caves from sticky silken threads that form star-like patterns to confuse and trap night insects to devour (Deep Look has a great video that shows it clearly). So maybe Astels are also fake stars and misled humans become their meals.

"One invader can attack the player within it, Mad Tonque Alberich" This is Ensha erasure and I will not stand for it On a serious note, great video as always, Zullie! Blood magic is one of the more underutilized yet cool concepts in Elden Ring and I hope From expands on it both lorewise and gameplay-wise in the DLC

its a shame that aberrant sorceries are so limited in Elden Ring. Feels like a missed opportunity to, since they modeled a whole outfit for the school of magic, and it has all of 2 spells to use lol

I always got the sense that Alberich's hidden red glintstone brain implied that he had begun to achieve sorcerous mastery on a level equivalent to Lusat and Azur, just in the school of heretical Blood Sorcery, implying that there's a Primeval Current of blood (Guilty Star?) running a sort of parallel to the one glimpsed by Lusat and Azur.

Personally, I take this as more evidence that Sorceries and Incantations are one and the same, as proven by Thops. The stars in the sky, the primeval current, all of it is just Outer Gods like the Formless Mother, taking shape in different ways. Some see stars. Some see a current. But the true nature of them remains the same. What really matters is how humanity perceives them, and how they utilize their blessings.

I kinda felt like the formless mother and the blood star were similar, this kinda gives credibilty to my hunches. If you think about how Mohg describes it as "formless" could be due to him being half blind, meaning he is only aware of the blood star's presence but unable to actually see it, whereas those who lost their sight completely studying blood sorceries can see it. Also I believe since Mohg is a child of Marika he uses faith to communicate with the Blood star, hence why he refer to it as "Formless Mother", whereas those who study sorceries refer to it as the blood star. It's as if two different point of views coming to the same conclusion under diffe rent beliefs and names.

I'd also note another connection with the Formless mother - the Exiles are only ever seen accompanying fire monks and prelates, and the incantations of the Formless Mother are Bloodflame. Mogh's boss arena is also constantly smouldering, like the Roundtable Hold eventually does, but before you even light the flame of ruin.

Zullie: One invader can attack you in roundtable hold. Ensha: Am I a joke to you?

It does rather make sense for a star only perceptible by "the guilty" to be something Mohg has also seen. It's implied that Mohg seeing the Formless Mother to begin with is what led him down his dark path, leading me to believe that "guilty" in this context might refer to _guilt_ itself. As in, the internal feeling of being at fault. Because for Mohg? Uh, yeah, being told from childhood that he's chained up in the sewers for the crime of being an omen is probably going to leave that kid with some undeserved personal guilt. There may also be something to be said about the resemblance of omen horns to thorns.

The Great Hood worn by Esgar priest of blood has a quote in the item description that implies while trying to find Rennala's full moon, he found the Blood Star instead. So I think the Blood Star is the Formless Mother

Mohg having an eye pierced by his own horn is metal as fuck

The red glintstone has another powerful purpose. Fashion.

I wonder if Albrecht is already inert, and that the invader in the round table is just a phantom projection like the Vyke in liurnia. It makes me wonder if we might be invaded or have to rescue npc versions of Lustadt and Azur in the dlc.

I still find the fact that he bows to you before attacking interesting

i think astels are an "empty" creature of the same type as the Elden Beast (which is also described as a star). My guess is that they're a sort of "blank slate" that an outer god can take as a host. The blood star, then, is probably the Formless Mother's counterpart to the Elden beast. The rot god may have once had something similar as well. the "scorpion's stinger" dagger seems to have come from the prior incarnation of the rot god that was defeated by the blind swordsman. Astel already has a scorpion-like tail, so it's not much of a stretch to think that an astel touched by the rot god could have been described as a scorpion. Finally, the the astel in the concecrated snowfield is surrounded by the influence of the flame of frenzy, suggesting that the flame may have been attempting to claim a star of it's own

This DLC is gonna be lit. Can’t wait for them to expand upon all these smaller details set up throughout the game.

I also wanna mention the ties between these and Frenzy. The Briar Shield is of a maiden whose eyes were gouged out by thorns as punishment. Sharbriri's Woe specifically states he was a noble whose _eyes were gouged out as punishment_ for his slander. Shabriri, after being _blinded from guilt,_ discovered the Flame of Frenzy. *ALSO* the illusion of Mohg in the sewers is at an altar that is a secret passageway leading _directly to the buried nomads and Three Fingers._ Somehow, the Formless Mother/Bloodflame, Abherrant Sorceries/The Red Star/Red Glintstone, and the Three Fingers are _all_ connected to one another. Which _also_ connects it all to _Omens_ in general, because Morgott's blood _also_ becomes bloodflame! Which means bloodflame is an _Omen_ thing, not just a _Mohg/Formless Mother Worshipping_ thing. So much in this game is interconnected. I just wish FromSoft gave us a few more concrete answers.

Concept art seems to relate red glintstone to Carian royalty, oddly. The Carian Glintstone Staff is depicted with a red crystal at its tip, and the Academy of Raya Lucaria itself glows red from within. Rennala was originally an astrologer native to the Mountaintops of the Giants. Long ago, the astrologers cohabitated with the Fire Giants, but their paths have since diverged. It's interesting then that red glintstone now symbolizes the blood star, in turn relating to the Formless Mother and bloodflame... Furthermore, the spears of briars found throughout the Mountaintops of the Giants are often found pierced through the dead Fire Giants-more precisely, through the eye of the Fell God embedded in their chest. I wonder if the Formless Mother is actually interested in Miquella, though, and Mohg is simply using him to facilitate contact? Bloodflame is a sort of reaction between the Formless Mother and "impure blood," but Miquella is commonly hailed for his purity...

The idea of a celestial body only seen by sorcerers of ill omen isn't unique to Elden Ring, or even Bloodborne. It's a key feature of the Dragonlance setting, where each of the three moons is patron to a different branch of magic use, generally corellating with good/neutral/evil The black moon can only be seen by those who are evil, other magic users outright cannot tell it apart from the rest of the black void between stars. Raistlin is one such wizard, and his connection to it is stronger than most due to the spite created by his physical condition

One interesting theory is that there is no difference between gods and stars; The growth of the glintstones, and the growth of the erdtree, both just serving as catalysts of influence from beings very remote. Just materializing in different forms, more symbolic than pragmatic.

The use of red glintstone likely dates back to the ancient past. Besides the thorn sorcerers, who seem to have stumbled upon the powers of the blood star by accident, there’s another faction that also utilizes red Glintstone in the serpent-men of Mt. Gelmir. However, they use a different kind of magic in the form of magma hex magic, drawing power from both intelligence and faith. The Serpent-God Curved Sword reinforces this connection, as it was used as a sacrificial tool, likely to extract red glintstone

Bruh i just realized that the armor set in that spot in the 'real' roundtable hold is his... I'm so slow with these things lol

Alright so we have alberich for red glintstone,azur for green glintstone and lusat for blue glintstone,we don't have a guy with purple glintstone in his head

Thank you, for once again reminding me what I love about this game's setting. Sorcery and it's divergent forms will always be one of my favorite aspects of Elden Ring, with incantations and sorceries alike all having ties to the cosmos. It's incredible.

Damn the level of specificity within elden ring is insane! Great video yet agian!

I was reading the TVtropes page for elden ring and I found the "Alien Kudzu" trope entry for Elden Ring quite interesting. It essentially mentions how Glintstone acts much like a magical grey goo that slowly subsumes all else into it as more glintstone. That was cool, but already known. What I found fascinating was how the writer dubs ALL sorcery as blood magic. Let me explain. Amber, one could say, is the residual life of a tree. It is the "blood" of a tree, solidified and hardened. In the world of Elden Ring, Amber, particularly Erdtree amber, has potent magical powers. Pieces of amber are not signs of the Erdtree's blessings, they are blessings themselves. Glintstones, the anonymous tropes writer contributes, are not "stones". They are hardened pieces of ALIEN BLOOD. This is the true source of magical power in Elden Ring - channeling the innate magical power of other creatures - whether you are channeling the cold alien magic of blue glintstones, or the red hot vivacious magic of humanity's self-destructive and sinful nature. Just look at all the severed alien body part weapons. The Wing of Astel, Bastard Stars, and the Fallingstar Beast Jaw. All of these weapons allow the wielder to channel the magical power of the creature that these parts were taken from. But the game never explains the actual mechanics of how you do this. Naturally, it is simply by invoking the power contained with a chunk of a living creature. Important to note - you cannot use the Nebula skill or the Fallingstar Beast Jaw skill on any other weapon. I just checked the Ash of War list on Fextralife, and these skills are not there - they are listed on a separate page, called "Skills" which lists all innate weapon skills. That is what Sellen means when she says "Glintstones contain the residual life of stars". Remember, Astels are known as "Stars" at some point in their growth. Perhaps all the stars above in the sky are not stars as we know them to be...

Oh wow, there were some really interesting little tidbits in this one. And since eyes is such a big theme (with how runes look like eyes and so many characters have golden patterns on their eyes) it makes sense blindness would also be significant... (And now I'm wondering if the name "Astel" is just "Stella" with the A moved around, as a parallel to how they are not quite put together right to be real stars...)

I am so glad you're spacing out / continuing to explore lore till today, and really enjoy the short(ish-sometimes length is necessary) videos - also really LOVE the freaking subtitles it's a nice change of pace and not many people like, religiously do that. A lot of us like silence and brain thought - not voice then brain thought.

Thank you Zullie for this important PSA about the dangers of overusing glintstone sorcery.

"There's risk to blood magic" Rivers of blood users: Im not here for a long time, but im here for a good time *spams corpse piler*

Oh wow, I just picked up his armor last night for my blood/madness build and altered the hat for the first time and was wondering about this!

I’ve never even played Elden ring but I love these videos. Big ups for these! Keep them coming!

I love that you highlight these these pieces of lore because they are among my favourite.

Love your content so much Zulie. Definitely linking this in my video on the thorn sorcerers from earlier this month as supplemental confirmation of our thoughts on Alberich.

Always an absolute pleasure watching your work Zullie!

I really love this content btw. Your hard work is appreciated!

I dunno if Ensha counts as a Roundtable Hold invasion because he kinda pulls you into a seemingly alternate version of the Hold as soon as you try to go back while in possession of the first half of the secret medallion, but that was my immediate thought when you referred to Alberich as the only NPC who violates the nonaggression pact. Otherwise, excellent observation, the idea of a star that can only be seen by those burdened with guilt and bloodied hands is crazy awesome. Also, with regards to the part about Mohg's partial blindness giving him potential insight into the Formless Mother and the Blood Star, it seems to parallel Odin's sacrifice of his eye for greater wisdom in Norse mythology, which wouldn't surprise me as an inspiration since a lot of Elden Ring draws heavily from certain mythologies (I'm looking at you, Yggdrasil- I mean Erdtree)

Thanks to those staves, I will now be referring to it as Gopher Magic and you can't convince me otherwise

The way you positioned the two masters makes it look like Lusat's going "Oh, Azur, we're really in it now"

Great stuff, Zullie. Thank you for your incredible content!

I do wonder if we'll learn more about this in the DLC, since we know it's gonna be Miquella focused, and of course that ties in Mohg really nicely. I gotta say, this is some of the most Lovecraftian it feels FS have ever been (outside of, like, all of Bloodborne I mean); imagine glimpsing an evil star, and just looking at it causes your brain to begin to crystallise and your body begin to petrify, as forbidden knowledge floods your mind

Well now I need to go see if the modified hat reacts to the gesture

Makes me want more blood sorcery

I never noticed the horn growing into Mhog’s eye. If that keeps going, it’ll kill him.

I never played Elden Ring before finding your channel Zullie. I started to play just after finding your channel. You are the best😊

One of my favorite characters in the game even though we know so little about him. I'm excited to see if we get more aberrant sorceries in the dlc.

I've always thought that glintstone was like a milder, more "benign" version of Red Lyrium from the Dragon Age games----its a powerful magic crystal that is a source of power for mages and magical warriors, it grows like a plant in areas where those who use it gather, it slowly grows on and inside of its host/user under certain conditions. Oh, and its alive and part of another lifeform alien to the world of the game. It would seem Albreich's red glintstone takes even more after Red Lyrium in terms of negative effects and voracious growth, not to mention its color.

This particular section of lore is among my favourites I'd say. Connects to so much. It is so, as far as I can remember, that sorcerers seek to make themselves into stars, correct? And if glintstone contain the residual life of stars, and stars are sorcerers (people), then glintstone contains the residual life of people. Blood glintstone is formed from the blood of sacrifices pierced by it, though I didn't notice it was a small animal until now. Ancestors are also connected to magic damage, through the use of the spirits of, you guessed it, small animals. There are even several sorceries cast without glintstones. Glintstone Pebble ash of war, Red Wolf of Radagon, Radahn and Alabaster/Onyx Lords all cast sorceries without glintstone. Considering all this magic, disconnected from stars, I would even argue that the staff of loss actually has no glintstone, as it indeed says, rather than an invisible one as theorized. Both blood and spirits can give rise to magic after all, and what is an act of asceticism of not a show of spirit? This Star of the Guilty that only the seemingly blinded can see... I would propose that it's a sort of introspection. People discovering the magic in their own blood/spirit, or just blood in general. Rather than something that actually exists, I view it more of a metaphysical manifestation of the magic of blood. I would here also make a distinction between the Formles Mother and the Blood Star. Though they share some similarities, to draw upon the power of the Formless Mother, you need arcane as well as faith, while Briar is faith only, as well as the dissimilarity of casting tool, on top of the obvious aesthetic differences between the two schools of magic. Blood Sorcery also makes an explicit connection to hex magic, making it, in terms of lore at least, more similar to death and lava magic than blood incants.

I find this whole concept of glintstone gradually replacing one's brain incredibly creepy.

I love all your videos, but these micro-lore vids are especially amazing

"I could share the secrets of the universe with you... Oooor I could carve you up like Thanksgiving Turkey. What do you think, Scythey?" - Alberich

amazing vid as always

The Elden Beast as well looked like a Golden Star

I like how immersive your videos are

Every time I think "this can't get more messed up," it does. I don't even notice most of these little things, and even though it's gross I'm like kinda stoked you point them all out!

I don’t know why but that completely stiff impaled squirrel is so funny

The!Bravo-you uploaded great -

Love these vids, theres way too much lore hidden in elden ring and I remember being really interested in lusat / azure in my first playthrough.

Great content and insight

in the network beta the thorn sorceries (although only Briars of Sin was available in it) had a sigil that appeared when you cast it like many other spells, but in the actual game they took it out. That change boggles me. The sigil was similar to the flame incantations, but similarity should not be an issue if the sigil of night sorceries, clayman sorceries and carian sorceries look almost identical to one another.

It completely fucks my head that they would add such a detail as his mind being eaten by the red glintstone under his freaking hat which no one might ever see. Also, if missing eyes might be a sign of having gained some vast, forbidden knowledge, maybe Melina has seen some cosmic shit too. Or have we already figured out what's up with her eye? I haven't kept up on all the lore, I'm a filthy casual.

FINALLY some clearer context to the link between Mohg's force of blood and the sorcerers'

Ngl it's almost like the glintstone is slowly devouring the world and the world trees are fighting back. Like two otherworldly forces fighting over one world

Your insights are unparalleled.

I'm subscribing, alright. Not because I played the games - I haven't - but because the I enjoy reading aloud the well-written and tightly time-spaced text. Not so tight that I have to hurry, with leeway for intonation but not too loose, so that I never have to fast forward or rewind the video just to finish voicing a given sentence. Thank you.

I love your content Zullie, keep at it. c:

'Oh, you can alter Alberich's hat, maybe you can take the stupid blindfold off, let's see -' 'Oh'

love your content.

Love your quality over quantity approach in videos

Grant us eyes, grant us eyes indeed

I hate that so much of this stuff is inaccessible normally. It feels like there was meant to be a way to see these things in gameplay.

Sophie from Sinclair Lore has said in some recent videos on Elden Ring that its sometimes more helpfull to think of Elden Ring as a science fiction story rather than fantasy, and this video makes me agree with her all the more.

the weird sound in the background at 0:10 made me think my computers fans were freaking out

i have a playlist of your videos that i put on in the background just for the musical choices.

Ah Alberich, my first *"Vigor Check"* moment of the game.

But perhaps we could still have a LITTLE blood magic? As a treat? 👉👈🥺

Although strangely he still has enough presence of mind to bow when he gets summoned, a gesture you can learn by bowing back

Every time I learn more about glintstone I keep expecting Joseph Kucan to show up in the background of a scene just to smirk at the camera.

Alberich the master dwarf of the ring of the niebelung also looked into the primeval current (the river Rhine) and stole a magic ring from there which solidly subsumed him.

I saw Blood and got really excited for a sec

"I am a master of thorn spells, tarnished, beware!" Spams ice spells

Finally we've found the final flavor of Fun Dip. Cherry, Blue Raspberry, and Sour Apple are all accounted for.

Such a cool character. Love the blood sorcery

And here I thought it was just a nod to the Sister Freida boss fight.

It's just unnerving that there's something in the cosmos that cannot be understood by intelligence whatsoever but responds to one's faith and suffering.