I Think I Solved Elden Ring's Biggest Mysteries (Some of Them) 

Yes, I messed up the "Miquella built the divine gate." He obviously didn't. He merely used it. My apologies. And by Omen, I meant "hornsent".

Maybe Messmer was supposed to merge with the God-devouring Serpent. Maybe Messmer was kept from it by his prolonged crusade . The Serpent might've needed a host or Rykard might've snatched the opportunity. The Serpent might've impressed upon him the urge of merging and family, in an attempt to get back to his destined host. Elden Ring has a lot of destinies denied, this could line up with the Serpent not having its intended host. This requires a few assumptions so take it with a grain of salt.

Miyazaki has been training us to be occultists this whole time.

I think you're on the right track about the serpents. Messmer's existence has confused a lot of people re: where his conquest fits in the overall timeline. He has red hair like Radagon, his name begins with M, just like the rest of the children of Radagon+Marika; alongside Gaius he acted as an "older brother" to Radahn so he predates the coupling of Radagon and Rennala, yet there's no mention of fathers at all in anything surrounding Messmer. Although Marika is noted to have had bastards before, I think it's pretty telling that parentage is never mentioned for Messmer when it is for literally every other demigod we know of.. except Melina, his little sister who also dreamed of fire. In speaking of his little sister Melina, suspected of being the Gloam-Eyed Queen, it's notable that the Godskin apostles, her disciples, also have snake features. The Godskin noble (Fatboy) has a serpent's tail and the Godskin apostle (Slim) stretches out and moves like the manserpents in Gelmir. Melina (at least as the GEQ), like Messmer, also has fire and serpent symbology. The Godslayer's Greatsword also has the helix design. So, why is it that both Messmer and Melina have "dreams of fire" and serpent imagery, and are the only demigod siblings unaccounted for in terms of parentage? What is the "original sin" characters keep talking about? Maybe it's the genocide of the Hornsent, but in the trailer we hear the phrase "the seduction and the betrayal" whilst Marika takes something thready and golden from what looks like the head of a serpent-like creature ("Shorn of light"). There are plenty of allusions here to the Garden of Eden, in which a snake sent from Satan tempts Eve into breaking the laws of God. My crackpot theory is that the father of Messmer and Melina was this serpent, and she later betrayed it to get whatever that golden substance was, apparently necessary for her ascent to godhood. Consequently, if your theory about the base serpent and the god-devouring serpent being two halves of the same whole, the god-devouring serpent being "an ancient traitor to the Erdtree" makes sense, if Marika betrayed and slew its other half it would have every reason to act against it. anyways, loved the video, and love that someone else is looking at this game from an occult/alchemical perspective. Earned a like and a sub from me!

I think the God-Devouring Serpent is a reference to Nidhogg rather than Mercury. Nidhogg is a serpent who gnaws the roots of Yggdrasil representing a threat to the current order of cosmos and lives in/near Náströnd, the realm where the "guilty" are punished. EDIT: Just to make it clear, the connection between Náströnd and the Volcano Manor is because Rykard was a justicar/inquisitor under the Golden Order who brutally punished the guilty, also the hall on Nàströnd is described as a horrifying place with walls made of writhing snakes that continually spew venom. Another piece of evidence I've just discovered is in the Taker's Cameo, which depicts hands creeping on a corpse on the left (Nidhogg is said to eat/torture corpses in Hel) and two snake heads with their fangs pointed at a tree-like symbol, which I believe could be either the Crucible or the Erdtree but either way reminds me a LOT of Nidhogg's most classic depiction.

You mistook Miquella using the divine gate to become a god with Marika ACTUALLY making the gate. In the story trailer we see it red, fleshy, moist and fresh. Most likely she used the same principle as the jar ritual to do it to the hornsent in vengance for her tribe. Did she become a god there, somehow gaining power enough to bring the attention of the golden order to herself? is that how she got in contact into it? or did she do it already a god and she only used the door to separate the lands between from the shadowlands? That i'm not sure. Some options are more likely than others, but i am not certain of any. But by the time Miquella used the gate, it was already hardened an calcified.

9:17 The DLC does give a hint to the origins to quicksilver but it's from the giant coffins that washed on shore in the Cerulean Coast near Saint Trina. Item descriptions tell us these silvery beings came from these coffins. They're the living blood of whatever was resting inside of those giant coffins that washed up on the shores from god knows where.

One very sad day, a frail and aged Miyazaki will be asked, "who was Gwyn?" Miyazaki slowly whispers, "The lore was very basic, I let 'The Community" (The Greater Will" write all the details". He starts laughing with his last breath Umbasa...

In regards to the snakeskin, is it not possible that Bonny Village was where Marika forced the rune-eye onto Messmer to hold back his abyssal serpent? In other words, the snake skin might be there to illustrate the point when Messmer tried to-or was forced to try to-shed his serpent.

Maybe the snake skin in Bonny Village was shed by Marika. Perhaps the shroud shape behind many of Marika's statues is supposed to represent the same shed snake skin, and that Marika was Mercurius before being subjected to the Jar Ritual to become a saint. Her braided hair may act as a caduceus symbol of sorts. Perhaps Messmir was Marika's first born after adopting her human saint form and so took on her former snake form as a curse. Melina likewise seems to have a bodiless curse, which may illustrate the void counterpart of Mercurius. In the end Marika needed Radagon to act as a literal trellises for her newly depleted state.

I’ve been watching your videos for years. Think I’ve seen them all. Just want to say I love how much your sense of humor has started coming through more with your comfort and confidence in your videos growing. It’s great. You’re an awesome creator and your videos are all awesome. Big fan. Got me through some rough times.

My personal theory for the Snake Skin in Bonny Village is that it belonged to the Gloam Eyed Queen, who I presume is a Shaman and a Serpent. This would explain the Godskins obsession with forcefully shedding the skin of others, aswell as their stretchy bodies and smooth tails. This also would explain why that one Spiritcaller Snail can summon Godskins and has the Swaddling Cloth, since the "Snail" is a shelled snake.

The serpent skin was left behind close to where the "Oh, Mother" gesture is, you need this gesture to access the shaman village, so i think the shed skin belonged to Messmer, who left a statue to commemorate the killing of his mother's people and then used that as a secret (and sentimental) key to guard his mother's former home.

I think the serpent skin we find in Bonny village IS Eigley…it’s clear that Rykard became a fanatical follower of Messmer-not his devotion to Marika, but his deeds and legacy. Even if one of Rykard’s reasoning was to impress Tanith, I think your onto something here! Marika clearly tried to exorcise Messmer-I think this is how we got Eigley, but like Rykard says ‘a serpent never dies’, thus why she sealed its remainder inside Messmer. Just like Marika or more importantly Radagon’s shell is possessed by the Elden beast-you can see its left arm, and once destroying his body the beast comes out to fight. I think Eigley is a literal product of Messmer and why Rykard chose to worship it and feed it with his own flesh and great rune. Trying to revive its power (he believes this is why Messmer is so successful in his crusades) to devour the gods-essentially wanting to have the same accomplishments of Messmer/Marika over the Hornsent/Omen, dragons, beasts, everyone. If Mercurious or the Crucible is a union, Marika tore that union into what we Biology majors call Order, (Kingdom, Phylum, Order, Class, etc.) where we get Eigley, and his much smaller infant skin in Bonny village. Everything in this game is trying to return to this Cambrian state of nature, where as Marika (and humans) want order or control over life/death and every being to be in it’s designated class and species. Why the Frenzied flame is so obsessed with ‘burning all that divides and distinguishes’. It literally wants Cambrian life or none at all. Which is super fitting to me, because I don’t think of frenzy as madness or insanity as much as I see it as loss and grief; all trauma (especially repeated) eventually leads to psychosis. Revenge is an obsession/fire until it’s accomplished, then what’s left? Deeper grief, because now instead of anger there is STILL only pain and loss.

Yo! I know lore searches and theory crafting can be tedious sometimes, so I just wanted to comment to remind you about the larval tears & specifically, something you cited as evidence because I think it will help you on your quest to solving this part of the lore. First one was Boc; He can't transform mate. We give him an offer of a larval tear to go find renalla so she can rebirth him a sweeting. He can't just transform. Conversely though! how this can still apply to your point, and where you might be able to go search for lore regarding this - is when we find him, he is a bush! And he tells us that he was punished , and kicked out , and *they* turned him into a bush as a punishment. So perhaps *there* is somewhere to look for more transformative powers. Second one is the origins of larval tears; Larval Tear Item Description; "An exceptionally rare creature that burgeons from spiritgraves and lives only a fleeting existence. Neither flesh nor spirit, but something in between. Material required by the amber egg cradled by Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon, to birth people anew. Being born anew allows the reallocation of attributes boosted by leveling up." (burgeons means to grow from, so we know already where they come from.) However! Renalla can use these to rebirth anything! but is cursed to rebirth only impure beings. (unless we use the great rune of the unborn, which looks eerily similar to miquella and malenias rune just saying ;)) We know now though, this is because of the current form of the elden ring denies the ability to be truly rebirthed or truly die to *be* reborn. I've come to the conclusion that these larval tears are direct allegories / and foreshadowing to the concept of needing to be reborn in order to actually change the fundamental principles of life/the elden ring & the ability to reform your purpose as a godly figure too. Alot of the fundamentals of life in game (lore) revolve around whether or not you can properly rebirth, and how successful you are at it haha. Just like we discover at the end of the game, when we can't actually fulfil Melinas wishes and return anything back to the elden ring like she wanted us to- we can only create new principles on top of the existing ones, "mend" it. we can't remove anything, or mold it at all. And even if Marika could have, the elden beast rips her opportunity away from her to divest the last piece of herself that wouldn't let go (Radgaon) to even try to be reborn. So we'll never know if Marika could have been reborn after we kill radagon haha. sorry Marika but I digress lol. We can't alter the pre-existing because we would need to first be reborn - just like how with the larval tears, without the rune of the unborn we'd be forced to be born impure and unchanging. This is what Miquella discovers too, needing to journey to the land of shadows- he needed to reconvene there to be reborn properly, by killing off pieces of himself properly in order to reconnect the concept of death back into order- for one , to be reborn but also to rebirth radahn. He couldn't do either, without returning back to the ways of the old elden ring and adding death and rebirth back into the moshpit. This is also why I heavily believe & theorize that Marika couldn't divest herself of her flesh by killing pieces of herself, since death was removed - so she had to "birth" them off of herself instead. and Miquella tried, and failed too - which is where that journey really started . But anyways love the video! keep them coming! Hope I was able to actually help & didn't just sound stupid or annoying to ya lol maybe I made sense? who knows lmfao Much love yo👊

If the hornsent meant Marika to be an expression of the serpent/void form, it makes you wonder if Mesmer inherited that form. Which would explain Marika's fear of him, and add twisted irony to the hornsent being executed by him

The snake skin could have some quite literal meanings. The ecdysis, es the shedding is called, serves purposes as to get rid of parasites and to allow growth. This may sound a bit far-fetched, and I most likely am totally wrong, but what if they are all snakes? Gods change shapes all the time, we know that from many mythologies. What if the skin near' Bonny Village is Marikas very own skin, where she got rid of something worn, renewed herself so to say, or got rid of something? Perhaps the curved fabric seen on all the statues behind her is not fabric, but snake skin.

I absolute love your deep educated thoughts on games, and have been excited to hear more thoughts on Elden Ring and you did not disappoint. As a thought in the story trailer Marika is show with a serpent bracelet never seen in game, or the 3 styles of statues of her. I think it is very likely she had involvement with the serpent god (mercurius to coin you). I think the Horsent were stumbling in the dark with their jar experiments, but lucked out with a combination of factors with Marika.

2:48 first thing I thought of is the statue in Enir Elim of two cloaked figures standing face to face, one tall and the other short, being pushed together by spiraling horns that wrap around them. As for "the serpent shorn of light" I believe we see this occur in the dlc story trailer when Marika pulls long golden threads from the large eye of what looks like a pale serpents head, "the seduction and the betrayal" Marika then uses those threads to seemingly "open" the gate and attain godhood. "An affair from which Gold arose. And so too was shadow born." The game does emphasize the importance of eyes and how the light of grace/gold resides in the eye, exemplified by the golden rune items we pick up.

The nox weren't only trying to make a lord, they also tried to make a new moon. Resulting in the living boulders we find rolling around, which themselves are shown to be able to produce silver tears

7:40 Mimic Tear's description says thay they are attempts of the Nox at creating their Lord of Night.

the base serpent being half of the abyssal snake god makes a lot of sense and explains why marika sealed messmer away, not out of shame but rather to keep the world devouring serpent at bay.

One point: by Omen, Max likely means hornsent.

interesting that all of radagon and marika children have a red/white dichotomy. melina with her pinkish hair, messmer with his serpents, and miquella and malenia being gounterparts as well.

The red king/white queen archetype explains why Miquella chose Radahn, Miquella being the “white queen” and Radahn being the red king in a perfect mirror of Marika’s ascension to godhood.

15:24 I’m 100% sure because this is where we pick up the “oh mother” emote that the skin of the snake was just what Messmer himself shed since it’s not even a small walk away from it. So he like came here, was sad, shed his skin, then went to the statue and begged for the warmth of its love.

As someone that tried to track influense on bloodborne beasthood strains and map it to different old ones I think similar things can potentially be done with outer gods and and crucible or similar mutations. In bloodborne I mapped: Cleric/stag beasts - Ebritas Goat beasts - "the old lords" fire wielding old one(s) that wants to minimise contact between mortals and gods and therefore refuses to give us fire powers. Horse beasts, only known example Ludwig - the Moon Presence. Ludwig grew extra legs and the Moon presence tears of one leg of both Gherman and you to prevent you from degenerating in the same way. Dark and Silver beasts - Mother Kos. She is the only old one with lightning powers and darkbests can live on in undeath like Kos does as a corpse. Similarly you can map some mutations to outer gods: Insect mutations - The god of Rot Paws turning into hands - The greater will and Metyr One source of horns - the formless mother. However there are many animal themes that don't have easy to isolate origins or outer gods but snake/serpent mutations can be seen in four places: 1. Mixed crucible mutations. In both missbegotten and crucible knight incantation aspect of the crucible tail can get serpent/lizard tails but this says little about that specific mutation since it is mixed in with the other crucible elements. 2. Rykards man serpents. 3. The godskins. They nobles have snake tails and the apostles have stretchy snake waists. 4. Messmer. Messmer, the man serpents and the godskins all have fire powers. If we assume that just like destined death is black and red, the black flame was also black and red before being sealed then their flames have similar color. Unsealed blackflame, Messmers serpent fire and Rykards rancor are all black and red. Also note that the source of the blackflame is the gloam eyed queens godslayer greatsword which has a spiral or potentially cadeceus form. The thing that makes researching this so difficult is that we know so little about the Gloam Eyed queen. We don't know who she was or when she was killed (or sealed away) by Maliketh. Further from clues from the vulcano manor we can suspect that Rykards job in the golden order with his mansion full of secret doors leading to torture dungeons was to stamp out herecy and forbidden lore. So while he preserved and gathered some serpent lore it seems that he also helped the golden order to erase the history of serpent worship. The losers were erased by the victors so we know very little about them. I don't really have any big conclusions to reach but I am hopping that these connections I have found could be of use.

I think the Giant’s Forge, that made all of the ruins, also used bodies to build stone at incredible rate to make incredible things because the population was so huge. A Cataclysmic event, like a meteor crashing into where SOTE used to be, would explain all of the magma slag on the sides of the divine towers. -Assuming a lot of inhabitants would be melted into a raw material

I definitely think you’re on to something with the swirling snakes. It’s obvious that swirls and braids were a symbol of divinity to the Hornsent (their architecture, their armor, Marika’s belt and hairstyle after reaching godhood, etc.). And there is also a statue of a man and woman being joined together by swirls in a similar nature as your red king and white queen example. So much of this just…fits! I love it.

Miyazaki reads western IRL lore, I wouldnt be surprised if he put it all together like this on purpose

🤔 given the many Egyptian sounding locations in the DLC, I had assumed the Abyssal Serpent was a reference to Apophis - the God of annihilation that Ra had to battle each night.

There's a youtuber named kitetales that has a theory about Marika that also coincides with the snake skin in Bonny village, I HIGHLY suggest you check it out!

If snakes are supposed to represent mercury, then maybe the snake skin in Bonny Village is a hint the villagers used bits (or possibly the venom) of a great serpent in their jar rituals. Considering Radagon's hair color, they could've also used parts from a giant.

I think its interesting that you can see how the descendants of Marika would use those different aspects of their mercurial malleability- there is a direct throughline to grafting, or how Rykard knew he would survive being devoured. My gut is that when Marika discovered a second self within, she gave birth to the serpent, who is himself Messmer (as his second phase reveals its not just that the serpent is sealed inside him, its that the serpent IS him). While I tend to think Eglay is another serpent altogether, perhaps Rykard learned from a survivor of Ranah (or some other means) of his lost brother and blasphemous lineage, and came to understand his lineage.

Volcano manor not only has tons of serpent related imagery also the spiral is present everywhere, but with a harsh or rough texture to ir compared to the spirals in the buildings in the dlc

This is exactly the stuff I have been searching to watch. You did an awesome job, in script and production. Thank you.

My personal theory is that when Marika became a god, she gained access to the "godly realm" and their power, however it also opened the way for the gods to gain access to her. She opened a two way door, and the gods used it to curse her entire bloodline and use them as vessels. One does not simply become a god for free

Your channel has quickly become a MUST WATCH for Elden Ring lore fans!! Hoping this video finds the success it deserves and very excited to see the community continue to pull at these threads! Much love Max.

Hey Max, great video as always! I just thought of something. So you know how the first phase of the Rykard fight is "God Devouring Serpent"? And that the cutscene after has Rykard saying "Together we will devour the very gods"? The Spira incantation from the DLC talks about the spirals one day reaching the gods. Perhaps there's a connection here. By moving upwards in a spiral direction, the serpent appears like a pillar that is ascending towards the gods (for some reason the gods are in the sky). Except, it's not trying to have a friendly meeting with them, to worship them. No, it is coming to devour them. Another thing. You know the Godskins? The Apostles and the Nobles? The armor descriptions talk about inhuman physiology. And the Godskin Noble has a long gray tail like a serpent... As for the Apostle, he might not be fat, but he can stretch and bend as if he is a snake. I'm thinking that there's a connection between the Gloam Eyed Queen, the Blackflame and the Serpents. And possibly the Hornsent as well since you see lots of spiral imagery in Belurat and Enir Ilim. I have also been looking through Farum Azula and have found numerous wall decorations of spirals. As I looked through various parts of the city, I realised that I had mistakenly assumed that I would find the very same or at least similar pillars that are found in Belurat and Enir Ilim. The pillars of Farum Azula are primarily just simple normal straight columns. No additions whatsoever. However, there are some that are decorated with corpses of Beastmen, such as in Maliketh's and Placidusax's arenas. The Gloam Eyed Queen, as an Empyrean, was chosen to be the god of the new age. She could have been the chosen candidate before or after Marika. Empyreans on their path to full godhood need 2 things: 1) a shadow, granted to them by the Greater Will, and 2) a consort to serve as Elden Lord. Marika's shadow is Maliketh. Ranni's shadow is Blaidd. Miquella and Malenia do not have wolf shadows. Perhaps they do not need wolves as they have each other. "Blade of Miquella + Hand of Malenia" So who was the GEQ's shadow? Was it Maliketh, before the Greater Will took him away from her and gave him to Marika? Or, perhaps, it wasn't a wolf at all... But her shadow... Perhaps the God Devouring Serpent was her shadow, her helper... However, all shadows have to be chosen by the Greater Will. The Greater Will would never choose a shadow that seeks to devour gods. It's like choosing a murderer to babysit your children. It's completely illogical... But perhaps this God Devouring Serpent wasn't always god devouring... Perhaps it protected the gods and their kin, fought for them... But something changed. And I don't know what that is.

Two things. First. The Bony Village Snake Skin. We know that the Hornsent were attempting to merge Shaman flesh with that of ‘others’ as item descriptions say. Perhaps that snake was one of the ‘others’ in question? Second. Perhaps The Cadusis was once within Mesmer, and as a part of sealing it, Markia broke it and sent her son away from Mount Gelmir (where perhaps he had ruled before the crusade) to separate the Abyssal snake from the Hungry one

Isn't the attention to detail in this game absolutely mind boggling? It's nothing short of a masterpiece of fictional storytelling.

I have a personal theory that I think works with the idea that Eiglay is/was meant to be the Abyssal Serpent's consort. I believe Eiglay is inspired by the Lithuanian folk tale of Egle the Queen of Serpents, where she's the wife of Zilvinas the Grass Snake Prince. While he's referred to as a grass snake, his domain is under the sea, like an abyss. I mainly think this because the names Eiglay and Egle are similar, but also because the end of the story has Egle and her children becoming trees, and snake and tree imagery are featured very prominently throughout all of Elden Ring. Curiously, if you work under the idea that snakes = trees based on that folk tale, then the Scadutree appearing to be two trees intertwined can be seen as a representation of the caduceus. It also fits with the importance of spiral imagery regarding the Crucible. I'm still stewing on the theory to see what other connections can be made, but at least on the surface level, a few different things line up.

I feel like as a community we’re so close to figuring out the puzzle lmao- Their is so much parallel and reference in Volcano Manor to Mesmer, and I’m going insane without understanding the connection. Whether it be winged serpent statues, Belurat Esque Spiral columns, BeluratEsque Effigy under Eiglay Skin? I also refuse to believe that Abyssal Serpent and Abyssal Woods is a coincidence or oversight but I can not fathom any other connection

Also as we're talking about serpents, one of the first shots in the dlc cinematic trailer has Marika pulling out golden threads out of something, that JUST happens to look like a snake's head

Informative as always.

Regarding the shed snake skin in Bonny Village: Considering this is a site tied to both Messmer (Oh Mother gesture nearby) and Marika (the site of her people’s persecution by the Hornsent), and given Messmer’s ‘curse from birth’, I liken the snake’s presence to that of the Biblical serpent of Eden. That is, I think its location and proximity to ‘Oh Mother’ signifies that Marika had dealt with the entity, allowing it purchase within her to be birthed through her son, possibly in exchange for the knowledge or power to usurp divinity. From Rya we know that human/snake pairings can bear offspring. Messmer’s red hair and boss theme subtly point to Radagon as a possible father, but it’s not directly confirmed.

I have a bruise on my leg that's turning yellow.

The corpses used to duplicate the demigod souls are referred to as demigods and Marika's children, that she also hates. Perhaps before Messmer, the corpses in the coffins were the first attempts at a child between Radagon and Marika, but they failed and were killed. In the DLC they are free in the world, but in the base game they are in the Walking Mausoleum, and maybe the Walking Mausoleum bring the corpses into the base game world?

Could the abyssal serpent itself be the original sin mentioned in the remembrance of the impaler? "Yet, having done so, her fear compelled her to secret away her child within the realm of shadow. Hidden away-keeping company with the original sin, and a hatred that would not be confined."

I think theories on the serpents will be the hardest ones to find a solution. On this subject, what, for me, is solid is that the snake skin at Bonny Village really is Miyazaki saying "Eiglay's been here guys...she's connected to the dlc...". I do like the theory that Eiglay is the second half of the dual serpent of mercury, the biggest evidence being the picture in Rykard's throne as you pointed out. Don't think that's coincidence. Also since the launch trailer of the dlc, a lot of people associated Messmer with Rykard due to his strikingly red flame, like in Volcano Manor, and association with snakes. Maybe Rykard was actually a fan of Messmer, or maybe he is just part of the "causality" theme of Berserk and Elden Ring, where things that ocurred in the past have a disposition to occur again in the future with lots of similarities (although this may not be the case since Messmer actually loved Marika and the Order, which was not Rykard's thing. Still, lots of similarities...). I really think this causality theme is quite present, like with (heavily changing the subject by the way) Melina who was the gloam eyed queen, tried to destroy the gods and the order and lost one eye and became a spirit and Ranni, who killed a god to try and change the order, lost one eye and also became a spirit. Past and future repeating with similarities.

I think you're right on the money with this. I've started to consider that the serpent god may have been the god of the Hornsent, and perhaps even the first god of the first Elden Ring that we see in Farum Azula. In this theory the Abyssal Serpent is the god from which the first forms of life began to emerge, the base birthing new life and ruling over with the serpentine cousins of the ancient dragons and Placidusax. But the serpent god fled Placidusax, turning to another Lord as the age of life outgrew him, the same way that Marika did with Godfrey when she replaced him with Radagon. The second lord was the God-Devouring Serpent, a serpent that as it was the consort of the Abyssal Serpent and is likely a Marika/Radagon situation, would mate with the Abyssal Serpent and thus form a spiral symbol and an ouroboros, the perfect symbology for the Hornsent to worship. They coil and devour one another, dying and being reborn from the other, constantly reinvigorating the life around them, and this was why even their children would be fed to it, which is where the Godskins come in, snakelike beings that were in service to a demigod of the Base Serpent the Gloam-Eyed Queen. I think this also explains why Rykard and the God-Devouring Serpent are so opposed to the Erdtree, because Marika killed and stole the Elden Ring from its god and lover. To further connect Placidusax to this, Bayle gives me big Seathe energy, as the first dragon born under new circumstances that turns on the previous dragons, as Bayle seems to be a dragon warped by the Crucible energies that in this case would be the age of the Serpent God and the God-Devouring Serpent. The drakes all have "omen" features, that being extra horns, feathers, more beastial qualities. This also further exemplifies the Christian themings of Marika and her divinity, with her seducing the snake instead of the snake seducing her.

Maybe the Snake skin in Bonney Village might be Eiglay itself, maybe when they are slain they just revive in the Realm of Shadow, and spend time there, devouring and regrowing it's strength until it can be reborn into the Land's Between once more?

Importantly, Larval Tears are also the item that Rennala needs to grant the player a rebirth, or in more standard terms a character respec. Reallocating all the stat points you've gained from leveling. Rennala can also change your character's appearance through rebirth, though that doesn't cost a Tear

Great video. So there is an additional piece of lore that substantiates your quicksilver connection. The albinauric shield item description says: “Tall oval shield made of metal carried by young Albinaurics. The ornamentation represents the primordial drop of dew from which they are said to have been created.” Also I came to similar conclusions regarding the importance of the snake and the connections with the prior orders. My current theory is that the Devouring Serpent may have been a lord/consort capable of being reborn as it was fittingly immortal just like Placidusax but through a different methodology. Eiglay may have been the gloam eyed queen who was the god for the serpent. The betrayal/seduction represents Radagon being used to manipulate the GEQ and the children from that union where Mesmer and Melina, where the snake like aspects and the Gloam eyed aspects were passed on. This would also explain why both children were removed from history. Also why the GEQ’s children (Godskin apostles) have snake/crucible like bodies and also possibly worship at Eiglay’s temple. Alternatively, I think some of your points about that Nox’s plan to make a Lord may reflect why Starscourge Radahn held back the stars. In between his initial assault on Leyndell where he’s repelled by the Fell Omen and his arresting of the stars, he retreats to Sellia and protects it single-handedly. A city with an empty chair crypt fit for a Lord protected by two noxians. I think Starscourge Radahn made a deal with Nox to become their Lord of Night. How this tails into your theory is Radahn’s body triples in size when he becomes Starscourge Radahn with no explanation. His skin changes to a purple, darkish hue. Why? I think the Nox may have pumped his body full of silver tear steroids. Perhaps even melting down the bodies of the alabaster lords that taught him as they are nowhere to be found in Sellia. This would enhance his strength and gravity prowess.

7:51 so the Hornsent and the Omen seem to be distinct from each other in some manner. We see the average example of a hornsent all throughout the DLC and the mostly just resemble humans with slight horngrowth on their head, which is very different from the much more consistently bulky omens. Plus the lore consistently makes the distinction between them. It's like calling someone from Leyndell a Liurnian just because they're both human.

A peculiar thing to note - During Messmer's second phase, his snake form looks to be in the midst of shedding its skin.

I keep thinking that the snakeskin in Bonnie Village is the shed skin of the Serpent who Marika took as her consort on her rise to Godhood but is seen betraying in the DLC opening when she steals his ..gold threads? This Serpent started telling everyone what happened after it manages to resurrect itself somehow and becomes known as the Blasphemous Serpent because everyone in her realm loves Marika. It might have been created as a Saint of the Hornsent as well

Everything points towards the snake skin just being mesmer's. It's clear he IS the base serpent in phase two of his boss fight, the snake skin in bonny village is the same color, it's found right next to the 'o mother' gesture, a clear allusion to his cutscene dialogue, and bonny village itself is quite possibly the entire reason mesmer is in the lands of shadow to begin with. That gesture opens a secret passage in HIS castle that goes to his mother's home village, allegedly. He probably was just down in bony village checking stuff out and learned about what they did to his mum, had to take a quick #2 then shed his skin. Y'know. Snake problems.

I think the Twinbird concept is the caduceus reference.

Moxi Watts's recent video on the links between the frenzied flame and Dionysis have sent me on the wildest of goose chases. Not to waste your time with a ramble but the dig into Dionysis got me to the Orphic stories. Orphic history starts with the Orphic egg, a primordial egg surrounded by a serpent protector. The egg hatches and different versions of the story have different gods emerge but the most common is Phanes, roughly translated as the bringer of light. Supposedly Phanes then begets Nix (night) and between them they bear the children of Uranus and Gaia/ sky and earth. Sometimes Nix is first, followed by Phanes, sometimes they are born together from the egg. All of this sounds a lot like the tetractys of the decad, which emerges from the monad.

Some people love Elden Ring for the lore, some for the gameplay... some of us just memorize Igon's speech

so much great lore content here on YT lately. First Ziostorms new mushroom video and now this. wonderful!

Occam’s razor, the skin is probably from Messmer’s snake, since it’s the only snake actually cited in the DLC. I don’t think it’s Rykard’s snake because if it is the ancient god worshipped at Mt Gelmir, it would be odd for its skin to still be around in the Shadow Realm.

So we know that outer gods love messing with marika’s children. The rot god coming for malenia with the curse of rot, the deathbird god coming for godwyn with the curse of living in death, miquella having a curse of his own, melena not being able to take physical form too far away from the erdtree, and the crucible itself giving the omen twins their horns, tails, and wings. So I don’t think that it’s that much of a stretch to assume that like Astel, or the elden beast- both the god devouring serpant and messmer’s base serpant are agents of this serpant god, with neither actually being the god themselves. Also I do find it interesting that the only child who actually got a functioning cure for their curse from Merika was messmer- with malenia and godwyn needing to turn to miquella, and Morgott being forced to make his own blood into a sword.

This makes sense! I've been thinking that the putrescence which leaks out from the stone ship/coffins might be involved in this whole alchemical process, but I'm not sure how. The putrescence is described as "impure life" and "tainted flesh," but also a form of Death which was once burned with Ghostflame, and when used to make Piquebone bolts or arrows, it gives them the exact same effect that Alluring Pots do, and those are made with human bone shards and Albinauric blood clots. Furthermore, there are snakes amongst the carvings lining the stone ships, and that's the only place I've seen any snake iconography in the Shadow Realm that isn't definitively tied to Messmer. So going out on a limb.. what if the old gods who used the forges experimented with the putrescence, and found a way to purify and reform it into living beings? And those beings were the silver-blooded ancient Nox, AKA the Shamans/Numens? The lava slimes in the forge greatly resemble the Silver Tears, the old gods knew how to imbue metal with souls, and the Jar Shamans all have very pale hair, just like Albinaurics. That's what makes Marika's offering of her golden braid to the Shaman grandmother so significant after all, her hair was not naturally or originally gold, because she was the White Queen turned Yellow, right? There's also the big honeypot ants filled with something silvery, who drop Numen runes when killed, as if that's what they were full of- silver Numen blood. And perhaps the Nox are using these ants as jars? That's where they're combining themselves? But that's a bit off track... Ultimately, I feel like the Abyssal Serpent may have always been something lurking within the Shamans, if indeed they come from the putrescence. Perhaps that's what got them condemned as "impure" to begin with, wherever they came from.

Here's my theory: in the time of the old Elden Ring, just like Marika gave out runes to her children, Placidusax (and/or the God he served) gave out pieces of runes to his children, one of these children is known as the Gloam Eyed Queen who received the rune of death. Another nameless serpent received the rune of life, this is who Marika stole it from to create her age of gold. It mirrors multiple things, first and most obvious, the biblical original sin, but if Marika represents Eve she "seduced" the serpent and not the other way around. It also mimics Gwyn seducing one half of the primordial serpents, Frampt, to continue his age of fire.

I think you simultaneously explained Twin Peaks: the Return.

You forgot of the dragon bodies that compose Farum azula. Great job . Awesome video

I think it’s notably likely that the snakeskin near the village belongs to the God Devouring Serpent, as the GDS having origins linked to Shamans who meld with flesh would explain its ability to meld with someone like Rykard in the way that it did.

One thing that strikes me as odd is the size of the snake skin we see in Bonny Village. there is no snake that we know of that fits that size. I imagine that the snake wasn’t there to be put into the jars, since shedding is a display of vulnerability and wouldn’t have done that if it was frightened. The God-Devouring Serpent was shown as a regular-sized snake in Rykard’s artwork in the intro cutscene. Perhaps the God-Devouring Serpent that consumed Rykard was actually born out of one of the eggs we see in the artwork, its progenitor being much larger. It could be the case that the Abyssal Serpent was simply a free-roaming being before being sealed inside of Messmer, and the shed skin was from a younger form. If it was a martial threat, then it would make sense to seal it. The location of the shed skin is also peculiar. The deeds performed at Bonny Village were obviously not seen as favorable, even by the perpetrators. In that case, the snake would not have been a revered being. The hornsent don’t have any snake imagery in the first place, and if it was a revered being then the shed skin would have likely been closer to the divine gates. Perhaps the intent was to have the snake consume a completed saint, or to get rid of failed jars. If the former case was true, then maybe it really was the God-Devouring Serpent. Another possibility might be that the snake was there to guard the place, and to make sure that no secrets make their way out. One of the commenters here noted that the Abyssal Serpent could have been the Gloam-Eyed Queen’s shadow that is granted to Empyreans. In that case, it would have fulfilled a similar role to Maliketh, as a sort of keeper of secrets.

I finally... FINALLY... beat that final boss last night. I think I ought to take a break from Elden Ring for a little while now 😅 but I'm definitely here for this. Hope you're well, Max! 🌞

The name Eglay is a reference to an actual real world mythological story from the baltic region about a woman named Eglé who get coerced into agreeing to marry a magic talking snake. The snake turns out to be the king of snakes, who takes her to his palace beneath an island in the sea, transforms into the form of a man, and they have 4 children together. Some time later she takes her children to visit their human relatives & Eglé's brothers conspire to murder her snake husband. Her sons refuse to reveal the method of summoning their father, despite being tortured with whips, but her daughter is so terrified that she reveals the secret, & Eglé's brothers are able to summon & murder the snake king. When Eglé discovers that her husband has been killed, in her grief she casts a spell which turns her children & herself into TREES, with the 5 different species having traits which reflect some aspect of their personalities.

With regards to architecture, I think it's important to ask why THEMATICALLY is the tower made of people.

I also wanna bring up that the serpent being in the back of Messmers skull could as well be just where people such as him connect to their God. I believe this is why the Tarnished collect eyes (runes) in order to gain more power, because it is the grace that their own eyes lost (on average I think all the tarnished cannonically have grey/blue eyes.) Hyetta as well says that when she consumes the Shabriri grapes that she can see a faint light in the back of her head, which is why I make this connection. It could as well be why we get higher rune drops from entities with glowing eyes, and how skulls with glowing eyes are the only ones that drop runes. It could also explain why Malenia acquires butterflies in phase 2, even though it’s not indicated it’s possible that when Malenia lost her eyes that the butterflies originated from the back of her eyes through her “faith” or the Form of the Goddess of Rot.

About Rykard merge with the snake going "his way", it might be because he's Marika's (as Radagon) son, and surely has shaman/numen blood in him.

We already have a pretty strong explanation for where the mimic tears come from: starlight of the Eternal Cities. Itself being a remnant of their black moon. It simply doesn't make sense to lump them with the abyssal serpent since there's exactly zero serpent symbolism to be found in the Eternal Cities. Instead, we see the plantlife being turned into mercury by the dew of their starry night. If we have any symbol in the game that should be associated with mercury, it should be the moon. Likely a god in its own right, and able to appear in various forms, powering transformative properties. So why the "abyssal" serpent then? Because we learn that the abyss is a prominent feature of the Greater Will from Ymir's quest. Why is the snake skin near Bonny Village? It's pretty easy to explain with what else we see there. It's the site of the potentates' crimes against Marika's people, and so Messmer would have personally overseen the village burn. The snakeskin tells us he lost control of his serpent while carrying out the deed, but he'd be ashamed of that before the transformation in our fight with him. So he hides the skin in the woods and places an O Mother tribute nearby as penance.

I don't have any theories about the snakeskin, but I do think I have a sort of theory regarding early Numen culture. Basically I think the original Numen were split into a light, dark, and balance/flux aspect of their culture. After arriving in the lands between these aspects became the Nox, Rauh, and Shamans, with the Shamans acting as arbiters between the cultures of light and dark, and all three cultures ultimately following the Greater Will under the guidance of Metyr. I think Iner Ilim was built by one of these early Numen civilizations as an attempt to override Metyr in order to directly contact the Greater Will, or maybe to usurp its power. I believe it to be the Rauh people, mostly because they seem to have built their temples facing the tower. Though it could have also been the Nox, since the towers have their signature stone phantom motif to them.

In the background image of the Golden Braid there is a literal snake made of light, devouring its own tail. Maybe it's just there to represent Marika "the Eternal", but...

For the snake symbol behind the throne in MT Gelmir it's worth noting that Fromsoft almost certainly just researched famous snake iconography for use in the location that's all about snakes. I don't think it has any deeper meaning, sadly.

You know we've never actually seen he gloam eyed queen in game , I've heard people refer to the thing Marika pulls the runes from in the trailer as a snake or a hooded figure , it could be both. What if the gloam eyed queen was actually a snake ? This would explain the attraction to plassidusax as a lord and also the godskins having snake like features. Just a headcanon thought but I'm prolly focusing on the gloam eyes queen too much as I'd love to know more lore about her.

After watching this video, I had a crazy idea. What if the main character of the Souls series of games, the player, is the same Mercury. In each game, the player appears in a rarefied world. Usually the world is destroyed when some character decides to spoil some kind of Unity, namely Order and Chaos. In DS1, Gwyn wanted to prolong the era of Fire. Dark was evil to him. But from the point of view of alchemy, Dark still has potential, opportunity, transformation. The world does not stand still. What once worked won't necessarily work tomorrow. Any fire goes out. What should the hero do? To sort out the mess with your perseverance, courage and attention and make the world a little better, even if he has to destroy the old one. This is the role of Mercury, to look for what is valuable, ideal. Therefore, the canonical end of DS1 is the Dark Lord. In a sense, we can say that the hero is Rebis. He combines Masculine and Feminine traits (we can play as both a man and a woman). As for Eldeng Ring, then...

The one thing that connects them together Max is the Fell God, the Fell God has snake imagery, as well as fire. In the fire monk and Blackflame monk armors the visage and image is of the fell god, the snake imagery can also be found in the giant bowl where the kindling of the fell god was, also it's because of this that we are now able to unseal Destined death from Maliketh and enter Farum Azula which means the dragons themselves are involved in this conspiracy, there is a connection here with the fell god that we are missing as well as the involvement of the fingers, the three fingers and of course the Elden Beast we are missing a key part of their history that showcases the bonds between these beings and how they came to inhabit and chose Marika.

I think Eigley is a serpent that resides in Messemer once but ended up escaping. If he removes the seal on his eye the abyssal serpent emerges. Thing is Messemer is already missing an eye and we just so happen to see a smaller snake skin with no snake in the shadow lands. That said I don’t think it’s a coincidence we find a giant snake hiding away far north in a volcanic mountain

Actually the tapestry behind the Volcano manor throne is not the only one caduceus reference. The Depraved perfumer set also features the caduceus like snake symbol on its surcoat.

There are theories that the snake looking thing that marika pulls the threads out of in the trailer for the dlc is the gloam eye queen, who is an empyrean. Which due to the “O, mother” being close to the snake skin, it could be theorized that similarly to a butterfly’s cacoon marika was reborn as a empyrean via the psudeo-crucible touch of jar sainthood. Shedding the skin of the snake to become a symbol of worship to the hornsent before betraying them. Stripping herself of all the cruible parts of herself to only be later inherited by her children and radagon when she ascended to godhood. With godfrey, the leader of the crucible knights, forming a alliance through marriage to slaughter the hornsent to make the gate of divinity. And being that gloam eye was most likely plax’s empyrean, she probably tried to stop the coup herself since her consort was fighting bayle and ended up as malikath’s chew toy. Which marika removed and repurposed the primordial elden ring from her into something that benefited herself. Plugging up the crucible with the erdtree and removing the rune of death, so marika could hopefully keep safe those she cared about. With the arrival of the elden beast solidifying the new age.

I really think what you just discussed in this video is the definitive link between Messmer, Melina, the Gloam Eyed Queen, and it explains the "Seduction and the Betrayal" committed by Marika.

>watches this >doesn't look at comments >forms my own opinions >never share them >leaves forever

So does this mean that, even though the Nox failed to create their lord of night, they accidently gave rise to the Albinurics? I always wondered why the legs of the Albinurics start fading away.

There are also the entwined snakes on the Depraved Perfumer's Robe.

What if Messmer, design wise, IS a caduceus? After all, as the "Impaler", he himself is surrounded by the two snakes (red and white).

It's a simple and rather base (Ha) thought, but maybe it'd simplify some things if you think of Rykard's "Head" on the God Devouring Serpent as a surrogate, metaphorical second "serpent's head" seeing as how at that point in time he's one with the snake and could be considered a "snake" himself? Just a passing hypothesis that occurred to me is all while listening to the video. (And also said because when Messmer talks about the "Abyssal Serpent, shorn of light" that's actually just a more direct reference to how it was kept at bay/sealed by Marika's bestowal of Grace in the form of the soreseal eye that he crushes mid boss fight.)

The snake in the temple of eiglay is shed skin not a corpse - which is clearer if you look at the whole model and not just the head.

it's connecting the dots about Radagon and Marika aswell.. red king and white queen, maybe Marika got this idea from the experiments in Bonny Village and the Nox experimenting with the quicksilver and thats why she fused with him?

Regarding the snake skin near the Bonny Village. It's an innards vessel, similar to Living Jard and Jar Saints. Think of God-devouring Serpent, it's essentially a snake skin filled with animated human flesh, so are the jars, and so was the snake skin near the Bonny Village. Whether it was feeding on scraps, or was purposefully tended by Potentates is a separate question.

I would like to think just like how miquilla had to shed parts of himself to become a god, Marika had to do the same, shedding parts of herself personified as oddities across the land of shadow. Such as the snake in bonny village.

The fruit of Hermes is my name, I eat myself to keep me tame.

This title has taken note of that young lad with 1k subs who entered the algorithm.., pretty much exact same title

I just assumed the god devouring serpent was Messmers younger sister’s serpent aka Melina or the gloom eyed queen. That would fit the dual snake concept and why gelmir sorceries were made from hexes and her flames being black and god slaying. Plus his golden eye and her gloam eye remind me of the iris of grace and occultation.

At the end of the combination of the king and queen, we obtain gold. This could be Radagon's golden order. Gold is masculine and closed to change. Maybe that's why the giants fire and destined death were sealed. But mercury is open to change and is feminine. So mercury may create a new lord and a new age may come. Larval tear may serve as sperm. So when we combine it with Rennela's egg, we recreate ourselves.

Theory: what if the hornsent succeeded in making a saint by melding marika's body with other people. This could have helped her ascend to godhood and could explain her multiple personalities including Radagon, since it's literally another entity combined inside her.