Shadow of the Erdtree Trailer Analysis - Jack is a Mimic 

Please excuse the video quality, I did not have a lot of time to film and edit this one. A bigger video is in the works!

18:36 something you didnt notice about the fire wickerman. There are 2 faces of fire giants skinned off and attached to his legs. If you zoom in on the wickermans chest, it is filled with both human and dragon bodies, there is a super obvious dragon head sticking out of the right side. Its interesting this boss contains humans,giants and dragons

Limgrave + Weeping Peninsula were originally called Tenebrae Demesne in the Alpha, which can mean "Domain of Shadow". The Baldachin seems like part of a broader metaphor for the Veil of Maya. Also, I think Messmer is a reference to Franz Mesmer/Mesmerism, which made me think of snake charming - Wikipedia mentions Mesmerism being a theory of Animal Magnetism similar to Qigong.

Something small but interesting, the part where Miquella is displaying the Shadow Tree, the Baldachin is gone.

Shadows play such an interesting role in Elden Ring. In the base game they are the names given to the half beast men who are bound to serve Empyrions and ascend them to godhood. They are so intensely linked to that ascension that Blaidd even dies, rather than foresaking Ranni. Now we have shadows in the sense that these are almost the parallels of the characters, places, and creatures we saw in the base game. I wonder if they have maintained that same hunger to god,g ascension. Almost like if their “other half,” so to speak failed in the Lands Between, they are determined to succeed and transform everything into a land of shadow. I cannot wait to see what FromSoft has decided to do with this. It really is almost a sequel, rather than a DLC. We are so spoiled.

Black swordsman sure has his hands full with the DLC, excited to see what content you make from the dlc

your knowlage of this games lore is incredible

9:44 I think that's our new Grace. Like, if we are supposed to follow Miquella's footsteps, it makes sense for new Grace to be a reflection of Miquella's Rune. Also, the character kinda looks like they're sitting, like they sit at a site of Grace.

Jawline could cut glintstone 😅

Nice to hear someone else bring up the possible connection between Messmer and the War of the Giants. Would also explain his hair colour.

The woman was using a pink incantation that either controls your enemy or turns your enemies into allies for a certain amount of time, its the weird pink bewitching branch

I'm of the firm belief that Melina is the sister of Messmer that was killed by him, thus making her "burned and bodiless". Melina is still in the spirit realm due to being killed, which explains why she apparates to speak with you. Miquella, knowing all about the spirit realm, reached out to Melina to deliver Torrent's Whistle to the Tarnished. This also leads into Ranni giving the Tarnished the Spirit Calling Bell. I think Messmer and Melina were the true firstborn demigods to someone other than Godfrey, and both were instrumental in the War against the Giants. Hell, maybe Messmer killing Melina is what made him not appear in any history books. To take it an even more insane leap would be that maybe Marika slept with the Fell God/Giant to birth Melina/Messmer give their proclivites with Fire. And maybe, just maybe the War with the Giants was to usurp power after a disagreement or lust for more power. This is would explain why and how Melina is able to use the Fire of the Giants to burn the Erdtree as well. Man I can't wait to see what this DLC unfolds 😂

I came to a similar conclusion about this land's original connection to the Lands Between after that interview. Its placement as in the center lake is supported by the angle of the Erdtree matched with the center tree of this shadow tree--the Erdtree leans towards southern Liurnia, around Scenic Isle, and the main angle we see this shadow tree at seems just about 90 degrees away from that maximum lean, right around Caelid. In addition, you can see the ancient stone architecture that's embedded into the lands of the base game in a few shots of the trailer, supporting these lands originally being connected. (also that the Dark moon is shown without the shadow tree anywhere near it, and it appears in the east) A couple questions I've had about the idiosyncrasies of the Erdtree were how was it planted, given it's rooted in a sheer cliffface, and why it appears transparent from much of the Lands Between. The Land of Shadow appears to give the perfect ground for the Erdtree to have been planted on and the interviews say as much. As for the translucency, it may have to do with how the Land of Shadow is hidden. The Isolated divine tower is also extremely idiosyncratic: you get to it from a portal on a divine bridge that's ruined and which points in a completely different direction from the tower (and which is slightly longer in Godefroy's siege of Leyndell in the story trailer), it is the only place in the Lands Between where you can see Crumbling Farum Azula, and it is where Malenia's two fingers are, undoubtedly the ones shared with Miquella as is the case for the other twin demigods. Dang, you shook my preconceptions by throwing out that we don't have concrete evidence that Godwyn is Godfrey's son. The channel Garrulous Goldmask speculates that Godwyn was born cursed with the death blight, and the night of the black knives was a scheme to rebirth him without that curse (based on the dialogue of the Deeproot Depths Finger Reader Crone), and that's why the whole deathroot infection happened. also Siofra is pronounced "SHEE-fruh"

I've watched all of your DLC videos in reverse order but I've got to say... I subscribed to your channel on a whim after the Miquella video and since then you've become one of my most worthwile subscriptions in a long time, and a very pleasant surprise. All of the content you've made on the Sun Realm and it's relation to the Crucible, the Beastmen, and so many other subcultures in Elden Ring - that for a long time in lore discussions felt oddly separated - has been one of the most compelling theories I've heard yet, and I really feel like you're onto something. The Crucible has always been one of the most interesting subjects to me, but for a long time was also one of the most strange and obscure, with so little in way of explanation to what it is or does. With the release of this DLC trailer, and the 'renaissance' of Crucible lore, my mind is increasingly blown away by the realisation that the impact of the Crucible era really is present all over the game, potentially linking so many separate factions together under a single massive society that has since been mostly wiped out.

'Kind Miquella' for a boss name, they must have some completely unique mechanic, perhaps the only boss that wins by making you NOT want to kill them. A secret cutscene that plays if you don't initiate any attack?

I loved the analysis! Thank you for the video!

Im hyped af! This will be so crazy!

Luther!?! What a reveal, Hidetonka Michaelzashi has done it again

Love your videos. I really hope your channel takes off more 👍

Just what I was looking for! and super informative as well.

Another great job!

If you look at Messmer's statue that you get with the collector's edition, he stands in the exact same pose cleanrot knights do

Hey man just tuned in for the first time, youre a very smart and well spoken Individual. Glad I found your channel, keep it up the good work!

I don’t know why but I really f with your speculations. Whenever I see your videos I’m always taking this as if it is the real lore behind. I really appreciate your effort making your vids and your capacity to connect every idea. Hope your channel grows big before the dlc drops🙏🏻🙏🏻 shoutout to the erdtree

Great video! Recently found your channel and I love it !

Awesome video! Would love to see a livestream of you exploring Castle Morne and other places for any new discoveries!

Waited for this one, June's gonna be here before we know it 🙏

really awesome analysis and breaktrough

Something I think might be important is the dialogue from the spirit sotting outside the Church of Pligrimige in Weeping Peninsula. "The mausoleum prowls. Cradling the soulless demigod. Oh Marika, Queen Eternal. He is your unwanted child." I feel like this dialogue becomes very interesting in light of Messmer, who is likely the unwanted child the spirit is referring to. Calling him soulless may imply he has some condition that caused Queen Marika to banish him to the Shadow Realm. Following this, the description of the Royal Remains set is also worth consideration. "Helm graced with gold humam bones. It is said that the bones belonged to an ancient lord - the soulles king. The lord of the lost and desperate, who was known as Ensha". Yet another reference to a soulless member of royalty, whose golden bones suggest a relation to Marika somehow. But I don't know what to make of it beyond that, as Ensha is never brought up anywhere else in the game.

For some reason I never got the notification for this upload haha. I was working so much I felt like I came out of a cave. This is my densest video yet I barely scratched the surface. I'll watch the rest of the video the moment my video is done but I can already tell we'll have lots of different takes. Looking forward to it :))

Hands down my favourite take on the trailer so far! Thank you! I notice that you mentioned Nosferatu when taking about the screaming bear goat (that went over my head), which reminded me of the title of Messmer. Of course it makes me think of Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Dracula) whose last name means the son of the dragon. Dracula was held captive by Ottomans as a child to secure his father’s loyalty. He eventually fled and I guess went on to impale. If you find it interesting maybe you could unpack the reference in a future vid! PS finally get the whole sun moon eclipse theory after you spelled it out directly here 😂

The other tree is a strangler fig, and in the deeproot depths you can see the erdtree USED to have a strangler around it once prior. both trees appear to have been burned.

So good to see you stick to making Elden ring content, do you see yourself branching out at all, or will you mostly focus on from software games? Cuz your killing it!

godwyn not being godfreys son is a super interesting concept. maybe the reason godfrey changed his name from hoara loux was to try to make it appear that he was godwyn's true father to hide his true lineage to protect him from something or someone. maybe godwyn was the first of the god-names and godfrey chose his new lordly name to appear to be his father.

34:29 Hey, look, it's the Orphan of Midir!

"When I see this, I think Neon Genesis Evangelion" You definitively have good taste^^ On a side note, it's been a while I'm sure Evangelion is a major influence on Fromsoft games, since Bloodborne. Good analysis, I can't wait for Shadow of the Erdtree !

Really loved this video and have enjoyed your other videos as well! I keep thinking about a comment that Gideon makes when you have the option to tell him about Miquella and he says something to the effect of “so the queen’s sorrow was justified”. And then to find out we are learning about what Miquella is doing in the shadowlands and about Marika’s past. I wonder if this is some motive between them or something that Miquella is trying to fix for Marika….idk, thoughts?

Great ideas, good lenght. I was getting frustrated frpm other people not having those thoughts

HEY The sky behind that castle looks like the sky in Fias Deathbed Dream! The place where you fight Fortissax! I just noticed this because I happen to be fighting Ol' Forty tonight.

Speaking of links between omens and the Sun realm (when you spoke on the giant burning cage monster) made me think of the necklace worn by the Dung Eater… Also, regarding Mesmer The Impaler: I’m not a huge history buff except for when it comes to very specific people and periods (specifically when such historical research has benefited one of my books, or with topics that I found to be particularly fascinating). One of those being the life and times of the real life figure, Vlad “The Impaler” Dracula, Prince of Wallachia. A few notes on this. Vlad Dracul was Dracula’s father. This moniker, ("Vlad the Dragon" in medieval Romanian), was received after he became a member of knights known as the Order of the Dragon. His second son was Vlad III. (Dracula is the Slavonic genitive form of Dracul, and literally translates to “of the Dragon”, but in this case it was given to mean “Son of the Dragon.”) Now, the whole reason I bring this up at all in relation to this video is this: When I reached the Altus Plateau in my very first playthrough of Elden Ring, (which was a blind run, btw) my eyes would often drift over to a particular-looking mountain range in the west with sharp peaks surrounding a castle. Now every time I see a castle standing tall and alone in the midst of a series of mountainous peaks, my first thought is always of Vlad’s Poenari Castle. Once I did some more exploring in the game, I discovered the path to Volcano Manor and realized that the only path to and from this castle was a winding pathway through the mountain range. In real life, the location of Poenari Castle was apparently chosen for the natural defensive positioning it offered. Having only one path to and from the castle made it difficult for invading forces to march to it. So this was one more thing that made me think of Vlad Dracula in relation to Praetor Rykard. THEN, as I continued playing, I started seeing more and more connections to Vlad the Impaler. The revolting acts of torture, of which Dracula was a keen student of (alongside military tactics, and the history of wars fought before his tine) all while growing up under the adoption/ransom of his father’s enemy as a sign of good faith (think Theon Greyjoy being raised with the Starks in Game of Thrones). The evidence of bloody violence that littered the path to the Manor reminded me of the Forest of Corpses. (Over 20,000 impaled, decaying bodies being feasted upon by crows) Then I see this trailer, and the very first details that stand out in my mind upon seeing Mesmer is the combination of both snake and dragon imagery that wad implemented into his character model. It just continues to make me wonder. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this. P.S. My plans for kicking off my own channel have been put on brief hold, due to unforeseen circumstances, but as soon as everything calms down, I will get right back to it. Just FYI, I probably won’t be tackling any extensive lore dives right out of the gate, as I want to familiarize myself with the software I’ll be using first, and like Ontos, I’ve got a few different types of content I’d like to put out there aside from just conversations on gaming lore. I’ll likely wait until after the DLC drops for that though, when myself and the community have had some time to put the pieces together. But rest assured, if I happen to have some grand epiphany that I feel too impatient to hold in, I’ll post a crude video of me just talking into the camera of my phone if I have to! Also, I’m still planning on commenting on your Raya Lucaria video, which I will email to you in the next couple of days. Don’t worry, I promise it won’t be TOO long, lol! Just an idea or two of yours I wanted to highlight, a couple of brief questions I had, and a few compliments on your overall presentation style.

Really great video, i totally agree that miquella is a manipulator, his reference is griffith. It's also possible he is the "true" final boss of the DLC, hence why the cutscene takes place with a different looking sky and tree, because you have essentially been manipulated into reviving him with all the blood that is spilt in the shadow lands.

“They put your mom in the game” 😂😂 bro I did not expect that. Also great video. I think the Boar Sentinel is maybe related to Loretta, his/her armor kinda reminds me of them.

In the relief with the woman the man on the left looks like one of the nobles you see walking around in thr lands between

also that appears to look like the back of a ship behind the fingerprint graves during the scene with the red spinny dance fighter. another piece that reminds me of the whole castle morne/weeping peninsula area!

I have a theory that Marika’s Erdtree seen in the Lands Between is a many purposed illusion. First, makes her and Goldrn Order out to be the good guys. Second, is part of the concealing enchantment of the Land of Shadow. And third, most important, a lure. Marika became a god in the Land of Shadow. When she conquered the Lands Between, she sent her conquering forces, Godwyn and his warriors, back to the Land of Shadow to grow stronger. She adjusts the death rites in the Lands Between to force all life to feed the Erdtree. But we see the Shadow of the Erdtree is one tree being opened and drained by another. I think Marika is draining the Lands Between of grace, transferring it to The Land of Shadow, via the true Erdtree being drained by Marika’s grace stealing shadow. Now Ranni does not want to participate in Marika’s plan to drain life. Miquella, Ranni’s half bro, also is a tad distressed by this draining. I even think at some Marika realized the Holden Order was something very very bad that had taken hold of her in her blind youth. The Night of Black Knives was necessary to sever the Shadow of the Erdtree from the Lands Between. The horror of her actions that lead to all this truly shook Marika, and the cost to fix it was too much but she still played her part alongside Ranni and Miquella. -- There is another place we see the Lord and Queen and Baby reliefs besides Farum Azula. The top corners of the outside of the tower in which Rennala is locked away. You can see them from the tower reached through Academy Crystal Cave, and if you look south of that tower you can see a real neat thing in the sky during the day. -- I suspect that Whicker Man is part of the tempering of the tarnished who Marika exiled to fight and grow stronger. Messmer is serving Marika as coach/instructor to her conquering forces. -- When we see Messmer and that whole “mother blah blah blah” bit, I think it would be neat is that is Miquella speaking about Messmer. As if he is unsure if Messmer is really meeting the standard. Or Messmer referencing Godfrey who is tarnished. -- I also think Messmer is the Fell God of the Flame of Ruin. That flame “can’t be put out” which I think only works out if the source of the fire, the Fell God, is not actually dead. And Messmer, one of Marika’s children, was never her enemy. She commands her children to become lords or gods. And maybe he only played the role of enemy god to strengthen Godfrey and his warriors. But really he is her chosen lord to rule the Land of Shadow in her stead. The thought of Radagon being his father, nope. Messmer is Radagon’s father…. And brother. More gross incestuous yuck stuff.

Per your lion-man observations, Hercules also famously wore a lion cape & is somewhat cognate with Baldur (and shares similar heroic traits with the likes of Godwyn)

you are quickly becoming one of my favourite elden ring channels, keep it up, love your work!

34:11 Lmao dude caught us all off guard 💀💀💀

Jack I’ve been binge watching your videos, I watch a lot of elden ring content…. OH MY GOD can I just say, your videos are truly incredible, from writing and story telling, your knowledge of the game and its lore is inspiring me to Learn every I can about it’s lore! Keep pushing and making these amazing videos! Good things are soon to come for your my friend 🔥 thanks for the videos!

the “lands between” obscures the sun realm from the shadow realm - makes sense

Jack: “whatever sleep butterflies who gives a sheet” Me: 🙋🏼‍♂️🥹 😂

Maybe there was never just one Great Tree, maybe there was always 2. Things often come in 2s in ER, such as Marika and Radagon, Miquella and Melania, Morgot and Mohg, The D Boys (twinned armour to drill it home) Just a fleeting 3am thought. Thoughts?

I think the rune we see in the grass is the dlc's equivalent of grace sites. They're Miquella's breadcrumb trail

perfect video to play in background as I prepare for dlc character. Also regarding dlc, will it be better to level all offensive stats a bit like around 50 so that I can use any weapon I come across

The monster at 19:30 has a face that looks REALLY similar to the sun amulet/medallion on Dung Eaters armor. Maybe he was part of that civilization too?? Like how Fia had to go over, maybe Dung Eater did too. If I’m gonna get really crazy maybe all the named Tarnished from the opening trace their origins back to something in the Shadow Lands? Edit: typos

About Fia, (i havent finished the vid yet) I think point of her story is that she chose Godwyn. Exalted nobles she laid with before were not chosen by her but by the church. More interestlingly, I think, is that she implies that she was chased away from her land because of the grace in her eyes, so like, they didn't like grace/Greater Will/Marika in there Edit: Nvm, you've mentioned the grace thing literally in the next sentence

I made a comment on another channel about how the painting of the woman and the old man, was one of a deathbed companion. Not even a couple minutes in your video you explained the baldakin(sp?) blessing and ties my thoughts together!! And she has her hand in a gesture that indicates she might be pregnant...what would a woman who lies with death give birth to??

27:57 I noticed when I was fighting the Godskin Apostle at Ranni’s divine tower, that their skin is iridescent just like Morgott’s blade

Oh man I love your insight, a lot of interesting hunches! Haven't heard anybody speculate about Marika's parentage yet! What if Messmer's flame IS the flame of the rune of death? It has black and red parts. DD was "sealed away", wasn't it? So was this realm and its inhabitants, since they all seem to love all the anti-erdtree symbols. Maybe DD was sealed away because of the 1st burning of the Erdtree, and the Golden Order was a side-effect of that. In the Frienzy ending of the main game Melina sort of materializes and opens her eye, maybe destroying the Erdtree and the Lands Between frees her of her dream/shadow alter ego Messmer and gets her body back... Idk we're all shooting from the hip here 😅 Edit: Melina having Torrent, and Ranni knowing Torrent, and Torrent being Miquella's steed makes a lot more sense now!! They're all trapped between two worlds

If grace can’t reach the shadowlands I think that ring of light is replacing the sites of grace. I was wondering if it was Miquella’s great rune and it might be fractions of it spread across these lands to aid his “Lord”

I agree Messmer probably fought in the War of the Giants. The Giants are wrapped in thorns and if he does indeed use thorn magic, then that makes sense.

I can’t even sleep in peace

My personal theory is regarding the wickerman type thing. I think it's related to the Fire Giants. The color of the flame more-or-less matches, a lot of the items seem to depict a marginally sympathetic stance towards them (or at least, enough that the playerbase has somewhat taken it and run with it), but their only known allies, the astrologers, became a draconian magocracy whose slower learners are turned into "unpaid interns" at the expense of their wellbeing and whose primary army are literal bandits, and it would fit quite nicely with the more Brythonic themes Elden Ring draws upon for the inspiration behind the fire giants to be the Fomorians (note, the big, evil eye in the middle of the chest of their sole survivor -- likely a nod to Balor). Also the Nuckelavee looking thing with the boomerang is pretty neat.

Great video! I’ve been watching a lot of these trailer breakdowns and I think I like yours the most. You’ve got some good and deep insight into a lot of these things. I had a couple thoughts while watching your video: 1. The old man is impaled with something, maybe Messmer got his title from impaling him? You mentioned that he may have been a follower of the golden order who later rebelled. And only gained his red flame and spear after doing so. 2. A lot of people are trying to relate Messmer with blood flame or even the sin/thorn sorcery. But I can’t shake the fact that his flame is black as well as red. And the only other place we see black and red flame is with the rune of death and the black blade. It doesn’t make any sense to me why he would have destined death though. I dunno, haha just some crazy speculations

Hi Jack. 32:54 it's a roaring omen bear incantation similar to Greyoll's Roar. Perhaps we get a new set of beast incantations similar to dragon communion.

I think the woman in the portrait is Marika before she became a god and the man in the portrait is either a father or consort to Marika

Eastern side of the map, Chinese lion, kung fu, samurais, new katanas per Miyazaki, flowered grass (reeds). Also in imps catacombs, if it is tied to Mesmer, has an erd tree watchdog, which is clearly a meneki neko. Lots of eastern culture hiding in plain sight. We could be seeing the land of reeds.

Another thing possibly connecting castle morne to the shadow lands is that the description of the grafted blade says it comes from a land that mysteriously vanished. Could this be referring to the shadow lands being cloaked by the veil?

You passed over the scene of the jars hanging in the 'tower of rebirth' looking area, personally I think this is the true purpose of the Jars...they are storage units for the humans that will be or were sacrificed for whatever goals miquela or whoever is organizing this plan has. The flesh of the humans for whatever reason is sacrificial, though I dont know enough to give any more thoughts. Also this is a wild theory but the crucible-lion-chinese dragon puppet guy could be an omen child of Marika and Serosh...probably not but you never know, things might get very taboo in this dlc

The cylinder in the lava seems to be an auger that is lifting the lava to a higher location due to the auger is rotating. It also is able to be raised and lowered by the connected chains.

I just had a thought about the wicker golem, with the sun motif with Omen horns. Might explain the Dung Eater and why he has a large sun medallion on his armor? He must remember or has heard of this land?

Anyone forget we burned the ErdTree at the end? Godwyn has a huge role to play in lore here. He may not have been the good guy we are told. Messmer may have tried to burn the original ErdTree and was banished to the shadow realm that he created.

37:19 about your comment on Messmers Flame, it engulfed the land. Notice how leyendell Capital looks as though it was burnt before? This may have been his doing.

The DLC reminds me of The Painted World of Ariamis. Like, entering a character’s realm. Interstice within an interstice

37:03 maybe instead of being a new type of flame it’s just every type of flame combined. The black flame, the blood flame, the frenzied flame, the flame of ruin and dragon flame all merged in an unholy amalgamation of pure destruction

The stuff about Marika's potential father was pretty inspired and insightful. It would be nice to see Marika punishing people who deserve it for once lol. That looks like a fitting punishment if he put a golden rune thing in her, now he's got one too. :D I'm not much a fan of looking too deep into a trailer myself, too many shots in the dark and wild speculations for my tastes. The three things I was willing to take away from the trailer theory wise is Messmer is another child of Marika whose name starts with M (still making Godwyn the outlier), that he's (probably/hopefully) the missing traitor snake, and that he probably started the practice of Dragon Communion (his eye and the snakes in ER as symbols of consuming and taking strength). While you say there isn't anything in game that marks Godwyn as part of the golden lineage. I think its safe to assume Godrick's proper title is Godrick the Golden, Morgott is the only one who still uses it, out of respect for the order and the family if not the man. So I think the title 'the Golden' means Golden lineage. Also that Finger reader calls him a scion of the golden bough (in the japanese I think its just like golden prince) and her file id or something is Godwyn's wet nurse, so she would know ;P

22:12 the flower/sun design looks like the floor from where the grace is at in the elden throne edit: actually theres 5 of them there

Also hello! Lol. Ur doing some gr8 work. Luv your unique perspectives. Maybe the affair and seduction mentioned in the new trailer could have produced mohg and morgott?

Hello, Jack! I've been thinking - could the Evergaols be located in the Land of Shadow? If so, could the rifts located within, described on the Rift Shield, be passageways?

Just thought of something: Maybe Miquella is in the Shadow Land to get Godwyn's soul back as the ritual during the eclipse didn't work out.

Hey Jack, I wanted to point something out that I haven't seen anyone bring up yet. In the main Shadow of the Erdtree promotional image with Messmer sitting on the throne, one of his snakes is clearly making Miquella's Ring's shape, using its body and the shaft of Messmer's spear. I think this is a deliberate detail, and might even point to Messmer either being bewitched by Miquella, or even some alternate (or even real) form of Miquella (although I'm not fully convinced). Miyazaki definitely has a history of using classic tropes, and in this case it would be the "lying serpent". Even his name "Messmer" sounds like "Mesmerized", and Miquella is obviously known to be skilled in making people favorable to him. Even with all of this I'm still inclined to believe that Messmer is his own person, but I think that there has to be some involvement with Miquella. Take a look for yourself, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!

The head of that boomerang thing reminds me of the enemy that drops the mantis blade, can’t think of the name of what they’re called

Regarding the portrait: Marika was born from a single god, as she is an Empyrean. So, the two are not her parents - but maybe one of them is. The women has a similar rob like Worm Face, maybe there is a connection. Also it could be Fia or another Death Bed Companion. The brooch also looks similar to the Watchdog's Staff - which could mean the man in the portrait is the creator of the Imps. Maybe he is into necromancy - also a reason why some pots are alive, as we know remains get stored in them.

Something I haven’t seen discussed is the fact that Mesmer has his left eye closed, like Melina, Ranni’s spirit side, Marika/Radagon, and Mohg. Also worth noting that Rykard has his left eye obscured/destroyed in the opening cutscene where we see the snake eating his head, and after his boss fight where Tanith is eating his remains. Morgott and Ranni’s doll are to my knowledge the only characters where their right eye is obscured. Further, the prisoner starting class has its left eye closed as well. Perhaps this indicates characters with the left eye closed are slaves to some higher force, whereas characters with their right eye closed are masters of their own destiny I.e. Morgott and Ranni. Just spitballing

I think its a pre erdtree crucible / great tree society. I think marika married the god that ruled there, the old man from the trailer. She was a kind of a female elden lord equivilant. She then becomes a god secretly through scheming with the outer will and has messmer with radagon in secret. I think marika performed a coup on behalf of the outer will with the help of messmer. I think messmer is her first demigod child who she hid, manipulated, and trained, until the moment she struck her attack. In this pre golden order society all of the things blasphemous to the erd tree seem to be more acceptable. She had messmer learn all these powerful and corrupting magics to become powerful enough to overthrow the existing order and burn the great tree to make room for the golden order and erdtree. After burning the tree messmer and marika go to the lands between, plant the erdtree and begin to conquer. I think messmer was involved in conquering the giants due to all the impaled bodies there. Messmer being misbegotton with snakes makes me think marika would always use him for her purposes then dispose of him but i believe they have a disagreement. The dialouge makes me think messmer disagreed with the selection of hora loux as elden lord, he came from a barbarian land with no grace. When we find queen marika she is impaled. I believe messmer did this because either marika betrayed him or he became violent over the selection of hora loux. I believe after the impaling, radagon seals messmer away in the shadow where all marikas dirty secrets are hidden. Messmer is sympathetic, a used child discarded as a tool, like sekiro. Noone good throws there children in a sewer and we know that about marika. The golden goddess and the golden order has a tainted past that has all been erased and lied about. Messmer was made out to be a traitor. Thats my take on it so far. I think miquella wants to go back and undo all the mess marika has created. Maybe it was marikas deceit, greed, will to be a god that ruined an order accepting of all aspects, had death, and could cure scarlet rot.

you mentioned about 9-10 minutes in that miquella's rune/ring looks like the cleanrot knights' halo scythe; i noticed recently after watching this that the albinaurics' ripple crescent halberd also looks sonewhat similar to this symbol. i'm curious about your thoughts on this as the albinaurics were known to be searching for the halig tree... it sort of breaks my heart, the idea that they might've been attempting to recreate miquella's symbol or the halo scythe with their silver in their hopes for a safe home

Luther is already my favorite new boss.

Every dlc has a poster child character that looks like the main character and final boss, but then someone else appears at the end. In this dlc miquella and Mesmer seem to be those poster children. But, since they are the ones who are shown off, then there most likely has to be another character who hasn’t been shown off. In my opinion that would probably be godwyn, especially if the shadow erdtrees is connected to the original erdtree, meaning death root would also spread there. Also this person who looks like a carian queen seems to me to be just a representation of what Caria was like before renalla. Just because they were made royalty by her doesn’t mean they couldn’t have been nobility before that, so I think your idea could be plausible. Finally, the thing about the wickerman. I think that was talking about the fire giants, because they’re associated with the beginning of marika’s age, their heads are on its legs, they lost the war, mesmer’s fire looks very similar to the fire in the fell god’s eye on the giants, and as other people have said; there are also dragon’s heads on the sides of its hips (right above each of the giants heads), so it would make sense if they were talking abt general enemies of the erdtree who were defeated. It could also be the sun realm like you said though so idk.

I have long, long thought the absence of more explicit Sun worship in The Lands Between (ofc somewhat replaced by the Erdtree faith, but this just complicates things further) has been very conspicuous. As always, appreciate your thoughts.

Idk if anyone has said it already but what if marika's mother was actually a deadbed companion?

Praise the cat!

The skeleton that is impaled with the golden order looking thing is the same old dude from the painiting in the trailer, also, have not seen anyone mention but he is impaled by this rune looking weapon and the character Messmer is literally dubbed Messmer the Impaler and i dont think Marika has punished this old dude but Messmer did.

How cool it would be if in the shadow lands we meet the oniric projection of the prince of death? "In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."

I just want to point out that we don’t see Mesmer’s lips moving. Unless its been confirmed somewhere that could be Miquella talking to his mother and not Mesmer

The old man looks like Morgott's grandfather.

I think this rune thing is from Messmer! The same form is on a screen shot of the fight aginst him i think!

So the butterflies represent the children of marika and radagon and in the base game there was only 3 but in the dlc we see a four one when using the sleep spell in the trailer which implies relation to st. Trina which is Miquella so the nascent butterfly which mentions a cocoon may not be referring to miquella but rather messmer the impaler as in the cocoon we see a very skinny person inside now we see miquella at the end of the trailer and he looks nothing like that but messmer does as he is real skinny and tall and this may explain why he has blood flame

This guy analyzes a trailer like an archeologist analyzing egyptian artifacts

Tarnished Archeologist believes this to be the past, and I tend to agree. We know the Erdtree has been burned before , Melina also mentions her body is burned before she burns the erdtree for us. There is also the impalers catacombs in the weeping peninsula where the ghost tells you near a walking Masoleum that oh Marika he is your unwanted child. I think Mesmer burned the erdtree in the past , that’s why there is already ash in Leyndeyll and fire is banned.

I think it's more plausible that the DLC takes place in the middle of the map. If you look around the edges of the middle section of the map, it looks as if a huge chunk of land just vanished, and not caused by erosion. Especially if you look at Leyndell, Royal Capital. I just think shadow in this case refers to the area simply being "behind" the Erdtree, Leyndell being in front.