Story Trailer for Shadow of the Erdtree is AMAZING 

The figure with long hair that appeared at the beginning is Marika , proof is the arm rings worn by her and i think she was standing between what was the start of the erdtree before it became golden and shining

Most confusing lore in the video was figuring out how the phase 2 timer worked

Symbolism - She stands at the gateway of Blasphemy with stolen strands to create her Golden Order, and so too, was the Shadow born. Everything "good" she attempted to do, actually created an equal "evil". This goes along with what my theory has been, and what the game has been screaming at us in whispers....Marika was either incredibly stupid, vain, or pure evil...or all of the above. So, Miquella abandoned everything, even his Fate (St. Trina), but his Disciples, or the Disciples of the Light, continue on in his stead. Will you walk with them? Or, will you continue on your path of killing ANYONE and EVERYONE that was involved with Marika's reign. Perhaps, once again, we will get to choose our ending. Though...becoming Eldon Lord seems to have been of minor consequence, since literally nothing changes...and no one even recognizes you as the Elden Lord passed the ending. Either way...Messmer staring down that Lion Beast was awesome AF This entire thing was EPIC

To me, the scene at the start is Marika's ascension and where she became the vessel for the elden ring. Which would imply that the body she is taking the strands from (which to me look like rune arcs so it could be part of the elden ring) is the previous god whether that is Plaxidussax's god or the GEQ (the flesh looked kinda godskin like to me). I think what this trailer is showing is that Marika's ascension was more bloody and violent than we first think and that in order to create the appearance of perfection and order, she concealed all traces of a war "that could never be put to song" which included Messmer, who seemingly lead the purge.

I’m starting to think Marika is more Griffith than Miquella is…

miquellas great rune is prolly our sites of grace

In the beginning is probably Queen Merika, how she commited some sort of Seduction and Betrayal- and affair from wich gold was born.. and the golden strings she is ripping out and holding up are most likely the Eldenring somehow.

I’m the lord of Chaos…so we won’t following anyone we be burning this realm to the ground.

as people have pointed out. the person at the beginning is wearing the same bracelet as marika, so its probably her.

What if the new leveling system is based on his strength That's how you level up by collecting his strength

I feel sad for Malenia.. apparently if miquella gave up everything, his will, his flesh his fate. That means he had no intentions of coming back to the Lands between and Malenia could’ve been sitting at the haligtree for who knows how long if the tarnished didn’t show up.

miquellas rune is going to be our grace / bonfire

Yeah, that music towards the end was fantastic. Looking forward to hearing the full track.

The first scene is obviously marika The last scene is probably the tarnished Npcs that miyazaki talked about These characters are some of the ones we saw in the gameplay trailer Miyazaki said that there are other tarnished who are following Miquella's footsteps These guys must be the tarnished he talked about

Aight so here's my take: Miquella and St. Trina were twins born from an affair between Marika and an unknown god who resided in The Land of Shadow. "The seduction, and the betrayal" - "An affair from which gold arose (Miquella) - And so too was shadow born (St. Trina)" In order to cover up this affair, Marika concealed The Land of Shadow, and tasked Messmer - the eldest son of Radagon and Marika - with exterminating its people. The exact reasons for the affair and the cover-up arent immedietly clear, but Marika being power-hungery and doing something crazy isn't too far fetched imo. The opening scene I believe shows the birth of Miquella and St. Trina, the hair pulled from the corpse of the fallen god could be the rune with which they were born. Partly supporting this is that all children of Radagon have red hair - except Miquella. Everything further is more speculative, and under the assumption that the majority of this occured before the sealing of the rune of death, and true formation of The Golden Order. It is possible that St. Trina was against the formation of The Golden Order, and became The Gloam-Eyed Queen - wielding the rune of death to oppose The Golden Order. However, after her defeat by Maliketh, she fled to The Land of Shadow and was more or less erased from The Lands Between. (Loosely supported by conceptual parallels between Sleep and Death, as well as the vulnerability of Godskins to sleep.) Furthermore, given many similarities, I speculate that Melina is either the daughter of St. Trina, or a fragment of St. Trina - but not St. Trina herself. (perhaps similar to how Millicent is to Malenia) Finally, I think Marika is the BIG big bad - much worse than we think - and Radagon/The Greater Will oppose the Tarnished at the end of the game primarily to prevent her from gaining freedom and causing more destruction, rather than just trying to cling to control. Furthermore, Radagon may have fused with Marika in an attempt to control her/keep her from doing more damage after becoming aware of how evil she actually is. Speculation TL;DR: Miquella and St. Trina are twins born from an affair Marika had with an unknown god in The Land of Shadow. Messmer was tasked by Marika to help cover up the affair by leading a war to exterminate the people of the land of shadow. St. Trina is/was The Gloam-Eyed Queen, thus explaining her disapearance from The Lands Between. Marika is super evil.

That’s Queen marika in the beginning

My take is that when Marika (the person at the beginning of the trailer) arose to godhood two possibilities occurred. The first possibility is that her ascension spilt the world in two (The Lands Between and The Land of Shadows) either by natural means or by her power, that she locked away parts of the world she didn’t want. The second possibility is that when she ascended, a new mirror dimension was formed for whatever reason, like how Termina is a parallel world to Hyrule or something like that. Either way, the Lands of Shadows was then besieged by Messmer so that he could rule over it like Marika did in The Lands Between. So it seems that Miquella found out about Messmer being a tyrant so he gave up everything he had, his body, his power, even his side hussle as St. Trina, to put a stop to him.

Wait, an affair from which gold was born(godwyn)

When Marika holds up those golden strands, I can't stop to think that this is what becomes the Erdtree... Look at how the pillars of skinned death look like the trunk of the Erdtree and the gap in between looks like the middle of the part of the tree where the golden shine has faded and the cut-in that we enter when fighting Radagon...

Heads impaled on Spikes... Oh GRRM, you cad.

The corpse that Marika took the strands from looks similar to the godskin and the surrounding skinned corpses adds to it be the GEQ.

1:29 It Almost Looks Like A Gate To Me!!! There’s Gloam Sky In One World And It’s Like The Corpses Are Opening A Door To Another Realm, One With Golden Light

That looks like Morgott on the stairs. His tattered cloak, and I think you can see the horns. As for the tree, the golden "wound" almost looks like the Unalloyed Needle. The way the veil is hanging, as well, reminds me of Merika's Bedchamber

The music playing during the start of the trailer is an altered version of Elden Beast

IMO, the scene in the "flesh landscape" depicts the exact moment, Marika became a god.

I think what's interesting with the opening with Marika, is the object she's pulling these hairs out of, reminiscent of godskin - perhaps having some relation to the Gloam-Eyed Queen?

All the arms and flesh remind me of Rykards sword.

Gold that rose = Godwyn and Shadow was born = mesmer

Is heavily implied that the whole war thing started BEFORE Miquella went to the Shadow Realm. So that person in the beginning is probably Marika, other than the body not looking like a child's. (Also same bracelets and arm band). About the debris, you can kinda see it becoming/forming part of the Shadow Three.

The black debris floating up from the city at 1:40-1:45 looks the same as the black stuff floating in the Divine Towers

Here are some of my thoughts about the trailer. 1. When the narrator states " and so to was shadow born" could allude to not only the creation of the golden order but also the creation of maliketh as it was stated before in the main game that the plucking of desitned death brought about the golden order and marika needed a vessel to place destined death. Maliketh is also her shadow. 2. It could also mean the weaving together of the elden ring from the strands of grace and runes that marika joined together. 3. The betrayal could be a coup d etat that marika instigated to brought forth a war that will lead to alot of death and bloodshed needed to offer up to the formation of the erde tree or its creation. She may have had to isolate true death to propagate the cycle of rebirth via the erde tree. 4. The lion dancer seems to be a symbol of the crucible because of its physical traits. Marika like she did before orchestrated a genocide to put forth the necessary ingridients to put her plan into fruition.

the gameplay trailer had Miquella 'skeptics' speaking, the cinematic trailer had Miquella 'believers' speaking

To me, that at the beginning is Marika victorious over the Gloam Eyed Queen. We see gloam colour on the side when she poses with the golden threads. The womb thing looks fiber-y and it looks like godskin cloth to me

Maybe that’s why we can only interact with malena at sites of grace, because she is Miquella and they are his sites of grace, so it’s the only way she can communicate with us from the shadow realm

Maybe he is trying to rebuild Godwin with the gold strands being his hair

Additional note: If this is a birthing ritual we see in the beginning it could be similar to the one that Daedicar partook in. Both would have resulted in red snake children, Rya and Messmer, so there might be something there.

You think Marika taking those strands from that being could be her taking the guidance of grace from someone?

the thing at the start the hand goes in looks like the godskin swaddling cloth imo the bit at the start of climbing steps made from body's very griffith as well

The lion dancer isnt the aggressor in that shot. Messmer is laying waste to the old order the crucible. So the lion is just fighting back to stop him. I think anyway. Also i think the betrayal is Marika seducing impregnating thr gloam eyed queen as Radagon and she used that baby to create the golden order using those gilden hairs shes taking out of the pregnant belly. In the last trailer the woman in the painting was pregnant. Could be Marika has a tein sje betrayed to. Since twins run in families and she herself created Miquella and Melania.

I feel the cutscene shows the amount of people sacrificed to seek an audience with the greater will . Looks like a ritual . Somewhat akin to bloodborne in seeking audience with the greatOnes. The bodies the blood and the betrayal. The order was built on blood and lies

4:35 exactly who I thought of when I saw it.

Thats markia pulling the stands and holding them up. I think she did a Griffith like sacrifice. Look at all the skinned bodies. The lands between where born of blood.

June is going to be a wild month. Can’t wait.

I think St Trina is the result of him abandoning his fate and also explains why we never meet her. She's probably literally asleep in the shadowlands and only able to extend her spiritual body (Malenia) out into the lands between

You better stream it all day when it comes out

Yay I look forward to your ER vods. Good stuff man

I think it's Messmer in the first shot before he got his powers stealing his strength and powers from Miquella. This would also explain why Miquella would lose everything and depart from the land of the shadow. OR MIQUELLA IS MESSMER

10:31 “this looks nice” 💀

Pretty sure this dlc is confirming that Marika is pure evil. After all, Gideon did uncover that she wanted everyone to suffer unto eternity.

I feel like the beginning shot with the blood and hands is what when first enter the shadow realm I think it would be cool to touch his hand, blood spills from it, it pools under us like the mogh fight and we just fall through.

Its mostly Marika depicted, her story and how the shadow realm was created from the strands that were ripped out of whatever that cocoon thing is.

Just a random theory, maybe Radagon was the god in the lands of shadow, the reason messmer has red hair and the reason he almost had no backstory where he came from in ER

Helphens steeple description proves the dying into the shadowlands theory. "The lamplight is similar to grace in appearance, only it is said that it can only be seen by those who met their death in battle"

"war unseen" could mean that it was seen but nobody's left to have... seen it? It's different from "war not seen"?

I think it's Marika in the beginning.

Theory 1: Merika was the gloam eyed queen before she became a god because the beginning it looks like she is shedding her skin and the godskin want to replicate that transformation, with the apostles somewhat transformed and the nobles to be more transformed (with their tail). This happens @1:07 Theory 2: Hoarah Loux died and was resurrected in the veiled world. because he is the only character in the intro we do not see until the tree is burned. @1:55 is when he died I think.

The beginning shot is of Merika for sure and IMO it looks like the bodies that are piled up are being used to form the great tree and might be the beginning of Merika's golden order because you see the golden light in the center and the dark sky on either side of the tower of bodies that I believe become the great tree.

Just had a thought that I don't think I've heard anyone mention before. What if Miquella and Ranni are the same instead of Melina or whoever else could be. They both divested themselves of their flesh and severed their connection to their imposed fates. It would make what was done to Godwyn all the more dirty, but would also explain even more so why Miquella would want to bring him back. If the one who was talking was Miquella, it does sound a bit like a young male version of Ranni too. Miquella and Marika, Ranni and Radagon 🤔

I bet that group of people around Miquella's rune are probably lost and we have to help guide them to that spot....maybe who knows lol

i think you might be right about it being miquella dripping from the tree, the sap or whatever has that double helix shape to it

The corpse at the beginning make me think of the Godskinners and how they would hunt people down to kill and skin them. None of the corpse look to have skin on that scene. There is also the gloam esc clouds with the purplish hue and the probable timing that this is depicting Marika's accession, that the Gloam Eyed Queen is either part of that scene, or maybe it's the woman holding that spiral spear looking weapon similar to those from Mohg's palace. Also going with the lines that Gold was born, but so to was Shadow, I think what happened is that the Lands Between were created, and the previous lands BECAME the land of shadow I'm still not entirely sure that Messmer is Marika's son, thought he probably is, he could be a brother, and him referencing "mother" could be to someone else, perhaps they are the children of the Gloam Eyed Queen, and Marika stole those strands of grace or gold from the queen, or from someone that looks pregnant. Either way, as a ploy for a power grab from whoever the god is at that specific moment. also not sure if that Markia we see here is female or male but they don't show so we won't know until we play. I think that's intentional and maybe related to Miquella also having that potential shift. For all we know, maybe crossing between realms in certain ways gender-bends someone (doubt it'll happen to us for whatever reason).

I believe the person at the beginning is marika do to the arm bands

that's Marika, not Miquella

Is Miquella breaking pieces of his rune off to bring light / life to the areas we see them in? Kind of sacrificing pieces of himself along the way?

Ahh....thank goodness. I was waiting for you!!!

if you freeze it at 9:03 Marika and the person holding the hair strands has the same armbands and bracelets on, I assume that is Marika and not Miquella.

7:43 the cloud over the tree is the same cloud in the middle of the base game map

Any one else think the Giants in the mountain tops were impaled by Mesmer?

@AtgJake i think what miquella is holding kinda like a reverse rune arc instead of hair, if the land of shadow if like an alternate world, he could be using a upside down rune arc to place his rune things around the land of shadow

IMO gate is "womb/egg". Is the same picture for 100 %

Well I for sure believe the beginning is Queen Marika asending to godhood, maybe even creating or "beginning" the Erdtree, those golden strings are interesting cuz it looks like she made a rune maybe even the elden ring itself from them which means whoever she pulled them from is a nasty powerful being... Gloam-Eyed Queen? ahem ahem

Intro figure is Queen Marika

The arms making up the wall vaguely remind me of the blasphemous blade with the arms reaching out and also Rykard in general

Idk if I have it in me to defeat Messmer, I appall the thought of stripping him of that swagger he’s slapping us mere mortals with 😂 Side note, Godwyn a bastard? Hello? 🤔👀

I believe it is the godskin swaddling cloth that Marika is reaching into. I also believe that based on the voice over and talk of seduction and betrayal that the child is none other than Melina, the child of Marika (possibly as radagon) and the gloam eyed queen. This would explain Melinas one gloam coloured eye and the fact it is for the most part sealed by the beast claw mark due to destined death being confined by Maliketh (which was not the case during the gloam eyed queens rule). This would also explain why Melina thinks of Marika as her mother when she may actually be the 'father’, that's my thoughts anyway!

That's Queen Marika at the beginning. That is her bracelet. Also I think the dead bodies is turning into the Erdtree. That look exactly like the Erdtree entrance.

I'm so hyped now!

9:20 its almost an exact match before you enter erdtree in main game. @ziostorm mentioned he thinks those could be the roots of the erdtree or something like that

Been waiting for your take Jake!!

It’s Marika in the first shot!

mark my wordseveryone of us gonna follow footsteps of Miquela and Melina,whether we like it or not

The person in the first shot is clearly Marika not Miquella. You can see the same spiral bracelet on her in the main game art.

"The seduction and the betrayal. An affair from which gold arose." I'm starting to think Messmer is not a child of Marika and Radagon. Maybe Radagon seduced the woman in the painting and Messmer is their child. I don't think the betrayal happened to Marika. I think we might be seeing her grab a newly born Messmer in the beginning. You might ask why Messmer would be so small that she can pick him up in one hand, well if you look after Marika pulls her hand away from the cloth it reveals what seems to be a stomach. I say Marika could not wait for the birth of this child and killed this woman by c-section so that she could have the "gold" arise (this would cover the Seduction and Betrayal parts). During the shot of her in front of the door it looks as though the gold strands reach out to this door and maybe even open it. If anyone has any clues as to what this may entail lmk!

I wanna know what the lore behind that countdown was 😭

Those are our new sites of grace.

Isnt that Marika and the origin of Lands between and Lands of Shadow at the FIRST SCENE OF THE TRAILER? That doesnt look like a child but a woman.

So the beginning has to be Marika becoming a God? Right?!

Miyazaki cooks and everyone eats

Whoever gives me the bigger sword

GamePlus | The alchemist had a cool vid drawing similarity between Griffith and Merika. So maybe the Elden Beast is like the GodHand, and Merika sacrificed the Crucible/Omen age for her rise to power. Was the seduction: her actions with the Crucible Lord.. or was it the Elden Beast's seduction of Merika..

I think if you look closely at the middle figure when mesmer holds his spear aloft, i think that (was) the lion headed figure, as you can see long white hair draping a boxy profile that i think was the mask. Still not sure the sognificance, as when i slowed down the part when you peer in the lions mouth, just saw a square shaped second mask, so was a bit confusing

I think that’s marika and it looks like she pulled miquellas hair from the womb he’s stuck in. But the timeline doesn’t make sense so I’m most likely wrong on that

I think that might be Mohg on the stairs dead.

Bro that’s Marika in the beginning lol. Miquella is a child

HELL YEA

Long time lore theory consumer, first-time lore theory contributor, responding to the call for unhinged, shizo, wacky Shadow of the Erdtree theories. I've decided to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. Here be swaddling cloths, a Marika Gloam Eyed Queen affair, Rune reincarnation and more. And with it all, a new-found appreciation and respect for the great lore channels that have inspired me to put this together. Your time is valuable so I've added a trailer reaction and just a small introspective on what these games mean to me. Enjoy! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AVGs8J-7z2M.html

Miquella will betray the whole group of tarnished

I thought the figure on the stairs dead was a finger reader crone and then the other dead figure was a finger maiden 🤷🏻‍♂️

Ffs I wish Bandai Namco made the seamless coop guy rich and implemented their mod in normal ER

At the beginning the long haired person is actually marika not miquella