The Insane Elden Ring Mushroom Theory EXPLAINED! 

Spread the spores of this theory🍄

''Why is it always... mushroom?''

If this isn't what they intended that'll be crazy. All the imagery makes so much sense with the lore and the meanings. And if it does end up being true that will also be crazy that mushrooms inspired them to make Elden Ring.

Remember the moment of realisation in Bloodborne that this game isn't just about werewolves and beasts? Now it turns out Elden Ring has this 'iceberg' moment too, but it was so hidden and convoluted it took a few months to just start thinking about this hah... I wonder if these Cosmic Shrooms make a good Skooma 🤔

"why is it always mushroom"

What they’re starting to understand about mushrooms is that they act as a natural neural network for trees. The crucible was here before, the Erdtree mearly grafted with it and bore fruit. The fruit of fungus.

I started this video very skeptical, but ended up feeling pretty convinced on a lot of the points you made. The mycelial network and the way Godwyn is upsetting it, the ancestors worshipping decomposition, the prevalence of mushroom growths connected to the scarlet rot, and the explanation for the little shrooms next to the npc ghosts are all great observations. I wouldn't say Elden Ring is "about mushrooms", and I think some of your points are reaching a little bit, but considering the amount of floral imagery like trees and flowers in Elden Ring I am now convinced that the imagery of fungi is an important part of this theme which has gone largely overlooked by the community

I love how you keep finding more and more evidence to build into this. It's absolutely fantastic. I would stress that I don't think the story of Elden Ring is literally about mushrooms. But I do think that the mushroom imagery is deliberately intended to structure the goings on. It's all a huge visual metaphor to allow us to see and understand what is happening as the Outer Gods war amongst themselves just as the demi-gods do. It gives us the how and why to go along with the what, and really brings the entire Outer God aspect of the story into focus. Which, I believe, also fuels the parallel and rhyming main plot with Marika/Radagon and company.

I love this, whenever I saw mushrooms I always thought it was the world trying to change, decomposing into something new, mushrooms are such a cool thing and are almost alien

and here's me thinking there wasn't 'mushroom' to speculate with in elden ring, glad we got such a 'fungi' to explain it too us. I'll see myself out

The creator of this theory will be on Joe Rogans podcast next week

I'm glad to see this theory get more credence. The Ancestor Spirit had glowing growths on its antlers which look a lot like the Xylaria fungus that grows on dead logs. Not sure yet but I would put some money on Astel having some correlation as well. There could even be some deeper understanding of what happened in Caelid if the fungal component of the environment was deduced. The large fungal disks on the ground remind me of apothecia from Lichen which is a symbiotic relationship between fungus and algae. Maybe the red rot is actually reg algae and the fungal growths are natural balancing of trying to contain and repurpose the death into a life source. In Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne there's also a lot of fungal representation. DS 3 has the corpse of Dusk, the fungus in the depths of the chaos ruins, growing on the consumed king, the hard growths on the Ghru. Bloodborne seems to have alien fungus in connection with the great ones. Perhaps these fungal connections have more importance that just flavor additions.

A whole video on Mushroom theory, you must be a fungi at parties

Every other explanation of Elden Ring I've seen (though good) are pretty much different variations of the same thing. This explanation however was an exceptional example of out of the box thinking backed by solid evidence. Bravo!! I especially liked the part where even Ronnie's appearance was that of a particular mushroom. I never would have caught that.

I’ve been waiting a long time for this one. THANK YOU!!!!

"This place is kinda...Juicy" - Jack Black (Pick of Destiny) 🍄

As a biology student who loves mushrooms, and writes down an own fantasy universe where metaphysics is connected to mushrooms, I love this theory so much.

Another interesting think is Marika. There is a type of fungus that infects ants and uses its Mycelium to pilot the body back to the nest, then release the spores, causing the rest of the nest to become infected. This could be similar to Marika calling the Tarnished back to the lands between, being forced by the Greater Will to call them back for nutrients

In Souls, we had the fire as an allegory for death and rebirth. We know from interviews that the tree is the central motif for Elden Ring's cyclical ages, and that metaphor seems to extend to all botanical beings! I'm so amazed by the depth of research that went into crafting this world, and even more so by the research you did to analyze it! Fromsoft RU-vidrs truly are modern art historians :D

You nailed it with this theory, dude. Wonderful job. The parts regarding the jars and the gold infecting the original tree blew my mind.

Glad to start my day with this ER Lore video! Thanks Ziostorm.

I think my theory is best. They took a bunch of meta ideas and applied them loosely with some sprinkles of highly detailed lore connecting everything together like the stitches in a quilt. This lets you fill in the space between with theories and gives them room to work with thematically and lorewise, they could have nothing done, no ideas storyboarded or anything for the dlc and could totally use the theory crafter youtubers as a resource for ideas for new content and you'd never know you were the dog wagging the tail.

Dude the first video had me 70% on board with you, but the further evidence and explanation of this video made me a true believer. You’re the mushroom apostle. And damn observant.

I would like to see more added to this theory. Theres more characters and things that I think could have been inspired by fungi. Such as; Yura, Godfrey while Serosh is on him, Radahn with his long red mane, Godrick, The scions, Renala, the horns on the omen. Theres thousands of types of fungi so I know they take all kinds of interesting shapes.

Mushroom time

I recently watched a video called "What was the first fingus" by History of the Earth and they talk about the multiple interesting things that can add to this theory, but what blew my mind is the first fungus' were just giant stems sticking high out of the earth and an illustration used in the video when they describe it looks very similar to the many erdtree like "stems" we see in the Elden Beast arena. Just thought you might like to know that and possibly look into it deeper.

“It’s better to be a warrior in the garden than a Gardner in a war”-Tarnished

The outer gods feeding on people’s souls/runes sounds a lot like the Legacy of Kain games.

Great theory, and it makes sense since Martin is just an old hippy.

Glad you remade this with more depth. Been a supporter of this since your first vid about it.

honestly i had a sneaking suspicion about all the different types of mushrooms. so creative and interesting. fromsoft really has set the bar in the cosmos with this game

I'm GRRM's ASOIAF series, the weirwood trees have tons of mushroom symbolism. They're white with red tops, they produce a hallucinogenic substance, and it seems likely that they don't grow like actual trees but sprout up from the ground. So on that front at least it's very plausible similar themes went into elden ring

That kinda explains how marika and radagon could have children too, since fungi reproduce by spreading spores and both of "their" kids had something in common with mushrooms, one spreads it and the other grows equivalent of the erdtree, whis is a fungi

The trapped spirits being surrounded by mushrooms is what convinced me. First time I saw them I thought it was weird, but figured it'd make sense later and forgot about it. Felt like a brick when you reminded me of them

The metroid music somehow seems appropriate for deep mushroom lore.

maybe its not directly about mushrooms, but i can certainly see the parallels and influence. honestly, i love this theory.

Thanks you for your dedication to this idea for so long. This is amazing. I love it! I don’t think you’re crazy; there’s definitely intent behind all the evidence from the game you presented. Excellent work.

Lets let the mushrooms 🍄 take effect as we watch this....TOOGETHAAAAAA

I love the mushroom theory. It makes so much sense. Even the ghosts you find everywhere have little mushrooms on the ground around them. Elden Ring has an Alice in Wonderland-esque feel to it with the turtle pope and talking jars; the fact that everything might be related to mushrooms just adds to that.

I love how you keep expanding on this. This was amazing to think about.

I think this makes sense. In some instances I don't think the devs went so deep with it (like the explanation for the placement of the lake of rot) but I think this is part of the inspiration for the world and lore.

Vaatividea been real quiet since this dropped…

Mushroom ahead in short, mushroom ahead

I heard the first video the day you released it. To this day, this is my favorite theory!

Amazing video man!

Wow, awesome video man, makes more sense than almost anything out there, and i'm subbed to almost every lore channel lul. Paul Stamets would be proud of this video :)

Been loving these videos, this reminds me I'd seen a translator delve into what they believed Empyrean were, and they came to the conclusion that they were all budded off from an original parent. Radagon's Icon depicts plantlife branching from him that is found in other Golden Order artwork, each Empyrean is associated with a specific flower save for Ranni (who may instead be the mushroom here). I can definitely see all this imagery being deliberate, that's just the type of writer Miyazaki is. Love the tie-in of the Outer Gods to decomposition methods, it also made me realize that much like Souls 4 Lords+an obscured 5th, 4 major Lords of Cinder and an obscure 5th in Ludleth, we have 4 major named Outer Gods and then a 5th (the unnamed Outer God served by the Twinbird). I wonder what's going on there, I've seen people speculate that last Outer God is Death itself but that seems tenuous at best, but given it IS associated with Death at the least it may play into the DLC's spiritual connotations.

I'm not fully convinced that every outer god is related to mushrooms, such as the crystlellians god, or the ancient dragons and The One Great but, you have undoubtedly convinced me that mushrooms play a much larger role for the greater will and the frenzied flame than I realized. Also, your garden analogy was very interesting and made me view some things in a new light, I especially liked how you linked character and ability designs to real life mushrooms..

Hands down convinced. I have always been a HUGE lover of mushrooms and fungus, and I found this all FASCINATING!!! Thank you so much for this video Zio!!! I thoroughly enjoyed it. BTW Are you a Twitch streamer? I swear I've seen streamer footage in a previous video

This is an epic theory that spent months on the making. Incredibly satisfying to see it reach its full potential

I've been won over, Zio. All hail the mushroom theory!

it really explains everything, very good video! :3

WOW... Had me at Mushrooms. Excellent theorizing and speculation. You my friend, now have a spanking new subscriber. Looking forward to more Elden Ring content.

Makes sense. I imagine the game developers try to find something, like mushrooms and decay, to be the foundation of their story-worldbuilding. Gives them something concrete that they can refer back to, makes the writing easier and faster. For a game like this, where one person, even one committee, would be hard-pressed to write everything... it would help a lot to have something as concrete as mushrooms to have staff refer back to, to keep everything at least somewhat consistent.

-Wait, is it all a mushroom? -Always have been

That Metroid Prime music caught me off guard. Awesome video bro

The natural biological relationship between organisms is a simbiosis - parasitism or "infections" are much rarer. Simbiosis creates a beneficial outcome for both parties. In fact, humans are a perfect simbiosis of viruses and bacteria and therefore illness is NOT what we've been told. But after these last 3 years, I can see how most people do not understand basic Biology... ;-)

Incredible take, I love this. Ive been looking into possible connections between Astel and Miquella, and this sparked something :)

It... Surprisingly makes sense

not related to the video but I saw a really cool theory that I see few people talking about and maybe it could be a good video: the theory is about Melina being the gloam eyed queen, it explains her motivations really well, she wants to deliver destine death or indiscriminate death as called by her in the game, to Marika and all eternal gods, not because they're gods but because they're avoiding death, and she as the queen of death would probably be someone that enforces the destined death. And there's a lot of reasons why she would be her, first of her eye in the frenzy ending appears to be a very expecific and out of place violet that could be interpreted as gloam, and she's called gloam *eyed* queen, not gloam eyes queen which would explain why her other eye isn't gloam, nad she's also called dusk eyed queen so her "normal" eye could be the dusk one which isn't a big stretch for what dusk means. Another point to be made is that this would explain how she's friends with Ranni (something rare on lands between) but for some reason doesn't work with her, since her motives do not match anymore. And on the topic of her wanting to kill eternal gods make sense with both the " I will deliver indiscriminate death, I'm prepared to commit a cardinal sin" (I don't have the perfect dialogue but you know which one it is) and when she says on the frenzy flame cutscene "I'm gonna deliver what is yours" because you become a avatar/eternal god. This also explains some less important things; why she fight's like a black knive; how she isn't blinded on the marked eye and why that didn't line up with frenzy theories, it's because it's not frenzy that's pretty much a seal that represents she losing destined death and her eye, the mark is a claw and it represents gurranq who gives you an strange death eye, and that's why on the cutscene the mark becomes a scar. anyway I recommend you search for it on Reddit since this is just a really simplified version of it.

Dude you definitely blew my mind with this one! Some crazy observations and realizations that I probably would have never tied together! Thank you for putting out such creative and original content!

Thanks for the reupload

I never knew there was a mushroom for Ranni or Malenia

This is such a cool theory. Deserves way more views.

I a m fully convinced. Best theory I've heard yet! 10/10, amazing theory crafting!

Rewatching as I really love this theory. Not only interesting as lore but also as a philosophically idea to the universe

As for outer gods I think You missed one: The outer god of Death with its envoy Twinbird and messengers Deathbirds and Deathritebirds ;)

I can safely say I have learnt more about fungi from your videos than I did at school! All jokes aside, if this was not intended as part of the lore, it's a REALLY big coincidence. Great vid once again :)

Another interesting detail is that Rennala's Amber Egg has a bunch of tiny white orbs with stems inside it. Those white orbs look very similar to Didymium sp, which is a type of slime mold.

This is up there with the Bloodborne eye parasite theory. I'm with you 100% on this one lol

One thing that always confused me... what happens after Erdtree burial... do people come back ? through rebirth? With intact memories?

Best Elden Rung theory, by far.

I just posted your video on reddit in the community for more views on this theory. Its really a dope theory.

Fun Fact regarding the Fungal Nature of the 2 Fingers: There is a type of shroom that grows on tree trunks called "Oreja de Palo" (I don´t know the proper english name and I ain´t googling it) But it roughly translate to "Wooden Ear" Thats because the mushroom wich grows in kinda ear shaped on the tree but if you take it out of the tree (essentialy killing it) after about a day it will dry out and harden like iron wood. So there´s a real life presedent for the fingers turning woodlike when killed. Final fact. People use to draw or write on the shrooms while they are still freshly harvested so that once it hardens the mesagge or drawing will remain there forever if cared for properly

I can absolutely see this as a sound theory. Kegare and the clearing of it (or failing to) is a theme running throughout the game, I think. Kegare is the defilement and impurity one gets through being in contact with death/decomposition, the impurity of childbirth (both parents), blood, rape and so on. It is not enough to cleanse only one aspect - all must be cleansed and cleared. All of the Lands Between are wrought with kegare in some form or other and the mushrooms are the primary marker of that. It is a world where parasitic outer gods both create and thrive on kegare. Except the Frenzy Flame - that alone is the one that seeks to burn/cleanse it all away. The more I look into this (and into alchemy) the only ending that seems to give real hope is the one that burns/clears the way for a new construct that is pure and untouched by kegare.

The scarlet rot is said to be itself an outer god, and there might be some truth to that. The rot acts like a sort of fungi, consuming other living organisms and growing spores to expand and consume more, hence the giant flowers in swamp of aeonia and the haligtree, and the scarlet bloom when Malenia ascends to godhood. She and the scarlet rot seem to draw inspiration from Princess Kushana and the Sea of Rot from studio ghibli's Nausicaa of the valley of the wind, in that movie the rot, despite being lethal to humans, also allows for new life to grow.

In regards to that theory, it matches with a concept within alchemy called putrefaction, and one of the earliest steps in forming the Philosopher's Stone.

This video deserves more views; a brilliant theory and I'm "rooting" for it to be true but even if it isn't - I'm with you on this my guy!

I have been thinking of this theory the last couple of days and it seems a lot of the world building fits. Of all the creatures FromSoft could have put underground next to the Lake of Rot, they chose ants.. and not any ants! ants that are pretty much identical to the Attini ants. Attini ants are known to cultivate Agaricaceae mushrooms underground and fittingly in Elden ring, the ants are found with mountains of corpses right next to the Lake of Rot. Also there's alot of parallels between the Frenzied Flame and the "Ophiocordyceps unilateralis" mushroom. The Ophiocordyceps unilateralis mushroom infects small insects and makes them go "mad". Eventually as the infection progresses the musroom will make the insect find a high place where it will submit to the infection and the mushroom will grow out of the insects body and spread its spores to the surroundings. Fittingly the frenzied flame villages are only found at high places like on top of mountains, towering over the surrounding land.

Holy shit, I’m shocked but surprisingly a lot of this adds up you hell of a theory! Also I always thought Ronni’s hat looked like the indigo mushroom to and underneath the hat it even kinda looks like mushroom gills.

Loving these lore video's

PRAISE THE MUSHROOMS!!!!!! Omg you really blew my mind with the link to the "stars" in the Eternal Cities! I can't believe I didn't think of that one! As a fungi enthusiast who's been doing my own research for more of these connections, I can confidently say you've definitely nailed it with this theory. Fantastic work!

I'm liking this theory more and more.

Honestly. You nailed it. G.R.R. Martin would be proud

The Elden Beast is the mycelial network in the lands between. He enters the stage by gaining power from the decaying corpse of Radagon where he is surrounded by arch trees glowing in the same golden color, and his body is made of a ton of strands and branches. A few of his a attacks have the branches on his back stretch up towards the trees and send out spores. Love your theory and consider it canon. I can totally picture Martin and Miyazaki imagining a final boss fight where the first boss you killed is devoured by a fungus and then you have to fight that creature.

You could say the gold that is surrounding the capital as what happens when plants are having their nutrients sapped. as the chlorophyll leaves the plant the leaves turn red then orange then yellow then eventually brown. since this is the land closest to the erdtree it makes sense that it's where you see the greatest effect. Food for thought.

3:29 The frenzied flame doesn’t want to burn everything down to start everything anew it wants to end life permanently and return everything to the one great. No more fractures no more births

I started watching with skepticism, but this is a very valid theory. Great video dude 🤙

I don't think the old tree was infected by fungi, but by an invasive vine species. Ficcus trees such as banyans are parasitic, and grow around a host tree, sapping their nutrients, until it eventually dies, and the ficcus forms a tree in its place. While they aren't identical to the Erdtree, there's a few species of ficcus that resemble the Erdtree when fully grown. One species of ficcus is called the strangler fig, and it is famous for the patterns it forms as it grows over it's host tree and eventually replacing it. These patterns can form nearly perfect lattice weave patterns, remarkably similar to the symbol closest associated with Radagon. The plant parts often seen as flower stamen similar to those of the Miranda flowers on the Radagon Icon are also similar in appearance of inflorescence, grown by ficus vines prior to them establishing roots. Even in this video, we see the vines growing up the tree, the highest reaches being the only places where the gold has not spread yet, but this is where the vines are seen growing towards. Then there's the many trees and roots depicted as almost rope-like, twisting around each other, as well as the minor Erdtrees, which look like they are infested with vines and sickly as a result, a common side effect of having their nutrients sucked away by parasitic creeping vines. Then there's other vines like Kudzu, which only produce fruit if they are growing from a tree or other structure, with some seeds being yellow, not unlike the golden seeds. The Erdtree was originally thought to not produce seeds as it was "perfect," but perhaps these seeds were not produced by the tree, but by the golden vines growing over it. It would also explain how there's a door leading directly to the centre of the tree, and how it can be hollow inside yet still alive. The vines grew on the tree and strangled the life from it, eventually forming an imitation of a proper tree trunk while having a hollow centre as the original tree decomposes and is consumed by the vines. Might also be why the Erdtree and minor Erdtrees have all stopped absorbing the dead, the vines having fully taken over and killed the host, which up until that point had been continuing to absorb nutrients with its roots that ultimately fed the vines

Now, all we need is a DLC to further expand on this theory.

Awesome video! Glad it's back up. Elden Ring is so theme-forward (as opposed to narrative or realism), that I think it's fair to say there is more than one meaning to everything in the game. No one theory can explain everything, and the game can be "about" decomposition, and alchemy, and free will, etc - all at once. Suffice to say, I think you're on to something, and it's not incompatible with other theories about the game.

The idea that it's a territory war for decomposition is fascinating and makes a ton of sense. The whole point of having mushrooms is the same as Celtic Mythology's tree symbol which is a symbol for recycling in nature. Rot and making room for new life in a symbiotic relationship. It's super cool to see these concepts become factions in a belief system conflict which would tie it back into mythology. The mushroom throughout history has been an amazing catalyst for influencing belief systems with its mind bending and hallucinogenic properties. Pscilocybin was widely used in shamanic practices for thousands of years all across the globe. I'm positive that's why it's linked to the belief systems at play in this game, and how it represents the recycling of the natural order of things. It's the most natural way for a cycle to begin with the coming of a new age for the faction that decidedly comes out on top by the time of the next Elden Lord. Many could agree that this game is about mushrooms, but reason they are there is to mark the point in the cycle of life where a fallen Kingdom is rebirthed and begins to rise again. The point of this game, quite eloquently put in its marketing, is to rise. From a state of stagnance and rot, to the flow of water that springs new life. This is why it's about mythologies and philosophy as well. They are all talking about the same thing. Rise, Tarnished. Ye dead who yet live.

Didn't expect mushroom

From Soft had some good lemon tek while writing the lore ... always in love with shrooms, so this is fantastic!

The thumbnail for this video is top tier, I laughed my ass off.

This is surprisingly coherent!

Great video :)

Even though we know little about the true extent of George RR Martin's involvement in the lore's writing (apart from what he said recently: he wrote thousands of years of history from a starting point of the "game's present" he was given), it behooves us to point out that according to many prominent analyzers of the Song of Ice and Fire's world, space fungus and specifically its relationship with souls and spirits is central. As in, the weirwood trees are thought to be one impossibly gigantic organism (appear as trees but are in fact fungi) that can be tapped into to access "magic", they might have come to into the world "from outside", and they feed on/took over the spirits of the dead (perhaps assimilating them into a network of sorts). This has some side effects, for instance the possibility of skinchanging, green sight, etc. There are also other entities tied to or in opposition of this, like the fiery entity that fell out of the sky and spawned the Dragons as well as taps into the power of blood (now called Rh'llor), or the cold, vengeful entity related to the Others/White Walkers that spreads into the dead, reanimating them for its own purposes. You could go on and on. It all sounds very familiar to anyone delving into Elden Ring lore, right?

This level of detail is more than we deserve. Thank you so much Hidetaka Miyazaki and fromsoft. These games are more than just “video games” this is undeniable art and extremely high level art at that.

Hands down my favorite theory now