One thing people don't seem to get about Rykard is the fact that him being the second phase of the Serpent is sort of a plot twist. Like, when you first know about Rykard, Gideon tells you that he's a demigod that committed blasphemy. Ok. Then you arrive at Volcano Manor and people tell you he was a great leader. Ambitious as fuck, yes, but a good leader... Until he gave himself up to the Serpent. He's presented as kind of a victim of the mad taint of the god devouring power of that big ass snake. FromSoft likes to play a lot with legendary characters that became prisoners of an out of control force, so at this point Rykard seemed something like that as well. But then you defeat the Serpent, and Rykard takes control. That's when you're supposed to realize that he's no victim, that he's 100% under control. He totally chose that horrifying path and he loves it. Rykard did manage to control the God Devouring Serpent, not the other way around.
I don't think Bernahl was ever planned to be fed to the serpent. He was gifted with the scepter for his loyalty. I think he was one of the few knights/warriors who remained loyal to Volcano manor the entire time.
Same here. I don't think we was ever going to be fed either, tanith knew how valuable and important bernahl was, he fully embodied the recusant spirit. Plus as you said he earned the most valuable rykard artifacts, the septer, and more importantly the blasphemous claw, which seems to indicate that he was entrusted to carry out the will of the manor, should it fall. Bernahl is the man, I got a video coming soon on him
@@TheHonoredMadman"I am Recusant Bernhal, inheritor of my brother's will." His brother here can't be anyone other than Rykard. Your interpetation of Bernhal's purpose is spot on, I think.
@@victorprati7908 No, of course I'm not implying something so preposterous. The word "brother" can be used in a lot of ways, especially when talking about a figurative brotherhood like the Recusants as seen by the chivalrous Bernhal. It's not that uncommon of a connotation for the word and I think this interpetation fits Bernhal's general demeanour and posturing.
I find myself incredibly excited every time I see something new from the Honored Madman, and I just wanted to put forward my weirdly formal appreciation
I propose the substantial range afforded by the serpent-hunter's light blade allowed him to keep a safe distance from the serpent's maw. He may have been incinerated instead of devoured.
Honestly, I think it's fitting that Rykard doesn't have an ending, his entire group just represents stagnation to me. He just kept gathering power whilst already having more than enough power to most likely take down all of Leyndell, I mean the guy stopped leading the organisation himself, that's how little interest he had in the end. So him not having an ending is just kinda symbolic of him missing his chance to carry out his goal after becoming obsessed with his gluttony.
@@TheHonoredMadman Yeah, considering we can summon and get invaded by Bernahl in Farum Azula it could've implied him seeking the rune of death too. I wish he didn't invade us though, it would have been cool for his quest to have a proper ending with actual dialogue and stuff.
Would be cool if Rykard and the snake share the same body with separate personalities taking the helm like the movie split. After the first phase the snake probably said “Rykard, would you do me a solid and take care of this guy?” Rykard “Very well”
Rykard feeding himself to the serpent out of desperation makes tone of sense. He probably believed he could maintain control (which he didn't, at least not entirely). After being eaten his character traits merged with the serpent and became warped, ambition became greed. I also believe that in the beginning the Volcano Manor did worship the Erdtree. Rykard probably wanted to get rid of the serpent cult as an inquisitor, then became interested in their magic and after that fed himself to the serpent
So I mentioned this to you before, but the idea of the alliance of the stars. The reason there's a iron maiden who patrols the redmaine castle, and of course the obvious fact that Ranni and Dick were working together. It leads to the whole idea all three worked together, but after considering it I don't think they were working together. Now this is where the loose timeline comes into effect, I don't think radhan knew anything about Dick or Ranni's plan. Because he was super loyal to the order and loved both radagon and godfrey, I don't think he would have sided with them. I think the events of Radhan and Melania dueling happens before Dick was consumed by the serpent, after mohg kidnaps Melania's brother she follows the trail to caelid. Because Mohg palace is directly under caelid, and would explain why Radhan rose to defend his home to what was to him an invading force. Radhan catches super aids, and the events transpire and I think this is what drives Rykard to bond with the serpent. The woe, suffering, and most of all inability to stop his brother's death lead to him joining with the serpent either to get Melania who was seemingly unstoppable, or to bring ruin to the order that brainwashed his brother and indirectly resulted in Radhan's frontal lobe being a fungal farm. But before he did he sent the iron maiden to defend the home and the followers of his brother, could even explain the godskins honestly with the point you made of their potential connection. It would also explain the noble defending Ranni's tower, since her and Dick are in a allaince and she may want to hide her body. TLDR: Radhan didn't know about his siblings plot, he catches the rot from Melania. His brother Rykard is consumed by the snake because of his grief at inability to guard his brother. Before that happens Ryakrd sends an iron maiden to guard red maine castle, all of this was because I need an explanation for that fucking iron maiden.
jus·ti·ci·ar (Pronounced similarly to Financier) an administrator of justice. a regent and deputy presiding over the court of a Norman or early Plantagenet king of England. either of two supreme judges in medieval Scotland. Essentially, the decider of court matters. Which is interesting when The Golden Order is clearly a theocracy of sorts. His role as justicar could’ve entirely been just intended as a figurehead, giving the illusion of Justice amongst the golden order. He clearly took his job to the Nth degree. Seeing the Order not free from his Justice. And got a little too ambitious. And I love how all that played out for his character
It just occurred to me that Rykard and Orochimaru share a lot in common: two snake people that loooove human trials and experimentation. Plus their thirst for power is insatiable.
I want you to to know…. no, I NEED you to know… You have the best signature intro in all of youtube. The sound of that massive rip always gets me in the lore mindset and it is beautiful.
Rykard is just that one pver ganker who keeps summoning "hero" blues against us, the evil red man who dares use the golden order exploit known as hardswappinh cus it breaks rykards imersion.
I've been trying to express the hype I feel when I load up youtube and see that you've put out another video. But text can only do so much. Thank you brother. I'm typing this while the ads going... 35 mins... I know its a banger.
Did you hear about the Lithuanian Eglė Queen of Serpents myth since making this video? It kinda hints that maybe Tanith is actually connected more to the snake than she is to Richard. She did take his death in stride pretty well. Anyway, I didn't put this next bit together until now, so thanks. The Godskin is at the Temple of Eiglay because he's doing the ritual skin flaying that we see with Daedicar. Or maybe he's there for the snake skin. Hard to say. Either way, it's an interesting connection from serpent to the Gloam-Eyed Queen and the crucible. I wasn't expecting GEQ to have any part in the Shadow of the Erdtree, but now I could totally see her connection.
Mohg was criminally underutilized. He has absolutely ZERO presence until you see the ONE Sanguine Noble in Liurnia and the ONE Sanguine Noble invader in the snow field. For a man trying to raise a dynasty, he has 0 followers, no armies, and generals to have sick fights against.
I think Bernahl of the volcano manner is not the man we meet in the woods of limgrave. I believe it was his brother, who he references in his sacrilegious prayer to the erd tree after rykard is defeated.
My theory is that Radagon/Marika or the embodiment of Loki. Since he has the red hair from the giants making him a giant perhaps. Loki had stolen Sid’s golden hair to wear as a disguise. This could mean Radagon is the actual host and Marika isn’t even real. Loki also had three children in Jormunganr, Fenrir, and Hel. These can be represented as Rykard (the world eating serpent), Rahdan (the giant beast), and Ranni (she had stolen the rune of death) Loki also had two other children that were only known to have been cured to die. Perhaps Miquella and Malenia. Finally Loki turned into a horse and fornicated to birth Sleipnir. Torrent comes from the north lands where the giants live. So perhaps Torrent is a son of Radagon. Meaning Torrent maybe be a demigod.
The poison explodey guys arent peasants, theyre nobles. The peasants wear long poncho-esque robes, often with capes and/or heavy wooden neck gear. The dead albunaurics around the manor are shown wearing the clothes of the peasantry
Not sure if anyone else mentioned this but I'll put it here. I was pretty certain that Rykard's ambition to be eaten by the serpent was to grow to a gargantuan size so that nothing could oppose him. Based on the Devourers Scepter, that weapon depicts a Snake that is devouring the world. I was always under the impression that Rykard's idea of defeating the Erdtree was a dire decision. If the Erdtree and Greater will won't relinquish control then Rykard will let a serpent eat him so it can start to become so big that it will swallow the very lands. I think that's what makes him so Blasphemous. Not only is he opposed to the Golden order, but he is willing to go to such lengths that the entire world would end up in the serpents stomach. Eventually the whole world would just be one singular energy, everyone would be family inside the serpents stomach, nothing would ever die, it would just live in absolute agony. Idk, that's just always what my interpretation was. Also, since he is just hanging out in Volcano manor during the game, its not like Rykard's pressed for time. All he has to do is just grow big enough until he can start to devour the very gods!
im pretty sure radagon and marika are two souls in one body. a mirror to how devin and darien are one soul with two bodies. an unfortunate circumstance of birth as opposed to to a state of their own creation
The only one that could rival him was pontiff sulyvahn from dark souls 3 and we was basically like the main antagonist in that game, he was behind pretty much all of the shit thrown our way. I wanna do a video about him
Hi Madman! Excellent videos, it helped me put some things in order. I think you're spot on on a lot of things, like desperation to win being a key factor in Rykard's decision to feed himself to the Serpent. I'd like to return the favour with some observations, if you're interested. - The birth of the Volcano Manor: I think it's fair to assume that the Volcano Manor itself is older than Rykard's tenure. The architecture matches a lot of pre-Erdtree constructions, while being its own thing. Then, there's its ancient history and the fact that there are Banished Knights banners at the entrance and what seem to be "Greattree" banners from before the Erdtree scattered here and there. - The rebellion of the Volcano Manor: we know that the Serpent was regarded as a traitor to the Erdtree in Godfrey's time, since gladiators bearing its aspect were ritually beaten down by the Crucible Knights in the arenas, to the enjoyment of the masses. Given the relationship between the Godskin Apostles and the Serpent, it might suggest that the Gloam-eyed Queen and Eiglay conspired to burn down the Erdtree in this earliest period of time. After this incident, Marika decided that the only being who could be entrusted with the Rune of Death was Maliketh, since her shadow was literally unable to betray her, unlike her demigod offspring (I'm accepting the theory that Melina was the GEQ and that she rebelled against Marika when she realised that Death wouldn't be part of the new Golden Order when she and Godfrey would finish their conquests, but the GEQ's identity is actually irrelevant for this interpretation to hold up, only her placement in the timeline). - The conquest of the Volcano Manor: I think you're underestimating the Lands Between's polytheistic nature in the Age of the Crucible, between Placidusax's reign and before Marika and Godfrey enforced their own Erdtree monolathry (and later, under Radagon, outright monotheism). Your idea that the Serpent incarnates the Volcano's primal nature was especially illuminating in this contest. I think Godfrey assaulted the Manor, which was previously an ally to the Erdtree, and one of his greatest knights defeated the Serpent with his blade. This Hero of Gelmir was later entombed with his blade, which was recovered by the Gelmir Knights when they turned against Rykard, as suggested by their presence in the tomb itself. - The conversion of the Volcano Manor: I think there's a gap hard to fill between the Manor's conquest and Rykard's ascension. Rykard in his youth travelled the world, so I think it's more likely that initially the Manor was given over to the Gelmir Hero's descendants, who conducted a widespread religious persecution in the region. When later Rykard became a demigod, he took over as the chief of inquisitors. The reason? I speculate that the Gelmir Hero's line was tarnished along the rest of Godfrey's followers and went on to found House Hoslow outside the Lands Between (see the similarity between the Gelmir crest and the crest on Diallos' distinguished greatshield). - Rykard's initial purpose: I think the Inquisition was set up to curtail the worst excesses of the nobility. Ghiza and his fellows used to torture and interrogate nobles. Rykard was an extremely worldly individual, also given his travels. I think he applied his deep sense of justice to eliminating corruption among the upper spheres of power (see the contrast with the neighbouring Shaded Castle, where common heretics were handled). I also feel he was disillusioned when he uncovered the ancient religion of the Volcano and realised the atrocities that Marika had to commit in order to arrive at the top. This strikes me as a formative moment: Rykard both admires and despises Marika, it seems like he wants to be both like her (blasphemy is required to achieve worthy goals etc...) and to distance himself from her. A deeply troubled relationship. - Rykard's involvement in the Night of Black Knives: I suspect Rykard was necessary to recruit the Black Knives and steal the Rune from Maliketh, because he was deeply inserted in the Order's higher echelons of power and this is where his connections could be useful. Ranni strikes to me as a witch-princess, aloof in her tower, mistrusting of the Order and mistrusted by it in turn. What do you think about all of this? Thanks for reading, to all that made it to the end!
Gonna reply in full when I'm not walking my dog but Holy shit these are amazing insights, I never noticed the banners and great tree logos though great catch
Lol @ how you almost deviated course entirely within minutes to launch a separate topic about Radagon being an experiment of Marikas which btw is a solid ass theory! since he did just up an appear out of no where..maybe something akin to the mimic tear from the cut mimic tear quest
Dude, loved your Milenia video and your Richard one? Wonderful. I also watched your Bloodborne video because I'm always down for someone talking about my favorite game. Keep up the good work man, 10/10 liked and subscribed :)
I can't exactly recall where I heard this, I'm absolutely sure it was from a youtube video but I don't remember which content creator it was, anyhow. They referred to the "meatball" Albinaurics as regular Albinaurics that had been affixed with a torture device called the "Black Dumpling".
Heretic: shadow of the serpent eaten 22:04 that thing always freaked me out. I didn't want to think that was its head...but I always knew. 24:36 Isn't that meatball actually a torment sack? They are forced to wear it as they go insane? I think i saw that in a "rarest item" video
Is it just a sack? It looks like its pulsating, I thought I had the headpiece but I actually don't, so I didn't have the description to cross reference haha. That's nuts that it just a sack
You've been looking forward to this so many months. Happy you could finish this passion project. Is strongest primate highschooler a reference to Midori Days or Hajime no ippo? Did you do a godskin apostle video? I forgot. 😫
And oh the primate high schooler line was from doctor stone, but yeah I definitely need to get around to covering the godskins, they just remain extremely mysterious to me
Radagon is more of a puppet of the greater will one to keep marika in check if led astray which she eventually was marika shattered the elden ring while radagon tried to mend it to no avail
I think Marika split herself into both a feminine aspect and a masculine aspect in order to birth Miquella, who she intended to be the next like, Major god. Just a theory though. I suspect that marrying Renala was just a way into the academy to learn what he could about Glinstone and gain a fuller understanding of the forces of the Lands Between
Just-tish-ee-arr is how I recall it being pronounced in game. However the npc saying it has, what sounds like a strong Scottish accent. Not sure though as I'm no expert on regional accents
I know lol I was stoked for this one. The manor is so cool. The mix of the little town, the church, the surrounding area. The huge amount of nooks and crannies to explore. 10/10 area
eyyoo ricky-boy is it 100% that the nazgul looking fella's are the assassins an not the Night's Cavalry? in relation to the narration it could be them being sent out to hunt down whoever stole the rune or, & more likely, killed Godwyn, rather than the thieves/murderers getting away or on their way to do their thing.
That would make alot more sense since the assassins aren't ever mounted, but I just assumed it was the assassins in the scene because of the hoods but it could just as likely be the nights cavalry of margit
@@TheHonoredMadman ok so there is one thing I wonder ok so we know in botw there hasn't been a gerudo male since ganondorf is technically still alive. but I have a idea so the gerudo can mates with hylian so here a idea. we know link reincarnat every time gamindorf comes back so let say one of links relatives or a incarnation of link himself had a child with a gerudo and now all of link descendent are for now on gerudo. so gamindorf comes and the hero reincarnat dose this mean there me a make gerudo?
It's definitely possible, I think we've seen hylian-gerudo mixes before like with (presumably) Telma in twilight princess. So I think it's definitely possible and would put an interesting spin on things if the current link had gerudo blood that's actually quite cool and would be a breath of fresh air if link was actually hunting his own ancestor this time
Sorry I'm going to disagree with you, sir. The description where Radagon clearly hating on his red hair that is much the same colour and style as the giants pretty much cements the fact that Marika tried to kill 2 outer gods, being the Gloam eyed queen and the Fire giant flame god. I think Maliketh took out the queen while the Flame god was sealed into that last giant we fought before the burning of the Erd tree. I don't think that went as planned since fire magic clearly exists and is pretty powerful. I noticed that even though scarlet rot is seen as this cataclysmic force of destruction, the only spell that can cure it also link to the cursed flame. I think is intentional as we cannot see any scarlet rot outside of Caelid and the Shaded castle. Given there are giant spores spitting it out all in Caelid, this is most likely why we see Fire monks walking all over Liurnia. I even got the spell in that area, which is really wish I had in my first playthrough
We'll call it a gentleman's agreement because all that description tells me is that she used parts of a fire giant as part of the science project that became radagon. I propose that he was made up off all of these things because she thought it would create an adequate copy of herself so she could escape the golden order but it backfired because he became super down for the cause. Obviously mine is just a crackpot theory haha but I like your interpretation alot, that's why these comments are the best ones because I love seeing different takes that I hadn't even considered. Great write up sir
