The Shadowlands Keeps Me Up At Night 

The allusions to Valhalla, the realm of shadow as an afterlife in general, and the presence of a character named Freya really helped validate my belief in Radahn's willingness to be Miquella's consort and the battle with Malenia being part of that vow. It genuinely recontextualizes the entire fight as Radahn being given a death in battle so he can be ushered into Valhalla by the Valkyries (Malenia and the Cleanrot knights)

12:10 Placidusax is also shown with his remaining heads held in a Spiral-like position while awaiting his god’s return.

I know you will all walk away from this video with more questions and I PROMISE I'll go into everything more in depth as a publish more videos. I'm going to do them ROUGHLY in this order: - Rauh Regional Lore - Belurat / Bonny Village / Shaman Village Regional lore - Miquella and St Trina Video - Marika and Messmer video

It's starting to worry how you even sleep with all these things keeping you up at night.

This is why Quelaag is a must-follow if you're into souls/elden ring lore. No other lore content creator is doing this stuff, no one's coming at it from this kind of angle. Other creators are probably working on videos trying to hash out who Charo is - when that was never the point. Quelaag just gets it, man.

I like how you called the pillars the “J and B” pillars to prevent a repeat of what happened on stream, where everyone was asking about Queen Marikas BJ pillars

12:10 On that note, the Relic Sword (made from Radagons spine) is also spiral-themed, and held up by the Elden Beast pointing towards the stars Anyway thought this was a great video despite the headache! Tbh as a fellow social worker with a day job your work ethic to make these after a 9-5 is lowkey inspiring

"Babel" has the etymology of "God's Door" Bab-El. AKA Gate of Divinity Enir Ilim and Belurat also generally has some near-eastern inspired vibes. With the name "Enir Ilim" sounding vaguely Akkadian, or generally Semitic, but also Sumerian, "Enlil" or "Elohim"

one thing ive noticed its, in the base game, Miquella is supposed to be at the very base/bottom of a citadel, while in the dlc he is at the very top of one. its a nice parallel, maybe simbolizes his "rise"

One cool thing I saw on Reddit - the shape of the blue and red groves of flowers in cerulean/charon looks like the twin birds when you look at it from the dragon

quelaag you’re very inspiring to me in how well spoken you are and how well informed u are. never get discouraged

I love your dives into the Helphen lore. Feels like an ancient culture that was there before even the Hornsent. Forgotten, but with whispers of it still around in the form of mariners and deathbirds. So damn cool, and it’s crazy how deep into the mythology FromSoft thought about.

Jerma reference 10/10 video

I NEED your St Trina video. I am so fascinated by St. Trina that I'm basically Thiollier fr fr. The idea that she is Miquella's 'love' cast away, and she seems like she is genuinely a benevolent being (especially given the game's insinuation that she brought peace to the Merchants below Leyndell by singing them a lullaby). This also explains why Miquella becomes so cold and devoid of the concept of 'love' by the end (he can't tell the difference between forced subjugation of the heart vs actual love).

Ok, so the Mariner we fight in the Hidden Grave of Charo is likely Charo itself seeing as it drops a Cookbook that lets us craft an item that allows us to summon Those Who Live in Death. Cool stuff!

11:40 its fun that this is shown in mechanics too. miquella's incantations only require faith now and dont keep skeletons from resurrecting.

4:41 those boats are also beside the secret passage to abyssal woods! It’s a coffin like the ones between waterways below the lands between (and the coffin ships on cerulean coast), and I think that passage was used to ferry the burned ashes down into the abyssal woods. The dlc revealed that the frenzied flame melts away spirits, so this may be their attempt to halt the formation of those who live in death! It would go some way to explaining why D’s cape is decorated with two snakes when they’re typically considered enemies of the golden order

*starts break dancing as you’re breaking down lore*

The spiral columns are a frequent element in baroque opera set design, which given the divine stage setting for the Lion dancer fight might be relevant. Also, I personally think the Formless Mother is supposed to represent a sort of liminal goddess of transgression and opening of forbidden paths to knowledge or other esoteric truth as much as one of violence and bloodshed, which makes Mohg's chamber as the entry into the shadowlands make a lot of sense, as well as perhaps explaining in part why his body is able to be transported there and Radahn's is not (assuming there's a reason beyond just the fact that it's wracked with scarlet rot.)

another example of boat burial in the lands between is found beneeth stormveil. Near the lesser Godwyn husk is found the remnants of small boats as well as gravestones and a scarab with a rancor spell.

The otherworld rebirth cycle reminded me of specific lore from Ireland, too. I remember a few tales where it's said that when faeries die, they are reborn in the human world, and vice versa. There's one story where a man takes a faerie wife, and she cries at births and laughs at funerals because of this.

On why Mohg's body specifically - Omens are haunted by spirits, plausibly angry/vengeful Hornsent spirits, and I believe the JP text describes them as being particularly sensitive to spirits (struggling to find the source for this now, though). Also as you touch on, the Hornsent were the ones using if not constructing the gate prior, so using a Horned vessel certainly makes sense, with its association with the divine of the crucible and gate.

Oh my god it’s a Helphen video!!!!! Now I can shut up about my stupid helphen-tree theory. Never been so excited to be dead wrong.

On asceticism and suffering bringing connection to divinity - the bloodfiends in the DLC also find the Mother Of Truth in the "shadow" of their local tutelary dietty (hornsent asthetic religious leader) after being burned in the crusade. Notably too, the Hornsent ascetics ritually bloodlet (Curseblade description) as part of their attempt to become or invoke divine power.

Is anyone else seeing St. Trina and GEQ parallels? The “gloam” color itself seems to be a washed out purple, and a lot of Trina’s lore alludes to an eternal sleep. I wonder if Miquella was poised to repeat his mother’s mistakes in some way by sealing away death.

Hell yes!!!!

Not sure what to conclude from it, but Morgott has a lot of connections to the Curseblades. Obviously they dress similarly and both have horns, but Morgott wields his cursed sword when we fight him, the curseblade mask boosts dexterity (which Morgott sword sword requires a lot of), and both jump around like maniacs in combat. What really stood out to me was the Curseblade mask description stating “causes the blessing of the Erdtree to become nauseating”, which none of the other hornsent helmets state, and Morgott literally begins retching during his fight. There might not be too much behind this aside from the obvious parallels, but haven’t seen anyone else make this observation yet

“oh wait ew stinky” HAHAHAHA cuteee

Love that you used Charon imagery from the game Hades , such a beautiful art style. Great video quelaag

I saw someone reference this in another video but the spiral imagery also harkens to DNA double helix 🧬 and the crucible ritual of having combatants fight to death and spill their primordial fluids (blood) in order to activate the Divine Gate. We see Marika walking on bloodied corpses in her ascension to Godhood. The divine gate is riddled with corpses. So it made me think of how did Miquella achieve this? Well he compelled a band of followers to come to the land of shadow. And upon having the bewitchment break, we all conveniently slaughter eachother in the sand pits right before Miquella ascends to godhood. So it makes you wonder if this was the motive for him bewitching all of these people for this sole purpose, and he knew they would fight one another upon regaining their memories

just wanna say i love the jerma tibia mariner voice clip. OH DUDE SICK BOAT ENCOUNTER

Its just a thought but I always wondered why Mogh announced his dynasty at his end as Moghwyn as if he knew what his role was within Miquella's plan was (obviously he was under his control but aware of the plan as Miquella's puppet) But I believe that he was under the impression that it would be his soul that would reside within a new host body more specifically his brothers Godwyn, hence Moghwyn. Its a stretch and I doubt this is the case but I think there is strong president for it.

This video has everything, smooth ambience, BJ Pillars, even a Jeremy jumpscare, Lore is back baybeeey!

The editing on this is great, loving the new format!!

This video was such a joy. I'd already made the connection of the tibia mariner's boats in the shadow keep, but never thought the the keep might itself be the Helphen. Now I have the need to check each and everyone of its rooftops until I see the one depicted in the sword. Thank you, Quelaag.

Enjoyed the ambient melodies that accompanied the lore dive. Fits the video well.

Speaking of columns: the outer god heirloom (talisman) also reminds me of the Priestess tarot you mentioned. It seems to depict a tutelary deity posed in front of an archway with columns, except that there's something sinister about the background of the archway (looks like roots taking hold of it). Yeah, the Outer Gods seem to be able to manifest through feelings of extreme suffering, which is sort of Berserk-esque (shock!). Great video - already so much to revisit on my next jaunt to the Shadow Lands.

Your lore videos are the best! There is so much lore in this DLC it's crazy. Can't wait to see what you have next!

Really enjoy your videos. You do such a good job of picking up on these overlooked threads and details and tying them together in a compelling and engaging theory

Hey Quelaag, I absolutely enjoy your lore content. Its by far my favourite since you're kinda very close to how an art team usually works with all those references and brainstorming. I've been working in agencies exactly like you're doing in Miro to create concepts. You're analysing a piece of art as I've learned when I studied design, reading symbols and putting it into context. I'm a hardcore nerd for mythological stuff privately and a rather quiet lore enjoyer. But your historical/mythological/theological analysis are always astonishing and so much on point. What I want to say is: Your videos keep me up at night :) Keep up your awesome work!

You make some of the best lore content out there. Thanks so much! Can't wait to hear your continuing thoughts on the DLC lore!

I love your style of covering the lore in these games, been waiting for this one!

I love your videos; they're always so engaging and thought-provoking. Also, Signalis OST is amazing

This is the one. The production on this is so great and I can tell it took a lot of work. Fantastic!

So edited, so charming. I'm always gonna watch any random lore video from Quel but I hope these tightly edited vids bring more people in. Like, there's good, good Soulslike stuff to be had here. It's worth the hr+ vids. Trust her.

I love your videos. They are my favorite way to consume Elden Ring lore, archaeology, architecture, and connections to history. Your voice is lovely and you have such a chill way of presenting things. I think people reading scripts gets old. I feel like you’re just chatting with me. You’re the best!

This feels like a new era for your channel! Amazing video and excited for more

13:47 I always thought Malenia stabbed herself to break Miquella's needle that's why we find it broken in Caelid where they fought.

Amazing video and I love the format, can’t wait for the rest of the series

Love the new fancy video style and your insights into Elden Ring lore - you're super knowledgeable about the historical context and I always learn so much about the real world as well as ER/Souls from your vids!

Chibi Quelaag and the editing in general were awesome Thanks for this + the content of the video

I’ve been longing for a video from you eagerly ever since the dlc came out. Went in with the helphen great sword as my main weapon so this couldn’t have been a better topic

I love the idea that suffering allows to commune with outer gods. I found that it's weird that we get 2 instances of a burned down place and a "new" finding of a god. Romina is one example, but there is the sigil that boosts arcane, that also states they found in the burned corpse their new god. I believe that is linked to the formless mother, as the location is full of bloodherolds. Which to me is a nod to fromsoft's usual idea, that fire brings a new age, like in darksouls.

What an amazing treat of a video! =D Your curiosity and knowledge are very contagious. Now I just wanna do more research.

You are so pretty 😍 and your approach to the lore feels very grounded and well thought 😃

i've seen your username in other videos and online in reference to lore but never checked you out before. i'm so glad i finally did!! i could listen to you talk about lore forever, if your videos were hours long i would continue to listen. time to go back and watch everything i've missed!!

Another thing that you have mentioned before on stream is that the tower in Belurat and the spiral motif is very reminiscent of the Tower of Babel. In a lot of artistic depictions of the Tower of Babel it’s shown as a spiral; reaching towards heaven. That seems to be why spiral objects, like Metyr’s tail, are able to communicate with the outer gods.

Que, the editing style is adorable!!!! fantastic vid as always!

The line about the seduction and betrayal is actually ripped right out of berserk, it’s what Griffith did to the band of the hawk. He seduced them all in to help herald his dream and then of course, betrayed them. The scene of the gates of divinity being made of a literal mountain of bodies is berserk imagery in its finest as well as metaphorical to the idea of “the great rising upon a stair case of corpses” The seduction and the betrayal also harkens to Christian mythology, the snake seducing and then betraying Eve, I mean hell there’s even a tree involved 😅 I think Elden ring flipped the script though, I think Marika seduced the eternal serpent and then betrayed it after being traumatized by the genocide of her people. It would answer a lot of questions as to why messimer has snake aspects and why the serpent is supposedly “the enemy of the erdtree” I mean, even messimer’s fire, the eternal serpent lives in a volcano. It’s also clear Rykard knows about the lands of shadow from the virgin by that fort I can’t recall the name of. I’m working on my own theories regarding all this, but I think it’s all connected, the fell god, the dragons, the eternal serpent, the (new) abyssal serpent, the gloam eyed queen and marika. Oh and Melina too. I think both her and messimer are visages of marika’s bloody rise to the throne that came through, which is why both their “bad” eyes are sealed.

Started watching you during streams of SOTE I love your video style! Time to binge your videos

this is a lot! I like the shorter form videos since I get easily overwhelmed. thank u

Love the new format! Great vid

Babe wake up Quelaag talked about Helphen!

Finally a channel that paints all of the esoteric and occult themes behind ER lore! YESSS!!! I found it cool that you mentioned the two pillars, as in a lot of Kabalistic guided dogmas and magic circles that come in touch with Hermeticism even, the foundations of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life is comprised of a Right Black Pillar of Severity and a Left White Pillar of Mercy (respectively represented by the letter J & B sometimes, which you depicted in the Tarot card, that should read 'Jachin' and 'Boaz', the main outter pillars of the Solomonic temple). Lastly there is also a third middle pillar representing the self / self-highness, thus the connection of the mundane with god.

the jerma tibia mariner throwback really makes this video for me the lore is great too

just wanted to say the editing in this is great

Great video as always! Loved the editing in this one!

Every day I am grateful for u and ur content

Another instance of Divine Suffering is the Blood Fiends in the Land of Shadow. They saw the Formless Mother in the corpse of one of their kin during a great tragedy. It's also possible that the Blood Fiends are transformed Demi-Humans because they drop String and they get red eyes at night! So they may be a splinter of Demi-Humans who found the Formless Mother during divine suffering!

Great video! So excited to see what else you will share

The Divine Gate reminds me a lot of Rodin's masterpiece sculpture, the Gates of Hell. It's a big gate with depictions of Dante's Inferno. It's where the Thinker comes from. It's also interesting that the Gradham mentions sculpters a lot. That's probably a reference to the bodies that build the city. Also, the bodies at the Divine Gate appear to be the same kind of stone that Fractured Marika is at the end of the game. Assuming the bodies are Shaman bodies, this would make sense. A lot different than the red bodies seen in the trailer.

the center of the faram elden ring, the fingerslayer blade and the radagon sword in elden beasts hand are spirals

Ok so what is going on with Miquella mechanically? 1. He was in the tree in a cocoon. In the intro we see Mohg carrying the cocoon AND Miquella’s childlike body separately. 2. We find a corpse (Miquella’s?) in the cocoon in Mohgwyn palace. 3. Apparently Miquella was wandering around the realm of shadow in childlike form in the flesh discarding of his flesh, including St Trina separately. WHAT is going on here? This leads me to believe that is not Miquella’s corpse in the cocoon but I don’t know what it would be. Thoughts?

Maybe the suffering of those who were sacrificed to create the Divine Gate is what allows it to have those divine properties to begin with

excellent video as always! i would love to see you explore the suppression tower more; i think there's more to unpack about why these differing forms of death are suppressed. perhaps its simply a marker; a reminder that the golden order and the crucible before it are simply one version of rebirth?

Regarding the suffering part, I think it's interesting that the lamenter is described as "the state of a denizen of paradise." The upside down buildings in Enir-Ilim also remind me of the Eternal Cities.

i was waiting for this! awesome

You pointing out that the sealing tower marks the very centre of the lands between gave me a huge realisation. Looking at the map of the lands between, what is in the centre? Nothing. Just ocean. A big gap. If you filled in that ocean, you'd get a landmass with the Erdtree just off its northern shore. And sure enough the Shadowlands map is a single landmass, with the Scadutree just off its northern shore...

Melina is an alter ego to Messmer. Like st. Trina to Miquella, like Radagon to Marika. There. ER explained. Thank You, I'll be here all week.

I love seeing new quelaag videos pop up and finding out what keeps her up at night

The fates of the Carian royals (not just Carian Empyrians) is determined by the stars. The stars are "promising" that the fate of Raddahn is that of Miquella's consort, whether Raddahn likes it or not. He clearly doesn't, since he stops the stars and therefore his fate as Miquella's consort, so Miquella sends Malenia to kill him making all the star-stopping pointless.

That tower with the note that claims to be "the very center of the Lands Between" is my white whale of lore now because of the second part of the note: "All manners of Death wash up there, only to be suppresed." It refers to the Lands Between as the place where "All manners of Death wash up," at least at the time when the tower was built (which is presumably before removal of the DD from Elden Ring and before separation between TLB and Shadowrealm). It recontextualizes so much of the lore and certainly keeps me up at night.

She’s so cute and smart 🥹🥰 Lovely stories with a beautiful voice. I’d never figure this lore out in my own.

It's fascinating to see someone explain fiction like this.

The editing is perfect for my adhd brain, thank you editor

really enjoying the lil avatar guiding us through the video. really activates the attention span neurons

So excited for this video!

oh my god 50 seconds in and you're already blowing my mind. How did I never make the connection between that massive gate and sealing off the two realms from each other?? It seems so obvious in retrospect but up until right now I was constantly wondering how the shadow realm and lands between were connected. That is connecting so many puzzle pieces in my head now. I always thought the trailer was showing her *opening* the gate to the lands between, but I had never considered it was the opposite.

This video made my first run of the DLC all the more special. I defeated Mogh and entered the DLC using the Helphen Steeple. Even though I knew the weapon's description and that the Land of Shadow was sort of a dark reflexion of the Lands Between, I never made any conection and played with it just for fun. This is so cool.

I love your lil profile pic character and how they show up and do silly things in the video

Hell yes. Good stuff. I'm excited for future vids!!!

I love that you have vast knowledge of myth and culture as it helps put so much into context. I think what is interesting about spiral imagery in Elden Ring is that it isn't exclusive to any one God or faction but appears basically everywhere. Spirals seem to universally signify the divine.

Ty again for the shout out! Amazing videos as always :3

OHHHHH THE HORNS OF THE CRUCIBLE MIGHT BE THE LINK THAT WAS REQUIRED TO BRING ANOTHER SOUL INTO THE BODY

I love your videos. You are a modern hierophant .

This DLC has given me so so much to chew on theme-wise, the sheer amount of mothers and especially children reacting to being abandoned by their mothers and either being lost or resolving to become new mothers just kills me. Both Messmer and Miquella have this towards Marika, Metyr and Ymir have this towards the Greater Will, even Romina becomes a surrogate mother for the children of the scarlet rot. It's so insanely cohesive in building up what grace & kindness & night all mean and it contextualizes the thousand-year voyages (Miquella & Ranni) so much. Also, I'm still so thrown by the Blackflame sigil being *really close* to Metyr's face/main finger? It's absolutely buck wild. I don't think Metyr was the Gloam-Eyed Queen, but maybe it's like a Marika/Two Fingers situation with her guiding them. Also, like, the five-fingered hand??? Did Metyr do that??? It would explain why she's dysfunctional, she's not making proper five-fingered hands anymore, and it'd give a reasonably long timeframe for her to work and then be abandoned. I'm just like, chomping at the bit on this one. So much juicy stuff.

I know I've commented like 5 times on this video already but I just want to say I think you have the most coherent explanation for how the Land of Shadow works, no hate to other creators but I've seen a lot of them just assuming that it was kind of always a separate dimension when it seems pretty clear that it was separated from the rest of the Lands Between much more recently.

The tiny gremlin avatar to edit all around footage has made you so powerful

Queelag's videos keep me up at night(it's deep dead night here and storm rages outside)

Babe wake up new Quelaag lore has dropped