The STRANGEST Enemy In Elden Ring | LORE 

This is just my interpretation, but I think they might be the 'white winged maidens, who are Death's gentle envoys' in the Winged Scythe description. It always bothered me that no other item would mention these 'white winged maidens', and there weren't any creatures, bosses, or enemies who really had white wings that stood out. That's what I thought until I realized I was completely fixated on the classic white winged angel imagery. These bat ladies are definitely maidens, and they have white wings, and they were suspiciously mysterious despite being a pretty memorable enemy. The reason why I think they are lamenting is the fact that after Marika removed the Rune of Death from the Elden Ring, natural death doesn't exist anymore. The natural cycle of life and death is disturbed, and perhaps in the eyes of a maiden who serve Death, death might simply be a different form of birth.

To me, the strangest enemy of Elden Ring are those who say the DLC is coming out soon. I don't have enough vigor to withstand the attacks

One of my favorite moments in this game was seeing this as an in-world illustration of how a siren lures victims. Hear an intriguing song, get close, get attacked. Was brilliant

Imagine spending 20 years in academia studying music theory, symbolism, and historical performance practice to wander up on a mob singing a lacrimae. Thinking "oh awesome, this is such an amazing ga--" only to be launched off the ledge by another angry shouting bat to my doom below. That was my introduction to these bat singers. ☠️

3:47 , 8:27 This is not "Crown" this is "Kokoshnik" Kokoshniks were common in the Eastern, Northern and Central provinces of European Russia, as well as Siberia. Kokoshniks were decorated with various ornaments that served as amulets and symbolized fertility and marital fidelity. In Slavic/Russian pagan myths/fairy tales there are also 3 Birds with a female face (“Sirin”, “Alkonost”, “Gamayun”)

If I had to guess, these bats predate the golden order, as the ghost flame was part of the rites of the Death Birds. Marika's golden order excluded all other death rituals and began the hatred of mutants, so that's what fits best to me.

I recall the first time i encountered these bat ladies. It was in Limegrave. I looked around for around 10 minutes until i realized that the song is coming from a mob! Afterwards, i spent another 30 minutes just sneaking around and resetting, listening to the song and studying them. It honestly was a magical moment, especially when other people started translating their song. Maybe their purpose is to be enigmatic or raise curiosity in players and nothing lore related. Just something to keep us awake at night wondering what's their story.

The magma sorceries talks about Rykard unearthing ancient hexes of gelmir that he retrofitted. He also shares the same jewelry as the pale bat. Considering where the pale bat resides and the amount of bats converging at Gelmir this leads me to believe that these bats are the original inhabitants of Gelmir. Back before even the age of Godfrey they were a clergy to the Deathrite birds before being assimilated into the Erdtree religion and eventually thrown away like all other misbegotten when godfrey fell. Now without any guidance they are devolving, the Bat people are reverting back into a more beastly form with only a few older generations still clinging to their history. Weak, Rykard has no problem pillaging and defiling their history. Keeping their jewelry for himself and retrofitting the ancient gelmir hexes for his benefit. They are grim reminders that Rykard and The Erdtree are two sides of the same coin, willing to crush and destroy any culture or civilization to further their goal.

I always had a headcannon that they are the mothers of the first Misbegotten. I think they could be the ones who made contact with the Crucible and were punished with chimaera children, and also turned to human-bat chimaera themselves.

I'm surprised no one fully went into depth about all the jellyfish spirits all around the map . There are descriptions about no new births in elden ring, which would give more clues as to why all of the children in elden ring are jellyfish spirits rather than being undead or other creatures.

3:46 The kokoshnik of the rare singing bat lady is beautiful. 👑

Whenever DLC package gets added to ""development"" depot of steam database, it usually takes a month for trailer drop. Happened with Dark souls 3 & now with Elden ring. *DLC trailer should be out in the next 30 days*

I remember on my 1st playthrough just trotting around through southern limgrave. When I started hearing what I thought was Latin chanting, and hearing it in the middle of the woods was somewhat creepy. Reminded me of the singing maiden the tower of latria in demons souls. Took me a good minute to find it, too. It was on a ledge on the cliff face, so I thought I was going insane trying to find it. Definitely one of my favorite discoveries in the game.

The fact that they do glintstone and rancor call, maybe there is a connection between mages and the dead in the past?

Finding out what makes the sound was such a memorable little moment. Thought I was looking for an NPC

Always love watching your Elden Ring videos while listening to Metroid music in the background. My two favorite things! I always find it hard to defeat them bc I always just wanna sit and listen. It's just so damn amazing.

Elden Ring and Kingdom Come Deliverance are my 2 favorite games of all time, and I'm just sitting here waiting on DLC for ER and a sequel for KCD 😭

I love the idea that the bat women are the figures depicted in the libation statues, disfigured into bats. That would make them living legends hidden in plain sight. I just dont understand how or why thst might have happened. The only similar "disfigurement" I can think of is Godwin, but why bats? That doesnt fit the aquatic theme. I feel like there is still a missong puzzle piece or two needed to make sense of this.

Thanks for staying active in lore and news during another major hallowing man. Wouldn’t get through it without yah Zio 💪🔥

These videos make me slightly less hollow for a time

Well this was perfect timing. Just sat down with my coffee and got the notification for a new video.

Love your content my guy. My main source of DLC updates.

huh thats crazy cuz i was playing elden yesterday and came across the bats singing and it creeped me out. I also was hoping you made a video about them cuz i was curious about their lore

I think there were some assumptions made from the song that can't actually be taken. Primarily, just because they are singing the song it does not mean it is a first hand account. So those first two conclusions, that the sirens were present and that they were disfigured to stop their motherhood, cannot be drawn. Songs can be ways of record keeping / keeping histories. Poetry was originally composed orally and sung for the sake of remembering cultural histories before the culture obtains writing. (Bats have wings and not hands, so it makes sense they sing to tell histories still). The songs could just be accounts of Marika's rise to and the beginning of the golden order, withiut necessarily being about the sirens. Other creatures, like the Trolls, underwent significant transformation under the golden order, as the trolls are descendants of the giants. The lack of death could have something to do with their lack of being able to give birth. It's an intentionally open question.

Whoa! I never knew that the crowned version could use Rancor Call! Another excellent video, thanks for helping me learn something new.

Them singing explains why the music changes around them, i never paid enough attention to it, on account of trying to either sneak through or run past without getting wrecked even with 40+ vigor.

I do love these breakdowns and i just have to thank you Zio!!🎉 Your keeping the hype alive for this heavily anticpated DLC drop ❤❤

When I first came across the harpies I thought my computer started playing a Nightwish song for some reason, finding out it was an in game enemy surprised me

In one of the Tarnished archeologist video, they mention how Marika can be one of many maidens from times before the golden order. Then they replace iconografi in holy places. So maybe they were maidens from the time before the golden order and later cursed by Queen Marika

My first playthrough of Elden Ring, I fell victim to a harpy's song. I was entranced and helpless to her somber ballad and I foolishly walked around and searched for the source only to be surprised to find this ghastly bat woman and got the shit kicked outta me. 10 outta 10.

The song was so beautiful and all the bats were so peaceful before I showed up, I just ran right past them I felt bad and didn't wanna kill any of these enemies 😢

As for the rare variant of the bat/harpy, the silver sigil on the top of their crown resembles the Confessor starting class. Not sure what this could mean. I did my best to sneak past them unnoticed because I didn't want the singing to stop. I would've liked for one to be slightly out of the way of the Tarnished's path so we could keep listening to it. Too much music in FS games is interrupted by battles or hard to hear due to fighting noises. Regardless, From's music team smash out another hauntingly beautiful piece.

I remember hearing this the first time going "Oh wow what is that? Let me go find that singing.... NO! RUN RUN!" - Early game for me so wasn't wise.

Remember i seen an lore video awhile back about these characters , they're singing in latin pretty cool detail and eerie 🦇👻

I'm no longer sure of my sources and much might be head cannon but I think they are careers for the people who became Dragons like Makar (this is what the game warns you that you might become if you use too many dragon sorceries) and Makar f. ex. works as a defense-against the spread of rot through the choke point that is the ruin strewn precipice (which justifies lore-wise why getting from Liurnia to the Altus Plateau) ie. because Fire beat Rot. at least in Makar's case they have a ancient Giant Land Octopus imprisoned on a ledge just popping out babies to feed Makar (which explains why you find a "Land" Octopus more than halfway up a mountain, And that Magma Wyrms eat Land Octopus babies explains why they are mortal enemies, as seen in the mountain tops of the giants where one can help you beat Magma Wyrm Theodorix) also regarding the Giant Land Octopus on a ledge its on top of a body that has a sword so old the description only mentions its from a distant place a long ass time ago so it creates more questions than answers... This all makes me assume the bats and the Magma Wyrms are ancient human(oid)s that have been fighting off the rot ever since that became an issue, which would explain the depressed lyrics of the bats, it also probably means they blame this golden one for the shattering and or the rot and or deathblight... (there is also this finger reader that laments how horrible it is to see Godwyn in his current state and that he should have died a honorable death, she says this in a way that make it seem like his deathblight was his fault) This is pretty disjointed I have a headache I just wanted to write down the gist of it all, tho I'm forgetting details. TL:DR; The bat women are sad because they have to farm Octopy-babies for eternity to feed the Magma Wyrms to stave off the Rot and or deathblight while all they remember is how cool things used to be before Godwyn went all Squid-blight and that they blame the golden one who I think would be the cause of the shattering.

Thank yku! Bought the game a couple weeks ago and i found this dungeon area. I thought someone outside my room was singing. It have never occured to ms, that someone could be singing in a game like this, let onlome someTHING

The bat crone at the back cliffs of fort fargoth whispers something rather than singing. There's only two other enemies I know of in the game that whisper messages. The pida like albinuric in Carian manor. And the wandering noble at Ahgeal ruins. Would be interesting if people ripped the sound file of that enemy. Sounds like she's grieving.

These creatures had me very confused on my first playthrough because the first couple I encountered didn't aggro until I attacked. I could walk right up, face to face, and all they did was stop singing. Thinking that's how they operated I tried just walking into fort faroth only to get wrecked. 😅

When I first heard them singing I thought I was tripping. I was looking around everywhere for who might be singing while they were just there under my nose I had no idea it was them singing.

I still remember wandering through Limgrave and hearing the song and being mesmerized. I stopped what I was doing and began searching for the source. Then I found it... and promptly died 😂

Another amazing video

The best song/music in all of FromSoft games. I always pause and listen to it before moving on in the game.

I literally was just thinking about this enemy after fighting it lol.

Song, chimes, bells, etc have ties to communing with spirits or the dead in Elden Ring!

Since you mentioned Wraithcallers and curses, would you make a video, or at least a plausible explanation in the comments, as to why flame of the Omen and the flame of Deathblight, are the same but are not acquired nor used in the same way?

I still remember the first time I heard them sing. It gave me the chills.

I think the bats have a grab attack also where they grab your shoulders and peck at your head. E: singing bats only

Going with the mythological elements, my theory is that Marika cursed mothers in her despair at losing Godwyn. Similar to the tale of Arachne or basically any other human woman in Greek myth.

Something that always struck me about them was their tendency to drop high-level golden runes (only in the first encounter of each individual enemy, presumably because they would be a ridiculous farming spot if they kept dropping them). Apart from the celebrants in Windmill Village and certain wandering nobles (the ones holding treasure chests), all of the other enemies that drop golden runes are beasts (land octopi, rats, crows, spirit jellyfish, and the closely associated bats). I'm not sure what to make of it, but it seems important to me.

I got this game 2 months ago and it scared tf out of me 😂 bsy that 1 crystal dragon I heard singing and saw the maiden with giant bats when I killed the bats and approached her my jaw dropped seeing wtf she actually was

I want that gold crown the second version of these harpys sport. It's neat.

Lol that footage of constantly whiffing against the bats was PAINFUL

What program do you use to lower the pitch on your voice

Doubt youll see this zio. But I have a theory that suggests the age of plenty was a by product of marika's pregnancy with the omen twins. Because, mohg and morgott are omens they possess overflowing life which would naturally effect marika and by proxy the erdtree. Now, about godwynes anger. It's entirely possible godwyne was angered by the information that Marika casted the twins into the sewers which tracks because we know he seemed to care about the other cursed twins Malenia and miquella. Mohg and morgott were born the way they are and maybe in godwynes eyes. They'd done nothing wrong.

I think the rancor call ability hints at these bat women's connection to death. Maybe they were burial priestesses before the shattering? That would explaid why Marika cursed them, fusing them with a bat form. Once Marika's son was killed and destined death was stolen - Marika may have lashed out at everything associated with death and burial - Such as these maidens.

My theory on these abominations is that they were, in their prime, handmaidens/ladies-in-waiting for Marika. Women of similarly Numen descent who acted as her personal assistants and were afforded a great deal of respect and priviledge because of it. And they were in turn deeply devoted to their queen and their duty. However all of that changed when Godwyn was murdered on the Night of the Black Knives. Because the Black Knife assassins were Numen women said to also be close to Queen Marika, it is clear that there were traitors among this exclusive cadre. I think Marika, in her spiral of grief and rage, lashed out at her handmaidens and indiscriminately used her godly powers to twist and deform their bodies into monsters. She destroyed almost everything that made them beautiful, revered servants of a god-queen and left these nightmarish shells to roam the Lands Between forever. That is why they lament over their fate and attack all who come near them. They once had it all, and yet they were punished in the worst possible way for something they didn't even do. Marika stole their lives, dreams, beauty and sanity all out of blind fury while the true culprits still walk free.

Hey Zio, do you stream on twitch or youtube?

I always thought they were altered or disfigured humanoids, as if they suffered Mahito's touch.

love this idea

You said the crown of these had no symbolysm you could find. For me it is curious that the crown is golden, with a center of black which looks like a hooded black figure with a sword infront. Maybe like Malenia... Godwin was killed by black blade assassins... in my mind they where cursed to roam the lands between because they where connected to the assassins, telling a story of a Golden One that had to be stopped because he was so angry in the eyes of this hooded figure that something had to be done... Now they are bound, doomed to nourish themselve from living creatures. Also all the connections to death and deathbedcompanions, the war that roamed when "someone" made it into the Lands Between with power not seen before in these Lands... probably stuff for the DLC. The most evidence is their locations and looks. They have like prisoners shackles on their legs and are found primarily in Castle build like a prison...

Do you think that there will be armored core 6 dlc

I will take this from fextralite from a anonymous,the guy says that marika,godfrey and rennala, radagon have parallels to Godwyn, miquella and Malenia,Radahn. Marika and Godfrey are in same pose,and a spear in their abdomen but the most interesting are the places they 'die/sleep', Marika and Miquella inside the tree(Miquella if mohg didnt intervene), Godfrey and Godwyn outside a tree(roots in godwyn's case),on the other hand Radagon make Rennala mad,and he went back to the erdtree(A.K.A Marika)because of greater will/golden order shenanigans,while Malenia also make Radahn mad,and went back to the haligtree(A.K.A Miquella),also since the sky is red in Malenia and Radahn bossfight,then the dlc sky maybe is yellow,which is proven in the teaser art.And if we follow the parallels,then maybe at one point Malenia and Radahn have a great relationship,while Miquella and Godwyn are more similar to a godfrey and Marika relationship ,if the theory of Miquella being a Machiavellian God that bewitched people maybe a one sided mohg level of affection to Godwyn.

All them maidens and our tarnished stays maidenless 😢

WHATS THE NAME TO THE BACKGROUND SOMG HE USES?!!

That headdress they wear would be dope for a faith build

7:01 this dude looks just like my first character

Isn't that headdress similar to the ones worn by the Finger Readers?

Just something I noticed, The Shield with the Painting (very Similiar to a Pavise(may or may not has been used by Romans), The Harpy (described by Roman and Byzantine), The whole Architecture of Leyndell whom was inspired by the Byzantine/Roman Style which where most likely the "white Winged Maidens" once lived but that is my personal Take... It Loops back in itself that is good storyteling GG Elden Crack

elden ring is unreal i love how it’s a titan of a game and i still feel like it’s underrated

Idk the ball snakes with eyes are pretty weird

You can give the epic voice guy a run for his money

anyone know what weapons he’s using throughout the video?

So there was an age of plenty in the past, and Miquella is kind of the god of plenty? Man that makes me think that maybe Miquelle had a past life or previous self and maybe the DLC will be that.

I think it’s extremely clear what’s happening, they were not maidens, as “we” in context of the song refers to a betrothed couple, those who are to be married, these women are meant to bear children but after the shattering are probably barren. The issue with The land octopus connection is water does not equal death connection, not even remotely, there are 100% connections, but the fact that a creature came from water does not mean it’s connected to death. Dark souls 3 explores overpopulation due to hollowing, similarly I’d imagine birth becoming a taboo thing, when the cycle was given to the erdtree, and the really obvious connection I think was glazed over; the land octopus ovary states it is full of the blood of humans it has consumed to give birth, these bats being presumably barren, bite the player as a grab attack, which could suggest they’re trying to get your blood, to be able to breed again, they sing the song, only until the lamentation can end, with a potential solution, tarnished blood

I NEED THIS UPDATE I’M GOING HOLLOW

Didn’t zulie the witch go over the singing and had to upload a video saying sorry cause the translations were just gibberish? I’m not positive nor want to do the research lol. Regardless cool lore dive as always :D

Really sad we didn’t get a bat or two as a summon ash. Not saying they would have been very useful, but I would have really liked to have em they have such a nice design

I found that there is a strange statue representing what seems like a low details soldier with a child hiding behind them around the walls of the Haligtree. What do they represent?

These damn bats will F you up if your not paying attention

1:17 Because it usually has false lyric ?

My favorite area of the game is Ruin Strewn Precipice

They are singing about the Greater Will and Marika's Golden Lineage. Marika and Godfrey warred against anyone and anything not of the Erdtree. These bat ladies were cursed under the new rulers to not be mothers because of the rites of Erdtree burial and baptism.

This was exactly how I thought

maybe they were angel beautiful women that had similar role like Fia ?Like maybe bearing the child of the dying ,i dont know . but with godwin fall they are now curse since dead has "die" but not really ....But with Fia he may rebirth again, hopefully witnessing that glory back ? ;)

32 seconds after release

Love when they sing Halo theme

I don't think Merika shattered the Elder Ring out of anger or malice, but simply to save her son Godwyn from his own curse and eternal suffering. She opened the path of new possibilities of life/death so that her son might be eventually released from his half death.

Wait a minute... "mothers"? Maybe there is a link with the erdtree births.

The harpies headpieces are similar to Abductor's Virgins'.

Off hand seeing the title, The Vulgar Militia men come to mind first

A path to follow: the headwear they have is an old traditional headwear of noblewomen/female royalty of Russia.

I have to say I don't see much lore on the starcallers. I need someone to point me in a good direction to their loooore

These are probably my least favourite enemy in the game to be honest. ONLY because of that bloody fort in caelid. Fort Faroth maybe? The one where there's loads of them and my god did I die there over and over again on my first playthrough. There's also the optional dungeon which can take you up to Altus which they can be really annoying in. I do remember the first time I found one tho, hearing the singing and trying to find it, only to realise it's a disgusting monster was pretty cool.

Idk they just look like normal bats to me.

They were singing asking why marika shattered the the elden ring.

god i hate this freaking things

So the entire story of Elden Ring almost certainly taking place inside of someones psyche, whether that be Marika, Radagon, or even a "real world" version of Godwynn or Michella. So im wondering how all these mythologies apply to whoever's gead we're inside of. I say this because the Jungian psychology inspirations are OBVIOUS throughout the entire game, proven by a number of factors (just research Jungian psychology and you'll find it to be true) but one of the biggest factors is that Marika and Radagon being the same person is a representation of the Anima/Animus within every human's psyche. That, and the symbol on the cover is literally sacred geometry tying into the ckncepts of wholeness, which is the entire focus of Jungian psychology

I think we as Tarnished are the stramgest enemy.

I think they are pretty much going to give us elden ring 2.....saying thankyou to the fan base for the meany years of support And elden rings massive success.... we can dream my fellow tarnished 😅😊

Bro really said “Geo-lithic” 🤦🏽‍♂️