i am blown away at the effort you put into your research. i have watched what feels like hundreds of hours of fromsoftware lore content, particularly videos related to elden ring, and every point and connection you've made makes so much sense and i thought i had already heard everything there was to be heard! please keep up the great work!
Speaking of William Sharp, he has a poem called "The Vision" which refers to a being the poet sees that is neither "man, or woman", a being that is an "unborn child". In version 1.00 Miquella is referred to as the "Scion of the Vision". The poem is clearly speaking of a fairy and refers to a face that blooms "like a flower" and is "not human", but wild and beautiful.
Props Kite, grew up in Wales and my high school teachers would drop their jaws if they heard I was voluntarily looking up Welsh folk tales in my free time lol. For Cwn Annwn, this is no concrete connection, but I do feel like it's a story Miyazaki is definitely familiar with if only because it includes an underworld king by the name of Gwyn. There's also the alternate name used for them sometimes which is Cwn Mammau (hounds of the mother) for when they were in service to Mallt-y-Nos. "Y nos" is "of the night", which is a very Numen vibe which would make a lot of sense with the wolves' nameless tarnished being Marika or someone connected to her. I know Miyazaki loves his British folklore but the Welsh stuff in particular feels like it's been brung out in full force for ER.
Finding this in light of my shadow of the erdtree research and after seeing the new butterfly incantation in the trailer, I think you are onto something with this
Was surprised to find that faeries and ogres existed in Elden ring lore - neat stuff tbh. Even if by a little, it helps fleshed out the supernatural and spiritual stuff.
The Blue fairy represents spring and rejuvenation - Rot represents autumn . Spring and autumn are opposites so that’s why they fight through Ansel, the blue fairy fighting the Rot.
Mic sounds good. Enjoying hearing your ideas! Pretty cool format, feels like a course on gaming content, which is a very cool and unique idea for the platform, I think.
Love these videos connecting the game's lore to the real world folklore and stories that may be the inspiration. I've always been really fascinated by the darker, old world tales of fairies and the Fae, so it's cool seeing modern media draw from it.
The "evil fairy" doesn't really resemble Mohg'd Miquella all that much. Miquella has a very sunken stomach and mostly just matches the generally emaciated Souls aesthetic while the evil fairy has disproportionately large hands, and his arm is the one part of Miquella we're actually supposed to see. Miquella growing the Haligtree with his blood isn't all that unusual in-universe tbh when you consider the practice of Erdtree Burial, Land Octopus reproduction or how Beast Blood (and poop!) is laced with the magical "Gold". A demigod's blood would surely be an immense source of conventional power. And that's before we get into darker interpretations of Miquella himself e.g. wanting to use the tree as a giant mind control beacon. Elphael has no N in it, and is probably pronounced "ell-fah-ell". Or "elf-a-ell" if you want to keep the LotR connection ;) We do actually have confirmation of a Spirit World existing in Elden Ring, via Helphen's Steeple: _"Greatsword patterned after the black steeple of the Helphen, the lampwood which guides the dead of the spirit world."_ - Dolores however has nothing to do with that, "she" is a puppet presumably created and controlled by Seluvis who sourced the arrows through "more conventional" means (in his case likely involving a whole almanac of trigger warnings not related to fairies...) Meanwhile the blue particles seem to be related to the spirit, in contrast to the body, as Ranni and Melina appear and disappear with the same effect with both of those having lost their physical body. By common fan theories the "ember girl" would be Melina not Malenia. Smouldering Butterfly Even dismissing the whole crossover lore aspect I think the changeling idea is an excellent fanfic option for how Miquella could have _escaped_ Mohg, leaving him with an enchanted "tree person" consort while the real Miquella absconded into the Spirit World or the like.
This is all so cool! Thank you for putting this together. I never even thought about researching the name sakes for the rivers. FS really loves water XD My friend showed this to me and I am sure out other Deracine/FromSoft friends will love this too!
I 100% agree with the theory of the changeling, specifically in the fact there is a seemingly old masculine figure that replaces what we assume should be Miquella (at least based on the stories.) A while ago, I spiraled into some speculation over the metatext of the descriptions of items because there were a few specific details that made me feel that the narrator of the items was not a trustworthy narrator (which is especially apparent e.g., when you compare items that are 'graced' with gold but are 'cursed' with the yellow flame, etc.) In the case of Miquella, I felt it was important to look at items connected to the prophecy of the Mohgwyn Dynasty (which still seems mysterious to me because the -wyn prefix has a clear connection to Godwyn, but I digress). The item of the Pureblood Knight's Medal that is given to you by Blood Mask Varre during the bloody finger quest, and the description has a line of dialogue as part of the Mohgwyn prophecy: "Use to be granted audience with Mohg. Only, it is not yet time. For Mohg yet slumbers beside the Divinity." While Sir Gideon Ofnir says it is a fool's errand to believe in this dynasty, Mohg clearly states he sees it upon his death, and Varre's fight takes place in the Mohgwyn Dynasty Mausoleum, implying not only that it does exist (hypothetically), but that there were generations of this dynasty that had already transpired in the past, and the figure that is made to be the Changeling that you theorize is titled "The Divinity", which so is oft overlooked as simply a title for another character, but there is little evidence to confirm as much. Furthermore, the community theory around Elden John (the stated man in the Ruins of Uld/ancestral followers area) is commonly thought to be a reference to Hermes Trismegistus, which could be the case, but considering the many statues of him that adorn Mohgwyn's Palace, I'd speculate the changeling is Him, aka The Divinity. If that's not enough, there's a particular spell called Divine Fortification that specifically implicates that the narrators of the item text is someone that can be implicated as being an actualized character: "...Heed me - the Lands Between offers no welcome to the Tarnished." The only other item in the game that I could remember from my memory as either self-actualizing or taking a quote from another existing character is the Golden Epitaph, which is a dedication from 'a young boy' to Godwyn: "A sword made to commemorate the death of Godwyn the Golden, first of the demigods to die. Infused with the humble prayer of a young boy; "O brother, lord brother, please die a true death."" A further coincidence regarding the figure who declares "Heed me"; the same dialogue can be seen on the Magic Fortification spell. This is not the only suspicious dialogue that interlaces Holy with Magic, as the Full Moon Crossbow found at the highest point in Raya Lucaria seems to "reveal its true worth" when holy-infused bolts are used, but using holy-infused bolts does nothing. Instead, magic bolts will activate the actual intended effect of the weapon (and notice that this has been an issue for quite a while, and the dialogue has not been hotfixed in numerous updates.) Seems to be a suspicious (and intentional) failing on the part of the narrator.
also, I had a crackpot theory that, based on the attire of Godfrey, I think his Two Fingers are a stigmata of the authority of Greater Will that transcended when 1.) he became elden lord, and 2.) prophecied the killing of Serosh. His clothes are blue, and Radahn is fascinated by his fighting style, but I suspect that what Malenia whispered to Radahn during their duel is that her fighting teacher was also Godfrey, who was the blue swordsman in his youth (his fighting style as Hoarah Loux is as graceful and quick as it is intense, and he wears similar blue armor to the Warrior's starting gear... the Blue Cloth Vest reads as such: "Vest of a nomadic warrior. The blue color of its fabric symbolizes brisk waters, as fluid and flowing as the sword in the hand of its wearer. Just as still waters turn foul, stagnation leads to decay. Warriors must remain ever drifting. " This would also make it so the duel ends in a stalemate, the whispered secret becomes the festering rot of Radahn's mind, and Malenia's wound from the Starscourge is another stigmata of prophecy-- the rot of an outer god prophecied by the wound of a meteor blade from the fiery starscourge. As for the flowing curved sword, I could see Godfrey setting it down as he ascended to become Elden Lord, and leaving behind his flowing legacy to the Zamor warriors (the Ancient Hero of Zamor has a similar flowing weapon). and just going on the idea that if a Title can match an item 1:1 that it's fair game to associate it, I think the defense of "Hoarah Loux, Warrior" being connected to the "Warrior" class items is not a crazy assumption.
Especially the chuckle every time she gets somewhat self conscious about the unhinged chaos vibes. Even though I think I speak for most of us when I say that while it is absolutely all over the place, it somehow makes sense in an ADHD kind of way 😂
In version 1.00 Miquella's Lily refers to Miquella with she/her pronouns, and also deems the lily an "electrum" flower. Electrum is "white gold", in keeping with Miquella's pale gold, but it is a blended alloy of Silver and Gold. It also means "amber" in ancient Greek, which keeps withthe tree theme. As for Miquella being replaced by a changeling, I agree. There is a reason why Mohg brings "Miquella" to a parthenon where an old man's statue are ubiquitous. The statues depict an old man with wooden roots, and are similar to the statues in the Haligtree depicting an old man. Changelings were old men, and when they died they reverted to wood. Who knows where the real Miquella is? In fairyland, evidently, or perhaps slumberland (as St Trina). Personally I think the Blue Swordsman is actually a dream that St Trina sent to Malenia to show her how to stymie the Rot. Or perhaps it is like the Blue Fairy in the story of Pinocchio, another wooden boy wanting to become a real boy. Strangely, the Blue Fairy turns Pinocchio into a real boy whereas Ranni becomes an actual puppet after having discarded her flesh (in emulation of a blue crone that is not unlike a blue fairy). Puppetry and changelings abound in Elden Ring.
People may have already mentioned this, but if I recall correctly, Miquella's model in the cocoon is the same one used by King Morgott after you defeat him (scaled down quite a bit of course). Not sure whether this means that Miquella's model inside the cocoon isn't super significant, but it's definitely a head-scratcher. Miquella was not an Omen child, at least from what we know. Of course, Morgott loses his omen curse after you defeat him, so maybe that says more about Morgott than Miquella. Still interesting though.
Oh wow I didn't know this! No one's ever mentioned it so you've definitely got rare information! What does that mean then?! His blood transfusion corrupted him maybe??
@@kitetales Honestly no idea. Also, I can't remember where I found this out from, but it was probably Zullie the Witch. It could be as meaningless as asset reuse or it could be super significant in some way I can't currently think of. I definitely don't think the implication is that miquella is omen. And from what it looks like, the model does resemble morgott's likeness (which makes sense, because they use that model for morgott after his defeat). It at least *seems* like it doesn't mean much, but I'm not super confident either way. I mean, who knows, maybe in his compassion for the oppressed, part of miquella's metamorphosis involved him becoming omen or something. That strikes me as out of left field, but it's possible I guess.
Fun fact the Moonlight Sword was first wielded by the hero after a fairie bestowed it upon the player character in Kingsfield. The dragon of the forest Guyra created the weapon to be a god killing weapon and was intended to kill Seath the white dragon the fairie was a messenger of this dragon. The sword was used to kill the demonic tree king as the end of kingsfield japan. I wonder if any remnants remain of the two original demigod dragons in the Elden Ring mythos.
Again, amazing video, you have convinced me now of the conection Miquella-fairies. Couple of question and notes I have. Sorry in advance about the lenght, but your video made me think a lot :) When you were talking about the 3 wolfs and the Cwn Amwen, do you think it might be any conection with the Empireans shadows? as we know, atleast 2 of them are wolf-like. I have heard before that Siofra and Ainsel where fairies, althou didnt know about the meaning of the names!! blowed my mind. I always thought, as fairies/spirits, they were representations of the rivers themselfs, of the flowing water. Also, each has an eternal city on it, and the 3rd eternal city, with no name, also has a river through it. Might be a 3rd fairy? In celtic folklore/mythology, the fairy lands are often sinonimus with the far beyond or the land of the dead. We can see that very well in Middsomer Night Dream, where Titania and Oberon are some kind of conterparts of Hades an Persephone. Also Avalon from the Arturian legends (celtic in origin). And there is a medieval version of the myth of Orpehus called Sir Orpheous (translated by tolkien btw), where he, instead of going to the underworld, gets lost in a forest and access the fairy world where he finds his dead lover. This in Elden ring would mean that fairies and spirits actually share the same "other world" so it makes sense they have similar particles and effects. Also the DLC image with Miquella looks a lot like a description of the greek Elisean Fields, another far beyond. And lastly, talking about Elphael. Dont know if there is a conection, but here is the description of the Helphen Steeple: "Greatsword patterned after the black steeple of the Helphen, the lampwood which guides the dead of the spirit world. The lamplight is similar to grace in appearance, only it is said that it can only be seen by those who met their death in battle". Also, again dont know if there is anything here, when showing pictures of Rivendel, Tolkines elfs were based on Nordic mythology and poetry, where Elfs are some sort of an elevated soul. The land of the elfs, the Alfheim, was the topmost world, only accesible by iluminated/pure souls. So when a person's soul gets to the highest purity or spiritual ilumination, it would go the the Alfheim. Thanks a lot for your video!! it was great
Perhaps that red-garbed lady that fights in a flowing, dancing style with Curved Swords from the more recent Shadow of the Erdtree trailer is another one of the fairy folk!
If a modern take on fae, faerie, fairey stories appeals to you, I’d humbly suggest Ben Aaronitch”s “Rivers of London” urban fantasy series. The entire series (9 books to date) is excellent, but the Fae/Faerie stories take center stage in book 5 “Foxglove Summer”, and emerge again in book 7 “Lies Sleeping”. It’s good stuff. Check it out.
Thanks for the rec!! I will totally check this out. I watched “Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norell” and I loved the depiction of the fairy, it raised the bar for me
Great work! Don't think I've seen anyone point out the Rowa/Rowan thing before. Those illustrations of the fairies with the rowan are very interesting, do you know if there's an actual rowan species with leaves like that? As far as I've seen they all have very different leaves like the ones in the photographs you used, and the difference in leaves is the only reason I was never fully certain it was meant to be rowan. The rowa leaves however look almost exactly like the leaves in those illustrations, which makes me think they may have been inspired by them instead of the plant more directly, and virtually extinguishes any remaining doubt I had about that detail. The will-o-wisps / ball lightning encountered in the Siofra River and the Consecrated Snowfield are another faerie connected/inspired element, potentially relevant to your Miquella theory given where we find them.
Gotta love that ER's lore/history is obscured by time, and everything seems to be up in the air for the players' imagination to piece the whole thing together and make a guess on what really happened at when.
“If you ever see me doing a Raid: Shadow Legends sponsorship…you’ll know I’ve fallen on hard times.” Big Respect. MMO’s with a business model based on micro-aggressions…aggressions, transactions, same in this context,..are the death of joy.
Yup! I get SO many requests to do really meaningless sponsorships... I just can't in good faith even pretend like I am recommending the things I get asked to. They pay well though, $200 a video; I know why people do them. Blasted morals.
@@kitetales Stay strong. By the by, I spent six years learning Dutch and traveling to the Netherlands and Belgium several times a year. But it’s been a long time since I’ve travelled there, and my Dutch teacher moved home with her family years ago. I try and keep my skills up (difficult), and Babbel is one of the things I use. I get only accepting sponsorships from products you’d use. This is the way! 👊🏻
Oh I’m so jealous, I LOVE Belgium! And the Netherlands; gosh they are just such beautiful countries. Okay so stock up on cheese in NL and then chocolate and beer in Belgium! 😆
@@kitetales I’m going to London on Monday. It’s not exactly the Low Countries, but my companions and I will raise a flagon of Trappist ale as we eat a wedge of Dutch cheese, and praise your name whilst doing so! And chocolate? Everywhere, always. Charbonel et Walker is my fave in London.
Great Job KiteTales! Fun and Interesting investigation. Fairies or Fae would fit the lore nicely. If you like the Farie theme "Remnant 2" just did a great Fae realm in their game, it was pretty cool.
Giiiirl you are so convincing me right now!!! And i feel like by finding the inspiration for an elden ring character it's so much clearer what they wanted to do with them My view of omens completely shifted when i learned the little omen dolls are inspired by statues made for miscariage... Like the culture in the golden order is that if you birth an omen you basically consider it dead that's wackkkkk poor morgott
The dual identity thing may also represent a seasonal motif. Marika and Radagon would represent Summer (marinas golden hair) and autum (Radagon red hair). Meanwhile Miquella and Trina would represent Spring (youthful miquella) and Trina represents winter with her blue / sleep theme. Isn’t Trina also associated with the icy area? Now, since it seems that Miquella grew up as Miquella and then developed his alter ego as Trina later, that would be a Spring to Winter transition - which is the opposite way. This makes me think that Miquella and Trina aren’t exactly the same person but rather they are two haves of the changeling exchange. Trina is a human (I guess) who switches places with Miquella, who is a magic person. Maybe Miquella ‘becoming’ Trina was the moment that they switched places, perhaps switching worlds.
This is theory is so good, holy shit. I have 2 questions: 1) When a changeling takes the place of a child, what happens to the child? I am asking this because I want to know if there is a possibility of we having 2 Miquelas? One of them being a fairy that's trying to get rid of the Rot god, traped by Moug. And the Other being a Sister to Malenia, daughter to Marika, Empirian, in the fairy realm eith their own plans and schemes. --- 2) How would this connect to Godwyn? Because Godwyn also had plans with Miquela (wich of the two, we can't know).
This was a really interesting watch and I'm glad you went into the fairy references ingame. BUT, I have to be honest, as I thought on the ideas posed I feel I began to disagree. Your findings have reshaped my thoughts on the fairy references in the game but I think they lead me to a different conclusion. Everything that follows was helped by the information you presented. I don't think Miquella is so much meant to be our fairy as he is our Elf (the Christianized elves of Tolkien to more specific) but I'm not hear to talk about Miquella. I'm here to talk about who I believe the fairies are based on the points you made and some deductions of my own. I believe when Elden Ring refers to the "Fairies" it is speaking specifically of the Nox and Silver Tear folk of Nokstella and Nokron. In Celtic myth the descendants of the Tuatha De Dannon (Celtic Gods) were driven underground. Reading the description of the Numen race is like reading a very short description of the Tuatha De Dannon. They are long lived seldom born being who came from outside of Ireland. As mentioned the descendants of these beings came to be known as the Sidhe (fairies). The game through various items having to do with the Black Knives illustrates that the Nox and the Numen are of the same stock. So the Nox are the Sidhe to the Numen's Tuatha De Dannon. As part of the Sidhe's retreat underground they shrank themselves, thus they ride on the backs of smaller creatures like cats and corgis and while we do not see Nox riding such cute mounts we do get the scale defying image of a Nox riding ants. The ant mounts also demonstrate the Nox's ability to bewitch. The ants while mounted have a purple hazy in their eyes but should you knock the rider from their mount and the hazy leaves the ant's eyes it will turn on its former rider. Though the Silver Tears would be created later in Nox history they too occupy a place in Nox society. Actually by the time we get down there it seems like the Silver Tears outnumber the Nox. The Silver Tears can easily be called Changelings with little need for explanation. While fairies aren't mention a lot directly in game if we take the Blind swordsman's tale and break it down with the Nox/Silver Tears civilization in consideration it fits: "The dancer in blue represents a fairy, who in legend bestowed a flowing sword upon a blind swordsman." Gonna skip the blue part for now but they bestowed upon the swordsman a flowing sword. There is literally a weapon ingame called the Nox Flowing Sword. While there is also the Curved Flowing Sword one can not overlook the truly flowing nature of the Nox weapons. "Blade in hand, the swordsman sealed away an ancient god - a god that was Rot itself." This sealing away of rot occurs on the doorstep of Nokstella. I haven't seen much direct evidence of Miquella in Nokstella or the Lake of Rot. To me, it is more likely that the Blind swordsman's mandate to defeat the Rot god and halt the encroaching spread of Rot would come from Nokstella. And we know from the Marai family of weirdos that prior to Malenia's birth the Scarlet Rot had been gone so long that it was pretty much a little known folk tale. As an aside, Nokstella is an area with desaturated blue ambiance, this lighting is provided by the "stars" of their false night sky. Their stars, at least to me, illustrates fairy fire. I did want to address the reference to Spirit Ashes in the video. Most spirit ashes are actually grey with a very desaturated Lavender. It's hard to notice at first until you fight Rennala. Her summons, called forth using Carian Magic, are light grey and when ours stand next to them the lavender becomes really noticeable. This extends to the flames or smoke that they appears when we summon them. The only summons with the Blue summoning effect are actually the puppets. In game we can only get puppets from Selivus.... Unless you count the Nox sisters: "An old puppet crafted in the Eternal City. Use to summon the spirits of a nightmaiden and a swordstress. These sisters, members of a cold-blooded race who wield flowing weapons, became puppets of their own volition." These summons are very distinctly blue. "The dancer in blue represents a fairy, who in legend bestowed a flowing sword upon a blind swordsman." Blue person who can appear out of nowhere and has flowing sword detected. Though who is to say the fairy was blue, the swordsman was blind how would he know lol. An interesting note with regards to the Fairy Cat of the Liurnia, it is possible that this was a Silver Tear. The Church of Vows gives the impression that Liurnia had some awareness of the Nokstella. Liurnia hosts the Ainsel River Well and the Moonlight Plateau has the Deep Ainsel River well, which implies somewhat regular traffic, having two routes connecting them. I know I called Miquella an Elf and then said I don't wanna talk about it... and I'm still not gonna follow that up because it is too off topic but I will leave you with this. The power of Sleep, the power that we associate to St. Trina and by proxy Miquella, is much closer to the power of death than any other. As noted, our typical spirit ashes are lavender (hard to see until you compare) but also the Tibia Mariners' lanterns are lit with a lavender flame, the glowing waters they scoot around on are lavender. We are told in game that the Omen are haunted in their sleep by spirits. We can even see some of them really having a rough go of it while sleeping. This further connects the concept of sleep and death. While curing the Scarlet Rot of Malenia was one of his personal projects, it is also theorized he was working on those who live in death as well. He was trying to restore a soul to a soulless demi-god. If Sleep and Death or at the very least the spirit world are connected it makes sense that Miquella would expand their knowledge and influence in that realm of magic. Sorry for the wall of text.
Wow thats one heck of a tree map there haha 😅 That's cool. Always fun listening to your talk about Elden Ring series and the stuff about changlings plus your voice is so gentle.😊
@@kitetales If they drop more references I'd be looking forward to an update on the mind map and your theories. I love fae mythos and celtic folklore in general.
Thank you!! You are the exact person I needed to hear that from; I have no idea about mics and this is the second one I’m trying; followed a general setup on it but I don’t have an ear for sound. I think there is a setting on this to get rid of the brightness so I’ll play around with that. Thank you for the tip!! 🙏
4:43 this model used to show Miquella within the cocoon is a rare instance of simple asset reuse. the model is the same as when Morgott is bested and lies on the floor. I don't believe the model of Miquella that we "see" is actually what Miquella looked like at all. it's one of those few instances where we can't trust our eyes; From didn't intend for us to look inside the cocoon yet, or for what we see to make sense. It's a reused asset, they only needed Miquella's arm and hand, and did not waste time making a brand new model for this. Either this or Miquella somehow looks exactly like Morgott but without hair. REGARDLESS - this is downright bloody brilliant. I'd just never considered it - Miyazaki always veered closer to English fictions than the fictions of the Welsh, the Scots, or other Gaelic peoples. Welshmen were setup as distant travelers, eccentric and odd - Domhnall of Zena in DS1 being the only Welshman, the people of Lanafir in DS2 being Welsh and one featured as a traveling merchant. Even the Scots with Benhart of Jugo, with his thick accent as he expresses how bizarre his homeland is. As an Englishman, it felt very much in line with English children's story books! right glad I am to see in my media the other mythos of the British isles expressed, where I find myself learning Irish words and cultural concepts from Wales.
Excuse me if I am interpreting this wrong, but if Miquella is a changing, would that mean the real Miquella is in the faerie realm? If so, this is what the DLC image could be depicting; Miquella leaving the faerie realm and seeing the wreckage of the lands between. I also believe the DLC could go 2 ways; we either fight Miquella or we help him rebuild/heal the lands between under a new order of peace. Hoping for the latter!
A lot of great details in here! I think Miquella's decrepit look is a side effect of being in the cocoon for too long. I always thought that the cocoon was Miquella's attempt at reversing his 'eternal youth' but maybe it's caused by Mohg? Hard to say until we get more info in the DLC (We're getting more info, right? Right Miyazaki??)
Smoking game. Take a puff every time she says We'll get to Siofra River soon, take 2 puffs every time she says We'll get to Ainsel River soon too.. 😅😂😂😂
Hi there!! lovely video btw, love the theory :) Im still watching the video, but as a note, the reference that you get from the danish book and looks like Miquella (I agree they could have use it as a refference), the artist is John Bauer, one of my favourite artists, and althou that illustration was a bout a fairy and a changeling, Im afraid all his female drawings are very similar, always some kind of princess, alwas very long golden hair, I think is a nordic folklore thing. SO I would say that conection is pointing more towards "fair maiden" or "tipical inocent princess" that a fairi itself. I will resume the video now, Im loving it sofar :)
This lines up well with the theory that Miquella was Torrent's former master and could even explain how someone other than the player character(IE Miquella) could have access to Torrent in the DLC. If Torrent actually exists in the Spirit/Fairy/Dream realm, that would mean that somebody who is in the realm already could use Torrent, provided that the player does not have Torrent actively summoned. This means that Miquella could be riding around on Torrent in a parallel realm whenever we as the player character are not using him. Poor guy never gets a break.
Fey were also associated with the underworld as were rivers, so these could still all connect to the ideas of death and dreams, as sleep has also commonly been associated with fairy mischief and death.
Hmm the curvedsword talisman just made me realise that malenias clean rot knights accually use guard counters againts you. Which makes sense if this a technique created by the blind swordsman. Edit: 😱 i just realized malenia uses the same technique againts radahn, not exactly a guard counter, but she takes the first hit and uses the oportunity to impale radahn.
… I can’t believe I never put it together that Dolores may be the author of the cookbooks! Thank you, this is why it helps to get other eyes on something 😆
hey so i am late to this but you were actually the only other person i have heard bring up several key points primarily one from a video some time ago. you pointed out the baldur/mistletoe connection and ive been hollering about that for-ev-er. especially when people started talking about the erdtree being a parasite or even a fungus? so mistletoe is hemi-parasitic and only affects TREES. a friend of mine would work at an xmas tree lot seasonally and they had to make sure that different kinds of mistletoe were clipped from the trees before they damaged them or became a bigger problem. i am sure you know more about how baldur was killed with loki tricking someone, brother i think who was blind, into firing an arrow with mistletoe into baldur killing him because i guess frigg missed that when death proofing everything. legit, you were the only person to touch on this. even if you look more at different types of mistletoe some look like death blight growth all pokey and jagged. another thing...basilisks and their eyes and the eyes on godwyns corpse riddled with death/mistletoe. the mythos of basilisks straight up talk about them releasing toxic fumes and holding your stare so that the fumes envelop and kill you. this is also referred to as the cockatrice as well but looks a little different. now the actual basilisk lizard, native to south america into some of central america, is the one referred to as the Jesus Lizard as it can run on water. there are a few species of basilisk with the brown basilisk extending outside of its usual native habitat very recently and into parts of Florida. i noticed this due to how recent this occurred and why it was of public interest. apparently there is a concern that people importing so many as pets will harm the present ecosystem and to report any sightings to some app being used to track the impact i believe? basilisk lore shows up everywhere though...and now its possibly related to Florida Man.
@@kitetales might not be up to you esp if you are near one of the comparable rot lakes of Florida especially...or moreso just south of Tampa. Being somewhere around Tally/JAX myself but lower and not really on the map they have yet to run this far north. BTW if you like canva I worked with a friend of mine and created a mind map program that also is an investigative tool but doubt it would return many email addresses for Marika & co.
I think there is a parallel between the flowing curved sword, bestowed by a fairy, and the hammer of marika, forged in the lands of the numen. We are told smithing originated with the giants and it seemed cruder, at least at first, but marika and the numen seem to have had a greater ability to smith than the cultures around them. Perhaps divinely given, idk. But I think the numen are fairy people
I think there's a parallel between the fairy giving the blind swordsman a sword to seal the rot god, and Miquella giving malenia (who is blind --i think 🤔) a needle to seal her rot.
Wonderful stuff and it is nice to see new ideas when the community is stagnated on commonly accepted ideas that do not make sense. I also think it is clear now that all of these games since the dawn of the souls genre are connected. If not directly connected surely in the idea being explored is consistent in all games. That core idea is love, Miyazaki and his team use these stories to explore the depth of love in humanity. Bloodborne has no faith stat very specifically, in that world with no faith and no heart we have endless nightmares and wounds that can never heal. Pure logic would teach us to embrace our damnation. we are not given purely factual information and it is intentionally confusing, think about relgious stories or stories of legends, they are not facts. That picture of Mohg and the weird baby, those are elden beast wings. Seriously look at the weird translucent outline and it is a small elden beast. Why is Morgott fightning someone who looks like Radahn, why does the picture of Rykard and the snake make no sense? Maybe the reason they are paintings is because they are not representations of fact but religious interpretations of something. Maybe just like in the real world the stories people tell themselves and use to create narratives are actually just lies. Also did you notice the weird red dot Gowry uses to fix the needle? There is a tiny red spike in the back of the necks of the pest people and it makes me think the needle is kinda like a voodoo doll used to control things. The divine towers also have bridges that have very obviously been moved, and it reminds me how lordran has random walls and never really looked like how you would build anything Dolls, how strange and unexplained they are, but realize they create many questions. Why is Ranni a doll, we know dolls can be controlled by someone else but nobody questions how much Selivus' basement shakes the foundation of all lore theories we currently have. If you go look at the giant corpses you can see their bodies coming apart in pieces, with small ropelike things appearing at their joints as if they were dolls. I think a lot of references you point out are great too but I think using a possible reference to assign meaning does not work, I very much believe the internal logic of the game has it's own explanations still. All of these games speak to the nature of human love at their core, nearly every major character in Elden Ring has some sort of strong relationship mentioned. The "First Flame" of Dark Souls is just that, the first love. As a world we have lost touch with real love and the depth it has, we are not doomed to only have primal urges and people do compromise their own lives to settle for someone to not be alone. The Darksign is to have love and lose it, the chaos flame is unrequited love "a misshapen thing never wanted in this world but it exists nonetheless" it is why the Chaos Blade hurts us when we use it. The obviously lying snakes are just like the devil, convincing us that our nature is the dark, to consume and have no emotion outside of sating our base desires, it is a lie. Aldia is the scholar of the first sin for a reason "men are but props on the stage of life, but no matter how tender, how exquisite a lie will remain a lie." We tell stories to explore the deepness of humanity and Miyazaki and his team are unmatched at that, and I think all of these ties to the fae are really smart, but I think the point is the same point those stories of fairies were getting at, not just using the stories. Bonfires and fire keepers represent a loving partner, we return to them for strength when we falter to keep going. In ds1 we see more than one interpretation of that and the entirety of DS3 is an interrogation of these ideas, of systematically creating a world where women are just there to foster the growth of their "man" it is difficult to convey a lot of these ideas and it seems to come from a very personal place. The ritual we call marriage where we stab out partner in the face? Yea that is a comment on how we can not obtain love in pursuit of ambition to feed our own ego, even if we take a partner we sacrifice their future for our own. Fires of ambition or hollowing, we can choose evil paths, the only way to win these games is not to play them, there is no way to end the cycle in these games for that reason. They don't seek to make a final statement on if there is a way out of the curse of lost love because it is impossible to know. Thanks for putting this together, I think my rambling is just to make the case for we can not logic a lot of answers out, they require using how we feel. A lot of these Fae stories revolve around the same love too, with fairies embodying extremes of human behavior. Like all great artwork does. This was not made as some logic exercise we were meant to build a timeline on. I firmly believe the point is not to be vague but to require us to use faith and intelligence to understand them, the fire inside all humanity. If you do not understand heartbreak maybe you can not understand why the bleakness of these worlds is not wallowing in how awful the world is, it is exploring something so many of us have lost touch with. A shield is great but not if it engenders passivity, think about all the people you know who approach life with nothing but passivity, their shield a mess of lies they believe to ignore the pain in the world. Shakespeare is very old but that was the point of so many of their stories too, humans have had this in them for a long time.
This is an interesting theory but it kind of bums me out because it takes the one kind of nice demi God and takes this devotion he has to his sister and turns it into him using her to fix something else.
Absolutely! It’s the Shure SM7B; I do like it, but I had to get a Cloudlifter in addition because I found the gain very quiet. But, I have a smaller voice so if you don’t have that issue it’s a great mic on its own
Sleeping Beauty. I don't know why more people don't talk about this. It's not like Stormveil doesn't have a 50 foot sign out front with flashing neon letters saying "This is a Sleeping Beauty Reference!" We even get our golden haired "beauty" down the basement. Seriously, check the wiki for the story. There are multiple variations and each of them to one degree or another has a narrative thread that can be found in Elden Ring. In some sense, the Lands Between might are a reference to sleep and dreaming, as sleep has at various times been likened to a sort of state in between life and death.
I have not, but after looking that up... I am SOLD. I LOVE fae characters. Oh my gosh have you seen the show Dr. Strange and Mr. Norrell? The fairy in that story is exactly what I imagine them all to be. I loved the show and really should read the book too!
