What Is Farum Azula? 

So I feel like I need to clarify this since everyone keeps commenting the exact same thing. I know and understand you can see Farum Azula from Malenias Divine Tower. But like I said in the video, it could be in a different state when looking from far away than when we actually go there. Just like with the Roundtable.

One theory I like is that Faram Azula is a timeless prison that people who commit cardinal sins are sent to. Hence the teleportation once you burn the Erdtree. Alexander apparently tried bathing in the giant's fire to temper his jar, thus comiting a similar sin almost by accident and winding up there as well.

Hey uh. In the isolated divine tower in leyndell, the one for rykard you can actually see farum azula in the distance.

“The one who walks alongside flame” is whatever Tarnished takes Melina to the Erdtree. She is the flame that walks along with us, the one destined to burn the thorns of the Erdtree

Dragonlord Placidusax isn't waiting on the Three Fingers. The Three Fingers' whole thing is that they want to destroy the world with the Flame of Frenzy. Dragonlord Placidusax was previously the Elden Lord in ancient times, and if he was the Lord of Frenzy, then the entire world would have been destroyed before we even got to play the game. The Three Fingers weren't imprisoned below the capital at all, either. What actually happened is the nomadic merchants were imprisoned below the capital, and then they summoned the Three Fingers and the Flame of Frenzy as some sort of desperate attempt at retaliation against the Golden Order which imprisoned them. That's why all merchants use frenzy incantations and when they die they say "Melt away with the rest of it..." Also, Farum Azula is not in a dream. Farum Azula is a physical place which is visible from certain tall landmarks/towers around the map. It does not exist outside of time either. Farum Azula is a physical place that merely has anti-gravity properties. Dragonlord Placidusax's arena is the only aspect which is outside of time itself. It is the only area which can not be viewed from the outside, either. It is the only area where time is manipulated in order to reach. Miquella's needle is used to shut out the influence of any outer god. Miquella's needle only works outside of time due to its function not being complete/perfected. Miquella's needle isn't specifically for getting rid of the Flame of Frenzy. It works on any outer god, and would work in any area as long as its outside of time. Miquella's needle can also be used to cure Millicent's scarlet rot. The fact that Miquella's needle's function only works in the Dragonlord's arena is merely a coincidence.

My biggest issue with Farum Azula's dream or altered representation or such is the presence of tangible NPCs like Alexander, Gurranq/Maliketh, and Bernahl being there. Especially Alexander's journey there more than any other, convinces me that we're in the actual real Farum Azula because Maliketh is a divine being in a sense and Bernahl literally assists or invades you but Alexander is just straight up physically, tangibly there. Another solid point is that there is a waygate in Liurnia that goes there with an imbued swordstone key.

You can actually see Farum Azula from one of the Divine Towers. I believe it's the one where we awaken Malenias Great Rune. It's the divine tower that we can get to by using the teleport chest on the Southern Peninsula. Instead of opening the door to the tower just turn around and look East. It's actually a really cool site so I highly recommend checking it out.

I also disagree about the whole dream concepts, there’s other tarnished on the floating city, like that one guy you meet in volcanic manor that help you to kill godskin duo. Or just the godskins themselves who is likely also there to kill malekith to restore their black flame. The place feels very real and alive, and all these very much alive other beings somehow being in your dream just don’t really make sense

2:11 Enia, the lady you buy boss weapons from, tells you just before or after you burn the Erdtree that the Rune of Death goes by two names. The other being Destined Death.

Ever wonder why Farum Azula is “doomed” or “slowly crumbling”? Well, I think this is because of the law of entropy - or in the Lands Between interpretation of it - the One Great which originally consisted of five fingers, is now broken up into 2 fingers representing Order, and 3 fingers representing Chaos. This one extra digit for Chaos, could mean it’s ever so slightly prevailing, hence the purgatory-like state of a slowly crumbling place that was originally ruled by the One Great. For all we know, Farum Azula could very well have been a temple, a place of worship, where as you can see on the wall carvings, knights are worshipping the Ancient Dragons, whose lord is Placidusax, first Elden Lord - the entire faction probably being Apostles of the One Great Outer God.

Listen, if I saw a coffin at the end of a river of rot inside a temple of parasite monsters... I'd crawl inside too. Another great vid Jake, keep it up

If you go to the "isolated tower" you can see farum azula way off in the distance

I think the dragons had the five finger god, still being the Greater Wills whole hand in a sense. But at a point, the hands are split into order and chaos. As for time, light and gold have represented time in other souls games, ancient dragon smithing stones hint to the same. Also note that roundtable to seems to be a almost statis. Also note it’s via Marika statues and signs that are in the shape of her rune that allow us to be summoned and rebirth at sights of grace. And in the past souls games summons signs are literally pulling someone from a point in time.

I think the Dragonlord's God was the One Great, or the original form of the 2 and 3 fingers. The symbolism of the beastmen having FIVE fingers seems super significant, and the "old version" of the Elden Ring you see in farum azula? The one people say looks like it has roots? I don't think those are roots. They look like flames. I think that the Greater Will is a fractured part of the One Great, which for whatever reason chose Marika (or perhaps she had a hand in dividing the outer God), as she is a Numen and likely came from Farum Azula. There was some form of coup, where the greater will rejected the chaotic half of the one great and forced it underground in order to maintain order. Also, the idea of an Outer God that is equal parts order and chaos, that exists in a city that is falling apart and crumbling, but always STAYS in that chaotic state, never really changing? Seems like a good fit to me.

Almost certain Melina was talking about herself when she gave her final speech. Essentially saying this was her inevitable end and bidding you farewell.

There’s a great deal of symbolism regarding the beast men that emphasizes 5 fingers; 2 fingers + 3 fingers = 5 fingers, perhaps the original one great before the greater will from the age before the red tree. Placidusax even had 5 heads originally as evidenced by his 3 severed stumps. It really does seem like Farum Azula was the Lyndell from a time before the One Great was divided, or “fled”.

Also… what if those dream states are actually like inside Godwyns mind or memory? Like when we go into “fias” dream what if she just kinda tapped into godwyn which is why we fight his dragon friend😂

@ 11:18, something I've tried pointing out to others since the beginning is that you only have the guidance of Grace until you get to Farum Azula (if you look at the map, you can see little directional queues from the sites of grace but they stop after you kill the Fire Giant; there are none of the directional queues in Farum Azula). Glad you kinda touched on that.

Does anyone find it ironic that in Dark Souls 1-3 the lore clearly states that Gwyn developed Lightning Miracles, with Seath's help, to kill the Dragons, but in Elden Ring the Dragons are the ones clad in lightning and grant you lightning powers after dying?

My take on the walk alongside flame thing was that the "flame" is referring to Melina, as she is the kindling maiden The point is that at the end of your journey with Melina, you will reach the way towards Destined Death Also, Guranqq is supposedly howling at the Erdtree, where Marika is held prisoner since he's likely still able to sense her, but can do nothing about it As for the ruins, it does make sense to think that the ruins scattered all over the ground are from Farum Azula, since you can also get the ruins fragments and sanctuary stones from the debris under the Bestial Sanctum. But I'd like to think that there was another city in the sky besides Farum Azula, and that city was the one that was stuck by the meteor mentioned in the Ruins Greatsword. Perhaps it is the kingdom of the Sun alluded to in one of skeletons shield? To add to the above, I'd like to think that Farum Azula was once on the ground, filling the space between North Caelid and the Mountaintops, as you can see a waterfall in the middle of the ocean between those areas, which may have hinted that some landmass was there before it suddenly disappeared. This would also help explain why there are giant dogs and birds in both Caelid and the Mountaintops, as well as the gigantic skeletons that are only found in this two regions. It would make some sense if it was once connected for these creatures to mingle in both areas

'Elden Ring the most confusing lore ever' Kingdom Hearts series: "Hold my beer."

Something that speaks against Melina teleporting us to Farum Azula is that we end up there, even if we burn the Erdtree ourselves using the Frenzied Flame.

7:18 you can also physically see Farom azula form a distance at melania’s tower. I believe it might have something to do with the subtle connection between Melania and Maliketh with Maliketh having a similar special attack with wildly swinging consecutive hits. Also that the beast clergyman (Maliketh) being found in the caelid wilds. And if you wanna get real wacky with it, there’s an interesting link between Melania, Melina, Maliketh and Miquella what with all their names not only being similar but with Meliketh and Melina having a connection with destined death and Melania being the “blade of Miquella” having that connection to eternal youth. Kind of a yin Yang if you will. It’s made more interesting when you consider that both associated areas with Miquella and Melania are optional and hidden away. Specifically branching away from the greater will and the golden order

I really enjoy your videos my man, and it’s great to follow along and kinda unwind this story. Elden ring is my first souls game and the community is great! Keep up the great work

Another awesome video man !!! I have become a big fan , I like the way you break things down. Your production value is getting better with every video . You give us lore lovers something to look forward to , thanks again and keep em coming !!!

The dragons god isn't surely the three fingers, the three fingers were summoned after the golden order captured and forced below the city all the merchants because Shabriri had accused them of being followers of the frenzy flame. The other remaining gods are the Giant's one, but I'm not sure if it can return after we slay the last fire giant, and the two headed bird of the death birds who is at the moment missing (the bird's god could be rappresented by the four fingers like the items they drop, and that most think brought bad luck). This would start to make sense if we see the look at the arrival of the gods in the lands between in a decrescent order : 5 finger(beast/dragon), 4 fingers (death birds/storm hawks), 3 fingers (Shabriri/first traveling humans), 2 fingers (civilized humans and society), 1 finger (perhaps the newborn god of the giants? The only one that could harm the erdtree?)

Your lore videos are some of the best and some of my favorite out there. The streams are amazing too :D

I always thought the reason we get teleported to Farum Azula was because we burned down the Erdtree, which is a cardinal sin and that the Golden Order wanted to punish us somehow

You got my sub👍🏽 I know lore in elden ring is getting scarce but the way you put it in your own words and described it to us is worth my sub. I’ve watched a few of your videos and I enjoy your content and not just the videos about new findings in the game but how you tell the backstory in a way that makes the game feel fresh. It’s made me want to explore more and potentially find things that might alter the way we see the lands between.

As a side note, Gehrmans theme always gets to me a bit. It's a truly heartbreaking piece. When I was a kid, I could have never imagined this would be video game music.

Also on farm azula location, if u use one of the portals at the four belfries it takes u to a far outer part of farum and u can see the beastial sanctum and cliffs in the distance, I feel like the ruin fragments around the lands between were flung from the far east

if you go towards the Isolated divinte tower, where Milenia's great rune is, you can actually see Farum azula in the distance.

I love your videos, please keep it up! It makes my playthrough so so much better

Being a studio ghibli fellow the first thought I had with farum Azula was it’s similarity to Laputa from castle in the sky. I believe the golems are also a reference to it. As are the the bits a pieces all over the world that have fallen off the city. I don’t thinks it’s a dream so much as a crumbling vestment of the previous order. Its also almost completely inaccessible which makes it a great place to hide things. I wouldn’t be suprised if the dynasty merika usurped was once headed there . It would make sense that the center of the dragons power would be in the sky.

I think that the outer god of placidusax is in fact the Greater Will, just at a different time. This comes from two pieces of lord. The first being that Placidusax is specifically called an Elden Lord. This means that the dragon wielded the Elden Ring, which is a manifestation of the Elden Beasts power, which is a vassal of the Greater Will. The second piece of evidence is that the Greater Will may not have fled, but may have in fact abandoned the dragons. The fact that the Greater Will abandoned the demigods, and it’s apathy towards the Lands Between afterwards, seems to suggest that so long as “order” is present, it does not truly care who is in charge, and most likely abandoned the dragons because they were either a lost cause, as with the demigods, or simply saw a better option, which could lead into the rise of Marika to godhood.

What a beautiful lore video, this is absolutely incredible and interesting video. I wish you the absolute best AGT, don’t let anyone bring you down! ❤️

To me, it makes more sense that Melena is referring to herself rather than the forge when she calls us the "one who walks alongside flame."

The dragons didn’t lose their “outer god” they lost their equivalent of Marika and likey they also served the greater will as they can coexist with the golden order that derived from it

Videos are great bro keep up the grind. I truly believe your channel will pop to high levels

such a great video! love your lore content

The flame melina talks about is also the frenzied flame, she means that whoever gets possessed by the frenzied flame must die.

The Stormhawk King God is responsible for the winds of around stormveil, (check the item des. of the Stormhawk King) not Farum Azula, but i do think it was all up there in the sky at one point

Ur videos r great and informative, ty for that. Keep it up bro. Awesome video, I love that area of the game.

Ever since I'd first gone through Farum Azula in my first playthrough, I've wanted to know *WHY* it's hanging in the air, half destroyed, but seemingly held together by the twister at its heart. This crumbling city is my favorite location in the entire game, and the more I find out about it, the more I'm drawn to it. Thank you for a fantastic video, love your way of breaking down lore 💙

I disagree with the interpretation of the phrase “Walks with Flame” I am under the impression Flame here was referring to Melina as she becomes the Flame and we ventured this far with her.

I disagree with the part where FA is inside the mind of the tarnished, since you can reach it earlier from the four belfries. It's a magical place, where time flows differently yes, but I don't consider it in an alternate reality. The Round Table Hold in the other hand...

Great video like always, keep up the great work.

great videos bro, keep it up!

I think Farum Azula has to be a physical location in some way, because there is a Waygate in Liurnia of the Lakes. I also think it includes information the player is not necessarily privy to, since you can see what looks like Miquella’s great rune (a needle) right in the middle of the old Elden Ring. I think it’s possible that this rune in play in Farum Azula also, since you can use Miquella’s needle in the Dragonlord’s arena. I think this is because the throne exists outside of time, and since the elden ring has only been shattered inside time. The weird thing is that the guidance of grace still works in Farum Azula, which is something I don’t really understand since with this theory of mine, the grace of the Erdtree and the Golden Order shouldn’t work. Lastly, I believe it used to exist where the bestial sanctum is now, since there’s a “Farum Greatbridge”… near where the dragon mound and bestial sanctum is, which I doubt is a coincidence.

You can see Farum Azula from Malenia’s divine tower. Definitely a tangible thing.

Thank you. Your vids def help. I don’t know why a company would make a story that was this complex and make it almost impossible to find out exactly what they made.

It's pretty clear the Roundtable is in the Erd Tree, since it burns the same time the Erd Tree does, and the flames get worse the same time they do for the Erd tree.

20+ hours and 2 months into my playthrough and just found moonveil… tempting…

Wow! Just strolling in my subscription then found this and just 16 second ago like lol what? Ok. Let watch This. But other comments are like 10 hrs ago...what happening here? RU-vid?

I have a feeling that it wasn't the 3 fingers that he fought for but instead it was the two fingers and the three fingers combined into something like a hand (maybe like the god hand from berserk)

This was great! Utterly fascinating

Im so hyped for the dlc. I can’t stop thinking that elden ring actually leads to dark souls and the ancient dragons ruling over grey lifeless plains after the tarnished burn the entire world into ashes with the flames of frenzy, stopping life and births (exept for the everlasting dragons). That the ancient dragons were probably the rulers under the 3 fingers before even makes more sense for the theory!

My theory is that some programmers thought it would be cool to have a crumbling sky fortress as a setting in the game and they just kind of shoe horned it into the game without any real story reason.

every video you come out with just gets better and better in production value. its clear to see the hard work you put into these. Keep up great work. (im Manderex from Patreon)

In regards to that blade, you mentioned about 1/4 the way through the video, that is the exact blade you can see Melina wield when you call upon her to aid you in the fight against Morgott

What u can also notice is that there is like sum lands parts under the city with sum threes and stuff and also bridge that lead to nothing clear indication that it was once connected to the ground

Not only that, Godwyns eyes can be seen growing through out Farum. It had to be connected to the rest of the continents if a tree somehow started to grow up there.

Never thought the lore is confusing but maybe cuz u explain it well. Good job man thanks

I'm fairly certain the Roundtable Hold is a physical location, inside the Erdtree. It's placed outside the map to distinguish it as the hub area, and because if it overlapped with the final boss' area (like the other Souls games), it might give it away.

Placidusax is heavily damaged with 2 heads left, a pendant shows 4 heads originally but the boss model shows 5 heads, 3 stumps, the two heads seems to be similar to two fingers, seeming like the index and middle finger while the missing heads are the thumb, ring, and pinkie, similar to the three fingers

Farum Azula is my favourite location in the game love the visuals with the never ending storm and the cutseen before the dragon lord where time seems to reverse just adds to the mysteries

All of your videos that I've seen are amazing

This is what i love about fromsoftware. They make you really think about the world and what might have happend or will happen. And i really like that you took the first hunter soundtrack to have as background soundtrack, really threw me back to the bloodborne days.

I like how destined death has golden embers. Looks super cool with black and red flames

You can see mountaintops of the giants from farum azula so its definetly right there where it shows on the map.

When I reached the royal capital there is a gateway which teleports you to the middle of the ocean with a tower with at that time a locked door, if you faced away from the door and looked to the right you would see farum azula. Round table hold has both a dream version inside the erd tree and a physical one, so when you burn the tree the dream version catches fire but not the physical one, if I had to guess if farum azula is similar it's probably in the great tree and is the reason why it's in such disrepair.

I always thought the roundtable was some sort of non physical place for the same reasons you mentioned! I would love to know any theories about the identity of the statue in roundtable hold around the table… he stands out so much and I’ve seen nobody talk about it!

Looking closely at the inside of the Forge of the Giants. There are many scratches, grooves, markings and multiple rips almost claw/finger in appearance in the outer structure. It is as though something was in there originally and has escaped, just a thought.

It's pretty obvious that the roundtable hold that we keep going to is located in the Erdtree; when the erdtree is set on fire the hold is burning and is the only other location on fire besides the tree

You can actually see farum azula if you go to the isolated divine tower. Behind Malenia’s two fingers you can see it quite clearly in the distance.

i guess it kinda makes sense cause everytime you sit at grace after killing the enemies it respawn while some don't with death being like you said random at times

Gehrman ost almost had me crying BB is truly a masterpiece, cool lore vid btw

If you summon Melina during the fight against morgott you can see her using the blade of calling. I believe she places it there after you defeat morgott

you can see Ferum Azula in the sky where it is on the map from the secluded tower where you empower Malenia's great rune.

One thing that might throw a wrench into your dream state idea is that Alexander the warrior jar also gets teleported to faram azula and and does indeed die if you choose to fight him and you can even bring back his innards to jar bairn. So we have to be somewhere in the actual world rather than just inside ourselves or some other state of being.

Bro Gherman’s theme hits so hard.

I think when it says the one who walks along side flame….. I think its referring to the tarnished walking the path with Melina who is the flame whose destinies put them on the road to destined death

The roundtable is likely inside of the Erdtree because when you set the Erdtree aflame, the roundtable also gets on fire.

Farum Azula exists in a timeline detached from the timeline in which the whole game takes place. That’s why killing Maliketh doesn’t make him disappear from the beast Sactuary, that’s why we regress time to fight Placidussaxx, it is because it’s a place stuck in time in a branching timeline.

As someone that is still on my first playthrough I immediately became super suspicious of the fingers when Ranni asked how long I might remain obedient to them

First vid to pop up when I first load up the app. Sweet

love your elden ring lore videos

Farum Azula is in the Lands Between otherwise it would not make sense that you can reach it through a portal at the Four Belfries.

For the weird transport like the coffins, I think it's just s visual gag, because it's not the first time from software has done something like that, but it's the first time they made that ridiculous cutscene of them flying to the next spot. When I did it the first time it was up the waterfall and I didn't expect to see that, so I started to laugh at the absurdity. But I will say when you sleep near the dragon I think you go into a dream like when you fight a certain other dragon which was trapped in a different dream

God damn that thumbnail looks badass

The roundtable.exists within the erdtree it's a manifestation of you returning to the erdtree it's the reason why when you do things that effect the erd tree (i.e set it on fire) roundtable hold suffers the same effect.

I think that like Elden Tree is towering over Lands Between (and when you burn it it cover the capital in ash) the Azula served same purpose in age of dragons, towering over Lands Between. When it was shattered, ruins covered the land like ash covers Capital, and the Stormveil lost it's storm (stormboy placidusax went to slumber). The misbegotten are former shadows of beastmen which are still in original form in Azula. When first lord appeared we got Azula, for second lord we got a tree and now (with age of stars) we get moon which represents Elden lord (consort)

Cool theory on the dragonlord being the first and the connection of the needle. All of the crucible knights, dragon incantations and those cast aside, outside of grace being more ancient than the greater will lines up with this.

From the lore I’ve read and studied: Azula used to be in the middle of the map, above the sea and in the center of all the divine towers. The dragons picked this strategic location because they could very quickly see and travel to pretty much any place in The Lands Between, hence cementing their rule for awhile when Placidusex was The First Elden Lord. Also, they can obviously fly, so it’s naturally a safe place for them to roost, away from non-flying enemies. Maybe their Outer God made the Temple in the sky just for them. But I digress. As rulers of pretty much everywhere though, you start to make enemies. These enemies are the ones who called to their Outer God to bring the Hurricane/Tornado thingy to sweep all Azula away, and it ended up off to the Far East (hence why we see a storm still covering where Azula used to be on the map). Makes a lot of sense to me. Now, I’m now sure if the dragons or the giants where in the snowy northern mountains first (I lean towards the giants), but either way, they started to become enemies and I think the giants called upon their Outer God (The Fell God), to help them defeat the dragons. The Fell God brought the storm. I think the giants lived there first when the trolls migrated up there and evolved into them long ago. Which is why it’s called the Mountaintops of the Giants, not of the Dragons. As the Dragons’ rule started to spread further, they finally started to invade the snowy north and made enemies with the giants. This is all long before the giants’ war with the erdtree of course, but maybe they wouldn’t have lost if they weren’t already weakened by their fight with the dragons, since they already possessed a way to burn the erdtree. Maybe they just didn’t have the numbers to execute their plan after fighting the dragons.

if you go to the isolated divine tower you can see farum azula, which proves it actually is where it's signaled in the map

Placidusax also has the remnants of three heads that are no longer alive (an echo of three fingers?) But this also could lead one to believe since he has two remaining heads perhaps he is more so a reflection of the greater will, or what is left of it. Since there is division amongst one hand there can be no balance which is why the lands between are in the state they are when we arrive.

I like to think that the Farum Azula we play in is in a different time line, which explains why Gurranq is still in Dragonbarrow after we kill Maliketh, you can see Farum from a divine tower which means it exists but when we play, we are in a different time line.

In my opinion Farum Azula was part of the ring you can see on the map (whole Map looks like a whole ring, except the right part in the north of caelid). The isolated Divine Tower was part of it when it was on the bottom. Maybe it represent the shattering of the ring as its the missing part of the map.

I don't think Farum Azula is in our minds, we can see it from one of the towers so yeah, i'll pass on that one

I definitely agree with you when you said that the round table hood is actually a dream state. That seems to make sense to me. However, (and I can’t remember where I read this) but the gragonlords, like Plasidusax, could actually control time, hence the player’s ability to enter his temporal cocoon.