Latest Posts by sausage-rolll - Page 6

Oh boy here comes a long one.

My least favourite part about the elden ring fandom is probably how readily everyone blamed Ranni for everything horrible that happens in the game, completely stripping away any agency Marika or anyone else had in the whole ordeal. 

Through a grief stricken rage over Godwyns death or not it was Marika’s decision to shatter the elden ring, bringing her age to a bloody end. It was her choice to put all the Demigods against each other in a big bloodbath of a war and it was Radagons decision to seal the erdtree so nobody could enter and fix the whole mess, condemning the world to stagnation. And on top of all of this it was the Demigod’s themselves who followed through with Marika’s wishes tenfold and tore the lands between to shreds in their war path.

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This isn’t even going into the fact that overtime, more and more evidence has cropped up that Marika was planning to revolt against the greater will for a long while before Godwyns death, so the shattering might have not even been caused by it in the first place. There’s breadcrumbs of this secret plot leading all the way back to the end of her first marriage with Godfrey, where she banished him and his tarnished warriors specifically to wage war in distant lands and grow stronger in death, to eventually be called back when she deems it time (which just so happened to be through the shattering itself).

If any one soul person is to be responsible for the shattering (which I don’t believe to be the case) and all the lives it ruined, it would be Marika. Ranni might have been the person to light the spark, but it was Marika who decided to throw that spark into the forest, and tell everyone else to follow suit until it was nothing but a blazing, chaotic mess.

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Don’t get me wrong. Ranni isn’t an innocent little snowflake in this whole ordeal either. She did still plot the assassination of Godwyn, armed and set loose the black knives upon the world (who seemingly went rouge at some point considering they’re leader’s trapped on the moonlight alter and they went after Ranni’s lot after she attacked her fingers), royally pissed off Maliketh by stealing from him and inadvertently spread the second most annoying, deadly plant across the lands between. She’s not innocent by any means, but she’s also not more guilty than any other character in the game.

Like, you really gonna look at the shit characters like Rykard, Shabiri and Mohg pulled and still tell me that Ranni is the most evil, selfish, heartless character in the game?

okie dokie

The erdtree is both the religious centre of the lands between (being the biggest symbol of the golden order/greater will) and the literal centre of the lands between.

There’s an argument to be made that it changes its appearance depending on which age is currently in effect (for example it’s the age of the golden order during the time the game takes place which is why it’s glowing golden) but we never actually get to see first hand what it could have looked like in the past, nor do any characters who could have exsisted at the time comment on it.

There’s also a good amount of evidence that the erdtree itself is actually not a natural part of the world since it seems to be directly growing out of what could be argued to be a massive crater that gives the land itself its peculiar shape. This along with the common themes of things falling from the sky from space and the “stars” being an antagonistic force leads me to believe that this is indeed the case.

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When the elden ring was shattered the erdtree, for the first time in history produced seeds that spread across the lands between. These seeds would eventually become the smaller, "minor erdtrees" that are visable around the lands aswell as the little golden sprouts that you can get golden seeds from.

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The most peculiar thing about the tree itself though is actually how it interacts with the cycle of life and death. Even though natural death isn’t a part of the lands anymore, when it was a part of it people actually had to ‘return themselves to the erdtree’ through the roots of the tree. This is why there are so many catacombs around the lands. The more prestige you had in life the lower you were buried into the roots.

Returning oneself to the erdtree seemingly supplied the tree with the sustenance that it needed, much like normal trees absorb water through their roots. The tree was very likely feeding off the souls of the dead. (which could also be what causes its glowing golden appearance.)

That's about it for the erdtree. I think there's a couple more minor things that I didn't explain but that's most of the important stuff.

Elden Ring lore, huh?

I mean I can just say a bunch random words with 'the' in front of them, too.

A lot of games get accused of having world building that really doesn't matter to gameplay. Elden Ring feels like a dare to see how far you can take that.

I still don't know why you can summon an antelope to ride on that can't die but just disappears if someone hits it, and then there is a cool-down period before you can bring it back. And what does that have to do with the giant LED tree?

Who made all of these barrels and boxes? Because this world seems to only have monsters and guys who kill monsters in it.

Please reblog this explaining everything to me. I'm sure it will suddenly be not a bunch of whatever nonsense when YOU type it.

Assuming this isn’t sarcasm here we go (also some spoilers)

There’s not really a lot of lore on torrent. All we really know is that he’s a spirit mount that we can summon with the golden whistle ring, much like we can summon normal spirit ash’s with the spirit calling bell. Both of these items seem to reanimate the dead in a sort of 'spirit state', with the whistle we summon a spirit to ride and with the bell we can summon spirits to fight with us. Both of these things are possible because death isn’t really a thing in the lands between anymore. This is because the 'rune of death' was removed from the elden ring, which essentially removed the concept of death from the world itself. (the elden ring seems to control the laws of reality and said laws can be messed with or altered by taking away or adding different things to the ring). Torrent just sort of poofs when he gets hurt and can be resummoned at will because he isn’t alive in the first place and thus cannot be permanently destroyed.

The Erdtree’s a little trickier to explain but if you’re interested I can go into it.

Elden Ring lore, huh?

I mean I can just say a bunch random words with 'the' in front of them, too.

A lot of games get accused of having world building that really doesn't matter to gameplay. Elden Ring feels like a dare to see how far you can take that.

I still don't know why you can summon an antelope to ride on that can't die but just disappears if someone hits it, and then there is a cool-down period before you can bring it back. And what does that have to do with the giant LED tree?

Who made all of these barrels and boxes? Because this world seems to only have monsters and guys who kill monsters in it.

Please reblog this explaining everything to me. I'm sure it will suddenly be not a bunch of whatever nonsense when YOU type it.

Sellen talking about her plan to overthrow the carian royale family is so much funnier if you’re doing an age of stars playthrough. Like Sellen, do you not see what's strapped to my back? This massive sword of ice and magic? The wedding gift I got from one of the Carian royals?!

Last time we spoke you knew I was already Serving Ranni the witch right? That alone would be reason enough not to tell me of all people that you’re planning to overthrow her mother! What did you think was going to happen?! FFS Sellen I am wearing the dark moon greatsword!

I hate when people are like "What do you mean I should spoiler tag this massive plot twist? This thing has been out for years you should have experienced it already!" As if completely oblivious to the fact that new people... exist?

Shockingly enough someone that's 15 may not have had the chance to experience this game that came out 7 years ago yet. God forbid young people get the chance to experience old content too.

One thing I’ve been thinking about recently that I just cannot get out of my head is why Marika shattered the elden ring? I mean, it’s all well and good to just say “Oh it’s because she was driven mad by the death of Godwyn of course” but I just don’t think that’s quite right. Not only does it feel weird to assume the shattering was just some spur of the moment decision done in an emotional outburst when it was very clearly planned in quite a lot of detail but it also doesn’t really add up with the timeline since Godfrey was presumably sent out of the lands between long before Godwyn died and that seems to be a massive part of what Marika’s plan was.

I think I’ve come up with a semi possible alternative reason as to what could have driven Marika to destroy her own order.

Ok hear me out here.

What if she instead betrayed her order because of what happened to her omen children? I mean, think about it. They are still her children after all and she had to abandon both of them as infants to a life of hell because the greater will (or the golden order, could be both) doesn’t like Omens.

We know that the GW was a pretty controlling (and rather petty) god when it was in power so it definitely had the ability and motive to strong arm Marika into doing things she wouldn’t want to. Even if she did want to keep the twins with her, what choice would she have had with that sort of being looming over her head 24/7?

Imagine how much that would destroy your faith in a system. Her own children, subjected to a life of pain and ridicule because of the way they were born all because her god (or society) says so.

I find it hard to believe that she wouldn’t at least have some conflicted feelings over the whole ordeal.

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I think the biggest evidence I have here is the fact that the omen twins were not only gifted greatrunes upon the rings shattering (something only granted to Marika’s offspring) but Morgott was even ‘given grace’, which is something Marika has a lot of control over.

Even after being born omens and being abandoned early on in their lives Marika still considered them enough of her kin to be given a chance in the shattering race. Now you could argue that them getting their greatrunes was just a happy accident but I really don’t think the same could be said about Morgott being grace given. That seems like a very conscious decision.

We can even see that Godfrey himself had some sense of fondness (or at least respect) for Morgott from the way he holds and speaks to him in his opening boss cutscene, is it really so out of the question that Marika may have felt the same?

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TLDR

What if Marika having to abandon her Omen children because of the greater will and golden order was the catalyst that began her plot to shatter the ring and end her own order?

I think people who see the tarnished in elden ring as just murder hobo assholes who kill everything in their path for no other reason than wanting to are kind of missing the point of them.

First off, they’re not just some random asshole that strolled into the lands between looking for a fight. Our character was resurrected, torn from their home and thrown into this unrelenting hellscape against their will. They are just as much victims of circumstance as everyone else in this game.

Also there’s the whole aspect that we’re supposed to project a personality onto the tarnished ourselves. They’re not literally mute, determined, personalityless killers. If someone comes out of elden ring thinking the tarnished is just mindlessly killing everything in their path for no reason then I think that’s more of a problem with the player themselves. 

That being said, if someone doesn’t care to do that sort of character building or likes the idea of that being their tarnished’s personality then that’s perfectly fine, I’m not here to judge how you play the game. I’m just not a fan of people who call the tarnished in general a horrible person for doing what they do.

I know this is basically a pointless argument but the fact that people generalise the tarnished as one character instead of what they actually are (a blank slate that can be any type of character) kinda annoys me. Your tarnished and mine are not going to be the same type of person.

TLDR

“The tarnished in elden ring is an asshole” no, no, no, your tarnished is an asshole, mine is fine actually.

Radagon and Rennala’s marriage is so fucking funny to me and I am shocked people don’t bring up the absolute absurdity of it more often.

I mean, this man strolls into Liurnia looking to invade it with presumably an entire army, gets his ass absolutely handed to him by Rennala and like 10 dudes, proceeds to propose to her (possibly on the spot)! And she says yes!

And then they get married by a turtle!

One thing that I really like about elden ring is how devoid of anything noteworthy our character is because it opens up a lot of opportunities to make the character truly my own. Too many times in games like this, where you’re expected to project a personality onto a character the developers also muddy that character with a predetermined story or personality, and you end up with a really awkward mix of too little personality so it's hard to be invested in the character but just enough personality that it makes it hard to project something onto the character. Elden ring (and by extension the rest of soulsborne) doesn't do this. Your character is a completely blank slate outside of the many class origins you can pick for it and it’s up to you to determine who they are, what their past is and what they want.

I think the endings of elden ring and how loose the story is also helps with this since they’re all ideology based. Is your character a noble fighter looking to grow powerful and lead the lands between? Well then you’ve got the normal ending where you become elden lord. But what if your character is disillusioned with the gods and wants to be rid of their rule? Well then you can team up with Ranni and bring about the age of stars, removing them all together. What if you’re character's just a murder hobo that wants to kill and destroy everything in their path? Lord of frenzied flame is great for them then.

There’s so much personality you can put into these characters and it really shows with how much fan work has come out of the characters people have made for their playthroughs. It's really the first time I've actually liked having a blank slate protagonist.