#and??? so does ranni

[depvotee]

What if instead of calling it bad writing (for just ONE leak, I might add) you just play the thing and piece together the lore instead of latching into *checks notes* a THEORY from years ago.

[blasphemousclaw]

a deep dive into Rykard’s belief system

We all know that Rykard wants nothing more than to devour the very gods… but Rykard had despised the gods long before he ever became the serpent of blasphemy. Within dialogue and item descriptions, you’ll notice many details that indicate Rykard had quite specific grievances against the gods during the Shattering war and before. It was his audacious campaign against the gods that won him the loyalty and admiration of his soldiers: we meet the spirit of a Gelmir knight in Volcano Manor who tells us, “Praetor Rykard's ambitions, though blasphemous, marked him a worthy sovereign.” Though he was despised by many as a traitor and a blasphemer, Rykard’s beliefs before his devouring were seen by his followers as heroic and worth following. Let’s go through what those specific beliefs were according to the text, and why he might have believed those things…

When we officially join the Volcano Manor, Tanith gives us this speech about Rykard’s beliefs: 

“Now, perhaps the time has come to tell you. Of the true ruler of this manor, Lord Rykard. The Erdtree blessed the Tarnished with grace. But it was all too meagre, in the fate of the enormity of their task. The Tarnished were forced to scavenge, squabbling for crumbs. Like the shardbearers, vying for power in the wake of the Shattering. Our Lord, indignant, had refused. To scurry about, fighting over what miserly scraps they allow us. If the Erdtree, and indeed the very gods, would debase us so, then we are willing to raise the banner of resistance, even if it means heresy. We at the Volcano Manor, under Lord Rykard, have sworn no rest until it is done.”

Essentially, Tanith recounts to us Rykard’s view of the Shattering war: the demigods are compelled to struggle against each other for the ultimate seat of power. However, this struggle exists at the behest of the gods, and is for the power that they see fit to grant. The war is fundamentally under their terms. To “win” the conflict is still to serve the whims of the Greater Will. This is what Rykard finds so deeply insulting… the gods treat them like dogs fighting over scraps of meat from their high table that they can never reach. So why should Rykard engage in petty conflicts for the gods’ miserly scraps of power, when he can raise his banner against the very gods themselves? 

Displayed on the walls of Volcano Manor are these paintings depicting the Erdtree aflame, visualizing Rykard’s intentions to destroy the gods in a very literal and direct way: he has declared war on all that is holy. He has accepted the fact that in order to achieve his goals, he must carry out such grievous acts of violence: “The road of blasphemy is long and perilous. One cannot walk it unprepared to sin.” (Remembrance of the Blasphemous)

From the Taker’s Cameo, we learn that,

“When lord Rykard turned to heresy, taking by force became the rule. The gods were no different, after all.”

This description tells us a few things. Essentially, under Rykard’s worldview, “might makes right.” This philosophy is continued by the recusants of Volcano Manor as well: Bernahl tells us, “The strong take. Such is our code.” If one is strong enough to take what they wish, then they are entitled to it. Rykard believes that this is how the gods have always operated (and with good reason… more on this later). From Tanith’s speech, we know that Rykard resents the gods’ absolute authority… so essentially, Rykard making a point of imitating the gods’ displays of power is asserting that the gods have no special right to do these things – he is challenging their monopoly on power and violence. He also imitates the gods’ own practices to expose their hypocrisy: though the gods present themselves as virtuous, in reality, they have always taken what they pleased through violent conquest. 

We know that Rykard was allied with his sister Ranni (herself on a quest against the gods) through the Blasphemous Claw item description. It reads,

“On the night of the dire plot, Ranni rewarded Praetor Rykard with these traces. Should the coming trespass one day transpire, they would serve as a last-resort foil, allowing Rykard to challenge Maliketh the Black Blade, the black beast of Destined Death.”

The main takeaway from this description is that, since the description implies that Rykard had some involvement (or at the very least, knowledge of) the Night of the Black Knives, Rykard and Ranni closely shared their beliefs on the gods with each other. The phrase “Should the coming trespass one day transpire” even seems to imply that the two had hoped they might openly “trespass” against the gods, culminating in Rykard challenging Maliketh.  

Furthermore, Rogier gives us some pertinent details on the timeline of the Night of the Black Knives:

“It happened during the Golden Age of the Erdtree, long before the shattering of the Elden Ring. Someone stole a fragment of the Rune of Death from Maliketh, the Black Blade. And on a bitter night, murdered Godwyn the Golden. That was the first recorded Death of a demigod in all history. And it became the catalyst. Soon, the Elden Ring was smashed, and thus sprang forth the war known as the Shattering.”

Since Rogier’s dialogue places Ranni’s collaboration with Rykard before the Shattering, this means that there must be more to the story that Tanith tells us in her speech – Rykard’s resentment of the gods and his blasphemous intentions go back long before the Shattering war. 

This line from Rykard’s unused dialogue lines may give some context to the source of his beliefs… take this with a grain of salt because it is technically not canon, but I believe it is worth mentioning: he says,

“Oh shapers of gods, meddlers in fortune, I do not abide by your suffocating order.”

With the phrases “shapers of gods” and “meddlers in fortune,” he must be speaking directly to the Two Fingers (the envoys of the Greater Will) here, because this is precisely what the Two Fingers do. According to Ranni, they are responsible for choosing empyreans to become potential new gods of the coming age, and because they do this, it can also be said that they “meddle” with fortune and fate. This was the source of Ranni’s entire feud with the Two Fingers — they controlled her fate through her “empyrean flesh.” For these reasons, as well as the reasons listed in the previous paragraphs, it makes sense why Rykard might consider the current order to be oppressive and “suffocating.” 

I also believe it is implied that, when Rykard refers to “the gods,” he specifically means the Greater Will and its vassals. Indeed, Bernahl calls out the Greater Will directly by name:

“O Greater Will, hear my voice. I am the recusant Bernahl, inheritor of my brother's will, and you will fall to my blade. We refuse to become your pawns. Consider this fair warning.”

Bernahl’s words interestingly echo Ranni’s experience with the Greater Will as a force that controls fate — it is a fair assumption to make that Bernahl came to hold these beliefs about the Greater Will because Rykard passed them onto his followers after learning them from Ranni. And lo and behold, Bernahl turns up in Farum Azula near Maliketh, carrying the Blasphemous Claw, which Ranni gave to Rykard for him to use “should the coming trespass one day transpire.” Before leaving, Bernahl tells us,

“the Volcano Manor is no more. Though we may yet fulfil an old promise. We hunted our own kind, and took what was theirs. And with everything in hand, the time has come to rise, against the Erdtree.”

Perhaps this “old promise” could have been a promise Rykard made to Ranni, to challenge Maliketh, release the Rune of Death, and destroy the Erdtree once and for all?

If we accept the idea that Ranni’s struggle against the Two Fingers caused Rykard to resent the gods on her behalf, then there are plenty of other instances of the gods causing Rykard’s family misery that might have also shaped his beliefs. Rykard cared enough about his mother to place two of his abductor virgins at Raya Lucaria to guard her, and the descriptions for some of his magma sorceries imply that she was an inspiration to him in the ways of sorcery. It is a fair assumption that Rennala’s suffering would have upset him, and the cause of her suffering was Radagon’s departure… who immediately wed the god-queen Marika, and founded Golden Order Fundamentalism. Rykard could have interpreted this as Radagon choosing the gods over them. It is also stated by the telescope item description that the Golden Order was the direct cause of Caria’s decline: “During the age of the Erdtree, Carian astrology withered on the vine. The fate once writ in the night skies had been fettered by the Golden Order.” Though the Erdtree made peace with Caria, it still ended up eroding its strength anyway. Radagon’s departure would have also reopened old wounds from when he originally came to conquer Liurnia: his bond with Rennala that once made peace between the Erdtree and the moon has now been broken, calling into question the Erdtree’s true intentions. 

Indeed, the intentions of the realm of the Erdtree have always been characterized by violent conquest; the desire to expand and the elimination of potential threats to its rule. Rykard would have known of his father’s attempts to conquer Liurnia, as well as Queen Marika’s extermination of the fire giants, who were Rykard’s astrologer ancestors’ neighbors (a bond enshrined within the Carian royals’ Sword of Night and Flame). To return to Rykard’s “might makes right” mindset, I believe his time as the head of the inquisition and an enforcer of Erdtree law taught him the true nature of the gods’ power: he would have brutally enforced the laws of the Golden Order and punished those who did not follow its creeds, and would thus have become intimately familiar with the harsh nature of carrying out the order of the Erdtree. Rykard learns that the gods must protect their rule through terror and violence, so the idea of the gods’ benevolence and divine right to rule is in truth, a farce. The one truth in the world is that the strong command the weak, and in order to avoid being commanded, one must become strong. By any means necessary. 

To summarize, Rykard’s beliefs are essentially that the gods position themselves as virtuous and holy beings, but in reality, they administer their absolute authority through force and violent conquest, undermining the free will of their subjects. They are the worst kind of hypocrites, and the only way to end their tyranny is to rise in rebellion, using their own ways against them, no matter how high the price may be. Through a deeper examination of the narrative, I believe it is heavily implied that Rykard came to hold these beliefs because of his experiences serving the gods himself, and feeling the gods’ injustice firsthand through how the ones he loved had been treated.

[greatestjubilee]

(sabelina von) Slappy Holidays.... from my little freak to yours

[subzeroparade]

what little you've posted of your tarnished oc really interests me! if you'd like, and if comfortable, could you share a little bit more about his lore + his connection to the ancestral followers? what motivated him to join them (other than death, as tagged in one of your posts) and why was it such an ultimatum?

Thank you anon (and sorry for my late response, shit is crazy atm).

Kotschei is a longstanding OC of mine (by which I mean 10+ years), and in his ER iteration he’s a scholar of the Lazuli Conspectus (astrologers who argue for the preeminence of the moon over the stars) and a faithful servant of Carian interests in the Academy. He’s also neither a fighter nor a terribly talented mage, which means he flees in the pseudo-counter-reformation we know happens when the other Conspectuses (all glintstone purists) wrest power from the Carians, depose Rennala, and reassert the Academy’s doctrinal position (as deferent to the authority of the stars).  His brush with the Ancestral Followers is really accidental - they don’t quite speak the same language, they have no written histories, and to a scholar of the Academy (and not a historian) they’ve never seemed more than a race of brutish non-believers. They are openly scornful of the Academy’s petty factional arguments about the moon and stars, immutable, true things that to them are fixed and unchanging rather than questions to be debated. By the Siofra riverbanks the moon’s face is obscured, and they take pity on Kotschei for it. On encountering the Ancestral Spirit, its magic astounds him: it decays and flourishes at once, dying and returning to the earth and living again, nature in service to it. He learns that Ancestral magic has no link to the stars or the moon, nor the black currents of deathblight or the gruesome way the Golden Order has made a farce of immortality.

So in his little bubble of woe is me I am a sinner on all fronts betraying the moon, he trades his own magic for Ancestral learning. He’s also a floppy little glass cannon, so getting skewered by their arrows and later watching them shoot is how he manages a degree of mastery over Loretta’s Greatbow. The Shining Horned Headband he wears for the rest of the game is one he fashioned himself, observing their techniques - on the branching antlers, alongside the flourishing buds, he grafts Carian blue glintstone shards. This is in part to channel their power, and in part because when he returns to Liurnia, shamanic regalia is an improbable disguise for an excommunicated mage. 

I don’t usually write extensively or lore dump about my OCs in particular, but I appreciate the ask (it's timely, since he will appear in the @gracedbygold Tarnished-centric zine). In the end I enjoyed beefing up his backstory enough that I turned any prospective lore-dump into a ficlet, which goes into a little more detail on how he got to where he’s going (from runaway mage to pledging himself to Ranni, first as a servant and eventually as potential consort). It’s not done yet, but here is a snippet:

“I see you look at me, Master Scholar, and I invite you to look closer.”  She spreads all four hands, though the gesture fails to be inviting. “You know what I am. I have lost my Empyrean body, and with it, some manner of power over the order of things. The Fingers, and the Greater Will by extension, have branded me their enemy. Dethroned, the academy has abandoned my royal house. I can muster no army. Many who would be my subjects think me dead. My kin have become rivals, trapped or compelled by their own machinations for power. I am a soul in a loosely-bound collection of porcelain limbs, and my only ally is the distant, mercurial Moon.” She leans forward. “Are you so unimaginative as to be bound by duty? This is not the winning side.”  A fine scholar’s argument, I want to tell her. We are not imaginative. We want to know the world, not guess at it. You cannot stand before your peers and imagine possibilities. You argue for truths, for once something is written down, there is security in certitude. Glintstone is a hard and cold discipline - improbable, I know, given the wobbling bodies and fragile egos who master it. For all our formulae and suppositions and mastery of cosmic principles, we mostly cast light and fling rocks. These are the things we are certain of.  The interesting part is guesswork, which, by virtue of its incertitude, means it’s not really scholarship. For all my learning, it’s no more than a series of lucky guesses that have delivered me here, before the last true daughter of the Moon.  “I reason,” I say at length, “that you can still inherit the world.”

[maranull]

Idk if still do random headcanons or not (pls ignore if you're tired of em!!)

But what do you think the Elden Ring crew like to do in their free time?

I DO!! I only stopped cause the asks stopped.

Also, Bim, you made the "mistake" to not specify any characters so I'm doing most of them like that pet ask. >:) No one actually read the pet ask, it's filled with typos and wrong words. Dyslexia is fun. And also I'm not fixing it.

These are kinda what they would do solo. I think a lot of them would actually just spent time with others doing whatever came to mind.

~

Blaidd: He finds the closest tree and rests under its trunk. He mostly just listens to the sounds around him and takes in the environment. Sometimes he cleans his boots.

Yura: He has a stick that he uses to write in the dirt. Mostly just practising his calligraphy, but sometimes he puts down his deeper thoughts.

Boc: Boc lives for his work. He always is tailoring something, then unraveling it and starting again.

Diallos Hoslow: He likes to play fight with the small jars in Jarburg. When they tire he usually sits with the older jars and they share stories from when they traveled outside Jarburg.

Fia: If she knows she's alone and will stay alone for some time, she practices with her dagger. When the other people are around, she simply sits and zones out, remembering the days before Godwyn's death and her time even before him.

Finlay: I think she likes origami (or the Lands Between equivalent). She's advanced enough that she doesn't really need patterns anymore, so she just finds something she likes and makes it with paper.

Radahn: A lot of his time is spend with Leonard. Often he joins his troops to talk and have fun. While he's undeniably the commander, he never shies away from mingling with the foot soldiers.

Pre-mermaid Godwyn: He read a lot. He had access to Marika's library and spend most of his free hours there. If he had a couple days free, he usually made quick trips to the Haligtree.

Latenna: Daydreams a lot. I headcanon that she lived in Ordina for some time before descending to Liurnia, and there she had a small desk where she would write small stories and general worldbuilding ideas.

Ranni: She likes to read sometimes, but 95% of her free time is spend with her falling face first on the bed, sleeping like she's dead. On the rare occasion that she's feeling energetic, she will talk to either Blaidd or Iji and talk for a bit before passing out. They carry her to bed after a while.

Malenia: Mostly uses her free time to train. Sometimes writes small letters to Finlay that she never sends.

Morgott: Prays.

Melina: Usually she just talks to Torrent. She also likes making grass rings and baskets out of plants. She doesn't make the baskets often, but when she does, she makes sure that she's close to a settlement so that they are found and put to use. Otherwise, she likes to sit in the sun and enjoy the warmth and the nature sounds around her.

Millicent: She's very similar to her mother. Usually just takes the free time for extra training or reading books and scrolls about medicine (for Scarlet Butterflies reasons).

Mary: Likes spending time around the Cleanrot barracks. She doesn't always join in with the soldiers, sometimes she just likes the noise.

Amy: Usually she sneaks away to a small creek she has found near Elphael. She dances sometimes, just to feel movement that's calming and not the tense survival moves she had to learn when they were in Caelid.

Maureen: Usually she's found in Miq's garden, checking on the bigger trees. She also has a small sapling that she planted herself, and she checks on it daily.

Polyanna: She just disappears. One moment she's seen walking at the Elphael market, the other she's on top of the roofs, sprinting and jumping like she's being chased by a runebear. Basically, she likes to move and see movement. On rare occasions, Millie has found her passed out on the Haligtree's branches, just taking in the sun and wind.

Miquella: Free time? Never heard of it. Just pass him another cup of tea already.

Nepheli: One of the first things she did after fixing most of the mess that Godrick had made in Stormveil, was to build a big aviary on one of the towers. She's there every free moment she has.

Patches: He likes puzzles, particularly puzzle rings and the like.

Roderika: Lots of her time is spent in the local graveyard. She likes talking to the spirits there, and enjoys learning about lives past.

Rogier: If there is a library in the vicinity, you'll find this man knee deep into a pile of books, reading the day and night away. He likes nothing more than reading.

Rya: Rya likes painting. She never shows her art to anyone, cause her style is more Van Gogh than realism. She things her works are awful but she keeps making more and more cause she loves the process of painting maybe more than the result.

Thops: Big fan of baking. Makes killer tarts. Savoury, sweet, whatever you can thing of, he can tart it.

Iji: Another chronic reader. He always nags Blaidd to bring him new books, and our dearest wolfman always returns with at least one.

Marika: Her chambers are basically the Lands Between version of the library of Alexandria. She reads. A lot. But also she likes putting on her mimic veil and being a nuisance to whomever she feels like. As her kids moved away, she started sneaking around at their bases, just to see them from afar.

Rennala: When she's not reading (I'm sorry, almost every character in here feels like they would be an avid reader) she likes to gather the newest gossip from her guards. On one hand she just likes the information, on the other she uses it to help whomever needs it. It's an open secret that if you're having troubles in the Academy, at the next full moon you'll get something that can assist you waiting at your doorstep.

Rykard: He is usually found at his private workshop, making small trinkets. Yes, his break from making war machines is making toy machines. Before settling in with Tanith he was quite the tavern goer though. They sometimes still go together, but their duties and status have kinda alienate them from it.

~

I skipped a decent amount of characters I think, so feel free to add on, whomever wants to!

And thank you sm for the ask, Bim!! I missed writing these. :D

Also I'm not checking for spelling, I have a headache, byeee!! <3

[krakenguard]

Man, Elden Ring has this really unique case going on where both in-canon and the playerbase takes certain characters that would normally fall under the "Ron the Death Eater" trope, and apply them to "Draco in Leather Pants."

Likewise, both in-canon and the playerbase often take the characters who are given the "Draco in Leather Pants" treatment, and apply them to "Ron the Death Eater."

[goddevouringserpent]

thinking about them... (Yunia AUs)

not-a-Tarnished AU: remains a knight of the House of Caria, earning their respect and something resembling affection thanks to years upon years of loyal service. her competence and dedication lead her to climb in the ranks, so to speak, and earn a closeness with the Carians that she could've only ever dreamed of—with time, she even becomes Ranni's confidante, after a fashion. not quite Blaidd-level, but Ranni trusts in them as someone who is thoroughly and relentlessly dedicated to her, and who unlike Blaidd is not "programmed" to turn against her should she betray the Two Fingers; if Blaidd is Ranni's right hand, Yunia is her left hand. (or like. hands. there's four arms in there after all. or there will be.) worth mentioning that Yunia's hopeless puppy-love-crush on Ranni is still every bit as present as it is in their canon. girl is down bad, and in this AU it's even more hopeless unfortunately.

anyway, fast forward to Ranni's Night of the Black Knives scheme. this time around, as her Loyal Knight, Yunia is in on it—or as "in on it" as Ranni lets anyone be, anyway—even if, more likely than not, they didn't play any part in it. still, after the deed is done and Ranni's gone dollmode, Yunia gets to join the Caria Manor Inner Circle & continues to work for Ranni, towards the goal of the Age of Stars, alongside Blaidd and Iji (and allegedly Seluvis but we know how that goes, don't we). she'd be there when the Tarnished arrives, and... honestly I'm not sure she'd have a questline of her own because Yunia's quest is, ultimately, Ranni's questline. but they would be available as a summon for Radahn's fight if—and only if—the player has pledged their service to Ranni, then somewhere down the line they would also be available as a NPC summon for... Astel, Naturalborn of the Void, maybe? still have to figure that one out.

non-Tarnished Yunia's endings are always tragic. girlie does not get a break. if the player goes through with Ranni's questline to the point where they become her consort / give her the ring at Manus Celes, Yunia pretty much dies of heartbreak. the next time the player goes to Ranni's Rise, they'll find Yunia standing near the place where Ranni used to sit, as though keeping watch, and if spoken to she'll say:

"And thus, my service, my duty, my purpose... it all comes to an end, and I am left hollow. A severed sword-arm. No worth in me." "Ah, Tarnished... I did not think I would see you again. You have fought bravely. More than I could." "If I may be so bold, be good to lady Ranni, please. Take care of each other." "I know her moon will rise, brighter than star and sky. If only I could witness it one last time... but I have not earned the privilege. My silence is my oath, unto eternity."

then if you rest at a Grace/port out and come back/etc etc, you'll find Yunia's lifeless body leaning against Ranni's chair, and you'll be able to loot her armour (an unique variant of the Carian Knight armour) & her signature weapon.

on the other hand, if you reach the Mountaintops of the Giants and burn the Erdtree without having pledged your service to Ranni / unlocked Age of Stars as a potential ending, Yunia will invade you in Leyndell. killing her this way also lets you claim her armour and weapon.

----

Lord of Frenzied Flame AU: less meat in this one, but the gist of it is that I asked myself "what ending would Yunia go for if Age of Stars wasn't an option?" and the answer was that she would succumb to the temptation of the Frenzied Flame lol. or... to the grief of it, more like. the hopelessness.

because, like, in the Frenzyflame AU, Yunia loses all her loved ones, all she has ever worked for, the only sense of purpose she's ever had, and gains nothing. she has to see the way in which the House of Caria—which she had devoted her entire pre-exile life to—has fallen into disgrace and disrepair, and there's absolutely jack shit she can do about it. & in her canon, working alongside Ranni makes up for that at least, but in the Frenzyflame AU they don't have that (I'm picturing it's some sort of domino effect of things going very wrong, where they don't go all the way up towards Caria Manor because they're terrified of the state it'll be in & it's not as if anyone would be there, anyway, and therefore they never encounter Ranni; Rogier's quest would bypass that so I feel like he would die before he could decipher the whole deal behind the Cursemark of Death and therefore give Yunia any hope, no matter how small, of Ranni being alive and active).

and, man. Yunia would be left purposeless and adrift and THIS close to just saying "whatever, fuck everything". a sensation that would only increase as people around her—people she's grown to respect and, in certain cases, genuinely like—keep dropping like flies. so yeah, she goes off the deep end. may chaos take the fucking world. (also slightly motivated by the fact that she feels a world without Ranni in it is a world that deserves to be purged and started anew but shhh let's not mention that. let's pretend Yunia is well-adjusted and not at all an obsessive clingy individual with a crush so devoted it wraps around to being toxic. leal hound of the Dark Moon Princess my beloved.)

[mailperson]

check out my incredibly gimmicky setup I used to brute force promised consort

[zevranunderstander]

shit i thought abt elden ring for more than 3 seconds and now im going insane again

[whippedcloudsofcream]

Bernahl waiting for you to kill Rykard so he could take the Blasphemous Claw, everyone in this game is a conniving little shit.

[katyspersonal]

I keep mentioning the duality of blood/hunt and arcane/insight in Bloodborne, how in the end they're just two opposite points of the same vicious cycle, and needless to mention that Moon governs both the hunt AND the "evolution" (though with the latter she will often hide under veil of 'Stars'). Laurence is the best example of how in the end the dispersion is ephemeral - only that one is called good and another is called evil.

But like, even game's 'currency' reflects this. You can buy things from Messengers with both blood echoes OR with Insight. I swear if there is ever and account that doesn't even create anything but just points out clever decisions in Bloodborne writing, they'll not run out of topics to talk about for YEARS.

[blasphemousclaw]

you talked about radahn the other day, and while he's not my main elden ring focus i still find him very fascinating. one thing I'd like to mention is that radahn didn't really seem to have affiliations apart from his own thing in caelid. his faction used fire, which is against the erdtree and prior to the shattering warranted exile, and they use sorceries as opposed to GO incantations. as you said there are also abductor virgins, with the symbolism of snakes and them also considered erdtree traitors. if you go to redmane castle before the radahn festival you'll find both a misbegotten warrior and a crucible knight, beings hated by the regime, defending the castle. even jerren comments on them as if they were a part of his forces afterwards. godskin followers exist alongside his soldiers in his own divine tower, whereas everywhere else redmanes are shown in conflict with the environment. the tower even houses GEQ's sword.

(notably, godskins show up at 3 respective locations important to the carian siblings, but that's another discussion)

in previous versions of the game lore, radahn was known as the giant slayer - that is no longer likely to be cannon given the change of the timeline since, but it is something to consider when you see how much he idolizes godfrey currently. personally i think he may have held beliefs in the primordial crucible, which would explain his adoration for godfrey, as the crucible knights followed the old elden lord, and the variety of creatures employed in his army.

in addition, there's no proof of this, but i like to think tanith's crucible knight was sent by radahn, perhaps after rykard got devoured, for her protection, as rykard himself doesn't really have crucible ties.

I can’t believe it never occurred to me to connect these dots, I think you’re absolutely spot on that Radahn has ties to the crucible! Since the crucible knights directly served Godfrey, it makes perfect sense that Radahn would want to make use of them too. You’ve summed up everything really well, but I have one more potential connection to add:

There are only three colosseums in the game, and one of them is in Caelid. The description for the ritual sword talisman implies that the colosseums are “arenas where ritual combat took place” which occurred during the age of Godfrey, but “died out by the age of King Consort Radagon.”

The crucible knights actually have a connection to ritual combat as well—Ordovis’s sword is nearly identical to the ritual sword talisman…

…so I think it’s meant to be the same sword, which was used in ritual combat. This links Godfrey’s knights with the colosseums.

I wonder if Radahn sought out the colosseum when he relocated to Caelid? There isn’t one in Radahn’s native Liurnia, since Godfrey never conquered Liurnia. It certainly seems like Radahn would be into the idea of ritual combat, especially if it’s an old practice related to Godfrey… just a thought!

Anyway, all of these details that you mentioned emphasize that Radahn isn’t necessarily loyal to the current erdtree regime (as a lot of people seem to assume), and that emulating Godfrey matters much more to him than religious affiliation.

also I LOVE the theory that Radahn sent the crucible knight for Tanith!!!

[asexuallucanisdellamorte]

overall elden ring is my favourite fromsoftware game but dark souls 3 did have the better wedding

[sadlazzle]

also yes i know abt legends z-a. i am excited, or i will be once the high of beating malenia wears off

[incorrectsmashbrosquotes]

Miquella vs Ranni: Loyalty and Love

SPOILERS FOR SHADOW OF THE ERDTREE UNDER THE CUT, BUT COME FOR MY THOUGHTS!

There are so many essays I could write, comparing Ranni and Miquella, but I'm going to contain myself and focus on the most important aspect of comparisons: how they treat the concepts of love and loyalty and the people who give that to them. Especially in light of Miquella's instant kill "Heart Steal" attack.

The thing about Miquella is, even though he's kind, even though he's compassionate, he DOES NOT VALUE love and loyalty. And why should he? It's always been given freely to him. He can just force someone to love him anyway, stealing their heart. So, the people who love him are disposable, treated like pawns. Malenia? Literally left to rot in the home they built together. Mohg? Turned into a glorified guard dog. Even Radahn, turned into his perfect consort.

And Miquella probably does love them, but his perception of love is completely skewed by the nature of the fact that EVERYONE loves him. It's something he just gets. Something he uses.

Compassion and love are Miquella's weapons. They're what he uses to protect himself. It's cheap, something he can get easily.

Now, compare that to Ranni.

For Ranni, love and loyalty are dangerous. She's seen how ruinous and terrible they can be. She's seen her mother's mind wither away, a consequence of Radagon breaking her heart. She's seen Radagon break Rennala's heart for his love of the Golden Order.

The only people who loved her unconditionally are Blaidd and Iji, and even Iji's more around out of loyalty to the House of Caria than love for Ranni.

That is to say, Ranni respects and understands the power of love more than Miquella ever could.

Think of how she tells you to leave her to her lonely path. Her engagement ring, engraved with a warning to stay away, that her destiny is cold and lonely. Ranni pushes people away for their own safety, and that makes her love all the more valuable.

Love, for Ranni, is something at once dangerous and precious. The despondent way she tells you, once you've defeated the Baleful Shadow, to tell Blaidd and Iji that she loves them. Ranni knows what their love has cost them. Knows what it has bought her. She respects love and is naturally wary of it.

And that's what makes it so valuable.

Miquella doesn't appreciate love, because he's always had it.

Ranni treasures it because she's always struggled with it.

God, I love this game.

[reegahearth]

The consort thing is so funny because everybody in the lands between is like "oh well its politics" but clearly Radagon/Marika and Godfrey and Rennala and Miquella and Ranni actually care about it a lot considering the everything.

I see. Elden ring is about getting married. However, upon a deeper reading of the text, elden ring is ACTUALLY symbolically about getting married.