#belurat

[hoarah-babylon]

2nd DLC session round-up yupppp

Started to explore a settlement called Belurat, v beautiful, I love all the draped cloth over the buildings and the beautiful trees. I found a key and unlocked a door that opened a storeroom, with an old woman and a horned lion head inside. She wasn't too happy to see me

damn they really hate Marika lmao. I find it so interesting that these 'hornsent' people are identifying me as something aligned with Marika/Messmer, and cursing me for it. We go through the whole game being shunned for being Tarnished because we are people stripped of grace, now we're being shunned for (I'm assuming) being a creation of Marika. It's super interesting. no one fucks with me fr

I continued on through the settlement and climbed the tower, and eventually got to the first major boss!! It's the Lion-Dancer we saw in the DLC trailers, and it's a really beautiful boss fight. It takes place on a stage, and the theatrics of it all are really so awe-inspiring. It wields different elemental damage in different parts of the fight - lightning, wind/storm, and frost. There's also lion sculptures with horned heads dotted around the stage and settlement. You can summon Freyja to help fight it :) not an easy fight at all, but eventually he went down and I got the reward of its remembrance, along with the lion head itself as a helm.

I absolutely love that this culture took their skills in theatrical performance and repurposed these skills for battle, that's just. I love it it's so cool. Another helm that makes you weaker to sleep, like the golden mask I found previously. The prayer it's talking about is heard at the beginning of the fight in the opening cutscene, and it is said by the old woman I found earlier. The map identifies her as 'Hornsent Grandam'.

I did something I'm not super proud of. But I read messages that alluded to it and mama I'm trying to research. I put the lion head on and went to talk to her again to see if anything would change. Her reaction made me feel really bad... she was so relieved to see a 'sculpted keeper' and was overcome with emotion. She mentioned something about wanting her son to fight alongside me (the keeper) against Messmer, and take revenge. And then she promised to sing for me and gave me an incantation.

Now the description of the incantation just about blew my head off. It referred to this woman as the 'Empyrean Grandam'. Empyrean??? I was not expecting to see that. I looked up grandam and apparently it's an old word for grandmother. Empyrean grandmother... does this mean she is/was an Empyrean, or she's the grandmother of an Empyrean? I'm surprised that Empyreans exist in this realm, considering how hidden everything and everyone is in this place. Can the Greater Will still reach this place? She does mention her son, does he have children? Empyrean children? So intriguing. I assume it's not her son because it seems like TGW/two fingers choose non-men as Empyreans (Miquella has ambiguous gender and a feminine alter-ego St. Trina).

Went back to the second Miquellan cross and met Sir Moore. I love him. I love him I would die for him if anything happens to him I'm going to scream from the rooftops

!!! I explored the river running through Gravesite Plain and found a couple of sleep/night adjacent items. The deep purple lily got me super excited because TRINAAA I could use some tbh I haven't been sleeping well. can you tell

Found a ghost down there too, these lines are making me Think about the connection between sleep and death. What if Miquella is really dead in some way, and this gives way to St. Trina being alive in his place... or something. I don't know but I'm Thinking

Even the turtles have horns here!! Found a new more powerful stamina talisman that depicts a two-headed turtle. There's a lot of depictions in this realm of two converging intertwining objects like trees, turtles, Miquella's sigil/needle is intertwining too.

Went back to Roundtable hold to see what the Remembrance rewards are. I wasn't sure in my last session but after watching some old lore videos to refresh my memory - divine in the context of ER seems to refer to the Crucible or aspects of it. What does it mean that they are messengers of the heavens though? The only other thing in game that I could relate to that are Two Fingers considering they commune with TGW. I have no idea

Was exploring and MET ANOTHER TRAILER GUY. He was sitting by another Cross of Miquella. Identifies himself as a Tarnished named Thiollier. Has 0 self confidence, says he's unintelligent and bad at fighting. Kinda weird for a Tarnished? Makes me wonder how he got there too, he's literally like just behind an encampment of Messmer soldiers. His special interest is poison, and sells you poison things. His armour is super interesting, the cloth/white hair is braided a lot like Miquella/Radagon's, and there's a gold figure in the middle of his chest. The mask is the most striking to me though, and looks like its lined with silver thorns. I just had a thought - who else do we know that wears masks like this and is all about poison? House Marais! Idk what the link could be but, something to keep in mind I guess

Got jumpscared by this guy yelling in pain. He yelled about someone he called 'vile Bayle' so I assume they're the person that maimed this guy. "Exquisite pain" though... reminds me of Mohg/Varré. Then I got invaded by an 'Ancient Dragon-Man'. I followed that path down and found a draconic cave, where I fought the real Dragon Man at the end. He was kicking my ass I can't lie. But I got him eventually and the reward was hmm-inducing

Anti-dragon spray. Wait what, what is the Dreaded One???? And what do you mean it's devoured by people?? What does any of this mean bruh. It sounds like an outer god but if people eat it (?) it can't be. Uhhhhhhhh ok I don't understand and I'm tired. I opened the door at the back of the boss room and...

Hell yeah. It led me out to a precipice overlooking the jagged peak I could see in the distance from where I entered the DLC. There's dragons sleeping below. I took some baller pics of my Tarnished.

I have so much to figure out I still can't really believe all this, it's so jarring running around not knowing anything. it's awesome i love this game

[also small PSA it's fine if anyone reading this wants to reply with their thoughts, but please don't spoil anything, this is my blind playthrough and i want it to stay that way :)]

[heavymetalvamp]

𝕭𝖊𝖑𝖚𝖗𝖆𝖙 𝕿𝖔𝖜𝖊𝖗 𝕾𝖊𝖙𝖙𝖑𝖊𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖙

"𝕺ur lands were by thy kind set aflame, our tower by thy kind veiled in shadow. Thou cam'st, robbing us of all, spoiling all. Have ye not basked in these deeds long enough? Listen, progeny of the wanton strumpet. For thy sins thou shalt have thy recompense — the sacred beast shall unleash its ire."

[cottoncandiescupcakes]

Belurat is so amazing, I feel that's how Byzantium was

[arteriasalad]

[azotho]

"Thank you. No one comes to visit, except you." Moore😭 Sad to see him missing others… My Tarnished and your forager brood buddies will be here with you

[maranigai]

It would be Morgott to save him.

By golly, it would be Morgott...

It would be poetic... Morgott finally overcoming his self-hatred and setting aside the Erdtree for the one who truly - TRULY mattered.

... It would be poetic, to fight...

... Well. Without spoilers. Ahm...

It'd be poetic for Morgott to face off against THAT specific character again.

... But Morgott will fight. And he will win. And Mohg will be restored.

... 😔

I think I've already turned my blog into a Spoiler Kingdom so it's too late to worry lol

Right now I'm so tempted to make an AU out of my already existing AU to make Mohg survive Miquella's shit somehow.

Maybe make Ansbach knock down Morgott's door instead of trying to solo fight Miquella (I love you Ansbach, but you were not very smart about this one). Maybe make Morgott to go to the Shadow realm to find and kill Miquella before Mohg and Radahn are killed and it's too late. Maybe both.

in my personal universe, Morgott can and absolutely will resist Miquella's charm due to his Ultimate Hater Aura and I do not accept criticism

[bad-as-me]

I realllly recommend youtuber quelaag if you want to dig really deep into like, the cultural/architectural influences in both the base game and the dlc by the way. She gets really specific in her references and how that informs the story, and going through her livestreams has offered some huge insights already imo

[swallowtail-ageha]

"A-Ah! Who art thou, stranger…?

…by the look of thee, another of Messmer's peons, methinks.

Tell me, dost thy kind never weary grow? How do these old bones fascinate thee yet?"

"Till then, with this old hag do what thou wilt, for all the good it'll do thee in the end!"

Hello am i the only one who is getting the implication of those voicelines??? Grandam are you ok????

[alethiometry]

"this is a good game, this is an enjoyable game, i love this game very much," i say through gritted teeth as i get my shit rocked by divine beast dancing lion for the four thousandth time at two in the morning

[tarnussy]

let's just say that the boss in the jar cave was unexpected

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

honestly tho yes the dlc is Big but yknow what else it is, more importantly to me, it is so fucking Deep. it just keeps going! i know i said the climb to get euporia was ghoulish and i stand by that but it's also a great example of how much they reward you for monkeying around on the geometry. there's so much shit that's so well tucked away and opens up massively if you decide to investigate.

and everything's got multiple points of access. you can get to the coast thru ellac or you can hop down some gravestones from above. and there was obviously so much more thought put into the mini dungeons this go-round, too, not really any of the copypasting problems people were complaining abt in basegame. also hey. what do you mean a solid like, fifth of the map is locked behind an illusory wall in a hidden side room in a legacy dungeon. let's talk about that.

[necatormundi]

divine beast dancing lion's theme... bouncing and moaning on and milking it bone dry

[arteriasalad]

[drenched-in-sunlight]

*Shadow of the Erdtree late game spoiler under the cut !!!

I’m going to throw up … it sounds crazy but. I think I know what the Hornsent did to Marika’s home village now. And why she hates the Omen so much, why Messmer shows them no mercy 😭😭

Please, look closely at the jar innards in Belurat Gaol… they look like Marika … 😭😭 even the brand on their forehead looks like a mix of her and Radagon’s current symbol (as seen on their soreseal)

If my whole family were kidnapped and stuffed into jars because others thought it’d make them "good", I’d go insane, become literal God and take revenge on them too idk.

This is the text outside of her village:

Have mercy. And the two items in the village indicates that Marika wrapped the whole place in a healing spell, knowing full well there is no one left to heal. Grief. Her grief and love protect that place all this time (before the village are two Tree Sentinels).

The only place in the Land of Shadow still bathed in Gold. And now Messmer guarded it with all his heart. Holy shit.

If Marika came from a village whose ppl were thought to be inferior and should be stuffed into jar to be reborn, yet she went and became a God, while the Hornsent failed to reach divinity, despite proclaiming themselves “chosen people” (Stalwart horn charm +2)… yeah I can see why they said she betrayed them and that she’s a wanton strumpet. 🙃

Also I think the “seduction” is from the Two Fingers, telling her to accept being a vessel to the Elden Ring and it’ll grant her the power to avenge her people. Look where she ended up now 🙂

There, I solved the story trailer.

EDIT: you can find a Numen’s Rune in Jarburg 🙃

Me 2 years ago: haha why is there Numen’s rune in Jarburg? Aren’t they Marika’s people? So random ! 😄😄

Me now finding out it’s because Numens were the original jar innards: ….

EDIT 2: it’s confirmed in-game that the shamans from Marika’s home village is the jar innards…

the golden hair... be serious with me right now

EDIT 3: She was salvaging the remains of her people and made them the symbol of her divine ascension. their death and suffering would never be forgotten, and the day will come when vengeance would be theirs.

Thank you for coming to my tedtalk 👍

EDIT 4: Update about the mistranslation of Greatjar description leading to players thinking people from Marika’s village are also helping Hornsent hunt down their own people. They are not!

[silverformymonsters]

BELURAT TOWER SETTLEMENT