#both bewitched and fearful of the abyss | headcanons and lore

[izar-tarazed]

** the one certainty I have about Nightfarer Ensha is that he would immediately punch Ironeye for almost standing in his spot.

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As is to be expected, Nightfarer Izar loves travelling by spectral hawk.

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As Izar works on her star maps, Ensha sometimes helps her, pointing out constellations he knows.

(Redrew my first picture ever of Izar and Ensha from a year ago.)

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Izar being weak and miserable when she is resurrected by the grace is one thing, but there is something else to know.

When she dies, Ensha is usually there—nearby, watching her fall, unable to prevent it, despite his focus on always keeping her safe.

Alone after she vanishes. This silence is greater than his own.

Unlike Izar, Ensha doesn’t see the grace, but he memorizes whatever site she points out to him as they pass it or rest there. And when she dies, he rushes back to the last one, hoping he remembers the right spot, yet ready to doubt his keen memory in the tension of it all.

He knows that despite Izar’s persistence so far, the guidance of grace still is fickle; there is never a promise and never a guarantee a Tarnished will be brought back. One never knows when the golden light fades, no matter how bright it has shined until now.

He knows—as does she—that every time Izar dies, it might well be the last.

This is the uncertainty weighing down like close air before a thunderstorm. Ensha waits, close to where he hopes she will return; next to a golden light he can only assume is really there. He waits, sometimes readying a water flask and boluses and maybe a handful of herbs, anything to tend to her once she comes back.

If she does.

He waits, for the guidance of grace is both slow and unpredictable: It may take hours to return a fallen Tarnished. Hours, or days. He remembers that time he spent a full night out in the pouring rain, bony fists clenched and teeth gritted, alone with the dread and the guilt.

Ensha waits for as long as it takes. Excruciating, every time, but he would never stop. He is there when she dies, and when she comes back.

[izar-tarazed]

THIS. I found it so strange when she just casually mentioned it in her dialogue and didn't seem bothered at all by the fact. Maybe she gets to know because she's the one person among Miquella's followers who would be able to frame the charm entirely as a positive thing, from a pragmatic point of view: She outright tells us that without the charm, they all would likely be killing each other, and therefore it's good that they're charmed. The charm is the one thing that allows them to work together. (Whereas for Ansbach, for example, the charm probably made him forget his loyalty to Mohg, so being aware of it wouldn't have been a positive thing.) Now it's somewhat ironic that Leda turns out to be the one who's dead set on killing the others as soon as the charm is broken. But maybe her usual wariness/bloodthirst was so extremely strong that for the charm to work on her she also needed the reassurance that the others were under its effect, and that she could be completely sure they wouldn't turn against her (or Miquella)? Other than that, I'd agree it's likely her loyalty to Miquella that allowed her to know (he seems particularly fond of her) or deduce it. But I really think that her being the one person who'd view the effects of the charm as positive might play a role in her being aware of it (or being allowed to be aware).

I find it interesting that Leda knows she and everyone else is being charmed, yet everyone else seems to have no idea. Like, Sir Ansbach doesn't remember his attempt at fighting Miquella or anything.

I wonder why she gets to know. Is it because she is loyal to Miquella? or did she know about his abilities and was able to deduce it by how everyone seemed to be working well together?

[izar-tarazed]

** so far my headcanon for Izar has been that being resurrected by the grace is painful and gives her migraine.

having now experienced the absolutely not recommendable combination of migraine and a stomach bug, I feel like this could be even closer to what I had in mind for her.

so I guess in future writing she'll be even more miserable when she wakes at a site of grace.

[izar-tarazed]

Nightreign ramblings and some screenshots under the cut (more setting than gameplay related)

I’m already in love with this version of the Roundtable Hold. It’s partially crumbling and overgrown, but in other spots truly feels like a place that adventurers have made their home, it’s cozy and crammed with stuff (even more so than the original version). I love that it has gardens and sparring grounds and we get to see it from the outside, as well as it being located on a cliff by the sea. And it feels so spacious and fun to explore. (On that note—I do love the verticality in the game and how it lets us climb up walls. I’ll miss this when I go back to regular Elden Ring.)

I’m definitely merging some of this Roundtable Hold with the actual version from the main game when it comes to my headcanons and writings (...and I will find a place for Izar’s telescope).

(One of those towers is her stargazing spot. It's already decided.)

[izar-tarazed]

Slowly figuring out what Izar's abilities would be as a Nightfarer. (Her class name would be The Stargazer, of course.)

[izar-tarazed]

Ensha has never particularly cared for books. They just are… there, well within their right to exist as they serve for research and gathering knowledge. This, at least, is what he sees his master doing, and to an extent, Izar as well; her eyes never shone brighter than upon entering the Great Library for the first time.

However, as he soon learned, Izar wasn’t just after knowledge. There is more to books. Some aren’t just tools… but treasure.

Because some contain stories—sometimes long forgotten legends of giants and dragons, fables supposedly told by the Nox and the merchants; sometimes things that were entirely made up, tales of sorcerers and knightesses and all kinds of heroes who had never actually walked the Lands Between, but whose fates nonetheless captivate her. She will spend hours devouring those tales with an eagerness usually reserved for her map-making.

At first she would simply tell Ensha the most intriguing bits of what she was reading; then she would start to read fragments to him. He merely listened politely at first, but she was good at choosing what parts she read out loud. Bit by bit, Ensha has found himself hooked as well, until one day he urged her to keep reading because he wanted to know what was going to happen next in the storyline.

And so, eventually, they have made it a habit—sitting down next to some fireside at the Hold, with pillows and blankets, and Izar reading to him for a while.

He finds that he loves it, as much as it surprises him that books can be a source of joy and suspense, or that he would be so fond of storytelling. (Still, he will never pick up a book on his own. The magic of stories works best when it’s shared.)

[izar-tarazed]

**in hindsight it's funny how I've always had the headcanon that Ensha hates getting wet, and is uncomfortable with water, only to then come up with Izar's Dark Souls verse where Ensha's counterpart spends a long time trapped underwater in a flooded city.

not that they're directly connected. but it still tracks.

[izar-tarazed]

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐘, TRAITS & CHARACTERISTICS!

bold = applies to your muse;  italics = conditional. ________________________________________________________

Izar Tarazed

EYES :  blue  |  green |  brown  |  hazel  |  gray  |  gray-blue  |  other (purple)

HAIR :  blond  |  sandy  |  brown  |  black  |  auburn  |  ginger  |  multi-color  |  other

BODY TYPE :  skinny  |  slender  |  slim  |  built  |  curvy  |  average  |  muscular  |  pudgy  |  overweight  |  athletic

SKIN :  pale  |  light  |  fair  |  freckled  |  tan  |  medium  |  dark  |  other

GENDER :  male  |  female  |  trans  |  cis  |  agender  |  demigender  |  genderfluid  |  other

SEXUALITY :  heterosexual  |  homosexual  |  bisexual  |  pansexual  |  asexual  |  demisexual  |  other  |  unsure  |  doesn’t care for labels

ORIENTATION :  homoromantic  |  heteroromantic  |  biromantic  |  unsure  |  doesn’t care for labels  |  demiromantic

EDUCATION :  high school  |  college  |  university (?)  |  master’s degree(s)  |  PhD  |  other

Izar grew up outside the Lands Between, but barely has memories of that past. She definitely had some kind of specialized education to become an astrologer, and she has scholarly tendencies, but it’s uncertain where exactly she learned that. (She was partially taught by her mother who was a Carian knight and as such knew a fair share about astrology, but I think she must have had some other mentors outside of that, and maybe attended some kind of institution similar to the Academy in Liurnia.)

I'VE BEEN :  in love  | hurt  |  ill |  mentally abused  |  bullied |  physically abused  |  tortured  |  brainwashed |  shot | stabbed

Conditional because it may depend on certain timelines/verses I have in mind for her.

POSITIVE TRAITS :  affectionate  |  adventurous  |  athletic  |  brave  |  careful  |  charming  |  confident  |  creative  |  cunning  |  determined  |  forgiving  |  generous  |  honest  | humorous  | intelligent  |  loyal  |  modest |  patient  |  selfless  |  polite  |  down-to-earth |  diligent  |  romantic  |  moral |  fun-loving |  charismatic  |  calm

NEGATIVE TRAITS :  aggressive  |  bossy  |  cynical |  envious  |  shy  | fearful  |  greedy  |  gullible  |  jealous  |  impatient  |  impulsive  |  cocky  |  reckless  |  insecure  |  irresponsible  |  mistrustful  |  paranoid  |  possessive  |  sarcastic  |  self-conscious  |  selfish  |  swears  |  unstable  |  clumsy  |  rebellious  |  emotional  |  vengeful  |  anxious  |  self-sabotaging  |  moody  |  peevish  |  angry  |  pessimistic  |  slacker  |  thin skinned  | overly dramatic  |  argumentative | scheming |

Funny how I put most of her positive traits in bold and her negative ones in italics, but the latter really are quite conditional for her. She can be incredibly snarky and sarcastic when she’s upset, and has a tendency to be impatient sometimes. Her negative traits are mostly reactive and often surface when someone knows to push her buttons. (Also, she often gets easily distracted or carried away when something is about the stars–or when she can make it about the stars.)

LIVING SITUATION :  lives alone  |  lives with parent(s) / guardian  |  lives with significant other  |  lives with a friend  |  drifter  |  homeless  | lives with children / family  |  other

While she has her own room at the Roundtable Hold, she spends so much time with Ensha (and adventuring) that I’d almost consider them living together. Even more so in her post-game verse where she’s head of the Academy.

PARENTS / GUARDIANS : mother  |  father  |  adoptive  |  foster  |  grandmother  |  grandfather  |  other

SIBLING(S) :  sister(s)  |  brother(s)  |  other 

She doesn't remember anybody so I'm basically ignoring this. (She had loving parents, though.)

RELATIONSHIP : single  |  crushing  |  dating  |  engaged  |  married  |  separated  |  it’s complicated  |  verse dependent

Izar sometimes can be quick to develop a crush on someone which dissipates just as quickly as it began (basically happened with Ranni, Leda and Jolán). She’s technically single but I’m also going for “it’s complicated”, because her and Ensha? At this point they know each other so well, have been through so much and mean so much to each other that neither of them really knows what exactly they are. Neither of them has really addressed this so far and there doesn’t seem to be a need for a label… but this uncertainty could complicate things at some point. Also, Sealer Izar in her Dark Souls verse was once romantically involved with a darkwraith, but after her flooding and then draining New Londo, their relationship status now clearly qualifies as “it’s complicated”.

I HAVE A(N) :  learning disorder  |  personality disorder  |  mental/mood disorder  |  anxiety disorder  |  sleep disorder  |  eating disorder  |  behavioral disorder  |  substance-related disorder  |  PTSD |  mental disability  |  physical disability | other: amnesia

Izar occasionally struggles with sleeping well, but the big deal is her amnesia (I added “others” to the list). A lot of her personality and actions are informed by the fact that she doesn’t remember her past, who she might have been, what she might have done, and what she might have lost. (Sealer Izar in her Dark Souls verse is a variant of this: Unlike ER Izar, she eventually reclaims her lost memories, but finds out that she purged them herself in the first place... and with good reason.)

THINGS I'VE DONE :  had alcohol  |  smoked/hookah  |  stolen |  done drugs  |  self-harmed  |  starved  |  had sex  |  had a threesome  |  had a one-night stand  |  gotten into a physical fight |  gone to a hospital |  gone to jail  |  used a fake ID|  played hooky |  gone to a rave |  killed someone  |  had someone try to kill them

Tagged by @derjaegermond (thank you!), tagging YOU RIGHT THERE! (as in whoever sees this and feels like doing it! feel free to tag me in turn so I can take a look!)

[izar-tarazed]

I somehow think they're not too comfortable around each other.

[izar-tarazed]

You don’t remember, of course, but maybe you turned to lightning so that water would forever be painful to you.

Felt compelled to draw Dark Souls Izar. In time, she might remember what she once did.

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Thoughts on Ensha's eyes

While I do have my own headcanon about what Ensha is (that I use in writing and RP), I still think a lot about what he’s meant to be in game and what clues we might gather from there. We know there’s an NPC model under the armor, which in turn raises the question of whether Ensha is supposed to be Tarnished or not (linking to this exchange between @katyspersonal and @wraith-caller who both briefly talk about this aspect, among others).

Personally I’m on the fence about what I think but one thing I’d like to point out (that I haven't really seen mentioned): If Ensha’s NPC model beneath the armor is intended to be more than a stand-in/technical necessity, it might well be implied that he is Tarnished because—as shown in Zullie’s video—his eyes do lack the gold of grace, and we know a lot of attention is paid to this kind of details in Elden Ring.

What’s more, Ensha’s eyes are actually pitch-black with no white in it whatsoever, apparently making him the only named NPC with that quality. (The Flame Guardians found at Mountaintop of the Giants apparently are the only other NPCs to have completely black eyes.) Of course, this opens up a lot of new rabbit holes:

Does it imply a connection between Ensha and the Flame Guardians? (I find that doubtful, but then again, I haven't really looked into the whole Flame Guardian thing, so... I don't know?)

Is the black color maybe in some way connected to him being soulless (as the ancient king Ensha mentioned in the description of his armor)?

I’m also extremely intrigued by the examples of 1.0 item descriptions that @wraith-caller highlighted here, stating ‟mask that mediates via body of famed ancestor,” whatever that's supposed to mean in detail.

And while I don’t assume that something used in 1.0 but removed later is necessarily canon, I feel like it does shed light on what they intended Ensha to be conceptually at some point? For me, it really feeds the idea of NPC Ensha—the human body beneath the armor—having a strong connection to the fabled soulless king whose bones he wears, probably having become a mere vessel (while possibly being a descendant of Ensha the soulless king)? But just to tie this back to the eyes: Maybe their complete blackness is (or was) supposed to show the absence of a personality of his own/the presence of someone very ancient within. (Quite the stretch, but just putting the thought out there.)

And lastly, of course, the pitch-black eyes might just be there for mechanical reasons again to emphasize and reinforce the darkness of the skull mask’s eye sockets (They’re also really deep-set). So they might not be about Ensha being a Tarnished but on the contrary.)

[izar-tarazed]

Just like her Elden Ring counterpart, Dark Souls Izar initially wakes with (almost) no memories of her past; she has not forgotten everything, but… most things. There is a big gap.

She wonders; she’s curious; but she isn’t desperate to find out who she was, or why she forgot. She seizes the chance to invent herself anew and from scratch. She becomes a wanderer, free and untethered, she experiments with whatever weapon falls into her hand, she’s curious about magic. There is nothing from her past to serve as an anchor, but she doesn’t mind. She has been like this for a long time when she ends up in the Undead Asylum, and escapes, and begins her journey as Chosen Undead, quietly scoffing at the thought: why would she, who doesn’t excel at anything, be chosen in any way. It doesn’t feel like a burden, though; she keeps travelling and exploring.

She learns magic. A storyteller at heart, she’s fascinated by miracles being tales of old, or fragments of tales; fascinated by magic unfolding through the power of remembering and reciting those tales. She learns to wield a lightning spear and welcomes the way this kind of magic sizzles and bites at her fingertips. She dabbles in pyromancy, fascinated by light and warmth. (Fire and lightning, she later realizes, are both opposed to water in their own way.)

She mostly stays clear of sorceries, though; a coincidence, she thinks.

And then there’s always those ruins: the dark ones beneath the Firelink Shrine; the flooded ones, silent and haunted.

They call to her before she knows their story. They feel like a place she should know, and Izar wonders whether she did, back when New Londo was an actual city. She probably learns about the city’s fate long before she first dares to venture into it, learning to fight off the ghosts. She probably hears of the darkwraiths before she first makes her way to that roof, and meets a solitary figure clad in the same crimson robes that she has taken to wearing, simply because she likes them, without any deeper feeling attached.

But then that figure—masked, unlike her—turns to greet her, and freezes, and says her name in an old voice. ‟You came back.”

And she blinks. Shakes her head, gives an apologizing smile. ‟You must mistake me for someone else, this isn’t really my robe,” and it’s his turn to shake his head and step closer, and she realizes that he has said her name. This is not about the robe she wears.

‟I’m Ingward. Do you not remember?” he says, and she falls quiet. She does not remember. But there is a sadness to his voice that can only come from truth.

‟Izar,” he says, cradling her name carefully as if it could be broken—as if this very moment could be broken, and he gestures to the dark waters. ‟You were one of us. When we flooded the city… when we sealed this place, sacrificing everything…”

And she shakes her head, but the motion does not seal his words from coming.

‟You helped,” he says. ‟Even though you had a friend among the Darkwraiths—you still helped when we drowned this place. Do you not remember?”

She does not, her mind as dark as the waters surrounding them.

‟No,” she mutters, turning away, ‟this couldn’t have been me,” but she knows. Even without remembering—she knows. She understands, too, why she forgot everything: they were not taken from her, those memories, not ripped out of her mind by some unknown tragedy. Izar herself, skilled sorceress that she was—a healer in crimson robe—had walked away and purged her memories. Flooded her mind with oblivion to drown the guilt much in the same way the city was flooded to contain the darkness, sacrificing everything else.

Fire and lightning and never sorcery, and it still leads her back to this place, to knowing without even remembering.

[izar-tarazed]

One of my headcanons is that the gems all across Ensha's armor actually represent constellations, which Izar as an astrologer of course figures out at some point. (And another reason she does is that she actually pays close attention to Ensha, which at that point is something that surprises him probably more than her insight regarding the gem constellations themselves.)

She also realizes that some are incomplete because gems have been lost, so she tries to find replacement gems that she gifts Ensha so the constellations can be fixed.

(Images by Zlofsky)