#carian knight moonrithyll

[loxosceleslolo]

continuing my theme of shipping knights and their lords/ladies...

hear me out: Carian Knight Moongrum/Rennala.

you can fit so much angst in that bad boy.

also consider: Carian Knight Moonrithyll/Rellana.

i don't know if that's more angst or less but i love lady knights smooching <3

[katyspersonal]

Poll for the Demigods: ( x )

[averagemrfox]

Shadow of the Erdtree has given us so many lady knights 🙏

[uncannyrakuyo]

Someone please hear me out on rellana x moonrithyll <\3

[bri-the-nautilus]

Moonrithyll my angel

she kinda clocky tho /pos

I like her.

Also shoutout to this girlboss for letting us have the Troll Knight's Sword with an ash that's not fucking Troll's Roar. I love the design of that sword, but the fact that it was locked into having Troll's Roar in basegame put me off it for a while. A phalanx variant is literally my dreams come true.

[kyrdjava]

Moonrithyl?!

Did you

Did you drag this guy right from Dark Souls 3?!

Put them back. I don't like this game.

[kefna]

Day 11. Carian Knight Moonrithyll

She always lets me run by her on my way to Rellana

[gamesception]

I did it.

I did it! I beat this crazy boss! Carian Knight build just keeps winning.

Holy cow those guys were tough, though. I tried a bunch with Ansbach and Thiollier, because in general I prefer to summon npcs whenever possible in my first time run through souls stuff, for the sake of narrative immersion & investment in the characters, but I was getting nowhere with them. So I channeled my inner Moongrum and strapped in for the long and painful process of burning Radahn II's parry timings into muscle memory.

Yes, it takes three parries to get the stagger, but it's still worth it. Not only is the stagger a safe opening for solid damage with my magic misericorde, the parries themselves stop not just the incoming attacks but the entire combo that would have followed them, AND they stop the extra holy splash damage attached to his sword swings in phase 2, AND when he gets parried but isn't staggered yet he's much more likely to follow up with either another parry-able sword swing or an easily jumpable stomp attack /and then/ another parry-able sword swing, so once you catch him with one parry you can often chain him into a bunch of much more manageable attacks in a row. Even if you accidentally try to parry the stomp, it's not that punishing.

In phase 2 I chugged my physick (+magic damage, +summon damage), then ran out of the giant holy aoe he almost always summons right away, and once safe I summoned best girl Tiche while the boss is still recovering. Then just try to maintain aggro with the occasional slicer (or a ranged spell if he gets away from me, but on the winning run he didn't) & keep on parrying while hoping Tiche gets in some black knife damage before inevitably falling to stray aoes.

It took two days of learning the fight before I hit a solid run with good rng in terms of keeping aggro on myself in phase 2 and the boss favoring his parry-able attacks. He also went for the grab several times, which, once you get the dodge timing, is very easy to avoid and leaves him wide open for both my slicer and Tiche's black knife.

I was using dagger talisman for the big boost to damage & Radagon's for extra casting speed as offensive talismans alongside +3 physical and holy resist for most of the runs. But half way through I traded dagger & radagon for assassin's crimson and cerulean daggers to regen health and mp with each riposte. No dagger talisman would mean an extra crit to get to phase 2, and another couple extra to win, and no radagon meant a few openings that had been safe for 2 slicers were now only good for one. However, the extra healing on crits saved not only flasks but also the need to burn openings on flasks. The cerulean dagger in particular saved me the need to top off with a blue flask before summoning tiche in phase 2, which I just didn't have the time for.

In making the swap I stumbled into a exploit in my favor- For some combination of weapon types and enemies the critical hit animation will trigger the effect of the assassin's dagger talismans twice, and dagger crits against Radahn are one of those cases - at least in current patch - so I was getting double heals to health and mana with every third parry. Honestly a life saver that really put me over the top here.

The best part of parry strats was finishing the boss off with a crit. SUPER satisfying.

All in all this Radahn & Miquela were hard as hell, the only fight in the DLC that really felt that way, but remember that I was summoning both npcs and spirit ashes for most fights, so not exactly the pure 'get good' experience.

I didn't end up using much dlc stuff in the last fight, but for all the complaints about int builds not getting much in the dlc I got a bunch of use out of glintblade trio, twin moons, a magic infused milady, wing stance & carian sovereignty ashes of war, rellana's twin blades, the wolf shield, and I even got some use out of the carian sorcery sword after they buffed it. Haven't used Carian Thrusting Shield or Moonrithyll's Knight Sword very much yet, but I'm looking forward to toying around with them.

I beat lion dancers & radahn - the first and last bosses I fought in the DLC - with base game weapons and spells, but for most SotE bosses I used new stuff. magic-infused wing stance milady for Rellana. magic-infused carian sovereignty milady for Messmer and Bayle. Rellana's twin blades for the Sunflower. Rellana's twin blades plus glintblade trio & twin moons for Romina & Lion Dancers 2. No skill wolf shield & carian soverignty on a base game magic infused knight's greatsword for Gaius & Metyr.

Again using npc summons where available, plus a variety of spirit ashes. I did mostly stuck to my preferred base game options there - greatshield soldiers, latenna, and of course tiche - but that was mostly out of being too lazy to upgrade the new ones, not because they didn't look good.

I wouldn't necessarily call any of that "optimal" as far as gear/strategies go (apart from maybe Milady with wing stance), but certainly playable enough to have fun with in pve. And that's while sticking to a relatively strict carian knight theme, so I didn't even get into the finger sorceries, microcosm, gravity stuff, star lined sword, etc. Int builds might not have gotten the most out of the dlc, and a lot of what we did get could certainly have stood to be better, but there's still plenty there to play around with.

...

Anyway, overall I liked Shadow of the Erdtree a lot. It's not perfect, definitely 'More Elden Ring', for both better and worse. But I liked Elden Ring, so for me it's mostly for the better, even if I do wish they had brought covenants back and/or introduced one or two dedicated invasion zones. Oh, well. DS3 & BB servers still up for that I guess.

[tallymali]

MOONRITHYLL CARIAN KNIGHT

[katyspersonal]

Wait what's this about Moonrithyl being called a bridesmaid in Japanese?

Oh, yes! This is something I honestly have no idea WHY English localisation team decided to obscure!

But basically it is in Japanese description of Moonrithyll's sword:

(From this ( x ) page)

I really recommend to ALWAYS double check the description from Soulsborne games!

The DLC ones I found on this site I linked, but since the time I got this screenshot a page for Japanese descriptions for SOTE items appeared: ( x ), and the page for Japanese script for SOTE dialogues is here: ( x )! Everything Japanese for Elden Ring before SOTE is here: ( x )! Don't worry about being lost, everything has English script too so you can compare the scripts!

For Dark Souls trilogy, the page for Japanese descriptions here: ( x )! It is very good and organised page that features all at once, in easy to find fashion!

For Bloodborne, document for Japanese script (and a retranslation notes featuring the mistranslated nuances) is here: ( x )!

Anyways, back to the topic! Yes, Rellana is engaged with someone, and my hot take is that there is no better candidate than Messmer. Now let's point and laugh at English localisation team's L once more:

*points* HAAAHAAAA!!!

[katyspersonal]

Queelign for the ask meme pls lmao

That terrible, terrible man....

(Asks from this ( x ) meme)

Favorite thing about them:

The way he is basically suppressed, or lost, little version of Messmer! It is not just that he modelled his weapon after his spear and aspires to be like him, but also the way he speaks of Marika and feels about her! He is very infatuated, loyal and oddly.... naive, considering the context! I absolutely feel like he reflects that more hopeful, more puppy-eyed child Messmer doesn't get to be. Untouched by curse or hatred of abandoned child. I love when character serves like a window into someone else too!

Ignoring this narrative nonsense that I am probably just hallucinating, I just love how sensitive he is. Seeing how he sounds passionate or pathetic or both, I expected him to be a young man, but he is listed as 'mature'! So he is like, around 40! I love me a male who doesn't lose his sensitivity with age... to better or worse. In a better turn of events, he'd be a great poet, I can tell this. :pensive:

Least favorite thing about them:

This is a pain to explain but whereas I love how religious-fanatical he is, I ALSO hate it? He captivated me from the first invasion (as much as I didn't want to admit it), but also I read Crusade Insignia description and was like "ohhhhhh FUCK I reeeeally hate this guy already!!!" hfhghh I suppose, it is fair to be conflicted? He falls for the type of the characters you love in fiction but would dread to meet in real life!!

Favorite line:

"Queen Marika, behold! I have excised another. Another cancer to thy joy." This kind of made me uneasy XD How he is this pathetic and this scary at the same time?

brOTP:

I feel like he and Moonrithyll would be friends! ….that are constantly bickering with each other. XD Whereas he is very fixated on Messmer and aspires to be like him, with Moonrithyll it is similar with Rellana! Rellana believes that sky and fire should be together, after all, and Moonrithyll respects trolls as descendants of Fire Giants more than she does as just loyal friends to Carians.

But whereas things between Messmer and Rellana are very good and settled, Moonrithyll constantly lets the attitude of "pledging to the Erdtree was a cringe phase for us, at least thanks to Messmer we are soooo back baby 😎" slide. Before Queelign. *million skull emojis* But despite them often fighting, they are not enemies. In fact, maybe frienemies? They have long conversations (mostly about their leages lol) that they enjoy a lot, and they have fun... until one of them says something they really should agree to disagree on already. -_- Queelign doesn't because he is too petty to not remind everyone how he is the only one to "really" respect Marika, Moonrithyll doesn't because she is honest to a fault!

OTP:

I actually really like to think about him and Messmer? Help me??

^^^ Messmer and Rellana are canonically a thing, apparently, so it is somewhere in AU drawer... but still!! There are just... a lot of things between them.

^^^ Queelign is the only Fire Knight that seems to have been "spared" by Messmer's curse; he doesn't have red hair and trademark red cape! And I like to think this is deliberate. That Messmer cherishes his "innocence", seeing him as little naive version of self. He could not take that away from Queelign, nor ruin the hair color so golden, nor he wants Queelign's heart to break upon learning that true nature of Messmer's Flame comes from something existing as anathema to the Erdtree.. He never got to be a person so blinded with faith in Marika's love, but he can allow Queelign to be this...

At the same time, Messmer pities him sometimes. He sometimes feel bitter and hurt when Queelign goes on the rant about Marika's "boundless love" and "sure return someday" and wants to snap at Queelign. He has dark enjoyment pushing Queelign to think of dread of Marika's hatred and neglect and watch him break down and cry, as Messmer is almost dead inside nor he physically can have tears. He wants him to cry for them both. He also wants to comfort him. He is uncomfortable with Queelign wanting to be just like him. He also finds solace in it because Queelign gets to be a version that isn't cursed. He cherishes his naivete. He also sometimes wants to obstruct this little sunshine and curse him too but restrains himself. There are many conflicting feelings.

And yeah, it looks a bit one-sided, right? :p Messmer has such an internal conflict over Queelign, whereas the other just admires him and thinks being like him is epitome of a proper Marika's follower. But all Fire Knights know Messmer very well, and he is not an exception. Queelign is very insistent on Marika's holiness and perfection with anyone else, but when Messmer allows his suppressed hatred and knowing Marika will never embrace them again slide? Queelign argues for his sake and not hers. He genuinely hates to see him despair. The contrast between Queelign being very sensitive and Messmer becoming oddly cold for a fire wielder is also fun x)

They have a lot of tension between them most of the time, but deep down they both know. Messmer is not stingy with affectionate words for people he trusts and values, and Queelign is no more afraid to disagree with him than one would with a very moody friend. He can tell that he has special rights even compared with other Fire Knights despite not being given direct "communion" with his flame, and when Messmer tells him it is because he cherishes him the way he is, Queelign believes that.

nOTP:

Either I live under a rock or fandom is yet to invent ships for Queelign to BEGIN with. xD I legit don't know which ship for him would be bad? I'll know it when I see it, I suppose...?

Random headcanon:

He constantly fucks up cooking. Like, there is no way he doesn't ruin his meals. When it is not misinterpreting recipe or adding too much due to simple clumsiness, it is that he got distracted or lost in thoughts about Marika's grace. 🙄 Every time he is determined that he WILL focus and do it right, and every time he fails. When things are inedible, like, it is charcoal or looks dangerous, he resorts to making puppy eyes to other Fire Knight so they share their food with them gghkugg They are used to it! Hilde even used to cook a bit more dinner than she needed, fully expecting him to drop by!

Unpopular opinion:

Look, I do like jokes about his haircut, I am not humorless! AND I love this cursed image from Reddit proving "that he only looks bad because of his haircut":

( x ) gfhghgb but- I disagree with allowing it to brush an interesting character aside!! Jokes are fun, but making whole character a joke isn't 😔💔 He deserves his place amongst other "fanatics who simpmaxx" like Lautrec, Alfred and Leda, and should have many bitches same as THEM!!

Song I associate with them:

Ironically, not the depth of introspection I see him reaching any time soon.

Favorite picture of them:

I can't really find Queelign fanart, let alone chosing a favourite tbh.. Myself, I have like, four WIPs featuring him, but you know me, I finish like two drawings per year at BEST. Scarlet Rot Depression eaten away my artist poweeerrrr...

Thank you for asking!! Lmao I can't shut up about this man