#contemporary of physicist Galileo Galilei who first used the telescope in astronomy and also championed Coppernicus' heliocentrism

[miirshroom]

Interesting thought that the Erdtree seems reassembled from shattered pieces. And I have also thought that the Shattering and burning could be the same event.

In my observation, there are a few reasons why a graphics glitch or rendering error seem false. 1) I have seen the tree smoothly transition from solid to translucent accompanied by other changes in the skybox/weather. 2) The transparent tree lacks the usual signs of error (flickering, awkward rectangular or pixillated sections of glitched graphic, etc) and 3) The tree is typically appearing fully solid in rainy conditions or other particle-heavy times that I would think to be more graphically intense than the calm weather where transparency occurs.

I do think it is worth examining why the in-game creator of the spyglass would have a bias towards creating a telescope lens that makes the tree seem solid.

Telescope:

Astrology tool used by members of the Carian royal family. A stolen part of a larger instrument. Allows the viewer to better see faraway things. 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.

It is interesting to note that this telescope sold by Kalé is the stolen part of a larger instrument. As described by the McDonald Observatory in Texas "A telescope gathers and focuses light so that it can be fed into an instrument that will do specific things to that light. What happens to the light once it enters the instrument depends on what types of cosmic questions the instrument was designed to study." The nature of the instrument varies - could be a camera or could be something like the McDonald observatory's Argos (named for the many-eyed monster of Greek Myth) which measures the intensity of light.

Additionally, the telescope is used by members of the Carian family and yet references the downfall of Carian Astrology and the influence of the Golden Order. It should be recalled that "members of the Carian royal family" could refer to any subset of Rennala, Ranni, Rykard, Radahn or Radagon. Of particular note is Radagon, as his return to Marika revealed that his loyalty to the Golden Order is stronger than any other tie.

One specialized type of telescope is the solar telescope that allows closer observation of the sun. The visual design of the Elden Ring telescope offers further evidence that it is a tool specifically used to concentrate the light of the Erdtree - and not for observing the stars in general. Most prominent is the metalwork sunflower motif just behind the lens. Sunflowers in real life turn their heads to face the direction of the sun, but in Elden Ring their heads are pointed in the direction of the Erdtree. The Erdtree is equated to the sun - and the second motif of note hiding in the shadow near the viewing end of the telescope is itself a 12-rayed sun (see visual similarity to the 12 sided sun on the coat of arms for Sankt Gilgen on Lake Wolfgang, or the 12-armed sunstar).

Altogether, the implication is that the telescope makes the Erdtree seem solid because it was made for the purpose of envisioning the Golden illusory form of the Erdtree back in the days when it was still a withering tree of the traditional organic kind. Calling it a "spyglass" is an appropriate name due to Radagon's role as a spy stealing the techniques of the Carians for the benefit of the Erdtree while also undermining their astrology.

The Unreality of the Erdtree

It seems quite intentional that the Erdtree in the present is a phantom, and the physical tree burned long ago. This can be seen most clearly from Liurnia when the moon shines through the tree, as seen from the Four Belfries. Recent investigations on the utter darkness that occurs during the late night fog in Liurnia (also at the Four Belfries) has revealed that despite its bright appearance the tree is not acting as a radiant light source. If it was, then the light would have diffused through the fog. And this is confirmed by people who have examined the game files.

Some other places that I have observed the Erdrtree as transparent are on the Bellum Highway bridge into Raya Lucaria, at the location where Yura can be encountered (cloudy morning at time of observation):

In Limgrave, slight transparency seen at the back side of the Artist's Shack (standing on top of the mushroom there):

And in Caelid from the vantage point of the Nomadic Merchant (Caelid South) who sells the Champion set:

An even more radical proposal is that as an object of faith not even the gold phantom tree is visible to anyone but us, the Tarnished who can see the Guidance of Grace.

One piece of evidence for this is that Boc is excited to see the tree upon reaching Leyndell, which is an odd thing to say considering that we've always seen the tree (this point raised by the Tarnished Archaeologist on YouTube, who also goes over the evidence for the first burning of the Erdtree in his video "The 3 Creeds of the Erdtree").

This raises the question that if the Erdtree was burned long ago and the existing form is known to be an illusion, then why does no-one say anything about it - not even the non-believers? Or at least, no one starts a direct conversation about it - there are some subtle hints that we see something that no-one else does. And there are a few possible reasons why no-one talks about the Erdtree having burned before:

None of the Tarnished directly witnessed the burning. This would actually be a very good timeline marker because it would mean that the Tarnished were all sent off before it happened. When they return they see and accept the Golden Tree at first like we do, but probably at some point through the journey they one by one loose that ability and turn to disbelief. The Tarnished who survived long enough that we meet them are the ones savvy enough to realize that this is an Emperor's New Clothes situation - all of the general inhabitants of the world who remain loyal to the Erdtree are pretending that all is well with the object of their faith.

The finger-readers are blind. Were they blind before the tree was burned, or did they blind themselves so that they would not need to acknowledge that the Erdtree was burned a long time ago? Unclear. They are very insistent that burning the Erdtree is the First Cardinal sin which is either premonition or based on past events. (The finger reader at Leyndell asks "surely you see it too? The gold that enshrouds the heavens. The great tree which begets the pillars of light. " with regards to the tree. An odd statement to make if there was no doubt of the tree's existence)

The Commoners no longer have their wits (see Commoner's Headband). They would need to be witless to deceive themselves that the great glowing tree is real as if the burning never happened.

Morgott...I think he knows that the Erdtree burned and only a stump remains. I think maybe he envies the Tarnished - another being who was discarded as unworthy but is still granted grace to see the Golden Tree. He's the Emperor for whom the Commoners go through the motions of still having faith, but rather than being merely gullible like the Emperor of the story he is a ruthless tyrant who assassinates and imprisons dissidents.

As I'm familiar with the way that illusions are handled in Pathfinder 2e, disbelieving an illusion and dispelling an illusion are different actions. A perfect illusion will appear and perhaps even feel like a solid object depending on the strength of the spell, but disbelieving this illusion does not make the visual aspect disappear. It may cause the image to appear fuzzy or indistinct similar to the partial transparency of the Erdtree.

It seems to me that the Erdtree may be an illusion for the benefit of the Tarnished player that is believed or disbelieved by consensus. The stronger the faith of the people surrounding any given vantage point, the more solid it appears, but the illusion will never disappear completely for anyone as long as the Elden Ring exists. Melina "burning" the Erdtree is less of a burning of a physical object than it is of modifying the illusion or replacing it with a new one - after all the burning never progresses and consumes the tree no matter how long a player takes to defeat Radagon. It's the same for the Elden Lord endings, with each simply choosing the nature of their illusion.