#elden ring headers

[photodumpicons]

[treevore]

Messmer The Impaler

[possiblynotpayingattention]

WARNING: The final boss fight for "Shadow of the Erdtree" just got leaked and the Wiki is filled with spoilers!

It's a MASSIVE spoiler for both gameplay and lore.

Be WARNED!

If you don't want the ending ruined before June 21st, avoid social media sites like Twitter, the Elden Ring Wiki pages and the sub-reddits for ER.

TIME TO GO DARK, SOULS FOLKS!

See you on the 21st! ⚔️

[beholdenlie]

with blood, with love (chapter one)

fandom: elden ring

characters: white mask varré x original female character

tags: NSFW (later chapters), unhealthy relationship dynamics, violence, dub con themes, uh...blood.

author's note: repost from ao3. it’s my dream that one kind soul will eventually make fanart of this because I can’t draw to save my life.

Wounded, bleeding, and lost in the swamps of Liurnia, the brave Tarnished Enreila stumbles upon the Rose Church and White Mask Varré. That’s probably not a good thing.

Enreila knew she’d made a mistake venturing into the swamps of Liurnia. No matter that the supposed guidance of grace—that damned infuriating golden light—stubbornly pointed her in their direction.

The thick fog wrapped around Enreila like a damp blanket, unrelenting in the way it obscured her vision. She couldn’t see more than a few inches in front of her face at a time, didn’t see the hulking form of a land octopus until it was much too late. The massive creature swiped at her with one heavy tentacle, cutting into her side and knocking her off her feet.

Enreila’s head struck a stray bit of rubble, most likely a remnant of an ancient ruin, fallen from the sky. Her vision blurred and nausea threatened to overtake her as she scrabbled for purchase against the mud and slimy vegetation beneath her.

The slick slide of tentacles reached Enreila’s ears and pure instinct had her reaching for the pouch of throwing knives she kept strapped to her thigh. Blinking past the sweat and putrid water dripping down her face, Enreila squared her shoulders as best she could and aimed at the creature’s face, the only part of its body not covered in a thick layer of rock-like scales.

She let a knife fly and the blade struck true, sinking into the land octopus’ eye. The creature shrieked and flailed its tentacles furiously as Enreila rolled to her feet. She wasn’t quick enough though, and a stray tentacle struck her chest. Not as hard as the one that had sliced open her side, but hard enough to knock her back a few steps, to cause the air to escape her lungs with a pained grunt.

“Damn you, beast,” Enreila gasped. She reached for another knife and then another, throwing each one with precision, striking the land octopus’ face repeatedly. Though her knives could do some damage, could perhaps kill a lesser creature with a single, well-aimed throw, Enreila wasn’t kidding herself that they could fell a full grown land octopus. But she persisted. Refused to die here in this wretched swamp. Or, if she had to die, she would, at the very least, put up a good fight.

As she was nearing the last of her throwing knives, the creature let out one last enraged shriek before—by some miracle—it scuttled away from Enreila and disappeared back into the fog.

Perhaps she had wounded it enough. Perhaps she had frightened it. Enreila didn’t want to think about the alternatives. Didn’t want to consider that something else could be lurking beyond the fog, something terrifying enough to scare a creature as fearsome as what she had just faced.

Enreila waited in silence for several breaths, clamping down on the pained groan she longed to loose from her throat. She waited long enough to ascertain that the land octopus was indeed gone, that nothing else was creeping up towards her through the fog.

All at once the adrenaline left her and Enreila dropped to her knees, clutching at her side. She hissed as she carefully prodded around her wound, throbbing painfully with every heartbeat, and her hand came away bloody. The creature’s rocky scales seemed to have cut deep. Enreila automatically reached for the healing flask she kept at her belt and let out a quiet, dismayed groan when she held it up to her face and saw that it was empty.

Of course. She’d been so preoccupied with her miserable trudge through this gods-forsaken swamp that she’d forgotten to keep an eye out for any sign of the strange, isolated merchants she’d often found dotted throughout these lands. Enreila would have laughed at her carelessness if she wasn’t in so much pain.

Rummaging through another pouch strapped to her waist, Enreila’s fingers brushed against her remaining boluses, one used for stanching blood loss and the other to help slow the spread of poison. She took both into her palm and, bracing herself, shoved the perfectly round boluses into her mouth. She cringed as the acrid taste of them seemed to sear straight through her tongue, but managed to swallow before the taste could linger any longer.

Enreila glanced down at her side. The flow of blood had slowed, but not completely. She’d need proper healing. And soon.

She gritted her teeth in frustration. Persistent as it was, the shimmering light of grace hadn’t revealed itself to her in quite some time. Not since she’d arrived in Liurnia, at least. Perhaps the golden rays had misguided her. Or perhaps she'd only mistaken the direction in which grace had pointed her. Enreila didn’t know, but she couldn’t very well sit around and wait to bleed to death.

Enreila slowly dragged herself to a standing position, head spinning with the residual pain of her wound. I must find the guidance of grace again, she thought desperately. I must.

***

Around her, the swamp slowly turned into a shade of sickly yellow.

Enreila’s brow was slicked with cold sweat, the pain radiating from her wound almost maddening in its intensity. The effects of the boluses had long since worn off and she had to practically drag herself through the mud that sucked at her now-ruined boots.

She hadn’t run into any more land octopuses, but neither had she seen any merchants, nor the gentle, shimmering light that marked a site of grace, those sacred places that served as sanctuaries for Tarnished like Enreila. If she could find such a place, she could return to the Roundtable Hold. She could request healing from Brother Coryhn. She could make the choice to never return to Liurnia again and start her quest anew.

But the yellowing of the landscape around her meant the sun was rapidly setting, a thought that sent a shiver skittering down her spine. Enreila knew what manner of creature roamed the swamps at night. Emaciated men who rode half-rotted horses and, accompanying them, the ringing of bells.

And when those bells rang, more rotted creatures emerged from the depths of the swamp, summoned to stalk and hunt and kill.

Of course, Enreila could call upon Torrent, her spectral steed. He might carry her for a while. But she highly doubted that he could guide her safely from the swamp, not when she was so weak, so close to losing consciousness. Not when she possessed no map, nor no knowledge of the area. She hadn’t thought it necessary. After all, Enreila could see the guidance of grace, couldn’t she?

Enreila would have wept if she had the energy to spare. Instead, a weak and worryingly wet laugh escaped her lips. At least she still had that. She had never wanted to cry when facing certain Death. Had promised herself, no matter what, she wouldn’t cry. She’d laugh instead. Laugh right in Death’s face.

Slowly, Enreila came to a stop, falling once again to her knees. She could barely manage to lift her head, but she did, wanting to gaze at something other than the jaundiced swamp around her before she lost consciousness.

As she tilted her head back, something snagged at her attention. There, only a short distance away, the remains of a ruin shimmered into focus. Enreila recognized the architecture almost at once, the way a steeple still stood, reaching upwards, seeming to pierce the sky.

Enreila let out a breath, wincing weakly at how such a small action made her wound twinge in protest. She blinked hard, once, and then another time, only to ensure she wasn’t hallucinating. And when she determined that the ruins were, in fact, a church, and not some figment of her imagination, she dragged herself to her feet once more.

“Only a little farther,” she muttered to herself. “Only…a little…”

Enreila fell. But she wouldn’t—no, she couldn’t—let herself drift away now. Using her arms, Enreila began to drag herself forward and slowly, impossibly, the ruined church drew closer.

“Almost…there.” Enreila didn’t know if she was saying the words out loud, or if she was only imagining them. It didn’t matter. Her arms were about to give out, but she was nearly there.

Black spots had begun to dot her vision, starting out as little pinpricks but growing at an alarming pace until they threatened to obscure her vision entirely. It was then that Enreila stopped. Not because she could no longer see, but because a figure had suddenly appeared before her, nearly two feet away from where she was desperately dragging herself through mud and water and rock.

Enreila blinked in confusion.

So bright. It was all she could manage to think in her pain-addled state. The figure before her was so bright and still, she almost thought it a statue. Or perhaps some spirit had found its way to her, so as to carry her to Death.

“Ah, my little lambkin.” The figure spoke softly, yet there was an edge to the voice that had Enreila flinching back, despite the agony the movement caused her. “Now what have you gone and done to yourself?”

Enreila opened her mouth, thinking to respond, but she could force no words from her throat. Only a soft sigh left her—a sound of utter defeat, she thought—before complete darkness finally engulfed her.

[eye-of-yelough]

May Chaos Take The World btw. If you even care.

[ganondoodle]

FINAL charge! all there to beat Miquellas ass into oblivion (for various reasons)

(added: Rellana, Varré, Maliketh, Nepheli, Jar Bairn, Igon, Gideon, Tanith, Rya, Midra, Onze, Boc, Fortissax, Torrent, Moghs followers, the entire redmane army)

jerren on his way to beat miquellas ass once he learns what he did to radahn

(Elden Ring)

[freyito]

ᴛʀɪᴄᴋ ᴏʀ ᴛʀᴇᴀᴛ! ⨟ ʙᴏᴏᴛʜɪʟʟ

✭ pairing(s): boothill x gn reader

✩ in which: he celebrates halloween with you.

✧ a/n: i wanna do a nice little short series for a select few characters for halloween... basically the idea is . trick is the silly and annoying things they'd do on halloween and treat is the stupidly sweet and sappy things theyd do on halloween. no promise on which characters will be a part of this series! it could range from twisted wonderland to elden ring el oh el

✦ taglist: @fffrost, @shinysora

→ trick or treat masterlist

🗒 cw: gn reader, just fluff :P, DAD BOOTHILL!!!, not proofread

✎ wc: 610

Trick

Boothill is a little shit during Halloween. If he’s able to settle down with you, you’re in for a lot of stupid scares. If you’re afraid of horror but still in the mood for some scary movies, he’s making sure you’ve got nothing to hold on to aside from him. He’s poking at your sides, trying to make you take your hands away from your eyes or look at the screen when a particularly scary scene plays. Ain’t no fun in watchin’ it alone!

He’ll find a way to drag you off to some sort of haunted house, or festival with scare actors. He’s seen so much, a few actors jumping out at him and screaming doesn’t get to him. But if it makes you flinch, even a little bit, you’re subjected to such torture. He laughs whenever you jump or swear or cover your mouth, and it makes you want to punch him in the gut right then and there. Don’t think about trying to wiggle your way out of it, he acts all sad and defeated if you don’t go out with him.

At home, he is equally annoying. Hiding around corners, staring at you from said corners until you notice, cackling when you scream, and many more. One time you woke up to him standing over you, his eye emitting an eerie red hue. Though, you still don’t know if it was because he was charging, or if he was actually messing with you.

Treat

With all that being said… if you were to scold him for all he’s done, he’s genuinely remorseful. Boothill sulks a little, but his apology is genuine. He does all the chores he can before he sets off, even takes you out to a nice dinner before Halloween, maybe a couple of drinks (but those are mainly for him). The unfortunate thing is it happens every year, but the pay off (the pampering) is just wonderful.

On Halloween night, he’s absolutely jubilant. He can’t sit still for a minute. He’s practically waiting at the door like a dog waiting for its owner to come home. He’s practically begging you for him to be the one to pass out candy to the kids. He just adores them dressed up in their little costumes, it’s like he’s a whole new man when he closes the door. All mushy over the little pirate who took one too many pieces of candy, or the princess who did a little bow before she left.

If you two have kids, he’s dressing up with them, no questions asked. Even if he ends up as a tree or a trash bag, he could care less. He loves it. He makes you take a couple photos with your phone, then like a thousand more on an old polaroid camera, so he can at least keep one with him. He also makes sure to hit all the houses. Twice. Doesn’t matter if the people at the door recognize them, Boothill’s got a way of persuasion none can beat. If he knows there’s any house giving out full-sized candy bars, he’s probably raided the bowl. He’ll leave some extra for other kids of course (while he adores his own, he’s not cruel), but his kiddos deserve the best, so they’re getting the best.

Even though exhaustion is non-existent to him now, by the end of the night, he’s all tuckered out. Crashed on the couch with your kids, a few stray wrappers he forgot to pick up before ushering the kids off to bed. Trick or treating is hard work, you know! Don’t be mad when he’s tired, he worked his behind off!

© freyito, 2024 | masterlist | queue | kofi | discord server | star header by roseschoices DO NOT REPOST AS YOUR OWN, REPOST ON ANY OTHER PLATFORM, OR USE FOR AI/AI CHATBOTS.

[gomzdrawfr]

Commission Status: CLOSED Current activity: - donation doodle - dtiys challenge - PriceGhost week (Dec 1st-7th)

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COD OC: #[oc]Raven (Reference Sheet) and #[oc]Jelly

Other OC: #[oc]Magpie, #[oc]Sparrow, #[oc]Fish

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[asklesbianonceler]

Metyr, The Gloam-Eyed Queen, and The Nox

Lore, item, and speculation analysis. Looking at coincidences and theories a bit closer below the cut.

This is a little more disjointed than my last analysis.

@dykeishheart Replied to your post: I would be curious to know if you think anything in particular about the finger ruins of Rhia and Dheo being shaped just like the godslayer incantation insignia. I haven't seen any people mention it before but I was almost wondering if it's a false thread, like maybe it isn't meant to look like that intentionally bc nothing in Ymir/Metyr quest uses or mentions black flame or the gloam-eyed queen. Unless we interpret Metyr's pink gazing eye as 'gloam' (twilight)

I got this reply and said "yeah, I'll finally get into this!" So thank you!!

I've mentioned vaguely having thoughts on The GEQ/Metyr connections as well as Metyr's connection to the Nox but never got into any of it concretely. I know this specific reply isn't saying Metyr and the GEQ are connected beyond this but I've seen it A LOT and I've wanted to talk about it so it's a good excuse!

You can scroll down to my "Actual Interpretation" header if you want to skip over other's theories and a brief GEQ summary

I want to start by giving an overview on the points I've seen floating around that bring up visual similarities between Metyr and the GEQ so we have a basis for this.

The pattern on Metyr's face, the fingerprint, is similar to both the shape of the godslayer incantations as well as, as user dykeishheart pointed out, the above ground finger ruins

Metyr's tail fingers are in a twist, similar to the helix on the godslayer greatsword.

The godslayer greatsword has a swirling, fingerprint-like pattern on the beginning of the blade before it breaks into a twist

The dominula cape has similar patterns to the incantation as well as the finger sorcery symbols

Jolan and Anna's armor of night, has another similar fingerprint/godslayer-like symbol on the front

My hesitancy with addressing this in detail is that I don't want people to think I'm telling them they're wrong or coming off as argumentative. This is simply my take on the theory. But we're no strangers to characters being associated with the GEQ

So without further adieu, with the points I'll be contesting laid out, here are my thoughts on why Metyr is not connected to the GEQ.

GEQ basics:

We know the GEQ had her own two fingers, was an Empyrean, and was a direct timeline competition to Marika. It seems that, to the Greater Will, they were both potential candidates vying for Elden Lord, each trying to unite the lands between, and possibly the land of shadow, to the GWs plan. It is unclear if at this time the fingers were already unsound and giving baseless messages. I personally do not believe so as these were likely the first sets of two fingers to be bestowed upon Empyreans and still in their early history. It would also make sense that the GW would want false or unfit gods killed off before it's new plan is enacted.

The GEQ controlled destined death, a key aspect of the Elden Ring and one that would be incredibly dangerous for Marika who sought godhood. Thus she and Malekith went to war against her and her Godskins

She raised her godksin from birth, turning the dead flesh of unnamed, and unimportant gods into her children- via the godskin swaddling cloth, also directly connecting her to motherhood.

The meaning of Gloam is roughly synonymous with evening, dusk, twilight, and crepuscule, a time of day characterized by sunset- a blueish to orange/sometimes purple sky. We could also interpret this as "coming to an end" the setting of the sun, the absence of light, or gold. (making her a direct foil to Marika)

Her and her apostles are associated with Black, obsidian, and a deep purple gemstone

My first question about this theory is, what is the theory specifically? That Metyr IS the GEQ or that the GEQ was a follower/champion of Metyr/sanctioned by Metyr?

ON TO

MY ACTUAL INTERPRETATIONS:

My initial thought on the godslayer seal/symbol was always that of inverted fire. A fire devoid of warmth or life, the opposite of those wielded by others in Elden Ring. This is still my interpretation. The Stone set in the middle of the seal, to me, also do not seem intentional enough for me to connect it to Metyr. Had it been anything but black I would be more inclined to give this more weight. Metyr's eye is red/orangeish, bearing an odd crossed separation down its iris. I believe there are too many similar swirling, round patterns in other incantations for this to seem concretely intentional. The Frenzy Flame, Dragon communion, and others all have a swirling in the center. The other thing setting this symbol apart from a fingerprint is the symbols between each ring.

As far as the finger ruins shape, to me they almost feel like sites of large meteor crashes, further suggested by the falling star beast. And Metyr herself is a falling star. Their shape to me feels like a trail of something hitting the ground and settling. I believe it says the lampreys aren't from the land of shadow as well but I could be wrong. They feel very alien and touched by outer presence. I think their fingerprint line shape also feels like the ripples of something crashing there.

Metyr is also a shockingly developed god in comparison to the Elden Beast, so much so that I cannot see her being or sanctioning The GEQ. As I got into in my Ymir Analysis post, Metyr is given strong characterization and emotion. She is loyal and subservient to the GW to the end. Even when she is abandoned she remains true to the purpose it gave her, grieving her corrupt children, waiting, alone, and growing resentful- but only to the point of physical violence via her thrashing and wielding of her head as a weapon. Her built up anger, as her remembrance weapon states, manifests in crushing blows of her head as a weapon. Her utmost rage is literally her beating her head against the ground in frustration, to the detriment of those around her and likely herself. She is described as a kowtower to the GW and seemingly deals with far too much of her own grief, self doubt, and obligation to come up with her own agenda or enact another agenda herself/take any matters into her own hands to the extent of the GEQ. We have also seen the result of her direct connection with others via Ymir and seeing as this is the first/only time we see finger sorcery learned from her it's unlikely anyone else ever made contact to this extent. Her connection to the GEQ is that she birthed the fingers that told the GEQ what to do.

Perhaps, as many others, the GEQ was enamored by the teachings of her two fingers and took inspiration from its form. This wouldn't be uncommon. We see fingerprints in Frenzy flame items, Nox items, and the fingerprint shield- which is an item I would like to get into a lot more in a moment. But to connect her that closely to Metyr feels incredibly out of character for Metyr. Metyr is also largely connected to int builds and sorcery. Never Faith. Even the High Priest Hat boosts both Int and Arcane, not touching upon Faith. I also believe the lack of godskins in the land of shadow is incredibly telling. If the GEQ had connections to Metyr there would surely be something mentioning her blackflame or godskins in the DLC

Both are also associated with motherhood, but to the point that i think it's the opposite of something that connects them narratively. The GEQ has such a specific and unique way of creating her children/warriors, far too different from Metyr's

As far as the connection to her tail fingers goes, there are also countless other connections to helixes being associated with the divine, a main one being the hornsent. Her sword also doesn't have the classic spinal look down the center of the blade that both the Sacred relic sword and fingerslayer blade do.

In terms of connecting dominula to the godskin, that is entirely possible, but this just comes back to my feelings on the godslayer symbol. Connecting anything at all to the finger sorcery symbol would be baseless. This design takes far too much inspiration from the Carian and Raya Lucarian sigils to not be something Ymir created for his own sorceries, thus unique to the land of shadow and his studying of Metyr.

Metyr also seems far too connected to the stars for me to associate her with someone who's name means dusk- a time of day characterized by sunlight still being in the sky albeit fading. You really can't see stars during this time and certainly not enough for them to seem bright. She is far more associated with pure night than evening. Great segway.

The Nox and the Fingerprints and a Slayed God

Like I wanted GEQ lore in the dlc. I wanted to know more about her. But I truly think she's dead :(

I think sometimes we're just looking for GEQs so much that maybe we're overlooking some smaller revelations from the Metyr quest.

Specifically in regards to the Nox's reason for banishment and the fingerslayer blade.

Jolan and Anna are nox swordhands of Night. Their armor describes the swordhands as being born deep underground and their armor bears the fingerprint marking- actually described as a fingerprint in the description this time. But they don't wear this armor because they are in Metyr/Ymir's service. They arrived at the land of shadow wearing this armor that is designed to keep them in the dark and there were more than just two of them. We find the armor on a corpse in a body bag in bonny gaol, next to multiple other bodybags. But we can say for sure there were at least three swordhands here. And they must have had a purpose here for them to be the only Nox in the lands of shadow.

And this got me thinking. What other items specifically reference fingerprints and at first it just seems like frenzy items which seemed like a dead end. But there's one specific item that although related to frenzy, references a time before that- The fingerprint stone shield which is "part of the tomb of an ancient god---- the very seeds from which frenzy first started" So similar to Godwyn's death, a death created an unforeseen consequence, but who was this god? Who killed him? Well, aside from the GEQ, there is one other group of people known for knowing how to kill gods. The Nox. And they had a reason to do so. The Fingerslayer blade is born of a corpse and bears a similar helix and spinal design to the sacred relic sword, implying it is from the body of a god. The sword of a vassal/god that is capable of killing another. Perhaps this was the god the Nox killed in order to create the blade. Perhaps they did not kill this god themselves and merely robbed it's grave and defiled the body by rending the fingerslayer blade from it. The recurring fingerprint motif on the armor of the swordhands and on the tomb is an interesting connection. Regardless, the Nox did not want to be governed by the GW's influence, instead they followed the stars. They were the original GW haters and they wanted to kill one of its vassals and harm the GW. Which vassal did they intend to kill? Ranni uses it on her two fingers but perhaps it was made for Metyr, the source of the GW's messages that they hated so much. They were never able to use it. It's creation led them to be banished and stripped of the stars at the hands of the GW. Swordstress armor states, " Now they live under a false night sky, in eternal anticipation of their liege. Of the coming age of the stars. And their lord of night"

This would make sense as to why the swordhands are in the land of shadow. They were looking for Metyr. And it would also give us some food for thought on Jolan and Anna, Anna perhaps being the one who still believed in their original purpose and Jolan, having disagreed with her. Jolan instead believing she has found what the Nox were awaiting, the return of their stars and their lord of night. Her infatuation with stars, saying Ymir is her shining star, and doing as he asks without question, knowing he sees fate in the stars, heavily implies this is what she believes. Perhaps she too seeks redemption for what she's done as a swordhands, her weak heart leading her to forsake her original goal and seeking her fate in Ymir's stars.

Time to yap, because I understand I'm probably wrong about the ancient god connection bit:

Yapping: This ancient god to Nox connection is just theorizing. We could even theorize that the ancient god mentioned in the fingerprint shield is the GEQs grave and that maybe the Nox didn't kill this god and merely looted the grave, but the timeline on that might be odd. I can't say for sure. Further we can ask who's fingers were the three fingers, this ancient god's? GEQs? Or are they even fingers? Are they merely an apparition of something we will accept messages from? If Marika put the nomadic merchants in that hole in the ground it would also imply she put the tomb down there that held a dead god. A god she killed maybe? Really seems like that's where she puts shit she wants to forget about... The shunning grounds and all that.

Misc images that may be relevant!

[m1dori-eyes]

Be wary of linguistics rant, Elden Ring ahead

Ok so I just made a different post about this but I need to elaborate: The Elden Ring messaging system is legitimately such an interesting microcosm about how language is used as a tool and shaped to suit the needs it's being used for. I could actually make an entire study about how this can be used to better understand the formation of pidgin languages in the same way that epidemiologists studied the Corrupted Blood Incident in World of Warcraft to better understand the mechanics of how disease affects human behavior. Video games as an academic lens into peoples' minds has always been a fascinating topic to me, and by the end of this, you'll see why.

First off, message.

So for those not indoctrinated into the series/game, Elden Ring is a big open world game made by From Software, which won game of the year 2022 among some other awards (if you've played it or know anything about it, just skip to the next header). Each player plays as a Tarnished and explores this massive environment called The Lands Between individually, but if another player is walking in the same area that you are, you can see their "ghost" moving through the world, and you can "invade" or "be summoned" into another player's iteration of the world in order to briefly interact with it before returning to your own iteration. This occupies a weird space in between singleplayer and multiplayer, with these heavily limited and kind of random methods of interaction between players, but that's not the most interesting way of communicating with your fellow Tarnished; that title goes to the messages system. You can write a message onto a small stone, and leave it on the ground, and then that little stone with the message on it will have a random chance to appear in any player's iteration of the world for them to read. This is a tradition which has been going in From Software's games long since before the inception of Elden Ring, although I'm mostly going to be focusing on the message system of that title, because documenting the history of the 13+ years running Soulsbourne franchise is way too much, even for a nerd like me. The point is that messages are a lot more likely to be seen than any other method of player-to-player interaction, and you can even leave little "gestures" to go with them, where the reader can see your character striking a pose while they read the message. What a neat little mechanic, which definitely doesn't have any hidden layers of depth, and certainly wouldn't spawn an entire emergent system of pseudolinguistics, right?

No message ahead, be wary of mimicry

Well, when I said that messages are written by other players, that was a lie. To make a message, you don't type it out with your keyboard, you select what you want to say, from a big list of preset phrases. It works that way for a lot of reasons, foremost of all as a profanity filter, but also to prevent too many spoilers and maintain atmosphere. The sets of phrases are incredibly limiting, famously requiring players to use weird fake old-english diction in order to express a simple thought (Strong foe ahead, be weary of death. Look carefully ahead, visions of item. Suffering, o suffering, why is it always bad luck? etc). This seems like a limitation which would put a serious damper on anyone trying to actually communicate their thoughts, but gamers are a persistent sort, and have a lot of trouble taking no for an answer. They also have way too much time on their hands, and like to solve puzzles, a terrifying combination of traits, and the perfect one to accidentally create a conlang. With the unexpectedly massive audience that this game picked up on launch, millions of people left messages desperately trying to get something across, and if the game's preset vocabulary didn't contain the phrases to express it, they would forge their own path. Any big fans of linguistic history can already tell the direction that this might be going, as we move on into the next chapter:

Teacher, Liar, Lovable Sort

When the game released, there was chaos. The Lands Between are fraught with hidden passages, deception, and blatant bullshit, and the first kind of players leaving messages tried to helpfully communicate what you could trust, and what you couldn't. This is what the message system was intended for after all, giving advice to your peers, and what many people still use it for today. The second kind of players tried to do the opposite, deliberately leading people to their doom, just because they could. The third, and most numerous sort, were simply awestruck at everything the game had to offer, and left a series of remarks on the beauty and humor of the world. The messages left by each group are pretty easy to differentiate to the trained eye, which is the main feature causing me to point out this division of players. Let's call these groups the teachers, the liars, and the lovable sorts. A teacher can be recognized if their messages suggest something within reason, and being backed up by the peer-review of nearby messages to the same effect. If three messages are all sitting on the ground next to eachother, each saying something along the lines of "seek up, look carefully ahead", then a local collage of teachers are trying to let you know about a secret path ahead leading you up towards a hidden objective. However, a single message next to a bloodstained cliff-edge stating "jumping required ahead" is almost certainly a liar, trying to deceive an unsuspecting player into making a dubious leap. Liars sometimes use slightly simpler grammar than teachers do, being less committed to getting their point across. Wait a minute, linguistic variance based on intent? No no, this is just a video game about fighting monsters, surely such an interesting emergent system wouldn't arise from something like that. Lastly, the lovable sorts have the most ranging grammar, spanning from a simple word such as "dog" (a word used colloquially to describe all creatures, from turtles to dragons), to complex sentences requiring the combination of many phrases. However, a lovable sort can be differentiated by the fact that they merely remark upon the world as it is, instead of trying to offer advice to other players, as a teacher or liar might. Some of their most iconic phrases are "Elden ring ahead", used to sarcastically denote a dead end where a player might have been expecting treasure, "you don't have the right, o, you don't have the right" which indicates a locked door, or the world-famous "try finger, but hole", a phrase which explains itself. The most incredible thing about the words of the lovable sort, is that they all require a little bit of thinking to understand their actual meaning, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes like a second language to you! Wait a minute, a second language?

Message? Wasn't expecting introspection

As time went on, the three main groups of message-writers still kept chugging along, creating new works of writing every day, but advancements in understanding of the game's inner workings allowed these messages to become more and more complex. Compound words started to be formed to represent concepts outside of the preset vocabulary, like "skeleton, house" for coffin, "dung, key" to describe the donkeys accompanying traveling merchants, and "edge, lord" being used to refer to the NPC Ensha, a man wearing flamboyant armor made out of bones who takes himself way too seriously. It's worth noting in this section that for a specific period of time, The Lands Between were overtaken by a horde of messages stating only the words "fort, night". Despite the crude and humorous nature of the entire thing, it was clear to see that the linguistic patterns of the Elden Ring community were evolving into their own beast, far beyond the usages that the developers had intended. Words had shed their original meaning, to instead take up contextual meanings based on how players used them, effectively becoming different words entirely. Depending on how you define this, it's either a microcosm of incredibly fast and severe linguistic drift, or the emergence of a new pidgin or conlang entirely. If you really stretch things, you could almost call the message system of Elden Ring an entirely new language in and of itself.

Well done, victory ahead!

I think that video games are an excellent way to observe human behavior under conditions which are controlled, accelerated, and completely recordable, and this is the closest that we've ever seen to an entire language growing completely from scratch. People are always the same, whether you want to call it instinct or just cyclical tendencies, but normally the formation of a new language can take incredible periods of time, hastened only by tragic events like diaspora or massive losses of cultural knowledge (research what's been happening to Gaelic as a spoken language for more info about this sort of thing, it's kind of depressing but is also important to learn about, and there's a lot of people on this site talking about it who can do the topic way more justice than I can). Even for other topics which either require great passage of time, or great tragedy in order to research (I.E. geology or epidemiology, respectively), there are a lot of simulations and predictive models which can tell us how these systems behave without actually experiencing them. Linguistics has never had this sort of thing...until now, perhaps. Obviously there won't be any academic breakthroughs based on a bunch of people online all writing "rump ahead", but it's an incredibly interesting thing to see happening for a field which is so hard to actively advance, and it could lead to actual scientific methods of generating new languages via human interaction for research purposes. Of course, there's always the sizable chance that this goes nowhere and I just wrote this insane rant because I like to type, but if nothing else, I at the very least exposed some of my mutuals to "try finger, but hole".

[homokommari]

could you draw that character in your header? the pink hair in the design looks really pretty

thats my wife as her player character in elden ring. hype to watch her play th dlc next month

[terraliensvent]

"We personally enjoy the different stylization" 💀 response in staff answer

That’s where you kinda fail when it comes to consistency. I’m all up for redesigning items to give them fresh looks, but some of these look and feel like they’re from another species.

To put in comparison as anyone else before my ask, you can’t just put Tamagotchi level of design items with Genshin Impact level of designs. It just looks way out of place. Unless, unless there is specific events or shops, then that would make sense.

This also applies not to items, but visuals within the species. Try to train your staff to follow a specific rhythm when it comes to design. Let it be thick borders, minimum shading, sparkles, etc.

It’s a super pet peeve of mine whenever I join CS, I tend to look at the visuals and items and well, for some of the redesigns of some items in Terraliens they look out of place or lacking some sort of personality.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/858474989530120242/1280931120745025592/image0.jpg?ex=66d9df91&is=66d88e11&hm=c3cb3c6f9c2350fa396165a3214de379bdc1c27901d635a29f49f42933eb2ca6&

post related

"On the topic of art, it’s a lot of work to redraw everything. Personally, we enjoy the different stylization. We do require all of the art to be drawn in the same dimensions (1000x1000), but due to some backend issues the images are displaying at different sizes. A fix is actively being worked on."

HEY I KNOW HOW TO FIX IT! MAYBE DONT MAKE YOUR IMAGES 1000x1000 WHEN LK RECOMMENDS 100x100

like even 200x200 or hell even 500x500 but 1000x1000 is such an unnecessarily large file for something that is meant to be shown at various sizes (including incredibly small sizes) and has to be recognizable from afar

also the "stylization" is shit. to members, it shows a lack of consistency when none of your items even look like theyre a part of the same world. it looks sloppy and thrown together, which in retrospect i guess would be par for the course for terras anyways.

you cant take an item from elden ring and throw it into a mario game, it makes the world feel less "real" and removes players from the experience. thats the same effect you get when you have all these species items with vastly different styles, it's jarring.

this response from staff just comes off as the "WELL ITS MY STYLEE" argument when someone is told their art lacks fundamentals.

also the added image is cute, new header maybe?

[glitcheli]

Hi new people!! I'm Cheli, I need a new pinned post so here's info about me and my account(s):

@glitcheli is where I post my personal, OC art and mainly gamedev content at the moment. I occasionally draw Vocaloid fanart along with some games, it's really a mixed bag of content though. Art tag is #cheliart!

@pkmn-glitch is my Pokemon account AND my main account, you might see likes and follows from me here

@studio-respite is a gamedev account I share with my partner, all of my gamedev content is reblogged there if you only want to see that - we're creating Reincarnation Trial right now, see our blog's pinned post for more info!

Pro-Palestine 🍉

Commissions are not open right now, I take them occasionally on a case-by-case basis but generally my prices will be higher and I will take a while! Not recommended

I have Twitter (glitcheli) and IG (glitcheliii) as well, I like it here most though <3

Interests include Pokemon, Vocaloid/UTAU and rhythm games, elden ring, RPG maker horror games, etc...

I'm 25+, so I prefer to keep minors out of my personal circles but you're welcome to follow!

I do NOT post NSFW content other than reblogging artistic nudity in art, but please be aware that my work may have darker or graphic themes (gore and otherwise will be tagged)

Feel free to send an ask if you want me to tag anything specific!

Holds up a little peace sign at you. Thanks for reading all of this!!!!!!!! (going to update this later with a header image and make it prettier)

[strawberri-fiction]

Consider this my official intro post:

Haiii!! I'm Vixx but you can call me whatever you want, calling me by my kins names is highly encouraged on this blog but you can see my straw.page for more names of mine

Basic stuff like DNI and stuff is in my straw.page so I'll get into the more specifics of this particular blog

Doubles for anyone are all welcome, I don't really care

Sourcemates are highly, highly encouraged to engage if they want!

Kintypes:

(In no particular order)

Nyarlathotep [H.P Lovecraft]

König [Call of Duty]

Lumina {Winter Lantern} [Bloodborne] (Canon-divergent)

Moonlight Cookie [Cookie Run Kingdom]

Rom, The Vacuous Spider [Bloodborne]

The Moon Presence [Bloodborne] (⭐️ ID/Highest Kin ⭐️)

Mohg, Lord of Blood [Elden Ring]

RED Pyro [Team Fortress 2]

Mystic Flour Cookie [Cookie Run Kingdom]

Yog-Sothoth [H.P Lovecraft]

Header & pfp credits: https://www.bloodborne-wiki.com/2017/08/moon-presence-gallery.html?m=1

Any questions are encouraged, I also take moodboard requests if anyone wants one of those. My main blog is @strawberripuffy if you enjoy my posts here :3

This post is bound to change in time so stay tuned!!

[starrytimepod]

Corona Borealis in Pop Culture

Podcast Episode

Our final Pop Culture episode for season 2 (QUESTS AND CURSES)! of the podcast is now available!

Companion Post

Favorites

Kit: Borealis Vintners -- their website shows they fully understood the assignment! Plus, it reminded me of Corona Australis, Jordan's wished for Australian Vinery from earlier this season!

Link: https://www.borealisvintners.com/

Jordan: A small business with a pun-name that both Jordan and I wish we'd thought of -- Aroma Borealis

Link: https://aromaborealis.com/

Honorable Mentions:

Borealis Freezing Fog (left) - a character from Elden ring, that we agreed had a great name and a less great design

Borealis Philanthropy (right) - a grant intermediary funding social justice initiatives

Borealis Records (below) - a Canadian record label that only signs Canadian artists

Links: https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Borealis+the+Freezing+Fog & https://borealisphilanthropy.org/ & https://borealisrecords.com/about-us/

Least Favorites

Two companies that we don't know what they do, but we are confused and they do *sound,* in our opinion, like fictional supervillain companies. To be clear, we just *think* they got some fictional supervillain energy -- they might be perfectly normal... we do. not. know. Purely our highly uninformed opinion!

Kit: Borealis Exploration Limited -- I mean... just look at this website header and the logo:

Source link (Plz also notice that this website that has like 2 pages) : https://borealis.gi/pr_20190927.shtml

Relatedly -- this website for Borealis Holdings (this is the whole website):

Link: https://www.borealis.com/

Jordan: Borealis VC -- a venture capital firm with a statement of purpose we cannot parse... but has words that make us go huh... like "syndicate partners" ... probably this makes sense to business people, but not to us!

Source: https://www.borealis.vc/about

BONUS CONTENT

After we cut the mics, Jordan and I realized we had gotten so distracted by the pick-axe beluga, we didn't talk about other Borealis appearances!

So, Tumblr friends, here are a few more shout-outs to things that we found interesting using the Borealis brand:

Borealis Route on Amtrak -- the ad copy on this, y'all -- beautiful! (top left)

Borealis metal band (bottom left, image from Spotify), but also there is a Borealis Northern Chamber Choir?!

Borealis Backpack -- Perseus needs one of these (top right)

Borealis Fat Bike (bottom right)

Links: https://www.amtrak.com/borealis-train , https://www.thenorthface.com/en-us/bags-and-gear/backpacks-c224451/borealis-backpack-pNF0A52SE , https://fatbike.com/

Wished For

Some of our wishes have already come true... and some are still on the table. Listen to find out more!

With love,

Kit & Jordan

[eskawrites]

wip weekend!

tagged by @lesbianlotties thank youuuu! i really wanted to get some substantial writing in tonight this is a great way to kick off <3

rules

Post up to five (5) filenames of your WIPs; not titles, file names.

Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be words you wrote in the last 7 days. We’re posting progress here. If you haven’t made any, go make some and come back to post.

After you’ve posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file.

That’s it! You can invite others to join in or just post.

wips:

nancy pov actual story

nancy and robin and touch*

sleepy nights backup patrol*

i am human (and i need to be loved)

May Chaos Take the World (elden ring au ii)

*these are technically both in the thriving in the apocalypse doc, but those are the names of the headers they're under

snippet from nancy and robin and touch

But there’s no way Robin and Steve would ever date—no doubt in either of their minds, no risk of a casual touch being misread because Robin was a girl and Steve was a guy—all because they both know Robin likes girls. And Nancy—Nancy is a girl. An analytical, detail-oriented, read-into-every-situation-just-in-case-there’s-something-hidden-beneath-it girl. So even if there’s nothing behind any of their touches—and she’s never thought that there is—she now has information that could lead her to question even the smallest gestures.

i never know who to tag so if you see this then consider yourself tagged! tell the people i tagged you! go work on your wips and yell about it on the internet 'cause we want to see it!