#first black and inky like deathroot then like malikeths death then bloodflame and finally like the giants

[wraith-caller]

My totally unfounded hopes regarding Messmer:

He's not a heretic, he's a fanatic. Maybe he's even part of the reason snake and flame and dragon communion are blasphemy, because he used them all in such extremist acts. He talks to "mother", presumably Marika at this point, as though he's disappointed in her decision to allow Tarnished to rule. And someone(it may be Messmer but idk if the voices are the same, I'm bad at that haha) specifies "Those stripped of gold shall meet death in the embrace of Messmer's flame." If Messmer was especially hateful of the Order, why target Tarnished, who often choose not to ally with it as seen in the recusants and the bloody fingers? One is supposed to become lord, and if you want the Order to remain lordless, then sure it makes sense to kill as many as you can. But there's a preoccupation with the LACK of grace and gold, not a distaste for gold itself. I think that he's disappointed in Marika's decision to give the graceless lordship over the Order, that he's sort of a purist who sees this act, and maybe others Marika has committed, as heresy. We know she sought to examine her faith based on echoes from Melina. ("I declare mine intent, to search the depths of the Golden Order. Through understanding of the proper way, our faith, our grace, is increased. Those blissful early days of blind belief are long past. My comrades; why must ye falter?") This kind of questioning would be seen as absurd and even harmful to a fanatic. What need is there to examine anything, if you are so fervently sure the ones you follow are right?

We have every flavor of blasphemy and anti-GO sentiment already in the form of the other demigod children, save Morgott, accepting and revering the Order and Erdtree for what it is. So it'd be an interesting addition to this group to see someone on the opposite end of the heresy spectrum, someone so fervently devoted to the Order that he's decided even the one in charge doesn't know what she's talking about. Similar to the way extremists in any religion or political group may branch off and decide the person in power is getting it all wrong, that they aren't harsh enough(which is really saying something given Marika's, uh, proclivities), Messmer is fed up with what he begins to see as heresy from Marika and goes full tilt fanatic.

Some other interesting notes that help support this reading are kind of little and probably a reach but hey this is all based on nothing anyway so why stop now? There's a similarity between the confessor's insignia and Messmer's spear(saw it in this twitter thread). Confessors are Tarnished who hunt down other Tarnished that have strayed from the righteous path. Given they're Tarnished, Messmer is unlikely to care much for them, but the preoccupation with the integrity of one's faith and the role of executioner would be the points of intersection between these two.

There's also this, which supports the idea of Messmer as a fervent executioner, something noticed by this twitter user. The spears in Messmer's arena align quite well with whatever the giants have been impaled with.

Of course, this is all based on like ten seconds of character info from a 3 minute trailer, and it'll all likely be dashed to pieces with the next little breadcrumb we're given. Still fun to pretend I know what I'm doing in the meanwhile!!