#helphen's steeple

[pawberryjam]

Helphen's shepherd

[spinzzy]

before today, I had no idea what it was like to experience gender envy for a literal sword, and yet here I am with 2 brand new experiences

[ya-boi-rodgers]

lore theory ∆

not mine just wanted to reblog the lore

Sword of the Deepest Lore

Helphen’s Steeple recently caught my attention, this is the only item in the Elden Ring that suggests existance of the realm of dead, which is big, considering that all known beliefs about the afterlife in the Lands Between usually related to the rebirth: be it Erdtree’s Burial tradition, distant resurrection from Deathbirds or Ancestral Worship, in which life sprouts from death. But this sword introduces an actual world of death.

Greatsword patterned after the black steeple of the Helphen, the lampwood which guides the dead of the spirit world. The lamplight is similar to grace in appearance, only it is said that it can only be seen by those who met their death in battle.

霊界において死者の道標となる灯火の樹 ヘルフェンの黒い尖塔を模した大剣

その灯火は祝福に似て 英霊だけが、それを見ることができるという

What EN called “lampwood” 灯火の樹 can be also roughtly interpreted as “Tree of Lamplights”, but it’s very confusing and this convoluted wording translates through the sword’s design as it resembles both a pine tree and a tower. But what if Helphen is a lighthouse, considering that the sword in question drops from Tibia Mariner and death imagery in the Elden Ring is strongly water themed (Godwyn’s corpses, crabs, jellyfishes)? Another neat detail is red jewel decoration, red is a color of life and death in the Elden Ring, it’s a color of primordial gold of Crucible, but also is a color of Rune of Death and a blood star. I wonder if this one jewel is a red glinestone related to the thorn sorceries. Tibia Mariner doesn’t use thorn sorsery, but the color of his spells is red, the skeletons he summons are appearing the red light too.

(extra tinfoil alert: if the spirit world is a realm of the outer god of Deathbirds, could it be that all outer gods are inhabiting alternate dimensions, following Norse myth about original nine worlds of the universe? The Shattering broke the borders between dimensions, this is why we see Rot and envoys of Death along with ghost pine trees manifesting in the Lands Between)

Long story short, there is a spirit world of dead warriors with a giant tree-tower that guides ghosts of the fallen with lamplight similar to the grace of the Erdtree.

I think this is very interesting detail; Tarnished as a group are completely dependant on Marika’s grace, which is a pivotal part of her plan, it allows her to resurrect Tarnished, but also to guide them through the Lands Between. But let me speculate about possible DLC with new territories, which means that Tarnished once again will encounter the guidance of grace … or not. Marika’s plan is fulfilled in main story, how could you incorporate the grace mechanics without hijacking the main plot? By introduction of the alternative.

Now I want to talk about ethymology of the word Helphen, it’s similar to German “helpen”, to help; assist, while the first syllaby “Hel” might be a reference for the underground world Hel from Norse mythology, likewise “it can only be seen by those who met their death in battle” is a nod to Valhalla. Does it mean potential rematch with some bosses from the base game?

Personally, I’d like to imagine spirit world as a mirror image of the Lands Between, but with less terrain; it’s a sea of a ghostflame with Helphen on the place of the Erdtree. From a development perspective I can also see that releasing DLC in the size of legacy dungeon might be a little bit awkward, considering enormous size of the base game, but cheating the system with an archipelago of islands, while covering the map in ocean, is a neat way to keep it big, yet don’t waste years of work on downloadable content. Of course, everything I wrote is a really wild speculation.

What we can learn about spirit world, knowing how heavily Elden Ring is inspired by Norse mythology and this realm is most likely based on Hel/Niflheim?

Niflheim is one of the Nine Worlds of Norse mythology and the homeland of primordial darkness, cold, mist, and ice.

Seems fitting as the ghostflame of Deathbirds is always called cold and even bitterly cold. There is also an intriguing connection between cold and death sorceries without background sigils that I’m planning to investigate properly one day.

Another typical account is the journey of Hermod to Hel to attempt to retrieve Baldur, who had been killed by Loki. Hermod is a minor figure in Norse mythology. The meaning and etymology of his name aren’t entirely clear, but it seems likely that his name is either a variant of hermaðr, “warrior”

I’d like to say that we are going to save our own “Baldur “, but we already kind of revived Godwyn in Fia’s ending. 

The common elements in Snorri’s and Saxo’s accounts seem to be the following: Hel was located underground – down and to the north, the realm of cold and general lifelessness, down the trunk of Yggdrasil, the great tree that forms the central axis of the cosmos. It was reached by descending from a higher point with the help of a guide – an unnamed (dead) woman in Hadding’s case, and Sleipnir in the Prose Edda and the poem Baldrs Draumar (Baldur’s Dreams) in the Poetic Edda. After traveling through darkness and mist, the traveler would come to a river, perhaps a torrential river of water, but more commonly a river of clanging weapons.

Realistically speaking, it reminds me of Deeproot Depth, we already visited the base of the world tree, dream of a dead demigod and were guided by a deathbed companion. This my main concern about DLC predictions about Godwyn, his part of the plot is already more or less covered in the story. 

And before finishing my fanfic I want to go full on CSI on the Helphen’s design.

There is a skull or a golden skeleton figure near the base of the sword, similiar to the T-posing skeleton of the Golden Epitaph, Miquella’s sword:

A sword made to commemorate the death of Godwyn the Golden, first of the demigods to die. Infused with the humble prayer of a young boy; “O brother, lord brother, please die a true death.”

Cross-hatch pattern under “the entrance” reminds me of Radagon’s rune (not only his rune is the massive ??? already, considering consequences of its placements, but it’s also entangled with thorns).

The recembalance is far-fetched, for sure, but this post is from realm of pure fanfiction anyways.

P.S. I think I finally figured out something that was bothering me for a long time, I never understood how soulless demigods in mausoleums are duplicating remembrances from lore perspective. But if there is a spirit world of fallen champions with its own version of the Erdtree, which is implied by Helphen Steeple, we are probably using Helphen to create another remembrance for us with a help of soulless demigods.

P.P.S. Where is Radagon’s remembrance?

[bri-the-nautilus]

Who knew Helphen's Steeple was such a beautiful weapon

I mean, damn.

I already loved this thing. Cool, edgy black greatsword with the best looking buff effect in the game (sorry Moonlight GS/ St Trina Sword, ghostflame rules), but you never get to see all these gold details ingame. Which is a damn shame. It's a very pretty sword.

[ghostofashina]

btw, while making a death build, occurred to me the prince of death flare is very similar to messmer's flames in its patterns: golden and shadow glowing within the flames

and then reading i discovered it is really called "prince of death flames", godwyn produced flames of his own in his death!

and it's different from the common death sorceries with greyish/b&w flames we see: helphen's steeple and death poker, for example, deals with frostbite damage as well. even the spirit swords we find in shadow of erdtree, casting half of the mending rune, is more similar to the necromancy of garris, which makes us think more of ranni (sorceries) rather than godwyn (faith), after all she had her own half of rune as well.

while for the prince of death flare, as we find in the eclipse shotel, we also see the mausoleum knights wielding it like messmer's soldiers. and yes, we know there were other soulless demigods, but godwyn was the first one, whatever is this flames, he is the bearer, it comes from him as far as i can tell.

so well, it's fair to assume the prince of death, aka godwyn, does have his own flames as his brother. and that's not the only pattern they share, considering the animalistic visuals of their curses and all the eyes present in both base serpent and death roots.

[arteriasalad]

My mushroom outfit collection

1. mushroom head, godskin apostle robe, spellblade’s gloves, battlemage legwraps (weapon: ghiza’s wheel)

2. lionel’s helm, mushroom body, perfumer gloves, black knight greaves (weapon: helphen’s steeple)

3. shining horned headband, gravekeeper cloak, zamor bracelets, mushroom legs

4. vulgar militia helm, fell omen cloak, zamor bracelets, mushroom legs

5. mushroom crown, goldmask’s rags, briar gauntlets, omen greaves (weapon: antspur rapier, winged greathorn)

6. iron kasa, mushroom arms, messmer’s armor, hoslow’s greaves (weapon: dragonscale blade, rivers of blood, antspur rapier)

[skvaderarts]

These builds use DLC items, so just a heads up! More details about each build are below if you are curious. Thanks for voting! And if you spread the poll, EXTRA THANK YOU! I appreciate it! A larger sample size makes this more fun!

Saint of the Bud: An Arcane/Faith/Dex Scarlet Rot build using the Antspur Rapier with the Poison Flower Blooms Twice Ash of War and the Poleblade of the Bud. The Ant Skull Plate shield is a great contender for this build. I'll also be using spells such as Pest Threads, Pest-Thread Spears, Scarlet Aeonia, and Rotten Butterflies. Will use the rotten stray summon and makes liberal use of crafted items such as rot pots and fly pots. Wears the Full Bloom Chest piece and the Mushroom Crown for a truly unhinged look. Utilizes Maleina's Great Rune/Rykard's Great Rune.

Finger Witch: A Strength/Intelligence build with a possible touch of Arcane. This build specializes in finger weapons and spells. Uses a dueling shield. Both the Gazing Finger and the Ringed Finger scale best with strength, and despite the scaling of the staff that boosts finger sorceries requiring arcane for a spell class that USES NO ARCANE (Fromsoft stop doing crap like this. I like arcane staffs, but this was a weird one to pick for that) I will be using it and possibly adding the oracle bubble spells so that I have something to do with the Arcane requirement late game. It utilizes all of the finger sorceries such as Glintstone Nail, Glintstone Nails, and Cherishing Fingers as well as both finger weapons. One hammer and one colossal weapon. An interesting combo, to be sure. It will also use the new finger summon and the finger robes which are VERY disturbing looking. Utilizes Morgott's Great Rune/ Radahn's Great Rune.

Blasphemous Knight: A Dexterity/Faith (optional intelligence) build that uses the Blasphemous Blade (Which, funny enough, I've actually never tried despite how popular it is!) and the Spear of the Impaler. It included the now-fixed Messmer's Flame Incantations which include Rain of Fire, Messmer's Orb, and Fire Serpent. It may optionally include Rykard's Rancor (which is where in intelligence requirement would come from since it needs a whopping 40 Intelligence!) and could possibly include the Blood Incantations but only if Arcane is added to the build, so that's not likely. The core build is just the Messmer fire incantations and the two remembrance weapons. Wears the Hoslow/Messmer Knight sets. Utilizes Rykard's Rune. Still seems like a fantastic build!

Putrescent Death Bird: A Strength/Intelligence/Faith/character with an optional touch of Arcane for status build-up. Themed after the Death Birds. Wears the Death Gravebird's Blackquill set. The set boosts jump attacks like the Raptor's Black Feathers set in the base game. They specialize in different types of death sorcery. They can cast spells such as Rykard's Rancor, Ancient Death Rancor, Spectrial Rings of Light, Explosive Ghostflame, and Vortex of Putrescence. Not Tibia's Summons, though. I have standards. Putrescence Cleaver, Helphen's Steeple, and the Spirit Glave. The Eclipse Great Shield would be a good pick. Essentially, It's a very fancy frost build. Utilizes Radahn's Great Rune.

Beastial Tree Sage: A Strength/Faith build focused on pure holy damage. (which is shockingly good in the DLC but more tricky in the late main game due to the number of bosses with extreme Holy resistance.) The weapons consist of two colossal weapons that both scale to Strength and Faith and an optional dagger for a faster option if needed. Those are the Great Club and the Shadow Sunflower Blossom. The dagger is the Cnquedea. The Erdtree Greatbow is also a great fit for this build and will be included as an additional ranged option. They would specialize in Beastial Incantations such as Stone of Gurranq and Gurranq's Beast Claw as well as Holy spells like Wrath of Gold, Elden Stars, Land of Shadow, and Crucible Incantations such as Thorns, Bloom, and Breath. Wears Freya's set and uses Radahn's Great Rune.

Fire Prelate: A build focusing on strength and Faith. Utalizes the Prelate's Inferno Crozier and the Cranial Vessel Candlestand. It also uses the Giant's Flame incantations, such as Giant's Flame Take Thee and Flame Fall Upon Them. Uses either the Hoslow Set or the Fire Prelate set for cosplay purposes. A very powerful and versatile fire build. Uses Radahn/Morgotts/Malenia' Great runes. BONK.

Spellblade Cannoneer: A Strength/Int Build using the Moonrithyll's Knight Sword, the Great Mace with Waves of Darkness, and Rabbath's Cannon. It also may use the Jellyfish Shield, Carian Dueling Shield, or the Cuckoo Great Shield. It utilizes Carian Sword Sorcery such as Magic Glintblade, Greatblade Phalanx, Carian Peircer, and Carian Greatsword. It also contains Glintstone Sorcery such as Gavel of Haima, Cannon of Haima, Spiral Shard, and Loretta's Greatbow, and Moon Sorceries such as Rellana's Twin Moons. It uses Relanna/Loretta's armor sets and Radahn's/Morgott's Great Rune.

SO! Thanks for reading! I appreciate your interest in my builds XD If you want the stat sheet for any of these, just let me know and I'll post them! And if you want to see these builds in action, I'll be streaming them on Twitch. I'm SkvaderStreams. Original, I know lol! But feel free to come and lurk. It's a good time! Thanks again! It's always fun having someone to share my build ideas with. If you ever want one, let me know!

Have a great day!

[girlballs]

huh. helphen's steeple might have originally had fire damage in addition to magic damage. can't find any other example of a weapon having its correction type set to anything but 0 for an element it doesn't actually have

[conjoinedpubes]

Adventures of Solis - Chapter 1: The Art of Sword Conjuring

Adventures of Solis

Chapter Index

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Yup, its another one of these. Trying to keep it concise this round; more build discussion and less minor details. Once again, the rules are - 1. themed character, 2. natural playthrough compatible 3. playable in PvE and PvP

Solis, Sword Conjurer

The starting concept was 'Conjured Sidearm' - using Glintblade Sorceries like a magical off-hand. Not the most original idea, but wanted to give it my own spin. I also wanted to do an Intelligence Hybrid.

In short; a mage-fighter hybrid using a mainhand weapon + magical tools in the off-hand, and not a Carian Slicer spam build.

Which then begs the question - Do we limit to Glintblade Spells only? or how many non-school spells to allow? Theres also the question of swap speed/sanity - the magic sidearm has to be drawn fast/convenient. Too large a spell arsenal limits this.

1.1 Arcane Arsenal

Since magic = off-hand weapon, the spells should roughly equate to a weapon type. The playstyle is melee-focus, so spell choice is affected by that.

Main Carian Slicer - Dagger equivalent, can be drawn fast with absurd damage. Carian Piercer - Lance equivalent, reach and stopping power when charged. Also a good tool in PvP for sudden lunges. Gavel of Haima - Great Hammer equivalent. One of few spells with hyper armour during cast, also a source of AOE damage. Ranged: Magic Glintblade or Swift Glintstone Shard Having easy ranged attacks is the main reason to be a caster. Felt these were the most on theme, as once you start adding things like Comet - it pretty much plays like any other 'normal wizard'. Glintblade gives the option to prepare a big opening move, while Shard is more a 'quickshot' - small damage with near instant poke. Other Adula's Moonblade - Not in the Glintblade School, despite conjuring a sword. Source of Cold Status and more AOE. As this is a late-game spell - its more of a 'I'll try it when I get there' than a commited inclusion. Zamor Ice Storm - Another Cold + AOE spell. This is a personal bias, I love it for its own sake. Given that the playstyle already up close - why not? Gravity Well - We are melee, therefore why not use the spell that pulls things to you? also another ranged consideration.

Theres too many spells here to reasonably carry at all times, and so I opted for 3-4 at any time, swapping situationally. 2 slots for common use and 1-2 for situational use.

In short, spells alots are... 1. 'Dagger' aka. Carian Slicer 2. 'Ranged' - Swift Glintstone/Magic Glintblade 3. 'Heavy Weapon' - Piercer/Gavel 4. Off-School/Utility

Staff - Carian Glintblade

On theme, and the best staff (the +15% to Glintblade School beats more magic scaling in most cases). At low-level, DHQ (Demi-Human Queen) is *technically* better; but CG can be found relatively early - (ie. losing a little damage early vs. never having to replace your staff)

1.2 Main Hand Weapon

The ideal weapon was something with the following.

Ability to stagger human-type enemies - did not want to rely on specific spells in order stop an aggresive enemy. This is true in both PvE and PvP.

Generalist moveset and speed - as we are a martial build in neutral. Casting takes time, thus something that doesnt' compete with spells for 'openings' in combat.

No overlap with spells - Since our spell choice coverd reach, fast close up slashes and the occasional AOE, the choice mainhand weapon should not be specialist in any of these.

Thus, Greatswords were the choice.

Here there are 3 options Claymore/Flamberge for regular infusables - Claymore if we end up Int+Str, Flamberge for Int+Dex. Helphen's Steeple - Unique Str/Int weapon with a frostbite buff. Given that Helphen's is late-game and Flamberge needs a signficant run, Claymore was the early-game weapon.

note: excluded Death's Poker and Moonlight GS as they are more 'magic wands', built around a ranged skill - rather than a weapon for swinging.

1.3 Equipment

Here we wanted a proper battlemage - able to fight up close. A metallic/crystalline fashion with good protection - no robes.

Prisoner Helm + Scaled Set was the 'ideal fashion'. Until then, the Chainmail set from Kale will do. Swapping in more pieces of the Scaled Set as endurance allows.

Since elemental damage weapons are very strong early on - we aim for 1H Claymore and throw an elemental infusion on.

Being able to 1-Hand a weapon is important. Stopping to cast, then swap back to 2H grip just to swing is very slow and makes combat less smooth.

The specific elemental infusion really does not matter, as scaling early is non-existent. Opted for Sacred Blade for the free weapon buff, then replaced it with any of the Rogier weapon arts ASAP.

Stats and Levelling

We need for (Int, Mind) for magic, (Str, Dex) for weapons and (Vig,End) for defense - so the stat spread is going to be really rough.

To get the most basic setup going we need...

min stats to use 1H Claymore (16 str, 14 dex)

min end for equipment weight; Prisoner Head + Chainmail set + Claymore + Staff (14 end)

min int for spells

note: Radagon Soreseal covers all Str + End requirements

Starting Class - Prisoner

The int+dex class

wastes no points on faith; a stat we are definitely not using.

Starter spell; Magic Glintblade - is of the blade school.

14 dex at base covers Claymore requirements

14 int at base covers all relevant spells until Liurnia

As with everything, Vagabond is always good in the long run - but I wanted to cast from start and not have to unlock magic.

Levelling Priority

14 end min

min str/dex/int for weapon/spell options

The rest is Vigor and Mind to taste

Closing Thoughts

As of writing, character is RL60 +12/5. Will followup on what aspect of the setup worked + new discoveries.

Adventures of Solis

Chapter Index

Next | Previous | Beginning

[huggingtentacles]

Talk to me of the Helphen's Steeple. I've been considering using it on a new playthrough, and I'd like to know your thoughts.

Thank you!

Ah, Onyx Blade, good to see you again.

Helphen's Steeple is a greatsword that is all about Big Damage, and I can't stress enough how powerful it is on lower levels. You can make a build solely focused on using this blade in particular, because it does real big damage with it's buff on, and since the buff is a flat +140 to your attack, it doesn't depend on scaling. Also, the steeple is actually on the longer side of Greatswords, which is very neat. In addition to the raw damage, it also deals cold build-up. How can you not absolutely love this weapon?

The ash of war does damage by the way. It's nothing worth using the shard of Alexander for, and it's hard to land, but it's nice to have at least some protection while buffing.

[zinogirl]

Helphen’s Steeple + a cold greatsword, pretty good against Malenia

[cursed-ever-to-wander]

As mentioned on my main, here to share some insights into my current Elden Ring game. Aiming for 100%, so this is the first of three. Putting thins under readmore and assigning this a gamer logs tag for now, so do block it to don't see more of this stuff

Hero of choice for the run was M, Str/Int build and gather everything for NG+ and later, which came with doing all side quests. With the exception of Diallos, because fellow bugged out on me for some reason and never actually showed up to the Manor.

Started out with Samurai class, went to grab Bloodhound Fang and first choice of fashion was Kaidan Set, fairly typical.

Mid run switched to Raging Wolf set and found out how funny electric buff is, when applies to the greatsword, my second weapon of choice. Tried swinging with Godslayer Greatsword and Faith requirement just wasn't working for me, but the weapon is really fun. Big Bonk.

The quest for Ultimate Drip continue and I have eventually arrived to the Weapon of Choice for the run, the good old Helphen's Steeple. Endgelordness of it later further amplified with the Night's Cavalry set.

All in all, things are going fairly good with me current cleaning up Farum Azula and have successfully strugglebussed past Malenia, which was, well, horrible. But hey, on the bright side I got to summon my sad meow-meow Bernahl and absolutely bully Godskins togetha.

Unfortunately this run going to be a Frenzy Flame, so I can never do the jumping bs puzzle again, but eh. Might do another run with M in the later NG cycles.

My plan for the NG+ and the Perfect Order would be to bring in L, Dex/Faith build with bows and lightning magic.

[yournextflame]

Elden Ring Theories: A Retrospective

So, enough time has passed for me to form my opinion on Shadow of the Erdtree and revive this blog. But before posting new theories based on the DLC lore, I decided to take a look at my old speculations and see how well they aged.

Does the Greater Will even exist? ✅ In this post, I compared the Greater Will to the Big Bang and suggested that it might not be an actual deity, but rather an attempt by the people of The Lands Between to explain the world around them: the creation of the universe, the fall of meteors, evolution, and the natural order. The Shadow of the Erdtree continues to present the Greater Will as a scientific concept described by the inhabitants of a fantasy world, allowing players to decide whether it’s a god beyond the microcosm or just an empty circle in Count Ymir’s hat, a mere projection of human imagination

The outer gods are natural forces. ✅ 🟡❔While the Greater Will's cosmic origin was emphasized even further in the DLC, the motives of the outer gods were tied even more strongly to earthly concepts. I have many thoughts about the outer gods and godhood in particular, but one of my ongoing ideas is that they manifest human emotions, given how perception and sacrifices shape reality in a material way in the Lands Between.

Elden Ring and Color theory: ✅🟡❔ While I disagree with some points I made in this post, many of my observations were quite accurate. One clarification I’d like to make is that the scroll sigils indicate the heritage of magic rather than its source of power. I also appreciate the DLC narrative that suggests all the differences are actually man-made.

Translation of Marika's echoes from JP, ✅ The DLC gives Marika such human and deeply personal motivations that reducing her to a mere puppet of an evil outer god feels like an insult to the collaborative work of GRRM and Miyazaki. I must admit that my initial reading of her character was too harsh; I even questioned why FromSoft would write such a one-dimensional character. However, I’m very glad that The Shadow of the Erdtree gave Marika awesome depth without depriving her of agency.

My musings upon Helphen's Steeple design and DLC predictions ✅ 🟡 Well, the Shadowlands are described as a place where all kinds of death come only to be suppressed, and the Shadowkeep, as pointed out by the community, very much resembles the design of the Helphen. You can even find Tibia Mariners' boats here. It’s not the exact version of the spirit realm I predicted, but it’s very close.

Small bonus: Even though I insisted that the DLC should be centered around the spirit realm, I pointed out that exploring Godwyn's story beyond what was shown in the base game is pretty unnecessary.

What's wrong with Ranni's Two Fingers? ✅🟡❌ Right direction of thinking, wrong conclusions. One of the biggest reveals of the DLC is that everything is wrong with the Fingers and their mother, Metyr.

Children of the Erdtree 🟡❔I'm not sure what to make of it. The DLC continues to toy with the Empyrean connection to plants, from the special properties of Marika's people's flesh to St. Trina being a literal flower, but it never makes any direct conclusions.

Bells and Bell bearings ❔ The connection does exist, but it should be explored in greater detail.

Candletrees, Miquella, Death and Sleep 💡❔✨ Now that the DLC has revealed Miquella's plan to replace Marika all along, it’s astonishing to realize that my earlier discovery about Necromancer Garris — who likely collaborated with the Black Knives — had Miquella's butterfly and candletree in his basement is actually quite wild

What is Crucible? 🟡❌❔Although the nature of the Crucible is still a mystery, I think my old theory that it was a different tree is not exactly right. I’ve even started to wonder if the Crucible and the Primeval Current are just different names for the same thing.

Some of my old takes haven't aged well, but if anything, I'm glad that Mohg isn't the "walking uooohh 😭💢 joke" I used to call him. However, my opinion on Miquella was surprisingly accurate. For two years, the fandom preached that Miquella wanted to abandon his godhood, making me seem like a major contrarian for insisting that godhood was still his ultimate goal (at least because it would be pointless from a writing perspective to create another Ranni).

I still believe that characters like Marika and Miquella are primarily vehicles to deliver Miyazaki's and GRRM's ideas regarding civilization development, human nature, religion, and philosophy. So, whatever faults they have are the faults of the concepts they represent. Nevertheless, *Shadow of the Erdtree* did an awesome job of elevating these characters from mere ideas to something more human and relatable.

My old description of Malenia is so relevant, it hurts.

Mohg, Radahn, Rykard and Snakes 🐍 Honestly, I'm not sure if Messmer was initially planned by FromSoft or created specifically for the DLC, but looking back, it's pretty funny that I noticed something weird going on between the demigod brothers and the serpents.

Elden Ring lore is a disaster 🤡 Elden Ring story is such lackluster that it was rewritten with the first day patch on top of the giant mountain of cut content. I’m not sure that DLC, if there will be any, can fix this mess or give any proper answers as it seems that writers got too much carried with the idea of making story as vague as possible.

Someone was overdosing on doomium.

To my surprise, the DLC managed to address most of my old frustrations. While I do wish certain things had better foreshadowing or were explored more, it still did a good job of filling many gaps in the base game lore that were making me frustrated. Looking back, I think some of my grudges over the lore were no less important than my theories because they served as a good indication that something was intentionally left unexplained. It seems that the gaps and ambiguities were not oversights but deliberate choices.

As I explore the new content in Shadow of the Erdtree and revisit my old theories, I will also share my thoughts on the new lore and its impact on the narrative. This fresh perspective has already sparked some intriguing insights, and I am eager to see how these revelations will reshape our understanding of the game’s world.

[bri-the-nautilus]

I love the way Helphen's Steeple looks with the ghostflame buff applied.

The bit of framing at the base of the blade makes it look a bit like a lantern.

Now I've been thinking about the idea of like a Helphen's Steeple lightsaber. Like you pull out this thing

and the ghostflame just goes fwooosh

[appleimps]

My Elden Ring Ganon build switches between using the Starscourge Greatswords and two Helphen's Steeples to emulate his Hyrule Warriors dual greatswords style, but he's also a Lightning and Death Sorceries build as a nod to his abilities in OOT and the fact that the Gerudo use to be tied with the Aspect of Spirit :3

[shapeforcesthemind]

Helphen's Steeple goes crazy