#i feel like the meme of the dude sitting in front of a corkboard covered in red lines and thumbtacks

[ravens-dagger]

I just had the most insane lore idea pop into my head about Ranni while watching a lore video about the demigod family tree.

The creator was talking about their theory of a possible connection between Ranni and the amber egg Rennala cradles. This creators theory is that Ranni was born from the egg itself which is why Rennala is so obsessed with it, thinking in her "rich slumber" that she could use the egg to rebirth Ranni (of course that last bit is also a theory but just stay with me here).

HOWEVER I had a thought pop into my head that what if the Great Rune inside the amber egg was only placed in there later by Ranni? I know we hear from Gideon that the Great Rune Rennala holds is inside the egg, but are we 100% sure that Radagon, liel hound of the Golden Order, would just yoink out a rather important Great Rune from the Elden Ring as a parting gift? Cuz since it's the Rune of the Unborn and is used for rebirth, I've had this theory that the removal of that Rune is what really kickstarted the issues of having no Rune of Death. The Erdtree lost its ability to rebirth new souls. Since Radagon clearly wants so badly for the GO to work, I highly doubt he would've given away such an integral part of the life cycle of the Erdtree. Not to mention that the current state of Marika/Radagon implies that in order to make changes to the ER it has to be physically removed from their body.

Having no True Death works as long as the Erdtree can continue to recycle souls. But if the ability to rebirth is removed, that cycle falls apart immediately. As much as I want to believe Radagon loved Rennala I don't think he would also do something that's so sabotaging to his and Marika's order.

Instead, I do think it's entirely possible that Radagon merely gave Rennala the amber egg as it's a concentrated piece of the Erdtree; a symbol to remember him by. Perhaps people are born from these amber eggs, as there are many existing theories about people being physically born from the roots of the tree. But had Radagon given her the Great Rune of the Unborn before going to "marry" Marika, things would've fallen apart a lot quicker than they did. I don't think it's entirely crazy to think that along with casting aside her flesh, Ranni gave the Great Rune she inherited to her mother. Rennala is no demigod, so she has no claim to a rune on her own.

The only remaining question is why Ranni would give the Great Rune to her mother. Granted, this does lead into some more far-reaching theories I have about just how much planning went into Godwyn's assassination and who all Ranni was truly allied to (another post for another time). I don't have many answers for the motives at the moment just cuz it did come to me a few minutes ago but I felt the need to write it all down because it feels both too insane and logical at the same time. I feel like the main wrench in this is the fact that with the other rune currently disconnected from the ER, the Rune of Death, we know it was still able to be used to kill gods a-la the Godskins until it was officially sealed away by Maliketh. This of course was further compounded after the assassination of Godwyn. However since Rennala has been essentially using the amber egg to continuously rebirth the sweetings, it does give credence that she is essentially in control of rebirth even though her mind isn't entirely there. She, like Maliketh, is weilding a Great Rune that has been separated from the Elden Ring.

Please feel free to correct me or add, I admit this theory sounds kinda insane and it has its holes as mentioned above but wow this felt like such a light bulb moment and I wanna see other people's thoughts on my crack theory.