u/Crypticnewt

These are two assumptions that I regularly see made when discussions around the GEQ take place. I am not claiming that either of these are false, but I am stating that they are not absolute facts. For anyone who disagrees, what evidence is there to support either statement?

The Gloam Eyed Queen was in possession of Destined Death.

No where in the game is this ever stated or suggested. The Godslayer Greatsword states that: "The black flames wielded by the apostles are channeled from this sword.". This means that the Apostles (and by extension, the GEQ herself) were capable of using the power of Destined Death remotely, without it being in their possession.

There is also Melina in the Frenzied Flame ending. She doesn't appear to have it in her possession in this scene, but it is made pretty clear that she is able to use it's power at this point. Could she have gone into Maliketh's arena after our battle and picked it up? Sure. The point of this post though is that it's not known, and therefore not a fact.

Maliketh physically fought the Gloam Eyed Queen.

No where in the game is this ever stated, but one thing does mildly suggest it. The Godslayer Greatsword states that: "Sacred sword of the Gloam-Eyed Queen who controlled the Godskin Apostles before her defeat at the hands of Maliketh.". The fact that it states "at the hands of Maliketh" is interesting here, but it's important to note that in the Japanese translation, it simply says that she was "defeated by Maliketh".

You have to view this from a writers perspective, why is it never directly stated that the Gloam Eyed Queen was killed? To keep her character open to come up a later date, or to suggest that she is still alive and active in the world? These are certainly possibilities.

It can be confidently theorized that the only reason the Gloam Eyed Queen was defeated, was that Destined Death was sealed away by Maliketh. A physical altercation never had to take place for the Gloam Eyed Queen to be stripped of her power, and thus, "defeated".

It's also likely that the rest of Siofra River comes from the Consecrated Snowfields as well.

Evidence:

Screenshot 1: Night's Sacred Ground almost perfectly lines up with Ordina Liturgical Town when overlayed (no rotation or additional editing needed). This makes sense because both locations have a coming and going that seemingly lead to nowhere, but join them together and it works.

Screenshots 2-5: The base of Night's Sacred Ground is a snowy mountain, and uses the same textures as the cliffs of the Mountain Tops. These textures are not used anywhere else in Siofra River as far as I can tell, only for the base of Night's Sacred Ground. Why use these texture and not the same cliff textures as the rest of map here? Screenshot 3 compares the two different textures side by side. You can also view this from the Mimic Tear Site of Grace and looking out to the cities base, it clearly looks the buildings are sitting on a snowy mountain.

Screenshot 6: A top view of Siofra River. I have included this to point out that there are also giant pillars found throughout the Consecrated Snowfields, as well as Lightning Sprits, Ancestral Followers and Dragonkin Soldiers, all of which are also found in the Consecrated Snowfields.

Do what you want with this info. Who/what the Nox are and their place on the timeline has always been pretty clear to me, but I don't want to mess with anyone else's interpretation since that's what makes the game special.

The theory is that Count Ymir and Preceptor Miriam were once together, before sadly losing their child. This caused Miriam to become obsessed with her work/studies, and Ymir to become obsessed with motherhood and the Fingers.

• Both served the Carian Royal Family in teacher/advisor roles, and both likely once resided at the Carian Study Hall.
• Count Ymir looks a lot like the figure in the "Carian Inverted Statue" item, which is used to invert the Carian Study Hall. Some say that while similar, this looks more like a women. If so, I would say then that this is likely Miriam, in the outfit she wore before becoming a Preceptor.
• Count Ymir obsesses over a newborn Finger Creeper that he calls Yuri, likely the name of the child he and Miriam lost.
• The grave that Ymir visits for Yuri exists before the Finger Creeper dies, meaning that this grave is almost certainly for his human son named Yuri.
• Count Ymir teaches us "Miriam's Vanishing".

Highly speculative theory, so treat it as such. Additionally, some strings that one could pull at for fun:

• The Preceptors are adorned in serpent motifs.
• The English voice actor for Seluvis sounds "snakey".
• It's hinted at that Seluvis was a puppet and that Pidia, an Albinauric, was the puppet master. Count Ymir also appears to use puppetry.
• Miriam uses Loretta's Greatbow, and Loretta is also an Albinauric.
• Their are Serpent Snails found in Nokstella.

Madding Hand
"A glove stitched together from the flayed skin of the victims of a butcherous bloodbath. [...]
Forged of an unyielding, black impulse toward revenge fostered in those who were hunted down as heretics by their own brethren, these are the weapons of the utterly downtrodden."

Internal Names
Skinny Inquisitor: GodManPriestsCandle
Fat Inquisitor: GodManPriestsBig
...so inquisitors are priests to a "GodMan"?

• The corpses of Tutelary Deities (which are, at the very least, a form of God) are spread across the Realm of Shadow, most of which have their head chopped off, just like the statues of Marika, who is also a God.
• The Hornsent Inquisitors all have their faces bandaged and covered up oddly enough.
• The Shadow Keep appears to be where a certain Queen (Eternal, Black and Gloam Eyed perhaps?) and her Lord originally resided and operated out of. This fortress contains a "Specimen Storehouse" of all things Hornsent, along with a medical bay for treating jarred Shaman.
• "Abductor" Virgins and a Godskin Swaddling Cloth found in a "Spiritcaller" Cave? Doesn't Roderika, a young blonde girl from a faraway land with a gift for spirit tuning, who's people are "spirited away" for grafting purposes, remind Hewg of someone he once knew?
• Isn't there 4 named Demi-Human Queens, half of which have "gloam" coloured eyes? Margot, Maggie, Gi-li-Ka (Gloam-Eyed-Queen, wait what?) and... "Marigga", an isolated one found in the Realm of Shadow next to a lone Stone Coffin. Odd that a boss, which is internally named the "GloamEyedKnight", is found at the bottom of the Stone Coffin Fissure.
• The Godslayer Black Flame sigil looks an awful lot like Metyrs face. Who's that Empyrean that has a direct connection to Metyr (who could have granted said Empyrean access to Destined Death)? That same Empyrean who we know betrayed and committed genocide against the Hornsent?
• Wait, didn't Maliketh "defeat" the Gloam Eyed Queen?
  • Wait, didn't Marika WANT to seal Destined Death, and remove death from the Lands Between?
  • Wait, didn't Marika have the power to rewrite history and hide things away to maintain her image of "Marika the Eternal"?
  • Wait, aren't we given a perfect parallel story with Blaidd and Ranni regarding similar circumstances?

People: "I am so disappointed that FromSoftware didn't give us any more content for the Gloam Eyed Queen in the Shadow of the Erdtree".

Note: This post is not to be taking too seriously.

I've never seen it discussed and yet, I think it's one of the most important clues as to "how things work" within the game.

On the upper cliffs of Rauh, just before the Church of the Bud, there are three 8-sided, 8-pillared Gazebos:

1. Has a single pillar at it's center with a burning flame atop it.
2. Has a Tutelary Deity at it's center, sitting on an octagonal base and surrounded by 8 pillars with burning flame atop them (some are broken down and/or missing).
3. Has a single Rauh Burrow at it's center, surrounded by 8 pillars with an urn atop each of them.

Consider the importance of this location, the fact that the items and architecture of these gazebos are not random, the recurring theme of "8" (the eye of the Fell God, Godskin Noble Robe, Torch of St. Trina, etc.), and the idea of what exactly a Rauh Burrow is used for.

I have my own theories and ideas about all this, but what are yours? Do these Gazebos help us understand the nature of the Fell God and/or the Tutelary Deities? Maybe even Marika/Radagon, Miquella/St. Trina, the Jars, or the Divine Gate and what is required to ascend to Godhood? I'm curious if other people have thoughts on this.