The Erdtree is a Divine Gate
One thing that always stood out to me is that every ending in the base game requires the Tarnished to enter the Erdtree in order to become Elden Lord. But what exactly is the mechanism behind that? What is it about entering the Erdtree that legitimizes or enables the transition into a new age? For the Age of Fracture and the Mending Rune endings, the answer seems straightforward. Marika is sealed within the Erdtree, and we enter in order to repair or redefine the Elden Ring itself. By defeating Radagon/Elden Beast and interacting with Marika, the Tarnished becomes the new Lord of the existing Order or its revised form.
But the Age of Stars complicates this idea. Ranni’s entire goal is to abandon the Golden Order and establish a new order removed from the influence of the Greater Will. So if her age is meant to transcend the current system entirely, why does the Tarnished still need to pass through the Erdtree first?
This got me thinking that the Erdtree itself may be a Divine Gate, similar to the Gate of Divinity in Enir-Ilim. Both seem to be places where apotheosis or the transition into godhood occurs. There are a few parallels that stand out to me:
1. Both require sacrifices and the means to bind them. The Gate of Divinity is visibly made from bodies, a culmination of the experiments that the Hornsent conducted on the shamans through the jarring rituals, with shamans as the binding agent. The Erdtree on the surface isn't made up of bodies, but the catacombs throughout the Lands Between show bodies in the Erdtree's root system through the Erdtree Burial. Where is the binding agent of the Erdtree? It's the tree itself. The DLC makes it even clearer as the Grandmother in Shaman Village is located in the the trunk of the tree, and on closer inspection, she is the tree herself.
Both require sacrifices and the means to bind them
2. Both use similar sacred geometry for a catalyst. Elden Ring draws on sacred geometry (SilentEllipsis makes a comprehensive video about it) : the composition of the Elden Ring, i.e. the number of circles, intersections, and compositions of other shapes such as lines determine the order of the world. We also see the importance of sacred geometry in the pose of the Two Fingers and Placidusax in their intent of divine communications. The Divine Gate, which prominently features Marika's Rune, is a grafting cut. It is my hypothesis that this symbol serves as a catalyst for the sacred rite to take place.
Both utilize a similar sacred geometry as a catalyst
3. The fulfillment of the Secret Rite in both sites. The Secret Rite Scroll states: "A lord will usher in a god's return, and the lord's soul will require a vessel." At the gate of divinity, we fight PCR (the lord), marking the return of Miquella (the god) wielding PCR. In the Erdtree, we fight Radagon (the lord), and then the Elden Beast (the god) wielding Radagon. Although mechanically different, in both instances the rite is fulfilled. This is the weakest similarity that I could see, but I believe that this is the sequence of events that allow the Tarnished to user in the new age.
Golden light descends upon the tarnished after restoring the ring. Praise the Elden Lord!
This would explain why even Ranni’s Age of Stars still requires the Tarnished to pass through the Erdtree before a new order can begin. What do you all think?