So we all know that one of the stumps on Placidusax is more stone-like rather than scale, and we all know at this point that Bayle ripped off 2 of Placidusax's heads when he was fleeing like a bitch. So that leaves the question of the 5th head. I just had the thought that maybe that 5th head was cut off by Placidusax himself ages ago and formed into the Grannsax's bolt, hence why the stump is more stone like because that's a much older wound compared to the two more recent ones, and why the bolt is shaped like Placidusax's lightning nuke, more over the other two stumps haven't turned to stone yet because Placidusax has been chilling outside of time, preventing his previous wounds from healing or his two new stumps turning to stone. What do you guys think?

Today I offer a different reading of the Shadow of the Erdtree trailer, though as usual, without looking for concrete in-game lore answers. Like most of everything I write, this post is also about Miquella and how parts of the lore seem designed to fit him on a symbolic level. 

The thing is, I find some truly fascinating parallels between Marika's ascent narrated in the trailer and Miquella's crusade in the base game. It feels like a kind of allegorical synthesis of the revelations we are about to experience regarding Miquella in the DLC. 

If you have read any of my previous posts, I completely understand if you are blown away by my fixation with Miquella. I am blown away too, because I find him in far too many places wherever I look. I step into The Lands Between and I see him everywhere. I see the medallions used to activate the Grand Lifts and I think it makes perfect sense that Miquella is so easily linked to them; after all, he is the one who wants to ascend. I see horned lions, red-maned lions built by fusing different bodies together, and even perfumers working with flowers, and I just keep seeing him and the demigods he needs dead. 

But don't think I am reaching too hard. It is just what the game evokes in me. And it does so so directly that I find it impossible to believe there isn't a deliberate intention behind it all. That is my headcanon: that all of this is intentionally designed to fit together, and some specific parts of the lore take on the form we know in order to achieve that. 

Whatever the case may be, let's dive into the trailer.

“Miquella the Kind spoke of the beginning” 

And we see a hand reach into the folds of what looks like dead flesh and extract some golden threads. As soon as I see those golden threads, what comes to my mind are Miquella's unalloyed gold needles. Because Miquella could have made necklaces, bracelets, diadems, fibulae… but he decided to make unalloyed gold needles. The beginning of his crusade was the creation of this gold. It was right then that Miquella abandoned Fundamentalism and he began to seduce people. 

“The seduction and the betrayal. An affair from which Gold arose. And so too was Shadow born" 

The shot widens and we see a massive amount of blood as Marika ascends to divinity. And I think of the Secret Rite Scroll and its a lord will usher in a god's return, and the lord's soul will require a vessel and how Miquella needed a soul and a body. Immediately, those golden threads come to my mind as the symbol of a soul (the golden essence extracted from a dead body, just like the power we get by defeating enemies in the games we call “souls-likes”), and I cannot help but think of Mohg, his blood cult, and the tragic fate of his body upon seeing all that blood and those putrid remains. 

At the end, we see Marika in front of a divine gate from which only light emerges. And what comes to my head is the place through which I originally thought we would access the DLC: that mysterious half-open gate in the Haligtree from which a golden light shines. 

But let's look at the dialogue, which speaks of seductions and gold, and of betrayals and shadow. Unalloyed Gold is intrinsically related to seduction. As the description of the Bewitching Branch reads, tree branch blessed with an incantation of unalloyed gold. The Empyrean Miquella is loved by many people. Indeed, he has learned very well how to compel such affection. Miquella managed to learn how to seduce people using Unalloyed Gold. 

And from there, evidently, arises the betrayal. Mohg is the one who best embodies all of this. It was he who, bewitched by Miquella, believed he had achieved ultimate triumph by having the support of the Empyrean. But he ended up suffering the worst possible ritual once the divinity awakened. As the Lord of Blood's Exultation states, render up your offerings of blood to your Lord. Drench my consort's chamber. Slake his cocoon's thirst. His awakening shall herald the dawn of our dynasty. 

Those collateral damages form Miquella's shadow. Which is exactly what we see next: a bloody war.

“What followed was a war unseen. One that could never be put to song. A purge without Grace or honour”  

This strikes me as especially poetic when we think of Miquella, because it is in the DLC where we truly understand the origin of the war he unleashed after the Shattering, and his absolute centrality in it despite his apparent absence. And the truth is, no matter how good his intentions were, devastating an entire continent for a greater end is not particulary honorable, specially if it implies performing horrendous rituals on the bodies of your stepbrothers through seduction and betrayal.

If Messmer's crusade was hidden physically, Miquella hid the execution of his plan by altering wills and bending minds. 

“The tyranny of Messmer’s flame” 

From this point on, we are going to see the tyranny of Miquella's seduction, which replicates the clash between Radahn and Malenia in Caelid and the true purpose behind it. As if looking into a mirror, you see everything in reverse. 

While Caelid is devastated by rot, the lands of the Realm of Shadow are being devoured by fire. Messmer is not Radahn, of course, but Radahn's Great Rune burns to contain the rot; we find the Red-Hot Whetblade and the Flaming Strike in his castle, and the Flame of the Redmanes alongside Flame, Grant Me Strength in Fort Gael (a fortress that foreshadows and symbolizes Radahn). 

And if in the base game we see how a man had lost everything amidst Malenia's scarlet rot, here we see a woman who, after having lost everything to Messmer's fire, finds salvation in that scarlet rot. That woman is not Malenia, nor is she Saint Trina, but she is Romina, the Saint of the Bud, whose form is split into three parts: a woman's body and the legs of both a scorpion and a centipede. We see her rolling like a kind of ouroboros, for time in this world is a wheel that repeats itself. The exact same shadow that tarnished Marika's gold did the same to Miquella's. 

The thing about this obsessive fixation is that you start notice some really deep cuts and convoluted details. If you look at Romina's presentation through the lens of that battle between Malenia and Caelid, things start making a lot of sense. 

For instance, her scorpion half can be linked to the symbolism of scorpions in the game. As the description of their charms reads, it is a talisman carried by assassins who strike unseen, which fits Miquella perfectly. He delivers the blow without anyone ever seeing him, hiding behind the strings of everyone acting on his behalf. 

Her human half mirrors the design of a bud… and I don't think it is necessary to elaborate further on that when we literally access the DLC through the very cocoon Mohg thought would fulfill his highest omens if I think in spanish. We have a single word that refers to both the plant covering that protects the flower and the silk covering that protects certain insects (such as silkworms and nascent butterflies). So the bud here is linked with the insect-like creature, and the guy tied to plants (Miquella's Lilies, Trina's Lilies, Sacramental Buds, the Haligtree) does so in a cocoon.

And her centipede half also acquires a fascinating meaning. In the base game, we learned that the centipede is the Cursemark linked to the imperfect death of Godwyn and Ranni; the macabre, unnatural separation of body and soul, which the Golden Order Fundamentalists later adopted as a fetish to hunt down Those Who Live in Death. We know that Malenia, at the very least, had to put an end to Radahn so that Miquella could separate his soul from his body. Perhaps she was supposed to do the same to Mohg later to secure the vessel her brother needed. In any case, what we have here is a direct reflection of the macabre deaths of Godwyn and Ranni, who also lost their soul and body, respectively. 

Other protagonists here are the Divine Beast Dancing Lion, which end up dominating a shot where they appear impaled. I have explained their symbology better elsewhere, but when you fight it, it feels as if a horned lion is resurrecting before you, only for you to later realize it is a puppet operated by two bodies.

That is exactly what awaits us at the top of Enir-Ilim: a horned lion acting under Miquella's orders. Symbolically, the deaths of Mohg (with his horns) and Radahn (the lion, even roaring like a beast in his intro cinematic) act as a repetition of Marika's sins against the Hornsent and their divine leonine beasts. The past seems condemned to repeat itself, one way or another. And that is why the Divine Beast Dancing Lion, in combat, foreshadows a future bound to the ghosts of the past. Ranni's frost, Godwyn's lightning, the Deathblight generated by their unnatural deaths… everything is there to make you remember, to make you see time as a ring spinning eternally, driven by whirlwinds. 

Before the fade to black, the shot finally lingers on the Scadutree, where we can see the sap acquiring the whimsical shape of Marika's rune and the spear that pierces her inside the Erdtree. 

But you notice something else. That sap flows exactly from the point where the tree twists due to the pressure exerted by another trunk. And what comes to my mind is how badly that tree could have used a support... a brace like Elphäel was to the Haligtree.

“And so Kindly Miquella would abandon everything. His golden flesh, his blinding strength”  

The transition is brilliant, because that crescent moon and crucifixion shape formed by the arms and body of Marika’s rune with the Scadutree’s sap are mirrored right after in Miquella’s cross. Those are the very places where he will abandon everything, and that is how we see him from behind, bathed in gold, leaving it all behind. We won't see his face until his ascension; hardly surprising, considering he has always hidden behind his enchantments.

“Even his fate”  

And then Saint Trina appears. She does so by falling, and now we know she falls into the absolute deepest depths while Miquella walks the exact opposite path, framed by an absolutely genius color palette.

Yes, Miquella's characteristic gold in the immediately preceding scene is the exact opposite color of the purple in Saint Trina's scene on the color wheel. Saint Trina falls, and if she is Miquella's fate, Miquella will fall too. That is why there is no real alternative in being part of his order; it's a downward spiral. 

“But we are not deterred. We chose to follow. Will you walk with us?” 

The final irony is wonderful, with Leda expressing her group's genuine devotion to Miquella while they all worship one of his crosses. What is the actual margin of choice against unalloyed gold, the very material Miquella uses to seduce both friends and allies alike? 

But I am not Miquella. I actually let you choose, so maybe none of this is actually there, and it is all just in my head.

> I wish to anoint you a proper inductee. > "A knight to serve Luminary Mohg, the Lord of Blood, and establish a new dynasty."

> Luminary Mohg has strength, vision, and of course, love.

> So, what do you say, my lambkin?

 

> Ahh, it is trying, but we must be patient. One day, you will be elevated, deservedly, basking in love.

> Right, my lambkin?

> Ha ha ha...

 

> Please, answer me...Luminary...Mohg.

> ...

> A-ahh...

> Bless the Mohgwyn Dynasty, with love!

 

Malenia and the Scarlet Rot clearly doesn't go away or get resolved in the base game. Malenia is still alive in her cocoon, and technically she is supposed to return as a true Rot Goddess.

Imagine a sequel in which we revisit the Lands Between in a distant future, but Malenia as a returning antagonist, with a new, different Shattering-type events sparked by the consequences of her return. Maybe Elden Ring could have something like the progression lore structure like Dark Souls 1 through 3; maybe the world keeps fracturing, with new stakes, goals, and ambitions arising, ect... new lore essentially.

I looked around reddt and on the internet to learn more about the 4 belfries lore, but I did not find many concrete answers. What are your thoughts on it?

The Bellfries are graves? I don't think so

Are the belfries graves? I say that, because headless creatures in death are usually the guardians of mausoleums, so maybe the trolls are guarding bodies?

I don't think that's true since the belfries look ancient, because they have the old man from underground ruins (ancient civilization) in the middle of vines that look like a tree.

https://preview.redd.it/344srb1ek4kh1.png?width=1276&format=png&auto=webp&s=dbc54d32607b7d54eff9495be58a932da5ad2883

Since the headless trolls use Carian sorcery, I don't think they would guard the bodies of ancient people.

The Headless Trolls sacrificed themselves to protect these Bellfries, just like the mausoleum soldiers did?

Even though the Bellfries are old, the portals probably aren't. They require the imbued sword keys, that are likely created with the magic of carians or the academia.

I'm not sure who uses them. It could be Ranni with the Carians (or just the carians). I've heard a theory where the 3 portals are being used to spy other locations. Maybe that's a way for Ranni to spy Godrick, Mogh and Maliketh?

So maybe the trolls sacrificed themselves to protect, in death, these 3 portals? Do you think its possible to sacrifice yourself like that to protect any location, even when not related to the soulless demigods (mausoleum)?

What do you have to say about this location?

EDIT: Someone outside Reddit told me the portals send to ancient locations related to the Dynasty. So maybe the portals are old. Someone here also mentioned the Carians had connection to everyone before the Golden Order, so. ---> All of this may indicate that the portals are actually old

Are they the Tarnished who failed to flee with Lord Godfrey?

There are so many of them, gazing out to sea, surrounded by what looks like the remnants of old boats.

Everything in game points to this truth, I'm genuinely shocked that this is not widely accepted as canonical... yet. But, I hope to at least tickle... if not completely change your mind on that.

Here are my points.

• At the very start of the game you can only find one item in the Chapel of Anticipation area; that is the Nascent Butterfly. There are two of them that can be acquired at the start of the game in that area, and nothing else. I personally believe that the location of the butterflies are where the "host" of the Outer God has been; akin to footsteps, so long as they did something of importance there. I also believe that the community's concept that the Butterflies themselves are linked directly to characters such as Malenia, Melina, Miquella, etc; is false. The Butterflies are not the representation of those demigods, they are the representation of the Outer God that influences/infects them--nothing more. That being said, the Nascent Butterfly itself is absolutely linked to The Formless Mother, and by extension to Miquella as he is influenced by her. As many of you know, the text of the Nascent Butterfly reads as follows:

"An arcane butterfly with translucent wings.
Material used for crafting items.
Exceedingly rare to find.

This butterfly appears as if it's just emerged from its cocoon for its entire life."

The key points here in this description are:

1. It's Arcane. Literally the first word in it's text that describes it. Arcane is linked to Blood incantations and Blood affinity on weapons, scaling damage through Arcane knowledge. Arcane knowledge is not Blood alone, I am aware, but if you want to argue that the word "arcane" describing this butterfly is implying Dragons.... I'm all ears.

2. It's wings are translucent. Visually formless. The wings are what is important to all butterflies in Elden Ring; they are the sole feature defining each of them. In the case of the Nascent Butterfly, translucency is the only way to depict... formlessness.

3. "Exceedingly rare to find". This line could be a direct link to Miquella, and I would agree to that from a storytelling perspective. But something that is formless would absolutely be exceedingly rare to find as it is almost not there at all. It's invisible to the naked eye, exactly as is said about The Formless Mother.

4. It appears to be "emerged from its cocoon for its entire life". This is another way of saying it is nascent, right? Just articulated in more words and applying this aspect to the butterfly specifically. Nascence meaning, the birth, or coming into existence for the first time; the emergence of something, and I argue that this "something emerging into existence" has not quite taken shape yet; it would be formless.

So, in conclusion to this point, the Nascent Butterfly has far more in common to what we understand of The Formless Mother than that of specifically Miquella. It has traits that can be applied to Miquella, but also that actually exceed defining him, just as Miquella exceeds defining it. Why? Because the butterflies do not represent the demigods, but instead represent what Outer God influences them.

As for the importance of finding it at the Chapel of Anticipation, this is two fold. On the one hand the very name itself is implicating both Miquella and the Formless Mother. To anticipate is to expect or foresee something; it is awaiting a situation (or being) to finally take shape with an outcome that you predict to see. I think that this is not coincidence, as nothing Miyazaki creates is mindlessly done. I believe that by naming the beginning of the game "The Chapel of Anticipation" and then placing a Scion (look the definition up if you don't know) in between you and the ONLY item there for you to loot, a Nascent Butterfly, he may as well named the place "The Formless Mother's Chapel of Miquella". But I'm getting ahead of myself, so please allow me to continue to another point.

• Miquella uses Blood magic, and is the only character to do so canonically outside of those that use the Blood Incantations of The Formless Mother... or is he? Is he using his own, personal Blood magic? Did he create his own Blood magic just to grow trees? Other than him, and the Omen Twins who use Blood Incantations of the Formless Mother, is there anyone at all that uses Blood in any way in Elden Ring? The answer to all of these questions is, "no". In fact, I will push this point even further by quoting the Sacramental Bud item.

"An immature bud containing fresh blood. Material used for crafting items.

Believed to originate long ago from a strain of buds cultivated with youthful, sacramental blood."

The words "youthful" and "sacramental" are extremely important in this items description, as well as the canonical knowledge that Miquella grew the Haligtree in this exact manner. Even more importantly, however, are the only two locations where you can harvest Sacramental Buds; from the Church of Plague and Writheblood Ruins. Let me dissect this.

The importance of this item is that it directly links itself to Miquella via its description as well as its in-game location. By finding it in the Church of Plague its existence not only leads to Miquella (with no point of contention on the matter, unless you want to imply that Malenia or Millicent grew it instead), but finding it in Writheblood Ruins also directly links it to the Formless Mother; the ruins being a place that is overrun by creatures infected by cursed blood, as well as a Sanguine Noble that guards the Blood Helice weapon.

This is all to say that, Miquella does not use his own form of Blood magic; he uses the same Blood magic as everyone else via the same arcane knowledge of The Formless Mother. He practiced with it to create Sacramental Buds, the predecessors to his grand opus on the matter; the Heligtree. Just as he practiced with Gold from The Greater Will to achieve Rings of Light. The source of power remains the same for everyone respectively; Gold from The Greater Will and Blood from The Formless Mother. But its use differs when in different hands, so long as those hands are creative enough.

As Marika used the Power of Gold to create The Erdtree, Miquella used it to create Rings of Light. Subsequently, as Sanguine Nobles and Mohg/Morgot use the Blood of the Formless Mother to create red fire that bursts blood from their victims, Miquella used it to (ultimately) create the Haligtree.

"All things can be conjoined"; united to a single source of power.

• Miquella canonically staves off Scarlet Rot from at least two characters (very easily more, since he is so compassionate); Malenia and Redmane Freyja. His is not the sole source of halting Rot, however, as it is also stated in the Sacred Bloody Flesh item that the Formless Mother can do this. The following is the items text:

"Raw meat soaked with blood.

A delicacy of the bloodfiends.

Temporarily boosts physical attack power and arcane.

When blood loss occurs nearby, further boosts attack power.

The blood is said to have fallen from the Formless Mother's wound. Never will it dry, never will it rot."

Here we can very plainly read that the Formless Mother possesses the power to halt Rot. Which, if you think about this conceptually, makes perfect sense. If the blood never dries, it never takes a form; it is nascent. Never taking shape, always formless and (just like Miquella) is unaffected by Scarlet Rot in turn.

So, it's not that Miquella himself has learned a way to keep the Rot at bay through his intelligence, nor was it his faith that paved the way; it was his Arcane knowledge that was the key to this power. Arcane knowledge of the Formless Mother.

• My final point that ties Miquella to the Outer God, is Light. Miquella has another incredible talent, and that is the manipulation of Light. Light, passes through translucent things. In fact, the more translucent something is the more pure the Light will be. One might say that.... being completely formless would allow Light to pass through perfectly. But, I'm not trying to be hyperbolic here. There is a direct connection conceptually between Light and the Formless Mother in Elden Ring; and that is because she is also refereed to as the Mother of Truth, as per the item descriptions on both the Bloodfiend's Sacred Spear and Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear in the following text: "The mother of truth desires a wound".

Light is more than "often" used as a literary tool to depict Truth, just as Darkness is used as a literary tool to hide the it. As poetic as it may sound at first, is there any more honest truth in reality than "light chasing away darkness"? The Truth reveals the Lies.

It is even used in the Bible, in the Gospel of John, where both terms describe Jesus as the ultimate revelation of God, where light exposes reality and truth provides spiritual life. We all know that there are many Biblical musings in Elden Ring, and this is yet another. If the Formless Mother is the Mother of Truth, then she is also the Mother of Light by proxy; and Miquella is Her vessel. Is there any other Outer God that fits more perfectly? And even if there could be an unknown Outer God that influences Miquella, why would Miyazaki's writing fall apart so horribly? The connections are already there. So much so that it would be comical to introduce a different Outer God for him.

But that's just my opinion.

I really hope some of you actually take this seriously and consider it. I strongly believe this is canonical. I believe that the Formless Mother is misunderstood... as are... other mothers in Elden Ring. I think that people attribute entirely too much to Miquella alone considering that we know of no other being that has such freedom in the Lands Between, and I don't subscribe to the theory that he is an exception.

Please leave comments below, and if any of you actually enjoy this I will consider starting a YouTube channel and creating videos for this and MANY more of my takes on what is going on in Elden Ring.

I know the obvious answer is that Melina is Marika’s daughter, especially after the descriptioN about Messmer’s younger sister. But I don’t mean that Melina is literally Marika walking around under another name.
I think she could be a part of Marika that was separated from her.

We already know this can happen. Radagon is Marika, and the DLC shows Miquella abandoning St. Trina. After being separated, they don’t necessarily share the same mind or goals anymore. St. Trina even asks us to kill Miquella.
So what if Melina is something similar?

Marika created the Golden Order by removing Destined Death. Maybe she also had to remove the part of herself connected to death and fire. That part might have become the Gloam-Eyed Queen, or eventually Melina after Maliketh defeated and burned her.

It would explain why Melina calls Marika her mother but seems confused about what being born from a mother actually means. Millicent also calls Malenia her mother, even though she seems to have come from something Malenia left behind. Maybe Melina was “born” from Marika in the same way.

It might also explain how Melina hears Marika’s echoes and uses that small golden tree incantation. Maybe Marika didn’t teach her those things. Maybe they are memories or powers left over from when they were still the same being.
The strange part is that Melina’s entire purpose goes against everything Marika’s Order represents. Marika removed death and built the Erdtree’s Order, while Melina burns the Erdtree and helps release Destined Death back into the world.

Maybe that contradiction is the point. Melina could be the part of Marika that knew the Golden Order eventually had to die.

I’m not completely sure how Messmer fits into this. He could still call Melina his sister if she came from Marika, just not through a normal birth. Both of them also carry forbidden flames that Marika tried to hide.

This could connect to my last theory about Melina being the Gloam-Eyed Queen ( which was deleted by the admins here i dont why ??)

Maybe the GEQ wasn’t originally a completely separate person.

Maybe she was Marika’s rejected side, and after losing her body and memories, she returned as Melina without fully knowing who she used to be.

I’m probably reaching somewhere, but Melina being Marika’s discarded shadow makes more sense to me than her being just another unnamed demigod.

So, this thought has been gnawing at me for a little bit. The flame of frenzy possesses beings in the lands between and gives them access to its incantations. However there seems to be a certain trend on who gets affected.

In the default lands between the ones affected are rats, powerless peasants, beaten and abandoned Leyndell knights and on the very top of their power chain, trolls (1 at the Vulcano manor and more at the ruins of Yelough). Here we don't see beings that are mentally very powerful affected by it. The trolls may be physically powerful, but they are no apex predators by any means.

In the realm of shadow, or more specifically the abyssal woods, we also only find small animals and rats as the main victims of the flame's possession. The aging untouchables were likely weak spirits once upon a time and have been mutated physically by the frenzy, earning their power from it. Now even Midra, lord of frenzied flame is pathetic. In his human form he is obviously no challenge, he is old, thin and besides the magic of his possession, doesn't have anything that could make him powerful. It is only after he gets fully taken by the frenzied flame that he becomes powerful and threatening.

This isn't the end of it, the torch of frenzy we find in his manor is said to be the remains of a past lord of frenzy. But that one was too feeble to contain the flame and broke. This makes me think that the flame of frenzy inherently takes the weakest it can find to become its puppets.

Now, there are some beings I would actually call an exception to the rule...... somewhat.

Vyke is well known to have been embraced by the three fingers and containing the flame of frenzy and his history displays him as a powerful Tarnished who could have become Elden Lord under different circumstances. But I think that was the frenzied flame's biggest mistake. Vyke was too strong of will to succumb to the flame instantly. That in combination with him being embraced while wearing his armour gave him enough time to imprison himself in an evergaol. But a remnant of what he was still wanders the frenzied flame village.

Now the other notable figure is Shabriri. We don't know what he originally looked like, since he possesses Yuria's body after his death, which in itself is quite uncanny. But even if we take Yuria's body/power as a measurement, he isn't overly impressive. Not terrible, but not very impressive either. He is just run of the middle.

Now the last and definitely most notable case of possession. Us.

Our Tarnished gets embraced and absorbs the 3 fingers, becoming the lord of frenzied flame. We willingly seek out the frenzied flame despite warning and willingly remove our armour to become one with it. For the rest of our playthrough, we are in control. We fight who we want to fight, make our own choices and can even tame the frenzied flame with the correct equipment. Now it is debatable if during the ending cutscene where we burn the Erdtree and let the frenzied flame loose upon the world.

We can't for sure say if we are doing that fully of our own will or if the frenzied flame takes over and starts puppeteering us.

Now, this pattern leads me to one conclusion, that the frenzied flame can only take the mentally fragile. Rats, Peasants, near dead knights, trolls. All of these are inherently weak of mind and focus. Shabriri seems to have originally been a man of depravity and frenzy before he ever met the flame. Vyke was likely in distress over the prospect of losing his maiden, someone he very clearly cared heavily for. And even we, are going to the frenzied flame because we want to save our maiden. Because we want to save Melina.

So ironically the biggest counter to the flame of frenzy would be those strong of will. Those who do not need it.

https://preview.redd.it/4ya92klwyxjh1.png?width=921&format=png&auto=webp&s=438d28296d9de2bed023847b54feadfc555aaea7

Im trying to find some info on why the sorceres from Raya Luccaria have extended life, but I can't find it.

Is there any other item or lore that talks more about this? They tend to live longer lifes or something like that?

EDIT: Based on your comments I think it is the fact that the erdtree removed death from the lands. I forgot that it could mean that.

You won't find lore answers here. What you will find is how in my opinion that lore is structured to support the game's major narrative twist. It’s pretty much about examining Elden Ring as if you were rereading ASOIAF. For a while now, I’ve been pointing out what I consider to be clear foreshadowing from the base game of Elden Ring, all anticipating that Miquella’s ascension (backed by Radahn’s soul and Mohg’s body in Shadow of the Erdtree) holds up from the very beginning. 

I’ve already written extensively about this, and maybe you know all of this stuff (maybe even before me). For instance, the connections that can be drawn between the three demigods through specific enemies, the clues hidden within the Dectus Medallion (it's funny that the one who wishes to ascend is so easily relatable to elevators), and many other details in texts that are way too long. Now, I’m going to start posting short snippets of these curious details. 

While many might dismiss them as mere coincidences, in my opinion, they denote a clear narrative intention: anticipating the massive plot twist we got in Shadow of the Erdtree.

Today, I want to focus on the first five NPCs you can encounter in Limgrave. (Though I actually found someone else first! Truly wonderful. If two are placed to the north and two to the east, and those are the only two possible directions, it's clear the game intends for you to run into them sooner rather than later). 

Thus, the first NPC is Melina. We don’t even know she is a key NPC yet, but after defeating the Grafted Scion and following the path of Nascent Butterflies, a spirit riding a horned beast appears. Right out of the gate, within the first two minutes of the game, you already have the Nascent Butterfly, the incorporeal spirit, and the horns. The truth is, our horse might not have horns, but... just look at that highly symbolic detail.

If you head north, you run into Varré and Ranni. If you head east, you find Yura and Sellen. Miquella only needs two dead demigods, and we only need to kill two demigods. Out of seven demigods, maybe it’s no coincidence that Melina gives us Miquella’s horse while the other four NPCs are directly tied to the deaths of Mohg and Radahn. 

And with Varré comes the first surprise. He is a Bloody Finger, specifically the one who serves to guide you to the Mohgwyn Palace. In other words, he is literally the first person you can talk to in Limgrave, and right from the start, he’s the guy responsible for offering you an audience with Mohg. He will eventually give us the item to get there and beg us for patience: “For Mohg yet slumbers beside the Divinity. Be Patient. The new dynasty is nigh.” That divinity is Miquella, of course, and he was meant to sleep until the release of Shadow of the Erdtree. 

If you head east, you’ll reach Varré’s antithesis: Yura, Hunter of Bloody Fingers. Yura won’t just lead you to Eleonora, another Bloody Finger; he will lead you to the tear that allows you to counter Mohg’s devastating "Nihil!". There is no other tear in the entire game designed solely to counter a single attack. It’s quite a coincidence that it specifically affects the demigod Miquella wants dead. 

In case this seems too arbitrary, Yura will be one of the characters whose dead body you see possessed by another spirit (Shabriri) who covers his face to hide him. I don't think I need to elaborate on how Radahn later occupies Mohg’s dead, soulless body. Neither Varré nor either version of Yura shows their face. A mask, a hat, his own hands... a great symbol of the narrative intent behind Miquella’s characterization: elusive, absent, unknown. But one of them leads you to Mohg, and the other leads you to the perfect tear to defeat him. 

And, of course, it had to be the Carian NPCs who tied into Radahn. If Mohg has his own tear, Radahn is the only demigod you can fight while riding the horse that once belonged to the very demigod who wants him dead. We could have had references to Rykard or Rennala... but both Ranni’s and Sellen’s quests depend entirely on Radahn’s death. Not only that: it is Radahn’s death that allows us to progress our understanding of the conspiracy that caused the death of Godwyn’s soul (a clear parallel to the fate of Mohg, who even allows us to reach the corpse of the Golden one) and the death of Ranni’s body (just like Radahn). 

Furthermore, it is Radahn’s death that allows us to obtain Sellen’s soul (known as Sellen's Primal Glintstone) so she can keep living in another body, just like Miquella will later do with his beloved brother using Mohg’s body. As if that weren’t enough, even Jerren, the castellan of Redmane Castle and organizer of Radahn's festival, joins the subquest later on. 

Thus, out of all the NPCs that could have been placed in these early stages, Miyazaki opted for a very specific set: ones that share an indirect involvement in Miquella’s plan. And that's all. But I could go on with Irina, Blaidd, Kenneth Haight, Alexander...

At first, none of this makes sense. Everything seems to be just what it is, like that direwolf dying from a stag's antler at the beginning of Game of Thrones, which was just a direwolf dying from a stag's antler when we were still a sweet summer child. 

But now that we know it is Miquella and his Promised Consort waiting for us at the end of Shadow of the Erdtree... everything takes on a different hue. Are these merely narrative foreshadowings of what was to come, or did they want to tell us something more about the role Miquella played from the shadows throughout our adventure? That is up to everyone's open interpretation. 

For example, we might feel special, but there's no way of knowing if Torrent actually chose us, or if (thanks to our blessed patience) we are just another Tarnished bound to end up crucified, foreshadowing Marika’s state in the opening area of the game. After all, in Frenzied Flame’s ending, we see her pick up Torrent’s ring... so I can’t be sure if that’s the first time she’s done it. So maybe we weren't even the first to ride Miquella’s steed, and maybe it wasn't us who Ranni actually heard about, and maybe (by breaking the fourth wall) Torrent simply chooses everyone who plays Elden Ring. Who knows. 

But that hardly matters. I think what really matters is highlighting all these environmental storytelling choices, which lend narrative coherence to the story's twists and turns while also allowing each player to form their own interpretations.

Aside from a mythology that, four years later, still seems inexhaustible, GRRM also left his mastery of foreshadowing in his work. And another genius, Miyazaki, managed to imprint that sense of symbolic revelation into a video game with environmental storytelling polished to the extreme, detailed to unthinkable limits: using enemies as symbols, items as lures, and NPCs and locations as pieces of evidence. 

Or not. Maybe it's all just a coincidence.