r/EldenRingLoreTalk

I think this line from Miriel says explicitly something that you can observe about the nature of the universe in Elden Ring in almost every one of it's facets.

I've been thinking for a while about Godrick. He's rightfully seen as insane by pretty much everyone around him- even his own servants, probably his own knights don't actually hold much loyalty towards him. The only people he's managed to conscript in his castle are those too desperate to go anywhere else- the exiled and the banished, and the subjugated stormhawks.

His gruesome art of grafting- his attempt at achieving power and his divine birthright- has left everyone who knows him equal parts appalled and terrified- Godrick perceived as a raving madman claiming divinity that he has no right to.

But as it turns out... Godrick is right!! In Nightreign, we see that he HAS the powers of the crucible- able to manifest a malformed spiraling tail and dozens of horns from his body. His attempts at grafting have succeeded- he has gained access to the crucible through them, connected now to the most primordial form of divinity in Elden ring.

While nightreign isn't strictly canon to ER and vice versa, I do still think that what we see of the world in nightreign can tell us about things in er and give us context for the broader scope of the world via "what-if" scenarios like Godrick awakening the aspects of the crucible.

This is a trend that we see throughout almost all of Elden Ring- that the natural state of things is for them to all mash together and conjoin- that this is indeed the shape of the gods of this world and what their power flows through.

Often, whenever this conjoining happens, it's in the shape of a spiral. Spirals we can think of as generally the shape of divinity, it's natural form- from the sacred Relic Sword, to the spirals of the hornsents incantations to their spiraling horns- and even seen in the godslayers greatsword, a spiral unmaking itself- spirals are generally representative of the gods and religious power in Elden ring.

This spiral can be seen in, as mentioned before the horns of the omen and the hornsent- and the beasts that had those horns forced upon them, conjoining them to the divinity of the crucible- but also in places like Metyr, with her whole body twisting and converging and spiraling in on itself, and Plascidusax- his two heads wrapping around one another in the shape, and the remains of his many others wrapping around his own body. Both of these figures are some of the first godlike figures that this world had ever known- Metyr less a god herself and moreso godly by her connection to the greater will- and Plascidusax as the first Elden Lord before the age of the Erdtree.

Things don't necessarily have to be spirals to be conjoined though- and the hornsent- are again relevant here.

Their attempt to create a perfect vassal, a god, was to meld as many shamans together in their pots as possible- and it's worth asking to what extent they succeeded or could have succeeded. Evidently the act of making pots does grant the powers of those that get melded into them, as we see with Alexander gaining strength after consuming Radahn. One could say this was the primeval form of grafting- maybe more or less refined than what Godrick came to practice.

The Grafted blade greatsword too shows clear power in this conjoinment- all the arms of it's wielders dead comrades coming together to grant the blade legendary power, and it's wielder a conjoined boost to every state in the game- as if all the souls of the blades wielders are granting you their shared power.

The divine dancing lion is also representative of this- although it's more of a stretch.

Even though we know for a fact there are people piloting the suit of the lion, we get no sense that they are actually people with their own independent thoughts or motives any longer. They move in perfect sync, as one body, that of the beast. They are less person now than lion- and I think that at some point they fused with the suit itself, and with one another inside of it. They are not piloting the suit now so much as they are part of it and it is part of them.

Rykard has also achieved great strength in a similar way to how the pots do via the serpent he allowed consume him- devouring warriors and gaining their strength as he did, growing in size. His blade, once pristine and golden, is now a mesh of bodies all jumbled up together from within his digestive.

The frenzied flame melts everything into itself until it is one- it's seal a mesh of all things, and scaling off all stats.

Lastly, the silver/mimic tears- possibly the Nox attempt to create their own god (mostly evidenced by the cut mimic tear questline) is a jumble of pure liquid *stuff* with no substance. Until it finds us, and conjoins- taking on our aspects and making itself into our image.

There are so many ways that this theme intersects into the games many parts- Rot, Storms, Space- so many things tie into this idea of convergence, and I think this a major, foundational part of how the very nature of Elden Rings world and divinity functions. That it naturally wants things to come together and be one on a fundamental level- and that this is often fucking AWFUL for those that actually have to experience it- that this divinity is wrong and undesirable and twisted.

Themes wise, maybe the idea here is that it is the ways in which we diverge- are different from one another- that we should value and cherish in. That things can and should be able to be separated, that individuals may live as individuals and not part of some greater whole or purpose. This indeed is a way of describing what Rannis ending does- separating gods from the world allows people to not be part of the greater converging point that is the order of the world and religion- but to choose what to believe in themselves, and to not have definitive proof of what is right and wrong about the universe to converge on and be forced to dedicate themselves towards.

Melina is the gloam eyed queen.

Hello all, I just beat the game and I'm super duper confused about a few things in the story. I think I’ve got the gist of the lore but does anyone want to humor me on a few questions I have? I have a million honestly but here's a few that are killing me:

1. Does this spell pertain to Metyr? Is she the one who hurt herself? Is she supposed to be like the primordial mother of all life, but wounds herself or something? Does her wound have to do with the formless mother? Since the Elden Beast created the Golden Erdtree, did she create the Scadutree?
2. Why did the Erdtree spurn our tarnished? If the Elden Beast is the Erdtree, did it sense we were coming to defeat it? Were the fingers shaken by this turn of events because it's never happened before or because we were their best hope? Were we not worthy for some reason pertaining to being Tarnished?

3-4-5. Did the Greater Will abandon all the Lands between or just Metyr? If the guidance of grace comes from the Greater Will, and the Fingers began attempting to communicate over a thousand year long process right then and there, how come we can still see new guidance of grace in the fight with Godfrey? Is it just an oversight? Are the Fingers bullshitting us about the Greater Will? It would make more sense to me if these are directions from thousands of years ago with GW abandonment, but Ymir also alludes the Fingers going behind Metyr's back for some reason? How come it's so specific about Finger Reader crones living eternal, and why does she have to rub it in our face? Ha

6. Why would the Greater Will not permit it? Is that because the Elden Beast, which is the Erdtree, is its like child or something? I get the two fingers, since it's the anchor of all their orders. Speaking of, little side question, did Malenia have her own two fingers and did they approve of her being the goddess of rot? Is it ever stated that the Erdtree and the Golden Order was in opposition to Rot? I can't recall, perhaps it was ok.

7. Who was the Royalty this finger reader was a wet nurse to? Was it one of the omen twins? The Rad/alla children? A horn sent? It couldn't have been Marika, right?

please help me before this game ruins me I’m begging you

edit: you guys are amazing thank you so much! that fact about the finger reader crone being the wet nurse is so cool!

Radahn got no legs, Ranni's a doll and her corpse got no legs, Rykard's a snake, Rennala doesn't walk... Things seem to line up perfectly, right?

Unfortunately. The two paintings of Rennala in-game fully depict her standing, and the Rennala that Ranni makes you fight is also standing.

Oh, and Rellana exists. She very much got legs and uses them to beat the living hell out of you. She is Rennala's younger sister and veeeery old. Messmer was described as 'like an elder brother to Radahn', Rennala is definitely older than Messmer.

Also, Ranni's corpse doesn't just have no legs, she is also missing a hand and two of her fingers are broken off, she is burnt all over. But this seems to have gone unmentioned if we are dissecting visuals.

Also, while Radahn's feet are stumps, he very much uses and moves his legs during the fight, he can walk fine on those stumps. Check image 7.

...Also: Rykard's painting shows him very much standing.

I was wondering about the finger ruins in the dlc. I know in the lore metyr was sent down and landed in the realm of shadows but when I was looking it I it apparently metyr landed at the miyr ruins. What are the other 2 finger ruins then is it like a part of the meteor landing in diffrent parts or what?

I will be exploring the literary symbol of leglessness/lower body injury/inability to walk in Eldenring. This will serve as a prelude to more focused posts (on Miquella-Radahn, why Godwyn is never shown with legs, etc…) before branching out into different symbols. I will consider other Fromsoft games, but only to convincingly show that Miyazaki’s use of these symbols is intentional and consistent. 

Disclaimers

• Literary Symbol? What I mean by this is what certain features of the story are meant to invoke, based on the traditional employment of symbols. Miyazaki is a literary guy, and is not designing these stories in some vacuum away from the history of literary symbolism. Going hollow involves losing your soul - this makes symbolic sense, and is something we should suspect, even if we are never told. 
• I will be comparing the different Souls games, and occasionally making guesses about them based on others. But I want to be clear: I am not theorizing with a shared universe. Miyazaki, for whatever reason, uses symbols in similar ways across all his games (think of the sun being drained). My assumption is that, unless we have a reason to doubt it, he is using symbols in similar ways across games.
• I think Miyazaki is more than capable of a) using literary symbolism to give clues about the lore of particular games, beyond the text and b) using consistent literary symbolism in such a way to intentionally use later games to help us understand earlier ones. He is extremely skillful at using every tool at his disposal. Why would he not use this?

 

Let’s get into it!

How Lameness has been used as a Literary Symbol

One of the most common literary meanings of these in literature is sexual impotency. The most obvious reason is that overt reference to sexual impotency has been, until very recently, seen as too explicit. Two prominent examples would be in The Sun Also Rises (Jake Barnes) by Hemingway and in Lady Chatterly’s Lover (Sir Clifford) by D.H. Lawrence.

A slightly different but related symbol is the single injured leg of the Fisher King from Arthurian myth, most famously re-examined and continued in T.S. Eliot’s poetry. There are many versions of the story, but, in brief, the injury of the king is accepted in exchange for eternal life in service to an eternal task. The land around becomes a wasteland - the fertility of a whole region suffers. I’ll make a different post on prominent Fisher Kings later. For now, what suffices is the link between injury and sexual impotency. 
It tends to be a masculine symbol as well - but more on that in later posts. 

The Symbol’s Clearest Case: Albinaurics

Albinaurics have non-functioning legs, completely lose their legs at a certain point, and die. Now, the game doesn’t directly say they are impotent. But it suggests it with the birthing droplet, and does say they are artificial. Since they clearly are alive (they are not automatons who only appear to be alive, like golems), what does this artificiality entail?

I think the only obvious answer is that they were not the product of a natural birth, or really, a birth at all. They are the result of alchemy - something like a science, something non-organic. The obvious correlative would be that they could not reproduce on their own.

This, in conjunction with the birthing droplet quest, seems like a correct read.

This also gives us two other symbols to associate with impotency: colorlessness, and silver. These might be closer to artificiality (a similar, but not identical theme to impotency). These map onto the moon in general. Keep these in mind!

The Logic of Symbols

If this is the correct reading with the Albinaurics, and if we are safe to assume this is how Miyazaki uses the symbol, then we should see deviations from this symbol that makes sense.

For instance, the opposite of legnessness (many leggedness) should mean super-fecundity. In fact, that is precisely what we see. Rot is the thing most associated with super-fecundity in Eldenring. The Rot pests are many limbed - but that isn’t quite the same. Malenia is a mother figure to them, but she is seemingly rejecting that role. Who isn’t? Romina! Boy she has a lot of legs. She is also chimeric - part woman, part insect.

Part-women part-insect should make you think of Dark Souls 1 chimeras, namely what's become of the chaos witches. Their insect lower halves are spiders - lots of legs - and the Chaos flame itself generates chimeric life and is Dark Souls 1 closest analogue to super-fecundity.

So the opposite of the symbol makes sense. What about symbols that interact with legs? 

The wheels of a wheelchair that allow the lame to move.  I would say a man in a wheelchair is someone who has accepted their impotency. But being impotent does not prevent someone from caring or helping to rear children. I call this the Professor X trope: impotent wheelchair person who handles an orphanage. Do we see this in Miyazaki’s games? Yes!

The headmaster of the orphanage in Deracine is wheelchair bound, specifically from a magic leg injury (double whammy). Gerhman in the Hunter’s dreams is raising the player to be a potential child of a Great One. He also has one leg - but that is the Fisher King trope. More on that later. The Orphanage area in Bloodborne is filled with wheelchair enemies, especially at its entrance. 

A final, legless case of impotence: The Virgin Abductor.
She is a virgin; she doesn’t have legs. But she steals kids. She also has snakes in her womb. Snakes are greedy - more on that later. Her case will help us with Gwydolin, eventually. 

I could keep going, but I think this establishes the trope pretty well. Let’s apply it to a situation in Eldenring. 

The Case of the Carians

The Albinaurics and the Carians are explicitly linked. Albinaurics serve the Carian family. Carians are tied to the moon; the Albinaurics wield crescent shaped weapons alluding to the moon. Both specialize in frost magic. Carians are also connected to silver through the urumi, and everything having to do with the Nox. The precise manner of their connection is hard to figure out and irrelevant to what I’m saying here. What matters is that the connection is present. Now, let’s see how well the symbol applies.

Rennala can’t walk; her legs, when we find her, don’t work. She also can’t give birth. She uses an exterior, artificial magical-magcuffin to produce ‘children’, and the result are the scholar children we fight in her boss battle - themselves with non-functional legs. The symbol applies! Rennala is also an example of the ‘reclining woman’, a Miyazaki trope that I think means: A woman who has given up her normal reproductive abilities in order to use them to serve a particular cause. The Albinauric birthing sister is an instance of this. Her legs don’t work, and without the birthing droplet, she can’t have kids. But I’ll get into that one later.

Ranni gave up her body, and curiously, her corpse is missing its legs. They might have been burnt off - it doesn’t matter how or why she is missing them, what matters from the perspective of symbolism is why we can’t see them. Ranni is currently impotent; she obviously cannot reproduce as a doll. But the lack of legs on her body is an extra emphasis on the meaning of her self-chosen infertility. Many connect Empyreanhood to womb-having. If so, the rejection of her body is most importantly a rejection of her capacity to give birth. The symbol holds, and helps enhance our understanding of just why she needed to give up her body (“I will not be controlled by that thing”). 

Does she mean the Fingers? It's ironic, if so, because Fingers can only control a puppet. However, Miyazaki has an odd habit of making dolls that move without strings - another one of his symbols.

Rykard is an even more interesting case. Was he impotent? Did he have leg problems? I don’t know, and for this post, I don’t care. Rykard gives his body to a snake.

What’s the deal with snakes in Souls games? A whole lot. By our symbol, we would guess snakes are infertile: no legs. But snakes are greedy, they consume and consume. We get rings shaped like them that help us consume more. And Rykard, by becoming a snake, becomes super-fertile!

Rykard-as-snake has legs, many legs and many limbs coming out of him. And he is super-fertile to the point of making chimeras, armies of snakes who walk like men. 

I think we are seeing a Faustian bargain of fertility. Rykard gives up his life and ability to be fertile in the normal sense in order to become super-fertile in a specific way. Of course, he can only do so by consuming… The snake’s fertility is problematic, since it transmutes what it takes in into more of itself. Perhaps the snake needed a Rykard, or a Gloam-Eyed Queen, to truly reproduce… I dunno.

What about Radahn? Radahn is most certainly footless, and we never see him stand unassisted before the DLC, so the symbolic pattern of the siblings holds. He is lame for our purposes.
But, I think that’s gonna take a post of its own. So, until next time, I hope you enjoyed reading.

Vaati alludes to this detail in one of his dragon lore videos. I never would have noticed this because of how erratically Bayle moves around. This is a cool lore bit because it shows what happened to at least 2/3 of Placidusax missing heads.

Die drei Fingerruinen scheinen eng mit den drei großen göttlichen Linien Elden Rings verbunden zu sein.

Miyr nimmt dabei eine zentrale Stellung ein. Die Ruine liegt direkt bei der Kathedrale von Manus Metyr, wo man gegen Metyr, Mother of Fingers kämpft. Der Name „Miyr“ steht nah an „Metyr“, enthält dieselben Buchstaben wie „Ymir“, der selbst zur neuen Mutter werden möchte, und klingt englisch ausgesprochen beinahe wie Maia oder Maya. Im weiteren Verlauf des Textes wird deutlich, wie von dort aus genau die Linie zu Marika verläuft.

Rhia klingt dagegen auffällig nah an Raya (Ri-a) und verweist auf die Rennala-Radagon-Linie: Rennala, Renna, Ranni, Radahn und Rykard. Selbst Caria (Ca-Rhia) Manor trägt denselben Lautkern in veränderter Form. In den Fingerruinen von Rhia schweben dieselben blauen Partikel wie in Caria Manor.

Dheo erinnert stark an „Deus“, also Gott, und verweist damit auf die Godfrey-Linie sowie allgemein auf sakrale Zentralisierung und Herrschaft. Während Rhia von blauen Partikeln geprägt ist, fallen in Dheo goldene Blätter des Erdenbaums, jenes Symbols, an dessen Gründung Godfrey beteiligt war und mit dessen Erbe seine Nachfahren bis heute ringen: Godwyn, Godrick, Godefroy, Morgott und Mohg.

So entsteht der Eindruck dreier symbolischer Pole: Miyr als Mutter und Vermittlung, Rhia als Bewegung, Sterne und Erkenntnis, Dheo als Gottheit, Herrschaft und sakrale Ordnung.

Um Maia, Maya und verwandte Namen bildet sich kulturgeschichtlich ein bemerkenswert konsistentes Symbolfeld aus Mütterlichkeit, Vermittlung, Geburt, Wachstum und verhüllter Transzendenz.

Die deutlichste Parallele ist Maia, die Mutter des Hermes. Hermes fungiert nicht bloß als Götterbote; er übersetzt, vermittelt und bewegt sich zwischen den Ebenen der Welt. Genau das tun die Two Fingers. Sie empfangen den Willen des Greater Will und geben ihn interpretiert weiter. Miyr beziehungsweise Metyr gebiert damit, genau wie Maia, das zentrale Vermittlungs- und Übersetzungsorgan des Göttlichen. Selbst die Nähe zur Hermeneutik, also der Kunst der Interpretation, wirkt auffällig passend.

Maia gehört außerdem zu den Plejaden, also zu einem Sternenhaufen. Von Metyr heißt es wiederum, sie sei der erste Stern gewesen, der die Zwischenlande erreichte.

Hinzu kommt Maya, die Mutter des Buddha. Gleichzeitig bezeichnet „Maya“ im Buddhismus den Schleier der Erscheinungswelt, den der Erwachte erst durchschreiten muss. Dasselbe Motiv erscheint später erneut: in Marikas Mischief, ihrem goldenen Schleier, der einen in nahe Gegenstände verwandelt, und schließlich im Schleier, der das Reich der Schatten verhüllt.

Die römische Maia verbindet Wachstum, Fruchtbarkeit, Frühling und Erdverbundenheit. Von dort führt die Linie beinahe organisch weiter zu Mary. Zwar ist „Maria“ sprachgeschichtlich nicht direkt mit Maia verwandt, doch die symbolischen Resonanzen bleiben auffällig: Mütterlichkeit, Fürsprache und heilige Vermittlung zwischen Mensch und Göttlichem. Über Maria führt die Struktur schließlich zu Marika selbst. Ihre Kinder tragen diese Namenslogik weiter: Malenia, Miquella, Melina, Messmer.

Die Götter bleiben im Hauptspiel permanent mit Fingern verbunden. Die verschiedenen Great Runes aktiviert man bei den Two Fingers in den göttlichen Türmen rund um das zentrale Meer der Zwischenlande. Dort verdichten sich Meer, Kosmos, Schicksal und göttliche Vermittlung zu einem gemeinsamen Bildraum.

Metyr ist klar mit Wasser und Sternen assoziiert. Ihre Arena wirkt untermeerisch. Die Fingerruinen sind von langen Rillen durchzogen, die zugleich an Fingerabdrücke und an Furchen im Meeresboden erinnern. In diesen Ruinen findet man Lampreys, also Neunaugen: urtümliche parasitäre Wesen, die sich mit kreisförmigen Zahnmäulern an andere Lebewesen heften und ringartige Spuren auf ihrem Fleisch hinterlassen. Sie schreiben sich regelrecht in den Körper ein und hinterlassen ihren „Fingerabdruck“.

Die Fingercreepers wirken weniger wie normale Hände als wie spinnenartige Werkzeuge kosmischer Kommunikation. Gerade die Fingercreepers aus Caria Manor erscheinen erneut in den Fingerruinen von Rhia und Dheo. Ihre Edelsteine erinnern an Rennalas Schmuck, während Sterne und Finger gleichermaßen mit Schicksal verbunden bleiben. Die Akademie von Raya Lucaria untersucht den Kosmos direkt; die Finger interpretieren dagegen den Willen einer höheren Ordnung. Zwei verschiedene Modelle von Vermittlung.

Von dort führt die Spur direkt zu älteren Schicksalsbildern der Mythologie. Die Moiren der Griechen und die nordischen Nornen bestehen jeweils aus drei weiblich codierten Figuren, die den Lebensfaden spinnen, messen und durchtrennen oder den Verlauf des Schicksals am Weltenbaum verweben. Genau wie Metyr und die Fingerleserinnen verbinden sie Geburt, Verlauf und Ende des Lebens zu einem einzigen Gewebe.

Miyr, Rhia und Dheo erscheinen dadurch nicht mehr bloß als Orte, sondern als Aspekte eines kosmischen Schicksalsapparates: Ursprung, Bewegung und göttliche Fixierung. Mutter, Fluss und Gott.

Die Fäden erscheinen nun nicht länger dekorativ, sondern als Grundstruktur der Ordnung. Fäden werden gewebt, verknotet, vernäht und gespannt; Schrift wird eingeschrieben; Schicksal wird geführt. Worte formen Wirklichkeit, so wie Fäden ein Gewebe formen.

Dieses Motiv kulminiert in Marikas Ascension-Sequenz aus einem der DLC-Trailer. Dort zieht sie goldene Fäden aus einem gewaltigen Leichnam hervor. Die Szene verbindet Geburt, Opferung und Neuverwebung der Welt. Marika scheint die verkörperten Schicksalsfäden aus dem Gefäß der alten Welt zu extrahieren und in die eigene Hand zu nehmen. Der Elden Ring in Farum Azula wirkt vielleicht genau deshalb deutlich organischer und fadenartiger als die spätere geometrische Form der Goldenen Ordnung.

Metyr erscheint zunehmend wie eine monströse Spinne oder ein Spinnenskorpion: ein uraltes Wesen, das einst kosmische Verbindungen spannte und nun vom Greater Will abgeschnitten wurde. Eine Hand, die den Kontakt zum Kopf verloren hat.

Radagon bleibt eng mit dieser älteren Kulturtechnik verbunden. Er bringt ein goldenes Nähset und eine goldene Nadel mit in seine Ehe mit Rennala. Später wird ausgerechnet er zum Schmied der Ordnung und versucht den zerbrochenen Elden Ring wieder zusammenzufügen. Aus flexiblem Faden wird verhärtete Ordnung.

Marikas goldener Schleier, Marikas Mischief, gehört ebenfalls in dieses Motivfeld. Ein Schleier besteht aus Stoff; Stoff muss gewebt, vernäht und gespannt werden. Das Reich der Schatten erscheint dadurch nicht einfach verborgen, sondern regelrecht verhüllt.

Die Godskins wirken wie die Rückkehr eines verdrängten Schicksalsprinzips, das eng mit Feuer, Schlangen, Nähkunst und Fingern verbunden war. Sie häuten Körper und vernähen Haut zu sakralen Gewändern. Die Noble Presence, die Gegner in die Luft schleudert, und die Beschreibung vieler Godskin-Incantations als „gewichtige“ Zauber verweisen auf eine alte, mächtige und einst heilige Form der Verkörperung, die inzwischen zur Blasphemie geworden ist.

Miquellas Unalloyed Needle bildet dazu beinahe das Gegenprinzip. Sie schützt vor dem Einfluss äußerer Götter; die Nadel wird zum Werkzeug gegen fremde Einschreibung in den Körper und gegen fremdes Schicksal. Miquella legt sein Fleisch schrittweise ab und kehrt am Tor der Göttlichkeit als Gott oder beinahe schon als Geist zurück. Die verschiedenen Teile seines Körpers lässt er an Gräbern im gesamten Reich der Schatten zurück.

Unklar bleibt, wem der Leib gehörte, dem Marika am selben Tor die goldenen Fäden entnimmt. Vielleicht Metyr, vielleicht einer anderen verdrängten Gottesform. Sicher scheint nur: Ordnung entsteht in Elden Ring nicht aus dem Nichts, sondern durch Extraktion, Umschreibung und Neuverwebung älterer Systeme.

Ranni findet als Einzige einen Weg, dieses komplexe Netz zu verlassen. Sie löst sich von ihrem eigenen Körper, tötet ihre Two Fingers und verweigert sich damit der Vorstellung eines zentral verwalteten Schicksals vollständig. Im Gegensatz zu Miquella entscheidet sie sich danach bewusst für Wiederverkörperung und wählt einen neuen Körper. Freiheit erscheint dadurch nicht als totale Entkopplung im Sinne göttlicher Transzendenz, sondern als die Fähigkeit, selbst zu wählen, woran man sich bindet.

Entscheidend ist dabei: Ranni löscht das Schicksal nicht aus. Die Sterne bleiben bestehen. Anders als die Goldene Ordnung versucht sie nicht, kosmische Bewegung in eine zentrale Struktur zu überführen. Sie entfernt lediglich das Vermittlungsorgan, das Schicksal interpretiert, verwaltet und kontrolliert. Die Sterne werden dadurch nicht abgeschafft, sondern überhaupt erst wieder sichtbar.

Auch Seluvis durchschaut Ranni sofort, als dieser versucht, sie zu einer Marionette zu machen. Im Kontext der Finger-, Faden- und Schicksalssymbolik wirkt das folgerichtig: Marionetten hängen an unsichtbaren Fäden und werden von einer fremden Hand gelenkt. Der Begriff „Manipulation“ leitet sich letztlich von manus, also „Hand“, ab. Ranni verweigert genau diese Form der Kontrolle.

Der Befleckte, der zunächst vollständig den Two Fingers innerhalb der Tafelrundfeste ausgesetzt ist, entwickelt sich ebenfalls schrittweise zu einem Zwischenwesen im Spannungsfeld von Bindung und Freiheit. Wie Hermes bewegt er sich zwischen den Ebenen der Welt und beginnt schließlich selbst zu interpretieren, statt bloß zu gehorchen. Wie Buddha durchschreitet er den Schleier der Erscheinung. Und wie Jesus geht er symbolisch neu geboren aus Tod, Opfer und Wiederkehr hervor. Das Licht der Gnade, der goldene Faden Marikas, hat ihn lange durch die Zwischenlande geführt. Am Ende bleibt die Entscheidung, diesen Faden endlich zu kappen.

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".

Rauh architecture all around TLB has always felt intentional to me, with arches and pillars acting as structural supports for the land itself, like a cultivated miniature landscape.

It reminds me a lot of penjing, the Chinese predecessor to bonsai. Western audiences usually think of bonsai as just tiny, uniquely shaped trees. The older penjing tradition was often about shaping an entire landscape in miniature: mountains, cliffs, trees, and negative space all carefully arranged into a living world.

When this tradition passed from Chinese monks to Japanese monks, it evolved into bonsai, where the focus became the tree itself.

That makes the Erdtree/Scadutree era feel like a philosophical shift.

Rauh architecture frames the landscape itself as sacred and curated, almost like the world is a giant penjing composition. But the Golden Order narrows that focus onto a single perfect tree. The world stops being the garden and becomes the container for the Erdtree.

Almost like the Lands Between went from penjing to bonsai, both acting as microcosms for much greater cosmic forces.

EDIT: This was an image post showing a bonsai tree compared with the sealing tree and the golden trees in Enir-Ilim but they're just gone now, cool. You can use your imagination. Bonsai is not a type of tree, to be clear. It is a practice of growing and shaping a mini tree, which could be any sort of tree.

Does this not look like the bloodfiend weaponry?