15 Mysterious Secrets in Elden Ring and Dark Souls!

►Listen to my narration of Abyssal Archive: bit.ly/abyssal_audiobook
►Check out the physical version of Abyssal Archive: bit.ly/abyssal_archive
SOURCES BELOW ▼▼▼
-Credit to @:sennoutantei and @GreatMightyp0 for their estus flask projectile discovery - / 1680729426147811328
-Credit to @chainfailure for their item drop visuals discovery - / 1680339852443754499
-Check out @Sideprojects short on the Urumi • Urumi The Whip that ...
-Credit to @SekiroDubi for their "Estelle" observation: / 1662592590343012353
-Check out @luajuk's twitter thread on Elden Ring name etymology / 1672454669413613569
-Credit to /u/this_nametaken for their Melina observation: / is_this_melinas_grave_...
-Credit to @SekiroDubi for the observations regarding the Sorcery! book / 1676092134523379715
-Credit to / lokey_ds for their Japanese text observations
►Become a patron for early access, exclusive merch, and more / vaatividya
TIMESTAMPS ▼▼▼
00:00 Estus Flasks are in Elden Ring
00:39 I narrated a Dark Souls audiobook
02:24 There's an unused item aura...
04:29 The Urumi is a real weapon
05:34 Who is the genius craftsman?
07:50 Cut "Estelle" NPC
08:41 Elden Ring Etymology
09:56 The Cathedral of "Manus Celes"
10:40 Raya Lucaria's hidden tombs
11:44 Could this be Melina's grave?
13:09 Jellyfish have eyes
13:46 Horn weapons can make an odd sound
14:12 Gideon is inspired by Sorcery!
15:25 The Frenzied are inspired by Sorcery!
16:09 Gaiseki
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►Mispap1, for Lore / Prepare to Cry editing and footage - @mispap1
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[@Vrdent]

"Arteria Leaves" for all rare items had me cackling

[@billfox847]

Aeonian butterflies too

[@MrMatejulc]

Its a practical joke, you will die countless times trying to get the rare item, only to find its "Arteria Leaves".

[@morganfreeman5260]

but it’s the best game ever created right

[@izzeypally]

​@@morganfreeman5260...? Huh?

[@dogf421]

​@@morganfreeman5260 the comedy is a part of its greatness. elden ring is a comedy game where the joke is you

[@Benji_the_Ghoul668]

This guys voice is so calm that I can't imagine him raging at a boss. He would probably just give a lore reason for why his death was inevitable

[@lawlaw821]

Lmao😂

[@raghav1026]

I literally had no idea that illusory wall existed. Over a year later and i’m still finding new things, goes to show how absolutely massive this game is.

[@michaelmartin1532]

ikr never even knew that was there

[@idontapproveofyourlifestyle]

I have seen those tombs and items from elsewhere in the academy and honestly I gave up a year ago

[@Guzioo]

The game is just that big because of the long roads being pretty much empty with things only here and there. Illusionary walls are just hard to find and give the "illusion" that there is so much content and to uncover. No offense, just the truth since people are overreacting a bit to hard with the praise.

[@thatboymeak]

So I don’t know if this was added later or if it was in the base game, or even if my game bugged out and I got lucky - but all the illusory walls in a cave I had beat and re entered because I forgot about them, disappeared, even though I never touched them. So if that’s intended, just revisit the ones you’ve beaten and there’ll be new paths to take.

[@thatboymeak]

@@Guziooyou’re not wrong. I’m replaying it for the DLC but I’m using my speed run strats and I literally spend more time on Torrent than I do doing anything else. It’s also big because you have no idea what to do the first time you play, leaving you wandering around and checking every inch for the “what if”

[@knuckleheadwestwind3585]

I didn’t even know about that illusory wall in raya Lucaria, just goes to show how vast this game is

[@jankiba6548]

What’s the item you can get there tho?

[@TheElement2518]

​@jankiba6548 pretty sure it's a rune arc

[@badman5852]

3 play throughs and I accidentally found it. Nothing usefull there at that point but it was great to find.

[@gedewahyu.p]

It’s a rune arc

[@sparklepawz1185]

For the jellyfish, it could be inspired by the box jellyfish which has 4 “eyes” around it. Idk if other jellyfish have it but the eye glow on the Elden ring jellyfish looks similar to the “eyes” of a box jellyfish in terms of placement.

[@Belmont1714]

Box jellyfish is the scariest jellyfish.

[@jonashopper4113]

many jellies have structures called rhopalia that are essentially primitive eyes. They're sensitive to light and allow them to find their way around. This is almost certainly what the devs were going for with the yellow-eye effect

[@firstsurname8037]

In some esoteric works, the jellyfish is an archetypal image of mans soul. the devs are very meticulous in their design. I think the idea that runes(souls) can exist in large amounts in jellyfish is not an accident.

[@richardhernandez9014]

Cnidarian nerds! ❤❤❤

[@Xaxp]

I was gonna say this as well. Box jellyfish are such interesting creatures.

[@puncherofbread]

Here's a fun detail that I never see brought up. Margit's 4 spectral weapons are all copies of real weapons ingame. His hammer is the Giant Crusher His dagger is an erdsteel dagger His greatsword is (likely) a banished knight greatsword His longswords are likely either carian knight swords or noble's slender swords

[@VaatiVidya]

Yeah that's a great one. Someone modded the Giant Crusher spectral weapon into the game as well, it's cool

[@tcm_smitty]

Also the treespear

[@avillahanya]

Aside from the Erdsteel Dagger, all of the weapons Morgott conjures are found within the hearses pulled by trolls that contain the bodies of fallen heroes. He uses the Giant Crusher, Carian Knight's Sword, Treespear and Erdsteel Dagger.

[@GameDevYal]

The question is whether this was for lore reasons, or just because they wanted to save some time reusing assets. (Also I'm sad there's no incantations that lets you do the same weapon-summoning shenanigans, the hammer and dagger would both be really fun to use)

[@avillahanya]

@@GameDevYal I'm assuming it was done for lore reasons, otherwise they could have just used the regular Longsword model etc

[@professormallard4348]

For golden eye effect, it shows up on the crawling hands in the center of their open wrist wound where the critical hit area is. My favorite though is the slugs that have them show up on the end of their eyestalks, as they should of course, but it's nice to see the attention to detail.

[@cwynwyn2934]

Real life box jellyfish also have four 'eyespots' arranged around them like the jellyfish in Elden Ring' eyespots show. Just because they aren't normal eyes don't mean they aren't eyes!

[@joshcarter11]

"huh those books look cool" *Checks the price" "Well nevermind"

[@ulysses5340]

Same :/

[@HeisenbergFam]

The fact Vaati still finds secrets in Dark Souls and Elden Ring when he did so many documentaries is admirable

[@VaatiVidya]

Very thankful to those who help discover things in every corner of these games - definitely check out the links in the description as you'll find a lot more great things on their pages

[@biodudezerothree9236]

​@@VaatiVidya you're a class act, man.

[@ShawnD613]

I love his vids, but I was kinda disappointed to see this list is all about cut content and what words in the game mean in Latin. Idk what kind of cool secrets and mysteries I was expecting, but I was definitely expecting something more lol

[@morganfreeman5260]

he doesn’t find any of them people send it in 😂

[@FictionVideos]

@@VaatiVidya It's always great to see how adamant you are about crediting the people who work with you and make these discoveries.

[@VaatiVidya]

One thing to note about the tombs at 11:20 is that the "twinsage" was technically two people, so it might not make sense that they receive one tomb dedicated to them. Still, interesting that there are 7 tombs..but of all the things in this video, I think this one might be overthinking it a little 😅

[@Spongeboobie]

Do you plan on making any “Lies of P” lore videos? Or no

[@aidenmclaughlin1076]

We’re here for the overthinking!

[@ultradude5410]

2 tombs for the twin sages plus an empty spot a tomb could go for a clean 8 for when Sellen dies?

[@joshua-rc8wr]

im saying this now that aura is part of the elemrs weapon its ither the sword or greatsword its red glow gives it away

[@peacewalker4058]

You can find the same tombs before Malenia's boss fight. Just go left from grace and go up the ladders. It's in the same room with the bloomed rot flower.

[@Jormyyy]

The correlations and similarities from that Sorcery book to Elden Ring is such a fascinating find.

[@BenSolo4]

A possible use for the orange item rarity effect could be things like the Serpent hunter, ie things that are technically optional to pick up but are basically essential to a given area/fight

[@ziggenplays1208]

The Physic too probably

[@lr-]

I actually think he was right about it being for great runes, as in the artbook the concept art for the towers shows a golden item effect between the fingers as opposed to the floating rings we have now.

[@DrunkedOwly]

Yes, but that wouldn't make much sense, mostly because it'd be weird for things like the serpent hunter to exert a bigger aura than the legendary weapons/sorceries

[@blesscube427]

This glow has goddamn Three Fingers symbol, so something with madness.

[@RandomFlyInTheInternet]

It could also be Story Related items Like items that are needed for MAJOR quest's

[@lokeydarksouls3582]

Cool thing about the genius (天才) is that the term includes the kanji for the heavens. If it is supposed to be the demigod Miquella, makes you wonder if the word choice was intentional.

[@user-ui5ns9mx9c]

Learning japanese abkut 7 months just cant get bored

[@metalmonster9536]

Unfortunately, nah. That's just a general term used to describe geniuses. Nothing special there.

[@jparkerj20]

The first letter represents the sky, the god(s), the day, and in some context, the nature itself or fate. The second letter means "Skills" and/or "Talent". It's got nothing to do with demigod. It simply means "God-given talent" or "Blessed with skills".

[@pepega2838]

Unfortunately that’s like saying someone is handsome and therefore it has some metaphor/hidden meaning about hands

[@Big_Papito]

How tf you comment 2 days ago when this video was released an hour ago?

[@xiggles]

Miquella being Torrent's owner actually makes so much sense. With speculation about Melina being sister to the Empyrean twins, Miquella would sensibly pass Torrent down to their sister while they slumbered, perhaps knowing her plans to give him to a worthy tarnished. Does that mean when Ranni refers to Torrent's previous owner entrusting the spirit calling bell to you, is that actually Miquella, not Melina like we (or at least I) had assumed? Very interesting.

[@AssailantLF]

Also worth noting that the only enemies in the game (besides spirit caller snails) who summon spirits are Commanders Niall & O'Neil who follow Miquella & Malenia. Also multiple spirit caller snails are found at the Haligtree. It seems very possible that Miquella was learning about manipulating/summoning spirits in order to help revive (or fully kill) Godwyn and fix TWLiD, and to speculate further, his alter-personality St Trina is someone who wanders the world of dreams/spirits in order to interact with them directly.

[@Stray_GM]

Oh man. When we get the inevitable time travel DLC I hope we can talk to Miquella and he addresses Torrent.

[@SnuggsMcDuff]

​@@AssailantLFRennala, red albinaurics, and the Tibia canoe man also summon spirits

[@oisac3223]

Why are you calling miquella they

[@PolloconCorbata]

So indeed Seath introduced his Crystal Halberd into Gwynevere's Gaping Dragon, that explains also how did Priscilla got to Annor Londo to be sealed in the painting...

[@nathandesilva4781]

Your choice of words aside, yeah Priscilla is generally accepted as their child. Pretty sure the dragon hybrid girl in DS3 refers to Gwndolin as family too, which further supports Seath marrying into the family.

[@Izolus]

Hope you're prepared to kawaii

[@viktorpagels7569]

Painted with crystal dragon coom

[@franciscodetonne4797]

He used it in a DS1 Prepare to Cry or lore video a long time ago and it's freaking funny.

[@Sitri444]

I think this is reinforced by the fact that in DS3 the Queen of Lothric, a Gwynevere-like figure or maybe even Gwynevere herself, has another crossbreed child with Oceiros once he transforms into a dragon like Seath. Quite the parallel there, especially since the queen decides to fly the coop just like Gwynevere does once things start going south.

[@JobExplorations]

12:35, smoldering might stand for Messmer instead.

[@aidenmclaughlin1076]

Honestly that tiny Estus Flask is an awesome little detail. Keep up the good work Vaati! And I’ll 100% gonna be listening to that audio book!

[@envoyofrot7046]

04:48 I wanna add that this weapon is also used in Berserk and called "Urumi" in it. Given how much things are inspired by Berserk in From Soft games that may also be the case here

[@VaatiVidya]

Yes! I wouldn't be surprised if this was a Berserk reference as well. Additionally the Katar weapons always remind me of the Silat character, who also uses the Urumi

[@envoyofrot7046]

@@VaatiVidya Good point! The Katar does look a lot like the weapons Silat uses, I have not noticed that! Probably not a coincidence then 😄

[@OrderSnacks]

I literally just read this chapter for this first time last night where Guts fights the urumi guy

[@BudravenOG]

10:35 the heavenly hand/god hand is another Berserk reference.

[@gedewahyu.p]

I’ve seen the urumi in video games at least since 2007 from Age of Empires III: Asian Dynasties. There’s an Indian unit consisted of warriors wielding the urumi. Miura might’ve stumbled across it when trying to make characters with unique weapons.

[@metalmonster9536]

Never knew that illusory wall existed in Raya Lucaria. Makes sense cuz I'm always so anxious about those dolls falling from the ceiling

[@I_like_fruit_too]

13:31 The big iron ball in caelid, underneath the bridge where the dragon bossfight is. It’s a early game rune farm and its usually 1200 or 1100 runes (depending on your new game + and if you have the golden scarab equipped). But if it had those “eyes” it’ll drop like 12k runes! I was surprised the first time I got it.

[@jasonpowerz360]

As for number 11, yeah the big balls that roll around in the eternal cities and parts of caelid can have the golden eyes effect, giving more runes if killed

[@TheMuslimMan1337]

So you're saying the runes are stored in the balls?

[@DergonGerd]

​@@TheMuslimMan1337genius

[@DRida64]

for #3, my bet is it was a placeholder for the seeds/flasks, before they settled on having glowing trees and churches of marika to point them out. in testing, they probably needed these important drops to be recognizable from a distance, even before they had terrain fleshed out to signify them.

[@lr-]

Wow, it's so cool that frenzyflame actually is inspired by the red eyes! I assumed it was a coincidence because I thought there was no way the team knew what sorcery was, but hearing that it's intentional is amazing.

[@mexbox12321]

Had Rya, in her snake form, have the golden eyes once! Assume it’s because they just use the same model as the snake enemies but was very fun seeing her like that lol

[@hannesminnich7271]

Maybe the unusual Red Item Aura may have also been intended for unique Special items like the Amber Starlight

[@akiramidousuji3550]

would make perfect sense for it to have been for the amber starlight specifically tbh.... you're onto something here

[@Sprech41]

13:30 wow this is a great attention to detail! The placement of the eyes is in reference to box jellyfish, which have four eyes just like that.

[@VaatiVidya]

Very cool

[@thelaughingrouge]

Always good to see a new souls video by Vaati, and definitely putting those books on my Christmas list.

[@oniadapt]

I think one thing you really notice after following these games so long and looking at the fine details is how the souls games are really a love letter in a way to all the things Miyazaki (and the great branch of the people who work on these games at FromSoft) love and want to share their love for. It's really cool that it's a homage in a way of all the experiences and knowledge the people who work on the game have for their craft.

[@djspit8929]

I put in 1500 hours thinking id found everything then vaati just comes along "yeah theres an illusory wall as soon as you get into raya lucaria"

[@enfrax]

can't wait for the audiobook

[@user12043]

11 days ago? 🤔

[@mehmetefecrpan9983]

​@@user12043Im confused too

[@mattwoo556]

bot behavoir

[@enfrax]

@@mehmetefecrpan9983 early access through patreon subscription

[@VaatiVidya]

@@user12043 This video was available for patrons for a while while I finished narrating the Audiobook

[@paradigm_sh1ft]

Great video, as always! Can't wait for your breakdown of Shadow of the Erdtree! I have a feeling it's going to be a treasure trove of lore to comb through.

[@thegothaunt]

Another fabulous one. I had no idea about the illusory wall and am excited to go see it. Immediately purchased your narration -- thank you!! I wish I could get the whole set too (I think that's a very fairy price, just one I can't personally spend right now) but I am excited to spend so many drives in the car listening to the lore!

[@TheDustyForest]

great video as always, also wanted to say thanks for making the AA audiobook available separately, I love Soul Arts but AA is just too expensive for me. glad i still get to experience it as an audiobook :)

[@legacy8981]

always a blast to watch your vids man, I did play Elden Ring, but I never played Dark Souls. But even so, these videos are always so entertaining to watch.

[@samturner5447]

Keep doing audiobooks, loved it

[@michaelduffy3423]

It was cool to see some Dark Souls content show up again, however briefly. I recently replayed it, and had to go back and check out your old videos on DS1. Thanks for the great stuff, as usual!

[@mattmoseley6429]

As for eyeless enemies, Ive seen the glowing eye effect on the Miranda flowers a few times and it shows up as a glow on ends of the flowers' stamen. Also I've seen it for both for the big ones and the minon tiny ones.

[@enriquellado2821]

Regarding the golden eye effect, it can actually appear on the ulcerated tree spirits, and it's quite interesting cause they get an uneven amount of eyes on each side of the head, and even some on their body. This may relate to the origin of the enemy being a cut dark souls 3 boss, which seemed to just be a bigger pus of man, and those guys had many eyes

[@MRIBEIROPONTES]

About the names some people forgot Ranni. With just one "N" as Rani it means in Sanskrit (oldest language of índia) Queen, probably talking about her ending and destiny. Besides the fact, India mythology have his deities with blue skin and four arms.

[@CY3ER]

Wow... always blows my mind whenever you post a vid about souls lore. You've enriched all of these beautiful games that never would've happened on my own accord. Thanks for all the awesome videos

[@OzzyInSpace]

I can't believe I never knew about that invisible wall at Raya Lucaria... after over 900hrs... still learning new things about this game.

[@BingBangBoon]

12:00 casually does 99999 damage

[@mispap1]

😂

[@kanyewest6120]

Love your vids vaati, your quality always improves

[@wecros3249]

Oh wow! Looking forward to hearing your book narration now, sounds great.

[@seelcudoom1]

considering the red tint of the special item it may have been collecting fragments of the rune of death from some earlier version of garangs quest before it switched to deathroot

[@rikkis4104]

I just about cried finding out about this collection. It is a dream come true. As a librarian, I've always wanted my favorite game in book form. There is a reason I have 3 dark souls tats. That game got me through such a difficult time in my life. It helped me keep fighting a long time battle with Anorexia even. I know that sounds strange, but it's a long story. I am so so excited and thank you to everyone involved in it!

[@Leonhard1508]

Your videos are amazing. Can t wait for Elden Ring DLC to come out, play it, understand like 30% of what s happening and do a marathon on your amazing analysis videos. Thanks!

[@ignacionastasi5214]

Im so glad that you make Souls related content

[@mokajones74]

I can only imagine how incredibly gratifying it must be for your fanbase to create a novel series around the lore you've been intentionally obscuring in your own games for decades. Miyazaki must be so proud of the Abyssal Archives project

[@DanielGarcia-rx3kt]

I don't know how many people watched Ziostorm's video about the Minor Erdtree Church next to what is potentially Melina's grave, but the implications would be fascinating. The reason I say that is because that Church was likely a sort of lab experiment for Golden Order Fundalmentalism by Miquella so having Melina's grave by there would be interesting. No one seems to know about the existence of Melina save for Torrent, who potentially has connections to both Ranni and Miquella as well.

[@marcoantonio_lx]

Sorcery! is actually a 4 book mini series, part of the Fighting Fantasy collection. And its freaking awesome.

[@levismith8423]

Wow, I found those tombs on my first playthrough when they game came out, but I wrote it off as another random illusory wall room.

[@williambarrett1234]

11:47 vaati would you like to take a moment to talk to us about this damage

[@katanadragon]

Fun fact. If you bring radagon's sword and marika's hammer into rennala's chamber at the same time, drop them and reload the area. She'll steal them from you and kick you out. Now, am I lying? 99.9% chance yes. But you won't know till you lose those items.

[@as0d251]

Nice video as always, it's good to see more of Dark Souls content even after all these years. For Abyssal Archives tho, only people outside of Europe can get it for now, which is pretty frustrating, but I'll wait, no matter how long it takes.

[@LQLAssassin]

The amount of detail put into this series is always so awe inspiring

[@grishman5000]

Perhaps the Vulgar Militia are just misunderstood, trying to help we lowly tarnished on our mission to become Elden Lord by throwing Estus at us. 😢

[@michaelbarker6732]

No one has ever talked about this as far as I know but I am pretty sure Seath is roughly based on this character from Slavic mythology called Koschei the Deathless. He was an evil old sorcerer who abducted women (often royal women) and he could not be killed because he would always hide his soul inside some object. It could be a stretch but there are 4 big similarities here: his name is very similar, he abducts women, you can’t kill him until you destroy a specific object, and he has magic powers.

[@pyritepanx]

The book looks incredible. Do you know how long it will be available for?

[@Morrov]

20 hours of beautifully narrated and super in depth Dark Souls lore is precisely what I've been looking for! I get to listen to music/podcasts at work, and long soulsborne lore videos are perfect to keep my mind occupied in what would otherwise be a pretty monotonous job. I'm a few hours in now and I absolutely love it, congrats to Lokey and you!

[@thefounder4885]

I wanted to ask how it works if you buy the audio version do you get access to the audio download or?

[@Morrov]

@@thefounder4885 yeah I just got the download link both directly from the website and on my email. It's 2 files, around 500mb

[@thefounder4885]

@@Morrov Okay thanks

[@skellymen2395]

I thought this was an Armored Core channel I've been had

[@SevenMinuteNutter]

Don't know if it might've been mentioned, but in regards to the Red Eyes (of Sorcery) per Elden Ring tied to Frenzy Eyes, this actually showed up in Dark Souls 3 (and 2 to a lesser degree.) Its often overlooked, but if you recall more powerful versions of enemies within Dark Souls 3 (in particular the blue-clothed knight outside Dancer Boss comes to mind) sported Red Eyes as a sign of their stronger power. An earlier iteration of a reference to Sorcery from Miyazaki perhaps that went unnoticed.

[@maxt5319]

The Abyssal Archives set looks really excellent. On the topic of the map though, there's something very similar for the Folio Society's edition of A Game of Thrones, with a companion booklet that expands out into the map of Westeros. It looks great, so I imagine it is probably inspired by that. (They've probably created similar things for other editions of other books, but it was the first example I could think of.)

[@simak2391]

Gotta love seeing a new vid from Vaati. I recently started a new playthrough, this time going for a (battle)mage build. First run was with melee only, so it feels like a whole new game now 😅

[@saltefan5925]

Going on further, I personally believe that Miquella is the architect behind the journey the Tarnished takes. I am positive that he is the one who created the the finger whistle and tasked Ranni to bring it to a fitting tarnished as chosen by Torrent. Given his ability to compel affection, there's a real chance that he would have convinced both Ranni and Melina to help this Tarnished.

[@BrassPetals3Voices]

It would not surprise me to find out in the DLC that Torrent is Miquella’s Shadow and that all we did in the lands between was witnessed by Miquella though Torrent’s eyes. He will likely greet us as though he knows us and in time will reveal that he was with us always. Regardless I’m excited for whatever comes!

[@SkimpyJigglesJr.-ff2ib]

Even if Miquella and Melania had shadows, they wouldn't have kept them. Shadows are tools of the Fingers, you'd have to think Miquella is too stupid to be aware of that for this theory of yours to be true. Ranni being sentimental is the only reason Blaidd survives as long as he does. That aside, both shadows we see are wolf-men, a full on goat-horse would be a departure from the norm.

[@apexkonchu2234]

Miquella and Malenia's shadows would have attacked them when they chose to betray the Golden Order. They're probably long dead.

[@isaacprime7144]

The coolest Golden eye encounter was the invisible Red wolf of Radagon on the Moonlight alter… Had no idea how rare that was insane going back to fight it and just seeing a glowing pair of eyes!

[@gamerchords4526]

It’s such a pleasure to see you do another Dark Souls video after so long 🤩👏🏼

[@fujitafunk]

Since you brought up the etymology of Miquella's name; it should be noted that Malenia's name starts with the prefix 'mal.' Which in French, usually denotes something bad, ill, evil or diseased. One creates while the other destroys (through rot).

[@ilikevideogames4331]

It's also in Portuguese and Spanish, so it's probably taken from latin. Edit: A very quick google search told me that "mal" originates from the latin word "male".

[@sebastianestrada3697]

@@ilikevideogames4331Fitting considering Malenia takes after Radagon more than after Marika.

[@topcat59]

It’s likely the unused item aura was originally used for a quest item like the knife that Ranni need for her quest line but it’s possible that most likely use this unused item aura in DLC when it comes out.🤔🐱

[@JayTraversJT]

Man the Dark Souls lore really does hit different for some reason. Like an immediate wave of comfort.

[@johnathan5809]

So surprised Vaati didn’t connect the Urumi in Elden ring to the weapon that Silat from Berserk uses. It is pretty much the exact same thing and as we all know, FS makes no shortage of connections to Berserk. I didn’t personally find this weapon in game but as soon as he brought it up in this video, that’s the first thing that I thought of!

[@sebastianmorin9780]

I keep trying to tell people, Miquella is the real mastermind behind everything, from the Night of Black Knives to the Tarnished receiving Torrent and being his former master (either created by him or gifted by Godwyn). After noticing all the Lilies you can find near Torrent’s jump pads and those who live in death; The way you can find hidden Miquella’s lilies near Ranni’s rise, the hidden tower in the forest surrounded by Wormfaces containing an illusory spell, his connection with Sellia, it just fits that Miquella is a genius and a formidable force in the world, even in his husk state now (if we’re to assume we’re correct in assuming he will be the focus of the DLC).

[@DanielGarcia-rx3kt]

I actually think Miquella had a hand in helping Ranni with her ritual. Ranni's body was set ablaze with her Soul (that I postulate became Melina) at the top of a Divine Tower facing the Erdtree from above and Godwyn was slain in soul only and dropped into a watery, earthly death down below. As above, so below. Likely a powerful ritual meant to destroy a powerful being. Like the Erdtree. I postulate this was a first burning of the Erdtree that was planned by Ranni and Miquella. Afterwards when that didn't work, I think that Miquella decided to try and induce an eclipse as a form of looking for Malenia's cure. Wanting to drain the Sun of its color is obviously symbolically important. In many cultures the Sun was important but I'll use alchemy as a potentially explanation. The Sun represents the Soul in alchemy and the Moon the Spirit. Then there's the whole color thing. Do you know what it is that has the color of the Sun and then didn't? The Ancient Dragon Somber Smithing Stones. The regular Stone is made of Gold, which the Sun is associated, so since the Sun also produces Light which produces colors, making it Somber *drains it of color*. Quick sidenote: I think the Sun could potentially be the Greater Will like the Moon in Bloodborne is for the Moon Presence with all the associations to Gold, Light, and Color that I just mentioned. Miquella was probably trying to use Godwyn in a way to make the Sun a Somber Sun. I've seen many people relate Miquella to Berserk's Griffith and this potential, hidden betrayal could be an allusion to that. Anyways, all that to say, I agree with you about Miquella lol

[@badflamer]

thank you. so much. i swear the unga bungas who play this game have the perceptiveness and analysis skills of 5th graders. so happy to see someone else calling out that creepy little finn-gendered child for his monstrosity. As a little addition pay attention to the placement of both his and Trina's lilles. they basically seem to paint a map of where he/she has been and what fucked up shit they've gotten up to. Miquella runs the perfumers, and all their experiments on the mirandas. Through ranni he has command of the black knives (plus likely also has command of them by virtue of being Marika's child), meaning he is almost asuredly the one who has spread the deathroot through the catacombs in the lands between and installed guardians to watch over them (such as the one unique injured Black Knife who ostencibly has been fighting off Hunters of Death in the deat touched catacombs), whom will be rulled by hies enchanted >dream ing< dead brother. Through mog he has control of the blood cult and thus was able to use their blood to >>neutralize the rot

[@sebastianmorin9780]

@@badflamer I had a similar theory that I left on SmoughTown’s Godwyn video if you wish to read it and I had some back and forth with this one person who also made some valid comments, it’s old and I haven’t really been able to revise it since, but you and I raised similar questions and points. Now that I think about it I never got back to that person with any counter points to his theories..

[@Escalusfr]

Huh? Isn't it established that the Night of the Black Knives was Ranni's doing? Or is my memory failing me

[@sebastianmorin9780]

@@Escalusfr It’s believed that she orchestrated the Night of Black Knives, but I don’t believe she did it all alone. Nor do I believe it was her idea. Someone wanted Godwyn dead, and it wasn’t just Ranni. I always postulated that it was Miquella’s plan to have Godwyn killed, in order to both free his beloved brother from the outer gods influences as well as make him his prince of death (or shadow lord now that we have more info on DLC). Ranni just wanted to piggyback on that plan in order to free herself from her physical form (not unlike Miquella now that we know what’s happening in the DLC, so maybe where she got the idea to free herself from the Golden Orders/Greater Will’s influence in the first place). Edit: I left a long ass conversation about my theory on Smoughtown’s Godwyn Prince of Death video, but I started piecing this theory together after realizing how many of Torrent’s jump pads could be found near items or locations associated with Miquella/Trina, and considering the number of Those who live in Death surrounding these areas. Not to mention Castle Sol and the Golden Epitaph which the entrance to the Hero’s Grave is guarded by a Black Knife Assassin and the sword itself by Basilisks.

[@Chickenchokersupreme]

I think you’re correct that Miquella created the pulley bow/crossbow, particularly because it would perfectly explain Radagon’s sudden change of heart and marriage to Rennala, and his sudden act of leaving her for Marika. For reference, this plot point seems to be inspired by the Roman myth of Apollo, Cupid, and Daphne. ------- “Daphne, a beautiful mountain nymph, had the bad luck of attracting the affection of Apollo, the god of reason, music, and poetry. Apollo was returning from slaying a monster named Python when he saw Cupid. Apollo bragged to Cupid that his bow was bigger than Cupid’s. Angered by the insult, Cupid shot him with a golden love arrow causing Apollo to fall in love with the first person he saw. Cupid then shot Daphne with a lead-tipped arrow causing her to be impervious to love. At that moment, Apollo caught sight of Daphne, who was out hunting, and fell in love. But Daphne was not interested. He began to chase her. Daphne, a superb athlete tried to run away, but she was no match for Apollo. He was close behind when she reached her father, the river god Peneus. Hearing her cries for help, Peneus quickly transformed Daphne into a laurel tree. Seeing the havoc he caused, little Cupid hides behind Daphne’s white robes. Apollo reached the tree and, still enamored with Daphne, he mourned, as Ovid wrote in the Metamorphoses: Fairest of maidens, you are lost to me. But at least you shall be my tree. With your leaves my victors shall wreathe their brows. You shall have your part in all my triumphs. Apollo and his laurel shall be joined together wherever songs are sung and stories told.” -------- Bear with me, as this can be a little hard to follow. In Elden Ring terms: Apollo partially inspired Radagon. Cupid heavily inspired Miquella (and St Trina). Daphne partially inspired Rennala, and later Marika. It would be more accurate to say that Daphne’s transformation is what was taken as inspiration, not so much her character. The story begins with Radagon and Miquella, father and son. Radagon brags to Miquella that his bow is better. Miquella, mischievous as he is, would shoot his father with his own bow out of spite, or childish pettiness. This must have been our Pulley Bow. He shot Radagon with a golden Cupid’s arrow - an Unalloyed Gold Needle. (The same thing he put in Malenia, taking after the myth of Cupid and Psyche, making her ‘fall in love with a horrible monster’ i.e. she was determined beyond reason to fight Radahn.) So, with the Unalloyed gold needle in his flesh, Radagon laid eyes on Rennala, and fell suddenly and entirely in love with her. And then, to facilitate the next part of the story (the plot points which represent the alchemical process of creating the philosopher’s stone), St Trina would shoot Rennala with Cupid’s lead-tipped arrow, making her impervious to love. (But wait, why are St Trina’s arrows that dull grey color? The color of Lead - opposite of Gold. In Cupid’s mythology, his lead-tipped arrows would make those pierced by them ‘impervious to love’. In contrast to the golden arrows making you fall in love with the first person you see, lead-tipped arrows could be said to make your eyes close, so they can’t see anyone around you. You fall asleep.) This part of the myth obviously needs to be taken more as symbolism than direct 1-to-1 fact. But it would seem that the act of Daphne turning into a laurel tree correlates to Radagon leaving Rennala for Marika. In the myth, Apollo does not know that the Laurel tree he finds is the same woman he loved, Daphne. He is simply heartbroken, as she is now impervious to love, and goes on a walk. In this time period, during the walk, Daphne is turned into a Laurel tree. On the walk, Apollo stumbles upon the beautiful Laurel tree, which he immediately loves and devotes himself to. If needed, google a photo of a laurel branch. This is Marika in her typical pose. Radagon sees Marika, and devotes himself to her immediately. But, this is not the only symbolism of the laurel branch that Radagon devotes himself to. The laws of Causality and Regression. Put simply: the shape of the laurel branch in this context is the shape of a branching decision tree. From the center stem of the laurel branch, you can make decisions and trace your finger along the branches and leaves to a wide array of branching paths. You can put Causality into motion. However, you can then trace your finger back along the leaves and branches all the way to your starting point, the center stem. You can Regress. Thank you for coming to my TED talk :)

[@derriezemmer8933]

I have been listening to your voice to go to sleep for years (in a good way) so this audiobook is the best purchase of the year

[@one_eyeddd473]

Very gracious how you always plug sources , artists, authors and other channels

[@nu3432]

AC6 content ?

[@toluj3308]

It's Armover 😞

[@randomname8587]

Did you know? Ayre will fight you in an AC called SOL. Sol-Ayre?! Coinkidink? I think not

[@durr0909]

MESMER? 12:20

[@aplix747]

I think the reddish orange glow could've been used for the amber starlight, which is a sliver of the fate that commanded the gods.

[@greenonedragon7356]

Thank you for all the great and wonderful content and I wish joy & happiness for you and your friends.

[@lostrebel]

The gold eye effect on the jellyfish is awesome. nearly anatomically accurate eyespots on the jellies makes me very happy.

[@franciscobueno2853]

I associated the pulley crossbow with Miquella because of the description and also because if you go around the same shack, you found a Miquella's Lilly, pointing to a relation between the two items.

[@-moyo-]

the golden eye glow can appear in warrior jars, but the effect actually shows up on the inside of the jar

[@ASapphicKitsune]

Would be awesome to see you do an episode of cut content sometime in the future. Some awesome discoveries like the depths originally being under the sunlight altar and lost izalith being a swamp (likely THE great swamp mentioned in pyromancer lore) have happened recently.

[@SansMain]

I think that that red glowing item pickup could have been used for Remembrances after you beat a boss, kinda like how in Zelda games you have to separately pick up the heart containers after you beat a boss, not to mention that remembrances are “hewn into the Erdtree.”

[@tomschlaiss5735]

Great video as always and that books look fantastic. Cheers from Germany

[@Seefido]

For the jellyfish one, I did see the glowing eyes can also appear on the massive fingercreepers in the mountains, likely the smaller and medium ones too. It shows up on the wrist stump and wasn’t really visible until it was moving and the trail was showing behind it

[@AmaiarAiramand]

The unused orange item effect I thought could have been used for Remembrances. Maybe it was intended that when you duplicate them, instead of going straight to your inventory, they'd be sitting in the weird altar on the center, or something like that. Since you drew a correlation between the crystal effects and the orange hue of Runes, and you can technically use Remembrances for rune gain (as in previous Soul games' Bosses' Souls), it gave me that idea

[@aroudingo]

I just got my copy of abyssal archives in the mail yesterday and its amazing guys. the build quality is amazing

[@mavcotm8006]

i was feeling pretty bad today...just like yesterday. But this video made me a lot calmer...thank you for the wonderful video

[@NickCombs]

Red-tinged gold symbolizes the crucible, the primordial form of the Erdtree. Fitting that this fifth item glitter-gleam was held in high esteem and is now cast aside.

[@FilmAcolyteReturns]

I’ve had the gold eye effect appear on that ball that appears in Caelid. The one near Lenne’s rise. There was no glow effect but I definitely got 5 times the runes from it.

[@YowaiEnjoyer]

I travel at least an hour and 30 minutes or so everyday to school and i always listen to your vids while traveling you just have a way with story telling that is very unique and enjoyable you always make my college day before school very enjoyable

[@Orzacle]

There’s a flaw in the pulley now/crossbow idea. Both would’ve had to be before Miquella’s time because of the Full Moon Crossbow. It was made in celebration of Radagon/Rennala’s Marriage… which was obviously before Miquella was born. Goldmask makes more sense because of this.

[@thazhok8059]

Thanks for this, i needed (and missed) a dose of the abyss from Souls universe after all that elden ring content :)

[@samuelwilliams2266]

On the topic of the golden eyes effect, I'm pretty sure the giant ball that you can farm in Caelid can have this effect too because I have in the past randomly gotten way more runes than you normally get from it.

[@golemgolden4670]

The aura reminds me of the comet shard for selivus's questline. Would make sense importance and special-ness wise.

[@NolteGameOver]

I want to point out 12:27 on that tomb at certain hour (dont remember) there is a sunlight that comes from the church and marks the path to the tomb, that's how I realized that the tomb existed, really nice effect

[@matthewatwood97]

I’m always happy to see one of you videos, but dying to see your armored core 6 lore video (that’s hopefully coming in the near future)

[@soulinker3895]

I first saw the Urumi in Berserk, especially the Golden Age Arc movies. It's an amazing concept!