Elden Ring: All Endings Explained

OHHHH It is here! My explanation of ALL of the endings of Elden Ring. Spoilers, duh.
In this video, I explain the 6 different endings of Elden Ring (3 main endings, and 3 extra variants on the first). Lore, npc questlines, and item descriptions abound in this investigation of the conclusion of FromSoftware's most recent masterpiece(???). I hope you enjoy the video, and it sparks an interest of ER's lore. There is plenty more to talk about, so leave a comment with your idea or your disagreement with my interpretation. And tick around cause this might be a video about endings, but it's only the beginning of my journey into Elden Ring.
Discord: / discord
Tweet: / mad_luigi
Stream: / madluigi
Music:
Elden Ring OST - Character Creation, The Final Battle, Great Underground Rivers, Subterranean Shunning Grounds, Liurnia of the Lakes, Prison Town
Envato Elements - Calming Fashion Presentation
#eldenring #ending #explained
TIMESTAMPS:
Intro, Radagon, and the Elden Beast: 0:00
Elden Lord - Age of Fracture: 2:11
Elden Lord - Age of Order: 4:03
Elden Lord - Age of the Duskborn: 6:58
Elden Lord - Blessing of Despair: 8:48
The Age of Stars: 12:17
Lord of Frenzied Flame: 18:26
Fin: 22:53

[@sneekie3]

You forgot the ending where the tarnished gives up, decides to become a devoted recusant and spends the rest of eternity invading other tarnished to stop them from burning the erdtree.

[@bloodyhelice4284]

Siphioning the rune arcs out of other timelines in order to materialize a new Elden ring of the exact same nature in a world where one already exists is a pretty bad ass ending tbh.

[@silentreaper5805]

@@bloodyhelice4284 they need to make this a legit ending

[@richardk.9617]

Yeah, that would be called the Age of Maidenlessness.

[@aben1466]

An Age Of War

[@nugget-zf5by]

@@aben1466 caused by... A GOD OF WAR. KRATOS

[@silverdragon9504]

I like the age of stars ending because I will no longer be maidenless lmao

[@Richard-pd1vc]

The ending of the simp

[@hest9750]

Don't you technically become Marika's consort in other endings too as her Elden Lord?

[@justincarlozmaxino1100]

@@hest9750 Yes

[@silverdragon9504]

I mean marika could pull an uno reverse card in the bed. Or so they say the hunter becomes the hunted.

[@hest9750]

@@silverdragon9504 In all honesty it depends on what kinda woman you vibe with. Marika, a dominant chick with experience of two prior Elden Lords and gigachads of their own who you'd call mommy, also the literal mommy of Ranni. Or Ranni, the daughter who might be pretty intelligent but probably romantically dumb who'd call you Daddy (or mommy). This game is indeed pretty deep. I prefer to melt everyone into me and make everything one burning fireball though.

[@pauciloquentflibbertigibbe5217]

I love how Goldenmask took a look at his religion and was like 'you know what? I think the gods are actually the problems in this equation.'

[@Devout214]

Everything could’ve been solved if everyone just had gotten along, especially if Radahn and Malenia didn’t fight eachother, but hey, at least I got some sweet loot out of it. Jesus died for you, have a wonderful day!

[@Soul5085]

​@@Devout214you're fucking weird to reply to an 8 month old comment in a video about God being killed and replaced its an odd place to bring up your religion

[@justinh9674]

@@Devout214Literally everything bad has one epicenter being an egoistic witch

[@Devout214]

@@justinh9674 except for the tarnished, that went pretty good

[@respectableindividual4593]

​@@Devout214god dont exist bud

[@davedavidson8892]

In defence of the Lord of the Frenzied Flame ending, sometimes the ending you pick isn't based on altruism but rather chosen for spiteful reasons. I got to raze the world of Elden Ring and purge all those who called me maidenless. This ending is more cathartic.

[@nonsansdroit3800]

Frenzied Flame could become the canon ending seeing as the previous person to try it is on the cover of the game.

[@brokeeboii7879]

Honestly I'm pursuing the frenzied flame ending as retribution for the Great Caravan and what the Golden Order did to them

[@nonsansdroit3800]

@@brokeeboii7879 Frenzied Flame ending is very interesting because of that detail. The outcry of the martyred bringing a cleansing fire unto the world. I still have no idea what to make of Melina being revealed as Death in only that ending though. In what end are we serving Death in the other endings that she only betrays us in this case?

[@pancakes8670]

@@nonsansdroit3800 I thought it was us who betrayed her, not the other way around. She actively warns you against using the Frenzied Flame and begs you to spare the Lands Between

[@nonsansdroit3800]

@@pancakes8670 She's the one who approaches us and swears herself to us. And the warnings she gives don't make sense with what is revealed, since she is either Death or someone who ministers Death. Why would she care if we incinerate everyone?

[@Kiyosuki]

I'm rather surprised there's no ending that involves the Dragons. You yourself change when using Dragon Hearts as shown by your eye color, its such a distinct tree of abilities and spells, and dragons are still everywhere waiting for their destined one. It seems to make perfect sense that there would have been an ending where maybe you the player become the destined Dragon they're all waiting for so I really wouldn't be surprised if it was planned at one time.

[@cyberwolfy37]

lol imagine you become lord of dragon, turning into a dragon yourself. the light of the erd tree is gone, the land is covered in mist. nothing but gray crags, archtrees, and everlasting dragons.

[@Lysergiik]

woah really? I wore a blindfold the whole game and then got the frenzied flame lmao. What happens to your eyes? Also this video is incredible thank you so much for gathering all the info pertaining to the endings, elden beast, marika, radagon, and dung eater and omens from the descriptions! I've been trying to write some stuff down in preparation for a script myself and this video helped a ton.

[@leeeschaton4192]

@@Lysergiik they turn red once you get some dragon incantations. i actually did and my guys eyes were made to be yellow, but after a bit i noticed they were bright red with the whites of his eyes turned black. confused the hell out of me til i looked it up. i didn't like the red so i just went into the character creator again and there is an option in the "eyes" to turn off any eye changes at the bottom. i wish there was an ending pertaining to the dragons, would be cool.

[@Lysergiik]

@@leeeschaton4192 new npc questlines fixed in the latest patch! no idea if it has anything to do with this but that's exciting!

[@tylerbrubaker2331]

"Dragon worship has captured the hearts and minds of warriors across the lands for many ages. Perhaps such warriors are attracted to doctrines of few words."

[@sciguy8859]

Just beat the game doing all of Ranni's questline, and then forgetting to summon her at the end 💀

[@user-bw9wz1jd9l]

This might be one of the coldest gaming moments of all time

[@baileybenner7566]

wait you can summon her 😭

[@user-og5xx5jj1z]

my brother did this twice ☠

[@mcgfn]

@@baileybenner7566he is referring to how you must use Ranni's summon sign after beating the Elden Beast or else the Age of Stars ending will not initiate

[@ihavenoidea4727]

For the age of order ending, including the Corhyn part is invalid in my opinion. Corhyn is calling Goldmask a madman because he can't believe (it's preposterous to him) that the golden order wasn't perfect and that Goldmask would claim such a thing (the imperfection of it).

[@takingbacktoxic7898]

Corhyn also doesnt know that Goldmask has the Rune of Perfect Order. And likely sacrificed himself to make it.

[@SerUG1]

The circle around merika when we mend the rune I symbolizes our separation from outer god or greater will due to them been no better than us anymore

[@colorpg152]

@@SerUG1 actually its more likely it prevents marika from meddling with the ring

[@VultureXV]

@@colorpg152 Mending Rune of Order means that the Greater Will can act through everyday Humans rather than through Gods. In this case, every human now has the capability to draw upon a small bit of the Greater Will if they so choose. It's a throwback to how Martin Luther and the protestant movement stated that you didn't have to follow strict Catholic Fundamentalism in order to be saved as Jesus never mentioned any of the rituals established by Roman Catholicism. Goldmask is akin to Martin Luther, tearing at a strict sect of fundamentalism in order to strip power away from what was essentially a corrupt ecclesiarchy where men placed themselves in the position of God by saying they spoke for God. There's a lot of parallel between what is depicted in game as Golden Order Fundamentalism and Catholic Fundamentalism. They even had an inquisition, just look at the confessors. Rykard was a "ruthless justiciar" which essentially means he spearheaded the inquisitorial approach of the confessors. You even find the confessor set at Mt. Gelmir. No one ever said that the Greater Will was malevolent. People just assumed that it was because they know it's an outside force tampering with the world. Yet, at the same time, it's cardinal archetype "order" is neither good nor bad.

[@colorpg152]

@@VultureXV where did anyone get the idea that the greater will is a outer god? or even a god? or even from the outside? as far as i'm aware the lore points to him being in fact the true creator of the world, also outer means outside the order because they were removed not outer as in lovecraftian, people got misled into thinking Marika and Ranni are heroes(despite being villains) and bought into the nonsensical parasite tree theory that is just the plot of aquarion, sounds to me like the numens/nox which are connected to both of the girls are the real reason everything is going bonkers, they are a reference to numenorians from lord of the ring

[@WhatIsGoinOnPeople]

I think the 2 fingers and 3 fingers respectively are a reference to the “God Hand” concept from Berserk, and that the Frenzied Flame ending is the “Eclipse” where the chosen one sacrifices his followers (in this case, the lives that inhabit the Lands Between) to be reborn as an outer God. I think the art style and symbolism reinforces this as the sun is blocked out by the frenzied flame and the sky turns to crimson. Even the husk of the burnt Erdtree resembles a hand.

[@3rdtimesthecharm376]

Thank God we don't have a Casaca.... DAMN YOU, GRIFFITH!

[@zpletan]

Two Fingers plus Three Fingers equals Godhand is such a goofy idea that I now 100 percent unironically unquestionably believe. Way to put it together like that.

[@alexandergwg1]

Make sense

[@juanvaldes3208]

Imagine playing through the game but you have a casca like character that you have drag along with you, and she can’t die, obviously lol

[@WhatIsGoinOnPeople]

@@juanvaldes3208 hmmm, like Melina? 👀

[@thomaschitham3487]

Don't forget, the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince doesn't just restore death; it fixes into the natural Order the principle of life within Death; as Fia states, it normalises "Those Who Live in Death", preventing their persecution. Combined with the Rune of Destined Death being released into the Lands Between with Maliketh's death, it, in other words, doesn't just make Death a thing again in the Lands Between: it also makes *Undeath* normal.

[@emeraldpichu1]

Makes sense since otherwise the resolution to this kind of scenario would be restoring the death rune to its proper place rather than forging a new one from its fragments

[@thomaschitham3487]

@@emeraldpichu1 Yeah, I thought that what was happening too, but the ending cutscene being all dour and grey made me re-look at the descriptions and listen to the dialogue. As well as to research exactly what "Those Who Live in Death" actually is.

[@zachoshark]

wait so ppl can die again now and being immortal is normal now?

[@thomaschitham3487]

@@zachoshark Being *Undead* is normal. It seems like we were already "immortal" before, in that we couldn't die, due to the Rune of Destined Death being locked away by Marika and Maliketh. Hence why "Those Who Live in Death" are prosecuted and hunted, as they have Died but are Living in Death i.e Necromancers and Living Skeletons being Undead. Now, with the Rune of Death released with Maliketh's death, and the Cursemarks/Mending Rune of the Death-Prince added to the Golden Order - "embed the principle of life within Death into Order" -, it means that not only can we die again, but if we come back as an Undead, that's considered a "normal" part of 'reality'.

[@zachoshark]

@@thomaschitham3487 ohhh it make sense now. So its a dark souls thing. Dying is normal but undead is also normal

[@retrospect]

This was super good. I can't believe all that work and I'm still maidenless

[@dijone11mus1]

That’s why ranni ending is the proper ending. It’s only a problem because the English translation of ranni’s ending changed how it sounds it’s happening

[@bluntlyhonest6803]

@@dijone11mus1 Ranni is Evil and a tyranical Hyprocrite. Nothing proper.

[@ZeroRarity4842]

@@dijone11mus1 whats the original language of elden ring ?

[@duckyymomo5714]

@@ZeroRarity4842 Japanese

[@astashasta1]

@@dijone11mus1 So what exactly is different?

[@sm901ftw]

Considering the effort required to acquire and use it, I'm really amazed there was no changes to the default endings if you use Miquella's Needle. There's isn't even another event with Melina since she stays gone even though you're no longer following the Frenzied Flame. Since the needle is supposed to be able to "ward away the meddling of outer gods", you'd think you could give it to Marika or something to remove the influence of the Greater Will.

[@sametekiz3709]

same

[@deadshot1995]

Each of Miquella's needles seems to work for a specific Outer God. I assume he just hadn't figured out the Greater Will one before Mohgyn time.

[@Abawhani]

@@deadshot1995 What’s your source for this because I’m sure the original needle in Millicent was designed to stave off the outer god responsible for Scarlet Rot which is different from the outer god responsible for the flame of frenzy

[@deadshot1995]

@@Abawhani Unalloyed Gold Needle staves off the Rot God. You give it to Malenia’s flower and she gives you Miquella’s Needle, which looks different and works on the Flame of Frenzy.

[@xiki1506]

Sí, es una pena. Este juego salió incompleto y tiene muchas cosas malas...

[@ulyaoth3579]

I'd like to see a " new age of Dragons ending" after all you become a Dragon after eating all the hearts maybe becoming something more half human half dragon. Also I think there could be an ending uniting the 2 & 3 fingers back together.

[@E_S_K]

Bro wanna become dragonborn

[@crist8600]

Fun fact:magma wyrms(the fat dragons with a sword) are humans who practiced too much dragon magic, if you buy all 3 dragon heads incantations that spit elements and the one that screams, you will get dragon eyes meaning the process of turning into a magma wyrm already started

[@ElGato6969.]

the frenzied flame ending is literally molding everything back to how it originally was

[@Chopper153]

And then a thousand years later you finally wake up in a cart along with some prisoners.

[@thomasdevlin5825]

When I first started playing elden ring the first ending I'd heard about was the frenzied flame ending, but I'd only heard the name and didn't know what it was about. Then when I killed my first dragon and came back to Yura with the heart was all like "If you eat that you'll go mad with power and one day inevitably turn into a dragon yourself" so I assumed that was the frenzied flame ending and made sure not to touch the dragon communion. I was honestly surprised when I realized all dragon incantations did was change the color of your eyes, the way they talked it up I imagined leaning too heavily into it would make you go insane

[@izaakaz6863]

5:35 Oh Corhyn is definitely the mistaken one here. He doesn't know the full story, doesn't know Radagon and Marika are the same person, doesn't know that Godfrey lost the light of grace because he was merely being used until he was no longer needed, and doesn't know how fallible the gods really were. To the common people Gold Mask might seem crazy, but the common people don't know all the layers of truth in the world. Just like Marika intended.

[@Nico-gj8dx]

So Goldmask really got to know all the secrets of the universe?

[@AirJordanJetson]

GOATmask

[@benjaminehren7965]

This right here is why I like and went for the order ending. While yes the fan I one is freeing it also includes loneliness, even touch is without meaning in her world. The order ending instead restores the world fully to what it was before the gods effed everything up, and removes them from control.

[@uberrobi]

He got the age of dusk ending wrong. He states they reinstate death but really age of duskborn talks about making everything immortal not making death whole but stealing death... I guess the elden lord is then the only one who can completely kill with the rune of death. And some arts like the black knife rune of death slash can still kill.

[@papasweed.dispenseria5977]

@@dumbass6314 she legit tells you this of you talk to her in her chambers grace when you finish her questline

[@awoosionist5825]

I can't believe the wandering and nomadic merchant class unironically summoned ultra-Cthulhu to melt all of existence into nothingness

[@bbking006]

What did they mean by this? KEK

[@MeneltirFalmaro]

Pure cohencidence

[@dsbmaldia13]

@@bbking006 They were based.

[@22sfs22]

@@hhjhj393 Is the thing about the Dwemer simply that they CHIM'd a little too hard? For those unaware about deep TES lore, the entire world is a dream. We don't know much about the dreamer, but it is known that if you fundamentally understand the nature of the world, that you are just a figment of the imagination of someone or something magnitudes greater than you, then you can basically do what lucid dreamers can do and be functionally a god. That's how the Tribunal of Morrowind ascended and is called CHIM However, the procedure is dangerous since - if you grok too well the nature of your existance - you understand that you aren't real and thus, your godlike powers make this realisation a fact and erase you from Nirn. And from my limited understanding, **THAT** is what happened to the dwemers. I am open to corrections if I got anything wrong

[@Alex-cq1zr]

I mean, they were persecuted and sentenced to death for nothing. They were filled with despair and i guess they wished for the world without any injustice, a world of frenzied flame. Or maybe they just so happened to be sealed near three fingers

[@Marshmellow3971]

I wish there were endings for each of the Demi-gods, so we could see what they all wanted to do after they took power. I’d be curious to see a Mohg ending, or Radahn if you could cure his rot for example. They all had such unique personalities, I’m sure the endings would have been very interesting.

[@fifibqg2662]

yea joining one would be quite cool

[@thecatinthehatwithabat9903]

I would love to see what the Mohgwyn dynasty would bring to the lands between

[@alexgd1056]

TOGETHAAAAAA WE WILL DEVOUR

[@Ambreil]

​@@alexgd1056 THE VERY GOOOOODS

[@dr.jackbright3835]

The Godrick ending, where he finally becomes Golden. 🥹

[@justaneverydaycatiguess744]

You forgot the ending where the tarnished die to tree sentinel reportedly and rage quit

[@AshleyWilliamsN7]

As weird as it is, Fia's death ending seems like the "good" ending. It restores the natural order of the universe, and removes the curse of immortality. If not that, it's the Age of the Stars ending. The only thing is we don't know what her Age of Stars looks like, is it a rejection of a "greater will" or is it just serving a bloodborne boss?

[@CKR99]

wait which one fia ending?

[@justincarlozmaxino1100]

I look at Ranni's ending as a rejection of everything and her saying to "leave the soil and separate everything from each other making sight, emotion, faith and touch impossible" as extremely naive. As she might be a solitary being and her solution is to abandon all of it and go back to a more primitive solitary life free from the troubles she has seen with only her closest allies in tow. I like Fias ending more and look at it as an acceptance of the flawed Age and let it run its course so a new cycle can begin without that curse of immortality.

[@binkmartinez2012]

@@CKR99 age of duskborn

[@mrloboto]

@@Elcheekclap the wiki and items state the dark moon is another outer god. Doesnt seem like shes rejecting all outer wills and choosing freedom from it, just to become a patron to a god that she hopes will free her and the world from emotions and senses. The cold moon god.

[@chiangmei1265]

@@mrloboto Cold moon god is there before other outer gods come play

[@masterzoroark6664]

How i understand the Age of Order means that noone, not even the gods, can affect the elden ring. It means that noone can change the rules of reality. It's the most neutral, keeping anyone from interfering with the ring, keeping even the Greater Will from changing the rules

[@eureka0521]

so it removes not only the greater will but free will? like no one can go outside of their preordained path? that sounds kind of shitty honestly, even it assures absolute power as Elden Lord.

[@masterzoroark6664]

@@eureka0521 Yeah. When I was writting it down I was thinking that Elden Ring only governs the fundamental rules of reality, lile life goes into death and such, not rulling over people's fate. But if it does, then yeah, it locks everyone and everything, which sucks

[@kklap3219]

@@eureka0521 in a way, you always walk your destined path. You thinking you strayed away from your supposed destiny, doesnt really guarrantee that this new path wasnt your true destiny all along. So its not really a bad aspect of the ending.

[@Rusty_Spy]

@@eureka0521 It puts the parental controls on the Elden Ring and throws away the password. People like Marika can't alter it like with removing the rune of death or shatter it entirely.

[@opioidhamster3205]

@@eureka0521 dosent sound shitty if everything happens to be perfect

[@augustday9483]

For my first playthrough I pledged myself to Ranni and went with the Age of Stars ending. I figure, any proper Lord needs a Queen, and as Ranni is a true Princess, joining with her gives my reign classic royal legitimacy. Since the concept of a "divine right to rule" is common in medieval fantasy, it just feels right.

[@RootVegetabIe]

Ok I just wanted to fuck a blue witch

[@Zero_Twice_00]

I agree. Although I’m choosing her ending only because I deserve a happy ending after sacrificing the homie Melina and having to endure the bullshit the demigods have put you through.

[@Subby1807]

Nah i regret that on my first one i had to marry a slag whos been with millions of tarnished age of frcature i got last i become my own lord and ruler of the world

[@eplatamx2017]

I did her entire quest and then chose Age of perfect order. Ranni is just annoyed people control her and hates the people who left her mother catatonic, I don't agree with her philosophy and I don't think she would be a genuine consort as she loves power and control.

[@Made_in_less]

I truly don’t see why people don’t like Rannis ending, it’s the true good ending the fascist theocracy is gone and it’s hold on the lands between is gone, the greater will is all but demolished and if anyone tries to mess with this world they have ranni and the tarnished to look towards, this is basically like our world, we feel lonely but in actuality there’s a good looking over us It really doesn’t help the fact that mistranslations make her look like she’s just marika 2.0

[@ghostlyswat12]

The age of stars ending is problematic because apparently it’s been translated to English badly and ranni actually wants to get rid of depressions loneliness etc (apparently

[@velocityhdmi8140]

Isn't that a good thing?

[@ghostlyswat12]

@@velocityhdmi8140 the ending is good yes the problems is the translations apparently wrong so a lot of people misunderstood the ending as a evil ending

[@fifibqg2662]

@@ghostlyswat12 i don't belive ending is good or bad - getting rid of bad things and emotions entirely might be not the best thing. It makes one less human.

[@ghostlyswat12]

@@fifibqg2662 that’s due to the bad translation if I remember correctly she wants to get rid of bad emotions

[@fifibqg2662]

@@ghostlyswat12 it makes no diffrence. Taking away bad emotion is not certainly a good thing. Is it good is up to personal interpretatnion.

[@dalektrekkie]

It should be noted that Ranni's ending is a lot more optimistic than it first seems based on her dialog. There were some pretty major translation errors that lead to her goals being a bit unclear

[@zawarudotokiwotomare9272]

Link? Not asking out of doubt, but wanting to know more.

[@British_Rogue]

Translation errors? From English into English?

[@dalektrekkie]

@@British_Rogue FromSoftware is a japanese studio, and GRRM's ideas were only a backbone. At best it'd be from Japanese to English (which happens frequently in Souls games) but its possible that some of it even went from English to Japanese, and back to English. Not sure why you thought that the devs only worked in English

[@Questchaun]

@@British_Rogue this game was made by japanese people.

[@undeadeskimo1531]

@@British_Rogue Do you think other countries don't exist? All "Souls" games are Japanese ya dolt

[@emperormaikedu182]

Lord of the Frenzied Flame could be considered an ending with a definitive resolution as (stated in the video) you are ending the stagnant cycle and quite literally pressing the "reset" button on the universe since the greater will screwed up by allowing pain and suffering to exist. The Lord of the Frenzied Flame ending is similar to the End of The Age of Fire and Usurpation of Fire ending in Dark Souls 3, where you just allow the declining age to end and usher in a new age to learn from the mistakes of the last. Additionally being the new chaos god of the new universe you could make everybody your maiden meaning you have infinite maidens and will never be maidenless. May Chaos Take the World!

[@granzon7396]

I think this is the true ending.

[@WhoThisMonkey]

If everyone has a maiden, are they even maidens anymore?

[@EpicTacoSenpai]

@@WhoThisMonkey yes. Yes they are

[@loiloi8030]

@@WhoThisMonkey welp... Malenia your first false maiden had mission to kill you so good luck with that.

[@dirtyharry0191]

@@loiloi8030 *Melina

[@CainLupus]

As far as the Frenzied Flame ending goes, it makes sense to say that it is an ending where everything returns to the origin through destruction. All began in Chaos. Order separated itself from Chaos, but burning everything, particularly the structures and systems built and defined by Order, returns everything to Chaos.

[@parchmentengineer8169]

I'd personally argue that, while the basic ending doesn't resolve everything, it resolves a lot more than you give it credit for. In my opinion, the Age of Fracture ending sees you repair and restore the Elden Ring, basically taking the place of Queen Marika in a second Age of the Greater Will. It's debatable how good life was under the influence of the Greater Will, but at the very least, it appears to be better than life during the Shattering. While other endings could result in better a better outcome, the basic ending is still decently okay.

[@EnzoJunkie]

Imagine becoming Elden Lord and being in charge of doing something about the fucking rot. No way.

[@pain002]

@@EnzoJunkie kill malenia lol

[@EnzoJunkie]

@@pain002 ah yes that's totally gonna fix Caelid and make the lake of rot banish into oblivion.

[@lordpredator8855]

Great idea

[@pancakes8670]

I agree. Its the "Ok" ending

[@camarada1996]

23:24 As of patch 1.03 the aforementioned NPCs have their questlines finished and that throne room now houses nepheli loux, who awards you with a dragon stone if you've completed her quest

[@cspcchcody]

Is that stone allow us to fight the dark blade and seeing the erdtree in crimson ?

[@imethdup5050]

@@cspcchcody i believe you are reffering to the blasphemous claw which is dropped from bernhard in crumbling farum azula before the maliketh fight

[@jakebalsay4960]

Dragon smithing stones are used for your weapons final upgrade

[@choezbeey469]

I personally like to think that the form of one-eyed blindness that afflicts Ranni as well as Melina in the Frenzied Flame ending is linked to being abandoned by the greater will, which would point even more to the greater will and frenzied flame being the same at some point.

[@doomeR_007]

That makes a lot of sense

[@plutoniumcrusader8815]

i always thought this was obvious hands have five fingers after all

[@ReIigionlsForIdiots]

Frenzied flame is 100% the higher power.

[@geordiejones5618]

I see them as two parts of a continuous process and the Greater Will tried to cheat the system and failed.

[@lorenzob5491]

@THAT GUY I mean if you look at the Leaked age of absolute ending you combine the 2 fingers and the 3 fingers it doesn't seem to far from the truth.

[@smalzio.]

Ranni's ending is said to be mistranslated in english, while in japanese her ending is not one without emotion and of a chill night, but the oposite, she would keep the cold night at bay, far from the lands between, but i can't say for sure

[@sterlingparrino8657]

Love the frenzied flame ending. It’s a age of fire like the old souls games. But biggest is to burn it all to the ground to have new life and trees to emerge from the ash.

[@michielderpya]

except the girl translating the three fingers said: ''all that's borrowed must be returned'', so nothing is gonna grow afterwards, its most likely the end of the world, where all its lifeforce is returned to a ''god''. seems like the 2nd to worst ending to me, only after the dung eater one, where everyone experienced torment forever...

[@chaosssssss_]

@@michielderpya yup, it's basically like what happens at the end of neon genesis evangelion from what I understand. Everything is burned and melded together and then returned from where it came from. Basically just ending the world

[@Phhase]

...except the age of fire was a metaphor, more than a literal thing? The age of fire was just like a prosperous, normal world where life and death are working just fine. Not a blazing hellscape.

[@roberthartley6699]

@@chaosssssss_ Not quite. The Frenzied Flame is a means to return to The Crucible in which all life stemmed and all shared the same heart. The Frenzied Flame ending seems bleak and horrible but it's nothing more than the cauterization of the pox that is the Golden Order. The Golden Order is a parasite on the world from an Outer God that infected the land and uprooted what was working just fine before.

[@averyodowd6448]

Yeah but the chaos flame ending means the world burns eternally, there is not a chance for anything new to grow, everything will be constantly consumed by chaos forever.

[@natebardwell]

I'm a strong, independent Tarnished who don't need no maiden

[@nerfer200]

The Age of Absolute was most likely meant to be Gideon's questline, but he fights you at the Erdtree sanctuary

[@floppaquest4916]

I wish we could side with Gideon as an ending

[@jennamicieli2931]

@@floppaquest4916 Eww no he had all those Albinaurics killed he's an asshole

[@takingbacktoxic7898]

If you listen very carefully to Gideon, he literally tells you: "You've received the wisdom of the Two Fingers, have you not? Then, just as promised, I bid you welcome, as a true member of the Roundtable. I am known as Gideon Ofnir. As a Tarnished who wishes to stand before the Elden Ring and become Elden Lord, I am accumulating knowledge. To be all-knowing. You now belong to a select group of fellows. As such, I ask that you remain constant." He wants to become Elden Lord. He literally tells you his ambition is exactly the same as your ambition. If you did Nepheli's quest line it is clear he uses people for pawns. During/after her quest at the Village of the Albinaurics is when Ensha invades you. He also tells you again after Ensha attacks you: "Oh, my apologies for that nasty business. Ensha got rather ahead of himself, it seems. As his master, I'd like to express my regret. But now, Ensha is slain and gone. Finished, forever more." At this point, it should be very obvious that EVERY Tarnished is playing a game of Highlander, because there can be only one. It is very clear at this point Gideon is NOT our friend, and we just took Ensha's place after offing him. The actual plot twist however happens when you fight him: "Ahh, I knew you'd come. To stand before the Elden Ring. To become Elden Lord. What a sad state of affairs. I commend your spirit, but alas, none shall take the throne. Queen Marika has high hopes for us. That we continue to struggle. Unto eternity." The twist is that he rejected the idea of becoming Elden Lord, and is actively hindering any Tarnished from doing so, as Gideon is working for Marika the entire time, and not the Two Fingers.

[@Alex-cq1zr]

The age of absolute is an april fool's joke

[@nerfer200]

@@Alex-cq1zr Actually, no it's not. The sound files exist, but the actual event is gone

[@jakob8372]

The frenzied flame ending just looks the coolest

[@Eman300man]

Facts

[@vectorfox4782]

I loved how you were able to incorporate HP Lovecraft and Friedrich Nietzsche in a Miyazaki lore video. So much of the past souls games have been telling us bits and pieces of these sobering stories into the human psyche. It takes a strong mind to understand each and every interpretation of seeming reality. There’s a lot to unpack here.

[@alissonrossi1143]

I want to bring up about the closed eyes of Ranni and Melina being in oposite sides, and the possibility that they are like Marika/Radagon two parts of one being, how they are the only two characters that know Torrent and care about him, also on the frenzied flame ending she open a blue eye like the ones of ranni instead of brown, another fun theory about the eyes are that they were touched by the frenzied flame and used an unnaloyed gold needle to get hid of its nfluence as in the item description its said that one should pierce his own eye with it.

[@elidionjw]

I am pretty sure at some point I remember Melina referring to Ranni as her mother.

[@kraken1651]

@@elidionjw She mention her mother inside the Erdtree which possibly she is the daughter of Marika or not and some people thinking that Melina and Ranni are the same person. But as for me she’s still a mystery in this game.

[@simont390]

Also melina is associated with flames and ranni is associated with ice so there's another duality there

[@silentreaper5805]

@@kraken1651 kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqnJgHWsm89mnNU watch this, it is a pretty detailed theory and rn I believe to the the best one, suggesting that melina is the gloam queen, and also ranni’s former teacher

[@LeonardoStupidKenway]

@@simont390 ranni only Got The ice Thing from her teacher, The snowy crone/renna.

[@korodrion]

Basically you have these two gods, the Greater will embodied by the Two fingers and the Frenzied flame embodied by the Three fingers. They form a hand, symbolic of the "Hand of god", part order, part chaos And there is only one ending where you set yourself free from the influence of this Hand of god.

[@NautilusSSN571]

But is that good overall?

[@korodrion]

@@NautilusSSN571 that's yours to decide 🙂

[@thefinger1776]

I just want to watch the world burn

[@stettinerzipfel4385]

by kneeling to a weird ass puppet with weird ass ideas simpy boy

[@romanograsnick]

It is awesome you made that possible to show off all endings, thank you! I am very pleased to see the approach of The Lore of Canis revisited in this game, so that there are different endings depending on how you play. I bet no one has ever finished the game I was talking about the way it was intended xP

[@Roanix1]

I played this game for almost 150 hours and I am still watching this video to understand anything about what just happened

[@hammy9906]

I remember a big reddit post talking about how the “stars” are actual beings. For example radahn is known for conquering the stars and after his death you see a big skyfall, a meteor falls and that meteor might just be the voidborn creature we fight since that creature is literally in a crater when we fight it. I dont remember all of it but it is believed that there are more gods than the greater will, one being a star god like thingy.

[@anomitas]

Yeah there are a few outer god's, pretty much every demigod seems to be worshipping one, so maybe these godhand (heh) are betting on their own champions as a dick messuring contest. So far we know about the moon from rennala, the one rykard and mohg worship (forgot what they were called), the stars, the two fingers and the three fingers which we don't know much of. Fuck i want them to expand all of this lore on them

[@blakenelson8202]

Nah astel has been there awhile. His lore basically states that he's what destroyed the city of nokstella.

[@xingx355]

The god that Mogh serve is a different god from the greater being. The moon is also a different god, this is revealed in the heirloom you get from looting Ranni's corpse in Luirnia divine tower.

[@maysilversi8253]

@@anomitas the fingers arent gods. They're vassals of the gods. Two fingers is vassal of Greater Will and three fingers is vassal of Frenzied Flame. Rykard wants to eat gods, doesnt serve one, although he gives himself to the god eating serpent. Mohg serves the Formless Mother.

[@anomitas]

@@maysilversi8253 thanks for clarifying

[@karanjoshi2662]

I like the age of stars ending, in line with dark souls ideology. Beings too used to the flame that they forget that there was always darkness out there even before the flame was lit. This inability to let go and move on has stagnated the world and it's progress.

[@reidparker1848]

I've always hated encouraging a "cycle". Such philosophy is awful.

[@yemeniwarcriminal8426]

As much as I want ranni’s ending to be as it seems. It is probably not. It’s implied through descriptions and other pieces of lore that she killed Godwyn. Think about it they died at the same time and one lost their soul, the other their body. Godwyn had to be killed so her soul can live on. Not only that we have the stars. Sure the Greater will was bad, but now since Radhan is dead other Gods make the lands between vulnerable. Radhan’s teacher was an abalaster meaning he came from a meteor he most likely told Radahn about what’s out there and that’s why he held the stars in place. And the game tells us what the stars are. They are beings, Astel being one of them. Ranni definitely is not what she seems like. But that’s just speculation.

[@chongliyang4044]

...isn't what you're refering to more fit to frenzied flame?

[@papasweed.dispenseria5977]

@@yemeniwarcriminal8426 yeah in more lore we find that it was most likely Marika who started everything, most likely having a hand in ranní and godwyns deaths to what extent we don't know, but there's a lot of dialogue that she has with you, that pretty much tells you she and her order will take more of a neutral deity that just watches, the stars being alive is definitely a way for more primitive minds to understand that aliens exist in their world like astel or the void beast since you can find two versions of astel maybe they're more creations of other beings

[@Vincentpanh]

@@papasweed.dispenseria5977 And since the Greater Will is gone, nothing can tell human what is heretic and what is not, we can found a way to deal with the thing beyond the stars, what Radahn did was robing us of our free will, he put us in stagnation to be mind control by a god that eat our souls, that is what i think.

[@nathanhill4728]

I have been looking for videos explaining some of the lore of Elden Ring for a few days and this video was the best I have found so far.

[@fitmcdeezy8778]

I like that you take a little time to wind the video down. Gives me time to back out of full screen and hit the like button 👍 awesome video!

[@BigBossHimself]

I don't think that's what the age of duskborn leads to, my understanding was that it officiates the existence of the undead into the natural order, since death was not removed by the greater will but marika herself, re-uniting the elden ring necessitates that death resume in all endings where the player ascends. Essentially choosing that ending just means you're also adding spooky ghosts, skeletons, and zombies into the natural state of existence, and since they are now natural, persecuting them becomes a heresy. I'm happy to be told otherwise though since the language around death, what the mending rune of death does, and what fia's ambitions are is very cryptic and open to interpretation.

[@AlextheGreat647]

Marika didn’t remove death. It actually was Ranni who killed her brother and “cheated” death and the cause of the whole natural order going out of control, Which is the famous Godwyn that we see but don’t know who exactly he is. That also was the reason why Marika/Radagon went back to the Erdtree trying too fix the problem but the damage was done which also caused the demigods to go power mad as well. The Age of the duskborn also turns Godwyn into a god of death as well. If anything, Age of the Duskborn is more a neutral ending rather than a good or bad. Also, this doesn’t mean you’re allowing ghosts, skeletons, & zombies too exist in the natural order, all this ending does is remove immortality from the cycle.

[@gandalfos]

@@AlextheGreat647 didn't marika betray maliketh by imparting the rune of death upon him so that her family could be immortal? as far as i remember marika actually did remove death, but ranni then stole it from maliketh and used it to kill godwyn because she hated the greater will

[@AlextheGreat647]

@@gandalfos I don’t know what exact connection maliketh has with Marika. Only thing I know is that Ranni was the one that started this whole issue due to the fact that her age of stars kept on getting delayed because Marika (and the others) didn’t want to lose power nor have their age move on. How Ranni managed too “steal/cheat” death is also not known yet, maybe in future dlc will have that answer. We also don’t know why she killed Godwyn nor their relationship they had together as siblings.

[@vaultboy3706]

@@AlextheGreat647 Completely Incorrect. Marika removed the death rune from the Elden Ring because she didn't like the idea of dying, and then he gave it to his half-brother Maliketh. Ranni on the other hand hated the idea of being an Empyrean and a successor to Marika and basically a pawn to the greater will and the two fingers, hence why she stole the death rune from Maliketh not to "cheat" death but to literally kill herself(Her body that is). As for Godwyn, it is not yet confirmed who ordered to kill him, so we can't say it's Ranni for sure. It could be that the Black Knife Assassins have their own motive or probably the Godskin. Lastly Marika wasn't trying to fix the mess she literally made it worst by shattering the Elden Ring.

[@AlextheGreat647]

@@vaultboy3706 Ranni was the one that ordered the assassin of Godwyn. If you do Roderic quest line, he basically tells you it was her that orchestrated the ritual for the black knife assassins, imbuing their blades with a portion of the fragment from the rune of death. Why she decided to kill her brother, there’s no concrete evidence on their relationship, except that Godwyn was the first god to die. Again, she did cheat death. Hence why she’s still alive, even though she burned her original body, however, if you do Roderick’s quest line, you get to question her about her original body, which she refuses to tell the player anything despite her saying she “discarded it and left it in the past”. And yes, Marikas way of “fixing” the problem was her causing the shattering. If you read a little bit more about Marika, she shattered the ring while Radagon tried to repair it. Unfortunately, that “repair” didn’t workout at all. As for Maliketh being Marikas half brother, I am not so sure of that, but I don’t really know much about Maliketh save for him being the keeper of the rune of death. Everything else you said about Ranni hating the fingers, and hating being a successor is true though. But she clearly states they’ve delayed her age of stars.

[@diesal_one]

So, if you start the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending and use yourself as kindling, and then use the needle to cleanse yourself.. You'll pretty much be saving Melina and stopping her from wanting to kill you. I wonder if in doing this she'll show up again in the future? I really hope so because I want more of her story. I felt so sad when she said goodbye to us and used herself as kindling. But that's also what her "purpose" was and what she wanted.. So idk what's better..

[@kpopbests8643]

have you checked this yet?

[@HexenDarkside]

@@kpopbests8643 I did this in my play-through, but nothing different happened sadly.

[@diesal_one]

@@HexenDarkside By "future" I meant DLC. Because, yeah, she doesn't show up again if you do this.

[@SeniorDankyKang]

@@diesal_one it's possible but I doubt FromSoftware would lock some DLC stuff behind the possibility of not having Melina sacrifice herself, as that would leave some players out of content unless they move to a new game to save her.

[@Nix-nb3zn]

Hope they add her as a boss battle in DLC if you did the frenzied flame ending

[@jordanbrown3816]

When Hyetta talks about the frenzy flame melting everything back into one, and how everything was once one it reminds me of descriptions of the crucible. Certain descriptions of items linked to the Crucible, such as the crucible knight gauntlets mentions the key word “chaotic” further associating the crucible with chaos and the frenzy flame The definition of a literal crucible is a container where things are melted at high temperature, figuratively it also means a situation where things come together to make something new. I don’t know if it means anything, since these are the only apparent links between the frenzied flame and the crucible, but it’s very interesting to consider

[@Phoenix_11_17]

I’d like to think that for the age of order, that it places the lands into a utopia of peace, the flaw in the order is that of control, the greater will and Marika/Radagon had placed the lands into a hell that Goldmask wanted to fix, the concept of the golden order still remains but Goldmasks rune has turned it into a force of good and protection

[@rainygamedays5873]

Thank you, I've been trying to get the lore fro each one and what they mean but all I can find besides this video are just the guides on how to get each one. THANK YOU FOR THE LORE 🥺😍😂

[@MadLuigi]

To address the news: yes, I have seen the Age of Absolute "cutscene." And I know about the mistranslation of Ranni's endings! I look to address both soon, maybe Thanks so much for all the kind words and comments! Just hit 300K views! Really happy about that and just released a new video discussing which ending is best: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6TQZmSwZZyCp7M And follow me on Twitter so I can eventually actually use that garbage platform: twitter.com/Mad_Luigi

[@silverdragon9504]

Thanks for the awesome content. Just Keep doin what you want to do. And I wish you all the good luck.

[@gabethebaleful]

There is another resolution to this game. You use the power and influence of the Frenzied flame outer god to burn yourself as fuel saving Melina then using the needle to stop the curse of the Frenzied Flame giving you back the choice of the other endings. Somehow she (melina) does not appear again to talk to the player after you burn the tree. I haven't found a way though. Melina and Ranni appear to be two halves of the same being with one same goal. My only problem with the age of the stars ending is that Ranni/Melina (Radagon/Marika see? RM) act as your own personal Greater Will. So it makes me think, Did you really have a choice?

[@chongliyang4044]

i think age of stars and ranni's voicelines have very bad mistranslations, there's an article that just addressed it

[@spiddledonk1695]

Arguably you become her maiden

[@silverdragon9504]

@@spiddledonk1695 how the tables have turned lmao

[@threesgaming2083]

Goldmask’s ending is the only truly viable ending were we to actually place ourselves in our characters situation, in my opinion. Pontificating about the blessing of despair and the frenzied flame ending is pointless. Inflicting wonton cruelty on the world just because of its flaws is deeply childish, at best. The thing is, before the Shattering, the world could be made sense of and living in it was probably not too bad. I forget her quote exactly, but Melina says something about how even though there was pain, there was beauty too. I agree with the analysis in this video about the age of fracture, it simply perpetuates the cycle. The Ranni ending, while fitting for elden ring and fromsoft, is also unbelievably risky. Ranni is rather upfront about what she wants, she wants to be rid of the outer gods and the greater will. But she doesn’t want this for altruistic reasons, she is a fickle god with her own designs. Again, the problem persists that the people of the land are not being watched over and governed with their best interests at heart. Changing from Marika to Ranni is a lateral move at best, and her vision of darkness should frighten us. If the people in the lands between are anything like us, we need things to believe in. It doesn’t have to be fake or dogmatic or evil. That is the problem, unjust systems, not the reliance on systems in a vacuum. Goldmask is really the only option, for me. He addresses the true problem in the world, injustice. It’s not gods inherently, or the Tree inherently, it’s the poisoning of our governing systems, of our ideology. If you could perfect the golden order so that it would take care of the people who live in the world, then there is no reason to listen to anything else. The shattering would be moved past, the world would be in harmony. Listening to all these figures with ulterior motives and alien conceptions of life is just totally backwards and strange and ultimately, evil. The perfected order ending is the only thing you could pick were you to actually be in the situation posed by the game.

[@cps22001]

I'm fairly certain that Ranni's ending excises the connection between any gods (including her) and the material world. Hence the "thousand year voyage" where you and her leave for the stars without meddling with the earth for a long time.

[@threesgaming2083]

@@cps22001 that’s what I see as the risk, this 1000 years of darkness. She says it is good or necessary because we need to remove our connections from the gods, but she is imposing her own take on how the world should be. And again, if the people in this world are human like we are, 1000 years of darkness sounds like absolute hell.

[@maximilienmyre2172]

@@threesgaming2083 I think that by 1000 years of darkness she meen that there is no god (Light) to "guide" (or control as the greater will did (not that it's necesserly bad but the greater will know what he want and control the land between accordingly, no deviation is tolerated as we see with Blaidd and Ranni. When the empyrean dont do the thing that the greater will want, his shadow try to kill the empyrean)) so that the population of the land between is "blinded" (without god) and forced to create their own way whitout the influence of any god. I think that is the more healthy ending as the population of the land between will have to growth and mature to find the best balance with the other "inhabitants" within the land between (Dragon, Albinaurics, giant etc) and ideology unlike the one sided ideological domination of the golden order and the greater will that genocided all that was not "compatible" with the golden order dogma.

[@vampireknightfan]

oh my god dude ur correlation of nietzsche to elden ring was fantastic i loved it honestly poetic excellent video the lore for this GAME IS SO GOOD

[@humanaesthetic]

Love this summary of the endings, thanks for your insights!

[@shyy2103]

Great video. Cant wait to see more lore from you.

[@tateh6045]

This is so damn helpful and cut me enormous amount of time to completely understand the Lore. Honestly speaking, I stopped playing once I unlocked Ranni's ending. And after completing the game with that ending, I immediately watched this video (saved on my "watch later" list) I've never saved a video so fast! Thank you, Luigi. You've just earned a lifelong sub. Keep it up my guy!

[@MadLuigi]

Thanks so much! I'm glad it was a useful vid and happy to hear the kind words

[@nathansmith5333]

It's somewhat difficult to become free of the frenzied flame, so I'm sad there isn't a special ending/nod to giving your body as the flame kindling, then removing it (i.e you save Melina from death) that there is no special scene or dialogs.

[@maxchen9185]

I read this in a Chinese theory group, which is kinda wild tbh: All 4 variants of the Elden Lord Ending = the world of Elden Ring continues in a different cycle. Leads to the demon souls universe maybe? Age of Star ending = leads to the world of Bloodborne, in which night is eternal, filled with vampires and werewolves n shit. Age of Frenzied Fire ending = leads to the world of Darksouls, where you link fire or find kindles to keep the fire burning. All in all the theory basically says that Elden Ring is the Prequel of all the souls-game. And your choice of ending leads to different games' worlds.

[@goldenrider2068]

That's all bullshit.

[@Luis-mq5ey]

chinese can't make good theories for shit. even porn groups about ranni have better theories.

[@plague-thirster3177]

@@goldenrider2068 How is that bullshit? It’s a very well-constructed theory supported with logic and reasoning.

[@maxchen9185]

@@goldenrider2068 why tho, even the buildings and bosses in the under world looks just so bloodborne, and the frenzied fire at the end game looks just like darksouls fire.

[@maxchen9185]

@@Luis-mq5ey the hate is too real

[@tjjy]

19:09 Such an astonishing ending! Queen Marika literally dropped her jar.

[@stanislavboianov3356]

Perfect work dude, keep up with good work !!!

[@francobriones98]

Incredibly amazing video, thanks for all the info and your way of narrating these endings and your theories and thoughts about it

[@MadLuigi]

Thanks so much! Im really glad you enjoyed it that much

[@francobriones98]

@@MadLuigi I really did, I'm so invested in Elden Ring thus in its lore so I'm TRULY thankful that there are amazing content creators like you that give us a clearer idea of it, thank you🙏

[@dstarsdstar7957]

The frenzied flame ending looks so cool

[@noamias4897]

Great video. Best explanation of the endings I've seen. Thanks for this and I hope it blows up

[@MadLuigi]

I really appreciate it

[@xXlizamaXx]

i love hovering over the video playback bar and seeing ranni's ending is the most extensive one, like boy i wonder which one is madluigi's favorite!

[@MTH3h3l0l]

I was literally going to look for a video like this after watching all the ending cutscenes

[@Herash-Gaming]

I got the Ranni Ending a few minutes ago and found your video in my case the best ending after seeing all others and oh yeah thank for your video :)

[@Hseraphimaj]

The star ending has so much more hope than elden ring gives us. The whole script she reads to you about the age of stars wasn't translated correctly.

[@sboisbiu_2825]

What's the correct phrasing?

[@FloatingOer]

@@sboisbiu_2825 Search this on youtube if you want to see the correct translations and explanations: Huge ELDEN RING Discovery, RANNI’S MISTRANSLATIONS It's very good!

[@Luna832]

This! I almost wrote this myself but yeah go check out the video about the correct translations. I feel like that with the translation its the best possible ending

[@theshenanigans3463]

@@Luna832 Kind of want them to think about adding in with a patch the more accurate translation sometime.

[@DudeWheresMyCardz]

Ranni mentions sight, emotion, touch and faith beoming impossibilities and to go into darkness with fear and lonliness.......how lovely

[@snowmcsnow4732]

Thanks for the breakdown and interpretation. We'll see in coming DLC's, but I suspect there might be 2 more endings coming our way. Perhaps more.

[@andreicondurache9875]

Actually about Nepheli,if you complete her "quest" to the point you give her the ashes of war,She will eventually move to the room in Stormveil Castle together with Gostoc and Kenneth(also there are a couple of really good rewards if you do that,i suggest checking). To trigger that you need to have given her the ashes,killed morgott(that's when i checked, don't know of it's linked) and i believe you need to finish kenneth's questline. Hope that helped someone

[@Michael-ib6ky]

I don't think I'd equate the Pox Curse with a true Death. Sure, you don't get eaten by the Tree, but from Shrimp Bro's dialogue and how Spirit Upgrade girl hears the uncounted spirits swirling around the Dung Eater in pain, it still seems like a miserable and eternal existence

[@battlecubes4762]

It could be an ending that reverses that tho. Like the description says, for every curse, a cursed blessing. It could be a reversal of sorts. Of course, the spirits are feeling pain, but that could be chocked up to how the spirits are still technically under the original order. And since they can't take part of that order anymore, they are feeling pain. Like how the ones who live in death feel. By doing this ending, you could be bringing the whole order down to replace with the curse order, which would then make it so that curses are actually good things. That could make pain feel good to everything. It's sick, sure, but it doesn't mean it could be all bad for eternity.

[@clemenscohn7371]

@@battlecubes4762 "Curses" were propaganda of the Order. "Curses" were the natural state of the world. Omen and the Crucible Knights are directly linked via the Crucible, which existed before the Erdtree. The Golden ORder is _literally_ a bunch of nazis.

[@click004hd7]

The three fingers "frenzied flame" seems like the embodiment of chaos, while the two fingers "golden order" seems to be the opposite. Together, they form a full hand with 5 fingers. That's probably how it was during the creation of the universe.

[@insertedgynamehere___969]

A thing to note: The Elden beast is order incarnate. (Source: its remembrance. Or possibly one of the weapons you get from it but I'm pretty sure it's the Elden beasts remembrance.

[@cozyflannel]

This was so clear and helpful omg. My brother… thaaaaank youuuuu

[@eardrum42]

Very good interpretations! Great vid! 👍

[@RandalphTheBlack]

Very nice! I'm suspecting/ hoping for some type of lord of blood based ending. Maybe even through an update. There just seems to be alot of curiosity in working with that crazy white mask guy who you first see after exiting the tutorial.

[@Adam-de8jm]

I was so confused with the end of whitemask’s quest. I actually wanted to work with him but as soon as you get to mohgs palace he just turns against you?

[@MrSarakash]

Cool. This is the first video I found where stagnation is discussed, which was a theme in previous From titles.

[@kiiroshidori4296]

The lord of the frenzied flame ending sounds like a massive volcanic eruption-after the fire burns everything, the lava covers the earth and stills, ashes fall like snow and bring a chill winter, and once the skies clear, new vigorous life shall sprout from the now fertile soil. Thats also why people live near volcanos, the earth there is very good. It’s like a new start, a cycle of destruction and creation.

[@eljugadorescaldenc4002]

Thanks for this explanations. Great Work

[@nitroshade2317]

Thanks for the explanation of this. I went with the Ranni ending on my first game, merely because the Erdtree is on fire, my maiden sacrifice herself. Everyone at the roundtable is either dead or gone. Pretty much I felt I just made things worst and it's time to bounce. I am not the ONLY tarnished who wants to be Elden Lord anyway, so maybe they can take over and fix things.

[@i3looi2]

Great evaluation. One small note, Brother Corhyn is actually the one who kills Golden Mask, cause he can't accept Golden Mask's findings as truth.

[@argonaught]

Where did you see this information? It makes sense cuz I was curious how or why gold mask died but where did this get explained or hinted at?

[@i3looi2]

@@argonaught Check all Corhyn dialogs after u find golden mask body. It is only but implied he pushed Golden Mask.

[@kklap3219]

@@i3looi2 if thats the case, then why do you still find the rune of order on his body? If corhynn wanted to sabotage goldmask, why not finish things?

[@sametekiz3709]

No

[@mac1bc]

Well done! Thanks for these explanations

[@curts7801]

Perfect Order. It heals the imperfections of the Golden Order. It restores the lands between and the very Erdtree itself. Perhaps the persecution of the omen, albinaurics, and undead are abated, for their conditions are healed. Or perhaps the hate just departs from the Golden Order. Like it or not, life as we know it depends on order. And now it has become fair, everyone treated equally.

[@clemenscohn7371]

Doubt it. Greek mythology is a good analogy as the greek pantheon has gods with flaws, moods, opinions. Basically humans but stronger. The perfect Order simply creates one god with one singular purpose and an unchanging opinion. It's safer to assume it enforces _current_ opinions than it is to create new opinions. Which means the Golden Order goes full jerusalem with everything they have against omen/misbegotten/albis to create the perfect society of only humans.

[@deadshot1995]

@@clemenscohn7371 Goldmask was against the persecution of Those Who Live in Death and presumably other groups the Golden Order targeted as well. He didn't believe in absolute evil.

[@clemenscohn7371]

@@deadshot1995 Can you direct me to a source?

[@deadshot1995]

@@clemenscohn7371 Order Healing Incantation description.

[@clemenscohn7371]

@@deadshot1995 Not really. That _specifically_ mentions undead and not everything else. And unless my english is bad, it does not dispute the notion of undead being evil. Quite the contrary.

[@AnimGhost8492]

Just some food for thought. These two bonus endings (and maybe even more) may be only accessible in NG+, but who knows maybe I'm just overthinking it XD

[@WivoRN]

Great work buddy, Very well put together!

[@MadLuigi]

Thanks so much!

[@phantomth13f15]

I recently finished the game and wanted to see what other things there were and I found it interesting that the mined data for Nepheli and Co turned out to be the quests for these characters with the throne hall being their new base. No new ending but still cool

[@IsaardP]

I can't believe I never noticed the two fingers and three fingers making a whole hand...

[@samlt5]

The age of stars apparently had quite a few mistranslations making the ending way more ominous than it actually is. Instead of a "chill night that encompasses all reaching the great beyond" the proper translation is apparantly "to all, you may think of the chill night as infinitely far away". As in she's going to take her new order far away, with the "fear, doubt, and loneliness" refers to her own path to take it there. Another line from later properly translated says "If it was not possible to clearly see, feel, believe in, or touch the order… That would be better." TLDR: Instead of making another age of gods she's going to take the new order far away, and let humanity make its own way rather than rule over them.

[@trsaveonallen3224]

Thts basically how we are irl

[@WarlockLov3]

You did not watch the video, nor did you read any item descriptions, or listen to her dialogue while doing her questline. It is very obvious that she wants to do that even with the "mistranslation."

[@brandonweiss2298]

What I love about the endings is that they still keep everything up to you in a way. The endings are there and cutscenes play like normal however, they keep everything headcanon in a way. Like for example the attitude and opinions of your tarnished are up to you. Maybe one ending may seem not as good or maybe your tarnished would take advantage of the situation but the funny thing is that that is up to you. That is your character and you make them into who they are. From the character creator to their actions in quests are all up to you. Maybe your tarnished is a dickhead or maybe they are a righteous lord. It's up to you.

[@windaddict]

Loved the Nietzsche comparison! Very interesting to see philosophy influencing video game lore

[@meta187]

I got the Age of Stars Ranni ending on my first playthrough and honestly felt fine with it despite the ominous overtones. I specifically looked here to see if a better choice could have been made, thanks for reaffirming I probably made the best decision under the circumstances.

[@blackmailer26]

Listening to your explanation of the Fell Curse, the more it sounds like sophistry, like hearing Seymour Guado of FFX saying death is the salvation of Spira.

[@Jared-gx1dp]

I think the fell curse is kinda supposed to be that way, like dung eater is clearly a terrible person, a clear sociopathy is the least of his issues. His ending seems like a narcissist's answer to fixing the world. He thinks he knows exactly what to do. I think there's multiple ways you could read his character based on how charitable you want to be. Either he wants to genuinely change the world and move past the broken age they are in. And this the only way he knows how. Sort of like "this isn't the best solution or even hood one, but things can't stay the same" echoing some of the themes from past games. Then theres the uncharitable interpretation, which i think based on his characterization is the more likely one, he's just an all around despicable person and wants to lay and indescribably bleak and painful curse on the world because that's what he wants. I think this is more charitable because even when your doing his quest line, as far as I know the game never gives you a reason to think that what he's planning helps anyone but himself and you. And we don't see his actions have any sort of positive outcome aside from ending the current broken order. So i think it's just supposed to another "bad ending" but in a different way than the chaos ending

[@disasterdisaster581]

Change isn't a good thing, and the lands between was a paradise before Ranni fucked things up. The age of absolute order, or of fracture, are the true 'good' endings. With everything else just an attempt to confuse things or bring about a hell on earth.

[@MadLuigi]

You probably think relinking the flame in DS1/3 is a "good" ending too

[@disasterdisaster581]

​@@MadLuigi Unironically yes for Ds1 and it's complicated for Ds3. Whatever you think about the futility of prolonging these ages, the evidence has always been that they're good for the people in them. People have minds, can live fulfilling lives, have families and form functioning societies. Whereas all we've ever seen from the 'dark' is horrors and madness. Renewing the world of fire in Ds1 is unironically the best ending, because even if the fire will fade once more one day, you've given people centuries of normality, maybe even millenia. Now in Ds3 yes it's probably not even a year by the looks of the flame after that end, and it's doubtful if much of an effect was even had, but in the end it's not like that ending could do much more damage, and gives people a little more time with their sanity. Elden ring is even more black and white. There's no reason that the golden ages can't carry on forever, that people shouldn't be allowed to carry on and have relatively normal lives without having to worry about some cthulu star monster turning them into a squid or a fire lord burning their souls. There's absolutely no reason at all that anyone should choose any ending other than the Order endings.

[@MadLuigi]

@@disasterdisaster581 I think you completely missed the state of the world in these games. People are not living fulfilling lives, most of them are mindless, hollow zombies suffering from stagnation. The themes of harm from needless prolonging and stagnation are made painfully explicit in the Ashes of Ariandel DLC, basically a microcosm of the message of these games. The true ending to DS3 is unquestionably letting the fire fade, ending the curse Gwyn had brought about. And i think there's good evidence that a similar choice should be made in ER

[@riccardonero843]

@@MadLuigi Your problem is that you compare dark souls with elden ring but the two games have completely different themes.

[@MadLuigi]

@@riccardonero843 I really don't think they do. There is plenty different about them, but FromSoft is consistent in their themes of stagnation, decay, and revival

[@ryanschultz4119]

Very much enjoyed this video!👍 Great work!👊

[@MadLuigi]

Thanks!

[@randomguy123playsgames]

Honestly my favorite two are dung eaters ending and frenzied flame because they’re both objectively bad endings but even so from a different perspective have some merits. Like dung eaters is basically a much darker and more punishing version of ranni’s and the frenzied flame aims to create order through destruction. It’s kinda just cool to me how even the two evil endings have a scope of reason to themselves

[@sometimes619]

Bro dung eater is based and as for the Frenzied flame, i too would sacrifice the world for my maiden

[@yasininn76]

Dung eater is just evil madness, it has sense in it's own confined logically that makes no sense when you take it out of bounds and put it in real terms. And the frenzied flame is the same. Just start over, how original and what a good solution to a problem

[@BioshockDrill]

​@@sometimes619😐

[@James-ep2bx]

From what I've heard there was some translation issues with the age of the stars ending stuff that could have a major impact on it's meaning, so I'm wondering how that may change things

[@dumbsterdives]

It effectively means almost the exact opposite of the english version. She essentially intends to push her order out into the stars to essentially block outer gods from interacting with the lands between at all. The "fear, doubt, and loneliness" was describing her own path taking her out into the void to guard the land against them, which is why she was so insistent on doing it alone until you convince her to let you join her

[@administratorgrand]

If they make a dlc they should include something from the endings, like if you made the "Lord of Frenzied Flame" ending you have to fight Melina, or if you get the "Elden Lord" ending you are going to fight Shabriri, or if you get the "Age of Stars" ending you can summon Ranni to help you. If they add a dlc this would be pretty good boss fight for it.

[@thomasraymond7912]

And if you use the frenzied flame to save Melina, then use the needle to remove it, you get extra dialogue with her, and maybe you get to summon her in at least one of those big fights in the capitol after the erdtree burned.

[@Polarexpress0]

the stormveil neutral area is where nepheli kenneth and the stormveil sales guy end up if you finish their guests ! you also get 2 ancient smithing stones from them

[@forgefatherclaw2921]

This is great, have you done one about Redmane Castle? I need to know about this castle and that damn Bridge!

[@platinumhunter9759]

I had all the six endings and I saw that the flame of frenzied was the coolest and I don't regret choosing it

[@soroushkowsarian3364]

Pulled a hacking eren yeager on the world

[@GuttinsClips2]

Best ending imo

[@DarthMalgusSith_Lord]

there should be another alternative ending called "The Age of Dragon" Ending where you allied yourselves with the Dragon Cult with Lansseax being the Head of that Dragon Cult, instead of her being a field boss, she can be an NPC, the only Dragon NPC that is friendly to you, she can commune with you and give you out quest to seek a certain item that can transformed her into a human form so that she can accompanied you on your journey to become Dragonlord and overthrow the Golden Order and the Greater will. Before becoming Dragonlord, she would guide you to Farum Azula and eventually fight Dragonlord Placidusax at the end of the quest, and instead of just obtaining the Remembrance of the Dragonlord after you defeated Placidusax, you also obtain the Mending-Rune of the Age of Dragon so that you can give it to Lansseax once you defeated the Elden Beast inside the Erdtree so that she can used that mending-rune to ushering the new Age of the Dragon with you the Player as the new Dragonlord.

[@prepareuranus8097]

the whole idea behind the lands between is interesting as hell. the concepts combined of the elder gods, the will of the fingers and finger readers. the demigods and the origin of them all. as well as the entire aethereal feeling to the lands between. makes it feel like heaven & hell have merged dimensions. you could probably make a wicked anime based in the same universe. one that shows origins of demigods and the standard journey of the tarnished. id watch the hell out of that.

[@greed6is6good]

God i love this game, the lore, the secrets, the weapons, the combat. Thank you From software, its been a while 😮. And thank you Madluigi for your research and the love you put into this

[@christinasullivan4349]

This is what a great game does. It really brings people together to talk about it. The lore is just vague enough to where ppl can come together and discuss the possibilities and I think it's meant for ppl to sort of have their own interpretation.

[@stevejurgens9985]

Yeah it's like "Lost". At the end there is nothing and all the talking is useless because everybody can make up their own stuff and nothing is really "true"

[@LeonardoStupidKenway]

@@stevejurgens9985 thats every fromsofts game for you. Dark souls for example has some decade Old Mysteries, that still haven't been solved.

[@stevejurgens9985]

@@LeonardoStupidKenway You can also make the same argument about "Lost" but the actual Author nver thought about this so you can make up you own stuff there is nothing which is really true

[@fanvanice]

Awesome work

[@fallenvideogames2121]

From what I can remember there are two other quests that seem to be more pvp focused the wrycard one with the lava house area and the blood one both could be more variations on the vanilla on and there are plenty of dragons about you could also have an ending based on them as well

[@danteyr1]

it's kinda weird that in all but 2 of the endings, the greater will just ignores that we killed one of it's avatars. perhaps we cut ourselves from the greater will in all endings and the stars/frenzied flame endings are just us declaring war on the greater will from different sides

[@uberrobi]

Frenzied flame is part of the greater will. Two fingers and three fingers are just two aspects of the greater will. Because the greater will sees sin, curse, etc. it thinks every birthed being is a failure. So he wants the mc to burn it all down and make it one again.

[@dumbsterdives]

Remember, we had to commit a cardinal sin to even enter the erdtree in the first place. Its like Gideon says, the tarnished were never meant to succeed, only to defeat the demigods and gather their runes to break the stalemate of the Shattering. Its only after we force our way in, defeat Radagon (who still serves the order), and the manifestation of the Elden Ring itself that the Greater Will relents, because at that point we've destroyed the current Lord and proven ourselves as the only fitting successor.