Elden Ring - Insects growing inside your flesh

[@ZullietheWitch]

The first time I noticed the wings inside the thorns, I immediately thought of spontaneous generation even though I don't think I'd read anything about it in probably over a decade. Maybe it's a reach, but it's something I could see them referencing.

[@2ScoopsPlz]

It's a great theory, personally I think you're 100% correct

[@MeredithLikely]

It would be creepier if the runes we left on the ground after getting blighted were all corrupted and covered in death, or your corpse got left there as a reminder like old games! I miss the statues of crystal in the sewers.

[@tyrusdalet]

I wonder. If these insects are created by Deathblight - which appears to be an affliction related to an Outer God if I remember correctly. And (Aeonian) Butterflies are seemingly created around Scarlet Rot, which is the affliction of a separate Outer God. What does the Formless Mother create? What did the Greater Will create?

[@pieoverlord]

Bit of a reach considering they don't spontaneously appear - they're a direct result of being infected by deathblight, which comes from Godwyn's mutated flesh. I suppose the question is whether the insects have bodies and souls (as animals do have spirits in Elden Ring) - in which case Godwyn's death would directly be creating life which is interesting - or if they're manifestations of his mutation, lacking either in body, being incorporeal, or soul, being mindless husks.

[@SM2I2TH]

Another interesting thing to think about is the theme of tree terminology in Elden Ring too. When a tree gets infected from the inside by either worms, beetles, etc., it's hard to recover the tree, and it's normally permenantly damaged in some way. So with your observation of it being bugs that causes death from the inside, it kinda fits the tree mottif too.

[@aguywhoexists4351]

the first time i got death blighted i was like “holy shit was petrification not enough” and now im learning that it was actually even worse. fromsoft didnt hold back on the brutality of things in elden ring

[@ghosty3494]

Especially in the other games.

[@erdtroll7010]

*sees deathblight* Me then: oh its thorny plant-like thing protruding from cursed beings and stuff Me now after watching this video: heurgh heeby jeebys

[@elijahsteele9170]

They never do.

[@nickhard7615]

Yeah, that shit was haunting to witness for the first time. I feel horrible for my character whenever that happens to them. Death Blight and Madness are probably the most visceral ways to die in this universe

[@ghosty3494]

@@nickhard7615 well there's something worse. Look at the lore behind the brainsuckers in Bloodborne.

[@Neptunequeen42]

Godwyn is seriously the most fascinating thing in elden ring and it only gets better the more we learn about him. The idea of 'his soul died but his body didn't', just this biological mass of pure unthinking growth and cancer and rot, no motivation or malice, just pure biological programming to spread and infect and grow, it's unlike any other antagonist I've seen in this type of media. You mentioned a while ago that elden ring's secret main theme was 'parasitism', and this really drives that home. Edit: everyone in the comments of this is recommending media with similar antagonists in it, if you also love godwyn and want more of him :)

[@timsohn7057]

This game really needs DLCs to expand its amazing world. I know From Soft can’t explore everything, but I feel Miquella and Godwyn is a must!

[@si1entbutdeady]

Pathologic's "Sand Pest" comes to mind. A world where the Earth itself is alive. A cosmological Bull that has been warped and melted into bedrock - a cursed petri dish from which civilization sprung. Hell, come to think of it, the whole concept of the Old Blood in Bloodborne is eerily similar to the inevitable despair & tragedy seen in Pathologic.

[@Neptunequeen42]

@@timsohn7057 Agreed. Zullie tweeted it a while ago and it’s still true, that statistically speaking, given past fromsoft games, we haven’t played the best part of elden ring yet. I can’t wait to see this game’s version of the old hunters lmao

[@Neptunequeen42]

@@Momgetoftheroof omg I JUST watched that the other week it FUCKING SLAPS!!! Great taste lmao, what are the odds I was just thinking about that! I disagree that it’s a direct parallel, more emotions and echoes of humanity in there where Godwyn is a lot more of a black hole with nothing behind the eyes, but yeah the machinery is really similar in that way.

[@androendiel]

It's not too similar. But it reminds me of Shin Godzilla

[@ythandlename]

It fits in perfectly how Godwyn is the blessed child of the demigods but turned into a curse on the land upon his death. The death of a innocent and benevolent man was defilement of once a pure being (his golden hair turned into weeds, his body degenerating into a fishlike monstrosity and his once handsome face turned into a hideous mutation) and a curse upon the Lands Between from the divinity, it was the beginning of the end.

[@CountArtorias]

The Dung eater approves.

[@kneeofjustice9619]

Thanks Ranni

[@apophisstr6719]

But in the end, Godwyn successfully retained a permanent place within the Lands Between, unlike the rest of the demi-gods, who had all outlived their usefulness and thrown to the ditch by the Greater Will. This is probably Marika's intention all along.

[@lucamckenn5932]

@@kneeofjustice9619 still better than scarlet rot girl who also has a name with M at the beginning. "I'm going to condemn the entire planet to rot and force anyone who actually wants to save this planet choose the frenzied flame." Seriously, that's the end conclusion. Don't want a scarlet rot take over? Burn everything down to ash, let the dragons have the world.

[@J-manli]

Godwyn’s whole role of his death triggering a world ending event reminds me a lot about how Baldur’s death from Norse myth kickstarted the events of Ragnorok.

[@TheKnightDrag0n]

The dark surrounds me, nibbles at my flesh. Little creatures, they never stop biting.

[@quint3ssent1a]

Oh fukken wow. In DS3 there were multiple instances where the Dark/Deep was mentioned as insect-like. Pontiffs Curved Sword was "strangely worn out, as if gnawed on by insects".

[@TriforceWisdom64]

@@quint3ssent1a Don't forget the "locusts" in the Ringed City, some of the oldest beings of the Dark eager to feast on the world.

[@feluto7172]

Let the feast begin

[@doruk7125]

That was the Irina of Carim's dialouge from ds3

[@craigauclair4026]

@@doruk7125 wonder if that could've been a hint towards Elden Ring somehow.

[@abbycaldwell3166]

The deathroot growing put of Rogier's legs has been one of the most interesting details to me since I noticed it in my second playthrough. The deathroot's infestation within Rogier, a fellow tarnished, shows that even though tarnished can die and come back, it doesn't mean there won't be consequences. If you go poking around enough, it won't just be treasure (or bosses) that you find

[@digiquo8143]

The only reason Rogier comes back is because after he dies to the Deathblight, he accepts becoming One Who Lives in Death. He can longer see the Guidance of Grace and so cannot be ressurected by the Erdtree. In fact, one could argue he intentionally sought out Godwyn's corpse to be infected because he feared his now impending true death. D even tells us as much in the Roundtable, that though once friends they now are fundamentally at odds with each other.

[@youtubecommenter2527]

Um, are you dumb? The rune of death is not seated in the Elden Ring. No one can die unless the entirety of the rune of death is carved into you, or you are scorched by the red black flames of destined death.

[@raelkvasiir9704]

this kind of makes me worry about what that means for us players who died to Deathblight. XD

[@jesusvera7941]

i think he is afflicted by deathblight because he is spurned from the golden grace again, very few tarnished can see the guidance of grace, and so they will be resurrected by the greater will everytime they fall, but rogier no longer sees the golden rays, so when he gets killed by the deathblight, what resurrects him i think its not the greater will, but godwyn's same death blight, so rogier is now another who lives in death, thats why he doesnt want you to tell D in which state he is, because D hunts those.

[@nickv1212]

@@raelkvasiir9704 We still have grace so maybe the Greater Will is saving us from ultimately succumbing to it, though maybe just long enough to fulfill their wishes.

[@TheCrewExpendable]

It seems kind of like an “evil” version of the horns of the Ancestor Spirits. Their horns have some kind of crystals budding off of them and some of the Ancestor related items mention new life sprouting from death. Death blight seems similar but it’s “impure” with more death and insects sprouting from death.

[@holyspear26]

Sort of. The axe you get from regal ancestral spirit says something about waiting for winged envoys of death to weed the world. Sounds like it was clearly referring to death birds. Just like the winged scythe. I believe the ancestral spirits tie into death birds though they may not directly worship death. It’s also interesting to note that ancestral worship stuff ties in to crystals, magic damage arrows etc. and death sorceries do magic damage and favor intelligence.

[@watchfulwanderer6443]

Honestly, a bunch of the Erdtree stuff seems like it's trying to ape the Ancestor Spirits. The Ancestor Spirits, when they first ascend, are marked by their horns growing and sprouting more horns, and they can copy the abilities of other animals. And then we have the Crucible, which lets people be born with a lot of horns, and lets anyone copy the body parts of animals. Instead of the Ancestor Spirit's death stuff, where new life sprouts from death, and where beings can become spirits, the Erdtree has Erdtree burial, where death is used to give the Erdtree more life.

[@watchfulwanderer6443]

@@holyspear26 I don't think they're very tied to the deathbirds, since deathbirds are associated heavily with ghostflame and the ancestor spirits aren't. Also, the Ancestor Spirit equipment makes a point about life sprouting from death, which it can't do if that death gets burned into ash instead. Also, it is tied to magic, but the Siofra magic is tied more to life and mist than crystals. The Ancestral Spirit's horn isn't crystallized, it's flowering.

[@stairmasternem]

I don’t think we get a normal look at natural death in the game outside the Ancient Spirits. They exist from before the Golden Order after all.

[@watchfulwanderer6443]

@@jackreacher7495 Sorcery doesn't require a replacement heart, just intelligence and the proper tool. Sorcery is also not required for magic, see ghostflame, Ancestor Spirit magic, etc. Magic damage is connected to a large number of mostly unconnected things, being found in crystals, in flowers, in horns, in ghostflame, etc. Like how things can deal fire damage without being of the same source, things can deal magic damage while deriving it from different sources. The Flame of Frenzy deals fire damage, as do blackflame and bloodflame. Glintstone does magic damage, as do ghostflame and spirit vapor. The magic damage of Siofra river is connected to mist and spirits, not glintstone stars. Magic is far less connected to souls than it sounds, since it relies primarily on a physical medium to be present in some way. Most things can be conjoined (there's no conjoining the Greater Will and the Frenzied Flame without effectively destroying one), and not everything is inherently conjoined.

[@elleofmusic]

The "thorns" themselves are worms. They're spikes made out of worms, like they formed a pillar to burrow through you. It weirdly reminds me of a book from my childhood called Hope For The Flowers, where caterpillars climbed on top of each other in the hundreds, drawn by the instinct to get as high as they could, believing something truly special was at the top… but there was nothing, and they would only lose their grip and fall to their deaths. They didn't realize they were supposed to turn into butterflies before they could reach the sky. They were afraid of changing. The illustrations of the "caterpillar pillars" look very much like the Deathroot spikes. …Probably no correlation 😅 but I can't help but think of it everytime I see them.

[@thant0s]

Pretty gnarly for a children’s book o_o

[@ghoulbuster1]

Didn't expect an insect version of the Tower of Babel

[@darlingxluxii7977]

That’s so insane! Wow 😶

[@whotoldyouthisurl]

oh my god I read that book as a child, too, it was all yellow, and it made me very sad as a kid

[@elleofmusic]

@@thant0s IKR!? I must admit it's one of those things that really gives a kid their first taste of emotional devastation 😂 It's not quite as intense as The Giving Tree, but the illustrations of the caterpillars climbing on each other and falling to their deaths was distressingly visceral.

[@h.9419]

Bit late to the party here, but the Eclipse Shotel is one of the few weapons we can look at for deathblight lore. It uses the slightly antiquated spelling 蝕 (to be eaten by worms) for eclipse rather than the more common and less poetic 日食. The argument here being that something, like a worm, seems to eat the sun during an eclipse. It emphasizes this with its item description as well: 蝕まれ、色を失くした太陽を象ったもの - "Patterned after a sun that was eaten into [by worms] and lost its color". Of course, there are many instances of item descriptions being poetic and seemingly meaningful without much behind that, so on its own, that doesn't necessarily mean much. But what are the chances that one of the few deathblight weapons gets lore like that by accident?

[@gyozapunk]

Even later to the party, but your comment came to mind during my replay last night when I came across a ghost at the top of Castle Sol, where you find the Eclipse Shotel, who says "Lord Miquella, forgive me. The sun has not been swallowed, our prayers were lacking. Your comrade remains soulless... I will never set my eyes upon it now... Your divine Haligtree..." the item description and the kanji spelling for eclipse that they used gave a very interesting connotation to what he could mean by "the sun has not been swallowed".

[@zetanone7211]

Hang on there’s a symbol in Japanese that just means “to be eaten by worms”? 😭

[@ДмитрийОсипов-м9д]

​@@zetanone7211 why wouldn't there be one? East Asian languages are made like that

[@baka_monogatari3389]

The world building details centered around Godwyn are easily some of the most unsettling in the game. I have to wonder if Fromsoft are setting him up as the final boss of a future DLC

[@supdude4292]

I doubt it just because of the level of death he has faced lol

[@MammalianCreature]

A new Godwyn crawling out of his old corpse like some type of deathblighted Orphan of Kos would be horrifying.

[@RashFever26]

There won't be any DLC.

[@blackenedwritings]

@@MammalianCreature Gee, thanks for THAT image. (I kinda wanna see it, though.)

[@theobell2002]

Wow, I have never heard this sentiment before. Very original. /s

[@rajangking]

I love just how much detail there is in Fromsoft games. While so many things may seem random, upon closer inspection there is actually thought behind them other than "that looks cool" (all the while it still does look cool). But you really have to dig deep sometimes to see it, which makes it even more impressive, as most devs would want to show the neat stuff they added and share their though process. And it makes it so much more enjoyable because the question always comes to mind "What else is there, that hasn't been discovered yet?"

[@rajangking]

Also, love your videos Zullie, just recently found you after I just recently started Elden Ring. Your content is something else :) Hopefully you don't overwork yourself :)

[@matthewturpin6429]

Fromsoft as a studio seems far more happy than most to spent effort on parts of their games that a bulk of the playerbase will not experience. Whether because its hidden, hard to access, or just really labyrinthine and obscure like all this Godwyn lore; there seems to be a lot of stuff built into Elden Ring that they must have known only the crazy fans like Zullie (and all of us by extension) would ever know.

[@tarille1043]

What gets me about this is how much depth the lore has in Fromsoft games, whilst at the same time, it's not like they're continuing a singular narrative through them all. Sure, Dark Souls spanned 3 games, but Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro and Elden Ring are all unique games with their own lore, each going into such great depths means they have to come up with the ideas and fill them out with each game. It seems so crazy that they actually prefer stand alone games to sequels, when it means starting from scratch in terms of lore and worldbuilding every time and yet, they pull it off to a remarkable degree.

[@ZullietheWitch]

I don't think anyone at From Software has ever asked "But what if the players don't get it?" They're unafraid of being impenetrably obscure and weird, in a way most studios shy away from. If you scour the entire map, read all the lore, and speak to every NPC and you still feel like you're missing something, you're right where they want you.

[@tograndejuancho]

@@ZullietheWitch FS doesn't worry about details passing out inadvertently, because their gameplays are so solid, that they don't need to force players to "discover" the insane amount of details

[@NateCummings]

Hey Zullie I'd rather *not* think about this, thanks.

[@undergroundkfc2316]

Bugs under your skin take it off take it all off there are 1,000 species of bug writhing under your skin take off your skin tear it off

[@fugax_vulpes1797]

​@@undergroundkfc2316 -Godskin apostle

[@poetato5331]

@@undergroundkfc2316 lmao imagine reading this tripping balls

[@Wurthier]

@@poetato5331 that's how the vikings figured out how to blood eagle someone

[@morgmeyer]

you should remove your skin

[@usov656]

I think zullie is dead-on correct. I vaguely remember that the description of the blood excrement you find around mogh's area mentions that insects are spawned from it, so spontaneous generation isn't only a deathblight thing, but a core phenomenon of the Elden Ring universe.

[@lucasvallet4487]

Which would also explain the rot shrimps guys.

[@vanquisher4700]

@@lucasvallet4487 and the smoldering butterflies that spawn around fire and ashes too.

[@leyrua]

@@vanquisher4700 By the Grace of Gold... 😮 That would definitely explain the _variety_ of exotic butterflies found around the lands between.

[@-dog-114]

Malenia herself spawns butterflies out of herself so that would explain that

[@KIdcrane371]

Need a Godwyn dlc ASAP. TY for all your thoughts and research!

[@menialbee]

If it means int/faith builds get some new spells and especially weapons it'll be a great dlc

[@menialbee]

@@randconfig8626 true, people tend to forget that 45 in both opens up pretty much all spells save for legendary ones. They just want to use ones that the Prince of death/magma/golden order boost. Death in particular fits right into all sorcery builds talismans because it deals magic damage, same for golden order.

[@kilerdude5660]

Ya know, I always thought that when you got Death-Blighted and started forming spikes from your body, somehow the corpse of Godwyn (or whatever is controlling it) seemed to sense it because if you look at the death animation, a spike erupts from the ground impaling your back and lifts you up. The spike has to come from *somewhere* and since the body of Godwyn is the originator of these "branches" and the spikes come from the ground up to impale you, wouldn't that mean that the spikes come from him, and implicate how widespread his reach truly is?

[@Boamere]

I was thinking about this as well, if we could get a closer look at the animation we could see if the spike comes from the ground first or the players body first. Pretty morbid either way

[@LosstAndFound]

Woah. Love this idea and could totally see that being the case.

[@thisismyname1940]

It would also help explain why the Deathroot only sprouts in places that were formerly inhabited by large numbers of people

[@IAmTheBugInsideYou]

So you need to be close to the ground or on it for the deathblight roots to reach you, & theoretically it wouldn't touch you if you weren't close enough to the ground for the roots to penetrate you?

[@CodeeXD]

I'd have to disagree it looks to me like it's the spike that shoots out your chest first, then it shoots out your back and stabs into the ground propping you up as it grows

[@memedumpster3684]

So...Deathblight buildup is the process of being implanted by the eggs of these special worms and maggots - perhaps the dark, gaseous deathblight clouds actually contain a high concentration of these microscopic eggs? And the proc'ing of deathblight is the simultaneous and alarmingly rapid hatching of all those eggs at once? Cool, now my Elden Ring nightmares have much greater detail *shudders*

[@CharmS354]

The same concept is also seen in Mogh's palace with the blood flies. I can't remember if if it's the fly spell or pot that mentions how they spontaneously birth from the blood swamps.

[@RashFever26]

Swarm of Flies: "The new palace of the Lord of Blood lies in a swamp of festering blood, and these flies are said to spawn from excrement in that land."

[@veronicatazri9092]

@@RashFever26 And the blood tinged excrement description says it's filled with rotting meat and "lined with innumerable eggs"

[@Reavenator]

On the other hand, the description of blood tinged excrement, which is used to craft swarm pots, says it contains eggs in it, which seems like it contradicts the idea of spontaneous generation.

[@gunnarsoderhielm3425]

I think these lore videos of yours are some of my favourites because even if they are just elaborate theories, they are still interesting on their own and teaches the viewer interesting facts about real world culture, history and science. Keep up the fantastic work.

[@HailKosm]

God, I really hope that the first DLC expands upon Godwyn and death blight. Its honestly the coolest lorepiece in elden ring at least in my opinion. I have always liked the insect designs in fromsoftware games, like the White locusts in DS3 and the Blood lickers in bloodborne. And I definitely like the insect designs in Elden Ring.

[@TheCrewExpendable]

DS1 DLC has actual time travel, DS2 has time travel in it via memories (one of which is in the DLC, also DLC deals with the past events in other kingdoms.) BB DLC is time travel basically via memories/dreams. DS3 DLC sort of has time travel (both forward to the end of time at the end as well as the dreg heap, but also the ringed city deals with events from before the start of the series). Sekiro has no real DLC but you do time travel to the events of the Hirata Estate again via memories. So it seems like that ER DLC will incorporate some kind of time travel (maybe via memories/dreams again. You already fight Fortissaxx in a dream and Placidussaxx via time shenanigans).

[@HailKosm]

@@TheCrewExpendable oh yeah definitely could see a time travel backwards or a time travel forwards. I feel like Godwyn would be more of a travel forward to see the spread of his blight on the lands between. But there's also room for a miquella DLC which is very likely to be dream based. With the whole st Trina lore and the cut dreams content.

[@xernymon]

It probably will. The teaser for the Elden Ring DLC seems to say it will focus on the Crucible Knights' master. Given that they can be found countlessly in the Eternal Cities and in Godwyn's area (that among other things), it can be reasonably assumed he is the one the Crucible Knight serve.

[@chainsawninjalcemist]

The blood-lickers I think we're inspired by the Akaname creature from Japanese myth, just like the lickers from resident evil.

[@HailKosm]

@@xernymon what teaser do you speak of, last I checked there hasn't been any official teaser released for elden ring DLC. The only ones I've heard was shown to be a fake which seemed to indicate that the DLC had to do with the badlands. It was very obviously a hoax tho because the title was way too on the nose for a fromsoft DLC. Also the game strongly hints at Miquella for a DLC considering he's the only demi-god who is still alive and there's a bunch of cut content pertaining to miquella and the dream. Plus we could easily enter the DLC from Miquella's egg. I think a Godwyn DLC is also likely because of how his influence is spreading. I also think that there could be a DLC focused on the outer gods as a whole.

[@sebastianestrada3697]

I noticed something interesting regarding deathroot. It can grow almost anywhere, except Caelid has no deathroot. Does scarlet rot somehow intervene deathblight? Is deathroot one of the many things scarlet rot can eat away at? Or is it because the rot has its own unique cycle of death and rebirth? Also the concept of “Those who live in death” seems to be stagnation in the cycle. Meanwhile scarlet rot seems more like a violent acceleration (and corruption) of the cycle.

[@scrungliungliusswoonbonhon3137]

maybe deathblight is not be able to go where there is scarlet rot because the rot is related to an outer god?

[@MVCx_xB]

The order of rot describes rot as the cycle of death and rebirth, so it's entirely possible that it could conflict with death blight. Deathblight is different in that it's living, animated death like a tumor.

[@bazah23]

Godwyn’s corpse is under the erdtree and it spreading around the tree and caelid is still far from its reach

[@sarkic4743]

@@bazah23 So is Crumbling Farum Azula, but it has Deathroots all over the place

[@aimlesspassions1157]

This is a really interesting idea. Nice observation!

[@mp5skd]

The incantation swarm of flies fit somehow as well because mosquitos wouldn't go after the dead but instead the living and suck their blood. Still seems interesting that 2 factions that barely interact have some sort of parallel in this very specific area.

[@MeredithLikely]

The worms look like they might have legs like centi/mili-pedes, which makes me wonder why insects are so died to death other than the obvious attributes of decay. Wonder if in a dlc we'll see the ants farming the deathblight like fungus, that would be rad to see deathblighted insects like we see deathblighted crabs 🦀

[@jaxwarp8373]

The insects being tied to deathblight might be caused by the Japanese idea of kegare, basically spiritual corruption. Insects, corpses, and stagnant water are big sources of kegare, so it makes sense that the deathblight would be full of flies and worms, things that live in corpses, and stem from a giant fishman

[@allengordon6929]

Centipedes in Japanese mythology mean corruption and ritual uncleanliness. That's the reason why the vermin from bloodborne were centipedes.

[@aliceinwonderland4395]

Probably 'cause bugs cause diseases and devastate crops, leading to famines and other catastrophes upon humanity. They've always been considered unclean and we've learned to naturally fear them. Makes perfect sense.

[@helixmoss9957]

sekiro moment

[@SyrenKindra]

@@jaxwarp8373 That reminds me a lot of the concept of the Deep from Dark Souls 3

[@WeWillAlwaysHaveVALIS]

Certainly puts a new emphasis on "Those Who Live *In* Death". Fantastic stuff as usual Zullie, I have never noticed this as I am fortunate enough to have only been Deathblighted once. I deeply appreciate all your findings, not to mention all the hard work that goes into not only discovering them, but the effort to produce the videos (which are always top notch and made in a fashion that showcases the focus of the video excellently). You are by a long shot my favourite "Souls" content creator.

[@nightscout9979]

Even the flies and the like seem to be dead, making it an entire cycle of misery. It's akin to Malenia's wings being made out of dead butterflies, with the ones that fly off apparently dying within seconds to boot. It all seems rooted in sheer malice and sadism, akin to the cruelty of the Formless Mother. The early rancor spells seem to stem from the cruel Deathbirds, and the Rune of Death is from the godskinners.

[@WeWillAlwaysHaveVALIS]

@@nightscout9979 Didn't know that about Malenia as I am yet to reach her, though it is very cool to hear.

[@davidhong1934]

@@nightscout9979 I feel like those spells aren't the intended, primordial versions. Death in the very beginning was a part of nature, and the Deathbirds and Godskin were merely servants. Now, after an age under the Erdtree, after an age in the Golden Order determined what it meant to die, nobody knows what death is supposed to do anymore. Long ago, those spells had some ritual significance, but now they're just cudgels used by servants with no purpose. Basically, Patrick Star smashing a dollar bill with a computer.

[@nightscout9979]

@@davidhong1934 The Deathbirds, judging from the item descriptions of their branch sword talismans and axe, were malicious and didn't care about death as a function of nature. The Deathbirds also wield the Ghostflame spoken of in the rancor Incantations as well, and all the Ghostflame seemed to achieve was tormenting souls and making them hostile to anything and everything.

[@bigbrowski410]

@@davidhong1934 This holds weight when you factor in the cut line after Maliketh’s fight, claiming the Erdtree is being burned by black flame, the theory going that you needed the Rune of Death to essentially kill the Erdtree cause it couldn’t die otherwise. It leads me to believe in another comment I saw theorizing that the black flame of the godskins were actually at one point the same red and black hue of Maliketh and The Black Knives, but once, like the incantations says, they’re source of power was locked away they lost that hue and resorted to the black and white flames we use and see. The godskin apostasy, Godwyn, and Mequila are like the 3 most interesting things imo that could greatly be expanded on. The Gloam Eyed Queen being chosen and gifted the Rune of Death as an emperyan only to be defeated in Marikas first act against the golden order, Godwyns body being this massive tumor on the lands between that no ending really has a way of properly fixing without killing everything else or just running away, and Mequila being set up as the most obvious reference to Griffith ever, a quite literally godlike charismatic being with a seemingly good natured yet dangerous level of ambition. I hope the DLCs if there are multiple and the leaks are true don’t just go the Badlands route and go full DS2, expanding on everything while tying up the final loose ends.

[@pirojfmifhghek566]

Can I just say that you're so fricken cool for not only digging deep into the game design, but also researching the real-world ties that the lore has with the whacky science of human history?

[@halcionjoy7]

I thought most people already knew about spontaneous generation. I learned about it back in middle school.

[@feluto7172]

Noita got me reading up on alchemy for fun and it was such a great surprise to see Elden ring based on so many of its concepts

[@bopobodachocobo]

I always thought they were small thorns like on roses. Its crazy how much detail From puts into small things like this \[T]/

[@domenicocamera8856]

This also ties in with the kindreds of rot naturally spawning from the lake or rot, it seems like every major "phenomenon" generates life of some sort

[@TheApollo90]

“Hey, Babe? Zullie just uploaded a new video about how there’s insects under our skin.” “Nice.”

[@kaden1991]

The bugs that are seen around 1:00 remind me of the glintstone/silver/gold fireflies you can collect and craft with, I find this super interesting as each type of firefly seem to point to a separate origin of life. Erd Tree/Golden order, Nox and the Eternal City, and the Stars and whatever horrors lie within. If true this may actually not only confirm a new "source of life" in deathblight, but also perhaps give insight to how those other fireflies come to be: they form out of things that used to have life in them. Perhaps this is wild speculation, but it is interesting to me that deathblight and death magic only works on tarnished, who have lost the grace of gold. Perhaps the tarnished could be considered "undead" by the lands between the moment they lost that grace, and are then susceptible to deathblight in that way.

[@thexdfacedgamer2306]

Death blight is the definition of "THERE ARE BUGS IN YOUR SKIN"

[@DrprofessorFrancis]

Any thoughts on the ants? Seems weird for them to be in nokstella and tunnels, the roots of the elden tree, and the haligtree. You also find formic rocks in mohghwyn palace and mountaintop of giants. The queens/immobile ants dropping runes suggests they’re harvesting runes directly from the tree’s roots. Just a natural creature feeding off the elden tree, that the nokstellans controlled as mounts/guards?

[@vanquisher4700]

Brother you might be on to something, that makes a lot of sense actually.

[@jacobfreeman5444]

Think the ants are just a natural animal, as much as a giant insect can be. They are underground because that is their habitat. The Nox make use of them because they are there to be made use of. Something that seems to inform their natural inclinations is they will deliberately seek out rot. Maybe for food? Anyway this seems to be why we find them in several locations. They are feeding on the rot in these places. And certainly the haligtree is referenced as a rotting husk. So it would draw the hungry ants.

[@haryjackazzgaming1813]

This is going to sound like a stupid statement the ants may very well have some kind of immunity or resistance to the influence of the gods because whether it be deathblight or Scarlet rot they seem to thrive in these areas uncorrupted, they may even consume it to become more powerful

[@Chaffee738]

Also the queens at the Deeproots drop not any rune but Numen's Runes. The runes of the race that Marika and the Black Knives are said to come from. Are the queen ants related to the Numens, or did they eat them?

[@platinumhearteva]

With all the mushroom stuff going on in the game, I wouldn't be surprised if the ants have something to do with the real life phenomena of ants being turned into zombies by a particular type of parasitic fungus. Can't put my finger on it but it feels close to something.

[@ryanbacker4870]

Looking at the thorns that come out of you too, they have a strange ribbed texture that leads me to believe the thorns might be giant worms themselves.

[@isaacjones748]

When rot sets in, bugs swarm. In a parallel sense too, with the pests down far below the Lake of Rot. Who could be surprised that they would appear when death itself is blighted?

[@kitcw]

thank you zullie for this informative talk on insects inside of me

[@ghostpants7930]

Remember in the opening cinematic when the Black Knives kill Godwyn, wormlike things started crawling around inside him.

[@FirstLast-cg2nk]

A guy online posited that the thing at the heart of Deeproot Depths may not be Godwyn, but rather the corpse of an ancient god that was killed long ago to nourish the Erdtree. He referenced an old practice of planting seeds with dead fish to act as a fertilizer. The implications of that, then, would be that when Godwyn's soulless body was buried in Stormveil, it gave the dead god a new vessel to inhabit, and started the deathblight infestation once it had new "living" flesh to inhabit.

[@granityseis104]

makes sense

[@alfalldoot6715]

Doesn't make sense, has no evidence

[@TrueSkyblueClouds]

We do talk to fia right next to the corpse in deeproot depths though and she's like "Yep this is godwyn the prince of death, im gonna do my deathbed companion thing with him." additionally we find D the beholder of death before the entrance to deeproot depths and its "said he beheld the prince of death not far from that spot"

[@wrongthinker843]

You ever deal with fruit flies? They sure do seem to develop spontaneously.

[@BasedWukong]

SO TRUE LOL

[@Slightly_confused_furry]

All the more reason why the frenzied flame ending is the ideal ending for eldin ring.

[@yaboi2587]

I’m reminded of the mutualism/symbiotic relationship between trees like the sycamore fig and the fig wasps. The tree’s fruit provides shelter for the wasps to crawl into and lay eggs/develop, and the wasps defend the tree and pollinate, spreading the tree further. This almost strikes me as a more parasitic version/corruption of a process like that (with the deathblighted individual acting as a “host” to spread Godwyn’s influence) Either way, poor Rogier…

[@jeftecoutinho]

1:00 "Life sprouts from death as it does from birth." - Remembrance of the Regal Ancestor

[@galengooldy8353]

This is truly terrifying, and it makes me even more fearful of getting deathblighted in game. Awesome video!

[@dogmat8733]

This just cement that Deathblight is perhaps the most horrifying Status Effect ever created by FromSoftware.

[@warcoder]

Visually? Yes, but in game it's not as bad as being curse in ds1 and have to make all the way back from the great hollow to New Londo to get half of your max hp back.

[@nightscout9979]

Yeah, the Deathbirds and the Gloam-eyed Queen are evil as hell, this certainly isn't some circle of life thing. Ranni might have felt terrible over what Radagon did to her mother, but unleashing the Deathblight on the entire planet goes too far, and her lack of a plan to cure it is abominable. She might have even created a new Deathblight plague when she carved only half a centipede rune in her Two Fingers.

[@utisti4976]

The first time I remember being deathblighted was when I fought the giant wormface boss for the first time. I wasn't paying attention to the meter, so when the status effect hit I just stared at the screen in aw of just how gruesome the animation is. It feels so raw. I love it lol

[@Chaffee738]

@@nightscout9979 I don't know why the deathbirds and the Gloam-Eyed Queen come into this. They have nothing to do with deathblight, the deathbirds collecting and burning dead souls is just how death used to work as a natural part of the world before the Golden Order.

[@nightscout9979]

@@Chaffee738 The Deathbirds, which descend from the Twinbird, which is depicted all over Farum Azula, the oldest known civilization in the setting, wield the Deathblight. The scream attack of the Deathbirds fills the Deathblight meter and inflicts the Deathblight instant kill status. As such, the Deathblight might be one of the oldest things ever in Elden Ring, and the Gloam-eyed Queen might have designed the Rune of Death after observing that. Also, judging from how the rancor spells in the game only resulted in tortured souls that attack everything, the Ghostflame didn't actually deal with the dead, it merely tortured them into a universal agony.

[@Xelnagapriest]

With as much detail as From puts into their work, it's honestly hard to ever say that you *can* read too much into things like this because it's entirely within the realm of probability that they really did give it that much thought.

[@afonsius7907]

Ah yes, just what I needed, to feel even worse for my friend Rogier.

[@al77709]

These white bugs around the deathblight roots remind me of angel insects, which would be fitting considering Godwyn's status as a demigod. It would even make sense for them to emerge from the thorns, as they live exclusively in rotten wood. Like termites, these insects are normally wingless and only develop winged adults to disperse into other logs, so Godwyn's bugs might also be a form designed to spread deathblight. Is there a bigger close-up on them? They look like they might have two wings instead of the customary four, so they might just be regular old flies instead.

[@Viewahh]

Players: Connecting lore to obscure history and mythology that are mildly connected to each other Fromsoft: "Y-yes, let's go with that!"

[@thesandmoose765]

Maybe they work like cicadas. The worms and flies live in the deathblight roots and they emerge once a host is found.

[@BasedWukong]

"You're talking mad shit for someone in parasiting distance"

[@candy-ninja]

@@BasedWukong Fia to D. after he disses the twlid community for the 100th time

[@jaredgreiner3914]

Could wormfaces be people that survived their initial death blighting? Also could the buildup of the death blight meter be interpreted as the flies and maggots invading the player’s body? Idk just speculation

[@MithrylMyrmidon]

I think the Wormfaces are bodies that had tried to return to the Erdtree roots only to be corrupted by Godwyn's influence and forced to wander the Lands Between. They spread, and appear to suffer from, deathblight. Their appearance is like an emaciated, almost cachectic corpse. They really bring into focus the themes of 'Immortality Sucks' and 'Stagnation' that underpin a lot of Elden Ring's history.

[@thisismyname1940]

They're the Charlie Kellys of the Lands Between

[@topcat59]

Worm faces are actually people who adapted with the death blight and it makes sense why bugs would come out of the death blight, since godwyn is the Prince of death and represents all concepts of death and including decay.🤔🐱

[@nightscout9979]

They seem to try to kill themselves by smashing their heads on the ground unless they can find something or someone else to gruesomely, evilly murder, so they sure don't seem to have adapted to anything.

[@SkellyHertz]

Man, the Elden Ring dungeon theme suits creepy lore videos so well.

[@hansolobutimdead]

I chose the wrong video to watch while eating noodles

[@noneontheair]

Boy am I glad you posted this right *after* I finished eating and not a few minutes before

[@davideo7286]

Great video Zulie. It's worth mentioning that in the Duskborn ending, in the brief moment the camera focuses on the ground and the the player character walking; it appears that ash is blowing by on the ground. But if you look closely, it is actually flies buzzing around.

[@figo3554]

When I first saw Rogier's cursed lower half, I immediately thought "centipede".

[@NinjaBananaChannel]

I've never heard of spontaneous generation before, that's super interesting. I can see why people thought it was fact for so long lol

[@JaeshaunDT]

First learned about it from one of my science teachers though it was more of a semi related remark but I remember thinking such superstition as being fairly imaginable. However not too long ago I had fruit flies in my kitchen and my mind recalled the idea because despite whatever I did to get rid of them, it really felt like they were just coming out thin air lol, at least for a few days until we eventually found the actual source

[@cordyceps182]

It reminds me a lot of the insectoids borne from the Deep in DaS3, especially with the connection to corpses/death. I wonder if From is trying to expand upon another idea they couldn't fully explore in previous titles?

[@Thebigfinal]

I would like to put out that I noticed the lumps by the summonwater village not only have eyes but also tentacles much like the tentacles on Godwyn's stormveil corpse. The same finned effect is present on them, and the lump of mass that D stands by also has an eye that points at him where he stands, which just implies to me that it's very much able to process those who threaten it. The eye part could be wrong because the graphics on ps4 are a bit lower and the eyes aren't as clear, but I'm almost certain it's an eye on his right

[@FreedomAndPeaceOnly]

And this was so cool a death-animation that FromSoft gaves us only a single weapon that could trigger this effect. Cause priorities!!

[@Ultracity6060]

Deathblight: makes bugs grow out of you Scarlet Rot: makes prawn people grow out of the ground The stars: occasionally drop sandlion monsters from space Godrick: cuts people up to make spider people Somethin' weird going on in the Lands Between.

[@bj14986]

I remember when i first saw godwyn,(both versions of him) i got immediate goosebumps and i was just like what the fuck am i looking at 😂 seriously one of the coolest characters

[@keyhanamani]

Meanwhile the Black Knife assassins watching this: "... We should've never done that. "

[@crispychubs]

Not only are your videos so interesting to watch and informative of game design, but are really educational in a thought-process way. Speaking of inspirations and real-world history is truly what makes this channel and you so special.

[@Ezekiel_Allium]

Hell yeah, I had no clue about this but it might just be my new favorite elden ring thing. On a side note, I've been theorizing about the death blight spreading through spores or something similar, but these flies are a very elegant answer to that speculation. Also screams crucible to me. Godwin turned into a big hybrid sea creature like an aquatic misbegotten, and life being formed from death.

[@Chaffee738]

Ooh I think you may be on to something. Isn't the Gloam-Eyed Queen, who used the Black Flame back when it used to have the Destined Death, from the age of the Crucible as well? I'm pretty sure there was an item description that establishes a relation between her and the Crucible. I also like the idea that Godwyn's transformation, as horrific as it appears visually, isn't some twisting of nature but just a natural process that's different from the current rules of nature dictated by the Greater Will. And that jumping to the conclusion Godwyn's body is "twisted and cursed" is making the same mistake as the racism against the misbegottens, omens, Albinaurics, etc.

[@Ezekiel_Allium]

@@Chaffee738 Is the black flame from the age of the crucible? I was under the impression it was more or less made specifically for the purpose of bringing death to the golden order after Marika messed with the natural order of things? I'd love if you could find that item description

[@Chaffee738]

@@Ezekiel_Allium There are a few and I won't list all of them here because KZbin comment isn't a good interface, but one example is the Scouring Black Flame incantation: "The black flame could once slay gods. But when Maliketh sealed Destined Death, the true power of the black flame was lost." So Black Death was the power that originally contained the Destined Death, but that power was taken away by Maliketh. Also, the Godskin Noble Robe says: "Nobles are the most ancient apostles who are said to have assimilated inhuman physiology. Not unlike the crucible, the Erdtree in its primordial form." So the Godskin Noble has a tail and the Godskin Apostle has elongating waist, and there's an explicit connection made with the Crucible. Now, as you pointed out, Godwyn's transformation may also be related to the Crucible. And considering he was killed by the power that originally belonged to the Black Flame, there definitely seems to be a connection. Maybe killing his soul somehow made his body susceptible to the changes caused by the Crucible. We don't know the exact link between the Gloam-Eyed Queen and the Crucible so this is just a theory based on loose connections, but I feel like this isn't a coincidence.

[@Ezekiel_Allium]

@@Chaffee738 I think him being warped by the crucible has less to do with destined death and more with his body being tangled up in the roots of the Great Tree, and I am very specifically saying the Great Tree and not the Erd tree, the roots of the deeproot depths don't glow like every other part of the erdtree, I think they might literally be untainted roots of the crucible.

[@Chaffee738]

@@Ezekiel_Allium That's also a good point. I also realized something, during the Fortissax fight the sky looks weird like an oil painting with a lot of whirly circles drawn, and the other place that we see such a sky is the Dung Eater ending which is implied to revert death to how it used to work during the age of the Crucible. We still don't know what exactly the dream fight is, but maybe we see the Crucible sky when we're in Godwyn's dream because he's now under the influence of the Crucible instead of the Golden Order.

[@bow8651]

the deathblight flies remind me of the aeonian butterflies that come from malenia accepting her relationship to rot- its interesting that both forces of decay are like violently overtaking the environment itself and introducing a form of death to the lands between by force

[@tims5728]

"Infest me daddy Godwyn" - Fia probably

[@RegalRoyalWasTaken]

Godwyn's fate is just so horribly tragic; from a kind, beautiful demigod to a blight upon the land.

[@LenBerry]

What if there's something airborne in the Lands Between? I like to think of it as something like a fungal spore, present, but benign outside of the optimal growing conditions. Yet the smoky contagion we call Deathblight can serve as a catalyst, changing this into a rapidly growing swarm of flies and pupae (which can look like worms or maggots). Maybe that's the biologist in me trying too hard!

[@NaitexiTV]

Death Blight is nightmare fuel.

[@wealthybone2990]

Weird I've always thought it were some sorta tree branches growing out of you but some sorta insect based branches? Idk what the proper word would be for this but it is unsettling especially since hearing maggots can just suddenly have life from anything which I never knew that. Well thank you for the informative video even though I hate this status effect.

[@astrowiz3544]

Well no, maggots can’t suddenly have life from anything, that was just an outdated theory from before the 1800s

[@pseudoriginal3839]

thank zullie, i almost didn't notice the pulsing feeling under my flesh

[@TohtoriP]

Death is truly one of the most interesting things to research.

[@sincereflowers3218]

2:47 isn’t this like 90% of your channel though?

[@Byeahman]

I’d like to point out that the trailer for Elden Ring that was shown at the game awards in 2021 had a scene with Godwyn’s corpse pre-transformation, and you can actively see these bugs crawling underneath his skin and into his eyes. So I definitely believe that this is what Deathblight is.

[@nuculaisvoidwalker5866]

i have a question, in some areas there are some tiny stone objects, like a candle holder i think but after 300 hours playing i havent seen a use for them; are these like waypoints? i think these are close to bosses but i do not know what they are or what its their purpose

[@Fruckert]

If we're thinking of the same stone obelisk object, they're the markers that denote where you can summon spirits.

[@rohithpegadaraju1884]

If you are looking at Candle stick holder with three lit candles, if you interact with it, a spectral spirit will appear and guide to nearby cave/ruins with treasure. The spirit is very slow, it disappears and reappears few steps after. One in Mistwood will lead to ruins with Blaidd and Rune bear. One in Caelid will lead to "Goal Cave". One in Weeping peninsula will lead to a cave with Rune bear as boss.

[@mausklick1635]

I would like to add that the dragons in ASOIAF were originally parasitic (white) worms who functioned somewhat akin to the xenomorphs (see David Lightbringer's Dracomorph stream). That's how the Targs got their dragon DNA, which manifests in their babies through genetic regression when they're exposed to too much magic.

[@tabhamma4451]

Godwyn was already my fav thing thematically in elden ring and now this info just made him even more fascinating

[@giantsighs]

Just wanted to quickly mention that D, Hunter of The Dead perishes to deathblight after you give him the Weathered Dagger as part of Fia's Questline. Also thanks for making the boss respawn scripts on cheat table respawning bosses is so much fun :)

[@zyvics]

RIP IT OFF GET THEM OUT

[@dyrania]

Ma boi really just brought out one of the OG philosophers and tied its archaic ideas of science to a world filled with magic and alchemy. It’s truly interesting where these trains of thoughts originate from and how From Software get inspired from such ideas.

[@jakeola10]

is zullie schizoposting now?

[@Fraxxxi]

"Maggots from meat, weevils from rye, dragons from stars in an empty sky."

[@TopherPhoton]

Jesus christ, Zulie, when I clicked on one of your elden ring videos, I didn't expect a history and science lesson to come with it! This is awesome!

[@TheCommunistColin]

"I got bugs under my skin, I gotta dig them out with a screwdriver." - Godwyn

[@nvrndingsmmr]

Absolutely brilliant. Stuff like this is why this is one of my favorite channels on KZbin!!

[@swill6500]

love it when zullie drops a new video shedding light on yet another fromsoft unsettling implication. thanks for the delicious content!

[@jeffphisher3801]

You made me realize radagon is performing alchemy when he hits the ground and makes it explode like in full metal. THE ELDEN RING IS A TRANSMUTATION CIRCLE

[@IceCreamJones57]

You reached some deep root depths of research on these ideas. Phenomenal stuff 💯👏🏼🤘🏼

[@Robot-Overlord]

Explains all them ants and bugs in the death zone below the tree. It was such a weird scenery shift from everywhere else.

[@PeritBezek]

Perfect choice of background music

[@NightmareBlade10]

I love videos like these because they make you stop and think about often overlooked game elements. I see deathblight in a way I wouldn't have before. It's crazy the kinds of details they make so small and unnoticeably that completely change how we can look at things.

[@remingtongagnard4442]

Hit the bullseye once again Zullie, tysm for deepening my appreciation for this strange and beautiful work of art that just so happens to be a video game 🎯

[@tofu1394]

Those branches don't even look like branches, they look like mass clusters of worms shooting out in the vague shape of a branch. They have those lined, grubby looks to them that remind me of the caterpillars on the hornsent's mask.

[@epiccthulu]

I’ve always felt the wormfaces were Godwyn’s disciples

[@jeremieportejoie2254]

the amount of knowledge you had to earn to makes these video is simply fantastic.

[@antiklausprime]

I'm not really surprised, the cinematic "story trailer" already featured worms "grawling" out of godwyns corpse shortly after his death... so it all fits nicely together.

[@ActivelyVacant]

It's not the only case of creatures suddenly spawning from a demigod's curse. The rot pests allegedly had a similar origin when Malenia first bloomed.

[@osidiusemphatic3505]

Really clever of you to make the link, Zullie. It's an interesting parallel.

[@JaxKangaroo]

the thought you put into these videos is incredible!

[@joaopereira717]

Incredible how the prince of death gives origin to so many forms of life

[@Nekucloud]

Deathblight is truly one of the most unsettling ways to die in Elden Ring.😰

[@Neo2266.]

Oh, I thought Rodgier just shat himself