Elden Ring Lore: Rivers and the Origin of Scarlet Rot

[@Writh811]

A very interesting look at the rivers and rot. Thanks for all the hard work in putting this video together. While I haven't put to much thought or investigation in this area myself, so much to look at in this world, I did have one small unimportant thing to share. The coffins, the text that makes them fly is Smithscript. Smithscript is formally introduced in the DLC with a series of weapons that can be thrown but will return to the wielder. These weapons have those symbols on them but for the best view the Smithscript shield icon is what you wanna look at. Unfortunately, this is one of those revelations that doesn't really offer much but scraps of certainty are very rare in Fromsoft Lore so anything you can take for 100% fact we gotta be thankful for lol.

[@Stormking66324]

@@Writh811 Thanks! That’s a very interesting connection I never noticed. Interestingly this seems to also be the same writing on the black knifeprint item.

[@onesphor5821]

thank god a lore channel that not AI

[@timelineenjoyer]

i dont think i’ve seen one elden ring lore channel done by ai. i’d kinda prefer them to the nasally british ones 😅 (not smough he’s great)

[@thesis_gaia7960]

​@@timelineenjoyer me neither, it either has a ASRM like narration or none at all

[@spicec3613]

Are you drunk

[@llab3903]

@@timelineenjoyerI haven’t either. Warhammer however…

[@YungTigris]

@@llab3903the warhammer ai channels are terrible, i could understand if they wrote the script and used an AI voice but they just chatGPT the script and call it a day and theyre all terrible

[@yunkinto]

13:06 what if… ALL of Marika’s children‘s afflictions come from hornsent curses. The omen curse is the most obvious one, but what if miquella’s eternal nascence and whatever took over godwyns corpse also comes from the hornsent

[@Stormking66324]

@@yunkinto This is definitely a possibility! The curse’s afflicting Marika’s children all seem to be tied to her past in some way. As you said, the curses of the omen twins, Malenia and maybe Miquella are likely linked to hornsent, but if we look at Messmer his curse might be more linked to the gloam eyed queen (who is associated with snakes).

[@themaniae4803]

For Miquella, possibly the eternity can be an effect of what Marika herself did to the Lands Between. Without Death, everyting is an eternal stagnation of the same thing and few things grow and generate new life. It also create a pretty good connection with her sister, someone who born and die constantly. For Godwyn, all the Deathroot mess is started from Ranni and her Plot, a glitch in the No-Death system of Marika. His tragedy was about he was the perfect son and he suffered the most. (Coff coff Literally he's Baldur coff coff) And, if you call the Hornsent because the Dancing Lion at Rauh, remember that lion is pretty much on the same position of one of Godwyn's heads.

[@nbmoleminer5051]

Thanks being able to help me clarify connect the dots better on my thoughts on the Flower aspect of the Crucible

[@swordierre9341]

This is a really intresting theory. The scarlet rot being a modified version of rot combined with the an aspect of the crucible: bloom by Romina leading to Malenias afliction and godhood makes a lot of things make sense at once. My question would be, if the divine gate is doing something similar with marika ascention, then what was being ‘weaved’ into what in that case.

[@Stormking66324]

Well if Romina came into contact with the divine aspect of rot, I’d say Marika reached the Elden ring itself through the divine gate. She weaved the ring into a new form, removing the rune of death and creating the Erdtree.

[@mirrormonkey2]

Makes a whole lot of sense! I never considered that the scarlet rot might be a modified version of the previous, simpler rot.

[@thesis_gaia7960]

1:05 first time i fought her i was so desperate, second time i was more chill, and i just noticed that not only that whole area feels like a Shadow Of The Colossus area, Romina battle music is also really reminiscing the SOTC songs

[@goldie1573]

apt considering rauhs implied connection to the golems!

[@sethrose1632]

Just found your channel and so glad! Great work!

[@Throne6810]

Maybe the Nox were connected to the giant stone coffins. Maybe the Nox knew the giants of caelid and the mountain. They do show up next to water when Malenia bombed Radahn

[@Stormking66324]

@@Throne6810 The clayman bubble sorceries of the ancient dynasty do share a sigil with the Sellian/Nox spells, possibly implying a relation.

[@themaniae4803]

Damn, i loved this video! Clear, not pretentious and with good evidence, good job! Also, about the discussion Water-Death, it's not the first time Miyazaki uses this kind of connections, pushing even the Cosmos in the mixture. Let's start with Bloodborne, possibly the mostly direct connection. In the game, following the Lovecraftian inspiration, we find a lot connected to the Cosmos who possess some sea creature-like characteristics, sometimes more tentacle like Flora and Ebrietas, other times more crustacean, and Kos who is literally a lovecraftian Mermaid. Another connection is the experiments of the churc, filling the brains of people with water to generate eyes, or a lot of times cosmos is called close to Sea and Lake. Then, cosmo is Bloodborne is also associated to Afterlife/Death. The little white creatures that help us in teh Dream in japanese are called in a way that reminds the term Echoes or Souls, while the Nightmare of the Hunter can be literally called an hell. (In buddism or shintoism, one of the Nakara is a river of blood guarded by a demon horse. Yeah.) Not a case, creatures from the cosmos are called ghosts and phantasms. In Elden Ring the thing is even more clear, as you showed, and i want to add something more. Water is connected to Death and Spirits, and while with Godwyn, an un-dead creature, we find him in a disgusting swamp, we also fight spirits like Loretta, Rennala and the Ancestral Spirits over big ponds/sea. Even the Elden Beast, a being not totally phisical, we fight her over water, and she even swim in it. Then, another big point of Miyazaki plots: Kegare. Kegare is a particular element of buddism and shintoist religions, an impurity caused usually by Death, Blood, Incest and general evil acts. In souls games this is a lot associated with Stagnation, something very important for all the games. (Literally in Elden Ring all the noble we find walking are in that state because a stagnant eternity.) Mostly in Ds3, that connects the Kegare to the Darkness, generating the Depths, that terrible version of Dark associated with Aldritch, a monster who did horrible things, cannibalism and more. And his age is called Deep Sea. Again, Sea, Depths, Stagnation. I don't think i should say that Bloodborne, for all this mess about impurity, is stritctly correlated with kegare. Scarlet Rot is the next form of Kegare in Miyazaki's games, generating life connected to something divine but in a way totally against the human nature, and for Hornsent/Golden Order, against their kind of divinity.) P.s: Dungeater possibly is connected to the Kappa, a japanese monster (Who lives in river. AGAIN; WATER.) that sucks the soul of people from their... door B. And we know Dungeater curses the souls in a terrible way, in a way similar to Godwyn's nightmare.

[@Zythryl]

We have Miquella, reborn as a god of the same Light worshipped by the Hornsent, and Malenia who, as this video posits, is part of, or related to, a consequence of the cruelties inflicted upon the Hornsent, both being children of the unified Marika and Radagon, the union of whom has been theorized to be the product of the Hornsent’s jar-creation-experiments… Perhaps it truly is all connected. Perhaps the curse mentioned by the Grandam runs even deeper than we suspected, beyond the appearance of Omen. …this was a wonderful video. Honestly one of the best of its kind; succinct AND convincing. You had me hooked with the visual parallel of Malenia’s impaling grab attack and Romina’s stinger grab attack, which I had never considered before. The only logistical issue I can see is the idea that Malenia’s curse, which she was born with, is related to Romina’s act of weaving the rot during/after the Crusade. It implies the Empyrean twins’ births would have been after the Crusade, which I don’t think many people would feel right in believing, even if there’s no real evidence pointing either way. …that said, I personally wouldn’t let it matter much, because these kinds of things are imagination/vibes-based. If it’s cool to think about, it should be thought about. Connecting the two major instances of Scarlet Rot through the buds and through the rivers is a wonderful thing to ponder. Keep up the great work!

[@Stormking66324]

Thank you, that means a lot! And let me try to convince you Messmer's crusade occurred before the twins were born. First off, Rellana's joined Messmer's crusade with a large force of Carians. The fact she received Rennala's blessing to do so(a lock of hair on her helm), implies to me that Radagon had yet to leave her. Otherwise she would not support her sister joining Marika's war. There is also almost no mention of Radagon in the land of shadow, whereas messmers forces clearly take inspiration from Godfrey based on their stomp moves and some tailsmens. Based on this, plus the fact Messmer knows about the tarnished, I would place the crusade right around Godfrey's banishment, but before Radagon marries Marika.

[@association3cm675]

@@Stormking66324 wouldn't the black knight aow be linked to Radagon ?

[@themaniae4803]

A point about the Jar-Creation experiments. First, we saw Miquella do the same with St.Trina, so we know Empireans can create another version of themself... and a lot of this game is about people with a second identity. Second, there is a mistranslation in the description. When the Jar talk about Saints, the original kanji says something more like a Good Moral Person, not a divine/saint one in the holy way.

[@Stormking66324]

@@association3cm675 I'd say that's more an ability of Marika's hammer, not a direct link to radagon himself.

[@steamedhamlet]

This is a great way to look at and make sense of the lore. Everyone is trying to direct the flow of souls to their desired destination. It's a battle for souls. A spiritual war. We see it today and it's always been the case. Those fighting to shape your opinions and your reality and your belief system to fit their agenda are basically redirecting your soul to their own path.

[@The808basshead]

Great video! This topic is sorely under covered, as is the engineering of the waters and lands themselves. I have a question for you as I have been pondering the lake of rot for some time. Why do you think it was made in the first place? Were the Nox attempting to amass spiritual energy with their damn? Why on earth is the other far side associated with Elden John and a more ritualistic ancient dynasty? Was this area meant as a repository for rot or is that a happy accident? And how on earth does the glintstone cluster /mushroom shelving at the center all play into this? The story of this region defies me still.

[@Stormking66324]

@@The808basshead Thanks! I agree the lake of rot is definitely a very interesting but mysterious region. Since we have so little information on the region, there are lots of valid theories. My interpretation is that the ancient dynasty ruins (grand cloister) predates the lake of rot, and that the blind swordsman defeated the god of rot there much later, possibly around the time of the Nox. When he defeated the god, it’s essence was sealed within the lake, making it the lake of rot. The Nox built the dam at this time so that no more spiritual energy would enter the lake in an attempt to prevent the spread of the rot. It’s also very possible the ancient dynasty was involved with the god of rot though. As for the glintstone cluster, if you check the map it is actually right under Raya Lucaria. Rot can infect glintstone, as we can see with the rotten cystallians, so maybe that is another source of energy for the rot. I also think the lake of rot could be the reason Liurnia is sinking into the water above ground. It’s definitely an interesting piece of world design.

[@theprofessor451]

Great video. Subscribed. Thanks.

[@Chris-lc3wi]

The production quality here is really high, Kudos. 1080p would have been nice though, it shows when you're watching on >1080p resolutions.

[@annekkipu]

great video! I’m definitely writing some stuff down as I was just looking for more information about golems myself lol 🫶 thank you for pointing out the crystal darts ~

[@bjarnivalur6330]

My personal pet theory is that the blind swordsman is just a personification of flowing water, as in, you use flowing water to clean yourself and to wash away the rot, some cultures might have deified and personified it as a grate protector from rot

[@alyseleem2692]

That'd be the blue fairy, no?

[@Blockvard]

Thank you for a good watch. Is the runes on the stone coffins alike those on the weapons from Eochaid?

[@Stormking66324]

I’ve never looked at them up close before now, but they appear different from those on the coffin, but definitely may serve a similar purpose!

[@parallellines2568]

Hey its parallwl lmao I personally think it would be a mischaracterization to say romina realized she could achieve divinity through the rot Instead i think this is more akin to the bloodfiends, who in their grief, beheld their fallen ancestor, and in doing so beheld the formless mother In other words, her grief revealed to her a divinity she was foreign to, and her grief imprinted on the rot in a way

[@Stormking66324]

@@parallellines2568 🚨Parallwl spotted 🚨 Yeah that’s fair, the way I worded it might have forced the goals of the hornsent onto Romina too much. Romina may not have wanted to achieve divinity through rot, but I think in creating the scarlet rot she imprinted the idea of blooming flowers to try to save the buds of her church. That blooming was a divine act which remained a path to divinity, but creating a god was likely not a goal of Romina, and more a byproduct.

[@parallellines2568]

@Stormking66324 i do like the idea that this is some form of extension of the hornsent's goals, only defiled by grief

[@dgalloway107]

In the scorched ruins of the gravesite plain, you can find a spirit of a hornsent weaving a curse on Marika's lineage. he says he will forge it from the raw resentment of his slain kin. Could this be why the Omen of the Lands between are haunted by bitter spirits? with their horns being a sign of spiritual potency, manifestations of the spirits of dead Hornsent haunting them would cause their horns to run even more wild than the Hornsent, because the Hornsent have horns as a controlled result of their spiritual practices, whereas the Omen have horns unwillingly as a result of their blood ties to Queen Marika tying them in to the curse wrought on her. Maybe these would have merely been people with a couple horns here and there, were it not for the spirits of the race Marika slaughtered clinging to them bitterly. All of these spirits were Crucible-touched. Makes sense that Omen horns grow beyond all reason. And if spirits travel through the water, then they aren't limited in their travel to and from the Realm of Shadow, as a massive bay-lake-thing is all that remains linking the land of shadow and the lands between physically. Side note, in the Elder Scrolls series, water doesn't necessarily contain spirits themselves, but memory. Memory which is reabsorbed by all and accumulates in potency as experience passes. Interesting how both of these ideas contain the idea that water contains something of the dead that continues to shape the living ad infinitum.

[@association3cm675]

But the crusade takes place after the birth and casting away of Morgott and Mogh, so is the dead hornsent cursing Marika for "the seduction and the betrayal" ?

[@HeyGuy4321]

Excellent video. Immediately subbed

[@koocherry793]

Excellent video!!

[@swamashijudbedolofritt4448]

Your theory...... 10/10. Good job!

[@gryphonaeo479]

11:28 *pointing* Coral spotted.

[@vettebodee]

Love the intro music but I'd ask that it be leveled a tad bit as I think I'd wake my family up watching this on a tv

[@Stormking66324]

Note taken hahaha

[@brnecessities3335]

I would love to see more discussing the death legacy of the palace ruins and if they connect to the Nox, as well as the Nox’s own connections with death. I was disappointed there wasn’t more revealed about them in the DLC.

[@Stormking66324]

@@brnecessities3335 The clayman bubble sorceries of the ancient dynasty do share a sigil with the Sellian/Nox spells, possibly implying a relation.

[@brnecessities3335]

That’s a cool connection. I’m also curious how their relation to Marika’s shaman people relates to the broader story, like if the shamans are a separate group descending from the palace culture or something. Excited to see whatever else you plan on discussing!

[@themaniae4803]

@@brnecessities3335 Taking the original name of shamas, Miko if i remember well, they should be a special order of only women very very connected to the Spirits (Coff Coff Roderika coff coff), and watching the tiny dimention of the village we can think it was a very little group of people, an order separated to the rest of the numen society. Possibly Nox an opposite order, more correlated to sorcery and arcane.

[@a_random_orthodox_Christian]

Warrior is my favorite class

[@ElMasCaporo99]

Subscribe

[@chrislevack405]

First question response: ...I mean, I used a horse ox thing to do 99% of my traversal.

[@dgalloway107]

So wait, does that mean that from other cultures' perspective, my baptism was me getting pushed and pulled to and from the Underworld?

[@Stormking66324]

@@dgalloway107 Possibly! Another reason many rivers are connected to the underworld in myth is that they are thought to purify the soul. I’m not entirely familiar with the cultural basis of baptism, but I think it plays a similar role of purifying the spirit, just before you die instead of after!

[@dgalloway107]

@@Stormking66324 Well I'm apostate now, but I was raised baptist so its always nice to see other perspectives on one of the wierdest events of my childood in my opinion.

[@MultiSoulforce]

I like how the dlc explains how Marika got cursed to have cursed children

[@momzilla2010]

i love this vid

[@philosobee6412]

Great video… you will see me next time 🤘

[@willsmith5935]

kinda good

[@DylanWintersteen]

Bro, use a crossfade